Category: Regions

Indonesia halts all military co-operation

Tony Abbott repeats his statement of regret Wednesday evening, as Indonesia orders an end to bilateral co-operation.Labor continues to backs the government in ‘a team Australia moment’.

Australia’s asylum-seeker measures in Indonesia have been thrown into disarray with Jakarta pulling the plug on all military co-operation in retaliation for the Abbott government’s refusal to explain the phone tapping of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Dr Yudhoyono: “It is no longer the Cold War era.” Photo: Achmad Ibrahim era.

God willing, tonight I will send a letter to Tony Abbott demanding Australia’s official stance and explanation … and then we will see what we can do in the future

According to Karuni Rompies and AAP Relations between Canberra and Jakarta have descended to their lowest level since the East Timor crisis as the Indonesian President ordered his country’s troops to stop joint exercises with Australians in Darwin, and the navy to halt any joint patrols to combat people smuggling.

n the latest development, the Australian embassy in Indonesia is bracing for protests outside its offices on Thursday. It is understood that the government will take precautions to ensure the safety of staff at the embassy.

And in the US, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, visiting Washington for Ausmin talks, refused on Thursday to discuss intelligence matters. US Secretary of State John Kerry also said that the US did not talk about intelligence matters in public and it wasn’t going to start now.

But opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Tanya Plibersek accused the Coalition of making ”some injudicious” comments before the September 7 election on asylum seeker policy.

Ms Plibersek said the government could not allow the diplomatic row with Indonesia, over spying claims during Labor’s time in government, to fester, insisting the opposition was committed to helping the government restore the relationship.

But she would not say whether she thought Prime Minister Abbott should pick up the phone and talk to Mr Yudhoyono, a move suggested by Labor leader Bill Shorten.

Cabinet minister Christopher Pyne said that he was confused by Labor’s position.

On the one hand, he said, the opposition was saying it supported everything the government was doing to repair the relationship. ”On the other hand, they’re still trying to play politics on foreign policy,” Mr Pyne said.

Indonesia’s President on Wednesday said: “How can we do all this if we are not sure that there is no tapping of our military, which is working for the interests of the two countries?”

The sudden deterioration in ties sent the Abbott government into crisis talks, with Prime Minister Tony Abbott requesting time to address the House of Representatives at short notice to emphasise his respect for the relationship and his desire to see it repaired.

”I want to express here in this chamber my deep and sincere regret about the embarrassment to the President and to Indonesia that’s been caused by recent media reporting,” he said for the second time that day.

“The President indicated that he would shortly be writing to me. I would like to reassure the House that I will be responding to the President’s letter swiftly, fully and courteously. As always, I am absolutely committed to building the closest possible relationship with Indonesia, because that is overwhelmingly in the interests of both our countries.”

In response, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten described it as a shared problem.

”This is indeed a team Australia moment. This is something that has happened to both Indonesia and Australia. We need to walk this road together. Other nations have resolved these similar issues, we can too,” he said.

Only last month Indonesian defence minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro agreed to deploy his navy’s maritime patrol aircraft to monitor people-smuggling activity along southern coastal areas, and to beef up naval patrols.

An Indonesian navy spokesman confirmed on Wednesday night that these patrols had been suspended, but said the moves would not affect the police force, which provides most of Indonesia’s assistance to Australia on people smuggling.

Dr Yudhoyono said after a crisis meeting at the presidential palace with his foreign minister, co-ordinating minister for security and intelligence chief that the suspension of military co-operation would remain in place until he had obtained “a clear explanation [from Australia] and for Australia to take responsibility”.

“God willing, tonight I will send a letter to Tony Abbott demanding Australia’s official stance and explanation … and then we will see what we can do in the future,” he said.

The explanation should “not be given through the Australian domestic setting”, he added.

The President spoke warmly of the relationship with Australia, but said he had ordered the suspension or review of several areas of co-operation, particularly on information sharing and the exchange of intelligence.

“I have also asked my military to temporarily stop the joint army and navy exercises and also to temporarily stop any co-ordinated military operations, the joint patrols,” he said.

