Syria wants UN action against Turkey over Paris attacks suspect

January 22, 2015 By administrator

Syria has called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to take action against Turkey for allowing a French woman linked to militant attacks in Paris to illegally enter Syria along with other foreign fighters.

France launched a search for 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene after police killed her partner, Amedy Coulibaly, while storming a Jewish supermarket where he had taken hostages earlier this month. Authorities described her as armed and dangerous.

Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu has said Boumeddiene arrived in İstanbul from Madrid on Jan. 2 and that Paris had not asked that she be denied access. Boumeddiene crossed into Syria on Jan. 8, he said.

“That statement is a formal admission of a point that we have repeatedly made … that Turkey remains the main channel to smuggle foreign terrorists and mercenaries from around the world into Syria,” Syria’s UN Ambassador Bashar al-Ja’afari wrote in a letter to the UNSC and UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

“The country is also a route through which they return to their countries or travel to third states,” Ja’afari wrote in the Jan. 12 letter made public on Wednesday.

Damascus has repeatedly accused Turkey of supporting militants during its nearly four-year civil war. Turkey denies enabling the passage of foreign fighters who have swollen the ranks of al-Qaeda-linked groups, but has faced widespread criticism for allowing thousands of them to cross into Syria.

Any action is unlikely as the 15-member council has been largely deadlocked on how to end the Syrian conflict, with Damascus ally Russia, backed by China, pitted against the United States, Britain, France and other Western and Arab states.

Coulibaly said he carried out the Jewish supermarket attack in the name of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a militant group that has seized swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria. His siege came after two gunmen attacked satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Seventeen people were killed in three days of violence.

Ja’afari said Turkey, by allowing foreign fighters to pass through the country and into Syria, was violating UNSC counterterrorism resolutions.

“The Syrian Arab Republic therefore calls on the [UNSC] and the international community to take effective action to condemn and curb the Turkish regime’s policies,” Ja’afari wrote. “The Turkish regime must be held accountable for those policies, which endanger international peace and security.”

Turkey’s mission to the United Nations was not immediately available for comment on the accusations by Ja’afari.

Islamists clash with Charlie supporters at Turkish university

January 19, 2015 By administrator

A group of Islamists at Ankara University have clashed with another group of students who were commemorating both the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attack and the Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was killed eight years ago.

Both groups gathered at Ankara University’s Cebeci campus on Jan. 19. According to the Doğan News Agency, stones and bottles were thrown after one of the groups attempted to release a press statement in favor of the Charlie Hebdo victims and Dink.

Police dispersed the groups by using tear gas.

The students, who had announced the Jan. 19 demonstration earlier through Ankara University’s Facebook page, were threatened by Islamist students on the same platform. Referring to the students who had pinned posters that said “Je Suis Charlie” and “We Are All Hrant,” an Islamist student had written on Facebook that the campus “would see unprecedented violence” if the posters were not taken down.

Thousands of people commemorated Hrant Dink in Istanbul on Jan. 19, the eighth anniversary of his killing.

January/19/2015

Islamist Turkish dailies “justified” the deadly attack on a French satirical newspaper.Charlie Hebdo attack

January 7, 2015 By administrator

AFP Photo

Two Islamist newspapers in Turkey have drawn ire on social media with their headlines that “justified” the deadly attack on a French satirical newspaper. Report hurriyet
Hours after gunmen stormed the offices of the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in Paris, chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), Yeni Akit newspaper chose the title, “Attack on the magazine that provoked Muslims.”

Several reader comments also appeared on Yeni Akit’s Facebook page, which hailed the bloodshed as “revenge” for the magazine’s decision to publish cartoons that criticized the Prophet Mohammad.

“I hope they will continue [to kill] infidels,” said one reader on the website, while another reader wrote “Thanks to those who did it.”

The newspaper then changed the headline of the story to “the great provocation in Paris.”

Türkiye, another newspaper close to the Turkish government, chose the headline: “Attack on the magazine that insulted our Prophet.”

After a flood of reactions on Twitter, including ones that accuse it of “justifying a terror attack,” the newspaper changed the headline to “Attack on the magazine that published ugly cartoons of our Prophet.”

Peygamber Efendimiz’in çirkin karikatürünü yayınlayan dergiye saldırı: ölü sayısı 12’ye çıktı! http://t.co/Uw26XAcM7B

— Türkiye Gazetesi (@turkiyegazetesi) January 7, 2015

“The timing of the attack is interesting. Is it the cost of recognizing Palestine as a state?” the same newspaper asked in the title of another story.

