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There are no Armenians or citizens of Armenia among the people injured in a train crash in Ankara, the Armenian foreign ministry said on Facebook,
TASS reported the train, en route from Ankara to Konya, crashed into a maintenance locomotive when approaching the Marsandiz station.
According to preliminary reports, 9 people have been killed and 46 were injured in the crash. Three of the injured are in serious condition.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has announced that they plan to carry out new military operations in Syria in the nearest days, Turkish NTV TV channel informs.
The military operation is against the Kurdish forces along the eastern shore of Euphrates River.
“We will carry out operations to clean the eastern side of the Euphrates River from terrorists. Despite the fact that the USA had promised Turkey that it would not support the Syrian Kurds (PYD/YPG), it has not kept the promise. It’s clear that the USA positioned watchdogs not for protecting Turkey from terrorists, but vice the versa”, Erdoğan said.
At the same time he said that the Turkish troops will target the Kurds, not the US servicemen.
Fool me once shame on you fool me twice Shame on me.
Armenia announced about its readiness to establish direct diplomatic relations with Turkey without preconditions, ARMENPRESS reports acting Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan told about this in a meeting with the representatives of foreign media.
“We hope Turkey will take the same stance”, Pashinyan said.
Pashinyan also mentioned the preconditions that can never be accepted, first of all Nagorno Karabakh issue. “Relations with Turkey are linked with Nagorno Karabakh issue and a 3rd country, I mean Azerbaijan”, he said.
A Turkish prosecutor has demanded that arrest warrants be issued against two Saudi nationals close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The Istanbul Chief Prosecutor’s Office filed an application December 5 to obtain the warrants for Ahmad al-Assiri and Saud al-Qahtani, described in court documents as being “among the planners” of the murder of the Washington Post contributor.
The court application said there is “strong suspicion” the two aides were involved in planning the killing, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
Turkey has been seeking to extradite 18 suspects, including 15 members of the alleged assassination squad.
Saudi Arabia had detained 21 people and says it is seeking the death penalty for five. Assiri and Qahtani were reportedly suspended from their duties but they do not face criminal charges.
“The prosecution’s move to issue arrest warrants for Asiri and Qahtani reflects the view that the Saudi authorities won’t take formal action against those individuals,” Reuters quoted one Turkish official as saying on Dec. 5.
A Turkish court has rejected an appeal to release the former head of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition from pre-trial detention, despite a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, The State reported quoting AP.
Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency said the court on Friday turned down the release application by Selahattin Demirtas’ lawyers. The former co-chairman of the Peoples’ Democratic Party was arrested more than two years ago on terrorism charges.
Last week, the ECHR ordered Turkey to end Demirtas’ pre-trial detention, saying his rights to a speedy trial and free elections were violated. It said his continued detention would be a breach of Turkey’s obligation to abide by the court’s judgment.
Demirtas was sentenced to four years in prison for terror propaganda in support of outlawed Kurdish rebels and has several other trials pending.
After Turkey invaded and occupied northern Cyprus, ancient mosaics were stolen from the Church of Panagia Kanakaria (pictured), which is located in the Turkish-occupied zone. The mosaics were later discovered in the United States and returned to Cyprus in 1989. (Image source: Julian Nitzsche/Wikimedia Commons)
by Uzay Bulut,
In the summer of 1974, Turkey mounted two major military campaigns against Cyprus and occupied the northern part of the island (which Turkey now calls the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus,” recognized only by Turkey). Since the Turkish invasion, much information has emerged not only about the atrocities committed against the Cypriots, but also of the destruction of historic, cultural and religious monuments.
According to a 2012 report, “The Loss of a Civilization: Destruction of cultural heritage in occupied Cyprus”:
“Turkey has been committing two major international crimes against Cyprus. It has invaded and divided a small, weak but modern and independent European state (since May 1, 2004 the Republic of Cyprus has been a member of the EU); Turkey has also changed the demographic character of the island and has devoted itself to the systematic destruction and obliteration of the cultural heritage of the areas under its military control…
“This is one of the most tragic aspects of the Cyprus problem and is also clear proof of the determination of Ankara to ‘Turkify’ the occupied area and to maintain a permanent presence in Cyprus.
“The occupying power and its puppet regime, from 1974 until today, have been working methodically to erase everything that is Greek and/or Christian from occupied Cyprus…”
A 2015 United States Library of Congress report confirmed the report:
“Foreign archaeological teams that were engaged in excavations in Cyprus were forced to discontinue their work after the 1974 events. Their valuable findings have been looted and the teams have not been able to return and resume their excavations.
