About 10 kilometres from the border with Azerbaijan in the northeastern Tavush region, locals parked their cars across the road, shouting as they set up tents along the winding mountain pass to block the traffic.

They included 96-year-old Lena Ghardashyan. 

“We will not give up even one centimetre,” she told AFP.

“We will shed blood, but we will not give up. At my age, I will go on my knees, but I will not give up.”

The protesters are hoping to thwart Armenia’s plan to return control of four abandoned Azerbaijani villages — seized during the 1990s — as part of wider talks on securing an elusive peace deal with Baku.

The two Caucasus rivals have been locked in tension and bloody conflict since the break-up of the Soviet Union more than three decades ago.

They fought two wars, in the 1990s and 2020, for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, territory internationally recognised as Azerbaijan’s but controlled for 30 years by Armenian separatists.

Baku recaptured it in a lightning offensive last September, and talks over a broader border agreement have since intensified.

Some protestors said handing land to Baku made them question what those conflicts were for.

“I’m a wife of a war veteran, my son fought in 2020,” said Nelli Tamazyan, also at the roadblock.

“Now I don’t know why we made so many sacrifices.”

– ‘Serious threat’ –

The two sides started physical work to delimit part of the border earlier this week, triggering a new wave of protests across Armenia that spread to the capital Yerevan.

Locals in settlements near to those being handed back say they could end up cut off from the rest of the country. 

They accuse Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of unilaterally giving away territory without any guarantees in return.

“If we’re giving something up, we have to get something in exchange,” said Tamazyan, a cook from the village of Baghanis.

“People realise that the solutions offered by our authorities today pose a serious threat to the locals’ daily lives and existence,” said Hovik Beranyan, a 31-year-old protester from the village of Kuti.

Demonstrators this week have also blocked a major highway leading to Georgia, a vital trade route for landlocked Armenia, and streets in the capital Yerevan.

“We are fighting specifically for our land and our water. We want our land to stay as it is,” said driver Eghish Maghsudyan from Voskepar, a village the locals say will be cut off by the land transfer.

The region where Armenia has agreed to hand back some villages is of strategic importance.

Along with sections of the highway to Georgia, it is also near a Russian gas pipeline and has advantageous military positions.

– ‘Prevent a war’ –

Pashinyan, a former opposition lawmaker who swept to power in 2018 in a bloodless revolution, has defended his decision in the face of the backlash.

“To get what legitimately belongs to Armenia, we must be ready to cede what is not legitimately ours,” he said during a mid-March visit to Voskepar.

“Our policy is to prevent a war,” he said.

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said Tuesday that a peace deal between the countries was “closer than ever before”.

Several countries, including Russia, the United States, Iran, France and Germany, have all tried to mediate in search of a lasting solution.

Analysts say Moscow’s historic influence in the region has waned amid its war in Ukraine.

Fears of a renewed conflict continue to run high.

Both sides have unsettled territorial claims, and shootouts between soldiers stationed on the border are frequent.

But protestors insist they will not back down.

“We will fight to the end for our land,” Shaliko Yeghiazaryan told AFP. “Every centimetre of our historic land belongs to us.“

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The bill, which 83 ruling Georgian Dream party MPs backed after its first reading, has been criticised as mirroring a repressive Russian law on “foreign agents” used there to silence dissent. 

Opposition deputies boycotted the vote, and on Monday and Tuesday night thousands took to the streets to protest the draft law.

In chaotic scenes past midnight, Georgian riot police chased demonstrators in the labyrinth of narrow streets near parliament, beating them and making arrests, an AFP journalist saw.

Several local media outlets said police had attacked their journalists.

Another protest is scheduled for Wednesday evening.

– Further away from the EU –

If adopted, the bill would require any independent NGO and media organisation receiving more than 20 percent of funding from abroad to register as an “organisation pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.

The proposed measure has sparked a backlash both inside Georgia and in the West.

