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Turkey outraged at Czech release of Salih Muslim

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Turkey outraged at Czech release of Salih Muslim

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 14, 2018 8:26 pm

Belgium's supreme court judgement opens way for PKK prosecutions
Jonathan Steele

Belgium’s supreme court has overturned an unprecedented ruling by an appeal court that the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is a party to an armed conflict rather than a terrorist organisation.

The judgment on Tuesday by the Court of Cassation, which is Belgium’s highest court, is likely to be welcomed by Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had strongly criticised the appeal court in September when it threw out the prosecution case against 33 Kurds living in Belgium and two Kurdish language TV stations based in Belgium.

But this week’s judgement upset Kurdish activists and their supporters who had hoped the case could prompt a change in policy by the European Union which includes the PKK on its terrorism list.

“I am extremely disappointed. It’s very serious," said Estella Schmid, the founder of Peace in Kurdistan, a group which campaigns for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish question.

The Court of Cassation bases its decisions on points of law and whether correct procedures have been followed. It does not deal with the substance of a case. In this instance, it decided on Tuesday that the appeal court had made a mistake in not dealing with one element in the prosecution’s argument.

“It’s an extremely strange decision because the Court of Cassation doesn’t normally insist on a strict analysis of every point in the argument. They normally say that, if the main reasons are given, it’s enough. Why suddenly do they say it’s not enough in this case?" Joke Callewaert, one of the defence lawyers, told Middle East Eye.

Other lawyers who did not wish to be named said they felt the supreme court had been scared of the implications for Belgium’s relations with Turkey if it upheld the appeal court.

“They were also worried that a positive judgement might have consequences for the cases of Belgians who had gone out to Iraq and Syria to fight for [the Islamic State group]. They might also argue that they were involved in an armed conflict and were not terrorists," one lawyer said.

Wire taps and house searches

The supreme court’s decision comes after Belgium’s public prosecutor brought a case almost a decade ago against 33 Kurds living in the country, including leading members of the Kurdish National Congress, for allegedly supporting terrorism.

Two Brussels-based Kurdish-language TV companies which are heard and seen in Turkey and across the Middle East were also charged with spreading terrorist propaganda.

The appeal to the supreme court and the earlier appeal case have been backed by government officials in Turkey, where the separatist PKK has been waging an armed campaign, mostly in the Kurdish-majority southeast for decades.

Supporters of the PKK had hoped the supreme court would issue a judgment that would lift the cloud of legal uncertainty which they say has restricted debate among Kurds and others in Europe about the struggle to improve Kurdish rights in Turkey.

“Removing criminalisation would have improved the chances for a political solution to the war between Turkey and the PKK," Jan Fermon, the lead lawyer for the defence told Middle East Eye on Tuesday.

“By indicating clearly that European countries consider this conflict as a civil war and not a matter of terrorism, political incentives are created for both parties to show respect for their counterparts and to seek a political solution through dialogue. Terrorism is to be fought: conflicts are to be solved."

The case started in 2009 and involved phone taps and house searches. According to leaked cables released by Wikileaks, the US worked closely with the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s then-prime minister and current president, to help Belgium bring prosecutions.

Defence lawyers argued that the counter-terrorism provisions of Belgian law and EU law did not apply to armed forces involved in an armed conflict, including a civil war.

According to international case law, the identification of an armed conflict depends on several elements: the degree of organisation of the participants, whether there is a command structure and effective communication from senior officers to the rank and file, the number of victims, the severity of damage and the kind of weaponry involved.

The defence said the PKK fulfilled all the requirements for being a party to an armed conflict. It pointed to the fact that Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader, had issued a declaration saying the PKK accepted the Geneva Convention and the conventions banning the use of landmines and child soldiers. This made it a subject of international law.

The Belgian prosecution team said Ocalan could not sign the Geneva Convention because the PKK was not a state.

It also argued that the PKK’s actions only constituted sporadic guerrilla-style violence, well short of a sustained armed conflict, and that the movement did not occupy particular territory.

