Erdogan's sins against the secular nation of Syria should never be forgotten nor forgiven. Hope he gets his comeuppance from numero uno stabber-in-back, the good old USA with whom he had conspired to destroy Syria. Pompeo's meeting with Turkish FM fails to calm tensions Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Mike Pompeo, his US counterpart, in Brussels last week on the sidelines of a NATO ministerial gathering in the hope of opening a new and more positive chapter in Turkish-US ties.
Turkey’s bid to legitimize 'illegal' territory claims doomed to fail – Greek FM Turkey’s efforts to legitimize ‘illegal’ claims on Greek sovereign territory are doomed to fail because they are contrary to international law, Greece’s foreign minister said Monday. According to Nikos Kotzias, Turkey has submitted a document to the UN containing “erroneous positions” regarding Greek territory in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean and is trying to present such claims as lawful. Kotzias said Monday that international law can’t be manipulated to suit such schemes, AP reports. Ankara disputes Greece’s ownership of a number of uninhabited islands in the eastern Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. Turkey also claims that part of an area where Cyprus is conducting an offshore gas search falls within its own continental shelf. Cyprus says its gas search fully abides by international law....
Over 30 FETÖ terror suspects arrested across Turkey Former Treasury Undersecretariat employees, ex-police personnel among those held A total of 33 suspects linked to the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), the terror group behind the 2016 defeated coup in Turkey, were arrested in simultaneous raids across eight provinces on Wednesday, according to security officials.
In capital Ankara, police arrested four FETÖ suspects; the arrests came after prosecutors in Ankara and Izmir issued arrant warrants for 10 FETÖ suspects.
Nine former employees of the Undersecretariat of the Treasury are among those being sought with arrest warrants, according to Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.....
Turkey Pushes Back at US Attempt at Regime Change Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s bid to get re-elected in the snap poll on June 24 cannot be in doubt. But seventy days is a long time in politics and Erdogan’s main opponent, a 54-year old former physics teacher, is famous for combative rhetoric.
The surcharged political climate provides the context for the extraordinary remarks by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in a television interview on May 6 by riding on the wings of Turkish nationalism. Nonetheless, the salience lies in Ankara’s deepening disillusion over the doublespeak in the US’ regional policies.....
ISIS Suspects Planning to Attack U.S. Embassy Arrested And More 'Terrorists' Killed in Turkey Turkey's official broadcaster reported Monday that four suspected members of the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) were detained in connection with a "security threat" at Washington's embassy in Ankara.
The four men, all Iraqi nationals, were detained in the Black Sea province of Samsun and were among up to 20 suspected members of ISIS arrested in police raids across the country, according to Anadolu Agency, citing an unnamed security source. The operation came a day after the local U.S. embassy was closed for what it said were unspecified security reasons. The embassy remained closed through Monday....
Erdogan: In Mideast, US has chosen to be part of the problem, not solution Turkish president says East Jerusalem is capital of Palestine, most of the world does not support Trump's recognition of Jerusalem The US has lost its role as mediator in the Middle East by moving its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in London on Monday. ...
Istanbul summit urges international force to protect Palestinians A summit in Istanbul of Muslim heads of state on Friday (May 18) called for the creation of an international peacekeeping force to protect the Palestinians, as host Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Israel of "brutality" comparable to the Nazis.
The 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) - seeking to bridge severe differences within the Muslim world - said in a final communique that Israel had carried out the "wilful murder" of some 60 Palestinians on the Gaza border Monday.
#cdnpoli#tcot#TOpoli Slowly but surely, at least one bully member of warmongering NATO bullies whose billionaires r major stock holders of corps making WMDs, is slipping away from Master Warmonger Bully USA. What's not to like abt that? https://t.co/gZsje1ea7a
'Fair' elections impossible in Turkey, warns Reporters Without Borders RSF's Erol Onderoglu says 24 June polls cannot be free due to the 'liquidation' of the media The "liquidation" of the media in Turkey means it is impossible for "free and fair" elections to be carried out on 24 June, a leading media activist warned on Wednesday.
Erol Onderoglu, head of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in Turkey, said that a combination of pro-government buyouts of media outlets, the mass arrest of journalists and the cowing of remaining independent media means that there could be no hope of an honest choice in the upcoming parliamentary and presidential votes....
Erdogan Urges Turks To Stick With Collapsing Lira, Warns Financial Speculators "Will Pay A Heavy Price" Since Recep Tayyip Erdogan's election to Prime Minister of Turkey in 2002 (and even more so since his 'election' to President for life in 2014), the Turkish Lira has been on a one-way street to hyperinflatio The ailing currency has lost over 20% of its value against the U.S. dollar this year as The FT points out that a volatile mix of electoral populism and a rising dollar have pushed the country to the brink of a currency crisis. At the helm is a leader obsessed with growth, who has long dismissed higher rates as a way to make “the rich richer and the poor poorer” and often feuded with the country’s central bank...
