Category: EU Members

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

  • Bulgarian President to pay two-day official visit to Turkey

    Bulgarian President to pay two-day official visit to Turkey

    Bulgarian President to pay two-day official visit to Turkey

    27 November 2012 | 14:52 | FOCUS News Agency

    Home / Southeast Europe and Balkans

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    Sofia. Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev is to pay a two-day official visit to Turkey on 28 and 29 November, announced the press service of the President’s Office.

    The visit is continuation of the political dialog at the highest level between Bulgaria and Turkey.

    The visit will focus on measures for strengthening bilateral trade, economic and investment relations and on exchange of opinions on topical regional and international issues and initiatives of mutual interest.

    On 28 November the Bulgarian head of state will lay a wreath in Kemal Ataturk Mausoleum and hold a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. The two delegations will hold plenary talks.

    President Plevneliev is to confer also with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Parliament Speaker Cemil Çiçek and representatives of Bulgarian emigrant organizations in Ankara.

    On 29 November in Istanbul President Plevneliev is to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and visit the Bulgarian Exarchate.

    Rosen Plevneliev is to visit the first European railway station of the future railway tunnel under the Bosphorus. The tunnel will connect the Asian and European part of Turkey and its construction is included in a project for connecting Central Europe with Asia through a high-speed railway line.

    In Istanbul the Bulgarian head of state is to hold meetings with representatives of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey and Foreign Economic Relations Board of Turkey. He is to talks also with representatives of emigrant organizations.

    via Bulgarian President to pay two-day official visit to Turkey – FOCUS Information Agency.

  • King Croesus’s golden brooch to be returned to Turkey

    King Croesus’s golden brooch to be returned to Turkey

    Lydian Hoard treasure in shape of winged seahorse, sold to pay gambling debts and replaced with a fake, to be taken home

    Constanze Letsch in Istanbul

    guardian.co.uk, Sunday 25 November 2012 13.45 GMT

    The original left and the 005

    The original, left, and the fake golden brooch in the shape of a winged seahorse

    The original, left, and the fake golden brooch in the shape of a winged seahorse from the Lydian Hoard in Turkey.

    For thousands of years it lay underground, part of the buried treasure of the legendarily wealthy King Croesus. But since being illegally excavated in the 1960s, it has been stolen, replaced by a fake, sold to pay off gambling debts and has allegedly brought down a curse on its plunderers.

    Now the 2,500-year-old golden brooch is to be returned home to Turkey, where it will be given a special place in a new national museum.

    The Turkish culture minister, Ertugrul Günay, has announced that German officials have agreed to return the missing artefact, a brooch in the form of a winged seahorse, possibly as early as this year.

    The brooch is part of the Lydian Hoard, known in Turkey as the Karun Treasure, which was looted from iron-age burial mounds in western Turkey in 1965. The artefacts were sold on, eventually to be exhibited in the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in the 1980s.

    After a six-year legal battle that reportedly cost Turkey £25m, it was repatriated in 1993 and went on display in the Usak museum. But in 2006, after an anonymous tipoff, the brooch on show was discovered to be a fake, with the original missing again.

    After an investigation the director of the museum, Kazim Akbiyikoglu, who had been instrumental in recovering the artefacts from the US, was arrested with 10 others. Akbiyikoglu admitted selling museum treasures to pay off gambling debts and was jailed for 13 years. He blamed his misfortune on an ancient curse said to afflict those who handle the treasure.

    Popular rumour has it that all seven men involved in the illegal digs of the burial mounds died violent deaths or suffered great misfortune.

    Although the details of the brooch’s latest recovery are unclear, Turkish officials are delighted. “I am very happy to hear that the piece will finally return home,” said a culture and tourism official, Serif Aritürk, who is responsible for the museum in Usak. “Since I was in office in 2005 and 2006 I felt personally responsible for the theft ; our directorate came under a lot of pressure.” He added that he had never doubted the brooch would reappear. “No collector would have dared to acquire such a well-known artefact, it was clear that the thieves would not find a buyer easily.”

    Journalist and archaeology expert Ömer Erbil, who investigated the brooch’s theft in 2006, agreed: “For the past three years the ministry of culture has exerted great pressure to retrieve stolen artefacts from Turkey. Museums and collectors are increasingly hesitant to buy them. It is partly due to the ministry’s efforts that we were able to find the brooch relatively fast,” he said.

    Turkey has recently launched what some call “an art war” to repatriate antiquities from museums around the world that it says were stolen and smuggled out of the country illegally. According to official numbers, 885 artefacts were returned in 2011 alone.

    Critics argue that foreign museums helped to preserve countless historical treasures from destruction or theft.

    However, according to Erbil, the 2006 heist marked a crucial turn: “Attitudes to cultural treasures and museums underwent a revolutionary change in Turkey. The ministry of culture works relentlessly to protect artefacts and to make sure that they are properly and safely displayed.”

