Chinese police seize matchboxes in Xinjiang security crackdown | World news. Chinese security forces in Urumqi, Xinjiang, after an explosion at a railway station in April 2014. Photograph: Ng Han Guan/AP Police in China's Xinjiang region have seized tens of thousands of matchboxes in the latest stage of their security crackdown in the restive region, according to official notices. Police have made hundreds of arrests, suspects have been paraded at a mass sentencing rally, and armed patrols have taken to the streets of cities across China after a spate of deadly attacks that authorities blame on Islamist extremists and separatists from the north-western region.
Critics argue that anger has been fuelled among Xinjiang's Uighur Muslim population by cultural and religious restrictions, large-scale Han migration and economic inequalities. Religious controls appear to have been extended during Ramadan, with authorities ordering students and civil servants not to fast. Calls to the Xinjiang propaganda office rang unanswered on Sunday. Rights group: Turkey’s YouTube, Twitter bans violate free expression. A leading international human rights group is calling the Turkish government’s decision to block YouTube a “disastrous move” for freedom of expression and the right to access information.
Human Rights Watch urged Turkey to restore access to YouTube, as well as Twitter, which it banned last week. The New York-based rights organization said the restrictions violate Turkey’s obligations under international human rights law and domestic law. Turkey blocked access to YouTube after audio was posted to the video-sharing website Thursday that appeared to be a leaked recording of Turkey’s foreign minister and other top officials discussing possible military action in Syria. The Turkish government blocked Twitter after the micro-blogging service was used to circulate other audio files implicating Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son in corruption. The ban was met with international condemnation, and a Turkish court on Wednesday ruled it illegal. (Photo: Brian Lary/sxc.hu) Comments. Erdogan vows to quash 'terrorist' rivals ahead of elections - Middle East Israel News.
Turkey’s prime minister acts desperately to hold onto his power. Turkey bans Youtube days after Twitter blackout, 28 March 2014. Turkey banned YouTube on Thursday, less than a week after Ankara made a similar blackout of the social networking site Twitter. The country’s telecom authority said Thursday it had taken an "administrative measure" against the Google-owned video site. The announcement followed information that the video-sharing website was used to spread recording on YouTube that appears to reveal top-level Turkish officials weighing reasons for a possible attack on Syrian militants. The recording purports to be of senior Turkish government, military and spy officials discussing plans to stage an armed clash in Syria or a missile attack that would serve as a pretext for a military response. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan - already ensnared in a corruption scandal and hit by recent mass protests ahead of crucial local elections on Sunday - angrily lashed out at his political opponents for leaking the recording.
Erdogan in another anti-Semitic diatribe against Israel reveals his failures. Erdogan escalates the crisis | Europe | DW.DE | 17.06.2013. Following police action to clear Gezi Park in Istanbul, the Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan escalates the crisis with sharp attacks on the demonstrators. For a short time, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, allowed his critics to hope that he would put an end to the brutal police operations of the last two weeks. In the middle of last week, he signaled that he might be prepared to take part in a dialogue. He met members of one of the most important parts of the protest movement, the Taksim Solidarity Platform. He even spoke about the possibility of a referendum, to let the people decide what should become of his controversial plans for Gezi Park.
The storming of Gezi Park by police on Saturday evening showed that the Turkish government is not interested in a peaceful solution to the conflict. "The police are now even using chemicals in the water cannon," 24-year-old demonstrator Alper Baysan told DW. 'It's like war' Hate speech 'We need new police laws'
Obama asks Marines for umbrellas. Obama Calls in the Marines | Politics. (Before It's News) Some people are none too happy that Obama summoned two Marines to hold umbrellas for him and Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan when it began to rain during Thursday’s press conference in the Rose Garden. Obama, it seems, is averse to using military force, except to protect him from precipitation. I think he was being polite: He didn’t want Erdogan to be rained on, but it would have been insulting just to give Erdogan an umbrella, so he took umbrellas for both of them. BUT WHY THE MARINES? I have to admit, I really don’t like seeing these Marines stand out there getting soaked to save Obama’s suit. Why not have Jay Carney and Valerie Jarrett do it? Or a couple of the little White House aides he takes golfing with him every week. Or, come to think of it, why not let Erdogan get rained on?
