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Dutch FM to summon Turkish envoy over AK Party campaign letter

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232059Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders announced on Friday that the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands is to be summoned to the Foreign Ministry over a controversial Justice and Development Party (AK Party) election campaign letter sent to Turkish residents in the country.

An investigation was launched by Dutch authorities after Turkish citizens in the Netherlands received an election campaign letter sent by the AK Party and signed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Many Turkish voters in the country have filed criminal complaints, saying their right to privacy was violated.

While the investigation, which seeks to find out if the privacy of the Turkish citizens was violated in order to obtain their addresses, is still ongoing, the matter has been brought to the Dutch parliament. Many members of the legislative body said they feel uncomfortable with the situation and demanded the Turkish ambassador be summoned and asked for an explanation.

The letter that was sent to Turkish citizens includes campaign promises for the Nov. 1 election, such as reducing the payment for a shortened military service from 6,000 euros to 1,000 euros and the promise of new legislation that will allow Turkish citizens living abroad to elect deputies who also live abroad to represent them in the Turkish Parliament.

The letter then asks the recipients to vote for the AK Party for a “strong and new Turkey.”

Turkey: Kılıçdaroğlu: We were asked not to prosecute Erdoğan and his family during the coalition talks

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(Photo: Cihan)

(Photo: Cihan)

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has reportedly stated that during the coalition talks held after the June 7 election, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) asked him for an assurance that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his family members would not be charged with corruption and sent to trial.

“During the [coalition] talks, we were asked to give a guarantee that we would not touch Erdoğan or his family members. Of course we rejected this request and told them [AK Party officials] that this had nothing to do with us. This is the work of the judiciary, not us,” CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu claimed, according to a report that appeared in the Cumhuriyet daily on Thursday.

Police investigations made public on Dec. 17 and 25, 2013 revealed what was allegedly the biggest corruption and bribery scandal in the history of the republic and which implicated some top officials of the AK Party government as well as President Erdoğan and members of his family. Prosecutors ultimately dropped the investigations.

“During the talks, I told [interim Prime Minister Ahmet] Davutoğlu that the CHP would give absolute support to the reopening of the corruption investigations. I also told him that we would also support any proposal to reduce or completely cancel the presidency’s budget. Those words of mine were immediately conveyed to the presidential palace, he [Erdoğan] interfered and the talks reached a dead end,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.

The budget of the presidency has been increased by 99 percent, to TL 397 million for 2015, according to the government’s recently announced Middle-term Economic Program (OVP).

Erdoğan’s son, Bilal, is a member of the executive board of the Foundation of Youth and Education in Turkey (TÜRGEV), and was accused of receiving unlawful donations TÜRGEV was at the center of the corruption investigation, which included several serious allegations of bribery and irregularities within the foundation.

In one of numerous recorded telephone conversations that were anonymously leaked online, then-Prime Minister Erdoğan and Bilal are allegedly heard talking about a plan how to get rid of huge sums of money stashed at several houses. Erdoğan, at the beginning of the conversation, briefs Bilal about a police operation going on at the time, including the search of suspects’ homes, and asks him to “zero” money by distributing it among several businessmen. Toward the end of a series of conversations that day, Bilal tells his father that he and others have “finished the tasks you gave us,” implying that the money was removed from the premises.

In another recorded conversation, Erdoğan was allegedly heard accepting two villas from businessman Mustafa Latif Topbaş in return for easing zoning restrictions in İzmir’s Urla district.

Erdoğan has claimed that the corruption investigations were an attempted coup conducted by influential international groups and their proxies in Turkey seeking to topple the AK Party government.

Report: ZAMAN

Turkey Journalist & Tourist at high-risk, Milliyet daily fires 7 journalists who are critical of government

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Mehveş Evin and Meral Tamer (R).

Mehveş Evin and Meral Tamer (R).

The Milliyet newspaper has fired two columnists and five correspondents who were drawing attention with their reports that were critical of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.

