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Turkey: Guard at Dutch Embassy in Ankara arrested for sexually abusing German diplomat’s daughter

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 A man working as a security guard in Ankara has been arrested for sexually abusing a German diplomat’s 15-year-old daughter, Hurriyet Daily News reports, citing Habertuk.

The incident reportedly occurred on June 15 at around 7:30 am in Ankara’s Gaziosmanpaşa district as the German diplomat’s daughter, K, was waiting for her school bus to arrive. At the same time, a man later identified to be a security guard, Onur O., approached the girl and spoke to her.
Uncomfortable with what was said, K departed the scene and began to wait for her bus in another spot. Onur O, however, again approached the girl and sexually harassed her once again. The man subsequently ran away from the scene due to K’s reaction.

After the girl boarded the bus a short while later, she related what she had experienced, prompting the service to return to the area in an unsuccessful effort to apprehend the suspect.

“As I was waiting for the school bus, the individual at the bus stop told me something. I told him that I did not understand. Then upon the arrival of the school service, [he] approached me from behind and touched me. Then he ran away,” the girl was quoted as saying by the daily.

Police launched an investigation and analyzed city surveillance cameras nearby, identifying the suspect as a security guard working at the Dutch Embassy. Onur O. was subsequently detained at his home in Ankara’s Yenimahalle district.

Following his testimony at the police station, Onur O. was taken to the Ankara court where he was arrested on charges of the “sexual assault of a child.”

Germany: Transfer of German troops from Incirlik Turkey to Jordan to start in July

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Transfer of German troops from Incirlik to Jordan to start in JulyGerman Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen has told German media that Bundeswehr troops will begin pulling out from a Turkish air base in July. The move comes amid strained relations between the two NATO allies.

The withdrawal of German troop from the Turkish air base in Incirlik to new base in Jordan is expected to take around three months, German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen told German media on Sunday.

“Until the end of June, our flight plans as part of the anti-“Islamic State” coalition are set,” she was quoted of saying in the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. “After that, we’ll be transferring our tanker aircraft as quickly as possible to Jordan.”

Read more: Jordan: A reliable host for Germany’s Bundeswehr?

Germany has more than 250 military personnel stationed at Incirlik who fly Tornado surveillance missions over Syria and refueling flights for partner nations in the coalition against IS.

Von der Leyen also warned that the transfer will temporarily put the Bundeswehr’s mission in the Middle East on hold. However, troops would be ready to be deployed from the new base in Jordan by around mid-July, she added.

Moving heavy artillery, such as Tornado surveillance aircraft and the required technology will take longer. “Starting from October, the reconnaissance Tornados will start flying again, according to our timetable,” von der Leyen said.

Most important was keeping the transition phase in which planes will be unable to fly as short as possible, as well as the security of the troops, she added.

Strained relations between NATO ally

The decision to pull out of the Turkish base at Incirlik comes on the back of difficult diplomatic relations between NATO members Germany and Turkey.

Read more: Taking German troops out of Incirlik: The least preferred option for NATO

Last month, Ankara blocked a German parliamentary delegation from visiting Bundeswehr troops the base, marking the second time that Turkey had done so. Turkish officials said their decision was a response to Germany granting asylum to Turkish military personnel accused of participating in a failed coup last year – a move that reportedly enraged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

While there are fears that the dispute could have damaging implications for NATO, the organization maintains that it will have no bearing on the alliance’s military activities.

German towns cancel Turkish ministers’ campaign rallies

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The cities Gaggenau and Cologne have blocked campaign rallies for Turkey’s upcoming referendum that Turkish ministers were due to attend. The cities cited security and parking concerns as reasons for pulling permission.

The small, southwestern German town of Gaggenau withdrew permission on Thursday for an event where Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag planned to address a campaign rally in support of a controversial constitutional referendum to boost President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

Bozdag had been scheduled to give a speech in Gaggenau on Thursday night, but the city pulled its permission for the event to take place, saying that the hall where the rally was supposed to take place was too small to accomodate the expected crowd.

