Millions have taken to the streets across Egypt to demand the resignation of President Morsi on the first anniversary of his inauguration. But Morsi loyalists are staging counter-demonstrations, saying they will defend the leader with all means available.
Turkey: Strict security measures taken for Sivas massacre’s 20th anniversary
1 July 2013 /TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL
Police in Sivas province are taking strict security precautions for a large ceremony in memorial of the 20th anniversary of the Madımak massacre, in which 37 people, mostly Alevis, were killed after an angry mob set a hotel building hosting an Alevi cultural conference on fire on July 2, 1993.
A total of 33 artists and intellectuals along with two hotel workers and two assailants died inside Sivas’ Madımak Hotel. The mob was protesting the arrival of atheist writer Aziz Nesin.
Thousands of Turks and foreigners are expected to attend the ceremony, which is being held near the former site of the Madımak Hotel, and the police are taking precautions to prevent problems, including manning ID checkpoints at the city’s entrances and exits. A total of 2,500 police officers are working to ensure participants’ security. Various streets have been closed to traffic and the police will watch the event using Mobile Electronic Systems Integration (MOBESE) cameras installed in various parts of the city.
A delegation from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will participate, including CHP Deputy Chairman Nihat Matkap, CHP Sivas deputy Ejder Özdemir and CHP Malatya deputy Veli Ağbaba.
Turkish EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış, speaking to reporters on Monday, delivered a message of common sense. He said that not only Alevis were killed in the massacre, but also Kurds, Turks and Sunnis. Various steps, he continued, had been taken by the government in the recent years: “There may be some groups who want to manipulate the Alevi people on the anniversary of the Madımak incidents. They want to push Turkey into a chaos by manipulating the innocent feelings of Alevis. I ask them not to listen those provocative people and I call on them to behave sensibly.”
Another memorial ceremony will be held by Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) members on Tuesday in central province of Eskişehir.
An Armenian named Talaat
Khatchig Mouradian for The Armenian Weekly
Talaat is the son of an Armenian Genocide survivor.
I first met him on a cold January day in Lice (pronounced Leejeh), a district perched on layer upon layer of violence—first against the Armenians, then the Kurds.
It was a day before my scheduled speech at a conference in Ankara.
His family gave us a warm welcome. After all, I was friends with Talaat’s brother, who had recently changed his Muslim name to Armen, and was taking Armenian language courses in nearby Diyarbakir.
I do not remember how long I sat on the sofa in their quaint living room, at loss with words, sipping my tea, and thinking about identity, while my friends conversed with the family, diluting the awkwardness of my silence.
Talaat’s father, Hovsep, was born in 1910 in an Armenian village in Lice. His family was butchered during the genocide when he was five, but somehow, he survived, and was taken in by a Muslim family, which renamed him Bekir.
Bekir grew up as a devout Muslim, twice making a pilgrimage to Mecca. He had five sons, and even named one of them Talaat—the name of Ottoman Turkey’s Minister of the Interior at the time of the Armenian Genocide, and widely seen as the mastermind of this crime.
And now, Talaat, Armen’s brother, was sitting across from me, most likely wondering why I had fallen silent after a few minutes of small talk.
I grew up learning that a genocide survivor was someone who made it: escaped the miasma of massacre, disease, and starvation, and rebuilt their life either in Soviet Armenia or in the newly emerging Armenian communities in foreign lands. These survivors often shared the same roof with my generation.
But my encounters with hundreds of “hidden Armenians” in Turkey, most of whom, like me, are children and grandchildren of genocide survivors, drove home the realization of how incomplete that definition is.
The tens of thousands of Armenian women and children who converted to Islam forcibly, or to escape death, were genocide survivors too. Often, they were the siblings of the men and women who escaped, and whom we now remember in Armenia or the Diaspora as our dear grandmother or grandfather.
What made one in our eyes a Turk or a Kurd, sometimes an Arab, and the other an Armenian Genocide survivor, was fate—or, simply, luck.