A similar bill targeting “foreign agents” was dropped last year after mass protests outside the parliament building in Tbilisi, during which police used tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators.

The turmoil comes ahead of crucial parliamentary elections in October, seen as a key democratic test for the Black Sea country.

The bill still needs to pass votes following its second and third readings — and get past a highly likely presidential veto.

But the ruling Georgian Dream party holds a commanding majority in the legislature, allowing it to pass further stages and vote down a presidential veto without the backing of any opposition MPs.

President Salome Zurabishvili — who is at loggerheads with the ruling party — said the measure contradicted “the will of the population” and denounced it as “a Russian strategy of destabilisation”.

Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili insisted the initiative was about “boosting transparency” and said it would not damage Tbilisi’s bid for EU membership.

But European Council President Charles Michel said the law “will bring Georgia further away from the EU and not closer”.

In December, the EU granted Georgia official candidate status. But it said Tbilisi would have to reform its judicial and electoral systems, reduce political polarisation, improve press freedom and curtail the power of oligarchs before membership talks could be formally launched.

Washington has also voiced concerns that the law would “derail Georgia from its European path”.

A former Soviet republic, Georgia has sought for years to deepen relations with the West, but the current ruling party is accused of trying to steer the Black Sea nation toward closer ties with Russia.

Once seen as leading the democratic transformation of ex-Soviet countries, Georgia has in recent years been criticised for perceived democratic backsliding.

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Protest group A15 Action said it was coordinating a “multi-city blockade… in solidarity with Palestine.”

“In each city, we will identify and blockade major choke points in the economy, focusing on points of production and circulation with the aim of causing the most economic impact,” the group said on its website.

Demonstrators who were blocking traffic on the Golden Gate Bridge held a banner reading “Stop the world for Gaza.”

Aerial footage showed stationary traffic in one direction on the massive bridge, while lanes in the other direction were empty, with police present.

A15 Action’s website said action was planned for places as far apart as Mexico City, Ho Chi Minh, Sydney, Athens, New York and Johannesburg.

“There is a sense in the streets in this recent and unprecedented movement for Palestine that escalation has become necessary: there is a need to shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy,” it said.

A protest earlier on Monday blocked a highway heading into Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

Israel launched its punishing offensive in Gaza last October after an unprecedented attack by Hamas militants resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to Israeli figures.

Over 33,000 people have since been killed in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.

Monday’s protest on the Golden gate Bridge came as the Middle East was facing some of its most precarious moments in the last six months, after Iran launched a large-scale aerial attack on Israel over the weekend.

The attack was largely fended off by Israel, with help from allies including the United States and Britain.

Israel is weighing its response to the attack, which Tehran said was in retaliation for a presumed Israeli strike on an Iranian consulate building in Syria that killed a top general.

US President Joe Biden said Monday he was working to prevent conflict spreading.

“The United States is committed to Israel’s security. We’re committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict from spreading beyond what it already has,” Biden told reporters.

Western leaders such as Biden find themselves in a difficult position over their support for Israel.

While the stance is popular among some voters, others — often younger people — believe the government of Israel is carrying out acts of genocide as part of its offensive in Gaza.

The issue is expected to weigh on the ballot box in November, when Biden fights for reelection against Republican Donald Trump.

The post Pro-Palestinian protest blocks San Francisco’s Golden Gate bridge appeared first on Digital Journal.

Following a July coup, the West African country said in mid-March that the 2012 cooperation agreement had been “unilaterally imposed” by the United States. 

Students and several prominent figures from the military regime were amongst the crowd in front of the National Assembly Headquarters in Niamey. 

The crowd was heard chanting “Down with American imperialism” and “The people’s liberation is on the march”. 

French troops were expelled at the end of 2023, but about 1,000 American soldiers remain based in Agadez city in the north. 

In late March, Niger said the US would submit a proposal to “disengage” its soldiers from the country. Washington declined to comment, but said it contacted Niger to “obtain clarification”.  

