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Why Trump should not swap prisoners, Erdogan wants to swap pastor Brunson being held in Turkey’s prison for Zarrab

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Erdogan wants to swap Brunson for ZarrabBy Merve Tahiroglu and Eric S. Edelman

Eric S. Edelman is a former U.S. ambassador to Turkey and a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Merve Tahiroglu is a research associate at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Rumors are swirling in Washington about a potential prisoner swap with Turkey. The Turks want the United States to release a Turkish-Iranian millionaire awaiting trial in Manhattan, in return for which they might free a North Carolina pastor being held in a prison in Izmir. Both men are accused of threatening national security. Yet a trade would be a grave mistake, one that would help Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to export his contempt for the rule of law to the United States.

Reza Zarrab, the Turkish-Iranian businessman, was arrested upon his arrival in Miami in March 2016 for conspiring to evade international sanctions against Iran. Zarrab, who owns businesses in Turkey, Dubai and China, is believed to have laundered money and gold from Iran at the height of the U.S.-led sanctions regime in 2012-2013. In December 2013, Zarrab was arrested in Turkey as part of a historic corruption scandal that implicated several ministers and businessmen with close ties to Erdogan’s government. Under legally dubious circumstances, Zarrab was eventually released. But the federal indictment filed by then-federal prosecutor Preet Bharara, in many ways echoing the findings of the 2013 Turkish prosecutor’s investigation, put Ankara’s role in Tehran’s underground economy back in the spotlight.

Pastor Andrew Brunson’s case is of a totally different nature. He is accused of membership in “an armed terrorist organization” — the so-called “Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization” that Ankara blames for Turkey’s failed coup last July. (Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally turned mortal foe, is a Muslim cleric who has lived for many years in the United States.) Before his arrest, Brunson lived with his family in Turkey for 23 years without incident. He is now among the more than 50,000 people in Turkey arrested on similar charges in the past 11 months. Brunson’s lawyer has decried the utter lack of evidence in the pastor’s case.

President Trump appears to be keen to achieve Brunson’s release. He reportedly brought up the issue three times in his first meeting with Erdogan in May, and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Brunson’s wifewhile visiting Turkey in March. Turkish officials, however, prefer to highlight Zarrab’s case with their American counterparts.

And the stakes have only gotten higher. In March, U.S. authorities arrested another Turk connected to the case, the banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla. Zarrab and Atilla could reveal at trial new information implicating Erdogan or his family in the sanctions-avoiding scheme.

Trump may find a diplomatic deal with Ankara for Brunson appealing. After all, one of his few diplomatic accomplishments since taking office was securing the release, during the visit of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, of charity worker Aya Hjiazi, an American citizen who had been jailed in Cairo for three years. But trading a peaceful faith leader imprisoned on spurious charges in exchange for a sleazy middleman accused of corrupting a foreign government on behalf of Iran would only help Erdogan suborn the rule of law in the United States as he has done in Turkey.

Since he first came to power in 2002, Erdogan has systematically undermined his country’s fragile legal institutions by staging show trials featuring his “enemies.” Zarrab owes his freedom in Turkey to a blatant political intervention in the judicial system. Within weeks of the 2013 anti-corruption operation, the government replaced all law enforcement officials involved in the investigation. Within months, all the cases were dismissed and all the suspects freed.

Since the coup attempt, Erdogan has effectively ruled by decree. Government critics risk arbitrary detention on dubious terrorism charges. More than a dozen opposition parliamentarians are in jail. As Ankara prepares to transition from a parliamentary to a presidential system, the lines between Turkey’s executive, legislative and judicial branches are becoming even more blurred.

The Turkish president also appears intent on extending his authoritarianism to American shores. While Erdogan watched, his bodyguards viciously beat protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence in Washington in May. When the State Department expressed concern, the Turkish Foreign Ministry had the effrontery to summon U.S. Ambassador John Bass to protest the actions of the D.C. Metropolitan Police. And this was not the first assault of its kind in Washington. During Erdogan’s 2016 visit, his bodyguards roughed up protesters in front of the Brookings Institution when Erdogan arrived to speak. These attacks occurred while Erdogan’s lobbyists in Washington have been working full-time to achieve a “diplomatic” deal to spring Zarrab as the price for improving U.S.-Turkish bilateral relations.

