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Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

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  • #81
    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

    Turkish Prime Minister's Triumphant Visit to Washington
    From: Mihran Keheyian <[email protected]>
    Date: Wed, 15 May 2013 22:31:39 PDT

    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Turkish Prime Minister's Triumphant Visit to Washington

    ADL, Editorial, Turkey | May 14, 2013 5:01 pm

    By Edmond Y. Azadian


    It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power
    tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be
    no better example to demonstrated the veracity of the above adage then
    citing the names of a political duo at the top of the power pyramid in
    Washington DC: President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry.

    On the eve of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to
    Washington, they have already sacrificed the most dispensable issues
    in honor of the visiting dignitary: Armenians and the Armenian
    Genocide. Obama and Kerry seemed to be espousing the most humanistic
    and moral causes while serving in the senate. Mr. Kerry is extremely
    knowledgeable on the Armenian Genocide and at times he has made the
    most stirring remarks in favor of its official recognition. Yet during
    his recent shuttle diplomacy between Washington and Ankara, he praises
    Turkey's position as a positive one in resolving the Karabagh
    conflict. And he makes the statement with a straight face, showing
    little concern with this political about face. He has no comments on
    the continuing illegal blockade of Armenia.

    As to Mr. Obama, he has already repeated his `Medz Yeghern' charade on
    April 24 and continues to keep Guantanamo Bay gulag, which had given a
    black eye to the US human rights position during the Bush-Cheney era
    and continues the stigma on the Obama administration's rhetoric on
    democracy and human rights.

    Mr. Obama has given more to Turkey than the latter even expected,
    because on the political market, Armenian rights and issues have
    proven to be the most disposable ones.

    He had already reduced US aid to Armenia dramatically and now presents
    a legal gift to Mr. Erdogan on a silver platter. Indeed the Obama
    administration has urged the Supreme Court not to hear the appeal of
    the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals' 2012 striking down of a California
    law extending the statute of limitations on the Armenian Genocide-era
    life insurance claims. This is a third-world practice of exerting
    political pressure on the judiciary to abort justice. Had this been
    undertaken by a private citizen, it would be labeled as obstruction of
    justice. Rather than leaving the Supreme Court to determine the merits
    of the case, the administration has already intervened to block the
    adjudication of the case.

    It is reported that Prime Minister Erdogan will receive the highest
    state welcome during his visit to the US on May 16-17. He will receive
    two full military honors, one at the airport and the other at the
    White House, as the formal guest of US President Barack Obama.

    The agenda of their discussion will comprise a full plate, Syria being
    the most dominant issue. The other items on that agenda will certainly
    include Ankara's initiative to open a dialog with the Kurdish
    minority, relations between Israel and Turkey, which have always
    constituted the centerpiece of US Middle East policy under any
    administration, because, Israel, using the US muscle can continue its
    hegemony in the entire region, with the tacit collusion of medieval
    potentates (`moderate Arab nations' in Washington's lexicon.)

    Iran and Iraq have been viewed by divergent views at their respective
    capitals. Despite US sanctions against Iran, Turkey is continuing its
    policy of business as usual, and in the case of Iraq, Turkey was
    scared of that country's position of Kurdistan emerging as an
    independent state. But ironically at this time, Ankara has embraced
    Iraqi Kurdistan, at the expense of destabilizing Iraqi Premier
    Maliki's central government, because Erdogan's administration believes
    they have contained Kurdish aspirations in their own country,
    eliminating any spillover of Kurdish irredentism from Iraqi Kurdistan.

    As the political agenda is reviewed, we certainly doubt that Mr. Obama
    will ask Mr. Erdogan whether he has given any thought to his
    suggestions at the Turkish Parliament during his first term; meaning
    modern Turkey would make peace with its ugly Ottoman history.

    Mr. Erdogan is being accorded all these accolades because he is coming
    with bloody hands as the front man in destabilizing a sovereign
    country - Syria - which has refused thus far to bow down on
    Palestinian rights and continues to make claims on its confiscated
    territories by Turkey in 1939, the Sanjak of Alexandretta and Golan
    Heights in 1967 by Israel.

    The recent bombs that killed 46 people and injured more than 100 in
    Reyhanli, which is located in the Hatay region mostly populated by
    Arabs and Alevis, may have been a warning by the restless Arab
    populace, agitating against Erdogan's shipment of mercenaries and
    armaments in Syria. But for Mr. Davutoglu and for the West, it is most
    convenient to point the finger at the Assad regime in Syria. That
    accusation, compounded by the orchestration of `the use of chemical
    weapons' constitutes a concoction for casus belli.

