Eastern Europe and the lucrative Middle East arms trade

August 9, 2016 By administrator

Robert Stephen Ford, the US ambassador to Syria from 2011 to 2014, told BIRN and the OCCRP that the trade is coordinated by the American secret service, the CIA, and expedited via Turkey and the Gulf States. By shipping to destinations that initially appear unsuspicious, he said, suppliers can circumvent all mandatory approval procedures. Furthermore, many of the flight documents investigated by BIRN contained no information whatsoever on cargo that weighed thousands of tons. Arms shipments from Bulgaria and Slovakia were flown out as “unidentified cargo.”

Weapons like these from eastern Europe are in use in Syria, not only by the rebels of the Free Syrian Army, but also by the Islamist fighters of Ansar al-Sham and the al-Nusra Front (now Fatah al-Sham), which until recently was allied with al-Qaida, as well as the group calling itself “Islamic State.” The two organizations BIRN and OCCRP have provided evidence of this, primarily photos and videos and images from social media.

Many eastern European countries supply arms to the Middle East. The trade is said to be worth more than a billion euros, with the majority of goods going to Saudi Arabia. But the weapons don’t stay there. Their ultimate destination is the war in Syria.

War-torn Syria is full of arms: thousands of AK47 assault rifles, machine guns, mortar shells, rocket launchers and anti-tank weapons, aging T-55 and T-72 tanks. Most are believed to come from the following countries: Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Montenegro, Serbia and Romania. They reach Syria via a circuitous route. First, they are sent by air or sea to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates or Turkey – then on from there to the war zone. The trade is worth 1.2 billion euros.

Years gathering proof

Journalists from the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) researched for years to expose these arms transport routes. They analyzed export data and United Nations reports. They watched hundreds of videos and looked at hundreds of photos; they traced the movements of ships and planes, read arms contracts, and followed up on numerous tips from the arms dealers’ milieu.

A couple of examples: In a confidential document from 2013 obtained by BIRN and OCCRP, a high-ranking official in the Serbian defense ministry describes how arms shipments to Saudi Arabia were rerouted from there to Syria. And a detailed analysis of cargo planes provided evidence of more than 70 plane movements that were related to the indirect delivery of weapons to the conflict zone.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/eastern-europe-and-the-lucrative-middle-east-arms-trade/a-19459840

Islamic State: delivers suicide bombers to Europe “via Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia”

July 11, 2016 By administrator

islamic state terror The Islamic State militants have begun using a new route through Azerbaijan, Cyprus and Georgia to transfer their suicide bombers from Syria to Europe, Turkish daily Milliyet reported on July 11, citing intelligence officials, Hurriyet says.

According to the daily, Turkish intelligence officials, who cooperated with foreign intelligence services, determined that ISIL recently tasked its militants from Azerbaijan and the Northern Caucasus to carry out attacks in Turkey and Azerbaijan. ISIL planned attacks in Turkey and Europe after suffering defeats in the hands of U.S.-led coalition forces in Syria, the report also said.

The jihadist group planned to continue targeting Turkey, due to the latter apprehending the former’s members and carrying out operations against it, according to the intelligence officials.

In addition, it was determined that IS formed a group of 20 to 25 militants in Syria and tried to send them to Turkey a short while ago after the IDs of a number of its militants were exposed in operations carried out in the country. The General Directorate of Security sent a warning notice to provincial security directorates in April regarding these developments, according to reports.

The General Directorate of Security reportedly sent another warning concerning ISIL attackers from Azerbaijan and the Caucasus in June, saying the militants were planning suicide attacks in Turkey and Azerbaijan. The aforementioned militants planned to attack police officers and their families in Azerbaijan, the report said.

Meanwhile, another warning which was sent to provincial security directorates after ISIL’s attack on Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport on June 28, which left 45 people dead and scores wounded, reportedly informed the police on the jihadist group’s new targets in Turkey. The warning, which was sent on June 30, stressed that ISIL militants in Ankara and Istanbul were planning attacks on military and police buildings with bomb-laden cars.

IS wanted to assassinate Kurdish public officials, journalists and military and intelligence officials working in Ankara, Istanbul and the western province of İzmir, the warning also said.

Turkey has been on high alert, as the country has been rocked by a series of suicide and car bomb attacks which claimed many lives and wounded hundreds.

