Either way, Jan Boehmermann always goes a step further than polite society generally allows. Clever, funny and complicated, he has singlehandedly revolutionised German state broadcasting.

During the height of tensions between Athens and Berlin over the Greek debt crisis Boehmermann portrayed Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis as a vengeful motorbike-riding sex bomb. But it was his fellow Germans, and the rest of the media establishment, that the comedian was mocking.

A jaunty 1930's-style Springtime for Hitler remake wittily highlighted the similarities between the views of the anti-migrant party AfD and Nazi-era politics.

Even refugee helpers have been fair game, as Boehmermann mercilessly portrayed modern, multi-cultural Germans as a self-righteous unstoppable horde of muesli-eating, Birkenstock-wearing sexual perverts.

But for Boehmermann's many fans the fear is now that taking on Turkey's president has been a step too far.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36023440

If you are over 18, go and visit: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28619

Merkel Falls Flat over a Satirical Poem

A Commentary by Stefan Kuzmany

A satirical poem targeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become an affair of state. Chancellor Angela Merkel's handling of the crisis has been abysmal and shows that she is losing her grip on power.

The man has been penalized enough already. If you have to rely on support from Mathias Döpfner, head of the Springer Verlag publishing house, and Dieter Hallervorden, who leads a cabaret theater in Berlin, you're not in great company. If you become famous, if you make history, with a few repugnant lines of clumsy poetry and not with your significant television skills, you have lost control over the popular interpretation of your own work. If the high point of your fame consists of calling the Turkish president a goat fucker and triggering an affair of state, you are not to be envied.

But Jan Böhmermann, author of the deeply insulting lyrical attack on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has little to fear should he face trial for violating German laws prohibiting the insulting of foreign institutions and representatives. Even if he were convicted, the absurdity of a prison sentence seems highly unlikely. And he would likely be able to afford a fine, particularly given the possibility that Döpfner and Hallervorden would take up a collection to help him pay.

The only one who really stands to lose is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. In fact, she has already lost. Despite the current focus on the satirist, Böhmermann himself is rather unimportant. The real issue is the chancellor's own power.

It is a curious axiom in the history of political scandals that politicians only rarely stumble over the actual mistakes they make. More often, they trip over their futile and increasingly unsustainable attempts to cover up or eradicate those mistakes. The cascade of missteps made by Merkel in recent months has now found its ignoble low point in the Böhmermann Affair.

Many would say that Merkel's first and greatest error was that of opening Germany's borders to the refugees stuck in Budapest in September 2015. That accusation will not be made here: The chancellor chose a humane response to a dramatic situation. She found support among German citizens who had never before even considered voting for her and in doing so, developed a new following. At the same time, though, she neglected and ultimately lost an older bloc of voters -- the conservative, foreigner-skeptic and at least latently Islamophobic protectors of the German culture. And she relied on the empathy of Germans and -- perhaps out of hubris -- on the assumption that other EU member states would follow her lead. Wrongheaded faith in her own persuasive power was her first mistake.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-erdogan-affair-poses-serious-threat-to-merkel-power-a-1086813-druck.html

 

Satire show host Jan Böhmermann is letting the clock run out on signing a declaration of discontinuance, the German lawyer of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan confirmed.
Erdogan's council, Michael-Hubertus von Sprenger, told news agency AFP that he is now preparing to file an injunction against the German comedian within the month.
When asked by news agency AFP whether or not the matter will, in the end, be settled in court, von Springer replied: "Yes, I assume."
Two weeks ago, Böhmermann read out a so-called "Defamatory Poem" about Erdogan on his show "Neo Magazine Royale" where he purposefully used insulting language. The declaration of discontinuance called for the 35-year-old comedian to never repeat the poem or start circulating it again.
In a letter rejecting the terms of the cease and desist order, Böhmermann's lawyer, Christian Schertz, wrote that that the context of the poem "has been obviously overlooked," quoted the German newspaper "Süddeutsche Zeitung."
The satirical poem was not broadcast or circulated as a singular item, explained Schertz, "but rather as part of an overall view on what is allowed in Germany and what is not."
read more: http://www.dw.com/en/german-broadcaster-zdf-defends-böhmermann-satire-as-legally-permissible/a-19189902
If you are over 18, go and visit: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28619

 

 

A German comedian, whose satirical poem about Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed a bitter row about freedom of speech, has decided to suspend his own television show.

Key points:

• Human Rights Watch calls on Germany to defend freedom of speech
• Poem suggest Turkish President engages in bestiality and watches child porn
• Some commentators think German Chancellor is trying to placate Turkey amid difficult migrant situation

On Friday, Chancellor Angela Merkel authorised criminal proceedings sought by Turkey against the popular comic Jan Boehmermann, who could be convicted under the rarely-enforced section 103 of the criminal code — insulting organs or representatives of foreign states.

Ms Merkel's decision has appalled rights bodies such as Human Rights Watch, which called on German authorities to defend freedom of speech, "even if the contents of the speech are offensive to some".

read more: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-17/german-comedian-suspends-tv-show-amid-row-involving-erdogan/7332598

 

see toon at top and if you are over 18, go and visit: http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/28619

 

Breaking weeks of silence, the popular German comedian Jan Boehmermann blasted the German Chancellor for placing the whining of a “despot” above freedom of speech in her own country.

On Tuesday, embattled German comedian Jan Boehmermann blasted German Chancellor Angela Merkel for acquiescing to Turkey’s demands to prosecute him under German libel laws.

The popular comic initiated a firestorm in Ankara when, during a television broadcast in March, he called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "goatf**ker" who enjoyed child pornography.

Under German libel law, slandering the name of a foreign head of state in public is punishable by a one-year prison sentence, if deemed accidental, and five-years in prison if purposeful. The law provides German courts discretion over whether to authorize prosecution.

