Selected Articles from Press

Article Scan – March 28th: Turkish tomb in Syria becomes flashpoint for conflict

"Share this post on social media, spread the news"

Turkish tomb in Syria becomes flashpoint for conflict (by Fehim TAŞTEKIN)

“When I was a child, Turkish soldiers guarding the Tomb of Suleiman Shah in the foothills of Jabel Fortress used to carry their water from the Euphrates River on donkey back to their base. They were putting the water in tin cans without lids. We used to throw pebbles at the donkeys. Startled, they jumped about and spilled their water and we laughed. The soldiers did not react too much. One day when we were throwing pebbles with three of my cousins, my father caught us. I was punished by two days’ confinement to the house.”

The Abu Basil family, deported from Turkey, became best of friends with Turkish soldiers guarding the Tomb of Suleiman Shah.

This is a flashback of Saad Abdunnur abu Basil’s childhood around the Tomb of Suleiman Shah, the only sovereign Turkish territory inside Syria. The tomb, put under Turkish custody as stipulated by the 1921 Treaty of Ankara with the French, is on the agenda as a potential pretext for Turkey to mount a cross-border operation into Syria. The case of the video recording of a threat by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham [ISIS] was circulated on the Internet. The Internet message said: “We are giving you three days [to evacuate] the soldiers in this tomb which is on the Islamic land of Aleppo. Or, we will raze the tomb.”

Three days passed and there was no attack, but Turkey remained focused on that threat. There was much speculation that the AKP government would use the threat as an excuse to enter Syria and as a distraction from the corruption allegations it faces.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/turkey-tomb-suleiman-shah-syrian-territory-pretext-incursion.html#ixzz2xFeJsV9b

Tapping the Foreign Ministry is no fun; its espionage (Murat Yetkin)

When two more recordings hit YouTube at lunch time on March 27 in Turkey, it was first thought to be another move within the eavesdropping fury in the country that has been occurring over the last two months.

It was not. This time, it was different. It was nothing to do with the corruption claims that began with the graft probe of Dec. 17, 2013, or Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s alleged interference in the workings of the pro-government media. It had nothing to do with the wiretappings made by authorities through court rulings and then leaked illegally.

This time, it was different. They were recordings from a top-secret meeting in the secure offices of the Turkish foreign minister.

The meeting was on March 13, 2014. It was an emergency meeting on national security. Its chair was Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. Other participants were Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioğlu, head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT) Hakan Fidan and Gen. Yaşar Gürel, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff.

The subject was Syria. The Tomb of Süleyman Şah, a unique, tiny piece of Turkish territory within Syria that serves as the final resting place of the founder of the Anatolian Seljuk state and the first Turkish polity in this region a thousand years ago, was under fire.

The violent organization of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL) had surrounded the area of the tomb, which was protected by an elite unit of Turkish Armed Forces. The Turkish military was on alert. If they had attacked the tomb, things could have gone totally out of control. What should Turkey do? What would be the contingency plans? That’s what they were discussing.

As of yesterday, everybody knew the Turkish Foreign Ministry had been compromised as of – at least – March 13.

The experts think the meeting room could have been eavesdropped on by means of advanced technology from within or the recordings of the ministry were hacked. The investigations will hopefully show which one is true.

more: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/tapping-the-foreign-ministry-is-no-fun-its-espionage.aspx?pageID=449&nID=64211&NewsCatID=409

Make or break (Yavuz Baydar)

What will the voters vote for on Sunday? What will they have in mind when they go to the ballot boxes? Will things be any better when they wake up on Monday?

The municipal elections have become an issue much larger than itself, turning into a battle over the future of the country. The elections are deepening the torment over what identity Turkey should have — a democracy or arbitrary-autocratic rule, where the economy will be the criteria overriding all other necessities to ward off fragmentation and ongoing internal rifts. When we think of a nation under arbitrary-autocratic rule, Malaysia or any Central Asian republic comes to mind.

It is certain that the overwhelming majority of the electorate will be choosing between “yes” or “no” to Erdoğan’s way of ruling the country. So simple. Because either of those responses will have a great deal to do with the micromanagement in and interferences with municipal issues and the vertical way of dealing with local projects.

Will Turkey give the go-ahead to a ruthless model of growth, and nothing but growth, whose cost is the devastation of Anatolia’s beautiful nature? Will Turkey let go of massive development with no concept of esthetics?

And, more importantly, will Turkey give the nod to an unaccountable, nontransparent, everything-under-one-man mode of governance?

more: http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/yavuz-baydar_343208_make-or-break.html

HEALTH MUSEUM VIDEO PIC 2