Allegations of ISIL route between 'Islamist' Turkey and Syria raised in Turkish Parliament

Allegations of ISIL route between 'Islamist' Turkey and Syria raised in Turkish Parliament. (Bugun).

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Levent Gök held a press conference in Parliament on Friday where he gave the podium to citizen Alaaddin Ercan, a resident of Ankara’s Sincan neighborhood, who claims the borders between Turkey and Syria are as open as ever and that there is an active route between Turkey and Syria where countless citizens are joining up with ISIL.

Noting that 21 members of his family had gone and joined ISIL, with five already dead, Ercan claimed that there were bus lines that openly take people back and forth between Turkey and ISIL. He added that the state had to assign him a security detail because of death threats levelled against him and his family.

“Everyone from children to adults stay up until morning keeping watch,” he said.

Ercan claimed that they were actively “brainwashing” the residents of Sincan towards radicalism, “But nobody even cares.

There is a price on my head, my own siblings are threatening to kill me.” He added that at the moment both his brothers and his sister-in-law were a part of ISIL, that they had been introduced to radicalism 8 years ago as members of Hizbul Tahrir and began migrating to Syria, first one by one then as entire families.

He added that there were many families going through the same problems in the area, “but they’re all too afraid to speak up,” criticizing the Directorate of Religious Affairs for not issuing a fatwa against ISIL.

'Advanced Islamist Democracy' - Political asylum from persecution in EU 'candidate' Turkey.

'Advanced Islamist Democracy' - Political asylum from persecution in EU 'candidate' Turkey. (FOT).

The political asylum cases originating from Turkey will likely increase against the background of intensified political persecution of opponents and critics in Turkey by the growing authoritarian and Islamist regime that is bent on abusing the criminal justice system with partisan judges and prosecutors.

Not a single day passes in Turkey without a journalist, academic, artist, businessperson or ordinary citizen getting slammed by an investigation or trial for defamation of Turkey’s political Islamist leaders, who rose to power through elections but are now determined to derail democracy, and trample rights and freedoms.

The dramatic surge in the number of prosecutions frustrates many Turks who now question whether Turkey is a good place to live and raise family. Turkey had generated a wave of political asylum seekers in the past during turbulent periods of military coups and the repression of leftists, Kurds, Alevis and conservative groups in the 80s and 90s. But perhaps, for the first time in Turkish history, we have started to notice a completely new pattern of political asylum seekers that originate from Turkey: Those running from the persecution relentlessly pursued by the political Islamist government.

These politically-motivated cases — made to appear as if they are criminal investigations — are nothing but instruments in the hands of political Islamists used to instill a climate of fear of the regime, intimidate the opposition and silence critics.

The long list of objections listed by bar associations and teams of defense lawyers in political witch-hunt cases across Turkey is a testament to the fact that the rule of law is effectively suspended in Turkey. The legal protections that are afforded to the — unjustly — accused as part of due process and the right to a fair trial are being flagrantly violated. The verdict is often a forgone conclusion whereby a loyalist judge was ordered by political authorities to jail defendants no matter what the evidence says, if there is any at all.

Under this terrible McCarthyism era Turkey has been going through under the political Islamist and authoritarian regime, nobody can blame anyone who decides to flee the country in order to find a safe haven until the rule of law and democracy are re-established and the practice of instigating witch-hunts under the guise of pursuing criminals ceases in Turkey. Those who decide to run away cannot be classified as fugitives from justice when there is no justice in Turkey. Hmmmm....the worst thing is that European politicians allow this to happen in exchange for promises of cheap gas delivered through Turkey.Read the full story here.

Snowden Asylum Request: Another Blow to Obama’s Russia “Reset” Policy.

Snowden Asylum Request: Another Blow to Obama’s Russia “Reset” Policy.HT: Heritage.

Last Sunday, a Russian consular official confirmed that former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Edward Snowden asked for political asylum in Russia. Snowden’s defection, announced after a week in Moscow, may be not an impulsive act but a thoroughly pre-planned operation.

The Interfax news agency cited Kim Shevchenko, duty officer at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s consular office at Sheremetyevo airport, as saying that a Snowden representative filed his request Sunday.
Russia is likely to grant the asylum, judging by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s response. “Russia never hands over anybody anywhere and has no intention of doing so,” Putin told a news conference in Moscow. However, Putin has one condition, which suggests that he is trying to manage U.S.–Russian differences and avoid escalation.
The BBC reported that Putin, mindful of his summit with President Obama in September, said that if Snowden “wants to remain here there is one condition—he should stop his work aimed at inflicting damage on our American partners no matter how strange this may sound coming from me.”
Putin declared that Snowden “is not our agent and does not cooperate with us” and further noted that the Russian intelligence services “never worked with him and are not working with him now.” Putin’s press conference occurred around the same time President Obama confirmed to reporters that Washington had held “high level” discussions with Russia about Snowden.
If Snowden defects to Russia, he is likely to live out a life of isolation, as did two other young NSA defectors, William Hamilton Martin and Bernon F. Mitchell, who defected in 1960.
Earlier, Nikolai Patrushev, a Putin confidante and secretary of the Russian National Security Council, said that both Presidents Obama and Putin had told the directors of their intelligence services to seek a resolution to the standoff over Snowden. This may explain the unannounced visit by CIA Director John Brennan to Moscow on June 21–22. Patrushev also told Russian media that Russia’s Federal Security Service and the FBI had been told to “keep in contact and find solutions” but warned there was no simple solution to the situation.

Nevertheless, suspicions abound. Snowden himself declared that he went to work for Booz Allen with the intention of gaining evidence of U.S. wrongdoings. Presumably, he had to pass a polygraph test. Presumably, he passed that test. The obvious question therefore arises whether Snowden was trained in beating polygraphs and, if so, by whom.

Initially, when leaving Hong Kong, Snowden had announced that he was travelling to Ecuador. However, he remained in Moscow. Russia has already benefited from the damage that Snowden’s leaks caused to relations between the U.S. and its European allies.

Much will depend on whether the Kremlin answers Snowden’s asylum request positively. But regardless of the answer, the Snowden–Russian connection needs to be explored in depth. Finally, Snowden’s asylum request is complicating already damaged U.S.–Russian relations, proving once and for all that Obama’s much-publicized “reset” policy is DOA.

In other news:

Belarusian eco-socialist political party The Greens called on the country's President Alexander Lukashenko to grant asylum to former CIA intelligence employee Edward Snowden, who is currently believed to be hiding in Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

The party said in a statement that granting asylum to Snowden would be a "sincere act of support for a decent and honest man and proof that Belarusian foreign policy rests on principles of ethics".

The Greens claim that if Snowden was granted asylum in Belarus, the country would gain a specialist, "who will help to work out means of protection against penetration of foreign intelligence services into the private lives of Belarusian people".

 Belarusian Foreign Minister Andrei Savinykh said last week Snowden had not requested asylum in Belarus.