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British MP Jo Cox has died after brutal stabbing & shooting attack – police

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cox shotLabour MP Jo Cox has been confirmed dead hours after being shot outside her advice surgery near the city of Leeds. Both sides in Britain’s EU referendum debate have suspended campaigning following the attack.

Dee Collins, Deputy Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police announced Cox’s death in a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

The 41-year-old was shot close to her constituency advice surgery in Birstall, near Leeds in northern England, earlier in the day.

DCC Collins said the the mother-of-two was reportedly shot in the face three times and attacked with a knife, adding that a full investigation was underway to establish a motive for the murder.

The UK’s Press Association news agency cited eyewitnesses who said the MP for the constituency of Batley and Spen appeared to be involved in a struggle in the street with a man, who pulled out a gun. Cox was left bleeding on the pavement and another man was also injured.

Police later said they believe the attack was a localized incident and they were not looking for anyone else than the 51-year-old man arrested earlier in the day, named locally as Tommy Mair.

In a statement on its website later, Britain First said the media was “desperately trying to incriminate” the party in the attack, adding that it was “NOT involved and would never encourage behaviour of this sort.” The party said it was praying that Jo Cox would make a full recovery.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn issued a statement saying the whole the party and country “will be in shock” at her “horrific murder.”

Paying tribute to her work, he said she “was dedicated to getting us to live up to our promises to support the developing world and strengthen human rights – and she brought those values and principles with her when she became an MP.”

Cox was elected to Britain’s parliament in 2015 after a career as an aid worker for Oxfam. Part of her constituency – the town of Batley – is among the poorest in the country, part of an EU transformation zone, and has a high immigrant population.

She was critical of Britain’s reluctance to deepen its involvement in the fightback against “Islamic State” militants in Syria. She also campaigned for the UK to remain in the EU.

Following the attack, both the pro and anti-European Union camps have temporarily suspended their campaigns, with just a week to go until Britons vote on their country’s membership of the bloc.

Cameron tweeted that he wouldn’t travel to Gibraltar for a campaign rally on Thursday evening.

Germany: German MP calls for a travel ban on Erdogan

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mp erdogan ban(DW) Sevim Dagdelen has urged action after receiving death threats over the Armenian genocide vote in Germany’s parliament. She said she wants Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to be prevented from entering Germany.

Sevim Dagdelen, a German member of the Bundestag, demanded that “anyone in Turkey who calls for violence against the German parliament to get an entry ban (to Germany). This includes President Erdogan,” she told the German newspaper “Bild am Sonntag.”

The Duisburg-born politician has a 100,000 euro ($112,000) bounty on her head, the paper reported, following a resolution adopted by the German parliament on June 2 calling the massacre of Armenians genocide.

German lawmakers voted to join 29 other countries by interpreting the killings of 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks in 1915 a genocide. Turkey, which was formed out of the Ottoman Empire, insists the killings were a collective tragedy in which equal numbers of Turks and Armenians died but denies it meets legal requirements to be termed a genocide.

Erdogan, personally, reacted furiously to the decision, sinking ties between the Berlin and Ankara governments to new lows.

Personal threats

Since the vote, Dagdelen and 10 other German MPs of Turkish origin have faced the ire of Turkish nationalists, receiving death threats and even having their personal details published in newspapers and in mosques.

Dagdelen, who is the Left Party’s migration policy spokesperson, told the paper that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should respond more forcefully to Erdogan’s attacks.

The politicians are now under 24-hour police protection after Erdogan compared them to terrorists and demanded they have blood tests to prove their Turkish origins.

The lawmakers have also been warned not to make trips to Turkey for the time being as their safety cannot be guaranteed.

Tolerance urged

Aydan Özoguz of the Social Democrats (SPD) called on Turkish groups in Germany to unequivocally denounce the Turkish response. Özoguz, who is the government’s integration commissioner, has also received death threats.

“I expect Turkish associations in Germany to clearly condemn the threats against MPs,” she told the “Bild am Sonntag” weekly paper, adding that Turks can remain committed to their origins without being an extension of Turkey.

Her comments were backed up by Green Party leader Cem Özdemir, who was one of the initiators of the Bundestag’s Armenian resolution.

“You may not agree with the resolution, but Turkish organizations must issue unqualified denouncements of the death threats,” he told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.”

