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A number of pro-Armenian intellectuals detained in Turkey

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A number of intellectuals and democrats, famous for their pro-Armenian activities, have been detained by the Police in Turkey today early in the morning, Istanbul-Armenian journalist Raffi Hermon Araks told Armenpress.

“The Armenian people are interested in those who were detained as they have always participated in any pro-Armenian activities in Turkey, be it linked with the Armenian Genocide or meetings, protests on other issues”, the journalist said.

There are professors, lecturer, human rights specialist, as well as 4 members of the staff of jailed Osman Kavala’s Anadolu Kultur association.

“Osman Kavala is jailed for more than a year, and till now the prosecutor didn’t clarify what he is jailed for”, Raffi Hermon Araks said.

 

Turkey Ammunition depot blast kills seven soldiers in Hakkari

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At least seven Turkish soldiers have been killed and 25 others injured in an ammo depot explosion in southeast Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Nov. 10

Erdoğan was speaking at a ceremony, marking 80th death anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, in the capital Ankara.

“Seven Turkish soldiers were martyred and almost 25 others were injured in an ammo depot explosion in southeastern province of Hakkari. Rest in peace. I also wish quick recovery to injured ones,” Erdoğan said.

The defective ammo blast in Hakkari had occurred on Nov. 9.

“Twenty-five of our military personnel were injured today at the Ortaklar Süngü Tepe military base in the Semdinli district when defective ammunition detonated during artillery shooting,” said the National Defense Ministry on Nov. 9.

Turkish court hands sentences to journalist for criticizing Erdogan

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Turkish authorities have detained tens of thousands of civil servants, journalists, soldiers and others following a failed military coup in July 2016

ISTANBUL: A Turkish journalist was handed a suspended sentence of two years and five months in prison on Thursday for insulting Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan, a court ruling seen by Reuters showed.
Husnu Mahalli, a prominent journalist who also writes columns in the opposition newspaper Sozcu, will not be sent to jail due to time already served and as the ruling is up for appeal.
The Turkish court also handed Mahalli a suspended sentence of one year and eight months for insulting public officials.
Mahalli will only serve the lesser sentence if he commits a crime that requires a prison sentence in the next five years, during which he will be on probation.
“My client has been sentenced due to the expressions he used in his columns, tweets. These should be regarded within the freedom of criticism. We will appeal the sentence,” Mahalli’s lawyer Ertugrul Aydogan said.
Mahalli was detained in December 2016 after he accused Turkey of assisting terrorist groups in Syria and called Erdogan a dictator. He was released in January in 2017 pending trial.
Mahalli defended himself in court, saying he was doing his journalistic duty, private Demiroren news agency (DHA) reported.
“I have not insulted the president. I have always addressed him as Mr. President. The word ‘dictator’ is not an insulting word. I demand my acquittal,” he said during his defense, DHA said.
Turkish authorities have detained tens of thousands of civil servants, journalists, soldiers and others following a failed military coup in July 2016. They have also shut down about 130 media outlets.
Erdogan has said some journalists helped nurture terrorists through their writing, and says the crackdown is needed to ensure stability in Turkey, a NATO member that borders Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Critics say Erdogan is using the post-coup crackdown to muzzle dissent and tighten his grip on power, charges he denies. The European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, has also criticized the crackdown.

The Turkish economy is in so desperate situation, the Coins tossed into Virgin Mary pond now is taxable.

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Authorities are investigating what happens to coins tossed into a pond that lies at the feet of a Virgin Mary statue located inside the St. John the Baptist Church in the Şirince village of the western province of İzmir.

The directorate of monuments in İzmir that has appealed to the local tax office plans to install CCTV to monitor the activities around the pond.

The immediate question the authorities are asking is who is collecting the tossed coins at the bottom of the pond which is located inside a privately-owned property in the church’s premises?

The officials from the local directorate of monuments have requested help from the local taxoffice to determine who is collecting the coins.

The directorate also asked the tax office whether the person or people who run the private business in the area are tax payers and if “revenues” generated from the pond are registered in tax files.

