For almost two years, there has been talks about conspiracies and a possible military coup in Turkey, with the “ultra-nationalist” Ergenekon organization providing the base for the overthrow of the Government. Ergenekon was alleged to include plotting journalists, soldiers, and politicians, with the finds of caches of arms, even in Ankara.
On Thursday, there was the claim of the interception of a truckload of arms. Two soldiers, with formal service documents, explained that they are going to the Ankara district of Gölbaşı to the command headquarters, but police forces confiscated the truck and questioned the soldiers and driver for eight hours before releasing them.
Muğla Provincial Gendarmerie Commander Colonel Salih Karataş announced that the weapons and grenades in the truck belong to the Turkish Army. “All the munitions belong to the TSK. They have the required documents for the transfer. They also have serial numbers on them. All the munitions are registered to the TSK inventory,” he emphasized.
Some other military sources told, “This is a routine practice. We prefer such methods of transfer of explosives in order to avoid risks.” Others in the military, however, gave a different story, saying that the Army does not any connection to the discovered weapons and munition.
There is further confusion because, under the Regulation on Transfer of Explosives, the armed forces should request a police escort for transfer of large amounts of munitions from one city to another. However, no such request was received by the Ankara Police Department, police sources reported. The Muğla Police Department also announced that they had no prior information about the truck and the munitions and “no one requested an escort for the truck from us”.
After the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers on September 2008, there were other bank collapses. One of these was of an Iceland bank, Icesave, which held substantial accounts from overseas clients, including in Britain and the Netherlands.
The British and Dutch Governments eventually agreed with Icelandic officials that Reykjavik would repay money to depositors. In December 2009, Iceland’s Parliament approved Bill to reimburse more than 3.8 billion Euros. However Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson refused to sign the Bill. On Sunday, a public referendum was held to decide whether Iceland should repay.
The voters — by a margin of 93 to 2 percent — said No.
On Wednesday Russia, fulfilling an agreement in principle reached four weeks ago, announced that it plans to buy four Mistral-class warships from France.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that, with the first deal between a NATO member and a former Soviet state, he wanted to turn the page on the Cold War; Russia must be a partner, not a threat. Sarkozy added that the deal will build trust at a time when West is seeking Russian support on issues such as Iran’s nuclear programme:
After boycotting his trial at the International Criminal Tribunal for months, Radovan Karadzic, the former President of Republika Srpska (the Serbian Republic in Bosnia) has finally delivered his opening statement. He claimed that his goal was to keep Yugoslavia together rather than pursuit of a war, a goal he described as “just and holy”.
Karadzic refused to attend the presentation of the prosecution’s introductory arguments last October and asked for a postponement of the trial. His request was denied by the court. After he was told that his right of defense would be taken away if he refused one more time, Karadzic gave way.
The prosecution has accused Karadzic of 11 crimes, including the genocide in Srebrenica of Bosnian Muslims and the killing of about 10,000 people during the 43-month siege of Sarajevo siege from 1992 to 1995. Karadzic responded that Bosnian Muslims had “the Islamist goal” to take full power in Bosnia and that was unacceptable for Bosnian Serbs. He also accused the Western countries of raising tensions by recognizing Bosnia’s independence.
Karadzic rejected the specific charges, alleging that the prosecution wanted to make a secret agreement with enemies of Serbs. He said that their need to paint him as a monster stemmed from a lack of evidence against him.
UPDATE 0810 GMT: Afghanistan government officials say at least 33 civilians have been killed by a NATO air attack on a convoy of vehicles in Uruzgan. Nato confirmed that it fired on Sunday on a group of vehicles that it believed contained fighters, only to discover later that women and children were in the cars.
We still have a government, for the moment. Opinion polls taken today indicate 45% in favour of Uruzgan [Dutch troops in Afghanistan] being worth a crisis, 35% against. Supporters of [Geert] Wilders’ PVV and the Socialists are above 60% in their hope that the Cabinet falls, as are – significantly – 55% of Labour. Yet overall 54% still come out hoping the Cabinet stays together, economic concerns being the main reason. It’s rare that a foreign policy issue can be so divisive, and potentially so decisive.
Indeed. Less than 72 hours later, and the Government of Jan Peter Balkenende is no more. Balkenende, of the centre-right Christian Democrat CDA, wanted to extend the August deadline for withdrawal of Dutch troops from Afghanistan by a year. He miscalculated, possibly because of misleading signals, that he would the support of his coalition partner, the Labour Party; Labour leader and Deputy Prime Minister Wouter Bos announced:
As the shock of the ongoing financial crisis in Greece spreads through almost all of Europe, tensions are rising. On Friday, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou criticized the European Union’s response to his country’s financial requirements as timid and too slow. Papandreou claimed that EU institutions, the European Commission, member states, and the European Central Bank have failed to coordinate over the crisis and have undermined Greece’s credibility.
EU leaders maintain that Greece must take further measures to overcome its huge debts and should cut its budget deficit, which at 12.7 percent is four times higher than the upper limit set in the Eurozone, by 4 percent this year.
On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to discuss Hamas, the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, sanctions on Iran, and Russian’s pending delivery of S-300 missiles to Tehran.
At the end of the day, both leaders got what they sought. Medvedev did not put himself under any commitment to punish Iran severely but maintained a “threatening” position vis-a-vis Tehran. He told Netanyahu that Russia will hold off on delivering the S-300s to Iran. A spokewoman added: “The position of Russia regarding sanctions remains unchanged. [But] if Iran remains uncooperative, no one can exclude the use of sanctions.”
Netanyahu was satisfied to return home with the “success” of the deferred delivery of the S-300s, and he ticked another box in his “efforts to exhaust every possible chance to achieve peace” before “the necessity of applying a pre-emptive strike” against Iran in the future.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is leaving for Russia on Sunday. At his weekly cabinet meeting, he said that he will push Moscow, “an important power and ally”, for crippling sanctions on Iran during his meetings with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. “If Russia agrees to sanctions, China will find itself alone and may be forced to line up with the Western powers,” an Israeli official said.
Undoubtedly Netanyahu will ask Moscow to freeze its supply of advanced S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran and to give full support at the UN Security Council to sanctions. Yet that raises a question from the other side. Given that Russia is involved not only in Israel’s Palestinian question but also in Israel’s “Hamas problem”, on which case is Tel Aviv ready to give concessions?
Then add Iran to the triangle. What might Moscow seek to gain in Middle East at the expense of loosening its relationship with Iran, a relationship which once could have been its spearhead in the region? Will Moscow run the risk of losing a “nuclear-going” Iran or limit its response by not accepting Netanyahu’s demands?
Aysegül Er writes for EA:
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