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Renault to shift more production to Turkey

A cameraman is silhouetted as he films on the Renault booth during the first media day of the Geneva Auto Show at the Palexpo in Geneva (Valentin Flauraud Reuters, REUTERS / March 6, 2012)

Laurence Frost and Gilles Guillaume Reuters

3:26 a.m. CDT, October 5, 2012

PARIS (Reuters) – French automaker Renault plans to build more than 70 percent of its Clio subcompacts in Turkey, union sources said, in a shift abroad that could inflame tensions with workers and the government, its biggest shareholder.

During internal presentations, Renault disclosed plans to source less than 30 percent of the new Clio model from France, according to two union officials who declined to be identified.

“This was presented as a decision,” one of the sources said.

A Renault spokesman declined to comment on production plans for the fourth-generation Clio, France’s second-bestselling car this year. Some 41 percent of its last version were built domestically, with 46 percent sourced from Turkey and 13 percent from Spain.

With unemployment at a 13-year high, French President Francois Hollande’s government has pledged to reverse the trend within a year and is already pressuring high-profile companies such as ArcelorMittal and Sanofi to keep jobs in France.

Domestic plants accounted for 42 percent of Renault’s overall European deliveries last year. That compares with 64 percent for rival PSA Peugeot Citroen , which drew ministerial wrath by announcing 8,000 job cuts and a plant closure earlier this year.

Renault’s gradual transfer of production to lower-wage economies has already proved to be a sore point in relations with the French state, which owns 15 percent of the automaker.

Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn was summoned for a public dressing-down by former President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2010, after reports first emerged that the Clio could move abroad.

Renault responded at the time with a pledge to maintain production levels in Flins, west of Paris, until output of its Zoe electric cars had ramped up to take the Clio’s place.

But the shift to Turkey is going ahead, the sources said, even as Zoe manufacturing volumes remain an unknown – with deliveries not due to start until early next year.

“There’s no visibility on how many Zoes they’re going to produce – and it’s unclear who’s buying them at this stage,” London-based UBS analyst Philippe Houchois said.

“They’re obviously under pressure and may have to decide whether to build more (Clios) in France to keep the peace with the government.”

Sales of electric cars including Japanese affiliate Nissan’s Leaf have so far failed to meet expectations.

Paris-based Peugeot has also halted the supply of re-badged electric cars from Mitsubishi Motors to run down its stock of unsold vehicles.

Renault is also asking its unions for nationwide concessions on pay and conditions to avert mass layoffs of the kind announced by Peugeot, Chief Operating Officer Carlos Tavares said last week in an interview at the Paris auto show.

Deliveries of the new Clio were set to begin as the car makes its public debut at the show, which runs until October 14.

(Editing by James Regan)

via Renault to shift more production to Turkey: sources – chicagotribune.com.

October 6, 2012
US supports Turkey’s military response against Syria

By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT

10/06/2012 01:10

White House spokesman says “US stands behind Turkey as they take action because we believe that action is appropriate.”

Photo: REUTERS/Larry Downing

WASHINGTON – The United States expressed strong support for Turkey Friday as it took military action to respond to Syrian attacks on its border.

“We do certainly stand behind Turkey as they take that action because we believe that action is appropriate,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said when asked about the recent flare-up between the two countries.

Related:

‘Several Syrian soldiers killed in Turkish bombardment’

UN reaches consensus on text condemning Syria

Turkey returned fire Friday after a mortar fired from Syria landed in the southern part of the country. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Turkish army bombarded Syrian military targets after five civilians were killed by a Syrian shelling earlier in the week.

The Turkish parliament has authorized the military to engage in cross-border action should there be further Syrian attacks.

The violence is threatening to turn the internal Syrian conflict into a regional war.

Earnest also said that the United States “condemns the violence and the aggressive actions of the Syrians.”

NATO has passed a resolution condemning the violence, as did the UN Security Council. But UN Security Council permanent member and Syria ally Russia has called for restraint on the part of Turkey, as has Iran.

Earnest referred to Turkey’s actions as “designed to ensure that their sovereignty is no longer violated by Syrian aggression.”

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday his country was “not far” from war with Syria following the cross-border attacks.

