Category: World

Turkey Anxious over Mass Protests in Iran

By: Emrullah Uslu

Iranian supporters of defeated reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi demonstrate on June 17, 2009 in Tehran, Iran.

Following the controversial presidential election in Iran, the Turkish media coverage has revealed a mixed interpretation of events, and appears to indicate widespread support in the country for the re-election of the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Several hours after the polls closed in Iran the reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi declared victory. Only minutes after his press conference, Iran’s state owned news agency IRNA reported that the hard-line President Ahmadinejad also declared victory (Zaman, June 13). The Turkish press had sent their correspondents to Tehran to closely monitor the election. Turkey’s leading daily Hurriyet immediately after the poll, speculated about the possibility of social unrest and protests in Iran (Hurriyet, June 13).

As the protests grew in strength, the Iranian opposition leader Mousavi issued a direct challenge to the country’s supreme leader and cleric-led system, calling for a mass rally to protest against the disputed election results, and the instances of state-inspired violence against his followers. In response Iran’s most powerful military force said that Iranian websites and bloggers must remove any material that “creates tension” or face legal action (Hurriyet Daily News, June 18).

The key aspect of these developments, which attracted the attention of the Turkish media, was whether the “green wave” protests might spark a reformist revolution. Despite the fact that the opposition leader Mousavi rejected the claims that his “green wave protests are supported by outside supporters,” (Hurriyet, June 18) the nationalist Turkish press displayed a tendency to believe that Iran is facing a new revolution similar to those in Georgia, Ukraine and other former Soviet Republics that were supported by the United States and the European Union.

For instance, the neo-nationalist Yeni Cag daily alleged that the west is the “dark force” behind the protests in Iran, aiming to topple the Iranian regime. Yeni Cag prefers to regard the protests as revealing that the “patience of the Iranian people is about to explode [against the protest]” (Yeni Cag, June 18).

Turkish political observers have also tried to associate the protests in Iran with the revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine and other former Soviet republics. Mahir Kaynak in the Star daily said that the global powers were unsuccessful in their alleged efforts to bring about yet another color revolution -this time in Iran (Star, June 16).

Ibrahim Karagul in Yeni Safak suggested that the events in Iran might be a sign of new developments encouraged by the “dark forces” of the west to bring a reformist revolution to Iran (Yeni Safak, June 17). Nuray Mert in Radikal was another political observer alleging that the protests in Iran might indicate an imminent “green” revolution (Radikal June 16).

Semih Idiz of Milliyet noted that the victory of Ahmadinejad represents a huge disappointment for Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and other Middle Eastern countries. However, when it comes to Turkey, it appears that the AKP government is not disappointed with this result. In addition, no matter whether they belong to the secular or Islamist segments of Turkish society, those with anti-American and anti-Western sentiments are happy to see the re-election of Ahmadinejad (Milliyet, June 15).

Yet there are some Turkish political observers who think that the victory of Ahmadinejad might not prove negative for the west. Kadri Gursel in Milliyet for instance, argued that a victory for Mousavi would be a good option, though he stressed that during the election campaign Ahmadinejad avoided using any anti-American or anti-Israeli sentiments to turn them into an election tool (Milliyet, June 15). The director of the International Strategic Research Center in Ankara Sedat Laciner, also believes that Ahmadinejad is signaling possible compromise with the west, and Mousavi may not be the right person to conduct such negotiations, since his reformist agenda is not supported by all sections of Iranian society (www.usakgundem.com, June 12).

It appears that, other than a small minority who care about the potential strategic significance of the election, the majority of the Turkish public regardless of their background, seem happy with the outcome of the Iranian election. In addition, they do not approve of the protests in Iran, and they believe that the West is the main driving force behind these expressions of public discontent.

Islamists in Turkey are satisfied with the Iranian election, because an Islamist has apparently won. The secularists are equally content, as they fear that the west might be sponsoring protests in Iran in order to topple the regime. Most importantly, the neo-nationalists in Turkey have long lived with the fear that the West wants to change the secularist regime, because Turkey with its nation-state structure is one of the biggest obstacles to further globalization. As a result of such an obscure conspiracy theory, neo-nationalists are also pleased to see that Ahmadinejad has secured his re-election.

