Completed in 2009 for $2 million, it sits on 5 acres of hillside, 20 miles from the center of Jerusalem.
Image Credit: Screen Shot
The memorial is a 30-foot, bronze American flag.
That forms the shape of a flame to commemorate the flames of the Twin Towers.
Image Credit: funjoelsisrael.com
The base of the monument is made of melted steel from the wreckage of the World Trade Center.
Image Credit: Creative Commons
And includes this engraving in Hebrew and English.
Image Credit: jnf.org
“This metal remnant was taken from the remains of the Twin Towers, that imploded on September 11th disaster. It was sent over to Israel by the City of New York to be incorperated in this memorial. This metal piece, like the entire monument, is a manifestation of the special relationship between New York and Jerusalem.”
Image Credit: jnf.org
Surrounding the monument are plaques with the names of the victims of 9/11.
Image Credit: Creative Commons
It is the only memorial outside the U.S. that includes the names of all who perished in the terrorist attacks.
Image Credit: Creative Commons
Including 5 Israeli citizens.
Image Credit: jnf.org
The site solemnly overlooks Jerusalem’s largest cemetery, Har HaMenuchot.
Image Credit: Creative Commons
The monument is often used for memorial and commemoration services.
A discontented nurse working clandestinely for a covert medical corps in Şanlıurfa—a city in south-eastern Turkey, close to the border with neighboring Syria— divulges information about the alleged role which Sümeyye Erdoğan plays in providing extended medical care for ISIS wounded militants transferred to Turkish hospitals. Living in a dilapidated apartment in Istanbul’s outskirts along with her two children, a 34-year- old emaciated nurse who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, disclosed her seven-week agonizing ordeal of working in secret military hospital in Şanlıurfa, 150 km (93 miles) east of Gaziantep and 1,300 km (808 miles) southeast of Istanbul. “Almost every day several khaki Turkish military trucks were bringing scores of severely injured, shaggy ISIS rebels to our secret hospital and we had to prepare the operating rooms and help doctors in the following procedures. I was given a generous salary of $ 7,500 but they were unaware of my religion. The fact is that I adhere to Alawite faith and since Erdoğan took the helm of the country the system shows utter contempt for Alawite minority – Alawite faith is an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam,” Said the nurse, recoiling in horror from the thought of imminent persecution by Turkish much-vaunted secret police, known by its acronym MİT. Since the eruption of al-Qaeda inspired rebellion in Syria aiming to topple the secular President Bashar al-Assad, the Turkish government spearheaded efforts to transfer all possible mercenaries as far as Chinese Turkestan to newly converted Wahhabis in Buenos Aires– Wahhabism adopts an extremist interpretation of Islam and is the official religion of Saudi Arabia –, albeit, the Turkish government always rejects all allegations concerning its mischievous role in Syria’s 4-year civil war.
Turkish public opinion in the past three months became increasingly critical of President Erdoğan’s warlike policy in the volatile Middle-East and his popularity rate slumped to a record low of %15. Once praised of being a nationalist and secular politician, Erdoğan’s has been marred by his ever more pro-Jihad rhetoric. They had no confidence in Alawites, added the nurse weeping bitterly, no sooner did they become cognizant of my faith than the wave of intimidation began, for I knew many things as who was running the corps, I saw Sümeyye Erdoğan frequently at our headquarter in Şanlıurfa … I am indeed terrified , I rue the day I enrolled in that program. A London-educated scion of wealthy family and the eldest daughter of totalitarian President Erdoğan, Sümeyye Erdoğan , for more than once announced her intention to be dispatched to Mousl , Iraq’s once second-biggest city and Islamic State’s stronghold to do relief works as a volunteer which drew public ire and vast condemnation from Turkey’s opposition parties. Moreover, the Turkish opposition parties accuse the administration of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of seeking diligently to hide the truth concerning numerous financial malfeasances Mr. Erdoğan son, Bilal Erdoğan, is involved.
