Month: September 2010

The Ultimate Celebrity Destination: Bodrum The “St-Tropez of Turkey”

Home to The Mausoleum, one of seven wonders of the ancient world, Bodrum has long been recognised as a celebrity hotspot. Nowadays, jet-setting actresses including Nicole Kidman, Uma Thurman and Liz Hurley holiday in Bodrum, but more than two thousand years ago, Cleopatra, Queen of Ancient Egypt, was also known to reside in this charming Mediterranean town.

To this day, the elegant celebrity tradition thrives in Bodrum, with infamous individuals such as Beyonce Knowles selecting it as their ideal holiday destination or investing in the unique property found on the peninsula.

With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, Bodrum is renowned for its exquisite range of wildlife and natural setting of pine trees and olive groves. However, it also offers an extensive range of leisure activities including water sports, golf and yachting. Hollywood actor Tom Hanks who sojourned in Bodrumfor a few days whilst cruising the Turkish coastline on board a magnificent yacht has enjoyed the latter of these pastimes.

Gloriously tranquil fishing villages frame the peninsula, offering the serenity of an unspoiled coastline and an authentic taste of Turkey’s rich cultural history.

Nonetheless, fashionable celebrities have long appreciated the distinguished nightlife presented in Bodrum centre. Whilst living in Bodrum, singer Norah Jones worked at the animated nightclub Hadigari and Dustin Hoffman held an exclusive party at Europe’s largest open-air disco, Halikarnas. The unique nightclub was also home to the very first international beauty pageant, Miss Globe, in 1988.

Many of the celebrity figures that have delighted in visiting Bodrum have stayed at extravagant hotels or have rented or invested in luxury villas within the region. Hannah Gelbart of Cumberland Propertiesrecommends selecting an established and guaranteed property developer who offers top-quality, high-end construction with no expense spared.

So if you can picture yourself lounging by a spectacular infinity pool, shopping in an authentic Turkish market or a luxury boutique and sipping cocktails under the stars at a magnificent bar on the main street of Bodrum, you can see why Turkey has been tipped as a top tourist destination for 2010. Do not delay in experiencing it for yourself.

Golfıng in Turkey

September 8, 2010
Cop Jailed For Assaulting Woman In Police Cell

A policeman who was caught on CCTV injuring a woman as he threw her into a cell has been jailed for six months.

Sergeant Mark Andrews was seen dragging Pamela Somerville, 59, across the floor of Melksham police station in Wiltshire before shoving her into the cell.

Former soldier Andrews was convicted of assault causing actual bodily harm after a trial at Oxford Magistrates’ Court in July.

The 37-year-old, who was suspended on full pay after his conviction, was sentenced at the same court.

Ms Somerville was arrested in July 2008 after being found asleep in her car.

She was detained for failing to provide a sample for a breath test.

The CCTV footage shows her lying on the floor for a minute before struggling to get up with blood pouring from a head wound.

Ms Somerville was taken to Royal United Hospital in Bath and needed stitches in a gash above her eye.

Passing sentence, Deputy District Judge Peter Greenfield said Andrews had abused his position of trust and only a custodial sentence was appropriate.

He said: “In my view, you presided over an atmosphere of bullying and intimidation upon Ms Somerville which culminated in the cell later that morning.”

The judge continued: “I regard that a gross breach of trust placed upon you by Ms Somerville.

“I consider that right thinking members of the public will be appalled and totally saddened by your actions as a police officer.”

Assistant Chief Constable Patrick Geenty of Wiltshire Police said: “I fully support the comments of the judge and the sentence handed down today.

“The officer let the public down, he let his colleagues down and he has let himself down. He was a disgrace.”

The Sky

September 8, 2010
Turkey Joins Europe, Electrically Speaking

Turkey may be frustrated in its bid to become part of the European Union, but by the end of September, it will join Europe’s electric grid.

