ICYMI: Erdogan sends Deputy Mayor(!) to greet Biden at airport, Biden calls coup plotters 'terrorists'
Shavua tov, a good week to everyone.
You probably didn't hear much about Joe Biden's trip to Turkey last week. It's funny how Biden was '
humiliated' six and a half years ago when an Israeli bureaucrat announced a building permit when he was here in Israel, but apparently didn't notice
who greeted him at the airport in Ankara last week. But don't worry - that didn't stop Biden from sucking up to Sultan Erdogan.
Erdogan sent a lowly deputy mayor to meet him at the airport and
later said the US must arrest Gulen to stop him from giving press
interviews.
Biden called the coup plotters “terrorists” and urged Kurdish forces
in Syria to move away from Turkey’s borders, but he said the US must
follow due process on Gulen.
“The constitution and our laws require for someone to be extradited
that a court of the United States has to conclude there’s probable cause
to extradite," he said.
"Thus far ... there has been no evidence presented about the coup."
The rift between Western powers and their Nato ally in the Middle
East has prompted speculation that Turkey might forge a new alliance
with Russia.
Erodgan met Russian leader Vladimir Putin earlier this month, while
Russian propaganda has switched to highlighting irritants in EU-Turkey
and US-Turkey relations.
By the way, those apartments are now being built six and a half years later. They're scheduled to be ready in 2020 (there's no infrastructure there - that comes first). Aren't double standards grand?
Labels: double standards, Joe Biden, Ramat Shlomo, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
The love affair is over....
In case you're wondering, I'm in Boston again and the Sabbath doesn't start here for about another seven hours.
Compare the picture above to the tweet below. The love affair is over. Obama has 'earned' Erdogan's respect.
#ThanksObama
Wonder what's happening with the 'reconciliation with Israel.....
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Joe Biden, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia, Turkey, United States
Why IS Turkey part of NATO?
The Clarion Project posts a brutal summary of the
beating and torture of military personnel by Turkey's Islamist police in the aftermath of the supposed coup attempt last week. It finishes off with this:
Since 1952, Turkey has been a member of NATO, which is supposed to
defend freedom and democracies. However for decades, Turkey has been a
center of torture and other human rights abuses of the worst magnitude.
If the Turkish government authorities, police officers and so many
average citizens are capable of torturing, starving and raping even
their own soldiers and citizens, how can they be worthy of being
recognized as a Western ally and partner?
Moreover, we can only imagine that if
this is what they do to their own soldiers, imagine what they have been
doing to their minority citizens, who they fundamentally see as
“enemies” -- Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews, Kurds, Alevis and
others.
By the way, is their EU application still live? And what on earth is the President of the United States doing hugging Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan?
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Islamic terrorism, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, torture, Turkey, Turkish army, Turkish Kurds, Turkish regime change, Turkish repression
Breaking: Sultan Erdogan declares 'state of emergency'
It's come to
this:
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has declared a three-month state of emergency.
Speaking to the nation Wednesday night, Erdogan said he met with the
National Security Council and together they decided to recommend a state
of emergency be declared.
“The purpose of state of emergency is to be able to take most efficient
steps to remove threat as soon as possible,” he said. “It will
strengthen and protect democratic values and rule of law.”
He also commended the citizens of Turkey who heeded his call and took to
the streets. “Citizens are occupying the squares on a democracy watch
and their names will go down in golden letters in the history of
democracy.”
Adding that, “Turkey proved its allegiance to democracy and the rule of
law by paying the high price of the lives of its citizens.”
“This nation has the right to determine its own destiny. Everyone should know that.”
He assured the nation that the armed forces will remain under the
command and control of the governors and, “As the president elected, as
the commander in chief, I will attend to it so that all viruses in the
armed forces will be cleansed.”
“My people, do not have any concerns. Turkey has overcome this challenge
and will come out of it stronger by investing more,” he concluded.
The latest estimates are that some 60,000 people have been arrested in Turkey. And they don't get Miranda warnings.
Obama and Kerry were last heard mumbling something about the world's only Muslim democracy.
#Legacy
Labels: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish repression
Israel and Turkey 'reconcile': Good for Israel?
Israel and Turkey have agreed to
reconcile their six-year split going back to the
Mavi Marmara incident in
May 2010 in which nine Turkish citizens were
killed after they
attacked IDF soldiers stopping the ship from reaching Gaza (and even
before that).
This is from the first link.
