VIENNA, Austria — A national referendum will be held on Turkey’s EU accession, regardless of the outcome of negotiations between Brussels and Ankara, Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann announced on Tuesday (May 3rd) after meeting with Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Vienna. Gul stressed that Turkey’s membership could provide commercial benefits to bloc members, including Austria. At a Turkish-Austrian business forum, he stressed alternative energy resources. “Turkey is one of the most successful countries in terms of hydroelectric power plants … and one of the world’s most important countries in terms of pipelines,” Gul said.
Separately Tuesday, a group of 57 NGOs submitted a declaration to the European Parliament (EP) in Strasbourg calling for an end to the stalemate in Turkey’s EU accession. Haluk Kabaalioglu, chairman of the Economic Development Foundation, assured EP members that Turkey is still interested in joining the EU. “It is time to indicate that the EU is also interested in Turkey,” he added. (Haber Turk, Anadolu news agency, Hurriyet, Anadolu news agency, Zaman
via Austria to hold referendum on Turkey’s EU membership (SETimes.com).
ISTANBUL, Turkey, May 4 (UPI) — Turkish armored vehicle maker Otokar plans to export eight-wheeled armored vehicles it has just developed, the newspaper Hurriyet Daily News reported.
“The Turkish armed forces needs no such vehicles in the very short term,” Serdar Gorguc, the Otokar general manager said.” On the other hand, many militaries in the world are in need of such vehicles, so we are in this business.”
Otokar plans to display its Arma 8×8 at an international defense fair next week in Istanbul, Turkey.
The Arma is an amphibious tactical wheeled armored vehicle with a high degree of ballistic and mine protection.
Otokar said the Arma 8×8 will be competing with rivals for contracts in at least two countries in the next two months but the countries weren’t identified.
Otokar is owned by Turkey’s top business conglomerate, Koc Holding and produces a family of seven armored vehicles.
Last December it signed contracts worth $9.3 million for exports of several vehicle types and a contract worth more than $10 million for the first export of its Arma 6×6 vehicles.
Under a $500 million contract, Otokar and its partners have been tasked to deliver four prototypes for a new generation tank by 2015. In agreement with South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem, Otokar is obtaining technology transfer from the company that produced South Korea’s K1 and K2 main battle tanks.
The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is involved in activities such as drug smuggling, trafficking in human beings and money laundering in European Union states, according to a report released by the EU’s police agency, Europol.
“Information obtained from EU Member States shows, for instance, that both the PKK/Kongra-Gel are actively involved in drugs and human trafficking, the facilitation of illegal immigration, credit card skimming, money laundering and fraud for the purpose of funding terrorist (support) operations,” Europol said in its 2011 EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report.
Turkey has repeatedly criticized EU countries for not effectively fighting the PKK and its umbrella organization, Kongra-Gel, particularly by not prohibiting its fund raising and propaganda activities.PKK/Kongra-Gel has been on the EU’s list of terrorist organizations.
“The PKK/Kongra-Gel … also collects money from their members, using labels like ‘donations’ and ‘membership fees,’ but are in fact extortion and illegal taxation. In addition to organized extortion campaigns, there are indications that the PKK/Kongra-Gel are actively involved in money laundering, illicit drugs and human trafficking, as well as illegal immigration inside and outside the EU,” the report said. “In March 2010, a simultaneous and joint operation against the PKK/Kongra-Gel was carried out in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Turkey. Investigations into the PKK/Kongra-Gel were also conducted in Italy, Romania and Slovakia. These investigations into PKK/Kongra-Gel activities were linked to recruitment, financing, logistical support, propaganda and training camps.”
The report also mentioned propaganda activities and said Roj TV, a Europe-based television station which Turkey says is a mouthpiece for the PKK, is used by the group in such activities.
“Separatist groups use international propaganda and their own media (TV and radio stations). Member states report that separatist organizations, such as the [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] LTTE, ETA and the PKK/Kongra-Gel, spread their ideas at cultural gatherings, during demonstrations and sporting events, and through television channels, such as the Tamil Television Network and Roj TV,” said the report.
The report also said the PKK was pursuing a “double strategy” of resorting to violence in Turkey, while seeking legitimacy abroad. It said: “The announcement, in June 2010, of the PKK/Kongra-Gel intention to enter a more violent period of its history was immediately followed by the declaration of a ceasefire which was, in turn, belied by the bomb attack in İstanbul in October 2010. No execution of attacks in the EU show the PKK/Kongra-Gel’s double strategy of armed struggle in Turkey while at the same time seeking to gain a greater degree of legitimacy abroad.”
