Turkey: Azerbaijani man arrested for kidnapping two Ukrainians in Istanbul

September 22, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

An Azerbaijani man has been arrested after he kidnapped and held for ransom two Ukrainians vacationing in Istanbul.

The perpetrator, identified as Enver S., 46, was arrested in Istanbul on Sept. 21 after relatives of the two Ukrainians, identified as Roman O., 23, and W.B., 45, informed the Consulate General of Ukraine in Istanbul, which later notified the Istanbul Police Department that the two Ukrainians had been kidnapped for a $150,000 ransom.

After launching an investigation into the kidnapping, police officers plotted a set up and asked the Ukrainians’ relatives to meet the perpetrator in the hotel’s lobby to hand over the ransom.

Enver S. was arrested outside the hotel where the relatives of the kidnapped tourists were staying as he attempted to get into their car, which had been offered as a down payment for the ransom.

The police officers then asked the Azerbaijani perpetrator to tell them where he was hiding the two Ukrainians.

Roman O. and W.B. were freed after the police officers raided the locked room where they had been held.

The police officers also seized an automatic-action rifle, a large amount of ammunition, several fake passports and 9,600 Turkish Liras found in the room.

Enver S. was sent to prison after official procedures were completed in the police station.

ARMENIA Protest against rising electricity prices, 48 arrests

September 12, 2015 By administrator

The Armenian police dispersed Saturday in Yerevan demonstrators protesting against rising electricity prices, briefly questioning 48 persons, two months after a first wave of protests. Several thousand people gathered in central Yerevan on Friday evening to demand the cancellation of a 16% increase of electricity prices, reported a journalist from AFP.
Shouting “thief Serge (Armenian President Serge

Turkey Relative of fallen soldier arrested for ‘insulting president’

September 2, 2015 By administrator

DHA Photo

The relative of a soldier killed last month in an attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has been arrested by a Turkish court for “insulting the president” in the latest instance of proceedings being opened against those alleged to have defamed Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kazım İpek, a relative of fallen soldier Recep Beycur, was arrested in the eastern province of Erzurum’s Karaçoban district for comments he made during the soldier’s funeral on Aug. 19, according to Radikal, citing daily Cumhuriyet.

“I don’t know what to say anymore. There’s nothing that hasn’t been done to us [since Beycur’s death]. Leave us in peace. They haven’t allowed us to mourn,” said Ömer Bulur, a cousin of the soldier.

Bulur condemned İpek’s arrest. “The claims are absolutely not true but are complete slander. It is absolutely out of the question that Kazım İpek, who cannot hear and who is of advanced age, insulted the president or other statesmen,” he said, adding that İpek’s testimony was taken without the presence of a lawyer in front of the Gendarmerie and a prosecutor.

An investigation was also opened into Bulur on allegations of membership in a terrorist organization, discouraging people from the military, threats, and insulting statesmen due to comments he made at the funeral.

“They’re setting brother against brother. I sent my young brother [to the military], and I’m taking his remains. Mr. President needs to know this. Does he understand what I went through to raise him to this age? Doesn’t he fear God at all? He’s the one that put this young person [in the grave],” Bulur said during the funeral.

Pro-government media branded Bulur a “provocateur,” “PKK sympathizer” and “ISIL sympathizer” in the aftermath of his comments.

Turkey: Three Kurd mayors in Diyarbakır arrested after autonomy declarations

August 23, 2015 By administrator

DİYARBAKIR – Anadolu Agency

DHA Photo

Four mayors in southeastern Turkey have been arrested for announcing their autonomy from Ankara in response to violent attacks by state forces during battles between the military and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Three people, including Hakkari Co-Mayor Dilek Hatipoğlu, were arrested by a local court on Aug. 23 for attempting to damage the constitutional system. Nurullah Çiftçi, a Hakkari Municipal Council member, and Peace and Democracy Party (HDP) District head İsmail Sihat Kaya were also arrested by the court.

A local court in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır ordered the arrest of five people on Aug. 23, including the co-mayors of Sur district, Seyid Narin and Fatma Şık Barut, as well as Silvan Co-Mayor Yüksel Bodakçı, on charges of “disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the state.”

Two other suspects identified by their initials A.R.Ç. and G.Ö. were among the five arrested people, according to a statement released by Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor Ramazan Solmaz.

They were sent to prison pending further trial.

Two other people were released on conditional probation, the sources added.

Police are still on the lookout for four more suspects.

Four DBP co-mayors were detained on Aug. 19 in two districts of Diyarbakır over recent statements declaring autonomy from Ankara.

