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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Turkish PM accuses Reuters reporter of misinforming her agency about the situation in the country

Turkish PM accuses Reuters reporter of misinforming her agency about the situation in the country

    Monday, June 03, 2013   No comments

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan argued today with Reuters reporter Birsen Altaylı about the seven-day long Taksim Gezi Park protests, accusing her of misinforming her agency about the situation in the country.

“Don’t tell me that all of society [is supporting the protests], I will not believe it,” Erdoğan told the reporter. “There might be extensions of ideological structures [behind the protests]. This might have gotten them to revolt. You have to see that. What haven’t we done in this country that [led the protesters to] take such a step?” said Erdoğan.

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“There is 50 percent of [the country who voted for the ruling Justice and Development Party - AKP], and we can barely keep them at home [and prevent them from coming onto the streets for counter-protests]. But we have called on them to calm down,” the prime minister said after Altaylı said the people on the ground did not represent any single party and that they included students and housewives, unlike Erdoğan’s claims.

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A Turkish Spring? Over 1,000 Injured as Anti-Government Protests Spread Outside of Istanbul

A Turkish Spring? Over 1,000 Injured as Anti-Government Protests Spread Outside of Istanbul

    Monday, June 03, 2013   No comments

Turkish police abusing protesters

Turkey is seeing its biggest wave of protests against the ruling government in many years. Tens of thousands of people rallied across the country Sunday for a third consecutive day of mass demonstrations. The unrest erupted last week when thousands of people converged at Istanbul’s Taksim Square, a public space reportedly set for demolition. The protests have grown to include grievances against the government on a range of issues, and protesters have managed to remain despite a heavy police crackdown, including tear gas and rubber bullets. The Turkish government says around 1,000 people have been detained at more than 200 protests nationwide. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has dismissed the uproar as the work of political opponents and "extremists," vowing to proceed with governments plans to remake Taksim Square. "I cannot tell you how empowering this is," says Turkish scholar and activist Nazan Ustundag. "This is a country known for [police] brutality and for the Turkish people’s unquestioned loyalty to the state. So it’s very exciting all these different sections of people [are] standing [up for] the last public space which wasn’t given to private interests."

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Claims of government control over Turkish media: "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows"

Claims of government control over Turkish media: "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows"

    Sunday, June 02, 2013   No comments

"Erdogan does not listen to anyone any more," said Koray Caliskan, a political scientist at Istanbul's Bosphorus University. "Not even to members of his own party. But after the protests this weekend, he will have to accept that he is the prime minister of a democratic country, and that he cannot rule it on his own."

The dramatic events also exposed the complicity and almost complete government control of mainstream Turkish media, which largely failed to report the protests.

"The Turkish media have embarrassed themselves," Caliskan said. "While the whole world was broadcasting from Taksim Square, Turkish television stations were showing cooking shows. It is now very clear that we do not have press freedom in Turkey."

Human rights groups have repeatedly expressed their concerns about the lack of freedom of expression in Turkey, and Erdogan routinely criticises media outlets and journalists who do not agree with his views and those of his ruling Justice and Development party (AKP).

Opposition politicians urged Erdogan to listen to people instead of trying to silence them.

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Tony Blair: Woolwich attack shows there is a 'problem within Islam'

Tony Blair: Woolwich attack shows there is a 'problem within Islam'

    Sunday, June 02, 2013   No comments

Tony Blair has launched an attack on the “problem within Islam” in the wake of the killing of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich at the hands of Islamist extremists.

The former Prime Minister said the ideology that inspired the act of terror that shocked Britain last month is “profound and dangerous”.

Writing in the Mail on Sunday, he warned that the Government cannot protect the UK “simply by what we do here”. The Islamist ideology, he said, is “out there” and “isn’t diminishing”.

“There is not a problem with Islam,” he wrote. “For those of us who have studied it, there is no doubt about its true and peaceful nature. There is not a problem with Muslims in general. Most in Britain will be horrified at Lee Rigby’s murder.

“But there is a problem within Islam – from the adherents of an ideology that is a strain within Islam. And we have to put it on the table and be honest about it.”

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NATO: Syrians have undergone a change of heart over the last six months, 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime

NATO: Syrians have undergone a change of heart over the last six months, 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime

    Sunday, June 02, 2013   No comments

LONDON — After two years of civil war, support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad was said to have sharply increased. 