As part of the agreement, Israel has agreed to pay $20 million in
compensation to the bereaved and injured, and in return Turkey will pass
legislation banning legal proceedings against the Israeli soldiers in
its courts. Turkey also dropped a demand for Israel to lift the blockade
on Gaza, and will only be permitted to send aid to the territory after
it passes security checks at Israel’s Ashdod port. Ankara will also be
allowed to build a hospital as well as a power and desalinization plant
in Gaza.
In addressing these terms, Netanyahu stressed that the deal will
secure the “continuation of the maritime security blockade off the Gaza
Strip coast.”
“This is a supreme security interest for us. I was not prepared to compromise on it,” Netanyahu continued.
Turkey in return has committed to thwart the plotting and financing
of Hamas terrorist acts against Israel from its soil. It will also not
stand in the way of Israeli involvement in international forums to which
it belongs, mostly notably NATO.
Jerusalem and Ankara will also restore full diplomatic relations,
appointing ambassadors and lifting restrictions on military and
intelligence cooperation. Netanyahu added that the deal will open
Turkey to Israeli natural gas exports, and that the country could
possibly serve as a gateway to European markets. “[The deal has] immense
implications for the Israeli economy, and I use that word advisedly,”
the prime minister told reporters.
While not a formal part of the deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan also personally pledged in a letter to help return the bodies of
two Israeli soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war, which are thought
to be held by Hamas, and free two Israelis reportedly being held by the
terrorist group. One of the captives is an Ethiopian Jew — described as
mentally-ill by his family — who wandered into Gaza accidentally in
2014; the second man, a resident of a Bedouin town in Israel’s Negev
desert, also apparently crossed into Gaza of his own volition. He has
been described as mentally disabled.
The agreement is expected to be approved by Israel’s security cabinet on Wednesday.
Secretary of State John Kerry congratulated Netanyahu on the
agreement when the two met in Rome on Monday, calling it a “positive
step.”
Who wins from this deal?
“Israel comes out on top here,” Louis Fishman, an assistant professor
at Brooklyn College who focuses on Turkish and Israeli affairs, told
Reuters. “From the start it believed that a deal could be worked out
where Turkish aid was able to enter the Gaza Strip under Israeli
supervision. It seems this is what was struck.”
“Restoring relations with Ankara is a linchpin in Israel’s strategy
to unlock its natural gas wealth,” Reuters added, noting that Israeli
energy stocks and shares in Turkey’s Zorlu Energy rose in reaction
to the agreement.
A senior Turkish official has also called the deal a “diplomatic victory.”
But not everyone sees it that way. Some people think
the real winner is Hamas.
Israel apparently has agreed to the presence of Hamas in Turkey as
long as it does not involve itself directly in terrorist attacks against
Israel, but limits itself to political and other supposedly nonviolent
activity.
However, the sanction of the presence and “political”
activity of Hamas in a country with diplomatic ties with Israel
undermines years of Israeli public relations against the terrorist
group, which sought to identify Hamas with other Sunni groups such as
al-Qaida and Islamic State.
...
Would Israel or any other Western country allow the leader of a
friendly state with which it has diplomatic relations meet with Islamic
State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and allow the organization to operate
within its territory? Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research
at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies in Washington, told The Jerusalem Post the upcoming deal is “a win for the status quo as nothing really changes.”
Besides
Hamas not being able to carry out military activity from Turkish soil,
everything else stays the same: Hamas maintains its Turkish
headquarters; Turkey continues assisting Hamas-ruled Gaza; and Israel
facilitates this.
...
Schanzer pointed out that from Israel’s perspective, the government
would like to have normalized ties with Muslim countries in general.
“But
there is no way to have true normalized relations with Erdogan’s
government. It is virtually impossible to imagine, given that Turkey
remains an Islamist-ruled state with close ties to Hamas and other
anti-Israel organizations.”
Perhaps the deal can be best
described as an agreement “to stop publicly fighting, while quietly
continuing to disagree on virtually everything.”
It also remains to be seen how Israel's relations with
Greece, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria will be affected by the reconciliation with Turkey.
All in all, it's not a great deal for Israel, principally because it leaves Hamas in place in Turkey. It remains to be seen how Israel will react if Hamas continues to use its Turkish headquarters to
orchestrate terror attacks in Judea and Samaria.
Labels: Binyamin Netanyahu, Gaza, Hamas, IHH, Mavi Marmara, Palestinian terrorism, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish obsession with Israel
You didn't really think there would be a deal between Israel and Turkey, did you?
So after a weekend without WiFi access (did not even turn on the computer), greetings once again from Boston.
To those of you who thought that a deal between Israel and Turkey would happen, this should remove your delusions. Sultan Erdogan is saying that
a deal won't happen unless Israel lifts its 'Gaza blockade.'