Most electric systems in continental Europe — including those in countries like Poland and Romania — have synchronized currents, allowing electricity to flow easily from country to country. But other nations, including Great Britain, Norway, Sweden, Finland and until now, Turkey, have remained separate.

Turkey has been trying to connect for 10 years. Like Europe, it uses an alternating current, with the electrons dancing back and forth 50 times a second, but its system has been out of phase with the European grid.

Now, after extensive work by General Electric to enable Turkey’s system to connect, the country will join up for a one-year trial, according to theEuropean Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.

The synchronization will include careful monitoring of the alternating current around Turkey and the ability to remotely monitor and control power plants — or even to dump electrical load – if Turkey’s phasing strays too far from Europe’s. If the marching bands start to disagree altogether, the systems can separate again.

Turkey’s electric links run to Bulgaria and Greece, and they have recently been upgraded to carry more energy. A result will be one of the largest interconnected grids in the world, said Luis M. Perez, a General Electric engineer involved in the project.

The join-up also has potentially positive implications for the environment, Mr. Perez said in a telephone interview from Spain.

Turkey, he said, has a lot of hydroelectric projects. In a wet year, it may have more hydro power than it can use; now that power can be exported. And as Europe adds intermittent renewable sources, like wind and solar, a hydroelectric system can function as a convenient shock absorber, throttling back or starting up very quickly to offset variations from other power sources.

Synchronizing with Europe also has positive economic effects, because it will improve the stability of the Turkish grid, according to G.E. The company would not disclose the cost of its work there.

At some point, a technician will enter some keystrokes on a computer, and some electrical switches will move and make the connection to Europe. G.E. is not saying exactly when that join-up will take place.

The Newyork Times

September 8, 2010
Cappadocia guide: Turkey’s kingdom of caves

John Gimlette heads for Cappadocia, in central Turkey, to explore a magical subterranean world more than 2,000 years old.

Travel is sometimes a curse, and often a blessing. Just occasionally, it’s like a trip through a children’s story. Earlier this year, we found ourselves in a fable. For a week, we lived next to a little girl who shared her cave with 300 sheep. Over the centuries, her ancestors had hollowed out a pinnacle of rock. It now had so many windows it looked like a multi-storey shortbread. Through the main door I could see a donkey, and then – higher up – stovepipes, light bulbs and a Turkish flag. Here was a warren for human beings.

Our own cave was more elegant but with much the same view. It looked out over a huge swathe of Cappadocia; a swirling landscape the colour of oatmeal and peaches; gorges full of pinnacles like clusters of spears; the distant cone of Mount Erciyes, lightly powdered in snow.

This being a fable, the pinnacles were known as “fairy chimneys” and every morning the sky was full of hot-air balloons (it’s a long-established tradition for visitors to drift over Cappadocia in a balloon).

While the shepherdess enjoyed all this with her sheep, we watched in Ottoman splendour. Our cave had been transformed. Only Lucy (our five-year old) had a bed in the rock. The rest of our suite erupted grandly out of the ground. One room was like a parliament for sultans. There were alcoves, silks, a magnificent bed, seating for 20 viziers and an acre of Persian rugs. We even had a giant sultan’s bathtub, with a view across the steppes.

Ours wasn’t the only palace inserted in the cliff. A tiny underground street led away to another 30 rooms. They were all unforgettable. Some had sumptuous, subterranean drawing rooms and private wine cellars.

Others had collections of Roman jewellery or Ottoman costumes just waiting to be worn. Once, all this had been part of a village, deep in the rock. For years, it had lain abandoned after an outbreak of peace. Then, in 2001, it was revived by a remarkable man, Ömer Tosun, who named it The Museum Hotel. But all this burrowing needs some explaining. Like so much that is beautiful, it began with extraordinary violence. At first, the brutality was geological. About 70 million years ago, Mount Erciyes exploded, along with two other volcanoes. They smothered the land first in shortbread (properly known as tuff) and then a wafer-thin coating of basalt. Soon, the basalt began to crack, and the elements got in, and tore the tuff away.

