Turkey - "The Mother of All Wars"

In Turkey, Mustafa Aykol writes:

What has happened in Turkey in the past 10 days is just mind-boggling.

First, on the morning of Dec. 17, an Istanbul prosecutor initiated a shocking investigation. Sons of three ministers, a bank manager, various politicians and businessmen were arrested on charges of widespread corruption. Some visual details, such as photos of huge stacks of cash money in private homes, were leaked to the press. Since four government ministers were explicitly accused, the media dubbed the investigation as “the biggest corruption case in Republican history.”

The government responded with a counter-attack. Erdoğan, his party and the pro-Erdoğan media defined the probe as a political conspiracy cooked up by “foreign powers,” especially Israel and its U.S. lobby. But they also blamed the Fethullah Gülen Movement, which is believed to be behind certain elements within the police and the judiciary. Soon, the government also initiated a very extensive purge within the police, and other state institutions, against “Gülenists,” real or perceived.

On Wed, Dec. 25, two of the accused ministers resigned. The third one, Erdoğan Bayraktar, did something less unexpected. On live TV, he declared that he is innocent yet still he will resign from the cabinet and the parliament. “But I believe Prime Minister Erdoğan should resign, too,” he shockingly said, “for he is the one who ordered all the construction projects that are questioned by the probe.”

This instantly made Bayraktar a “traitor” within AKP eyes, but it also confirmed what people have been whispering since the corruption probe began: “The real target is Erdoğan.” Read More

Sunni-Shia Schism Threatens the Middle East

A fault-line runs from Lebanon on the Mediterranean, down through Syria and Iraq, to Saudi Arabia, the Gulf and beyond.

It divides Shia and Sunni Muslims, the two sides of Islam. It is the oldest division in the Middle East, but just like the schism in Christianity between Protestants and Catholics, it is as much about power and identity as religion.

Leaders have tried to use sectarianism as a tool to protect and strengthen their own legitimacy, just as European governments still sometimes use nationalism.

But the forces that are being unleashed in the Middle East are at best a blunt instrument, at worst beyond anyone's control. Read more

Nightmare Day in Turkey - Erdogan Under Pressure

It may be just an ordinary, placid Christmas for most of the world, but Dec. 25, 2013, will go down in history as the day of sheer nightmare for Turkey’s once so invincible, unchallenged, popular Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He saw three key ministers step down, as his seemingly solid political power was shattered and his government sinks deeper due to a massive graft probe, which in accusations for bribery involves four ministers with amounts adding to roughly $130 million. Later on Dec. 25, he felt forced to reshuffle the cabinet — replacing 10 ministers — which, however, still left him treading uncertain political ground. His days of glory, arrogance and focus of admiration have turned into a fragile, open-ended quest for political survival.

Read more

 

Prince Charles to Muslims: Please Stop Killing Christians

Prince Charles's plea to Muslims to stop killing Christians ‘Religion of peace’ bromides are now giving way to frank denunciation

              The prince and his entourage visit a Syriac Orthodox church in London. The only remaining public duty of Britain’s royal family is to say aloud with compelling grace what all sane people are thinking – something less easy than it sounds.

Prince Charles, next in line for both the crown and the title “Defender of the Faith,” yesterday performed that task. He asked, indeed pleaded, for people to pray for his “brothers and sisters in Christ” who he said are being systematically slaughtered, suppressed and driven from their ancient homelands in the Middle East.

To do this Charles convened an inter-religious Advent reception in London, preceded by visits to a Coptic Christian center and a Syriac Orthodox church, where he was beset with stories and pictures of carnage and calamity in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. With him were Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan, a noted Islamic scholar and sometime Regent for King Abdulah II, along with many U.K. religious leaders. Read more about this event here

Are Sections of Pakistan Closing Themselves to Reform?

We came across this interesting article in "Middle East Forum" on November 24, 2013

Just over a year ago, Malala Youssefzai lay dangerously wounded after a Taliban assassin shot her in the head at close range. Malala was already an advocate of education for girls, but the Taliban condemned female education and shut down as many schools as they could, threatening death to students and teachers alike. The bullies won out, bombing and burning out schools that would not bend to their hatred of women and knowledge. Malala spoke out from her small village school until, in 2012, the Taliban decided to take revenge and silence her voice forever. Except that their ill-fated attempt did the opposite.

But a week or two ago, I came across a news item that disturbed me greatly. Two organizations representing private schools in Pakistan have banned her book, I Am Malala‎ from more than 40,000 schools across Pakistan. The book, apparently, is an insult to Islam and shows Malala herself to be nothing more than a tool of the West. So, the leaders of an important sector of the Pakistani educational world has chosen to ban Pakistan's best-known and most loved proponent of education, not just in Pakistan, but all around the world. It sounds like some sick joke, but it's true. This is happening in a country that can't even provide even primary education for half its children.
Malala's influence on young Pakistani girls and teenagers has been and remains enormous. Pakistan (as I shall argue) needs educated men and women to produce a better-educated workforce that will help the country compete in the international marketplace. According to UNESCO, Pakistan's literacy rate places the country at 113 out of 120 countries surveyed. In some places, the female literacy rate stands at 3 percent. And two educational bodies are banning an innocuous book by the country's foremost advocate of female education. Read More

When Will Democracy Prevail in the Islamic World?

According to İhsanoğlu, the first mistake was made when this wave was described as a “spring.” “It cannot be called spring, because it was misleading. It can neither be called a spring nor a revolution. They were social explosions as a result of years old pressure, cruelty, poverty and bad governance … They were representing the people’s political awakening,” he explained.

“If you want to use an analogy, it was not a spring, but autumn; an autumn for dictators. But now, we are entering a very harsh winter,” İhsanoğlu stressed, obviously referring to the developments in Syria.

One thing is for sure, Islamic countries will have to pass through a serious transformation processes to reach out for democracy. None of the countries affected from this wave have political parties or established political groups except for Islamist groups, he explained. Although these Islamist groups have been transformed into political movements, they failed to produce a stable and diverse political landscape in their countries due to lack of experience. Read More

Brunei is Declared Fundamentalist

Brunei is declared fundamentalist by its all-powerful sultan Henceforward thieves will be de-handed, drunkards lashed, and adulterers stoned to death By Link Byfield Oct 28, 2013

              Hassanal Bolkiah, Sultan of Brunei, flanked by both his wives. Far, far away, in a small kingdom in an oil-rich region of the South China Sea, lived the aging, unhappy, fabulously wealthy Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah of Brunei. His people were misbehaving, and something had to be done.