Hurriyet. ISIL transfers suicide bombers from Syria to Europe through Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia: Report

Merkel calls Brexit ‘a watershed for Europe’

June 24, 2016 By administrator

Merkel uk German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the UK’s decision to leave the European Union a watershed for Europe and European unity. It’s now up to her and EU leaders to ensure other countries don’t follow suit.

“There’s no way around it: Today is a watershed for Europe and the European unity process,” Merkel said before urging other EU leaders not to be hasty in their responses to Britain’s referendum vote.

As Europe’s most powerful leader and the head of Europe’s largest economy, Merkel must now lead negotiations on new terms for the UK’s relations with the EU, including the access of British companies to the biggest single market in the world.

Speaking to journalists in Berlin, the German chancellor said the EU was strong enough to find the “right answers,” adding that the aim of future talks should be to ensure bilateral relations with Britain are “close and based on cooperation.”

While other EU chiefs have said the UK must begin the exit process as soon as possible, Merkel made no such appeal. She said she would keep the interests of German citizens and German businesses in mind during any talks.

U.S. Army Chief In Europe Visits Armenia

May 23, 2016 By administrator

Armenia – U.S. Army Europe commander Ben Hodges (C) at a meeting with Armenian Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian in Yerevan, 23May2016.

(azatutyun.am) The commander of the U.S. Army Europe, Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, discussed Armenia’s growing military ties with the United States and the recent escalation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict during a visit to Yerevan on Monday.

According to the Armenian Defense Ministry, Hodges and Major General Lee Tafanelli, the Kansas National Guard chief accompanying him, expressed concern at last month’s heavy fighting in Karabakh when they met with Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian.

Ohanian was reported to brief them on the current situation in the conflict zone. The United States has been trying to defuse tensions there together with Russia and France, the two other world powers mediating Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks.

Ohanian and Hodges agreed to step up cooperation between Armenia’s Armed Forces and the U.S. Army Europe, a Defense Ministry statement said. It listed multinational peacekeeping operations among the areas of closer bilateral ties.

Ohanian was reported to point to U.S. training of Armenian military personnel and increased Armenian participation in NATO’s military exercises. Hodges praised a 32-strong unit of Armenian military medics which took part in U.S.-led exercises held in Germany last month.

During the three-week drills codenamed Sabre Junction, they simulated evacuation and treatment of wounded military personnel at a mobile field hospital that was deployed by them outside Armenia for the first time ever. The U.S. military donated the hospital to an Armenian peacekeeping brigade in 2007.

The Armenian government expressed readiness last year to commit the hospital as well sappers trained to detect and defuse improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted by “terrorist groups” for and multinational peacekeeping operations. Armenian army medics and demining experts will undergo additional training, presumably by U.S. and other NATO instructors, for that purpose.

U.S. instructors already trained last year the first group of 12 teaching personnel for the Armenian army’s newly established paramedic school. Ohanian personally attended their graduation ceremony.

U.S.-Armenian military cooperation appears to have been largely unaffected so far by Western powers’ standoff with Russia, Armenia’s main military ally, over the conflict in Ukraine.

Botched Security: ‘Turkish Passports’ Will Help Terrorists Go to Europe

May 18, 2016 By administrator

Turkish Terrorist visa free Eu The visa-free travel regime may help potential terrorists to enter Europe via Turkey, according to Sergey Goncharov, president of the Association of veterans of the anti-terrorist unit Alpha.

The Russian newspaper Izvestia quoted Sergey Goncharov, president of the Association of Veterans of Anti-Terror Units Alpha, as warning against the EU’s visa-free travel regime with Turkey which he said may help potential terrorists to gain access to Europe through Turkish territory.

His remarks came as the European Commission offered the Turks visa-free Schengen zone travel as part of an EU-Ankara deal which obliges Turkey to contain the flow of refugees to Europe in exchange for accelerating the country’s EU application process.

According to Goncharov, “the visa-free regime will inevitably create problems for the EU given the amount of young unemployed people with jihadist ideas who have gathered in Turkey.”

“As for the European intelligence agencies, they are unable to manage the large flow of people moving across the border, something that was confirmed by the terrorist attacks in Paris and Brussels [earlier this year],” he said.

