Bernard Lewis left Princeton University in 1986, forced out at the then-mandatory retirement age of 70. At his farewell party, Charles Issawi, who was also retiring from the department of Near Eastern studies, delivered some remarks. “There are five ages of professors,” he said, “tireless, tiring, tiresome, tired, and retired; but for people like Bernard and me, retirement means a new set of tires and full speed ahead.”
Issawi was right: Lewis isn’t the retiring type. He has spent the years since then producing 16 books and countless articles, carried on his decades-long spat with Edward Said over the direction of scholarship on the Middle East, helped found a learned society to challenge “intellectual conformism” in the Middle East Studies Association, coined the idea of a “clash of civilizations,” became an informal adviser to the George W. Bush administration, and according to some observers, provided the intellectual firepower for the war in Iraq. Oh, and not least: At the age of 80, Lewis fell in love again.
Mere HER i The Chronicle of Higher Education. Det næste interview er i pdf-form:
Interview with Bernard Lewis
Winter 2012
In this exclusive interview with TPQ, Bernard Lewis attributes Turkey’s historical progress to the practice of self-critique and to the choice of women’s empowerment. These are also the qualities, if maintained and developed, that will ensure a bright future for Turkey, he states. Indicating that in Turkey “at the moment, the movement seems to be backwards rather than forward,” Lewis points out that Turks currently face a choice. About Turkey’s role in the Middle East, Lewis reflects skepticism but also hope, relaying the message that Turkey can indeed play a leading role in the Middle East but whether this will strengthen Turkey in the global arena or not depends on how Turkey uses this influence, to what end, and in what direction. Decisions made today, in areas such as to enable frank and critical discussion, to innovate, and to provide women with the full range of freedom will determine how the future of Turkey and of the region at large is shaped.
As we approach the end of the first year of what has been called the “Arab Spring,” it is worth examining the nature of Shi’a (Shiite) -Sunni relations in the Middle East. Indeed, commentators such as Patrick Cockburn have been warning that “since the start of the Arab uprisings this year, Shi’a-Sunni hostility has deepened again wherever the two communities seek to live side by side.”
To discuss this issue, a country-by-country survey is useful wherever there are significant Shi’a-Sunni divides in the population.
Mere HER hos Middle East Forum. Kan også læses her hos Arutz Sheva, - også kaldet Israel National News.
Scholar on Radical Islam Daniel Pipes speaks to the CIS’ Peter Kurti on the current Middle East upheavals.
Og forelæsning fra samme center i Australien – 23 august 2011:
Making Sense of the Middle East Upheavals
Daniel Pipes is president of the Middle East Forum and Taube distinguished visiting fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University.
His website, DanielPipes.org is one of the Internet’s most accessed sources of specialized information on the Middle East and Islam. The Boston Globe states that “If Pipes’ admonitions had been heeded, there might never have been a 9/11″ and the Washington Post deems him “perhaps the most prominent U.S. scholar on radical Islam.”
He received his A.B. (1971) and Ph.D. (1978) from Harvard University.
Jeg har brugt en hulens masse tid på at læse om konflikten mellem Tyrkiet og Israel. Og noget af det bedste tog jeg fra til bloggen. Men først et nyt interview med Tyrkiets præsident, Abdullah Gül:
“Turkey is No Longer a Friend of Israel” Says President of Turkey
Det, man siger, er man selv? Erdogan er en dårlig taber. Det var Tyrkiet, der handlede i strid med international lov, fordi de ikke stoppede den “flotilla”:
Turkish PM declares freeze on Israel ties
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces a total freeze on military and trade ties with Israel and threatens to visit Gaza as the one-time allies’ diplomatic spat intensifies
Desuden audio fra NPR – Talk of the Nation den 13. september 2011. Man kan følge med i en komplet udskrift her:
Israel Feeling Increasingly Isolated From Allies
Israeli diplomats have fled Egypt after an attack on their embassy in Cairo and were forced to leave Turkey after a diplomatic row. As Israel appears to lose its Muslim allies, many worry about possible repercussions on the peace process, Israel’s security and the U.S. role in the region.
