Dozens of lawyers dragged from peaceful protest at Istanbul's main courthouse as riot police attempt to quash demonstrations

Dozens of lawyers dragged from peaceful protest at Istanbul's main courthouse as riot police attempt to quash demonstrations

    Tuesday, June 11, 2013   No comments

Riot police in Turkey deployed teargas and water cannon in Istanbul's central Taksim Square on Tuesday in a swoop aimed at quashing two-week-old mass street protests against the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

As the police moved in on the nerve centre of the nationwide uprising, dozens of lawyers were dragged away from the city's central courthouse in what appeared to be a flagrant abuse of human rights.

On Tuesday night dozens of police were still engaged in running battles with jeering protesters in Taksim Square, firing volley after volley of teargas canisters in an attempt to drive them into side streets. Tensions remained extremely high as thousands of demonstrators streamed toward the city centre and police reinforcements were sent in.

The confrontation – which came a day after Erdoğan had promised to meet and negotiate with protest leaders on Wednesday – began just after dawn when hundreds of riot police marched toward the square armed with water cannon and armoured crowd control vehicles.

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Rebels trying to extort weapons out of the US as a condition for showing up, US is discussing that option today

Rebels trying to extort weapons out of the US as a condition for showing up, US is discussing that option today

    Tuesday, June 11, 2013   No comments

Qusair in the hands of Gov. forces

The Obama administration began discussing Monday whether the Assad regime's rapid military advance across the heart of Syria necessitates a drastic U.S. response, with officials saying a decision on arming beleaguered rebels could happen later this week.
 

Top aides from the State and Defense Departments, the CIA and other agencies were gathering for a "deputies meeting" at the White House on Monday afternoon. There, they'll seek to lay the groundwork for a meeting that President Barack Obama will hold with his senior national security staff, planned for Wednesday, said U.S. officials, who weren't authorized to speak publicly on the closed-doors talks and demanded anonymity.
 

Moved by the Syrian regime's rapid advance, officials say the administration could approve lethal aid for the rebels in the coming days. The president and his advisers also will weigh the merits of a less likely move to send in U.S. airpower to enforce a no-fly zone over the civil war-wracked nation, officials said.

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Well done kids, well done

Well done kids, well done

    Monday, June 10, 2013   No comments

They are just about to say, “Secularist minds are on the stage again,” but then, they take a look and see: Those kids who have taken to the streets have no idea about the outdated and stale tension that is named the “secularist/Islamist contradiction.”

They are just about to say, “They are printing invitations for the military.” But they look around and see: Those kids who have taken to the streets are so colorful, so cheerful, so jovial, so fancy free… They have come to notice that let alone the color khaki, the possibility of these kids to wish to wrap themselves up in any one color is zero.

They are about to say “They cannot stomach persons who have strong religious beliefs.” They take a look and see that the kids who have taken to the streets issue communiqués to “Respect the Night of the Ascent;” some among them come out and declare, “I am religious and I am here.”

They are just about to say, “Their roots are outside the country…” They take a look and see that these kids who have taken to the streets are super non-aligned, super inexperienced, super flighty and super naïve… Let alone them having foreign roots, they do not have any roots…

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Massive rally illuminates Taksim as protests continue in Turkey

Massive rally illuminates Taksim as protests continue in Turkey

    Sunday, June 09, 2013   No comments

The Gezi Park protests entered another day as crowds gathered for a massive rally in Istanbul’s Taksim Square today, despite Ankara clashes that had occurred in the morning hours.

Cities nationwide continued to demonstrate in support of the ongoing protests, but Taksim again became the heart of the movement as thousands gathered for a rally scheduled to take place in the afternoon hours of June 9.

A stage was set up for the rally in the middle of the square, with protesters designing signs and slogans before it started. The rally, organized by the Taksim Solidarity Platform, which represents the protesters in Gezi Park, was represented by the platform as a response to the failed attempts at resolving the issue through meetings with government officials, namely Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.

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Analysts: Foreign militant Islamists streaming into Syria

Analysts: Foreign militant Islamists streaming into Syria

    Sunday, June 09, 2013   No comments

Foreign Islamist extremists are streaming into Syria, apparently in response to the Shiite militant group Hezbollah’s more visible backing of Syrian President Bashar Assad, a development that analysts say is likely to lead to a major power struggle between foreign jihadists and Syrian rebels should the regime collapse.

Researchers who monitor the conflict said this week that they’ve detected the influx of foreigners in firsthand observations on the battlefield, spotting them in rebel videos posted on the Internet, observing a recent spike in reported deaths of foreign fighters and studying their postings on social media sites.

And while many foreign fighters have been absorbed into established Syrian rebel groups, there are signs now that an increasing number are remaining in free-standing units that operate independently and are willing to clash with other rebels and Syrian communities to implement their own rigid vision of Islamist governance.

“The numbers are increasing, with more radical groups inside now,” said Salman Shaikh, director of the Brookings Institution’s Doha Center in Qatar.

