Centre-right Justice and Development party secures 49.9% of all votes, giving it 325 seats in parliament Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become the most successful prime minister in the history of Turkey’s multiparty system after a landslide victory at the country’s general election. His centre-right Justice and Development party (AKP), in power since 2002, won 49.9% of all votes, giving it 325 seats in parliament. The result falls short of the two-thirds majority needed to rewrite Turkey’s 1982 military constitution without having to consult parliament. The Republican People’s party (CHP), came second with 25.9%. The only other party to gain seats in parliament, the Nationalist Movement party (MHP), took 13%, seemingly unaffected by a sex tape scandal that caused the resignation of 10 senior party members. Thirty-six independent candidates, most of whom are backed by the Kurdish BDP, were also voted in, among whom was Kurdish campaigner Leyla Zana from Diyarbakir. Turnout was 84.79%. “Erdogan wants to implement a presidential system,” Gencer Ozcan, professor for international relations at Bilgi University told the Guardian. “This is the main goal of a new constitution. This is the first time that the prime minister handpicked all AKP candidates, assuring absolute loyalty within his own party.” But the election result requires wider parliamentary consensus on a new constitution. This comes as good news to government critics who, concerned about Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian stance, accused him of wanting to “Putinise” the country in an effort to remain in charge beyond 2015, when he would be barred from serving as prime minister again. Speaking at a victory rally in the capital, Ankara, Erdogan adopted a conciliatory tone: “Today workers, pensioners, farmers have won. People in the villages have won. Today 74 million people have won. Today the western world, Tripoli, Gaza have won. The Middle East, the Balkans, Europe have won. Peace, justice and stability have won.” Of the planned new constitution, he said: “We will go to the opposition. We will consult with the media and academics to find a consensus. We will not close our doors regarding the constitution, only because we haven’t reached 330 seats.” However, after a vexed election campaign, several political commentators expressed scepticism about Erdogan’s promise of compromise. The AKP will face a rocky third term. Analysts predict a dangerously overheating economy, and Turkey’s “zero-problem” foreign policy is being challenged by regional uprisings such as that in neighbouring Syria, long an ally of AKP-ruled Turkey. Journalist Oral Çalislar told the Guardian: “Prime minister Erdogan has already indicated that after the elections, the honeymoon with Syria will be over. Turkey will take a much harder stance, and side with the EU to solve the Syrian problem.” The handling of Turkey’s large Kurdish minority will also be a key issue. At a ballot station in the predominantly Kurdish area of Dolapdere, Süleyman Demir expressed his dissatisfaction with the AKP. “We don’t expect anything from the government any more”, he said. “Erdogan has made his view on Kurdish rights only too clear over the past weeks.” During the election campaign Erdogan adopted a harsher and more nationalistic tone which, critics say, has alienated many Kurds. “There is no comparison any more to the Erdogan of 2002 and 2005. He has turned his stance by 180 degrees,” said 34-year-old Demir. He, like many Kurds, voted for one of the independent candidates backed by the Kurdish BDP. “We don’t want any canals, bridges or airports,” he said in reference to Erdogan’s regeneration schemes. “We don’t need any ‘crazy projects’. All we want is peace, and an end to the bloodshed in the south-east.” Turkey Middle East Europe guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Tim Pawlenty declared open season on Mitt Romney today, equating Massachusetts’ health reform with the federal overhaul in a mashup he termed “Obam-neyCare.” “The president’s own words [are] that he patterned in large measure Obamacare after what happened in Massachusetts,” Pawlenty told Fox News. “What I don’t understand is that…
Continue reading …Under the rattle of heavy gunfire and loud explosions, Syrian troops today regained control of the restive northwestern town of Jisr al-Shughour, clashing with mutinous soldiers whose decision to side with armed protesters posed a potent threat to the authoritarian regime. Residents who fled to Turkey said thousands of young…