Recep Erdogan, Turkish Prime Minister, Draws Criticism For Zionism Remarks. ANKARA, Turkey — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday waded into the controversy over comments by Turkey's prime minister equating Zionism to a crime against humanity, rebuking the leader of the NATO ally by saying such remarks complicate efforts to find peace in the Middle East. Kerry said the Obama administration found the statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan "objectionable" and he stressed the "urgent need to promote a spirit of tolerance, and that includes all of the public statements made by all leaders" at a news conference in Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. "We not only disagree with it; we found it objectionable," Kerry said. He added that he had raised the issue with Davutoglu "very directly" and said he would do the same with Erdogan.
The spat comes ahead of a trip to Israel and Jordan later this month by President Barack Obama, who wants to try to nudge the Israelis and Palestinians back to peace talks. Addressing the U.N. Turkey: Is Top Political Team Breaking Up? By EurasiaNet By Dorian Jones As close political collaborators for over a decade, President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan built the Justice and Development Party into Turkey’s dominant political force.
But now, the two men appear poised to part ways. “It is all about the presidency. It is all about Gül’s position and his political career,” observed political columnist Kadri Gursel of the daily Milliyet. Turkey At the moment, it is the 58-year-old prime minister who wields real power in Turkey, with the presidency being a largely symbolic post, a figurehead selected by parliament. “For Erdoğan, the most important thing is to capture the presidential post and turn the system into a presidential or semi-presidential system,” claimed Assistant Professor of Politics Yuksel Tasgin, an expert on center-right Turkish politics at Istanbul’s Marmara University. Erdoğan and Gül have served as the twin face of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) since its founding in 2001. Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The Turkish Economy Meets EU Entry Criteria.
BERLIN -- Until recently, Turkey was a country that had to borrow from the IMF. But positive developments over the last ten years have led Turkey to become a country that now lends to the IMF, instead. Our ability to do this is a result of policies of fiscal discipline we have implemented since our own crisis in 2001. In the past, we had debts to the IMF of $20 billion. Now that is down to $1.7 billion. Our central bank has reserves of $115 billion. The crisis we have gone through was similar to what the EU is experiencing now.
That crisis was a very important lesson for us. In order not to go through a crisis like the one in 2001 again, we have also carried out structural reforms -- ranging from timely and decisive banking reform to changes in health care and social services -- that not only strengthened the Turkish economy but also increased the confidence of the Turkish people in their government. As a result, Turkey has climbed to the rank of the world's 16th largest economy. Turkish police arrest Twitter activists. Istanbul: Turkish police on Wednesday arrested 25 people they accused of using Twitter and social media to stoke anti-government sentiment during protests that have engulfed the country. Police in Turkey’s third city of Izmir said the suspects had been detained for “spreading untrue information” and inciting people to join demonstrations, the state-run agency reported.
They were rounded up on Tuesday night. Izmir, in western Turkey, has been the scene of violent clashes between riot police and protesters. The authorities appear to have taken their cue from Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who denounced Twitter as a “menace to society”, adding: “The best examples of lies can be found there.” Families of those arrested gathered in front of Izmir’s police station. Turkey's Protests Must End Immediately, Prime Minister Erdogan Says. By Humeyra Pamuk and Ayla Jean Yackley ISTANBUL, June 7 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan flew back to a Turkey rocked by days of anti-government unrest on Friday and declared before a sea of flag-waving supporters at Istanbul airport: "These protests must end immediately.
" "No power but Allah can stop Turkey's rise," he told thousands who gathered in the early hours to greet him in the first pro-Erdogan rally since demonstrations began a week ago. At Istanbul's Taksim Square, centre of the protests now occupied by thousands around the clock, some chanted "Tayyip resign" as they watched a broadcast of the address. In the capital Ankara, the Kugulu Park echoed to anti-government slogans, while protesters danced or sang the national anthem. "However, no-one has the right to attack us through this. "The police are doing their duty.
He gave no indication of any immediate plans to remove the makeshift protest camps that have appeared on Taksim Square and a park in the capital, Ankara. Germany, EU tell Turkey to show restraint amid protests | Europe | DW.DE | 07.06.2013. Chancellor Angela Merkel made her appeal for Ankara to reject the use of violence against demonstrators after a meeting with Tunisian Prime Minister Ali Larayedh on Friday. "We are of the opinion that demonstrations are part of having a state governed by the rule of law and that demonstrators must be treated according to the rule of law," she said. "I hope that Turkey does this. " The protests in Turkey began a week ago when police fired tear gas and used water cannon to disperse protesters opposed to the redevelopment of a park in Istanbul.
