by Stephen Lendman
January 11, 2011
Western vilification of Islam is longstanding, cruel, and unjustifiable. In his 1978 book "Orientalism," Edward Said explained a pattern of Western misinterpretation of the East, especially the Middle East. In "Culture and Imperialism" (1993), he broadened Orientalism’s core argument to show the complex relationships between East and West by referring to colonizers and the colonized, "the familiar (Europe, West, us) and the strange (the Orient, East, them)."
He explained Western high-minded/moral superiority notions compared to culturally inferior Muslims. They’re now portrayed as dangerous bomb-throwing terrorists, making them easy prey to wrongfully victimize.
Ramsey Clark is a former US Attorney General and International Action Center (IAC) founder. He’s also a committed activist for social, economic, political, and racial justice. In his new year’s message, he expressed worry and hope looking ahead, saying:
"During the past year, there has been a dangerous upsurge, largely manufactured by the media, in anti-Islamic bigotry. Simultaneously, supposedly, in the name of 'peace,’ " American and Western allies have attacked and occupied non-threatening Muslim countries preemptively and lawlessly.
Notably post-911, they’ve viciously targeted Muslims for political advantage. Throughout America, continental Europe and Britain it rages, harming innocent men and women. With no regard for democratic values and justice, they’re bogusly charged and imprisoned for crimes they neither planned or committed. Yet supportive media reports convict by accusation, the public unaware that supposed threats were lies, yet it repeats endlessly.
No wonder former Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi once told a Kuala Lumpur audience that Muslim vilification was "insensitive and irresponsible," adding that false accusations and hate are "widespread within mainstream Western society. The West should treat Islam the way it wants Islam to treat the West and vice versa. They should accept one another as equals."
Islamophobia in Britain’s Media
A January 2007 Islamic Human Rights Commission report titled, "The British Media and Muslim Representation: The Ideology of Demonisation" corroborated various studies showing UK Muslims believe British media inaccurately portray them and their religion falsely and unjustly.
In 2008, a Channel 4 Television "Dispatches" documentary, based on a Peter Oborne and James Jones "Muslims under Siege" document, revealed how UK media and political figures propagate widespread Islamophobic views, similar to America where Muslims are vilified as terrorists.
Since 2000, UK findings showed most media reports portrayed Muslims as dangerous, backward, irrational, extreme, incompatible with British values, and prone to commit terrorism. Both tabloid and major broadsheets stand guilty, including London Guardian writer Polly Tonybee once saying "I am an Islamophobe and proud of it." The Independent’s Bruce Anderson wrote:
There are widespread fears that Muslim immigrants, reinforced by political pressure and, ultimately, by terrorism, will succeed where Islamic armies failed and change irrevocably the character of European civilisation.
Author Martin Amis in the Times wrote "There is a definite urge – don’t you have it? The Muslim community will have to suffer until it gets its house in order." The "Muslims under Siege" document explained that:
Islamophobia is a tremendous force for unification in British public culture. It does not merely bring liberal progressives like Polly Toynbee together with curmudgeonly Tory commentators like Bruce Anderson. It also enlists militant atheists with Christian believers.
Moreover, it’s punctuated by political opportunists wrongfully charging Muslims with terrorism, taking advantage of public sentiment against a Muslim presence in Britain. More on that below.
In "Muslims under Siege," Oborne and Jones noted how mainstream society for centuries singled out an alien presence for hatred and opprobrium because they were perceived to threaten British identity. Earlier targets included Catholics, Jews, French, Germans and gays. Today it’s Muslims, public enemy number one as in America.
Wrongfully vilified for their faith, they’re considered fair game by hostile journalists and political opportunists, especially those on the far right. They’ve turned away from maligning Jews and Blacks to now focus on Muslims, but they’re not alone. Mainstream politicians also made Islamaphobia Britain’s remaining socially respectable form of bigotry.
They believe, like British National Party (BNP) chairman Nick Griffin, that:
To even hint of making common cause with Islam is political insanity. We should be positioning ourselves to take advantage for our own political ends of the growing wave of public hostility to Islam currently being whipped up by the mass media.
He and others cited Bat Ye’or’s book titled, "Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis," saying Europe is becoming Eurabia where Christians and Jews will be second class citizens to a new Muslim majority. Griffin sees all Europe being Islamified, threatening traditional mainstream culture. It’s a short leap to inciting hysteria about terror attacks to justify Britain’s war on Islam, replicating the same tactics in America and throughout Europe.
Hyping Fear, Citing Terror, Naming Names, and Rounding up the Usual Suspects
Reports regularly appear like a London Independent March 28, 2009 article headlined, "Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists," saying:
Two hundred school children in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are 'vulnerable’ to Islamic radicalisation.
Norman Bettison, Britain’s most senior terror prevention official, said the Association of Chief Police Officers asks teachers, parents and other community figures to spot signs of extreme views, suggesting youngsters are being "groomed" by radicalizers.
What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards the West," he explained, adding "We are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists who happen to be cloaking themselves in Islamic rhetoric.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We are committed to stopping people becoming or supporting terrorists or violent extremists," even though Britain, like America, faces no terror threat.
Claiming it is entirely bogus to hype fear for political advantage. As a result, Muslims are wrongfully scapegoated. UK media reports like US ones wrongfully convict them by accusation, the public never the wiser.
An earlier article discussed a bogus London terror plot.
It explained that in America and Britain, government cooperators are paid to lawlessly entrap and testify against targeted Muslims. A so-called London Fertilizer Case used Juniad Babar, a dubious character UK media nicknamed "Supergrass."
In 2004, he agreed to cooperate with FBI agents after being indicted in June. He then pled guilty to four counts of conspiring to and providing and attempting to provide material support or resources to terrorists. A fifth count involved providing funds, goods, or services to benefit Al-Qaeda. In return for a reduced sentence, he copped a plea, requiring him to provide "substantial assistance," including entrapping and testifying against targeted Muslims, ones authorities want to frame and convict.
He was also used in London’s Fertilizer Case. It involved a half-ton of ammonium nitrate, allegedly to blow up a London shopping center, nightclub and other targets. Though charges were entirely bogus, alleged "bombers" were convicted and imprisoned, despite no plot and no crime.
