ISTANBUL — A U.S. Navy destroyer is passing through Istanbul’s Bosporus straits on its way to the Black Sea for exercises near the fraught Crimean peninsula.
The Navy destroyer USS Truxtun is participating in exercises with Romania and Bulgaria and is expected to be in the Black Sea for several days amid a stand-off over Russia’s military incursion into Ukraine.
The exercises come as the U.S. and other Western nations are preparing sanctions against Russia for its recent move to send military troops into Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.
via ISTANBUL: US naval destroyer heading to Black Sea | World | The Sun Herald.
On the left, Ambassador Y. Halit Çevik, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations
Statement by Ambassador Y. Halit Çevik, Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations during the Meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States
Mr. Chairman,
Today we are faced with pressing global challenges. World population is expected to go over 9 billion by 2050 creating unprecedented pressure on our resources, especially on water, food and energy. Almost one billion human-beings are still undernourished. Environment is getting polluted. Biodiversity has deteriorated like never before and environmental degradation is unfortunately not getting enoughattention. Climate change is posing threat to our wellbeing, even to human existence in some parts of the World.
While the climate threat to the entire planet goes on virtually unchecked, sea level is rising at an alarming rate due to the negative effects of increasing carbondioxide (CO2)concentration in the atmosphere, thereby posing an immediate and real threat to the survival of those peoples and communities who live on small land either by the sea or surrounded by immense ocean masses. The magnitude of the social and humanitarian threat posed by sea level rise far surpasses any economic consideration; loss of homeland and related identity, relocation, changes in ways of life are its real and potentially devastating consequences.
In the first place, Small Island Developing States are confronted with all the adverse effects of the above, not to mention gravely detrimental consequences of the rising sea levels of unprecedented magnitude. If urgent action is not taken, living conditions in these places will get worse eventually leading to disastrous consequences.
We regard the Declaration of Barbados and theProgramme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS, the Mauritius Declaration and the Mauritius Strategy for the Further Implementation of the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS as UN landmark documents and cornerstones for global action.
The outcome document of the Rio+20 UN Conference constitutes a breakthrough development regarding the need to fully address all issues pertaining to the SIDS.
Turkey welcomes the declaration of 2014 as the International Year of Small Island Developing States. We are confident that Samoa will host the Third International Conference on Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in a very successful and able manner in September 2014. We attach great importance to the success of this conference. To that effect, Turkey is pleased to extend its financial support to the host country. We would also like to underline the importance of contributions by the interested member states to the SIDS Third International Conference Trust Fund.
Turkey completely shares all the concerns expressed by the SIDS expressed in international fora. We believe that the post-2015 development agenda should properly address the concerns of the SIDS, and the entire UN membership should approach this process with a pragmatic, constructive and forward-looking perspective. Therefore, no effort should be spared during this Conference in order to produce a new development framework for the SIDS which will also be in line with the post-2015 development agenda.
Turkey is committed to assisting and supporting developing countries in their efforts towards sustainable growth and development. Our interest in the vulnerabilities of SIDS should be seen within the broader context of our foreign policy agenda, as a medium-to-long-term and high-priority objective.
Turkey has become increasingly active in sharing its own development experiences and in contributing to international development cooperation efforts as a whole, especially in the SIDS as well as Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs).
With this understanding, we hosted the 4th UN Conference on Least Developed Countries in Istanbul in May 2011, which brought together Governments, parliamentarians, academics, as well as representatives of civil society organizations and the private sector. We also have offered to host the Mid-Term Review Conference of the 4th UN LDC Conference.
Being a developing nation itself, Turkey perceives a special responsibility that our unique location, history and humanitarian tradition bestow upon us to share our development with other nations worldwide. This understanding will guide our continuous engagement with the preparations of the 3rd International Conference on SIDS.
We stand ready to make available the expertise accumulated throughout these processes for the success of development agenda to be designed for the SIDS as well.
In this regard, we also fully support the well-founded request of the SIDS to determine a stand-alone sustainable development goal for oceans in the post-2015 agenda.
Thank you.
In Turkish
New York’taki Türkevi’nde ”Küçük Ada Devletleri Uluslararası Yılı” resepsiyonu
Türkiye’nin BM Daimi Temsilcisi Halit Çevik’in ev sahipliğini yaptığı resepsiyona, Nauru Cumhurbaşkanı Baron Waqa’nın yanı sıra çok sayıda ada devletinin temsilcisi ve üst düzey diplomat katıldı.
NEW YORK (AA) – Gelişmekte olan ”Küçük Ada Devletleri Uluslararası Yılı”nın ilanı nedeniyle New York’taki Türkevi’nde bir resepsiyon verildi.
Ev sahipliğini Türkiye’nin BM Daimi Temsilcisi Büyükelçi Halit Çevik, ada devleti Nauru Daimi Temsilcisi Marlene Moses ve BM Ekonomik ve Sosyal İşler Genel Sekreter Yardımcısı Wu Hongbo’nun yaptığı resepsiyona Nauru Cumhurbaşkanı Baron Waqa’nın yanı sıra Samoa Başbakanı, Barbados ve Morityus Dışişleri Bakanları katıldı.