Elizabeth O’Bagy, an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War who just returned from a two-week research trip to study rebels inside Syria, said that “without a doubt” she saw far more foreign fighters than on her previous trip two months ago, including foreigner-only fighting groups in northern Idlib province, near the border with Turkey.

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Erdoğan probably did not know thousands of people who voted for him were among those raising their voices against his government’s Taksim plan

Erdoğan probably did not know thousands of people who voted for him were among those raising their voices against his government’s Taksim plan

    Friday, June 07, 2013   No comments

I do not think Erdoğan guessed the Gezi Park protests would grow that much either. He was so confident on Wednesday that he defied the protesters and said the project will go on no matter what they do. And he chose to remain silent on the issue on Friday -- when the police crackdown turned most violent -- while speaking at an international event. I still cannot understand how the prime minister, who is known for not leaving any issue without comment, did not utter a single word on an incident that topped the agenda.

Yes, Erdoğan did what opposition parties could not do for years. He created his own opposition, which consists of various circles from the society including those who once lent full support to him. And if he does not return to his pro-democracy stance, this would prepare his fall in Turkish politics. İstanbul, his place of birth in politics, can bring him his political death.

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First ‘Friday prayers’ in Istanbul's Taksim after clashes

First ‘Friday prayers’ in Istanbul's Taksim after clashes

    Friday, June 07, 2013   No comments

A group calling themselves “Anti-capitalist Muslims” performed their first prayers all together while other protesters “stood guard” against any kind of provocation in Istanbul’s occupied Taksim Square on the 11th day of unrest in the country.

On June 5, a Quran reading took place at the square on Miraç celebration day. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also performed his prayers at a mosque located in Istanbul’s Asian side, Üsküdar Hz. Ali Mosque, away from protesters in the city center while the occupied Gezi Park witnessed “leftists” protection for the ones performing prayers. Erdoğan’s return from a three-day-long North Africa trip had given rise to thoughts suggesting that Friday prayers, which have a symbolic importance for Muslims, might turn into protests on the 11th day of the protests.

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Iran Outmaneuvers U.S. in the Syrian Proxy War

Iran Outmaneuvers U.S. in the Syrian Proxy War

    Thursday, June 06, 2013   No comments

Syria’s uprising offered the possibility of a strategic defeat of Iran. In this scenario, Iran would be weakened by the collapse of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, its single Arab ally and a vital link to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia. Isolated, Iran would become more vulnerable to international pressure to limit its nuclear program. And as Iran’s regional influence faded, those of its rivals -- U.S. allies Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia -- would expand.

Instead, events in Syria are spinning in Iran’s favor. Assad’s regime is winning ground, the war has made Iran more comfortable in its nuclear pursuits, and Iran’s gains have embarrassed U.S. allies that support the Syrian uprising. What’s more, Iran has strengthened its relationship with Russia, which may prove to be the most important strategic consequence of the Syrian conflict, should the U.S. continue to sit it out.

Part of the U.S. calculation in declining to intervene has been the assumption that Assad would inevitably fall. The U.S., apparently, did not consider the implications of leaving the door open to a comeback by Assad. Reinforced by Hezbollah fighters and armed with Iranian and Russian weapons, the Syrian army broke through rebel lines in the central city of al-Qusair last week. The symbolic victory has dashed hopes for a quick end to the regime or a diplomatic resolution to the fighting.
Syria is now a proxy war, the outcome of which will determine the regional pecking order. In the Mideast, aura of power decides strategic advantage. Hezbollah’s prowess in Syria is a blow to Saudi Arabia, which has supported Hezbollah’s political opponents in Lebanon. The Syrian army’s gains are a setback to the Saudis, Qataris and Turks, all of whom have backed the rebels with money and weapons.

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Muslim Brotherhood: Turkey protests aim to make Islamic project fail

Muslim Brotherhood: Turkey protests aim to make Islamic project fail

    Thursday, June 06, 2013   No comments

Leaders from the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in Egypt have accused Turkish protesters who are participating in the recent wave of protests that started in İstanbul’s Gezi Park and later spread to other cities of receiving funds from “foreign entities to make the highly successful Islamic project fail,” according to a news report appeared on the Al Arabiya news website.
A media adviser to Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, Mourad Aly told an Egyptian daily that the demonstrations in Turkey have “nothing to do with daily or economic needs. It is intended to promote the idea that Islamic regimes, which have made economic achievements and proved to the world that they can stand in the face of all external challenges, have failed,” Aly added in an interview with the Al-Masry Al-Youm daily.

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White House defends NSA phone records collection as 'critical tool'

White House defends NSA phone records collection as 'critical tool'

    Thursday, June 06, 2013   No comments

The White House has sought to justify its surveillance of millions of Americans' phone records as anger grows over revelations that a secret court order gives the National Security Agency blanket authority to collect call data from a major phone carrier.

Politicians and civil liberties campaigners described the disclosures, revealed by the Guardian on Wednesday, as the most sweeping intrusion into private data they had ever seen by the US government.

But the Obama administration, while declining to comment on the specific order, said the practice was "a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States".

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