In its first meaningful action since the Syria uprising began five months ago, the UN Security Council issued a statement yesterday condemning the government’s use of force against civilians. The statement, finally agreed upon after three days of talks , “condemn[s] widespread violations of human rights” and calls on both sides…
Continue reading …The UN has said that the famine in Somalia has killed tens of thousands, and the first specific estimate to emerge paints an even more heartbreaking picture. More than 29,000 children under the age of five have died in just the last 90 days in the southern part of…
Continue reading …Legislators aren’t exactly jumping to volunteer for the 12-man “super committee” created by the debt ceiling deal, which promises to be a thankless and heavily lobbied job, the LA Times reports. “I’m not that much of a glutton for punishment,” says Jon Kyl. “This is going to take an odd…
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Leader of India’s ruling Congress party’s youth wing will sit on committee to look after affairs in her absence Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince of Indian politics, took a step nearer to power on Thursday when it was announced that his mother Sonia, the leader of the ruling Congress party, had suddenly gone abroad for medical reasons and charged the 41-year-old with running the organisation in her absence. The country immediately plunged into a frenzy of speculation about the nature of the 64-year-old Sonia Gandhi’s condition and whether her departure meant the beginning of the long awaited transfer of power to her son. Though Gandhi holds no official executive position, she is widely viewed as immensely powerful. Her son is a member of parliament and head of the Congress party’s youth wing, which has run India for much of the last seven decades. Along with a senior aide, a party spokesman and the current defence minister, Rahul Gandhi will now be temporarily responsible for the administration of the single most powerful entity in Indian politics. “Rahul in charge” was the headline running on the local New Delhi television channel. Janardhan Dwivedi, who will sit with Rahul on the committee, said Sonia Gandhi had been recently diagnosed with a medical condition and, on the advice of her doctors, had travelled abroad for surgery. “She will be away for two or three weeks. She has constituted a group to look after party affairs in her absence,” Diwedi said. Her son is a controversial figure in India. He never gives interviews and shuns the febrile Indian political media circuit, preferring to build a political career through his work as a party organiser and through spectacular public appearances which opponents dismiss as stunts. In recent months Rahul Gandhi has been arrested after driving on a motorbike around communities of farmers protesting against land seizures on the outskirts of Delhi and walked 50 miles over four days in the summer heat in a remote part of northern India on a trip to “meet the real people” of India. He slept and ate in modest homes. On a recent visit to Mumbai, Gandhi outmanoeuvred local rightwing groups who opposed his presence in the city by shunning the large and disruptive motorcade preferred by Indian politicians in favour of the overcrowded public trains to reach the city from the airport. Such actions have successfully raised Gandhi’s profile and appear to have consolidated popular support among rural voters, a key constituency for Congress. Tikam Singh, a 40-year-old farmer from the village of Gujran Atta, Uttar Pradesh, met Gandhi earlier this summer during the violent land protests. Singh said the politician “understood that the lands are being taken away forcibly”. “He has said that he is with us. He shared roti [bread] and daal [lentil curry] with us. We are with him because at least he is someone who is there for us. Rahul-ji was very understanding,” Singh said, using the honorific “ji” after Gandhi’s first name. However, Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of The Hindu, said that the real importance was not that Rahul Gandhi had been nominated but that Sonia Gandhi might be ailing. “The timing of this announcement means she is telling us whose hands she wants the party to be in should she be no longer in a position to run things,” he said. Some analysts have even raised the possibility that Sonia Gandhi might not return to politics, though Congress party officials said there was “totally, absolutely no question” of any immediate retirement. Rahul Gandhi is the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, who led India after independence, the grandson of Indira Gandhi, who ruled India from 1966 to 1977, and the son of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991. His parents met at Cambridge University. Politics in India remains deeply dynastic and many within Congress view Rahul Gandhi as the only figure capable of leading the party to a third successive electoral victory in 2014. The current administration, under the ageing Manmohan Singh, has been overwhelmed by corruption scandals and increasing economic problems. Sonia Gandhi India Jason Burke guardian.co.uk
