Only in Muslim Turkey 860 years in prison Former police intel chief

June 11, 2015 By administrator

A former police intelligence chief is required to serve up to 860 years in prison in a wiretapping case, in which he has been found guilty of wiretapping 48 people, including several government officials, journalists, judiciary personnel and businessmen.

Ramazan Akyürek, the former chief, was indicted on the charge of “heading a terrorist organization” and sentenced to more than eight centuries in prison over the case filed by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on June 9.

Akyürek had previously been indicted on the charge of “causing death with negligence on duty” in the Hrant Dink’s murder case and was sent to prison on Feb.27.

Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead on Jan.19, 2007, while Akyürek was the Trabzon Police department head.

Akyürek was among 50 police officers from various ranks whose names appeared in a 130-page indictment with charges of “forming and running a criminal organization,” “fabricating false documents,” “illegally keeping private information,” and “violating private life and communication privacy” in the wiretapping investigation, led by prosecutor Alpaslan Karabay.

All the 50 were accused of forming a terrorist organization serving the goals of the alleged “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”

The indictment also contained a report made by the Turkish Interior Ministry that stated the executive assistant of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli and his advisors had been wiretapped.

“Wiretapping people from a political leader’s inner circle begets wiretapping that political leader. The wiretapping done right before the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011, could have had a bearing on the fate of a political party and the country’s domestic politics,” it stated.

June/11/2015

Turkish police brace for anniversary of 2013 Taksim Square unrest

May 31, 2015 By administrator

The Turkish police have intensified security measures around Istanbul’s Taksim Square on the second anniversary of massive anti-government protest rallies.

Security forces blocked major roadways leading to the square and the adjacent Gezi Park on Sunday while public transportation connections in the neighborhood were suspended, AFP reported.

Riot police, equipped with water cannon trucks, were deployed in the area to suppress any protest efforts.

The huge protest rallies on May 31, 2013 followed government’s efforts to uproot trees in the Gezi Park as part of its plan to redevelop the popular site.

The initial demonstrations quickly grew into mass protest marches converging on the major square over what the protesters referred to as the authoritarianism of then prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, currently serving as the president.

The turmoil, which was widely viewed as the biggest challenge to Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) since it rose to power in 2002, was brutally suppressed by riot police forces, who resorted to the wide use of tear gas and water cannons.

Erdogan, meanwhile, censured the protesters as “terrorists,” claiming that they were intent on destabilizing the country. He vowed that the government will take a tough stand against protest efforts.

The government’s heavy-handed security measures against the protesters elicited harsh condemnation from Turkey’s Western allies.

MFB/KA/SS

Source: Presstv

Turkey Former police intel chief arrested in Dink murder case

May 29, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL – Anadolu Agency

A former Istanbul police intelligence chief was arrested late May 28 in the case of the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Ali Fuat Yılmazer, who was the Istanbul police intelligence chief when Dink was murdered in 2007, was arrested after being interrogated for a second time in the killing of Dink.

Istanbul’s 5th Penal Court ordered May 28 the arrest of Yılmazer on charges of “aiding and abetting premeditated murder,” and “forming a criminal organization.”

Ogün Samast assassinated Dink in broad daylight on a busy street outside of the office of bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos in Istanbul’s Şişli district on Jan. 19, 2007. Samast, who was 17 years old at the time, is serving his sentence of 22 years and 10 months in a high-security F-type prison in Kandıra, Kocaeli.

Yılmazer, who had first testified as a suspect in December 2014, has been under arrest since July 23, 2014, as part of an illegal wiretapping case into the “parallel state,” allegedly led by U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen.

The court’s decision stated Yılmazer had formed a secret unit named “C-5,” in which only some police captains and their deputies were allowed to work, inside the police department. It stated that the C-5 unit had started working on Nov. 23, 2012, after the approval of the Interior Ministry. In the decision, the unit is alleged to have looked into the cases of the Dink murder, the Father Santoro murder, the killing of a German and two Turks in the Zirve Publishing House and the coup plot cases of Ergenekon and Balyoz (Sledgehammer).

Source: hurriyetdailynews

Former Tajik police chief reappears as IS fighter in video report French24

May 28, 2015 By administrator

by Akbar Borisov

DUSHANBE (TAJIKISTAN) (AFP) A man claiming to be the former head of ex-Soviet Tajikistan’s special forces police division appeared in a video Wednesday saying he has joined the Islamic State jihadist group in Syria.

The man resembling Colonel Gulmurod Halimov, 40, who sparked panic after failing to report for duty in late April, says in the footage that he was driven to join the group by the impoverished state’s perceived anti-Islamic policies. report french24

“We are coming for you, Inshallah,” he tells the Tajik government.

Tajikistan’s Ministry of the Interior refused to comment on the video, which has been widely shared on social networks.

In the clip of more than 10 minutes, which appears with the logo of the Furat media collective believed to be under the control of the Islamic State, Halimov wears black clothing and headwear and totes what appears to be a sniper rifle.

Calling Tajikistan’s president and interior minister “dogs”, Halimov asks soldiers in the country’s armed forces if they are “prepared to die” for a government that cracks down on public expressions of Islam such as hijab-wearing and praying in the street.

