Turkey police clash with Kurds at border

October 29, 2014 By administrator

Turkish police have clashed with people gathering at a border gate to welcome Iraqi Kurdish fighters bound for the flashpoint Syrian town of Kobani to fight the ISIL terrorists.

Late on Tuesday, Turkish security forces fired teargas to disperse people gathering at Turkish-Iraqi border crossing of Habur, where a military convoy of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government forces, known as Peshmerga, should bypass to enter Syria.

The clashes occurred despite the fact that Ankara said it would allow the Peshmerga to enter Kobani through the Turkish border.

More than 70 Peshmerga forces have just flown into Turkey and will soon be crossing the border and heading to Kobani — the town besieged by militants with the ISIL Takfiri terrorist group.

The Takfiri group launched its offensive on Kobani and nearby Syrian villages in mid-September. More than 800 people have been killed on both sides. The militants captured dozens of Kurdish villages around Kobani and control parts of the town.

Other Kurdish fighters are heading to Turkey via land before their deployment. Syrian Kurds had for long been appealing to fellow Kurds in Iraq to send reinforcements.

Analysts say Ankara, having already won the US green light, plans to let the terrorists seize the Kurdish town of Kobani before sending tanks and troops to fight them in a bid to capture and possibility annex the Syrian territory.

Turkey, Flooded mine’s owner linked to Turkey’s ruling AKP

October 29, 2014 By administrator

The flooded mine where 18 workers remain trapped after a flood on Oct. 28 is owned by a former mayoral candidate from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

Saffet Uyar, the owner of the Has Şekerler Mining Company, was elected as the mayor of the Güneyyurt district in the Central Anatolian province of Karaman in 1994 and 1999 from the center-right Motherland Party (ANAP). Uyar was later nominated by the AKP in 2004 and 2009, but lost both elections.

According to the Doğan News Agency (DHA), he is also a cousin of Azim Uyar, who owns a mine in Soma where the deadliest disaster in Turkey’s history resulted in the deaths of 301 miners in May 2014. One worker died and 27 others were also injured in Azim Uyar’s mine in October 2013.

It has also been reported that the latest incident is not the first flooding in Saffet Uyar’s mine in Karaman. In 2012, the mine had to be urgently evacuated after workers noticed a water leak. The owner asked for his cousin’s help and Azim Uyar sent water pumps from his mines to Karaman, according to DHA.

Saffet Uyar’s accident-struck mine in Karaman was inspected by the Labor Ministry in June 2014. However, his company was only punished with a number of fines due to eight errors noted in the inspection report. The Energy Ministry, meanwhile, moved to shut down the mine for three months due to lack of safety. The mine was reopened after safety shortcomings were reportedly overcome.

More recently, Uyar shut down the mine himself, complaining that a new law passed in August had increased operating costs. After 45 days of closure, he reopened the mine following a deal with the workers.

Speaking in an interview with news website Radikal, Uyar said he did not know the cause of the latest flooding.

“It could be due to an underground spring or accumulated winter waters,” he said, adding that he did not “see any chance of survival if the workers remained where they were [when the water blast occurred].”

Armenian issue not most important matter for Turkey – Etyen Mahcupyan

October 29, 2014 By administrator

Istanbul-Armenian journalist Etyen Mahcupyan, who was recently appointed Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey, stated that the Armenian issue not the most important matter for Turkey.

Mahcupyan told Al Jazeera TV that Turkey’s current government is the best for the Kurds and the others.

To Al Jazeera’s query on whether his being an Armenian will help in the settlement of the Armenian issue, Mahcupyan responded:

“I am Armenian. Of course, I also will contribute to the regulation of the Armenian issue.

“[But] I don’t have the authority to represent the Armenian community of Turkey. And the Armenian community of Turkey, [and] the Armenian diaspora are the key players in this matter,” Etyen Mahcupyan said.

