Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Turkey

Showing posts with label Turkey. Show all posts

Monday, October 28, 2013

Gays, Kurds not protected in Turkish hate-crimes draft bill

A draft presented to the Cabinet concerning hate crimes does not include provisions for those targeted because of their sexual orientation or ethnic identity.

The draft, which designates “hate and prejudice” as an aggravation cause for crimes, was presented as one of the reforms that government vowed to implement as part of its “democracy package.”

However, hate and prejudice crimes are defined in the draft as “crimes committed based on someone’s or some group’s language, race, nationality, skin color, gender, disability, political views, philosophical beliefs or religion,” excluding those based on ethnicity and sexual orientation, different to many European countries.

With the exclusion of ethnicity as a characteristic that could be basis of a hate crime, assaults against ethnic minorities in Turkey that don’t have a nation recognized by the United Nations would be charged with a regular punishment. For example, if an Armenian person in Turkey is targeted for being an Armenian, the crime committed against them will be regarded as a hate crime and whatever the crime is, its penalty would be aggravated.

On the hand, the largest ethnic minority in Turkey, Kurds, is not included in the regulation, as it does not have a U.N.-recognized country.

Although gender is included, the same is true for gays and lesbians, as attacking a person based on their sexual orientation is not regarded as a hate or prejudice crime, according to the draft.

Sounds like EU material, no?

The EU is funding illegal settlers! (Illegal Turkish settlers, that is.)

From Wikipedia:

The demographic character of Northern Cyprus changed after the Turkish invasion in 1974 and especially during the last 10–15 years. The TRNC census carried out in April 2006 showed that out of a total population of 256,644 in Northern Cyprus, 132,635, or 52%, were Turkish Cypriots in the sense that they were born in Cyprus of at least one Cyprus-born parent (for 120,007 of these both parents were Cyprus-born). In addition, 43,062 TRNC citizens (17%) had at least one non-Cypriot Turkish-born parent, 2,334 TRNC citizens (1%) had parents born in other countries, 70,525 residents (27%) had Turkish citizenship, and 8,088 (3%) were citizens of other countries (mainly UK, Bulgaria, and Iran). Based on these census data, it can be argued that 113,687 TRNC residents, or 44% of the population, are not Turkish Cypriots properly speaking, but are in fact "Turkish immigrants" or "Turkish settlers" from Anatolia. Alternative sources suggest that there are 146,122 Turkish settlers from Anatolia in TRNC (2007 figures) and that the Turkish Cypriots in Northern Cyprus are today outnumbered by the Turkish settlers, contrary to the picture presented by the 2006 TRNC census.

Almost one-third of the Turkish settlers in Northern Cyprus have been granted TRNC citizenship by the authorities of Northern Cyprus and have thus been naturalized. Settlement in Northern Cyprus, especially if accompanied by naturalization, is a violation to the Geneva Conventions Protocol of 1977, since the Turkish occupation has been declared illegal by the UN. The Republic of Cyprus government regards these Turkish immigrants as "illegal settlers" and does not include them in the population estimates for the entire island published by the Republic of Cyprus Statistical Service.[5]

So given that roughly half of the residents of northern Cyprus are illegal settlers, and the land is under illegal occupation by Turkey, certainly the EU would never consider investing in the illegal occupation, right?

Not really. Here is a glossy brochure from the EU that brags about all of the projects it is proudly sponsoring there:

Nowhere in this brochure, nor in the 2006 EU resolution to help the Turkish Cypriots, is any distincton made between the natives and the illegal settlers - all of them benefit equally from the EU programs to help the environment, co-existence, farming, education, infrastructure and so forth.

By any measure, the EU is funding the Turkish settlement enterprise.

Eugene Kontorovich describes the hypocrisy in a JPost op-ed (in yesterday's linkdump)

Under guidelines prepared earlier this summer, euros would not be allowed to go to Israeli entities located cross the Green Line – or to those that have any operations there. All Israeli entities applying for funding would have to submit a declaration that they do not have such operations.

Europe claims that such a move – unparalleled in its dealings with any other country – is mandated by international law. The EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories, and thus has an obligation to keep its money from going there. Those who celebrated the move said that Israel is finally paying the international price for its occupation.

