By Turkish Minute,

Türkmen Terzi

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed in 2015 that Turkish authorities were benefitting from oil trade with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while the United Nations and the European Union accused Turkish firms of arms smuggling. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s family had a firm grip on the economy; however, recent allegations related to international drug trafficking indicate that Erdoğan’s control and that of his close allies extend as far as Venezuela, Europe and Afghanistan.

Strategically located among three continents, Turkey has become a major route for heroin smuggling from Afghanistan to Europe. It has also become a distribution hub for cocaine smuggling from Latin America to Europe and the Middle East.

Since early May Turkish mafia boss Sedat Peker has been leveling serious accusations against Erdoğan and other high-profile members of the ruling party. Among the allegations is involvement in cocaine smuggling from Colombia following the seizure of 4.9 tons of cocaine bound for Turkey at Colombia’s Pacific port of Buenaventura on June 9, 2020. Another indication that Turkey has become an important route for drug trafficking was the seizure in Ecuador of 616 kilograms of drugs on a ship bound for Turkey in April of last year. The Istanbul-based Bianet English news website reported that cocaine was seized on a ship that had departed from Ecuador’s Puerto Bolivar Port for Turkey’s southern city of Mersin. The Puerto Bolivar Port is being managed by the Turkish-based Yılport Holding under a 50-year contract, according to an agreement signed by the president of Turkey, Erdoğan, and his Ecuadorian counterpart in 2016. Despite the clear evidence, Turkish prosecutors have up until now failed to launch an investigation into drug smuggling activities. There have been numerous accusations of drug trafficking against Yılport Holding. Turkish opposition parties criticized the government for customs officials granting clearance for 540 kilos of cocaine in Yılport’s Dilovası Port in the city of Kocaeli in August 2020.

The Arab Spring had a detrimental effect on Turkey’s exports to the Middle East, and Turkey has to a large extent also lost out on its Russian export market since shooting down a Russian jet in 2015. Erdogan’s neo-Ottomanist-Islamist foreign policy has led to a diplomatic crisis between Turkey and the Western powers, which have restricted Turkey’s exports to Russian, Middle Eastern and European markets. Ankara has since prioritized Africa as well as Latin American countries as new political and economic alliances. Former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel’s visit to Argentina, Brazil and Chile in 1995 was a turning point in Turkey’s relationship with the region. Erdogan visited Mexico, Colombia and Cuba in 2015, and a year later, Chile, Peru and Ecuador. Ankara’s “Action Plan for Latin America and the Caribbean” in 1998 and the declaration of 2006 as the “Year of Latin America and the Caribbean” in Turkey proved fruitful as Turkey’s trade volume with the region increased from $3.4 billion in 2006 to more almost $10 billion in 2017. However, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government’s recent engagement with certain Latin American nations has cast doubt on the real objective behind Turkey’s Latin American policy.

Turkish mafia boss Peker claimed that former Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım’s son made several trips to Caracas in January and February of this year to establish a new drug trade after nearly five tons of cocaine were seized last year by Colombia. Erdoğan’s long-time ally Yıldırım responded by saying that his son Erkam Yıldırım, who runs a shipping company, only visited Venezuela to personally deliver COVID-19 tests and protective equipment to the Venezuelan people.

Peker also claimed that former interior minister Mehmet Ağar had a share in the 4.9 tons of cocaine seized in Colombia and that Turkey’s incumbent Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu had covered up the drug smuggling affair.

Following Peker’s allegations, MPs from the opposition Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a parliamentary question asked Trade Minister Mehmet Muş why his ministry had the previous year lifted a tariff imposed on several food products including cheese from Venezuela despite the fact that Turkey is a cheese producer. Opposition parties claim that Turkey’s intention was not food importation but rather drug trafficking.

Another incident indicating deep ties between the Turkish government and organized crime was the seizure of a private jet from Turkey by Brazilian federal police on Aug. 4, 2021. The jet, belonging to Erdoğan-linked businessman Ethem Sancak, was found to be carrying 1.3 tons of cocaine.

It is clear that Turkey has become an alternate hub for cocaine in recent years following large-scale operations against cocaine drug lords in Belgium and Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Turkey is a key heroin route from Afghanistan to Europe, and the drug lords reportedly prefer to collaborate with the Turkish mafia and other high-profile government-linked people to transport the drugs through Turkey, where they are unlikely to face consequences.

Libya has become another significant location for drug trafficking. Turkey has had a military presence in the country since Ankara supported the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) against Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Tobruk-based Libyan National Army (LNA). Western Libya has a historic drug trafficking connection with southern Europe, and the power vacuum left by the fall of the Gaddafi regime in 2011 means movement is easy for drug lords in the region. Turkey is committing regular and increasingly blatant violations of the UN arms embargo on Libya, and the European Union has imposed sanctions on Turkish Avrasya Shipping for smuggling weapons into Libya.

