A leading contender to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor this fall has called for “dialogue and toughness” toward China when it comes to defending democratic values and human rights.Annalena Baerbock, the environmentalist Greens’ candidate for chancellorship, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Europe should use its economic might to block Chinese goods made with forced labor and avoid communications technologies that endanger European security.”We are currently in a competition between systems: authoritarian powers versus liberal democracies,” she said in an interview published Sunday.Baerbock cited China’s investment in infrastructure and energy grids through Central Asia to Europe as “brutal power politics.””We Europeans mustn’t kid ourselves,” she said, adding that the 27-nation European Union needs to act accordingly to defend its values, such as by using a recent investment accord between Brussels and Beijing to address more strongly the issue of China putting its Uyghur minority into forced labor.Baerbock, a graduate in international law, also took aim at Russia, in particular its support for rebel groups in Ukraine and the recent massing of Russian troops along Ukraine’s border.She backed Ukraine’s right to apply for membership in NATO and the EU but said “the most important thing right now is to increase the pressure on Russia so that the Minsk accord is adhered to.” That accord seeks to peacefully end the conflict in eastern Ukraine with Russia-backed rebels that has left at least 14,000 dead since 2014.Against the backdrop of Moscow’s aggressive behavior, Baerbock criticized the German government’s support for an underwater pipeline bringing Russian natural gas to Germany.  “I would have long withdrawn political support for Nord Stream 2,” she said.The Greens have called for closer cooperation with the United States to defend liberal values worldwide, but Baerbock suggested that the goal of having NATO members spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense should be revisited in light of the pressing need to invest large sums to curb climate change. She also suggested Europe’s defense contribution could also come in the form of a cybersecurity center.”A blanket 2% goal, on the other hand, won’t achieve greater security,” she said.The Greens emerged from the pacifist and environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, but in recent years have backed limited military deployments abroad, provided they are tied to U.N. resolutions.Baerbock said the future of U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe could be raised again as part of the disarmament negotiations between Moscow and Washington.  A poll published Sunday by weekly Bild am Sonntag put the Greens narrowly ahead of Merkel’s center-right Union bloc.Germans will elect a new parliament September 26 that will then choose who should become the country’s next chancellor. Merkel is not running for a fifth term.The survey, conducted by polling firm Kantar, found 28% of respondents planned to vote for the Greens, against 27% for the Union bloc. The center-left Social Democrats are expected to receive about 13% support while the far-right Alternative for Germany would get 10%. The poll of 1,225 voters found the pro-business Free Democrats would receive 9% and the Left party would get 7% of the vote.
 
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In March, one of the world’s biggest container ships became stuck in Egypt’s Suez Canal, creating a commercial logjam and spikes in the cost of oil. At a training facility in France, mariners are learning how to avoid a similar predicament.  VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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A fifth person is being held for questioning in the stabbing death late last week of a police employee outside Paris, France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said Sunday. He noted the assailant, a Tunisian national, viewed videos glorifying jihad, or Muslim holy war, and may have visited to a Muslim prayer hall before the attack.AAnti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard confirmed reports that Tunisian Jamel Gorchene consulted videos on his cell phone extolling martyrdom and jihad, minutes before stabbing a 49-year-old police worker and mother of two Friday in the quiet town of Rambouillet, 60 kilometers from Paris.
 
Speaking at a press conference, Ricard recounted in detail Gorchene’s actions leading up to the attack that took place at a police station. Ricard said cameras captured Gorchene passing the station in Rambouillet several times on a scooter. They also captured him heading toward a Muslim prayer hall, but there were no images of him actually going inside. Ricard said police later found a Quran and Muslim prayer rug in Gorchene’s scooter.  
 
Ricard said on Friday afternoon, Gorchene headed to the police station as his victim left the building. He appeared to have consulted the phone videos just before sprinting after the worker as she reentered the precinct. Witnesses said he cried Allahu Akbhar, or God is great, in Arabic, as he stabbed her in the abdomen and throat. Ricard says police shot Gorchene dead after Gorchene refused to put down his knife. Police officers secure the area where an attacker stabbed a female police worker, in Rambouillet, near Paris, France, April 23, 2021.Police have detained several people, including Gorchene’s father, two cousins and a couple who sheltered the 36-year-old assailant in another Paris-area town. The father told French investigators his son had adopted a rigorous form of Islam. Ricard said Gorchene also consulted psychiatric services at a hospital but didn’t appear to need treatment.
The prosecutor said Gorchene’s Facebook page appears to show a slow change from religious ideology to embracing violence. He said Gorchene registered support, for example, for the assailant who beheaded school teacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb last October after Paty showed his class cartoons of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. Many Muslims consider the images blasphemous.
Ricard said France is working with investigators in Tunisia, where Gorchene returned to visit family near the coastal city of Sousse earlier this year. Ricard said Gorchene received French working papers last year as a delivery man but appeared to have lived illegally in France for a long period before that.  
Authorities are looking for other possible suspects or accomplices in the killing.
Tunisia was among the biggest exporters of jihadists to places like Syria and Libya a few years ago. Tunisian authorities have condemned the Rambouillet attack. 
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin unveils new legislation Wednesday to reinforce the fight against terrorism here. In an interview published Sunday, Darmanin called it France’s biggest threat, with 575 suspected radicals expelled from the country since 2017.  
 
