Monday, February 27, 2012

Stonegate Update :: Khaled Abu Toameh: Hamas and Fatah Want a New Intifada, and more

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Stonegate Institute

Formerly "Hudson Institute, New York"

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Hamas and Fatah Want a New Intifada

by Khaled Abu Toameh
February 27, 2012 at 5:00 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2887/hamas-fatah-intifada

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To avoid Palestinians erupting against both Fatah and Hamas, the two parties are working to direct the heat toward Israel.

Hamas and Fatah have lately ratcheted up their rhetoric against Israel in a clear bid to distract attention from their failure to end their power struggle.

By backing a "popular resistance" against Israel, Hamas and Fatah are hoping to distract attention from their failure to end their dispute and form a unity government.

The two rival Palestinian parties are hoping that Palestinians would turn their anger and frustration toward Israel and not toward either of them.

This is why over the past few weeks leaders and officials representing Hamas and Fatah have been talking about a third intifada that is about to erupt in the West Bank and Gaza Strip against Israel.

Both Hamas and Fatah have been urging Palestinians to step up "popular resistance" against Israel.

The two parties are telling Palestinians that Israel does not want peace or a two-state solution and is only interested in maintaining control over Palestinian lands and "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

The stepped-up anti-Israel rhetoric has resulted in a sharp increase in Palestinian violence against IDF soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Israeli policemen in east Jerusalem.

Last week, a young Palestinian man from a village near Jerusalem was killed during a confrontation with IDF soldiers. The man, Talat Ramia, was among a group of Palestinian demonstrators who hurled stones at soldiers.

Ramia and his friends took to the streets because Fatah and Hamas had warned the Palestinians that Jewish extremists were planning to "storm" the Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

Because of the warning, hundreds of Muslim worshippers clashed with Israeli policemen following last Friday's prayer at the mosque.

At the same time, Palestinian groups in the Gaza Strip have also gone on high alert by firing more rockets at Israeli targets.

Although the two parties have signed a number of "reconciliation" accords over the past few years, the latest being earlier this month in Qatar, they have failed to implement any of the agreements.

The most recent attempt to implement the Qatar-brokered agreement between Hamas and Fatah took place in Cairo last week. However, following three days of discussions, Hamas and Fatah agreed to delay talks over the formation of a unity government because of the wide gap between the two sides.

Many Palestinians are deeply disappointed with Fatah and Hamas, which have been fighting each other since the Islamist movement came to power in 2006. Hamas and Fatah are aware that many Palestinians are increasingly frustrated with the ongoing dispute between the two sides.

They are afraid that one day the Palestinians may erupt against Fatah and Hamas. Some Palestinians have even begun talking about organizing an uprising against the two parties.

To avoid such a scenario, Hamas and Fatah are now working hard to direct the heat toward Israel. Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal know that only a new intifada against Israel will help them stay in power: Palestinians will be too busy fighting Israel.

Related Topics: Khaled Abu Toameh


"Islam is Democracy!"
What Is the Muslim Brotherhood?

by Mudar Zahran
February 27, 2012 at 4:30 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2880/islam-is-democracy

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"The organization was established in 1928 to re-establish the Caliphate destroyed by Ataurk [the founder if modern Turkey]…..With Allah's help [the Muslim Brotherhood] will institute the law of Allah." — Mohammed Shaker Sanar, Member of Muslim Brotherhood Parliament.

Since the launch of Arab Spring, Obama's administration has been supportive of the Arabs' call for freedom and democracy. Such a graceful stance, nonetheless, has been hindered by the administration's apparent tolerance of the succession of Islamists into power at the expense of emerging Arab democracies.

Apparently President Obama sees a point in accepting, and even welcoming, the arrival of Muslim Brotherhood members into power. Such a position will possibly soon prove a fatal one -- and an example of the Islamists outwitting the US through the ballot box as they have failed to do through bombs and explosives.

President Obama's original view of the Arab Spring was somewhat logical: if the Arabs wanted a change towards democracy, there was no point in stopping them or supporting the ailing regimes against which they were protesting.

