Human Rights Watch Warns of 'Authoritarian Drift' in Turkey

[Duque de Bragança]

The sick fuck of Europe.

Sick fuck for sure, but of Europe? 

THEY STILL HAVE A SLICE

Too late to reconquer Malmö, sorry.

[The Minsky Moment]

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-40163369

Germany set to quit Turkey's Incirlik airbase amid row.

Hey Krauts - hear there may be an opening soon in Qatar . . .

[mongers]

Come Friday morning, Mrs May will be on the phone to Erodgan for tips on how to curtail civil liberties still further.

[AnchorClanker]

Erdogan, and all social-conservatives, no matter their country of origin, are swine.  News at 11.

[dps]

Erdogan, and all social-conservatives, no matter their country of origin, are swine.  News at 11.

Well, gee, I love you too Ank.

[AnchorClanker]

Erdogan, and all social-conservatives, no matter their country of origin, are swine.  News at 11.

Well, gee, I love you too Ank.

Oh, I don't mind it when it's a personal ethos thing - I have many 'conservative' social beliefs as well, but I cannot abide it as a political program.  (Apologies, I should have made that clear before baring my fangs!)

[The Larch]

Turkey charges Amnesty chief Taner Kilic with coup links

The head of Amnesty International in Turkey has been charged with membership of a terrorist organisation and remanded in custody pending trial, the group has said.

Taner Kilic was detained on Tuesday in the province of Izmir along with 22 other lawyers.

The arrests were part of a crackdown following last July's failed coup attempt.

Amnesty called the charges "a mockery of justice".

The human rights group's secretary general, Salil Shetty, demanded Mr Kilic's immediate release and said charges against him should be dropped.

"The charges... show just how arbitrary, just how sweeping, the Turkish government's frenzied pursuit of its perceived enemies and critics has become," he said.

Amnesty's Turkey researcher Andrew Gardner tweeted: "Human rights defender, Amnesty Turkey chair Taner Kilic remanded in pre-trial detention. No credible evidence presented at hearing. Shame!"

Amnesty has been a vocal critic of the crackdown on suspected coup plotters. It said last year it had "credible reports" of detainees being subjected to "beatings and torture, including rape".

Mr Kilic is accused of using an encrypted messaging application called Bylock that the government says was used by followers of the US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses Mr Gulen of instigating the coup attempt - a charge the cleric denies.

Amnesty said in a statement that Mr Kilic denied "ever having downloaded or used Bylock, or even having heard of it".

More than 40,000 people were arrested and 120,000 sacked or suspended in the aftermath of the failed coup. They include police, military personnel, teachers and public servants.

Last month police arrested 1,000 people and issued arrest warrants for another 3,224 in an operation across 81 provinces.

The police force also suspended more than 9,000 officers over alleged links to Mr Gulen.

Mr Erdogan's critics say he is using the coup as a pretext to crush dissent and purge opponents.

At this rate the question will be who in Turkey is not accused of belonging to that network. Also, going after NGOs, that so Putinesque.

[Malthus]

Erdogan, and all social-conservatives, no matter their country of origin, are swine.  News at 11.

Well, gee, I love you too Ank.

Oh, I don't mind it when it's a personal ethos thing - I have many 'conservative' social beliefs as well, but I cannot abide it as a political program.  (Apologies, I should have made that clear before baring my fangs!)

"I'm a conservative, therefore I wear modest clothing" versus "I'm a conservative, therefore you must go to jail if you wear immodest clothing". 

[Eddie Teach]

Gaol! 

[Syt]

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/15/world/middleeast/erdogan-turkey-washington-protesters-attack.html

Turkish President Assails U.S. Over Charges Against His Guards

WASHINGTON — President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey lashed out at the United States on Thursday in brief but fiery remarks condemning criminal charges filed here against a dozen of his security personnel accused of attacking American protesters.

"What kind of a rule, what kind of a law is this?" Mr. Erdogan said, according to an account by Anadolu Agency, a state-run news service. "If those bodyguards would not protect me, why I am bringing them with me to the U.S.?"

Around the same time, Mr. Erdogan's government summoned John R. Bass, the American ambassador, to a meeting with officials from the Foreign Ministry in Ankara. They told Mr. Bass that the charges were "wrong, biased and lack legal basis," and blamed American law enforcement officers who had been on the scene, according to a statement provided by the Foreign Ministry.

Mr. Erdogan's remarks and the summons came several hours after the American authorities announced that they had charged 12 Turkish security personnel and four other American and Canadian civilians in connection with the May 16 attack, which sent nine people to a hospital and was captured in vivid detail on video. They said arrest warrants had been issued for the 12 guards, who left the country with Mr. Erdogan just hours after the attack.

The United States also revoked the visas of multiple guards, some of whom have not been charged.

Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson said the charges should "send a clear message that the United States does not tolerate individuals who use intimidation and violence to stifle freedom of speech and legitimate political expression." He said the department was still determining what, if any, additional steps would be taken.

The security personnel had been a part of Mr. Erdogan's traveling protection detail during a visit to the United States last month.

On May 16, after Mr. Erdogan received a warm welcome at the White House, videos show those armed guards and other supporters attacked a group of protesters gathered outside the Turkish ambassador's residence here. In another video, Mr. Erdogan can be seen watching the attack play out from a Mercedes-Benz sedan parked a few yards away. His role in the clash, if any, is unclear.

The standoff, which comes after weeks of careful maneuvering by the State Department over the case, complicates an already fraught relationship between Washington and Ankara.

Though allies and fellow NATO members, Turkey and America have grown distant in recent years because of American support for Syrian Kurdish forces that Turkey regards as a franchise of the P.K.K., a Kurdish nationalist militia fighting a guerrilla war in southeastern Turkey.

