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US voices ‘grave concern’ over Turkey’s planned Syria operation

December 13, 2018 by administrator

The United States has voiced “grave concern” over a military operation planned by Turkey in northeastern Syria.

“Unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern,” said Pentagon Spokesman Cmdr. Sean Robertson on Dec. 12. “We would find any such actions unacceptable.”

He said “coordination and consultation between the US and Turkey is the only approach to address issues of security concern in this area.”

The US military is committed to working closely with the Turkish military to boost cooperation and coordination, said Robertson, adding “uncoordinated military operations” will undermine that shared interest.

“We have solemn obligations to one another’s security. We are fully committed to Turkey’s border security,” he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had announced earlier December 12 that Turkey will start a military operation east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria in a “few days.”

“We will start the operation in east of the Euphrates in a few days to save it from the separatist terrorist organization,” Erdogan added, referring to the YPG. “Turkey’s target is never the US soldiers, but rather the members of the terror group.”

Ankara deems the YPG as an offshoot of the PKK, which is listed a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the European Union.

Turkey is also skeptical about a US plan to train around 40,000 locals in northeastern Syria.

Robertson said December 12 that the US-led coalition is working closely with the YPG/PKK-led SDF group, which he said is “in the midst of offensive operations against ISIS in the Middle Euphrates River Valley,” using another name for ISIL.

“The SDF remains a committed partner against ISIS and we remain committed to working with them to ensure ISIS’s enduring defeat,” he said.

“There is no Daesh threat in Syria any longer,” Erdoğan said Dec. 12, using another name for ISIL, and accusing the US of “delaying tactics” regarding its promise to clear the northeastern Syrian town of Manbij from YPG members.

Turkey’s Reign of Terror: The Persecution of Minority Alevisby

December 2, 2018 by administrator

Many Alevis in Turkey have protested that their houses of worship, know as cem houses, are not officially recognized by the government. Yet even these protests are quashed. Pictured: The Kartal Cemevi Alevi cem house in Istanbul, Turkey. (Image source: Cemyildiz/Wikimedia Commons)

by Uzay Bulut,

The Alevi-owned broadcaster, TV10, for example,was closed down in September 2016, two months after the failed coup attempt against Erdogan, for allegedly “threatening national security and belonging to a terror organization.”
A TV10 cameraman, Kemal Demir, was taken into police custody on November 25, 2017 and arrested on December 2. Veli Büyükşahin, TV10’s chairman of the board, and Veli Haydar Güleç, a TV10 producer, were arrested on January 10. All are still in prison.
“TV10 did not belong to a major business. While it was trying to carry out its activities with its few employees and very limited resources, it was closed down by executive order. Moreover, its properties were seized [by the government] and then sold by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF)… The indictments against them contain no criminal element and judges have turned down the indictments twice. Yet, these people have been detained for 10 months and there is still uncertainty as to when they will be tried in a court and when a result will be obtained from the hearings.” — Kemal Peköz, MP from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), in a speech before parliament November 1.

In Turkey, several methods are employed to eliminate religious minorities, not only by physical violence. Instead, the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tries to erase minority faiths by preventing their ability to function by denying them the freedom to establish and safely operate their own institutions and places of worship. The Alevis, for instance, a historically persecuted religious minority in Turkey, are all-too-familiar with this form of oppression.

The Alevi-owned broadcaster, TV10, for example, was closed down in September 2016, two months after the failed coup attempt against Erdoğan, for allegedly “threatening national security and belonging to a terror organization.”

A TV10 cameraman, Kemal Demir, was taken into police custody on November 25, 2017 and arrested on December 2. Veli Büyükşahin, TV10’s chairman of the board, and Veli Haydar Güleç, a TV10 producer, were arrested on January 10. All are still in prison.

After the closure of TV10, employees and supporters held protests every Saturday for 82 weeks at Istanbul’s Taksim Square, demanding that the authorities reopen their media outlet. On April 28, they ended their demonstrations, stating in part: “We have not been able to take back our TV channel, but we have declared that the voice of Alevis cannot be silenced.”

In a speech before the Turkish parliament on November 1, Kemal Peköz, an MP from the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), criticized the closure of TV10 and the continued arrest of its employees and executives:

“TV10, one of the voices of Alevis, was a TV channel established by Alevis with the resources and money that Alevis so devotedly and scantly donated. Its [reporters] travelled across villages and towns to produce programs to keep the Alevi culture, practices and traditions alive. TV10 did not belong to a major business. While it was trying to carry out its activities with its few employees and very limited resources, it was closed down by executive order. Moreover, its properties were seized [by the government] and then sold by the Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (SDIF). As if all this were not enough, the channel’s employees and executives were also arrested.”

