Four French lawmakers meet Assad in Syria: MP

February 25, 2015 By administrator

PARIS – Agence France-Presse

President Bashar al-Assad

Four French lawmakers who say they are on a private visit to Syria, despite a breakdown in diplomatic ties between Paris and Damascus, met with President Bashar al-Assad Wednesday, one of them told AFP.

“We met Bashar al-Assad for a good hour. It went very well,” Jacques Myard, an MP who belongs to the conservative opposition UMP party, said in a telephone interview. He refused to reveal the content of the talks.

The group of lawmakers include MPs and senators from both the left and the right.

“It’s a personal mission to see what is going on, to hear, listen,” Myard said earlier.

The French foreign ministry has said the visit has nothing to do with the government.

“The lawmakers do not carry any official message,” said spokesman Alexandre Giorgini.

Turkey arrests former MP over death threats against Erdoğan

December 9, 2014 By administrator

Former member of Turkish parliament Feyzi İşbaşaran was detained on Monday, Dec 8, in Istanbul over death threats against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

According to Daily Sabah, after his arrival from London, İşbaşaran was detained by police officers, who were informed on the whereabouts of the former MP, setting up a stakeout in front of a hotel he was staying in.

İşbaşaran was arrested for sending death threats via Twitter to Erdoğan and his wife. The former MP said that Erdoğan “definitely deserves death” as he was taken in to custody.

His tweets regarding Erdoğan were evaluated as the offense of “publicly insulting the president.”

İşbaşaran had earlier threatened Armenian intellectual, senior advisor to Turkish Prime Minister and Daily Sabah columnist Etyen Mahçupyan, saying he is an “agent” and must be “taken down.”

“Armenians would want peace when he [Mahçupyan] is killed. He is not Hrant!” İşbaşaran tweeted, giving reference to Hrant Dink, an Armenian journalist whose murder in 2007 led to a public outcry. İşbaşaran also insulted and threatened a disagreeing user on Twitter.

A lawyer attacked İşbaşaran while he was being brought to the court, while another group protested against his threats.

İşbaşaran used to represent the eastern province Elazığ for the ruling AK Party and center-right ANAP.

His bitter dispute with a police officer in 2009, including swears and threats, were taped and sent to media outlets as well as to then-Prime Minister Erdoğan. He resigned from AK Party in 2009 after the party administration sent him to the disciplinary committee for expulsion.

Prior to this incident, İşbaşaran claimed that there were “groups” within the police, conspiring against each other and against the government to start a dispute with the Turkish General Staff.

Photo: Daily Sabah

Senior Kurdish politician questions PM’s silence in the face of IS

August 8, 2014 By administrator

AZİZ İSTEGÜN/ ŞEYHMUS EDİS/ MARDIN

A senior Kurdish politician of Turkey has criticized the government for avoiding speaking out against the massacres committed by the terrorist “Islamic State” (IS) in Iraq, maintaining that Turkey has been offering support to the terrorist organization.

Noting that the terrorist IS, which also recently launched a ferocious attack against Kurds in northern Syria, has now been attacking Yazidis in Iraqi Kurdistan, Ahmet Türk, co-chairman of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Congress (DTK), said Turkey has had an important role in the increase of IS’s power in the region.

“A corridor was opened up through Turkey [for IS terrorists to enter Syria]. Armed ISIL
[the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, the former name of IS] militants can easily pass through Ceylanpınar, Kilis and Akçakale,” Türk, who is also mayor of Mardin, told Today’s Zaman.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu lashed out at those who claimed that Turkey has been supporting IS during an interview with the NTV television channel on Thursday, saying, “Anyone who says ISIL is being supported by Turkey is a traitor.”

Tens of thousands of Turkmens and Yazidis were recently forced to flee the religiously mixed towns of Zumar and Sinjar in Iraq to the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq, while some residents remain trapped in an open rugged area. A UN statement said as many as 200,000 civilians — mostly Yazidis, a minority religious community — have fled to a nearby mountain but are surrounded by militants and are in danger.

Since IS terrorists captured Mosul in early June, which was the time they suddenly came to prominence in Iraq, at least 300,000 Turkmens have had to flee their homes under the IS threat.

Türk, who accused the government of turning a blind eye to IS activities, said: “The attitude [of the government] is that Kurds should not [be allowed to become] our neighbors. However, we know Turkey can only become an important actor in the Middle East when Kurds and Turks, who have a shared history of 1,000 years, embrace each other.”

Türk also criticized Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for not raising his voice against the IS massacres in Syria and Iraq. IS was not a well-known organization until a year ago when it started to fight against the Syrian regime. It is being questioned how this organization became strong enough to fight on two fronts, Syria and Iraq, within a year.

According to Türk, who is a senior figure in Kurdish politics, not just Turkey, but also Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are mainly responsible for the group’s swift growth in power in the region. Noting that everybody now understands how dangerous an organization IS is, Türk said armed IS terrorists have been going back and forth through the Turkish-Syrian border without any problems.

Türk, who noted that IS is an organization composed of terrorists from various countries, believes those who are against the gains Kurds have achieved in the past years have turned a blind eye to IS getting stronger. It is because Turkey does not want Kurds in northeastern Syria to acquire a state-like status that Turkey has been offering support to IS, Türk maintained.

Türk believes IS recently attacked Sinjar, a town in northwest Iraq near the Syrian border, not because Yazidis, who are ethnically Kurdish, live there, but based on strategic considerations. Türk said: “IS, which is getting stronger in Sinjar, can control the whole region up to Zaho and Duhok. It can also control Rojava, Syria’s Kurdistan. A joint struggle should actually be conducted to drive this terrorist organization out of the Middle East.”

Türk also drew attention to the contradiction in the attitude of Turkey which, while ignoring the plight of hundreds of thousands of Türkmens who have had to flee in the past two months from towns under IS threat, has been slamming Israel for its attack on Gaza. “Türkmens have been suffering from IS terrorism. Why is [Prime Minister Erdoğan] raising his voice [against IS]?” Türk demanded to know. Just this reality demonstrates that he [Erdoğan] is not sincere. When he defended Turkmen in the past, he did so to use that [argument] against Kurds [in Turkey].”