I've lost track, readers.
"At UN, Turkey takes Israel to task; Blames ex-ally for fueling strife in Middle East" September 23, 2011|By Neil Macfarquhar, New York Times
UNITED NATIONS - Evidently heedless of US attempts to engineer a thaw in Turkish-Israeli relations, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey used his appearance before the annual General Assembly yesterday to enumerate a long list of grievances with Israel, a former regional ally.
Erdogan was the second major Middle Eastern leader addressing the General Assembly, with the widespread focus on the region’s most intractable problem, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, due to culminate today with speeches by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority....
See: Palestinians Put U.S. on Spot
Erdogan, describing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a “bleeding wound’’ that the international community can no longer accept, blamed Israel for thwarting all attempts to solve the problem. From nuclear weapons to control of the occupied territory to humanitarian aid, Erdogan said Israel contradicted the wishes and norms of the rest of the world.
That last part is true given the number of UN resolutions they have violated.
“If you want to send a box of tomatoes to Palestine, this is subject to approval from Israel and I don’t think that is humanitarian,’’ said Erdogan, suggesting that the new spirit of change in the Middle East meant Israel can no longer continue to foster strife....
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I'm starting to think this whole tiff with Israel is theater.
"Turkey imposes arms embargo against Syria; Says it will stop ships and planes" September 24, 2011|By Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey slapped an arms embargo against Syria yesterday....
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this week that Turkey was coordinating its efforts with the United States....
And they are interdicting planes from Iran.
Meanwhile, a young woman has been found beheaded and mutilated, apparently by Syrian security agents, underscoring what witnesses and the UN human rights office said yesterday was a fearsome new tactic of retaliating against protesters’ families to snuff out the 6-month-old uprising against the regime of Assad.
The slain 18-year-old, Zainab al-Hosni, is believed to be the first woman to die in Syrian custody since the uprising began in mid-March.
FLASH-FORWARD:
What do you mean you were duped?
"Syrian raises doubts about killing" October 06, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - A woman appeared on Syrian state television yesterday saying that she is the young Syrian who was widely reported to have been beheaded and mutilated by security agents while in custody last month. The station said the interview was intended to discredit foreign “media fabrications.’’
Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, and Syrian activists reported last month that 18-year-old Zainab al-Hosni was found dead and mutilated after she was detained in her hometown of Homs. The young woman quickly became a symbol of the 6-month-old uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad, with protesters hailing her as the “flower of Syria.’’
I am tired of war propaganda and demonization of official enemies from a mass-murdering, war-criminal accomplice of a media.
Last month, Amnesty said the mutilated teenager had reportedly been detained by security agents to pressure her activist brother to turn himself in. Activists said she was the first woman to die in custody since the uprising began in March and it reinforced what witnesses and the UN human rights office said was a fearsome new tactic of retaliating against protesters’ families.
You can just smell the stink, can't you?
But in the state television interview, a black-clad young woman who identified herself as Zainab al-Hosni said she had run away from her family home in late July because her brothers abused her. She said her family did not know that she was alive and she asked her mother for forgiveness.
“I am very much alive and I have opted to tell the truth because I am planning to get married in the future and have kids who I want to be registered,’’ she said.
There is a hint in there for AmeriKa's media.
She said she decided to speak out after hearing on TV that she had been arrested and beheaded. Her appearance was similar to the woman whose photos were carried by protesters in Homs, but her identity could not be independently verified, as all media are severely restricted from reporting on events in Syria.
Amnesty International issued a statement after the interview saying it raised questions about the information the group received that led to its initial report on the death.
The rights group said its initial statement on the death was “based on information provided by sources close to the incident itself, who passed Amnesty International video footage of a dismembered body.’’ It was not immediately clear who those sources were.
I think I know.
The statement went on to say: “If the body was not that of Zainab al-Hosni, then clearly the Syrian authorities need to disclose whose it was, the cause and circumstances of the death, and why Zainab al-Hosni’s family were informed that she was the victim.’’
The episode, and Amnesty’s statement raised the prospect that the story may have been a hoax planted by Syrian authorities, possibly in an effort to embarrass the media and human rights group who have been reporting critically on the government’s brutal crackdown on protesters that has killed nearly 3,000 people in six months.