Goncharov was echoed by Middle East expert Vladimir Avatkov who did not rule out that Ankara continuing to exert pressure on the EU to force Brussels to make concessions on the EU-Turkey migrant deal.

He recalled that Turkey had earlier used the Syrian refugees to pile pressure on the EU, with local special services reportedly providing them from other Arab countries with fake Syrian passports. This has led to a situation where both economic migrants as well as those fleeing the horrors of war are attempting to gain entry to Europe, according to Avatkov.

“Now, getting rid of unwanted persons will be even easier – it’s enough to give them citizenship. All illegal immigrants returning from Europe will either become grateful supporters of [Turkish President] Erdogan or they will again go to the EU but this time on Turkish passports. As a result, Europe’s problems will be further exacerbated,” he said.

Meanwhile, a European Commission report has warned that scrapping visa requirements for Turkey as part of the migration deal might raise the possibility of terrorist attacks in the European Union.

The UK newspaper The Telegraph quoted an extract from the report as saying that the proposed visa liberalization for Turkish travelers to the Schengen area could potentially impact the risk of terrorism in the EU as it would lift travel restrictions on terrorists which have Turkish citizenship.

In mid-March, the European Union and Ankara agreed on a deal under which Turkey pledged to take back all undocumented migrants who arrive in the European Union through its territory and exchange them for legal Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey, on a one-for-one basis.

In return, the 28-member bloc pledged to accelerate Turkey’s EU accession bid and grant Turkish citizens visa-free travel within the Schengen area.

Turkey: Erdogan Dreaming to ‘Revive New Ottoman Caliphate’… in Europe

May 14, 2016 By administrator

By Deena Stryker,

Angela Merkel cannot transform Turkish President Erdogan from an ‘Oriental despot’ into a respectable member of the European family, Deena Stryker writes, warning that Europe may fall into the neo-Ottoman trap.

All German Chancellor Angela Merkel got for enlisting Turkish President Erdogan’s help in coping with the European refugee crisis is a dramatic drop in poll numbers, renowned international expert, author and journalist Deena Stryker writes in her article for New Eastern Outlook entitled “Was a United Europe a Mirage?”.

“That glazed look that regularly comes upon the face of Recip Tayep Erdogan should have warned her that he has a severe case of Ottomanossis,” Stryker remarks.

Furthermore, having sacked Davutoglu the Turkish president claimed that he is not ready to meet all the EU’s demands, covering in particular a loosening of Ankara’s controversial anti-terror law, in exchange for implementing visa-free travel for the Turks.

“Make no mistake, Erdogan will not blink if the West resorts to pressure tactics. He will never agree to certain key ‘preconditions’ of the EU deal that Davutoglu negotiated whereby Turkey is required to change its anti-terror legislation in line with the European acquis and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights,” Ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar wrote in his article for the Indian Punchline blog, commenting on the matter.

Indeed, over the past several months Erdogan has expressed disdain to all European norms and values.

“During the past several months, he [Erdogan] has defied Western norms of behavior toward journalists, killing and jailing them right and left, accusing them of supporting Turkey’s Kurdish minority,” Stryker points out.

“History is a powerful motivator, and when the Turkish President, who until recently had been begging to be admitted into the European Union, flouts its basic rules of behavior, it’s clear that he sees himself completing the Ottoman domination of Europe,” she stresses.

Journalist and geopolitical analyst Martin Berger echoes Stryker, asking whether there is “any backbone left in the EU” in the face of Erdogan’s sheer blackmail in his analysis for New Eastern Outlook.

He cites President of the European Council Donald Tusk who published an opinion article in late April 2016 urging the EU nations to adopt new migration policies.

“No one else is going to protect our borders for us. We cannot hand over the keys to our territory, to our security, to any third country. This applies to Turkey as well as to north African countries. Our helplessness would tempt others to blackmail Europe,” Tusk stressed in his Op-Ed published in seven European newspapers including the Guardian.

“Too often I have heard from our neighbors that Europe should give in, otherwise it will be flooded by migrants,” the President of the European Council remarked in obvious reference to repeated threats voiced by Ankara.

“Recent experience with Turkey shows that Europe must set clear limits to its concessions. We can negotiate money but never our values. We cannot impose our standards on the rest of the world. Equally, others cannot impose their standards on us. Our freedoms, including freedom of expression, will not be part of political bargaining with any partner. The Turkish president must heed this message,” Tusk emphasized.

