Brussels attacks: ‘Months’ until airport fully reopens

March 29, 2016 By administrator

It will take months to reopen Brussels airport fully, its CEO has warned, as staff return to the site a week after it was targeted by Islamist bombers.

Arnaud Feist said he hoped the airport would open at 20% capacity on Wednesday but “it’ll take months before we are running at full capacity”.

Thirty-five people were killed and 96 more are still in hospital after bombs targeted the airport and a metro train.

The airport is carrying out tests to assess whether it can resume flights.

EU institutions reopened on Tuesday, amid beefed-up security measures. Increased searches on bags and vehicles are being introduced at the European Parliament while many events organised by non-EU bodies have been suspended.

Some 800 airport workers were asked to return to work on Monday to test provisional arrangements involving a temporary check-in area. Enhanced security measures are being introduced in the temporary building and further screening of baggage will take place before passengers reach the departure lounge.

The airport will only be allowed to reopen if the government gives the green light, with an initial target of 800 to 1,000 passengers per hour as opposed to the airport’s average of 5,000.

“The provisional structure will not be able to absorb the usual number we had before the attacks,” Mr Feist told Belgian media.

“Although the structure of the building is intact, it will all have to be rebuilt, from the air conditioning to the check-in desks. And that will take months,” he predicted.

Attacks on Brussels airport, metro kill 34: public broadcaster

March 22, 2016 By administrator

Reuters

BRUSSELS: Thirty-four people were killed in attacks on Brussels airport and a rush-hour metro train in the Belgian capital Tuesday, according to public broadcaster VRT, triggering security alerts across Europe and bringing some cross-border traffic to a halt.

A witness said he heard shouts in Arabic and shots shortly before two blasts struck a packed airport departure lounge at Brussels airport. The federal prosecutor said one of the explosions was probably triggered by a suicide bomber.

The blasts occurred four days after the arrest in Brussels of a suspected participant in November militant attacks in Paris that killed 130 people. Belgian police and combat troops on the streets had been on alert for reprisal but the attacks took place in crowded areas where people and bags are not searched.

All public transport in Brussels was shut down, as it was in London during 2005 extremist militant attacks there that killed 52. Authorities appealed to citizens not to use overloaded telephone networks, extra troops were sent into the city and the Belgian Crisis Center, clearly wary of a further incident, appealed to the population: “Stay where you are.”

British Sky News television’s Alex Rossi, at the airport, said he heard two “very, very loud explosions.”

“I could feel the building move. There was also dust and smoke as well … I went towards where the explosion came from and there were people coming out looking very dazed and shocked.”

VRT said police had found a Kalashnikov assault rifle next to the body of an attacker at the airport. Such weapons have become a trademark of ISIS-inspired attacks in Europe, notably in Belgium and France, including on Nov. 13 in Paris.

An unused explosive belt was also found in the area, the public broadcaster said. Police were continuing to scour the airport for any further bombs or attackers.

Alphonse Youla, 40, who works at the airport, told Reuters he heard a man shouting out in Arabic before the first explosion. “Then the glass ceiling of the airport collapsed.”

“I helped carry out five people dead, their legs destroyed,” he said, his hands covered in blood.

A witness said the blasts occurred at a check-in desk.

Video showed devastation in the hall with ceiling tiles and glass scattered across the floor. Some passengers emerged from the terminal with blood spattered over their clothes. Smoke rose from the building through shattered windows and passengers fled down a slipway, some still hauling their bags.

Public broadcaster RTBF said police were searching houses in the Brussels area.

VRT said 20 were killed in the metro train and 14 at the airport. Authorities had earlier put the toll at 11 in the airport bombing and 15 in the underground train.

Many of the dead and wounded at the airport were badly injured in the legs, one airport worker told Reuters, suggesting at least one bomb in a bag on the floor.

Britain, Germany, France and the Netherlands, all wary of spillover from conflict in Syria, were among states announcing extra security measures.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel spoke of “a black time for our country.”

“What we feared has come to pass. Our country has been struck by attacks which are blind, violent and cowardly.”

The blast hit the train as it left Maelbeek station, close to European Union institutions, heading to the city centre.

The VRT public broadcaster carried a photograph of a metro carriage at a platform with doors and windows completely blown out, its structure deformed and interior mangled and charred.