Trump should intensify the diplomatic effort to secure the release of Brunson — but not by negotiating a prisoner swap for Tehran’s bag man in Turkey. Erdogan’s efforts to undermine the U.S. legal system shouldn’t be rewarded. For Turks who are trying to protect what’s left of their country’s democracy, it’s the least that Washington can do.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/07/07/why-trump-should-not-swap-prisoners-with-erdogan/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.ca1122deaa93

Western civilisation is at stake, says Trump

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Western civilisation is at stake, says TrumpUS President Donald Trump has argued that the future of Western civilisation is at stake in a keynote speech in the Polish capital Warsaw.

Holding up Poland as an example of a country ready to defend Western freedoms, he warned against the threats of “terrorism and extremism”, BBC News reports.
Poland’s conservative government shares Mr Trump’s hostile view of immigration and strong sense of sovereignty.

Mr Trump is in Poland ahead of a G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.
He was addressing a large, cheering crowd from the monument to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, on the city’s Krasinski Square.
“As the Polish experience reminds us, the defence of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail,” Mr Trump said.

“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.”

Armenian Ambassador to US: Armenia and US discuss meeting at level of presidents

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Diplomats of the US and Armenia   are discussing the meeting at the level of presidents, Armenian Ambassador to the United States Grigor Hovhannissian told Sputnik.

“Now, we, the diplomats, should organize that meeting, especially now, when Armenia is going through the process of becoming a parliamentary republic,” Hovhannissian said.

“First, we should organize a meeting at the level of foreign ministers to prepare an agenda, and then we will be preparing a meeting of the Presidents.

Of course, I would like that. But everything will depend on the agenda and on how the ministers agree on,” the ambassador said, adding that the date for foreign minister’s meeting is still unknown.

Syrian Artist paints Donald Trump and other world leaders as refugees

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Trump as refugeesThe Vulnerability Series is an exhibition by Syrian artist Abdulla Al-Omari in the
United Arab Emirates. He gives world leaders a makeover with a difference. He takes them out of their fine suits and paints them as refugees, euronews reports.

Al-Omari says his exhibition is a reaction to his plight as a refugee: “I wanted to imagine how all these powerful leaders in the world would look if they were in our shoes.

The painter says he wanted to “disarm” the leaders by picturing them outside their positions of power.

The media, he says, focuses on the numbers of refugees but neglects the personal stories behind these figures.

“When you know the personal story of someone, you connect with them,” says Al-Omari.

Qatar crisis opens gates of anti-Trumpism in Turkey

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Qatar crisis opens gates of anti-Trumpism

US President Donald Trump listens to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as they give statements to reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Washington, May 16, 2017. (photo by REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

By Pinar Tremblay,

The election of US President Donald Trump was neither a surprise nor an unpleasant event for Islamists in Turkey. To the contrary, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were making extra efforts to cheer for their newly elected American colleague. Erdogan’s 22-minute March meeting with Trump, despite being a fiasco on multiple fronts, was portrayed as the beginning of an affectionate personal relationship. Pro-AKP media refrained from using negative language against Trump.

However, the tide took a stark turn with the Qatar crisis. As several Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt, cut diplomatic ties with Qatar, Erdogan decided Turkey would stand with Qatar. Pro-AKP trolls took social media by storm with their #TurkiyeKatarKardestir (Turkey and Qatar Are Brothers) hashtag.

As AKP trolls and newspapers were trying to figure out how best to rally public support for Turkish deployment of troops in defense of Qatar, their mobilized reactions provide us clues about Erdogan’s future plans.

