Turkish Forum

Category: Regions

  • 28 December 2013 Press Release from Chicago Turkish Forum

    28 December 2013 Press Release from Chicago Turkish Forum

    28 December 2013 Press Release from Chicago Turkish Forum

    Extraordinary and Unprecedented Corruption of Erdogan’s government and its consequences

    Today, December 28th, 2013, the members of the Chicago Turkish Forum gathered in downtown Chicago to raise public awareness about current events in Turkey, and to ask the American public to stay in solidarity with the Turkish people who demand a secular and democratic Turkey.

    Turkey is one of U.S.’s closest allies in the Near East and Europe and the current events in Turkey have immense reflections on the region and on US-Turkey relations. On December 17, 2013, Turkey’s Financial Crime Department initiated the largest corruption scandal in the history of Turkey.

    – CEO of the State-owned Halk Bank was arrested with 4.5 million US dollars in cash at his home stashed in shoe boxes.

    – Police detained 47 people, including sons of three cabinet ministers for receiving millions of US dollars as bribes to give illegal permits to construction tycoons with the help and approval of their fathers. The son of the Ministery of Interior affairs was among the detainees.

    – The investigation was expanded to Egemen Bagis, Minister of European Union Affairs, for bribery allegations.

    – Since the investigation started, Ankara’s Head of Organized Crime Unit, Chief Hakan Yuksekdag, was found dead in his car – officially pronounced as a suicide. More than 200 police officers, including the head of the current investigation, were immediately terminated or demoted, and prosecutors were relocated to other cities.

    – Erdogan’s government proposed a change to the current law to force the prosecutors and the police to inform the Ministry of Interior Affairs before they start an investigation on the government. Considering the Interior Minister’s son was detained during the investigation, if the change is signed into law, it will provide unfair warning and prevent any future surprise investigation on Erdogan’s cabinet and his close circle.

    – During his resignation, Erdogan Bayraktar, the Minister of Environment, claimed that the “permits for the construction projects were given with the knowledge and approval of Prime Minister Erdogan” and he added “Erdogan himself should resign.”

    Contrary to the expectations, Erdogan and his government continues to undermine the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial powers secured with Turkish Constitution, and attempting to interfere and influence the outcome of Turkey’s biggest corruption investigation in history, which also involves Erdogan’s own son and himself.

    Today, we gathered at the heart of Chicago as lawful citizens who are aware of the dire situation in Turkey, and who can foresee the imminent consequences in the near future. We feel that it is extremely important to raise awareness to the current events in Turkey, as the secular and modern people, the constitution, and the unique secular nature of Turkey are under immense attack.

    Today thousands of people start protests against the corrupt and increasingly Islamic Erdogan government. This year alone, 6 people were killed and more than 8,000 were seriously injured, including 11 people losing their eyes and 182 people with severe head injuries–. Erdogan’s government is once again brutal against the protestors. They are doing all they can to cover up the investigations of corruption, and continue to undermine democracy.

    We find this unacceptable! We are concerned about the irreversible path Erdogan has dragged Turkey into. This brings dire consequences for the region and for the world.

    It is our obligation to speak, when we must and this is the time! If we fail to stand in solidarity with the modern and secular Turkey now, tomorrow would be too late. We believe it is the right of the American people to learn more about the events in Turkey and realize that the “Moderate Islam” hypothesis has major flaws in it and only a secular democratic government can be a solution for Turkey and its region.

    Today we stand together with the people on the streets, who demand an uncorrupt, secular and democratic government, which respects separation of powers as dictated by the Turkish Constitution. We ask that you stand strong with them, as they may be the last man standing against the uncontrolled tyranny happening in Turkey.

    Chicago Turkish Forum

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  • TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

    TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

    I’m standin’ here. You make the move. You make the move. It’s your move. Huh?
    You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? 
    Well, then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? 
    You talkin’ to me? Well, I’m the only one here.

    Travis Bickle,  TAXI DRIVER

    TR32

    TREASON TIME WITH TRAVIS

     

    TREASON: The betrayal of one’s own country by waging war against it or by consciously or purposely acting to aid its enemies.

    MISPRISION OF TREASON:The deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.

