Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.
Turkish businessman Kavala has been in prison for four years for his suspected role in the Gezi Park protests and his involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016.
Osman Kavala
This research note discusses that the Turkish businessman Kavala has been in prison for four years for his suspected role in the Gezi Park protests and his involvement in a failed coup attempt in 2016. Kavala is one of Turkey’s most well-known civil society figures. Since the early 1980s, the billionaire has helped to establish multiple publishing enterprises in Turkey, and a decade later, he has supported numerous civil society organizations.
Osman Kavala was one of Turkey’s most prominent activists. He has been held in pre-trial imprisonment in Silivri Prison since October 2017. Authorities in Turkey accuse him of initiating the Gezi Park demonstrations in 2013.
Significantly, President Erdogan has accused him of being the Turkish leg of billionaire US philanthropist George Soros, whom he claims is behind insurgencies in several nations. He has been held in detention pending the outcome of his latest trial, and he has rejected the charges.
Whereas, the indictment of September 2020, according to Kavala’s lawyers, was nothing more than a presumed fantasy based on no real evidence. Human rights organizations around the world have slammed Kavala’s arrest, claiming the charges are politically motivated. Additionally, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that Kavala’s arrest was politically motivated and it was carried out with the goal of “bringing other human rights defenders, to the political prisoners.” (DW, 2021).
Following a similar line, the Council of Europe has given a warning to Turkey to comply with a European Court of Human Rights ruling to free Kavala pending trial, which was issued in 2019. Otherwise, it will file an infringement complaint against Turkey.
The ambassadors of the ten nations issued a unified statement urging Turkey to abide by the Council of Europe’s judgments. Germany, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, and the United States all requested a “fair and swift” settlement to Kavala’s case (DW, 2021).
They further stressed, “The ongoing delays in Kaval’s trial, which include the merging of many cases and the establishment of new ones following a prior acquittal, throw a pall over Turkish court respect for democracy, the rule of law, and transparency. In light of the European Court of Human Rights’ judgment, they requested Turkey to release it as soon as possible. These ambassadors demanded a fair and expeditious settlement to his case under Turkey’s international responsibilities and domestic legislation.”
Most importantly, Kavala who has been imprisoned since 2017, has been frequently demanded their release by international observers and human rights organizations. They claim that the detention is due to political concerns. While the officials deny the allegations and maintain that Turkish courts are independent.
While the Turkish government views the ambassadors’ declaration as direct involvement in domestic politics. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned the diplomats’ behavior and threatened to expel them from the country. In an intensifying disagreement with the countries, who intervened in the case of a detained businessman by demanding his release.
After their statement demanding the release of Osman Kavala, President Erdogan authorized the Turkish foreign minister to proclaim the ambassadors of ten nations to Turkey “persona non grata”. Notably, when a diplomat is declared persona non grata, they are banned in their host country and they are now just one step away from expulsion.
In a speech, Erdogan remarked, “I have directed our foreign minister to expedite the declaration of these ten ambassadors,” These ten ambassadors must be declared persona non grata. They will be familiar with and understand Turkey”. He went on to say that these ambassadors would not release “terrorists” in their nations if they did not know and understand them (Arab News, 2021).
For this reason, tensions between Ankara and the United States, Canada, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, and New Zealand soared over Turkey’s president proclaimed the envoys “persona non grata.”
Moreover, the ambassadors had been instructed to “keep within the responsibilities of their duties after an insincere and double-standard approach and It was highlighted in our constitution that Turkey is a democratic state of law that protects human rights, and it was reminded that such reckless utterances would not affect the Turkish court”.
The government further noted that the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgments are frequently disregarded and not followed, claiming that focusing solely on Turkish cases to keep the Kavala case on the table at all times is ineffective (DW, 2021).
Whereas, former Turkish ambassador to Azerbaijan and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington, Alper Coskun, tweeted, “Expelling ambassadors is not a good strategy to protect national interests. Turkey’s isolation has been exacerbated by its rash foreign policy aimed at domestic politics” (Arab News, 2021).The opinions mentioned in this article do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Al mayadeen, but rather express the opinion of its writer exclusively.
Simply denouncing them but declining to take any tangible action would have made President Erdogan look weak in everyone’s eyes unless they recanted their joint statement and apologized. He couldn’t afford to do that even though he must also have expected that Western pressure against him personally and his country more broadly will soon intensify as a result.
Turkish President Erdogan announced over the weekend that he instructed his Foreign Minister to declare 10 Western ambassadors persona non grata after they meddled in his country’s foreign affairs by releasing a joint statement demanding the release of a jailed businessman who they consider to be a “political prisoner”. This is a huge diplomatic move that will reverberate for some time to come. It shows that Turkey has zero tolerance for such high-profile foreign meddling and is ready to accept the potential political consequences for expelling the Canadian, Danish, Dutch, Finish, French, German, New Zealander, Norwegian, Swedish, and US Ambassadors.
Those diplomats must have predicted that the Turkish President would react in a similar way to how he ultimately did. This implies that they planned their joint statement as a political provocation intended to catalyze a self-sustaining cycle of escalations between their countries and Turkey. The purpose of doing so is to prompt the pretext for intensifying their information warfare against him and potentially threatening sanctions, whether on that basis or a different one.
