French parliament to vote on criminalizing Genocide denial

December 2, 2015 By administrator

The French Parliament will vote on a bill criminalizing the Armenian Genocide denial Thursday, December 3, Nouvelles d’Arménie reports.

Introduced by MP Valerie Boyer, the bill envisages punishment for denial of the Genocide and any crimes against humanity committed in the 20th century.

The bill was discussed by the parliament’s Justice Commission on November 25.

A bill criminalizing the denial of the Armenian Genocide was adopted by the French Parliament (December 22, 2011) and Senate (January 23, 2012); it was, however, declared unconstitutional by the Constitutional council of the country on February 29, 2012.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres, and deportations involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, the Italian Chamber of Deputies, majority of U.S. states, parliaments of Greece, Cyprus, Argentina, Belgium and Wales, National Council of Switzerland, Chamber of Commons of Canada, Polish Sejm, Vatican, European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.

Vote result 89% TURKS 11% GERMANS invented Genocide

November 11, 2015 By administrator

Tanasi Kociras Commented: Turks “invented” Germans inspired.

Japan: 12 injured as Turks, Kurds scuffle outside Ankara mission in Japan

October 25, 2015 By administrator

At least 12 people have been wounded in clashes that erupted among Turkish nationals outside Ankara’s embassy in Japan, where they were standing in line to vote in snap parliamentary elections.

Footage of the incident showed police interrupting the scuffles between Turks and Kurds in front of the diplomatic mission in the Japanese capital city of Tokyo on Sunday.

Two police officers were among those injured in the confrontations, Tokyo Broadcasting System Television reported, adding that the cause of Sunday’s clashes was unclear.

“I was attacked by Turks all of a sudden while I was in a car with my friends,” said a Kurdish man, whose shirt had been torn off.

Quoting a Turkish voter, Japan’s Jiji Press also said that the scuffles broke out after Kurds tried to display the flag of a pro-Kurdish party.

Some 3,600 Turkish citizens are reportedly residing in Japan.

The snap parliamentary elections in Turkey are scheduled to be held on November 1, but the overseas voting began on October 8 in different countries.

All overseas ballot papers will be counted alongside domestic votes after polls close across Turkey in the evening of November 1.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won three general elections in 2002, 2007 and 2011. However, the AKP was stripped of its overall majority in the June 7 elections and failed in coalition talks with main opposition factions.

The snap polls come amid the Turkish army’s military campaign against members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which voided a shaky 2013 ceasefire between the two sides.

The PKK has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead.

Greece votes in bailout referendum LIVE UPDATES

July 4, 2015 By administrator

Polling stations have opened across Greece as millions of people are expected to cast ballots on whether to accept more austerity in exchange for international aid. Recent polls have predicted a knife-edge result, with ‘Yes’ having a slight advantage.

Sunday, July 5

04:42 GMT:

Greeks cast first ballots at polling station in Athens

Injured Kurd when twin bomb blasts hit the HDP’s rally in Diyarbakır on June 5 cast their votes.

June 7, 2015 By administrator

More than 53.7 million Turkish voters head to the polls on June 7 for a crucial parliamentary election. report hurriyetdailynews

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has framed the June 7 election in Turkey as a key hurdle on the path to the powerful presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to introduce.

However, if the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) crosses the 10 percent election threshold, the number of AKP lawmakers will decrease considerably, making it almost impossible to reach the 330 seats necessary for a constitutional change.

The HDP has faced scores of physical attacks during its campaign. One of its campaign bus drivers, Hamdullah Öğe, was murdered on June 3, and three of its supporters were killed when twin bomb blasts hit its milestone rally in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on June 5.

Election safety has also been a hot item on the agenda during the campaign ahead of the vote, amid the opposition’s claims that there was fraud in the vote counting process. The government has strictly denied the claim and mobilized a total of 404,000 security personnel to maintain security throughout the day of the election.

Here are the live updates:

6:30 p.m. – 22.2 percent of the votes have been counted so far.

6:20 p.m. – 16 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

6:10 p.m. – 10.6 percent of the votes have been counted so far.

6.00 p.m. – According to a consolidated vote tally from Anadolu and Cihan news agencies, 6.6 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

5.50 p.m. – During the counting of votes coming from abroad, a group claimed that some ballots were illegally thrown into the garbage at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, according to private broadcaster CNN Türk. Police have arrived to stop a resulting fist-fight between party officials. “There is no problem at the place where votes from abroad are being counted. Our friends are on duty there. No need to panic,” HDP co-chair Demirtaş has said.

5.45 p.m. – 0.9 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

5:00 p.m. – Polls close across Turkey and vote-counting starts at 174,240 ballot boxes.

