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Turkish commander of air base housing US nukes detained for complicity in coup attempt – official

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Turkish general arrestedGeneral Bekir Ercan Van, the commander of Turkey’s Incirlik airbase, which is used both by the Turkish Air Force and NATO forces, has been detained by Turkish authorities accused of complicity in the attempted coup.

The senior Turkish military commander was arrested along with over a dozen lower ranking officers at the base, AFP reported. A government official has confirmed with Reuters that the general has been detained.

According to an agreement between Ankara and Washington, Incirlik is used by NATO and stores US tactical nuclear weapons. The airbase is also being used by the US to launch airstrikes on Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) in neighboring Syria, which reportedly ceased following Friday’s military coup attempt.

In the wake of the failed military uprising, the Turkish authorities have been conducting “anti-coup” operations at the base. Some members of the Turkish Air Force have been arrested on suspicion of having supported the coup. Authorities have also claimed that at least one of the planes “hijacked” by the coup plotters was refueled at Incirlik, according to AFP.

Ankara has arrested some 6,000 people believed to have been involved in the attempted coup and the number “could surpass 6,000,” as the “cleansing” operation is ongoing, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a television interview, as cited by AP.

Addressing his supporters after the first victims of the uprising had been laid to rest, President Erdogan said on Saturday that the parliament may discuss reintroducing the death penalty in Turkey, Reuters reported. The remark reportedly came in response to the crowd, which was chanting for the perpetrators to be executed.

 

Turkey: 18 academics detained, over 130 face criminal charges amid accusations by president of ‘terrorist propaganda’

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n_93887_1Turkish police have detained at least 18 academics who signed a petition calling for an end to military operations in southeastern Anatolia, while more than 130 academics are facing criminal charges. The moves come just days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the signatories for making “terrorist propaganda.”

Universities and prosecutor’s offices across the country started to launch probes into some of the 1,128 local and international academics and intellectuals who fall within the state’s jurisdiction, arguing that the petition went beyond the limits of academic freedoms.

In a dawn operation in the northwestern province of Kocaeli on Jan. 15, police raided the houses of 19 academics and detained 15. Provincial police head Levent Yarımel told the press a detention warrant had been issued for a total of 21 academics in the city.

In the northwestern province of Bursa, meanwhile, three academics were also detained, Anadolu Agency reported.

Speaking in Sultanahmet after Friday prayers on Jan. 15, President Erdoğan again denounced the signatories of the document, who included U.S. philosopher Noam Chomsky, saying that “those who do not want to take part in politics in parliament should dig trenches or go to the mountains.”

“Our nation should see who is who. Being a professor does not make someone an intellectual. These are the darkest of people. They are cruel people, because those who ally with cruelty are themselves cruel,” Erdoğan said on Jan. 15, referring to the detention of academics.

Meanwhile, the Anatolian, Istanbul and Bakırköy chief public prosecutors also launched investigations against at least 123 academics employed by universities in Istanbul. Anadolu initiated probes on 82 academics and Bakırköy on 41 academics while public prosecutor of Istanbul did not disclose a number.

Some of the academics employed by universities outside of Istanbul are also facing charges as public prosecutor’s offices in Bartın, Diyarbakır, Kayseri, Mardin and Samsun also announced that probes would be launched against academics that have signed the petition, although a clear number was not provided to the press.

According to reports, the academics are being charged with violating the controversial Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, according to which it is illegal to insult the Turkish nation, the state of the Turkish Republic or the Grand Assembly of Turkey and the state’s judicial institutions. The academics are also accused of “terrorist propaganda” and of “inciting hatred and enmity.”

This view was reiterated early on Jan. 15 by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu who claimed no country would consider “supporting or collaborating with a terror organization” as freedom of expression, implying the petition aimed at supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

“There is no difference between supporting terror financially or politically,” Çavuşoğlu argued, underlining Turkey has been going through a “sensitive” period in its history.

The president’s call for action of legal institutions and university senates, coupled by criticisms of Justice and Development Party (AKP) government officials, led to a series of administrative inquiries by universities which employ some of the academics in question.

At least 41 academics are facing, among other punishments, suspension and dismissal. This figure does not include the academics whose number has so far been disclosed only as “a group of” academics by Çukurova and Gediz universities.

In stark contrast with the AKP, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) strongly criticized the detentions, arguing the move came from Erdoğan’s instructions to the judiciary.

