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  • Scott Morrison likely to delay election campaign by another week

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison is likely to wait another week before firing the starter’s gun on the election campaign, giving MPs more time to gauge community reaction to the federal budget and sharpen their political strategy.

    While Mr Morrison could still move to call the election this Sunday, sources say next weekend has firmed as the preferred timing, opening up May 18 as the probable polling day, with May 25 a wildcard option that has been actively considered.

    The Prime Minister has been fielding a range of opinions about the timing, with some Coalition figures favouring an earlier date while others have advised that later is better.

    Speculation was initially rife that the campaign would kick off this weekend, with a five-week race to a May 11 election.

    But one consideration has been the Good Friday and Anzac Day public holidays, falling in the middle of the campaign on April 19 and April 25 respectively.

    Depending on the timing of writs being issued by the Governor-General, the public holidays could interfere with important administrative timelines.

    Election day must also be at least 33 days after the writs are issued.

    Holding the election on May 25 would involve extra resources for the Australian Electoral Commission, enabling it to finish the laborious Senate vote count in time for the expiry of the upper house at the end of June.

    Delaying the start of the campaign by another week would give MPs a chance to spend more time in their electorates, getting feedback on the government’s centrepiece budget measures before campaigning begins in earnest.

    It also gives the Coalition extra time to communicate key policies with taxpayer-funded advertising campaigns and make major decisions before government enters the caretaker period, triggered when Parliament is dissolved.

    “The timing of the election is the prime minister’s decision and [his] decision alone and it will be made in due course. An election will be soon upon us but the contest will be very clear,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on Saturday.

    “What is very clear from Bill Shorten’s budget-in-reply speech is there’s nothing in his plans for small business, there’s nothing except higher taxes in his plans for retirees. There is no serious tax reform agenda and the Labor Party only believes in higher taxes,” Mr Frydenberg said.

    Mr Shorten said he wasn’t interested in game-playing around the election date.

    “We’re ready whenever he decides to call the election, on a Sunday this week or Sunday next week. We can’t waste anymore time of the nation. For six years, this government has not taken the nation forward,” he said.

    “Cuts to schools and hospitals, working people in this country going backwards, energy prices out of control, not enough done in health. So whenever the current fellow calls the election, we’re ready. We’re ready because we have been united for six years. We’re ready because we have a talented team. And we’re ready because we have got a fair go plan for Australia.”

  • Erdoğan persecuted judicial council members who sided with prosecutors in probing illegal arms to jihadists

    Abdullah Bozkurt-nordicmonitor

    Turkey’s top judicial council members were jailed because they ruled that prosecutors who investigated the Turkish intelligence agency’s illegal arms shipments to jihadist groups in Syria were justified under the laws and regulations that were in effect at the time.

    Three members of the Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) — the country’s top judicial body, which oversees the conduct of judges and prosecutors and decides on assignments, promotions and disciplinary actions of members of the judiciary –opposed the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for punishing the Turkish prosecutors who exposed the unlawful shipments to Syria.

    Ahmet Berberoğlu, Şaban Işık and Kerim Tosun, three leading jurists who had run on independent tickets for election to the HSK in 2014, wrote a dissenting opinion in the 3rd Chamber arguing that the prosecutors who exposed the illegal arms shipments acted within the confines of the law. They said the mandate provided to the prosecutors under the law at the time justified their actions in investigating agents of the National Intelligence Organization (MIT). They highlighted the fact that intelligence operatives were not duly authorized to conduct such an operation on the Turkish-Syrian border and that they failed to present any official document to prove the operation was approved through proper channels when asked by the prosecutors.

    In two separate incidents that took place on Jan. 1 and Jan. 19, 2014, Turkish prosecutors intercepted arms-laden trucks that were bound for Syria. The shipment was escorted by the Turkish intelligence agency, although there was no official authorization as required by Turkish law. Immediately after the exposé, the prosecutors were sacked, reassigned and later arrested and tried on fabricated charges of espionage.

    The Erdoğan government also orchestrated an investigation into five Turkish prosecutors who had been working in Adana province and were involved in investigating illegal arms shipments to jihadist groups in Syria. The prosecutors targeted by the government were Süleyman Bağrıyanık, the chief public prosecutor in Adana province; Ahmet Karaca, the deputy chief public prosecutor; Aziz Takçı, a public prosecutor; Özcan Şişman, a public prosecutor; and Yaşar Kavalcıoğlu, the chief public prosecutor in the Kırıkhan district of Adana province.