Guests
Joel Greenberg, Jerusalem correspondent, Washington Post
Akiva Eldar, chief political columnist, Ha’aretz
Dore Gold, former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations
Host
Neal Conan
Startes HER eller her - åbner Windows Media Player. Varighed ½ time. Og til artiklerne:
UN Report on Flotilla Incident Exonerates Israel
Sep 3, 2011 • By Elliott Abrams
The United Nations report on the Mavi Marmara incident, entitled “Report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Inquiry on the 31 May 2010 Flotilla Incident,” is now public and largely exculpates Israel. All the facts are as Israel contended and as the Commission notes “Israel faces a real threat to its security from militant groups in Gaza. The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure” and “Israeli Defense Forces personnel faced significant, organized and violent resistance from a group of passengers when they boarded the Mavi Marmara requiring them to use force for their own protection. Three soldiers were captured, mistreated, and placed at risk by those passengers. Several others were wounded.”
The Commission makes the judgment that the use of force by the Israelis was “excessive and unreasonable,” but the real verdict is evident in the way the Israeli and Turkish governments have reacted. Israel has accepted the report and its findings of fact while of course disagreeing with that judgment about its soldiers; Turkey has rejected the report entirely.
First, the panel challenges the motives of the flotilla:
Turkey no economic powerhouse, Erdogan’s credit bubble will soon explode
Guy Bechor – September 15, 2011
Some refer to him as “the Middle East’s new sultan in a neo-Ottoman empire” – yet the truth about Erdogan’s kingdom is utterly different. We are not facing an economic power, but rather, a state whose credit bubble will be bursting any moment now and bringing down its economy.
The budget deficit of the collapsing Greece compared to its GDP stands at some 10%, and the world is alarmed. At the same time, Turkey’s deficit is at 9.5%, yet some members of the financial media describe the Turkish economy as a success story (for comparison’s sake, Israel’s deficit stands at some 3% and is expected to decline to 2% this year.)
Why the West Cares about Turkey’s Diplomatic Conflict with Israel
September 10, 2011 – Dore Gold
Under the surface, there have been growing concerns in the West about the general direction of Turkish foreign policy under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP Party. In an extremely important 2004 cable from the US Department of State, revealed by WIKILEAKS, that was described previously in this column, an American diplomat in Turkey wrote about his concerns with Ankara’s “new, highly activist foreign policy,” Like many other commentators he focused on what he called the “neo-Ottoman fantasies” of Ahmet Davutoglu, who was then only an advisor and today is Turkey’s foreign minister.
But the American diplomat went much further in his description. He attended a meeting at the main think tank of Turkey’s ruling AKP Party where he heard many in the AKP saying that it is Turkey’s role to spread Islam in Europe. He added that among the participants in the think tank there was “the widespread belief” that Turkey should ”avenge the defeat at the siege of Vienna in 1683″–where the Ottoman armies loss to the Hapsburg Empire.
Mere HER i The Algemeiner. Kan også læses her hos Dore Gold.
A Brilliant Fraud
By Stanley Weiss – September 15, 2011
It was the first time that cattle cars would be used in the 20th century to carry people to concentration camps, a systematic annihilation of a whole population so horrific that a new word had to be invented to capture its brutality: genocide.
In the midst of World War I, over a million Christian Armenians in Turkey were rounded up by the Ottoman Empire and slaughtered in unspeakable ways. No less a mass murderer than Adolf Hitler, in a speech to Nazi commanders before he invaded Poland, reportedly defended his order to, “kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children of the Polish race” by asking, “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?”
Turkey rebukes Israel: do they remember Northern Cyprus and the Kurds?
04 Sep, 2011 – Boutros Hussein and Lee Jay Walker
Turkey is once more playing the “Israel card” whereby in order to gain credibility at home and to appease the anti-Israeli lobby, the same issue keeps on popping up. However, while individuals or governments who oppose Israel may welcome the ongoing outbursts which break out frequently it is obvious that mass hypocrisy in Turkey renders this a farce.
