Turkey Archives

Anti-Armenian articles increase in Turkish media

August 23, 2014 By administrator

A new report is publicized in the Turkish press, and with respect to the study of xenophobia and discrimination in Turkey.

As a result of a study that was conducted from January to April 2014, Armenians again were most targeted in the Turkish press in terms of xenophobia, reported Haberdar website of Turkey.

After the Armenians, the second in this list are the Jews, who are followed by the articles that incite hatred toward Christians, and Greeks and Kurds round up the “top five.”

During the specified period of time there were 188 articles that incited enmity and hatred toward ethnic and religious groups and nations, and this number surpasses the number of such articles that were published in the Turkish press in the years past.

German couple found dead in Turkish resort town

August 22, 2014 By administrator

The police found a German couple dead, with their hands tied and mouths taped shut, in an apartment the two were renting in the resort town of Alanya on Thursday.

Relatives of the couple could not reach them for a few days and the police were contacted to investigate. Unable to enter the apartment in Alanya, a town in the Mediterranean province of Antalya, police broke down the door and entered the unit to find the German couple dead.

The couple, Kerstin (50) and Peter Horvath (65), arrived in Alanya last month on vacation.

Police noted that the two were killed after sustaining blows to their heads. The couple was sent to the Alanya Municipality morgue. Experts believe the two might have been killed two weeks ago.

The gardener of the apartment, Şeref Ö., said he last saw the couple on Aug. 16. He was taken to Mahmutlar Gendarmerie Command to testify. Security services also seized security camera footage from the apartment complex.

Imitation or threat to Russia?- opinions on Georgian-Turkish-Azerbaijani talks

August 22, 2014 By administrator

A closer partnership among Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan is likely to be directed against Armenia at any moment, a former parliament member has said, commenting on the three countries’ recent ministerial-level talks in Nakicevan.

“in case the Georgian transport route, which serves to carry goods to Armenia, is closed, we will find ourselves in quite a difficult situation,” Vardan Khachatryan told Tert.am.

The Georgian, Turkish and Azerbaijani defense ministers met in Nakicevan on Wednesday to discuss cooperation plans. The agreed mutually that a deeper partnership among states would be directed to national security in the defense sector in future. “Against the backdrop of the existing challenges and the security risks in the region, we must commit ourselves to a closer cooperation,” Georgian Defense Minister Irakli Alasania told his counterparts.

Khachatryan said he sees that Turkey exercises a strong influence on Georgia. “A large part of Georgia’s economy is under Turkey’s control. From this point of view, their desire to join NATO with rapid efforts is linked to the fact that Turkey is going to be their elder brother in the alliance,” he noted.

Khachatryan said he nonetheless hopes that Georgia will take sides with Armenia, opposing to the existing alliance. “We should not count on the Georgians as a brother nation; they will act in the interests of Armenia, as they have done many times before,” he added.

Commenting on Russia’s position, the former lawmaker said that he doesn’t think the country would derive any benefits in case of abandoning Armenia. “Should Russia surrender its strategic ally, it will split up, as the CSTO [Collective Security Treaty Organization] will stop operating then. Nobody will believe it has influence in the world, whereas the CSTO considers itself a challenger of NATO,” he added.

Hayk Sanosyan, a former Republican lawmaker from Georgia’s Armenian populated region of Javakhk, said he doesn’t think the agreements reached during the ministerial talks pose any threat at all. “Their closer relations cannot pose any hazard to us as Georgia is our friend,” he said, noting that the country traditionally maintains close economic ties with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

“I think it was Turkey’s initiative to hold the meeting in Nakicevan. And I believe that the proactive step by Turkey was directed against Russia in an attempt to demonstrate that they hold dominant positions in the region. It was an imitation, so I don’t treat it seriously; it is not a threat,” he said.

source: Tert.am

Israel Bombs Gaza While Hamas’ Kidnapping Mastermind Sits in Turkey

August 19, 2014 By administrator

By World News

As Israeli war planes pound Hamas positions in Gaza, the man the country really wants is sitting pretty in Turkey.