Peköz added:

“The indictments against them contain no criminal element and judges have turned down the indictments twice. Yet, these people have been detained for 10 months and there is still uncertainty as to when they will be tried in a court and when a result will be obtained from the hearings.”

The fate of the detainees remains to be seen. In general, however, the Turkish government not only discriminates against Alevis, but claims that Alevism “is a sect of Islam.” It is a claim disputed by many Alevis. One such Alevi is Mustafa Genç, a dede (faith leader), who has described the difference between Alevism and Sunni Islam as follows:

“In Sunnism, they pray five times a day and fast for a month. These things do not exist in the Alevi faith. According to our faith, God is in the human and not in the sky. In the Alevi faith, women are sacred, and to divorce a woman is the most difficult thing. This is not the case in Sunnism. Sunni Muslims think a man can marry four women.”

The author, Naki Bakır, has also emphasized the difference between the two religions:

“The Alevi faith is different from Islam and some of its elements are contrary to Islam. For example, according to the Alevi belief, each human will be born into this world several times in different bodies until he or she becomes perfect and when that process is completed, he or she will unite with God. This belief is contradictory to the Islamic belief in the ‘afterlife’ represented in the ‘award-punishment’ or ‘heaven-hell’ mechanisms.

“The basic faith foundations and forms of worship of Alevism are at variance with Islam. It is impossible to find the Alevi beliefs and forms of worship in the Koran or in the historical heritage of Islam. The Alevi ritual is ‘cem’ — during this ritual, alcohol is drunk, women and men worship together and turn in circles, to the accompaniment of some musical instruments… These things do not exist in the Quran, hadith, or in the life of Prophet Mohammed. They are actually prohibited in Islam. And the Alevi belief in ‘hulul’ (that God is manifested in the human body) is idolatry, according to the Quran.

“Islamic phenomena such as salat (five daily prayers), ablution and adhan (Islamic call to prayer) are not accepted by Alevis. Also, Alevis do not follow the Quranic requirements, such as fasting during the month of Ramadan or doing pilgrimage (haj to Mecca).”

According to the Alevi scholar, Mehmet Bayrak, one of the reasons that some Alevis say they are Muslim is their misconception of their own religion. “Due to the centuries-long propaganda they have been exposed to, some of them think that they are true Muslims,” says Bayrak, adding that a more alarming reason for their denial is fear of persecution.

“As Alevis are still under political, social and cultural pressures, they are still scared of saying that Alevism is outside of Islam. It is impossible for them to express themselves freely.”

The closure of TV10 appears to be a perfect example of the stifling of Alevis’ free speech and religious liberty. Alevis are continually exposed to these and other forms of discrimination, including arbitrary arrests, physical threats, such as “red marks” on Alevi-owned homes, and bias against Alevism school curricula. The scholar Ayşe Ezgi Gürcan wrote in 2015:

“The limited content of religions/beliefs other than Islam and the biased language of the textbooks have continued to be an issue… If we look at all the textbooks for the compulsory ‘Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge’ courses from grades 4 to 12 for the 2014-2015 academic year, we see that the notion of religious plurality is mostly ignored. Looking at the 4th grade textbook, we see that the book frequently speaks of the Sunni (Hanafi) interpretation of Islam as ‘our religion.’ Additionally, any sign of religious plurality is almost non-existent in textbooks before the 7th grade.”

Alevis have repeatedly requested exemption from the above-mentioned compulsory religious classes, which teach Sunni Islam to Alevi children and promote the superiority of Islam. In addition, Alevis have for years been seeking to have their rights upheld, both from Turkish courts and at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), whose judgements Turkey is bound to implement. For more than a decade now, the ECHR has issued rulings according to which the Turkish government is guilty of failing to recognize Alevi rights.

According to a February 2017 report in the newspaper Hürriyet:

“Compulsory religion classes in Turkish schools will be taught in such a way to approach all religions equally while an approach that championed Sunni Islam will reportedly be eliminated in accordance with European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rulings, Education Minister İsmet Yılmaz has said…

“According to the curriculum, the changes are based on an ECHR ruling that said it was a violation of the freedom of belief for a state to inculcate one religion even if it is the belief that the majority of that country follows…

“In 2014, the ECHR concluded a case opened by 14 Turkish citizens against the content of compulsory religion classes, ruling that teaching more about Sunni Islam constituted “brainwashing” and that the class was pushing Alevi students toward a clash between their values and their schools…”

By the following school year, however, Turkey had failed to implement these changes. As the Alevi faith leader Cemal Şahin said in November 2017, “Despite the rulings by the European Court of Human Rights, the Sunni faith is forced on Alevi children. We are exposed to a serious campaign of [forced] assimilation.”

