MESOPOTAMIA NES : ISLAMIST NATO ? – An Islamic Republic of Turkey would be a threat to NATO
Turkey has moved from being the secular, enlightened NATO member to being the Islamic Republic of Turkey. – JERUSALEM POST – By GHANEM M. NUSEIBEH JULY 15, 2020 06:55
I remember an enjoyable evening several years ago in Tel Aviv with former Turkish foreign minister Yasar Yakis and one of the 70 or so founding members of the AKP, President Recep Erdogan’s ruling party.
Yakis, who has had a long and distinguished political career in Turkish diplomacy, described how the AKP was formed, handpicking the founders, only a small percentage of whom were observant Muslims, let alone Islamist extremists. (The AKP become the Muslim Brotherhood’s flagship ruling party.) Eight years later, Yakis would openly criticize Erdogan’s interventions in Syria and Libya which, for all intents and purposes, are shoring up extremist Islamist forces.
Earlier this year, Yakis spoke about the Turkish intervention in the Mediterranean. Addressing the European Parliament, he drew parallels between Ankara’s intervention in the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically gas exploration off the coast of Cyprus, and its military intervention in Libya. Yakis described the Libyan government as being “controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood and militias linked to terrorist organizations.”
Less than four months later, a Libyan asylum-seeker in the UK killed three innocent men in the English town of Reading. It just so happens that all the victims were gay. It also happens – as the Washington-based media monitoring think tank MEMRI reported – that an Istanbul-based Muslim Brotherhood television channel called for the murder of homosexuals.
There is no evidence showing a link between the Turkish TV channel and the Reading terrorist, but this demonstrates what sort of a country Turkey has become under Erdogan. Turkey has moved from being the secular, enlightened NATO member to being the Islamic Republic of Turkey. It is the Sunni equivalent of Iran, with identical expansionist ambitions.
Erdogan has learned from both the mistakes of other Islamists in Turkey and the Islamic Republic of Iran. While founding the AKP, he also learned from the mistakes of its predecessor, the Virtue Party, which was dissolved by Turkey’s Constitutional Court due to its violation of the secular constitution of Turkey.
ERDOGAN CHOSE non-Islamist founding members like Yakis and others and gradually spread the Islamist tentacles in sectors of the Turkish states. He effectively neutralized the Turkish state and ultimately, via the AKP, made it a vehicle for the global Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has now subsumed the ruling party of Turkey.
The expansionist Turkish policies in Libya are an implementation of the global blueprint of the Muslim Brotherhood movement, namely, to establish a pan-national Islamist caliphate.
Erdogan used the traditional relations the secular Turkish state had with the West, especially with NATO, to legitimate his expansionist moves in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe. While Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolutionaries stormed the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, Erdogan very patiently waited, making his interests seem almost aligned with those of NATO.
His intervention in Libya is a major step in which his interests and those of the West irreconcilably diverge. France has already spoken out unequivocally against Turkey’s moves in Libya, and other key states in the Mediterranean – including Greece, Egypt, Israel and Cyprus – are uneasy about it. It is now shaping up to be a battle between two forces: an expansionist Islamist movement with cells all over the world, including Europe, and nation-states.
The Turkish takeover of Libya will pose a major threat to Europe on long-term economic and security fronts. Turkey is reportedly transporting Syrian fighters to Libya, and Yakis has warned that Turkey’s intervention in Libya would create a “new Syria.”
Erdogan previously threatened to “flood” Europe with refugees. By turning Libya into a “new Syria,” the Turkish president can carry out his threat not only from Europe’s eastern borders, but across the Mediterranean into France, Italy and Spain, and onto the United Kingdom and the rest of Western Europe.
The gradual Islamization of Turkey now poses a direct threat to the West as a whole, as well as to the moderate states of the Middle East. The West, led by NATO, needs to adopt a united stance against Turkey, which no longer is the secular, pro-Western state that Erdogan inherited. Turkey under Erdogan is the wolf, and most of Europe is still acting like Little Red Riding Hood.
The writer chairs Muslims against Antisemitism, and is the founder of Cornerstone Global Associates. Twitter@gnuseibeh.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Proposed China-Iran deal is bad news for Israel
The American “maximum pressure” campaign has clearly had a major impact on Iran, but a massive influx of Chinese investments will go a long way towards undoing it.
By LAHAV HARKOV JULY 16, 2020 10:11 – JERUSALEM POST
With Iran and China working on a multibillion-dollar 25-year economic and security deal, Israel has many reasons to be concerned and even alarmed.
The proposed agreement, leaked to The New York Times, which reported on it on Saturday, would lead to a closer military relationship between Tehran and Beijing, including joint military exercises, research and weapons development and intelligence sharing.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : TRUMP’S ENVOY CONTRA HEZBOLLAH
CENTCOM chief: A war with Israel would not end well for Hezbollah
“I think it would be a great mistake for Hezbollah to try to carry out operations against Israel. I can’t see that having a good ending.” – CENTCOM Gen. Kenneth McKenzie
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN JULY 15, 2020 12:39 – JERUSALEM POST
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : EU/BRUSSELS SUPPORTS PALESTINIANS
EU builds for Palestinians in Area C, FMs speak against annexation
By LAHAV HARKOV, TOVAH LAZAROFF, OMRI NAHMIAS
JULY 14, 2020 21:55 – JERUSALEM POST
The European Union, Denmark and the Palestinian Authority signed an agreement on Tuesday to build 16 infrastructure projects for the Palestinians in Area C. The EU reaffirmed its opposition to Israel extending its sovereignty in that area.
