Do you think Turkey has become a regional Leader?

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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.'

http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2013/05/14/turkish-prime-ministers-triumphant-visit-to-washington/

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

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

http://www.armenianow.com/commentary/analysis/48554/armenia_analysis_turkey_region

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.

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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.

http://nypost.com/2013/10/04/turkeys-erdogan-taking-turkey-back-1000-years-with-new-reforms/

[bell-the-cat]

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
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".

[Haykakan]

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.

http://www.armenianlife.com/2013/10/09/growing-unease-over-turkish-jihadists-in-syria/

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

PARIS MURDER OF KURDISH ACTIVISTS TRACED TO TURKEY

http://asbarez.com/115312/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.

[londontsi]

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

.


Egypt expels Turkish ambassador

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-25066115

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.

[bell-the-cat]

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

.

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.

[londontsi]

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

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.

.

[Artashes]

Re: 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.

.

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