Israel Defense Forces began a campaign of retribution against Hamas targets in Gaza on Monday after troops found the murdered bodies of three teenage boys abducted last month near their settlement of Gush Etzion.

But the Hamas commander who is seen by Israel as responsible for a wave of kidnapping attempts in the West Bank is actually based in Turkey. Saleh al-Arouri, that senior Hamas operative, makes his home inside the territory of a NATO ally.

“The Israelis say he was one of the key operational leaders who has been calling for and overseeing these various kidnapping plots over the past two years,” said Matthew Levitt, the director of the Stein Program on Counterterrorism & Intelligence at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It’s not that he was necessarily on the phone with these kidnappers, but kidnapping in general has been a key focus for Hamas operatives in the last two years and al-Arouri has been encouraging it.”

Now that the man who Israel believes has significant responsibility for the murder of the three teenagers is in Turkey, it could further complicate relations between Ankara and Jerusalem, two former allies that have tried recently to repair a broken relationship.

Turkey has cooperated at times with Israel and the West on contingency planning for Syria during its civil war. But the Turks also maintain close ties to the political wing of Hamas, a group Israel and the United States still designate as a terrorist organization. Indeed, Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmed Davutaglu, on Monday talked to Khalled Meshall, the head of the Hamas political bureau, in a telephone call.

Senior Israeli officials confirmed for The Daily Beast that al-Arouri is the Hamas leader who has encouraged, funded and coordinated a campaign to ramp up kidnappings in the West Bank and that al-Arouri now resides in Turkey. Jonathan Schanzer, the vice president for research at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said, “al-Arouri is a senior Hamas figure with a logistical, operational and financial role in the group’s activities in the West Bank. Any attack that takes place in the West Bank will ultimately raise questions about his involvement.”

Israeli security services last month named two Palestinian Hamas activists, Amer abu Aysha and Marwan Qawasmeh, as the prime suspects in the kidnapping of Naftali Fraenkel, Eyal Yifrach, and Gilad Shaar, the three Israeli teenagers who were found dead under a pile of stones in an open field near Hebron. But the mastermind of the Hamas kidnapping strategy is al-Arouri, Israeli officials say. These officials, however, are loath to talk about him on the record.

Israel: Coup attempt in West Bank planned by Hamas official in Turkey

August 19, 2014 By administrator

By YAAKOV LAPPIN

Israeli soldiers detain a Palestinian during clashes at a protest against Israeli military action in Gaza, in the West Bank village of Silwad, near Ramallah on Aug. 15. (Photo: Reuters, Mohamad Torokman)

August 19, 2014, Tuesday/ 02:15:07/ AP / JERUSALEM

Israel’s Shin Bet security service said Monday it had thwarted a Hamas coup attempt in the West Bank aimed at toppling Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, though it offered few details, claiming that the plot was planned by a Hamas official who is based in Turkey and “enjoys the support of local officials there.”

In recent months, the Shin Bet said it had arrested more than 90 Hamas operatives, confiscated dozens of weapons that had been smuggled into the West Bank and more than $170,000 aimed at funding attacks. It produced photos of the confiscated weapons and cash and a flowchart of the Hamas operatives who had been questioned.

The Shin Ben said the plot was orchestrated by senior Hamas official Salah Arouri, who is based in Turkey and enjoys the support of the local officials there. The idea was to set up cells in major West Bank cities. Hamas had no immediate comment to the claim.

Hamas overtook the Gaza Strip in 2007 from forces loyal to Abbas. It is currently negotiating in Cairo over a cease-fire to formally end the Gaza war.

A five-day cease-fire expires later Monday.

The monthlong Israel-Hamas war has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, according to Palestinian and UN officials. Israel has lost 67 people, all but three of them soldiers.

The fighting was precipitated by Israeli arrests of Hamas members in the West Bank following the abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers. The Shin Bet said it uncovered the coup plot due to information gleaned from the arrests.