Turkey and US agree plan for YPG withdrawal from Syria's Manbij Kurdish military commander says Washington and Ankara's plans for flashpoint northern city are premature Turkey and the United States have agreed on a roadmap for Syria's Manbij that would see the Kurdish YPG militia leave the northern city, Turkey's Anadolu Agency said on Wednesday.
US support of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) has enraged Washington's NATO partner Turkey, which considers the militia part of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). The YPG have played an integral part in efforts, supported by an international coalition, to roll back the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria. The PKK has waged a decades-long insurrection in Turkey....
As part of an agreement involving the ongoing Syrian peace talks in Astana, Kazakhstan, Turkey recently completed its 12th and last military observation post in Idlib — the northwestern Syrian province that has become a “jihadi reserve.” With that done, and with regime pressure mounting on Idlib, Turkish troops and their rebel allies on May 27 ventured into the adjacent Jabal al-Akrad region in the province of Latakia.
all due to the pitiful state they have been reduced to because of the satanic powers-that-be at the helm of our planet?
On my recent sojourn to parts of the EU, I saw refugees in Greece, Italy and Turkey who have been reduced to begging. In Turkey the cruel govt there makes them wear a cardboard sign around their necks which says in English "I am a Syrian refugee" ... how demeaning is that! Erdogan wants to show that the only beggars in Turkey happen to be Syrians and Turks are well fed and taken care of. That might be the case, but it was still saddening to see such signs on human beings. I managed to speak to a refugee, a man wearing the sign around his neck and accompanied by a little girl of around 7 years or so. He told us that he was from a village in Hama which was invaded by ISIS 2 years ago. We had learnt to carry with us packaged goodies to pass around to the unfortunates we came across along with a few coins. We also met a woman in Athens with a horde of kids. If you had seen the sorrow in her eyes you would have been touched too ... unless you have lost all trace of humanity you have ever had. Surprisingly, we didn't see Syrian refugees in the part of Spain (Catalonia) we visited. Perhaps because African refugees have set up shop there (lots of them as street hawkers) seen in touristy areas. The outlying area of France we visited was sparsely populated and although I did hear Arabic spoken here and there I concluded the speakers were Lebanese citizens of France.
As far as I am concerned, giving refuge to refugees in Canada is nothing to be afraid of as long as they are fully vetted and only families gain access and no single young men are let in ... because those are the ones who might be from ISIS. Some of the churches in Toronto have already started sponsoring refugee families running away from conflicts in Africa. (Syria is not the only country with an outflow of refugees).
In a major policy shift, the White House has announced a team of special operations forces numbering less than 50 will be sent to Syria. This marks the first sustained U.S. troop presence in Syria since President Obama launched a bombing campaign against the self-proclaimed Islamic State in September 2014. Announcing the move on Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest denied it marks a shift in strategy.
Josh Earnest: "The president did make a decision to intensify that support by offering a small number of U.S. special operations military personnel to offer them some advice and assistance on the ground as they take the fight to ISIL. So this is an intensification of a strategy that the president announced more than a year ago."
Iraq: More Than 700 Killed in Violence Last Month Meanwhile in Iraq, the United Nations says violence killed more than 700 Iraqis in October, an increase over the previous month. Of the 714 killed last month, all but 155 were civilians. We’ll .........
which seems to be written in the cards unless Erdogan disappears for good.
I visited a few spots in Turkey and parts of Europe near Turkey early this month. The Ankara bombing took
place just a day after we left Izmir after visiting Istanbul and Ephesus.
In Izmir province we visited the world famous the house believed to have been the abode of the Virgin Mary after she travelled with John the Apostle to Anatolia. A little chapel is built on the site where people believe she lived after Christ's death ... but then there are stories of Mary having visited Jordan and Syria. Not to belittle the religious fervour felt by my fellow Christians on seeing the supposed dwelling, but I tend to take everything to do with religions, all religions, with a sackful of salt. All the same, the place is up on a steep hill and in beautiful surroundings.
Story has it that Paul being one of the most zealous
promoters of Christianity decided to travel to Anatolia to preach to the
thousands of Jews residing in those parts hoping for conversions. His
strategy was to use Mary's motherhood and femininity as a pull because
people in those areas were accustomed to goddesses more than gods.
Suffice to say that Paul managed to convert a great
many people. A large part of present day Turkey used to be Greece
before the Ottomans conquered city after city, town after town of this
historic part of the world. Here's more on the subject.
The Greek and Roman influence in present day Turkey is seen and felt especially in Ephesus (ruins of the Celsus Library,Temple of Hadrian,Ephesus, ) and of course at the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
There's just too much to do, see and absorb in Turkey. The few areas we visited had so much history, it was totally overwhelming.
I was amazed too with the Turkish women. Strikingly beautiful and not a single one in a niqab. Many of the conservative ladies wear colorful hijabs but mitigate the head coverings with tonnes of makeup on their faces. The longest eyelash extensions I have ever seen were on Turkish and Kurdish women in fashionable Istanbul. Good for them!!
I was told by a young lady that if I happen to see a niqab or burkha, I would be looking at Saudis and not Turkish women. The Istanbul bazaars seem to have become a magnet for Saudi shoppers. I saw even matronly Turkish women well into their 70s and 80s wearing fashionable tight fitting garments and sporting highlights in their hair. Fantastic!!
