Armenian's Have Long Memories

The Muslim Azerbaijanis aided by their allies the Turks have just conquered the Christian Armenian enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh (who were also abandoned by the Russians, who were supposed to be their allies and peace protectors) ....

Armenian Refugees - Sensible To Flee?

.... And 101,000 of the 120,000 inhabitants of Nagorno-Karabakh (known as Arsakh's) flee from the fear of the rapes and killings that the takeover threatens for them.

Brutal Policing States

More than 1,300 people were arrested for unsanctioned protesting against the order, by Russian President Vladimir Putin, that a further 300,000 Russian men were to be called up go fight in his war against the Ukraine ... 

Russian Protestors Meet Usual Brutality

... the protests were met with the usual dictatorship brutality, which we see in all authoritarian states similar to Russia.

The Sick Man Of Europe

 Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has become very authoritarian in recent years ...

Türkiye Has Been Branded
'The Sick Man Of Europe' Before

.... accused philanthropist Osman Kavala of being an agent of the Hungarian-born US billionaire George Soros, although why Soros would need agents in Türkiye has never been explained by the government prosecutors.

Natural Justice?

As I have mentioned in the past, I spent a large number of years holidaying in Turkey in the 1980's and early 1990's ....

Foca In Turkey Is An Idyllic Resort On The Aegean .....

...... usually a couple of times each year. So I was very familiar with that country, when it was still looking to the West, and Europe as its social development model (not something its doing anymore).

Suited And Booted Thugs

Once again Turkish government thugs have been caught abusing the hospitality of a foreign country, by beating up peaceful and legal protesters.

Suited And Booted

Last time it was in a public speech forum in the little South American country of Ecuador. This time the shocking scenes of violence were in the United States of America. Its supposed ally ....

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

The increasing hard Islamification of Turkey continues apace, as the Islamically 'conservative' ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), take an ever deeper grip on Turkey. The Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc recently declared that women shouldn't laugh in public as he made an anti-feminist speech.

He was railing against "moral corruption" in Turkey, but apparently its all down to the loose morals of women, particularly in the area of Turkey that is dominated by Constantinople, err sorry Istanbul, where the population are often descendants of westerners who settled there in Byzantine times, and who later converted to Islam after the Turks finally defeated the Greeks in 1453, those who didn't convert, faced ISIS like hard times.    

"A man should be moral, but women should be moral as well, they should know what is decent and what is not decent,"  he declared, but then rounded on womankind who "... should not laugh loudly in front of all the world and should preserve her decency at all times."

He then attacked Turkish TV soap operas, and criticised the 'use of cars and mobile phones', which he claimed encouraged women to spend hours on the phone swapping recipes .... this should be ringing alarm bells, because its what Saudi clerics also preach about women ... no cars, no independence. However he did mention in his speech that Turkish men shouldn't become womanisers .... well that's a balanced argument then.   

Remember, they are already trying to ban alcohol via restrictions, and free speech is also under threat, but still this is the Islamic party that thinks that they should be allowed to join the European Union, as they are as democratic and respecting of women's rights as Denmark .... well perhaps in a 100 years, if Denmark and the rest of the continent is overwhelmed by immigration from Muslim lands ... but if not, then never.

Turkish #Kahkaha Laughter

In response many women have launched a laugh back campaign under the hashtags #kahkaha (laughter), #direnkahkaha (resist laughter), and #direnkadin (resist woman). These are accompanied by pictures of them laughing .... Among the many images posted were the wife of Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan ..... laughing under her head scarf.

Reaping What We Sow

History has a way of unravelling historical mistakes. once the dead hand of authority is taken away .... 

Domino Effect Crisis After Crisis

.... and as we have seen in the Balkans and in Africa, artificial unions of borders and peoples, are often fated to unravel unless a greater force intervenes. 

 

Meet The New Boss - Same As The Old Boss

After all the hard-man tactics that the Turkish Prime Minister and Police have shown in recent days, its a bit of mystery as to why the UK continues to back Turkeys membership of the EU?

Taksim Square - Centre of Protest and Police Action

Its an increasingly Islamic state, which uses words like 'hooligans', 'foreign (read Israeli) plots' and 'terrorists' to describe civil unrest, and they even threatened to send in army against the civilians  ..... much like the Syrian regime in fact (although they would totally fail to recognise the irony). The Further South and East you go from Istanbul, the more medieval the social state of Turkey - about 100 years per 100k. 

