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Turkey abuse of interpol triggered question, Interpol: Who polices the world’s police?

August 21, 2017 By administrator

The controversial arrest of German author Dogan Akhanli by Spanish authorities on an Interpol warrant issued by Turkey has triggered questions about the international policing agency’s modus operandi.

A dimly-lit street, rain glistening off the cobbles. A man in a long overcoat, collar turned up, takes a furtive look and a last drag of his cigarette before melting into the shadows. Okay, so maybe I’ve watched too many spy movies, but it’s the kind of scene that springs to mind when you hear or read the words International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol).

Early days

Interpol was born out of frustration that criminals on the run were able to evade capture by moving from one country to the next

The concept of an international policing organization first popped up in April 1914, at the First International Congress of Judicial Police in Monaco. Leading criminal investigators were frustrated that criminals were increasingly able to evade capture by simply leaving the country, taking advantage of the burgeoning “progress of automobilism, even aviation.” A global approach to tackle the problem was needed: “The internationalism of crime should be opposed by the internationalism of repression.”

Read more: Spain releases Dogan Akhanli, German author detained on Turkish warrant

World War I threw a temporary spanner in the works, but in 1923 at the Second Judicial Police Congress, the International Criminal Police Commission – a forerunner of Interpol – was set up in Vienna. According to its founding statutes, it operated “to the strict exclusion of all matters having a political, religious or racial character.” It had no legal authority over member states, and existed merely to collect and catalog intelligence, and coordinate communication between different international police forces.

What does it do?

To keep Interpol as politically neutral as possible, its charter forbids it – or at least that’s the idea – from carrying out its own arrests or intervening in political, military, religious, or racial issues. Instead, the organization works in the background, collecting intelligence and coordinating and facilitating police efforts to combat anything from terrorism, war crimes and drug trafficking to child pornography and corruption.

Interpol, based in Lyon these days, has an annual budget of around 78 million euros ($91 million), most of which is provided through annual contributions by its 190 member countries. The entire staff, mostly international civil servants and police on loan from national police forces, is roughly 650 people.

One of Interpol’s key tools in fighting international crime is to issue color-coded notices to communicate information about crimes and criminals. The most powerful of these is the so-called red notice – which is the “closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today.” At the touch of a button, information about any given internationally sought criminal is disseminated to 190 police forces around the world. What at first glance appears to be an effective method to track down criminals in far-flung places is not without controversy, especially where authoritarian regimes are concerned. The European Commission, human rights group and others criticize that when authoritarian regimes request red notices against political opponents, Interpol is all too happy to oblige without necessarily carrying out full background checks. As a result, there have been several instances where dissidents, human-rights activists and journalists have reportedly been held for months in prisons before it is established that the charges against them are insubstantial or even bogus.

Read more: Interpol releases list of 173 potential IS bombers who could be in Europe

A key criticism leveled at Interpol is that there is no external scrutiny of its operations. The agency’s General Assembly that meets once a year is made up of policing experts – effectively people who are in the same line of work as their colleagues on the ground. Its majority-voting system means that even if a member state voices an objection to a case, its complaints can be ignored.

Interpol isn’t accountable to any outside court or body, and it is not obliged to share any data with anyone other than its own police members and its own appeals body. Its operations are deliberately opaque in the name of protecting law enforcement information. In a nutshell: If Interpol breaks its own rules, there is no one there to hold it accountable.

Contrast that with Europol, also an international organization for coordinating police work, but one founded on the European Community method. The European Parliament approves the budget and has a role in senior appointments, so there is parliamentary scrutiny on behalf of the citizens. The European Court of Justice has been given oversight of Europol, so there is judicial scrutiny as well.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: interpol, question, Turkey

Istanbul: Paylan Question Deputy Prime Minister On His ‘Infidel’ Remarks

December 7, 2016 By administrator

paylan

Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament

Istanbul—Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish Parliament representing the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) on Monday took issue with recent comments by Turkey’s deputy prime minister, who used a derogatory term to describe non-Muslims living in Turkey as a hindrance to independence, prompting Paylan to raise the issue in parliament, reported Agos.

On December 3, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said, “For us, independence means to stand against the giavurs (infidels or non-believers) and to be able to call them ‘giavurs.’”

In his inquiry to parliament, Paylan urged Kurtulmus to personally take responsibility for his statement and provide a response.

Paylan said that according to Turkish Language Association (TDK), giavur means “1. a nonbeliever person, 2. non-Muslim.” He also cited linguist Sevan Nisanyan, who defined the term to mean “1. Zoroastrian, fire-worshiper, 2. non-Muslim, heretic.”

“Do you think that you insulted the Christians and non-Muslim people of Turkey by using the word of ‘giavur,’ which is used in a derogatory manner in many Turkish idioms and proverbs and which people often use to insult or defame certain groups or individuals?” asked Paylan in his parliamentary inquiry.

“Given that hate speech is defined as ‘speaking in an insulting or threatening manner on the basis of attributes such as gender, ethnic origin, religion, race, disability or sexual orientation,’ do you think that your statement is a form of hate speech?” added Paylan.

“Regarding the fact that such statements often lead to hate crimes, do you think that your statement may cause hate crimes?” said Paylan.