Mr. Erdoğan who always sheds crocodile tears for the plight of Syrian trapped between the hammer of hunger and the anvil of ISIS’ extremism, conceals the fact that his own son, Bilal Erdoğan, is involved in lucrative business of smuggling the Iraqi and Syrian plundered oil. Bilal Erdoğan who owns several maritime companies, had allegedly signed contracts with European operating companies to carry Iraqi stolen oil to different Asian countries. Turkish government unwittingly supports ISIS by buying Iraqi plundered oil which is being produced from the Iraqi sized oil wells. Bilal Erdoğan’s maritime companies own special wharfs in Beirut and Ceyhan ports transporting ISIS’ smuggled crude oil in Japan-bound oil tankers. The Turkish opposition parties also accuse the belicose President Erdoğan of desperately trying to whitewash inordinate number of scandals concerning Bilal’s involvement in transporting Iraqi oil and thus making ISIS the wealthiest global terrorist group. “President Erdoğan claims that according to international transportation conventions there is no legal infraction concerning Bilal’s illicit activities and his son is doing an ordinary business with the registered Japanese companies, but in fact Bilal Erdoğan is up to his necks in complicity with terrorism, but as long as his father holds office he will be immune from any judicial prosecution,” Gürsel Tekin ,a senior CHP party official said in Ankara on Tuesday. The leading CHP official further underscored that Bilal Erdoğan’s maritime company, BMZ Ltd, is considered a family business and president Erdoğan’s close relatives hold shares in BMZ and they misused public funds and took illicit loans from Turkish banks. Weak, dependent, lugubrious though defiant; the Turkish nurse pleaded for Turkish judiciary help, imploring the last bastion of freedom, Turkish Army, to overthrow Erdoğan’s corrupt regime.
After being accused of joining the campaign against ISIS just to attack the Kurds, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is doubling down—hitting the rebels even harder. But will it win him an election?
ISTANBUL—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is betting that increased pressure on Kurdish rebels in southeast Anatolia will be a vote-getter in snap elections less than two months away.
But a flare-up of Kurdish rebel attacks that have inflicted the heaviest losses on Turkish soldiers in years has Turks wondering whether Erdogan is dragging the country to war to suit his own political needs.
So devastating was the shock of the latest attack by rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) near the Turkish border with Iraq on Sunday that the government and the military waited more than 24 hours before revealing that 16 soldiers had died. It was the highest death toll for the Turkish army in a single combat event since 2011.
Fighters from the PKK, a rebel group designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and Europe, attacked a military convoy in the town of Daglica and blew up a number of military vehicles with roadside bombs. The well-connected security analyst Metin Gurcan said on Twitter that 500 to 600 rebels attacked the soldiers, while bad weather prevented Turkish attack helicopters from helping the encircled troops. The PKK said at least 31 soldiers were killed.
In the aftermath, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held emergency meetings with advisers and Turkey’s chief of general staff, Hulusi Akar, and requested a meeting with opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a rare step in Turkey’s polarized political scene. Addressing the public Monday evening, Davutoglu pledged that the mountains of southeastern Anatolia would be “cleansed” of rebels.
While the government is promising a tough response to the new PKK attack, Kurdish politicians say government security forces are responsible for the killings of six civilians in the southeastern city of Cizre, which the army and police have closed off while they fight the PKK. A delegation of the legal Kurdish party HDP said after a visit to the city that police were stopping ambulances carrying injured and sick people to the hospital. A 10-year-old girl was killed by a police sniper inside her own home, they said.
Following news of the soldiers’ death in Daglica, Turkish nationalists attacked HDP offices in several cities around the country. Even before the latest flare-up, violent clashes between Turks and Kurds were on the rise. Turkish right-wingers in Istanbul stabbed a 21-year-old Kurd to death after they overheard him speaking Kurdish on his cellphone, the leftist Evrensel newspaper reported Monday.
With tensions heightened across the country, Erdogan declared in a television interview that things would be different if parliamentary elections in June had produced a majority in the house to change the constitution and introduce a presidential system with him at the helm. Critics say Erdogan sabotaged the search for a new government after the June election, in which his AKP party lost its parliamentary majority. They say Erdogan pushed through the new election, scheduled for Nov. 1, in the hope of winning back the AKP majority and, ultimately, getting the presidential system he wanted.
One recent survey shows that 56 percent of voters hold Erdogan responsible for the latest flare-up of violence, which began in late July.