If Turkey is so concerned about human rights then why not focus on leaving Northern Cyprus, give greater freedom to the Kurds, install equality for the Alevi Muslims, stop attacking Kurds in Northern Iraq and recognize the mass genocide of Christians which took place in 1915 (pogroms before and after this date).
Under Islamic law (“Shariah”), non-Muslims (such as Christians and Jews) are mostly free to practice their religion in private but are discriminated and treated as second-class citizens, or dhimmis. As the Quran clearly states, non-Muslims must “feel themselves subdued” (Sura 9:20). When the Jews regained their independence in 1948, they not only rebelled against “dhimmitude.” They also regained and freed, like the Spaniards after the Reconquista, a land once ruled by Islam. To Muslims, this was -and still is- a double offence.
Turkey’s Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan has taken upon himself to make Israel a “dhimmi state.” Edorgan was raised as a Sufi Muslim and was imprisoned in 1998 for singing out loud that “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers.” While mainstream Western media are at pains to describe Turkey’s Islamist AKP Party as “moderate,” Erdogan himself declared on Kanal D TV in August 2007 that describing Islam as moderate “is offensive and an insult to our religion.” Erdogan has been embracing the presidents of Iran and Sudan. While Sudan’s president is accused of genocide by the International Criminal Court, and while Turkey has been asked to apologize for the Armenian genocide, Erdogan has declared that “No Muslim can perpetuate genocide.”
Mere HER hos For the Sake of Zion. Kan også læses her hos Arutz Sheva.
As Israel-Turkey Alliance Disintegrates, Analysts Worry
By Piotr Zalewski – Sep 6 2011
The rapidly worsening fall-out between these two allies could have serious repercussions for an already fragile Middle East
After Turkey’s decision to suspend military ties with Israel, expel the country’s ambassador, and now possibly to apply to the International Court of Justice for an investigation into Israel’s Gaza blockade — on account of Israel’s refusal to apologize for last year’s lethal attack on the Mavi Marmara, a Gaza-bound Turkish aid ship — it’s difficult to decipher who, if anyone, might benefit from the current impasse. For Turkey, the breakup with Israel is another nail in the coffin of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu’s vaunted “zero problems” policy that, until recently, allowed the country to keep lines open with all sides of the Middle East’s conflicts. For Israel, the potential loss of a crucial regional ally only deepens the country’s isolation as it scrambles to come to terms with the Arab spring and its fallout. Among experts, there is some hope that the Turkey-Israel relationship could recover, if slowly. Yet there is also fear that it will deteriorate much further — and quickly.
Not long ago, Turkey could rightfully claim to maintain open diplomatic relationships with practically everyone in the Middle East. But, as Soli Ozel, a professor of international relations at Istanbul’s Bilgi University, told me, “those times are over.” “Turkey is not going to have much of a role to play. It cannot replicate the Syrian-Israeli proximity talks, which it masterminded a few years ago.” Same, he said, for the Israeli-Palestinian talks. “Turkey will probably be hailed by the Palestinians but it will isolate itself from the peace process, if the process ever comes back to life.”
Only weeks after its release, the Palmer Report into the 2010 Gaza flotilla incident appears to have been consigned to the dustbin of history.
Despite leveling criticism at Israel for “excessive force”, the report could and should have been a major prize for Israel public diplomacy. How often, and particularly at a time of precious few PR gifts, does a UN-sponsored investigation uphold the legitimacy of Israel’s naval blockade as well as highlighting the danger of Hamas from Gaza?
Mere HER hos Ynetnews eller her hos HonestReporting.
Og endelig to artikler om de israelske naturgas-fund, som siges at styrke Israels position både i Mellemøsten og i Vesten. Fra hhv. Foreign Policy og Family Security Matters:
Man kan følge med i en komplet udskrift her. Studieværten hedder Ali Moore:
Pipes discusses uncertain times in the Middle East
American writer and political commentator Daniel Pipes says the transition in Egypt, the current violence in Israel and the fates of Syria and Libya all have uncertain and potentially bad outcomes.
Opdatering – udskriften foreligger nu i dansk oversættelse på Pipes hjemmeside her.