Some 1.5 million domestic and international tourists visit the church and the statute each year, throwing coins to make a wish.

The owner of a private enterprise in the church yard is allegedly collecting the coins. It is not known, however, how many coins accumulate in the pond each year.

Şirince became a tourist hotspot back in 2012 when doomsday believers flocked to this small village with a population of some 500.

Doomsday believers were convinced the Mayan calendar had predicted that the world would end on Dec. 21, 2012 and Şirince was the only safe haven from the impending apocalypse.

Who collects the coins?

Experts, who have carried out an inspection in Şirince, say that tourists show strong interest in the pond and that lots of one euro coins particularly are tossed into the pond. Based on their preliminary examinations, experts argue that a significant sum of money accumulates in the pond throughout the year.

Yonca Sengel, who runs the cafeteria that is located near the pond, says she is not aware of the inspections.

“The money collected from the pond is used for charity work in the village,” Sengel claimed.

Cemil Karabayram, the head of the directorate of monuments in İzmir, declined to comment on the ongoing official process.

“I think the business owner is taking care of the pond. I do not know if the coins accumulated there add up to a substantial sum. I know an investigation has been launched into the matter,” Karabayram said.

Watch Wally Sarkeesian: Take on some of the hypocrite Armenians that buy and sale Turkish Product

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It is time for establishing a new organization for “Boycott Turkish Product” in conjunction with all Victims of Turkish crime against humanity
Greek, Bulgarian, Armenian, Cyprus, Assyrian, Arab, Kurd
Think Together
Work Together
Unite Together
Partition Turkey Together

But first Armenian must clean up it house, by exposing Armenian shops that sell Turkish product and the Armenians that shimfully fly Turkish Airline.

www.gagrule.net will publish weekly the names and the pictures of the shops and the organization that sell and cooperate with Turkish product if and when we receive from the Armenian communities from around the world photos. time Armenian put there money where their mouth is.


Support www.gagrule.net

Recession fears grip emerging markets amid currency crises

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Some emerging economies, including Turkey and Argentina, could be forced to cut spending to bridge yawning deficits. As interest rates continue to rise in the US and Europe, there is no respite for them any time soon.

Turkey, South Africa and Argentina are among the emerging economies most at risk of recession, chief economist for business information provider IHS Markit, Nariman Behravesh, told DW.

The countries, which have seen their currencies battered this year, have “twin deficits” and large amounts of dollar and euro-denominated debt.

An economy suffers from twin deficits when it has a fiscal deficit — when a country’s expenses exceed its revenues — and a current account deficit, which means the value of the goods and services a country imports is more than the value of the goods and services it exports.

“Unless they can get help from the IMF or some kind of debt relief, the most indebted countries have little choice but to raise interest rates and tighten fiscal policy,” Behravesh said. “They can also impose capital controls, but this is usually only a short-term fix and tends to drive away foreign investors.”

Behravesh added that these economies took on too much debt when interest rates were low and are now “living with the consequences of rising global interest rates.”

The Turkish lira and Argentinian peso have depreciated by over 35 and 50 percent respectively against the US dollar in 2018. The South African rand has fallen more than 10 percent

Currency woes to continue

The currencies of Turkey, Argentina and South Africa and a host of other emerging markets, including India, will continue to be under pressure, IHS Markit said, adding that the Ukrainian hryvnia will be the most vulnerable.

Ukraine suffers from chronic current account and fiscal deficits, high external debt exposure and inflation, and meager foreign exchange reserves.

“Emerging markets will remain susceptible for a least another couple of years as interest rates in the US and Europe rise,” Behravesh said. “We don’t expect interest rates in the developed world to top out until 2020.”

Emerging market currencies had depreciated on average by about 8 percent by the end of September 2018.

Oil concerns

Rising oil prices are further expected to hurt emerging market currencies, including the Indian rupee.

The rupee has depreciated more than 10 percent this year, mainly hurt by high oil prices. India imports more than 80 percent of its oil needs.

