Blog

A Turkish court fined journalist Ahmet Altan, who has been jailed over coup charges for more than two years, 7000 liras ($ 1276 ) for insulting the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, independent news site T24 reported on Tuesday.

The fine stems from a column Altan wrote in 2016 pertaining to the 2008 Ergenekon investigation, T24 said.Starting in 2008, prosecutors and judicial officials linked to the Gülen movement, accused by Ankara of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt, brought a string of prosecutions, known as the Ergenekon trials, against what they said was a conspiracy among a rogue, strongly secular-nationalist group within the media, state, and security services threatening to bring down Erdoğan’s Islamist government.

“I don’t have a personal relationship with the president. I have no reason to insult him. He is a politician. What I did was criticise the politics he conducted. And this is my constitutional right. Such cases are being opened to prevent political criticism,’’ T24 quoted Altan as saying in his defence statement.

In Oct. 2018, a regional court of appeals upheld an aggravated life sentence for Altan, along with other journalists, accused of having links to plotters of 2016’s coup attempt targeting Erdoğan.

Insulting the president carries a sentence between one and four years, according to the Turkish Penal Code.

Between 2010 and 2017, 12,893 cases of insulting the president were filed. Of these, 12,305 were filed under the presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who assumed office in 2014.

Sydney Trains has warned commuters to expect major delays after a car crashed into rail signalling equipment in the city’s south and repairs are carried out on the western line.

The white Honda Accord ploughed through a wire fence and into the front of the metal box at Riverwood before 2:00am this morning.

Sydney Trains chief Howard Collins said the incident “badly damaged” the signal relay room.

“Expect major delays on this line,” he tweeted.

Sydney Trains said the airport, Leppington and inner west lines would all be affected.

Extra customer service staff have been put on to help customers and the organisation said busses have been placed in strategic locations to ease congestion.

By 7:00am, some airport line services were running more than half an hour late.

Around 10:00am the train network experienced more delays on the T1 western lines due to an object being found on the track at Wentworthville and ongoing delays due to a signal equipment repair at Clyde.

Commuters on the line reported many of their morning trains into the city were cancelled entirely.

Mr Collins said earlier the only train line affected is the T8 line in Sydney.

“It will affect trains running to and from the Airport, customers should allow extra time for travel,” he said.

He said the signal box is a vital piece of equipment.

“It contains thousands of wires which control signalling in the area. Mr Collins said the site of the signal box, which was installed in the mid-2000s, would be reviewed.

“It is a very rare event but we want to make sure we are offering maximum protection to our rail corridor,” he added.

NSW Police said the driver had left the scene by the time officers arrived.

“The vehicle has been towed away and is being forensically examined,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.

In a separate incident, a 4WD landed upside down on railway tracks in the Lake Macquarie area after it hit a fence last night.

The railway line was closed for an hour while the vehicle was removed.

Police charged the driver with high-range drink driving and said his licence had been suspended.

He is due to face Toronto Local Court next month.

In a development that showed the desperation of some Turks for a job, 44,000 people applied for a job in the southeastern province of Şanlıurfa when only 1,000 people would be employed for a period of nine months, the Diken news website reported on Friday.

The 1,000 workers would be temporarily employed by the Şanlıurfa National Education Directorate and would do jobs such as cleaning schools and gardening.

When 44,000 people applied for the job through the offices of the Turkish Employment Agency (İŞKUR), the drawing of lots was made in a football stadium during which the 1,000 workers to be employed were determined.

Around 43,000 people whose name did not emerge from the drawing had to return home in disappointment.

The September unemployment data in Turkey, released on Dec. 17, 2018, showed the jobless rate hit 11.4 percent in September, up from 10.6 percent in September 2017. The army of jobless grew by 330,000 people over the course of a year, reaching nearly 3.8 million.

Apart from the rising overall unemployment rate, the increase in youth unemployment has also drawn attention. According to the data, youth unemployment reached 21.6 percent in September, up from 20 percent in the same period of 2017. Jobless youths numbered some 1.16 million, or nearly a third of the country’s unemployed.turkishminute

A group that identifies itself as the Association of Conscientious Teachers (ÖĞ DER) in a statement on Monday criticized the promotion of Santa Claus and New Year’s celebrations in Turkey, claiming that these efforts are aimed at “playing with the history and culture of the society,” the artıgerçek news website reported on Monday.

The association described New Year’s celebrations as “craziness,” saying that media outlets were advertising alcohol consumption and gambling under the pretext of New Year’s festivities.

According to the group, stores who use Santa Claus figures are trying to indoctrinate their customers with Western culture and make Santa Claus, which the group said has nothing to do with Turkish culture, part of the culture of Turkey.In Turkey many often confuse Christmas with New Year’s celebrations and perceive the latter as belonging to Christianity.Over the past years, the attacks on New Year’s celebrations and Santa Claus figures have become very common in the country.

Turkey has expanded its witch hunt against critics to the West African nation of Senegal, specifically targeting members of the Gülen movement, using embassy and government-affiliated NGOs and operatives, a report released by the Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has revealed.

The report, drawn from interviews and witness accounts, exposes how the current government in Turkey under an oppressive leadership has intensified direct and indirect pressure on Senegal to shut down schools linked to the movement and offered economic and financial incentives to secure political goals in the West African nation.

“It is a shame that the Senegalese government caved to the pressure exerted by the Erdoğan regime and helped the Turkish government victimize innocent people who have been living in Senegal for years and contributing to its development, especially in the education sector,” said Abdullah Bozkurt, the president of SCF.

Schools affiliated with the Gülen movement were handed over to the Turkish government-owned Maarif Foundation, which is run by controversial Islamist figures. The foundation is one of the tools President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan uses to project his image as the leader of all Muslims in the world and his hopes to raise a young generation of Muslims who will be loyal to his rule beyond Turkish borders.

“The Turkish government has also engaged in wide-scale spying, intelligence gathering and profiling of critics in Senegal, almost with impunity,” Bozkurt also underlined.

Although critics from all walks of life including Kurds and Alevis have been targeted in general in this stigmatizing effort by the Turkish government, members of a civic group called Hizmet (popularly known as the Gülen movement), inspired by US-based Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, have borne the brunt of the government’s witch hunt.

Gülen leads a global movement that focuses on science education, volunteerism, community involvement, social work and interfaith and intercultural dialogue.

This persecution abroad is personally approved by Turkish President Erdoğan, who stated that no country in the world will be safe for members of the Gülen movement, claimed they do not have the right to life and vowed to pursue them wherever they are. His propagandists have even suggested assassinating and abducting critics abroad and have put a bounty on their heads.

The entire government apparatus and Turkish missions abroad have been engaged in systematic efforts against the Gülen movement in more than 150 nations, and Turkish intelligence managed to abduct over 100 members of the Gülen movement, mostly teachers and businesspeople, from various countries in clear violation of international law.

Turkish intelligence uses Turkish embassies and consulates as a cover and a hub for activities such as profiling harassment, denial of consular services, confiscation of passports, threats, kidnapping, boycotts, insults, slander and unlawful information gathering and spying on regime critics.

The illegal renditions and abductions have recently been in the headlines of major media outlets in Europe, and investigative journalists from multiple countries have exposed black sites where kidnapped critics of the Erdoğan regime are exposed to torture and ill-treatment.