Turkey's Erdogan begins search for new premier

August 11, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was convening his ruling party leadership Monday to find a new premier for Turkey following his victory in the country's historic first direct vote for president.

Unofficial vote tallies by the Turkish media showed Erdogan won about 51.9 percent in Sunday's election, with his main challenger Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu following with 38.3 percent. Selahattin Demirtas, a young Kurdish politician running on a left-wing platform, was in third place with 9.7 percent.

The election commission was expected to issue official vote figures on Monday. In his victory speech Sunday night, Erdogan struck a conciliatory tone toward critics who fear he is bent on a power grab as he embarks on another five years at the country's helm. Erdogan has already served three terms as prime minister.

"Today is a milestone for Turkey. Today is the day Turkey is born from its ashes and a new Turkey is built," he told thousands of cheering, flag-waving supporters from the balcony of his Justice and Development Party headquarters in the capital, Ankara.

"I will not be the president of only those who voted for me. I will be the president of 77 million," he said, in stark contrast to his mostly bitter, divisive election campaign. Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, has vowed to transform the presidency from a largely ceremonial post into a powerful position. He has said he will activate the post's rarely used dormant powers — a legacy of a 1980 coup — including the ability to call parliament and summon Cabinet meetings.

Whoever replaces Erdogan as prime minister would hold the position ostensibly until next year, when a general election is scheduled. Many believe Erdogan will appoint a pliant premier and retain true power for himself.

Erdogan wins Turkey's 1st direct presidential vote

August 11, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan won Turkey's first direct presidential election Sunday, striking a conciliatory tone toward critics who fear he is bent on a power grab as he embarks on another five years at the country's helm.

"I will not be the president of only those who voted for me, I will be the president of 77 million," Erdogan said in a victory speech delivered from the balcony of the Ankara headquarters of his Justice and Development Party , or AKP.

"Today the national will won once again, today democracy won once again," he told thousands of flag-waving, cheering supporters. "Those who didn't vote for me won as much as those who did, those who don't like me won as much as those who do."

The three-term prime minister's message of unity was in stark contrast to his mostly bitter, divisive election campaign, when he poured scorn on his opponents, cast doubt on their Turkish identity and even accused his main challenger of being part of a shadowy coup conspiracy he said was run by a former associate living in the United States.

"I want to build a new future, as of today, with an understanding of a societal reconciliation, by regarding our differences as richness, and by pointing out not our differences but our common values," he said.

Erdogan, 60, has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade. Revered by many as a man of the people who ushered in a period of economic prosperity, he is reviled by others as an increasingly autocratic leader trying to impose his religious and conservative views on a country with strong secular traditions.

His critics have accused him of running a heavily lopsided, unfair campaign, using the assets available to him through his office as prime minister to dominate media exposure and travel across the country. His office has rejected these claims.

"Erdogan did not win a victory today, he moved to (the presidential palace of) Cankaya through chicanery, cheating, deception and trickery," said Devlet Bahceli, head of the Nationalist Action Party which backed Erdogan's main rival, Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

"This person is too questionable and dubious to be seen as president," he said. With 99 percent of ballot boxes counted, Erdogan had 51.9 percent of the vote, according to figures from the state-run Anadolu news agency, which had reporters at ballot counting stations across the country. Ihsanoglu had 38.3 percent and the third candidate, Selahattin Demirtas, had 9.7 percent.

Ihsanoglu, the 70-year-old former head of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and a political newcomer, conceded defeat in a brief speech in Istanbul. "I hope that the result is beneficial for democracy in Turkey," he said. "I congratulate the prime minister and wish him success."

Official results were expected Monday. "The result was not a surprise. Opinion polls had indicated that Erdogan would obtain around 54 to 58 percent of the vote. He had dominated the election campaign," said Fadi Hakura, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London.

"Mr. Erdogan will perceive this result as a decisive mandate to push ahead with his plans for an executive form of presidency," he said. Erdogan has vowed to transform the presidency from a largely ceremonial post into a powerful position — something his detractors say proves he is bent on a power grab. He has said he will activate the post's rarely used dormant powers — a legacy of a 1980 coup — including the ability to call parliament and summon and preside over Cabinet meetings.

Hakura said the result would not alter Turkey's course. "Nothing will change much," he said. "Neither his style of governance, neither domestic policy nor Turkey's external policy." Legislator Huseyin Celik, the AKP spokesman, said the party — which now must elect a new party leader and designate a prime minister to replace Erdogan — would hold a meeting during the night and another on Monday. Erdogan is widely expected to appoint a compliant prime minister so he can continue to exert control.

