Turkish Islamist 'Dictator' Erdogan and Barzani's son will be in the US at the same time.

Turkish Islamist 'Dictator' Erdogan and Barzani's son will be in the US at the same time. (Anf).

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to visit the US on May 16, while KDP President Masoud Barzani’s son and Southern Kurdistan intelligence official Masrour Barzani has been reported to have a visit on the same date.

Barzani is going to attend a program organized by a right-wing organization called the Heritage Foundation. Barzani will also be meeting with US officials to discuss the Mosul operation and the situation in Southern Kurdistan.

Erdoğan’s US visit will be focused around seeking support for their anti-Kurdish and anti-Rojava stance. Turkey had protested US President Donald Trump approving a plan that foresees providing the Syrian Democratic Forces with heavy weapons before Erdoğan’s visit last week.

It is unclear whether Erdoğan and Barzani will have a meeting in the US.

Video - CCTV footage leaked from Ataturk airport shows Jacqueline Sutton in her final moments

#BREAKING CCTV footage leaked from Ataturk airport shows Jacqueline #Sutton in her final moments https://t.co/KqPttxCq4I

— Oz Katerji (@OzKaterji) October 19, 2015

Friends suspect murder: ex BBC journo found hanged in Turkish airport


Sutton, 50, was a former producer and broadcaster with the BBC in London and held various positions over the years with humanitarian organizations and the UN, according to her professional profile on LinkedIn. She was studying for a PhD at the Australian National University on media in war-torn countries at the time of her death, focusing on Iraq and Afghanistan.

She was appointed to the IWPR in Iraq in June following the death of the previous director, Ammar Al Shahbander, who was killed in a car bombing in Baghdad, the organization said. Borden said Sutton had taken over an "extraordinary burden" from a colleague that had been killed. He said there is no reason to think that the deaths are related.

"She had toys in her bag for the children of staff [in Iraq]," he said.

"The profile doesn't strike me as right," he added. "I can't get my head around it."

Britain's Foreign Office has said it is "providing assistance to the family of Jacqueline Sutton at this difficult time." It said that British officials were in close contact with Turkish authorities.

UPDATE! What a load of BS .......NO MOTIVE! JackySutton

Turkish forensics confirm #JackieSutton's death was suicide - #AA. Investigation also confirmed she had the money to get a new flight.

— Ankaralı Jan (@06JAnk) October 21, 2015

@ZiaWeise https://t.co/sCCafKoA13

— Ankaralı Jan (@06JAnk) October 21, 2015

Suspicion surrounds the death of a British journalist in a Turkish airport https://t.co/6OpNazkOW0

— TIME.com (@TIME) October 20, 2015

Given her predecessor's assassination https://t.co/FSsJVHOPbG, #JackySutton's death needs to be openly investigated http://t.co/m46CDIPSk2

— Onnik J. Krikorian (@onewmphoto) October 19, 2015

TMMOB to bring Erdoğan’s lavish Ak Saray to European court; for violating Ataturk's last will.

TMMOB to bring Erdoğan’s lavish Ak Saray to European court; For violating Ataturk's last will. (HD).

The Turkish Union of Engineers and Architects' Chambers (TMMOB) announced on Monday that it will bring a case to the European Court of Human Rights claiming the lavish presidential palace, widely dubbed the AK Saray, was "illegally" constructed inside the Atatürk Forestry Farm (AOÇ) -- an environmentally protected area where construction is not permitted.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's luxury presidential palace, which was constructed on an area of 300,000 square meters in Ankara, continues to occupy the agenda in domestic politics. In the latest in a series of press briefings, on Wednesday TMMOB Ankara branch head Tezcan Karakuş Candan accused Erdoğan of ignoring several previous court orders to halt the palace's construction.

“All the domestic remedies have been exhausted. We were not the ones who were mistreated. It was the principles of the Republic of Turkey and the historicity of the Atatürk Forestry Farm. We are facing clear unlawfulness. It is very upsetting to see that we have nothing in hand even though all of the domestic remedies have been exhausted. We will therefore take the subject to the European Court of Human Rights,” Candan stated.

Candan also noted that Atatürk had donated the AOÇ to the state on the condition that it be left open to public use, and that therefore Atatürk's will has been violated as the area is no longer being used publicly. Read the full story here.

Mental patients receive inhuman treatment in Turkey’s hospitals

Mental patients receive inhuman treatment in Turkey’s hospitals. (HD).

A recent NGO report has revealed the poor conditions in all of Turkey’s mental disorder hospitals, where patients are forced to bathe altogether, remain isolated for days, tied to their beds and deprived of proper rehabilitation services.

The Human Rights in Mental Health Initiative (RUSİHAK) prepared the report, “Human Rights in Mental Health 2013,” over the past three years after observations at Turkey’s six mental health disorder hospitals, located in Istanbul, Manisa, Elazığ, Adana, Samsun and Ankara, where more than 3,600 patients stay in total, between September 2011 and March 2014.

The scarcity in the number of doctors and psychologists was stated as one of the major problems seen in all six hospitals in the report.

The patients are exposed to abuse by nurses while the cleaners also beat them, the report said. The patients call the cleaners as corporals in some hospitals and most of the patients told RUHİSAK officials that they were exposed to violence by such “corporals,” the report said.

The report also revealed that all hospitals lacked any rehab or therapy services for patients. “The patients are given drugs and left with no choice but to stay indoors all day, mostly watching TV or wandering around the corridors of the hospital. Therapy and rehabilitation methods are almost not used in all hospitals,” said the report.

Some patients are forced to stay in isolation with no contact with outsiders for years, said the report, giving striking examples. Hmmmm......One more reason not to let Turkey in to Europe.Read the full story here.

Dutch-Turkish man’s case linked to Canadian girl Amanda Todd's suicide.

Dutch-Turkish man’s case linked to Canadian girl Amanda Todd's suicide.

A transient man arrested by Dutch police in a rental cabin at a rural holiday park has been charged in the 2012 death of extorted and cyberbullied teen Amanda Todd.

RCMP confirmed late Thursday they have laid pornography, extortion and Internet luring charges against a suspect in the Netherlands in connection with Amanda’s suicide, which sparked international discussion online about cyberbullying and online safety.

