(GLOBALRESEARCH) The Tale of a Turkish Summer: Is there a Link between “Occupy Gezi” and the IMF?
By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya
Global Research, June 24, 2013
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s fall from grace has manifested itself in Istanbul’s Taksim Square. Taksim Square now resembles Egypt’s Tahrir Square. What is interesting to note is that the timing of the massive protests comes a month after Turkey paid its debts off to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Taksim Gezi Park (or simply Gezi Park) was once part of Istanbul’s Armenian cemetery. Today, it is essentially the last green space inside Istanbul. The park is situated within Taksim Square, which itself is considered the heart of Istanbul, Turkey’s business centre and largest, most populous city.
As a gathering place, Taksim is the equivalent of London’s Trafalgar Square, the Place de la Bastille in Paris, Kiev’s Nezalezhnosti (Independence) Square, Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires, and Cairo’s Tahrir Square. It serves a similar function as London’s Hyde Park and New York City’s Central Park for the residents of Istanbul. Aside from its ecological value and aesthetics, it has historically been an important and indispensable spot for political and social rallies and protests of all stripes and colours. Traditionally, Turkey’s largest May Day rallies take place in Taksim and it is an important gathering place for Turkish trade unionists and activists.
There should be little wonder as to why the plans to cut all the trees down in Gezi Park and build a brand new shopping mall for tourists—complete with an Ottoman theme—in its place have been bitterly opposed by many of the inhabitants of Istanbul. One of the last open spaces for public assembly and demonstrations in the city would be taken away with the destruction of Gezi Park. Angry residents of the city have actually been protesting the commercial gentrification and re-development of Istanbul for some time before the protests in Gezi Park erupted. One large protest was against the demolition of the Emek Cinema, a cultural heritage landmark with a mixed baroque and rococo design.
The cinema was finally destroyed in 2013 to build another shopping mall. Other protests have been against the destruction of the city’s disappearing green spaces. These events have led to the development of an eclectic urbanite movement united under what can be conceptualized and described as the banner of Henri Lefebvre’s “the right to the city.” Istanbul’s Right to the City Movement is actually part of a global phenomenon where urban dwellers are demanding the right to democratically and collectively control the development and resources in their cities. Yet, there is much more to the protests in Taksim. The demonstrations are no longer about the trees and development contracts, but about Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP.
Re-development plans have ignored the opinions of local residents in favour of the business interests that the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) protects. Over the years there have been many evictions of people in poor and working areas. The residents of the working class and lower income neighbourhoods of Istanbul have actually been increasingly marginalized and put under pressure by urban projects.
It should come as no surprise that this type of development is increasingly a site of political contestation in Turkey and around the world. It is worth digressing to refer to the work of the Urban Studies Research Cluster at the University of California in Santa Cruz to put this into context. The Urban Studies Research Cluster points out that “social divisions are experienced increasingly in spatial terms—through gentrified housing markets and polarized job markets; unequal access to green space and unequal exposure to environmental risk; new modes of segregation and policing public space.”
“Saving Gezi Park” turns into “Saving Turkey from Erdogan”
Occupy Gezi, the protest in Gezi Park, is the spark that ignited a fire across Istanbul and Turkey that has exposed Turkish society’s internal divisions and the growing discontent with Prime Minister Erdogan and his AKP government. It all started with the activists that began camping in Gezi Park to prevent its destruction. The Turkish police tried to use heavy handed methods to disperse the activists. Tear gas canisters were used to disperse the crowd and the situation began to escalate. The methods of the Turkish police, fully supported by Erdogan and Turkey’s AKP government, backfired and unleashed a political tremor.
More people began arriving to Gezi Park. Two Turkish Members of Parliament (MPs) also joined the ranks of the activists: S?rr? Süreyya Önder from the Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party and Gülseren Onanç from the Republican People’s Party. The Turkish Communist Party and other groups would throw their weight behind Occupy Gezi. Even though Erdogan’s AKP government enforced a media blackout and tried to prevent journalist from going to Gezi Park, word about the police siege against the activists began to spread as residents became increasingly upset by the liberal use of tear gas. The police would even resort to burning the tents of the protesters and attacking the activists with tear gas while they were sleeping. Water cannons would later be brought to Gezi Park and other protest sites in Turkey, including Ankara. Ahmet S?k, a Turkish journalist and author, would be hurt and rushed to the hospital with injuries.
As the police became more brutal, the protest attracted more and more people and began to take on a new set of meanings. This transformed Occupy Gezi into a demonstration against Erdogan’s arrogance, authoritarianism, and abuse of Turkish democracy in favour of crony capitalism. Soon more than a dozen other Turkish cities, from Ankara and Adana to Iskenderun (Alexandretta) and Trabzon, were ablaze with protests against the AKP government.