    In a well-articulated dissenting opinion, HSK members Berberoğlu and Işık wrote that the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe warned Turkey in its 2011 opinion, saying that “there might be risks of indirect interferences, since the terms, which describe the preconditions justifying disciplinary sanctions, are very broad and often vague. This leads to the risk that the disciplinary power could be used to sanction a judge whose judicial decisions are disliked, without explicitly referring to such a motive.”

    They also maintained that a 15-article bill on the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) that was hastily submitted to parliament in April 2014 and subsequently passed into law proved that when Turkish investigators probed the trucks filled with arms, MIT had no power to transport arms and the prosecutors had every right to investigate the claims of arms shipments to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). After the scandalous exposé, Erdoğan rushed to parliament to suggest a series of amendments to give the intelligence agency more power and immunity from prosecution. The new law stated that if prosecutors receive a tip about MİT officials or affiliates, they must initially seek the organization’s opinion about the authenticity of the tip. If MİT says the tip concerns a responsibility or an operation of the organization, then prosecutors will not be able to launch an investigation. In addition, prosecutors will not be able to launch investigations into claims against MİT officials coming from whistleblowers.

    The amendments allowed MİT to conduct operations against possible overseas threats designated by the Cabinet. According to the law MİT will not bear any responsibility for such operations; the entire responsibility falls on the political power in the country, namely the government. Also, MİT agents operating under an assumed identity will not be held accountable for their activities, and MİT agents who infiltrate terrorist organizations will have no criminal liability for crimes committed while under cover.

    The bill also authorized MİT to conduct wiretaps without a court order. In addition MİT officials will only be tried at a high criminal court in Ankara, according to the amendments, which means the government can exert more control over courts in the capital.

    Tosun, another member of the HSK, wrote a separate dissenting opinion advocating the view that Turkish prosecutors had to investigate a tip that alleged illegal arms were being shipped to terrorist groups. He said prosecutors would be guilty of dereliction of duty if they were to ignore a credible tip received by law enforcement agencies in the border areas.

    Nevertheless the decision to allow a witch-hunt investigation into the Turkish prosecutors who had done their jobs was approved by four to three on Dec. 23, 2014. The decision came after the government took control of the HSK in the Oct. 12, 2014 elections by pouring in cash and lobbying intensively for partisan members that ran on the Judiciary Platform (YBP), a government list. The HSK election dealt a huge blow to the separation of powers in Turkey given that other checks and balances — such as the legislative branch and the media — were already largely under government control.

    Eight out of 10 newly elected members of the HSK, which had a total of 22 members, were from the YBP. As another seven members of the board are selected by the government, according to the government-endorsed bill that became law, the government-backed group acquired the majority in the judicial council. In addition to the YBP, members of the Judges and Prosecutors Association (YARSAV) and independent candidates run for seats in the HSK.

     

    Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ traveled across Turkey to seek support for HSK candidates close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Even on election day, Justice Ministry Undersecretary Kenan İpek was sitting with Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Fethi Şimşek and YBP candidates at the courthouse all day long, exerting pressure on the judges and prosecutors who came to cast their votes. Then-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said in televised remarks that if a group of judges not supported by the government were to win the top HSK seats, it would will be tantamount to a “coup d’état in the judiciary.”

    AKP parliamentary group deputy chairman Mahir Ünal went further by publicly declaring in September 2014 that the AKP would not respect the election results if the government lost in the HSK elections. Erdoğan also drew public ire for his remarks on the elections: “As the head of state, naturally I will have a plan B or plan C, according to the results [of the HSK elections].”

    Independent candidates and candidates affiliated with YARSAV faced smear campaigns by pro-government media throughout the election campaign of 2014. Chief Public Prosecutor Hüseyin Baş, who filed a motion against the justice minister after the minister asked him to cover up a corruption investigation in İzmir, announced that he had given up his candidacy for membership in the HSK due to a “cruel campaign” that was carried out against some candidates. Baş wrote that the elections had turned into ugly and cruel campaigns for candidates who were not supported by the government.