On December 28, New York Times writer, Sheryl Stolberg, headlined, "Obama’s Traveling Team Stays Focused on Terror," saying:
While on vacation, he has "reliable secure voice capability" to maintain contact with his advisors on any breaking news. "In recent weeks, concerns about terrorism in Europe have spiked, with intelligence officials reporting increased chatter about threats."
No matter how bogus, hyping fear in America, across Europe and Britain has become the national sport. Alarms and/or arrests recently were made in Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark and UK.
On December 29, based on suspicions only, several Muslim men (several entering from Sweden) were arrested for allegedly planning to attack the Jyllands-Posten newspaper offices, the same broadsheet that published 2005 satirical cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. One was later released. No incriminating evidence links them to a plot. Yet they’ll likely face "preliminary" terrorism related charges, Denmark’s PET security police head, Jakob Scharf, saying:
"It is our assessment that this is a militant Islamic group; and they have links to international terrorist networks," even though he has no evidence proving it. Once again, guilty by accusation.
Swedish SAPO security police head, Anders Thornberg, said suspects were surveilled before entering Denmark based on suspicions they were planning a terror attack. Again, suspicions, no evidence.
White House spokesman, Nick Shapiro, approved, saying:
We comment the work done by the Danish and Swedish authorities to disrupt this plot, and will continue to coordinate closely with them and our other European partners on all counterterrorism matters of common concern.
Even through the holiday season, likely innocent Muslims are targeted and charged. No evidence needed, just "suspicions."
On December 27, New York Times writer, Alan Cowell, headlined, "British Police Charge 9 Men, Arrested in Raids, With Preparing for Terrorist Acts," saying:
After a week of coordinated raids in three cities, UK police said they "charged nine of the 12 men they arrested in a case that seemed to be a sign that Europe’s concerns over potential terrorist attacks were spreading."
All arrested were Muslims. Three were uncharged and released. The others appeared in London court accused of "engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism." At issue is an alleged plot to bomb unspecified targets. According to John Yates, Britain’s ranking counterterrorism official:
"The operation (was) in its early stages, so we are unable to go into detail at this time about the suspected offenses," because perhaps none are planned. "However, I believe it was necessary at this time to take action in order to ensure public safety," even though saying so may be a lie, especially after admitting there’s no imminent terrorist attack.
European officials, in fact, said, no specific threats were timed to coincide with the holiday season, despite alleged claims of an Al Qaeda plot at the time. Nonetheless, inflammatory news reports, including from BBC, said the men were planning attacks on the US Embassy and London Stock Exchange "to coincide with the Christmas holidays (and prepared by) reconnoitering the targets." Also that they were using parcel bomb designs from an Al Qaeda newsletter, though no bombs or clear evidence was found.
It’s another case of guilt by accusation based only "on suspicion (no evidence) of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism," but media reports suggest otherwise.
Cowell said:
…special squads us(ed) sniffer dogs to raid four homes and an Internet cafe. They smashed windows and ceilings in the cafe and, according to witnesses, seized a dozen computers. The antiterrorism team also searched two motel rooms near a military base, where four of the detainees had registered, but the police provided no further information.
AP reported that Sue Hemming, head of the Crown Prosecution Service Counterterrorism Division said:
I have today advised the police that nine men should be charged with conspiracy to cause explosions and with engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism with the intention of either committing acts of terrorism or assisting another to commit such acts.
BBC reported that "Police search(ed) many properties, (but) no explosives have yet been found." When no evidence exists, conspiracy is charged. Also, "conduct in preparation" is meaningless without specifics. If they existed, they’d be stated and reported. Authorities instead said an alleged plot was in "relatively early stages," giving no credibility whatever to the charge. Nonetheless, on December 30, Reuters said a Danish court charged the three men in custody with attempting an act of terrorism.
A Final Comment
On July 7, 2005, BBC reported that three blasts struck the London Underground. Another struck a city double-decker bus (called 7/7). All occurred during the morning rush hour for maximum disruption and casualties. Prime Minister Tony Blair called them terrorist attacks. Four men were later charged. Three were Muslims, the other Jamaican-born. At precisely the same time, an anti-terror drill occurred, simulating the real attacks. It was no coincidence, raising legitimate questions about a false flag.
AP reported that the London Israeli embassy warned Scotland Yard about 7/7 in advance, and Israeli Army Radio said "Scotland Yard had intelligence warning of the attacks a short time before they occurred," but didn’t act or issue alerts. Moreover, Israel’s finance minister at the time, Benjamin Netanyahu, was told to skip a London economic conference where he was scheduled to speak. Other officials were also warned, but not the public. It’s no stretch calling 7/7 a false flag operation to heighten fear and keep Britain and America embroiled in war.
The March 2004 Madrid train bombings occurred three days before Spain’s general elections. With no supportive evidence, they were blamed on Al Qaeda. Another false flag was likely to stoke fear in Spain and throughout the West. Nearly always, Muslims are blamed. This time, Basque separatists were also named, again with no corroborating evidence.
The pattern repeats often. On June 30, 2007, a Jeep Cherokee with propane canisters crashed into Glasgow International Airport’s glass doors. BBC reported that it "was in the middle of the doorway burning, (but) the car didn’t actually explode. There were a few pops and bangs which presumably (was) the petrol."
The usual suspects were named, Al Qaeda and Islamic terrorists. Prime Minister Gordon Brown then said:
We are dealing, in general term, with people who are associated with Al Qaeda."
The UK Telegraph reported:
An "unknown Al Qaeda terrorist cell (was) thought to be preparing to launch a series of Baghdad-style car bombings."
Other UK and US reports also stoked fear, ABC News saying:
All of this comes just three weeks after what was described as an Al Qaeda graduation ceremony for suicide bombers at a training camp in Pakistan.
