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Serj Tankian joins Amnesty International campaign against using force in Turkey

June 19, 2013 By administrator

June 18, 2013 | 12:44

Serj Tankian has called to join campaign launched by the Amnesty International calling to end use of force against peaceful protesters in Turkey.

Tankian posted the link of the Take Action Now campaign on his Facebook.

“Today’s Turkey is a sad reality of a polarized society naively supported by the West as a model Middle Eastern ‘democracy’- one with powerful control over the media, and the most journalists in jail in the world.

Turkey needs a strong awakening of this type-hopefully the beneficiaries will be justice, equity, historical reflection and the like instead of more repression,” he wrote.

Leaders of Minsk Group co-chairing states urge Armenia and Azerbaijan to prepare for peace

June 19, 2013 By administrator

June 18, 2013 | 17:45

Presidents of the co-chairing states of the OSCE Minsk Group issued a statement on Nagorno-Karabakh on the margins of the G8 summit.

“We, the Presidents of the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair countries – France, the Russian Federation, and the United States of America – remain committed to helping the parties to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict reach a lasting and peaceful settlement. We express our deep regret that, rather than trying to find a solution based upon mutual interests, the parties have continued to seek one-sided advantage in the negotiation process.

We continue to firmly believe that the elements outlined in the statements of our countries over the last four years must be the foundation of any fair and lasting settlement to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. These elements should be seen as an integrated whole, as any attempt to select some elements over others would make it impossible to achieve a balanced solution.

We reiterate that only a negotiated settlement can lead to peace, stability, and reconciliation, opening opportunities for regional development and cooperation. The use of military force that has already created the current situation of confrontation and instability will not resolve the conflict. A renewal of hostilities would be disastrous for the population of the region, resulting in loss of life, more destruction, additional refugees, and enormous financial costs. We strongly urge the leaders of all the sides to recommit to the Helsinki principles, particularly those relating to the non-use of force or the threat of force, territorial integrity, and equal rights and self-determination of peoples. We also appeal to them to refrain from any actions or rhetoric that could raise tension in the region and lead to escalation of the conflict. The leaders should prepare their people for peace, not war.

Our countries stand ready to assist the sides, but the responsibility for putting an end to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict remains with them. We strongly believe that further delay in reaching a balanced agreement on the framework for a comprehensive peace is unacceptable, and urge the leaders of Azerbaijan and Armenia to focus with renewed energy on the issues that remain unresolved.

Thousands Join 4th Day of Anti-Government Rallies in Bulgaria

June 17, 2013 By administrator

Thosuands have joined the protest rally in Sofia. Photo by BGNES

New massive anti-government rallies are being held in Bulgaria, with thousands joining the protests in Sofia and other major cities.

Several thousand people are chanting “Resign!” in front of the Council of Ministers building in downtown Sofia, reporters say.

Local media report that Volen Siderov, the controversial leader of nationalist party Ataka (Attack), has climbed on a pickup truck in front of his party’s headquarters in downtown Sofia and is shouting through a megaphone that protesters are “drunk and on drugs.”

Ataka followers have reportedly gathered nearby.

No incidents have been reported.

The number of protesters in Sofia is constantly growing, with local media saying it appears to be the most massive so far. The rally is heading towards the Parliament.

Parallel rallies are being held in Plovdiv, Varna and a number of other major Bulgarian cities.

Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski and Bulgarian Socialist Party leader have so far defied calls to resign.

The massive protests against Bulgaria’s Socialist-led government, which took oath of office less than three weeks ago, were prompted by the shocking appointment of controversial businessman and media mogul Delyan Peevski as head of the country’s powerful State Agency for National Security.

On Saturday, Peevski issued a statement saying that he was ready to step down “in the name of citizens, society and the state.”

Oresharski also promised on Saturday that Parliament would roll back the election. However, the move failed to curb the massive peaceful protests in the country.

Russia says it will not allow Syria no-fly zones

June 17, 2013 By administrator

MOSCOW – Agence France-Presse

Russia, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, will not permit no-fly zones to be imposed over Syria, Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said on Monday.

