Category: Middle East & Africa

  • Istanbul Symphony Orchestra plays to draw attention to Syria

    Istanbul Symphony Orchestra plays to draw attention to Syria

    ISTANBUL – Anatolia News Agency

    Istanbul’s CRR hosted on March 25 a concert to benefit Syria. The Istanbul Symphony Orchestra played under the baton of Bosnian Emir Nuhanovic

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    Syrian violinist Ali Moraly made an appearance as a soloist. AA photo

    The Istanbul Symphony Orchestra performed March 25 under the baton of famous Bosnian orchestra conductor Emir Nuhanovic. The concert at Istanbul’s Cemal Reşit Rey Concert Hall (CRR) was organized to draw attention to the human tragedy in Syria and hosted Syrian violinist Ali Moraly as a soloist.

    Culture and Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik, who made a speech before the concert, said that while optimism was in the air all around the world in the 1990s, the people of Sarajevo faced a wild massacre. He said he had been a student at the time.

    “We students were organized to find out what we could do for Sarajevo. Although Turkey mobilized its all options, we did not have today’s opportunities and all of us felt the pain and sorrow of our helplessness for Sarajevo. In the middle of the tragedy, the late Alija Izetbegovic called for the master conductor Nuhanovic and asked him to make their voice be heard all around the world. The modern world, which had nothing to say for Sarajevo, began to speak again.”

    Tragedy before the whole world

    Çelik said Syria was currently experiencing a tragedy before the whole world and the concert was held to draw attention to this drama. “There are 70,000 martyrs and 250,000 missing. There are millions of refugees outside the country, and there are millions of people who had to leave their place in Syria. Now, in order to make a call for all human beings, art will make its voice heard for Syria under the leadership of a great master. What should be asked here is how those who remain silent against the events in Syria could do it. We will give the most meaningful answer to this tonight in this venue,” he said.

    The minister said the question of what art is would find the most meaningful answer that night as well.

    “Rather than watching the tragedy in Bosnia in the 1990s, Turkey did its best. It is trying to do the same for Syria today. But there is a difference today, and everybody feels what this difference is. Today we are all around the world not only with our people but also with all organs of the state. We do not stand by those who slaughter and oppress. We are not following a policy of lack of conscience.”

    Çelik said it was not an ordinary night but rather the 70,000 martyrs and hundreds of thousands of missing were together with them.

    “We will be the tongue of millions of refugees tonight. This is art. The losses of Bosnia will meet the losses of Syria, and Istanbul will bring brotherhood to Aleppo, Damascus and Sarajevo once again.”

    ‘Mothers bury their own children in Syria’

    At the opening of the concert, Nuhanovic addressed the audience, saying Europe and most of the world did nothing for the incidents in Sarajevo and only Turkey had made efforts against this tragedy at the United Nations.

    He said that to draw attention to the events, they gave a concert with conductor Zubin Mehta in 1994 under hard circumstances upon the order of Izetbegovic. “The tear of a child is worth the wealth of the world. Mothers bury their own children now in Syria.”

    Following the speeches Tomaso Albinoni’s Adagio in G-Minor, Maurice Jarre’s “The Message” and Beethoven’s 5th Symphony were performed at the concert.

    March/27/2013

    via MUSIC – Istanbul Symphony Orchestra plays to draw attention to Syria.

  • Israel to pay Turkey tens of millions over Gaza flotilla deaths, sources say

    Israel to pay Turkey tens of millions over Gaza flotilla deaths, sources say

    Israel to pay Turkey tens of millions over Gaza flotilla deaths, sources say

    Israel will transfer the amount to a humanitarian fund set up by Turkish government to compensate for deaths of Turkish activists on Mavi Maramara in 2010; Turkish diplomat says U.S. pressuring Erdogan not to visit Gaza, West Bank.

    By Zvi Bar’el

    via Israel to pay Turkey tens of millions over Gaza flotilla deaths, sources say – Diplomacy & Defense – Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper.

  • CIA Helping Turkey and Qatar Shop for Arms for Syrian Jihadists

    CIA Helping Turkey and Qatar Shop for Arms for Syrian Jihadists

    Bizarrely Secretary of State John Kerry just dropped in on Iraq to ask their Shiite-dominated government to stop allowing through weapons shipments for Syria’s government while Obama Inc. is overseeing the smuggling of huge amounts of weapons to Sunni Jihadists in Syria.

    With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders.

    The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and Qatari military-style cargo planes landing at Esenboga Airport near Ankara, and, to a lesser degree, at other Turkish and Jordanian airports.

