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Author: Zaman Australia

  • Turkish Embassy in New Zealand spied on child care center and profiled critics

    The Turkish Embassy in New Zealand engaged in a campaign of intelligence gathering and profiling of critics and their organizations including a child care center, documents obtained by Nordic Monitor have revealed.

    According to an official document, Auckland-based nonprofit organization Pearl of the Islands Foundation Inc. (PIF) was profiled by the Turkish Embassy in Wellington and reported on to the Turkish Foreign Ministry. The document was later sent to the police department to build a case against critics of the Erdoğan regime.

    The information collected by the embassy was used in a criminal indictment on dubious charges of terrorism against opponents, who have faced an unprecedented crackdown in recent years by the authoritarian government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The Gulen movement, a civic group that is highly critical of the Erdoğan government, bears the brunt of the crackdown in terms of the right to dissent and freedom of expression.

    Those who were listed in these embassy documents were targeted by a campaign of intimidation and harassment and denied consular services abroad, while their relatives and friends back in Turkey risked the possibility of jail time, asset seizure and prosecution on fabricated criminal charges.

    PIF’s stated aim according to its website is “to celebrate diversity and advance social cohesion between cultures to contribute the educational, cultural and overall social well-being of our community through its established institutions, platforms, and activities.” It has promoted a moderate version of Islam against radical views and held seminars and lectures to that effect over the years. It has organized an Anzac study tour and cultural festival and offered Turkish language classes.

    The Turkish Embassy document listed PIF’s interfaith community iftar dinner — held in May 2016 at Parliament House in Wellington and attended by members of Parliament, government officials, community leaders and scholars – as if it were a criminal activity and reported the event to headquarters.

     

    In another shocking note, the embassy also surveilled the Little Pearls child care center with branches located in the Owairaka, Mt Roskill and Mt Albert/Puketapapa districts. The center was established in 2014 to provide care and educational services for children aged 3 months to 5 years. The report identified the teachers at the child care center and reported them back to Turkey as well.

    Turkish Embassy officials were also concerned by the visit of Deakin University Professor Greg Barton, who was invited by PIF to deliver lectures on extremism, radicalism and a refugee crisis in September 2016. Barton, one of Australia’s leading scholars on terrorism and countering violent extremism, addressed several events as keynote speaker including gatherings held in Parliament and at Victoria University.

     

    The collection of data, amounting to refugee spying or unlawful intelligence gathering by embassy and consulate officials, was done after requests from the Anti-Smuggling and Organized Crime Department of the Turkish National Police (Kaçakçılık ve Organize Suçlarla Mücadele Daire Başkanlığı, or KOM). According to Turkish law, KOM has no jurisdiction abroad and is not authorized to conduct espionage overseas. The information notes sent by the embassy were later incorporated into a report by KOM on Jan. 30, 2017 and were used in the criminal prosecution of government critics on terrorism charges.

     

     

    A donation made to PIF by Kaynak Holding in 2014 that was declared by the company in its filings was considered to be criminal evidence by the Erdoğan government. Nordic Monitor has learned that PIF approached Kaynak as a corporate donor when it was trying to the launch child care centers. Company records listed a one-time funds transfer to PIF as a donation, with nothing illegal about it as it was recorded on the company accounting sheet as part of a corporate social responsibility contribution.

    Yet, a report prepared by Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK), an agency that was often used by the Erdoğan government to investigate critics and their companies on criminal pretexts, listed the legitimate transaction as criminal activity. The report was compiled by MASAK on May 13, 2015 under file No. 2015/MAR (62) after the Ankara Public Prosecutor’s Office tasked the agency with investigating Kaynak on Feb. 2, 2015 as part of investigation No. 2014/75025.

     

    Hundreds of the people and dozens of firms were dragged into the investigation in what was seen as a crackdown on Turkey’s largest publisher and supplier of educational materials. Some 800 authors were victimized when the government cancelled book contracts after the seizure of Kaynak, and millions of textbooks including volumes on foreign language study were destroyed by authorities after the takeover.

    Among those investigated in this case was Ekrem Dumanlı, former editor-in-chief of Zaman, Turkey’s largest national newspaper that was unlawfully seized by the government in March 2016 as part of a crackdown on the critical media. Dumanlı has been forced to live in exile along with 150 other journalists who had to flee to avoid wrongful imprisonment.

    The Erdoğan government brands all its critics as terrorists, and there are 235 journalists currently locked up in Turkish jails on terrorism charges, making Turkey the world’s leading jailer of journalists. Over 30 percent of all Turkish diplomats, 60 percent of all senior police chiefs, half of all military generals and some 30 percent of all judges and prosecutors in Turkey were also declared terrorists overnight by the executive decisions of the Erdoğan government without any effective administrative investigation and certainly without any judicial proceedings.

