Telafer İl Meclis Başkanı İntihar Saldırısında Hayatını Kaybetti

22 Aralık 2009, Salı.



Telafer İl Meclis Başkanı hastaneye sevk edildikten sonra almış olduğu ağır yaralar sonucu hayatını kaybetti. Saldırıda ayrıca iki özel koruması da hayatını kaybederken, iki İl Meclis üyesi de yaralandı.

Saldırı dün (pazartesi) Musul'un batısında Telafer İlçesi'nin Al Salam semtinde gerçekleşti.
Telafer İl Meclis Başkanı Hüseyin El Akriş'e patlayıcı kemerle yapılan intihar saldırısında yaşamını yitirdi.

ITC TT Enformasyon Şb. Tarafından Türkçeye Çevrilmiştir

Commemorating the assassination of YOUSSEF KHORSHID ORANKAY, a Turkmen judge in Mosul

It is with great sadness that we commemorate the anniversary of the killing of our cousin, Youssef Khorshid Orankay, six years ago.



On 22nd December 2003 our cousin Youssef, who was an investigating judge in Mosul, was shot several times by 'unknown gunmen' as he left his office and was walking home.


Youssef was born in Kerkuk in 1947, he was married and had 6 children, 2 girls and 4 boys.

He was an Iraqi patriot and a caring husband and father.


The criminals who carried out his assassination have not been found.



See:
http://turkmenelinews.blogspot.com/2009/01/remembering-youssef-khorshid-turkmen.html


http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/individuals/fv149
x263-fv149
22 Dec 2003 Youssef Khorshid adult male Mosul Judge
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

Denizli'de Gündem Irak ve Kerkük

Türkiye Gazeteciler Federasyonu tarafından düzenlenen 28. Başkanlar Toplantısı Denizli'de yapıldı. Toplantıya BGD Başkanı ve Kerkükün Sesi Gazetesi Sahibi Güngör Yavuzaslan’da katıldı.Yavuzaslan Türkiye'deki Gazeteciler Cemiyet başkanlarına Irak 2010 seçimleri hakkında bilgi vererek kamuoyu oluşturulması için destek sözü aldı.

Türkiye Gazeteciler Federasyonu (TGF) tarafından düzenlenen 28. Başkanlar Toplantısı Denizli’de düzenlendi. Türkiye Gazeteciler Federasyonu öncülüğünde düzenlenen ve iki gün süren toplantıya gazeteci cemiyetlerinden temsilciler ve BGD Başkanı Yavuzaslan’da katıldı. Yavuzaslan uluslar arası gazetecilik ve 2010 ırak seçimleri ve Karabağ’daki gelişmeler konusunda bir konuşma yaptı.

Irak genel seçimlerinde kamuoyu oluşması ve Irak Türklerinin sesinin dünyaya ve Türkiye’de daha fazla duyrulması için gazeteciler cemiyeti başkanlarından destek isteyen Yavuzaslan Karabağ konusunda gelişmelerinde yakınan takip edilmesi gerektiğini belirtti.Yavuzaslan Azerbaycan’dan gelen Gazeteciler içinde Karabağ Feryadı adlı şiirini okudu. Toplantıya Denizli Valisi Yavuz Erkmen, Türkiye Gazeteciler Cemiyeti Başkanı Orhan Erinç, Türkiye Gazeteciler Federasyonu Başkanı Atilla Sertel de katıldı.

Turkish interior minister leaves for Iraq

Today's Zaman

Turkish Interior Minister Beşir Atalay left for Baghdad on Sunday in order to participate in a meeting between Turkish, Iraqi and US officials.

Atalay said the meeting would discuss measures and elements of the cooperation to eradicate the presence of the terrorist organization PKK in Iraq.

"We want to see a decisive end to the PKK presence in Iraq, their camps closed down and their leaders delivered to Turkey with the active support of our Iraqi brothers and U.S. allies," Atalay told reporters before his departure.