    Independent members of the HSK were dismissed and arrested by the Erdoğan government on July 20, 2016 under a state of emergency declared after a false flag coup bid on July 15 of that year. They were arrested, tried and convicted on fabricated charges and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Berberoğlu, who served as an HSK member between 2010 and 2016, had been a judge since 1994. He remains in prison pending trial and faces up to 15 years if convicted. Işık was convicted by the 9th Chamber of the Supreme Court of Appeals, which is totally under government control, on terrorism charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison in December 2018.

    Tosun, who was released in November 2016 after he agreed to testify against his colleagues in the trial under pressure from the government, was convicted in February 2019 and given a lighter sentence of two years, nine months and 22 days in prison. The sentence was commuted for time served. In the meantime, all the Turkish prosecutors who investigated the illegal arms shipments to jihadist groups in Syria remain in prison as of today.

  • Amnesty International launches campaign for release of 16 activists facing life in prison

    Human rights NGO Amnesty International has launched a campaign calling for the release of 16 civil society figures, including businessman and rights activist Osman Kavala, facing life in prison for allegedly attempting to overthrow the Turkish government.

    A Turkish court on March 4 accepted an indictment seeking life sentences against 16 people, including Kavala and renowned activist Yiğit Aksakoğlu, over their alleged roles in the 2013 Gezi protests, the biggest anti-government demonstrations since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002.

    The indictment which contains 746 plaintiffs, including Turkish President Erdoğan, accuses the activists of attempting to overthrow the government or prevent it from performing its duties by organising the protests in an attempt to “force the government to resign or call early elections” and, failing that, “to prepare the grounds for a civil war or coup.”

    Kavala, who has been in jail on pre-trial detention for almost 17 months, and Aksakoğlu, who has been in prison for five months, are the only two of the 16 facing life sentences that are in pre-trial detention.

    “The Turkish authorities must immediately and unconditionally release Osman Kavala and Yiğit Aksakoğlu and drop the trumped-up charges against all 16,’’ Amnesty said.

    International rights groups such as Freedom House and Human Rights Watch have condemned the indictment demanding a life sentence for the civil society leaders.

  • Jeff Bezos’s wife MacKenzie to get $49 billion slice of Amazon in divorce settlement

    Amazon founder and chief executive officer Jeff Bezos has finalised his divorce with wife MacKenzie, who will get a stake in the online shopping giant worth more than $US35 billion ($49 billion).

    Ms Bezos gave up her interests in The Washington Post, the newspaper that Mr Bezos bought in 2013, and Blue Origin, the space exploration company he founded.

    She also agreed to handing over 75 per cent of the pair’s 16.3 per cent stake in Amazon, meaning she retains a 4 per cent share.

    “I’m grateful for her support and for her kindness in this process,” Mr Bezos said in a tweet.

    “And am very much looking forward to our new relationship as friends and co-parents.”

    Mr Bezos also retweeted a post from his former partner, the only tweet on her account after she joined the social media platform this month.

    She said she was happy with the division of shares.

    “Excited about my own plans,” Ms Bezos said.

    “Grateful for the past as I look forward to what comes next.”

    The couple announced they were divorcing in January, after a period of “loving exploration and trial separation”.

    In a joint statement, the pair said they would remain partners.

    “Though the labels might be different, we remain a family, and we remain cherished friends,” they said.

    The couple’s announcement to split came just before The National Enquirer published a story saying Mr Bezos was having an affair with a former TV host.

    Mr Bezos later accused the tabloid’s publisher of threatening to publish explicit photos of him unless he stopped investigating how the Enquirer obtained his private messages.

    Before the separation, Mr Bezos’s 16.3 per cent stake was worth about $200 billion, making him one of the world’s richest people.

    He will still be the company’s biggest shareholder when the divorce is complete, which is expected to happen in about 90 days.

    Ms Bezos met her husband when interviewing for a job at a New York hedge fund, according to a 2013 profile in Vogue.

    They pair became engaged after three months of dating and were married three months later.

    They have four children together.

    Ms Bezos, now a novelist, did accounting for Amazon for its first year after it was founded in 1994.

    Speaking at an event in Berlin last April, Mr Bezos said his wife’s support was instrumental when he started the company.

