Erdogan says: Democracy, freedom and the rule of law’ have no value, in Turkey

July 20, 2016 By administrator

democracy have no value Democracy, freedom and the rule of law have no value any longer, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said. He added that those who don’t support Ankara’ efforts to combat terrorists in the country are Turkey’s “enemies.”

“Democracy, freedom and the rule of law…For us, these words have absolutely no value any longer. Those who stand on our side in the fight against terrorism are our friend. Those on the opposite side are our enemy,” Erdogan told local leaders in Ankara on Wednesday, according to the DPA news agency.

Ankara is planning to deploy “an iron fist against terrorism” and “fight Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants” in the country’s south east Erdogan said.

Turkey views all Kurdish militia that are also spread widely throughout Syria and Iraq as a direct national threat. Erdogan repeated Turkey will strike Kurds everywhere.

Wherever you run, our soldiers, police and village guards will find you there and do what is necessary,” the president said, referring to Kurdish militants.

He also urged the authorities to “swiftly” end immunity from prosecution for pro-Kurdish politicians.

Turkey Erdogan and social media: use and abuse

July 20, 2016 By administrator

(DW) After using social media to publicly quash the coup, Turkey’s government is cracking down on news sites and purging state institutions again. Here is how censorship works in the country – and how Turks react to it.

After recent terrorist attacks, Turkey’s authorities have generally been restricting access to the most important social media platforms through throttling. An organization called Turkey Blocks has been monitoring this closely over eight different crises including the terrorist attacks that have occurred since September 2015. Turkey Blocks says that these restrictions can be observed for an average of 12 to 14 hours following a crisis.

After the coup attempt, the social media block was also observed:

“We were hearing the jets here in Istanbul and monitoring at the same time. It was pretty crazy,” Alp Toker, initiator and coordinator of Turkey Blocks, told DW.

However, this time, the block was way shorter than usual – a little less than two hours, according to Toker.

As soon as the restrictions were lifted, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a social media blitz, sending a call to the population via different platforms, Facebook, WhatsApp, directly to their mobile phones, and through Twitter.

This tweet, asking the population to go out to airports and public squares to resist the coup, went out to his over eight million followers:

Erdogan also contacted the TV station CNN Turk through the video chat app FaceTime. The president was shown sitting in front of a simple curtain on the chat screen of an iPhone in the hand of the news host, Hande Firat: “First my hands were shaking,” she told the German newspaper “Bild.”

“That was extraordinary,” said Alp Toker. “He usually likes his appearances to be very formal.” The improvised setting added to the sense of emergency, all while creating “another milestone in digital messaging’s growing influence in shaping world events,” wrote “The Globe and Mail” media reporter James Bradshaw.

“I have to congratulate their promptness that night. That’s probably the quickest response the government issued to anything you can imagine,” Istanbul-based social media strategist Serdar Paktin told DW.

As thousands of Erdogan supporters answered the call, they made their own use of social media. “There were remarkable Periscope live stream videos showing the extent of the damage. That influenced more people to take to the streets,” said Toker.

In comparison, “The soldiers did not have a well developed mass-communications strategy.” They simply stormed major TV stations, “the old-fashioned way,” Erkan Saka, lecturer at Bilgi University’s Communication department, told DW.

How Turks react to the blocks

The Turkish president is renowned for condemning social media when he fears that it could serve the purposes of protestors. Back in 2013, during the Gezi Park protests, Erdogan called Twitter “the worst menace to society.”

However, the Turkish president joined the platform himself in 2009 and uses it regularly – or at least, his communication team does. Erdogan himself has always declared he doesn’t have a Twitter account, according to Paktin.

The Turkish president has the same contradictory approach with Facebook. Yet Turks are “so used to these double standards that no one complains anymore,” said Saka.

“Turkey is a country of paradox, dilemma and oxymoron,” added Paktin.

Internet users in Turkey know how to circumvent the blocks using VPNs – virtual private networks – or software allowing people to surf the net anonymously, such as Tor. “Most of the Turks are quite knowledgeable,” explained Saka. He noticed that ordinary people have already started using Telegram, or Signal, which is an encrypted voice messaging service that was recommended by Edward Snowden, instead of WhatsApp.

This is what internet restrictions in Turkey look like

However, a large part of the Turkish population has not bothered finding alternative ways to access those sites, explains Toker. Many tourists looking for information on Friday night didn’t know how to circumvent the blocks either. In such cases, this is what restricted access looks like:

Turkey Blocks was the first organization to prove through concrete data that there is a form of throttling going on.

