Vladimir goes South: Putin meets Erdoğan in İstanbul, 3 December 2012

PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN:

  Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

 The trusting & open spirit in which today’s talks took place and the level of our trade and economic ties give us every reason to consider that we have come to a friendly country. We have come not only to visit a partner and neighbour, but truly have come to a country that is our friend. The High-Level Cooperation Council, which just held its third meeting, has once again confirmed its importance as a bilateral partnership mechanism that has already proven its worth.

 The Council’s sector-specific expert groups have done a lot of preparation and ensured that we had a very substantive agenda indeed. We discussed in detail a wide range of issues.

 I note that our bilateral trade continues to develop fast. Russia is now in solid second place among Turkey’s trade and economic partners. Last year, despite the general decrease in global trade, our bilateral trade increased by 26 percent, and by a further 14 percent over the first nine months of this year. This is an excellent trend and a good result, especially when set against the global economy’s current difficulties. Our objective, as the Prime Minister just said, is to raise our bilateral trade to the $100-billion mark in the coming years. This is a completely realistic goal.

 We just signed the trade & economic and science and technology cooperation programme through to 2015. The programme aims to bolster our industrial cooperation and develop bilateral ties in construction, the metals industry and agriculture. It also contains measures to promote cooperation in science-intensive sectors such as telecommunications, space exploration and developing satellite systems.

 Of course, one of our big cooperation areas is the energy sector, and here, our work together is not limited to fossil fuels, even if they do play a very important part. As the Prime Minister knows, Russia is always ready to give our Turkish partners a shoulder to rely on at difficult times, and if there are any glitches with energy supplies from other countries, we will increase our deliveries at the first demand.

 We thank our Turkish friends for their decision on the South Stream project. Construction work will begin in a couple of days, and our Turkish partners and friends have been invited to attend this event too.

 I note too our joint plans to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant at Akkuyu. This is a big and promising project involving substantial investment – $20 billion. Russia is taking care of the project financing completely. At least a quarter of the total amount will be spent on creating new jobs in Turkey itself.

 We have just overseen the signing of a number of financial sector agreements. Russia’s Sberbank acquired DenizBank, Turkey’s ninth-biggest bank, in September this year, in a deal worth a total of $3.6 billion. This is one of the biggest deals, if not the biggest, in Europe’s banking sector over the last year.

 The Council also discussed humanitarian matters at today’s meeting. Our bilateral public forum is beginning its practical work now.

 As far as humanitarian issues go, education and science are both important areas. I spoke about the nuclear project before, and I want to note that more than 100 students from Turkey are studying in this particular field in Russia. In other words, if the project goes ahead — and so far it is going to schedule — it will help to create a whole new high-tech professional sector in Turkey.

 There is the tourism sector too. As the Prime Minister noted, 3.5 million Russian tourists visit Turkey every year, and the figure will be even higher this year. This is a sign of our trust in Turkey and its government, a sign of our confidence in your country’s stability. This is what you could call ‘voting with one’s feet’ in the good sense of the term.

 Russia & Turkey are neighbours and we share many common pages in history, sometimes dramatic pages. It is very important that we treat this heritage with respect.

We have gone through all manner of events in our history, but this is all part of the past now, and we must look toward the future. It makes me very happy to see that our Turkish friends share this view and that this is what we do.

Of course, as was mentioned too, we also discussed the international agenda, including the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Syria, and the situation in North Africa and the Middle East in general.

Let me conclude by once more thanking the Prime Minister and all of our Turkish friends for these very constructive and productive talks. We have agreed to hold the fourth meeting of High-Level Cooperation Council in Russia in 2013.

Thank you for your attention.

Pussy Verdict: Putin, Hooliganism, and the Orthodox Church

Friday will see the verdict, but last Saturday Reason TV posted this clip: ‘Amnesty International called Russian punk feminist collective Pussy Riot “prisoners of conscience,” after a February 21 anti-Putin protest landed three members of the band on trial for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” The plight of Pussy Riot has provoked international attention — and pressure for lenience — as the women face three to seven years in prison. On August 10, Reason TV headed down to the Solidarity Concert for Pussy Riot, right across from the Russian embassy (11 August 2012)’.