Neither Brown or media reports cited evidence, just fear mongering charges. Another false flag was likely to maintain public support for the war on terror that’s also a war on Islam in America, continental Europe and Britain. The latest London arrests look just as bogus, especially with no hard evidence to corroborate charges.
www.uruknet.info?p=73824
mercredi 12 janvier 2011
Davutoğlu's delayed visit to Iraq
HASAN KANBOLAT
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Davutoğlu’s delayed visit to Iraq
Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Iraq, which was scheduled for Jan. 10-11, 2011, has been postponed for now. The minister is expected to visit the country in the next couple of weeks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to make a visit to Iraq after Davutoğlu.
There are few hotels in Baghdad, and they are currently undergoing maintenance for the Arab League summit that will be held in Baghdad in March, causing Davutoğlu to keep his delegation at home. Aside from this, Baghdad continues to be the scene of political developments.
The last time Davutoğlu visited Iraq was on Nov. 7, 2010. His visit was going to be an expression of support for the new Iraqi government. During his visit, the preliminary work of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council was going to be carried out. Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai have already visited Iraq to lend their support to the Iraqi government. Last week Iran’s new foreign affairs minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, made his first visit among Arab countries to Iraq. In this respect, Salehi’s visit shows where Iraq stands with regard to Iran’s foreign policy.
Davutoğlu had plans to visit Baghdad, Najaf and Kirkuk. No senior level Turkish diplomat other than Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad, Murat Özcelik, has visited Najaf, which is one of the most important Shiite centers in Iraq and the place where Hazrati Ali’s tomb is believed to be located. Davutoğlu was going to be the first Turkish minister to visit Najaf.
Davutoğlu’s planned visit to Kirkuk is also very important. Turkish politicians were not able to visit Kirkuk between the years 1976 and 2006. A delegation of Turkish military officers, politicians and diplomats visited Kirkuk for the first time in 1937 after the Sadabat Pact was signed.
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel visited the city in 1967.
During his visit, Demirel met with a 10-person delegation from the Turkmen Brotherhood Association. The leaders of the delegation, retired Col. Abdullah Abdurrahman and Dr. Necdet Koçak, as well as Dr. Rıza Demirci and Adil Sharif were executed at the order of Saddam in 1980.
President Cevdet Sunay studied at the Kirkuk Military High School in 1910 visited Kirkuk in 1969.
Demirel visited Kirkuk for a second time when he went to attend the opening ceremony of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in 1972. President Fahri Korutürk went to Kirkuk in 1976 and visited the Kirkuk Turkish Cultural Center, where he addressed close to 10,000 Turkmen.
After Korutürk’s visit, wide-scale arrests took place among Turkmen in Kirkuk, and Turkmen were constantly subject to assimilation until the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed. The most recent visit to Kirkuk by Turkish officials was in 2006, when a delegation from the Turkish Parliament, which included Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Balıkesir deputy Turhan Çömez and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tokat deputy Orhan Ziya Diren, visited the city.
Davutoğlu’s Kirkuk visit will be the first visit by a senior-level Turkish official since 1976.
Kirkuk is one of the most important oil fields in Iraq and the center of the Turkmen population in Iraq. It is an important center for Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Following 2003, Kurdish groups started intensifying efforts to take control of the city. The central Iraqi government is having trouble countering the desire of Kurds to dominate the city.
Turkey wants to open a third embassy in Kirkuk, after Basra and Arbil. Reopening the Turkish Cultural Center, which is affiliated with the Turkish Ministry of Culture but was closed down during Saddam’s reign, will be an important development in terms of healing the wounds of Kirkuk Turkmen who were oppressed under Saddam’s rule.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-232097-davutoglus-delayed-visit-to-iraq.html
h.kanbolat@todayszaman.com
Davutoğlu’s delayed visit to Iraq
Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s visit to Iraq, which was scheduled for Jan. 10-11, 2011, has been postponed for now. The minister is expected to visit the country in the next couple of weeks. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is expected to make a visit to Iraq after Davutoğlu.
There are few hotels in Baghdad, and they are currently undergoing maintenance for the Arab League summit that will be held in Baghdad in March, causing Davutoğlu to keep his delegation at home. Aside from this, Baghdad continues to be the scene of political developments.
The last time Davutoğlu visited Iraq was on Nov. 7, 2010. His visit was going to be an expression of support for the new Iraqi government. During his visit, the preliminary work of the High-Level Strategic Cooperation Council was going to be carried out. Egyptian Foreign Affairs Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Jordanian Prime Minister Samir Rifai have already visited Iraq to lend their support to the Iraqi government. Last week Iran’s new foreign affairs minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, made his first visit among Arab countries to Iraq. In this respect, Salehi’s visit shows where Iraq stands with regard to Iran’s foreign policy.
Davutoğlu had plans to visit Baghdad, Najaf and Kirkuk. No senior level Turkish diplomat other than Turkey’s ambassador in Baghdad, Murat Özcelik, has visited Najaf, which is one of the most important Shiite centers in Iraq and the place where Hazrati Ali’s tomb is believed to be located. Davutoğlu was going to be the first Turkish minister to visit Najaf.
Davutoğlu’s planned visit to Kirkuk is also very important. Turkish politicians were not able to visit Kirkuk between the years 1976 and 2006. A delegation of Turkish military officers, politicians and diplomats visited Kirkuk for the first time in 1937 after the Sadabat Pact was signed.
Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel visited the city in 1967.
During his visit, Demirel met with a 10-person delegation from the Turkmen Brotherhood Association. The leaders of the delegation, retired Col. Abdullah Abdurrahman and Dr. Necdet Koçak, as well as Dr. Rıza Demirci and Adil Sharif were executed at the order of Saddam in 1980.
President Cevdet Sunay studied at the Kirkuk Military High School in 1910 visited Kirkuk in 1969.
Demirel visited Kirkuk for a second time when he went to attend the opening ceremony of the Kirkuk-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline in 1972. President Fahri Korutürk went to Kirkuk in 1976 and visited the Kirkuk Turkish Cultural Center, where he addressed close to 10,000 Turkmen.
After Korutürk’s visit, wide-scale arrests took place among Turkmen in Kirkuk, and Turkmen were constantly subject to assimilation until the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed. The most recent visit to Kirkuk by Turkish officials was in 2006, when a delegation from the Turkish Parliament, which included Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Balıkesir deputy Turhan Çömez and Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tokat deputy Orhan Ziya Diren, visited the city.