“The steps taken by the judiciary and some universities that regarded President Erdoğan’s statements as an order on 1,128 academics who signed a petition titled ‘We won’t be part of this crime’ by the ‘Academics for Peace Initiative’ constitute a new dark stain on Turkish democracy,” read a statement issued by the party assembly of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Jan. 15.

The Istanbul Chamber of Medicine also raised its voice against the detention of academics and announced that it would hold a press conference in protest at the raids.

The investigation and the detentions come soon after Turkey’s president slammed the petition’s signatories, arguing the human rights violations in the southeast are being committed by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and not the Turkish state.

“Despite all of these facts, this crowd, which calls itself academics, accuses the state through a statement. Not only this, they also invite foreigners to monitor developments. This is the mentality of colonialism,” he said. Likening today’s situation with the Turkish War of Independence, Erdoğan said the country was again facing “treason” from “so-called intellectuals.”

Erdoğan also touched upon the issue following a visit to Sultanahmet Square, where an Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) suicide bomber killed 10 German tourists on Jan. 12, underlining that there was no different between “oppressors and the supporters of oppressors.”

January/15/2016

Azerbaijani security official detained

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f5640833e73753_5640833e7378b.thumbThe Azerbaijani Prosecutor’s General’s Office has detained a high-ranking security official, Trend.az reports.
Law enforcement sources have told the agency that complaints against Colonel Mirasis Askerov, the head of General Counter-Intelligence Department at the Ministry of National Security, led to the precautionary measure.

An inquest is now under way.

October 18Azerbaijan’s Minister of National Security Eldar Mahmudov was detained on charges of abuse of power.

Seven other security officials were later held as part of the same proceeding.

Turkey: 44 detained by police for allegedly acting beyond legal authority

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232309Forty-four people including former police chiefs, provincial governors and civil servants were detained by police on Tuesday on charges of acting beyond their legal authorities.

The detainees, who have only been identified by their initials, include former İzmir Police Chief A.B., former İzmir Deputy Police Chief M.A.Ş., three provincial governors, a deputy governor, former Afyon Police College head M.K., former civil inspector F.İ. and a number of other police officers and bureaucrats.

The Cihan news agency has reported that İzmir Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Okan Bato ordered the detention of 57 suspects. The city’s anti-smuggling and organized crime unit then conducted raids that were centered in the province of İzmir but extended to 17 other cities and detained 44 individuals. The order was given by the prosecutor without a court order on the grounds that the case was urgent.

İsmail Hakkı Küçük, a lawyer of one of the suspects, told Cihan that a prosecutor can give detention orders for urgent cases but it criticized the fact that it was given for police officers on duty. “Do not be surprised if the prosecutor also rules to arrest them. They do not feel the need for a judge. They are violating the rights of 57 people with the detention orders. Why is the case so urgent?” Küçük said.

The İzmir Public Prosecutor’s Office has released a written statement on the operation in which it claims the suspects are members of the “parallel structure.” The term “parallel structure” was invented by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to refer to followers of the Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, a grassroots initiative inspired by the ideas of Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

Erdoğan made the elimination of the “parallel structure” a priority after a major corruption scandal involving people in his inner circle came to public attention with a wave of detentions on Dec. 17, 2013. Erdoğan, who was prime minister at the time of the scandal, framed the corruption investigation as a “plot against his government” by the Hizmet movement and foreign collaborators.

The detentions have targeted the police officers, members of the judiciary and bureaucrats who carried out operations against a military espionage gang based in İzmir in 2011.

The İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into the spy ring, whose members stand accused of obtaining classified military information to sell to third parties. The suspects are also accused of hiring foreign sex workers to send to military officers. The sex workers would illegally obtain personal information about the officers and blackmail them into providing the spy ring with classified information. The group is based in İzmir but reportedly has branches in provinces including İstanbul, Ankara, Bursa, Antalya, Muğla, Manisa, Zonguldak and Ordu.

The indictment by the İzmir Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office about the case states that the gang had a complicated structure and that it carried out activities to damage the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the government.

Then-Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said during an interview in 2013 that he was examining documents seized by police as part of an operation against a military espionage gang and that he was considering becoming a co-plaintiff in the case against the gang. Some of the documents are said to include personal information about Arınç.

“I see that there are things that concern me, too. There are also issues related to [Deputy Prime Minister] Ali Babacan,” Arınç said.