Obama was not alone in his support; Senator John McCain shared the same view. In his speech before the World Economic Forum in Jordan, he said: "For decades, we in the United States were fed the belief that the so-called Arab Street was hostile to our interests and ideals. But now we are seeing that the opposite is true: The Arab Street wants political freedom, economic opportunity, equal justice and rights, and the chance to change their countries and their governments – not through suicide and murder, but peacefully, through politics."

In theory, the Obama administration's concept of supporting the Arab people's desire for peaceful change toward democracy is valid. The consequences that have emerged, however, have been alarming. The Islamists, and particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, have dominated the parliamentary seats in Tunisia; the Muslim Brotherhood and the Islamist Salafis have dominated 72 percent of the parliamentary seats in Egypt; and the King of Morocco's well-intentioned reforms have brought an Islamist government into power.

Some might argue that the Islamists' domination of emerging Arab democracies is not Obama's fault, but rather the free will of the Arabs who chose to vote for the Islamists. The problem is that there is evidence that the Administration has gone beyond tolerating the Arab people's support for Islamists.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US was willing to sit down with the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt. She said: "It is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful and committed to nonviolence that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency," and she confirmed that contact with members of the Muslim Brotherhood is nothing new. She said the policy consisted of "continuing the approach of limited contacts with the Muslim Brotherhood that has existed on and off for about five or six years" -- meaning that contacts had begun during the Bush administration.

The New York Times confirmed that the Obama Administration was -- among other things -- holding high-level meetings with the Muslim Brotherhood: "The Obama administration has begun to reverse decades of mistrust and hostility as it seeks to forge closer ties with an organization once viewed as irreconcilably opposed to United States interests."

When the protests were still raging in Egypt, I suggested that the US administration should usher democratic-secular parties to come to power in Egypt rather than leaving them in the cold, and that "The challenge would be in nursing the fledgling democracies not to have them hijacked by radicals the way Lenin hijacked the Russian Revolution from Trotsky and Kerensky. Well-funded."

Nevertheless, Obama's current confidence in the Muslim Brotherhood must be weighed by facts, mainly: What is the Muslim Brotherhood and who does it represent?

For a start, the Muslim Brotherhood's logo exhibits a Qur'an, with two swords underneath; below that, the word "Aedou," which means "prepare" -- from Quranic verse 8:60: "Prepare against them [the enemy] whatever you are able of power and horses by which you may strike terror into the [hearts of] the enemy, of Allah, and your enemy and others besides them whom you do not know [but] whom Allah knows." Thus, the logo itself, usually sanitized and toned down in English translations, promotes terrorism as a virtue.

Similarly, the Brotherhood's motto, now totally sanitized off its English language website, is: "Allah is our objective; the Quran is our law, the Prophet is our leader; Jihad is our way; and death in the way of Allah is our highest objective."

Ever since the brotherhood landed itself a majority in the Egyptian Parliament, it has also been hard at work against Israel, first by announcing it would consider putting Egypt's peace treaty with Israel to a referendum, while confirming that the Brotherhood will not recognize Israel. Moreover, the Muslim Brotherhood has not only turned its back on Obama but also on the very people who launched the Egyptian revolution; for example: Egypt's ruling generals have been stating that they will try members of non-Islamist private organization on claims of suspicious foreign funding. When the US noted that the military government's actions might affect US aid to Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood went to the media "warning" that cutting US aid might impose Egypt's peace treaty with Israel -- which suggests members of the Muslim Brotherhood were pleased to see competing private organizations and charities shut down.

Further, the Muslim Brotherhood exists under the patronage of Hamas: most Hamas leaders and founders were Muslim Brotherhood members including its founding-father, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin. Hamas has since turned against the Palestinian Authority and ended up seizing the Gaza strip by force in 2006, throwing people who disagreed with it or from Fatah out of the 15th and 18th floors of buildings, and are still torturing and killing people Why would Hamas and its mentor, the Muslim Brotherhood, change when dealing with Obama's administration, especially now when they see themselves as triumphing?