    From offices at secret locations, American intelligence officers have helped the Arab governments shop for weapons, including a large procurement from Croatia…

    Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Iraq on Sunday to do more to halt Iranian arms shipments through its airspace; he did so even as the most recent military cargo flight from Qatar for the rebels landed at Esenboga early Sunday night.

    And it’s no wonder that the Iraqi government laughed in Kerry’s face. Why should Iraq respect an arms embargo when Obama Inc helps Qatar violate it, just as it did in Libya?

    Most of the cargo flights have occurred since November, after the presidential election in the United States

    This is Obama’s new lame duck status showing us who he really is.

    via CIA Helping Turkey and Qatar Shop for Arms for Syrian Jihadists.

  • Turkey reconciliation won’t come between us

    Turkey reconciliation won’t come between us

    Netanyahu reassures Greeks: Turkey reconciliation won’t come between us

    Israel’s security and economic ties with Greece have strengthened over the past three years as relations with Turkey have floundered.

    By Barak Ravid and Agencies
    Source: Haaretz
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    On Friday, shortly after his conversation with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that brought about the end of the crisis with Turkey, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by phone with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, to reassure him that the reconciliation with Turkey will not come at the expense of ties with Greece.

    The two also agreed to hold a summit meeting between the two governments in the coming months.

    Over the past three years, as relations with Turkey floundered, Netanyahu worked to strengthen relations with its historic rival, Greece. Security cooperation between Israel and Greece was upgraded, and the two countries’ military forces held joint air force and naval exercises. The Israel Air Force conducted training exercises in Greek air space after years in which they had been held in Turkish air space.

    Similarly, economic collaboration was tightened, particularly in the area of gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean; diplomatic understandings were reached regarding flotillas to Gaza, and tourism to Greece was boosted. Hundreds of thousands of Israelis who in the past had vacationed annually in Turkey began to spend their holidays in Greece, funneling much-need funds into Greece’s collapsing economy.

    Immediately after Passover, diplomats and jurists from Turkey and Israel are to begin talks on the compensation Israel is to pay to the families of the nine Turkish nationals killed during the Israeli Defense Forces raid on the Mavi Marmara, which was part of aflotilla trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade in May 2010.

    Erdogan suggested Sunday that relations with Israel would normalize only after the compensation is paid. But Israel did not commit to ending its Gaza blockade as part of the reconciliation with Turkey, and could clamp down even harder on the Palestinian enclave if security is threatened, Israeli officials said Sunday.

    Erdogan on Friday said Israel had met his demands to apologize for the Mavi Marmara, pay compensation to those bereaved or hurt and lift the blockade by allowing in more consumer goods. That fell well short, however, of an end to the blockade – which Erdogan had routinely insisted on during the almost three-year-old rift as a condition for rapprochement.

    Although Israel has relaxed curbs on overland civilian imports to impoverished Gaza, it signaled that the naval cordon, imposed during Operation Cast Lead in 2009, would remain.

    “We have nothing against the Palestinian people. The maritime blockade derives from security considerations only, as terrorist groups can smuggle huge amounts of weaponry by sea,” senior defense official Amos Gilad told Army Radio. Another official told Reuters that Hamas was still trying to bring in arms into Gaza, and that this made “the blockade as necessary as always.”

    “If there is quiet, the processes easing the lives of Gaza residents will continue. And if there is Katyusha fire, then these moves will be slowed and even stopped and, if necessary, even reversed,” National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror told Army Radio. “We do not intend to give up on our right to respond to what happens in Gaza because of the agreement with the Turks.”

    Amidror also insisted that U.S. President Barack Obama did not force Israel to apologize to Turkey.

    “There was no pressure at all, not even a hint of pressure,” Amidror told Israel Radio. “The president asked us. He saw it also as an American interest that the U.S.’s two allies in the Middle East settle their differences.”

    Amidror said Netanyahu made the apology, both “as a gesture to the president and also so that we can better cope with regional threats, especially the Syrian danger.” He added: “We have 500 years of friendship between the Jewish people and the Turkish people, and there is no reason why we shouldn’t go back to being good friends and partners in an effort to achieve more security and stability in the Middle East.”

    U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called the reconciliation “a very important development that will help advance the cause of peace and stability in the region.”

    Netanyahu and Erdogan “deserve great credit for showing the leadership necessary to make this possible,” Kerry said.

    President Shimon Peres told CNN in Turkish and the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that “there are a thousand reasons why Israel and Turkey should be friends, and one can’t think of a single reason they should be enemies. The countries have a mutual history and Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize the State of Israel.”

    Chief of General Staff Benny Gantz, who had supported wrapping up the crisis with Turkey, said yesterday while touring the Binyamin Brigade base with Peres that the decision to apologize to Turkey was the right one. “We have to look after the interests of the State of Israel, particularly when we consider the Syrian arena,” said Gantz.

