Thursday, November 26, 2015

Russian warplane downing to cost Turkey dear: Iran general

News | 27.11.2015 | 00:37
 
PressTV - A senior Iranian general has warned Turkey that its recent downing of a Russian fighter jet and its continued support for militants in Syria will cost Ankara dearly.
Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, who is senior military advisor to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said on Thursday that Turkey committed a "tactical mistake" by shooting down the Russian Su-24 aircraft near the Syria border.
“In addition to [having been providing] assistance to hired terrorists for five years and causing insecurity in Syria and Iraq, [Turkey] committed a strategic mistake in this incident and these issues will definitely cost Turkey dearly,” said Safavi, who formerly served as the chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).
The Iranian general, who was addressing a group of Basij volunteer fighters in the central Iranian city of Isfahan, said Turkey along with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Jordan are engaged in an "unjust war" against the front comprising Iran, Iraq, Syria, Russia and the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.
Turkey shot down the Russian jet with two pilots aboard on Tuesday morning, claiming the warplane had violated its airspace. One of the pilots was killed by militants in Syria after ejecting out of the targeted jet and another was rescued by the Syrian army.
Russia denies all of Ankara’s claims, saying that the jet was downed in Syrian airspace, where Moscow has been carrying out operations against Daesh Takfiri terrorists since September 30 upon a request by the Damascus government.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who had called the downing of the warplane “a stab in the back” by "the accomplices of terrorists," said on Thursday that Moscow is still waiting for an apology from Turkey or some assurances that “the culprits of this crime” will be punished.

Russia expects high level apology from Turkey, mulls economic sanctions

News | 27.11.2015 | 00:38
 
Xinhua - Russia is expecting from Turkey a high level apology and compensation for the damage caused by Tuesday's downing of a Su-24 aircraft, and is considering retaliatory economic sanctions, the country's leaders said Thursday.
 
"We have not yet received any clear apology from Turkey's high political level, nor any proposal to compensate the harm and damage or promises to punish perpetrators of the crime," Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a ceremony of the presentation of credentials by new foreign ambassadors.
 
Putin slammed the Turkish leadership for deliberately steering the Russia-Turkey ties into the dead end, which he said was "regrettable."
 
He said that Moscow considered the downing a "treacherous stab in the back", saying the act contradicted common sense and violated international law.
 
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called the downing of the Russian warplane an "act of aggression," and instructed the government to prepare possible economic sanctions against Turkey within two days.
 
"Government departments have been asked to formulate a series of measures to respond to this act of aggression," Medvedev told a government meeting Thursday.
 
Under Russian legislation, Medvedev said, restrictions could involve suspension of economic cooperation programs, limitations of financial transactions including foreign trade and export and import duties, cutting tourism and circulation of aircraft and vessels, as well as humanitarian contacts and employment of foreign citizens.
 
He suggested freezing or curtailing some investment projects involving Turkish companies and canceling negotiations on an agreement granting preferential treatment to Turkey.
 
Restrictions should be imposed and remain in place until there is an improvement in the bilateral relations, Medvedev added.
 

West creats terrorism to topple anti-imperialist gov’ts: Morales

News | 27.11.2015 | 00:05
 
PressTV - Bolivian President Evo Morales says the Western powers create terrorism in an attempt to unseat governments which are against imperialism, warning, however, that such a policy would backfire.
Morales made the remarks in an interview with Iran’s Spanish-language television channel Hispan TV in the Iranian capital city of Tehran.
The Bolivian leader said the Western states create terror threats and provide financial support to terrorists, who serve as their proxies, in a bid to depose anti-imperialism heads of state and governments.
Touching on the recent deadly terror attacks in the French capital city of Paris, he said the United States fuels such terror activities with the aim of “inflicting damage on human life.”
On November 13, assailants struck at least six different venues in and around Paris, leaving 130 people dead and over 350 others wounded. In a statement the day after, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group claimed responsibility for the fatal assaults.
The Bolivian president further noted that some Western states resort to military intervention whenever they face economic woes, citing the developments in Libya as an example.
Countries are capable of resolving their problems and there is no need for foreign intervention like what the North America is doing, he added.
Commenting on Bolivia’s relations with Iran, Morales said he chose to improve relations with the Islamic republic when he was elected president despite Washington’s pressure.
No one can determine with which countries we could or could not have relations, Morales further emphasized.
The Bolivian leader was one of the participants of the third summit of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) which was held in Tehran on November 23. The fourth GECF summit is due in Bolivia in 2017.
GECF is currently comprised of 18 member countries, including 12 main and 6 observer members.
Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela are the forum’s main members.
Kazakhstan, Iraq, the Netherlands, Norway, Oman and Peru are observer members of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.