A crucial common point in Erdogan’s speeches and pro-AKP columnists and social media trolls is to refrain from directly criticizing Saudi Arabia. If you follow the Qatar crisis exclusively on pro-AKP media outlets, you may not even be aware of the fact that Saudi Arabia is the main interlocutor in all this. Rather, you are made to believe the problem is the United States — more specifically, Trump.

At the start of the Qatar crisis, the government-paid troll army and media immediately branded the crisis as a US attack on the Muslim Brotherhood. Gates of anti-Trumpism in Turkey are now open, and Trump-bashing is increasingly becoming popular. Not only Islamists but also leftist groups find comfort and joy in blaming the United States for all things wrong in the Middle East. Here are some examples from the media:

On June 6, Trump’s tweets on Saudi Arabia’s and other Arab states’ decision to target Qatar made the waves on Turkish social media. Milliyet reported these tweets by saying, “Now it is revealed who pressed the button. Trump targeted Qatar.”

Several examples of anti-Trump statements dominated the media on June 9.

For instance, a headline from the pro-AKP daily Takvim read, “Trump’s scandal declaration about Qatar.” The story continued with anti-American statements, such as “The United States, known well for its support of terrorism, continues its two-faced declarations.”

The Star Daily, whose owner is now a member of the AKP’s top decision-making unit, had on its first page Trump’s notorious globe photo with the Saudi king and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. The title said, “We cracked that globe.” The subtitle read, “Erdogan broke the siege of Qatar through intense phone diplomacy, opposition to the sanctions, accepting the visit of the Iranian minister, passing the legislation to send troops to Qatar and sending food aid.”

Yusuf Kaplan, a provocative Yeni Safak columnist, listed earth-shattering US goals such as getting Muslims to destroy each other, cutting off communication between different Islamist movements and replacing Muslim states with city-states. Kaplan concluded that to defend Islam, one cannot stay silent against the attack on Qatar.

On June 11, Ferhat Unlu, a columnist for Sabah Daily, titled his piece “Trump’s sword dance with the deep state.” Unlu claimed the United States is controlling the Gulen movement and that the new director of the FBI would be pro-Gulen.

One of Yeni Akit’s prominent writers, Ali Karahasanoglu, urged the government to cut off all relations with the United States because it was providing weapons to the Kurdish groups in northern Syria. The piece was published almost a month after Trump’s announcement to arm the Kurds and a few days after the Qatar crisis.

Yeni Safak on June 14 referred to the United States as the “Gangster United States.” The columnist, Tamer Kormaz, referred to Trump as “the enemy of Islam,” which is posted in bold letters. On June 6, the same columnist penned a piece titled the “US is not our ally, but our enemy,” and throughout the piece the United States is referred to as the “engineer of terror” with the “US flag symbolizing terrorism.” It reads, “Behind the July 15 Gulen coup attempt is NATO and the US.”

There were dozens of tweets about Trump’s invitation extended to the Qatari emir as being a setup or a trap, congratulating the emir for his refusal to go. The common theme in all of these columns, reports and social media posts was that the United States is the culprit of all the troubles in the Muslim world, and that it supports terror and cannot be trusted. Several tweets alleged that the purpose of the United States was not to end terror but to get money from Qatar.

Why is the crisis between Qatar and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) being presented in such a light while any direct criticism or even mention of Saudi Arabia is so diligently omitted? One of the reasons is the possibility that Erdogan could flip-flop on his promise in his savvy way, as he has done with other cases. Whomever Erdogan calls his brother could potentially become a threat — Fethullah Gulen and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are prime examples. Knowing well that Saudis will not tolerate any sort of demeaning and belittling allegations, Erdogan — who is ever so fluent in anger — is now urging Saudi Arabia to act as an older brother. Trying and failing utterly to act as the mediator, Erdogan has referred the crisis to the Saudi king and asked him to act as the peacemaker, referring to him as the “elder of the Gulf.”