Stryker notes that while the world is busy with countering the Daesh threat, Ankara is quietly realizing its own geostrategic goals in Europe. The EU should avoid falling into the neo-Ottoman threat.

“Europe is experiencing a combination soft/hard takeover: by the refugees on one hand, and a neighboring ruler [Erdogan] nurtured by the US, but no longer ready to play the role of subordinate either to Europe or NATO. While ISIS [Daesh] — even with not so covert Turkish help — can eventually be brought to heel, Erdogan’s plan is already partly realized, thanks to Europeans themselves,” the renowned journalist underscores.

Source: sputniknews.com

Jewish Rabbi Baruch Efrati: ‘Islamization of Europe a good thing’

April 17, 2016 By administrator

(Jewish World) Rabbi Baruch Efrati believes Jews should ‘rejoice at the fact that Europe is paying for what it did to us for hundreds of years by losing its identity.’ He praises Islam for promoting modesty, respect for God.

As concerns grow over the increasing number of Muslims in Europe, it appears not everyone is bothered by the issue, including an Israeli rabbi who even welcomes the phenomenon.

Rabbi Baruch Efrati, a yeshiva head and community rabbi in the West Bank settlement of Efrat, believes that the Islamization of Europe is actually a good thing.

“With the help of God, the gentiles there will adopt a healthier life with a lot of modesty and integrity, and not like the hypocritical Christianity which appears pure but is fundamentally corrupt,” he explained.

Rabbi Efrati was asked to discuss the issue by an oriental studies student, who inquired on Judaism’s stand toward the process Europe has been going through in recent years.

Following the election of a hijab-wearing Muslim woman as the mayor of the Bosnian city of Visoko for the first time in continent’s history, the student asked the rabbi on the Kipa website: “How do we fight the Islamization of Europe and return it to the hands of Christians and moderates?”

Efrati wrote in response that the Islamization of Europe was better than a Christian Europe for ethical and theological reasons – as a punishment against Christians for persecuting the Jews and the fact that Christianity, as opposed to Islam, is considered “idolatry” from a halachic point of view.

“Jews should rejoice at the fact that Christian Europe is losing its identity as a punishment for what it did to us for the hundreds of years were in exile there,” the rabbi explained as the ethical reason for favoring Muslims, quoting shocking descriptions from the Rishonim literature (written by leading rabbis who lived during the 11th to 15th centuries) about pogroms and mass murders committed by Christians against Jews.

Efrati ruled, therefore, that “even if we are in a major war with the region’s Arabs over the Land of Israel, Islam is still much better as a gentile culture than Christianity.”

He added, however, that Jews must pray that the Islamization of most of Europe will not harm the people of Israel.

“We will never forgive Europe’s Christians for slaughtering millions of our children, women and elderly… Not just in the recent Holocaust, but throughout the generations, in a consistent manner which characterizes all factions of hypocritical Christianity…

“A now, Europe is losing its identity in favor of another people and another religion, and there will be no remnants and survivors from the impurity of Christianity, which shed a lot of blood it won’t be able to atone for.”

‘Islam a relatively honest religion’

The theological reason, according to Rabbi Efrati, is that Christianity – which he sees as idolatry – has a tendency to “destroy normal life and abstain from it on the one hand, while losing modesty on the other hand,” as it “ranges between radical monasticism to radical Western licentiousness.”

Islam, the rabbi added, is “a religion which misjudges its prophets but is relatively honest. It educates a bit more for a stable life of marriage and creation, where there is certain modesty and respect for God.”

Source: Jewish World

Europe: 80 Million Muslim Turks “VISA FREE” Exchange for 2 million Syrian rafugees

March 8, 2016 By administrator

Davutoglu standing with Passport The Western response to the draconian display of state power was more muted than ever. There was hardly any Western media coverage of the Zaman seizure. Both Washington and the EU merely issued perfunctory statements of “concern,” and breathlessly urged Ankara to respect “free speech” and “core European values.”

In recent months, Erdogan has been� locking up journalists and closing critical media outlets. Under his increasingly autocratic rule, the Ankara authorities have prosecuted thousands of citizens who have� “insulted” the president through social media.

