Entrevista com Yiorgos Lillikas, Ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros de Chipre in Spiegel online International, 4 de Maio de 2007

‘Por que é que deveríamos adoptar a cultura turca?‘

SPIEGEL ONLINE: The road to Turkish membership in the European Union leads through Cyprus. Should Turkey not recognize Cyprus and open up trade with the country, it cannot become an EU member. But domestically, Turkey also has a lot of work left to do to implement the criteria for membership. Does the current government crisis in Turkey between the military-backed secularists and the Islamic government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan worsen Turkey's chances of accession and lessen the chances of finding a solution to the Cyprus problem?
Yiorgos Lillikas: Both. I am afraid that every time we have a political crisis in Turkey, Cyprus pays the price, especially should the military return to power. As we have seen in the past, that would mean a more hardliner policy and a more aggressive policy toward Cyprus. Cyprus is still seen by the Turkish military as vital for the country's security. This is a very old fashioned and outdated approach. If they don't change, then the Cyprus problem cannot be solved and it won't be possible for Turkey to become a member of the European Union.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Last December at the EU summit, Turkey maintained its refusal to open up all its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus and elected not to move towards normalizing relations between the two countries. Do you think the Turkish position might soften once the upcoming elections are over?
Lillikas: I certainly hope so. In the European Union, a lot of partners thought that because of approaching elections in Turkey, the government in Ankara was unable to implement its obligations toward the European Union. If that is the case, then it can also be true of the Cyprus problem.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Given the role the military plays in Turkish political life, why should Turkey be a part of the European Union at all?
Lillikas: If Turkey doesn't change its political culture by adopting European values, then of course it cannot become a member of the European Union. That should be clear for everybody. But we have to keep the incentives alive for Turkey. I am always opposed to those who say that Turkey should never become a member of the EU, because then, the Turkish government has no incentive to pursue reforms. But I am also opposed to those on the other extreme who say that they support Turkey unconditionally. The result is the same. If the Turkish government believes that it can become an EU member without fulfilling the criteria, then it would likewise have no incentive to reform.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is Turkey's desire to join the European Union the only lever that Cyprus has in negotiations with Turkey over the potential reunification of the island?
Lillikas: Unfortunately yes. We are too small to have other levers. This is why I am dumbfounded when Turkish politicians say they would never accept the withdrawal of Turkish troops from Cyprus for security reasons. Come on! Maybe we are not very clever, us Cypriots, but we are not so stupid that we would attack Turkey.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is the goal of eventual Cypriot reunification the only reason that Cyprus supports Turkish membership?
Lillikas: This is the main reason. On the other hand, if Turkey stays out of the EU, what is the future of Turkey? If we don't accept Turkey into the European Union, then it will turn to other solutions. But what other solutions are there? There is no other solution.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: And there is no other solution for Cyprus?
Lillikas: No, there isn't.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Given this fact, wouldn't it make sense for Cyprus to support certain EU concessions toward Turkey like opening up trade with the Turkish controlled, northern part of the island - which the EU promised Turkish Cypriots in 2004 but which has been blocked by Cyprus since?
Lillikas: This idea is a paradoxical one. Five days before the accession of Cyprus into the EU, the EU decided to work for the economic development of the Turkish Cypriots and that this should lead to the economic integration of the island and eventually to reunification. The question I asked the Commission though is how, through imposing separate trade relationships, this is consistent with the goal of economic integration and reunification? By establishing separate interests, you lead the country to a division. If this is what some Europeans want -- a division of the island -- it is better to say it clearly. But if we are sincere that we want the reunification of the island -- and according to the accession treaty of Cyprus into the EU, the whole island is already a member of the EU -- they must give an answer as to how direct trade serves economic integration. And they haven't answered this question.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Could one not see the establishment of trade as a symbolic gesture to build trust with Turkey and thus make Ankara more willing to move toward concessions of their own?
Lillikas: If there is someone in Europe who wants to create trust between the European Union and Turkey and to offer more benefits to Turkey as an incentive to integrate with the EU, they should give this benefit from their own country.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Cyprus, of course, continues to insist that the issue of Turkish accession and the issue of trade with northern Cyprus are separate ...
Lillikas: ... they are separate ...
SPIEGEL ONLINE: ... they are legally separate, yes. But if you want to solve the Cyprus problem, do you really think that the two issues can be completely split from one another?
Lillikas: Why should we adopt the Turkish culture? We should think in a European way, not in a Turkish way. The Turkish government, from the beginning, has been trying to negotiate the European acquis communautaire (European law which new members must accept). It is the first country to have done that. Because they say they have difficulties accepting this or adopting that, they ask for something in exchange. Instead of trying to adopt the European culture, they are trying to get into a political game like in an Anatolian bazaar. We don't accept this. Some politicians in Europe are ready to accept it. My answer to them is: They can give benefits from their own country to Turkey.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: But the issue of divided Cyprus is one issue, with roots much further back than the 1974 Turkish invasion. Turkey's EU aspiration is a completely different issue. But Cyprus insists on wrapping itself in the cloak of the EU in order to address this unrelated problem.
Lillikas: The other way around would be very abnormal. Cyprus fulfilled all of the criteria to join the European Union. Had we not been allowed in because of the Turkish invasion, it would have been like punishing us for being punished by Turkey. Cyprus became a member of the EU because we adopted the EU criteria. We have contributed to the European civilization since antiquity. We are not like Turkey which is trying to adopt European culture. We had the European culture and we contributed to its development.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Unfortunately, that doesn't make the solution to the Cyprus problem any easier.
Lillikas: To solve the Cyprus problem, compromise must come from both sides, not just from our side as the small, weakest party.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Is Cyprus really the weaker partner? Cyprus has what Turkey wants and Cyprus can block Turkish membership.
Lillikas: If you think like that, you forget the origin of the problem. The origin of the problem is that there is an occupation. The problem is because Turkish troops came to Cyprus. We cannot start with 2007. If Turkish troops had not invaded Cyprus, and there were no occupation, we wouldn't have the problem with Turkey. We have to go back to the origin of the problem.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,481079,00.html
JPTF 5/05/2007

“Dois projectos revolucionários no Líbano e na Turquia” in Dar Al-Hayat, 3 de Maio de 2007

MP Michel Aoun's call for holding presidential elections in Lebanon through direct popular vote, and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's to elect the president of the republic directly by the people, involve two revolutionary projects which undermine the meaning of the "State" in both countries and that of the Constitution. This Constitution protects the meaning of the "State", strikes a balance between the society's components and stands in the face of deeming easy any attack on that meaning whenever such an attack seems to be a convenient means of forcing any one party's will on others. Despite the differences between the two regimes in Lebanon and Turkey, the similarity lies in their attempt to break the shackles of the law and annul the role of the legislative institution when one party finds it difficult to ascend the throne and another finds it tough to impose its full authority. Aoun doesn't seem to see any glimpse of hope in winning the presidential elections, due within months under the current Parliament which enjoys an unrelenting legitimacy and of which Aoun is a member. He thinks that the solution lies in a constitutional change that might make his dream come true "at least once". On the other hand, Erdogan, whose Islamic Party does not have complete authority over the state through Parliament, wants to dodge the role of the legislative institution and its competences also through changing the constitution. Perhaps Aoun's call is inspired by the mandatory constitutional amendment which extended the current president's term under the Syrian military presence. Aoun considered resorting to a course of intimidation giving the Lebanese nation a choice between polls or bullets, making a point of being a man of the "resistance". Yet, the Parliament member, whose political life didn't make him forget being a General, is grossly contradicting himself in many ways; for instance, he calls for early parliamentary elections, then eats his words when his popularity goes down claiming that "confidence is a proxy given to a member of Parliament in order to represent the authorizer until the next elections". Why does that apply to him and not to the majority members? Once more he contradicts himself as he appeals for a decision to be made by the "popular majority", alluding to his Shiite allies. However, he refuses to attest to the "cliché" of Christians becoming a minority in Lebanon, saying that, "It is not a matter of numbers", because that's exactly what the majority is trying to communicate to him when it stands up for the Ta'ef Agreement. This agreement set the foundation for harmony between the Lebanese people in a way that goes beyond the sizes of sects and the number of its electors paving the way for establishing a "secular" partnership so to speak, and protecting diversity against the danger of monopolization which undoes the meaning of Lebanon. The capricious Aoun is then ready to change his mottos on the spot as long as this serves his purpose of occupying the presidential seat because, in his practices, the end justifies the means. Nevertheless, the Lebanese people who have become well aware of his tactics when he was heading the infamous military government, and bore the consequences of his blunders and temperament won't make the mistake of the "experience of the experienced". As for Erdogan's party which managed to head the government, owing to the elections which awarded it a majority in Parliament, it is all set to back out on this institution in case it would not help extend its authority throughout the country, and wage a war against the judiciary authority which is inspired by and protects the constitution. This scheme not only endangers the stability of Turkey, but also threatens to thwart the eternal dream of the Turks of joining the European Union. Aoun and Erdogan are two revolutionary projects working against the clock and do not bode well.
http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/OPED/05-2007/Article-20070503-51b4c997-c0a8-10ed-01b2-ede8a6bb8205/story.htmlJPTF JPTF 2007/05/4