Due to the fact that the event picked up a great deal of media attention, “the city expects a large number of visitors for which the Bad Rotenfels Hall, the parking lots and the access roads are not enough,” the city said in a statement on its website.

The statement also said it did not know whether the event would continue to be held at a different location.

Cologne follows suit

The next minister to travel to Germany as part of the Turkish referendum campaign was supposed to be Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci, who wanted to address German Turks in Cologne on Sunday.

Following the ban in Gaggenau, a Cologne court also banned the weekend rally there, a citing security reasons.

Of the more than 3 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany, some 1.4 million are eligible to vote in the controversial referendum taking place in April.

rs/rg  (dpa, AFP, Reuters)

No Journalist Safe in Turkey, German “Die Welt” journalist Deniz Yücel Arrested

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A German correspondent for the daily “Die Welt” newspaper has been taken into custody in Turkey. He is the first German reporter to be held in a widespread crackdown on press freedom in Turkey.

A lawyer for Deniz Yücel said the 43-year-old journalist was being charged with membership in a terrorist organization, spreading propaganda and misuse of information.

The “Die Welt” correspondent had reported on emails that RedHack, a leftist hacker collective, had acquired from the private account of Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak. The minister is a son-in-law and close political ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Another six journalists – all working for Turkish news outlets – have been arrested in connection with the RedHack affair.

Since  Fake coup last year, Turkish authorities have detained hundreds of people, including journalists, academics and suspected sympathizers of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

Yücel, a dual citizen of Turkey and Germany, turned himself in to police on Tuesday. Under Turkey’s ongoing state of emergency, he can be held for up to 14 days before a judge must decide whether authorities can continue to keep him in custody.

Ulf Poschardt, the editor-in-chief of “Die Welt,” said in a statement that: “The Turkish government has repeatedly noted that Turkey is a state governed by the rule of law. This is why we believe that a fair process will result in him being declared innocent.”

Over 100 media workers jailed

German journalists’ union DJV said Yücel’s arrest showed that Erdogan was “trying to misuse the state of emergency to make disagreeable reporting impossible.” They called on the German government to interfere and to use diplomatic contacts to protect Yücel.

Reporters Without Borders Germany (RoG) said the case brought the prosecution of journalists to a new level. RoG director Christian Mihr said “[o]ther foreign correspondents have been expelled or not let into the country before,” but that detaining a foreign reporter on allegations similar to those faced by Turkish journalists was new.

Foreign reporters have so far enjoyed more liberties in Turkey than local journalists. But Turkish authorities reportedly choose to treat dual-citizen holder Yücel as a Turkish citizen, rather than a German.

According to newspaper “taz,” Yücel had previously been briefly jailed in June 2015 in Sanliurfa, a city in southern Turkey, after posing critical questions regarding refugees to the local governor.

There are currently some 120 media workers jailed in Turkey, according to the European Federation of Journalists. Ankara has rejected this figure and insists no one has been imprisoned for writing news articles.

mb, sms/msh (dpa, AFP, die Welt)

German Family Trades Sexually Permissive & influx of refugees of the West For The Wilds Of Siberia

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Eugen Martens with some of his 10 children whom he and his wife relocated from “sexually permissive” Germany to a remote village in Siberia, where they intend to “live by the Bible.”

KYSHTOVKY, Russia — In the early 1990s, Eugen Martens and his family left Siberia’s Omsk Oblast hoping to build a better future in Germany.

Now, at the age of 45, he, his wife, and their 10 children have returned to Russia, fleeing what he describes as the sexual permissiveness of German society and the influx of refugees there.

“[Our daughter] Melita didn’t want to attend sex-education classes because she is a Christian, so we were fined for her truancy,” Martens told RFE/RL’s Russian Service. “There, children of the age of 1 are viewed as sexual objects.”

He explained: “In our kindergarten, they gathered the parents together for an information evening where they told us about child sexuality. They make up special games like ‘doctor’ so that they can touch each other. There are special spaces where they can do this without being disturbed. They encourage girls to be attracted to girls and boys to boys because every child has the right to choose their own sexual identity.”

