Rescuers press to save 18 trapped Turkish miners

October 29, 2014

ISTANBUL (AP) — Rescue workers desperately pumped water out of a coal mine in southern Turkey and anxious relatives huddled nearby Wednesday after surging waters trapped 18 Turkish miners deep underground.

After canceling some festivities for a national holiday, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both visited the town of Ermenek in Karaman province, where the Has Sekerler mine is located close to Turkey's Mediterranean coast.

Both men pledged a vigorous investigation into the disaster, Turkish news agencies reported. Turkish officials say the workers' chances of survival are slim unless they managed to reach a safety gallery at the coal mine. The regional governor said about 20 other workers either escaped or were rescued Tuesday as the disaster unfolded.

Divers attempted rescue operations at the flooded mine Wednesday but visibility was too poor to continue, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. Emergency workers worked through the night and into the day using huge pipes to pump water from 350 meters (380 yards) underground. Turkey's emergency agency, AFAD, said a broken pipe in the mine caused the flooding but did not elaborate. It sent 225 emergency workers from neighboring regions to help the rescue effort.

The flooding has renewed questions about Turkey's poor workplace safety record. In May, a fire inside a coal mine in the western town of Soma killed 301 miners in Turkey's worst mining disaster. The fire exposed poor safety standards and superficial government inspections in many of the country's mines.

Kurdish fighters killed in Syria buried in Turkey

October 22, 2014

SURUC, Turkey (AP) — Hundreds of supporters chanting slogans turned out to accompany three Kurdish fighters — two men and a woman barely out of her teens — to their final resting place in a dusty cemetery on the edge of the Turkish town of Suruc, within view of the Syrian border and the besieged town of Kobani. But there was one notable absence: their families.

The flag-draped coffin bearing the body of 20-year-old Hanim Dabaan was carried to her grave Tuesday by women who didn't know her, but wanted to show their support for those killed fighting the Islamic State group extremists. Idris Ahmad, 30, and Mohammed Mustafa, 25, were laid to rest beside her, also carried by volunteers.

The three fighters of the People's Protection Units, or YPG, died in fierce clashes in Kobani, which has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters. IS still surrounds the town and holds parts of it despite Kurdish resistance and repeated U.S.-led coalition airstrikes.

In the chaos of Syria's multifaceted war, with a multitude of groups fighting each other as well as President Bashar al-Assad's forces, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and it's not always possible to locate the families of those killed in fighting. Turkey alone has seen an estimated 1.6 million refugees cross its borders in the four years of the Syrian war, according to U.N. officials.

"Our house has been demolished in Kobani and we are living in tents. ... At least we can support our martyrs and we will accompany them to their graves," said Fatma Muslim, one of dozens of women who turned up at the Suruc hospital morgue for the funeral procession to the nearby cemetery.

It was volunteers — rather than family members, as is the Islamic tradition — who helped wash and shroud the fighters' bodies in preparation for burial. "There is nobody to wash them," said Akeed Hamad, 21, who came to the morgue with a friend and offered to help. "There is only one doctor who can wash them, and the rest are volunteers."

It wasn't immediately clear where the families of Dabaan, Ahmad and Mustafa were — or even whether they knew their loved ones were dead. At one point a rumor rippled through the crowd that the young woman's parents were on their way. But if they were, they never made it.

Yet in Suruc's cemetery, in a part set aside for Syrian Kurds killed across the border, they aren't the only ones buried without their relatives. Out of about 30 graves there so far, only five of them have known families, said Wahida Kushta, one of the volunteers who helped prepare Dabaan's body for burial.

"I do it to help. Let's support them now at least." Just a day later, another five fighters were buried beside them in Suruc's cemetery. Wounded in Kobani, they had died in hospitals and their bodies were transferred to Suruc morgue Wednesday.

Like the three before them, their families weren't present. One hadn't even been fully identified. His rough tombstone will bear his nom de guerre, the name he was known to his fellow fighters with: Tamhat Kobani.

Istanbul's Citizens Discover Green Solidarity

By Tessa Love

ISTANBUL, Oct 14 2014 (IPS) - A year after the Gezi Park uprising – a protest that began as an act to save trees – exploded into anti-government riots around the country, sparking cohesive community efforts to fight urban sprawl, the face of environmental activism and awareness in Turkey has changed.

“It’s no coincidence that the demonstrations were ignited by an ecological issue, by concerns of urban development,” said Morat Ozbank, an assistant professor of political theory at Bigli University and a board member of the Turkish Green Party. “And this later became an issue of human rights and democratization.”