First of all, the media doesn't need any help embarrassing itself. And this laughable notion that it was a Syrian hoax is a scream!
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Now back to the regularly-scheduled propaganda:
Amnesty International said yesterday that she had reportedly been detained by security agents to pressure her activist brother to turn himself in.
The violence serves as a grim reminder of how the Assad family has kept an iron grip on power in Syria for more than 40 years by brutally crushing every sign of dissent.
Cui bono from the lies?
The idea that the regime has eyes and ears everywhere resonates in a nation of 22 million where decades of autocratic rule have nurtured a culture of deep fear and paranoia.
Syria sounds like AmeriKa.
Witnesses and activists say retaliation against families of those involved in the uprising has ranged from threatening phone calls to beatings and even killings, as in the case of Hosni.
The UN human rights office said yesterday that the harassment was even extending beyond Syria’s borders....
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And Turkey is right in the thick of it:
"Turkey harbors small group of Syrian rebels; Insurgents use camp to plan military action" October 28, 2011|By Liam Stack, New York Times
ANTAKYA, Turkey - Once one of Syria’s closest allies, Turkey is hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency against the government of President Bashar Assad, providing shelter to the commander and dozens of members of the group, the Free Syrian Army, and allowing them to orchestrate attacks across the border from inside a camp guarded by the Turkish military.
The support for the insurgents comes amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Assad’s government. Turkey is expected to impose sanctions soon on Syria, and it has deepened its support for an umbrella political opposition group known as the Syrian National Council, which announced its formation in Istanbul. But its harboring of leaders in the Free Syrian Army, a militia composed of defectors from the Syrian armed forces, may be its most striking challenge so far to Damascus.
On Wednesday, the group, living in a heavily guarded refugee camp in Turkey, claimed responsibility for killing nine Syrian soldiers in an attack in restive central Syria.
Turkish officials describe their relationship with the group’s commander, Colonel Riad al-As’aad, and the 60 to 70 members living in the “officer’s camp’’ as purely humanitarian. Turkey’s primary concern, the officials said, is for the safety of defectors. When asked specifically about allowing the group to organize military operations while under Turkey’s protection, a Foreign Ministry official said that their only concern was humanitarian protection and that they could not stop them from expressing their views.
“At the time all of these people escaped from Syria, we did not know who was who, it was not written on their heads ‘I am a soldier’ or ‘I am an opposition member,’ ’’ said a Foreign Ministry spokesman, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in keeping with protocol. “We are providing these people with temporary residence on humanitarian grounds, and that will continue.’’
At the moment, the group is too small to pose any real challenge to Assad’s government. But its Turkish support underlines how combustible, and resilient, Syria’s uprising has proven. The country sits at the intersection of influences in the region - with Iran, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Israel - and Turkey’s involvement will be closely watched by Syria’s friends and foes....
As’aad arrived protected by a contingent of 10 heavily armed Turkish soldiers. Turkey once viewed its ties with Syria as its greatest foreign policy accomplishment, but relations have collapsed over the eight months of protests there and a brutal crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 3,000.
Turkey has obviously tossed its lot in with NATO.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was offended by President Assad’s repeated failure to abide by his assurances that he would undertake sweeping reform. Turkish officials predict that the Assad government may collapse in the next two years.
“This pushes Turkish policy further toward active intervention in Syria,’’ said Hugh Pope, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.
As’aad, the rebel colonel, would not specify the number of fighters, saying only that it is more than 10,000. Turkish officials say that their government has not provided weapons or military support to the insurgents, nor has the group directly requested such assistance.
Uh-huh.
Still....
Right.
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Was Turkey just lecturing Syria about violence against its own people?
"Kurdish militants strike in Turkey, killing 24 soldiers" October 20, 2011|By Sebnem Arsu, New York Times
ISTANBUL - Kurdish militants killed at least 24 Turkish soldiers in an attack near the Iraqi border yesterday, one of the deadliest strikes in years, and Turkey’s military responded by sending hundreds of troops into northern Iraq in a counterattack on Kurdish insurgent hideouts.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish forces were pursuing the attackers, making it clear that his military was crossing the Iraqi border, which the Turks have done numerous times in their protracted effort to crush a resilient Kurdish insurgency movement....
President Obama condemned the Kurdish attack in a statement issued by the White House.