 One day – Oct. 22, 2013 – the great sultan announced that, for its own good, the kingdom would soon return to the pure laws of Islam: adulterers would be stoned to death, thieves’ hands amputated, and anyone caught drinking alcohol lashed.



Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddin Mosque, built in 1958 with a gold roof.Brunei is an independent coastal nation of 400,000 people, two-thirds of whom are Sunni Muslims. Seafarers and traders since ancient times, they were Islamized in about the 1400s, fought over by European colonial powers for several centuries, and were granted independence by Britain in 1984. Though nominally a parliamentary democracy, Brunei is in fact an Islamic absolute monarchy like Saudi Arabia. So whether or not the people want a strict application of Sunni Shafi law – the harshest in all Islam – that is what they will get. -
Read More

EP calls Erdoğan's Shanghai proposal ‘irresponsible'

Senior European Parliament (EP) members have called Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's proposal for membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) “irresponsible.”

British Liberal Baroness Sarah Ludford and Czech Socialist Libor Roucek underlined that while the proposal was itself taken very negatively in Brussels, the timing was also very unfortunate as it coincided with a period when Russia strongly pressured Ukraine not to sign an association agreement with the EU and was eventually successful. Russia is one of the founding members of the SCO.
During his recent visit to Moscow, Erdoğan asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to admit Turkey into the SCO and pave the way for Turkey to get rid of the "EU inconvenience." After his return to Turkey, Erdoğan repeated his call for SCO membership, making it clear he was serious about the issue.

Read more

Is the Iranian Deal the best for Israel, USA and the world?

Unsurprisingly, “rabid dogs” and “cancerous tumors” tend to be touchy about threats to their existence. Israel’s focus over the coming months, however, should be on an attempt to conduct an intensive and discrete dialogue with the United States and other powers involved, to ensure that the final agreement is the best one possible, given the circumstances. Unfortunately, there will not be a knockout blow and Israel will probably have to continue living with an ongoing, if greatly diminished, Iranian threat. Not the outcome we sought, but apparently better than the alternatives.

Read more

"Turkey is losing its positive perception in the Middle East"

Turkey losing positive perception in Middle East

ISTANBUL

A new survey shows that positive perceptions of Turkey have decreased considerably across the region, with the biggest drops in Syria and Egypt

The numbers may reflect the controversial positions taken by Turkey on a number of regional developments. AP photo

Positive perceptions about Turkey in the Middle East have decreased of late, with the sharpest drops registered in Egypt and Syria, according to a poll released yesterday by the Turkey Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV). Despite this loss of popularity, Turkey is still seen as an important power in the region, with 60 percent of those polled supporting a greater regional role for Turkey, according to the study.

Conducted for the fifth time, the TESEV poll shows a considerable drop in Turkey’s popularity over the course of the last three years. While 78 percent of respondents had a positive view of Turkey in 2011, this ratio dropped to 69 percent in 2012, and to 59 percent in 2013.

The most recent poll was conducted in 16 regional countries between August and September via telephone interviews. Read more

'Largest Massacre of Christians in Syria' Ignored

Sadad - an ancient site in Syria that is mentioned in the Old Testament.

Sadad - where recently Christian massacres took place with hardly a mention in the western press.
Men and women were tortured and their bodies dumped into the wells. Apparently the jihadis made a video with English subtitles of those killed.

Archbishop Selwanos Boutros Alnemeh, Syriac Orthodox Metropolitan of Homs and Hama, says,

What happened in Sadad is the most serious and biggest massacre of Christians in Syria in the past two years and a half… 45 innocent civilians were martyred for no reason, and among them several women and children, many thrown into mass graves. Other civilians were threatened and terrorized. 30 were wounded and 10 are still missing. For one week, 1,500 families were held as hostages and human shields. Among them children, the elderly, the young, men and women…. All the houses of Sadad were robbed and property looted. The churches are damaged and desecrated, deprived of old books and precious furniture… What happened in Sadad is the largest massacre of Christians in Syria and the second in the Middle East, after the one in the Church of Our Lady of Salvation in Iraq, in 2010.

Sadad is a small town of 15,000 people, mostly Syriac Orthodox Christians, located 160 km north of Damascus. It has 14 churches and a monastery with four priests.

Apparently, this, and perhaps other violent acts, are not being covered by the west. The atrocities in Syria seem to have no end. Read More

Terror in Islam's Name Fuels Islamophobia: Turkish President Gul

Terror in Islam’s name fuels Islamophobia: Turkish President Gül

ISTANBUL

Islam might be the religion of ‘love, tolerance and reconciliation,’ but terrorism in the name of the faith gives ammunition to Islamophobes, President Abdullah Gül says, calling on the Muslim world to rectify the situation    

Turkish President Abdullah Gül (C) adresses Muslim countries’ represenatatives during yesterday’s COMCEC meeting held in Istanbul. AA photo
           

Turkish President Abdullah Gül has blamed terrorism in the name of Islam for soiling the faith’s image in the world and resulting in the growth of Islamophobia, while calling on Muslim countries to intensify their efforts to fight against prejudices against the religion.

“The deliberate negative propaganda activities and the violence and terrorist activities, which some evil people and circles exploiting our sacred Islamic values for their henious aims, have a big role in the perpetuation of this problem,” Gül said during his inaugural address yesterday at the Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (COMCEC) 29th session in Istanbul.

Islamophobia still remains a critical problem that instigates “groundless biases against Islam and Muslims,” Gül said, adding that all Islamic countries should etch the idea that “there is no room for terrorism in Islam” in everybody’s minds.“We must struggle against every movement that urges those who put Islam, a religion of love, tolerance and reconciliation, side by side with terrorism,” he said during the meeting.

The lack of education, spiritual emptiness, poverty and income inequality are what feed violent, militant movements, and governments should act to rectify these issues with determination, the president said.

Addressing representatives from Muslim nations during the main multilateral economic and commercial cooperation platform of the Islamic world, Gül referred to a study that concluded 21 of 57 member countries were ranked among the least developed countries.
 Read more

Arab Dismay and Russia's Chance during USA Weakness?

U.S.-Arab strains hand Russia chance to regain some Mideast clout

William Maclean and Michael Georgy

DUBAI/CAIRO — Reuters

 

Unfamiliar strains between Washington and its Arab allies have given Russia an opportunity to regain some lost influence in the Middle East, capture arms sales from U.S. competitors and enjoy the unusual spectacle of its old rival looking puny.
No one expects Moscow to challenge the United States as the dominant security guarantor in the Gulf. Nor will Washington cede its place as the main outside player in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Iran’s nuclear dispute or other regional issues.