At 11 pm on May 27, 2013, bulldozers moved into Gezi Park – one of the last green spaces in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district and an “oasis” in Taksim Square, a large stone plaza of mostly open space with a few statues, fountains and entrances to underground stations.  They were there to clear the trees for the controversial construction of an Ottoman-era style shopping mall.

Within 20 minutes, throngs of people filled the park to block the construction, and they stayed for 20 days before being forced out by police.

The proposed shopping mall was just one of a long list of mega-projects spearheaded by Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Other projects include a third bridge across the Bosphorus, a tunnel for private vehicles beneath the same waterway, the world’s largest airport, and a second Bosphorus on the Asian side of the city.

Many of these projects are being carried forward despite opposition from bodies such as the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects (TMMOB), which is responsible for assessing the potential impact of proposed projects and advising against those that could be detrimental to the environment.

According to Akif Burak Atlar, secretary to the board at the Turkish Chamber of Urban Planners, all of these projects fit that description.

“The mega-projects are disastrous for Istanbul,” he says. “All development is hurting something. Urban planning is a rational profession, but the government does not listen to this rationale. They take our public spaces and sell them for construction.”

Atlar believes that every neighborhood in Istanbul should legally have a certain amount of green space to uphold urban planning standards. Nevertheless, public parks are being destroyed and, beyond the city limits, miles of wild forests have been destroyed to make way for the third bridge and the second Bosphorus.

While all of these projects had elicited outcries from various small organizations and legal action from TMMOB before May 2013, nothing came close to the response at Gezi Park.

“Gezi was a unique moment is Turkish history,” says Atlar. “There was no leader, no formal organization. It was an awakening.”

One year later, this movement is still alive and although policies regarding urban planning have not changed at governmental level, grassroots organizations have joined forces in the hope of making changes where they can.

One of these – Northern Forest Defense – is a movement organized by free volunteers to defend the last forests of northern Istanbul. Known as the “Child of Gezi,” it works to halt the development of mega projects like the third bridge, as well as working within small communities to stop the destruction of public parks for development.

While many of these efforts are small, Cigdem Cidamli, a founding member of the organization, believes that they are essential to the progress of urban defense. “Small movements can’t change as much as big movements,” she says, “but we can’t have big movements without the small ones. So now we are trying to create more integrated channels of solidarity.”

Cidamli, Atlar and Ozbank all agree that the integration of organizations is the most recognizable accomplishment of Gezi so far. Many neighborhoods now have an urban defense group to discuss a wide range of issues including urban development.

Many of these groups have come together to form larger organizations such as Taksim Solidarity, Istanbul Urban Defense and Northern Forest Defense.

One small group, Caferaga Dayanismasi, is a collective in the Kadikoy neighborhood that conducts meetings and organizes activist movements from a “squat” – an abandoned building that members have occupied and are renovating.

Bahadir, a member of the squat, says that the best thing they have done as a group is to have occupied and cultivated an empty lot that was going to be turned into a car park. Now it is a community vegetable garden where neighbors, both the young and the old, get their hands dirty.

Cidamli is thankful to Gezi for this development. “After Gezi, people are looking inward to create solidarity in small ways,” she says. “We can’t have Gezi every day. So, instead, we cultivate tomatoes.”

With this growth in community-minded activism, Bahadir says that the city cannot cut down a single tree without sparking a protest.

But so far, the only major development that has successfully been halted is the shopping mall at Gezi.

“The funny thing is, they can’t do anything in Taksim Square right now,” says Ozbank with a smile. “They can’t touch anything … not even to beautify the place.”

Source: Inter-Press Service (IPS).
Link: http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/10/istanbuls-citizens-discover-green-solidarity/.

Kurds help Islamic militants in battle for Kobani

November 04, 2014

BEIRUT (AP) — Ethnic Kurds are helping members of the Islamic State group in the battle for the key Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani, sharing their knowledge of the local terrain and language with the extremists, according to Iraqi and Kurdish officials.

It is not clear how many Kurds are aiding the estimated 3,000 Islamic State militants in the Kobani area — and fighting against their own Kurdish brethren — but activists say they are playing a major role in the 7-week-old conflict near the Turkish border.

A top military commander for the extremists in the town is an Iraqi Kurd, known by the nom de guerre of Abu Khattab al-Kurdi, helping them in the battle against fellow Kurds. Officials with the main Syrian Kurdish force known as the People's Protection Units, or YPG, say they became aware of the Kurds among the mostly Sunni Muslim extremists early in the fighting.

