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The Grand Turk
Turkey’s new vice president hails from Kurdish village
2023-06-07
How effective will he be, given President Erdogan’s hatred of all things Kurdish — or was he just added to dilute the Kurdish vote?
[Rudaw] Cevdet Yilmaz, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
’s new vice president is a Kurd from a village called Saban in Bingol province, southeastern Turkey (Bakur).

Rudaw has spoken to his relatives who hope the vice president will play a key role in resolving the country’s issues.

"Congratulations to all of us for Cevdet Yilmaz’s [designation as deputy president]. He was a successful person who graduated top first from primary school to university. He did his internship in the US and graduated top first from Bilkent University," Kemal Burulday, Yilmaz’s relative, told Rudaw’s Ali Haydar Gozlu.

Burulday added that he is optimistic that there are Kurds in positions of power and they hope they will work towards improving the economic and social situation.

His relatives and people from his village say he had previously served the village and is able to serve the country.

"Cevdet Yilmaz is from our village. He attends all wakes and we see one another. We are very glad and I hope Allah makes him successful," Ramazan Bulmus, a villager, said.

Yilmaz was born in 1967 and obtained a PhD degree from Bilken University’s department of political science. He served as a politician for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) five times then in 2016, he became the deputy prime minister of Turkey. Yilmaz speaks Kurmanci and Zazaki dialects of Kurdish as well as Ottoman Turkish and English.

Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...
on Saturday announced the members of his new cabinet in a ceremony in Ankara after his inauguration for his third term.

Speaking in Cankaya Palace in Ankara, Erdogan named 19 ministers and Yilmaz as the vice president who, according to him, will shape the next century in Turkey’s history.
Link


The Grand Turk
Dozens of Turks sneak into Europe in passport scam: report
2021-04-21
[Rudaw] The Ottoman Turkish government on Monday widened an investigation into claims dozens of people had used special passports to enter Europa
...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum...
legally and never returned.
Yeah, they'll get right to the bottom of that
The scandal has dominated local headlines since it emerged last week that 43 people with grey service passports entered Germany last November to attend an environmental workshop and never returned to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
Grey passports are issued to people working abroad for the state, allowing visa-free travel to many countries.

They were sent by a local district municipality in the eastern province of Malatya, according to local media.

The interior ministry in a statement on Monday said the probe would be widened to include six more local municipalities in cities including Ordu on the Black Sea.

The six included ruling and main opposition party mayors.

They had sent individuals for "folk dance shows, culture tours, youth programmes" in cooperation with non-governmental organizations, the interior ministry said.

It also temporarily suspended issuing service-stamped passports for non-public sector employees who were assigned to work abroad by local authorities.

Last week, the ministry suspended the deputy governor of Malatya, two public officials and the provincial head of the population and citizen affairs body over the scandal.

One source told HaberTurk website how people paid 6,000 euros ($7,200) for the passport to go to Germany through Bingol municipality in eastern Turkey.

They also claimed at least "450-500" people went to Europe using this method.

In a video posted online by Anka News Agency, the main opposition party mayor of Yesilova in southwestern Turkey said the claims relating to his district dated back to 2018, before he was elected.

Mumtaz Senel said 387 people were sent to Rome with grey passports but 23 never returned their passports.
Link


The Grand Turk
Turkey announces new operation against PKK in eastern provinces
2019-11-09
[Rudaw] The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
has launched a new phase of its operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in eastern regions of the country, the Interior Ministry announced on Friday, as it continues to squeeze the group in the Kurdistan Region of northern Iraq.

The fifth phase of Operation Kiran, meaning "breaker," targets PKK in the eastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Bingol and Mus. The operation was launched on August 17 in the southeastern provinces of Van, Hakkari, and Sirnak, and was followed by campaigns throughout the mainly Kurdish areas.

More than 2,500 personnel are taking part in the latest phase, the ministry stated, as reported by state-owned Anadolu Agency.

Turkey is simultaneously conducting operations against the PKK across the border in the Kurdistan Region where the Interior Ministry claimed they have "neutralized" over 400 PKK fighters in the last four months. The Ottoman Turkish army uses "neutralized" when referring to fighters who were killed, captured, or who have surrendered. This Operation Claw was launched on May 27 and is now in the third phase, focused on Sinat and Haftanin in Duhok province.
Link


The Grand Turk
Turkey: Over 150 PKK, Daesh terrorist suspects arrested
2017-12-29
[AA.TR] At least 170 suspects were incarcerated
Don't shoot, coppers! I'm comin' out!
Thursday during anti-terror operations across The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund....
, according to security officials.