Erdogan’s Close Ties to ISIL

Wayne MADSEN | 27.11.2015 | 00:00

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, contrary to the initial stated policies of his Justice and Development Party («Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi» or AKP), is not a moderate Muslim. Erdogan is slowly turning his nation into an Islamist revivalist entity mirroring the Ottoman Empire. In fact, Erdogan’s personal amassing of wealth and his building of an opulent presidential palace in Ankara is also reminiscent of the old Seljuk Muslim emperors. Erdogan seems to relish in Turkey’s imperialist past in every fashion imaginable.
Erdogan’s newly-found wealth is courtesy of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which has used Turkish middlemen to peddle their oil from Syria and Iraq to other countries through Turkey. One of these Turkish middlemen is reportedly Erdogan’s son Necmettin Bilal Erdogan. The U.S. Treasury Department estimates that ISIL realizes $1 million a day from illicit oil sales on the world’s petroleum spot market with Erdogan’s family cronies receiving a healthy portion of the ISIL oil proceeds.
The Turkish media has published photographs of the Harvard-educated Bilal Erdogan having dinner in an Istanbul restaurant with a notorious ISIL guerrilla leader who has been responsible for genocidal acts in Homs and Western Kurdistan in northeastern Syria. Bilal Erdogan is in the right business for illegally shipping oil on behalf of ISIL. He is one of three equal shareholders in «BMZ Group Denizcilik ve İnşaat Sanayi Anonim Şirketi», a marine shipping company.
There is little doubt that Erdogan has been using ISIL to battle his many enemies – all of whom stand opposed to Erdogan’s Islamist and jihadist policies. Erdogan, through ISIL and its surrogates, including the Al Nusra Front and the Khorasan Group, has taken on Syria’s secular government of President Bashar al Assad; Kurdish groups in Turkey, Syria, and Iraq; Shi’as and Christian Armenians and Greeks in Lebanon; and the Shi’a government of Iraq. Erdogan has facilitated the crossing of ISIL commando units into Iran and he continues to back Muslim Brotherhood factions in Egypt and Salafist brigades in Libya. 
Yet, Erdogan, who has also permitted the infiltration into Europe of ISIL terrorists, masquerading as refugees from Syria, relies on the protection of NATO’s mutual defense umbrella. With the military insurance policy provided by NATO, Erdogan has been emboldened to use ISIL and its affiliates as proxies for Turkey’s greater aims: the establishment of a Turkish-dominated Islamist bloc from Morocco to western China – the goal of every Ottoman and Seljuk emperor.
One of the financial players involved in supporting Al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks on the United States, Yasin al Qadi, a Saudi national, has been given unhindered free passage through Turkey by Erdogan. Between February and October 2012, al Qadi entered Turkey four times even though he was subject to a United Nations Security Council travel ban. Turkish and Saudi pressure saw the UN remove al Qadi from the travel ban list after his fourth trip to Turkey in October 2012.
While Erdogan has publicly stated that he is a partner of the United States and NATO against ISIL, the facts on the ground speak for themselves. Erdogan’s military operations against ISIL have actually been a vicious campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in southeastern Turkey and the Syrian Kurdish PYD/YPG (Democratic Union Party) group in northeastern Syria. Erdogan has never had any desire to wage a war against ISIL, when, in fact, ISIL has committed egregious genocidal warfare against Kurds in Syria and Iraq.
The U.S. Congressional Research Service (CRS) has pointed out that Turkey is the favored route for ISIL terrorists to transfer to and from Syria. A CRS report, dated October 5, 2015, states: «Congress and other U.S. policymakers, along with many international actors, have shown significant concern about the use of Turkish territory by various groups and individuals involved in Syria’s conflict—including foreign fighters from around the world—for transit, safe haven, and smuggling». The report quotes February 2015 congressional testimony from National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Nicholas Rasmussen: «Violent extremists take different routes, including land, air and sea. Most routes do involve transit through Turkey because of its geographic proximity to the Syrian border areas where most of these groups operate».
