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The Netherlands: Turkey moves to expel Dutch ambassador and nine others, over Kavala detention

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered the Dutch ambassador and the ambassadors of nine other countries to leave after they urged Turkey to release jailed businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala. Erdogan said in a speech that he had told the country’s foreign minister to ensure the 10 ambassadors are declared persona non grata.

Read more at: Turkey moves to expel Dutch ambassador and nine others, over Kavala detention - DutchNews.nl

EU: Dutch PM Rutte to Invite Britain to Join Defence Deal With EU

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to be offered a defence and security co-operation deal with the European Union during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Downing Street on Friday, the Times newspaper reported, citing a diplomatic source.

“Since Brexit, not enough European leaders have been in touch with Johnson. It is important to look at the geopolitics without being divided and there is a need to work with the UK," the source said.

It is expected that Turkey will also be approached by the EU in joinimg this new EU defence strategy

Read more at: https://eu-digest.blogspot.com/2021/09/france-recalls-ambassadors-to-us.html

Genocide - Hypocracy: many countries have a dark page in their history: Historian Examines Native American Genocide, its Legacy, and Survivors

Genocide documents the murderous intentions that lurked beneath the idealized self-imaging of a young American nation.

“In order to have a ‘land of opportunity’ required space to expand,” Ostler notes. “Early American senses of ‘freedom’ fundamentally depended upon the taking of Native lands—which almost inevitably would lead to the taking of Native lives.”

From the beginning, he believes, US leaders understood and embraced this grim calculus. However, they obscured their true aims with a series of self-serving narratives built around the ideal of “civilization.” At first, this was held forth as a precious and necessary gift the colonizers were offering to Indigenous populations. Later, “defending civilization” would be invoked as justification to kill them.

Read more at: Historian Examines Native American Genocide, its Legacy, and Survivors | Around the O

EU's Michel 'hasn't slept well' since chair gaffe in Turkey

Meeting between Turkey and EU, was a poorly planned EU disaster and is causing Michel many sleepless nights.

Read more at: EU's Michel 'hasn't slept well' since chair gaffe in Turkey | Euronews

Womens Rights: Turkey exits European treaty designed to protect women from violence

Hundreds of women gather in Istanbul on Saturday to oppose a move by the Turkish government to exit the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty designed to protect women from violence. (Umit Bektas/Reuters)

Turkey withdrew early Saturday from a landmark European treaty protecting women from violence that it was the first to sign 10 years ago and that bears the name of its largest city.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's overnight decree annulling Turkey's ratification of the Istanbul Convention is a blow to women's rights advocates, who say the agreement is crucial to combating domestic violence.

Read more at: Turkey exits European treaty designed to protect women from violence | CBC News

Global Happiness list: Netherlands one of the top 10 happiest countries globally in 2020 ranking 6th - Finland No 1 - US 18 th.- Turkey 79 th. - lowest: Afghanistan 110 th.

The World Happiness Report ranks 156 countries around the world according to how happy their citizens perceive themselves to be. 2020 marks the eighth edition of the report and has the theme “environments for happiness”. It examines data from 2017, 2018, and 2019 to put together a conclusive ranking.

The ranking is compiled using data from the Gallup World Poll, in which respondents are asked to evaluate the happiness of their own lives on a scale of one to 10. Using the survey results, the ranking also shows the estimated extent to which six different factors impact happiness:

Gross Domestic Product per capita, Life expectancy, Social support, Freedom, Corruption,

According to the 2020 report, the 10 happiest countries in the world are: 1) Finland 2) Denmark 3) Switzerland 4) Iceland 5) Norway 6) The Netherlands 7) Sweden 8) New Zealand 9) Austria 10 Luxembourg

Read more at: Almere Digest

EU - US relations: US Nuclear Weapons stockpiled in Europe: The New Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Will Be an Early Trial for Biden - by Miles A. Pomper

With support from nearly half the world’s nations, a new United Nations treaty banning the possession and use of nuclear weapons will take effect early next year. The U.N. confirmed last month that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, or TPNW, had been ratified by the required 50 countries. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “a tribute to the survivors of nuclear explosions and tests, many of whom advocated for this treaty.”

