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Turkey turns into world’s biggest jail. CPJ

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16:41, 16 February, 2013

YEREVAN, 708551FEBRUARY 16, ARMENPRESS: It is noted in the report of “Committee to Protect Journalists” international monitoring organization (CPJ) that after detaining 49 journalists “Turkey is turning into world’s biggest jail”. In the “Risk list” of the organization, Turkey stands among Brazil, Ecuador, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Vietnam. As reports Armenpress, referring to the web site of Turkish T24 channel, in accordance with the report, 43 journalists were killed when implementing their professional duties during 2012, which is for 43 percent more than during previous year.

Diane Ravitch’s blog Exposes “the Turkish Imam Fathullah Gulen Charter School Scandals”

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Visit http://dianeravitch.net/

Jere Hochman, superintendent of the Bedford Central School District in New York, has some excellent ideas for President Obama. Ten of them, to be exact.

He believes in putting first things first, in thinking clearly about what the federal role is and doing that role well. He believes in career professionals. He believes that the corporate types who think they know how to run the schools need a reminder that the factory model of the 1950s doesn’t work for them and doesn’t work for schools either.

Read and enjoy some good sense and good advice for the President.

Tim Slekar is a tireless advocate for public education and teachers.

He was upset that Michelle Rhee got a chance to sell her book on the Jon Stewart show, because Jon is one of the best friends of public schools and teachers on national television.

Tim knew that Rhee would use the opportunity to say how much she loves teachers, and that she loves them so much, that she wants to fire more of them.

He was even more upset that she went unchallenged when she repeated her usual claim that teachers are the most important factor in schools that affect test scores.

This is progress, in that she used to say that teachers were the most important factor inside or outside the school.

Tim quite rightly points out that the research says that non-school factors like home and family income have a far greater impact on student test scores than teachers.

This is not to take away from teachers, but to acknowledge that there are problems that even the best teachers can’t overcome.

As Anthony Cody recently noted in one of his columns, many of the students in his Oakland classes suffered PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) because they had witnessed a murder or suffered other horrible experiences. Very few teachers can induce a student to get a high test score when she saw someone murder her brother, sister, or parent the day before.

Read Tim here:

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/02/04/jon-stewarts-betrayal-michellerhee/

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/02/04/jon-stewarts-betrayal-michellerhee-update/

http://atthechalkface.com/2013/02/11/teachers-rock-in-school-but-what-about-out-of-school/

Paul Thomas, our collective voice of conscience, explains the way that zombies take control. When your leaders are zombies, do not follow them. They will make you a zombie too.

How can you recognize a zombie? They talk about data, not individuals. They always say they put “kids first” or “children first,” but they don’t mean it. That’s meant to persuade you they are not zombies. People who truly put children first don’t boast about it.

Don’t be fooled by zombie rhetoric.

To understand the tentacles of corporate reform, you must read this post

Here Mercedes Schneider continues her review of the board of the National Council on Teacher Quality. As her research deepens, she uncovers the links among the big-money investors and their plans to privatize education, turn teachers and children into assets, and monetize public education.

On Wednesday, a large group of high school students staged a zombie protest in front of he Rhode Island Department of Education. They said that the state’s high-stakes testing would turn them into the undead.

New York has zombies too. They are running the State Education Department and they fervently believe that testing is the very essence of education. They think that testing will help poor kids. The zombies think that testing will close the achievement gap. No one ever explained to them that standardized tests are based on a bell curve and the achievement gap is designed into the curve: IT NEVER CLOSES.

There are some brave humans on the New York Board of Regents who are among the living. They are Dr. Kathleen Cashin, an experienced educator who represents Brooklyn; Dr. Betty Rosa, an experienced educator who represents the Bronx; Roger Tilles, a lawyer and businessman who represents Long Island; and Harry Phillips, a business executive who represents The suburban counties north of New York City.

Phillips belatedly realized that New York State made a terrible mistake in accepting Race to the Top funding and accepting its mandate to tie teacher evaluation to test scores. It’s hard to admit that you made an error. He had the courage and wisdom to do so.

Now that there is a solid bloc of four Regents who understand the damage that Race to the Top is inflicting on the schools of the state, perhaps other Regents will shed their zombie status and return to the land of the living, where people and children matter more than data and formulae.

Here is a chance to make your voice heard.

