Gagrule.net

Gagrule.net News, Views, Interviews worldwide

Trump Slams Tech Giants Google, Facebook for ‘Treading on Troubled Territory’

By

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) – US President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that tech giants Google, Facebook and Twitter are operating in dangerous territory and should be careful.

Earlier in the day, Trump in a Twitter post accused Google and other tech companies of suppressing the views of conservatives and hiding positive news. Trump economic adviser Larry Kudlow earlier in the day told reporters that the administration was “looking into” how to respond to the tech companies.

“Google and Twitter and Facebook, they are really treading on very, very troubled territory and they have to be careful,” Trump said. “It is not fair to large portions of the population.”

Ankara mayor slams German Green party leader for ‘treachery’ #ArmenianGenocide

By

Mayor Melih Gokcek has accused German politician Cem Özdemir of being an “Armenian servant” and traitor. Özdemir, the son of Turkish immigrants, has been highly critical of the government in Ankara.

The diplomatic row between Turkey and Germany took an unexpected turn on Friday evening, when the bullish mayor of Ankara called out the leader of the German Green party, describing him as an “Armenian servant.”

“Sit tight! You Armenian servant,” Melih Gokcek (pictured above) wrote on both his English and Turkish Twitter accounts, above a picture of German politician Cem Özdemir, himself of Turkish heritage.

“Can/Cem in the race for treachery,” reads the picture of Özdemir accompanying the tweet. Özedemir has long been a critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, especially since last year’s failed coup attempt in Turkey and the president’s authoritarian crackdown in response to it.

Can is likely a reference to Can Dundar, a left-wing Turkish journalist who fled to Germany amid ongoing government repression of opposition voices in the media.

‘Artificial’ earthquakes, anti-Semitic tweets

Gokcek is an active social media user and has often used Twitter as a platform to excoriate his political opponents. He has also courted controversy for calling a 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck off the coasts of Greece and Turkey in June an “artificial” attack coordinated by “foreign powers.”

He had earlier said that a similar earthquake earlier in the year was artificially triggered in order to manipulate Turkey’s economy.

Gokcek, who has been mayor of Ankara since 1994, garnered significant criticism in 2014 when he supported an anti-Semitic statement by Turkish singer Yildiz Tilbe, who tweeted “God bless Hitler.”

The mayor’s remarks came on the heels of even stronger words from President Erdogan, who earlier on Friday told Turkish Germans not to vote for Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections in September.

Erdogan tells Turkish Germans to oust Merkel

Erdogan has been increasingly critical of Germany ever since Berlin blocked him from holding campaign rallies in the country ahead of a referendum vote that granted more power to the Turkish president. On Friday, he explicitly told Germany’s Turkish community not to vote for any of the major parties on September 24.

“I am calling on all my countrymen in Germany to not make the mistake of supporting them,” Erdogan said, speaking about Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) and its coalition partners the Social Democrats (SPD).

He also called Özedmir’s Green party “enemies of Turkey.”

Chancellor Merkel responded immediately, saying that her government would “not stand for any kind of interference” from foreign governments in German elections.

“German voters, including ones with a Turkish background, have a right to vote freely,” the chancellor said, accusing Erdogan of “meddling.”

On top of the war of words, relations between the two NATO allies have been tense over the number of arrests made in Turkey in the wake of the July 2016 failed coup. A number of German nationals, including Die Welt reporter Deniz Yucel, have been detained in Turkey on terrorism charges.

France: Car slams into soldiers in Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, six injured

By

French police were hunting for a driver who slammed his car into a group of soldiers in a Paris suburb, injuring six. The authorities launched a terror probe into the “attempted killings.”

The vehicle, a dark BMW car, hit the soldiers at Place de Verdun in Levallois-Perret at the northwestern edge of Paris on Wednesday at about 8:00 a.m. local time (0600 UTC). Police say the driver is on the run.