Another possible reason is that Turks really do not know the differences between the GCC states. For example, although protests are banned under emergency law, a group of pro-AKP protesters marched in Taksim Square at the heart of Istanbul with bright, red-colored Bahraini flags in solidarity with Qatar. Yet they were under the assumption that they were displaying the Qatari flag, which is burgundy and white. Although Turkey has developed rather complex relations with Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia due to the lack of transparency, the Turkish public is not aware of how the UAE and Saudi Arabia have become challenges for Turkey over the last couple of years. Now, slowly, the Turkish media are portraying Qatar as a friend who stood by Erdogan during the July 15 coup attempt, while the UAE is likely to be one of the forces behind the attempt against Erdogan. Yet Turkey refrains from targeting the Saudis.

At this point, the United States presents itself as the easy target. With already skyrocketing levels of anti-Americanism in Turkey, it is not difficult to put all the blame on the United States to rally the public. The interesting observation here is how fast pro-AKP figures went from applauding and cheering Trump to scapegoating him. Trump-bashing is seen as a lower-cost activity than criticizing the Saudi king in Turkey. Yet the unknown here rests with Trump: Will he tolerate the increasing Turkish hatred and wild criticism?

Correction: (June 15, 2017): An earlier version of this article misstated Ali Karahasanoglu’s affiliation. He writes for Yeni Akit, not Yeni Safak.

Tremblay is a columnist for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse and a visiting scholar of political science at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She is a columnist for Turkish news outlet T24. Her articles have appeared in Time, New

Trump in Brussels ‘The Germans Are Bad, Very Bad’

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The Germans Are Bad, Very Bad'By ,

At a meeting with European Union leaders on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump was sharply critical of Germany. DER SPIEGEL spoke with meeting participants.

U.S. President Donald Trump voiced significant displeasure over Germany’s trade surplus on Thursday during a meeting with European Union leaders in Brussels. “The Germans are bad, very bad,” Trump said, according to meeting participants.

 The participants told DER

SPIEGEL that Trump went on to say: “See the millions of cars they are selling to the U.S. Terrible. We will stop this.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker showed solidarity with the Germans at the meeting and contradicted Trump’s rebuke. Free trade benefits everybody, Juncker said. Participants at the meeting who spoke with DER SPIEGEL said that Juncker tried to maintain a collegial tone, but remained uncompromising on that point.

During the roughly one-hour meeting, Trump met initially with European Council President Donald Tusk and Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker. After about 45 minutes, they were joined by others, including European Parliament President Antonio Tajani and the EU’s chief diplomat, Federica Mogherini.

According to a report in the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung, many EU officials were appalled by how little the Americans appeared to know about trade policy. The guests from Washington seemed not to be aware that EU member states only negotiate trade treaties as a bloc. According to the paper, Trump’s chief economic advisor, Gary Cohn, claimed during meetings, for example, that different customs tariffs are in place between the U.S. and Germany than between the U.S. and Belgium.

‘Not Gonna Happen’

For years, Germany has exported more than it imports and Trump has criticized the country’s trade surplus before – in an interview with the German tabloid Bild prior to his inauguration, for example. In that interview, too, he voiced particular frustration at the number of German cars he sees on the streets of New York. “I would tell BMW if they think they’re gonna build a plant in Mexico and sell cars into the U.S. without a 35 percent tax, it’s not gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen.” It was a clear threat to slap punitive tariffs on German automobiles.

The new U.S. president finds Germany’s surpluses unfair because they necessarily mean that its trading partners have a trade deficit, the U.S. in this case. But the German government has also been criticized within the EU for its trade surplus. In a recent interview with SPIEGEL, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble also said that the surplus was too large.

Still, after numerous meetings between European leaders and Trump along with several attempts to explain international trade policy, the EU thought that progress had been made. As Trump made clear on Thursday, however, that hope was in vain.

Trump cut aid to Christian Armenia boosting Israeli military aid by millions: Netanyahu

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and US President Donald Trump speak upon the latter’s arrival at Ben Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv on May 22, 2017, as part of his first trip overseas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the US has increased its military aid to Tel Aviv by tens of millions of dollars.