At the Blue Mosque we removed our shoes and carried them in a plastic bag (provided at the doorway) and covered our heads with a scarf. If one does not have a scarf, the mosque provides. A family mem of mine insisted on wearing a sleeveless top and a skimpy scarf which got a hijab wearing monitor of the mosque approach her to get her to cover her shoulders but she pretended not to understand the monitor and ignored the request. Hah! This kind of required covering for head and shoulders is also the done thing at some churches in Italy (more on that in a later post). All in all, Turkey is a beautiful place. I only wish the Ephesus part of Turkey was still in Greece's hands as nothing there says "Islam" or "Muslim". I also felt pain to see that the Hagia Sophia, although now recognized as a historic site and a museum, is in an Islamic land and one never knows what is in store for the 2nd best Christian cathedral in the world. All pics above are from my camera.
Some of the countries in it, either in major or minor roles:
USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Jordan, UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Kurdistan, Yemen, Nigeria, France with (Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad ) Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Albania, Estonia, Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, Japan, Republic of Korea, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, Norway, The Netherlands, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Novorussia, Ukraine, Russia, Chechnya, Somalia, Iran, India, South Korea, North Korea, Central African Republic, Kenya, Tunisia, The Philippines, Egypt, Albania, Serbia, China, Sudan, South Sudan, Bukina Faso, Palestine, Georgia, Chad, Spain, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Nepal, Congo, Uganda, Romania, Mexico, Gambia, Haiti, Cameroon, Chad, Algeria, Venezuela, Thailand, Argentina, Vietnam, Myanmar, Georgia ....
From Reuters Pressure mounts on Kenya's president after university massacre Political pressure mounted on Kenya's president on Wednesday with scathing editorials and growing anger at a seven hour delay in the deployment of a special forces unit that eventually ended the bloody siege at Garissa University last week.
The al Qaeda-aligned al Shabaab group has now killed more than 400 people in Kenya since President Uhuru Kenyatta took office in April 2013, denting the east African nation's image abroad and severely damaging its vital tourism industry. The pre-dawn attack on the college, 200 km (120 miles) from the Somali border, came a day after Kenyatta berated Britain and Australia for issuing travel advisories, saying their security warnings were "not genuine". However, Kenyan media, some of them owned by Kenyatta's family, are becoming increasingly critical of the president and government efforts to stop future attacks, drawing comparisons to al Shabaab's assault on Nairobi's Westgate mall, where the Islamists killed 67 people during a four day siege in 2013. In a front page editorial entitled "If Westgate was a disaster, what do you call Garissa?" Kenya's biggest-selling Daily Nation newspaper singled out Kenyatta for not meeting the grieving families.........
Look who's making sure that that the ISIS messages have a wider audience. Saudi Arabia is propping up the ISIS with help from other Sunni nations but let's all ignore all that as just hogwash because as Israel, the West's numero uno ally, hating Iran and Syria the way it does, now sides with the Sunni nations, it's fully justified to destroy our own Western countries while trying to keep Israel safe and sound. USA/Canada/EU/Australia your collected name is SUICIDE. From AlArabiya The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group has launched English-language radio news bulletins on its al-Bayan radio network. The militant group’s English bulletin, launched Tuesday and promoted via Twitter, accompanies Arabic and Russian bulletins already airing on the network.
The first bulletin, which provided an overview of their activities in Iraq, Syria and Libya, discussed a range of topics including the alleged death of an ISIS commander in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital, Damascus, a suicide bombing in the Iraqi city of Kirkuk and mortar attacks on militias in Sirte, Libya..........
Mossad's tentacles reached even Nigeria where few know even to this day that Israel has unholy influence. Will the new leader, Mr.Buhari turn Nigeria into a wholly Muslim backward country thus making the world hate Islam even more? Was this the desired outcome for Mossad's ploys? Was Mossad hired by the USA to dampen the influence of China in Nigeria or was USA concerned about Nigeria's economy getting too big and perhaps strong enough to rival Middle Eastern oil producers? Our world is a very dark place and made so by primarily the powers-that-be that control the United States of America. From NYTimes ........Mr. Buhari was born on Dec. 17, 1942, in the country’s far north, the son of a village chief. He attended officer cadet school in England in the early 1960s, according to the historian Max Siollun, and took active parts in the military coups of 1966 and 1975, later serving in the successive military governments of the late 1970s, including as minister of petroleum.
In 1983, troops under his command cleared rebels from Chad from Nigeria’s border, and he then refused civilian orders from Lagos to retreat into his own country. A New Year’s Eve coup against the elected president, Shehu Shagari, then brought him to power.
Off all the peremptory episodes that marked his rule, perhaps the best remembered is the bizarre and unsuccessful kidnapping plot targeting a corrupt former minister who had fled to London, Umaru Dikko. It involved Israeli secret agents, a giant packing crate into which Mr. Dikko was stuffed, and anesthetic drugs. The episode put a severe strain on relations between Nigeria and its former colonial master, Britain, for years..........
