Category: EU Members

European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Turkey on 17 Dec. 2004

Denmark Justice minister under pressure over Terrorist PKK’s TV station

Evidence suggesting the PKK has long had links with a Kurdish television station in Denmark has put the justice minister in the hot seat

Photographs clearly linking a Copenhagen-based Kurdish TV station to militant organisation the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – more commonly known as the PKK – has put pressure on justice minister Lars Barfoed to take action.

Information obtained by Berlingske Tidende newspaper revealed that both police the justice ministry’s Civil Affairs Agency have been long in contact with a witness with knowledge of PKK’s financial support of the station. Berlingske Tidende also published several photos this weekend showing ROJ-TV personnel at PKK training camps in the Middle East.

Several countries consider the PKK to be a terrorist organisation, including the US and the EU.

Justice minister Lars Barfoed has now put the blame for the media fiasco squarely on the shoulders of his own office, stating that the CAA should have informed him properly about its investigation into possible illegal funding of ROJ-TV.

The CAA has now said ‘a clear error’ had been made in that the Justice Ministry was not appropriately appraised of the CAA’s conclusions in the investigation.

Since 1999 the CAA had been investigating numerous large donations to the TV station from the Kurdish Culture Foundation, which contrary to Danish law could not identify the source of the funds to the agency.

The CAA twice threatened to fine the station after investigations – once in 2004 and again in 2008. But no sanctions were ever brought against the foundation, despite that the large sums of money continued to support ROJ-TV.

According to Berlingske Tidende, ROJ-TV has been allowed to keep up to 118 million kroner of illegal funding since 2004.

That there has been close contact between ROJ-TV and the PKK is not in itself news, as many politicians as well as the Turkish government have long accused the station of being a mouthpiece for the Kurdish organisation.

In March, ROJ-TV’s other broadcasting centre in Belgium was raided by police for alleged terrorist affiliations.

The public prosecutor’s chief witness in the case is Manouchehr Zonoozi, ROJ-TV’s former managing director, who has been in contact with police for at least a year. But Zonoozi himself is implicated in the case, as police’s evidence directly connects Zonoozi with PKK camps.

Zonoozi had long maintained that although ROJ-TV had contact to PKK sources, the station was an independent broadcaster and not controlled by the organisation. Since coming forward as a witness, however, he has altered that stance.

Zonoozi left his position with ROJ-TV in 2008 and has been in contact with Danish police since April 2009.

MPs from several parties are calling for Barfoed to take decisive action in the case and, if necessary, shut down ROJ-TV.

In the meantime, Barfoed has forbidden the Kurdish Culture Foundation from giving any further donations to the station without the express approval of the CAA.

The Copenhagen Post

May 26, 2010
Roj TV Caught Red-handed

Monday, 24 May 2010

By Gamze Coskun, JTW

Roj TV-PKK connection, ignored by Denmark, is revealed by the photos and statements of the resigned general manager of the channel, Maonuchehr Zonoozi.

Maonuchehr Zonoozi who resigned from the channel in 2008 made striking statements. Zonoozi stated that he got in contact with the Denmark police to bear testimony and gave photos proving the Roj TV-PKK connection; however the police did not do anything about the issue.

Maonuchehr Zonoozi indicated that he did not know about Roj TV’ laundering PKK’s money gained from drug smuggling and human trafficking.

Zonoozi who had been general manager of the channel for 10 years said that he realized the connection in 2004 when they had a meeting at a PKK camp in Erbil. He added that he struggled for preventing PKK’s intervention to the TV’s broadcast.

Furthermore, he emphasized that he resigned from his job because of Belgian PKK militants’ threats. Zoroozi said, “Go and see the personnel working at Roj TV, all of them are people injured at conflicts.” Maonuchehr Zonoozi also implied that Murat Karayilan was continuously in touch with Roj TV broadcast center through satellite phone and Director of the channel Henrik Caprani Winkel was aware of this fact.

Reactions to the News

Prime Minister Rasmussen’s Party Spokesman on Policy of the Law, Kim Andersen, indicated that he wanted to learn why this issue was not taken into consideration by the police. Socialist People’s Party spokesperson Karina Lorentzen said that such an action tarnishes the image of Denmark about war on terror.

However, Prosecutor Lise Lotte Nilas stated that it is not forbidden to contact with the organizations in the list of terrorist organizations. Furthermore, she implied that what is important is whether Roj TV supports terrorism, and causes the terrorist actions to accelerate.

