A U.S. court has denied a parole request of a Lebanese-Armenian convict who murdered a Turkish diplomat in the 1980s.
The California Board of Parole Hearings on June 29 denied Hampig ‘Harry’ Sassounian’s request for release on parole from San Quentin State Prison, where his is serving a life sentence for the 1982 murder of Los Angeles Consul General Kemal Arıkan.
The board’s decision came on the grounds that Sassounian “constitutes a security risk,” according to lawyer Günay Evinç, the co-chairman of the Turkish American National Steering Committee (TASC).
TASC had previously launched a petition campaign, urging the denial of Sassounian’s request for conditional release.
Over 1,000 letters were sent to the board concerning the petition. The letters played a role in the court’s decision, according to Evinç.
On Jan. 28, 1982, Sassounian assassinated Arıkan as the consul general sat in his car at an intersection on Los Angeles, waiting at a traffic signal.
Sassounian belonged to the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), which operated from the beginning of the 1970s until the 1990s and targeted Turkish diplomats in the United States and European countries.
Four similar parole requests were denied in 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2015. Nevertheless, in 2016, his request for conditional release was granted by a court in Los Angeles. Later, the decision was overturned by Jerry Brown, the governor of California.
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA) terrorist group killed 31 Turkish diplomats across the world between 1973 and 1986. The assassinations took place in the United States, Austria, France, Italy, Spain, Lebanon, Greece, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Portugal, Iran and the United Kingdom.
Prof. E. Mahmut Esat Ozan, Turkish Forum Advisory Board (Uçmaya çıkali 10 sene oldu )
It was on November 24, 1935 that Mustafa Kemal, the first president of the young Turkish Republic, was given the name of ATATÜRK by the Grand National Assembly. He had led his people through war into self-government and finally into an entirely new way of life. He had been their teacher, adviser, as well as the father of the entire nation, since the word “Ata” in Turkish means just that.
That same year a young American General, called Douglas MacArthur, came from thousands of miles away to pay homage to his idol, the great Mustafa Kemal Pasha, who had started to use his official name of Atatürk a short time earlier.
General MacArthur visited Atatürk and had long conversations with him concerning the gathering clouds of war in Europe. In one of these conversations, Atatürk said: “The Versailles peace settlement will not end the reasons that started the World War. It has deepened the gap between nations, for there were centuries that imposed peace and forced the stipulations upon those who were defeated. Versailles was settled under the influence of hatred and was an expression of revenge. It went beyond the meaning of an armistice. If you Americans had decided not to be involved in European events and had followed up President Wilson’s suggestions, this period would have been longer, but the result of the settlement would have been peace. Just as the period of settlement would have been longer, the hatred and revenge would have been lessened and lasting peace would have been possible.” [Editor’s note: The Americans were indeed involved with the War after 1916, but after the War the public opinion in the U.S. changed. The Senate did not ratify the Versailles Treaty. America minded its own business. The Wilson principles were distorted by the British and the French to suit their own purposes, which of course sawed the seeds of World War II] Atatürk continued to prophesy: “To my understanding, just as it happened yesterday, the future of Europe will be dependent upon Germany. That nation is dynamic and disciplined. If Germany unites, it will seek to shake off the yoke of the Versailles Treaty. Germany, Russia, and England will have a strong army to conquer Europe. The next war will come from 1940 to 1945. France has lost the spirit of creating a powerful army, and therefore, England will not depend upon France to protect herself. France will no longer be a buffer state. “Italy will improve, somewhat, under Mussolini. He will first try to avoid war, if he can. But I fear that he will try to play the role of Caesar and it will prove to the World that Italy cannot produce a powerful army yet.”
“America will not be able to avoid war and Germany will be defeated only through her interference. If authorities in Europe do not get together on the basis of controversies of political contacts and try to placate their own hatreds and interests, it will be tragic.”
“The Troubles of England, France, and Germany will not come first or be of primary importance. Something new from the East of Europe has come up that will take primary place of importance. This new threat will spend whatever is available in its resources for international revolution. This power will utilize new political methods to achieve these goals. These methods are not known by Americans and Europeans and this power will try to make use of our small mistakes and the mistakes of Western nations.”
