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The fascist Erdogan Merkel created now she has to deal with, Turkey’s Nazi analogy ‘cannot be tolerated’

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The fascist Erdogan Merkel created now she has to deal with it.

Chancellor Angela Merkel has called on Turkish officials to stop comparing modern Germany to Nazi Germany as tensions continue to escalate between the two countries.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Germany of “Nazi practices” last week after several Turkish ministers were denied permission to hold rallies in Germany in support of an upcoming referendum on extending his powers.

Addressing the German lower house of parliament, Bundestag, on Thursday, Merkel said Turkey’s accusations of “Nazi-style practices” in modern Germany are “sad” and ”cannot be tolerated.”

“Comparisons with Nazi Germany always lead to misery, to the trivialization of the crimes against humanity committed by National Socialism [more commonly known as Nazism],” the German leader said.

Such comparisons by Ankara must stop, she said, adding “they are not worth considering our close ties between Germany and Turkey and our peoples – politically, in our society, as a NATO partner and economically.“

Merkel, however, said German officials would continue to do all in their powers to secure the release of detained German-Turkish journalist, Deniz Yucel.

In February, Turkey arrested the German newspaper Die Welt journalist, whom Erdogan has described as both a German spy and a representative of the outlawed Kurdish rebel group PKK, triggering a row between the two countries.

“The profound and serious differences between the Germany and Turkey touch fundamental issues of democracy and law,” Merkel said.

She cited “the situation of the freedom of opinion and the freedom of press in Turkey, about the fate of the many arrested journalists, also the journalist Deniz Yucel, for which the German government will do whatever they can.”

Last weekend, several German cities cancelled planned events in which Turkish cabinet ministers wanted to address pro-Erdogan rallies, citing security concerns.

Ankara described the cancellations as efforts by Berlin to sabotage the pro-Erdogan rallies as well as “meddling” in Turkey’s affairs.

About 1.5 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany are eligible to vote in the referendum next month on constitutional reform that would grant President Erdogan extended new powers.

Politicians in other European countries have also urged bans on any pro-Erdogan campaigning aimed at gathering support for a “yes” vote in Turkey’s April referendum on constitutional reforms.

Helicopter crashes shortly after takeoff in Istanbul, 5 dead, Turkish executive and “four Russian guests.”

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A helicopter with seven passengers on board has crashed in the Turkish city of Istanbul, killing five people.

The Sikorsky S-76 helicopter, which is owned by Turkish conglomerate Eczacibasi, came down shortly after takeoff from Istanbul’s Ataturk airport on Friday.

“According to initial information, five died,” Istanbul Governor Vasip Sahin said.

Bulent Eczacibasi, the chairman of the conglomerate, said in a statement that the helicopter was carrying two Turkish pilots and five passengers, including one Turkish executive of the group and “four Russian guests.”

The firm’s Russian operations chief was reportedly among the guests, who were on their way to another district in the city.

There were no victims on the ground as the road where the helicopter crashed was largely deserted at the time.

“We have no information on the details, the cause of the crash will become evident after the evaluations,” the firm’s chairman said in an earlier statement.

Turkish media speculated that the incident occurred due to foggy weather.

State media and other reports said the aircraft hit a television tower but the governor said he was unable to confirm the account, adding that investigations were under way.

UN report: Turkey guilty of ‘serious’ abuses in Kurdish region

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The UN has called on the Turkish government to investigate a series of killings in the country’s southeast. The report comes after a security crackdown in the wake of a failed coup attempt.

The UN’s human rights office released a report on Friday accusing Ankara of serious human rights violations during operations targeting Kurdish militants.

The report, which based its findings on “remote monitoring,” focused on“massive destruction, killings and numerous other serious human rights violations committed between July 2015 and December 2016 in southeast Turkey” that targeted some 2,000 people – including 1,200 local residents and 800 security personnel.

Most of the people displaced as a result of the security sweep have been Kurds, the UN said. Fighting between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Turkish government has been ongoing since a truce initially agreed upon in 2013 fell apart two years later.