  • How Obama Is Reuniting Turkey and Israel

    How Obama Is Reuniting Turkey and Israel

    U.S. President Obama acknowledges the audience after delivering a speech on mideast policy at the Jerusalem Convention Center

    U.S. President Barack Obama at the Jerusalem Convention Center on March 21, 2013

    From almost the moment President Obama touched down at Ben Gurion International Airport, he began to push Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make up with Turkey. The previously good relations broke down in 2010 after the Israelis raided a Turkish flotilla taking aid to the Gaza Strip. Nine activists were killed.

    Since then, the U.S. has pushed Israel and Turkey — both close allies — to work through their issues. Officials at meetings at nearly every level from the President down brought up rapprochement. Secretary of State John Kerry pressed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Israel on March 1 on a trip to Ankara.

    By day two of Obama’s visit, Netanyahu had agreed to set up a call with Erdogan. Given the two leaders’ busy schedules, it was not until just as Obama and Netanyahu were arriving back at the airport for the President’s departure to Jordan a day later that a call was possible. Obama and Netanyahu ducked into a trailer off of the red carpet set up for the departure ceremony.

    JASON REED / REUTERS

    President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu

    For nearly half an hour, Netanyahu and Erdogan spoke through translators. Obama briefly got on the phone to say hello to Erdogan and ask that they follow up with another call soon. Netanyahu offered Turkey an official apology for the flotilla incident and promised compensation to the victims’ families. He said a subsequent Israeli investigation into the incident revealed “several operational errors,” according a statement released by the Israeli embassy in Washington.

    Netanyahu also thanked Erdogan for his remarks condemning anti-Semitism to a Danish paper on March 20. Erdogan had been quoted last month calling Zionism “a crime against humanity,” and he told the Danish paper those remarks had been misinterpreted. During his Ankara visit, Kerry had condemned Erdogan’s statement on Zionism, urging the Turkish Prime Minister both publicly and privately to clarify them.

    The deal was a coup for Obama, on his first foreign visit of his second term. It re-established diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey at a time when the region around them is in turmoil. Both Turkey and Israel border Syria, which is entering its third year of civil war. “We have regretted for a couple of years now the absence of normal relations between those two countries,” a senior Administration official told reporters on Air Force One en route to Jordan. “And we have worked with them and urged them both to reach out and try to put their differences between them.”

    Netanyahu on Saturday said the deteriorating situation in Syria and both countries’ concerns about its regime’s chemical and biological weapons prompted the reconciliation. Still, Erdogan warned on Sunday that normalization of relations would not be immediate. Turkey will wait for Israel to pay the families compensation before embassies in either country reopen. Netanyahu told Erdogan that Obama had spent the past two days convincing him of “the importance of regional relations, the importance of Turkey-Israel cooperation, and that is what led him to take this initiative now,” the Administration official said. Up until the flotilla incident, Turkey and Israel had enjoyed close relations. Turkey was the first Muslim country to recognize Israel, though tensions began to fray in 2003 after Erdogan, who has Islamist ties, was elected Prime Minister of Turkey.

    via How Obama Is Reuniting Turkey and Israel | TIME.com.

  • Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties

    Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties

    Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties

    “This is just a game the U.S., Israel and Turkey are playing to influence the Islamic awakening,” says Iranian deputy chief of staff in only comments out of Iran on Israel-Turkey reconciliation • Abbas welcomes deal • Erdoğan to visit West Bank, Gaza.

    Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters

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    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (left) with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. [archive] | Photo credit: Reuters

    Iran was left scrambling for ways to deal with the news of Israel and Turkey’s reconciliation, with one senior official accusing the U.S. of playing a “game” in the Middle East.

    “This is just a game the U.S., Israel and Turkey are playing to influence the Islamic awakening,” said Iran’s Deputy Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, the senior-most official to respond to news that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had apologized to his Turkish counterpart over the 2010 flotilla incident, paving the way for full reconciliation and the normalization of diplomatic relations that had been severed after Israeli Navy commandos killed nine Turks aboard the Mavi Marmara.

    Jazayeri said on Saturday that the U.S. sought to “find a replacement for the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Muslim world,” official Iranian Press TV reported Saturday.

    Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and the Arab League received a full report on the Israeli-Turkish reconciliation.

    The Arab League opposed to the agreement, which PA President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has confirmed that he plans to visit the West Bank and Gaza Strip in April.

    “We are entering a new period in both Turkey and the region,” said Erdoğan on Saturday. “We are at the beginning of a process of elevating Turkey to a position so that it will again have a say, initiative and power, as it did in the past.”

    via Israel Hayom | Iran mostly speechless after Israel, Turkey agree to restore ties.