Source: Eurasia Daily Monitor, Volume: 6, Issue: 117, June 18, 2009

June 21, 2009
British software used to crash Iranian websites

Union Jack behind green revolution

By Nick Farrell

A BLIGHTY web designer has noticed that an application he developed is being used by members if the Green revolution in Iran.

Ryan Kelly told Channel Four News he had developed www.pagereboot.com to automatically refresh websites such as Ebay, but said Iranians had emailed him saying they were using it to mount distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks on that country’s official government websites.

He noticed that he was suddenly getting large numbers of download requests, then he started received emails from grateful Iranians saying they were using the application to attack government websites and bring them down.

There have been protests, as well as a web campaign, apparently, against Iran’s government after the results of Friday’s presidential election were announced, amid complaints of vote rigging.

Kelly took down the website because it could not handle the traffic, but after an online appeal for donations to cover the increased costs, he was able to make it available again. µ

Source: www.theinquirer.net, 18 June 2009

June 21, 2009
Internet has changed foreign policy for ever, says Gordon Brown

In exclusive interview with the Guardian, prime minister says web era ‘more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution’

Katharine Viner

Gordon Brown says foreign policy 'can no longer be the province of just a few elites'. Photograph: Virginia Mayo/AP

Foreign policy can never be the same again — and it’s all because of the internet, Gordon Brown said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.

Referring to the so-called Twitter revolution in Iran, the prime minister said technological advances and the democratisation of information mean “foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites”.

“You cannot have Rwanda again,” he said. “This week’s events in Iran are a reminder of the way that people are using new technology to come together in new ways to make their views known.”

He described the internet era as “more tumultuous than any previous economic or social revolution”. “For centuries, individuals have been learning how to live with their next-door neighbours,” he added.

“Now, uniquely, we’re having to learn to live with people who we don’t know.

“People have now got the ability to speak to each other across continents, to join with each other in communities that are not based simply on territory, streets, but networks; and you’ve got the possibility of people building alliances right across the world.”

This, he said, has huge implications. “That flow of information means that foreign policy can never be the same again.

“You cannot have Rwanda again because information would come out far more quickly about what is actually going on and the public opinion would grow to the point where action would need to be taken.

“Foreign policy can no longer be the province of just a few elites.”

During a frank and personal interview in Guardian Weekend magazine, published tomorrow, he also discussed the return to favour of the business secretary, Peter Mandelson.

Brown said that there was now a “common purpose” between the two of them, and that the Labour party – famously resistant to Lord Mandelson’s charms, had finally come round to him.

“People are coming to appreciate his talents in a way the Labour party didn’t before … I think there’s a great affection for him now,” he added.

Source: www.guardian.co.uk, 19 June 2009

June 21, 2009
End of the Silk Road for historic trading hub of Kashgar

Jane Macartney in Kashgar

Today is the last day for residents of one of the last surviving ancient cities in China to claim a bonus for agreeing to move out to make way for the wrecking ball.

After the offer expires, the only inducement may be force.

Bulldozers are already crashing through the packed-mud walls of centuries-old homes. Yellow-helmeted workers toss bricks into wheelbarrows as they clear the rubble.

The demolition of swaths of the Old Town of Kashgar is being carried out in the name of modernisation and safety. The famed trading hub on the Silk Road, on which caravans carrying silk and jade from China crossed with merchants from Central Asia bringing furs and spices, will effectively disappear.

Walls throughout the town are stencilled with signs exhorting residents to support the makeover to prevent the damage wrought by last year’s massive earthquake in southwestern Sichuan province that killed 90,000 people.

Many residents of the old quarter, members of the Muslim Uighur minority, are unconvinced.

One old man, his beard white, taps a mud-and-straw wall. “These houses have withstood earthquakes for 2,000 years. They have wood inside to absorb the shock.” He gestures to a renovated building next door. “People are supposed to use these hard bricks. But look at the cement. There are gaps and it’s poor quality. Maybe this would fall more quickly.”

City authorities have decided that most of these one and two-storey buildings must be razed. A small area visited by tourists seeking a flavour of Kashgar’s rich history will be preserved. Uighur residents, already distrustful of a Government that many regard as an occupation force, even doubt that.