Davutoğlu’s Kirkuk visit will be the first visit by a senior-level Turkish official since 1976.
Kirkuk is one of the most important oil fields in Iraq and the center of the Turkmen population in Iraq. It is an important center for Arabs and Kurds in northern Iraq. Following 2003, Kurdish groups started intensifying efforts to take control of the city. The central Iraqi government is having trouble countering the desire of Kurds to dominate the city.
Turkey wants to open a third embassy in Kirkuk, after Basra and Arbil. Reopening the Turkish Cultural Center, which is affiliated with the Turkish Ministry of Culture but was closed down during Saddam’s reign, will be an important development in terms of healing the wounds of Kirkuk Turkmen who were oppressed under Saddam’s rule.
http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-232097-davutoglus-delayed-visit-to-iraq.html
mardi 11 janvier 2011
Occupation of Iraq destroys women's lives
By Serene Assir
More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP).
In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society.
No security
Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women's rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation."
In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination.
According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back.
Echoing al-Azzawi's words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled.
"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice."
Criminal levels of poverty
The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("Iraqi Women Under Occupation" [PDF]).
The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees.
IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence," 6 April 2006).
The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq's middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty.
Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes."
Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported.
Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty.
According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation's crimes," al-Azzawi said.
Death, torture and enforced disappearance
No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million.
According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq" [PDF]).
It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women's Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women's Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows.
Inside Iraq's jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers' Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added.
Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them.
One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("Girls Education in Iraq 2010" [PDF]).
"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi.
Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women's rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family.
"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added.
Forced Islamization of society
It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose.
The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past.
Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered."
Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated -- as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers -- it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation's goals have failed.
Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis' rights in general are in fact women.
"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope."
A US soldier stands over an Iraqi woman in her home, May 2008. (Jason Fudge)
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11723.shtml
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11723.shtml
January 10, 2011
More than seven years after the US- and UK-led invasion of their country, Iraqis continue to endure an occupation that has systematically violated their rights to life, dignity, self-determination and economic development. The occupation has been and continues to be so destructive and so violent that one in four Iraqis are estimated to be dead or displaced. One in five Iraqis has been made a refugee or an internally displaced person (IDP).
In particular, the role and situation of women and girls has declined precipitously compared to prior to the invasion. From torture to rape to assassination, from forced separation for mixed couples to women and their children enduring the death of their husbands and fathers, from a loss of educational rights to expulsion from the workplace and public life, and from sexual slavery to forced flight or enforced disappearance, for the past seven years Iraqi women and girls have endured the most terrifying of fates. They are living at the mercy of an occupation that both seeks to terrorize them into submission, and to use them as objects for the terrorization of the whole of Iraqi society.
No security
Dr. Souad al-Azzawi, who authored a study on Iraqi women entitled "Deterioration of Iraq women's rights and living conditions under occupation," published in January 2008, told The Electronic Intifada: "The most significant loss that Iraqi women have suffered is a complete and total loss of security." She explained that the loss of security entails both the loss of physical security and "the economic, social and civil securities Iraqi women were so accustomed to prior to the occupation."
In fact, it appears that the loss of physical and other aspects of security have a Catch-22 effect on the lives of women. The lack of legal and institutional support for women by an Iraqi puppet government which is at best ineffective has meant that in the vast majority of cases the criminals, mafias, militias, death squads, US occupation forces and Iraqi police and army forces committing crimes against women are not held accountable for their actions. This has in turn encouraged the development of a situation characterized by lawlessness and criminality, in which women are prime targets. As such, many women have been forced to leave their jobs and quit their education, for fear that they may be the next victim of rape or assassination.
According to al-Azzawi, Iraqi women have had to resort to "the relative security of their homes," often taking their children out of school too if they were the only parent able to accompany them there and back.
Echoing al-Azzawi's words, an Iraqi refugee speaking on condition of anonymity said that she was forced to leave Iraq precisely because of death threats issued against her by militias who had found out she was actively working as a journalist seeking to expose the injustices taking place against women. Had she stayed in Iraq, the threats likely would have been fulfilled.
"Not only was I being targeted, but I was also without protection, given that Iraq has no government to speak of," she explained. She added that "I could have been killed at any moment, and no one would have been held accountable for it. It was for one reason alone that I fled: because I had no choice."
Criminal levels of poverty
The figures speak for themselves. According to a dossier on Iraqi women published by the BRussells Tribunal, prior to the invasion 72 percent of working women were government employees. The dismantlement of state institutions immediately after the invasion meant that these women became unemployed. Instability and ineffective institutions in Iraq render it impossible to pinpoint the total rate of unemployment today, but estimates range from 15 percent to 70 percent. The few stable jobs that exist, according to the dossier, are usually given to men, though a growing number of female-headed households means that many women need to take extraordinary risks in order to try and cater for their children ("Iraqi Women Under Occupation" [PDF]).
The same economic insecurity affects Iraqi refugee families. Aseer al-Madaien, the Protection Officer for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) - Syria, says that out of 139,000 registered Iraqis in Syria, 28 percent are households headed by women. In total, estimates for the total number of displaced Iraqis, including both refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), range up to almost five million, according to the international organization Medecins Sans Frontieres, which believes that there are 2.5 million Iraqi IDPs and 2.3 million refugees.
IDPs suffer both extreme vulnerability and insecurity, as they seek refuge in the homes of relatives and friends, said Hana Al Bayaty, member of the Executive Committee of the BRussells Tribunal. Many of them are the victims of ethnic cleansing, whereby a country once free of sectarianism is increasingly witnessing the targeting of persons on the basis of their religion or ethnicity. Mixed marriages in these conditions are all too often broken up by force, according to a report published by the UN-affiliated IRIN humanitarian news agency ("Mixed Marriages confront Sectarian Violence," 6 April 2006).
The majority of Iraqi refugees have headed to neighboring countries Syria and Jordan, where they are not allowed to work, as they are legally considered "guests." In 2007, the UNHCR reported that an estimated 40 percent of Iraq's middle class had fled the country. Not only have almost half of those with the qualifications and experience to help rebuild Iraq left the country, but they are also suffering from the most extreme form of disempowerment, according to Al Bayaty.
