New Islamist Members Of European Fatwa Council Show Growing influence Of Turkish Muslim Brotherhood in EU.

New Islamist Turkish Members Of European Fatwa Council Show Growing influence Of Global Muslim Brotherhood in EU. (globalmbwatch).

Dutch journalist Carel Brendel has published an article analyzing some of the recent membership changes at the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). According to his report, two of the newly appointed Turkish members representing a strengthening of the alliance between the Global Muslim Brotherhood and the Turkish regime of Recep Tayyip Erdogan:

Ekrem Keles is a senior member of Diyanet, the Turkish Presidency of Religious Affairs that supervises mosques and abroad. According to Turkish media, he is chairman of the Supreme Council for Religious Affairs. The English site of the pro-Erdogan Tukse Daily newspaper Sabah said Keles is “deputy head” of Diyanet.

It appears from the list on the ECFR website Keles is now an official member of the European Council for Fatwa and Research (ECFR). In a 2010 list of ECFR members, there was no Turkish membership. The appointment of Keles means two things- the collaboration between the Erdogan regime and the Muslim Brotherhood has again become a little more intense. And more importantly, the long arm of Ankara interferes with the affairs of all Muslims in Europe.

In 2010 Mustafa Mullaoglu was already on the list, but as a German representative. He has a Turkish background. The German TV channel SWR called him in 2007, “a top official responsible for religious issues of Milli Gorus,” the Turkish version of the Muslim Brotherhood. At a meeting in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, Mullaoglu praised the Ottoman Empire as the ideal form of government.


Meanwhile Mullaoglu moved to Austria where he is a Mufti for the the national umbrella Islamic group, the Islamische Glaubensgemeinschaft in Österreich (IGGIÖ). Earlier this year Mollaoglu received criticism because he ruled that the wearing of  the headscarf hHijab) for women is a religious commandment. 

Austrian State Minister Muna Duzdar called this position “an attack on freedom and the empowerment of women”. The IGGiÖ was often accused in the past of ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, but always put off the accusation as “conspiracy theories” . Yet critics always place the IGGÏO “in the atmosphere of the Muslim Brotherhood.” Curiously, the Austrian media have very little written about the IGGiÖ  mufti as a member of Qaradawi’s fatwa council. Read the full story here.

For more in depth info on the Global Muslim brotherhood working follow GlobalMBwatch.

Turkey - Statistical analysis on the 2017 referendum finds vote 'distortions' were large enough to reverse the result.

Turkey - Statistical analysis on the 2017 referendum finds vote 'distortions' were large enough to reverse the result.(arxiv.org).

With a majority of 'Yes' votes in the Constitutional Referendum of 2017, Turkey continues its transition from democracy to autocracy. 

By the will of the Turkish people, this referendum transferred practically all executive power to president Erdogan. 

However, the referendum was confronted with a substantial number of allegations of electoral misconducts and irregularities, ranging from state coercion of 'No' supporters to the controversial validity of unstamped ballots. 

In this note we report the results of an election forensic analysis of the 2017 referendum to clarify to what extent these voting irregularities were present and if they were able to influence the outcome of the referendum. 

We specifically apply novel statistical forensics tests to further identify the specific nature of electoral malpractices. In particular, we test whether the data contains fingerprints for ballot-stuffing (submission of multiple ballots per person during the vote) and voter rigging (coercion and intimidation of voters). 

Additionally, we perform tests to identify numerical anomalies in the election results. 

We find systematic and highly significant support for the presence of both, ballot-stuffing and voter rigging. 

In 6% of stations we find signs for ballot-stuffing with an error (probability of ballot-stuffing not happening) of 0.15% (3 sigma event). The influence of these vote distortions were large enough to tip the overall balance from 'No' to a majority of 'Yes' votes.

Video - Indonesian 'Jihadi brides' who lived in ISIS capital of Raqqa confess how life was.

Shocking!

Indonesian 'Jihadi brides' who lived in ISIS capital of Raqqa via Turkey confess what life was like in the Jihadi stronghold. pic.twitter.com/xUXmEpVu6j

— Ari Murad (@AriMurad_) June 15, 2017

Jihadists Who Decapitated Priests In Syria Got Help From Turkey’s Intelligence Organization.

Jihadists who decapitated priests in Syria got help from Turkey’s intelligence. (Stockholmcf.org).
By Abdullah Bozkurt.

Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) had willingly and deliberately helped known Jihadists of Russian nationals who decapitated Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji and Syriac Orthodox Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim in 2013.

They were caught in Turkey after a video emerged in June 2013 but they received lesser sentences on charges other than a murder of these priests when the Turkish intelligence and the Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ intervened into the case. These bloody Jihadists are set to be free next month in Turkey.

