Category Archives: Fascism

Erdogan’s Cynical Game: Is Turkey Creeping Toward Civil War?

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Turkish President Erdogan claims to be battling the terrorist Islamic State, but in reality he is mainly fighting against Kurds and the PKK. By doing so, he has shown that he is willing to derail the peace process in his country for the sake of clinging to power.

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via Erdogan’s Cynical Game: Is Turkey Creeping Toward Civil War?.

Turkey, Germany, the Kurds, ISS – spin, twist, shout and bomb…

Ankara had, in fact, been sponsoring jihadists in Syria up until 2014, however, not single-handedly. It was done with western – including German – knowledge and approval. Recently, it has been pointed out repeatedly that “the locations in Turkey, where IS was recruiting were known to the local population.” The human rights activist Osman Süzen, for example, posed the question, “if the people know how these organizations work, where they meet and how they recruit, does the state not know it as well?”[2] The same rhetorical question could be raised to the German government, not only because, as revealed last year, Turkey is officially a “reconnaissance objective” of Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND).[3] One can assume that, since Bundeswehr units are stationed in south eastern Turkey, in Kahramanmaraş, they would also be involved in the common practice of reconnaissance of their area of operations. For years, German police and intelligence services have had under surveillance German jihadists leaving for Syria, usually with the aid of networks in Turkey. Despite its detailed knowledge of the jihadists’ activities in Turkey, Berlin has never interfered in Ankara’s support for IS until it joined the war against IS. In August 2012, the US DIA military intelligence agency bluntly explained, why various western governments have generously approved the Turkish-Saudi aid to IS. A “Salafist principality” in eastern Syria could help isolate the government in Damascus.[4]

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

Khadija Ismayilova on trial – a lesson in courage for the international community – Reporters Without Borders

Azerbaijan freely accepted its obligations as party to the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and many other treaties. These obligations include respect for freedom of information. There is no reason why Azerbaijan’s partners should yield to its blackmail, to its angry accusations of interference, arrogance and destabilization in response to the smallest allusion to its repressive methods.

via Khadija Ismayilova on trial – a lesson in courage for the international community – Reporters Without Borders.

Chile charges former military officers over Victor Jara killing

A Chilean judge has charged ten former military officers with the killing of folk singer and political activist Victor Jara. The popular singer was killed days after dictator Augusto Pinochet came to power in 1973.

via Chile charges former military officers over Victor Jara killing.

Merkel ‘gambling away’ Germany’s reputation over Greece, says Habermas | Business | The Guardian

“I fear that the German government, including its social democratic faction, have gambled away in one night all the political capital that a better Germany had accumulated in half a century,” he told the Guardian. Previous German governments, he said, had displayed “greater political sensitivity and a post-national mentality”.

Habermas, widely considered one of the most influential contemporary European intellectuals, said that by threatening Greece with an exit from the eurozone over the course of the negotiations, Germany had “unashamedly revealed itself as Europe’s chief disciplinarian and for the first time openly made a claim for German hegemony in Europe.”

via Merkel ‘gambling away’ Germany’s reputation over Greece, says Habermas | Business | The Guardian.

Japan’s Lower House Passes Bills to Give Military Limited Combat Powers – The New York Times

“The Fourth Reich grabbing Greece and now Japan embracing militarism again!”

The vote was the culmination of months of contentious debate in a society that has long embraced pacifism to atone for wartime aggression. It was a significant victory for Mr. Abe, a conservative politician who has devoted his career to moving Japan beyond guilt over its militarist past and toward his vision of a “normal country” with a larger role in global affairs.

via Japan’s Lower House Passes Bills to Give Military Limited Combat Powers – The New York Times.

Italy′s sovereign debt hits record high | Business | DW.COM | 14.07.2015

“Is Italy next on 4th Reich’s over-reach to dominate Europe?”

Italian public debt has risen upwards of 2.2 trillion euros in May, new data showed Tuesday – a new record for the southern European country that is the eurozone’s second-most indebted after Greece.

The new numbers from the Central Bank of Italy come at a time when the Greek debt crisis is dominating headlines and observers view ballooning public debt within the currency union with worry.

