Category Archives: Turkey

Infant murdered in honour killing

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ABC News, courtesy TROP

Turkey Detains Mother for Newborn’s “Honor Killing”

April 16, 2010

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkish police Friday detained an unmarried mother and six other people near Istanbul for their suspected role in the so-called “honor killing” of a 2-day-old baby girl, state news agency Anatolian said.

The baby was suffocated by her grandmother after the family learned the 25-year-old mother became pregnant out of wedlock, Anatolian said.

“My family decided to kill my baby,” the mother told the police, according to Anatolian. “My 55-year-old mother choked the baby with a cloth. Then, my brothers buried the baby in a hole in the garden and covered the hole with cement.”

Police found the body after receiving an anonymous phone call.

Among those detained were also a doctor and the doctor’s secretary, They allegedly had agreed not to register the baby’s birth in return for an undisclosed amount of money.

The baby’s father is doing his military service and was not involved in the incident.

“Honor killings” or crimes carried out against women seen to have tainted the family’s name, are not uncommon in mainly Muslim Turkey, particularly in poor and rural areas.

The European Union, which Turkey has applied to join, has repeatedly urged Ankara to take a tougher stance against such crimes.

(Writing by Ibon Villelabeitia; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

TURKISH PM ERDOGAN IS UPSET OVER ISRAELI CACOPHONY

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This is the real reason for “The Muslim’s” angst over the lack of a “symphonic voice” coming from Netanyahu’s government. Erdogan wants to draw attention away from the Arabs/Muslims desired extinction of the Jewish state and focus on Israel’s defence strategy that defends itself from that scenario. That’s the sole reason, not any supposed lack on the part of Israel in wanting true peace with the Arabs. KGS

“The Turkish PM reiterated his opinion that Israel should sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty. “I have raised this issue several times, and I am talking about it today, and I will talk about it tomorrow. If we are going to employ a policy of justice in order to achieve peace, we must talk about these matters and every country must handle this issue in a fair manner. Iran cannot be the only country on the agenda, just like Israel cannot be the only country on the agenda.”

NOTE: You want symphony, Erdogan, you moron? Here: The Israel Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta

Now shut up. KGS

Erdogan urges German Turks not to integrate

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Photo: DPA

Erdogan urges German Turks not to integrate

Published: 17 Mar 10 14:49 CET
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100317-25933.html

The Turkish government has reportedly angered Turkish-German politicians by inviting them to an Istanbul conference and then urging them to resist political and social integration in their adopted homeland.

At the meeting last month, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Turks living in foreign countries to take out citizenship of the new homelands – not to integrate, but rather to become more politically active, according to the website of news magazine Der Spiegel.

Ali Ertan Toprak, deputy chairman of the Alevi community in Germany, told the magazine government representatives had said: “We have to inject European culture with Turkish.”

Erdogan told the meeting countries that did not allow dual citizenship violated basic rights and also likened Islamophobia to anti-Semitism.

Participants told Spiegel that Erdogan repeated elements of his widely criticised speech in Cologne in 2008 in which he said: “Assimilation is a crime against humanity.” Continue Reading →

Turkey threatens to expel 100,000 Armenians

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BBC


Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Turkey’s PM has begun a tentative rapprochement with Armenia

Turkey’s prime minister has threatened to deport 100,000 Armenian migrants, amid renewed tensions over Turkish mass killings of Armenians in World War I.

Recent resolutions in the US and Sweden have called the killings “genocide”.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the BBC that of 170,000 Armenians living in Turkey “70,000 are Turkish citizens”.

“We are turning a blind eye to the remaining 100,000… Tomorrow, I may tell these 100,000 to go back to their country, if it becomes necessary.”

Thousands of Armenians, many of them women, work illegally in Turkey. Most do low-skilled jobs such as cleaning.

Faltering diplomacy

Mr Erdogan was speaking in an interview with the BBC’s Turkish Service, in which he was asked about the recent votes by lawmakers in the US and Sweden.

The resolutions, recognising the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks as “genocide”, were passed narrowly, and in both cases Turkey reacted angrily.

MASS KILLINGS OF ARMENIANS
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Armenians killed by Ottoman Turks in 1915-6
Many historians and the Armenian people believe the killings amount to genocide
Turks and some historians deny they were orchestrated
More than 20 countries regard the massacres as genocide

Mr Erdogan said the resolutions “harm the Armenian people as well… and things become deadlocked”.

