5 decades after China's Cultural Revolution, a few say sorry

June 02, 2016

BEIJING (AP) — As a teenager, Wang Keming felt nothing but contempt for the older peasant his village singled out for collective persecution in 1970. Stirred by Mao Zedong's radical ideology and inured to the rampant violence of China's Cultural Revolution, he beat the man bloody and saw nothing wrong with it.

Decades later, Wang felt something that few of the millions of people who committed abuses have publicly acknowledged: guilt. He expressed remorse to his victim and later he shared his apology in a national journal, in what is believed to have been the first public apology by anyone for personal acts committed during the Cultural Revolution's violent decade.

"I realized that what I did was an individual political act, and I must take responsibility for it," the retired newspaper editor said in an interview at his suburban Beijing home. "Otherwise, my heart would be troubled for the rest of my life."

Since Wang's 2008 public apology, dozens of other participants have accepted responsibility and shown contrition. The vast majority have not, though an entire generation was almost wholly caught up in the events. About one million people were estimated to have died from execution, persecution, extreme humiliation, factional warfare and savage prison conditions — often in the hands of their fellow country people.

The Communist Party, which still rules China with an iron fist, also has yet to apologize five decades after Mao launched the movement to realize his radical communist egalitarian vision. The party closed the book on the era in 1981 without holding Mao responsible or apologizing to the nation. It instead rendered a verdict that the movement was a "catastrophe" caused by mistaken policies and a handful of self-serving political radicals. A further re-examination of the decade might further threaten its legitimacy to rule; last month's 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Cultural Revolution was met mostly with stony official silence.

Advocates of greater openness say that without an honest accounting, wounds will never heal and the movement's unaddressed history will impede China's political development. Xu Youyu, a liberal Chinese intellectual, said that by failing to admit its mistakes, China's leadership set the wrong example.

"Such an attitude has affected the masses, giving individuals an excuse not to apologize, because those with graver mistakes have not said sorry," Xu said.

Wang was among millions of city youths sent to the countryside at the height of the Cultural Revolution in 1969. Then 16, he was eager to play his part and prove his fervent loyalty to Mao.

By then, schools had been shut down and urban teenagers were wandering the streets with little to do but pick fights with each other. To prevent further rounds of chaos, Mao sent them to the vast countryside, ostensibly to spread revolution and learn life lessons from the peasantry.

Wang found himself in Yujiagou in northern Shaanxi province, a stark area of loess hills where he was forced to endure back-breaking work plowing fields of buckwheat, millet, wheat and sorghum on the arid slopes.

Wang was not allowed to participate in the revolution in Beijing, partly because his father had been labeled a "capitalist roader," one of Mao's worst class enemies. Now he saw his chance.

"I really wanted to join the revolution. I thought it was a meaningful thing," Wang said. "The collective education instilled in me had sowed hatred in me against enemies."

He never had a second thought about using violence. "Revolution is violence," he said, citing a common saying from the Cultural Revolution years. "I never thought violence was a bad thing."

As an excitable teenager, Wang also preferred joining political meetings called to denounce those designated as society's bad elements over performing strenuous farm work.

"Since I slacked off in farm work, maybe I could make up for it by my zeal in the political movement, to show that at least I was politically reliable," he said.

So, when the village picked peasant Gu Zhiyou to meet its quota of bad elements, Wang enthusiastically joined the farce of shaming the man, whose alleged counter-revolutionary crimes had included quoting an ancient Chinese proverb linking a weather pattern to mass deaths. His critics said Gu was hoping for an invasion by what was then the Soviet Union, whose relationship with China had soured.

At an Aug. 14, 1970, denouncing session, Wang shouted slogans against Gu. The group took a break, and Gu sat on a grindstone in the shade of a tree, but Wang felt a need to continue hounding the man.

"But every word I heard (from him) was defiant, and I told myself, 'You can't be kind to enemies.' So I suddenly shouted, 'You are still resisting,'" Wang wrote in his public apology. "I stepped forward, raised my right arm and slung it at him. I hit his face with my fist."

Gu was left splayed on the grindstone, his nose and mouth bleeding. "I was a bit taken aback that I beat him to the point of bleeding, but then I told myself, 'He is an enemy, and I can beat him as long as he is an enemy.'"

Scholars say that by engineering the Cultural Revolution for mass participation, Mao unleashed destructive powers upturning the prevailing social order, distorting morals and setting free the ugliest side of human nature.

"The Cultural Revolution corrupted people's morals," said Wang Youqin, a University of Chicago lecturer who has documented Cultural Revolution-era killings. "Too many ordinary people were part of it, and they are unwilling to admit wrongs."

The movement began with a document issued May 16, 1966, by the Communist Party's Politburo, which also purged four top officials. Widespread violence was not immediate, but that August and early September in Beijing alone, Wang said an official document tallied 1,772 related deaths of people who were beaten, tortured or took their own lives.

Many of the victims were schoolteachers persecuted by their students organized into Mao's bands of youthful revolutionary Red Guards.

Wang said the killing spree — intensified by Mao's encouragement of Red Guard violence — was one of the worst in Chinese history during peacetime.

"The weapons used to kill were not guns and knives, but the fists, clubs and copper-buckled belts of the Red Guards," Wang wrote in a 2014 article. "The process of killing often took hours or even days. It should be called torture-killing."

Cheng Bi, a 93-year-old retired Beijing school administrator, was abused by many students but believes two students — whose names she still remembers — should have apologized for their particularly brutal acts against her during the Cultural Revolution. One is dead, and she does not expect the other to apologize.

She recalled how she was forced to kneel with her arms raised while one of the students beat her wrists repeatedly. The other whipped her 45 times, turning her body purple.

"Anyone could beat me at any time," Cheng said, recalling how her persecutors shaved half her head to shame her in what was spitefully termed the "ying-yang hairstyle."

"They beat me with belts, slapped me in the face, forced me to perform labor and starved me. The students threw away my pain medications so I had to endure the physical pains," Cheng said.

In one incident, students slapped her rice bowl out of her hands three times in a row because they didn't think she deserved to eat, she recalled. "I was so humiliated I wished a big ditch would suddenly appear in front of me so I could fall into it," Cheng said.

But she survived. In her school, one teacher hanged herself after five rounds of savage beatings by students during a single night. Another young staffer was beaten to death by students wielding wooden training guns, belts and lead pipes.

Decades later, Cheng did receive an apology, from an unexpected source. Shen Xiaoke, who as a student once harangued Cheng using the ideological language of the extreme left, sent her a letter in 2010.

"It bothered me that I was so irrational then," he said in a telephone interview from his home in the central province of Hubei.

"I was really surprised," Cheng said. "I didn't think he'd done anything bad to me and wondered why he needed to apologize."