Columnist Mehveş Evin, who was fired by the daily on Friday, commented on the issue via her Twitter account, writing: “I was fired from the Milliyet newspaper. I still don’t know why. But, I will not give in, thus I continue to write!”

The daily also fired columnist Meral Tamer and three correspondents from its Ankara office — Kemal Göktaş, Evin Demirtaş and Sertaç Koç — on Thursday afternoon. Two other Milliyet correspondents also announced via Twitter on Friday that they were also fired by the daily. One of those two, Semra Pelek, wrote on Twitter: “I was fired by the Milliyet daily. It is very good for me.” The other correspondent, Alper İzbul, wrote on Friday: “Milliyet Newspaper fired me. Good luck…”

Göktaş also posted a tweet on Thursday evening about his dismissal, saying: “The Milliyet daily fired me, Evin Demirtaş and Sertaç Koç from its Ankara office. Good luck to everyone!”

The daily did not publish on Thursday a news report written by Evin about recent clashes between the security forces and members of the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır and the Silopi district of Şırnak.

According to media reports, the daily is also planning to fire 25 more people in the coming days.

The daily has previously fired columnist Kadri Gürsel over a tweet in which he criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as being responsible for the presence of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Turkey. Additionally, Aslı Aydıntaşbaş — a columnist critical of the government — announced her departure from Milliyet on May 29, in what appears to be another instance of increasing government pressure on journalists and media that criticizes it.

The head of the Milliyet daily, businessman Erdoğan Demirören, is believed to have played a critical role in the daily’s decision to fire the journalists.

Demirören, a close associate of President Erdoğan, has fired many journalists and forced prominent figures to resign upon Erdoğan’s order. Critics believe the patronage relationship between media owners and the government operates against the concept of media freedom and narrows the space for critical voices in Turkey to speak freely. For instance, an audio clip, purportedly of then-Prime Minister Erdoğan having a phone conversation with Demirören in which they spoke of a story published in one of his dailies, was uploaded onto YouTube on March 7 of last year.

The voice allegedly belonging to Erdoğan criticizes Demirören over the publication of the minutes of a meeting between Abdullah Öcalan, the imprisoned leader of the terrorist PKK, and a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) in Öcalan’s prison cell on the island of İmralı. Demirören is heard explaining to Erdoğan that he was also shocked to see it on the page and that he would do what was necessary to fix the situation. However, after failing to calm Erdoğan, Demirören is heard crying. Toward the end of the conversation, the 76-year-old Milliyet owner is heard saying, “How did I get involved in this business?” while in tears following the then-prime minister’s insults.

Source: Zaman

How much prove The USA need that Turkey is “ISIS” Kılıçdaroğlu: I watched video of weapons in Syria-bound MİT trucks

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CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. (Photo: Today's Zaman, Ali Ünal)

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. (Photo: Today’s Zaman, Ali Ünal)

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu told journalists on Tuesday that he saw video footage showing arms and ammunition in Syria-bound trucks belonging to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) which were stopped by gendarmes and police last year.

Speaking with journalists from the Hurriyet daily at a breakfast on Tuesday morning, Kılıçdaroğlu said the security of Turkey’s Syrian border will be made as strong as pre-2011 levels once the CHP becomes the government. “Illegal border crossings, migrant smuggling and arms smuggling will not be overlooked,” he declared.

Confirming a recent revelation by Yasin Aktay, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) deputy chairman responsible for foreign affairs, who said on video that MİT trucks were carrying arms to the anti-regime Free Syrian Army (FSA) rather than to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Kılıçdaroğlu said the gendarmerie and police filmed the opening of the crates on the trucks inside which can be seen arms and ammunition. “I watched. It is not possible to hide it. It was not humanitarian aid loaded in the trucks.” He added.

The short video, posted on Saturday on the Oda TV website, shows Aktay arguing with a local man who was apparently criticizing the government for supporting ISIL.

In the video, which Oda TV said was recorded in the southeastern province of Siirt, Aktay is heard having a discussion with the man, who says ISIL militants are given treatment at Turkish hospitals in Adana and who accuses the government of supporting ISIL’s offensive on Kobani. During the conversation, the man asks about the trucks, which he says are carrying arms to ISIL.