Islamist and Nationalist Radicalism Among German Turks
by Veli Sirin – August 2, 2011
Of the many signs that point to the growing influence among Turks and Kurds living in Germany of the Justice and Development Party [AKP], which represents an “updated” Islamist ideology, the worst aspect of it is that it will likely go unopposed.
The June 2011 election victory in Turkey by AKP, headed by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, provoked debate in both Western and Muslim countries, but few commentators have analyzed the impact of AKP’s third triumph at the polls on Germans of Turkish and Kurdish origin or heritage – the main Turkish immigrant community in the West, with as many as four million members, or five percent of Germany’s total census.
Herbert Pundik om Egypten: Det er naivt at tro at generalerne, de reelle magthavere, er villige til samarbejde med reformtilhængerne
Interview af Malthe Rasmussen
Ræson: Militærrådet i Egypten har sendt næsten 600 politibetjente på pension og indsat et nyt kabinet efter de seneste protester på Tahrirpladsen. Er det tegn på reel samarbejdsvillighed, eller er det pro forma-manøvrer, der skal tilfredsstille demonstranterne?
Muslimer bekræfter, hvad Thilo Sarrazin siger. Der er dumme indbyggere i Tyskland:
Angry Muslims reportedly drove controversial author Thilo Sarrazin from a Turkish restaurant in Berlin. Though his bestselling book claims Muslims are dumbing down German society, their accusations of racism have left the former central bank board member shocked and indignant.
Nu er det jo så ikke nazister, der har invaderet Tyskland. Det er tyrkere, der har det:
“Get lost!” and “Nazis out!” were among the epithets lobbed at controversial author Thilo Sarrazin during a recent trip to Berlin’s Kreuzberg district, according to newspaper reports on Monday. The city’s former finance senator had taken a trip to the area with broadcaster ZDF to film a TV special ahead of the one-year anniversary of the publication of his controversial book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany Does Itself In”).
Det må da være tyrkerne, der skal ud af Berlin? Tyrkiet er jo altid en mulighed…
Erdogan’s recent electoral victory speech puts his true intentions regarding Turkey’s foreign policy goals in perspective. He said that this victory is as important in Ankara as it is in the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Sarajevo, under Ottoman times, an important Ottoman city; that his party’s victory was as important in a large Turkish city, Izmir, on the Western Anatolian coast, as it is in Damascus, and as important in Istanbul as it is in Jerusalem.
What does all this mean? At the very least, this victory speech signals a wish for Ottoman cultural colonialism and imperialism. The places Erdogan names were all part of by the Ottoman Empire; the territory of the modern Turkish Republic is what remained after World War I and Turkey’s War of Independence from the occupying Allied forces. Turkey forms only the central part, and relatively small fraction, of what had been the Ottoman Empire, which at its height extended deep into southern Europe, and included most of today’s Arab world and even beyond.
Kan I huske dengang man kunne sige: “Hizbollah bør afvæbnes” og så stadig blive regnet for realist? FN kunne have gjort det. Israelerne kunne have gjort det. Men det var dengang:
Rival hegemons in Syria
By Caroline Glick – July 8, 2011
Last Saturday, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah gave Hezbollah-backed Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati the political equivalent of a public thrashing. Last Thursday, Mikati gave a speech in which he tried to project an image of a leader of a government that has not abandoned the Western world completely. Mikati gave the impression that his Hezbollah-controlled government is not averse to cooperating with the UN Special Tribunal for Lebanon. The Special Tribunal just indicted four Hezbollah operatives for their role in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
But on Saturday night, Nasrallah gave a speech in which he made clear that he has no intention whatsoever of cooperating with the Special Tribunal and that since he runs the show in Lebanon, Lebanon will not cooperate in any way with the UN judicial body. As an editorial at the NOW Lebanon website run by the anti- Hezbollah March 14 movement wrote, last Saturday night Nasrallah “demolished Mikati’s authority and the office from whence it comes, and used it as a rag to mop up what is left of Lebanese dignity.”
Mere HER hos Caroline Glick. The Jerusalem Post her.