“On the edge of our town, they built a residence for 20 refugees, young men,” he continued. “They can’t work, so what are these young guys to do? How can we let our children out onto the streets?”

Repatriation Program

Eugen met his wife, Louisa, in Germany, but she is also from Omsk Oblast. They married and began their family there.

Despite having been active participants in German concerned-parents organizations and participating in demonstrations against sex education in several German cities, the Martens family decided late last year to take advantage of a Russian government program aimed at repatriating Russians who left the country or found themselves outside Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union two and a half decades ago.

Now they are in this remote Siberian village about 540 kilometers north of Novosibirsk, enduring temperatures that routinely hover around minus-30 degrees Celsius. Their four-room log house is heated by a traditional Russian stove and illuminated by dim bare bulbs. They sleep on mattresses placed on the floor; the table and chairs were donated by a local newspaper that was downsizing.

It is a region that Russians have been fleeing for generations. Before World War II, there were 250 villages and 58,000 people living there. Now there are just 14,500 people living in 54 settlements.

But the Martenses are together. “Children are like the arrows in a quiver,” Martens said. “What kind of warrior has just a few arrows? Louisa and I are from Baptist families. We don’t go out much. We are simple Christians who live by the Bible.”

One-Time Payment

The government resettlement program is pretty modest. Established by President Vladimir Putin in 2012, it provides a one-time cash allowance, expedited citizenship procedures, and a reduced personal tax rate. It does not provide housing. Or a job.

Martens said he is hanging on to as much of his 130,000-ruble ($2,200) one-time payment in case the family needs to relocate.

“No one has lived in this house for about 20 years,” Viktor Kuzmin, deputy chairman of the Kyshtovsky region for social affairs, who settled the Martens family in its current quarters. “Of course, it is cold. There are holes everywhere.”

Martens plans to build his own house and said he doesn’t need any help. A carpenter by trade, he initially hoped to start a farm in Russia but was put off by the estimated 30 million ruble ($51,000) start-up cost and Siberia’s short growing season.

“In Krasnodar they are able to bring in two harvests a year,” he said. “But they say all the land there is taken.”

Now he’s thinking about going back to making fine furniture like he did in Germany.

“It is good stuff,” local official Kuzmin said approvingly, “but who here needs such beauties? People around here don’t have much money.”

‘Arbitrary’ Officials

Although locals have welcomed the Martenses and have brought clothing, food, and other necessities to the exotic foreigners, Eugen Martins has not been impressed with Russian officialdom.

“All you have to do is start talking to people and everything becomes clear,” he said. “They complain to me — a foreigner — about how bad it is for them, how arbitrary the officials are. I met one guy from a former Soviet country who came here on the same program as I did. But he said he only got part of the money he was promised — there was no more, they told him. People can’t say anything good about the authorities, but they go out and vote for them because they don’t see any choice. Be that as it may, you have to try to change things.”

Rostislav Aliyev, the editor of the local paper that donated furniture to the newcomers, has befriended Martens and visits him often.

“I respect people who go against the system,” Aliyev told RFE/RL.

The main thing for Martens, however, is that he insists on home-schooling his children. Although Russian legislation allows the practice, it is virtually unheard-of in this remote region.

“We tried to learn some best practices and methodologies,” said local education official Tatyana Serebryakova. “But we think it is best for children to go to school, if only to learn Russian. After all, only two or three of these children speak any Russian at all. We offered everything we could — free textbooks from the school library, consultations, music and sports lessons. This stuff is good for social adaptation.”

But social adaptation is not what the Martenses want for their children.

“We want to teach the children so that they know how to learn for themselves,” Eugen Martens said.

Louisa Martens has written the Russian alphabet out in large letters on a piece of cardboard. Surrounded by many of her children, she goes through the letters with them, beginning with words that begin in Russian with the letter ‘A’: oranges, watermelons, pineapples…

Outside the wind howls and a draft pushes under the window frames. “Oranges, watermelons, pineapples…” the children repeat.

