Erdogan Orders Schools to Teach Muslim Discovery of Americas ?

[Yervant1]

Yerevan's response to Erdogan: Arrive in Yerevan and be made aware of
Armenian Genocide facts

by Ashot Safaryan
Saturday, March 21, 10:33


Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan can arrive in Yerevan on April
24, visit the Armenian Genocide Memorial and be made aware of the
mountains of evidences of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.
The remarks came from Eduard Sharmazanov, vice speaker of the Armenian
Parliament, commenting at the request of ArmInfo on Erdogan's recent
call to the Armenian Diaspora.

To recap, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has recently urged
the Armenian Diaspora to prove its Genocide claims by bringing out
documents to support them. The Turkish president said Turkey's
archives are open.

Eduard Sharmazanov reminds Erdogan that the best proofs of the
Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire are in the Western Armenia.
These are thousands of Armenian churches and communities destroyed and
desecrated by the Turks, millions of Armenians deported from their
historical motherland, and the multi-million Diaspora in the world.
"The best evidence is the Deir ez-Zor desert where hundreds of
thousands of Armenian women, children and elderly people died. The
secret decision of the Young Turks government, and the May 24, 1915
statement by the Entente condemning Turkey's crimes against Armenians
and the entire humanity," Sharmazanov said.


http://www.arminfo.am/index.cfm?objectid=A15BBFF0-CF9C-11E4-81140EB7C0D21663

[Yervant1]

ANTI-ARMENIAN ACTS ON THE RISE IN TURKEY

Thursday, March 26th, 2015 | Posted by Asbarez Staff
http://asbarez.com/133398/anti-armenian-acts-on-the-rise-in-turkey/

Graffiti on the wall of St. Mary's Church in Istanbul says '1915,
a blessed year'

ISTANBUL--Anti-Armenian hate speech graffiti appeared on the walls
of an Armenian church, around the same time as the Mayor of Ankara
called Armenians "disgusting." All this ahead of the 100th anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide.

The St. Mary's (Sourp Astvadzadzin) Church in the Bakirkoy neighborhood
of Istanbul was desecrated with hate speech graffiti that read "1915,
a blessed year," reported Today's Zaman newspaper.

Another message on the church was read: "What does it matter if you
are all Armenian when there is already one Ogun Samast," referring
to the convicted killer of Hrant Dink, after whose death many Turks
took to the streets with placards that read "We are all Dink. We are
all Armenian."

Another insciption on the church wall reads: 'What does it matter if
you are all Armenian when there is already one Ogun Samast'

Today's Zaman wrote that its reporter visited the site on Wednesday
morning and found that the graffiti had been painted over. But an
administrator at the church said, "This type of thing happens all
the time." The Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul refused to comment
on the matter. No criminal complaint has been filed.

The incident comes hot on the heels of another racist slur against
Armenians in Turkey. It was reported on Tuesday that Ankara Mayor
Melih Gokcek had filed a criminal complaint against Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hayko Bagdat on defamation charges after Bagdat posted
lighthearted tweets on his Twitter account referring to the mayor as
an Armenian after the March 2014 local elections.

Gokcek appears to believe it an insult to be called an Armenian
as his lawyer petitioned the Ankara Prosecutor's Office, saying,
"The statements [by Bagdat] are false and include insult and libel."

Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek

Ankara mayor says being called an "Armenian" is an insult Ankara Mayor
Melih Gokcek has filed a criminal complaint against Turkish-Armenian
journalist Hayko Bagdat on defamation charges, after the latter
jokingly posted tweets referring to him as an Armenian after the
March 2014 local elections.

According to the Diken website and the state-run Anadolu news agency,
Gokcek's petition to the Ankara Prosecutor's Office stated that Bagdat,
who has more than 300,000 followers on Twitter, wrote a series of posts
in the wake of Gokcek's victory in last year's March elections. One
of Bagdat's messages said: "It is official; they gave the capital
city to an Armenian. What a shame!" according to the petition.

The petition also said a Twitter hashtag "melihgokcekermeniymis"
(Melih Gokcek turns out to be Armenian) was allegedly used by Bagdat
in his tweets on the social media website.

Gokcek's lawyer said in the petition that the mayor is "a citizen of
the Turkish Republic who loves his country and his nation" and that
Bagdat is aware of this. "The statements [by Bagdat] are false and
include insult and libel," the petition said.

In addition, the mayor filed a lawsuit with the court claiming that
he was insulted by being called "Armenian."

Gokcek also sued Bagdat in civil court, demanding compensation of
10,000 liras for psychological damages. Bagdat announced the lawsuit on
Twitter, saying: "Turns out Melih Gokcek sued me demanding 10,000 liras
for calling him "Armenian, dude. We are going to have so much fun."

http://asbarez.com/133398/anti-armenian-acts-on-the-rise-in-turkey/

[Yervant1]

It seems that only ErDOGan, Sultan of Ottomaniac shows positivism to the rest of the world and the rest is negative, what a delusional retard!

Iranian MP: Recep ***** participated in 130,000 innocent people’s massacre in Syria

Recep ***** must give up Neo-Ottomanism ideology and apologize to the great nations of the region, the deputy president of the IRI Majlis for Security and Foreign Policy Affairs, Mansour Haghighatpour, declared, according to the Iranian site Vatankhahan.com.
“Erdogan thinks he can take a place among the other sultans as a winning sultan, yet Recep ***** must give up Neo-Ottomanism ideology and apologize to the great nations of the region,” the Iranian MP particularly said referring to Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s recent statement addressed to Iran.
Proceeding with his speech, the deputy president of the IRI Majlis for Security and Foreign Policy Affairs added, “Recep *****, intervening in the interior affairs of the countries of the region, has participated in 130,000 innocent people’s massacre in Syria. I think Erdogan just cannot visit Iran in current state of affairs.”
Mohammad Esmayil Sayidi, another MP from the Iranian Majlis, said that the Foreign Ministry of Iran must come up with a statement preventing Erdogan’s visit to Iran because of his sham statements.
According to Iranian site Irdiplomacy.ir, in an interview to the TV channel France 24, the president of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in response to the question whether Turkey is concerned about the growing role of Iran in the region (Syria, Iraq, Yemen), had said, “No doubt, Iran wants to take control over the whole region. This is certainly not a positive development. We have discussed Syria and Iraq with them [the Iranians]; still, we have not noted a positive move yet. As for the Islamic State, Iran’s actions are not sincere in that matter. Iran tries to take control over the territories which are under ISIS’s possession and take actions at the background of Shia-Sunni split.”
As the Iranian Fars News Agency reports, IRI Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, in answer to the above-mentioned statement of the President of Turkey, said, “Those who have suffered irreversible losses as a result of their strategic mistakes and ambitious politics had better contribute to the stability of the region with responsible policy.”

Source: Panorama.am

 

[onjig]

Delusional retard~Yes,that about says it.

[Yervant1]

Commentary
Erdogan Became Best Publicist
For Armenian Genocide Centennial

By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforiaCourier.com

A couple of years ago, when Armenians throughout the world began
making plans for the Armenian Genocide Centennial, they had two major
concerns: What kind of events to organize that would be most
appropriate for this solemn occasion? And, how to conceal their plans
from the Turkish government so it would be unable to undermine or
disrupt them?
Little did Armenians know that inadvertently Turkish leaders would end
up being their best `ally,' and instead of disrupting Armenians'
Centennial plans, they would make such preposterous statements that
would globally propagate the Armenian Genocide beyond anyone's wildest
expectations.
A Hollywood scriptwriter could not have done a better job than what
Erdogan as Prime Minister and then President did to ensure that the
Armenian Centennial is commemorated with the greatest possible
audience in the world.
Long before the start of the Centennial year, Erdogan set the stage by
undermining his own credibility and that of his country by making
outlandish declarations: He claimed that Muslims discovered America
before Columbus; that it was impossible for Muslims to commit
genocide; and told TV host Charlie Rose that since there are still
Armenians in Istanbul, there could not have been a genocide.
Erdogan went on to shut down Youtube and Twitter because he disliked
some of their content; had a teenage student arrested for writing an
essay the Modern Day Sultan didn't approve; jailed journalists and
cartoonists for criticizing his policies; prosecuted Muslim cleric
Fethullah Gulen's followers and high-ranking military officers under
the pretext that they were plotting against His Highness; o rdered the
shooting of peaceful protesters in Istanbul's Gezi Park; and i
nstructed his son during a secretly recorded phone conversation on how
to conceal tens of millions of dollars in cash!
With his harsh statements and rude outbursts, Erdogan managed to
antagonize leaders of many of the countries he dealt with, including
the United States, France, Germany, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Greece, Cyprus,
Russia, and Syria. In effect, he turned his foreign policy of `zero
problems with neighbors,' to `zero neighbors without problems!'
At the start of this year, as the Genocide Centennial drew near,
Erdogan shifted to high gear. He came up with the `brilliant' idea of
rescheduling the Gallipoli commemoration to April 24, and inviting
leaders of over 100 countries to Turkey in order to steal the
limelight away from the Armenian Genocide commemorations in Yerevan on
that date. The Turkish President sought to rewrite history by accusing
Armenians of changing the Genocide Centennial Date to April 24!
Such childish maneuvers did not go unnoticed by the international
community. Countless articles were written exposing Erdogan's dirty
tricks. Instead of undermining the Armenian commemorations, the
Turkish leader ended up propagating the Genocide Centennial, long
before Armenians had organized a single event!
Then came the memorable sermon of Pope Francis on April 12, accusing
Turkey of committing `the first genocide of the 20th century' against
the Armenian people! In response, Erdogan recalled his Ambassador from
the Vatican, and then, along with his normally cool-headed Prime
Minister Davutoglu and the entire cast of Turkish officialdom started
insulting the Pope, the Catholic Church, and even Argentina, the
Pope's birthplace! Thus, within a few days, Turkey's leaders managed
to antagonize over a billion Catholics around the world.
Erdogan warned the Pope that he would take additional actions against
the Catholic Church, implying that he would convert Istanbul's ancient
Greek Hagia Sophia Church to a mosque. Should he take such an extreme
action, he would be antagonizing the rest of the Christian world
against Turkey.
Within days of the Pope's history-making sermon, the European
Parliament adopted yet another resolution acknowledging the Armenian
Genocide. Meanwhile, Erdogan continued his anti-European and
anti-Christian diatribe by accusing Europeans of being anti-Turkish
and anti-Islam. Naturally, Europeans began to question how such a
lunatic leader could ever join the European family of nations!
Thousands of newspapers, TV stations, and websites reported the
Turkish leaders' berserk reaction, and criticized their denial of the
Armenian Genocide. The world's attention to Armenians has been quite
overwhelming with the extensive coverage of Kardashians' trip to
Armenia, the Pope's remarkable sermon, and the European Parliament's
Resolution on the Armenian Genocide. Armenians could not have gained
such immense publicity on the eve of the Armenian Genocide Centennial,
if they had spent a billion dollars and hired 100 PR firms!

