Ukraine: Ban deplores planned holding of November ‘elections’ by rebel groups

UN, 29 October 2014 – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today deplored the planned holding by armed rebel groups in eastern Ukraine of their own “elections” on 2 November, calling the potential polls a “breach of the constitution and national law.”

“These ‘elections’ will seriously undermine the Minsk Protocol and Memorandum, which need to be urgently implemented in full,” Mr. Ban said in a statement issued by his spokesperson in New York.
Reiterating the importance of restoring stability and safeguarding Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Secretary-General through the statement urged all sides to uphold all parts of the Protocol, an agreement signed in the Belarussian capital in September by representatives of the Russian Federation, Ukraine and opposition groups.

Tensions in Ukraine came to a head after months of political unrest led to the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych in February. This was followed by increased political pressures in the country’s autonomous region of Crimea, where Russian military were subsequently deployed and a secession referendum was held in mid-March, in which the majority of the region’s people voted to join Russia. un.org
29/10/14

Turkish government gets OK for military operations in Syria, Iraq. The mandate to begin tomorrow will last for one year.

A comprehensive motion authorizing the government to deploy the Turkish army into Iraq and Syria and to allow the deployment of foreign troops on Turkish soil was approved Oct. 2 in Parliament, providing the necessary legality for Turkey’s potential contribution to the international coalition’s efforts to destroy jihadists.

The motion, based on Article 92 of the Turkish Constitution, received 298 votes in favor and 98 against.

Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) lawmakers voted in favor of the motion while the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the People’s Democracy Party (HDP) voted against the mandate.

• The Iraq-Syria motion gives a green light for the use of Turkish troops in Iraq and Syria, as well as for foreign forces to be deployed on Turkish military bases and to transit through Turkish territory in operations against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants. The mandate to begin tomorrow will last for one year. The government merged two existing motions on Syria and Iraq into one, arguing that the threats and risks posed by terrorist organizations are using both countries’ territories. 

“The threat against Turkey has gained a new dimension. It’s our obligation to take measures against this threat and to protect our citizens in the frame of international law,” Defense Minister İsmet Yılmaz told Parliament. Yılmaz cited the efforts of the international coalition to battle against extremist jihadists in Syria and underlined that Turkey was also part of these efforts.

But just hours before the parliamentary session, Yılmaz stressed that the adoption of the motion did not mean that Turkey would take immediate steps in line with the scope of the motion. The three priorities Turkey has already outlined are to establish safe havens inside Syria to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrians in their own country, establish no-fly zones for the protection of these zones and train and provide logistics to the Free Syrian Army (FSA) in Turkey. Turkey is yet to decide what measures it will take in this framework but it has made it clear that all such potential measures to be carried out with the participation of coalition forces should also target the Syrian government. 

‘Assad is the main source of unrest’

“The main source of ISIL is the Syrian regime,” Yılmaz said, adding that Damascus had increased its oppression against dissidents in the country, committing massacres against its own citizens in various ways. “The developments in Iraq have proven that there is a need of a holistic and comprehensive strategy to respond to the regional clashes and humanitarian tragedy. The region will be dragged into further conflict in the event the international community does not take a decisive step,” he added.

Mehmet Şandır, a deputy parliamentary group leader of the MHP, stressed that they were voting in favor of the motion because of their sensitivity to national causes and security while adding that that did not mean that it approved the ruling party’s foreign policy line. “If there is a possibility of an attack against our country, we should take measures to defend our country,” Şandır said.

CHP: Motion is a battle cry

Akif Hamzaçebi, deputy parliamentary group leader of the CHP, described the motion as a “battle cry” and stressed that it was not aimed at fighting against ISIL but the Bashar al-Assad regime, which could drag Turkey into war with Syria. “Where is ISIL in this motion? Mr. President was caught red-handed yesterday with his address to Parliament as he outlined that their main objective was to topple the regime,” Hamzaçebi said. “We simply do not want to draw Turkey into this fire.”