    By serving as a proxy for the West in the Middle East, Turkey has
    acquired the status of a regional power, and an independent one at
    that. That status renders Armenia's maneuvering room very limited.
    That is why during Erdogan's visit to Washington no one will give him
    a slap on the wrist to lift the blockade of Armenia.

    The Turks have also planned their version of a Genocide centennial in
    2015, as quoted in an article by Robert Fisk in London's Independent
    (May 12, 2013). The announcement by Turkey's foreign Minister
    Davutoglu is most revealing: `We are going to make the year of 1915
    known to the world over, not as the anniversary of a genocide, as some
    people claimed and slandered [sic] but we shall make it known as a
    glorious resistance of a nation in our defense of Gallipoli.'

    There is no conciliation or repentance in Davutoglu's tone. Turkey
    intends to drown calls for Armenian Genocide recognition in the
    drumbeat of a dubious victory in Gallipoli that was one of history's
    mysteries as to how a crumbling Ottoman army defeated French and
    British forces under Winston Churchill's command, while troops from
    Australia and New Zealand were slaughtered by Mustafa Kemal. The jury
    is out on the issue because suspicion lingers that Britain betrayed
    its own army to deny access to its World War I ally, Russia, access to
    the warm waters of the Mediterranean and the strategic Strait of
    Bosporus.

    Armenians could counter Mr. Erdogan's triumphant march on the red
    carpet in Washington by a massive rally (not just 50-100 youth, which
    can prove to be counterproductive), with slogans such as `Recognize
    the Genocide,' `Lift the Blockade' and `Bloody hands off Syria.' But
    we have opted for the more comfortable position of armchair diplomats,
    additionally sacrificing the completion of the Genocide Museum in
    Washington.

    Mr. Erdogan will think `If this is the political clout of one million
    plus American Armenians, then I can walk triumphantly - not only on
    the red carpet but also over the bones of 1.5 million Armenian
    martyrs.'

    By Edmond Y. Azadian It is well said by English historian and writer Lord Acton that power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. There can be no better […]
    Hayastan or Bust.

    Comment


    • #82
      Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

      ANALYSIS: 'UNPRECEDENTED' EVENTS IN AND AROUND TURKEY LIKELY TO INCREASE REGIONAL TURBULENCE


      ANALYSIS | 18.09.13 | 11:33

      Photo: www.wikipedia.org

      By NAIRA HAYRUMYAN
      ArmeniaNow correspondent

      Some unprecedented events are taking place in Turkey that potentially
      can have significant consequences for the entire region in general
      and neighboring Armenia, in particular.

      The global analytical community has long called Turkey one of the
      main actors of the international operation in Syria. Moreover, in
      the light of this conflict, leading experts say that a struggle has
      begun in Turkey between the Alawites and the Islamists - parallel
      to the movement of the Kurds who recently suspended the process of
      withdrawal of militants abroad.

      In addition, the Kurds held a strike yesterday in the province of Van,
      demanding to be allowed to teach their children at schools in Kurdish.

      All Kurdish children yesterday boycotted school classes.

      The Armenian issue has become topical as well. Diyarbakir (Tigranakert)
      recently saw the inauguration of a monument to the victims of the
      Genocide of Armenians and Assyrians. The unprecedented monument was
      opened by the Mayor of Diyarbakir, Abdullah Demirtas.

      "We, the Kurds, apologize to the Armenians and Assyrians for the
      actions by our ancestors in 1915. We will continue to fight for
      compensation to the murdered," said Demirtas.

      The Turkish media have been publishing more and more materials that
      acknowledge that today's Turkey is not only a country of Turks,
      but also other native peoples, like Armenians and Greeks.

      Suddenly, a retrial resumed in the case of Hrant Dink, a prominent
      Turkish Armenian journalist and human rights advocate, who was
      assassinated in 2007. An Istanbul court issued a warrant for the
      arrest of Erhan Tuncel, a former police informer and a key suspect
      in the Dink murder case who may link some government agencies to the
      murder plot, according to Hurriyet Daily News.

      Another event of no less significance has taken place in Egypt,
      which, after the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi last summer,
      may become the first Muslim country in the world to recognize the
      genocide of Armenians in Turkey. According to European newspapers,
      this event may occur after the unprecedented step of Egyptian lawyer,
      director of the Institute of the People's Front in Egypt Muhammad
      Saad Khairallah, who presented a legal claim regarding this matter.