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Tom MacMaster’s wife has confirmed in an email to the Guardian that he is the real identity behind the Gay Girl in Damascus blog The mysterious identity of a young Arab lesbian blogger who was apparently kidnapped last week in Syria has been revealed conclusively to be a hoax. The blogs were written by not by a gay girl in Damascus, but a middle-aged American man based in Scotland. Tom MacMaster, a 40-year-old Middle East activist studying for a masters at Edinburgh University, posted an update declaring that, rather than a 35-year-old feminist and lesbian called Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, he was “the sole author of all posts on this blog”. “I never expected this level of attention,” he wrote in a posting allegedly emanating from “Istanbul, Turkey”. “The events [in the Middle East] are being shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.” The admission – confirmed in an email to the Guardian from MacMaster’s wife – apparently ends a mystery that has convulsed parts of the internet for almost a week. But it provoked a furious response from those who had supported the blogger’s campaign, with some in the Syrian gay community saying he had risked their safety and seriously harmed their cause. The blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus”, was launched in February, purportedly to explain “what it’s like to be a lesbian here”, and gathered a growing following as Syria’s popular uprising gained momentum in recent months. Amina described participating in street protests, carrying out furtive lesbian romances and eventually being forced into hiding after security forces came to her home to arrest her. Then, on 6 June, a post appeared in the name of Amina’s cousin “Rania O Ismail”, who said the blogger had been snatched by armed men on a Damascus street. The news sparked internet campaigns to release her, until activists in Syria and beyond began voicing doubts. It emerged that no one, even a woman in Canada who believed she was having a relationship with Amina, had ever spoken to her, and other key details could not be corroborated. In recent days an army of bloggers, journalists and others uncovered snippets of evidence that pointed increasingly to MacMaster and his wife, Britta Froelicher, who is studying at the University of St Andrews for a PhD in Syrian economic development. IP addresses of emails sent by Amina to the lesbian blog LezGetReal.com and others were traced to servers at Edinburgh University. A now-defunct Yahoo discussion group supposedly jointly run by “Amina Arraf” was listed under an address in Stone Mountain, Georgia, that public records show is a home owned by MacMaster and Froelicher. Many private emails sent by the blog’s author contained photographs identical to pictures taken by Froelicher and posted on her page on the Picasa photo-sharing website. Included on the site are many images from a trip to Syria in 2008. The pictures had been removed from public view last night. With the evidence increasingly compelling, MacMaster, who apparently moved to Edinburgh with his wife late last year, decided to come clean. “While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground,” the update read. “This experience has, sadly, only confirmed my feelings regarding the often superficial coverage of the Middle East and the pervasiveness of new forms of liberal Orientalism. “However, I have been deeply touched by the reactions of readers.” Despite MacMaster’s assertion “I do not believe that I have harmed anyone”, activists were furious. Sami Hamwi, the pseudonym for the Damascus editor of GayMiddleEast.com, wrote: “To Mr MacMaster, I say shame on you!!! There are bloggers in Syria who are trying as hard as they can to report news and stories from the country. We have to deal with too many difficulties than you can imagine. What you have done has harmed many, put us all in danger, and made us worry about our LGBT activism. Add to that, that it might have caused doubts about the authenticity of our blogs, stories, and us. “Your apology is not accepted, since I have myself started to investigate Amina’s arrest. I could have put myself in a grave danger inquiring about a fictitious figure. Really … Shame on you!!!” “What a waste of time when we are trying so hard to get news out of Syria,” another Damascus activist told the Guardian. Twitter supporters and bloggers, too, reacted furiously. There was no immediate reaction from Sandra Bagaria, the French Canadian woman who exchanged around 1,000 emails with Amina and believed herself to be in a romantic relationship with the blogger. Jelena Lecic, the London woman whose pictures were appropriated by the blogger and passed off as Amina, including in direct email correspondence with the Guardian, was not immediately available for comment. Katherine Marsh, the pseudonym of a journalist who until recently was reporting for the Guardian from Syria, interviewed Amina by email in May after being put in touch with her by a trusted Syrian contact who also believed the blogger to be real. Marsh said last night that many steps had been taken to try to verify Amina’s identity, including repeated requests to meet, at some personal risk to the journalist, and talk on Skype. Amina agreed to meet, but later emailed to say she had seen security forces and had therefore not come to the meeting. She then emailed details of her supposed hiding place, lending credence to her story. Despite the explanations offered in the blog post, the question many were asking last night was why. In response to an email from the Guardian, Froelicher said she and her husband “would be giving the first interview to a journalist of [their] choice in 12-24 hours”. In a message to another journalist, she said: “We are on vacation in Turkey and just really want to have a nice time and not deal with all this craziness at the moment.” Syria Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Blogging Esther Addley guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …What do the New York Times , the Wall Street Journal , and Cosmopolitan all have in common? Why a rigorous standard for fact-checking, of course! Believe it or not, every Cosmo article, whether about pleasing your man X number of ways or tales of real-life bedroom escapades, is independently verified through…