In the wake of the complaints, the German Chancellor called Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to convey her opinion that the statements were "deliberately insulting," and offered to prosecute the matter to the fullest extent of the law.

At the time, the European Union was nearing an agreement with the Turkish government regarding Syrian refugees. That arrangement, which advanced following assurances by Merkel, called for transporting 1 million European-based refugees to Turkey, in return for over $3 billion in cash and an acceleration of Turkey’s application for EU membership.

Boehmermann, who found himself a geopolitical casualty, alongside with the Western tradition of free speech, broke several weeks of silence in an interview with the weekly Die Zeit magazine.

"The Chancellor must not wobble when it’s a matter of freedom of opinion," said the comedian.

"But instead, she filleted me, served me for tea to a highly-strung despot and made me into a German Ai Weiwei," he said referring to the Chinese dissident artist.

Public support for Germany’s Merkel cascaded following the decision to prosecute Bohmermann under an obscure libel law, as members of her own governing coalition called for a reversal of the statute.

Despite being on the books, the law against insulting a foreign head of state has rarely been enforced, with German officials refusing to prosecute a resident who criticized former President Bush in 2003.

 

Read more: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160504/1039027381/erdogan-merkel-boehmermann-turkey-europe.html#ixzz47eUsQNXl

...

Johnson, the London mayor from 2008-16, who was the Spectator’s editor from 1999 to 2005, was urged to join the competition by Murray himself during an interview he gave to the Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche last week. Murray, a regular contributor to the Spectator, is known for his neo-conservative writing highly critical of Islam. Like Johnson, Murray is an Old Etonian who went to Oxford.

When asked about his attitude to the developments around Böhmermann’s trial, Johnson called it a “scandal,” and described the lawsuit as an encroachment on the freedom of speech in Europe.

“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so, in any European country, including Turkey,” Johnson said. The former mayor, whose full name is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, has Turkish blood himself, with his great-grandfather being an ethnic Turk.

Johnson’s limerick reads:

“There was a young fellow from Ankara
Who was a terrific wan****r
Till he sowed his wild oats
With the help of a goat
But he didn’t even stop to thankera”

Although, the winner “breached” some rules set by Murray for applicants, for instance, not to use the bawdy rhyme with Ankara that was used in Johnson’s poem, the choice of a £1,000 prize recipient was of a symbolic nature, according to the journalist.

“Finest thing possible that in the UK, in Great Britain, in 2016 you can award a prize to a political leader for insulting a despot in Ankara, while in Germany in 2016, a political leader tries to slam people up in prison,” he said, commenting on his decision to turn a blind eye to flaws in the poem for the sake of delivering a political message.

Anticipating a harsh reaction from Ankara, the journalist advised the Turkish leader to respond in verse rather than through litigation.

“The normal response one should make to a poem you don’t like about yourself is to write an equally rude poem back,” he said, adding that Erdogan’s clampdown on the media and zero tolerance to any criticism “has made him a worldwide laughing stock.”

https://www.rt.com/uk/343531-boris-johnson-erdogan-offensive-poem/

A Turkish court has convicted a former Miss Turkey of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, giving her a 14-month suspended prison sentence.

Merve Buyuksarac, 27, was found guilty of insulting a public official for postings she made on social media. She denied insulting Mr Erdogan.

Her lawyer says he will file a formal objection to the verdict and take the case to a higher court.

Rights groups have criticised Turkey for backtracking on freedom of speech.

Almost 2,000 people, including celebrities and schoolchildren, have been prosecuted in Turkey for insulting the president since he came to office in 2014, under a previously little-used law.

• Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey's ruthless president
• The problem with insulting Erdogan

Merve Buyuksarac, the 2006 Miss Turkey, was briefly detained last year for sharing a satirical poem on her Instagram account in 2014.

The posting, an adaptation of the Turkish national anthem, was shared thousands of times on social media, and it was considered by prosecutors to be insulting to Mr Erdogan, who was then prime minister.

Her sentence was suspended on condition that she does not reoffend within the next five years.

 

read more: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-36419723

---------------

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Muslims to reject contraception and have more children.

In a speech broadcast live on TV, he said "no Muslim family" should consider birth control or family planning.

"We will multiply our descendants," said Mr Erdogan, who became president in August 2014 after serving as prime minister for 12 years.

His AK Party has its roots in Islamism and many of its supporters are conservative Muslims.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan: Turkey's ruthless president

Is life getting worse for women in Erdogan's Turkey?

In Monday's speech in Istanbul, the Turkish leader placed the onus on women, particularly on "well-educated future mothers", to not use birth control and to ensure the continued growth of Turkey's population.

read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36413097

 

When bigoted idiots like Edorgan rule the planet, we can only cry... Increasing the world population is a crime against the future.

A Turkish court has given a suspended sentence to a man who drew parallels between pictures of the president and ‘Lord of the Rings’ character Gollum. The offender will be put behind bars for a year should he commit a similar ‘crime’ within five years.

A court in the southwest province of Antalya on Thursday convicted Rifat Cetin of insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for juxtaposing him with the famous book character. The ‘culprit’ was sentenced to a year in prison, suspended for five years.

Turkish court calls for experts to establish whether Erdogan looks like… Gollum?https://t.co/OfDIdbLnGSpic.twitter.com/tGu7HfMTkU

— RT (@RT_com) 1 декабря 2015 г.

In 2014, Cetin posted three photographs of Erdogan and not-so-great looking “small and slimy” creature on Facebook, implying that the two look alike. Both Erdogan and Gollum had similar facial expressions. Cetin argued that his post was entirely “harmless.”

Another man, Bilgin Ciftci, is also facing accusations for sharing similar photographs. Ciftci, a physician, insulted the president when he shared a meme comparing Erdogan’s and Gollum’s eating habits and emotions. Ciftci was then expelled from the Public Health Institution of Turkey (THSK) in October.