“As you know, the people-smuggling issue has troubled both Indonesia and Australia, so we have co-ordinated military operations or co-ordinated patrols in the ocean, but until this issue is all clear it will be stopped.”

Dr Yudhoyono also called for a binding code of conduct between Australia and Indonesia on co-operation on military, intelligence and people-smuggling issues.

He said the decision by Australia to tap his mobile phone and those of his wife and their inner circle was ”difficult to digest”.

”It is no longer the Cold War era. It was a common thing then to spy on countries of different blocs, but today it is not like that any more. Hostile countries can tap each other, but between Indonesia and Australia we are not of different blocs, let alone hostile each other … why tap a friend, not foe?”

Position expressed via Twitter

Indonesian president Yudhoyono again took to twitter overnight to summarise his position, telling his 4.023 million followers via @SBYudhoyono that he would take three steps “while waiting for an official statement from the Australian Government”.

The first was to wait for “an explanation and for Australia to take responsibility”.

The second was: “A number of agendas for cooperation will be re-examined: the exchange of information, intelligence and training between the Republic of Indonesia and Australia, and the issue of people smuggling”.

The third was to demand a “Necessary protocol, or code of ethics, and guiding principles relating to cooperation in various fields to sustain the relationship the two countries”.

At the same time, there has been an outpouring of anger towards Australia on Twitter. The hashtag #GanyangAustralia , which means “Crush Australia”, has become a popular rallying point for Indonesians to respond to the spy allegations and Australia’s response so far.

November 21, 2013
Sectarianism Brings Turkey, Iran Closer

Dorian Jones
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (L) shakes hands with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu after a news conference in Ankara November 1, 2013.
ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister is due to visit Tehran on November 26, the latest step in rapprochement efforts between the former close allies. Relations soured over the Syrian civil war, but with rising sectarian tensions across the region, the two countries have committed to rebuild their relationship.

Turkey and Iran, on opposing sides of war in Syria, have been signaling a thaw in relations, saying they share concerns about the rising sectarianism in the conflict and could collaborate to bring peace to their neighbor.

Sinan Ulgen is a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in Brussels. He says the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president has also opened the door to warming relations.

“There was a rift. Now with the new presidency in Iran, Ankara sees the opportunity and tries to engage the new leadership. We can talk about a new period in terms of the Iranian-Turkish relationship, which, despite disagreements on a number of regional issues including Syria, seems to be going in the right direction,” says Ulgen.

During a meeting earlier this month in Istanbul, the Turkish and Iranian foreign ministers pledged to work together to ease regional sectarian tensions. Until recently, the two countries had accused one another of stoking tensions between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.

As a Sunni power, Turkey and its government, led by the Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party, have been accused of pushing a foreign policy that favors Sunni interests. Iran and its Shi’ite clerical hierarchy have been guardians of Shi’a Islam in the Middle East, supporting Iraq’s Shi’ite-dominated government and Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shi’ite militant group.

Murat Bilhan is a former Turkish ambassador and works for the Tasam think tank. He says despite the new dialogue, suspicions will linger.

“They still had a frank talk and these discussions have toned down the rhetoric between the two countries. They have difficulties to trust Turkey because they look from an angle of sectarianism to Turkey. That is how they perceive the Turkish foreign policy,” says Bilhan.

Despite bilateral tensions, trade between the countries has continued to flourish. Turkey is Iran’s biggest customer for natural gas and Ankara has indicated it may increase its consumption. Turkey has few natural energy reserves of its own.

The increase in trade comes despite international sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear energy program. Western countries claim the program is being used to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies.

This week, world powers are meeting again in Geneva for talks on Iran’s nuclear program. The renewed diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute is also another factor behind Ankara’s rapprochement efforts, says analyst Ulgen.

“The nuclear negotiations have gathered momentum and there seems to be some quite substantial developments. And Turkey does not want to be totally alienated from this process. That’s also another reason why there has been a decision to reach out to Iran,” says Ulgen.

Those efforts are expected to accelerate in the coming months, with visits by the Iranian president to Turkey and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Iran. But observers say any efforts to expand ties between the two countries will be constrained by the Syrian conflict and the fact that Turkey and Iran have been – and will remain – regional rivals.