France’s lower house, senators in the upper house of the French parliament, approved a resolution calling on Paris to recognize a Palestinian state last month.

Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time

November 29, 2014 By administrator

Assault by Islamic State militants reportedly began with suicide attack on border between Turkey and strategic Syrian town

Kobani has been under Isis assault since September, but the militants have never attacked it from Turkey before. Photograph: Jake Simkin/AP

Islamic State (Isis) has launched an attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey for the first time, a Kurdish official and activists said.

The assault began with a suicide attack by a bomber in an armoured vehicle on the border crossing between Kobani and Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based opposition group, said.

Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union party, said that Isis “used to attack the town from three sides” but “today, they are attacking from four sides”.

Turkey has previously backing the Syrian rebels fighting to topple the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has it has been reluctant to help the Kurds in Kobani for fear of stoking Kurdish ambitions for an independent state.

There was no comment from Ankara on Saturday about Isis fighters launching the assault from Turkish soil.

SOHR said heavy fighting also took place south-west of the town, where Isis brought in tanks to reinforce their fighters.

The group began its Kobani offensive in mid-September, capturing parts of the town and dozens of nearby villages. The town later became the focus of air strikes by the US-led coalition against the militants.

Kurdish fighters have slowly been advancing in Kobani since late October. Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting

SOHR said on Saturday that the latest fighting killed at least eight Kurdish fighters and 17 jihadists.

Israel claims ‘foiled Hamas attacks’ were planned in Turkey

November 27, 2014 By administrator

REUTERS / JERUSALEM

Israel said on Thursday it had foiled plans by Hamas to attack Israelis in Jerusalem’s largest football stadium, other parts of the city and the occupied West Bank, though Hamas said it had no information on the allegations.

Israel’s Shin Bet security service claimed it had arrested 30 members of the group in September, some of whom had received weapons and explosives training from Hamas militants in Jordan and the Gaza Strip.

Planning for attacks against Israeli targets, including Jerusalem’s Teddy football stadium and the city’s light railway, was carried out by Hamas officials in Turkey, Shin Bet added in a statement.

In the Gaza Strip, where Hamas is dominant, a spokesman for the group said: “We have no information about these Israeli claims … It is clear Israel wanted to create a new story to divert the world’s attention away from the escalation in Jerusalem.”

Violence has surged in recent weeks in Jerusalem amid high tensions over access to a holy site in an Israeli-annexed part of the city where Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands and Biblical Jewish Temples once stood.

On Sunday, Israeli forces shot dead a Palestinian near the border, the first such fatality since a 50-day Gaza war ended in August. The man’s family said he was searching for songbirds to sell in local markets.

Israel has long designated areas near the frontier a no-go zone for Palestinians. The Palestinians seek Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza — lands captured and occupied by Israel after the 1967 war — for their future state. Already troubled peace talks between the two sides broke down in April.

4 killed in Jerusalem synagogue attack, Netanyahu vows response

November 18, 2014 By administrator

Two Palestinians stormed a Jerusalem synagogue on Tuesday, Nov 18, attacking worshippers praying inside with knives, axes and guns, and killing four people before they were killed in a shootout with police, officials said, according to the Associated Press.

The attack, the deadliest in Jerusalem in years, is bound to ratchet up fears of sustained violence in the city, already on edge amid soaring tensions over a contested holy site.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel will “respond harshly” to the attack, describing it as a “cruel murder of Jews who came to pray and were killed by despicable murderers.” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said he spoke to Netanyahu after the assault and denounced it as an “act of pure terror and senseless brutality and violence.”

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas condemned the attack, the first time he has done so since a recent spike in deadly violence against Israelis began. He also called for an end to Israeli “provocations” surrounding the sacred site.

In a statement, Abbas’ office said he “condemns the killing of the worshippers in a synagogue in west Jerusalem.” The statement, according to the AP, called for an end to the “invasion” of the mosque at the holy site and a halt to “incitement” by Israeli ministers.

Israeli police called the incident a terrorist attack and said the two Palestinian assailants were cousins from east Jerusalem. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a militant group, said the cousins were its members. A PFLP statement did not specify whether the group instructed the cousins to carry out the attack. Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip, praised the attack.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said six people were also wounded in the attack, including two police officers. Four of the wounded were reported in serious condition. He said police were searching the area for other suspects.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry angrily condemned the attack and demanded that the Palestinian leadership take immediate steps to end incitement to violence as Israeli-Palestinian tensions soared.