Al-Azzawi explained that "For the educated middle class, this situation is shattering as everything we have worked so hard to earn and build up over decades of war and sanctions is being brought down by military force before our very eyes."
Unable to work legally, it is often refugee women who take upon themselves the burden and the risk of working as they are less likely to be asked for documentation on the streets of Amman, Damascus and beyond, and they thereby hope to be less likely to be deported.
Unemployment levels in Syria and Jordan, however, mean that even illegal work is hard to come by. It is because of this that the phenomenon of forced prostitution is becoming increasingly rife. The growing problem of sex trafficking is partly caused by poverty.
According to al-Azzawi, the lack of work permits, qualifications and opportunities "leads some women to prostitution in order to feed their children and their families." In other cases, the sheer lack of protection faced by some women push them into prostitution. Problems in such cases include threats of kidnapping issued against women should they not accept to prostitute themselves. These threats are issued especially against women whose husbands are dead or missing. "The women of Iraq live in a very fragile situation as a result of the American occupation's crimes," al-Azzawi said.
Death, torture and enforced disappearance
No statistical reference can adequately convey the sheer suffering experienced by the people of Iraq, as a whole, from the genocidal sanctions period through the invasion and ensuing occupation. Current estimates place the number of dead at anywhere between 1.5 million and 2.5 million.
According to Iraqi human rights analyst and advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Up to one million Iraqis have been forcibly disappeared." Behind the enforced disappearances are the US army, Iraqi government forces including the army and police, and al-Qaeda and other militias that operate freely across the country, according to a presentation given by Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal Executive Committee, at a London conference organized by the International Committee Against Disappearances on 9-12 December 2010. According to calculations by Adriaensens, based on UNHCR statistics, 20 percent of internally displaced Iraqi families have reported cases of missing children ("Enforced Disappearance. The Missing Persons of Iraq" [PDF]).
It is also understood that, given that there is a very real and justified fear of retaliation against families who report the disappearances of their loved ones, many others suffer in silence. Thousands of detainees, some of them in secret, illegal prisons, according to al-Azzawi, are women. Estimates published in 2008 by the Iraqi Parliamentary Women's Committee and the Iraqi Ministry of Women's Affairs indicate that between one and two million Iraqi women are widows.
Inside Iraq's jails, legal or not, cases of torture and sexual abuse have been widely reported. Revelations by WikiLeaks published on 22 October 2010 were described by Iraqi activists such as Sabah al-Mukhtar, president of the Arab Lawyers' Union, as just "the tip of the iceberg," as he said on an Al-Jazeera English interview on 24 October. According to al-Azzawi, women are usually jailed on trumped-up charges of terrorism, where there is no proof and while there is no adequate legal system to ensure their right to a fair trial. "Many are awaiting execution," al-Azzawi added.
Further, when it is the man who disappears, whether he is dead or missing, women and their families have to fend for themselves in a hellish situation. Out of this horror comes forth one of the more obtuse trends, inexistent in Iraq up until 2003, of families giving their daughters away in early marriage for fear of being unable to adequately support them.
One immediate effect of this phenomenon is the fact that girls aged 13, 14 and 15 sold into early marriage lose their right to education. As figures currently stand, according to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) report published on 1 September 2010, for every 100 boys in school, there are only 89 girls ("Girls Education in Iraq 2010" [PDF]).
"Lots of those little girls are very bright and are willing to finish their education if they are allowed to," said al-Azzawi.
Worse still is the flourishing of what are known as "pleasure marriages." These are short-term marriages conducted out of court, whereby separation is also very simple. It is a practice that Iraqi women's rights advocates describe as linked to prostitution, because of the wrongful abuse of the practice by men in power, often blackmailing fathers into giving their daughters away in a "pleasure marriage," and also because once a girl or a woman has married in this way and has received alimony for her short-term commitment, she will find it very difficult to reintegrate back into her family.
"Many girls are forced into prostitution and ultimately sex trafficking this way," al-Azzawi added.
Forced Islamization of society
It is deeply telling that Iraqi society is becoming forcibly Islamized by militias tied to the Iraqi puppet government, which is dependent upon the United States for its survival. Meanwhile, Washington claims to be fighting a war on Islamic terrorism. The reality, as is frequently the case, is the precise opposite. Previously a secular state, Iraqi society is becoming forcibly transformed into a theocracy. In such systems, women and girls inevitably lose.
The results of the proliferation of fundamentalist militias are varied. While reports of Christian women veiling in order to avoid attacks are troubling in the Iraqi context, what is potentially much worse is that the notion of an Iraqi state for all its citizens is fast disappearing. Not only does this mean that Iraqi girls are no longer safe on the streets; it also means that if the occupation fulfills its goals, Iraqi "career women" may be a thing of the past.
Al-Azzawi notes that "Economically the country has lost a huge, skilled working force, which is exactly what the occupation planned to do, and the lives of millions of working women and families were shattered."
Considering that there is not a single right enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the US occupation has not violated -- as the International Initiative to Prosecute US Genocide in Iraq team found when working in 2009 to bring a legal case for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against four US presidents and four UK prime ministers -- it is amazing yet encouraging that the US occupation's goals have failed.
Not only is the US administration under President Barack Obama still battling to maintain control over a country whose people resist in the name of their dignity and their love for Iraq, but many of the most outspoken and brilliant advocates for Iraqis' rights in general are in fact women.
"I have much hope for Iraq," said human rights advocate Asma al-Haidari, "Nothing will make me lose hope."
Serene Assir is a Lebanese independent writer and journalist based in Spain.
vendredi 7 janvier 2011
Rise, fall and rise again of the Turkish Empire
A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the...
By ANTHONY SHADID
The New York Times
ZAKHO, Iraq —
A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.
Its ascent here, in an arena contested by the United States and Iran, may prove its greatest success so far, as it emerges from the shadow of its alliance with the West to chart an often assertive and independent foreign policy.
Turkey's influence is greater in northern Iraq and broader, although not deeper, than that of Iran, with its ties to the Shiite leadership, in the rest of the country. While the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, losing more than 4,400 troops there, Turkey now exerts what may prove a more lasting legacy — so-called soft power, the assertion of influence through culture, education and business.