Yet it turns out that despite the guidelines, the EU still knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is. So the EU funds the occupation of an EU member state. Turkey’s invasion and occupation of Cyprus in 1974 was condemned the UN Security Council, and the EU’s official policy is that the Turkish occupation is illegitimate, and Turkey must completely withdraw. The EU does not recognize the Turkish government in Northern Cyprus.

Nonetheless, the EU maintains an entire separate program to direct funds to Northern Cyprus.
...
Projects include study abroad scholarships for students at the numerous Northern Cyprus universities (imagine such funding for students at Ariel University!); developing and diversifying the private sector through grants to small and medium- sized businesses; various kinds of infrastructure improvements (telecom upgrades, traffic safety, waste disposal); community development grants, funding to upgrade “cultural heritage” sites, and so forth. They even put on a concert.

The program basically gives grants to the Turkish business and private entities, and builds the infrastructure of the occupying government. The EU is doing exactly what its claims, in the settlement guidelines, international law prohibits.

The relevant EU resolutions and reports make no mention of any international legal question about such funding.

There are real differences between the EU’s funding policies toward Turkey’s occupied territories and Israel’s territories: the former is a much starker contradiction of the principles the Europeans proclaim to uphold. The settlement guidelines aim to regulate groups based in Israel proper, and goes out of its way to make sure no money might be incidentally spent in the West Bank (or Golan or, oddly, Gaza). Yet the Northern Cyprus project is not simply an outgrowth of standing arrangements with Turkey or Cyprus, but rather a particular funding program that by definition funds 100% occupation activities.

Indeed, the EU maintains an office in Northern Cyprus to oversee its over “1000 grant contracts...to NGOs, SMEs, farmers, rural communities, schools and students,” according to an EU report.

This office liaises directly with the Turkish occupation regime in the territory.

Hmmmm. One standard for Israel, another for everyone else. Sounds very familiar.

Turkish police beat, threaten to rape detainees

From Hurriyet Daily News, during the Gezi demonstrations, but I don't recall seeing it anywhere:

What you will read below is extremely disturbing. It is the firsthand impressions of a Boğaziçi (Bosphorus) University student who was detained by police in connection with the Gezi Park incidents in Istanbul.

The entry you will read below came through the Internet. It was on the Facebook page of the person narrating. It was also in Hürriyet columnist Yalçın Bayer’s web version of his column. It was sent to Yalçın Bayer by Professor Işık Aytaç, again from Bosphorus University, as the account of her student Erkan Yolalan, who shared his story on his Facebook page....

“Last night (June 3, 2013) around 9 p.m. I was detained in Beşiktaş, at traffic lights on Barbaros Avenue. I was not involved in any action like swearing or throwing stones. They took me in bending my arm the moment they saw me. Some friends of mine saw on TV how I was taken into custody. Then hell began.

“After crossing the lights in the direction of the seaside, while I was at the edge of the platform where the IETT bus stops are at the seaside, any policeman who was there and any riot police squad member (çevik kuvvet) who saw me started kicking and punching me. For about 100-150 meters, in other words, all the way to the Kadıköy ferry station, whoever was present there was kicking and punching. Insults and curses such as ‘Are you the ones to save this country, mother f***, sons of ****,’ never ended. I could not count how many people hit me before I reached the detention bus.

“Just as I was taken near the buses, a few policemen called from behind a bus, ‘Bring him here.’ They took me behind the bus and started kicking and punching me there. I learned later that because of the cameras they took me behind the bus to beat me.

“When I was inside the detention bus (İETT) the lights were out, and I heard a girl’s voice begging inside the bus: ‘I did not do anything, sir.’ I could not even see who was hitting me as I was taken inside the bus and after I was in the bus. The only thing I was able to do in the dark was to cover my head. Curses and insults continued. I sat. Everyone who was passing near me was hitting me. I got up and went to a corner. They wanted me to take a seat again. I told them everyone who passed by was hitting me when I was seated.

They again swore, slapped and punched me and made me sit.