The Muslim Brotherhood leaders are not reluctant about sharing their agenda when speaking in Arabic: at a meeting of the National Defense and Security Committee of the Egyptian Parliament held in January 2007, Muslim Brotherhood parliament member Mohammed Shaker Sanar said the Muslim Brotherhood was not concerned about Western democracy, adding that nothing about the Muslim Brotherhood had changed: "The organization was founded in 1928 to reestablish the Caliphate destroyed by Ataturk [the founder of modern Turkey]....With Allah's help [the Muslim Brotherhood] will institute the law of Allah."

In addition to the Muslim Brotherhood's domination of Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco, should Bashar Assad's regime fall, the Brotherhood will help itself to a major role in Syria. As the Wall Street Journal notes, the non-Muslim Brotherhood opposition has thus failed to "coalesce into a solid front," therefore the Muslim Brotherhood might "prove effective amid the power void of Syria's opposition." If Assad goes, another country will fall into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Obama administration would do well to reconsider its tolerance toward the Muslim Brotherhood. The administration should start building up and supporting genuinely democratic alternative secular Arab opposition movements, not the Muslim Brotherhood's "Islam is Democracy!" one [www.JCPA.org; Jonathan Halevi]. The US should also be developing long-term contingency plans to undermine the Muslim Brotherhood's new-found political power. If not, a future US administration will have to pay for Obama's connection to the Brotherhood -- a radical group that believes in transforming the world to Islam by infiltrating democratic institutions rather than by terrorism -- as it keeps moving closer, country by country, to achieving its ultimate goal of reestablishing a Muslim Empire.

Related Topics: Mudar Zahran


Is the Iranian Regime Rational?

by Harold Rhode
February 27, 2012 at 4:15 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2883/iranian-regime-rational

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Absolutely!... In its own rational Iranian context -- but not ours. For Iran's rulers, provoking a conflagration is eminently rational. But it is hard to believe that this is what General Dempsey had in mind.

Recently, the American Chairman of the Joint Chief Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, said that the Iranian Regime is rational. It is rational….Absolutely! -- but within its own Iranian context of rational -- not ours.

The current leaders of Iran, according to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, are dangerous. When he ruled Iran, he did his best to keep them out of government: he knew Iran's current rulers believe that by provoking a conflagration, they would try to make their Mahdi -- their messiah - return.

Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), which worked against the Soviets, will not work here. Iran's current rulers --- most prominently the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iran's fake "Grand Ayatollah" leader, Khamane'i, who has the formal rank of Hojat al-Islam -- a rank far below that of Grand Ayatollah, but he "crowned himself" Grand Ayatollah, like an African dictator, after he took over his country -- also adopted the title General, and believes that when their messiah arrives, this messiah will make clear that their form of Islam -- not Sunnism, or for that matter, any non-Muslim religion -- are all perversions of the one and only true faith -- theirs -- which itself is a perversion of mainline Shi'ism.

Destruction, for Iran's rulers, is an inducement, not a deterrent. From the point of view of Iran's rulers, provoking a conflagration is eminently rational. But it is somehow hard to believe that this is what General Dempsey had in mind when he said the Iranian regime is rational.

Related Topics: Harold Rhode


Obama: "Son of Islam"?

by Raymond Ibrahim
February 27, 2012 at 4:00 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2891/obama-islam

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According to Sharia law, if one's father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. "Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can't seem to accept that Obama is not a Muslim."

Many in the media are indignant with Reverend Franklin Graham, head of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Invited on "Morning Joe" last Tuesday to discuss Christian persecution, Graham was asked whether he thought President Barack Obama was Christian or not. Although Graham concluded that Obama "has said he is a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is," he appeared skeptical, suggesting Obama's policies disagreed with Christian principles, thus earning the full ire of much of the fourth estate.

Graham, however, was absolutely right to say that, "under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim, as a son of Islam": according to Sharia law [Islamic religious law, which regulates all parts of a Muslim's life], if one's father is Muslim, one automatically becomes Muslim. The reason behind last week's church attack in Egypt, when thousands of Muslims tried to torch a church and kill its pastor, is that a Christian girl fled from her father after he converted to Islam: she did not want to be Muslim, and was rumored to be hiding in the church. This is not the first time in recent months that churches have been attacked on similar rumors.

In short, Sharia law's position is that anyone born to a Muslim father is a Muslim—with the death penalty should they seek to apostatize: the 34-year-old Iranian pastor sentenced to death simply for converting to Christianity is just the most visible example.

