Turkey Archives

Turkey irritated see New flag flies

June 17, 2015 By administrator

A Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) flag flies

A Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) flag flies, on the same spot where an Islamic State flag flew the day before, in the northern Syrian town of Tel Abyad, as seen from the Turkish border town of Akcakale, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 16, 2015. Syrian Kurdish-led forces said they had captured a town at the Turkish border from Islamic State on Monday, driving it away from the frontier in an advance backed by U.S.-led air strikes that has thrust deep into the jihadists’ Syria stronghold. The capture of Tel Abyad by the Kurdish YPG and smaller Syrian rebel groups means the Syrian Kurds effectively control some 400 km (250 miles) of the Syrian-Turkish border that has been a conduit for foreign fighters joining Islamic State.

Turkey Erdoğan views PYD as threat, prefers ISIL control in northern Syria

June 15, 2015 By administrator

Kurdish People’s Protection Units fighters gather at the eastern entrances of the town of Tel Abyad,
(Photo: Reuters)

Rattled by new flux of refugees fleeing the raging war between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the northern Syrian city of Tel Abyad near the border, Turkey’s leader expressed concern over the YPG takeover of the town, implying that he would rather prefer ISIL control over the strategic border city.

The ISIL and YPG, the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), are vying for control over Tel Abyad in an episode in the long struggle for supremacy in northern Syria. Backed by air forces from the global anti-ISIL coalition, the YPG recently made swift gains and pushed back radical militants after a withering months-long siege of the Kurdish city of Kobani, which proved to be a turn in the tide against ISIL. Turkey had to absorb more than 150,000 civilians during ferocious battles in and around Kobani in late 2014. Report Zaman

A similar fierce showdown is in the air, this time in Tel Abyad, a key border town just opposite of Akçakale, a Turkish border town in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa. Barbed fences and a wall divide the two towns.

The YPG advance toward Tel Abyad prompted a new mass exodus of refugees, sparking a humanitarian crisis across the border. The town is of strategic importance to the militant group, which regards as its only gateway and supply line through the border with Turkey.

Losing Tel Abyad, some 80 kilometers north of the ISIL stronghold of Raqqa, would deprive the group of a direct route to bring in new foreign militants or supplies. The Kurdish advance, coming under the cover of intense US-led coalition airstrikes in the area, also would link their two fronts and put even more pressure on Raqqa as Iraqi forces struggle to contain the group in their country. Reports on Monday suggested that the YPG totally encircled the town.

A Today’s Zaman reporter in Akçakale said the ISIL militants began to withdraw to Raqqa to prepare for the next round of the battle, which will probably take place in or around Raqqa, the provincial capital of ISIL. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tracks the conflict, said there were only around 150 Islamic State fighters in Tel Abyad.

Already battered by endless waves of refugees, Turkey allowed more than 3,000 refugees who were fleeing the fighting in Tel Abyad to enter the country, reversing its earlier decision of closing its borders to new refugees.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in a reflection of the widely-held opinion of Justice and Development Party (AK Party) senior figures, views the looming battle from a different angle. Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian arm of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an outlawed militia that has fought a 30-year insurgency against the Turkish state to establish regional autonomy in southeast Turkey. The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the US, Turkey and EU.

Erdoğan spoke to reporters from pro-government media outlets during his return from Azerbaijan and addressed the steep challenges Turkey faces across the Turkish-Syrian border.

Offering a bleak assessment of the security situation in northern Syria, the president, however, appeared uneasy about the ascendant YPG, which has systematically rooted out ISIL groups from towns and villages as part of a steady campaign since January when it defeated the militant group in Kobani.

Erdoğan portrayed the YPG’s ascendancy on the battleground as a threat to Turkish national interests, accusing the Kurdish militia of deliberately targeting the indigenous Arab and Turkmen population in northern Syria.

The Turkish president said the US-led coalition fighting ISIL militants in Syria was bombing Arabs and Turkmens near Turkey’s border.

“On our border, in Tel Abyad, the West, which is conducting aerial bombings against Arabs and Turkmens, is unfortunately putting terrorist members of the PYD and PKK in their place,” Erdogan said.

Last week, he accused the West of backing “Kurdish terrorists” in northern Syria. The YPG has emerged as the main military partner for the US-led campaign against ISIL in Syria. Erdoğan’s views reflect a concern over the revival of probable separatist sentiment among Turkey’s Kurdish community, which closely follows YPG movements in Syria.

