Category: Turkey

Lawyers’ daughter and Scotland Yard detective charged for Spying, Grooming and Selling women for sex in high class vice ring
According to Daily Mail, Lawyers’ daughter and Scotland Yard detective deny grooming and selling women for sex in high class vice ring
- Beatrice Nokes allegedly ran a prostitute ring in Central London last year
- She is suspected of grooming three women to sell their bodies for sex
- Nokes is the daughter of two highly experienced legal professionals
- She allegedly organised the sex ring with Met police officer Daniel Williams
- He also faces charges of voyeurism and concealing profits in his chimney
The student daughter of two respected solicitors and a Scotland Yard detective have denied grooming and selling women for sex through an upmarket vice ring in central London.

Beatrice Nokes and Det Con Daniel Williams appeared in court on Friday, charged with allegedly offering three women through the high class ring between June and October last year.

Williams is also accused of a series of further crimes – including allegedly spying on unsuspecting hotel guests during a 10-month voyeurism spree while both on and off duty.

The 21-year-old UCL student appeared in court today dressed in a black mini skirt, white shirt and wedge heel black boots.

She denied three counts of controlling or inciting prostitution for gain and shook her head as she denied the charges.

The detective denied three charges of causing or inciting prostitution for gain, a single charge of controlling prostitution for gain and two offences of misconduct in a public office.
May 30, 2015
The Turkish President’s Palace Is Ruled ‘Illegal’

by Louise Turner

Turkeys top administrative court has declared the construction of a $615-million, 1,150-room palace for the Turkish President, as illegal.Press TV report:

Ankara’s Fifth Administrative Court overturned a previous ruling that permitted an exception to build “White Palace” on protected land, UPI reported on Wednesday. Erdogan moved into the luxurious residence last year.

The palace was built in an area of 300,000 square meters in an environmentally protected nature preserve called the Ataturk Forest Farm.

According to Turkey’s Chamber of Architects, following the overturning the construction of the palace is now deemed illegal.

“The construction plans, the protection board’s decisions, and the construction licenses, which allowed the illegal construction are completely unlawful at the moment after this verdict,” said a Chamber of Architects statement.

During the construction of the palace various legal petitions were circulated, all of which noted that the palace was being built on protected ground.

A cultural center, another presidential residence, and some other buildings are also slated for construction at the site but it is still unclear if the recent court ruling will affect the additional construction as the president’s office has denied all claims on the ruling via a statement released on Wednesday.

According to the Turkish daily Today’s Zaman, a Turkish court ordered last year that the construction of the palace be halted, but then-Prime Minister Erdogan challenged the court decision, saying, “If they have the power, let them destroy it.”

yournewswire.com

May 29, 2015
Alabama Senate Approves Bill to Abolish Marriage Licensing

The battle has been raging over redefining marriage in Alabama, as the state’s constitution declares marriage to be between a man and a woman. However, federal courts are attempting to force the state to issue marriage licenses to those practicing sodomy. In an attempt to stop probate judges from issuing licenses arbitrarily, the Alabama Senate passes bill by a vote of 22-3 without having to obtain permission from a government official.

Senate Bill 377, a bill which would end marriage licensing and replace it with a contract process, was approved by the Alabama Senate on May 19.

According to the text of the bill, it would abolish the requirement to obtain a marriage license from the judge of probate.

“This bill would provide that marriage would be entered into by simple contract, would specify the information required to be included in the contract of marriage, would specify that each party entering into a contract of marriage would submit a properly executed contract to the judge of probate for recording, and would require the judge of probate to forward a copy of the contract of marriage to the Office of Vital Statistics,” reads the synopsis of the bill.

The synopsis then adds, “This bill would also authorize the judge of probate to collect a fee for recording the contract of marriage. This bill would provide that the fee currently collected by the judge of probate and paid to the district attorney upon issuance would be paid when the marriage contract is presented for recording. This bill would provide for an additional fee to be paid to the General Fund.”

This does not open up marriage for same-sex couples. According to the legislation:

Effective July 1, 2015, the only requirement to be married in this state shall be for parties 16 who are otherwise legally authorized to be married to enter into a contract of marriage as provided herein.

(b) A contract to be married shall contain the 19 following minimum information:

(1) The names of the parties.

(2) A statement that the parties are legally authorized to be married.

(3) A statement that the parties voluntarily and 24 based on each parties’ own freewill enter into a marriage.

(4) The signatures of the parties.

