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Jan Kuciak murder: ‘Slovakia’s systemic corruption is killing people’

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Slovakia's systemic corruption

Slovaks pay tribute to murdered journalist Jan Kuciak, Slovakia’s systemic corruption

The killing of investigative journalist Jan Kuciak has caused upheaval in Slovakia, says political analyst Grigoriy Meseznikov. By clinging to power, Prime Minister Robert Fico is worsening the situation by the day.

DW: The murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee Martina Kusnirova has shocked the citizens of Slovakia and cast the country into political turmoil. Many observers see the murder as a breaking point, possibly even a turning point for politics in Slovakia.

Grigorij Meseznikov: The murder was a great tragedy and indeed an event that could change the course of history in the country. The people are outraged. They are outraged that the government is incapable of protecting people with critical viewpoints and that the work of independent investigative journalists has had no affect on the work being done by the administration.

Jan Kuciak spent years writing articles containing explosive information, yet nothing changed in politics. He even approached the police for protection after receiving serious threats after one such article was published, yet the police simply ignored his pleas. Civil society is now putting pressure on the administration, demanding that it make changes. I am skeptical about the chances of something actually happening to that end. Nevertheless, the situation in the country absolutely has to change.

Among the utterly surreal scenes that played out after the murder, Prime Minister Robert Fico held a press conference in which he stood next to a small table with €1 million ($1.2 million) in cash on it.

He said the money would be given as a reward to anyone offering credible information about the killings. What did you think when you saw that?

I truly believe the murder shocked the prime minister and his administration. And I think they sought a spectacular way to show they were serious about quickly and efficiently solving the crime. But the gesture itself was ultimately cynical and actually follows the logic of the mafia to the letter. It is a logic that says money can buy anything — political influence, material gain, witnesses. That is not the logic a democratic government should ascribe to.

Transgender woman’s murder shines dark light on rights issues in Turkey

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trangender-murderedTurkey’s cultural and political circles were finally mobilized against the brutal murder of Hande Kader, a transgender sex worker, on Aug. 17 with a social media campaign titled #speakoutforhandekader and a statement delivered in parliament, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The mobilization follows almost a week of silence following the discovery of the 22-years-old Kader in Istanbul, her body burnt and mutilated. The case, just the latest link in a chain of violence against homosexuals and transgender people, has become a cause for human right activists who say Turkey’s police and justice system turn a blind eye to aggression against transgender prostitutes. A large rally is to take place in Tünel, in downtown Istanbul, on the evening of Aug. 21.

A video underlining the lack of legal, social and political protection experienced by Turkey’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community was shared more than 2,000 times on social media. “We transsexuals live in isolation and fear everyday … If the state fails to take legal measures, as well as action on the ground, against trans-phobic crimes; they will not only continue but increase … We also exist, raise your voice for our rights,” say some of the activists who speak out in the two-minute video.

The video was followed by messages of solidarity from cultural and political circles in Turkey. “You are not human if your compassion is based on the gender of the victim,” TV host and well-known psychologist Aşkım Kapışmak wrote on his Twitter account as the hashtag #handekader became a Trending Topic.

“Peace and unity in a community can only be achieved through a joint fight against violence and hate, whether it is manifested in terrorist attacks, murder by the bullet of a spouse, or the killing of someone perceived as the other,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ankara deputy Shenal Sarihan said in a statement, while refraining from making a direct reference to the violence and violation of rights against LGBT people.

A meeting in parliament between various activists and representatives of the CHP and the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was more precise about what needs to be done. A joint statement read out at parliament said LGBT groups should have more access to the justice system and firm punishments should be given to the aggressors. “So far, most aggressors charged with violence against transgender sex workers have been able to go scot free,” said the statement.

LGBT activists have also launched a petition titled “Transgender murders are political and need to be stopped” through Change.org. The petition, which received 15,000 signatures by Aug. 19, urges the police and the Justice Ministry to find the murderers of Hande Kader and punish them with a maximum penalty.

Two Syrian journalists murdered in Turkey’s southeast

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n_90534_1ŞANLIURFA – Doğan News Agency

Two Syrian journalists have been murdered in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şanlıurfa in what is presumed to be an attack by militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

İbrahim Abdulkadir, managing editor at Syrian Ayn Vatan newspaper and Firaz Hamadi, a reporter for the same newspaper, had fled the conflict in Syria for Şanlıurfa, where they shared a flat.

Their dead bodies were found by seven of their Syrian friends, who called the police and made an emergency appeal.