De kristne i Syrien støtter præsidenten, Bashar al-Assad. De oplever, at situationen har udviklet sig til et ultimatum: støt oprøret eller forsvind. Patrick Sookhdeo siger det ligeud. Fra Barnabas Fund:
“Syria has been a beacon of freedom and security for Christians in a largely hostile Arab world. If they are now forced to leave the country, where will they go? The entire region is rocked by instability, and as Islamist groups seek to capitalise on the political unrest to advance their own agenda, the future of Christianity in that part of the world looks increasingly uncertain.”
Ligesom jøderne havde de kristne engang deres eget land i Mellemøsten: Libanon. Men Lee Smith kommer kun halvejs med den parallel:
Minority Report
By establishing a Jewish majority in Palestine, Israel distinguished itself from other Middle East minority groups, which suffer physical fear and intellectual confusion, even if they hold power
By Lee Smith | Jun 29, 2011
At a recent event in Dearborn, Mich., a crowd welcomed Syria’s ambassador to Washington, Imad Mustapha, who led a rally on behalf of his country’s President Bashar al-Assad. The scene was outrageous for a number of reasons, including that these were American citizens gathered in support of a regime responsible for the murder of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. But perhaps even more notable was the tragedy at the heart of the scene: These Syrian-Americans—Christians and members of Muslim minority sects like the Alawites, Druze, and Ismailis—are still writhing from their emotional experience as Middle Eastern minorities. No matter how far they get from the region, they are plagued with a vulnerability that leaves them terrified, angry, and often crazy.
Mere HER i The Tablet. Dry Bones siger også noget om sagen. Fra 15. juni 2011:
Velfortjent skideballe fra Weekendavisen til d’herrer:
Ambassadørerne
Af Klaus Wivel
I studiet hos Steffen Gram sad Ole Wøhlers Olsen og Jørgen Bæk Simonsen, begge med en lang årrække bag sig i Syrien, den første som ambassadør, den anden som direktør i Det Danske Institut i Damaskus.
Programmet blev sendt 26. april 2011, da syriske tanks for længst var sat ind mod de demonstranter, der mente, at der måtte være andre måder at lede landet på end den, Assad-familien har leveret i fire årtier.
Although the origins of al-Taqiyya are found in fundamentalist dogma regarding propaganda, Ba’athists and other authoritarian regimes in the region have used the practice for decades. In short, once widespread opposition to his one-party regime became evident, Assad needed to shield himself from international retribution. In an effort to buy time, the Syrian dictator announced that he would cancel ‘emergency law’ which forbids demonstrations and limits free speech.
Assad’s lack of credibility immunizes Syrian protesters to his “Taqiyya.” No deception will convince them that the Syrian President’s intentions are good. Ma’moun Homsi, a former Member of Syria’s Parliament who has been jailed several times for speaking out against the regime said recently, “The dictator is gaining time and playing the propagandist, nothing more.” In essence, Mr. Assad simply replaced an outmoded tool, the state of emergency, with a cutting-edge narrative referred to as “counter terrorism law.” His own speech indicts the so-called ‘reformist’ head of the regime who warned, “There will no longer be ‘an excuse’ for organizing protests after Syria lifts emergency law and implements the reforms.” What part of ‘reform’ does the Syrian President not understand?
Mere HER hos World Defense Review. Kan også læses her hos AINA eller i The American Thinker her.
Syriana
After Bashar al-Assad, the deluge
By Robert D. Kaplan | April 21, 2011
The late Princeton scholar Philip K. Hitti called Greater Syria — the historical antecedent of the modern republic — “the largest small country on the map, microscopic in size but cosmic in influence,” encompassing in its geography, at the confluence of Europe, Asia, and Africa, “the history of the civilized world in a miniature form.” This is not an exaggeration, and because it is not, the current unrest in Syria is far more important than unrest we have seen anywhere in the Middle East.
