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July 19, 2016

The Netherlands: Geert Wilders says the Netherlands needs a leader like Donald Trump - Really ?

There will be a lot of people who There will be a lot of people who ‘whine, scream and yell’ if Donald Trump becomes president of the US but in the end it will ‘all be fine’, PVV leader Geert Wilders told BNR radio on Monday.

Wilders is in the US to attend the four-day Republican convention, at which Trump is expected to be named Republican candidate for the presidency.

Trump, Wilders said, is ‘someone who is good at getting himself heard’ and who focuses on ‘the interests of his own people’. ‘He will be a real American leader, who might not always be the best one from a European perspective, but one who defends gthe interests of his own people.

Note EU-Digest: Democracy only works in a country if the majority  people who vote are not ignorant and being able to separate the empty slogan populists from the true politicians. We can only hope this will be the case in the US in November and in the Netherlands next year. 
There will be a lot of people who ‘whine, scream and yell’ if Donald Trump becomes president of the US but in the end it will ‘all be fine’, PVV leader Geert Wilders told BNR radio on Monday. Wilders is in the US to attend the four-day Republican convention, at which Trump is expected to be named Republican candidate for the presidency. Trump, Wilders said, is ‘someone who is good at getting himself heard’ and who focuses on ‘the interests of his own people’.

Read more at DutchNews.nl: Geert Wilders says the Netherlands needs a leader like Donald Trump http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2016/07/93300-2/

Read more: Geert Wilders says the Netherlands needs a leader like Donald Trump - DutchNews.nl

July 18, 2016

Turkey coup attempt: World leaders warn President Erdogan not to use uprising as excuse for crackdown as more than 6,000 arrested

urkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan was warned by world leaders on Sunday not to use the attempted coup as “carte blanche to do whatever he wants," amid concerns the putsch has become a pretext for him to consolidate power.

Mr Erdogan moved rapidly over the weekend to round up his adversaries, arresting more than 6,000 soldiers, including senior military leaders, and judges, suspected of involvement.
So many soldiers have been detained that the lower ranked conscripts have been locked in schools and gymnasiums in the capital, Ankara.
 
Read more: Turkey coup attempt: World leaders warn President Erdogan not to use uprising as excuse for crackdown as more than 6,000 arrested

July 17, 2016

Turkey - Erdogan tightens grip on the country as arrests now hit 6,000 which Erdogan calls "rooting out the virus"

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTMC98krBjowCALL1D2AjP7oVrTn3nIE3_a0m-LjLhsxEUz_sX6
A "coup" which formalized Erdogan's dictatorship
Turkey has arrested 6,000 people after a failed coup, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing to purge state bodies of the "virus" that caused the revolt.

At a funeral for one of the 290 victims, Mr Erdogan repeated an accusation that US-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen was behind the plot.

Mr Gulen strongly denies any involvement.

High-ranking military officers are among those held.

One of Mr Erdogan's top military aides, Colonel Ali Yazici, is among those now in custody, Turkish media reported.

The death toll rose on Sunday to more than 290, a foreign ministry statement said. More than 100 of those killed were involved in the coup, officials said.

"We will continue to cleanse the virus from all state institutions, because this virus has spread. Unfortunately like a cancer, this virus has enveloped the state," Mr Erdogan told mourners at the Fatih mosque in Istanbul.

He had earlier suggested parliament might consider a proposal to restore the death penalty.

Tens of thousands of Turks partied into the small hours of Sunday on the main squares of key cities to celebrate the failure of the coup.

A military coup is always to be condemned, but so is a total disregard for Democracy and violations of Human Rights.

Erdogan must be condemned for releasing a "mob" of his AKP people into the streets to commit acts of violence and vandalism in order to quell a dubious  coup attempt, while during the Taksim demonstrations he used  maximum security measures to disperse pro-democracy demonstrators.

Say no to Erdogan's human rights violations
Unfortunately, no official condemnation of Erdogan's Human Rights violations in his dealing with this so-called "coup" have been heard from either the EU or the US.  