“The victorious power after the war between 1940 and 1945 will not be England, France, or Germany, but Bolshevism. Being closest to Russia and having had many wars with her in the past, Turkey is watching Russia closely and sees the whole danger developing. Russia knows how to influence and awaken the minds of Eastern countries, and how to give them ideas of nationalism. Russia has encouraged hatred towards the West. Bolshevism is getting to be a power and a great threat to Europe and Asia.”
After listening with great awe, General MacArthur replied to Atatürk, “I agree with you all the way. The political authorities of Western countries do not see the danger coming up. That bothers me too. By this we are pulled toward a war which would be fruitful to an entirely strange enemy. While Europe is busy in Europe, I am sure that enemy will spread to Asia too, the reason being Japan will try to fulfill her ambition to be the only great Asiatic power, while we are preoccupied in Europe. America cannot stay out of it. Whether we like it or not, Russia will try to enlarge her influence in Asia. If our political leaders will have understanding, they will not let Russia become our ally. That will cost considerable loss of land. Russia will get a big slice of Asia. Instead we should have her land, O.K.,… otherwise we will be helping a new danger. Any war we go into therefore, with Russia on our side, will not put an end to the European situation nor the Asiatic troubles (Perhaps MacArthur thought that Russia would receive war reparations in Asia rather than in the European continent.)
General MacArthur also touched on other matters relating to a possible gain of communism in China and Manchuria. He also reiterated that the future of the World would be decided in Asia and not in Europe.
When the conversation ended, Atatürk smiled and said, “Our points of view are almost the same, but let us hope we see it all incorrectly and that the leaders of the other nations will come up with a better result for the whole World.”
As we all know by now, Atatürk’s hope has not been realized. The savior of Turkey, the great Atatürk died, just before his predictions came true one after the other.
M. Study Slater, the author of the book THE GOLDEN LINK [M. Study Slater, The Exposition Press, Inc. NY (1962)] from whose pages these prophesies were gleaned, says, “If we look at General MacArthur, the experience, and the last twenty or thirty years and the influence of Atatürk upon him will afford us a better opinion of why he insisted upon certain points and his decisive attitude during the Korean War.” We might add to that statement another reason why General MacArthur was so very laudatory about the courage of the Turkish Brigade fighting side by side, with the American GI’s there.”
In a relatively short period of time, the dreaded predictions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and of General Douglas MacArthur, began to take form. The author continues: Benito Mussolini threatened the Mediterranean, and the poor imitation of Caesar started to strut in Ethiopia and Albania. In Germany, Adolf Hitler, a former Austrian wallpaper hanger, was successfully organizing juvenile and adult delinquents into a Third Reich, while Japan swept into Pacific Islands and Southern Asia. Joseph Stalin gathered hungry peasants into a large army and sent an octopus-like network of espionage agents into every country of the world to convert the self-martyred into communism. Mustafa Kemal assigned his friend Ismet Inonu and Fevzi Cakmak to help in building Turkey’s defenses along the Asian border and the Caucasus steppes.
Within Turkey Atatürk did not tolerate the Mullahs’ constant threats to revolt against the newly established secular republic. Most were imp-risoned, some executed, such as the fanatical religious reactionaries who butchered Lieutenant Kubilay in the city of Menemen near Izmir.
Atatürk also chased back to the Soviet Union, the Kurds and the Armenians, who were undeniably Communism’s riot-inciting agents in Turkey. The European and American media of the time, quite reminiscent of our contemporary bleeding-heats, such as the Amnesty International and the Helsinki Watch Human Rights ‘brokers’ as I call them, thundered accusations at the terrible Turks for ‘persecuting’ these poor defenseless people. “Defenseless!” screamed Atatürk, “Their persecuted defenseless hypocrisy is just what makes them dangerous. Have the Americans forgotten their own revolution?”
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk realized that his immortality was assured through the love of his people and his historic role in new democratic Turkey. However, consciousness of this fact did not at all change the conduct of his life. His first asset was his belief in society, and though he fought directly for the nation, he always indirectly fought for human kind, of which he was an excellent example.