    “When you have loving and supportive people in your life, like MacKenzie, my parents, my grandfather, my grandmother, you end up being able to take risks,” he said.

    ABC/wires

     

  • Foreign journalists barred from Turkey-EU press conference in Istanbul

    At least six foreign journalists were barred from taking part in a press conference held in Istanbul on Thursday announcing a 275 million euro investment from the European Union in Turkish rail projects, the Independent newspaper reported.

    Turkish Finance and Treasury Minister Berat Albayrak, who took part in the press conference, said the journalists had been excluded because their accreditation documents had expired.

    “Everywhere in the world … members of the press have their accreditation periodically renewed,” Turkish news site Diken quoted Albayrak as saying. “Those who have had theirs renewed are here and can ask questions freely. Some haven’t had theirs renewed. But maybe they will next year, or maybe not.”

    Foreign journalists have faced problems receiving accreditation in this year Turkey, Diken reported, adding that some had not received their press cards in time for today’s event despite submitting the documentation on time.

    Journalists not admitted to the press conference included reporters from German outlets Süddeutsche Zeitung, ZDF, Tagesspiegel and ARD Radio, Diken said.

    EU Commission Vice President Jyrki Katainen expressed his regret that journalists had been barred and said the EU “was working with Turkish authorities to make sure ‘freedom of the press is respected,’” the Independent reported.

    The press conference on Thursday marked one of the largest ever foreign investments in Turkey to build a 1-billion-euro state-of-the-art rail line connecting Istanbul to the EU border.

    However, political relations with the EU have been under serious strain for years, particularly in the aftermath of a coup attempt in July 2016.

    Press freedom in Turkey has been a source of serious concern and criticism from the EU, which has cited repressive measures after the coup attempt by the country’s government as a justification for the stall in accession negotiations. On February 20, the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee voted in favour of suspending the accession negotiations.ahvalnews

    Journalists barred from conference announcing EU grant to TurkeyGrant will help fund the construction of a railway line between the southeast edge of the EU border in Bulgaria and Istanbul

  • Property price downturn extending beyond Sydney and Melbourne

    Australian home prices fell a further 0.7 per cent last month and are now down nearly 7 per cent from their peak, as the downturn extends beyond Sydney and Melbourne.

    The latest February figures from CoreLogic show Darwin and Perth are once again leading the monthly declines in prices, slumping 1.7 and 1.5 per cent respectively.Sydney and Melbourne have still suffered the worst fall over the past year, down 10.4 and 9.1 per cent respectively.

    Even the Brisbane market, which did not experience the same steep run-up in prices as the other two big capitals on the east coast, has seen prices fall over the month, quarter and past year, although the declines are modest.Hobart was the only capital city to post an increase in prices last month, with a 0.8 per cent rise showing that its property boom has not completely run out of steam, although its 7.2 per cent annual increase is slower than its recent peak growth rate.

    Prices in Canberra and Adelaide have been relatively flat over the past few months, and only modestly higher over the past year.

    CoreLogic’s head of research Tim Lawless says price falls are now extending well beyond the previously booming Sydney and Melbourne markets.

    “Every market in Australia is losing steam,” he told ABC News.

    “I think that’s a real indicator that lending conditions are throwing quite a dampening blanket over the market entirely.”

    Aside from tougher home lending standards, Mr Lawless said there were a few other factors continuing to weigh on the property market in many areas.

    “We’ve seen a lot of new supply coming into the market from newly constructed housing, especially in the high-rise apartment sector, we’ve seen a real slowdown in foreign buying activity and, of course, we’re also still seeing affordability challenges in markets like Sydney and Melbourne, despite the fact that values have come down in Sydney now by 13 per cent and in Melbourne by nearly 10 per cent since the peak,” he added.

    However, while the supply of units is surging in Sydney and Melbourne, the bigger price falls were for houses — down 11.5 per cent in both cities over the past year compared to a 7.8 and 3.7 per cent fall in apartment prices, respectively.

    That is in contrast to Brisbane, Perth and Darwin, where apartment price falls were much steeper than house price declines.