Satellite images taken of impacted areas show “an enormous scale of destruction of the housing stock by heavy weaponry,” the report said. Residents of Cizre, a mostly Kurdish town near the Syrian border, described the destruction as “apocalyptic.”

Calls for an investigation

The UN’s report urged the Turkish government to investigate the matter, so that the “perpetrators of unlawful killings are brought to justice.” It also called for an end to “unannounced, open-ended 24-hour curfew,” and pay “effective reparations for victims and family members” whose human rights have been violated.

The publication of the report comes as the country gears up for an April referendum in which Turks will vote on whether to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein had stern words for the president, saying he was “particularly concerned by reports that no credible investigation has been conducted into hundreds of alleged unlawful killings.”

The report also cast a spotlight on Erdogan’s broad crackdowns following the failed coup attempt in July, which the UN said had led to further violence in the southeast.

blc/jm (AP, AFP)

Trump’s ex-adviser Flynn admits Turkey lobbying

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U.S. President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was fired from his prominent White House job last month, has registered with the Justice Department as a foreign agent for $530,000 worth of lobbying work before Election Day that may have aided the Turkish government, AP reported.

Paperwork filed Tuesday with the Justice Department’s Foreign Agent Registration Unit said Flynn and his firm were voluntarily registering for lobbying from August through November that “could be construed to have principally benefited Turkey.”

In February Flynn left the post and admitted that he gave the White House incomplete information on contacts with the Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak at the end of December.

Flynn was known to have spoken with Russian ambassador Sergei Kislyak several times by phone in December. Flynn denied that he and Kislyak had discussed U.S. sanctions and Vice-President Mike Pence also denied the claims on his behalf. Later, Flynn told the White House that the topic of sanctions could be discussed.

How deep is Turkey’s Sinjar entanglement? how Erdogan and Barzani dividing Kurds

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Fehim Taştekin is a Turkish journalist and a columnist for Turkey Pulse

By Fehim Taştekin

Turkey, which has developed rather odd relationships with some of its neighbors in recent years because of its reckless foreign policy, has begun treating Kurdish notables coming from Iraqi Kurdistan as official leaders.

Nowadays, Barzani is received as a reputable state leader and the Kurdistan flag is hoisted next to the Turkish flag. During his latest visit Feb. 27, the official reception menu in Ankara was printed in Kurdish. While Turkey adheres to combative relations with Kurds inside and outside the country, relations with Barzani are based on economic interests such as oil and Turkey’s design to use Kurds against Kurds.

For a while now, Barzani has been goaded into a policy of balancing Rojava’s leading political party, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), and its military arm, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), with Syria’s pro-Barzani Kurdish National Council (KNC) and the peshmerga of Rojava (officially the Democratic Federal System of Northern Syria). In Iraq, Turkey expects Barzani to oust the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) from Sinjar. Turkey fears the PKK will turn Sinjar into an operations base to facilitate access between Syria and Iraq.

Following Barzani’s latest visit to Turkey, Syrian Kurds organized by Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) under the name of “Roj peshmergas” were sent to Sinjar March 2. The Yazidis’ Sinjar Resistance Units (YBS) in Iraq, trained by the PKK, did not allow them to enter. Clashes erupted and there were casualties on both sides.

According to information provided to Al-Monitor by journalist Ali Dagli, who was in Sinjar, tension broke out when front-loaders sent by Roj peshmergas started digging trenches between Hanesor and Sinune. A group of local women tried to stop the machinery. The angry women said they don’t trust the peshmerga and asked why they were digging in places where the Islamic State (IS) no longer existed. Why didn’t they instead go to the front lines to fight for Mosul, they asked.

On March 3, tension turned to clashes. A cease-fire was arranged within hours, but tension persists. During the cease-fire, the peshmerga brought more vehicles and increased their strength to about 500 fighters. The YBS interpreted the reinforcements as preparation for battle and told the Roj peshmergas they wouldn’t be allowed passage. “Roj peshmergas want to capture Hanesor, make it a base for themselves, and sever the connection between Sinjar and the Rojava border,” Dagli said.