“They said they (the Americans) were going to leave, so let them leave in peace and quickly,” shouted Sheikh Ahmadou Mamoudou, a well-known religious leader.  

Flags from Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Russia were visible but organisers asked demonstrators to refrain from slogans insulting the US or burning its flags. 

In March Niger joined neighbours Mali and Burkina Faso in the creation of a joint force to battle the long-running jihadist rebellions raging in the three nations.

The three countries have turned their backs on former coloniser France and strengthened their ties with Russia.

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The protest — the latest large-scale rally of its kind in Morocco — was called by the banned but tolerated Islamist group Al Adl Wal Ihssane.

The group also organised similar gatherings in the capital Rabat and the port of Tangier.

The demonstrations were held to mark the last Friday in the holy fasting month of Ramadan, and Quds (Jerusalem) Day when annual rallies in support of the Palestinans are held around the region.

“Normalisation is a hoax!” and “Down with the occupation!”, protesters chanted in Casablanca, with the war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas about to enter its seventh month.

In late 2020, Morocco established diplomatic ties with Israel under the United States-brokered Abraham Accords which saw similar moves by the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

As part of the deal, Rabat received Washington’s recognition of its claim to sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

Since the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza began on October 7, large-scale demonstrations in the North African kingdom have called for the abrogation of the normalisation deal.

“We came to say ‘no’ to the barbaric massacres Israel is committing against Palestinians, to the destruction in Gaza… and to the silence of the Arab states,” protest organiser Mohammed Riahi told AFP.

Casablanca lawyer Mohammed Ennouini, 51, said: “Normalising ties between Arab states and Israel gives it the green light to keep killing civilians.”

Rabat has officially denounced what it said were “flagrant violations of the provisions of international law” by Israel in its war against Hamas, but has not given any indication that normalisation with Israel would be undone.

According to the health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, at least 33,091 people have been killed in the territory during the war.

It began after Hamas’s October 7 attack which left 1,170 people, mostly civilians, dead in southern Israel, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

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Mass protests uniting families of the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and an anti-government street movement that failed to unseat Netanyahu last year brought Jerusalem and Tel Aviv to a standstill on Saturday and Sunday.

As thousands again gathered in Tel Aviv and outside Israel’s parliament in Jerusalem on Monday, several protesters told AFP that Netanyahu has to be forced out “to save Israel”.

“This is an existential crisis for Israel,” said Einat Avni Levi, 40, whose family had to flee from the Nirim kibbutz a little over two kilometres (1.25 miles) from the border barrier with Gaza.

“If someone comes and takes me from my bed, and I can’t trust my army and my government to come and rescue me, I cannot live here,” she said, referring to the around 250 hostages abducted by Hamas during the October 7 attack.

Netanyahu had long argued that he was the only leader who could keep Israelis safe. That claim was shattered by the Hamas attack that took Israel’s much-vaunted security apparatus by surprise.

General Reuven Benkler, 65, who came out of retirement to serve for a month on the Lebanese border, praised the Israeli military’s campaign in Gaza as “phenomenal”.

But he said Netanyahu was “throwing the military success down the drain. 

“There is no point in carrying on a war that has no goal. Wars are a diplomatic tool. The only goal of this war is keeping Bibi in power,” he said using Netanyahu’s nickname.

Like many at the protests, which are spearheaded by the hostages’ families and their supporters, he was convinced Netanyahu was not trying to free them.

– ‘Using divisions to stay in power’ –

“There is no way the hostages will come home while he is still in power. He has sacrificed 134 hostages to stay in power,” said Benkler, who leads a soldiers’ group called Gunners for Democracy.

“He doesn’t give a damn about anyone else apart from himself.”

Israel believes about 130 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 who are presumed dead.

But pressure has been growing on Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition as anti-government protesters and the hostages’ families have found common cause.