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An uneasy calm pervades Chad’s capital N’Djamena since Friday’s funeral for President Idriss Deby, who ruled the central African country for more than 30 years. Civilians say handing over power to Deby’s 37-year-old son to lead a transitional military council for 18 months is undemocratic.Inoussa Labarang, 37,  feeds his 27 chickens at his residence in Farcha, a neighborhood in Chad’s capital N’Djamena. Labarang says he expected to sell two chickens to raise money and buy millet to feed his family for at least three days.  But no customer has come since the country’s long-serving President Idriss Deby was killed during a clash with rebels, he said.  Fear has gripped the city.  Labarang has a second job as a security guard for shop at night, where he earns $40 each month.  The additional income helps him feed his wife and five children.  From the little he earns, he gives his wife $10 to buy and sell groundnuts to generate more income.  He is struggling, but he said his country should be wealthy. He believes the issue is with governance, pointing squarely at the leadership of the late President Deby, saying that he has given Chad’s wealth to an elite circle of family and friends.  He is one of many in the country who believe that the transition and appointment of the late president’s son during this period is unconstitutional.  Labarang supports opposition political parties and rebels who are asking the transitional military council created after Deby’s death to leave power.  According to Chad’s Constitution, the speaker of the parliament must take over when a sitting president dies before elections can be held, he said.  Before he was killed, provisional results showed that Deby won re-election for a sixth term in office. On April 20, the day of Deby’s death, Chad’s military announced on state media the creation of an 18-month transitional military council led by General Mahamat Idriss Deby, the 37-year-old son of the late president. Chad’s Interim President Faces Power StruggleRebels and opposition challenge General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, who has taken control after the death of his father, longtime President Idriss Deby ItnoA rebel force known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad or FACT, released a statement vowing to take the capital and depose the 37-year-old. Following threats from rebels and the opposition, the transitional military council deployed troops to protect N’Djamena, activist Fundjoul Abdoul of Chad’s Rights Watch said.  The transitional military council, Abdoul said, also declared a curfew in N’Djamena and is restricting movement of people in the city of over a million people.  “There is total confusion in the whole country. There is a lot of uncertainty,” he said. “People are afraid to go out and the town has been virtually militarized. Chad does not know what future is being reserved for them. The opposition is not yet satisfied. The rebels too are threatening, so there is fear.” Chad’s state radio and TV have been broadcasting messages from Mahamat Idriss Deby calling for peace. In the message the new leader says he is open to dialogue.He says he is very thankful for the support a majority of Chadians and friendly nations, especially France, have given his family since President Idriss Deby’s death. He says his father worked tirelessly for peace, reconciliation and the unity of Chad.
Idriss Deby always encouraged dialogue, he said, as a solution to all forms of crisis. He says with the support of Idriss Deby’s family and the Chadian people, he will continue to defend his father’s ideology that is loved by most Chadians. Deby was a key ally of France in the fight against jihadist groups across West Africa including Boko Haram, which has destabilized the parts of Chad, Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger.  French President Emmanuel Macron and the son of the late Chadian president Idriss Deby, general Mahamat Idriss Deby, attend the state funeral for the late Chadian president Idriss Deby in N’Djamena, Apr. 23, 2021.French President Emmanuel Macron who visited N’Djamena to attend Deby’s funeral said his country will not allow Chad to become destabilized. Chad’s civil society groups plan to hold a public demonstration Tuesday, demanding the dissolution of the transitional military council.  In a statement, Max Loalngar,  one of the leaders of a civil society coalition called Coordination of Citizen Actions, accused France and regional allies of undemocratically backing the fallen president’s son to take power. The group said Chad is not a monarchy.  
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Voters in Albania cast ballots in parliamentary elections on Sunday after a bitter campaign by the two main political parties amid the coronavirus pandemic.More than 1,800 candidates who represent 12 political parties as well as electoral coalitions and independents, were competing for the 140 seats parliament.Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Socialist Party is seeking a third term while the opposition Democratic Party of Lulzim Basha is seeking a return to power.  The vote at about 5,200 polling stations was being watched closely by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the Council of Europe, and many embassies in Albania.“We hope that every Albanian citizen goes and votes, free of fear, free of interference,” U.S. Ambassador Yuri Kim said at a polling station in the northern city of Shkodra. “This is your day,” Kim said.Albanian President Ilir Meta, who cast his ballot shortly after voting began, called on his people to go out and vote not only to exercise their constitutional right, but also to do so as a patriotic act.“The whole world has its eyes on Albania,” Meta said, adding, “Only the good progress of this process means that the Europe Union will open the road for Albania’s membership.”Although in a politicly neutral role as president, Meta has recently accused the Rama government of concentrating the legislative, administrative and judicial powers in his hands, while running a “kleptocratic regime” that has delayed Albania’s membership in EU.The results are not expected until Tuesday. 
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England’s football authorities have joined forces to announce a social media boycott next weekend in response to continued online racist abuse of players.The boycott will take place across a full fixture program in the men’s and women’s professional game from 3 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) on Friday to 11.59 p.m. on May 3.Clubs across the Premier League, English Football League, Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship will switch off their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts to emphasize that social media companies must do more to eradicate online hate.“Racist behavior of any form is unacceptable and the appalling abuse we are seeing players receive on social media platforms cannot be allowed to continue,” Premier League CEO Richard Masters said in a statement.“The Premier League and our clubs stand alongside football in staging this boycott to highlight the urgent need for social media companies to do more in eliminating racial hatred.“We will not stop challenging social media companies and want to see significant improvements in their policies and processes to tackle online discriminatory abuse on their platforms.”A host of players at Premier League clubs have been targeted in the past few months, including Manchester United’s Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford, Liverpool’s Trent-Alexander Arnold and Sadio Mane, and Chelsea’s Reece James.Championship (second tier) sides Birmingham City and Swansea City and Scottish champions Rangers recently held weeklong boycotts following a spate of racial attacks on their players.Former Arsenal striker Thierry Henry said last month he was removing himself from social media because of racism and bullying, while Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson has handed over control of his accounts to an anti-cyberbullying charity.In February, English football bodies sent an open letter to Facebook and Twitter, urging blocking and swift takedowns of offensive posts, as well as an improved verification process for users.Facebook-owned Instagram has announced new measures and Twitter vowed to continue its efforts after acting on more than 700 cases of abuse related to soccer in Britain in 2019.