In Sinjar’s town center and in Sinune, the YBS maintains checkpoints just as Iraqi peshmerga forces do. The YBS controls Hanesor. Between Sinjar and Sinune, there is a small Iraqi police presence and two battalions of Shiite militia (Popular Mobilization Units) near the Arab village of Madiba. There are around 100-130 fighters of the PKK’s People’s Defense Forces (HPG) to support the YBS in Sinjar. The road to Hanesor is important for providing a connection between Sinjar and Rojava territory.

Local sources believe that within the Roj peshmergas there are both Iraqi peshmerga forces and Turkish intelligence personnel. Renowned Yazidi sociologist Azad Baris blamed both the KDP and the PKK for exploiting the fragile situation.

“Many Yazidis are grateful to the YPG and the HPG. Many don’t trust the KDP anymore after what happened in 2014,” when thousands of Yazidis were massacred by IS after the KDP allegedly abandoned them. “Yazidis are also uneasy with the Sunni leanings of peshmerga. But some of them cooperate with the KDP for monetary or political reasons. Moreover, there is a Yazidi unit under Qasim Shesho that is backed by the KDP. They incite the YBS by asking what Turkey’s Kurds are doing in Sinjar. The ratio of non-Yazidis in the YBS is not more than 5%,” Baris told Al-Monitor.

He added, “Some of them have come from places such as Hanover, Germany, but they are originally from Sinjar. In 2014, hundreds of Yazidis returned to Sinjar to defend their homeland and joined the self-defense forces. You can’t simply dislodge and send them away now. Some of them hail from Sheyhanli of south Kurdistan. The Iraqi central government recognized them as a legal force and began paying them salaries. There are now about 3,500. Every Yazidi has the right to defend his land. The question is with those assisting the self-defense forces — the pro-Apo [imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan] elements. Their opponents say there is no place for pro-Apo ideology on this land.”

Barzani frequently declares that he won’t allow infighting among the Kurds. Sending Roj peshmergas instead of Iraqi peshmerga forces to Sinjar inevitably led to hostilities between pro-Apo Yazidis and Syrian Kurds. Some say Barzani, using this tactic, can claim he has kept his word on preventing internecine clashes while preventing his KDP from getting involved. But Roj peshmergas are not denying that they get their orders directly from Barzani and the Peshmerga General Command.

Baris said this situation — the KDP-supported Yazidis challenging PKK-oriented Yazidis and the PKK — is based on two main strategies: “First of all, there is the obvious tactic of instigating the local people to fight each other. The KDP has never really adopted the Yazidis because of their faith. Yazidis never feel safe. If Yazidis are split, then the KDP’s domination will be easier. Second, they are using the foreign Kurds of Syria to hit at other foreign Kurds from Turkey. They keep saying the YBS is a foreign force. I don’t want to dismiss the charges that Turkey has been influential, but keep in mind, whether Turkey wants it or not, Barzani’s intolerance is not limited to the PKK presence. He is also against the Yazidis’ defending themselves and their aspiration for an autonomous structure. The KDP has never shared any of our pains and casualties and has never listened to any of our pleas. Even today they don’t listen to us. Anyone who prefers brutal hordes such as IS to Kurds and Yazidis and attacks our homeland will always be cursed by Yazidis.”

In 2014, when the PKK assumed the protection of the Yazidis after KDP peshmerga forces withdrew from the battlefield against IS, the pro-Apo ideology suddenly became the most prominent military and political entity of the area. The PKK’s military wing, the HPG, by blocking IS at Sinjar Mountain, and the YPG, by opening a corridor from Syria to Sinjar, practically saved the Yazidis. While the KDP couldn’t recover from its loss of credibility, the HPG organized the Yazidis and helped them set up the YBS. Although peshmerga forces eventually returned and lost hundreds of their fighters battling IS, Yazidis still stayed loyal to the PKK.

As for Turkey’s relevance in developments in Sinjar, the pro-PKK media keeps saying the attack against Sinjar was guided by Turkey and the Roj peshmergas who, they say, were actually members of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization.

Persistent declarations by Turkish leaders that Sinjar can’t be allowed to become a second Qandil — the main Kurdish headquarters in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq — are naturally cited as confirming Turkey’s role.