“What happens in Gaza is unacceptable, the occupation by Israel must
end," Ibrahim Kalın a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said on Monday.
On Friday, a day after high level
Turkish and Israeli officials met in London, the Turkish Foreign
Ministry issued a statement saying that “The teams made progress toward
finalizing the agreement and closing the gaps, and agreed that the deal
would be finalized in the next meeting which will be convened very
soon.”
In Israel, both the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign
Ministry declined to comment – as they have done for months – on the
talks.
...
Two major obstacles to an agreement are Israel’s demand that Turkey not
house a Hamas command center in Istanbul, and Turkey's demand that
Israel lift its maritime blockade of Gaza.
Israel has made clear
that it does not intend to lift the blockade of Gaza, which it deems
vital for the country's security, although it is apparently willing to
let Turkey ship some humanitarian aid to Gaza.
According to the
Daily Sabah newspaper, another Turkish demand is that Israel let Turkey
dispatch to the area a floating power-generating ship to relieve energy
problems in Gaza. According to the report, Israel did not reject the
idea and is considering it, although there is concern that it would set a
precedent. This idea was first broached already in 2014.
The Turkish newspaper said that the next meeting between the two countries will take place within the next two weeks.
Hey folks - this deal is not going to happen. The 'negotiations' are a charade, probably to keep Obama happy. Get used to it.
Labels: Gaza blockade, Hamas, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish anti-Semitism, Turkish obsession with Israel
Hmmm.... Erdogan claims Turkey deported Brussels attacker, Belgium set him free
The Europeans are even bigger idiots than we give them credit for being....
By the way, Belgium doesn't do terror raids after 9:00 pm. They don't want to disturb the terrorists' sleep (yes, that's true).
Unbelievable.
Labels: Belgium, Brussels terror attacks, Islamic terrorism, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
It's come to this: Egypt asks Israel to keep Turkey away from Gaza
Egypt is worried - really worried - about the prospect that Turkey will have a role to play in Gaza, and with 'reconciliation talks' between Israel and Turkey ostensibly taking place, the Egyptians have asked Israel to ensure that
Turkey will stay away.
Senior officials in Jerusalem told Haaretz that Egypt expressed its reservations regarding granting Turkey a role in the Gaza Strip, and asked whether Israel had committed to any easing of restrictions in the closure imposed on Gaza.
These officials, who asked to remain anonymous due to the delicate diplomatic nature of the issue, stated that what caused the Egyptian government’s displeasure was Israeli media reports from a few weeks ago, according to which a breakthrough had been reached in reconciliation talks with Turkey, as well as reports in the Turkish media that Israel had agreed to take significant steps in easing the maritime siege on Gaza.
Senior Egyptian Foreign Ministry officials met with Israel’s ambassador Haim Koren and asked if these reports were correct and whether Israel and Turkey are indeed close to reconciling. The temporary chargé d’affaires at the Egyptian embassy in Tel Aviv delivered similar messages in a recent meeting with senior Foreign Ministry officials in Jerusalem. Egypt expressed its opposition to any Israeli concessions to Turkey with regard to the Gaza Strip.
Egypt has two concerns: Turkey's support for Mohammed Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood regime in Egypt, and Turkey's close relations with Hamas.
Last week, Erdogan said that as part of the negotiations with Israel over the agreement, Turkey is interested in sending a ship that would arrive directly in Gaza, providing electricity and delivering construction materials. He noted that Israel has told Turkey that it would lift the siege if aid to Gaza goes through Turkey.
Last week, the Turkish Hürriyet Daily News reported that Turkey demanded that Israel grants it “unlimited access” in providing aid to the Gaza Strip. The report noted that senior Turkish officials said that if Israel allows this, Turkey will consider it a fulfillment of its condition that Israel lifts its siege.
Haaretz's Barak Ravid reports that the tensions between Egypt and Turkey are holding up any Israeli reconciliation with Turkey. Well, good.
Labels: Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt, Egypt-Turkey alliance, Gaza, Gaza blockade, Hamas, Mohammed Morsy, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
Israel and Turkey agree to restore diplomatic ties
More than five and a half years after nine Turkish terrorists were killed in a battle with Israeli commandos on the Mavi Marmara, Israel and Turkey have agreed to
restore diplomatic ties.
Israel has agreed to set up a compensation fund - unconfirmed reports put it at $20 million - and Turkey will bar Hamas representatives (or at least one Hamas representative) from its borders. The two countries will also exchange ambassadors.
I guess Erdogan is desperate. Really, really desperate.