Many of these “hidden Armenians” yearned to meet “certified Armenians.” Some went out of their way to show documents proving their identity, seeking some kind of validation from the latter. And many simply wanted a hug.
Talaat’s grandnephew, barely two years old, was the center of everyone’s attention that day. His dark, expressive eyes reminded me of Armen and Talaat. I wondered in what kind of Turkey he would grow up. I wondered what he would learn about the fate of his great-grandfather Hovsep who turned into Bekir, and his great uncles Armen and Talaat. I wondered what he would name his child: Talaat or Zohrab?
I hugged Talaat that day. He then asked my Kurdish friend to take a picture of the two of us. “What can I do,” he said. “My blood is calling.”
We returned to Diyarbakir that evening to catch my flight to Ankara. Within hours, I was scheduled to deliver a talk, and I only had some incomplete notes. But I wasn’t worried; I knew exactly what I was going to say, and what language I was going to say it in.
That night in Ankara, I wrote down my speech in Turkish. Two friends I was staying with, Bilgin and Şebnem, made sure the language was impeccable.
The next morning, as I faced the audience from the podium, I was thinking of my grandparents. But mostly, I was thinking of Talaat.
Author’s note: Talaat’s story has been gestating in my mind since January 2013. I hoped I would be able to write it down after I visited him again in May with a group of friends, but all I could come up with was the title of the essay. Finally, upon reading news of police violence in Lice on June 28, I sat down and wrote it. Perhaps one day, Turkey will discover the strata of violent history in that region.
Turks building restaurant in place of Armenian cemetery
Ermenihaber.am news website reports that Malkara-based Turkish writer Umit Bayazoglu has told media that a restaurant is being built in the place of the Armenian cemetery of Malkara.
The construction works go on irrespective of the fact that it was revealed that there had been an Armenian cemetery in that place.
More than 3,500 Armenians lived in Malkara, a town of Tekirdag Province in the Marmara region of Turkey, in the early 1915.
According to the municipality project, the small concrete construction located in the place of the Armenian cemetery is scheduled to be reconstructed into a restaurant. Human bones emerged as the foundation digging began.
Demir Ali Pala, head of the territorial organization of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), told reporters that even his father did not know whether or not there had been a cemetery in that place, and that he did not know where the bones had been gathered. According to him, it is a walking place for people, and some people gather there and drink alcohol and use drugs. Pala added that the place needed cleaning up.
Egypt’s Army Gives Morsi an Ultimatum
Egypt’s armed forces threatened on Monday to intervene in the country’s political crisis, warning President Mohamed Morsi and other politicians that they had 48 hours to respond to an outpouring of popular protests that have included demands for his resignation.
In a statement read on state television, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the Egyptian military, said the mass demonstrations that intensified over the weekend, including the storming of the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo early Monday, reflected an “unprecedented” expression of popular anger at Mr. Morsi and his Islamist backers in the brotherhood during his first year in power.
It was unclear from the general’s statement whether the military was specifically demanding that Mr. Morsi resign. But the statement said that if Mr. Morsi did not take steps to address demands for a more inclusive government, the armed forces would move to impose its “own road map for the future.”
Rumsfeld- USAID in Kyrgyzstan, Drugs & Underground Madrasahs, Saakashvili vs. Ivanishvili & More!
By: Christoph Germann- BFP Contributing Author & Analyst
The Great Game Round-Up brings you the latest newsworthy developments regarding Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We document the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits in Central Asia and the Caucasus region between a U.S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, Russia, China and other regional players.
At the beginning of this week Georgia was rocked by an extremely interesting discovery: Interior Ministry: Large Arms Cache Uncovered Underground cache included “large amount of explosives and explosive devices; hand grenades; firearms and other weapons and military munitions; communications gear, as well as large amount of narcotics and psychotropic medicines including heroin, opium, cocaine, subutex etc.,” the Interior Ministry said in a statement. The Interior Ministry said that the cache also included video tapes showing “brutal torture, sexual abuse, beating and inhuman treatment of individuals by representatives of the law enforcement agencies.”
