Pope and patriarch condemn Mid-East ‘persecution’
Pope Francis (left) and Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul on Sunday
Pope Francis and the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians have condemned the treatment of many Christians in the Middle East.
In a joint declaration, the Pope and Patriarch Bartholomew I said they could not resign themselves to a “Middle East without Christians”.
On a three-day visit to Turkey, the pontiff discussed divisions between Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
In Istanbul, he and the patriarch also called for peace in Ukraine.
Patriarch Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of the world’s 250 million Orthodox Christians, whose Church broke with Rome in 1054 in a schism that divided the Christian world.
Constantinople, as the modern Turkish city of Istanbul was once known, was the centre of Orthodox Christianity until the Ottoman conquest in 1453.
Only around 120,000 Christians remain in Turkey, where the vast majority of the 80 million citizens are Muslims.
Pope Francis also called for an interfaith dialogue with Muslims to counter fanaticism and fundamentalism when he visited the Turkish capital, Ankara.
‘Indifference of many’
Christians have been targeted by Muslim hardliners in Iraq and Syria in recent years, with a violent campaign of persecution by Islamic State militants this summer when they captured the Iraqi city of Mosul.
In their joint declaration, the two Church leaders said: “We express our common concern for the current situation in Iraq, Syria and the whole Middle East…
“Many of our brothers and sisters are being persecuted and have been forced violently from their homes. It even seems that the value of human life has been lost, that the human person no longer matters and may be sacrificed to other interests. And, tragically, all this is met by the indifference of many.”
The violent conflict in Ukraine this year has accentuated differences between its large Orthodox and Catholic communities.
The Pope and the patriarch said: “We pray for peace in Ukraine, a country of ancient Christian tradition, while we call upon all parties involved to pursue the path of dialogue and of respect for international law in order to bring an end to the conflict and allow all Ukrainians to live in harmony.”
As his visit draws to a close, Pope Francis is also due to meet Turkey’s chief rabbi, whose flock has diminished to just 17,000 people.
The Pope then visited Hagia Sofia – which for almost 1,000 years was the most important Orthodox cathedral, then for nearly five centuries a mosque under the Ottomans, and is currently a museum.
For Istanbul, a city that passed from the Byzantines to the Ottomans, a place where religions, empires and cultures collided, the Pope’s message of interfaith dialogue has profound resonance, says the BBC’s Mark Lowen in Istanbul.
Source: BBC
Europalia-Turkey and the 1915 genocide centennial by Dogan Özgüden
Belgian media November 26, 2014 were favorably received at a press conference in Brussels on Europalia-Turkey to be held in the European capital in 2015. La Libre Belgique, for example, gave the information under the title of “The 2015 edition of the Europalia festival will Turkish culture in the spotlight.”
As for the Turkish media, even those who are against the current Islamist government, they applaud the holding of the press conference in the presence of the Turkish Culture Minister Omer Celik, as a victory of Turkish lobby in the European capital against the Anatolian diasporas preparing to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide and Assyrians in 2015.
Why?
Because the Turkish Minister would have taken against the foot by saying, “Anatolia is the cradle of countless civilizations, an open air museum. We want to know Anatolian culture as a whole, complete and not divided into compartments and Armenian culture is one. As the veins of one body. “
Some exposures may be some musical performances will be, according to them, enough to show the European public that the veins Armenian, Assyrian, Greek of this body are still alive as the Turkish-Islamic vein in contemporary Turkey.
What about the genocide and the deportation of millions of Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks there 100 years?
Why is there today that tens of thousands of descendants of the indigenous peoples of Anatolia, peoples that existed there before the arrival of the Turks in “the birthplace of countless civilizations”?
Anatolia today is it really an “open air museum” or “an open graveyard” countless civilizations whose creators were exterminated or deported there a century.
What about the oppression and extermination of the Kurdish people and Yezidis? Koçgiri, Seyh Said, Agri, Dersim and Roboski?
What about the Sunni tyranny over the Alevi community?