Because of this automatic passage of religion from father to son, and because Obama attended a madrassa (Muslim religious school during his youth in Indonesia), many Muslims are convinced that Obama is a "secret" Muslim. In a Forbes article, "My Muslim President Obama: Why members of the faith see him as one of the flock ," writer Asma Gull Hasan elaborates:

[S]ince Election Day, I have been part of more and more conversations with Muslims in which it was either offhandedly agreed that Obama is Muslim or enthusiastically blurted out. In commenting on our new president, "I have to support my fellow Muslim brother," would slip out of my mouth before I had a chance to think twice. "Well, I know he's not really Muslim," I would quickly add. But if the person I was talking to was Muslim, they would say, "yes he is." …. Most of the Muslims I know (me included) can't seem to accept that Obama is not Muslim. Of the few Muslims I polled who said that Obama is not Muslim, even they conceded that he had ties to Islam…. The rationalistic, Western side of me knows that Obama has denied being Muslim, that his father was non-practicing, that he doesn't attend a mosque. Many Muslims simply say back, "my father's not a strict Muslim either, and I haven't been to a mosque in years." Obama even told The New York Times he could recite the adhan, the Islamic call to prayer, which the vast majority of Muslims, I would guess, do not know well enough to recite.

Read the entire article, which is more eye-opening than the author probably intended.

Another reason many Muslims believe Obama is a Muslim (and a reason Ms. Hasan's article understandably omits) is that, under the Islamic doctrine of taqiyya [dissimulation], Muslims are permitted—in certain contexts, and even encouraged—to deny being Muslim, if so doing secures them or Islam an advantage. Accordingly, Islamic history is full of stories of Muslims denying and publicly cursing Islam, and even pretending to be Christian, whenever there was a strategic advantage.

In other words, if an American president were a secret Muslim, and if he were lying about it, and even if he were secretly working to subvert the U.S. to Islam's advantage —not only would taqiyya, or dissimulation, be justified by Islam's doctrines of loyalty and deception, but it would have ample precedents, stretching back to the dawn of Islam. Muhammad, for example, commanded a convert from an adversarial tribe to conceal his new Muslim identity and go back to his tribe—which he cajoled with "You are my stock and my family, the dearest of men to me"—only to betray them to Islam's invading armies.

Graham further upset certain sensitivities by saying, "All I know is under Obama, President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries," adding that "Islam has gotten a free pass under Obama."

Yet who can deny this? Whether by expunging any reference to Islam in U.S. security documents, or enabling Muslim persecution of Christians, or ordering NASA to make Muslims "feel good" about themselves, or bowing to the anti-Christian Saudi king—the President has made his partiality for Islam very clear: under Obama, Islam is undoubtedly getting a "free pass."

What Graham's critics seem not to understand is when it comes to Obama's religious identity, Graham probably has in mind Jesus' dictum: "By their fruits shall ye know them"—that is, pro-Islamic actions speak louder than Christian words.

Raymond Ibrahim is a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an Associate Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Related Topics: Raymond Ibrahim


Assad Slaughtering Syrian Christians

by Hani Bader
February 27, 2012 at 3:45 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2884/assad-slaughtering-syrian-christians

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"The Syrian authorities have been trying to force our [Christian] leaders to support Assad in public."

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's security forces last week killed Husam al Murra, a Syrian Christian who had joined the Syrian Free Army, which is fighting to topple the regime in Damascus.

Assad is angry with the Christians in his country because most of them have refused to support his atrocities against the Syrian people.

He is also angry with them because many Christians have played a major role in relief work to help the victims of Assad's bloody crackdown on his opponents.

At the beginning of the uprising, Assad's government forced leaders of the Christian community in Syria to hold public events in support of the regime. The leaders were instructed to pledge their loyalty to Assad and condemn the opposition as a "bunch of terrorists backed by the Zionists and the US."

But as Assad's forces stepped up their massacres and repression of the people, most Christians began speaking out against the regime, especially on Facebook and other social media networking.

The killing of al Murra highlights the growing plight of Syria's Christian minority, who make up less than 10% of the population.