Their monitoring has also demonstrated that YouTube was added to the list of restricted sites only last month: It was down after the terrorist attack on Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport in June. “It’s a new shift in their policy,” said Toker, adding that YouTube videos following the terror attacks in Ankara in March might have influenced this decision.

Toker also said that these blocks are “not centrally controlled, NSA-style.” Although these directives are given by the country’s Telecommunications Directorate, TiB, each internet service implements these restrictions individually, he explained.

Censorship and institutional purges post-coup attempt

After the attempted coup, the government appears to be further cracking down on freedom of expression. TiB has blocked access to some 20 Turkish websites, according to different sources. Once again, alternatives allow many Turks to access to these sites, but the drop in readership can “affect the advertising income of these sites,” Saka pointed out.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/erdogan-and-social-media-use-and-abuse/a-19413205

Turkey blocks access to WikiLeaks after ruling party email dump

July 20, 2016 By administrator

wikileaks erdogan (Reuters) Turkey has blocked access to the WikiLeaks website, the telecoms watchdog said on Wednesday, hours after it leaked thousands of ruling party emails just as Ankara grapples with the aftermath of a failed military coup.

Around 50,000 soldiers, police, judges and teachers have been suspended or detained since the attempted coup on the weekend, and Turkey’s Western allies have expressed concern over the crackdown’s reach.

WikiLeaks on Tuesday released nearly 300,000 emails from the AK Party dating from 2010 to July 6 this year. Obtained before the attempted coup, the date of their publication was brought forward “in response to the government’s post-coup purges”, WikiLeaks said on its website.

The source of the emails was not connected to the coup plotters or to a rival political party or state, WikiLeaks said.

Founded by Julian Assange, WikiLeaks publishes leaked material, mostly from governments. In 2010, the organization published classified U.S. military and diplomatic documents in one of the largest information leaks in U.S. history.

Turkey’s Telecommunications Communications Board said on Wednesday that an “administrative measure” had been taken against the website – the term it commonly uses when blocking access to sites.

Turkey routinely uses Internet shutdowns in response to political events, which critics and human rights advocates see as part of a broader attack on the media and freedom of expression.

(Reporting by Can Sezer; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

Once elected, Islamists do not surrender power, lesson West must accept US Tactician

July 19, 2016 By administrator

The wide-ranging purge launched by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after last week’s failed military coup is part of his masterplan to turn Turkey into a radical Islamist state, retired US Army Colonel and historian Douglas Macgregor told Sputnik.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – Since the failed coup, Erodgan has ordered the arrest of at least 70 generals and admirals, fired 21,000 school teachers across Turkey from their jobs and told CNN he wants Parliament to discuss reintroducing the death penalty, which was abolished in 2004.

“Turkey is now moving as I forecast in chapter 3 of my book ‘Margin of Victory’ down the Islamist Path,” Macgregor, a leading US military tactician and combat hero of the 1991 Gulf War, said on Tuesday.

Macgregor interpreted these events as signs that Erdogan was showing his true colors as a radical Islamist after 13 years of slowly but steadily increasing his personal power.

“Once elected, Islamists do not surrender power: That is the lesson everyone in the West must finally accept. The coup was the last opportunity to arrest this tragic development.”

Erdogan would still try and present himself to the United States and the European Union (EU) as a moderate democrat but the reality of his political actions would tell a very different story, Macgregor warned.

“In the short-run, Erdogan will attempt to the extent he can to cultivate a ‘moderate’ image but his violent suppression of internal dissent and political opposition will make it very difficult for all but the most gullible to believe in his alleged democratic credentials.”

Macgregor argued that Erdogan had played a far larger role in helping to create and sustain the Daesh, than Western governments and media had realized. He predicted that even though Daesh was being destroyed, Erdogan would seek to replace it with a similar movement.

“Daesh, in large part a creation of Erdogan, Qatar and the Saudis, is now a dying Frankenstein’s monster. As it diminishes, another will arise that is likely more closely aligned with and obedient to Erdogan’s wishes.”

However, as these developments unfolded, Erdogan would no longer be able to present himself to the West as a democrat and moderate, Macgregor predicted.

“In the long-run, the proverbial hand writing is on the wall. Ultimately, Erdogan will be unable to conceal his true identity as Sunni Islam’s leader Jihadist Champion against the West, Russia, Iran and Israel.”

On Tuesday, US Department of State spokesperson Mark Toner rejected media allegations that the US government had any involvement in Friday’s military coup in Turkey that resulted in 300 deaths and more than 1,400 wounded.

How brotherly now Erdogan is with Russia, two pilots shot down Russia’s Jet to blame “ARRESTED.”