Earlier, he told the paper that Erdogan’s response to the issue was “unworthy of a head of state” adding that he was worried that “what if someone goes crazy,” referring to threat against him and his family.

Germany’s Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) supported German politicians and called the threats made against lawmakers inacceptable.

“No one should be dehumanized or threatened,” DITIB national spokesperson Murat Kayman said. “This is not up for discussion and there is no justification for it. That’s the basic agreement of civilized societies.”

 

Germany: Threaten one MP and you’re attacking the whole parliament, Lammert tells Turkey

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f57593c5682f14_57593c5682f4b.thumbGermany’s speaker of parliament has sharply criticized Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, following threats against German-Turkish MPs. Nobert Lammert said top Turkish politicians had fuelled the fire, Deutsche Welle reports.

Norbert Lammert expressed the outrage in Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on Thursday, over comments made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Lammert also denounced the “sometimes hate-filled threats and smears” targeting the 11 German lawmakers with Turkish heritage.

“I would not have thought it possible in the 21st century, that a democratically elected head of state would criticize members of the German Bundestag by voicing doubts on their Turkish heritage, by labeling their blood as impure,” Lammert told parliament on Thursday.

He was criticizing Erdogan’s reaction to last week’s contentious Bundestag resolution, which repeatedly referred to the killings of Armenians in Ottoman-era Turkey during World War I as genocide. Turkey disputes this definition of the massacre of Armenians.

Erdogan had said that the German-Turkish parliamentarians were a “mouthpiece for the PKK,” the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party seeking an independent Kurdish state. The president also suggested that the 11 lawmakers should undergo blood tests, to see “what kind of Turks they are.”

“Also, I reject in all its forms the insinuation that members of this parliament are terrorist mouthpieces,” Lammert said.

German-Turkish MPs have since reported a wave of criticism, trolling and even death threats in the wake of last week’s vote. Some have been placed under police protection. Sevim Dagdelen of the Left party told DW on Wednesday that she had been told to “take a holiday in Buchenwald,” the World War II concentration camp, with another saying there was a bounty on her head.

Lammert told parliament that these threats and smears had in some cases been encouraged by “high-ranking Turkish politicians.”

“We will face up to any criticism, we will even tolerate personal attacks and polemics,” the house speaker said. “But anybody who tries to exert pressure on a parliamentarian using threats must know this: They are attacking the entire parliament.”

Lammert said that all party leaders in parliament had appealed to him “to voice our collective position once again, unequivocally.”

Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, the next to speak after Lammert, thanked his CDU ally “most sincerely” for his “clear words.” Chancellor Angela Merkel had faced criticism for her response to the issue on Tuesday, when she described the threats against German MPs as “incomprehensible.”

Critics argued that Merkel should have formulated a more emphatic rejection of the behavior. Turkey and Germany have been in close, tense consultations in recent months over measures to deal with the so-called refugee crisis.

The Bundestag had initially scheduled a special debate at the request of the Left party, to address this issue later on Thursday. The Left subsequently withdrew its request, saying Lammert’s statement had satisfactorily covered the issue.

 

 

Kurdish MP of Turkey: I hope one day our leaders will recognize Armenian Genocide

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YEREVAN. – The German Bundestag’s passing of the resolution on Armenian Genocide recognition is a historic and very important step.

Nazmi Gür, MP and assistant to the co-chair of the—pro-Kurdish—Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, on Friday stated the aforementioned at a press conference in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan.

In his words, Germany is not an ordinary country.

“I hope that one day our leaders [in Turkey] also will take this step,” added Gür.

The Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, on Thursday formally recognized the Armenian Genocide, with the aforesaid resolution and with only one vote against and one abstention. The resolution also notes that the Bundestag regrets that the German government at the time did nothing to stop this crime against humanity, and therefore the Bundestag also acknowledges the respective historical accountability of Germany.

Kurdish MP Delivers Fiery Speech in Turkish Parliament

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harut-sassounian-small2BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

In recent days, scathing speeches by Armenian and Kurdish deputies in the Turkish Parliament have been circulating on the internet. Last week, I presented the bold speech by Armenian MP Garo Paylan, delivered in April on the Armenian Genocide. This week, I would like to share with readers another fearless speech by Kurdish MP Gultan Kisanak. Even though this video was recently posted on the internet, her remarks were delivered in January 2012, shortly after the massacre of 35 young Kurdish civilians by the Turkish military in Roboski village, in Turkish-occupied Kurdistan!