“I think we fundamentally will not allow this scenario,” Lukashevich told a news briefing, adding that calls for a no-fly zone showed disrespect for international law.

Lukashevich spoke before planned talks between President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G8 summit in Northern Ireland which were expected to focus on the conflict in Syria that has killed at least 93,000 people.

Russia and the United States are trying to bring representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his foes to the negotiating table, but Moscow has criticised U.S. plans to arm rebel forces and to consider imposing a no-fly zone.

“All these manoeuvres about no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors are a direct consequence of a lack of respect for international law,” Lukashevich said.

He said Russia did not want a scenario in Syria that resembled the events in Libya after the imposition of a no-fly zone which enabled NATO aircraft to help rebels overthrow Muammar Gaddafi.

BBC: Turkish government says it may use army to end protests

June 17, 2013 By administrator

Anti-government protests continued in Istanbul and Ankara on Sunday night

The Turkish government has said it could use the army to end nearly three weeks of unrest by protesters in Istanbul and other cities.

The government would use “all its powers” and the armed forces if necessary, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said on state-run television.

It is the first time the Islamist-rooted ruling party has raised the prospect of deploying the armed forces.

The issue is sensitive as the army is seen as a bastion of secularism.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of thousands of supporters at a rally in Istanbul on Sunday that the protesters were manipulated by “terrorists”.

Trade unions have called a strike to protest against the police crackdown on demonstrators which has seen some 500 people arrested.

Medical officials estimate that 5,000 people have been injured and at least four killed in the unrest.

The protests began on 28 May against a plan to redevelop Istanbul’s Gezi Park, on the city’s central Taksim Square, but it snowballed into nationwide anti-government protests after the perceived high-handed response of the authorities under their three-term prime minister.

Gendarmes

Mr Arinc told state-run TV that “the innocent demonstrations that began 20 days ago” had “completely ended”.

Any further demonstrations would be “immediately suppressed”, he added.

“Our police, our security forces are doing their jobs,” he said. “If it’s not enough then the gendarmes will do their jobs. If that’s not enough… we could even use elements of the Turkish armed forces.”

The deployment of gendarmes – a military unit under control of the interior ministry in peacetime – shocked some protesters in Istanbul this weekend.

In a separate interview, Interior Minister Muammer Guler stressed that he had not called on the army to help police the protests.

But he argued that the use of the gendarmerie was “quite normal”, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reports.

Bloggers reacted with scepticism to news that the army might be deployed. “And this coming from the same people who always claim they liberated Turkish democracy from army intervention,” one wrote.

In the capital, Ankara, riot police could be seen facing off with trade union activists on Monday.

Police officers used megaphones to order workers to stop their march towards the central Kizilay district, reports Reuters news agency.

“Those of you on the streets must stop blocking the streets,” they said. “Do not be provoked. The police will use force.”

Union marches were also being planned for Istanbul, where police evicted protesters from their camp in Gezi park over the weekend.

The Confederation of Public Workers’ Unions (KESK) and Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), along with three professional organisations, announced a one-day work stoppage to demand an end to “police violence”.

Turkish police break up Armenian gravestones to throw at protesters

June 17, 2013 By administrator

June 17, 2013 – 16:30 AMT

Social media users report that during the anti-government protests in Turkey, police officers entered an Armenian cemetery in Sisli district of Istanbul. According to the posts, the policemen use the gravestones as barricades. They also break up the stones to throw them at the protesters.

Ecuador’s Foreign Minister to arrive in UK for Assange talks

June 16, 2013 By administrator

June 16, 2013 – 14:37 AMT

Ecuador’s foreign minister is due to arrive in the UK for talks with his British counterpart over the situation of Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, BBC News reported.

Assange has been granted political asylum by Ecuador but will be arrested by British authorities if he leaves the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Ricardo Patino will visit Assange later and meet William Hague on Monday, June 17.

Assange is wanted in Sweden where he faces sexual assault allegations by two women, claims he denies.

He arrived at the Ecuadorean embassy in the Knightsbridge area of London a year ago on Wednesday after the UK Supreme Court refused to reopen his appeal against extradition.