Labels: flotilla of fools, Gaza blockade, IHH, Islamic terrorism, Mavi Marmara, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish obsession with Israel
Pass the popcorn
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says that Iran '
will pay' for starting 'rumors' that Turkey is buying oil from ISIS.
Turkey on Sunday said it was "astonished" by Iranian accusations that
Ankara is supporting Islamic State (ISIS) and involved in oil dealing
with the jihadists in Iraq and Syria.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said in a statement
there was nothing in Tehran's accusations to take "seriously."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Thursday he had warned
his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani over some Iranian media reports
that he and his family were involved in oil trade with ISIS jihadists.
Erdogan said that he spoke with Rouhani on the phone and told him:
"You will pay a high price if it continues like that." He added that the
Iranians later removed the news from their website.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Bilgic confirmed the telephone
conversation between the two presidents and said any attempts to distort
its content were "not only immoral but also equal to hiding the truth
from neighboring Iranian people."
In response to Erdogan, Iranian foreign ministry on Friday called for
"mutual politeness and respect in relations," according to the Iranian
media.
"The continuation of policies and positions that, wanted or unwanted,
have led to the support of terrorism in Syria and Iraq, only escalate
the current crisis in the region and increase problems for countries
that continue such policies," Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hossein
Jaber-Ansari said according to IRNA.
Faster, faster!
Labels: Ayatollah Ali Khameni, Iran, ISIS, Islamic State, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
Russia sanctions Turkey over downed jet, will buy from Israel instead
Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced
sanctions against Turkey over the Russian jet that was downed by Turkish forces this past week.
The decree published
on the Kremlin's website Saturday came hours after Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan had voiced regret over the incident, saying his
country was "truly saddened" by the event and wished it hadn't occurred.
It
includes a ban on some goods and forbids extensions of labor contracts
for Turks working in Russia as of Jan. 1. It doesn't specify what goods
are to be banned or give other details, but it also calls for ending
chartered flights from Russia to Turkey and for Russian tourism
companies to stop selling vacation packages that would include a stay in
Turkey.
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev earlier in the week had ordered his cabinet to develop a list of goods to be sanctioned.
Putin's
decree also calls for ending visa-free travel between Russia and Turkey
and orders the tightening of control over Turkish air carriers in
Russia "for security reasons." The decree was issued "to protect Russian
citizens from crimes," a Kremlin statement said.
Earlier this week, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev announced that
Russia will buy goods from Israel instead of Turkey.
In terms of filling the void, Israeli tourism providers have already
begun selling the Jewish state as an alternative attraction for Russians
seeking a break in the sun, and say deals are in the works.
Israel's tourism ministry has stepped up its game as well, investing $2.6 million in efforts to woo the Russian market.
As for food imports, Russia's Minister of Agriculture Alexander
Tkachev said his country would be replacing Turkish produce with goods
from Iran, Israel and Morocco.
The minister officially sites healthy and safety concerns, but the
timing of the announcement indicates it is politically-motivated.
...
Over the past 10 months Turkey imported agricultural produce and food
worth just over $1 billion (one billion euros) to Russia, down 21.2
percent compared to the same period last year.
"Turkish vegetables account for 20 percent of the total Russian
imports of vegetables. Import of vegetables, tomatoes in the first
place, will be substituted with those from Iran, Morocco, Israel,
Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan," he told Russian media.
Turkey also accounts for a quarter of Russian citrus fruit imports,
he said, adding that the country would similarly be switching to
alternative providers.
"Turkey imports about 250,000 tons of citrus fruits, a quarter of the
total citrus imported into Russia. We can replace citrus imports by
supplies from South Africa, Morocco, China, Argentina, Israel, Abkhazia,
Georgia," Tkachev stated.
Russia also said it could redirect its Turkish exports including wheat and oil to countries in the Middle East and Africa.
Over the past 10 months, Russian exports to Turkey amounted to $1.3 billion.
As long as that doesn't mean a price rise in Israel, that's fine with me, except that there are Jewish law issues with exporting the citrus crop this winter because it is considered produce of the Shmittah (Sabbatical) year.
In the meantime, the 'Palestinians' can cry me a river!
Labels: Dmitry Medvedev, exports, Iran, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Russia, Syria, Turkey, Vladimir Putin
Obama bows before another two-bit 'power'
Disgraceful. Simply disgraceful. Where is Ronald Reagan when we need him?