      The hearing in this case will begin in the Cairo Court on November 5.

      The announcement was made during a televised debate that was followed
      by millions of Egyptian viewers.

      Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is more and more often
      called a loser in the world press. It is noted that Erdogan's policies
      have led to the isolation of Turkey and an increased likelihood of
      its fragmentation or federalization. Turkey is still actively involved
      in all relevant processes taking place in the world, but experts say
      that civil disturbances that do not subside in this country may one
      day turn Turkey into the next flashpoint.

      This seems especially true against the backdrop of relations between
      the West and Iran that have become noticeably warmer of late: European
      countries have lifted the earlier imposed sanctioned against a number
      of Iranian banks, there are reports that a historic meeting between
      the presidents of the United States and Iran may take place at the
      forthcoming session of the United Nations in New York. Earlier,
      the presidents of the two estranged nations exchanged messages.

      Against this background, the isolation of Turkey and its regional ally
      Azerbaijan is becoming more evident. Both countries have already taken
      a defensive position, trying to keep at least what they already have.

      This increases the degree of aggressiveness of these two countries.

      Azerbaijan, for example, stated yesterday that it will not withdraw
      snipers from the line of contact near Nagorno-Karabakh until the
      end of the war. But such withdrawal is a demand of the international
      community.
      Hayastan or Bust.

      Comment


      • #83
        Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

        Erdogan taking Turkey back 1,000 years with `reforms'

        By Amir Taheri

        October 4, 2013 | 10:08pm

        Modal Trigger

        Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the media in
        Ankara on Sept., 30, 2013

        Photo: Getty Images

        Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan this week unveiled his
        long-promised `reform package' to `chart the path of the nation' for
        the next 10 years - that is, through 2023, 100 years after the
        founding of Turkey as a republic.

        Which is ironic, since Erdogan seems bent on abolishing that republic
        in all but name.

        His plan to amend the Constitution to replace the long-tested
        parliamentary system with a presidential one (with himself as
        president and commander-in-chief) is only part of it. He'd also undo
        the key achievement of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.

        In the 1920s, Ataturk created the Turkish nation from the debris of
        the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk and the military and intellectual elite
        around him replaced Islam as the chief bond between the land's many
        ethnic communities with Turkish nationhood.

        Over the past 90 years, this project has not had 100 percent success.
        Nevertheless, it managed to create a strong sense of bonding among a
        majority of the citizens.

        Now Erdogan is out to undermine that in two ways.

        First, his package encourages many Turks to redefine their identities
        as minorities. For example, he has discovered the Lezgin minority and
        promises to allow its members to school their children in `their own
        language.'

        Almost 20 percent of Turkey's population may be of Lezgin and other
        Caucasian origin (among them the Charkess, Karachai, Udmurt and
        Dagestanis). Yet almost all of those have long forgotten their origins
        and melted in the larger pot of Turkish identity. What is the point of
        encouraging the re-emergence of minority identities?

        Meanwhile, Erdogan is offering little to minorities that have managed
        to retain their identity over the past nine decades. Chief among these
        are the Kurds, 15 percent of the population.

        Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, the AKP, partly owes its
        successive election victories to the Kurds. Without the Kurdish vote,
        AKP could not have collected more than 40 percent of the votes. Yet
        his package offers Kurds very little.

        They would be allowed to use their language, but not to write it in
        their own alphabet. Nor could they use `w' and other letters that
        don't exist in the Turkish-Latin alphabet but are frequent in Kurdish.

        Kurdish leaders tell me that the package grants no more than 5 percent
        of what they had demanded in long negotiations with Erdogan.

        Another real minority that gets little are the Alevites, who practice
        a moderate version of Islam and have acted as a chief support for
        secularism in Turkey. While Erdogan uses the resources of the state to
        support Sunni Islam, Alevites can't even get building permits to
        construct their own places of prayer.

        Armenians, too, get nothing - not even a promise of an impartial
        inquest into allegations of genocide against them in 1915.

        The second leg of Erdogan's strategy is to re-energize his Islamist
        base. Hundreds of associations controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood
        are to take over state-owned mosques, religious sites and endowment
        properties - thus offering AKP a vast power base across Turkey.