Armenian Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian was quoted as telling parliament on Wednesday that Mr Erdogan’s comments only reminded Armenians of the mass killings.

“These kinds of political statements do not help to improve relations between our two states,” he said.

“When the Turkish prime minister allows himself to make such statements it immediately for us brings up memories of the events of 1915.”

Diplomatic moves to normalise relations between Turkey and Armenia have faltered recently.

Hundreds of thousands of Armenians died in 1915, when they were deported en masse from eastern Anatolia by the Ottoman Empire. They were killed by troops or died from starvation and disease.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed, but Turkey says the figure is no more than one-third of that and that many Turks died as well.

Turkey accepts that atrocities were committed but argues they were part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenian people.

Armenia wants Turkey to recognise the killings as an act of genocide, but successive Turkish governments have refused to do so.

Armenians have campaigned for the killings to be recognised internationally as genocide – and more than 20 countries have done so.

Ankara Seeks Influence through Turks Living Abroad

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From Spiegel Online. By Anna Reimann and Katrin Elger

Leaders of Turkish descent across Europe recently received an invitation to a fancy event in Istanbul, all expenses paid. But what sounded innocent enough appears to have been an attempt by Ankara to get members of the Turkish diaspora to represent Turkish interests abroad. Turkish-German politicians have reacted angrily to the brazen lobbying.

The invitation that numerous Turkish-German politicians received in February sounded enticing: Lunch in a five-star hotel in Istanbul, travel expenses included. The session was titled: “Wherever One of Our Compatriots Is, We Are There Too.”

Around 1,500 people of Turkish descent from several European countries accepted the tempting offer. Among the speakers at the event, which took place at the end of February, were businesspeople, NGO representatives and a member of the Belgian parliament of Turkish descent. But the meeting, which has sparked outrage among Turkish-German politicians, was more than a harmless gathering of the Turkish diaspora.

The event was organized by the Turkish government, which is led by the conservative-religious Justice and Development (AKP) party, in an attempt to send a clear message to the participants that they should represent Turkey in other countries. Turks living abroad should take the citizenship of their new home country — not, however, with the intention of becoming an integrated part of that society, but so they can become politically active, said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who spoke at the event. Erdogan also compared Islamophobia with anti-Semitism in his speech and said that countries which oppose dual citizenship are violating people’s fundamental rights. (Germany, for example, generally does not allow its citizens to hold dual nationality.) Continue Reading →

TURKS RAID JEWISH ISTANBUL SYNAGOGUE AND DEMAND ID’S…….

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See how that works, the US House Foreign Relations Committee passes a resolution that recognizes the Armenian genocide, and the Turks start to strong arm their minorities. And this is the Muslim state that wants everyone to believe that they didn’t commit a genocide on the Christian and Armenian populations during the early 20th century. This move only serves to underline what they are in fact capable of. KGS

Turkish Police Accost Sabbath Worshipers in Synagogue

(IsraelNN.com) A Turkish newspaper reports that police burst into an Istanbul synagogue during recent Sabbath services and demanded worshipers’ ID’s.

The Turkish Milliyet newspaper reported that the Muslim government in Turkey appears to be cracking down on non-Muslim minorities. The individual communities are not being permitted to have their own leaders; one person will be recognized by the government to represent all the minorities as one. As the Christian community outnumbers the Jewish one, it is expected that a Christian will serve as “Chief Rabbi.”

In addition, Christian and Jewish children are being placed in separate non-Muslim public school classes. In Jewish schools, only Turkish citizens are allowed to be registered – preventing the son of a Jewish United States consul worker from studying in a Jewish school.

Finally, Turkish authorities raided the Hemdat Yisrael synagogue in Istanbul one Sabbath morning, the most crowded day of the week, and demanded that worshipers produce identification and proof of residence. Most worshipers did not have the required papers because of Sabbath restrictions, but were allowed to produce them at the conclusion of the Sabbath.

Leaders of several minority religious communities convened for an emergency meeting last month to discuss the worsening situation.

Rabbi Yitzchak Haleva, Chief Rabbi of Turkey, says it’s “much ado about nothing.” Speaking with Israeli media sources last week, Rabbi Haleva said that all misunderstandings had been resolved and that he himself will be running for re-election for the position of Chief Rabbi about two months from now. Regarding the mid-services Sabbath check of ID’s, Rabbi Haleva told Makor Rishon’s Yitzchak Hildesheimer that it was only a matter having to do with internal security.