Those diplomats’ countries probably also wanted to manipulate their people’s perceptions about Turkey by making it seem like it’s “anti-Western” and “despotic”. The planned expulsion of so many ambassadors of such influential countries will certainly provoke a diplomatic crisis. It’ll likely generate incredibly hostile coverage by the Western Mainstream Media too. In other words, all of this is part of the US-led HybridWar on Turkey which aims to punish the country for its increasingly independent foreign policy in recent years.
From the Turkish perspective, it’s unacceptable to let those diplomats meddle in such a blatant way, especially regarding a jailed figure who they consider to be a “political prisoner”. Simply denouncing them but declining to take any tangible action would have made President Erdogan look weak in everyone’s eyes unless they recanted their joint statement and apologized. He couldn’t afford to do that even though he must also have expected that Western pressure against him personally and his country more broadly will soon intensify as a result.
From a larger viewpoint, Turkey is setting an example for other non-Western nations to follow. Not all of them are as confident as that country is nor might they have the “Democratic Security” capabilities to adequately defend themselves from the predicted intensification of US-led Hybrid Wars against them under such pretexts, but they might still be inspired by this huge diplomatic move. After all, a pivotal pillar of Turkish foreign policy is to present itself as a model for others to emulate, especially in the Global South and most recently in Africa.
Looking forward, Turkish-Western relations will likely continue to deteriorate. There’s a chance that the ambassadors who Turkey plans to expel might eventually return or be replaced after some time, but that probably won’t happen in the near future if the country does indeed go through with what its leader just threatened. The overall impact of this trend will be to accelerate Turkey’s proactive engagement with its new non-Western partners, with a priority given to Russia and China.
That development could be manipulated through information warfare means to reinforce the false narrative that Turkey is “anti-Western” even though it would just be pragmatically reacting to Western political provocations. Nevertheless, closer Turkish ties with Russia and China could fuel the intensification of the US-led Hybrid War against it through geopolitical fearmongering about that country’s grand strategic intentions. For this reason, Ankara must brace itself for myriad destabilization attempts ahead of the summer 2023 elections.
It’s impossible to predict the exact forms that they could take at this moment, but they’ll likely be comprehensive and thus involve economic, information, political, and perhaps even security plots. President Erdogan is increasingly portrayed by the Western Mainstream Media as a so-called “rogue” leader, the misleading perception of which will be exploited to intensify the US-led Hybrid War. He’s unlikely to capitulate to their political demands related to his foreign policy but he’s likely still interested in bargaining with them.
(Machine translation): Review the Ministry of defence to the statement of the military Department of the Netherlands about the alleged threat of action last Thursday, June 24, the Russian aircraft near the Dutch frigate “Evertsen” in the Black sea:
“24 Jun 2021 by means of objective control of the black sea fleet is monitoring the actions of NATO ships in the Black sea was established, which was in international waters frigate “Evertsen” Netherlands Navy, changed course and began to move in the direction of the Kerch Strait.
To prevent violations of the border of the territorial waters of the Russian Federation, Su-30 fighters and Su-24 bombers were lifted into the air from the duty forces, which flew at a safe distance near the Dutch Navy ship.
After the flights of Russian aircraft, the Evertsen frigate immediately changed course from the border of the Russian Federation and continued following the same route.
To begin, let’s recap what just happened in the Crimean waters. First, the HMS Defender deliberately entered the Russian waters under the pretext that the Brits don’t recognize what they call the “annexation” of Crimea. The Brits deny it, but after seeing 4 bombs explode ahead of the HMS Defender, they altered their course as the Russians demanded.
Next, before looking into this deeper, let’s also keep in mind the following fact: the entire Black Sea is a de facto “Russian lake” meaning that Russia has the full military control of the Black Sea. For those alternatively gifted, let me explain what this means:
The Bal and Bastion coastal defense missiles can sink any ship in the Black Sea in minutes.
The Black Sea Fleet has seven advanced diesel-electric attack submarines, arguably the most advanced on the planet.
The HMS Defender was operating without any air cover but detected over 20 Russian military aircraft overflying it.
For a more detailed discussion of this reality, please see these four (here, here, here and here) articles by Andrei Martyanov. For a more detailed discussion of the laws of the sea, please see this discussion by Nat South.
In other words, the HMS Defender was a sitting duck with no chance of survival had the Russians decided to fire in anger. General Konashenkov, who is in charge of contacts with the media, had this to say about the outcome of the British provocation: (emphasis added)
“The epic fiasco of the provocation of the British destroyer Defender in the Black Sea, which abruptly changed course from Russian territorial waters after the warning shots of the patrol ship, will remain a fragrant stain on the reputation of the Royal Navy for a long time”
(-: Thereby suggesting that the Brits soiled their pants and ran for their lives
Speaking of anger: I have been parsing the Russian media over the past couple of days and I will only say that there are A LOT of commentators who are mad at the Kremlin for NOT opening fire in earnest and sinking the Defender.
Furthermore, several Russian officials have now indicated that the next time around, the intruders would be destroyed.
Did I mention that the British Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, George Eustice declared in an interview that the Brits plan to repeat such operations in the future?
This now begs the question: would the Kremlin really risk WWIII by sinking a British Navy Ship trying to, to use a British expression, “poke the Russian bear”?
Interestingly, the Brits deny that the Russians fired any munitions ahead of the Defender. Why would they do that? My personal explanation is that the British government does not want to freak out the British and European public opinion. But if they are hiding the truth, it means that this is a truth which makes them uncomfortable. What do you think they might be hiding?