RFE/RL correspondent Robert Coalson contributed to this report

Germany: Massive German police operation targets Turkish nationalist boxing gang

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german-otoman-criminalsThe police operation across six states targeted Ottoman Germania, a Turkish nationalist boxing gang. Authorities classify the group as rocker-like gang similar to the Hells Angels.

Nearly 1,500 German police carried out countrywide raids on Wednesday targeting the Turkish nationalist boxing gang Ottoman Germania, in what authorities described as a major blow to organized crime.

Police, including elite commandos, raided nearly 50 homes, businesses and offices to conduct searches that yielded weapons, ammunition, drugs and 53,000 euros in cash.

One of the raids targeted the so-called World Chapter of Ottoman Germania Boxing Club in Dietzenbach, located south of Frankfurt. Raids were also carried out in the states of Hessen, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Niedersachsen and Hamburg.

Authorities said the goal of the operation was to gather evidence and understand the structure of the organization. The interior minister of the state of Saarland, Klaus Bouillon, said the operation was successful in breaking up Ottoman Germania.

Among those arrested were two 21-year-olds wanted on suspicion of attempted murder.

The two 21-year-olds stand accused of carrying out a grenade attack in August on a shisha café frequented by the rival Kurdish gang Bahoz after suspected members of the group attacked and wounded two members of Ottoman Germania in the city of Saarbrücken. The 28-year-old president of the “Ottoman Saar” local chapter was arrested in a police raid on Tuesday and is accused of ordering the attack.

Authorities have for some time worried about conflict between the Ottoman Germania and Bahoz, accusing the two groups of carrying the political conflict between Turks and Kurds in Turkey into Germany with acts of violence.

Security officials classify both groups as rocker-like gangs that in structure and behavior are similar to the Hells Angels, only without motorcycles. Ottoman Germania describes itself as a boxing club, but authorities believe the group has nothing to do with the sport.

Founded in April 2015, Ottoman Germania is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany, according to official estimates. Including branches in Turkey, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden the group has some 3,500 estimated members.

Peter Beuth, the interior minister of Hessen, said that “regardless of under which mantle criminals believe they can operate in our country we will go after them with all the power of a state of law.”

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/massive-german-police-operation-targets-turkish-nationalist-boxing-gang/a-36331416

 

German MP: Europe and Russia must work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to reduce tension

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german-pm-karabakhYEREVAN. — Europe and Russia must work with Armenia and Azerbaijan to reduce the cases of escalation in Karabakh conflict area, German Bundestag member, chairman of the Armenian-German forum Albert Weiler told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

He recalled that after the escalation in April Germany, as OSCE chairing country, held talks with the representatives of Armenia and Azerbaijan, which led to easing tension. The politicians in Germany, and he personally, are trying to hold dialogue with both parties to find a joint solution, Mr. Weiler said, adding that it is not that easy.

Azerbaijani side  launched diversionary penetration attempts on October 20 in easterly and southerly directions of the line of contact between the Karabakh and Azerbaijani opposing forces. The Defense Army vanguard units, however, detected the Azerbaijani special forces’ advance in timely fashion, and drew them back to their original positions, and also caused them to suffer casualties.

35 Turkish diplomats seek German asylum

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Reuters,

The German Interior Ministry says 35 Turkish citizens with diplomatic passports have applied for asylum after a failed military coup in Turkey in July that was followed by a crackdown on suspected supporters of the putsch.

Interior Ministry spokesman Johannes Dimroth told a regular government news conference the figure included Turkish diplomats as well as their family members, but did not say if they had all been based in Germany.

He said he could not give any more details on the diplomats and their motivation to apply for asylum in Germany.

At the Turkish embassy in Berlin, nobody was immediately available to comment

It was not clear if the Turkish government has requested the extradition of the diplomats by German authorities.

In Turkey, more than 32,000 people were put in jail and 100,000 have been dismissed from jobs in the security and civil services for their alleged links to a religious network the government says staged the July 15 military coup.