 

Reaping The Whirlwind

After the revolution that put the Muslim brotherhood into power, Egyptians are complaining that all the tourists have gone.

No More Western Tourists in Islamist Egypt?

Strange that, you vote of an Islamic party, and they threaten non Muslims, both fellow citizens and foreigners (including attacks on bars and restaurants that sell alcohol), but expect the stupid Westerners to still come to the country in vast numbers and spend money. The brotherhood want no alcohol sold, no women in bikinis, or any mixed sex bathing at beaches ..... just the message Western tourists want to hear.

Terrorist Blockade Runners OR Peace Convoy?

Israel has clashed violently in International Waters, with a Turkish led convoy of "Peace Campaigners" who were taking aid into Gaza, thus breaking the Israeli blockade of the area.

Peace Convoy?

 There are a number of dead, and claim and counter claim over the events.

Turkey And That Pesky 'Genocide' Question.

I have often compared Turkey with Sweden to indicate exactly how 'un' European Turkey actually is, and therefore its interesting to find a story involving both countries .... it concerns the Armenian Genocide in which millions of Armenians were murdered by the Turks in 1915. It was done because they were "Christians" and its not really a sin for Muslims to kill them (to be fair its not much of a sin to kill fellow Muslims either).

Various countries around the world have designated the event the 'worlds first modern genocide' i.e. an attempt to wipe out a peoples, which Turkey has denied on the grounds that there would have been Armenians still living in Russia and Persia so therefore it can't be classed as an attempt to wipe out the Armenians ..... but by that argument the *Nazis killing of millions of Jews could not be said to be a genocide because there would have been Jews alive in Russia, Britain and the US, in other words the Turks argument doesn't stand up.

And this week two more, Sweden and the US, have started down that road as well. In Sweden the parliament voted narrowly to describe as genocide the killing of Armenians in World War I. The Turkish government condemned the resolution, saying it was "based upon major errors and without foundation" and they have withdrawn their ambassador from Sweden. Oddly the Swedish government supports Turkeys accession to the EU, so described its own parliaments vote as "a mistake".

Last week in the US a Congressional panel's resolution described as genocide the killings of Armenians in World War I. Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country had been accused of a crime it did not commit, adding the resolution would harm Turkish-US relations.

Needless to say, the UK will never condemn the killings and certainly never describe them as 'genocide' even though there is a campaign to get parliament to do so.

Murdered Armenians

 

 

 

Of this photo, the United States ambassador wrote "Scenes like this were common all over the Armenian provinces, in the spring and summer months of 1915. Death in its several forms—massacre, starvation, exhaustion—destroyed the larger part of the refugees. The Turkish policy was that of extermination under the guise of deportation."

The result was this ......

*Like many Muslim states the Turks are somewhat ambivalent about Hitlers views.

European or Not European?

The draw for the 2012 "European" football tournament was made:

• Group A: Germany, Turkey, Austria, Belgium, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan
• Group B: Russia, Slovakia, REPUBLIC OF IRELAND, FYR Macedonia, Armenia, Andorra
• Group C: Italy, Serbia, NORTHERN IRELAND Slovenia, Estonia, Faroe Islands
• Group D: France, Romania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Belarus, Albania, Luxembourg
• Group E: Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Moldova, San Marino
• Group F: Croatia, Greece, Israel, Latvia, Georgia, Malta
• Group G: ENGLAND, Switzerland, Bulgaria, WALES, Montenegro
• Group H: Portugal, Denmark, Norway, Cyprus, Iceland
• Group I: Spain, Czech Republic, SCOTLAND Lithuania, Liechtenstein

...... now ignoring any football questions, and I may be a bit hazy on geography, but are Turkey, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, and Israel really European?

The map of the Caucasus region includes all nearly all these countries.

The map includes Kazakhstan (a Turkic peoples of mainly Muslim faith), and shows that its only connection to Europe is a border with its old master Russia ..... equally it shares a border with China, or a lot of Turkic states with names ending in 'stan'..... which is a sure sign that you are not ethnically or geographically "European".

OK, so what about Azerbaijan? Well, as the map shows it shares a border with Russia, which appears to be its only claim to being European. It's another majority-Turkic and majority-Muslim population country that has no ethnic or cultural ties to Europe.

