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  • Covid rapid response teams to hit Victoria

    Rapid response squads will be established to tackle any new Victorian outbreaks of coronavirus as part of a $20 million package.

    The new teams will prevent, respond to and limit outbreaks as part of a major surveillance boost announced on Monday.Victoria’s state of emergency will end at midnight, with Premier Daniel Andrews due to outline a plan to slowly lift coronavirus restrictions.

    Health Minister Jenny Mikakos says the funding will support a range of measures that will continue beyond the recent testing blitz, in which 161,000 Victorians have been tested over the past two weeks.

    Testing will continue for Victorians with even the mildest of symptoms over the next month, with a target of a further 50,000 tests to be conducted over the next week, and 150,000 tests by the end of May.

    “As we ease restrictions, there will be further positive coronavirus cases, and possible outbreaks,” Ms Mikakos said in a statement.

    “To limit these cases and keep Victorians safe, the government has outlined its plan for a new ‘outbreak unit’ within the Department of Health and Human Services’ public health team.”

    The state recorded an additional 10 coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing Victoria’s total to 1487.

    One of the new cases is related to an outbreak at Cedar Meats in Melbourne’s west, taking the total number of cases related to the abattoir to 76.

    The new rapid response unit will include squads staffed by public health specialists and clinicians to ensure appropriate testing, contact tracing and deep cleaning is carried out as soon as a cluster is identified.

    They will make proactive visits to high risk facilities, businesses and industries, and work with local services on infection control and prevention.

    In addition, mobile testing units will continue to operate and will be deployed to communities that show a spike in cases.

    The funding will also include $8 million for research institutes, while testing at sewage plants to track the virus in the community and provide early signposts of localised outbreaks.

    Australian Associated Press

  • Imprisoned teacher declared brain dead a week after collapsing in cell

    Cengiz Karakurt (41), a former teacher arrested for alleged membership in the Gülen movement, was declared brain dead on Wednesday after having passed out in his prison cell on September 15, Bold Medya reported.

    Karakurt had open-heart surgery 10 years ago for aortic valve regurgitation. He had been sick in prison for a while and taken to the hospital several times, only to be sent back with antibiotics for treatment of a cold, according to his wife, Hatice Karakurt. He had been taken to the hospital on September 14, where he was told that there was no health reason necessitating his release from prison. He was put in a solitary cell for COVID-19 quarantine, although he had prior health problems that required monitoring.

    After collapsing in his cell he was admitted to intensive care and was declared brain dead a week later. A day after he was declared brain dead, his release from prison was issued.

    Karakurt was arrested on April 16, 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He had been dismissed from his job by a government decree.

    Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu, a prominent human rights activist and an MP from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), said Karakurt’s death was a result of gross negligence. “There is a pattern in the negligence of prisoner health. Their lives should not be this worthless.”

    The Turkish government accuses the Gülen movement, a faith-based group inspired by the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, of masterminding a coup attempt in July 2016 and labels it a terrorist organization. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.

    Following the coup attempt, the Turkish government declared a state of emergency and launched a massive crackdown on followers of the Gülen movement under the pretext of an anti-coup fight. Over 540,000 people were detained on terrorism-related charges, more than 80,000 were arrested or imprisoned and over 150,000 public servants, including 4,145 judges and prosecutors, were summarily removed from their jobs for alleged membership in or relationship with “terrorist organizations.”

  • [OPINION] Demonization of the Gülen movement unfair and baseless

    Prof. Mehmet Efe Çaman

    The Gülen movement is one of two marginalized groups in present-day Turkey along with the with Kurds. However, the situation was quite different 10 years ago.

    The people who launched a fierce campaign to “finish off” the Gülen group in today’s Turkey once considered it their closest ally.

    The politicians who currently rule the country used to send their own children to schools run by the movement. They were subscribers of the Zaman daily. They often appeared on Gülen-affiliated TV channels, calling Fethullah Gülen “Hocaefendi” – a title his followers use to refer to him with reverence.