“According to some estimates, through illegal excavations in the northern part of Cyprus, more than 60,000 Cypriot artifacts have been stolen and exported abroad to be sold in auction houses or by art dealers. The example of an ancient site dating from Neolithic times at the Cape of St. Andreas illustrates this point. The site, which had already been excavated under the aegis of the Department of Archaeology prior to 1974, was later damaged by the Turkish armed forces during the installation and hoisting of the flags of Turkey and the ‘TRNC [Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus].'”
In 2016, a report by the Cypriot Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted that:
“More than 550 Greek Orthodox churches, chapels and monasteries located in towns and villages of the occupied areas, have been pillaged, deliberately vandalized and, in some cases, demolished. Many Christian places of worship have been converted into mosques, depots of the Turkish army, stockyards and hay barns. This fact clearly proves that the religious heritage in the occupied areas has been the target of the occupation regime as part of its policy to eradicate the cultural character of the area. Moreover, important cultural monuments and places of worship continue to be completely inaccessible because they are located within the ‘military zones’ of the Turkish occupation army…
“The destruction is not limited to the monuments belonging to the Church of Cyprus, but also extends to religious monuments belonging to the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem and to the Armenian, Maronite and Catholic Churches of Cyprus, as for example the Armenian Monastery Sourp Magar in Halefka and the Maronite Monastery of Prophet Elias in Skylloura.”
A 2017 article for Artnet, detailing atrocities committed by the Islamic State (ISIS) against relics in museums, mosques, churches and archaeological sites in Syria and Iraq, says that “UNESCO considers the intentional destruction of cultural heritage a war crime.”
Meanwhile, Turkey — which has been committing the intentional destruction of occupied Cyprus’s cultural heritage for more than four decades — remains a member of NATO and a candidate for membership in the European Union. This is a situation that the West must force Turkey to address — and not only when an individual piece of looted art, such as the mosaic of Saint Mark, happens to be rescued.
Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist,
With the crackdown on the innocent in Turkey showing no signs of letting up, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has continued to imprison babies and their mothers, the tally of which was confirmed by the country’s top prison official as standing at 743 as of November 2018.
Perhaps Erdoğan, already singled out as the world’s worst press freedom predator, putting more journalists behind bars than the leader of any other country, is also competing for the title of the leading baby jailer when it comes to dragging mothers, including some who have just given birth, to notorious Turkish prisons and detention centres. Babies in overcrowded cells face malnutrition and problems of hygiene, are denied urgent medical care when needed, lack open spaces and may be traumatized to the extent that the baby’s future emotional wellbeing may be put at risk.
According to Şaban Yılmaz, the director general of Prisons and Correctional Facilities, who testified at the parliamentary Commission on Human Rights on Nov. 11, 2018, Turkish prisons host 743 children under 6 years of age. Of these, 543 are less than 3 years old.
This amounts to a huge spike of 25.1 per cent in the number of jailed babies in Turkey since last year. This is simply not acceptable, and we all need to speak out on behalf of these babies who are being unfairly punished in Turkish prisons and deprived of their most basic human rights at an early age. We need to reach out to their mothers and give them hope and strength in order to shore up their resiliency and stamina against the difficult challenges of living in confined spaces.
In total, some 10,000 inmates are women in Turkey’s overcrowded prisons, which house 260,000 people as of today. One-third of all jailed women are in pre-trial detention, meaning that they have not been indicted or convicted and that the proceedings against them are still on-going.
The latest official data on jailed babies were provided by the government on September 19, 2017, when Justice Minister Abdülhamit Gül responded to a written question from an opposition lawmaker. According to the government response, there were 594 jailed babies under 6 years of age as of April 7, 2017.
It was also stated that 547 women were in jail accompanied by their babies, indicating that some of the mothers had been imprisoned with more than one child.
The problem with the figures is that the Turkish government in March 2017 stopped publishing prison bureau statistics, which used to be updated on a daily basis on the website of the Justice Ministry, which oversees prisons and correctional facilities. In order to suppress knowledge of overcrowded prisons and to cover up cases of systematic torture and abuse in detention centres and jails, the government has proved itself to be reluctant to share the official figures. More often than not, researchers are forced to glean and collect information belatedly and only after some pressure from opposition lawmakers. In some cases the government inadvertently reveals prison data when it publishes new releases.