A local journalist tweeted a photograph of a person lying covered in blood among smoke outside Maelbeek metro station, on the main Rue de la Loi avenue which connects central Brussels with the EU institutions. Ambulances were ferrying the wounded away and sirens rang out across the area.

‘WE ARE AT WAR’

“We are at war and we have been subjected to acts of war in Europe for the last few months,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said.

Public broadcaster VTM said the Tihange nuclear power plant had been evacuated as part of the security clampdown.

Brussels airport said it had cancelled all flights until at least 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday and the complex had been evacuated and trains to the airport had been stopped. Passengers were taken to coaches from the terminal that would remove them to a secure area.

All three main long-distance rail stations in Brussels were closed and train services on the cross-channel tunnel from London to Brussels were suspended.

Security services have been on a high state of alert across western Europe for fear of militant attacks backed by ISIS, which claimed responsibility for the Paris attack.

While most European airports are known for stringent screening procedures of passengers and their baggage, that typically takes place only once passengers have checked in and are heading to the departure gates.

Although there may be discreet surveillance, there is nothing to prevent member of the public walking in to the departure hall at Zaventem airport with heavy baggage.

Following an attempted ramraid attack at Glasgow Airport in 2007, several airports stepped up security at entrances by altering the pick-up and drop-off zones to prevent private cars getting too close to terminal buildings.

European stocks fell after the explosions, particularly travel sector stocks including airlines and hotels, pulling the broader indices down from multi-week highs. Safe-haven assets, gold and government bonds rose in price.

The attacks appeared to be linked to the arrest of French citizen Salah Abdeslam – the prime surviving suspect for November’s Paris attacks on a stadium, cafes and a concert hall – who was captured by Belgian police after a shootout on Friday.

Belgium’s Interior Minister, Jan Jambon, said Monday the country was on high alert for a revenge attack.

It was not clear what failings if any allowed the plan for Tuesday’s operation to go ahead and whether the double attack was planned in advance or put together at short notice.

“We know that stopping one cell can … push others into action. We are aware of it in this case,” Jambon said.

Bangkok airport safety issues ‘must be addressed’

February 19, 2016 By administrator

The airline industry has called on the Thai government to address problems at the country’s main airport in Bangkok, the BBC reports.

The International Air Transport Association (Iata) says Suvarnabhumi airport has inadequate capacity and substandard taxiways.

The criticism follows safety warnings last year from another air industry organisation about Thailand’s regulation and inspection of airlines.

The government has set up two bodies to oversee airports and airlines.

However, it has asked for more time to meet international standards.

Suvarnabhumi airport was opened nearly ten years ago. It is Thailand’s main international gateway but Iata says it is now operating beyond its capacity, and needs to be expanded.

“Aviation is critical to Thailand’s economic success. It is the backbone of the tourism industry and provides critical global business links,” Iata’s director general Tony Tyler says in a statement.

“It is in jeopardy, however, unless key issues of safety, capacity and costs are addressed urgently.”

The organisation also urged the Thai authorities to fix the problem of ‘soft spots’ in poor quality tarmac at Suvarnabhumi airport, where airliners sometimes got stuck and had to be pulled out.

Thailand is already struggling to address last year’s warnings from the United Nation’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), about a shortage of inspectors to check safety procedures among Thai airlines.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) subsequently downgraded its safety rating of Thailand’s aviation authority, finding that Thailand did not comply with the ICAO’s safety standards.

Iata also said safety oversight concerns raised by both the ICAO and the US FAA must be addressed.

Artsakh Determined to Open Stepanakert Airport for ‘People’s Right to Free Movement’

November 3, 2015 By administrator

STEPANAKERT (ARMENPRESS)—Head of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s government civil aviation agency said he is optimistic that flights from Stepanakert’s airport will take off in the future, but refrained from commenting on specific dates.

In discussing the airport with journalists on Tuesday, Dmitry Atbashyan emphasized that delays in opening the airport were purely political.

“Azerbaijan constantly voiced threats that they would strike plane[s],” Atbashyan said, saying that the airport was ready to transport civilians despite the threats.

According to Atbashyan, Stepanakert’s airport has certain equipment that even Baku and Yerevan do not have, noting that the equipment, which was not specified, even surprised French senators who were in Karabakh earlier this year.

Atbashyan emphasized that people have the right to free movement, and that their freedom should not have any connection with the status of the territory they lived in. If the people of Azerbaijan have that right, why does it not apply to the people of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, he asked.

