Video - Undated video shows Turkish border guards assaulting a Syrian Kurdish refugee at N Syria border.

GRAPHIC CONTENT | Undated video posted online shows #Turkish border guards brutally torturing a #Syrian Kurdish refugee at N #Syria borders: pic.twitter.com/ukLjxNNmdN

— Rojava Defense Units (@DefenseUnits) December 14, 2016

Turkey's Erdogan blasts Europe's silence on execution of Bangladesh war criminal's execution.

Turkey's Erdogan blasts Europe's silence on execution of Bangladesh war criminal's execution. (ET). 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday lashed out at Europe’s silence over the execution of a veteran Jamaat-e-Islami leader in Bangladesh, accusing the West of “double standards.”

“If you are against political executions, why did you remain silent to the execution of Motiur Rahman Nizami who was martyred a couple of days ago,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in Istanbul.


“Have you heard anything from Europe? … No. Isn’t it called double standards?” Erdogan said.

Nizami, leader of the Jamaat-e-Islami party, was hanged at a Dhaka jail late Tuesday. He was accused of ordering the killing of intellectuals during the 1971 conflict.

The 73-year-old former government minister was the fifth and the most senior opposition figure executed since the secular government in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation set up a controversial war crimes tribunal in 2010.

The 1971 conflict, one of the bloodiest in world history, led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh from what was then East Pakistan.


Prosecutors said Nizami was responsible for setting up the pro-Pakistani Al-Badr militia, which killed top writers, doctors and journalists in the most gruesome chapter of the war. Hmmm.......A man is known by the company he keeps or defends..... Armenian Genocide

Political Islamist and 'paramilitary' violence in 'Islamist' Turkey.

Political Islamist and 'paramilitary' violence in 'Islamist' Turkey. (TZ).By Abdullah bozkurt.

Faced with growing public discontent regarding his leadership and strong resentment of his meddlesome presidency, intrusive politician Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his band of political Islamist brethren have begun to resort more to brute force and violence than other means of intimidating opponents and critics.

On a slippery downward slope, the Islamists chose to escalate a war on Turkish democracy. When Erdoğan and his associates failed to gain traction in public debates with their overused political campaign slogans and much-abused conspiracy theories, they finally turned to harsh rhetoric, hate speech and even violent behavior.

Erdoğan urged his people to be confrontational in parliamentary debates, when controversial bills faced huge challenges from the opposition in terms of both procedure and substance. Instead of attempting to convince the opposition or compromising on amendments, he opted to use force to strong-arm opposition deputies. Justice and Development Party (AKP) lawmakers who use kicks and punches to intimidate the opposition are often rewarded with guarantees that their names will appear on the list of nominees in the next election or with privileged positions in government.

In the meantime, a relatively unknown group affiliated with the AKP, the Ottoman Hearths (Osmanlı Ocakları), is being groomed as a paramilitary nationalist youth network. It was mobilized during attacks on buildings belonging to pro-Kurdish and secular opposition parties. Ankara insiders believe Erdoğan made a pact with mafia bosses to lead this group in exchange for clearing the slate on their long list of records and convictions. Their goal is to intimidate opponents and critics of Erdoğan with sheer violence.

The second serious force to be reckoned with is composed of the renegade groups employed by the notorious Turkish intelligence agency, used by Erdoğan's political machinery to manipulate public perception in difficult times. The overtly politicized National Intelligence Organization (MİT), led by Erdoğan's close confidante Hakan Fidan, was instrumental in turning peaceful protests violent.

All of these revelations point to the conclusion that Erdoğan and his associates may go to great lengths to survive politically in Turkey. Utilizing radical and armed religious groups may be their last resort in a pattern of violence an increasing number of Turks have begun to detect, revealing the character of the political Islamist elites proven to be capable of resorting to violence and provoking ethnic and sectarian clashes.

Apparently, these Islamist rulers have no constitutional, moral or ethical boundaries. They will not hesitate to adopt scorched-earth policies. 

What they do not understand is that the specter of a bloody civil war, be it ideological, ethnic or sectarian, will mobilize the real masses against Erdoğan's rule and will likely precipitate a military coup in Turkey. Let's just hope that the Nov. 1 election will correct this anomaly and set the country straight on a democratic path with the least possible damage. Hmmmm......Somehow The Moderate Turk still believes dictators silently leave into the night after Democratic elections, time to wake up and smell the 'strong Islamist Coffe' they don't leave. Read the full story here.

Obama's BFF Erdogan: 'Turkey will not allow creation of autonomy in Syria.'