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AZMI GURAN PROF EMERRITUS
a.gee (a.gee@hispeed.ch)
Member since 11/30/15
AW: [Turkish Forum – E Turkiyeyiz Biz] ATATÜRK VE ABD GENEL KURMAY BASKANI D. MacARTHUR … ATA’NIN hayret verici siyasi kehanetleri – Turkish Forum (show original) 3:11 PM (5 hours ago)
Ben bu yaziya 8.9.’19 tarihinde asagidaki cevapla vermistim:
Bu yazyii ilk defa 1964 te Lord Kinross’sun Ataturk. The Rebirth of a Nation kitabinda s. 527 da okudum. Lord Kinross referans olarak Cumhuriyet’in 8 kanunsani 1951 tarihli gazetesinde bulundugunu yaziyor. Gazete müdüriyatina yazdim. O zaman, daha bugün bilinen kopya makinalari icat edilmedigi icin, bana gazetede cikan makalenin resmini cekip gönderdiler. O resim hala bende duruyor. Yazi 1951 de Caucasus adli ingilizce mecmuada cikmis. Caucasus sonra piyasadan cekilmis, kaybolmus veya kapanmis. Bunun üzerine ’80 lerde Library of Congress’e yazdim, bana yazinin kopyasini gönderdiler.
John F. Kennedy suikastindan sonra The Death of a President kitabini yazan amerikali tarihci William ManchasterAmerican Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880-1964 adli kitabini yazdi, icinde Gen. MacArthur’un Istanbul ziyaretini yazmadigi gibi, Atatürk’ten bahsedilmiyordu bile.
Norfalk’ta bulunan MacArthur Memorial Center’e yazip bu konusmanin metnini istedim, verdikleri cevapta böyle bir metnin kendilerinde bulunmadigi, yazinin Türkiye’den ciktigi cevabi verildi.
Fakat US State Department Records’da Gen. MacArthur’un 29 eylül 1932 ziyareti tafsilatiyla yazili.
Gen. MacArthur’un Dolmabahce’yi ziyaret ettigi ve Atatürk’le görüstügü hakikattir. Hatta, o günün resimlerle tesbiti mevcut oldugu gibi, bu görüsmede zamanin Washington Türkiye sefiri Mehmet Münir Ertegün’ün büyük payi ve tesviki olmustur.
Benim süphem Caucasus mecmuasinda bu yazi, 1951 gibi, neden bu kadar gec nesredildi. Atatürk 1938 de öldü, WW II 1945 te bitti. Hangi sebepten solayi Caucasus yaziyi bu kadar gec yazdi. Bunun cevabini bulamadim.
George S. Harris. Studies in Atatürk’s Turkey. Chapter VI. Cementing Turkish-American Relations: The Ambassadorship of Mehmet Münir Ertegün (1934-1944) yazisinda bu görüsmeden bahsediyor.
Ben tarihci degilim, meslegim elektrik mühedisligi. Bütün yüksek tahsilimi WW II akabinde Almanya ve ’60 larda ABD de bitirdim ve o zamandan beri, askerlik devresi haricinde, bu iki kit’a üzerinde yasiyorum. Bütün malumatim, bilhassa amerikan arsivlerindendir, cünkü amerikan arsivlerinde hic bir muharririn, bizde yakin zamanda oldugu gibi, Ismet Inönü’yüde katarak, Atatürk’ü asagilayan, ona hakaret eden, adi, cirkin yazilara raslamadim.
Hürmetlerimle
Dr. Azmi Güran
Ph.D. Prof.Eng.
Asagidaki link’te gösterilen Cumhuriyet gazetesinde cikan haberi bana gazete idaresi gönderdi ve bende duruyor
Caucasus mecmuasinin, her ne kadar ingilizce nesredilmis olmasina ragmen, yazildigi gibi Almanya’da basildigini dogrudur.
WW I ve WW II arasindaki gecen zaman tahlil edildiginde, Almanya haricinde, hic bir Avrupa devletlerinin silahlanmaya niyetli olmadigi görülür, cünkü WW I, 1914 senesine kadar yapilan harplerin en korkuncu harbi olmustur. Ilk defa motörlü vasitalar, alev makinalari, tayyare, tank ve ve bilhassa korkuncu zehirli gaz kullanildi. 1938 senesinde Avrupa gelecek büyük harbini kokusunu hissediyor, fekat gecirdigi felaketten dolayi, düsünmek bile istemiyordu.