The recent prevalence of autonomy statements from DBP officials in southeastern provinces first began on Aug. 10 in Şırnak, when DBP provincial head Salih Gülenç vowed to “build their lives on the basis of democracy” on the grounds that the state had lost its legitimacy.

The second statement, meanwhile, came from Hakkari on the same day as military operations continued against the PKK. DBP Hakkari central district co-chair İbrahim Çiftçi declared the area’s autonomy, saying, “No one assigned by the state will govern us.”

On Aug. 15, similar autonomy statements came from the Silvan district of Diyarbakır and the southeastern province of Batman. Batman Municipality co-chairs Sabri Özdemir and Gülistan Akel made a joint statement declaring autonomy for the southeastern province.

In the wake of the announcement in Silvan, security forces initiated a spree of violence that resulted in numerous burnt-out buildings and allegations of human rights abuses.

On Aug. 22, the Interior Ministry launched investigations into 93 eastern municipalities held by the Democratic Regions Party (DBP) on charges of lending logistical support to the PKK.

The DBP, the sister party of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), holds municipalities in three metropolitan cities, 11 cities, 68 districts and 23 towns. The DBP-held metropolitan municipalities in Diyarbakır, Mardin and Van are subject to the investigation.

Source: hurriyetdailynews

Turkey Four prosecutors arrested in Syria-bound intel trucks case transferred to Ankara

August 3, 2015 By administrator

Fatih Tekeci – ANKARA

The four prosecutors who ordered the stopping and searching of Syria-bound intelligence trucks in January 2014 and were later arrested on charges of attempting to topple the government, were transferred to Ankara late Aug. 2, from Turkey’s southern district of Tarsus. Report hurriyet

Former Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık and prosecutors Aziz Takçı, Özcan Şişman and Ahmet Karaca were transferred to Ankara under high security measures with a Turkish Airlines plane late Aug. 2.

The prosecutors, who had given orders to stop and search Syria-bound National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks in the southern province of Hatay on Jan. 1, 2014, and in the southern province of Adana on Jan. 19 of the same year, were reported to be transferred to Ankara on grounds they would be tried in the Supreme Court of Appeals.

The four prosecutors will be kept at the Sincan Prison during the trial.

After a crisis erupted due to the stopping of the MİT trucks, the second chamber of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) decided on Jan. 15 to remove Bağrıyanık, Takçı, Şişman, Karaca and Yaşar Kavalcıklıoğlu, the five prosecutors involved in the incident, from duty until the investigation against them was finalized.

Arrest warrants for Bağrıyanık, Takçı, Şişman, Karaca, and former Adana Gendarmerie Commander Özkan Çokay were issued May 6, on the grounds of “attempting to topple or stop it [the Turkish government] partially or completely from doing its duty by using force and violence.” They were arrested afterwards.
The Tarsus 2nd Court of Serious Crimes had ruled June 10 the four prosecutors and the former commander would remain under arrest, after the defendants’ attorneys left the court session when the judge refused their demand that the court hear the five defendants’ testimonies.

The government has severely criticized the prosecutors and soldiers involved in the operations, arguing that both the truck and its personnel were protected by the MİT’s legal immunity.

August/03/2015

Another Turkish Crime Against Humanity Co-mayor of Diyarbakır arrested on terror charges

August 2, 2015 By administrator

FOTO: DIYARBAKIR, (DHA)

The co-mayor of the southeastern district of Lice has been sent to jail pending trial on terrorism charges, a news report said on Sunday.

Harun Erkuş, a politician from the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), was detained on July 30 along with five others in Lice, a district of Diyarbakır, in connection with a series of road blocking incidents and attacks on the security forces on the Bingöl-Diyarbakır highway that are believed to have been carried out by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The six suspects were detained on charges of “membership of a terrorist organization, road blocking for terrorism purposes, setting vehicles to fire and collective resistance to the security forces” in an operation by gendarmerie forces and police special operations teams.
Erkuş and another suspect, Abdullah Hocaoğlu, were sent to a Diyarbakır prison, while the remaining four people were released, the private news agency Doğan said.
More than 1,300 people were detained in police operations against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the far-left Revolutionary People’s Liberation Army/Front (DHKP/C) late in July, along with the Turkish government pursuing aerial strikes against PKK and ISIL targets in Iraq and Syria. An overwhelming majority of the detained were those suspected to have links with the PKK.

Report Zaman

Arrested Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova wins US National Press Club award

July 30, 2015 By administrator

RFE/RL Editor in Chief Nenad Pejic had nominated the Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova for the US National Press Club’s Press Freedom Award, and she won it, Azerbaijani information agency Turan reports.