    CoreLogic’s figures show Brisbane apartment prices fell 0.9 per cent, versus a 0.4 per cent decline for houses, it was 7.7 per cent versus 6.7 per cent in Perth, while unit prices slumped 14.4 per cent in Darwin over the past year, versus a 0.2 per cent rise in house prices.

    While there is a lot of new property for sale, Mr Lawless said owners of existing dwellings were becoming increasingly reluctant to sell into a falling market.

    “We’re seeing vendors, understandably, are quite reluctant to be putting their property into the market when selling conditions are quite challenging,” he said.

    “Compared to last year, the number of new listings being added to the market is down by nearly 20 per cent across the capital cities.

    “But, because properties are taking longer to sell and we’ve seen buyer numbers fall by around 15 per cent or so over the past year it means total inventory levels out there are now very high.

    However, Mr Lawless said it would likely take further prices falls to equal out the balance between properties for sale and buyers for them so that prices stabilise.

    “Probably somewhere in 2020 we’ll start to see the market levelling out,” he said.

    “There’s a lot of moving parts here, and if we do see interest rates coming down, for example, which seems more likely now than it was a few months ago, we might see a little bit of extra stimulus come into the market.

    “But the big question there is, even if interest rates do come down, how much will we see the lenders passing those rate cuts on and how much effect will it have on the market?”abcnews

  • Amity College celebrates its HSC 2018 results

    On Thursday 21 February, Amity College held its annual HSC and ATAR Awards Ceremony to acknowledge and celebrate the outstanding achievements of the graduating class of 2018 in last year’s HSC. In 2018, one in every two Amity College graduates have got an ATAR score of 80+ and, one in every four Amity College graduates got 90+ ATAR scores. 

    Attended by the 2018 Graduates, their families and friends, the current Year 12 students, teachers and principals, as well as local and state politicians the awards ceremony saw generous prizes awarded to students who helped maintain a well-established tradition of academic excellence at the College.

    Constituting around half the graduating cohort, students who attained an ATAR of 80.00 or over were awarded crystal trophies, gift cards and smart tablet devices.

    The ceremony began with an address by the Amity College Executive Principal, Mr Deniz Erdogan, who talked about a series of new goals and opportunities following the HSC and that overcoming each struggle serves to strengthen and prepare one for the next.

    He likened the graduates to dandelion seeds that have stuck and grown together; the wind will now blow in different directions but they will become their own dandelions regardless of the climate. The Dean of School of Law from the University of Wollongong, Professor Colin Picker delivered the keynote address giving his advice and explaining to set out on a journey with big aspirations and to take big steps full of courage towards achieving this.

    The ceremony concluded with the exciting announcements of the Boys High School Dux, Zain Khan (ATAR 96.60), and Girls High School Dux, Aleyna Akdemir (ATAR 99.45), who each delivered their dux addresses.Amongst the award presenters were Members of Parliament Ms Melanie Gibbons and Mr Paul Lynch who also expressed their gratitude to the school and congratulated the tremendous success of the students.

    Ms Akdemir, also the College’s overall top achiever, addressed the new Year 12 cohort in her speech explaining the background behind her success, planned hard work. Mr Khan likened the HSC to an IKEA flat pack and that they had the tools and instructions to build as they wish but that they must choose and persevere to construct it.

    The Year 12 students in the audience listened attentively with one student noting that it was motivating to see such highly-driven students reflect on their experience and that their words of advice were very much appreciated.Established in 1996, Amity College is a leading independent and non-denominational school in Sydney’s south-west which provides K-12 education.

     

  • Christopher Pyne expected to quit federal politics after two decades as a Liberal MP

    The Morrison government is bracing for a new round of cabinet resignations ahead of the May election, with focus shifting to the future of the Coalition’s two most senior defence figures.

     

    Defence Industry Minister Steve Ciobo is preparing to announce his retirement as soon as Friday, potentially bringing the total number of departing government frontbenchers to four. Many are also sceptical of Defence Minister Christopher Pyne’s repeated declaration that he “intends” to recontest the election, pointing to Julie Bishop’s use of the same language for months prior to her decision last week to retire from politics.

    Mr Pyne, who has been in Parliament for 26 years, is one of the Liberal Party’s leading moderate figures and is a close supporter of former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.