Atatürk öyle gelisigüzel insan degildi. Prof. Celal Sengül onu tek bir kelime ile cok güzel izah etmistir: Akilli adamdi Atatürk. Her zeki adam akilli olamaz ama, her akilli adam zeki olur. Iste Atatürk böyle insandi. Adam 10 sene önce Osmanli devletinin sonunu görmüstü. 1932 senesinde, daha Hitler iktidara gelmeden, nasil oluyorda WW II dan bahsediyor. Dogru ise, Atatürk’ün kahin görüsüne hayret etmemek lazim.
Von: eturkiy…@googlegroups.com <eturkiy…@googlegroups.com> Im Auftrag von Temel Ersoy Gesendet: Mittwoch, 11. September 2019 10:15 An: eTurkiy…@googlegroups.com Betreff: Re: [Turkish Forum – E Turkiyeyiz Biz] ATATÜRK VE ABD GENEL KURMAY BASKANI D. MacARTHUR … ATA’NIN hayret verici siyasi kehanetleri – Turkish Forum
The importance of global
events in today’s world is hard to be overestimated for economic, political and
cultural growth of a host country. One of such events has become the 5h Eastern
Economic Forum held in Russia’s Vladivostok on September 4-6, 2019.
Due to the geographic
location of Vladivostok in the Russia’s Far East, Russia plays a key role in collaboration
and integration with the ASEAN countries. The Forum has become a unique
platform for developing business dialogues such as Russia-ASEAN, Russia-Europe,
Russia-China, Russia-Japan and Russia-South Korea. It also has allowed to
define pathways for the future world’s sustainable development and to woo
foreign investments in the Russia’s Far East.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, over 4,000 representatives of
official and business circles from more than 30 countries are taking part in
the forum, with the biggest delegations from Asia, Europe and the
US.
One of the EEF 2019 highlights was the meeting between Russia’s
President Vladimir Putin and Indian PM Narendra Modi. The two leaders have agreed
to strengthen the ties between their countries to boost economic collaboration.
“This is a historic opportunity
to give a new impetus to cooperation between our countries,” said Modi.
According to experts, Russia’s aspiration to host such events speaks
about Russia’s openness and transparency. The forum can be used by
international community as an expert platform like the St.Petersburg Economic Forum
and INNOPROM, held in Yekaterinburg annually.
Yes, it’s that magical time of year again when the Darwin Awards for news stories are bestowed, honoringthe least evolved among us.
Hereis the glorious winner:
1. When his38 calibre revolver failed to fire at his intended victim duringa hold-upin Long Beach, California would-be robber James Elliot didsomethingthat can only inspire wonder. He peered down the barrelandtried thetrigger again. This time it worked.
And now, thehonorable mentions:
The chef at a hotel in Switzerland lost a finger in a meat cutting machine and after a little shopping around, submitted a claim to his insurance company. The company expecting negligence sent out one of its men to have a look for himself. He tried the machine and he also lost a finger.. The chef’s claim was approved.
A man who shoveled snow for an hour to clear a space for his car during a blizzard in Chicago returned with his vehicle to find a woman had taken the space. “Understandably“, he shot her.
After stopping for drinks at an illegal bar, a Zimbabwean bus driver found that the 20 mental patients he was supposed to be transporting from Harare to Bulawayo had escaped. Not wanting to admit his incompetence, the driver went to a nearby bus stop and offered everyone waiting there a free ride. He then delivered the passengers to the mental hospital, telling the staff that the patients were very excitable and prone to bizarre fantasies… The deception wasn’t discovered for 3 days.
An American teenager was in the hospital recovering from serious head wounds received from an oncoming train.. When asked how he received the injuries, the lad told police that he was simply trying to see how close he could get his head to a moving train before he was hit.
A man walked into a Louisiana Circle-K, put a $20 bill on the counter, and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer… $15. If someone points a gun at you and gives you money, is a crime committed?
Seems an Arkansas guy wanted some beer pretty badly. He decided that he’d just throw a cinder block through a liquor store window, grab some booze, and run. So he lifted the cinder block and heaved it over his head at the window. The cinder block bounced back and hit the would-be thief on the head, knocking him unconscious. The liquor store window was made of Plexiglas. The whole event was caught on videotape…
As a female shopper exited a New York convenience store, a man grabbed her purse and ran. The clerk called 911 immediately, and the woman was able to give them a detailed description of the snatcher. Within minutes, the police apprehended the snatcher. They put him in the car and drove back to the store The thief was then taken out of the car and told to stand there for a positive ID. To which he replied, “Yes, officer, that’s her. That’s the lady I stole the purse from.”