[Yervant1]

DESIGNER OF COPENHAGEN SCULPTURE COMMEMORATING THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WRITES LETTER TO ERDOGAN

May 11, 2015

Plans to install a sculpture commemorating the Armenian Genocide in
one of Copenhagen's busiest squares have Turkish officials up in arms.

A sculpture that will be placed in the heart of Copenhagen in
commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
threatens to further derail the already-strained relations between
Denmark and Turkey.

The nine-metre high sculpture, entitled 'The Draem' (Danish Remembrance
Armenian Empathy Messenger), is to be placed in the square Kultorvet
for ten days in May to mark 100 years since upwards of 1.5 million
Armenians were killed by the Ottoman regime.

The plans have elicited a protest from the Turkish Embassy in
Copenhagen.

Allen Sayegh is an architect and a professor at Harvard University
and is the chief designer of the sculpture in Copenhagen that is
causing a stir with Turkey. He wrote an open letter to the president
of Turkey for their reaction.

President Recep Tayyip ErdogÌ~Fan

Presidential Palace, 06560,

Bestepe-Ankara

Turkey

Dear Honorable President ErdogÌ~Fan,

You probably do not know me but some in your government are
apparently furious about one of my urban interventions in downtown
Copenhagen. Most will not empathize with this sentiment of fury and
I also am unable to do so. Let me briefly explain.

I am an architect living in Cambridge, US. My studio INVIVIA was
commissioned for this piece in downtown Copenhagen. The piece coincides
with the centennial of the systematic mass killings and the death
marches of the Armenians by the Ottoman Turks. Our goal was to stay
away from politics and we gave it a poetic name, calling it the 'The
DRAEM' (pronounced "The Dream") â~@~R it is an unresolved dream. It
also stands for Danish Remembrance Armenian Empathy Messenger. It is
an interactive urban piece in the peaceful downtown of Copenhagen that
engages the urban space and emulates the notion of collective empathy.

I leave it to politicians, historians and psychologists to analyze
why a country would be so upset about an interactive urban sculpture.

But in a 21st century civilized society, I would like to echo the
reaction of Carl Christian Ebbesen (from the Copenhagen Municipality)
to the Turkish government reaction and stress the importance of
freedom of art and freedom of speech.

Mr. President, it has been one hundred long years and it is time
for empathy.

Yours truly,

Allen Sayegh

Cambridge MA

http://www.horizonweekly.ca/news/details/67233

[Yervant1]

Three Armenians Elected to Turkey's Parliament

By MassisPost
Updated: June 7, 2015


ISTANBUL - In a major blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is set to lose its
parliamentary majority in Parliament, according to unofficial results
of a parliamentary election held on Sunday, Today's Zaman reports.

With about 95 percent of the vote counted, the AK Party, which was
co-founded and led for more than a decade by Erdogan, won 41 percent,
well ahead of other parties but about 8 percent below its 49-percent
vote in the previous election in 2011.

Erdogan has fervently campaigned for a parliamentary majority for the
AK Party big enough to push for constitutional changes to introduce a
presidential system, under which he would have greater executive
powers.

The pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) was the rising star of
the election, winning nearly 13 percent of the vote that is set to
give it nearly 80 deputies.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) was at about 25
percent of the vote - apparently losing some votes to the HDP - while
the nationalist Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was just under 17
percent.

Three Armenians Elected
According to the results of the parliamentary election three Armenians
will be represented in the Turkish parliament after a long absence,
Hurriyet daily reports.

Markar Esayan, an Armenian-Turkish journalist for the pro-AKP daily
Yeni Safak, entered the parliament on an AKP ticket as the 12th
candidate from Istanbul's second election area.

Attorney Selina Dogan, from the Republican People's Party (CHP), was
elected as the first deputy candidate from the second election area of
the CHP's Istanbul list.

Garo Paylan, who ran for parliament as the second nominee from the
pro-Kurdish HDP's third election area in Istanbul was also elected.

Erol Dora, who is a member of Turkey's Syriac community and a lawyer,
was the HDP's third deputy candidate from Mardin and an incumbent in
the legislature was also elected.

In addition to the four Christians, two members of Turkey's small
Yazidi community were also elected for the HDP ` Feleknas Uca from
Diyarbakir and Ali Atalan from Batman.


http://massispost.com/2015/06/three-armneians-elected-to-turkeys-parliament/

[Yervant1]

ERDOGAN'S DEFEAT FOR ARMENIA'S SAKE

Hakob Badalyan, Political Commentator
Comments - 08 June 2015, 11:07

The preliminary results of the Turkish parliament delineate a new
interesting picture of the domestic policy of this country which may
be considered the incumbent president Erdogan's defeat but Turkey's
victory.

According to the preliminary results, President Erdogan's Justice and
Development Party has received 40.8% of votes. It is not enough to
form a government. Compared with the previous election, this party
has lost about 9%. Erdogan's Party now has to form a coalition with
one of the three opposition parties which have received more than 10%.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party has received 10.8%. The
Nationalism Movement Party has received 16.4%, and the Republican
People's Party has received 25.1%.

Erdogan has to form a coalition with one of these three forces to be
able to form a government.

Most importantly, however, aside from a coalition and government,
Erdogan is facing the danger of losing the prospect of establishing
presidential governance through a constitutional reform. The incumbent
president needed an absolute victory to bring the constitutional
reform into being,.

Hence, Erdogan has achieved a strong political influence and power
but this power will not get structuralized. Moreover, it is already
possible to speak about the sunset of this power. At least, the
Turkish parliamentary election contains such hints.

The votes of the rightist Republican People's Party and the Nationalist
Movement were up by 4.5% and 3% respectively compared with the previous
election. In its first parliamentary election the pro-Kurdish party
overcomes the hurdle of 10% and will get 78 of 550 seats in parliament.

Hence, Erdogan has lost, and the oppositionists have achieved more.

In fact, the Turkish parliament has actually disapproved Erdogan's
intention of constitutional reforms and presidential rule and voted for
parliamentary rule in Turkey. The final result of the election will be
known in 10-12 days, the central electoral commission announced. Time
will show whether something extraordinary will happen by then or
Erdogan will accept his defeat.

Recently the Turkish president has been quite anxious. At the end of
his campaign Erdogan was trying to arm with the global conspiracy
theory. This did not help him, however, and the Turkish citizens
found Erdogan's ambitions more dangerous than some conspiracy or
homosexuals or Armenian lobby or the Western press. This is Turkey's
victory because Turkey which has problems with the Euro-Atlantic
community would otherwise add trouble.

At the same time, the results of the election are positive for Armenia
too. Structural changes in Turkey would have been reflected in this
country's behavior, as well as regional policy. Erdogan's supremacy
would have made Turkey's policy tougher and unpredictable.

Hence, pedaling of such prospects favors Armenia. The slightest trend
of democratization in Turkey is beneficial for Armenia. On the other
hand, it is worth attention that the nationalist force has received
more votes in that country. At the same time, the pro-Kurdish force
is represented in parliament for the first time.

On the whole, the preliminary picture of the Turkish parliamentary
election indicates that Ankara will have to refrain from its currently
tough opposition to the West and will avoid crossing the line beyond
which it will become uncontrollable. Turkey which is on the orbit of
Western policy, under Western control, guided by democratic rules of
the game is preferable for Armenia and the South Caucasus.

In the meantime, this circumstance is a challenge to Armenia. Turkey
thereby moves several steps ahead of Armenia where the electoral
processes are meant to ensure stability of feudalism as indicated by
the local elections held in Armenia simultaneously with the Turkish
parliamentary elections in two centers of the Armenian clannish-feudal
and criminal-oligarchic reality, Abobyan and Artashat.

http://www.lragir.am/index/eng/0/comments/view/34162#sthash.JEa9Bdt9.dpuf

[Yervant1]

POLITICAL CRISIS AWAITS TURKEY: HAKOB CHAKRYAN

15:51, 08 Jun 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Political crisis is awaits Turkey as the ruling Justice and Development
Party has failed to win the majority, while the rest of the parties
will not form coalition either with Erdogan or with each other,
expert of Turkish studies Hakob Chakryan told reporters today.

Hakob Chakryan said it was importance for the People's Democratic
Party to cross the threshold of 10 percent. Had it receive less than
10 percent of the ballot, the votes would add up to those of Erdogan's
party. The latter would thus be able to change the constitution and
make Turkey a presidential republic.