“They were hitting the girl and throttling her. A civilian policeman whose name is İsmail said exactly this to the girl, ‘I will bend you over and f*** you right now.’ [He – Erkan Yolalan- later added that this policeman İsmail also said, “Now that it is dark and the lights are off I will ****”]

“And the response of the girl was heartbreaking. With a low voice, she could only say ‘Yes, sir.’

“And next, we, the three people present at the bus, were forced to shout: ‘I love the Turkish police. I love my country.’ They made us yell this again and again ordered us to make it ‘louder, louder.’ The insults and beating did not come to an end.

“The atmosphere seemed a bit calmer, but this time they brought another young person. The guy’s nose was broken. When I asked him why he didn’t protect his face, he told me ‘Two people held me by force and a third person punched my nose three times.’ From time to time there were others brought in.

“A young person named Mustafa from Bahçeşehir University was brought then. Twenty policemen from the riot squad had attacked him, and he looked too weak even to stand up. Slapping and punching him near the detention bus was not enough for them, they hit his head with a helmet. That was not enough either, they hit his head on the bus window. They took him inside the bus while continuously hitting him. His hands were cuffed from behind; his head was bleeding; they made him sit on the floor.
[...]

“Once we were at the police station, an army of lawyers was waiting for us. And the policemen now were talking to us on polite terms.

The columnist goes on to predict what will happen:

Note to international readers: Do you know what will happen? This person Erkan will be terrorized with scores of lawsuits filed against him by the policemen in question, all testifying that he attacked them first. The public prosecutor will process these cases much faster, even before the cases against them begin. Collecting the evidence will take ages. The guy and all the others on that detention bus and any others testifying for him will be found guilty and will be given jail sentences. Earmark this paragraph for future reference.

So what the hell was Erdogan talking about?

This news is all over Israeli and Jewish news media today; here's the version from JTA:

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Israel was behind last month’s military coup in Egypt.

Erdogan told a meeting of the provincial chairs of his ruling Justice and Development, or AKP, party that he has evidence that Israel was involved in the July 3 overthrow of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, the Turkish Hurriyet news service reported.

“Who is behind this? Israel. We have evidence,” the prime minister said, according to Hurriyet.

He cited as proof a statement by a French intellectual he identified as Jewish, who told the Israeli justice minister during a visit to France before Egypt’s 2011 elections, “The Muslim Brotherhood will not be in power even if they win the elections. Because democracy is not the ballot box,” Hurriyet reported.

Who is this "French Jewish intellectual"?

Almost certainly it is Bernard-Henri Lévy, the rock-star philosopher of France.

Here is what he wrote in the Huffington Post after the Egyptian elections:

Let's not tell ourselves any stories.

The Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate just won the presidential election in Egypt, is not a democratic organization.

They were not at Tahrir Square, in Cairo, at the beginning of the revolution.

Engaged in a curious game where, as long as they were left free to do their (economic, financial and other) trafficking, the army had already handed over an entire part of the prerogatives (concerning health and education, for example) that are normally those of a State, they began by doing everything they could to curb the movement.

I remember, on February 20th, at their headquarters in El-Malek El-Saleh street, an edifying encounter with Saad Al-Hoseiny, a member of the strategic leadership of the Brotherhood, whose attitude towards the insurgent peoples' demands for rights and liberty was, to say the least, one of prudence, if not ambivalence or even hostility.

Worse, we can never be reminded enough that the organization whose pale apparatchik is in the process of acceding to the leadership of the largest Arab nation was born in the late '20s as a totalitarian sect, inspired by Naziism, one whose founder, Hassan Al-Banna, never neglected an occasion to inscribe Adolf Hitler after Saladin, Abu Bakr or Abdelaziz al-Saoud in the lineage of "reformers" whose "patience, firmness, wisdom and obstination" had guided humanity.

...Scarcely more than a quarter of registered voters adhere to the president-elect's supposedly "moderate" Islamism.

Better still, there exists today in Egypt a huge "modern party" that, though certainly divided and rife with contradictions, consists of half of the electorate.

Or, even better put, it means that a battle is engaged where there will be, on one side, as usual, the military-Islamist bloc, and on the other, this formerly unheard of bloc that, though disorganized, has not renounced the spirit and the hope of the Tahrir Commune, and no one knows what the outcome of this battle will be.