Saakashvili vs. Ivanishvili
According to the Georgian Interior Ministry the arms cache was hidden under “the direct supervision of former high ranking officials of the interior ministry during the previous authorities” and it was not the only one:
Arms Caches Allegedly Connected To Georgian President’s Party
Georgian investigators say they have found several caches filled with weapons, explosives, drugs, and documents targeting opponents of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s party.
The spokeswoman said the caches contained photos and written material about people Saakashvili’s United National Movement party allegedly planned to arrest if it won last year’s parliamentary elections.
Many of Saakashvili’s associates have been arrested and charged with wrongdoing since Prime Minister Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition won parliamentary elections in October 2012.
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Shortly thereafter, several arrests were made:
Georgia Arrests Torture Suspects in New Swipe at Old Government
Georgian police on Wednesday arrested nine serving and former police and military officers on suspicion of torture, which the interior minister said was a ”systemic problem” under the previous government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
The nine suspects are accused of involvement in the torture and rape of two detainees depicted on videos found this week in a cache along with guns and drugs, Interior Minister Irakly Garibashvili said.
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Just a few days before the arms caches were discovered, the Georgian police detained two suspected terrorists:
Georgia detains two suspected terrorists
Ministry spokesperson Nino Giorgobiani said Thursday that police searched their temporary place of residency and discovered a large amount of potent explosives, electric detonators, firearms, ammunition and fake identity papers.
Kadiev was wanted by Interpol and according to the investigation he has been hiding in Georgia since 2011, but periodically left the country.
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The Interior Ministry highlighted the connection between one of the arrested men and President Saakashvili [emphasis mine]:
Georgia: Jihad in the Backyard
Police on June 13 recovered a significant stash of explosives and firearms from a Tbilisi apartment and arrested two men for allegedly plotting an act of terror, the interior ministry said. The two men, Mikail Kadiev and Rizvan Omarov, have Russian passports, and are presumed to hail from Russia’s North Caucasus.
What was supposed to be a bipartisan discussion of security threats eventually got reduced to attempts by the Saakashvili team to show that they still matter, and Ivanishvili’s attempts to show that they don’t. And so the pattern continued with yesterday’s arrests. The interior ministry informed the public that one of the suspects used to live at an apartment owned by President Saakashvili’s “personal pilot.” The presidential office was quick to accuse the ministry, which is loyal to Ivanishvili, of trying to smear the president.
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These latest incidents illustrate the struggle in Georgia between Saakashvili and Prime Minister Ivanishvili. The latter has taken a different approach towards Russia and faced strong criticism for this even before his election when President Saakashvili tried to paint him as a Russian puppet.
There is not much evidence to support this accusation and ties between the country in the South Caucasus and NATO are in no way threatened. Quite the contrary, some analysts argue that Ivanishvili is getting Georgia closer to NATO than Saakashvili did.
Recent developments corroborate this and the cooperation is now closer than ever:
NATO Trains U.S. Troops At Georgian Mountain Training Center
Delegation from Turkish General Staff visits Georgia
Additionally, the country wants to cement ties in the military sector with neighbouring NATO proxy Azerbaijan and is turning its attention to Central Asia. Kazkhstan’s resources and strategic location arouse great interest:
David Cameron will be first serving British Prime Minister to visit Central Asia
This meeting is significant because Kazakhstan will likely play a key role in the withdrawal of military equipment from Afghanistan in 2014, CA-News reports. This is an opportunity for Western leaders involved in Afghanistan to “get Central Asian leaders on board,” since Central Asia is the most reliable exit route for military hardware, what with the increasing instability in Pakistan, The Independent reported.
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GCC Skyscrapers & Extremism
UAE’s investments in Kazakhstan were already discussed last week and now we can add Central Asia’s tallest building to the list. But even this will pale in comparison with the new Saudi project which might be implemented in Moscow.
Meanwhile Kazakhstan and Russia are trying to contain the threat of extremism:
Kazakhstan blocks 45 foreign religious sites in 2012
Kazakh students need permission to study religion in Saudi Arabia
Police, security officers and migration officials in a joint raid on Friday detained some 300 people, including 170 foreigners, in a praying room for Muslims in a non-residential building in the southeast of Moscow, Interfax reported.
