جلسة عراقية ريفية سعدون جابر
NYTimes report: Obama Offers Plan Meant to Ease Concerns on Surveillance
President Obama on Friday sought to get his administration ahead of the roiling debate over National Security Agency surveillance, releasing new information about spying activities and calling for changes aimed at bolstering public confidence that the programs do not intrude too far into Americans’ privacy.
At a time when leaks by the former N.S.A. contractor Edward J. Snowden have ripped the veil from the agency’s expansive spying both inside the United States and abroad, Mr. Obama held a news conference at which he conceded a need for greater openness and safeguards over vast American surveillance efforts.
Washington’s Drive For Hegemony Is A Drive To War — Paul Craig Roberts (Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvilli, who was installed in power by the Washington)
It was five years ago that the president of Georgia, Mikheil Saakashvilli, who was installed in power by the Washington supported “Rose Revolution,” launched a military invasion of South Ossetia, a break-away province under its own government. The Georgian attack killed Russian peace-keeping troops and numerous Ossetians.
The Russian military response overwhelmed the US trained and equipped Georgian army in 5 days to the embarrassment of Saakashvilli and his Washington sponsors.
Washington began the training and equipping of the Georgian military in 2002, and continues to conduct joint military exercises with Georgia. In March and April of this year the US again conducted joint military exercises with Georgia. Washington is pushing to have Georgia admitted as a member of NATO.
Most analysts regard it as unlikely that Saakashvilli on his own would violate the peace agreement and attack Russian troops. Certainly Saakashvilli would have cleared the aggression with his Washington sponsor.
Saakashvilli’s attempt to recover the territories was an opportunity for Washington to test Russia. Washington saw the attack as a way of embarrassing the Russian government and as a way of testing Russia’s response and military in action. If Russia did not respond, the government would be embarrassed by its failure to protect its interests and the lives of those Russia regards as citizens. If Russia did respond, Russia could be denounced, as it was by President George Bush, as a bully that invaded a “democratic country” with a Washington-installed president. Especially interesting to Washington was the ability to observe the Russian military’s tactics and operational capabilities.
North Ossetia is part of Russia. South Ossetia extends into Georgia. In 1801 Ossetia and Georgia became part of Russia and subsequently were part of the Soviet Union. Under Russian law former Soviet citizens have the right to be Russian citizens. Russia permitted Georgia to become independent, but South Ossetia and Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in the 1990s.
If Washington succeeds in installing Georgia into NATO, then an attempt by Georgia to recover what it regards as lost territories would escalate the conflict. An attack by Georgia would comprise an attack by the US and NATO against Russia. Despite the risk to Europe of being pulled into a war with Russia, this month the chief of Denmark’s Home Guard was in Georgia on Washington’s mission discussing cooperation between the defense ministries of Denmark and Georgia on regional security issues.
Georgia lies to the East of the Black Sea. What “regional security issues” does Georgia have with Denmark and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization? NATO was established to defend Western Europe against Soviet attack.
Finland and Sweden remained neutral during the Cold War, but both are now being recruited by NATO. NATO lost its purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, it has been greatly expanded and now includes former constituent parts of the Soviet Empire. NATO has become a cover for US military aggression and supplies troops for Washington’s wars. Georgia’s troops are fighting for Washington in Afghanistan and fought for Washington in Iraq.
Washington kept NATO alive and made it into a mercenary army that serves Washington’s world empire.
In a provocation to both Russia and China, the US is currently conducting military exercises in Mongolia. Troops from Korea and Tajikistan, formerly part of the Soviet Union, are also participating. Washington calls such operations “building interoperability between peacekeeping nations.” Obviously, foreign military forces are being incorporated into the Empire’s army.
Are Americans aware that Washington is conducting military exercises all over the world, is surrounding Russia and China with military bases, and now has an Africa Command? Have Congress and the American people signed off on Amerika Uber Alles? Shouldn’t Washington and the military/security complex be reined in before Washington’s aggression triggers a nuclear war?
Celebration Of 1,025th Kievan Rus Anniversary Continues
Russian President Vladimir Putin (center) and his Ukrainian counterpart, Viktor Yanukovych (second left), take part in the consecration of the new bell of Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesus Taurica.