Revolutions are not events but processes. These processes are long, conflictual, fraught with sudden leaps forward and discouraging retreats. But nothing says that things will not happen in Egypt at this dawn of the 21st century as they have in other great countries, heirs of immense civilizations that have taken time to give birth to their respective futures -- France, for example, where we had to pass through the Terror, the counter-Terror, two Empires and a Commune crushed in blood before we saw the birth of the Republic, or these countries that have emerged from a long communist coma and are groping towards a democracy whose first stage will have been the return to power, at the voting booth, of this or that Communist Party, or, worse, the appearance of a chimera named Putin, synonym of crimes that are right in line with those of the red czars of the last century.

Will we regret the fall of the Wall because of the war in Chechnya? 1789 and the glorious Gironde because of the massacres of September? No, of course not. And that is why the sombre lesson coming, these days, from Cairo does not make me regret the breath of spring of Tahrir. The promise is still alive. The struggle continues.

Levy's antipathy towards the Islamists is obvious, and almost certainly Erdogan is twisting his words (not to mention that the idea that a conversation between Levy and an Israeli official is an absurd proof of Israeli actions) but Levy believes that revolutions are not one-time moments but a continuous, time-consuming process, and that the process includes elections but is not exclusive to them.

Indeed, he seems to be almost prophetic about the current events in Egypt in this June 2012 article.

Israeli export markets: #1 - US. #2 - UK. #3 - Turkey

From Haaretz:

Exports to the United States, Israel's largest export market, totaled $5.4 billion in the first half this year, an increase of 9% over the same period last year, according to figures provided by the Israel Export and International Cooperation Institute. Pharmaceuticals were a major source of this growth, though exports still grew by 4% when pharmaceuticals are excluded.

Israel’s top export destinations in the first half of 2013 were the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain and France. ...

Israeli exports to the UK reached $1.7 billion in the first half of 2013, a 15% increase over the same period the year before. The jump in exports to the British market occurred almost entirely in the pharmaceutical sector, which constitutes some 60% of total Israeli exports to that country, according to the institute’s analysis.

While the U.S. and the UK retained their previous spots in the export rankings, Turkey jumped three places, from sixth to third, on the list this year. Exports to the Turkish market rose a whopping 56% in the first half of this year, compared to last, totaling $1.2 billion. According to the institute's analysis, the growth in exports to Turkey was due to a doubling of chemical and refined petroleum product exports, from $465 million in the first half of 2012 to $915 million in the first half of this year. ...

According to a separate article last month, Turkey is also still a market for military exports:

The head of SIBAT spoke about the crisis with Turkey and said that "defense exports to Turkey were never halted, and are weighed according to the interests of the State of Israel. The relationship that existed in recent years didn't continue, but if you look at the numbers – defense exports to Turkey were not zero." He says that although "most of it was composed of continuing contracts and past contracts, there are now requests for new transactions that we are examining."

Time for BDS to protest Turkey for buying Zionist goods.

Turks scream "Death to Israel" at Mavi Marmara ceremony

From NPR:

Thousands of people crowded into a port area on Istanbul's European side Sunday to welcome the aid ship Mavi Marmara, scene of a deadly clash off the Gaza coast in May. Volunteers from the Islamic charity IHH (Humanitarian Relief Foundation) directed the crowd past huge posters of the eight Turks and one Turkish-American who died in the violence.

Chants of "Israel be damned!" rang out from the crowd as the ship was eased into dock. The anti-Israel sentiment threatened to undo tentative diplomatic efforts to restore Turkish-Israeli ties, which plummeted following the May 31 fatalities.

Israel's Channel 10 had a video report from Turkey where the reporter said that the protesters called out "Death to Israel" at the prompting of the speakers. The organizaers gave out buttons saying "Damn Israel" in Turkish, and some even had anti-Israel signs in Hebrew.

(h/t Joel)

Wikileaks: Concern about IHH in December 2009

In a recently released cable dated December 4th, 2009 it is mentioned that the Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes raised concerns about IHH, the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation. The same organization which purchased the Mavi Marmara and joined a flotilla of ships going to Gaza in May 2010.