Atalay said he would voice Turkey's commitment to proceed with the government's recent drive to expand democratic rights and freedoms.

"I hope we will return from Iraq with more concrete results and decisions," Atalay said.
Atalay said he was also scheduled to meet with Iraqi Security Minister Sherwan al-Waili in Irbil.
20.12.2009
News
THE ANATOLIA NEWS AGENCY

Iraq Says Iran Occupied a Border Oil Field

The New York Times
December 19, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html?_r=1&th=&emc=th&pagewanted=print
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS and ERIC SCHMITT

Excerpt:
BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government said Friday that Iranian troops had crossed the border and occupied a portion of an oil field situated on disputed land between the two countries, but Iranian officials immediately and vehemently contested the account.
Amir al-Rashadi, a spokesman at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, said, “We don’t have any information about this, but we suspect it is all lies.”
Although ties between Tehran and Baghdad have been increasingly warm in recent years, the dispute underscores just how sore a point the border oil fields remain. Iraqi officials said that Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki called a meeting of national security officials on Friday to determine a response.
In June, Iraq tried but failed to auction off development rights to the field, Fakka, in Maysan Province in southeastern Iraq. In recent months, Iraq has accused Iran of pumping oil from it.

Obama Needs Turkey: An Explanation

by Bruce Fein

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-fein/obama-needs-turkey-an-exp_b_394804.html

Excerpt:
Turkey is also a cornerstone of Obama's strategy in Iraq. President Obama elaborated after meeting with the Turkish Prime Minister, "We discussed our joint role in helping Iraq achieve the kind of independence and prosperity that I think has been advanced as a consequence of the election law finally being passed over the week." Turkey is on the same page with the United States in favoring a unified Iraq. It provides use of the Incirlik air base, land corridors in and out of Iraq, and a significant portion of United States military cargo headed for Iraq transit Turkey in the air or on the ground.

Turkey is a key player in resolving the Arab-Kurd-Turkmen combustible stalemate over oil-rich Kirkuk, which could spark an Iraqi civil war. There is no conflict in the Euro-Asia region, whether it is Russian bases in Armenia, Armenian occupation of Azerbaijan territory, Georgia-Russian conflict, national unity and stability of Iraq, Syria Israel conflict, Palestinian Israeli conflict, divided island of Cyprus, Greece-Macedonia conflict, independence of Kosovo issue, security of the Black Sea region, that can be resolved without the strong and positive contribution of Turkey.

Unresolved issues could return - Kerkuk uneasy despite parliamentary deal

By Samah Samad
Friday, 18 December 2009

The recently-brokered compromise over Iraq’s election law may have paved the way for the country’s first national polls in four years, but it has failed to satisfy the concerns of some residents of the oil-rich Kirkuk region. A last-minute deal on December 6 broke the political deadlock over the revised election law by defusing a conflict over parliamentary seats for Kirkuk’s ethnically-based political parties, which represent the region's Kurdish, Turkoman and Arab communities.

While Arabs wanted to use the food ration records of 2004 as a guide to population breakdown – figures which reflected the situation immediately after the fall of Saddam Hussein - Kurds prefer the 2009 records, which showed a change in ethnic profile.

The impasse, which had threatened to derail Iraqi elections and potentially stall the United States withdrawal, stemmed from Arab and Turkoman claims that Kirkuk’s predominantly Kurdish government had relocated Kurdish families to the area in order to increase their share of the region's electorate.

The Kurds says the Kurdish families were merely returning to homes from which they were forced by the former Baathist regime during its Arabisation policy in the 1980s.

At one stage in the Kirkuk debate in Baghdad, there was even a proposal that Kirkuk be excluded from the national vote until the controversy was resolved. However, after heavy lobbying from the US, a deal was struck increasing Kirkuk’s parliamentary seats from nine to 12, allowing for a more satisfactory representation of the region’s communities. Also, the newly-agreed election law provided all factions throughout the country with a legal right to investigate any potential fraud allegations that might arise during the election.

