Argentina’s Armenian community rejects Turkish Foreign Minister’s visit

January 31, 2017 By administrator

The institutions of the Armenian community in Argentina issued a joint statement, “rejecting” the visit of the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to Argentina and South America, Agencia Prensa Armenia reports.

Cavusoglu’s regional tour of Argentina, Paraguay, the Dominican Republic and Mexico started on January 30 and will go through February 2.

“Not only is Cavusoglu the representative of the State that committed the crime against humanity, but his figure constitutes the executing arm of the negationist policy historically adopted by Turkey,” the statement stressed, noting that as Minister of Foreign Affairs “Cavusoglu devoted his work to intimidating anyone who recognizes or even names the Armenian Genocide, as were the cases of Russia, the European Parliament and the Vatican in 2015 and Germany and the United States in 2016.”

“On several occasions, Cavusoglu repeated that any pronouncement on the matter not coming from the parties (Armenia-Turkey) prejudices the reconciliation between the two peoples. However, they only criticize the statements that are not ‘favorable’ to Turkey, as they do not issue statements when the Azerbaijani denialist president, Ilham Aliyev, speaks of the ‘Armenian lies’, for example. Another pattern of double standard and lies of Cavusoglu is seen in what they call ‘just memory,’ a concept very similar to the infamous ‘theory of the two demons’ in Argentina, when they appeal to ‘the sufferings of all parties’ as a new stage of negationism. This implies that Armenians and Turks were two different parties to a conflict, and did not constitute a State-citizen relationship. Cavusoglu went on to say that Pope Francis ‘discriminated between the sufferings’ when he spoke of the Armenian Genocide.”

“We consider that his work as Minister of Foreign Affairs consists solely in exporting the model of censorship to freedom of expression maintained by the regime of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against his own people,” said the statement. “This is evidenced in the many occasions when Turkish diplomacy lobbied to block resolutions of solidarity with the Armenian people throughout the region of South America.”

“Law 13.326 of Uruguay and Law 26.199 of Argentina, as well as resolution 550/2015 of the Federal Senate of Brazil are pillars of the Human Rights policy in our region, and they form an indispensable standard. In this context, we urge the authorities responsible for the foreign policy of our countries to avoid joining any of the manifold manifestations of the negationism and totalitarianism of the Turkish State,” the statement concluded.

They made me target again – Garo Paylan

January 18, 2017 By administrator

In an interview with Tert.am, Garo Paylan, an Armenian member of the Turkish parliament who was temporarily banned from sessions over recent remarks, shared his comments on the scandal surrounding his personality, justifying his position on the Armenian Genocide.
Paylan said that the scandal rose after he said, at the debate over constitutional reforms, that the Turkish authorities annihilated four nations – Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians and Jews – in the early 20th century.
“What I said to them was that we made up 40% of the population then – instead of the 0.9% now. I referred to those events as ‘genocide’ and said ‘you can use any wording you like’.”
Paylan, who represents the pro-Kurdish Democratic Party in the Majilis, was suspended from three sessions after the controversial speech. His statements were later removed from the sessions’ protocols.
“Sadly enough, they made me a target again. I am in danger. But everybody else is in danger in Turkey,” he said, expressing concerns over deeper anti-nationalist sentiments in the wake of the constitutional referendum.
The proposed amendments, if adopted, will doom dissidents to silence, establishing a fascist regime in the country, the lawmaker noted.
He added that the Armenians in Turkey and he personally are concerned about the community’s future. “My concern is not limited only to the Armenian community; I am concerned also about the other religious minorities.”
Paylan said he was suspended after nationalists’ threats to vote down the constitutional reforms if he wasn’t punished. “It wasn’t normal,” he added.
But despite the dominating attitudes, Paylan says he has supporters among the democrats, as well as the Armenians in the country.
Paylan added that he is committed to work in the same way in parliament after facing the sanctions. “After the assassination of Hrant Dink, people are afraid to use ‘genocide’. So what we now need is a new generation which will have the brevity to speak about genocide in parliament, and through the media – newspapers and television,” he said.