The arrest brought relief to Amanda’s parents, although little is known yet about the suspect, 35-year-old Aydin Coban according to B.C.’s online court records, or how he preyed on vulnerable victims around the world.

 “What we understand is that he was a drifter, he moved from cabin to cabin in different vacation parks. His lawyer told us that he went from trailer park to trailer park, that he was very to himself and he has no wife or children,” said Hessel Rippe, editor-in-chief of the website for Omroep Brabant, the Dutch news agency that broke this story Thursday. 

Prosecutors in the Netherlands confirmed a 35-year-old man was arrested in January and made his first court appearance in an Amsterdam court Wednesday, charged with multiple offences linked to luring young girls to expose themselves online and then blackmailing them later.

Prosecutors there have not released Coban’s name yet. In the Dutch legal system - even when a case goes to trial - suspects are usually only identified by their first name and last initial.

The 35-year-old Aydin C. suspected of extortion of Canadian teen Amanda Todd, will oppose extradition to Canada.

That his lawyer let you know. The Public Prosecutor in the Canadian state of British Columbia has requested extradition. "He's a Dutchman and he wants to be tried.

According to the Dutch system Nobody is waiting for extradition to a foreign country, "said his lawyer Christian van Dijk today. Aydin C.

The Canadian Justice suspects him of extortion, child luring through the Internet, threats or stalking; and possession of child pornography for the purpose of distributing them. Van Dijk announced that his client was arrested on a holiday in Oisterwijk in January.

Canada has announced a formal extradition request, but the request is not there yet, says Van Dijk. He does not yet know the exact charges and do not know whether C. Aydin is also suspected of involvement in the death of Amanda Todd.

"no pedophile" According to the Dutch Public Prosecution Service (OM), the defendant not only underage girls but also adult men extorted after they had done for the webcam. sexual acts Most of the victims are from the Netherlands, but also continue to be Canada, England, the United States and Norway called.

Van Dijk stressed that it was extortion. The man to do "In my view, it is not a pedophile." On the advice of the lawyer Aydin C. invokes his right to remain silent. "It is an extremely technical matter. I do not know what's left in the barrel. At this stage, therefore, it is better if he keeps his mouth shut. " 

Counsel suggests that someone else may have made ​​use of the internet at the park. "The prosecution does occur it all so clear and concrete but the system was easy to hack. It could have been anyone. So sure is not. It is not a fait accompli. "

No expectations Canadian OM made ​​yesterday evening (local time) announced that the federal Justice Department will request to ask for the extradition of the man the newspaper Vancouver Sun. However, it is unclear how long it could last because the man in the Netherlands has been indicted, tempers the OM expectations.

Canadian teen Amanda Todd came in October 2012 in the news because she had killed after suicide them a video of themselves on Facebook had put in which she indicated not to be against bullying in schools.

The bullying might have started after a compromising photo of her appeared which they believed had been forced. The 35-year-old Dutch man on internet suicide of 15-year-old Todd, and thus the problems of cyberbullying, received worldwide attention. Her video has more than 17 million views.Hmmmm....I hope the Canadian Justice system manages to give Mr  Aydin Coban lodging on state expences.....the inmates will deal with him in their own way. Read more here, here and here.

"Islamist Turkey" - Turkey's new health law criminalizes Hippocratic oath.

“Thank God Almighty,” said Mr. Erdogan in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.” 


"Islamist Turkey" - Turkey's new health law criminalizes Hippocratic oath.(TZ).

As of Jan. 17, Turkish doctors face hefty penalties for providing emergency medical care outside of a hospital without the government's permission.

Criminalizing actions required by the Hippocratic oath has sparked international controversy, leading the UN and the world's leading medical groups to send a petition to President Abdullah Gül --who decided to ignore it, however.

The Turkish Doctor's Association (TTB) is also outraged by the new law, and is working closely with the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main opposition party, to repeal the law through the Constitutional Court.
Article 46 of the new law states that providing unauthorized medical care is punishable by one to three years' imprisonment and a fine of up to $1 million. The doctors can legally provide emergency medical care only when they arrive to the scene in a state ambulance with official permission.

Dr. Vincent Iacopino, a senior medical adviser at Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), told Sunday's Zaman that the motive behind the new health law is clear: “The law was drawn up in light of the Gezi protests to prevent doctors from helping injured protesters in the future.”

Indeed, the draft bill was introduced late at night on July 9, at the height of the Gezi Park protests. Iacopino said that “discriminating against sick people based on different political situations is clearly wrong.”

Dr. Bayazıt İlhan, secretary-general of the TTB, wrote in an e-mail to Sunday's Zaman that during the Gezi protests, the government asked the TTB to reveal information on both the doctors who provided medical assistance to protesters as well as their patients, which violates physician-patient confidentiality and clearly shows that the “government dislikes the fact that doctors helped the protesters without the state's permission.”

He said this law is “unacceptable” as it bans the “ethical duty of doctors, who are obliged to help people in need regardless of their political, religious or ethnic origins.” Iacopino also said the new health law “goes against thousands of years of universal medical practice.”

Atıcı said that the main problem is that requiring doctors to obtain official permission to treat patients is in direct conflict with their medical ethics; doctors have the ethical obligation to treat sick people at all times. 

The new law is therefore undermining humanitarian values and rights, putting the whole population at risk.Iacopino said that the “fact that the UN has opposed this bill indicates how dangerous and problematic this is for the medical community as well as for anyone seeking medical care.”

He said that “this is also in conflict with Articles 97 and 98 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK), which require medical personnel to provide emergency medical care.“

Article 46 of the health law was passed not to protect Turkish citizens from unregistered emergency medical providers as its supporters claim; it was passed to silence dissent -- including punishing emergency medical personnel for simply upholding their duty of providing care to anyone in need.”

Dr. Otmar Kloiber, secretary-general of the World Medical Association, wrote in an e-mail to Sunday's Zaman that "in the long run there has to be a political solution: a stronger development to democracy and more respect for civil society. Democracy and good governance are different from just having elections every four years and commanding and controlling in the meantime."Hmmmm.......Erdogan: "Democracy is like a train. We shall get out when we arrive at the station we want."Read the full story here.