Here are excerpts from her remarkable speech:

“…Those who don’t feel grief or shame for this situation and call themselves Muslim; those who don’t account for this situation, I question their humanity, their Islamic religion, and beliefs. Everyone is aware of what happened there. Is this how blinded your conscience has become? Is this your definition of humanity? …How do you manage to be so reckless and careless about the massacre of 35 people? How do you manage to be so inhumane? First, you are going to stand up and apologize; get upset. That is if you’re a human being as you claim to be. If you have a conscience! But you are not doing any of these things and instead acting as if a fly or a couple of chickens died by an ‘accidental operation.’ Shame on you! …For 90 years, this country has been using the terrorism excuse and committing many massacres…. You are trying to exterminate the Kurdish people! There is no terrorism! … The Military Chief of Staff of this country said: ‘We killed 40,000 people. We bombed the mountains many times. But still this issue does not end.’ You still cannot understand this truth! There are people there; and these people have rights! There are people there whose identity is being denied. There is a Kurdish issue. There is no terror issue….”

Using even harsher language, the Kurdish MP continued: “We are going to make you pay for this! Those who committed this massacre in broad daylight against these civilians and their mules, under the watchful eyes of the police, and those who think they can go around massacring 35 people and threaten the Kurds, will soon realize that they are the losers in these massacres! No one is afraid of death! Is there anything more than death? … How dare you impose your superiority on us! What more do you have over us? What do Turks have more than Kurds? What did Germans have more than Jews? …As equal citizens of this country, everyone is going to freely have their citizen’s rights with their true identity. Living side by side as free citizens with honor, we will never accept to be dishonored. Never! Even if you commit a thousand massacres, we will never accept it.”

When a pro-government MP tried to interrupt her speech, the Kurdish deputy shot back firmly: “Shut up! You have not even shown the strength to condemn the massacre. Shut up!”

Kisanak, who is now the co-Mayor of Diyarbekir, resumed her remarks: “Someone [Erdogan] is saying: ‘We’re not going to allow them [Kurds] to settle down in those areas.’ What ‘settling down?’ We have been here longer than a thousand years. We are deeply-rooted in those cliffs, rocks, Mount Cudi, Mount Gabar, Mount Agri [Ararat], and Mount Munzur. We are in their depths. We are here and have been here since the beginning of history and we are going to be here till the end! What ‘settling down’? We have been rooted here since the beginning. Our ancestors, grandfathers, and graves are all here. Our language, culture is here. What ‘settling down’ are you talking about? …They want to assimilate and annihilate the Kurdish population that has been living here for over thousands of years.”

Calling the killing of 35 young Kurds by the Turkish military “a crime against humanity,” Kisanak continued: “We are not going to let it go — till the end! We will be using all possible international human rights to make them account for their crimes. All those who commanded it, gave the orders, bombarded the place, shredded the bodies of those young children, will give an account to the community for it. Someone said, ‘there was no intent, there is no apology,’ but, ‘there is compensation.’ Be ashamed of yourselves. You know what they call this in our [Kurdish] culture? Blood money! If I have the money, I can commit a crime and pay the money to cover it up. So you think you can kill, then pay and then try to cover it up? Be ashamed of yourselves….”

The Speaker of the Parliament turned off the courageous Kurdish MP’s microphone, forcing her to end her speech!

Austrailan MP Zimmerman calls Turkey recognize Armenian Genocide during maiden Parliamentary speech

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Trent Zimmerman MP calls for recognition of Armenian Genocide

Trent Zimmerman MP calls for recognition of Armenian Genocide

CANBERRA: On Wednesday, 2nd March 2016, newly-elected Federal Member for North Sydney, Trent Zimmerman gave his maiden speech in the Australia’s House of Representatives, calling on Turkey to recognise and atone for the Armenian Genocide.

Zimmerman was elected at a recent by-election, taking the seat vacated by Joe Hockey MP (now Australia’s Ambassador to the United States), a long-time advocate for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

The Armenian National Committee of Australia’s (ANC Australia) Executive Administrator, Arin Markarian commented: “We thank Mr. Zimmerman for proving he will continue Mr. Hockey’s fine work on the advancement of recognition and justice for the Armenian Genocide.”
In his speech, Zimmerman acknowledged the “great historical injustices” that the Armenians have suffered, particularly through the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire in 1915.

