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Turkish Cypriot athletes excluded from the London 2012 Olympic Games

Monday 9th July 2012: The British Turkish Cypriot Association and Southwark Turkish Cypriot Association will be issuing the attached letter to Lord Moynihan, Chairman of the British Olympics Association, ahead of the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games.

British Turkish Cypriot Association Chairman, Cetin Ramadan, said in a letter to Lord Moynihan: Many British Turkish Cypriots have expressed their dismay, sadness and disappointment at the exclusion of Turkish Cypriot athletes in the forthcoming London Olympic Games. As the British Turkish Cypriot Association, we have been called upon to channel their heartfelt grievances and request a reason why the International Olympic Committee (IOC) cannot accept Turkish Cypriots participating under the Olympic flag. Regardless of the political circumstances in Cyprus, this should not be used as a reason to bar Turkish Cypriots from sport. We cannot understand why the IOC has denied participation of Turkish Cypriot athletes in the London 2012 Olympic Games especially as they are willing to compete as individual athletes under the Olympic flag, similar to other athletes from countries such as Kuwait, Syria, Iran and Kosovo. Any world class athlete would consider it an honour to represent their own nation and to compete under the colours of their national flag. The Turkish Cypriot athletes are no exception; they too want to represent their own people and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. However, the Turkish Cypriot athletes have put aside the politics and compromised their own flag and country by agreeing to participate under the Olympic flag as a positive way forward.

The former President of the IOC, the late Juan Antonio Samaranch, had made an offer to Turkish Cypriots allowing them to participate in all future Olympic Games under the Olympic flag. Turkish Cypriots are willing to accept participation under the terms laid out by the former IOC President and to join the Games under the Olympic flag as individuals rather than under their own national flag. We cannot comprehend what has changed since the IOC’s original invitation and why the current President Mr. Jacques Rogge is not entering into dialogue with the Turkish Cypriot sportsmen and women who have already submitted an application for participation in the London 2012 Games.
Despite this clear example of the benefits of inclusion, many sporting bodies such as the UK FA, IOC and FIFA, which openly promote inclusion for everyone and denounce political discrimination, seem to conveniently ignore their own rules when it comes to the sporting rights of Turkish Cypriots sportsmen and women. Point 4 of the IOC’s Fundamental Principles of Olympism states that:
“The practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practising sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.”
Furthermore, item 6 points out that:
“Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.”
Are Turkish Cypriot athletes an exception to these principles? The British Olympic Association (BOA) openly promotes inclusion for everyone and they clearly denounce political discrimination. We hope the same principle applies for the sporting rights of Turkish Cypriot athletes from Northern Cyprus. Young Turkish Cypriot athletes also have the same aspirations as all top class world athletes. We are asking the BOA to support the inclusion of Turkish Cypriot athletes in these and future Olympic events. Furthermore, we would like to appeal to the BOA to raise this matter with the IOC as a matter of urgency. We believe that the discrimination of this magnitude represents a particularly vicious form of unreason and fear in the search for a UN sponsored political agreement in Cyprus. We believe it is precisely the mission of the IOC to dispel any such future actions by setting an example of the importance of diversity at a European and global platform. We have raised this subject with other ethnic community groups in both the UK and abroad particularly interested in observing the outcome of an official complaint against the IOC and hope that they will resolve the issue promptly and fairly and within accordance of the above mentioned principles. There are thousands of Turkish Cypriots living in the UK who are finding it difficult to embrace the 2012 London Games in the same manner as other nationals of ethnic origin, simply because our brethren are being excluded. Help us to change this absurd and unjust situation by supporting the inclusion of Turkish Cypriot athletes in these and future Olympic events.

July 14, 2012
Revealed: Sex attacker was invited on to royal barge alongside Queen during Jubilee pageant
Revealed: Unwitting Prince Charles invited fake doctor – who served four years in jail for sexually assaulting women – on to Queen’s Jubilee pageant royal barge
- Harbinder Singh Rana said he did not even know if he had been vetted
- The sex offender, 52, served four years for a series of attacks on women
- He has since reinvented himself as a pillar of the Sikh community
A sex offender who posed as a doctor to prey on women was a guest of the Queen on the Royal Barge.

Harbinder Singh Rana, 52, was jailed in the 1980s for a series of attacks on women, who believed he was a doctor, in which he performed internal examinations and administered injections.

Rana served four years for his crimes, but has since reinvented himself as a pillar of the community.

Daily Mail
June 21, 2012
Found after 94 years – the submarine which won two VCs

The first pictures of the First World War submarine E14 on the sea bed off Turkey show that the wreck looks intact, suggesting the remains of the crew are inside.

A map showing the route taken by HMS E14 into the Dardanelles Straits before she was sunk on the edge of the Aegean Sea.

