DÜTAP KONFERANS 12-10-2013 BRUSSELS PARLEMENT

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KRG general elections: contested by Iraqi Turkmen Front and Gorran party

Iraqi Turkmens seek modest representation in parliament
Iraqi Turkmen Front makes debut at ballot box, as voting ends in Kurdish regional government elections

World Bulletin/News Desk

The Iraqi Kurdish regional government is holding general elections, contested for the first time by the pro-Turkmen political party Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITF).

The voting process has ended, says the election authority.

The ITF, founded in 1995 to represent Turkmens in Iraq, says they aim to win three seats out of five allocated to the Turkmen population in the 111-seat Kurdish parliament.

ITF Irbil representative Aydin Maruf calls it a "significant and historic day."

"There have not been any irregularities so far. We hope the elections will bring a good result for Turkmens in Irbil," he said Saturday.

Maruf aslo criticized the Kurdish government for offering them only five seats in the parliament.

"Our quota is too small. The Turkmen population comes second in the region after Kurds. We demand this quota be lifted. If there has to be one, it must be at least 10-15," he said.

- 'Secret' polling station

The voting process, which started 7:00 local time on Saturday, ended as of 17:00, with a 65 percent turnout rate, the election authority has said.

Iraqi Kurdish regional government prime minister Nechirvan Barzani thanked the public for their participation and an uneventful voting event.

Meanwhile, the main opposition party says it will bring legal action against what it claims are violations of electoral rules that "cast doubt on the elections."

The Gorran party has 25 seats in the parliament, standing in opposition to the Kurdistan List, the two-party coalition of Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan.

Belen Ismail, Spokesman for the Gorran, said the party was planning to file a complaint against an undocumented polling station.
"Before the elections, we received a list of all stations. But Shoresh polling station was not included on that list. Then, it turned out that ballot boxes were secretly sent there at 11:30. No information has been provided to representatives of any party," Ismail said.

More than 3,000 observers were expected to monitor the elections, among them close to 200 foreign nationals, and over 600 journalists reportedly covered the polls.

Revisiting “Red Lines” by Felicity Arbuthnot

Revisiting “Red Lines” by Felicity Arbuthnot

Posted on September 21, 2013 by dandelionsalad

by Felicity Arbuthnot
Writer, Dandelion Salad
London, England
September 20, 2013

“Two centuries ago, a former European colony decided to catch up with Europe. It succeeded so well that the United States of America became a monster, in which the taints, the sickness and the inhumanity of Europe have grown to appalling dimensions.” Frantz Fanon, 1961. (1925-1961)

Against all odds, given the circumstances, the Syrian government has, of Friday (20th September) sent an “initial declaration” of the country’s (arguably defensive) weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague. “The organization is looking at ways to fast-track moves to secure and destroy Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities.” (i)

Putting aside the complexities of “fast-tracking” in a war zone, flooded with foreign and foreign backed, armed and financed insurgents, Syria is now, as Iraq and Libya before it, vulnerable to the massive attack threatened by  John Kerry, Acting Enforcer for the current Nobel Laureate War-Monger-in-Chief, should he so choose.

“The threat of force is real”, said Kerry, speaking aside his other Master, Benjamin Netanyahu, in Israel after a hasty shuttle there last Sunday (15th September.). “We cannot have hollow words”, said Kerry, a man without peer in vacuous idiocies.

The following day the UN produced the weapons inspectors report on the chemical attack in the Damascus suburbs on 21st August. Although the thirty eight page Report did not apportion blame and in spite of all the evidence to the contrary (news, websites) the Syrian government was deemed culprit.

“It is the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988, and the worst use of weapons of mass destruction in the 21st century,” said UN Secretary General Ki-moon.. “The international community has a responsibility to ensure that chemical weapons never re-emerge as an instrument of warfare.”

Talking to reporters the same day, Kerry pitched in with:  ”…  the military option is still on the table.”

However, a document, of August 2013, seems to show, despite official denials by the Obama administration, that the Syrian insurgents are capable of producing such poison gas.

“The document (ii) reveals that sarin was confiscated earlier this year from members of the Jabhat al-Nusra Front, the most influential of the rebel (fundamentalists) fighting in Syria.

“ … sarin from al-Qaida in Iraq had made its way into Turkey and that while some was seized, more could have been used in an attack last March on civilians and Syrian military troops in an artillery attack in the major Syrian city of Aleppo:

[Moreover, Al Qaida in Iraq:] “had produced a ‘bench-scale’ form of sarin in Iraq and then transferred it to Turkey where opposition forces, including Islamist militant foreign fighters had access to it.