At stake is the formation of a new government that will be charged with handling Kirkuk’s rival ethnic groups as well as establishing revenue-sharing deals for the area’s rich oilfields. But critics say that the election deal has provided only a temporary solution for many underlying issues, not least the question of Kirkuk’s future status.

With the election law resolved for the moment, an outstanding issue remains the so-called Kirkuk referendum, a poll on whether Kirkuk and other Kurdish regions in Iraqi governorates should come under the jurisdiction of semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan. Article 140 of the Iraqi constitution states that the Kirkuk referendum will determine the fate of Kirkuk province but that certain measures must be taken first: a reversal of the displacement caused by the Arabisation policy followed by a census. The referendum has been postponed indefinitely until this process has been completed.

The struggle for control of Kirkuk centres on the area’s lucrative energy resources. Government figures state that Kirkuk already produces 25 per cent of Iraq’s oil output. Since the US-led invasion of 2003, analysts have speculated that a scramble for the province’s oilfields might lead to ethnic tensions that could both destabilise Iraq and spread beyond its borders. “Most of the debates in Baghdad’s parliament during the election law row were about Kirkuk, so it’s easy to see the [province’s] importance and political value,” said Khalid Suleiman, a Middle East analyst for London’s Al-Hayat newspaper. “Kirkuk is being watched closely by the international community and neighbouring countries in particular. If Kerkuk is torn apart, all of Iraq will be destroyed."

For the province’s Arab and Turkmen, the brokering of the election law has done little to address their concerns over the future of the region.

Hasan Turan, a Turkmen member of Kerkuk’s provincial council, has little hope that the upcoming national poll will benefit Kerkuk. Because the vote is for representatives in Baghdad, he doesn’t believe there will be much of an improvement in the lives of Kerkuk residents.

Kerkuk’s last election was in 2005. Due to disagreement between its political parties on a power-sharing agreement, the region missed the provincial elections held in January. Turan believes the upcoming vote will be marred by the stipulation in the new election law that endorses investigations into allegations of voter irregularity. “The Turkmens and Arabs have already asked to review the Kerkuk electoral register before the election, so what will happen after the election?” Turan said.

Turan claimed the outcome of the new election was a foregone conclusion due to what he said were 400,000 new Kurdish immigrants. “The Kurds don’t believe in power sharing or the political process. They want to impose hegemony on Kerkuk and annex it to the Kurdistan region. This is unacceptable for the rest of the communities,” he said. “The best solution is to make Kerkuk an independent federal region, this is what the Turkmens are calling for.”

The charge of demographic meddling was strongly denied by Kirkuk’s Kurdish governor Abdul Rahman Mustafa, who insisted that the province's political disputes would be resolved through Article 140 of the constitution.

But critics see the implementation of Article 140 as only benefitting the Kurds."We, the Arabs, don’t accept Article 140 as the only solution at all," said Khalil Muhammad, a Sunni Arab member of the Kerkuk provincial council. Muhammad also criticised the new election law for awarding Kerkuk only an additional three lawmakers. He added that he was not satisfied with the new law, but that it was an acceptable compromise necessary to allow the national election to go forward. “The people can now choose who will serve [Kirkuk], but only if the representatives are chosen through a free and clean election,” Muhammad said.

Others worry that the everyday concerns of locals in Kirkuk are being lost amid debates over oil revenue and political leadership."The central government and the international community should find a good solution that provides rights to all ethnic and minority groups," said Suhad Majid, a Turkmen who teaches in a secondary school in Kerkuk. "Another problem is that the voices of the citizens are not heard."

Global Arab Network
http://www.english.globalarabnetwork.com/200912184076/Iraq-Politics/unresolved-issues-could-return-kirkuk-uneasy-despite-parliamentary-deal.html
Samah Samad is an IWPR-trained reporter in Kirkuk. This article originally appeared in [Iraqi Crisis Report], produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, www.iwpr.net

CAMBODIA: Pressure grows over Uyghur asylum seekers

PHNOM PENH, 17 December 2009 (IRIN)

- Cambodia is facing mounting pressure over the fate of 22 Uyghurs who fled China to avoid prosecution for their alleged involvement in violent protests earlier this year. Aided by an underground network of Christian missionaries, the group covertly crossed China’s southern border into Vietnam and then Cambodia in recent weeks, according to the Uyghur American Association (UAA), a US-based advocacy group.

In Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, the whereabouts and condition of the group remains unknown. Besides the Philippines, Cambodia is the only Southeast Asian signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, committing it to protect people fleeing persecution who qualify as refugees. However, the government has remained tightlipped about the asylum seekers, who have apparently applied for refugee status with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Phnom Penh.

Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak told IRIN they were “under the responsibility of the UNHCR”, but would not elaborate on their case. For more than a decade, UNHCR in Cambodia, with government officials, has been responsible for determining whether asylum seekers should be given refugee status. Cambodia opened its own refugee office last year in a step UNHCR said underlined the government’s increased efforts to handle asylum cases through due diligence and international procedures.

The agency said it was phasing down its role as the government assumes more responsibility, but that it was still part of the process. “During this transition phase, asylum requests are being jointly assessed by the government and UNHCR,” Kitty McKinsey, UNHCR regional spokeswoman, told IRIN. She would not comment on the group of Uyghurs.

Protests Uyghurs are a Turkic, Sunni Muslim minority native to China’s far western Xinjiang Province, which has seen bombings, attacks and riots in recent years, blamed by the Chinese government on Uyghur separatists demanding autonomy. However, rights groups say the ethnic identity of Uyghurs in western China is being systematically eroded, and cite serious human rights abuses against them.

Violent protests erupted in July between Uyghurs and Han Chinese, the majority ethnic group in China, whose increased migration to the region has heightened ethnic tensions. Nearly 200 people were killed and another 1,600 wounded, according to media reports. Advocacy groups say the asylum seekers in Cambodia were witness to violence against the Uyghur demonstrators, but China says they are outlaws. Mixed response Despite being a signatory to the refugee convention, as well as the 1984 Convention Against Torture, asylum seekers have had a mixed reception in Cambodia, analysts say.

This case could be a litmus test for the Cambodian government on asylum protection, given how powerful China is in the region

“Cambodia has in the past made a strong effort to protect refugees, but there are also clear cases where asylum seekers from countries that Cambodia has a close political and economic relationship with, such as China and Vietnam, have been repatriated to face persecution,” Sara Colm, a researcher on Cambodia with Human Rights Watch, told IRIN.

Since 2001, thousands of ethnic minority Montagnards fleeing Vietnam after crackdowns on their protests for religious freedom and land rights have been granted refugee status by the Cambodian government, and allowed to resettle in third countries, said Colm. But many others have been arrested and deported back to Vietnam. And at least four Chinese asylum seekers under the protection of UNHCR were arrested in Phnom Penh in 2002 and 2004 and sent back to China, Colm added. China is a major donor to impoverished Cambodia, and rights groups say they fear the country will acquiesce to pressure from Beijing to return the Uyghurs.

Ilshat Hassan, vice-president of the UAA, said his organization expected back-channel intervention from the Chinese government. “If they are sent back to China, they will face the death penalty and the Cambodian government will be an accomplice,” he told IRIN.

China has already executed nine Uyghurs who took part in the protests and condemned another five to death. Hassan said his organization had found a third country willing to provide asylum to the Uyghurs but declined to name it, citing concerns that China would pressure it to close its doors. Amnesty International on 16 December urged Cambodia’s deputy prime minister and minister of interior, Sar Kheng, to ensure a fair asylum process for the Uyghurs.

“Amnesty International believes that these Uyghurs would be particularly vulnerable to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,” it said on its website.

Brittis Edman, a researcher on Cambodia with Amnesty International, told IRIN this case “could be a litmus test for the Cambodian government on asylum protection, given how powerful China is in the region”.


bb/ey/mw

Http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=87462