Ministers and members of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government expressed their support for probes targeting gangs with connections in the military at the time. Critics of the government later speculated that the AK Party used the probes as part of its project to tame the TSK, which had dominated Turkish politics for decades.

After Erdoğan launched a campaign against the Gülen movement after the Dec. 17 scandal and redesigned the police and the judiciary, police launched investigations against the bureaucrats, members of the judiciary and police who had carried out investigations against major criminal networks, some of them targeting Erdoğan and members of his government.

‘Judiciary is subordinate to government’

According to Ahmet Gündel, a retired public prosecutor who worked for the Supreme Court of Appeals, the judiciary has been subordinated to the executive arm of government.

Speaking with the Cihan news agency on Tuesday, Gündel said that the detention of police officers, governors and bureaucrats in İzmir was a bad beginning for the new term of the AK Party, which secured enough seats in Parliament to form a single-party government in Sunday’s general election. “If there is any concrete evidence of a crime against anyone, a prosecutor should not wait for the results of an election. The operations in İzmir show that the judiciary is acting in accordance with the government, which goes against the impartiality and independence of the judiciary,” Gündel said.

Noting that many of those who did not vote for the AK Party on Sunday are concerned about their freedoms and rights, Gündel said that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu must keep the promise he made during his victory speech in Ankara on Sunday evening to provide providing freedoms, rights and equal treatment to all citizens.

Source: Zaman

Turkey: Over 80 Kurdish HDP, DBP members detained in Turkey’s southeast

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DHA Photo

DHA Photo

BATMAN – Doğan News Agency

As many as 85 officials from the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and the Democratic Unity Party (DBP), including the mayor of the southeastern province of Batman and his deputy, have been detained after they attempted to enter a military security zone in Batman’s Sason district.

Batman Mayor Sabri Özdemir, deputy mayor Gülistan Akel and HDP Batman provincial head Rojda Sürücü along with others were detained by gendarmerie forces on Sept. 19 after they attempted to enter a military security zone where an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant was killed in Sason’s Kelhasan village on Sept. 19.

Among the 85 detained were Beşiri district Mayor Mustafa Öztürk, Gercüş district Mayor Abdulkerim Kaya, İki Köprü town Mayor Osman Karabulut, Batman Municipality Assembly President Salih Altun and DBP Batman provincial head Mehmet Candemir.

Behçet Kara, a resident of Kelhasan, where a military-imposed curfew is in effect, said residents of the village wanted the curfew to be lifted and they hoped for to return to normalcy.

“We wish for peace and democracy,” Kara added.

Some of the people detained were on a minibus heading to Sason when it was stopped at a checkpoint placed by the Yanıkkaya Gendarmerie Command to deny entry to the district.

Soldiers gave chairs to the women who got off the minibus when the weather became hot.

Turkey has seen a rise in violence with a spate of terrorist acts in recent months that have left scores dead and injured.

The Turkish military has declared a large number of areas in the country’s eastern and southeastern provinces as “military security zones” in a preemptive action against violent attacks.

Source: hurriyetdailynews.com

September/20/2015

Dutch journalist detained in Turkey for the second time

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dt.thumbA Dutch journalist based in southeastern Diyarbakır province was detained Sept. 6 by the police for the second time, Netherland official news agency ANP has reported.

Frederike Geerdink was detained at around 2 a.m., as she was following the Democratic Peoples’ Party’s (HDP) program.

“I am in custody in Yüksekova,” Geerdink tweeted, adding she was with members of the human shield group who were also detained.

Thomas Bruning, the secretary general of Netherlands Journalists (NVJ), told ANP it was unacceptable the journalists had been arrested in Turkey.

The report also said the Dutch Embassy in Ankara was closely watching Geerdink’s detainment.

Geerdink was first detained in Diyarbakır in January at a time that coincided with the visit of Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders, who had harshly criticized the journalist’s detainment.

A lawsuit was opened against Geerdink on charges of producing “terrorist propaganda” on behalf of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) however she was acquitted of those charges in April.

Geerdink has been working in Turkey since 2006 and has been in Diyarbakır for three years.

Turkey: pro-Kurdish (DBP) Nusaybin co-mayor detained for second time over ‘self-governance’ claims

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227689One of the co-mayors of Mardin’s Nusaybin district was detained for the second time on Monday over her earlier statements on a declaration of “self-governance” in the district in protest of the government’s operations against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Nusaybin Co-mayor Sara Kaya, who is a member of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Regions Party (DBP), and was first detained last Friday, was detained again on Monday after the Mardin Prosecutor’s Office appealed an earlier court decision granting her release.

