The Peninsula Newspaper
Monday, 31 October 2011
Doha: In a press conference yesterday the Russian Ambassador Dr Vladimir Titorenko criticised The Peninsula for publishing an article by a Qatari columnist recently in which, he alleged, the author had called for terrorist attacks against Russians all over the world.
The article by Khaled Al Jaber, which was translated from Arabic appeared in The Peninsula on October 19 under the title “China, Russia risk losing face in Arab world” in the weekly page “Qatar Perspective”.
The Russian embassy sent a five-page rejoinder to the article, a brief of which was published by The Peninsula on October 25, advising the readers to visit our website to read the full text of the reply.
We are surprised by the serious allegations levelled by the ambassador against the article. He sought an apology from the editor and chose to distribute the rejoinder to all the reporters who attended the press conference for publishing in their newspapers. The Peninsula does not necessarily hold the views of all the columnists writing in our newspaper. A discerning reader will realise that the allegations raised by the ambassador against the columnist are baseless.
We are reproducing here the relevant passages from the article for information of the readers.
“On the Syrian port of Tartus there is the only Russian military base outside the territory of the former Soviet Union and Syria is the largest buyer of Russian arms in the region, where it occupies the fifth place among the eighty countries that import Russian weapons and military equipments. While the United States and Europe follow the same policies, however, having leant the lessons early from the revolution in Tunisia and then Egypt and changed their positions while Russia and China will continue to lose day after day their reputations and perhaps their influence and interests in the region if they did not change their positions in support of the repressive and authoritarian regimes in the Arab world. The positions that oppose the popular movement raise the widespread resentment in the Arab street with all its sectors, which could reflect negatively and turns into violence and boycott and perhaps the armed and terrorist attacks could target the Russian and Chinese embassies and their economic and vital interests in the Arab countries. There is an Arabic saying “The fire starts start from a little spark,” This message must be absorbed by the countries that stood against the wishes of the Arab peoples in the change before it is too late”
The calls that came from the social forums and interactive sites called to adopt a number of views toward the Russian and Chinese position including the boycott of Russian and Chinese products in the markets and pressure on the traders and importers to prevent the import. The messages are sent to condemn the present and previous Russian and Chinese negative positions with all available means by the individuals, institutions, associations, political parties, social organizations and civil society. The same are forwarded to the concerned Arab and international civil and human rights bodies.
There is a call to send back all Russian and Chinese cadres in all forms from the region. The gatherings and demonstrations must be conducted in front of the embassies of Russia and China in the Arab and Islamic countries and also in the countries of Europe, Asia and North and South America by the communities living abroad. We do not want to reach the situation to the point of rupture, so is the message we wish to reach the Ministries of Russian and Chinese Foreign Affairs at the appropriate time, or turn into the trash and everyone will lose here. There is a game of “Matryoshka” and today you will no longer find a buyer in the world of Arab revolutions.
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