    Hey Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu! Hey you! I’m talkin’ to you! I’m talkin’ to you, Mister Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The leader of the that sissy-boy “opposition” party! What are you doing? All the time backin’ off, backin’ off, talkin’ away at the parliament like it all means somethin’. It don’t mean nothin’ to me and people like me, that’s for sure. Takin’ it, takin’ it for years you’ve been takin’ it from that religious mob that lies, cheats and steals like a plague of cancer. And you, playin’ word games with them while they destroy your country. Not smart, Kılıçdaroğlu, not smart at all. Them guys stole everything…everything, even the mosques and the police and the army for God’s sake. And where the hell were you, Mr. Opposition Party Big Shot? They even stole the mountains and the forests and the trees and the streets and the air and they even got the big ships. And you? You got the baby carriage and the garbage pail. And you’re the only one there, you’re the boss. So pay attention, understand? I’m talkin’ to you…man-to-man, I’m talkin’ to you! You got that? Good, because here’s a man who won’t take it anymore. Not from these government criminals destroyin’ our country while you and your rabbits sit on your collective duffs. They embarrass me, these people, so stupid they are. They think we’re stupid too and that’s the worst part. That, and lookin’ at you and your boys hangin’ around all day in them big red chairs waitin’ for the word to come from their big boss. Then you all jump up like hungry dogs at chicken bones. You try to be clever in your retorts but you don’t say nothin’ and you embarrass us a second time. So do somethin’, Kılıçdaroğlu, somethin’ with courage. I drive a taxi all day and all night. And that takes courage. So you do likewise, be brave and earn some respect. Walk out of that cesspool of a parliament. Leave shoe boxes on your desks as complementary mementos to the thieves-in-charge. Then all of you take a hike over to the criminal court and file those treason and misprision of treason cases against the gangster government. And throw in the American ambassador and his fellow agents for good luck. And we the people will hail you in the streets.

    We’ll show them, won’t we Kemal? You’re the main opposition man! You can be the big dude prime minister even without kissin’ America’s feet. And I’m gonna get you in shape right now. Too much sittin’ is ruinin’ your body. Too much abuse has gone on for too long. From now on, it will be fifty push-ups each morning, fifty pull-ups. There’ll be no more pills, there’ll be no more bad food, no more destroyers of your body. From now on, it will be total organization. Every muscle must be tight. I’m one of your biggest supporters, you know. I tell everybody that comes in this taxi that they have to vote for you. You understand? Are you still lookin’ at me? Good, because I’m lookin’ at you…hard!

    Mr. Travis Bickle
    Somewhere in traffic in Istanbul
    25 December 2013

  • Computer pioneer Alan Turing pardoned

    Computer pioneer Alan Turing pardoned

    Punished under British law for homosexuality in the 1950s, code breaker Turing has now been pardoned.

    Turing's work on artificial intelligence still informs the debate over whether machines can think, [AFP]
    Turing’s work on artificial intelligence still informs the debate over whether machines can think, [AFP]
    Queen Elizabeth II has pardoned  Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, who was convicted of “gross indecency” for being gay, 61 years after he poisoned himself.

    The Queen granted Turing, whose theories laid the foundation for the computer age and who broke the code which helped the Allies outfox the Nazis, an official pardon on Tuesday.

    Turing, whose work on artificial intelligence still informs the debate over whether machines can think, was punished by Britain in the 1950s, when homosexuality was still a criminal offence.

    “Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind,” Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a prepared statement released on Tuesday.

    Describing Turing’s treatment as unjust, Grayling said the code breaker “deserves to be remembered and recognised for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science.”

    Turing’s contributions to science spanned several disciplines, but he is perhaps best remembered as the architect of the effort to crack the Enigma code, the cypher used by Nazi Germany to secure its military communications.

    Turing’s groundbreaking work, combined with the effort of cryptanalysts at Bletchley Park, near Oxford, and the capture of Nazi code books, gave the Allies the edge across half the globe, helping them defeat the Italians in the Mediterranean, beat back the Germans in Africa and escape enemy submarines in the Atlantic.

    Even before the war, Turing was formulating ideas that would underpin modern computing, ideas which matured into a fascination with artificial intelligence and the notion that machines would someday challenge the minds of man.

    When the war ended, Turing went to work programming some of the world’s first computers, drawing up  one of the earliest chess games,  among other initiatives.

    Turing made no secret of his sexuality, and being gay could easily lead to prosecution in post-war Britain.

    In 1952, Turing was convicted of “gross indecency” over his relationship with another man, and he was stripped of his security clearance, subjected to monitoring by British authorities, and forced to take estrogen to neutralise his sex drive – a process described by some as chemical castration.

    S. Barry Cooper, a University of Leeds mathematician who has written about Turing’s work, said future generations would struggle to understand the code breaker’s treatment.

    “You take one of your greatest scientists, and you invade his body with hormones,” he said in a telephone interview. “It was a national failure.”

    Turing committed suicide in 1954.