We will shoot you, but don't expect medical assistance.

Laws don't prevent out-of-control violence against women in Turkey.

Laws don't prevent out-of-control violence against women in Turkey.(TZ).

Since its foundation, the Turkish Republic has always taken steps to strengthen the position of women in the social and political spheres, giving women the right to elect and be elected before many Western countries.

However, violence against women continues to be a source of embarrassment to Turkey, with large numbers of women falling victim to honor killings each year despite the official introduction of Law No. 6284 in March 2012 -- passed in accordance with a European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) convention on preventing and combating violence against women.
On Jan. 31, 2014, 19-year-old Hacer was buried. She had been strangled with a rope and thrown into a well by her two brothers because she was pregnant and unmarried. At the time of her death, she had lived in a Diyarbakır women's shelter until her family members brought her home, claiming that they weren't going beat her again. This proved to be tragically incorrect. Hacer was taken immediately to a deserted area and murdered. Afterwards, Hacer's family told those who knew Hacer that she had gone missing.Hacer's case is far from unique in Turkey.

In light of this situation, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy has initiated a national action plan to continue until 2015 with the goal of eradicating violence against women. The policy includes activities such as reaching out to young men during their compulsory military service with presentations about honor killings and women's human rights and training law enforcement officers, healthcare personnel and clerics.

The ministry's website states that so far, 71,000 police officers, 65,000 healthcare personnel and 17,000 religious officials have been offered guidance on how to better serve women facing violence.And yet, activists say the ministry's work neither desires nor achieves equality between the sexes, nor is it effective in creating awareness and or changing opinions.

The İstanbul Bar Association's Center of Women's Rights vice president, Afet Gülen Köse, told Sunday's Zaman that “even after passing Law No. 6284 after the European Court of Human Rights pronounced Turkey to be unwilling and unable to protect women, the Turkish state is still protecting the family, not women, who are not perceived as separate individuals.” 

Furthermore, Köse criticized the state for not opening sufficient numbers of Violence Prevention and Monitoring Centers (KOZA). “There is only one KOZA in İstanbul and two others in Bursa and İzmir. This is not enough to accommodate all the women who need protection and assistance,” said Köse.

Gönül İşler, president of the Association of Women's Rights Protection, shared a similar perspective with Köse, claiming that there is a big problem with law enforcement. “Even if the judge is a woman, she decides in a male-centric manner, supporting the man's side.

Women's rights activists have stated that the prevention of violence against women begins with acceptance of the idea of gender equality -- and believe that the recent legal support for women's rights has not succeeded precisely because it does not stem from this recognition in Turkey.

Zelal Ayman, a coordinator from Women for Women's Rights-New Ways, says the attitudes of Turkey's leaders -- especially of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan -- are especially unsupportive.

“He [Erdoğan] first advocated three children per family and spoke against abortion. Erdoğan considers women to belong to their families instead of themselves.”

In 2011 the Erdoğan government replaced the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs with the Ministry of Family and Social Policy, despite having received more than 3,000 signatures against the change. “We are a conservative democratic party. Family is important to us,” was the explanation. 

Commenting on the subject, Ayman says that during a meeting with representatives of women's organizations in 2010 at which she was present, Turkey's prime minister told participants that he didn't believe in gender equality. 

So Ayman asks: “How can we expect the police and the court to help us eliminate violence against women when they see a lack of women in leadership positions and get the message from authorities that there is no such a thing as gender equality?”Read the full story here.

Obama's BFF Turkish PM Erdogan says territories of Balkan countries belong to Turkey.

Obama's BFF Turkish PM Erdogan says territories of Balkan countries belong to Turkey.(FOCUS Information Agency).

Skopje. Greece rose to its feet as it reacted to comments made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the Turkish territory included the Greek part of Thrace, parts of Macedonia, Bulgaria and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonian Utrinski Vesnik announced.

“Thrace is Thessaloniki but at the same time it is Komotini and Xanthi,” Mr Erdogan said during a speech delivered as part of the campaign for next year’s local elections.

“It is also Kardzhali [in Bulgaria] and the Vardar River. Going further back, it is Skopje, Pristina and Sarajevo.”

Greece considered this statement anything else, but an expression of friendly attitude of a neighbouring country that Greece made attempts to overcome problems and establish partnership with.

“The Turkish PM tries to expand the Turkish conquests and claims concerning the Balkans,” Tanea.gr informed, while Imerisia.gr wrote: “Erdogan is incredible – Thessaloniki also belongs to Thrace”.
“In this way Erdogan continues with provocations in terms of breathing new life into the old but never forgotten plan to revive the “Turkish Republic of Thrace”, which includes portions of Greece, of southern Bulgaria and of the Central Balkans,” Tanea.gr also wrote.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson also today commented on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s words concerning territories which he stated belonged to Turkey.

The spokesperson stated that Bulgaria’s Foreign Ministry, proceeding from the assumption that Bulgarian-Turkish relations had been traditionally good and that a sitting of the Commission on Unresolved Issues was forthcoming, believed that such statements did not aid the development of bilateral dialogue aiming at efficient and pragmatic solutions [to issues].

The Foreign Ministry also stated that such interpretations connected with the Balkans past had to be handled carefully, having in mind the peculiarities in the history of the Balkan countries and the sensitivity they might invoke.

Prof. Bozhidar Dimitrov, Director of Bulgaria’s National Historical Museum, stated that such statements as the one on the part of Mr Erdogan should not be made, especially as Bulgaria and Greece, two of Turkey’s neighbouring countries, were EU member states.

As it is well known, Turkey is a candidate for EU membership and relies on Bulgarian and Greek support so that it could join the EU.Hmmmm.....Just keep in mind Iran never talked about increasing their territory, Erdogan often refers to increasing it.Who's more dangerous?........ Das Gross Osmanischen Reich?

"Yes we Can" - US to cut funding on Turkey's Chinese-missile purchase

"Yes we Can" - US to cut funding on Turkey's Chinese-missile purchase.(HD).

The U.S. Congress is set to adopt a law next week forbidding Turkey from using American funds to acquire a $4 billion missile system from a Chinese company blacklisted by Washington.