Occupy Wall Street activists would stage a rally in New York City in support of Occupy Gezi and demonstrations would appear in front of Turkish embassies across the world. The Confederation of Revolutionary Trade Unions (DISK), one of Turkey’s four major unions, would put its support behind the protests. Another major Turkish union, the Confederation of Public Workers Unions (KESK) would follow suit with strikes. Eventually DISK, KESK, the Turkish Medical Association (TTB), the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), and the Turkish Dentists Union (TDHB) would all hold strikes.
The Turkish police have systematically fired tear gas canisters at the heads of demonstrators. This has led to many injuries including fractured skulls and the loss of eyes. The Turkish Medical Association TTB), which has condemned Prime Minister Erdogan for the violence, has said that thousands of Turkish citizens have been injured by the police. The president of the TTB, Dr. Ozbemir Aktan, has also complained that five doctors and three nurses had gone missing because they treated injured protesters.
Two young Turks, Mehmet Ayval?tas, and Abdullah Cömert, would be killed in the early days of the protest. Ayval?tas,, a member of the Socialist Solidarity Platform (SODAP), was run down by a car while he was demonstrating in Istanbul. The group Redhack has implied that his death was the “intentional work of a fascist” supporting the AKP government. In Antakya, which is located near the Syrian border, Abdullah Cömert would die next. Most of the Turkish media reported that Cömert died of injuries sustained after being shot by “unidentified” gunmen, though many protesters used social media to deny the claim by blaming the police for his death. An autopsy of Cömert, a member of the youth branch of the opposition Republican People’s Party, revealed that he died when a police tear gas canister hit him. By the start of the summer at least four demonstrators were killed and thousands of more people injured across Turkey. The Turkish police would eventually use rubber bullets at different protest sites and even begin to run out of pepper spray.
In Erdogan’s own words, “there are two Turkeys.” As the police became more brutal in their treatment of protesters, Turkey’s entire political spectrum, from left to right and from liberal to conservative, have condemned Erdogan and the AKP. Turkey’s second largest political party and main opposition party by way of parliamentary standing, the Republican People’s Party, has used the opportunity to denounce the AKP, rally its supporters, and to capitalize politically. The Republican People’s Party has used Occupy Gezi to portray the protests as a clash of cultural values, and its supporters have linked the protests to the issue of secularism and the AKP’s fresh restrictions on alcohol sales—which foreign media have picked up on—but this is not the real basis for the divisions in Turkey. The Nationalist Movement Party, Turkey’s third largest political party, has condemned the AKP government. The National Movement’s leader would go as far to say that the AKP was using such large quantities of tear gas—courtesy of the same American crowd-control industry that has been helping dictators around the world—that the AKP had “established gas chambers similar to the Nazis.” The Peace and Democracy Party, Turkish Labour Party, Turkish Communist Party, and Felicity Party all also denounced Erdogan for his reckless policies and autocratic behaviour.
Initially, Prime Minister Erdogan spoke in conspiratorial terms and called the protesters unruly extremists working to create sedition in Turkey. He promised that the project to build the shopping mall would not halt for “some old trees” and even tried to glorify the project by saying it was a tribute to Turkey’s imperial past during the Ottoman era. In thuggish language, the AKP mayor of Ankara on the other hand threatened that the AKP could crush demonstrators. The AKP and Prime Minister Erdogan, however, were forced to back down as the many misgivings of Turkey’s people undeniably surfaced. Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc was forced to make an apology for the violent police treatment of the protesters and the AKP government began backpedalling while Erdogan went on a tour of North Africa. The Turkish protesters have rejected the AKP government’s apology for using brute force as another insincere gesture by a dishonest government. Moreover, they have refused the appeal by Erdogan’s government to end the demonstrations.
Prime Minister Erdogan is now being equated with a fascist by the demonstrators. Referring to the deaths of two young protesters, one of the main Turkish unions turned Erdogan’s own words—which he used against Bashar Al-Assad—against the Turkish leader, asking him to resign: “A leader who kills his own people has lost his legitimacy.” In Istanbul angry crowds of five thousand people surrounded Erdgoan’s Istanbul office and hurled stones at it. The crowds have demanded that he promptly resign, chanting “Tayyip resign” and “shoulder to shoulder against fascism.” In Taksim Square over 100,000 people have gathered to demand Erdogan resign. A showdown between the demonstrators and Turkish security forces began, after Erdogan returned from North Africa. He began to call the demonstrators “terrorists” and in a threatening tone promised that they would all be individually targeted as police began to make house arrests throughout Turkey.
A Turkish Democratic Model for the Arabs?!