Commemorations are taking place in Ukraine to mark the 1,025th anniversary of the conversion to Christianity of Kievan Rus, the medieval Slavic state that laid the Orthodox foundations for modern-day Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine.
On July 28, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and Russian President Vladimir Putin participated in the consecration of a new bell at a church near the Ukrainian city of Sevastopol at the Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesus Taurica, which is located on the site where, according to legend, Prince Vladimir the Great was baptized into Orthodox Christianity in 988.
All of the bells of Orthodox Christian churches across Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus rang for 15 minutes at 12 p.m. local time to mark the anniversary of the Christianization of Kievan Rus — the medieval Slavic state that laid the Orthodox foundations for those modern-day countries.
The celebrations marking the Christianization anniversary began in Kyiv on July 27, attended by Putin, Yanukovych, Moldovan President Nicolae Timofti, Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, and representatives of nine Orthodox churches.
READ MORE: State Leaders, Orthodox Clergy Mark Kievan Rus Anniversary
After the ceremony at the Vladimir Cathedral in Chersonesus Taurica, Putin and Yanukovych participated in events to mark the Navy Day holiday that both countries are celebrating on July 28.
Yanukovych used the occasion to praise the strategic partnership of the two countries.
“We appreciate and treasure our friendship with Russia. Ukraine and Russia have been and will remain strategic partners. This is especially tangible here, in Sevastopol. This is the place were the maritime fraternity of Ukraine and Russia is being molded,” Yanukovych said.
“I am confident that our joint efforts will enable us to secure a stable future for all who work on the sea, while Ukrainian and Russian banners on our ships will symbolize our friendship, dependability, and prosperity.”
The Russian Black Sea Fleet, which is based in Sevastopol, is holding a naval parade and other demonstrations.
Commemorations of the anniversary move on to Belarus on July 28 and 29.
US remains ‘uninterested’ as Kurds massacred by Syria’s militant opposition
Patrick Henningsen is a writer, investigative journalist, and filmmaker and founder of the news website 21stCentury Wire.com.
Reports this week of the radical Islamist opposition in Syria massacring Kurds in the northern Syria is a disturbing development, but not nearly as disturbing as the strategic silence on the issue by the US and European government-media complex.
Fighters of the jihadist group Al-Nusra Front (AFP Photo / Guillaume Briquet)
According to reports from the village of Tal Abyad near the Turkish border on Monday, jihadist terror brigades massacred some 450 residents, including 330 women and elderly, along with 120 youths and elderly near the Turkish border.
For nearly a year now, this Saudi and Qatari-financed armed opposition, known as Al-Nusra Front, or Jabhat Al-Nusra, has been enabled by its benefactors to run ramped in and around Syria. Because of the US and Britain’s cozy relationship with both their gulf allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar, very little, if any, condemnation has come from the political ring leaders of the Syrian reformation project based in Washington and London. The same goes for the Western media, who do not want to run any news that might further expose their political leaders’ own shaky history with Syria since the conflict began.
Any US congressional hearings or British parliamentary inquiries into the matter might just reveal too much information about the illegal flow of arms, or the presence of CIA, MI6, Mossad agents, along with any other undeclared special forces currently involved in operations around the conflict zone there. Given the current political climate, any such revelations would be a political disaster, especially for Washington.
Arab-Kurdish war in Syria?
Other disturbing reports of targeted violence in the region include Kurds being targeted by both Al-Nusra Front and the Free Syrian Army in northern Syria. Recently, in Tall Hassel and Tall Aren near Aleppo, 200 Kurds were said to have been taken hostage. There are also fears of the possibly that dozens of other civilians, including women and children, may have been brutally massacred there.
With the situation deteriorating, it’s clear that thousands of civilians are becoming trapped in this region, threatened with execution, rape and victims of kidnapping by the FSA and Al-Qaeda groups. It’s not yet known how many young people have been executed for the sole reason of being a Kurd.
By empowering these radical Islamic foreign-dominated fighters in Syria, the West and its Gulf State business affiliates have fueled a situation whereby fatwas could be issued in radical Sunni mosques in Syria and elsewhere – making Kurdish blood ‘legal’.
Al-Nusra Front’s efforts in the Kurdish region of Syria appear to have an ethnic cleansing, or genocidal shape to them. These radical Islamists appear to be motivated by religion and race, as evidenced by the Islamic front’s public announcement of its wish to carve out an independent religious and Arab state, or emirate, in Northern Syria. Islamic rebels in Syria are already in the process of re-branding themselves as the ‘Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham’, also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).