Erdoğan’s refusal to help the besieged Kurds in Kobani fight ISIL touched off nationwide protests in Turkey on Oct. 6-7, 2014, leading to the death of more than 40 people in street clashes. The AK Party government, sources close to the party say, does not want to see a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria that could control Turkey’s border and thus transport routes to Arab Syria.

The president’s comments came at a time when the Cumhuriyet and the Birgün newspapers ran news stories involving video and photo footage that appeared to be evidence of the AK Party government’s links to ISIL in northern Syria. In one incident, the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), transported ISIL militants on buses through the Akçakale border gate as reinforcements in the fight against Kurdish forces.

Rebels accuse Kurds of deliberately displacing Arabs

More than a dozen Syrian rebel groups on Monday accused the country’s main Kurdish militia of deliberately displacing thousands of Arabs and Turkmens as it pushes deeper into ISIL strongholds in northern Syria.

The Kurdish advance has caused the displacement of 18,000 people who fled to Turkey in the past two weeks. On Monday, up to 3,000 more refugees arrived at the Akçakale border crossing, according to the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT). An Associated Press photographer saw large numbers of people at the border and thick smoke billowing across as US-led coalition aircraft targeted ISIL militants in Tel Abyad.

The accusation, which was not backed by evidence of ethnic- or sectarian-related killings, threatened to escalate tensions between ethnic Arabs and Kurds as the Kurdish fighters conquer more territory in northern Syria.

Since the beginning of the year, the YPG have wrested back more than 500 mostly Kurdish and Christian towns in northeastern Syria, as well as strategic mountains seized earlier by ISIL. They have recently pushed into Raqqa province, an ISIL stronghold where Tel Abyad is located.

“YPG forces … have implemented a new sectarian and ethnic cleansing campaign against Sunni Arabs and Turkmen under the cover of coalition airstrikes which have included bombardment, terrorizing civilians and forcing them to flee their villages,” the statement issued by rebel and militant groups said. The YPG, however, denies these claims.

Rami Abdulrahman, who runs the the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the people who had fled into Turkey were escaping fighting and there was no systematic effort to force people out.

He said also said there were no Turkmen in the area, stating, “There are violations [referring to acts of abuse] by individuals from the YPG, but not in a systematic way.”

Vanity fair: An Inconvenient Patriot become victim of Turkish nationals illicit activity in FBI

June 13, 2015 By administrator

By David Rose,

Love of country led Sibel Edmonds to become a translator for the F.B.I. following 9/11. But everything changed when she accused a colleague of covering up alleged illicit activity involving Turkish nationals. Fired after sounding the alarm, she’s now preparing a Supreme Court appeal—and threatening some very powerful people.

In Washington, D.C., and its suburbs, December 2, 2001, was fine but cool, the start of the slide into winter after a spell of unseasonable warmth. At 10 o’clock that morning, Sibel and Matthew Edmonds were still in their pajamas, sipping coffee in the kitchen of their waterfront town house in Alexandria, Virginia, and looking forward to a well-deserved lazy Sunday.

Since mid-September, nine days after the 9/11 attacks, Sibel had been exploiting her fluency in Turkish, Farsi, and Azerbaijani as a translator at the F.B.I. It was arduous, demanding work, and Edmonds—who had two bachelor’s degrees, was about to begin studying for a master’s, and had plans for a doctorate—could have been considered overqualified. But as a naturalized Turkish-American, she saw the job as her patriotic duty.

The Edmondses’ thoughts were turning to brunch when Matthew answered the telephone. The caller was a woman he barely knew—Melek Can Dickerson, who worked with Sibel at the F.B.I. “I’m in the area with my husband and I’d love you to meet him,” Dickerson said. “Is it O.K. if we come by?” Taken by surprise, Sibel and Matthew hurried to shower and dress. Their guests arrived 30 minutes later. Matthew, a big man with a fuzz of gray beard, who at 60 was nearly twice the age of his petite, vivacious wife, showed them into the kitchen. They sat at a round, faux-marble table while Sibel brewed tea.

Melek’s husband, Douglas, a U.S. Air Force major who had spent several years as a military attaché in the Turkish capital of Ankara, did most of the talking, Matthew recalls. “He was pretty outspoken, pretty outgoing—about meeting his wife in Turkey, and about his job. He was in weapons procurement.” Like Matthew, he was older than his wife, who had been born about a year before Sibel.