Journal of Turkish Weekly

May 26, 2010
Filmmaker Jafar Panahi will be freed on bail late today

By Ladane Nasseri

May 25 (Bloomberg) — Iranian filmmaker and opposition supporter Jafar Panahi, who was invited to be a juror at the Cannes film festival, will be freed on bail late today, weeks after directors including Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese called for his release.

A bail equivalent to $200,000 was posted, Panahi’s wife, Tahereh Saeedi, told the Iranian Labour News Agency today. “Based on what we are told, he will be released tonight between 7 and 11 p.m.” Iran time.

“It has been agreed for him to be released on bail and the legal process and the judicial steps are being followed,” Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi was quoted as saying yesterday by the state-run Iranian Students News Agency. He didn’t say when the release or further court proceedings in the case would take place.

Panahi, a backer of the movement that grew out of protests against last year’s disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was detained on March 2. Charges against him include making a movie without a permit and wearing a green scarf, a symbol of the opposition, at a film festival abroad, his wife said last month.

Saeedi, who was detained with Panahi and later released, has said he was planning to direct a film about the problems of a family of four amid the political unrest prompted by Ahmadinejad’s victory in the June 12 vote.

Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese were among directors who signed a petition last month urging the Iranian government to release Panahi, saying filmmakers in Iran “should be celebrated, not censored, repressed and imprisoned.”

‘Attack on Art’

Fellow Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, whose film “Certified Copy” premiered at the Cannes film festival, also made an appeal at the event last week for Panahi’s release, the U.K.’s Guardian reported.

“When a filmmaker is imprisoned, it is an attack on art as a whole,” Kiarostami told reporters, according to the newspaper. “We need explanations. I don’t understand how a film can be a crime, particularly when that film has not been made.”

French actress Juliette Binoche, who starred in Kiarostami’s film and won the best actress award for the role at Cannes, wept when she heard that Panahi started a hunger strike on May 16, Agence France-Presse reported. Binoche brandished a sign with the name of Panahi as she faced the audience after receiving her award, AFP said on May 23.

Several of Panahi’s films have been banned in Iran, including “Crimson Gold,” which looks at the privileges of Iran’s upper class through the eyes of a pizza-delivery man and won the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2003. Also banned is “The Circle,” which portrays the harsh aspects of life for several women in the Islamic nation. It won the Golden Lion award at the 2000 Venice film festival.

More recently, Panahi won the second-highest award at the 2006 Berlin film festival with “Offside,” a comic tale about a government ban on women and girls attending soccer games.

–Editors: Philip Sanders, Heather Langan

To contact the reporter on this story: Ladane Nasseri in Beirut at [email protected].

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at [email protected].

The Bloomberg

May 25, 2010
Turkey to EU: Call us when you’re ready

By Clayton Swisher

It’s a great time to be in lovely Istanbul, taking in the Bosphorus and all the historic sites by foot. The scenery on Turkey’s political landscape is every bit as dramatic.

Consider Turkey’s statesmanship today in Tehran (along with Brazil) to try and resolve the ongoing Iranian nuclear standoff.

Or the Turkish parliament’s vote over constitutional amendments.

In the backdrop lies the increasingly inconsequential issue that used to dominate news on Turkey – its long stalled bid for EU accession.

Just last week I was concentrating on this subject at a majestic retreat in Austria courtesy of the Salzburg Global Seminar.

For five days I deliberated with a group of distinguished Turkish and European diplomats, politicians, business people and scholars, all eager to explore how the Turkish accession project might conclude.

I suppose I showed my own hand when I enquired out loud, with news of Greece’s financial crisis and the puzzling EU response, why Turkey should anyhow want to join?

Chatham House rules applied, so I can’t say what others felt (though my hypothesis was shared). I did get an interesting “on record” insight from Turkish parliamentarian and AK party executive committee member Suat Kiniklioglu.

Until we met in Austria’s verdant hills last week I was pleased to learn we had stomped the same grounds when were living “la vida think tank” in Washington DC’s Dupont Circle, circa 2005.

With all of Turkey’s economic successes, I asked Suat why the ruling AK party should want to continuing pursuing a membership that will mean inheriting the liabilities of 27 deeply divided countries with unequally performing economies.