America is currently supplying arms to the Syrian Kurds to help them capture Raqqa, the capital of the Islamic State. Turkey fears these weapons will eventually end up in the hands of the P.K.K. in Turkey.

Mr. Erdogan is likewise frustrated by American reluctance to give up Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in the United States that the Erdogan government accuses of masterminding last year's coup attempt in Turkey.

Relations are also strained by the trial in New York of Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian associate of Mr. Erdogan's, who stands accused of helping Turkey circumvent American sanctions on Iran.

Speaking during a dinner at his palace in Ankara late Thursday, Mr. Erdogan said the protesters had been a part of the P.K.K. and faulted the American officers for not controlling them.

"Can you imagine what would the attitude be if something similar happens in Turkey?" he said.

Some of the protesters were holding the flag of a Syrian Kurdish militia, which Mr. Erdogan and his government say shows them to be supporters of P.K.K.

The Foreign Ministry officials delivered a similar message in their meeting with the ambassador, saying that American law enforcement officials had not taken appropriate precautions to protect their delegation.

They said the police's tolerance of "so-called protesters" near the ambassador's residence ran "counter to any understanding of justice."

And, as they had in an earlier summons with the ambassador, they accused the United States of not disciplining two American officers who they say briefly detained two Turkish security officers hours after the May 16 brawl.

In Washington, where lawmakers and advocacy groups have been pushing the American authorities to pursue charges, the reaction was altogether different as the news was greeted with calls for the State Department to go further in pushing Ankara to extradite the men.

After Thursday's reaction, that does not appear likely. The men will be unable to re-enter the United States but likely cannot be prosecuted. If they were to return to the country, they would face a variety of felony and misdemeanor assault charges.

"I would like to be an optimist and hope that the people responsible for these things we all saw on video will come here and turn themselves in," said Chief Peter Newsham of the Washington police.

Chief Newsham said that no staff members from the Turkish Embassy in Washington were implicated in the attack. He said that there were, however, several additional suspects whom law enforcement officials had not yet been able to identify and charge.

The skirmish in May does not appear to have been an isolated incident. In 2011, Mr. Erdogan's guards took part in a fight at the United Nations that sent at least one security officer to the hospital.

And in 2016, the police and members of Mr. Erdogan's security team clashed with demonstrators outside the Brookings Institution in Washington.

[The Minsky Moment]

Sorry Recep, your fascist shtick may play well in Konya, but it doesn't cut any ice here.

[Admiral Yi]

Nice job Rex.

[Duque de Bragança]

Neo-Ottoman map for Tim, recycled by Erdogan


Article here:

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/23/turkeys-religious-nationalists-want-ottoman-borders-iraq-erdogan/

Intro only, long article.

In the past few weeks, a conflict between Ankara and Baghdad over Turkey's role in the liberation of Mosul has precipitated an alarming burst of Turkish irredentism. On two separate occasions, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized the Treaty of Lausanne, which created the borders of modern Turkey, for leaving the country too small. He spoke of the country's interest in the fate of Turkish minorities living beyond these borders, as well as its historic claims to the Iraqi city of Mosul, near which Turkey has a small military base. And, alongside news of Turkish jets bombing Kurdish forces in Syria and engaging in mock dogfights with Greek planes over the Aegean Sea, Turkey's pro-government media have shown a newfound interest in a series of imprecise, even crudely drawn, maps of Turkey with new and improved borders.

Turkey won't be annexing part of Iraq anytime soon, but this combination of irredentist cartography and rhetoric nonetheless offers some insight into Turkey's current foreign and domestic policies and Ankara's self-image. The maps, in particular, reveal the continued relevance of Turkish nationalism, a long-standing element of the country's statecraft, now reinvigorated with some revised history and an added dose of religion. But if the past is any indication, the military interventions and confrontational rhetoric this nationalism inspires may worsen Turkey's security and regional standing.

[The Larch]

They're going full retard.

Turkish schools to stop teaching evolution, official says

Board of education chairman says subject is debatable, controversial and too complicated for students




Kareem Shaheen and Gözde Hatunoğlu in Istanbul

Friday 23 June 2017 06.00 BST
Last modified on Friday 23 June 2017 07.04 BST

Evolution will no longer be taught in Turkish schools, a senior education official has said, in a move likely to raise the ire of the country's secular opposition.

Alpaslan Durmuş, who chairs the board of education, said evolution was debatable, controversial and too complicated for students.

"We believe that these subjects are beyond their [students] comprehension," said Durmuş in a video published on the education ministry's website.

Durmuş said a chapter on evolution was being removed from ninth grade biology course books, and the subject postponed to the undergraduate period. Another change to the curriculum may reduce the amount of time that students spend studying the legacy of secularism.

[Malthus]

They're going full retard.

Turkish schools to stop teaching evolution, official says

Board of education chairman says subject is debatable, controversial and too complicated for students




Kareem Shaheen and Gözde Hatunoğlu in Istanbul

Friday 23 June 2017 06.00 BST
Last modified on Friday 23 June 2017 07.04 BST

Evolution will no longer be taught in Turkish schools, a senior education official has said, in a move likely to raise the ire of the country's secular opposition.

Alpaslan Durmuş, who chairs the board of education, said evolution was debatable, controversial and too complicated for students.

"We believe that these subjects are beyond their [students] comprehension," said Durmuş in a video published on the education ministry's website.

Durmuş said a chapter on evolution was being removed from ninth grade biology course books, and the subject postponed to the undergraduate period. Another change to the curriculum may reduce the amount of time that students spend studying the legacy of secularism.

Interesting that their excuse is that young Turks are too dumb to understand it. Not very flattering.