The mayor of Levallois-Perret, Patrick Balkany, told French television network BFMTV that the act was “odious” and “without a doubt deliberate.” He also said that the car appeared to have waited in a nearby alleyway until the soldiers emerged from their barracks to start their patrol.

“The vehicle did not stop. It hurtled at them … it accelerated rapidly,” he told broadcaster BFM TV.

The attacker apparently targeted members of the Sentinelle security force, which was created after Islamist attacks in 2015. Six soldiers were injured in the hit-and-run, three of them seriously. French defense ministry said that their lives were not in danger.

The prosecutors launched a probe into “attempted killings… in relation to a terrorist undertaking.”

The incident comes four days after a teenager with psychiatric problems tried to attack security forces guarding the Eiffel Tower, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). Several other extremists also attacked security forces in Paris earlier this year.

ng/sms (AP, AFP, Reuters)

Yazidi activist and survivor Nadia Murad slams Iraqi Kurdistan government over YAZDA closure

By

Kurdish Yazidi activists Nadia Murad received EU’s Sakharov Prize for human rights, Brussels, Dec. 13, 2016. Photo: Courtesy of European Parliament/Martin Schulz/flickr

HEWLÊR-Erbil, Iraq’s Kurdistan region,— Kurdish Yazidi activist and survivor of enslavement by the Islamic State group Nadia Murad has criticized Iraqi Kurdistan government for closing YAZDA group office in Duhok city.

Murad called on Iraqi Kurdistan to reverse the decision, writing on social media that it is a “shame to close the (organisation) that supports my campaign.” AFP reported.

Kurdish security forces closed the Iraqi headquarters of an organisation that aids members of the Yazidi religious minority, which has been brutally targeted by IS jihadists, the YAZDA NGO group said on Wednesday.

Nadia Murad and another Yazidi woman who was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by IS won the European Parliament’s prestigious Sakharov human rights prize last year.

The move by the Iraqi Kurdistan government to close the Yazda organisation’s offices in Duhok drew criticism from Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“A force from the Asayesh raided the main Yazda headquarters in Duhok on Monday afternoon… and ordered the closure of the headquarters and all Yazda projects in camps” for displaced people, the group said in an online statement.

According to Yazda, the government of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdish region accused it of illegal action or “engaging in political activities,” and said that its work permit was expired.

“The Yazda organisation is not political and is not a political entity; rather, it is an organisation defending Yazidi rights in all places,” it said, rejecting the accusations against it.

The Kurdistan Regional Government said that YAZDA  it had been involved in political activities and did not abide by the terms and conditions of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the Region, Rudaw reported.

Dr. Dindar Zebari, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s High Committee to Evaluate and Respond to International Reports, said on Monday that the closure came after Yazda ignored a warning to abide by the rules of the Kurdistan Region regarding the work of NGOs. Zebari added that Yazda had in some aspects overstepped the boundaries of NGO work.

The Kurdish government’s “authorities need to think hard about the consequences of Yazda’s closure and reverse its decision in accordance with its international obligations to facilitate, not obstruct, humanitarian assistance,” Belkis Wille, Iraq researcher at HRW, said in a statement.

“One person close to the organisation told me he suspected that the decision stemmed from Yazda’s plan to support at least 3,000 families in Sinjar with livelihood materials, as part of a larger United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) project,” she said.

Wille said the programme runs counter to the policy of Kurdish authorities of restricting the movement of goods to Sinjar, a Yazidi area that was attacked by the Islamic State group in 2014.

She said that the Kurdish government sought to explain the policy by saying it fears that goods will end up in the hands of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish rebel group opposed to the Turkish government.

Islamic State group has captured most parts of the Yazidi Sinjar district in northwest Iraq on August 3, 2014 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.

Those who stay behind are subjected to brutal, genocidal acts: thousands killed, hundreds buried alive, and countless acts of rape, kidnapping and enslavement are perpetuated against Yazidi women. To add insult to injury, IS fighters ransack and destroy ancient Yazidi holy sites.