    In July 2017 German newspaper Die Zeit reported that Turkey had handed Germany a list of 68 companies and individuals suspected of links to terrorism due to alleged affiliation with the Gülen movement. It was also revealed that nearly 700 German firms including industry giants Daimler and BASF were being investigated for “financing terrorism” and lodged with Interpol by Turkey. After Germany reacted strongly against the witch-hunt and threatened economic sanctions, Turkey backed down and claimed that it was simply a miscommunication.

    Nordic Monitor previously published a report disclosing how Turkish embassies and consular officials engaged in spying on government critics in 92 foreign countries as part of profiling and espionage activities that at times amounted to a systematic and deliberate campaign of refugee spying. A document found in papers released by the Ankara 4th High Criminal Court on Jan. 16, 2019 in case No. 2016/238 indicated that the Turkish Foreign Ministry had compiled a long list of foreign entities that were owned and/or operated by people who are seen as close to the movement.

  • Purge victim who lost 2 daughters while in jail given 25-year sentence

    Enis Evren Civelek, a jailed purge victim in Turkey who lost four family members in a traffic accident including his two little daughters while they were returning from a prison visit, has been handed down a jail sentence of 25 years, six months on terrorism charges, the Medya Bold news website reported on Thursday.

    Civelek is one of the countless victims of Turkey’s massive purge of supporters of the faith-based Gülen movement, which is labeled as a terrorist organization by the Turkish government.

    Civelek’s wife, two daughters aged 3 and 8, mother and father-in-law paid him a visit at Keskin Prison in Turkey’s central Kırklareli province in early December. In an auto accident on the way home to Düzce, his two children, mother and father-in-law died immediately, while his wife Hatice was hospitalized with broken ribs and other injuries.

    Civelek was allowed to attend the funerals of his mother and daughters in Düzce province and also visit his wife in the hospital in Ankara. He was sent back to prison two days after the accident despite a report from a psychologist warning that the man could commit suicide in prison.

    The last hearing in Civelek’s trial was held at the Ankara 13th High Criminal Court on Monday at the end of which he was given a jail sentence of 25 years, six months on charges of membership in a terrorist organization and leading a terrorist organization. The sentences were the upper limit for the crimes and were increased by half.

    The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 and labels it a “terrorist organization,” although the movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

    Civelek, a former Turkish language teacher, has been behind bars since June 2017. His wife Hatice, a primary school teacher, was one of the thousands of teachers who were removed from their jobs by a government decree issued in September 2016 due to alleged Gülen links.

    In similar trials, courts handed down sentences to the defendants either on charges of membership in a terrorist organization or leading a terrorist organization. In Civelek’s case, the court sentenced him on both charges.

    The charges against Civelek stem from the time he served as an administrator at a Gülen-linked dormitory in Ankara’s Beypazarı district 13 years ago.

    US-based Turkish-Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, who inspired the movement, strongly denied having any role in the failed coup and called for an international investigation into it, but Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan — calling the coup attempt “a gift from God” — and the government initiated a widespread purge aimed at cleansing sympathizers of the movement from within state institutions, dehumanizing its popular figures and putting them in custody.

    Following the coup attempt, more than 150,000 people were removed from state jobs while in excess of 50,000 others were jailed and some 600,000 people have been investigated on allegations of terrorism due to alleged Gülen links.

  • Amber Holt sentenced to community service for egging Prime Minister Scott Morrison in Albury

    A woman who threw an egg at the Prime Minister’s head during an election campaign event has been sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order and will have to complete 150 hours of community service.

    Amber Holt, 25, was sentenced at the Albury Local Court on Tuesday, after pleading guilty earlier this month to common assault.

    Holt threw the egg at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s head while he was campaigning at a Country Women’s Association conference in Albury in May.

    The egg grazed his head but did not smash.

    Holt also pleaded guilty to possessing cannabis at the time of the egging.

    She was also seven days away from finishing an 18-month good behaviour bond for a domestic violence incident.

    In sentencing Holt, Magistrate Rodney Brender said it was unacceptable for citizens to be subject to any degree of violence.

    “You can’t have people attacking people for their political views physically,” he said.

    The prosecution had argued the offence was aggravated by the degree of planning that went into the egging, which involved Holt hearing of the Prime Minister’s visit on the radio, driving to the supermarket to buy eggs, and then travelling to the event.

    But Holt’s lawyer said the offending fell “well short of a sophisticated degree of planning”.