November 20, 2013
Turkish woman seeks protection from authorities against discrimination in Australia

4 October 2013 /SİNEM CENGİZ, ANKARA

Neslihan Kurosawa, a Turkish woman who had lived in Australia for 35 years, is calling on the Turkish authorities, particularly the Prime Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, for help in her fight against mistreatment and discrimination, which she says she was subjected to for several years in Australia, seeking protection from Turkey.

According to Kurosawa, 50, she and her daughter were discriminated against on the grounds that they were of a different ethnic background. Kurosawa, who has been is Turkey for the last 10 months, contacted the Turkish authorities, including the President’s Office, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Human Rights Commission in Parliament, when she came to Turkey, asking for support for her cause. Kurosawa received an immediate response from the President’s Office, which said her petition had been sent to the Foreign Ministry and that officials from the ministry would deal with the matter, but there is still no development in response to her complaints, she said.

“I want the Turkish Foreign Ministry to contact the authorities in Australia over my case. Why are they covering this up? There is negligence here. I contacted the Turkish embassy and consulate in Australia several times when I was there. However, there has as of yet been no word from the Turkish authorities over my complaints,” Kurosawa told Today’s Zaman.

Meanwhile, a senior diplomat from the Foreign Ministry commented to Today’s Zaman that Kurosawa’s case was on their agenda, adding, however, that ministry officials had tried to reach her on several occasions, but failed to do so.

“We have been aware of her situation since 2007. We have also received the petition sent to us from the President’s Office. We will follow the issue. The consulate in Sydney told us that it was not possible to reach her at her address,” said the diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

“I am fighting for my daughter and myself. My daughter was born and raised in Australia. My family is there. I want the Turkish authorities to help me. I want the court cases I had filed to be reopened so that the judicial bodies will see we were right in our complaints that we had been mistreated and discriminated against,” says Kurosawa.

Today’s Zaman also asked the Australian Embassy in Ankara about Kurosawa’s complaints, and the ambassador, Ian Biggs, said the embassy has no new information since the issue was raised in February 2013. “These are serious allegations and I understand that they have been referred to the relevant legal authorities in Australia,” said the ambassador.

Kurosawa’s family moved to Australia in 1970 and settled there when she was 15 years old. She worked as an accredited translator, got married and was later divorced. Kurosawa currently holds an Australian passport.

“I have a 19-year-old daughter. In Australia I had a house and a good job. My daughter and I were the only Turks in the neighborhood,” Kurosawa said.

According to Kurosawa, her daughter was often insulted at school by her classmates for being a Turk. “They used to call my daughter ‘barbarian Turk’ or say ‘go back to your country.’ I spoke about the issue with the school administrators but they were unwilling to take action.”

But a bigger problem arose in 2004 when she began receiving phone calls from unknown persons. The callers insulted her and used vulgar language. “I was weary of those phone calls and changed my number several times. But they again found my new number. Then I appealed to the police, asking for help. But they did not help me, so I turned to the courts. The laws in Australia are based on the principle of protecting women and children, but those laws were not applied in our case. Instead of helping me, the [security and legal] authorities remained ineffectual and just referred me to other authorities,” Kurosawa said.

Kurosawa says there is a security risk for her should she and her daughter return to Australia.

“I want Turkey to take me and my daughter under protection. All my life is in Australia. If my life and property were secure, I would not have left Australia after 35 years. They failed to take my daughter from me but they totally turned my life upside down,” said Kurosawa.

In 2006, a case was filed against Kurosawa by the state to take custody of her daughter. “Psychological pressure was placed on my daughter. They took my daughter into a room and asked her bizarre questions such as was I putting pressure on her to cover her head with a headscarf, do I allow her to wear a bikini or if I let her have a boyfriend. That was a very difficult time, but I came out victorious even though that cost me both financially and emotionally,” Kurosawa stated.

The Kurosawa family later relocated to another neighborhood home to immigrants from different ethnic backgrounds. “This did not solve our problems and we decided to move back to Turkey. I cannot believe that I experienced all that trouble. I was an immigrant but a successful woman in Australia. I do not want to place blame on anyone but I think we were discriminated against due to our identity as Turks. The aim was to harass us so that we would leave Australia,” she said.