According to Sibel, Douglas asked if she and Matthew were involved with the local Turkish community, and whether they were members of two of its organized groups—the American-Turkish Council (A.T.C.) and the Assembly of Turkish American Associations (A.T.A.A.). “He said the A.T.C. was a good organization to belong to,” Matthew says. “It could help to ensure that we could retire early and live well, which was just what he and his wife planned to do. I said I was aware of the organization, but I thought you had to be in a relevant business in order to join.

“Then he pointed at Sibel and said, ‘All you have to do is tell them who you work for and what you do and you will get in very quickly.’” Matthew could see that his wife was far from comfortable: “She tried to change the conversation to the weather and suchlike.” But the Dickersons, says Matthew, steered it back to what they called their “network of high-level friends.” Some, they said, worked at the Turkish Embassy in Washington. “They said they even went shopping weekly for [one of them] at a Mediterranean market,” Matthew says. “They used to take him special Turkish bread.”

Before long, the Dickersons left. At the time, Matthew says, he found it “a strange conversation for the first time you meet a couple. Why would someone I’d never met say such things?”

Only Sibel knew just how strange. A large part of her work at the F.B.I. involved listening to the wiretapped conversations of people who were targets of counter-intelligence investigations. As she would later tell investigators from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General (O.I.G.) and the U.S. Congress, some of those targets were Turkish officials the Dickersons had described as high-level friends. In Sibel’s view, the Dickersons had asked the Edmondses to befriend F.B.I. suspects. (In August 2002, Melek Can Dickerson called Sibel’s allegations “preposterous, ludicrous and slanderous.”)

Sibel also recalled hearing wiretaps indicating that Turkish Embassy targets frequently spoke to staff members at the A.T.C., one of the organizations the Dickersons allegedly wanted her and her husband to join. Sibel later told the O.I.G. she assumed that the A.T.C.’s board—which is chaired by Brent Scowcroft, President George H. W. Bush’s national-security adviser—knew nothing of the use to which it was being put. But the wiretaps suggested to her that the Washington office of the A.T.C. was being used as a front for criminal activity.

Sibel and Matthew stood at the window of their oak-paneled hallway and watched the Dickersons leave. Sibel’s Sunday had been ruined.

Sibel Edmonds’ State Secrets Privilege Gallery

Sibel Edmonds Fights to Testify

Sibel Edmonds’ Deposition

Who’s Afraid of Sibel Edmonds?

Sibel Edmonds Speaks, But No One Is Listening

Turkish Dictator Erdogan blasts West for destabilizing Syria by supporting Kurdish ‘terrorists’

June 13, 2015 By administrator

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the West of destabilizing Syria by supporting Kurdish “terrorist groups,” while bombing Arabs and Turkmens.

The impassioned remarks were made in Erdogan’s first appearance since the general election. He called on all political parties to act “responsibly” in forming a coalition government, after his Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost its parliamentary majority at the polls on June 7.

“The West, which has shot Arabs and Turkmens, is unfortunately placing the PYD (the political wing of the YPG) and PKK in lieu of them,” Erdogan said in a speech at the Ankara chamber of commerce.

The Kurds have a strong presence in Syria, Iraq and Turkey and have proved a formidable enemy to Islamic State (IS), earning international backing for standing up to extremists.

On the other hand, the ethnic group has been historically locked in a fierce struggle of wills with Turkey over its status as a nation.

Meanwhile the Kurdish-linked People’s Democratic Party (HDP) has for the first time managed to get into the Turkish parliament.

This is a difficult situation for Erdogan, who is a US ally on the one hand, but has been showing very negative attitudes toward the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces, which the US has been trying to aid in the fight against IS.

The Turkish leader is uncomfortable with the military gains made by the Kurds in Syria, alleging their links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whom he’s called “terrorists” on multiple occasions, and who have been fighting the Turkish government in an insurgency lasting more than 37 years.

While delivering the remark, Erdogan has used the opportunity to again strike at the perceived ineffectiveness of the US-led air-strike campaign against IS terrorists.

On Thursday Turkey said it was taking measures to limit the influx of Syrian refugees whose numbers soared recently due to fighting between Kurdish forces and jihadists.

Over the last week, 7,000 refugees had fled to Turkey and another 6,600 had joined them since Wednesday, a Turkish official told AFP.

