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Terrorist State of Turkey targets Kurdish forces south of Syria’s Jarablus

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Erdogan depoticOne soldier killed in rocket attack on Turkish tanks amid clashes between Turkey-backed Syria rebels and Kurdish YPG.

Turkish jets and artillery have targeted Kurdish forces south of the strategic town of Jarablus, according to a monitor and local sources, as Turkey continues a major military offensive inside northern Syria. 

Turkey first sent tanks across the border on Wednesday as part of a two-pronged operation against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters, as well as Kurdish-led forces.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday’s air strikes and shelling hit the village of Amarneh, which was captured recently by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

The strikes came as Turkish-backed Syrian rebels clashed with Kurdish fighters on the ground. 

The Jarablus Military Council, which is allied with the SDF, said the air strikes in Amarneh marked an “unprecedented and dangerous escalation” after Turkish artillery shelling targeted Kurdish YPG forces, the backbone of the SDF alliance, on Friday.

The council said there were injuries, without giving any further details, but warned that the escalation threatened to “endanger the future of the region” and vowed to stand its ground.

Wladimir van Wilgenburg, an analyst based in the nearby Kurdish-controlled city of Qamishli, told Al Jazeera that the clashes had increased throughout Saturday.

“There have been reports that SDF fighters have blown up a Turkish tank. The fighting is ongoing,” he said.

Later on Saturday, one Turkish soldier and three others were wounded in a rocket attack on a Turkish tank south of Jarablus late on Saturday, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, in the military’s first fatality since the launch of its offensive to partly help Syria rebels capture Jarablus from ISIL, also known as ISIS.

Turkish military sources said the rocket was fired from territory held by the Kurdish YPG.

Earlier on Saturday, the Northern Sun Battalion, an SDF faction, had said in a statement that it was heading to “Jarablus fronts” to help the council against “threats made by factions belonging to Turkey”.

Turkish PM compares Erdogan to Ottoman sultan

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Erdogan-the-sultan 740Turkey’s prime minister has compared President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to the Ottoman sultan who conquered Constantinople – modern-day Istanbul – centuries ago.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim made the comparison during the opening of a new bridge over the Bosphorus Strait between Europe and Asia in Istanbul on Friday.

Erdogan has “made cars pass beneath sea” as Mehmet the Conqueror carried ships over land, Yildirim said.

He was referring to the Ottoman ruler’s carrying of ships overland to avoid capture during his seizure of Constantinople in 1453 and inauguration under Erdogan in 2013 of a metro line passing beneath the Bosphorus Strait.

Yildirim’s comments came during the opening ceremony of the third bridge over the strait between Europe and Asia in Istanbul, which follows the tradition of the first one built in 1973 and the second in 1988.

Addressing the event, Erdogan himself said, “We are connecting continents with the bridge,” adding, “People die but their work remains immortal.”

“To attain the level of a civilized nation is not possible with words but with actions,” said Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey from 2003-2014 as premier and from 2014 as president.

Upon conquering Constantinople, Mehmet called himself “Caesar” of the Roman Empire on the ground that the city served as the empire’s seat and capital.

The Turkish head of state has been blamed by critics for harboring empire-building ambitions similar to the ones nurtured by the rulers of the Ottoman Era.

The bridge is named after the 16th century Ottoman Sultan Selim I, who conquered swathes of the Middle East during his eight-year rule in 1500s.

The sultan realized much of his conquests in the region after he vanquished the empire’s opponents in modern-day Syria in 1516.

Turkey invaded Syria on Wednesday to purportedly target Takfiri terrorists and Kurdish fighters on the anniversary of the historic battle.

During the inauguration of the bridge, Erdogan said Turkey will continue its operations inside Syria until all terrorist groups are eliminated.

Earlier this year, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said his Turkish counterpart represented the Ottomans who massacred Armenians a century ago.

He said the Turkish leader and his government were using the same tool as was used in the killing of Armenians against the Syrian people, referring to Ankara’s widely-reported support of militants.

Report: German officials say Erdogan supports militants “ideological affinity” with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood

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Erdogan-islamic-connectionMembers of Germany’s government have accused Turkey’s regime of supporting militant groups in the Middle East public media report. ARD cited a classified document sent from the Interior Ministry to the Left party.

Citing a classified document from the Interior Ministry to representatives of the Left party on Tuesday the German public broadcaster ARD reported, that members of the government consider Turkey’s regime a supporter of militant groups in the Middle East.

German officials appear to have publicly acknowledged, if in a classified document, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s weapons support for militants fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, which Turkish journalists have reported in the past. “Especially since the year 2011 as a result of its incrementally Islamized internal and foreign policy, Turkey has become a central platform for action for Islamist groups in the Middle East,” the German officials said, according to ARD.

German security officials also said Erdogan had an “ideological affinity” with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, ARD reported. Suppressed under Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship, the movement went on to produce Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi.