But a perception that America is an increasingly reluctant regional policeman, perhaps because it is less concerned about Arab oil shocks thanks to its own growing output, stirs fears among some Arab rulers that it is no longer a reliable ally.

Arabs feel the balance of world power is changing, and perceptions of U.S. weakness as it withdraws from Iraq and Afghanistan mean Gulf Arabs in particular are hedging their bets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s resolute support for the Syrian leadership has won grudging respect, even among Gulf Arabs who strongly disagree with the Kremlin’s policy.

That means that Russia has a chance to restore some of the clout it has lost since the high water mark of Soviet influence in the 1950s and 1960s, when many newly independent Arab states turned to socialism and Moscow for foreign support.
That decline in the Kemlin’s sway accelerated after the end of the Cold War two decades ago, a development President Vladimir Putin is expected to do his utmost to reverse. Read more

Greek anger over Turkish Desire to turn Hagia Sophia into a Mosque - Again

Greece angered over Turkish Deputy PM’s Hagia Sophia remarks

ATHENS

The Greek Foreign Ministry has reacted angrily days after Turkish Deputy PM Bülent Arınç expressed his hope to see Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum be used as a mosque. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL

The Greek Foreign Ministry has reacted angrily over a possible conversion of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia Museum into a mosque following statements from Turkish officials.

“The repeated statements from Turkish officials regarding the conversion of Byzantine Christian churches into mosques are an insult to the religious sensibilities of millions of Christians and are actions that are anachronistic and incomprehensible from a state that declares it wants to participate as a full member in the European Union, a fundamental principle of which is respect for religious freedom,” the Greek Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Nov. 18.

“Byzantine Christian churches are an intrinsic element of world cultural and religious heritage, and they should receive the necessary respect and protection,” it said.

The statement came days after Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç expressed his hope to see Hagia Sophia Museum be used as a mosque, while already calling it the “Hagia Sophia Mosque” while speaking to reporters.

“We currently stand next to the Hagia Sophia Mosque […] we are looking at a sad Hagia Sophia, but hopefully we will see it smiling again soon,” Arınç said in a speech during the opening ceremony of a new Carpet Museum, located adjacent to the ancient Hagia Sophia complex.

The status of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years, with a number of campaigns to open it for Muslim prayers being initiated, despite suggestions that this would be disrespectful to the building’s past as a church.

November/19/2013

Egypt's Brotherhood is Falling Apart

Patrick Martin reports from Ismailia, Egypt, that the Brotherhood is in a state of collapse.

Read Here
 

IRAN: Conflict between Muslims is World's Greatest Threat

The BBC Quotes Iran's Foreign Minister as saying:

Speaking to the BBC, Mohamed Javad Zarif blamed some Sunni countries for what he called "fear-mongering".

"Some people have fanned the animosity for short-sighted political interests," he said.

Syria, Iraq and Pakistan are among the countries currently grappling with a surge in sectarian violence.

Mr Zarif said conflict between Sunnis and Shias was "the most serious security threat not only to the region but to the world at large".

"I think we need to come to understand that a sectarian divide in the Islamic world is a threat to all of us."

Read More

From Turkey, along the same lines, concern that the Sunni and Shia division is a threat to the region.

"A Sunni-Shiite rift is a worrying trend in the Middle East but recent developments in Turkey’s ties with Iraq and Iran could prevent the threat of a sectarian war, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said yesterday as he visited Baghdad in the latest sign of a thaw in bilateral relations."

Read More

When a State Gets Into the Houses of Its Citizens

When a state gets into the houses of citizens by Orhan Kemal Cengiz

Will Turkey enact a law allowing police to raid houses in which female and male students live together? I do not think so. Turkey cannot create these kinds of laws without changing the very foundations of the Turkish legal system and Turkey's international legal obligations.

Private life is under the protection of the Constitution; Turkey is a party to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and so many others, all of which oblige Turkey to protect its citizens against state interference in private and family life. Therefore, without amending the Constitution and without annulling all the conventions to which Turkey is a party, you cannot introduce the legal provisions Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has spoken about. However, this does not mean that Erdoğan's remarks will have no consequences in the daily lives of Turkish citizens. Some “eager citizens” who wish to protect “moral values” in their buildings against those who maintain “indecent” lives have already taken action. The Radikal daily, for example, reported that in Üsküdar, following Erdoğan's statement, a warning sign was put up in the entrance of the building urging tenants to inform the police about women and men who live together in that building. And we read in this news report how a female university student who lives in that building was terrified when she read this warning. She happens to be the only single person in this building and it was clear that this message was just put there to intimidate her. I am sure we will hear many similar stories soon. The governor of Adana told journalists that “Erdoğan's words are instructions for us.” We can conclude from his statement that some “eager” governors and police officers will all be part of a harassment campaign against university students who live with members of the opposite sex together in the same apartment. Well, I had thought that the government and Prime Minister Erdoğan had drawn lessons from the Gezi protests and would change their direction, would interfere less in people's life, would stop playing the role of the father figure. I was mistaken. Erdoğan cannot put aside his patriarchal role -- his desire to create an “ideal citizen.” He cannot help imposing his moral and religious values on others. More here

From Turkey: "We should all be ashamed over this"

We should all be ashamed over this - an article by Semih Idiz 

 

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s hatred for Turkey’s progressive and educated youth took a quantum leap forward after the Gezi protests. He is now taking this hatred a step further by means of calumny designed to sully the reputation of this youth by insinuating that they are involved in sexual deviancy and immorality.

This is the only interpretation one can give to his declarations about young male and female students living together in flats or dorms, as I and most of my friends did during our university days. Erdoğan says no one knows what goes on in these flats and dorms, and therefore it is incumbent on the state to act.

He is even saying he will instruct provincial governors and officials to act on this. Not surprisingly, many students and their parents are now worried about police raids on student lodgings in the name of morality.

Claiming, incredibly, that he is not interfering in lifestyles, Erdoğan argues that he is doing all of this for the sake of concerned parents after authorities received countless complaints. Erdoğan also said they are a conservative party and need to act in this way. Read more

 

What are the Roots of Radical Islam?

The Roots of Radicalism In Political Islam

Fundamentalists are nostalgic for a lost “Golden Age,” although the meaning of this “Golden Age” is not the same for the Sunnis and the Shiites.