In a belligerent speech to a crowd in Istanbul, Erdogan warned the Assad government it would be making a fatal mistake if it picked a fight with Turkey.

“We are not interested in war, but we’re not far from it either,” Erdogan said in his speech. “Those who attempt to test Turkey’s deterrence, its decisiveness, its capacity, I say here they are making a fatal mistake.”

The cross-border violence was the most serious so far in the conflict, now in its 19th month, and underscored how it could flare across the region.

Turkey, once an Assad ally and now a leading voice in calls for him to quit, shelters more than 90,000 Syrian refugees in camps on its territory and has allowed rebel army leaders sanctuary.

Violence has also spilled over into Lebanon.

More than 30,000 people have been killed in the revolt against Assad, which began with peaceful street protests but is now a full-scale civil war also fought on sectarian lines.

Reuters contributed to this report.

via US supports Turkey’s military response aga… JPost – Middle East.

October 6, 2012
TURKISH DECEIT: Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Allah’s Boys

In a classic provocation reminiscent of the Gulf of Tonkin fairy tale that “legitimized” the Vietnam War, and Hitler’s bogus rationale for invading Poland, the Turkish war criminal gang “led from behind” by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are trying to do the impossible. Impossible, if one has half a brain. They are trying to convince the world that Syria, besieged for over a year by its once friendly neighbor, Turkey, its cities ravaged by terrorists based and financed in Turkey, wants to provoke an even wider, bloodier conflict.

A miniscule border village, Akcakale, was hit by a solitary shell of undisclosed origin. It defies logic that it came from the Syrian army. The Syrian army has no control over Syrian borders thanks to the relentless subversive efforts of the Turkish government. Its army is certainly not so incompetent as to try to defend an indefensible border when the real battle is in its interior cities. So dispense with the idea that there are such things as borders between Syria and Turkey. They have been effaced by Turkish subversion. The gates are wide open. Syria has no control. And the non-Syrian “Free Syrian Army” is a rabble under arms, undisciplined and unscrupulous.

It is widely known that Erdoğan’s motley gang, with headquarters in Adana, Ankara, and Istanbul, has been raining havoc via over-the border raids from the Hatay province in southeastern Turkey. (See my writing of 29 June entitled America’s War-Horse Harlots for the grim, deceitful details.) Surprised by the horrific violence inflicted by the Orwellian “Free Syrian Army” in Aleppo and Damascus? Don’t be. Convoys of Turkish trucks have been supplying the explosive ingredients for car bombs over the Turkish border for months. Syria has been long under a medieval siege, courtesy of its treacherous neighbor.

Is it logical that Syria would lob a single shell into a Turkish village to prompt a massive response from NATO, the bloody-handed “savior” of Libya? Hardly. Besides, the Turkish prime minister has been lusting for NATO support. And the Turkish army is itching to prove its manhood after being purged of its command and general staff by the Turkish prime minister, Turkey’s new sultan. It’s a perfect storm for a catastrophe by incompetents. The Turkish media is the functional equivalent of Pravda during the Stalin era. And the Turkish people are either under deep anesthesia or, sadly, suffering from a fatal indifference. In short, Turkey is the perfect puppet for doing America’s bidding, that is, to be “led from behind.” And America is the perfect coward to do its deceitful bloody work while hiding under the capacious skirts of Turkey’s Allah’s Boys.

The “Free Syrian Army” gangsters have been lusting for heavier weapons, a no-fly zone, and stinger missiles. So why would Syria provoke a wider war? Answer… it wouldn’t. Only if you believe in the tooth fairy, Santa Claus, and Colin Powell’s infamous UN presentation would you echo the craven chorus now being orchestrated by the likes of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Hillary Clinton, and the American stooges in the apparent form of the UN and NATO. Listen to Erdoğan shout that Syria has “breached Turkey’s borders” and one wants to laugh out loud (or vomit) at the hypocrisy. Only if you are congenitally stupid would you believe the hypocritical bilge being spewed by these ever-outraged killers from the west and their henchmen. What is infinitely more logical is that the shell was fired by the criminal elements in the employ of Turkey and America. They are the ones with the clearest of motives. And by doing so, they got what they wanted all along, NATO and UN legitimacy for their rape of Syria. But regardless of who fired the shell that hit the house in Akcakale, Turkey and its patron, America, by their actions, have fomented all the violence in Syria. Turkey has funded, plotted and armed a phony civil war in direct contravention of international law. (See my Letter to The Honorable Abdullah Gül, president of Turkey dated 9 Sept. 2012.) The onus for the death, chaos and destruction is theirs. So why should Turkey and the Turkish people be exempt from suffering the consequences of their misdeeds?

