UPDATE: Terrorist State of Turkey’s Crime against humanity (Journalist)

December 1, 2015 By administrator

Erdogan Court rejects appeal to release Cumhuriyet editors Dündar, Gül

An İstanbul court on Tuesday rejected an appeal against the arrest of Cumhuriyet Editor-in-Chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül, who were arrested on Nov. 26 as part of an investigation into the paper’s coverage of a National Intelligence Organization (MİT) truck scandal.

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Atilla Taş sentenced to 11 months for ‘insulting’ İnegöl mayor on Twitter

(FOTO: IZMIR DHA)

Meydan daily columnist Atilla Taş was given on Tuesday a suspended prison sentence of 11 months and 20 days on Tuesday for “insulting” İnegöl Mayor Alinur Aktaş in Twitter posts.

Taş, whose hugely popular Twitter account has more than 1.3 million followers, has criticized the mayor over allegedly fatally poisoning 84 stray dogs in the İnegöl district of Bursa province in his tweets.

Aktaş is now planning to bring a second case against Taş to force him to pay for the court expenses, private Cihan news agency reported.

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Presenter at Belgium-based radio station dismissed over criticism of Turkish gov’t

A radio presenter at a Brussels-based Turkish radio station was fired for hosting a radio program that featured criticism of the Turkish government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Kenan Erer presented the radio program “Karganın Kahvaltısı” [A Crow’s Breakfast] for the last time on Tuesday morning and said the managers of Gold FM radio station had decided to take his program off the air.

“Those who think that they silenced us with oppression and despotism seem to have achieved their goals, but I will continue to take a stand by singing songs and writing books,” said Erer in the program.

He said he received messages of support from the followers of his radio show after his dismissal. “Armenians, Kurds, Turks and people from all sects of this country [Turkey] called me to express sorrow [at my dismissal],” said Erer.

Livingstone: Blair guilty of ‘criminal irresponsibility’ over Iraq

December 1, 2015 By administrator

Livingstone blames Tony Blair for London 7/7 attacks

Tony Blair is guilty of “criminal irresponsibility” for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, former Mayor of London Ken Livingstone has insisted, while defending his claim that Blair is responsible for the deaths of 52 people in the 7/7 terror attacks.

Livingstone told the BBC on Tuesday the case for war in Iraq was based on information from a discredited local politician who claimed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

He defended comments made last week that Blair “killed 52 Londoners” by ignoring warnings that intervening in Iraq would lead to terror attacks on British soil.

The original comments prompted calls for Livingstone to be removed from his role as co-convener of Labour’s defense review.

When questioned about the comments on BBC Radio 4’s Today program, he said: “I simply told the truth. Everybody knows who saw the website they [the 7/7 bombers] left; they’d actually gone to kill Londoners and give their own lives in order to do that because of our involvement in Iraq. This is the problem,” he said.

“Tony Blair was told by the security services when he took that decision this will put us at risk. We started preparing for that. We spent four years of tests and exercises because we knew that terror attack would come.

“If that had been the truth – that Saddam Hussein had had nuclear weapons, weapons of mass destruction. But to base that whole war on the testimony of one discredited local politician now in retrospect looks like absolutely criminal irresponsibility.”

https://youtu.be/RIXYJLMLUUQ

Livingstone’s comments come as a new book released this week suggests that ahead of the war Blair actively ignored intelligence from South Africa which showed that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction.

In the book God, Spies and Lies, journalist John Matisonn documents how South Africa had a deep understanding of Iraqi weapons systems as the country had worked with Iraq’s weapons experts during the apartheid era.

According to the Guardian, Matisonn writes that then-South African President Thabo Mbeki had requested a specialist team of South Africans be allowed to enter Iraq prior to the invasion and investigate claims for WMDs.

The team reportedly found no WMDs and their findings were sent to both the US and the UK.

However, Western authorities ignored the findings and a full-scale invasion was launched on March 19, 2003, when troops from the US, UK, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq.