He said: “The Armenians are a people who have suffered great historical injustices. They are one of the few people against whom genocide has been attempted, and the awful legacy of those events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire is deeply felt in their community today.”

Zimmerman added: “We know such horrific events are best healed through reconciliation, recognition and atonement. I hope that we will see a day when Turkey, indeed the global community through the United Nations, properly recognises the Armenian Genocide.”

ANC Australia has written to Zimmerman, congratulating him on his maiden speech, wishing him a fruitful career representing the electorate of North Sydney and the greater Australian community.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE PORTION OF MR. ZIMMERMAN’S MAIDEN SPEECH

Deputy parliament speaker hails German MP’s stance on Genocide

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206955Deputy Speaker of Armenia’s National Assembly Eduard Sharmazanov met on Thursday, February 25 with the Chairman of Germany’s Alliance 90/The Greens Cem Ozdemir, who authored the resolution on the Armenian Genocide.

The German Bundestag held a debate on the Armenian Genocide Thursday, February 25 and decided to postpone the vote for the new Armenian Genocide bill proposed by the Alliance 90/The Greens political party. The ruling coalition said it’s not the proper time to adopt the bill and proposed to continue the discussions in the coming weeks to prepare a new finalized document by April 24, 2016.

At the meeting, the Armenian official hailed Ozdemir’s stance on the Genocide, also stressing the need for the condemnation of crimes against humanity by both the Bundestag and the international community.

The parties agreed that the German parliament’s discussion of the issue is a pledge of the Bundestag’s inevitable condemnation.

Addressing the Bundestag Thursday, Ozdemir said “the authorities have no common stance on the issue out of the fear to irritate Erdogan. “I don’t understand why we cannot vote for this bill. We should do that for the simple reason of clearing our conscience,” he said.

The bill noted that “the German Bundestag bows to the victims of forced displacement and massacre of the Armenians and Aramaeans, Assyrians and other Christian minorities of the Ottoman Empire, which began 100 years ago. It deplored the actions of the then Turkish government, almost full annihilation of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

The resolution noted that “the fate of the Armenians stands as exemplary in the history of mass exterminations, ethnic cleansing, deportations and yes, genocide, which marked the 20th century in such a terrible way.” German President Joachim Gauck used the same wording as he addressed a commemoration ceremony on the eve of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

Turkish ‘traitor’ MP’s revelations on sarin transfers must be probed, reported to UNSC – Moscow

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Turkish MP serin ISISRussia has expressed hope that a joint OPCW-UN investigation of deadly sarin attacks in Syria will not ignore reports from a Turkish MP, who faces charges of treason for exposing Ankara’s alleged role in hiding ISIS-bound shipments of gas precursors.

The so-called Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) consolidated the efforts of the UN and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) with a mandate to identify people involved in the use of chemicals weapons in Syria under the Security Council resolution 2118.

“This specialized mechanism should thoroughly investigate the information provided by the Turkish parliamentarian in accordance with its mandate, and report back to the UN Security Council,” Ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

“Then the case, as we understand, was ‘soft-pedaled’, while the main suspects avoided prosecution and fled into Syria,” Zakharova said. “So Erdem’s revelations come for us, and not just us, as nothing new.”

Moscow wants to get to the bottom of sarin attacks in Syria, which were immediately pinned on the Syrian leadership without a proper investigation. The allegations and ramifications were so severe that Damascus immediately agreed to get rid of all chemical weapons stockpiles under a UN-brokered deal to avoid a US-led military intervention.

The unprecedented terror attack in the Damascus suburb that happened just several months after the botched Turkey investigation, saw the same chemicals used. It was an “evident attempt” to build a case again the Syrian army using a “home-made chemical charge” to fabricate “dubious evidence,” Zakharova said. She noted that not just Erdem, but also a number of “independent western experts” raised doubts about the narrative that had echoed in the western media.

“This [Ghouta terror] act, by all indications, was dictated by the desire of certain circles to provoke a foreign military intervention in order to topple the legitimate government … a well proven scenario tested in several other countries of the region,” Zakharova added.