Rasmussen, in the same Congressional testimony, took aim at Erdogan’s support for terrorists in Syria: «Turkey will always look at its interests through the prism of their own sense of self-interest, and how they prioritize particular requests that we make for cooperation doesn’t always align with our prioritization». Turkey’s «self-interest» is to promote jihadism and pan-Turkic Islamist ideology at the expense of the political stability of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Azerbaijan, Lebanon, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Yemen, Algeria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Morocco.
Erdogan has also called Turkey’s Alevi minority, who are affiliated with the Syrian Alawites, have old links to Shi’a and Sufi Islam, and adhere to pre-Islamic Anatolian and Christian religious beliefs, traitors to the Turkish state. The U.S. State Department summed up Erdogan’s policies toward the Alevis in its Religious Freedom Report for 2013: «The government considers Alevism a heterodox Muslim sect and does not financially support religious worship for Alevi Muslims». The head of the secular Republican People’s Party of Turkey (CHP), Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, is an Alevi Muslim and he has supported the Assad government in Syria against its enemies. Erdogan has called Kılıçdaroğlu a traitor to Turkey.
Erdogan showed his commitment to ISIL terrorism when, after ISIL bombed a Russian Metrojet (Kogalymavia) Airbus enroute from Sharm el Sheikh to St. Petersburg, killing all 224 passengers and crew, he told Dubai TV, «The Russian airplanes are targeting Mujahidin in Syria and partisans fighting to topple Syrian dictator Assad. In Syria, Moscow seeks to tip the balance on the ground against ‘our brethren.’ Consequently, there should be no surprise if Islamic State take revenge». Erdogan added, «How can I condemn the Islamic State for shooting down a Russian plane as its passengers were returning from a happy vacation in a time when our co-religionists in Syria are bombed by Putin's fighter jets?.. it is the natural outcome of Moscow's actions in Syria and the support for Assad». Erdogan has even more reasons to support terrorist attacks on Egyptian soil. He continues to support the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and its imprisoned former Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi. Russia supports Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
In other words, Erdogan, less than a day after the terrorist murder of Russian citizens, including women and children, could not wait to laud ISIL and its Sinai affiliate, «Ansar Bait al-Maqdis», for targeting Metrojet flight 9268 on October 31, 2015. More outrageously, the United States and NATO supports the terrorism of Erdogan, which was once again displayed, when Turkish-supported Syrian Turkoman guerrillas operating under the NATO-supported «Free Syrian Army,» shot at parachuting Russian Air Force Sukhoi-24 crewmen after their aircraft was shot out of the sky by Turkish F-16 interceptors. 
These same jihadist Turkoman units fired a U.S.-supplied TOW missile at a Russian Marine search-and-rescue helicopter to save their downed pilots. One Russian pilot and a search-and-rescue Marine were killed in what constituted a Turkish-sanctioned violation of the Geneva Conventions on Warfare. It is Erdogan and his government that represent a true terrorist and jihadist state and they seem intent on keeping up with the Saudis and Qataris in state-sponsored support for terrorism.
http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2015/11/27/erdogan-close-ties-to-isil.html

Radardaten bestätigen, SU24 in syrischem Luftraum abgeschossen

Bild für das Nachrichtenergebnis
Das russische Verteidigungsministerium hat nach eingehender Analyse der vorliegen ...