The three teens – Eyal Yifrah, Gilad Shaar and Naftali Frenkel – were slain in June in the West Bank. Their killings were followed by the slaying of a Palestinian youth in what was a likely revenge attack.

The Gaza war began on July 8 with Israeli airstrikes. Nine days later, Israel sent in ground troops to destroy Hamas’ underground cross-border tunnels constructed for attacks inside Israel.

Also on Monday, Israeli troops demolished the homes of two militants suspected in the abduction and killing of the three Israeli teenagers and sealed up the home of a third.

Diyarbakir, Kurdish protester killed in clashes with Turkey police

August 19, 2014 By administrator

A Kurdish protester has reportedly been killed and two others wounded during violent clashes with Turkish security forces in the southeastern province of Diyarbakir.

Turkish media reported on Tuesday that the clashes broke out at a cemetery near the town of Lice in Diyarbakir, where Kurdish protesters had gathered to prevent police from removing a statue of Mahsum Korkmaz, one of the founders of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

Korkmoz was among the members who carried out the first PKK attacks against Turkish military posts three decades ago.

Reports say a 24-year-old man was injured by gunfire during the clashes and later succumbed to his wounds in a hospital.

On Monday, a court in Diyarbakir ruled that the statue must be demolished two days after it was erected in the province and sparked outrage in the country’s political circles.

The clashes took place a day after Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed PKK leader, welcomed the start of a political process to resolve differences between Ankara and the group and said the PKK’s decades-long war with the Turkish government is coming to an end.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region in southeastern Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

In March 2013, Ocalan declared a historic ceasefire after months of negotiations with the Turkish government. In return, the PKK demanded amendments to the penal code and electoral laws as well as the right to education in the Kurdish language and a degree of regional autonomy.

source: presstv.com

Diyarbakir, inauguration of a controversial statue of a former commander of the PKK

August 18, 2014 By administrator

The statue of a former commander of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who planned the first attacks of the armed insurgency against the Turkish authorities launched in 1984, was inaugurated Sunday in the southeast of Turkey.
The sculpture in the likeness of Mahsum Korkmaz, who was killed in 1986, was erected Yolacti village in the province Kurdish majority Diyarbakir (south-eastern Turkey) in a cemetery reserved for PKK fighters in the presence of responsible (…)

Turkey’s Bitlis town council renames street after William Saroyan

August 16, 2014 By administrator

The Bitlis town council has approved the renaming of five streets in this historic town in south-eastern Turkey. Among the names is “William Saroyan Street,” after the great American-Armenian writer whose ancestors came from Bitlis before 1915. Saroyan was born in Fresno but felt strong ties to his ancestral home. He visited Bitlis in 1964 and 2014 marks the 50th anniversary of that visit, Massis Post reported.

One of the champions of renaming William Saroyan Street is Barzan Serefhanoglu, whose grandfather, Adil Serefhanoglu, was the mayor of Bitlis when Saroyan visited the city. Adil Serefhanoglu showed great respect to Saroyan and paid a high price for it. After Saroyan’s departure, he was harassed by the authorities who wanted to punish him.

William Saroyan Street will now be the main street of the Sapkor district of the city, where the Saroyan family home was located. This district looks over the citadel in the city below. Many of the houses in this district still bear the dates of their construction in Armenian, Ottoman and Western numerals.

Bitlis-Co-Mayors-with-GI-Letter-and-flowers-2The Gomidas Institute congratulated the co-mayors of Bitlis, Nevin Dasdemir Dagkiran and Hüseyin Olan, as well as all members of Bitlis town council who approved the name changes unanimously.

“This was a sensitive decision,” said Ara Sarafian of the Gomidas Institute. “The people of Bitlis have expressed their pride in one of their own Armenian sons. Such sentiments could not have been expressed even a few years ago, when all positive sentiments regarding Armenians and Kurds were proscribed by the Turkish state. We have come a long way in Turkey, but there is still a long way to go.”