This is a minority that seems to be caught between the hammer and anvil: Assad is persecuting and killing Christians, and Christians fear that if Muslim extremists come to power, they anyhow will be forced to relocate to the US and Europe.

The killing of the young man shows that Assad does not distinguish between one opponent and another in Syria -- Muslims or Christians.

Al Murra is not the first Syrian Christian to be killed by Assad's security forces since the beginning of the popular uprising nearly a year ago.

In recent weeks, several other Christian men have been shot and killed in different parts of the country. One of the victims was a priest from the city of Hama, who was killed while trying to provide humanitarian and medical aid to people injured by Syrian army gunfire.

According to a Christian lawyer in Damascus, Assad's security forces have also begun targeting churches, monasteries and schools under the pretext that they were being used as hideouts for "armed gangs."

Many Christians have stopped going to Church on Sundays, and some Christian schools have been forced to shut down out of fear of being targeted by Assad loyalists.

According to Open Doors, an international ministry supporting persecuted Christians around the world, more than 80% of Christians have fled the city of Homs, where fighting is the worst.

An Italian priest who had been living in Syria for the past two decades was asked to leave the country after he voiced public support for the Syrian people's struggle for reform and democracy.

"Most Christians in Syria are against this murderous regime," said George Saba, a Christian teacher from Damascus who fled to Jordan three months ago. "The Syrian authorities have been trying to force our leaders to support Assad in public. No Christian could ever support such heinous crimes against women and children."


Row May Hurt Turkish Intel's Credibility, Parliamentary Speaker Says
And more from the Turkish Press

by AK Group
February 27, 2012 at 3:00 am

http://www.stonegateinstitute.org/2888/row-may-hurt-turkish-intel-credibility

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The crisis between the judiciary and the intelligence service could have harmed the credibility of the National Intelligence Organization, or MÄ°T, Turkey's parliamentary speaker said, urging all state institutions to stop assessing each other as "rivals" or "enemies."

"If you destroyed [MİT's] reputation, you would also besmirch its credibility with regard to its relations with other countries. This would cause so many negative results and create difficulties. One should pay attention to it," Parliamentary Speaker Cemil Çiçek told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview Thursday.

Veteran politician Çiçek is the first senior official to speak out about the after-effects of the crisis among the country's top institutions after a specially authorized prosecutor sought to launch a probe against MİT chief Hakan Fidan over the intelligence service's role in the fight against terror. The government strengthened the immunity of MİT personnel through a swift amendment to the MİT Act, seemingly ending the crisis.

"Turkey is accustomed to crises. That's why all institutions should be more sensitive and careful in using their authority," Çiçek said, noting that the legislative, executive and judicial branches treat each other as either rivals or even enemies. "They are not rivals. They should work in harmony."

Describing these kinds of internal squabbles as "incidents that have no logical explanation" and noting that they appear quite frequently, especially between the executive and the judiciary, Çiçek said:

"We all have to draw lessons from these incidents. The institutions should not evaluate developments only from its point of view, they should look beyond [this]."

Although he did not comment on the prosecutor's accusations against MİT, Çiçek said the intelligence service was one of the most prominent state bodies for Turkey's security and noted that it had both internal and external contacts.

"If you depict this institution as a criminal organization, if you tarnish its reputation [there will be problems]. Similar problems are solved in other countries within the borders of the law," he said. "At the end of the day, what you call a state consists of relations between these institutions. I call on these institutions to be more sensitive and careful while using their authority not only for the good sake of the reputation of these institutions but also for society."

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/row-may-hurt-turkish-intels-credibility-says-parliamentary-speaker.aspx?pageID=238&nID=14534&NewsCatID=338

Controversy Erupts on Bill for Education

A new education reform bill is ill-conceived and would effectively make primary education two-tiered while also negatively affecting girls' schooling, Turkey's leading businesswoman said Thursday while urging lawmakers to instead focus on increasing the quality of education.

"The main goal should be to attain a well-educated, pluralist and libertarian society along with the process of democratization. It is questionable how the draft law presented to Parliament is going to serve these goals," Turkish Industry & Business Association, or TÃœSÄ°AD, leader Ãœmit Boyner said.