According to high-level diplomatic sources talking to Turkish media, Ankara continues to cooperate with Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan’s capital) against the PKK presence in Sinjar and in Makhmour, Iraq, and Turkey will intervene when the day comes. When the Mosul operation is concluded, then peshmerga forces will be able to transfer fighters to Sinjar and Makhmour. Should the Kurdish government want its help, Turkey will set up training bases around Kirkuk and in some northern areas.

In December, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak declared, “We will never allow a new Qandil to emerge at Sinjar. Our biggest hope is for Barzani to succeed, but if that doesn’t happen we will do whatever is necessary with the Turkish army.”

Military action against Sinjar wouldn’t be easy because the town lacks defined boundaries in military terms and could trigger even worse, bloodier strife between the Kurds. The Baghdad government would also see such action as an attack.

The United States and Russia don’t want the Kurds to fight each other, at least as long as the IS threat exists. The cease-fire at Sinjar was arranged by the United States. Iraq’s central government is unhappy with Kurdish aspirations to take over more disputed territory, hence its support for the YBS. Baghdad, which had cut off the salaries of Yazidi forces last year, has resumed payments because of protests by Turkey, which didn’t want Yazidis to be dependent on the PKK.

Yazidi agony over the massacres suffered and the sale of Yazidi women in slave markets is resonating worldwide, and the first European assistance to the YBS is trickling in. One European Union member country sent the Yazidi self-defense forces 5,000 military uniforms. It’s not going to be easy to end the conflict between the PKK and the KDP. For many people, avoiding bloodshed will be considered a sufficient success story.

According to former Turkish Consul-General at Erbil Aydin Selcen, when Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani used to come to Turkey, he was received in Istanbul and not in Ankara, the capital. The meetings were not held in palaces but at less-impressive locations. The Kurdistan flag was never displayed. Meetings were held in Arabic, not Kurdish. To give the impression that the meetings were unofficial, nobody wore ties. In short, everything was done to prevent the meetings from being interpreted as recognition of Kurdistan.

Istanbul Armenian MP Selina Doğan commemorated Armenian writers on Women’s day

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Feminist Armenian women commemorated in the parliament

CHP Istanbul MP Selina Doğan commemorated Armenian writers and thinkers Elbis Gesaratsyan, Sırpuhi Düsap, Zabel Asadur, Zabel Yesayan ve Hayganuş Mark, who are considered as the first feminists of Turkey, in the parliament.

CHP Istanbul MP Selina Doğan commemorated Armenian writers and thinkers Elbis Gesaratsyan, Sırpuhi Düsap, Zabel Asadur, Zabel Yesayan ve Hayganuş Mark, who are considered as the first feminists of Turkey, in the parliament.

Stating that many things have been said on the occasion of March 8 but the problem remains as it is, Doğan said, “This means that either the way we discuss this issue is not right or we are not sincere.”

Ignoring Zabel Yesayan while commemorating Halide Edip

Saying that others and minorities are forgotten in the history of women’s struggle in Turkey, Doğan said: “While Halide Edip is naturally commemorated with respect, her contemporary Zabel Yesayan, with whom she exchanged letters, is ignored. While dear Sabiha Sertel has the place she deserved in the feminism history of this country, nobody remembered her contemporary Elbis Gesaratsyan. While Nezihe Muhiddin, who struggled for enfranchisement of woman and whom I respect deeply, was making feminist history, her counterpart Hayganuş Mark, who issued a woman magazine for 14 years, is not remembered at all.”

Turkey has stepped up spying in Germany, says Berlin

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Amid ongoing diplomatic unrest, German intelligence has reported an increase in Turkish spying in Germany. Turkey’s Foreign Minister meanwhile has said Berlin “must decide whether Germany is a friend or not.”

While tensions between Berlin and Ankara have escalated ahead of next month’s referendum on Turkey’s presidency, the German government said on Wednesday that there has been a significant increase in Turkish spying in Germany.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the BfV, said divisions in Turkey leading up to the controversial April 16 referendum on boosting the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were mirrored in Germany.