Greece: Prosecution against extradition of two Turkish military

January 15, 2017 By administrator

The prosecutor of the Greek Court of Cassation ruled against the extradition of two Turkish soldiers who fled to Greece in the aftermath of the putsch failed in Turkey on 15 July.

“I do not allow Greek judges to extradite them,” said Haralambos Vourliotis, quoted by a judicial source. He justified his position by not being entitled to a fair and just trial in their country.

In the aftermath of the abortive coup in Turkey, eight Turkish troops had fled their country and arrived in Alexandroupolis (northern Greece) aboard the same helicopter.

In the first instance, an Athens court had accepted the extradition of six of these soldiers, who then appealed. The court, however, had opposed the extradition of the last two, believing that their lives would be in danger in Turkey. But after an appeal by the public prosecutor’s office, these two soldiers will also be tried by the Court of Cassation.

On Tuesday, the case of two first soldiers had been examined by the court, and the prosecution had already ruled that they should not be returned to Turkey because they would not have a fair and fair trial. The case of the last four Turkish troops must be examined on Friday. According to judicial sources, a judgment could be issued on 23 January, but the final decision will be taken by the Greek Minister of Justice.

The eight soldiers, who deny having participated in the putsch, say they fear for their lives. Many soldiers fled to European countries after the failed coup in Turkey. The affair embarrasses Greece, which keeps delicate relations with its neighbor.

Armenian Genocide Institute among Turkish DDoS competition targets

December 15, 2016 By administrator

A Turkish crime group has come up with a new scheme that will create a competitive league of groups carrying out DDoS attacks. The Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute in Yerevan is among the targets, The Merkle reports.

This “league table” will only apply to groups using the crime syndicate’s own DDoS tools, though.

As one would come to expect, the Turkish crime group has also put together a list of target organizations. For now, this list is rather small, although it contains some prominent targets. For example, the CDU Party led by Angela Merkel, and the Armenian Genocide Institute are two potential future DDoS targets.

Relations between Germany and Turkey deteriorated after the Bundestag adopted a resolution to recognize the Armenian Genocide on June 2. Merkel’s party also backed the motion then.

Surface Defence is the Turkish crime group organizing this DDoS competition. Participants who use their tools will receive 1 point for every 10 minutes of successful attacks using the Tor-hosted Sledgehammer tool. Assuming that the participants can continue their relentless attacks for an extended period, they will track up points rather quickly.

Turkish warplane crashes near southeastern city of Diyarbakir – army

December 12, 2016 By administrator

A Turkish fighter jet on a training mission crashed on its final approach to an airport in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir on Monday, Turkey’s military said on Monday, noting that the pilot had ejected from the plane and was unharmed. An investigation had started into the cause of the crash, the army said in a statement. Security sources said the jet crashed in an empty field. Helicopters were scanning an area of between 3 km and 4 km (about 2 miles) around the site, for any unexploded ordnance. Commercial flights to predominantly Kurdish Diyarbakir’s civilian airport, next to the military air base, were rerouted to nearby airports, sources said. Jets from the base regularly carry out air strikes against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq. (Reuters)

The life of Rakel Dink, FROM A VILLAGE WITH NO CHAIRS TO LEADING A FOUNDATION

November 12, 2016 By administrator

Board director of the Hrant Dink Foundation: “Nothing can force us to forget”

The life of Rakel Dink, widow of the late Turkish journalist and founder of the Agos newspaper Hrant Dink, has been continuously shaped by the past 100 years of Armenians’ history in the Ottoman Empire and present-day Turkey.

Rakel Dink was born in 1959 in an Armenian family in Silopi (southeastern Turkey), close to the borders with Iraq and Syria. Her grandfather, Vartan, was a native of Van. Fleeing the Armenian Genocide, Vartan resettled his family on the slopes of Mt. Joudi in the Şirnak Province in southeastern Anatolia. To survive, the family was forced to hide in a mountain grotto. “They say such a cave didn’t exist, but that God opened it up for us. That’s the story. They lived there for a long time,” says Rakel, recounting a family legend passed down through generations.