Offering the reminder that the bill was prepared without outside help, Boyner said the separation of primary education into two tiers, combined with efforts to associate the second tier with "open learning," could cause problems in girls' schooling rates.

"This arrangement is also in contradiction with the policies of other countries of the European Union with regard to delaying vocational choices. The drawbacks of an arrangement that is going to push the age of apprenticeship down to 11 must also be taken into consideration," she said.

The amount of vocational and technical training in middle school education has greatly increased in recent years, and the need to focus on the quality of education first has thus become apparent, Boyner added.

Parliament's Education, Culture, Youth and Sports Commission has begun discussing the draft proposal presented by the group of deputy leaders of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The draft proposes increasing the length of mandatory education in Turkey to 12 years while ending uninterrupted education by dividing it into three tiers, consisting of four years each.

"Can you provide just one negative example in relation to 15 years of the administration of eight years' uninterrupted education?" said Engin Altay, a deputy from the main opposition People's Republican Party, or CHP, from the Black Sea province of Sinop. There is not a single educator among the signatories of the proposal, he added.

Zuhal Topçu, an Ankara deputy from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP, said the party had failed to understand the aims and goals of the proposal and had requested its withdrawal.

Deputy AKP leader Nurettin Canikli, however, said the main points in the proposal are related to increasing mandatory education to 12 years of formal open learning, abolishing the differences in coefficients used in university exams and putting education into tiers. The proposal is expected to increase the rate of schooling, particularly with respect to girls, he said.

http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/19987537.asp

No Organization Behind Dink Murder, Court Ruling Says

An Istanbul court has issued its detailed ruling in the case of Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin murdered in 2007, arguing there was no evidence indicating the existence of an organization behind the crime, despite lingering doubts.

"If a [terrorist] organization does exist [behind the crime], then it has not been ascertained when and for which purpose it was established. It has not been ascertained on which principles and crimes the organization's founders established their mutual wills. If there is a structure that presents continuity, then no information could be obtained as to what kinds of actions they have undertaken since Jan. 19, 2007," read the court's ruling made public Thursday.

The 216 page ruling also said no organization leaders or members could be identified, and that no evidence could be found to demonstrate the organization was in possession of the necessary means to commit the crimes in question either.

"There is only the fact that a murder leading to so many political consequences was committed by the suspects without an organization [standing behind them], and that this constitutes a situation that runs counter to the natural flow of life," the ruling said.

While this situation establishes doubt, criminal law holds that doubt should be interpreted in the suspect's favor, the verdict went on.

"It was thus necessary to acquit the suspects due to lack of evidence, as the suspects' crimes of establishing, leading, abetting and being members of an [illegal] organization could not be proven beyond reasonable doubt with clear and precise facts and evidence that leaves no room for hesitation," according to the ruling.

It seems illogical that the murder was planned and premeditated by juveniles without an organization behind them, but those who planned the murder left no evidence that would establish either a de jure or a de facto connection between the triggermen and themselves, the ruling continued.

Dink was the chief editor for the weekly Agos, a newspaper published in Turkish and Armenian. He was shot dead in front of his office on Jan. 19, 2007 in Istanbul. Triggerman Ogün Samast was sentenced to 22 years in prison for the murder last year.

Instigator Yasin Hayal was sentenced on Jan. 19 to aggravated life imprisonment, while former police informant and suspect Erhan Tuncel was released, leading to a public outcry.

http://www.dha.com.tr/haberdetay.asp?tarih=24.02.2012&Newsid=275922&Categoryid=2

Turkish Petroleum Corporation to Begin Land Drilling in TRNC

Turkey's state-run Turkish Petroleum Corporation, or TPAO, will begin land drilling for oil and natural gas in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, or TRNC, in accordance with an agreement signed by Turkey and TRNC.

A 3,000-meter well will be dug in Sinirustu village of Iskele. The well is named "Turkyurdu-1." Preparations for a ceremony that will mark the start of first land drilling in TRNC are about to be completed. The ceremony is expected to be held at the end of this month.

On Sept. 21, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Dervis Eroglu of TRNC signed in New York an agreement on the delineation of the continental shelf between the two countries in the East Mediterranean.