The tables have turned on Prime Minister Erdogan. The irony of the situation is that he is acting like an autocrat, which is exactly what he portrayed himself as opposing during the Arab Spring. Erdogan himself now resembles President Husni Mubarak, Egypt’s former dictator. He has even insisted that the protests are part of a foreign agenda and include foreign “mercenaries.” None of this has been lost on the Syrians either who have taken the opportunity to give Erdogan a taste of his own medicine. The Syrian government has issued several statements about the domestic situation in Turkey and the Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi has demanded that Erdogan resign, accusing him of “terrorizing” the Turkish people.
The Iraqi government has also taken the opportunity to make statements about the volatile situation in Turkey. Erdogan and the Turkish government have been officially accused by Baghdad of interfering in Iraqi internal affairs and seeking the division of Iraq, ethnically between Arabs and Kurds, and denominationally between Muslims. Under Erdogan the AKP has been busy trying to carve a sphere of influence in Iraqi Kurdistan and has even played with the internal legal status of Iraq’s Kirkuk by lobbying the local Turkoman population in the disputed city not to oppose the Kurdistan Regional Government’s jurisdiction claims. Refusing to recognize the Iraqi federal government’s sovereignty in Iraqi Kurdistan when it comes to foreign trade agreements and diplomatic relations, Erdogan even made a secretive deal with the Kurdistan Regional Government on oil and gas exports. It is in this context that the Iraqi government has taken the opportunity to tell Erdogan to show restraint against his own citizens. In reality, this is diplomatic tit for tat or payback for Erdogan’s confrontational public cries that have undermined the authority of the Iraqi government and essentially encouraged its toppling.
The flawed state of democracy that exists in Turkey has now come into view too. There have been attempts to enforce a media blackout in Turkey and the internet has been cut off in certain places. The Turkish mainstream media, which is tied to large business interests that support the AKP, has been embarrassingly caught collaborating with the AKP government in this regard. House arrests are being made and thousands of activists have been rounded up. Several people in the city of Izmir, a political stronghold of the Republican People’s Party, were arrested by Turkish police for the tweets they wrote on Twitter about the protests. In his anger Erdogan has condemned Twitter and all social media in general, stating: “To me, social media is the worst menace to society.”
The violations of civil liberties and media freedoms in Turkey have actually been ongoing. Turkish anti-war protesters that have been opposing Erdogan’s belligerent Syrian policy and Turkish involvement with NATO’s projects have been harassed and detained in large numbers. In 2012, the AKP moved forward with legislation restricting media freedoms. Turkey is actually the country with the most journalists imprisoned in the world according to the Committee to Protect Journalist. Journalists that have questioned official government narratives have been accused of treason and arrested. Artists that have created political art critical of Turkish officials have been arrested and charged with “insulting the dignity of a state official.” This was the “democratic model” that was being pushed on Arab societies after the so-called Arab Spring began.
Like their phony public gestures of support for the Palestinians, Erdogan and the AKP have never been interested in Arab democracy. They merely supported the toppling of Arab dictators to promote Turkish strategic and economic interests—essentially to fill their own pockets under the system of crony capitalism that dominates Turkey. It is precisely on the basis of these business interests that Erdogan and the AKP have kept silent about the democracy movements and protests against the Saudi and Bahraini regimes, which are close Turkish allies and partners.
An Economic Conspiracy Against Turkey?
Internationally, it ominously seems that a lot of Erdogan’s traditional supporters are turning their back on him, just as they did with Mubarak. The European Union and the US government have criticized Erdogan. The mainstream media in the US and Western Europe have not been reporting in favour of the AKP. Erdogan has slammed the foreign media of showing a distorted picture of Turkey and criticized the governments of some of Turkey’s allies for having double standards when it comes to Turkey.
The protests started after Turkey made its last loan repayment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in May 2013. There could be a link between the Turkish protests. Some may even accuse speculators of getting ready to siphon Turkey’s wealth, while others may suggest that soft regime change is being attempted with the intention of replacing the AKP possibly with a government by the equally corrupt Republican People’s Party. The Turkish government itself has mentioned that international banks are involved and Erdogan himself has said that the protests were tied to the planning of foreign circles that served the “interest rate lobby.”
Despite the fact that Erdogan has been praised for turning Turkey into an “economic miracle” and bringing the purchasing power of the average consumer up in Turkey, many families in Turkish society are heavily indebted. Under him crony profiteering has thrived with neoliberal economic policies that have supported corporations. Despite the fact that Turkey no longer has IMF debts, it has extremely high private sector debt, which is headed in an unsustainable direction if things do not change. Critics have accused Erdogan of hiding Turkey’s national debt by transferring it onto the shoulders of the average Turkish citizen. After the US economy, the Turkish one has one of the largest current account deficits. This says a lot, because a current account deficit happens when a country’s total imports of goods, services, and transfers is greater than its total export of goods, services, and transfers. This situation makes Turkey a net debtor.