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, bowing, degrading US military capabilities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Town in Turkish Kurdistan under siege - UPDATED
A town called Cizre in Turkish Kurdistan is under siege. No, not by ISIS and not by Assad's army. By an army belonging to Barack Hussein Obama's Best Friend Forever, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In this video, you will see people trying to cross a river on foot to break the siege.
Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip:
Joshua I).
And here's the description that goes with the video:
Turkish Army is killing civilians but they do not want anyone to see it….. They are no different than ISIS…. Kurds in Turkey In thousands are marching towards town Cizre and try to break the curfew on the town, but Turkish army have blocked all roads entering to the town. Some people trying to go throw river to help their Kurdish brothers and sisters…. Long live Kurd and Kurdistan….
Developing....
UPDATE 11:00 AM
Here are
more details.
Residents are living in dire conditions due to the constant
gunfire and explosions that have destroyed many homes in the tense
district of Cizre
in southeastern Şırnak province, which has been under curfew for a week
with a delegation of ministers and lawmakers being prevented from
entering by authorities.
According to media reports, heavy weapons are being used in the
ongoing fighting between security forces and PKK terrorists in Cizre,
where many homes have been destroyed due to explosions. The number of
casualties has been increasing day by day, the reports say.
The delegation made up of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), which includes the party's leader, Selahattin Demirtaş,
two ministers and dozens of lawmakers, is being prevented by security
forces from marching towards Cizre to make first-hand inspections in the
district.
...
Referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's earlier statement that
the curfew in Cizre has been applied just for several hours a day,
Demirtaş said that Erdoğan is mistaken or being misled about the issue,
assuring that the curfew in Cizre has been implemented 24 hours a day.
A curfew is normally applied at night, but the curfew in Cizre is in force for the whole day.
Demirtaş also said that the corpses are being cooled with ice because
their burial is being forbidden, adding: “There is no [drinking] water,
food or bread. There are injured people, but the ambulances are banned
from entering the district. The district has been under a blockade for
eight days. … Thus, we want this unlawful practice to be ended.
"The curfew should be lifted, people should be allowed to meet their
daily needs and bury the bodies of their relatives. There are even
babies among those killed. Our friends shared information from the
district: There are dead bodies of babies, but it is not being allowed
for them to be buried. I request Mr. President to reconsider the issue
from that perspective with due sensitivity.”
There were photos circulating in the Turkish media that showed the
body of a 10-year-old girl in a deep freezer in Cizre. The girl was
identified as Cemile Cizir Çagırga, who died from a gunshot wound while
inside her family home in the Cudi neighborhood of the district.
Communication has been cut in the area and basic requirements such as
food and water are scarce. According to the reports, the accumulated
garbage and frequent water cuts pose a serious health risk.
Seven men who have been stuck at their workplaces at the entrance to
Cizre for over a week due to the curfew and the clashes spoke to a Cihan
news agency reporter, saying they have not heard any news from their
families who live in the Nur and Cudi neighborhoods of Cizre.
And you can bet that Assad is sitting and wondering why Edrogan can get away with this, but he cannot.
Labels: Kurdistan, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
Hamas commander Saleh Arouri goes Poof! - why didn't the US demand his extradition?
Some of you may recall that for the last two years or so, Turkey has been
sheltering Saleh Arouri, a Hamas terror leader who was responsible for, among other things, the
kidnapping and murder of three Jewish teenagers in June 2014.
Now, it seems that Arouri has disappeared from Turkey - apparently
under pressure from the United States.
“[Saleh] al-Arouri is not in Turkey at the moment,” sources from the
Turkish Foreign Ministry told Hürriyet Daily News. The same sources,
nonetheless, declined to elaborate on whether al-Arouri had ever resided
in Turkey, as Israeli officials have claimed, and whether he was
recently deported, as news reports have suggested.
The
explanation by Turkish officials following months-long silence on the
issue came only days after Israeli Channel 10 reported last week Turkey
had bowed to pressure by the United States and ordered al-Arouri, who Israel has accused of organizing terrorist attacks in the West Bank, to leave the country.
Channel
10 suggested the Turkish government agreed to al-Arouri’s ouster
because it was one of the prerequisites for Turkey’s entry into the
Western coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
(ISIL).
The explanation by senior Foreign Ministry sources came
on the same day when Khaled Mashaal, the head of Hamas’ political
bureau, was scheduled to arrive in Turkey for a meeting with President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, amid the flurry of regional contacts made by
Hamas, which have intensified since the recent nuclear deal between Iran and Western powers.
I believe that Naftali Frenkel HY"D (May God Avenge his blood) was a US citizen, and I have to wonder why the United States did not demand Arouri's extradition to face charges in the US. I'm sure Frenkel's family is wondering the same thing.