German Company is Top Tax Evader in Greece

July 14, 2015 By administrator

by Sotiria Nikoloul,

A German company was found to be the biggest tax evader in Greece. A court in Athens found that Hochtief, the German company that was running the “Eleftherios Venizelos” Athens International airport was not paying VAT for 20 years. It is estimated that Hochtief, will have to pay more than 500 million Euros for VAT arrears. Together with other outstanding payments, like those to social security funds, it might have to py more than 1 billion Euros.

It must be noted that under the “Troika” austerity programme Greek employees lost around 400 million Euros from cuts to their salaries.

Hochtief, which is the biggest German Construction company, specializing in airports, was also running the Athens International airport through a subsidiary until 2013, when it sold it’s share to a Canadian company.
(source: neurope)

The Irish Times: Azerbaijan threatens to shoot down any aircraft landing at NKR airport

July 8, 2015 By administrator

Karabakh-Airport

The blue-and-white bird-like structure of Nagorno Karabakh’s airport perches in the Caucasus Mountains like a shining, defiant emblem of national pride. However, there are no passengers – and no aircraft. The only way to get there remains a six-hour drive from Yerevan through the mountains. The reason: any flights that land at or leave this airport will come under fire from Azerbaijani troops, The Irish Times writes.

The airport, destroyed in the war, reopened four years ago. Dmitri Atbashyan, head of the statelet’s civil aviation authority, said that in 2011, they wanted to start flights, but Azerbaijan intervened – they said they would shoot down the aircraft. The threats are not exaggerated. Last year three military personnel died after Azerbaijani troops shot down their helicopter, The Irish Times points.

According to the article, Atbashyan is proud to show off the airport – and tout its advantages as a flying school, in which lessons involve close-range sorties. “You can get your pilot’s licence here for $6,000 [€5,400]; in the US it will cost you $31,000. And we have some of the best pilots,” he says.

As if on cue, instructor Samuel Tavadyan, an ex-military man, starts up a small Zenith plane and takes off. After landing, he jumps out and walks away as though he has parked a car, The Irish Times writes.

According to the article, the airport’s staff are kept on the payroll and all systems remain running “because with such sophisticated machines, it would be too expensive to turn them off”, says Atbashyan. He stresses that every aspect of the facility complies with international standards.

“The UN Declaration of Human Rights grants everyone freedom of movement,” he says. “This shouldn’t depend on the status of the country of that person.”

As the President Sahakyan concedes, it is not easy to run a nation at war over its very existence. “Of course we think we have to settle this issue with our neighbour,” he tells The Irish Times. “We want to discuss, we want to negotiate. Unfortunately, the other side is rejecting our proposals.”

Source: Panorama.am

Diyarbakır: Zuart Sudjian has filed a lawsuit claiming the New Batman Airport had inherited

February 23, 2015 By administrator

By Uygar Gültekin

Diyarbakır Airport lawsuite

Following the land dispute involving the plot on which Diyarbakır Airport today stands, the land plot on which Batman Airport stands has also become the subject of a lawsuit. Zuart Sudjian has filed a case claiming that the State had built an airport on the plot she had inherited. Sudjian’s land in nearby Diyarbakır had also been appropriated by the State, and the Diyarbakır Airport was built on a part of her plot. report Agos

Zuart Sudjian is an Armenian whose family roots go back to Diyarbakır. Sudjian is a member of the Basmacıyan family from Diyarbakır, and she lives in Diyarbakır today. Sudjian found out that the land she had inherited from her family had been appropriated by the State during cadastral work, upon which she launched a legal process and applied to court for the return of her land. According to her application, like in Diyarbakır, an airport had been built on Sudjian’s land in Batman. The Batman 2^nd Court of First Instance accepted her application and opened a lawsuit.

Villagers claim rejected because it belonged to ‘disappeared’ Armenians

The story of the land is also interesting. According to the case file, after the family left Turkey, the land was used by villagers for many years. The cadastral survey in question was carried out in 1960. However, during the cadastral work, the villagers claimed that the use rights of the land belonged to them, and filed a lawsuit for the land to be given to them. In 1963, the Batman Cadastral Court rejected the application of the villagers. In its reasoned decision, the court stated that the land plot in question had been transferred to the Treasury from Armenians who had ‘disappeared’ 40 years ago and belonged to the Treasury since then, and that the villagers who had filed the lawsuit had no rights over the land, and rejected their case. This is the most important official document on the ownership of the land.