Click for real-time results shown on a map
4.55 p.m. – A headman in Batman’s Yolveren village was all by lonesome on June 7, as he was the only person to cast a vote at his polling booth because the locality’s other 16 registered voters all now live in Germany. (Click here to read more)

4:50 p.m. – Residents of the Kuşu village in Turkey’s western province of Kütahya have boycotted the elections for a third time since 2011, when the town’s status was reduced to “village” due to a population decrease. (Click here to read more)

4:42 p.m. – Istanbul Gov. Vasip Şahin has confirmed the cars without license plates cannot belong to the police, according to CHP Istanbul provincial head Murat Karayalçın, who spoke with Şahin on the phone.

4:10 p.m. – A Turkish voter in the Aegean province of Manisa stamped himself in the forehead rather than the ballot paper to protest the elections, in which he said he had no faith. (Click here to read more)

UN vote confirms Turkey’s waning influence

October 19, 2014 By administrator

By Semih Idiz Columnist for al-monitor

Turkey failed on Oct. 16 to win the coveted nonpermanent seat at the UN Security Council that it hoped would reinforce its influence in regional affairs, which has seriously dwindled in recent years. The result is a disappointment for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who hoped for a victory at the United Nations to counter claims that their policies have left Turkey isolated internationally.

Turkey was racing with Spain and New Zealand for the two nonpermanent seats open to the “Western European and Other States Group” for the years 2015-16. New Zealand got elected with 145 votes, gaining the required two-thirds of the vote in the first round.

The race between Turkey and Spain continued until Turkey lost in the third round when its support dropped down to 60 votes — down from 109 in the first round and 73 in the second. Spain’s vote went up to 132 in the final count.

Despite the odds against Turkey, Foreign Minister Ahmet Cavusoglu sounded optimistic the day before the voting, during an expensive reception held by the Turkish delegation in the famous Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City to lobby for Ankara’s Security Council bid.

“Everyone is aware of the role Turkey plays in international organizations and at the UN,“ he said. “We think all our nice efforts will, with the grace of God, be reflected on to the ballot box tomorrow. Of course, this is a vote and all kinds of results may come out. But we believe, God permitting, that we will get the result of the work we put in.”

This optimism is seen to have been misplaced. The result of the secret ballot held in the UN General Assembly was in stark contrast with the result obtained in 2008 when Turkey got a record 151 votes out of 193 and was elected to Security Council in the first round of voting for 2009-10.

At that time Ankara’s prestige was high, not just among Islamic countries, but also Asian, African and even Caribbean countries that hoped to have an influential voice at the Security Council through Turkey.

The result of the voting this time has also raised questions about the logic behind Turkey’s applying for the Security Council membership only two years after it held this membership. Diplomats have been pointing out for some time that it is unlikely for a country to win a seat in the Security Council so soon after having held it before.

This point was also underlined for Al-Monitor by retired Ambassador Volkan Vural, who was Turkey’s permanent representative at the UN in 1998-2000, and who is currently a member of the board of directors of TUSIAD, the influential Turkish Industry and Business Association.

“Applying for Security Council membership so soon after having held it before was hardly a clever move. Our chance of winning was a million to one, particularly when Turkey’s popularity in the world is so low,” Vural said.

Asked if Ankara might still have had a chance of winning if its international influence was high, given that countries in the highly volatile Middle East could do with such a voice in the Security Council at such a critical time, Vural said this was highly unlikely, given historic precedent.

This brings up the obvious question: Why did Turkey apply for this membership when seasoned diplomats who know how the UN system works were aware that the chances of winning were so slim?

“This overconfidence by the government has no logical explanation. Perhaps they expected support from the Middle East, some Arab and European countries, and particularly African countries, but that support was obviously not there,” Vural said, questioning the government’s diplomatic capabilities

Pointing to the current war in Turkey between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Islamist Gulen movement, headed by the Pennsylvania-based Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen, Vural made an interesting point with regard to support for Turkey from African countries. “The Fethullah group has a strong presence in Africa with its schools, companies and trade network,” Vural said. ”The government worked through this group in the past to canvass support for Turkey. The fight between the government and this group is also likely to have had a negative influence on support from African governments.”

He added that it was unlikely that Turkey would get support from the Middle East, given the current the state of ties with regional countries, particularly with Egypt. “It is not possible to get support from the Arab world if your ties with the most important Arab country are so bad,” he said.

Pointing to the lukewarm ties Turkey has with Gulf states, which are angered by Ankara’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and its vitriolic attacks against Egypt and its president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Vural said it should be considered a success that Turkey even got the support it did in the first round of voting in the UN General Assembly.

Diplomats and foreign policy observers point out that 2010 was the turning point when Turkey’s international prestige started plummeting. This also corresponds to Davutoglu’s Foreign Ministry from May 2009 through August 2014, after which he became prime minister to replace Erdogan, who was elected president.

Davutoglu’s overambitious plans to make Turkey the key player in the Middle East and the Balkans had resulted in charges of neo-Ottomanism being leveled against him. This accusation continues to come up in the Middle East today in countries that are unhappy with Turkey’s policies in Egypt and Syria, as well as its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, which are loathed by the region’s established order.