Here's hoping the Mossad finds Arouri soon and deals with him the way Israel knows how to deal with terrorists.
Labels: Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, kidnapping, murder, Palestinian terrorism, Palestinian terrorists, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saleh al-Arouri, Turkey
Report: Erdogan's daughter running clinic for wounded ISIS fighters
Over the weekend, there were numerous reports that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (President Hussein Obama's best friend forever) had ordered his troops to
attack Kurds in Turkey and Iraq as part of his 'help' in combating ISIS (Islamic State).
But Erdogan's assistance to ISIS is not limited to the indirect assistance of allowing its fighters to regroup by attacking the Kurds who had them on the run. Erodgan's daughter, Sümeyye Erdoğan, is running a clinic in Southeastern Turkey that is treating wounded ISIS fighters,
providing direct assistance to the people her father has told the world he is fighting.
Living in a dilapidated apartment in Istanbul’s outskirts along with
her two children, a 34-year- old emaciated nurse who spoke on the
condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, disclosed her seven-week
agonizing ordeal of working in secret military hospital in Şanlıurfa,
150 km (93 miles) east of Gaziantep and 1,300 km (808 miles) southeast
of Istanbul. “Almost every day several khaki Turkish military trucks
were bringing scores of severely injured, shaggy ISIS rebels to our
secret hospital and we had to prepare the operating rooms and help
doctors in the following procedures.
I was given a generous salary of $ 7,500 but they were unaware of my
religion. The fact is that I adhere to Alawite faith and since Erdoğan
took the helm of the country the system shows utter contempt for Alawite
minority – Alawite faith is an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam,” Said
the nurse, recoiling in horror from the thought of imminent persecution
by Turkish much-vaunted secret police, known by its acronym MİT.
And Sümeyye is not the only member of the Erdogan family helping ISIS. So is the President's son, Bilal.
Mr. Erdoğan who always sheds crocodile tears for the plight of Syrian
trapped between the hammer of hunger and the anvil of ISIS’ extremism,
conceals the fact that his own son, Bilal Erdoğan, is involved in
lucrative business of smuggling the Iraqi and Syrian plundered oil.
Bilal Erdoğan who owns several maritime companies, had allegedly signed
contracts with European operating companies to carry Iraqi stolen oil to
different Asian countries.
Turkish government unwittingly supports ISIS by buying Iraqi
plundered oil which is being produced from the Iraqi sized oil wells.
Bilal Erdoğan’s maritime companies own special wharfs in Beirut and
Ceyhan ports transporting ISIS’ smuggled crude oil in Japan-bound oil
tankers. The Turkish opposition parties also accuse the belicose
President Erdoğan of desperately trying to whitewash inordinate number
of scandals concerning Bilal’s involvement in transporting Iraqi oil and
thus making ISIS the wealthiest global terrorist group. “President
Erdoğan claims that according to international transportation
conventions there is no legal infraction concerning Bilal’s illicit
activities and his son is doing an ordinary business with the registered
Japanese companies, but in fact Bilal Erdoğan is up to his necks in
complicity with terrorism, but as long as his father holds office he
will be immune from any judicial prosecution,” Gürsel Tekin ,a senior
CHP party official said in Ankara on Tuesday.
The leading CHP official further underscored that Bilal Erdoğan’s
maritime company, BMZ Ltd, is considered a family business and president
Erdoğan’s close relatives hold shares in BMZ and they misused public
funds and took illicit loans from Turkish banks. Weak, dependent,
lugubrious though defiant; the Turkish nurse pleaded for Turkish
judiciary help, imploring the last bastion of freedom, Turkish Army, to
overthrow Erdoğan’s corrupt regime.
Of course, if that happened, President Hussein Obama would step in to protect his friend....
It's amazing that the world continues to ignore Erdogan's duplicity. What hold does he have on NATO and Europe? It seems that his hold is his friendship with US President Obama. One may only hope that the next US President will relate to Erdogan more honestly.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iraqi Kurds, ISIS, Islamic terrorism, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Kurds
Breaking: Davutoglu and his cabinet out
Another anti-Semite bites the dust.
The entire cabinet has
gone with him.
"Mr President accepted today the
resignation of the cabinet that was presented by Mr Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu," Erdogan's office said in a brief statement.
"Mr
President, who thanked the cabinet for its services so far, asked the
cabinet to remain in charge until a new government is formed."
The resignation of the cabinet was widely expected as a procedural move after the elections.
It
was not clear if Davutoglu was authorised by the president to embark on
a tour of talks with opposition parties to form a coalition government.