Another setback to transparency was found when the prison bureau stopped publishing annual performance reports, which was in fact required by the Court of Account, an independent auditing agency that monitors government expenditures, in order to enhance the performance of government entities. The last report that was made public by the Directorate General of Prisons and Correctional Facilities is from two years ago. The 2016 Performance Report showed the number of jailed babies in the same age category as 529 and estimated that one-fifth of them were still breastfeeding.
It was also estimated by prison authorities in the report that 1,663 jailed women, both convicted and in pre-trial detention, were either pregnant or breastfeeding. These may be the crucial data that often get overlooked. Although the government did not share the figures from 2017, or 2018, for that matter, we can estimate that 2,000 women fall into this category today by using the same methodology the Justice Ministry utilized for the 2016 data. In other words, we have a worse outlook on jailed babies in Turkey than what officials are telling us publicly.
The number of 743 jailed babies given by Yılmaz, the director general of Prisons and Correctional Facilities, on Nov. 11, 2018 did not include the number for pregnant women, most in pre-trial detention, meaning that more babies will be born in prison cells.
Compounding the matter further are serious allegations of rape by police in detention centres and guards in prisons. Since prison authorities and police were given blanket immunity by an executive decree issued by Erdoğan during a now-ended state of emergency, allegations of rape as well as torture and ill treatment are rarely investigated by prosecutors. Doctors and hospitals have been under immense pressure not to record any allegations made by victims, and they are afraid of writing up reports that are not to the liking of the authorities. I guess the campaign of intimidation really works, and understandably, doctors in Turkey do not want to join a growing army of more that 21,000 health care professionals including doctors, nurses, professors of medicine, technicians and hospital staff whose lives have been destroyed by a massive purge over the last two years.
The figures surely tell one terrible story in Turkey, especially for babies and mothers, and highlight the fact that the Turkish government continues to violate not only its own laws but also international commitments and obligations made under treaties and conventions to which it is a party. For example, according to Article 16 of Turkish Law No. 5275 on the Execution of Penalties and Security Measures, people who have serious health problems, have recently given birth or are pregnant can be released pending trial and/or their prison time can be postponed. This provision is valid for both suspects in pre-trial detention and those who have been convicted. This law was effectively shelved in practice in Turkey, and many pregnant women were dragged to detention centres and prisons, and in some cases police unashamedly waited outside the maternity ward to detain new mothers immediately after delivery. Numerous such cases have been recorded in Turkey since 2016 despite a public outcry.
As a result, Turkey is also violating the 2006 Council of Europe (CoE) European Prison Rules and the 1957 UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners. In June 2008 the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) urged all member states including Turkey to consider suspending the imprisonment of pregnant women and said,
“When imprisoning a woman, particularly if she is the sole or main carer of children, the judicial authorities of member states should be convinced that this decision is more justifiable than a non-custodial sentence, given the disruption and emotional costs which may ensue to both the mother and children.”
Although a woman can choose to entrust her baby to the care of family members when she is jailed, many women have found it difficult to find a caregiver. Considering that the Erdoğan government has in recent years started jailing most family members by employing the Nazi practice of “guilt by association” or as part of the “collective punishment” of critics, especially members of the Gülen movement, many women simply cannot find anybody to take care of their babies. They are forced to raise these children in prison, where there are inadequate facilities and resources to meet the needs of infants.
The measures the government announced as having been taken to alleviate concerns about the well being of jailed babies sound ridiculous. For example, Justice Minister Gül said in September 2017 that the government provides a food allowance for babies in the amount of TL 10 ($1.85), which is an unbelievably small amount that is insufficient to even meet the nutritional needs of infants. There is no government support for clothing, diapers or other necessities, although the government claims it works with NGOs to address these issues.
The verdict is clear: The Erdoğan government has not only been jailing tens of thousands of innocent people ranging from journalists, academics, human rights defenders, teachers, doctors and lawyers to members of the judiciary but is also locking up the most innocent of all: babies. It shows the government in Turkey recognizes no boundaries in its relentless persecution of critics, opponents and dissidents. It certainly appears that there is no red line left that the government will not hesitate to cross merely to sustain the regime of fear in Turkey. It is incumbent upon us in the free world to continue speaking up against this massive tragedy, which is taking place before our very eyes in the 21st century, and exert more pressure on the Erdoğan government to cease and desist from such abhorrent practices as jailing babies and their mothers on dubious charges.
Source: https://observatoryihr.org/priority_posts/where-was-the-outrage-when-more-babies-were-jailed-in-turkey-this-year/
The statements by Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesperson of Turkish President Recept Tayyip Erdogan, give clear signals that Turkey and Russia collaborated very actively in the past to coerce Armenia into concessions, according to an Ankara-based political analyst.