The British government has spent about £3m on police officers to guard the embassy around the clock.

Hong Kong rights advocates rally in support of NSA leaker Snowden

June 16, 2013 By administrator

June 16, 2013 – 13:26 AMT

A few hundred rights advocates and political activists marched through Hong Kong on Saturday, June 15 to demand protection for Edward Snowden, who leaked revelations of U.S. electronic surveillance and is now believed to be holed up in the former British colony, Reuters said.

Marchers gathered outside the U.S. consulate shouting slogans denouncing alleged spying operations aimed at China and Hong Kong, but the numbers were modest compared to rallies over other rights and political issues.

“Arrest Obama, free Snowden,” protesters shouted outside the slate grey building as police looked on. Many waved banners that said: “Betray Snowden, betray freedom”, “Big brother is watching you” and “Obama is checking your email”.

In his first comments on Snowden’s case, Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying said late on Saturday that the government would handle it in accordance with established laws.

“Meanwhile, the government will follow up on any incidents related to the privacy or other rights of the institutions or people in Hong Kong being violated.”

Some protesters blew whistles in support of Snowden, 29, the American former CIA contractor who has acknowledged being behind leaks of the surveillance programs by the National Security Agency.

The procession moved on to government headquarters in the city, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997 but enjoys far more liberal laws on dissent and freedom of expression. About a dozen groups organized two rallies, including the city’s two largest political camps. Leaders of major political parties sought explanations for Snowden’s allegations of spying.

Hong Kong’s largest pro-Beijing political party, the DAB, demanded an apology from Washington, clarification of “illegal” espionage activities and an immediate halt to them.

Snowden reportedly flew to Hong Kong on May 20. He checked out of a luxury hotel on Monday and his whereabouts remain unknown. Snowden has said he intends to stay in Hong Kong to fight any potential U.S. moves to extradite him.

Thousands take to streets in Turkey, clash with police

June 16, 2013 By administrator

By Jonathon Burch and Humeyra Pamuk

ISTANBUL/ANKARA | Sun Jun 2, 2013 7:13pm EDT

(Reuters) – Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Turkey’s four biggest cities on Sunday and clashed with riot police firing tear gas on the third day of the fiercest anti-government demonstrations in years.

The din of car horns and residents banging pots and pans from balconies in support of the protests resonated across neighborhoods in Istanbul and Ankara late into the night, as hundreds of demonstrators skirmished with riot police.

Roads around Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s office in Istanbul were sealed off as police fired tear gas to push back protesters, and police raided a shopping complex in the centre of the capital Ankara where they believed demonstrators were sheltering, detaining several hundred.

Erdogan blamed the main secular opposition party for inciting the crowds, whom he called “a few looters”, and said the protests were aimed at depriving his ruling AK Party of votes as elections begin next year.

Interior Minister Muammer Guler said there had been more than 200 demonstrations in 67 cities around the country, according to the Hurriyet newspaper.

The unrest erupted on Friday when trees were torn down at a park in Istanbul’s main Taksim Square under government plans to redevelop the area, but widened into a broad show of defiance against the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Erdogan said the plans to remake the square, long an iconic rallying point for mass demonstrations, would go ahead, including the construction of a new mosque and the rebuilding of a replica Ottoman-era barracks.

He said the protests had nothing to do with the plans.

“It’s entirely ideological,” he said in an interview broadcast on Turkish television.

“The main opposition party which is making resistance calls on every street is provoking these protests … This is about my ruling party, myself and the looming municipal elections in Istanbul and efforts to make the AK Party lose votes here.”

Turkey is due to hold local and presidential elections next year in which Erdogan is expected to stand, followed by parliamentary polls in 2015.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) denied orchestrating the unrest, blaming Erdogan’s policies.

“Today the people on the street across Turkey are not exclusively from the CHP, but from all ideologies and from all parties,” senior party member Mehmet Akif Hamzacebi said.

“What Erdogan has to do is not to blame CHP but draw the necessary lessons from what happened,” he told Reuters.

WIDE SPECTRUM

The protests, started by a small group of environmental campaigners, mushroomed when police used force to eject them from the park on Taksim Square.