Many Alevis have also protested that their cem houses are not officially recognized. Yet even these protests are quashed. On June 4, for instance, the Alevi Anadolu Canlar Association in the Istanbul neighborhood of Esenler — home to at least 120,000 Alevis — were prevented by police from demonstrating on behalf of their right to build a cem house in the district.

Cemal Özdemir, the head of the Association, told the Pir News Agency:

“We already conveyed our request for a cem house to the mayor of Esenler. He promised that they would help us build a cem house on a piece of land, but we have learned from the members of the municipal parliament that projects are underway for the construction of four mosques on that land, and no cem house is included in their plans.”

During last year’s protests against the closure of TV10, the political activist Celalettin Can summed up the Turkish government’s attitude towards dissidents and minorities as: “Submit to us and find peace.”

Celal Fırat, an Alevi faith leader, made the following public plea to the government:

“We have always promoted brotherhood and co-existence throughout history. We are Alevis and will remain as such. Do not try to assimilate us in vain. Accept us as we are and immediately give up on your ambition to assimilate us.”

Sadly, however, the Erdoğan government is presumably not interested in the biblical tenet of “doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.” On the contrary, as the 1,400-year history of Islamic mistreatment of non-Muslims demonstrates, political Islam does not recognize the right of other religions to exist as equals, and, as we have seen from past and current terrorism in the name of Islam (for instance here, here and here), it sometimes does not recognize the right of other religions, including other Muslim sects, to exist at all.

Uzay Bulut, a journalist from Turkey,

Turkey’s currency plunges to new low Erdogan warns of ‘economic war’ as Turkish lira carnage spooks global markets

August 11, 2018 by administrator

The Turkish lira crash is threatening to turn into a debt and liquidity crisis with no end in sight. Instead of acting, the Turkish leadership has warned of an “economic war.”

Turkey is in the throes of a full-blown currency crisis, with little sign that the government has a plan to deal with one of the worst emerging market currency meltdowns in recent history.

The crisis threatens to throw the world’s 18th-largest economy into a downward spiral of bankruptcy and trigger contagion in emerging markets and Europe.

The Turkish lira fell as much as 22 percent Friday, before paring losses back to 17 percent, extending a rout in the currency from earlier this week. It stood at 6.47 to the US dollar at 1900 UTC. The lira has lost nearly 40 percent of its value since the start of the year and nearly 30 percent since President.

The currency carnage was pushed along on Friday by US President Donald Trump’s administration, which announced the United States would increase tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum imports.

The tariffs themselves are minor and impact around $1 billion (€875 million) in trade, but they weighed on market confidence in the vulnerable Turkish economy.

“Their currency, the Turkish lira, slides rapidly downward against our very strong dollar,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “Our relations with Turkey are not good at this time.”

In an op-ed published in The New York Times, Erdogan said, “The United States has repeatedly and consistently failed to understand and respect the Turkish people’s concerns,” and added that “unless the United States starts respecting Turkey’s sovereignty and proves that it understands the dangers that our nation faces, our partnership could be in jeopardy.”

The continued imprisonment of US pastor Andrew Brunson has weighed heavily on relations between the United States and Turkey, leading to a series of escalations. Ties between the two NATO allies have also nosedived over American support for Syrian Kurdish forces, Ankara’s plans to buy a Russian missile system and Turkey’s demand that Washington extradite US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Erdogan blames for the failed July 2016 coup attempt. There is also an impending showdown in November over US sanctions on Iran, a major oil and gas supplier to Turkey.

More than US-Turkish tensions

While souring relations between the Washington and Ankara have added to Turkey’s economic woes, they are only a proximate cause of the market mayhem.

Observers have seen a vulnerable economy for months, something that has been exacerbated by political developments and Erdogan’s government.

Umit Akcay, a professor of economics at the Berlin School of Economics and Law, wrote on Twitter: “The warnings we have issued for months are unfortunately happening. Turkey is experiencing a currency crisis. We are entering a very difficult period. The government is responsible.”

Turkey’s Long Persecution Against Pontian Christians

March 30, 2018 by administrator

Turkey’s Long Persecution Against Pontian Christians

Uzay Bulut,

In the Turkish city Trabzon, where few Christians are left, St. Maria Catholic Church has suffered its second attack this year. A gunman shot at the church on March 6, but there were no causalities because no one was inside at the time. The congregation is the only active one in Trabzon and has barely a dozen members.

International media first noticed St. Maria on February 5, 2006, when Oğuzhan Akdin murdered Father Andrea Santoro, an Italian Catholic priest who served there. In 2011, it emerged that the police had tapped Santoro’s phones for three months before his murder. Authorities had marked him as a suspect active in “separatist activities based on the Pontian Greek idea,” that is, establishing a Greek Orthodox state in the Black Sea area.