“The BfV is observing a significant increase in intelligence efforts by Turkey in Germany,” it said in a statement. No further details were provided.

Called referendum rallies

Already strained relations between Germany and Turkey reached a new low this month in a row over canceled Turkish political rallies to drum up support for the impending referendum.

Some 1.4 million Turks living in Germany are eligible to cast their ballot in the vote.

Hoping to calm the storm on Wednesday, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel met with his Turkish counterpart Melvut Cavusoglu in Berlin. While both diplomats agreed on the importance of good relations, Cavusoglu said that Germany must now “decide whether Turkey is a friend or not.”

More talks in the pipeline

In light of recent comments from both Cavusoglu and Erdogan, Gabriel also made it clear that in maintaining good relations “there are lines that should not be crossed.”

“…And one of those is the comparison with Nazi Germany,” Gabriel said.

Cavusoglu, meanwhile, said he would host Gabriel for a new round of talks in Turkey “as soon as possible.”

In a bid to secure support ahead of next month’s referendum, Erdogan himself is also due to hold a rally in Germany. Critics have warned, however that the proposed presidential system which seeks to expand Erdogan’s powers as president would cement a one-man rule in the country.

Concerns over right-wing Turks and PKK

Fuelled by concerns over tensions between right-wing Turks in Germany and supporters of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), Bfv President Hans-Georg Maassen launched an investigation in January into possible spying by clerics sent to Germany by Ankara.

“There is the danger that these proxy fights between Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) supporters and nationalist, right-wing extremist Turks will escalate because there is a high, hard-hitting potential for danger in both groups,” Maassen said.

Although not specifically addressing the issue of Turkish spying, Maassen told reporters in January that Germany would not tolerate Turkish intelligence operations within its borders.

#FreeDeniz

Echoing Maassen on Wednesday, Gabriel said following his meeting with Cavusoglu that Turkey’s internal fights should not be imported into Germany.

Berlin has had its own fight to deal with in recent weeks, however, following the arrest of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel.

Yucel, a journalist for the German newspaper “Die Welt,” was arrested last month over allegations of terrorism propaganda, making him the first German reporter to be detained in Turkey as part of Erdogan’s wide-ranging crackdown on press freedom.

The 43-year-old, who has penned several articles critical of the Turkish government’s treatment of ethnic Kurds, has been in jail pending trial ever since, with Erdogan labeling him a “German agent.”

ksb/jm (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

Terrorist State of Turkey imposes curfew, launches ‘huge’ operation against Kurdish fighters

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ANF NEWS Report: Turkish authorities imposed a round-the-clock curfew in 18 villages in the Kurdish province of Diyarbakir as the army launched a vast operation on Sunday against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the area.

The Ankara-appointed Diyarbakir Governor’s office said in a press release on its website the mountainous region and forests around the districts of Kulp, Lice, and Hani served as a bastion for the outlawed Kurdish fighters.

There was no comment as of yet on the website of PKK’s armed wing, People Defense Forces (HPG) that has been locked in a decades-long conflict with the Turkish army over Kurdish rights.

The governorate release read that the operation’s objective was “to neutralize high-ranking terrorists, and capture their accomplices.”

In a joint statement with other Kurdish parties, the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) said thousands of villagers in the area could not be reached as telephone lines and Internet coverage were cut off.

“A new addition to the violations of human rights, massacres, and genocide in Kurdistan where a dirty war is being waged,” read the HDP statement.

Seven thousand troops, including 16 army commando battalions, about 800 police special operations personnel and more than 500 government-paid Kurdish paramilitaries were participating in the operation, one of the biggest seen in years.

In the neighboring Kurdish province of Elazig, the governorate announced 15 regions covering scores of villages in Alacakaya, Aricak, Karakocan and Palu as “military private zones” that would restrict entrance and exit of civilians without a permit.

Footage released by the state-funded Anadolu Agency showed 17 personnel carrier helicopters on board with hundreds of soldiers taking off from army bases in northern Diyarbakir.

Helicopters then landed winter clad soldiers on snow-covered high mountain tops.