Turkey is currently in the midst of negotiations with the Taliban to operate the Kabul airport. Several Turkish media agencies have reported suspicions that Turkey’s real intention is to control drug trafficking from Afghanistan. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference in August that no narcotics will be produced in the country, but UN officials have stated that the Taliban earned more than $400 million between 2018 and 2019 from the drug trade. Bearing in mind the accusations against both the AKP government and the Taliban, it isn’t unreasonable to assume that the Erdogan government and the Taliban might eventually collaborate in drug trafficking.

For decades, the Turkish government has torched cannabis fields in its battle against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Kurdish militant group that has been waging an armed struggle against Turkey since 1984, but Erdoğan has been urging regional leaders to promote the crop in the country for the last few years. Erdoğan, who has plunged Turkey into a deep economic crisis, no longer promotes Turkey’s traditional food or textile exports or construction investments; instead, his close business allies transport drugs from Latin America to Turkey.

The question is by next Election will Armenia exist?

“Fact” daily writes. “We have had occasion to mention that the participation of political forces in the upcoming local elections in October, to put it mildly, cannot be considered very active. It is noteworthy, however, that a newly formed political force is participating in five of the nine communities.

It is about the “Country of Living” party. The party will take part in the elections of Tegh, Tat, Meghri, Dilijan and Gyumri communities. According to the “Fact” newspaper, the “Country of Living” party considers this election a kind of test before the upcoming larger-scale elections, in general, before entering into a political “chaos”. According to our sources, at the same time they are actively engaged in creating party structures on the ground and recruiting new party members. According to our information, it is also noteworthy from this point of view that in June of this year, social entrepreneur Ruben Vardanyan received Armenian citizenship, after whose name the establishment of the “Country of Living” party is connected.

According to our sources, Vardanyan wants to be actively involved in political processes in the near future, and to run in the next parliamentary elections as a candidate for prime minister.

Source: https://shabat.am/en/article/264007/Ruben-Vardanyany-cankutyun-uni-hajord

By Aykan Erdemir 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated five Turkey-based individuals on Thursday for providing a range of financial and travel facilitation services to al-Qaeda. The new designations — the seventh set since April 2019 targeting a Turkey-based jihadist network — expose the extent to which radical Islamists thrive in the permissive environment Ankara has cultivated.

Thursday’s designations sanctioned three Turkish nationals — Soner Gurleyen, Cebrail Guzel, and Nurettin Muslihan — and two Egyptian nationals — Muhammad Nasr al-Din al-Ghazlani and Majdi Muhammad Muhammad Salim. The most senior among the five is Salim, who is the former emir of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, a terrorist group once headed by al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. Treasury alleged that Salim serves as one of the primary facilitators of al-Qaeda’s activities in Turkey, including by acting as a financial courier.

The sanctioned Turkish nationals are junior operatives, two of whom — Guzel and Muslihan — worked with one of the former deputy emirs of Zawahiri. In 2016, a Turkish investigative journalist found that the Turkish police, in July 2015, had intelligence that Muslihan ordered his militant followers to arm themselves and carry out shooting practice on the outskirts of Istanbul and warned of imminent terror attacks. Still, Turkish authorities failed to prevent jihadist attacks in the city the next month. Those attacks came a day after the United States sent fighter jets to Turkey to strike the Islamic State.

Another Turkish journalist alleged that Irfan Fidan, an Istanbul deputy prosecutor whom Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later appointed as a constitutional court judge, quashed an investigation into Muslihan and al-Qaeda in March 2015 and discontinued the monitoring and surveillance of the suspects.

This round of sanctions follows designations issued in April, September, and November of 2019 and January, May, and August of 2021, all of which demonstrate Washington’s heightened vigilance against jihadist networks operating within the borders of an increasingly adversarial NATO member state. In addition to al-Qaeda, previous U.S. sanctions have targeted illicit financial networks linked to the Islamic State, Hamas, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and the Egyptian group Harakat Sawa’d Misr. These links show the extent to which Turkey has become what NPR in 2014 referred to as the “jihadi highway.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s press statement about Thursday’s Treasury designations, however, sends mixed signals. It reflects the Biden administration’s softened approach to the Erdogan government since the Turkish president’s June offer to guard and run the Kabul international airport following the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

Blinken said that the United States “will continue to work closely with our partners and allies, including Turkey, in identifying, exposing, and disrupting al-Qa’ida’s financial support networks.” Such a framing hides the Erdogan government’s negligence toward radical Islamist groups and complicity in offering them a permissive environment to exploit. It also contradicts the earlier comments Blinken made during his confirmation hearing in January, when he sarcastically referred to Turkey as a “so-called strategic partner of ours.” Blinken’s volte-face was also evident last month when he referred to Turkey, within the context of ongoing U.S.-Turkish talks on evacuations from Afghanistan, as “an important NATO Ally and an invaluable partner in the region.”

