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Syrian pilot whose plane crashed in Turkey says aircraft was shot down -Anadolu Agency

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(Reuters) A Syrian air force pilot who bailed out as his warplane crashed on Turkish territory told a Turkish rescue team his MiG-23 had been shot down, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported on Sunday.

The 56-year-old pilot was identified as Mehmet Sufhan, and medical staff said he was not in critical condition despite some fractures in his spine. He is being treated at a hospital in the Hatay region, a hospital spokeswoman said on Sunday.

In an initial statement to Turkish authorities, Sufhan said his aircraft was shot down on its way to strike rural areas near Idlib in northern Syria, Anadolu reported. He said he had taken off from Latakia in Syria.

Dogan news agency said the pilot, who crashed on Saturday, had been found around 40 km (25 miles) from the wreckage. He was first taken to a gendarmerie base and then to hospital.

Syrian state television quoted an army source on Saturday saying the air force had lost contact with a fighter jet on a mission near the Turkish border. It gave no details.

It was unclear why the aircraft had crashed, whether it had been attacked or suffered technical failure.

Combat operations by many militia and government forces come close to Turkey’s long frontier with Syria.

Turkey has been one of the foremost critics of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and supports rebels fighting him in the country’s six-year-old war. It currently has armed forces involved in operations along the Syrian side of the frontier.

Syrian state media said on Saturday its forces had been expanding control over former Islamic State-held villages in northwest Syria, an area close to Turkey’s Hatay region where the aircraft crashed.

(Reuters)

Turkish annexation of northern Syria displaced 66,000 people

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The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says a total of 66,000 people have been displaced due to fresh fighting in northern Syria, where Turkey has been carrying out operations. 

The agency said on Sunday that 39,766 people have been forced out of their homes in the Syrian city of al-Bab and the nearby town of Tadif which Turkish forces are trying to control.

Displaced people have fled north to militant-controlled areas where “high contamination” of unexploded bombs and booby traps planted by retreating terrorists is further complicating the situation, it added.

Turkey launched a major military incursion into Syria in August 2016 in a move denounced by Damascus as a breach of its sovereignty.

Ankara claimed at the time that its military campaign was aimed at stopping Kurdish advances and driving away Daesh from the Turkish-Syrian border but since then it has occupied at least two major Syrian cities.

Turkey has lately announced plans to advance into the Syrian city of Manbij after seizing al-Bab. Manbij is currently held by the so-called Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed outfit of mostly Kurdish militants.

Additionally, OCHA estimated that 26,000 people have left their homes east of al-Bab, where Syrian government forces are engaged in an offensive against Daesh.

The Syrian army troops and allied fighters have been fighting against different foreign-backed terrorist groups wreaking havoc in the Arab country since 2011.

More than half of Syria’s population have been displaced over the past six years.

 

Austrian chancellor suggests EU-ban on campaigning by Turkish politicians

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An EU-wide ban on Turkish politicians’ campaigning in the bloc has been suggested by Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern. Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci still plans to visit Turkish voters in Germany.

Kern told the German newspaper “Welt am Sonntag” that Europe should protect its individual member nations from President Erdogan’s outspoken drive to win over expatriate Turks ahead of April’s Turkish referendum on boosting his constitutional powers.

The latest strains in EU-Turkish relations center on Ankara’s arrest of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel and rejections on security grounds by the German towns of Guggenau, and Frechen near Cologne, of gatherings at which visiting Turkish ministers were to have made campaign appearances.

Austria’s chancellor said an EU-wide ban on Turkish politicians’ campaigning inside Europe would ease Turkish pressure on individual EU nations such as Germany.

“A joint approach by the EU to prevent such campaign appearances would be sensible,” Kern said.

Press freedom, ‘foreign word’

Kern also slammed Erdogan’s plan, saying “the introduction of a presidential system would further weaken the constitutional state, constrain the separation of powers and contradict the values of the European Union.”

Press freedom had become a foreign word in Turkey and human rights are being trampled on, Kern added.

He demanded Ankara immediately free the German-Turkish correspondent of the conservative German newspaper “Die Welt,” as well as numerous other journalists and scientists detained since last year’s coup attempt in Turkey.

Yucel had reported on Turkey in an independent and critical manner, Kern said.

Erdogan: ‘German agent’

On Friday, Erdogan accused Yucel of being a “German agent” and supporting the armed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) through his reporting.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Mnister Binali Yildirim said he had had a long phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her office has yet to comment on the contents of the call.

Merkel did, however, defend the decision of local officials obligated to uphold social freedom.

Those decisions were “taken by municipalities, and as a matter of principle, we apply freedom of expression in Germany,” she said.

Stephan Meyer, interior affairs spokesman for Merkel’s Bavarian allies, the Christian Social Union (CSU), said the “export” of Turkey’s internal conflict to Germany should “not be tolerated.”