“Rising oil prices are a growing headache for oil-importing countries, whose current account deficits will deteriorate,” Behravesh said. “IHS Markit predicts that oil prices will remain above $80 (€69) per barrel (Brent) for at least another year.”

Oil prices, which have risen nearly 40 percent in the past year, were hovering around $80 per barrel on Thursday.

Reuters news agency reported last month that Indian refiners were considering cutting back their imports as oil traders forecast crude oil to rise to $100 a barrel by the end of the year.

Turkey: Enabling Mass Illegal Migration into Greece

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by Uzay Bulut

  • Turkish authorities repeatedly have threatened Europe with an influx of migrants. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s threats should not be ignored.
  • Ever since the migrant crisis started to escalate in 2011 — with the onset of civil war in Syria — those who were critical of mass, unchecked immigration have been called “racists,” “bigots” or “Islamophobes.”
  • Today, however, the continued chaos in many European countries caused by immigration, and accompanying increase in crime — including murder and rape committed by Islamist extremists — appear to have proven the critics right.

Greece is currently facing a serious surge in undocumented migrant arrivals in the Evros region, an entry point for migrants illegally trying to enter the country from Turkey. Arrivals have roughly doubled since 2017, and Athens is holding Ankara responsible.

The influx from places such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, Bangladesh and African countries into Turkey reportedly has been on the rise in recent months, with 1.5 million people from Muslim countries waiting on the Iranian border to enter Turkey. This has sparked fears in Athens that they could be heading for Greece.

According to a fact sheet released last month by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), “Sea arrivals [in Greece] peaked this month with 4,000 people. Land arrivals through Evros also increased to 1,400.”

As a result, the Greek city of Thessaloniki is in crisis. According to a recent article in The Greek Reporter, “Dozens of migrants have turned Aristotelous square in the center of Thessaloniki to a makeshift camp,” with many “sleeping in the open.”

This situation is likely to deteriorate even further, not only in Greece, but in the rest of Europe, with the massive number of new arrivals, particularly from Afghanistan, via Iran, into Turkey.

An investigative report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet, published in April, describes the way this is accomplished:

“Smugglers leave the Afghans and people from other countries, including children, on mountains. The illegals walk for kilometers through the border area… They all aim to go to Istanbul. But they first go to Erzurum, a city determined as the transit place…. Some then escape to Europe through Greece and Bulgaria, while others get involved in crimes, such as theft and prostitution, in Istanbul and are made to work as undocumented workers…

“According to the data of Turkey’s Immigration Authority, from the beginning of this year until March 29, 17,847 illegal Afghans have been caught. 9,426 Syrians, 5,311 Pakistanis, and 4,270 Iraqis have also been caught. The total number of illegals caught by police including those from other countries is 47,198.”

In an interview in April with the Turkish daily Milliyet, Erdal Güzel, head of the Erzurum Development Foundation, said:

“It has reached the point at which the people entering Turkey illegally from and returning to Afghanistan has become as easy as [a Turkish citizen’s] going from one Turkish city to another. They have learned the paths.

“…According to their own testimonies, they take buses to Iran at night… They are kept waiting there… until the time is right. Some families are kept waiting with no food or water for 15 or 20 days.

“They say they walk through the mountains. They all have the same story. Some say they walk through mountains for 4 or 5 days. They are told that ‘even if one of you falls off a cliff, you will not make a sound.’ … Among them are pregnant women and blind people. In recent years, the migration traffic has escalated incredibly… Thousands of people are coming here… Human smugglers stuff these people in three-story trucks in which sheep are carried… What is strange is they come here at the cost of their lives. They enter Turkey and then want to go to Germany through Greece, Serbia and Hungary. They hit the road so zealously as if to say, ‘Those who will die will die, and those who will stay alive will be here with us.'”

Human trafficking and people-smuggling are serious crimes and grave violations of human rights. According to a report by the US State Department:

“People who are smuggled can be extremely vulnerable to human trafficking, abuse, and other crimes, as they are illegally present in the country of destination and often owe large debts to their smugglers.”