On Friday, 17 August 2012, the Pussy Riot girls were convicted of hooliganism. The wording employed by the judge, however, sounded more like a blasphemy charge: “The girls’ actions were sacrilegious, blasphemous and broke the church’s rules”.[1]  The three jailed members of Pussy Riot now face a two year jail sentence . . . for performing a “punk prayer” in a Russian Orthodox cathedral. Judge Marina Syrova appears to toe the line very well. The news agency Reuters’ Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova opine that the judge “declared all three guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred, saying they had deliberately offended Russian Orthodox believers by storming the altar of Moscow’s main cathedral in February to belt out a song deriding Putin. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, Marina Alyokhina, 24, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 30, giggled as the judge read out the sentences one by one. They have already been in jail for about five months, meaning they will serve another 19. They say they were protesting against Putin’s close ties with the church when they burst into Moscow’s golden-domed Christ the Saviour Cathedral wearing bright ski masks, tights and short skirts”.[2]  In fact, the girls came off lifghtly, as “[s]tate prosecutors had requested a three-year jail term”.[3]  It seems to me that the Russian judiciary was “lenient” in only handing out a two-year verdict, possibly a result of Putin’s intercession as a reaction to the global outcry. Marina Syrova could have gone up to seven years in jail, and by way of good from the prosecution’s demand for three appears somewhere in the middle. The Reuters report quotes the following statement: ‘”They are in jail because it is Putin’s personal revenge,” Alexei Navalny, one of the organizers of big protests against Putin during the winter, told reporters outside the court. “This verdict was written by Vladimir Putin”’.[4]  Under Putin’s benign rule, state and church work together in Mother Russia. On the other hand, nationalism and racism are on the rise and lead to many unprosecuted and unpunished crimes in Russia.

The independent advocacy and action organization Human Rights First’s Innokenty Grekov writes recently that the Russian “government ignored problem of violent, racially-motivated attacks for many years. Only recently have authorities stopped calling skinheads ‘hooligans’, and gone after the neo-Nazi gangs that were responsible for hate crimes. Having arrested and prosecuted the bulk of violent racists, the government turned up the heat on others whom it could potentially view as intolerant, but wound up targeting those with differences of opinion.  As a result we ended up with a mountain of cases in which journalists, religious believers, and artists face persecution in Russia. Though racially motivated attacks continue to occur—an African man and a policeman who came to his rescue were just severely beaten in Moscow three days ago—the police and courts nowadays have much more time on their hands to pursue other extremist enemies of Russia”, adding bleakly that “[o]ne of them is, of course, Pussy Riot”.[5]

---

[1] “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years” Reuters (17 August 2012). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/entertainment-us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE87F1E520120817.

[2] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years” Reuters (17 August 2012). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/17/entertainment-us-russia-pussyriot-idUSBRE87F1E520120817.

[3] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years”.

[4] Timothy Heritage and Maria Tsvetkova, “Russia’s Pussy Riot protesters sentenced to two years”.

[5] Innokenty Grekov, “The Enemies of Russia’s Freedom” Human Rights First (16 August 2012). http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/2012/08/16/the-enemies-of-russia%E2%80%99s-freedom/.

Pussy Punishment: Punk Protest gone Awry

The trial of the female punk band, Pussy Riot, has resumed in Moscow after a weekend recess. With public opinion over the controversial case divided, the question on everyone’s lips is just what the verdict will be (6 August 2012).

Exclusive: Turkey’s Central Role in Syria’s Civil War

For quite some time I have been repeating that Turkey and the U.S. have been organising and arming the rebels in Syria from the U.S. Air Base in İncirlik. The only source I could cite, however, was Sibel Edmonds, reticent to divulge her own sources.[1]  Then, some time ago, the CIA admitted to recruiting Syrian opposition fighters in Turkey.[2]  And now, the well-respected news agency Reuters has revealed that Turkey’s role in the anti-Assad movement is not to be underestimated.