Faruk Loğoğlu, speaking on behalf of the CHP, termed the point Turkey arrived at a crossroads that would negatively affect the future of Turkey and the region. “This motion is the result of an adventurous foreign policy. And we should all vote against it,” Loğoğlu said.

HDP: Gov’t still supporting ISIL

Ertuğrul Kürkçü, a lawmaker from the HDP, argued that the Turkish government did have any concerns over ISIL’s existence in Iraq and Syria and that the motion was just an attempt to show off on behalf of Turkey for its regional ambitions. “You were bystanders to the ISIL massacres. You had no such issue until Barack Obama targeted ISIL,” Kürkçü said. “You were the ones who supported ISIL, and you are still supporting it.”

Linking the ongoing Kurdish resolution process to the clashes between ISIL and the Syrian Kurds’ Democratic Union Party (PYD) in the Kobane region of northern Syria, Kürkçü said, “If Kobane fails, the resolution process will also fail.” 
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkish-government-gets-ok-for-military-operations-in-syria-iraq.aspx?pageID=238&nID=72482&NewsCatID=338
2/10/14
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• Turkey’s ISIL mandate includes 'military action abroad, opening bases to foreign troops'

 

Turkey’s ISIL mandate includes 'military action abroad, opening bases to foreign troops'

The mandate the Turkish government is seeking from the Parliament to authorize the army to send troops into Iraq and Syria to deal with growing threat of extremist jihadists does also include opening its bases to foreign troops, a senior government official has said, signalling about potential Turkish contribution to the international military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

“The motion we are about to send the Parliament is going to be comprehensive and to deal today’s and tomorrow’s threats,” deputy Prime Minister and spokesperson of the government, Bülent Arınç told reporters Sept. 30 following weekly cabinet meeting.

Upon a question whether the motion to be sent to Parliament will include sending troops to foreign countries to establish security zones, to allow deployment of foreign troops and to open Turkish military bases to foreign troops, Arınç said “Let me include one more option: All. The motion will refer to all of these points you have asked.”

“We are a determined government. We perfectly know what’s going on inside and outside Turkey. This issue of security zone and other issues all have diplomatic and military reflections,” he added.

After another question, Arınç said that the ISIL militants are advancing on Suleyman Shah Tomb in northern Syria, which Turkish soldiers continue to guard.

• Turkey is insisting to establish safe havens in Syria for the protection of Syrian refugees inside the country. Apart from a security zone, it does also ask coalition members led by the United States to establish no-fly zones over Syrian airspace.   

The motion is based on Article 92 of Turkey's Constitution that stipulates parliamentary authorization for sending troops to another country or to allow deployment of foreign troops on Turkish soils.

Arınç said the motion has two parts, its reasoning and demands from the Parliament, and underlined that it will be as comprehensive as possible so that the government will not need a fresh parliamentary mandate.

“We were planning to extend already existing motions on Iraq and Syria that will expiry in October. Their validity could be extended in a routine way but we have thought to work on a text merging these motions that would address all threats and risks Turkey is facing in its region,” Arınç stressed.

The motion is expected to be voted at the Parliament on Oct. 2 following a closed session due to sensitivity of the issue.
[hurriyetdailynews.com]
30/9/14

Iraq's new PM backed by US, Iran

Iraq's new prime minister-designate won swift endorsements from uneasy mutual allies the United States and Iran today as he called on political leaders to end crippling feuds that have let jihadists seize a third of the country.
Haider al-Abadi still faces opposition closer to home, where his Shi'ite party colleague Nuri al-Maliki has refused to step aside after eight years as premier that have alienated Iraq's once dominant Sunni minority and irked Washington and Tehran.

However, Shi'ite militia and army commanders long loyal to Maliki signalled their backing for the change, as did many people on the streets of Baghdad, eager for an end to fears of a further descent into sectarian and ethnic bloodletting.

As Western powers and international aid agencies considered further help for tens of thousands of people driven from their homes and under threat from the Sunni militants of the Islamic State near the Syrian border, Secretary of State John Kerry said the United States would consider requests for military and other assistance once Abadi forms a government to unite the country.