Nevertheless, it appears that a highly organized international network of various actors — including smuggling and trafficking groups, international organizations and even governments, such as that of Turkey — are involved or complicit in the mass illegal movement and abuse of a large number of people.

Turkish authorities repeatedly have threatened Europe with an influx of migrants. In November 2016, for instance, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan openly stated:

“When 50,000 refugees headed to Kapıkule [at the Turkey-Bulgaria border], you shrieked: ‘What will we do if Turkey opens it border gates?’ Look at me! If you go too far, we will open those border gates. Just know this.”

Erdogan’s threats should not be ignored. Among the smuggled migrants and refugees are ISIS supporters and other Islamist radicals. Also, many of the jihadi terrorists who participated in the deadly attacks in Manchester, Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Stockholm and St. Petersburg in recent years had connections to Turkey. Some were apprehended in Turkey; others either traveled there to cross into Syria to join ISIS or had lived there for a while. Turkey has been used routinely by Islamists as a route into areas of Syria and Iraq to join ISIS.

Ever since the migrant crisis started to escalate in 2011 — with the onset of civil war in Syria — those who were critical of mass, unchecked immigration have been called “racists,” “bigots” or “Islamophobes.”

Today, however, the continued chaos in many European countries caused by mass immigration, and accompanying increase in crime — including murder and rape committed by Islamist extremists — appear to have proven the critics right. It is urgent for European governments to find effective solutions to unfettered immigration. It is equally imperative for those governments to hold Turkey accountable for its part in the crisis.

Uzay Bulut, a Turkish journalist born and raised in Turkey

Turkey: Building Mosques, Erasing Christianity

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On September 29, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the Turkish government’s latest European mosque, “The Cologne Central Mosque,” located in the Cologne, Germany. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)

by Uzay Bulut,

  • While Turkey’s latest mosque is being inaugurated in Germany, the greatest Christian Orthodox theological school has remained closed for almost 50 years by the order of the Turkish government. Moreover, less than a kilometer away from the shuttered Christian seminary, a major new center of Islamic studies spanning a total area of 200 acres is scheduled to be built.
  • The Greeks of Turkey — the remnants of the once great Byzantine Empire — are a severely persecuted and even almost completely exterminated people. They have been exposed, among other crimes against humanity, to a genocide, pogroms and forced deportations at the hands of multiple Turkish governments. As a result, there are only around 1,300 Greeks left in Istanbul. But in spite of its tiny size, the dying Greek community still suffers from discrimination and violations of its rights.
  • The Turkish government, which keeps the country’s greatest Christian theological school closed, is spending a large portion of its annual budget on the worldwide construction of mosques.

The Turkish government spends hundreds of millions of dollars building mosques as part of a long-term effort to promote Islam around the world. Many Muslims hope that new mosques throughout Europe will advance and facilitate their wish to spread Islam to non-Islamic countries and persuade the Christian “infidels” to abandon their faith in favor of Islam.

On September 29, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated Turkey’s latest European mosque, “The Cologne Central Mosque,” located in the Cologne, Germany.

The Turkish government-funded Anadolu Agency reported on September 25:

The Cologne Central Mosque, built by Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (DITIB) after eight years of construction work, has a capacity of 1,200 people.

“It will be the most important and one of the largest mosques in Europe and Germany. It has a symbolic meaning for our Muslim brothers living here,” Nevzat Yasar Asikoglu, chairman of the DITIB, told reporters. “Our mosque also symbolizes peace, brotherhood as well as the culture of co-existence,” he said.

The 17,000 square-meter mosque complex also has a shopping center, an exhibition and a seminar hall, a 600-people capacity conference hall, a library, working offices and a car park on the ground floor.

Germany, a country of over 81 million people, has the second-largest Muslim population in Western Europe after France. Among the country’s nearly 4.7 million Muslims, three million are of Turkish origin.