    Whenever someone criticized Gülen, the same politicians rushed to denounce those critics even before his own followers did. These politicians issued commemorative coins for the Turkish Olympiads, a series of annual cultural events the Gülen movement had been organizing. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a speech to thousands of attendees during one of these events and invited Gülen back to Turkey after he expressed his “longing” in the stands of an Istanbul stadium in June 2012.

    The Gülen movement supported the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for a long time. For the movement, which had never engaged with any political parties, to follow along after a political party could sound hollow. But it’s not fair to ignore the irreconcilable differences between the AKP’s discourse, political goals and actions in its first decade, namely the 2001-2011 period, and the same party’s discourse and actions today.

    Back then the AKP used to be a reformist political party striving to accomplish European Union reforms in its first years; the party seemed to embrace liberal democracy and uphold the rule of law. Not only the Gülen movement but also liberals, Kurds, minorities, leftists and pro-EU circles supported the AKP in those years. On the other hand, some of the other political parties were dragging their feet when it came to incorporating EU reforms in the same period.

    For instance, nationalists in the Republican People’s Party (CHP) regarded EU reforms aiming to improve the country’s institutional democracy as concessions given to the West. Therefore, the CHP never supported the AKP in its steps to realize reforms. Likewise, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) detested the EU reforms. The MHP opposed the progressive agenda – particularly the intention to resolve the Kurdish issue politically rather than militarily – just as the nationalists in the CHP did.

    The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Kurdish political circles were happy about the AKP’s pro-EU political stance. A positive step to direct dialogue between the Turkish state and the insurgent Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) gratified the Kurdish politicians. They saw the move as the most critical opportunity in Turkey’s history to resolve the Kurdish issue. In brief, blaming the Gülen movement for supporting the AKP, thus paving the way for today’s AKP regime, is manifestly ill-founded and unfair.

    The AKP considered the Gülen movement in those years a fairly legitimate element of Turkey’s civil society. On the other hand, the Gülen movement regarded the AKP as a genuinely democratic, favorable political party. These approaches set up a natural plane of cooperation.

    ZAMAN DAILY BROKE THE MEDIA MONOPOLY

    The Gülen movement had a certain influence on Turkish politics between 2002 and 2011, which was possible with the help of the group’s human resources and its power in the media sector. As a civil society movement with its primary focus on education, the movement gave weight to establishing schools, procuring scholarships for high-ranking students and founding universities.

    Its power in the media came into effect as its several media outlets, including the Zaman daily, offered an alternative to the settled secular/Kemalist elite media. There used to be a lack of alternatives in the Turkish media landscape due to that Kemalist monopoly, but Zaman broke the ice. Zaman not only opened its doors to writers from the movement but also to liberal-democrat columnists. This unique selling proposition ensured that the Zaman daily’s audience was as diverse as it gets. Apart from the followers of the movement, the newspaper attracted readers from other religious and liberal groups.

    Between 2002 and 2011, the primary motivation shared by both the AKP and the Gülen movement was to make Turkey a democratic country. Both the AKP and the Gülen movement had a strong view to ending the military-bureaucratic veto regime that had presided over the country since its foundation and of upholding the rule of law based on EU-style liberal democratic principles. In fact the closest the country ever approached a functioning liberal democracy was without any doubt the period between 2002 and 2011.

    It would not be wrong to claim that the modern political history of Turkey is a history of a corrupt partisan spoils system. The AKP has also worked to set up its people in public office, which is not odd. All ruling parties in Turkey have attempted to install their own people in the bureaucracy. For many, “getting into the body” of this giant and powerful “Leviathan” was the only way to avoid the Turkish state’s wrath. This understanding is the core of the political fight in Turkey’s history.

    While the AKP started employing people close to its Islamist ideology, it also embraced the seasoned human resources of the Gülen movement, considering the group “on the same page” with them and sharing a similar world view. As a matter of fact, the Gülen movement had much more qualified human resources than the other religious or Islamist groups. Verily, even if the AKP did not prioritize Gülen followers in the public sphere, the percentage of public officers close to the movement increased over the years, anyway.