Some additional facts about Erdogan's Turkey
  • Between August 2014 and March 2015, 236 people investigated for "insulting the head of state"; 105 indicted; eight formally arrested
  • Between July and December 2014 (Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidency), Turkey filed 477 requests to Twitter for removal of content, over five times more than any other country and an increase of 156% on the first half of the year
  • Reporters Without Borders places Turkey 149th of 180 countries in the press freedom index
  • During Mr Erdogan's time in office (Prime Minister 2003-14, President from 2014), 63 journalists have been sentenced to a total of 32 years in prison, with collective fines of $128,000
  • Article 299 of the Turkish penal code states that anybody who insults the president of the republic can face a prison term of up to four years. This sentence can be increased by a sixth if committed publicly; and a third if committed by press or media
EU-Digest

TURKEY: A Failed Coup, the Return of a Dictator and Civil Unrest - by Vanessa Beeley

http://www.blazingcatfur.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Sultan_Erdogan.jpg
Dictator Erdogan: How much longer will Turkey have to suffer?
Early in the morning of July 16, as the world woke up to news of an ongoing coup d’état in Turkey, by a group that identified itself as “Peace in the Country Council,” it was soon clear that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan would beat back the attempted takeover, which lacked support of the top military brass. 

As early as 7 a.m. IST, it was clear the regime had carried the day.

The coup could to be the handiwork of anti-ISIS soldiers as the regime’s support to the ultra-radical Islamic State and its excessive violence against Kurdish rebels even while peace negotiations were going on with Abdullah Öcalan at Imrali Island, has been the subject of considerable resentment within the ranks of the military. Serving officers have at times spoken their mind on the subject, albeit on condition of anonymity.

However, the Turkish media’s sharp criticism of the Erdogan regime’s support to rebels fighting for regime change in Syria, including a daring (and embarrassing) expose of arms shipments for the rebels, couldn’t have been possible without military inputs. In retrospect, the coup was likely a response to military exasperation with Erdogan’s policies.

Erdoğan himself blamed the followers of US-based scholar Fethullah Gülen for the attempt. While this has yet to be confirmed, it is interesting that the Canada-based politician and Islamic scholar, Tahir-ul Qadri, who launched a futile “Pakistan Spring” against the Nawaz Sharif government in January 2013, has significant connections to Gülen. Both governments being targeted (Turkey, Pakistan) are popularly elected.

The coup failed because it was badly planned; possibly it lacked sufficient support to be effective. Neither the President, vacationing in the southern resort of Marmaris, or Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, was arrested. Instead, despite the curbs placed by his own regime on the social media,

Erdoğan managed to appeal to the people to resist the coup – they came out on the streets in large numbers, waving Turkish flags, and attacking police, soldiers, and the tanks that rolled out on the streets.

Erdogan managed to land his plane at Istanbul’s Atatürk airport – though tanks were stationed there – and claimed to be fully in charge. The regime survived as top military leaders backed it. Gen. Zekai Aksakalli, commander of the military special forces, took to television to condemn the action and order troops back to the barracks.

By the time the plotters reached and bombed Marmaris, Erdogan had departed. On landing, he said he did not know the whereabouts of Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar. However, Turkish National Intelligence spokesperson Nuh Yilmaz informed CNN Turk that the coup attempt had been quashed and that Gen. Hulusi Akar was back in control. The coup began late Friday night with a bomb explosion at Parliament and other places in Ankara, air battles and gunfire across the capital.

While the number of casualties is as yet unknown, 17 policemen were killed in an attack on Gölbaşı Special Forces Department headquarters besides two employees of the Turkish satellite operator TÜRKSTAT.

Observers blamed Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule for the crisis, which saw the exit of former Prime Minister Davutoglu and extremely harsh treatment of dissidents, opposition leaders (taking away the parliamentary immunity of Kurd MPs) and opposition media (Turkey has the highest number of journalists in jail in the ‘free’ world).

The regime has come under international scrutiny for permitting the free flow of jihadis and weapons to rebel groups fighting the government in Syria (the ‘jihad highway’), which resulted in the rise of the brutal insurgent group, Islamic State, which is fast spreading its tentacles worldwide.

The anti-Shia strategy of promoting regime change in Syria and cornering its Iranian ally through (Sunni) Islamic terror backfired when America forced Turkey to take an active role in the US-led coalition against the ISIS. A series of deadly bombings followed on Turkish soil, all attributed to ISIS.
Washington reacted with concern for its ally in the fight against terror.