In the capital Ankara, 15 suspects were detained in an operation against the terrorist PKK’s social media structure, a security official, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media, told Anadolu Agency.

A probe by Ankara prosecutors found that suspects were promoting the terrorist PKK through their social media accounts, the source added.

Eighteen others were arrested in the southern Adana province, over similar allegations, according to another security source.

Security officials also found that some of the suspects were involved in the burning of construction equipment in 2012, in Adana.

The operation against the PKK/KCK terrorist groups was launched in the central Yuregir and Saricam districts along with the Ceyhan district.

Also, 38 suspects, including Syrian nationals, were arrested over alleged links to the terrorist organization ISIS in the northwestern Bursa province’s central Osmangazi and Yildirim districts and Inegol district.

In another operation centered in the southeastern Van province, 22 others were detained in three provinces, according to security sources.

Five additional suspects, including Syrian nationals, were apprehended in the western Manisa province.

In the northwestern Sakarya province, three Iraqi nationals were arrested over alleged links to the terrorist group ISIS, a security source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media.

Some digital materials and money in the amount of $138,000 and more than 50,000 Ottoman Turkish lira ($13,000) were also seized during the operation at the suspects' address.

Meanwhile,
...back at the wrecked scow, Agent 49 felt gingerly for his head. It was still there. He had been hoping differently...
prosecutors in the eastern Bingol province issued arrest warrants for 26 suspects as part of an investigation into ISIS, said a statement by the office.

Later in the day, 21 suspects were arrested during Bingol-based operations, including in Istanbul.

Ottoman Turkish security forces detained eight others in the eastern Elazig province during an operation against ISIS.

During another operation in Istanbul, six foreign nationals, including one woman, were arrested in the Basaksehir, Umraniye, and Gungoren districts, a security source said.

An operation launched in the southeastern Gaziantep province led to the detention of 17 suspects, according to a statement by the governor's office.

A total of $111,800 in dollars and 55,195 Ottoman Turkish lira (approx. $14,500), a gun, two chargers, 220 cartridges, two shotguns were also seized along with many digital materials.
Link


The Grand Turk
Two ruling party officials, 13 militants killed in southeast Turkey
2017-07-03
[AlAhram] Kurdish Lions of Islam shot and killed two officials from the ruling AK Party in southeast The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
over the weekend, while the Ottoman Turkish military killed more than a dozen Lions of Islam in air strikes, state authorities said on Sunday.

Orhan Mercan, the AKP's deputy head in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, was shot in front of his home on Friday night and died of his wounds in hospital, the provincial governor's office said.

Militants killed Aydin Ahi, deputy head of the AKP in the Ozalp district of Van province on Saturday night, the governor's office said. Security sources said the gunnies seized Ahi from his home at gunpoint and killed him nearby.

Energy Minister Berat Albayrak wrote on Twitter that Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) Lions of Islam had killed both men.
...because everyone knows the dreaded Gulenists don't actually do violence, despite all the arrests.
There was no immediate comment on the attacks from the PKK, but the group has targeted officials from the party in the past.

Violence flared across the region on Saturday.

In an air strike in the southeastern province of Mardin, the Ottoman Turkish military killed five PKK Lions of Islam preparing an attack on an army base, a general staff statement said.

In separate air strikes on Saturday, the army also killed five PKK fighters in southeast Turkey's Bingol province and another four Lions of Islam in the Metina region of northern Iraq, the army said.

It said another three PKK Lions of Islam were killed in festivities on Saturday in the southeastern provinces of Diyarbakir, Hakkari and Sirnak.
An Nahar adds:
Sixteen PKK suspects have already been detained for the assassination, Anadolu said.

Anadolu said Ahi's predecessor had also been assassinated in similar circumstances last year
Link


The Grand Turk
Turkish police foil ISIS strike on Izmir holiday resort
2017-02-06
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] Turkish police have foiled a planned ISIS terror strike on the Izmir holiday resort following a string of dawn raids.

In total 445 suspects have been incarcerated
Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit!
across the country - including nine jihadis in the tourist resort plotting their attack.

One of the men arrested in Izmir is a Syrian national who had made contact with people smuggling gangs to sneak ISIS Death Eaters into Europe. Around 100 suspects were arrested in the south east of the country near the border with Syria.

At least 60 suspected jihadis were arrested in Ankara, most of them believed to be foreign nationals.

The operation around the country saw 150 suspects rounded up in Sanliurfa in the southeast and 47 in the nearby city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border which has a known jihadist presence, Dogan said.