According to Turkish laws, anyone who insults Turkey’s president may be punished with a prison sentence of up to four years.

READ MORE: German court again rejects Erdogan's attempt to silence critical publisher

As Erdogan was serving as prime minister back in 2014, Cetin said he would appeal the court’s ruling, Turkish media reported.

Erdogan has been trying to suppress any kind of criticism regarding his image and policies. He has received accusations from the international community for backtracking on freedom of speech and leading a clampdown on a wide number of media outlets, journalists and academics.

 

https://www.rt.com/news/348083-turkey-erdogan-gollum-court/

In a democracy, everyone is normally equal before the law. The German Basic Law provides for this in Article 3, Paragraph 1. But in the legal jungle some are still more equal than others — as demonstrated by Paragraph 103 of the penal code book, entitled "Insults to Bodies and Representatives of Foreign States." This law is based on the old paragraphs from 1871 regarding lese majesty — insulting the sovereign. Anyone convicted on the basis of this paragraph gets up to five years in jail, while someone who insults his neighbor gets off with a fine, or at worst — in very exceptional instances — a year in jail. But why should people receive a different punishment for insulting a head of state than for insulting an ordinary citizen?

This New Year's Day, the law has finally been abolished. The reason for doing it now was the brouhaha about a libelous poem by the satirist Jan Böhmermann.

read more:

http://www.dw.com/en/opinion-a-bad-day-for-presidents-but-a-good-one-for-the-people/a-41992560

 

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In Berlin, in January 2015, a march for tolerance united political and Muslim leaders in reaction to the attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. Madame Merkel marched arm in arm with Aiman Mazyek, general secretary of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany. Although he pretends to have broken with the Muslim Brotherhood, and maintains an open dialogue, Mr. Mazyek offers protection within his organisation to the Milli Gorus (the supremacist organisation of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) and the Muslim Brotherhood (the matrix of jihadist organisations, under the international presidency of Mahmoud Ezzat, ex-right hand of Sayyid Qutb).

-------------------------------

Relations between Germany and Syria, which used to be excellent under Emperor Wilhelm II, are today abysmal. This is because since the Cold War, Berlin has become the backyard for the Muslim Brotherhood in their attempt to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic. Since 2012, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the federal think-tank SWP have been working directly on behalf of the US deep state for the destruction of the country.

Historically, Germany maintained excellent relations with the Ottoman Empire at the beginning of the 20th century. Kaiser Wilhelm II, who was fascinated by Islam, pursued archeological excavations, notably in Baalbeck, and participated in the construction of the first railways, including the Damascus -Medina line. The Reich and the Sublime Porte stood together against the British when they organised the « Great Arab Revolt » of 1915. Then they lost the First World War, and as a result, were excluded from the region (Sykes-Picot-Sazovov agreements).

During the Cold War, the CIA recuperated some of the best Nazi officers in order to continue its struggle against the USSR. Among them were Gerhard von Mende, who had recruited Soviet Muslims against Moscow [1]. In 1953, this senior civil servant installed the chief of the Muslim Brotherhood outside of Egypt, Saïd Ramadan, in Munich [2].

In the same period, the CIA secretly sent Nazi officers all over the world to fight the pro-Soviets. For example, Otto Skorzeny went to Egypt, Fazlollah Zahedi went to Iran, and Alois Brunner [3] to Syria. They all organised the local secret services on the model of the Gestapo. Brunner was only to be ousted much later, in 2000, by President Bachar el-Assad.

In the period between the Khomeinist revolution of 1979 and the attacks of 9/11, West Germany remained prudent in their dealings with the Muslim Brotherhood. However, at the demand of the CIA, and while Syria recognised East Germany, it accepted to offer political asylum to the putschists who attempted the coup d’etat of 1982 against President Hafez el-Assad, including the ex-Supreme Guide Issam al-Attar (brother of Syrian Vice-President Najah el-Attar). In the 1990’s, the Brotherhood reorganised itself in Germany with the assistance of two businessmen, the Syrian Ali Ghaleb Himmat and the Egyptian Youssef Nada, who was later to be accused by Washington of financing Oussma Ben Laden.

When the United States began the « never-ending war » in the « Greater Middle East », the CIA encouraged reunified Germany to launch a « Dialogue with the Muslim world ». In Berlin, the Minister for Foreign Affairs based his work for that purpose mostly on the new local chief of the Brotherhood, Ibrahim el-Zayat, and on an expert, Volker Perthes, who would become the director of the main federal think-tank, the Foundation for Science and Politics (SWP).

In 2005, Germany participated in the assassination of Rafic Hariri by supplying the weapon which was used to kill him - (it was obviously not a classic explosive, contrary to the propaganda of the special « Tribunal ») [4]. Thereafter, Germany supplied the head of the UNO Enquiry, ex-prosecutor Detlev Mehlis [5], and his assistant, ex-police commissioner Gerhard Lehmann, who was implicated in the affair of secret CIA prisons.

In 2008, while the CIA was preparing the Syrian « civil war », Volker Perthes was invited by NATO to the annual reunion of the Bilderberg Group. He worked with a Syrian civil servant of the CIA, Bassma Kodmani. Together, they explained to all participants the profit that could be made by the West by overthrowing the Syrian Arab Republic and placing the Muslim Brotherhood in power. Having adopted the double language of the Brotherhood, in 2001 he wrote an op-ed in the New York Timesmocking President Assad who believed he had unearthed a « conspiracy » against his country [6]. In October of the same year, he participated in a meeting of Turkish business leaders organised by the private US intelligence agency, Stratfor. He told his listeners of the oil and gas resources that they could steal from Syria [7].