Their name are Magomed Abdurakhmanov (AKA Abu Banat who was born on Nov.24, 1974 in Dagestan, a federal republic of Russia in the Northern Caucasus) and Ahmad Ramazanov (born on March 12, 1986 in Grozny, the capital city of the Chechen Republic, Russia).

They are believed to be part of Jihadist group that decapitated prominent priests after their abduction in Syria. Abdurakhmanov personally beheaded one and helped decapitate the other based on seized murder weapon, forensic examination, his own testimony that corroborated by his accomplice. The shocking part is that these murderer were recruited by the MİT, provided with arms and logistical support while fighting against Bashar al-Assad regime.

On June 28, 2013, the murder footages of Aleppo’s Greek Orthodox Bishop Boulos Yaziji (also listed as Yazigi or Yazıcı), the Syriac Orthodox diocese of Aleppo Bishop Yohanna Ibrahim, and a third priest were emerged in Turkish media. Yaziji went into Syria on April 22, 2013 to meet Bishop Yohanna and they were kidnapped by unknown gunmen in the village of Kafr Dael, about 10 km from Aleppo.

It turned out the priests were kept prisoners by a Jihadist group called Katibat al-Muhajireen (Jaysh al-Muhajireen wa’l-Ansar), designated as terrorist group by the US and Canada. When the horrible pictures of decapitation emerged in June 2013, Konya police units identified Abdurakhmanov as the man who appeared in the picture. Read the full story here.

Is Erdogan’s War on Syrian Kurds Becoming a War on the United States?

Is Erdogan’s War on Syrian Kurds Becoming a War on the United States? (TheNation).

President Erdogan seems to believe he can bully Trump into abandoning his allies in the fight against ISIS.

The Trump administration was unusually subdued this week after the Turkish air force launched a bombing campaign against facilities of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria.

The State Department said it “asked” Turkey to stop killing US allies in the fight against ISIL (ISIS, or the Islamic State). The Pentagon complained that Turkey not only hit its allies but failed to coordinate with the US Air Force, which is flying in the area. In essence, Turkey acted as a hostile power against the US war effort. In the aftermath, a fierce firefight has broken out at the Syrian-Turkish border between YPG forces and Turkish army units operating in northern Syria.

Washington has been deeply frustrated by Turkey’s unwillingness to devote significant resources to rolling up ISIL. Erdogan’s priority has been attempting to destroy the PKK, and attacking what he sees as its Syrian Kurdish allies. Ankara fears that for the sake of defeating al-Baghdadi in Raqqa, the United States is helping to create an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan, which in turn may act as a model for Turkish Kurds, some 20 percent of the population of Turkey. In fact, separatist sentiments are not very widespread among Turkish Kurds, though economic discontent over government neglect of the hardscrabble southeast is. Erdogan has displaced some 350,000 Kurds with his current campaign, however, and is polarizing his country on several fronts at once.

The United States cannot hope to retain credibility as a battlefield ally of YPG fighters risking all to take on ISIL if it cannot even protect them from a NATO member like Turkey. Erdogan appears to believe that he can bully Trump into abandoning the Syrian Kurds as allies. It remains to be seen if he has calculated correctly. Read the full story here.

Video - 18,000 Syrian Children Victim Of Organ Harvesting via 'hellhole' Turkey.

More on child organ traffic here.

Video - 18,000 #Syrian Children Victim Of #OrganHarvesting via 'hellhole' #Turkey. https://t.co/mIvDGGazeD pic.twitter.com/qyLDTNQwhO

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) April 22, 2017

The number of jailed journalists in Turkey has reached to 235, more than combined numbers for the rest of the world.

The number of jailed journalists in Turkey has reached to 235, more than combined numbers for the rest of the world. (Stockholmcf).

'All Islamist roads lead to Turkey'! St. Petersburg Metro Blast Suspect Received Money From Terrorist Group in Turkey.

'All Islamist roads lead to Turkey'! St. Petersburg Metro Blast Suspect Received Money From Terrorist Group in Turkey. (SP).

The man suspected of detonating a bomb on the St. Petersburg metro earlier this month had received money from an "international terrorist group" in Turkey, Russian investigators said on Thursday. Judge on the case ruled that the suspect received money from a terrorist group participant in Turkey for the preparation of the terrorist act.

During the hearing, Akram Azimov, the elder brother of suspected organizer of the terrorist act in the St. Petersburg metro Abror Azimov, denied any involvement in the subway blast, a Sputnik correspondent reported from Moscow's Basmanny Court on Thursday.

An investigator in the court said Thursday that Akram testified against his brother Abror.

"During the questioning as a suspect, Azimov said that he and his brother performed actions that contributed to the explosion," the investigator said.

Despite the suspect's plea, Moscow's Basmanny Court authorized the arrest of Akram Azimov.