Still, the two UK reporters who were on the Defender (by total coincidence, I am sure), both reported hearing explosions and seeing Russian combat aircraft. The Russian FSB also released video footage taken from the Russian border patrol ships which were shadowing the HMS Defender. You can clearly see the Russian firing their guns ahead of the HMS Defender:
The Russians also have radar footage from many sources and it has been really easy for them to prove that the Defender changed course and left after four bombs exploded ahead on its course.
The reason for all this? “We don’t recognize the annexation of Crimea”. Which makes no sense because EVEN if the UK does not recognize the Russian “annexation” of Crimea (and, along with that, the democratic will of the people of Crimea), they should still recognize the indisputable fact that Russia is the “occupying power” which, therefore, has the legal right to deny any ship “innocent passage” if it believes that this ship is a threat, collecting intelligence or used for propaganda purposes (again, read Nat South’s superb discussion on the applicability of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea to this situation). As usual, the Brits are lying about everything, including what the UNCLOS really says…
Now let’s look at this from the Russian point of view.
First, the Russians remember how the Brits declared a 200 miles zone around the Malvinas Islands (“Falklands” in UK parlance) and immediately sunk the cruiser General Belgrano as soon as it entered this zone. The Russians also remember how the Turks shot down a Russian SU-24 over Syria because it had penetrated in Turkish air space for exactly 6 seconds. The HMS Defender spent about 30 minutes in Russian waters.
Can you really blame them for feeling that “some are more equal than others”?
The Brits, being the superior race which only they think they are, declared that they only changed course because a slower Russian vessel was ahead of them and they decided to pass it from the open waters side. In fact, the Brits are so superior to the mongoloid Russian hordes and their dictator that they refused to even reply to the Russian coast guard vessel when it threatened to open fire if the Brits did not change course.
(I wonder, does anybody still believe this crap? Does anybody still believe that Great Britain is, well, great? In Russia the expression “мелкобритания” is increasingly used. Translated into English this would be something like “Tiny Britain”)
Anyways, all of the above clearly shows one of two things:
The Brits do not believe that Russia could sink a UK warship
The Brits are willing to risk a major military incident possibly leading to war in order to maintain tensions between Russia and the collective West (aka the AngloZionist Empire).
This begs the question: are the Brits correct, or are they delusional?
First, we need to understand the purpose of this provocation: to disrupt the planned summit between the EU and Russia which France and Germany seemed to support, and which the 3B+PU and the Netherlands and the Czech Republic (iirc) categorically opposed (the Ukraine is not member of the EU, but they sure acted as if they had some kind of moral veto power over EU decisions). Sure, the UK has Brexited and should therefore not have any say in EU decisions, but the Anglosphere has enough power over the EU to make this completely irrelevant. We also know that Boris Johnson personally gave the order to the HMS Defender to enter Russian waters. Obviously, that kind of high level decision could not have been taken without Uncle Shmuel’s approval, thus we are dealing with a very deliberately calculated action. If this was the goal, it has been a total success and the Brits just screwed over Macron and Merkel.
Second, this is really largely irrelevant for Russia. If the EU cannot muster enough political courage to talk to Russia, then Russia will directly talk with those countries which want to talk to Russia. To put it bluntly, Russia does not give a damn about the 3B+PU. As for the Netherlands, they are a big investor in the Russian economy and Russians don’t care about what the Dutch might or might not say, as long as they keep investing (in Euros, by the way!), which, so far, they still are. Besides, considering the economic size of Holland, even if they stopped investing this would only be a minor nuisance for Russia. In fact, Merkel has even declared that if the EU cannot agree to have a dialog with Russia, Germany would seek other venues for this purpose.
Third, what just happened is yet another clear sign that the EU is profoundly dysfunctional. After the end of the USSR in 1991, russophobic Neocons in the West decided to make the Russians “pay” by incorporating ex WTO and ex Soviet Republics into NATO. At first, it looked great, but now it has become clear that the blowback from this truly idiotic policy has many unexpected benefits for Russia and major problems for the Empire. They include:
Russia got rid of all the Soviet periphery which was bleeding the Soviet Union dry.
None of the newly created states has become a viable, successful state.
The Empire spent many billions trying to prop up these newly independent states (ex USSR and eastern Europe) and tried to turn them into some anti-Russia showcase. They totally and comprehensively failed.
Now the UK and, even more so, the 3B+PU have taken the EU hostage and are preventing the countries which matter from, well, mattering anymore.
Countries bordering Russia are now all demanding NATO troops, which puts the latter in the worst possible position, right across the Russian border and, therefore, within range of too many Russian weapons to list here.
Last, but not least, the stupid and, frankly, totally irresponsible actions of countries like the UK and the Ukraine risk involving all of Europe in a most dangerous and devastating war.
Bottom line is this: the leaders of the AngloZionist thought they had scored big with the expansion of the EU and NATO. Now they are screwed in a major way and with no solution in sight.
This all is hardly big news, but yet another confirmation of the advanced state of collapse of both NATO and the EU. Conversely, the more EU countries decide to hold bilateral talks with Russia, the better for the future of the European continent.
As for the Brits, they are clearly suffering from phantom pains for their lost empire. Think of it, in less than one century the British Empire went from being the empire upon which the sun never sets, (Britannia rules the waves, etc.) to being the USA’s poodle which nobody respects or takes seriously. Bojo is desperate to prove that he is a “new Churchill” which will teach the damn Russians (and Chinese!) to kowtow to the UK or, failing that, at least kowtow to the Anglosphere. And, as a typical western politician, Bojo is both too ignorant and too narcissistic to understand the risks he is taking.