“O que está em jogo na Turquia” in Jornal de Notícias, 3 de Maio de 2007

A anulação da votação da eleição presidencial, feita pelo Supremo Tribunal, após o recurso do Partido Republicano do Povo (CHP) – o maior partido da oposição social-democrata, liderado por Deniz Baykal –, mostra uma situação política complexa. O Partido da Justiça e Desenvolvimento (AKP) de Recep Tayyip Erdogan, de direita e raízes islamistas, procurava eleger uma personalidade da sua confiança (Abdullah Gül, o Ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros), pois na eleição parlamentar de 2002, com pouco mais de 1/3 dos votos (34,3%), tinha obtido quase 2/3 dos assentos. Embora oficialmente conservador-democrático, o AKP não se desligou das suas raízes islamistas. Várias medidas e iniciativas legislativas como a criminalização do adultério, a revogação da proibição do uso de véu nas escolas e organismos públicos, e a colocação de personalidades pro-islamistas em cargos importantes do Estado (algumas frustradas pelo veto do Presidente da República, Ahmet Necdet Sezer), sugerem isso. O mais paradoxal é que esta estratégia reislamização soft precisou, em parte, da cobertura da adesão à UE para ser viável, pois os «valores europeus» serviram também para criar uma contra-elite, oposta às Forças Armadas e ao establishment secular. A questão é saber se a UE está preparada para lidar com a complexidade e especificidades da democracia turca.
OBS: Artigo publicado no JN sob o título O que está em jogo em Istambul
http://jn.sapo.pt/2007/05/03/mundo/o_esta_jogoem_istambul.html
JPTF 2007/05/03

“A mesma guerra diferente campanha” in Turkish Daily News, 2 de Maio de 2007

How bizarre, there is a uniform chorus of genuine amazement at the late night communiqué released from the General Staff HQ last Friday. I am personally astonished at the amazement the communiqué has caused. It was not a declaration of war, it just marked the opening of a new battle in an ongoing war. I was 21, a student of economics and a part-time reporter for this newspaper, when I learned from Suleyman Demirel, many times a former prime minister, then an opposition figure banned from politics, a future prime minister and president, the simple rule of logic that was, in his words: “In order to safely predict what is going to happen, you must drop from your analysis, one by one, what is most probably NOT going to happen.” Two decades later, Mr Demirel's teaching looks applicable in predicting the future of the war - between the ones who say that there is a war and the ones who say that there isn't (as the Canadian poet/singer once wrote.) What is going to happen in the war between the increasingly polarized Islamists (or self-declared Conservatives) and the Secularists (including the Army?) But, first, what is NOT going to happen?

What is not going to happen is (a) the Islamists giving up their strategic fight for a Turkey that is best described in the American nation-building jargon as “a modern Islamic state,” and (b) the Secularists (including the Army) giving up fighting back. With these two options dropped from the analysis, we safely reach the uncomfortable conclusion that the Cold War in Ankara will go on. That given, what other options, then, could be dropped? These would probably include Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his men taking such bold moves as to further provoke response from the military HQ and challenging the already very fragile modus vivendi; and, on the other extreme, the Army taking over in a conventional coup. No, these are not going to happen. But, what will be the most likely “weaponry” in the old war with a “new battle” opened last week? The principal weaponry in the new phase of the War will probably be the miracle word that is taqiyya -- till the next phase which may see less polite weaponry. For example, we will probably see Mr. Erdogan's men, particularly presidential candidate, Abdullah Gul, switching to a more secularist, more moderatist rhetoric, in order not to alert the enemy. And similarly, the generals will “wait and see” when they do not wholeheartedly assure Mr. Erdogan that he should “not worry,” but will privately craft numerous “contingency plans” – more than they normally do. For the same reasons, the “psychological warfare” will gain prominence. Actually, the military's communiqué, among many other objectives, aimed to add ammunition to the “civilian initiative” on the part of the Secularists such as the Apr. 14 and Apr. 29 crowds of millions in Ankara and Istanbul; to reinforce the “new spirit” these spectacular demonstrations may create between now and whenever the elections will be held; and send unity messages at many wavelengths to the hopelessly split opposition. Understandably, there is a uniform chorus of criticism of the military's warning of Apr. 27, timed carefully so as to minimize the financial market damage.

Although the “but-this-is-against-democracy” cliché naturally finds supporters among both one side of now deeply polarized Turkey and unbiased democrats, it does not explain the picture as a whole. It would be fairer to say the military's warning was against “arithmetical democracy,” not democracy in its true meaning. The message looked less like a Thai military communiqué and more like sensible EU warnings that ousted Austria's Joerg Haider. It is always debatable whether it is in democracy's purest spirits if a party should control two-thirds of parliament with votes amounting to one-quarter of the electorate and elect a president only half a year before its term in office expires. Moreover, it is always questionable whether it is “the will of the nation (or its majority)” to have all three of the offices of the president, parliament speaker and the prime minister run by men coming from a political doctrine that has left behind numerous political parties closed down by court warrants over radical Islam – warrants also endorsed by the European Court of Human Rights. But there is more. Essentially, the military's communiqué, (well, the next one may be less polite and come out at the opening hour of financial markets,) without mentioning any political party, said that the military would take sides and defend secularism (vis-à-vis Islamism as a political doctrine.) But what would the General Staff have said? That the military has given up defending secularism? Perhaps Bulent Arinc, parliament speaker, was right when he said that the military repeated what it had always said. But then, if Mr. Arinc is right, why all the high-alert tone at Mr. Erdogan's party HQ? The Constitution authorizes the military to defend Turkey, its secular regime and its territorial integrity against “foreign and domestic” enemies. But who are the foreign and domestic enemies/threats? Of course, the military cannot decide itself, and there must be democratic rules and practices to establish what these threats are. Actually, there are…

What is widely known as Turkey's national threat whitepaper, or in its full formal name, the National Security Policy Document, can be helpful in understanding why the communiqué was not a deviation from democracy, although it may be seen as a deviation from “arithmetical democracy.” The threat paper now in effect was signed by all of Mr. Erdogan's ministers and, finally, by himself. It deems Islamic fundamentalism, the subject of Friday's communiqué, as top domestic security threat – repeat, with Mr. Erdogan's signature underneath. The question is: If the Constitution authorizes the military to defend Turkey against foreign and domestic threats, and if, further, the elected government has established that the top domestic security threat is Islamic fundamentalism, what is so strange about the military issuing a warning against Islamic fundamentalism? In fact, this simple logic very much resembles Mr. Erdogan's political rhetoric. Mr. Erdogan often argues that his party came to power as a result of perfectly legitimate elections for a term of five years, that his party has every right to use this term in full, that it is perfectly constitutional that this parliament elects the next president and, further, that everyone should respect if parliament elects Mr. Gul as president. Both arguments look convincing, and no more or less convincing than the other. Of course, we all know that they are both nice pieces of rhetoric hoping for the best use of what the word “taqiyya” stands for. But that's all normal in a long-term strategic warfare. But what will be the military's next move? We can only know that we cannot know. Anyone with some understanding of Turkey's “military affairs” can guess that there will not be another communiqué soon. The generals think that this time, when they pushed up the volume a little bit, the “music” was better heard. For the time being, there seems to be no reason for “louder music.” That, however, does not mean we shall never hear it louder. Funny, each time there is a warning from the military, HQ people tend to speculate around the word “coup.” In military contingency planning there are always dozens of different scenarios, their proper and prioritized actions, counter-actions, counter-counter-actions and their timings vis-à-vis the threat, but not a coup – a coup is like using a nuclear weapon in a war which an army thinks it can win conventionally, but would resort to when all other conventional options failed. What these contingency plans have in common is their “unpredictability.” How many members of the government, really, how many analysts, speculators, pundits, diplomats were able to anticipate the Apr. 27 communiqué?
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=72078
JPTF 2007/05/02

