Archives for July 2016

In response to failed coup, Turkish president says state of emergency will last for three months.

by Al Jazeera

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced that the country will be placed under a “state of emergency” for three months, in response to the failed coup.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Erdogan said the decision was made following a meeting with members of the national security council.

The state of emergency was needed “in order to remove swiftly all the elements of the terrorist organisation involved in the coup attempt,” he said at the presidential palace in Ankara.

“I would like to underline that the declaration of the state of emergency has the sole purpose of taking the necessary measures, in the face of the terrorist threat that our country is facing,” he said, vowing that the “virus in the military will be cleansed”.

In an interview with Al Jazeera earlier on Wednesday, Erdogan has expressed doubts the coup attempt was entirely over.

“I don’t think we have come to the end of it,” he said.

Presidential power

Turkey has accused the group of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen of being behind the coup.

Gulen has strongly denied links to the coup.

According to the Turkish constitution, a state of emergency is allowed up to six months.

Turkey had in 2002 lifted its last state of emergency, which had been imposed in provinces in the southeast for the fight against Kurdish armed groups in 1987.

Under a state of emergency in Turkey, the president can largely rule by decree.

Curfews could be enforced, and gatherings and protests could be banned without official consent, under the declaration.

Media could also be restricted, while security personnel could conduct searches of persons, vehicles or properties and confiscate potential evidence.

But the interior ministry said that the order “will not affect civilians”, according to Al Jazeera’s Stefanie Dekker, who was reporting from Ankara.

In his televised address, Erdogan also tried to reassure the public that military powers will not be expanded, adding that Turkey would emerge as a “stronger nation” following the coup attempt.

Officials downplay sensitivity of leaked emails, say website blocked to protect privacy and personal phone numbers.

by Al Jazeera

Turkish officials have downplayed the release of hundreds of thousands of private emails belonging to members of the ruling party that were published on the WikiLeaks website.

The whistle-blower website was blocked on Wednesday by Turkey’s Internet watchdog, TIB, shortly after the mass release of the emails, which included the current phone numbers of AK Party members of parliament.

The internet authority said an “administrative measure” had been taken against WikiLeaks, a generic term it often uses when blocking websites in Turkey.

Al Jazeera independently confirmed the authenticity of emails and phone numbers of at least 10 members of parliament released by WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks said more emails and attached files will be published soon.

“Part one of the series covers 762 mail boxes beginning with ‘A’ through to ‘I’ containing 294,548 email bodies together with many thousands of attached files,” the website said.

WikiLeaks ordered to be blocked nationwide in #Turkey after releasing 300 thousand emails from #Erdogan ‘s party AKP pic.twitter.com/Q5vWWimklY

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 20, 2016

“The emails come from ‘akparti.org.tr’, the AKP’s primary domain … It should be noted that emails associated with the domain are mostly used for dealing with the world, as opposed to the most sensitive internal matters.”

The leak of ruling party emails comes at a sensitive time for Turkey.

At least 290 people were killed after rebel soldiers attempted to overthrow the government on Friday, bombing state buildings and killing civilians and security forces. Thousands of civilian State employees and military personnel have been sacked or detained in the aftermath of the failed coup.

Since the attempted coup authorities have purged suspected backers of the plan to topple the government, and as of Monday night more than 8,000 people had been arrested over their alleged involvement.

RELEASE: 294,548 emails from Turkey’s ruling political party, Erdoğan’s AKP#AKPemails https://t.co/1Yof7YZpH7 pic.twitter.com/vFw8KLMIsX

— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 20, 2016

‘April Fools’ jokes’

A Turkish official, speaking to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity, said the content of the leaked emails was not sensitive for the AK Party or Turkey.

“The emails largely consist of spam, updates about various social activities, and April Fools’ Day jokes,” the official said.

The official said that access to the WikiLeaks website was restricted due to the “publication of personal information about MPs including phone numbers,” he said.

There is a “violation of privacy and publication of illegally obtained data,” he added.

Ismail Aydin, an AK Party member of parliament, said it was illegal to publish the private communications of people, though he stressed that nothing would come out of the leaked emails that would harm the party or its officials.

Coalition strikes on northern Manbij kill 56 civilians, bringing death toll to 167 in past two months, monitor says.

by Al Jazeera

Dozens of civilians have been killed in US-led air strikes against areas in Syria held by the Islamic State of Syria and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), a monitoring group said.

At least 56 civilians, including 11 children, were killed in air strikes on the Tokhar area in the northern city of Manbij in the Aleppo governate on Tuesday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Ten others, including four children, were killed in coalition strikes on the village of Hamira, in the southern suburbs of Manbij.

The UK-based Observatory has put the total number of civilians killed by coalition strikes on Manbij since the Democratic Forces of Syria (DFS) launched their campaign there at the end of May, at 167.

Among the dead were about 44 children, 17 women and eight prisoners, the Observatory said.

“The US central command has confirmed to Al Jazeera that it was conducting air strikes in the area and says it needs to investigate allegations of whether civilians were injured or killed in this incident,” Al Jazeera’s Rosiland Jordan, reporting from Washington, said.

Director of the Observatory Rami Abdel-Rahman told German news agency DPA: “We believe that the raids which were carried out Tuesday were by US [or] allied planes, but it was by mistake.”

@TimInHonolulu We’re aware of these reports. Reviewing all information we have to determine credibility & next appropriate steps 1/2

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) July 19, 2016

Residents in the area say the death toll could be upwards of 200.

“It seems that the Syrian Democratic Forces under the leadership of the International coalition which is in charge of planning have decided to adopt a scorched earth policy,” Hasan al-Nifi, a community leader in Manbij, told Al Jazeera.

“Manbij is full of residents, a quarter of a million residents, used by ISIL as human shields. Yesterday the coalition struck al-Zahuna neighbourhood, where more than 23 people were killed. Then it struck the western gate of the city, killing people.

“Today the residents of Tokhar woke to a horrific massacre. The death toll rose to 212 and the numbers are rising.”

The Manbij area has seen intense US-led air strikes in support of Kurdish-led forces who are trying to seize the city from ISIL, so as to block the armed group’s access to the nearby Turkish border.

The SDF, an alliance of Arab and Kurdish fighters backed by the US, launched an offensive against ISIL to retake the city of Manbij late last month.

They have besieged the town and are advancing to the city centre under the cover of air strikes by the US-led international coalition.

ISIL has held the city since 2014, the year that the armed group seized control of large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared its “caliphate”.

Aleppo besieged

On Monday, Chris Gunness, spokesman for the United Nations agency that supports Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), said a driver who works for the agency in Syria was killed after suffering a shrapnel wound in the northern city of Aleppo.

Gunness said Yaser Mahmoud Shuaeeb, a 45-year-old father of six, died on Sunday.

Aleppo has witnessed some of the worst fighting in Syria over the past months. On Sunday, government forces besieged rebel-held neighbourhoods of the contested city.

Gunness said that UNRWA reported two other incidents on Sunday.

In one, a mortar shell landed 600 metres from the UN agency’s office in Damascus. In the other, a missile hit close to the Nairab refugee camp south of Aleppo. The incidents caused no injuries, he said.

The death toll in the Syrian conflict, which began with mostly unarmed demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011, has risen to more than 280,000 people, while half the country’s population have been forced from their homes, according to UN estimates.

Staffan de Mistura, UN special envoy to Syria, estimated last month that the actual death toll could be as high as 400,000 people.