It went on to argue that, even if there were elements of armed conflict in Turkey, the PKK had a double nature on the pattern of the so-called Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, which both controlled some territory with a command structure, but also conducted bombings and intimidation of civilians in urban settings beyond the conflict zone.

The defence argument was accepted by the court of first instance in November 2016, and by Belgium’s court of appeal last September, before finally being overturned by the supreme court on Tuesday.

The prosecution also cited bombings of civilian targets in Turkey carried out by the Freedom Falcons (TAK), which it said was inextricably linked to the PKK.

The defence argued that TAK had been set up by dissidents who left the PKK and had no further contact with them, and said that the PKK had always condemned TAK’s actions.

To the dismay of the prosecutor, the appeal court in September decided that the evidence on TAK was not enough for the court to “conclude with certainty” that there were links with the PKK.

In its ruling last September, the appeal court had also rejected the prosecutors’ main claims about the absence of an armed conflict.

The court noted that the PKK’s armed struggle was being waged with weaponry including American M16 machine guns and rocket launchers smuggled from Iraq, rather than with “rudimentary and primitive equipment” as prosecutors had claimed.

It also accepted that the PKK and its HPG armed wing were a “strict hierarchical organisation” with a complex command structure, regulations and codes of conduct including rules governing warfare and humanitarian law and a system of courts to punish transgressors.

“The goal of the PKK is not to instil fear in a population but to establish an independent state…. Its focus is a liberated and free population… Civilians are not targeted by the HPG even though civilian victims do occur during the armed actions," the appeal court judgment concluded in ruling that the PKK was a party to an armed conflict.

'Help us to help them'

Belgium’s supreme court, the Court of Cassation, has now overturned the appeal court’s finding. It said the appeal court had failed to deal with the argument that the PKK could not adhere to the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war because is not a state.

The prosecution will now be free to resume the case against the 33 Kurds.

Diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks in 2011 showed how US officials played a key role in initiating the case by helping the Belgian and Turkish governments to prepare materials for prosecutors.

A cable to the State Department from the US Embassy in Brussels on 11 May 2006 said “Post [US Embassy] requests Washington send a team of officials who cover terrorism across the spectrum, including counterterrorism, law enforcement, and intelligence aspects, to consult with Belgian officials and ideally map out a strategy to combat PKK activities within the parameters of Belgium's legal and political systems”.

A cable of November 27 2006 reported on a visit to Brussels by the State Department’s deputy counterterrorism coordinator Frank Urbancic. He met Belgian officials and told them “the United States is trying to engage European partners on the PKK and find a new way to talk about the group, not just as a terrorist organisation but as an organised crime group engaging in a myriad of criminal activities to support terrorism, activities that host countries could investigate and prosecute, under local criminal laws”.

A frequent refrain in the US cables is Belgian irritation at the poor quality of Turkish intelligence. In a 27 November 2006 cable, the Belgian Foreign Ministry’s Secretary-General Jan Grauls is reported as complaining “that Turkey needed to provide better, more specific information to enable Belgian authorities to go after PKK members in Belgium."

He asked for US assistance with Turkey: "Help us to help them."

But nothing improved, according to the cables. On 5 June 2009, a cable to Washington says a senior Belgian official told the embassy the Belgian government “finds some Turkish intelligence suspect, especially lists of names provided by the GOT [Government of Turkey]; the Belgian MFA [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] believes some of these names might be anti-Turkish or Kurdish independence activists who have committed no crime and who may not in fact be tied to any listed terrorist organisation".

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/belgi ... 2037950953

Estella Schmid has done more to help Kurds than any thousand Kurds put together :ymhug:
Last edited by Anthea on Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Turkey outraged at Czech release of Salih Muslim

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Re: Belgium's court judgement opens way for PKK prosecutions

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:33 pm

Turkey: 4 arrested over online terror propaganda
By Seyhan Kirici

Suspects said to be spreading propaganda against Operation Olive Branch in Syria's Afrin

BALIKESIR, Turkey

At least four people have been arrested in northwestern Turkey for allegedly taking part in an online smear campaign against Turkey's military operation in northwestern Syria, according to the local governor.