Israel ...... well no need for a map ...... this simply FIFA's cowardice in allowing Arabs to refuse to play Israel, and not simply expelling them from world football. End result they have helped perpetuate the conflict. But in any event they are not European.

Armenia and Georgia are a little trickier because they have occasionally interacted with European affairs such as the crusades, but geographically they are next to Azerbaijan, so can't really be anymore "European" than them, despite being Christian in a largely Muslim part of the world.

Finally Turkey, a country that as this blog has pointed out before, claims its 'European' status based on less than 10% of its territory being in Europe, and a history of violence, genocide and aggression towards non Muslim and European races.

It appears that in the near future Syria, Pakistan, and Iran will be able to compete in UEFA's idea of what is "Europe".

Its a strange world we now live in.

Turkish TV Plums The Depths

Turkey is at it again, complaining that their national honour has been abused by Israel and that they must have an apology. 

Turkish Flag

Now as we are well aware, Turkey considers that every country must acknowledge Turkey as a world power and leader, this despite the fact that Turkey continues to drift into becoming an Islamic state.

The World From AyeRan (Pronounced 'I Ran')

Any regime that believes in the supernatural for guidance eventually goes mad ........... the Mullahs of Iran are nothing if not brutal, so why is anyone surprised when claims are made that they have stolen the Nobel Peace Prize medal of Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi.

Shirin Ebadi Nobel Prize 2003 - Stolen By Mullahs

Ms Ebadi also told the Associated Press that her French Legion d'Honneur award, and a ring given by the German association of journalists were also taken. Mrs Ebadi is very wisely out of the country at the moment, or it may not have been just her money and medal that were stolen ....... reports suggest that her husband has been given a state sanctioned beating in lieu of his wife getting tortured to death.

Talking of Iranians fleeing persecution, brings me to this story about a Non-Muslim Iranian pleading for asylum in "European" Turkey ...... where it turns out that in another example of "European Norms", the Turks regularly refuse asylum to Iranians, often forcing them back over the border to almost certain arrest, torture and possible death.

This time it was Negar Azizmoradi, who is the leader of the Raelian movement in Iran, and who by chance was able to get enough publicity, that she couldn't just be quietly shipped back to a death camp in Iran. There is no denying that the Raelians are as nutty as they come, but are non violent and essentially harmless, however with their libertarian attitude to sex, and their belief that humans were created by extra-terrestrials (see scientologists with their belief in thetans, and Xenu), Raelians are inevitably risking harsh treatment by the Mullahs.

The crime of apostasy - rejecting religious faith i.e. essentially not being a Muslim - carries the death penalty there, and supporters of Negar Azizmoradi say that is what will happen to her if the Turkish government sends her back to Iran.

The fact that this is an 'issue' to the Turks proves once again that Islamic Turkey is not naturally "European" by temperament or inclination, and in fact has more in common with Iran than Sweden.

Turkeys Little Tricks

Turkey has long claimed to be "European" and that its demands to be admitted into the European Union would not be a risk to the values it represents.

An Accident Of History

However as this blog has often noted, the Turks rarely if ever meet the European norms in many areas, from freedom of conscience, speech or religion, to law and order. Today came the news that Omar al-Bashir the President of Sudan, and a man who has been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court (ICC), is to visit Turkey, with no risk of arrest.

As discussed on an earlier post, many in "The Arab League" (yes them again) , are signatories to the ICC rules (but ignore it in all respects), and so are all the members of the EU, but oddly for a country that claims to be "European", Turkey isn't.

Just another little item on the growing list of Turkeys failure to get ready for "European Union" membership.

Turkish Genocide Hypocrisy

Recep Tayyip Erdogan the Turkish Prime Minister and the head of a genocide denying state, 

The Armenian Genocide Is
Easily Forgotten By The Turks.

...... has accused China of committing "a kind of genocide. There is no other way of commenting on this event," he said.

Turkeys Honour?

Once again the Turks have displayed why they are not European, and are in fact an Islamic oriented country with more in common with Syria than with Sweden.

At the economic forum at Davos, where the great, the good and the not so great and good meet to discuss the world economy, the Israeli's were making what was described as a vigorous defence of their actions in Gaza. This apparently upset Turkeys Islamic party Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when he considered that he should have the 'right of reply' but either didn't get any, or only got a limited time span (accounts differ on this point).