From Dubai, Reuters’ Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr indicate that “Turkey has set up a secret base with allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar to direct vital military and communications aid to Syria’s rebels from a city near the border, Gulf sources have told Reuters. News of the clandestine Middle East-run “nerve centre” working to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad underlines the extent to which Western powers – who played a key role in unseating Muammar Gaddafi in Libya – have avoided military involvement so far in Syria”.[3]  It seems that Reuters forgets that Turkey is part and parcel of the Western alliance as a NATO member and close friend of the U.S. Or is that only Israel, as an imported nation state in the Middle East, can be publicly termed a member of the Western powers???  Nevertheless, Doherty and Bakr’s sources clearly show that Turkey is now stepping out of the shadows and has publicly assumed a leading role in the mission to topple the Syrian Baath regime.

The news agency Reuters furthermore reveals that a Doha-based source stated that “It’s the Turks who are militarily controlling it. Turkey is the main co-ordinator/facilitator. Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom. The Americans are very hands-off on this. U.S. intel are working through middlemen. Middlemen are controlling access to weapons and routes”.[4]  This anonymous source now confirms what Sibel Edmonds has said months ago. In addition, it seems now that the CIA is openly operating from the İncirlik Air Base and that Turkey has now established another centre to operate from, apparently in the vicinity of the Turkish city of Adana, according to the Reuters report. Doherty and Bakr elaborate that the Adana base “was set up after Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah al-Saud visited Turkey and requested it, a source in the Gulf said. The Turks liked the idea of having the base in Adana so that they could supervise its operations, he added. A Saudi foreign ministry official was not immediately available to comment on the operation”.[5]   As for the finer geographic points of American and Turkish action regarding the war in Syria, the Reuters reporters add that “Adana is home to Incirlik, a large Turkish/U.S. air force base which Washington has used in the past for reconnaissance and military logistics operations. It was not clear from the sources whether the anti-Syrian “nerve centre” was located inside Incirlik base or in the city of Adana”.[6]  Their Doha-based source additionally revealed that “Three governments are supplying weapons: Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia”.[7]  From Washington, Reuters’ Tabassum Zakaria, Matt Spetalnick, and Andrew Quinn report that “the White House has crafted a presidential directive, called a “finding,” that would authorize greater covert assistance for the rebels, while still stopping short of arming them. It is not clear whether Obama has signed the document, and U.S. officials declined to comment on the finding, which is a highly classified authorization for covert activity”.[8]  Remembering President Bush’s Presidential Findings regarding support for Iran’s opposition, which were only mentioned by Seymour Hersh, and President Obama’s recent Kill List, that seems to have been strategically leaked, it is probably safe to assume that Barrack Obama did sign the paper but put a strategic ban on divulging said information. In the same way, Ankara has also denied any kind of role in organising the armed opposition in Syria. Keeping Erdoğan’s strong words in mind, however, one cannot but assume that Turkey is spearheading the international; operation to oust Assad.

The Russian naval base in Tartus and Iran’s opposition to the U.S. administration also mean that Damascus is not without allies. Recently, Iran’s vice president in charge of international affairs, Ali Saeedlou has said that “Tehran is ready to give its experience and capabilities to its friend and brother nation of Syria”, according to the IRNA news agency.[9]  And on Sunday, 29 July, ‘Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moallem heading a high-ranking political delegation arrived [in Tehran] for talks with Iranian officials’.[10]  In this volatile mix, China also needs to be considered as an active actor of course. The Xinhua news agency, for instance, dutifully reports that ‘Walid al-Muallem said . . . that his government is committed to implementing the peace plan put forward by UN-Arab League joint envoy to Syria Kofi Annan’.[11]