    THE GÜLEN MOVEMENT DID NOT INFILTRATE THE STATE

    The Gülen group did not infiltrate the bureaucracy but participated in it. If there is to be a “responsible” party, then it is the AKP government that made the political choice to hire the movement’s followers. Besides, it’s relevant to highlight that employment requirements in the state are designated in the law. And the government is fully responsible for the hiring process in the bureaucracy and public sector. Accordingly, just as the constitutional order determines in any democratic country, any citizen regardless of her or his personal world view can become a civil servant in Turkey. Discrimination based on non-objective criteria cannot be done.

    What is important is whether a person is qualified according to objective job requirements or not. The AKP has been the sole decision-maker for years. If there was any irregularity during the hiring of skilled employees, the responsibility is with the AKP. The AKP should have presented objective evidence and started an investigation regarding any alleged extralegal practice during the hiring processes in the Turkish public sector for which it was constitutionally responsible.

    It’s unacceptable to persecute a whole group based on unfounded allegations nourished by persisting bias. However, this is what we witness happening in Turkey today. Allegations about the movement that it “stole” the questions of some centrally run entrance exams to register in a university or hold public positions are widely accepted in Turkish society, whereas the claimants have yet to put the evidence on the table to back these allegations. Numerous people have been labeled and dismissed from their posts with presidential decrees over baseless allegations.

    For sure, prosecutors should investigate the claim that “the Gülenists stole the exam questions.” But they must set forth evidence if a crime was committed, and if it was, who committed it and whether or not it was organized or personal misconduct. However, we have a “small problem” in that context: Today’s Turkey, where the judiciary is de facto entirely under the government’s control and the constitutional order is not abided by, doesn’t facilitate fair and lawful investigations. The very biased and widely accepted discourse claims that all “Gülenists in public service” acquired their posts by “stealing the questions.”

    This conviction without evidence and a trial cannot be questioned today, since everybody who criticizes it is labeled as a “Gülenist” and purged. Ankara’s mass crackdown on the alleged followers or supporters of the Gülen movement includes dismissing and terrorizing hundreds of thousands of people without evidence of a crime. People are simply persecuted and are expected to “prove their innocence” as in Third Reich Gestapo procedures.

    CLAIMS OF CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE MILITARY

    Some circles in Turkey claim that the Gülen movement conspired against the Turkish military by masterminding corrupted investigations such as the Ergenekon, Balyoz (Sledgehammer), Sarikiz and Military Espionage cases. They claim that the criminal investigations in these cases and court procedures were fabricated plots to topple then-Prime Minister Erdoğan. Those circles deliberately overlook the fact that these cases were based on serious evidence, including voice recordings of military meetings and official documents. They manipulate the public on purpose through massive propaganda to make people forget about Erdoğan and his cabinet’s open support for those legal cases. They attempt to artificially correlate lawsuits against the alleged coup plotters and corruption cases of December 17, 2013, which came up with massive corruption and money-laundering allegations against AKP ministers and Erdoğan’s inner circle.

    The conspiracy theory of the Turkish government that has become the mainstream perception in Turkey claims that the Gülen movement was the mastermind of all of those cases. However, there are some basic questions to be asked in order to understand what happened in those legal investigations.

    1-  How can anyone hide the concrete shreds of evidence in the Ergenekon cases?

    2-  How can anyone ignore the concrete shreds of evidence in corruption investigations targeting AKP officials?

    In a bid to whitewash the existing evidence against them in the Ergenekon cases and the December 17, 2013 corruption cases, the government and the suspected individuals and groups assert that the Gülen movement launched those investigations and that it was a setup. Their cooperation against and targeting the Gülen movement as a scapegoat is based on their common interest to hide the ugly truth.

    WHAT IS TERRORISM? WHO IS A TERRORIST?

    The AKP claims that the Gülen movement is a terrorist organization. Calling dissidents “terrorists” and cracking down on everybody who disagrees with them is widespread in authoritarian or semi-authoritarian regimes. In fact, under the rule of law non-violent groups cannot be accused of being terrorists since resorting to or complimenting violence is the essential decomposition point separating a terrorism act/group from the others.