So-called people’s assemblies in the southeastern districts of Silopi, Cizre and Nusaybin, as well as in the province of Şırnak, declared “self-governance” on Aug. 10, following clashes between terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) supporters and the police in Silopi that killed four people, including a policeman. The Yüksekova district in the southeastern province of Hakkari and the Varto and Bulanık districts of Muş followed suit soon after.

In a statement on Aug. 12, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella group that encompasses the PKK, said the people’s assemblies in the Silopi, Cizre, Nusaybin and Şırnak provinces declared that they would not recognize any state institution, declare self-governance and “exercise their legitimate right to self-defense if [their] self-governance is attacked.”

Turkey: 2 pro-Kurdish officials detained in Mardin operation

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Sabiha Gündüz, the co-president of the HDP's Nusaybin district's branch. (Photo: DHA)

Sabiha Gündüz, the co-president of the HDP’s Nusaybin district’s branch. (Photo: DHA)

Two high ranking officials from pro-Kurdish parties — the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Democratic Regions Party (DBP) — were detained in a police operation carried out in Mardin on Monday morning.

The co-chairman of the HDP’s Nusaybin district branch, Sabiha Gündü, and the head of the DBP Nusaybin branch, Erhan Dinç, were detained in the operation. The detention of the pair comes after claims that there was a declaration of self-governance in the district.

Elsewhere in the country, three district co-mayors from the southeastern province of Diyarbakır and two co-mayors and one provincial official from the HDP in Hakkari province were arrested on Sunday after they declared autonomy from the Turkish state last week.

Turkey Whistleblower claims journalists, members of judiciary to be detained en masse

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A screenshot taken from whistleblower fuatavni’s Twitter account. (Photo: Today's Zaman)

A screenshot taken from whistleblower fuatavni’s Twitter account. (Photo: Today’s Zaman)

A week before the country’s June 7 parliamentary elections, Turkey‘s prominent whistleblower Fuat Avni has claimed that there is soon to be a mass detention of journalists and members of the judiciary as part of government efforts to muzzle media outlets which are free, independent and critical.

The whistleblower, known on Twitter by the pseudonym Fuat Avni, said some 200 people will be detained in a major sweep that has been ordered by the embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is reportedly furious over the publication by the Cumhuriyet daily of photos of weapons being carried to radical groups in Syria by trucks run by Turkey’s intelligence organization.

Avni said Erdoğan has become very concerned over a possible trial in the International Criminal Court for sending arms to Syrian groups, which allegedly included al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Turkey’s president appears to want to divert public attention by launching the en masse detention of journalists, which is supposed to include the chief editor of Cumhuriyet, Can Dündar.

Erdoğan is also reportedly concerned that after the elections, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) may not secure enough seats to establish a single party government, and therefore a witch hunt he has been pursuing since corruption scandals in 2013 may be interrupted.

According to Fuat Avni, the government will detain scores of journalists critical to the government, including Ekrem Dumanlı, the editor-in chief of Zaman, the country’s largest circulated national daily; Bülent Keneş, the editor-in-chief of Today’s Zaman; Kerim Balcı, the editor-in-chief of Turkish Review, a bimonthly news magazine; Celil Sağır, the managing editor of Today’s Zaman; Faruk Mercan, the Ankara representative of Bugün TV; Adem Yavuz Arslan, the Washington bureau chief for the Bugün newspaper; Nazlı Ilıcak, a veteran columnist at Bugün; Yasemin Çongar, former editor of Taraf daily; Ahmet Altan, former editor-in-chief of Taraf, Emre Uslu, columnist at Today’s Zaman, and finally Cumhuriyet’s Can Dündar.

The politically-motivated investigations included not only journalists but also the corporate entities of Zaman, Samanyolu and Bugün media outlets.

Police chiefs and members of the judiciary who were involved in landmark cases that exposed wrongdoings in the government and the military are also targeted in the sweep, Avni claimed.

Avni has revealed many government-backed police operations to the public in the past, and though late at times, all the claims have turned out to be true.

He also said Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is opposed to any mass detentions taking place so soon before the elections, fearing a backlash from voters.