But with the country nearly six months into the war in Gaza — where more than 32,845 have been killed, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry — Netanyahu’s supporters say this is not the time to change leader.

“Go home. You are helping Hamas,” an Orthodox Jewish man shouted at protesters walking towards the parliament with banners saying, “Election now!”

Many in front of parliament were angry that Israel’s ultra-Orthodox — who make up nearly one in five of its Jewish population — are mostly excused military service.

General Benkler said it was an “outrage” when Israel “needed every man it can get”, blaming the alliance with ultra-Orthodox parties that has kept Netanyahu in power.

Mother-of-six Tehila Elitzur said religious communities should no longer escape having “to do their duty”. 

“I have three reservist sons serving and one in the regular army. And my husband, a doctor, who is 54, is serving right now too.”

But she said that Israel’s fractured society needed to come together or “we will die”. 

Netanyahu was “using divisions to stay in power”, she added.

A row over prolonging the exemptions — which technically no longer apply from Monday — is threatening Netanyahu’s coalition government.

Army reservists protested in an ultra-Orthodox neighbourhood of Jerusalem on Sunday to demand that religious Jews be made to fight.

But on Monday it was the turn of the ultra-Orthodox — known in Hebrew as Haredim — to vent their anger, with hundreds blocking a major highway in Jerusalem.

Einat Avni Levi said “people have been traumatised” by the October 7 attack when Hamas militants killed 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

But, she said, “you cannot wipe out Hamas” as Netanyahu has vowed to do.

“Hamas is an idea,” he said. “Even if we kill every last Hamas terrorist out there — and we should — the Hamas idea will live on. 

“The only solution is a political agreement. We don’t need to be best friends (with the Palestinians), but we do need to live together.” 

The post Demonstrators vow to ‘save Israel’ from Netanyahu in new protests appeared first on Digital Journal.

The demonstration was called by former government insider Peter Magyar after he published the audio clip earlier in the day.

“We will not allow the biggest legal and political scandal of the last thirty years to be covered up,” he told the protestors, calling for the resignation of chief prosecutor Peter Polt, whose independence he questioned.

A few thousand gathered in front of the chief prosecutor’s office, but the crowd swelled as they later marched to a square near parliament.

Magyar, former justice minister Judit Varga’s ex-husband, has been shaking up Hungarian politics since he shot into prominence in the wake of a child abuse pardon scandal.

Varga was forced to stand down from public life over the scandal and Magyar has since emerged as a major Orban critic.

He posted a two-minute audio clip on social media in the morning just as he went to give testimony to prosecutors probing corruption.

In the recording, two people are heard talking about the investigation into a graft case, involving Varga’s former deputy.

Magyar claims it is a January 2023 conversation between him and Varga, who was his wife at the time.

He says it contains proof that Antal Rogan, the minister of the prime minister’s cabinet office, and his staff manipulated investigative records.

“Sure, they struck themselves out,” the woman purported to be Varga can be heard saying in the recording, an apparent reference to Rogan and his staff.

It was not immediately possible for AFP to authenticate the recording.

Varga responded to the released recording by accusing Magyar of domestic violence and provoking her into saying things.

“He read rumours in the press and, since he had been terrorising me for days, I said what he wanted to hear so that I could get out as soon as possible,” she wrote on her official Facebook page, later alleging Magyar used the recording to blackmail her.

The government did not respond to the contents of the recording.

“A domestic dispute with a bullied wife has nothing to do with public life,” Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas stressed in a video message.

Magyar denies Varga’s accusations and insists he only made the recording after his ex-wife informed him that Orban’s inner circle was a “mafia government that is impossible to get out of”.

He also claims to have more recordings with government officials stashed away.

The post Protest in Hungary as former insider shares ‘proof’ of graft appeared first on Digital Journal.

Central Buenos Aires was paralyzed for hours as massive crowds gathered for one of the largest March 24 “Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice” protests in recent years, AFP journalists saw. 