Inspired by Shen, several more students apologized to Cheng for their ignorance, rudeness and callousness during the decade. He's happy that a national newspaper published his letter, though it was printed without his prior knowledge.

"It can serve to represent the classmates who are too ashamed or do not have guts to apologize yet," Shen said.

He noted that it's easier for students with no blood on their hands to say sorry than those who do, Shen said.

He knows of a former classmate who kicked the teacher who later hanged herself. He said the former student has not apologized, but privately has broken down wailing when speaking of the psychological burden.

After attacking Gu, Wang Keming remained in Yujiagou for several years and even worked alongside his victim. Gu was kind to him.

Wang said he felt a tinge of sorrow but quickly justified his act on the grounds it was a part of the revolution. "I kept coming up with reasons for my act, but my inner conflicts only grew worse."

In 1978, Wang returned to Beijing. He worked as a laborer, then landed a job at a newspaper. He later devoted himself to studying the dialects and folk cultures of northern Shaanxi.

Wang came to realize the Cultural Revolution was a mistake, and later concluded that he bore personal responsibility.

"When we put collective values ahead of individual values, there can be no place for human rights, and no respect for humanity," Wang said. "Because of people like me, a totalitarian regime gets to be stable."

In 2004, Wang apologized to Gu, who died four years later.

"Hey, it was a political movement," Wang quoted Gu as saying in his public apology. "You were only a kid and didn't know anything."

In January 2008, Wang's apology appeared in a national journal. The article prompted a book project spearheaded by Wang and other Chinese intellectuals to find more people willing to own up to their actions.

More than 30 agreed, including Zhang Hongbing, a Beijing lawyer who had informed on his own mother. She died during the course of her persecution.

"We were the accomplices of the evil," Zhang wrote.

Wang Jiyu admitted that on Aug. 5, 1967, he clubbed a boy who had hit him with a rock in a group fight.

"He flew like a tossed bag and tumbled down an embankment. As he slowly crawled back up, I smashed him on the forehead and the blood splashed onto the club," Wang wrote.

He was never legally punished for killing the boy.

"Repentance is not enough, and it may take generations of reflection to understand why there was so much hatred," Wang Jiyu wrote in 2008. "For me, the remorse for the killing has only grown heavier with each year."

Sudan's al-Bashir, attending Rwanda summit, defies the ICC

July 16, 2016

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir arrived in Rwanda on Saturday to attend a summit of African leaders, defying an international warrant for his arrest after public assurances from Rwandan leaders that he would not be arrested.

The African Union summit on Sunday is expected to discuss the continent's uneasy relationship with the International Criminal Court, which some say unfairly targets Africans. Ahead of the summit, some African countries renewed efforts to quit the ICC en masse despite the opposition of some countries like Botswana. Nigeria, Senegal and Ivory Coast have been pushing back as well in recent days.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has led growing criticism of the ICC, calling it "useless" during his inauguration in May, an event that al-Bashir attended. Some countries want a separate African court with jurisdiction over rights abuses.

"Withdrawal from ICC is entirely within the sovereignty of a particular state," Joseph Chilengi, an AU official, told reporters Saturday. Al-Bashir is wanted by the ICC for alleged atrocities in the country's Darfur region.

He should be at the ICC answering to charges that include genocide, "not persisting in this game of cat-and-mouse with the court," Elise Keppler of Human Rights Watch said Saturday night. Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo said this week that Rwanda would not arrest al-Bashir.

"Africa doesn't support criminals, but when justice is involved with a lot of politics we take a pause to separate the two," Mushikiwabo told reporters. The African Union summit also will discuss South Sudan, where clashing army factions raised concerns of a return to civil war. The chaos threatens a peace deal signed last August between President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar.

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, who is attending the summit, has called for an arms embargo.

Muhumuza reported from Kampala, Uganda.

6 Iraqi cabinet ministers resign

July 21, 2016

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi has accepted the resignation of six cabinet ministers, his office revealed yesterday.

According to a press release posted on the prime minister’s website, Al-Abadi has accepted the resignation of the ministers of oil, transport, construction and housing, water resources, industry and interior.

Interior Minister Mohammed Salem Al-Ghabban resigned earlier this month following the attacks in central Baghdad that killed 300 people.

Political analyst Haroun Mohammed told Quds Press that Al-Abadi’s acceptance of the ministers’ resignation is an endorsement of the status quo.

“The ministers already resigned about two months ago and stressed at the time that they will not join their ministries whether Al-Abadi accepted or rejected their resignation. But Al-Abadi has filled up the vacuum by mandating their tasks to other minister in order not to lose the quorum,” Mohammed said.

He rejected reports that Al-Abadi accepted the ministers’ resignations due to pressure from the Sadrist movement.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160721-6-iraqi-cabinet-ministers-resign/.

‘I kept saying, not again': Egyptians react to Turkey’s failed coup

Thursday 21 July 2016

CAIRO - When Shereen heard that a coup attempt was underway in Turkey, her heart rate jumped.

“I almost cried,” said the Egyptian housewife and longtime Muslim Brotherhood supporter. “I remembered the same moment, with the same scenario here.”

Shereen, who declined to use her last name for security reasons, stayed up all night watching the news on television.

“My husband told me not to worry,” she said. “What happened here won’t happen there.”

Across town Shaima Sabry, another housewife who shares mutual friends with Shereen, watched a completely different event unfold: This was a "show” that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had put on “to get revenge and more power”.

Sabry, who supports the government of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, said she was “upset with the way Erdogan and the people treated their military”.

As the coup attempt in Turkey last Friday grabbed the world’s attention, the news hit close to home in Egypt as many, like Shereen and Shaima, saw reflections of politics in their own country in recent years, and their reactions mirror a public that is still deeply divided.

“There is the pro-regime lobby that saw the [Turkish coup] as a victory for the Egyptian regime itself,” said Ziad Akl, a political sociologist and senior researcher at the Egyptian Studies Unit in Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

There is also, Akl said, the anti-government lobby, which is composed of different political forces including the Muslim Brotherhood who “think that [the failure of the coup is] a triumph for legitimacy”.

For them, says Akl, Erdogan's post-coup actions exemplify "how a coup should be dealt with".

'Revolution from inside'

Though the international media had confirmed the failure of the coup in Turkey by the early morning hours of 16 July, headlines in public and private Egyptian newspapers told citizens that the attempt to seize power in Turkey had actually succeeded.

“Turkey’s military disposes of Erdogan…The military rules Turkey and removes Erdogan” the front pages of the state-owned al-Ahram, and the privately owned al-Masry al-Youm and al-Watan read.

Controversial talk show host Ahmed Mousa insisted that what took place in Turkey was not a “coup at all,” but a “revolution from inside the Turkish military forces”.