So when you hear the orchestrated script of outrage over the errant or not-so-errant shell, when you hear the barrage of adjectives like “atrocious” (Erdoğan), “depraved” (the Pentagon), “flagrant” (NATO), and the ever popular “outraged” (Clinton) remember the following. This hype is an old, dirty trick. The truth lies in using our brains to examine what is logical and what is not. The truth lies in clear reasoning, devoid of influence from the spewers of propaganda and outright falsehoods. And remember this. The likes of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has yet to explain the killing of scores of his own people by his own military because of false intelligence rendered by his friends in the Pentagon and the CIA. Moreover, he has yet to explain the downing of the Turkish reconnaissance jet that so obviously violated Syrian airspace. This latter event has given Turkey the rationale for the recent blather from the Turkish foreign minister about “rules of engagement” as if Turkey has followed any rules in its extended attempt to overthrow the duly constituted government of Syria. This arrogant, criminal activity by America and Turkey is what is truly ATROCIOUS, DEPRAVED, FLAGRANT, and OUTRAGEOUS.

James (Cem) Ryan, Ph.D.
Founder, West Point Graduates Against The War

Istanbul
4 October 2012

October 4, 2012
Syrian refugees in Turkey: Police are forcing us from homes

By Ivan Watson and Gul Tuysuz, CNN

October 3, 2012 — Updated 1014 GMT (1814 HKT)

The United Nations refugee agency said that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries has more than tripled since June to over 300,000 The United Nations refugee agency said that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries has more than tripled since June to over 300,000

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Turkish police are making Syrian renters leave homes in Turkey, refugees say

Syrians say they are being unfairly pushed to refugee camps

More than 93,000 refugees currently live in a network of camps spread along the border

Antakya, Turkey (CNN) — Turkish police are going house to house in this border province issuing an ultimatum, Syrian refugees say: Either move into a refugee camp or go back to Syria.

More than a half dozen Syrian refugees living in rented homes in Antakya and the nearby town of Yayladagi offered similar descriptions to CNN of the stark choice recently imposed by local Turkish authorities.

“I told one cop, ‘What if I don’t leave?’” said a male Syrian refugee who asked not to be named to protect him from Turkish and Syrian government reprisals. “He said, ‘We will take you to the police station and force you to evacuate’” your home.

“The first time the police came, they asked for my passport, took a look at it, and then one of them said, ‘You have three months, you can stay here for three months,’” said another Syrian man who asked to be named as Abu Ahmed to protect his family members still living in Syria.

Syria’s new normal

Syrian refugees struggle to find haven

The Syrian refugee crisis

“Then 20 days later they came back,” he said. “I wasn’t home but my wife was, and they made her sign a paper to evacuate ourselves from this house within four days.”

At least a half dozen other Syrian refugees have told similar stories of Turkish police ordering them to abandon homes that they have rented here in Turkey.

Turkish officials at the local and national level of government confirmed that authorities were pushing Syrian refugees toward the camps.

“We are trying to guide and suggest people who arrived legally or ‘illegally’ to go either into the camps, if they have arrived illegally, or suggesting the others to move to nearby or different cities,” said a Turkish official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to be interviewed by the press.

“The local authorities … they have to do such things in the interest of regularizing the presence,” he added.

Officially, more than 93,000 refugees currently live in a network of camps spread along Turkey’s long border with Syria.

But Turkish diplomats estimate there are another 40,000 to 50,000 unofficial Syrian refugees who have chosen to live in Turkey outside of the camps. On Tuesday the United Nations refugee agency said that the number of Syrian refugees in neighboring countries has more than tripled since June to over 300,000.

via Syrian refugees in Turkey: Police are forcing us from homes – CNN.com.