“Votação presidencial turca anulada” in CNN, 1 de Maio de 2007

Turkey's highest court on Tuesday annulled a presidential vote dominated by concerns over the rising profile of political Islam, opening the way for possible early general elections. The Constitutional Court's decision is crucial for the future of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted government, which is at odds with the country's secular establishment over fears it might be trying increase the influence of Islam in public life. On Sunday, at least 700,000 protesters marched in Istanbul to demand the government's resignation. The country's influential association of Turkish industrialists and businessmen, TUSIAD, urged the government to declare immediate early general elections. The ruling party's candidate for president, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, failed to win a first-round victory Friday in a parliamentary presidential vote marked by tension between secularists and the pro-Islamic government. Most opposition legislators boycotted the vote and challenged its validity in the Constitutional Court. Due to the ruling party's majority in parliament, Gul is guaranteed to be elected, at the latest in the third round on May 9. Some secularists object to his candidacy because his wife covers her head with a head scarf and is therefore seen as potentially allowing more Islamic influence on the state. On Friday, the military said it was gravely concerned and indicated it was willing to become more openly involved in the presidential election process -- a statement some interpreted as an ultimatum to the government to rein in officials who promote Islamic initiatives. Members of the ruling party said Tuesday that party officials were considering calling early general elections after the court ruling. If the verdict is in favor of the opposition party and cancels Friday's first round presidential vote, the government could quickly declare early general elections for late June or early July, party officials said. Analysts said that a call for early elections could ease political tension and market concern. "Early general elections seems to be only way out of this business," said Saruhan Dogan, a market analyst with Finansbank. "The ruling party has become a party which is straining social balances." The opposition Republican People's Party, which boycotted parliament's first round of voting, has argued that were not enough lawmakers present to establish a quorum during Friday's vote and that the result should be canceled. "Turkey would be dragged toward a dangerous clash" if the Constitutional Court rules that the vote was in fact valid, said Deniz Baykal, chairman of the opposition party. Erdogan on Monday appealed for stability and drew attention to his strong economic record in a national address. But the Turkish stock market continued its slide Tuesday. The benchmark index, the IMKB-100, fell by 3.2 percent to close at 43,529.49 points. The index had sunk 6.3 percent on Monday as the government came under pressure to declare early general elections. "Turkey is a poorer country compared to Friday," said State Minister Ali Babacan, in charge of economy.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/05/01/turkey.vote.ap/index.html
JPTF 2007/05/01

“Dinheiro recolhido em Espanha financia aliados da Al-Qaeda” in El Pais, 1 de Maio de 2007

Al Qaeda en el Magreb, el grupo salafista que el pasado 11 de abril asesinó a 30 personas en Argel, compra armas, explosivos, radios y teléfonos satélite con dinero obtenido por sus células durmientes en España, según se desprende de varias investigaciones diferentes que dirigen fiscales de la Audiencia Nacional. Parte de estos fondos han servido para financiar ataques en el norte de África, Afganistán, Pakistán y Chechenia. Una querella por blanqueo y financiación terrorista demuestra, por primera vez, que estos yihadistas esconden fondos en el paraíso fiscal de Bahamas. España y Francia son los principales caladeros europeos de este grupo, no sólo para captar militantes y enviarlos a Irak, sino también para recaudar dinero con el que mantener a su organización terrorista y ejecutar ataques dentro y fuera de Argelia. La delincuencia común y la caridad son su principal fuente de ingresos. Militantes de este grupo presos en cárceles españolas siguen activos, según investigaciones de la Guardia Civil. El antiguo Grupo Salafista para la Predicación y el Combate (GSPC), que el pasado mes de septiembre hizo pública su alianza con el sheij (jeque) Osama Bin Laden, obtiene fondos en España que sus correos y hawaladares trasladan a Argelia desde Alicante para engrasar su maquinaria criminal, según fuentes de la investigación. Unas veces mediante la delincuencia, otras a través de la limosna de fieles "casi siempre bien intencionados", y también con empresas ficticias, actividades falsas y paraísos fiscales como Bahamas. Un equipo conjunto de fiscales, jueces y agentes españoles y franceses investigan desde octubre de 2006 una compleja red de financiación en ambos países del que se ha convertido en el grupo terrorista más temido en el norte de África, un movimiento dirigido por el emir Abu Musab Abde I Wadud que ya aglutina a la mayoría de grupos yihadistas de Marruecos, Argelia y Túnez. Los informes del Centro Nacional de Inteligencia (CNI) y los Reinsegnement Généraux (servicios secretos franceses) apuntan a España y Francia como sus objetivos preferentes en Europa. La pista española sobre su financiación la sigue la Guardia Civil. En 2005 este cuerpo desarticuló en la Costa del Sol una célula cuyos miembros robaban en chalés y joyerías para financiar a Abu Haitan, el jefe del entonces GSPC que dirigía los atentados fuera de Argelia. La financiación del terrorismo yihadista es vidriosa y retorcida. Desde el tradicional hawala, sistema de compensación que escapa a los circuitos financieros tradicionales e impide la investigación judicial, a la colecta de dinero en locutorios y carnicerías que los correos de Al Qaeda transportan en pequeñas cantidades en sus viajes por todo el planeta. "En el desierto del Sahel con 6.000 euros se compra a los tuaregs varios rifles Kaláshnikov. Y con poco más un camión bomba", destaca un especialista. La red yihadista busca nuevas fórmulas para huir del control policial, tal y como se desprende de una reciente investigación de la Audiencia Nacional en la que se demuestra que Al Qaeda en el Magreb emplea también los territorios de ultramar (paraísos fiscales). Dinero procedente de Bahamas se envió a España a una persona relacionada con este grupo terrorista y se camufló con facturas falsas por servicios inexistentes a nombre de una multinacional japonesa de la informática, según una querella presentada por Vicente González Mota, fiscal de la Audiencia Nacional. González Mota ha presentado esta querella por blanqueo de capitales, colaboración con banda terrorista y falsedad documental contra un ciudadano argelino residente en España que abrió cuentas corrientes a nombre de una sociedad y recibió transferencias en 2004 de más de 18.000 euros desde el paraíso fiscal de Bahamas. Los cobros se justificaban con facturas falsas emitidas en Holanda y Alemania a nombre de la multinacional. Sus directivos han explicado a la fiscalía que no mantienen ninguna relación comercial con esta persona. "Fueron utilizados como pantalla para dar cobertura legal a los pagos. El objetivo fue financiar la yihad", señala una fuente.

Honorarios desde Argel
El juez Baltasar Garzón, titular del juzgado de instrucción número 5 de la Audiencia Nacional, ha dictado una orden de búsqueda y captura contra el presunto islamista argelino que se ha esfumado. Su nombre ya había aparecido vinculado a la financiación del terrorismo internacional. El fugado daba cobertura a estos pagos mediante notas de honorarios emitidas desde Argel. La investigación se inició a instancias de un informe del Servicio de Prevención de Blanqueo de Capitales, organismo dependiente del Banco de España. Un fiscal de la Audiencia Nacional explica la filosofía de estas investigaciones: "En la financiación del terrorismo internacional tenemos que buscar un equilibrio para evitar detenciones arbitrarias, pero estar despiertos. Hay que actuar antes de que se cometa un atentado. No podemos esperar a que con ese dinero, casi siempre con pequeñas cantidades, se produzca el ataque". Y recuerda que tanto el 11-S en EE UU como el 11-M en España costaron "poco" dinero. España es un escenario caliente en la financiación del yihadismo. Algunas de las acciones más trágicas de Al Qaeda se han financiado aquí. Los hawaladares tienen oficinas ilegales en las ciudades donde está más arraigada la comunidad paquistaní: Barcelona, Tarragona, Lleida, Madrid, Valencia, Logroño, Jaén, Almería y León. Captan el dinero de unos 100.000 musulmanes y entre esa marea de transacciones ficticias -el dinero nunca se mueve, sino que se paga por compensación- circulan cantidades para la yihad. "Perseguir este dinero es imposible", reconoce un funcionario del Banco de España.
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/espana/Dinero/recaudado/Espana/financia/armamento/aliados/Qaeda/elpepuesp/20070501elpepinac_6/TesJPTF 2007/05/01

“Turcos laicos desafiam islamistas na rua” in Le Figaro, 30 de Abril de 2007

Plus d'un million de Turcs ont manifesté dimanche à Istanbul en faveur de la laïcité sur fond de querelle en pleine élection présidentielle entre le gouvernement islamo-conservateur et l'armée, gardienne des principes séculiers. La manifestation sur la place Caglayan était organisée à l'appel de quelques 600 organisations non-gouvernementales et fait suite à un premier rassemblement qui avait réuni de 500.000 à près d'1,5 million de personnes, selon diverses estimations, le 14 avril dernier à Ankara sur le même thème. Elle vise principalement à dénoncer "la dérive islamiste" en Turquie provoquée, selon les organisateurs, par le gouvernement du Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/20070429.WWW000000077_un_million_de_turcs_manifestent_pour_la_laicite.html
JPTF 2007/04/30