Expanding this work, Germany organised in Abou Dhabi a meeting of the Friends of Syria under the presidency of one of its diplomats, Clemens von Goetze, who shared among those present the future concessions for exploitation which would be awarded to the winners once NATO overthrew the Syrian Arab Republic [8].

In mid-2012, Volker Perthes was tasked by the US Department of Defense with preparing « The Day After » (in other words the government which would be imposed on Syria). He organised meetings at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs with the participation of 45 Syrian personalities, including his friend Bassma Kodmani and Muslim Brother Radwan Ziadeh, who had come especially from Washington [9]. Finally, Perthes became one of Jeffrey Feltman’s assistants at the UNO. With that title, he participated in all the Geneva negotiations.

The positions of the German Ministry for Foreign Affairs were adopted word for word by the European External Action Service (EEAS) of Federica Mogherini. This administration, directed by a French senior civil servant, drew up confidential notes on Syria for the heads of state and government of the Union.

In 2015, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had become the world protector of the Muslim Brotherhood, organised the transfer of more than a million people to Germany [10], thus conforming to the demand by German industrial business leaders. A number of these migrants are Syrians, including those the AKP no longer wants, and which Germany does not want to return home.

Chancellor Angela Merkel will be in Beirut and Amman this week to talk about Syria.

Thierry Meyssan

Translation 
Pete Kimberley

 

Read all:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article201579.html

 

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And now, on the footsteps of Donald Trump...:

 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel during her official visit to Jordan has supported the US stance on Iran, speaking about the country's alleged "aggressive tendencies."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel stated Thursday, after her talks with Jordanian King Abdullah, that Iran's "aggressive tendencies" should be countered.

At the moment, Merkel is paying an official visit to Jordan, one of Germany's most important trading partners, along with Italy, accompanied by a delegation of German parliamentarians and business people.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/201806211065615538-merkel-iran-aggressive-...

 

Of course Turkey and Saudi Arabia are angels... Guffaw.

 

Meanwhile in the Mediterranean

 

The Circuit of Death in the « Greater Mediterranean »

by Manlio Dinucci

A very strange traffic is crossing the Mediterranean – in one direction, weapons to Africa and the Middle East – in the other, refugees who are the victims of these weapons. Unsurprisingly, the European political leaders are pretending not to know the main cause of these migrations.

Read more:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article201592.html

 

With no end in sight to the EU refugee crisis, Berlin and Paris look to put the burden of dealing with asylum seekers on the countries where they first register. The seeming return to ‘old rules’ is poised to split Europe further.

During their meeting ahead of the EU summit, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron pledged to “jointly and resolutely tackle” what they euphemistically called “secondary movements inside the EU.” An elusive wording used in the so-called Meseberg Declaration adopted by the two leaders effectively means one thing: Macron and Merkel want all the newly arrived asylum seekers and migrants to stay in the EU countries where they were first registered while their cases are being processed. This would leave the EU southern member states to deal with the new arrivals alone.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/430369-merkel-macron-europe-migration-policy/

The Turkish economy is now caught in a vicious circle, partly due to its structural imbalances, but also to the unintended consequences of global monetary policies. The lira is becoming drastically oversold, just as it was probably overvalued in the recent past. This is the same trap that other smaller currencies have fallen into, because they are exposed through trade and investments to the extreme policies in the large currency areas – the U.S. dollar and the euro.

Serious error

Washington cannot be blamed for these problems. However, taking advantage of Turkey’s financial difficulties to secure political gains (freeing Mr. Brunson, blocking procurement of Russian arms, influencing Ankara’s policies in Syria) will only worsen the lira’s downward spiral. In the long term, it might prove shortsighted. Experience shows that political bargains are more likely to be struck through quiet diplomacy, applying leverage behind the scenes, rather than by twisting arms in public. That only makes the negotiating partner lose face.

Europe would also be well advised to look for ways to help Ankara instead of indulging in schadenfreude. Turkey is an important partner in politics and trade. Berlin, at least, appears to have recognized this and will be receiving Mr. Erdogan for a visit in late August. One hopes the discussions will be constructive.

What Turkey needs now are friends. Bashing the country, or using the crisis to back it into a corner to achieve other objectives, can only backfire and make the monetary crisis worse. All it would accomplish would be to push a longtime ally in the wrong direction. It certainly will not help Ankara make the right decisions.

 

Read more:

https://www.gisreportsonline.com/making-sense-of-the-lira-plunge,2633,c....

 

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The ongoing US-Turkish tariff spat has opened a window of opportunity for Ankara and Brussels to mend fences, Turkish scholar Can Baydarol told Sputnik, explaining how EU member-states and Turkey found themselves on the same side of the barricades amid Donald Trump's trade warfare.

Washington's crackdown on Turkey has borne unexpected fruit: the EU has seemingly grown softer towards Ankara amid the Turkish-American tariff spat.

"After the US unleashed an economic war on Turkey, EU countries have started making important statements," Can Baydarol, vice president of the EU and Globalization Studies Association, told Sputnik Turkey. "First, the European Parliament, then Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy Peter Altmaier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and a number of Italian politicians have raised their voices to defend Turkey."

Baydarol noted that Ankara had returned the favor by releasing two Greek military servicemen that had been detained for five months in a Turkish prison.

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201808181067283072-trump-turkey-eu/

The Turkish government has forced the leaders of 18 Jewish and Christian churches to sign a declaration attesting to enjoying religious freedom. Among the signatories are Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I, Armenian Bishop Aram Ateşyan and Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva.

This statement was published by the Anadolu National Agency [1] and then quoted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to assure he is not persecuting Christians.

This strange case comes against the backdrop of Turkey’s request for extradition from the United States of Muslim preacher Fethullah Gülen; the US refusal to deliver this CIA collaborator; and the retaliatory arrest by Turkey of US evangelical pastor Andrew Brunson.