When amounted at the conference question about Centennial 2015 genocide, President of Europalia International Jacobs de Hagen said that it is a coincidence of dates and reminds Europalia is wants “apolitical.”
Apolitical?
While all democratic forces of the world are already preparing for the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the first genocide of the 20th century, the neo-Ottoman and Islamic leaders of Turkey still persist in the denial of this heinous crime committed by the Ottoman Empire Land that was the homeland of the Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the plan, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said recently the Turkish Parliament that it is impossible for Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide that is assigned to their ancestors and to the Turkish nation. (Armenews.com, November 7, 2014)
Moreover, the leaders of Europalia does he have to take into account the situation of human rights and freedom of expression in a country chosen as a partner of the festival? Just flip through the latest reports from international NGOs such as Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, European Federation of Journalists and Committee to Protect Journalists.
And retrograde and scandalous statements of the President of the Republic? (The President Erdogan king of controversy, AFP, November 27, 2014)
Honoring such a plan by the organization Europalia is it really an apolitical act?
Let us not forget that the decision of Europalia International Board of Directors May 23, 2013 to dedicate Europalia 2015 Turkey had already provoked reactions as was the case in 1995.
Indeed, as pointed out by the Libre Belgique of 28 May 2013, Europalia had been interrupted in March 1995 the organization of the 96 edition devoted to Turkey because of the “lack of respect for Turkey in the program of cultural diversity , including the Kurdish dimension “.
See also Article Dogan Özgüden entitled “Europalia ’96 festivities shame?”, Le Soir, December 23, 1994.
After the new allocation of Europalia Turkey, the president of the Armenian community of Belgium, Michel Mahmourian, launched the following call:
“It is clear that the choice of the year 2015 is not due to chance or at the initiative of the Belgian part. If invite Turkey is already in itself questionable – recall that in 1995 the federal government objected to the invitation of Turkey for political reasons – we can not not react to the choice of the year 2015. Let us react So, not only 2015 will be the centenary of the Armenian Genocide but also the beginning of the annihilation of all Christians in the Ottoman Empire. The occasion is thus given to us to bring Greek and Assyrian-Chaldeans, and even to seek support from other former Ottoman minorities concerned to stand out from the official Turkish position “(http: // www.. info-turk.be/419.htm#Europalia)
Despite this warning, the Belgian authorities continue to honor a denialist regime without reservation.
Or, they could demand to hold the festival that Turkey formally recognize the genocide of 1915 and agrees to repair all the consequences of this crime against humanity.
What has not been done by the Belgian ruling is made in Turkey by the democratic forces despite all the risks.
A final example:
The Kurdish MP Sebahat Tuncel Party for a Democratic Society (HDP) submitted to the Turkish Parliament a bill demanding recognition of the 1915 genocide and massacres committed against the Kurds and Alevis during the Republican period.
Tuncel invite the president to apologize to the rostrum of Parliament to the victims of these crimes against humanity. It also requires the Turkish State archives are open, that on April 24 is proclaimed as a day of remembrance and of moral and material damages are compensated by the state.
The Belgian authorities and leaders of Europalia should they not be courageous like this Kurdish politician, toujous threatened by reactionary forces and demand the recognition of the 1915 genocide by the Turkish state before the implementation of the festival program?
If they really want “apolitical”!
source: Sunday, November 30, 2014,
Stéphane © armenews.com
Police, Kurd protesters clash in Turkey’s Tunceli
Turkish police and security forces have clashed with Kurds demonstrating against a controversial visit by the country’s main nationalist leader in the eastern city of Tunceli.
Clashes erupted on Friday after Kurdish protesters blocked roads to prevent Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), from heading to Cemevi, an Alawite prayer house in the city.
The protesters were angry over Bahçeli’s contentious remarks regarding a notorious massacre in Tunceli about seven decades ago.
Anti-riot police used tear gas, pepper spray and water cannons to disperse the demonstrators who responded by throwing stones at the police.
A group of protesters attempted to march to the governor’s office building to show their anger over the visit.