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UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin has refused to rule out a ban from next season’s Champions League for all 12 clubs involved in trying to set up a breakaway European Super League.But Ceferin also told Britain’s Mail on Sunday that the six English clubs — Chelsea, Manchester City, Arsenal, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester United — deserve greater leniency as they were the first to back out.He said their stance was in contrast to that of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Juventus, ridiculed by Ceferin as “the ones who feel that Earth is flat and… think the Super League still exists.”In the space of 48 hours beginning last Sunday, UEFA, aided by fans and politicians, quelled a mutiny by English, Spanish and Italian clubs attempting to form a quasi-closed tournament designed to supplant the existing Champions League.Nine clubs, including all six in England, subsequently withdrew.But Ceferin, who thanked British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for his opposition to the Super League, said disciplinary action remained an option for UEFA, European football’s governing body.”Everyone has to take consequences for what they did and we cannot pretend nothing happened,” he warned.However, the Slovenian lawyer, elected UEFA president in 2016, added: “But for me it’s a clear difference between the English clubs and the other six. They pulled out first, they admitted they made a mistake. You have to have some greatness to say: ‘I was wrong.'””But everyone will be held responsible. In what way, we will see,” he said.The irony is that UEFA were on the brink of enacting changes that would have entrenched the position of many of the established Champions League powers behind the Super League.But Ceferin said he was open to dropping the two extra Champions League spots in an expanded competition that were meant to be reserved for clubs based on their historic record.
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Three Ukrainian television channels linked to an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin were blocked from broadcasting on Google’s YouTube on Saturday, the Ukrainian government said, following its request to YouTube to have the channels taken down.The YouTube channels of ZiK, 112 Ukraine and NewsOne did not play their content and instead showed a blank screen with a message saying the channel was not available.”We are pleased such an influential American company is willing to cooperate when it concerns issues of Ukrainian national security and Russian disinformation,” Ukraine’s embassy to Washington said in a tweet.YouTube did not respond to Reuters’ request for comment.The move comes after weeks of tensions between Kyiv and Moscow over the conflict in eastern Ukraine and a Russian troop buildup on Ukraine’s borders that had alarmed Ukraine’s Western backers and the NATO military alliance.Russia said it began withdrawing its troops on Friday.Backed by the United States, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government blocked the three channels from airing on Ukrainian television in February, accusing them of being instruments of Russian propaganda and partly financed by Russia.The government also asked YouTube to shut down the channels on its platform.The listed owner of the channels is Taras Kozak, a lawmaker from the Opposition Platform — For Life party.Kozak is an associate of Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent opposition figure who says Putin is godfather to his daughter. The Kremlin has said its contacts with Medvedchuk represent Russia’s efforts to maintain ties with “the Russian world.”Medvedchuk and Kozak did not respond to requests for comment, but Kozak and Medvedchuk have both previously described the crackdown on the channels as illegal.Medvedchuk earlier this year told Reuters the clampdown was designed to silence criticism of Zelenskiy’s political blunders, saying Zelenskiy was “infuriated” by what the TV channels reported.Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko on Saturday thanked YouTube for the ban, calling the channels “part of Russia’s propaganda war against Ukraine.”
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Armenians in the Middle East, in modern-day Armenia and in other parts of the world on Saturday marked the 106th anniversary of the beginning of what historians call the Armenian genocide.Hundreds gathered at the Armenian Patriarchate north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, for the observance. The head of the Armenian Orthodox Church of Cilicia, Aram I, delivered a eulogy for the victims. Paul Haidostian, president of Haigazian University in Beirut, told VOA he attended the three-hour memorial service, in which the patriarch expressed his thanks to U.S. President Joe Biden for recognizing the mass killings of Armenians as genocide.Historians say an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to modern-day Turkey — between 1915 and 1923.The genocide, said Haidostian, officially began with the arrests of leading Armenian political figures and intellectuals in the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, in 1915.”The reason they mention April 24 [is] symbolic, in a way, because in Constantinople a few hundred leaders and politicians — Armenian leaders and intellectuals — were arrested and deported and killed, and then it was followed by systematic attacks all over the country,” he said.Country’s character changedHaidostian added that “the end result was that Armenians were either killed or kicked out of their historic lands … basically changing the character of eastern Turkey and Anatolia … and leaving a very different country with a totally different people.”The large Armenian community in Aleppo, Syria, commemorated the mass killings, while a marching band paraded through the streets of the city and waved burning torches as dusk fell over the region. Armenians also marked the event in the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the mostly Armenian town of Kessab, near the Turkish border.People line up to lay flowers at the monument to the victims of mass killings by Ottoman Turks, to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the massacre, in Yerevan, Armenia, April 24, 2021.Demetrios Orologas, a Greek writer living in the Armenian capital, Yerevan, told VOA that Armenians paid tribute at the genocide memorial, laying wreaths and playing music to honor the victims.Parts of Orologas’ own Greek family were also expelled from the formerly Greek city of Smyrna, which Kemal Ataturk, a military leader who became the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, burned in 1923. Orologas’ mother and her family were forced into exile in Greece after the calamity.”Not only the event was terrible, but also the wars that came after … [my family] became refugees, they became outcasts, they lost their homes, they lost their fortunes and they lived for years under a regime that was not friendly to them,” he said.Biden officially recognized the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide in a statement Saturday, 106 years to the day after the first Armenians were killed.
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U.S. President Joe Biden recognized Saturday the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.
 