He told viewers that, in Turkey’s “revolutions… the Turkish military always wins”.

Another host on the al-Balad channel said that the Turkish citizens who took to the streets in opposition to the coup “look like ISIS”.

On an official level, however, Egypt blocked a UN Security Council statement that condemned the unrest in Turkey and called on all parties to "respect the democratically elected government of Turkey,” Reuters reported.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said after the incident that they were only opposed to “the wording” of the statement.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry responded: “It is only natural for those who gained power through a coup to avoid taking a stance against the coup attempt that targeted our democratically elected President and Government.”

Reliving the coup

For many Egyptians, the events in Turkey were like a chance to relive the events of 3 July 2013, which saw a popular-backed coup oust democratically elected president Mohammed Morsi - but now with the benefit of hindsight.

Shereen, the Cairo housewife who supports the Muslim Brotherhood, said that watching the Turkish coup attempt made it clear to her that the power of the people is “the most important thing”.

She was one of the millions who took to the streets to protest the 3 July coup in Egypt and who, like her friends, lost loved ones when Egyptian security forces violently dispersed the Rabaa and Nahda sit-ins staged in support of the Muslim Brotherhood in August 2013, killing at least 904 protesters.

“In Turkey, Erdogan had the support of a large faction of the military, the police, the television channels - and the opposition parties stood with him,” she said.

“Here, it was the opposite. We had a really weak alternative media. The police, their families, and a lot of people who believed what was happening took to the streets on 30 June,” she said in reference to a day of mass protests against Morsi's rule.

“It was a lost cause,” she said.

But for Mohamed el-Raai, an independent photojournalist based in Cairo, the coup attempt in Turkey did not make him think too much of Egypt, “because there are a lot of differences between the incident there and the incident here”.

Still, he said, the way the Egyptian media covered the event “was naïve and backwards - we’ve gotten used to expecting this from them. They insist on scaring us with more arbitrariness, lies, and ignorance."

Raai also said that the support opposition parties gave Erdogan against the coup was “a great response”.

“They put the nation’s interests, freedom and democracy above their personal disagreements with the ruling group in Turkey,” he said.

“It’s not about Erdogan as a person, but about the ideals of democracy.”

Hatem Ali, a doctor and a political activist, said the first thing that came to his mind as he followed the Twitter feeds of Turkish activists were ”the drawbacks that this coup will bring to the Syrian refugees and to Syria”.

It also, he said, brought memories back of the 2013 coup in Egypt, leaving him wondering if a scenario similar to that of Rabaa Square might follow.

“I kept thinking: How many innocent people will die for this? How many of Erdogan’s supporters will have to die?” he said.

“But in the end, there can't be a comparison between Egypt and Turkey,” Ali said. “Turkey did not have a [Mohamed al-]Baradei or politicians who said we should get rid of the elected government first, then see how we can deal with the army, as was done in Egypt.”

“The difference,” he said, “is that mainstream people in Turkey, whether they support Erdogan or not, are more conscious and oriented with political life than all the Egyptian ‘politicians’ who now express regret for their participation in overthrowing the Muslim Brotherhood.”

Scarier than Rabaa

Egyptians who fled to Turkey after the crackdown in their homeland also said they had a heartfelt scare last Friday.

Salma Ashraf, an Egyptian human rights worker now based in Turkey, said she initially did not understand what was going on. But when she realized a military coup was underway, she was in “utter shock”.

“It reminded me of when the military in Egypt kept Morsi in secret detention. When Erdogan appeared on FaceTime, I was sure that it was a coup because the exact same things happened with Morsi,” she said.

“[Erdogan’s] calls to the people to take to the streets reminded me of Egypt and, in my mind, I kept saying ‘not again’. I imagined another sit-in, and another Rabaa. My mind just could not take it.”

Ashraf, who was at Rabaa Square in August 2013, said the Turkish coup attempt was scarier for her than Rabaa because it was only later, after the events in the square, that she realized what she had been through. When the events in Turkey began, though, she “quickly felt fear”.

“I kept imagining and remembering everything what I [had] experienced before,” she said.

“People in the streets, helicopters killing them, blood on the streets, protesters shot dead next to us and the whole massacre then: another Egypt, now.”

Ashraf said her brothers, also living in exile in Turkey, admired how quickly the Turkish people reacted to the coup, and that they had had joined anti-coup protesters in the streets.

Ashraf said she was relieved when the coup failed, and her fears that she might be deported began to abate.

But she is watching events closely.

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i-kept-saying-not-again-egyptians-react-turkey-s-failed-coup-1286572154.

Turkey readies cross-party rally against coup, for democracy

By Frank Zeller with Raziye Akkoc in Ankara
Istanbul (AFP)
July 24, 2016

Turkey readied Sunday for its first cross-party rally against the bloody putsch attempt, following the break up of Recep Tayyip Erdogan's presidential guard as sweeping purges of suspected state enemies continue.

The mass rally, to be held under tight security on Istanbul's iconic Taksim square, was called by the biggest opposition group, the secular and center-left Republican People's Party.

But in a show of patriotic post-coup unity, it will be joined by Erdogan's ruling Islamic-conservative AKP party, whose followers have covered city squares in seas of red Turkish crescent flags every night since the failed coup.

Sunday's mass event, expected to be boosted by free public transport in the city of 15 million, will seek to soothe divisions after the shock of the July 15 coup and the subsequent government crackdown.

"The Turkish republic is stronger than it was in the past," wrote Prime Minister Binali Yildirim in an editorial in the HaberTurk daily.

"Turkey is on democracy watch ... This watch continues until the anti-democratic elements are cleaned out," he said.

The number of alleged conspirators who have been rounded up has surged above 13,000 with soldiers, police, justice officials and civilians all targeted in a crackdown that has alarmed European leaders.

- 'Right-hand man' -

Turkey has undergone a seismic shift since the night of violence when renegade soldiers sought to topple Erdogan but were stopped by crowds of civilians and loyalist soldiers and police in clashes that claimed 270 lives.

In the latest reaction to the coup, Yildirim said Turkey would disband the 2,500-strong Presidential Guard, saying there was "no need" for the elite regiment.

Almost 300 of its officers have been detained after some of them forced TV news presenters to read statements stating that martial law had been declared during the abortive coup attempt.

Under new police powers decreed as part of a three-month state of emergency, all those detained can be held without charge for 30 days.

Also targeted in the sweep was an alleged senior financier for US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen -- the reclusive spiritual leader who Turkey accuses of being the mastermind behind the botched attempt to overthrow Erdogan.

Security forces detained the aide, Halis Hanci, in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, a senior official said, describing him as a "right-hand man" to 75-year-old Gulen and responsible for transferring funds for him.