In recent comments to the paper, Cengiz Aktar referred to the processes initiated back in 2008 (“football diplomacy”), and the subsequent Zurich Protocols which he said implied progress over Karabakh. “Russia was very active in that period if you remember – although it was not a Russian initiative. Yet the statement makes clear that there were other developments running parallel with the Armenia-Turkey processes,” he said, commenting upon Kalin’s speech delivered at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University
According to Paul Stronski, a senior fellow specializing in Russia and Eurasia Affairs at Carnegie Endowment, a Russian-Turkish transaction over Karabakh is absolutely likely albeit not in line with OSCE Minsk Group format”. He said that he even predicts a successful outcome in the region in case of an undermined influence by the West (US and OSCE Minsk Group) and challenges to the Armenian-Russian relations.
Stronski he also highlighted possible changes in the US-Armenia relations, hinting also their future impact on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict settlement talks. He cited particularly US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s recent statement – expressing hope that there will be chances for a real settlement after the parliamentary elections in Armenia.
The European Court of Human Rights’ (ECHR) ruling calling on Turkey to release Selahattin Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) who has been in prison for over two years on terrorism charges, is not legal but a politically-motivated one, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Chavushoghlu has said, vowing the Turkish government will object to the decision.
“The EHCR has issued a ruling motivated by politics. It’s also inconsistent with the court’s earlier verdict which affirmed that the detention [of Demirtaş] was based on reasonable suspicion. If he is detained on a reasonable suspicion, then it should be recognized that the length of the detention and whether it’s going to be extended or not will be decided by a Turkish court,” Chavushoghlu told broadcaster CNNTürk in an interview on November 23, Hurriyet Daily News reports.
In a verdict announced earlier this week, the Strasbourg-based court said Demirtaş had been arrested on “reasonable suspicion” of committing a crime, but said the reasons given for keeping him behind bars were not “sufficient” and constituted “an unjustified interference with the free expression of the opinion of the people.”
It found that the extension of his detention, particularly during a referendum on expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s powers and later a presidential election, were aimed at “stifling pluralism and limiting freedom of political debate, which was at the very core of the concept of a democratic society.
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US Ambassador to Armenia Richard M. Mills
We know that U.S. ambassadors tend to be bureaucratic and boring.
If you challenge them forcefully, however, the resulting outbursts can provide stunning insights into their ineptitude and State Department policies.
Consider the mind-boggling statements made by then-Ambassador to Armenia Richard M. Mills during the Q & A at Holy Trinity Armenian Church in Cambridge, MA.
I had bluntly questioned Mills about the Turkish government’s support for ISIS and similar jihadist/terrorist organizations.
Though this occurred two years ago (March 3, 2016), his answers remain relevant to America’s so-called “War on Terror” and the ongoing wars in Syria and Iraq.
When posing my question, I said that I would be handing everyone in the audience a study titled “Research Paper: ISIS-Turkey Links” by Columbia University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.
Dr. David L. Phillips, director of its Program on Peace-building and Human Rights, oversaw the study. The widely published Phillips is a foreign affairs adviser for the State Department and the United Nations.
Using dozens of sources, the study definitively established that Turkey was providing weapons, ammunition, financing, transportation,
training, and recruits to ISIS in Syria and Iraq and to other terrorist groups such as al-Nusra, an al-Qaeda offshoot.
Incredibly, Mills angrily replied that Turkey had not helped jihadists/terrorists in any way.
The ambassador even claimed that if some jihadists had entered Syria from Turkey they did so only by sneaking past Syrian refugees who were crossing in the opposite direction. To its credit, the polite Armenian American audience refrained from laughing.
Mills’ hyperbolic defense of Turkey was particularly incongruous as American-Turkish relations were even then headed downhill toward today’s quagmire.
Moreover, the ambassador’s vindication of Turkey went even further than had the Obama administration.
Indeed, in a rare moment of frankness Vice-President Joe Biden himself told a Harvard University audience (Oct. 2, 2014) that “our allies” Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE were “our largest problem in Syria … giving hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons” to jihadist organizations.
These included, said Biden, al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, “extremist” jihadis, and ISIL [ISIS].
Though Biden never withdrew his statements, Pres. Obama soon forced him to apologize to Turkey and UAE to spare them and America further embarrassment.
Mills also vehemently denied that Turkey was buying oil from ISIS.