Ankara is now trying to blackmail Washington and exchange one religious person for another. Relying on the statement extorted from the Armenian and Orthodox churches, President Erdoğan assures that his country respects freedom of religion.

Recall that Turkish law prohibits the construction of Christian places of worship. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is not recognized by Turkey. Christian seminaries were closed by the police in 1971 so that it was no longer possible to train priests or pastors. Many churches and monasteries have been seized.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan salutes by making the hand sign of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Translation 
Roger Lagassé

 

Read more:http://www.voltairenet.org/article202488.html
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Berlin Softens Tone on Turkey

Germany has gone soft on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan since he became the subject of attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump. Leaders in Berlin are concerned that any instability might spread to Europe -- and they want to send a message to the American government. By DER SPIEGEL Staff

Officials in Berlin political circles have often complained about Turkey's president. 

There was the spring of 2017, when he accused the German government of adopting Nazi methods. Or when he explained to "his" compatriots, Turkish-Germans, in the German election that they shouldn't vote for the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU), because they were "enemies of Turkey." Or when he stayed silent after the Turkish press depicted German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a Hitler moustache. 

Now, members of the German government are describing another president's behavior as "outrageous" and "primitive" -- not Recep Tayyip Erdogan but Donald Trump, who picked a quarrel with Turkey and imposed duties and sanctions on the country, sending the Turkish lira into a tailspin. 

Government officials argue that everyone knows the Turks don't allow themselves to be intimidated like that. Ultimately, Trump will fail to secure the release of the imprisoned American pastor Andrew Brunson, they argue, and he will instead poison relations between Turkey and the West. 

Now, it's Trump of all people who is pushing Germany and Turkey back together.

The looming collapse of the Turkish economy is a genuine dilemma for the German government. It doesn't want the Turkish economy to fall deeper into crisis, no matter what. "If Turkey becomes unstable, we'll have a huge problem in Europe," claim sources close to Merkel. They are worried about potential consequences for the eurozone and the German economy, about the 3 million Turks living in Germany and about the possible unraveling of the deal with Ankara that is preventing more refugees from making their way to Europe.

 

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/germany-cosies-up-to-erdogan-...

 

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has demanded Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan halt his military incursion into northern Syria. But why would the Turkish leader listen? After all, he has 3.6 million reasons not to.

Merkel demanded that Erdogan bring his military operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria to an “immediate end” in a phone call on Sunday, a German government spokeswoman said.

Merkel’s admonishment comes as EU leaders prepare to meet in Luxembourg this week to plot a joint response to Erdogan’s ‘Operation Peace Spring’, launched on Wednesday following a withdrawal of US forces in the region. Turkish warplanes have been pounding Kurdish positions across the Syrian border, while ground forces backed by Syrian rebel groups have moved in to strike the Kurdish fighters, whom Turkey considers terrorists.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/470862-merkel-erdogan-syria-refugees/

 

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Greta Thunberg’s critics rarely fit into the mainstream, but a major German TV channel rushed to the defense of their cabaret artist, who relentlessly mocked the climate change preacher and vowed to quell her “personality cult.”
Dieter Nuhr, who hosts his comedy show on ARD, has made scores of enemies among Thunberg’s parish after he took aim at her uncompromising stance on climate change last week. Speaking to his viewers in Kiel, he reportedly offered: “But what are human lives when it comes to a big thing?”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’m very much for the clean environment,” Nuhr explained, “I only believe that when you constantly prohibit something, it doesn’t get us any closer to the goal. The future is about development, not foiling [something].” 
At the end of the stunt, he cautioned the youth against getting radical, reminding that extreme views led to the emergence of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, according to Kieler Nachrichten.
The paper was the first to report Nuhr’s provocative performance, but it went far beyond simply quoting the comic, bluntly suggesting that he actually likened Greta to the notorious dictators.
As the outrage grew, Nuhr made an intervention, claiming that this part of the piece was fake and denied making such a straightforward comparison. He also lamented that the reporting by Kieler Nachrichten had nothing to do with “serious journalism.”
The newspaper admitted that it misrepresented what Nuhr has said, apologized to the artist and took down the article. But that didn’t stop Greta’s most diehard followers from assault him online, calling him “bullsh*tter” and “complete idiot.” Others demanded that ARD, the broadcaster that airs his program, dismiss him immediately.
To the haters’ disappointment, RBB, a channel that produces the show for ARD, threw their weight behind Nuhr. The comic is “a highly esteemed artist on ARD and RBB,” and doesn’t “compete for approval,” it told local media outlet Watson, adding that “critique is part of the business.”
The broadcaster hailed his ability to unmask inconsistencies in social discourse through exaggeration that’s been “his award-winning trademark for years.”

https://www.rt.com/news/474412-german-comic-greta-comparison/


Gus: Like Greta Thunberg, Dieter Nuhr is a victim of bad journalism. Bad journalism is about stirring shit rather than reporting. Journalists like Kieler Nachrichten, have given a bad name to the profession. 
One needs to repeat the difference between satire and sarcasm. Satire is telling the truth with a jest. Sarcasm is telling a lie with a nasty smile, a smirk and a poke. And there an in between grey-area called “Teutonic humour". I made that up.
Warning Greta about becoming radical is fair enough, though borderline when bringing in Hitler and the Nazis. But who will kill more people? Greta and her followers who try hard to make people understand that “global warming is a serious problem” or the denialists who claim “global warming isn’t happening”? Good question and the answer is simple. You know the answer if you understand the problem. Your house has just burned down...
Nuhr knows.

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After Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that French leader Emmanuel Macron should be checked for “brain death,” Ankara's ambassador in Paris will now reportedly have to explain the “insult” at the Foreign Ministry there.

“On the latest excesses by the Turkish president, these are not statements, these are insults,” a French presidency official said, according to reports. “We are expecting president Erdogan to clarify.”

