Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP claims major victory in local French ballots

March 29, 2015 By administrator

Nicolas Sarkozy

Former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and centrist allies on Sunday won control of an overwhelming majority of departments in France, in a major blow to the ruling Socialist Party.

The UMP, in coalition with moderates from the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), claimed as many as 70 out of a possible 98 departments as voters punished President François Hollande’s embattled government.

“The results [of the election] went far beyond local concerns. With their ballots French voters have massively rejected the policies of François Hollande and his government,” Sarkozy told supporters gathered at the UMP’s headquarters in Paris shortly after the first exit polls appeared around 8 p.m. local time.

The UMP’s celebration was crowned by a handful of symbolic victories, including in the central Corrèze department – home to François Hollande and under Socialist control since 2008.

Earlier Prime Minister Manuel Valls admitted on live television that his Socialist Party had suffered clear setbacks, blaming “distractions” and “divisions” among the left.

He also recognised the steady progression of the far-right.

“This is a sign of a lasting upheaval of our political landscape and we will all need to draw lessons from it,” Valls said in reference to the far-right gains across the country. However, the tough-talking PM did not announce any major policy changes.

In an exception to Sunday’s general trend toward the right, the southern department of Lozère passed to Socialist hands, interior ministry results showed.

No FN wins

Despite historically high scores at the local level, the far-right National Front failed to win majority control of any departmental councils.

France’s CSA polling firm said FN candidates had finished first in at least 43 cantons, the geographical units that make up French departments, but did not have enough councillors to take control of any departments.

“I don’t think there will be any National Front departments,” deputy party leader Florian Philippot said on television on Sunday evening.

Earlier, party leader Marine Le Pen avoided the issue of how many departments her anti-immigration party would gain, claiming voters were steadily turning away from France’s mainstream parties.

Turkey’s Kurds celebrate Syriza victory

February 2, 2015 By administrator

Syriza was amazingly vocal in Turkey’s Taksim-Gezi upheavals in the summer of 2013. Its banner in English during Gezi that read “The Sea Separates Us but the Dignity Unites” was unforgettable for Turkey’s young activists. Also, one of Gezi’s victims targeted by police bullets, Berkin Elvan, 14 — of Alevi origin — became a symbol of solidarity for Syriza. The posters carrying his image with the slogan (also in Turkish) “You are our brother, Berkin” were seen during the Greek election campaign.

Syriza is very sensitive to the Kurds’ plight in and around Turkey. A Syriza delegation visited the Turkish-Kurdish frontier settlements near Kobani in November, while the Kurds were engaged in their epic resistance against the Islamic State (IS).

It’s striking that the liberation of Kobani from IS coincided with the electoral victory of Syriza. While people were celebrating Syriza’s victory in Athens, the Kurds in Istanbul, Diyarbakir and Suruc, the border town right across from Kobani, were dancing in the streets, also saluting Syriza.

Turkey’s public opinion, as a matter of fact, learned that Syriza has organic relations with two Turkish parties: HDP and the Freedom and Solidarity Party (ODP). The latter was founded in 1996 and it is the real replica of the Syriza in Turkey. It was the coalition of a number of quasi-Marxist far-left parties of 1970s Turkey. It has been in constant contact with those who later formed Syriza. However, the ODP never succeeded to get over 0.1% of the vote in Turkey’s elections.

The HDP is a different story. The core is the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is close to the positions of the Kurdistan Workers Party. The BDP, under the instructions of the imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan, decided to expand to ally mainly with the Turkish left, and transformed into the HDP to run it as a wider, Kurdish-Turkish pro-democracy leftist party. Its co-chairman, a relatively young and appealing politician, Demirtas, ran as a candidate for presidency in August and got very close to 10% of the votes, very near the national threshold in parliamentary elections. Previously, the Kurdish vote for the BDP and its predecessors was always around 6% to more than 7%.

Demirtas’ appeal, therefore, fueled the hopes of the pro-Kurdish HDP by attracting some Turkish constituency. It may reach the national threshold in the June 2015 elections.

write Cengiz Candar

Taliban supreme leader claims victory in Afghan War

October 2, 2014 By administrator

The top leader of the Taliban Islamic movement, Mullah Mohammad Omar, has claimed victory in the War in Afghanistan over the US-led NATO forces in a special address to his supporters released on the occasion of Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, RIA Novosti reported, citing Khaama Press.

“Your Jihad and ungrudging sacrifices against the occupation have defeated the Americans, their Western allies and domestic supporters altogether with the Help of Allah,” he said in the message.

“All their strategies have proved to be ineffective, with their diplomatic efforts facing fiasco, besides disgrace and ignominy. The NATO Summit in Wales under the leadership of America, the recent slandering in Afghanistan under the name of elections and the continuous advancements of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Emirate are proofs, speaking well for themselves,” the Taliban leader added.

Mullah Mohammad Omar, who has a $10 million bounty on his head from the US State Department, has been hiding since the Taliban was overthrown in 2001 after the US invasion.