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.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia to Put Erdogan in Trouble in the future: Iranian MP.

Cooperation with Saudi Arabia to Put Erdogan in Trouble in the future: Iranian MP. (IFP)

“While, unfortunately, Turkey is suffering from domestic and international problems, instead of resolving the issue of war in Syria and cooperating with the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council in some aspects, Ankara is projecting its problems on others,” commented Masood Goudarzi, a member of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.

“We have always sought brotherhood with Turkey. Iran did all in its power to support Ankara during 2016 Turkish coup d’état attempt,” he noted, according to a Farsi report by ICANA,
However, he added, Iran has serious disagreements with Turkey on the Syrian war.

“By playing in the ground of the GCC and going along with Saudi Arabia’s conspiracies, Erdoğan will find himself in a difficult situation in the future.”


“Iran’s security depends on Turkey’s security; so Tehran will collaborate with Ankara to solve their economic problems. But Saudi Arabia’s Ottoman-like conspiracies pose a threat to mutual measures,” he went on to say.

Russia: Obama 'Admin' Includes 10 Syrian Rebel Groups Working With Terrorists in Truce List.

Moscow: US Includes 10 Syrian Rebel Groups Working With Terrorists in Truce List. (SP).

Washington included two Syrian rebel groups working with Daesh and eight groups working with al-Nusra Front in a truce list, the Russian Permanent Mission to the United Nations' Geneva office said in a statement.

"Washington included two [Syrian rebel] groups that fight together with Daesh and 8 with al-Nusra Front in the list of the participants of the ceasefire regime in Syria sent to the Russian side. Moreover the inclusion of Ahrar ash-Sham and Nour al-Din al-Zenki cutthroats in this list completely discredites the American list," the mission said in a statement published by the Russian Foreign Ministry. 

Moscow added that "it seems that the United States have not received any written obligations to respect the ceasefire from groups it controls."

On Friday, Moscow has unveiled a "Comparative Analysis of Russia-US Agreements Implementation" on Syria and sent it to the a range of other agencies in addition to the UN.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said earlier that Moscow will present a report in the United Nations Security Council on Russia's implementation of agreements with the US on Syria and on Washington's failure to abide by them to avoid speculations on the issue. Read  the full story here.

List of all "Syrian rebels" in #Aleppo incl Jund al Aqsa (Foreign Fighters accused 2be pro-#ISIS) tt was supposed 2merge w/ex-Nusra-AQ #JFS. pic.twitter.com/72rRpIVOoe

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) October 29, 2016

Video - Lavrov, his Iranian and Syrian counterparts gave a press conference after meeting in Moscow.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the fight against terrorism should continue and the warring sides should return to peaceful reconciliation. (Sputnik)

Lavrov said that Moscow and Tehran support Syria's sovereignty, the fight against terrorism and the restoration of the country's economy. 

Moscow, Tehran and Damascus agree that the Syrian peaceful settlement has no alternatives. 

He said that neither Russian, nor Syrian warplanes have been conducting operations in Syria's Aleppo for ten days. Lavrov said that Russia hoped that the humanitarian pause in Aleppo would be used by the United States to separate terrorists from Syrian rebels.

Lavrov also said that Moscow urges the UN not to listen to the "hysterical campaign of lies" on the situation in Aleppo. 

Lavrov said that some "foreign players" use the Syrian conflict to achieve own goals. The foreign minister commented on the operation to retake Mosul from Daesh, saying that both Russia and Iraq are interested to take measures to stop militants from fleeing to Syria from the Iraqi city. Read the full story here.

Pentagon chief to stress Iraq sovereignty in 'Neo Ottoman conqueror' Turkey talks.

Pentagon chief to stress Iraq sovereignty in 'Neo Ottoman conqueror' Turkey talks. (Reuters).

U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter said he would stress the need to respect Iraq's sovereignty during a visit on Friday to Turkey, which has been locked in a dispute with Baghdad over who should participate in the campaign to retake Mosul from Islamic State.

Carter, acknowledging it was a delicate issue, declined to explicitly say whether he thought Turkey should be allowed to participate in the operations in Iraq. Washington in the past has deferred that matter to Baghdad.


"Of course we'll talk about that. And yes, of course there are sensitivities there. We conduct ourselves, and the coalition does, respecting Iraqi sovereignty. That's an important principle of ours," Carter said. Read the full story here.

Lavrov: West lets not one but several Islamist genies out of the bottle in the Middle East.

Lavrov: West lets not one but several Islamist genies out of the bottle in the Middle East. (Tass).

The West has let the genies of Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both banned in Russia) out of the bottle, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told an international conference on the Middle East on Thursday.

"There is no need to speak about the complexity of the current period in international relations. It is a breakthrough period when a new polycentric architecture of international relations continues to be formed. We see how this process is confronting active opposition on the part of those who is unwilling to part with the habitual role of so-called global arbiter," Lavrov emphasized.

He believes that all this contributes to global and regional instability and increases a potential for conflicts. "What we see in the Middle East and Northern Africa is a graphic illustration of that," the Russian foreign minister went on to say.