The Brits seemed to be combining imperialist arrogance (and delusion!) with a truly shocking lack of PR skills. Not only did they deny that the Russians opened warning fire ahead of them, only to have the FSB prove this denial false by publishing the video of the Russian coast guard vessel firing ahead of the Defender, but now they came up with a truly clumsy piece of nonsense about how a “super dooper secret” dossier on the British plans was somehow apparently found by a passer-by in a heap of trash behind a bus stop in Kent (you think I am joking, then see here). Needless to say, the Russians openly made fun of the Brits saying that “007 agents agents aren’t what they used to be”. Furthermore, it now appears that some top UK officials were very much opposed to this move which was demanded by Johnson personally (see here and here).
What about the British military?
We know that their actual capabilities are laughable. But what about their understanding of the situation?
I am not a mind reader and I don’t know what the British sailors (and their bosses) were thinking, but there is one thing which I am sure of: the next time around (and, there will be a next time according to UK ministers), the Russians will use force. If possible, they will try to ram the intruding vessel; if not, they might strike at the intruding vessel’s engines/props to disable it and, possibly, tow it. Should the intruding vessel try to fire back, the Russians would probably fire a torpedo and disable it. That is my best guess. I also decided to ask Andrei Martyanov (a former Soviet Navy officer) what he thinks will happen the next time around. Here is his reply:
“Most likely, they will open fire, but first only with small-caliber naval artillery (30-mm from the Russian border patrol ship or even 76-mm), and that fire will be aimed at the propeller-steering group (i.e. at the stern) to begin with. At the same time, the coastal defense batteries will actively track the intruder with their targeting radar, plus the Russian will “hang” 15-20 Su-24 and SU-30SM in immediate readiness to use more serious means – for example, the supersonic (M = 3.5) anti-radiation X-31 and take out the mast with its radar. That is just for starters. Next, the Russians will gage the reaction of the intruder: if they try to shoot at any Russian target, they will be sunk. But this would only happen inside Russian territorial waters. Outside Russian waters the Russians will only monitor their moves. Lastly, do not forget – there are anywhere between 4 and 7 Project 636 submarines at any one time patrolling the Black Sea, each capable of firing 6 3M54 anti-ship missiles in one salvo.”
Here is a short video of the Russian MoD Zvezda channel to give you an idea of how this all looks (in Russian, but no translation needed) and which quite openly shows whom the Russians consider their likely target.
Does anybody still remember what happened when the “invincible” British Navy tried to participate in Trump’s (totally failed) cruise missile attack on Syria? The British subs in the Mediterranean were shadowed by not one, but apparently two Russian submarines. That convinced the British sub commander that firing its missiles would be suicidal. The Brits gave up and left the area.
There is a pattern here: western politicians make a lot of very loud statements; the Russians simply take whatever actions they deem necessary, which frees them from the need to make threats of roaring statements in the first place.
This approach has a problem: only highly specialized people in the West are fully aware of what the Russians are doing and even less people fully understand the implications of the Russian actions. Add to this a western media which lies for a living, and this results in a population in Europe which is almost totally unaware of the very real risks the reckless actions of their (supposed) representative governments engage in. How many Brits will realize that a grinning and apparently happy Boris Johnson has almost stumbled into a war with Russia? Very few I bet. If anything, the common folk in the West are told that (a) their military is the best and (b) that the Russian military is much weaker and the Russians understand that. Ergo: there is no risk.
Then there is the fact that while the general population is kept in total ignorance, western political elites are mostly composed of folks with very strong narcissistic tendencies combined with a total inability to learn from mistakes (both theirs and those of others). Needless to say, history does not inform these people either. Finally, since these folks can never admit a mistake, however minor or serious, they cannot change course; doubling down over and over is pretty much all they are capable of.
Conclusion:
There is no doubt that the Biden Administration has taken a very different course towards Russia (and Iran, by the way!) than the one favored by the Trump administration. I attribute this change of policy to the likely realization by top Pentagon officials that the US desperately needs to “catch its breath” and that the US military is in no condition to take on any other halfway competent military. Even if this is a ploy to win time for reorganizing, I welcome this as, by definition, anything is preferable to war, especially a full-scale war. However, there are clearly interests in both the US and Europe which are desperately opposed to any form of detente with Russia and who want to maintain an atmosphere of crisis and tensions just short of war. Of course, I don’t believe in any meaningful differences between the various factions competing for power on a strategic level: they all want to destroy, submit, break up and otherwise devastate Russia. This 1000 year old dream of the western ruling elites (pretty much all of them) still remains the strategic target of the West. But on a tactical level there appear to be two factions, one which understands that the Empire desperately needs a break to regroup and refine its strategy and another one which still seems to believe that the Empire is invincible and appears to be hell-bent on triggering as many conflicts/wars as it deems necessary to restore Uncle Shmuel’s worldwide hegemony.
That second group, clearly strong, has ties with the UK and the 3B+PU gang who are desperate to remain relevant and who understands that should there ever be any type detente (or even a tense modus vivendi) agreed upon between Russia and the West, that group would become comprehensively irrelevant to the future of our planet. While we can disagree with this logic, we have to remain aware that for countries like the UK or the 3B+PU this is truly an existential issue and that they see a continuation of tensions as the only path to political survival. On this specific point, I happen to agree with them.
