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Author: Zaman Australia

  • EU says journalist Altan’s re-arrest further damages credibility of Turkish judiciary

    The European Union, which Turkey aspires to join, has condemned the Tuesday re-arrest of well-known Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan, 69, one week after his release from prison, saying that the development further damages the credibility of the Turkish judiciary.

    Altan’s re-arrest came shortly after a Turkish court on Tuesday reversed a previous ruling to release the journalist on appeal after convicting him of aiding a terrorist organization.

    The ruling was challenged by a prosecutor immediately after the hearing. Altan was detained by police officers at his İstanbul home on Tuesday evening and transported to the jail on Wednesday.

    “The lack of credible grounds to re-arrest Ahmet Altan and his renewed imprisonment, reversing the court’s initial decision to release him, further damages the credibility of Turkey’s judiciary, in particular due to the high level of political interference. This interference needs to halt,” said a statement issued on Wednesday by Maja Kocijancic, spokesperson for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.

    “Media freedom and freedom of expression are key to a functioning democracy. The EU has at all levels and in all fora expressed its opposition on the persistent erosion of press freedom in Turkey and, in particular, at the high number of journalists imprisoned there. Journalists need to do their job – they do not belong in jail,” the statement added, referring to more than 150 journalists in Turkey’s jails.

    Dozens of critical journalists were arrested in Turkey in the aftermath of a failed coup attempt in July 2016 under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.

    In the meantime, Dunja Mijatovic, Council of Europe commissioner for human rights, also reacted to the re-arrest of Altan on Twitter.

    “Like many others, I am appalled by the senseless cruelty that Turkish courts displayed once more by detaining #AhmetAltan again. He should immediately be released,” she tweeted on Wednesday.

    Journalists Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak were sentenced last week to 10 years, six months and eight years, nine months in prison, respectively, for “aiding a terrorist group without membership in it” but were released by the court pending appeal. A third journalist, Professor Mehmet Altan, who was also tried in the same proceedings, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence against him.

    One of Turkey’s most famous writers and journalists, Altan was first arrested after a 2016 failed coup on charges of supporting the coup attempt.turkishmin

  • Court rejects journalist Altan’s objection to his re-arrest

    A high criminal court in İstanbul has rejected an objection filed by the lawyer of prominent Turkish journalist and writer Ahmet Altan to his re-arrest one week after Altan’s release from prison, Turkish media reports said.

    The 69-year-old journalist’s arrest came shortly after a Turkish court on Tuesday reversed a previous ruling to release him on appeal after convicting him of aiding a terrorist organization. The ruling was challenged by a prosecutor immediately after the hearing. Altan was detained by police officers at his İstanbul home on Tuesday evening and transported to the jail on Wednesday.

    Altan lawyer Figen Çalıkuşu filed an objection against Altan’s re-arrest, but the İstanbul 28th High Criminal Court on Thursday rejected the objection.

    Journalists Altan and Nazlı Ilıcak were sentenced last week to 10 years, six months and eight years, nine months in prison, respectively, for “aiding a terrorist group without membership in it” but were released by the court pending appeal. A third journalist, Professor Mehmet Altan, who was also tried in the same proceedings, was acquitted due to a lack of evidence against him.

    One of Turkey’s most famous writers and journalists, Altan was first arrested after a 2016 failed coup on charges of supporting the coup attempt. He has spent a total of 1,138 days in prison.

  • Firefighters in ‘uncharted territory’ as bushfires blaze across NSW

    NSW is in uncharted territory as bushfires burn across the state, with 15 emergency warnings issued for blazes from the Blue Mountains to the Queensland border, and reports of property damage and people potentially trapped in their homes.

    More than 85 fires were burning on Friday night with NSW Rural Fire Service Commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons saying there were reports of “multiple community areas being impacted, loss, damage and destruction”.

    As of 9pm local time, 49 of those 85 fires were uncontained, according to NSW RFS.

    He said almost 1200 firefighters were on the ground and 70 aircraft had been deployed “to save as many people as possible.”

    Earlier he told ABC TV: “It’s a very dynamic, it’s a very volatile and it’s a very dangerous set of circumstances that we’re experiencing.”

    “We are in uncharted territory … we’ve never seen this many fires concurrently at emergency warning level.”

    MidCoast Mayor David West, who lives in Brimbin, said that in his 73 years he had never seen anything like the fire in his area.

    “I’m looking at a sky that’s screaming danger, that’s saying ‘get out of my way, I’m going to kill you’,” he told AAP on Friday night.

    “I know that sounds melodramatic but it’s not. This is a fire that’s devouring everything in its path.”

    Mr West said he’d heard unconfirmed reports of property loss, and people in the Bobin area who “are really, really – can I tell you, suffering”.