    The AKP blames the Gülen movement for instigating a July 2016 abortive coup. But the Turkish government still has not been able to prove the affiliation of the soldiers involved in the coup with the Gülen movement. It has not been able to prove whether any soldier received instructions from the movement. Moreover, it’s unclear if the coup of July 15, 2016 was a real military coup or a government-controlled staging. No members or followers of the Gülen movement were involved in any violent act even after hundreds of thousands of them were detained, arrested and dismissed from their jobs. Countless criminal investigations have failed to find a weapon or object to use as a weapon during raids on the homes of the group’s alleged members. Is the Turkish government seriously expecting that the whole world is supposed to believe there are (imaginary) “terrorists without weapons” simply because it wants it to be so?

    ‘FETO’ ACRONYM IS CONJURED UP TO REINFORCE WITCH-HUNT

    There is no evidence showing the Gülen movement is an organized crime group or a terrorist one. The movement is a scapegoat in today’s Turkey, pointed to as a target both by the state (regime) and the opposition.

    The grass roots of the AKP, MHP, CHP, IYI Party and partly the HDP support this idea. The AKP hates the movement for two reasons and wants to suppress it. 1- Erdogan laid the responsibility for the corruption investigation into himself and his party at the Gülen movement’s door. 2- The AKP saw the movement as a rival. The nationalist MHP hates the movement due to the Gülenists’ pro-EU and pro-West positions. The secular CHP’s nationalist/Kemalist base hates the Gülen movement due to their bias against all Islamists of non-secular groups and considers it a radical, fundamentalist and anti-Atatürk religious sect. The CHP accuses the Gülen movement of masterminding the coup-plotting cases such as Ergenekon, Sledgehammer and Sarikiz. The pro-Kurdish HDP doesn’t want to be entirely excluded from the “state” and uses anti-Gülenist discourse from time to time. And the Gülen movement’s cultural Turkish nationalist stance in the past disturbs supporters of the HDP.

    No doubt the Gülen movement should evaluate its positions in the past in light of allegations about itself and initiate a purification. The mass punishing and unlawful prosecution it faces, on the other hand, are violations of fundamental rights. It’s time for all social factions in Turkey to question human rights violations and the discrimination and persecution the Gülen movement faces.turkishminute

  • International webinar raises concern over “societal genocide” in Turkey

    Posted by Meryem Aydogan

    Four very special guests from four corners of the world came together on Tuesday 25 August to talk about the Erdocide: Erdogan’s Neo-Modern Societal Genocide, on Advocate’s for Dignity’s second human rights themed webinar.

    With four very different timezones in play, former Turkish Naval Officer, Huseyin Demirtas; former Head of Department of Public Management at Adiyaman University, Dr Bayram Erzurumluoglu; founder of Global Dialogue for Justice Dr Merj Hemp, and Australia’s very own, former executive producer of ABC Four Corners, Dr Peter Manning, led an eye-opening discussion on the meaning of societal genocide and its prevalence in modern day Turkey.

    Since the failed coup attempt in Turkey in 2016, Turkey’s AKP government declared a state of emergency to purge more than 1 million of its citizens. Over one hundred thousand people were arrested on terrorism charges, with those dismissed from their jobs made to live in an open-air prison. The stigma made it difficult to find employment, leaving many in dire financial situations. Some chose to flee whilst others continue to live on family handouts without a job, a future and with withering optimism.

    President of Advocates for Dignity, Mr Mehmet Saral, opened the webinar by stating that calling the unlawful crackdown in Turkey a genocide may appear too harsh, as the traditional definition of genocide is the deliberate killing of a large number of people, particularly those of a particular race or ethnicity. As ethnic groups are not being murdered, how can we call what is happening in Turkey a genocide, he asked.

    To answer this question, Dr Bayram explained the theory of ‘societal genocide’. He stated that genocide is the implementation of a massive and systematic plan of action intended to destroy all or part of a social group or groups, and is a process that requires preparation, legitimisation and consensus.

    “Societal genocide is a form of crime against humanity. It is when you intend to destroy all or part of a social group, along with their friends, relatives, acquaintances or anyone who sympathises or empathises with them, as is happening in Turkey with the Gulenists, many Kurds and other dissidents of President Erdogan,” he said.