Biden’s recognition of the mass killings fulfills a campaign promise and came on the same day that Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day was observed in Armenia and by the Armenian diaspora.
 
“Each year on this day, we remember the lives of all those who died in the Ottoman-era Armenian genocide and recommit ourselves to preventing such an atrocity from ever again occurring,” Biden said in a statement. “The American people honor all those Armenians who perished in the genocide that began 106 years ago today.”
 
During his campaign for president last year, Biden said he would “support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and will make universal human rights a top priority.”
 
In a letter Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Biden to become the first U.S. president to recognize the killings as genocide.
 
“The shameful silence of the United States Government on the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote.  
 
“We urge you to follow through on your commitments and speak the truth.”
 
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said earlier this week that Biden’s recognition of the killings as genocide would harm relations between the NATO allies.  
 
Cavusoglu said Saturday in a statement that Biden’s recognition “distorts the historical facts, will never be accepted in the conscience of the Turkish people, and will open a deep wound that undermines our mutual trust and friendship.”
“We call on the U.S. President to correct this grave mistake, which serves no purpose other than to satisfy certain political circles, and to support the efforts aiming to establish a practice of peaceful coexistence in the region, especially among the Turkish and Armenian nations, instead of serving the agenda of those circles that try to foment enmity from history,” Cavusoglu added.
 
Historians say an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to modern-day Turkey — between 1915 and 1923.
 
Armenians say they were purposely targeted for extermination through starvation, forced labor, deportation, death marches, and outright massacres.
 
Turkey denies a genocide or any deliberate plan to wipe out the Armenians. It says many of the victims were casualties of the war or murdered by Russians. Turkey also says the number of Armenians killed was far fewer than the usually accepted figure of 1.5 million.  
 
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French authorities have arrested three people in connection with the stabbing death of a police worker outside Paris Friday, as they explore possible terrorism motives of the assailant, who was killed by police.  
 
Media report the three people detained include a father and two people who sheltered the 36-year-old Tunisian, who stabbed a police worker and mother of two Friday in the quiet town of Rambouillet, 60 kilometers from Paris.
 
Police shot the man dead. The police worker, who had been stabbed in the throat, died of her wounds. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor said the assailant had made comments indicating a terror motive. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” or “God is great,” in Arabic before the stabbing, according to media reports.
 
The incident comes after France has weathered a string of attacks, including an attack in Paris last year, a beheading of a French schoolteacher in the suburbs for showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and the stabbing of three people at a church in the southern city of Nice, also by a Tunisian.  This latest assailant arrived in France illegally more than a decade ago, but eventually got residency papers according to a police source who spoke to the media. He had only recently moved to Rambouillet.
 
French President Emmanuel Macron said the country would never give in to Islamist terrorism in a tweet he posted Friday.
 
Visiting the stabbing site Friday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex echoed the president, saying the government was all the more determined to fight terrorism.  
 
French police have been targeted in several past attacks.  
 
Francois Bercani, senior member of a local police union in the Yvellines department, where Rambouillet is located, told France-Info radio that police were understaffed. He called for beefing up their numbers and more protection for police stations, saying police were being targeted as representatives of the French state.France’s Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said security at police stations will be stepped up. Lawmakers are also finishing work on a bill pushed by Macron’s government to fight Islamist extremism.  
 
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, however, told French TV the government’s response was insufficient. She questioned why the Rambouillet suspect had legal papers.
 
Government officials have in turn accused Le Pen of politicizing the issue. She is considered Macron’s top opponent in next year’s presidential vote.  
 
