Snowden: American media ‘abdicated their role as check to power’

August 14, 2013 By administrator

(L-R) Laura Poitras (Reuters / Lucy Nicholson), Edward Snowden (AFP Photo / The Guardian) and Glenn Greenwald (Reuters / Sergio Moraes)

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has gone on the offensive against his critics in the US, accusing the mainstream media there of failing their audiences “for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market.”

In a rare interview, Snowden explained why he chose a UK journalist and a documentary filmmaker for his leaks.

In an encrypted e-mail correspondence with journalist Peter Maass, the former NSA contractor-turned-whistleblower presented his candid opinion of the US media and what finally persuaded him to go public on the NSA’s worldwide surveillance program.

The heightened level of nationalism prevalent in the United States following the attacks of 9/11 precluded US media from engaging in any serious discussion on the excesses of government behavior for fear of seeming “unpatriotic,” Snowden argued in the interview published in The New York Times – his first since gaining temporary asylum in Russia.

“After 9/11, many of the most important news outlets in America abdicated their role as a check to power — the journalistic responsibility to challenge the excesses of government — for fear of being seen as unpatriotic and punished in the market during a period of heightened nationalism,” the NY Times reported Snowden as saying.

The former CIA employee said this strategy by the American media establishment had “ended up costing the public dearly.”

Snowden then revealed what led him to divulge his explosive information to Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who served first as an intermediary between Snowden and Glenn Greenwald, an investigative journalist with The Guardian, and now with Maass.

“Laura and Glenn are among the few who reported fearlessly on controversial topics throughout this period, even in the face of withering personal criticism, and resulted in Laura specifically becoming targeted by the very programs involved in the recent disclosures,” Snowden said.

Poitras “demonstrated the courage, personal experience and skill needed to handle what is probably the most dangerous assignment any journalist can be given — reporting on the secret misdeeds of the most powerful government in the world,” Snowden said in the NY Times interview, adding that those qualifications made her “an obvious choice.”

Source: RT.com

Anti-government protests begin in Bahrain amidst tight security

August 14, 2013 By administrator

Anti-government protesters holding Bahraini flags march along the streets of the village of Saar during an anti-government protest, west of Manama, August 14, 2013 (Reuters / Hamad I Mohammed)

Police have reportedly used tear gas to contain long-planned protests in the Gulf State of Bahrain. The country’s Shi’ite majority is demanding a greater say in the political decisions of the Sunni-ruled country.

The long-planned protests mark two-and-a-half years since the unsuccessful uprising in the oil-rich state during which protesters called for the abdication of King Hamad, who has been in power since 1999.

Throngs walked through capital Manama shouting “Democracy! Democracy!”, as police erected barriers and checkpoints through many of the main streets.

Despite government threats to use force ahead of what they claim to be foreign-backed “riots” many in the villages outside Manama protested by organizing sit-ins outside their houses. Eyewitnesses say police have cordoned off some Shi’ite villages and forced the demonstrators inside their houses.

No casualties have been reported so far.

Egypt: ElBaradei Resigns After Camp ‘Massacre’

August 14, 2013 By administrator

More than 140 people have been confirmed killed after Egyptian security forces opened fire as they tried to clear two protest camps loyal to deposed president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo.

A month-long state of emergency has been declared as violence spread from the capital to other parts of the country including the Mediterranean city of Alexandria.

A curfew from 7pm to 6am has been declared in Cairo, according to reports, as well as ten other provinces including Alexandria and Suez.

The health ministry put the number of dead in Cairo at 149, with hundreds more injured. But the Muslim Brotherhood claimed hundreds had been killed.

Egypt’s vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, has now announced his resignation.

Sky’s Middle East Correspondent Sam Kiley, reporting from inside the Rabaa al Adawiya camp in the capital, said it was “under very heavy gunfire” and was a “massive military assault on largely unarmed civilians in very large numbers”.

He said government forces were using machine guns, snipers, AK-47 and M16 rifles and were firing into the crowd.

Kiley added: “There are machine gun rounds, and snipers on the roof, that are preventing people from getting any closer to the field hospital (in the camp).

Karabakh calls for cooperation with Azerbaijan

August 14, 2013 By administrator

August 14, 2013 | 16:41

The Nagorno-Karabakh government expressed readiness to start dialogue with Azerbaijan on joint management of water resources, Karabakh Premier Arthur Aghabekyan told RFE/RL Armenian service.

He said the matter concerns the Sarsang reservoir, as well as waters flowing from Tartar River.

“Sarsang reservoir has more capacity than it is currently used. Both the Armenian and Azerbaijani sides will gain from proper use of water canals that were built during the Soviet era,” Aghabekyan said.