By: Ali Mamouri for Al-Monitor Iran Pulse Posted on October 18.

به فارسی   Türkçe okuyun

The contemporary phenomenon of fundamentalism goes back to the same historical root in both Shiite and Sunni Islam. The magnitude and spread of religious violence in the Middle East has prevented a meticulous and scholarly study of fundamentalism in these two branches of Islam and its common roots.

About This Article

Summary : Sunni and Shiite fundamentalists have both sought to return to their own ideal version of history while rejecting modernity. Original Title: The Common Roots of Fundamentalism in Shia and Sunni Islam Author: Ali Mamouri Posted on: October 18 2013 Translated by: Ezgi Akin Categories : Originals Iran   Turkey

 "Political Islam" is the umbrella term for fundamentalism in both of these branches. Looking deeper and more carefully at regional affairs, we can see that conflicts among the different versions of “political Islam” are being presented as religious conflicts. While a large number of Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Middle East do not think of themselves as participants in the current religious conflicts, various political interpretations of Islam have turned the region into a scene of war. The point worth noting is that these different approaches have very similar ideological structures as well as joint historical roots. Understanding this fact can change one’s outlook toward conflicts in the Middle East.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/10/radicalism-political-islam-roots-sunni-shiite-fundamentalist.html#ixzz2igEeSWRq

Israel's Retired Yadlin Admits "Mavi Marmara" Mistake

Mavi Marmara was a great mistake, Israel’s former spy chief admits

JERUSALEM - Anadolu Agency

Israel formally apologized to Turkey in March over the killings. It also agreed to redress the damages and loss of life and promised to lift an embargo imposed on the Gaza Strip. Hürriyet photo

An Israeli former military intelligence chief admitted that what happened in the Mavi Marmara raid was a big mistake.

Retired Major General Amos Yadlin was the chief of the military intelligence during the deadly raid in 2010 that killed nine Turkish citizens on board. “What happened with Mavi Marmara was a great mistake. Both Israel and Turkey made mistakes and I wish those incidents did not happen,” Yadlin told Anadolu Agency.

Israel formally apologized to Turkey in March over the killings. It also agreed to redress the damages and loss of life and promised to lift an embargo imposed on the Gaza Strip.

When asked if he would act the same if the incident happened today, he said: “With these experiences, those incidents would not happen today.” The retired general is on the list of defendants in the trial in Istanbul’s 7th High Criminal Court.

November/05/2013

Turkish Military Confirmed in Secret Units Involved in Assassinations

Nearly six years into the court trial over the murder of three Christians in southeastern Turkey, documents have emerged confirming that secret military units were involved in those assassinations and others.

 

Malatya’s 3^rd Criminal Court is conducting the trial of five men accused of stabbing, torturing and then slashing the throats of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske in the Malatya office of Zirve Christian Publishing on April 18, 2007.

 

Earlier this month, the Ankara Prosecutor’s Office handed over to the Malatya court confidential intelligence files seized from the General Staff’s Tactical Mobilization Group archives. According to the most recent indictment in the Zirve case, the documents confirm the existence and illegal activities of secret military units involved in extrajudicial surveillance and assassinations of members of Turkey’s Christian minority communities.

 

Zirve plaintiff lawyer Erdal Dogan said the prosecution of Malatya’s Zirve case is revealing the structures that previously orchestrated the murders of two other Christians – Italian Catholic priest Andrea Santoro at his parish in Trabzon in February 2006, and Turkish Armenian editor Hrant Dink in front of his Agos newspaper office in Istanbul in January 2007.

 

In the Zirve case, the young suspects were arrested and put on trial, but the instigators behind them obscured their own identities by destroying evidence and mounting clever disinformation campaigns, according to the newly revealed documents.

Tedious but critical testimony

 

Since January of this year, presiding Judge Hayrettin Kisa has upped the pace of the drawn-out Malatya trial, holding almost monthly sets of week-long hearings, in line with his stated objective to finish the legal process by the end of 2013.

 

With a total of 14 suspected perpetrators to examine, the Malatya court has gone through tedious weeks of testimony and cross examination.

 

Newly submitted evidence has also been probed, including digital copies of telephone conversations and additional court files from the Ergenekon, Balyoz (Sledgehammer), JITEM and Musa Anter cases, all involving alleged death squads within the military.

 

Several weeks of hearings this spring focused on the testimony and cross-examination of Ilker Cinar, a suspect who testified that he had been hired by elements within the Turkish military to manipulate public opinion on behalf of the ‘deep state.’

 

Carrying identity papers as a journalist for the Malatya gendarmerie — a law-enforcement arm of the military — Cinar said he worked with the National Strategies and Operations Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), which he claimed was the “armed wing of Ergenekon,” set up in 1993 by another suspect, Ret. Gen. Hursit Tolan.

 

“Tell people that missionaries want to divide Turkey,” read one of the disclosed TUSHAD documents released in the Cosmic Room files.

 

Cinar testified he was involved with several of the other accused military suspects in the plan to attack the Christians at the Zirve office. He alleged that there were both black (civilian) and white (military) forces working under TUSHAD which teamed together to carry out the Malatya murders, as well as the Dink and Santoro slayings.

 

‘This is not the state’

 

At a May hearing, Cinar testified that he initially believed TUSHAD was backed by the state, but later concluded otherwise. “This formation is behind all the hideous attacks targeting minorities and Christians. This is not the state,” he declared. “If I hadn’t spoken against this, the blame would be on the five youths who were chosen as the victims [to carry out the attacks]. I am listening to the voice of my conscience,” he told the court.

 

To date, Tolan and former Malatya Gendarmerie Commander Mehmet Ulger have been fingered as key culprits in planning the Malatya plot. But a telephone conversation recorded the day after the murders between Cinar and university theology instructor Ruhi Polat provided evidence of Polat’s involvement.

 

“Write this in a corner of your head,” Polat told Cinar. “There is no return from this business. We wanted these dishonourable guys just to intimidate them [the Christians]. We said hit them, but they killed them. So you will help us, right?”

 

The conspirators took immediate and ongoing steps, Cinar testified, to destroy the evidence of their involvement and spread mistruths through the Turkish press – first while the prosecutors were preparing the murder indictment, and continuing throughout the years-long trial. He was threatened a year after the murders by Ulger, and then saw his own name on a death list at the Tarsus police department a few months later.

 

Professing to be shocked ever since the night he learned that the Malatya plot had turned into murder, Cinar eventually decided to turn state’s evidence and testify in the Zirve trial against his military and police conspirators.