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Claims that Russian troops are beginning to pull back from positions in Crimea and along the Russian border with Ukraine are being met with caution in the West, where officials are demanding that Moscow be more transparent and refrain from additional saber-rattling.Western officials said Friday that they were watching the situation “very, very closely” but cautioned against taking Russian assurances “at face value.””We’ve seen the Russian comments about how they’re ending the exercises,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters during a briefing Friday. “It’s too soon to tell with any specificity.””[We] continue to call on Russia to cease their provocations, to respect the territorial integrity of Ukraine and to not contribute to activities that only make the stability along the border with Ukraine and in occupied Crimea less stable than it already is,” he said.Refrain from aggressionU.S. diplomatic officials Friday likewise urged the Kremlin to do more to reduce tensions.”We’ve made clear in our engagement with Russia, with their government, that they need to restrain — refrain from their aggression and escalatory actions, and they need to immediately cease all of their aggressive activity in and around Ukraine,” said State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter. “And that includes their recent military buildup in occupied Crimea as well as along Ukraine’s border.”European officials said this week that more than 100,000 Russian troops had massed along the border with Ukraine in recent weeks, calling it Moscow’s “highest military deployment” to the region and warning that the “risk of further escalation is evident.”Bigger Than 2014: US Calls Out Russian Military Buildup Along Ukraine BorderThe Pentagon’s assertion that Moscow is massing more forces than it did when it invaded and annexed Crimea follows EU assessment that 150,000 Russian troops are now in the regionU.S. defense officials declined to comment on specific numbers, though the Pentagon said the Russian buildup was larger than the one it mounted in 2014 before it invaded and seized Crimea.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Thursday that military exercises involving troops along the border with Ukraine were over and that they would return to their permanent bases by May 1.Later that day, a NATO official told VOA the alliance had taken note of the Russian announcement, adding, “Any steps towards de-escalation by Russia would be important and well overdue.””NATO remains vigilant, and we will continue to closely monitor Russia’s unjustified military buildup in and around Ukraine,” the official said. “We continue to call on Russia to respect its international commitments and withdraw all its forces from Ukrainian territory.”
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U.N. agencies have delivered 23 tons of hygiene items to civilians in the rebel-controlled part of eastern Ukraine, the United Nations said Friday.This was the second time this month that a U.N.-organized humanitarian convoy had been allowed to cross the 500-kilometer contact line, which separates Ukrainian government forces from the Russian-backed rebels. The first delivery on April 15 consisted of 18 tons of COVID-19 supplies.Jens Laerke, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said the one crossing point in the divided country had been closed since February 24 because of security concerns.“The reopening is welcome, as needs remain very high with nearly 1.7 million people in need of assistance in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk,” Laerke said. “The elderly, people with disabilities, female-headed households and children are among the most vulnerable.”Humanitarian access to the separatist area has been extremely difficult since March. The COVID-19 pandemic has severely restricted movement across the contact line. That has limited the ability of people in the east to go to the government side of the demarcation line to pick up their pensions and social welfare benefits.Laerke said restrictions on humanitarian access to the region had created great hardships for people suffering economic and health distress because of COVID-19, which is getting significantly worse.The World Health Organization said COVID-19 infections in Ukraine have risen to more than 2 million cases, including 41,700 deaths.“In March, Ukraine experienced a tripling of the number of COVID-19 cases nationwide, compared with February,” Laerke said. “So, the curve is going up and not down. … Of course, as there has been a long period of no deliveries, there is, if you like, a pent-up demand for relief. So we very much hope that this can continue and increase.”Laerke said humanitarian access to the Donetsk oblast was not the only requirement. He said money also was needed to provide lifesaving support to the nearly 1.7 million people. Unfortunately, he added, the U.N. is very short of cash as it has received only 13 percent of its $168 million appeal for Ukraine this year.
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Police officials in Rambouillet, France, say a man attacked and killed a police administrator Friday with a knife outside a police station in the southwest suburb of Paris.
The officials say at least one police officer at the scene opened fire on the assailant – identified as a 36-year-old Tunisian national living in France – and fatally shot him. The French news agency reports the man had no criminal record and was unknown to police.
Authorities say the victim was a 49-year-old female police administrator, who was returning to work after her lunch break, when she was attacked and stabbed in the throat. Witnesses say the attacker shouted “Allah Akbar” – “God is great” – as he stabbed her.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex, along with other officials, was at the scene of the crime in Rambouillet, an upscale suburb about 60 kilometers southwest of Paris in France’s Yvelines department ((region)). Castex, and France’s antiterror prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard, who also was at the scene, said the incident would be investigated as a terrorist attack.
On his Twitter account, French President Emmanuel Macron said the nation is at the side of the slain police administrator, her family, colleagues and the police. “In the fight against Islamist terrorism, we will not give up.”
The attack comes six months after another knife attack in the region when an Islamist teenager beheaded a schoolteacher in Conflans, another town outside Paris.
France has suffered a wave of attacks by Islamist militants or Islamist-inspired individuals in recent years that have killed about 250 people.
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny announced Friday he is ending his hunger strike after he was examined by a panel of civilian doctors.  
Navalny made the announcement from his Instagram account. He began the hunger strike March 31 to protest what he said was a lack of medical care for severe back and leg pain.
In his post, Navalny said he had been seen twice by a panel of civilian doctors, who are doing tests and analysis and will give him “results and conclusions.”  
He wrote, “I am not withdrawing my request to allow the necessary doctor to see me – I am losing feeling in areas of my arms and legs, and I want to understand what it is and how to treat it, but considering the progress and all the circumstances, I am beginning to come out of the hunger strike.”
He said it would take 24 hours for him to fully come out of the hunger strike, and he thanked the “good people of Russia” for their support.  
Thursday, more than 1,900 Navalny supporters were detained during protests in cities across the country. From his Instagram account, he said he felt “pride and hope” after learning about the protests.
Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany. The Kremlin denies any role in the poisoning.
He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge and was being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”
The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.
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Russian troops began pulling back to their permanent bases Friday after a massive buildup that has caused Ukrainian and Western concerns.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu declared Thursday that the sweeping maneuvers in Crimea and wide swaths of western Russia were completed, and he ordered the military to bring the troops that took part in them back to their permanent bases by May 1.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the announcement.
The Russian Defense Ministry said Friday its forces that took part in the massive drills in Crimea were moving to board trains, transport aircraft and landing vessels en route to their permanent bases.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Kyiv would await intelligence confirmation of the pullback.
“We want to see that Russian deeds match Russian words,” Kuleba said Friday during a visit to Romania. “What was said was not enough, we want to see that this will be implemented and all these forces will be removed from our border.”
He added that if the pullback is confirmed, “this would mean a real easing of tension.”  He thanked NATO and the EU countries for offering “very firm and immediate support to Ukraine”. 
While ordering the pullback of military personnel, Shoigu ordered their heavy weapons kept in western Russia for a massive exercise called Zapad (West) 2021 later this year. The weapons were to be stored at the Pogonovo firing range in the southwestern Voronezh region, 160 kilometers (100 miles) east of Russia’s border with Ukraine.  
The U.S. and NATO have said the troop buildup was the largest since 2014, when Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and threw its support behind separatists in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland of Donbas. More than 14,000 people have been killed in seven years of fighting between Ukrainian troops and the Russia-backed separatists.