All the while, the battle for Aleppo is raging on: ‘Regime helicopters have shelled the key city of Aleppo and clashes have continued on the ground between regime forces and rebel fighters, according to opposition activists. The Guardian’s Luke Harding said the two sides are about 1.5km apart. Aleppo-based activist Mohammed Saeed told AP the shelling was most intense in the south-western neighborhoods of Salaheddin and Saif al-Dawla. The government said security agents were hunting down armed groups in Salaheddin. Video purported to show that a government shell had set a plastics factory ablaze in Aleppo’, as reported by the Guardian.[12]

---

[1] “Op-Ed: The Road to Intervention in Syria” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (06 June 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/op-ed-the-road-to-intervention-in-syria/.

[2] “The New Cold War: The CIA Prepares Battleground Syria???” A Pseudo-Ottoman Blog (22 June 2012). http://sitanbul.wordpress.com/2012/06/22/the-new-cold-war-the-cia-prepares-battleground-syria/.

[3] Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr, “Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels” Reuters (27 July 2012). http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-syria-crisis-centre-idUSBRE86Q0JM20120727.

[4] Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr, “Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels”.

[5] Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr, “Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels”.

[6] Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr, “Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels”.

[7] Regan Doherty and Amena Bakr, “Exclusive: Secret Turkish nerve center leads aid to Syria rebels”.

[8] Tabassum Zakaria, Matt Spetalnick, and Andrew Quinn, “Insight: Cautious on Syria, Obama moves to help rebels” Reuters (27 July 2012). http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-syria-usa-obama-idINBRE86Q04U20120727.

[9] “Iran says it’s ready to support Syria with ‘experience and” AP (26 July 2012). http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/iran-ready-support-syria-experience-capabilities-article-1.1122168?localLinksEnabled=false.

[10] “Syrian FM arrives in Tehran” IRNA (29 July 2012). http://www.irna.ir/News/Politic/Syrian-FM-arrives-in-Tehran/80251558.

[11] “Syria committed to implementing Annan’s peace plan: FM” Xinhua (30 July 2012). http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2012-07/30/c_123489893.htm.

[12] “Syria: Battle for Aleppo – live updates” The Guardian (29 July 2012). http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/29/syria-bashar-al-assad?newsfeed=true.

Syrious Developments, 18 July 2012

The propaganda broadcaster Radio Free Europe reports: ‘Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrives on a working visit to Moscow on July 18 to discuss bilateral economic relations and the situation in Syria. Erdogan is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other senior Russian officials. Russia, the main backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has repeatedly rejected international efforts to impose sanctions on Damascus. Turkey, which shares a border with Syria, has been a vocal critic of Assad’s repression of the uprising which killed some 17,000. Erdogan and Putin are also expected to discuss economic and energy ties. Russia is Turkey’s second largest trade partner after Germany, with bilateral trade at $31.8 billion annually. Russia is also Turkey’s key partner in the natural gas industry, with exports to Turkey totaling some 26 billion cubic meters in 2011’.[1]  

Meanwhile, a ‘suicide bomber has struck a meeting of top Syrian officials in Damascus, killing Syria’s defense minister and the brother-in-law of President Bashar-al-Assad and dealing a major blow to the Assad regime. The defense minister, General Daoud Rajha, is the most senior government official to be killed since the Syrian uprising began 17 months ago. The bombing comes as the United Nations Security Council is set to vote today on a new measure responding to the crisis inSyria. We’re joined by Patrick Seale, a leading British writer on theMiddle East (18 July 2012)’.

The streets ofDamascushave seen the heaviest fighting since the begining of the Syrian uprising 17 months ago. Since Friday, the capital has seen gunfights and shelling. And according to reports, mortars and helicopter gunships have been used. The fiercest fighting yet has been reported in various parts of the capital between rebel forces and government troops. These are significant developments – but does it mean the conflict is reaching its final decisive phase? (18 June 2012).