Obama's BFF Erdogan: 'Turkey will not allow creation of autonomy in Syria.'(TI).Turkey will not allow the creation of the type of autonomy in Syria as the Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, the Sabah newspaper reported.

He said the creation of a union which will damage the unity of Syria, will not be allowed neither by Turkey and nor by other countries in the region.

Erdogan also accused Iran of inaction on the Syrian crisis issue and noted that Tehran's silence is unacceptable when tens of thousands of Muslims die in Syria.

Anti-government protests have continued in Syria for more than a year and half. According to the UN, the total number of victims of the conflict in Syria exceeds 70,000. More than 230,000 have become refugees with around three million in need of humanitarian assistance. Syrian authorities say they oppose the well-armed militants.

Hmmmm......"Lord of the Kurds?"Read the full story here.

Turkey 'alarmed' by Kurdish control of northern Syria.

                                           Go ahead 'Erdo' I've got your back.

Turkey 'alarmed' by Kurdish control of northern Syria.(AA).The Syrian regime army's recent pullout from Kurdish-dominated areas in the north has made alarm bells go off in Ankara, which received on Saturday an apparent backing from Washington for a potential military operation inside Syria. When the crisis in Syria erupted in mid-March 2011, it was quickly felt next door in Turkey, where refugees began to arrive in flight from the bloody crackdown. Turkish President Abdullah Gül announced in early May 2011 that his country was preparing for “a worst case scenario,” apparently referring to the possibility of a large influx of refugees through the long border his nation shares with Syria. But as Syria’s crisis deepened, Turkey started to face even more alarming developments and its patience began to erode, challenging its “zero problems with neighbors” foreign policy that promotes diplomatic approaches and soft power. Syrian regime forces have shelled areas inside Turkish borders on several occasions and shot down one Turkish fighter plane last June. The move that worries Ankara most, however, was the regime’s recent decision to pull Syrian forces out from Kurdish-dominated border areas, in a move that will likely be exploited by the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) that has launched numerous deadly attacks, mostly from bases in northern Iraq, in the cause of a separatist Kurdish state. Despite having reportedly provided training grounds for armed Syrian opposition forces and allowed the transfer of weapons from various foreign parties to the Free Syrian Army, Turkey claims to have maintained its overall soft power policy vis-à-vis Syria.
Throughout the 17-month uprising in Syria, Turkey provided humanitarian assistance to refugees, diplomatic support to the opposition and helped escalate pressures on the President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. But this soft power policy appeared to be in tatters recently after Kurdish fighters took control of the Kurdish-dominated areas in the northern part of Syria. Initial reports suggested that the regime’s forces were driven out by armed opposition Kurdish fighters, but subsequent reports pointed out that the Assad’s regime deliberately handed those areas to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) linked to PKK, which is fighting an armed struggle against Turkey. Some observers say Turkey will not tolerate the Kurdish control of northern parts of Syria and is quickly moving toward a sweeping military intervention there. But others argue that such a development in Syria is unlikely to draw Turkey into a potentially damaging war. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed that his country would “not allow a terrorist group to establish camps in northern Syria and threaten Turkey." Erdogan’s statements signaled the likelihood of a direct military engagement of Turkey in the Syrian crisis.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, during a visit to Turkey on Saturday, expressed Washington’s support for Ankara’s position by declaring that “Syria must not become a haven for PKK terrorists.” Clinton told a news conference in Istanbul that the United States and Turkey were setting up a joint group “to get into the real details of… very intensive operational planning." 
Othman Ali, head of the Turkish-Kurdish Studies Center in Iraq, recently wrote in Today’s Zaman, “Turkey cannot afford to see the PKK roam freely in Syria and use it as a base from which to launch armed attacks on the country.” “The Syrian president had decided it was time to play the PKK card against Turkey once again as was its policy in the 1990s,” Ali added.Turkey and Syria came to the brink of war in 1998, after it emerged that Damascus was providing shelter for PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. Abdallah Schleifer, an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. told Al Arabiya that a Turkish military engagement in Syria “whether as a sincere concern for domestic Turkish security or a convenient justification for direct intervention... is a very strong possibility.” Indications of an eminent Turkish military engagement in Syria gained further support from reports suggesting that large Turkish troops’ deployment was taking place near the border with Syria. Amateur YouTube videos showed military equipment being moved by trains to the border with Syria.Hmmmm...As i said the Baseball photo-up' with Obama was the sign for the 'go-ahead' on Syria's Kurds........Chicago politics.....Get ready for Iran's response.Read the full story here.