Blinken’s press statement on the al-Qaeda designations coincided with Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal’s two-day visit to Washington to meet with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland. Ankara is hopeful that these meetings will help Erdogan secure a second in-person meeting with Biden. The Turkish president used his first in-person meeting, held on the sidelines of a NATO summit in June, to burnish his tarnished image, bringing his U.S. counterpart’s cold-shoulder policy toward Ankara to an end.

Although the Biden administration’s two sets of designations targeting Turkey-based jihadists are a move in the right direction, Washington should not whitewash the Erdogan government’s culpability in transforming a secular NATO member state into a fertile breeding ground for myriad jihadist groups.

The events held in Armenia after the early elections of the National Assembly on June 20 2021, are more and more reminiscent of the situation in Armenia before the February revolt of 1921, a burst of despair that had catastrophic historical and political consequences for Armenia.

The political persecution of opposition figures, especially the decapitation of the Syunik region, the unreasonable removal of the respected officers from the army, primitive quarrels in the National Assembly in the face of growing security crisis, consistent tensions of the whole situation intended to create an atmosphere of deep despair, as it was in February 1921. 

Thus, after establishing the Soviet regime in Armenia on December 2, 1920, Russian-Turkish negotiations determined the new Russian-Turkish borders.

However, the presence of the Armenian side in those negotiations could have caused unnecessary problems on the border issues.

Therefore, it was necessary to create a situation that would make the participation of the Armenian SSR impossible and enable the Bolsheviks to draw the borders of Armenia at their own discretion. 

The Revolutionary Committee of Armenia, violating the Armenian-Russian agreement (commonly known as the Dro-Legran Agreement) in December 1920 – February 1921 created an unbearable atmosphere of repressions and persecution.

The arrests and massacres of more than two hundred Armenian officers, politicians and intellectuals on the night of 10 February 1921 was the last drop that overfilled the cup of patience and forced people to raise a rebellion led by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, suspending the power of the Revolutionary Committee at least in the Ararat Valley. 

When analyzing the course and chronology of the February uprising, one can mention that the Revolutionary Committee handed over Yerevan almost without resistance and pulled back its armed forces to Akhta (currently Hrazdan) and Khamarlu (currently Artashat), in the north to Aparan; and in the West were Turkish troops.

The situation was completely advantageous for the Bolsheviks, since Alexander Bekzadyan, the People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs of Soviet Armenia had no grounds to participate in the Russian-Turkish negotiations in Moscow, and the “Salvation Committee of the Fatherland” blocked in Yerevan was isolated from the external world with having no chance of survival.

The plan worked.

Alexander Bekzadyan did not take part in the Russian-Turkish conference in Moscow due to the fact that the government he represented did not exist anymore, and the Salvation Committee of the Fatherland was eliminated within two weeks after signing the Moscow Treaty. 

Today through consistent processes despair and deadlock is becoming embedded within the patriotic and honest layers of the Armenian society, thus creating fertile ground for the uprising and rebellions (especially organized by Russia-Turkey-Azerbaijan – the black triangle special forces to proceed with predetermined scenario). 

This will give the Kremlin a so-called legal basis to implement actions envisaged within the framework of the CSTO or the Armenian-Russian interstate agreements and ultimately diminish the Armenian statehood.

This will lead to chaos in Armenia driven by foreign forces, and once again the issues with Armenian borders will be resolved without Armenia’s participation, and the local agents of the black triangle will get a “chance” to blame each other further. 

Post Scriptum: Not to give the reader the impression that we argue the Right of Rebellion, let us also remind you that in 1920-21 Garegin Nzhdeh disobeyed the order from Yerevan to leave Syunik since he knew the significance of Syunik for Armenia’s survival.

Unlike the Yerevan leaders, Nzhdeh also had a strategic understanding of geopolitical processes, will and knowledge to keep Syunik until the Russian-Turkish trade was over.

Moreover, the rebellious Syunik became the lifeline for the rescued Armenian intelligence, later playing a key role in Armenian communities. 

Today Syunik is beheaded. The logic of the ongoing processes suggests that we are witnessing the penultimate round of the Lenin-Kemal-2 operation: to initiate an imitation of a real rebellion by Black triangle’s local agents and puppets, which will ultimately push out Armenia even from the minimal participation in political processes, as well as discredit the idea of a real resistance. 