Under the agreement, TPAO will be able to make three dimensional seismic research and drilling in TRNC land and sea more actively. The agreement follows a Greek Cypriot move to start offshore drilling for natural gas and oil in the southeast of the Eastern Mediterranean island.

On September 22, TRNC Council of Ministers gave exploration license to TPAO, Turkish Petroleum Corp., to explore oil and natural gas around Cyprus island. TRNC President Eroglu met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on September 24, and proposed to suspend oil and natural gas exploration until a comprehensive solution was found to Cyprus question, or if Greek Cypriot administration insisted on oil exploration. Then, a committee shall be set up by the two sides in the island, and it shall decide how to share the richness that could be found after the explorations.

The Greek Cypriot side did not give a positive response. Thus, TPAO, by Piri Reis vessel, began geophysical research and seismic data collecting studies on behalf of TRNC on September 26. In 2010, the Greek Cypriot administration and Israel signed an accord demarcating their maritime borders to facilitate a search for mineral deposits in the East Mediterranean.

The Greek Cypriot side had signed a deal with U.S.-based Noble Energy to start drilling in an 324,000-hectare economic zone adjacent to the Israeli waters.

http://www.aa.com.tr/tr/kategoriler/dunya

Bagis Tells EU to End 'Nonsense' on Visa Requirements

Turkish European Union Minister Egemen Bağış sent a clear message to the union Friday, telling them to "end the nonsense" on visa requirements for Turkey, private broadcaster NTV reported on its Web site.

Bağış spoke at the Turkey-EU Parliamentary Commission meeting in Istanbul, saying it was unacceptable for Turkish people to be put through visa regulations when European Union nationals do not need visas to visit member states.

"Turkey's position in the world today clearly does not deserve these visa applications," Bağış said. "I ask you to send strong messages to the European Parliament to end this."

http://www.aa.com.tr/tr/manset/116355-kararliligimizin-karsiligini-abden-goremiyoruz

Turkey, Western Countries Prepare for Military Intervention in Syria

Despite public denials, military preparations for intervention in the horrendous Syrian crisis are quietly afoot in Washington, Paris, Rome, London and Ankara. President Barack Obama is poised for a final decision after the Pentagon submits operational plans for protecting Syrian rebels and beleaguered populations from the brutal assaults of President Bashar al-Assad's army, debkafile's Washington sources disclose.

This process is also underway in allied capitals which joined the United States in the Libyan operation that ended Muammar Qaddafi's rule in August, 2011. They are waiting for a White House decision before going forward.

In Libya, foreign intervention began as an operation to protect the Libyan population against its ruler's outrageous crackdown on dissent; it was mandated by the United Nations Security Council. There is no chance of this in the Syrian case because it will be blocked by a Russian veto. Therefore, Western countries are planning military action of limited scope outside the purview of the world body, possibly on behalf of "Friends of Syria," a group of 80 world nations which mets for the first time in Tunis on Friday to hammer out practical steps for terminating the bloodbath pursued by the Assad regime.

The foreign ministers and senior officials – Russia has excluded itself – will certainly be further galvanized into action by the tragic deaths of two notable journalists Wednesday, on the 19th day of the shelling of Homs.

Preparations for the event are taking place at the Foreign Office in London. On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary William Hague said: Governments around the world have the responsibility to act…and to redouble our efforts to stop the Assad regime's despicable campaign of terror."

Hague pointedly said nothing about removing the Syrian ruler. Nor did he spell out the necessary efforts to take in order to stop the campaign of terror. Debkafile's military sources note that he left these issues open because a decision by Obama, about if and how the U.S. will act, is pending until the Pentagon submits operational plans to Commander-in-Chief Obama.

The U.S. president is also waiting for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's report on the mood at the Tunis conference. He wants to know in particular if Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar and the UAR will support U.S.-led Western intervention in Syria, both politically and financially.

The Sunday Times correspondent Marie Colvin and the French Figaro video-photographer Remi Ochik died Wednesday in the heavy shelling of a fortified building which housed Western journalists making their way into Homs under the protection of Syrian rebels. Three other Western journalists were injured.

Western military sources reported Thursday that this undercover Western press center was maintained by the rebels in tight secrecy. The building was practically gutted by a direct hit, suggesting that Syrian forces located it with the help of advanced electronic measures.