The other names adopted by Bitlis town council celebrate Bediüzzaman Said-i Kürdi, Kemal Fevzi, Serefhan, and Ferhat Tepe.

The renaming of William Saroyan Street is partly the result of a bridge-building operation the Gomidas Institute initiated in 2013 – before the current co-mayors and town council were even elected. The Institute’s efforts resulted in increased contacts, a public exhibition dedicated to the Armenians of Bitlis before 1915 – an exhibition which was shown in Bitlis and Fresno, California – as well as other projects still underway.

The Gomidas Institute’s work in Bitlis has been possible with the help of the Turkish Human Rights’ Association (IHD), the Bitlis Bar Association, the Armenian Studies Program at California State University (Fresno), as well as private individuals.

Nouvelles d’Arménie: Une Rue William Saroyan à Bitlis

Turkey played part in Islamic State’s success, commander says

August 13, 2014 By administrator

An Islamic State militant stand guard at a checkpoint captured from the Iraqi Army outside Beiji refinery, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. AP Photo

The so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), recently renamed has Turkey to thank for growing strong enough to conquer large swathes of Syria and Iraq, one of its commanders has suggested in an interview with the Washington Post published on Aug. 12.

The 27-year-old commander, identified as Abu Yusef, who traveled to the town of Reyhanlı in the southern province of Hatay for the interview, explained that they received most of their supplies from across the Turkish border until a recent crackdown against them.

“We used to have some fighters — even high-level members of the Islamic State — getting treated in Turkish hospitals. And also, most of the fighters who joined us in the beginning of the war came via Turkey, and so did our equipment and supplies,” Yusef told the Washington Post.

Although it has now become more difficult to rely on the Turkish borders since the recent crackdown, the jihadists now have more than enough access to weapons in Iraq.

“It is not as easy to come into Turkey anymore. I myself had to go through smugglers to get here, but as you see, there are still ways and methods,” he said.

The piece, penned by Anthony Faiola and Souad Mekhennet, suggested that Turkey’s recent measures could prove “too little, too late.”

Click here to read the Washington Post’s article.

Turkey’s laughing women now hurling shoes online

August 13, 2014 By administrator

A female opposition deputy’s fiery speech at Parliament has triggered a new social media protest in Turkey, with hundreds of women expressing anger at male dominance by sharing photos of their shoes and slippers, the Hurriyet Daily News reports.

“I swear to God, the devil in me tells me to take off my shoe and hurl it at you. But I look at my shoe and then I look at you and frankly, I say, it’s not worth it,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Aylin Nazlıaka said at Parliament’s rostrum on Aug. 12, in response to verbal attacks from the male-dominated ranks of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

A Twitter campaign with the hasthag #geliyorterlik (“The slipper is coming”) was started on Aug. 13, triggering a flood of women sharing photos of their shoes and slippers in support of Nazlıaka.

“The slipper is coming” is a reference to the phrase used by many Turkish mothers to threaten their misbehaving children in a matronly way.

“This is a phrase that has been scaring me since I was a child,” wrote Twitter user @Trollololed.

Some who joined the campaign suggested that the heaviest shoes should be chosen to cause the greatest damage to male dominance in Turkey.

“This one is from a construction site. It has metal support inside,” @isinturkeli tweeted, while @blenderella said “My slipper is coming and it can hurt like a police baton.”

Along with a number of religious officials, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç became one of the most popular targets of the slippers and shoes flying online.

“This one is coming for [president-elect Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan’s mouth and Arınç’s forehead,” @fusunckgl tweeted.

On July 28, Arınç had triggered the wildly popular #direnkahkaha laughter protest on social media, after suggesting that women should not laugh in public and should “know what is haram and not haram … She should not be inviting in her attitudes and will protect her chasteness.”

Several men also joined the latest protest. One of them, @uguryoldas, tweeted: “This is my mother’s guided slipper. It always targets the mouth. It is coming for those who insult women.”