The Ann Arbor News crime column reported that a man walked into a Burger King in Ypsilanti, Michigan at 5 A.M., flashed a gun, and demanded cash. The clerk turned him down because he said he couldn’t open the cash register without a food order. When the man ordered onion rings, the clerk said they weren’t available for breakfast…. The man, frustrated, walked away. *A 5-STAR STUPIDITY AWARD WINNER !
When a man attempted to siphon gasoline from a motor home parked on a Seattle street by sucking on a hose, he got much more than he bargained for… Police arrived at the scene to find a very sick man curled up next to a motor home near spilled sewage. A police spokesman said that the man admitted to trying to steal gasoline, but he plugged his siphon hose into the motor home’s sewage tank by mistake. The owner of the vehicle declined to press charges saying that it was the best laugh he’d ever had.
In the interest of bettering mankind, please share these with friends and family….unless of course one of these individuals by chance is a distant relative or long lost friend. In that case, be glad they are distant and hope they remain lost.
✅ Remember… They walk among us, they can reproduce… AND THEY CAN VOTE! Some of the above should qualify but have failed in this important respect: to qualify for a Darwin Award one must remove oneself permanently from the gene pool.
Thousands of protesters have shown up to speak out against Alamos Gold’s Kirazli mine over deforestation, water and the future of local species
Nick Ashdown
Niall McGee Mining reporter
Canakkale, Turkey and Toronto
Special to The Globe and Mail
Drone footage shows denuded forest landscapes around the Kirazli mine site in northwestern Turkey, whose Canadian owner, Alamos Gold, is facing local opposition over the project’s environmental impact.courtesy of Canakkale Municipal Government
In the heavily forested Ida Mountains of northwestern Turkey, a bus carrying protesters snakes along the winding roads to its next stop in the fight against the planned construction of a gold mine by a Canadian company.
They were among some 5,000 people protesting earlier this month against Alamos Gold’s nearby mining site and now, a couple of days later, they are heading toward a small campsite where a few dozen activists have stayed behind to keep a vigil. A lively 61-year-old from the nearby city of Canakkale is too riled up to take a seat being offered by the younger passengers.
“We went out to protest because we are against gold mines using cyanide. We went to protect our forest, water and animals living in these mountains. We want to live, we don’t want to get cancer,” the retiree said.
The protesters’ campsite near the mine, where hundreds opposed to the project are keeping watch.
Nick Ashdown/The Globe and Mail
Alamos Gold acquired the Kirazli mining project, located in an ecologically rich region of Turkey, in 2010. The construction of the mine has infuriated locals and activists, after the recent release of drone footage showing massive deforestation and revelations that cyanide will be used in the processing of the gold. There has been outrage on Turkish social media and thousands of people from all over the country have come to protest.
“I was born and raised here. My kids will grow up here. I want this nature to be protected, I don’t want it to be destroyed like this,” a 38-year-old English teacher said. “I don’t want a foreign country to come to my country, make a deal and trick the villagers with a bit of money,” she added, referring to local villagers who have been employed by the company. The Globe and Mail granted confidentiality to the protesters, who fear of repercussions for speaking out against a project supported by the Turkish government.
Environmental activists from the Istanbul-based TEMA Foundation, analyzing high-resolution satellite imagery from Google Earth, say that 195,000 trees near the town of Kirazli in the Ida Mountain range have been cut down, instead of the 45,000 stipulated in the original permit.
John McCluskey, chief executive officer of Alamos Gold, said in an interview earlier this month that he doesn’t know the exact number of trees that have been cut down; since the mine is being built in a forest, it is Turkey’s forestry service, and not Alamos, that is responsible for clearing the area.
Mr. McCluskey added that the Turkish forestry service is actively replanting in what he says is a heavily logged region of the country, similar to parts of British Columbia. “Under their management, the forests in [the province of] Canakkale have actually grown. They’ve planted far more trees than they’ve actually harvested,” he said. “They’ve planted something like three million saplings just in the past year.”
Alamos Gold’s local subsidiary, Dogu Biga Mining, says only 13,400 trees have been cut down, although ecologists, such as Doganay Tolunay from Istanbul University, say this figure is lower because it doesn’t include saplings and ignores the destruction of other plants and wildlife habitat in the 500 acres of forest that’s been clear-cut.