The United States has voiced deep concern over Turkey's decision in September to enter negotiations with China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation for its first long-range anti-missile system.

CPMIEC, which makes the HQ-9 missile system, is under U.S. sanctions for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria.

Turkey's move also irritated its allies in NATO, which has said missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must be compatible with each other.

The annual U.S. defense authorization bill, passed Thursday by the House, contains a clause barring the use of "2014 funds to integrate missile defense systems of the People's Republic of China into U.S. missile defense systems." "Such a system would not be compatible with, and should not be integrated with, missile defense systems of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization," the Senate and House Armed Services Committees said.

Without U.S. subsidies, the cost for Turkey to install the Chinese missiles becomes steeper.
The bill is expected to be approved in the Senate next week, before being signed into law by President Barack Obama.

CPMIEC beat competition from a U.S. partnership of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Russia's Rosoboronexport, and Italian-French consortium Eurosam for the multibillion-dollar deal. These companies have until January 31 to submit new bids.

FM Davutoğlu 'The “deportation” of Armenians in 1915 was inhumane, and Turkey has never supported the move.'

FM Davutoğlu 'The “deportation” of Armenians in 1915 was inhumane, and Turkey has never supported the move.'(HD).

The “deportation” of Armenians in 1915 was inhumane, and Turkey has never supported the move, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said yesterday as he made a landmark visit to the country’s long-time foe, Armenia.

Accompanied by Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu, Davutoğlu visited Yerevan for the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) group meeting. The top diplomat met with his Armenian counterpart, Edward Nalbandian, on the sidelines of the summit.

“We are very pleased with the meeting with Nalbandian; it was candid. The primary aim is to build an environment of dialogue on a strong basis,” Davutoğlu said after the meeting, while dismissing claims that he suggested to Armenia that it withdraw from two regions in Nagorno-Karabakh.

 Davutoğlu expressed his hope that a collective consciousness between the two countries could be created with a “just memory.”

“We say ‘just memory.’ What I mean with that is we should know the facts. Then we see that Turkish-Armenian relations do not date back like German-Jewish ties. In every street, there is a common sign.
After you discover this, then you see the deportation, which I see as a totally wrong practice done by [the Ottoman-era rulers under the Committee of Union and Progress]. It was inhumane,” Davutoğlu told a group of reporters en route to Yerevan.

Yerevan wants Ankara to recognize the mass killings of Armenians during the forced deportation in World War I as genocide, but Turkey has steadfastly refused to do so.

“But when you write a history taking the deportation into account, then a collective conscious was created from this side [Turkey] that Armenians betrayed their nation and deserved the deportation.
We should destroy these two collective consciousnesses. We abolished this wrong consciousness in 2005, but Armenians still have it,” he told reporters.

Primary aim not to open border

“Our primary aim is not open only the Turkish-Armenian border but to form a foundation that will pave the way for a comprehensive peace,” Davutoğlu said. “It has three pillars. The first one is relations between Turkey and Armenia. The second one is Azerbaijani-Armenian relations. This also includes Georgian-Abkhaz ties. The third one is relations between Turks and Armenians,” he said.

Turkey and Armenia signed protocols in 2009 to establish diplomatic relations and open their sealed borders, but neither succeeded in completing the process for different reasons.

“If one of the pillars is crippled, it will create distress. Let’s say we opened the Armenian border gate. If a war breaks out between Armenia and Azerbaijan, then we would be forced to close it again. The hardest thing is to defrost the iceberg of the status quo. You could start a war when you trying to defrost it,” he said.

The foreign minister said they were holding talks with the Armenian diaspora but were not publicizing the matter. “In the past, talking with the diaspora has been perceived as a threat or aimed for intelligence issues. Diplomats thought, ‘What would I do?’ if it were recorded. But now it has become a duty. Since that time, whenever I go abroad I meet with the Armenian community if there is one. We don’t publicly announce the people we meet due to the fact that extremist Armenians would cause problems,” he said. “What we realize is that if you cannot provide a basis in ties with the diaspora, that puts pressure on ties with Armenia and it becomes deadlocked.”

Hmmmm..........ARMENIAN GENOCIDE :

Between 1915 and 1918 the Ottoman Empire, ruled by Muslim Turks, carried out a policy to eliminate its Christian Armenian minority. This genocide was preceded by a series of massacres in 1894-1896 and in 1909, and was followed by another series of massacres beginning in 1920. By 1922 Armenians had been eradicated from their historic homeland.

Armenian Genocide denial

Turkey sees Israel behind campaign against pro Iran spy chief Hakan Fidan.

Turkey sees Israel behind campaign against pro Iran spy chief Hakan Fidan.(HD).

“We see this media campaign as an attack and there might be an Israeli effort behind it,” a Turkish intelligence source said on the phone yesterday. “Especially after the Washington Post story on Oct. 17 and the follow-ups with Jerusalem bylines.”

This is a bold claim and the source was referring to a story by seasoned journalist David Ignatius who claimed that Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) had given Iranian intelligence the names of 10 Iranians who had been in contact with Israel’s intelligence service, MOSSAD, upon the orders of Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan.

The story was based on “knowledgeable sources,” without giving any details about the leak while noting that Israel had seen Hakan Fidan, the head of MİT, as someone who had “friendly links with Tehran.”

There is a background to all of it. Ignatius was the moderator at the World Economic Forum panel in Davos on Jan. 29, 2009, when Erdoğan had his “One minute” storm against him for failing to give a chance to reply to Israeli President Shimon Peres who was also a panelist. And Israelis started to accuse Fidan almost at the same time as he was the Turkish sherpa during the U.N.-sponsored efforts on Iran’s nuclear program, before becoming MİT’s head.

Ankara thinks the WP story is part of a campaign that started with a Wall Street Journal story printed on Oct. 9 saying Fidan was acting “independently” on Syria operations, jeopardizing Western interests there.

The story also noted that the discomfort of the U.S. administration was increased during a May 16 lunch at the White House put on by U.S. President Barack Obama for Erdoğan in the presence of Fidan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Danilon. The WSJ story said Fidan was responsible for Turkey’s soft stance regarding al-Qaeda-affiliated opposition groups in the Syrian civil war.