“In 1915, while in hiding, my grandmother’s sister had a child. She couldn’t stop the child from crying during that dangerous time. The mother-in-law took the child’s hand to stop the crying, so that the family wouldn’t be discovered, and…I can’t say the word. The child was lost,” Rakel remembers the horrific decisions the family was forced to make to survive.

Rakel’s father Siyament Yağbasan and mother Delal had six children. Their second, Rakel, was just eight years old when her mother passed away. Rakel’s father remarried and had seven more children. The family spoke only Kurdish and was mainly engaged in farming.

When Rakel was eight and a half years old, a group of clergy visited her village at the behest of Constantinople Patriarch Archbishop Shnork Kaloustian. At the time, Christian clergy from Istanbul traveled throughout Anatolia looking for Armenians and other Christians who survived the Genocide. Hrant Güzelyan and Orhan Younkesh, representatives of the Armenian Evangelical Church, took several groups of Armenian children back to Istanbul in order to give them an education. Rakel Dink and her two brothers were in the second group of kids. “We got to Bolis in order to learn Armenian, to read and write. There was no school near our village. No one knew how to read,” Rakel remembers. The new arrivals were housed at the Tuzla camp for Armenian children (Camp Armen), just outside Istanbul.

Trump’s Top Military Adviser Flynn Is Lobbying For Obscure Company With Ties To Turkish Government

November 12, 2016 By administrator

By CHUCK ROSS, Reporter

An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser,
Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2016/11/11/trumps-top-military-adviser-is-lobbying-for-obscure-company-with-ties-to-turkish-government/#ixzz4PoMC8Lcr

An intelligence consulting firm founded by retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Donald Trump’s top military adviser, was recently hired as a lobbyist by an obscure Dutch company with ties to Turkey’s government and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The revelation of that new lobbying contract, which has not been previously reported, raises several questions given that Trump is said to be considering Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), to take over as either Secretary of Defense or National Security Advisor.

It also raises questions about disclosure.

Flynn wrote an op-ed for The Hill on Tuesday, just before Trump’s stunning upset of Hillary Clinton, in which he heaped praise on Erdogan and called on the next president, whoever that would be, to accede his request to extradite the U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen back to Turkey.

“Gülen’s vast global network has all the right markings to fit the description of a dangerous sleeper terror network,” Flynn wrote in the op-ed, in which he called Gulen a “shady Islamic mullah” and “radical Islamist.”

Erdogan has accused Gülen, who has lived in exile in Pennsylvania since 1999, of masterminding a violent coup in Turkey in July. Gülen has denied doing so, but Erdogan has pressured President Obama to review evidence that the 76-year-old imam was behind the uprising, which left nearly 300 soldiers and civilians dead.

“From Turkey’s point of view, Washington is harboring Turkey’s Osama bin Laden,” Flynn asserted.

The piece does not include a disclosure that Flynn Intel Group, the consulting firm that Flynn founded in Oct. 2014, just after leaving DIA, was recently hired to lobby Congress by a Dutch company called Inovo BV that was founded by a Turkish businessman who holds a top position on Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board.

A review of Dutch records shows that the company was founded by Ekim Alptekin, an ally of Erdogan’s who is director of the Turkey-U.S. Business Council, a non-profit arm of Turkey’s Foreign Economic Relations Board. Members of the Foreign Economic Relations Board are chosen by Turkey’s general assembly and its minister of economy. In the role, Alptekin helped coordinate Erdogan’s visit to the U.S. earlier this year.

A lobbying disclosure report filed with Congress lists Inovo BV’s address but not the name of anyone affiliated with the company. There is also little information about the firm online. But The Daily Caller tracked down Dutch business registration records which show Alptekin founded the company in 2005. The financial consulting firm, which Alptekin does not acknowledge on his bio, also has an affiliate, Inovo Turkije.

The lobbying disclosure does not say how much Inovo BV is paying Flynn’s firm. It lists former congressional aide Robert Kelley as the lobbyist who is handling the contract and says that he is working on “organizational consulting” for Inovo BV.