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

A Yazidi member of Iraqi parliament Vian Dakhil, said in August 2016, that 3,770 Kurdish Yazidi women and children still in Islamic State captivity.

Source: http://ekurd.net/nadia-slams-kurdistan-yazda-2017-01-04

Islamic State of Turkey slams Armenia, Greece, over “joint hostility” in Genocide remarks

By

208482The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Friday, March 18 accused Greece and Armenia of demonstrating “joint hostility” towards Turkey during Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s official visit to Athens earlier this week, RFE/RL Armenian Service reports.

The ministry spokesman, Tanju Bilgic, condemned references to the World War One-era mass killings of Armenians and Greeks in Ottoman Turkey by Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during their meetings with Sargsyan.

At a joint news conference with the Armenian leader, Tsipras spoke of Greeks’ and Armenians’ “history of suffering and persecution,” saying that both peoples were victims of genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks. Pavlopoulos stated, in turn, that “at the beginning of the 20th century the two peoples endured tragic moments for the same reason.”

“The statements in question are the product of a pathetic mentality proving that the relations and solidarity between Greece and Armenia is built upon a joint hostility and slander against the Turkish identity,” a Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

“Turkey and the Turkish people will never give credit to those bringing to the fore at every opportunity a dictum of history which is unlawful, one-sided and obsessive,” he added in the statement.

Official Yerevan rejected the Turkish criticism on Friday. “The centuries-old friendship between the Armenian and Greek peoples is based on their interwoven fate and mutual support,” said Tigran Balayan, the Armenian Foreign Ministry spokesman. “Making denialism the pivot of state policy does not rid Turkey of the responsibility to face its own history.” Greece officially recognized the 1915 Armenian massacres in Ottoman Turkey as genocide in 1999. In 2014, it also enacted a law making it a crime to publicly deny this and other genocides.

The Armenian parliament unanimously passed last year a resolution condemning “the genocide of Greeks and Assyrians perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1923.”

Read also:OSCE most efficient platform for Karabakh settlement: Greek President

Related links:

RFE/RL Armenian Service: Turkey Slams Greece, Armenia Over ‘Joint Hostility’

UK: leader Independence Party slams EU over visa deal with Turkey “collective insanity”

By

thumbs_b_c_841906dddb91a1595ea34cd5a9ec2e0bA deal to grant Turkish citizens visa-free access to the European Union is “collective insanity”, a British politician has said.

Nigel Farage, whose far right U.K. Independence Party (UKIP) wants Britain to pull out of the EU, said the agreement would open Europe and Britain to up to 75 million Turkish citizens.

Sunday’s agreement between Turkey and the European Union would grant visa-free travel for Turkish citizens from October 2016 if Ankara takes steps to stem the flow of refugees coming into Europe.

But the travel agreement would only cover countries in the EU’s Schengen zone, which the U.K. is not part of.

UKIP leader Farage told the Sun the deal was “collective insanity”.

He told the newspaper Monday: “Free EU visa travel for 75 million Turkish citizens is another reason to vote to leave the EU and take back control of our borders.”

His comments came a day after he said German Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to “fast-track” Turkish membership of the EU.

Farage told Sky News: “And what that will mean is 75 million people will have freedom of movement to come to the rest of Europe and to this country.”

He also claimed that 8 percent of the Turkish population are Daesh sympathizers, citing a opinion poll without naming the pollster, although it raised parallels with an earlier survey in the Sun last week that claimed 20 percent of British Muslims “had sympathy” for Daesh.

Survation, which conducted the Sun survey, subsequently distanced itself from the way it was reported in the newspaper.

“Our view remains that the most meaningful way to interpret the results of this polling is in the proper context alongside a comparable sample of non-Muslims, as we did in March of this year using identical methodology and the same question wording,” the pollster said in a statement last week.