Keep in mind that in the State of Alabama it is still illegal for those practicing sodomy to engage in marriage.

Senator Greg Albritton (R-Bay Minette), who introduced the bill said, “The purpose of Senate Bill 377 is to bring order out of chaos.”

“The sanctity of marriage cannot be sanctified by government of men,” Albritton said. “That is where we have gotten ourselves in trouble.”

“When you invite the state into those matters of personal or religious import, it creates difficulties,” he added. “Go back long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away. Early twentieth century, if you go back and look and try to find marriage licenses for your grandparents or great grandparents, you won’t find it. What you will find instead is where people have come in and recorded when a marriage has occurred.”

In other words, Albritton wants the issue of marriage back in the hands of the Church. While the contract portion would be recognized legally, the requirements for marriage to be handled lawfully under the umbrella of the Church would remain intact.

Though Albritton hinted at a possible illegal ruling by the Supreme Court as being valid and not affecting the legislation, the question that needs to come to the forefront in all of this is why the state is issuing marriage licenses in the first place. Do your homework and you’ll discover that a racial component is part of that history. The second question that should be raised is why any state would sit idly by and wait on the Supreme Court to rule on this issue. Governors with any understanding and backbone would currently be declaring that they have no constitutional authority to rule in the matter and should simply warn the judge’s that no matter what their decision was, it was not within the purview of their jurisdiction to rule on the measure. Finally, it should be asked why a fee continues to be associated, and not just associated, but increased. According to Albritton, it was “to raise support.”

Though the bill itself does not define marriage, the Alabama constitution does. Amendment 774, adopted to the constitution in 2006 reads:

(a) This amendment shall be known and may be cited as the Sanctity of Marriage Amendment.

(b) Marriage is inherently a unique relationship between a man and a woman. As a matter of public policy, this state has a special interest in encouraging, supporting, and protecting this unique relationship in order to promote, among other goals, the stability and welfare of society and its children. A marriage contracted between individuals of the same sex is invalid in this state.

(c) Marriage is a sacred covenant, solemnized between a man and a woman, which, when the legal capacity and consent of both parties is present, establishes their relationship as husband and wife, and which is recognized by the state as a civil contract.

(d) No marriage license shall be issued in the State of Alabama to parties of the same sex.

(e) The State of Alabama shall not recognize as valid any marriage of parties of the same sex that occurred or was alleged to have occurred as a result of the law of any jurisdiction regardless of whether a marriage license was issued.

(f) The State of Alabama shall not recognize as valid any common law marriage of parties of the same sex.

(g) A union replicating marriage of or between persons of the same sex in the State of Alabama or in any other jurisdiction shall be considered and treated in all respects as having no legal force or effect in this state and shall not be recognized by this state as a marriage or other union replicating marriage.

Chief Justice Roy Moore has told state judges not to disregard the ruling of a federal court on Alabama’s constitution and marriage. He has made the case for what marriage is and where the right to marriage comes from, God. Moore encouraged Governor Robert Bentley to resist federal tyranny in the matter, but Bentley seems to be more geared towards political correctness than he does the truth about rights, marriage and his duty to the people of Alabama.

Led by Justice Moore, the Alabama Supreme Court also put a halt to illegal same-sex “marriages” across the state back in March.

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May 28, 2015
An Imam, a Mercedes and Erdogan’s Election Gambit

stratfor

May 28, 2015 | 00:20 GMT

A story involving an imam, the pope and a Mercedes-Benz may sound like the start of a bad joke, but this is a true story that reveals a great deal about Turkey’s political path with just 10 days to go before elections.

The tale began around six months ago, when Turkish newspaper Hurriyet uncovered a budget that revealed state funds were being used to buy the head of Turkey’s Presidency of Religious Affairs an S500 Mercedes-Benz worth $385,000. The story didn’t gather steam until early May, in the thick of Turkey’s election season, when Turkey’s opposition parties took turns pouncing on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government for its exorbitant spending habits. The would-be owner of the flashy car, Mehmet Gormez, opted to escape the controversy by sheepishly declaring that he would return the car and “set an example.”

But Erdogan saw an opportunity of his own in making Gormez an example. Last Thursday, Erdogan swept away the criticism and declared that his office will provide the cleric with an armored Mercedes. And if that was not enough fuel to add to the fire, Erdogan said in a television interview on May 26 that he would give Gormez a private jet. After all, the president coyly explained, the pope “has a private jet, private cars and armored vehicles. That’s the situation at the Vatican, and our religious leader will take scheduled flights?”
What is a Geopolitical Diary? George Friedman Explains.
Never mind that the Vatican spent most of Wednesday painstakingly calling up news agencies to clarify the populist credentials of Pope Francis, who apparently has no problem flying commercial and putters around Vatican City in a Ford Focus. What matters here is the message that Erdogan is broadcasting — not to bewilder foreign media and not to rile up his opposition, but to solidify support within his core constituency.

