Turkey cannot accept Western hegemony in the writing of the history of arts and sciences, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on 3 December in a speech at the Turkish presidential awards ceremony. “The fact that our scientific and arts achievements do not get enough appreciation in the West does not mean they are unworthy,” said Erdogan. “Turkey has made very important arts contributions, such as music, calligraphy, marbling arts and others.”
“Our soil brought up many valuable intellectuals for centuries,” Erdogan said. “Opinion can come into existence only if there is language. They tried to blunt our language, our national and civilizational spirit in the past, but despite that, they could not exhaust the seeds of our intellectual capacity.” Erdogan also criticized the Nobel Prize and the UN Security Council’s decisions.
“Do not hope for objective points of view in a world where international institutions decide according to their own ideologies, politics and beliefs. Is the Nobel awarded objectively? No. Does the UN Security Council make objective decisions? No, never,” Erdogan said. “The UN, which was established on the post-World War I international system, is short of representing the whole world. The entire world’s destiny cannot be in the hands of five countries only.”
LEAKED SISI RECORDING SHOWS FRAUDULENT PRISON PLAN FOR MORSI
Mikkemmel Channel, which is broadcast in Egypt, leaked an audio recording of an alleged phone call made between members of the Egypt’s Interior Ministry and the Supreme Military Council (YAK). According to the recording, YAK member Major Mamdooh Shaheen, in a phone call with Navy Commander Osama al-Jundi who was responsible for the removal of Morsi spoke of “unity event” and “espionage” and that Morsi’s situation will deteriorate as he was put in an unknown location illegally, a report said on 6 December.
Sahin says in the recording, “The Attorney general who has sent Under-secretary Mustafa Hatir and Ibrahim Salih who forged documents during the court case, wants the prison where Morsi is, for a decision to be made so that it cannot be contested afterwards”. Supporters of Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood have already seized on the leaked recordings as evidence to prove the charges levelled against the controversial figure are baseless.
SERB KILLERS ARRESTED FOR BOSNIA KILLING
Fifteen former Serb paramilitaries and soldiers were arrested in Serbia and Bosnia on 5 December for the 1993 murder of 20 people, mainly Muslims, who were seized, tortured and executed as Yugoslavia fell apart in war. In one of the most notorious episodes early in the 1992-95 Bosnian war, the victims were forced off a train passing through Bosnia en route from Serbia to the Montenegrin port of Bar. Their names identified them as Muslims.
Eastern Bosnia was then a stronghold of the Bosnian Serb army and ethnic Serb paramilitaries, fighting Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats to carve out an exclusively Serb statelet. They were backed by the Serbian state under late strongman Slobodan Milosevic. The victims, mainly from Serbia and Montenegro, were taken to a school in the nearby town of Visegrad where they were robbed and tortured before being executed in a burnt-out house. “It was a state-permitted crime,” said Serbian lawyer and human rights campaigner Natasha Kandic.
NETANYAHU IS “PLAYING WITH FIRE”: HAMAS LEADER
The political leader of Hamas, Khalid Meshaal, has warned in a television interview that Israeli Premier Netanyahu is “playing with fire” and blamed him for being responsible for deaths of five Israelis in an attack on a West Jerusalem synagogue last month. Meshaal told U.K.-based Sky News in an exclusive interview broadcast on 5 December that the Israeli-Palestinian crisis “will lead to chaos” and create a “bloodbath” in the region if it remains unsolved. He added: “We warn against keeping the Palestinian issue without a solution and stripping the Palestinian people of hope.”
Talking about the recent attacks which shook Jerusalem and tensions over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Meshaal accused the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the rise of violence. He said: “For every action there’s a reaction. The action of the occupation targeting the Islamic and the Christian Holy sites in Jerusalem and Palestine, and specifically the Al Aqsa Mosque, brings about the angry Palestinian reaction.”
MUBARAK’S ACQUITTAL REVEALS EGYPT JUSTICE SYSTEM IN SHAMBLES
Hosni Mubarak ruled Egypt with an iron fist for almost 30 years. But nearly four years after a popular revolution forced him to step down, an Egyptian court dismissed charges against the ex-dictator related to the deaths of hundreds of protesters during the uprising that forced him from power. Although not surprising, it was the latest blow to the country’s justice system. Seven of his top security aides, including feared ex-interior minister Habib al-Adly, were also cleared of ordering the murder of the anti-regime protesters during the unrest that saw mass demonstrations and sit-ins across the country.
“The court’s decision to dismiss the murder charges against him on a technicality while thousands are jailed for peacefully protesting is a fresh slap in the face of every Egyptian who believed that their revolution would hold the most powerful to account,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East & North Africa director for Human Rights Watch.
SUDANESE POLITICAL, ARMED OPPOSITION AGREE TO A UNIFIED FRONT
A spectrum of Sudanese political and armed opposition groups on 3 December put aside differences to sign a unity agreement Wednesday night that they hope will strengthen a group’s hand in talks with the regime in two days. The government has categorically refused to deal with its armed and unarmed adversaries at the same forum and the opposition has been unable to overcome differences to present a unified front.
The signatories hope it will send a message to the government that it must deal with the opposition as one, although some large parties did not sign the agreement.
WEST STOKING EXTREMISM IN WEST ASIA: CHINESE PAPER
Western countries are stoking extremism in West Asia with their support for anti-government opposition movements, China’s top newspaper said on 4 December, repeating a call for non-interference in the region’s turmoil. China has expressed concern about the rise of ISIL in countries like Syria and Iraq, but it has also condemned efforts by Western nations to arm certain groups fighting against the Syrian government, and has shown no sign of wanting to join U.S. efforts to use military force against ISIL.
The People’s Daily, the official paper of China’s ruling Communist Party, said that moves by the West to support anti-government movements in the Middle East were having the opposite effect.
EGYPT COURT SENTENCES 188 MORSI SUPPORTERS TO DEATH
An Egyptian court on 2 December referred 188 defendants – most of whom are supporters of ousted president Mohamed Morsi – to the grand mufti, Egypt’s top religious authority, to consider possible death sentences over their alleged involvement in the storming of a police station in Kerdasa town and killing 11 policemen, a judicial source said. He said that the court will issue its verdict in the case on January 24.
The opinion of the mufti is not binding to the court, but Egyptian law makes it necessary for judges to seek a religious point of view on any death sentence.
TIRANA DREAM MOSQUE COMES TRUE
Construction in the long awaited mosque in Tirana is set to start in the Albanian capital after officials gave the building permit, fulfilling a 1990s dream. “This is a joint project undertaken in cooperation with Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate,” Skender Brucaj, the head of the Albanian Muslim Community, told Anadolu Agency on 1 December.
The new mosque, awaited since the 1990s, got the go ahead after the Prime Minister of Albania, Edi Rama, handed Brucaj the permit for the building last week. According to Brucaj, Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate will supply the financial support necessary for the building.