......... "This doesn't affect us directly, but what's good for Iran is good for Hezbollah," he says. "The US is frightened of Iran, because it is a superpower now. This is not Iraq or Afghanistan. If the US blinks, Iran would destroy it. We aren't just a bunch of Arabs. If they have a problem with Iran, they have a problem with all the Shia."
Asked if the nuclear deal will change Hezbollah's stance toward the United States, Hussein offers a scornful chuckle.
"There is a little cooperation between us because of Daesh [the Islamic State]," he says, referring to Hezbollah's war against the Sunni militants, which coincides with America's own military action against the group in Iraq. "But we still have a lot of issues we need to resolve. We still mistrust the US. They could turn on us anytime, especially if the government changes. We think Obama's talk is just talk. Is he watching the kids being slaughtered in Yemen? Where are the guns in Yemen coming from? The US. The Americans said they would help the Saudis with intelligence. We consider the planes attacking Yemen to be US planes." ...........
From DefenseNews U.S. launches aerial refueling mission in Yemen The U.S. military has begun daily aerial-refueling tanker flights to support the Saudi-led coalition that is intervening in Yemen's civil war, the latest sign of growing American involvement in the new Middle East conflict. A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker flew the first mission Tuesday night, providing fuel for a Saudi-owned F-15 Eagle and an F-16 Fighting Falcon operated by the United Arab Emirates air force, Army Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said Wednesday. U.S. Central Command plans to fly one daily tanker mission to support the allied aircraft, but the tanker will not cross into Yemeni airspace, Warren said.............
From PressTV Iran Navy’s 34th fleet sets sail for Gulf of Aden The 34th fleet of the Iranian Navy has left for the Gulf of Aden and Bab al-Mandab Strait in line with the country’s policy of safeguarding naval routes for vessels in the region. The flotilla, which comprises the Bushehr logistic vessel and Alborz destroyer, left Iran’s southern port city of Bandar Abbas on Wednesday, Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari said on the sidelines of a ceremony to deploy the fleet. The commander said that the 34th Fleet is sent on a mission “to provide [safety for] Iran’s shipping lines and protect the Islamic Republic of Iran’s interests in the high seas.”..................
From ZeroHedge Iran Enters Hornets Nest: Parks Two Warships Off Yemen Coast Immediately Next To Two US Aircraft Carriers The probability of a major escalation over the latest proxy Middle Eastern civil war just escalated substantially. While it has been widely reported that the United States has been accelerating its weapons supply to the Saudi-led coalition striking rebels in Yemen as a sign of how foreign powers are deepening their involvement in the conflict, the biggest regional backer of the Houthi rebels, the state of Iran, had been mostly inert. Until this morning, when as AP reports, Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel Wednesday to waters near Yemen...............
........That is what happened in Mosul when ISIS took over the city in June 2014. Earlier, under Saddam Hussein’s despotic rule, the city was a sanctuary, home to tens of thousands of Christians. But in Mosul and other towns in the region, ISIS gave Christians an ultimatum—convert to Islam, pay a tax known as jizya or be killed. Aziz Emmanuel al-Zebari, 65, is a Chaldean Catholic who left Mosul in 2006 and moved to Ankawa, an Assyrian suburb of Erbil, in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, where a statue of the Virgin Mary watches over the streets outside the Cathedral of St. Joseph. A professor of English at Salahaddin University in Erbil, al-Zebari says more than 125,000 Christians from Mosul and the surrounding Plains of Nineveh have been driven from their homes. He lists a string of Christian towns he says are now deserted: Qaraqosh, Karemlesh, Bartella, Bashiqa, Tel Keppe, Batnaya, Tesqopa, Alqōsh, Sharafiya. “For the last nine months the church bells have gone silent and there is not a single Christian in those villages and the city of Mosul,” al-Zebari says.
William Warda, an Assyrian Christian from the Hammurabi Human Rights Organization in Baghdad, says he hears from Christians that they want to leave. “I tell them that they must stay or we will not have a Christian population,” he says. “I go to northern Iraq, and I tell people to stay in their villages, not to run away, to resist. I tell them to be patient. I try to reassure them it is a temporary crisis, and it will pass.”..................
From NewsWeek Spiritual Leader of Libya’s Biggest Jihadi Group Pledges Allegiance to ISIS Ansar al-Sharia, the top jihadi group in the civil war-torn country of Libya, has edged closer to pledging allegiance to ISIS after its spiritual leader and top judge, Abu Abdullah al-Libi, defected to the radical group, according to an audio message released by the terror group.
On Sunday, al-Libi - who was Ansar al-Sharia’s Shari’i (or judge) - confirmed his departure from the jihadi group when he tweeted a picture of a book entitled The Legal Validity of Pledging Allegiance to the Islamic State, along with the caption “Soon, God willing”. In an audio message released on ISIS-controlled radio in the central Libyan city of Sirte last week, ISIS accepted al-Libi’s pledge of allegiance to the group’s caliph Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.........