I mentioned that ever since Dubya, all the US Presidents who came to the White House were extremely weak, which resulted in the breakup of any single US foreign policy into many different, and often contradictory, “mini foreign policies” by various branches of the government (Congress vs White House, plus a Pentagon foreign policy, a CIA foreign policy, a Foggy Bottom policy, a DoE policy, etc. etc. etc.). Hence, for example, the recent seizure by Uncle Shmuel of the PressTV domain name. (BTW – the domain name https://www.presstv.ir/ still works!).
This all makes for a very dangerous brew. Especially since the Russians clearly and sincerely believe that they cannot back down any further.
I therefore conclude that a future military incident, with the use of fire in anger, and possibly resulting in a real war, remains not only possible, but even likely, unless the factions in the West which want a time-out to regroup manage to get the russophobic nutcases under control.
Will that happen? I doubt it very much. Biden is not only weak and senile, his Administration has been organized with wokeness and (pseudo) “diversity” as opposed to competence or expertise. Thus, the collective Biden (which I designate as “Biden” as opposed to the real Biden) is probably too weak to get the crazies under control, even for a short time.
And here is the really scary thing: from the Russian point of view (and Russians all understand all of the above), sinking a British ship might well be the best solution. Why? Because once this happens, it will be impossible to conceal from the western public opinion that its so-called “leaders” are reckless, incompetant, delusional and simply dangerous narcissists who are now willing to risk a continental war (possibly nuclear!) just in order to keep denying the reality of their irrelevance. If Russia wanted to invade the UK, I believe that most Brits would be willing to risk it all to defend their motherland. But I very much doubt that a majority/plurality of Brits would support the notion of dying for Crimea even if they believe that Russia “annexed” the peninsula and is now “oppressing the Ukrainian people of Crimea”. Nor would they want to die over MH17, Skripal, Syria, Navalnyi or the oppressed homos in Chechnia.
There is one more thing I think Putin could do: make a solemn speech and directly address the people of the West telling them the truth about what the western political leaders are doing. He could honestly tell the people in the West that Russia has retreated as far as she could. He can tell the people of the West that Russia did what she so often did in history, she traded space for time and that the four years break of the Trump Administration has allowed Russia to fully rearm, retrain and reorganize her armed forces which are now quite capable of taking on both the US and NATO and prevail.
Yes, I know, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi tried to appeal to the people of the West and, in both cases, the democratic and free western media completely obfuscated these admittedly naive and clumsy attempts. But if Putin speaks directly to the people of the West, and explains to them what a war (even a conventional one) would mean for Europe, they would have to listen. Putin could clearly indicate to the people of the West which actions of the Empire Russia could never and would never tolerate. Finally, he could clearly spell out why the Russian people would prefer war to any surrender to the Empire. And, just to make sure that the message gets through, the Russian Navy might want to have one of its Yasen-M class SSGN surface somewhere in the Channel or the Tu-160 practice a cruise missile release on London (only electronically, of course). Hussein and Gaddafi did not have such capabilities. Russia does, and she should make use of them.
Fear, especially existential fear, might well be the only thing which could break through the wall of silence and disinformation which the western media has been feeding the people for decades.
How much hope do I place in the Biden Administration taking control of the nutcases or for Putin to directly address the people of the West? Not much at all. And the next best outcome is for Russia to sink a US/UK warship (or shoot down an aircraft) without triggering a continental war. Is that even possible? Yes, I think so. Very dangerous, but possible.
Does Russia have any other choice? If so, I don’t see it. Do you?
Post scriptum: this just in – the USS Ross (DDG-71), an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer in the United States Navy, has just entered to Black Sea on her way to Odessa where the Ukies are preparing monoevers if their “mosquito fleet” in the latest “Sea Breeze” NATO maneuvers (the biggest ones to date – 30 countries participate!). The Ukies have also declared that the Ross plans to follow the exact same course as the Defender did. The Russians? They announced that the USS Ross is now a “fat target” on their coastal defense missiles Bal and Bastion. As for Foreign Minister Lavrov, he just authored a seminal article entitled “The Law, the Rights and the Rules” which, still using diplomatic language, shows the utter disgust even Russian diplomats feel for the incompetence and hypocrisy of the West.
“More of the same” seems to be the trend of the day…
Syrian Refugees in Jordan – The Netherlands wants to prolong and increase the Syrian people’s suffering
The Netherlands, like other NATO member states, is involved in the role-play model passing different tasks among themselves that all result in punishing the Syrian people for resisting to fall prey for the US hegemony through terrorist groups, Syria.
One of the roles assigned to the Netherlands is being activated now, however, it’s either the short memory of NATO officials or simple-brained techniques they expose their moves for its sheer criminality without needing to sugarcoat it anymore, they might be very much depending on the Sheeple nature they turned their people into.
The Netherlands, being the house country for the International Criminal Court was assigned by its higher command in the USA to call for an investigation in crimes against humanity carried out in Syria, and no, not to punish terrorist groups that were assembled from all sides of the planet by the world’s superpowers and super-rich countries and dumped as the human garbage they are onto Syria, nor calling for the investigation and prosecuting of those involved in facilitating the terror acts by these human garbage; the Netherlands wants the ICC to prosecute the Syrian people for defending their homes from the NATO-sponsored terrorists. Goebbels would be so proud of the Netherlands and its officials.
