Turkey’s ambassador to Georgia confirms that experts from Turkey have visited Rabati castle and requested certain ‘changes and improvements’ for the complex.
Two days ago, a spokesperson for President Mikheil Saakashvili presented a draft of an agreement the government has prepared with Turkey, which included making changes to the rehabilitated Rabati castle complex in southern Georgia.
The president and his party are strongly opposed to the plans and argue that the changes would destroy the castle.
Turkish ambassador Levent Murat Burhan on Thursday told journalists that there is no final decision yet, but experts expect there to be made corrections and changes at the complex.
Rabati castle dates back to the 13th century and lies in the town of Akhaltsikhe. It contains a synagogue, a mosque, a church and a minaret, and was refurbished in 2011-2012 by Saakashvili’s government.
Now, the Culture Ministry will organize a round table discussion about the reconstruction of Rabati, and has invited experts, employees of the complex, and representatives of civil society. The ministry also has invited Vano Merabsivhili, one of the National Movement leaders, who managed the last round of rehabilitation work at Rabati.
Yesterday, he responded to this issue saying that ‘the government started fighting against Rabati complex.’
“Everyone can come and present their own arguments and counter-arguments,” Culture Minister Guram Odisharia said after Thursday’s government session.
The minister said that a group from the ministry has arrived in Akhaltsikhe in order to study the situation and inform society. Meanwhile, discussion may continue during the round table.
The new government thinks there were made mistakes during the last reconstruction of Rabati, and Turkey has requested to improve them. The government therefore prepared the text of an agreement, which Manana Manjgaladze, Saakashvili’s spokesperson, presented yesterday.
The text of the agreement foresees ‘restoring the Akhaltsikhe bath complex from the 18th century; to change the color of the dome, to bring back the older lattices, to check the drainage system around the buildings and if needed, to improve the facing material.’
1425 GMT: Palestine. Thousands of mourners have turned out for the funerals of three Palestinians, including two teenagers killed by Israeli army gunfire in Tulkarm.
On Tuesday, Maysara Abu Hamdeya, a 64-year-old prisoner serving a life term in an Israeli jail, died from cancer.
Palestinian officials accused Israel of delaying treatment for Hamdeya and gave him full military honours at the funeral in Hebron, where masked gunmen fired into the air as his body arrived at a mosque.
Amer Nassar, 17, and Naji Belbisi, 18, were killed in the wave of disturbances that followed the announcement of Hamdeya’s death.
1045 GMT: Egypt. Writing for the Associated Press, Maggie Michael and Sarah El Deeb describe the bloody clashes last month outside Muslim Brotherhood headquarters in Cairo:
The riot on March 22 revealed a new readiness of some in the anti-Brotherhood opposition to turn to violence, insisting they have no choice but to fight back against a group they accuse of using violence against them for months. The fight featured an unusual vengefulness. Young protesters were seen at one point pelting a Brotherhood member with firebombs and setting him aflame. Others chased anyone with a conservative Muslim beard, while Islamists set up checkpoints searching for protesters. Each side dragged opponents into mosques and beat them.
Since the fight, Islamists enraged by what they saw as aggression against their headquarters have for the past week hiked up calls for wider action against opponents — and the media in particular — accusing them of trying to overthrow Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
1025 GMT: Egypt. Minister of Planning Ashraf al-Araby has said the Government expects to reach a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan within two weeks.
An IMF delegation resumed negotiations with Egypt on Wednesday. Agreement has been held up for months by political and economic tensions, with President Morsi introducing but quickly withdrawing required tax increases and cut in subsidies last autumn.
Foreign reserves are at $13.4 billion, covering less than three months of imports.
0735 GMT: Palestine. US and Palestinian officials say that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will suspend “all unilateral measures” at the United Nations to give US Secretary of State John Kerry time to pursue a new round of Israeli-Palestinian talks.
A source said the Fatah Central Committee, led by Abbas, passed a resolution for the suspensions on Tuesday.
“For a limited and specified period of time a new opportunity will be given to international efforts under way to break the deadlock in the peace process,” the resolution read. It went on to say, “In the event Israel thwarts such efforts, we will again turn to international organizations.”
In November, the UN General Assembly recognised Palestine as an Observer State, angering the Israelis and leading to a cut-off of tax revenues from Israel to the PA. West Jerusalem warned the PA, which controls the West Bank, not to pursue accession to UN agencies and bodies such as the International Criminal Court.
Sources gave the timeframe of the suspension of the Palestinian Authority’s efforts to secure member-state status in various UN agencies as around eight weeks starting on 22 March, when President Obama concluded his visit to the region, with a possible four-week extension.
Abbas is due to meet Kerry on Sunday.
0710 GMT: Palestine. Two Palestinian teenagers have been shot and killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank city of Tulkarm amid clashes.
One teenager was confirmed dead on Wednesday while the body of a second youth was found on Thursday.
The Israeli military said its troops opened fire on Palestinians who threw firebombs at a guard post.