From AP Violence in Egypt's Sinai kills 11 civilians, 2 soldiers Military officials say 11 civilians and two soldiers have been killed in three attacks in Egypt's restive northern Sinai. The officials said a mortar landed Wednesday on a residential area south of Sheik Zweid, a town in northern Sinai, hitting a house and killing nine of its residents. Separately, officials said a missile landed on a house in another village, killing two civilians. In a third attack, outside the provincial capital el-Arish, officials said an explosive detonated as a military vehicle drove past, killing two police officers. The officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Northern Sinai has been a longtime hotbed of Islamic insurgency.....
From UPI Militant attack kills 15 soldiers, 2 civilians in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula At least 15 soldiers and two civilians have been killed in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula after militants opened fire on military checkpoints on Thursday. Seven militants reportedly died in the gunfire exchange. Responsibility for the attack has not been claimed, but there have been multiple attacks in the region by Islamic State affiliate Sinai Province, previously known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis before pledging allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. ............
From DefenseNews Egypt Hellfire Buy OK'd Amidst Yemen Strikes An Egyptian procurement of 356 AGM-114K/R3 Hellfire II missiles has been cleared by the State Department, the first new procurement since the White House lifted a freeze on weapon sales to that nation. The sale also comes as Egypt takes part in anti-militant operations in Yemen, which the US is indirectly aiding with logistical support. If the sale is given the OK by Congress and details are worked out between the two governments, it would represent the first sale of the R model of Hellfire to Egypt. Egyptian military forces currently operate the F and K variants. The sale, with a projected cost of $57 million, would occur under a Foreign Military Sales agreement. Lockheed Martin would be the prime contractor, with work occurring at its Orlando, Florida, facility............
From SputnikNews Greece 'Openly Disapproves' of Anti-Russian Sanctions During a joint press conference with President Vladimir Putin, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that the EU economic war against Russia could lead to a new Cold War, and that Athens will try to become a 'negotiations bridge' between Europe and Russia to resolve the issue Greece disagrees with the anti-Russia sanctions imposed by the West and considers them a form of economic warfare, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Wednesday..........
Young victims were interviewed on a sofa before being savagely murdered Four men were dragged out before bloodthirsty crowds in central Mosul Militants forced them to their knees and read out the charges against them Masked jihadis then swarmed on the men and beheaded them with knives Locals said the decapitated bodies were later displayed in a town square .....
From NewsWeek ISIS Mass Grave Death Toll in Iraq and Syria Surpasses 3,000 The combined number of bodies discovered in ISIS mass graves has surpassed 3,000 after the gruesome extent of the terror group’s mass murder in the Iraqi city of Tikrit was revealed on Tuesday.
A number of mass graves dug by the terror group have been confirmed in both Syria and Iraq, taking the toll from the graves and mass killings to 3,071. The toll does not include individual civilian deaths nor deaths of those killed in clashes with the terror group. Nine months ago, the radical Islamists claimed to have captured and killed 1,700 at a former U.S. military base in Tikrit, named Camp Speicher, as they swept across northern Iraqi, capturing the key Sunni cities of Tikrit and Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest................
From Reuters After Bardo attack, Tunisia treads line between security and freedoms Soon after Islamist militants gunned down 21 foreign tourists in Tunisia's Bardo museum last month, newspaper columnists, radio hosts and politicians swiftly called for a merciless crackdown to save their young democracy. In the cafes and mosques of working-class Tunis, fears are now emerging that a campaign against militants may a spiral into repression like the old days of Tunisia's police state before the freedoms won in a 2011 revolt. Tunisia has since been held up as a model of democratic transition, the only country where an uprising during what came to be known as the "Arab Spring" did not end in large scale violence or civil war..............
From AlAkhbar Turkey Pushing for Own ‘Popular Mobilization’ Militia in Iraq. Turkey is investing in the upcoming battle for the liberation of Mosul to expand its influence in Iraq. An increasing number of credible reports indicate this course of action, in the aftermath of the operation launched by the Iraqi government to retake Tikrit (the last major stronghold for Daesh before Mosul), with support from the Iranian Qods Force led by General Qassem Soleimani. Regional powers are rushing to get a seat at the Iraqi roundtable, which makes sense given the significance of what is taking place in Mesopotamia and its implications on neighboring countries. Turkey, the most prominent among these powers, has indicated its desire to influence events in Iraq through Mosul in the north, a city within its strategic sphere. .........
The mosaics were discovered in what used to be an ancient Greek city.
From GreekReporter: Mosaics Revealed at Ancient Greek City Mosaics Revealed at Ancient Greek City of Zeugma in Turkey Archaeologists discovered three unique mosaics at the Ancient Greek city of Zeugma, in south Turkey, near the borders of Syria. The ancient city of Zeugma was originally founded as a Greek settlement by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, in 300 BC. The population of the city at its peak was approximately 80,000 inhabitants. Zeugma is 80 percent underwater, after it was flooded with the waters of a nearby artificial lake. The mosaics, which were recovered in excellent condition, belong to the 2nd century B.C. The first mosaic depicts the nine Muses in portraits. This mosaic was originally in a large room of a house that archaeologists have named “House of Muses.” In the center of the mosaic is Muse Calliope and she is surrounded by her sisters. According to ancient Greek poet Isiodos, Calliope was the greatest and finest of the nine Muses, the protector of Epic poetry and arts. .....