Italy’s debt is now at 132 percent of GDP, compared to Greece’s 175 percent. Both countries find themselves far from the 60 percent debt-to-GDP ratio target set by the European Commission.

The consequences of an Italian debt crisis would however be more dire – it’s the third largest economy in the eurozone.

via Italy′s sovereign debt hits record high | Business | DW.COM | 14.07.2015.

Greece and Grexit

Deadly Medicine

Just before the Eurogroup’s summit, several prominent economists appealed to Chancellor Merkel in an open letter, asking that she take the Greek referendum as an opportunity for a course correction in the policy toward Greece. Among the signatories are Jeffrey Sachs, whose shock therapy is being held responsible for the serious economic collapse in Eastern Europe in the 1990s, and former State Secretary in the German Ministry of Finances, Heiner Flassbeck. “The never-ending austerity that Europe is force-feeding the Greek people is simply not working,” write the economists. “As most of the world knew it would, the financial demands made by Europe have crushed the Greek economy … and made the external debt crisis far worse.” The “humanitarian impact” has been “colossal.” For example “40 percent of children now live in poverty,” the “infant mortality is sky-rocketing” because of the austerity policy. “The medicine prescribed by Berlin and Brussels has bled the patient,” write the authors, not cured the disease. “It is having an impact on those, who were not even born at the beginning of the crisis.”[2] This is why the austerity dictate must be ended.

An Important Partner

Washington has even become involved in the debate. Yesterday, Greece’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras spoke by telephone to US Minister of Finances Jacob Lew and President Barack Obama. They spoke particularly about an accommodation loan, that Athens quickly needs, to bridge the gap until a third bail-out package begins, according to reports. Obama has “hopes” for an agreement that will definitely keep Greece in the Eurozone. Yesterday, Hillary Clinton also made similar demands. The EU must urgently “defuse” the crisis, says former Secretary of State and possible presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton. “I want to see a resolution.” After all, Greece is “an important partner.”[3]

Geostrategic Bridgehead

For the USA, Greece is in fact an extremely important NATO partner. The political scientist Johannes Varwick has emphasized this point. According to Varwick, for the West, Greece serves as a “geostrategic bridgehead to the Middle East,” which was already “the reason” to have “Greece as a NATO partner in 1952.” To this date, “nothing has changed” in this respect, explains Varwick. It must be absolutely “avoided that there is a dislocation on NATO’s southeast flank,” explains the political scientist. “That means that as a prerequisite, for a stable opposite shore, the European realm must first of all, be stabilized, and therefore Greece …, even from a security policy standpoint, is a serious problem.”[4] Western allies’ support for Greece maintaining its expensive military budget is also due to its exposed geostrategic position. According to the SIPRI Institute in Stockholm, just last year, after the catastrophic cuts in pensions and social expenditures had long since been made, Greece invested a good 2.5 percent of its GDP in its military – much more than any of the other European NATO member countries. Last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg declared that this must continue to be the case: “That is important for all.” Military spending were “not the reasons for the financial crisis in Greece.”[5] The Tsipras government has agreed to maintain the higher-than-average military spending.

No Other Option

Sunday, the EU special summit will make its final decision on Greece’s future. The Tsipras government either will then comply with the wishes of the Greek population, or again be forced to submit to the German-EU austerity dictate – possibly a bit veiled cosmetically. Berlin, as yesterday’s Eurogroup summit has confirmed, leaves no other option open.

via www.german-foreign-policy.com.

Thomas Piketty: “Germany has never repaid.” — Medium

After the war ended in 1945, Germany’s debt amounted to over 200% of its GDP. Ten years later, little of that remained: public debt was less than 20% of GDP. Around the same time, France managed a similarly artful turnaround. We never would have managed this unbelievably fast reduction in debt through the fiscal discipline that we today recommend to Greece. Instead, both of our states employed the second method with the three components that I mentioned, including debt relief. Think about the London Debt Agreement of 1953, where 60% of German foreign debt was cancelled and its internal debts were restructured.

via Thomas Piketty: “Germany has never repaid.” — Medium.