Tsarni retracts apology to Armenians

Ruslan Tsarni is unbelievable, all the time and every time.

11:20, 8 May, 2013
YEREVAN, MAY 8, ARMENPRESS. The uncle of Boston bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Ruslan Tsarni retracts apology to the Armenians and breaks the promise to rectify earlier claim. As reports “Armenpress” the Publisher and Editor of The California Courier newspaper Harut Sassounian stated this.”The Armenians woke up on April 30 to the breaking news: “Ruslan Tsarni Apologizes to Armenian Community,” as reported by Alin Gregorian, editor of the Armenian Mirror-Spectator of Watertown, Mass.

Prior to this apology, Tsarni had been telling the international media that “an Armenian convert to Islam had brainwashed” his nephews — Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — the Boston bombers. By linking an Armenian to such a heinous crime, Uncle Tsarni had infuriated Armenians who suspected dubious motives behind his outlandish claim.

Armenians were naturally relieved upon learning that Tsarni had told the Mirror-Spectator: “Armenia has a very strong culture, therefore, I want to stress that his [Misha’s] ethnicity has nothing to do with it. I wish I had never said it. I felt for you [Armenians] and wish I had never done it.” He went on to apologize for linking the Armenian community “to this evil event.”

While this apology was a good start, it was inadequate compared to the magnitude of the damage Tsarni had caused to the good name of Armenians worldwide. Merely apologizing to an Armenian newspaper could not undo that harm, unless he repeated it on CNN or other TV networks.

I contacted Tsarni asking him if he would issue a similar apology on national television. He responded affirmatively since he regretted dragging the Armenian name into “this sad episode.” Tsarni stressed that he did not “speak about all Armenians, just one man of Armenian descent. I never had the intention of harming Armenians or anyone else. I feel sorry that the name of the Armenian people was used. I feel somehow guilty. I would like to apologize. No one likes to be brushed with an act like this.” Tsarni asked me to report that he felt terrible about mentioning Armenians in his TV interviews.

Given his willingness to make a new public statement, I offered to assist him in drafting the text of an apology for a possible future network appearance. He first welcomed the idea, but later informed me that he would neither accept my suggestion nor issue his own statement, claiming that his earlier remarks were accurate, since Misha was of Armenian descent, overlooking the fact that Misha Allakhverdov, born in Azerbaijan, was of mixed Armenian and Ukrainian parentage. Tsarni further advised that he never meant to refer to “the entire [Armenian] ethnicity. It was a simple technical characteristic of the person whose name I did not know at the time. Had I known his name was Misha, he would be Misha, not an Armenian or anyone else.” He justified the use of the phrase ‘a new convert to Islam of Armenian descent,’ by claiming that his intent was “to help the media, reporters, and law enforcement agencies to locate that person.” He, therefore, decided not to issue an apology on television, as he had promised.

Furthermore, he disputed Mirror-Spectator’s report of his apology, by claiming that he was “misquoted.” He asserted: “I never said, ‘I wish I never said it.’ I said that I had no intention to have the name of Armenians used in association with the bombing. I spoke about the certain individual who I was told about and that information was confirmed as true information.” Despite Tsarni’s belated denial, the Mirror-Spectator stands by its story and I have no reason to doubt the accuracy of its report!

I reminded Tsarni of his unfulfilled commitment to appear on national TV and set the record straight on his allegation about ‘the Armenian’ Misha. He has yet to respond, as he has been busy making funeral arrangements for his nephew, Tamerlan.

There are many unanswered questions about Tsarni. Although the internet is replete with all sorts of allegations about his background, we prefer to concentrate on questions of more immediate interest to the Armenian community:

— Why did Tsarni apologize to the Armenian Mirror-Spectator and then turn around and claim that he was misquoted? Could it be that he had felt sorry for his earlier statements to the media, and then backtracked after being advised by ‘unknown interests’ that he should not apologize to the Armenians?

— Why did he make a personal commitment to me to appear on major TV networks to apologize for maligning Armenians, and then refuse to do so?

With these unanswered questions, one can only wonder about Uncle Tsarni’s mysterious motives and enigmatic connections.”

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/718142/tsarni-retracts-apology-to-armenians-and-breaks-promise-to-rectify-earlier-claim-harut-sassounian.html

Allakhverdov family puzzle over ‘Misha’ claims

Perhaps Misha-Mikhail has more to say:

Mikhail Allakhverdov is listed with his brother Sergei as an officer of a Massachusetts nonprofit corporation called the Educational Organization for Improvements in Historical Studies, Inc. A telephone number listed for the company at a Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts address was no longer in service Monday.

Gennady Napadensky and Victoria Poupko, a Massachusetts couple from the former Soviet Union, who are listed as professional associates of Mikhail’s older brother Sergei, told Al-Monitor in a phone interview Monday that as far as they knew, Sergei was an atheist and the family was of Armenian Christian descent. Mikhail, they thought, converted to Islam after his immigration to the United States.

Gennady Napadensky told Al-Monitor he met Sergei about eight years  ago when he was looking for an historian and found him through a Russian bookstore in Brookline, Massachusetts.  They formed a company that produces digital interactive maps.

Victoria Poupko, Napadensky’s spouse and a former Northeastern University math professor who has worked as a human rights activist on behalf of persecuted ethnic minorities from the former Soviet Union, said she believes she met Mikhail Allakhverdov only once several years ago.

An activist on behalf of Chechen refugees, Poupko, of Russian Jewish descent, said she saw Mikhail in a car with a Chechen once, but she did not know who it was.