Remember what Erdogan represents: He is the leader of a more pious class whose roots are mostly in Anatolia. It is a class that has spent most of Turkey’s history sidelined from power while a secular, military-backed elite dominated the country’s institutions and political economy from their stronghold around the Sea of Marmara. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and its predecessors neutralized the political clout of the military, raising a new business class and stacking institutions — including ministries, courts, newspaper agencies and schools — with allies that looked first and foremost to Erdogan as their patron. Without Erdogan in power, the perks of being a member of Erdogan’s patronage network would be lost. To these constituents, Erdogan’s message is quite clear: If you are my ally, you will be taken care of.

The message also goes beyond Erdogan’s flamboyant tactics in trying to preserve a cult of personality around his presidency. The victim of this controversy, the Presidency of Religious Affairs, has an important history. The Presidency, or “Diyanet,” was established in the early years of the republic in 1928. At the time, Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, was crafting a strategy to manage religion in the new state. In carving a state out of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious empire, Ataturk understood that religion had to play some role in distinguishing Turkish citizens from non-Muslims. But Ataturk also saw the dangers of religion drawing the state back toward pan-Islamic ambitions, risking another collapse of the state should those far-flung ambitions once again overwhelm the center.

Ataturk thus tried to strike a balance. He took the radical steps of banning the caliphate, closing down religious schools and removing a clause from the constitution saying that “Islam is the religion of the republic.” At the same time, he created the Presidency of Religious Affairs to manage religion on the state’s terms. Rather than separate mosque and state, Ataturk sought to institutionalize a state-run version of Islam.

For the last dozen years, Erdogan has been trying to rewrite Ataturk’s script for the republic. Religion would no longer be tamed by the state; it would define the state once again. This position has alienated half of the country, but has at the same time given hope to another half who deeply identify with their religion and see Turkey as the deserved leader and model of the Islamic world.

The June 7 election will tell us just how wide this fissure in Turkey’s identity politics is. What may seem like foolish political tactics to many could well translate into an astute political strategy by a man who has managed to win the hearts and minds of millions of Turks.

At the same time, Erdogan is undoubtedly taking a risk. He came into power as the savior for the Anatolian masses, liberating the country from what he characterized as an obsolete and corrupted elite. Turkey’s pugnacious president wants his followers to know that any ally of Erdogan will be protected and live the good life. But the economy is on shaky ground, the party’s pan-Islamic foreign policy is exposing the country’s vulnerabilities, and Erdogan’s populist credentials are being questioned in light of his unapologetically lavish spending. We see the logic. We also see the risk. At least for Erdogan, this is a gamble worth taking.

May 28, 2015
US Lawmakers Violated Laws, Taking Trips to Azerbaijan & Turkey

In a lengthy article titled, “10 members of Congress took trip secretly funded by foreign government,” The Washington Post disclosed last week the scandalous details of an all-expenses paid trip to a conference in Azerbaijan by 10 lawmakers and 32 staff members in 2013. Former top aides to Pres. Obama — Robert Gibbs, Jim Messina and David Plough – also attended the conference as guest speakers.

The organizer of the international oil gathering in Baku, SOCAR, the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, funneled $750,000 through two U.S. nonprofit organizations “to conceal the source of the funding” for the trip, according to a confidential Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) report obtained by The Washington Post. Another $750,000 was contributed by British Petroleum, ConocoPhillips and KBR for airfare, hotel and gifts.

The newspaper also reported that “shortly before the May 28-29, 2013 conference, SOCAR and several large energy companies [including the National Iranian Oil Company] sought exemptions for a $28 billion natural gas pipeline in the Caspian Sea from U.S. economic sanctions being imposed on Iran.” In fact, a month before the conference, SOCAR established the nonprofit Assembly of the Friends of Azerbaijan (AFAZ) in Houston by transferring $750,000. The second nonprofit involved in the scheme, also based in Houston, was the Turquoise Council of Americans and Eurasians (TCAE). Both nonprofits, headed by Kemal Oksuz, shared the same Houston address. Congress approved several bills sanctioning Iran, while exempting the SOCAR project. Pres. Obama then signed these bills into law.