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Leader of India’s ruling Congress party’s youth wing will sit on committee to look after affairs in her absence Rahul Gandhi, the crown prince of Indian politics, took a step nearer to power on Thursday when it was announced that his mother Sonia, the leader of the ruling Congress party, had suddenly gone abroad for medical reasons and charged the 41-year-old with running the organisation in her absence. The country immediately plunged into a frenzy of speculation about the nature of the 64-year-old Sonia Gandhi’s condition and whether her departure meant the beginning of the long awaited transfer of power to her son. Though Gandhi holds no official executive position, she is widely viewed as immensely powerful. Her son is a member of parliament and head of the Congress party’s youth wing, which has run India for much of the last seven decades. Along with a senior aide, a party spokesman and the current defence minister, Rahul Gandhi will now be temporarily responsible for the administration of the single most powerful entity in Indian politics. “Rahul in charge” was the headline running on the local New Delhi television channel. Janardhan Dwivedi, who will sit with Rahul on the committee, said Sonia Gandhi had been recently diagnosed with a medical condition and, on the advice of her doctors, had travelled abroad for surgery. “She will be away for two or three weeks. She has constituted a group to look after party affairs in her absence,” Diwedi said. Her son is a controversial figure in India. He never gives interviews and shuns the febrile Indian political media circuit, preferring to build a political career through his work as a party organiser and through spectacular public appearances which opponents dismiss as stunts. In recent months Rahul Gandhi has been arrested after driving on a motorbike around communities of farmers protesting against land seizures on the outskirts of Delhi and walked 50 miles over four days in the summer heat in a remote part of northern India on a trip to “meet the real people” of India. He slept and ate in modest homes. On a recent visit to Mumbai, Gandhi outmanoeuvred local rightwing groups who opposed his presence in the city by shunning the large and disruptive motorcade preferred by Indian politicians in favour of the overcrowded public trains to reach the city from the airport. Such actions have successfully raised Gandhi’s profile and appear to have consolidated popular support among rural voters, a key constituency for Congress. Tikam Singh, a 40-year-old farmer from the village of Gujran Atta, Uttar Pradesh, met Gandhi earlier this summer during the violent land protests. Singh said the politician “understood that the lands are being taken away forcibly”. “He has said that he is with us. He shared roti [bread] and daal [lentil curry] with us. We are with him because at least he is someone who is there for us. Rahul-ji was very understanding,” Singh said, using the honorific “ji” after Gandhi’s first name. However, Siddharth Varadarajan, editor of The Hindu, said that the real importance was not that Rahul Gandhi had been nominated but that Sonia Gandhi might be ailing. “The timing of this announcement means she is telling us whose hands she wants the party to be in should she be no longer in a position to run things,” he said. Some analysts have even raised the possibility that Sonia Gandhi might not return to politics, though Congress party officials said there was “totally, absolutely no question” of any immediate retirement. Rahul Gandhi is the great-grandson of Jawaharlal Nehru, who led India after independence, the grandson of Indira Gandhi, who ruled India from 1966 to 1977, and the son of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber in 1991. His parents met at Cambridge University. Politics in India remains deeply dynastic and many within Congress view Rahul Gandhi as the only figure capable of leading the party to a third successive electoral victory in 2014. The current administration, under the ageing Manmohan Singh, has been overwhelmed by corruption scandals and increasing economic problems. Sonia Gandhi India Jason Burke guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Get ready for lots of groaning to show up on your Facebook news feed: The social network is once again looking to make major changes to what you see on its home page. Currently, Facebook filters the information that shows up in your news feed, so you don’t see absolutely…
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Raft of new appointments following resignation of army, navy and air force commanders revives democracy hopes For decades the Turkish military has run rings round the government, staging coups whenever it was displeased and exerting a powerful, largely unaccountable grip on society. All this is changing, say experts, with the announcement on Thursday of a raft of new appointments among the top brass of the armed forces following the mass resignations last week of the commanders of the army, navy and air force. They quit on 29 July, along with General Isik Kosaner, chief of general staff, over the detention of 250 officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The surprise move had raised concerns about the stability and state of democracy in Turkey, with some fearing another military intervention in Turkish politics. Others predicted the “Islamisation” of Turkey’s secular armed forces by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Some worried there were also international ramifications: Turkey’s army is the second-biggest in Nato, smaller only than the US. But after the appointment of new generals on Thursday, the reaction was largely optimistic, with analysts arguing that the reshuffle might be the catalyst for democratic reforms. “[The resignations are] another step in the retreat of the Turkish military to the proper institutional role and functions that befit a democratic country,” wrote Soli Özel, professor for international relations at the Istanbul Kadir Has university. He, like many, was cheered by the government’s refusal to bow to the demands of the outgoing commanders, who had asked not just for the release of their military colleagues, but also their promotion. “It can be seen as the surrender of the military in a war they started losing a long time ago,” said Gencer Özcan, professor for international relations at Bilgi University. “[It] shows that the Turkish military no longer poses any kind of threat to the civilian government.” This is no small matter in Turkey, where the military staged coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, forcing the ruling government to resign. The wounds of the violent 1980 coup in particular are yet to