    ABC reported that the RFS had received reports of people at several locations being trapped in their homes.

    The RFS in a tweet said many people had called for help but the size and speed of fires meant they couldn’t get to everyone.

    MidCoast Council deputy mayor Claire Pontin – who lives in nearby Hallidays Point – says the area was “tinder dry”.

    “It’s just crispy. In places, you can hear the leaves crunching under your feet.”

    It’s thought two homes were damaged or destroyed in the fire burning at Stockyard Flat near Walcha.

    Fires around Port Macquarie turned the skies an eerie reddish-orange colour, with many residents taking to social media to post images and video of the “apocalyptic” scene.

    The fire danger should lessen over the weekend, although threat levels are forecast to rise again on Tuesday or Wednesday next week.

    Bureau of Meteorology duty forecaster Rose Barr says there should be a brief reprieve in fire weather conditions as temperatures cool over the weekend.

    Mr Fitzsimmons in an online video said that while conditions were going tobe a little better on Saturday, “there’s so much fire out in the landscape that there’s going to be an extraordinary amount of work with firefighter crews”.

  • Jetstar firms on new Airbus jets delivery for August 2020

    Jetstar has firmed up a delivery date for the first of its new long-range Airbus A321NEO aircraft, which will free up some of its larger aircraft to pursue growing markets in Asia.

    Qantas’ budget subsidiary will receive its first A321NEO LR aircraft in August next year, with another to arrive before Christmas 2020 and a total of 18 to be in the fleet by the end of 2022, the airline confirmed on Friday.The 232-seat jets will predominantly operate on Jetstar’s domestic network, as an updated version of its existing A320s.

    However, the new aircrafts’ more efficient engines mean they can fly further and fly routes such as Melbourne to Bali overnight after operating within Australia during the day.

    “We can do that within the first four or five (deliveries), and that will free up approximately three 787s, so then we get the opportunity to decide where to put those,” he said.

    “Obviously you don’t make that decision too early… but I suspect we will be utilising those partly to also provide some growth on Bali.”

    For passengers, the new planes’ seats will be 18.2 inches wide and have a 29 inch pitch (legroom). That is slightly more generous than its existing short-haul A320s (17.9 wide, 29 inch pitch), and wider but with less legroom than its 787 seats (17 inches wide, 30 inch pitch).

    The new aircraft will not have seatback screens, but Jetstar on Friday announced it would install in-flight streaming to both its new and existing short-haul jets so passengers would be able to watch television and movies on their own devices on long flights to Bali.Overhead cabins meanwhile will be 40 per cent larger than its current A320s.

    Jetstar has a total of 109 A321 NEOs on order for Airbus, including 36 of its XLR (extra long-haul) variant, but it has not confirmed the delivery scheduled for those remaining aircraft.theage

  • US senators enlist NBA’s Kanter to push bill condemning rights abuse in Turkey

    Turkish NBA player Enes Kanter, a vocal critic of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, teamed up with two Democratic US senators on Tuesday as they introduced a bill to condemn the alleged violation of human rights in Turkey, according to Reuters.

    As Erdoğan arrived in the United States for a White House meeting on Wednesday with US President Donald Trump, Senators Edward Markey and Ron Wyden held up Kanter as a victim of the Turkish government’s targeting of political rivals.

    Turkey seeks the international arrest and extradition of the Boston Celtics center over his links to US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen, accused of orchestrating a failed coup in 2016. Kanter has also had his passport canceled and has not been able to travel abroad with his team.

    “President Erdoğan is conducting one of the biggest campaigns to restrict rights and freedoms anywhere in the world,” said Markey, pointing to the arrests or imprisonment of 80,000 citizens and closure of associations and media organizations in opposition to the government.

    Kanter said Americans should feel “very lucky and blessed” to have a country with democracy, freedom and human rights.

    “Sadly none of this is in my country, but it’s just amazing to see support from not just these two gentlemen but from my teammates, from my coaches and from all these fans,” Kanter said. “So that is why I cannot thank America enough.”

  • In violation of law Turkish court keeps 6-months-pregnant woman in prison

    A Turkish court has ruled to continue the pretrial detention of a woman arrested two weeks ago despite the submission of a medical report confirming her pregnancy of six months and the existence of a law prohibiting it, the tr724 news website reported.

    Kimya Bozkurt was arrested on Oct. 21 on charges of membership in the faith-based Gülen movement, which is accused of orchestrating a 2016 coup attempt despite its strong denial of any involvement.

    According to her husband, after her arrest the court demanded a medical report confirming her pregnancy; however, despite the report later submitted to the judges, her incarceration continued.

    Turkish law requires postponement of the arrest of pregnant women until they give birth and the infant reaches six months of age.