 

The two Turkish victims were both Muslims who had converted to Christianity. The German widow and her children continue to live in Malatya. The day of the men’s deaths has since been designated a World Day of Prayer for Turkey by the local Protestant community.

 

An estimated 5,000 converts constitute the small Protestant Christian community in Turkey, where citizens are allowed by law to change their religious identity in a simple administrative procedure.

 

The 85^th hearing on the Malatya case is set to open on Oct. 30.

©2013 World Watch Monitor

It's a Tough Time to be Jewish Young Person in Turkey

Not easy.

Deteriorating relationships between the two countries.

Anti-Semitism on the rise.

No wonder, many young people of Turkey's 15,000 Jews are thinking of leaving.

Read the whole story here

Continuing Conflict Between Turkey and Nato over Chinese Missile Deal

The possible purchase of missiles from China by Turkey is causing an unpleasant situation in the top corridors of power. The expression from NATO is "could not be more worried", and "the number is five (on a scale of one to five). Read Here "The (Turkish) defense minister claimed that the ministry chose China and that the decision was not the business or problem of any other country."

For his part, the Prime Minister is chiding NATO for interference in what he sees as a national decision. Read Here

 

Turkey's Policies in the Eastern Mediterranean - Should the Change?

Turkey's policies may limit its power in eastern Mediterranean

        The entire article can be found here         

Israeli gas platforms are seen in the Mediterranean Sea, some 15 miles west of the port city of Ashdod, in this Feb. 25 file photo. (Photo: Ebubekir Koran, Cihan)

20 October 2013 /CÜMALİ ÖNAL, İSTANBUL

Attracting attention with its large gas reserves, the eastern Mediterranean has become an area of interest for many countries and has led to a strategic conflict between world powers and the region; however, experts say that if Turkey maintains its current foreign and economic policies on the region, it is likely to be left out of the game.

According to these experts, Turkey should appreciate the importance of the eastern Mediterranean region and its wealth of natural resources.
“If Turkey continues boasting as it did before 2002 [before Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power], economic and political developments in the region may harm Turkey's interests and weaken its hand," Dr. Mehmet Hasgüler, a lecturer of Mediterranean studies at Çanakkale 18 Mart University, told Sunday's Zaman.
The eastern Mediterranean rose to importance due to its natural gas reserves, explored by Israel and Greek Cyprus, and it is believed that the region holds reserves sufficient to supply Europe's energy needs for decades and break Russia's monopoly on the energy sector.
Another expert on the eastern Mediterranean, Nejat Tarakçı -- mostly known for his books on the eastern Mediterranean and Cyprus -- also advised Turkey to abandon its current policies and act wisely in the region. According to Tarakçı, if Turkey acts reasonably and takes the real situation into account, it can rediscover its voice in the region and even receive important benefits from the gas to be extracted.

Women's Dress Codes in the Middle East

How women are treated across the Middle East is a recurring issue. When men tell women what to wear in Iran, or Turkey, the issue has usually not made the headlines.

Not any more. In Turkey, a journalist was fired for wearing a low cut dress.

In Iran, it's a whole new debate when a woman wears jeans. See what you think of the quote below. The whole article is found here

Going on to say that she has plans “to issue a call to Iranian women via Facebook to begin dressing in happier colors,” Eshraghi indicated that she wanted to start “a color revolution” in her country. Asked about her views on the way the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s first female spokeswoman, Marzieh Afkham, who is always seen in a black chador, dresses she said the following:

“I am opposed to the way she dresses and I think that she has to reconsider her dress style. I think that she should dress in light colors. A Foreign Ministry spokesperson is viewed across the world. Clothes are very important.”

Eshraghi also expressed her strong opposition to any police crackdown on women because of the Islamic dress code, saying such measures will have no effect. “As long as this law is in effect, we have to object to it. The entire dress code law must be annulled,” she said, adding her hope that Iran’s new and moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, would do this.

While the interview covered a number of topics, Eshragi’s remarks concerning the way Iranian women dress is what would have attracted the attention of Turkish readers, given the heated debate currently raging in Turkey on women’s dress and especially the matter of “décolletage.”

The cause of that debate, as most people know by now, was Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Hüseyin Çelik and his remarks about the dress of television presenter Gözde Kansu, which revealed some cleavage but by no means was “extreme” in the way Çelik was suggesting. Neither was the dress which got Kansu fired from her channel unique to Turkish TV in terms of revealing cleavage. 



 

USA-Saudi Arabia Friction Increases

There's a new tension on the horizon and it's one with deep pockets.

Saudi Arabia has given up it's chance to sit on the Security Council of the UN.

Saudi Arabia rejects security council seat, castigates United Nations over ‘inability to perform its duties’

 

AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, FileIn this Friday, Sept. 27, 2013 file photo, the United Nations Security Council votes on a resolution that will require Syria to give up its chemical weapon, at U.N. Headquarters.

 

Saudi Arabia is rejecting its seat on the U.N. Security Council and says the 15-member body is incapable of resolving world conflicts. Saudi Arabia took the highly unusual step on Friday of rejecting a rotating seat on the Security Council and castigated the United Nations for what it called a double standard — a move aimed at protesting the failure to resolve the Syrian civil war.

 

The Saudi discontent appeared largely directed at its long time ally, the United States, reflecting more than two years of frustration. The two are at odds over a number of Mideast issues, including how Washington has handled some of the region’s crises, particularly in Egypt and Syria. It also comes as ties between the U.S. and Iran, the Saudi’s regional foe, appear to be tepidly improving.

Rest of the article is found here

Turkish Navy Resignations

Erdoğan says surprised by resignations in Turkish navy

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan speaks to reporters following Eid al-Adha prayer on Tuesday morning. (Photo: İHA)

15 October 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he is surprised and deeply saddened by resignations of several senior commanders from Turkish navy in what appears a protest against a court verdict that upheld the convictions of leading members of Turkish military.

Speaking after Eid al-Adha prayer on Tuesday, Erdoğan wished for a happy and peaceful Eid for all Muslims in the world. He also touched upon several issues regarding Turkish politics and regional affairs.
Erdoğan said he was surprised by a series of resignations in the Turkish navy, expressing his fury over timing of the move of commanders.

Chinese Missiles in Turkey?

A row is appearing in Turkey over a 3.5 billion dollar deal between China and Turkey.

What does all this mean?

The USA and NATO certainly don't want Chinese technology and influence coming this far "West".

