Category: America
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Why Won’t Turkey Stand Up To Iraq, US on Aiding PKK?
By: Melih Asik posted on Thursday, Jun 21, 2012
The PKK crossed the Iraqi border into Turkey with 300 men and killed eight of our soldiers. The main opposition MP, Onur Oymen, asked the critical question:
US President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after a bilateral meeting ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul March 25, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Larry Downing) About this Article
Summary:
Melih Asik wonders why Turkey never holds Iraq and the US responsible for attacks from the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), even though they are based in northern Iraq. Recently, a PKK incursion into Turkey resulted in the deaths of eight Turkish soldiers. Turkish politicians, says Asik, act like they owe their positions to the US.
Publisher: Milliyet (Turkey)
Original Title:
We Were Never Like This
Author: Melih Asik
Published on: Thursday, Jun 21, 2012
Translated On: Thursday, Jun 21, 2012
Translator: Timur Goksel
Categories : Security Turkey Iraq
When looking for those responsible for the Daglica attack, nobody remembers to accuse the Iraqi government, which is allowing the PKK to take refuge there. Why not? Prime Minister Erdogan criticizes Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki for his poor treatment of Sunnis. The two men occasionally engage in nasty exchanges, but Iraq’s harboring of the PKK is never mentioned. While Daglica was under attack, Erdogan was in Mexico with Obama discussing how to solve the Syrian crisis, not the PKK one.
And our opposition party? Until today, it has never accused Iraq or the United States. Why not? Because they know the US stands behind the PKK and the Kurds. They don’t want to upset the US by accusing Iraq. They are behaving like politicians who owe their positions to the US.
The PKK, knowing that it is supported by the US, Iraq and Barzani, naturally disregards Ankara’s gestures of peace. It is locked onto the idea of a Kurdish state, so they keep pounding Turkey.
While we are strutting about with empty rhetoric on how we are the 16th strongest economic power in the world, how we are the regional leaders and how everybody is copying our model, the PKK continues to slap our faces.
Imagine if somebody crossed the border into Israel and killed eight Israeli soldiers. The next day, Israel would level that country. And what does Turkey do?
It has never been so impotent.
via Why Won’t Turkey Stand Up To Iraq, US on Aiding PKK? – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East.
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CIA spies in Turkey secretly help armed gangs in Syria: Report
Members of an armed gang in Syria (file photo)
Thu Jun 21, 2012 10:13AM GMT
The CIA agents in southern Turkey are secretly helping the armed groups fighting against the Damascus government in Syria, a report says.
According to a New York Times report published on Thursday, some US and Arab intelligence officials say a group of “CIA officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey” and that the agents are helping the anti-Syria governments decide which gangs inside the Arab country will “receive arms to fight the Syrian government.”
“CIA officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people,” said one of the Arab officials, whose name was not mentioned in the report.
The arms include automatic rifles, rocket-propelled grenades, ammunition and antitank weapons, which are being transported “mostly across the Turkish border,” the report said.
Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar pay for the transport of the weaponry into Syria, according to the US and Arab intelligence officials cited in the report.
The CIA spies have been in southern Turkey for the past several weeks and Washington is also considering providing the armed gangs with “satellite imagery and other detailed intelligence on Syrian troop locations and movements,” the report adds.
The Thursday New York Times report comes two days after the Syrian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the government was trying to evacuate civilians from the western city of Homs.
“Contacts have been made with the leadership of the international monitors, in cooperation with the local Syrian authorities in the city of Homs, to bring out these Syrian citizens,” said the statement issued on June 19.
“But the efforts of the monitors were unsuccessful… because the armed terrorist groups obstructed their efforts.”
Meanwhile, the Syrian ambassador to the UN, Bashar Ja’afari, told reporters in New York on June 19 that armed groups in Syria were violating the peace plan brokered by the UN-Arab League envoy, Kofi Annan, and that the “only way to push forward is to guarantee the success of the six-point plan.”
In addition, the head of the UN observer mission in Syria, Major General Robert Mood, said in a briefing to the UN Security Council on June 19 that the UN monitors were “morally obliged” to stay in Syria despite a recent decision to suspend the activities of the team.
On June 16, Mood said the UN monitoring team was “suspending its activities” in Syria due to an “intensification of armed violence.”
Over the past weeks, the anti-Syria Western governments have been calling for the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
However, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on June 20, “No one is entitled to decide for other nations who should be in power and who should not.”
“A change of power, if it occurs — and it could only occur by constitutional means — should result in peace and stop the bloodshed,” the Russian president said.
He made the remarks in a press conference in Los Cabos, Mexico, after the G20 summit.
