streets Archives

Turkish President Erdogan says Europeans won’t be safe to walk the streets,

March 22, 2017 By administrator

By Samuel Osborne

(independent) Europeans across the world will not be able to walk the streets safely if they keep up their current attitude towards Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned.

Turkey has been mired in a diplomatic row with Germany and the Netherlands after they banned Turkish officials from campaigning in support of an April referendum on boosting the Turkish President’s powers.

“If Europe continues this way, no European in any part of the world can walk safely on the streets,” Mr Erdogan told journalists in Ankara.

He added: “We, as Turkey, call on Europe to respect human rights and democracy.”

Turkish government officials are still participating in events for expatriate Turks across Europe, but are not campaigning for the referendum, the Turkish deputy prime minister has said.

Numan Kurtulmus said the row had helped Turks in Europe better understand the constitutional changes proposed in the referendum.

He said the “footsteps of neo-Nazism and extreme racism” were being heard in Europe.

Germany’s Frank-Walter Steinmeier used his first speech as president to accuse Mr Erdogan of jeopardising everything Turkey has achieved in recent years.

“The way we look [at Turkey] is characterised by worry, that everything that has been built up over years and decades is collapsing,” Mr Steinmeier said in his inaugural speech in the largely ceremonial role.

“President Erdogan, you are jeopardising everything that you, with others, have built,” he said, adding he would welcome “credible signs” to ease the situation.

Nato ally Turkey has repeatedly accused Germany of using Nazi tactics and has caused anger by holding German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel.

“But end the unspeakable Nazi comparisons!” Mr Steinmeier added. “Do not cut the ties to those people who want partnership with Turkey! Respect the rule of law and the freedom of media and journalists! And release Deniz Yucel.”

Mr Erdogan has previously branded the Netherlands “Nazi remnants” and accused Germany of “fascist actions.”

He has said his country may review its ties with Europe after the referendum, which he hopes will give him sweeping new powers, and has described Europe as “fascist and cruel,” saying it resembles the pre-World War Two era.

European leaders have made repeated calls for Turkish officials to avoid Nazi comparisons and the head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany accused Mr Erdogan of disrespecting the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.

“The comparisons between today’s Federal Republic of Germany and National Socialism, which we have heard in recent days, are not only insulting and absolutely false — they also relativize the Nazis’ rule of terror,” Josef Schuster said, German newspaper Die Welt reported.

“The comparison is monstrous and denigrates the suffering of the victims of the Shoah.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Turkey should stop Nazi comparisons “with no ifs or buts.”

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/turkey-erdogan-germany-netherlands-warning-europeans-not-walk-safely-a7642941.html

Armenia: Beginning of the renovation of the streets of Gumri in 2017

January 2, 2017 By administrator

The highly anticipated repairs to the streets of the second city of Armenia, Gumri, which will cost around 24 million euros ($ 25.2 million), will begin in 2017, authorities announced Friday.

The mayor of Gumri, Sambal Balasanian, and Armenian Finance Minister Vartan Aramian signed a joint memorandum on the imminent launch of the large-scale rehabilitation program to be financed by Western donors. Much of the money – a € 14.6 million loan – will come from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).

The sum will be used to rebuild 16 kilometers of streets and roads, install new energy-efficient lighting and upgrade the municipal drainage infrastructure. Balasanian said that the first phase of the project worth 8 million euros will be implemented in 2017.

The roads of Gumri have become more and more damaged in recent years. Some streets are practically impassable, placing residents of nearby buildings out of the reach of public transport and taxis.

The city council drew up a list of six major streets in 2014 that required particularly urgent repairs at an estimated cost of $ 2.6 million. The central government rejected the council’s request to finance road works, citing a lack of funds.

This has only increased the growing feeling of local residents that they are paying the price of the low rate of votes for President Serge Sarkissian in Gumri during the last presidential election in 2013. Most of them voted for The main opposition candidate, Raffi Hovannisian.

Just two days before a December 2015 referendum on its controversial constitutional amendments, Sarkissian had announced that the government would spend $ 25 million to repair the streets and the Gumri lighting network. Despite the last-minute promise, most local voters rejected the amendments.

Balasanian, who was re-elected in a very controversial way for a second term in October, denied any political consideration behind the project.

The 2017 budget of the Municipality of Gumri is projected at 3 billion drams (6.2 million dollars). The planned construction could thus give a major boost to the economically depressed city that has not yet fully recovered from the devastating earthquake of 1988.

Some local observers say the government should take more measures such as tax breaks to boost economic activity in Gumri. Aramian spoke out against the idea, arguing that this would represent an additional financial burden for the state.

“Russia has created at least 52 free economic zones and most of them have failed because they were badly planned,” the minister told reporters. “They were mainly used for tax evasion schemes.”

Kobane’s streets of death: Executed ISIS fighters are lined up

January 30, 2015 By administrator

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT

By SIMON TOMLINSON FOR MAILONLINE

Kurdish fighters have killed dozens of Islamic State militants in recent days as battles continue to rage around the strategic Syrian border town of Kobane.

In one village, a Kurd was today pictured standing over the bodies of Islamic extremists after they were killed in Halimce, a village east of the town.

Around 20 jihadists also died in the hills west of Kobane days after it was recaptured following months of heavy fighting which has left the town in ruins.

Kurdish forces retook the town on January 26 in a symbolic blow to the jihadists who have seized large swathes of territory in their onslaught across Syria and Iraq.

Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman said: ‘Nineteen ISIS members were killed in fighting against the (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the hills surrounding Manaz to the west of Kobane.

‘Another three jihadists died in fighting around villages to the east of Kobane, while the YPG also took one ISIS member prisoner,’ he told AFP.

The YPG had also recaptured five villages around Kobane this week, according to Mr Rahman, whose Britain-based group relies on a network of sources inside Syria.