Flynn’s recent op-ed appears to be at odds with some of his past comments about Turkey and its role in the war against ISIS. In the op-ed he refers to the Islamic nation, which is a member of NATO, is “vital to U.S. interests” and is the U.S.’s “strongest ally” against ISIS.

But he told journalist Seymour Hersh for an article published earlier this year that Turkey was doing little to stop foreign fighters and weapons from crossing the border into Syria.

“We understood ISIS’s long-term strategy and its campaign plans, and we also discussed the fact that Turkey was looking the other way when it came to the growth of the Islamic State inside Syria,” Flynn told Hersh for the article.

It is unclear whether the Trump administration will side with Erdogan on the Gülen issue. The men were allies until recent years, when some of Gülen’s followers, called Gülenists, opened corruption investigations of some of Erdogan’s government allies.

Erdogan has since then assailed Gülen and his network, which he refers to as a “parallel government” because Gülen’s followers are scattered throughout Turkey’s judiciary, police force and military.

The tension peaked in July when a group of mid-level Turkish military officials attempted to overthrow the government in a battle that hit several of Turkey’s major cities, including Ankara, the capital, and Istanbul.

Erdogan immediately blamed Gülen. And though the mysterious cleric denied any involvement, Erdogan began to pressure the U.S. to return him back to his homeland to face charges pending against him. While the State Department has said it is reviewing evidence presented against Gülen, the Obama administration has appeared less than eager to extradite him.

In a statement to TheDC, Gülen’s lawyers said they hoped that Flynn’s op-ed is not indicative of the Trump administration’s position towards the cleric.

“We hope that Mr. Flynn’s op-ed on Mr. Gülen and Turkish-American relations, published before the results of the election were known, is not a statement of policy for President-Elect Trump,” Gülen’s legal team at the Washington D.C. firm Steptoe & Johnson told TheDC.

They also accused Erdogan’s regime of “propagating false information” about Gülen.

Turkish diplomatic sources tell TheDC that they “are pleased” that one of Trump’s top advisers “is aware of the danger that Fetullah Gulen and his terrorist organisation” pose to Turkey.

“Our main expectation is still that Fetullah Gülen is extradited to Turkey as soon as possible,” said a source with the Turkish embassy.

Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a former Pentagon official, criticized Flynn’s op-ed in a post at the think tank’s website on Thursday.

“Flynn gets Erdogan wrong, whitewashes recent Turkish behavior, fails the logic test, and proposes a policy prescription that would make matters worse,” argues Rubin.

He asserted that “regardless of what Erdogan says publicly,” intelligence exists which shows that Erdogan supports ISIS and al-Qaeda affiliates operating inside Syria.

“That makes Turkey a source of instability in the region, not its remedy,” Rubin writes, also noting that Erdogan has embraced leaders of the terrorist group Hamas.

“Should Gülen he be extradited? If Turkey can provide proof of his involvement in the events of July 15, then yes,” Rubin says. “But almost four months after the coup, Turkish authorities have failed to provide the United States with anything other than accusations and demands.”

The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Flynn Intel Group.

As for Alptekin, he appears to be on board the Trump train.

In an interview with CNN’s Turkish franchise, he said that he believes Trump will be good for U.S.-Turkish business relations. He also referred to Flynn’s op-ed.

And on Twitter, Alptekin is heavily critical of Gülen. In one tweet, he compared the cleric to bin Laden, similar to Flynn’s rhetoric in his op-ed. In other tweets, Alptekin has praised Trump. In September, he wrote that a Trump presidency will be a boon to U.S.-Turkey relations. And in a post from the day after Trump’s election shows him standing next to a cardboard cutout of the president-elect.

Germany: Massive German police operation targets Turkish nationalist boxing gang

November 11, 2016 By administrator

german-otoman-criminals The police operation across six states targeted Ottoman Germania, a Turkish nationalist boxing gang. Authorities classify the group as rocker-like gang similar to the Hells Angels.

Nearly 1,500 German police carried out countrywide raids on Wednesday targeting the Turkish nationalist boxing gang Ottoman Germania, in what authorities described as a major blow to organized crime.