The Netherlands mission at the United Nations informed, as it seems, their colleagues in the Syrian mission at the international body, about their intentions to file a case against Syrian officials involved in the crime of defending their country, they claim that the rights of terrorists killing and maiming Syrian women and children were violated by Syrian officials. Europe cut its ties with the Syrian state and recognized cannibal terrorists as representatives of the Syrian people, hence they have to go through different measures to contact the Syrian state.
The minister of foreign affairs in the Netherlands Stef Blok wrote in a letter to his country’s parliament his government’s intention to hold Syrians accountable for what he alleged are ‘crimes against humanity committed by Syrian officials’, he included ‘torture’ as one of them.
The Netherlands is obviously taking advantage of being the host country of the International Criminal Court, the ICC, Syrian official source slammed the latest step by the European monarchy.
In an almost instant response, a Syrian state official condemned the notion by the Netherlands and reminded the Netherlands officials of Syria’s right to prosecute in all legal methods every individual and party, state and non-state actors who facilitated terror in Syria on the Syrian people. The Syrian state official reminded the Netherlands of its destructive and criminal role by directly funding an assorted number of armed groups with up to 28 million Euros of the Netherland taxpayers money paid to groups designated as terrorist groups by the Netherlands own public prosecution.
Syria is not a signatory to the ICC’s ‘Rome Statute’, hence the Netherlands needs the approval of the United Nations Security Council to refer Syrian officials to the ICC, we can say it’s an impossible task, a futile effort with the certain objection of at least Russia and China at the UNSC, each of which has the Veto power, but this stunt could be used as an additional media campaign against the Syrian people, in addition to everything else they’re facing.
The irony is that the United States of America itself has not only rejected to sign the Rome Statue, it went to the extent of imposing sanctions against the ICC’s prosecutor and still wants to use the ICC through its minions to gain politically in Syria what it couldn’t achieve by creating and sponsoring literally hundreds of terrorist groups in the country throughout the past 9.5 years.
Maybe, the Netherlands, like its other EU accomplices, didn’t have enough Syrian refugees migrating to their country and forcing those who couldn’t make it to Europe into becoming refugees, it’s the western European mentality never changed since the Crusades.
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The headquarters of Turkey’s national intelligence organization
Several documents marked “secret” which were obtained by Nordic Monitor have revealed details of illegal surveillance activities of critics based in Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden carried out by Turkey’s intelligence services.
The documents, dated 19 March 2019, show that Turks resident in the countries have been closely monitored due to their critical views of the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The intelligence was used by Turkish authorities to initiate criminal prosecutions against critics, prepare extradition requests and file Interpol notices.
Turkey has been accused of abusing Interpol’s law enforcement mechanisms to silence Erdoğan critics from all segments of Turkish society. According to related reports, Turkey had sought Red Notices for around 60,000 individuals in 2016. Turkish police have also been accused of manipulating Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (STLD) database for political purposes, filing fraudulent missing, lost or revoked passports and travel documents to invalidate the papers of critics and opponents of the Turkish government.
Consequently, Interpol prohibited the use of its communications channels to interact on any issue that concerned the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey because it contravened the provisions of Article 3 of Interpol’s constitution. Article 3 “strictly forbids the Organization to undertake any intervention or activities of a political, military, religious or racial character.”
Critics of the Erdoğan government, especially members of the Gülen movement, have been facing surveillance, harassment, threats of death and abduction since at least 2014, when then-Prime Minister and now President Erdoğan began to suspect the group of being involved in plots to overthrow the government. In turn, Erdoğan’s critics accuse him and State officials of inventing false plots and filing fraudulent charges against opponents to cover up or distract media attention from their own errors and troubles, ranging from claims of widespread corruption (including among the president’s family and closest political and business associates) to Turkey’s dangerous and disastrous decision to support of at least some of the terrorist groups that have been ravaging the northern parts of Syria.
تُقدّر إسرائيل أن سقوط قتلى وجرحى من الجانب الفلسطيني سيشكّل وقوداً لانتفاضة جديدة (أ ف ب )
تحمل التطورات الميدانية الأخيرة في الأراضي الفلسطينية المحتلة، كلّاً من واشنطن وتل أبيب، على إعادة حساباتهما في ما يتّصل بتنفيذ بنود «صفقة القرن». وفيما يبدو أن قرار ضمّ المستوطنات قد أرجئ إلى أجل غير مسمّى ربما يكون طويلاً، يظهر أن «القمة» الإسرائيلية – السعودية التي أميط اللثام عن تحضيرات كانت جارية لها قد أرجئت هي الأخرى، بالنظر إلى ضعف المكاسب المرجوّة منها في هذا التوقيت بالذات.
تكاثرت في الفترة الأخيرة، تحديداً ما بعد الإعلان عن «صفقة القرن» الأميركية، التقارير عن لقاءات جرت وأخرى يُعدّ لإجرائها بين رئيس الحكومة الإسرائيلية بنيامين نتنياهو وكبار المسؤولين الإسرائيليين، ونظرائهم من ملوك وأمراء وقادة خليجيين وعرب. تكاثرٌ يبدو لافتاً جدّاً، في مرحلة يتداخل فيها الخاص والعام في الكيان الإسرائيلي، المصدر الأول وشبه الحصري للتسريبات عن تلك اللقاءات. «القناة 13» العبرية مثلاً كشفت، عبر سلسلة تقارير، عن زيارات سرية بين إسرائيل ودول خليجية وأفريقية خلال العامين الماضيين، بما في ذلك في الأشهر الأخيرة، مسلّطةً الضوء على المستوى الذي بلغته جهود التطبيع من قِبَل السعودية والإمارات والبحرين وسلطنة عُمان تجاه إسرائيل، وانضمام المملكة المغربية والسودان إلى هذا الركب.