Court accepts case

Sudjian’s lawyers presented the 1963 decision of the Cadastral Court as evidence in the new case. The lawyers stated that the registration carried out by the Treasury was “irregular” and demanded the annulment of the registration, and the payment of compensation.

The lawyers also pointed out to the fact that in the other case involving the Diyarbakır Airport land, the prior decision of the court to reject the case on the basis of the expiry of the 10-year period involving the loss of rights had been annulled by the Court of Cassation and demanded the acceptance of the file. The court thus accepted the file and launched the case. The court will begin survey work following the examination of the cadastral records of the land plot and the land deeds presented by the lawyers.

Iraq, Kurdish tycoon, islamic state, fishy business!

November 22, 2014 By administrator

Kurdish Peshmerga troops participate in an intensive security deployment against Islamic State militants in Zumar (photo: Reuters)

The landing of a mysterious Russian plane at Baghdad airport has added to suspicions that Islamic State is acquiring weapons through the illicit sale of oil, writes Salah Nasrawi.

The news was first broadcast by a Jordan-based television channel owned by an Iraqi Kurdish tycoon known for his involvement in dubious business deals. A Russian cargo plane carrying tons of weapons had reportedly landed at Baghdad airport on 2 November.

According to Al-Tagheir TV, the plane landed in Baghdad after being denied permission to land at Suleimaniya International Airport in the autonomous Kurdistan Region.

The delivery of weapons and ammunition to a country in a state of war would not have made the headlines, except that the story surrounding the plane started growing more mysterious after the Baghdad government distanced itself from the shipment.

The reports must have also raised concerns with the US administration, which is leading an international coalition to support Iraq in the war against the Islamic State (IS) terror group that has seized one third of Iraq’s territory.

Details about the plane and its cargo gradually began emerging, highlighting suspicions that the weapons on board may have been on their way to IS.

According to reports in the Kurdistan media, the Russian plane was approaching Suleimaniya when it was denied permission to land at the city’s International Airport, which is under the control of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of the two main parties in the region.

Kurdish media outlet Awene quoted the airport manager, Tahir Abdullah, as saying that permission to land was refused because the airport had no prior knowledge of the plane’s arrival.

Awene also quoted a PUK official, who said the plane was carrying 44 tons of weapons, including anti-tank rockets, guns and night-vision equipment.

Basnews, another Kurdish news outlet, quoted Atta Sarawi, a local Kurdish official, as saying the plane had been expected to land at the airport. “There was coordination in this regard, but there were communication problems with Baghdad. So the plane continued its flight to Baghdad,” Sarawi said.

A translated version of the Basnews story appeared on the Arabic news outlet Elaf on 12 November and quoted Sarawi as saying the weapons on the plane had been sent to the Kurdistan Region.

On 15 November, Basnews posted another story on its website, this one saying that the weapons “might have been sent to a senior Kurdistan Democratic Party official.” It quoted “unofficial” sources as saying that the pilot of the Russian “military plane,” which had started its journey from the Czech Republic, had told Turkish air traffic controllers in Adana in southeast Turkey that the plane’s cargo was a cigarette shipment bound for Iraq.

In Baghdad, Iraqi government officials kept silent about the plane and its cargo until the news leaks started, setting off a flurry of speculative reports. The Iraqi Ministry of Transport, responsible for civil aviation, said permission for landing at the capital’s airport was granted after the pilot informed the tower that the plane was running out of fuel.

“The decision to grant the plane permission to land was in line with the Chicago Agreement on International Civil Aviation in order to avoid the risk of its falling out of the sky,” the ministry said on 15 November.

It said the pilot was instructed to land on a runway used by the army. The plane then parked in an area under the Ministry of Defence’s control and the weapons were seized, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Transport.

Both the central government in Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government said they were conducting investigations into the case. Neither Moscow nor Prague, however, reacted to the news. The US military, which is involved in defending Baghdad airport and the control of Iraqi airspace, made no mention of the incident.

In yet another version of the story that was widely circulated on social networks and TV programmes, the weapons in the plane were being sent to a prominent Suleimaniya-based Kurdish businessman who is closely connected to the PUK, which is headed by Iraq’s former president Jalal Talabani.