        Indirectly, Erdogan is telling Turks to stop seeing themselves as
        citizens of a secular state and, instead, as minorities living in a
        state dominated by the Sunni Muslim majority. Call it neo-Ottomanism.

        Erdogan is using `Manzikert' as a slogan to sell his package. Yet this
        refers to a battle between the Seljuk Sultan Alp Arsalan and the
        Byzantine Emperor Romanos in 1071, the first great victory of Muslim
        armies against Christians in Asia Minor. It happened centuries before
        the Ottoman Turks arrived in the region.

        Invoking the battle as a victory of Islam against `the Infidel,'
        Erdogan supposedly has an eye on the battle's thousandth anniversary.
        Does he mean to take Turkey back 1,000 years?

        The Ottoman system divided the sultan's subjects according to
        religious faith into dozens of `mullahs,' each allowed to enforce its
        own laws in personal and private domains while paying a poll tax.

        It's doubtful most Turks share Erdogan's dream of recreating a
        mythical Islamic state with himself as caliph, albeit under the title
        of president. His effort to redefine Turkey's republican and secular
        identity may wind up revitalizing it.

        Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan this week unveiled his long-promised “reform package” to “chart the path of the nation” for the next 10 years — that is, through 2023, 100 years after th…
        Hayastan or Bust.

        Comment


        • #84
          Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

          Originally posted by Haykakan View Post
          Erdogan taking Turkey back 1,000 years with `reforms'

          By Amir Taheri

          October 4, 2013 | 10:08pm
          Armenians, too, get nothing - not even a promise of an impartial
          inquest into allegations of genocide against them in 1915.
          So has the NY Post renaged on its promise not to use the word "alleged", or was it the NY Times that had made that guarantee?
          NY Post seems to be absolute trash, imho. In most of their articles they can't write a single sentence without filling it with exaggerations or tabloid jargon.

          The Ottoman system divided the sultan's subjects according to
          religious faith into dozens of `mullahs,' each allowed to enforce its
          own laws in personal and private domains while paying a poll tax.
          In his ignorance, I think the author means Reaya not "mullahs".
          Last edited by bell-the-cat; 10-07-2013, 01:27 PM.
          Plenipotentiary meow!

          Comment


          • #85
            Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

            GROWING UNEASE OVER TURKISH JIHADISTS IN SYRIA

            ByStaff
            - Posted on October 9, 2013Posted in: Armenia, News

            Rebels from al-Qaida affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra are pictured waving
            their brigade flag. As many as 500 Turks have been recruited since
            al-Nusra was formed in January 2012. (AP Photo/Edlib News Network)

            By Jamie Dettmer VOAnews.com ISTANBUL - Growing numbers of young
            Turks are crossing into Syria to join jihadist groups fighting the
            Assad regime raising fears in Turkey of a future national security
            risk for Ankara.

            Last month the U.S. and Turkey agreed to create a $200 million
            dollar fund to help local organizations develop programs to counter
            violent extremism among young people in places like Somalia, Yemen
            and Pakistan. Now some are warning the threat might be closer to
            home because of a surge in recruitment of young Turks by al-Qaida
            affiliates.

            Al-Qaida affiliates in Syria such as the Islamic State of Iraq and
            Sham (ISIS) and Jabhat al-Nusra are making headway in persuading
            Turkish Sunnis to cross the border into Syria for jihad, Turkish
            officials acknowledge.

            Turkish officials said that jihadists have recruited several hundred
            young Turks from the southeast of the country to fight in the civil
            war raging next door. And independent analysts estimate that as many
            as 500 Turks have been recruited since al-Nusra was formed in January
            2012. The larger Iraqi affiliate ISIS, which became active in Syria
            earlier this year, is also actively seeking Turkish recruits.

            Syrian Kurds say Turkey is responsible

            Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim said the Turkish Prime Minister
            Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist AKP government are partly
            responsible for the jihadist success, arguing that Ankara has not
            done enough to combat jihadists using Turkey as a logistical base and
            has in effect colluded with them by allowing al-Nusra fighters safe
            passage. Jihadists and Syrian Kurds have been engaged in heavy fighting
            in recent weeks in competition for control of Syrian territory.

            Muslim is a co-chairman of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD),
            an offshoot of the PKK, a separatist Kurdish group in Turkey. He
            alleged that Turkish authorities are willing to turn a blind-eye
            to the jihadists in Syria while they fight Kurds, arguing that
            Ankara hasn't done enough to block Gulf-supplied weapons earmarked
            for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army from falling into jihadist
            hands. He also said International aid agencies are being prevented
            from sending relief supplies across the border to Kurdish villages
            in northern Syria.