The concentration of Russian troops amid increasing violations of a cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Ukraine raised concerns in the West, which urged the Kremlin to pull its forces back.
Moscow rejected the Ukrainian and Western concerns, arguing it is free to deploy its forces anywhere on Russian territory. But the Kremlin also sternly warned Ukrainian authorities against trying to use force to retake control of the rebel east, saying it could intervene to protect civilians there.  
Asked if the Kremlin thinks that the Russian troop pullback could help ease tensions with the United States, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the issues were not connected.
“It’s not an issue for Russia-U.S. relations,” Peskov said in a call with reporters. “We have said that any movement of Russian troops on Russian territory doesn’t pose any threat and doesn’t represent an escalation. Russia does what it thinks is necessary for its military organization and training of troops.”
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Pakistan’s parliament will resume debating the fate of the French ambassador Friday after the government appeared, for now, to put a lid on bloody anti-France protests that rocked the country for a week.A resolution calls for debate on whether to expel the French envoy, for the national assembly to condemn Western blasphemy, for Muslim nations to unite on the issue, and for authorities to provide space in cities for future protests.The resolution — put forward privately by a member of the ruling party — will likely be replaced by a more strongly worded one from the opposition, but will nevertheless be non-binding.Still, it appears to have taken the steam out of an anti-France campaign waged for months by the Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) since President Emmanuel Macron defended the right of a satirical magazine to republish cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed – an act deemed blasphemous by many Muslims.Supporters of the upstart radical party protested violently across the country last week when its leader was arrested after calling for a march on the capital to demand the French envoy’s expulsion.As the protests grew, the French embassy recommended all its citizens leave the country — a call that appeared to go largely unheeded.Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed — who negotiated an end to the protests with TLP leaders — said five police officers and eight protesters were killed.Protesters also held hostage 11 police officers and two special rangers for hours, before releasing them bruised and bloodied.Despite the TLP being banned last week under anti-terror laws — and its leader’s continued detention — party elders on Tuesday called off further action.”We have not given anything away,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told a news conference Wednesday.”They have realized the state is serious,” added Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari.Prime Minister Imran Khan has in the past been accused of appeasing the TLP, fearful of antagonizing Pakistan’s conservatives.On Monday he had pleaded with the group to end its violent campaign to oust the French ambassador, saying the unrest was harming the nation.”It doesn’t make any difference to France,” he said in a national address broadcast on television.”If we keep protesting our whole lives we would only be damaging our own country and it will not impact (the West).”Few issues are as galvanizing in Pakistan as blasphemy, and even the slightest suggestion of an insult to Islam can supercharge protests, incite lynchings, and unite the country’s warring political parties.
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Athletes who make political or social justice protests at the Tokyo Olympics were promised legal support Thursday by a global union and an activist group in Germany.The pledges came one day after the International Olympic Committee confirmed its long-standing ban on “demonstration or political, religious or racial propaganda” on the field of play, medal podiums or official ceremonies.Raising a fist or kneeling for a national anthem could lead to punishment from the IOC. The Olympic body’s legal commission should clarify what kind of punishment before this year’s games, which open on July 23.The IOC also said that slogans such as “Black Lives Matter” will not be allowed on athlete apparel at Olympic venues, though it approved using the words “peace,” “respect,” “solidarity,” “inclusion” and “equality” on T-shirts.Athletes’ support citedThe IOC’s athletes’ commission cited support to uphold Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter from more than two-thirds of about 3,500 replies from consulting athlete groups.”This is precisely the outcome we expected,” said Brendan Schwab, executive director of the World Players Association union. “The Olympic movement doesn’t understand its own history better than the athletes.”Speaking to The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Australia, Schwab said that “any athlete sanctioned at the Tokyo Olympics will have the full backing of the World Players.”The independent group representing German athletes pledged legal backing for its national team.”Should German athletes decide to peacefully stand up for fundamental values such as fighting racism during the Olympic Games, they can rely on the legal support of Athleten Deutschland,” Johannes Herber, the group’s chief executive, said in a statement.In a statement, another athlete group, Global Athlete, encouraged athletes to “not allow outdated ‘sports rules’ to supersede your basic human rights.” It said the survey’s methods were flawed.”These types of surveys only empower the majority when it is the minority that want and need to be heard,” said Ireland’s Caradh O’Donovan, a karate athlete who helped start Global Athlete.Famous salutes discouragedWhile the IOC said cases would each be judged on merits, athletes who follow the iconic salutes by American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics still could be sent home.The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) inducted Smith and Carlos into its Hall of Fame in 2019. It pledged in December not to take action against athletes protesting at their Olympic trials for Tokyo. On Thursday, it released a statement saying its plans to update its recently released policy over protests in response to the IOC’s decision have not changed.”Nor has our commitment to elevating athlete expression and the voices of marginalized populations everywhere in support of racial and social justice,” CEO Sarah Hirshland said.And the USOPC athletes’ group also put out a statement saying it was disappointed to see no “meaningful or impactful change to” Rule 50.”Until the IOC changes its approach of feeding the myth of the neutrality of sport or protecting the status quo, the voices of marginalized athletes will continue to be silenced,” the athletes’ group leadership said in a statement.Both Schwab and Herber said minorities would be protected from discrimination if the IOC recognized the human rights of athletes to express themselves.The IOC erred by trying to regulate the place where a protest might take place instead of the statement’s content, Schwab said, adding that athletes’ freedom of expression in Olympic venues “should be respected, protected and indeed promoted.”Athletes breaching Rule 50 can be sanctioned by three bodies: the IOC, their sport’s governing body and their national Olympic committee (NOC).Leaders of two of the biggest Olympic bodies — World Athletics President Sebastian Coe and FIFA President Gianni Infantino — have publicly opposed punishing their athletes for social justice statements. Coe gave his annual award last December to Smith, Carlos and the other sprinter on the 200-meter podium in Mexico City, Peter Norman of Australia.In the past, the NOCs have played a major role in sanctioning athletes who run afoul of Olympic rules. But with the USOPC taking itself out of that role, Schwab noted “there is enormous confusion over responsibility to sanction.”
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The killing of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis last year sparked Black Lives Matter protests around the world, alongside demands for a reexamination of injustice, racism and colonial history.Now, how will the guilty verdicts rendered this week against Floyd’s murderer — white former police Officer Derek Chauvin — influence those demands for change?Britain was among the first nations outside the United States to witness demonstrations demanding justice for Floyd. Shola Mos-Shogbamimu, a British racial equality activist and author, welcomed Chauvin’s conviction.”What we must do, those who are actively anti-racist, is to continue to push this. This is not a time to be quiet or to think that finally we’ve got a result. No, no, no,” Mos-Shogbamimu said Wednesday.”This does not even begin to deal with healing Black people. It’s a step in the right direction, but we must have real reform. You cannot reform racism. You can’t reform white supremacy. We must eradicate institutional racism. We must eradicate white supremacy. That is what must be done. We must call it out and stop excusing racism in our society.”But how can racism, with its roots in centuries of colonial history, be eradicated?FILE – People take to the streets to march in London, July 11, 2020, in the wake of the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis.In Britain and across Europe, colonial-era statues became the target. In Bristol, a port city in the west of England that made its fortune in the international slave trade, a monument to slave trader Edward Colston was torn down and thrown into the harbor.On the plinth that remains, local Black artist and activist Helen Wilson-Roe replaced the Colston statue with a portrait of Floyd.”Even though this is a victory in America and for Black people and for us in regard to George Floyd, having Derek Chauvin being convicted for the murder of another