Greece signs an excellent deal for supply of gas from Russia. The deal is signed somewhere between Feb 9 and Feb 26. Now read the news items below and wonder if a Tom Clancy wannabe is gonna write a book on the how, the why and the when.... only this time round, it won't be fiction.
From Reuters via Downstream dated Feb 26, 2014 ...Greece's natural gas distributor DEPA has clinched a new gas supply deal with Russian energy giant Gazprom, which includes a 15 percent price cut backdated to last July, Greece's energy ministry said on Tuesday. The new agreement extends a current deal between the two companies by 10 years to 2026, the energy ministry said in a statement, confirming what sources told Reuters last week..... From Reuters via Downstream dated Feb 26, 2014: ...Fire Breaks Out at Lukoil's Stavrolen Petrochemical Plant in S. Russia. - A fire broke out at Lukoil's petrochemical plant in the southern Russian city of Budyonnovsk, wounding some, a local Emergency Ministry said on Wednesday. The Emergency Ministry said the fire broke out after a loss of pressure in the ethylene section of the Stavrolen plant in Russia's southern region of Stavropol. It did not say how many people were injured. A spokeswoman for Lukoil declined to comment.... From Reuters via Downstream dated Feb 28, 2014: ...The European Union could extend financial aid to Ukraine to overhaul its gas pipeline network, the bloc's Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger said. Ukraine is an important transit pipeline route for Russian natural gas supplies to Europe and current political tensions there follow the government's decision to spurn a pact with the EU in favour of closer ties with Russia. "We are prepared to help with the overhaul of the gas pipeline network of Ukraine," Oettinger said. "This involves a high triple digit million euros sum." Oettinger's comments, confirmed by the European Commission on Friday, were made in an interview with German magazine Focus. Commission spokeswoman Sabine Berger said the executive was "acting as a facilitator for the international financial institutions to provide the necessary loans" to help modernise Ukraine's ageing infrastructure. Ukraine stunned the EU by spurning a trade deal in November and President Viktor Yanukovich's decision to side instead with Russia triggered mass protests, which led to his ouster.......
From Oil&GasJournal ....Fire hits at Tatarstan refineryAn investigation is under way into a fire that broke out on Mar. 3 at TAIF Group’s 7 million tonne/year Nizhnekamsk refinery in Tatarstan, Russia.....
From Reuters via Downstream dated March 4, 2014 ....Russia's Nizhnekamsk Refinery to Halt Gasoline Output After Fire. Repairing damage caused by a fire at the gasoline production unit of the Nizhnekamsk refinery will likely take at least two months and probably stop production, Russia's Emergency Ministry and an industry source said on Tuesday. The Emergency Ministry for the Russian region of Tatarstan said on its website that a fire broke out on Monday at one of the units at the refinery, part of Russian mid-sized oil producer Tatneft. The fire caused no injuries and was put out the same evening, it said. An industry source said diesel production was unaffected. The refinery refined 8.26 million tonnes of oil and produced 579,100 tonnes of gasoline and 2.05 million tonnes of diesel last year, according to the Energy Ministry. Gasoline from the refinery is consumed domestically. Production of naphtha, exports of which reached around 1.77 million tonnes last year, was unaffected, the industry source said........
where the government intends excluding 350,000 households from electricity supply by end this year. Believe it .... this is happening in Greece and getting worse. From EuroNews: ....Keratsini is a suburb in the southwest of Athens near the port of Piraeus and home to 91,000 people. According to the mayor, over the last three years, 10,000 homes have been disconnected..... ....“It is very difficult. I cook with camping gas. We preserve all the products that need to be kept in the fridge by putting them on the balcony.”......... ...........Euronews journalist Michalis Arampatzoglou said: “According to Hellenic Distribution Network Operator, 350,000 connections will have been excluded from electrical power supply by the end of 2013. At least 40 percent of them are either being reconnected illegally or staying without electricity.”.......
When I read about the Roma couple in Greece with a blonde girl whose DNA does not match theirs, I immediately thought of Madeleine McCann. Hopefully, the little girl is alive somewhere with some other gypsy couple just like this little girl kidnapped by the Roma couple now under arrest in Greece. Hopefully, the inept Portuguese police and the media at large can focus their attention on the Roma and gypsies communities all over the world and remove their accusing glare from the parents.
To be expected ... it's the ultimate outcome of all socialist paradises burst to the seams with more takers than givers and more short-sighted dimwits than far-sighted intellectuals.