            "Not a single assistance convoy crossed to our side in one month. Our
            people are living under difficult war conditions. We have acute
            shortages of electricity, water, fuel and medicines. There is an
            embargo against us," he told Turkey's Taraf newspaper.

            In recent weeks, as fighting has intensified between jihadists and
            Kurds in northern Syria, observers said wounded al-Nusra fighters
            have been transported by Turkish ambulances to hospitals in Urfa.

            But Turkey's Interior Minister Muammer Guler denied there has been
            any assistance offered to jihadists along the border. According to
            Guler in an October 4 press release, 129 suspected terrorists have
            been arrested in the past year. But the interior minister did not
            offer a breakdown of the allegiances of those detained.

            In September, Turkish prosecutors indicted six jihadists - five
            of them Turks - for trying to acquire chemicals with the intent to
            produce the nerve agent Sarin. The suspects - all al-Nusra members -
            tried to secure two government-regulated military-grade chemical
            substances, according to the allegations contained in a 132-page
            federal indictment.

            Southeast Turkey emerges as a recruitment magnet

            Turkey's Radikal newspaper said a lengthy investigation it carried
            out suggests 200 young Turks have been recruited alone from Adiyaman,
            a town in the southeast of the country. A father of twin sons who had
            been recruited by al-Nusra told the newspaper that the radicalization
            process had taken about a year and that his sons disappeared on
            September 2.

            After their disappearance, he tracked his sons down to the Syrian
            city of Aleppo. "I went to Aleppo with a guide and toured six camps
            in four days. There were young men from Adiyaman, Bitlis and Bingol
            in the camps. I found both my sons in a camp in Aleppo. When I told
            the gang leader that I had come to take them back, he replied: the
            boys are fighting for jihad here. Are you an infidel, since you are
            trying to stop them from jihad?"

            The recruitment process back in Turkey sidetracks local mosques,
            presumably as a precaution against possible Turkish police
            surveillance. Likely recruits are encouraged to join small prayer
            groups where videos are shown of the fighting in Syria. Adiyaman isn't
            the only town that is seeing high levels of recruitment. A Turkish
            police source -who asked not to be identified - said there is jihadist
            recruitment activity in Urfa and Diyarbakir. Once persuaded to join
            up Turkish recruits undergo 45 days of basic military training before
            joining a fighting unit, he said.

            Prior to the Syrian civil war, global jihadist groups had only limited
            success in recruiting in Turkey. In 2007, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic
            Jihad Union launched a Turkish-language website. Several Turks have
            been arrested in the past in foiled bomb plots in Europe. And there
            have been a handful of Turkish suicide bombers, the most notable
            Cuneyt Ciftci, who attacked a NATO base in Afghanistan in March 2008,
            killing several Western soldiers.

            But now after nearly three years of civil war in Syria and growing
            numbers of young radicalized Turks joining the fight fears are
            growing that radicalization will spread, and that one day young
            Turkish jihadists may bring the war home with devastating consequences.

            Hayastan or Bust.

            Comment


            • #86
              Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

              PARIS MURDER OF KURDISH ACTIVISTS TRACED TO TURKEY


              Wednesday, October 23rd, 2013

              Kurdish community members march, holding a banner showing the three
              Kurdish activists, (left-right) Fidan Dogan, Leyla Soeylemez and
              Sakine Cansiz (Photo: Reuters)

              PARIS (Reuters)--French investigators trying to solve the murder of
              three Kurdish women in Paris have collected evidence about the chief
              suspect's connections to Turkey, four sources with knowledge of the
              investigation told Reuters.

              Police sources told Reuters the magistrate in charge of the case was
              about to lodge a formal appeal for information to Turkey about Omer
              Guney, a Turkish immigrant placed under formal investigation for the
              triple murder eight months ago.

              The move could mark a turning point in the case. It comes after
              disclosures that Guney took at least three trips to Turkey and made
              dozens of phone calls to contacts there in the months before the
              killings, lawyers with access to investigation files told Reuters.

              The Turkish justice ministry did not immediately respond to requests
              for comment on cooperation with France in the case.