The above factors and the anti-government protests in Turkey could have disastrous consequences for the Turkish economy. Already the demonstrations have now paralyzed large areas of Istanbul, Ankara, and other major Turkish cities. Erdogan has threatened to bring out the military. Tourism has been crippled and the Turkish economy has taken a dive. Turkish stocks and bonds have depreciated in value. In addition, the exchange rate of the Turkish Lira has dropped.
The country’s economy had already been starting to stagger before the protests due to the economic crisis in the European Union and the crisis in Syria that Erdogan has helped fuel with the US, UK, France, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. The Turkish-supported NATO war in Libya also hurt Turkish trade with Libya. Aside from the bad relations with Armenia, Prime Minister Erdogan has managed to alienate Turkey and hurt trade with its three most important neighbours. Trade and ties with Syria, Iraq, and Iran have been affected negatively by his neo-Ottomanism.
The Turkish People Reject AKP Crony Capitalism and Neo-Ottomanism
The recent events in Turkey epitomize everything that Prime Minister Erdogan stands for. The battle over the future of Gezi Park exposes Erdogan’s championing of commercial interests and crony capitalism, which has always come at the expense of the interests of Turkish society. Even Turkey’s “Zero Problems with Neighbours” foreign policy was about supporting crony capitalism by promoting Turkish business and trade regionally.
The fact that a replica Ottoman barrack was going to be incorporated with the shopping mall project in Taksim Square represents the failed neo-Ottoman policy of Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Erdogan would ridiculously scold the Turkish protesters and say that they knew nothing about the history of the Ottoman Empire; otherwise the demonstrators would support the destruction of Gezi Park and the construction of the shopping mall. The protests in Taksim Square represents a rejection of Erdogan’s stillborn neo-Ottoman regional policy—which at its core serves the crony business interests that Erdogan and the AKP represent—by the Turkish people.
The anti-government demonstrations have yet again shown how much of a hypocrite Prime Minister Erdogan is in his deeds. He has been exposed acting in the same fashion that he took the personal opportunity to blast and vilify Arab leaders with during the Arab Spring. The Turkish leader now faces an Arab Spring of his own—actually a “Turkish Summer.” Yet, the world will still have to wait and see what direction the protest movement in Turkey takes and what its outcome(s) will be and if Erdogan is right about a foreign conspiracy involving the “interest rate lobby.” Whatever happens, the Middle East is need of a healthy and interactive Turkey that will have good relations with all its neighbours.
Global Research Associate Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya was in Istanbul in mid-June 2013 and is currently reporting out of Lebanon.
Labels: IMF, TURKEY
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CIA Director reportedly in Turkey for secret talks
By Joseph Fitsanakis
Global Research, September 04, 2012
intelNews.org
Turkish and American authorities have refused comment on persistent reports that the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency is currently on a secret visit to Turkey. News of the alleged trip was first reported on Monday by Turkish tabloid daily Aks,am.
The newspaper said David Petraeus, who heads the United States’ foremost civilian intelligence agency, had arrived earlier that day in Istanbul’s Atatürk International Airport, on his private plane. According to the article, the CIA chief decided to embark on the unannounced trip in order to discuss “counterterrorism and the situation in Syria” with senior Turkish officials.
Several hours later, French news agency Agence France Presse reported that, according to “a US official”, the CIA Director was indeed in Turkey, holding secret “meetings on regional issues”.
However, the unnamed US source would not provide specific information about Petreaeus’ meeting arrangements while in Turkey, nor would (s)he divulge the names of the Turkish officials that were scheduled to meet with him. Another Turkish daily, Hürriyet, said the CIA Director would probably meet with his Turkish counterpart, MI.T chief Hakan Fidan, as well as with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
But repeated efforts by the paper to confirm this were rebuffed by representatives of the US embassy in Ankara, as well as Turkish officials. The latter appeared to have coordinated their responses, with spokespersons from both Turkey’s Foreign Ministry and the Office of the Prime Minister telling Hürriyet that they “had no information” on whether Petraeus was in the country.
If the reports of the CIA Director’s secret visit to Istanbul are correct, the obvious questions are “why” and why now”? The last time Petraeus paid an unannounced visit to Turkey, which eventually leaked to the press, was roughly six months ago, reportedly do discuss the crisis in Syria. As intelNews as reported consistently, based on claims by British, German and American media, around the time of Petraeus’ secret visit to Turkey, US President Barack Obama has authorized CIA officers stationed in the country to provide “non-lethal support” to Syrian anti-government rebels. It is also known that, Washington considers Turkey as one of its most important intelligence allies in the ongoing Syrian crisis, along with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel. Could the CIA Director’s second unannounced visit to Turkey in less than six months be heralding an intensification of Washington’s intelligence involvement in the Syrian crisis?