The dream vanished as the ruling party even failed to make a simple
majority, the expert said. According to him, the perspectives are dim,
as the four parties to be represented in the 500-seat parliament are
unlikely to form a coalition.

"None of the opposition parties is willing to form a coalition with
the Justice and Development party. Neither do they want to form a
coalition with each other. Therefore, political crisis is awaiting
Turkey. Even yesterday, there were already talks about snap elections.

That means the situation is not that good," Chakryan said.

As for the three Armenians to be represented in the Turkish Parliament,
the expert said "they cannot play any positive role for the Armenian
Cause."

"If they at least manage to defend the interests of the Turkish
Armenian communty, that will be positive," he said.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/06/08/political-crisis-awaits-turkey-hakob-chakryan/

[Yervant1]

GARO PAYLAN: IT'S NOT HAVING THREE ARMENIAN MPS IN PARLIAMENT THAT MATTERS, BUT WHAT THEY WILL SAY AND DO

16:02, 10 Jun 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan

HDP Istanbul Member of Parliament Garo Palyan spoke to AGOS after
the results of Sunday parliamentary elections in Turkey were announced.

Paylan said that they had expected to win 11-13% of the votes, and
that the results were not a surprise.

Paylan stated that the HDP's victory had come as a result of
four-year hard work, and said: "We founded the HDP in 2011. During the
2-year foundation period, all identities and all democratic groups
came together. Our party includes all identities, and we stand for
equality. We are also aware that this has not been tried in politics
in Turkey before. Ours is a discourse of radical democracy with no
ifs and buts."

One of the three new Armenian MPs in Parliament, Paylan explained his
goals as follows: "It's not having three Armenian MPs in Parliament
matters, it's what they will say and do. My party will stand out with
its policy based on equality. The AKP also has Kurdish MPs but we have
not witnessed an egalitarian approach from them. All other parties
need to show more effort on this matter. It was this discourse that
brought us success, I wish other parties can see that politics in
Turkey can change."

http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/06/10/garo-paylan-its-not-having-three-armenian-mps-in-parliament-that-matters-but-what-they-will-say-and-do/

[Yervant1]

Commentary
We Should Worry More about Erdogan's
Dangerous Actions Than His Crazy Stories
By Harut Sassounian
Publisher, The California Courier
www.TheCaliforniaCourier.com

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has completely destroyed his
credibility by making numerous bizarre claims in recent years.
For example, Erdogan told a group of Latin American Muslims visiting
Istanbul last year that Muslim Pilgrims discovered America over 300
years before Christopher Columbus:
`It is alleged that the American continent was discovered by Columbus
in 1492. In fact, Muslim sailors reached the American continent 314
years before Columbus in 1178. ¦In his memoirs, Christopher
Columbus mentions the existence of a mosque atop a hill on the coast
of Cuba. A mosque would look perfect on that hill today.'
When people around the world scoffed at the President's unfounded
assertion, Turkish reporter Oray Egin found out that Erdogan had
completely misconstrued what Columbus had written in his memoirs
comparing a mountaintop in Cuba to `a pretty mosque.' Turkey's leader
wrongly concluded that Columbus had seen a mosque built by Muslim
sailors!
In one of many spoofs poking fun at Erdogan, someone sarcastically
alleged that Astronaut Neil Armstrong wrote in his autobiography:
`When we landed on the moon, we saw the ruins of a magnificent
building. Buzz Aldrin and I were amazed as we approached the
ruins. This was a small, elaborately-built Ottoman mosque. When we
came back to earth, NASA and the American government ordered us not to
talk about it.'
Such outlandish pronouncements attributed to the Turkish leader
continue to pop up on the internet. Given Erdogan's penchant for
telling wacky stories, many people tend to believe anything they read
about him.
Here is a recent example: `Ottomans were the first to reach the moon,
says Turkish President,' wrote Barbara Johnson in the World News Daily
Report. She quoted Erdogan saying: `It is alleged that the first man
to walk on the moon was Neil Armstrong in 1969. In fact, Muslim space
explorers reached our satellite 334 years before that, in
1635. Everyone knows the story of the famous aviator, Lagari Hasan
Celebi, the `Ottoman Rocket Man,' who made the first successful manned
rocket flight in 1633. What you might not know, is that he attempted
to reach the moon two years later and could very well have succeeded.'
According to Turkish mythology, legendary Ottoman aviator Lagari Hasan
Celebi launched in 1633 a 7-winged rocket using 140 lbs. of
gunpowder. Before his flight, he reportedly proclaimed: `O my Sultan!
Be blessed, I am going to talk to Jesus!' After his rocket landed in
the sea, Celebi allegedly swam ashore and announced: `O my Sultan!
Jesus sends his regards to you!"
Reporter Johnson continued her whimsical story: `Pres. Erdogan's
surprising claim generated some whispers and laughter from the
audience, a reaction that clearly angered the Turkish politician. He
slammed the skeptics for mocking his claims, adding that he would soon
have the proofs to back his claims. `Why do you not believe it?
Because you've never believed that a Muslim can do such a
thing¦. NASA may have destroyed most of the physical evidence of
the Ottoman's success during the Apollo 11 mission, but we'll try to
find any evidence that might have escaped the cover up.'
Of course, what Johnson wrote was not true. Erdogan never uttered
those words. However, it is interesting that many Turks believed the
fake story, and posted the following comments in reaction to Johnson's
article:
-- Ali Emre Demir: `Unfortunately, he is our President.'
-- Berkay: `The scary thing is, if you are living in that nation and
witness all the things that man does, and see how many supporters he
has. This is an embarrassment.'
-- Deniz: `Poor, secular Turkish people! This Tayyip is the
embarrassment of Turkey.'
-- Huseyin: `You cannot imagine what we have been suffering. He is a
solid tyrant¦. He is a complete dishonor to us.'
Indeed, Erdogan is a big embarrassment to millions of Turks who are
ashamed of him as their President. Unfortunately, the Turkish
President's actions are more ruthless than his words: He jails
reporters, orders the shooting of civil rights activists, sues those
who disagree with him, stashes away millions of dollars obtained by
corrupt means, dismisses judges and law enforcement officials who
refuse to carry out his illegal orders, and supports the infiltration
of ISIS terrorists into Syria and Iraq.
The international community should worry more about Erdogan's
terrifying actions than his delirious ramblings!

[Yervant1]

ERDOGAN'S SON SENT TO ITALY WITH BILLIONS IN CASE FAMILY HAS TO FLEE

15:19, 6 October, 2015

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 6, ARMENPRESS. In the latest series of tweets by
government whistleblower Fuat Avni, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
son Bilal has allegedly been snuck into Italy with armed guards,
in the event the Erdogan clan must flee Turkey over possible treason
charges. "Armenpress" reports the aforementioned referring to BGN NEWS.

"Noticing that he's nearing the end of the road, [President Erdogan]
has ordered Bilal to 'quietly' leave the country in the company of
armed guards. The destination for Bilal and the considerable amount
of money with him is Italy," government whistleblower and Twitter
phenomenon Fuat Avni revealed in a series of tweets on Monday.

Fuat Avni has been a thorn in the side of President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) for
nearly two years now, having correctly revealed many of their top
secret plans.

President Erdogan has allegedly been worried by an internal
investigation file, which establishes that he could be tried for
treason - the only crime for which a Turkish president can undergo
prosecution. The investigation file implicates Erdogan for his
involvement with the Kurdish settlement process, and has prompted
the president to send his son out of the country.

Avni claimed that Bilal Erdogan flew to Italy on Sept. 27, and that
the plan includes the possibility of his extended stay, allowing him
to take in other family members if required.

While there, he is also expected to tend to the family's bank accounts
in Switzerland and other countries, managing billions of dollars in
family finances. He will be staying in the vicinity of Lake Como,
near the Swiss border, giving him easy access to Swiss banks.

The family will decide whether or not Bilal will return depending on
the situation that emerges from the Nov. 1 snap election.

"[President Erdogan's] fears have reached unprecedented heights. In
his mind, he's planning to first sneak out all his money, then his
family and finally himself," Avni tweeted.

Avni claimed that Erdogan had given the task of arranging his son's
move to his "dirtiest" lieutenant, acting Foreign Minister Feridun
Sinirlioglu, who in turn had mobilized his "most trusted man,"
Ambassador to Rome Aydın Sezgin. Avni added that Sinirlioglu was
particularly pleased with the arrangement, since he expected to
receive a big commission without having to commit to anything just yet.

Bilal's armed guards were unable bring their weapons with them due
to Italy's gun laws, but Sinirlioglu was reportedly able to solve
the problem through trickery: the Turkish officials claimed that
the guards had been appointed as security by the Milan Consulate,
thus granting them permission to carry arms.

Sinirlioglu and Sezgin have also connected Bilal Erdogan with some
French nationals, says Avni, who will help smuggle him out of Italy
if the need arises.

In a second series of tweets posted Monday afternoon, Fuat Avni claimed
that President Erdogan has tasked his close personal aid, former
Interior Minister Erkan Ala, with finding a way to shift the blame for
the Kurdish settlement process - a potentially treasonous issue - onto
public servants and the military. Avni also claimed that many public
servants from the Prime Ministry, Justice Ministry, Interior Ministry
and Foreign Ministry, upon learning that the president's son had been
sneak out of the country, got in touch with the presidential palace
and also demanded out. "Erdogan's lieutenants are currently busy trying
to convince them to stay," Avni said, adding that the president needs
the public servants to cover up the mess he has gotten himself into.

http://armenpress.am/eng/news/821114/erdo%C4%9Fan%E2%80%99s-son-sent-to-italy-with-billions-in-case-family-has-to-flee.html

[Yervant1]

PINOCCHIO WAS BORN IN TURKEY PART II

Jirair Tutunjian, Toronto, 10 October 2015

This is the sequel to "Pinocchio Was Born in Turkey" (August 15,
Keghart.com) about the further liberties President Recep T. Erdogan
and official Turkey take to glorify imaginary Turkish contribution
to civilization. Part I cited 12 major historic instances where,
unencumbered by facts, Erdogan and Co. play havoc with the truth.

