Category: Asia and Pacific

  • No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia

    No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia

    Epress.am — No one from outside can force Armenia, Azerbaijan or Turkey to take this or that step. These countries have to sit together and resolve their problem, said former US Ambassador to Armenia John Marshall Evans today at the “Assessing Independence in Armenia and the Region” public forum organized by the Civilitas Foundation.

    Protocol1“As you know we often have difficult relations with Turkey, as, for example, in the war with Iraq, Turkey refused to get troops into Iraq. Thus, America can’t force, it can support processes through different formats, but resolving the conflict is the problem of those countries,” he said.

    German Ambassador to Armenia Hans-Jochen Schmidt, also speaking on the panel, likewise emphasized that the “outside world” cannot force a decision.

    “The EU also takes steps in the issue of resolving the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the normalization of relations with Turkey, but they can’t force anything,” he said.

    Schmidt said the most important step in Armenia-Turkey relations is the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, after which discussions on other issues will begin.

    “What’s important is that the parties understand that by establishing diplomatic relations, no one is doing anyone a favor; it is a normal process,” he said.

    via ArmeniaDiaspora.com – News from Armenia, Events in Armenia, Travel and Entertainment | No One Can Force Armenia or Turkey, Insist Ambassadors in Armenia.

  • IMPERIAL  NATIONALISM  &  TURKISH  UNION

    IMPERIAL NATIONALISM & TURKISH UNION

    Republic of Turkey , born from the ashes of a 600-year Empire and having the character of independence , has pioneered many freedom movements which resulted with the establishment of new free countries within the first half of 20th century . The founders of the Republic under the leadership of Ataturk set up this new state by giving the whole nation  , desolated and impoverished , the spirit of resistance and by getting their rights with force against the Western Allies at that time ; therefore , they deserve our feelings of gratitude and respect .

    Today , at this point , we , as Turkey , need to follow much more active government policies . Personally , I strongly believe that the nationalism concept taking place among the founding principles of the Republic  should be considered as Imperial Nationalism . In other words , Turkey , will exert its power and authority in every piece of land which it already exists or existed before and which it strongly wishes to exist in the future . No need to say , this is not an enlargement basing on the military power , but on the contrary , an enlargement policy by using all the historical and cultural close relations and by creating a land of attraction for other states and people . Military power must always be respected and must create hesitation among the possible enemies .

     First of all , I want to start wit a basic fact of creation : every entity in the universe has an energy and the power of this energy is directly proportional to its mass .

     If we apply this fact to politics , the way to gain power in world politics goes through creating unity , as our ancestors wisely said “union makes us strong” . Examples are many : USA today , Ottoman & Roman Empires in the past … Of course , the age of empires ended long time ago , but there is always a future for the unions . Even the United States , despite its present power and influence , continuously brainstorms about establishing a One-World-Government under the authority of the United Nations controlled & directed by the USA .

     Under the light of the basic reality above , Turkey , in order to be effective in world politics , needs to unite . The candidates for setting up a union stand next to us : Azerbaijan , Kazakhstan , Turkmenistan , Uzbekistan , Kyrgyzstan and , due to geographical and historical ties , Georgia and Tajikistan . Except the last two , all Turkish origin states … This unification process can first start with the establishment of confederation and may end up with a federation .

     Due to its historical experience and the effectiveness in state establishment , Turkey must perform a leadership for establishing “Eurasia Federation” consisting of the eight states above . This new Federation will represent  a union covering approximaely 5 million square kilometers and a population of 150+ million , which is hard to ignore .

     It is obvious that many of the other actors in the world politics will try every way in order to prevent such a powerful union . Moreover , the present administrators in these eight countries will be reluctant in giving up the power they currently use . However , nobody can claim that it will be easy . I personally do believe that the people forming the nations of those states will look at this unification idea with sympathy .

    Finally , the last but not least , this new “Eurasia Federation” will need a technology-creating reliable partner in order to set up a confederation . That partner is JAPAN . Imagine Japan and Turkey with their own distinctive and leading characteristics and , right beside them , all other participating countries with their natural and social wealth . The future lies in the united political and social entities .