Party rules barred Erdogan from serving another term as prime minister. Turkish presidents used to be elected by parliament but Erdogan's government pushed through a constitutional amendment in 2007, changing the procedure to a popular vote.

Yet the past year-and-a-half has been a turbulent one for Erdogan, who faced widespread anti-government protests in 2013 triggered by a violent police crackdown on demonstrators objecting to a construction plan in central Istanbul.

More anti-government protests erupted in May after 301 miners died in a coal mine fire blamed on shoddy safety practices. Erdogan and his son have also been implicated in a corruption scandal that he has dismissed as a coup plot by a moderate Islamic preacher and former ally living in the United States, Fethullah Gulen.

Dozens of judicial and police officials involved in the probe against him have been dismissed or re-assigned, and dozens of police have been arrested and jailed. Nevertheless, his popularity clearly endures. He has been credited with Turkey's good economic performance in recent years, as well as broadening welfare access, Hakura said before the vote.

The third reason, he said, was that Erdogan is seen by a large segment of the Turkish population who feel they have been ostracized and marginalized by the previous secular establishment as representing their interests.

Becatoros reported from Istanbul.

Turkey evacuates wounded Palestinians from Gaza

August 10, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country has started to evacuate wounded people from Gaza to Turkey for treatment.

Erdogan did not provide details, but the state-run Anadolu Agency said a Turkish air ambulance left for Israel late on Sunday to transport four people to Turkey for treatment in hospitals in the capital Ankara. The agency said a child was among the wounded.

Erdogan made the announcement during a victory speech hours after he was elected president in Turkey's first direct vote for the position. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said this week that Turkey was working to establish an air corridor to bring the seriously wounded to Turkey.

Turks vote in 1st direct presidential election

August 10, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turks were voting in their first direct presidential election Sunday, a watershed event in the 91-year history of a country where the president was previously elected by Parliament.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has dominated Turkey's politics for the past decade, is the strong front-runner to replace the incumbent, Abdullah Gul, for a five-year term. Erdogan, who is serving his third term as prime minister, has been a polarizing figure in Turkey. Fervently supported by many as a man of the people who has led the country through a period of economic prosperity, he is viewed by critics as an increasingly autocratic leader bent on concentrating power and trying to impose his religious and conservative views on a country founded on strong secular traditions.

Party rules barred him from serving another term as prime minister. Erdogan is running against two other candidates. His main challenger is Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a 70-year-old academic and former chief of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation who is backed by several opposition parties, including the two main ones: a pro-secular party and a nationalist one. The third candidate is 41-year-old Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas, a rising star on the minority Kurdish political scene.

Some 53 million people are eligible to vote; a candidate needs an absolute majority for victory. If none wins enough ballots, a runoff between the top two will be held on Aug. 24. Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party, or AKP, won local elections in March with about 43 percent of the vote, is widely expected to be elected, although it is unclear if he can avoid a runoff.

"The key criteria, or litmus test, will be what percentage of the votes does Prime Minister Erdogan secure in the first round of presidential elections," said Fadi Hakura, an associate fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London. "I think the key figure here will be 45 percent."

A percentage below what his party won in local elections could indicate Erdogan's popularity is starting to wane, he said. After a bitter and divisive pre-election campaign, Erdogan sounded a more conciliatory, unifying note in his final campaign speech Saturday.

"This country of 77 million is our country, there is no discrimination," he said. "We own this country all together." Erdogan's critics have pointed to a vastly one-sided election campaign dominated by the prime minister. He has been criticized for using the resources of his office to monopolize media coverage and crisscross the country on the campaign trail. He has denied any inappropriate use of state assets.

Although largely a ceremonial role, Erdogan has vowed to transform the presidency into a powerful position — something his detractors point to as proof he is bent on a power grab. He has said he will activate the post's rarely used dormant powers, including the ability to call Parliament and summon and preside over Cabinet meetings. The powers are a legacy of a 1980 military coup.

Ihsanoglu, whose campaign focused on a message of unity, disagrees with changing the role of the president. "I am against the accumulation of power in one hand. I think that would lead to more centralized government and an unwelcomed totalitarian regime that Turks don't want to have," he said.

Polls close at 1400 GMT (noon EDT) and only unofficial results are expected to be released on Sunday night.

Fraser reported from Ankara.

Turkish elections could shift president's role

August 09, 2014

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the front-runner in Turkey's first direct presidential election on Sunday, says that if elected he will be an active head of state who "sweats, runs and rushes around" — not just a ceremonial figurehead as presidents have been in the past.