Reports indicate that one or more assailants, who remain unidentified, slit the throats of the reporters using a hunting knife.

It is claimed that both journalists were members of the Free Syrian Army and had been receiving death threats from ISIL for publishing reports against the jihadist organization.

The journalists’ bodies were transferred to the Forensic Medicine Institute for an autopsy.

Meanwhile, police detained the seven Syrians who found the murdered journalists’ bodies and called for help, in order to take their testimonies.

The investigation into the double homicides continues.

World murder capital Istanbul: Another Turkish singer brutally murdered

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ISTANBUL

n_82062_1A well-known Turkish singer and songwriter was found brutally murdered at her house in Istanbul’s Taksim neighborhood late May 5.

Değer Deniz’s body was discovered by her younger brother when he had a locksmith open the door of her house after the singer’s family has been unable to contact her throughout the day.

Deniz’s brother immediately called the police, who said the singer had been strangled with the strap of her bag, while her hands had been tied with the cable of a cellphone charger, according to Doğan News Agency.

The 39-year-old Deniz, whose funeral ceremony was held after an autopsy on May 6, had released her latest album on 2012, composed songs for TV dramas and took the stage at various venues in Istanbul.

She performed in several genres, including alternative progressive rock and trip-hop.

287 Turkish women murdered in first 10 months of 2014

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Fevzi Kızılkoyun ANKARA

n_73596_1Some 287 women were murdered in the first 10 months of this year in Turkey, as additional clauses to the law on the protection of families are drafted.

Despite changes to laws, court rulings, restraining orders on guilty men, protection granted to exposed women, and the application of a panic button system, the number of murdered women has continued to rise in Turkey, surpassing previous years in the first 10 months of 2014 alone.

New clauses aimed at preventing violence against women are currently being drafted, to be added to the existing Law on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women. The most significant of the new additions is the introduction of a rehabilitation counseling option for men, alongside the existing legal punishments.

Men who resort to violence against their wives and do not have a place to go to after being banned from their homes with a court decision will be placed in shelters, where they will receive rehabilitation counseling, according to the new clauses. A report at the end of the rehabilitation process will decide whether or not the men are able to return to their homes.

Since the Law on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women was adopted in early 2012, almost 700 women have been killed in Turkey. Some 217 women were murdered in 2012, and 189 were murdered in 2013, and 287 have been murdered in just the first 10 months of 2013.

France: Kurds murdered in Paris: we must continue the hunt for sponsors (family)

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The investigation into the murder of three Kurdish activists in January 2013 in Paris must dig the track of potential liability Turkish services in the crime, told AFP Monday the cansiz_2533649bbrother of a victim at the end of a meeting with the judge.

The Anti-terrorism magistrate Jeanne Duye received for several hours at the courthouse in Paris families Sakine Cansiz, Dogan Fidan and Leyla Saylemez to a point on its investigation into a crime that shocked the Kurdish community.

Alleged running of this triple murder, Turkish Ömer Güney is indicted and imprisoned forever. Questions about its possible relationship with the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) have been revived in recent months, including the distribution of a recording on the internet likely to cause.

Denis Dogan Dogan Fidan’s brother, told AFP that the plaintiffs had presented to the judge the text of a pre-election speech in March in Urfa in southeastern Turkey, the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“He says that the Gülen movement, organization infiltrated the Turkish state apparatus, is responsible for the triple murder,” he has explained with reference to the brotherhood of the imam Fethullah Gülen. “We now expect the judge to investigate in this direction.”

Mr. Gulen, 72, lives since 1999 in Pennsylvania, where he directs a powerful socio-religious movement that count millions of members, very influential in the police and the Turkish judiciary.

The head of government accuses “güleniste” movement, long an ally, to be the origin of the vast corruption scandal that threatens his regime since mid-December. Erdogan suspected of having been a “parallel state” to cause his downfall.

“We also expect that the judge questioned the French intelligence services to see if they have information about Ömer Güney,” continued Mr. Dogan. The judge denied this request in September.

Mr. Dogan said he was “generally satisfied” with the inquiry: “Many elements show that Güney committed the murder and that he was a pawn of MIT,” said he accused.

Earlier this year, MIT had again denied any involvement.

Sakine Cansiz was a figure of the Workers Party of Kurdistan (PKK), considered close to its historic leader Abdullah Öcalan. Dogan Fidan was a Kurdish activist well known in the European political class.

They were executed several times in the head January 9, 2013 in Kurdish Information Centre (CIK) in Paris.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com