Crain’s New York is running an opinion poll, asking which of Bloomberg’s policies the next mayor should get rid of. Bloomberg has promoted high-stakes testing, charter schools, school closings, co-locations of charters, and evaluation of teachers by test scores. Class sizes are at their highest in fourteen years.

Turkish opposition leader condemns ‘dictator’ Erdogan

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Turkey‘s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is behaving like an “elected dictator” and propelling the country towards a constitutional crisis in a bid for ever greater personal power, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has told the Guardian.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chairman of the social democratic Republican People’s party (CHP), said Erdogan, prime minister since 2003, was determined to change the Turkish constitution to create an executive presidency, to which post he would switch after elections due next year.

“Turkey needs a new constitution to protect individual rights,” Kilicdaroglu said. The 1982 charter imposed after a military coup was out of date and at odds with Turkey’s EU ambitions. But Erdogan’s plans ignored the necessary separation of powers, for instance by empowering the president to appoint judges, he said.

“The prime minister is more and more authoritarian, unfortunately. The sovereignty of fear is ubiquitous. No one can talk with ease on the telephone. Civil society is under pressure. The universities cannot express their view. The labour unions are completely silent. The media are fearful,” Kilicdaroglu said.

“There is not one single dissenting voice within his own party. The attempt to create an executive presidency is all about the concentration of power in a single hand. It will be a disaster for Turkey. It will cancel all the democratic gains Turkey has made.”

The confrontation over drafting a new constitution is expected to come to a head next month, after Erdogan’s ruling neo-Islamist Justice and Development party (AKP) indicated it would impose a guillotine on debate in the Turkish parliament’s all-party constitutional commission by the end of March. Kilicdaroglu has described the move as “blackmail”.

If agreement is lacking, the government needs the backing of at least four opposition MPs to push through the new charter and send it for ratification in a national referendum. The AKP has 326 seats in parliament. It requires between 300 and 367 votes to authorise a referendum, which it is confident it would win.

“If the parliament cannot do it, we will take the constitution to the people,” Erdogan said in a speech on Friday.

Alarm about Erdogan’s intentions intensified after he startled political observers by suggesting a deal with the Peace and Democracy party (BDP), which represents Kurdish interests.

The AKP government has jailed hundreds of BDP activists and supporters, including MPs and lawyers, under Turkey’s sweeping anti-terrorism laws, and several dozen jailed Kurds held a protracted hunger strike last year.

Kilicdaroglu said the manoeuvre, coupled with recently revived contacts with the jailed Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan, was a cynical attempt by Erdogan to buy votes while avoiding violence before the 2014 election season.

The BDP’s deputy parliamentary chair, Pervin Buldan, responded to Erdogan’s overture by setting conditions on her party’s co-operation, including an inclusive redefinition of citizenship and the lifting of all restrictions on using the Kurdish language in the public sphere. But Buldan did not rule out a deal.

Devlet Bahceli, leader of the rightwing Nationalist Movement party (MHP), another opposition group, denounced the AKP plan, telling the Hurriyet newspaper: “This is a declaration of war against Turkishness.” Turkey’s future was now in the hands of Ocalan’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), Bahceli said.

Kilicdaroglu was interviewed during a meeting at the House of Commons sponsored by Keith Vaz MP and chaired by Jo Glanville of English PEN, which promotes and defends freedom of expression.

Emma Reynolds MP, the shadow Europe minister, suggested opposition in some western European countries to Turkey’s EU membership bid had set back the cause of reform and encouraged a return to authoritarianism in Turkey. She expressed Labour’s support for its Turkish “sister party”.

Kilicdaroglu told the meeting that many writers and columnists critical of Erdogan’s rule had been “disenfranchised” – removed from their jobs – and that those still working were obliged to observe forms of self-censorship. He noted that more journalists were in jail in Turkey than in any other country.

“When the press is not free, the people are not free,” he said. “Whether this is a healthy environment in which to frame a new constitution is a matter I leave to you to decide.”

One Turk killed in clashes in Aleppo (The first time the Turkish newspaper report Turkish involvement in Syria)

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KİLİS – Anatolia News Agency

Turkey denies any involvement of its citizens in the fighting in Syria… Here is one!