He then pulled up his skirts and flounced out, declaring later that Mr Peres' language and tone had been unacceptable, so he acted to stand up for Turkish honour. "I only know that I have to protect the honour of Turkey and Turkish people."

Well unfortunately this blog is all too aware of 'Turkish honour' with its prosecution of writers, genocide denials (of Armenians), disrespect of Christians and Churches and their regular attacks on, and suppression of the Kurds (both in Turkey and Iraq).

The rise of "Violent Nationalism" fuelled by "Turkish Honour" and interlinked with Religious Bigotry is why so many Europeans fear Turkeys attempts to join the EU. The Turkish public who met the plane to proclaim their pride in the PM, had banners greeting Mr Erdogan as "a new world leader" and chanting that "Turkey is with you."

Sounds much like the Syrians, Libyans, Saudis and not much like Norway, Germany or Spain.

Violent Nationalism Blights Turkey says BBC

The Turks are just hell bent on displaying to the Europeans, that they are most certainly not a European country or civilisation.

Brutal Turkish Police

Secular, 'European' thinking Turks, are increasingly being attacked and killed by both nationalists and Islamists for being "Unpatriotic" as this report details.

Turkey attacks Christianity

Turkey, which has often featured in my blog, as it tries to pretend its "European" and shares our values and freedoms, has recently slipped off my radar.

However this week they showed again to the world, exactly how far from Sweden and European values they really are, by refusing to allow Catholics to reopen one of the iconic churches of Christianity, the St Paul’s Church in Tarsus, in South Western Turkey.

Faces of history

I was sat in a restaurant on the shores of Lake Garda, Italy (just place name dropping!), when a bunch of Germans walked in. Nothing strange about this as Germans are everywhere, and its not far from the the Austrian (Germans who can't make up their minds) border.

After a bit, it became apparent that they were all 'Berliners', and as I was idly looking at them, I was struck by the appearance one of the girls, who had an 'oriental' cast to her face. I don't mean she was a first generation daughter of a Chinese and European couple, I mean from a certain angle you could see that she was not wholly 'German' in descent.

This caused me to think about how the history of a location is often written in the DNA and appearance of its local population. In the case of Berlin, Stalin infamously allowed his "Mongolian" divisions three days to mass rape the population of Berlin as a punishment for Nazi atrocities in Russia. This was part of a systematic system of rape, murder and looting across all of Eastern Germany, and has left its mark in the DNA and appearance of the population of that region. A bit of a Slavic or Mongolian slant to East Germans and Berliners is maybe therefore not surprising, even if for obvious reasons it is not a subject that is openly discussed.

However as an illustration that most places can exhibit this - I give you Constantinople (modern Istanbul) and the population of western Turkey. The original Turkic invaders were a small dark haired and dark complexioned people (and remain so across the globe), and yet a 'surprising' number of 'Istanbul Turks' are tall, blond and blue eyed ..... well surprising that is, until you realise that up until the Turkish Ottoman conquest in 1453, the city and surrounding provinces had been host for centuries to thousands of tall, blond / red headed and blue eyed Gauls, Vikings, Saxons and others from Northern Europe (or the old Roman world) who fought in Roman or Byzantine armies, and the descendants of these men are still the inhabitants of the city, despite becoming 'Turks' by conversion afterwards.

This still causes some Turkish nationalist hackles to be raised when you mention it in Istanbul (I know of what I speak LOL), but its true. The Turks are taught surprisingly little about pre-Islamic Asia minor, and I suspect would rather pretend the land was not Greek before becoming theirs by conquest. Still in the East of Turkey its true to say that the population is largely 'Turkic' looking, but this area was depopulated in the centuries of fighting between the Byzantines and Arabs, and then Byzantines and Turks, but in the 'European west' its different.

Its patently obvious that, a total of about 40,000 or so invading Turks couldn't kill and replace several million Byzantines, and like the supposed "Anglo-Saxon" or "Norman" invasions of England, it was mostly a replacement at the top rather than an invasion and population replacement.

History is full of these visual reflections of the movements of peoples if only we have the local knowledge to notice them, and travelling along the crossroads of invasions and conflict often shows us these faces from the long forgotten past.

An Istanbul crowds showing its diversity