The Russian Investigative Committee subsequently said that Akram Azimov called by phone suicide bomber Akbarzhon Jalilov and transferred him money received in Turkey from a member of an international terrorist group.

"The investigation provided information that Azimov contacted Jalilov and transferred money to him.

He received this money for preparation of the terrorist act in Turkey from an active member of an international terrorist organization. Azimov also was engaged in forging documents so that members of this organization could freely move across Russia," Judge Elena Lenskaya's ruling on Azimov's arrest said. Hmmm....Anyone keeping track how many times Islamic terrorist actions lead to Turkey? Read the full story here.

Turkey's Referendum 'The day after': Abundant signs of manipulation.

Turkey's Referendum 'The day after': Abundant signs of manipulation. (Freedomhouse).

Turkey’s Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) announced last night that the “Yes” vote had won, but by a slim margin: 51.4 percent to 48.6 percent amid high turnout. The ideologically diverse opposition—the secular-nationalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), the left-wing and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and a dissident faction of the religious-nationalist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) represented by Meral Akşener—all cried fraud.

During the day, videos circulating on social media showed scattered violations across the country. Monitors were denied access to polling stations; two men entered one booth and put multiple ballots into the same box; poll workers were seen stamping multiple ballots “Yes.”

Most shockingly, as the polls were about to close, the YSK announced that it would accept votes that had not received the official seal of the local polling station—in other words, the stamp that proves the ballot came from the polling station, and not from somewhere else. The YSK explained the decision by claiming that a number of stations had used the wrong stamp by accident, but it also noted that the decision was based on complaints from the AKP, and was taken “so that the will of the voter could be heard.”

The opposition claims that several million such votes were accepted, enough to swing the outcome. There is no way to know: The YSK admits that it is not sure how many were accepted, and the ballots may have been stamped during the counting anyway, rendering them indistinguishable from properly validated votes.

The preliminary conclusions of the international observation mission of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) were harsh. 

Even with its characteristic understatement, the mission could not avoid describing the extent of the damage to Turkey’s electoral system. The report observed that the campaign took place on an unlevel playing field, in an atmosphere where fundamental freedoms had been curtailed. 

Most strikingly for Turkey, whose reputation as a democracy has increasingly rested on the narrow credential of fairly counted votes, the mission expressed sharp concerns about the administration of the referendum. 

The YSK’s decisions were nontransparent, and many were not even published; the mission said that the last-minute decision to allow unstamped ballots to be counted as valid removed an important safeguard against fraud and contradicted Turkish law. OSCE/ODIHR statements do not get much stronger. 

Erdoğan today said that the next referendum could be to reintroduce the death penalty, and cast Sunday’s vote as a rebuke of the West. 

With his domestic legitimacy weakened, he will lean more and more on the notion that Turkey is under threat from external enemies, as he did throughout the last month of the campaign. Since 2013, Turkey has been living through a series of deepening crises that are largely of Erdoğan’s making. 

The unfortunate outcome of this flawed referendum is that the current crisis will now grow even more profound.Read the full story here.

Erdogan’s AKP Party’s main mouthpiece: "Erdogan is now ‘the Caliph’ who needed to be trusted and obeyed.

Erdogan’s AKP Party’s main mouthpiece: "Erdogan is now ‘the Caliph’ who needed to be trusted and obeyed.' (Shoebat).

With the expected victory, Yeni Safak’s journalist, Ergün Yıldırım, on Resurrection Sunday began publishing to push the cult of Erdogan, proclaiming him as part and parcel of God Himself, saying that Erdogan is now ‘the Holy Spirit’ and ‘Caliph’ who needed to be trusted and obeyed while the Ottoman Turkey ‘resurrects’ from the dead. Yeni Safak is not some lunatic blogger, it is Erdogan’s AKP Party’s main mouthpiece.

In the article, Yıldırım began to redefine a new era for Islam under the newly resurrected ‘Caliphate’ dividing the societal structure in what he termed as “the subject” (the Caliph) who is “God the Holy Spirit” and literally calling him “our Lord” while “the slave” becomes the rest of the people needed to simply trust and obey their god and savior:

'God addresses nations the same way that he addresses individuals in our Holy Book. He regards them as the subject, for example, he says, "the societies that think," and "the society that changes itself." The subject is the fate/destiny of the person, thus when a society is the subject, it too has a destiny. The person that is the subject is the khaliph. He is a piece of God's spirit, he uses his will. He chooses good or evil.'

Turkey has been sentenced to act according to the will of other societies for the past 200 years. They have been tamed with authority, parties, fears and powers.

“ Now We are waking up to our own fate. We are breaking free from our [western] chains. We are waking up [from the dead] to existence. We are waking up in general. In the darkest of times we hear our poet Akif saying, ‘Wake up Muslim society.’ We are rising. We are being reborn. Every birth is a scream and we are screaming too. This is our final scream. It is the scream of birth and existence.