Germany’s new Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel of the center-left Social Democrats, which governs with Merkel, warned against a further escalation of recriminations.

“We should not wreck the foundations of the friendship between our countries,” Gabriel wrote in a guest article published by another German Sunday newspaper “Bild am Sonntag.”

Opposition Greens party politician Claudia Roth warned that appearance bans would turn out to be counter-productive.

“Then we best demonstrate most clearly the difference between us and an autocracy on its way to dictatorship when we show that freedom of opinion, freedom of assembly and, of course, press freedom applies to all,” Roth said.

More than one million Turks living in Germany are eligible to vote in Turkey’s referendum in April. They are among three million persons of Turkish origin living in Germany. Half of them have German citizenship.

Netherlands chastised

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, speaking in Antalya, western Turkey, also chastised the Netherlands after authorities in Rotterdam banned a Turkish rally planned for next week.

On Dutch radio, Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher rejected accusations that the Netherlands was restricting free speech.

“We believe that the Dutch public space is not the place to conduct another country’s political campaign,” Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a statement on Facebook on Friday.

“We will go where we want to go, we will meet with our citizens and we will have our meetings,” said Cavusoglu in response to Rutte’s post.

ipj/jlw (Reuters, AFP, dpa)

 

U.S. forces look on as Turks, Kurds clash in north Syria

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MANBIJ, Syria— US soldiers aboard Humvee armoured vehicles have been watching from a distance as two of their allies, Turkish-backed forces and a Kurdish-led alliance, battle it out for control of Manbij in Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria).

An AFP correspondent on Friday saw the American soldiers on patrol north of the city of Manbij, just miles from the fierce clashes taking place further west.

Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels have tried since Wednesday to capture Manbij, a former bastion of the Islamic State group, now under the control of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance.

The SDF is dominated by fighters known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which Ankara brands as “terrorists”.

On August 24, 2016, Turkey, along with the Free Syrian Army, launched an incursion into northern Syria, east of Afrin canton to stop the US-backed Kurdish YPG forces from extending areas under their control and connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west.

Turkey-backed forces also also focused on cleaning the area in northern Syria from the Islamic State (IS) and have captured a number of towns from IS jihadists, including Al-Bab near the Turkish border.

Turkey fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syrian Kurdistan — similar to the Kurdish region in Iraqi Kurdistan — would spur the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week said the next target would be Manbij, in Aleppo province.

And on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened to strike the YPG unless they pull out of the northern city.

The SDF is dominated by fighters known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) which Ankara brands as “terrorists”.

On August 24, 2016, Turkey, along with the Free Syrian Army, launched an incursion into northern Syria, east of Afrin canton to stop the US-backed Kurdish YPG forces from extending areas under their control and connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west.

Turkey-backed forces also also focused on cleaning the area in northern Syria from the Islamic State (IS) and have captured a number of towns from IS jihadists, including Al-Bab near the Turkish border.

Turkey fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syrian Kurdistan — similar to the Kurdish region in Iraqi Kurdistan — would spur the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan this week said the next target would be Manbij, in Aleppo province.

And on Thursday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened to strike the YPG unless they pull out of the northern city.

But Votel’s spokesman, Colonel John Thomas, said that, while the general supported a peaceful transition of Manbij to a “thriving city”, he did not say if the US would stop any Turkish move towards it.

The United States has special operations forces advising the SDF on the ground in Syria, but no combat units.

Sherfan Darwish, spokesman of the Manbij Military Council which is part of the SDF, tried to play down the absence of US forces in Manbij.

“The coalition is on patrol along the Sarjur river (north of Manbij) and there is coordination with the coalition at the highest level,” Darwish told AFP.

“All our fighters in Manbij were trained by the Americans,” he added.

Syrian Kurdistan’s ruling PYD has established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan. On Dec. 30, 2016 Syrian Kurds approved a blueprint for a system of federal government in Syrian Kurdistan, reaffirming their plans for autonomy in areas they have controlled during the civil war.

Source: http://ekurd.net/us-forces-turks-kurds-syria-2017-03-04

 

Syrian envoy criticizes Turkish ‘aggression’ at peace talks

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The head of the Syrian government delegation at the Geneva peace talks has criticized Turkey’s “aggression” and said his nation has the right to defend itself from foreign forces on its soil.

Bashar Ja’afari, who is also his country’s ambassador at the United Nations, said Damascus considers the presence of Turkish troops on Syrian soil “a military aggression,” The Associated Press reported.

He said on March 2 that the Syrian forces “reserve our right to use our all the means available … to expel the Turkish forces from our territory.”

Ja’afari was referring to Turkey’s ongoing Euphrates Shield operation, which recently saw the capture of northern Syrian town of al-Bab from the kurdish YPJ just last week.