“Turkey will not accept entries onto its territory from Syria except in case of a humanitarian tragedy,” Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said after visiting the Akcakale border crossing on Wednesday.

Kurtulmus also reaffirmed Ankara’s anger against EU nation’s which have accepted only a small portion of Syrian refugees as opposed to Turkey which has taken over 1.8 million Syrian refuges since the start of the conflict in 2011.

Report: Turkish authorities providing electricity to ISIL in Tel Abyad

June 12, 2015 By administrator

Pickup trucks loaded with fertilizer and ammonium nitrate, which is widely used in agriculture but also for building explosives, head to Tel Abyad. (Photo: Cihan)

In the latest of a series of revelations, the Turkish authorities have allegedly been providing electricity to Tel Abyad — a northern Syrian city just across the border from the Turkish city of Akçakale — which is controlled by militants linked to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

More stunning is the not-so-secret presence of ISIL militants on the streets of Akçakale, in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa, a reporter with the Birgün daily claimed in a piece published on Friday. His account echoes many other reports, revealing the risks Turkey is facing as fighting between Kurdish forces and ISIL militants in and around Tel Abyad continues to rage on.

Before the uprising in Syria broke out, Turkey was delivering electricity to Tel Abyad as part of a deal with the Bashar al-Assad regime to address the energy shortage in northern Syria. The Dicle Electricity Distribution Company (DEDAŞ) continued to deliver power to the northern Syrian city even after the outbreak of the Syrian conflict.

What is more intriguing, the Birgün report reveals, is that the delivery continued even after ISIL captured Tel Abyad, thanks to the alleged collusion between the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government in Turkey and ISIL, and has not been affected by later developments. The electricity is provided by three wires near the warehouse of the regional branch of the Turkish Agricultural Board (TMO), right on the border.

While locals in Akçakale sometimes face several cuts during the day, Tel Abyad residents do not endure such problems as DEDAŞ continues to provide electricity to the Syrian town uninterruptedly. The power cuts disrupt irrigation in the rural areas of Akçakale, leading to troubles in the agricultural sector. Turks are paying the price of the electricity provided to ISIL. DEDAŞ, in a written statement on Friday after the piece was published, denied claims of supplying electricity to Tel Abyad.

Locals in Akçakale have been enduring extreme difficulties including the growing number of refugees and the collapse of local economy while a war economy has firmly taken root in the town.

Enemy at the gate and ghost of ISIL in Akçakale

Akçakale on the Syrian border is one of the frontlines where locals have experienced firsthand the spillover effects of the war in Turkey’s southern neighbor. It is still haunted by ongoing fighting just across the other side of the border in Tel Abyad.

On Oct. 3, 2012, a mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in a residential district of Akçakale, killing two women and three children and wounding at least 13 other people. The Turkish military struck targets inside Syria in response to the mortar bomb attack.

Since that day, locals have endured various difficulties. Sometimes sporadic stray bullets from Tel Abyad, sometimes clashes just on the border, prompting Turkish authorities to close schools and other official buildings in town on numerous occasions.

The enemy is no longer at the gate, locals have bemoaned. It is here, in Akçakale. They are, of course, talking about ISIL.

ISIL prompts boom in smuggling on border

One of the dramatic fallouts of ISIL’s reach in the region is the explosion in smuggling of goods and people, as some people and groups have exploited the humanitarian catastrophe by offering help to refugees and civilians stranded on the Syrian side of the border to cross the Turkish border through illegal ways.

According to the Birgün report, ISIL gets $100 per person in return for allowing people to cross into Turkey. The smuggling of goods is also another crucial aspect of the local economy. The amount of money being exchanged per day at the border is unheard of in recent years. Locals claim the cross-border trade is worth $7-13 million per day.

One of the most in-demand items from Turkey to Tel Abyad, a local says, is fertilizer, or ammonium nitrate, which is widely used in agriculture but is also used by terrorist groups around the world to build explosives. The flow of fertilizer to Tel Abyad leaves no doubt about what it is being used for. Medical supplies are also among the items that flow through Akçakale to ISIL-controlled Tel Abyad.

ISIL seeking to lure unemployed in Turkish town

The militant group is seeking to lure locals in Akçakale as unemployment continues to affect the refugee-hit town. The influx of refugees has radically altered social balances, disrupted the social fabric and irrevocably damaged the city’s urban landscape, also causing apartment rates to skyrocket and rippling through the labor market, with Turkish workers being unable to compete with their Syrian counterparts who agree to work for lower salaries with no social insurance whatever.