By Jasper Copping

9:00AM BST 17 Jun 2012

She is a vessel unique in the history of the Royal Navy – the only one in which two captains won the Victoria Cross for their exploits aboard.

Now the submarine HMS E14 has been photographed in her final resting place, 94 years after she went down under heavy shellfire during the First World War.

The first pictures of the vessel on the ocean bed show her looking largely intact, suggesting the remains of the crew and their personal effects are still inside. The precise location of the wreck in the eastern Mediterranean was a mystery until it was discovered by Turkish divers this month.

The British government has been informed of the discovery and is due to raise the matter with the Turkish authorities to ensure the site is properly preserved as a war grave.

E14 sank in January 1918, with the loss of 25 lives, after she was sent around 20 miles into the heavily fortified Dardanelles, the narrow straits between modern-day Turkey’s European and Asian coasts, to torpedo the flagship of the Ottoman empire’s navy.

She navigated through dense minefields and past a string of enemy forts on both shores but when her captain, Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey White, found that his target was not where it was expected to be, he instead attacked another enemy vessel in their path. However, one of the torpedoes exploded prematurely, damaging E14 and alerting Ottoman forces along the coast to the submarine’s presence.

White headed back down the straits towards safety but was eventually forced to surface the craft after her controls became unresponsive and the air on board began to run out.

The vessel was instantly battered by intense bombardment by guns from both sides of the straits, but White left the comparative safety of the boat’s hull to go up on deck to navigate.

Realising the submarine could not reach the open sea, he directed her towards a nearby beach, in an effort to save the crew. A survivor recalled that his last words were – “We are in the hands of God”, uttered moments before he was killed by a shell and the submarine went under.

For his actions, he was posthumously awarded the VC. Only seven of E14’s 32 crew managed to escape from the stricken craft.

Three years earlier, during the Gallipoli Campaign – the allied landings on the coast at the end of the Dardanelles – the same vessel conducted a daring raid through the straits, past dense minefields and deep into enemy territory, in the Sea of Marmara.

Once there, the submarine dodged hostile patrols and caused havoc among enemy shipping for several days, sinking an Ottoman gunboat and a former White Star liner converted to a troop ship, and disabling another warship.

For that 1915 mission, her skipper, Lieutenant Commander Edward Boyle, was awarded the VC. He went on to make at least two more tours of the Sea of Marmara on E14, during the boat’s distinguished career.

The shipwreck was discovered by Selçuk Kolay, a Turkish marine engineer, and Savas Karakas, a diver and filmmaker, who have spent three years trying to find it.

They established the approximate location from studying documents kept at the National Archives, in Kew, west London, as well as surveying the positions of coastal defences. In 2010, they detected an unusual object on the seabed just off the town of Kum Kale while scanning it from a boat on the surface.

However, the wreck’s location – near the mouth of the straits – remains a strategically sensitive area, with a military installation on the nearby shore, and diving is forbidden.

It took a further two years to get permission from the Turkish military authorities before their team were able to dive to the wreck and confirm it as the E14 earlier this month.

The submarine was found at a depth of 65ft, around 800ft from the beach. It is lying at an angle of almost 45 degrees on the sloping seabed, and all but the front 23ft of the 181ft vessel is covered in sand.

While the wreck looks largely intact, at least one shell hole is visible near the bows, indicating the battering the submarine took.

Her location also suggests she was less than a quarter of a mile from getting out of the straits and out of the range of guns.

Mr Kolay said: “They were almost out of the Dardanelles and would have been safe. The wreck is in a good condition and is one of the best preserved submarines of its type left on the earth. It is of great historical significance, as well as being, of course, a war grave.”

Boyle, who was born in Carlisle and went to school at Cheltenham College, survived the war and also served in the Second World War, reaching the rank of rear admiral. He died in 1967 in Ascot, Berks, at the age of 84.

His Victoria Cross is displayed at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport, Hants.

White was from Bromley, Kent, and had gone to school at Bradfield College, Reading. He was killed at the age of 31, leaving a widow, Sybil, and three children under the age of six.

His medal is now owned by his grandson, Richard Campbell, 60, from Pulborough, West Sussex, who keeps it in a bank.

“I have always felt that my grandmother is the only person who really had the right to sell it, if she wanted to,” he said. “It was very dear to her. She had great pride in it, without a doubt.”