Today the nation will scream for the last time. It is the day that society will once again exist with its own fate. It is the day that we will leave the TIH Desert for the last time. It is the day we are honored with being a nation again. It is the last time we say “yes” to our Lord [Erdogan] calling out, “Aren’t I your Lord [God]?” Hmmmm.....And the 48.5 % who did not vote for Erdogan? Will they be 'disposed' of? Read the full story here.

Turkey - 'Islamist' Pres Erdogan is preparing to pray in the Hagia Sophia on Good Friday.

Turkey - 'Islamist' Pres Erdogan is preparing to pray in the Hagia Sophia on Good Friday. (AN).

The Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to go to pray next Friday April 14 in Saint Sophia in Constantinople, the church declared a museum by the father of Republican Turkey Kemal Ataturk in 1934.

Erdogan will not be alone: ​​He will be accompanied by representatives of his party AKP (Muslim extraction) and religious leaders in Istanbul.

According to the Christian calendar next Friday is Good Friday and the event will take place just two days before the April 16 referendum strongly backed by Erdogan in Turkey to establish an absolutist Presidency of Neottoman and Islamic extraction.

Thus Erdogan, nicknamed the "new sultan" for his political extremism, will seek to channel Muslim faithful in favor of a Yes ( "Evet") vote. According to the Muslim calendar the month to April (Nisan) is the month of the birth of Mohammed.

The news is carried in pro-government newspapers, presenting the latest book by Turk historian Mustafa Armagan - titled "The Saint Sophia intrigue" (Aya Sofia Entrikalari).

In doing so they seek to create and prepare the climate for the prayer, as the will of the Turkish president. The book argues that the decree signed by Kemal Ataturk in 1934 which turned the Hagia Sophia from mosque into a museum, is not authentic.

According to Armagan, the Kemal Ataturk signature on the decree is false. Therefore the act has no legal value and therefore Santa Sofia can in fact be used as a mosque, as was the case after the Turkish conquest of Constantinople in 1453.

Hagia Sophia it was built in 537 by Emperor Justinian and dedicated to God's Wisdom. To justify his remarks, the Turkish historian reports that the Kemal Aturk  signature on the 1934 Decree is unlike any other signature penned by the Father of Republic in prori acts.

Various sources are cited in the book which claims, according to the author, that the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a museum, was the result of pressure from various Western international forces, headed by the then US Ambassador Joseph Grew.

Mustafa Armagan also notes the news that Kemal Ataturk had visited St. Sophia in 1935, three months after its proclamation as a museum, was not reported in any Turkish newspaper of the period, but only by the Greek language journal, Apogevmatini, published on February 7, 1935, in Istanbul. The author recalls, in that same period, the strong reaction of the Egyptian newspaper "El Risale ", strongly opposed to the transformation of Hagia Sophia into a museum.


In this way the pre-referendum climate is becoming increasingly tense and polarized. On the other hand, the climate has been fostered and created by Erdogan himself with his recent statements against the Kemalist period, when he proclaimed: "That period, which began in 1923, is about to end. And that's that". And that is, woe to the vanquished.  Hmmm.......Erdogan is pushing for a new 'Holy war' between Christianity and Islam.

Germany opens investigation into Turkish “Diyanet” accused of spying on Erdogan opponents in 35 countries.

Source quote here.

Germany opens investigation into Turkish “Diyanet” accused of spying on Erdogan opponents in 35 countries.(Independent).

Germany has opened an investigation into a Turkish religious organisation accused of spying on behalf of the government over an attempted coup against Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Prosecutors are reportedly probing Halife Keskin, who heads the foreign relations department of Turkey’s “Diyanet” state religious authority, over allegations imams were asked to gather information on supporters of an exiled cleric.

Investigators have a document appearing to show Keskin personally instructing Turkish missions around the world to spy on alleged members of Fethullah Gulen’s “Hizmet” movement, German media reported.

​Diyanet asked Turkish consulates in 35 countries including Australia, Nigeria, Mauritania and Mongolia to gather information about Gulen supporters, according to leaked documents.

German, Austrian and Swiss authorities have all launched investigations into whether Turkey is conducting illegal espionage on their soil.

Documents made public by an Austrian politician this week alleged that Turkish embassies on four continents had submitted reports on alleged Gulen supporters after receiving a request from Ankara in September.

“There is clearly a global network of informants,” Greens MP Peter Pilz said. 

“We cannot say exactly how long it took to build up this network. I assume that it happened in a matter of years.”

Countries routinely post intelligence officers in their embassies, and European authorities have not said in what ways the alleged Turkish activity went beyond acceptable levels of information-gathering by a foreign power.Read the full story here.