...
Since it came to power in 2002, the AKP has ruled Turkey as a one-party
government, with a big majority in the 550-seat parliament.
The beginning of the end for Erdogan and the AKP? We can only hope.
Labels: Ahmet Davutoglu, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish elections
Breaking: Erdogan's AKP loses parliamentary majority
Given that this is Turkey and that we're talking about President Hussein Obama's Best Friend Forever, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, I suppose that we have to consider the possibility that today's election results will not be honored. Nevertheless, it is significant that in a special election in Turkey that was marred by violence and fraud - both of which may have been perpetrated by Erdogan's AKP -
the AKP has lost its parliamentary majority.
The election results represented a significant setback to Mr. Erdogan,
an Islamist who has steadily increased his power as president, a partly
but not solely ceremonial post, after more than a decade as prime
minister, and indicated that Mr. Erdogan’s efforts to accumulate power
had run aground. And it was a significant victory to the cadre of Kurds,
liberals and secular Turks who found their voice of opposition to Mr.
Erdogan during sweeping antigovernment protests two years ago.
Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., still won by far
the most seats in Parliament, but not a majority, according to
preliminary results released Sunday night. The outcome suggested
contentious days of jockeying ahead as the party moves to form a
coalition government. Already, analysts were raising the possibility
Sunday of new elections if a government cannot be formed swiftly. Many
Turks were happy to see Mr. Erdogan’s powers curtailed, even though the
prospect of a coalition government evokes dark memories of political
instability and economic malaise during the 1990s.
With
99 percent of the votes counted, the A.K.P. had won 41 percent of the
vote, according to TRT, a state-run broadcaster, down from nearly 50
percent during the last national election in 2011. The percentage gave
it an estimated 259 seats in Turkey’s Parliament, compared with the 327 seats it has now.
“The
outcome is an end to Erdogan’s presidential ambitions,” said Soner
Cagaptay, an expert on Turkey and a fellow at the Washington Institute
for Near East Policy.
Almost
immediately, the results raised questions about the political future of
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who moved to that position from that of
foreign minister last year and was seen as a loyal subordinate of Mr.
Erdogan. Mr. Davutoglu, who during the campaign vowed to resign if the
A.K.P. did not win a majority, told reporters on Sunday evening in brief
comments, “whatever the people decide is for the best.” Mr. Davutoglu
was due to speak later in the evening in Ankara.
Mr.
Erdogan, who as president was not on the ballot Sunday, will probably
remain Turkey’s dominant political figure even if his powers have been
rolled back, given his outsized personality and his still-deep well of
support among Turkey’s religious conservatives, who form the backbone of
his constituency. But even among those supporters, including ones in
Kasimpasa, the Istanbul neighborhood where Mr. Erdogan spent part of his
youth, there are signs that his popularity is flagging, partly because
of his push for more powers over the judiciary and his crackdown on any
form of criticism, including prosecutions of those who insult him on
social media.
...
The election turned on the historic performance at the ballot box of
Turkey’s Kurdish minority, which aligned with liberals and secular Turks
opposed to Mr. Erdogan’s leadership to win almost 13 percent of the
vote, passing a 10 percent legal threshold and earning representation in
Parliament. The People’s Democratic Party, a largely Kurdish bloc known
as H.D.P., was able to broaden its base by fielding a slate of
candidates that included women, gays and other minorities and appealed
to voters whose goal was to curtail Mr. Erdogan’s powers.
...
The performance positioned the Kurds as kingmakers in the next
Parliament, and highlighted the evolution of the Kurdish movement, from
the battlefields of the southeast, where a bloody insurgency raged for
nearly 30 years, to the halls of power in Ankara, the capital.
...
“Erdogan’s salvos over the past week show how nervous he is about the
outcome of this election,” said Ugur Kaplan, 24, a student who voted in
Istanbul. “The A.K.P. has lost votes, and it’s because of him. People
are tired of having their lives dictated by one nutty man. It’s time for
change.”
'Nutty'? Despotic is more like it. Here's hoping he goes and soon.
Labels: Ahmet Davutoglu, Barack Hussein Obama, Islam, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish elections, Turkish Kurds
Ankara (Turkey) Mayor calls Marie Harf a dumb blonde
This is what happens, dear West, when your mind is so multi-culti open that your brains fall out. This is the result of years of coddling Islam. Now, Islam is biting you back. The Mayor of Ankara, Turkey, who answers to Barack Hussein Obama's Best Friend Forever Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says that State Department spokescritter Marie Harf is a
dumb blonde (Hat Tip:
Joshua I).