0650 GMT: Israel and Turkey. We start this morning with an analysis by Shoshank Joshi and Aaron Stein of the recent “reconciliation” between West Jerusalem and Turkey, marked by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s apology over the killing of nine Turkish citizens by Israeli commandoes during an attack on a Gaza-bound “Freedom Flotilla” in May 2010.
On EA, we have emphasised the place of Syria in this reconcilation, with the US and others seeking to get Turkey and Israel on the same side over support for the insurgency. In the final third of the article Joshi and Stein add other dimensions:
1. The potential of exports of Israeli natural gas to Turkey, downplayed by the authors;
2. “What the apology could do is restart Turkey and Israel’s defense relationship”, with supply of Israeli drones, specialized equipment for Turkey’s U.S.-made Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft , and other technology and weapons;
3. “An upgrade in intelligence cooperation in Syria”;
4. “The apology may shake up Turkey’s diplomacy in the Palestinian territories….Turkey may even feel well placed to broker reconciliation between the two factions [of Hamas and Fatah].”
via EA WorldView – Home – Israel, Turkey (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A New Israeli-Turkish Relationship?.
TOKYO: Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s ArevaBSE 0.27 % are expected to win a $22 billion contract to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey, a newspaper said Thursday.
Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France’s Areva are expected to win a $22 billion contract to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey.
Turkey’s energy and natural resources ministry held talks with Japanese government and company officials in Ankara on Wednesday and told them of its readiness to place the order from the two firms, the Nikkei business daily said.
Under the expected order, Mitsubishi and Areva will build four pressurised water reactors with a combined output of 4.5 million kilowatts in Sinop on the Black Sea, the newspaper said.
Construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant is to begin in 2017, with the first reactor coming on line by 2023, it said.
France’s GDF Suez will operate the facility while a joint venture involving Japanese and Turkish companies will sell the power to local utilities, it added.
A Mitsubishi Heavy spokesman declined to confirm the report.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan may meet in Turkey in early May with plans to agree on the promotion of nuclear reactor construction, Nikkei said.
After the two governments sign the agreement, preferred negotiation rights will be officially awarded to the Mitsubishi-Areva alliance, the daily said.
Japanese, Chinese, South Korean and Canadian nuclear reactor makers had been competing for the project, but Turkey appeared to have given high marks to the Japanese team’s technological prowess, reliability and price, it said.
The deal marks Japan’s first successful public-private bid for an overseas nuclear plant project since its 2011 nuclear disaster and could build momentum for further nuclear technology exports, it said.
A huge tsunami crippled cooling systems at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, sending reactors into meltdown, spewing radioactive materials into surrounding areas.
via Japan, France firms to build Turkey nuclear plant: report – The Economic Times.
Opening Turkey’s border with Armenia is only possible after an agreement with Azerbaijan, former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin told Trend news agency on Thursday.
According to him, Azerbaijan and Turkey have a very close relationship, and Turkey can not unilaterally open the border with Armenia.
“Turkey and Azerbaijan have a special relationship. Nobody has described it better than the great leader Heydar Aliyev: “One nation – two states.” Turkey’s border with Armenia can not be opened unilaterally. This is very important in terms of relations with the South Caucasus, in particular with Azerbaijan. The border was open back when I was the Minister of Foreign Affairs. However, we shut it down when Armenia occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and the surrounding regions.
The opening of the border between Turkey and Armenia is only possible after an agreement with Azerbaijan has been reached. Turkey should not make any decision potentially harmful for Azerbaijan,” Cetin said.
With regard to the opening of the Van-Yerevan flight, the ex-minister said that was a decision of a private company, not the Turkish government.
“Turkey is an open country, and private companies can make any decisions. However, observing Azerbaijan’s concern on the issue, the decision was canceled,” Cetin said.
According to him, peace must be established in the region. However, this peace must be consistent with international laws and the UN resolutions.
“The Nagorno-Karabakh conflict should be solved step by step. At the first stage, at least five regions surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh must be freed. This would mark a sign to promote the settlement of the conflict,” Cetin said.
Azerbaijan and Armenia fought a lengthy war in the early 1990s. Armenian armed forces have since occupied over 20 percent of Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized territory, including Nagorno-Karabakh and seven adjacent regions. The UN Security Council has adopted four resolutions on Armenia’s withdrawal from the Azerbaijani territory, but they have not been enforced to this day.
A precarious cease-fire was signed in 1994. However, units of the Armenian armed forces commit armistice breaches on the frontline almost every day.
Russia, France and the U.S. — co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group — are mediating peace negotiations. Peace talks have been mostly fruitless so far.
via Ex-minister rules out Turkey’s opening border with Armenia without Azerbaijan’s consent – AzerNews.
Turkish PM prepares to meet with terrorist group in Gaza Strip
BY: Adam Kredo
April 4, 2013 8:59 am
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh / AP
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is preparing to meet the Hamas government in Gaza, a move that could further inflame regional tensions.
Preparations for the visit come as Secretary of State John Kerry returns to the Middle East this weekend to patch up relations between Turkey and Israel. Kerry will spend Saturday visiting Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey as he seeks to find common ground between skeptical Middle East leaders, according to reports.