As word spread online, the demonstrations drew in a wide range of people of all ages from across the political and social spectrum.

The ferocity of the police response in Istanbul has shocked Turks, as well as tourists caught up in the unrest in one of the world’s most visited destinations.

Helicopters have fired tear gas canisters into residential neighborhoods and police have used tear gas to try to smoke people out of buildings. Footage on YouTube showed one protester being hit by an armored police truck as it charged a barricade.

The handling of the protests has drawn rebukes from the United States, European Union and international rights groups.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department said it was concerned about the number of injuries and on Sunday, Laura Lucas, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, reiterated the importance of respect for freedom of expression, assembly and association.

“Peaceful public demonstrations are a part of democratic expression, and we expect that security forces will exercise restraint and that all parties will continue to work to calm the situation,” she said.

For much of Sunday, the atmosphere in Taksim Square was festive, with some people chanting for Erdogan to resign and others dancing. There was little obvious police presence.

But in the nearby Besiktas neighborhood, riot police fired tear gas and water cannons to keep crowds away from Erdogan’s office in Dolmabahce Palace, a former Ottoman residence on the shores of the Bosphorus.

There were similar scenes in Ankara’s main Kizilar square.

Erdogan is due to fly to Morocco on Monday as part of an official visit that also covers Algeria and Tunisia. Sources in his office said his trip would go ahead.

Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its once crisis-prone economy into the fastest-growing in Europe.

He remains by far Turkey’s most popular politician, but critics point to what they see as his authoritarianism and religiously conservative meddling in private lives in the secular republic.

Tighter restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection in recent weeks have also provoked protests. Concern that government policy is allowing Turkey to be dragged into the conflict in neighboring Syria by the West has also led to peaceful demonstrations.

On Sunday, Erdogan appeared on television for the fourth time in less than 36 hours, and justified the restrictions on alcohol as for the good of people’s health.

“I want them to know that I want these (restrictions) for the sake of their health … Whoever drinks alcohol is an alcoholic,” he said.

(Additional reporting by Can Sezer in Istanbul, Umit Bektas, Orhan Coskun and Parisa Hafezi in Ankara, and Roberta Rampton in Washington; Writing by Nick Tattersall and Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Mike Collett-White and David Brunnstrom)

Kurdish rebels clash with Turkish army during withdrawal

June 16, 2013 By administrator

ISTANBUL | Mon Jun 3, 2013 12:51pm EDT

(Reuters) – Kurdish militants opened fire on Turkish troops in southeast Turkey near the border with Iraq on Monday, wounding one soldier, the military said, the first such incident since the rebels began withdrawing from Turkey under a peace process.

There were two bursts of gunfire in Uludere in Sirnak province just after noon (5 a.m. ET) and a Turkish Cobra attack helicopter was subsequently sent to the area, the Turkish military said in a statement.

Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas began leaving Turkish territory in small groups nearly a month ago in a bid to end a conflict which has killed more than 40,000 people in almost 30 years of fighting.

They are withdrawing to Iraqi Kurdistan, where several thousand of their fighters are based, under a plan agreed by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan and Turkish officials.

“A group of terrorists opened fire and, as a result of the shooting, one gendarmerie sergeant was slightly wounded by the one of the stones ricocheting off the ground,” the army said.

A spokesman for the PKK, deemed a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey, said he had no details of the incident, but warned the army to refrain from “provocative actions”.

“I do not believe it will affect the withdrawal,” Roj Welat said, adding that in recent days, Turkey had flown drones and warplanes over PKK positions.

The peace plan is a gamble for Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan who could face a nationalist backlash before elections next year. Opinion polls currently show a high level of public support for the process.

However, a wave of violent anti-government protests in Turkey has complicated the government’s efforts to push ahead with reforms which Ocalan and the PKK are demanding before eventual disarmament.

Erdogan previously demanded the rebels disarm before leaving but the PKK rejected this, fearing they could come under attack as they did in a previous pullback. The PKK has warned it will retaliate if the Turkish army launches operation against them.

(Additional reporting by Isabel Coles in Arbil; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Angus MacSwan)