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Netherlands prosecution demands punishment for inciting violence against Armenians

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The court trial took place—on Friday, in Almelo, the Netherlands—against Ilham Askin, Chairman of the Turkish Azerbaijani Cultural Association in The Hague.

Askin is prosecuted for having chanted, “Karabakh will be the grave of the Armenians,” during a Turkish rally in Almelo. With this statement, according to the prosecutor, he has incited violence against and has insulted a group of people because of their Armenian origin.

On  June 1, 2014, a Turkish demonstration took place in Almelo, and against the Armenian Genocide memorial that was erected on the yard of the Armenian Apostolic Church in this city. The Armenian community, namely the Federation of Armenian Organisations in the Netherlands (FAON) and the Dutch Armenian Committee for Justice and Democracy (Hay Tad), had filed a police report against the statements made during this demonstration.

The court session in Almelo lasted for two hours. It was attended by many Armenians and Turks as well as Dutch, Armenian, and Turkish media. During the session a video clip of the demonstration was played, and which shows Askin chanting, “Karabakh will be the grave of the Armenians” several times, and a few thousand people repeating the chant.

Askin, who was assisted by attorney Plasman, answered questions by the court and the public prosecutor. He stated, however, that he does not consider his statements to be an offence. He said his expressions relate to a specific region where, due to the current situation, war will possibly break out and blood will be shed. He added that he has not done anything wrong. And when asked, he declared that he does not regret his statements.

The prosecutor extensively explained the process of examination of this case, and motioned for 80 hours of community service and a suspended imprisonment of two weeks with probation of two years, since a strong signal needs to be given. The prosecution’s motion also takes into consideration the fact that Ilham Askin did not show any insight into this case and that there is a danger of recidivism.

The court judgment is expected on March 17.

Netherlands says will challenge the “long arm” of Turkish state

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The Netherlands said on Wednesday, December 14 it would challenge every instance of the “long arm” of Ankara extending to its territory, after a report the Turkish embassy had sent home a list of Dutch Turks who might have sympathized with July’s failed coup, according to Reuters.

The Dutch foreign minister summoned Turkey’s ambassador in The Hague after a report in De Telegraaf newspaper citing Yusuf Acar, who is both a diplomat and the chairman of the Dutch arm of Turkey’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, as acknowledging he had compiled the list of “Gulenists”.

Ankara accuses supporters of exiled cleric Fethullah Gulen of backing the short-lived coup in which over 240 people were killed. In Turkey, over 100,000 people have been detained, suspended or sacked from judiciary, media and civil service and tensions have spread within the 500,000 Dutch-Turkish community, with some suspected Gulenist sympathizers facing death threats.

In a statement, Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said the Telegraaf report was “worrying.” “We’re going to ask for clarification about this,” Koenders said.

“In addition, we are going to engage with the Turkish authorities and the Diyanet organization in Ankara. That’s part of our policy of challenging every incident that concerns the “long arm” with our Turkish counterparts.”

Acar told De Telegraaf that he had assembled the list from publicly available sources in his capacity as an employee of the Turkish Embassy, and not as leader of the religious affairs directorate, the Diyanet.

Koenders said that “if true, that means the combination of a diplomatic status with the chairmanship of Diyanet is problematic.”

As recently as Friday, the Dutch Diyanet had issued a press statement denying any involvement with “collecting information on Gulenist sympathizers”.

Related links:

Reuters. Netherlands says it wary of ‘long arm’ of Turkish state

Netherlands: A 100% party created by Turks Criticizing Erdogan is completely taboo refuse to recognize the Armenian Genocide

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turks partyThe German newspaper Die Welt reports that he is now the Netherlands a party for immigrants and persons of immigrant: Denk. This “movement”, as he calls himself, is more and more talk about him, not just in the media. Denk was founded late 2014 by two members of Turkish origin, Tunahan Kuzu and Selcuk Ozturk, who had left the Social Democratic group after a dispute over the government’s integration policy.

Tunahan Kuzu and Selcuk Ozturk had brought in June 2015 their support for the Belgian MP Mahinur Ozdemir expelled from the party CDH for denial of the Armenian genocide.

What looked like the beginning to a turf war two devout Muslims against critical Dutch social democracy vis-à-vis Turkey, took these days among young Dutch foreign dimension of a phenomenon fashion.

[…] What was considered a splinter group finally got there a week advertising nationally when Sylvana Simons, known presenter of television whose family is originally from the former colony of Suriname, announced his candidacy for national elections next year.

Öztürk and Kuzu oppose discrimination they provide growing from Dutch society, which is denied jobs or promotions people because of skin color or an Islamic name. [. ..]

For them, we absolutely can not qualify the massacres of Armenians by Turks during the First World War as genocide. Criticize Erdogan is completely taboo. 

In one year, the party received membership of over 2000 members, and sociologists talk of an electoral potential of up to one million Dutch. At their first participation in elections next year, they hope […] at least five seats in The Hague.

Some social networks mocked the denial of Turkish leaders Denk.

Dutch FM to summon Turkish envoy over AK Party campaign letter

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232059Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders announced on Friday that the Turkish ambassador to the Netherlands is to be summoned to the Foreign Ministry over a controversial Justice and Development Party (AK Party) election campaign letter sent to Turkish residents in the country.

An investigation was launched by Dutch authorities after Turkish citizens in the Netherlands received an election campaign letter sent by the AK Party and signed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Many Turkish voters in the country have filed criminal complaints, saying their right to privacy was violated.