US Secretary of State John Kerry called Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to express Washington’s “absolute support for Turkey’s democratically-elected, civilian government and democratic institutions.” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also spoke to Cavusoglu and called for respect for democracy.

The coup leaders issued a statement late Friday saying they had seized control “to reinstall the constitutional order, democracy, human rights and freedoms, to ensure that the rule of law once again reigns in the country, for law and order to be reinstated.”

Those behind the coup can expect harsh justice, but there is no gainsaying that the regime is safe from another attempt in the future.

A major reason for failure is that coup plotters lacked the resources to grab all vantage points in the capital simultaneously. Turkey’s state-run news agency remained on air and announced that military helicopters had attacked the headquarters of TURKSAT satellite station on the outskirts of Ankara and the Ankara police headquarters. It said tanks were moving toward a palace used by Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım and deputy prime ministers.

A car that tried to stop one of the tanks was rammed through but the occupants escaped.

Erdogan might have escaped death this time, but as one demonstrator said "sooner or later a bullet will catch up with him and deliver Turkey from this dictator ". 

EU-Digest

July 16, 2016

Turkey coup: Chaos continues in Turkey Live updates - by Lauren Said-Moorhouse

After a night of explosions, gunfire and tanks rolling along the streets, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Turkey Saturday that an attempted military coup was over and the government was in charge.

However, the sounds of fighting were still being reported in Ankara and Istanbul after the chaotic attempt by members of the military to wrest control from Erdogan.

At least 90 people died and 1,000 people were injured and hundreds arrested across the country.

Read more: Turkey coup: Live updates - CNN.com

Turkey: How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block

Access to several social media sites was blocked for over an hour in Turkey today during a reported military coup. Although internet traffic appears to be flowing normally again, Turkey’s government frequently responds to political events by blocking certain websites or throttling traffic

“We saw the throttling of connections from Turkey to Twitter and Facebook just after the reports of the coup in Turkey,” Doug Madory, the director of internet analysis at Dyn Research, told TechCrunch. “We did not see any problems with YouTube, but I have also seen others report problems accessing that website.” Livestreaming services like Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live appeared unaffected by the block. 

Overall, internet traffic in Turkey may have dropped by half, according to CloudFlare data. CloudFlare CEO Matthew Prince tweeted, “From CloudFlare data, appears there’s about a 50% drop in Internet traffic coming out of Turkey.”

Turkish censorship of social media has been relatively easy to circumvent in the past — users could use DNS services like Google Public DNS to evade the blocks. But Turkey has become more sophisticated in how it blocks its citizens from accessing social media, according to Madory.

“This time Turkey appears to be restricting bandwidth when accessing social media. This represents a more sophisticated censorship technique that is harder to detect,” Madory said. “Users should still be able to circumvent it using a VPN, but the average user in Turkey may still not have that technology readily available.”

Click on the link below for the completer report and techniques for getting around internet blocks during times of turmoil:

Read more: How to circumvent Turkey’s social media block | TechCrunch

Terrorism: Terrorist groups need to be infiltrated and destroyed - cheaper than bombing and more effective



It is time to infiltrate terrorist organizations and destroy them
After the most recent terrorist attack in France, it seems their might also be an urgent need for a far more effective strategy than just the involvement of costly military operations.

First of all we should not label terrorists as good and bad ones - Daesh - Boko Haram, -PKK - Haqqani Network - Kataib Hezbolla - AL-Qaeda. They are all terrorist groups and should be labelled and treated as such.

Also for starters. Since just about every government in  the world is facing similar terrorist problems, cooperation and exchange of information between governments, in this respect, is not only important, but essential.

A "hot-line" for local citizens to call in every country, where they can confidentially report suspicious activities in their neighborhood certainly could be another effective tool to get a grip on these terrorist cells

In this context there should also be a financial reward system for people who can provide valuable information to the local authorities which leads to the arrest or elimination of terrorists.

Local government and the military should also develop training programs for individuals who can be used to infiltrate terrorist organizations via their recruitment programs and other means, to create internal chaos within terrorist organizations or destroy their chains of command.

Stopping terrorism can only happen when we are able to outsmart them.

© EU-Digest Editorial