June 18, 2012
BBC bodyguard admits to burning body of tsunami baby…likening it to a ‘blocked toilet’
- Journalist Ben Brown’s security chief said corpse left on BBC HQ doorstep posed same danger as a ‘blocked toilet’
- TV executives accused of cover-up after trying to halt publication of book that exposed incinerationA BBC bodyguard has confessed to burning the body of a baby on a funeral pyre made of rubbish after the 2004 tsunami – because he considered it a threat to the health of his reporting team.
  Craig Summers, 52, discovered the body outside the house in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, where he was staying with journalist Ben Brown and his production team as they covered the aftermath of the disaster.
  But instead of reporting it to the local authorities, he burned the body of the boy and swore two other witnesses, including BBC producer Peter Leng, to secrecy. There is no suggestion that Mr Brown knew about the incident.
  Writing in his new book Bodyguard: My Life On The Frontline, Summers compared the body to an obstacle such as a ‘blocked toilet’.
  ‘I pride myself in my work,’ writes Summers, now head of security at Sky TV. ‘Nobody got sick on that trip. Nobody even came close to diarrhoea and I knew that I had done my job keeping everyone else healthy. I ran a tight ship ensuring everyone always washed their hands with wet wipes.
  ‘The baby was an obstacle to their health; the next day it would be a blocked toilet. I hadn’t known it was coming but I had to deal with it and I would do the same again.’
  The revelation comes four months after the BBC’s Head of Newsgathering, Fran Unsworth, and Head of Safety, ex-Army officer Paul Greeves, tried to persuade Summers not to publish the biography.
  According to the bodyguard, they summoned him to a meeting in January after he sent them a draft copy of the manuscript, and asked him to abandon the project.
  It is not known what they objected to within the book – although the confession does not paint the Corporation in a good light.
  Summers, a former commando, served with British Forces in the Falklands and Balkans before being appointed the Corporation’s safety and security adviser in 2001, working with the High Risk Team – which ‘provides advice to programme-makers deploying to hostile or dangerous environments’.He spent ten years accompanying journalists to war zones and scenes of natural disaster, working with reporters including John Simpson and Nicholas Witchell. He was with Simpson, in Iraq in 2003, when their vehicle was blown up and their translator killed.
  It was also his brief to look after celebrities – including, on occasion, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Gary Lineker and Matthew Pinsent. Summers, who also carried out undercover operations for the BBC, left the Corporation last July, after accepting redundancy, and now works as Sky’s Broadcast Security Operations Manager.
  It was on January 7, 2005, 12 days after the tsunami, when he woke at dawn to find the body of the baby boy, aged between one and two, with matted black hair and closed eyes, lying on the doorstep.
  ‘There had to be a reason for this,’ he writes in his book. ‘This wasn’t random or down to chance – someone had specifically left this baby at what they knew to be the BBC house.’
  Yet instead of informing anybody in the house, or contacting the local authorities, Summers took matters into his own hands. ‘I picked it up with my bare hands and looked around,’ he added.
  
  ‘Nobody was watching. I walked over to the rubbish, which night after night would pile high in the streets waiting for the authorities to burn the next day by the side of the roads to stave off the threat of rats. Removing some cardboard from the tip, I covered the baby with it.
  ‘I heard a voice say, “What’s that Craig?” It was Bob, the Australian paramedic who was staying next door to us. I walked towards him. He didn’t need me to answer. “What are you going to do?” he asked.
  ‘My response was instant and came from the mouth of a soldier in the zone and on autopilot. My sole priority was to protect the BBC crew from infection.
  ‘ “I’m going to burn it,” I answered. “That’s the best thing to do.” ’
  Bob went to get some petrol from a jerrycan as Summers laid the baby on a box in the centre of the rubbish. The BBC bodyguard then soaked the body in petrol and set fire to it. When the flames burned down ten minutes later, the two men bagged up the smouldering rubbish.
  
  ‘I didn’t look to see the remains of the baby,’ Summers writes, ‘both our heads were looking down while shovelling.
  ‘Nothing was said. We just got on with it. We may have left a skull on the floor – I can’t recall. I just wanted it done.’
  The incident was witnessed by BBC producer Peter Leng, who was standing in the doorway of the house used by the Corporation’s staff.
  ‘I had no choice but to come clean,’ Summers continued. ‘I told him we had to keep this to ourselves – I didn’t want anyone else to find out. “I wondered what all the flies were,” he replied. “How do you feel about it?”
  ‘ “It’s a sad situation but I am surprised someone has dumped it on our doorstep,” I answered bluntly. Only years later did Peter confess that he had told a couple of people – he also said he was grateful and couldn’t have done the same thing.’
  Summers remains convinced that he did the right thing that day.
  Justifying his behaviour, he writes: ‘I was working and this was the job I had to do. If they were still alive, I couldn’t give the parents that closure because there were no clues on the baby. I didn’t know how it got here but I felt sure it was orphaned and deliberately dumped. I couldn’t change its fate. I did what I had to do. There were no alternatives but to cremate the baby.
  