Meanwhile, as a huge new mosque is being inaugurated in Germany, the greatest Christian Orthodox theological school, located on the island of Halki (Heybeliada) in the Sea of Marmara, has remained closed for almost 50 years by the order of the Turkish government. Moreover, less than a kilometer away from the shuttered Christian seminary, a new center of Islamic studies spanning a total area of 200 acres is scheduled to be built.

DITIB, the group that built the new Cologne mosque, runs more than 900 mosques across Germany. These mosques are linked to the Turkish government’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, or Diyanet, which provides imams to DITIB mosques.

The German media recently reported that the country’s intelligence service is pondering putting DITIB under surveillance, following its involvement in several scandals, such as its imams spying for Turkish diplomatic posts, its refusal to attend an “anti-terrorism march” in Cologne, its calls on worshippers to pray for a Turkish military victory against Kurds in northern Syria, and holding a military re-enactment involving Turkish flags and fake guns handed to child “martyrs.”

Opposition to DITIB’s activities in Germany is also growing. “Those who spread nationalism, hatred of Christians, Jews or people of no religious affiliation and spy here at the behest of the Turkish government cannot be a partner in the fight against religious extremism in Germany,” a member of the parliament, Christoph de Vries, said.

Meanwhile, the Turkish government is continuing to annihilate the Christian heritage in Turkey. For instance, the Orthodox Theological Seminary has become a symbol of the systematic discrimination that Christians have been exposed to in Turkey.

The only school for training the leadership of Orthodox Christianity, the Halki seminary was closed by the Turkish government in 1971. Since then, the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has been unable to train clergy and potential successors for the position of Patriarch.

According to the Order of Saint Andrew Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate:

“Since its closure, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has had to send the young men from its community desiring to enter the priesthood to one of the theological schools in Greece. In many instances, they do not return given the onerous restrictions in getting work permits and the general climate of intimidation. Despite promises by the Turkish government to re-open our theological school, there has been no progress. Left unresolved, the administrative functioning and future of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is imperiled.”

In 2016, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America listed other violations against the Orthodox Church by Turkey:

The Turkish government imposes restrictions on the election of the Ecumenical Patriarch and Hierarchs who vote for him by requiring that they must be Turkish citizens. In fact, the government arbitrarily can veto any candidate for the position of Ecumenical Patriarch.

With the dwindling population of Hierarchs and Orthodox Christians in Turkey, we may not be able to elect an Ecumenical Patriarch in the not too distant future.

…

Turkish authorities do not allow the use of the term or title of “Ecumenical” for any religious activity whatsoever despite the fact that it has been used since the 6th century A.D. and recognized throughout the world. Turkey regards the Patriarchate as an institution whose leader is seen as the spiritual head of Orthodox Christians in Turkey alone rather than the leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has no legal identity or bona fide legal personality in Turkey.

The lack of a legal identity is a major source of problems for the Ecumenical Patriarchate including non-recognition of its ownership rights and the non-issuance of residence and work permits for “foreign” (meaning non-Turkish) priests who are essential to the continuity and functioning of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Turkish authorities do not allow the Ecumenical Patriarchate to own any property — not even its churches. The Patriarchal house itself is not recognized as the Patriarchate’s property and even the Girls and Boys Orphanage Foundation on the Island of Buyukada (Prinkipos) for which the Patriarchate has held a deed since 1902 is not legally recognized by the Turkish government. The inability to secure work permits by “foreigners” who work at the Ecumenical Patriarchate results in these individuals having to leave the country every three months to renew tourist visas which disrupts the operation and productivity of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and discourages staffing from abroad.

…

Through various methods, the Turkish authorities have confiscated thousands of properties from the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox community over the years, including our monasteries, Church buildings, an orphanage, private homes, apartment buildings, schools and land.

To add insult to injury, instead of reopening the school, Turkish authorities have recently announced a plan to erect a new massive Islamic educational center in the middle of the Halki island.

Halki is one of the few places in Turkey that still has a Greek community. It seems no coincidence that the Turkish government picked Halki to build a major Islamic center. This appears yet another Turkish government policy of Islamization that will further the eradication of the Greek cultural heritage and Orthodox

Christianity in the region.