Both of the stories were refuted by Davutoğlu on Oct. 17. “The claims attributed to Hakan Fidan are both untrue and an example of very bad, black propaganda. Fidan is doing his job,” he said.

But the feelings in the Turkish government regarding the “campaign” are stronger than those on-the-record words of Davutoğlu. One government official pointed to the timing of the media reports “targeting” Fidan. The official said the campaign coincided with approaching Syria talks in Geneva, which are expected to take place in late November, and a dramatic change in Iran’s relations with the West under its new president, Hassan Rouhani.

When asked about the WP story on the claim of “revealing the Israeli spy ring in Turkey to the Iranians,” U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki did not make any comment but said the U.S. had been working with the Turks as an ally on a range of issues and that the report had not changed relations with Turkey.

Sources in Ankara believe that besides trying to defame Turkey in U.S. eyes as a country tolerating terrorists like Iran – and because of its “independent tack” on Syria, amid an effort to try and corner it in a possible move in the U.S. Congress – Israel might have had another motivation. 
That might be, according to those sources who asked not to be named, an attempt to avoid paying compensation for the nine Turks killed by Israeli commandoes on May 31, 2010, on board the Mavi Marmara on its way to carry humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.

After the official apology from Netanyahu (which was brokered by Obama) on March 24, talks started for compensation to the families of the victims, albeit with no result, as Israel does not want to make the payments in the form of “compensation,” according to Israeli diplomatic sources talking to HDN. (MFS : Lie - Turkey wants more money)

Also, Erdoğan’s close relations with Hamas are another source of disturbance between the two. By coincidence, Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas, was received by Erdoğan in his office in Ankara on Oct. 9, the same day that the WSJ story published.

It is unclear whether an Israeli “plot” is behind the obvious campaign against Turkey’s intelligence chief and whether it is aimed at Erdoğan’s foreign policy choices, especially regarding the greater Middle East. 

Turkey is criticized at home and abroad for being distanced from the European Union and getting too involved with the uncertainties of the Middle East. Both the recent EU Progress Report, which calls for Turkey to foster higher standards of democracy to keep up with its European venture, and the Geneva Conference on Syria might be chances to fine-tune Turkish foreign policy.Hmmmm.....I KNEW IT'S A ZIONIST PLOT. :) Read the full 'story' here.

Related: Intelligence chief accused by US newspapers for doing duty: Turkish FM

"Israel's Staunchest Ally" - The mask is slowly coming off

"Israel's Staunchest Ally" - The mask is slowly coming off. By Caroline B. Glick.

Before his reelection, Obama felt constrained to pretend that he was serious about preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. He opposed but then grudgingly signed comprehensive sanctions passed overwhelmingly by both houses of Congress. He told AIPAC that he had Israel's back.

But now that he's no longer facing reelection, the jig is up.

Obama's new goal, which is enthusiastically supported by Ashton and her comrades in Brussels, is to use the new negotiations with Iran's phony baloney "moderate" new President — to give himself political cover to open the door to Iran acquiring nuclear bombs. Obama doesn't want to prevent Iran from getting the bomb. He wants to insulate himself from criticism when it gets the bomb.

Not only do the White House's lies about Iran's new "level of seriousness" give Obama the maneuver room to pretend he's acting responsibly, they also trap Israel into inaction. After all, how could Israel possibly bomb Iran's nuclear installations when Iran is negotiating so seriously, and is "this close" to making a groundbreaking agreement?

We shouldn't be surprised by this state of affairs. Obama has never acted in good faith with Israel.

Take the latest news on Turkey, for example. Thursday, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius reported that last year NATO member Turkey gave Iranian intelligence the identities of up to ten Iranian agents working for Mossad after they met with their Israeli case officers in Turkey. Turkey's action was a shocking betrayal of what was supposed to be a goal it shared with Israel and the US — preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Turkey willfully harmed Israeli efforts to achieve this goal by turning in ten Israeli agents.

Rather than taking action against Turkey, or simply acknowledging that the actions of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan represented a fundamental shift in Turkey's strategic outlook, Obama shrugged off Turkey's betrayal. The US didn't even protest Turkey's despicable deed. Instead, as Ignatius noted, "Turkish-American relations continued warming last year to the point that Erdogan was among Obama's key confidants."

A few months after Turkey colluded with Iran against Israel, Obama coerced Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu into apologizing to Erdogan for Israel's lawful maritime interdiction of the Mavi Marmara as it unlawfully sought to breach Israel's blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza coastline.

Israel is alone. We have no diplomatic option. No matter what Israel says, no matter what it does, neither the US nor any other Western power is ever going to be convinced to take the only step that would set back Iran's nuclear program — bombing Iran's nuclear installations. No matter what, neither Obama nor any European leader will ever support an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear installations.

Israel's back is to the wall. That is the meaning of the talks in Geneva. If we aren't prepared to live with a nuclear armed Iran then we have to stop talking and start acting. And we need to prepare for the diplomatic hell that will break loose thereafter.Hmmm....."Pour les vaincre, messieurs, il nous faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, et toujours de l'audace et la Patrie sera sauvée!" ~ Danton. Read the full story here.

"Sanctions that Benefit" - Turkey to import at least 5 mln Tonnes Iranian oil in 2014.

"Sanctions that Benefit" - Turkey to import at least 5 mln Tonnes Iranian oil in 2014.(Taz).

Turkey will take at least the same 5 million tonnes (100,000 barrel per day) of Iranian crude in 2014 that it is taking this year, as any more cuts in the volumes from Iran would "threaten" its economy, the Turkish energy minister said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Turkey is also importing 10 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year from Iran and would buy more if it was available, Taner Yildiz said in a briefing during the World Energy Congress in South Korea.

The European Union and the United States believe Iran is developing nuclear weapons, while Tehran says its programme is for power generation. Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear programme have cut its oil exports in half from pre-2012 levels and cost it billions of dollars a month in lost revenue.

"Now we are importing about 5 million tonnes and if we (reduce more) than that, then that would threaten our energy supply security," said Yildiz.