Underscoring the convergence of interest in Iraq that marks the normally hostile relationship between Washington and Iran, senior Iranian officials congratulated Abadi on his nomination, three months after a parliamentary election left Maliki's bloc as the biggest in the legislature. Like Western powers, Shi'ite Iran is alarmed by Sunni militants' hold in Syria and Iraq.

"Iran supports the legal process that has taken its course with respect to choosing Iraq's new prime minister," the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the Supreme National Security Council was quoted as saying.
"Iran favours a cohesive, integrated and secure Iraq," he said, adding an apparent appeal to Maliki to concede.

Abadi himself, long exiled in Britain, is seen as a far less polarising, sectarian figure than Maliki, who is also from the Shi'ite Islamic Dawa party. Abadi appears to have the blessing of Iraq's powerful Shi'ite clergy, a major force in the land since U.S. troops toppled Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Iraqi state television said Abadi "called on all political powers who believe in the constitution and democracy to unite efforts and close ranks to respond to Iraq's great challenges".
One politician close to Abadi told Reuters that the prime minister-designate had begun contacting leaders of major groups to sound them out on forming a new cabinet. The president said on Monday he hoped he would succeed within the next month.
Maliki angrily dismissed Abadi's nomination on Monday as illegal. But there was no further sign of opposition on Tuesday.

A statement from a major Shi'ite militia group, Asaib Ahl Haq, which has backed Maliki and reinforced the Iraqi army as it fell back from the north in June, called for an end to the legalistic arguments of the kind used by Maliki to justify his retaining power and urged "self-restraint by all sides".
It said leaders should "give priority to the public interest over the private" and respect the guidance of clerical leaders - a clear reference to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's indication that he favours the removal of Maliki to address the national crisis.
 http://www.buenosairesherald.com/article/166930/iraqs-new-pm-backed-by-us-iran
12/8/14
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***Photo: Iraqi President Fuad Masum (2nd L) shakes hands with deputy parliamentary speaker Haidar al-Abadi (R) after he was tasked with forming a government during a brief ceremony broadcast on state television.

Egypt to raze illegal buildings along Nile to help farmers

Photo: nationalgeographic.com

CAIRO - Egypt will destroy all buildings along the Nile River and its tributaries that were erected illegally, the water and irrigation minister said on Monday, seeking to protect canals needed to help grow food.
The government will "not be complacent in the face of encroachment on the Nile River and its tributaries and streams", Minister Mohamed Abdel Motteleb was quoted as saying by the state news agency MENA.


Egypt is the world's biggest wheat importer, a drain on its precarious finances.

 Officials say illegal building along the Nile has increased in the turbulent years since a 2011 uprising which also scared away investors and tourists, major sources of foreign exchange.
[jpost.com]
9/6/14

Iraqi Kurds slam Baghdad legal action over oil shipment

Iraq's Kurdish region slammed legal action filed by the central government against Turkey, saying Sunday it was illegitimate and likely to fail, the latest in worsening ties between Baghdad and Kurdistan.
 
The Kurdish Ministry of Natural Resources statement came just days after Baghdad's Oil Ministry filed a request for arbitration against Ankara at the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce after crude from Kurdistan was exported to international markets via a Turkish port.

Relations between Iraq and its Kurdish region, and between Baghdad and Ankara, were already fragile and are likely to chill further over the row, with the latest shipments flying in the face of the Iraqi government's insistence that it has the sole right to sell its prized natural resources.

"The MOO (Ministry of Oil) is, with its behaviour, isolating itself ... (and) potentially damaging Iraq's petroleum industry and Iraq's petroleum reserves," the ministry statement said.
"The MOO is also ... now prepared to damage Iraq's relations with Turkey and other friends of Iraq."
The statement labelled the arbitration request "self-defeating" and "illegitimate", saying it would "not allow hollow threats from the MOO to interfere with the KRG's (Kurdistan Regional Government's) oil export regime."