    Even the idea itself is exciting !… Don’t you think this is worth trying ???

  • Phl Ambassador to Turkey Discusses Trade and Investment Promotion with Officials of the Association for Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Counties

    Phl Ambassador to Turkey Discusses Trade and Investment Promotion with Officials of the Association for Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Counties

    20 September 2011-The Philippine Embassy in Ankara reported that officials of the Istanbul-based Association for Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries called on Ambassador-designate Marilyn J. Alarilla on September 15 at the Embassy to discuss economic and cultural cooperation activities implemented in the Philippines.

    Ankara PE Trade Promotion

    The Association officials present during the meeting were General Secretary Ersin Karaoglan, Board Member Ferhan Merter, Philippine-based Fountain International School Director-General Malik Gencer, and Turkish news magazine “Aksiyon” correspondent Mesut Cevikalp.

    Also present during the meeting was Second Secretary Leilani S. Feliciano.

    The Association for Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Countries is a partner organization of the Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists in Turkey, which is organizing the 2011 Trade Bridge Fair to be held on October 24 to 30 in the Istanbul Congress Center.

    The Association officials discussed the expected participation of ten Philippine companies in the forthcoming Trade Bridge Fair, which will focus on food, agricultural products, consumer goods and home appliances.

    During the meeting, Ambassador-designate Alarilla encouraged the Turkish representatives to explore cooperation between Philippine and Turkish companies in construction and infrastructure projects, food industry including tropical and marine products, jewelry including pearl-based items, and business process outsourcing and other IT-related services.

    Embassy and Forum officials agreed to continue their cooperation particularly on exchange information on future programs and projects.

    via Phl Ambassador to Turkey Discusses Trade and Investment Promotion with Officials of the Association for Social and Economic Solidarity with Pacific Counties.

  • Yahoo Apologizes for Accidentally Blocking Emails Containing Links to OccupyWallSt.org

    Yahoo Apologizes for Accidentally Blocking Emails Containing Links to OccupyWallSt.org

    YahooYahoo email users hoping to spread the word of the Occupy Wall Street protests ran into an unforseen obstacle on Tuesday when their messages containing links to the website occupywallst.org were blocked from being sent because an online filter deemed them “suspicious activity.”

    Although several Yahoo users and media outlets jumped to the conclusion that Yahoo was deliberately censoring the emails due on the basis of the anti-establishment content, the company quickly responded via Twitter, saying that “It was not intentional & caught by our spam filters. It is resolved, but may be a residual delay.”

    The company also thanked the blog Think Progress for bringing the matter to their attention via a post on the subject.

    The anti-corporate protests organized by progressive magazine Adbusters and endorsed and heavily promoted by the hacktivist collective Anonymous have been raging in New York’s financial district since Saturday. So far, seven protesters have been arrested, five of them for wearing masks, a violation of an antique anti-mask law on the city’s books.

    But supporters of the demonstration, who have relied on social media to get their messages across and rally others to their cause, hardly expected that their email service would fail them at such a critical time.

    At the same time, Yahoo has raised the ire of free speech advocates before for its cooperation with the Chinese government in censoring search results on the Chinese mainland. Yahoo has also blocked links to file-sharing search engines such as FilesTube through its Yahoo Messenger service.

    See the errant filter in action in the YouTube video below, as demonstrated by a Yahoo user.


    Late update: Yahoo responds to Idea Lab via email, asserting that the problem was actually first observed and reported yesterday and has since been corrected. “Unfortunately, the domain ‘occupywallst.org’ was being caught by one of our spam filters when some users tried to send messages containing it. This was a false positive which we corrected yesterday. However, there may still be residual delay (up to 24 hours) for users trying to send emails with that phrase. Thank you to the Yahoo! Mail users who notified us about this.”

    idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com, September 20, 201

  • great firewall of China

    great firewall of China

     

    China flag internet censorship

    TREVOR MOGG

    The Chinese government has announced the creation of a new body that will help it to supervise the Internet more efficiently, which could result in more effective censorship controls.