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Three people belonging to Hizb ut-Tahrir detained in Dagestan
For more information about the role of Hizb ut-Tahrir and similar groups in U.S./NATO’s Operation Gladio B, I encourage you to read the corresponding round-ups here and here. The arrest of three HT members in Dagestan is hardly surprising considering the source of funding for extremists in this region:
Russia says 50 groups in U.S. raise funds for North Caucasus extremists
According to the Jamahiriya News Agency, Russian intelligence reveals that 50 organizations, many of which are Islamic charities, are actively soliciting and distributing funds from their headquarters in U.S. to terrorist groups in the North Caucasus—the same region where Tamerlan Tsarnaev journeyed prior to the Boston Marathon bombings. Islamic Relief, the largest Muslim charity in America, is included on Russia’s list.
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One of the countries, which has been facilitating terrorism in the North Caucasus and providing refugee for Chechen terrorists, is close U.S. ally Azerbaijan. But this won’t stop Russia from striking a bargain with its southern neighbor:
Russia Starts Delivering $1Bln Arms Package to Azerbaijan
A source at the Russian Defense Ministry said the order had been on hold for some time to avoid upsetting the military balance in the South Caucasus, where Russia has a military base in Armenia and an agreement to defend the country if it comes under attack. But the deal had been pushed through at the behest of Russia’s powerful arms industry, he said.
As far as business dealings are concerned, it was a great week for Moscow: Russia and China oil cooperation estimated at the unprecedented $270bn – Putin The value of 25 years of cooperation between Russia’s state oil major Rosneft and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) will be $270 billion, said President Putin at the economic forum in St. Petersburg. Under the contract Rosneft will export 360.3 million tonnes of crude to China. … While securing energy supplies from Russia and Central Asia, Beijing is increasing its efforts to ensure stability in the vital Xinjiang region [emphasis mine]: China And Central Asia: A Significant New Energy Nexus – Analysis China has turned to Central Asia for energy supply, for two main reasons. Besides accessing a more stable and closer source of abundant energy, China aims to compete aggressively for its energy security by developing its “energy diplomacy” with the region. Secondly, developing close ties with Central Asia through an energy nexus will help China deter threats from the separatist activists in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. China has reorganized the army units in Xinjiang to safeguard its oil fields given the 3,300 km western border with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. … – See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2013/06/23/the-new-great-game-round-up-june-23-2013/#sthash.opb1nE6X.dpuf
Rumsfeld, USAID in Kyrgyzstan
Xinjiang’s Central Asian neighbor Kyrgyzstan recently experienced civil unrest. Coincidentally, this happened after the Kyrgyz government announced to push for an end of U.S. military presence at the Manas Transit Center [emphasis mine]:
Kyrgyzstan: Kamchibek Tashiyev freed. Parliament’s dissolution imminent?
“The opposition forces in Kyrgyzstan became very active over the last several weeks. [This] indicates they must have received financial incentives,” Aleksandr Filippov, a co-founder of the Moscow Institute for Humanitarian and Political Research, maintains. “If one was to test the “seek the benefiter” hypothesis, a political crisis and the parliament’s dissolution would certainly meet U.S. interests in the region at the moment. If the opposition cracks the parliament apart, discussions over kicking the [U.S.] military airbase would be postponed at least for six months. It does not matter what causes the dissolution – the Kumtor issue or anything else. It was George W. Bush who stated that the USA’s military presence in Kyrgyzstan is not time limited. The USA could provide the opposition in this country [with funds] in order to exert pressure on the Kyrgyz leadership.”
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To the delight of Russia, there was no dissolution of the Kyrgyz parliament and the vote delivered a clear result:
Lawmakers voted in favor of ending the agreement in June 2014 to lease the Manas Transit Center in connection with withdrawal due to lack of need for further operation of the facility.