John Mauldin writing at BusinessInsider: .....Almost four years agoI began writing about the coming train wreck that was Europe and specifically Greece. It was clear from the numbers that Greece would have to default, and I thought at the time that Portugal would not be too far behind. Spain and Italy clearly needed massive restructuring. Part of the problem I highlighted was the significant imbalance between exports and imports in all of the above countries. In the Eurozone there was no mechanism by which exchange rates could be used to balance the labor-cost differentials between the peripheral countries and those of the northern tier. And then there's France. I've been writing in this space for some time that France has the potential to become the next Greece. I've spent a good deal of time this past month reviewing the European situation, and I'm more convinced than ever that France is on its way to becoming the most significant economic train wreck in Europe within the next few years.....
Qatar is at the outset of grabbing many islands around the world, little islands whose inhabitants are mostly dirt poor, mostly uneducated, mostly gullible, mostly innocent and mostly unaware of conniving billionaire Muslims. These poor people think that if a piece of their island or even their entire island is bought by some super rich dude, that dude is gonna be benevolent to them and they will prosper and their economy will improve only because some fat, rich slobs are throwing some bank notes at them. This is how the rich Muslims are paving their way into parts other than their own and this is how the UK and other countries in the EU have been brought to their knees by the super rich dictators from the Muslim nations. Right now, the unexpected boost to the economy of these islands, might seem to them to be like a God-send and they will love the Qataris for it. This is how it has been happening around the world. Small baby steps that ultimately walk into the corridors of power of the country they get a foothold in. Qatar has become almost as dangerous as Saudi Arabia.
I wonder how many Muslim refugees from their usually war-torn countries Qatar takes in? I bet not many if at all. It will have a ready excuse for not doing so. Qatar is a tiny little country compared to the others around it. That's most probably the excuse Qatar will give the UN.... it's small size. So, if Qatar has a neverending source of money, why not accept Muslim refugees to populate the islands they are buying? Can we see Qatar's benevolence towards Muslim refugees from Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Burma and other nooks and corners of the world ... or is Qatar's grandiosity only directed internally towards their own kin and their welfare?
Manfred Ertel writing at Spiegel: ....The sparsely inhabited Greek island of Ithaca is set for new growth after the Emir of Qatar bought some islands in the area. Despite the country's crippling financial crisis, residents of the Greek island of Ithaca have found new hope after the Emir of Qatar bought a nearby island for his summer retreat. The purchase has sparked a rush on local real estate and could bring new development..... ....It seemed like a good deal at the time, but now he regrets selling Atokos. The emir has brought both hope and money back to the Ionian Sea. The Arab ruler reportedly paid €5 million for Oxeia, an uninhabited island near Ithaca. He also reportedly paid Grivas' sister, a homemaker in California, several million for five smaller islands, although the final transfer of title hasn't yet taken place...... ....He apparently intends to build a private estate for his family on Oxeai, says Ithaca Mayor Ioannis Kassianos, although he doesn't know exactly what the estate will look like. But it will undoubtedly be grand, given that the emir has three wives and 24 children. Kassianos advises the man on whom he is now pinning his hopes to bring along plenty of patience. "Even if you are the emir of Qatar and are buying an island, the paperwork still takes 18 months," he says....
First, the stinking Saudis came, saw and bought everything within sight. Even when I was a teen (decades, decades ago) I remember my dad telling us how the Saudis were hellbent on buying Christian religious grounds like churches and church land to show their superiority over Christians and how the very rich and titled in England, Scotland and all over Europe were eager to sell these and their castles to the Saudis.
Now, we have the putrid Qataris buying up what's left.
Helena Smith writing at TheGuardianUK: Qatari emir buys six Greek islands for a song. Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani pays €8.5m for Ionian retreats for family with seller happy to strike deal after 18 months of red tape. The suitor is one of the world's wealthiest men; the location happens to be the eurozone's poorest country. But in an unlikely coming together of economic circumstances, the emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has opted to splash out €8.5m (£7.35m) on six idyllic isles in the Ionian sea. Closure of the deal – the latest in a global shopping spree that has seen the sheikh's property portfolio spread from London to Beijing – has been met with glee in Greece, the west's most bankrupt state, and Doha, where the royal household experienced 18 months of excruciating drama to take possession of the outcrops. "Greece is that kind of place," said Ioannis Kassianos, Ithaca's straight-talking Greek-American mayor. "Even when you buy an island, even if you are the emir of Qatar, it takes a year and a half for all the paperwork to go through." The isles, known as the Echinades, caught the oil-rich monarch's fancy when he moored his super-yacht in the turquoise waters off Ithaca, took in the view and liked what he saw. That was four summers ago.....
From this and other stuff happening in Turkey and Greece, I get a feeling something's not all huggy-kissy with these two.
Two Turkish dignitaries were refused entry into Greece because their places of birth were listed as Komotini's Turkish name of "Gümülcine" in their passports.....
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..Eren, Müezzinoğlu and his wife had to break from the group and return to Turkey to have their passports renewed to display their place of birth as Komotini. The trio was granted entry the next day after the city name on their passports was changed.
He said the Greeks were enforcing a recently enacted agreement between Greece and Turkey that requires Turks born in Greece to use the Greek name of their place of birth and Greeks born in Turkey to use the Turkish name of their place of birth....
Wonder how many more unknowns will crop up before everything goes ***BOOM***
The Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA), a terrorist group that has been largely inactive for the past decades, has threatened Turkey with unspecified measures over its Syria policy.