Ja’afari had also lambasted an opposition delegation at the Geneva negotiations, saying it’s “holding the talks hostage” by refusing to have the issue of counter-terrorism on the agenda.

At a March 3 press conference, opposition delegation chairman Naser al-Hariri said his delegation’s talks with U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura had focused largely on proposals for a period of political transition.

“Our ultimate aim is a safe and stable Syria,” al-Hariri said. “We will continue negotiations in hopes of creating a modern Syria that can serve as a model for other countries.”

Describing the talks as “constructive”, he went on to note that members of his delegation would meet with the U.N. envoy again midday on March 4 to discuss the same topic.

On the ground, the Syrian army said on March 2 that it had recaptured the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIL for the second time in a year, with help from allied forces and Russian warplanes.

ISIL seized Palmyra in a surprise advance in December last year, after having been driven out eight months before.

“With backing from the Syrian and Russian air forces, units of our armed forces recaptured the city of Palmyra, in cooperation with the allies,” the military said in a statement.

Meanwhile, al-Qaeda confirmed that a U.S. airstrike in Syria earlier this week killed its deputy leader of, known as Abu al-Khayr al-Masri. The death brings a significant blow to the terror network and points to the central role Syria has taken in its operations.

Al-Masri, a veteran Egyptian militant, was the deputy of al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahri, and the organization’s senior figure in Syria. He coordinated al-Qaeda’s work with other militant groups and played a direct role in developing external plots, according to a U.S. counterterrorism official, who was not authorized to discuss the issue and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kurds’ Peshmerga affiliated with Turkey Clash With Yazidi Militia in Western Iraq

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The so-called Rojava Peshmerga group attacked forces of the Yazidi Shingal Resistance Units (YBS) in the town of Knanesor, located in the western Iraqi Shingal district near the city of Mosul.

People of Shingal fought back, trying to stop the Rojava Peshmergas, the ANF media outlet reported on Friday, adding that the local Yazidi Peshmerga forces were fighting the attackers as well.

“As forces of the YBS-YJS [Shingal Women’s Resistance Units], we know very well what is the purpose of this attack and who are behind it. KDP [Kurdistan Democratic Party] wants the YBS/YJS defeated and intends to drive them out of Shengal. However, KDP will never achieve this goal of theirs. We will not allow attacks, and we will not allow another massacre against our people,” YJS Commander Viyan Hebab said, as cited by the media.

The clashes have ceased partially, but the tension remains high, the media added.

Rojava Peshmerga group is a paramilitary wing of the Kurdish National Council, supported by the KDP. The group, reportedly of 5,000 fighters, is affiliated with Turkey which allegedly trained and funded the Rojava Pashmergas to fight against the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the biggest Kurdish party in Syria.

Shingal is a mainly Yazidi-populated district in the western Iraqi governorate of Nineveh. In August 2014, terrorists of Daesh (outlawed in Russia) managed to seize the town of Sinjar, defeating the Kurds and Yazidis. In December 2014, the Peshmerga-led offensive pushed Daesh forces out of the region.

All German politicians line up against ‘anti-democratic’ Turkish referendum campaign

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All German political parties in parliament have voiced support for keeping Turkish ministers from campaigning in Germany. They warned of bringing internal Turkish conflicts to Germany amid concern over democracy.

German lawmakers from across the political spectrum on Friday backed preventing Turkish politicians from campaigning in Germany for an upcoming referendum that critics say will deal a death blow to democracy in the country. 

Relations between the two NATO allies soured further on Thursday after the town of Gaggenau in southern Germany refused permission for Turkey’s justice minister to address supporters of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The event was meant to rally support for an April referendum that will dramatically expand the powers of the presidency. The city of Cologne also blocked an event where Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybecki was to campaign on Sunday, citing security concerns.

The decisions drew a sharp rebuke from Ankara, with Turkish Foreign Minister on Friday accusing Berlin of campaigning against the referendum and double standards on freedom of speech.

Wolfgang Bosbach, a lawmaker from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, described Turkish arguments about freedom of speech as a “sleight of hand.”

“Germany is not a Turkish outpost, and there is no legal right for foreign politicians who want to campaign on German soil,” Bosbach said, warning that internal conflicts in Turkey should not be brought to Germany.

Horst Seehofer, Bavaria’s state premier and head of Merkel’s sister party, the Christian Social Union, told the daily “Süddeutsche Zeitung” that Turkish politicians had no right to carry out election campaigns in Germany.

“When Turkish politicians want to use our liberal laws to promote an anti-democratic restructuring in their country, then they are abusing their rights as a guest,” Seehofer said.

The opposition in Turkey has been handicapped in the referendum campaign and warned that if the constitutional changes pass the country would turn into a full-blown dictatorship. Germany is home to some 3 million people of Turkish origin, about half of whom can cast a ballot in April.