Given the strength of Turkish foreign policy, its growing nexus to the global energy supply, its youthful population (etc, I could go on), why would Ankara now want to subordinate itself to a group that more resembles an aging diplomatic country club?

One important impression I gathered from the Salzburg discussions: Germany, France, and especially Austria, will never, repeat never, allow Turkey to join.

Too much bad blood, “enlargement fatigue,” the excuse of domestic politics, and probably even a degree of not-so-latent ethnic discrimination.

So what’s wrong with Turkey turning from its position of strength to say, ‘Thanks, but no thanks!?’ I can’t find a compelling answer against it.

Meanwhile, I notice there are many Germans, French, and Austrians walking around the same touristic sites as me.

Too bad for them that the euro is so weak, although it will still buy you some killer street food.

About Clayton Swisher

Clayton Swisher, based in Doha, covers stories across the Middle East and further afield.

, May 17th, 2010

May 20, 2010
British Holiday Mother “kills 2 children”

A British mother has been arrested on suspicion of murdering her two young children who were found dead in a Spanish hotel.

The woman has confessed to killing her one-year-old son and daughter aged five at the four-star Hotel Miramar in the Costa Brava resort of Lloret de Mar, police sources said.

Her children may have been suffocated, investigators believe. Emergency services were called but paramedics could do nothing to save the lives of the children who reportedly showed no outward signs of injury.

The woman, who is in her 30s, was said to have driven to the resort – about 72km (45 miles) north-east of Barcelona – with her children on Monday evening for a few days’ holiday.

Shortly before 2pm yesterday, she called police herself to the modern, beachfront hotel, where officers found the dead youngsters.

Police said the cause of death was not known and postmortem examinations are due to be carried out tomorrow.

The mother reconstructed the tragic events in front of a judge and officers in the room before being taken to a police station this evening.

The Metro

May 19, 2010
UN envoy De Soto urges EU to end KKTC’s isolation

Former UN envoy De Soto urges EU to end KKTC’s isolation;

Alvaro de Soto, the UN secretary-general’s former special adviser on Cyprus, has said the European Union should, as promised, end the isolation of Turkish Cypriots to help find a lasting solution to the problems on the long-divided island.
Mr de Soto stated that it would only be fair for the EU live up to its promises to the Turkish inhabitants of northern Cyprus. Noting that he believes that the EU should comply with its commitments to the Turkish Cypriots, he said this would drive Turkey to open its ports to traffic from Greek Cyprus. Turkey refuses to do so as long as theTurkish Cypriots continue to be subjected to isolation, which the EU had promised to end following the Greek Cypriot rejection of the Annan plan in 2004 while the Turkish side overwhelmingly approved it.
The former UN envoy argued that one reason that prompted the Greek Cypriots to reject the Annan plan aimed at reunifying the island six years ago could be that they felt they were in an advantageous position because they were going to join the EU. He added that another reason was that the Greek Cypriots did not study the plan as carefully as the Turkish Cypriots and were therefore not completely aware of what it would have meant for them.
De Soto also assessed the prospects of resolving the issue through the bilateral talks initiated by Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christofias and former Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) President Mehmet Ali Talat on Sept. 3, 2008. Talat was unseated by Dervis Eroglu at the presidential elections held a month ago.
He said both sides have agreed to a bi-communal, bi-zonal federal state solution as a compromise, though it was not either side’s preference. Stating that the parties have agreed to terms of reference for the talks, he said:“There is a new basis. I see that even Mr. Eroglu has agreed to continue on the same basis. They are pursuing a bi-zonal, bi-communal federal solution, the results of which would have to be a state of single international legal personality and sovereignty, and that is in conformity with the Annan plan as far as I can tell.” He added that it is a “good thing” to see Eroglu pledge to continue the talks from where they left off. Christofias and Eroglu are scheduled to hold the 72nd meeting of the reunification talks on May 26.
De Soto lastly discussed the reason for his resignation from his last post at the UN in 2007 as the special coordinator for the Middle East peace process. He said he resigned because the UN refused to talk with Hamas.“In the Quartet, the UN decided not to deal with Hamas even though Hamas had been democratically elected in an election that has been praised by the observers, including the EU observers. Even though this was the case, the UN stopped dealing with the government of the Palestinian authority, and that was a mistake. I tried to get things changed, and when I was not successful, I left the UN,” he said.
17 May 2010, Monday

Topix

May 18, 2010