Turkey says it's purely an economic reality - the other options cost more.

And China says "Don't worry - No problem."

The article can be found here

NATO's reaction and response can be found here

Turkey is slightly hesitant, saying the deal isn't quite finalized. here

Once again, the Turks have got it wrong.

A very penetrating analysis of Turkish theoretical military needs and actual needs is written today by Burak Bekdil.

He is a thorn in the flesh to nationalists who think Turkey is always right.

His article may be found here

Is Quatar up to the international level of sports?

Qatar’s 2022 venture: Perfecting the skill of scoring own goals

JAMES M. DORSEY

Mounting criticism of the living and working conditions of up to a million unskilled and semi-skilled workers expected to build infrastructure for the tournament, controversy is coming to a head with world soccer body FIFA under increasing pressure to revisit its awarding of the tournament to Qatar

Members of the Swiss UNIA workers union display red cards and shout slogans during a protest in front of the headquarters of soccer’s international governing body FIFA in Zurich. Al-Jazeera’s lack of reporting also comes under fire. REUTERS Photo

State-owned Qatari television network Al-Jazeera prides itself on hard-hitting, let-the-chips-fall-where-they-fall reporting. Yet, it has systematically avoided in recent days the one story that potentially could affect the very future, shape and security of the wealthy Gulf state: controversy over the timing of the 2022 World Cup and mounting criticism of the living and working conditions of up to a million unskilled and semi-skilled workers expected to build infrastructure for the tournament.

That controversy is coming to a head with world soccer body FIFA under increasing pressure to revisit its awarding of the tournament to Qatar. FIFA’s executive committee postponed a decision on changing the timing of the 2022 competition until after next year’s World Cup in Brazil and instructed its chairman, Sepp Blatter to meet with Qatari emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to discuss the often appalling conditions for foreign workers expected to be involved in the construction of tens of billions of dollars of infrastructure related to the tournament. This is a sensitive issue for Qatar, a country in which local nationals constitute at best 15 percent of the total population and 6 percent of the workforce. the rest of the article is found here

Turkey Filed 50,000 Times at Euro Court in 10 years

Turkey filed 50,000 times at Euro court between 2002 and 2012

ISTANBUL - From Hurriyet Daily News

More than 50,000 applications were filed at the European Court of Human Rights against Turkey in last decade. REUTERS photo

     

Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin has revealed that more than 50,000 applications were filed at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) against Turkey between 2002 and 2012.

Between May 2004 and the first half of 2012, Turkey was fined 180.94 million Turkish Liras for violations, Ergin said.

The figures were provided by Ergin in response to a written motion submitted by main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Istanbul deputy Sezgin Tanrıkulu.

According to Ergin’s response, the Justice Ministry paid 1.7 million euros (3.92 million liras) in compensation for violations handed down from the European court between Mar. 1, 2012 and Dec. 31, 2012.

According to the information provided by the Foreign Ministry the 3, 862 cases filed against Turkey in 2002 increased to 5, 792 in 2010; to 8, 656 in 2011 and to 9,053 in 2012. Hence, a grand total of 50, 249 applications were lodged over the period between 2002 and 2012.

September/23/2013

NURAY MERT - writing in Hurriyet Daily News, Istanbul, August 4, 2013

Turkey, Egypt and the end of high expectations

Turkey’s “model” of democracy for Muslim countries, was like U.S. President Barack Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. Both phenomena were based on a curious mixture of high expectations and wishful thinking. It was thought that Obama’s election would be enough to ensure peace in the Middle East, so he was given a prize in advance; likewise, Turkey was assumed to be a model democracy for Muslim countries in advance. Unfortunately, the assumptions and expectations failed dramatically.

The ex-Islamists of Turkey reinvented themselves as “conservative democrats” under the name of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002, won three successive elections afterwards and managed to transform the status quo by eliminating the military and judicial hegemony of secularists in a decade. In fact, it was a hopeful move for the future of more democracy in Turkey, since the pretext of “guarding secularism” has been one of the most important cornerstones of authoritarian politics. The “conservative democrats,” however, turned out to be “conservative autocrats” after managing to achieve the total monopolization of political power. Although the failure of the so-called “Turkish model” began having an impact on politics and social life a long time ago, it turned to be an issue and became even visible internationally only after the Gezi protests in June. The Gezi protests have been the ultimate expression of culminating resentment concerning the rise of authoritarian politics and the loss of freedoms in Turkey. Besides, it was the ultimate expression of the “governability crisis” by the AKP.

I think that despite all the differences, this was also the case with the Muslim Brotherhood’s rule in Egypt. I am someone who is totally against military intervention into civilian politics and the case of Egypt is no exception. Nevertheless, I also think that Muslim countries cannot avoid facing the democratic dilemma after all, especially concerning what happened in Turkey and Egypt. There is no excuse for denying the “representative/social legitimacy” of democratically elected Islamists (be they self-defined democrats, post-Islamists or moderate Islamists). Nonetheless, democracy is not all about the ballot box. This turned to be the case in Turkey, and I think Turkey has been the wrong model in this respect. If the MB of Egypt took it as a model of success (and it seems they did), it seems they were rather misled.

This is not to say that the military coup in Egypt is justified. I only want to suggest that Islamists’ understanding of democracy seems to be limited to the “ballot box” and their concern for political legitimacy is limited to majoritarianism. The result has been the lack of recognition of differences and dissent, an ability to value freedoms and the de facto exclusion of non-party supporters. In our part of the world, these pillars of democracy, or lack thereof, are just thought to be Western whims and trivialities which have nothing to do with “governability.” Islamists proved no better than their predecessors in this respect, and that is why they turned out to be no better, if not worse. I think this is the reason behind the “governability crisis” that both countries have faced in different ways. I also think that it is key to understanding the reasons behind the failure of Turkey’s experience, which was assumed to be a model for the combination of Islam and democracy, and the dramatic fall of MB rule in Egypt, which was assumed to be the star case of democracy under moderate Islamists. It should also be thought to be key to a debate on the future of prospects for democracy in the region.

An Arabic version of this article was published in Asharq Al-Awsat on July 28.

August/05/2013

"Turkey may Reopen Halki Seminary" - Hurriyet Daily News

Turkey considering reopening of Halki Seminary, minister says

The Greek Orthodox Halki (Heybeliada) Seminary in İstanbul, the only school where the Greek minority in Turkey used to educate its clergymen, was closed in 1971 during a period of tension with Greece. (Photo: Cihan; Usame Arı)

31 July 2013 /TODAYSZAMAN.COM, İSTANBUL

Turkish Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin has said the Turkish government is considering reopening the Greek Orthodox seminary on Heybeliada, a demand which has long been pursued by Turkey's Greek community.