With so much Kurdish blood already spilt, it’s a foregone conclusion that most Syrian Kurds will never accept any alliance with the FSA-Islamist-Al-Qaeda confab. This means that fighting in the region could be a long and violent affair – especially if Washington and Ankara continue to employ a policy of willful ignorance towards the bloodshed there.
Washington’s blind eye towards the Al-Nusra Front terrorist conclave was forced out into the open last month when the US Congress voted against arming the Syrian rebels on the grounds that it’s now dominated by fighters with known terrorist affiliations, including Al-Qaeda. Many in the US government are beginning to realize that toppling the government of Bashar Assad at any cost is a cost too high to bear.
The facts on the ground over the last year reveal that the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ known as the Free Syrian Army is painfully weak, and dominated by dozens, if not hundreds of radical, foreign-led Islamist fighting groups, of which Al-Nusra Front is the largest and best-funded. Still, Washington will not openly condemn the terror group for fear that such a public decrial of foreign militant terror in Syria would discredit the West’s entire effort over the last two years of characterizing the Syrian Armed Opposition as some sort of progressive, modern democratic, freedom-loving homogenous effort.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov probably said it best, when he explained recently, “We saw before some Security Council members reluctant to condemn terror attacks in Syria on the grounds that – as cynical as it sounds – those attacks are being carried out by people fighting against an obsolete regime. This position is absolutely unacceptable. No double standards can be applied to terrorism.”
Truer words could not have been spoken. It seems that in their imperial scramble to reform the Middle East to suit its corporate and Israeli-driven interests, the West has all but surrendered its moral pulpit to Russia, and after the dust settles in Syria, it’s unlikely that neither the US or Britain will be able to ever to preach to the international community about the War on Terror.
Turkey, it seems, is now caught in the geopolitical crossfire – a victim of its leadership’s own dubious partnerships.
Prime Minister Erdogan has become hamstrung by his own overwhelmingly pro-Western, partisan positions taken early on in the Syrian destabilization effort which began in earnest two years ago. Last year’s visits with President Obama were centered on hopes of carving out a NATO buffer zone in northern Syria, but that never got off the ground. This past spring, US visits to regions were focused on getting Turkey to patch-up its differences with Israel. We now know what that was all about – as Turkey dived into the deep end this past June by allowing the Israeli Air Force to use Turkish bases to stage at least two bombing runs on Syria over the last two months.
This latest wave of violence against Syrian Kurds comes at a time when Turkish–Kurdish relations have been on the mend regionally. Ankara has made substantial progress towards peace and has even entered into bilateral energy partnership with the Kurdish Regional Government in Northern Iraq.
In addition to this, Turkey invited a prominent Syrian Kurdish leader, Salih Muslim from the Partiya Yekîtiya Demokrat (PYD), in order to open dialogue with the Foreign Ministry and intelligence services in Ankara and Istanbul. This is significant because only one year ago, Turkey was threatening military action because of the PYD’s activities in northern Syria, which Ankara believed was working in congress with its domestic nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) whose members reside inside Turkey. The Turkish leadership is also engaged in a peace process with the PKK in Turkey, and the results of this effort will ultimately affect the outcome of its talks with the PYD in Syria.
Turkey is also well aware that the West’s proxy war in Syria is not going as well as geopolitical engineers in Washington, London and Paris think it is, and that Al-Nusra Front is being seen as an overwhelmingly negative phenomenon in terms of regional security – and therefore will move to distance itself from it. Any political alliance with the PYD would benefit Turkey in moving away from its uncomfortable proximity to the terrorist brigades of northern Syria.
According to a recent statement by PYD spokesman Alan Semo, “Groups such Al-Nusra, not the Kurds, were the real threat to Turkey’s security.”
“If you are going to work with us, we can protect you from these jihadists,” he said, addressing the Turkish government (Financial Times of London August 5, 2013).
Maybe Turkey has somewhat honest motives in this case, not least of all its own internal security, but time will tell how serious Ankara really is regarding its newfound support of Kurds in northern Syria. Certainly, Turkey is playing a very dangerous and potentially volatile game with its puppet master in Washington pulling strings and making threats from over the Western horizon.