NATO has been studying data that told of a sharp rise in support for Assad. The data, compiled by Western-sponsored activists and organizations, showed that a majority of Syrians were alarmed by the Al Qaida takeover of the Sunni revolt and preferred to return to Assad.

“The people are sick of the war and hate the jihadists more than Assad,” a Western source familiar with the data said. “Assad is winning the war mostly because the people are cooperating with him against the rebels.” The data, relayed to NATO over the last month, asserted that 70 percent of Syrians support the Assad regime. Another 20 percent were deemed neutral and the remaining 10 percent expressed support for the rebels.

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The İstanbul problem and the protest movement in Turkey

The İstanbul problem and the protest movement in Turkey

    Saturday, June 01, 2013   No comments

Unfortunately, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government seems to be losing the hearts and minds of many İstanbulites because of its harsh rhetoric on the Gezi Park issue.
Gezi Park is next to the famous Taksim Square and is one of the very few green areas left in the city center. The government wants to rebuild a totally demolished Ottoman barracks. The government claims that it is doing this out of respect for history, but the fact that the barracks will actually be a shopping center topped by luxurious residential flats makes many people, like myself, very nervous and upset. The government is not ready to listen, but the Gezi Park issue may be the last straw and may pave the way for the eventual electoral loss of the city by the (former) Islamists who have been administrating the city for the past 20 years.

I will not talk about the tired and ineffectual image of the AKP mayor, Kadir Topbaş, who is the first mayor elected for a second term in Istanbul. I will also not talk about another perception that the city is actually run by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. But I will look at the “cementization” of İstanbul. In the city, other than the squatter houses, we have only a few one or two-storey houses that are only for the super-rich. Ordinary people, who make up 95 percent of the city's 15 million population, live in apartment buildings. The previous governments did not have any urban planning, so people simply went to the places that were inhabited, bought or occupied some land and built homes in an ad hoc fashion. In these areas, infrastructure followed the urban development, not vice versa. Squatter houses were turned into apartment blocks when these people became a little richer and their families expanded. Yet, because of the lack of urban planning, in these areas the roads are very narrow and there are neither parks nor trees. If you fly over Istanbul, in most areas, you do not see any green and you are inclined to think you are looking at a war zone.

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Erdoğan: For every 100,000 protesters, I will bring out a million from my party

Erdoğan: For every 100,000 protesters, I will bring out a million from my party

    Saturday, June 01, 2013   No comments

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has called on demonstrators protesting the demolition of Taksim Gezi Park to end their mobilization, without back-peddling on the Artillary Barracks project that initially sparked the protests.

“I'm warning those who came there with honest feelings - they have been subject to illegal groups, they should not comply with them. I plead that they immediately end this protest,” Erdoğan said June 1 in a speech at the 20th congress of Turkey's Exporters Assembly.

He described the demonstrations as “ideological” rather than “environmental.” “Nobody has the right to raise tensions with the excuse that trees are being cut down,” he said, claiming that the opposition was “manipulating” the protests.

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Erdoğan ended his speech with an ominous warning to main opposition Republican People's Party (AKP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who is set to deliver a speech in Istanbul's Beşiktaş district before moving to Taksim. “If you use provocative words, our people will never forgive you. If it comes down to making a meeting, if you gather 100,000 people, I can gather a million,” he said.

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Turkish police clash with protesters in Istanbul after demonstration over Taksim square grows and widens

Turkish police clash with protesters in Istanbul after demonstration over Taksim square grows and widens

    Saturday, June 01, 2013   No comments

Turkish police have let off tear gas and pressurised water against groups of protesters trying to reach a main Istanbul square for a second day of anti-government demonstrations. Police also cracked down on hundreds of people trying to march toward Parliament in the capital, Ankara.

The protests grew out of anger at heavy-handed police tactics to break up a peaceful sit-in to protect a park in Istanbul's main Taksim square on Friday (Photos here).

It turned into a wider protest against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is seen as becoming increasingly authoritarian, and spread to other Turkish cities. A human rights group said hundreds of people were injured in scuffles with police that lasted through the night. 

On Saturday, police clashed with several groups of youths trying to reach Taksim. Some threw stones at police. 

Some 500 people marched along the Bosporus Bridge from Asian shore of the city, toward Taksim, on the European side, but were met with pressurized water and tear gas that filled the air in a thick coat of smoke. 

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More coverage on RT,  Tubmr, Wikipedia, and National Turk.