“The United States will continue our strong cooperation with the Turkish government as it works to defeat the terrorist threat from the PKK and to bring peace, stability, and prosperity to all the people of southeast Turkey,’’ Obama said....
Related: [Is] the Mossad Really Behind the Resurgence of Kurdish Terrorism in Turkey?
It's an open secret that US and Israeli intelligence agencies work with Kurd allies in the region.
“In today’s Turkey, when there is a better democracy to respond the Kurdish needs, the PKK terror is no different than Osama bin Laden’s terror, manipulating Islam in the way it manipulates Kurdish ethnicity,’’ said Ihsan Bal, a security expert at the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization.
The Kurdish militant group has escalated attacks in recent months in rural and urban areas....
USrael sending the Turks a message via the Kurds to toe the line?
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"Turkish army says 10,000 troops pursuing Kurdish rebels" October 21, 2011|By Sebnem Arsu, New York Times
ISTANBUL - Turkey’s offensive against Kurdish militants this week is one of its largest military operation in years, with 10,000 troops backed by warplanes pursuing rebels in southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq, the army said yesterday....
The Iraqi government and the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq have expressed concerns about Turkish crossborder military incursions in the past, but both of them condemned the attacks by the PKK in strong terms and offered to help prevent the group from operating in northern Iraq, according to Turkish news outlets.
Turkey has demanded that the Iraqi Kurds support their efforts to eliminate militant bases around the Qandil Mountains, a rugged section of northern Iraq.
Nechirvan Barzani, a senior Iraqi Kurdish official, arrived in Turkey’s capital, Ankara, yesterday to discuss the situation with the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. Erdogan said he also invited Mesud Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq, to join talks on a plan for tackling the militants.
The prime minister said on Turkish television that the PKK’s violence was “not only aimed at Turkey but at the brotherhood between Turks and Kurds.’’
**********************
Funeral services for the soldiers killed in the attacks drew large crowds yesterday, and demonstrations shown on Turkish television showed thousands of people denouncing the PKK, which is classified by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union as a terrorist organization.
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"Turkish commandos in civilian clothes slipped onto a hijacked passenger ferry and posed as hostages before fatally shooting a suspected Kurdish rebel carrying explosives in a 12-hour drama that ended before dawn yesterday. There were no other casualties aboard the Kartepe, that was hijacked on Friday after it left the northwestern port city of Izmit.
Suspected rebel?
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"7.2 quake in Turkey kills 138, collapses buildings" October 23, 2011|Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
Cries of panic and horror filled the air as a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Turkey, killing at least 138 people as buildings pancaked and crumpled into rubble. The death toll was expected to rise as rescuers sifted through the rubble and reached outlying villages.
Tens of thousands fled into the streets running, screaming or trying to reach relatives on cell phones as apartment and office buildings cracked or collapsed. As the full extent of the damage became clear, survivors dug in with shovels or even their bare hands, desperately trying to rescue the trapped and the injured....
U.S. scientists recorded over 100 aftershocks in eastern Turkey within 10 hours of the quake, including one with a magnitude of 6.0. Authorities advised people to stay away from damaged homes, warning they could collapse in the aftershocks....
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"Turks grieve as quake rescue efforts continue; Death toll rises to 279 as teams work into night" by Selcan Hacaoglu | Associated Press, October 25, 2011
ERCIS, Turkey - Distraught Turkish families mourned outside a mosque or sought to identify loved ones among rows of bodies yesterday as rescue workers scoured debris for survivors after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake that killed at least 279 people.
Rescue teams with generator-powered floodlights worked into the night in the worst-hit city of Ercis, where running water and electricity were cut by the quake that rocked eastern Turkey on Sunday.
Unnerved by more than 200 aftershocks, many residents slept outside their homes, making campfires to ward off the cold, as aid organizations rushed to erect tents for the homeless.
Cranes and other heavy equipment lifted slabs of concrete, allowing residents to dig for the missing with shovels....
Still, there were some joyful moments....
I find nothing joyful about any of this.
Turkey lies in one of the world’s most active seismic zones and is crossed by numerous fault lines.
In 1999, two earthquakes with a magnitude of more than 7 struck northwestern Turkey, killing about 18,000 people. More recently, a 6.0 magnitude quake in March 2010 killed 51 people in eastern Turkey, while in 2003, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in the southeastern city of Bingol.