Turkey's energy demand doubled in the last ten years and will double again in the next ten, he said.
Turkey is also ready to take more Iraqi gas to help meet its energy needs if Iraq increases its gas output, he said.

The United States in June renewed six-month waivers on Iran sanctions for Turkey and eight other economies in exchange for their agreeing to reduce purchases of oil from Iran.

This week six world powers and Iran held two days of nuclear negotiations that the United States described as the most serious and candid to date. Western diplomats said Tehran hinted it was ready to scale back sensitive atomic activities to secure urgent sanctions relief.Hmmmm.......I've posted many times before about this Sanctions scam, it only gets more obvious as time passes where Turkey's allegiance lays.More here.

Related: 

As expected Obama will give BFF Turkey a waiver from sanctions, they 'only' import 45 percent of their oil from Iran and aid Iran avoiding sanctions.

Erdogan’s Turkey: Less nationalism, more Islam.

"The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers..." [Note: this is actually a poem that Erdogan was quoting. He spent four months in prison because of this speech.]

Erdogan’s Turkey: Less nationalism, more Islam.(TOI).

Despite reforms, Israeli experts believe the Turkish prime minister wants little more than to advance his own religious agenda.

Two dramatic announcements by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent shivers down the spines of many of the country’s secularists in September. Erdogan annulled a decades-long ban on wearing headscarves in public institutions and ended the daily reciting of the pledge of allegiance in primary schools. Both decisions took effect last week.

The changes are part of a larger campaign by Turkey’s Islamist government to implement a “democratization package” meant to address European requirements on minority rights and civil freedoms needed for the country’s bid for EU membership to be considered.

“Turkey is progressing irreversibly toward democracy. This package is a fundamental and historic phase of this progress,” Erdogan told journalists in Ankara on September 30, as he introduced the reforms. He added that it was but one step in a longer democratization process which began with the first victory of his Justice and Development party in 2002.

Israeli experts on Turkey, however, questioned the significance of Erdogan’s overtures towards the country’s minorities, viewing his actions as assertions of his own Islamist tendencies and his antipathy toward the harsh republican model instated by Turkey’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

“These moves could be viewed as part of Erdogan’s ongoing efforts to undo the Kemalist state,” said Dror Zeevi, who teaches modern Turkish history at Ben Gurion University in Beersheba.

Erdogan is genuinely interested in mitigating Turkey’s harsh secularism and nationalism, but is doing so selectively, Zeevi said. “[Erdogan] justifiably believes that secularism has something anti-democratic about it,” Zeevi noted. “The problem is that his democracy goes only so far. When people demonstrate against him at Gezi park, he goes wild. I don’t believe he’s entirely democratically inclined.”

If Erdogan were a true democrat, Zeevi continued, he would have agreed to discuss the demands of the large Greek Orthodox minority to recover property confiscated by the state in the 1920s and 1940s. Armenian grievances might also be addressed.

“He didn’t do all of this. Instead, he took very symbolic steps. Under the guise of openness towards minorities, Erdogan is advancing his own agenda.”

An op-ed published in the New York Times last week by Turkish researcher Halil M. Karaveli, claimed that far from helping Turkey’s minority, Erdogan was increasingly playing with sectarian fire.

“Erdogan is turning Turkey into a powder keg in an attempt to shore up his own political base,” Karaveli wrote. “He is intentionally activating the longstanding fault lines separating religious and secular Turks — and most dangerously the divide between the country’s Sunni majority and its Alevi minority. If he continues to do so, Turkish democracy itself could become a casualty of his confrontational policies.”

Anat Lapidot-Firilla, a Turkey researcher at Jerusalem’s Van Leer Institute, said Erdogan was trying to push a worldview which is much more “religious and conservative” than “nationalistic.” She added, however, that it was still too early to judge whether his program will succeed.

“There are two opposing trends here,” Lapidot-Firilla said, referring to the simultaneous freedoms granted to the Kurdish (non-Sunni) minority and Erdogan’s emphasis on Turkey’s Sunni Islamist character. “It’s like a puzzle that doesn’t really come together.”

Whatever Erdogan’s intentions, it is doubtful whether the European Union will embrace Turkey in the near future, she added. Europe enjoys using Turkey’s membership bid as a means of pressuring it into implementing civil rights reforms, all the while depriving the huge Muslim country of membership in the predominantly Christian EU.

“Everyone is very happy with Turkey remaining in the EU’s waiting room, neither entering nor exiting,” she said.Hmmmm.......Erdogan: "Democracy is like a train. We shall get out when we arrive at the station we want." Read the full story here.

64 journalists under arrest, and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism Turkish main opposition announces.

64 journalists under arrest, and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism Turkish main opposition announces.(HD).

             

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu referred to the Turkey Journalists’ Labor Union’s (TGS) July 22 assessment that 59 journalists had been removed from post for their news reports on the Gezi Park unrest. DHA photo

--> There are 64 journalists under arrest and another 123 are facing trial on charges of terrorism, the Republican People’s Party (CHP) has announced, with the party’s leader underlining that Turkey ranks 154th out of 179 countries in media freedom.

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu released the outcome of the party’s research into all journalists that have been facing prosecution, presenting the “Report on Imprisoned Journalists” today at a press conference at the party’s headquarters.

Kılıçdaroğlu also referred to the Turkey Journalists’ Labor Union’s (TGS) July 22 assessment that 59 journalists had been removed from post for their news reports on the Gezi Park unrest.

“We are experiencing a process in which the government and the police audits together, [in which] the media bosses are under the rule of political authority and publish the news that the political authority accepts,” he said, adding that those in power, as well as media bosses, were also instituting censorship or driving journalists to engage in self-censorship. “We have gone 105 years back in time.”

Even during the aftermath of the Sept. 12, 1980, coup, only 31 journalists were arrested, Kılıçdaroğlu said, calling the government’s current attitude on the matter a “police state mentality.”

“Mr. Prime Minister [Recep Tayyip Erdoğan] has turned the country into a half-open penitentiary and made it impossible to live for journalists,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, while noting the approach of Journalism Day, which is marked on July 24 in Turkey.