    Turing’s legacy was long obscured by secrecy.

    “Even his mother wasn’t allowed to know what he’d done,” Cooper said.

    Then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued an apology for Turing’s treatment in 2009, but campaigners kept pressing for
    a formal pardon.

     

    Source: Agencies

     

     

    You take one of your greatest scientists, and you invade his body with hormones. It was a national failure.S. Barry Cooper, University of Leeds mathematician, on Turing’s forced chemical castration
  • The Political Future Of Turkey May Be Decided On This Quiet Road In Rural Pennsylvania

    The Political Future Of Turkey May Be Decided On This Quiet Road In Rural Pennsylvania

    ADAM TAYLOR 

    An aerial view of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in rural Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, is seen in this picture taken July 9, 2013.
    An aerial view of the Golden Generation Worship and Retreat Center in rural Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, is seen in this picture taken July 9, 2013.

    Before it’s even begun, Turkey’s 2014 is already looking rocky. For the first time, the country will hold direct presidential elections, and there is widespread speculation that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will run in a bid to extend his power beyond his term limits.

    Erdogan has spent 10 years as Prime Minister and 12 as chairman of the religious right wing Justice and Development Party (AK), but his tenure has become rocky, with Istanbul hit by serious anti-government protests earlier this year.

    Analysts believe his latest threat doesn’t come from within Turkey though. It appears to comes from rural Pennsylvania; 1857 Mt. Eaton Road, Saylorsburg, to be precise.

    That secluded address is reported to be the home of Fethullah Gulen, an enigmatic Islamic preacher who has lived in self-imposed exile from Turkey since 1999. Gulen was trained as an iman and eventually rose to become the leader of a movement that espoused a modern version of Islam focusing on pacifism and business.

    Gulen and his influential supporters in Turkey, including key members of the police and judiciary, supported Erdogan for three successive elections.

    Recently, however, there have been signs that the informal coalition is crumbling, which could be a major problem for Erdogan in the next election — or sooner.

    Case in point was yesterday, when
    at least 52 people, including the sons of three Cabinet members, businessmen, officials, and a mayor detained in investigations of real estate fraud and other corruption. Gulenists have been accused of instigating the scandal, using their covert influence to gather evidence against Erdogan’s followers, reports The Economist.

    The response from opposition politicians has been dramatic. “The prime minister has become the biggest real estate agent in the world,” Oktay Vural, a politician of the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) said, while Engin Altay of the secular opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP) called on Erdogan to resign.

    Some say the supposed schism occured because Gulenists were upset by a perceived shift to conservatism by AK. Others say Erdogan’s crackdown on private schools, many of which were funded by the Gulen movement, prompted retaliation.

    Critics of the Gulen movement say the group’s vast influence and lack of clear structure are a threat to democracy — earlier this year the New York Times wrote a “culture of fear” surrounding the group led to many to refuse to be interviewed about them for fear of reprisals (one reporter who wrote a book on Gulen later found himself in jail). Either way, “this is a nasty and bloody divorce,” as Kadri Gursel, a columnist for the broadly pro-Erdogan Milliyet daily wrote this week.

    Meanwhile, it’s unclear if the people of Saylorsburg (population: 1,126) know that Mt. Eaton Road has become a matter of geographical importance. While the street has been a sight of protests against the Gulen movement, Gulen himself is reclusive and rarely seen in public outside his 25-acre compound, which also houses a spiritual retreat center.

    In a rare interview with the Atlantic earlier this year, Gulen said he wasn’t planning a return to Turkey as he was concerned about possible “harassment.”

    “I find this place more tranquil,” he explained.

  • KILLERS! My Last Letter to Obama

    KILLERS! My Last Letter to Obama

    20 December 2013

    The Honorable Barack H. Obama President of the United States
    The White House
    1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
    Washington, DC 20500
    USA

    Dear Mr. President:

    KILLERS!

    You have destroyed the secular republic of Turkey. But it’s not only about you, Mr. President. It’s about Bush and Clinton and the other Bush and Reagan and Carter and Ford and Nixon and all the others like them who have been trying through the years to subvert Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s secular, democratic republic of Turkey. It’s also about your CIA and all its directors and its agents like Abramowitz and Edelman and Fethullah Gülen and Graham Fuller. And it’s about your CIA-inspired collaborating ambassadors to Turkey like Ricciardone and Jeffrey and Wilson and Edelman and Pearson and Parris and Grossman and Barkley and Abramowitz and Strausz-Hupe and Spain and Spiers and Macomber and Handley and Komer and all their double-talking predecessors beginning on 10 November 1938 when Atatürk died. But it’s mostly about your once best friend and key hit-man, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. And, of course, your under-educated, ever-treacherous under-cover CIA agent, religious huckster, and Pennsylvania resident, Fethullah Gülen. How good of you, Mr. President, to use these two religious hypocrites to employ God as a vehicle to divide and destroy a nation like Turkey. You, Mr. President, you and all the above American agent-provocateurs are guilty of subornation of treason. As a lawyer, I am sure you know what this means.