Many non-nuclear-armed states, as well as pro-disarmament activists and organizations like the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, have celebrated the agreement, which they see as a milestone in global efforts to prevent nuclear war. However, it has drawn strong opposition from nuclear-armed states, especially the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Russia, China, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Trump administration has called on the treaty’s 84 signatories to back out of it. Its entry into force on Jan. 22, 2021, will pose a thorny diplomatic challenge for the incoming Biden administration.

Still, the treaty could pose a political problem in the future for NATO members and other countries that shelter under the U.S. nuclear umbrella, given the TPNW’s call not to support actions inconsistent with the treaty. That challenge is especially acute for the five NATO members that host an estimated 150 forward-deployed U.S nuclear weapons: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. German, Dutch and Belgian disarmament advocates, in particular, enjoy strong mainstream political support among center-left parties in all three countries. And 56 former world leaders, including many from NATO countries, argued recently in an open letter that the new nuclear ban treaty can “help end decades of paralysis in disarmament.”

Note EU-Digest: Five NATO members, including, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey still shelter large numbers of US Nuclear weapons on their soil. Hopefully the UN TPNW Treaty will force the disarmament of these weapons from these countries, which presently makes them a major target for massive destruction and death in case of war.

Read more at: The New Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty Will Be an Early Trial for

Turkey Earthquake: Man, 70, pulled out alive in Turkey as quake's death toll hits 60

Rescue workers extricated a 70-year-old man from a collapsed building in western Turkey on Sunday, some 34 hours after a strong earthquake in the Aegean Sea struck Turkey and Greece, killing at least 60 people and injuring more than 900.

Read more at: Man, 70, pulled out alive in Turkey as quake's death toll hits 60 | CBC News

EU-France-Turkey relations: France recalls envoy after Turkey scolds Macron over Muslims -by Daren Butler, Geert De Clercq

France recalled its ambassador on Saturday after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said his counterpart Emmanuel Macron needed mental help over his attitude towards Muslims.

The French leader this month declared war on “Islamist separatism”, which he believes is taking over some Muslim communities in France.

Read more at: France recalls envoy after Turkey scolds Macron over Muslims | Reuters

Middle East: Turkey: Emerging From the Pandemic, Turkey Rolls Out a More Assertive Foreign Policy - by Marc Pierini

Turkey has been swift to implement its own brand of diplomacy during the coronavirus pandemic, including deliveries of medical supplies and plans for long-term cooperation on medical equipment. This cooperative diplomacy goes hand in hand with an assertive foreign policy, illustrated by military interventions and challenges to the legal order in the Eastern Mediterranean. While consistent with the government’s strategy for 2023—when Turkey will hold both a presidential election and celebrations of the country’s centennial—this policy is bound to create increasing difficulties for Ankara’s partners.

Turkey has been sending supplies of medical equipment to countries and regions chosen for a variety of strategic ends—whether to maintain stable ties (as with Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom), further geopolitical interests (as with the Western Balkans and various African partners), or attempt to win favors (as with the United States). Using its long-haul military cargo planes, Turkey was able to promote these deliveries to 116 countries through ceremonies carefully choreographed by Turkish diplomats.

Read more at: 
Emerging From the Pandemic, Turkey Rolls Out a More Assertive Foreign Policy - Carnegie Europe - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

EU-Turkey relations, Politics versus Reality: Why hasn't the EU lifted travel ban on Turkey?

Beginning with July 1, The European Union opened its borders to visitors from 15 countries. The full list of the first 15 countries ranges from Algeria to Uruguay, from Georgia to South Korea, from Serbia and Montenegro to New Zealand, from Morocco to Canada. Europe will open its borders to China as well, provided China opens up to travelers from the EU. 

European doors will remain closed to travelers from the United States, Brazil, and Russia, due to the rate of the spread of coronavirus. Turkey, a candidate member of the EU, which performed well above the EU average in the Covid-19 struggle, however, is among those countries that the travel ban from and to the EU will remain in effect. 