While the investigation, which seeks to find out if the privacy of the Turkish citizens was violated in order to obtain their addresses, is still ongoing, the matter has been brought to the Dutch parliament. Many members of the legislative body said they feel uncomfortable with the situation and demanded the Turkish ambassador be summoned and asked for an explanation.

The letter that was sent to Turkish citizens includes campaign promises for the Nov. 1 election, such as reducing the payment for a shortened military service from 6,000 euros to 1,000 euros and the promise of new legislation that will allow Turkish citizens living abroad to elect deputies who also live abroad to represent them in the Turkish Parliament.

The letter then asks the recipients to vote for the AK Party for a “strong and new Turkey.”

Dutch opposition says has documents proving Turkey sent arms to Syrian jihadists

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202543_newsdetailThe Dutch opposition Christian Democratic Party (CDA) announced that it has confidential documents proving that Turkey had sent weapons to al-Qaeda militants in Syria and that it conveyed the documents to the Dutch government, according to a BBC Turkish report published on Sunday.

CDA deputy Pieter Omtzigt said his party acquired the confidential documents in November and shared them with Dick Schoof, the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV). According to the report, the documents are duplicates from an ongoing criminal investigation in Turkey into the 2014 interception and search on three Syria-bound trucks that belonged to the National Intelligence Organization (MİT).

Turkish gendarmes and several prosecutors are accused of unlawfully intercepting and conducting search on the MİT trucks, which, according to media claims, transported arms to radical Islamists in Syria.

The BBC Turkish report said former Adana Governor Hüseyin Avni Coş, who was in office at the time of the interception of the MİT trucks, said in a testimony that the arms-filled trucks belonged to MİT and were being sent to Syria upon orders from then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Omtzigt asked Dutch Minister of Security and Justice Ivo Opstelten whether he conveyed the documents to Foreign Minister Bert Koenders ahead of his recent visit to Turkey. Koenders visited Turkey on Jan. 5-7.

Meanwhile, CDA deputy Raymond Knops, a member of the Dutch Parliament Foreign Affairs Contact Group, accused the Dutch government of “playing ostrich” regarding Turkey’s relations with terrorist groups in Syria. Knops submitted a parliamentary question addressing Koenders regarding the claims of Turkey aiding al-Qaeda in Syria with weapons and ammunition. In his parliamentary question, Koenders cited the report by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team.

Koenders stated that the UNSC report had highlighted that the weapons and ammunition held by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the al-Nusra Front were largely transported via Turkey through secret ways. According to Koenders, this information has also been confirmed by the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

The Dutch lawmaker asked, “Do you find it disturbing that weapons and ammunition have been sent to terrorist organizations in Syria through the land of NATO member Turkey?” Koenders described launching air strikes on ISIL while Syrian jihadists receive arms via Turkey as “mopping the floor while the faucet remains open.”

Last Thursday, five Turkish prosecutors who investigated the claims of illegal arms shipments to opposition groups in Syria by the MİT trucks were suspended by a top judicial board.

The suspension of the prosecutors came a day after the government obtained a blanket gag order from Adana Fifth Criminal Court of Peace, preventing the Turkish media from reporting on documents that were leaked on Twitter on Jan. 12 by anonymous Twitter user @LazepeM, who claimed the information came from the General Staff and gendarmerie investigations.

Dutch MP calls for removal of all mosques in Netherlands

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MosqueA Dutch right-wing political party has demanded Netherlands be cleared of mosques, amid an ongoing row over the integration of Muslim and Turkish minorities in the country, the Hurriyet Daily News reports. 

Machiel de Graaf, a member of Dutch anti-immigration and anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV), asked all mosques in the country to be shut down while speaking during a debate on integration in the House of Representatives.

Emphasizing that a Netherlands without mosques would be better, the parliamentarian said “We want to clean Netherlands of Islam.”

In addition to not being integrated into Dutch society and refuse to be assimilated, Muslims living in the country threaten Dutch identity and culture by giving more birth, according to de Graaf.

De Graaf’s remarks drew harsh criticism from members of social democratic parties attending the debate.

While Labor Party (PvdA) deputy Roos Vermeij urged the right-winger to retract his words, Democrats 66 (D66) deputy Sten van Weijenberg stressed his statements were dangerous.

De Graaf’s party, which is led by right-wing politician Geert Wilders, has been a vocal critic of Muslims and immigrants living in the country, but his words mark the first time that the request for the complete closure of mosques has been expressed.

The debate also came as Turkey warned Dutch authorities about aggressive and racist policies toward the Turkish community living there.

Two weeks ago, two lawmakers of Turkish descent from the PvdA were expelled after refusing to support their party’s critical remarks about a number of Turkish organizations that were accused of being “too focused on promoting Turkish and Islamic identity.”

 

Despite Turkish pressure, the memorial to the Armenian Genocide will be well inaugurated in Almelo (Netherlands)

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The memorial of the Armenian Genocide will be well launched on April 24 in Almelo, a town in the Netherlands almost 80 000 inhabitants which houses an Armenian community of more than a thousand members. Despite pressure from the arton99216-466x234Turkish media offended by this dedicated to the Armenian Genocide Memorial, the municipality of Almelo authorized its inauguration. Mariam Makoukian responsible for organizing the opening ceremonies of the memorial stated that “despite these pressures Turkey, the inauguration of the memorial will take place is.” Turkish media and Turkish organizations in the city of Almelo had asked the municipality to prohibit the erection of the memorial, which includes a set of 16 khatchkars. The organizers expect around 15,000 Armenians from all over the world. The memorial is funded by a generous benefactor.

Krikor Amirzayan