“Journalism is a public duty. Only in a country in which a journalist can work freely can we talk about democracy,” he said. “I call out to media bosses: Leave the kitchen of the newspaper alone, when you apply censorship on them, when you lay them off from work, someday we will bring you to account,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

The CHP took up the matter following a joint press conference between Erdoğan and visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel in February in which the former responded to a German correspondent’s question about arrested journalists by saying: “The number of arrested journalists is not more than the number of fingers on one’s hand. Those journalists were not arrested for their journalism.”

CHP deputies Veli Ağbaba, Özgür Özel and Nurettin Demir, who conducted the survey, also attended today’s press conference. Hmmmm.......“Withholding information is the essence of tyranny. Control of the flow of information is the tool of the dictatorship.” ― Bruce Coville.Read the full story here.

Video - "Nobel Peace Prize" Candidate Erdogan's Police beginning to evict Taksim Square on 29 june Istanbul.

Council of Europe chief ready to nominate Turkish PM for Noble Peace Prize.

Council of Europe chief ready to nominate Turkish PM for Noble Peace Prize.

Stalin and Hitler were both nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize!

Council of Europe chief ready to nominate Turkish PM for Noble Peace Prize.(Focus).
Ankara. Turkish Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin held talks with Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, who is on a visit to Turkey.
After the meeting she said that “the process of EU integration strengthens Turkey’s positions and weight”, Turkish NTV reported.
Later on the minister wrote on her twitter page about her impressions from the meeting with Mr Jagland, as follows: “Apart from Secretary General of the Council of Europe Thorbjørn Jagland, who told me literary the following: “Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a Noble Prize candidate if he manages to solve the Kurdish issue”, is also Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee”. At the meeting Minister Şahin confessed that the violence over women in Turkey was a problem of the society and there was a need to take the necessary steps in this field.Hmmmm.......European Court of Human Rights: " Turkey is worst human rights violator."Read the full story here.

The big energy game in Mediterranean.

The big energy game in Mediterranean. (HD).

The British Petroleum company announced on June 28 that the natural gas from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea fields of Shah Deniz will be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) via the Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) for European markets. This project is likely to kill Nabucco softly.

This will be the first big project to pump Caspian basin gas directly to the industrial centers of Europe, bypassing the needs for shipment and expensive liquidification stations. The 1,730-kilometer TANAP is planned to carry Azeri gas across Turkey to the border with Greece. Set to be coupled with the already-existing InterConnector line to the 870-kilometer long TAP, it will be carried (crossing Albania, too) to the San Foca terminal of Adriatic Italy. For a start, by 2020 some 16 billion cubic meters will be pumped from Baku. Turkey is planning to buy 10 bcm of it to diversify its sources of energy, as an alternative to Russian gas. The capacity of the line is expected to rise gradually to 31 bcm by 2026.
Azerbaijan has been making considerable energy investments in its close partner Turkey, buying oil refineries, and constructing new ones on top of an already-existing (again BP-operated) pipeline carrying oil from Baku through Tiblisi to Turkey’s Mediterranean port of Ceyhan; which is just next to NATO’s İncirlik Air Base that hosts one of the biggest U.S. military presences in the region.

Well, people talk about the Adriatic Sea and Aegean Sea, but they are all parts of the Mediterranean around which the Old World civilization was formed.
In other parts of the Mediterranean, another, a more tense part of the energy game is going on. Syria has been in a civil war for the last two years, escalating the tension in the East Mediterranean further. The term East Mediterranean includes still-unsettled Egypt, which hosts a major energy channel – the Suez – the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece in the north and the island of Cyprus right in the middle of everything.
Off the shores of Cyprus and Israel, new and reportedly new gas fields have been discovered. The Greek Cypriot government, ignoring Turks’ calls to make use of all (including their) resources together, opened tenders to produce and sell the gas to Europe, also as a cure to its bankrupt economy. Turkey, on the other hand, announced that it will blacklist all companies cooperating with the Greek Cypriot gas project from Turkish energy projects; that vow became real for Italian Eni, which actually built the “Blue Stream” gas pipeline under the Black Sea carrying Russian gas to Turkey.
Israel wants to carry its gas to European markets. They know that the shortest route is a pipeline via Turkey, especially after the U.S. made economic use of shale gas, which made LNG terminals and shipping costs more deterrent. Israelis also know that when their government pays the compensation sourcing from an apology for killing nine Turks in 2010 and the politics is back on track, there is no obstacle to that project.
But the Greek Cypriots insist on building an LNG terminal and invite Israel to contribute, which might make things more complicated with Turkey. Another GreekCypriot project is to build a pipeline under the Mediterranean to mainland Greece with the support of the European Union. The distance between Cyprus and mainland Greeceis approximately 850 kilometers as the crow flies (distances to Greek islands are no less: 450 kilometers to Rhodes, 550 kilometers to Crete). The distance between Turkey and Cyprus is 70 kilometers.
But that is not the whole story. As the situation in Syria deteriorates, Russia has started to evacuate the personnel from its military base in the Tartus port of Syria, which has been its only one in the whole region. On
the other hand Moscow sent a part of its Pacific Fleet to the East Mediterranean to be a “permanent” power there. Russian ships are now anchored at the Limassol and Baphos ports of Greek Cyprus, a member of the EU. The Russians have asked the Greek Cypriot government to ink a military deal with them similar to the one Nicosia signed with Germany, another EU member, and also a member of NATO. (Yes, the Germans have an exclusive military agreement with the Greek Cypriots, which also explains the risingGerman pressure on Turkey regarding Cyprus.)
As more Azeri gas and oil start to feed the energy needs of Europe, despite the competition from the Russians, Iranians and Arabs in a few years, there is likely to be more presence of the American 6th Fleet in the East Mediterranean.Read the full story here.

"Islamist Turkey" - 'Last Hiccups Of Secularism In Turkey'; 'The Onslaught Of Western Culture And Civilization … Has Changed The [Turkish] National Culture'.

"Islamist Turkey" - 'Last Hiccups Of Secularism In Turkey'; 'The Onslaught Of Western Culture And Civilization … Has Changed The [Turkish] National Culture'.HT: Memri.