The Greek Patriarchate is an institution under the protection of international law as guaranteed by the Treaty of Lausanne. It has long complained about the status of the Halki Seminary as well as other property issues. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has repeatedly said that the reopening of the seminary is of vital importance to the survival of the Greek Orthodox clergy.
Established in 1844 on the island of Heybeliada off İstanbul, Halki Seminary was closed in 1971 under a law that placed religious and military training under state control. The EU and the US frequently criticize Turkey for not reopening Halki Seminary -- which experts say is related to Turkey's interpretation of secularism.
Speaking on a TV program on Wednesday, Minister Ergin said: "The re-opening of the Halki Seminary is among the many topics currently being discussed [during the drafting of the new constitution]. We will all see the results. It is a political decision. The Halki Seminary might be opened."

"Turkey's Miscalculations reduce its bargaining power" - Article

Turkey's miscalculations in region reduce its bargaining power with US -

Zaman Newspaper, August 4, 2013

 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and US President Barack Obama discussed regional issues and bilateral relations during Erdoğan’s visit to the Washington on May 16. (Photo: Mehmet Yaman, Sunday's Zaman)

4 August 2013 /İREM KARAKAYA, ANKARA

Turkey losing influence in the Middle East and North Africa as well as troubled relations with the EU and disagreements with Russia may have weakened its hand in bilateral ties with the US, reducing its bargaining power, experts say.

“We need to see the truth. Turkey's sanction power is gradually decreasing. It has even less respectability than it had before. If Turkey's relations continue to deteriorate in the region, Turkey's influence and obedience to it will disappear,” Nüzhet Kandemir, Turkey's former ambassador to Washington, told Sunday's Zaman.

As a country priding itself on its location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia and its closeness to the oil-rich Middle East, Turkey is now at odds with its neighboring countries. For further content on this fascinating story click here

"France Struggles to Separate Islam and the State" - AP

France Struggles to Separate Islam and the State

  

By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press

TRAPPES, France July 29, 2013 (AP)

Riots broke out over a full-face Islamic veil. A woman may have lost her unborn baby in another confrontation over her face covering. Tensions flared over a supermarket chain's ad for the end-of-day feast for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

 

France's enforcement of its prized secularism is inscribed in law, most recently in a ban on wearing full-face veils in public. Meant to ensure that all faiths live in harmony, the policy instead may be fueling a rising tide of Islamophobia and driving a wedge between some Muslims and the rest of the population.

Yet ardent defenders of secularism, the product of France's separation of church and state, say the country hasn't gone far enough. They want more teeth to further the cause that Voltaire helped inspire and Victor Hugo championed, this time with a law targeting headscarves in the work place.
A new generation of French Muslims — which at some 5 million, or about eight percent of the population, is the largest in Western Europe — is finding a growing voice in a nation not always ready to accommodate mosques, halal food and Muslim religious dress. Political pressure from a resurgent far-right has increased the tension.

Women who wear Muslim apparel "are no longer safe," said Mohera Lukau, a 26-year-old mother of three living in Trappes, a town south of Paris known for its large immigrant population, high unemployment and women who wear long robes or hide their faces behind veils.

Police clashed last week with crowds protesting the arrest of a man who allegedly attacked an officer after his wife was ticketed for veiling her face in public. Dozens of cars were set afire in two nights of unrest in Trappes and an adjoining town. A 14-year-old boy suffered an eye injury.

Weeks earlier, a man allegedly assaulted a pregnant woman and ripped off her veil— one of two separately accosted in the Paris suburb of Argenteuil. She lost her baby days later, although the link with the incident remains unclear. Insults have been unleashed on women wearing Muslim headscarves, with investigations or court cases in three attacks in Reims and three more in Orleans.
Interior Minister Manuel Valls has denounced "a rise of violence against the Muslims of France." At a dinner breaking the Ramadan fast at the Grand Mosque of Paris, he insisted that Islam and the French Republic are compatible. But he signaled the belief by some French people that Muslims want their own rules, denouncing "those who want to make France a land of conquest."

Lukau has received the message as a sign that she is not entirely welcome in her native country. She veils her head and body but not her face, and covers the heads of her daughters, two and four years old, with hijab scarves that drape over the shoulders. People tell Lukau, who is of Algerian origin, "If you're not happy, leave, go home," she said. But, she pointed out, she was born in France.

Most French people are baptized Catholic, but church attendance has been in decline for decades and secular ideals run deep. With the growth of France's Muslim population, lawmakers have increasingly turned to legislation to try to stifle public displays of Islamic faith.

"How the Muslim Brotherhood Lost Egypt" - Reuters

How the Muslim Brotherhood lost Egypt

 

By Edmund Blair, Paul Taylor and Tom Perry

CAIRO | Thu Jul 25, 2013 5:23am EDT

CAIRO (Reuters) - When Egyptians poured onto the streets in their millions to demand the fall of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, few thought they would return two years later demonstrating for the overthrow of the man they elected to replace him.

The stunning fall from power of President Mohamed Mursi, and the Muslim Brotherhood which backed him, has upended politics in the volatile Middle East for a second time after the Arab Spring uprisings toppled veteran autocrats.

Some of the principal causes were highlighted a month before the army intervened to remove Mursi, when two of Egypt's most senior power brokers met for a private dinner at the home of liberal politician Ayman Nour on the island of Zamalek, a lush bourgeois oasis in the midst of Cairo's seething megalopolis. It was seen by some as a last attempt to avert a showdown.

The two power brokers were Amr Moussa, 76, a long-time foreign minister under Mubarak and now a secular nationalist politician, and Khairat El-Shater, 63, the Brotherhood's deputy leader and most influential strategist and financier. Moussa suggested that to avoid confrontation, Mursi should heed opposition demands, including a change of government.

"He (Shater) acknowledged what I said about the bad management of Egyptian affairs under their government and that there is a problem," Moussa told Reuters. "He was talking carefully and listening attentively."

Shater, a thick-set grizzly bear of a man who is now in detention and cannot tell his side of events, replied that the government's problems were due to the "non-cooperation of the ‘deep state'" - the entrenched interests in the army, the security services, some of the judiciary and the bureaucracy, according to Moussa's account.