The scale of the purges has drawn criticism from opposition politicians and Western allies that President Tayyip Erdogan may be using the coup to consolidate power.

Accused mastermind, US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, denies involvement in the unsuccessful coup that killed 240 people who resisted it and around 100 rogue troops.

Originally published as 35 Turkish diplomats seek German asylum

Germany’s Armenian Genocide Row ‘Final’ says Bundestag Vice President

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germany-genocide-finalYEREVAN (Armenpress)—During his visit to Yerevan on October 5, Vice President of the German Bundestag Johannes Singhammer said the adoption of the Armenian Genocide recognition resolution by Bundestag was the correct decision.

“Yes, we have decided to submit the resolution on the Genocide in the German Parliament and after long discussions we adopted it. I think it was a step towards the truth, and the truth is a step forward towards the peace; in other words, this was a step aimed at achieving peace. A hundred years have already passed: I think time has come for doing that. We will be able to go to the future if we remember the past. It is a necessity,” he said.

Regarding the negative Turkish reaction over the adoption of the resolution especially after recent developments Singhammer said, “Our decision in the German Parliament is final and we will not change it.”

Singhammer and the German delegation visited Tsitsernakaberd Memorial on October 5 to pay tribute to the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims where they laid flowers.

The delegation was accompanied by German Ambassador to Armenia Matthias Kies

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian received on Wednesday the delegation of the German Bundestag.

Nalbandian noted that the frequent visits of German lawmakers to Armenia are a testament to the importance of parliamentary diplomacy.

The Foreign Minister availed himself of the opportunity to express gratitude for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide by the German Bundestag, and for the principled stance of German MPs on the issue.

Singhammer presented the goals of German MPs’ visit to Armenia and the results of the meetings.

Nalbandian briefed the guests on Armenia-EU relations, the ongoing negotiations on a new legal framework and referred to Armenia’s approaches towards the situation in the Middle East, the issues of minorities in the region, the struggle against terrorism and other regional processes.

He also presented the efforts of Armenia and the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs towards elimination of consequences of Azerbaijan’s April aggression and settlement of the Karabakh conflict.

Author of German Bundestag Genocide Bill to be Honored by ANCA-WR

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Cem Ozdemir on the Bundestag floor wearing Armenian Genocide Centennial Forget-me-Not lapel pin (AFP photo)

Cem Ozdemir on the Bundestag floor wearing Armenian Genocide Centennial Forget-me-Not lapel pin (AFP photo)

LOS ANGELES—The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region announced that Cem Ozdemir, a member of the German Parliament–Bundestag–who is of Turkic descent, and the German Bundestag collectively will be honored with the 2016 ANCA-WR Freedom Award for their courage in resisting pressure from the Turkish government to introduce and pass a resolution formally recognizing the Armenian Genocide as well as Germany’s complicity in this crime against humanity.

In an historic and unprecendented show of unity, every political party faction within the German Bundestag as well as the Federal President Joachim Gauck, the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert, and Chancellor Angela Merkel all joined together in supporting a motion spearheaded since 2015 by Green Party Chairman Cem Ozdemir under the title: “In remembrance and commemoration of the genocide of Armenians and other Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire 101 years ago.”

On June 2, after a delayed vote designed to first secure a deal between Germany and Turkey on the current refugee crisis, the resolution was almost unanimously passed with all 11 Bundestag members of Turkish descent voting in favor, and only one no vote and one abstention.

In presenting the resolution, Mr. Ozdemir stated on the floor, “There is never a good time to speak of something so inconceivably barbaric as genocide. After lengthy and laborious deliberations, we are voting today on a motion that speaks of genocide, clearly refers to German complicity and establishes that this complicity virtually binds Germany to work for the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia and for rapprochement between the two countries.”