Turkish religious foundation head: Religion of ISIS is religion taught in our theology schools. ISIS are trying to put Islam into practice.

— Ankaralı Jan (@06JAnk) June 23, 2016

Video - Retired Army Lt. Gen.Flynn and Turkish Min, Son in law of Erdogan Discussed Kidnapping Turkish Cleric Gulen.

Video - Retired Army Lt. Gen.Flynn and Turkish Min, Son in law of Erdogan Discussed Kidnapping Turkish Cleric Gulen.

Retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn, while serving as an adviser to the Trump campaign, met with top Turkish government ministers and discussed removing a Muslim cleric from the U.S. and taking him to Turkey, according to former Central Intelligence Agency Director James Woolsey, who attended, and others who were briefed on the meeting.

The discussion late last summer involved ideas about how to get Fethullah Gulen, a cleric whom Turkey has accused of orchestrating last summer’s failed military coup, to Turkey without going through the U.S. extradition legal process, according to Mr. Woolsey and those who were briefed.

The Turkish ministers were interested in open-ended thinking on the subject, and the ideas were raised hypothetically, said the people who were briefed. The ministers in attendance included the son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the country’s foreign minister, foreign-lobbying disclosure documents show.

Mr. Woolsey said the idea was “a covert step in the dead of night to whisk this guy away.” The discussion, he said, didn’t include actual tactics for removing Mr. Gulen from his U.S. home. If specific plans had been discussed, Mr. Woolsey said, he would have spoken up and questioned their legality.

It isn’t known who raised the idea or what Mr. Flynn concluded about it.Hmmm......See tweets below.Read the full story here.

VP @mike_pence ‘reportedly' talked w Turkish PM Yıldırım on the phone about a week ago but a readout never issued by @WhiteHouse
How come?

— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) February 13, 2017

Ankara’s readout on Pence-Turkish PM B.Yıldırım mentions about ‘FETO’ i.e. Gulen extradition.
White House readout has no mention#Diplomacy pic.twitter.com/EAk6myPzZ1

— ilhan tanir (@WashingtonPoint) February 18, 2017

Istanbul governor’s interference in the election of the new Armenian Patriarch is a violation of the Treaty of Sevres.

Istanbul governor’s interference in the election of the new Armenian Patriarch is a violation of the Treaty of Sevres. (AN).

In a statement that evokes the obscurantist despotism of the Ottoman Empire, the Governor of Istanbul recently intervened in an issue under ecclesiastical jurisdiction, saying that it was "legally impossible" to elect the Armenian Patriarch, with serious implications for the process.

“Considering the unfavourable developments that took place during the meeting on February 16 at the patriarchate, it is determined that starting the election process is legally impossible given the facts that this process might cause disturbance and divisions in the society, that there is already an incumbent vicar and that your society knows the basic proceedings and practices concerning the patriarchal election,” said the governor in a statement signed by the deputy governor of the Turkish metropolis.

Such interference by Turkey’s secular state in the affairs of the Armenian Church is in complete violation of the Treaty of Sevres establishing peace between the Allied Powers and the Ottoman Empire signed in August 1920 after World War I. It is also nothing new. However, Turkey's meddling had had never been so direct nor reached such high levels in such a tactless and undiplomatic manner.

The Istanbul patriarchal seat has been vacant since the former office holder, Mesrob II Mutafyan, was declared to be "affected by Alzheimer" At the Synod in 2016 he was retired in accordance with the canon law of the Armenian Church because the disease "had lasted for over eight years".

The Turkish government welcomed the patriarch’s illness. The latter, who was trained in Germany, the United States and in Rome, was always seen him as a person of great charisma and honesty, someone incorruptible.

In 2016 Diyarbakir native Archbishop Aram Ateşyan was called to lead the Patriarchate as vicar general. Along with a 25-member ecclesiastical Council, he ran the religious affairs of the Armenian Church in Turkey ahead of the election of a new patriarch.

In less than a year, Archbishop Aram Ateşyan indicated time and again that he was not really interested in maintaining the independence of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul from the government. Instead, on several occasions he strongly aligned himself with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party – even on the issue of Armenophobia – sparking criticism and raising suspicions in the local Armenian community and Armenian language press as well as among the Armenian diaspora.

Agos, Turkey’s only Armenian language newspaper, citing local sources, reported that the statement by the Governor of Istanbul "was prepared before the meeting to elect the vicar". The paper’s founder, Hrant Dink, was brutally murdered in one of the most mysterious and murky cases in the country’s recent history that saw the investigation often hampered by those in power, amid alleged plots linking Turkey’s military secret services, police, politicians, Grey Wolves and ultra-nationalist groups.

On 15 March, the Clerical Assembly met to elect the değabah, the lieutenant, responsible once elected for the process of choosing the new patriarch.