In addition to the mine in Kirazli, Alamos has two more gold and silver mining projects under development in nearby Agi Dagi and Camyurt. The Toronto-based company, with a market capitalization of $3.65-billion, also operates two mines in northern Ontario, as well as ones in Mexico and the United States.
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Activists protest at the mine site in front of a spray-painted message reading ‘Canadian go home.’
Kemal Aslan/Reuters
THE GLOBE AND MAIL, SOURCE: TILEZEN; OPENSTREETMAP CONTRIBUTORS; HIU
Pinar Bilir, chairperson of the city council’s environment assembly in nearby Canakkale and one of the organizers of the campaign against the mine, doesn’t believe the project will bring any benefits to the region. “Our basic demand is to stop the cutting of the trees, stop the project and open a legal case against whoever approved the environmental impact assessment [EIA] reports,” she said.
The deal was signed with Turkey’s powerful central government, which argues domestic mines are important for reducing the trade deficit and dependency on foreign products. But some locals say they were not adequately consulted.
According to Alamos’s own reports, the corporate tax rate of 20 per cent has been reduced to 2 per cent for the company because of government investment incentives; the company expects to pay 2 per cent in royalties. Alamos says its projects will directly or indirectly result in 2,000 jobs in Turkey, and the country’s economy will earn US$500-million from royalties, taxes and other fees over the course of 15 years.
Ali Furkan Oguz, the former head of the Canakkale Bar Environmental and Urban Law Commission who specializes in environmental cases, says Turkey’s system of EIA reports, required before starting projects that will affect the environment, isn’t up to global standards.
“Companies give money to [EIA] consultancy agencies and ask them to prepare a report, and afterwards the government approves it,” he said, adding that the government almost never rejects them.
Deniz Bayram, a lawyer from Greenpeace Turkey, backs Mr. Oguz’s claims. “In Turkey, it’s difficult to say that EIAs are conducted through independent, reliable organizations. Instead, the EIA companies are paid by the project owner, and the reports are generally prepared with [missing pieces] and false assessments,” Ms. Bayram said.
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Activists are worried that leaks of the cyanide used in the gold-mining process will threaten the water supply and hundreds of species in the region.
Kemal Aslan/Reuters
Activists say the clear-cutting threatens the region’s hundreds of plant and animal species, some of which are only found in Turkey.
They have also objected to Alamos Gold’s planned use of cyanide in the processing of gold at the site, saying the toxic chemical could leak into a water basin shared with the Atikhisar Dam, which is 14 kilometres from the mine and is the sole water supply for 180,000 people.
Alamos plans to use a processing method called heap leaching to extract the gold.
In such a system, crushed ore is mixed with a cyanide solution in a giant enclosed pad. Over a period of months, the mixture slowly dissolves the gold from the ore. Mr. McCluskey, who has 40 years of experience working with heap-leach technology, defended it as a “very safe,” processing method.
“We’re talking about double-lined ponds with a leak-detection system built into it, engineered to the nth degree. Your whole objective is a zero-discharge process,” he said.
Heap leaching is widely used by Canada’s biggest gold companies for processing low-grade ore. Eldorado Gold Corp. uses heap leaching at its Kisladag mine, also located in Turkey. While generally considered a safe and economical processing method, it isn’t foolproof.
In 2017, Barrick Gold Corp. experienced a pipe rupture at its heap-leach facility at its Veladero mine in Argentina’s San Juan province, resulting in its third cyanide spill in 18 months. The Argentine government subsequently restricted Barrick’s use of cyanide on-site for three months after the leak.
Jamie Kneen, of Ottawa-based non-governmental organization MiningWatch Canada, says the method in which cyanide will be used in Alamos Gold’s Kirazli project is risky. U.S. officials allege rubber-lining pads failed at a Colorado gold mine in Summitville operated by Vancouver-based Galactic Resources. The resulting environmental disaster cost the U.S. government US$130-million. It also led to a voluntary settlement in 2000 with Canadian mining executive Robert Friedland, who was the company’s president at the time it went bankrupt in 1992. The Czech Republic and states in the U.S. (Montana and certain Colorado counties) and Argentina (Chubut) have banned heap leaching.