More gravely, Erdogan has ordered a bloody wave of repression against ethnic Kurds in the country’s southeast, with disturbing reports of mass killings by Turkish troops. Turkish military have also been shelling across the border at Kurdish positions in Syria for several weeks now.

Turkey’s Erdogan threatened to flood Europe with migrants: Greek website

February 8, 2016 By administrator

A migrant pushes a wheelbarrow in a muddy field at a camp of makeshift shelters for migrants and asylum-seekers from Iraq, Kurdistan, Iran and Syria, called the Grande Synthe jungle, near Calais, France, February 3, 2016. REUTERS/Yves Herman

BRUSSELS

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan threatened in November to flood Europe with migrants if European Union leaders did not offer him a better deal to help manage the Middle East refugee crisis, a Greek news website said on Monday.

Publishing what it said were minutes of a tense meeting last November, the euro2day.gr financial news website revealed deep mutual irritation and distrust in talks between Erdogan and the EU’s two top officials, Jean-Claude Juncker and Donald Tusk.

The EU officials were trying to enlist Ankara’s help in stemming an influx of Syrian refugees and migrants into Europe. Over a million arrived last year, most crossing the narrow sea gap between Turkey and islands belonging to EU member Greece.

Tusk’s European Council and Juncker’s European Commission declined to confirm or deny the authenticity of the document, and Erdogan’s office in Ankara had no immediate comment.

The account of the meeting, in English, was produced in facsimile on the website. It does not state when or where the meeting took place, but it appears to have been on Nov. 16 in Antalya, Turkey, where the three met after a G20 summit there.

“We can open the doors to Greece and Bulgaria anytime and we can put the refugees on buses … So how will you deal with refugees if you don’t get a deal? Kill the refugees?” Erdogan was quoted in the text as telling the EU officials.

It also quoted him as demanding 6 billion euros over two years. When Juncker made clear only half that amount was on offer, he said Turkey didn’t need the EU’s money anyway.

The EU eventually agreed a 3 billion euro fund to improve conditions for refugees in Turkey, revive Ankara’s long-stalled accession talks and accelerate visa-free travel for Turks in exchange for Ankara curbing the numbers of migrants pouring into neighboring Greece.

In heated exchanges, Erdogan often interrupted Juncker and Tusk, the purported minutes show, accusing the EU of deceiving Turkey and Juncker personally of being disrespectful to him.

The Turkish leader was also quoted as telling Juncker, a former prime minister of tiny Luxembourg, to show more respect to the 80-million-strong Turkey. “Luxembourg is just like a little town in Turkey,” he was quoted as saying.

The tense dialogue highlighted the depth of mutual suspicion at a time when the EU is banking on Turkish help to alleviate its worst migration crisis since World War Two.

The EU says the flow of people from Turkey, which hosts more than 2.5 million Syrian refugees, has not decreased in any significant way since the bloc’s joint summit with Ankara in November, when they had agreed the fund for refugees there.

The report prompted a member of the European Parliament from the Greek centrist party To Potami to ask the European Commission to confirm the purported talks.

“If the relevant dialogues between the EU officials and the Turkish President are true, it seems that there are aspects of the deal between Ankara and the EU which were concealed on purpose,” Miltos Kyrkos said in the question he submitted to the Commission.

“We want immediately an answer on whether these revelations are true and where the Commission’s legitimacy to negotiate, using Turkey’s accession course as a trump card, is coming from,” Kyrkos said.

(Reporting by Michele Kambas in Athens, Orhan Coskun in Ankara and Gabriela Baczynska in Brussels; Editing by Paul Taylor and Tom Heneghan)

Europe overwhelmed by protests against migrants

February 8, 2016 By administrator

Mass protests against the large-scale influx of refugees took place in several European cities, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The most numerous protest took place in Dresden, where the protests that have taken part involved about 25 thousand people. Protests of fewer numbers were held in France, the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, Ireland, Czech Republic, Poland, Finland and Estonia.
They did not pass without confrontation with the police. In Amsterdam, supporters and opponents of the campaign tried to come into collision with each other and guards.
The protests were reported to have been organized by anti-Islamic organization PEGIDA. According to experts, the growth of anti-immigration sentiment in Europe has led to the growing influence of this movement. It was founded in Germany two years ago and receives support in other European countries.