“O mundo manifesta-se para intervenção humanitária no Darfur” in BBC, 29 de Abril de 2007

Organisers of Global Day for Darfur say events will take place in over 35 capitals to mark the fourth anniversary of the conflict. Celebrities backing the campaign, such as Mick Jagger and George Clooney, have signed a statement accusing the international community of apathy. Some 200,000 people have died since the conflict began, according to the UN. Under the slogan "Time is up... protect Darfur", demonstrators will turn round some 10,000 hourglasses filled with fake blood to highlight the continuing violence in Darfur. Other events include: a rally at midday in London opposite the prime minister's residence at 10 Downing Street an interactive event at Berlin's Sony Center, one of the city's tourist attractions a march through Rome to the Colosseum a day of cultural events in Cairo including the showing of a documentary called "Jihad on Horse Back" containing victims' testimony a demonstration outside the Sudanese embassy in Abuja, Nigeria 'Stop stalling'. The statement signed by the stars calls on the world to "end its stalling and take decisive action". What was originally a conflict between the Sudanese government and rebel groups in Darfur opposed to it has now spilled over into Chad and the Central African Republic. Last year the government of Sudan agreed in principle to accept a joint African Union/UN peacekeeping force but Khartoum wants the force to be mostly African in composition and for the African Union to take the leading role, not the UN. There has been a lot of diplomatic traffic between Washington, Beijing, New York and Khartoum recently as international pressure is brought to bear on Sudan's government, BBC UN correspondent Laura Trevelyan notes. The US and the UK have been persuaded to hold off on imposing sanctions against the Sudanese government for now to see if Khartoum does shift significantly and allow for a major deployment of peacekeepers.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6604555.stm
JPTF 2007/04/29

“A oposição turca pede a anulação da eleição presidencial” in Le Monde, 28 de Abril de 2007

Abdullah Gül, candidat du Parti de la justice et du développement (AKP) au pouvoir, n'a pas obtenu suffisamment de voix, vendredi 27 avril, au premier tour de scrutin au Parlement pour être élu président. Le ministre des affaires étrangères a obtenu 357 voix, alors qu'il lui en fallait 367 sur un total de 550 sièges, soit deux tiers du Parlement, pour être élu. Un deuxième tour a été fixé à mercredi, mais le principal parti d'opposition turc a déposé un recours devant la Cour constitutionnelle pour demander l'annulation de l'élection, le quorum ne semblant pas atteint. Un journaliste de Reuters a constaté que 360 députés étaient présents pour le vote. Or selon Haluk Koc, député du Parti républicain du peuple (CHP), principale formation laïque d'opposition, les deux tiers du Parlement doivent aussi être présents pour que le scrutin soit valide. "Le président du Parlement n'a pas accédé à notre requête d'un décompte des députés présents à l'Assemblée pour le vote. Il est évident qu'il n'y avait pas les 367 élus requis et c'est pourquoi nous saisissons la Cour", a expliqué Haluk Koc. La Cour a indiqué qu'elle s'efforcerait de se prononcer d'ici à mercredi. Si elle invalide le scrutin, le premier ministre, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, devra convoquer des élections législatives anticipées. Le chef de l'Etat sortant, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, conserverait ses fonctions à titre provisoire dans l'attente de l'élection de son successeur par la nouvelle Assemblée. Si, en revanche, elle donne raison au gouvernement, M. Gül devrait l'emporter au troisième tour, fixé au 9 mai, car alors il n'aura besoin que de la majorité simple, soit 276 voix, ce que l'AKP peut obtenir sans aucun problème.

CONTRE L'ÉLECTION D'UN CANDIDAT ISSU DE LA MOUVANCE ISLAMISTE
Le CHP et deux petits partis de l'opposition de centre droit, le Parti de la juste voie (DYP) et le Parti de la mère patrie (ANAP), avaient fait savoir juste avant la réunion du Parlement que leurs députés boycotteraient le scrutin. L'objectif de ces formations est d'empêcher l'élection à la présidence du candidat présenté par l'AKP, le ministre des affaires étrangères Abdullah Gül, un ex-islamiste. L'élite laïque de Turquie, notamment l'état-major militaire et l'appareil judiciaire, craignent que l'élection d'un membre de l'AKP à la présidence ne menace la stricte séparation entre religion et Etat héritée du fondateur de la Turquie moderne, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. L'armée et M. Sezer mènent ainsi depuis plusieurs semaines une vaste campagne de défense des principes laïques de la République turque, ce qui, selon certains observateurs, a incité M. Erdogan à ne pas briguer lui-même la présidence. Des centaines de milliers de personnes ont ainsi manifesté contre l'AKP le 14 avril à Ankara. La candidature d'Abdullah Gül revêt un caractère historique car il pourrait devenir le premier chef d'Etat de la Turquie moderne issu de la mouvance islamiste, alors que ce poste est généralement occupé par un défenseur de la laïcité.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3210,36-903046@51-895736,0.html
JPTF 2007/04/28

“A Rússia suspende o Tratado sobre as Forças Militares Convencionais na Europa” in Le Monde, 27 de Abril de 2007

Le ministre russe des affaires étrangères, Sergueï Lavrov, a confirmé, jeudi 26 avril, aux vingt-six pays de l'OTAN, que la Russie suspendait l'application du traité sur les Forces conventionnelles en Europe (FCE), a indiqué le secrétaire général de l'OTAN, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Plus tôt dans la journée de jeudi, à l'occasion de son dernier discours annuel à la nation, le président russe, Vladimir Poutine, avait annoncé que son pays allait geler l'application de ce traité, qui limite les déploiements militaires sur le continent, après avoir critiqué l'attitude des pays occidentaux, accusés d'"ingérence interne" dans les affaires russes. La décision du Kremlin est une réponse au projet de bouclier antimissile américain en Europe de l'Est. Pour justifier sa décision, M. Poutine a déclaré :"[Les pays de l'OTAN] construisent des bases militaires à nos frontières et, en outre, prévoient aussi de baser des éléments de systèmes de défense antimissile en Pologne et en République tchèque". "Dans ce contexte, j'estime opportun de décréter un moratoire sur l'application du traité, en tout cas jusqu'à ce que tous les pays l'aient ratifié et commencé à l'appliquer de façon stricte." Par le passé, la Russie a déjà, à plusieurs reprises, menacé de se retirer de ce traité, mais n'avait jamais franchi le pas du moratoire.

"L'UNE DES PIERRES ANGULAIRES DE LA SÉCURITÉ EUROPÉENNE"
Réagissant à la décision unilatérale du Kremlin, le secrétaire général de l'OTAN a déclaré : "Les Alliés ont accueilli avec regret (cette décision) car le traité FCE est l'une des pierres angulaires de la sécurité européenne". Signé en 1990, puis adapté en 1999, le traité FCE limite le déploiement d'armes conventionnelles de l'OTAN et des signataires du pacte de Varsovie. Le ministre allemand des affaires étrangères, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a estimé jeudi que les Européens devaient empêcher que ne se forme une "spirale de défiance entre les Etats-Unis et la Russie". Dans son discours à la nation, M. Poutine a par ailleurs vivement dénoncé l'augmentation du "flux d'argent venant de l'étranger" qui viserait à financer des partis de l'opposition et des organisations des droits de l'homme. "A l'époque du colonialisme, on parlait du rôle civilisateur des Etats colonisateurs", a-t-il dit, en référence aux pays qu'il accuse, stigmatisant "ceux qui, en utilisant habilement une phraséologie pseudo-démocratique, aimeraient revenir à un passé proche : les uns pour piller comme avant, sans être châtiés, les richesses du pays, voler les gens et l'Etat, les autres pour priver notre pays de son autonomie économique et politique". Devant les deux chambres du Parlement, réunies pour l'écouter, M. Poutine est arrivé à la conclusion que tout le monde ne semble pas apprécier l'essor de l'économie russe. Les Occidentaux "utilisent des slogans sur la démocratisation, mais le but est le même : l'acquisition de manière unilatérale d'avantages destinés à assurer leurs intérêts propres", a-t-il estimé.
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3214,36-902119@51-856119,0.html
JPTF 2007/04/27

Robert Fisk sobre a Turquia e o Genocído Arménio: “A verdade deve ser proclamada bem alto” in The Independent