Police also detained Kerime Kurmas -- reportedly Turkey's only female fighter pilot -- who is accused of being one of the rebel air force officers who flew thundering F-16 jets low over the roofs of Istanbul on the coup night.

- 'Come here and see' -

Erdogan's government has also sacked tens of thousands of teachers, university lecturers and civil servants and ordered the closure of thousands of schools, associations and charities as it seeks to rid the state of what he has called the Gulenist "virus".

But European leaders have protested the mass purge, with Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi warning that "a country that jails its own university professors and journalists imprisons its future".

Turkey has argued that EU leaders simply do not understand the seriousness of the threat to Turkish democracy.

"Come here and see how serious this is!", EU Minister Omer Celik said at a foreign media briefing.

"Those who look at Turkey from far away think it is a Pokemon game," he added, referring to the viral Japanese cartoon smartphone game.

The coup and the tough response to it have forced government critics and dissidents to walk a fine line: while the putsch attempt is almost universally condemned, many fear being targeted in a retaliatory witch-hunt.

Selahattin Demirtas, co-chair of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, has warned heightened police powers and rule by decree "pave the way for more injustice".

The turmoil has strained Turkey's ties with its NATO allies and cast a shadow over its long-term bid to join the European Union.

Celik insisted Ankara remained committed to joining the bloc and would honor a landmark deal with the EU to stem the flow of migrants to Europe.

But Erdogan struck a darker tone, telling France 24 television on Saturday that "for the past 53 years Europe has been making us wait", and that no EU candidate country "has had to suffer like we have had to suffer".

He rejected the European criticism of his response to the coup attempt, saying that "they are biased, they are prejudiced, and they will continue to act in this prejudiced manner towards Turkey".

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Turkey_readies_cross-party_rally_against_coup_for_democracy_999.html.

Why is Turkey’s Erdogan being demonized in the West?

July 22, 2016
Soumaya Ghannoushi

Many masks have slipped since Turkey’s failed military coup last Friday, such that a great many on the right and the left alike, who never tire of eulogizing about democracy and human rights, the masses, and people power have been exposed as little more than pseudo liberals and fake democrats.

Ironically, the same western “experts”, “analysts” and “commentators”, who had in the last Turkish elections gleefully predicted the overthrow of the AKP but were sorely disappointed after its victory, have committed an even more colossal error of judgment this time round.

Instead of expressing a clear principled stance against military coups and in favour of democracy and the popular will, they chose to side with the putschists as they bombed the Turkish parliament with F16s and gunned down peaceful protesters.

They cheerfully sought justification for the plot to topple a democratically elected government when it was under way, heaping scorn on the elected president instead of the generals and soldiers who conspired to overthrow him.

And when the coup was defeated, against all the odds, the tune turned to lamentations over democracy and its terrible plight under “arrogant” and “authoritarian” Erdogan and gloomy warnings of an inevitable slide to repression and tyranny.

A Sunday Times commentator even rebuked the coup plotters, which he referred to using such lofty descriptions as “the guardians of secularism” and “a force for progress”, even as “Modernity” itself, for staging its coup in July when “everyone is soporific with the heat”, suggesting that September would have yielded the desired outcome.

The same symphony of exoneration of the coup plotters and demonisation of Erdogan was played by left-wing media. Hours after the coup’s launch, the liberal, left-leaning Guardian ran a piece that bore the surreal title “Turkey was already undergoing a slow-motion coup – by Erdogan, not the army”.

Neither was the response of western governments any more principled. Resorting to diplomatic sophistry, they initially avoided denunciation of the coup, confining themselves to vacuous calls for “caution” and “restraint”.

Only when the tens of thousands of ordinary Turks who defied the curfew and, unarmed, resisted the attempt to drag their country back to the dark era of military dictatorship, managed to defeat the seceders did these hollow phrases shift towards tepid statements of “support for democracy” and lengthy expressions of concern for the putschists and their fates.

Erdogan may have committed numerous errors, moving as he is in a highly complex local and regional context. What is indisputable though is that his power is founded on electoral and popular legitimacy.

And, like him or loathe him, the Turkish president has done more to democratize the country than any other leader in its modern history, strengthening its civil institutions and corroborating the authority of the people in opposition to a military which had wrought havoc in its political life.

The AKP era has seen the liberation of civil rule from the generals’ hegemony, reform of the military and restructuring of the security service, intelligence apparatus and special forces.

Through the accumulation of democratic traditions, with the liberalization of the country’s political system via successive elections, political pluralism and the widening role of civil society, the Turkish people have grown freer, bolder, and more able to defy the edicts of putschists and generals.

The paradox is that no other leader in the Middle East is more demonized than Erdogan when he is one of the very few heads of state who have actually been democratically elected in that part of the world “we” wish to keep as a “black hole” and “our” antithesis.

As for our allies, who range between seasoned autocrats and bloodthirsty generals, they are safely exempted from our criticism, plots and conspiracies. In fact, they may even do our dirty work for us, as some of our oil rich Gulf friends did in Egypt and continue to do in Libya and other countries in the region.

For this is the deal: either a democracy that yields those we want, that is, those who do as we say and serve our interests, and eliminates those we disapprove of, which is the ideal scenario for us. Otherwise, we must look to our reserves of putschists and generals around the region to do the necessary in quick “surgical” interventions.

Our orchestra of apologists would swiftly move to embellish the ugly spectacle with fact-reversing analyses and commentaries than turn coup-plotters into “guardians of modernity” and “agents of progress” and democratically elected leaders into “dictators”.

As for those citizens who dared defend their electoral choices, they will be painted as zealots and religion-crazed fanatics, or in Turkey’s case, as “Erdogan’s Islamist mobs“, as one British newspaper referred to the anti-coup protesters.

The truth is that the West couldn’t care less about democracy or human rights. They are irrelevant when it comes to its friends and allies and are only valuable as a stick with which it may beat its rivals and enemies. If Erdogan is being vilified today, it is not because he is a not democrat or a tyrant, but because he is not pliant to western dictates and willing to keep to the rules and parameters the West lays down in the region.

The real challenge, then, is: are western powers able to accept and deal fairly with a leader who expresses the will of his people and his country’s interests, which may not necessarily coincide with their will and their interests?

Source: Middle East Monitor.
Link: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20160722-why-is-turkeys-erdogan-being-demonised-in-the-west/.

Turkey's state of emergency begins; critics fear overreach

July 22, 2016

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkey's president triumphantly rallied supporters after prayers at a mosque Friday as his government announced new details about the state of emergency imposed after an attempted coup.

The changes included extending the period that suspects can be detained without charges to up to a week. "Victory belongs to the faithful," President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told hundreds of people outside a mosque in Ankara, the capital. He said pro-government protesters faced down guns and tanks during the July 15 uprising and accused followers of U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, the alleged director of the uprising, of mocking the Turkish people.