"The disintegration of state structures created numerous seats of instability such as Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya. Such state of things is the result of malpractice of geopolitical engineering of western colleagues; the interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states; attempts to change undesirable regimes and the so-called democratization according to one’s own templates," Lavrov said.

"The practice of provoking controlled chaos may lead to very negative consequences," Lavrov said.

"The West did not hide its negative attitude to our stance saying that ‘we are on the wrong side of history’," the Russian foreign minister explained. "As a result, not one but several genies have been let out of the bottle. The most dangerous are the Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra and the groups affiliated with them.

"Under these circumstances we believe that our priority task, as the Russian president stressed a year ago, is to unite efforts in the struggle against terrorism and extremism and create a broad global front against terrorism," the Russian foreign minister stressed. Hmmm.......Obama's Legacy.

U.S. Coalition Commander: 'Regaining Mosul from ISIS will take weeks, possibly longer'

U.S. Coalition Commander: 'Regaining Mosul from ISIS will take weeks, possibly longer' (Aranews).

Defeating ISIS in Mosul and regaining the city will take weeks or longer, commander of the US-led coalition Lt. Gen. Stephen J. Townsend said on Monday.

“Earlier today, Iraqi Security Forces launched their counter-attack to liberate Mosul from ISIL [ISIS].  This operation to regain control of Iraq’s second-largest city will likely continue for weeks, possibly longer,” Townsend said.

“Iraq is supported by a wide range of coalition capabilities, including air support, artillery, intelligence, advisors and forward air controllers.  But to be clear, the thousands of ground combat forces who will liberate Mosul are all Iraqis,” he added.

“Over the course of these past two years, a coalition of more than 60 nations has united to defeat ISIL. We have conducted tens of thousands of precision strikes to support Iraqi operations, trained and equipped more than 54,000 Iraqi forces, and supported our Iraqi partners as they fought to liberate their country.

Lt. Gen. Townsend said they cannot predict how long this operation could take before Mosul is liberated, but stressed that local forces and the coalition were well prepared for this battle.

“This may prove to be a long and tough battle, but the Iraqis have prepared for it and we will stand by them,” he concluded. Hmmm.........Weeks or months. (see tweet below). Read the full story here.

Yes.Battle of Mosul is still ongoing btwn 20-40km away from the city. The battle is going 2be long. Many villages still on the way. @MFS001

— Elijah J. Magnier (@EjmAlrai) October 18, 2016

Turkey - 'Man' who raped nine-month-old Syrian refugee arrested in Turkey.

Turkey - 'Man' who raped nine-month-old Syrian refugee arrested in Turkey. (HD).

A man who allegedly raped a nine-month-old Syrian refugee was arrested in the southeastern province of Gaziantep on Aug. 20.

The man, identified by the initials as S.D., was caught after the baby, identified only as E., fell ill, after which doctors determined that she had been sexually assaulted.

The baby was left to S.D. when her family went to work at a farm on Aug. 19, but subsequently took the baby to the İslahiye State Hospital when they realized that she had fallen ill.

The doctors at emergency determined that she had been sexually assaulted and notified the gendarmerie, who later detained S.D., a shepherd at the same farm.

“S.D. was detained shortly after the incident and was arrested. The family and the baby was put under protection by the Family and Social Policies Ministry,” a statement released from Gaziantep Governor’s Office read.

Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya commented on the incident that has caused uproar in Turkey.

“An inhuman incident happened. This disgusting incident created indignation in the public and in my conscience,” she wrote on her Twitter account, as she added that psychological support was being given to the family.

“We will follow the case until the end,” she added.

A lawmaker from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) also commented on the incident, saying he wanted S.D. to be executed.

“I hope that death penalty will be reintroduced and he will die,” AKP Gaziantep deputy Şamil Tayyar wrote on his Twitter account.

Still, one of the journalists who first broke the story, Hüseyin Şimşek of daily BirGün, faced death threats after reporting on the assault.

Revealed: 'Backroom' Deal allows 'State Sponsor of Terrorism' Turkey to funnel money into Gaza.

Revealed: 'Backroom' Deal allows 'State Sponsor of Terrorism' Turkey to funnel money into Gaza. (INN).

A portion of Israel's recent controversial reconciliation agreement with Turkey which was not initially made public has come to light, and has given critics of the deal significantly greater room for concern.

However, according to the newly published section of the agreement, the Turkish government - led by the Islamist, pro-Hamas AKP party - is allowed to transfer large amounts of money to Gaza, via banks approved by Israel to do business in Gaza.

According to one of the sections of the agreement, "Turkey will be able to transfer money to the Gaza Strip via banks approved to work in Gaza by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, subject to Israel's security considerations."


The latter caveat is clearly intended to prevent the funds being funneled to Hamas or other terrorist groups active in Gaza - but the question many are asking is how Israel can prevent Hamas in particular from obtaining the funds via official "government agencies" in Gaza, all of which are run by Hamas. Read the full story here.