The Balikesir Governor's Office said on Wednesday that two of the suspects were apprehended in coordinated raids.

Later, Turkish police arrested two more suspects for allegedly making terror propaganda on behalf of far-left terrorist groups such as DHKP-C, THKP/C, and TKP/ML.

On Jan. 20, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch to clear the PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh terrorists from Afrin in northwestern Syria.

According to the Turkish General Staff, the operation aims to establish security and stability along Turkey’s borders and the region as well as protect Syrians from terrorist cruelty and oppression.

The operation is being carried out under the framework of Turkey's rights based on international law, UN Security Council resolutions, its self-defense rights under the UN charter, and respect for Syria's territorial integrity, it said.

http://aa.com.tr/en/turkey/turkey-4-arr ... da/1069648
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Re: Turkey: 4 arrested over online terror propaganda

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:48 pm

Turkey arrests 16 political activists in Istanbul

16 members of Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) were arrested over terrorism allegations in Istanbul on Tuesday.

Political activists Filiz Yılmaz, Metin İlan, Suphi Yıldız, Bedia Aydemir, Gonca Yangöz, Şamil Altan, Abdulselam Yolcu, Taylan Talaş, Hüseyin Gencer, Celalettin Can, Atilla Sayır, Erhan Sarıkaya, Gülsen Biter, Vahit Dalgıç, Taylan Ürün and Can Memiş were arrested on Tuesday for “being a member of a terrorist organization.

14 others were released on the condition of the judicial control.

HDK is a platform for political parties, NGOs and other social organizations and is considered the social project of Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
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Re: Turkey: 4 arrested over online terror propaganda

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:53 pm

Prosecutor demands 7-year sentence for whistling a Kurdish song

A Turkish prosecutor demanded 7-year prison sentence for a group of university students who whistled a popular Kurdish song at school.

Diyarbakir Prosecutor’s Office accused 12 university students of “spreading propaganda for a terrorist organization” and “committing crimes in the name of a terrorist organization” during a march to celebrate Kurdish new year (Newroz).

One of the students, identified in the article as Suat Mustafa Ş., has been accused of “making terrorist propaganda” for whistling a Kurdish song.

“As I was passing the scene of the incident, a person wearing civilian clothes approached me, told me he was from the police, took me by the arm and told me to come with him. I asked to see identification but wasn’t shown any,” Suat Mustafa said.

“Then four or five police officers came to take me away. I wasn’t whistling any (PKK) song provocatively in any police officers' faces. I was whistling a song by a Kurdish artist.”
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Re: Turkey: 4 arrested over online terror propaganda

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 21, 2018 10:56 pm

100 German policemen storm a building to confiscate a banner

100 German policemen stormed into a building to confiscate a banner that read “Afrin, hold on!” in Meucheffitz.

The banner was raised by a resident of Meucheffitz in support of popular resistance against Turkish invasion in Afrin. It read: “Hold on Rojava! Turkish troops and German weapons commit murder in Rojava. Long live YPJ / YPG”.

100 German police raided the building on Tuesday morning to confiscate the banner.

The police said the banner was violating German law and shows support for a “terrorist association”.

Some of the police were equipped with sub-machine guns searched the building. No arrests were made.
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Re: Turkey: 4 arrested over online terror propaganda

PostAuthor: Anthea » Sun Feb 25, 2018 9:55 pm

Kurdish Leader Is Arrested in Prague at Turkey’s Request
Rod Nordland

Salih Muslim was detained in Prague after an Interpol “red notice” was issued by the Turkish government, which describes him as a terrorist. Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Associated Press

A senior Kurdish official from Syria was detained in the Czech Republic on Sunday under an extradition request from Turkey, according to the Czech police and the official Anadolu News Agency in Turkey.