Gulen has strongly denied any knowledge of the attempted military coup. "Here is the army, here is the commander!" the crowd in Ankara chanted. They also called for the reintroduction of the death penalty for use against coup plotters, a request that Erdogan has said he would consider despite concerns that it would violate Turkey's international commitments and rupture ties with Europe.

Germany has expressed concern about the rule of law in Turkey, saying several people detained in the wake of the failed coup appeared to have been mistreated. "(This) raises troubling questions, if accused people are seen on television or photos bearing clear traces of physical violence," Steffen Seibert, spokesman for the German government, told reporters Friday in Berlin.

Germany hopes Turkey's state of emergency will be as short as possible and that it would have no impact on a deal between the EU and Ankara to halt the flow of migrants crossing to Europe, Seibert said.

Turkey's parliament on Thursday approved the three-month state of emergency, which gives Erdogan sweeping new powers. He has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy, though critics are urging restraint because they fear the measure will violate basic freedoms.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told broadcaster CNN Turk that the period of detention that most suspects can be held without charges will be extended from 1-2 days to about one week in the first stage of the state of emergency.

The Turkish government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and closing hundreds of schools allegedly linked to Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania.

Those targeted in the crackdown include prominent journalist Orhan Kemal Cengiz and his wife, Sibel Hurtas, who were detained at Istanbul's main international airport as they prepared to leave the country Thursday. They were taken to police headquarters for questioning, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkey's prime minister, Binali Yildirim, praised most Turkish media for quickly criticizing the attempted coup but he railed against foreign media reports that he said provided "one-sided coverage under the influence of this organization of assassins," a reference to supporters of Gulen.

The government says 246 pro-government people — forces and civilians — died during the attempted coup, and at least 24 coup plotters were also killed. Some media have cited concerns that Erdogan's crackdown is at least partly designed to sideline legitimate opposition to his government and expand his power.

The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, or OSCE, has asked for access to the trials against alleged coup plotters in Turkey. "Turkey needs to be reminded regularly that, after parts of the military tried to change the country, it would be a bitter irony now if the government would change the democratic state from above," Michael Georg Link, director of the OSCE's office for democratic institutions and human rights, told Germany's rbb-Inforadio.

Turkish city streets are calm after emergency declaration

July 22, 2016

ISTANBUL (AP) — The streets of Turkey's major cities were calm Friday, a day after Turkish lawmakers responded to an attempted coup by approving a three-month state of emergency that allows the government to extend detention times and issue decrees.

However, in a sign of the underlying tensions in the country, protesters went to the Etimesgut military base in Ankara late Thursday and parked trucks and a bulldozer outside — possibly for fear that tanks might try to leave the facility.

It was not clear what sparked the tension, and power to the base appeared to have been cut. Parliament on Thursday voted 346-115 to approve the national state of emergency, which gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy, though critics are urging restraint because they fear the measure would violate basic freedoms.

Even without the emergency measures, Turkey has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools. Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the "virus" of subversion and has blamed the July 15 coup attempt on a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The cleric has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

Those recently targeted in the government crackdown include prominent journalist Orhan Kemal Cengiz and his wife, Sibel Hurtas, who were detained at Istanbul's main international airport as they prepared to leave the country Thursday. They were taken to police headquarters for questioning, the state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Turkish lawmakers give leader Erdogan sweeping new powers

July 21, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey will be able to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees without parliamentary approval under a three-month state of emergency approved Thursday by lawmakers following last week's attempted military coup.

Parliament voted 346-115 to approve the national state of emergency, which gives sweeping new powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this week's crackdown on alleged opponents. Erdogan has said the state of emergency will counter threats to Turkish democracy.

Even without the emergency measures, his government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests, mass firings and the closure of hundreds of schools. Erdogan said the new powers would allow the government to rid the military of the "virus" of subversion, blaming the coup attempt on a U.S.-based Muslim cleric, Fethullah Gulen. The cleric has denied any knowledge of the attempted coup.

"This is a state of emergency imposed not on the people, but on (the state) itself," declared Prime Minister Binali Yildirim. "We will, one by one, cleanse the state of (Gulen's followers) and eliminate those who are trying to harm the country."

The government hopes the state of emergency will be lifted within 40 to 45 days, said Yildirim's deputy, Numan Kurtulmus. Turkey immediately said it was partially suspending the European Convention on Human Rights, allowing it more leeway to deal with individual cases, by invoking an article most recently used by France and Ukraine. The Council of Europe said it had been informed of Turkey's decision, and that the convention will still apply, but that individual exceptions will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Meanwhile, video emerged of soldiers firing at crowds who rushed to defend the government during the failed coup. Footage from CCTV cameras above the Bosporus Bridge in Istanbul showed soldiers shooting at a man who had his hands up as he approached tanks that were blocking traffic. Other footage, obtained from the Turkish Dogan news agency, showed a mob attacking surrendering soldiers on the bridge after daybreak.

On Thursday, thousands of people again gathered at the bridge to protest the failed coup. Waving Turkish flags, the crowd walked across the bridge linking the European and Asian sides of the city, some defiantly chanting, "Our martyrs are immortal, our nation cannot be divided!"

Since the July 15 coup attempt, the government has arrested nearly 10,000 people. More than 58,880 civil service employees — including teachers, university deans and police — have been dismissed, suspended, forced to resign or had their licenses revoked for allegedly being Gulen followers.

Turkish state media said Thursday that another 32 judges and two military officers had been detained by authorities. The main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, slammed the state of emergency move.

Speaking ahead of the vote, CHP lawmaker Ozgur Ozel said the decision would amount to a "civilian coup" against Parliament and was a display of "ingratitude" to all the legislators who had gathered in the assembly Saturday to oppose the coup attempt.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek defended the move, saying he hoped the state of emergency would be short-lived. He said it would be used to go after "rogue" elements within the state and that there would have been "carnage in the streets" had the military coup succeeded.

Simsek said that "standards of the European Court of Human Rights will be upheld," but didn't elaborate. "There will be no curfews. There will be no restriction of movement other than for the suspects," Simsek said.

Amnesty International said it recognized that the government had to take measures to prevent another coup attempt, but warned that under the state of emergency, dismissed civil servants would not be able to challenge the decrees in administrative courts and detention periods would be extended.

"Our concern is that government is going well beyond what might be considered a legitimate response to the coup attempt," said Andrew Gardener of the group's Istanbul office. "People are being pursued without any evidence that they participated in this coup," he said, adding that the government is "targeting people for their political affiliations. It's not upholding the rule of law."