EU slams Turkey over rule of law, free speech

By

f5641e771203c2_5641e771203fd.thumbThe European Union accused Turkey on November 10 of backsliding on the rule of law, rights and the media, calling on the new government to take urgent action in a sensitive report that Brussels held back until after elections, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The scathing report on Ankara’s EU candidacy, originally due for release before the vote that returned the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to power, praised Turkey for housing Syrian refugees and for cooperating on the migration crisis.
But it was severely critical of the domestic situation in Turkey, saying that there had been “serious backsliding” on freedom of expression and that the judiciary had been undermined.
“The report emphasizes an overall negative trend in the respect for the rule of law and fundamental rights,” said a summary of the report’s key findings by the European Commission, the EU’s powerful executive arm.
Turkey’s commitment to joining the 28-nation bloc was “offset” by domestic actions that “ran against European standards,” it added.
“The new government formed after the repeat election on Nov. 1 will need to address these urgent priorities,” the summary said.

The report highlighted criminal cases against journalists and writers, intimidation of media outlets and changes to Internet law.
“After several years of progress on freedom of expression, serious backsliding was seen over the past two years,” it said.
It added that the “independence of the judiciary and the principle of separation of powers have been undermined since 2014 and judges and prosecutors have been under strong political pressure.”

Turkey had meanwhile seen a “severe deterioration of its security situation.”
The harsh report had been expected to be released in October but was held back until after the elections, in which the AKP stormed back to a majority.
Its release comes just over a month after the EU announced a refugee cooperation deal with Turkey, the main launching point for migrants coming to Europe, including a possible three billion euros ($3.3 billion) in aid.
The deal included pushing forward Turkey’s long-stalled accession process and speeding up visa liberalization for Turks travelling to the EU.
Turkey applied for EU membership in 1987 and accession talks began in 2005, but Ankara has since completed just one of the 33 “chapters” needed to join the bloc.

Writer Orhan Pamuk Nobel prize for literature slams Erdogan for insecurity in Turkey

By

This Febuary 2, 2015 photo shows Turkish Nobel laureate and author Orhan Pamuk posing during an interview in his house in Istanbul. (AFP photo)

This Febuary 2, 2015 photo shows Turkish Nobel laureate and author Orhan Pamuk posing during an interview in his house in Istanbul. (AFP photo)

A senior Turkish intellectual has blamed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the growing climate of insecurity in the country, saying Erdogan’s persistence in gaining a majority in the parliament has brought the country to the brink of sectarian conflict.

Orhan Pamuk, the 2006 winner of the Nobel prize for literature, said Monday that the failure by Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to retain a majority in legislative votes in June laid the groundwork for the resumption of hostilities between the government and Kurdish militants.

“The electoral defeat enraged Erdogan … he didn’t succeed in convincing the Kurds to give him their votes for his plan to create a presidential republic,” Pamuk told Italian daily La Repubblica.

Snap votes are planned for November 1 as the AKP failed to reach a consensus on forming a coalition government with major opposition parties. Turkey has also been engaged in airstrikes against the positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in north Iraq for the past months, dismantling a once-active political dialog with the group and prompting revenge attacks on civilians and security forces across the country. Around 100 people were killed two days ago in deadly bombings targeting a peace rally in the capital Ankara.

Pamuk said Erdogan’s decision to hold snap elections eventually set the scene for fresh attacks on Kurdish militants.

“That is why he decided to go to the polls again on November 1. But neither the government nor the army were satisfied with how things were going and they agreed to resume the war against the Kurdish movement,” said Pamuk, adding that everyone now is aware of what Erdogan has been planning over the past months.

“The entire country has understood his calculation … At first, he did not want to be part of the international coalition fighting Islamic State (Daesh). Then he agreed to do what the Americans asked him to, but at the same time he started bombing the Kurds,” he said.

The respected author, who also teaches at Colombia University, said he fears that Turkey may again slide into civil war like the 1970s.

“Anyone over 35 has terrible memories of that period and never wants to go back there,” he said, adding, “I am worried (for Turkey) because I know that in the end Erdogan wants to govern alone at all costs…He does not want to share power,” Pamuk said.