Tapping into growing opportunities after the collapse of social and economic order, ISIL is offering Turks high pay in return for fighting within its ranks. Summing up his dilemma in remarks to the daily, a local said: “If I didn’t have a family, I probably wouldn’t be able to resist their offer. They offer to write off your credit card debt, give you a high salary.”

The people of Akçakale seem to be accustomed to the ISIL presence in the town, the same local said. ISIL uses hotels in Harran as a gathering point for its recruitment efforts while it transport them through Akçakale to Tel Abyad. It has exchange bureaus operating in Harran, another district of Şanlıurfa province.

Looming YPG advance to stir new refugee wave

The main fighting Kurdish force, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), is set to lay a siege on Tel Abyad from three fronts, leading to expectations of another looming intense confrontation with ISIL.

Already raging clashes have placed Akçakale on knife’s edge, prompting prompting fears of a new refugee exodus. Battered by overcrowding and an endless refugee flux, the town is also set to face another risk: Arab-Kurdish fighting on the Turkish side of the border given the increasing tensions among communities. The growing support for the YPG in Turkey will force Akçakale residents to revisit their approach to ISIL.

Gendarmerie acknowledges ‘deadly’ weapons found on MİT trucks

The Birgün report came at a time when Turkey is still discussing the role of the Turkish Intelligence Organization (MİT) in transporting and arming ISIL fighters.

Ballistic analysis reports of the weapons found in trucks owned by MİT that were stopped by investigators during a raid in January of 2014 have both acknowledged and documented the existence of weapons.

The report prepared by the Gendarmerie General Command four days after the investigation into the trucks took place states the weapons as being “able to explode on impact or with delay.” The report also noted that the arms could be deadly or injurious towards living things, destructive against non-living things and are classified as a weapon according to the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).

The report signed by Sgt. Maj. Celalettin Bardakçı, a bomb disposal expert and authorized by Celal Kara, the former public prosecutor who was in charge of the investigation, was compiled on the bullets and small missile warheads found in the trailers of the trucks. The larger components of the weapons such as rocket-propelled grenades could not be analyzed as they could not be transported to Ankara.

Four of the prosecutors and one of the commanders were imprisoned in early May in connection with the investigation of the trucks. Earlier this month the top judicial body formally cleared the way for legal proceedings to begin against five prosecutors and three gendarmerie commanders who were involved in the search of Syria-bound trucks in January of 2014.

The 2nd Chamber of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) allowed the prosecution of former Adana Chief Public Prosecutor Süleyman Bağrıyanık, former Adana Deputy Chief Public Prosecutor Ahmet Karaca and Adana prosecutors Aziz Takçı, Özcan Şişman and Yaşar Kavalcıoğlu. It also ruled to investigate Gendarmerie Commanders Col. Özkan Çokay, Erdal Yılmaz and Kubilay Ayvaz.

Bağrıyanık, Karaca, Takçı and Şişman as well as former Adana provincial gendarmerie commander Col. Çokay were imprisoned in early May on charges of “attempting to topple or incapacitate the Turkish government through the use of force or coercion and exposing information regarding the security and political activities of the state” in connection with the search of what turned out to be weapon-filled trucks being operated by the MİT.

Paylan Calls on Diaspora, ARF to Bring Struggle to Turkey

June 11, 2015 By administrator

By Rupen Janbazian

Newly Elected MPs Paylan, Doğan Speak about Being Armenian, Turkey Politics

Garo Paylan speaks to Armenian reporters at the HDP offices
(Photo: Rupen Janbazian,

Garo Paylan, an Armenian elected to Turkey’s Parliament on June 7, believes the Armenian Genocide issue should be solved in Turkey. “The Armenian Genocide took place here and coming to terms with the genocide should also take place here,” he said in an interview with Ermenihaber.am, adding that the Diaspora and Armenian political parties, specifically the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), should continue the struggle in Turkey. Paylan, 42, also spoke about the election results, his future plans as a parliamentarian, and prospects of normalizing Armenia-Turkey relations.

Paylan, a member of the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP), Markar Esayan from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Selina Özuzun Doğan from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) became the first Armenian members of Turkey’s Parliament in decades.