Kilicdaroglu, the opposition leader, has accused Erdogan of stoking tensions in southeast Anatolia to attract nationalist voters to the AKP. “He is responsible for the blood that is being spilled and for terrorism,” Kilicdaroglu said last month, adding of the AKP’s leaders: “They want to stay in power with the help of chaos.”
The leader of the Kurdish HDP party, Selahattin Demirtas, echoed Kilicdaroglu, saying Erdogan and his ruling party are hoping a new Kurdish conflict will help to win back their parliamentary majority. “The AK Party is dragging the country into a period of conflict, seeking revenge for the loss of its majority in the June election,” Demirtas said.
Outside Turkey, Eric Edelman, a former U.S. ambassador to Ankara, argues Erdogan is bent on regaining control over parliament in order to push through the presidential system that would give him wide-ranging powers. To that end, Erdogan is portraying the HDP as the political arm of the terrorist PKK and trying to “steal votes” from the right-wing MHP party. Airstrikes against the PKK have reignited “a conflict that had been on the road to resolution,” Edelman wrote in an Op-Ed late last month in The New York Times.
Turkey’s harsh response angered U.S. officials, who said Erdogan’s government was much less interested in fighting ISIS than taking out the PKK. One senior U.S. official was quoted as saying last month that the campaign against ISIS was only a “hook” for the Turks. “Turkey wanted to move against the PKK, but it needed a hook,” the official told The Wall Street Journal.
Since then, several dozen soldiers and police officers, and hundreds of PKK fighters, have died, according to Ankara. The renewed fighting shattered a cease-fire between the state and the PKK that had been in force since 2013 and fueled hope for a permanent end to the conflict, which began in 1984. Erdogan says the PKK used the ceasefire to stockpile weapons. The rebels have been attacking security forces in the region on a daily basis and putting up checkpoints.
So far, there is little evidence that Erdogan’s plan of hitting the PKK to win votes is working. Several polls show the AKP has lost even more ground, while HDP is gaining support. There is “no sign that the latest violent clashes have increased any AKP votes,” Ziya Meral, a London-based Turkey analyst, tweetedMonday.
Amerika Birleşik Devletleri Türkiye’ye seyahat edecek Amerikan vatandaşları ile ilgili güvenlik uyarısı yayınladı.
The Department of State warns U.S. citizens traveling to or living in Turkey that the U.S. Consulate in Adana has authorized the voluntary departure of family members out of an abundance of caution following the commencement of military operations out of Incirlik Air Base in southern Turkey.
On September 2, the Department of State permitted the departure of U.S. government family members from the U.S. Consulate in Adana, Turkey. U.S. citizens seeking to depart southern Turkey are responsible for making their own travel arrangements. There are no plans for charter flights or other U.S. government-sponsored evacuations; however, commercial flights are readily available and airports are functioning normally. The U.S. Consulate in Adana will continue to operate normally and provide consular services to U.S. citizens.
U.S. government employees continue to be subject to travel restrictions in southeastern Turkey. They must obtain advance approval prior to official or unofficial travel to the provinces of Hatay, Kilis, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Sirnak, Diyarbakir, Van, Siirt, Mus, Mardin, Batman, Bingol, Tunceli, Hakkari, Bitlis, and Elazig. The Embassy strongly recommends that U.S. citizens avoid areas in close proximity to the Syrian border.
U.S. citizens traveling to or residing in Turkey should be alert to the potential for violence. In the recent past, terrorists have conducted attacks on U.S. interests in Turkey, as well as at sites frequented by foreign tourists. We strongly urge U.S. citizens to avoid demonstrations and large gatherings. Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence.
Review your personal security plans, remain aware of your surroundings, including local events, and monitor local news media for updates. Maintain a high level of vigilance, take appropriate steps to enhance your personal security, and follow instructions of local authorities.
WASHINGTON — AFTER a year of intense diplomatic negotiations, the Turkish government is now permitting the United States to use Turkey’s Incirlik Air Base, which will allow American aircraft to fly missions in Syria and Iraq with greater operational effectiveness and economic efficiency.
The price of this agreement, however, may well be too high in the long run, both for the success of America’s anti-Islamic State campaign and for the stability of Turkey.
That’s because the Turkish government’s recent change of heart and its sudden willingness to allow American access to the Incirlik base was driven by domestic political considerations, rather than a fundamental rethinking of its Syria strategy.
