Turkey's Presidential Takeover?

[jimmy olsen]

I'm shocked, shocked that Edrogan's arming Islamists!

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/21/us-mideast-crisis-turkey-arms-idUSKBN0O61L220150521

Exclusive: Turkish intelligence helped ship arms to Syrian Islamist rebel areas

ADANA, Turkey  |  By Humeyra Pamuk and Nick Tattersall


Turkey's state intelligence agency helped deliver arms to parts of Syria under Islamist rebel control during late 2013 and early 2014, according to a prosecutor and court testimony from gendarmerie officers seen by Reuters.

The witness testimony contradicts Turkey's denials that it sent arms to Syrian rebels and, by extension, contributed to the rise of Islamic State, now a major concern for the NATO member.

Syria and some of Turkey's Western allies say Turkey, in its haste to see President Bashar al-Assad toppled, let fighters and arms over the border, some of whom went on to join the Islamic State militant group which has carved a self-declared caliphate out of parts of Syria and Iraq.

Ankara has denied arming Syria's rebels or assisting hardline Islamists. Diplomats and Turkish officials say it has in recent months imposed tighter controls on its borders.

Testimony from gendarmerie officers in court documents reviewed by Reuters allege that rocket parts, ammunition and semi-finished mortar shells were carried in trucks accompanied by state intelligence agency (MIT) officials more than a year ago to parts of Syria under Islamist control.

Four trucks were searched in the southern province of Adana in raids by police and gendarmerie, one in November 2013 and the three others in January 2014, on the orders of prosecutors acting on tip-offs that they were carrying weapons, according to testimony from the prosecutors, who now themselves face trial.

While the first truck was seized, the three others were allowed to continue their journey after MIT officials accompanying the cargo threatened police and physically resisted the search, according to the testimony and prosecutor's report.

President Tayyip Erdogan has said the three trucks stopped on Jan. 19 belonged to MIT and were carrying aid.

"Our investigation has shown that some state officials have helped these people deliver the shipments," prosecutor Ozcan Sisman, who ordered the search of the first truck on Nov. 7 2013 after a tip-off that it was carrying weapons illegally, told Reuters in a interview on May 4 in Adana.

Both Sisman and Aziz Takci, another Adana prosecutor who ordered three trucks to be searched on Jan. 19 2014, have since been detained on the orders of state prosecutors and face provisional charges, pending a full indictment, of carrying out an illegal search.

The request for Sisman's arrest, issued by the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and also seen by Reuters, accuses him of revealing state secrets and tarnishing the government by portraying it as aiding terrorist groups.

Sisman and Takci deny the charges.

"It is not possible to explain this process, which has become a total massacre of the law," Alp Deger Tanriverdi, a lawyer representing both Takci and Sisman, told Reuters.

"Something that is a crime cannot possibly be a state secret."

More than 30 gendarmerie officers involved in the Jan. 1 attempted search and the events of Jan. 19 also face charges such as military espionage and attempting to overthrow the government, according to an April 2015 Istanbul court document.

An official in Erdogan's office said Erdogan had made his position clear on the issue. Several government officials contacted by Reuters declined to comment further. MIT officials could not immediately be reached.

"I want to reiterate our official line here, which has been stated over and over again ever since this crisis started by our prime minister, president and foreign minister, that Turkey has never sent weapons to any group in Syria," Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Wednesday at an event in Washington.

Erdogan has said prosecutors had no authority to search MIT vehicles and were part of what he calls a "parallel state" run by his political enemies and bent on discrediting the government.

"Who were those who tried to stop MIT trucks in Adana while we were trying to send humanitarian aid to Turkmens?," Erdogan said in a television interview last August.

"Parallel judiciary and parallel security ... The prosecutor hops onto the truck and carries out a search. You can't search an MIT truck, you have no authority."


'TARNISHING THE GOVERNMENT'

One of the truck drivers, Murat Kislakci, was quoted as saying the cargo he carried on Jan. 19 was loaded from a foreign plane at Ankara airport and that he had carried similar shipments before. Reuters was unable to contact Kislakci.

Witness testimony seen by Reuters from a gendarme involved in a Jan. 1, 2014 attempt to search another truck said MIT officials had talked about weapons shipments to Syrian rebels from depots on the border. Reuters was unable to confirm this.

At the time of the searches, the Syrian side of the border in Hatay province, which neighbors Adana, was controlled by hardline Islamist rebel group Ahrar al-Sham.

The Salafist group included commanders such as Abu Khaled al-Soury, also known as Abu Omair al-Shamy, who fought alongside al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden and was close to its current chief Ayman al-Zawahiri. Al-Soury was killed in by a suicide attack in Syrian city of Aleppo in February 2014.

A court ruling calling for the arrest of three people in connection with the truck stopped in November 2013 said it was loaded with metal pipes manufactured in the Turkish city of Konya which were identified as semi-finished parts of mortars.

The document also cites truck driver Lutfi Karakaya as saying he had twice carried the same shipment and delivered it to a field around 200 meters beyond a military outpost in Reyhanli, a stone's throw from Syria.

The court order for Karakaya's arrest, seen by Reuters, cited a police investigation which said that the weapons parts seized that day were destined for "a camp used by the al Qaeda terrorist organization on the Syrian border".

Reuters was unable to interview Karakaya or to independently confirm the final intended destination of the cargo.

Sisman said it was a tip-off from the police that prompted him to order the thwarted search on Jan. 1, 2014.