    Detained on Oct. 19, Bozkurt was alleged to have used ByLock, a smartphone application believed by Turkish authorities to have been popular among the movement’s followers.

    Bozkurt was also charged with membership in a Gülen-affiliated association, among the hundreds of associations shut down in the aftermath of the failed coup.

    Since the failed coup in July 2016, Turkey has been conducting a massive witch-hunt against people from all walks of life on charges of “coup involvement.”

    Many women jailed with their young children immediately after delivery or while pregnant are believed to be linked to the Gülen movement.

  • Purge-victim teacher dies of cancer after spending 3 years in jail

    Tacettin Toprak, a 36-year-old teacher who was purged from his job by the Turkish government in the aftermath of a failed coup in July 2016, died shortly after he was released from prison, according to Turkish media reports over the weekend.

    Toprak was among the thousands of teachers who were removed from their posts and subsequently jailed due to their alleged links to the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding the coup attempt. The movement strongly denies any involvement in the failed putsch.

    Toprak was suffering from bladder cancer when he was arrested in the western province of Manisa following the abortive putsch. During the three years he spent in prison, he reportedly did not receive proper treatment and the cancer spread to his lungs. Although he repeatedly asked for his release from prison due to his medical condition, all his requests were turned down by the courts until Aug. 3 of this year.

    The former teacher died on Aug. 23 and was laid to rest in Manisa the following day. He is survived by his wife and two young children.

    There have been many deaths in Turkey’s prison among the victims of a massive purge launched by the Turkish government against the followers of the Gülen movement as they have either been denied proper treatment or not released from jail to receive necessary treatment.

  • Turkish police detain 30-year-old niece of Fethullah Gülen: report

    urkish police late on Thursday detained a niece of Fethullah Gülen, a US-based Turkish cleric who is accused of masterminding a 2016 coup attempt despite his strong denial of any involvement, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

    Zeynep Gülen, 30, daughter of the late Salih Gülen, was driving a car when she was stopped by officers in İstanbul’s Beykoz district.

    The police brought her to headquarters after she presented a fake identity card. Her fingerprints later revealed her true identity.

    Turkey launched a large-scale crackdown targeting Gülen followers after the failed coup, conducting mass detentions on an almost daily basis.

    Yesterday, Zehra Bozkurt, the daughter of a high-ranking member of the Gülen movement, was detained, along with 16 other followers.

    The chief public prosecutors in Ankara and Adana on Friday issued detention warrants for 95 suspects over alleged Gülen links.

    At least 70 people were detained in the resulting police operations, the report said, adding that one of the detainees was a cousin of Adil Öksüz, a prime suspect in the 2016 coup attempt.

    Following the abortive putsch, more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 30,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.

  • Erdoğan undecided on planned US visit after House recognizes Armenian genocide

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Wednesday said he has not yet decided about a visit to the US that was scheduled for Nov. 13.

    “I have not yet made up my mind,” Erdoğan said. “There are question marks.”

    Erdoğan’s statement came a day after the US House of Representatives voted to recognize Ottoman-era mass killings of Armenians as genocide and called for sanctions against Ankara.

    Speaking to his party’s parliamentary group in Ankara, Erdoğan said the US “has no right to lecture Turkey as its own history is full of genocide and slavery.”

    On Oct. 24 he told state broadcaster TRT that he would accept US President Donald Trump’s invitation for the visit.

    President Trump also confirmed the visit on Oct. 8. “He is coming to the US as my guest on November 13th,” he tweeted.

    The mass deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 is seen as genocide by many historians and has been recognized as such by a number of governments.

    While Turkey acknowledges the death of many Armenians during World War I, it denies that the killings were systematic and premeditated and firmly rejects the label of genocide.

  • Advisor to nationalist leader suggests vandalizing Gülen movement members’ houses

    A chief advisor to Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has called for the vandalizing of houses belonging to followers of the Gülen movement, which is accused by the Turkish government of masterminding a failed coup in 2016.

    The advisor, Metin Özkan, was one of the speakers at a program on CNN Türk on Wednesday night when he made the controversial remarks. During the program Özkan expressed his sadness over the vandalizing with red paint of the house of an Alevi family in the western province of İzmir, which has been on the country’s agenda for the past couple of days.

    Appealing to the perpetrators of the attack, he said: “If only they had painted red crosses on the houses of FETÖ members. In that case, we’d be able to identify them immediately.”

    FETÖ is a term coined by the Turkish government to refer to the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization, although the movement strongly denies involvement in any terrorist activity and the coup attempt.“Whatever you do to FETÖ members is fine,” he added.The MHP official attracted widespread criticism on social media for fomenting hatred among the public and promoting a hate crime.

    Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government launched a massive crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight, as a result of which more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 30,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism.turkishminute