    “This is short of organised criminal activity,” he said.

    The defence also argued that Holt had significant mental health issues, and had voluntarily left her employment at Cotton On and moved in with her parents in Victoria after the incident to address her health.

    Holt was ordered to pay a $110 fine for possessing cannabis at the time of the crime.

    Space to play or pause, M to mute, left and right arrows to seek, up and down arrows for volume.

    “I just want to apologise to everyone involved.

    “I don’t encourage anyone to follow what I did, it’s just caused more drama.”

    Fighting back tears, she said she had been motivated to throw the egg by a desire to draw attention to the plight of refugees on Manus Island.

    She said she and her family had been the target of threats since the incident.

    “It’s led to a lot of insults, a lot of threats to my family and loved ones [as well as] myself,” Holt said.

    “I’ve had a lot more attention than I’ve ever had in my life and it’s not been great.” abc.net

  • 3 Turkish universities condemn top court decision in favor of peace academics

    Three universities in Turkey have launched a petition campaign against a Constitutional Court ruling in favor of academics who were dismissed or prosecuted for signing a “peace petition,” the Gazete Duvar news website reported on Sunday.

    İbrahim Çeçen University in Ağrı and the Aydın and Medeniyet universities in İstanbul released a declaration titled “The Constitutional Court cannot legitimize terrorism,” condemning the top court’s decision on Friday that the peace academics’ rights had been violated.

    “The Constitutional Court has made a scandalous decision,” the declaration said. “This ruling has offended the memory of our martyrs and veterans as well as damaged the public conscience.”

    “Nowhere in the world can blaming the state for fighting against terrorism be viewed as free speech. … It is particularly noteworthy that this decision should be made at a time when effective operations are being conducted against terrorist groups.”

    In addition to universities, pro-government media also criticized the Constitutional Court’s ruling in favor of academics, who were targeted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in several occasions.

    The Constitutional Court on Friday ordered the government to pay TL 9,000 in damages to each of the nine academics who appealed.

    Many of the 1,128 Turkish academics who signed the petition calling on the Turkish government to halt military operations in the predominantly Kurdish southeastern region of the country in 2016 have been dismissed from their positions, sentenced to prison or faced an overseas travel ban.

    After the academics were targeted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for having signed the petition, more academics decided to sign it in an act of solidarity.

    According to the Evrensel daily, 784 of the academics currently have trials pending.

  • [OPINION] The future of Erdoğan and the Kurdish vote

    Ekrem Dumanlı-.turkishminute

    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his party, unable to accept losing the İstanbul mayoral election on March 31, finally persuaded the Supreme Election Board (YSK) to cancel the results, one-and-a-half months after the polls closed, even though the opposition candidate, Ekrem İmamoğlu, was given the mandate to govern Turkey’s largest city.

    Never has there been such a disgrace in previous elections. Everyone knows that the people who rig the polls in any country are those in power because it usually requires the might of the state apparatus.

    The local elections were not fair or free. The ruling party controls 95 percent of the Turkish media. The remaining 5 percent is there for the sake of appearances, in order to be able to say, “Turkey has a critical media.” Unfortunately, those media outlets, while critical, sometimes feel the need to compromise.

    In this unfair, unequal election atmosphere, Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost both the capital city of Ankara and İstanbul. In the president’s own words, losing İstanbul in the election means losing the country. Actually, his party lost Ankara to opposition candidate Mansur Yavaş in the 2014 local elections, but then they interfered in the counting process and prevented Yavaş from becoming mayor. This time, playing the same game in Ankara was not possible due to a clear win in the numbers.

    In İstanbul, İmamoğlu’s win is as clear as the victory in Ankara. Their weak, incalculable arguments explicitly show that the AKP doesn’t care about the truth. All their objections turned out to be empty. Despite that, the YSK nullified the results, a move that means another nail in the coffin of Turkish democracy.

    Now people are asking: What will change with the re-run of the İstanbul election? Namely, how will Erdoğan, who lost despite using all the power of the head of state and enjoying virtually total media support, win the election in İstanbul this time?

    It’s not too difficult to guess Erdoğan’s game plan. After the June 2015 general election, when he lost his single-party majority for the first time in 13 years, he forced parliament to hold a new election and in the meantime somehow managed to make security threats and instability priorities for the voters.

    One of the main actors in the new İstanbul vote is Kurdish citizens. It is no coincidence that the lawyers of jailed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan finally were able to meet with their client after a hiatus of eight years.

    It seems the ruling AKP, which accused the opposition of making an alliance with the PKK, started talks with the PKK leader in order to take İstanbul back.

    Why?