“Syria” was the 19th-century Ottoman-era term for a region that stretched from the Taurus Mountains of Turkey in the north to the Arabian Desert in the south, and from the Mediterranean Sea in the west to Mesopotamia in the east. Present-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, western Iraq, and southern Turkey were all included in this vast area. In other words, the concept of “Syria” was not linked to any specific national sentiment. The collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I led to Greater Syria being carved into a half-dozen states. Although territory had been cut away on all sides, the rump French mandate of “Syria” that came into existence, nevertheless, contained not only every warring sect and regional and tribal interest, but also the spiritual headquarters in the capital Damascus of the pan-Arab movement, whose aim was to erase all the state borders that the Europeans had just created.
“How long your faith shall endure?” Muhammad was asked.
“En salahat ummati fa laha yom. Va en fasadat fa laha nesfe yom. Val yomo ende rabbeka alfe sanaton men ma taedoon”—if my Ummah becomes righteous, it shall last one day; if corrupted, it shall last half a day. “And a day of your lord is equivalent of a thousand years of your accounting,” he replied. [‘Abdu’l-Wahháb Sha‘rání’s “al-Yaváqít wa’l-Jawáhir”, volume 2 (Cairo: Mu=>afá al-Bábí al-?alabí and Sons, 1959), page 142]
This account is as recorded by a contemporary chronicler of Muhammad. So, even if his Ummah had lived up to his standards of righteousness, one thousand years have come and gone. Yet, a greatly fractured system of belief called Islam is still around as judged by over a billion who call themselves Muslim.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says that the United States will pursue no Libya-style intervention in Syria, where demonstrators are setting government buildings on fire, security personnel are using live ammunition against the regime’s opponents, and some warn of impending civil war. Part of the reason for American inaction, Clinton explains, is that members of both the Democratic and Republican Parties believe that Syria’s ruler, Bashar al-Assad, is a reformer. Unfortunately, she’s right about that: both political parties do seem to think, despite abundant evidence to the contrary, that the current tyrant of Damascus wasn’t raised in the house of his father, Hafez al-Assad.
Mere HER i City Journal. Kan også læses her hos Pajamas Media.
Som skrevet før: antallet af røster, der advarer imod udviklingen i Tyrkiet, stiger. Men næsten intet af, hvad iagttagerne siger, når frem til pressen. Denne artikel advarer om undertrykkelse af de tyrkiske mindretal:
Turkish Islamists: Advocates for Iran, Enemies of Secularists and Minorities
By Stephen Suleyman Schwartz – September 29, 2010
Turkey under the Islamist rule of the Justice and Development Party [AKP] is moving faster toward the embrace of Iran, while further alienating its domestic secularists and large religious and ethnic minorities. AKP prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and president Abdullah Gul serve as allies and accomplices of Tehran’s dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and his own clerical backers, as well as of Hamas in Gaza. But radical Islam at the helm in Turkey has also increased the country’s internal polarization.
At last week’s UN General Assembly, Turkish president Gul held a closed-door meeting with Ahmadinejad just as the Iranian demagogue was preparing to disgracefully accuse the U.S. of culpability in the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Gul flattered the Iranians while speaking out for Hamas in a Washington Post interview.
The boldness of AKP advocacy for the Tehran clerical regime, however, has been paralleled by major internal institutional and political changes, mainly through plans to revise the national constitution. Secularists and minorities fear that new constitutional reforms will further embolden the AKP in its movement toward a “shariah state.”
På internettet dukker der flere og flere oplysninger op om radikaliseringen i Tyrkiet, men intet af det når frem til de etablerede medier:
Turkey’s Risky Transition
By Ali Uyanik – September 2, 2010
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s Prime Minister and leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP), has called for revision of the Turkish constitution through a referendum making it impossible for the secular judiciary to close down Islamist parties. His chief political adversary, Kemal Kilicdaroglu of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), says “No” to constitutional amendments that would reinforce the position of the AKP.
Kilicdaroglu comes from the eastern Turkish province of Tunceli. If you travel to Tunceli, you will see inscribed on a hillside a uniquely malevolent warning from the state: “We are strong and brave; we are ready.” The message is unmistakable. Tunceli is also the name of the provincial capital, a city 99 percent populated by Alevis, who practise a stream of spirituality combining Sufi mysticism, Shia Islam, and traditional Turkish practices.