Another Western source noted that the journalists covering the atrocities in Homs from this hideout used coded channels of communications protected by anti-jamming and anti-tracking devices. The Syrians, therefore, must have called on Russian satellites or advanced Iranian electronic systems to locate it.

The authorities in Damascus decided to treat the press hideout as the first step in overt Western intervention in the Syrian conflict. It was accordingly razed totally with its occupants.

http://haber.gazetevatan.com/israil-sitesinden-turkiye-iddiasi/432781/30/Dunya

U.S. Appeals Court Tosses Armenian Reparation Law

A federal appeals court Thursday struck down a controversial California law that allowed descendants of Armenians who perished in Turkey nearly a century ago to file claims against life insurance companies accused of reneging on policies.

The move came when a specially convened 11-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously tossed out a class action lawsuit filed against Munich Re after two of its subsidiaries refused to pay claims. The ruling, written by Judge Susan Graber, said the California law trampled on U.S. foreign policy the exclusive jurisdiction of the federal government.

The California Legislature labeled the Armenian deaths as "genocide," a term the Turkish government vehemently argued was wrongly applied during a time of civil unrest in the country. The court noted the issue is so fraught with politics that President Barack Obama studiously avoided using the word "genocide" during a commemorative speech in April 2010 noting the Armenian deaths.

The tortured legal saga began in 2000 when the California Legislature passed a law enabling Armenian heirs to file claims with insurance companies for policies sold around the turn of the 20th century. It gave the heirs until 2010 to file lawsuits over unpaid insurance benefits.

New York Life and the French company AXA paid a combined $37.5 million to settle lawsuits. But Munich Re chose to fight the litigation, invoking a rare legal argument known as dormant foreign affairs pre-emption. The insurance giant argued the state Legislature had no business weighing in on the issue, even though the United States had no clear policy regarding the politically sensitive matter.

It was the third time the 9th Circuit ruled on the case. The ruling Thursday could be the final word on the matter unless the U.S. Supreme Court agrees to review the unanimous decision by the 11 appellate judges.

http://www.ap.org/

Merkel Asks Racism Victims for Forgiveness

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has asked for "forgiveness" from the families of 10 people, eight of them Turks, believed to have been killed in a seven-year murder spree by a neo-Nazi gang, as Germany marked a national day of commemoration.

Merkel described the murder spree as an attack on Germany and a "disgrace," at a tribute to the victims held in Berlin's central concert hall Thursday. The existence of a neo-Nazi cell calling itself the National Socialist Underground, or NSU, was discovered last year. The group is thought to be behind the killings of eight men of Turkish origin, one Greek national and a policewoman between 2000 and 2007.

"Some relatives were themselves wrongly under suspicion [over the murders] for years. That is particularly tormenting. For that I ask you for forgiveness," Merkel, dressed in black, told around 1,200 guests.

Turkish President Abdullah Gül thanked new German presidential candidate Joachim Gauck in a phone call, saying his participation in the memorial was a nice gesture. Gül also wished Gauck luck in the coming election. The memorial began with students carrying 12 candles to the front of the hall to music by Johann Sebastian Bach. The candles were for each of those killed, plus one for other victims of extremist violence and one for hope for the future.

"My son died in my arms, in 2006, in the Internet cafe where he was shot," Ä°smail Yozgat said of his 21-year-old son, Halit. Addressing the gathering in Turkish, he asked that the street in Kassel where his son was born and murdered be named after him.

Semiya ÅžimÅŸek, whose father, Enver ÅžimÅŸek, was shot at his flower stand in Nuremberg at the age of 38, said for years her family could not consider themselves victims because of suspicions that her father may have had criminal connections.

"Can you imagine how it felt to see my mother become a focus of investigation?" she said in a speech that left dignitaries visibly moved. "Today I torture myself with the question 'Am I at home in Germany?' ... How can I be sure of this when there are people who don't want me here because my parents are from another country?"

A minute's silence took place at noon as part of a national day of commemoration for the victims. Germany was left reeling by the November 2011 discovery of the NSU, which only came to light when two members were found dead in an apparent suicide pact.

http://www.afp.com/

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