October 4, 2012
Turkish party endorses Erdogan’s ‘example’ for Islamist democracies
By Gul Tuysuz and Yesim Comert, CNN

October 1, 2012 — Updated 0151 GMT (0951 HKT)

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his wife Emine salute the audience during a congress of his party on Sunday.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Recep Tayyip Erdogan re-elected AKP party chairman

“We have shown that … a Muslim population can have … democracy,” he says

Leaders of Egypt, Iraqi Kurdistan are in attendance at rally

Critics accuse Erdogan of authoritarian tendencies, citing arrests of journalists and rivals
Istanbul (CNN) — Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was re-elected chairman of his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, at a boisterous party rally Sunday attended by throngs of supporters as well as foreign leaders.

At the AKP party congress, Erdogan once again sought to cement the role of the AKP not only as a party that has reshaped Turkish politics but also as a role model for regional democratic Islamist movements in the wake of the Arab Spring.

In a two-and-a-half-hour speech, delivered in front of an adoring crowd of party delegates, Erdogan detailed his party’s achievements after nearly a decade in power, while also laying out a road map for what his role could be in the future.

“We have shown, both at home and abroad, that a country with a Muslim population can have a thriving and advanced democracy,” said Erdogan, who called the AKP a “conservative democratic party.”

“This understating that we have put forth has gone beyond our borders and has practically become an example to all Muslim countries,” he announced to an audience that included Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy as well as Massoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan regional government in Iraq.

Few answers in Syria

Erdogan, who won his party’s chairmanship for the third time on Sunday with 1,421 votes, has reached the AKP’s term limit. What his role will be after that has been the source of much debate in Turkey.

Erdogan told delegates that he will continue to serve and that, “This is not a goodbye but a pause in the notes of a song.”

“One of the most important aspects of the convention was the message that the prime minister is not going anywhere,” Suat Kiniklioglu, a former AKP parliamentarian and director of the Strategic Communication Center based in Ankara, wrote in an e-mail to CNN.

“Instead he will try to become a president who can maintain his party affiliation, or will try to change the system into a presidential or semi-presidential system,” he wrote.

Kurdish conflict escalating, report says

Turkish critics regularly accuse Erdogan of authoritarian tendencies, citing the arrests of scores of journalists and hundreds of political rivals in recent years. Some commentators have warned that a presidential system could weaken democracy in Turkey.

“This was mainly about consolidating his own power and thickening the cement on which his party stands on,” Yavuz Baydar, a columnist for the newspaper Today’s Zaman, said in an interview with CNN.

“He does not take for granted that he needs a broader base to become a fully empowered president. Either he will seek a more reformist base or he will go more conservative, omitting ‘democrat’ from ‘conservative democrat,’ ” said Baydar.

Refugees languish in squalor at Turkish border

The AKP’s internal constitution was amended during the party congress to allow parliamentarians who have already served three terms — such as Erdogan — to be re-elected after sitting out an election cycle.

The party congress also led to the appointment of a slew of new names to the central coordination committee of the AKP. Some political analysts said the choice of appointees signaled Erdogan appeared to be making overtures to the conservative side of the political spectrum, ahead of municipal elections next October.

However, one notable change included the removal of Erdogan’s interior minister from one of the AKP’s top leadership councils.

Interior Minister Idris Naim Sahin’s hawkish stance towards Turkey’s long-simmering Kurdish conflict has sparked controversy both within the AKP and throughout Turkey.

“As of today, we want to turn to a blank page and write in it with our Kurdish brothers. We want to protect that page from terror and make it a new page of peace and brotherhood,” said Erdogan.

His remarks echoed themes of previous speeches, when Erdogan’s government launched a series of reforms aimed at relaxing cultural restrictions on Kurds in Turkey. As part of what was described as the “democratic opening,” the Turkish state established a Kurdish-language TV channel for the first time and eased bans on Kurdish language education in schools.

But the peace overtures have failed to bring an end to an insurgency that has claimed the lives of more than 30,000 people over the last three decades. Over the last year, violence has spiked in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey to deadly levels unseen in more than a decade.

After winning numerous elections since his party first swept to power in 2002, Erdogan appears to have a popular mandate under Turkey’s constitution, which was written by a military junta in the 1980s.