The name of Pontians (or Pontic people) derives from the Greek word “Pontus,” meaning “the sea,” and refers to the Greek population that lived for three millennia in the Black Sea coastal cities, which are now in northern Turkey. The first Greek settlements appeared in the region as early as 800 BC, and many renowned Greek philosophers, such as Diogenes and Strabo, were born here. Trabzon, historically known as Trebizond, is also located in Pontus.

Mentioned three times in the New Testament, Pontus is central to the Christian faith, and Pontians were some of the very first converts to Christianity. According to the Pontian Greek Society of Chicago, Andrew the Apostle was the first Christian preacher in the region, and after his ministry the religion quickly spread across the area.

However, Anatolian Christianity began to decline in the eleventh century. In 1071, Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded the Armenian highland, which was then part of the Greek-speaking, Christian Byzantin,

Empire. In 1204, Pontians established the Greek Empire of Trebizond centered in Pontus. After the Ottomans established a state in western Anatolia in 1299, they escalated their attacks on surrounding regions. The Byzantine Empire ended when Constantinople fell in 1453, and then in 1461 the Ottomans invaded Trebizond and forced Christians to convert to Islam. Under the new rulers, Christians and Jews became “dhimmis,” third-class citizens forced to pay a tax in exchange for “protection.”

In Dictionary of Genocide, Samuel Totten and Paul R. Bartrop write:

In a campaign reminiscent of the Armenian genocide that was being perpetuated at roughly the same time, the Pontic Greeks suffered innumerable cruelties at the hands of the Turks. An estimated three hundred fifty-three thousand Pontic Greeks died, many on forced marches through Anatolia and the Syrian Desert just like the Armenians.

The destruction of the Pontic Greeks, and the forcible deportation that followed, had but a single planned outcome: the removal of all Greeks from Turkey… In another parallel with the Armenian situation, successive Turkish governments have denied that the Pontic genocide ever occurred.

But the most destructive blow to Greek and other Anatolian Christians was the 10-year Pontian Genocide that took place before, during, and after the World War I. This crime was part of the mass annihilation that exterminated around three million Armenians, Assyrians, and Greeks in Asia Minor between 1914 and 1923. The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) has recognized the Ottoman campaign against Christian minorities during that period as genocide.

The Ottoman government and the military forces led by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk massacred and deported not only Pontian Christians but also other Greeks across Anatolia and Thrace. Scholar Vasileios Meichanetsidis writes that this genocidal campaign was “an attempt at a total restructuring of Ottoman society and the creation of a Turkish Muslim national state.” According to various sources, approximately 1 million Ottoman Greeks perished during this period. Turkey then exiled those who survived as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. Pontian Greeks now reside in Greece, the United States, Russia, Germany, Australia, and Canada, among other countries.

However, many Greeks converted to Islam in order to continue living in their ancient homeland. A descendant of one of those families is Ibrahim Yaylalı, a former Turkish nationalist from the Black Sea city of Samsun. When he discovered his Greek roots, Yaylalı legally changed his Turkish name and became Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı. He then wrote extensively and spoke about the Pontian Genocide until his arrest on April 22, 2017, for his articles and social media posts. While in prison in Elazığ, he recently sent a letter to his partner, Meral Geylani, and said that prison guards had battered him twice.

Ninety-five years have passed since the Pontian Genocide, but the Turkish government continues to erase the few remaining Christian religious and cultural artifacts in the region. For example, Trabzon’s historic Hagia Sophia, the third and youngest of Turkey’s Hagia Sophias, is now a mosque. The Ottomans first converted it into one, and in 1964 Turkey turned the building into a museum. Since 2013, however, it has been a mosque again. Christian symbols in the church have been damaged or destroyed, and curtains create a separate section for women inside.

Today, only 0.2 percent of Turks are Christian as a result of continued persecution like the genocide, converting churches into mosques, and attacking the remaining churches. While previous regimes completed the physical annihilation of Christians in the region, attacks on the few remaining Christian symbols in the country continues.

—

Uzay Bulut, a journalist and political analyst born in Turkey, is currently based in Washington, DC. She is an associate fellow of the Philos Project. Her journalistic work focuses mainly on Turkey’s ethnic and religious minorities, political Islam, and the history of Turkey. Follow her on Twitter: @uzayb.

Feature Photo Credit: ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ / NATIONAL HERALD/KOSTAS BEJ. An event commemorating the Pontic Genocide in New York in May 2017. Left to right: Elias Tsekeridis, Consul General of Greece in New York Konstantinos Koutras, Consul Manos Koubarakis, Petros Galatoulas, Konstantinos Tsilfidis, and Vasilios Gournelos. For original article, click here. Photo by Costas Bej.