The cable states that the IHH is "a large NGO providing material assistance to Hamas". [NAME REMOVED] surprisingly said to the Assistant Secretary that he was not familiar with the NGO but would look into the matter.

The same person whose name is removed from the cable states that Turkey and private Turks "sympathize with the needs of people in Gaza" and will send money directly to the people and work to "convince our Israeli friends to send help also".

Turkey selling gasoline to Iran - at a nice profit

From Reuters:

Turkey's decision to sell gasoline to Iran despite U.S. sanctions, designed to squeeze the Tehran's supply of petroleum products, has shone a spotlight on the two countries' growing trade relationship.

Turkey already buys a third of its [natural] gas imports from Iran and is looking to expand its relationship to power sales and the transit of Iranian gas to Europe.

Iran is the second-largest crude oil producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) but relies on imports for up to 40 percent of its gasoline needs because it lacks refining capacity.

The U.S. sanctions, in addition to measures from the European Union and the United Nations, aim to pressure the Islamic Regime over its nuclear programme, which the West says may be a front for building nuclear weapons.

Iran has been forced to look to Turkey, Russia, China and even Venezuela for gasoline as a result of the sanctions, which have discouraged its traditional suppliers in Europe and Asia.

After not selling any gasoline to Iran in the previous 18 months, Turkey in June started to supply the equivalent of 10 percent of Iran's total monthly gasoline use, according to figures from the Turkish government and Iranian oil ministry.

The sale of 1.2 million barrels netted Turkey revenues of $121.8 million -- 25 percent above the normal market rate -- even before sanctions took effect.

Turkey's sales of gasoline to Iran nose-dived in July as sanctions took effect, but the Turkish Energy Minister said on Wednesday the government would support private firms that looked to trade refined petroleum products with Iran.

A source at state-owned oil refiner Tupras (TUPRS.IS: Quote), who did not wish to be identified, perhaps summed up the current mood in Turkey: "For us, Iran is more important than America, because we get crude oil from them. We don't get anything from America."

So why exactly is Turkey considered an ally again? Gasoline is Iran's Achilles' heel and of all the half-hearted and belated Western sanctions on Iran, this is the one that had the highest likelihood of working. Now it is being sabotaged by our Turkish friends.

And the window of using that as a pressure point is closing, according to Iran's Fars news agency:

Official data also said that Tehran has imported 1 mln tons of gasoline during the last two months and after the approval of the UN Security Council 1929 sanctions resolution against the country.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE), Turkey, Turkmenistan, the Netherlands, Singapore, Oman and Saudi Arabia have been Iran's main gasoline suppliers in the last four months.

Meantime, Iranian Oil Minister Masoud Mir-Kazzemi announced in July that the country will turn into a gasoline exporter with a production capacity of 170mln liters in 2013.

Saying that several petrol refining projects are underway in the country, Mir-Kazzemi reiterated that Iran will develop a daily production capacity of 170mln liters of gasoline in three years, while the country's daily domestic consumption will only amount to 66mln liters and it can, thus, export its excess production.

White House denies threatening Turkey

So much for this story....

From Politico:

The White House denied a report Monday that the U.S. has threatened Turkey with potentially withholding future arms sales because of its tougher stance towards Israel and vote against U.N. Iran sanctions.

Obama “emphatically denied” a Financial Times story saying the president had told Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that future arms sales would be contingent on softening his anti-Israel talk, White House pool reporter Jonathan Weisman of The Wall Street Journal writes.

Earlier today, the Financial Times cited an Obama administration official who said that the U.S. had warned Turkey that its harder posture on Israel and vote against U.N. Iran sanctions would make it harder to get arms sales to Ankara through Congress. The Pentagon notified Congress earlier this month of its intended arms sales.

“The president and Erdogan did speak about 10 days ago, and they talked about Iran and the flotilla and other issues related to that,” White House spokesman Bill Burton told the press aboard Air Force One Monday. “We obviously have an ongoing dialogue with them. But no such [arms] ultimatum was issued.”

“There’s no ultimatum,” Burton added.

US threatens to withhold weapons from Turkey

From Financial Times:

President Barack Obama has personally warned Turkey’s prime minister that unless Ankara shifts its position on Israel and Iran it stands little chance of obtaining the US weapons it wants to buy.