A Turkish Jew quoted on Ynet did not sound confident, however: “Everyone here is apathetic, they are involved in their own business and their work – but we do feel that the situation has changed, even though it is being ignored. It is reminiscent of other periods in history…”

Turkey Recalls US Ambassador

Turkey recalled its ambassador to the U.S. last week after the  narrowly approved a resolution recognizing the Turkish slaughter of Armenians during World War I as genocide. The London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabiye editorialized that the “Jewish lobby” in Washington is to blame for the resolution.

60 Minutes Program Explores Questions Surrounding Turkey’s Genocide of Armenians

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The Muslim Turks committed acts of genocide against the Armenian people between 1915-1917. The US program 60 Minutes does an excellent job in reporting on it. Watch it all. KGS


Watch CBS News Videos Online

NOTE: Hitler knew Marxist theory, that the use of genocide was a means to erase all who stood in the way of a grand socialist state. The Armenian genocide by the Turks offered Hitler an example of how he could get away with it.

Turkey: girl buried alive for talking to boys

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Sixteen year old Medine Memi’s father was unhappy that his daughter had male friends. Her grandfather beat her for having friendships with boys. Her hand-bound body was recovered in December from a shallow hole dug under a chicken pen on the family property. Her lungs and stomach were filled with soil, indicating that she had been buried alive.

“She has male friends” her father said, “We are uneasy about that.”

Her death followed a family ‘council’ meeting. Official figures show that such honour killings account for half of all murders which occur yearly in Turkey.

From The Telegraph U.K.

Teenage girl buried alive in Turkey for talking to boys

A 16-year-old girl has been buried alive by her relatives in Turkey as punishment for talking to boys, police have said.

Published: 6:30AM GMT 05 Feb 2010

The hole where Medine Memi was buried by her relatives in the courtyard of their house in Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey: Teenage girl buried alive in Turkey for talking to boys The hole where Medine Memi was buried by her relatives in the courtyard of their house in Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey. Photo: REUTERS

Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.

Her father and grandfather have since been arrested and are due to face trial over her death. Her mother was also charged but has since been released.

Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from an informant, the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on its website.

Medine had first been reported missing 40 days earlier.

The informant told the police she had been killed following a family “council” meeting. Continue Reading →

Israel And The Turk: Ankara Has No Right to Preach Morality

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Danny Ayalon: Could we get him a small stool please?

The Turks want their antisemitism to go uncriticized and then think that Israel should treat them as equals. Not this time around as Deputy FM, Danny Ayalon brings the Turk ambassador in for a literal dressing down. Of course the bed wetters will be crying foul and whine that that’s not how diplomacy should be handled, but why not?

What has diplomacy ever done to curb the Muslim world’s overt antisemitism and Islamic supremacy? Nothing. It’s about time the gloves come off and begin treating these Muslims adults like children until they begin acting like adults. Kudos to the new and much improved Israeli Foreign Ministry, there’s no sense repeating old mistakes, let ‘s start calling a spade a spade. KGS

Deputy foreign minister reprimands ambassador for Turkish TV show depicting Mossad agents as baby snatchers, tells reporters he wants it to be seen that ambassador ‘is seated below him’

The Foreign Ministry responded Monday to criticism launched at Israel by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and said that “the Turks have absolutely no right to preach morality to the State of Israel and the IDF”.

Also on Monday, Turkey’s ambassador to Israel was summoned by Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon to receive an official reprimand for a Turkish television show depicting Mossad agents as baby snatchers.

“The prime minister’s speech joins the broadcasting of the anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic Turkish television show, as well as severe criticisms being continuously and systematically launched at Israel for over a year now, since Erdogan attacked President Peres in Davos,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said in a statement.

Ayalon refused to shake Ambassador Ahmet Oguz Celikkol’s hand when asked to do so by journalists attending the official reprimand, and said in Hebrew that “we just want it to be seen that he is seated below us and that there is only one flag here”.

In English, he told the ambassador that “unfortunately there is something we are concerned about, which I want to discuss with you without the presence of the press, in order to preserve discretion”.

Deadly Gunfire at Gaza Protest on Egypt Border

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NYTimes… JERUSALEM — An anti-Egypt rally in southern Gaza turned deadly on Wednesday when demonstrators rushed the border fence and stoned Egyptian troops on the other side, leading to an exchange of gunfire and the death of an Egyptian soldier. Nine Egyptian soldiers and a dozen Palestinians were wounded from stones and gunfire, witnesses and medics said.