--Editor.

The Ankara regime and the Turkish establishment, knowing full well that
the Ottoman Empire/Turkey were established by the Seljuk and Ottoman
Turks through genocide, theft, rape, and other assorted unspeakable
deeds, are permanently busy asserting Turkey's legitimacy and
imagined glory. To that end, one of the weapons the Ankara bureaucrats
and Turkish "historians" use is to promote Turkish contribution to
civilization. Thus the well-financed Turkish marketing gang is eager
to place "Turkey's heritage" in the global public's eye.

The UNESCO World Heritage List is such a forum. Fifteen "Turkish"
sites appear on the list. However, a junior high student, checking the
Internet, will quickly determine that only one "Turkish" site belongs
in the list and even that has dubious Turkish pedigree. Here's the
UNESCO list.

1. TROY The city has nothing to do with Turkish
civilization. Immortalized by Homer in his two epics, it was built
4,000 years ago. During the many cruel centuries the Ottomans ruled
the region, the effendis, the beys, and aghas were unaware of the
city's existence. It was only in 1870, in the last decades of the "Sick
Man of Europe", that archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the
city. He managed to do so only after bribing the Ottoman government
to allow him to excavate.

2. XANTHOS-LETOON The archeological complex is what's left of the
capital of the Lycian's, an Indo-European people.

3. HATTUSHA It was the capital of the Hittites. Dating from the 2nd
millennium B.C., it has several famous gates (Lion's and Royal). The
Hittite Temple, from the 13th century B.C., is the best preserved
of what remains. Many historians have made a credible case that
the Hittites were related to the neighboring Armenians. Some people
even believe that HYE (the Armenian word for Armenian) derives from
the Hittites.

4. NEMRUD Turkish "scholars" acknowledge that the city was founded
by Antiochus I of Commagene but they never mention that Antiochus was
partly Armenian and the Commagene, the kingdom he ruled north of Syria
after the break-up of Alexander Great's empire, was closely related
to the Armenian Orontid (Yervantian) dynasty and along with Sophene
(Dzovpk in Armenian) was part of a larger Armenian state. The Turkish
"historians" say Commagene was Macedonian, Persian, and Anatolian.

Anatolian? Has there been such a nation? Only Turkish scholars know
for sure. As well, the later kings of Commagene were all descended
from the Armenian Onontids.

The Turks also don't say that the giant stone heads of Nemrud have
Armenian hairstyles and headgear. The Turks certainly don't refer
to the Armenian legend that Haig, the patriarch of the Armenians,
killed Pel/Bel here and buried the ogre in the neighboring mountains.

According to Armenians, this is where the Armenian nation was born.

5. HIERAPOLIS (Pamukkale in Turkish) The city, famous for its ancient
hot springs, was a Graeco-Roman metropolis. It was a flourishing spa
thousands of years before the Turkish marauding hordes fled their
desert homeland in Central Asia and razed the Middle East.

6. CATALHOYUK (Neolithic site) The archeological site dates from
7,400 B.C. to 6,200 B.C)

7. PERGAMON (now called Bergama by the Turks) Hellenistic city circa
3rd century B.C.

8. EPHESUS (now called Efes by the Turks) A Hellenistic-Roman-Byzantian
city, it was once the Temple of Artemis, one of the Seven Wonders of
the World.

9. SAFRANBOLU It's the ancient Greek Saframpolis, famous for its
saffron dying agent. It was an important caravan stop in Ottoman times.

So far we have seen that nine out of the 15 Turkish UNESCO World
Heritage sites are not Turkish. Let's look at the remaining six:

10. SELIMIYE MOSQUE (in Adrianopolis/Edirne) The mosque, along with
the school, clock tower, courtyard, covered market, library, were
built by Armenian architect Sinan.

11. DIYARBAKIR FORTRESS & HEUSEL GARDENS The Turkish "scholars"
say that it was a Hellenistic, Roman, Sassanid, Byzantian, Islamic
and Ottoman centre. They make certain not to mention that it was
the capital of the invisible nation called Armenians and that the
city was founded by Armenian King Dikran II and was named after him
(Dikranagerd in Armenian).

12. BURSA & CUMALIKIZIK The first capital of the Ottomans was known as
Mysian Olympus by the Romans. Turks admit the influence of everyone
from the Byzantines to Arabs to Persians on the architecture of the
14th century city but somehow forget to mention the Armenian influence.

13. GREAT MOSQUE & HOSPITAL OF DIVRIGI Turkish propagandists boast
that the religious building in Sivas has a "highly sophisticated
technique of vault construction and creative, exuberant type of
decorations, sculpture." How could nomadic Turks, fresh from their
arid desert, build such a "sophisticated" mosque in 1228? One doesn't
have to visit Armenian Ani to know that the "highly sophisticated"
vaults are an Armenian invention. Some European scholars even believe
Gothic architecture, celebrated for its soaring vaults, originated
in Armenia. Throughout the Middle Ages (in Byzantium --and later in
the Crusader era), Armenian architects and builders were pioneers in
innovative construction--religious, military and civic. Divrigi is
the Turkish version of the Armenian Tephrik.

King Senekerim/Hovhanness of Vasbouragan swapped with Byzantium his
domain for the Sivas region. Earlier, in the 9th century, it had been
the stronghold of the heretical Armenian Paulicians.

14. HISTORIC AREAS of ISTANBUL Since the Armenians, Greeks, and Jews
made up the bulk of the Ottoman middle class in Constantinople... and
since they were far more innovative, progressive and educated than
the Turks, many of these houses were built by them. The houses were
also certainly the work of architects from these three minorities.

15. GOREME NATIONAL PARK and ROCK SITES The rock-hewn sanctuaries of
Cappadocia are the result of erosion.

Here Greek hermits and priests built many churches (Nazareth, St.

Barbara, etc.) as they led a monastic life in a landscape sculpted by
nature. Turkish invaders--as was their commonplace practice--killed
the priests and destroyed the churches as they moved into central
Anatolia in the Middle Ages. And now the descendants of those killers
are earning tourist dollars showing international visitors the remnants
of those same churches.

It's not a surprise that not a single one of the 15 UNESCO World
Heritage sites in Turkey can be said to be Turkish.

http://www.keghart.com/Tutunjian-Pinocchio-II

[Yervant1]

ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY UNDER FIRE AGAIN AFTER LECTURER ATTACKS KURDS

NL Times, Netherlands
Oct 20 2015

Posted on Oct 20, 2015 by Janene Pieters

Ahmet Akgunduz, the rector at the Islamic University of Rotterdam,
has once again caused an uproar with hateful remarks about political
opponents. This time he said that he is praying for those responsible
for the recent bombing in the Turkish capital and called the Kurds
"dogs".

On his twitter account Akgunduz wrote a series of tweets including
that he is "praying for the heroes who are exterminating the dogs that
dig ditches". Erik-Jan Zurcher, a professor of Turkish language and
culture in Leiden, explained the tweet to Dutch newspaper AD. "With
'dogs' Akgunduz is referring to the Kurdish youth who dig trenches to
defend themselves in southeastern Turkey against the army." he said
to the newspaper. The "heroes" are the bombers. "So he is praying
for the salvation of the bombers."

The VVD has had enough. "It can't go on like this", parliamentarian
Pieter Duisenberg said to the newspaper. He can't understand how
the Akgunduz can be in charge of an institution that educates Dutch
students. "He is working on segregation instead of seeking a connection
with the Netherlands. How can a school with this man as figurehead
still have the approval of the Dutch government?"

In July the Tweede Kamer, lower house of parliament, already wanted the
RUI's accreditation withdrawn. This can only be done if the quality
of education at the university is inadequate. Accreditation board
NAVO ruled that there is nothing wrong with the quality of education
and that the accreditation will remain in tact.

Education Minister Jet Bussemaker currently has a legislative proposal
in front of the Council of State that would giver her the power to
intervene at institutions that do not comply with the order to social
responsibility. "Once the law is in force, I will not hesitate to
use its power", the Minister said.

This is not the first time that Akgunduz is under fire for hateful
statements. In June, just before the recent elections in Turkey, the
rector called on Turkish people to vote for the right-wing AK party
on his Facebook profile. "Do not vote for gay and Armenians", he wrote.

In January last year, Duisenberg also called for the IUR's
accreditation to be withdrawn after a comment that could be interpreted
as permission to commit violence. In 2013 Akgunduz called protesters
against the Turkish government wicked and supporters of Assad, who
kill Muslims.

http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/10/20/islamic-university-under-fire-again-after-lecturer-attacks-kurds/

[Yervant1]

WHY WE CAN'T AFFORD TO ABANDON TURKEY'S KURDS

Huffington Post
Jan 18 2016

01/18/2016 05:18 pm ET
by Stefan Ihrig

JERUSALEM -- The history of Erdogan's presidency will be written
as one of creeping, sometimes galloping, autocratism and of renewed
violence in the Kurdish southeast. Erdogan's new presidential palace
and declarations about Muslims discovering America seemed like loony
signs of a leader simply not ready to give up and slightly out of
step with the rest of the world. They amused but also scared us.

The rejection of calls to recognize the Armenian Genocide during last
year's 100th anniversary seemed merely like reflexes of a Turkish
strongman who inserted himself not only into the republican tradition
of denial but who also continually tries to connect himself back to
Ottoman times. With the renewed war against the Kurds, however, we
should recognize him for what he is: an autocrat in the making who
will not be removed by democratic means should the Turkish people
wish to do so and who is willing to sacrifice the lives and freedoms
of Turkish citizens for his goals.