"This is the trick — we are very much welcome here," said Ali Riza Ozcoskun, who heads Turkey's consulate in Basra, one of four diplomatic posts it has in Iraq.
Turkey's newfound influence here has played out along an axis that runs roughly from Zakho in the north to Basra, by way of the capital, Baghdad. For a country that once saw the Kurdish region in northern Iraq as a threat, Turkey has embarked on the beginning of what might be called a beautiful friendship.
In the Iraqi capital, it promoted a secular coalition that it helped build, drawing the ire of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, along the way. For Iraq's abundant oil and gas, it has positioned itself as the country's gateway to Europe, while helping to satisfy its own growing energy needs.
Just as the Justice and Development Party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reoriented politics to appease a growing fundamentalist Islamic influence in Turkey, it is doing so in Iraq, with repercussions for the rest of the region.
While some Turkish officials recoil at the notion of neo-Ottomanism — an orientation of Turkey away from Europe and toward an empire that once included parts of three continents — the country's process of globalization and attention to the markets of the Middle East is upsetting assumptions that only U.S. power is decisive. Turkey has committed itself here to economic integration, seeing its future in at least an echo of its past.
"No one is trying to overtake Iraq or one part of Iraq," said Aydin Selcen, who heads the consulate in Erbil, which opened this year. "But we are going to integrate with this country. Roads, railroads, airports, oil and gas pipelines — there will be a free flow of people and goods between the two sides of the border."
By the border, he meant Zakho and the 26-lane checkpoint of Ibrahim Khalil, where 1,500 trucks pass daily, bringing Turkish building materials, clothes, furniture, food and pretty much everything else that fills shops in northern Iraq.
Trade doubled
The economic boom they have helped propel has reverberated across Iraq. Trade between the two countries amounted to about $6 billion in 2010, almost double what it was in 2008, Turkish officials say. They project that, in two or three years, Iraq may be Turkey's biggest export market.
"This is the very beginning," said Rushdi Said, the flamboyant Iraqi Kurdish chairman of Adel United, a company involved in everything from mining to sprawling housing projects. "All of the world has started fighting over Iraq. They're fighting for the money."
In some ways, he is a reincarnation of an Ottoman merchant, at ease speaking Kurdish, Turkish, Persian and Arabic. He has thought of contacting Angelina Jolie, "maybe Arnold and Sylvester, too," to interest them in some of his 11 projects across Iraq to build 100,000 villas and apartments at the cost of a few billion dollars. So far, though, his best partner is Ibrahim Tatlises, a Turkish-born Kurdish singer, whose portrait adorns Said's advertisement for his project the Plain of Paradise.
"The villas are ready!" Tatlises says in TV ads. "Come! Come! Come!"
Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north where Said lives, has become the nexus of Turkish politics and business, made possible by the sharp edge of military power.
About 15,000 Turks work in Erbil and other parts of the north, and Turkish companies, more than 700 of them, make up two-thirds of all foreign companies in the region. Travel requirements have been lifted, and the consulate in Erbil issues as many as 300 visas a day.
Turkish officials talk about transforming the region into something akin to the U.S.-Mexican border, an ambiguous frontier. While Turkey sees integration as a way to tap nascent markets in the Middle East, some Kurdish officials have seen it more emotionally, as a way to bind them to
Kurdish regions in neighboring countries.
Kurds represent nearly 20 percent of Turkey's population, and Turkish governments have long viewed calls for their self-determination as a fundamental threat to the state. The same went for Kurds in Iraq, whose autonomy might provide an inspiration to Turkey's own minority.
Over the smoldering reservations of the Turkish military, which has carried out repeated coups against elected governments, Erdogan has undertaken halting steps to reconcile with Turkey's own Kurds. Less publicly, U.S. officials in late 2007 began to support Turkish military action against Kurdish rebels in Turkey who have sought refuge in northern Iraq.
Influence increases
On the road from Erbil to Baghdad, its pop culture is everywhere.
Posters of Turkish TV serials — from "Muhannad and Nour" to "Forbidden Love" — sell by the tens of thousands. The action series "Valley of the Wolves" is a sensation, the lead actor lending his name to cafes. Turkey's political influence in Baghdad is no less widespread. Unlike Iran and the United States, it has cultivated ties with virtually every bloc in the country, although relations with al-Maliki have proved difficult at times. (At one point, his officials tried to revoke the Turkish ambassador's credentials to enter Baghdad's security enclave known as the Green Zone. "A misunderstanding," Turkish diplomats called it.)
Turkish diplomats have managed to reach out to unlikely partners, namely the followers of the Iran-affiliated populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Most of al-Sadr's bloc of lawmakers traveled to the Turkish capital, Ankara, for training in parliamentary protocol. In October, Turks were the only diplomats to attend a commemoration the Sadrists held at Baghdad University.
Turkey strongly backed the fortunes of a coalition led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite politician who enjoys the support of factions dominated by Sunnis, the rival branch of Islam. More than any other country, Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors included, it is credited with forging the coalition in the first place.
In southernmost Iraq, the old Ottoman quarter in faded Basra is crumbling. Its windows are patched with cinder block, although the stench of sewage still seeps in. Across town is the Basra International Fair Ground, built by Turks and opened in June. Three fairs have already been held there, including one organized in November for Iraq's petroleum industry.
Oil is still king in Iraq, and as much as anything else, underlines Turkey's interests here. The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, already carries roughly 25 percent of Iraq's oil exports.
The Turks have signed on to the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco gas-pipeline project, which may bypass Russia and bring Iraqi gas to Europe. Turkish companies have two stakes in oil contracts, and two more in gas projects, potentially worth billions of dollars. In a land of oil, no place has more than Basra.
Turkish ships offshore provide 250 megawatts of electricity a day. Turkish companies have refurbished the Sheraton Hotel in Basra and are helping to build a 65,000-seat stadium. The Turkish national air carrier is planning four flights a week from Istanbul to Basra; only one is offered now, by Iraqi Airways. Vortex, Crazy Dance and other amusement rides in Basraland are Turkish. So are the sweets sold there.