“We hope that sooner or later the true perpetrators and organizers of this and other similar crimes will be identified and be properly punished,” Zakharova concluded.

source: RT

Video: Turkish MP faces treason charges for Exposing that sarin gas Smuggled from Turkey to Syria

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Turkish MP Sarin GasA treason investigation has been launched against a Turkish MP who alleged in an exclusive interview with RT that Islamic State jihadists delivered deadly sarin gas to Syria through Turkey.

Ankara’s Chief Prosecutor’s Office opened the case against Istanbul MP Eren Erdem of Republican People’s Party (CHP) after his interview about sarin was aired on RT on Monday.

“Chemical weapon materials were brought to Turkey and put together in ISIS camps in Syria, which was known as the Iraqi Al-Qaeda at that time.” 

Erdem noted that the chemicals used for the production of weapons did not originate from Turkey. “All basic materials are purchased from Europe. Western institutions should question themselves about these relations. Western sources know very well who carried out the sarin gas attack in Syria,” Erdem told RT.

 

Remember this horrific video

 

As Turkish media reported Wednesday, the prosecutor’s office is planning to send a summary of proceedings to the Ministry of Justice on Thursday. Following that, the summary may be forwarded to the Turkish parliament, which could vote to strip Erdem of his parliamentary immunity.

Once Turkish mass-media reported the criminal investigation had been opened against Erdem, the hashtags #ErenErdemYalnızDeğildir – #ErenErdemYouAreNotAlone began to circulate in Turkish social networks.

On Tuesday, MP Erdem issued a written statement in his defense, saying he had become the target of a smear campaign because of his statements made in parliament.

As for his accusations about Turkish businessmen being involved in supplying Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) with the poisonous gas sarin and other reactants needed for chemical warfare, Erdem maintained this statement was made based on the results of a Turkish court investigation in 2013.

Erdem revealed that five Turkish citizens had been arrested by the Adana Chief Prosecutor’s Office as a result of an investigation coded 2013/139. A Syrian national was prosecuted in Turkey for procuring chemical agents for Islamist groups in Syria. At the same time, Erdem noted all the persons arrested within the framework of the 2013/139 investigation were released a week later.

Source: RT

Turkish Opposition MP Set to Reveal Evidence Linking Erdogan to (ISIS) Daesh Oil & “Erbil connection”

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1030064195Eren Erdem, a lawmaker from the Republican People’s Party, Turkey’s largest opposition party, says that he may have found the evidence linking President Recep Erdogan’s son-in-law to the dirty oil trade with Daesh.

Commenting on the sensational allegations put forth by Russia on Wednesday that Turkish President Recep Erdogan and his family are directly connected to the trade of dirty oil, Erdem revealed that he is ready to publicize information next week linking Berat Albayrak, President Erdogan’s son-in-law and the Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, to the Daesh oil trade.

In the course of his press conference, covered by Sputnik Turkey, Erdem explained that on the basis of his investigation, which is still in progress, “I have been able to establish that there is a very high probability that Berat Albayrak is linked to the supply of oil by the Daesh terrorists.”

The lawmaker told media that “there is one company, headquartered in Erbil, which in 2012 acquired oil tankers, and which is currently being bombarded by Russian aircraft. I am now studying this company’s records. It has partners in Turkey, and I am checking them for links to Albayrak.”

Erdem noted that he will conclude his investigation next week, after which he will hold a press conference bringing the information before the public. “This investigation is aimed at trying to figure out which illegal operations are taking place in our country’s oil trade,” he emphasized.

Moreover, he noted that since he began discussing the possible linkage between Albayarak and Daesh oil, he has been subjected to an all-out informational attack by pro-government media.

“Today, the Takvim newspaper called me an American puppet, an Israeli agent, a supporter of the [Kurdish] PKK, and the instigator of a coup…all in the same sentence. I am inclined to view this attack on me as an attempt to belittle my significance, to attack my reputation in the eyes in the public, given that my investigation is a real threat to the government. Such a sharply negative reaction suggests that my assumptions are fair, and I am moving in the right direction to find the truth.”

Ultimately, the lawmaker noted that the state-connected media’s reaction “have only convinced me further on the need to carry this investigation through to the end.”

Source:sputniknews