HSN/JR/MA
via PressTV – CIA spies in Turkey secretly help armed gangs in Syria: Report.
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‘Koprudekiler’ (‘Men on the Bridge’), a Drama Set in Istanbul
Working-Class Men, Longing for Change in a Restless Land
‘Koprudekiler’ (‘Men on the Bridge’), a Drama Set in Istanbul
Endorphine Production
Fikret Portakal in “Koprudekiler” (“Men on the Bridge”), set in Istanbul. The title characters are linked by the long hours they spend on the Bosporus Bridge.
By ANDY WEBSTER
There’s palpable verisimilitude in Asli Ozge’s “Koprudekiler” (“Men on the Bridge”), a powerful portrait of working-class Istanbul that artfully suggests a wellspring of found moments. Quietly, steadily, it gathers a resonance belying its slice-of-life scale.
More About This Movie
Initially intent on a documentary, Ms. Ozge wrote a script influenced by the lives of her cast members (mostly nonactors, all convincing). The uneducated Fikret, a teenager who illegally sells roses in traffic, aspires to a steady job but flails briefly as a busboy. Trapped in a life of Dumpster-diving subsistence, he finds comfort only in hip-hop.
Umut, married to the restless Cemile, drives a cab in sometimes 24-hour stretches. Against a backdrop of Western-style advertisements and television images, the couple struggle, confined by gender roles and a lack of education.
Murat is a nationalistic policeman in search of a spouse online. What links the men are the long hours they spend on the Bosporus Bridge, the grindingly congested suspension bridge linking Europe and Asia.
Murat, an observant Muslim, regards the Kurdistan Workers’ Party as a terrorism organization and wants its members barred from Parliament; his dates with women are fraught with agonizing pauses and his self-centered utterances.
At a Republic Day parade, Fikret and his friends watch military jets overhead and a procession of tanks. “I wish there was a war,” a friend says, more for employment, you suspect, than for patriotism. Cemile seeks only independence for herself.
Everywhere in Istanbul, it seems, there is a longing, a need for change in a country balanced precipitously between East and West, and past and future.
Koprudekiler
Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan.
Written and directed by Asli Ozge; director of photography, Emre Erkmen; edited by Vessela Martschewski, Aylin Zoi Tinel and Christof Schertenleib; produced by Fabian Massah and Ms. Ozge. At the Roy and Niuta Titus Theaters, Museum of Modern Art. In Turkish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. This film is not rated.
WITH: Fikret Portakal (Fikret), Murat Tokgoz (Murat), Umut Ilker (Umut) and Cemile Ilker (Cemile).
A version of this review appeared in print on June 20, 2012, on page C6 of the New York edition with the headline: Working-Class Men, Longing for Change in a Restless Land.
via ‘Koprudekiler’ (‘Men on the Bridge’), a Drama Set in Istanbul – NYTimes.com.
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Turkey tempts the hungry EU
Let’s talk Turkey about the European Union.
Turkey lies just to the east of Greece. But there are a few things, besides the Aegean Sea that separate the two countries.Turkey’s economy is growing; Greece’s — as the world is well aware — isn’t. Greece is an almost entirely Christian nation, while Turkey is 99 percent Muslim.
And Greece is a member of the EU, at least for the time being. Turkey has long wanted to join.
The stars may be aligning on that last matter. Turkey has taken advantage of the turmoil in the EU to again plead its case, and it might be getting a better reception this time.
Last Friday, I spoke with Namik Tan, Turkey’s ambassador to the US, who told me that his country has increased its efforts to join the EU, even as other nations are thinking about leaving or are being threatened with expulsion.
Tan said the matter was brought up during the G8 economic conference in Chicago in May. “This is not an overnight thing,” said Tan. “But his first reaction was positive.”
Tan is referring to Francois Hollande, the recently elected president of France. Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous French president who was ousted in May, was thought to be a major hurdle in the way of Turkey’s EU admission.
Like everywhere else, debt levels in Turkey are high, but the country’s economy is growing. And the country, the ambassador says, is getting its finances straightened out. “We are committed to our own reform process,” Tan said.
The ambassador says Turkey has recently added 1.5 million jobs, or as many as the EU has lost.
“The European Union will never achieve its end until it puts some diversity into the process,” said Tan. “And there is only one country that can do that, and it is Turkey.”
The fact that Turkey is mostly Eurasian, with the majority of its land in Western Asia, does present a bit of a geographic dilemma. The E in EU, after all, does stand for Europe. And the fact that Turkey’s people are Muslim was rumored to be a major cause for concern in France.