Local people call this province “Dersim,” its older name. The Turkish state considers it a hotbed of separatism. As the Ottoman empire came to an end, many military operations were carried out here. The region is mountainous and inaccessible, with considerable natural beauty. Under the Ottomans, many Alevis took refuge in this wild area. Dersim was virtually independent of the Ottoman state; the people paid no taxes and did not fulfil the demands made on them to serve in the military.
Fra april 2010 – en utrolig forestilling - sladderkællinger af begge køn, der bagvasker Europa med skrøner og sniksnak om forhold, de ikke aner en kæft om:
Can Europe be Multicultural?
AJC’s expert panel explores the impact of Islam on European politics and culture. Recorded at AJC’s 2010 Annual Meeting, the panel includes distinguished authors Paul Berman and Christopher Caldwell and leading german diplomat Heidrun Tempel, moderated by AJC’s Ben Cohen.
Det er brandirriterende med det der bunkepul “Europa”. Ren voldtægt. Der er tale om nogle og fyrre vidt forskellige nationer. Summarisk henrettelse er en kunst, mange amerikanske “eksperter” er sande mestre i. De skelner ikke engang mellem EU og Europa. Ved et mirakel slipper Danmark udenom. Nogen herhjemme må have gjort et godt fodarbejde.
Videoen er fra American Jewish Committee’s årlige møde - en time og 10 minutter:
Fire eller fem selvmordsterrorister sprængte sig selv og deres lastbiler i luften i et tæt beboet område vest for den nordirakiske by Mosul i et forholdsvis afsides område, hvor tilhængere af ezidi-religionen lever. Det skete i tirsdags, skriver EkstraBladet.
Fredens religion siger jo, at man skal dræbe de vantro. Og det gør de så. For etnisk udrensning af vantro ser ud til at være motivet. Man har ellers spekuleret i hævnmotiver, men det synes iagttagere at afvise. Fra Jyllands-Posten den 15. august:
Angrebet synes at være for stort til “kun” at være et hævntogt mod en religiøs sekt, der stenede en ung kvinde ihjel, fordi hun ville konvertere og gifte sig med en muslim.
Om massakren hedder det i stedet, at den skal ses
som et led i en veltilrettelagt eksport af volden til det normalt mere stabile Nordirak, hvor pressede irakiske militsgrupper har søgt tilflugt efter at være fordrevet fra provinserne Anbar og Diyala og i stigende grad også fra Bagdad.
Man mener, at det er det i muslimske kredse så populære Al Qaeda, der står bag:
Hovedmistanken blev rettet mod Al Qaida-netværket, da det koordinerede angreb med fire lastbiler fyldt med sprængstof fandt sted lige efter solnedgang i landsbyerne al-Khataniyah og al-Adnaniyah i Ninive-provinsen.
Når man mistænker Al Qaeda skyldes det bla. fremgangsmåden. Sunnier i området uddelte løbesedler et par dage før angrebet, hvor der stod, at de lokale skulle forsvinde eller konvertere til islam. De islamiske regler siger, at man skal advare, før man indleder et angreb. Og Al Qaeda er meget nøjeregnende med de islamiske foreskrifter.
Der er mange andre religiøse mindretal blandt kurderne, der kan blive ofre for muslimsk terror. Alevier, jøder, kristne for nu bare at nævne nogle. Kurderne er spredt i Iran, Irak, Syrien og Tyrkiet og desuden Libanon, Armenien og Azerbajdjan.
Note: Yazedi staves også Ezidi og Yezidi. Herboende medlemmer af religionen skriver ezidi. Det burde danske medier også gøre.
Opdatering den 9. september fra Jyllands-Posten. Al Qaeda lederen Abu Mohammed al-Aafri som stod bag terrorangrebet er dræbt:
Amerikanske styrker i Irak har dræbt en terrorist, der sættes i forbindelse med Al Qaoda, og som menes at have organiseret det store terrorattentat, der i august dræbte mellem 400 og 500 mennesker i det nordlige Irak.