As Kurdish fighters were defending the nearby Syrian village of Shiran in September, two Kurdish men with different accents and wearing YPG uniforms infiltrated their ranks, Kurdish officials said. Upon questioning, however, they were captured and admitted to fighting for the Islamic State group, the officials added.

Iraqi and Kurdish officials say many of the Kurdish fighters with the Islamic State group are from the northeastern Iraqi town of Halabja, which was bombed with chemical weapons by Saddam Hussein's forces in 1988, killing some 5,000 people.

Shorsh Hassan, a YPG spokesman in Kobani, said although most of the Kurdish jihadi fighters come from Iraq, some are from Syrian regions such as Kobani, Afrin and Jazeera. He added that the number of Syrian Kurds is small compared with the dozens of Iraqis fighting with the IS group.

"The fighter who is from Kobani is not like someone who hails from Chechnya with no idea about tracks and roads," Hassan said. Thousands of militants from all over the world — including north Africans, Asians and some Westerners — have traveled to Syria and Iraq to join the ranks of the Islamic State group. Turkish nationals are among them, but it is unknown if any are fighting in Kobani.

Hassan said many of the Iraqi fighters were from Halabja, including al-Kurdi. Websites affiliated with the Islamic State group recently published several photographs of the young, bearded man, including some of him wearing the traditional Kurdish garb of baggy pants, and others of him standing in front of Kurds killed in Kobani.

In Baghdad, an Iraqi security official said al-Kurdi was a member of Ansar al-Islam, a Sunni militant group with ties to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the late leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, who was active in the early 2000s. Al-Kurdi later joined the Islamic State group, the official said.

The Iraqi official said al-Kurdi is also from Halabja and is wanted by Iraqi authorities. He refused to give the man's real name when pressed by The Associated Press. "Our latest information is that he is in Syria fighting in the Kobani area. He is an expert in mountainous areas," the Iraqi official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

"He is commanding the Kurdish group within Daesh because he is a Kurd," he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. Halabja was known as a secular village and the home of Abdullah Goran, one of the best-known Kurdish poets in the 20th century and a member of the Iraqi Communist Party. But in the past three decades, Muslim preachers have become active and have turned it into one of Iraqi Kurdistan's most religiously conservative areas.

Still, most of the Kurds are moderate and secular-leaning Muslims. Many Kurds in Iraq were stunned when they learned that Kiwan Mohammed, the 25-year-old goalkeeper of Halabja's soccer team, was killed last month in Syria while fighting for the Islamic State group in Kobani. Mohammed was identified by jihadi websites as Abu Walid al-Kurdi.

Dana Jalal, an Iraqi journalist who follows jihadi groups, said the Iraqi athlete left Syria in July 2013 and had not been heard of until his death. Some 70 Iraqi Kurds, mostly from Halabja, went to fight in Syria with the Islamic State group, Jalal said. Most go through Turkey where they say they are going for tourism, but theu then they cross into Syria, and "some even take their wives with them," Jalal added.

Nawaf Khalil, the Europe-based spokesman for Syria's powerful Kurdish Democratic Union Party, said Kurdish fighters within the Islamic State group are invaluable in the Kobani battle because they know the geography, as well as the language and the mentality of fellow Kurds.

"A main part of their work is tapping (electronic surveillance) and intelligence-gathering. They might be also using some from the Kobani area to benefit from the geographical knowledge of the area," he said.

Mustafa Bali, a Kurdish activist in Kobani, said that by having Kurdish fighters, Islamic State extremists are trying to win the hearts and minds of Syrian Kurds in the area. "Daesh is trying to tell the people of Kobani that it does not consider them enemies and its fighters include Kurds," Bali said.

Abdul-Zahra reported from Baghdad.

Ukrainian president sends more troops to the east

November 04, 2014

KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's president said Tuesday that additional troops are being deployed to the east, where fighting continues to rage between government forces and pro-Russian separatist fighters.

Petro Poroshenko said the units would defend cities still under government control against possible incursions. His remarks came after Ukrainian security officials claimed over the weekend that Russia has intensified the transfer of troops and military equipment to separatist rebels. Moscow denies it aids the rebels.

"Several new units have been formed that will enable us to repel possible attacks in the direction of Mariupol and Berdyansk, Kharkiv, and areas north of Luhansk and the Dnipropetrovsk region," Poroshenko said, according to a statement on the presidential website.