The report said the PKK was likely to pursue this double strategy. It also noted that the terrorism threat posed by the group to EU states can currently be considered as “relatively low.”
“However the large number of PKK/Kongra-Gel militants living in the EU and the continuing support activities in the EU, like large demonstrations organized in the past, show that the PKK/Kongra-Gel is in a position to mobilize its constituency at any time and is an indication that it maintains the capability to execute attacks in the EU,” it added.
Clergymen to meet with influential Turkish preacher; Rabbi, Catholic priest, Druse kadi, Beduin sheikh will spend 3 days with Adnan Oktar.
An interdenominational delegation from Israel will meet with a prominent Muslim preacher in Istanbul on Wednesday to discuss ways to enhance understanding between the faiths.
A rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Druse kadi and a Beduin sheikh will spend three days with Adnan Oktar, known also as Harun Yahya, a philosopher and theologian with a large following in the Muslim world.
Such encounters have taken place for a few years now, but this will be the second time the delegation will be headed by Ayoub Kara, Deputy Minister for Development of the Negev and Galilee. Kara has advocated the improvement of ties between Jerusalem and Ankara as a vital need for Israel.
The group will also meet with Mufti of Istanbul Prof. Mustafa Cagrici.
“We are trying, along with people of faith, to create a situation of dialogue, and resistance to extreme Islam and terror,” Mendi Safadi, Kara’s chief of staff, said earlier this week.
On the sidelines of the interfaith discussions, Kara will meet with a member of the Syrian opposition, to present him with a list of Jewish holy sites in Syria. Safadi would not disclose the name of the Syrian politician.
When regimes are overturned, he said, there is a risk of Jewish sites being looted and plundered. “This is a request that the Jewish sites be safeguarded by what might become the new regime in Syria,” Safadi said.
One of the delegates, Rabbi Yeshayahu Hollander of Petah Tikva, is an associate justice on the Jerusalem Rabbinic Court for Issues of Non-Jews. Hollander is active in interfaith relations, specifically with Muslims and Christians.
The connection between Adnan Oktar and Hollander, who is a member of the nascent Sanhedrin, began over three years ago when Oktar’s people asked the rabbi to come to Turkey to meet and talk. Hollander, who accepted the invitation, described Oktar as “a man of religion, a philosopher who tries to make the world a better place.” Oktar has an extremely influential television program, broadcasted daily and viewed by millions.
This is Hollander’s seventh visit to Turkey for interfaith dialogue. “If people like Oktar’s broadcast, I will definitely dedicate the time to them to encourage them,” he said, noting that Oktar speaks well of Israel and believes it should belong to the Jewish people.
Hollander was far from being sure that this encounter would set off a change in the attitude of the Muslim world toward the Jews.
“I’m not optimistic, but can’t give up on the chance,” he said. “With the [Muslim] Arabs there is not much leeway, since they have [political] interests at hand, and I don’t expect a breakthrough from them in the initial stage. But here is an opportunity to reach understandings with them through non-Arab Muslims.
If we succeed, there is a chance that [the message of moderate Islam will reach Muslims] in Europe and America, most of whom are emigrants in search of a better life, who do not want to appear to their surroundings as an aggressive group that came to usurp their lands.”
“If non-Arab Muslims are able to show the Europeans that the [extreme Islamic movements] Salafis and Wahabis are practically inventions that developed in the 20th century,” and do not represent Islam as a whole, “there will be a possibility for peace in Europe as well. And if the non- Arab Muslim world makes the strategic decision to live at peace with the Jews, that will undoubtedly influence the Arabs. Especially since the Koran endorses such an option,” Hollander said.
For second-time Beduin delegate Sheikh Atef al-Krenawi, such a meeting is important not only from the perspective of inter-religious dialogue, but also as an opportunity to show the Turkish regime and entire world that Israel is a peace-seeking entity that treats all its citizens well.
As an Israeli citizen, Krenawi feels that it’s his duty to take part in a dialogue that could promote good ties with the Muslim world and promote peace. “This initiative should come from Arab Israelis, who should be encouraged to volunteer for their state. Our religion instructs us to strive for proximity with the Jews,” he said.
He also noted that Jews are mentioned in the Koran as cousins.
“If only moderate Islam would influence the Arab world,” he said. “People from around the Middle East quietly tell me they are envious of life in Israel. But after the [current] revolutions, moderation will prosper. Once true democracy exists, we will begin hearing good news.
“Religious leaders – who have influence over their followers – must lead such dialogue for peace and for the people,” Krenawi said.
While the current state of interfaith relations was not necessarily encouraging, Krenawi said he believed in such efforts and was raising his hands in despair.