Most of the world stood by in silence when the 100th anniversary of
the Armenian Genocide came around last April. While there were notable
exceptions, most of the world left Armenians and Turks to fight it out
between themselves. A small part of the world saw with great interest
that the Kurds in Turkey were at the forefront of reconciliation with
the Armenians.

What we are witnessing at the moment are the final stages in the
demolition of the checks and balances in the Turkish political and
societal system.

There are various initiatives, some of which the New Yorker, for
example, discussed in an extensive exposé on Diyarbakir and what
the Kurdish mayor and others have been doing there, such as the
restoration of a prominent Armenian church, acknowledging past
violence and extending a hand in friendship. For the Kurds, the
Armenian Genocide is no less painful to come to terms with than
for the rest of Turkish society as it was oftentimes Kurds who were
executioners in this genocide. Furthermore, and as the recent book by
Ugur Umit Ungör has demonstrated in great detail, the Turkish Kurds'
own history of suffering in the 20th century is intimately connected
to what started in 1915. It continued almost seamlessly into the next
decades and included extensive policies of ethnic engineering in the
Turkish southeast, then targeting the Kurdish populations.

So, yes, the renewed violence in the Turkish southeast owes a lot
to an undigested history of violence against all sorts of ethnic and
otherwise defined enemies of the Turkish state. As sociologist Fatma
Muge Göcek has shown recently, once more, there is a long tradition
of denying violence and of integrating past violence into a sanitized
and rationalized narrative of the nation. The renewed war against
the Kurds -- within the southeast under the guise of curfews as well
as beyond Turkey's borders -- is the latest proof that Turkey has to
come to terms with its history of violence. That history needs to be
overcome and resolved within Turkey, lest it continue.

Now, in the last few days, over 1,000 Turkish academics signed an
online petition to get the Turkish government to stop its undeclared
war against the Kurds in the southeast and to resume the peace
process. All this somewhat coincided with the recent bomb attack in
Istanbul -- and Erdogan had much more to say about the academics'
petition than about the bombers. In an intense and hateful commentary,
the president called the academics traitors of the country, alleged
they were colluding with foreign interests and terrorists and singled
them out for all kinds of reprisals. Others followed suit. Now these
academics have to fear physical violence, losing their jobs and
prosecution from the state.

Where are all those who are ashamed of the West for propping up people
like Assad as we are propping up Erdogan now, in the name of stability
and in order to control the stream of refugees -- from Assad's Syria?

Erdogan has consistently been fighting and constraining any form of
civil society in the last years, most prominently by harassing the
press in Turkey. And we, the Western world, otherwise always critical
of Muslim countries, stood by silently. Now, Erdogan has stepped up
his game and is attacking the Kurds. We stand silent. And now he is
attacking and prosecuting the people in Turkey who stand up to him
and support the Kurds. Yet we stand silent.

Not only is it interesting to see how little interest the Western media
have taken in the last months in the issue of the "Kurdish curfews"
in the southeast, but it is also interesting to take another look at
our silence. So, where are all the people lobbying for the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide now? Can't they support those who are trying
to stop violence in the very same regions in which the genocide took
place 100 years ago? Where are all the Europeans who argued against
Turkish EU membership in the last two decades because of its alleged
lack of civil society -- when the rather vibrant civil society is
being demolished piece by piece? Where are all those all over Europe
and America who have been philosophizing about the impossibility of
a Muslim democracy now? Where are all those so quick to point at the
"bad Muslim" now when civil society is standing up to state-sponsored
violence and is being bullied, threatened and persecuted by an
autocrat in the making? Where are all those who are ashamed of the
West for propping up people like Assad as we are propping up Erdogan
now, in the name of stability and in order to control the stream of
refugees -- from Assad's Syria?

We are co-complicit in many crimes happening around the world all
the time and at any given time. The Middle East is an especially
complicated place at the moment; losing Turkey as an ally does not
seem to be an option. But, as things seem to be developing, we are
losing Turkey anyway. Even if we do nothing. What we are witnessing
at the moment -- even if the international press often chooses to
look away, especially in the last months -- are the final stages in
the demolition of the checks and balances in the Turkish political
and societal system. We can all feel that it won't stop with what is
happening in these weeks. The trajectory is deadly -- for people and
for Turkish democracy and civil society. The new Turkey that Erdogan
is building by sacrificing the Kurds, by silencing the opposition and
by dismantling free speech should frighten us. If we really stand for
democracy, open societies and freedom of speech, then we must stand
with the Turkish academics now.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stefan-ihrig/turkey-kurds-abandon_b_9005608.html?utm_hp_ref=religion&ir=Religion

[Yervant1]

TURKEY
Turkish military song: let's kill all the Kurds as we killed the Armenians


In this video filmed by soldiers of the Turkish army in the occupied
town of Silopi Kurdish in Turkey, this group of soldiers called JOH
and POH, are the Turkish death squads that killed hundreds of
civilians while operating in Kurdish cities under curfew. A rough
translation of what they sing is "Everything, every time, everywhere
always the Turks on land and in the sky That we Turks -... We will
never allow the Kurds to survive Silopi We will fight until at the end
..... we swear every place will remain a Turkish land.the ISIS
(Islamic State) did is nothing compared to what we will do, we will
kill all Kurds as we have slaughtered all the Armenians. Amen. "

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clNcrPU6isI


Sunday, January 24, 2016,
Stéphane © armenews.com
http://www.armenews.com/article.php3?id_article=121316

[Yervant1]

Gatestone Institute
Jan 24 2016


Turkey: Christian Refugees Live in Fear

by Uzay Bulut
January 24, 2016 at 5:00 am

In the eyes of many devout Muslims, tolerance seems to be a one-way street.

"The relation between Islam and the rest of the world is marked by
asymmetry. Muslims may and do enjoy all kinds of freedoms and
privileges in the lands of the Kuffar [infidels]; however non-Muslims
are not granted the same rights and privileges when they live in
countries governed by Muslim governments... In our globalized world,
this state of affairs should not continue." ' Jacob Thomas.

The West, coming as it does from the Judeo-Christian culture of love
and compassion, would seem to have a moral responsibility to help
first the Christians, the most beleaguered and most benign of
immigrants.

Around 45,000 Armenian and Assyrian Christians (also known as Syriac
and Chaldean) who fled Syria and Iraq and have settled in small
Anatolian cities in Turkey, are forced to hide their religious
identity, according to the Hurriyet daily newspaper.

Since the Islamic State (ISIS) invaded Iraqi and Syrian cities,
Christians and Yazidis have become the group's main target, facing
another possible genocide at the hands of Muslims.

Anonis Alis Salciyan, an Armenian who fled Iraq for Turkey, told
Hurriyet that in public, they pretend to be Muslim.

"My husband and I fled [iraq] with our two children one year ago with
around 20 other families. There was pressure on us in Iraq," Salciyan
said, recalling that her husband, who ran a jewelry shop in Iraq, is
now unemployed. "We have relatives in Europe. Only thanks to their
support are we getting by. Our children cannot go to school here; they
cannot speak Turkish."

What makes the plight of Christian refugees in Turkey even more tragic
is that the ancestors of some of those refugees were driven out of
Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities and local Muslims a century ago,
during what are known as the Armenian Genocide and Assyrian Genocide
of 1915.

Another family, Linda and Vahan Markaryan, also fled to Turkey with
their two children. Their home in Baghdad had been raided by ISIS
jihadists.

"My daughter, NuÅ?ik, seven, stopped talking that day. She has not
spoken since. We are working hard to provide her treatment, but she
still will not speak," Linda Markaryan said, adding that it was hard
for them to practice their religion. "We have to conduct our prayers
at home."

Islamic jihadist armies invaded Middle Eastern and North African lands
starting in the 7th century. The indigenous, non-Muslim, peoples of
those lands have doubtless forgotten what safety, security and
religious freedom mean.

In every country that is now majority-Muslim, there are horror stories
of violent subjugation, rapes, slavery and murder of the non-Muslim
people at the hands of jihadists.

Christians have existed in Syria since the earliest days of
Christianity; today, after the raids of ISIS, they are fleeing for
their lives.

Muslim invasions of Byzantine Syria occurred under Muhammad's
successors, the Caliphs Abu Bakr and Umar ibn Khattab in the 7th
century. In 634, Damascus, then mostly Christian, became the first
major city of the Byzantine Empire to fall to the Rashidun Caliphate.

Damascus subsequently became the capital of the Ummayad Caliphate, the
second of the four major Islamic caliphates, and Arabic became the
official state language.

In Iraq, where many Christian refugees in Turkey also come from, there
has also been a campaign of Islamization.

Muslim Arabs captured what is today termed "Iraq" from the Persian
Sassanid Empire in 636. They burned Zoroastrian scriptures, executed
priests, pillaged cities and seized slaves -- just as ISIS does today.

When Muslim armies captured non-Muslim lands, the Christians and Jews
were given the choice of either converting, being killed, or living as
"dhimmis": third-class, barely "tolerated" people in their
dispossessed land, and having to pay a tax (the jizya) in exchange for
so-called "protection."[1]

Now, in the 21st century, Christians in Turkey say they still live in fear.

On December 28, 2012, for instance, 85-year-old Maritsa Kucuk, an
Armenian woman, was beaten and stabbed to death in her home in the
neighborhood of Samatya (one of the largest Armenian communities in
Istanbul), where she lived alone. Her son, Zadig Kucuk, who found her
dead body at home, said that a cross had been carved on her chest.

In December 2012, also in Samatya, another woman, T.A., 87, was
attacked, beaten, and choked in her home. She lost an eye.