Erdogan’s trip will follow a tenuous diplomatic breakthrough between the Islamist Turkish prime minister and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who recently apologized to Erdogan for a deadly 2010 incident between the two nations that claimed the lives of eight Turks.
It remains unclear just how much headway Kerry will be able to make given Erdogan’s hesitance to embrace Israel fully and back away from his support for Iran and Hamas, according regional experts.
Erdogan has long acted as one of Hamas’s top cheerleaders, leading the charge to legitimize the terrorist group. The relationship blossomed long before the deadly 2010 flotilla raid harmed relations between Turkey and Israel.
“This certainly didn’t start with the flotilla,” said David Pollock, a former Middle East adviser at the State Department. “It goes back not only longer, but deeper because support for Hamas is not just against Israel but is in line with Erdogan’s overall Muslim Brotherhood orientation, his Islamic orientation.”
“The question that I would ask is not only why does Erdogan support Hamas against Israel but also support Hamas against the Palestinian Authority and [PA President] Mahmoud Abbas,” said Pollock, who currently serves as a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
The PA has opposed Erdogan’s planned trip to Israel, claiming it will only “deepen divisions among the Palestinians,” according to regional media reports.
Erdogan announced he would visit Gaza and Hamas after Netanyahu offered his apology, leading State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell to express “deep concern” during a press briefing on March 27.
Erdogan, recently dubbed by President Barack Obama as one of his top five international friends, is attempting to consolidate power by appealing to all sides, experts said.
“He tries to play both sides,” Pollock said. “He patched things up supposedly with Netanyahu on Obama’s recent visit [to Israel], but he continues to show support for Hamas. It’s possible in his mind he actually believes Hamas can be brought around to accept peace with Israel, but if he does, it isn’t true. There’s a real contradiction here.”
Erdogan has said he is Hamas’ champion, even claiming in the past that he wants to “represent Hamas on international platforms.”
The Turkish prime minister remains committed to engaging Hamas at every opportunity despite its ongoing terrorist activities.
“We should not be squeezing them into the corner,” he said in a 2009 speech before the European Union.
Erdogan has even vowed to personally escort any flotilla that seeks to break Israel’s naval blockade of the Gaza Strip—a promise that was made well after the deadly 2010 incident.
Hamas leaders also view Erdogan as a top ally.
Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh named his grandson after Erdogan so that the Turkish leader’s name “reverberated on every tongue” in the Gaza Strip, according to a 2010 report in Today’s Zaman.
Erdogan and Hamas have rallied around their opposition to Israel.
Erdogan has dubbed Israeli military operations against Hamas fighters “state terror.”
When Israel launched its 2008 military incursion into Gaza to combat ongoing terrorist rocket attacks, Erdogan described it as “an act of disrespect toward Turkey.”
“The crucial break point for Erdogan in this area was not the flotilla, but the Gaza war in December of ’08,” said Pollock. “That was the turning point. He took it very personally.”
Hamas attacks on Israel are justified in Erdogan’s view.
“I do not think that Hamas is a terrorist organization,” he said in April 2010, according to the Hurriyet Daily News. “I said the same thing to the United States. I am still of the same opinion. They are Palestinians in resistance, fighting for their own land.”
Erdogan’s recent bid to soften tensions with Israel are aimed at boosting his own image, according to Tony Badran, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD).
“Turkish officials are of the belief that, ‘We are going act as a mediator that is going to lead the [peace] process,’” Badran said. “That’s how they’re putting it out. He’s trying to raise the profile of Turkey as a mediator once again, specifically using the Palestinians as a platform”
The United States has been left with few diplomatic options given the regional climate.
“Realistically, we have to deal with this guy,” said Pollock. “He’s in charge of a very, very important country for the region and for us. I think he has his mishegas [craziness], but he’s demonstrated that he can be quite pragmatic toward us and even toward Israel. We have to make the best of not a great situation.”
This entry was posted in Middle East and tagged Hamas, Israel, John Kerry, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey. Bookmark the permalink.
via Turkish PM prepares to meet with Hamas | Washington Free Beacon.
The Muslim world’s biggest musical superstar, Sami Yusuf, has dropped into Istanbul to promote his latest work, “Salaam,” which features 16 songs, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
“It is a generous album. It gives message of peace, solidarity, love and, most of all, hope. These are eternal and permanent truths, values,” Yusuf said after landing in Istanbul on March 31, adding that the album had gained greater meaning in the wake of the changes in the Arab world.
Yusuf, a British singer-songwriter of Azeri origin, said humanity was being forced to deal with big problems.
“I don’t have a political personality; I consider problems in a humanistic matter. We have gone through the changes brought by the Arab Spring all together. In my opinion, this album gains meaning in this context because it talks about overcoming problems and difficulties,” he said, adding that “art should be pure.”
He said he had composed the song “I am your hope” after the revolution in Egypt and that the song was related to youth but not a specific party or group.
Yusuf said his music was considered as divine, rock or pop in the world but he preferred the definition “Spiritique.”
“This is a word I have invented. The goal of my own music, which I define with this word, is to draw listeners to the spiritual world. No one can monopolize the spiritual world,” he said.