"The message that I got after one hour was that OK, he would discuss with me, agree with some of my arguments, disagree with the rest, but they were not in the mood of changing," Moussa said. Nour gave a similar account, saying Shater did not budge. But he added that the talks might have started a process of political compromise had they not been exposed in the media.

"(Shater) is a normal person and his appearance does not do him justice. His appearance gives the impression of mysteriousness and ruthlessness, but he is well-mannered and gentle," Nour said.
The dinner on a terrace around the swimming pool of Nour's 8th-floor duplex apartment was cut short when journalists got wind of the meeting. Moussa left convinced that the Brotherhood were over-confident, incompetent in government and had poor intelligence on what was brewing in the streets and the barracks.

Yet many Egyptian and foreign observers still expected the tightly knit Islamist movement, hardened by decades of repression, to dominate Egypt and the region for a prolonged period, after 60 years of rule by army-backed strongmen. Instead, Mursi was bundled out of office and into military detention on July 3 amid huge anti-government protests, barely a year after he became the first democratically elected leader of the Arab world's most populous nation.

Mursi's failure sends a powerful message: winning an election is not sufficient to govern. Post-Mubarak rulers need the acquiescence of the security establishment and of the population at large. Upset either and your position is not secure.

Egypt's Islamists may draw the bitter lesson that the "deep state" will not let them wield real power, even with a democratic mandate. This report, compiled from interviews with senior Muslim Brotherhood and secular politicians, youth activists, military officers and diplomats, examines four turning points on Egypt's revolutionary road: the Brotherhood's decision to seek the presidency; the way Mursi pushed through the constitution; the failures of the secular opposition; and the military's decision to step in.

Mursi and some senior Muslim Brotherhood leaders, who have been held incommunicado since the coup, could not be reached for comment.

With the Brotherhood angrily resisting its eviction from power, the prospects of Egypt's second transition to democracy being smoother than the first look slight. This time, the army says it does not wish to exercise power directly as it did in 2011-12 after Mubarak's fall. But few doubt that armed forces commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who planned Mursi's overthrow and has since been promoted to deputy prime minister as well as minister of defense, is the man now in control.

TO RUN OR NOT TO RUN?
In the immediate aftermath of Mubarak's overthrow, the Brotherhood had no intention of ruling. It reassured secular Egyptians and the army by promising publicly not to seek the presidency or an outright parliamentary majority. The rest of the article can be found here

"Difficult Choices for Israelis and Palestinians" - Cyprus Mail

‘Difficult choices’ lay ahead for Israelis and Palestinians, Kerry warns

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (left) greets the new US peace envoy Martin Indyk at the State Department (EPA)

By Mark Felsenthal
US SECRETARY of State John Kerry named former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk as his main envoy in Israeli-Palestinian talks which were due to start in Washington later on Monday and said he was seeking “reasonable compromises” in the tough negotiations.

“Going forward it is no secret this is a difficult process. If it were easy, it would have happened a long time ago,” Kerry told reporters. “It is no secret, therefore, that many difficult choices lie ahead for the negotiators and for the leaders as we seek reasonable compromises on tough, complicated, emotional and symbolic issues.”

Israeli and Palestinian officials have put forward clashing formats for the peace talks which have been stalled for nearly three years. After intense mediation, Kerry planned to bring the negotiators together in the evening and on Tuesday to renew talks that broke down in 2010 over Israel’s settlement of occupied land where Palestinians seek a state.

Indyk’s job will be to oversee the negotiations. Indyk is a veteran of US efforts to resolve the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. He was a senior official in the Clinton administration, which oversaw a failed summit in 2000 after which violence erupted in Israel and Palestinian territories.

Previous attempts to resolve the decades-old conflict had sought to ward off deadlock and the risk of knock-on violence by tackling easier disputes first and deferring the most emotional ones like the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.

President Barack Obama welcomed the talks but cautioned that a tough path lies ahead. “This is a promising step forward, though hard work and hard choices remain ahead,” Obama said in a statement. “I am hopeful that both the Israelis and Palestinians will approach these talks in good faith and with sustained focus and determination,” he said. “The United States stands ready to support them throughout these negotiations, with the goal of achieving two states, living side by side in peace and security.”

The Palestinians, with international backing, want their future state to have borders approximating the boundaries of the West Bank, adjacent East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip before Israel captured them in the 1967 Middle East war. Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior official in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ umbrella Palestine Liberation Organisation, said the US letter of invitation to the Washington talks had not specified which disputes were to be discussed. But Abed Rabbo told Voice of Palestine radio the talks “will begin, in principle, on the issues of borders and security”.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had resisted Abbas’ calls to accept the 1967 border formula before talks resumed. This time “all of the issues that are at the core of a permanent accord will be negotiated simultaneously”, Silvan Shalom, a member of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netayahu’s cabinet and rightist Likud party, told Israel’s Army Radio. Shalom said that the Israeli position would help keep the talks, which are slated to last nine months, comprehensive.

“Had the matter of borders and territory been given over, what incentive would they (Palestinians) have had to make concessions on the matter of refugees or Jerusalem?” Shalom said.
Israel deems all of Jerusalem its capital and wants to keep West Bank settlement blocs under any peace accord. The international community considers the settlements illegal and rejects Jerusalem’s status.

Israel quit Gaza in 2005 and that enclave is now ruled by Hamas Islamists hostile to the Jewish state and opposed to Abbas’s peace strategy. Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war at Israel’s founding, along with millions of their descendants, claim the right to return to their original homes in what is now Israel. The Israelis rule that out as demographic suicide, saying the refugees should resettle in a future Palestine or elsewhere.

Netanyahu says any peace accord must safeguard Israel, which has often clashed with Hamas in Gaza and fears the Islamist movement could gain ground in the West Bank. Kerry has also described Israel’s security as “paramount”. Abed Rabbo said Israel and the United States, its main ally,  had been conferring about security without including the Palestinians. “This is a big shortcoming in the Israeli and the American behaviour because they are not discussing their bilateral security, they are discussing a central and a fundamental issue of ours and it concerns our future as a whole,” he said.
After months of intensive and discreet mediation, Kerry announced on July 19 in Amman, Jordan, that the parties had laid the groundwork to resume negotiations on the so-called “final status” issues that must be resolved to end the dispute.

“The meetings in Washington will mark the beginning of these talks,” Kerry spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. In what it dubbed a goodwill gesture required to restart diplomacy, the Israeli cabinet on Sunday approved the release of 104 long-serving Palestinian security prisoners in stages. Thousands more Palestinians remain in Israeli jails.