The official, Salih Muslim, is the foreign affairs spokesman for the political coalition that governs the Kurdish regions of northern Syria, the Movement for a Democratic Society. He was detained after an Interpol “red notice” was issued by the Turkish government, which describes him as a terrorist, the agency said.

The Czech police issued a statement confirming the arrest of a 67-year-old man on a Turkish extradition request. Mr. Muslim’s aides confirmed that the statement referred to him.

An official with the Kurdistan National Congress in Vienna said that Mr. Muslim had been arrested at his hotel in Prague, the Czech capital, where he was speaking against Turkey’s invasion of the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, in northwestern Syria.

Though an Interpol red notice is a request from a country to detain someone for extradition, it is not itself a criminal charge.

Mr. Muslim was formerly the co-president of the Democratic Union Party (known as the P.Y.D.), the political arm of the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units, or Y.P.G., in Syria.

Turkey claims the P.Y.D. and Y.P.G. are part of the Turkish-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or P.K.K., which was designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union and the United States, although the Syrian organizations were not.

The Y.P.G. is the dominant group in the Syrian Democratic Forces, which are partners with the American-led international coalition fighting the Islamic State in Syria. And American officials have had high praise for the organization’s military and political wings, despite Turkish criticism.

In a recent phone interview from Brussels, where he is based, Mr. Muslim rejected Turkish claims that the Kurds’ Syrian organizations in Rojava, or northern Syria, were fronts for the P.K.K.

“We belong in Rojava; we have organized our people in Rojava.” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we are P.K.K. Also, we decide for ourselves.”

“The Turks are just using the P.K.K. as an excuse to make something against us,” he added. “To the Turks, the best Kurd is a dead Kurd.”

Last month, Turkey launched an offensive in Afrin and threatened to carry its fight against Syrian Kurds into Manbij and areas farther east where American troops are stationed, which the United States military vowed to resist.

Mr. Muslim is now with a political coalition representing the Rojava region in Syria, but it is closely aligned with the P.Y.D. and its military wing.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, addressing his party supporters in the southeastern province of Sanliurfa, said, “Now the head of P.Y.D. is caught,” according to Anadolu. “Our wish is, God willing, for the Czech Republic to hand over him to Turkey, and justice prevails.”

A statement issued by Mr. Muslim’s organization, the Movement for a Democratic Society, denounced the arrest. “The Turkish state has no right to prosecute or arrest any person who is not one of her citizens,” it said. “Salih Muslim is a Syrian citizen.”

Many Interpol red notice detentions are dismissed by the courts in the countries where they take place, without the extraditions. Europe has not designated the Syrian Kurdish organizations as terrorist groups, and it has previously rejected such extradition requests by Turkey.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/25/worl ... urkey.html
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Re: Salih Muslim arrested in Prague after request from Turke

PostAuthor: Anthea » Mon Feb 26, 2018 11:10 pm

Turkey deploys special forces for ‘new phase of battle’
as Kurdish leader arrested in Prague


Troops now hold a corridor that links territory in Aleppo province under the control of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army rebels to opposition stronghold of Idlib

The Turkish army has deployed fresh troops to fight in its operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria, ahead of what it said was a “coming battle”.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag told Turkish television that police special forces had been deployed as reinforcements in Afrin, where Turkey is waging the one-month-old Operation Olive Branch to clear Kurdish fighters from the border region “in preparation for the new battle that is approaching”.

Also on Monday, Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and the Turkish army seized territory on the Afrin border, which Mr Bozdag said created a crescent under Turkish control on the Syrian side of the border.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed that Turkish troops now hold a continuous strip of land on the edge of Afrin, opening a corridor that links territory in Aleppo province under the control of the Free Syrian Army, backed by Turkey, with the rebel stronghold of Idlib province.

The new forces will hold the 87 villages Turkey says it has seized from Kurdish YPG fighters, while other units continue the assault on urban areas, Mr Bozdag said.