According to the report, the award ceremony was held in Washington on July 29. Journalists and editors in chief attended the annual ceremony to celebrate one of the most prestigious press freedom awards, and support their colleagues in jail. “We will not stop fighting for these journalists until they are free and able to do their jobs,” John Hughes, the president of the US National Press Club, said

Ismayilova has been held in pretrial detention in a Baku prison for 234 days on charges many observers link to her investigations of high-level corruption involving Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, RFE/RL writes.

During the first trial on Ismayilova’s case on July 24, the judge rejected motions to dismiss the criminal case on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement, and to grant Ismayilova house arrest as a substitute for pretrial detention. In case Ismayilova is found guilty, she may face up to 19 years in prison, according to RFE/RL.

“Khadija is in prison because of her journalism…This award is an acknowledgement of her courage and her convictions, but it is also a call to all of us here tonight to condemn her imprisonment and demand her freedom,” Nenaj Pejic, RFE/RL editor in chief, said.

On 5 December 2014, the well-known Azerbaijani journalist Khadija Ismayilova was detained after being questioned at the prosecutor’s office. Baku Sabail District Court made a decision to detain her on charges of incitement to suicide. The arrest of Ismayilova has been followed by a wave of condemning statements by a number of international organizations and influential representatives from various states. Protests have been organized in her support in various countries; and prominent international outlets released articles covering the topic. However, on 13 February 2015, the Grave Crimes Investigation Department of Azerbaijan Prosecutor General’s Office charged the journalist under articles 179.3.2 (large-scale appropriation), 192.2.2 (illegal entrepreneurship with large income) and 308.2 (abuse of power with grave consequences) of Criminal Code of Azerbaijan. The journalist was fined while in jail. She faces up to 12 years in prison. In early April, Azerbaijani journalist Tural Mustafayev – under whose complaint Khadija Ismayilova had been arrested last December – wrote a letter to Zakir Garalov, the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan, saying that he wanted to withdraw his appeal. When asked why he had lodged an accusation, Mustafa told the journalist that he was under emotional stress in that period.

Turkey Former police intel chief arrested in Dink murder case

May 29, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

A former Istanbul police intelligence chief was arrested late May 28 in the case of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Ali Fuat Yılmazer, who was the Istanbul police intelligence chief when Dink was murdered in 2007, was arrested after being interrogated for a second time in the killing of Dink.

Istanbul’s 5th Penal Court ordered May 28 the arrest of Yılmazer on charges of “aiding and abetting premeditated murder,” and “forming a criminal organization.”

Ogün Samast assassinated Dink in broad daylight on a busy street outside of the office of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007. Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, is serving his sentence of 22 years and 10 months in a high-security F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli.

Yılmazer, who had first testified as a suspect in December 2014, has been under arrest since July 23, 2014, as part of an illegal wiretapping case into the “parallel state,” allegedly led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The court’s decision stated Yılmazer had formed a secret unit named “C-5,” in which only some police captains and their deputies were allowed to work, inside the police department. It stated that the C-5 unit had started working on Nov. 23, 2012, after the approval of the Interior Ministry. In the decision, the unit is alleged to have looked into the cases of the Dink murder, the Father Santoro murder, the killing of a German and two Turks in the Zirve Publishing House and the coup plot cases of Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer).

Source: hurriyetdailynews

Istanbul: Depo invites audience to think about Turkey’s Armenians, past and present

April 11, 2015 By administrator

BY RUMEYSA KIGER / ISTANBUL

100 Ottoman Armenian intellectuals who were arrested

This is a segment from a collection of portraits by artist Nalan Yırtmaç of 100 Ottoman Armenian intellectuals who were arrested and taken to concentration camps on April 24, 1915, created for the exhibition “Without knowing where we are headed…” Report ZAMAN

A new exhibition at the Depo art and culture center in İstanbul by artists Nalan Yırtmaç and Anti-Pop points a finger at the brutality experienced by Armenian people living in the Ottoman Empire and in Turkey.

On display since April 4 on the first floor of Depo in the Tophane neighborhood, “Without knowing where we are headed…” invites the audience to reflect on both the past and the present day.

The exhibition is made up of portraits of 100 Armenian intellectuals who were among the more than 200 significant figures from the Armenian community who were arrested on April 24, 1915, upon the order of Talat Pasha, the interior minister of the time.

These intellectuals, most of whom were arrested in İstanbul one day before the Allied landings in Çanakkale (Gallipoli), were taken to two concentration camps in Çankırı and Ayaş, near Ankara.