US, Once Again, Will Be Complicit in Turkey’s Crimes Against Humanity

July 29, 2015 By administrator

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

Turkish war planes that were used to attack Kurds

The United States’ “brilliant” foreign policy move over the weekend to strike a deal with Turkey to engage Ankara in its so-called fight against the Islamic State has quickly shown Turkey’s motives to finally back down and allow the US the use of its own airbase and to actively engage in the fight against what is also known as ISIS or ISIL.

Of course, this was prompted by what is being called an ISIS attack last week in Suruc, Turkey on the border with Syria as Ankara began enlisting the help of its NATO allies and the US to combat what it called terrorism on its territory.

It didn’t take long for Ankara to use this carte blanche provided to it by the US deal to turn its guns and warheads against the Kurdish population in Iraq. After staging a bombing attack on what was supposedly ISIS territory in Syria, Turkey attacked a Kurdish stronghold in Iraq, prompting the Kurds to call an end to the tenuous cease-fire with the Turks.

Turkey, which according to a former US Ambassador to Ankara, was facilitating the flow of Al-Qaeda and Islamic militants into Syria for a long time, also allowed its fluid border with the war-torn country to serve as a transport route for weapons and materials for ISIS, when its NATO ally, the US, had declared war on the Islamic State. Turkey’s apprehension to side with the US was its insistence that Syrian President Bashar al Assad should be removed from power in order to, according to Turkish officials, bring back stability, when in reality Turkey’s policy to extend its reach into Syria was the dominant factor in its posturing.

Furthermore, Turkey’s aiding and abetting of Islamist militants has had its immediate and intended impact on the Armenian population there—the invasion of Kessab, destruction of Der Zor and now the complete blockade of Aleppo.

Now, only days after the deal with the US, talk in Turkey has turned from how to fight ISIS to how to silence the Kurds, both within and outside Turkey—a long standing policy of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

As a follow-up to its military attack on Kurdish bases in Iraq, Erdogan is now looking to outlaw the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) by ordering a terrorism investigation into the party’s activities and calling for the revoking of the party’s parliamentary mandate.

The HDP, which won enough seats in parliament in last month’s elections to end the AKP’s absolute control of the Turkish legislature, has criticized official Ankara for inciting civil war and exposed Erdogan’s intentions to ice the Kurds from having any role in a future coalition government or the political stage in general. Erdogan’s actions against the HDP also undermine the democratic progress seen in Turkey after the June elections, a factor that was highly praised by the US.

So, what is the US to do when its ally is brazenly forfeiting its commitment to the intended aims of an agreement and is in fact using it to start a war against its own minority and continue its streak of crimes against humanity for which it is well known?

It is hard to believe that the seasoned US policymakers who thought of this disastrous deal did not see this coming. Since the US’ declared war on ISIS, the Kurdish population in both Iraq and Syria has proven to be a critical component of the fight on the ground, and has, according to the US military, been able to repel the threat from key positions in that area.

If the US does not take swift action, it will become complicit in another one of Turkey’s crimes against humanity. However, history has shown that the US does not mind being Ankara’s puppet, as was clear this past April when the world stood in recognition of the Armenian Genocide, and the US, once again, bowed out, continuing its complicity in that century-old crime against humanity.

Russian soldier in Armenia detained in mass killing of local family

January 13, 2015 By administrator

A Russian soldier suspected of killing six members of in the same family in Armenia and wounding a seventh, an infant boy, has been detained on the Turkish border. The serviceman from Russia’s 102 Military Base went AWOL with his weapons Monday morning.

Six family members, including a two-year-old girl, were shot dead in Armenia’s second-largest city of Gyumri on Monday at about midday. The family’s only survivor, a six-month-old boy, was operated on for gunshot wounds in the chest and is currently in a stable yet serious condition, Interfax reported.