heal for many Turks, when the army rolled into towns and cities and arrested at least 650,000 people. Among the detainees, 230,000 were tried, 14,000 were stripped of citizenship and 50 were executed . Many thousands were tortured. “The resignations are emblematic of the shift in recent years of the power relationship between the military and the civilian establishment in favour of the civilian establishment,” said Sinan Ülgen, chair of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an independent thinktank. “Very few people in Turkey are against this shift.” Ülgen said the power balance started tipping in favour of the political elite just over four years ago. On 29 April 2007 the military published a text on its website– the so-called e-coup – bluntly warning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against putting up Abdullah Gül, then foreign minister, as its candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. The government firmly rebuked this last serious attempt of the military to meddle in politics, Gül became president and the AKP walked away stronger and more confident, winning a landslide victory in subsequent national elections. Critics of the government argue that Erdogan will now try to reform the military along his own lines, thus threatening democratic checks and balances, but not many agree. “In a democracy, military reforms are decided and implemented by the civilian government; the military simply has to obey their decisions. In that sense, members of the military cannot be ‘democratic’, as that is neither their task nor position,” said journalist Lale Kemal, who writes for Taraf, a left-leaning, anti-military newspaper. Her main concern lies with the critical stance of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP): “I am sceptical about the weak support from the CHP [concerning the resignations] because this will make it harder for the AKP to implement democratic reforms.” The real problem, said Ülgen, is that previously the military played a significant – if “wholly undemocratic” – role as watchdog of the executive powers. Curtailment of this role leaves a vacuum which should be filled by a truly independent judiciary and a free media, he added – “but the government shows no sign of entrusting either body with this role”. Ülgen argues that the government has continued to curtail the independence of the press and the courts by promoting AKP sympathisers to key judicial positions and prosecuting journalists who criticise the government – most notably two writers who are in jail for writing a book about the Gülen religious movement which supports the government. The new military appointments are: Emin Bilge (navy), Mehmet Erten (air), Hayri Kivrikoglu (ground) and former military police commander Necdet Özel as chief of general staff. None of names was a major surprise, but indicated a measure of compromise. The choice of Kivrikoglu as head of the ground forces will have raised some eyebrows. When serving in northern Cyprus he refused to greet President Gül at the airport. Another candidate for the post, General Aslan Guner, was appointed to a less senior job as head of the military academies. His path to the top was believed to have been blocked by his refusal to shake the hand of the president’s wife because she was wearing a headscarf. The military plays a major role in Turkish society: children are often dressed up in military uniforms on national holidays and military service is mandatory for every able-bodied Turkish man over 20. Particularly contentious is Article 318 of the penal code, which punishes any activity which aims to “make the people lose its sympathy towards the military”. This clause, among other things, criminalises conscientious objection, a basic right explicitly recognised under the European Convention on Human Rights in July 2011. National Security lessons have been mandatory for all high schools since 1926, three years after the founding of the Republic of Turkey. While the name of these classes has been changed several times, the content and objective – to familiarise Turkish students with the army – basically remain the same. The heritage of the military coup in 1980 also weighs heavily on Turkish universities who were put under the umbrella of the Higher Education Council, founded in 1981 with the aim of centrally controlling formerly autonomous universities. Turkey Middle East Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Raft of new appointments following resignation of army, navy and air force commanders revives democracy hopes For decades the Turkish military has run rings round the government, staging coups whenever it was displeased and exerting a powerful, largely unaccountable grip on society. All this is changing, say experts, with the announcement on Thursday of a raft of new appointments among the top brass of the armed forces following the mass resignations last week of the commanders of the army, navy and air force. They quit on 29 July, along with General Isik Kosaner, chief of general staff, over the detention of 250 officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The surprise move had raised concerns about the stability and state of democracy in Turkey, with some fearing another military intervention in Turkish politics. Others predicted the “Islamisation” of Turkey’s secular armed forces by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Some worried there were also international ramifications: Turkey’s army is the second-biggest in Nato, smaller only than the US. But after the appointment of new generals on Thursday, the reaction was largely optimistic, with analysts arguing that the reshuffle might be the catalyst for democratic reforms. “[The resignations are] another step in the retreat of the Turkish military to the proper institutional role and functions that befit a democratic country,” wrote Soli Özel, professor for international relations at the Istanbul Kadir Has university. He, like