The Turkish referendum comes as Erdogan has used post-coup emergency powers to carry out a massive purge targeting tens of thousands of people, including journalists, like Germany’s Deniz Yucel, and the Kurdish opposition, drawing criticism from Europe. Erdogan and his ministers have repeatedly likened a vote against the referendum as support for the coup attempt and “terrorists.”

A broader deterioration in ties between Ankara and Berlin took another hit on Monday when Turkish-German “Die Welt” correspondent Deniz Yucel was arrested. He faces up to several years in prison if convicted on “terrorism” charges.

Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of Baden-Württemberg, where Gaggenau is located, said Turkey was retreating from the rule of law, press freedom and the foundations of democracy.

“Whoever wants to campaign for Turkish issues should do it in Turkey,” he told the “Mannheimer Morgen” newspaper.

Thomas Kutschaty, the justice minister of North Rhine-Westphalia and a member of the Social Democrats, also warned of Turkish officials stoking divisions in Turkish-German society.

Merkel should make clear to Erdogan that “such divisive campaigning with anti-democratic goals is not welcome here in Germany,” he told public broadcaster WDR.

Cem Ozdemir, the co-chair of the opposition Green party whose family is of Turkish origin, said on Thursday that Turkish politicians have no right to campaign in Germany so long as freedoms in Turkey are restricted.

“Set the opposition free, give them the possibility to hold events [against the referendum],” he said. “Stop restricting the press, set Deniz Yucel and the other journalists free. Then you can use our rights,” he said.

Sevim Dagdelen, a Turkish-Kurdish lawmaker for the opposition Left Party in the Bundestag, said German government must and can prevent Erdogan and his ministers from campaigning for dictatorship and a return of the death penalty.

Turkey: Prominent Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal given 11 month suspended sentence for ‘insulting Erdogan’

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hasan-cemalProminent Turkish journalist Hasan Cemal was on March 1 convicted on charges of “insulting the president,” receiving a suspended sentence of 11 months and 20 days over an article published in 2016.

The Ankara 24th criminal court of first instance ordered the deferment of the announcement of the verdict over an article in which Cemal quoted remarks by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu about President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The prosecutor claimed that Cemal “exceeded the limits of criticism” by accusing Erdoğan of “dictatorship and corruption” in a Jan. 16, 2016 column on the T24 news website.

Cemal had testified in October 2016, saying remarks about the president in his column had been uttered by Kılıçdaroğlu and they should be evaluated within the scope of freedom of expression.

The court gave him a suspended sentence of 11 months and 20 days in prison on charges of insulting the president.

Separately, Cemal was sentenced to a 15-month suspended prison term on charges of “conducting terror propaganda” and “praising crime and criminals” on Feb. 14.

He is also on trial for terror-related charges allegedly committed while he was serving as a one-day editor-in-chief of daily Özgür Gündem as part of a solidarity campaign with the now-closed paper.

March/01/2017

Armenian church to turn into library in Turkey

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Armenia-church-to-library

Armenia-church-to-library

The Armenian Saint Holy Mather of God Church located in Kayseri city of Turkey is planned to serve as library. Referring to Hurriyet newspaper report, Ermenihaber writes that the church has previously served as an exhibition hall, then a kindergarten and finally – a police station. The source informs the Turkish government has allocated some 6 million liras (USD 1, 600 billion) for renovation works before the building will open its doors as a public library.

Kayseri Mayor Mustafa Chelik has noted the decision to turn the church into library appears to be the most optimal, considering the designation of the structure. Apart from it, the report says a café is planned to operate adjacent to the library.

The opening of the building is scheduled for Autumn 2017, once the renovations works are completed.

Citing lack of relevant documents, the Turkish source indicates no date the church was built, noting the architectural solutions of the structure clearly reveal its Armenian origin.

 

Source Panorama.am

Turkish women call for ‘no’ vote in April referendum

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Hundreds of Turkish female protesters in Istanbul have called on the nation to vote “no” in an upcoming constitutional referendum aimed at increasing Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

On Saturday, the protesters claimed that if the constitutional changes are approved, it will turn the country into a one-party system with all the power being in the hands of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Earlier, Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called on the people to vote “yes” in the referendum, during a rally held in a sports arena in the Turkish capital Ankara.

On February 10, Erdogan approved the bill that will change the country’s political system into a presidential one if approved in a referendum, which is set to be held on April 16.

The proposed constitutional changes have been met with widespread protest across the country, with critics claiming that the AKP is using last year’s failed coup to expand Erdogan’s authority and crackdown on opposition.

More than 250 were killed in a matter of a day on July 15 last year, when a group of renegade army and police officers attempted to oust Erdogan.

The coup failed permanently after the president returned to his office and people forced the putschists to lay down arms. Erdogan then ordered a massive crackdown, which has seen more than 40,000 people jailed and some 110,000 others discharged from their jobs.