“There’s apparently a large stockpile of sarin in Baghdad …Insurgents are using it to threaten the government there in order to get prisoners released.”

But blind eye turning in US war mongering is the order of the occasion – for both eyes.

The US, of course is a collective veteran when it comes to the use of chemical weapons. The destroyed generations of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Iraq, emerging in Libya, of Yugoslavia, with their cancers and unimaginable deformities are silent, ignored, decimated witnesses – and will be for generations to come. Now Syria is threatened with chemical weapons on a war crime defying scale.

On the September 11th, as America mourned its dead twelve years on, a near unnoticed, interminably delayed World Health Organisation Report was released into Iraq’s birth defects, cancers, and health anomalies linked to the country’s twenty year bombardment by the US and UK with Depleted Uranium – chemical and radioactive weaponry. White phosphorous and other yet to be identified “exotic” people and child exterminators were also used.

The UN-US Incorporated have done a shameful job of burying the staggering, horrific resultant health epidemic along with the bodies..

As former UN Under Secretary General and UN Head in Iraq Hans von Sponeck has noted:

“The US government sought to prevent WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where depleted uranium had been used and caused serious health and environmental dangers.”

His colleague Denis Halliday also former UN Head in Iraq and Under Secretary General Under commented:

“The World Health Organisation (WHO) has categorically refused in defiance of its own mandate to share evidence uncovered in Iraq that US military use of Depleted Uranium and other weapons have not only killed many civilians, but continue to result in the birth of deformed babies.”

See: “Cover-up of War Crimes in Iraq: When ‘Damning Evidence’ on Congenital Birth Defects becomes ‘No Clear Evidence’: Much-Delayed WHO Report” (iii) a shaming, shocking, and comprehensive read of indeed, a cover-up of enormity.

Trench being dug around Kirkuk in an attempt to reduce terrorist attacks

Analysis: Failing to address the root causes of violence in Iraq
“We want policemen for the Turkmen just like the Kurds have the ‘asayish’,” said Shia Turkmen resident Mohammed al Salihe, referring to the KRG’s security forces. “We want power for the Turkmen in Kirkuk and a police force to be in the Turkmens’ streets. We feel this will increase security, and it will be a safer place.” 

Photo: Ali Arafa/Metrography
A 3-meter-wide trench, expected to be 58-km long when completed, is being dug around the city of Kirkuk in an attempt to reduce terrorist attacks in the city

KIRKUK, 20 September 2013 (IRIN) - In the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk, a 58km trench is being dug around Kirkuk City to protect it against violence, as regular bomb attacks and assassinations threaten the safety of its multi-ethnic residents.

But experts say this, like other recent security measures, will ultimately do little because it fails to address the root causes of the violence.

Oil-rich Kirkuk Province is at the heart of a power dispute between the central government in Baghdad and the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north, ruled by the Kurdish Regional Government (KRG). In the centre of Kirkuk City, many different languages can be heard; Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Sunni, Shia and Assyrian Christians all live together here, and citizens from each group crave security.

The trench is part of a wider step up in Iraqi security this year, nationwide. Rates of violence in July peaked to numbers not seen in five years. Early this year, officials announced the tightening of security check points in the city as deadly attacks continued to kill dozens.

Bomb attacks across Iraq killed at least 58 people on 15 September, following at least 21 deaths in a funeral bombing a day earlier. Coordinated sectarian terror attacks now happen every few days, as local and national leaders argue over the best way to end the violence. The International Crisis Group (ICG) said in a recent report that “a revived sectarian civil war is a serious risk.”

In Kirkuk, one particularly brutal suicide bomb in a cafe left over 30 people dead on 12 July. The police response to this was to close all cafes in the city for three days.

At the end of August, Brigadier General Sarhad Qadir, a police chief in the city,told Rudaw news, an Erbil-based online newspaper, that Kirkuk’s police force could not cope: “The armed groups can carry out attacks anytime and anywhere they choose because they are unhindered.”

Trench

At an estimated cost of around US$2.8 million dollars, the trench will be 3m wide and 2m deep when finished, according to Qasim Hamza, a deputy minister in the Kirkuk Provincial Council.

“The project will reduce terrorist attacks against the people of Kirkuk,” Hasan Toran, head of the Provincial Council told IRIN.

But the security trench is already controversial. Arab and Turkmen farmers to the south of the city complain that the trench cuts through their land and cuts them off from their water source.