---

[1] “Erdogan To Moscow To Discuss Ties, Syria” Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (17 July 2012). http://www.rferl.org/content/erdogan-putin-russia-turkey/24648381.html.

The Transition Plan: Syria’s Way Ahead???

The worlds major world powers have agreed on a transitional roadmap forSyria, which they say will allow Syrians to determine their own future without outside interference. Following a crisis meeting inGeneva,Russia’s Foreign Minister said the document contains no ultimatums and includes representatives from all sides of the political divide. RT’s Yegor Piskunov sums up the outcome of the gathering (30 June 2012).

The New Cold War: The CIA Prepares Battleground Syria???

Turkey and the U.S. have been supporting the Syrian opposition since April 2011, and the U.S. Air Force Base at İncirlik plays a pivotal role in that scheme. That is the claim made by the notorious whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds. And now, the news agency United Press International cavalierly announces that the ‘CIA officers’ have joined ‘[a]llies in southern Turkey helping Syrian opposition fighters’.[1]

In fact, the report refers to a New York Times article. Eric Schmitt’s piece, appropriately entitled “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition”, purports to spill the beans on the U.S. support for Syrian opponents of President Assad. He writes that a “small number of C.I.A. officers are operating secretly in southern Turkey, helping allies decide which Syrian opposition fighters across the border will receive arms to fight the Syrian government, according to American officials and Arab intelligence officers”.[2]  Is this another one of those strategically leaked Obama administration secrets supposed to bolster the Democrat’s standing among his gun-toting electorate???

Now that their activities have been touted in the New York Times, the C.I.A. operatives in Turkeyare probably no longer “operating secretly”. Schmitt even adds detail to his scoop: these “C.I.A. officers have been in southern Turkeyfor several weeks, in part to help keep weapons out of the hands of fighters allied with Al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, one senior American official said. The Obama administration has said it is not providing arms to the rebels, but it has also acknowledged that Syria’s neighbors would do so”.[3]  Even though the article does not set out to prove thatAmerica and Turkey have been secretly fueling the unrest in Syria, the above-quoted admissions nevertheless show that a lot of footwork has been done behind the scenes of Syria’s ‘uprising’. The administration’s disclosure that “neighbors” are arming Syria’s opposition reads like an admission of Turkish, Saudi, Qatari, and Libyan involvement in concocting the violent brew that isSyria’s internal armed struggle. Of course, the concept of neighbourhood has to be taken in a very broad sense.

The UPI report prophetically adds that the “struggle inside Syria has the potential to intensify in coming months as powerful new weapons are flowing to both the Syrian government and opposition fighters”.[4]  The news agency takes the long view that could lead one to consider that the whole Arab Awakening has also been long in the making. I pointed out last year that the Egyptian revolution appeared to have been planned in 2008, that the U.S. State Department was scheming to shake up the Middle East in order to replace no longer useful regimes with new and more amenable systems.[5]  The failure of the recent nuclear negotiations in Moscow seems to indicate that Iran could still be still a viable target . . .

An anonymous Arab intelligence official who appears to be in the know said that “C.I.A. officers are there and they are trying to make new sources and recruit people”.[6]  It seems that the Obama administration is taking no chances when it comes to Syria . . . perhaps that lessons were learned in Libya after all. Schmitt does make it clear that “[s]pokesmen for the White House, State Department and C.I.A. would not comment on any intelligence operations supporting the Syrian rebels”.[7]