“Alamos has insisted that there will be no leaks or spills because they will have a double-layer plastic liner. It is simply impossible – and irresponsible – to assert that there will be no leaks; it is a question of when and how much,” Mr. Kneen said, referring to a Reuters interview in which Mr. McCluskey said the company had taken steps to make sure a leak and watershed impact was “impossible.”
Mr. McCluskey said that in the highly unlikely event of a leak, because the site is downstream of the water reservoir in question, it would be physically impossible for any discharge to flow “uphill.”
Sylvain Leclerc, a spokesperson from Global Affairs Canada, says the government is monitoring the situation in Turkey.
“Regardless of where they work, we expect Canadian companies to respect the law and human rights, to operate transparently in consultation with local governments and communities, and in a socially and environmentally responsible way,” Mr. Leclerc wrote in an e-mail.
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A security guard keeps watch at the mine site.
Nick Ashdown/The Globe and Mail
Countries such as Turkey with weak rule of law can be attractive to Canadian companies because of their flexible regulations, Mr. Kneen said.
“When [mining companies] are investing internationally, they’re looking for low cost and profitable operations, and part of low cost is low compliance cost, low regulatory cost. Not having to spend a lot of time doing environmental-impact studies, not having to spend a lot of extra money on environmental safety and so on. I think that’s the attraction of international operations for these guys,” Mr. Kneen said.
Earlier this year, the Canadian government appointed Sheri Meyerhoffer as Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise, intended as a watchdog for Canadian companies’ activities abroad. Ottawa says it is the world’s first such office. But Mr. Kneen says the position lacks teeth – it can’t compel witnesses or conduct its own investigations – and has ended up merely as an advisory role.
“They failed to give it the powers of investigation that would be required to make it actually work,” he said. “The bottom line is this industry works best when it’s really strictly regulated.”
In July, all 14 civil-society and labour-union representatives on a federal government advisory panel focusing on Canadian companies operating overseas resigned in protest over the failure to give the new ombudsperson significant powers.
Alamos says despite the protests, the mine construction remains on schedule. Kirazli is projected to start up late next year and will produce an average of 100,000 ounces of gold over a six-year period. Kirazli is Alamos Gold’s first foray into Turkey and Mr. McCluskey says he’s eager to make it a “showpiece.”
“If I didn’t think I could build a very safe, sound project that would bring a lot of value to Turkey, I just wouldn’t be here,” he said.
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Environmental activists take part in a march against the mine.
Kemal Aslan/Reuters
Nick Ashdown is a freelance journalist based in Turkey.
A student’s plans to attend Harvard University were potentially cut short Friday when a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer at Boston Logan International Airport turned him away.The decision to reject Ismail Ajjawi’s entrance into the U.S. was first reported by the Harvard Crimson student newspaper, which received a statement from Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian resident of Lebanon. The teen said a U.S. official asked him about his religious practices and searched his laptop and cellphone for five hours before questioning him about his friends’ social media activity.
“After the 5 hours ended, she called me into a room, and she started screaming at me. She said that she found people posting political points of view that oppose the US on my friend[s] list,” Ajjawi wrote, according to the Crimson.
Ajjawi told the paper he has “no single post on my timeline discussing politics.”
“I responded that I have no business with such posts and that I didn’t like, [s]hare or comment on them and told her that I shouldn’t be held responsible for what others post,” Ajjawi wrote, according to the Crimson.
Eight hours after Ajjawi arrived at the airport, just a few miles from the campus where he expected to attend college, he was sent back to Lebanon.
In a statement to CBS News, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed that Ajjawi was “deemed inadmissible” by an officer.
“Applicants must demonstrate they are admissible into the U.S. by overcoming all grounds of inadmissibility including health-related grounds, criminality, security reasons, public charge, labor certification, illegal entrants and immigration violations, documentation requirements, and miscellaneous grounds,” the agency said.
A spokesperson for Harvard said the university still hopes Ajjawi will be attend classes this fall.
“The University is working closely with the student’s family and appropriate authorities to resolve this matter so that he can join his classmates in the coming days,” the spokesperson said.
The spokesperson also noted that Harvard University President Lawrence Bacow wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on July 16 to express his “deep concern over growing uncertainty and anxiety around issues involving international students and scholars.”
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