    Asked at a press conference on Friday whether it was possible he could not recontest the May poll, Mr Pyne responded: “I have dismissed this question for weeks, so it doesn’t seem to matter what I say in response to the question, the speculation seems to continue.

    “I’m not going to add any more to what I’ve said about this before. I don’t think there’s any point in adding to the speculation.”

    Mr Pyne holds his Adelaide electorate of Sturt on a margin of 5.4 per cent. Internal party polling was given to the media last month showing the Liberal Party was on track to easily retain the seat, despite national polls showing a swing against the Coalition.

    The chief of staff to South Australian Premier Steven Marshall, James Steven, is considered an option to eventually replace Mr Pyne in Sturt.

    Asked about his future at the Avalon Airshow on Friday, Mr Pyne told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald that he hadanswered those questions before.

    “You’ve soured the mood,” he said.

    Mr Ciobo, who is the junior minister to Mr Pyne in the wider defence portfolio, holds his Gold Coast seat of Moncrief on a very strong 14.6 per cent margin.

    Mr Pyne and Mr Ciobo are entitled to parliamentary pensions because they were elected prior to when the scheme closed to new entrants in 2004. Preliminary calculation shows Mr Pyne would be entitled to an annual pension of about $220,500 a year. If he took half of it as a lump sum, that would be around $1.1 million.

    Mr Ciobo’s annual pension would be about $187,900, with the option of a lump sum payment of $939,400.

    Mr Ciobo ran for deputy leader in the August leadership spill but picked up only 20 votes to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s 46. Mr Ciobo voted for Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton to be leader.

    Asked to provide a statement on the record of his intention to recontest, a spokesman for Mr Ciobo said the minister is “the preselected member for Moncrieff”.

    Jobs and Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer, Human Services Minister Michael Keenan and Indigenous Affairs Minister Nigel Scullion have all announced their departures from politics at the election. The ministers will stay in their portfolios until the election is called.

    Former small business minister Craig Laundy, who left the frontbench after Mr Turnbull was rolled last year, is also expected to shortly announce he will not recontest his marginal Sydney seat of Reid.

    Prime Minister Scott Morrison has previously played down the impact of cabinet retirements amid Labor claims they are a sign of no confidence in the Coalition’s election chances.

    “These are deeply personal decisions made by members, Mr Morrison said in January. “How about we give them the benefit of the doubt that they’re actually doing it for the reasons they’re saying?”theage

  • Erdoğan government framed and jailed 75-year-old female Turkish journalist

    A Nordic Monitor investigation has revealed how a smear campaign targeting prominent Turkish journalist Nazli Ilıcak, who is critical of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, was orchestrated by partisan prosecutor Murat Çağlak.

    While the prosecutor ordered her arrest as part of a counterterrorism investigation that led to Ilıcak’s unjust conviction and sentencing to life in prison, the Sabah daily, owned by Erdoğan’s family, ran a series of defamatory articles about her to portray her as a criminal in the eyes of the public.Abdullah Bozkurt

     

     

     

    According to confidential documents obtained by Nordic Monitor, Ilıcak was vacationing at her summer home in Turkey’s western resort town of Bodrum when the Istanbul prosecutor issued a detention warrant for her along with 41 other journalists on July 25, 2016. The police went to her residence in Istanbul at dawn to detain her, but she was not there. Instead they executed search and seizure warrants and confiscated 724 of the journalist’s personal items, mostly books and hundreds of recordings of her appearances on TV programs as she has been a popular commentator for decades.

     

     

    She was not fleeing at all, yet the pro-Erdoğan media, tipped off by the prosecutor, ran a spin story about her being a fugitive and made up a report about the journalist’s escape plans. When the police went to her home in Istanbul to detain her and execute the search warrant, the police did not find her as expected and called prosecutor Ismail Uçar, who said the warrant must also be executed on her summer home in Bodrum. In the meantime, the fake story of her being on the run like a killer was continuously run by Erdoğan’s media propaganda machine.

     

    The official documents that detail the circumstances of her detention tell a completely different story, however. The police intelligence report revealed that the authorities knew she had two houses before the raid, one in Istanbul and the other in Bodrum. They also knew she spent July at the summer home, yet the plan was to create the perception that she was guilty and could not be located.