“Our livelihood is the land,” said Salah Sami, who keeps livestock in the village of Chardaglu, 12km south of Kirkuk. “If they don’t deliver water to us, villagers will migrate from this land…We have nearly 10,000 animals that may die of hunger.”

But Toran said any “attacks against farmers” would be more than offset by the added security the trench brings to the city.

Meanwhile, Arab politicians in Kirkuk worry disillusionment with the majority Kurdish provincial government could further inflame ethnic tensions in the city. Experts say marginalization of Sunni Arab farmers could strengthen terrorist groups operating in the area, who feed off disenchantment with the local government.

Responses to the spike in violence

Analysts say the trench may stop a small percentage of attacks in the city in the short-term, but that armed groups will eventually find ways to adapt.


"Any short-term improvements in terms of security could be outweighed in the long-term if the Sunni community feels it is being targeted by the government for a crime they have not committed"

“So far, there appears to be little appetite by political leaders for the compromises necessary to halt the escalating violence,” ICG said in its monthly CrisisWatch. “Instead, the government has requested from the US additional weaponry and intelligence support in order to ‘combat terrorism’.” In August, the government arrested over 670 people, ICG said, as part of a new military operation called “Martyrs’ Revenge”.

The operation focused on large-scale arrests of suspected “terrorists” in predominantly Sunni Arab areas on the outskirts of the capital, Baghdad, as well as seizures of weapons. While the operation saw some successes, it - like the Kirkuk trench - also poses some risks.

“Any short-term improvements in terms of security could be outweighed in the long-term if the Sunni community feels it is being targeted by the government for a crime they have not committed,” said Hayder al Khoei, associate fellow in the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House in London.

Experts say the rise in violence in Kirkuk Province is linked to the growing strength, nationwide, of al-Qaeda and other extremist groups in recent months. Instability stemming from power-sharing disagreements makes Kirkuk an easy target for the groups.

Power-sharing

A referendum on the status of Kirkuk, scheduled for 2007, has yet to take place, and there have been no local elections since 2005. The Provincial Council has six members representing the Arab group, nine members representing the Turkman group and 26 members representing the Kurdish alliance. Arabs and Turkmen argue they are under-represented (though the Kurdish Alliance does include other ethnicities), while Kurdish members of the council say the lack of Arab representation is due to an Arab boycott of the 2005 provincial elections.

“There is no equality in power-sharing in Kirkuk,” said Mohammed Alkelal, head of the Arab group on Kirkuk’s Provincial Council. “The security power is controlled by the Kurdish groups.”

In April, security forces of the Shia-led national government violently suppressed Sunni Arab protests against the government in Hawija, south of Kirkuk City. Clashes in the aftermath resulted in dozens of deaths. The incident has led to an increase in violence across the country, analysts said, and Alkelal says violent crackdowns like this have added to Kirkuk’s ethnic tensions.

In order to ensure their protection, a growing number of Turkman in Kirkuk are calling for the establishment of their own police force to secure Turkman areas.



Photo: Bahar Jassim/Metrography
Kirkuk bazaar


“We want policemen for the Turkmen just like the Kurds have the ‘asayish’,” said Shia Turkman resident Mohammed al Salihe, referring to the KRG’s security forces. “We want power for the Turkmen in Kirkuk and a police force to be in the Turkmens’ streets. We feel this will increase security, and it will be a safer place.”

Al Salihe lives close to a police academy and a Shia mosque - both targets of attacks. The 12 July café bombing was also near his home.

The push for ethnically defined security forces is part of a wider trend, as the central government has called on tribal leaders to re-establish ‘Sahwa’, or Awakening, forces across Iraq, to stem insurgencies and localize security. The Sahwa forces were groups of Sunni Arab fighters established by the US military in 2006-7 to tackle Sunni insurgents, such as al-Qaeda.

It is another example, says Sinan Ismael, a Kurdish journalist working in Kirkuk, of taking the wrong approach to security. He believes the answers to Kirkuk’s problems lie in effective power sharing.

Another political analyst working for an NGO in Kirkuk, who wished to remain anonymous, said a move towards ethnic security forces will only damage hopes for cohesion, adding that elections are the only solution to the city’s problems.

But provincial elections have been delayed for years because of complaints from Arabs and Turkmen about the voter register, which they say includes an exaggerated number of Kurds.

Political deadlock in Kirkuk also reflects wider disagreements in the Iraqi government, as experts say that Sunni Arabs feel excluded from decision-making in Baghdad.