Unless Azerbaijan responds to cooperation calls, the Karabakh government will be obliged to make large investments in border regions to pump water resources located in the border areas only for its own territory.

If a dialogue is established, water resources can be used for the benefit of two sides.

“Eventually, it is a neighboring state. Today they are enemy, but tomorrow they can turn into merely an opponent. We have to prepare nations for peace gradually,” he said, noting Karabakh side’s readiness for near-border cooperation which envisages maintaining of ceasefire regime and mutual tolerance.

Residents of Terter region of Azerbaijan have recently staged several protest actions demanding that local authorities should provide water for agricultural works.

Turkey media crackdown: Who to blame?

August 13, 2013 By administrator

By Selin Girit BBC Turkish

Press freedom has become a burning issue in Turkey after the police crackdown on protesters in Istanbul’s Gezi Park and the way Turkish media initially avoided covering it.

As police fought running battles with protesters in June the mainstream news channels opted to air documentaries – including, infamously, one about penguins.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently remarked: “Not everyone has to like us. I’m being frank. There is no such obligation.”

That appeared to suggest tolerance for opposing views. But many sacked journalists are sceptical.

Since the Gezi Park protests – the biggest challenge yet to the AKP government after 11 years in power – at least 75 journalists have been fired or have resigned, the Turkish Journalists’ Union says.

Tugce Tatari was one of them. She has been a columnist since 2007 for the daily Aksam, which was taken over by a Turkish state-run fund, TMSF, in May this year. Soon after, a number of journalists lost their jobs, herself included.

Ms Tatari says they were sacked because of their coverage of Gezi Park, where anger over redevelopment plans mushroomed into wider criticism of the government.

“Those who opposed the PM, who objected to him in their columns, those who said the police used excessive force, were all fired, one by one. There was a crisis in the country.

“For the first time, there was a mass movement. The PM wants everyone who has spoken out about this to be sacked, because he cannot tolerate any sort of criticism.”

Media bosses’ other businesses

Dogan Group: Energy, retail, tourism, finance, industrial
Demiroren Group: Gas, construction, education, industrial
Ciner Group: Energy, mining, industrial, service sector
Dogus Group: Banking, finance, automotive, construction, tourism, energy, restaurant chains
Calik Group: Textiles, energy, construction, finance, telecoms, mining

Source: Turkish Journalists’ Union

Government pressure?

Another prominent columnist, Can Dundar, was one of the latest casualties.

He was dismissed from the daily Milliyet, after three weeks of uncertainty when his columns were not published.

“I am not the first, and I will not be the last,” Mr Dundar wrote in his personal blog after his dismissal.

Mr Dundar’s case sparked a huge debate in Turkish media, with a fellow journalist claiming the prime minister’s adviser Yalcin Akdogan had played a significant role in the process. Mr Akdogan denied that. The BBC contacted him, but he declined to comment.

Mr Dundar was also sacked from a television channel two years ago after having attended a protest about arrested journalists.

Speaking to the BBC, he said: “We have been told Mr Akdogan made a call. But the government then defends itself, saying ‘we never said such things’. So the blame rests on media bosses or editors. If they are really disgruntled about this, they need to speak out. They need to do this, not only for press freedom in Turkey but also for the future of Turkish democracy.”

Mr Erdogan’s conservative, Islamist-rooted party increased its majority in the last election. When it first came to power there were high hopes that the AKP would democratise Turkey, after years of military interference in politics.

Landmark trial

Earlier this month 22 journalists were given sentences ranging from six years to life imprisonment in the Ergenekon case, alongside senior military officers, politicians and academics convicted of plotting a coup against the AKP government.

The government says the imprisoned journalists are being held not because of their journalism but because of criminal acts.

However, the campaign group Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 154th out of 179 countries – putting its record on press freedom below those of Iraq, Afghanistan or Russia.

More journalists are imprisoned in Turkey than anywhere else in the world.

The Turkish Journalists’ Union says 63 journalists are still behind bars in Turkey, while more than 120 journalists have been released pending trial.

Today critics of the AKP government claim they have borrowed tactics previously used by the military to influence the media.

In 1997 pressure from the military forced the resignation of an Islamist prime minister. During that period several columnists were sacked, headlines were manipulated, and certain Islamist papers were banned from military press conferences.

Many claim that now the government “whispers” to media bosses or editors, complains about certain headlines, phones the broadcast news galleries and even boycotts those who fail to meet specific demands.

But a columnist for the conservative daily Zaman, Mumtazer Turkone, says such things never happen. “Someone from the government never says, ‘If you do not do this, we will not do that’ directly. These measures are applied by the media bosses. Or maybe the papers are too sensitive to government reactions, so they apply these measures themselves.”