    Because the AKP believes that one of the main reasons for their loss in İstanbul was the Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). Despite jailing their leader, Selahattin Demirtaş, for more than two years, the HDP’s support for the opposition gave Erdoğan a noteworthy defeat.

    Now Turkey’s “deep state” and “deep PKK” are seeking ways to eliminate the Kurds’ influence in the new polls.

    The “deep PKK” previously helped Erdoğan in a number of instances. Öcalan, who has never embraced Demirtaş’s rhetoric, plays games with the “deep state.” The resumption of his lawyers’ visits has sparked a suspicion that suggests the two entities are trying to draw up a roadmap for the election.

    Can Öcalan call on Kurdish voters to support the AKP’s candidate, Binali Yıldırım? Yes, he can, since he is in prison. Are there some people out there who will listen? Sure, there are. Öcalan’s influence on the Kurds must not be underestimated.

    However, this time the situation is quite different.

    A majority of AKP voters may express unease about such support from the PKK, which was previously used as an allegation to undermine the opposition’s efforts.

    It seems that this time Kurdish voters, who played a key role in the March 31 elections, proud to help shake Erdoğan’s throne, will not listen Öcalan’s message coming from İmralı Prison, where he has been held since 1999, because they have received their fair share of the escalating suppression by the government in the last five years, developing a natural resistance to Erdoğan.

    At this point, Erdoğan may try to use peace negotiations with the PKK as a carrot, in order to attract the Kurd’s attention.

    However, this is also a dead end since his election partner, Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), would not let that happen.

    On top of everything, the AKP has been experiencing an intra-party crisis since the election losses. Former President Abdullah Gül and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu clearly opposed the cancellation of the İstanbul election results. Even members of the AKP criticize the one-man rule and nepotism involving some high-profile party figures.

    Erdoğan long ago lost his ability to create a success story. His only game is to rig the new election. Neither Kurdish voters nor the nationalist grass roots will be convinced to accept easy bargains.

    The period of Erdoğan falling from grace has started, and it is impossible to stop. And the only one to blame for this is himself. His reshuffling inside the party under the pretext of “fatigue” and his overindulgence of family members and his close circle have pushed the intra-party grievances to a point of no return. What kind of a fatigue was it that spared only Erdoğan?

    Now even the AKP grass roots clearly see that the fatigue has bound Erdoğan hand and foot. His flashy schemes are far from convincing the masses. In social terms, the end is inevitable. It appears there is a limit to corruption, shamelessness and inferiority.

  • Australia’s most powerful man Jordan ‘Biggie’ Steffens pulls 25-tonne truck with his bare hands in incredible show of brute strength

    Australia’s most powerful man has pulled off a gigantic feat of strength by pulling a 25-tonne truck. Jordan ‘Biggie’ Steffens,29, pulled the massive semi-trailer in the South Australian town of Mannum on Sunday. Mr Steffens celebrated his achievement by screaming at the top of his lungs and flexing his muscles as the truck honked its horn.

  • 885 private companies transferred to TMSF since failed 2016 coup: report

    Eight hundred eighty-five private companies have been transferred to Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) since a 2016 failed coup due to their alleged affiliation with the Gülen movement, according to the Dünya news website.

    Turkey accuses the movement of orchestrating the abortive putsch, although it strongly denies any involvement.

    In addition to these companies, valued at close to TL 60 billion ($10.5 billion), the TMSF seized the shares of 123 companies and the properties of 108 individuals.

    These companies, shares and individual properties are now controlled by trustees appointed by the TMSF.

    Among these companies, Boydak, İpek and Aydınlı were the largest with some 20,000 employees.

    Jailed businessmen Hacı Boydak and Memduh Boydak, former board members and the owners of Boydak Holding, were given lengthy prison sentences on charges of Gülen links in July 2018.

    Akın İpek, the founder of İpek Holding, is living in the UK, which recently denied a request from Turkey for extradition.

  • Labor MP Peta Murphy receives breast cancer diagnosis two weeks before first speech

    Labor MP Peta Murphy has urged her colleagues to take seriously warnings about the state of Australia’s healthcare system, while making clear a cancer diagnosis will not prevent her taking her place in Parliament.

    In her maiden speech to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Ms Murphy said she has every intention of staying on in Parliament, and using her position to fight on the issue.

    “I am neither unique, nor alone,” she said.

    “But I am someone who has a platform that I can use to benefit others.

    “And as long as the people of Dunkley continue to vote for me to represent them in this place, I intend to use it.”

    Ms Murphy told Parliament her first breast cancer diagnosis came just days before a planned move to the United States.

    She said with hindsight, she could see she was “lucky”.