None can ignore the strategic and geopolitical importance of the Kurdish national movement – a people without borders whose community straddles Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Iran. They are a people without a nation, both courted and reviled by power-players in governments, and yet, they may ultimately determine the outcome of not only the conflict in Syria, but the destiny of the entire region.
On a global scale, however, the conflict in Syria is still a proxy war, and the great powers will most likely try to ride out the conflict from an Imperial perspective. Rather than deploying their own troops, or attacking Syria themselves, they will continue to employ others in order to destabilize the region, in the hopes that when the piles of ashes lay thick, the West can glide in to marshal over the rebuilding process of economic and political reformation.
But that old plan may not actually work this time with Syria, it’s certainly not going well for central planning at the moment.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author
As Foreign Fighters Flood Syria, Fears of a New Extremist Haven report By ANNE BARNARD and ERIC SCHMITT
BEIRUT, Lebanon — As foreign fighters pour into Syria at an increasing clip, extremist groups are carving out pockets of territory that are becoming havens for Islamist militants, posing what United States and Western intelligence officials say may be developing into one of the biggest terrorist threats in the world today.
Known as fierce fighters willing to employ suicide car bombs, the jihadist groups now include more than 6,000 foreigners, counterterrorism officials say, adding that such fighters are streaming into Syria in greater numbers than went into Iraq at the height of the insurgency there against the American occupation.
Many of the militants are part of the Nusra Front, an extremist group whose fighters have gained a reputation over the past several months as some of the most effective in the opposition.
But others are assembling under a new, even more extreme umbrella group, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, that is merging some Syrians with fighters from around the world — Chechnya, Pakistan, Egypt and the West, as well as Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Sunni insurgent group that rose to prominence in the fight against the American occupation in the years after the 2003 invasion. The concern is that a new affiliate of Al Qaeda could be emerging from those groups.
It was the fear of militants coming to dominate the opposition that caused the United States and its Western allies to hold off providing lethal aid to the Syrian opposition, at least until now. But as a result, counterterrorism analysts say, they lost a chance to influence the battle in Syria. Even Congressional supporters of the C.I.A.’s covert program to arm moderate elements of the Syrian opposition fear the delivery of weapons, set to begin this month, will be too little, too late.
The stakes are high. American intelligence officials said this week that Ayman al-Zawahri, the overall leader of Al Qaeda in Pakistan, has had regular communications with the Nusra Front in Syria, reflecting how favorably the Qaeda leadership views the long-term potential for Syria as a safe haven. Juan Zarate, a former senior counterterrorism official in the George W. Bush administration, said that Syria lay in the center of an arc of instability, stretching from Iran through North Africa, and “in that zone, you may have the regeneration and resurrection of a new brand of Al Qaeda.”
In Syria, the battle lines have hardened in recent months. The Syrian government, backed by Iran and Hezbollah, has seized new momentum and retaken territory in the south and east from the rebels. At the same time, power within the badly fractured opposition, numbering about 1,200 groups, has steadily slipped into the hands of the jihadists based in the northeast, where this week they seized a strategic airport in the area. They also hold sway in the provincial capital of Raqqa.
The idea that Syria could supplant Pakistan as the primary haven for Al Qaeda someday, should the government fall, is a heavy blow to the Western-backed Syrian opposition and its military arm, the Free Syrian Army. It plays directly into the hands of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, whose government has sought to portray itself as the only alternative to Islamic extremism and chaos, and has made the prospect of full-on American support even more remote than it already was.
Mr. Assad’s argument “began as a fiction during the period of peaceful, unarmed protests but is now a reality” because of Mr. Assad’s own efforts to divide the country as well as the success of the extremists, Hussein Ibish, a senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, wrote in a recent essay that appeared in The National.
In Raqqa recently, a commander of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria sipped coffee after breaking the Ramadan fast, wearing a Pakistani-style outfit. The commander, Abu Omar, was Syrian, a member of a tribe in the area, but he described his movement’s goals as reaching far beyond the country’s borders.
He did not speak of attacking the United States. But he threatened Russia, and he spoke of a broad-based battle against Shiite-led Iran and its quest to dominate the region, and said Sunnis from across the world were justified in flocking to Syria to fight because of the government’s reliance on Shiite fighters from Lebanon and Iraq.
Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Eric Schmitt from Washington. An employee of The New York Times contributed reporting from Raqqa, Syria.
Turkey: The Repression Continues By Peter Edel
AKP Keen to Polarize Turkey Further
By Peter Edel
After the occupation of Istanbul’s Gezi Park had been ended by the riot police most of the traces were removed. All that remained was a small corner where the victims were commemorated with photographs and texts. However, this memorial site now belongs to the past as well.
When an anti-capitalist Islamic organization wanted to break their fast with a meal in the vicinity of the Gezi Park last week, the police interfered. While at it, the memorial site was taken care of. The Turkish news channels were showing it. Can you imagine what it must feel like for a parent to see the picture of a deceased child being thrown in a garbage truck? It is significant that even a public memorial of victims had to be wiped out. Apparently their death did not matter for mayor Topbas of the ruling Justice- and Development Party (AKP). But doesn’t every human being, regardless of what he or she has done, deserve the right to be memorialized by family and friends?
Topbas probably explained the demolition of the small corner in the park by calling it a disturbance of public order. But in fact it was nothing but the umpteenth attempt of the AKP to polarize Turkey further. PM Erdogan could not care less; keen as he is on escalation of differences and conflicts- escalation of conflicts with surrounding countries, the EU and the US, but certainly also those within Turkey.
Koc
Meanwhile the AKP continues its revenge for the protest that first emerged on May 31. For instance, students who demonstrated are not entitled to a student loan. However, the higher regions of Turkish society will not escape Erdogan’s wrath either. Take the Divan Hotel in Istanbul, which opened its doors for wounded protesters. A humanitarian act? Not the way Erdogan sees it.
The Divan Hotel is part of holdings owned by the Koc family, the richest family in Turkey. Recently the Turkish tax service paid a visit to several Koc enterprises, among them the oil company Tüpras. Seemed like a routine procedure, but the sequence of events was more than a little suspicious. The government denies any connection with the decision of the Divan Hotel to receive wounded protesters, but at the same time the (secular) Koc family most certainly does not belong to the (often religious) entrepreneurs protected by the AKP. Consequently many reporters indeed recognized Erdogan’s revenge in the campaign of the tax service against the Koc holding company.
Reporters who come to such assumptions have to tread warily in Turkey, a country that is high on the list of countries where journalists are persecuted. A consequence of the repression against the media is that many newspapers are censoring themselves to a large extent. For the tax service may ring the doorbell at any time. Some years ago the Dogan media conglomerate went through this experience after its newspapers criticized the government.
Milliyet and Sabah
Milliyet knows what self-censorship is. A few months ago the editorial board of this newspaper dismissed the prominent columnist Hasan Cemal for his criticism of the government. Recently journalist Can Dündar had a similar experience, after it appeared that his vigorous articles about the protests concerning Gezi Park did not find favorable reception in Ankara.
Because of its political position, the pro-AKP newspaper Sabah has severe problems with criticism towards the government as well. This was emphasized when the respected journalist Yavuz Baydar was dismissed after he had put some awkward questions in a New York Times article about the reluctant stance of the Turkish media during the Gezi Park protests.
Kiniklioglu
The criticism of the Turkish government is increasing. Not only abroad, but despite all the (self) censorship of the media and other repression, also in Turkey itself. Nowadays a critical attitude towards the AKP can also be found in Zaman, and the English language Todays Zaman, newspapers belonging to the movement of the US residing imam Fethullah Gülen. Not too long ago the Gülen movement cooperated in several ways with the government. At the time Zaman and Todays Zaman praised the AKP and PM Erdogan without any criticism. After Gülen entered a conflict/power struggle with Erdogan, much has changed.
Recently the column ‘We had a dream’ of Suat Kiniklioglu appeared in Todays Zaman. Some years ago Kiniklioglu was a deputy of the AKP in the Turkish parliament. Not just any deputy, for at one point his name was even mentioned as a future Minister of Foreign Affairs. Those days have gone, because presently Kiniklioglu is sick and tired of PM Erdogan.
After the political landslide in 2002 leading to the first AKP-government, Kiniklioglu belonged to those who hoped that the AKP would open the way to a more democratic and righteous Turkey. Over the past few years he has been brought down to earth with a shock. Kiniklioglu saw the storm coming, but the Gezi Park protest became the turning point for him:
‘We have become a much more charged, tense and polarized country than we were prior to the morning of May 31, 2013.’