“The first step has to be re-establishing confidence and initiating policies that will be inclusive,” said Ali, of the Institute for the Study of War.

aa-co/ha/rzhttp://www.irinnews.org/report/98799/analysis-failing-to-address-the-root-causes-of-violence-in-iraq

ITF EU Representative Dr Hassan Aydinli met with the Chair of the Iraqi Council of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee, Mr. Humam Hamoudi

 European Parliament Brussels - Delegation for relations with Iraq Meeting on 17th September 2013

ITF EU representative Dr Hassan Aydinli with the Chair of the Iraqi Council of Representatives' Foreign Relations  Committee,  Mr. Humam Hamoudi.

Conference on the Turkish "BAYAT RUGS" at the European Parliament and opening of the Exhibition by MEP Metin Kazak

AFYON BAYAT RUG MOTIVES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE

KILIM DIYARI BAYAT...

"BAYAT is a beautiful and historic district in Turkey, it is 47 km distant from Afyon and 210 km from Ankara. BAYAT has been one of the most special settlement as the Turkish OGUZ clans started settling down, it plays an important role with its unique historical, cultural and artistic heritage, especially with its madder dyed rug (kilim) weaving."

(Excerpt from the book: BAYAT KILIMLERI - BAYAT RUGS)

Event:  THE LANGUAGE OF RUGS - AFYON BAYAT RUG MOTIVES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTION TO THE EUROPEAN CULTURAL HERITAGE - at the EU Parliament on 17th September 2013 and opening of the exhibition by MEP Metin Kazak.

One of the important cultural activities of the OGUZ tribe was rug weaving.
In 1987 thanks to the efforts of the first Governor of Bayat, Orhan Öztürk, and the mediation of the Social Welfare and Solidarity charity, weaving centres were opened in the town center and in the villages.
The women who are weaving their happiness, sadness and heroism to the rugs have reflected their own lives.
Madder dyed Bayat rugs are the first rugs which are recorded by Turkish Patent Institute. (Excerpt from the book: BAYAT KILIMLERI - BAYAT RUGS)

Rugs - Kilims

ITF EU representative Dr Hassan Aydinli attended the conference and the opening of the Exhibition by MEP Metin Kazak at the EU Parliament in Brussels

Example of BAYAT rug (kilim)

The most important feature that separates a rug from a carpet is the difference in the knots. In a carpet knots are woven one by one at the fabric. In a rug (kilim) knots are woven with repetitions, which continuously make intervals among strings. Woven with this style, the surface of a typical rug (kilim) is thin and smooth and therefore there is no difference between the front and the backside.

MEP Metin KAZAK opening the Exhibition

At the centre of this photo: Dr. Professor Nurhan Atasoy

Dr. Nurhan Atasoy has written together with Ms Lale Uluç an important book :

"Impressions of Ottoman Culture in Europe"

1453-1699

(What Europe took from Turkish Culture)

More examples of BAYAT kilims:

For more the BAYAT kilims please see: www.BAYATKILIMLERI.COM

ITF EU Representative met with Mr. HUMAM HAMOUDI, Chair of the Iraqi Council of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee, at the Iraqi Embassy in Brussels.

Brussels, 15^th September 2013

ITF EU Representative Dr Hassan Aydinli met with Mr. HUMAM HAMOUDI, Chair of the Iraqi Council of Representatives' Foreign Relations Committee, at the Iraqi Embassy in  Brussels.

Deadly Bombing Hits Iraqi Funeral

Deadly Bombing Hits Iraqi Funeral
By REUTERS
Published: September 14, 2013
MOSUL, Iraq — A suicide bomber killed at least 21 people at the funeral of a member of Iraq’s Shabak ethnic minority near the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, security and medical sources said.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Sunni Islamist militants have in the past targeted Shabaks, who are predominantly Shiite, warning them to leave the area.

Iraq’s delicate sectarian balance has come under acute strain from the war in neighboring Syria, which has pitted mainly Sunni rebels against a leader backed by Shiite Iran.

“I was attending the funeral sitting with the women when we heard a huge explosion,” said Umm Mohammed, who was at the funeral in Bartella, about 15 miles east of Mosul in Nineveh Province. “When we went out, we found some men either killed or injured.”

Sunni Islamist insurgents, who view Shiites as infidels, have been regaining momentum in Iraq in recent months, raising fears of a return to the scale of sectarian violence that peaked in 2006 and 2007.

About 800 Iraqis were killed in acts of violence in August, according to the United Nations. At the peak of the civil conflict several years ago, the monthly death toll sometimes topped 3,000.