The normally festive, family friendly event was also joined by major trade unions, as anger rises over libertarian Milei’s austerity measures put in place to fight against the country’s spiraling inflation.

Protesters carried signs with slogans such as “30,000 reasons to defend the homeland” — a reference to the up to 30,000 victims estimated to have died or disappeared in the 1976-83 junta’s so-called “dirty war” on suspected political dissidents, notably on the left.

But that number has been contested by Milei, a political outsider and self-described “anarcho-capitalist” who has instead preferred estimates of around 9,000 victims, in what critics say is a white-washing of history.

Along with his conservative Vice President Victoria Villarruel, Milei and his government have instead characterized the 70s as an era of “war” between authorities and left-wing guerillas, albeit with “excesses.”

The government marked the anniversary with a 12-minute video focusing on its version of events, highlighting victims from guerilla attacks as well as an ex-rebel who claims he made up the number of 30,000 junta victims.

“We are facing a denialist government,” protester and activist Taty Almedia told AFP.

“Today more than ever we must hold onto the memory, and take to the streets,” added demonstrator Mariana Gianni.

Since the resumption in 2006 of trials for crimes committed under the dictatorship — after a period of amnesty in the 1990s — 1,176 people have been convicted, 661 are currently in detention, and 79 proceedings remain in progress, according to judicial data.

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Blowing whistles and waving union flags, around 100 people demonstrated outside the flagship Bershka store on Madrid’s main avenue, the Gran Via, according to an AFP reporter at the scene.

“It seems very unfair to us because Inditex has had a huge profit. So we want it to redistribute that,” said Juan Becerra, a 44-year-old worker at an Oysho store in the Spanish capital.

Similar protests were held outside Inditex stores in seven other cities, including Barcelona, Seville and Valencia. 

The protests were organised by Spain’s two largest unions, UGT and CCOO, which want a bonus for Inditex workers with more than four years service and other benefits.

The unions say just over half of Inditex’s 27,000 employees in Spain have signed a petition demanding that “the group’s profits be returned in a fair and equitable manner to those who make them possible: all the group’s workers”.

Monica Donoro, a CCOO representative, said negotiations with Inditex managers had stalled.

“We are not making any progress. They are not listening to us,” she said.

Inditex, which has seen a strong performance on Spain’s stock market over the past year, posted net profits of 5.4 billion euros ($5.9 billion) in 2023, up 30 percent from 4.1 billion euros, the previous record, in 2022. 

The company, whose eight brands include Pull and Bear and upmarket label Massimo Dutti, said it would pay shareholders a dividend of 1.54 euros, a 28 percent increase from 2022, and the highest in the group’s history.

“We, the staff, have the impression that we are not taken into account, that our work is not recognised even though we contribute to generating the profits, which are so high, through our work,” Beatriz Aliaga, a 44-year-old Zara employee, told AFP at the Madrid demonstration.

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The farmers marched from the Ministry of Ecological Transition to the Ministry of Agriculture after the European Union proposed legislative changes to drastically ease the environmental rules of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Friday.

Rallied by their trade union, farmers carried banners proclaiming “We are not delinquents” to the sound of horns and whistles. One decorated his tractor with a mock guillotine.

“It is as if they want to cut off our necks,” said Marcos Baldominos explaining his guillotine.

“We are being suffocated by European rules,” the farmer from Pozo de Guadalajara, 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Madrid, added.

Friday’s concessions in Brussels aimed to loosen compliance with some environment rules, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.

While the move was welcomed by Spain’s left-wing government, some environmental NGOs criticised the measures. 

“We are faced with a pile of bureaucratic rules that make us feel more like we are at an office than on a farm,” the trade union behind Sunday’s march, Union de Uniones, said with reference to requirements “that many small and medium-sized farms” cannot “cope with”. 

Sunday marked the fourth demonstration in Madrid since the start of the wider European farm protest movement in mid-January.

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