The demonstrations turned into a general wave of unrest spread across the country. Protesters accuse Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government of jeopardizing Turkey's secular values by gradually imposing authoritarian Islamic rule. The chancellor pointed out that the Turkish government had acknowledged there were problems. "Peaceful demonstrations constitute a legitimate way for these groups to express their views in a democratic society. Turkey’s protests just a slice of a polarized country. In refusing to back down to protesters who have turned out across Turkey in the tens of thousands for the past eight days, Erdogan has boasted that he has the power of half the country’s voters behind him, far more than any rival. For now, the mostly young, mostly middle-class, mostly secular protesters appear to represent just a small portion of the tapestry of Turkey’s diverse society, and they have as many interests as there is space for banners in the trees of the park where they have encamped in this city.
Still, some who supported Erdogan as a stabilizing figure may abandon him if he becomes a divisive one, analysts say, and the Turkish leader may be forced to soften his hard-edged governing style. Many of the protesters say they had never before taken part in Turkish political life. Some are so young that they barely remember a time before Erdogan was in office. Still, Ermis said, he disliked the tear gas and water cannons that police had used on peaceful protesters.
Erdogan Defies Turkish Protesters in Show of Mass Backing. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to Turkey early today with a message of defiance for demonstrators gathered in the country’s two biggest cities, saying the government won’t turn a blind eye to “vandalism and illegality.” Thousands of supporters welcomed Erdogan at Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport after 2 a.m. as he returned from a four-day trip to North Africa, the first time government supporters have taken to the streets in large numbers since the protests began a week ago.
Tens of thousands more demonstrated against him in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where protesters have barricaded off central Taksim Square after police withdrew from the area. Enlarge image Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, speaks to his supporters in Istanbul on June 7, 2013. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, speaks to his supporters in Istanbul on June 7, 2013. Photographer: Uriel Sinai/Getty Images Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images. Deaf to Dissent, Turkey's Erdogan says Popular Uprising 'Must Stop' Protesters raise their hands as they shout slogans during a protest at Taksim Square in Istanbul, on Monday, June 3, 2013.
(photo credit: AP Photo/Kostas Tsironis) As tensions continued to build in Turkey over the government's heavy-handed police crackdown during almost two weeks of mass protests, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned to the country, defiant and angry, to decry the demonstrations as "bordering on illegality" and called for an immediate end to the movement that has garnered international support. “These protests that are bordering on illegality must come to an end as of now,” Erdogan said to a large crowd of supporters outside a terminal at Istanbul’s airport early Friday. Erdogan also blamed the escalation of the widespread public protests on "terror groups" which he lumped in with leftist parties and members of his political opposition. Cengis Aktar, a professor of political science at Istanbul's Bahcesehir University, told the Guardian: "We are angry. Turkish Prime Minister Blames Twitter For Mass Social Unrest, Because It Sure Beats Blaming Himself.
Turkish P.M. lambasts protesters from atop a bus. ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — In a series of increasingly belligerent speeches to cheering supporters Sunday, Turkey’s prime minister launched a verbal attack on the tens of thousands of anti-government protesters who flooded the streets for a 10th day, accusing them of creating an environment of terror.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the most inflammatory of his speeches as he arrived in the capital, Ankara. Erdogan belittled the protesters, again calling them “capulcu,” the Turkish word for looters or vandals. He made his speech in Ankara on an open-top bus, which then drove into the city in a motorcade. “If you look in the dictionary, you will see how right a description this is,” Erdogan said, speaking to thousands of supporters who greeted him at the airport. “Those who burn and destroy are called capulcu. Those who back them are of the same family.” “All they do is to break and destroy, to attack public buildings … They didn’t stop at that,” Erdogan said. President needs an Umbrella… why is THAT so interesting | Benghazi, the I.R.S., the A.P., and Obama’s Nixonian Umbrella.
Clashes rock Turkish capital as protesters defy Erdogan - TURKEY. Marines beckoned to shield President Obama, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan from rain after press conference interrupted by shower. Turkey: Erdogan Again Calls Demonstrators 'Looters' Eurasia Review. Turkish opposition calls for end to tension | News , Middle East.