A Turkish citizen was killed yesterday during clashes in Syria’s Aleppo, according to a statement made by security officials in Turkey’s Kilis.
The man, aged 40, was killed during fighting between regime forces and opposition militants.
His body was brought to Kilis hospital and then sent to the Gaziantep Forensic Institution for an autopsy.
Around 166 people were killed in clashes yesterday, according to the Syrian Human Rights Organization.

 

Istanbul is becoming the most risky City for visitors, Istanbul city bus attacked with Molotov cocktails

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Istanbul is becoming the most risky City for visitors,  Istanbul city bus attacked with Molotov cocktails

n_41207_4A city bus was totally burned out in a Molotov cocktail attack in Istanbul’s Okmeydanı neighborhood today. No injuries have yet been reported. The attack is thought to have been conducted by supporters of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), as a protest on the 14th anniversary of the arrest of the jailed leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan.

A number of firefighters and ambulances were dispatched to the scene in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Öcalan, who was captured in Kenya on Feb. 15, 1999, is currently serving a life sentence on İmralı island prison in the Sea of Marmara.

 

Jan. 21 Sarai Sierra, an American woman who went missing in Istanbul in Jan. 21, was killed with a single blow to the head. AA photo

 

When it comes to propaganda Turkish Government always win Snake oil salesman-ship. seizes huge arms cache to Syria?

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When it comes to propaganda Turkish Government always win Snake oil salesman-ship.

n_41078_4Ankara attempts to silence observers who say it is arming Syrian opposition militants, claiming to have seized arms destined for the Arab republic

Hundreds of rifles, shotguns and bullets that were to be sent from Turkey to violence-plagued Syria have been seized over the last month by Turkish security forces,

customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazıcı said yesterday.

In- FACTS right…all the “rifles” the police are displaying in the picture…they are pellet rifles. They are useful for shooting rabbits, squirrels and rats, not people. These are not FIRE ARMS…they are airguns for sport shooting only!!!

Jihadists seize Syria town on Iraq border: NGO

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BEIRUT – Agence France-Presse

n_41126_4Syrian rebels from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front on Thursday seized the town of Shadadeh in the oil-rich northeastern province of Hasake, on the border with Iraq, a monitoring group said.

“After three days of fierce battles against the army, Al-Nusra Front fighters have seized control of Shadadeh,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists, doctors and lawyers for its reporting.
Fighting and car bomb attacks by the jihadists left more than 100 troops dead in three days, during which 30 Al-Nusra Front fighters also died, five of whom were from Kuwait, said the Observatory.
“Dozens of employees” working for the state oil company were also killed in the rebel assault on the town, said the watchdog, without elaborating.
Further west, pro-regime media on Thursday admitted the army’s loss to Islamist fighters of Base 80, a strategic army complex tasked with securing the nearby Aleppo international airport and military airports in the area.
“The army is preparing to retake control of Base 80,” Al-Watan daily said, adding that “hundreds of armed men” were killed in fighting over the complex.
Elsewhere in the strife-torn country, the army made its own military advance, seizing a key district in the central city of Homs after several weeks of fierce fighting, said the Observatory.
“The army has entered Jobar in western Homs, and rebel fighters have withdrawn from the district,” said the group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman.

The victory comes a week after the army took control of Kafraya, also in southwestern Homs.
Activist refer to Homs city as “the capital of the revolution” and several of its districts have been suffocated by a siege for some eight months.
On January 19, the army launched an all-out bid to secure the route linking Damascus to the coast, which runs through western Homs but has so far failed to take complete control.
In violence elsewhere in Homs province, the air force bombarded “for the 10th day in a row” the ancient city of Palmyra, activist Mohammed al-Khatib told AFP via the Internet.
Warplanes also raided the nearby town of Rastan, which has been out of the control of the army for at least a year, said the Observatory.
“Homs province is strategic to the regime because it is the largest in the country and because it links Damascus to the coast,” said Abu Rawan, a Rastan-based activists.
“The army will do all it can to take back rebel-controlled territory,” he added.