According to Akif Beki, a former adviser to Mr Erdogan and now columnist for the daily Radikal, it is the media bosses and not the government who are to blame for the increasing number of sacked journalists.

He told the BBC that “it is not like the government asked for these 70-80 journalists to be fired and then media bosses showed them the door”. He insisted that each case had to be considered individually.

But he also said the AKP government had failed to rid itself of “old reflexes” towards the media.

“They can still perceive criticism as a rejection of their existence, a categorical denial of their being. That is why they sometimes overreact.”

The BBC contacted four government ministers, but none was available for comment.

Powerful conglomerates

Some critics point to a questionable relationship between media bosses and the government, via their activity in other industrial sectors.

There is no judicial or ethical code preventing these media moguls bidding for public contracts.

Recently the winning bidder to build Istanbul’s planned third airport paid $60m for media assets that had been seized by the state, including the daily Aksam.

Professor of Communications Haluk Sahin from Bilgi University says the state “is one of the biggest actors in the Turkish economy.

“The PM may decide personally who is going to win which government auction, which contract will go to whom. Media bosses who happen to be businessmen have started to act on the suggestions made to them directly or indirectly and carry out instructions, in order to do business with the state. It is obvious that media bosses prefer to win contracts rather than make news.”

A $2.5bn (£1.6bn) tax bill imposed on the Dogan conglomerate in 2009 was an example of the pressure the government can bring to bear on media owners.

Can Dundar fears that Turkey may be in a downward spiral.

“I suppose they will continue the suppression until all the papers in Turkey come out with the same headlines, until all the columns write about the same things. We’re almost there,” he lamented.

Ancient church found in Aegean province of Denizli dates back 1,500 years

August 13, 2013 By administrator

DENİZLİ – Anadolu Agency

A church that dates back 1,500 years was unearthed during excavations at Denizli’s ancient city of Tripolis. The church will open to visitors at the end of the year after being covered with a wooden material just like the original, say officials. A church found in the ancient city of Tripolis in the Aegean province of Denizli’s Buldan district dates back 1,500 years and will open to visitors at the end of the year. It will be covered with a wooden material.
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The archaeological excavations have been carried out for two years by Pamukkale University in the Lycian city of Tripolis, which was located at the junction point of Phrygia, Karia and Lydia in the Hellenistic period. The city was surrounded with walls in the early Roman period.

In last year’s excavations, georadar work revealed a marketplace in good condition. This year during excavations next to the marketplace, a church, which is in very good condition until its roof level, was found. The earth in the church has been cleaned and its roof will be covered with a wooden material just like the original before being opened to visitors.

The head of the Tripolis ancient city excavations, Professor Bahadır Duman, said the history of the first settlement place in the ancient city dated back to the Hellenistic period in the 3rd century B.C.

Byzantium church

“One of our most important findings in 2013 excavations is this church from the early Byzantium period in the 6th century. But the frescos and icons on the walls of the church show us that worship continued here until the 10th century. The church is in 21 by five meters in size and seven meters in height. Local stones of the region were used in the construction of the church, mostly travertine. The floor covering is made up of marble and travertine. It has three sections, which are the narthex, naos and atrium. We are currently working on the restoration of the church. At the end of this season, we plan to open it,” said Duman.

He said the church remained original aside from its roof. “As roofs were generally wooden in the ancient era, it was unprotected against natural conditions such as erosion and earthquakes, and it collapsed. But we will finish its restoration and revive it. Another significance of the church is that worship continued for 400 years between the 6th and 10th centuries. When compared to other churches in the region, it is a small church but better protected.”

Duman said the walls of the church had figures of Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary and the 12 apostles. “Iconoclasm existed in Christianity in the 8th and 9th centuries. This structure consists of frescos made in 10th century after the iconoclasm period.”

The church is located on an important route, Duman said. “The ancient city of Philadelphia in Manisa Alaşehir is in the northwest of Tripolis. It is one of the seven churches mentioned in the Bible. One of these churches is also located in Laodicea in 40 kilometer south of our ancient city. Therefore, Tripolis is on the pilgrimage route between these two holy cities. We have found four churches in two years, and this church is one of them. Pilgrims will visit it since it is on the pilgrimage route.”

Armenian Church in Turkey Demands List of ‘Categorized’ Armenians

August 13, 2013 By administrator

ISTANBUL—The director of a Turkey-based Armenian church organization has asked the Interior Ministry to submit to it the list of Armenians codified in Turkish records as ethnic minorities.

Nazar Ozsahakian, the Chairman of the Holy Trinity Episcopal Foundation, has demanded the list, citing a Turkish law on freedom of information as a justified reason for accessing the records.