July 18, 2016 By administrator

Russian jet

The bomber was shot down last November. Turkey claimed the Russian plane entered its airspace, while Russia categorically denied these accusations.

“Two Turkish pilots who shot down a Russian Su-24 near the Syrian border were taken into custody, according to a senior Turkish official speaking on condition of anonymity,” Bloomberg reports, citing a high-level Turkish official.

It was reported earlier that at least one of the pilot’s responsible for downing the Russian jet took part in last week’s failed Turkish coup attempt.

The shooting down of the jet led Moscow led to a crisis in relations between Moscow and Ankara. Russian President Vladimir Putin described the incident as a “stab in the back” and imposed a number of restrictive measures against Ankara, repeatedly calling on the Turkish government to apologize and cover any material losses to the pilot’s family.

Putin signed a decree last month that lifted sanctions against Turkey, following an apology from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Robert Fisk: Turkey’s coup may have failed – but history shows it won’t be long before another one succeeds

July 17, 2016 By administrator

Robert fisk on coup 740 Too late did Erdogan realise the cost of the role he had chosen for his country – when you can no longer trust your army, there are serious issues that need to be addressed

By Robert Fisk

Recep Tayyip Erdogan had it coming. The Turkish army was never going to remain compliant while the man who would recreate the Ottoman Empire turned his neighbours into enemies and his country into a mockery of itself. But it would be a grave mistake to assume two things: that the putting down of a military coup is a momentary matter after which the Turkish army will remain obedient to its sultan; and to regard at least 161 deaths and more than 2,839 detained in isolation from the collapse of the nation-states of the Middle East.

For the weekend’s events in Istanbul and Ankara are intimately related to the breakdown of frontiers and state-belief – the assumption that Middle East nations have permanent institutions and borders – that has inflicted such wounds across Iraq, Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Arab world. Instability is now as contagious as corruption in the region, especially among its potentates and dictators, a class of autocrat of which Erdogan has been a member ever since he changed the constitution for his own benefit and restarted his wicked conflict with the Kurds.

Needless to say, Washington’s first reaction was instructive. Turks must support their “democratically elected government”. The “democracy” bit was rather hard to swallow; even more painful to recall, however, was the very same government’s reaction to the overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s “democratically elected” government in Egypt in 2013 – when Washington very definitely did not ask Egypt’s people to support Morsi and quickly gave its support to a military coup far more bloody than the attempted putsch in Turkey. Had the Turkish army been successful, be sure Erdogan would have been treated as dismissively as the unfortunate Morsi.

But what do you expect when Western nations prefer stability to freedom and dignity? That’s why they are prepared to accept Iran’s troops and loyal Iraqi militiaman joining in the battle against Isis – as well as the poor 700 missing Sunnis who “disappeared” after the recapture of Fallujah – and that’s why the “Assad must go” routine has been quietly dropped. Now that Bashar al-Assad has outlived David Cameron’s premiership – and will almost certainly outlast Obama’s presidency – the regime in Damascus will look with wondering eyes at the events in Turkey this weekend.

The victorious powers in the First World War destroyed the Ottoman Empire – which was one of the purposes of the 1914-18 conflict after the Sublime Porte made the fatal mistake of siding with Germany – and the ruins of that empire were then chopped into bits by the Allies and handed over to brutal kings, vicious colonels and dictators galore. Erdogan and the bulk of the army which has decided to maintain him in power – for now – fit into this same matrix of broken states.

The warning signs were there for Erdogan – and the West – to see, if only they had recalled the experience of Pakistan. Shamelessly used by the Americans to funnel missiles, guns and cash to the “mujahedin” who were fighting the Russians, Pakistan – another “bit” chopped off an empire (the Indian one) turned into a failed state, its cities torn apart with massive bombs, its own corrupt army and intelligence service cooperating with Russia’s enemies – including the Taliban – and then infiltrated by Islamists who would eventually threaten the state itself.

When Turkey began playing the same role for the US in Syria – sending weapons to the insurgents, its corrupt intelligence service cooperating with the Islamists, fighting the state power in Syria – it, too, took the path of a failed state, its cities torn apart by massive bombs, its countryside infiltrated by the Islamists. The only difference is that Turkey also relaunched a war on its Kurds in the south-east of the country where parts of Diyabakir are now as devastated as large areas of Homs or Aleppo. Too late did Erdogan realise the cost of the role he had chosen for his country. It’s one thing to say sorry to Putin and patch up relations with Benjamin Netanyahu; but when you can no longer trust your army, there are more serious matters to concentrate on.