Today’s Zaman

November 20, 2013
Turkey’s “promising” landmark meeting with Kurds’ Barzani receives mixed responses

Kurds’ Barzani and Turks’ Erdogan have previously met, but Saturday’s meeting represents the first time that the two leaders have met in the Kurdish region of Turkey (Courtesy of the Kurdistan Regional Government)

Turkey’s meeting with Kurdish leadership this weekend posed as a promising start to tentative peace talks between the two clashing groups, according to an Agence-France Press report.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani for the first time in Turkey’s Kurdish city center of Diyarbakir in the southeast part of the country Saturday.

The landmark meeting was designed to “kickstart” a peace process to end a decades-old conflict between the two groups, particularly in reference to Turkey’s tense relationship with the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Erdogan described his meeting with Barzani as a “historic” and “crowning moment” in overcoming the conflict.

Erdogan’s positive perspective of the meeting and Barzani’s role in encouraging peace talks between the two groups and bringing Turkish Kurds to the negotiating table as well was echoed by other leaders in Ankara, including Energy Minister Taner Yildiz who described Barzani’s “importance in the eyes of our citizens” as “making it contribution [to the potential peace talks].”

However, responses from the Kurdish community were mixed, with some prominent members of the community citing Barzani’s visit as “an opportunistic gesture” ahead of the March 2014 municipal elections, while others saying that his visit was motivated by “hope [for a different future].”

Reports indicate that the historical meeting was also set in order for Erdogan to discuss a tentative energy partnership with Barzani, considered by many to be a springboard for “aggravating tensions” in the region, particularly in reference to Ankara’s relationship with Baghdad.

Previous attempts at peacemaking between the two groups were stalled after jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan did not withdraw his fighters from Turkish soil as promised in September, accusing Ankara of “failing to keep to the terms [of the original] bargain in giving greater rights [to the Kurds].”

Ocalan’s accussation was largely in reference to Erdogan and his Law and Justice Party (AKP)’s recent reforms that supposedly give Kurds and other groups “extra rights.” However, as indicated by Ocalan’s comments, the reforms are largely seen as inadequate and failing to give the Kurds “any constitutional recognition.”

Kurds in Turkey have been calling for reforms from Ankara since the establishment of the country in 1923 due to the fact that the country’s constitution fails to recognize the Kurds as a distinct minority.

While the two leaders met in an unprecedented meeting in the country’s southeast region, Turkish army officials reported that one of its convoys was attacked, allegedly by PKK rebels near the Syrian border. PKK rebels have previously used northern Iraq, the region under Barzani’s control, to attack Turks as part of their “campaign for self-rule” in southeast Turkey, but also in the world order more generally.

Kurds have been struggling to secure their own homeland for decades with communities scattered throughout Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. As Barzani told AFP, “Having our own state is the natural right of the Kurdish people.”

Barzani’s historical visit also follows last week’s declaration of autonomy in Syria by the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD). Kurdish regions in Syria have been administered by local Kurdish councils since regime forces withdrew from the region in mid-2012.

via Turkey’s “promising” landmark meeting with Kurds’ Barzani receives mixed responses | Al Bawaba.

November 19, 2013
Wedding murder exposes Kurdish divisions in Turkey

Daren Butler

A Free Syrian Army member is seen behind sandbags at a checkpoint during a siege on the Kurdish city of Afrin, which is under the control of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in the Aleppo countryside (Hamid Khatib Reuters, / June 30, 2013)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – When gunmen stormed a wedding and shot dead a guest in southeastern Turkey, they stirred fears of a new outbreak of bloodshed in a region increasingly destabilized by Syria’s civil war.

The killing in the city of Batman highlighted divisions between Kurds which echo the faultlines of the conflict in Syria, complicating Ankara’s efforts to draw a line under a three-decade Kurdish insurgency on its own soil.

Turkey’s peace process with the armed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), aimed at ending a conflict that has cost more than 40,000 lives, was already fragile.