The dispute between Baghdad and Kurdish authorities in Arbil centres around interpretations of Iraq's constitution, with both sides insisting they are behaving legally.
The central government insists it has the sole right to export Iraqi crude, describes Kurdish sales as "smuggling" and also says contracts between Arbil and foreign energy firms without its expressed consent are illegal.
But the row took on a new dimension after Turkey confirmed shipments of oil pumped from the autonomous northern Iraqi region and stored in Turkey's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan began on Thursday.............[hurriyetdailynews.com]
25/5/14

Schulz: deal offers hope to Ukraine, violence must stop

European Parliament President Martin Schulz made the following statement on an agreement to end the crisis in Ukraine:
"The deal between the government and the opposition in Ukraine offers hope that the country has avoided the worst: escalation of violence and more deaths. I welcome the agreement although the road to rebuilding trust and stability will not be easy.

Violence must stop immediately. We owe it to the victims of the deadly clashes who we now all mourn. The crisis should end through a peaceful political process, which will require serious commitment of all sides, particularly the authorities, to form an inclusive government, start constitutional reform and organise early elections.
I hail efforts of the Foreign Ministers of France, Germany and Poland to help broker the agreement in Ukraine."
 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/the-president/en/press/press_release_speeches/press_release/2014/2014-february/html/schulz-deal-offers-hope-to-ukraine-violence-must-stop
21/2/14
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 Related:

• France and Germany demand sanctions against Ukraine

• The amnesty law is coming into force in Ukraine from February 17 

• Putin rejects meddling in Ukraine. -Pas de révision des accords avec l'Ukraine si l'opposition arrive au pouvoir

• Russia temporarily cuts gas price by one third to help Ukraine

• Ukraine : l'UE suspend les négociations, les manifestations se poursuivent/John McCain Visits Ukraine, Backs Opposition Protesters

Ukraine: Ianoukovitch propose le poste de Premier ministre à l'opposition

Le président ukrainien Viktor Ianoukovitch a proposé samedi aux chefs de l'opposition Arséni Iatseniouk et Vitali Klitschko de diriger le gouvernement, et s'est dit prêt à une révision de la Constitution pour réduire ses pouvoirs, a annoncé la présidence dans un communiqué.

Arséni Iatséniouk, chef du parti de l'opposante emprisonnée Ioulia Timochenko, s'est vu proposer le poste de Premier ministre et l'ex-boxeur Vitali Klitschko celui de vice-Premier ministre chargé des Affaires humanitaires, a précisé la présidence après des négociations menées à la présidence.

"Proposer des amendements à la Constitution"
La présidence, citant le conseiller du président Andriï Portnov, a précisé que Viktor Ianoukovitch avait accepté la création d'un groupe de travail chargé de "modifier la législation sur les référendums et peut-être, via ce mécanisme, de proposer des amendements à la Constitution".

L'opposition demande un retour à la Constitution de 2004, compromis majeur accepté par le pro-occidental Viktor Iouchtchenko, sorti vainqueur de la Révolution orange qui avait fait de l'Ukraine une république parlementaire avec un puissant Premier ministre.
La Constitution avait plus tard été de nouveau révisée, donnant l'essentiel du pouvoir au chef de l'Etat. Viktor Ianoukovitch a reçu les principaux leaders de l'opposition pendant environ trois heures après un regain de tension à Kiev entre manifestants et forces de l'ordre et alors que la contestation s'étend en Ukraine.

L'opposition est mobilisée depuis plus de deux mois dans le centre de Kiev, à la suite du refus du président de signer un accord avec l'Union européenne, y préférant un rapprochement avec la Russie.

La contestation s'est radicalisée la semaine dernière avec l'adoption de lois controversées prévoyant des peines plus sévères, allant jusqu'à la prison ferme, pour les manifestants.
Viktor Ianoukovitch a aussi promis de revenir sur ces lois et de négocier avec l'opposition pour trouver un "compromis sur ces lois", a précisé la présidence.
Belga
http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_ukraine-ianoukovitch-propose-le-poste-de-premier-ministre-a-l-opposition?id=8184765
25/1/14
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