Addressing concerns expressed by some that Germany should avoid angering Turkey while they are both dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis, Ozdemir went on to state, “Ladies and gentlemen, the fact that we were accessories in the past to this dreadful crime must not mean that we aid and abet those who deny it today. Coming to terms with the Shoah has been the foundation of our democratic Germany. It is therefore time for us to come to terms now with other crimes committed by predecessor states of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

Cem Ozdemir’s personal history made his mission even more significant. Born in Germany in 1965 to Turkish-Circassian parents who had immigrated from Turkey to Germany as so-called guest workers and calling himself a “secular Muslim,“ Ozdemir has always been a true champion of human rights.

An educator by profession, Mr. Ozdemir was elected to the German Parliament in 1994, becoming its first member of Turkish descent. He served two consecutive legislative terms from 1994 to 2002, during which he held the position of Speaker on Internal Affairs for the Green Parliamentary Group. In 2003, Mr. Ozdemir became a Transatlantic Fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Washington DC and Brussels, during which he developed research on the ways that minority groups in the United States and Europe organize themselves politically.

From 2004 to 2009, Mr. Ozdemir was a member of the European Parliament, where he was Speaker on Foreign Affairs for his political group The Greens/European Free Alliance.

In 2011, Mr. Ozdemir was named as one of 100 Global Thinkers by the prestigious Foreign Policy journal. He is a founding member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and sits on the advisory board of the American Jewish Committee’s Berlin office.

Mr. Ozdemir is the author of two books on multicultural Germany. In 2008, he published a book titled Turkey: Politics, Religion, Culture. He regularly writes commentaries and articles for German, Turkish and international media.

In 2015, Mr. Ozdemir traveled to Armenia on the occasion of the Armenian Genocide Centennial and formally declared recognition of the Genocide, calling upon Turkey to do the same. Shortly thereafter, he introduced a resolution in the German Bundestag not only to declare Germany’s formal recognition of the Genocide but also to acknowledge its own indirect involvement by failing to hold its Ottoman Turkish ally responsible as the atrocities were occurring.

During World War I, German Imperial Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was quoted by Ozdemir, as stating ‘‘Our sole object is to keep Turkey on our side until the end of the war, no matter whether or not Armenians perish as a result.“ By 1918, although German military leaders knew that 90% of the entire population and 98% of the male population of Armenians had been killed in the eastern provinces with the clergy almost entirely exterminated, they did nothing to stop the atrocities.

Mr. Ozdemir drew the connection to modern times as well, by stating, “When we look at the region today, we see that Christians are once again being persecuted – in Iraq, in Syria and in Turkey too. Those displaced Armenians who survived the death marches arrived in places which are now in the middle of the Syrian war zone, such as Aleppo and Deir-el-Zor. After a number of years in which all of us in this House have had reason to rejoice at the restoration of churches in Turkey, churches are now being expropriated and closed down again. What is perhaps the bitterest pill is that, while ‘You Armenian‘ has always been used as a term of abuse in Turkey, today it is more widely used than ever. Even I am addressed as ‘You Armenian.‘ I do not regard it as an insult to be called an Armenian.“

Bundestag President Norbert Lammert, a Christian Democrat from Merkel’s ruling party, labeled the Ottoman Turkish treatment of its ancient Christian Armenian minority as genocide last year on the occasion of the Centennial. At that time, he stated that Germans know well that working through past events is the only way to achieve reconciliation and cooperation, a lesson learned by Germany’s own chapters of dark history. When the resolution was presented on the floor of the Bundestag by Cem Ozdemir, President Lammert started the debate by stating that while “the current Turkish government is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, it does have responsibility for what becomes of this in present times.“ One after another, Members of Parliament from various political factions took the floor to express support for Armenian Genocide recognition based on Germany’s own historical lessons of taking responsibility for the Holocaust and the need to acknowledge Germany as an accomplice to the crime of genocide by its ally, Ottoman Turkey.