A criminal case has been launched, and serviceman Valery Permyakov, from a Russian military base in Gyumri, is suspected of the murders, as boots bearing his name were found in the house of the murdered family.

“In the house of the slain Avetisyan family, investigators found military boots, marked on the inside with the name Valery Permyakov, who serves at a Russian military base. The murder was committed with an AK-74,” Sona Truzyan, an official at Armenia’s Investigative Committee, told Interfax.

Earlier on Monday, at 6 am it was discovered that an armed serviceman was absent from his post, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that a search for the man was under way.

Investigators believe that the killings most likely arose in connection with a crime of passion, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian Embassy in Armenia has expressed its condolences, saying in a statement that the two countries are working together on the case. Russian officials are providing all the necessary assistance to solve the crime as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told his Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandyan.

UN says Iraq crimes on ‘unimaginable scale’

September 1, 2014 By administrator

The UN says it has received reports from Iraq that “reveal acts of inhumanity on an unimaginable scale”.

According to BBC News, Deputy Human Rights Commissioner Flavia Pansieri said Islamic State (IS) was believed to have committed systematic and intentional attacks on civilians.

They include targeted killings, forced conversions, slavery, sexual abuse, and the besieging of entire communities.

Pansieri said evidence suggested that Iraqi government forces had killed detainees and shelled civilian areas.

The unrest in Iraq has escalated dramatically in recent months as Islamic State, formerly known as Isis, and allied Sunni rebels have taken control of large parts of northern and western Iraq.

Thousands of people have been killed, the majority of them civilians, and more than a million others have been forced to flee their homes.

On Monday, Sept 1, the UN Human Rights Council debated demands for an emergency mission to be sent to Iraq to investigate whether war crimes and crimes against humanity were being committed.

Addressing the meeting, Pansieri said UN officials continued to gather “strong evidence” that serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law had been committed in areas under IS control.

Pansieri said Christian, Yazidi, Turkmen, Shabak, Kaka’i, Sabeans and Shia communities had “all been targeted through particularly brutal persecution” and that IS had “ruthlessly carried out what may amount to ethnic and religious cleansing”.

Yazidis have been targeted for extremely harsh treatment. Many men who refused to convert to Islam were reportedly executed, while women and young girls were allotted as slaves to IS fighters. At least 2,250 Yazidi women and children are being held hostage.

Last week, the UN said it had received reports of at least 650 male inmates of Badouch Prison in Mosul being shot dead by IS militants on July 10. Witnesses and survivors said inmates claiming to be Sunni were taken away, while Shia and members of other religious or ethnic communities were ordered into ditches and killed.

In a separate development on Monday, Iraqi officials told the AFP news agency that Kurdish peshmerga fighters and Shia militiamen had retaken Suleiman Bek, a key stronghold for IS over the past 11 weeks.

The north-eastern town is near Amerli, where thousands of mainly Shia Turkmen were besieged by IS until Iraqi forces broke through on Sunday.

‘Compelling evidence’ for Kosovo Liberation Army crimes

July 29, 2014 By administrator

The EU’s Special Investigative Task Force said it has evidence to file an indictment against former senior officials of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army. They are accused of violating international humanitarian law.

In a statement made on Tuesday (29.07.2014), the European Union Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) announced its findings on the alleged crimes committed by members of ethnic-Albanian rebel organization Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which sought Kosovo’s separation from Serb territories in the 1990s. According to the SITF’s chief prosecutor, Clint Williamson (pictured), some of the KLA’s senior officials committed crimes against humanity and war crimes following the end of the Kosovo War in 1999.

The SITF says it found evidence “that certain elements of the KLA intentionally targeted the minority populations with acts of persecution that included unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements of individuals from their homes and communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and other religious sites.”

Williamson underlined that the victims of these crimes were mainly Serbs, Roma and other minorities, but also Kosovo Albanians who were labeled as either collaborators with the Serbs or political opponents of the KLA leadership.