Tensions have spiked since the weekend, when rebels held an election that was condemned by the West and Ukraine as illegal and destabilizing. "In recent days, Russia-supported separatists have publicly stated their intention to expand the territory under their control. We strongly condemn ongoing separatist attacks in Meriupol and Dubalsiva and around the Donetsk Airport," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

"Any attempt to push further into Ukraine would be another violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity and a gross violation of the Minsk agreements signed by Russia, Ukraine, and the separatists," she added, referring to the much-violated case-fire agreed upon in September.

Ukraine and Western governments say Sunday's poll gravely endangered the cease-fire that envisioned local elections across the whole of the east but under Ukrainian law. Russia, however, quickly lent its support to the vote.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, underlining her displeasure over what she said was Russia's role in the conflict, said Tuesday there is no reason yet to lift European Union sanctions against Moscow. Merkel said she hopes for a diplomatic solution to Ukraine's crisis but added the vote shows "how difficult it is even to maintain agreements that have been made, if we look at the illegal elections."

On Tuesday morning, the separatist leader in the Donetsk region, Alexander Zakharchenko, 38, was sworn in as head of a self-declared secessionist territory. He was inaugurated in a heavily guarded theater in the city of Donetsk, the main stronghold of a rebel-controlled territory that separatists call the Donetsk People's Republic.

Zakharchenko's election was largely a formality as no strong candidates opposed him, but the rebels say the vote gives them a mandate to pursue their secessionist goals. Zakharchenko took the stage after four sabre-wielding Cossacks carried in the flag of the Donetsk People's Republic. He swore the oath of office with his hand on a Bible to applause and whistles from audience members — many of them men in combat fatigues carrying automatic rifles.

Lawmakers from Russia and Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia, whose independence is recognized only by Russia and three other countries, later mounted the stage. Russian lawmaker Alexei Zhuravlev congratulated Zakharchenko, declaring: "Russia doesn't give up on its own."

Post-inauguration entertainment included a traditional Russian dance troupe led by a performer in a bear suit. The inauguration coincided with Russia's National Unity Day holiday, which saw rallies throughout the country, including one in Moscow that police estimated at 75,000 participants.

The march in the center of the capital included banners reading "Crimea is ours" — the Ukrainian region annexed by Russia in March — and "Novorossiya — we are with you." The separatist Ukrainian regions are widely referred to by that name, which means "New Russia" and reflects the widespread opinion that eastern Ukraine is historically and ethnically part of Russia.

The rally in central Moscow incorporated mainstream political groupings, but hard-line nationalists held a separate march of several thousand in the suburb of Lyublino. Police arrested several demonstrators there who tried to light fires.

Vasilyeva contributed from Donetsk, Ukraine. Associated Press reporters Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Jim Heintz in Moscow, also contributed to this report.

3 presidents press Burkina Faso on civilian rule

November 06, 2014

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — Diplomats pressing Burkina Faso's military ruler to return the country to civilian rule said Wednesday they are seeking names of people who could serve as interim head of state until elections are held.

The presidents of Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana are in Burkina Faso to mediate after the African Union gave Burkina Faso's military a two-week deadline to hand over power or face sanctions that could cripple the landlocked, desperately poor country.

In a sign of growing tensions, though, a meeting that brought together the political opposition and others descended into chaos. Burkina Faso's president of 27 years, Blaise Compaore, stepped down Friday amid mounting opposition to his bid to seek yet another term in office. Compaore never identified a potential successor and his departure has created a power vacuum in which at least three people have tried to take over control of the country in the past week.

Opposition members and other activists stormed out of Wednesday's meeting shouting "We don't agree!" after some from the former ruling party showed up for the session. "We can't sit in the same room as those who are to blame for the deaths of the victims whose bodies we have not yet even buried," said Mathias Tankoano, a human right activist and member of the civil society delegation. "They should be prosecuted for the deaths and for acts against the constitution that have resulted in violence in our country."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon backed the mediation effort by the three presidents and reiterated his call for "an inclusive dialogue" to continue, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The U.N. chief encourages all parties to reach an agreement for a peaceful civilian-led transition as soon as possible, he said.

Dujarric said a joint mission of the African Union, U.N., and the regional bloc known as ECOWAS is continuing consultations with all parties and other forces "to ensure a democratic civilian-led transition in Burkina Faso." He said the mission "will continue its efforts to help resolve the crisis in line with the national constitution."