     

    In the meantime, when the news about the warrant for her was covered by the networks and reached her in Bodrum, Ilıcak decided to report to the local police station and inquire about the news early the next day. On her way downtown on July 26, her car was stopped by the police at a checkpoint, and she was detained before she made to the police station. The police report, filed at the checkpoint where she was detained at 08:00, states that the detention was normal and that there was nothing out of the ordinary. She was read her rights, and she signed the detention warrant on the spot, meaning that she understood her rights.

     

    What is more, the processing document produced by the police revealed what she possessed at the time of her detention, and it did not suggest that she was on the run. Ilıcak, who suffers from various medical conditions at the age of 75, was carrying some dozen medications and vitamins in her purse, the document that was signed at 18:48 hours showed. She also had TL 685 (about $228 at the exchange rate in effect at the time) on her person, suggesting that she had no plans to try to escape. Otherwise, she would have been carrying a large amount of cash for travel and accommodations. Ilıcak, who survived the military coup era of the 1980s, had nothing to fear and no reason to hide.

     

    She was processed at the local police station upon the order of Muğla public prosecutor Sümeyra Çetin and sent to Istanbul on a flight at around 16:40 to report to Istanbul prosecutor Çağlak, who had issued the detention warrant for her. Police also seized a notepad at the summer home and listed it as criminal evidence against her in the case. The 38-page notepad shows she wrote talking points that she would raise in her TV commentaries or use in her newspaper articles. Most were related to current affairs and her contacts with journalists and sources — nothing incriminating.

     

    In Istanbul, Ilıcak was charged under counterterrorism laws, yet she was processed by the homicide unit of the police station, which was a bizarre twist in the case. Her crime was listed as having been committed on July 15, 2016, suggesting that she had something to do with a failed coup on that date when she actually had nothing to do with it. But the false flag coup attempt was a perfect pretext for the Erdoğan regime to arrest and prosecute hundreds of journalists who were critical of the government.

     

    She was fingerprinted, had her mugshot taken and was interrogated by the police. It was not until 21:22 when police wrapped up the interrogation and her lawyer Muhammed Emin Özkurt signed the police statement.

     

     

    The fake story about her being a fugitive was also used against her by the partisan prosecutor during the arraignment, and she was considered to be a flight risk by the judge, despite the fact that she had turned herself in. Later, her lawyers even submitted documentation of her cancelled vacation plans in Greece where she planned to stay at Hotel Nireus, located on the Greek island of Symi, between July 22 and 25, 2016 but which she decided to cancel after the July 15 failed coup. She would not have done so if she had any intention of crossing to the Greek island off the coast of Bodrum, where her family kept a yacht. Lawyers raised that in the courtroom when she asked for her release pending trial, but Erdoğan was determined to keep her locked up to send a message to other critics.

     

     

    Ilıcak’s case shows how the rule of law has ceased to exist in Turkey and how prosecutors, judges and police were turned into political operatives bent on cracking down on critical journalists. Her lawyers filed motions practically every month for her release pending trial, but the authorities rejected each and every petition. The case against her was finally wrapped up in February 2018, when she was convicted and sentenced to aggravated life, without the possibility of parole, on totally fabricated terrorism charges.

    Ilıcak also faces another trial in a case that was opened against her due to an article she wrote in 2015 titled “Military intelligence and Tahşiyeciler,” about a Turkish al-Qaeda-affiliated group. The journalist is accused of publishing a secret document about Tahşiyeciler from the records of the General Staff in the Bugün daily on Jan. 2, 2015. Ilıcak faces a life sentence for espionage in this case, although she received the same punishment in the earlier trial. In her defense at the İstanbul 26th High Criminal Court, Ilıcak said many people used to send documents to her Twitter account because she is a journalist and that the document in question was sent to that account.

  • U.S. State Dept. calls on Ankara accept election results

    State Department spokesperson Robert Palladino was asked to comment on the controversial opposition victories in Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city, and Ankara, its capital. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made moves to contest the result in both cities.

    “Free and fair elections are essential for any democracy. That means acceptance of legitimate election results, which is essential,” Palladino said.

    “We expect nothing less from Turkey, which has a long proud tradition in this respect,” he added.

    While the ruling party suffered major losses in Turkey’s big cities, it performed well on a district level and retained a high percentage of the total tally of votes.