For further reading, see “Forgotten Christian History in Turkey: Review of Byzantium’s Other Empire: Trebizond,” by Richard Tada.

Turkey’s media now have a single owner, Türkiye’nin medyasının artık tek bir sahibi var

March 24, 2018 by administrator

Turkey’s media now have a single owner, Türkiye’nin medyasının artık tek bir sahibi var

It is more than just a change of company ownership. With the sale of Aydin Dogan’s media unit to the Demiroren Group, media diversity in Turkey is dead, writes Rainer Hermann of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

From now on, when you go to a newsagent in Turkey, you don’t need to worry about which paper to buy — you only need to buy one. Then you will know what’s in all the other papers. There are, perhaps, different pictures, but often you’ll find the same phrases, word for word. Because when Aydin Dogan, Turkey’s former “media tsar,” cedes his newspapers and television stations to the Demiroren Group, there will no longer be an independent media group in Turkey.

The few small left-wing newspapers, which can barely stay afloat because hardly anyone dares to advertise in them, or because their most important journalists are in prison, are of no consequence.

Goal achieved

It concludes what Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has been single-mindedly pursuing for the last decade: At his request, businessmen close to him are buying up media outlets. It is a good deal for both sides as Erdogan gives government contracts to loyal entrepreneurs who, in turn, use part of their new wealth to buy up various media and eliminate critical voices.

Having said this, the media’s owners initially have to be worn down, and Aydin Doganwas one of the first to find himself in Erdogan’s line of fire. In 2009, a “retrospective tax payment” of around of $3.3 billion (€2.7 billion) was supposed to bring him to his knees. In 2011, he had to cede the first newspapers, Milliyet and Vatan, to the Demiroren family.

These days, Milliyet – once a respected newspaper – is meaningless. The same Demiroren family is now taking over Hurriyet, Turkey’s most influential newspaper; Posta, the most important tabloid and CNN Turk, the last reputable television station.

Within the next year, local and presidential elections will be held in Turkey. In terms of the media, the takeover of the Dogan Holding’s newspapers and television stations means they are no longer a threat. The main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), calls it a new, large monopoly. Erdogan’s monopoly commission is unlikely to confirm this, if it is even presented with the case.

The president is in control

Hurriyet has long since stopped publishing any direct criticism of Erdogan. However, the newspaper still offered some room for dissenting opinions. Its sale marks the end of an era. For the first time, a president is now in control of the media, and almost four decades after Aydin Dogan bought his first newspaper, Milliyet, his holding company can concentrate again on its core business, which may well mean it is spared from “paying back taxes.”

Turkey’s rejection of Moody’s ” junk” status downgrade won’t make it go away

March 19, 2018 by administrator

by Pinar Tremblay,

Turkey can’t escape the impact of a Moody’s Investors Service downgrade simply by dismissing the report — but it’s trying.

On March 7, Moody’s broke the bad news: It was downgrading Turkey’s credit rating to Ba2 from Ba1; both are considered “junk” status. The outlook for the designation was listed as stable, meaning the poor rating is unlikely to change anytime soon. In addition, Moody’s downgraded the long-term senior unsecured debt rating of the Treasury’s Asset Leasing entity, which handles sukuk lease certificates (Islamic bonds), to Ba2 from Ba1.

On March 9, the immediate impact of the changes was seen as Moody’s downgraded 14 Turkish banks. Decisions about bank ratings rarely make it into Turkish news, particularly because they remind people of the impact of the Zarrab/Halkbank case. Yet pro-government and opposition news outlets alike reported Moody’s decision.

Pro-government headlines were particularly telling. For example, Daily Sabah wrote about “Moody’s Scandalous Turkey Decision.” The columnist somehow concluded Turkey must be on the correct path. Fahrettin Altun, who writes for both Turkish and English versions of Sabah, also penned an eye-opening column in English titled “Moody’s Love for Fethullah Gulen,” referring to the exiled Turkish cleric and his Gulen movement, which Turkey blames for a 2016 coup attempt. In his column, Altun argued that the rating decision was “probably written with direction from [the Gulen movement], aiming to devalue the Turkish lira.”

Though the Moody’s announcement had no immediate effect on the lira, last week the currency indeed dropped to a record low against the euro, and approached a record low against the dollar. The drop was attributed to Turkey’s economy, outside pressures and the possibility of early elections.

Official government reactions were similar. At a recent strategy and training meeting with Turk Eximbank officials and employees, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci said he wondered what criteria Moody’s used to determine the rating. “We don’t care, whatever [they] do,” he said, accusing the ratings agency of using “loan shark logic.”