“Three days ago, the US added another $75 million to the aid package,” Netanyahu said on Wednesday, without giving a timeframe for the money’s arrival.

The announcement comes just days after Netanyahu personally greeted US President Donald Trump on his first visit to Israel.

Trump had arrived from Saudi Arabia where he signed a massive $110 billion arms deal with Riyadh.

Based on a September 2016 agreement, the US will be bankrolling Israel’s military spending to the tune of around $38 billion dollars effective from 2019 for the next 10 years.

Under the deal, Israel will be allowed to upgrade most of its fighter aircraft, improve its ground forces’ mobility and strengthen its missile systems.

Washington has also been providing Israel with $3.1 billion annually since a 2007 agreement with the administration of former President George W. Bush.

In April, Washington approved a proposal to sell Israel more weapons, including naval guns and technical support worth an estimated $440 million.

Pope Francis and President Trump meet despite deep divide

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Trump and popeThe US president and the head of the Catholic Church have clashed on a number of key issues. But both men emerged smiling from their private audience, with the president saying he “wouldn’t forget” Pope Francis’ words.

Despite some rather public disagreements on issues ranging from economics to the environment to immigration, US President Donald Trump met with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Wednesday. Although he has previously criticized some of Trump’s policies as “not Christian,” the pontiff said he would approach the meeting, squeezed into his schedule at the last minute, with an open mind.

“Thank you so much,” Trump could be heard saying before they went into their private audience. “It is such an honor to be here.”

Since Trump announced his presidential campaign, the two men have differed publicly on a number of topics. Pope Francis was a vocal critic of Trump’s plan to bar refugees from coming to the US and to build a wall on the border with Mexico. The pontiff called these policies “not Christian,” and said the job of leaders was to build bridges, not walls. The then-presidential candidate fired back that it was “disgraceful” for Francis to question his faith.

Opinion: Trump’s speech encouraging, but lacking

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DW’s Kersten Knipp

US President Donald Trump has given his long-anticipated speech on Islam and terrorism in Riyadh. His words were appropriate and relevant, says Kersten Knipp – but he also swept crucial issues under the rug.

On his better days, Donald Trump is a master of the moment.

During his rallies in the 2016 election campaign, for example, when he called on people to MAGA (“Make America Great Again”), and a few weeks after inauguration when he gave a somewhat conciliatory speech, he found a tone that, although bombastic, was also dignified, and made a good impression on his audience – at least for the duration of those speeches.

The effect, however, was of limited duration, because his earlier speeches had shown us a different Trump. One who had drawn attention with far less generous sentiments – sentiments at odds with the magnanimity he subsequently professed.

We have now seen a something similar with his highly anticipated keynote speech on Islam. The setting was impressive: the political lords of the Arab world, the men who tell their respective Middle Eastern peoples what’s what, were all assembled in Riyadh. But unlike former President Barack Obama’s speech in 2009 in front of students at the University of Cairo, the people themselves were not represented.

The art of politeness

Addressing the gathering in Riyadh, Trump said much that was correct, although once again his conciliatory tone was strangely at odds with his earlier actions, such as his attempt to ban all citizens from six Islamic countries from entering the United States. During the debate about the travel ban earlier this year, Trump used a very different tone to the one he switched to in Riyadh.

There, he showed generosity. The current violence in the Middle East was “not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations.” Rather, it was “a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it.”

Trump’s assurance that the US was “not here to tell other people how to live, what to do […] or how to worship” was also constructive. And the call on those in authority in the Arab world to take their own action against Islamic extremists was expressed in a polite, and therefore suitable, tone.

Contradictions

Nonetheless, the speech left a sense of unease because it didn’t fit with other comments Trump had made just a day earlier, on the same trip.

When he announced the arms deal with Saudi Arabia – worth $110 billion (around 98 billion euros) – he spoke of the “beautiful military equipment” and the “great security” these weapons would guarantee.