Labels: CIA, NATO, TURKEY
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Turkey: NATO’s Neo-Ottoman Spearhead in the Middle East
by Rick Rozoff
Global Research, August 8, 2012
Stop NATO
Turkey already has troops in Syria and has threatened military action to protect the site they guard.
A 1921 agreement between Ottoman Turkey and France (the Treaty of Ankara), the latter at the time the colonial administrator of Syria, guaranteed Turkey the right to station military personnel at the mausoleum of Suleyman Shah (Süleyman Şah), the grandfather of the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman I (Osman Bey).
Turkey considers the area adjacent to the tomb to be its, and not Syria’s, sovereign territory and late last month reinforced its 15-troop contingent there.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan stated the following in an interview televised on August 5: “The tomb of Süleyman Şah and the land surrounding it is our territory. We cannot ignore any unfavorable act against that monument, as it would be an attack on our territory, as well as an attack on NATO land. Everyone knows his duty, and will continue to do what is necessary.” The gravesite of a Seljuk sultan who was reputed to have drowned in the Euphrates River while on a campaign of conquest is now proclaimed a NATO outpost in Syria.
If confirmation was required that a neo-Ottoman Turkey is determined to reassert the influence and authority in Mesopotamia it gained 700 years before and lost a century ago and, moreover, that it was doing so as part of a campaign by self-christened global NATO to expand into the Arab world, the Turkish head of state’s threat to militarily intervene in Syria with the support of its 27 NATO allies should provide it.
Especially as the above complements and reinforces the roles of the U.S. and NATO in providing military assistance to Ankara in its current war of attrition against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and Iraq, with Syria soon to follow as last week Turkey deployed troops, tanks, other armored vehicles and missile batteries to within two kilometers of the Syrian border for war games. Last week a retired Turkish official compared the current anti-Kurdish offensive to the Sri Lankan military’s final onslaught against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) three years ago, ending the 25-year-long war against the latter with its complete annihilation.
U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s trip to Colombia in April was designed to achieve the same result in the 48-year joint Colombian-U.S. counterinsurgency war against the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). In the current era of international lawlessness, only NATO states and American clients like Colombia and Israel are permitted to conduct military strikes and incursions into other nations and to wage wars of extermination against opponents.
In the same interview cited above, Turkey’s Erdogan asserted the right to continue launching military strikes against Kurdish targets in neighboring countries, stating, “It should be known that as long as the region remains a source of threat[s] for Turkey we will continue staging operations wherever it is needed.”
Turkish Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin recently claimed that his nation’s armed forces had killed 130 suspected PKK members and supporters in Hakkari province, which borders Iran and Iraq.
Specifically in respect to military attacks inside Syria, Erdogan stated: “One cannot rule that out. We have three brigades along the border currently conducting maneuvers there. And we cannot remain patient in the face of a mistake that can be made there.”
He also stated, in reference to fighting in the Syrian city of Aleppo, “I believe the Assad regime draws to its end with each passing day” and criticized Iran’s support, which is to say its recognition, of the Syrian government. Iran is the inevitable secondary target of actions directed by Turkey and its NATO and Persian Gulf Arab allies against Syria and will be struck through Iraq also.
In the same interview the Turkish head of state identified a third target: Iraq. He condemned the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, declaring it illegitimate and urging it be overthrown. In what portends confrontation and possible conflict with Iran and Syria as well by exploiting the PKK issue, he added:
“Even though we should be countries that share the same values, for us to be in such rigor [conflict?] only makes the terrorist organization more powerful. This leads us to approach each other with suspicion.”
In the process he criticized Iran as well:
“It is not possible to accept Iran’s stance [of supporting the Iraqi government]. We conveyed this to them at the highest level of talks. We said to them, ‘Look, this has been a source of disturbance in the region.’”
His comments occurred after the Iraqi government criticized the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to the cities of Kirkuk and Irbil in the Kurdistan Regional Government-controlled north of Iraq in part to secure oil and natural gas deals with the regime of Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish autonomous region. Irbil is the region’s capital, but Kirkuk is claimed by Iraq’s central government too. Davutoglu’s trip to Kirkuk was the first by a Turkish foreign minister since 1937.