An elderly businessman, who refused to be identified for fear of retribution, said: “They don’t tell us anything. We don’t understand why they do this. Anyway, I don’t believe anything they say.” He is too frightened even to say who “they” are. He uses two letters, “GV “. He means the Government.

Residents of the old city are reluctant to talk. Their fear is palpable. One gestures down the street. “The police are here. We must be careful.” In a house destined to disappear, a young girl slams the door into her rose-filled courtyard on visitors who ask about her home.

The Government plans to spend $440 million (£270 million) to move 65,000 Uighur households – about 220,000 people – into modern housing. The aim is safer housing but other factors are at work.

With a huge government stimulus package to boost the economy, authorities now have the money to tear down a warren of narrow alleys in which they fear Muslim Uighurs could foment separatist unrest. Days before last year’s Olympics two Uighurs rammed a lorry into a group of young police officers on a morning jog and then leapt out and attacked them with knives, killing 17. This month officials said that they had wrapped up seven terrorist cells in Kashgar.

Non-governmental organisations are anxious that yet another remnant of China’s rapidly disappearing past is to vanish. The Beijing Cultural Heritage Protection Centre has issued an appeal to save the Old Town, saying that the threat to Kashgar is more serious even than that to the Chinese capital’s old alleyways or to Lhasa.

It said: “Primarily due to its relatively distant location, information… is very hard to come by, hence so little monitoring and criticism on the poor preservation work of the local government.”

Wu Dianting, a Beijing professor of regional planning who has studied the city, says that such large-scale raw-earth towns are now rare anywhere in the world. He describes them as well adapted for the desert region, being warm in winter and cool in summer. He has asked city authorities to reconsider. “Demolition would be a terrible pity.”

Families are less concerned about their cultural heritage than about having a roof over their heads, and one under which they have sheltered for generations.

Those who can afford to strengthen their existing homes and add a second storey may stay. The elderly businessman said: “Most people don’t agree. But they are poor. They have to move.”

The extent of resistance is reflected in the forest of banners and wall slogans exhorting support for the improvements. One offered a bonus of 200 yuan (£20) a square metre for those who left by June 6; those staying until June 18 will be eligible for only 100 yuan. After that they will get nothing.

Not all are opposed. One elderly Muslim merchant in an embroidered skullcap chatted between stalls selling grilled mutton kebabs as flat bread baked in earthen ovens and artisans beat copper pots. He said: “The new houses are much cleaner. They have a bathroom and a kitchen. It’s good to have proper sanitation.”

He will still come down to the Old Town to gossip with friends around the main Id Kah Mosque. His son shrugs about the prospect of life in a block of flats. “What can you do? What can you do? We have no choice.”

Times Online

June 20, 2009
Horizon fuel cell for unmanned plane

Fuel Cells, June 05 2009 (The Hydrogen Journal)

– Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies of Vancouver has announced plans to use its new Aeropak fuel cell system in unmanned aeroplanes, with shipments starting this summer

Unmanned planes are typically used for security surveillance and intelligence gathering.

By using fuel cells, the aeroplane will be able to go up to 4 times further than with lithium batteries currently being used for this application, the company says.

The aeroplanes will carry 900 watt hours of electrical energy, fuelled from a dry fuel cartridge releasing hydrogen, in a fuel cell weighing 2kg.

Electric powered unmanned planes are much harder to detect than planes powered with combustion engines, because they are quieter and smaller.

By having more electrical power available, it is easier to add more sensors to the plane, such as infrared cameras and laser designators.

The plane will be demonstrated at the forthcoming Paris Air Show (June 15-18 2009).

The company did not announce how the fuel storage technology works, although other companies have announced they use sodium borohydride in their dry fuel cell cartridges.

Horizon Fuel Cell

Hydrogen power for ships –Hamburg

Feature Articles, May 15 2009 (The Hydrogen Journal)

– A great deal of research is going on in Hamburg to use hydrogen for ships – with trials on 4 different vessels. We spoke to experts at German energy consultancy Germanischer Lloyd about how it is happening

With the maritime industry likely to come under pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, experts are looking seriously at the idea of fuelling the ship on hydrogen, so there are no CO2 emissions at all.