He also appeals to the more than one million Tajik nationals working in Russia to cease being “slaves” and join IS.

According to Tajik media, citing security sources, the colonel, who says he received formal military training in both Russia and the United States, is believed to have flown to Moscow on May 1 with “almost 10” people.

Tajikistan’s authoritarian and secular President Emomali Rakhmon, who oversaw the government’s victory against a coalition involving Islamist forces in a 1990s civil war, has said that “hell awaits” Muslims killing other Muslims in the Syrian conflict.

But his government has been criticised by rights groups for everything from forced beard shavings to numerous convictions of believers on religious extremism grounds.

Turkey, Police attack HDP march condemning Armenian Genocide

April 25, 2015 By administrator

Turkish police have attacked the people joining a protest march organized by the HDP Istanbul branch to mark the 100th year of the Armenian and Syriac Genocide of 1915.

ISTANBUL – ANF

Turkish police have attacked the people joining a protest march organized by the HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party) Istanbul branch to mark the 100th year of the Armenian and Syriac Genocide of 1915.

The demonstrators who were blocked by police on Bahriye Avenue soon after the march began were denied permission to chant slogans and open banners.

Tension rose as demonstrators continued the march till Mehmet Ayvalıtaş Park where they were attacked by police for opening the banners once again.

HDP candidate Musa Piroğlu was battered and 7 people were taken into custody by police.

Turkish police crack down on Kurds’ Norouz festivities

March 23, 2015 By administrator

Turkish police have cracked down on ethnic Kurds celebrating Norouz in the eastern city of Van.

Police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon at the Kurds celebrating the occassion on Friday. The violence reportedly started when security forces tried to stop the Kurds building a traditional bonfire outside the intercity bus terminal. The crowd resisted the police by reportedly flinging stones at them.Van is located 1,371 kilometers (851 miles) southeast of the capital, Ankara.

On March 19, 2015, clashes between Turkish riot police and Kurds during Norouz celebrations organized by the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party left at least five people injured in the southeastern city of Sirnak. Similar clashes broke out in Turkey’s southeastern city of Batman on the same day.

Norouz is one of the oldest and most cherished festivities celebrated in the Middle East and Central Asia (originally by the Persians) for at least 3,000 years.The International Day of Norouz was registered on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on February 23, 2010, and the festivities are now being celebrated in many countries as far away as the US and Canada.

In Turkey, the government legalized and renamed the celebration in 2000, establishing it as a Turkish celebration of spring as it coincides with the March (Northward) equinox.However, in the country the celebrations have frequently become the scene of clashes between police and Kurds over the past years. The Norouz celebrations are seen by the Turks as an important way for the Kurds to express their Kurdish identity and as a show of support for an independent Kurdish state.

Turkish government replaces dozens of police chiefs

January 20, 2015 By administrator

Turkey’s government has initiated a massive reshuffling in the Police Department, with a circular replacing dozens of provincial police chiefs.

As the circular for replacements went into force early Jan. 20, a wide operation into the so-called “parallel structure” – members of the Gülen movement that had allegedly infiltrated the judiciary and security forces – was also launched.

According to the Interior Ministry circular published in the Jan. 20 edition of the Official Gazette, police chiefs in 15 provinces were sent back to the National Police Department headquarters in Ankara, while new police chiefs have been assigned to 21 provinces.

Meanwhile, in four provinces, including Ankara, a police operation into “the parallel structure” has been launched. Arrest warrants have been given for some of the suspects being sought in the operation, Anadolu Agency said, without elaborating.

The two moves come shortly after Turkey witnessed yet more mass reshuffling in the judiciary, with the government replacing almost 1,000 judges and prosecutors, raising more question marks over the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) motives in the latest restructuring of the country’s top judicial body.

A decree replacing 784 judicial officers and 104 administrative officers employed in the judicial bodies was released by the 1st Chamber of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) late Jan. 15.

The judiciary has long been a key battleground between the government and what the AKP describes as the “parallel state” affiliated to the Fethullah Gülen movement.

Prosecutors and judges who were involved in controversial cases, which opposition parties said were actually used by the government as tools for its revanchist moves in cooperation with its former ally, U.S.-based Islamic scholar Gülen, were notably sent from the metropolitan city of Istanbul to less central provinces.

According to Jan. 20 circular, police chiefs in the provinces of Artvin, Bartın, Bitlis, Burdur, Bursa, Edirne, Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Kars, Mersin, Muş, Ordu, Osmaniye, Uşak and Yalova were recalled to headquarters pending reassignment to other posts.

January/20/2015

Armenia, 38 detained in Yerevan Thursday evening, 2 had guns

January 16, 2015 By administrator

YEREVAN. – On Thursday evening, a total of 38 people were taken to police stations from Liberty Square and the surrounding area in Armenia’s capital city of Yerevan, the Police informed Armenian News-NEWS.am.

The Police also informed that an administrative offense protocol was prepared against three others who were detained outside the Embassy of Russia in Yerevan.

In addition, guns were found in the possession of two people who were detained on Thursday evening, an investigation is underway, and all others, who were detained on Thursday evening, have been released.