The air and ground offensive is designed to drive back the Kurdish YPG, which Ankara sees as inextricably linked to the Kurdish PKK, which it views as a terrorist group.

Turkey has opened a new front in Syria’s complex seven-year-old conflict.

Olive Branch is widely believed to have been sparked by Turkish anger at renewed US support for the YPG and Arab-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces, which its Nato ally has backed as the most effective ground force against Isis.

The offensive has not been very successful so far: most of the larger towns in the region, including Afrin itself, remain under YPG control.

Turkey said on Monday that Saturday’s UN Security Council demand for a 30-day truce across Syria – designed to stop the fighting in eastern Ghouta – does not apply to its offensive in Afrin.

Over the weekend Turkey dealt Syria’s Kurds a diplomatic blow, after influential former leader Salih Muslim was taken into custody in the Czech Republic following a Turkish request.

Turkey has requested that Salih Muslim, a Syrian national, be extradited to Turkey to face terror charges it made against him in 2016. He was in Prague for a conference.

A hearing is scheduled in the Czech capital on Tuesday.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 29691.html
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Re: Salih Muslim arrested in Prague after request from Turke

PostAuthor: Piling » Tue Feb 27, 2018 4:33 pm

He is free, now. It would have been very surprising that Prague sends him to Turkey. The same effect in the world than when Öcalan was betrayed by Greece.
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Re: Salih Muslim arrested in Prague after request from Turke

PostAuthor: Anthea » Wed Feb 28, 2018 12:24 am

Piling wrote:He is free, now. It would have been very surprising that Prague sends him to Turkey. The same effect in the world than when Öcalan was betrayed by Greece.


One less disaster to worry about ;)
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Re: Salih Muslim freed after Turkey's arrest request

PostAuthor: Anthea » Thu Mar 01, 2018 9:02 pm

Czech release of Syrian Kurdish leader triggers outrage in Turkey

A Czech court on Tuesday (February 27) released prominent Syrian Kurdish leader Salih Muslim, wanted by Turkey on terror charges, prompting outrage in Ankara which said the move showed "support for terrorism".

Turkey on Monday said it had formally asked for the extradition of one of the leading figureheads of the Syrian Kurds, who was detained by Czech police at the weekend at Ankara's request.

"The judge decided to release Salih Muslim. At the same time, Muslim promised the court that he would not leave the territory of the European Union and would report to the court at its request," court spokeswoman Marketa Puci told AFP.

Muslim's lawyer Miroslav Krutina told reporters that his client vowed to participate in all extradition proceedings requested by Turkey.

Muslim is wanted over a 2016 bombing in Ankara and faces 30 life sentences if convicted. He denies the charges. Until now, he had been able to move around the EU without a problem.

The former leader of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) is still a figurehead for Kurds in Syria.

The decision to release him was hailed by several dozen Kurds who had come to show their solidarity in front of the municipal court building in central Prague.

'Support for terrorism'?

Turkey lashed out at Czech judicial authorities for their decision, with Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag telling reporters in Ankara that it showed "support for terrorism" and would have a "negative impact" on relations between Prague and Ankara.

The Czech foreign ministry hit back, saying it "resolutely rejects the allegations that today's decision by an independent court runs counter to the Czech Republic's pledge to fight international terrorism."

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis declined to comment on the case Tuesday, insisting that "it's a Czech court that decides."

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country would continue to pursue Muslim, even if he leaves the Czech Republic.

"The decision of the [Czech] court does not mean that everything is over; we will not let go of this case," Cavusoglu insisted, calling the release of the Kurdish leader "scandalous".

Earlier Turkey had said Muslim's case was a "day of reckoning" for its NATO ally, pressing Prague to extradite him to face a terror trial.

The arrest came as Turkey continues its more than month-long operation inside Syria aimed at dislodging the People's Protection Units (YPG) -- the military wing of the PYD -- from the Afrin region of the country's north.

Ankara sees the YPG and PYD as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which for over three decades has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state.

http://www.nrttv.com/en/Details.aspx?Jimare=18987
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