Despite the “affinity,” Erdogan has been publicly at odds with the Muslim Brotherhood in the past though he has since also criticized current Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who overthrew Morsi in a 2013 coup. Neither the United States nor the EU considers the Muslim Brotherhood a terror organization.

The German officials also said Erdogan supported Hamas, the democratically elected governing party in the Gaza Strip. Turkey’s president has said as much in the past, having told the US news host Charlie Rose, that “I don’t see Hamas as a terror organization.” Though the United States and EU do list Hamas as a prohibited group, nations such as Norway, Switzerland and Brazil do not.

“It is a resistance movement, trying to protect its country under occupation,” Erdogan added in the 2011 interview, referring to the Israeli state, with which Turkey also enjoys diplomatic ties.

mkg/rc (Reuters, KNA, dpa)

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/report-german-officials-say-erdogan-supports-militants/a-19477846

Turkish singer Sıla’s concerts canceled after she called democracy rally “Show”

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Erdogan showTurkish singer Sıla Gençoğlu’s concerts in four provinces have been canceled over her remarks on the Aug. 7 democracy rally in Istanbul in the aftermath of the failed coup attempt which she described as a “show.”

“[…] There are also artists who describe the fight of our people claiming our country as a show and mock that honorable stance and will. Therefore, the planned Sept. 21 and 22 concerts of one of those artists, Sıla Gençoğlu, in Harbiye Cemil Topuzlu Open Air Theater have been canceled by our municipality,” the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality said in a statement.

Sıla had previously said she did not want to attend the rally, calling it a “show.”

“I am absolutely against the coup but I do not prefer to be inside such a show,” Sıla said, while stressing that she stood by her words.

“I do not want to comment on this issue. Of course those who wanted to take it wrong did so but I stand by my words. Do not we say democracy? Well, I expressed my opinion and said what I thought,” she said.

In addition to concert cancelations in Istanbul, Sıla’s Aug. 11 concert in the capital Ankara, Sept. 28 concert in the northwestern province of Bursa and her upcoming concert in the Central Anatolian province of Kayseri were also canceled due to her remarks.

Meanwhile, the hashtag #SılaYalnızDeğildir (Sıla is not alone) hit the worldwide Twitter trending topic list after the cancelations.

Millions of people, including a number of celebrities and artists, gathered on Aug. 7 at a meeting venue in Istanbul’s Yenikapı district for a massive joint democracy rally to protest the July 15 failed coup attempt.

August/11/2016

 

Erdogan in Russia for begging Putin “Turkish economy in total claps”

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erdogan went beggingTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has arrived in Russia on a visit aimed to rebuild ties. Erdogan is seeking to overcome a long history of dispute with Moscow and forge new alliances after the July 15 coup attempt.

Shortly after touching down in St. Petersburg on Tuesday, Turkish President Erdogan said his country was entering a “very different period” in relations with Russia, and that solidarity between the two nations would help resolve regional problems.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was “glad” to be seeing Erdogan again.

“Your visit today, despite a very difficult situation regarding domestic politics, indicates that we all want to restart dialogue and restore relations between Russia and Turkey,” Putin said after the two leaders shook hands.
Turkey and Russia, which once described each other as strategic partners, have suffered disagreements, especially over their respective policies in the Syrian war, culminating in the infamous downing of a Russian fighter jet near the Syrian-Turkish border in late 2015. Erdogan, however, is hoping to leave the past behind, saying that the meeting in St. Petersburg would be a new beginning between him and his “friend Vladimir.”

“A new page will be opened in Russo-Turkish ties. This new page will include military, economic and cultural cooperation,” Erdogan told TASS ahead of the trip.

Russia has accepted Ankara’s expressions of regret over the downing of the warplane in the apparent hope of reconciliation while also reviving the relationship. Turkish officials have even detained the pilots of the Turkish planes that shot down the Russian jet on November 24, 2015, accusing them of being involved in the failed coup attempt.

In the long shadow of Turkey’s failed coup d’etat

The visit is Erdogan’s first foreign trip after the July 15 coup attempt, when a group of renegade Turkish military officers attempted to seize power leaving at least 230 people dead. Turkey has since blasted its Western allies for expressing concern over the scope of its ensuing crackdown on dissidents, complaining that the West has shown a lack of support for its democratically elected government. In contrast, Russia was quick to voice support to Erdogan after the failed coup without mentioning any concern about the crackdown.

A long history of disagreement

Russia reacted to the downing of its jet fighter with a ban on the sale of package tours to Turkey and an import embargo on Turkish agriculture, which Turkey countered by shelving a major Russian natural gas pipeline to Turkey. The bitter dispute even led Putin to declare that Erdogan had left modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk “turning in his grave.”

But relations between Turkey and Russia – two powers vying for influence in the region – have never been straightforward. Ties between the two nations can at best be described as a marriage of convenience.