The fresh war of words between Ankara and Paris ignited on Thursday, after Macron blasted the Turkish military operation against the Kurds in northern Syria, saying that NATO couldn’t support such actions. Both France and Turkey are members of the US-led military bloc.

Erdogan fired back on Friday, pointing out that the French leader had no right to criticize Turkey or NATO. Macron recently made headlines by claiming that NATO was suffering from “brain death” and urging change for the alliance.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/474692-erdogan-macron-turkish-ambassador-france/

Western propaganda against Turkey

by Thierry Meyssan

While pretending to protect Turkey, Western propaganda hides its calls for help. The problem is by no means the clashes with the Russian army at Idleb, nor the fate of the families of jihadists, it is much more serious. The world is a cruel place. It is not by blinding ourselves that we will be able to come to the aid of threatened populations.

According to the Western press, the tone is rising between Turkish and Russian forces, raising fears of a "dangerous escalation in Idlib". The way in which it treats this subject is in total contradiction with what the actors are saying. This contradiction is an opportunity for us to explain our method of analysis. To make ourselves understood, we will take the example of the "French daily newspaper of reference" (sic), Le Monde.

The Franco-German point of view

In its edition dated [February] 29, 2020, Le Monde highlights three points: 

"the soldiers of Bashar al-Assad" supported by the Russian air force have killed 33 Turkish soldiers; 

"in reprisal", Ankara bombed the Syrian positions and threatens the Europeans; 

900,000 people have fled the fighting in the last three months.

In its editorial, the daily highlights a platform of 14 European foreign ministers, including the French and German, calling on "the Syrian government and its allies, Russia and Iran, to end their offensive and return to the terms of the 2018 ceasefire agreement reached in Sochi".

A disinformation operation

A number of preliminary remarks are in order:

- The Syrian soldiers are not those of Bashar al-Assad, but of the Syrian Arab Republic. President al-Assad is certainly their commander-in-chief, not in his own name but as the democratically elected president by an overwhelming majority of his fellow citizens. It would not occur to any journalist to speak of the French Army as the ’Army of Emmanuel Macron’.

- The 33 Turkish soldiers who were killed are not the cause of the crisis. It began on February 1st with the assassination in a Turkish ambush of four Russian FSB officers in Aleppo; an event that the French daily never reported on, but which made headlines in the Russian press. Since then, Turkey has multiplied its provocations towards Russia.

- The figure of 900,000 people fleeing the fighting is purely fanciful. Since the beginning of the war against Syria (mid-2012, after the destabilisation of the "Arab Spring"), the Western press has been putting forward frightening figures that are denied by the facts. During the Ghouta crisis, for example, it asserted with aplomb that the number of people imprisoned in the enclave was 10 times greater than the number of people who came out when the jihadists surrendered. In reality, it is not possible in a country at war to compile statistics. They can only be established once peace has returned. No one today is able to quantify the population in the governorate of Idleb.

As if this propaganda were not enough, the editorial highlights a free forum of European ministers [1]. The first remark is that there were only 14 signatories and not 27. 13 have refused to join. Moreover, most of the signatories, unhappy that their hands were forced, refrained from having it translated into their language and published at home.

These ministers call on Syria, Russia and Iran to stop their offensive. In the first place, Iran is not participating in this fighting, yet these ministers attribute a responsibility to it and address it. Secondly, these ministers call on Syria not to free its territory from the foreign jihadists whom they, as Europeans, were supporting militarily until recently under the name of "moderate Islamists". Finally, these ministers refer to the Sochi ceasefire which has never been applied by Turkey. Indeed, it provided for it to separate the "Syrian opposition" from the jihadists so that the former could be protected and the latter fought. But here, as elsewhere, there does not seem to be any "Syrian opposition", only jihadists.

The rest of the editorial is a position paper that provides a better understanding of the simplistic thinking of the newspaper. It talks about "the determination of Western democracies, [their] values and [their] ability to translate their ambitions into military action"; the United States which "has washed its hands of the Syrian problem"; and the paralysis of the Security Council where "Russia, often with the support of China," "systematically" vetoes. In other words: we Europeans are Saints, the United States is Pontius Pilate, Russia and China are Evil.

In passing, Le Monde accuses Turkey of threatening "to no longer hold back the refugees from Syria, of whom it already shelters 3.5 million", which is false. Turkey has threatened to no longer hold back its refugees, including not only Syrians, but also the 800,000 people who have fled the Western destruction of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Finally, the editorial ends with an apology for the French position which "is finally beginning to put words to the behaviour of Russian forces (...) guilty of repeated war crimes, also covering up the lies of the Syrian army". People who have endured jihadists, ’moderate’ anthropophagiacs (sic) and other head cutters for the past eight years will appreciate this.

The methodology

Journalism is not about saying what you see (from this point of view, almost everything that Le Monde reports here is accurate, except the numbers and responsibilities), but about making it understandable to the public. Which is the exact opposite of what the editorial staff of the "French daily of reference" (re-sic) does. For decades, this newspaper - the image of the ruling class it serves - has deliberately concealed essential information from its readers and biased others.

It is impossible to understand anything without first studying, and studying again, the regional context of events and the history of each actor. As in all sciences, one must constantly question what one believes one has understood and go back to correct one’s mistakes. Finally, it goes without saying that during this work one must disregard one’s sympathies for one or other of the protagonists.

What Le Monde hides from its readers

Let us look back over two decades of incompetence or bad faith: since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has been waging what President Bush called an "endless war", not against enemies, but against a method of combat, terrorism. In Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003), Libya (2011), Syria (2012) and Yemen (2015), they had excellent reasons to send money, weapons, mercenaries, and sometimes soldiers to overthrow forces they described as illegitimate. However, it is clear to everyone that far from disappearing, terrorism is on the rise, and wherever they have overthrown an adversary, the situation has only gotten worse.
Since the publication of the Pentagon’s map of the "reshaping of the Middle East", all states in the region (except Israel and Jordan, which are not involved) know that their best ally wants to dissect them alive. NATO member Turkey is no exception.