Similarly, Finance Minister Naci Agbal said the downgrade was of no importance and Moody’s report itself scored a zero in his book. Hatice Karahan, a senior adviser to the president, told government-run TRT World that credit agencies traditionally hold pessimistic views in general.

On March 9, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told crowds not to pay attention to the rating agency because its goal was to clear the path for those who expect to benefit from hardships Turkey might face. He said neither Turkish nor global markets care about rating agencies and, like Zeybekci, he questioned their criteria. In some ways, Erdogan is right. The Moody’s decision, although reported as “shocking,” did not cause turmoil on Turkey’s stock exchange, Borsa Istanbul.

Talat Yesiloglu, senior editor of Turkish Ekonomist magazine, told Al-Monitor he concurs with Erdogan that the downgrade had little to no impact on Turkish financial markets. But he also highlighted the Turkish government’s rather perplexing decision to establish a “national rating agency.” Even the idea of starting a national credit agency shows that, even as Turkish officials discounted Moody’s decision as a “political” one, the government continues to help generate rather political headlines to disguise a struggling economy.

That leaves one to wonder how the Turkish economy went from being the G-20’s fastest-growing in 2017’s third quarter (with a whopping 11.1% year-on-year growth in gross domestic product) to two grades below investment scale. Moody’s isn’t alone in its assessment; the other two most prominent rating agencies (Fitch and Standard & Poor’s) aren’t optimistic about Turkey either.

A sober look at the current Turkish and global economies can help us understand that the Moody’s demotion is a consequence, not the cause, of a fast-approaching economic crisis for Turkey. There are three crucial political causes of the current situation.

First, there is the fear of early elections and increasing uncertainty. For at least the past three years, Erdogan has been running the economy on full throttle in campaign mode. Despite a call by international agencies for fiscal discipline, Erdogan’s personal quest for an imperial presidency has engaged Turkey in more-frequent elections than necessary: two in 2015, a referendum in April 2016 and now two upcoming elections (municipal elections in March 2019 and presidential and parliamentary elections in November 2019). However, Erdogan and his troupe are quickly passing election laws to magnify their own gains through the parliament — which signals early elections. Campaign mode also means tossing fiscal discipline out the window. Erdogan keeps promising more grandiose projects and extravagant subsidies to sustain his voter base.

Second, Turkey’s current offensive in Afrin, Syria, is quickly emptying Turkish coffers. Simply put, Turkey is spending more than it is bringing in. Turkish Ekonomist’s Yesiloglu said that despite all the angry rhetoric against rating agencies, Turkey needs foreign investment.

He said, “In January, the current [account] deficit was reported as $7.1 billion. So if we look at it annually, it surpasses $50 billion.” Yesiloglu said that in 2015, the deficit was $32.3 billion, meaning that there had been a 60% increase in the deficit over two years. “So the current deficit rate goes up from 4.5% to 5.5% in relation to the national income,” he said.

Moody’s describes this as Turkey being on the fast track for “institutional erosion and increasing vulnerability to external shock.” Erdogan can dismantle or form bureaucratic agencies with one word. Even high school entrance exams are designed according to his orders. This is only expected to get worse after the election, which will cement one-man rule while chipping away at institutional strength and independence. It is an open secret that senior bureaucrats can’t act without prior approval from the top, which not only means delays, but the collapse of bureaucratic accountability. Turkish military involvement in Afrin without an exit plan also signals further political volatility in Turkey, along with more military spending.

Last, foreign direct investment, particularly from developed countries, has dwindled and Turkey is not finding replacement funding. Indeed, the loss of credibility goes hand in hand with falling investments. Timur Kuran, a professor of economic and political science at Duke University, told Al-Monitor, “Investors all around the world use the ratings of major investor research services such as Moody’s and Fitch in deciding where to invest. So Turkey’s recent downgrading by Moody’s will reduce the amount of capital invested in it. It doesn’t mean that investment will dry up. In sectors where expected profits are high, foreign companies will continue investing and simply live with the added risk. But in sectors where expected returns are somewhat lower, foreign companies will either delay investments in Turkey, or simply invest elsewhere.”

Without transparency and political accountability, it is hard to ascertain where the money is miraculously still coming from in Turkey. Turkey has been sacrificing long-term progress for short-term measures. But short-term investments for high-interest returns is not a panacea for Turkey’s vulnerability to external factors, which Moody’s estimates is far higher than comparable emerging countries — and growing. That, along with rising interest rates in international markets, could present some serious economic hurdles. Vulnerability is an aggregate of inflation, unemployment, deficits and growth. In other words, a high growth rate alone won’t protect Turkey from external shocks — in fact, it could accelerate the country’s financial demise.