The protest forced Bahçeli to cut short his trip and return south to the city of Elazığ.
He had earlier described the protests in Tunceli in the late 1930s as a rebellion and labeled the Kurd ancestors who participated in the events as terrorists.
Tunceli, formerly known as Dersim Province, witnessed the mass killing of Kurd protesters in 1937 and 1938 by Turkish police. Thousands of Kurds were killed and many others were internally displaced during their protests against Turkey’s Resettlement Law of 1934.
Turkish Police Break up Demo by President’s Palace
ANKARA, Turkey — Nov 29, 2014, 9:38 AM ET
Riot police have dispersed a protest by dozens of students near Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s new, contested 1,000-room palace.
Police on Saturday used shields and pepper spray to prevent the students from marching to the palace that has become an emblem of Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian style of governing. Video footage showed one officer punching a student in the face as he was being held by another officer. Twenty-two students were arrested, reports said.
The $630 million palace has drawn the ire of opposition parties, environmentalists and human rights activists who say the construction is too extravagant, destroyed thousands of trees and went ahead despite a court ruling.
Pope Francis, who is on a three-day visit to Turkey, became the first foreign dignitary to be welcomed at the complex Friday.
Fatih Akin’s Genocide film to be screened in Turkey’
German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s movie featuring episodes of the Armenian Genocide is going to be screened in Turkey on December 5, Daily Sabah reports.
The publication’s website quotes the director as saying that he earlier planned to produce another movie but found no actor agreeing to play the role of Hrant Dink, the assassinated editor-in-chief of the Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.
Oscar-winning director Martin Charles Scorsese lauded Akin as a unique, open-minded and good-fashioned character.
The movie, entitled The Cut, features actors Tahar Rahim, Simon Abkarian, Hindi Zahran, Kevork Malikyan and others.
The plot is based on the 1915 mass killings and deportation of the Armenians. The southeastern Turkish town of Mardin has been selected as the scene of developments.
Isis launches attack on Kobani from inside Turkey for first time
Assault by Islamic State militants reportedly began with suicide attack on border between Turkey and strategic Syrian town
Kobani has been under Isis assault since September, but the militants have never attacked it from Turkey before. Photograph: Jake Simkin/AP
Islamic State (Isis) has launched an attack on the Syrian border town of Kobani from Turkey for the first time, a Kurdish official and activists said.
The assault began with a suicide attack by a bomber in an armoured vehicle on the border crossing between Kobani and Turkey, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based opposition group, said.
Nawaf Khalil, a spokesman for Syria’s Kurdish Democratic Union party, said that Isis “used to attack the town from three sides” but “today, they are attacking from four sides”.
Turkey has previously backing the Syrian rebels fighting to topple the country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, has it has been reluctant to help the Kurds in Kobani for fear of stoking Kurdish ambitions for an independent state.
There was no comment from Ankara on Saturday about Isis fighters launching the assault from Turkish soil.
SOHR said heavy fighting also took place south-west of the town, where Isis brought in tanks to reinforce their fighters.
The group began its Kobani offensive in mid-September, capturing parts of the town and dozens of nearby villages. The town later became the focus of air strikes by the US-led coalition against the militants.
Kurdish fighters have slowly been advancing in Kobani since late October. Hundreds of people have been killed in the fighting
SOHR said on Saturday that the latest fighting killed at least eight Kurdish fighters and 17 jihadists.
Turkey, Former police chief was called to testify in Dink trial
Former police chief Ali Fuat Yılmazer was called to testify as part of an investigation into the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink as a suspect. report Zaman
Prosecutor Yusuf Hakkı Doğan is supervising the investigation and summoned Yılmazer, who was on duty at İstanbul Police Intelligence Unit. Yılmazer previously said he was on duty abroad when the killing took place and denied any responsibility. The prosecutor reportedly also called Ogün Samast, the hit man in the murder of Dink, who was fatally shot outside the Agos weekly office in 2007, as a witness. Former İstanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah will also be summoned as part of the investigation.
Yılmazer is currently behind bars on wiretapping charges.