‘Intense’ investigation

The SITF was set up by the European Union in September 2011 to conduct a full-scale criminal investigation into the allegations contained in the report of Council of Europe Rapporteur Dick Marty, who claimed he had information about former KLA officials harvesting and trafficking human organs.

“Over the past two and a half years, the SITF has conducted an intense, detailed investigation into the allegations in the Marty Report,” wrote Williamson the statement. “This investigation has involved interviews of hundreds of witnesses in countries throughout Europe and elsewhere. It has involved the review of thousands of pages of documents compiled by numerous organizations and individuals that were engaged in Kosovo during and after the period of our investigative focus.”

He added that the investigation has been a “challenging exercise” but was nevertheless convinced that it has been “the most comprehensive investigation ever done of crimes perpetrated in the period after the war ended in Kosovo in June 1999.”

Planned indictments

In its press release, the SITF claims it can file an indictment against KLA individuals once “an appropriate judicial mechanism is established to host a fully independent, impartial and transparent trial that ensures the highest standards of security for witnesses and for criminal proceedings.”

No names of the alleged perpetrators have been released at this stage. According to the SITF spokesman, the organization is not yet in a position to file an indictment and no individuals will be named before then.

The SITF is optimistic about the outcome of the planned judicial proceedings as it believes it holds strong evidence, the spokesman told DW. Also, based on the level of cooperation displayed by Kosovo so far, the organization is confident that anyone who is indicted will surrender voluntarily and submit to the judicial process.

Williamson thanked the European Union, its member states and international partners for their ongoing efforts in setting up a court for the proceedings.

Moscow urges UNSC to discuss Syrian rebels’ siege of Christian town of Kessab

April 2, 2014 By administrator

April 01, 2014

RT Russia urged the UN Security Council to discuss the situation in Syria’s Christian majority town of Kessab, after Al-Qaeda-linked militants reportedly attacked the town, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated.

“The UN Security Council should discuss the situation in Kessab and give it a principled evaluation,” it stated. “We condemn extremists’ actions in Syria. We believe that the Syrian government and the opposition should join efforts to eradicate terrorism on the Syrian land.”

On March 21, jihadists reportedly crossed into Syria from Turkey and seized the town in Latakia province, home to over 2,000 ethnic Armenians. The attack caused hundreds of local families, mainly Armenian, to flee their homes and seek shelter in the city of Latakia.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry noted that there were no military objects on the attacked territory and added that the only fault of the families, who were forced to flee, was their loyalty to Syria’s government.

Syria’s permanent representative to the UN, Bashar Jaafari, told RT Arabic that Syria is hoping the UN will help resolve the situation in Kessab. In the past week, Syria sent five letters to the UN Security Council and the General Secretary. “These letters contain detailed information about Turkish direct involvement in the crisis by providing protection to terrorist groups that are operating in the Kessab area,” Jaafari said.

He further added that military groups managed to get to Kessab under the cover of Turkish artillery strikes, Turkish aviation, and tanks, which were all used as a distraction.

“This allowed the terrorists to avoid direct clashes with the Syrian army…unleashed [the terrorists’] hands to carry out their heinous, unspeakable crimes.”

Earlier, the Armenian government also called on the UN to protect Kessab, evoked the Armenian genocide of 1915, and accused Turkey of allowing jihadists cross its border to attack Kessab. In turn, Ankara slammed the accusations and condemned the charge as “confrontational political propaganda.”

The attack on Kessab was reportedly carried out by fighters from the Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group in Syria, and the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade, part of the Islamic Front alliance.

Earlier this week, the Syrian army launched an operation to force the militants out of the town.

The situation escalated on March 23 when Turkey shot down a Syrian Air Force jet at the Kessab crossing. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the plane was intercepted after it violated his country’s airspace.

In response, Damascus accused Ankara of “blatant aggression,” saying the fighter jet had been over Syria. The Syrian pilot said a Turksih aircraft fired a missile at him while he was pursuing terrorists within Syrian territories, SANA news agency reported.