Forsvind! Tyrkiet har intet at gøre der. Andre lande har overlevet at miste territorier og det kan Tyrkiet også. Situationen forværres dag for dag i den østlige del af landet, hvor tyrkerne holder store dele af Kurdistan besat:
To militante kurdere kørte søndag en lastvogn fyldt med olie ind i en tyrkisk politistation i et selvmordsangreb, oplyser kilder i landets militær, der ser angrebet som en voldsom optrapning af den separatistiske vold i Tyrkiet.
Det skriver EkstraBladet, der også fortæller, at kun de to selvmordere blev dræbt, fordi man havde fået evakueret politistationen. De skriver ikke, om der var dukket tip op eller om det var pga. efterretningsarbejde.
Efter eksplosionen angreb andre medlemmer af det forbudte Kurdistans Arbejder Parti (PKK) politistationen i den østlige Tunceli-provins og hæren svarede igen med en større modoffensiv med flystøtte, sagde kilderne.
Tyrkerne betrager omtrent en hvilken som helst politisk aktivitet hos kurderne som terrorisme, fordi den tyrkiske grundlov forbyder folk at arbejde for løsrivelse af dele af landet. TV-stationen ROJ bliver uafbrudt beskyldt for at have terrorforbindelser, selvom man gang på gang kan påvise, at det har stationen ikke.
Billede: et eksempel på, hvor man forestiller sig grænserne kan gå.
Det er klart, at enhver form terror er forkastelig. Ingen kan forsvare det. Heller ikke denne blog. Men jeg har et spørgsmål: hvordan kan man kæmpe for selvstændighed ad politisk vej, når den tyrkiske forfatning forbyder det? Når man bliver smidt i fængsel for at arbejde for løsrivelse? Derfor har man problemet med de militante kurdere. Og det er i bund og grund et problem, tyrkerne selv har skabt, fordi de holder Kurdistan besat og forlanger at kurderne skal overholde besættelsesmagtens love.
Kurdiske oprørere holder til i Irak, hvorfra de ifølge tyrkerne kan rykke ind og lave aktioner i Tyrkiet. Derfor har tyrkerne for nylig angrebet mål i den kurdiske del af Irak, for at hindre løsrivelsesbevægelserne i at opruste. Der tales ligefrem om, at Tyrkiet kan finde på at invadere irakisk Kurdistan. Amerikanerne kunne ikke svinge sig op til mere end at “fraråde” det! Jeg genbruger lige en stump tekst fra en tidligere post som afslutning her:
Kurderne har ret til deres egen nation. Og de tvangsforflyttede kurdere skal have lov til at vende hjem. Tyrkerne har anbragt dem i ufrugtbare bjergegne inde midt i landet for at splitte det kurdiske folk. Det er velkendt, at tyrkernes behandling af kurderne beløber sig til decideret racisme, f.eks. når det gælder alevierne. Svineri! Tyrkiet skal reduceres til naturlig størrelse og besættelsen af Kurdistan skal bringes til ophør.
Lederen af Tyrkiets magtfulde hær bekræftede onsdag, at han finder det nødvendigt, at de væbnede styrker opererer ind over Iraks grænse for at nedkæmpe kurdiske oprørere.
Over 30.000 mennesker er blevet dræbt under kampe mellem sikkerhedsstyrkerne og gruppen PKK, som kæmper for et selvstændigt kurdisk område i Tyrkiet. PKK betragtes som terrorister af både den tyrkiske regering og USA og EU.
USA, som ikke har brug for ustabilitet i det kurdiske Nordirak, har frarådet tyrkerne at invadere kurdiske områder.
Det skal de ikke have lov til. Tværtimod skal tyrkisk Kurdistan have sin selvstændighed.
Tyrkisk militær har dræbt otte kurdere under en større militæraktion i den østlige del af landet nær grænsen til Irak.
Militæraktionen er led i en længerevarende aktion mod medlemmer af Det Kurdiske Arbejderparti PKK. PKK anses af den tyrkiske regering og EU for at være en terrororganisation.
Et klart mønster tegner sig. Konservative medier får etiketten ‘højreorienteret’, hvorimod venstreorienterede får ‘uafhængig’, ‘velanset’ eller ‘troværdig’.
Interview with Bernard Lewis
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