On August 7 Hurriyet Daily News columnist Murat Yetkin offered this perspective on the matter:
“Because Iraq [is] at risk of falling apart. Massoud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in the north of the country, which borders Turkey, has started to sign oil and gas deals with energy giants despite the objection of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad, who refuses to approve a hydrocarbons law to regulate the sharing of oil and gas income. The energy giants have an interest in supplying more oil and gas that is not controlled or is less controlled by Russia and Iran to Western markets; Turkey provides an option under NATO protection for both Iraqi Kurdish and Azeri resources to be transferred further west. The presence of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the KRG region and its armed campaign is, of course, a pain in the neck and a big obstacle to greater cooperation…”
On July 26 the same commentator claimed that “There are already political and economic actors trying to push Turkey to claim some energy-rich parts of Iraq and Syria, which would mean a regime change such as a federated Turkey, with Kurdish and possibly Arabic members,” which, he conceded, “could drag the whole region into a chain reaction of wars.”
Part of Turkey’s justification for involvement in northern Iraq, and another pretext for potential military intervention, is the protection of their ethnic kin, the Turkmen, in the country.
However, since the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq in 2003 the true indigenous people of the north, the Assyrians, have been decimated by attacks from Barzani’s peshmergas and Saudi-backed Wahhabi extremists without Turkey, or the West, being in the least degree concerned. Nine years ago there were an estimated 1.5 million Assyrian and other Christians in Iraq; now there under 500,000. Churches have been destroyed and in 2008 the Chaldean Catholic Archeparch of Mosul, Archbishop Mar Paulos Faraj Rahho, was kidnapped and murdered in the northern Iraqi city where he resided. Other religious minorities – Mandeans, Sabeans and Yezidis – have suffered the same fate. Shiites are regularly targeted by Wahhabi death squads.
The Barzani domain in the north has become a Turkish foothold inside the country, which has aided Ankara by preventing the PKK from operating on its territory and suppressing its sympathizers. It is also a dependable Sunni ally for Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies in efforts to weaken the Shiite-led government in Baghdad. The al-Maliki administration condemned last week’s visit by the Turkish foreign minister to the Kurdish-dominated north as a violation of Iraq’s constitution and national sovereignty as Davutoglu had neither requested nor obtained permission to enter Kirkuk.
Iraq’s Foreign Ministry handed the Turkish chargé d’affaires in Baghdad a harshly-worded statement and the Turkish Foreign Minister in response summoned the Iraqi ambassador to lodge a protest.
With Turkish threats against Iraq and Syria, and by inevitable implication Iran, mounting, on August 6 the Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Seyed Hassan Firuzabadi, warned that:
“Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey are responsible for blood being shed on Syrian soil.
“This is not an appropriate precedent, that neighboring countries of Syria contribute to the belligerent purposes of…the United States. If these countries have accepted such a precedent, they must be aware that after Syria, it will be the turn of Turkey and other countries.
He added that Iran fears “Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar have become victims of promoting the terrorism of al-Qaeda and we warn our friends about this.”
On the same day Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian stated, “There is a question that when al-Qaeda plays an active role in Syrian terrorism and violence, why the US and other countries back the shipment of heavy and semi-heavy weapons to the country?”
Kazem Jalali, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said that “Turkey and those who support and arm terrorists” in Syria were responsible for the safety of 48 Iranians kidnapped in the country on August 4.
The following day the Turkish press reported that Osman Karahan, a Turkish lawyer who defended a suspected top-level al-Qaeda operative accused of participating in deadly bomb attacks in Istanbul in November of 2003 was killed in Aleppo fighting with anti-government forces. In 2006 the Turkish government charged Karahan with aiding and abetting al-Qaeda.
Syria has announced that it captured several Turkish and Saudi military officers in Aleppo. Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar have established a base in the Turkish city of Adana, 60 miles from the Syrian border, to supply weapons and training to Syrian rebels for cross-border attacks.
The Turkish government is providing bases, training and advisers for al-Qaeda and other participants in the insurrection against the Syrian government at the same time that it is threatening Syria, Iraq and Iran over the “terrorist” Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
In bordering Iran, Iraq and Syria, Turkey provides NATO – and through NATO the Pentagon – direct access to those three nations. The final stage in the West’s Greater Missile East Initiative is now well underway, as is a new redivision of the Levant modeled after the Anglo-French Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916.
Rick Rozoff is a frequent contributor to Global Research. Global Research Articles by Rick Rozoff
Labels: NATO, TURKEY
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Turkish Labor Party Deputy Chairman: "We Have Clear Evidence That Turkish President Incited Terrorism and War on Syria"
by H. Sabbagh
Global Research, July 25, 2012
SANA - 2012-07-22
ANKARA, (SANA) – Deputy Chairman of the Turkish Labor Party Hasan Basri Ozbey denounced the position of Turkish President Abdullah Gul who is encouraging terrorists to commit crimes in Syria, saying that the Labor Party will file a complaint against Gul to try him in the Higher Court.