Resepsiyonda bir konuşma yapan Büyükelçi Halit Çevik, insan hayatı için çevre ve su kaynaklarının önemine değinerek, iklim değişikliğinin tüm insanlığı tehdit ettiğini söyledi. Küresel sorunlara hiç kimsenin gözünü kapatamayacağını vurgulayan Çevik, Türkiye olarak ada devletlerinin gelişmesi için her türlü desteği vermeye hazır olduklarını söyledi.
Çevik, 1-4 Eylül tarihleri arasında Samoa’nın Apia kentinde yapılacak 3. Uluslararası Küçük Ada Devletleri Konferansı Hazırlık Komitesi toplantısının bugün başladığını belirterek, toplantının başarılı geçmesi için çalışmaya devam edeceklerini söyledi.
Nauru Cumhurbaşkanı Baron Waqa ise konuşmasında küresel ısınma ve iklim değişikliği ile mücadelede birlikte hareket etmenin önemine vurgu yaparak, Türkiye’nin ada devletlerine gösterdiği yakın ilgiye teşekkür etti.
Resepsiyonda Türk mutfağından çeşitli örnekler misafirlere ikram edilirken, ada devletlerinden gelen müzik gruplarının sergilediği performanla bazı misafirler dans etti.
Salih Avci is one of the chief trainers of the SEK (Spezialeinsatzkommandos, the special response units of the German state police forces), MEK, ZUZ (the SWAT unit of the German Customs Service, and GSG 9 (the elite counter-terrorism and special operations unit of the German Federal Police) in Germany as well as various other special forces ranging from the American Rapid Response Teams to the special police of one of China’s biggest provinces.
He started training in Wing Tsun in 1980 in the European Wing Tsun Organization (EWTO). In 1986, he attained the 1st technician degree. In 1997, he left EWTO to found WTEO (Wing Tsun-Escrima Organization).
Avci is still the world chief trainer of the organization. Today, WTEO has more than 15000 students, excluding law enforcement forces. There are more than 70 schools of WTEO alone in Germany and several others in Holland, Turkey, France, Austria, Spain, Jordan, Italy, Sudan, Greece and La Reunion.
Salih Avci will be training FBI agents with his own techniques which is a mixed between Chinese origin ‘Wing Tsun’ and Philippians origin ‘Escrima’
Salih Avci’s unique approach to the combat art lies in the practical application of his techniques to disarm and arrest without the use of excessive force or weapons, even in life-threatening situations. Salih Avci does not focus solely on unarmed techniques. He has developed traditional short and long stick techniques to be used efficiently and practically without causing unnecessary harm to the person being arrested. A general-purpose tool for protection, disarming and arresting was the result of Salih Avci’s practical modification of the “tonfa”, which is used by the police.
Apart from the realistic application and professional use of self-defence and arresting techniques for civilians and officials, Salih Avci trains actors and fight choreographers for film and television.
Salih Avci married in 1993 and he and Mrs. Bilgi now have four sons and two daughters.
Sources: Amerikali Turk, Wikipedia and Contributed by Tolga Cakir
Iain Lobban the director of GCHQ (Reuters/UK Parliament via REUTERS TV)
The head of GCHQ, Britain’s electronic intelligence agency, will step down by year’s end, the Foreign Office said. Officials denied his departure was linked to public outrage over mass surveillance revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Iain Lobban, 53, has served as GCHQ’s director since June 2008. His departure was officially described as a long-considered move, but comes just a few weeks after he was summoned to answer MPs’ questions about surveillance operations in an unprecedented televised open session of the UK parliament’s intelligence and security committee, along with the heads of MI5 and MI6.
“Iain Lobban is doing an outstanding job as director of GCHQ,” a spokesperson said. “Today is simply about starting the process of ensuring we have a suitable successor in place before he moves on, planned at the end of the year.”
Officials dismissed suggestions his decision was influenced by revelations made by Snowden, a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, whose leaks revealed details of a massive global surveillance network run by the NSA and other members of the so-called Five Eyes alliance – the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.
Despite accounting for the bulk of Britain’s three intelligence agencies’ combined budget of £2 billion, GCHQ had previously attracted far less public attention than MI5 or MI6.
It was damaging media revelations regarding wide-scale collaboration between GCHQ and the NSA that resulted in Lobban being called to appear before the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee alongside the heads of MI5 and MI6 in November.
At the hearing, Lobban accused Snowden’s disclosures of seriously damaging Britain’s counter-terrorism efforts, saying extremists had discussed changing their communication methods following the revelations.
Critics, however, have accused GCHQ of working hand-in-hand with the NSA in massively intruding on the private communications of millions of citizens.