وإلى أبعد مما تقدّم ذهبت بعض التسريبات في الأيام القليلة الماضية، حيث تَحدّثت عن جهود أميركية وإسرائيلية لعقد لقاء علني بين نتنياهو وولي العهد السعودي محمد بن سلمان في الرياض، بعد أن يحلّ رئيس وزراء العدو ضيفاً على المملكة. وهو ما أكّدته مصادر سياسية إسرائيلية شدّدت على المصلحة المشتركة للأطراف كافة في هذا اللقاء، وتحديداً الجانبين الأميركي والإسرائيلي بعد الإعلان عن «صفقة القرن»، متحدثةً عن مشاركة وزير الخارجية الأميركي، مايك بومبيو، في الترتيب لـ«القمة» الإسرائيلية – السعودية. لكن، ما الذي يدفع إسرائيل إلى الحديث علناً عن تحضيرات تجري في الغرف المغلقة لجمع نتنياهو وبن سلمان، وهي تدرك أن الكشف المسبق من شأنه إفشال اللقاء وتأجيله، الأمر الذي يدفعها دائماً في حالات مشابهة إلى انتهاج استراتيجية الصمت إلى حين تحقّق المطلب؟ وفقاً للتسريبات، فإن التحضيرات لـ«القمة» بدأت قبل فترة، لكن تداعيات الإعلان عن «صفقة القرن» دفعت على ما يبدو إلى تأجيلها. كان نتنياهو يأمل الاجتماع بابن سلمان قبل انتخابات «الكنيست» الثالثة في الثاني من آذار/ مارس المقبل، لكن تأزّم الوضع في الأراضي المحتلّة شوّش على أجندته، وعطّل محاولته تحقيق فائدة شخصية من اللقاء، الأمر الذي دفعه – على ما يظهر – إلى تسريب معلومات في شأنه أملاً في حصد نتيجة ما. مع ذلك، فإن تجميد التحضيرات لـ«القمة» لا يلغي إمكانية حصولها، الذي لا يفترض أن يكون مفاجئاً لأيّ متابع لتطور العلاقة وتناميها بين الجانبين.
تضغط ردّة الفعل الفلسطينية، على القيادتين الأميركية والإسرائيلية في اتجاه تأجيل الضمّ
كذلك، تدفع التطورات التي أعقبت الإعلان عن «صفقة القرن»، واشنطن وتل أبيب، إلى إرجاء ضمّ المستوطنات وغور الأردن وأجزاء أخرى من الضفة الغربية إلى أجلٍ غير مسمّى، يبدو أنه سيطول أكثر مما كان متوقعاً. في الخلفية الأولى للقرار الأميركي منع نتنياهو إجراء الضمّ قبل الانتخابات الإسرائيلية، يكمن حرص الولايات المتحدة على عدم التسبّب بإحراج إضافي للحكام العرب ربما يضطرهم إلى اتخاذ مواقف حادّة، ومن هنا كان طلبها «فترة تبريد» تمتدّ لأسابيع. لكن أيضاً، والأهمّ، تضغط ردّة الفعل الفلسطينية، وتحديداً الشعبية والمتمثلة في تنفيذ عمليات فردية ضدّ الاحتلال، على القيادتين الأميركية والإسرائيلية في اتجاه تأجيل الضمّ، لما سيحمله تنفيذه من تأثيرات ميدانية سلبية على إسرائيل. وعلى هذه الخلفية، دعا السفير الأميركي في إسرائيل، ديفيد فريدمان، وهو أحد عرّابي «صفقة القرن» وأوّل الداعين إلى الإسراع في ضمّ المستوطنات، إلى التريّث قبل اتخاذ قرارات متسرّعة لا تصبّ في مصلحة إسرائيل والمستوطنين، مشدداً على ضرورة تأجيل الضمّ إلى ما بعد دراسة المنحى الإجرائي بشكل مناسب، حتى «تستطيع الولايات المتحدة الاعتراف بمثل هذه الوضعية» كما قال فريدمان لـ«جيروزاليم بوست»، معتبراً أن تلك العملية «لا تستغرق بالضرورة زمناً طويلاً، لكن يجب أن تكون متأنّية ومدروسة».
تهديدات «أبو مازن»… جوفاء
عزّز الجيش الإسرائيلي وحداته المنتشرة في الضفة الغربية بقوات إضافية، على خلفية تزايد الاحتجاجات الشعبية والعمليات الفردية من قِبَل الفلسطينيين ضدّ جنود الاحتلال في مناطق مختلفة من الضفة. وجاء قرار تعزيز القوات «بالمئات من الجنود» «بعد سلسلة جلسات تقويم للأوضاع»، وفق ما ذكرت مصادر عسكرية إسرائيلية لصحيفة «معاريف». لكن، هل تكفل هذه الإجراءات إنهاء الاحتجاجات، والأهمّ إنهاء العمليات الفردية التي يمكن أن تؤدي، في حال تواصلها وتصاعدها، إلى انتفاضة شاملة؟ يبدو أن الاحتلال، على رغم قلقه من انفلات الأمور، مطمئن إلى أن السلطة الفلسطينية بقيادة محمود عباس لن تسمح بتمادي التصعيد، وإن أبقت على مستويات محمولة منه. وما دام «التنسيق الأمني» متواصلاً مع الأجهزة الأمنية الفلسطينية، فلا خشية حقيقية من انهيار الأوضاع مهما تأزّمت.