"No one is working here except Turkey," said Ozcoskun, the Turkish consul in Basra.
By ANTHONY SHADID
The New York Times
ZAKHO, Iraq —
A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.
Its ascent here, in an arena contested by the United States and Iran, may prove its greatest success so far, as it emerges from the shadow of its alliance with the West to chart an often assertive and independent foreign policy.
Turkey's influence is greater in northern Iraq and broader, although not deeper, than that of Iran, with its ties to the Shiite leadership, in the rest of the country. While the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, losing more than 4,400 troops there, Turkey now exerts what may prove a more lasting legacy — so-called soft power, the assertion of influence through culture, education and business.
"This is the trick — we are very much welcome here," said Ali Riza Ozcoskun, who heads Turkey's consulate in Basra, one of four diplomatic posts it has in Iraq.
Turkey's newfound influence here has played out along an axis that runs roughly from Zakho in the north to Basra, by way of the capital, Baghdad. For a country that once saw the Kurdish region in northern Iraq as a threat, Turkey has embarked on the beginning of what might be called a beautiful friendship.
In the Iraqi capital, it promoted a secular coalition that it helped build, drawing the ire of Iraq's prime minister, Nouri al-Maliki, along the way. For Iraq's abundant oil and gas, it has positioned itself as the country's gateway to Europe, while helping to satisfy its own growing energy needs.
Just as the Justice and Development Party of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reoriented politics to appease a growing fundamentalist Islamic influence in Turkey, it is doing so in Iraq, with repercussions for the rest of the region.
While some Turkish officials recoil at the notion of neo-Ottomanism — an orientation of Turkey away from Europe and toward an empire that once included parts of three continents — the country's process of globalization and attention to the markets of the Middle East is upsetting assumptions that only U.S. power is decisive. Turkey has committed itself here to economic integration, seeing its future in at least an echo of its past.
"No one is trying to overtake Iraq or one part of Iraq," said Aydin Selcen, who heads the consulate in Erbil, which opened this year. "But we are going to integrate with this country. Roads, railroads, airports, oil and gas pipelines — there will be a free flow of people and goods between the two sides of the border."
By the border, he meant Zakho and the 26-lane checkpoint of Ibrahim Khalil, where 1,500 trucks pass daily, bringing Turkish building materials, clothes, furniture, food and pretty much everything else that fills shops in northern Iraq.
Trade doubled
The economic boom they have helped propel has reverberated across Iraq. Trade between the two countries amounted to about $6 billion in 2010, almost double what it was in 2008, Turkish officials say. They project that, in two or three years, Iraq may be Turkey's biggest export market.
"This is the very beginning," said Rushdi Said, the flamboyant Iraqi Kurdish chairman of Adel United, a company involved in everything from mining to sprawling housing projects. "All of the world has started fighting over Iraq. They're fighting for the money."
In some ways, he is a reincarnation of an Ottoman merchant, at ease speaking Kurdish, Turkish, Persian and Arabic. He has thought of contacting Angelina Jolie, "maybe Arnold and Sylvester, too," to interest them in some of his 11 projects across Iraq to build 100,000 villas and apartments at the cost of a few billion dollars. So far, though, his best partner is Ibrahim Tatlises, a Turkish-born Kurdish singer, whose portrait adorns Said's advertisement for his project the Plain of Paradise.
"The villas are ready!" Tatlises says in TV ads. "Come! Come! Come!"
Erbil, the Kurdish capital in the north where Said lives, has become the nexus of Turkish politics and business, made possible by the sharp edge of military power.
About 15,000 Turks work in Erbil and other parts of the north, and Turkish companies, more than 700 of them, make up two-thirds of all foreign companies in the region. Travel requirements have been lifted, and the consulate in Erbil issues as many as 300 visas a day.
Turkish officials talk about transforming the region into something akin to the U.S.-Mexican border, an ambiguous frontier. While Turkey sees integration as a way to tap nascent markets in the Middle East, some Kurdish officials have seen it more emotionally, as a way to bind them to
Kurdish regions in neighboring countries.
Kurds represent nearly 20 percent of Turkey's population, and Turkish governments have long viewed calls for their self-determination as a fundamental threat to the state. The same went for Kurds in Iraq, whose autonomy might provide an inspiration to Turkey's own minority.
Over the smoldering reservations of the Turkish military, which has carried out repeated coups against elected governments, Erdogan has undertaken halting steps to reconcile with Turkey's own Kurds. Less publicly, U.S. officials in late 2007 began to support Turkish military action against Kurdish rebels in Turkey who have sought refuge in northern Iraq.
Influence increases
On the road from Erbil to Baghdad, its pop culture is everywhere.
Posters of Turkish TV serials — from "Muhannad and Nour" to "Forbidden Love" — sell by the tens of thousands. The action series "Valley of the Wolves" is a sensation, the lead actor lending his name to cafes. Turkey's political influence in Baghdad is no less widespread. Unlike Iran and the United States, it has cultivated ties with virtually every bloc in the country, although relations with al-Maliki have proved difficult at times. (At one point, his officials tried to revoke the Turkish ambassador's credentials to enter Baghdad's security enclave known as the Green Zone. "A misunderstanding," Turkish diplomats called it.)
Turkish diplomats have managed to reach out to unlikely partners, namely the followers of the Iran-affiliated populist Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. Most of al-Sadr's bloc of lawmakers traveled to the Turkish capital, Ankara, for training in parliamentary protocol. In October, Turks were the only diplomats to attend a commemoration the Sadrists held at Baghdad University.
Turkey strongly backed the fortunes of a coalition led by Ayad Allawi, a secular Shiite politician who enjoys the support of factions dominated by Sunnis, the rival branch of Islam. More than any other country, Iraq's Sunni Arab neighbors included, it is credited with forging the coalition in the first place.
In southernmost Iraq, the old Ottoman quarter in faded Basra is crumbling. Its windows are patched with cinder block, although the stench of sewage still seeps in. Across town is the Basra International Fair Ground, built by Turks and opened in June. Three fairs have already been held there, including one organized in November for Iraq's petroleum industry.