Three candidates were up for the post, all Turkish nationals under Turkish law: the current vicar general of the Patriarchate, Archbishop Aram Ateşyan (pictured with his "friend" Erdogan), Bishop Sahag Mashalian, and a third candidate, the Armenian Apostolic primate of Germany, Archbishop Karekin Bekdjian. For unknown reasons, the second candidate pulled out at the last moment, leaving only the other two.

Various people present at the meeting spoke to AsiaNews noting that immediately after the vote count, following the announcement of Archbishop Bekdjian’s victory for the office of vicar, Archbishop Aram Ateşyan left the assembly.

A few moments later he came back with the statement of the Governor of Istanbul in his hands. After the accident, the two candidates withdrew to talk behind closed doors whilst many Clerical Assembly members spoke of a clash between local authorities and Archbishop Ateşyan.

It is widely believed that Archbishop Ateşyan had the statement all along, and that he would not have used it had he come first for the office of patriarch.

The clerical Assembly organised a group to meet the governor to show him how the election took place and defend the legitimacy of the process.


Under existing rules, adhered to by the patriarch, Archbishop Bekdjian (pictured) is the vicar general chosen ahead of the election for the new patriarch. By contrast, the Turkish government already sees Archbishop Ateşyan as the future Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul.

Related:

Istanbul Governor Claims Election of Armenian Patriarch Locum Tenens is Illegal

Video - Basel's annual Morgestraich Carnival in Switzerland targets Turkish 'Dictator' Erdogan.

Carnival in Switzerland targets President Erdoğan as anti-Turkey sentiment grows in Europehttps://t.co/igtTpiA9jY pic.twitter.com/bRwSmrFHav

— DAILY SABAH (@DailySabah) March 13, 2017

Erdoganist Columnist Calls On Islamist Gov’t To ‘Set West On Fire’ Before It Occupies Turkey.

Erdoganist Columnist Calls On Islamist Gov’t To ‘Set West On Fire’ Before It Occupies Turkey.(Stockholm.org).

Yakup Köse, a staunch supporter of Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and a columnist for the pro-government Star daily, on Monday called on the Turkish people and government to “set the West on fire” before it occupies Turkey.

“It is useless to wait for the enemy [to act]. Let’s introduce to fire those who want to set our country on fire. At least, the idea that ‘if you try to come to our county, we can come to you before that’ should be inculcated into both our nation and the West. There are different ways to do this, and people who run the state must know it!..” wrote Köse in his column in the Star daily on Monday, claiming that the West may try to directly occupy Turkey after failing to accomplish it by use of internal actors.

According to Köse, who spent years in jail for allegedly participating in bomb attacks of fundamentalist militant group the Great Eastern Islamic Raiders Front (İBDA/C) before being released in 2015, all the reforms that were made when the Republic of Turkey was established were the installation of degenerate Western values in Anatolia.

“The soul of Anatolia, which they imprisoned in 783,000 square kilometers by saying ‘Peace at home, peace in the world’ [a motto of Turkey’s founder Atatürk] has been breaking its chains. After a century, for the first time the nation and the state show a joint will to break the chains placed by the West. It is this will that panics and frightens the West,” wrote Köse, claiming that the West failed to destroy that will by using the Gülen movement, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and other internal actors.

Claiming that the West has been making final moves after defeats of their efforts through the Gezi Park protests, the PKK resistance in the eastern cities and an “occupation attempt by the coup attempt” on July 15, the columnist said that is the reason why Western countries took sides with naysayers ahead of a critical referendum on April 16.

“The moves that could be considered casus belli such as not allowing top Turkish authorities to enter their countries show how big a panic they have gone into. With this panic, they may attempt to occupy [Turkey] which they have failed doing by means of internal actors,” added Köse, before calling on the Turkish people and the government to “introduce the West to fire” as a preemptive and deterrent measure. (turkishminute.com) March 13, 2017

Hmmm......Erdogan has a huge Fifth Column to help him in Europe.

Press statement of the group of #Turks protesting in front of Consulate: ' the minarets are our bayonets '. https://t.co/RVAgwxbOzz pic.twitter.com/DEniNSJday

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) March 12, 2017

Pro-Erdoğan paper @yeniakit: "The Dutch army has only 48,000 troops, but 400,000 Turks are living in the #Netherlands" #Turkey pic.twitter.com/shljnXpxVG

— Cahida Dêrsim (@dersi4m) March 12, 2017

#Erdogan calls on Turks in #Germany, #Netherlands, #Belgium & #Scandinavian countries, ask'em if they know what to do against his enemies. pic.twitter.com/Bvdn5DivXH

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) March 12, 2017

Again Major Human Rights Violations by Turkish Army against Kurds.

Again Major Human Rights Violations by Turkish Army against Kurds. (ML)

ISTANBUL – Allegations of major human rights violations have emerged from Koruköy, a village of perhaps 500 in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast that’s been under military blockade since February 11.