Eventually all that was left were small blobs of basalt atop columns of tapering tuff. These are the so-called “fairy chimneys” and are up to 100ft tall. Actually, geologists have a much better word for them that’s both sinister and comic: hoodoos.

Unfortunately, the next wave of violence was predictably human. With so much ash and sediment, Cappadocia had become famously productive. At a time when the world’s population was 23 million, it had a city of 17,000 souls. Naturally, it was soon attracting unsavoury visitors. Among them were Hittites, Tabals, Persians, Romans (in AD17), Byzantines, Seljuks and Ottomans. The history of Cappadocia has been a skull-cracking tale.

In time, people learnt that the only way to survive was by ducking into holes. In this, the tuff was perfect. It could be cut like cake, and a good team of miners could scoop out a mansion in less than a week. The rock would then harden on exposure to air, and keep its shape for hundreds of years. “And that,” said Ömer Tosun, “is the great miracle of Cappadocia.”

Across the region there are now around 30 underground cities and over a thousand rock-hewn churches. Mustafa, one of Ömer’s guides, took us to Kaymakli, which was started in the second century as a retreat from the Romans. It was like a city designed by little boys. There were rat runs, escape chutes, bottomless shafts, secret larders and massive millstone doors that rolled into place. We spent what seemed like hours clambering around its streets. “And yet,” said Mustafa, “you’ve only seen 20 per cent of it. This city extends eight stories underground…”

Mustafa liked these cities, but preferred the churches.

It was almost as though he had a hotline to the ninth century and could make the frescoes leap into life. During our tours he found us high-rise churches (Soganli), churches hacked into cliffs (Ihlara Canyon) and a mountain honeycombed with chapels (Goreme).

But my favourite was Kolonlu. To get there, we had to walk an hour down Rose Valley, scramble into a gorge, jump two streams, slink along a ledge and then pass through a crack into the rock. Inside was a beautiful clean-cut nave filled with silvery light. I half-expected to see masons, packing up their tools, but they’d long since left, over a thousand years before.

Our last few days, we headed for Mount Erciyes, the source of all the tuff. It stood astride a city called Kayseri. Extending eight storeys up – instead of eight down – modern life clearly isn’t quite as cosy as the old, but there was an intriguing museum. Among its curios, we found some ceramic “torpedoes” (for burying Romans), a dried-up child, and a magnificent sarcophagus carved with the labours of Hercules. Ancient Cappadocia, it seems, was a tough place to live but a terribly elegant place in which to die.

The Telegraph

September 8, 2010
AN ETHNIC ARMENIAN … Sibel Edmonds Drops A Turkish Bombshell

SIBEL EDMONDS TURNS OUT TO BE AN ETHNIC ARMENIAN ..

———————————————————————————————

From: Muzaffer Karasulu

Subject: Interesting Article from RBN
This is an old story but I knew something different than this about this story. For example, I did not know that she was an ethnic Armenian.

==========================================================

by Joel Skousen, World Affairs Brief

Sibel Edmonds, the former FBI translator and whistleblower is a US citizen who was raised in Turkey. Fluent in Turkish, she got a job as a translator with the FBI where, over the next several years, she got wind of things she wasn’t supposed to see or hear. She became a whistleblower against the FBI hierarchy after she discovered collusion between other Turkish translators at the FBI and Middle Eastern terrorists, government officials and even Congressmen and women. Naturally, this is something the FBI should have been interested in investigating, but they weren’t. When she went to her superiors at the Bureau about the treachery she was witnessing within the translators office she was stonewalled at every step of the way and finally fired when she blew the whistle on them. Ever since, the FBI and the DOJ have been using every legal, illegal and unethical means to keep her from testifying openly about what she knows.