Knowledge about the Turkish government’s secret use of codes to categorize minority citizens was discovered last week by the Turkish-Armenian news agency Agos, despite evidently being in use since 1923. Armenians are marked with a number 2, Greeks are marked with 1, and Jews with number 3 in Turkish government registries.

Ozsahakian has told the Ministry’s Population and Citizens’ department that the list of Armenians residing in the Istanbul region is necessary for them ahead of the foundation elections.

“Since 1923, the Armenian community has been marked with code number ‘2’ in the population registers; the records are available in your agency. It is mainly the voters in the Sariyer region that elect [members of] the Bolajikyo Holy Trinity Episcopal Foundation. The Armenian community members of Sariyer are the main voters of our church’s foundation. But we are planning to conduct the election outside of the region as well, involving also the voters currently residing in Istanbul in order to allow for a more democratic poll. Hence, pursuant to the Law on Information, we request you to provide the Armenian community’s list, which bears the code number two,” reads the request.

Azeri Opposition Leader Tries to Appeal to Karabakh Armenians

August 13, 2013 By administrator

MOSCOW (RFE/RL)—A prominent filmmaker who is expected to be Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s main challenger in an upcoming presidential election has advocated a radical change of Azerbaijan’s strategy of winning back Nagorno-Karabakh.

In an interview with the Georgian Times daily newspaper, Rustam Ibragimbekov said Baku should avoid antagonizing Karabakh’s predominantly Armenian population with threats of military action.

“I am categorically against saber-rattling and declarations that Armenians must be wiped out,” Ibragimbekov said. “You can’t solve conflicts with weapons in the 21st century.”

“If there is a truly democratic situation and no corruption in Azerbaijan … if Armenians, who are clever and pragmatic people, see that living in a Karabakh belonging to Azerbaijan is much better than living in a Karabakh belonging to Armenia, they will live just like they did for centuries,” added the screenwriter who has spent much of his life in Russia.

Ibragimbekov also suggested that the governments of both Azerbaijan and Armenia are interested in the Karabakh status quo. “They pretend to be making attempts at resolving the conflict because it’s a source of uncontrolled profits on both sides. It’s a source of power. It’s an instrument for putting the country in a state of war at any moment.”

“I believe that the problem should be lowered from a narrow circle of individuals to the popular level,” stressed the 74-year-old.

Azerbaijan regularly threatens to forcibly regain control over Karabakh and other Armenian-controlled territories surrounding the disputed enclave. Over the past decade, Aliyev’s government has spent billions of dollars in oil revenues on a massive military buildup which it says will eventually force the Armenians to give up Karabakh.

Ibragimbekov, whose works include the Oscar-winning Russian movie “Burnt by the Sun” and the Soviet classic “White Sun of the Desert,” was chosen by Azerbaijan’s leading opposition groups last month as their single candidate in the election slated for October. The filmmaker has been absent from Azerbaijan for the past several months. He has expressed fears that he will be arrested on charges of tax evasion if he returns to the country.

Armenian Genocide memorial project to be reviewed in Pasadena

August 13, 2013 By administrator

August 13, 2013 – 09:56 AMT

In couple of years, Armenians all over the world will be commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century when 1.5 million Armenians were massacred.

To keep the memory of 1.5 million Armenians alive, 166 memorial monuments have been erected in 33 countries worldwide. Those who erected the monuments want the history to stay alive and the people of the world to be informed of that barbaric event.

The Armenian community in Pasadena wanted to bring their share in the commemoration effort. The Pasadena Armenian Genocide Memorial Committee has planned a very impressive memorial to be constructed in Pasadena Memorial Park by 2015, with adequate informational inscriptions about the genocide, PASAGMC said in a press release.

On July 16, 2013, the Recreation and Parks Commission unanimously approved the proposed design by Catherine Menard, a student at the Pasadena Art Center College of Design.

The City of Pasadena has scheduled the City Council hearing for September 9 for the review and approval of the memorial design.

The PASAGMC asks the community members attend the City Council hearing and show support of the proposed memorial project.

Azerbaijani Opposition Nominates Presidential Candidate

August 12, 2013 By administrator

By RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service August 12, 2013

BAKU — Azerbaijan’s opposition National Council of Democratic Forces has officially nominated Oscar-winning screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov as its presidential

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candidate.

Elman Mammadzade, the chairman of the council’s task force, which will register Ibragimbekov for the race, told journalists on August 12 that the necessary documents will be filed with the Central Election Commission at the earliest opportunity.

Ibragimbekov, 74, was proposed by an opposition coalition last month as the presidential candidate to challenge incumbent President Ilham Aliyev on October 9.

Ibragimbekov said earlier that he is staying out of Azerbaijan at present, because of the threat of being arrested in Baku and the lengthy process of giving up his joint Russian citizenship in order to be an eligible candidate.