Stand by for a quotation to take your breath away. It's from a letter from my Istanbul publishers, who are chickening out of publishing the Turkish-language edition of my book The Great War for Civilisation. The reason, of course, is a chapter entitled "The First Holocaust", which records the genocide of one and a half million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915, a crime against humanity that even Lord Blair of Kut al-Amara tried to hide by initially refusing to invite Armenian survivors to his Holocaust Day in London.
It is, I hasten to add, only one chapter in my book about the Middle East, but the fears of my Turkish friends were being expressed even before the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was so cruelly murdered outside his Istanbul office in January. And when you read the following, from their message to my London publishers HarperCollins, remember it is written by the citizen of a country that seriously wishes to enter the European Community. Since I do not speak Turkish, I am in no position to criticise the occasional lapses in Mr Osman's otherwise excellent English.
"We would like to denote that the political situation in Turkey concerning several issues such as Armenian and Kurdish Problems, Cyprus issue, European Union etc do not improve, conversely getting worser and worser due to the escalating nationalist upheaval that has reached its apex with the Nobel Prize of Orhan Pamuk and the political disagreements with the EU. Most probably, this political atmosphere will be effective until the coming presidency elections of April 2007... Therefore we would like to undertake the publication quietly, which means there will be no press campaign for Mr Fisk's book. Thus, our request from [for] Mr Fisk is to show his support to us if any trial [is] ... held against his book. We hope that Mr Fisk and HarperCollins can understand our reservations."
Well indeedydoody, I can. Here is a publisher in a country negotiating for EU membership for whom Armenian history, the Kurds, Cyprus (unmentioned in my book) - even Turkey's bid to join the EU, for heaven's sake - is reason enough to try to sneak my book out in silence. When in the history of bookselling, I ask myself, has any publisher tried to avoid publicity for his book? Well, I can give you an example. When Taner Akcam's magnificent A Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide and the Question of Turkish Responsibility was first published in Turkish - it uses Ottoman Turkish state documents and contemporary Turkish statements to prove that the genocide was a terrifying historical fact - the Turkish historian experienced an almost identical reaction. His work was published "quietly" in Turkey - and without a single book review.
Now I'm not entirely unsympathetic with my Turkish publishers. It is one thing for me to rage and roar about their pusillanimity. But I live in Beirut, not in Istanbul. And after Hrant Dink's foul murder, I'm in no position to lecture my colleagues in Turkey to stand up to the racism that killed Dink. While I'm sipping my morning coffee on the Beirut Corniche, Mr Osman could be assaulted in the former capital of the Ottoman empire. But there's a problem nonetheless.
Some months earlier, my Turkish publishers said that their lawyers thought that the notorious Law 301 would be brought against them - it is used to punish writers for being "unTurkish" - in which case they wanted to know if I, as a foreigner (who cannot be charged under 301), would apply to the court to stand trial with them. I wrote that I would be honoured to stand in a Turkish court and talk about the genocide. Now, it seems, my Turkish publishers want to bring my book out like illicit pornography - but still have me standing with them in the dock if right-wing lawyers bring charges under 301!
I understand, as they write in their own letter, that they do not want to have to take political sides in the "nonsensical collision between nationalists and neo-liberals", but I fear that the roots of this problem go deeper than this. The sinister photograph of the Turkish police guards standing proudly next to Dink's alleged murderer after his arrest shows just what we are up against here. Yet still our own Western reporters won't come clean about the Ottoman empire's foul actions in 1915. When, for example, Reuters sent a reporter, Gareth Jones, off to the Turkish city of Trabzon - where Dink's supposed killer lived - he quoted the city's governor as saying that Dink's murder was related to "social problems linked to fast urbanisation". A "strong gun culture and the fiery character of the people" might be to blame.
Ho hum. I wonder why Reuters didn't mention a much more direct and terrible link between Trabzon and the Armenians. For in 1915, the Turkish authorities of the city herded thousands of Armenian women and children on to boats, set off into the Black Sea - the details are contained in an original Ottoman document unearthed by Akcam - "and thrown off to drown". Historians may like to know that the man in charge of these murder boats was called Niyazi Effendi. No doubt he had a "fiery character".
Yet still this denial goes on. The Associated Press this week ran a story from Ankara in which its reporter, Selcan Hacaoglu, repeated the same old mantra about there being a "bitter dispute" between Armenia and Turkey over the 1915 slaughter, in which Turkey "vehemently denies that the killings were genocide". When will the Associated Press wake up and cut this cowardly nonsense from its reports? Would the AP insert in all its references to the equally real and horrific murder of six million European Jews that right-wing Holocaust negationists "vehemently deny" that there was a genocide? No, they would not.
But real history will win. Last October, according to local newspaper reports, villagers of Kuru in eastern Turkey were digging a grave for one of their relatives when they came across a cave containing the skulls and bones of around 40 people - almost certainly the remains of 150 Armenians from the town of Oguz who were murdered in Kuru on 14 June 1915. The local Turkish gendarmerie turned up to examine the cave last year, sealed its entrance and ordered villagers not to speak of what they found. But there are hundreds of other Kurus in Turkey and their bones, too, will return to haunt us all. Publishing books "quietly" will not save us.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2366519.ece
JPTF 2007/04/25

Sociedade de Química do Reino Unido oferece prémio de £500 a alunos que resolverem exercício de matemática de um teste pré-universitário chinês

The UK's Royal Society of Chemistry is offering a £500 prize to one lucky but bright person who answers the question below correctly. A test used in English universities to assess how strong incoming science undergraduates' maths skills also appears below. A glance at the two questions reveals how much more advanced is the maths teaching in China, where children learn the subject up to the age of 18, the society says.Science undergraduates in England are likely not to have studied maths beyond GCSE level at the age of 16, it says. It has sounded a warning about Britain's future economic prospects which it claims are threatened by competition from scientists in China. RSC chief executive Richard Pike says mathematics is seen as integral to the sciences in China and its economy."There, the concept of remedial courses at university would be inconceivable."UK chemistry departments are often world-renowned for their creativity; however, mathematics tests set in England by many universities for undergraduate chemistry students in their first term to diagnose remedial requirements are disconcertingly simple. "They encapsulate the challenge facing this country," says Dr Pike.






http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6589301.stm
JPTF 2004/04/25

Comentário: o que aconteceu a Karl Marx e ao proletariado?

Decididamente as concepções de esquerda e direita já não são o que eram, desde que os conceitos de esquerda e direita surgiram com a Revolução Francesa de 1789 (a ala esquerda da assembleia constituinte era ocupada pelos jacobinos, bem conhecidos pelo seu anti-clericalismo, laicismo e ideário igualitarista radical, precursor do pensamento de Karl Marx e da luta do proletariado contra a burguesia). Uma concepção contemporânea de esquerda obcecada pela différence (Jacques Derrida), e que vê a igualdade e a universalidade como uma forma de opressão, está a emergir e deve-se, entre outras influências marcantes, a teorizadoras feministas como Iris Marion Young, da Universidade de Chicago, e a Judith Butler, professora de Literatura e teoria queer da Universidade de Berkeley. Provavelmente de forma bastante decepcionante para estas, a candidata socialista à presidência da república francesa, Ségolène Royal, está ainda presa a concepções “patriarcais” e igualitárias de uma esquerda herdeira do Iluminismo e da Revolução Francesa, avessa às inovações académico-políticas anglo-saxónicas, que causam sempre muita perturbação em França (onde, por exemplo, não há globalização mas mondialisation). Em Portugal não temos desses problemas pois é bem conhecida a nossa propensão para a inovação (leia-se para a importação e imitação), por isso as novas teorizações da esquerda política, incluindo os estudos queer, que são um saber anglo-saxónico, já estão a dar os primeiros passos (veja-se, por exemplo, o nº 76 da Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, da Universidade de Coimbra) o que, naturalmente, entusiasma as mentes abertas, na academia e fora dela. Mas quem faz parte desta nova concepção de esquerda, que não é propriamente a da Revolução Francesa e a da luta do proletariado? No Verão passado, Judith Butler, ao comentar a guerra entre Israel e o Hezbollah, terá afirmado, perante uma audiência académica em Berkeley, que o Hamas e o Hezbollah eram “movimentos sociais que fazem parte da esquerda global”. Nesta perspectiva, a direita conservadora e religiosa do Médio Oriente (constituída pelos partidos islamistas, entre os quais se encontram os radicais Hezbollah do Líbano e Hamas da Palestina e os islamistas-conservadores do AKP da Turquia), surge, agora, como uma nova imagem de “progressismo” social, e com uma identidade de “esquerda” global (com esta lógica, podemos imaginar como a FN de Jean-Marie Le Pen é também “progressista”). Todavia, nada de muito original se tivermos em conta que Michel Foucault viu na revolução iraniana de 1979 e nos islamistas radicais xiitas, liderados pelo Ayatollah Khomeini, uma nova forma de “política espiritual”. E que fazer, então, com o pensamento de Karl Marx e as suas preocupações igualitárias de um proletariado explorado pela burguesia e com a sua crítica à religião, vista como “ópio do povo”? Naturalmente que Marx só pode ser desconstruído (Jacques Derrida, Spectres de Marx) como mais uma “narrativa” feita por um Dead White European Male nascido numa família judaica, o que levanta a “suspeição”, dentro destes novos “movimentos sociais da esquerda global”, que deveria ser também islamófobo. Quo vadis esquerda?
JPTF 2007/04/23