Below are excerpts from two articles in Roznama Islam, an Urdu-language Islamist daily in Pakistan, which examined the recent protests by secular forces in Turkey and their likely impact on the rest of the Islamic world.

In an article, "Last Hiccups Of Secularism In Turkey," columnist Dr. Sajid Khakwani argued that the era of secularism is now over in Turkey, and its impact will be felt in other Islamic countries, stating that like communism, secularism too will be buried forever.

In the second article, "Anti-Government Protest Continues In Turkey," Islamic cleric Maulana Mohammad Azhar argued that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist policies are popular in the country and that his party will win again. He also notes that viewing the Turkish protests as similar to the Arab Spring protests is incorrect, as they will not end the Erdogan government's reign.

The following are excerpts from Dr. Sajid Khakwani's article:

"Ever since the artificial and conspiratorial ending of the Ottoman Caliphate, [Turkey's] secular leadership kept its tyrannical claws pierced the necks of Turkish Muslims, and for about three-quarters of a century military generals used gunpower to protect the secular rulers in the garb of democracy. After a long time, as the stinking ideology of secularism became unbearable to the Turkish people and their patience boiled over, and [in view of] the huge countrywide support that the Justice [and Development] party of the orthodox Tayyip Erdogan received in the last three elections, it would not be wrong to call it the last nail in the coffin of secularism.

"Like the lamp that glitters in full bloom before being extinguished, the remaining and defeated secularists are peeping out through their coffin with the blessings from internal and external elements, and are sabotaging their own established democratic norms against the Islamist leaders. These secular people have many complaints, and the biggest among them is that the present orthodox rulers have tarnished Turkey's secular image. They should first answer: why has secularism sullied the Islamic identity of Turkey, and who has given this right to the traitors of the Ummah to deprive the entire Muslim Ummah of the soothing shadow of the Islamic caliphate, and chain them with the tyrannical and brutal shackles and handcuffs of European secularism and hereditary monarchy?

"Allah gave power to the Justice party in Turkey for their services to the people. Najmuddin [Necmettin] Erbakan, and after him Tayyip Erdogan, won the hearts of the people during their rule. Urban areas of Turkey which were filled with filth during the rule of secular leaders are now clean like mirrors, because cleanliness and neatness is among the first teachings of Islam. Turkey, which was economically the sick man of Europe during the times of secular rulers and whose currency was touching the lowest ebb, is now being considered among the top countries of Europe under the Islamists' rule, due to their best economic policies….

"The secular rulers had maintained Turkey's foreign policy under [the influence of] the most notorious fascist state of the world, Israel, while the Islamist rulers gave Turkey a respectable status among the world community by maintaining a balanced foreign policy despite being a NATO member. The Turkish leadership not only raised its voice globally in favor of Burmese Muslims [following the recent killings by majority Buddhists], but also visited that country and put ointment on the running sore of the helpless Burmese Muslims. The secular rulers lived their tenure with military support, while Islamists drove away the military generals from the highest educational and administrative institutions of the country. Besides that, strengthening national and democratic institutions, including peace and security, educational development, safeguarding of human rights and religious freedom, instead of individual rules, have been the hallmark of the Islamist rulers. "

"Now The Writing Is On The Wall That Secularism Will Be Buried Beside The Grave Of Communism And The Future of The Human World Will Remain Attached To The Crown Of Prophethood [Muhammad]"

Hmmmm........Obama's BFF ..Erdogan......Ahmadinejad and Hamas BFF.Read the full story here.

PM Erdoğan is Turkey’s 'new dictator,' main opposition leader says.

PM Erdoğan is Turkey’s 'new dictator,' main opposition leader says. (HD).

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become “the new dictator of Turkey.”

“There are 7 billion people in the world. Making mistakes is natural for people and they correct their mistakes, and when it’s needed they apologize. This is a human virtue. If we make a mistake, we know how to apologize. But he [Erdoğan] says, ‘I do not make mistakes.’ He says, ‘if you don't do what I say, you can't be right.’ His name is Turkey’s new dictator, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, addressing his party’s group meeting today at Parliament.

Kılıçdaroğlu added that the “young protesters of Gezi Park had made a dictator kneel down.” “Now in a panic he is organizing meetings across the country, all he does is yell, but the only one who listens him is himself. Do not pay attention to all the broadcasters’ live streams from his meetings. Nobody listens to what he says. There is one word when it comes to defining Erdoğan: liar,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.

A heated crowd in Parliament interrupted Kılıçdaroğlu’s words several times, chanting: “Resign Erdoğan.”

The CHP head said Erdoğan had tried several methods to break the solidarity among the protesters. “He was going to claim that those protesters are nonbelievers, and then he saw some performing their prayers in Taksim Square. He was going to say our daughters wearing headscarves were being the target of protesters, then he saw some of the protesters wearing headscarves,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.

He also accused Erdoğan of acting with sectarian motives after the Reyhanlı bombings on Turkey’s border with Syria in Hatay’s Reyhanlı district, which killed 52 people in May 11.

“Our 52 citizens lost their lives in the Reyhanlı bombings. And he said ‘our 52 Sunni citizens lost their lives.’ For the first time in Turkey’s history even the sects of deaths were discriminated,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, rhetorically asking whether Erdoğan "has feelings of shame."

Turkey’s current prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, believes drinking alcohol is a sin. Even as mayor of Istanbul, he bullied bar owners and banned the serving of alcohol on government-owned property. Four weeks ago, he pushed through a new alcohol law that prohibits both the selling of alcoholic beverages after 10 p.m. and advertising for beer and wine. 
“The old alcohol law,” he told the parliament, “was passed by two drunkards. Shouldn’t we prefer the law of God instead?” One of the drunkards he was referring to was Atatürk, and the other was apparently Atatürk’s successor, Ismet Inönü.

The Turks don’t have a particular problem with alcoholism. But the seemingly minor change to the country’s alcohol laws touches on a fundamental issue nonetheless. The country’s very identity is at stake — just as it is when it comes to social norms on clothing, beard styles and family planning.Hmmm........“Thank God Almighty,” said Mr. Erdogan in 1994, when he was the mayor of Istanbul. “I am a servant of Shariah.” .....Obama's BFF. Read the full story here.