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.

Divisive Erdogan favorite in Turkey president vote

August 08, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — For the first time in its history, Turkey is directly electing its president on Sunday in a contest considered a turning point for the country of 76 million people — with its prime minister the strong favorite for a job he has pledged to transform from a symbolic role into one of real power.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's dominant politician over the last decade, is seen by many as aiming to solidify his grip on power after serving three consecutive terms as prime minister at the head of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party. An absolute majority is needed to avoid a runoff on Aug. 24.

The 60-year-old Erdogan is revered by many as a man of the people who ushered in a period of economic prosperity, reviled by others as an increasingly autocratic leader trying to impose his religious and conservative views on a country with strong secular traditions.

His campaign has been bold and bitter. A gifted public speaker, he has poured scorn upon his rivals, casting doubt upon their Turkish identity and even accusing his main challenger of being part of a shadowy coup conspiracy he says is run by a former associate living in the United States.

"This is a critical juncture for democratization," said Ersin Kalaycioglu, political science professor at Istanbul's Sabanci University. "We are not only voting for one guy over another. We're voting for whether Turkey is going to be authoritarian versus whether Turkey is going to improve on its democratic record."

If he wins, many fear he will appoint a pliant prime minister he can control — and concentrate all true power in his own hands. Erdogan already tried and failed to change the constitution to give the presidency more clout. But he has vowed to activate latent powers he says already exist for the position, such as calling and chairing cabinet meetings.

"He doesn't seem to appreciate that even if you have the majority behind you, that does not necessarily give you power to do whatever you want," said Ilter Turan, professor of political science at Istanbul's Bilgi University. "In the event he wins, which he appears likely to do, he will push this line to dominate the system."

Erdogan's two challengers are Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a 70-year-old academic who enjoys the support of nearly a dozen opposition parties, including the main republican and nationalist parties; and Selahattin Demirtas, 41, a Kurd who heads a left-leaning party and has already made a name for himself on the minority Kurdish political scene.

A religious man who supports Turkey's deep traditions of secularism, Ihsanoglu headed the Organization of Islamic Cooperation for a decade until this year. In contrast to Erdogan's divisive, often abrasive campaign, he has run on a platform of unity and has promised not to engage in party politics.

"I stand for democracy, for secularism, for pluralism and transparent democracy," Ihsanoglu said after the start of campaigning last month. "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."

But while he enjoys the backing of several parties, those parties' supporters have not all united behind the political newcomer. "The republicans suspected that he was too much religion, the nationalists thought that he was not nationalist enough," said Turan, the political analyst. "But in fact, this is precisely the type of candidate you actually needed, because ... Turkish society is divided right in the middle" between the more pious and conservative, and those with a more secular, Western and liberal outlook.

Demirtas is expected to trail in third place, but could be instrumental in potentially leading the election to a second round by attracting part of the Kurdish vote away from Erdogan. The prime minister has enjoyed support among the minority, estimated at 20 percent of the population, for relaxing restrictions such as the right to be educated in Kurdish or give children Kurdish names.

There have been several incidents, however, that sparked widespread outrage and potentially put Erdogan's popularity with his electoral base at risk. The most recent was the mining disaster in the western town of Soma, where 301 miners were killed in a fire blamed on poor safety standards. Erdogan's response was seen as callous, including a dismissive comment about mine accidents being commonplace; images emerged in the media of one of his aides kicking a Soma protester held down by armed police. Anger at his handling of the disaster led to violent protests and calls for his resignation.

Many were also infuriated by his reaction to demonstrations last year, where an environmental protest against his plans to replace central Istanbul's Gezi Park with a shopping mall spiraled into nationwide anti-government protests following a heavy-handed police response. Several people were killed in clashes with police.

Critics also point to what they say was a massively one-sided election campaign where Erdogan used his clout and the funding he enjoys from his premiership to ensure blanket coverage for himself. "It became a very unfair process from the very beginning," said Kalaycioglu.

Yet Erdogan still commands near adoration from his core supporters — mainly, but not only, the more conservative and religious Turks who feel he has given them a voice and improved their daily lives with better access to health care, education and infrastructure.

Few doubt he will emerge victorious in these elections.

Turkey's lopsided presidential election campaign

August 06, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the unquestionable front-runner in Turkey's first direct presidential election on Sunday. And critics accuse him of using his position as premier to make the contest even more lopsided.

Erdogan, a skilled public orator who has dominated Turkish politics for a decade, enjoys far more popularity than his rivals: a newcomer on the political scene supported by several opposition parties and an ambitious young Kurdish politician. Most predict an Erdogan victory; the key question is whether he would win an outright majority on Aug. 10 or have to go to a runoff on Aug. 24.

Critics say his position as prime minister has helped him dominate the airwaves during the campaign, banishing his opponents further to the shadows. Official inaugurations of public works such as rail links and airports morphed into Erdogan campaign speeches even before the July 11 start of the official campaigning period. His appearances — elaborate affairs that attract hundreds of thousands of flag-waving supporters — are televised live in their entirety and his face adorns posters across the country.

Rivals Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a mild-mannered 70-year-old academic supported by several opposition parties, and Selahattin Demirtas, a 41-year-old Kurd who leads the left-wing People's Democratic Party, have been far less visible — and media watchdogs have stepped in.

Last month, Turkey's Press Council called for the resignation of the head of state-owned broadcaster TRT, Ibrahim Sahin, after Demirtas complained of unequal airtime for opposition candidates — and Sahin allegedly threatened to take the candidate off air if he criticized the channel again.

"TRT, which continues to exist through taxes paid by the people, has no right to make such statements," the Council said. Last Sunday, the channel also cut the live broadcast of a speech by Devlet Bahceli, head of the Nationalist Movement Party that backs Ihsanoglu, after he criticized TRT's election coverage.

"TRT has been conducting a propaganda campaign for Recep Tayyip Erdogan from morning to night every day," Bahceli told his supporters. Seconds later, he was knocked off air. "It's a very lopsided campaign process," said Ersin Kalaycioglu, professor of political science at Istanbul's Sabanci University. "The democratic credentials of this election are in grave doubt."

An official from Erdogan's office rejected accusations of unfair campaigning, saying the Turkish leader's campaign adhered to the electoral law. He spoke on condition of anonymity because civil servants are barred from speaking to journalists without authorization.

The official said election laws ensuring equal campaigning and barring the use of state resources kick in 10 days before the elections. Erdogan had not used any state funds since the end of July, he said, and was using privately hired planes and vehicles for his campaign movements.

An interim report issued by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which is sending observers for the vote, noted that the country's election board postponed the application of key regulations to ensure equal campaigning opportunities to July 31, though the official campaign period began on July 11.

"Campaign activities of the prime minister are large-scale events, often combined with official government events," said the report, which looked at the period of July 9-28. "While other candidates actively campaign, the public visibility of their campaigns is limited."

It said children's toys and women's scarves were distributed after at least one of Erdogan's July pre-election speeches, and an official from his Justice and Development Party, or AKP, told the OSCE the party was conducting a door-to-door campaign distributing boxes of food and other small items.

"Elections have been turned into an extremely ugly race in which the AKP's candidate is competing unfairly with the backing of all benefits of the state, financial power, media power," Demirtas said during a speech in Istanbul last Sunday — only parts of which were broadcast live on TV; a live Internet feed was available.

About 53 million people are eligible to vote in Turkey. Another 2.8 million are registered abroad, where voting began July 31. Until now, Parliament elected Turkey's president.

Ezgi Akin and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.