Two thousand or so arrests are quite a coup for Erdogan – rather larger, in fact, than the coup the army planned for him. But they must be just a few of the thousands of men in the Turkish officer corps who believe the Sultan of Istanbul is destroying his country. It’s not just a case of reckoning the degree of horror which Nato and the EU will have felt at these events. The real question will be the degree to which his (momentary) success will embolden Erdogan to undertake more trials, imprison more journalists, close down more newspapers, kill more Kurds and, for that matter, go on denying the 1915 Armenian genocide.

For outsiders, it’s sometimes difficult to understand the degree of fear and almost racist disgust with which Turkey regards any form of Kurdish militancy; America, Russia, Europe – the West in general – has so desomaticised the word “terrorist” that we fail to comprehend the extent to which Turks call the Kurds “terrorists” and see them as a danger to the very existence of the Turkish state; which is just how they saw the Armenians in the First World War. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk may have been a good old secular autocrat admired even by Adolf Hitler, but his struggle to unify Turkey was caused by the very factions which have always haunted the Turkish heartland – along with dark (and rational) suspicions about the plotting of Western powers against the state.

All in all, then, a far more dramatic series of events have taken place in Turkey this weekend than may at first appear. From the frontier of the EU, through Turkey and Syria and Iraq and large parts of Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and on to Libya and – dare one mention this after Nice? – Tunisia, there is now a trail of anarchy and failed states. Sir Mark Sykes and François Georges-Picot began the Ottoman Empire’s dismemberment – with help from Arthur Balfour — but it continues to this day.

In this grim historical framework must we view the coup-that-wasn’t in Ankara. Stand by for another one in the months or years to come.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/turkey-coup-erdogan-ankara-istanbul-military-army-turkey-s-coup-may-have-failed-but-history-shows-a7140521.html

Video, Do not blame #Erdogan it is Turkish Genetic Disease 300 years of Dictatorship.

July 16, 2016 By administrator

do not blame erdogan

Egypt Blocks UN Security Council Condemnation of Coup in Turkey

July 16, 2016 By administrator

Egypt un turkey By Michelle Nichols Jul 16

Statement which urged all parties to ‘respect the democratically elected government of Turkey’ opposed by Egypt, which officials say argued that UNSC not in position to determine whether a government had been democratically elected.

REUTERS – The United Nations Security Council failed on Saturday to condemn the violence and unrest in Turkey after Egypt objected to a statement that called on all parties to “respect the democratically elected government of Turkey,” diplomats said.

The U.S.-drafted statement also expressed grave concern over the situation in Turkey, urged the parties to show restraint, avoid any violence or bloodshed, and called for an urgent end to the crisis and return to rule of law.

Statements by the 15-member Security council have to be agreed by consensus.

Diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Egypt argued that the UN Security Council was not in a position to determine whether a government had been democratically elected.

Egypt’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Turkish forces loyal to President Tayyip Erdogan largely crushed an attempted military coup on Saturday after crowds answered his call to take to the streets in support of the government and dozens of rebels abandoned their tanks.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is a former general who overthrew elected President Mohamed Morsi, of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, in 2013 after mass protests against Morsi. Turkey provided support for the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.

Some of Egypt’s pro-army media jumped the gun in their reporting on the attempted coup in Turkey, declaring it a success and welcoming the overthrow of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

At least three newspapers ran headlines Saturday declaring that Turkey’s army had overthrown Erdogan. But by the time their print editions came out, Turkey’s government had largely succeeded in quashing the coup after a night of clashes that left dozens dead.

Turkey Update: Report Erdogan is in holiday comunicating with Skype while coup take on the country

July 15, 2016 By administrator

Erdogan on Skype An announcement on the Turkish state broadcaster TRT says that a curfew has been declared across Turkey and that airports are closed. The announcer says they are being made to read a statement by the military.

The statement promises a new constitution for the country and says that democracy and the secular rule of law had been undermined. Martial law has also been imposed, it adds.

The head of the Istanbul branch of Turkey’s ruling AK party says soldiers entered the party building and asked them to leave, CNN Turk reports.

General Hulusi AKAR chief of the Turkish army was taken as hostage, the website of Turkish army hacked.

The Turkish military released a statement which declared:

“Turkish Armed Forces have completely taken over the administration of the country to reinstate constitutional order, human rights and freedoms, the rule of law and general security that was damaged.”

“All international agreements are still valid. We hope that all of our good relationships with all countries will continue.”

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is currently out of the country on a holiday and is reportedly safe.

Media agencies close to AKP are saying that those mounting the coup are backed by the US.