    “We had strong, loving families and friends,” she said.

    “We had the resources that come with professional careers.

    “We could access and afford the best quality care.

    “I am acutely aware that this is not everyone’s story, and that it should be.”

    Labor MP Peta Murphy making a speech in Parliament
    PHOTO: Ms Murphy pledged to stay on in the role, and advocate for change in health care and her constituents in Dunkley. (ABC News: Luke Stephenson)
    ‘Listen to the experts’
    Ms Murphy used her maiden speech to issue a warning to the parliamentarians around her on the state of Australia’s healthcare system.

    “Fellow Members of Parliament, listen to the experts who warn the promise of universal health care is under threat,” she said.

    “Commit to the reform and funding that our health system needs, and do whatever is required to ensure that Australia trains, retains and invests in the health care professionals and researchers who make our system great.”

    She said she was fully aware that her own experience of cancer, while difficult, did not come with the additional challenges that face others.

    “Let’s be frank though, cancer sucks,” she said.

    “It changes the way your body feels and the way you feel about your body.

    “The treatments can make you sick. Sometimes you are scared, sometimes you are angry. In my experience, often you are both at the same time.

    “You worry about how your friends and family are coping. You value their support but resent the fact that you need it.

    “And for too many people, on top of all of that, is the worry about how to pay the bills if you can’t work, who is going to look after the children while you’re getting treatment, how they are going to get to and from their appointments.

    “And so it goes on.” ..abcnws

  • Turkish football fans accused of insulting French while celebrating victory in Paris

    A video footage reportedly showing some Turkish fans celebrating their country’s surprise 2-0 win against world champions France in Paris on Saturday by chanting insulting slogans went viral on Sunday.

    First-half goals from players Kaan Ayhan and Cengiz Under sealed Turkey’s triumph in Euro 2020 qualifying on Saturday played in the central Anatolian province of Konya.

    Saturday’s game was also marked by a hostile reception for the French team as the national anthem ‘La Marseillaise’ was resoundingly jeered by the Turkish fans, RT said.

    Hundreds of Turkish hooligans flocked to the streets of the French capital after the victory.

    The video footage from that night reportedly shows a group of Turkish fans that gathered in Paris’s Champs-Élysées. The fans chant “You are all sons of bitches,” in Turkish, while celebrating their country’s victory.

    The footage was shared while Turkish football players on Sunday night accused Iceland of disrespectful treatment by keeping them waiting for hours at Iceland’s main airport when they arrived for a qualifying match against the Icelandic national team to be played on Tuesday night.

    Many on social media said that the footage showed Turks’ disrespect to other nations.

    “The topic: French people’s mothers. Relevance: Unknown. Now let’s empathise, what would our people’s reaction be if the same happened to our country,” asked a Twitter user while sharing the footage.

  • Australian Federal Police Commissioner Andrew Colvin to retire

    The head of the Australian Federal Police (AFP) will retire from the force after three decades, triggering an international hunt to find his replacement.

    In a statement, Commissioner Andrew Colvin said he told the Federal Government before the election he would not seek an extension to his five-year contract, which ends on October 1.

    “This has been by far the hardest decision of my 30 years as a police officer, but I believe this is the right decision for me, for my family, and for the AFP,” he said.

    Commissioner Colvin joined the AFP in 1990 and went on to lead its response to national and international terrorism between 2002 and 2005.

    “It is with enormous pride that I have led the AFP for the past five years, a time during which we have achieved incredible success against a range of crimes both at home, and abroad,” he said.

    Commission Colvin’s departure comes at a tumultuous time for the AFP, which has faced scrutiny from media organisations for raids on journalists after the election.

    He was overseas when officers raided the home of News Corp journalist Annika Smethurst and the ABC’s headquarters in Sydney.

    But his departure appears unrelated to the circumstances surrounding the raids.

    Commissioner Colvin said he told the secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet before the election that he would retire.

    Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton, in a statement, said Commissioner Colvin told him of his plans “shortly after” the May 18 election.

    Mr Dutton thanked Commissioner Colvin for his service, and said he had offered “inspirational leadership” as the nation’s top police officer.

    “Andrew has played a significant role in responding to many of our nation’s major security issues in his 30-year career in law enforcement, this has included coordinating the AFP’s national and international response to terrorism events to the 2002 Bali bombings, 2003 Jakarta Marriot bombing and the 2004 Australian embassy bombing,” he said.

    Former prime minister Tony Abbott picked then deputy commissioner Colvin in 2014 to lead the AFP after the Government carried out an international search.

    Mr Dutton said the Government had begun its search to select a new commissioner.with, abcnews