Since its creation, Turkey has had a powerful and efficient administration inherited from the Ottoman Empire. Its population came from the Mongol hordes that invaded the region, and its founder, Mustafa Kemal, was a victorious warlord, so that the army still has greater prestige and power than civilians. This is why the totality of Turkey’s foreign policy reversals since it became aware of the US plans is aimed at protecting the country from the voracity of its best ally [2].

The Turkish General Staff is today persuaded - rightly or wrongly, that is not the question - that after having destroyed Syria, the Pentagon is going to attack its homeland, Turkey. In the midst of urgency, panic and despair, it has devised a response consisting in threatening all its NATO allies with imminent catastrophe if they let Turkey be destroyed and offering them another battlefield, as far away as possible, in Libya [3].

Turkey does not know who it is. It contests its borders (Atatürk’s national oath) and its history (it denies having practiced the genocide of non-Muslims), but it does not want to die. In panic, it cries, shouts, screams like a cornered child.

The deliberate attacks against Russia (assassination of FSB officers on February 1st , meeting with the head of the Tatar militia, meeting with anti-Russian banditry supporters in Ukraine, clashes with the Russian army in Idleb, shooting at Russian reconnaissance planes, drone attack on the Hmeimim base, arrest of journalists of the Russian press agency in Turkey) are not directed against Moscow [4]. They are means of threatening the United States with the worst cataclysm imaginable: a Third World War, if they do not back down.

Threats to launch columns of refugees on the roads of the European Union are not intended to destabilize the EU. They are calls for help: if Turkey is destroyed, these flows of migrants will be inevitable, so act before it is too late!

If President Erdoğan wanted to go to war with Russia, he would not have taken the initiative to call President Putin on February 4, 12, 21 and 28 and would not have gone out of his way to meet him.
The same President Erdoğan, who is not a military man, but a simple civilian from an Islamist militia, did not say anything other than our analysis on 29 February 2020 to the deputies he had gathered at the Palace of Dolmabahçe (the former residence of the Sultan): ’The real target of the scenario we are facing is not Syria, but Turkey. Those who get what they want in Syria will immediately turn their eyes to Turkey. It is worse than reckless to think that those who have effectively divided Syria into three parts will respect Turkey’s territorial integrity. »

Obviously, it is not Le Monde, which has never ceased to support the colonial ambitions of a certain French elite and to promote a revolution in Syria, that will translate this direct questioning of US strategy.

The choices of the West

With all due respect to the editorial staff of Le Monde, the question is not at all the "escalation around Idlib", which can stop instantly, but whether the NATO member states will let Turkey be destroyed or not.

It is time to stop whining about the unfortunate families of jihadists and take responsibility before a new country is crushed.

Thierry Meyssan
Translation 
Roger Lagassé

Read more:
https://www.voltairenet.org/article209397.html


We can only hope that Erdogan and Putin can find a peaceful solution — which in all reasonable outcome would be a retreat of the Turkish forces from Syria with some "commercial" and political compensation/benefits. Today is their meeting in Sochi.

 

Turkey, a global problem

 

by Savvas Kalèndéridès, Stavros Kalèndéridès  

Turkey has once again escaped the consequences of its actions, this time in Nagorno-Karabakh. It is probably today in the crosshairs of the Pentagon, which wishes to destroy it like all the other states in the wider Middle East. This is the problem: it risks being set on fire to continue the "endless war" and not to defeat its racist ideology. The adversary must not be mistaken: the enemy is neither the whimsical Erdogan, nor his country Turkey and his ally Azerbaijan, it is the supremacist and racist ideology of the wolf of the steppes.

 

Turkey is already being considered to be a global problem, even though the US, the EU and Russia, refuse to accept this reality.

Let us explain in what sense Turkey has become a problem for the whole world.

The world has rejected totalitarian ideologies, since they were responsible for innumerous killings and the suffering of humanity. Fascism, Nazism, Communism [1], all of them were tested and finally rejected and abandoned by history.

The only totalitarian ideology that stands the test of time is Turkish racism, which took various forms during the 20th century, such as the nationalist (and Islamist) racism of the Neo-Turks, by Mustafa Kemal and the Gray Wolves, and in the 21st century, under Tayyip Erdogan, when it also acquired strong Islamist characteristics.

This totalitarian ideology caused the genocide of the Christian populations of Anatolia, which peaked in its brutality during the period from 1914 to 1923 [2].

Everyone knows what happened then, and especially the United States, since its top diplomats at the time, such as Henry Morgenthau and George Horton, recorded in their reports and books the bloody events of that period.

This is also known to England, which, when after the Treaty of Moudros took control of Constantinople, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, at the request of the Armenians forced the Sultan to set up military courts for the masterminds of the genocide. In fact, when the nationalists in Turkey reacted and rebelled after the first convictions and the hangings of the perpetrators, England transferred the accused to Malta, where the trials continued. Only when Britain stroke a deal with Mustafa Kemal did they stop the trials, exchanging the accused genocide officials with four British officers arrested by Kemal’s forces in the city of Van.

However, the files from the Maltese trials are still in records of the United Kingdom and that country knows better than anyone else what happened during that period.

England was the country that played a key role in the Treaty of Lausanne, under which the Turkish Republic was founded, and it was also the country that favored Mustafa Kemal. According to his critics in Turkey, who call him an agent of British imperialism, Kemal violated the national oath [3], ceded Kirkuk and Mosul to the British, abolished the Caliphate and moved forward with the de-Islamization of Turkey under the guise of a "secular state". Therefore England, as a country with strong relationships and an agreement with Mustafa Kemal and Ismet Inonu, was able to exercise influence in Turkey, and thus it was impossible for London to raise the issue of the genocide perpetrated against the Greeks, the Armenians and the Assyrians.