In June, the Guardian reported the NSA had secretly gained access to the network of cables which carry the world’s phone calls and internet traffic, and, by 2010, was able to boast the “biggest internet access” of any member of the Five Eyes alliance.
According to media reports, the NSA and GCHQ had a particularly close relationship, sharing troves of data in what Snowden called “the largest program of suspicionless surveillance in human history.”
Around 850,000 NSA employees and contractors with top secret clearance had access to the GCHQ databases, allowing them to view and analyze information garnered from such subtly titled programs as ‘Mastering the Internet (MTI)’ and ‘Global Telecoms Exploitation (GTE).’
Lobban, who first joined GCHQ in 1983, insisted in November that GCHQ did not spend its time “listening to the telephone calls or reading the e-mails of the majority” of British citizens.
Sir Iain’s counterpart at the NSA, General Keith Alexander, alongside his deputy, John Inglis, are also stepping down later this year.
There is also an ongoing campaign pushing for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper to resign for lying under oath by telling Congress the NSA did “not wittingly” collect data on hundreds of millions of Americans.
Give young people a choice not to be indoctrinated
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Dear Friends,
California Assembly Bill (AB) 659 seeks to amend Section 51226.3 of the state Education Code to include the alleged “Armenian genocide” in the history-social science educational curricula. Sponsored by Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, AB 659 imposes the one-sided and legally unfounded allegation of a crime against humanity in our public education. Having passed through the Assembly committees on Education and Appropriations, under the influence of ethnic special interests, AB 659 is now up for a full Assembly vote on January 31st.As highlighted by the recent European Court of Human Rights decision in the Perinçek vs Switzerland case as well as by numerous American scholars of history, the Ottoman Armenian suffering cannot be described as ‘genocide’ – a well-defined legal term that applies only to the crimes against humanity tried in a court of law. Furthermore, the very term “Armenian genocide” excludes the massacres of over half a million Turks, Kurds, Azeris and other Muslims by the Armenian armed groups fighting alongside the Russian, Greek and French Armies in World War I.Join the Pax Turcica action campaign to urge your Assembly member to vote against AB 659 when it comes to the floor. The young generations should have a choice to not be subjected to educational malpractice based on the unfair and unethical legislation.
Please, send your action letters NOW, make sure to select your California Assembly member as a target, spread to your friends in California, and forward all responses received to
institute@paxturcica.org
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ataa
ATAA, representing over 60 local chapters and 500,000 Turkish Americans throughout the United States, serves locally and in Washington DC to empower the Turkish American community through civic engagement, and to support strong US-Turkish relations through education and advocacy. Established in 1979, ATAA is the largest, democratically elected Turkish American membership organization in the United States. As a non-faith based organization, ATAA is open to people of diverse backgrounds. The ATAA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed under the laws of the District of Columbia. To learn more about ATAA, please visit www.ataa.org.
Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was in Brussels last week seeking to repair relations with Europe, but the first place to look for a solution is within himself. Once hailed as the leader of a model Muslim democracy, he has created a political disaster at home, transforming Turkey into an authoritarian state that poses dangers not just for itself but for its allies in NATO, including the United States.
The latest turmoil has its roots in a political war between Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party and his former close allies who follow Fethullah Gulen, a moderate Islamic scholar who lives in Pennsylvania. The tensions erupted into the open last month with a corruption probe that led to the resignation of four government ministers and threatened to ensnare Mr. Erdogan’s family. The prime minister called the probe a “coup attempt” and blamed a “secret organization” within the judiciary and police directed by the Gulen movement and serving “foreign powers” like the United States and Israel. The government has since purged hundreds of police officials and prosecutors and sought to assert control over the judiciary. It also drafted legislation expanding the government’s power to appoint judges and prosecutors, further breaching judicial independence, and has prevented journalists from reporting freely. All the while, Mr. Erdogan has spewed endless conspiracy theories and incendiary rhetoric, even hinting at American treachery and suggesting that the American ambassador might be expelled.
The probe and Mr. Erdogan’s reaction may well be politically motivated. There are important local elections in March. But Mr. Erdogan should be insisting that the probe be fair and transparent, not trying to derail it. His ruthless ways and his attempt to crush dissent are not new, as the crackdown against demonstrators during protests last June showed. Such actions trample on democratic reforms demanded by the European Union as part of Turkey’s bid for union membership, which may be more in peril than ever, and are increasingly at odds with the ground rules for NATO members.
Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was right when he said in Brussels that the Europeans must demand that Turkey return to the rule of law. The Obama administration also needs to send a strong message about the damaging course Mr. Erdogan is pursuing. Whether Turkey nurtures its hard-won democracy, which has contributed to its impressive economic growth, or turns authoritarian is as critical to regional stability and to its NATO allies as it is to Turks.
A VERSION OF THIS EDITORIAL APPEARS IN PRINT ON JANUARY 28, 2014, IN THE INTERNATIONAL NEW YORK TIMES.