For all these reasons, Turkey’s angry dismissal of international credit and monetary agencies’ evaluations — even as it struggles to attract foreign investors — is not the best policy.

How Funny: Mystery lingers over Turkey’s missing weapons, 106,000 missing ARMAMENTS who might be?

March 15, 2018 by administrator

Turkey’s missing weapons

Zulfikar Dogan,

ANKARA, Turkey — The 2017 annual report of the Turkish Interior Ministry, released in late February, raised fresh questions about a controversy ongoing since the failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016. According to the report, 2,198,774 individuals lost their vehicle registrations, gun licenses, driver’s licenses and professional IDs last year, while 106,740 guns were recorded as either lost or stolen.

News of the huge number of missing weapons comes amid concerns over the reported proliferation of unlicensed guns, including through online sales, and has reignited debate on weapons that were reported missing from military and police armories in the wake of the coup attempt..

There are no clues as to where the more than 106,000 missing weapons might be. Of note, the available statistics only include guns reported as lost or stolen to authorities, meaning that the actual figure might be higher.

In a written parliamentary question in June, CHP Deputy Eren Erdem had asked Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu for the number of weapons that had been missing from the police inventory since the night of the coup attempt. He is still waiting for an answer.

The Association of Retired Noncommissioned Officers has underlined that all assigned weapons and ammunition, and even flasks and boots, are the responsibility of individual soldiers and officers in the Turkish army. Many personnel are now anxious because some of the weapons used during the night of the coup attempt are still missing, according to the head of the association.

Few seem to be convinced by official statements on the missing guns cited in the Interior Ministry reports, as contradicting statements have deepened the confusion, and many questions remain unanswered. Turkish society is already sharply polarized, and many believe that government supporters are arming themselves for future action against political opponents. Open threats from Islamist quarters are feeding the apprehension.

Last month, a presenter on the Islamist Akit TV said on air that the staff of the daily Cumhuriyet, a vocal government critic, deserved to be “slaughtered.” Another Akit TV presenter, infuriated by claims of civilian casualties in Turkish military operations in northern Syria, said, “If we were to kill civilians, we would have started in Cihangir, Nisantasi and Etiler,” referring to Istanbul neighborhoods considered bastions of secularism. He added, “There are so many traitors. There is the Turkish Grand National Assembly,” referring to opposition lawmakers in parliament. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into the presenter.

European Parliament condemns Turkey’s crackdown on Afrin critics

February 9, 2018 by administrator

European Parliament condemns Turkey’s

The European Parliament has passed a resolution denouncing the arrests of people who criticized Turkey’s military intervention in Afrin. One MEP told DW that there’s “no respect for human rights” in Turkey.

Turkey’s detention of hundreds of journalists, doctors and regular citizens who have been critical of Ankara’s operation in Syria’s Kurdish-controlled region of Afrin, was condemned by the European Parliament on Thursday.

The European Parliament described the arrests as “an attempt to censor criticism” in their resolution.

“We want to show our solidarity with Turkey’s population that is going through a difficult period, and at the same time remind EU leaders that human rights must remain on the top of EU-Turkey relations,” Kati Piri, a Dutch MEP and the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, told DW.

Rebecca Harms, a German MEP with the Green party, told DW that the human rights situation is of great concern for Brussels and that EU funds to Turkey must be contingent upon change.

“The rule of law in Turkey, as we knew it, doesn’t actually exist anymore,” Harms said. “The level of violence has been raised and there is no more respect for human rights.”

She added that if the EU’s customs union is to be expanded, “it must be made clear that this can only happen if Turkey returns to the rule of law.”

Thursday’s resolution states that the EU’s aid funds to Turkey “should be conditional on improving its record on human rights.” The resolution also urged Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to lift the state of emergency that enables authorities to crack down on critics.

Warning about Afrin

The European Parliament also criticized Turkey’s actions in Afrin, saying Ankara’s military intervention raises serious humanitarian concerns.

“[MEPs] are seriously concerned about the humanitarian consequences of the Turkish assault and warn against continuing with these disproportionate actions,” the parliament’s statement said.

With regards to Turkey’s military operations in Afrin, Piri said the EU parliament “recognizes Turkey’s right to protect its borders,” but warned of the consequences of military action in the region.

The Turkish army has been fighting against the Kurdish militia YPG in its “Olive Branch” offensive since January 20.

Turkey’s Terrorist group called Grey Wolves share armed photo to threaten Kurds regarding Kirkuk

October 1, 2017 by administrator

Deniz Güzelay, İstanbul Vice-Chairman of Grey Wolves, officially known as Ülkü Ocakları, and his two friends shared their photographs with automatic guns in social media to threaten Kurds over disputed Kirkuk region in Iraq. Güzelay has written under the photo that “5.000 idealist (known as Ülkücü) are ready to go to Kirkuk.”