Continue reading …At a moment when Anthony Weiner’s career is imploding because he’s a dog, Newt Gingrich’s presidential aspirations are dissipating “because he loved not wisely, but too well,” opines Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. Indulging Callista Gingrich’s desire for a two-week Greek vacation when he should have been campaigning…
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Rebels launch attack on strategic town of Zawiya as Russian envoy says ‘clock is ticking’ for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s increasingly stretched army is struggling to crush a surprise rebel offensive in Zawiya, a strategic town just 30 miles west of Tripoli, while fighting has also been reported in the largest town in the Libyan Sahara. At least 13 rebel fighters and civilians were killed in Zawiya on Saturday after the attack on government forces. Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based opposition spokesman, said on Sunday several hundred rebels remained “well-protected and entrenched” in the western part of the town and also controlled a section of the coastal highway to Tunisia that serves as the main supply route for Tripoli. Loyalists forces were still in charge of the town centre and have large numbers of snipers there, he said by phone from London. The government acknowledged that fighting had occurred in Zawiya, which has a major oil refinery, but said the clashes were minor and loyalist forces remained in complete control. It was not possible to verify the conflicting information since foreign journalists in Tripoli are not permitted to leave the capital. Zawiya first rebelled against the Libyan regime in March, but the uprising was crushed when the army sent in tanks and bulldozers, even razing the town’s mosque . If sustained, the town’s second rebellion will be of major significance, because it will mean that Gaddafi’s forces are engaged in fighting in all three directions outside the capital, including Misrata, 130 miles to the east and a string of towns in the Nafusa mountains, about 60 miles to the south. “The strategy is to push on Tripoli from all three sides, inspiring people there and putting great pressure on the army,” said el-Gamaty, the UK coordinator for the rebel’s National Transitional Council (NTC). A businessman in Tripoli, who requested anonymity for his own safety, said the strain on the regime appeared to be showing, with security tightening sharply in Tripoli in recent days. Vehicles entering suburbs known to be restive at night were being checked by up to six times at a single roadblock by police officers, the businessman said. Gaddafi remains in hiding in the city with his family, and appears not to be responding to international diplomatic efforts offering him a safe exit from power. Following a visit to Benghazi, the headquarters of the NTC in eastern Libya, Russia’s special envoy to Africa, Mikhail Margelov told Russian television that the “clock was ticking” for Gaddafi, but said there were precedents for a solution where the Libyan leader might be able “to live happily as a private individual in his own country and nobody touches him”. Besides Zawiya, the NTC also reported skirmishes in parts of Sahba, a garrison town around 500 miles south of Tripoli that is considered a Gaddafi stronghold. Anti-government protests have reportedly been ongoing there for several days. Regarded as the gateway to the Sahara, Sabha is also a key junction for routes to Algeria, Niger and Chad that could be used by senior regime officials looking to escape the country, according to rebels. They remain hopeful that Nato’s aerial operation targeting Gaddafi’s military arsenal might wear it down to the extent that rebel fighters may soon be able to push through government defences on the various fronts. If and when that happens, the main thrust on Tripoli is likely to come from the rebels in Misrata, Libya’s third biggest city, perhaps reinforced by a larger opposition force currently holding its position hundreds of miles east near the town of Brega, which is still in government hands. Misrata’s fighters are battle-hardened after defending their city for nearly four months, and commanders claim that increasingly numbers of government troops are deserting. But they are aware of the shortcomings of their all-infantry force against the heavy weapons of loyalist forces. In an artillery barrage on Friday, the rebels lost 31 men, and suffered 120 injuries. Rebels say the 32nd Brigade, an elite force reportedly controlled by Gaddafi’s son, Khamis, is garrisoning Zlitan, the town blocking any advance from Misrata on Tripoli. Meanwhile, in the Nafusa mountain range to the south of Tripoli, government forces are continuing their attacks on the mainly Berber communities who have taken control of numerous small towns near the road that runs towards Tunisia. In the rebel-controlled town of Zintan, five people were killed during rocket attacks on Sunday, according to a rebel spokesman. More than 20 people were injured. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rebels launch attack on strategic town of Zawiya as Russian envoy says ‘clock is ticking’ for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s increasingly stretched army is struggling to crush a surprise rebel offensive in Zawiya, a strategic town just 30 miles west of Tripoli, while fighting has also been reported in the largest town in the Libyan Sahara. At least 13 rebel fighters and civilians were killed in Zawiya on Saturday after the attack on government forces. Guma el-Gamaty, a London-based opposition spokesman, said on Sunday several hundred rebels remained “well-protected and entrenched” in the western part of the town and also controlled a section of the coastal highway to Tunisia that serves as the main supply route for Tripoli. Loyalists forces were still in charge of the town centre and have large numbers of snipers there, he said by phone from London. The government acknowledged that fighting had occurred in Zawiya, which has a major oil refinery, but said the clashes were minor and loyalist forces remained in complete control. It was not possible to verify the conflicting information since foreign journalists in Tripoli are not permitted to leave the capital. Zawiya first rebelled against the Libyan regime in March, but the uprising was crushed when the army sent in tanks and bulldozers, even razing the town’s mosque . If sustained, the town’s second rebellion will be of major significance, because it will mean that Gaddafi’s forces are engaged in fighting in all three directions outside the capital, including Misrata, 130 miles to the east and a string of towns in the Nafusa mountains, about 60 miles to the south. “The strategy is to push on Tripoli from all three sides, inspiring people there and putting great pressure on the army,” said el-Gamaty, the UK coordinator for the rebel’s National Transitional Council (NTC). A businessman in Tripoli, who requested anonymity for his own safety, said the strain on the regime appeared to be showing, with security tightening sharply in Tripoli in recent days. Vehicles entering suburbs known to be restive at night were being checked by up to six times at a single roadblock by police officers, the businessman said. Gaddafi remains in hiding in the city with his family, and appears not to be responding to international diplomatic efforts offering him a safe exit from power. Following a visit to Benghazi, the headquarters of the NTC in eastern Libya, Russia’s special envoy to Africa, Mikhail Margelov told Russian television that the “clock was ticking” for Gaddafi, but said there were precedents for a solution where the Libyan leader might be able “to live happily as a private individual in his own country and nobody touches him”. Besides Zawiya, the NTC also reported skirmishes in parts of Sahba, a garrison town around 500 miles south of Tripoli that is considered a Gaddafi stronghold. Anti-government protests have reportedly been ongoing there for several days. Regarded as the gateway to the Sahara, Sabha is also a key junction for routes to Algeria, Niger and Chad that could be used by senior regime officials looking to escape the country, according to rebels. They remain hopeful that Nato’s aerial operation targeting Gaddafi’s military arsenal might wear it down to the extent that rebel fighters may soon be able to push through government defences on the various fronts. If and when that happens, the main thrust on Tripoli is likely to come from the rebels in Misrata, Libya’s third biggest city, perhaps reinforced by a larger opposition force currently holding its position hundreds of miles east near the town of Brega, which is still in government hands. Misrata’s fighters are battle-hardened after defending their city for nearly four months, and commanders claim that increasingly numbers of government troops are deserting. But they are aware of the shortcomings of their all-infantry force against the heavy weapons of loyalist forces. In an artillery barrage on Friday, the rebels lost 31 men, and suffered 120 injuries. Rebels say the 32nd Brigade, an elite force reportedly controlled by Gaddafi’s son, Khamis, is garrisoning Zlitan, the town blocking any advance from Misrata on Tripoli. Meanwhile, in the Nafusa mountain range to the south of Tripoli, government forces are continuing their attacks on the mainly Berber communities who have taken control of numerous small towns near the road that runs towards Tunisia. In the rebel-controlled town of Zintan, five people were killed during rocket attacks on Sunday, according to a rebel spokesman. More than 20 people were injured. Muammar Gaddafi Libya Middle East Africa Arab and Middle East unrest Xan Rice guardian.co.uk
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