    The Archaeological Museum in Usak is only able to display 2,000 of its 41,600 historical objects. A larger museum, to open in December 2013, is being built to house the 450 pieces of the Lydian collection in its entirety. With the retrieval of the hippocamp brooch, Aritürk hopes the treasure’s curse has finally been lifted. “The piece will receive a place of honour in the new museum. Once it returns home, I am sure tourists and those that appreciate history and art will follow.”

    via King Croesus’s golden brooch to be returned to Turkey | World news | guardian.co.uk.

  • Turkey’s interest in EU membership plunges

    Turkey’s interest in EU membership plunges

    Turkey’s interest in EU membership plunges

    Provides key political, economic link to East

    author-image by F. Michael MaloofEmail | Archive

    F. Michael Maloof, staff writer for WND and G2Bulletin, is a former senior security policy analyst in the office of the secretary of defense.More ↓

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    Editor’s Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

    WASHINGTON – After more than two decades of trying, Turkey has all but given up on acquiring membership in the European Union, where it has faced annual rejections from Germany, France and Cyprus, which are concerned with Eastern influences in Europe. Cypriot opposition stems mainly from Greece’s position, since much of Cyprus is under a Greek-backed government, according to a report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.

    Now Turkey, which for years has been a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, regards itself as part of modern Europe but is exhibiting more of an Islamic government. And it is seriously considering giving up its efforts to join the EU if it hasn’t achieved membership by 2023, a decision which could have enormous consequences, especially for Europe.

    As a bridge between East and West, Turkey, with its Islamic orientation, has sought to be a major influence with other countries of the Middle East and Central Asia where Ankara had historical impact in its former capacity as the Ottoman Empire.

    The influence would be essential for Europe, which needs Turkey for continued political and economic trade with the East. However, a number of the European countries, most notably France, are concerned about Turkey’s government becoming more Islamist. In addition, Turkey continues to deny that the massive killing in 1915 of Armenians was genocide – a position to which France has raised strong objection.

    European opposition to Turkey joining the EU stems from a number of issues which were outlined in a report the EU issued in October.

    Those concerns included continued restrictions on civil rights, curtailment of freedom of expression, assembly and association. It also revolves around the treatment that the Turkish government has shown to the Kurds and Christian minorities, including journalists.

    Reaction from Turkish officials was immediate. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyep Erdogan complained that the Europeans “probably won’t string us along that long (to 2023) but if they do string us along until then the European Union will lose out, and at the very least they will lose Turkey.”

    For its part, Germany, which has the largest Turkish population in Europe, has concerns over the integration of Turks into German society and the influx of even more immigrants should Turkey become an EU member.

    “Given the resistance of major European powers, there is no clear path for Turkey’s entry into the European Union,” according to a report from the open intelligence group Langley Intelligence Network, or Lignet.

    “Turkey is very wary about being drawn into an inter-Islamic conflict, especially in Syria,” Lignet said. “However, mutual interests and opportunities for cooperation exist with the states that surround the Mediterranean, Black and Caspian Seas. The more effectively Turkey promotes regional stability and also asserts herself in this multi-dimensional world, the less attractive EU membership becomes.”

    Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

    via Turkey’s interest in EU membership plunges.

  • JPMorgan – Above The Law?

    JPMorgan – Above The Law?

     

     

    One of the world’s most powerful banks today is JP Morgan Chase. Their Chairman, whose name only has to appear in any leading media and 95% of the readers will recognize the name with JP Morgan Chase.Yet the most powerful always have skeletons in their closets: an Achilles Heel. Today it is easy to find them. If you type “JP Morgan” into Google, you will get 6444,000hits. Then search: “silver manipulation”, which will give you 225,000 results in .38 seconds, you will see JP Morgan is in all the top hits.

    One does not have to be a Rhodes scholar to find the bad apple. The price of gold is above $1,700.00 an ounce and silver is slightly above $31.00 an ounce. Yet there is three times as much gold as there is silver in the known world supply.  Central banks buy gold. They are the major buyers at this price. It is also used in making Jewelry.  That is about it.

    Now silver on the other hand, is the best conductor of electricity. It is also used in mirrors, solar panels and all kinds of medical supplies. In the COMEX (Commodities Option Metal Exchange) warehouses worldwide, more silver is being delivered than deposited. The bottom line is that demand is outstripping supply.

    Now, November 2012, JP Morgan is short 32% the silver commodity while the legal short position is supposed to be 5%. It is a clear signal of market manipulation. A short position means that a seller has borrowed a security or a commodity contract from an owner so he can deliver what he has sold to the buyer. He then hopes to be able to buy back at a lower price and return it to the loaner. He is doing the reverse of buy low sell high. He sells high first and buys back lower later-hopefully. The risk is when one buys, one can lose what he paid for it. In a short sale, one’s risk is limitless.

    Now for JP Morgan Chase to do this successfully they need three transactions or events to take place.

    • They need a source of cheap money and low margin rates. The Federal Reserve policy for banking institutions, not individuals or corporations, will provide funds at almost or zero percent interest. This could amount to a billion or more?
    •  They need the use of a High Frequency Trade, or HFT, to set up the operation. This is done by an expensive computer program, which can, in a nanosecond, show a humongous amount of sell orders that will drive the buyers into the woodwork. This drops the price and as is the case with commodities, a sharp drop in price brings on margin calls. Margin calls bring on sell orders and the short sellers buy back in at a profit. This is morally illegal and HFT’s should be banned. Margin rates should be raised, because in the past economic tragedies easy credit breeds contempt for the rules of fair play.
    • The third ingredient into Satan’s Stew is unscrupulous politicians and government henchmen.