A new constitution could conceivably expand rights for Turkey’s restive Kurdish minority. But that process has stalled amid disagreements with opposition political parties, who accuse the AKP of trying to rewrite the constitution unilaterally.
October 2, 2012
Two L.A.-Area Congressmen In Heated Debate over Armenian Issues

Cong. Howard Berman and Cong. Brad Sherman, both serving on the powerful Foreign Affairs Committee, are forced to run against each other in the November 6 elections, because of redistricting. The two congressmen are both Democrats, Jewish Americans, and both consistently supportive of Armenian issues. Voters of the 30th congressional district have a difficult choice in this hotly contested congressional race!

The Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region hosted a public debate at the Ferrahian School’s Avedissian Hall in Encino on Sept. 29, giving the congressmen an opportunity to present their views on Armenian issues to Armenian-Americans voters. ANCA co-chair Nora Hovsepian delivered the welcoming remarks, followed by moderator Zanku Armenian who introduced the two candidates.

The debate got heated right from the start when Cong. Sherman pointed out that while he has been exclusively a member of the Armenian Caucus, Cong. Berman has been a member of both the Turkish and Armenian Caucuses in Congress.

Cong. Berman countered stating: “for nearly three decades of service in the Congress, I have been an ardent, consistent, and outspoken advocate for the Armenian Cause. I worked persistently to achieve US recognition of the Armenian Genocide. As Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I led the successful effort to win that recognition at the Committee level.” He went on to affirm that it would be his priority to have the House recognize the Armenian Genocide before its 100th anniversary, and he would personally urge Pres. Obama to keep his pledge on the Genocide. The failure to recognize the Genocide is “a huge moral stain on this great nation’s record,” Cong. Berman stated. He then proudly announced: “I halted the transfer of sensitive arms to Azerbaijan because I grew sick and tired of Azerbaijan’s arms build up and bellicose rhetoric. Just this week, I wrote a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about one of the most disgusting actions any world leader has taken within memory — I am talking about Pres. Aliyev’s decision to pardon an Azerbaijani axe-murderer who was serving a life sentence for killing an innocent Armenian soldier in his sleep…. I asked Secretary Clinton that first, all of NATO condemns Aliyev’s action, and secondly, that Azerbaijan is suspended from all future NATO-sponsored activities.”

In response to questions from panelists Harut Sassounian, publisher of The California Courier, and Ara Khachatourian, English editor of Asbarez, the congressmen addressed US recognition of the Armenian Genocide, reparations from Turkey, Israel’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide, protection of Armenian communities in Syria and Georgia, payment of rent for US air base in Incirlik, Turkey to Armenian owners of that land, return of churches in Turkey to Christian communities, Israeli arms sales to Azerbaijan, US aid to Karabagh (Artsakh), Azerbaijan’s and Hungary’s culpability in releasing the Azeri axe-murderer, independence of Artsakh, US trade agreements with Armenia, and Turkish Gulen charter schools in the United States. Below are excerpts from their remarks:

Cong. Berman: “Turkey has to understand that they have to come to terms with their own history. I am Jewish. The notion that in order to avoid hurting sensibilities, we do not acknowledge the historical truth of the Genocide, to me, is a horrible stain on our country.”

Cong. Sherman: “Genocide denial is the last step in genocide; and the first step in the next genocide. That’s why, it is critical that America recognize the first genocide of the 20th century. I will work … as many years as it takes, but hopefully as quickly as possible, to get Congress to recognize the Genocide. … It is time to put pressure on the administration, especially in the next 38 days, to turn to both candidates for president and get a clear statement from them. … We should know what they are going to do next April.”

Cong. Berman criticized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for having referred to the Armenian Genocide as an “historical debate.” He stated: “No one in the Congress makes the case that the Genocide didn’t happen. They may argue ‘oh, we can’t hurt our relationship with Turkey’ or may be they’re close to some people who are representing Turkey … but nowhere do I hear now, like I used to hear, ‘this is an historical debate.’ … It is very disappointing when the leadership of our country goes back to raising that issue…. This happened. It has to be acknowledged. The Germans acknowledged it, and particularly for somebody who is Jewish, the notion that you can get away with denying this or try to fuzz it up as a historically debatable point, is in a very fundamental sense wrong.”

(to be continued)

October 2, 2012