  ‘It was the most humane thing to do before it became riddled with maggots and was left to rot in the street. I couldn’t put a sign up outside the house saying: “One ex-baby here – please knock.’’
  ‘If the parents hadn’t died, why would it be dumped?’
  Last night Summers told The Mail on Sunday: ‘At the time we felt it was the easiest and most humane thing to do. There were a quarter of a million dead people there and the majority were being dumped in open pits.
  ‘The baby was completely unidentifiable – it was infested with maggots and there were no features on it at all.’
  A BBC spokeswoman said last night: ‘It’s his account, which he has put into context.
  ‘From our point of view, we don’t have anything to say. We don’t discuss private conversations but managers sometimes talk to staff, or former staff, who have written books about the BBC – particularly if there are legal or safety issues.’
  Last night Peter Leng did not wish to comment and Ben Brown did not respond to calls.
  
  Daily Mail
June 3, 2012
Three Ethnic Racist Terrorist Kurdish women who firebombed Turkish club in Stoke Newington jailed

Dilek Dag, 25

Dilek Dag, 25

Altin Yadirgi, 28

Three Kurdish women were jailed last week for a potentially “catastrophic” petrol bomb attack on a Turkish club in Stoke Newington, deemed to be politically and racially motivated by the judge.

Four home-made petrol bombs were thrown into the Coffee House of the People of Gumushane in 94 Green Lanes last year, because of its Turkish association.

Dilek Dag, 25, Altin Yadirgi, 28, and Dilan Eroglu, 20, all pleaded guilty to arson with intent and being reckless as to whether life was endangered.

The court heard the three women supported the aims of the Kurdish-linked group Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK).

A Turkish Airforce Strike in Turkey on December 28, which killed Kurdish civilians suspected of being PKK fighters, prompted them to carry out the attack.

The next day the women made four petrol bombs out of empty beer bottles and drove over to the club, which was filled with 10 people aged 40 to 50 playing cards and drinking coffee at 1.15am on December 30.

Two of them threw the lit petrol-filled bottles, setting alight a table cloth, carpet and chairs, before they all ran off.

One customer tried to chase them before he realised his arm and leg were alight.

The fire was put out by a neighbouring businessman using his own fire extinguisher before fire crews arrived.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, the senior national coordinator counter terrorism, said: “It is only by luck that none of these petrol bombs smashed during the course of this attack.

“Had any of them done so the likely consequences would have been a catastrophic fireball that would have caused serious and life threatening injuries in the confined space of the social club.”

The women were arrested three days later after detectives from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command identified them using CCTV footage of them buying the petrol and mobile phone evidence.

Eroglu’s fingerprint was found on one of the bottles and further forensic examination revealed DNA traces to Eroglu and Yadirgi.

CCTV footage also shows their Ford Focus car making loops around the block, conducting hostile reconnaissance before the attack.

All three women pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing on 27 April 2012 and appeared before Woolwich Crown Court for sentencing.

Dag and Yadirgi were jailed for six years and eight months each, and Eroglu for six years.

London 24

June 2, 2012
Turkish court hearing in Duchess of York secret filming case

Turkish court hearing in Duchess of York secret filming case

Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson The Duchess of York wore a wig and headscarf as a disguise during filming

A hearing has taken place in Turkey in a court case in which the Duchess of York has been accused over the secret filming of orphans for a documentary.

Sarah Ferguson is being defended by a Turkish legal team but has declined to go to Ankara for the trial.

She is accused of violating the privacy of children during the filming for ITV.

The duchess has previously apologised for any offence, but says she stands by the 2008 documentary’s conclusion that ill-treatment was taking place.

If found guilty, she could be sentenced to more than 20 years in prison.

BBC correspondent Jonathan Head says the duchess has made it clear she will not return to Turkey and British officials have insisted there is no possibility of her being extradited.

Tied to beds

Posing as an aid worker, the duchess accompanied a television crew into a state orphanage in Ankara.

Scenes were recorded of alleged ill-treatment, including emaciated children tied to their beds and left in cots all day.

Princess Eugenie and the Duchess of York The Duchess said she ‘went as a mum’ to the orphanage

She visited a second institution in Istanbul with her daughter Princess Eugenie, who said conditions endured by the children there had “opened her eyes.”

The documentary – which also included footage of children filmed in Romania – was broadcast on ITV1’s Tonight programme in Britain in November 2008.

It provoked an angry reaction from Turkish politicians, who accused the duchess of being involved in a campaign to tarnish their country’s reputation.

Human rights record

BBC presenter Chris Rogers, who was part of the ITV programme team in 2008, said they knew it was against Turkish law to film in secret, but that the public “needed to know.”

Speaking earlier this year, Mr Rogers, who is also charged with invasion of privacy, said there was “a strong public interest argument for us to do this” because Turkey might join the EU soon.

Mr Rogers said Turkey has been told it must improve its human rights record, before it can become a full member of the European Union.

When charges were first laid in January, the duchess said she had gone purely as a mother, and was “happy with courage to stand by the film.”

The trial could last for several months.

via BBC News – Turkish court hearing in Duchess of York secret filming case.

May 5, 2012