Leaders around the world, including President Obama, have conveyed their condolences and offered assistance to Turkey, but Erdogan said the country was able to cope for now. Azerbaijan, Iran, and Bulgaria still sent aid, he said.
Among those offering help were Israel, Greece, and Armenia, who all have had issues in their relations with Turkey.
The offer from Israel came despite a rift in relations following a 2010 Israeli navy raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla that left nine Turks dead. Greece, which has a deep dispute with Turkey over the divided island of Cyprus, also offered to send a special earthquake rescue team.
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And what does my AmeriKan media advise?
"Turkey should take Israeli aid" October 25, 2011
SUNDAY’S EARTHQUAKE in eastern Turkey registered 7.2 on the Richter scale, demolishing hundreds of buildings and leaving thousands of people homeless. By yesterday, the toll of dead and injured had climbed above 1,500, and rescuers were urgently trying to rescue survivors trapped beneath huge chunks of concrete and steel.
In the face of such devastation, Turkey unwisely declined an offer of emergency assistance from Israel, its former strategic ally and a country with extensive experience in disaster relief and rescue operations. Israeli president Shimon Peres told his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul that “Israel is willing to provide any aid required anywhere in Turkey at any time.’’ According to Reuters, Gul replied that Turkey was still assessing the damage and hoped to be able to handle the crisis on its own.
Relations between Israel and Turkey, once the region’s closest military allies, have frayed in recent years. Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has warmed to Hamas and indulged in anti-Zionist rhetoric; matters went from bad to worse after nine Turks were killed by Israeli commandos during a raid on a flotilla attempting to break Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip. When Israel refused to apologize for the deaths, Turkey expelled the Israeli ambassador and partially suspended trade and defense ties.
The remarkable thing I saw in that paragraph was that the Globe editorial board endorses Zionism.
But there are many who would like to see the formerly warm Israeli-Turkish relationship restored - not least the United States. So-called “disaster diplomacy’’ can sometimes provide a way for estranged governments to begin to reconcile, and both Israel and Turkey have come to each other’s aid in the past. Israel dispatched extensive emergency and medical assistance after the 1999 Izmit earthquakes in northwestern Turkey, for example. Just last December, Turkish firefighters joined in battling the worst wildfire in Israel’s history, a four-day inferno that ravaged the Carmel Forest near Haifa.
If the desperate circumstances caused by natural disasters can bring out the best in individuals, they can do the same for governments. And if Israel’s offer of “any aid required anywhere’’ can save even a single Turkish life, it should be gratefully accepted.
Here's an idea for Israel: Send it to Gaza instead.
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Related: Erbakan criticizes Israel, accuses ErdoΔan of being part of Jewish conspiracy
Yeah, I thought the MSM trouble was all crap seeing as Turkey is serving Israel's interests in the region.
"Rescue of infant brings cheer to a grim landscape in Turkey" October 26, 2011|By Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
ERCIS, Turkey - After 48 hours, a miracle emerged from the rubble yesterday: a 2-week-old baby girl brought out half-naked but alive from the wreckage of an apartment building toppled by Turkey’s devastating earthquake.
Rescue workers erupted in cheers and applause at the sight of the infant - and again hours later when her mother and grandmother were pulled out, their survival a ray of joy on an otherwise grim day.
The death toll from Sunday’s 7.2-magnitude quake climbed to at least 459 as desperate survivors fought over aid and blocked aid shipments. A powerful aftershock ignited widespread panic that turned into a prison riot in a nearby provincial city.
With thousands of quake survivors facing a third night out in the open in near-freezing temperatures, Turkey set aside its national pride and said it would accept international aid offers, even from Israel, with which it has had strained relations....
Close to 500 aftershocks have rattled the area, according to Turkey’s Kandilli seismology center....
Turkey decided to accept offers of assistance after its emergency management authorities decided that thousands of survivors would need prefabricated homes to get through the winter in the mountainous region, said a Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with ministry rules.
Israel offered assistance despite a rift between the two countries over last year’s Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla that killed nine Turkish activists....
Is it just me, or is that backward?
Makes the Israelis sound like the aggrieved party, doesn't it?
