Friday, November 07, 2008

ALREADY IN TROUBLE

"Feto is more dangerous than Apo."
~ Banner protesting Erdoğan during Women's Day protests.

Is President-elect Obama in trouble with the Ankara regime already? Maybe:


“Prison sentence of up to 15 years for OBAMA...

… has been asked for by a prosecutor in a case against him”…

… if you read a report like that do not be bewildered. For the article 305 of the new Turkish Penal Code reads:

Acting Against the Fundamental National Interests

ARTICLE 305 - (1) Those persons who directly or indirectly receives material benefit for himself/herself or for others from foreigners or foreign organizations as a result of or in exchange of committing acts that are against fundamental national interests shall be sentenced to jail for between three and ten years, and a judicial fine of up to ten thousand days. The same sentence shall be given to persons who offer and receive benefit.


[ . . . ]

The preamble of the article clarified the cases where the article would be applied:

“… such as the withdrawal of Turkish soldiers from Cyprus or for the settling of a solution that is disadvantageous for Turkey, or such as making the propaganda by the means of press and media, merely to damage Turkey and as contrary to the facts, that Armenians suffered a genocide at the beginning of the First World War…”

However in quick time it was understood that the preamble would cause a scandal hence that part was omitted when the law was published as a book but it was too late. For the part omitted from the book had not been omitted from the text published in the Official Gazette. Non-governmental organisations and then the European Union inquired about it. The government tried to cover it up by saying “Well there must have been a mistake …” however did nothing to amend the law. Article 305 is there like a dynamite waiting to be ignited and nobody knows on whose head it will explode.

Has Obama violated article 305?

Without doubt. Look at what he said:

A political solution to be reached through negotiations would end the Turkish occupation of Northern Cyprus and the tragic division of the Island into two.Source.

I will recognise the genocide if I get elected” AA - WASHINGTON – Second leading candidate of Democrat Party in the marathon for setting the candidate for US presidential election due in November, black senator Barack Obama promised to recognise the allegations of “Armenian genocide”. Source.

What about receiving benefit or money in return?

Sure, he beat the record.

According to a report in Wall Street Journal last week, Obama raised 127.2 million dollars and spent 366 thousand dollars in the quarter between February and May. Source.

Yes but he is a foreigner, could article 305 be applied to him?

Let’s go back to the famous preamble of the article. The paragraph 2 of the preamble, it was not felt necessary to sweep that part under the carpet, says:

“Perpetrator of the said offence may be a citizen as well as a foreigner”.

In brief:

1. Obama has publicly said both of the statements which had been given as examples in the preamble.

2. He raised and spent a considerable sum of money in his election campaign as part of which he said those things. Thus the crime has been materialised. Relevant sentence would be: prison sentence between 3 and 10 years!

3. Moreover the offence has been committed by the means of press and media. 50% increase: from 4 and half years up to 15 years!

4. Being a foreigner does not make any difference, he should have known that there is no escaping from Turkish justice.


OOPS!

Gordon Taylor has more:


Already Ahmet Davutoglu, chief foreign policy advisor to the Prime Minister of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has come to Washington and warned Barack Obama against supporting a genocide resolution by Congress. Turkey and Armenia have in recent months made important steps toward reconciliation, and Davutoglu has warned that this process would be endangered by a genocide resolution. In other words, "It's not a good time." Of course, it's never a good time to tell unpleasant truths to Turkish nationalists.

Barack Obama, however, has renewed a pledge, previously made to the Armenian-American lobby, to support such a resolution. Clearly Obama will face a difficult choice. On one side will be historical truth as confirmed by millions of documents, eyewitness reports, and photographs, plus Armenian political pressure. On the other side will be semantic nitpicking ("Was it really 'genocide'?" "Did the Ottoman authorities authorize murder, or just removal?"), and massive political, bureaucratic, and diplomatic pressure from pro-Turkish forces.