“This morning in Jerusalem, Palestinians attacked Jews who were praying in a synagogue,” Kerry said shortly after Israeli authorities reported that two Palestinians had stormed the synagogue, attacking worshippers with knives, axes and guns, and killed four people before being killed in a shootout with police.

RUDAW reporters were attacked in Ankara Turkish capital

November 16, 2014 By administrator

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A team of Rudaw reporters were attacked in Ankara on Saturday by the supporters of the People’s Democratic Congress (HDK) outside the left-wing organisation’s party congress.

Report 79758Image1 er Asad Ayidin and technician Farouq Albayraq were injured in the attack and a camera was broken, Rudaw Media Network said in a statement. Other equipment was seized by the attackers.

Rudaw reporter Sawkat Harki asked the attackers to calm down and tried to explain that the team was there at the request of the HDK to cover the congress of the party, which supports Kurdish rights.

The attackers accused Rudaw’s team of collaborating with the Turkish MIT intelligence services. The incident was reported to police and legal action was being pursued, the statement said.
The Rudaw statement strongly condemned the attack and said it regarded the incident as an attack on the free media.

It urged HDK officials to take a stand against the attack.

Karabakh serviceman dies in Azeri sniper attack

October 2, 2014 By administrator

Karabakh serviceman David Navasardyan, was killed in Azeri sniper attack on Monday, Oct 1.

The soldier received a gunshot wound in the head at the military unit of the Nagorno Karabakh defense army. An investigation is underway to clarify the details of the incident.

Over the past three months, repeated Azeri attacks against Armenia and Karabakh have resulted in over 20 deaths at the line of contact.

France launches first IS airstrike in Iraq

September 19, 2014 By administrator

French jets have carried out their first strike against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, BBC News reports, citing the office of President Francois Hollande.

A statement said that planes had attacked an IS depot in north-east Iraq, and there would be more raids in the coming days.

The US has carried out more than 170 air strikes against the jihadist group in Iraq since mid-August.

IS remains in control of dozens of cities and towns in Iraq and Syria, where it has declared a caliphate.

France is the first of Washington’s allies to strike at IS targets. The mission underscores the perhaps surprising military activism of the socialist French president.
Read more on the BBC website.

PKK statue’s removal triggers attacks on Atatürk busts in southeast

August 21, 2014 By administrator

DİYARBAKIR –

The removal of a statue of a senior member of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has triggered clashes in southeastern Turkey, with protesters targeting busts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. reported by Doğan News Agency

Busts of Atatürk have been attacked by protesters in the southeastern provinces of Hakkari, Batman and Mardin during clashes between security forces and locals. The incident came after clashes in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır over a statute of Mahsum Korkmaz (Egîd), one of the PKK’s founders, which left demonstrator Mehdi Taşkın dead.

A soldier, Uğur İnal, being deployed to the area was also killed in a gun accident.

On the night of Aug. 19, protesters blocked the road and lit a fire in Hakkari, throwing Molotov cocktails at security forces. Police used tear gas and water cannon to disperse the protesters, while some protesters burnt a burst of Atatürk in the garden of the Hakkari Anatolian High School.

The incidents continued in Hakkari on Aug. 20 with a group of people attempting to throw stones at an Atatürk statue in the city center. The police put armored vehicles around the statue and used tear gas, plastic bullets and water cannon against the protesters.

A bust of the republic’s found was also subjected to an attack in Batman. Unknown people removed it from the garden of the Vali Zeki Şanal Secondary School and fled while others erected barricades in the Yavuz Selim Quarter and lit a fire in the street.

In Mardin, a group of people, including mayors from the Democratic Regions Party (DBP), gathered in the party building on Aug. 19. The group started to march holding pictures of Korkmaz in protest at the removal of the legendary fighter’s statue in Diyarbakır’s Lice district. Police subsequently fired tear gas and deployed water cannon on the group, sparking clashes that continued until the early hours of the day.

Korkmaz’s statue was opened on the anniversary of the first attacks by PKK militants in Hakkari’s Şemdinli district and Siirt’s Eruh district in 1984, in a cemetery that was opened last year in Lice for PKK members. Korkmaz was killed by security forces in 1986.

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Diyarbakır lawmaker Nursel Aydoğan and the co-chairs of the DBP, Emine Ayna and Kamuran Yüksek, attended the statue’s opening ceremony on Aug. 16.

August/21/2014