But the emergence of a Kurdish Sunni Islamist party, Huda-Par, has reopened old wounds in the southeast, poorer than the rest of Turkey and scarred by the wider Kurdish-Turkish fight.

The party, established in December and now campaigning for local elections in March, draws support from sympathizers of Turkey’s Hizbullah militant group which fought the PKK in the 1990s.

“That bloodshed is the source of animosity between the two sides and is not easy for people to forget,” said Ayla Akat, member of parliament for Batman from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which shares the same grassroots support as the PKK.

The historical animosity has been given a new twist with the war that has fragmented Syria, where radical Sunni Islamists are now fighting fierce battles with local Kurdish forces in the north, near the border with Turkey.

via Wedding murder exposes Kurdish divisions in Turkey – chicagotribune.com.

November 19, 2013
Australia ‘spied on Indonesia President’

Mr Yudhoyono and several senior ministers were said to be targeted

Indonesia is recalling its ambassador to Australia over allegations that Canberra spied on phone calls of the Indonesian president.

According to BBC, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the first lady and Vice-President Boediono were reportedly amongst those targeted.

The allegations came from documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden which were published by broadcaster ABC and the Guardian newspaper.

Indonesia said the ambassador was being called to Jakarta for “consultations”.

It is the latest in a series of spying allegations that have strained relations between the two allies.

On 1 November Indonesia summoned Australia’s ambassador amid reports that Australia’s Jakarta embassy was used as part of a US-led spying network in Asia.

The latest leaked document showed that Australia spy agencies named Mr Yudhoyono, the first lady, Vice-President Boediono and other senior ministers as targets for monitoring, the reports said.

The presentation from Australian spy agency the Defence Signals Directorate (now known as the Australian Signals Directorate) showed that agencies attempted to listen to Mr Yudhoyono’s calls at least once, and tracked calls made to and from his mobile phone, in August 2009, theAustralian Broadcasting Corporation and the Guardian added.

The news organisations published slides from the presentation, which appeared to show a list of Indonesian “leadership targets” and the handset models used by each target, as well as a diagram of “voice events” of the Indonesian president in August 2009.

One slide entitled “Indonesian President voice intercept (August ’09)” appeared to show an attempt to listen to the content of a phone call to Mr Yudhoyono.

‘Research’

On Monday, Indonesian Finance Minister Marty Natalegawa said: “This is an unfriendly, unbecoming act between strategic partners.”

“This hasn’t been a good day in the relationship between Indonesia and Australia.”

Indonesia was reviewing all of its agreements related to information exchange with Australia, Mr Natalegawa added.

Djoko Suyanto, Indonesia’s Co-ordinating Minister for Politics, Legal and Security Affairs, told the BBC that Jakarta would summon the Australian ambassador for questioning.

However, Sofyan Djalil, the former minister for state-owned enterprises whose name was also on the list of targets, told AFP news agency: “Diplomatic relations always have their ups and downs. This has caused anger in the short-term, but in the long-term we are still neighbours and I think we will overcome this.”

Earlier on Monday, responding to questions in parliament, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said: “The Australian government never comments on specific intelligence matters.”

He added: “I will never say or do anything that might damage the strong relationship and the close co-operation that we have with Indonesia, which is all in all, our most important relationship.”

Last week, commenting on the earlier claims, Mr Abbott had described the term spying as “kind of loaded language” and suggested that “researching” would be more appropriate.

Indonesia has publicly voiced anger over previous allegations of Australian spying.

Vice-President Boediono, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said last week that the Indonesian public were “concerned” about the spying allegations.

“I think we must look forward to come to some arrangement which guarantees that intelligence information from each side is not used against the other,” he said.

Australia and Indonesia are key allies and trading partners.

Australia requires Indonesia’s co-operation on the asylum issue, as many asylum seekers travel via Indonesia to Australia by boat, but there are tensions on the issue.

Earlier this month, Indonesia declined an Australian request to receive a boat of asylum seekers whose vessel, bound for Australia’s Christmas Island, had got into trouble after it departed from Indonesia.

The reports are amongst the series of documents leaked by ex-US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, who has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and is wanted in the US in connection with the unauthorized disclosures.

November 18, 2013