The way Kiniklioglu sees it Erdogan missed a rare chance to unite Turkey. It’s clear that he’s going for President Abdullah Gül now, who also happens to be the first choice of Todays Zaman ‘source of inspiration’ Fethullah Gülen. Kiniklioglu:
‘The Justice and Development (AK Party) was an important democratizing force from 2002 to 2010. It managed to overcome many difficult hurdles until 2010. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan enjoyed unprecedented power and popularity that he could have employed to truly unite this country. He could have moved the party further to the center and also embraced those who did not vote for him. Instead, he chose to revert back to his (islamist- P.E.) roots. Given the fact that Erdogan does not have an internal balancing factor, something Abdullah Gül has, he has turned around.’
Cömez
Apparently Kiniklioglu has been developing such ideas for some time. For it is difficult not to relate them to the earlier decision of the AKP-leadership to pass him by for further membership in the parliament. It’s clear that criticizers within the AKP are getting the bill presented.
Still, Kiniklioglu can consider himself lucky (probably because of his connection with the Gülen movement, which is powerful within the Turkish Justice Department). Former AKP-deputy Turan Cömez was less fortunate. He permitted himself to criticize Erdogan’s autocratic tendencies within the AKP and was accused shortly after – on very dubious grounds – of being a member of Ergenekon, an alleged conspiracy against the AKP and the Gülen movement (which at the time was still a successful combination). Contrary to other Ergenekon suspects Cömez did not wait patiently for his arrest, but escaped to London, after which very little was heard of him.
Ergenekon
Wherever he’s hiding, Cömez must have followed the news from Turkey with great attention over the last week. For this week, six years after its beginning, a judge finally came to a verdict in the controversial Ergenekon procedure. A verdict with very few surprises, for beforehand there was little doubt that many would receive long prison terms; that some would get life was no less than expected.
Let there be no misunderstanding: there are more than a few extremely unpleasant people among the Ergenekon suspects. A prime example is Veli Kücük, a former general who used to be in charge of JITEM, the intelligence outfit of the gendarme which has been considered by many as an illegal entity and an important element of the Turkish ‘deep state’.
Kücük was responsible for numerous extrajudicial executions in the nineties, while he has also been mentioned with respect to the drug trade. His name came forward after the so-called Susurluk incident, a car crash in the Turkish town of Susurluk in 1996 which showed the entanglement of politics, state security services and (far right) organized crime in Turkey. Enrichment through the drug trade was one of the objectives of the ‘Susurluk-gang’.
Kücük is among the Ergenekon suspects who got life and many in Turkey will agree that he deserves nothing less. However, the tricky aspect in all of this is that Kücük was not punished for his deep state crimes. Instead, he was sentenced for his involvement in an organization that allegedly wanted to free itself of the AKP and the Gülen movement through a conspiracy including false flag operations to discredit both.
Indictment
The evidence in the Ergenekon indictment that such an organization was in fact ever founded is doubtful to say the least. For instance, in many cases the accused are merely portrayed as suspicious because they know each other, or have been in contact only once or twice. Evidence that several assassinations over the last decade of non-Muslims in Turkey were false flag operations perpetrated by Ergenekon, is insufficient or simply absent.
Independent observers who took upon themselves the task of reading the many pages of the indictment came to the conclusion that it has more of a wild conspiracy theory than a serious accusation based on decisive evidence. Add to this the many irregularities in the procedure, as well as the indications of false evidence, and it’s hard to believe that this has been a fair trial. The wide involvement of hardly impartial followers of Fethullah Gülen within the justice department is another indication towards this conclusion.
Democracy Down the Drain
All in all it is understandable why many secular Turks believe that the suspects in the Ergenekon case were not sentenced for their involvement in a conspiracy, but for their critical stance towards the AKP and the Gülen movement and/or the nationalist ideology they embraced.
That any ideology may give reason to criticism does not matter here. Adhering to whatever ideology should not be reason for prosecution in the democracy Turkey is supposed to be. That this ideology was the backbone of the not-so-democratic-either political establishments in Turkey until the rise of the AKP can’t be reason for prosecution within a democracy either (earlier I mentioned this aspect as the ‘paradox of democracy’ on this website).