It's the kind of talk that leaves detractors, already alarmed at how much power Erdogan has concentrated in his hands, in a cold sweat. Until now, Turkey's presidents have played a largely symbolic role although they can call general elections, approve or reject laws passed by Parliament and appoint prime ministers, the Council of Ministers and some high court judges.

The position also has some dormant powers, including the power to call Parliament, summon Cabinet meetings and preside over them. Those powers are a legacy of Turkey's 1980 military coup and have seldom been used.

Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, says he intends to use these constitutional prerogatives to the full, effectively shaping the presidency into a more powerful position. He is widely expected to appoint an amenable prime minister, which would allow him to continue to rule Turkey pretty much in the same way as he did while premier.

The Turkish leader, who has steered Turkey toward relative economic prosperity and enjoys widespread support in the Turkish heartland, argues that — as the first president to be directly elected by voters — he would have the mandate to rule with strengthened powers as head of state.

Such comments by a leader who has displayed an increasingly authoritarian bent are raising concerns over democracy. In the past year, Erdogan has purged thousands of police and prosecutors, increased the powers of the intelligence agency and banned access to YouTube and Twitter as he fought off corruption probes that implicated the government and family members.

Nihat Zeybekci, the economy minister, suggested in comments printed in Hurriyet newspaper on Thursday that the position of prime minister could become obsolete if Erdogan is elected. "There wouldn't be a prime minister, there would be a chairman of the Council of Ministers. Someone who chairs the Council of Ministers, who summons it to meetings," he said.

The latent constitutional powers were devised as safeguards to allow the president to intervene in exceptional circumstances. They were largely formulated to allow the 1980 coup leader — who became president in a referendum — to take command if necessary.

The power to chair the Cabinet "is essentially meant to be used under conditions of emergency. If there is a war or something," said Ilter Turan, a professor at Istanbul's Bilgi University. "It is not one in which the president calls a session and says: Let's build a bridge. That's not the idea."

Presidents take an oath to remain neutral when they come to power and the Constitution says they have to sever all ties with their political parties. It also states that the prime minister — not the president — is head of the executive.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, Erdogan's main rival in the presidential race, has vowed to uphold the president's traditional role. He says he is against the accumulation of too much power in one person's hands and insists it is not up to the head of state to be involved in day-to-day running of politics.

"It is not the president's role to build roads and bridges," he said as he launched his campaign in July. Erdogan has derided those comments. "Some of the other candidates say 'we won't be involved in (building) roads, with energy,'" Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara on Thursday. "I ask them to take a look at the Constitution ... They should look at the president's responsibilities."

"We are not placing an ornament or a vase in the presidency. (The president) will be responsible for many things, from this country's development to its unity and integrity. He will convene the Cabinet when it is necessary," Erdogan said.

Erdogan orchestrated the constitutional change for a direct vote as part of a two-stage move toward a presidential system similar to that of the United States, albeit without all of the checks and balances of the U.S. model. The second step — a new constitution that increases the powers of the presidency — stalled after he failed to muster big enough support to bring about the change.

Elena Becatoros in Istanbul contributed.

Teachers begin nationwide strike as MPs seek to broker solution

by Khaled Neimat
Aug 17, 2014

AMMAN — Members of the Jordan Teachers Association (JTA) on Sunday started an open-ended strike amidst parliamentary efforts to resolve the issue one week before students return to school.

The association issued a statement on Sunday reporting that the majority of teachers around Jordan have joined the strike.

No major incidents took place, according to the statement, but, the JTA claimed that security agencies sent agents to nine schools to collect information on participants, describing such actions as “unjustified”.

Moreover, some school principals attempted to pressure teachers to prevent them from participating in the strike, the statement said, adding that “they threatened teachers with salary deductions if they don’t go back to work.”

“The strike, on its first day, went according to plan,” the statement quoted JTA Spokesperson Ayman Okour as saying.

Teachers showed up at schools across the country, but did not carry out any duties, he added, noting that this week marks the return of teaching and administrative staff to work.

Students return to school next Sunday.

“We hope that the government will meet our demands before students go back to school,” Okour said.

Meanwhile, the Lower House Education Committee on Sunday met with a delegation from the JTA, in the presence of Education Minister Mohammad Thneibat, to discuss the demands of the association and to find a way out of the current situation.

The meeting did not bring about any positive results, but the parties agreed to meet again to further discuss the demands and set a timetable for implementation.