Yet the NY Times had reported (“Struggling to Starve ISIS of Oil Revenue, U.S. Seeks Assistance From Turkey,” Sept. 13, 2014) that “the Obama administration is struggling to cut off the millions of dollars in oil revenue that has made [ISIS] one of the wealthiest terror groups in history, but so far has been unable to persuade Turkey … where much of the oil is traded on the black market, to crack down on an extensive sales network. Western intelligence officials … track the ISIS oil shipments [from] Iraq [into] Turkey.”
Additionally, a second Columbia Univ. study, “Research Paper: Turkey-ISIS Oil Trade,” confirmed that Turkey was buying voluminous amounts of crude oil from ISIS. President Erdogan’s son Bilal Erdogan, son-in-law Berat Albayrak, and brother-in-law Ziya Ilgen were reportedly major players in that illicit trade.
As a State Dept. official, Mills blundered by exonerating Turkey. In so doing, he demonstrated that the “War on Terror” was less about stopping terrorism than about shielding an ally from terrorism charges.
Another blundering ambassador
Six months after the 9/11 World Trade Center attacks, Ross L. Wilson, the American ambassador to oil and gas-rich Azerbaijan, spoke at a sparsely attended seminar at Harvard University’s oil and gas industry-funded Caspian Studies Program.
I pointedly asked him about terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky who in 1999 had documented numerous instances of jihadists, including Chechens and Afghans, using Azerbaijan as a base.
Wilson vociferously denied everything in Bodansky’s article.
Yet the FBI had found that al-Qaeda used Baku, Azerbaijan as a communication and logistical base for 1998’s fatal bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Moreover, in the early 1990s Azerbaijan imported thousands of Afghan Mujahideen, as well as Chechen and Turkish, mercenaries to fight against Armenians in the Karabagh/Artsakh war.
Amb. Wilson thus gratuitously covered for Azerbaijan’s involvement with jihadists/terrorists just as Amb. Mills would later do for Turkey.
More recently, hundreds of Azeris have joined ISIS and similar jihadist groups in Syria.
Furthermore, Azerbaijan’s Silk Way Airlines has reportedly been ferrying billions in weapons (including from the U.S.) to jihadists in Syria. Silk Way is apparently owned partly by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev’s family.
The inept Wilson also called lham Aliyev — who hadn’t yet inherited the throne from his father Heydar Aliyev — an idiot or similar insult.
This apparently panicked host Dr. Brenda Shaffer, the Caspian program’s research director, a prominent pro-Azeri propagandist, former adviser to the Israeli Foreign Ministry, and now a lecturer at the Azerbaijani Diplomatic Academy.
She abruptly announced that Wilson’s presentation was now “off the record.”
Armenia’s unrecognized record
Since 9/11, I’ve asked two U.S. ambassadors to Armenia this question: Given America’s so-called global “War on Terror,” why do you never mention that Armenia has an exceptionally strong anti-jihadist/terrorist record compared to other countries within a thousand mile radius or more?
Indeed, Armenia has had no jihadist citizens, hasn’t supported jihadists, and hasn’t served as a jihadist base or transit route.
Neither ambassador provided a cogent answer though one said that Armenia is mainly Christian so wouldn’t be expected to be associated with jihadists.
Yet neighboring Georgia, which jihadists have used as a base and pass-through is also mainly Christian. And witness the many jihadist cells and terror attacks in Christian Europe.
What “War on Terror”?
The four ambassadors’ reactions we described reinforce what many experts believe:
America’s “War on Terror” has largely morphed into a cover for the State Department’s and some American lobbies’ geopolitical agendas — such as deposing Syrian President al-Assad.
After all, given the chance to criticize Turkey, Azerbaijan, and others for supporting jihadists, Ambassadors Mills and Wilson refused to do so.
American officials downplay or outright deny the support that U.S. “allies” such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia provide jihadists/terrorists lest our own nation’s support of terrorism also be exposed.
Similarly, American officials never praise Armenia’s fine record on jihadism/terrorism because as we pointed out the “War on Terror” is primarily not about terror/jihadism.
Lynne M. Tracy has been nominated to replace Richard Mills as ambassador to Armenia.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee should grill her on the same terrorism subjects, and more, that I raised with other ambassadors.
If citizens do not successfully push Congress to fully expose America’s and its “allies” roles in supporting jihadists/terrorists, we have only ourselves to blame.
David Boyajian is a freelance journalist. Many of his articles are archived at www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/David_Boyajian.