If the heirs of the two-year-old First Republic, after a thousand years of stateless existence, may have had excuses about not understanding the fundamental driving forces and goals of historical political processes, we need to understand the lessons of 1920-21 a hundred years later, since the price of these events was irreparable. 

Therefore, systematic actions based on the fundamental understanding of geopolitical and historical processes is the only way to stop this destructive wheel. 

Originally Published: https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/09/18/february-uprising-armenia/

Former MP Gevorg Petrosyan, who is participating in the protest action against the Independence Day celebration, calls on citizens to join the protest to prevent ‘ignorant authorities befouling the people’s holidays.’ He also appealed to opposition with the same message. 

“The parliamentary opposition are the ones who deliver people’s wishes and they should lead this movement also to restrict the brutal actions of the law enforcement. Today, the opposition seems to have forgotten about the street struggle, and I call on them to come and stand by the people,” said Petrosyan. 

He stressed that people who have gathered at Charles Aznavour Square have not done so for personal matters but struggle for the interest of the Republic of Armenia and against the leadership who ruins the state. 

To remind, a protest action against the September 21 Independence Day celebration is underway near Moscow cinema in Yerevan. Dozens of police officers are deployed in Charles Aznavour Square. Several participants have been detained.  

An Armenian court has refused to allow Robert Kocharian, a former president leading the main opposition Hayastan alliance, to visit Moscow at the invitation of Russia’s ruling party.

Kocharian’s office revealed the invitation last week, saying that the leadership of the United Russia party wants to deepen “partnership” with Hayastan, Armenia’s second largest parliamentary force. The trip was due to start at the end of Russian parliamentary elections slated for September 17-19.

Kocharian needs a court permission to leave Armenia because of standing trial on corruption charges rejected by him as politically motivated. Anna Danibekian, the judge presiding over the trial, repeatedly allowed him to visit Moscow earlier this year and last fall. She also cleared him of other, more serious charges in April.

Hayastan said on Friday that Danibekian has refused to give such permission this time around without any “legal reason.” “We are forced to cancel the visit,” the opposition bloc said in a statement.

The statement charged that the judge made the decision under strong government pressure. It said the move is aimed at “restricting Hayastan’s political activities” and undermining Russian-Armenian relations.

Kocharian, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, is thought to enjoy a warm rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The latter has repeatedly made a point of congratulating the ex-president on his birthday anniversaries and praising his legacy ever since Armenian law-enforcement authorities first indicted him three years ago.

Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has described Kocharian as a “big friend of Russia” and said the two men “talk to each other quite often.” But he insisted in March that the Kremlin is not supporting or guiding Kocharian’s political activities in any way.

Kocharian’s bloc was the main opposition challenger of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and his party in snap parliamentary elections held June. It finished second in the polls.

Kocharian told senior members of the bloc to intensify its activities and public outreach efforts at a meeting held on Tuesday. According to a Hayastan statement on the meeting, they assured him that they remain committed to ousting the “government wrecking Armenia and leading it to destruction.”

“Very soon you will also witness street actions,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, a senior Hayastan figure, told reporters earlier on Friday. He did not go into details.

Asked whether this means the alliance is planning to hold anti-government rallies, Saghatelian said: “We never gave up rallies in the first place.”

Azerbaijani servicemen, armed and masked, checked children’s phones under the pretext of finding some videos ․ Human Rights Defender (video): Azerbaijani servicemen, armed and masked, checked the children’s phones to find some videos…

Azerbaijani servicemen, armed and masked, checked children’s phones under the pretext of finding some videos ․ Human Rights Defender (video)

Post by RA Human Rights Defender Arman Tatoyan ․

“We must create guarantees for our children, for the protection and security of our rights. Until we do that, the Azerbaijani armed forces will always commit such crimes, will allow unbridled behavior. There will always be uncertainty. It has been almost a year since I warned about the problems with concrete facts.

In this video, Azerbaijani armed and masked officers stop a civilian bus carrying children. The children are from Artsakh, walking on the Vorotan road. Artsakh Human Rights Defender Gegham Stepanyan
Together we found out that the children are players of the Artsakh children’s football team, aged 15-16. Azerbaijani servicemen, armed and masked, checked the children’s phones under the pretext of finding some videos. The children’s bus was kept like that for 10-15 minutes. During that time, the Artsakh flag was scraped off the bus with a knife.

Azerbaijani sources are proud to share this video. But the issue here is the behavior of the Azerbaijani armed forces towards children, with the aim of openly intimidating children in masks and armed.

Now the video has been posted on Azerbaijani social networks, and it is accompanied by brazen insults to children, calls to kill Armenians, and deep hatred. All this is the result of years of state-sponsored policy of Azerbaijani hatred of Armenians. We have documented the evidence. “