ووفقاً لمصادر عسكرية إسرائيلية تحدثت إلى «يديعوت أحرونوت»، فإن قيادتَي الجيش و«الشاباك» سارعتا إلى عقد جلسات تقدير للوضع، مباشرةً بعد الإعلان عن «صفقة القرن»، استعداداً لمواجهة التداعيات المتوقّعة ميدانياً، والتي لن تصل كما قدّرت القيادتان إلى حدّ الاحتجاج الشعبي الشامل. لكن كان واضحاً لكلّ من شارك في الجلسات، بحسب المصادر نفسها، أن سقوط قتلى وجرحى من الجانب الفلسطيني سيشكّل وقوداً لانتفاضة جديدة. ومن هنا، تَقرّر، إلى جانب تعزيز القوات، خفض الاحتكاك مع الفلسطينيين، والذي قدّر المشاركون أن السلطة الفلسطينية ستساهم فيه عن طريق إنشاء حواجز بوجه «المشاغبين».
هكذا، لا تتعامل إسرائيل بجدّية مع تهديدات «أبو مازن» بوقف «التنسيق الأمني». وفي هذا الإطار، تنقل «يديعوت أحرونوت» عن مصادر عسكرية قولها إن تهديداته سُمعت في الماضي ولم تؤدِّ إلى شيء، و«سبق لمؤسسات السلطة أن تلقّت قرارات بإنهاء التعاون الأمني والاقتصادي مع إسرائيل، وهو نفسه عمل على منع تطبيق هذه القرارات». وتلفت الصحيفة إلى أن ثمّة «تقديراً داخل الجيش الإسرائيلي بأن عباس غير قادر على إلقاء المفاتيح وقطع العلاقات، لأن لديه مصلحة عليا في إبقاء السلطة حيّة، بما في ذلك مصلحة اقتصادية شخصية له ولرجاله».
شهيد خامس في طولكرم
استشهد شاب فلسطيني وأصيب آخرون في مواجهات اندلعت، أمس، مع قوات الاحتلال الإسرائيلي في مدن الضفة المحتلة، وذلك في خلال الاحتجاجات المتجدّدة رفضاً لـ«صفقة القرن» الأميركية. وأفادت وزارة الصحة باستشهاد بدر نضال نافلة (19 عاماً) برصاص الاحتلال في قفين، شمالي طولكرم، شمال الضفة، بعد وقت قصير من إصابته بجروح حرجة. ولم تنجح الطواقم الطبية في إنقاذ حياة نافلة نتيجة انقطاع الشريان الرئيسي في رقبته بفعل الإصابة، بعدما أطلق جنود العدوّ الرصاص الحيّ باتجاه الشبان والفتية قرب جدار الفصل العنصري في البلدة. وكان الاحتلال قد عزّز قواته في الضفة تحسّباً لاندلاع مواجهات بعد صلاة الجمعة. واستشهد ثلاثة فلسطينيين، أول من أمس، خلال مواجهات وعمليات ضدّ جنود العدو في الضفة والقدس. وحمّل مستشار الرئيس الأميركي وصهره، جاريد كوشنر، رئيس السلطة الفلسطينية محمود عباس، مسؤولية ما سمّاها «أعمال العنف» الأخيرة، فيما خاطبه رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي بنيامين نتنياهو بالقول: «أودّ أن أقول شيئاً لأبي مازن: هذا لن يساعدك، لا الطعنات ولا عمليات الدهس، ولا القنص ولا التحريض». (الأخبار)
This undated photo shows Palestinian protesters demonstrating in front of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, the Netherlands. (Photo by Reuters)
Authorities in the Netherlands have allowed Palestinians living in the country to register the besieged Gaza Strip and the West Bank as their official places of birth, instead of registering under such designations as ‘the Israeli-occupied territories’ or ‘unknown’.
Dutch State Secretary Raymond Knops, in a letter addressed to the House of Representatives in The Hague on Sunday, stated that he intends to add Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem al-Quds, to a list of official states used by the Dutch civil registry.
Knops added that the new category is in accordance with “the Dutch viewpoint that Israel has no sovereignty over these areas.”
The Dutch minister further highlighted that the new category was named based on the Oslo Accords and the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
Dutch news outlets reported that the new category will be available to Palestinians born after May 15, 1948, when Israeli forces displaced some 700,000 Palestinians, forcing them to flee to different neighboring countries. Israeli soldiers also wiped nearly 500 Palestinian villages and towns off the map, leaving an estimated total of 4.7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants dreaming of an eventual return to their ancestral homeland more than six decades later.
The Israeli-occupied land was the only birthplace available to Palestinians registering in the Netherlands up until 2014. The category “unknown,” also known as code “0000,” was made available to Palestinians living in the country after opposition to listing Israel as their birthplace.
While the UN General Assembly and at least 136 countries have recognized Palestine as a sovereign state, the Netherlands has refused to do so.
Palestinians are seeking to create an independent state on the territories of the West Bank including East al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the Gaza Strip, and are demanding that Israel withdraw from the occupied Palestinian territories. Israel, however, has refused to return to the 1967 borders and is unwilling to discuss the issue of al-Quds.
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