Mr Obama’s warning to Recep Tayyip Erdogan is particularly significant as Ankara wants to buy American drone aircraft – such as the missile-bearing Reaper – to attack the Kurdish separatist PKK after the US military pulls out of Iraq at the end of 2011.

The PKK has traditionally maintained bases in the remote mountains in the north of Iraq, near the Turkish border.

One senior administration official said: “The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill [Congress] . . . about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally. That means that some of the requests Turkey has made of us, for example in providing some of the weaponry that it would like to fight the PKK, will be harder for us to move through Congress.”

Washington was deeply frustrated when Turkey voted against United Nations sanctions on Iran in June.

When the leaders met later that month at the G20 summit in Toronto, Mr Obama told Mr Erdogan that the Turks had failed to act as an ally in the UN vote. He also called on Ankara to cool its rhetoric about an Israeli raid that killed nine Turks on a flotilla bearing aid for Gaza.

While the two men have subsequently sought to co-operate over Iraq’s efforts to patch together a coalition government, the US makes clear its warning still stands.

“They need to show that they take seriously American national security interests,” said the administration official, adding that Washington was looking at Turkish conduct and would then assess if there were “sufficient efforts that we can go forward with their request”.

We will see if these threats pan out.

One gets the impression that US foreign policy is to simply to spread carrots around the world, providing everyone with whatever the US can give them, and then hope that the recipients get so addicted to these carrots that the threat of withdrawing them will be an adequate substitute for a stick.

The problem is that the US also wants everyone to love her, which is incompatible with ever carrying out these threats. But, we'll see.

(h/t Islamo-nazism blog)

Media ignores Turkey's use of chemical weapons (updated)

Yesterday, Der Spiegel published a report indicating that Turkey used chemical weapons against Kurdish rebels.

German experts have confirmed the authenticity of photographs that purport to show PKK fighters killed by chemical weapons. The evidence puts increasing pressure on the Turkish government, which has long been suspected of using such weapons against Kurdish rebels. German politicians are demanding an investigation.

It would be difficult to exceed the horror shown in the photos, which feature burned, maimed and scorched body parts. The victims are scarcely even recognizable as human beings. Turkish-Kurdish human rights activists believe the people in the photos are eight members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) underground movement, who are thought to have been killed in September 2009.

In March, the activists gave the photos to a German human rights delegation comprised of Turkey experts, journalists and politicians from the far-left Left Party, as SPIEGEL reported at the end of July. Now Hans Baumann, a German expert on photo forgeries has confirmed the authenticity of the photos, and a forensics report released by the Hamburg University Hospital has backed the initial suspicion, saying that it is highly probable that the eight Kurds died "due to the use of chemical substances."

German politicians and human rights experts are now demanding an investigation into the incident. "The latest findings are so spectacular that the Turkish side urgently needs to explain things," said Claudia Roth, the co-chair of Germany's Green Party. "It is impossible to understand why an autopsy of the PKK fighters was ordered but the results kept under seal."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has rejected the accusations, according to the Berlin daily newspaper Die Tageszeitung, which reported on the case Thursday. Turkey is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention, and its armed forces do not possess any biological or chemical weapons, the ministry reportedly said.

The newspaper also reports that it has obtained additional, shocking pictures in the meantime, supposedly autopsy photographs of six other killed Kurds. These images, too, have now been submitted to the Hamburg-based experts.

So far, outside of Armenian, Kurdish and Israeli websites, the rest of the English-language media has ignored the story. It has been a full day since the initial report was published in English and German.

But I guess that if the mainstream media doesn't report it, it cannot be very important. Sorry for wasting your time.

(h/t jarh)

UPDATE: Islamic Jihad mouthpiece Palestine Today mentions the story, saying it is a "smear campaign" by Israel similar to what they did to Saddam Hussein, in order to pressure the world to invade Turkey and to deflect Israel from criticism for the Mavi Marmara.

Those wily Jews, submitting the photos months before the flotilla!

Are German IHH and Turkish IHH related?