The world’s first hydrogen / fuel cell powered vessel for more than 100 passengers the “Alster Wasser” is already in operation on Hamburg’s Alster Lake. The vessel has been built and is operated within the scope of EC funded ZEMSHIP project.

Unlike a diesel engine, the fuel cell operates silently. This led to surprising discoveries about how much noise other parts of a vessel make.

On normal ships, the engine makes so much noise that nobody has worried about the noise which other components (such as pumps) make, says Finn Vogler, project engineer within GL department Risk Assessment and Mechanical Engineering,,

But on the “Alster Wasser”, people were suddenly aware about how noisy the rest of the ship is – and reducing the overall noise has proved a complex exercise. “As soon as they isolate one noise, they find 3 other noises,” he says.

The vessel runs on two 48 kW fuel cells and stores hydrogen onboard in 12 x 350 bar (high pressure) hydrogen tanks. The hydrogen is actually supplied to the fuelling station as a liquid, and evaporated and compressed before being pumped onto the vessel.

Fuel cells are also used in submarines built in Kiel. These submarines are a great commercial success because the fuel cells give the owner the benefit to enhance the duration for diving by a factor of 10. As the first class society GL already published guidelines for using fuel cells on watercraft in 2003 and has certified a number of ships according to these guidelines including the “Alster Wasser”.

Hydrogen fuel cells are currently not available to power larger ships, but they are close. Development projects have been started and will result in fuel cells for seagoing ships with a power of 500 kW per unit within the next 5 years.

“GL is contributing to this development by participating in the SchIBZ and Pa-X-ell projects which will start in July 2009” Mr Vogler says.

The available power of fuel cell systems will be able to cover the auxillary power needs of a large number of vessels. E.g. a typical ROPAX (roll-on, roll-off, passenger carrying) ferry needs from the total installed auxiliary power about 1.5 to 2 MW of constant auxiliary power, which can be provided by 3 or 4 large fuel cells.

The biggest problem with fuel cells is managing sulphur in the hydrogen supply – it needs to be removed before entering the fuel cell because it can do a lot of damage. There is no sulphur in hydrogen which comes from gas which has been liquefied (because the sulphur is removed in the liquefaction process) and there is no sulphur in hydrogen produced from separating water with electricity (electrolysis).

Hydrogen might not be the technology for the immediate tomorrow, but the longer term tomorrow. “I think this is on the right track, but it will take some time,” he says.

“We are getting much more interest in the technology. Every time the oil price rises – people say ‘maybe we need another solution.”

Hydrogen storage

It is unlikely that hydrogen will ever be directly stored onboard vessels, due to the amount of storage space required, Mr Vogler says.

If the hydrogen is made from reformed natural gas, this task could be completed actually onboard the vessel – so the vessel has natural gas storage. Research into the best ways of fuelling vessels with natural gas is already being made (for an anticipated series of vessels which burn the natural gas in a combustion engine).

If the gas was reformed to hydrogen and then put through a fuel cell to make electricity, it is much easier to reduce emissions of NOx and SOx (nitrous and sulphur oxides), Mr Vogler says, and the overall efficiency will be similar or even better than big diesel generators.

Another option is to generate the hydrogen onboard from a liquid fuel.

Demonstration projects

3 maritime demonstration projects are being planned using hydrogen no ships, funded by the German government.

The first project, SchIBZ (which stands for ‘ship integration fuel cell’ in German) is to install a fuel cell on a 90m vessel which carries paper from Scandinavia to Germany. The fuel cell will be installed in by Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems.

A molten carbonate fuel cell onboard the vessel (a fuel cell which operates at above 600 degrees C). It won’t power the vessel’s propulsion, but it will power everything else – the ‘auxiliaries’ – eg pumps, lights and ramps. The project will start on June 1 2009 and run for up to 4 years. The module will be first tested by German shipbuilder Thyssen-Krupp Marine Systems befor the operation of the system on board.

The fuelling system will be to use liquid fuels (generated from gas, biomass or coal) which are put through an onboard reformer to make hydrogen, which is then put into the fuel cell to make electricity. The system is called “XTL” – which stands for X to Liquids – where the ‘X’ denotes different substances which might be used to make the liquid (eg gas, biomass or coal).