It was the most serious Palestinian-Egyptian violence along the closed Gaza border since Israel’s short-lived invasion more than a year ago, and reflected rising tensions between Gaza’s Hamas rulers and the Egyptian government, which, like Israel, appears determined to keep Gaza isolated. The demonstration, organized by Hamas, protested Egypt’s refusal to allow international aid and solidarity missions into Gaza as well as Egypt’s construction of an underground barrier to obstruct smuggler tunnels. Those tunnels supply both goods and arms to Hamas and Gaza.

As Hamas leaders gave speeches, young men climbed the border fence and threw rocks at the Egyptians, witnesses and police reported, and Palestinian police officers shot in the air to control the crowd, though to little avail. Egyptian troops then shot from their side. “Two Palestinians were instantly wounded from five bullets,” a witness said.

The Egyptian forces also tear-gassed demonstrators who waved Hamas and Turkish flags, witnesses said. A Palestinian aid convoy was stopped by Egypt in the northern Sinai city of El Arish and included Turkish activists. The group, called Viva Palestina, consisted of 500 people, including Americans, British and Jordanians. It had scuffled earlier with Egyptian security officials in El Arish. Dozens were hurt.

A compromise was reached and part of the convoy was en route into Gaza by nightfall.

“The area is calm now and the situation on the border is stable,” said Ihab al-Ghussein, spokesman for the Hamas Interior Ministry, at a news conference in Gaza City.

The Egyptian soldier who was killed was in an observation tower 100 yards from the demonstration’s stage, witnesses said.

Dr. Ahmed Shehada of Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, said it had taken in 12 wounded Palestinians, “most of them hit by gunshots.”

Crusades defensive then, will be defensive again. Ottoman invasion of Otranto

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A reader of Vlad posted a link to a story I was fully unaware of till now. (Thank you moss) I am currently researching it and attempting to grasp the enormity of it. Till then, here is a photograph of over 800 skulls of people Muslim invaders butchered for refusing to convert to Islam which the re-takers of the city in Italy in 1480 put behind glass walls in the cathedral.

It is interesting to note that the pope in Rome called for a crusade in response to this horror and that according to wikipedia.

From the wiki link:

Since it was only 28 years after the fall of Constantinople, there was some fear that Rome would suffer the same fate. Plans were made for the Pope and citizens of Rome evacuate the city. Pope Sixtus IV repeated his 1471 call for a crusade. Several Italian city-states, Hungary and France responded positively to this. The Republic of Venice did not, as it had signed an expensive peace treaty with the Ottomans in 1479.

In 1481 an army was raised by king Ferdinand I of Naples to be led by his son Alphonso II of Naples. A contingent of troops was provided by king Matthias Corvinus of Hungary.

A shining example of Muslim equivalence

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Here, Turkish Muslims threaten certain actions in retaliation for the ban on minarets in Switzerland. This is very revealing at a few levels. For one thing, if taken at face value, what Muslims hold as things of equal value. That forbidding a specific component of architecture without forbidding any religious practice, or the building of more mosques, or any impediment to Islamic faith or practice at all, and most certainly did not threaten to kill anyone, is equivalent in this Turk’s mind as killing priests and destroying bell towers. Now it needs to be noted that in the Swiss referendum, there is no compulsion to remove any existing minarets, just a prohibition on building more.

I however do not take it on face value. The minaret is a token or a totem of Islamic primacy and expansion. It is a beacon calling to Muslims to come to prayer of course, but much more importantly it is to dominate the skyline and let the infidels know who the boss really is. So when turks make these threats it is in fact because the Swiss dared interfere with the process of Islamic dominance of a Western nation.

Eeyore for Vlad and with a H/T to Islam in Europe for the article:

Turks Threaten to Kill Priest over Swiss Minaret Decision

The Virgin Mary Syrian Orthodox Church of Diyarbakir
The Virgin Mary Syrian Orthodox Church of Diyarbakir
Slap to religious freedom in Switzerland leads to threat over church bell tower in Turkey.

ISTANBUL, December 15 (CDN) — In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group.

Three Muslims on Dec. 4 entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Rev. Yusuf Akbulut. They told him that unless the bell tower was destroyed in one week, they would kill him.

“If Switzerland is demolishing our minarets, we will demolish your bell towers too,” one of the men told Akbulut. Continue Reading →

Turkey prepares to join EU in a building confiscated from the Christians

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ASIANEWS by way of TROP

by NAT da Polis
The new headquarters of the Secretariat for entry into the European Union is an old school of the minority Orthodox in Ortakoy, seized in ’90. Embarrassment of Erdogan government and Europe.