many, was cheered by the government’s refusal to bow to the demands of the outgoing commanders, who had asked not just for the release of their military colleagues, but also their promotion. “It can be seen as the surrender of the military in a war they started losing a long time ago,” said Gencer Özcan, professor for international relations at Bilgi University. “[It] shows that the Turkish military no longer poses any kind of threat to the civilian government.” This is no small matter in Turkey, where the military staged coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, forcing the ruling government to resign. The wounds of the violent 1980 coup in particular are yet to heal for many Turks, when the army rolled into towns and cities and arrested at least 650,000 people. Among the detainees, 230,000 were tried, 14,000 were stripped of citizenship and 50 were executed . Many thousands were tortured. “The resignations are emblematic of the shift in recent years of the power relationship between the military and the civilian establishment in favour of the civilian establishment,” said Sinan Ülgen, chair of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an independent thinktank. “Very few people in Turkey are against this shift.” Ülgen said the power balance started tipping in favour of the political elite just over four years ago. On 29 April 2007 the military published a text on its website– the so-called e-coup – bluntly warning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against putting up Abdullah Gül, then foreign minister, as its candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. The government firmly rebuked this last serious attempt of the military to meddle in politics, Gül became president and the AKP walked away stronger and more confident, winning a landslide victory in subsequent national elections. Critics of the government argue that Erdogan will now try to reform the military along his own lines, thus threatening democratic checks and balances, but not many agree. “In a democracy, military reforms are decided and implemented by the civilian government; the military simply has to obey their decisions. In that sense, members of the military cannot be ‘democratic’, as that is neither their task nor position,” said journalist Lale Kemal, who writes for Taraf, a left-leaning, anti-military newspaper. Her main concern lies with the critical stance of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP): “I am sceptical about the weak support from the CHP [concerning the resignations] because this will make it harder for the AKP to implement democratic reforms.” The real problem, said Ülgen, is that previously the military played a significant – if “wholly undemocratic” – role as watchdog of the executive powers. Curtailment of this role leaves a vacuum which should be filled by a truly independent judiciary and a free media, he added – “but the government shows no sign of entrusting either body with this role”. Ülgen argues that the government has continued to curtail the independence of the press and the courts by promoting AKP sympathisers to key judicial positions and prosecuting journalists who criticise the government – most notably two writers who are in jail for writing a book about the Gülen religious movement which supports the government. The new military appointments are: Emin Bilge (navy), Mehmet Erten (air), Hayri Kivrikoglu (ground) and former military police commander Necdet Özel as chief of general staff. None of names was a major surprise, but indicated a measure of compromise. The choice of Kivrikoglu as head of the ground forces will have raised some eyebrows. When serving in northern Cyprus he refused to greet President Gül at the airport. Another candidate for the post, General Aslan Guner, was appointed to a less senior job as head of the military academies. His path to the top was believed to have been blocked by his refusal to shake the hand of the president’s wife because she was wearing a headscarf. The military plays a major role in Turkish society: children are often dressed up in military uniforms on national holidays and military service is mandatory for every able-bodied Turkish man over 20. Particularly contentious is Article 318 of the penal code, which punishes any activity which aims to “make the people lose its sympathy towards the military”. This clause, among other things, criminalises conscientious objection, a basic right explicitly recognised under the European Convention on Human Rights in July 2011. National Security lessons have been mandatory for all high schools since 1926, three years after the founding of the Republic of Turkey. While the name of these classes has been changed several times, the content and objective – to familiarise Turkish students with the army – basically remain the same. The heritage of the military coup in 1980 also weighs heavily on Turkish universities who were put under the umbrella of the Higher Education Council, founded in 1981 with the aim of centrally controlling formerly autonomous universities. Turkey Middle East Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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Raft of new appointments following resignation of army, navy and air force commanders revives democracy hopes For decades the Turkish military has run rings round the government, staging coups whenever it was displeased and exerting a powerful, largely unaccountable grip on society. All this is changing, say experts, with the announcement on Thursday of a raft of new appointments among the top brass of the armed forces following the mass resignations last week of the commanders of the army, navy and air force. They quit on 29 July, along with General Isik Kosaner, chief of general staff, over the detention of 250 officers accused of plotting to overthrow the Islamic-rooted government. The surprise move had raised concerns about the stability and state of democracy in