Turkish Forum

Category: Regions

  • Sochi 2014: Turkish Special Forces seize man suspected of making bomb threat on plane

    Sochi 2014: Turkish Special Forces seize man suspected of making bomb threat on plane

    Turkish F16
    Turkish F16

    Officials: ‘Air pirate’ claims bomb on board, tries to have plane go to Sochi

    According to CNN, a passenger announced Friday “that there was a bomb on board” his plane and wanted it diverted to Sochi — the Russian city hosting the Winter Olympics amid terrorism fears — Turkish officials said.

    Rather than abide by the request, the Pegasus Airlines’ crew sent a hijacking alert that Turkey’s Air Force Control Center received at 5:20 p.m. (10:20 a.m. ET), Turkey’s semiofficial Anadolu news agency reported.

    About 20 minutes later, the same report claimed two F-16 fighter jets scrambled to intercept the Boeing 737-800 and escort it over the Black Sea.

    Eventually, the airliner landed safely at Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen airport, where video shot soon thereafter showed police and security officials converging on it.

    Istanbul’s governor tweeted around 10 p.m. that “the air pirate has been neutralized” and all other passengers “disembarked from the plane without any problems.” Special forces who boarded the plane took him into custody “in a swift operation” without finding a “bomb on him,” Gov. Huseyin Avni Mutlu later told reporters.

    “The operation is complete,” the governor said.

    Mutlu said that the suspect — who never made it into the cockpit and at one point apparently thought the aircraft was destined for Sochi — “didn’t seem to have consumed alcohol, (but) he may have used some other substances.” He’d brought a carry-on bag with personal electronics and other items onto the Pegasus plane, according to the governor.

    The incident came at a tense time given the various threats surrounding the Winter Games, which kicked off in earnest Friday night with its opening ceremony.

    Russian security forces have cracked down in recent weeks on suspected militants in the restive North Caucasus republic of Dagestan — which is located on the other side of the Caucasus Mountains from Sochi — and elsewhere in recent weeks after twin suicide bombings in the city of Volgograd in December.

    There have also been concerns specifically about explosives-laden airlines. U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul said Wednesday night that the his nation’s Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to airlines flying into Russia warning that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes.

    Airlines warned of possible toothpaste tube bombs

    Official: Suspect is Ukrainian

    The flight started in Kharkov in Ukraine, and was headed to Istanbul, according to the Transportation Ministry.

    While it was in air, “one of the passengers said that there was a bomb on board and asked the plane to not land in Sabiha Gokcen but rather to land in Sochi,” Transportation Ministry official Habip Soluk said on CNNTurk.

    The man said the bomb was in the baggage hold, a Transportation Ministry official said.

    The aircraft ended up touching down at the Turkish airport at at 6:04 p.m., according to Anadolu, at which point it was moved to a safe zone on the tarmac.

    Cihan News Agency of Turkey published a photograph it claimed came from inside the plane showing a man standing in a number 11 sports jersey with empty seats around him and two people in uniform.

    Turkish officials have not confirmed that this photograph is from inside the Pegasus airliner or that the man at the center of it is the alleged hijacker.

    The Ukrainian foreign ministry issued a statement identifying the suspect as one of its citizens, something that Soluk also said was the case. The Ukrainian ministry said no explosives or guns were found aboard the plane and that the suspect “voluntarily turned himself into police.”

    Mutlu, Istanbul’s governor, offered a different take on how the alleged hijacker was detained.

    “We had to use force because we were trying to persuade him and he wasn’t persuaded,” said Mutlu, adding Turkish authorities did not use guns and that the suspect suffered “a light injury.”

    The suspect never said anything about Circassians — the residents in the volatile region around the North Caucasus mountains — or having lived in the region, according to the governor.

    CNN’s Gul Tuysuz reported from Turkey, and Greg Botelho reported and wrote from Atlanta. Journalist Victoria Butenko contributed from Kiev, Ukraine, while CNN’s Michael Martinez contributed from Los Angeles.

    Contributed By Tolga Cakir

     

  • GCHQ chief to step down by year’s end following Snowden leaks

    GCHQ chief to step down by year’s end following Snowden leaks

    Iain Lobban the director of GCHQ (Reuters/UK Parliament via REUTERS TV)
    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.

    RT, 29.01.2014

  • Sweden’s SVT Takes Turkish Drama ’20 Minutes’

    Sweden’s SVT Takes Turkish Drama ’20 Minutes’

    The “24”-style thriller from Turkish producer Ay Yapim is one of the hottest of a new wave of Istanbul-set TV series.

    20dakika_ekstra_007Swedish broadcaster SVT has picked up the rights to new Turkish drama series 20 Minutes, marking the second Turkish series the Swedish network will air in primetime.

    SVT nabbed 20 Minutes, a 24-style beat-the-clock thriller about a man racing to save his wife, from Eccho Rights. The series, produced by Istanbul-based Ay Yapim, will go out in Sweden starting in January.

    The deal follows a similar deal with Eccho earlier this year for The End, another red-hot Turkish TV serial.

    Commented Fredrik af Malmborg, managing director at Eccho Rights: “earlier on this year SVT took the brave step to be the first Western broadcaster to air a Turkish drama when it screened The End. The launch worked very well, with good ratings and a strong reception in the press, so the acquisition of 20 Minutes is the natural next step.”

    Turkey has become the new hot spot for international broadcasters looking for top-end drama. The territory’s booming TV industry has also attracted attention from Hollywood. 20th Century Fox Television and Sander Moses Productions have signed up for a U.S. adaptation of The End and Ay Yapim is in negotiations for an American take on 20 Minutes.

    via Sweden’s SVT Takes Turkish Drama ’20 Minutes’ – The Hollywood Reporter.

  • ACT NOW: Don’t let California Education System Teach One Sided History

    ACT NOW: Don’t let California Education System Teach One Sided History

    California Residents Only

    43e78816 165f 4fe5 b62b f3fc6d137c4c

    SAY NO TO CALIFORNIA ASSEMBLY BILL 659

    Give young people a choice not to be indoctrinated

    Click to send your letter in less than a minute

    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
    Click to send your letter in less than a minute

     

    ataa
    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 Wrong Turn

    Turkey’s Wrong Turn

    By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

    Goturrr

    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.
  • Russia bans Australia beef products

    Russia bans Australia beef products

    According to AFP,  Russia on Monday imposed a ban on Australian beef byproducts such as offal over the use of a growth stimulant allowed in some nations but that Moscow considers unsafe.

    The temporary restrictions also affect Belarus and Kazakhstan — two ex-Soviet nations that are part of a Moscow-led Customs Union.

    Australia Beef
    Australia Beef

    Australia is the world’s third-largest exporter of beef after the United States and Brazil. It reported shipping 30,000 tonnes of beef to Russia in 2013.

    The Interfax news agency said Australia had sent 13,000 tonnes of beef byproducts to ex-Soviet countries in the first 10 months of last year — most of them to Russia — worth $21.3 million.

    Russia’s agriculture watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said the ban was imposed after the discovery of the growth stimulant trenbolone “in several shipments” of Australian beef byproducts.

    Rosselkhoznadzor chief Sergei Dankvert told Interfax that the ban applied to beef byproducts because they accumulate the steroid in greater quantities than regular meat.

    Russia has frequently imposed temporary bans on meat products over the use of hormones that are allowed in nations such as the United States but restricted by Moscow’s more stringent regulations.