More than meets the eye with Mikhail ‘Misha’ Allakhverdov in my opinion.  How does Victoria Poupko (above) happen to see Tsarnaev in a car with Misha, and not know who it was if she knew it was him?  How did Victoria Popuko know the person in the car with Misha was Chechen, but she didn’t know who it was?  Seems strange to just happen to be with or near Misha at a time that he is with Tamerlan and not know who he is, if both Tamerlan and Poupko are with Misha enough to cross paths with each other on random days.  One of the two, Tamerlan or Poupko, must be with Misha a lot for that mathematical improbability to happen.  I have yet to hear a story from any of these Chechen/Dagestani people that I believe or makes sense.  Not once.

Anzor and Zubeidat Tsarnaev with Aunt Patimat Suleimanova

Note:  Chechen is also one of the official languages of Dagestan as well as Chechnya, and is spoken heavily in western Dagestan, ancestral home of Dagestani Avars including Zubeidat Tsarnaev.

Additionally, from Laura Rozen, who first confirmed Tsarni-Fuller marriage connection to CIA, writing for al-Monitor:  http://backchannel.al-monitor.com/index.php/2013/04/5118/family-associates-of-armenian-azeri-convert-puzzle-over-misha/

Sergei Allakhverdov-Amatuni (as the brother spells his names in some official listings) is also listed as a director of a Massachusetts non-profit, the Transitional Assembly for Peace and Democracy in Chechnya, Inc. Registered in 2003, the group lists as its president Salman Masayev (or Musayev), who has subsequently appeared in media reports as the deputy head of the Caucasus Muslims Organization, based in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Nadezhda Banchik, a California-based human rights activist for persecuted former Soviet minorities and who is a friend of Poupko’s, told Al-Monitor in a phone interview Monday that she does not know the Allekhverdovs, though she is listed with Sergei Allekhberdov-Amatuni as an officer in the Transnational Assembly. (She thought the group’s listed president Musayev might have been a Harvard student of Chechen descent who later returned to the region.)

She noted, in a telephone interview, that the Boston Marathon bombings occurred a few days after the US publication of the Magnitsky list, and suggested that it was strange, if Russia had suspicions about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that it did not arrest him when he was there for six months in 2012.

These non-profit “benevolent” organizations are used to launder money and move arms for drugs, heroin in this case.  Tsarni has already been implicated in such money laundering operations and fronts for illegal acquisition of Kazakhstan state oil drilling licenses.  Lozen does excellent work in that article.

Mikhail Allakhverdov’s Rhode Island residence

Mikhail Allakhverdov (Misha) Denies He Was Tamerlan’s Teacher, FBI Agrees.

Misha revealed by Christian Caryl of The New York Review of Books to be Mikhail Allakhverdov of Rhode Island.

A thirty-nine-year-old man of Armenian-Ukrainian descent, Allakhverdov is of medium height and has a thin, reddish-blond beard. When I arrived he was wearing a green and white short-sleeve football jersey and pajama pants. Along with his parents, his American girlfriend was there, and we sat together in a tiny living room that abuts the family kitchen.

New York Magazine continues to find little of interest concerning Allakhverdov:

A U.S. official said on Saturday that the FBI has located Tsarnaev’s friend Misha, but found no evidence connecting him with the bombing. Allakhverdov told The New York Review of Books:

“Misha,” the friend said to be key to Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s radicalization, has finally been tracked down, but he doesn’t quite fit the ominous image of the bald, red-bearded 30-year-old convert to Islam who claimed to be an exorcist who could talk to demons.

Seems that this smoke screen worked for a few days, giving Tsarni and Fuller time to move assets in Dagestan, which apparently FSB has just struck:  Russian Security Forces Kill Two Suspected Rebels in Dagestan:

In a statement, the Russian National Anti-Terrorism Committee said that security forces stormed the home of two men believed to be members of a criminal gang based outside of the city of Kizilyurt after the men opened fire on the police with automatic weapons, the Interfax news service reported.

The police identified one of the men as Shakhrudin Askhabov, who they said was behind a series of deadly attacks against police cars and local stores last fall who was known as “the bomber.”

Another more likely link for Tamerlan’s extended network is William Plotnikov – Canadian boxer linked to Boston bomber.  Abu Dujan was also killed outside of Kizilyurt, Dagestan by FSB Security Forces shortly after Tamrlan’s last visit.

William Plotnikov, left

‘Misha’ unmasked: Mysterious friend of Boston bomber is Mikhail Allakhverdov.

No surprise here.  Misha was merely  a not-so-clever decoy, foisted upon the media and public by Uncle Ruslan Tsarni, probably at the direction of Graham Fuller.

Accused by members of the Tsarnaev family of being the mastermind behind the marathon attacks which killed three and injured over 250 people, Misha, whose real name is Mikhail Allakhverdov has come forward in hope of setting the record straight.

Frenzied speculation surrounded his role in April 15th’s attacks, with some asking whether ‘Misha’ was part of a wider terror cell or incredibly, if he was a Russian mole – sent to spy on Tamerlan.

Indeed, his very absence from the investigation fueled the conspiracy theories – but now he has come forward to declare himself innocent and that crucially the FBI do not believe he had any part in the bombings.

Misha lives at home with his elderly parents, who are Armenian-Ukrainian and from Baku, Azerbaijan:  ‘Misha’ Speaks: An Interview with the Alleged Boston Bomber’s ‘Svengali’

A thirty-nine-year-old man of Armenian-Ukrainian descent, Allakhverdov is of medium height and has a thin, reddish-blond beard. When I arrived he was wearing a green and white short-sleeve football jersey and pajama pants. Along with his parents, his American girlfriend was there, and we sat together in a tiny living room that abuts the family kitchen.

Try again, Ruslan.