Prior to the full-scale invasion of Afghanistan, a C.I.A. team in the Hindu Kushprepared the ground as well, making contacts, establishing alliances and recruiting fighters. Last week, the Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon and Nour Malas already reported that “U.S. intelligence operatives and diplomats have stepped up their contacts with Syrian rebels in part to help organize their burgeoning military operations against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces, according to senior U.S. officials. As part of the efforts, the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department—working with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and other allies—are helping the opposition Free Syrian Army develop logistical routes for moving supplies into Syria and providing communications training”.[viii]  It seems that President Obama’s best-laid plan for dealing with Syria and possibly Iran too is slowly falling into place . . .  As explained by , the Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon and Nour Malas the “U.S. in many ways is acting in Syria through proxies, primarily Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, say U.S. and Arab officials. Saudi Arabia is particularly fixated on overthrowing Mr. Assad, said Arab officials, viewing it as a way to settle scores with an arch foe and weaken its chief regional rival Iran. Saudi Arabia and Qatar are providing the funds for arms, Arab officials and Syrian opposition leaders say. The Obama administration hasn’t agreed to arm the FSA [the so-called Free Syrian Army], the U.S. officials stressed. Mrs. Clinton on Wednesday [, 13 June] denied charges by Syria and others that the U.S. has armed the rebels. The U.S.’s stepped-up links with the FSA are also part of an effort to gain a better understanding of the rebels’ capabilities and of the identities and allegiances of fighters spread in disparate groups across the country, the U.S. officials said. The U.S. officials remain wary of some rebels’ suspected ties to hard-line Islamists, including elements of al Qaeda. They acknowledged the FSA doesn’t represent all parts of the insurgency against the Assad regime”.[9]

The armed conflict in Syria is very much a proxy-war, pitting the U.S. and NATO against Russia, China, and their junior partner Iran. In this context, Russia’s naval base in Tartus recently gave President Putin the pretext to dispatch some armed comrades into the Mediterraneanand back again. Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has now said that “The ship was carrying air defense systems, which can only be used to repel foreign aggression, and not against peaceful demonstrators, and yes — it was carrying three refurbished helicopters”.[10]  On the one hand, the Obama administration strategically leaked its not-so covert support for the Syrian opposition, and on the other, the Russians freely admitted their unwavering backing for Bashar al-Assad. Syria is the first battle-ground in the as-yet undeclared New Cold War.[11]

---

[1] “CIA joins allies helping Syrian opposition” UPI (21 June 2012). http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2012/06/21/CIA-joins-allies-helping-Syrian-opposition/UPI-61861340260200/?spt=hs&or=tn.

[2] Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition” The New York Times (21 June 2012). http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/21/world/middleeast/cia-said-to-aid-in-steering-arms-to-syrian-rebels.html?pagewanted=all.

[3] Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition”.

[4] “CIA joins allies helping Syrian opposition”.

[5] C. Erimtan, “Behind the scenes of Egypt’s revolution” Hürriyet Daily News (27 February 2011). http://tiny.cc/fz7tf.

[6] Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition”.

[7] Eric Schmitt, “C.I.A. Said to Aid in Steering Arms to Syrian Opposition”.

[8] Jay Solomon and Nour Malas, “U.S. Bolsters Ties to Fighters in Syria” The Wall Street Journal (13 June 2012). http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303410404577464763551149048.html?mod=googlenews_wsj.

[9] Jay Solomon and Nour Malas, “U.S. Bolsters Ties to Fighters inSyria”.

[10] Kirit Radia, “Russia Admits Attack Choppers Aboard Syria-Bound Ship” ABC News (21 June 2012). http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/russia-admits-attack-choppers-aboard-syria-bound-ship/story?id=16620312.

[11] C. Erimtan, “The Arab Awakening and the never-ending Cold War” Hürriyet Daily News (22 June 2011). http://tiny.cc/p7q3b.

EU/Russia Summit in St. Petersburg, June 3-4, 2012

 EU/Russia Summit to discuss Eurasian Economic Union, CIS modernization, bilateral ties, situation in Syria.

And here is Herman van Rompuy, the President of the European Council, having his opportunity to mince a few words.

Following this minor Euro-summit, Putin took not such a slow boat to China, where he met up with Mister Hu for a big get together  . . .

Bin Laden Died of Natural Causes, in 2006???

The Iranian state-sponsored broadcaster Press TV reports that an alleged ‘former agent of the CIA has revealed that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has died of natural causes five years before the US announced his death. In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, Berkan Yashar, who is also a Turkish politician, said theUS has not killed the al-Qaeda leader’.