“Príncipe Harry é um alvo das milicias iraquianas” in Guardian, 22 de Abril de 2007

Iraqi militia groups have drawn up detailed plans to seize Prince Harry as a hostage when he arrives in Iraq next month, The Observer can reveal. Some of the most notorious paramilitary factions in southern Iraq claim they have informants placed inside British military barracks in Iraq monitoring the third in line to the throne. The claims call into question the Ministry of Defence's decision to allow Harry to serve in Iraq where he and his unit will be seen as a valuable target.Last night an MoD spokesman said: 'We have not concealed the fact that he [Harry] is going out there and the bad guys know that he's coming, and we expect that they will consider him a high-profile scalp.' Despite the threats, Whitehall officials ruled out the possibility that the prince might not be sent to Maysan, the most volatile province in southern Iraq, where British casualties are mounting. Harry will serve with the Blues and Royals for a six-month tour of duty. He is trained as a troop leader to take command of four Scimitars and will be deployed in Iraq alongside 11 men who will serve under him. Militia leaders claim that photographs of Harry have already been downloaded from the internet and disseminated to insurgent groups.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2062970,00.html
JPTF 2004/07/23

“Convertidos ao Cristianismo vivem com medo numa Turquia intolerante” in Spiegel online International

Tilman Geske, 46, had a dream when he moved to Turkey. As a practicing Christian, he wanted to live in peace among Muslims in a country that was a cradle of early Christianity. The German immigrant gave language instruction, established a consulting firm and translated Christian literature. "He was a likeable man," says a Turkish accountant who worked in the office next to Geske's. "Whenever I asked him how he was doing, he responded in traditional Turkish: 'Cok seker -- very sweet.'" His sweet dream came to an abrupt end last Wednesday, when five Turkish fanatics armed with bread knives stormed into the office of the Christian Zirve publishing house in the south-eastern city of Malatya, tied up Geske and two other employees, before torturing them and finally killing them by slitting their throats. One of the victims was stabbed 150 times in a particularly brutal attack. A note left at the scene read: "This should serve as a lesson to the enemies of our religion. We did it for our country." But the attack undoubtedly did their country more harm than good. The damage the murders have caused could hardly be more devastating. The "missionary massacre," as Turkey's papers have called the unusually brutal crime, has plunged Turkey into new turmoil. It has also shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the question of whether the country will succeed in its bid to join the European Union. For critics of Turkey, including some in German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, the incident merely confirms their warnings that the country simply doesn't belong to Europe. Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said the crime "certainly does not help" the country's bid for EU membership. Merkel, who currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said Sunday that she expected Turkey to take action to show it was tolerant of Christianity after the murders. "This episode has no influence on the accession negotiations, which will continue with the result open. But the episode is a cause for concern," she told the Münchner Merkur newspaper in an interview for its Monday edition. "Everything must be done to inhibit a climate that makes such appalling deaths possible," she told the paper. "I expect clear action from the government in Ankara (to show) that intolerance of Christianity and other religions has no chance." Optimists, on the other hand, hope the murder was merely a provocation by opponents of democracy intent on steering Turkey away from its westward course. "Just as one cannot claim, in the wake of the killings in Virginia, that all Americans are serial killers, it would be wrong to hold the entire country responsible for this crime," warns sociologist Dogu Ergil.

Nevertheless, there is no longer any doubt that Turkey has run into serious difficulties as far as the development of its civil society is concerned. The murder of the Turkish Protestants exposes a deep-seated problem: Turkey is at a standstill - or even regressing - when it comes to key issues like tolerance and pluralism. "In Germany, Turks residing there have opened up more than 3,000 mosques. If in our country we cannot abide even by a few churches, or a handful of missionaries, where is our civilization?" wrote Ertugrul Özkök, editor-in-chief of leading secular Turkish daily Hürriyet, in a hard-hitting editorial on the murders. "Where is our humanity, our freedom of belief, our beautiful religion?" he asks. The danger does not come - as one might expect - from the usual fundamentalist Muslims. Instead, it is an unholy alliance of nationalists ranging from the left to the Islamic right that is inciting hatred against free thinkers and those of other faiths. According to Ergil, there is a "mixture of fanatical nationalism and militant religious fervor" that prepared the ground for the Malatya massacre - and that also appears to have been behind the murders of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and Roman Catholic priest Andrea Santoro last year. Experts like Ergil see the murders as part of an unsettling new trend, in which fanatical nationalist-religious groups see violence as a "cleansing force" and themselves as supposed "saviors of the nation" -like the 19- and 20-year-old attackers in Malatya, who were students and all lived in the same conservative Islamic dormitory. The hate speech comes from both the left and the right. Rahsan Ecevit, the widow of popular former Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit and a supposed leftist, routinely launches into tirades against foreigners who buy land in Turkey. She claims that those who encourage citizens to convert to another religion want to divide Turkey. Christianity is gaining ground in Turkey, especially in the southeast, the chairman of the far-right nationalist Great Union Party (BBP) recently warned, even going so far as to accuse Christian missionaries of being "supported by the CIA." The bolder such conspiracy theories are, the more popular they seem to be. And yet, all nationalist sentiment aside, Turks were shocked by the brutal murders, which the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quick to condemn. Erdogan wants to bring Turkey into the European fold. But to do so, says Joost Lagendijk, a Dutch member of the European parliament for the GreenLeft party who is himself married to a Turkish woman, it must "actively appeal to its citizens to accept people of other religions and ethnic origins." In some cases state institutions even help to promote the hostile mood. As far back as 2001, the country's National Security Council, under then Prime Minister Ecevit, classified "missionary activities" as a threat to national security.

The government office of religion has in the past distributed sample sermons targeted against missionaries. In addition, Erdogan's government, which is dominated by his right-wing Justice and Development Party (AKP), undermines its credibility when, for example, an official like Minister of State Mehmet Aydin claims that missionary activities are not "an innocent declaration of religious beliefs, but rather a planned movement with political goals." With politicians stirring up public anger, some segments of the population seem all too willing to fall in line. The more aggressive forms of Christianity, such as that espoused by free evangelical churches, are especially suspect to many Turks. Even the friendly Muslim who worked in the office next door to Tilman Geske became skeptical when he heard that the German was "proselytizing." To ease his doubts, he took a look around Geske's office to see if there were Bibles lying around, but he found nothing. "This terrible murder brings shame upon us," says the horrified accountant, who prefers to remain anonymous. And yet, he says, he is not pleased about some of the things he hears, such as the rumor that missionaries "place money in the Bibles that they hand out in front of our schools." For the beleaguered Christians, it is sometimes better not to be noticed at all. There was no sign on the door of the Zirve publishing company's office in Malatya - a deliveryman was attacked there two years ago and nationalists later staged angry protests in front of the building. "We are experiencing a witch hunt straight out of the Middle Ages, and the Malatya victims were certainly not the last," complains Ihsan Özbek, the chairman of the Salvation Church, a union of Protestant groups which claims to have 5,000 members throughout Turkey. "We are portrayed as traitors and potential criminals," he says. Tensions are so high that Özbek warns that it has become very dangerous to be called a missionary. "That would be the equivalent of a death sentence these days," he says. Christians are reporting efforts to file lawsuits against supposed missionaries, even though proselytizing is not officially against the law in Turkey. In fact, the opposite is true. It is against the law in Turkey - theoretically, at least - to prevent anyone from practicing or disseminating his faith. But creative approaches are sometimes taken to prosecuting unpopular infidels, says attorney Orhan Cengiz. In Silivri, a town west of Istanbul, two converts are currently on trial for the uniquely Turkish offense of "insulting Turkishness" and for "incitement of religious hatred," both considered crimes under the notorious Article 301 of the country's penal code.