Deputy Mohammad Qatatsheh, who heads the House’s Education Committee, said the majority of the JTA’s demands are “valid”, but noted that “we in the Lower House will support the public interest.”

The JTA demands focus mainly on issues relating to reforming the education sector in the country, JTA Vice President Ghaleb Mashaqbeh said, dismissing claims that the syndicate is “playing politics”.

The JTA wants the government to amend the civil service by-law, improve teachers’ health insurance, draft laws to protect them, offer them more financial benefits, endorse the private schools by-law, and refer the education security fund case to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

Source: The Jordan Times.
Link: http://jordantimes.com/teachers-begin-nationwide-strike-as-mps-seek-to-broker-solution.

Grief, relief as ravaged Ukrainian town rebuilds

August 18, 2014

LYSYCHANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Weeks after Ukrainian government forces recaptured Lysychansk from the rebels, the residents of this shell-shocked town near the Russian border say they hope simply to rebuild their former lives — but fear that war could return to their doorstep.

Many homes and entire neighborhoods bear scars from the two-day fight for Lysychansk, a down-on-its-luck industrial town on the western bank of eastern Ukraine's largest river. Three weeks after the fighting ended in a rebel defeat, residents still are waiting to regain access to essential utilities in their homes, if they still have any. Hundreds of houses and apartments were gutted, or blown to smithereens, by tank and mortar shells while their inhabitants cowered in reinforced basements.

"We still don't have running water or gas. We only have electricity. How are people supposed to live?" said Alexander Tretyakov, 53, who emerged from his own basement shelter last month to discover that a tank shell had collapsed the entire top floor of his home.

Tretyakov said some neighbors fared worse. "They went into the basement in slippers alone and came out to see that nothing was left of their house," he said. Many in this predominantly Russian-speaking town of 105,000 are sympathetic to the rebels' cause but have accepted the Ukrainian army's victory as the better option because they don't believe they could live peacefully under rebel rule.

Tretyakov said he expects the Ukrainian government to pay to fix his home, but fears rebels could recapture the town, rendering any repairs now pointless. He's keeping his basement windows covered in three layers of bricks, backed by buckets of water, just in case his family finds itself on the front line again.

"We are not going to take these barricades down until this war ends. We don't know whether it ever will," he said. For the time being, scenes of resurgent normality are playing out in Lysychansk alongside street rubble and high-rise residential battle zones. A children's hospital on the edge of town lies in ruins. Everywhere, windows remain shattered or patched with plastic sheeting.

The ATMs have resumed dispensing Ukrainian hryvni, the national currency, and long lines of customers are forming for what may be their first access to cash in many weeks. Most shops in the town's five shopping centers have reopened, but prices are punitively high and stocks limited. Many travel on foot with shopping bags, partly reflecting how the retreating rebels stole private cars for their escape toward the Russian border barely 80 kilometers (50 miles) away.

One supermarket offered yogurt — lots of it, shelf upon shelf, one brand only. At a pharmacy, a woman seeking heart medicine was told her prescription was out of stock, and was offered an uncertain alternative.

The pharmacist, who would provide only his first name of Andrei, constructed a Potemkin village of his few remaining products on shelves protected behind glass. In reality, he said, panic-buying meant he was out of basic essentials.

"The people have bought out absolutely everything. What they need as well as what they don't need. They took any medicine they could, because they did not know when all this will end," he said. Outside, in sweltering humidity and temperatures approaching 40 degrees Celsius (105 degrees Fahrenheit), families were toiling to patch roofs, cover windows and rebuild walls as they contemplated autumn's sudden descent toward sub-zero weather.

"We borrow (money) from here and there, because after a month, rain and winter will come. What can we do then? We need to fix the house somehow," said Anastasia Shevchenko, 65, whose home was razed by an explosion while she and her husband took shelter in her brother's basement next door. "The boiler has been damaged. Everything has been destroyed. It all needs to be replaced."

As she spoke beside the shrapnel-pocked basement door, a younger relative worked on a ladder applying mortar to a new cinder-block wall, the start of a home. In another part of town, a blackened shell of an apartment building bore testimony to particularly fierce fighting between separatists based in a fire station on one side and Ukrainian forces on the other. A pile of rubble at the foot of the building kept growing as returning refugees hurled bits of concrete out the open window holes.

In a relatively unscathed nine-story tower block next door, dozens of elderly couples and families had returned, some after weeks spent sheltering in the basement. Many were telling stories of relief that no loved ones were claimed. They said only one household, an elderly couple, remained in their third-floor apartment during the shooting, because the wife was paralyzed and the husband wasn't strong enough to move her. Both survived unscathed.