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But the United States already reiterated that it won’t be giving up and “remains in close contact” with Kyrgyzstan. So what does that mean? Well, currently George W. Bush’s old buddy and fellow war criminal, Donald Rumsfeld, happens to be in the country working for his suspicious foundation [emphasis mine]:
Former U.S. Defense Secretary arrives in Kyrgyzstan
Former Defense Secretary of the Unites States Donald Rumsfeld arrived in Kyrgyzstan, the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan reported. According to its information, he arrived in Kyrgyzstan on June 19 for discussion of the Rumsfeld Foundation issues. “The visit has nothing to do with us,” the U.S. Embassy noted.
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Rumsfeld’s Visit To Kyrgyzstan Sets Tongues Wagging
Officially, he was there on the business of the Rumsfeld Foundation, a group that offers short-term fellowships to young scholars from Central Asia and the Caucasus to study in Washington, D.C. And the timing of the visit, at the same time as the parliamentary vote, was just a coincidence.
But as anyone following Central Asian politics knows, there is no such thing as coincidence. And the Kyrgyzstan and Russian press has been rife with speculation about what Rumsfeld’s real agenda was in Bishkek.
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The efforts of the Rumsfeld Foundation are primarily focused on Central Asia and, with the help of its partners, the organization reaches out to more vital regions:
“The Rumsfeld foundation partners with the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University to administer fellowships to young leaders from Central Asia, the Caucasus, Afghanistan, and Mongolia.”
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Rumsfeld’s educational foundation is in the business of grooming future puppet leaders. This procedure always follows more or less the same script, as outlined by Sibel Edmonds:
“The location – always a resource rich country or one strategically crucial to resource rich countries. A viable candidate (sometimes candidates) chosen based on the exact same set of criteria – such as degree of corruptibility, and degree of atrocity or criminal tendencies. The grooming and training locations also are the same: the United States of America or the proxy brother, The United Kingdom. The supporting actors are a combination of old timers, think World Bank or IMF, and newer ones with even fancier names, such as XYZ Democratization and Development Fund, posing as well-intentioned NGOs. Okay, enough with the details, since we are very familiar with this repeating script and its consistent execution – collectively known and referred to as United States Foreign Policy.”
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Kyrgyzstan is hosting another unpleasant organization and the Kyrgyz government should consider to follow Bolivia’s example and expel USAID. The United States Agency for International Development has been conducting suspicious activities in the country for quite a while and was recently the topic of conversation between the mayor of Osh, which is located in the Fergana Valley, and the U.S. Ambassador to Kyrgyzstan, Pamela Spratlen:
Osh mayor asks USA to assist in search for initiators of 2010 June events
The parties discussed political and economical issues, bilateral relations, and the work of USAID.
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CIA’s USAID is also involved in neighbouring Tajikistan [emphasis mine]:
U.S. government fosters cross-border energy trade between Tajikistan and Afghanistan
USAID, through its Central Asia Regional Energy Security, Efficiency, and Trade project, is providing $785,000 to extend cross-border transmission lines to Viyod village in the Shugnan district, and to two Sarchashma sub-villages, Tizhmoy and Pidrud, in Afghanistan.
The USAID Regional Energy Security, Efficiency, and Trade project is one of the many development projects made possible by the American people through USAID. Since 1992, the American people have invested over $1 billion in programs in support of Tajikistan’s democratic institutions, health care, education, and economic growth.
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That is really generous of the American people. However, we should consider the possibility that their money is not supporting “Tajikistan’s democratic institutions” but financing Pentagon’s Operation Gladio B.
Drugs & Underground Madrasahs
Recently, Kyrgz and Tajik authorities increased the cooperation in the War on Drugs and there are regularly small victories:
200 kilograms of drugs detained during raid in Kyrgyzstan
Kyrgyz seized 2 tonnes of drugs
But the drug trade is very lucrative and offers large incentives, especially for the people who are supposed to prevent this trade:
Border officer gets long jail term for drug trafficking
Former deputy commander of one of frontier posts deployed in southern Tajikistan has reportedly got a long jail term for drug trafficking.