“Five helicopters and lots of soldiers came to the village and we heard them come into our neighbors’ homes,” Newal Aygül (not her real name), a Koruköy resident told The Media Line, speaking secretly over the phone.

“They took nearly all of the men out of the village, and some of the women. We don’t know where.”

Soldiers cut off access to and from Koruköy, confined the villagers to their homes, and reportedly took all of their telephones, though Aygül managed to hold on to hers.

She says soldiers have abused the villagers, harassed the women and scared the children.

“My husband was beaten by soldiers in front of our children. They also took him to the village square in front of the neighbors and beat him there,” Aygül said.

“I saw soldiers beating a boy, maybe 15 or 16, just for using his phone, maybe because of the sounds or pictures. Then they took him and dunked him in the well.”

Their livestock, crucial for their rural livelihood, have died.

“All the animals died because the soldiers don’t let us take them out. ‘If you let them out, we’ll kill you,’ they tell us,” Aygül says.

Water was cut off for two months until recently being turned back on, and Aygül thinks dirty well water made many villagers ill.

“There are lots of children here, and probably most are sick. We don’t know how to treat them. There’s an ambulance, but when we take them there, the doctors and nurses don’t care for them properly.”

The Mardin Governor’s Office, which has jurisdiction over Koruköy, denies any abuse has occurred. Publicly, it says the military operations aim to “neutralize the terrorists” and arrest collaborators. Read the full story here.

İHD delegate who tried to get into Koruköy told me the same - armed men with long beards and no uniforms at checkpoints. https://t.co/A3aFV1PknO

— Nick Ashdown (@Nick_Ashdown) February 23, 2017

Social media accounts linked to Turkish Special Forces have shared in the last days pictures of tortured and killed villagers from #Koruköy

— Cahida Dêrsim (@dersi4m) February 23, 2017

İHD report says several families cannot reach their children in blockaded Koruköy https://t.co/Uz7V6oX2H5

— Istanbul Turkey (@IstanbulTuRRkey) February 25, 2017

Pakistan - Parents slam Pak-Turk schools handover to Turkish 'Islamist' NGO.

Pakistan - Parents slam Pak-Turk schools handover to Turkish 'Islamist' NGO. (ET).

LAHORE: Parents of students of Pak-Turk schools and colleges blasted the Pakistan government for handing over the education system to a Turkish nonprofit organization called Maarif Foundation. They alleged the move was an effort to gain political millage.

Speaking to the media at the Lahore Press Club on Friday, parents representing the Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges Parent-Teacher Association said their children’s future was put at stake to “please a foreign political party”.

They said that the schools and colleges would suffer if handed-over to the “poorly-equipped and infamous” Maarif Foundation. The speakers underlined they would be forced to take their children out of the schools if the government went ahead with the plan. They also threatened to protest, along with students, against the government. The parents said those taking over do not understand the education systems in Pakistan, whether it is matriculation or Cambridge.

Pak-Turk International Schools and Colleges Parent-Teacher Association was represented by Qadeer Hussain, Adnan Kakar and Ghazala Bano. They all agreed Maarif Foundation was an infamous entity that would destroy the future of their children. Qadeer Hussain claimed that any school handed over to the Maarif Foundation was closed-down. “It is unacceptable that a complete chain of high-performing schools will be being destroyed at the behest of a foreign political party.”

Adnan Kakar said that the way Turkish teachers, who spent decades educating Pakistani children, were treated was shameful. He added foreign dictation would not be accepted as it was matter of their children’s future.

Ghazala Bano alleged members of the Maarif Foundation were involved with ISIS and some were imprisoned on terrorism charges. She said that around 30 teachers from Maarif were being trained at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML). “They are being taught English. How will they teach when they are learning the language of education at this stage?” She said Turkey’s domestic political issues should not impact Pakistani society and the government should think about the associated risks. She added the future of more than 15,000 students was at stake.


Related:

Is [Erdogan’s] Maarif Foundation capable of delivering quality education?

The Pak-Turk Schools and Colleges management is being pressurized to be handed over to Maarif Foundation as it has also filed petition to become party to the litigation process in Islamabad High Court.

Though funded by Turkey’s Ministry of Education, the nascent organization remains a mystery and source of anxiety for staff, parents and students of the Pak-Turk institutions alike.

Minister for National Education Ismet Yilmaz expressed that Turkey’s Maarif Foundation is the extension of the Ministry abroad and said, “It is a public foundation and founded by law. We also have our Ministry of National Education schools abroad; when they will be ready and when they will demand it from us, we will also transfer them to the Foundation.”

Not only will the Maarif Foundation be unable to accomplish anything conducive and rewarding, it will not be able to prepare the required generation of youth with open-mindedness and critical thinking.