Speaking about his entry into Turkish politics, Paylan explained that being an active member of the Armenian community prompted his interest in politics. “Even saying ‘I am Armenian’ is a political statement in Turkey. If you are interested in Armenian issues and your identity, then you’re automatically interested in politics,” said Paylan, who explained that his involvement in the Armenian community started in his youth.

Paylan explained how he served as the principal of an Armenian school in Istanbul until Hrant Dink’s murder. “Hrant’s death was a real turning point—it made us politically active… I realized that something needed to change in this country and I dedicated my life to find those responsible for Hrant’s murder. I also wanted to shed light on the problems Armenian students faced in Turkey,” said Paylan. “In 2011, we founded the Democratic People’s Congress (HDK) with a group of social activists, and set up our party in 2013.”

Paylan said that he is ready to work towards the normalization of Armenia-Turkey relations, and that genocide recognition is crucial in the matter. “The Armenian Genocide is often viewed in the context of Armenia-Turkey relations. The Armenian Genocide is only one part of the Armenia-Turkey relations, not the foundation,” said Paylan. “However, as long as the public does not face the true history, the signing of the protocols cannot have a true meaning,” he added.

Paylan said he disagreed with Armenia’s President Serge Sarkisian’s proposal to open the Armenia-Turkey border without any preconditions, and called for Armenian political parties to have a more active role in Turkey. “I do not accept [Sarkisian’s] view. First and foremost, Turkey must recognize its guilt when it comes to the genocide, and hatred towards Armenians and Armenia should disappear. I respect the struggles of both Armenia and the Armenian diaspora and urge all Armenian political parties, namely the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), to come and carry out their struggle here. Every Armenian that comes to Turkey can have a huge impact,” said Paylan.

Paylan also stressed that he feels a great responsibility to shed light on Armenian issues in his new role. “We [Armenians in Turkey] have a number of problems; confronting the past, Hrant’s [Dink] and Sevag’s [Balikci] unsolved murders, and genocide recognition. We have suffered a huge cultural loss, for which we have not received any compensation,” he said. “I don’t believe we [Armenians] will be able to solve these issues alone. Our party’s principle is to work together with other peoples to overcome these problems,” he added.

Paylan says that he is ready to work with at least one of the two other Armenians elected last Sunday. “Selina [Özuzun Doğan] is a close friend of mine and I believe we can work well together,” said Paylan. “Markar [Essayan] and I shared a similar ideology in the past; we’ve even released joint statements against [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan. But over the past three years, his [Essayan’s] rhetoric has been completely pro-government; something that I can’t participate in. If he starts criticizing the wrongdoings of the government, then I would be ready to work with him. If not, his Armenian heritage means little to me,” said Paylan. “Non-Armenians can be much more beneficial to our cause than he has ever been. Many fellow non-Armenian HDP-members have been 1,000 times more compassionate towards the Armenian cause,” he added.

For Paylan, running on the list of another party has always been out of the question. “Equality for all is a very important concept for me. There are many questions to be asked about the democracy preached in all the other major parties in Turkey. They don’t believe in real democracy; they are all centered on individuals. In our party, democracy reigns without any exception. As an Armenian, I have never felt like a foreigner in our party,” said Paylan.

When asked about HDP’s recent success, Paylan said that it was expected. “There is a saying—‘it’s darkest right before dawn.’ Truly, we were at that darkest point and have now entered dawn.”

Doğan: Millions of Armenians lived in Turkey, they are not here today

‘No one should doubt the fact that I am Armenian,’ said Doğan, (Photo: formiche.net)

Newly elected Turkish-Armenian Member of Parliament Selina Özuzun Doğan of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) also granted an interview to Ermenihaber.am, during which she said that her party wants Turkey to face its past, but fell short of calling the Armenian Genocide by its true name.

“CHP will admit that there are some issues relating to the past that need to be faced. Like Turkish civil society, the CHP is also in a process of transformation,” Doğan explained. “Our party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has called the events of 1915 a ‘great tragedy’ and has said that we are not afraid to face the truth. Call the 1915 events whatever you’d like; that is a separate issue. The bottom line is, those people [Armenians] aren’t here today. Millions of Armenians once lived in Turkey—there are only about 50-60,000 today,” she said.