Who is this agent claiming to know what really happened to the U.S.enemy of the state # 1???  A reporter at the Kavkaz Center, Amir Kashirov had this to say: “Berkan Yasar (AKA “Abubakar”), [a] baldish unsuccessful journalist [who now] turns out to be a CIA agent! Pretty tough! In reality, in the midst of the Chechen diaspora in Turkey that “agent” is known as a usual scam artist”.[1]  Turkish nationalists are unusually fond of the Chechen resistance, claiming ethnic affinities as well as a shared devotion to the religion of Islam. Now this scam artist has found another way to exploit the gullible for financial gain. Last month, the British-Turkish translator and journalist Haluk Demirbağ did a piece on the Chechen and his new claims: “Osama bin Laden died a natural death nearly 5 years before it was announced that he was eliminated by the American commandos. This sensational statement was made by a Turkish politician, and a former U.S. intelligence agent [or rather con artist and fraud by the name of Berkan Yaşar]. In an interview with Russia’s Channel One, he said that the Americans simply found and opened the tomb of the leader of al-Qaeda. The journalists of Channel One first met this man in 2008. At the time he was featured in the documentary “Plan Caucasus,” talking about the attempts of the western intelligence services in the early 1990′s to separate the Northern Caucasus and, in particular, Chechnya from Russia”.[2]

Demirbağ expands on his contention by divulging that “Berkan Yashar is now a Turkish politician ,’ (though) Chechen by nationality], but in [the 1990’s] he was one of the ideologists of Johar Dudayev. He asked for a meeting, promising to tell the truth about the death of Osama bin Laden whom he met in the early 90-ies in Chechnya”.[3]

In Turkey, conspiracy theorists and charlatans are quasi-ubiquitous, hence my surprise reading that Demirbağ apparently takes this Chechen opportunist seriously . . . Mister Yaşar appears to have made the following statement: “In September of 1992 I was in Chechnya, that’s when I first met the man whose name was Bin Laden. This meeting took place in a two-story house in the city of Grozny; on the top floor was a family of Gamsakhurdia, the Georgian president, who then was kicked out of his country. We met on the bottom floor; Osama lived in the same building” and with regard to the above-mentioned spectacular claim, he continues that “[e]ven if the entire world believed [that Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Forces] I could not possibly believe it. I personally know the Chechens who protected him, they are Sami, Mahmood, and Ayub, and they were with him until the very end. I remember that day very well, there were three sixes in it: 26 June 2006. These people, as well as two others from Londonand two Americans, all seven of them, saw him dead. He was very ill, he was skin and bones, very thin, and they washed him and buried him”.[4]

 Like all Turkish intellectuals and public figures, this Chechen scam artist turns out to be a total megalomaniac, as explained by Demirbağ: “Berkan explained why he informed the journalists of Channel One: he feared for his life. According to him, only wide publicity around the world can protect him from the CIA. However, just in case, the Turkish secret services, according to him, provided him with guards and weapons”.[5]  As for the question whether or not Osama died in Abbottabad, I can only say that time will tell . . . or maybe not.

---

[1] Amir Kashirov, “The Caucasus Plan and Olympic Sochi” Boycott Sochi (26 September 2009. http://boycottsochi.eu/other-reasons/164-the-caucasus-plan-and-olympic-sochi.

[2] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden” Turkish News (18 March 2012). http://www.turkishnews.com/en/content/2012/03/18/former-cia-agent-claims-americans-did-not-kill-bin-laden/.

[3] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

[4] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

[5] Haluk Demirbağ, “Former CIA Agent Claims Americans Did Not Kill bin Laden”.

Old News: Russia’s New President, Vladimir Putin

The newly inaugurated Russian President, Vladimir Putin, is no stranger to controversy and challenges. The question remains, however, whether the seasoned politician will be able to adjust himself to shifting political ground both at home and abroad (7 May 2012).