    “Atrocities committed by political Islamists in Turkey, as part of Erdogan’s regime, is termed ‘societal genocide’ firstly because the regime planned, prepared, legitimised and socially engineered majority of the public’s consent to the atrocities committed as part of its political Islamist ideology, similar to ISIS and the Taliban,” he continued.

    “Secondly, they have labelled, targeted, and victimised thousands of innocent people for crimes that either did not exist or were not committed, on the basis of government blacklists prepared weeks, months or years in advance. Targeted populations were so demonised or dehumanised that husbands, wives, children, parents, siblings, and friends could also be targeted or punished for simply being acquainted with labelled ‘criminals’ or ‘terrorists’.”

    These steps, which form part of what Dr Bayram calls Turkey’s neo-patrimonial-sultanism regime, are tightly aligned with Gregory Stanton’s ‘10 Stages of Genocide’.

    Huseyin Demirtas, who was unfairly dismissed by Erdogan’s bureaucracy after serving in the Turkish Navy for twenty-two years, authored the book ‘Erdocide: The Creepiest Human Trauma’, based on the concept of social genocide in Turkey.

    He elaborated on this concept, stating, “First they produce a privileged clan, they produce blacklists to use as genocidal execution lists under the regime, then they silence the media and society. The privileged clan has absolute power in the state and decide the detainments, purges and dismissals that take place, whether the alleged terrorism crimes really took place or not.”

    “Erdocide is a symbolic name… They are killing socially, civilly, economically… they are blocking economic channels from reaching people to survive in society. They are using prisons as concentration camps. They are preventing medical care from reaching those in custody,” he continued.

    Dr Merj Kemp, who joined the webinar from the Sunshine State of Florida, reflected on the political turbulence in Turkey based on her own experiences of growing up under a brutal, marshal law in the Philippines.

    “Injustice is not new to me, in the Philippines and here in the USA… During the People Power Revolution in the Philippines, every sector of society said enough of dictatorship, killings and torture. People from all walks of life set aside their differences and said we have to topple this dictator,” she said.

    “Nuns, farmers, students, and military officers… in the end they realised they need to side with the right side of justice and history and that happened only because they made that commitment to work together.”

    She concluded the webinar with an encouraging message: “I think there is hope for Turkey. It is just a matter of time before the people of Turkey say enough is enough.”

  • NSW Health advises returning travellers from Melbourne coronavirus hotspots to self-isolate for two weeks

    The NSW Government has tightened the screws on restricting travel from Victoria, advising people returning from Melbourne’s coronavirus hotspots to self-isolate for two weeks.

    The advice from NSW Health comes amid escalating concerns over a second wave of infections, and rising rates of community transmission in Melbourne this month.

    As NSW begins to roll back restrictions next month, the State Government has also moved to bar Victorians from Sydney sporting events.

    From July 1, up to 10,000 people will be allowed into NSW stadiums which have 40,000 seats or more — but Melburnians will not be allowed to attend.

    NSW Health Minister, Brad Hazzard, said the NRL and AFL had assured him in a call they would not sell tickets to Victorians.

    “If you’re living in NSW and you’re a supporter of Hawthorn — which would have to be questioned anyway — you can go to the games,” he said.

    “If you’re a [Melbourne] Storm supporter and you’re a NSW resident you can go.

    “But for the time being, the best thing people in the Melbourne hotspots can do … don’t expect to be able to come because they’re not selling tickets to you and we don’t want you to come.”

    NSW chief medical officer Kerry Chant said travellers returning from Victoria should take “precautionary steps” which included avoiding contact with people in vulnerable communities such as hospitals and aged-care facilities.

    Returned travellers should also “avoid gatherings outside their immediate household for a period of 14 days”.

    “It’s just prudent we take this extra level of precaution for people returning from those hotspots,” Dr Chant said.

    “And again, I would urge you not to go to Melbourne until the situation is controlled.”

    This morning, the number of COVID-19 fatalities in NSW rose to 51 after an 85-year-old man’s cause of death was reclassified. abcnews

  • Australia pays $3.7 M to help news agency though pandemic

    The Australian government on Friday announced a 5 million Australian dollars ($3.7 million) grant to the national news agency as part of pandemic-related assistance to regional journalism.