Today we saw many news stories about the German government banning the IHH - the Internationale Humanitäre Hilfsorganisation - "charity" organization because of its ties with Hamas:

Germany's government has banned an organization it accuses of collecting donations that are sent to Hamas-related welfare projects. The Islamist movement is included on the European Union's terror group blacklist.

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said in a statement that the International Humanitarian Relief Organization was banned Monday because it has used donations to support projects in Gaza that are related to Hamas – while presenting their activities to donors as humanitarian help.

"Under the guise of humanitarian aid, the IHH has long backed, with significant financial assistance, so-called social welfare organizations based in the Gaza Strip that can be linked to Hamas," he said.

"Donations to so-called social welfare groups belonging to Hamas, such as the millions given by IHH, actually support the terror organization Hamas as a whole."

All of these stories take pains to say that this IHH is not related to the Turkish organization with the same initials, which was involved in attacking IDF soldiers on the Mavi Marmara.

The Turkish IHH actually does stand for something different: İnsan Hak ve Hürriyetleri ve İnsani Yardım Vakfı,[2] in English: The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief. Wikipedia has a link to the German IHH site (not available today but retrieved last month) where they issued a clarification that they were not associated with the Turkish IHH.

So even though both groups apparently have the same Islamist goals and support the same terror organizations, they appear to be different.

And yet, their logos are strikingly similar, down to the number of leaves:

Even if they do not have the same pedigree, it is a distinction without a difference - the very same rules that prohibit IHH Germany apply to IHH Turkey.

But I think that it might be a good idea, as a pre-emptive measure, to ban all Islamist-leaning organizations that have logos with the same number of leaves around a globe meant to symbolize the world:

UPDATE:

The organization was founded in 1992 in Freiburg, Germany, the ministry said. In 1997 the group split in two, IHH Germany and IHH Turkey, which are now two separate entities, it said.

(h/t Lucy Lips)

Turkey loses $400m from Israeli tourist cancellations

From Hurriyet Daily News (Turkey):

The Turkish tourism industry has been seriously affected by the recent tension between former allies Turkey and Israel. The Turkish economy has lost at least $400 million due to reservation cancellations from Israeli tourists, according to tourism agencies.

Some 50,000 Israelis have cancelled their reservations indefinitely. Furthermore, the Israel Travel Agents Association has announced that it cancelled 100,000 reservations out of a total of 150,000.

Levantin Tour, a tourism company has posted a 3.5 million Turkish Liras loss due to cancelled reservations, according to the owner of the company, Levent Güner. Levantin Tour has been bringing tourists from Israel to Turkey for the past 15 years.

“Our company’s main business channel has been cut,” Güner said. “Who will retrieve my 3.5 million-lira loss?”

Levantin Tour had aimed to bring 17,000 tourists from Israel to Turkey this year, said Güner, adding that until now the company was unfortunately only able to bring 200 tourists. The company has paid $1.1 million to hotels for cancelled reservations.

Turkey has suffered a minimum $400 million loss because of this situation, Güner said. “An Israeli tourist spends $650 on average. The number of tourists spending that much money is very low. Some tourism agencies have gone bankrupt due to this situation,” he said.

All together now: Awwwww.

(h/t Daily Alert)

Erdogan: "Obama will ask Israel to apologize for flotilla"

From News.AZ:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday his gathering with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of a G20 summit meeting in Canada covered a wide array of issues, adding that the meeting was "very fruitful".

"I can say that our meeting opened a way for a useful perspective for our future bilateral relations as well as for regional and world peace," Erdogan told reporters upon his arrival in the Turkish capital, Ankara, from Toronto.

Erdogan said he discussed with Obama issues including Iran's nuclear program, a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid convoy, as well as Afghanistan and the Palestinian problem.

Responding to a question whether his meeting with the US president would make any contributions to the mending of Israeli-Turkish relations, Erdogan said Obama was in agreement with the Turkish premier that Israel should make an apology for the raid on the aid flotilla, Turkey's demand for redress and the lifting of Gaza blockade.

"Obama has expressed that he would convey these points to the Israeli prime minister who is set to visit to Washington on July 7," Erdogan said.

So is Erdogan telling the truth?

Hopefully, some reporter will ask this question in today's White House briefing.