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"Man loses mother, wife, and four children in earthquake; Death toll is 461 in Turkey; shoddy construction cited" October 27, 2011|By Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
ERCIS, Turkey - Murat Sonmez’s mother, wife, and four daughters were crushed to death in their home during Turkey’s 7.2-magnitude earthquake, leaving him so distraught he found it difficult to speak.
While news media coverage has centered on tales of against-the-odds rescues, including pulling a 2-week-old girl from the rubble alive, most stories of the trapped have ended in the way that Sonmez knows, with death and unfathomable pain for those left behind....
I'll give the newspaper credit; they do a good job on disaster coverage.
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Also see: Turkish man found alive after 4 days
Boy, 13, rescued in Turkey
And then they get another one?
"3 killed in quake in Turkey; Rescuers repeat frantic search for survivors" November 10, 2011|By Suzan Fraser, Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey - An earthquake struck eastern Turkey last night, killing at least three people and leaving dozens trapped in the rubble of toppled buildings damaged in a previous temblor that had killed 600 people.
About two dozen buildings collapsed in the provincial capital of Van following a 5.7-magnitude quake, though most of them were empty or had been declared unfit because they were weakened by the earlier quake, according to media reports.
In a grim replay of scenes from last month’s quake in the same region, men climbed onto piles of debris and clawed at twisted steel and crumbled concrete looking for survivors.
Voices could be heard calling for help from under the debris, according to Turkish media.
Rescue workers used the glare of high-powered lights to work through the night. There were several aftershocks....
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was in Van to visit survivors of the previous quake on the last day of the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, or Feast of the Sacrifice....
About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the massive earthquake on Oct. 23.
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"Japanese aid worker among dead in latest Turkey quake; 11 others killed; residents protest lack of inspection" November 11, 2011|By Bertan Ayduk and Mehmet Guzel, Associated Press
VAN, Turkey - Dozens of angry residents protested amid the rubble of the downtown hotel where 41-year-old Japanese aid worker Atsushi Miyazaki and others died, saying that authorities should have closed it and another now-leveled hotel because they had been damaged in the first temblor.
Riot police used pepper spray to halt the protests.
The demonstration erupted as rescue workers with axes and earthmovers searched for survivors of 5.7 magnitude quake Wednesday night, which hit the same region slammed by a 7.2 magnitude temblor Oct. 23 that left 600 people dead in the eastern province of Van....
The Japanese aid group that employed Miyazaki said his interest in global politics had led him to pursue a degree in conflict resolution studies in Britain. Before joining the group, he worked for a nongovernmental organization that provides humanitarian aid in the Philippines.
Miyazaki had helped distribute meat to quake survivors in Van province during Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of Sacrifice, the daily Vatan newspaper said.
The Japanese workers had told locals that they were thankful for the Turkish support during the quake and tsunami disasters in Japan earlier this year, the paper said.
The Bayram Hotel survived the Oct. 23 quake with some cracks and a damaged elevator. But it toppled in the new quake, trapping an undetermined number of people under tons of concrete and twisted metal.
The Aslan Hotel in Van also collapsed.
“How is it that these two buildings were not sealed off and were allowed to continue operating?’’ asked Osman Baydemir, a mayor for the southeastern city of Diyarbakir and a member of a pro-Kurdish opposition party. “The government must bring those responsible to account.’’
Residents accused local authorities of not properly inspecting damaged buildings and called for the resignation of Governor Munir Karaloglu, who arrived to tour the damage. Deputy prime minister Besir Atalay tried to talk to the protesters, but he angrily walked away as they booed the officials.
Riot police then charged the crowd with batons, and some people fell in the melee. Police used pepper spray to disperse the protesters, but the gas also affected nearby rescue and health workers, the Hurriyet newspaper said.
Atalay said no one knows yet whether officials had made a mistake by allowing the hotel to operate after the first quake and urged patience until a full assessment is done....
Tough safety codes were approved a decade ago after earthquakes in western Turkey killed 18,000 people and prompted an outcry over the poor quality of construction, but enforcement has remained lax. After last month’s quake, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the negligence of municipalities, builders, and supervisors over building codes amounted to murder....
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Related: Turkish quake death toll rises to 25
Like a soap opera, Turkish suffering makes me sad; however, I'm reading about real life.