In April, Kılıçdaroğlu said that Pope Francis’ statement and the European Parliament (EP) ruling on the Armenian Genocide would not serve reconciliation between Turks and Armenians well, and lent his party’s support to a joint declaration against the EP’s adoption of a resolution on the Centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

When asked how free she felt to express herself as an Armenian within the CHP, Doğan explained that freedom of speech was one of the most important issues for the party. “There is a sense of political morality and respect for freedom of expression within the [CHP], therefore I can freely say whatever I think is true and argue that point until the end,” she explained.

“No one should doubt the fact that I am Armenian,” said Doğan, who explained that although there was initially some opposition to her within the party, fellow CHP members have now accepted her.

According to Doğan, the CHP is ready to normalize relations with all neighboring countries, including Armenia. “Why should the borders be closed and why shouldn’t people be able to trade with each other? There is a major lack of political will to bring the two societies [Armenian and Turkish] closer. There is also a serious negative view of the Armenian diaspora. We need to eliminate that,” said Doğan, adding that she sees her election to Parliament as an initial positive step in that regard. She also said that she did not agree with “tying Armenian-Turkish relations to the Karabagh issue.”

“We need to support the work of non-governmental organizations working on this issue, in order for the two [Armenian and Turkish] societies to better understand each other and for the borders to open,” she said.

When asked about her role as a female politician, Doğan said her party will work hard to eliminate gender inequalities in Turkey. “We will fight all discrimination and violence against women,” she said, adding that Turkey is moving in the right direction in terms of gender equality. “We will have 97 female members of parliament out of 550 in the upcoming Parliament. Although the number is low, it is still a positive leap.”

Only in Muslim Turkey 860 years in prison Former police intel chief

June 11, 2015 By administrator

A former police intelligence chief is required to serve up to 860 years in prison in a wiretapping case, in which he has been found guilty of wiretapping 48 people, including several government officials, journalists, judiciary personnel and businessmen.

Ramazan Akyürek, the former chief, was indicted on the charge of “heading a terrorist organization” and sentenced to more than eight centuries in prison over the case filed by the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on June 9.

Akyürek had previously been indicted on the charge of “causing death with negligence on duty” in the Hrant Dink’s murder case and was sent to prison on Feb.27.

Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist, was shot dead on Jan.19, 2007, while Akyürek was the Trabzon Police department head.

Akyürek was among 50 police officers from various ranks whose names appeared in a 130-page indictment with charges of “forming and running a criminal organization,” “fabricating false documents,” “illegally keeping private information,” and “violating private life and communication privacy” in the wiretapping investigation, led by prosecutor Alpaslan Karabay.

All the 50 were accused of forming a terrorist organization serving the goals of the alleged “Fethullahist Terrorist Organization.”

The indictment also contained a report made by the Turkish Interior Ministry that stated the executive assistant of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) head Devlet Bahçeli and his advisors had been wiretapped.

“Wiretapping people from a political leader’s inner circle begets wiretapping that political leader. The wiretapping done right before the parliamentary elections on June 12, 2011, could have had a bearing on the fate of a political party and the country’s domestic politics,” it stated.

June/11/2015

Turkey’s AKP ‘pushes away’ journalists to stop leaks

June 11, 2015 By administrator

By Selçuk Şenyüz – ANKARA,

One of the first policy decisions of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) after the June 7 general election has been “pushing away” journalists to prevent leaks as coalition talks linger.

Sources told daily Hürriyet that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was infuriated over the remarks of some ministers who spoke to the media after a party meeting on June 8. As a response, the party administration instructed ministers to not answer journalists’ questions as they left internal meetings.

On the morning of June 11, cameramen, who were routinely placed at the entrance of the AKP’s headquarters in Ankara, were sent by officials farther away to parking spots on a sidewalk across the road.

The AKP is continuing talks with other parties on forming a coalition, after it unexpectedly lost its parliamentary majority in the June 7 polls.

Turkey The elected Armenian HDP, Garo Paylan wants genocide recognition

June 11, 2015 By administrator

Garo Paylan, one of three elected Armenians in the Turkish parliament under the HDP label, reportedly promised to challenge the denialist stance of Ankara on the 1915 genocide.

In an interview with Ermenihaber.am, released Wednesday, Garo Paylan was confident that recognition of the genocide is essential for the normalization of relations between Turkey and Armenia.

He also said he will fight against the “deniers policies” both on behalf of the HDP and personally. “ The HDP is the only Turkish party to have described the massacre of Armenians as genocide.