Many in the region also look on Turkey today as a country that has inflamed sectarian divisions along the Sunni-Shiite divide, and has backed radical Sunni groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

Other reasons cited for Turkey’s loss of international prestige include the worsening state of democracy and human rights in the country since the brutal reaction by the authorities to the Gezi Park protesters in 2013, which got wide international coverage, and the rolling back of reforms that had been enacted by Turkey for its EU membership application.

The official statement by the Foreign Ministry after Turkey won Security Council membership in 2008 underlined, among other things, Ankara’s commitment to peaceful settlements of regional disputes, and its determination to play the role of facilitator to this end, as well as contributing to dialogue between faiths.

Despite these commitments, Turkey today has hardly any diplomatic ties left with Israel and Egypt, and very little dialogue with regional countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia and Jordan on establishing regional stability. Meanwhile, Erdogan’s continual criticism of the UN over Syria and Gaza, and efforts to spearhead what appears to be a futile campaign to reform the Security Council and reduce the influence of the permanent members, also appears to have brought little support for Turkey.

Cavusoglu told reporters in New York after Turkey’s failed attempt to gain a seat at the Security Council that some countries were unhappy over Turkey’s independent foreign policy. “There may be those who are disturbed by our principled stance,” Cavusoglu said, adding that time would prove Turkey correct.

“We will not abandon this stance for the sake of votes. We will continue to be the voice and conscience of countries that expect this from us,” he said, trying to put a brave face on a glaring diplomatic failure that will no doubt be also used politically in Turkey against the AKP government.

‘Can Scotland’s independence afford not to vote Yes?’

June 11, 2014 By administrator

The UK economy is heading towards massive inequality on a historic scale and towards intensification of poverty and social deprivation, meaning Scotland needs independence, co-founder of a Radical Independence Campaign Jonathon Shafi told RT.

RT: Is Scotland strong enough economically to go it alone?

Jonathon Shafi: Absolutely. The questions are always posed about whether Scotland can afford it. I think we have to pose another question which is “Can we afford not to vote ‘yes’ to independence?” And the reason for that is that the way the economy in Britain is run now is leading towards massive inequality on a historic scale, it is leading towards intensification of poverty and social deprivation. So the question is “Can we afford not to vote ‘yes’ in September?”

RT: British Chancellor George Osborne has said an independent Scotland would not be able to keep the pound. And there are doubts over whether Scotland could join the eurozone. If Scotland were to have to form its own currency, wouldn’t that bring major risks?

JS: [Scotland’s] own currency is a big question. But what we have seen from Westminster is billing over the question of currency because after all, it’s not in the power of George Osborne or Treasury or anyone in Westminster ask what currency Scotland chooses to use. It may be debated, it may be negotiated as well whether or not there should be a currency union. I think it is inconceivable that there would not be a currency union.

I have to say that I don’t want to do anything with the City of London or with the establishment in London. We want to see an independent currency, we want to see a Scottish pound that can actually start to break the trend of increasing poverty and inequality, that can start to propose something much definite as to how our economy should work, not just in the interest of the GDP, but in the interest of the people of the country as a whole. And that’s the way we want to move in. We should as well understand the people of the world who clearly think that the things that are going on are unjust and unequal.

RT: As part of the UK, Scotland has a big say in the UN, the EU and NATO. Wouldn’t this influence be lost if Edinburgh were to break away?

JS: What influence has the UK had? It has had the influence to buttress the US imperial power over the question of Iraq over the number of last decades. We have had the influence to kick things like trade nuclear weapons, which we spent billions on, when we should be spending that money on our schools and hospitals. If you look at what sort of international play we really want to bring to bear, it is about peace, about progress, and actually staying inside the United Kingdom is going to tie us to the narrative of expansion, the narrative of military adventurism.

[US President] Obama has come out recently and said that he thinks that we should stay together. No wonder that he thinks that. If he thinks that because Britain is a vassal state for the US, the 51st state of the US, and we want to break with that and everything that it means. But we want to have influence with partners across the world on the basis of mutual aid and mutual trust.

RT: One of the SNP’s main economic arguments is that Scotland should not share its oil revenue with the rest of the UK. But the oil will run out, and independence is permanent. Is it worth basing the decision on this?

JS: Oil is a bonus to the Scottish economy, it is not actually the thing that you would base entire economic planning on. That’s said if we were to use the benefits of oil to invest in developing industries, for example, the renewable industry which Scotland is hugely rich and wealthy in, then we could start [to place our trail] not just in terms of economic development but in terms of environmental justice as well.

When we look at the question of oil, one of the questions we have to pose is look what happened in the number of last decades with the money that has been raised from oil. The people of Scotland, I would argue that the people of the whole UK haven’t seen that. It is always the people that are left last, and it’s corporations and the elite at the very top of this estimate benefit from everything.

Independence is a platform, a possibility to start redressing this balance to something more fair. I would say, on oil, it’s a bonus to the Scottish economy. It’s not going to be the thing you place your entire economic argument on.