In a press statement published on Friday,
Ozbey said that his party will file a complaint to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and the Attorney General of the Higher Court to try Gul, affirming that the Labor Party has clear evidence that the latter incited terrorism and war on Syria and signed a secret agreement with the United States, which alone is grounds for trial.
He said that Gul’s statement after the terrorist bombing that targeted the National Security HQ in Damascus was shameful and disgraceful to Turkish citizens, affirming that Gul didn’t fulfill his duties and responsibilities as a statesman towards an act of terrorism against the officials of a neighboring countries.
Ozbey said that Gul encouraged the terrorists by saying that the Syrian government isn’t legitimate instead of denouncing the crime, adding that his statements constitute a crime according to the Turkish penal code.
He went on to note that world media – primary US media – has unveiled the fact the current Turkish government headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan is among the top governments in terms of organizing terrorist operations in Syria and providing weapons to terrorists in it, all under instructions from the US.
Ozbey pointed out that Gul himself admitted that the ruling Justice and Development Party signed a secret agreement with former US Secretary of State Colin Powell in April 2, 2003, and that these admissions were printed in Vatan newspaper in May 24, 2004.
He affirmed that Turkey is moving towards bloody adventures, and that the crimes of the Justice and Development Party constitute national treason.
Global Research Articles by H. Sabbagh
Labels: NATO, TURKEY
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Turkey asks Sata to reinstate Guris Holding airport contract
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe in Genève, Switzerland
Sat 17 Dec. 2011, 13:58 CAT
THE Turkish government has asked President Michael Sata to reverse his earlier decision to cancel a licence awarded to a Turkish holding to construct and manage Kenneth Kaunda International Airport for 50 years.
Turkish Minister of Economy Zafer Çaglayan said before signing an agreement on trade and economic cooperation with Zambia's commerce minister Bob Sichinga here yesterday that Guris Holding, which was halted from reconstructing the country's biggest airport was eager to start the works.
Guris was awarded the contract by former president Rupiah Banda's regime.
But on October 14, President Sata cancelled the deal saying building a new airport was an important venture and needs cabinet approval and advertising.
"Before signing our agreement, I would like to draw your attention to something…we have a big Holding Guris, they have been awarded a tender to construct Lusaka's Kenneth Kaunda Airport on the 6th of June this year," Çaglayan told Sichinga through an interpreter.
"So, they will be operating the airport for 50 years, they have been awarded the contract. On 27th of June, they started the negotiations about the contract, they have agreed on most of the points because of the presidential elections, it has been off…for a while."
Çaglayan told Sichinga that Turkey's President would soon be formally asking President Sata to reverse the cancellation.
"By the way, our President is set to talk to your President. There is a note that has been prepared for this very topic, and I would like to reiterate that our company is ready to start the business as soon as possible because this will be a major component of our political and economic relation of the two countries," he said.
And Çaglayan said Turkey wants to supply mobile hospitals and ambulances to boost health service delivery in Zambia.
"We are a country that is supporting the African nations in terms of the economy, education and health and we want your citizens to have a better welfare and high life standard," said Çaglayan.
"We don't even consider that which is left below the soil, we are only thinking about which is above the soil - the human resources and humanity. Our Ministry of Health and also educational institutions have been supporting Africa greatly and we have mobile hospitals and mobile ambulances and we have no economic expectations out of it."
And Sichinga, on the request regarding the KK International Airport tender, said: "It's important to ensure the agreement is of a general nature but there will specifics with regard to areas of cooperation including that of not only the Turkish airline flying into Zambia but issues you have raised about the tenders for Lusaka's Kenneth Kaunda International Airport."
Sichinga said the planned connection of KK International Airport on the vast Turkish Airlines routes would help grow Zambia's commerce and industries.
"Business should be to benefit the people, not to exploit them. We are very clear in our minds, neither do we come to the table to suck Turkey of any resources but we look forward to a mutual relationship of respect and regard for human dignity," Sichinga said.
"We also have challenges of great number of young people that need employment, so, our interest is not export raw materials but develop them, process them at local level. Not only are we talking about metals but also agriculture, livestock."
Sichinga said the PF government has a challenge of creating employment for the great number of young people that voted it into office during the September 20 polls.
He said Zambia was looking for technological and highly skilled investment opportunities to help create a strong industrial base to absorb the high youth unemployment in the country.
Sichinga said Zambia did not want a relationship of ‘horse and rider' but that which was mutually beneficial.
The agreement signed bordered on Zambia and Turkey considering their common interest in promoting trade and economic cooperation on the basis of mutual advantage.