    The ‘great firewall of China’ has just got a bit greater with the government’s introduction of a new office that will, according to a statement posted Wednesday on its official website, “manage Internet information.”

    Up to now, Internet regulation in the country has been conducted by various offices within the government. The creation of the new body, called the State Internet Information Office, brings those offices together to form a single, more effective, agency. Besides improving censorship methods, the office will also oversee the expansion of outside companies into China‘s rapidly growing Internet market.

    It will be run by officials from other agencies that already regulate various parts of the Internet. These agencies include the State Council Information Office (responsible for content), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (regulator of technology and telecommunications areas), and the Ministry of Public Security (responsible for law enforcement). The new State Internet Information Office will be headed by Wang Chen, China’s Information Minister.

    Among its many responsibilities, the new body will “direct, coordinate and supervise online content management and handle administrative approval of businesses related to online news reporting.” It will also “direct the development of online gaming, online video and audio businesses and online publication industries.”

    In a country where the government already tries hard to control the flow of information in cyberspace, the State Internet Information Office will likely serve to enhance censorship of the Web. The announcement of the new office comes at a time when the Chinese government is concerned about pro-democracy protests happening off the back of those in the Middle East in recent months. Beijing officials will be hoping that effective regulation will ensure better monitoring of any politically sensitive Web traffic, thereby helping to prevent any serious unrest within the country.

    In an ominous note to Chinese Web users who are thinking of challenging the system, the statement also says that the new body will “investigate and punish websites violating laws and regulations.”

    In Case You Missed It:

    • China shutters 130,000 Internet cafes
    • Chinese will take over the Internet in 5 years
    • Iran plans to unplug the Internet, create its own
    • New fiber optic cable will pour data into Internet-starved Cuba

    www.digitaltrends.com, MAY 4, 2011

  • Turkish Tourism to target Weddings and Bollywood to increase Indian arrivals

    Turkish Tourism to target Weddings and Bollywood to increase Indian arrivals

    Turkish Tourism to target Weddings and Bollywood to increase Indian arrivals

    By P Krishna Kumar | New Delhi

    Turkish Tourism is planning to target large wedding groups and the film industry from India to increase their share of Indian outbound travellers. According to Özgür Aytürk, Culture & Tourism Counsellor for India, Turkish Embassy-New Delhi; Turkish Tourism will organise dedicated FAM trips for wedding planners and film industry specialists to Turkey to showcase various facilities and destinations. Turkey will also be engaging the Indian market in the coming months through a variety of cultural events.

    As part of the cultural events planned, Turkish troupes will be visiting India to perform in some of the main cities, including Mumbai and Delhi. Turkish Sufi dancers will perform in Mumbai at the invitation of National Centre for Performing Arts on November 13, 2011 and in Delhi on November 16, 2011. “In 2012, India and Turkey will be celebrating their 60th anniversary of establishing cultural relations. We are planning various cultural exchange programmes next year,” informed Aytürk.

    According to Aytürk, Turkish Tourism is also planning to promote the destination for Golf Tourism in India through some novel initiatives. The first among these is a golfing event planned by Turkish Tourism in partnership with Delhi Golf Club on September 21, 2011 in Antalya. The event is in collaboration with Antalya Golf Club and Kempinski Hotel, Antalya. “The sea-side resort city of Antalya is in Belek region, which is famous for international standard golf courses,” stated Aytürk.

    Commenting on the various facets of the destination, Aytürk said that, Istanbul, which is a major destination for shopping and nightlife in Europe, is not well known for these aspects in India. “Some of the major shopping malls of Europe are located in Istanbul along with exciting street markets. While Indians go to Dubai for shopping, people from the Middle East generally travel to Istanbul for shopping,” informed Aytürk.

    Turkey received 63,000 Indian visitors last year registering almost 15 per cent growth compared to the previous year. However, according to Aytürk, the first seven months of 2011 have witnessed a growth of almost 25 per cent in Indian arrivals over the same period last year. “We are looking at a 20 to 25 per cent growth in Indian arrivals this year,” stated Aytürk.

    via Travel Biz Monitor :: Turkish Tourism to target Weddings and Bollywood to increase Indian arrivals.