The pro-PKK Firat news agency reported that Turkish jets, Cobra and Sikorsky helicopters were bombing the area in the last 24 hours.

Harsh curfews in Diyarbakir followed a fortnight-long one in February in the Xerabe Bava village in Mardin which became a focal point of allegations of mass arrests and torture of civilians by the army.

A renewed round of Kurdish-Turkish conflict erupted after a two years held ceasefire and peace talks collapsed in mid-2015.

Terrorist State of Turkey lashed out at US over critical human rights report

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Turkey has lashed out at the United States for criticizing measures taken in the aftermath of the July 2016 coup attempt in its annual human rights report, describing these criticisms as “unacceptable allegations, misrepresentations and interpretations that do not reflect reality.”

“The parts of the latest report regarding Turkey, released on March 3, 2017, comprise unacceptable allegations, misrepresentations and interpretations that do not reflect reality. In this period, when we are faced with unprecedented threats of terrorism against the survival of our nation and state, misrepresentation of our legitimate struggle against terrorist organizations, in particular FETÖ [the Fethullahist Terror Organization], the PKK [Kurdistan Workers’ Party], the DHKP-C [Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party-Front] and DAESH [an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant], in a way that does not reflect realities, has caused deep disappointment,” read the statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in response to a 75-page U.S. Department of State report.

“Inconsistent access to due process,” “government interference with freedom of expression,” and “inadequate protection of civilians,” especially in the aftermath of the July 2016 coup attempt, were among the significant human rights problems observed in 2016.

“It is denotative that the report makes no reference to the role of FETÖ elements in the July 15 coup attempt, or the fact that the FETÖ leadership lives in the U.S. Also, the description of our fight against the PKK terrorist organization as an ‘internal conflict’ is totally unacceptable,” the ministry stated.

“It is clear that this report, which ignores information and opinions provided by our authorities within the understanding of constructive cooperation, fails to claim any basis in terms of objectivity,” it added.

Significant human rights problems 

The U.S. State Department report listed important shortcomings in human rights in Turkey as follows:
Inconsistent access to due process: Following the July 15 coup attempt, the government on July 20 declared a three-month state of emergency, which was renewed in October, that allowed suspension of some due process protections for those accused of ties to terrorist groups. The government ascribed responsibility for the attempt to the Fethullah Gülen movement, which it defined as a terrorist organization.

Little clarity on charges: Courts imprisoned tens of thousands of persons accused of supporting the coup or terrorist groups, in many cases with little clarity on the charges and evidence against them. Government decrees issued under the state of emergency restricted suspects’ access to legal assistance, allowed suspects to be held without charge for up to a month, and in some cases froze the assets of suspended or fired civil servants or their family members. Human rights groups documented some cases in which family members were held or subjected to restrictions on their freedom of movement in lieu of suspects who remained at large. The government suspended and dismissed tens of thousands of civil servants, who generally had little access to legal recourse or appeal, and closed thousands of businesses, schools, and associations.

Media freedom under pressure

Government interference with freedom of expression: The government restricted freedom of expression, media, and the Internet, intensifying pressure on the media following the failed coup attempt. Authorities arrested at least 140 journalists, most accused of affiliation with the Gülen movement or connections with the PKK. The government also exerted pressure on media, closing media outlets and publishing associations; conducting raids on media companies; confiscating publications with allegedly objectionable material; instigating criminal investigations of journalists and editors for alleged support of terrorist groups; banning books; instigating gag orders on terrorism-related stories; and blocking internet sites. Self-censorship was widespread amid fear that criticizing the government could prompt reprisals. The closure of nearly all Kurdish-language media outlets reduced vulnerable populations’ access to information and alternative viewpoints. The government impeded access by international media and observers to conflict areas, limiting independent reporting about conditions.

Inadequate protection of civilians: In fighting the terrorist PKK, government security forces failed to take sufficient measures to protect civilians. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Southeast were forced to flee their homes and most remained internally displaced at year’s end. Upwards of 200 civilians were killed in the fighting. Human rights groups reported that security forces killed and injured persons who attempted to cross illegally from Syria into Turkey and documented reports of torture and abuse of prisoners following the coup attempt.