              The murders of Sakine Cansız, 55, a founding member of the outlawed
              Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK); Fidan Dogan, 32, a spokeswoman for the
              organization in France and Europe; and a trainee named Leyla Saylemez,
              25, sent a shockwave through Europe's Kurdish community. The women
              were shot as ceasefire talks to end 29 years of war between the PKK
              and Turkey were starting.

              The key question asked by lawyers and victims' family members is who
              ordered the killing. Kurds who gather each week by the crime scene say
              it was a political assassination. French police quickly arrested Guney,
              30. Surveillance footage placed him at the scene, and partial DNA from
              one of the victims was found on a parka belonging to him, lawyers said.

              Guney, who says he is innocent, has been awaiting trial for eight
              months in detention near Paris. His lawyer, Anne-Sophie Laguens,
              said she planned to apply to have him freed under court supervision
              because he was not receiving proper treatment for a brain tumor that
              induced seizures.

              Laguens said she was also waiting for answers from Turkey regarding
              her client's trips. Guney told investigators he had travelled to
              Turkey to find a wife and had bought tickets with disability payments
              he received from the French state.

              Political fallout

              Lawyers both for Guney and the victims' families in France and
              in Turkey say the investigation has dragged due to concern about
              political fallout from a case involving two NATO allies linked by a
              2011 bilateral security accord.

              "It's my impression that we [the French investigation] have received
              more information in this case through Turkish media than through
              international cooperation," said Antoine Comte, a lawyer for the
              victims in France.

              Thousands of people attended the funeral ceremony of the Kurdish
              activists in Dikranagerd (Diyarbakir) (Photo: Reuters)

              Police sources said Turkish authorities had earlier provided some
              biographical information about Guney, but the French magistrate was
              expected to seek responses to recent disclosures.

              A spokesman for France's foreign ministry said the French state exerts
              no influence over judicial investigations. Paris' anti-terrorism
              court denied that political tension was slowing down the case.

              New evidence could upset a cease-fire brokered between the outlawed
              PKK and Turkey: Kurdish militants are disappointed with Turkish efforts
              to address their grievances and have said they are considering whether
              to maintain the deal.

              Lawyers also questioned the efficiency of judicial cooperation after
              the Turkish pro-government newspaper Bugun wrote that the prosecutor
              in Ankara had accused French authorities in August of failing to
              respond to his requests for details in the case.

              Turkish media wrote earlier this year that the Ankara prosecutor
              is conducting a separate probe under an article of penal law which
              says a person who commits a crime abroad while in the service of the
              Turkish state can be tried in Turkey, even if he is already found
              guilty abroad and/or has served time.

              Turkish media said the Ankara prosecutor is seeking to establish
              whether Guney was in the service of the Turkish state. The prosecutor's
              office did not respond to requests for comment.

              "We feel that since the crime was committed in France, the real
              interlocutors are the French authorities. They must respond to the
              Turkish requests for information," said Meral DanıÅ~_ BeÅ~_taÅ~_,
              a lawyer in Turkey for the victims' families.

              Two pieces of evidence in investigation files highlight Guney's alleged
              ties to people in Turkey: three trips in August, October and December
              of 2012, and phone records from one of five cell phones that police
              say belonged to Guney. The latter show "dozens" of calls to Turkish
              numbers in the same period.

              Phone records

              Comte said records of Guney's phone activity with Turkey were placed
              in the investigations file in July, five months after his arrest.

              These contacts could be crucial to finding out whether Guney was
              involved in the killings and, if so, with or without foreign backing.

              However, the details cannot be checked without help from Turkey,
              Comte said.

              "You need an order from a Turkish judge to identify the interlocutors,"
              said another lawyer for the victims' families, Jean-Louis Malterre.

              Members of France's Kurdish community seen gathered on Jan. 10 while
              two men, pictured left, carry the body of one of the three women
              slain in Paris (Photo: AFP)

              In France lawyers for victims can join criminal proceedings. They
              have access to investigation files and participate in trials. The
              Turkish system has similar provisions.

              While the French magistrate prepares to seek information from Turkey,
              one of the lawyers with access to the investigation file pointed also
              to hold-ups on the French side.

              A month after Guney's arrest, investigators from the French
              anti-terrorist unit, Sdat, checked the contents of a borrowed Peugeot
              car he used on the day of the killing; it was their second try.

              Dismantling the car, they found a passport behind the radio with
              stamps for three trips to Turkey, and a dry-cleaning bill dated a
              few days after the killings, Comte said.