For him, this is “first and foremost, to acknowledge the genocide in Turkey, and to abolish the animosity towards Armenia,” he he said. Adding: “Armenia and its diaspora worldwide must focus on Turkey in pursuit of greater international recognition of the genocide. “I call on all Armenian parties, including the ARF, to lead this fight here.” Every Armenian in Turkey who just has an impact. “

Garo Paylan described Selina Dogan, the Armenian elected for the CHP (Republican People’s Party) as a “close friend” with whom he is prepared to cooperate in parliament. But it is much more skeptical about Markar Esayan (AKP), a reporter for the pro-government newspaper “Yeni Safak” citing the continued support of the latter to the Government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkey the price of a coalition with the AKP “shielding Erdogan corruption and illegal acts”

June 10, 2015 By administrator

EMRE USLU

By EMRE USLU,

Coalition is the main discussion in Ankara now. Politicians talk about coalition options among political parties; but in fact, there are not many choices. The Justice and Development Party (AKP) must be a part of the coalition options.

As I noted before the elections, the AKP has to stay in power. Most recently, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınç noted this. The AKP has to remain in power because otherwise, they will be prosecuted over their corruption and illegal acts. The AKP will lose by 10 percent in the next elections if one corruption file — that does not have to the Dec. 17 file, even the file on the expenses of the Ak Saray would be sufficient — is reopened. Once this is done, there will be no trace of this party. Many deputies will resign because serving in such a corrupt party would mean the end of a political career. Thus, the AKP has to remain in power. So this means that the AKP will not allow others to form a coalition government which does not include the AKP. They will try hard to be part of a government. Therefore, I think that all coalition options which do not include the AKP are not realistic.
When it comes to a coalition with the AKP:
The AKP will use the coalition partner as a shield to cover up all its corruption and illegal actions over the last 13 years. For this reason, forming a coalition government with the AKP is a gravely flawed decision.
A party which will make a coalition with the AKP actually endorses the following:
1- It means that it endorses the bribe money Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab gave the ministers
2- It endorses the money stashed in shoe boxes, steel safes and others
3- It endorses the TL 700,000 watch of former Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan
4- It endorses former Interior Minister Efkan Ala, who violated the Constitution to arrest journalists
5- It endorses former EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış, who mocked verses of Quran
6- It endorses the luxury car of the president of the religious affairs directorate
7- It endorses the violation of the Constitution by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who did not act impartially during the election campaign
8- It endorses all the waste and unnecessary expenses at the AK Saray, the TL 1,000 glasses, marble imported from Italy, trees from Germany and private stud farm
9- It endorses the ultra lux apartments in Şehrizar Condominiums
10- The money whose source cannot be identified
11- Illegal villas in Urla
12- Pressure upon journalists
13- Arrest and intimidation of journalists
14- Blackmailing businessmen
15- Money in a pool used for pro-government media outlets
16- It endorses the legality of the vessels of Bilal and Burak Erdoğan
17- It endorses the fleets of ships of former minister Binali Yıldırım’s sons as legitimate
18- It accepts that the railway tender bids are transparent and there was no corruption in that process
19- It endorses the insults published in the pro-government media outlets
20- The illegal order in pro-government media
21- The nepotism in the AKP
22- The money transferred to the Foundation of Youth and Education in Turkey (TÜRGEV), the buildings and funds illegally transferred to this foundation
23- Erdoğan’s illegal acts gain attractive lands
24- It endorses the destruction of all values and the skyline of İstanbul
25- Cursing and humiliating the nation
26- Kicking the miners in Soma
27- Killing Berkin Elvan and then booing his mother
28- Police violence in Gezi
29- TOMA and its tenders
30- The arrest of the police officers who went after corruption
31- The arrest of judges for their decisions
32- Trucks transporting weapons to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
33- Weapons transported to ISIL and al-Qaeda
34- Prosecution of the prosecutors who stopped ISIL trucks
35- Oslo talks

A party which forms a coalition with the AKP will endorse these and many other illegalities that cannot be mentioned here due to space constraints. If a party takes such a huge risk, it should at least ask for critical ministries in the government. If this is done, then it will be able to tell its supporters that it will be able to become very influential in the government. It should prosecute at least some of the items I cited above. Otherwise, that party will lose serious support in the next election because the AKP support base already endorses these illegalities and they vote for this party despite them.