Police, including elite commandos, raided nearly 50 homes, businesses and offices to conduct searches that yielded weapons, ammunition, drugs and 53,000 euros in cash.

One of the raids targeted the so-called World Chapter of Ottoman Germania Boxing Club in Dietzenbach, located south of Frankfurt. Raids were also carried out in the states of Hessen, Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, North-Rhine-Westphalia, Niedersachsen and Hamburg.

Authorities said the goal of the operation was to gather evidence and understand the structure of the organization. The interior minister of the state of Saarland, Klaus Bouillon, said the operation was successful in breaking up Ottoman Germania.

Among those arrested were two 21-year-olds wanted on suspicion of attempted murder.

The two 21-year-olds stand accused of carrying out a grenade attack in August on a shisha café frequented by the rival Kurdish gang Bahoz after suspected members of the group attacked and wounded two members of Ottoman Germania in the city of Saarbrücken. The 28-year-old president of the “Ottoman Saar” local chapter was arrested in a police raid on Tuesday and is accused of ordering the attack.

Authorities have for some time worried about conflict between the Ottoman Germania and Bahoz, accusing the two groups of carrying the political conflict between Turks and Kurds in Turkey into Germany with acts of violence.

Security officials classify both groups as rocker-like gangs that in structure and behavior are similar to the Hells Angels, only without motorcycles. Ottoman Germania describes itself as a boxing club, but authorities believe the group has nothing to do with the sport.

Founded in April 2015, Ottoman Germania is estimated to have 20 chapters and 2,500 members in Germany, according to official estimates. Including branches in Turkey, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden the group has some 3,500 estimated members.

Peter Beuth, the interior minister of Hessen, said that “regardless of under which mantle criminals believe they can operate in our country we will go after them with all the power of a state of law.”

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/massive-german-police-operation-targets-turkish-nationalist-boxing-gang/a-36331416

Jailed Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan calls on Europe to stand up for its values

November 3, 2016 By administrator

asli-erdogan Turkish novelist Asli Erdogan has been in jail since August 19 for alleged links to Kurdish militants. She has written an urgent plea for European leaders to speak out against current developments in Turkey.

Dear friends, colleagues, journalists and members of the press,

I am writing this letter to you from Bakirkoy Prison, the day after “Cumhuriyet,” one of our oldest newspapers and the voice of Turkey’s social democrats, has been subjected to a police operation. More than a dozen of its writers are in custody at the moment, while four more are “wanted by police,” including Can Dundar, general director.

Even I was shocked!

This is a clear sign that Turkey has decided to disobey any law or respect any rights.

Currently, more than 130 journalists are in jail – a world record. Additionally, 170 newspapers, periodicals, and radio/TV channels have been shut down in two months. Our current government wants to monopolize “reality” and “truth.” Any opinion differing slightly from that of the rulers is violently suppressed: They are subjected to police beatings, held day and night under custody (up to 30 days), among other punishments.

I was arrested on August 19 simply because I am one of the advisors of “Ozgur Gundem,” the “Kurdish paper.” Although Press Law 11 clearly states that advisors have no legal responsibility for the paper, I haven’t yet seen a court that will listen to my story.

Along with me in this Kafkaesk trial is Necmiye Alpay, a 70-year-old linguist and translator who has also been arrested and charged with terrorism.

This letter is an urgent call!

The situation is drastic and horrifying and extremely worrisome. I believe that a totalitarian regime in Turkey will unavoidably shake all of Europe eventually.

Europe, currently concentrated on its “refugee crisis,” seems to underestimate the perils of total loss of democracy in Turkey. Now we – the writers, the journalists, the Kurdish, the Alevites and, of course, the women – are paying the heavy price for the “democracy crisis.”

Europe should assume its responsibility for the values it has defined with the blood of centuries, the values that make “Europe” a democracy with human rights, including freedom of speech and thought.

We need all your solidarity and support.

Many thanks for what you have done for us so far.