Istanbul (AsiaNews) – Unbelievable but true: the headquarters of the Secretariat for the entry of Turkey into the European Union is a building confiscated from the Orthodox Christian community in the 90s. The building is located in Istanbul, in the well-known area of Ortakoy, under the first bridge over the Bosphorus.

TURKEY_ortakoy

Before the seizure, the building was used as a primary school for children of the minority Orthodox in Ortakoy. Here, once lived a thriving Orthodox community, now non-existent because of past purges against minorities, executed by the “secular” Turkish State.

Thanks to the policy of purging, the building and many other schools, at one point found themselves without students, unused and then confiscated. The forfeiture rule however prevented foundations – owners of buildings – from allocating them to different uses. The community of Ortakoy appealed to the administrative courts in Istanbul, which have yet to rule on the issue. In case of a ruling to the contrary, the Orthodox intend to apply to the court in Strasbourg. The inauguration of the Secretariat took place in the presence of Prime Minister Erdogan, accompanied by Minister for European Affairs Bajis and by various authorities and European representation.

The event has aroused unease in diplomatic circles in Brussels, so much so that on the eve of the inauguration, a senior government official visited Patriarch Bartholomew I to let them know that the courts decision will be respected. The question also arises whether the current Turkish government aware of the building’s history.

Meanwhile in Brussels some discomfort is spreading towards politicians who are champions of Turkey’s entry into the EU. Ankara has not yet shown a convincing European orientation, it is believed that the “champions” are tied to the country by economic and financial interests.

One suggestion for resolving the issue comes from Lakis Vigas, representative of minorities in Turkey in the General Directorate of Foundations. Interviewed by the newspaper Milliyet on the case of Ortakoy, he says a possible solution would be if the Ortakoy foundation were granted the possibility to lease the building to the Turkish nation. This gesture would have a noble purpose: the entry of Turkey into the EU the “source of our hopes.”

Turkey cries fowl on Swiss ban while Churches denied permits

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From The Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey

Turkish Parliament speaker speaks out against Swiss ban

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News

Turkish Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin says he opposes the minaret ban passed in Switzerland on Sunday, adding that basic freedoms cannot be put to a vote.

Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali Sahin voiced his opposition to the Swiss ban on minarets on Wednesday, saying that it was wrong to put a basic freedom to a vote.

His remarks came during a meeting with his Finnish counterpart, Sauli Niinistö, in Parliament.

“In fact, it should have been expressed more loudly before the referendum that such a basic right cannot be the focus of a referendum. What were we going to discuss if the ‘yes’ vote emerged from the referendum instead of ‘no’ vote?” Sahin said. “Were we going to say, ‘Such a basic right cannot be the focus of a referendum’? I believe it is necessary to pursue a consistent policy toward this issue.”

The referendum put forth by the nationalist Swiss People’s Party labeled minarets as symbols of rising Muslim political power that could one day transform Switzerland into an Islamic nation. The initiative was approved 57.5 percent to 42.5 percent on Sunday.

“As far as I can see, Swiss government officials are also uneasy. The [Swiss] justice minister pointed to the European Court of Human Rights,” said ?ahin, hoping the situation, which worries Muslims living in Switzerland, would be corrected in the future.

The Finnish parliament speaker said this was not a usual issue for Finland, which believes that human rights and the freedom of expression should be respected. Such an issue cannot be submitted to a vote in Finland, he said.

In an interview with private broadcaster NTV, Swiss Ambassador to Turkey Raimund Kunz said the referendum result was a decision made by the Swiss people, not by the state. He made clear that the Swiss government was against the initiative and called on voters to say “no” in the referendum.

“This is not a vote against Islam and Muslims,” he was quoted as saying. “This is not a vote against their religion and praying. There are mosques in Switzerland. Muslims will be able to perform what their religion requires. This will not change in the future.”

The ambassador said the reactions would not cause the Swiss government to change its foreign policy, making clear that their policy of dialogue with Muslim countries would continue.

“I understand Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s reactions,” he said. “I hope we’ll continue our dialogue with Turkey.”

On Tuesday, Erdogan spoke out against the ban, calling it a reflection of increasing racist and extreme nationalist waves in Europe.

Meanwhile, as the Turkish Prime Minister likens the ban to European intolerance and extreme nationalism…………

Churches Impossible to Build or Restore in Turkey