Oil is still king in Iraq, and as much as anything else, underlines Turkey's interests here. The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, already carries roughly 25 percent of Iraq's oil exports.
The Turks have signed on to the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco gas-pipeline project, which may bypass Russia and bring Iraqi gas to Europe. Turkish companies have two stakes in oil contracts, and two more in gas projects, potentially worth billions of dollars. In a land of oil, no place has more than Basra.
Turkish ships offshore provide 250 megawatts of electricity a day. Turkish companies have refurbished the Sheraton Hotel in Basra and are helping to build a 65,000-seat stadium. The Turkish national air carrier is planning four flights a week from Istanbul to Basra; only one is offered now, by Iraqi Airways. Vortex, Crazy Dance and other amusement rides in Basraland are Turkish. So are the sweets sold there.
"No one is working here except Turkey," said Ozcoskun, the Turkish consul in Basra.
mardi 4 janvier 2011
IRAQ: THE TURKMENS WANT PEACE
The Turkmens want peace
04 January 2011
Iraqi Turkmen Front Representative Hicran Kazancı said that they did not want a separate government in Iraq, that a new phase with the Kurdish government had begun.
Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Hicran Kazancı said that the idea that the Turkmen desire a separate government in Iraq did not reflect the truth. "We are a part of Iraq" said H.Kazancı and underlined that in comparison with the past, the relations with Kurds was now closer.
Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Hicran Kazancı shared his views with Taraf newspaper about the investment of Turkish businessmen in Iraq, relations with Kurds and the democratic initiation process in Turkey.
Hicran Kazancı said that the view that the Turkmen desire a separate government in Iraq did not reflect the truth, he said "We are a part of Iraq".
Hicran Kazancı underlined that a new phase in the relationship with Kurds had begun, he said, "After the Saddam regime, everyone realized that the problems of Iraq cannot be resolved with violence. This is evidenced by the fact that the Turkmen were invited to the KDP congress to resolve problems at the table".
Hicran Kazancı went on to underline that the democratic initiation process in Turkey was closely followed and said: "After the memorandum dated 1st March, the policies executed by Turkey have been received very positively in Iraq. The respect for Turkey and its power are increasing. At first, the initiation was perceived as a weakness. However, when this initiation is realized the PKK in Northern Iraq shall begin to unravel. A fraction of the PKK have understood the importance of peace but there will always be those whose choice is to use firearms. Still the numbers of those wanting peace is growing. "
Great interest towards investments
Hicran Kazancı drew attention to the investment made by Turkish businessmen in Iraq. "The days of unadulterated politics is over, nowadays economy is everything" said H.Kazancı and added that the investments made in Northern Iraq caused happiness and feelings of sympathy among the groups in Northern Iraq.
Taraf
04 January 2011
Iraqi Turkmen Front Representative Hicran Kazancı said that they did not want a separate government in Iraq, that a new phase with the Kurdish government had begun.
Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Hicran Kazancı said that the idea that the Turkmen desire a separate government in Iraq did not reflect the truth. "We are a part of Iraq" said H.Kazancı and underlined that in comparison with the past, the relations with Kurds was now closer.
Iraqi Turkmen Front Turkey Representative Hicran Kazancı shared his views with Taraf newspaper about the investment of Turkish businessmen in Iraq, relations with Kurds and the democratic initiation process in Turkey.
Hicran Kazancı said that the view that the Turkmen desire a separate government in Iraq did not reflect the truth, he said "We are a part of Iraq".
Hicran Kazancı underlined that a new phase in the relationship with Kurds had begun, he said, "After the Saddam regime, everyone realized that the problems of Iraq cannot be resolved with violence. This is evidenced by the fact that the Turkmen were invited to the KDP congress to resolve problems at the table".
Hicran Kazancı went on to underline that the democratic initiation process in Turkey was closely followed and said: "After the memorandum dated 1st March, the policies executed by Turkey have been received very positively in Iraq. The respect for Turkey and its power are increasing. At first, the initiation was perceived as a weakness. However, when this initiation is realized the PKK in Northern Iraq shall begin to unravel. A fraction of the PKK have understood the importance of peace but there will always be those whose choice is to use firearms. Still the numbers of those wanting peace is growing. "
Great interest towards investments
Hicran Kazancı drew attention to the investment made by Turkish businessmen in Iraq. "The days of unadulterated politics is over, nowadays economy is everything" said H.Kazancı and added that the investments made in Northern Iraq caused happiness and feelings of sympathy among the groups in Northern Iraq.
Taraf
lundi 3 janvier 2011
Make Wars History, Presentation by Chris Coverdale
VIDEO :
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8053562013015124325#
Make Wars History –
Presentation by
Chris Coverdale - Lewes - 24th Feb 2009
A lecture about the laws of war and how our leaders have broken them and committed acts of genocide by attacking Iraq and killing over a million innocent civilians
Here's a link to a You Tube version 10 mins long... Please spread it around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKNc6pIWhc
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8053562013015124325#
Make Wars History –
Presentation by
Chris Coverdale - Lewes - 24th Feb 2009
A lecture about the laws of war and how our leaders have broken them and committed acts of genocide by attacking Iraq and killing over a million innocent civilians
Here's a link to a You Tube version 10 mins long... Please spread it around.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wKNc6pIWhc
samedi 1 janvier 2011
Birth defects in FALLUJAH linked to US assault
1 January 2011
Birth Defects In Fallujah Linked To US assault
By Samira Alaani, Mozhgan Savabieasfahani ,
Mohammad Tafash & Paola Manduca
Since 2003, congenital malformations have increased to account for 15% of all births in Fallujah, Iraq. Congenital heart defects have the highest incidence, followed by neural tube defects. Similar birth defects were reported in other populations exposed to war contaminants. While the causes of increased prevalence of birth defects are under investigation, we opted to release this communication to contribute to exploration of these issues- The Report in PDF
http://countercurrents.org/fallujah311210.htm
Happy New Year, Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun, Bonne Année, Feliz Año Nuevo, Gelukkig Nieuwjaar to all !
Happy New Year,
Yeni yılınız kutlu olsun,
Bonne Année,
Feliz Año Nuevo,
Gelukkig Nieuwjaar
to all!
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