The U.N. Security Council expressed "full support" for the joint mission and urged Burkina Faso's security forces to hand over power to a civilian-led transition and take immediate steps to restore constitutional order without delay.

In a press statement late Wednesday, the council called on all parties to collaborate and launch "a peaceful, civilian-led and democratic transition process leading to the holding of free, fair, inclusive and credible elections as soon as possible."

According to the country's constitution, the speaker of the parliament should be the one in charge until elections can be held, according to Roch Marc Christian Kabore, leader of an opposition political party.

Burkina Faso's military, however, has designated Lt. Col. Isaac Yacouba Zida as the transitional leader following the departure of Compaore. The international community is ramping up pressure to try to avoid prolonged martial rule or further unrest in Burkina Faso, a country of relative stability in a volatile region marked by coups and power grabs.

Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan, Senegal's President Macky Sall and Ghana's President John Dramani Mahama aimed to continue the discussions during their visit to the country.

Associated Press Writer Edith M. Lederer contributed to this report from the United Nations.

African Union envoy meets Burkina Faso opposition

November 04, 2014

OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso (AP) — International envoys tried on Tuesday to resolve Burkina Faso's political crisis, with the specter of a power vacuum looming after the country's longtime president fled last week.

Opposition protesters — who said 27 years in power was enough for one man — forced President Blaise Compaore to resign and flee to Ivory Coast. Confusion ensued, with different factions of the military and the civilian opposition all vying for control.

Order has been restored in Ouagadougou, the capital, with business appearing to return to normal and no unusual presence of police or military on the streets. For now, the military appears to be in charge and has designated Lt. Col. Isaac Yacouba Zida as the transitional leader. The opposition has dropped its demands that the military immediately surrender power and is instead calling for talks to work out a solution.

But the African Union and others in the international community have held a firmer line. The African Union, which represents 53 countries on the continent, gave the West African country two weeks to return to constitutional rule or face sanctions.

Its envoy, former Togolese Prime Minister Edem Kodjo, met Tuesday with leaders of the opposition. Following the meeting, opposition leader Zephirin Diabre indicated that there may be wiggle room in the AU's ultimatum.

"It's clear that this is a situation where political dialogue should be allowed to take into account the exceptional nature of this particular situation," he said. "We'll work to respect the deadline. If we can't, they'll understand."

The U.N. secretary-general's representative for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, has echoed the AU's goal, saying he and other envoys are working to "quickly find a solution that is consistent" with the national constitution. The presidents of Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana are expected to arrive Wednesday to participate in talks.

Lt. Col. Zida, meanwhile, met with religious leaders and traditional chiefs. Afterward, the country's Catholic cardinal, Philip Ouedraogo, said the military seemed open to dialogue. "The problem with Burkina is we are still far from certain as to exactly what is going to happen: The military has made promises that they don't want to hang on to power but, if not, why hang on to it in the first place?" asked Jeggan Grey-Johnson, an analyst with the Open Society Foundation's Africa Regional Office in Johannesburg.

"The military is split ... and the opposition is as split as ever. Meanwhile, the president of the National Assembly has basically run away and abdicated his responsibilities, so there's really a huge vacuum going forward," said Grey-Johnson.

That's worrying for a country that has served as an important ally to the West. Under Compaore's semi-authoritarian rule, Burkina Faso was a bastion of relative stability in a volatile region and a reliable ally of the West. The country hosts French special forces and is an important partner of both France and the United States in the fight against Islamic militants in the region.

In fact, Zida himself received counterterrorism training from the U.S. government. When he was a major, he attended a course in early 2012 at the Joint Special Operations University at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, as part of a program under which the U.S. Department of Defense provides training to foreign military officers.

He also attended a Defense Department-funded course in Botswana later that year. A 2013 U.S. State Department report lauded Burkina Faso as "a strong U.S. security and defense partner" in counterterrorism in the region that "aggressively undertook measures to combat the regional danger posed by terrorist organizations." Burkina Faso borders Mali, whose al-Qaida-linked militants took control of the country's north for a time before a French-led intervention last year scattered them throughout the region.

The French were quick to praise Compaore's decision to leave, and the United States called again on Monday for a civilian-led transition and elections soon. Even though calm has largely returned to Ouagadougou, members of the former ruling party and their allies asked for protection from Zida's government on Tuesday, saying many of them have nowhere to go after their homes were destroyed in opposition protests last week.

Associated Press writers David Rising in Berlin and Michelle Faul in Johannesburg contributed to this report.