According to the exhibition catalogue, “These arrests constitute the first step of the Committee of Union and Progress government’s decision of deportation, which soon evolved into genocide. Following the arrest of approximately 250 people [starting] the night of the April 23 and lasting through April 24, a massive police operation was set in motion targeting 2,500 people over the course of a couple of days.”

Yırtmaç picked 100 of these opinion leaders and made new portraits of them. “This work pulls them out from under the generic heading of ‘arrested and cast-out Armenians‘ and turns them into people with familiar names and faces, the active participants of the cosmopolitan Ottoman intellectual milieu,” she explains in the catalogue.

She produced the portraits in her own language based on photographs from the few publications that have survived to present day.

On the wall right across from the portraits, another powerful work by Anti-Pop links these killings with a recent one, the assassination of Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink in 2007.

“The work created by Anti-Pop immediately after the assassination of Hrant Dink on Jan. 19, 2007 is exhibited alongside these portraits, drawing attention to the agonizing continuity between 1915 and the massacre of Dink. On one side there are intellectuals arrested and killed 100 years ago, and on the other a revolutionary who paid with his life only a few years ago for believing that Turks and Armenians would reconstruct their own identities on healthy grounds and live in equality and freedom,” the artists explain.

The show aims at coming to terms with the great catastrophe experienced in the Ottoman state and Turkey, “to bow our heads and mourn together,” they say.

A letter dated May 30, 1915 written by an Armenian prisoner at the Ayaş camp, Sımpas Pürad, is also featured in the show’s catalogue. It reads: “Last week, from among us, Agnuni, Khajag, Zartaryan, Cangülyan, Dağavaryan and Sarkis Minasyan were summoned by Ankara and they set on the road. We do not know their whereabouts now. I grieve, because although we suffered so much hardship under the autocratic regime, we are still being unjustly persecuted in this era of freedom and constitutionalism. Was this the fortune to befall those who suffered and toiled for the sake of the motherland all those years?”

Journalist, political activist and educator Karekin Khajag also wrote to her wife and family: “My Dear, They’re sending me far, so far away from you, towards Dikranagert [Diyarbakır]. With me, are the following prisoners of Ayaş: Agnuni, Zartar, Sarkis Minasyan, Dr. Dağavaryan and Cihangül. At the Ereğli train station, I met an Armenian who promised me to deliver this letter to you. Look after yourself and my girls Nunus and Alos well. We don’t know why they brought us here, but I have great hope that we will see each other once again. So, goodbye, I’m kissing you and my sweet girls. Yours, K. Khajag.”

“Without knowing where we are headed…” will continue until April 26 at Depo. For more information, visit www.depoistanbul.net, www.anti-pop.com and nalanyirtmac.blogspot.com.tr.

Russia, 5 suspects arrested over Nemtsov murder, 1 ‘confessed’ – court

March 8, 2015 By administrator

RIA Novosti / Maksim Blinov

Moscow’s Basmanny district court has arrested five people in connection with the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a prominent opposition figure, who was gunned down last week.

Two judges are reviewing the charges against the five people brought before the court by the prosecutors on Sunday.

Two of them are Zaur Dadaev and Anzor Gubashev, who were identified as key suspects in the killing of Nemtsov after their detention on Saturday.

The prosecutors asked the court to arrest the duo by April 28, the current deadline for the investigation, saying that otherwise they may flee or interfere with the investigation.

According to the judge, who ordered Dadaev’s arrest as requested by the prosecution, he confessed his involvement to the police. The accused didn’t comment on this during the court session.

Gubashev pleaded not guilty to the crimes he is charged with.

The other individuals, who may have had a hand in the crime, are Gubashev’s brother Shagit and two identified as Ramzat Bakhaev and Tamerlan Eskerkhanov. The request for their arrest has been reviewed separately by another judge.

“The suspects denied their ties to the crime, but we have evidence of their guilt. It includes forensic evidence and eyewitness accounts,”an investigator told the court.

The trio denied their involvement, with Eskerkhanov claiming to have an alibi. But the judge ordered their arrests as well.

Eskerkhanov and Bakhaev have been remanded until May 8 and Shagit Gubashev – until May 7.

Nemtsov was killed by a gunman a few meters from the Moscow Kremlin, triggering a flurry of condemnations and calls for a swift investigation. The assassination happened two days ahead of an opposition rally, which Nemtsov helped to organize.

While political motive is considered the most likely in the killing, the investigators said they were considering other scenarios, including a business or personal conflict. Likely political motives behind the killing according to the investigators include a provocation aimed at destabilizing the situation in Russia, possibly by Ukrainian radicals, and revenge by Islamists for Nemtsov’s support of the French magazine Charlie Hebdo following an extremist attack.