"The press, the police, politicians, and authorities have not focused
on this issue," wrote Rober Koptas, the then chief editor of the
Armenian bilingual weekly newspaper, Agos. "They prefer to stay silent
as if these attacks never took place. It increases the uneasiness of
all Armenians living in Turkey."

In January, 2013, Ilker Sahin, 40, a teacher working at an Armenian
school in Istanbul, was beheaded in his home.

In 2011, a Turkish taxi driver in Istanbul punched an Armenian
customer. "Your accent is bad," he told her. "You are a kafir
[infidel]."

In the eyes of many devout Muslims, tolerance seems to be a one-way
street. Many Muslims have apparently still not learned to treat other
people with respect. Non-Muslims all around the "Muslim world" are
either murdered or forced to live in fear. Many Muslims evidently
still think that non-Muslims are their dhimmis, and that they can
treat them as terribly as they would like.

In Western countries, Muslims are equal citizens with equal rights.
But some of them often demand more "rights" -- privileges from their
governments -- such as Islamic sharia courts with a parallel legal
system. If their demands are not met, they accuse people of
"Islamophobia" or "racism."

In majority-Muslim countries, including Turkey, non-Muslims are
continually insulted, threatened or even murdered -- and most Muslims,
including state authorities, do not seem to care.

"The relation between Islam and the rest of the world is marked by
asymmetry," wrote the author Jacob Thomas,

"Muslims may and do enjoy all kinds of freedoms and privileges in the
lands of the Kuffar [infidels]; however non-Muslims are not granted
the same rights and privileges when they live in Daru'l Islam ["the
home of Islam", countries governed by Muslim governments]. Western
politicians don't seem to notice this anomaly; while most Western
academicians don't appear concerned about this lack of quid pro quo in
the Islamic world. In our globalized world, this state of affairs
should not continue."

Unfortunately, hatred of Christians has become a norm in Muslim
countries, and this norm will not soon go away. This means that
Christians in the Middle East will continue suffering or even being
murdered, and will eventually become extinct in the Middle East if the
civilized world does not help them.

As Linda Markaryan, the Christian refugee who fled ISIS in Iraq and is
now living in Turkey, said: "We do not have a future here. Everything
in our lives is uncertain. Our only wish is to provide a better future
for our children in a place where they are safe and secure."

"We are only working in temporary jobs in places like construction
sites," her husband, Vahan Markaryan, said. "The other workers
[Turkish citizens] are paid around 100 Turkish liras a day but we are
only paid 25 liras a day for the same work. We cannot demand our
rights."

Hurriyet also reported that Christian refugees in Turkey have applied
to the United Nations to be able to go to the U.S., Canada or Austria;
they have been granted residency in Turkey only until 2023.

All Western states should give priority to Christians from Muslim
countries when granting refugee status to people. The West, coming as
it does from the Judeo-Christian culture of love and compassion, would
seem to have a moral responsibility to help first the Christians,
these most beleaguered and most benign of immigrants.

Uzay Bulut, born and raised a Muslim, is a Turkish journalist based in Ankara.


[1] For more about dhimmitude, please see "The Dhimmi: Jews and
Christians Under Islam", by Bat Ye'or, Fairleigh Dickinson University
Press, 1985.


http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7284/turkey-christian-refugees

[Yervant1]

Furks understands only the language of force!

 

New York Times

January 27, 2016 Wednesday


Undoing progress in Turkey

by ABDULLAH DEMIRBAS

ISTANBUL


The country's war on the Kurds is destroying culture and heritage, and
sabotaging a newly revived pluralism.


Entire towns and districts are under siege. Tanks ram through narrow
alleys closed off by barricades and trenches. Residents are trapped
indoors for weeks because of curfews. Those who venture outside risk
sniper fire. Their bodies lie on the streets for days before they can
be collected. Bullets fly in through windows and buildings collapse
under shelling, killing those seeking shelter at home.

This is not Syria. This is Turkey, the European Union candidate
country once hailed as a champion of the Arab Spring. The conflict
that restarted here after the breakdown of talks between the Turkish
state and the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or P.K.K., last summer has
turned into a devastating war in Kurdish towns and cities.

One of the most affected places is the city of Diyarbakir's historic
Sur district, where I was mayor from 2004 to 2014. Sur has been under
24-hour curfew since the beginning of December. Many of its
neighborhoods lie in ruins. Its historic buildings are damaged, once
busy shops are shut, hospitals lack staff and schools are closed. Tens
of thousands of people have fled.

Sur's walls surround an ancient city that has been inhabited for
millenniums. Its narrow streets, spacious courtyards and elegant stone
structures are reminders of a rich multicultural legacy - a legacy
that has survived, albeit in an impoverished state, a century of
conflict. Small but increasingly visible communities of Armenians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Yazidis and other minorities live alongside
adherents of diverse interpretations of Islam in what is now a
predominantly Sunni Kurdish town.

Over the past decade, our municipality worked hard to revive and
preserve this heritage. We oversaw the restoration of many historic
buildings, including mosques and churches. The reopening of the Surp
Giragos Armenian Church, which is now the largest Armenian church in
the Middle East, after nearly a century in ruins has encouraged
''hidden'' survivors in Turkey of the 1915 genocide to rediscover and
embrace their heritage. Efforts to restore the old synagogue in memory
of Sur's once vibrant Jewish community were underway before the
eruption of violence last summer.

In 2012, Sur's community leaders established an interfaith dialogue
group bringing together representatives of the region's different
religions, cultures and civil society groups. Known as the Council of
Forty, it has played a crucial role in keeping sectarian violence from
reaching our city. Thanks to its efforts, Sur came to symbolize the
vision of peaceful coexistence in a region plagued by intolerance.

It causes me immense grief to see that pluralism fall apart along with
Sur's buildings. Sectarianism is destroying Syria before our very
eyes. To avoid the same fate in Turkey, the Council of Forty has
called on the government to lift the curfews, and asked all sides to
end hostilities and return to peace talks within the framework of
parliamentary democracy.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said recently that military operations
in the besieged Kurdish towns would continue until they were
''cleansed'' of ''terrorists.'' ''You will be annihilated in those
houses, those buildings, those ditches which you have dug,'' he
threatened. But what peace can be built through destruction? Decades
of military policies against the Kurds have shown only that violence
begets more violence.

Many residents of these towns are poor families who were forced to
flee the countryside when the conflict between the Kurds and the
Turkish state was at its peak in the 1990s. Those who are digging
trenches and declaring ''self-rule'' in Sur and other cities and towns
of southeastern Turkey today are mostly Kurdish youths in their teens
and 20s who were born into that earlier era of violence, poverty and
displacement, and grew up in radicalized ghettos.

Now a new generation will grow up with the trauma of killing,
destruction and forced migration. Where will they go? What will become
of them? And how will an angrier generation of Kurds and Turks find
common ground? The truth is that my generation may be the last to
reach a peaceful settlement through dialogue.

Dialogue is possible when those in power want it. Last spring, the two
sides were on the verge of a breakthrough after two and a half years
of negotiations. The Kurds, when given a real and fair choice, have
repeatedly picked politics over violence and opted for coexistence in
a democratic Turkey, where their rights and identities are recognized,
over separation. But as the destruction goes on, their faith in a
political solution withers.

In 2007, Sur became the first municipality in Turkey to offer services
in local languages, including Kurdish, Armenian and Assyrian, besides
the official Turkish - a move that infuriated the authorities in
Ankara and led to my removal as mayor. In 2009, months after being
re-elected with two-thirds of the vote, I was arrested on charges of
separatism. (I was released five months later on health grounds and
kept my role as mayor throughout my arrest.)

As I was rounded up along with hundreds of Kurdish activists and
elected politicians, my teenage son left our house to join the P.K.K.
''You are wasting time with your politics and dialogue,'' he told me.
I dedicated my life to trying to prove him wrong and bring him home in
peace. I have been discouraged before, but never lost hope. Today, I
struggle to keep that hope alive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/25/opinion/undoing-years-of-progress-in-turkey.html?_r=0

 

 

[Yervant1]

Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 31 2016

Abant's message to Turkey

January 31, 2016, Sunday/ 16:39:42/ GÃ`NAL KURÅ?UN


I attended the 34th Abant Platform meeting in Bolu over the weekend.

In general, Abant Platform forums are the most inspirational events,
and this was no exception. The topic this time was `Democracy's
challenge with Turkey,' and intellectuals gathered to debate the level
of democracy in the country. The rising authoritarianism of the
Justice and Development Party (AKP) government and its ongoing
conflict with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in southeastern
Anatolia were two critical points underlined by almost every speaker.

I sincerely thank the Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV) for its
excellent organization, which gave us a chance to listen to the most
outspoken speakers in the country. I had the opportunity to take the
floor for a few minutes and mention my ideas to improve Turkey's
democratization process. I think there are two main benchmarks before
Turkey to be overcome. The first is a confrontation with the past. In
my opinion, it will not be possible to raise our level of democracy if
we do not confront the issue of the 1915 Armenian genocide. I call it
a genocide, but the name is not important here and whether we call it
a genocide, a massacre or Meds Yeghern is not the biggest part of the
problem. The main point is to confront what we, as a nation, did in
the past.

In addition, what is also needed in the extreme are confrontations of
the following: the government's 1938 Dersim massacre of Kurdish
Alevis, the 1942 Wealth Tax (Varlık Vergisi) on all non-Muslims, the
anti-Greek, Armenian and Jewish pogrom in Ä°stanbul on Sep. 6-7, 1955,
and the Sunni majority massacres of Alevis in Çorum (1980), MaraÅ?
(1978) and Sivas (1993). We can extend this list to the coups of 1960,
1971, 1980 and 1997. I think that by confronting the burning issues
surrounding all the minority groups, including the LGBT community,
Alevis and Kurds, as well as the majority groups in the country such
as Muslims, we will have raised the first pillar from which we can
improve democratic standards in Turkey.