Black brother, we’ve got a long way to go. And we can’t stop here,” Wilson-Roe said.Marvin Rees was elected Bristol’s mayor in 2016, making Bristol the first major European city to elect a mayor of Black African heritage.”My reaction to the verdict is one of relief overwhelmingly, because it shows there can be accountability for police officers killing people in the United States, and relief because of what could have happened if he was found not guilty,” Rees said Wednesday.”But this image, this narrative around Black men being a threat, and their lives being of less value within the criminal justice system in particular, but in society as a whole, is still with us. And how we get beyond that after being built up after centuries … is a huge challenge for us. And I don’t think there are any easy answers,” he said.It is a challenge for minority communities across Europe.FILE – A man holds a placard reading “George Floyd, Herve Mandundu, Mike Ben Peter and Adama Traore” during a protest against racism and police brutality in Lausanne, France,  June 7, 2020.French citizen Adama Traoré of Malian descent died in French police custody in 2016 at age 24. His family said he suffocated when he was pinned down by officers, though French police strongly deny this. No one has been charged, and investigations are ongoing.Protests erupted across France last year, demanding justice for Floyd and Traoré. Traoré’s sister, Assa Traoré, said there is one key difference between the two deaths.”Clearly, if there had been a video [of Traoré’s death], the situation would have been different,” she said. “There is no video. How many cases are there in France, in the world, where there is no video? What should we do with these dead, these victims?”In South Africa, many Black communities say police brutality is endemic, though not necessarily driven by race. Diversity activist Asanda Ngoasheng said the conviction of Chauvin can have significance beyond the borders of the United States.”Does it mean Black people across the world are no longer going to be killed by policemen or other state apparatus? No. But what it does is it begins to send a message that the color of your skin should not and cannot be a reason for somebody to send you to your death,” she said,Ngoasheng said Floyd’s death resonated in a nation once under apartheid.”Globally, we feel the yoke of white supremacy. We feel the foot on our necks as Black people. And so, when incidents like this happen, they amplify, they remind us that globally, we have a common suffering as people of color in general,” she told VOA.”I’m hoping that as the United States reckons with its history of violence, it’s going to mean less emboldenment of white supremacists in South Africa in particular, and I think globally, as well.”Anita Powell contributed to this report.
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An ally of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny has urged Navalny to end his hunger strike, which is in its third week.”To continue [the strike] would be dangerous for his life and health,” Anastasia Vasilyeva, head of the Doctors Alliance union, told Reuters. “We very much hope Alexei will end the hunger strike tomorrow.”The news comes a day after more than 1,900 Navalny supporters were detained during protests in cities across the country.In a Thursday Instagram post, Navalny said he felt “pride and hope” after learning about the protests.“Here it is — the salvation of Russia. You. Those who came out. Those who didn’t come out but supported it. Those who didn’t support it publicly, but sympathized,” Navalny wrote.On Sunday, Navalny, whose health reportedly is deteriorating, was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow to the hospital at a prison in Vladimir, which is 180 kilometers east of Moscow.Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny stands inside a defendant dock during a court hearing in Moscow, Russia, Feb. 20, 2021, in this still image taken from video. (Press Service of Babushkinsky District Court of Moscow/Handout)On Monday, Russia’s prison service said Navalny’s condition was “satisfactory,” but another one of his physicians, Dr. Yaroslav Ashikhmin, said Navalny was suffering from high levels of potassium, which could cause a heart attack, and increased creatinine levels, showing potentially weakened kidney function.Navalny, 44, began his hunger strike at the end of March to protest what he said was a lack of medical care for severe back and leg pain.Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany. The Kremlin denies any role in the poisoning.He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in February on an embezzlement charge and was being held at the Pokrov correctional colony, which he described as “a real concentration camp.”The United States and other countries have sanctioned Kremlin officials over the poisoning, and many are calling for Navalny’s release.As Navalny’s health deteriorates, Russian authorities have asked the Moscow prosecutor’s office to declare Navalny’s organization, the Foundation for Fighting Corruption, an extremist organization. 
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Ukraine’s president said Thursday that Russia’s troop reduction near the Ukraine border was reducing tensions between the countries but cautioned his country must remain alert.Russia earlier ordered tens of thousands of troops to return to their home bases following large-scale drills.“The reduction of troops on our border proportionally reduces tension,” tweeted President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “Ukraine is always vigilant, yet welcomes any steps to decrease the military presence & deescalate the situation in Donbass.”Donbass is a region in southeastern Ukraine where conflict between the countries has persisted since 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and began supporting separatists in the region.The U.S. and NATO have said the recent Russian troop buildup was the largest since Russia’s annexation of Crimea.Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu ordered the troop reduction after declaring an end to the maneuvers in Crimea and western Russia.“The troops have shown their capability to defend the country, and I decided to complete the drills in the South and Western military districts,” Shoigu said.While Shoigu ordered the troops back to their bases by May 1, he said they should leave their weapons near the border in western Russia for more exercises later this year.Russia’s troop buildup occurred as more frequent violations of a cease-fire in eastern Ukraine raised concerns in the West, which called on Russia to pull back its forces.Russia, in turn, has long criticized the deployment of NATO troops near its borders.The Kremlin began conducting more military exercises as relations with the West deteriorated to post-Cold War lows over its seizure of Crimea, its interference in foreign elections, global cyberattacks and other issues.
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France’s foreign minister is defending the takeover of Chad’s government by a transitional military council. Jean-Yves Le Drian said during a television interview Thursday that “exceptional circumstances” made it necessary for Chad’s military to dissolve the National Assembly and form an 18-month transitional council, following the death of President Idriss Deby this week.  The speaker of the National Assembly should have become president under Chad’s constitution, but speaker Haroun Kabadi issued a statement that he agreed with the council’s takeover “given the military, security and political context.” Le Drian said Kabadi’s position justified the military taking control.  Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, 37, the son of Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno, is seen during a military broadcast announcing the death of his father on state television, April 20, 2021.The council named Deby’s son, 37-year-old General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, as interim president of the central African nation.   The army said Tuesday the elder Deby died from injuries sustained while visiting troops on the front line. A rebel force known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, known by its French acronym FACT, has advanced from the north in recent days toward the capital, N’Djamena. The group had been based in neighboring Libya.    The rebel group released a statement Tuesday vowing to take the capital and depose the younger Deby.      “Chad is not a monarchy,” the statement read. “There can be no dynastic devolution of power in our country.”    A day before his death, the 68-year-old Deby was declared the winner of Chad’s April 11 election with 79 percent of the vote, giving him a sixth term in office. Most opposition groups had boycotted the poll, citing arrests and a government ban on opposition rallies.     Deby had ruled Chad since coming to power in a December 1990 coup, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. Opponents called him an autocrat and criticized his management of Chadian oil revenue. In 2008, a different rebel force reached N’Djamena and came close to toppling Deby before French and Chadian army forces drove them out of the city.   FILE – France’s President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Chad’s President Idriss Deby at the Elysee presidential palace for a lunch as part of the Paris Peace Forum, Nov. 12, 2019.In the West, however, Deby was seen as an important ally in the fight against Islamist extremist groups in West Africa and the Sahel, like Nigeria-based Boko Haram.    
The Libya-based FACT had attacked a border post on the day of the election and then moved hundreds of kilometers toward the capital. On Monday, the Chadian army said it had inflicted a heavy loss on the rebels, killing more than 300 of them.
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French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday that Russia and President Vladimir Putin will face sanctions if opposition leader Alexey Navalny dies.
 