A second project, called Pa-X-ell, starting in July 2009, will use a fuel cell on a vessel, running on natural gas – but the reformer is included as part of the fuel cell rather than as a separate piece of equipment. The project will be carried out by the yards Meyer Werft, Friedrich Lürssen Werft and Flensburger Schiffbau Gesellschaft.

The importance of this project is trying to find ways to include a number of fuel cells and reformer units around the ship – so if one goes out of action, or if there is a fire in one part of the ship, there are others available which can get it to port. This configuration will probably use natural gas cooled down to a liquid.

The third project, Hy-ferry, realised by Beluga Shipping will be to install a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell onboard 2 ferries running in coastal waters and the port of Bremen, Germany, using gaseous hydrogen which has been generated from wind power making electricity to electrolyse water.

All of these projects are funded by the German government, under a mother project called ‘e4ships’. Further information about them (some in English) is available on the website www.now-gmbh.de.

The German government believes that its financing can get the hydrogen industry started.

Germanischer Lloyd’s role in these projects is to provide safety analysis and consultancy, covering the fuel cells, reformer technology and overall safety assessment. In other words, it provides usual services which classification societies provide to the maritime industry.

On the subject of hydrogen safety, Mr Vogler believes that it is no problem with today’s technology. “If you handle it right, it can be safer than gasoline,” he says.

Germanischer Lloyd recommends double wall pipes, so the hydrogen will be contained if one pipeline fails. It is important to avoid having an explosive mixture of hydrogen and air in the presence of a spark.

Hamburg has a number of other projects going on, including forklift trucks at Hamburg airport running on hydrogen, and several hydrogen cars and hydrogen buses. “People are very aware of the technology in Hamburg,” he says.

A further project has been to provide a fuel cell to a whale-watching vessel in Iceland, so it could keep auxiliary power (lights etc) running on the vessel while the engine was switched off during whale-watching, so that it does not disturb them.

GL Group

The Hydrogen Journal

June 8, 2009
Kurd official denies US trains rebels
Wed May 20, 3:16 PM ET Previous 216 of 438 Next

A PKK fighter takes position with his rifle during a training session in 2007 in northern Iraq, 10 kms near the Turkish border. A senior Iraqi Kurd official on Wednesday joined the United States in rejecting Iranian accusations that the US military trains separatist Kurdish rebels for undercover work in Iran.

(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)
- Play Video Iraq Video:Multiple bombs in Baghdad Reuters
- Play Video Iraq Video:U.S. soldiers killed in Baghdad Reuters
- Play Video Iraq Video:Kirkuk suicide bomber kills at least 7 Reuters
Wed May 20, 3:16 pm ET

ARBIL, Iraq (AFP) – A senior Iraqi Kurd official on Wednesday joined the United States in rejecting Iranian accusations that the US military trains separatist Kurdish rebels for undercover work in Iran.

“With all due to respect to Mr Khamenei, it appears that he has received incorrect information,” said Jabbar Yawar, about the accusations made by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“The United States has no military base in Kurdistan to train the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan),” said Yawar, the spokesman for the Peshmerga ministry, the Kurdish equivalent of the Iraqi defence ministry.

“The United States put the PJAK and the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) on their list of terrorist groups, so how can they support these groups they regard as terrorists.”

Khamenei said on Tuesday that the United States was trying to make mercenaries out of young Kurds.

“Behind our western border, the US is training terrorists. It is spending money and handing out weapons to be used against the Islamic republic” of Iran, he said.

“Americans have dangerous plans for (Iraqi) Kurdistan … Their plans are not aimed at defending the Kurdish people, but they want to control them,” Khamenei said in a televised speech.

The US Defence Department on Tuesday dismissed the accusations and countered that Tehran was meddling in Iraq.

“I find it ironic that the Iranians would be accusing us of meddling, when in fact over the last six, seven years in Iraq they have consistently been trying to undermine the peace and stability that we are trying to bring to the Iraqi people there,” Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said.

The border region with Iraq has often seen deadly clashes between Iran’s armed forces and the Kurdish separatists.

Iranians have targeted PJAK, an Iranian Kurdish separatist group which has launched attacks on Iran from rear-supply bases in the Kurdish mountains of northern Iraq.
May 25, 2009