Area C is the part of the West Bank under Israeli control, according to the Oslo Accords. Any construction, including structures built for Palestinians, must be approved by the IDF, which governs it.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS WEEKLY REPORT KURDISTAN / IRAN 17. Jul 2020
- The Iranian regime executed two Kurdish political prisoners, Sabir Sheik Abdullah and Diako Rasolzada, on July 14. Abdullah and Rasolzada were charged with “membership of Kurdish opposition parties” in 2010 and were also accused of bombing a military parade in Mehabad. The Iranian regime has now executed approximately 15 Kurdish political prisoners since March 2020.
- Iranian authorities arrested six Kurds for political activism last week. Iranian security forces arrested a Kurdish environmental activist named Fateh Mohammadi in Javanrud (Jwanru).
- Additionally, Iranian intelligence officers (Ettela’at) arrested three Kurdish men identified as Abu Baker Abdi, Pahrouz Bayzidi, and Kewan Shwani in Oshnavieh and held them without charge. Ettela’at also arrested a Kurdish man named Reza Ramazani for “insulting Iran’s sacred figures” in Kermanshah Province’s Eslamabad-e-Gharb city. Finally, Iranian authorities arrested a 16-year-old named Matin Khola in Mehabad.
- A Kurdish political prisoner from Piranshahr named Abdulwahed Ara committed suicide in Naqadeh on Saturday. Ara was sentenced to 11 years in prison for “membership of an opposition Kurdish party.” Before his suicide, Ara, like other political prisoners, was denied the temporary release that the Iranian regime has granted some prisoners to mitigate the coronavirus pandemic.
- Iranian and Turkish security forces killed three Kurdish border porters (Kolbars) last week. Last Tuesday, Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh) personnel shot and killed a shepherd named Yousif Ahmadi near Sardasht in an act the Kurdish Human Rights Association (KMMK) claimed was perpetrated without cause or warning. Likewise, Iranian authorities ambushed a group of Kolbars near Kermanshah Province’s Nowdeshah District and killed a Kolbar named Ayat Yousifi. Concurrently, Iranian border guards wounded three Kolbars near Urmia. Iranian border guards also killed a Kolbar named Ibrahim Abubaker near Piranshahr and shot a number of horses and mules used by Kolbars to transport cargo in the Hawraman region. Meanwhile, Turkish border guards attacked a group of Kolbars and killed a man named Ziad Asbati near the Chaldiran District. The Iranian regime has now killed 37 Kolbars and wounded at least 99 in 2020.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : DONALD TRUMP HANDELT – ALS EINZIGER !
STREIT ÜBER HONGKONG: Trump unterzeichnet Sanktionsgesetz gegen China – Peking kontert – AKTUALISIERT AM 15.07.2020-03:05 FAZ
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Kurdische politische Gefangene im Iran hingerichtet
Die kurdischen politischen Gefangenen Saber Sheikh Abdullah und Diako Rasoulzadeh sind im Iran hingerichtet worden. Die Todesurteile gegen drei Teilnehmer der Proteste im vergangenen November wurden unterdessen bestätigt. ANF REDAKTION 15 Jul 2020, 20:26
In der Nacht zum Dienstag sind im Iran zwei kurdische politische Gefangene hingerichtet worden. Bei den beiden Männern handelt es sich um Saber Sheikh Abdullah und Diako Rasoulzadeh. Sie befanden sich bis zuletzt im Todestrakt des Zentralgefängnisses von Ûrmiye (Urmia), wo das Urteil auch vollstreckt wurde.
MESPOTAMIA NEWS : BIBI’S GREAT FIASCO ! ANNEXATION !
Netanyahu’s annexation plan turning into fiasco
With the Americans losing interest and on the backdrop of the coronavirus crisis, the West Bank annexation plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is likely to turn into his greatest diplomatic fiasco. Ben Caspit – AL MONITO – Juli 14, 2020
“Right now, I put the chances of Israeli annexation of any part of the West Bank at low to nonexistent,” a top Israeli security official told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “There are too many conditions and circumstances that have to occur and ripen before that can happen.”
The first condition is a green light from Washington, which is currently nowhere in sight.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS ANALYSIS : ANOTHER PAINFUL COMPROMISE ON HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE IN SYRIAby Charles Thepaut
PolicyWatch 3347 July 14, 2020
Russian and Chinese vetoes have once again exposed the vulnerability of the UN system for handling the country’s humanitarian crisis, so Western donors should explore innovative alternatives for channeling assistance.
When the UN Security Council belatedly renewed the mechanism for cross-border humanitarian assistance to Syria on July 11, the result was a diluted resolution that required painful negotiations to reach, including two pairs of vetoes from Beijing and Moscow and the rejection of two Russian draft proposals that were even more problematic. The United States, Europe, and the large majority of other council members favored renewing the border crossings from Turkey (Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam) and reopening al-Yarubiya crossing from Iraq, whose closure since the January renewal process has impeded the COVID-19 pandemic response in Syria. Yet Russian and Chinese officials were unwilling to accept anything more than the renewal of Bab al-Hawa. They also demanded a report from the UN secretary-general on how Western economic sanctions are affecting the humanitarian situation.
MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : Has Farrakhanism become mainstream in the US?
This form of American antisemitism is more mainstream today.
By SETH J. FRANTZMAN – JERUSALEM POST – JULY 13, 2020 21:39
Religious leader Louis Farrakhan gives the keynote speech at the Nation of Islam Saviours’ Day convention in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. February 19, 2017.
In recent weeks, a deluge of racist anti-Jewish comments have been made in the US. It started with NFL player DeSean Jackson quoting a fake Hitler quote that claimed “the white Jews know that the Negroes are the real Children of Israel and to keep America’s secret, the Jews will blackmail America. They will extort America, their plan for world domination.” The quote was condemned by the Philadelphia Eagles but received some surprising support and excuses from players and social-media commentators.
« neuere Artikel / next articles ältere Artikel / previous articles »