As reported earlier, six members of the Avetisyan family—including a two-year-old girl—were shot dead, and a six-month-old baby boy was wounded in their house in Gyumri on Monday. Valery Permyakov, a serviceman of the 102nd Russian Military Base in the city, stands accused in this crime. Permyakov was apprehended by the Russian border guards near the Armenian-Turkish border, and he was arrested on Wednesday. Valery Permyakov is held in custody at the Russian military base.

The Prosecutor General’s Office had said Permyakov will face justice under Russian law – a move that provoked wave of protests in Gyumri and Yerevan.

Police raid press of Turkish daily publishing selection of Charlie Hebdo’s new issue

January 14, 2015 By administrator

#JeSuisCumhuriyet

A private security employee stands guard at the entrance of daily newspaper Cumhuriyet’s offices, in Istanbul. REUTERS Photo / Murad Sezer

Police raided the printing press of Turkish daily Cumhuriyet on Jan. 14, as it prepared to distribute a four-page selection of Charlie Hebdo’s new issue in an act of solidarity with the French satirical magazine targeted last week in a deadly attack that claimed 12 victims.

The police also took extreme security measures ahead of the scheduled publication of the supplement.

Police cars were sent to the printer of the daily in Istanbul early on Jan. 14 and halted trucks to prevent the distribution of the Jan. 14 edition. The distribution was eventually allowed after the prosecution made sure that cartoons representing the Prophet Muhammad were not included in the selection.

Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Utku Çakırözer stated earlier that they had decided not to publish a cartoon on the cover featuring the Prophet Muhammad in tears holding a “Je suis Charlie” banner, in reference to solidarity protests with the magazine.

“When preparing this selection, we have been attentive to religious sensitivities as well as freedom of belief, in line with our editorial principles,” Çakırözer said via Twitter on Jan. 13. “We didn’t include the cover of the magazine after a long deliberation.”

Speaking later to private broadcaster CNN Türk, he said the police raid was ordered by a prosecutor in line with the Turkish press law.

“The prosecutor then saw that the content does not violate any laws, so he allowed the trucks to leave the printing press for distribution. It shouldn’t be like this,” Çakırözer said, adding that “free speech should be defended by the whole of society.”

“Prime Minister [Ahmet Davutoğlu] himself went to march for free speech in Paris last week,” he said, voicing his hope that he expects “messages of common sense” after two Cumhuriyet columnists became the target of online threats.

Death threats

Despite the daily’s decision not to publish the most controversial cartoons, police extended security measures in the surroundings of its offices in Istanbul’s central Şişli neighborhood.

An employee of daily Cumhuriyet told the Hürriyet Daily News on condition of anonymity on Jan. 14 that the newspaper had received hundreds of death threats.

Despite the official message of support to the victims, the magazine has been chided by many officials and commentators for publishing cartoons of Muhammad.

“Daily Cumhuriyet will be complicit with a magazine that insults sacred values and commits hate crimes against Muslims, slamming religion,” said conservative daily Yeni Şafak, known for its closeness to the government.

‘Most important version’

The surviving members of Charlie Hebdo announced on Jan. 13 that the new issue would be printed in 14 languages, including Turkish and Arabic. Its editor-in-chief, Gérard Biard, argued that the Turkish version was “the most important.”

“Turkey is in a difficult period and secularism there is under attack,” Biard told Agence France-Presse.

Charlie Hebdo’s defiant cover had drawn ire from Muslim groups, who warned that it could still inflame tensions despite the massacre among those who believe any depiction of the Prophet Muhammad is blasphemous.

The magazine’s move especially prompted French Muslim groups to urge their communities to “stay calm and avoid emotional reactions” to the cartoon.

January/14/2015

Russian soldier in Armenia detained in mass killing of local family

January 13, 2015 By administrator

A Russian soldier suspected of killing six members of in the same family in Armenia and wounding a seventh, an infant boy, has been detained on the Turkish border. The serviceman from Russia’s 102 Military Base went AWOL with his weapons Monday morning.

Six family members, including a two-year-old girl, were shot dead in Armenia’s second-largest city of Gyumri on Monday at about midday. The family’s only survivor, a six-month-old boy, was operated on for gunshot wounds in the chest and is currently in a stable yet serious condition, Interfax reported.

A criminal case has been launched, and serviceman Valery Permyakov, from a Russian military base in Gyumri, is suspected of the murders, as boots bearing his name were found in the house of the murdered family.

“In the house of the slain Avetisyan family, investigators found military boots, marked on the inside with the name Valery Permyakov, who serves at a Russian military base. The murder was committed with an AK-74,” Sona Truzyan, an official at Armenia’s Investigative Committee, told Interfax.

Earlier on Monday, at 6 am it was discovered that an armed serviceman was absent from his post, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that a search for the man was under way.

Investigators believe that the killings most likely arose in connection with a crime of passion, RIA Novosti reported.

The Russian Embassy in Armenia has expressed its condolences, saying in a statement that the two countries are working together on the case. Russian officials are providing all the necessary assistance to solve the crime as soon as possible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told his Armenian counterpart, Eduard Nalbandyan.