Under the Turkish constitution, the emergency measures allow the government to "partially or entirely" suspend "the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms," so long as that doesn't violate international law obligations.

A state of emergency has never been declared nationwide although it was declared in Turkey's restive, Kurdish-dominated southeast between 1987 and 2002. There, governors imposed curfews, called in military forces to suppress demonstrations and issued search warrants.

Martial law was imposed across the country for three years following a successful military coup in 1980. In other developments, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday. The lieutenant was one of about 30 soldiers said to be involved in the hotel attack in the resort of Marmais.

The attackers arrived minutes after Erdogan had left the hotel, according to official reports. In Greece, a court sentenced eight Turkish military personnel who fled there aboard a helicopter during the coup attempt to two months in prison for entering the country illegally.

Turkey has demanded their return to stand trial for alleged participation in the coup attempt. The eight, who deny involvement, have applied for asylum in Greece, saying they fear for their safety if they are returned.

El Deeb reported from Istanbul.

Turkish lawmakers set to give Erdogan sweeping new powers

July 21, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish lawmakers convened Thursday to endorse sweeping new powers for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would allow him to expand a crackdown in the wake of last week's failed coup.

The 550-member parliament is set to approve Erdogan's request for a three-month state of emergency. Erdogan's Justice and Development Party account for 317 members in the chamber. In an address to the nation late Wednesday, Erdogan announced a Cabinet decision to seek the additional powers, saying the state of emergency would give the government the tools to rid the military of the "virus" of subversion.

The measure would give Erdogan the authority to extend detention times for suspects and issue decrees that have the force of law without parliamentary approval, among other powers. Even without the emergency measures, the government has already imposed a crackdown that has included mass arrests and closing hundreds of schools. Nearly 10,000 people have been arrested and over 58,880 civil service employees including teachers, university deans and police have been dismissed, suspended, forced to resign or had their licenses revoked.

Turkish state media said Thursday that a further 32 judges and two military officers had been detained by authorities, Although the state of emergency measure seemed certain to pass, it was slammed by the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, as going too far.

CHP lawmaker Ozgur Ozel said the decision would amount to a "civilian coup" against Parliament and was a display of "ingratitude" to all the legislators who had gathered in the assembly to oppose the coup attempt.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek defended the move, saying he hoped the state of emergency would be short-lived. He said it would be used to go after "rogue" elements within the state and that there could have been "carnage in the streets" had the military coup succeeded.

"We owe it to our people to go after them," he said. "We will have a legal framework for it." Simsek said that "standards of the European Court of Human Rights will be upheld," but didn't elaborate. "There will be no curfews. There will be no restriction of movement other than for the suspects," Simsek said.

Under the Turkish Constitution, the emergency measures allow the government to "partially or entirely" suspend "the exercise of fundamental rights and freedoms," so long as that doesn't violate international law obligations. Lawmakers can sanction a state of emergency for a period of up to six months.

Before the vote Thursday, another deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmus, said once the emergency measures are invoked, the country would suspend its participation in the European Convention of Human Rights, an international treaty meant to protect human rights and freedoms. He said the move was justified under a convention article allowing for such a suspension in times of emergency.

A state of emergency has never been declared nationwide although it was declared in Turkey's restive, Kurdish-dominated southeast between 1987 and 2002. There, governors imposed curfews, called in military forces to suppress demonstrations and issued search warrants. Martial law was imposed across the country for three years following a successful military coup in 1980.

In other coup-related news, a soldier allegedly linked to the attack on a hotel where Erdogan had been vacationing during the foiled coup was arrested in southwestern Turkey, the state agency Anadolu reported Thursday. The lieutenant was one of about 30 soldiers who government officials have said were involved in the attack on the hotel in the resort of Marmais.

The attackers arrived minutes after Erdogan had left the hotel, according to official reports. Earlier this week, officials said at least four suspects linked to the hotel attack remain on the run. In Greece, a court sentenced eight Turkish military personnel who fled there aboard a helicopter during the coup attempt to two months in prison for entering the country illegally.

Turkey has demanded their return to stand trial for alleged participation in the coup attempt. The eight, who deny involvement, have applied for asylum in Greece, saying they fear for their safety if they are returned.

Countries around the world are keeping a close watch on developments in Turkey, which straddles Europe, the Middle East and Asia. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Thursday that the expected state of emergency should only last as long as it's "absolutely necessary."

Steinmeier said it's important that "the rule of law, a sense of proportion and commensurability are preserved" and that it's in Turkey's interest to "keep the state of emergency only for the duration that is absolutely necessary and then immediately end it."

Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this week's crackdown on alleged opponents, said the state of emergency would counter threats to Turkish democracy. "This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms," Erdogan said Wednesday after a meeting with Cabinet ministers and security advisers.

Sarah El Deeb reported from Istanbul. Kirsten Grieshaber and David Rising in Berlin, and Costas Kantouris in Alexandroupolis, Greece, contributed to this story.

Turkish lawmakers set to approve 3-month state of emergency

July 21, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish lawmakers are expected Thursday to approve President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's request for a three-month state of emergency in the wake of last week's failed coup. In an address to the nation late Wednesday, Erdogan announced a cabinet decision to seek additional powers, saying the state of emergency would give the government the tools to rid the military of the "virus" of subversion.

Under the terms of the Turkish constitution, lawmakers in the 550-member parliament have to approve a request for a state of emergency. Of those, 317 are members of Erdogan's Justice and Development Party.

The state of emergency will give the government sweeping powers to expand a crackdown that has already included mass arrests and the closure of hundreds of schools. On Thursday, Turkish state media said a further 32 judges and two military officers have been detained by authorities during the crackdown since last week's coup.

Already, nearly 10,000 people have been arrested while hundreds of schools have been closed. And nearly 60,000 civil service employees have been dismissed. German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Turkey's state of emergency should only last as long as it's "absolutely necessary."

Steinmeier said Thursday that it's important that "the rule of law, a sense of proportion and commensurability are preserved" and that it's in Turkey's interest to "keep the state of emergency only for the duration that is absolutely necessary and then immediately end it."

Any action stemming from the new powers should only be taken against those with "a provable involvement in punishable actions" and not "an alleged political attitude," Steinmeier added. Erdogan, who had been accused of autocratic conduct even before this week's tough crackdown, said the state of emergency would counter threats to Turkish democracy.

"This measure is in no way against democracy, the law and freedoms," Erdogan said Wednesday after a meeting with Cabinet ministers and security advisers.