The mayor of Turkey’s capital has challenged a U.S. State Department
spokesperson by referring to a pro-government media report that slammed
her as “stupid blonde.”
“Come on blonde, answer now,” Ankara
Mayor Melih Gökçek said in a tweet early April 29. The tweet also
included an image from the recent riots in Baltimore, as well as the
photo of Marie Harf and a caption that reads: “Where are you stupid
blonde, who accused Turkish police of using disproportionate force?”
Gökçek
was referring to a report on Ensonhaber.com, a staunchly pro-government
online news website. “U.S. police displayed a harsh attitude against
the activists in Baltimore. But U.S. State Department spokesperson Marie
Harf, who had been repeatedly criticizing Turkey during the Gezi
incidents, is now silent,” it said.
Many national and
international organizations had criticized Turkish police officers for
using disproportionate force during the massive Gezi Park protests in
2013.
I can't say I disagree with his
assessment of Harf. Still, any of Obama's predecessors (with the exception of Jimmy Carter) would have called in the Turkish ambassador over this.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Marie Harf, multi-culturalism, political correctness, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey
NATO member, US ally, blocks all media
US President Hussein Obama's Best Friend Forever, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has ordered all
websites showing the new Charlie Hebdo cover blocked. He has also blocked all media from reporting on allegations that
Turkey armed Syrian Islamist rebels last year. This is from the first link.
A Turkish court on Wednesday ordered the telecommunications authority to
ban access to websites showing Charlie Hebdo's front cover with the
image of the Prophet Muhammad, a state-run news agency said.
The Anadolu Agency said the ban, which would block access to the
websites in Turkey, was ordered by a court in the southeastern city of
Diyarbakir, according to the Dogan news agency. The decision came from
the court, because a lawyer in Diyarbakir filed a petition saying the
websites were a danger to "public order."
And from the second link.
Turkey on Wednesday imposed an all-out media blackout, including on Facebook and Twitter, prohibiting publication of reports claiming Turkish intelligence services delivered arms to Syrian Islamist rebels last year.
The Supreme Board of Radio and Television (RTUK) delivered a court ruling to Turkish newspapers, television, websites and social media networks, banning them from reporting the arms allegations.
...
The earlier interdiction on reporting the arms allegations arose from events in January last year, when Turkish police stopped and seized seven trucks near the Syrian border that were suspected of smuggling weapons into Syria. The move came as the government in Ankara denied suspicions it was aiding rebel forces.
That ban was imposed after a Twitter account with handle @LazepeM leaked a series of documents indicating that the seized trucks were actually National Intelligence Agency (MIT) vehicles delivering weapons to Syrian Islamist rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
Hurriyet newspaper reported that a Turkish court ordered the closure of all websites, including social media networks Facebook and Twitter, that don't remove information or allegations linked to the documents.
"There are several court decisions against the websites that published the signed documents," a Turkish official was quoted as saying by Hurriyet.
Twitter, which was previously blocked by the Turkish government, immediately removed the documents and suspended the account that published them.
But by that time the information had already begun circulating on many other websites, as well as some Facebook accounts.
The contents of the vehicles have never been revealed to the public, but MIT claimed they were carrying humanitarian aid to war-stricken Syrians.
The security officials who stopped the vehicles are now standing trial for 'spying.' And you thought that if you voted for Mitt Romney you'd see the United States allied with fascist countries... and you were right.
Labels: freedom of the press, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish repression
Our neighborhood bully
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman takes on our neighborhood bully, President Obama's Best Friend Forever,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Europe’s silence in the face of Turkish President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan’s vitriolic attacks against Israel is one of the reasons for the
surge of anti-Semitism in Europe, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman
said Wednesday.
In some of the toughest public comments in memory against Erdogan
and Turkey, Liberman told a gathering of Israel’s ambassadors to
Euro-Asia that Europe’s ignoring the hate and incitement Erdogan
cultivates toward Israel has ramifications.
“The silence of the lambs of cultured Europe, politically correct
Europe, toward a neighborhood and anti-Semitic bully like Erdogan and
his friends brings us back to the reality of the 1930s,” he said.
Lieberman also went after the 'Palestinian Authority.'
Read the whole thing.
But I'm not sure his characterization of Europe as 'silence of the lambs' is correct. Much of Europe is nearly as anti-Semitic as Erdogan, although some of them are ashamed to admit it.
The world's oldest hatred continues to thrive across the continent.. and beyond.
Labels: anti-Semitism, Avigdor Lieberman, European anti-Semitism, Islamic anti-Semitism, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish anti-Semitism