    Let us start with the chain of command in the commodity markets. The Commodity Future Rate Commission is made up of five individuals whose main task is to insure fair trades and stop manipulation. This is a most important mandate because the commodity price can influence the real product and cause economic disruptions worldwide. An example can be when some bright individual decided it would be a good and profitable idea to start an exchange trade fund in the commodity of corn. To start the fund they had to buy futures of corn. This raised the price and the speculators climbed on board. This caused the price of flour to increase.  Countries like Egypt buy their corn meal from the United States. With the sudden price increase the Egyptian bread makers have to raise their prices. This, I believe, was the cause of the fiasco in Egypt in the last two years.  These Commissioners have a highly responsible mandate: to keep the markets honest.

    When it comes to silver manipulation they are stonewalling.  In the old days they would have been tarred and feathered and sent out of town on a rail!

    Now here is a rule. No politician will go out on the proverbial limb without a backup.

    So we must go up the ladder of the chain of command.  I will let you dear reader, speculate how far up the ladder it will go.

    This manipulation is so large that to keep everyone quiet is beyond belief. Where and what are the members of Congress doing? Why has there not been a special investigation? Are members of the various finance committees being paid off?   How much money was spent on their reelection?

    Now the big puzzle: A leading market letter writer, Ted Butler, has written letters to the Chairman of the Board, Jamie Diamond, and all the directors of the bank. Not one single reply as of this writing. 11/13/2012.

    This is my belief about the whole mess.  Our paper currency system is teetering worldwide as our financial system is in chaos. When government bills have a negative yield that represents real fear. The world is awash in debt while the public is de-leveraging. That is deflationary.

    The precious metal markets are being manipulated with paper currency. If JP Morgan were forced to “cover” its short positions it would take over 100 days and the price of silver would surpass that of gold on a temporary basis. There is not a government stockpile of silver to bail out the bank.

    This would be an inflationary shock for the world. It would crash governments and force countries to go back to the gold and silver standard.

    One thing is for sure. Governments cannot manipulate everything all the time. Once individual initiative is wasted – they will crumble of their own weight.

    What will happen with the puppet politicians that believe they rule the world?

    What will happen to us?

     

  • Two Bulgarian municipalities became turkish

    Two Bulgarian municipalities became turkish

    Two Bulgarian municipalities of Haskovo and Targovishte District will became members of the TDBB – Turkish Association based in Istanbul. The name of the organization literally translates in Bulgarian as ‘Union of Municipalities of the Turkic world’, but in Bulgaria it is presented by the Association of Municipalities in Turkey sais the investigation of Nikolay Draganov.

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    Municipality ‘Haskovo Mineral Baths’ and Antonovo in Targovishte are invited to join the association which promises to invest in them by applying for various projects as well the municipality will not pay any membership fees for participation in the association sais the Vice. Mayor of ‘ Mineral Baths’ – Musa Colak.

    Future members of the association are i four other Bulgarian municipalities – Rouen, Madan, Momchilgrad and Isperih.

    via Two Bulgarian municipalities became turkish | GroundReport.

  • Netherlands, Germany may send missiles to Turkey

    Netherlands, Germany may send missiles to Turkey

    (Reuters) – The Netherlands and Germany may send Patriot missiles to NATO ally Turkey to help defend the country’s border with Syria, Dutch news agency ANP reported on Sunday, citing the Dutch defense minister.

    Politik SZ Bundeswehr vor Patriot Einsatz in der Tuerkei image 630 420f

    Turkey has said it has intensified talks with NATO allies on how to shore up security on its 900-km (560-mile) frontier with Syria after mortar rounds fired from Syria landed inside its territory.

    “NATO does not exist for nothing,” ANP quoted Dutch Defense Minister Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert as saying.

    A Dutch Defense Ministry spokesman said: “There is no request but the Netherlands and Germany are the only countries in Europe with Patriots.”

    The Dutch minister spoke to her German counterpart last week about a possible deployment, ANP said.

    A spokesman for Germany’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday NATO would consider any request from Turkey and confirmed that the United States, the Netherlands and Germany were the countries that had the appropriate Patriot missiles available.

    Turkey will formally ask NATO on Monday to set up missiles on its border with Syria due to growing concern about spillover from the civil war in its neighbor, Germany’s Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper reported on Saturday.

    NATO has said it will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey. Turkey has said it is talking to its NATO allies about a possible deployment of Patriot surface-to-air missiles.

    NATO ambassadors would have to consider any request from Turkey and they have a regular weekly meeting on Wednesday but they could call a special one at any time. European Union defense and foreign ministers will be in Brussels on Monday for meetings.

    (Reporting by Gilbert Kreijger; Editing by Stephen Powell)

    via Netherlands, Germany may send missiles to Turkey: report | Reuters.