The US was not a party of the agreement and therefore did not sign the Treaty of Lausanne and according to Turkish literature, until 1927 it refused to recognize the Turkish Republic, precisely because of the crimes committed by Young Turks and Kemalists, because the very founding of this state is a result of crimes against humanity. Back then the spirit of Wilson, the spirit of universal human values, still prevailed in the United States.

But after World War II and the founding of NATO, the United States took over from Britain the leadership of geopolitical influence in Turkey, and "forgot" all about the crimes, while turning a blind eye to the genocidal and inhumane policies that were continuously being implemented by this country [4].

 

Thus, more than a century has passed with this ideology, the ideology of zero tolerance for anything non-Turkish and non-Muslim, the ideology that has continued and continues to commit ethnic cleansing and even alters the characteristics of an entire people.

The system of power in Turkey is so harsh and cruel that does not allow anyone to question the racist ideology of Turkish nationalism. This aggressive nationalism always had an aspect of “jihad” embedded in it, that is, the holy war for Islam, but now under Erdogan, Turkish racism began to gradually take on the characteristics of Islamofascism.

That is why all parties in Turkey, even the parties of the Left, either defend or just avoid challenging this ideology, with the sole exception of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), which mainly represents the Kurds.

If there were people who considered the above paragraph as an exaggeration, they must have now realized, after the recognition of the genocide suffered by the Armenians by the Turks, that things are exactly as described above.

All Turkish parties condemned the United States for recognizing the genocide, with the exception of the HDP, which called on the government and the state to recognize this shameful act.

And as it was "natural", all parties, even the party of the “reformist” Babacan, who otherwise promises a solution to the Kurdish issue, condemned the HDP, with its top official stating that "you will have the same fate, you are done for”.

If one examines the statements of Turkish politicians on the subject, it is impossible not to be literally horrified. They are words of savagery and barbarism.

Erdogan’s own history adviser, academic Murat Bardaksi, has said in the past that records indicate that 950,000 people went missing during the Armenian deportations and that this constitutes a genocide.

Now that he serves as an adviser to the Turkish President, he must be informing him about the above - he must be telling him the truth.

So Erdogan knows.

As all Turkish politicians and academics know very well the truth about the plan of the Armenian genocide, implemented by neo-Turks and Kemalists.

Nevertheless, they passionately defend a crime against humanity, even blaming the victims, claiming that the victims of this genocide were to blame for their own deaths.

But when you defend such a heinous crime against humanity in such an absolute way, it clearly indicates that you are ready to commit other crimes that threaten the "purity" of the Turkish nation and Sunni Muslim Turkish society.

So, we are dealing with an unrepentant state, which has as the main components of its foundation, death, destruction, genocide and ethnic cleansing, and it cannot get rid of them.

As these lines are being written, the events that are taking place today in Afrin, Gire Spi and Serekaniye against the Kurds, is an exact repetition of the policy applied to the other genocides and ethnic cleansing.

 

What is happening today in the trial of Kobani in Ankara, against the Kurds, who overthrew and beat ISIS and the butchers jihadi terrorists, backed by Erdogan and his barbaric state, is a repetition of the practices of the bloody past of the Turkish state.

At the same time, the threats made by the Turks even against the United States on this issue show that Turkey, as long as it is imbued with this racist ideology, is a global problem.

A country that not only does not renounce its bloodthirsty past, but continues on its violent and destructive path, stubbornly, with the political system as a whole supporting these practices,

A country attacking the US, the world’s most powerful country,

A country that instead of bowing its head and kneeling in memory of the millions of its victims, dares to question the existence of the state of the Republic of Armenia, arguing that it was founded on stolen Ottoman lands,

A country that has militarily invaded Cyprus, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Nagorno-Karabakh,

A country that directly threatens Greece, with its "Blue Homeland" doctrine and the largest fleet of amphibian and invasion vessels in the world, which clearly aim to occupy Greek islands, while NATO pretends that it does not understand and that this not an aggressive policy,

Is a country who has clearly become a global threat, since due to its size and the possibility of dragging other Muslim countries into this political madness, it threatens dozens of countries and peoples, and therefore threatens humanity itself.

I sincerely hope that after the savage reactions of the entire political system, the academics and the Turkish society itself, to Biden’s recognition of the Armenian genocide committed by the Turks [5], those who remained skeptical in the international community and in Greece, have finally been convinced. Although I have doubts regarding Mr. Irakleidis, Mesdames Repousi [6] and Gianakkakis [7], and Mr. Filis.

 Savvas Kalèndéridès
Stavros Kalèndéridès Read more: https://www.voltairenet.org/article212995.html  Read from top.  see also:    assange2

 

Earlier this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara is "disappointed" by US President Joe Biden's decision to recognise the killing of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 as genocide, and urged Washington to backtrack on the move. 

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay has claimed the US president's recent recognition of events in 1915 as Turkey's genocide against Armenians can be put down to two reasons, saying they are related to domestic politics and Washington's drive to return to the international stage.

"I guess, he [Joe Biden]'s trying to use such a phenomenon as a tool to come back to one part of the world. And I strongly believe that these two reasons are totally the wrong start for him and for US foreign policy", Oktay said in an interview with the state-run Turkish news network TRT World.

He added that "just because of the promises made to those Armenian or Armenian-affected lobbies", one should not "make a historic decision" and "claim a nation responsible for a genocide".

 

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/world/202105021082783956-turkey-term-genocide-has-to-be-used-for-washington-not-ankara/

 

 

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Free Julian Assange now !!!! (see in the same boat...)