Last month, Paylan, in a similar question, appealed to Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim about the rise of hate crimes against Armenians and other minorities, suspects who threatened the Agos newspaper by placing black wreaths in front of its offices. That inquiry has yet to be answered.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: İstanbul, paylan, question, Turkish PM

Iraqi parliament to question Massoud Barzani for Sinjar, Mosul fall Report:

August 27, 2015 By administrator

450x360xIraqi-Kurdistan-president-Massoud-Barzani-2014-photo-afp.jpg.pagespeed.ic.OEPgJisO5U

Iraqi Kurdistan president Massoud Barzani. Photo: AFP

BAGHDAD,— At least 76 signatures have been collected in the Iraqi Parliament to question Massoud Barzani on the 2014 fall of Sinjar (Shingal) and Nineveh to Islamic State (IS) fighters.

Barzani, who’s term as President of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) ended on August 20, was leader of the region during IS’ rampage across northern Iraq.

A member of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan in Iraqi parliament, Bakhtiar Shaways, told Xendan and that the State of Law Coalition Deputy Awatif Nima has received the approval of 76 deputies and has delivered the demand to parliament leadership board.

Iraqi MP Bakhtiyar Shaways told NRT on Tuesday that Kurdish MPs have declined to sign the petition.

“Iraqi Parliament member from the State of Law bloc, Awatif Nima, sent the request to the Parliament’s leadership after she collected the signatures,” Shaways said.

Iraqi lawmakers claim Barzani bears responsibility for the fall of Sinjar and Nineveh and should face a hearing.

The KDP party led by Barzani was criticised for failing to protect the Yazidi minority during a major IS onslaught a year ago, while the PKK and its Syrian sister party are widely seen as the Yazidis’ saviors.

Islamic State has extended its control on most parts of Sinjar district on August 3, 2014 after Iraqi Kurdish KDP forces withdrew from Sinjar without a fight, leaving behind the Kurdish Yazidi civilians, which led thousands of Kurdish families to flee to Mount Sinjar, where they were trapped in it and suffered from significant lack of water and food, killing and abduction of thousands of Yazidis as well as rape and captivity of thousands of women.

The Yazidis beg the KDP Peshmerga to at least leave them their weapons so as to give them a chance at defending themselves against IS militants, but the Peshmergas refuse, Yazidi refugees in Iraqi Kurdistan said.

Thousands of Yazidi Kurdish women and girls have been forced to marry or been sold into sexual slavery by the IS jihadists, according to Human Rights organizations and observers.

Barzani is not the only leader to be called on for questioning regarding the fall of Iraq’s Nineveh province to extremists.

Iraq’s Parliament referred a report to the judiciary on August 16, calling for former Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and dozens of top officials to face a trial for their roles in the fall of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city.

Source: eKurd.com

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Iraqi, Massoud Barzan, Mosul, Parliament, question, sinjari

Sweden offers to question Assange in London over rape allegations

March 13, 2015 By administrator

STOCKHOLM – Agence France-Presse

REUTERS Photo.

REUTERS Photo.

Swedish prosecutors on March 13 offered to question WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London over rape allegations, providing a possible breakthrough in the long-running case.

One of Assange’s lawyers welcomed the offer saying it would be a first step in clearing his client who has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012.

“He will accept” to be questioned in London, attorney Per Samuelsson told AFP, adding that his client was “happy” about the breakthrough.

“We are cooperating with the investigation,” he said.

Up to now, Swedish prosecutors have refused to go to London to question Assange over the allegations.

But on Friday, the prosecutor in charge of the case said she was changing her stance as the statute of limitations on some of the alleged crimes will become effective in August.

“Marianne Ny has today made a request to Julian Assange’s legal representatives whether Assange would consent to being interviewed in London and have his DNA taken via a swab,” her office said in a statement.

“My view has always been that to perform an interview with him at the Ecuadorian embassy in London would lower the quality of the interview, and that he would need to be present in Sweden in any case should there be a trial,” Ny said.

“This assessment remains unchanged,” she said. But “now that time is of the essence, I have viewed it therefore necessary to accept such deficiencies to the investigation and likewise take the risk that the interview does not move the case forward,” she said.

Sweden issued an arrest warrant for Assange in 2010 over charges made by two women of rape and molestation.

A lawyer for one of the women who has levelled the accusations against the WikiLeaks founder welcomed the prosecutors’ offer.

“Assange did not make himself available to be interviewed in Sweden… That’s why it is necessary to change the location of the interview,” her attorney Elizabeth Fritz told AFP in an email.

Assange, 43, has refused to return to Sweden to answer the allegations, which he has vehemently denied.

He says he believes that Stockholm would extradite him to the US to be tried for his role in WikiLeaks’ publication of classified US diplomatic, military and intelligence documents.

WikiLeaks has been targeted by the US authorities since its release in 2010 of 500,000 secret military files on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and 250,000 diplomatic cables.

A former army intelligence analyst, Chelsea Manning, is currently serving a 35-year prison term for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks.

In 2012 Assange took refuge in Ecuador’s embassy in London, where he has been since at a cost of 11,000 euros ($10,300) each day, according to his lawyers.

The situation has remained essentially stagnant since Assange arrived, and after a lower Swedish court rejected in November his appeal of the 2010 warrant for his arrest, Assange’s attorney took the motion to Sweden’s Supreme Court in February.

“We are asking the court to give us access to the phone text messages that the two plaintiffs exchanged, and which (prosecutors) possess,” Samuelsson said,saying he was certain contents of the messages would prove Assange’s innocence.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Julian-Assange, london, question, Sweden

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

August 8, 2014 By administrator

AZİZ İSTEGÜN/ ŞEYHMUS EDİS/ MARDIN

kurdish-mpA 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].”

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Erdogan, Kurdish, MP, question

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