287 Turkish women murdered in first 10 months of 2014

October 28, 2014 By administrator

Fevzi Kızılkoyun ANKARA

Some 287 women were murdered in the first 10 months of this year in Turkey, as additional clauses to the law on the protection of families are drafted.

Despite changes to laws, court rulings, restraining orders on guilty men, protection granted to exposed women, and the application of a panic button system, the number of murdered women has continued to rise in Turkey, surpassing previous years in the first 10 months of 2014 alone.

New clauses aimed at preventing violence against women are currently being drafted, to be added to the existing Law on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women. The most significant of the new additions is the introduction of a rehabilitation counseling option for men, alongside the existing legal punishments.

Men who resort to violence against their wives and do not have a place to go to after being banned from their homes with a court decision will be placed in shelters, where they will receive rehabilitation counseling, according to the new clauses. A report at the end of the rehabilitation process will decide whether or not the men are able to return to their homes.

Since the Law on the Protection of Family and the Prevention of Violence against Women was adopted in early 2012, almost 700 women have been killed in Turkey. Some 217 women were murdered in 2012, and 189 were murdered in 2013, and 287 have been murdered in just the first 10 months of 2013.

Iran accuses Turkey of prolonging civil war in Syria

October 28, 2014 By administrator

ANKARA – Reuters

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. AFP Photo

Iran has accused Turkey of prolonging the three-year conflict in neighboring Syria by insisting on President Bashar al-Assad’s overthrow and supporting “terrorist groups,” the official IRNA news agency has reported.

Tehran and Ankara back opposing sides in the civil war, which pits rebel forces including radical Sunni Muslim fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) against Assad, Tehran’s closest regional ally.

“Ankara’s interference in Syrian internal affairs has unfortunately resulted in prolonging the war and extensive deaths of innocent Syrian civilians,” Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted a senior Foreign Ministry official as saying.

“The crisis in Syria could have ended three years ago if Turkish officials stopped demanding regime change and supporting terrorist groups in Syria,” the official said.

The comments appeared to be a response to remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was quoted by Turkish media on Oct. 27 accusing Iran of playing on Syria’s sectarian divisions.

“When we have bilateral meetings with Iran, they agree on solving this issue together. When it comes to action, unfortunately, they have their own way of working,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying.

October/28/2014

Egypt to unilaterally cancel trade agreement signed with Turkey during Morsi rule

October 28, 2014 By administrator

CAIRO – Doğan News Agency

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly condemned the military takeover that ousted Mohamed Morsi.

The Egyptian government has decided not to extend a comprehensive free trade agreement signed with Turkey during the rule of the ousted ex-President Mohamed Morsi, the MENA news agency reported on Oct. 28.

Ties between the two countries have been strained since Morsi’s ouster last year, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan repeatedly condemning the “coup” and describing the military government as illegitimate.

An undersecretary from Egypt’s Transport Ministry was quoted as saying that the agreement, made up of several close cooperation measures including allowing ships from both countries to use their respective waters, had significantly damaged the Egyptian national economy.

He said Cairo would not extend the agreement, which is in effect until March 2015.

Both countries downgraded their diplomatic relations after Egypt withdrew its ambassador from Turkey over Ankara’s stance on the overthrow of Morsi.

Erdoğan has since repeatedly slammed Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who led the military takeover in July 2013, turning the “rabia” sign of the Muslim Brotherhood supporters who faced a brutal crackdown in Egypt into his rallying symbol.

A recent attempt to spark dialogue between the two countries’ foreign ministers in New York was nixed after Erdoğan’s strongly-worded criticism at the U.N. General Assembly.

October/28/2014

Twenty security agents arrested on wiretapping case in Turkey

October 28, 2014 By administrator

About 20 Security Directorate agents were detained Tuesday in Mersin, Turkey, on suspicion of involvement in illegal wiretapping. The list of suspects comprises 27 names of security agents, local media informs, according to Russian news agency TASS.

Special investigative measures have been taken in the course of investigation into activities of what is known as parallel structure, or shadow government.