“We must continue to reach out our hand,” he said. “Eventually, a hand will be extended back.”
ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Suspected separatist gunmen ambushed a Turkish police escort, killing one officer and wounding two, in northern Turkey near where Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held an election rally Wednesday.
Erdogan had left by helicopter from the city of Kastamonu by the time of the attack, which targeted a police vehicle providing an escort for an AK Party campaign bus.
Campaigning has begun for a parliamentary election on June 12 that is expected to result in Erdogan winning a third consecutive term.
Television pictures showed Erdogan subsequently arriving at another election rally in the northern province of Amasya, where he was greeted by thousands of AK supporters waving party flags.
He blamed separatist militants for the attack, casting suspicion on the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and its affiliates.
“Those dark minds, these terrorists, these separatists are only able to do this, those who understand there is nothing they can do through the ballot box,” Erdogan said in Amasya.
“Our people will never allow these terrorists, these bandits to divide them,” he said, addressing the rally in full view but flanked by two bodyguards.
State broadcaster TRT said initial information pointed to the PKK as perpetrators. It did not provide any details.
The attack came after thousands of Kurds gathered in the main southeastern city of Diyarbakir Wednesday for a funeral of PKK guerrillas killed in a clash with security forces in the province of Tunceli last week.
The PKK ended a six-month ceasefire in February and there have been fears of rising violence ahead of the election.
PRIOR WARNINGS
Media reports a month ago said the interior ministry and police had warned against potential attacks by the PKK in the Black Sea region, and in Kastamonu in particular.
The attack happened on a country road winding through thickly forested hillsides south of Kastamonu.
According to an NTV news channel report, a grenade was thrown at the police vehicle and gunmen opened fire as it burst into flames. One report quoted a senior local official as saying no explosive was thrown.
Television images showed fire services arriving at the scene and smoke rising from the police car and an ambulance parked nearby, while security forces combed the hillsides.
PKK militants attacked a police vehicle in the Black Sea province of Sinop last month, injuring three police officers.
Kastamonu province, on the Black Sea, had not previously been known as a scene of guerrilla violence.
However, Kurdish, leftist and Islamist militants have often carried out gun and bomb attacks across Turkey in the past.
More than 40,000 people have been killed in a separatist conflict in southeastern Turkey since the PKK took up arms against the state in 1984.
The AK Party took power in 2002, and while it has overseen a period of unprecedented prosperity, critics fear it harbors a secret agenda to roll back the republic’s secular constitution.
Erdogan denies any such intention, although he does plan to introduce a new constitution if elected in order to make a clean break with a past era of military rule.
Prosecutors say the AK government has been targeted by a series of coup plots involving violent attacks by suspected militant secularists in recent years. Hundreds of people are on trial on conspiracy charges.
(Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore, editing by Daren Butler and Mark Heinrich)
via Gunmen attack Turk police after PM’s rally; one dead | Reuters.
New Visa Rules For African Citizens Turkish Airlines cause change in visa policy
By Wolfgang H. Thome, eTN | May 03, 2011
(eTN) – Turkish Airlines has reportedly prevailed upon their immigration service in changing visa rules for African citizens, flying with Turkish from the airline’s growing network across the African continent, connecting in Istanbul for their final destination.
A source close to the airline in Kampala confirmed, while discussing the related issue of a Turkish Food Festival, that any passenger, wishing to do a stopover in Istanbul, or travel to see the ancient sites along the Mediterranean Sea and further inland, could now do so, as long as s/he already holds a valid Schengen visa, a visa to the United States or the UK.
This change in policy seems to emulate the successful campaign Emirates has been running for decades now in which they assist travelers from Africa with the procurement of a visitor visa, and Turkey will have taken a lead from this success and now implemented measures to bring more visitors and more cash into their own country.
Travelers from Africa, especially those already cleared for visa to Europe, the UK and the US/Canada pose a minimal risk to jump and remain while enroute outbound or homebound, and it was probably for such considerations that the Turkish authorities listened to Turkish Airlines in their quest to capture more passengers and bring more visitors to Turkey.
The airline presently flies several times a week between Istanbul and Entebbe, before flying on to Dar es Salaam.
Alongside these changes, Turkey has also of late embarked on a diplomatic offensive in those African countries they fly to, bringing in government and private sector delegations aimed to discuss increased trade links, tourism, and generally closer economic and political ties with key African countries. Turkish Airlines has one of the fastest-growing fleets and is a member of Star Alliance, the global aviation industry leader.
via New Visa Rules For African Citizens Turkish Airlines cause change in visa policy – eTurboNews.com.