My second idea is that we have to overcome routine abuses of the law,
which is being used as a tool of anti-democracy. For now, Turkey is
using the law as a tool to punish opposition figures and strengthen
authoritarianism. Electoral authoritarianism was another point
discussed during the Abant meeting. I sincerely think that two basic
steps may lead to the cessation of this loutish atmosphere. Acceding
to the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court,
which can try the crime of genocide, crimes against humanity, war
crimes and the crime of aggression, can give a sufficient guarantee
that all the actions cited above will not happen again. An amendment
to Article 90 of the Turkish Constitution, which states that `if a
conflict occurs between international treaties Turkey has ratified,
international treaties are above the Constitution and have a direct
applicable basis,' may help to stop the abuse and misinterpretation of
the text. This will also help to stop the abuse of law from fortifying
the authoritarianism of the government.

The European Union's vision is still hanging on the wall. We've still
got 35 chapters to pass before we can say we have raised our
standards. I sincerely think that holding these standards in high
esteem and putting our energy into them would be beneficial for
stopping the ongoing `civil war' in Turkey. Both the AKP and the PKK
have to lay down their weapons and try to focus on a new peace
process. This is the only solution and was the peaceful message I took
from the Abant meeting.

[Yervant1]

1,300 hotels in Turkish resorts up for sale amid tourism woes

19:09 01/02/2016


As many as 1,318 hotels have been put up for sale along the Aegean and
Mediterranean coasts after Russian sanctions along with security
concerns hit Turkey's tourism industry hard, todayszaman.com said.

The Mediterranean resort of Antalya has the highest number of tourism
facilities -- 410 -- that are listed for sale, followed by the
provinces of MuÄ?la, which has 349 for sale; Ä°zmir, 203; Aydın, 162;
Balıkesir, 139; Çanakkale, 35 and Denizli, which has 20 in total
listed.

The total sale price of the 410 hotels in Antalya amounts to TL 30
billion, while the remaining 908 have sale prices of a total of TL 8.8
billion.

Denizli Colossae Thermal Chairman Abdurrahman KaramanlıoÄ?lu said a
number of hotels in resort towns were left on the brink of bankruptcy
after Russia imposed sanctions against Turkey after the latter downed
a Russian warplane in November last year.

`We talk the realities but officials put a brave face on the issue. We
have been heavily affected from the jet crisis. Especially the hotels
in Antalya; being closed for the last four months, most of those are
on the verge of bankruptcy,' KaramanlıoÄ?lu said.

Nearly two months after Russia advised its citizens to cancel their
visits to Turkey, an Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)
militant blew up himself and 10 tourists; most of whom were German, in
central Ä°stanbul earlier this month, adding more turmoil to an already
stagnant industry.

Russians and Germans represented the two largest groups of
nationalities that visited Turkey in 2014. Turkey's tourism revenues
fell 8.3 percent to $31.46 billion in 2015.


http://www.panorama.am/en/news/2016/02/01/turkey-hotels-sale/1521511

[Yervant1]

This shows furkish hypocrisy.

Gatestone Institute

Feb 4 2016

Turks' Unrequited Love for Palestinians

by Burak Bekdil
February 4, 2016 at 4:00 am


The flag the Turkish prime minister proudly witnessed while being
hoisted at the United Nations is an inspiration of the flag used by
the Arab Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th
century, which was the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt against Prime
Minister Davutoglu's beloved Ottoman Empire.

In his speech, Abbas did not forget to "convey our best wishes to our
beloved Armenian brothers in Palestine, in Armenia and in the entire
world," and invited Armenian President Serzh Sarghsyan "to visit
Palestine and we hope he will accept the invitation."

Although it came as no surprise, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu, in his weekly parliamentary group speech last December,
spoke like a Palestinian politician, not a Turkish one:

"The most oppressed people of the 20th and 21st centuries is the
Palestinian people ... Our support will continue until Jerusalem
becomes the capital of independent Palestine ... No one should doubt
our devotion to the Palestinian cause ... We won't forget Palestine,
Gaza, Jerusalem, not even in our dreams ... We do politics for this
holy way."

He then narrated an anecdote:

"We were in the front rows when three months ago the Palestinian flag
was hoisted at the United Nations. In November 2012, I was the only
representative, as [then] foreign minister, from the Islamic world
when Palestine was given non-member status at the United Nations
general assembly. I sat with [Palestinian leader] Mahmoud Abbas when
the Palestinian flag was hoisted recently and we hugged ... That's why
I felt honored on behalf of my nation to witness the hoisting of the
Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Inshallah [God willing] that
flag will one day be waved in Jerusalem ... Whatever is wrong for
Palestine is wrong for us too."

What generous Turkish affection for the Palestinian flag and leader!
But both history and present times would forcefully remind one that
the Turks' love affair for the Arabs in general, and the Palestinians
in particular, is quite unrequited.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (pictured left with Fatah
leader Mahmoud Abbas and right with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal) now
finds his affection and emotional support for the Palestinian cause
unrequited.

First, the flag. The colors of the Palestinian flag (red, white, green
and black) are pan-Arab colors. The Palestinian flag is almost
identical to that of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party. It is also very
similar to the flags of Jordan and Western Sahara. Before being the
Palestinian flag, it was the flag of the short-lived Arab Federation
of Iraq and Jordan. All of these flags draw their inspiration from the
Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkey (1916-1918).

In short, the flag the Turkish prime minister proudly witnessed while
being hoisted at the UN is an inspiration of the flag used by the Arab
Palestinian nationalists in the first half of the 20th century, which
was the flag of the 1916 Arab Revolt against Davutoglu's beloved
Ottoman Empire. The Arabs, including Palestinians, joined the Allies
to fight the Turks during the war.

Similarly, Davutoglu's emotional encounters with Mahmoud Abbas do not
sound as if they are being shared by the Palestinian leadership.
Abbas's Christmas message, which went unnoticed in Turkey, contained
references to the Armenian genocide (still largely a taboo topic in
Turkey) that would have caused a small political earthquake in Turkey,
along with fits of anger and threats, had they been spoken by an
Israeli or European politician. Displaying the usual hypocrisy,
Turkish leaders preferred not to hear what the Abbas said:

"We, Palestinians, have gone through similar experiences as the
Armenians; both of us have been repressed, terrorized and banished. As
the Armenian people emigrated from their country to ours and then to
another place, we too are experiencing the same struggle; we emigrated
in 1948 and the refugees in Syria are migrating to the sea, into exile
and to places only God knows about."

In his speech, Abbas did not forget to "convey our best wishes to our
beloved Armenian brothers in Palestine, in Armenia and in the entire
world," and invited Armenian President Serzh Sarghsyan "to visit
Palestine and we hope he will accept the invitation."

That was "From Palestine with Love" -- to Turkey. Without caring much
about whether the Palestinians love the Turks, the Turks keep on
loving to love the Palestinians. Political Islam has its many
prerequisites. If one of them is unconditionally to hate Israel and
the Jews; the other is an unconditional devotion to the "Palestinian
cause." Turkey's leaders successfully fulfill both prerequisites.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hürriyet
Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.


https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.gatestoneinstitute.org_7365_turks-2Dlove-2Dpalestinians&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=aTmwsK0LsuzFilCzp-c8ac4I8h2JLcXW9_rdCA6Y9pE&s=9merEdvzTVv5lpZYAPTpJm92dF-nthN1IChUbYfF7q0&e=

 

[Yervant1]

THE MINISTRY OF BROKEN DREAMS

Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey
Feb 10 2016

by BURAK BEKDÄ°L

It's the same old Turkish malady: Form over function, or (fancy)
words over deeds. Consistency remains one of the rarest qualities in
governing politics, particularly in foreign policy.

Unwillingly, by their speeches and acts, often totally irrelevant or
disconnected from each other, Turkey's leaders have unwillingly -
perhaps without noticing - given a single, powerful message to the
international community: You can just ignore our big threats and hot
speeches, for even we ourselves do not know whether we can follow
through on them. And the world has kindly chosen to ignore them.

"We will shoot down every foreign aircraft that violates our sovereign
airspace." Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that at the top of
his voice more than a few times. In response, the Russians sent
a second jet to violate Turkish airspace. Miraculously - or not -
the fighter survived.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed countless times that Turkey
would never have any official contact with Egypt's "illegitimate,
coup d'etat regime and its coup dictator." But with Turkey lacking any
serious clout or leverage on regional politics to be able to isolate
Mr. Sisi's Egypt, Erdogan has now generously liberalized ministerial
contacts between Ankara and Cairo. Has Mr. Sisi gone? Is Egypt now
being ruled by a legitimate regime? Mr. Erdogan is also now even
talking about meeting Mr. Sisi if the capital punishment sentences
that Egyptian courts gave to Muslim Brotherhood members are annulled.

Will such an annulment make the "coup leader" a legitimate leader? How
easy...

For Mr. Erdogan, the capital sentences in Egypt were an outrage, a
disgrace and many other awful things. But for the same Mr. Erdogan,
the capital sentences in Saudi Arabia given to over 30 people,
including a prominent Shiite cleric, were merely an "internal legal
matter." It is precisely this ideological/sectarian bias that makes
Mr. Erdogan think of Mr. Sisi as a dictator while believing that the
Saudi monarchs' land is a beacon of democracy.

Last year, Pope Francis called the deaths of hundreds of thousands of
Armenians in Ottoman Turkey "the first genocide of the 20th century."