Necati Aydin, a local pastor and one of the publishing company employees murdered in the Malatya killings, had already been arrested once before for distributing Bibles and religious pamphlets. "Villagers claimed that Aydin and his colleagues had insulted Islam," says his attorney. They were charged with distributing "propaganda against religious freedom." One of the most difficult positions is that of Turkish converts who turn their backs on the "true faith." Sociologist Behnan Konutgan, 54, converted to Christianity while still a student. "While all my fellow students were constantly reading the Koran, I had a Bible sent to me," he recalls. "I read the New Testament with excitement." Konutgan now works as a pastor and is translating the Bible. "Society is our problem, not the laws," he says, describing his own experiences. "The church is perceived as an enemy." The murdered Christians were members of Malatya's small Protestant community, which included a few foreigners like Tilman Geske and 15 Turks who have converted from Islam to Christianity. The liberal newspaper Radikal estimates that there are about 10,000 converts in Turkey, expressing surprise that they could be seen as a "threat" in a country of 73 million people, 99 percent of whom are Muslim. But it seems that this is exactly the case. According to an opinion poll, 59 percent of Turks favor taking legal action against missionaries, and more than 40 percent said they would not want Christian Armenians or Greeks as neighbors. Tilman Geske was buried last Friday in his adopted Turkish home of Malatya. In an interview on Turkish television, his wife Susanne said that he was a "martyr for Jesus" and that she would pray for forgiveness for his killers. Ugur Yüksel, one of the two Turkish Christian employees murdered with Geske, had already been interred. Unlike Geske, though, he had been given a Muslim burial, admitted a spokesman from the local Protestant community: "His family insisted on it."
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,druck-478955,00.html
JPTF 2007/04/23

“Três pessoas assassinadas numa editora de Biblias” em Malatya na Turquia in Turkish Daily News, 19 de Abril de 2007

Turkey was the scene of a bloody attack against Christians yesterday, as assailants killed three people at a publishing house that distributed Bibles in Malatya, a city in eastern Anatolia that had witnessed similar provocative attacks in the recent past. International news agencies focused on the brewing tensions in Turkey once again, after the murder of Catholic Priest Andrea Santoro on Feb. 5, 2006, while sources from the city told the Turkish Daily News that the victims had been receiving threats for years. The TDN also contacted the brother-in-law of one of the victims. The three victims were found with their throats slit and their hands and legs bound, Malatya Gov. Ibrahim Daşöz said. One was still alive when found, and was taken to hospital but died later, he said, adding that one of the victims was a foreigner, possibly a German. A fourth man who jumped from a window to escape was hospitalized with injuries, officials said, according to The Associated Press. Dr. Murat Cem Miman told CNN-Turk television that the man was undergoing surgery for head trauma, while a local source told the TDN he was in fact one of the assailants. Police detained four suspects after the incident.

Continuous threats
The Zirve (Zenith) publishing house, in the city of Malatya, has been the site of previous protests by nationalists. Zirve's general manager told CNN-Turk that his employees had been threatened recently. "We know that they have been receiving threats," Hamza Özant said. The identity of one of the victims, Necati Aydın, 35, was confirmed to the TDN by his brother-in-law, Wolfgang Hade. Aydın was the director of the publishing house, said Hade yesterday, who is the pastor of the Protestant church in Izmit. “Aydın had told me of the threats," said Hade. He said two men had come into the shop four or five months ago and told him that he was not welcome in Malatya. But he did not take it seriously.” Isa Karataş, the speaker for the Union of Turkish Churches also knew Aydın, and described him as "a man of good heart and compassion."Aydın was trying to publish Christian books in Malatya, Rev. Karataş said, whereas other victims might simply be working for the publishing house. "Of course they had been receiving threats," Rev. Karataş replied to the TDN's question. "Is it possible to evangelize Christianity in Turkey and not get threatened?" "Their only guilt was that they believed in Jesus and were open about it and they died for their faith," Hade said.

Had to change name
A local journalist, speaking to the TDN, gave a detailed account of the publishing house, and the threats against it “Zirve was seen here as the continuation of ‘Kayra' publishing house, which was targeted by various nationalist groups on the grounds that they were missionaries,” said the journalist, on condition of anonymity. “Some ultra-nationalist local papers here, plus nationalist organizations demonstrated against them.” ‘Kayra' was led by a South African named Martin Delange, he continued. “Delange could not withstand the threats and left the country. The publishing house also had to change its name due to ongoing threats.” ‘Zirve' did not even have a nameplate or an outdoor sign because of this fearsome climate, the journalist noted. Coming back to the horrific incident, he said the person who tried to escape from the window was actually an assailant: “The witnesses I spoke to said after he jumped off, the man signaled to the people on the street that they should stay silent. After he was caught, on the way to hospital, he continued his charade, shouting that the publishing house was forcing him to sell books.”

A deviation?
The journalist said the slicing of throats might be an attempt to make people think that the massacre was committed by the Turkish Hezbollah, a violent and shadowy group. “There has never been such a Hezbollah operation in this city before,” he said. “Those people were threatened and now they are dead. Nobody protected them. The government did not act as it should have.” Relating the incident to recent tensions over the presidential elections, the journalist said some cities in Turkey are like powder barrels at such times, such as Malatya, Mersin and Trabzon. “We are living through a period of concocted tension, which also includes the murder of Hrant Dink,” he concluded. Earlier this year, a suspected nationalist fatally shot Armenian Christian editor Hrant Dink in Istanbul. Dink was born in Malatya, and tensions in the city increased significantly after the murder. At a football match on 28 Feb., Trabzonspor supporters chanted “Armenian Malatya” as an ‘insult' to Malatyaspor supporters. A foreign journalist, reporting on religious persecution, told the TDN that they have witnessed an increase in violence against Christians for the last three years. “The threats were not taken seriously until the deaths of priest [Santoro] and Hrant Dink," she said.

Rightwing at the center
In the past the main population of Malatya consisted of Armenians and Alevis, said Sinan Özbek, a lecturer at the Kocaeli University's philosophy department. “Yet in the center of the city, the rightwing has always been strong.” Before the military coup in 1980, Malatya used to be known as the city that “exported” radical rightwing militants to other cities, he continued: “The style of the killings reminds one of the murders committed by the Turkish Hezbollah. The political climate of Malatya is convenient for such an organization to flourish, but one can never know for sure.” Malatya is also known as the hometown of Mehmet Ali Ağca, the nationalist hit man who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II in 1981. It was also the scene of violent attacks against the Alevi sect in the late 1970s.Damaris Kremida, Onur Burçak Belli, Mustafa Akyol and Taylan Bilgiç contributed to this story.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=71087
JPTF 2007/04/20

“Irão exonera seis membros de milícia que mataram em nome do Islão” in New York Times, 19 de Abril de 2007

por Nazila Fathi
The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered “morally corrupt.” At an Army Day parade Wednesday in Tehran, a soldier saluted a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The reversal, in an infamous five-year-old case from Kerman, in central Iran, has produced anger and controversy, with lawyers calling it corrupt and newspapers giving it prominence. “The psychological consequences of this case in the city have been great, and a lot of people have lost their confidence in the judicial system,” Nemat Ahmadi, a lawyer associated with the case, said in a telephone interview. Three lower court rulings found all the men guilty of murder. Their cases had been appealed to the Supreme Court, which overturned the guilty verdicts. The latest decision, made public this week, reaffirms that reversal. “The objection by the relatives of the victims is dismissed, and the ruling of this court is confirmed,” the court said in a one-page verdict. The ruling may still not be final, however, because a lower court in Kerman can appeal the decision to the full membership of the Supreme Court. More than 50 Supreme Court judges would then take part in the final decision. According to the Supreme Court’s earlier decision, the killers, who are members of the Basiji Force, volunteer vigilantes favored by the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, considered their victims morally corrupt and, according to Islamic teachings and Iran’s Islamic penal code, their blood could therefore be shed. The last victims, for example, were a young couple engaged to be married who the killers claimed were walking together in public. Members of the Basiji Force are known for attacking reformist politicians and pro-democracy meetings. President Ahmadinejad was a member of the force, but the Supreme Court judges who issued the ruling are not considered to be specifically affiliated with it. Iran’s Islamic penal code, which is a parallel system to its civic code, says murder charges can be dropped if the accused can prove the killing was carried out because the victim was morally corrupt. This is true even if the killer identified the victim mistakenly as corrupt. In that case, the law requires “blood money” to be paid to the family. Every year in Iran, a senior cleric determines the amount of blood money required in such cases. This year it is $40,000 if the victim is a Muslim man, and half that for a Muslim woman or a non-Muslim. In a long interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, a Supreme Court judge, Mohammad Sadegh Al-e-Eshagh, who did not take part in this case, sought Wednesday to discourage vigilante killings, saying those carried out without a court order should be punished. At the same time, he laid out examples of moral corruption that do permit bloodshed, including armed banditry, adultery by a wife and insults to the Prophet Muhammad. “The roots of the problems are in our laws,” said Mohammad Seifzadeh, a lawyer and a member of the Association for Defenders of Human Rights in Tehran. “Such cases happen as long as we have laws that allow the killer to decide whether the victim is corrupt or not. Ironically, such laws show that the establishment is not capable of bringing justice, and so it leaves it to ordinary people to do it.” The ruling stems from a case in 2002 in Kerman that began after the accused watched a tape by a senior cleric who ruled that Muslims could kill a morally corrupt person if the law failed to confront that person. Some 17 people were killed in gruesome ways after that viewing, but only five deaths were linked to this group. The six accused, all in their early 20s, explained to the court that they had taken their victims outside the city after they had identified them. Then they stoned them to death or drowned them in a pond by sitting on their chests. Three of the families had given their consent under pressure by the killers’ families to accept financial compensation, said Mr. Ahmadi, the lawyer. Such killings have occurred in the past. A member of the security forces shot and killed a young man in 2005 in the subway in Karaj, near Tehran, for what he also claimed was immoral behavior by the victim. A judge caused outrage in 2004 in Neka, in the north, after he issued a death sentence for a 16-year old girl for what he said were chastity crimes. After the summary trial, he had her hanged in public immediately, before the necessary approval from the Supreme Court. “Such laws are not acceptable in our society today,” said Hossein Nejad Malayeri, the brother of Gholamreza Nejad Malayeri, who was killed by the group in Kerman. “That means if somebody has money, he can kill, and claim the victim was corrupt.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/19/world/middleeast/19iran.html?hp
JPTF 2007/04/19