Given the success of the Turkish Covid-19 strategy, the disappointment expressed by the spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry for the decision was not unexpected.  

Indeed, Turkey’s coronavirus statistics, for instance, in comparison to EU member Sweden, are much better. The Turkish population is almost nine times as much as Sweden, but the number of cases per 1 million is 2,370 in Turkey, while the figure stands at 6,777 in Sweden. The death rate in Turkey is 60.8 per 1 million in Turkey, and 528.1 in Sweden. Even in comparison to Germany, which has roughly the same population as Turkey and is lauded for a successful Covid-19 strategy, Turkey seems to be doing as well as Germany. The number of total confirmed cases in Germany is some 200,000 and in Turkey is some 195,000.  

The reason for Turkey’s exclusion from the EU’s reopening can be explained by political reasons instead of public health concerns.

Read more at:

Why hasn't the EU lifted travel ban on Turkey?

NATO: France and Turkey fracture Nato on Libya - "as Erdogan plays a dangerous game he could lose"- by Andrew Rettman

"Who cares about the EU or NATO ? Trump  agrees with me"

Nato is to investigate French allegations that Turkish warships targeted a French one in a confrontation over the Libya conflict, which has divided allies.

"The incident in the Mediterranean [Sea] was addressed in the meeting by several allies", Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said after Nato defence ministers held video-talks on Thursday (18 June).

"We have made sure that Nato military authorities are investigating the incident to bring full clarity to what happened," he said.

Turkish warships locked their weapons systems on to a French frigate called the Courbet, which was part of a Nato monitoring mission called Sea Guardian, on 10 June, according to France.

And they did it in order to slip through yet another illegal shipment of arms to Turkey's ally in the Libya civil war, the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), France said.

Note EU-Digest:  Curious - Whenever, or each time we put the President of Turkey's name ,Erdogan into the "Labels" column of our blog (EU-Digest), we were posting, the blog reported an error, and we had to go back and re-post the entire content of the blog, and rewrite the "labels"  removing Erdogan's name for it to work. Does this mean censorship by either some internal or external "source", or is it a real technical error? This is not the first time it happened when other sensitive issues were published.

Read more at:
France and Turkey fracture Nato on Libya

Turkey′s Erdogan clamps down further on media amid corononavirus crises

The Turkish president seems to be using the coronavirus crisis as a pretext to get rid of the few critical media outlets left in his country. Opposition politicians and journalists fear a new spate of censorship.

Read more at;
https://www.dw.com/en/turkeys-erdogan-clamps-down-further-on-media-amid-coronavirus-crisis/a-53192898

The Netherlands; Turkish immigrants will have to formally 'inburger' from 2021: says Government minister

Turkish immigrants will have to formally ‘inburger’ from 2021: minister

Read more at :
https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2020/02/turkish-immigrants-will-have-to-formally-inburger-from-2021-minister/

EU-Turkey relations: EU denies reports of further Turkey aid cuts

Media reports about massive cuts in funding "are completely wrong and misleading," an EU spokesman has said. The bloc cut pre-accession funds to Turkey in 2017 and is not planning further cuts.

Read more at:
https://www.dw.com/en/eu-denies-reports-of-further-turkey-aid-cuts/a-52060306

China - EU - Iran - Russia -Turkey -- a new Dawn? : Donald Trump′s risky short-sightedness - by Frank Sieren

New World  Order? China,-EU Russia

Like the rest of the world, Beijing was forced to look on idly as US President Donald Trump ordered the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani last Friday. Even the Iraqi government in Baghdad, which considers Iran an enemy, called on the US to withdraw. On Tuesday night, Iran responded by launching missile attacks on US bases in Iraq.

For now, the situation seems to be, if not de-escalated, at least not re-escalated. But the stakes in the Middle East are also high for China now. As the country with the second-highest oil consumption in the world, it sources a good 50% of its imports from the region. Although Iran is ranked only seventh in the list of oil exporters to China, it has become a close economic and diplomatic partner of Beijing's in recent years.