Read the rest and check the links, as well as a copy of the heart of a potential Armenian Genocide resolution.

Don't forget to check Hevallo, who has a translation of the letter from KCK to Obama.

Perhaps even more importantly, check Hevallo's post on Katil Erdoğan's children. A teaser:


I have just finished watching a programme broadcast on UK ITV's Tonight programme where undercover reporters including the former UK Princess, Sarah Ferguson exposes the barbaric and disgusting conditions in which children with learning difficulties are held in jail like conditions in state institutions, that seem like concentration camps in Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey. Turkish authorities tried to take legal action to stop the broadcast.

[ . . . ]

What was uncovered in these state 'concentration like camps' was an absolute disgrace, devoid of any humanity and constitutes gross and massive human rights abuses against vulnerable children.

Undercover reporters uncovered systematic abuse in many different camps in Istanbul and Ankara, including imprisonment and neglect, 24 hour sedation and treatment of kind that you would only find in Nazi concentration camps. See some of the footage leaked to Kanal D here

In a camp called Saray, near Ankara almost 7oo people with learning difficulties live a prison like existence in conditions that beggar belief.

One young man was filmed squirming along the floor following the sun rays that entered the 'wards', the undercover reporters were told that he is never allowed outside.

Others were filmed tied to bed posts and chairs while many simply rocked to and fro like caged animals. When Sarah Ferguson gave any of the children any attention and comfort the children soaked it up like they had never seen such attention in their lives.


"Vile, disgusting and shameful" indeed. Check the post for links to footage of the ITV expose.

Although shocking, it shouldn't come as a surprise, really. We are, after all, speaking about the same prime minister under whose ruling party we have seen the deaths of many infants in hospitals just this year:


A hospital in Turkey's third biggest city, Izmir, was being investigated by a prosecutor for possible medical negligence yesterday after 13 newborn babies died in its care in 24 hours.

The babies - who were all born prematurely - died at Izmir's state-run Tepecik hospital at the weekend, re-igniting concerns about the country's standards of postnatal care and prompting the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to question whether the deaths had been caused by neglect.

It was Turkey's second such case in as many months. In July, 27 babies - also premature - died over a 15-day period at the Zekai Tahir Burak hospital in Ankara, the Turkish capital. Doctors attributed those deaths to hypertension, heart failure or birth complications, but government-appointed investigators concluded that the risk of infection due to staff shortages could have been to blame.


TDN, now Hürriyet, reported at the beginning of October that university hospitals were even worse:


New born infants need emergency care units for premature births, abortions or for dealing with asphyxia developed during birth. In Turkey the rate of these infant disorders is 5 per cent. They have to be taken care of for about a month or three months in these units. As the number of these emergency care units remains the same, and no patients are turned back from hospitals, problems are rising. To solve the problem sometimes three infants are put into the same emergency care unit, raising the risk of infants catching infections.

[ . . . ]

The situation in university hospitals is worse. All their applications are turned down. They are treated like step children. Even public debts to the university hospitals are paid after long negotiations. Let's say the money is found for purchasing an emergency care unit. But from where will you find additional staff nurses, interns and doctors who will run it? When qualified staff in university hospitals quit their job their open place is immediately cancelled.

[ . . . ]

The prime minister says nobody will be turned away from hospitals. On the other hand, the management of all hospitals are complaining that they are in a dire shortage of medical equipment, beds and staff, while the Minister of Health's position is very clear: "Anybody who opposes our orders will be banished from work or sent to exile in a remote part in the country.


Another item, published after the July deaths:


As Turkey once again turns its gaze to its failure to properly care for its babies and children with the latest series of infant deaths in an Ankara hospital, statistics reveal that infant mortality is several times higher in Turkey than in the nations of the EU that it desperately wants to join


And all of this under the watch of a ruling party whose leader told Turkish women on International Women's Day, 2008, that they should all give birth to at least three children.

"Vile, disgusting and shameful" . . . but consistent if you're a religious nut case.

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