Maarif Foundation claims to have taken control of private Turkish schools in Somalia, Guinea, Chad, Senegal, Mauritania and Sudan.

Maarif Foundation is so desperate to hire staff to replace the Turkish schools abroad that it is offering jobs to inexperienced youth, many of whom has recently completed their degrees.

According to a study by the Turkey’s Ministry of National Education, there are 12,824 students who will be teaching and providing education in about 120 countries where Maarif is required to provide teaching staff as well as management.

The parents and staff members, privy to Turkey’s substantial share of problems in the education sector fear for that it will not be able to maintain the standard of teaching and management that has been the hallmark of the founding organization. In fact, Turkey’s annual education ratings are considerably inferior to many developing countries.

The activities of the Maarif Foundation, which has brought two-dozen teachers currently learning English at National University of Modern Languages, lack requisite offshore teaching experience as well as exposure to Pakistani culture and society.

The basic question arising here is as to why Pakistan should accept Turkish public sector teachers while its own citizens prefer the expensive but quality private sector education for their kids. A marginal number of Turkey’s MP would have attended public sector schools while their children surely are enrolled in private sector teaching institutions.

Besides lacking knowledge of Pakistani society, the staff sent from Turkey not only has been chosen on political basis but is also devoid of administrative and foreign language skills.

Given AKP’s close ties with Muslim Brotherhood, blind import of manpower will come with political ideology, which has been minimized in Pakistan’s schools and colleges after efforts of two decades.

Not only will the Maarif Foundation be unable to accomplish anything conducive and rewarding, it will not be able to prepare the required generation of youth with open-mindedness and critical thinking.

136 Turkish diplomats, relatives seek asylum in Germany, More and more are applying for asylum.

136 Turkish diplomats, relatives seek asylum in Germany, More and more are applying for asylum. (Fr24).

"The government is aware of 136 asylum applications filed by diplomatic passport holders from Turkey. They also include family members," said the interior ministry in a written reply to a query from a lawmaker.

The ministry said however that it did not have data on how many among the applicants are diplomats and how many are soldiers stationed at NATO bases.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government has accused US-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen of having orchestrated the putsch, and launched a sweeping crackdown against his followers.

Some 43,000 people in Turkey have been arrested over their suspected links to Gulen's movement, and 100,000 fired or suspended. Many of them are teachers, police, magistrates and journalists.

The scale of the crackdown has raised international concern, with Germany among the most vocal in raising questions over the mass arrests.

That and a string of other spats have contributed to fraying ties between Ankara and Berlin.

Last month, news magazine "Der Spiegel" and public broadcaster ARD reported that dozens of Turkish officers applied for asylum for fear of being arrested upon returning home.

In a subsequent meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged Merkel to extradite the soldiers. Foreign soldiers stationed in NATO-bases are also entitled to a diplomatic passport. Read the full story here.

'Islamist' Turkey not making enough 'progress' to merit visa-free EU travel.

'Islamist' Turkey not making enough 'progress' to merit visa-free EU travel. (DS).

BRUSSELS: Turkey is not delivering sufficiently on reforms to meet the terms of a migration deal that would allow Turks visa-free travel into the European Union, a senior EU official told Reuters on Thursday, citing an EU Commission report.

Under the agreement reached in March last year at the peak of Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War Two, Turkey committed to preventing Middle Eastern and Asian refugees moving from its territory into the EU, in exchange for financial support and visa-free access for its citizens.

Turkey was doing well on border control but a regular report that the EU executive plans to publish next week will say it is still delaying reforms on "anti-terrorism legislation, party financing, judicial cooperation", the source said.

Complications around negotiations for the reunification of Cyprus also bode badly for Turkey, the official said.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said on Wednesday that Ankara expected the European Union to take steps on visa-free travel as soon as possible.

That was dismissed in Brussels as "nonsense" because Turkey was not fulfilling the conditions, the EU official said, noting: "They need to keep up the fiction for their own population."

The official acknowledged that border management and Turkish support for refugees were "working well" but no progress on visas was expected any time soon because no changes to anti-terror legislation were expected before and in the immediate aftermath of Turkey's constitutional referendum on April 16.

The referendum - set to give more powers to the president - "poses problems in itself" as "the draft constitution has very serious flaws", the EU official said.

The EU will not formally comment on Turkey's constitutional reforms to avoid being seen as meddling with the electoral process, but the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, a panel of law experts, will issue "quite salty" remarks in mid-March, the EU official said.

The official firmly ruled out an EU-Turkey summit being held before the referendum, despite Erdogan's wish to do so.

At a news conference in Brussels on Thursday, a Commission spokesman gave the bloc's official line: "Work continues and both the European Union and Turkey remain committed to the March agreement and to the respective obligations."