              "When Guney was brought in, they missed half the things in his car,"
              the lawyer said. "The dry-cleaning bill didn't enter the investigation
              file until a month later. If you look at the transcripts of the first
              hours of questioning, all they are doing is trying to update their
              archives about PKK activities."

              Police sources had no comment on allegations that evidence was missed
              in the first search of Guney's car. They said questioning had focused
              on his links to the PKK because he claimed to be a member. PKK has
              denied Guney was a member of the outlawed group.

              The appeal to Turkey for judicial help, to be lodged by investigating
              magistrate Jeanne Duye, comes after similar requests were sent to
              Holland and Germany - where Guney lived for nine years - and received
              replies.

              Other factors are also complicating the investigation. On Sept. 25
              Duye's computer containing judicial files was stolen from her home.

              Duye's office did not respond to a request for comment. Duye has not
              spoken publicly about the murder case.
              Hayastan or Bust.

              Comment


              • #87
                Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

                .


                Egypt expels Turkish ambassador

                Egypt tells the Turkish ambassador to leave the country, after Turkey's prime minister calls for the release of ousted President Mohammed Morsi.


                Egypt has told the Turkish ambassador to leave the country and downgraded relations between the two countries.

                It follows remarks by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Cairo deemed "provocative".

                Egypt's foreign ministry said relations with Ankara would be lowered to charge d'affaires, blaming Turkey's continued "interference" in its internal affairs.

                Turkey has been a vocal critic of the military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi in July.

                Mr Morsi, who is in prison awaiting trial, has denounced as illegitimate the court that is trying him on charges of inciting murder and violence.

                He is one of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members that have been detained in a crackdown the interim authorities have portrayed as a struggle against "terrorism".

                Hundreds of people have also been killed in clashes with security forces.
                Bitter row

                Cairo's decision to expel Ambassador Huseyin Avni Botsali comes a day after Mr Erdogan called for the release of Mr Morsi.

                The Turkish premier again condemned the violent dispersal of pro-Morsi protesters in August by Egyptian security forces.
                Egyptian activists and pro-government protesters demonstrate outside the Turkish embassy in Cairo (August 2013) Egyptians have held protests outside the Turkish embassy in Cairo

                A bitter row at the time led both countries to recall their ambassadors. Turkey's ambassador to Cairo returned in September, but the Egyptian ambassador to Turkey was never reinstalled.

                Speaking on Saturday, Egypt's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Mr Erdogan's remarks were "provocative and interfering in Egypt's internal affairs".

                Turkey is "attempting to influence public opinion against Egyptian interests, supported meetings of organisations that seek to create instability in the country", Badr Abdelatty said.

                Mr Erdogan, like Mr Morsi, has his roots in political Islam. Ankara and Istanbul have hosted a series of meetings of the international Muslim Brotherhood.
                Politics is not about the pursuit of morality nor what's right or wrong
                Its about self interest at personal and national level often at odds with the above.
                Great politicians pursue the National interest and small politicians personal interests

                Comment


                • #88
                  Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

                  Originally posted by londontsi View Post
                  .

                  Mr Erdogan, like Mr Morsi, has his roots in political Islam. Ankara and Istanbul have hosted a series of meetings of the international Muslim Brotherhood.
                  And Erdogan is worried that he might end up like Morsi: deposed and in jail.
                  Plenipotentiary meow!

                  Comment


                  • #89
                    Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

                    Originally posted by bell-the-cat View Post
                    And Erdogan is worried that he might end up like Morsi: deposed and in jail.
                    Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

                    It was an idea hatched up in some quarters of Washington.

                    Fortunately ( for its enemies) Ankara is not a mature and responsible adolescent let alone a mature adult to be given such responsibility.

                    The issue is not only Erdogan but the whole of Turkish psyche.

                    .
                    Politics is not about the pursuit of morality nor what's right or wrong
                    Its about self interest at personal and national level often at odds with the above.
                    Great politicians pursue the National interest and small politicians personal interests

                    Comment


                    • #90
                      Re: Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

                      Originally posted by londontsi View Post
                      It was an idea hatched up in some quarters of Washington.

                      Fortunately ( for its enemies) Ankara is not a mature and responsible adolescent let alone a mature adult to be given such responsibility.

                      The issue is not only Erdogan but the whole of Turkish psyche.

                      .
                      The issue is not only turdogan but the whole tur.. Psyche.
                      Man you hit that nail squarely on the head. Been saying that since day 1 as well as others.
                      Artashes

                      Comment

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