Best wishes,

Asli Erdogan

November 1, 2016

Bakirkoy Prison, C-9

Asli Erdogan, is a prominent Turkish novelist whose books have been translated into French, German, Arabic and Norwegian. She was jailed on August 19 for having alleged links with Kurdish militants. She was a member of the advisory board of the “Ozgur Gundem” daily, which was closed by court order on grounds of spreading propaganda of the militant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Since the July 15 coup attempt, Turkey has started an operation to ostracize people with alleged links to Gulen movement, led by self-exiled US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed Gulen for orchestrating the failed coup. Gulen denied any involvement.

Turkish journalists go anonymous as gov’t tightens grip on media after coup attempt

October 30, 2016 By administrator

The author of this article prefers to remain anonymous for the security reasons.

“We are afraid to write. We are afraid to talk. Never before have we been so scared of words and their repercussions,” says acclaimed Turkish author Elif Shafak, describing what it is like to be a writer or a journalist in today’s Turkey, in the Financial Times on September 27.

While she was brave enough to put her byline on such a strongly critical op-ed, her colleagues are increasingly hiding their real identities, fearing ever-hardening government persecution.

On Sept. 30, Al-Monitor published a piece by “a correspondent in Turkey” about the recent release of emails from the personal accounts of Turkish Energy Minister Berat Albayrak, who is also President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s son-in-law. The minister’s email accounts had been hacked several months ago.

The anonymous correspondent said claims were made that Turkey’s biggest media conglomerate, the Doğan Media Group, had kneeled down before the president and that its own CEO was working hard to make sure news and opinion pieces are in line with the government’s wishes.

In one of the released emails, Doğan’s CEO was alleged to have exerted diligent efforts to sideline an outspoken reporter from Doğan’s major Hürriyet newspaper. This email was not mentioned in the Al-Monitor piece.

Yet, the popular website’s description for the identity of the writer already says enough about what would happen to journalists who only report about allegations, let alone those who direct plain criticism toward the government: “At times, Al-Monitor withholds the bylines of our correspondents for the protection of our authors.”

Media freedom has always been contentious in Turkey although the mass closure of newspapers and TV stations was first seen in the recent past. Meanwhile, journalists’ increasing bid to stay out of sight became a common occurrence only in the aftermath of the July 15 coup attempt, a rough period during which 180 media outlets were shut down and 130 journalists, as well as some 32,000 others, were put behind bars.

Nine articles were published by Al-Monitor without a byline between August 2014 and July 2016, according to the website’s public archive. However, anonymous writers have submitted two articles since July 20 alone.

TR724, a recently established online news platform thought to be the successor of the Gülen movement’s former flagship daily Zaman appears to be publishing articles under pseudonyms now. While its masthead says the website was founded “by a group of journalists with their own means,” nearly all of its columnists and editors are brand-new figures, if not recent graduates, with no bylined articles in web archives.

Another “group of journalists” is responsible for the publications of Turkey Purge, a platform which, according to their own bio, “monitors human rights abuses, hate crimes and speech against political dissidents in Turkey’s post-coup crackdown.”

Turkey Purge editors provide neither pen names nor their real identity due to what they say are “obvious reasons.”

“Yes, maybe we are not concerned about our lives, but each one of us still has a family.”

It looks like Zaman’s sister publication, the English-language daily Today’s Zaman, is also back in town, but under a different name: Turkish Minute.

Turkish Minute, the wording of whose news articles resembles that of the now-closed Today’s Zaman, says on its Who We Are page: “Due to unprecedented oppression inside Turkey, journalists in exile do not write under their own names in an effort to protect loved-ones back home.”

The author of this article prefers to remain anonymous for the very same reason as well.

There are, of course, journalists who still write under their real names, albeit very few. But they do admit that they have been forced to soften their language in order to escape persecution, as Cumhuriyet columnist Aslı Aydıntaşbaş proved in her recent article in The Washington Post: “Over the past year, I find myself intuitively developing a set of survival techniques to be able to continue writing in Turkey. For example, the Turkish president and his family are off limits.”

Source: http://www.vocaleurope.eu/turkish-journalists-go-anonymous-as-govt-tightens-grip-on-media-after-coup-attempt/

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