A certain group of government authorities staff members is said to pursue a goal to undermine the work of the incumbent government. Most agents detained in Mersin are police intelligence agents.

The latest wave of arrests took place on October 21 in Ankara. The police raided places of residence of current and former Security Directorate agents. About 20 people were detained, including former intelligence unit chief Ömer Altıparmak and his Deputy Lokman Kircil, responsible for counterterrorism activities.

1915 Mentality continues to date, says ex-Turkish mayor Osman Baydemir

October 28, 2014 By administrator

A former mayor of the Turkish town of Diyarbekir, who is now on a visit to Armenia, says conducting a trip to the country has been his long-time dream.

At a news conference in Yerevan, Osman Baydemir said he very much regrets that the mentality characteristic of the 1915 Genocide period continues today, leading to such violent crimes as the recent militant insurgencies in Kobane (Syria).

“The 1915 mentality and ideology continue nowadays,” he noted

Agreeing with the former mayor, Ismail Beshikci, a prominent Turkish scholar also attending the news conference, said his visit to the Genocide Museum-Institute brought him face to face with the idea that institutions of the kind should focus more attention on stateless nations being subjected to Genocide.

“The first Genocide is the one committed 1915,” he said, noting that its impunity later led to the Jewish Holocaust.

“And the Kurdish issue too, can be said to be the logical continuation of the Armenian Genocide. Had the Armenian Genocide been punished, the Kurdish issue would not have struck its roots so deep,” he said, stressing the importance of national education and confrontation with history as important factors for preventing future crimes of genocide.

The idea was also shared by the Kurdish activist Nurjan Kaya who said the nation pursued the genocidal mentality later too in order to become dominant.

Turkai Abdulgafur, an ethnic Armenian whose family was converted to Islam after taking flight from the Genocide, said it is very difficult to be an Armenian in Diyarbekir. He said the family had never had an occasion to reveal its identity ever since. “We have been more Muslim than the Muslims to be able to survive,” he added.

Abdulgafur further spoke of Armenians in Turkey, noting that those converted to Islam (4-5 million) considerably outnumber the Christian Armenians. He said the community is isolated from the Armenians in both Armenia and the Diaspora.

Turkey’s neo-ottoman architect Davutoğlu to build Balkans’ largest mosque in Tirana

October 27, 2014 By administrator

The new mosque will be able to host 4,500 worshipers at the same time, Diyanet officials have said. AA Photo

Turkey’s Directorate for Religious Affairs (Diyanet) has announced plans to build the largest mosque in the Balkans, in the Albanian capital Tirana, citing the low capacity in the city’s sole existing mosque.

Only 60 people are able to worship at the same time in the Et’hem Bey Mosque, despite the fact that 70 percent of Tirana’s population of over 300,000 is Muslim, İsmail Palakoğlu, the head of the Diyanet Foundation (TDV), told state-run Anadolu Agency on Oct. 27. Palakoğlu said they planned to build the new mosque on one hectare of land.

People are worshipping in the Tirana Square during holidays because the Et’hem Bey Mosque is not big enough, he said. “There is difficulty during rainy weather. But in the new mosque, which will have four minarets, 4,500 people will be able to pray,” he added.

Palakoğlu said the license procedure was still ongoing, but added that they planned to complete the construction of the mosque within two to three years.

Following Turkey’s presidential election in late August, incoming Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu brought the Diyanet under his subordination as part of reassignments in the new Cabinet. Though previously subordinated to another ministry, the Diyanet is the highest religious authority in Turkey, which despite being a Muslim majority country has been a secular state since the 1920s.

The TDV has been involved in a number of high profile activities abroad this year, paying the wages of imams in the flood-hit Bosnia and Herzegovina in addition to restoring mosques and other religious buildings that were damaged in the flood.

Israel accuses Turkey of aiding Hamas coup plan against Mahmoud Abbas in Judea and Samaria.