This week, Edmonds finally got her day on the witness stand before the Ohio Elections Commission (OEC), based on her allegations of Turkish influence buying in the electoral process. According to Edmund’s press release explaining why she is finally breaking her government imposed gag order, “The Government of Turkey had illegally infiltrated and influenced various U.S. government institutions and officials, including the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and individual members of the United States Congress.” Her no-holds-barred testimony is shaking the establishment precisely because our own government is involved in using Turkey as an intermediate in various nefarious affairs in the Middle East. That is one reason why Turkey has been able to get away with bribery and corruption without government interference.

Apparently, Edmonds got a glimpse of a much larger government conspiracy centered around Turkish interests and secret foreign policy initiatives involving Israel, energy pipelines, and state sponsored terrorism. Ever since the demise of the Ottoman empire, Turkey has had to make deals with the West in order to remain a player in world politics. Strategically located between all the major powers in Europe and the Middle East, Turkey acts as the smuggling facilitator of everything illicit going between the European powers and this nexus of conflict. In return, Turkey wants EU membership, which has been rejected, and is now turning to Russia for a deal with the other side. More on that later.

Because the government doesn’t want any of this to get to the public, Google’s blogger site has blocked Edmund’s blog page during this period and, along with every other establishment news outlet, has refused to publish anything about her dramatic revelations. Google, which got initial funding from the CIA, is more and more acting like a de facto government censor and propagandist. Kurt Nimmo of PrisonPlanet.com commented that, “Increasingly, Google and its properties — the vastly popular video site YouTube and equally popular Blogger — are tools for shutting down opposition to the government. On the weekend, Google removed an Alex Jones video critical of Obama’s policies.”

Brad Friedman of Brad’s Blog has had the best coverage on the net concerning Edmund’s testimony. He first summarizes a 2008 interview Sibel Edmonds had with the London Sunday Times: “’What I found was damning,’ Edmonds tells the Times about the information she learned while at the FBI concerning the nuclear blackmarket activities and proliferation of several government agencies, including her own unit at the FBI. ‘While the FBI was investigating, several arms of the government were shielding what was going on.’ Among the newly disclosed information from Edmonds, in the extraordinary front_page Times article tonight:

1) Foreign intelligence agents from Turkey, Israel and Pakistan enlisted the support of high_level US officials in order to acquire a network of moles deep inside of sensitive American military and nuclear agencies, including “PhD students – with security clearance [at] Los Alamos nuclear laboratory in New Mexico, which is responsible for the security of the US nuclear deterrent.”

2) Members of the diplomatic community were given lists of potential “moles” at the sensitive installations. Edmonds tells the Times: “the lists contained all their ‘hooking points’, which could be financial or sexual pressure points, their exact job in the Pentagon and what stuff they had access to.”

3) Well_known US officials were then bribed by foreign agents to steal US nuclear secrets. One such incident from 2000 involves an agent overheard on a wiretap discussing “nuclear information that had been stolen from an air force base in Alabama,” in which the agent allegedly is heard saying: “We have a package and we’re going to sell it for $250,000.” Nuclear secrets were then subsequently sold by foreign agents to America’s enemies, including Iran, North Korea and Libya.

4) Pakistani officials involved in the nuclear black market network have significant cross_over with al_Qaeda and 9/11. Officials such as the chief of ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency, allegedly sent $100,000 to 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, and aides of A.Q. Kahn ___ who had used the stolen secrets to develop nuclear weapons for Pakistan ___ met with Osama bin Laden “weeks before 9/11…to discuss an Al_Qaeda nuclear device.”

5) Elements of the US government have repeatedly shut down investigations into these crimes under the guise of protecting “certain diplomatic relations.”

6) The US government has been aware of all of the above information since at least 2001.