    Australian Associated Press is critical to media diversity and has consistently demonstrated its commitment to accurate, fact-based and independent journalism over its 85-year history, including a strong contribution to regional news, Communications Minister Paul Fletcher said in a statement.

    “The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered unprecedented challenges for Australia’s regional media sector, with severe declines in advertising revenue threatening the sustainability of many news outlets,” Fetcher said.

    AAP provides services to more than 250 regional news mastheads across Australia, covering public interest content on national, state and regional news. This allows regional mastheads to concentrate on local news stories important for their communities, he said.

    AAP Chair Jonty Low and Chief Executive Emma Cowdroy welcomed the funding as an “endorsement of the role that AAP plays in providing a key piece of Australia’s democratic Infrastructure.”

    “AAP provides content to hundreds of newspapers and radio stations, most of which are in regional areas, who couldn’t possibly each send journalists to cover what happens in our nation’s capital cities, our courts or our sporting fields,” the executives said in a joint statement.

    Opposition communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland said federal funding should have been provided months ago.

    “Why has it taken over five months for this government to respond when things are down to the wire?” she asked.

    Earlier this week, three senators who are not aligned with major parties — Jacqui Lambie, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff — wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison urging him to support AAP.

    They argued that funding should be provided annually for three years to ensure AAP stays afloat beyond the coronavirus economic crisis.

    The funding announced Friday is a one-off grant under the Public Interest News Gathering Program, which began in May to help media organizations maintain public interest journalism in regional areas during the pandemic.

    The government has now invested AU$55 million ($40 million) through the program into AAP as well as 107 regional publishers and broadcasters. But scores of rural newspaper have shut their doors.

    Details of the AAP agreement will be published within three weeks of the deal being executed.

    AAP was bought by a consortium of philanthropist investors in July after its previous shareholders, including Australia’s largest media companies, announced in March that they planned to shut it down by June.

    A scaled-down AAP continues without the AU$10 million ($7.3 million) a year in revenue it had earned from its largest previous shareholders, News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment Co.

  • Daniel Andrews announces regional Victoria will ease restrictions from tomorrow night

    Regional Victoria will move to step three of its coronavirus reopening plan from Thursday, meaning sitting in a restaurant, meeting up to 10 people outdoors, kids’ sport and travelling for a holiday will all be allowed.

    But masks will remain mandatory and there will still be tight restrictions on the number of people who can visit you at home.

    Premier Daniel Andrews said the changes were possible because the daily average for new cases in regional Victoria was down to 3.6 and there had been no mystery cases for two weeks.

    “I am absolutely delighted to be able to announce that regional Victoria, from 11:59pm tomorrow [Wednesday] night, will be able to take the third step in our safe and steady road map to COVID-normal,” Mr Andrews said.

    “It’s a massive thing. It is such good news. I am so, so pleased and proud of every single regional Victorian who has stayed the course, followed the rules, got tested.”

    Here’s what’s changing from 11:59pm on Wednesday.

    There will no longer be any restrictions on the reasons to leave home.

    You can go out as often as you want.

    But there are still some restrictions on who you can meet and the size of the gathering — so no big parties just yet.

    You can meet up to 10 people outdoors and create a household bubble with one nominated household.

    Up to five people from that nominated household can then visit you at home (kids under 12 months of age are not included in the cap).

    You can only choose one household to be in your bubble for as long as regional Victoria remains in the third step.

    And this is where it might get awkward. It has to be “an exclusive arrangement”, meaning if another household chooses you to be in their bubble, you can’t choose a different household to be in your bubble. It has to be reciprocal.

    It’s even more complicated for share houses.

    Your share house can only choose one other household to be in its bubble. Each resident cannot create their own bubble.

    Hospitality will be able to offer table service again.

    Cafes and restaurants can seat people in groups of up to 10, but it will be subject to density limits and seating will be mostly outdoors.

    Mr Andrews said there would be a two-hour time limit on all bookings.

    Indoor spaces will be limited to 10 patrons, subject to a density rule of 4 square metres per person.