Turkey banned IHH from doing earthquake relief

Even Turkey understands how the IHH is a jihadist organization masquerading as humanitarian.

From the Danish Institute for International Studies report I quoted yesterday:

Organizations such as IHH are quick to respond to natural disasters and other human catastrophes. Unfortunately, these groups often seek to use these situations to gain leverage with destitute Muslim refugees. In August 1999, when a devastating earthquake struck Turkey, IHH reached the affected zones, in some cases, even before the Turkish government. Friction quickly grew between authorities tasked with relief and independent Islamist “humanitarian” groups. Ultimately, Turkey was forced to ban the IHH from participating in earthquake aid efforts because it was counted among several “fundamentalist organizations” operating “secret bank accounts” that were refusing to allow local authorities to oversee the distribution of their aid resources.60

This is besides IHH's known involvement in gun smuggling and recruiting mujahadeen that the paper describes.

In Turkey, NGOs and terrorists are indistinguishable

On March 19th, there was a large rally in Istanbul to protest Israeli actions and rumors of Israeli actions in Jerusalem.

As the World Bulletin writes, the rally was organized by "several NGOs."

AHN reports that the organizations that organized the protest included "AKDAV, Aqaba, Civilization Foundation, Human and Civilization Movement, IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, Mazlum-Der, Ozgur-Der, Research and Cultural Foundation and Wisdom Foundation."

These all sound like they care a lot about human rights, don't they?

The photos of the rally from the World Bulletin include Hezbollah flags.

Palestine Today is now publishing photos that show that protesters were also showing their support for Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups:

Flags for Islamic Jihad, the PIJ Al Quds Brigades and Hezbollah.

The photo on the T-shirt is of Islamic Jihad founder Fathi Shaqaqi.

Al Quds Brigades flag.

IHH is recognized by the UNHCR as an NGO. It is also one of the groups supporting the Free Gaza organization, and it has been banned by Israel.

Horrible teenage honor murder in Turkey for "befriending boys"

From Al Arabiya:

A 16-year-old girl was buried alive by relatives in southeast Turkey in a gruesome honor killing just because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday.

Acting on a tip-off, police discovered Medine Memi's body in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-meter-deep hole in a chicken pen outside her house in Kahta town, Adiyaman province, 40 days after she went missing, the agency said.

A subsequent post mortem revealed that she had a significant amount of soil in her lungs and stomach, meaning that she was buried alive, forensic experts told the agency.

"The autopsy result is blood-curdling. According to our findings, the girl, who had no bruises on her body and no sign of narcotics or poison in her blood, was alive and fully conscious when she was buried," one anonymous expert said.

Medine's father and grandfather have been formally arrested and jailed pending trial over her killing, the agency said.

The father is reported to have said in his testimony that the family was unhappy she had male friends.

In honor killings, most prevalent in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast, a so-called family council names a member to murder a female relative considered to have sullied the family honor, usually by engaging in an extra-marital affair.

But the practice has gone so far as to kill rape victims or women who simply talked to strange men.

This Kurdish murder shows that "honor killings" are not only an Arab problem.

Turkish soccer player plants Palestinian flag on field

From Reuters:

A Turkish soccer player planted a Palestinian flag in the middle of the pitch at a match on Tuesday, in an apparent protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza, Turkish broadcasters reported.
Sivasspor midfielder Ibrahim Dagasan placed the flag on the centre spot at a stadium in the central Turkish city of Sivas after his side beat Galatasaray in the quarter final of the Turkey Cup.

After he did so, some spectators chanted: "Damn Israel". Dagasan then raised a finger to his mouth, gesturing for them to be silent. One of Dagasan's team mates is the Israeli forward Pini Balili.

A fan site described the scene like this:

After the match, while his whole team was celebrating and greeting the fans in the stadium with Israeli soccer player Balili holding the Turkish flag, he ran around with Palestinian flag!
This was absurd in soccer stadium! I am against any political stuff in the stadiums. This really damage the Sivasspor image, in my opinion....

While your team mate who is from Israel, runs around with Turkish and Sivasspor flag , Ibrahim Dagasan has no right to do this...

I hope, Turkish Football Federation and Sivasspor fine this absurd soccer player.