“Any military adventurism or any direct or indirect violation of the security and the social cohesion of the Armenian community of Syria on the part of Turkey will be met by similar counter-measures,” the group said in a statement on Monday.
ASALA is known for terrorist attacks against Turkish targets in Turkey and a number of countries throughout the 1970s and 1980s. The leftist group is responsible for the deaths of more than 40 Turkish diplomats abroad and has been mostly inactive since 1985.
The ASALA statement did not elaborate on measures against Turkey, which it said has turned into a “threat” for the stability in the region.
“The aggressive policy against Iraq's integrity, the direct military intervention in the bloody crisis of Syria, the continuation for more than 20 years of the blockade imposed on Armenia, the conspiratorial and double-faced policy towards Iran, the non-stopping threats against the territorial integrity of Greece and Cyprus and the augmenting coercive measures against the Kurdish people have transformed Turkey into a center of danger for the stability of the region,” it said. “The conspiratorial and hostile policy of the Turkish state against the neighboring countries reached its peak and has led Turkey in a total isolation in the whole region.”......
Shame on each and every member of the Olympics committee. Despicable lot, the very lowest of the earth and these are the people who are the overseers of an event which is supposed to bring all peoples of the world under one roof??? I strongly feel an enquiry into the bias of the IOC should be called for immediately.
Did the disgusting IOC ban him from the games like they did Greek athlete Paraskevi Papachristou for her tweet that they considered to be so horrific the world would come to an end if her feet touched the stadium grounds?
And what about this: The Lebanese judo team forced International Olympic Committee officials to erect a barrier between themselves and the Israeli judo squad, Friday afternoon in London, just hours before the Games’ opening ceremony, reports Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot. Both teams were scheduled to train inside London’s ExCeL center but Lebanon’s team did not want to be seen by the Israeli one, and IOC officials heeded the Lebanese demand after the team’s coach demanded separation.....
Why wasn't the Lebanese judo team sent packing back to Lebanon?????
From The Life of Reason by George Santayana : quote:"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."unquote
Rabbi Abraham Cooper writing at FoxNews: ...Some observers minimize the significanceof polls finding rising levels of Jew-hatred across Europe, by arguing that the phenomenon is a product of the margins—not the mainstream—of European society.
A closer look at Europe’s recent elections suggests that the line between margins and mainstream is once again blurring in a way that should worry everyone who understands how extremism in the Twentieth Century almost destroyed European civil society:
In Greece— a nation on economic life support—the recent elections saw moderate-centrist parties emerge with less than 40 percent of the vote and could result in the European Union pulling the plug on efforts to save it. In the land that bestowed on the world the very word democracy, the loudest beneficiary of Greece’s meltdown is the Neo-Nazi Golden Dawn movement, a party that won enough votes to enter Parliament with a minimum of 21 seats!
Its leaders proudly unleash the Nazi salute. Its charter limits membership to “only Aryans in blood and Greeks in descent.” ....
...In England, the electorate just barely voted down former London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s bid to represent their city to the world during the upcoming Olympics.
Even during his campaign, “Red Ken” continued to host a program on Iran’s State-controlled TV, a position earned through his with long history of apologizing for Mideast “terror sheiks” as well as slurs against Jews as rich, corrupt, and somehow un-English....
...Livingstone’s soul brother among Scandinavian mayors—Mayor Ilmar Reepalu of Malmö, Sweden’s third largest city with a 20 percent Muslim minority—continues to be unassailable after twenty years in office, apparently because of—not in spite of his—his habitual scapegoating of Jews as loyal only to Israel and the Roma (Gypsy) minority as social dregs......
The decision of Greece's PM George Papandreou to hold a referendum on a EU debt rescue package is getting a lot of criticism from the financial pundits. Nobody seems to think that the people of Greece should be the ones to decide if they want to take on or not, the additional burden of debt, because our elites, as always, know what is good for the people, whether they be in their own country or on the moon. Kudos to Greece's PM for letting his people make the decision. More here on what other actions the PM is taking. I had no idea this guy had such a strong character.
Martha Hall Findlayhas her opinion on what would happen if the Libs and NDP merge.
The sad and terrifying facts of war only those in the battlefields will ever really experience and know. A former Canadian reservist charged.......in the 2007 shooting death of a fellow soldier in Afghanistan is testifying in his own defence. Matthew Wilcox of Glace Bay, N.S., told a court martial in Halifax today that he fired his weapon instinctively when he thought someone was pointing a gun at his back. The 26-year-old is charged in the death of Cpl. Kevin Megeney at Kandahar Airfield....
Big organized crime ring busted by the RCMP. On October 26, 2011, eight individualsallegedly belonging to an Asian Organized Crime group were arrested following an investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and many other partner agencies. Warrants of arrest were issued for two (2) additional individuals. It is alleged that this organized crime group is responsible for shipping numerous containers of counterfeit cigarettes and drug precursors (Phenyl-2-Propanone (P2P)) from Asia to Canada..........