Does this matter to the AKP and the Gülen followers in the justice department? From the way it appears, not in the slightest little bit. What matters for the current power elite in Turkey is that opposition, whether it consists of remnants of the previous political establishment, or of hippie-like Gezi Park youngsters, has to be neutralized in ways as efficient as possible. That democracy will go down the drain in the process is of no concern here. That means, not as long as a majority in parliament is maintained.
PM Erdogan’s notion of democracy ends with the majority stronghold. Or with what he brings forward as the majority. For the surplus of seats in parliament by which the AKP governs certainly does not relate to a corresponding percentage of voters. The Turkish voting system with its ten percent threshold takes care of that.
Economic chaos
In all likelihood the protest emerging from the real majority will remain, and may very well even accelerate in the near future, leading in its turn to more aggressive and violent suppression by the government. That this may cause serious political chaos goes without saying.
In the slightly longer run, as more foreign investors withdraw and exports tumble, this situation can easily evolve into economic chaos, which as history shows is the main reason for political parties to lose power (meaning: lose votes) in Turkey. The AKP is very well aware of this. This explains why columnists sympathizing with Erdogan are putting the blame for disturbances of economic growth in Turkey already on external factors like ‘the interest lobby’ and ‘the Jewish Diaspora’. Some of them show themselves faithful readers of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code when they accuse almost imaginary entities like Freemasonry, the order of the Illuminati and Opus Dei of obstructing the Turkish economy…
Iraq’s Baha’is Continue to Face Persecution, Social Exclusion
By: Ali Mamouri
Iraq is one of the main starting points of the Baha’i religion. Baha’u’llah, the founder of the religion, spent 10 years in Iraq, where he announced his religious call. This occurred in the Radwan garden in Baghdad, which is said to be on the banks of the Tigris River in what is currently Baghdad Medical City. The Baha’i religion was preceded by a heavy presence of the followers of Bab (another central figure to the Baha’i religion) in Iraq, most notably Tahirih Qurratu l-`Ayn, the most prominent female figure among them.
Ever since its establishment, the Baha’i religion has been facing pressure and persecution in the Middle East at large, and in Iraq in particular. Many of its followers have been killed and its holy sites destroyed. Baha’is have been subjected to investigations and persecution during different periods. A number of provocative writings have been produced against Baha’is, supporting violence against them. They have been accused of a variety of charges, ranging from undermining religion to preaching atheism, pornography and being the fruit of colonialism and Zionism, and the list goes on.
There are no official statistics on Baha’is in Iraq, and their exact number remains unknown due to adherents’ fear of revealing their identities. Al-Monitor’s correspondent met with a number of Baha’is in Baghdad and Sulaimaniyah in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. However, none of those interviewed gave statistics on their numbers, due to their dispersion as a result of the intense fear of being oppressed by both the authorities and ordinary citizens. However, Baha’is in Sulaimaniyah feel safer and have greater stability than their brothers in Baghdad, although they abstain from openly practicing their faith for the above-mentioned reasons.
During the royal era, however, Baha’is managed to officially declare their identity. The Iraqi Baha’i community was founded in 1931, the first central Baha’i forum was established in 1936 in the al-Sa’doun region and they have possessed a cemetery in the New Baghdad district since 1952 known as the “eternal garden.” The Iraqi government registered the Baha’i religion in the 1957 census.
Restrictions on Baha’is started to gradually spread following the fall of the monarchy, until the repression reached its peak during the reign of the Baath regime. The regime issued a set of decisions against Baha’is in 1970, and published them in the Official Gazette of Iraq. Under these decisions, the Baha’i religion was officially banned and Baha’is were deprived of all their property and forbidden from registering their religion in civil records. Furthermore, they were ordered to delete references to the Baha’i faith from existing records and replace them with one of the three officially recognized Abrahamic religions. Subsequently, a large number of adherents were imprisoned and many Baha’i political and religious followers were sentenced to death in the late 1970s.
The above risks led Baha’is to either completely close themselves off or emigrate from Iraq. Despite the openness that followed the fall of deposed president Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Baha’is in Iraq are still hiding, living in fear of declaring their social identity and preferring not to practice their religion in public.