Labels: FDI, ROBERT SICHINGA, TURKEY
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Rupiah helps Turks acquire Lusaka land
By Patson Chilemba
Tue 24 May 2011, 04:01 CAT
PRESIDENT Rupiah Banda has intimated how he helped Turkish owned Horizon School acquire land in Lusaka’s Kabulonga area for the construction of their yet to be built girls’ school.
Officially opening Horizon Primary and High School, which is owned by The Turks, President Banda said he felt honoured to officially open the school.
“When I hear some good development is taking place in the country, sometimes during my free time on the weekends I get into a car, we don’t show that it’s the President, no policemen, except my ADC and my driver.
So I came here, I visited this school while it was under construction. Somebody told me where it was, he said ‘next to Chibelo School’,” said President Banda yesterday. “When I got up there I saw the flag, I saw the Turkish flag; I said nipamene pala, that’s the place.
So your Excellency Turkish Ambassador to Zambia Ahmed Adda it’s true that the flag of Turkey flew in this country primarily because of this school and that now we shall see it at the Embassy since you have now come.”
President Banda said he was happy that the Zambia-Turkey relations could start on such note.
He said the government attached importance to education.
“When I visited this school, privately, one evening there was just the manager, the gentleman who was building the school, and some workers said to me ‘we want this piece of land between Horizon and Kabulonga Basic schools next to us so that we can build a girls school, secondary school’,” President Banda said.
“I told them ‘even without consulting the Minister of Education Dora Siliya I know she will agree. I know the deputy will agree that this should also be given to this trust to build a girls secondary school’. And indeed when they met with her she confirmed immediately. So we are waiting for this school so that our children, our girl children have also a decent school where they can learn.”
President Banda said he had been to Turkey twice and was very impressed with that country’s standard of education.
He said that was the reason why he requested Turkish partners to work with Zambia in the pursuit of quality education.
He said through education the country could fight poverty and ignorance as well as bringing about behavioural change, which was critical in the fight against youth delinquency.
President Banda commended private educational institutions that had excelled in the provision and promotion of quality education.
He urged the Ministry of Education to pay serious attention to private-run schools that were low on quality, efficiency, purpose and focus.
“When parents pay considerable sums of money, they should reap significant harvests of good character formation in their children. For some schools, poor character among children is still a challenge,” President Banda said.
And Horizon School PTA chairman Leslie Mbula said the school would have a particular emphasis on mathematics, Information and Technology and science education.
He said Zambia was short of teachers in the three subjects.
Mbula requested President Banda to request Turkey to send more teachers to teach the three subjects.
He said the subjects were key to the development of any nation, especially in this age.
Mbula said Zambia was the 36th country in Africa to have Horizon school.
He said the school was funded by Turkish business people who had the desire to help the underprivileged children, saying Zambian businessmen should do likewise.
Turkish Ambassador to Zambia Adda said the school would contribute high quality education to Zambia.
Labels: CORRUPTION, LAND RIGHTS, RUPIAH BANDA, TURKEY
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Govt courts Turkish investors to tap hydropower potential
By Chiwoyu Sinyangwe
Mon 19 July 2010, 04:01 CAT
ENERGY minister Kenneth Konga has said the country is wooing Turkish investors to come and develop Zambia’s vast hydropower potential, especially in the Northern part. In an interview, Konga said he met some Turkish investors when he accompanied President Rupiah Banda on a trip to the eastern European country.
"We had a meeting with Turkish investors and they are very keen to invest in the hydropower sector,” Konga said. “So we are just waiting for relevant instruments to be formalised between Zambia and Turkey and then we will invite them to come over here.”
Konga said the government wanted to exploit the energy potential in the northern part of the country to spur increasing investments in mining and agriculture in the area.
He said the government would also explore hydropower projects on the Zambezi River such as Batoka Gorge and Devils Gorge as well as the potential on Luapula waters.
Luapula Province is said to have hydropower potential of 950 megawatts.
“The interest was overwhelming and they are ready to come immediately we formalise the agreement,” he said.
“They are very upbeat... especially the hydropower sector because they are aware of the fact that the region, not only Zambia, has got a deficit of energy and Zambia has got potential for clean energy, so, they do realise that there is a good market in the region for clean energy.”
Konga said the Turkish investors were looking at exploring the local energy sector to include provisions for exports.
“They are saying if we develop this potential, we see the market beyond Zambia,” said Konga.
“…We are focusing our attention on the northern part of Zambia; the existing development in the energy sector is more in the Southern part of the country and then we have to construct long transmission lines to load centres in the Copperbelt, North Western, Luapula but there is potential for hydropower. Luapula itself has potential for agriculture and mining which is waiting for the energy sector to be delivered so that this other potential can be harnessed.”
Labels: ENERGY, HYDRO POWER, KENNETH KONGA, TURKEY
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