"I did not want to prevent its passage if it belonged to MIT and carried aid but we had a tip off saying this truck was carrying weapons. We were obliged to investigate," he said.



(Additional reporting by Ercan Gurses in Ankara; Editing by Nick Tattersall and Anna Willard)

[Syt]

So, there's still no new government in Turkey. Erdogan has scheduled new elections for November 1st.

[mongers]

What are people's thoughts on Turkiye ?


NB Couldn't find the 'current' most used thread on Turkey as there are a lot produced from the search function.

[Tamas]

As a podcaster put it yesterday: there is nobody with a bigger permanent erection these days than Erdogan, thanks to he finds himself in the spotlight mediating the war in Ukraine.

[Valmy]

I read something else on this earlier. I guess it was quite a shocker to Erdogan's AKP party. IMO it's good as it puts a serious hold on his taking of even more power in the country.

Yes it will mean more vile and forceful populism backed by the whole state apparatus firmly controlled by Erdogan. I find the situation vaguely similar to when recently Orban lost his 2/3rd majority and their popularity plumetted in general. That's how they stopped the fall, and there are two practical differences between Orban and Erdogan: islamism, and Erdogan is less unhealthy for the economy.

  While his economics are vile, they are your sort of vile.  Liberalization and deregulation.

Cutting interest rates to zero because of Islamic Law isn't very liberal

[Crazy_Ivan80]

As a podcaster put it yesterday: there is nobody with a bigger permanent erection these days than Erdogan, thanks to he finds himself in the spotlight mediating the war in Ukraine.

jeez, everything in that country is suffering inflation...

[Tamas]

As a podcaster put it yesterday: there is nobody with a bigger permanent erection these days than Erdogan, thanks to he finds himself in the spotlight mediating the war in Ukraine.

jeez, everything in that country is suffering inflation...

Hi was commenting on Erdogan's supposed self-image, not reality.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

As a podcaster put it yesterday: there is nobody with a bigger permanent erection these days than Erdogan, thanks to he finds himself in the spotlight mediating the war in Ukraine.

jeez, everything in that country is suffering inflation...

Hi was commenting on Erdogan's supposed self-image, not reality.

so was I, so was I... heh.

[The Larch]

Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu sentenced to jail over 'fools' insult

Mayor expected to appeal against ruling that is seen as an effort to sideline an Erdoğan rival


A Turkish court has sentenced Istanbul's mayor to more than two years in prison and banned him from politics in a move that his supporters described as a politically motivated effort to sideline a high-profile rival of the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ekrem İmamoğlu was sentenced to two years, seven months and 15 days in prison for calling members of Turkey's supreme election council "fools" in a press release three years ago.

İmamoğlu did not attend any trial hearings or the sentencing, and is expected to appeal against the ruling. The appeal would allow him to stay in office in the meantime, but he would remain weighed down by court hearings for up to a year and a half as the country heads towards a general election.

The verdict represents the latest step in a crackdown on key figures from the Republican People's party (CHP), Erdoğan's main challenger in the vote, which is expected within six months. Earlier this year, Canan Kaftancıoğlu, the head of the CHP's Istanbul branch, was banned from politics and given a suspended five-year prison sentence on charges of insulting the Republic of Turkey and Erdoğan in tweets accusing him of theft.

In January a court is due to decide whether to ban the majority-Kurdish People's Democratic party (HDP) from politics.

"The will of 16 million Istanbulites is on trial," the mayor's office declared shortly before İmamoğlu's sentencing. "They are seeking to deprive the mayor of Istanbul of his political rights."

Afterwards, İmamoğlu addressed supporters who had gathered in front of the town hall building. "This decision is a disgrace for the Turkish judiciary," he said. "It's the firmest expression of the fact that the judiciary has been transformed into an instrument to punish dissidents. It's proof that the rulers of this country have no aim to bring justice and democracy to the country."

He added: "We will not bow down to this corruption. These kinds of games won't get in my way – I won't be dismayed or give up."

İmamoğlu's supporters chanted "one day the AKP [Erdoğan's Justice and Development party] will answer to the people" and "rights, law, justice" as they waved Turkish flags.

"I see it as stealing the votes that millions of people gave of their own free will," said Türkiye Simge Goorany, 27, an architect. "This does not end here. We will definitely take to the streets, and we'll make our voices heard online. This is nothing but a pre-election campaign for the AKP to lose power."

Şehriban Kaynak said: "We are living in a country where there is no law and justice."

İmamoğlu rode to power on a wave of support in 2019, winning twice, as the original result was annulled by the election council after AKP complaints. In a press release that year, İmamoğlu said: "When we consider what happened back then, the ones who cancelled the March 31 election are fools." This was the comment that prompted the lawsuit against him.

İmamoğlu's victory in 2019 gave the CHP control of Turkey's largest city, which makes up 40% of the country's GDP, in a symbolic blow to Erdoğan, who formerly held the same position before he was removed for office and jailed for four months for inciting religious hatred.

AKP officials stonewalled İmamoğlu's mayorship, opposing his efforts to make major changes and starting competing projects to undermine his programme. "All our decisions are being blocked," İmamoğlu told the Guardian in an interview last May.

The mayor's supporters gathered in front of the town hall hoped that his ban from politics might eventually prove counterproductive, aiding İmamoğlu's rise as it did Erdoğan's.

"This is an injustice – and we want justice," said Nurşen Çuhacı, 64, another İmamoğlu supporter. "I feel sorry for this decision, but I think it could give him a boost in politics."