    A maximum of two separate indoor spaces will be allowed to open per venue, meaning larger venues could seat a total of 20 patrons indoors — 10 in each room.

    But outdoor areas will be allowed to seat more people and have them closer together.

    “The risk of infection is dramatically higher inside,” Mr Andrews said.

    The maximum number of patrons in an outdoor area will be 50, subject to a density rule of one person per 2 square metres.

    Tables will need to be 1.5m apart.

    Retail, real estate and beauty services

    All shops can open.

    Hairdressers, tattoo parlours and beauty services can resume as long as a face covering can be worn during the procedure.

    “Every single business across regional Victoria will be required to have a COVID-safe plan and those plans will be enforced from September 28,” Mr Andrews said.

    Real estate agents can conduct private inspections and hold auctions outdoors, but there will be limits on how many people can attend.

    People in regional Victoria will be able to travel to other regions and book accommodation.

    But travel to Melbourne is not allowed until both metro and regional areas are on the same restriction level.

    With the weather warming up, many people are asking about campgrounds with shared bathrooms and national parks, but the Premier didn’t have a definitive answer on that at this morning’s press conference.

    “I’m not sure where we’ve settled on where and when. I’ll come back to you with some rules,” he said.

    “Lots of detail will need to come forward in the next 12 hours.”

    Weddings will be allowed with up to 10 people. That cap includes the couple, two witnesses and a celebrant.

    Funerals can be held with up to 20 people but infants and people required to conduct the funeral are not included in the limit.

    Outdoor skateparks will reopen.

    Bootcamps and other outdoor fitness groups can be held with up to 10 people.

    Outdoor junior sport is also allowed, for both contact and non-contact sports.

    But for adults, only non-contact outdoor sport is allowed. Gathering and density limits will apply.

    Mr Andrews said regional Victorians had done “a mighty job” to get case numbers down.

    There were no new cases recorded in regional Victoria yesterday, and there are now just 43 active cases.

    “This is a day of hope and optimism. This strategy is working,” Mr Andrews said.

    “It has worked in regional Victoria. It is working in metropolitan Melbourne.”

    Mr Andrews said public health teams would monitor regional Victoria closely and use the data “to inform the early steps and subsequent steps that we will take in metropolitan Melbourne”.

    “This is a big step … but it is a safe step,” Mr Andrews said.

    “And one that can strike that balance between more economic activity, more money in the till, more people back at work, but not risking having to close down again, not risking frittering away all the hard work that regional Victorians have done.”

  • Exiled Turkish journalist attacked in Stockholm suburb

    Sweden-based Turkish journalist Abdullah Bozkurt was attacked yesterday near his home in Stockholm, hospitalizing him for injuries sustained, the Nordic Monitor reported.

    Bozkurt and his team of journalists in Sweden run Nordic Monitor news web site which provides exclusive and critical coverage on Turkey and exposes the clandestine activities of the notorious Turkish intelligence agency.

    “Within minutes of getting out of my home, one of the three men approached me behind and unexpectedly knocked me down. As I fell to the asphalt pavement, they started punching me in the face and on the head” Bozkurt said, adding that the perpetrators then ran away.

    The Swedish police called in to investigate the incident while paramedics arrived at the home of the journalist who was later advised to go to the emergency room nearby for a more thorough check-up.

    Bozkurt sustained injuries in the face, head, arms and legs from the violent attack occurred in the middle of day near a parking place next to his home in Spånga suburb of Stockholm.

    The journalist said he did not know the attackers, did not know the motivation behind their violent act. But he said he suspects it may have been linked to his investigative reporting about mighty and powerful figures in Turkey that have a long arm reaching all the way to Sweden.

    “Hopefully the investigation would reveal facts about what was the cause of this violent attack”, Bozkurt underlined. He further added he informed the Swedish Union of Journalists (Journalistförbundet) is

    The journalist has been living in Sweden on political asylum protection since 2016 when the Turkish government led by an authoritarian leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched an unprecedented crackdown on independent and critical media, jailing hundreds of journalists and media workers, shutting down nearly 200 media outlets.