Turkey’s predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia’s precursor, the Russian Empire, have fought three centuries of war, culminating in an armistice with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk at the end of World War I. Though the two powers didn’t exchange animosities during the Cold War they found themselves on opposing sides, with Turkey entering NATO and the Soviet Union forming the Warsaw Pact.

Erdogan crackdown reaches the arts, Theater actors concerned “witch hunt”

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erdogan-artTheater actors are the latest group targeted by the Turkish government’s post-coup crackdown. Professional associations have labeled it a “witch hunt.”

Many intellectuals and artists unrelated to the coup attempt have now been included in Turkey’s latest lay-off frenzy. One of the victims of the 1980 military coup, director Ragip Yavuz, is in shock: “I was investigated in different periods. I was fired from the theater during the [1980 coup] period. Yet for the first time, I am being investigated to somehow see if I am involved in the Gulen movement and whether I am pro-coup d’etat. This is both shocking and degrading.”

Yavuz is one of tens of thousands of people in Turkey who have lost their jobs following the failed coup. Dismissals began in city theaters around Istanbul. Along with Yavuz, six staff actors and one civil servant were removed due to their alleged ties to the coup. In addition, 20 subcontracted actors were dismissed because of a “lack of performance.”

A joint communique titled “Neither Coup nor State of Emergency” issued Thursday by nearly 20 professional associations – intellectuals, journalists, writers, poets and theater actors and actresses unrelated to the coup – says they are the victims of a “witch hunt.”

“Everyone involved in the coup attempt has to be brought to justice and be punished based on the laws,” reads the communique. “However, the government, seizing this opportunity, is taking steps to liquidate all opposition… to achieve absolute political power.”

‘Art requires freedom of thought’

Levent Uzumcu, one of the co-signers of the communique and the president of the Istanbul Municipal Theater Actors Association (ISTISAN), believes that the state of emergency is being used as a tool against those in opposition to the government.

“It is being used against those who do not approve of the government’s education, economy, or foreign affairs policies,” he said. “When one looks at the names of our dismissed friends, they by no means would be involved with any religious sect or organization.”

“Art requires freedom of thought,” Uzumcu added. “Our colleagues are among the best actors in Turkey. Our viewers know this very well.”

Uzumcu, himself fired from his job, was one of the leading actors during the Gezi Park demonstrations in 2013. He was dismissed right after the protests because of a political speech he gave at a Socialist International meeting in Istanbul. His press briefings and social media posts were also used as evidence against him.

Crackdown needs investigating

Sevinc Erbulak, an actress who lost her job, says she is not happy about being labeled a coup supporter.

“Naturally, I had an opinion and a stance of my own about what has been going on in my country, in what I wrote, drew or thought, or what I said based on what we have been through at the theater,” said Erbulak. “But the situation or the trap or whatever it is we are currently in, is beyond my mind.”

Erbulak added that what needs to be investigated is the source of the current post-coup crackdown.

One of the dismissed actors, Ragyp Yavuz, says many of the productions planned for the opening of the new season in October are now in jeopardy. Quite a few of the subcontracted actors dismissed for “lack of performance” had important roles in the plays, Yavuz said.

The Istanbul Municipal Theater administration refused to answer journalists’ inquiries due to “an ongoing legal process.”

Many vacant positions unfilled

Istanbul Municipal Theater is one of Turkey’s most controversial art institutes due to political interference. According to the performers, the government is trying to have more influence over which plays are performed. There are also increasing calls to close state-funded art institutions.

Uzumcu said that while 180 performers are employed as staff, just as many positions remain vacant. “No one is being hired for those vacant positions,” he said. “Why not? Because if they are filled, city theaters will continue to perform and they don’t want that.”

“I am worried that within this dust storm, before anyone realizes what is going on, all state-funded art institutions, including the Municipal Theater, state theaters, and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra may be shut down by governmental decree,” Uzumcu said. “The butchery we are observing right now is mind-boggling.”

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/theater-actors-concerned-as-turkeys-post-coup-crackdown-reaches-the-arts/a-19452001

US to send delegation to Turkey over Gülen extradition “Video”

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Gulen turkey usThe US Justice Department will send a technical delegation to Turkey next week over the government’s request to extradite US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, the prime suspect behind the July 15 coup attempt according to Ankara.

The Turkish Justice Ministry had invited a delegation from Washington to come to Turkey first to discuss Gülen’s extradition.

In return, a delegation from the Justice ministry will later depart for US to discuss the extradition after the US delegation’s visit, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

Ankara has already lodged two extradition demands with the US for Gülen, who lives a self-claimed exile in Pennsylvania.

Earlier this week, a second document had been sent to the United States demanding the urgent arrest of Gülen.

The U.S. Department of State announced on Aug. 5 that it was evaluating new documents sent by Ankara.