But one 62-year-old woman, drawn reluctantly into a larger discussion on park benches outside, recalled her struggle during the fighting to get her husband buried. He was killed, she said, when a Ukrainian shell hit a nearby shop and shrapnel struck his head. He, like many curious men, had gone outside during an apparent lull in shooting.

The woman, who identified herself only as Maria because she feared possible retaliation from Ukrainian soldiers, said she wanted to bury her husband the day after he died. Instead, his body was left lying where it fell, within eyesight of her front door, while she bicycled to a neighboring town to find a working mortuary.

Like many residents, Maria offered no love for the Ukrainian liberators, only relief that the shooting had stopped. She said the region deserved self-government within Ukraine. "Are we really separatists? It is not a crime if people wanted federalization," she said. "And this is what they (Ukrainian forces) did to us. This pain will stay with us for all of our lives."

Ukraine says troops entered rebel-held city

August 17, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Army troops have penetrated deep inside a rebel-controlled city in eastern Ukraine in what could prove a breakthrough development in the four-month-long conflict, the Ukrainian government said Sunday.

However, the military acknowledged that one of its fighter planes was shot down by the separatists, who have been bullish about their ability to continue the battle and have bragged about receiving support from Russia.

Ukraine's national security council said government forces captured a district police station in Luhansk on Saturday after bitter clashes in the Velika Vergunka neighborhood. Weeks of fighting have taken their toll on Luhansk, which city authorities say has reached the verge of a humanitarian catastrophe. The siege mounted by government forces has ground delivery of basic provisions to a halt and cut off power and running water.

Although rebel forces have regularly yielded territory in recent weeks, they have continued to show formidable fighting capabilities. Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksiy Dmitrashkovsky said Sunday that the separatists shot down a Ukrainian fighter plane over the Luhansk region after it launched an attack on rebels. The pilot ejected and was taken to a secure place, he said. Another military spokesman, Andriy Lysenko, later said that the status of the pilot was still being clarified.

Part of a large Russian aid convoy carrying supplies intended for Luhansk and other afflicted zones on Sunday headed to the section of border closest to the city, but the 16 trucks stopped just short of the frontier crossing in the early afternoon. The convoy of nearly 270 vehicles has been marooned for days in a town near the border amid objections from Ukraine, which initially complained that the mission was not authorized by the International Committee for the Red Cross.

The Red Cross, which would have responsibility for distributing the aid, on Saturday said the main holdup was a lack of security guarantees from all sides in the conflict. A large X-ray machine was brought to the Russian crossing point in the afternoon, and Paul Picard, the head of a border-monitoring mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said it would be used to inspect the cargo.

As the status of the Russian aid convoy remained uncertain, the foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France were expected to meet in Berlin on Sunday evening over the crisis. Donetsk, the main rebel-held city, also is suffering through fighting, including frequent shelling. Ten civilians have been killed and eight wounded in the past 24 hours, city authorities reported Sunday.

The leader of the self-proclaimed rebel government in the Donetsk region, Alexander Zakharchenko, has boasted that new military equipment was on its way from Russia. In a video posted online over the weekend, he said the shipment included tanks and some 1,200 fighters who have undergone training in Russia.

Lysenko, the military spokesman, said the government had information that separatists had received reinforcement from Russia, but added that there is evidence rebels are complaining about not receiving some of the equipment they have been promised.

Russia has consistently denied allegations that it is supporting the rebels with equipment or training. But Ukraine's president on Friday said that Ukraine had destroyed a large number of military vehicles that had recently crossed from Russia.

Jim Heintz in Kiev, Ukraine, and Alexander Roslyakov in Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, Russia, contributed to this report.

Scotland's pro-independence leader vows victory

August 18, 2014

LONDON (AP) — Scotland's pro-independence leader is insisting his campaign is headed for victory — one month before the historic Sept. 18 referendum.

First Minister Alex Salmond told The Associated Press on Monday that those seeking independence have always been the underdogs. But Salmond seemed buoyant after new polls suggest that Scotland's voters are only narrowly divided on whether to leave the United Kingdom. However, polls consistently show those favoring union in the lead.

He said the day after the vote Scots won't "wake up and find there are three taps in every house - whisky, oil and water." But he added that independence activists can build a more prosperous and just society.

Salmond has come under fire for economic arguments, particularly the question of which currency an independent Scotland would use.