“Cem Ozdemir and the German Bundestag are well-deserving of our highest praise for their courage in shepherding the Armenian Genocide resolution through successful passage even in the face of unimaginable pressure from their past and current ally, the denialist Turkish government. Their honesty and transparency in accepting responsibility for their own predecessors’ complicity in this unpunished crime is truly commendable as it empowers the truth and facilitates justice. It is our sincere hope and expectation that U.S. executives and lawmakers will take the example of their German counterparts by acknowledging the noteworthy American role in rescuing hundreds of thousands of Armenian Genocide survivors rather than allowing a foreign Turkish government to dictate the policies of the United States with empty threats of retaliation for speaking the truth and demanding accountability to the victims and their descendants, just as Germany has done for the survivors of the Holocaust and now of the Genocide,” stated ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian, Esq.

After passage of the June 2, 2016 resolution, Turkey predictably declared the vote null and void and recalled its ambassador, expressing anger over Germany’s action. However, it even went one step further by refusing German lawmakers access to German NATO soldiers stationed at the Incirlik Air Base near the Syrian border unless the German government distanced itself from the Bundestag’s Armenian Genocide resolution.

The German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier did not take kindly to this Turkish threat and flatly rejected Ankara’s demand, adding that if Turkey continues denying German lawmakers access to the airbase, German troops dispatched there to fight ISIS will be withdrawn. In recent weeks, this crisis was alleviated when Turkey finally granted permission to the German representatives to visit their soldiers after Steinmeier stated the obvious that the resolution passed in the Bundestag was by definition not legally binding.

In the past, despite Turkish threats against other NATO allies such as France who recognized the Armenian Genocide, the strain on bilateral relations was only temporary just as it was with Germany.

Since taking this most courageous action, Cem Ozdemir and his Turkish-German colleagues in Parliament have received death threats requiring police protection as well as threats from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who claimed that the 11 Bundestag lawmakers of Turkish descent who voted for the resolution are probably not even true Turks, suggesting that they should have their blood tested to be sure. Yet, despite these threats, Mr. Ozdemir’s perspective was to promote democratic principles which are currently lacking in Turkey by proclaiming: “I am grateful to the President of the Bundestag for referring to the fact that Members of the Bundestag must not be subjected to threats on account of their opinions. But I find it difficult to speak of this here, ladies and gentlemen, because I know that, when I leave the Bundestag after this sitting, I shall not be arrested, that on my way home my immunity is unlikely to be lifted and I shall not be beaten up or killed. The same does not apply to our counterparts in Turkey. It does not apply to those in Turkey who are calling for the examination of these crimes. That is why our solidarity is with those people. They truly have reason to be afraid. They are paying a high price.”

Cem Ozdemir has expressed his deep gratitude to the ANCA-WR for being the recipient of the Freedom Award and will accept it via video presentation at the Banquet.

In the last month, the organization also announced that it will honor California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson with the Man of the Year Award, Varoujan Koundkajian posthumously with the Legacy Award, Assemblymember Adrin Nazarian with the Legislator of the Year Award, and Golden State Warriors Coach Steve Kerr and the Kerr family with the Humanitarian Award.

The 2016 ANCA WR Annual Gala Banquet will be held on Sunday, October 16, 2016 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California. The main event will begin at 4:30p.m. with cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and a silent auction. A three-course dinner will follow at 6:00 p.m. with a powerful program and presentation of the awards.

Individuals interested in attending and sponsoring the Annual Gala Banquet are encouraged to purchase tickets online at www.ancawrgala.org or call (818) 839-1918. To obtain corporate sponsorship information visitwww.ancawr.org/gala/sponsorship or call (818) 500-1919. For up to the minute updates on the event follow ANCA Western Region on social media: facebook.com/ANCAWesternRegion, Twitter and Instagram: ANCA_WR

The ANCA-WR Gala Banquet represents the single largest annual gathering of Armenian American public policy leaders throughout the western United States, and is attended by over 1,000 prominent Members of Congress, state legislators and officials, community leaders, and many of the organization’s strongest activists and generous donors from California, Nevada, Arizona, and throughout the western United States.

The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region is the largest and most influential Armenian American grassroots advocacy organization in the Western United States. Working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout the Western United States and affiliated organizations around the country, the ANCA-WR advances the concerns of the Armenian American community on a broad range of issues.