But Turkey is also a major trading partner with the EU and can help with the region’s problems.
Or, as Tan puts it, “We will not take from the current cake. We will make the cake bigger.”
I think what the ambassador means is that Turkey — unlike many current EU members — won’t come into the economic pact looking for a handout.
This reminds me of some of the country clubs located near my house. Four years ago, I wouldn’t have been good enough — or rich enough — to join.
Nowadays, the standards have suddenly changed.
I might not yet be like Tiger Woods in his glory days to these clubs, but I’m not Rodney Dangerfield, either.
Turkey, despite its downside, is probably looking pretty juicy right now to the starving EU.
via Turkey tempts the hungry EU – NYPOST.com.
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Houston to Gain New Direct Flights on Turkish Airlines in 2013 to Istanbul
HOUSTON, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Houston Mayor Annise Parker announces new non-stop flights to Istanbul beginning April 1, 2013, operated by Turkish Airlines between George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and Istanbul’s Ataturk International Airport (IST).
“Houston’s strong business connections with Turkey created the opportunity to attract this foreign flag airline to our city,” said Mayor Parker. “Houston has become the gateway to the world. Our global business structure helps our economy thrive and our job market remains the envy of the nation. These four new weekly flights will surely lead to increased economic opportunity for both Istanbul and Houston.”
Turkish Airlines will operate the new route with a Boeing 777-300ER, which seats up to 334 passengers. Based at Ataturk International Airport, Turkish Airlines serves more than 190 destinations and carries 33 million passengers.
The Turkish Consulate General in Houston and a number of Houston community organizations worked closely with the Houston Airport System to attract this new direct air service by Turkish Airlines, including the Texas Turkish American Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Houston Partnership and the Greater Houston Convention & Visitors Bureau. Turkish Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan’s support was also instrumental in promoting the opportunity for this flight.
“The Istanbul direct flights operated by Turkish Airlines will be essential in our endeavors to further develop relations at all levels and fields in business, trade and investment relations between Turkey and Texas,” said Turkish Consul General Cemalettin Aydin.
The addition of this new international direct flight will provide a meaningful economic boost to the Greater Houston region. Turkey remains a fast growing and emerging business and leisure economy with a strong cultural link to Houston.
“The total Houston to Turkey trade value in 2011 was $3.6 billion,” said Celil Yaka, President of Texas Turkish American Chamber of Commerce. “We anticipate this trade will continue to grow significantly thanks to this new flight.”
“The Houston Airport System exists to connect people, businesses, cultures and economies of the world to Houston,” said Mario Diaz, Director of the Houston Airport System. “This flight will open up more convenient travel options to both Turkey and beyond points, in particular, those in South/Central Asia and Africa.”
Flight Schedule:
The new service will operate four days per week with flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Departure from Houston at 7:50 p.m. local time and arrival in Istanbul at 3:55 p.m. local time.
Departure from Istanbul at 1:05 p.m. local time and arrival in Houston at 6:05 p.m. local time.
The flights are currently available in the Turkish Airlines reservation system at .
Turkish Airlines is a member of the Star Alliance, which is the dominant airline network at Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as the largest hub for the Star Alliance.
About Houston Airport System:
The Houston Airport System (HAS) served almost 50 million passengers in 2011. Houston’s three airports, George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), William P. Hobby (HOU) and Ellington Airport (EFD) contribute more than $27.5 billion to the regional economy. IAH is the 7th busiest airport in the nation. For more information, visit www.fly2houston.com . Follow us at @IAH of @HobbyAirport.
About Turkish Airlines:
Established in 1933 with a fleet of only five airplanes, Star Alliance member, Turkish Airlines is today a four star airline with a fleet of 179 aircraft (passenger and cargo) flying to 190 cities around the world, comprised of 34 domestic and 156 international destinations. One of the fastest growing airline companies, Turkish Airlines has received several “Passengers Choice Awards” from the consumer ranking group, Skytrax. Based on 2011 results, Turkish Airlines has been chosen as the winner in 3 categories, “Best Airline Europe,” “Best Premium Economy Seats” for its Comfort Class seats and “Best Airline Southern Europe.” It has also received awards for its catering and holds a coveted 4-star designation, putting the airline in a small group of top quality carriers. Turkish Airlines was also given the Skytrax designation of “World’s Best Economy Class On-board Catering” in 2010, and Skyscanner’s “Best On-board Food 2011.” Long haul Business Class passengers also enjoy the Flying Chef service on-board.
SOURCE Houston Airport System
via Houston to Gain New Direct Flights on Turkish Airlines in 2013 to Istanbul – MarketWatch.