China is also Iran's largest trading partner. China's investments in Iran are also rising steadily, amounting to over $27 billion (€24.3 billion) between 2005 and 2018. Last summer, the two governments agreed that China would invest $280 billion in Iran's energy sector and $120 billion in its infrastructure and manufacturing sector over the next 25 years. In return, Beijing would receive cheaper oil as well as other benefits. The idea is also that the transactions be conducted in Chinese yuan or Russian rubles, as Russian companies will also be involved.

Iran is playing an increasingly important role for China's "New Silk Road." One of the most important axes of the geostrategic project of the century leads from China to Turkey, via Pakistan and Iran, and then from Istanbul to the Greek port of Piraeus.

Not far from the Pakistan-Iranian border and the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world's oil transports pass, lies the deep-sea port of Gwadar. In future, the idea is that this be used to transport oil and goods directly to China via an economic corridor in Pakistan. Pakistan shares a common border with both Iran and China, while goods still have to cross three Central Asian countries to get to China via the northern route.

Note EU-Digest: China, the EU and Russia for some time now are starting to cooperate on trade and technology much closer and in the process are by-passing the US at an ever increasing rate, specially following the election of Donald Trump.

Read more: Sieren’s China: Donald Trump′s risky short-sightedness | Asia| An in-depth look at news from across the continent | DW | 09.01.2020

Turkey invades Northern Syria and attacks US abandoned Kurdish allies: Civilians flee N.Syrian border towns attacked by Turkish warplanes, and artillery offensive

Reuters reports that Turkey launched a military operation against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria today Wednesday 10/9/2019  just days after U.S. troops pulled back from the area, with warplanes and artillery striking militia positions in several towns in the border region.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, announcing the start of the action, said the aim was to eliminate what he called a “terror corridor” on Turkey’s southern border, but European countries immediately called on Ankara to halt the operation.

Thousands of people fled the Syrian town of Ras al Ain towards Hasaka province, held by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The Turkish air strikes had killed two civilians and wounded two others, the SDF said.

Turkey’s lira slid 0.5%, breakingthrough what traders called a key support level of 5.85 against the dollar to its weakest level since August.

World powers fear the action could open a new chapter in Syria’s eight-year-old war and worsen regional turmoil. Ankara has said it intends to create a “safe zone” in order to return millions of refugees to Syrian soil.

"It is certainly going to be a bloody conflict," Kurdish political analyst Mutlu Civroglu said from Washington, D.C., noting that while the SDF is led by Syrian Kurds, it includes a wide range of ethnic groups. "The Arabs, the Syrian Christians, Yazidis, they are in no way going to accept a Turkish military presence in their region."

EU-Digest

EU pays tribute to Saudi journalist Khashoggi on anniversary of killing - by Toga Bozoglu

The European Union paid tribute on 2 October to the memory of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi journalist who was murdered last year in the premises of the Consulate General of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Istanbul.

The EU reiterated in a statement the need to ensure full accountability for those responsible and insisted on an investigation of the circumstances of the killing.

“Jamal Khashoggi continues to be an inspiration to journalists and associates with whom he was in contact for his work, including colleagues in the EU institutions.”

“As Jamal Khashoggi, journalists are too often the target of attacks in many countries.

 On this occasion, the European Union reaffirms its unequivocal commitment to the freedom of the press and the protection of journalists across the world.”, the statement reads.

Note-EU-Digest: Kudos to the Government of Turkey, for renaming a street near the former Saudi Consulate General offices in Istanbul, "the Khashoggi street", and allowing Jeff Bezos, Founder of Amazon, and owner of the Washington Post, where Khashoggi worked, to unveil a memorial to the murdered journalist today, the first anniversary of the journalist's death. 

The US remains the number one exporter of arms to Saudi Arabia and the world. Earlier in the year, Trump rebuffed bi-partisan US congressional efforts to punish Saudi Arabia for the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi , and turned back criticism over the kingdom’s prosecution of its war against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

EU pays tribute to Saudi journalist Khashoggi on anniversary of killing | New Europe

TURKEY: Erdogan's AKP suffers major loss in Istanbul election

Read more at:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48739256

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