Speaking to France 2 television, Le Drian said, “We will take the necessary sanctions and it will be the responsibility of Mr. Putin and the Russian authorities. I hope we won’t go to that extreme.”
 
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan made similar comments to CNN Sunday, warning of unspecified “consequences” in the event of Navalny’s death.
 
Navalny was arrested in January after returning to Russia from Germany where he spent five months recovering from nerve agent poisoning.  Navalny blames the Russian government for the attack, while Russian officials deny the accusation.
 
The opposition leader and frequent critic of Putin has been in declining health since launching a hunger strike three weeks ago.
 
His supporters have turned out for rallies calling for his release.
 
Police arrested more than 1,700 protesters on Wednesday as demonstrations took place in dozens of Russian cities.
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U.S. officials say President Joe Biden is preparing to recognize the World War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire as genocide.The officials, who spoke to several news agencies on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the sensitive topic, said the move could come Saturday, an annual day of commemoration for the victims.During his campaign for president last year, Biden said he would “support a resolution recognizing the Armenian Genocide and will make universal human rights a top priority.”“I expect we will have more to say about Remembrance Day on Saturday,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday when asked about Biden’s commitment. “But I don’t have anything to get ahead of that at this point in time.”In a letter Wednesday, a bipartisan group of 100 members of the U.S. House of Representatives urged Biden to become the first U.S. president to recognize the killings as genocide.“The shameful silence of the United States Government on the historic fact of the Armenian Genocide has gone on for too long, and it must end,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge you to follow through on your commitments, and speak the truth.”Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said this week a move by Biden to recognize the killings as genocide would harm relations between the NATO allies.Historians say an estimated 1.5 million Armenians died at the hands of the Ottoman Empire — the predecessor to modern-day Turkey — between 1915 and 1923.Armenians say they were purposely targeted for extermination through starvation, forced labor, deportation, death marches, and outright massacres.Turkey denies a genocide or any deliberate plan to wipe out the Armenians. They say many of the victims were casualties of the war or murdered by Russians. Turkey also says the number of Armenians killed was far fewer than the usually accepted figure of 1.5 million.
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