Why POPE Visit the Occupied & Genocide land So Called Turkey?
ISTANBUL — He’s championed austerity, condemned greed and been dubbed “The People’s Pope.” But during a visit to Ankara on Friday, Pope Francis is scheduled to visit a new $615-million palace seen by many Turks as a symbol of excess and their president’s autocratic rule.
The pontiff will become the first foreign dignitary to visit the 1,000-room presidential residence that’s been nicknamed Ak Saray — or “White Palace.” Some of the building’s critics have urged him to cancel his visit for fear it would condone a construction project they deem not just extravagant, but illegal.
The palace is the largest presidential residence in the world. It is 30 times the size of the White House.
Not only does the lavish structure appear at odds with the pope’s frugal philosophy, it was constructed on environmentally protected farmland. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ignored a court injunction ordering its construction be halted.
“We don’t want the pope to legitimize the construction, which is illegal according to international laws,” Tezcan Karakuş Candan, head of Ankara’s Chamber of Architects, told NBC News. “We are fighting to preserve the Atatürk Forest Farm and will try to stop every foreign dignitary from going there.”
Atatürk Forest Farm was donated to the state in 1937 by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whose mausoleum the pontiff will visit earlier Friday. The land has been an environmentally protected site for more than two decades.
An administrative court ordered construction to be suspended earlier this year. But Erdoğan ignored the ruling. “Let them tear it down if they can,” he said, according to Al-Monitor. “They ordered suspension, yet they can’t stop this building. I’ll be opening it, I’ll be moving in and using it.”
Defending the construction at recent budget talks, Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ said economic conditions were better today than when large amounts of public money were spent on palaces in the past. According to Hurriyet, he said it was more accurate to call the complex a “service building” rather than a “palace” and said there had been a “smear campaign” against the project.
The pope’s commitment to a relatively humble life has seen him take the name of a saint known for a life of poverty and simplicity. He also refused to take up residency in the official papal apartments in the Apostolic Palace in favor of a modest room within the Vatican.
China slams Turkey for offer to shelter Uighurs
BEIJING – Reuters
A motorcyclist and child ride against wind and snow in Balikun, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region. Turkey has offered to shelter around 200 Uighurs found in a human-smuggling camp in Thailand, irking the Chinese government. REUTERS Photo
China has lashed out at Turkey for offering shelter to roughly 200 Uighurs from the western Chinese region of Xinjiang who were rescued from a human-smuggling camp in Thailand.
Thai police found the group in March and Chinese officials identified “dozens” of them as Uighurs, a Muslim people from Xinjiang who speak a Turkic language. Many Uighurs chafe at government curbs on their culture and religion.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency on Nov. 26 reported a request by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu for Thailand to send the Uighurs there, a move that angered China, which views their move to Thailand as “illegal immigration.”
Turkey asked ‘not to meddle’
Asked for a response on Turkey’s offer, China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said the case was a matter for China and Thailand and “the relevant country” should stop interfering.
“We urge the relevant country to immediately stop meddling in placement work for the relevant case, be cautious with words and actions and not send out mistaken signals that connive in, and even support, illegal immigration activities,” Hua said in a faxed statement to Reuters.
“Illegal immigration activities disrupt the normal orderly flow of people internationally, harm the interests of the international community, and can harm security of the relevant countries and regions,” Hua added.
Small numbers of Uighurs trickling out of China to Southeast Asia are believed to go overland into Laos or Myanmar, before going to Thailand and elsewhere.
Turkey is home to thousands of Uighurs who have fled Xinjiang since the Chinese Communists took over the region in 1949. It has projected itself as a stable Muslim democracy, a key player at a time of turmoil and unrest in the Middle East.
“I brought the issue to the notice of the Thai foreign minister in New York and the Chinese foreign minister in Beijing as well, and told them Turkey wants to shelter those Uighurs,” Anadolu Agency cited Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu as saying.
In the past two years, hundreds of people have been killed in unrest in Xinjiang, prompting a crackdown by authorities.
November/28/2014
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