    Bozkurt said he has regularly been receiving threats online, mostly from Turkey. In one case, Cem Küçük, a Turkish government propagandist, openly called on a TV program for Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT) to assassinate Bozkurt. He said his home address in Stockholm is known by Turkish authorities and asked for the ‘extermination’ of the journalist.

    The Swedish Union of Journalists (Journalistförbundet), a professional organization that promotes press freedom and advocates rights of journalists in Sweden, was informed about the incident. Bozkurt is a member of Journalistförbundet.

    Turkey is the worst jailer of journalists in the world. The Stockholm Center for Freedom (SCF) has documented that 173 journalists are currently behind bars in Turkey, while 168 journalists who are wanted on terrorism charges have been forced to live in exile.

    According to the Reporters Without Borders’ (RSF) 2020 World Press Freedom Index Turkey ranks 154th among 180 countries in terms of press freedom and Turkey is the world’s biggest jailer of journalists.

    The authoritarian government of President Erdoğan has seized nearly 200 media outlets including the country’s largest daily as well as its most popular TV networks since 2015.

  • 76- year-old man convicted for speaking Kurdish dies in prison

    Ali Boçnak (76), who was detained in 2009 for conducting a religious ceremony in his mother tongue of Kurdish, has passed away in prison, according to Turkish media.

    Boçnak had advanced prostate cancer, a brain embolism, difficulty breathing and renal failure. He underwent an operation in August, during which he caught an infection. His family appealed for his release several times due to his multiple health problems, which were all rejected by the court. The prison administration did not allow his family to see Boçnak in person on the day he died, although they had permission from the prosecutor.

    Boçnak was detained as part of an operation against the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), an umbrella organization that includes the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). He was sentenced to seven years, eight months in prison, which was upheld by the Supreme Court of Appeals in 2017. Boçnak was serving his sentence at Ağrı Patnos Prison in eastern Turkey.

    Human rights activist and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) deputy Ömer Faruk Gergerlioğlu described his situation as a travesty of justice. “Boçnak was an old man who was terminally ill, and his sentence should have been delayed.” Gergerlioğlu said he presented this issue to parliament but had not received any answers.

    Prohibitions against the use of Kurdish in Turkey go back many years. Kurdish language, clothing, folklore and names had been banned since 1937. The words “Kurds,” “Kurdistan” and “Kurdish” were among those officially prohibited. After a military coup in 1980, speaking Kurdish was officially forbidden even in private life.

    Many people who spoke, broadcast or sang in Kurdish were imprisoned. The ban officially continued until 1991. Kurds continue their struggle for Kurdish education in schools in the regions where they live. Between 2010 and 2014, when an attempt was made to solve Turkey’s Kurdish problem by means of an official “peace process,” lectures were given in Kurdish in some schools, and Kurdish signs were installed in the cities. These rights were taken back after the failure of the peace talks in 2015.

  • Ankara orders detention of 82 Kurdish politicians over protests against alleged Turkish support for ISIL: report

    The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has ordered the detention of 82 prominent pro-Kurdish politicians, with some of them detained as of Friday morning in police raids, Turkish Minute reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency (AA).

    According to AA, the detention warrants were issued over the politicians’ alleged role in protests in Kurdish majority cities against what is seen by many as the Turkish government’s tacit approval of the Kobane siege in 2014, when the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants laid a prolonged siege to a Kurdish town in northern Syria.

    Among the detainees are Ayhan Bilgen, co-mayor of the eastern city of Kars; and Altan Tan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Emine Ayna, Nazmi Gör and Beyza Üstün, former MPs from the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP). According to the Turkish media, citing the prosecutor’s office, they will be held in detention for four days.

    Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman recently sparked criticism for visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the presidential palace with his bride immediately after their wedding. The visit has become a subject of discussion as an indication of the current state of judicial independence, or lack thereof.“Such would be the honeymoon of a prosecutor from the AKP [the ruling party]: ‘Many HDP members were detained as part of a probe launched by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor Yüksel Kocaman, who went to the palace to visit Erdoğan after a family wedding,” tweeted Can Dündar, a Turkish journalist in exile who survived a 2016 assassination attempt in Turkey.