One of the suspects detained in Izmir - a Syrian identified only as E.A. - is said to have been in touch with people smugglers in a bid to help the ISIS members escape to Europe, Anadolu said.

Eighteen people were detained in Istanbul and the neighbouring province of Kocaeli on suspicion of planning attacks.

Another 14 foreigners were due to be deported, including 10 children.

Turkish security forces conducted a series of coordinated raids to arrest suspected jihadis.

This morning's raids saw Turkish police arrest the suspects - including foreign nationals - who are believed to have been planning attacks.

This follows the first confirmed attack by ISIS on The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
on New Year's Eve which claimed the lives of 39 people.

The New Year's Eve attack on the Reina nightclub was the first time ISIS grabbed credit for an atrocity in Turkey, although it had been suspected of several bombings during 2016.

Police detained the suspected New Year's Eve attacker, Abdulgadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national, on January 16 after over over two weeks on the run and authorities say he has confessed to the massacre.

The Hurriyet daily reported after the attack that ISIS also planned a simultaneous New Year's strike in Ankara but dropped the plot after arrests by the Turkish authorities.

Sources claim most of the 60 people detained in the capital are foreigners, although there is no information yet as to their nationality.

Dozens more arrests were made in provinces ranging from Bursa in the west to Bingol in the east.

In addition to the latest arrests, Turkey says at least 780 people, including 350 foreigners, remain in detention - some of whom have been convicted - over suspected links to the jihadist group.
Link


The Grand Turk
Deaths, injuries in car bombing in Turkey; Kurdish legislators held
2016-11-05
[AlAhram] A large kaboom, caused by a boom-mobile, hit the largest city in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's mainly Kurdish southeast region on Friday, hours after authorities detained at least 12 pro-Kurdish politicians for questioning in terror-related probes.

Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said both police and non-combatants were killed in the attack but did not say how many. The state-run Anadolu Agency said one person was killed and some 30 others were maimed.

The blast occurred in Diyarbakir's Baglar district, near a building used by the riot police. The Diyarbakir governor's office said the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, had claimed the attack.

Anadolu said the attack was carried out with a minibus laden with a ton of explosives.

The blast caused a large crater near the police building and damaged several buildings and businesses nearby. Television footage showed people walking among glass and other debris near buildings with windows blown out.

Hours earlier, police detained 11 politicians from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, or HDP, including the party's two co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag.

The detentions occurred in the middle of the night, with co-chair Demirtas describing on Twitter how he was taken into custody: "Police officials are at the door to my house in Diyarbakir with a detention warrant."

State-run Anadolu Agency reported co-chair Yuksekdag was detained in her home in Ankara. Other bigwigs taken away included Sirri Sureyya Onder and Idris Baluken. A twelfth politician was also detained during the day.

An Interior Ministry statement said a total of 15 detention warrants were issued by the chief public prosecutors in Diyarbakir and the provinces of Sirnak, Hakkari, Van and Bingol. Two of the politicians were determined to be abroad, and authorities are still searching for one.

Anadolu reported the politicians were detained for not appearing in court to testify in ongoing terrorism-related investigations.

The government accuses the HDP of being the political arm of the PKK, an accusation the party rejects.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him...
and other senior government officials have repeatedly called for the prosecution of pro-Kurdish politicians on terrorism-related charges, which was made possible after legal immunities protecting politicians from prosecution were lifted in May.

Hundreds of charges were filed against HDP politicians following the lifting of immunity, including "disseminating terrorist propaganda" and "membership in an armed terrorist organization."

Demirtas reportedly reacted to the lifting of immunity by saying none of his fellow party members would voluntarily appear in court to testify. "If they want our testimony they'll have to force us there," he said, according to Anadolu.

Justice Minister Bozdag defended the detentions in a speech Friday, "The politicians that were detained did not help the legal process to proceed, they did not recognize the law. They did not respect the law."

Earlier this week Gultan Kisanak, the HDP mayor of the largest predominantly Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, along with co-mayor Firat Anli, was tossed in the calaboose
Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw!
over alleged membership in the PKK.

In September, the government similarly ousted 28 mayors and other administrators, mostly from the HDP, and appointed trustees in their place.
Link


The Grand Turk
6 PKK terrorists killed in eastern Turkey
2016-10-30
Six PKK terrorists were killed Friday in anti-terror operations in eastern Turkey, the Turkish army announced on its official website Saturday, Anadolu reported.

According to a statement issued by the Turkish General Staff, two terrorists were killed in the Dogubeyazit district of Agri province.

Armed forces killed two others in the Semdinli district of Hakkari province and two others in the Uludere district of Sirnak.