How Turkey's military coup failed

July 20, 2016

ISTANBUL (AP) — Turkish officials say an attempted coup by a segment of the military over the weekend was put down in about 10-12 hours. At least 260 people were killed, and 1,400 wounded in violence that rattled the country's two major cities. Bombs hit the parliament and other state buildings, tanks drove over civilians and there was an attempted assassination of the country's strongman, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Here is what is known about how it unfolded, beginning Friday, and why it failed.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON

Around 4 p.m. Turkish national intelligence flagged to the chief of staff that they had intercepted communications among a number of military personnel indicating that a coup was planned. With many of the military's senior officers attending a wedding and the president vacationing at a seaside resort, and while a military shake-up was imminent, the coup plotters felt it was an opportune time to strike.

A former Turkish military officer, now a security analyst, Metin Gurcan, wrote that the top brass decided to move to avert a coup by closing airspace and forbidding military units from leaving their barracks. Sensing that their moves were detected and getting wind of the meeting of loyal officers, the coup plotters moved up their plans from later that evening. Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's spokesman, said the plotters kidnapped Gen. Hulusi Akar, the chief of military staff, after he learned of the suspicious activities.

Gurcan said the soldiers leading the coup relied on WhatsApp to communicate commands and coordinate moves. Family members of soldiers detained after the coup attempt told reporters the soldiers thought they were being sent to training.

FRIDAY EVENING

At around 10 p.m., there were reports that traffic was blocked one way on the Bosporus bridge. Gulnur Aybet, a professor at an Istanbul academy, said she was heading home on a busy Friday night when she saw tanks deployed on the bridge. It was a shocking sight, she said: "I felt violated." In the capital Ankara, military jets swooped over the city and reports emerged of gunfire at the military headquarters in Ankara.

By 11 p.m., Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, an Erdogan loyalist speaking by telephone on TV, said there was an attempted coup but that it wouldn't succeed in interrupting democracy.

Shortly after, a TV announcer on state television TRT read a statement by the coup plotters who referred to themselves as the "Peace at Home Committee," a reference to famous words of national founder and former army officer Mustafa Kemal Ataturk: "Peace at home, peace in the world."

The plotters declared a curfew and vowed to protect freedoms. It was learned later that military personnel had stormed TRT stations in Ankara and Istanbul, forcing the broadcaster in Ankara to read the statement. TRT staff in Istanbul said about 40 soldiers, including at least one officer, stormed their building, forcing them to go home.

Ben Said, executive producer for TRT World, said the soldiers told the staff they were there to protect them from Islamic State militants.

At around 11:30 p.m., explosions are heard at the police special forces training headquarters just outside of Ankara as jets start attacking it, killing 47 officers. The explosions damaged the roof of one building and tore down its front wall, exposing dust-covered bunk beds. A second building was riddled with bullet fire from helicopters.

Jets also attacked the headquarters of the national satellite station, the national intelligence building and the Ankara police department, where seven police officers were killed. Military officers called TV stations to declare they didn't support the attempted coup.

State media later reported that F-16s took off from Diyarbakir Air Base that night after telling personnel on duty that the pilots were called for a mission against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. Erdogan said that power was cut at other military bases, including Incirlik, used by the U.S.-led coalition to bomb IS militants, to prevent renegade flights.

Just around midnight, Erdogan called a private TV station, CNN Turk, through FaceTime, and urging the public to come out and defend Turkey. "We will overcome this," he said. Citizens received messages on their mobile phones urging them to go out in the streets. Mosques used their loudspeakers to urge people to go out to the streets, which many did.

EARLY HOURS OF SATURDAY

Legislators rushed to the Turkish Grand National Assembly to oppose the coup attempt. The building was hit by three bombs, injuring 14 security guards. "As soon as parliament became active (in opposing the coup) it became a target of the bombs," said Irfan Neziroglu, the parliament's secretary-general. The legislators descended into a shelter at around 3 a.m.

Gunshots and violence were also reported in Istanbul. Images emerged of protesters climbing over tanks, soldiers shooting into crowds and tanks driving over civilians to break up crowds.

Meanwhile, prosecutors launched an investigation into the attempt and declared soldiers taking part in the coup would be arrested. The first arrests began at around 2 a.m. TRT television was liberated, soldiers who stormed it were detained and the station resumed broadcasts.

Days after the coup, Erdogan and his aides revealed details of a commando raid on the beach resort where the president had been vacationing with his family.

Kalin, his spokesman, said intelligence also revealed that three helicopters were heading toward the resort in Marmaris, prompting Erdogan to evacuate. The commandos, nearly 30 of them, arrived half an hour after the president and his family departed. The commandos went room-to-room looking for Erdogan. Clashes ensued and at least one of Erdogan's guards was killed. Erdogan told CNN two days after that night that he survived only by minutes.

Turkish officials accused the movement of the U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup. Gulen has denied it.

Shortly after 3 a.m., Erdogan arrived in Istanbul airport and was greeted by thousands of supporters. He later told CNN that the renegade soldiers had seized the communication towers in Istanbul airport, and that they flew F-16 jets overhead when he landed there.

SATURDAY MORNING

Reports said a military helicopter used to attack Turksat satellite television was brought down at around 6 a.m., while two explosions were heard near Erdogan's palace in Ankara. Soldiers who held the Bosporus Bridge are seen surrendering.

Two hours later, Akar was freed from captivity at an air base on the outskirts of Ankara.

At around 10 a.m., about 700 soldiers surrendered and left military headquarters.

SATURDAY AFTERNOON

The government launched a widespread crackdown on officials believed to be linked to Gulen, purging 2,745 judges and other judicial officials.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim addressed parliament, reading out a poem that constitutes the words of the Turkish national anthem.

DAYS LATER

State media said an aide to Turkish military chief, Lt. Col. Levent Turkkan, allegedly told interrogators the coup failed because Akar refused an offer to lead the attempt.

Suzan Fraser reported from Ankara.

Turkey widens crackdown after botched coup

July 20, 2016

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey on Wednesday intensified a sweeping crackdown on the media, the military, the courts and the education system following an attempted coup, targeting tens of thousands of teachers and other state employees for dismissal in a purge that raised concerns about basic freedoms and the effectiveness of key institutions.

The Turkish government focused in particular on teachers suspected of backing Friday's failed uprising, taking steps to revoke the licenses of 21,000 teachers at private schools and sacking or detaining half a dozen university presidents. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, whose followers run a worldwide network of schools, of fomenting the insurrection, which was quashed by security forces and protesters loyal to the government.

Gulen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania and has denied the coup accusations, is increasingly becoming a source of tension between the United States and Turkey, which has requested the cleric's extradition. The two NATO allies cooperate in the U.S.-led war against the Islamic State group, with American military planes flying missions from Turkey's Incirlik air base into neighboring Iraq and Syria.

Erdogan on Wednesday was helming an emergency meeting of Turkey's National Security Council, the highest advisory body on security issues. The president, who has said he narrowly escaped being killed or captured by renegade military units, previously declared that an "important decision" would be announced after the meeting.