“They were going to the FSA,” Aktay responds, “and the FSA’s number one enemy is ISIL.”

Top Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, have maintained in the past that the trucks were carrying humanitarian aid to Turkmens in Syria. Aktay is the first person to reveal that the weapons-filled trucks were on their way to the FSA.

In January 2014 Turkish gendarmes and police stopped the Syria-bound trucks in Adana and Hatay after prosecutors received tip-offs that the vehicles were illegally carrying arms to Syria. The weapons were allegedly destined for extremist groups in Syria, including ISIL and al-Qaeda affiliates.

The government has called the interception of the trucks, which turned out to be operated by MİT, an act of “treason and espionage.” Four prosecutors who ordered the trucks to be searched and a gendarmerie officer have been arrested in connection with the interception.

Source: Zaman

#Turkey AK Party candidate says it’s in women’s nature to be men’s ‘slaves’

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Well-known singer Uğur Işılak, who is on the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) candidate list for the upcoming June 7 elections, has said that being a slave to men is in women’s nature.

Işılak, a popular folk singer among Turkey’s conservative population, said during a TV show broadcast on June 14, 2012 that women are men’s slaves, but his controversial remarks have only recently been revealed to the public, quickly attracting harsh reactions on social media platforms.

Criticizing feminists for their views, Işılak also said: “It is in a woman’s nature to feel a sense of belonging. Men do not have such a sense of belonging. Men do not belong to women, they own women.”

Işılak became known to larger segments of the population after he sang “Dombra,” a popular folk song in Central Asia, during the AK Party campaign ahead of local elections held in March of last year.

In a speech in İstanbul on Nov. 24, 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also made similar controversial remarks about the role of women in society, saying, “You cannot bring women and men into an equal position; this is against nature.”

“You cannot subject a pregnant woman to the same working conditions as a man. You cannot make a mother who has to breastfeed her child equal to a man. You cannot make women do everything men do like the communist regimes did. … This is against her delicate nature,” he added.

Source: ZAMAN

Turkish mayor says 5 wounded in attack on his car after Erdoğan rally

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TODAYSZAMAN

Five people, including three police officers, were wounded in southeastern Turkey, a pro-government mayor said on Monday, when suspected Kurdish militants attacked his car as he southeastern Turkey-car-attacreturned from a presidential campaign rally for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ceylanpınar Mayor Menderes Atilla said a car bomb detonated as his car drove through the town of Ceylanpınar in Şanlıurfa province late on Sunday, injuring the policemen. The attackers then opened fire, causing minor injuries to his driver and a bodyguard.

“There was a blast from a car loaded with explosives… as I was returning from the prime minister’s rally. We came under fire from another car by gunmen using long-barreled weapons. The gunmen’s car left the scene after firing a few rounds,” Atilla told reporters, adding that he believed terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were behind the ambush.

There has been no word from the PKK since the attack, but if their involvement is confirmed it would be a blow to efforts aimed at bringing an end to a 30-year insurgency that has haunted the Southeast and left an estimated 40,000 people dead.

Only last week, Parliament passed a bill that for the first time legally recognizes the government’s negotiations to bring a permanent halt to hostilities with PKK terrorists, who have for decades been demanding greater autonomy and rights from Ankara.

Erdoğan is campaigning to become Turkey’s first directly elected president in the Aug. 10 election, a position that could give him stronger executive powers to pursue his political plans. He hopes his efforts to end the insurgency will earn him significant support from Turkey’s Kurdish minority.

Şanlıurfa province could be a key electoral battleground in the coming weeks. Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) narrowly won local polls there in March, but the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) contested the result, stirring a week of violent clashes between BDP supporters and security forces.

Meanwhile, the police detained two suspects regarding the incident following the campaign rally in a raid they conducted on Monday morning. The suspects, identified as O.F. and H.D., were taken to the Şanlıurfa Police Department where they were to be questioned.