“Turcos protestam entre receios de ‘plano secreto‘ para afastar Estado secular” in Times, 16 de Abril de 2007

por Suna Erdem
Hundreds of thousands of Turks took part in two days of protests hoping to persuade the Prime Minister against running for president, amid concerns that his election would put at risk the separation of religion and state in the predominantly Muslim country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to decide this week whether to stand for president next month. Since his Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has roots in political Islam, has a substantial parliamentary majority, its candidate is assured of succeeding Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the President, who is a staunch secularist. Mr Erdogan, who has presided over strong economic growth and has worked hard to secure Turkey’s European Union candidacy, presents himself as a conservative democrat. But opponents remain suspicious of his Islamist past. Mr Erdogan has served a prison term for sedition and his wife covers her head in the Islamic manner. During his leadership his party has attempted to criminal-ise adultery, banish alcohol from some establishments and relax restrictions on religious education and headscarves. His opponents, who include top bureaucrats, academics, judges and generals, believe that he has a hidden Islamist agenda to undermine the strict separation of religion and state, which he could put into practice if AKP held all the top government and state posts. Although in Turkey the Government makes the decisions, the President has the power of veto and traditionally only the staunchest secularists have occupied the most senior position in the State. Kemal Atatörk, the creator of modern Turkey 84 years ago, who dismantled the Islamic Caliphate as part of his political reforms, was the first President of the country, and his successors include several top generals. Mr Erdogan, still testing the waters, has played down his ambitions publicly and told his MPs that general elections due by November are more important. His failure to confirm so far whether he will stand has sparked prolonged debate and led to what amounts to a grudging acceptance of his inevitable ascent, and even the pragmatic financial markets have factored in his election after some volatility. But as the moment of truth approaches, feelings run higher than ever. Increasingly alarmist talk surrounding the possibly candidacy culminated in strident speeches last week by the outgoing President Sezer and General Yasar Buyukanit, the head of the powerful military. “The political regime in Turkey has not faced as big a threat as it does today at any stage since the Republic was founded,” said Mr Sezer, referring to a period in which the military dislodged the elected Government four times. In a more circumspect statement, General Buyukanit said the popular military hoped that the new president would be “a president who embraced the Republic’s secularist, democratic attribute in spirit and not just words”. Shockwaves ran through the country when Nokta, a political magazine, revealed what it said were aborted plans by the senior figures in the Armed Forces for a coup to dislodge Mr Erdogan. They apparently believed that, as well as the Islamist threat, Mr Erdogan’s Government was prepared to make too many concessions to the EU. The chief of staff, who is believed to have opposed the plans, has not rebuffed the report. Last week police raided the offices of Nokta. Concerns about an Erdogan presidency are not exclusive to his opponents. Some supporters worry that the loss of their charismatic leader would lead to a disintegration of the party at the next polls. Pragmatists worry that this could bring to an end a rare period of stable.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1657904.ece
JPTF 2007/04/16

“Irão treina ‘milhares‘ de guerrilheiros xiitas iraquianos” in The Independent, 15 de Abril de 2007

por Phil Sands
Thousands of Iraqi Shias are being trained in advanced guerrilla warfare tactics at a secret camp near the Iranian capital, according to militants who say they have spent time there. Through an Iraqi intermediary who also went to Iran, The Independent on Sunday spoke to two seasoned guerrilla fighters. They said large numbers of Mahdi Army volunteers loyal to the maverick Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr had gone to the base in Jalil Azad, near Tehran, for instruction. Abu Amer, a 39-year-old Mahdi Army fighter who asked that his full name not be used, said he had been trained by instructors he believed were from Iran's Revolutionary Guard. "Shia fighters are being trained in modern fighting methods, such as use of powerful explosives and bringing down helicopters," he told the IoS.Another fighter, who asked to be identified only as Abu Rafed, said he had seen hundreds of fellow Iraqi Shia militants there. "We were taught how to attack the Americans, we learned all the modern ways to shoot down helicopters and destroy tanks and armoured vehicles. It is preparation for the time when we will have a big battle with the occupiers."Sketchy though these accounts are, they are the first independent confirmation of repeated British and US claims that Iraqi militants are being trained, funded and armed by elements in Iran. The implications for the American-led security "surge" in Baghdad, disrupted by high-profile bombings last week, are extremely serious. Last week Maj-Gen William Caldwell, the US military spokesman in Iraq, said that questioning of fighters captured as recently as this month confirmed many had been in Iranian training camps.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2449980.ece
JPTF 2007/04/16

“Ahmet Necdet Sezer: a ameça dos islamistas ao Estado secular na Turquia é mais elevada do que nunca” in Turkish Daily News, 15 de Abril de 2007

Turkey's staunchly pro-secular president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, said Friday that the threat Islamic fundamentalism poses to the country's secular establishment is higher than ever - a warning directed at Erdoğan. "For the first time, the pillars of the secular republic are being openly questioned," Sezer said in an address to officers of the country's military, the self-appointed guarantor of the secular regime. "We are aware of the danger," the pro-secular Cumhuriyet newspaper headlined on Saturday in white letters printed against a red background. Erdoğan's government denies it has an Islamic agenda, but pro-secular Turks say the government is slowly moving the country toward increased religious rule. Since taking power, Erdoğan has shown his commitment to future European Union membership by enacting sweeping reforms that allowed the country to start accession talks in 2005. But he has also stoked secularist concerns by speaking out against restrictions on wearing Islamic-style head scarves in government offices and schools and taking steps to bolster religious schools. He tried to criminalize adultery before being forced to back down under intense EU pressure. Some party-run municipalities have taken steps to ban alcohol consumption. The government is widely accused of appointing Islamist-leaning officials to key state positions. Most recently an alleged suggestion by Culture Minister Atilla Koç to add Arabic letters to the Turkish alphabet – which is based on the Latin script - had fueled concerns from secularists. Sezer steps down on May 16. Parliament, which is dominated by lawmakers from Erdoğan's party, will elect the new president early next month. Erdoğan's party was expected to announce its candidates for the position this month.

Army urges loyalty to secularism:
"As a citizen and as a member of the armed forces, we hope that someone who is loyal to the principles of the republic - not just in words but in essence - is elected president," Gen. Yasar Büyükanıt, chief of the military, said Thursday. Büyükanıt's words were widely interpreted as a warning to Erdoğan not to run. The military views itself as the protector of Turkey's secular identity. The fiercely secular generals have staged three coups between 1960 and 1980, and in 1997 led a campaign that pressured a pro-Islamic government out of power. The rally was organized by Şener Eruygur, president of the Atatürk Thought Association and former commander of Turkey's paramilitary forces. Although largely ceremonial, the presidency has become a symbol for secularism under Sezer. A former Constitutional Court judge, Sezer has vetoed a record number of laws he deemed to be in violation of the secular constitution and has blocked government efforts to appoint hundreds of reportedly Islamic-oriented candidates to important civil service positions.
http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=70698
JPTF 2007/04/15