October 25, 2014 By administrator

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has implied that Turkey was responsible for Hamas’ alleged preparations for a coup against Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. “Turkey is playing a cynical game,” Ya’alon told US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on Oct. 21, criticizing Turkey for the support it provides to Hamas. “Hamas moved its terror headquarters from Damascus to Istanbul, in Turkey, a NATO member, where it is represented by Saleh al-Arouri, who orchestrates terrorist attacks against Israel from there and attempted to instigate a coup against Mahmoud Abbas in Judea and Samaria.” report Al monitor

Fadi al-Husseini, Palestinian Embassy spokesman in Ankara, however, told Al-Monitor that the Palestinian side has no knowledge of any Hamas coup preparations against Abbas. “We also heard about this alleged coup preparation from the media. The Israeli media also link the death of three Israeli teenagers to Arouri, but there is so far no evidence that Hamas was involved in these incidents,” Husseini said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explicitly blamed Hamas for the teenagers’ deaths. “These teenagers were kidnapped and the kidnapping was carried out by Hamas members. Hamas denials do not change this fact,” he said June 15.

Netanyahu also said, “Those who perpetrated the abduction of our youths were members of Hamas — the same Hamas that Abu Mazen [Abbas] made a unity government with. This has severe repercussions.” Indeed, Israel began its Gaza operation in July 2014, killing more than 2,000 Palestinians.

“We see that Israel is increasingly sliding away from the peace process. They do not trust the Palestinian side as a real peace partner, nor do they have any trust in the United Nations body — specifically the UN Human Rights Council,” said Umut Uzer, an associate professor at Istanbul Technical University’s department of humanities and social sciences. “It is no longer even possible to expect a return to a more balanced politics toward Israel. Neither side has any trust left. Turkey has clearly sided with the Palestinians, but the current government here has also taken the side of the Palestinians favoring Hamas.”

Uzer said that although the Turkish government clearly sides with Hamas and considers it the legitimately elected representative of the Palestinian people, it conveniently forgets about Hamas’ terrorist activities. Uzer explains this approach as a part of the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) ideological and emotional attachment to the group.

“Having said that, frankly speaking, it is a misconception to suggest that the Turkey-Israel relationship soared due to [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan coming to power. One needs to admit that this relationship has no real counterpart on the Turkish streets. It was put together with a bureaucratic intention considering the country’s interests,” Uzer said. “Yet Turkey’s liberal, left and secular crowds are also sensitive about the Palestinian cause. They see the Palestinians as victims of World War II, and they would like to see their suffering come to an end. It is to say that, even if Erdogan were not in power, the relationship between these two countries would not show any real progress in the absence of a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians resolving this issue once and for all.”

In the meantime, Ankara has kept quiet on Ya’alon’s accusation that Turkey was indirectly aiding Hamas’ preparations for a coup against Abbas. If proven, it would strike a significant blow to Erdogan’s strong condemnations of coup attempts, whether in Turkey, Egypt or elsewhere.

Since the deadly 2010 Mavi Marmara incident, Turkey and Israel’s political and diplomatic ties have soured. Some have speculated about a potential finalization of a deal, whereby Israel would give significant financial compensation to the families of those killed on board the Mavi Marmara. In turn, the countries would then reinitiate diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level. Ya’alon’s statement makes it clear that we are nowhere near that day.

Uzer argues that Turkey turning a complete blind eye to Hamas’ terror activities is not good for peace efforts in the region. “The United States is certainly the real partner that could influence Israel and move things around. Turkey could have helped things with its soft power, just like the AKP did in its first years,” Uzer said. “On the other hand, Israel is increasingly becoming isolated. … The political right is getting stronger in Israel, and that means there is currently no strong peace camp there.”

Embassy spokesman Husseini said that, in hindsight, Turkey and Israel’s soured political relationship does not serve the best interests of the Palestinian cause. “We wish to see more of our friends to carry our messages and talk to Israel,” Husseini said. “A good relationship between Turkey and Israel would have benefited the Palestinian cause and help end the conflict.”

By Tulin Daloglu

Columnist