While Turks speculated on what the new measure might be, it was almost certain to bolster an aggressive campaign against perceived enemies across a wide spectrum of Turkish society, from schools to the courts to the highest levels of government.

The government of Erdogan, accused of increasingly autocratic conduct even before the coup attempt, revoked the press credentials of 34 journalists because of alleged ties to Gulen's movement, Turkish media reported. A satirical magazine, Leman, said authorities blocked the distribution of a special edition over its cover featuring a caricature in which two mysterious hands play a game of strategy, one pushing soldiers onto the board and the other responding by sending civilians.

In addition to its moves against private teachers, Turkey has already announced the firing of 15,200 workers at state schools, demanded the resignations of 1,577 university deans and halted all foreign assignments for state-employed academics. A total of 50,000 civil service employees have been fired in the purges, which have reached Turkey's national intelligence service and the prime minister's office.

Authorities have rounded up close to 9,000 people — including 115 generals, 350 officers and some 4,800 other military personnel — for alleged involvement in the coup attempt. The coup has led to public anger and calls for the government to reinstate the death penalty, a demand that Erdogan has said he will consider.

Anadolu, Turkey's state-run news agency, published what it said were excerpts from the testimony to prosecutors of the closest aide to the Turkish military chief, in which he allegedly confessed to being a follower of Gulen and of knowing of the coup plans.

Lt. Col. Levent Turkkan allegedly told interrogators that coup plotters wanted to detain top civilian and military leaders, a plan that largely failed. Turkkan allegedly asserted that the coup failed because the military chief, Hulusi Akar, rejected an offer to lead the coup attempt.

"When he didn't accept the offer, other force commanders could not be convinced. We can say that by not accepting the offer, he paved the way for its failure," the agency quoted Turkkan as saying. Turkkan reportedly said he "started to regret it after I saw the bombs explode and the civilians being harmed."

Officials on Wednesday raised the death toll from the violence surrounding the coup attempt to 240 government supporters. At least 24 coup plotters were also killed. The purges against suspected Gulen supporters follow earlier aggressive moves by Erdogan's administration against Gulen loyalists in the government, police and judiciary following corruption probes targeting Erdogan associates and family members in late 2013 — prosecutions the government says were orchestrated by Gulen.

In a separate conflict, Turkish jets carried out cross-border strikes against Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq, killing 20 alleged militants, state media reported Wednesday. F-16 jets pounded targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, in Iraq's Hakurk region, the Anadolu agency reported. The Turkish military has been regularly hitting suspected PKK hideouts and position in Iraq since last year, but Wednesday's strikes were the first since the failed coup.

The military appeared to be at least partly attempting to show that the forces are on top of security matters. __ Torchia reported from Istanbul. Associated Press journalists Sarah El Deeb, Cinar Kiper and Bram Janssen in Istanbul contributed.

Philippines Duterte offers Muslim militants peace

Isabela, Philippines (AFP)
July 21, 2016

Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte stepped up efforts to bring peace to the country's insurgency-hit south during a visit there on Thursday, calling upon the Islamic militant group Abu Sayyaf to end its campaign of violence.

Speaking to local military and government leaders on the troubled island of Basilan, a base of the Abu Sayyaf group, Duterte said: "I am pleading for peace, even with the Abu Sayyaf. You have committed crimes, killing people... You are not thinking of anything but hatred."

But Duterte, the first president to hail from the south and who claims Muslim ancestry, added that "every Filipino life is precious" and "we have to stop this war".

The Abu Sayyaf is a loose network of a few hundred Islamic militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network that has earned millions of dollars from kidnappings-for-ransom.

It is a radical offshoot of a decades-long Muslim separatist insurgency in the south of the mainly Catholic Philippines that has claimed more than 100,000 lives. The main Muslim rebel groups do not generally engage in kidnappings-for-ransom.

Duterte is known for his hardline stance against crime, even boasting of killing numerous criminals, but he he has called repeatedly for talks with all rebel groups.

Despite his message of peace, Duterte warned that if the group did not lay down its arms "soldiers will keep coming. That is the response of government".

His visit came as troops were battling the Abu Sayyaf in the hinterlands of Basilan.

The military has said at least one soldier and over 30 Abu Sayyaf fighters were killed in weeks of fighting there.

Although its leaders have pledged allegiance to Islamic State, analysts say they are mainly focused on lucrative kidnappings.

While Duterte addressed troops, his chief peace negotiator Jesus Dureza held meetings with the country's largest Muslim rebel group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), elsewhere in the south.

The 12,000-strong MILF had hoped to seal a final peace deal under Duterte's predecessor, Benigno Aquino, but legislators delayed passing legislation needed for the plan.

A ceasefire with the MILF, in place since 2003, has largely held but the Abu Sayyaf are not covered by the truce.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Philippines_Duterte_offers_Muslim_militants_peace_999.html.

Iran destroys 100,000 satellite dishes

Tehran (AFP)
July 24, 2016

Iran destroyed 100,000 satellite dishes and receivers on Sunday as part of a widespread crackdown against the illegal devices that authorities say are morally damaging, a news website reported.

The destruction ceremony took place in Tehran in the presence of General Mohammad Reza Naghdi, head of Iran's Basij militia, who warned of the impact that satellite television was having in the conservative country.

"The truth is that most satellite channels... deviate the society's morality and culture," he said at the event according to Basij News.

"What these televisions really achieve is increased divorce, addiction and insecurity in society."

Naghdi added that a total of one million Iranians had already voluntarily handed over their satellite apparatuses to authorities.

Under Iranian law, satellite equipment is banned and those who distribute, use, or repair them can be fined up to $2,800 (2,500 euros).

Iranian police regularly raid neighborhoods and confiscate dishes from rooftops.

Culture Minister Ali Jannati pleaded on Friday for a revision of the law.

"Reforming this law is very necessary as using satellite is strictly prohibited, but most people use it," Jannati said.

"This means that 70 percent of Iranians violate the law" by owning satellite dishes, he added.

Naghdi criticized Jannati's comments and said those in charge of cultural affairs "should be truthful with people rather than following what pleases them".

"Most of these satellite channels not only weaken the foundation of families but also cause disruptions in children's education and children who are under the influence of satellite have improper behavior," Naghdi said.

There are dozens of foreign-based Farsi satellite channels broadcasting mostly news, entertainment, films and series.

Conservatives regularly denounce the channels as an attempt to corrupt Iranian culture and Islamic values.

Moderate President Hassan Rouhani, whose four-year mandate ends in June 2017, has repeatedly said that the ban on satellite dishes is unnecessary and counterproductive.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Iran_destroys_100000_satellite_dishes_999.html.