According to a report by Hürriyet daily, İstanbul Grey Wolves Provincial Vice Chairman Güzelay and Kağıthane Grey Wolves Chairman Engin Kayacık took photographs with automatic weapons in front of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) flag. MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli is known as the ruling AKP chairman and Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main ally in its repressive policies against Kurds and the Gülen movement.

Güzelay is also seen quoted MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli under a photograph he shared in his Instagram account. He has written that “Everyone should know and plan according to that we take the risk of every suffering, every difficulty and every trouble for the survival of the Turkishness, assurance of continuation and scatter of the nightmares over the Turkmen regions” and “5000 idealist ready to go to Kirkuk.”

Following the massive reactions in social media and after he was exposed in the media, Güzelay removed his post with a photograph showing automatic guns in his and his friends’ hands.

Kirkuk is a issue between Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen in the region. The Iraqi parliament on Wednesday has asked Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi to send troops to the Kurdish-held region of Kirkuk and take control of its oilfields, as the prime minister demanded that Kurdish administration “cancel” the outcome of the independence referendum. Kirkuk, claimed by the Kurds, is also home to Turkmen and Arab communities. The KRG included it in the independence referendum held on last Monday.

“The government has to bring back the oilfields of Kirkuk under the control of the oil ministry,” said the resolution voted by parliament in Baghdad. It called on Abadi to “issue orders for the security forces to deploy in the disputed areas, including Kirkuk.” In a speech to parliament, Abadi renewed his ultimatum to Masoud Barzani’s KRG to hand over control of international airports by Sept. 29 or face a ban on direct international flights to the Kurdish region.

Source: https://stockholmcf.org/turkeys-grey-wolves-share-armed-photo-to-threaten-kurds-regarding-kirkuk/

Four narratives of Turkey’s denial of Armenian Genocide

September 10, 2017 by administrator

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.

Turkish journalist and political analyst Uzay Bulut has revealed an article about the four main narratives that Turkey uses to deny the Armenian Genocide.

The feature on The Armenian Weekly reads:

Narrative One: We Did Not Slaughter Armenians; Armenians Slaughtered Us

Accusing Armenians of being mass murderers and the actual perpetrators of genocide is a popular myth in Turkey. This narrative is what is now taught to Turkish schoolchildren in middle and high schools.

Professor Taner Akçam wrote a comprehensive article for the Armenian Weekly about how the 1915 genocide is depicted in Turkish history textbooks used during the 2014 and 2015 school years. Those books are either prepared by the Ministry of National Education or approved by the Ministry’s Instruction and Education Board.

Narrative Two: Yes, We Did Slaughter Armenians. If They Do Not Behave, We Will Slaughter Them Again

This narrative is similar to the first one but takes it to a new and even more shameless level: to something to be proud of, and additional threats against the Armenian victims and other minorities. This sentiment is also openly and frequently expressed across Turkey.

This narrative proudly accepts that Turks slaughtered Armenians, but they have an excuse: “Yes, we did exterminate Armenians. But ask us why. Because they misbehaved and became traitors. And, if required, we will do it all over again. One cannot get even an inch of territory from Turkey,” an Aşkale mayor said.

“We will do it all over again,” in fact, seems to indirectly target Kurds, declaring to Kurds that if they don’t behave well and accept Turkish superiority, Turks will exterminate them, too.

Narrative Three: A Tragedy Happened During World War I. Armenians Slaughtered Us, and We Slaughtered Them. It Was Civil War. Let’s Forget About It…

This is the narrative Turkey uses for international observers. On April 24, 2015, for example, a message was sent by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to the religious ceremony held in the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul on the 100th anniversary of the Genocide.

In essence, what this message declares is this: “What happened in 1915 was never genocide. People kill each other in all wars. But we are such noble people we still remember all of the dead with love, so let’s forget about it and move on already.”

This third narrative, which is more “moderate” compared with the first and second ones, is just for show, intended for the outside world and particularly for the West: “Look, Turkey is changing for the better and taking steps to face its history. And this proves that we are a worthwhile NATO member an EU candidate.”

Narrative 4: Yes, Turkey Committed Genocide

This rhetoric is never directly stated by the Turkish government, but it is, at times, tolerated when presented by some intellectuals in the country.

Since 2010, rights activists in Turkey led by the Human Rights Association (IHD) have commemorated the 1915 genocide in cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and Diyarbakir. The government has not prevented the commemoration events, nor has it arrested the organizers. For the government seems to use these events as a public relations stunt for the world. International media do cover these events, so it is easy marketing for Turkish “democracy.”