Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

The coup was a staged event, in my view. There is evidence that Erdoğan, who claims not to have found out about it until four hours after it started, in fact knew about it much earlier and there were negotiations going on between him and some group or other - it appears that more than the Gulenists were involved at the outset but they carried on and ending up carrying the can when other groups pulled out. They were pretty stark negotiations, obviously, saying more or less, 'Look a coup has started and you are for the chop unless you do what we say, and we are the only ones who can stop it' - more or less negotiations with a gun to the head. But who was that mysterious group? Uncle Sam has always been involved in past coups in Turkey, so that is where I would look first. The reason? Well, I would suggest that it has to do with the policy U-turn I have mentioned and the need for Erdoğan to abandon his lunatic neo-Ottoman dreams in Syria and Iraq. It is telling that he made a visit to Moscow shortly after the failed coup. Another theory is that the Russians were behind the coup and that Erdoğan is now Putin's puppet, which would be bad news indeed for the West and make them look pretty stupid for putting this man in power in the first place. I have a suspicion that since the coup Erdoğan may no longer be in charge but is somebody's puppet and whoever they are they have more or less dictatorial control over the country.

[repulsewarrior]

...Erdogan is doing what he does best, playing the weaknesses of his opponents against them.

In any case, it is a question of confidence; his electors have confidence in him, what opposition that has not been eliminated suffers from their own stagnation, and yet, a referendum by the People still looms for him, it is no done deal.

...i cannot stop imagining Turkey as a mini USA, a most litigious people. In that regard, tongue in my cheek is say, don't worry Tim, all these Journalists will be paid damages in the end, they just have to wait for the Justice system in Turkey to roll along, getting to them. LOL, they will be out of jail writing, after the referendum, if there is a State to pay their damages.

[Tim Drayton]

...Erdogan is doing what he does best, playing the weaknesses of his opponents against them.

In any case, it is a question of confidence; his electors have confidence in him, what opposition that has not been eliminated suffers from their own stagnation, and yet, a referendum by the People still looms for him, it is no done deal.

...i cannot stop imagining Turkey as a mini USA, a most litigious people. In that regard, tongue in my cheek is say, don't worry Tim, all these Journalists will be paid damages in the end, they just have to wait for the Justice system in Turkey to roll along, getting to them. LOL, they will be out of jail writing, after the referendum, if there is a State to pay their damages.

Give me a break. The police are physically preventing 'No' campaigners from handing out leaflets in the streets. Some young people putting up 'No' posters in the Maltepe area of Istanbul came under attack with live weapons and one of them is in hospital with bullet wounds. And this is just the beginning! There is anything but a fair and free election taking place. This will not stop a lot of naive people in the West saying, 'Well, it just goes to show how much the Turkish people love Erdoğan' after the most-probably rigged poll has taken place.

[repulsewarrior]

...indeed, it is up to the People to decide.

...there is no political opposition in Turkey, strong enough at this moment to lead an opposition, it is up to the People themselves. In a sense, i look forward to Turkey's revolution, because i believe that Erdogan does have a Plan B, for his Legacy, to become the father of a new Turkey, more accurately a Turkey renewed. As we have seen in the last election, he failed to eliminate Ataturk's influence, a picture of Kemal was hung as big as the AKP's headquarters itself.

One Cyprus, One Turkey, is in the cards, if, and it's a big if, no "deal" is made, in Cyprus, on Universal Principals.

[Get Real!]

Turkish Schools Crackdown on Darwin's Evolution Theory…

https://sputniknews.com/art_living/2017 ... on-theory/

Probably the only good news to come out of Turkey in decades!

[Tim Drayton]

I noted the following among Merkel's comments at the press conference following her meeting with Erdoğan:

In such a time of profound political upheaval, everything must be done to continue to protect the separation of powers and above all freedom of opinion and the diversity of society.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-turke ... SKBN15H0MZ

I think in diplomatic language that is quite a strong message of opposition to the constitutional amendement that will effectively end the separation of powers. If the EU is opposed to the new constitution, that gives me some hope.

[Tim Drayton]

More interesting news around Merkel's visit. The EU ambassadors in Turkey met with leader of the oppostion, Kılıçdaroğlu, and later stated that if the consitutional amendments that will grant virtually full dictatorial powers to Erdoğan is passed in the referendum then relations between Turkey and the EU will change. Again, very sharp words in diplomatic language. Then, it emerges that Merkel, who has visited Turkey a number of times, has also met with the leader of the opposition - previously almost entirely ignored by the world political class - for the first time and asked such questions as to whether a reliable result can be obtained from the referendum under state of emergency conditions (Can a poll conducted under circumstances where a megalomaniac lunatic is able to rule as he wishes through decrees and has the police and judiciary under his control produce a reliable result? Doh! Still, good to hear people like Merkel asking, all the same). Methinks something deep is stirring. Perhaps it suits the West to have an authoritarian regime in Turkey, but not for it to go down the path of dictatorship.