The Greeks of Turkey — the remnants of the once great Byzantine Empire — are a severely persecuted and even almost completely exterminated people. They have been exposed, among other crimes against humanity, to a genocide, pogroms and forced deportations at the hands of multiple Turkish governments. As a result, there are only around 1,300 Greeks left in Istanbul. But in spite of its tiny size, the dying Greek community still suffers from discrimination and violations of its rights.

The Turkish government, which keeps the country’s greatest Christian theological school closed, is spending a large portion of its annual budget on the worldwide construction of mosques.

Diyanet is the government agency that is planning to build the Islamic center next to Halki Orthodox Seminary. Diyanet’s total annual budget last year amounted to 8.1 billion liras ($1.38 billion), surpassing the budgets of 12 ministries, including the ministry of health and the ministry of the interior, according to the Turkish press.

The activities of Diyanet include building of mosques across the world. According to its official website, Diyanet has completed the construction of mosques in places such as the United States, Russia, Belarus, Germany, Somalia, Haiti, Kazakhstan, and Gaza. New mosques are currently being built in Albania, Kyrgyzstan, Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus, Djibouti, Sweden, and England.

Diyanet is also planning to build mosques in Kosovo, the Karachay-Cherkessia region of Russia, Chad, Cote D’Ivoire, Venezuela, Mauritania, Niger, and on the campus of Georgetown University in the United States. A “Turkish cultural center” is also being built in Tokyo, Japan.

According to the Diyanet Foundation, Diyanet has also built mosques in Lebanon, Mali, Philippines, and Crimea.

The Turkish government is promoting Islamization worldwide through its activities, which include constructing mosques, yet Turkey’s deeply rooted Christianity is a dying religion. Turkey, which today contains Asia Minor or Anatolia

within its borders, has more Biblical sites in it than any other region in the Middle East except Israel. Many Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Peter, John, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, and Polycarp of Smyrna, among others, either ministered or lived in Turkey.

The Islamization of the region was started by the Turkic tribes from Central Asia, which invaded the Greek Byzantine Empire in the eleventh century. Today, only 0.1 percent of Turkey’s population of nearly 80 million is Christian — a result of centuries-long persecution against Christians.

The modern Turkish republic, founded in 1923, has nearly completed the annihilation of the remaining Greek Christians in the country through various crimes and pressures.

Today’s Turkish government, apparently acting in line with its own determined jihadist ideology, is building mosques in Europe and beyond, and using many of them for its own Islamic fundamentalist agenda and outreach. A weak, misguided and misled Europe seems to be eagerly submitting to this ideology.

Uzay Bulut, a journalist from Turkey,

Ragıp Zarakolu Turkish court seeks Interpol Red Notice, intellectual who had recognized Armenian Genocide

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Ragıp Zarakolu

A Turkish court has decided to seek an Interpol Red Notice for Ragıp Zarakolu, a publisher, writer and one of the few Turkish intellectuals, who had recognized the historical fact of the Armenian Genocide, Ermenihaber reported, citing local sources.

The decision for an Interpol Red Notice and extradition to Turkey on terrorism charges was made by a high criminal court in İstanbul six years after Zarakolu’s release from prison, the source said.

As noted, in 2011, a case was launched against the publisher on charges of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization due to a speech he made at the Politics Academy of the now-defunct pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). He was arrested in October 2011 and released pending trial in April 2012.

Zarakolu, who has been living in Switzerland since 2013, called Turkey’s arrest warrant “harassment.” “Apparently, some were disturbed as I have continued to advocate human rights, minority rights, and the freedom of speech, supported peace, and expressed my opinions,” Ahvalnews quoted Zarakolu as saying.

To add, Zarakolu is a well-known political activist who has been fighting for freedom of expression in Turkey for over 30 years, publishing books on issues such as minority and human rights. In 2011, Zarakolu was awarded with Hakob Meghapart medal by the State Library of Armenia for his professional activity and the books and materials donated to the Library.

 

Source Panorama.am