One Baha’i woman told Al-Monitor that after being released from the “prison” of Hussein’s regime, she felt that she had moved from a small prison to a societal one, harsher and more violent than the former. Life in “prison,” she felt, used to protect her from the culture of exclusion toward Baha’is prevailing in Iraqi society.
Saad Salloum, a specialist on Iraqi minorities, told Al-Monitor that the regime change in 2003 in no way changed the situation for Baha’is. The Baha’i religion is still officially banned and Baha’is are still not allowed to list their religion on civil records. They have not regained their confiscated property and the decisions issued against them have not been abolished.
Despite all of the violence and exclusion practiced against Baha’is, there have been a recent set of legal and religious developments that serve the interests of Baha’is and improve their social status, even if legal progress is slow. According to Statement No. 42 published in issue 4224 of Iraqi Facts on Dec. 26, 2011, Iraqi Culture Minister Saadoun al-Dulaimi issued a decree whereby the house that was inhabited by Baha’u’llah when he was in Baghdad is now deemed a heritage site. It is worth noting that the location has turned into a Shiite ceremonial hall known as “Sheikh Bashar,” currently located in the Al-Tala’eh neighborhood of Baghdad.
However, Salloum said that the place had been torn down in an attempt to discourage the Baha’is, who were not deterred and show willingness to rebuild it if offered the chance.
At the religious level, fatwas were issued by Shiite scholars in Qom and Najaf, offering a different perspective on the Baha’i religion and including a level of tolerance toward it. Chief among these is the Baha’i-related fatwa issued by Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in 2009. This fatwa calls for respecting their rights as citizens, despite the religious differences between them and Muslims.
A study entitled “A Historical Glimpse at Iraq’s Religious Minorities: History and Beliefs” was published by Jawad al-Khoei, a professor at the Najaf Shiite seminary. This study includes a scientific and neutral vision toward all Iraqi religions — including the Baha’is — reflecting greater openness at the level of the religious elites. Also, Iranian journalist Mohammad Nourizadi, who opposes the absolute authority of velayat-e faqih (rule of Islamic jurists), visited the house of a Baha’i family to offer them an official apology for the political and societal persecution and violence that they suffered through the years at the hands of the Muslim majority. This step was positively received, and some Iraqi Facebook pages called for a similar act to be carried out on the Iraqi side.
Iraq’s Baha’is hope to be officially recognized, protected at the legal and security levels and allowed to assert their identity, practice their religious rituals and retrieve their property, especially of that of symbolic and religious value.
Ali Mamouri is a researcher and writer who specializes in religion. He is a former teacher in Iranian universities and seminaries in Iran and Iraq. He has published several articles related to religious affairs in the two countries and societal transformations and sectarianism in the Middle East.
Azerbaijani flag ignored during the meeting of Iranian President and Speaker of Azerbaijani Parliament
Another curious incident happened with the flag of Azerbaijan. The newly-elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani took part in a number of meetings with the heads of foreign delegations right after his inauguration. The Azerbaijani flag was not displayed during the meeting of the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and the Chairman of Azerbaijani Parliament Octay Asadov.
And this is not the first such incident. The Azerbaijani flag was flying upside down during the official visit of the Azerbaijani Minister of Defense Safar Abiyev to Islamic Republic of Iran last year. The scene was quickly captured by the Iranian media lenses.
Moreover, a similar attitude to the state symbols of Azerbaijan was recorded in other countries as well. During the 48th Munich Security Conference in early February of 2012, more specifically at the meeting of the US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, the colors of the raised flag did not match those of the corresponding Azerbaijani state symbol.
While the flag raised in Munich was composed of blue, red, and baby blue color lines, the correct colors of the official Azerbaijani flag are blue, red, and green. The flag colors were also misplaced earlier, at the meeting of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso.
Source: Panorama.am
Gunmen kidnap Turkish Airlines pilots in Lebanon ( thought to be related to the conflict in Syria.)
Two pilots working for Turkish Airlines have been abducted in Lebanon, near Beirut’s international airport, BBC reported.
The men were snatched from a bus which was carrying several other crew members and passengers between a hotel and the airport terminal.
No-one has claimed responsibility for the incident, but it is thought to be related to the conflict in Syria.
Turkey backs Syria’s Sunni rebels while much of Lebanon’s Shia community supports the Assad regime.
Nine Lebanese Shias were abducted in Syria last year, and their families have urged Turkey to help secure their release.