Turkey, with some fearing another military intervention in Turkish politics. Others predicted the “Islamisation” of Turkey’s secular armed forces by Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government. Some worried there were also international ramifications: Turkey’s army is the second-biggest in Nato, smaller only than the US. But after the appointment of new generals on Thursday, the reaction was largely optimistic, with analysts arguing that the reshuffle might be the catalyst for democratic reforms. “[The resignations are] another step in the retreat of the Turkish military to the proper institutional role and functions that befit a democratic country,” wrote Soli Özel, professor for international relations at the Istanbul Kadir Has university. He, like many, was cheered by the government’s refusal to bow to the demands of the outgoing commanders, who had asked not just for the release of their military colleagues, but also their promotion. “It can be seen as the surrender of the military in a war they started losing a long time ago,” said Gencer Özcan, professor for international relations at Bilgi University. “[It] shows that the Turkish military no longer poses any kind of threat to the civilian government.” This is no small matter in Turkey, where the military staged coups in 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997, forcing the ruling government to resign. The wounds of the violent 1980 coup in particular are yet to heal for many Turks, when the army rolled into towns and cities and arrested at least 650,000 people. Among the detainees, 230,000 were tried, 14,000 were stripped of citizenship and 50 were executed . Many thousands were tortured. “The resignations are emblematic of the shift in recent years of the power relationship between the military and the civilian establishment in favour of the civilian establishment,” said Sinan Ülgen, chair of the Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, an independent thinktank. “Very few people in Turkey are against this shift.” Ülgen said the power balance started tipping in favour of the political elite just over four years ago. On 29 April 2007 the military published a text on its website– the so-called e-coup – bluntly warning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) against putting up Abdullah Gül, then foreign minister, as its candidate in the upcoming presidential elections. The government firmly rebuked this last serious attempt of the military to meddle in politics, Gül became president and the AKP walked away stronger and more confident, winning a landslide victory in subsequent national elections. Critics of the government argue that Erdogan will now try to reform the military along his own lines, thus threatening democratic checks and balances, but not many agree. “In a democracy, military reforms are decided and implemented by the civilian government; the military simply has to obey their decisions. In that sense, members of the military cannot be ‘democratic’, as that is neither their task nor position,” said journalist Lale Kemal, who writes for Taraf, a left-leaning, anti-military newspaper. Her main concern lies with the critical stance of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP): “I am sceptical about the weak support from the CHP [concerning the resignations] because this will make it harder for the AKP to implement democratic reforms.” The real problem, said Ülgen, is that previously the military played a significant – if “wholly undemocratic” – role as watchdog of the executive powers. Curtailment of this role leaves a vacuum which should be filled by a truly independent judiciary and a free media, he added – “but the government shows no sign of entrusting either body with this role”. Ülgen argues that the government has continued to curtail the independence of the press and the courts by promoting AKP sympathisers to key judicial positions and prosecuting journalists who criticise the government – most notably two writers who are in jail for writing a book about the Gülen religious movement which supports the government. The new military appointments are: Emin Bilge (navy), Mehmet Erten (air), Hayri Kivrikoglu (ground) and former military police commander Necdet Özel as chief of general staff. None of names was a major surprise, but indicated a measure of compromise. The choice of Kivrikoglu as head of the ground forces will have raised some eyebrows. When serving in northern Cyprus he refused to greet President Gül at the airport. Another candidate for the post, General Aslan Guner, was appointed to a less senior job as head of the military academies. His path to the top was believed to have been blocked by his refusal to shake the hand of the president’s wife because she was wearing a headscarf. The military plays a major role in Turkish society: children are often dressed up in military uniforms on national holidays and military service is mandatory for every able-bodied Turkish man over 20. Particularly contentious is Article 318 of the penal code, which punishes any activity which aims to “make the people lose its sympathy towards the military”. This clause, among other things, criminalises conscientious objection, a basic right explicitly recognised under the European Convention on Human Rights in July 2011. National Security lessons have been mandatory for all high schools since 1926, three years after the founding of the Republic of Turkey. While the name of these classes has been changed several times, the content and objective – to familiarise Turkish students with the army – basically remain the same. The heritage of the military coup in 1980 also weighs heavily on Turkish universities who were put under the umbrella of the Higher Education Council, founded in 1981 with the aim of centrally controlling formerly autonomous universities. Turkey Middle East Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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