Shortly after granting access to the base, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched a wave of airstrikes on Kurdish targets, reigniting a conflict that had been on the road to resolution. To make matters worse, Turkey has struck hard at Syrian Kurds who have, until now, been America’s most reliable ally in fighting the Islamic State, often called ISIS, in northern Syria.
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A demonstration against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party on August 16 in Istanbul.Credit Ozan Kose/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
American and Turkish policies toward Syria were always rooted in different visions of what Syria would look like if the regime of President Bashar al-Assad fell.
Washington’s policy has been inconsistent and vague, but it always envisioned a post-Assad Syria that would be pluralistic and guarantee minority rights. Turkey recognized early on that Mr. Assad’s brutal policies would lead to radicalization, but the Turkish policy of seeking a Sunni-dominated Syria, governed by forces rooted in the Muslim Brotherhood, has not helped matters.
Mr. Erdogan’s preference for Sunni dominance explains Turkey’s lax border policies over the past four years, as well as its tacit support for the extremist Sunni group the Nusra Front, and its failure to take the Islamic State seriously as a threat until the fall of Mosul and the beheadings of Western hostages. Even then, Turkey was reluctant to change course and fully back the American goal of degrading and defeating the militant group.
Mr. Erdogan’s overriding objective has instead been to achieve a parliamentary supermajority that will grant him an executive presidency and solidify what is rapidly becoming a one-party state. Since his party lost its governing majority in the June elections, dashing his desires, he has focused on forcing early elections — now set for November — to regain control of Parliament.
To do so, Mr. Erdogan hopes to tar the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party as a terrorist front and steal votes from the Nationalist Movement Party. He has used the current crisis as a smoke screen behind which to launch an air war against militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., in Iraq and artillery strikes on the Democratic Union Party, or P.Y.D., in Syria. He has also unleashed a new wave of repression aimed at Kurds in Turkey, which risks plunging the country into civil war.
This strategy might help Mr. Erdogan win an election, but it is severely undermining the fight against the Islamic State. By disrupting logistics and communications links between the P.K.K. in Iraq and the P.Y.D. in Syria, Turkey is weakening the most effective ground force fighting the Islamic State in Syria: the Kurds.
We would do well to remember that it was P.Y.D. forces, with logistical support and reinforcement from the P.K.K., that liberated the city of Kobani last year and recently retook Tal Abyad, cutting off a key route for infiltration of arms and foreign fighters for the Islamic State.
America’s agreement with Turkey might yield more effective airstrikes, but that will come at the cost of losing the valuable real-time intelligence provided by Kurdish forces that is so crucial for targeting purposes.
In the long run, undercutting the Kurds will be extremely damaging to the anti-Islamic State effort since allowing Turkey to create a no-go zone for Kurdish forces will not carve out territory for moderate fighters; instead, it risks creating a safe haven for Islamist groups like the Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham, whose growing strength will exacerbate the toxic sectarianism and ethnic violence that has plagued Syria for the past four years.
Secretary of Defense Ashton B. Carter’s recent declaration that “we do want Turkey to do more in the fight” against the Islamic State prompted a pledge by Turkey’s foreign minister to step up its airstrikes against the group. But this raises the question of whether or not Turkey will call off its war against the Kurds.
If not, America’s deal with Turkey will prove to be a Faustian bargain. Short-term operational convenience is not worth the long-term danger of destabilizing Turkey and demoralizing the Kurdish forces that have carried the bulk of the burden in fighting militants.
An ally racked by violence and insurgency simply can’t play the role that the United States needs a secular, democratic Turkey to play in the turbulent Middle East.
Fortunately, America does have leverage. Turkish officials desperately crave the approval of their counterparts in Washington; the United States must not grant it.
Instead, the Obama administration should restrict Turkey’s access to senior-level meetings, reduce intelligence cooperation and withhold American support for Turkey in international financial institutions in the likely event that Mr. Erdogan’s policies precipitate an economic crisis.
Getting Turkish leaders to change course will be extremely difficult, but it is imperative to pressure them if Turkey is to avoid being sucked into the vortex created by a failed Syria policy and Mr. Erdogan’s dogged quest for absolute political power.