Turkey responded by recalling its ambassador from the Vatican. Last
week, Turkey decided to send its ambassador back to the Vatican. Did
the Holy See change his mind and say the events of 1915-19 did not
amount to genocide? No. The Vatican simply expressed sympathy with
the idea that an international commission should look into the tragic
events of a century ago.

The inconsistencies look even more manifest and humiliating when it
comes to the Kurdish issue. Here, briefly, is the Turkish account:

1. The PKK is a terrorist organization.

2. So is its Syrian franchise, the PYD.

3. The United States should choose between "us" (Turkey) and "the
terrorists" (the PYD), because Washington's special envoy to the allied
campaign against ISIL recently visited the Syrian Kurds, receiving a
plaque from a Kurdish commander and smiling for the cameras. Ankara
vehemently states that its allies, in this case the U.S., should
avoid any contact with "the terrorists," the PYD in this case.

4. Then Mr. Erdogan tells the press that the Turkish intelligence
services can have talks with the imprisoned leader of the terrorist
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). This inevitably raises the question:
Should it have been CIA officers, instead of the U.S. envoy, who had
talks with the "terrorist" PYD? Would that have made Ankara happy?

5. And there is not a single word from Turkey for Masoud Barzani (who
instead got the red-carpet treatment in Ankara), the leader of the
Iraqi Kurds, who recently said the time was now ripe for a referendum
on Kurdish independence. Is Turkey against any Kurdish independence, or
is it only against Syrian Kurdish and Turkish Kurdish independence(s)?

When their leaders are so confused, it is normal that the Turks also
have confused minds.

According to recent research by Istanbul's Kadir Has University:

1. Slightly over 39 percent of Turks think the U.S. is a security
threat to their own country.

2. Just over 35 percent of Turks think the U.S. is a friend of their
country.

Should anyone be surprised?

February/10/2016

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.hurriyetdailynews.com_the-2Dministry-2Dof-2Dbroken-2Ddreams.aspx-3FpageID-3D449-26nID-3D94966-26NewsCatID-3D398&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=Hotvg1nQphzU74aKRCSbpP4v1xQq7T7u5gNtP0sRMbQ&s=PDBrNI7WChPBoawcmD41peRmR09bEu91l7c_a-OK7uY&e=

[Yervant1]

The furks are at it again!

ANKARA WAR ON TERROR AIMED AT WIPING OUT KURDS: ANALYST

Press TV, Iran
Feb 10 2016

Press TV has conducted an interview with William Jones, with the
Executive Intelligence Review from Leesburg, to discuss the recent
comments by Selahattin Demirtas, the co-chairman of the left-wing
pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), condemning the Turkish
army operations against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants
in the country's southeast.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Do you think that Turkey is eliminating Kurds as a whole
with looking at civilian deaths that are rising, we had 200 and now
this number here 70 of civilians who have died based on army operations
by Turkey?

Jones: I think that's the agenda and I think that's been the agenda
from the get go. The Turks unfortunately have been able to use this
so-called war against terrorism to mobilize their forces without
significant criticism from the international community, which
otherwise would have overreacted and what seems to be a policy of
ongoing genocide of the Kurdish part of their population. And this is
their main task in terms of the so-called war against terror. It's
not aimed against ISIL (Daesh) but it's aimed against the Kurds. I
don't know how far they intend to go, but Turkey has a history with
regard to this and everybody remembers the Armenian genocide. And the
question is 'Is history repeating itself in essence?'. And if that
is the case that the international community regardless of the war
on terror has to react to this type of policy, but as yet there's
been little said about it.

Press TV: Unless there's a deal that Turkey has made with the United
States in particular about the issue of the Kurds.

Jones: Well, obviously they've done that. I mean all the compromises
were made; the fact that the Kurds were not involved at all in the
Geneva talks in spite of the fact that they have been the main force
fighting against ISIL and have been supported by the US military on the
ground. They're, nevertheless, not getting much support politically
in terms of coming from the US or from the Western countries. I
think they're in a very bad situation. They've been sold out in
many respects by the US in spite of the role that they're playing
militarily on the ground. And I think that if this continues and we
give more vote to the Turks to do what they're doing, they're going
to hang Kurds and the responsibility will lie not only on Turkey but
also on the Western nations who have allowed that to happen.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.presstv.ir_Detail_2016_02_10_449536_Turkey-2DKurds-2DPKK-2D-2DSelahattin-2DDemirtas&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=JNKC6m7eyy2vxypJ85JDudnrm-exeFfYE2znQtpz95M&s=Xukfy5y26KbbkhWFZWemHcDE-JrIuJLnlOa8--lCY1U&e=

 

[Yervant1]

ERDOGAN'S SON INVESTIGATED IN ITALY

18:28, 17 Feb 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

Prosecutors in the northern Italian city of Bologna are investigating
the son of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of a money
laundering probe, ANSA sources close to the matter said Tuesday,ASNA
reports.

The inclusion of Erdogan's son Bilal in the list of people under
investigation follows a petition to authorities from Turkish
businessman Murat Hakan Uzan, a political opponent of Erdogan who
is wanted by Turkish authorities and is in exile. The petition asks
Italian police to investigate potential sums of money brought to
Italy by Bilal, who has been studying at John Hopkins University in
Bologna since last autumn.

Bilal, 35, officially came to Italy to resume PhD studies he began in
2007. However, Turkish anti-government sources say he flew to Italy in
the fall with a "large sum of money" as part of a "getaway operation",
according to Uzan's petition.

The petition also states that Bilal arrived in Bologna with a team
of armed body guards who were not granted access to Italy until they
were conferred Turkish diplomatic passports.

Uzan says he and his family are victims of a political and judicial
campaign launched by Erdogan.

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.ansa.it_english_news_general-5Fnews_2016_02_16_erdogans-2Dson-2Dinvestigated-2Din-2Ditaly-5Fc161380f-2D8bfc-2D4859-2D96c9-2D9efd761a5d75.html&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=mOQKsb3Kuc2EkqxaWreteMF5K5Ik8sAPKdYkgHpy02o&s=8igk2NZeTrAHFDVf_q70DXqmxbh_oSmVXwYHgnUHinI&e=

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.armradio.am_en_2016_02_17_erdogans-2Dson-2Dinvestigated-2Din-2Ditaly_&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=mOQKsb3Kuc2EkqxaWreteMF5K5Ik8sAPKdYkgHpy02o&s=qLX1ppH-KuLV4HqhH2vMX15sanLwFp-L_z3bxmVcauw&e=

[Yervant1]

150 ALLEGEDLY 'BURNED ALIVE BY TURKISH MILITARY' DURING CRACKDOWN ON KURDISTAN WORKERS' PARTY (PKK)

Published time: 19 Feb, 2016 06:52Edited time: 19 Feb, 2016 08:47

https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__on.rt.com_74wn&d=CwIFaQ&c=clK7kQUTWtAVEOVIgvi0NU5BOUHhpN0H8p7CSfnc_gI&r=LVw5zH6C4LHpVQcGEdVcrQ&m=0yMPKa6LuJ11HeFDd3LhlzuLo18YLnxT7XRyjH_Tsok&s=XqSMGM9T76MugTdkcXLQ9X1yETW8INxJhD7OVqAxIAc&e=

© Sertac Kayar / Reuters
1.4K3
A member of the Turkish parliament from the pro-Kurdish Peoples'
Democratic Party has accused the military of atrocities in Turkey's
southeast, claiming they have 'burned alive' more than 150 people
trapped in basements.

"In the Cizre district of Sırnak, around 150 people have been
burned alive in different buildings by Turkish military forces. Some
corpses were found without heads. Some were burned completely, so
that autopsy is not possible," Feleknas Uca told Sputnik, adding that
"most" of those killed were Kurds.

Read more Scores of Kurdish civilians among hundreds killed in Turkey's
southeast - HRW

While Uca's statements have not been confirmed by RT on the ground,
or independently verified by a third party, the MP warned that more
people could face a similar fate as more than 200 people remain
trapped inside buildings across the region.

"The situation in Diyarbakir is terrible. Its district Sur is seeing
its 79th day of curfew. Two hundred people were trapped in basements
and Turkey's special forces won't rescue them,"Uca said.

Turkish security forces have been trying to clear southeastern towns
and cities of PKK members since last July, when a two-year cease-fire
collapsed. Dozens of civilians continue to be trapped in basements in
the Cizre district of Turkey's Sirnak province. Despite an official
announcement that the military op was concluded last week, the curfew
remains in place.

The reports of the massacre first surfaced earlier this week when
the ANHA news agency, reported the discovery of 115 bodies.

The corpses were so badly burned that relatives were only able
to identify 10 out of the 115 bodies found in the Sur and Cudi
neighborhoods of Å~^ırnak's Cizre district. According to the report,
DNA samples were taken from the victims to identify the bodies.

The Todayszaman newspaper reports that as of last Thursday the Cizre
State Hospital morgue had no space for bodies being brought in and
they had been sent to other morgues in the region.

Also, last Thursday, Interior Minister Efkan Ala confirmed that
targeting of the PKK in Cizre had been completed. On Sunday, the
Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) announced the discovery of 31 bodies during
searches in six buildings in Cizre. The army also said the military
operations in Cizre, which started on December 14, had killed 659
PKK members.

Yet despite the completion of the operation, wounded people
are reported to be still trapped inside basements. Kurdish
Netherlands-based ANF News is reporting that DIHA correspondent is
trapped with some 30 people underground, with women and children among
the wounded awaiting medical treatment. Some are in critical condition.

READ MORE: Over 160 civilians, incl. unborn child, killed in Turkish
crackdown on Kurds - report

Last month the Turkish Human Rights Foundation said more than 160
civilians had been killed since Ankara's launched its crackdown on
the PKK in August. Among those killed are 29 women, 32 children,
and 24 people over the age of 60.