In addition, a civilian was injured in a PKK attack at a checkpoint located in Sirnak, according to the Turkish General Staff.

The Turkish General Staff also provided details about various seizures in the southeastern region.

Four improvised explosive devices, 250 kilograms of ammonium nitrate, 100 meters of cable wire and five kilograms of hemp seeds were seized in Bingol’s Genc district.

Moreover, 10 tubes used to make improvised explosive devices were found in the Tatvan district of Bitlis during a road check.

An explosive device comprising of 10 kilograms of ammonium nitrate was also discovered in Hakkari’s Semdinli district and was destroyed. Some 350 kilograms of powdered marijuana were also seized in Hakkari.
Link


The Grand Turk
Violence flares in Turkey's tense southeast after mayors' arrest
2016-10-28
[Ynet] Five members of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's security forces and five Kurdish faceless myrmidons were killed on Thursday in festivities in the southeast where unrest has flared since the arrest this week of two popular mayors.

Two soldiers were killed in a clash near Hani, a town outside Diyarbakir, the region's biggest city, security sources said. A third died in a firefight near Cukurca near the Iraqi border, where five faceless myrmidons were also killed, they said.

A soldier was killed by a homemade bomb in Bingol, 140 km north of Diyarbakir, and a member of a state-backed militia was killed in Batman province to the east.

Violence has escalated in the 15 months since the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) called off a two-year ceasefire, and the arrest of Diyabakir Mayor Gultan Kisanak and her co-mayor Firat Anli late on Tuesday on terrorism charges has caused further resentment.
Link


The Grand Turk
Police officer killed, 10 people wounded in bomb in east Turkey
2016-10-24
[Ynet] A police officer was killed and 10 people were maimed when a boom-mobile went kaboom! near a passing police vehicle in the eastern Turkish province of Bingol on Sunday, security sources said.

The bomb, planted by turbans from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), exploded near the district governor's office, the security sources said.

Six coppers were among the injured, they said.
Link


The Grand Turk
‘Huge disaster’ averted in Turkey as suspects blow themselves up
2016-10-09
[IsraelTimes] Two men who apparently planned to carry out a massive car kaboom in Ankara detonate explosives

Two people suspected of planning a car kaboom on the Turkish capital Ankara on Saturday blew themselves up after being confronted by police, averting what the justice minister called a "huge disaster".

The suspects, who both died in the kaboom, were believed to be preparing an attack when they set off the explosives, the official Anadolu news agency said.

"A huge disaster has been prevented. It is probable they would have attacked Ankara.... All signs are pointing to the PKK terrorist organization," Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told the CNN-Turk broadcaster.

The bombing comes two days before the first anniversary of The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
’s deadliest terror attack in its modern history in Ankara which left 103 dead. The attack was blamed on jihadists from the Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
group.

Ankara governor Ercan Topaca told news hounds at the scene it was "highly likely" that the suspects had connections to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

"The materials used, the construction and the way it was planned point to the PKK...." he said, quoted by Anadolu.

The governor said police swooped early on Saturday after a tip-off from Diyarbakir, a mainly Kurdish province in Turkey’s southeast.

No-one else was killed or injured in the blast understood to have taken place close to a black car in the town of Haymana, around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Ankara, the governor’s office said in a statement.

The suspects were believed to have been hiding in a hut near a stud.

"The security forces launched the operation and warned (them) to surrender. A short while later (and) before any intervention, two forces of Evil confirmed to be a man and a woman detonated themselves," the statement added.

In televised comments, Topaca also said the suspects were a male born in the eastern province of Bingol and an unidentified female. She was later named in Turkish media.

He added that the authorities were looking for a third person adding that the jacket wallahs hung a Turkish flag on the car to avoid suspicion.

An ID card was also found at the scene, the statement said.

On Friday, the Kurdish group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) with ties to the PKK grabbed credit for a cycle of violence bombing on Thursday near a cop shoppe in Istanbul which maimed 10 people.
Al Ahram adds:
CNN-Turk broadcaster reported that 200 kilos (more than 400 pounds) of ammonium nitrate and plastic explosives were seized during the operation.
Link


The Grand Turk
Five Police Killed in PKK Attack in Eastern Turkey
2016-08-02
President Erdogan is not yet having everything his own way.
[AnNahar] Five Turkish police were killed on Monday when outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bandidos hard boyz detonated a bomb that struck a police vehicle in eastern The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
, a local governor said.

Kurdish rebels detonated the device as the bus carrying police special forces was passing by, Bingol province governor Yavuz Selim Kosger said, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency.

Four other coppers were seriously injured, he added.
Link



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