For the people of Yemen, on whom Saudi Arabia is currently inflicting an aerial war as brutal as it is cowardly, this must sound like mockery.

And what must Egyptians think, whose government is increasingly jettisoning human rights standards – and whose security Trump praised on his trip as “very strong”? As if the political, economic and constitutional deficiencies on which jihadism in Egypt thrives simply did not exist.

Unease about the unsaid

The speech also revealed the dark flip side of the way Trump enthusiastically abandons himself to the moment. The president is so fixated on the here and now that he all too seldom thinks of other aspects.

The difficult human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s sometimes exaggerated panic about Iran – these are all issues that, to put it politely, do little to contribute to “great security.”

Most of what Trump said in his speech about Islam was appropriate and understandable. It is therefore all the more difficult to understand why he simply swept decisive issues under the carpet. The speech was encouraging, but it’s unlikely to achieve the expected results.

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Israelis skeptical of Trump ahead of visit

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trump israelAs the US president’s visit nears, nobody in Israel knows what to expect. Donald Trump wants an Israeli-Palestinian deal. But the Israeli right has stopped rejoicing, and the public is skeptical, reports Miriam Dagan.

Trump and his administration did what they do best ahead of his trip to Israel on Monday and Tuesday: send contradictory signals. When news came that the president was planning a visit to the Western Wall, Jews’ holiest place of prayer, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked to join him.

It’s a stop not usually made by Western dignitaries as a matter of standard diplomatic procedure, because it is part of the Old City of Jerusalem that Israel annexed after the 1967 Six-Day War – a move not recognized by the international community.

Netanyahu’s suggestion ended with contention. When a senior US diplomat responded with, “It’s not your territory, it’s part of the West Bank,” Israelis were shocked. The White House later stated that it doesn’t share that view. Nevertheless, Trump plans to go to the site without Israeli officials.

tinerary details aside, Trump has disappointed the Israeli settler movement and the right by speaking out against construction in the West Bank, contrary to earlier promises and declarations. Now, in what’s seen as a dramatic breach of the Israeli intelligence community’s trust, he may have leaked sensitive information to Russian officials.

Read more: Where white nationalists and Zionists meet

Left-leaning media in Israel have been keen to report that the tables have been turned on Netanyahu, with headlines like “Netanyahu fears Trump’s cooking something big” in Haaretz. The paper quoted Tzipi Livni, a highly respected opposition politician and former chief negotiator with the Palestinians, after meeting with Trump’s Middle East envoy, Jason Greenblatt: “We have a huge opportunity. The president is talking about his determination to close a deal; that is, to end the conflict. We have a president who thinks big and addresses the hardcore.”

But the US president has not exactly turned from the hero of the Israeli right into the hope of the Israeli left.

Israeli diplomat and US-Israel relations expert Alon Pinkas told DW it is wrong to think Trump will be able to impose a solution.

“Trump may apply pressure, and the left may think Netanyahu won’t be able to resist him because he’s not Obama. But Netanyahu would just use that as a pretext for elections, saying that he doesn’t have support from his coalition.”

Little hope

According to Pinkas, Israelis are very skeptical of Trump, while average Israelis haven’t seen anything to make them change their minds on the conflict: “No one believes the Palestinians, and no one likes settlements. Israelis are disillusioned, tired of talking about these issues, and hoping the situation in the West Bank is going to go away like a headache.”

Indeed, Israelis seem to harbor little hope that Trump will change anything.

Read more: For pro-Israel Americans, Trump’s support may be less than welcome

“A deal is not going to happen; it would be a miracle,” said Shalom Rahabi, a middle-aged Jew of Yemenite descent. “You can’t know what’s going to happen,” added his friend Dani Abuker. “Trump changes his mind all the time.” But in Rahabi’s opinion, the Palestinians are too divided. “How can we make peace if they are not at peace with each other? I promise you, if [Palestinian President Mahmoud] Abbas makes a deal with us, he will be murdered by his own people.”