According to these reports, the businessman, known to have made his fortune through illicit deals and contracts, is also accused of conducting trade with the IS terror group. A well-known Iraqi analyst told the Baghdadiya TV channel this week that the Kurdish businessman was also responsible for supplying IS with at least one shipment of pick-up vehicles that are now being used by the militants in their fight against Iraqi soldiers and the Kurdish forces known as the Peshmergas.

Another Iraqi television network, Al-Sharqiya, reported on its website that “several officials in a big Kurdish-owned mobile company, as well as their sons and a middleman close to one of the main [Kurdish] parties, are suspects” in the plane case.

Conspiracy theories now abound that the same entrepreneur runs the investment portfolios of the Kurdish parties and has business relations with top officials in the Kurdistan and the Baghdad central governments.

The shadowy role of businessmen in Iraq has grown since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003. Many of these businessmen were involved in scams involving US reconstruction projects following the invasion, and before that, in the UN-led oil-for-food scheme during the rule of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

Billions of dollars are believed to have been skimmed off the two programmes, going mostly into the pockets of businessmen and corrupt politicians.

Since it is hard to confirm such reports, some observers are demanding that the Iraqi authorities and the Kurdistan Regional Government end the secrecy surrounding the plane and reveal who ordered the shipment and what its final destination was.

Allegations surrounding the plane and its cargo are so serious that Kurdish Prime Minister Nechervan Barzani, referring to the case, said: “It is considered high treason.”

The disclosures come at a time when the Baghdad authorities and the Kurdish government have been gridlocked over oil, budgets and weapons delivery to the Peshmergas. The Obama administration has been putting pressure on both sides to resolve their disputes and work together to fight the IS terror group.

The Baghdad government suspended support for Kurdistan from the state budget, including the Peshmergas’ salaries, after its government started independently exporting oil produced in the region. Under an interim deal, the central government agreed last week to pay $500 million to the Kurdistan government from the state budget, while the Kurds will provide the Iraqi government with 150,000 barrels of oil per day.

On Saturday, Hawal, a Kurdish news outlet, said the Peshmergas are refusing to take part in the fight against IS unless their full salaries are paid. It quoted Dleir Mustafa, deputy head of the Peshmerags Committee in the Kurdish parliament, as saying that another precondition for the Peshmergas to fight IS is to allow direct weapons deliveries, rather than routing such deliveries through the Baghdad government.

Since IS captured Mosul and several other key Sunni-populated cities in June, there have been reports of Kurdish oil traders smuggling oil from IS-controlled areas in Iraq and Syria into neighbouring countries as far away as Afghanistan. According to Western intelligence reports, the smuggled oil is sometimes sold for as little as $20 per barrel.

The US Treasury Department estimates that IS takes in millions of dollars a month from oil sales. Other estimates range between $274,000 to $3 million a day. However, the trafficking may have been affected by US-led coalition air strikes on oil production and refinery targets in IS territory.

Last week, Kurdish Interior Minister Karim Sinjari disclosed that Kurdish security forces have arrested 11 individuals charged with smuggling oil with IS. Turkish officials have denied or downplayed reports about the smuggling of IS oil through Turkey.

Hawal reported last week that large amounts of money are being transferred through the Kurdish-controlled areas to towns taken by IS. It quoted Nouzad Barzanchi, head of the security department in Kirkuk, as saying that transactions were being made to people in Mosul and Shirqat, which are under IS control.

Baghdad media report that several bureaus in the capital are being investigated for transactions made to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and France. Iraqi intelligence believes that the beneficiaries of these transactions are connected with IS.

Some of the money being transferred through licenced exchange bureaus is believed to be payments for other smuggled goods, such as wheat, barley and cattle seized from farmers.

Corruption in Iraq has been endemic since the US-led invasion nearly 12 years ago. State officials have been acting as enablers for corrupt deals in a number of ways, and involving a range of businesses.

There have been reports of corrupt professionals and army officers selling arms and intelligence to IS and other terrorist groups, which later use these weapons and insider information to carry out attacks on government offices and security forces.

As in many previous cases of corruption, it may be many years before the secrets of the Russian plane are known. The revelations of the oil-for-weapons deals have, however, shone a spotlight on a number of deeply corrupt politicians, terrorists and dubious businessmen who are not only involved in stealing the wealth of the country, but are also banding together to destroy it.

source: al Ahram weekly