    You have aided and abetted these two traitors, Erdoğan and Gülen, to engage in high crimes and misdemeanors in destroying the sovereignty of the Turkish nation. You have allowed your puppets, Erdoğan and Gülen, to kill and maim the citizens of Turkey. You have allowed your Erdoğan and his political thugs to plunder the nation of its natural resources, its wealth, its security and its honor. You have allowed your Gülen and his Gülen-controlled police force to brutally attack the Turkish people. And now, fed up with the treacherous, embarrassing Erdoğan, you are trying to dump him. But he is your “child,” Mr. President, another made-in-America political thug. And now you are using your other “child” (via the CIA) to have Gülen’s police to topple him. How stupidly obvious can you be? Erdogan’s corruption (and his political party’s) has been known for years. As has Gülen’s treachery. Your Erdoğan and Gülen’s police killed, gassed, beat, stabbed and otherwise maimed thousands of “Gezi Park” protestors. You and your reprehensible ambassador sold the Erdoğan government tons of tear gas and tasers and long range acoustic devices to violently suppress a democratic expression of the Turkish people’s disgust with the Erdoğan government. It resulted in six murders by the police. Are you beginning to understand, Mr. President?

    How nice that now you too are disgusted with Erdoğan. And how clever of you to turn CIA “asset” Gülen against CIA “asset” Erdoğan. But what now, Mr. President? Do you think the “moderately” Islamic “gülenistas” in the AKP are any better than “moderately” Islamic Erdoğan? Do you think the Abdullah Gül puppet is any better than the Erdoğan model? Do you think the opposition party, now cravenly meeting with your ambassador, Ricciardone, is any better than Erdoğan? None of them are. Why? Because it is All-American garbage, that’s why. And it is because of you and your continuation of the sordid legacy of American gangsterism in the Republic of Turkey. Mr. President, Erdoğan and Gülen and you are enemies of the Turkish state. And the Turkish people know it. But, Mr. President, do you? Do you even care?

    Sincerely yours,

    James C. Ryan
    Istanbul
    20 December 2013

     

    untitlewd
    Erdoğan and Gülen

     

     

  • Syrian Official: Turkey Responsible for Adra Massacre

    Syrian Official: Turkey Responsible for Adra Massacre

    TEHRAN (FNA)- A Syrian information official blamed the US and its regional allies, especially Turkey, for the massacre of the people in Adra where militants have slaughtered tens of civilians.

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    Head of Syria’s Information Ministry’s Center for Studies and Research Maladh Maqdad told Al Alam on Tuesday that Turkey is responsible for killing of Syrian people in Adra at the hands of militants who entered Syria’s soil by support of Turkey and received weapons through Turkish borders.

    Al-Nusra Front militants, Al-Qaeda’s main branch in Syria war, attacked Adra in the Reef Damascus governorate last week and started executing civilians, some of them family by family.

    It is not clear how many people have been killed in the town since access has been limited but some media reports indicate more than 80 people have been killed while the number is feared to be much higher.

    Terrified survivors of the attack have been describing horrible atrocities carried out by the extremist in Adra.

    Since the start of the war in Syria, the United States has shown that it is the leader of a coalition which is fighting against Syria, by managing its allies in the region, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey and by the diplomatic and media coverage it has been giving in support of the war, Maqdad said.

    “It was the united states that established the ‘free Syrian army’ and provided logistic and military support for it, and prevented the rebels to cooperate with (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad when he proposed them to put down their arms and get amnesty and sit for talks,” he added.

    The Syrian official said, Turkish government is acting under US supervision and is trying to overthrow the Syrian government and destroy Syria through sending arms for the militants with the help of Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

    He further noted that Ankara is facing criticism for its policies toward the crisis in Syria from parliament and people.

    A new UN report said Turkey transferred more than 47 tons of arsenals to Syria militants.

    The crisis in Syria started in March 2011, when pro-reform protests turned into a massive insurgency following the intervention of western and regional states.

    The unrest, which took in terrorist groups from across Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, has transpired as one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history.

    According to the United Nations, more than 120,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the turmoil that has gripped Syria for over two years.

    via Farsnews.