[Tim Drayton]

Cunhuriyet has made the following announcement to mark the 100th day since nine of its key staff members were detained in the attempt, so far in vain, to silence it:

The hundredth day

The despotic force that has laid a three-pronged siege to Cumhuriyet has dispatched ten of our colleagues who perform key duties behind bars and all but forgotten about them there. We can attach no other reason to the inability for an indictment to be drafted, or the deliberate wish for this not to be done, in 100 days.
The political rulership, who cannot tolerate Cumhuriyet’s endeavours to bring to fruition the people’s right to obtain news and learn the truth in the environment of wilderness the media has been reduced to, has turned remand into a punishment having used the state force it has usurped to destroy the law and make a rule of constantly breaching the principle of the rule of law so emphatically stressed in the constitution. The right to a trial and defence has been trampled on.
Their aim is abundantly clear: To silence Cumhuriyet or, if not, to inactivate it.
But, they were mistaken.
Cumhuriyet is continuing on the path that it holds to be correct and is steadfastly upholding the principles that inform its publishing policy on the way.
We have neither bowed in fear to the pressures, nor have we been cowed into abandoning our defence of the principles of democracy, secularism, freedom and the Republic.
The resolute stance and refusal to compromise in the slightest from what they believe by our ten colleagues who have completed their hundred days ‘inside’ at Vatan Street and then Silivri may have come as a surprise to Cumhuriyet’s enemies.
We Cumhuriyet employees on the outside are not in the least bit surprised. We are at their side each hour of each day. They are side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with us at editorial meetings, management desks and our computer keyboards. Their criticism is in our ears and their glances that see our shortcomings are in our eyes and our memories.
The long and short of it is that we Cumhuriyet employees, all of us ‘inside’ and ‘outside’, are all together in Silivri and are all together at Cumhuriyet’s desks and in its rooms. We we are getting on with our work. We are doing our job.
Our job is to bring the truth to light – especially the truth that it is wished to conceal from the people.
And we know that we will see good and sunny days.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/engl ... h_day.html

[Tim Drayton]

[Tim Drayton]

A good column today from Aydın Engin, one of the Cumhuriyet twelve who is not on remand:

Twelve defendants from Cumhuriyet, ten of them remanded, are awaiting the indictment.
That is, the indictment in which the prosecutor conducting the investigation considers that he has found ‘crime’ serious enough to warrant remand.
But he is not drafting it.
Or is he unable to do so?
I am one of the people who made statement to the prosecutors in that investigation. So, I am very familiar with the file. If we leave to one side certain silly tricks such as indicating 250 lira to be 250,000 lira, the questions we were requested to answer can be summed up in a single sentence:
- Why did you change Cumhuriyet paper’s line?
This question is based on a premise. According to the prosecutor, Cumhuriyet newspaper has changed its editorial line.
Very well, let us assume that it has done so. Does it need to obtain permission or some such thing from prosecutors or somebody to do so? Can there be a place anywhere in the law for a crime like changing an editorial line?
In fact, the prosecution’s questions about the editorial line relied on the acceptance of ‘prosecutors’ testimony’ and consisted of the profferings in that testimony of those who had stooped to ‘squealing’ about Cumhuriyet’s editorial line failing to match their own ideological obsessions. This, and a few newspaper articles and a tweet sent by a former Cumhuriyet employee, constitute the evidence available to the prosecutor in support of the charges. According to the prosecutor, these ‘crimes’ are so serious that he applied for our ten colleagues to be remanded, and one of the penal benches of the peace that have been turned into remand mechanisms deemed this application to be ‘warranted.’
However, somehow or other, the indictment is not being and cannot be drafted.
Either an instruction is being awaited, and I hope this is not so, or there is no available material to enable the drafting an indictment that will be taken seriously.
That is why it somehow cannot be drafted.

***

What has appeared so far was by way of summary and was intended simply to remind the reader.
Well, the prosecutor who is incapable of drafting our indictment appeared before a judge yesterday. And, by operation of the law, this was not at any old serious crime court. It was at the Court of Cassation. At Penal Chamber No 16 of the Court of Cassation. You read about it in detail in Cumhuriyet’s report yesterday. If you did not, find it and read it. You will have great fun, and be greatly angered.
The individual who is the prosecutor on our investigation was a defendant at a hearing in the trial known as the ‘Selam Tevhid conspiracy.’
Please pay attention to this distinction. We are still suspects. If an indictment is drafted and that indictment is accepted by the serious crime court, we will advance from being suspects to defendants. However, ‘our’ prosecutor has long since advanced to being a defendant in the Selam Tevhid trial. And he is a defendant for whom two aggravated life sentences are sought. The indictment drafted against him has been taken seriously and accepted by the court, and he is on trial.
The day before yesterday, he answered the indictment, that is, he defended himself against the allegations.
I do not know if you will react to this defence by turning bright red with rage or laughing until your belly aches.
The question, ‘Is this signature yours?’ is posed.
The reply: ‘I don’t know.’
The question, ‘Did your sister work at a supplementary education institution belonging to the Gulenists?’ is posed.
The reply: ‘I don’t know.’

***

If this indictment of ours is drafted and we are able appear before the serious crime court, regardless of what we are asked there about our paper’s editorial line, the headlines we have inserted and the news we have covered, our reply will most certainly never be ‘I don’t know.’
For, we know that defending Cumhuriyet’s principles of democracy, freedoms, secularism and the people’s right to obtain news is not and cannot be a crime.
And we know this very well.

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/engl ... tment.html