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Bulgaria should press Turkey over historic compensation claim – president

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SOFIA: Bulgaria should press Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday on its claim for compensation for the descendants of Bulgarians who fled Turkey 100 years ago, its president said.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov will meet Erdogan ahead of a European Union-Turkey summit in Bulgaria later on Monday but has not said if he will raise the historic grievance.

The summit is being held on what Bulgaria marks as Thrace Day, remembering the more than 250,000 Bulgarians who fled their homes in Eastern Thrace after the Second Balkan War in 1913 when the Ottoman Empire reclaimed some territories lost in 1912-1913 in the First Balkan War.

Thousands of Thracian Bulgarians were killed and organisations representing refugees’ descendants say Turkey owes them around US$10 billion for properties their ancestors left behind. There are between 800,000 and 1 million descendants of the refugees from 1913.

President Rumen Radev said Bulgaria should not miss the opportunity to press Erdogan.

“I expect Bulgaria not to remain in the role of a host. I hope that the prime minister will raise the issue of Turkey’s non-interference in our internal affairs… and also the compensation of the Thracian refugees,” he said.

The Socialist party (BSP), Bulgaria’s largest opposition party, also called on Borissov to raise the issue, saying: “Bulgaria’s role as a mediator between Europe and Turkey must not be at the expense of its national interest.”

Bulgaria says Turkey recognised its claims in a friendship treaty signed in 1925.

During a previous meeting with Borissov, Erdogan said that measures would be taken “if it is proven that our country has to pay out compensations over the properties of the Thracian refugees.”

(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: Reuters
Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/bulgaria-should-press-turkey-over-historic-compensation-claim—president-10077902

TURKEY: Israel will pay $ 20 million compensation to Turkey for the raid 2010

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turkey-israelIsrael will pay 20 million dollars (18 million euros) to the families of ten Turks killed in the assault against the Mavi Marmara ship in 2010 as part of a reconciliation agreement to be signed on Tuesday, announced Prime Minister Binali Yildirim Turkish.

The two states also will share “in the shortest possible time” ambassadors, he said Monday at a press conference in Ankara, hailing an “important step” towards normalization after six years of estrangement.

He also announced that Turkey would carry on Friday, “more than 10,000 tons of humanitarian assistance” from the Turkish port of Mersin (south) to the Israeli port of Ashdod for the Palestinians of the Gaza Strip under Israeli blockade.

“It took us so many years to prepare this agreement (…) Our relations are normalized with this text,” further stated Mr. Yildirim.

Ankara was a key regional ally Israel until the 2000s.

But their relations have deteriorated then, before being reduced drastically in 2010 in response to the assault by Israeli commandos against the Mavi Marmara, a ship chartered by a Turkish humanitarian NGOs to try to break the blockade Israel in Gaza. This had resulted in the deaths of 10 Turks.

Israel apologized in 2013 but tensions had resurfaced the following year with a new Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

$100bn NATO claim: Serbian NGOs seek compensation for Yugoslavia bombing

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24Two non-governmental organizations have said NATO should be required to pay compensation for the massive damage inflicted during the 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia.

A meeting of the Belgrade Forum for the World of Equals and the Club of Generals and Admirals in Belgrade presented an initiative to hold 28-member NATO financially accountable for the damage that Yugoslavia sustained in the attacks.

Serbian experts put the price tag of the devastation between $60 and $100 billion.

Retired General Jovo Milanovic said that NATO’s military offensive, which was unsanctioned by the United Nations, represented “a violation of all norms of international law that caused enormous material damage to Yugoslavia and huge human casualties,” Tass quoted him as saying.

The participants supported Milanovic’s proposal to pursue the legal options involving financial compensation, as well as the possibility of opening criminal proceedings against western leaders who expressed their support for the aerial attacks.

Sixteen years ago, between March 24, 1999, and June 10, 1999, NATO aircraft flew over 38,000 combat missions in Yugoslavia, mostly concentrated on the capital Belgrade and in Kosovo, the flashpoint of the conflict.

Using fighter jets as well as long-range cruise missiles from warships in the Adriatic Sea, NATO destroyed vital strategic infrastructure, including bridges, government buildings and factories. The NATO campaign also targeted critical civil infrastructure, including power plants and water-processing facilities, causing substantial environmental and economic damage to the country.

On May 7, NATO forces bombed the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, killing three Chinese journalists. Washington and NATO apologized for the bombing, blaming it on an “outdated map” provided by the CIA.

The NATO campaign resulted not just in the destruction of infrastructure but the death of hundreds of civilians as well.

Human Rights Watch reported that “as few as 489 and as many as 528 Yugoslav civilians were killed in the 90 separate incidents” in the US-led NATO campaign.

Serbian sources report a much higher fatality rate, saying more than 2,000 civilians and 1,000 servicemen were killed in the NATO bombardments, while more than 5,000 people were wounded and over a thousand went missing.

Erdoğan to pay sculptor compensation over ‘monstrosity’ comment “symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship”

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ISTANBUL – Doğan News Agency

symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship

symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship

A court has ordered President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to pay 10,000 Turkish Liras to the artist responsible for a sculpture in the northeastern province of Kars, which he had demanded the removal of and described as a “monstrosity.”

During a Jan. 8, 2011 visit to Kars, then Prime Minister Erdoğan slammed the city’s new 35-meter-tall “Monument to Humanity,” created by sculptor Mehmet Aksoy.

An Istanbul court ruled on March 3 for Erdoğan to pay 10,000 liras in moral indemnities to Aksoy, partially accepting the 100,000 liras case Aksoy had filed against Erdoğan.

While Aksoy’s attorney defended their 100,000 liras case by saying that labeling the sculpture a “monstrosity” was an insult to Aksoy, Erdoğan’s attorney claimed that it was not as an insult, but rather a critique.

The sculpture debate entered Kars’ agenda in 2005 when then Mayor Naif Alibeyoğlu, of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), tasked Aksoy with building a monument that would symbolize Turkish-Armenian friendship. The project included two figures facing each other, with an open hand facing them.

Alibeyoğlu, however, decided in 2008 to switch ranks and join the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). While the monument was still under construction that year, the Council of Monuments decided to stop its installation, arguing that the monument’s ground was actually a historical site. The monument was dismantled in the subsequent years, as its site was declared a protected area.