As for Edmonds testimony before the Ohio Election Commission, Friedman says “The deposition is being videotaped and Edmonds hopes that it can be released as soon as possible after the deposition, though there have been some objections about releasing the video tape… Wow… just had lengthy conversation with [Ohio State Senator] Krikorian about Edmonds’ testimony. Just wow… Hang on to your seats…From my opinion, if I’m some of the current members of Congress, I’d be very very worried about the information that’s going to come out of this. There are current members of Congress that she has implicated in bribery, espionage [Congressman Schmidt (R-OH) is accused directly and that is why the issue is before the Ohio Election Commission]. It’s not good. It’s crazy. For people in power situations in the United States, who know about this information, if they don’t take action against it, in my opinion, it’s negligence.’

“Current members implicated are Dan Burton (R-IN), described as basically accepting bribes and involved in espionage for the Turkish government…she could not discuss the extremely illegal activities that Mr. Burton committed against U.S. interests, as she put it. Also, a current female Democratic member of Congress who has been blackmailed by the Turkish Government…called a ‘hooking exercise’…she’s apparently bi-sexual and they bugged her apartment, she’s married with children, and they set up a relationship with another female who went in and had sexual relationships with her. And they had all the episodes bugged within this current Representative’s home and they blackmailed her. [Wayne Madsen reveals that the Congresswomen is none other than “Jan Schakowsky (D_IL), a close ally of President Barack Obama and his chief of staff, former Representative Rahm Emanuel, who, like Schakowsky, represented a Chicago district.“]

“The context of the discussion was that this particular Representative [Schakowsky] was amenable to passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution [which Turkey doesn’t want passed. “The Armenian Genocide was carried out by the ‘Young Turk’ government of the Ottoman Empire in 1915_1916 (with subsidiaries to 1922_23). One and a half million Armenians were killed, out of a total of two and a half million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.” –Armenian Research Center]. Then, based on this ‘hooking’ operation, she [would] change her position [In reality, no such change was necessary because the Turkish lobby was successful in getting Republicans and key Democrats to call off the vote].

“Other people implicated besides Dan Burton included: Congressmen Livingston (R-TX), Hastert (R-IL) [now a lobbyist for Turkey], Dick Gephardt (D-MO), Stephen Solarz (D-NY) other non-Congressional members, people like Brent Scowcroft [Kissinger Associate and former NSA for Pres. George H.W. Bush], other appointed members of the U.S. government.

“One of the reasons we sought her testimony is especially for these reasons. I can tell you that counsel for Schmidt [Bruce Fein of the Bush administration] has been objecting to much of the testimony. I stopped counting the number of objections that were raised [The DOJ didn’t show up because Fein is acting informally on their behalf. This way, the Obama administration avoids the appearance of again defending a Bush era problem] . But, she’s an extremely credible witness, she knows a lot about what happened. She’s implicated Turkish organizations operating in the U.S. with both overt and covert operations [American Turkish Council, ATC, ATAA, and TACA]…She talked about how she was recruited to join these operations, she talked about the fact that the Inspector General’s report exonerated her, she talked about the circumstances around her dismissal.

“She talked about the fact that these Turkish American operations were, she said in her words, ‘all receiving support from the Turkish government. ‘She talks about one of the main lobby issues is suppressing U.S. media coverage of the Armenian Genocide and preventing the Armenian Genocide resolution in Congress from passing… She talked about the Rand Corp. [a CIA front], Brewster-Jennings [also a government front], plus nuclear secrets [Turkey was a facilitator for the CIA/Pakistani Khan nuclear smuggling ring].”

TURKEY-RUSSIAN ALLIANCE THWARTS EU ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Frustrated with the West’s failure to live up to its secret promises to reward Turkey with membership in the EU (public opinion is very much against allowing any more Turks and Muslims into the EU), Turkey has decided to reestablish links with Russia, the nemesis of the West. Hilmi Toros of IPS News writes from Istanbul.