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All countries in the region must work together to fight against the sophisticated drug networks:
Pakistani drug control officers thwart attempt to smuggle precursor chemicals to Tajikistan
Officers from Pakistan’s Anti-Narcotics Force (ANF) have reportedly thwarted an attempt to smuggle a large consignment of precursor chemicals from Pakistan to Tajikistan via Afghanistan. Two Tajik nationals have been arrested.
“About 103,563 kilograms of acetic anhydride/ hydrochloric acid, used in the manufacturing of heroin has been seized. Three smugglers including two foreigners of Tajik origin have been arrested,” said a press release.
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Another security challenge for Tajikistan is the advancing Islamization, as demonstrated by this week’s discovery of two underground madrasahs near Dushanbe:
Secret religious schools with kidnapped pupils discovered in Tajikistan
‘The detainee confessed that he had abducted the children with the purpose of their further education at illegal religious home schools. A corresponding check fully confirmed Rajabov’s testimony,” the ministry note. The police who made surprise appearances at the schools discovered the recently abducted boy from Dushanbe and nine other children from different parts of Tajikistan there. The ministry says that many of the children were from poor families and some of the parents did not even report their disappearances. “The detained self-proclaimed clergymen had taught religion to children in insanitary conditions and without a corresponding permit, i.e. illegally. Besides, they kept the children by force and previously committed another grave crime by kidnapping them,” the press release says.
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Radicalizing young children in secret religious schools resembles the modus operandi of Fethullah Gülen’s CIA-sponsored network in Central Asia:
“He has since established more than 300 madrasahs in Central Asia and what he calls universities that have a front that is called Moderate Islam, but he is closely involved in training mujahideen-like militia Islam who are brought from Pakistan and Afghanistan into Central Asia where his madrasahs operate, and his organization’s network is estimated to be around $25 billion.
He has opened several Islamic universities in the United States. As I said it’s being promoted under Moderate Islam. It is supported by certain U.S. authorities here because of the operations in Central Asia, but what they have been doing since late 1990s is actually radical Islam and militizing (phonetic) these very, very young, from the age 14, 15, by commandoes they use, and this is both commandoes from Turkish military, commandoes from Pakistani ISI in Central Asia and Azerbaijan, and after that they bring them to Turkey, and from Turkey they send them through Europe, to European and elsewhere.”
Christoph Germann is an independent analyst and researcher based in Germany, where he is currently studying political science. His work focuses on the New Great Game in Central Asia and the Caucasus region. You can visit his website here
Thousands march in Istanbul in solidarity with Kurds
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Reuters in Istanbul
- guardian.co.uk,
Protesters 
chant anti-government slogans in wake of killing of Kurdish demonstrator in south-east Turkey on Friday
A demonstrator applauds during an anti-government protest march in Istanbul on Saturday. Photograph: Umit Bektas/Reuters
Thousands of protesters marched to Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in south-east Turkey.
The protest had been planned as part of larger unrelated anti-government demonstrations that have swept through the country since the end of May, but became a voice of solidarity with the Kurds after Friday’s killing.
“Murderer police, get out of Kurdistan!” some protesters chanted. “This is only the beginning, the struggle continues. The murderer state will pay!”
Turkish forces killed the man and wounded 10 others when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in the Kurdish-dominated region.
The incident, in the Lice district of Diyarbakır province, appeared to be the most violent in the region since a ceasefire declaration in March by jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan in a decades-old conflict between his fighters and the Turkish state, and it risks derailing the nascent peace process.
About 10,000 protesters descended on Taksim Square, which has been the centre of weeks of anti-government demonstrations, but were prevented from entering the square by riot police.
Many in the crowd sat in the roads leading to the square after being denied entry. “Long live the brotherhood of the people!” people shouted in both Turkish and Kurdish.
Most of the protesters dispersed after a couple of hours, with a group of about 1,000 remaining near the square. Riot police pushed them away from the square with shields and slow moving water cannon trucks although no water was fired. Announcements were made for protesters to return to their homes.
The Kurdish tensions come at a time of increased vigilance among Turkish security forces after the anti-government protests in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities in which four people have died and thousands have been injured.