The ten members of Congress who went on the Baku junket were: Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Danny Davis (D-IL), Michelle Grisham (D- NM), Ruben Hinojosa (D-TX), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), Gregory Meeks (D-NY), Ted Poe (R-TX), and Steve Stockman (R-TX).

Ethics investigators disclosed that these lawmakers, accompanied by spouses and fiancés, received several gifts, including “crystal tea sets, briefcases, silk scarves, turquoise earrings, gold-painted plates and Azerbaijani rugs…. All lawmakers received at least one rug and some got two, one prayer-size and one area rug. Many staff members also received rugs.”

To justify their illegal or improper actions, some of these lawmakers made ridiculous statements to congressional investigators:

— Cong. Davis stated that during the Baku conference he “received one rug which was delivered to his hotel room.” He said he was thinking about donating the rug to a museum or charity!
— Cong. Hinojosa claimed: “I received souvenirs of what I believed to be of minimal value and in compliance with the House Gift rule.”
— Ladan Ahmadi, spokeswoman for Rep. Meeks, stated that the Congressman “understood the rug to be a permissible courtesy gift.”
— A senior staff member of Rep. Lance told The Washington Post that the Congressman “returned the one rug he received after he got back to Washington. The staff member also said Lance received a pair of earrings and reimbursed the nonprofit group that helped organize the conference $100 immediately upon returning to New Jersey.”
— Cong. Grisham told ethics investigators that she did not disclose the rugs because she did not think they were particularly valuable. She also thought they were unattractive: “It’s not a carpet I would have purchased.”
— Cong. Bridenstine was the only lawmaker who disclosed the rugs on his financial report. “He had them appraised: the smaller rug at $2,500 and the larger at $3,500.”

Quoting from the ethics report, The Washington Post revealed that Reps. Clarke, Grisham, Hinojosa, Lance, and their staff members also “took side trips to Turkey, traveling to Istanbul, Ankara or both…. The Bosphorus Atlantic Cultural Association of Friendship and Cooperation, a Turkish nonprofit organization, covered the expenses, the report said. The lawmakers did not disclose the role of that nonprofit.”

The Office of Congressional Ethics concluded that “SOCAR and AFAZ provided gifts in the form of impermissible travel expenses to congressional travelers in violation of House rules, regulations and federal law,” while “members of Congress who traveled to Turkey accepted payment of travel expenses from impermissible sources, resulting in an impermissible gift, in violation of House rules and regulations.” Furthermore, the investigators reported that five nonprofits affiliated with the Azerbaijani government asserted that they sponsored the conference, filing sworn statements with the Ethics Committee in April and May 2013. “The five sponsoring organizations contributed no funding for the congressional travel in spite of false affirmations on the forms they submitted to the Committee on Ethics.” The Washington Post reported that these findings have been referred to the House Ethics Committee for investigation of possible violation of congressional rules and federal laws that bar foreign governments from trying to influence U.S. policy.

It is deeply troubling that members of Congress are willing to sell their souls to corrupt Azerbaijani and Turkish entities for a free rug!

May 25, 2015
Show your support for the Azerbaijani hostages in Armenian custody!

Dear Friends,

As you are probably aware, two Azerbaijani hostages – Dilham Asgarov and Shahbaz Guliyev – were taken hostage by the occupying Armenian forces in Kelbajar in June 2014 when they were tending the graves of their loved ones in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region. A third Azerbaijani, Hasan Hasanov, was killed in the struggle.

In December, an unrecognised Armenian kangaroo court jailed Dilham and Shahbaz for life and 22 years, respectively.

We, The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), wanted show our solidarity with Dilham and Shahbaz by protesting outside the Armenian Embassy from 11am–1pm on 23 May.

The purpose is to raise awareness of the unjust and unlawful imprisonment of Dilham and Shahbaz, and the brutal murder of Hasan by the Armenian authorities. Tending the graves of your beloved ones in a region that you used to call your home is, and should never be, considered a crime!

We think that the international community has to finally wake up and realise that Armenia is not always the victim state. On the contrary, it seems that the Armenian authorities are predominantly the perpetrators in the contemporary world!

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The protest took place in front of the Armenian Embassy in London, 25a Cheniston Gardens, London, W8 6TG.

If you want to show your support, just RSVP by reply of email with the word ‘attending’ to the following email address: freehostages@hotmail.com

Sincerely,

The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS)

May 24, 2015