“Once the worst of enemies, involved in 12 wars in three centuries, Turkey and Russia have suddenly become the best of friends, forging strong bonds that could be a counterpoint to the European Union if it freezes Turkey out of full membership. The countries call their ties ‘multi-dimensional co-operation,’ somewhat short of a ‘strategic partnership.’ but that too may be in the offing. On an eight-hour visit to Turkish capital Ankara last week, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed 20 deals with his counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. These are mostly commercial contracts in energy, collectively worth some 40 billion dollars.

“The two leaders also declared that rival gas pipelines Nabucco and South Stream to bring natural gas to European markets would be ‘complimentary’ rather than ‘conflicting.’ Nabucco, the 7.9 billion euro project backed by the EU and the United States, would bypass Russia in bringing gas from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Iraq and potentially also from Iran to Europe via Turkey. It is due to be operational by 2014.The Russian proposed South Stream, to become operational by 2016, would carry gas from Russia to Europe through Turkey’s territorial waters in the Black Sea and onward to Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Serbia, Hungary and Slovenia to Austria. Its objective is to bypass Ukraine, currently the conduit for 80 percent of Russian gas pumped to Europe.

“In the end, conflicting or complimentary, if both projects are realized, Russia and Turkey would play a major role in meeting Europe’s growing gas needs. For Europe, either an unfriendly Turkey or Russia would endanger energy security – and it would be much worse if both were ever to gang up on the EU together.” That’s precisely the threat this new partnership is intended to relay. Europe was hoping to moderate Russia’s stranglehold on Europe’s gas supplies by routing a new line through Turkey. This now gives Turkey more leverage to go back to the negotiating table over EU membership with new powers.

August 14, 2009

September 8, 2010
ARMENIAN HISTORIANS URGE NOT TO VISIT AKHTAMAR ON SEPTEMBER 19

Liana Yeghiazaryan

“Radiolur”
06.09.2010 17:06

A number of Armenian intellectuals from the History Institute of the
Armenian National Academy of sciences have issued a statement today,
according to which Turkey will demand an expensive reimbursement from
the Armenian side in exchange for the conduct of the liturgy at the
St. Cross Church of Akhtamar. Director of the History Institute Ashot
Melkonyan is confident that there only one way out of this slippery
situation – we should not support the Turkish show by visiting Akhtamar
on that day.

The Turkish side is trying to present the demonstration of the cross
to the public and the conduct of the liturgy at St. Cross Church as
an expression of goodwill towards Armenia and the Armenian people. The
Turkish side also wishes to involve 5-6 thousand people in the event.

Rumors say the Armenian-Turkish border is going to be opened for
three days. Armenian historians are assured, however, that Turkish
thus wants to reach certain objectives, which are anti-Armenian.

“We have no desire to participate in the recurrent Turkish show. This
is true mockery. It would take half an hour to install the cross
on the dome. I think there can be no second opinion here,” said
Ashot Melkonyan, adding that “we are the masters of our Akhtamar
and we will have a lot of opportunists to conduct liturgies there,
and we should not do it under the Turkish flag waving and the face
of Mustafa Kemal there.”

Director of the Oriental Studies Institute Ruben Safrastyan says the
show organized by Turkey is a simple deceit. According to him, the
decision of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to boycott the mass
at St. Cross has made many citizens refuse from the idea of leaving
for Van.

“I think the majority of Armenians say ‘no’ to this show. We should
understand that the Shariat prohibits renovating a Christian Church
and installing a cross on it. Besides, the political situation in
Turkey should be taken account of. 75% of the Turkish citizens are
active Muslims, and the government will not go against them. Actually,
they are deceiving,” he said.

Armenian historians are confident that e Tukrey is doung that step
to resist the anti-Turkish wave expected to raise on the occasion
of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. According to the
statement, Turkey had to do this under the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.

The statements calls on every Armenian, who respects his national and
religious dignity, to refrain from visiting Akhtamar on that day to
avoid becoming a tool in the hands of the foreigners in this dirty
and anti-Armenian game.

__._,_.___

September 8, 2010