The protests, which had largely died down over the past week, have emerged as the biggest public challenge to prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s 10-year rule. He has dismissed the protesters as pawns of Turkey’s enemies and has called supporters to back his party in municipal elections next year.
Globalpost: Dirty money of Aliyev regime reached the U.S.
Baku hopes to buy itself a favorable opinion in DC, the chair of the Azerbaijani-Americans for Democracy, a non-profit US organization promoting support for democracy and human rights in Azerbaijan Elmar Chakhtakhtinski wrote in US news agency Globalpost.
The Article says that a large US delegation visited Azerbaijan’s capital Baku last month to take part in the US-Azerbaijan Conference. Different rights groups raised concerns with the high-profile American involvement in what they saw as a PR show by the corrupt and repressive government of Azerbaijan.
A good example of such viewpoint is the recent piece by George Friedman, “Why Azerbaijan should matter to America,” published online by Forbes Magazine, the author says.
Friedman heads a geopolitical intelligence firm Stratfor and he also was one of the speakers at the US-Azerbaijan convention in Baku. In his article, posted shortly after his return from the convention, he defends the ruling regime in Azerbaijan, highlighting the country’s importance to the US energy and security interests to counter the criticism over the lack of democracy.
However, as the article says, even a quick Google search would have revealed Azerbaijan’s appalling record on human rights and democracy. High-level corruption and persecution of dissent in that country is well documented by the world’s most reputable rights organizations, US State Department’s annual reports and the international media.
Azerbaijan is led by a president who has been recognized as the “most corrupt person” in the world for 2012 by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). More and more facts keep emerging about the enormous wealth hidden in secretive offshore holdings by President Ilham Aliyev’s family and his close circle of minister-oligarchs.
The tainted wealth of Azerbaijan’s ruling elite has reached American shores and entered DC lobbying scene. The Azerbaijan American Alliance (AAA) was founded in 2010 by Anar Mammadov, a playboy son of the Azerbaijan’s corrupt transport minister Ziya Mammadov.
Before founding AAA, Anar Mammadov was known for suing a newspaper that published a story about him paying $1 million dollars at a restaurant to grill a live bear from the venue’s small zoo. His father, Ziya Mammadov, is mentioned in Wikileaks cables and OCCRP reports as one of the top corrupt Azeri oligarchs.
Millions of dollars are paid by AAA to a DC-based firm Fabiani & Company to establish contacts with the US officials. Former congressman Dan Burton is hired as AAA’s Chairman. House Speaker John Boehner, Senator John McCain and other members of Congress and the US government officials have attended extravagant receptions hosted by AAA.
Anti-Morsi protests staged across Egypt
June 30, 2013 – 18:51 AMT
Protests calling for the resignation of Egypt’s President Mohammed Morsi and early presidential elections have begun in the capital, Cairo, and around the country, BBC News reported.
His opponents say he has failed to tackle economic and security problems.
Thousands spent the night in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, focus of protests which brought down ex-leader Hosni Mubarak.
Morsi critics also say he has put the Islamist agenda of the Muslim Brotherhood party ahead of the country’s wider interests. Windows in the Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo were reinforced with sandbags ahead of the protests.
A huge rally of presidential supporters is also under way in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City. People there are carrying banners denouncing the opposition, and warning that “legitimacy is a red line”. Some are wearing banners saying that they are willing to be martyrs for the cause of keeping the president in power.
Morsi, who hails from the Muslim Brotherhood, became Egypt’s first Islamist president on June 30, 2012, after winning an election considered free and fair. His first year as president has been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy.
RT Report: Egypt’s opposition claims to have 22 million signatures for Morsi’s resignation ahead of mass protests
Pressure on embattled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi is building, as opposition claim more people want him to resign, than those who voted him into office. There are fears that huge protest rallies scheduled for Sunday will descend into violence.
Activists for the Tamarod, or Rebellion, campaign – who the Prosecutor General says will be investigated for trying to overthrow the regime – claim they have gathered 22.1 million signatures since April, calling for Morsi to step down after just one year in power. 13.2 million people voted for the President in the closely-contested run-off last year.