Turkey refused to extradite bin Laden’s son-in-law to US

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By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |

Turkish authorities have reportedly rejected a formal extradition request by the United States for a son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, who was arrested in Ankara on Friday following a tip-off by the Central Intelligence Agency. Suleiman Abu Ghaith was born in Kuwait but had his citizenship revoked after publicly opposing the rule of the ghaithKuwaiti monarchy and demanding the institution of shari’a law in the oil emirate. In 2000, he traveled to Afghanistan where he met Osama bin Laden and joined al-Qaeda. He eventually married Fatima bin Laden, one of bin Laden’s numerous daughters, who is currently living in Saudi Arabia. He gradually rose within the ranks of the organization, eventually becoming one of its public spokesmen. Soon after the US invasion of Afghanistan, in 2001, Ghaith is believed to have escaped from Afghanistan by entering Iran on foot. He was eventually captured by Iranian government forces and placed in a detention camp along with other suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban members. It is not known how he managed to leave Iran and enter Turkey (though some say he was released the by Iranian authorities), or how the CIA knew of his presence there. However, according to Turkey’s leading daily Milliyet, the Agency contacted members of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (known as MİT) and told them that Ghaith had entered the country on a forged passport. He was arrested soon afterwards at a hotel in Ankara’s affluent Çankaya district. The hotel where Ghaith was captured is reportedly located near the official residence of the Turkish President and a stone’s throw from numerous foreign embassies —including the embassy of the US, which was attacked by a suicide bomber on February 1. Turkish officials have said that Ghaith’s presence in the Turkish capital was not connected with the attack on the US embassy, which is believed to have been carried out by a secular Marxist group. Interestingly, notes Milliyet, a Turkish judge refused to detain Ghaith because “he had not committed any criminal act while in Turkey” other than entering the country on a forged passport. Soon after his court hearing, Ghaith was turned over to the Turkish military, which deported him back to Iran. In doing so, the Turkish authorities rejected an official US request for Ghaith’s extradition, claiming that they were obligated to return bin Laden’s son-in-law to Iran due to a host of “technical reasons”. Turkey has repeatedly refused to collaborate with US counterterrorism agencies in recent years, citing concerns about Washington’s alleged favorable treatment of Kurdish interests in Northern Iraq, and its alleged support of Israel in its ongoing dispute with Turkey.

Visit http://intelnews.org/ for more..

Armenia-Iran relations could serve an example for other countries: Mohammad Reisi

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12:56, 12 February, 2013

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 12, ARMENPRESS: There is a willingness to cooperate with Armenia pertain to various fields aimed at developing the relations between the two Iran Ambasadorcountries. Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Armenia, Mohammad Reisi had a briefing with the reporters on February 12. Ambassador noted he  is proud for these relations, Armenpress reports.

”These relations may serve an example for other countries. I am ready to care no efforts to further develop the cooperation. The heads of the two countries show readiness in this issue”, Ambassador stated. In the words of Ambassador there are numerous  new projects, the exploiting of railway is one of the major projects, which will  further contribute to the Armenia- Iran relations. According to the Ambassador Armenia has all the opportunities to develop cattle breeding and reportedly cooperation may be developed in that sphere as well. Yet as of now there is no practical cooperation in that sphere”.

The relations between Islamic Republic of Iran and Armenia date for ages. Those relations are friendly and based on mutual respect.  The relations between Armenia and Iran have recorded success in regional and bilateral cooperation sphere in 2012. Mutual visits have been paid by high ranking officials during the year.

Sibel Edmonds lays out the thread connecting NATO’s Gladio operations to Turkish paramilitaries and ultra-nationalists, (Podcast)

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Posted by

http://www.corbettreport.com/interview-595-sibel-edmonds-on-nato-terrorism-911-and-drug-running/

In this ground-breaking interview, famed FBI whistleblower and Boiling Frogs Post founder Sibel Edmonds lays out the thread connecting NATO’s Gladio operations to Turkish paramilitaries and ultra-nationalists, and how the operation continues through cooperation with terrorists and the Islamization of Central Asia and the Caucasus. From Abdullah Çatlı’s remarkable life (and death) to the rise of Fethullah Gulen’s $25 billion (CIA-supported) Islamic network to the NATO takeover of the Afghan poppy crop in the wake of 9/11, you won’t want to miss a moment of this riveting conversation

To listen to the Podcast click here

Abdullah Çatlı – Note: Wikipedia page omits key details of prison escape, etc.

Deep State Coup Averted in Turkey

Turkish Intel Chief Exposes CIA Operations via Islamic Group in Central Asia

Additional Omitted Points in CIA-Gulen coverage & A Note from ‘The Insider’

New York Times’ Exposé: Imam Gulen’s Charter Schools