The collection is timed to coincide with the one-year anniversary of Morsi inauguration on June 30 – a symbolic date chosen by the opposition, who believe that protests across all the major cities in the country will attract millions, and trigger a repeat election.
Islamist supporters of the President have rejected the signatures, saying the numbers have been vastly inflated, maintaining that the petition has no legal power.
“How do we trust the petitions?” declared Muslim Brotherhood member Ahmed Seif Islam Hassan al-Banna in an interview with AP. “Who guarantees that those who signed were not paid to sign?”
The anti-Morsi coalition comprises a wide range of political forces – from the urban elites who initiated the protests against former president Hosni Mubarak in 2011, to Mubarak’s associates, who have been shifted from power, to minorities concerned about their rights.
“You cannot say that Morsi has failed as a President – he has been able to do very little,” Ahmed Badawi from Egyptian think-tank TRANSFORM told RT. “But he has failed as a person who could create a stable framework that could avoid the exact kind of trouble we are seeing now.”
On the eve of the protests, a group of as many as 22 anti-Morsi deputies has resigned from the Shura Council, Egypt’s upper parliamentary chamber. The Shura Council has been in charge of legislation in the country after the Muslim-dominated lower house was dismissed in acrimony by the Supreme Court a year ago (new elections have still not been scheduled).
“We gave them a chance to lead a reconciliation but they didn’t. The resignation comes to support the popular trend in Egypt,” said Mona Makram Ebeid, one of those who resigned.
The opposition accuses Morsi of trying to monopolize political power in the country, by proposing an openly Islamist constitution, stuffing the bureaucracy with his associates, and banning the courts from overruling his decisions.
“The agenda is not about health reform or how to build an Egyptian Harvard or Yale,” said Moataz Abdel Fattah, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo. “It is just a competition over who should preside and set the rules.”
Protesters also say he has mishandled the economy, with electricity and fuel shortages becoming a regular feature of daily life, as the government tries to secure more loans from international financial organizations.
“The executive branch has no clue how to run Egypt. It’s not a question of whether they are Muslim Brothers or liberals — it’s a question of people who have no vision or experience. They do not know how to diagnose the problem and then provide the solution. They are simply not qualified to govern,” wrote Nobel Peace Prize winner and opposition figurehead Mohammed ElBaradei in Foreign Policy magazine.
Morsi, a former engineer who spent a large part of his life in the US, has repeatedly claimed that he has been held back from carrying out key reforms by a mistrustful bureaucracy, which he says is still staffed by Mubarak sympathizers, and by an opposition that has questioned his every move. He has also hinted that “outside forces” are setting him up to fail.
“Morsi can either make concessions or he can increase the level of violence. So far he has offered very few concessions,” Said Sadek, a sociologist from the American University in Cairo, told RT.
Tension has already neared boiling point as contesting factions occupy the same streets.
In the past week at least seven people – including an American college student – have died in clashes, with several hundred more injured. Five Muslim Brotherhood offices across the country were set on fire by angry protesters.
In return, Morsi’s more radical Islamist supporters have openly urged the president to initiate a crackdown on dissent, calling protesters “thugs”.
“Vigilance is required to ensure we do not slide into civil war,” warned Cairo’s respected Islamic Al-Azhar institute.
Although Cairo has been relatively quiet – with sit-ins on both sides – some neighborhoods have blocked up their doors in anticipation of ransacking not only by political activists, but opportunist marauders. Most flights out of the Egyptian capital have been booked over the weekend as tourists and diplomats flee the country en-masse.
The outcome of the protests may hinge on intervention from the army and security forces.
The army, which stepped in during the Arab Spring two years ago, has promised to prevent “an attack on the will of the people”, and to intervene if one of the antagonists incites violence. Both sides say that they are confident the military will back them if the violence escalates.
The police, which has been notably reluctant to protect Muslim Brotherhood offices, and residences occupied by its official, is not expected to curtail the protests.