ARMINFO News Agency, Armenia Saturday Musical Dilijan received young composers and musicians of Armenia and Georgia Yerevan August 19 Ani Mshetsyan. In the resort town of Dilijan there is a music camp with the participation of 40 young Armenian and Georgian composers and musicians. The event is held within the framework of the Armenian-Georgian cultural cooperation. According to Culture Ministry press service, in the framework of the work of the youth camp, which takes place in the Dilijan House of Creativity of the composers. Eduard Mirzoyan, master classes are organized by well-known Armenian composers, performers and honored art workers from Armenia and the Diaspora. At the end of the event, the final gala concert will take place on August 26 at the House of Composers. The event was organized with the support of Ministry of Culture and the Union of Composers of Armenia.
Category: 2017
Germany implores Spain not to send arrested author Akhanli to Turkey
dpa-AFX International Saturday 10:58 PM GMT Germany implores Spain not to send arrested author Akhanli to Turkey By dpa correspondents Berlin (dpa) - Spain received an entreaty from Germany late Saturday not to extradite a German author of Turkish heritage to Turkey and to take part in extradition proceedings. German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel called his Spanish counterpart Alfonso Dastis on Saturday evening to discuss the case, the Foreign Office in Berlin. Gabriel also requested the quickest consular support possible for Dogan Akhanli, who was arrested Saturday morning at the behest of Turkey. Akhanli was on vacation in Granada, Spain, at the time of the arrest, his lawyer told dpa, though it is unclear what he was accused of. Spanish police, who also said the detention request came from Turkey, told local media that Akhanli would be handed over to authorities. Akhanli's lawyer, Ilias Uyar, told a German newspaper that international police organization Interpol had issued a red notice - an arrest request - for the author. A red notice can come from a member country or an international tribunal, but Interpol countries are not obligated to take a flagged individual into custody. Akhanli has written extensively about the Armenian genocide, and the arrest was meant as the latest shot in the ongoing spat between Turkey and Germany, according to Spiegel, citing security sources. The PEN writer's association said the arrest was 'clearly politically motivated,' and the head of the group's German branch, Sascha Feuchert, called on Spain not to extradite Akhanli to Turkey. Akhanli, a German citizen, has been living in Germany since he fled Turkey in 1991. Akhanli was cleared in absentia by a Turkish court in 2011 after being wanted for robbery and homicide since 1989. His exoneration was later overturned by a higher court, which claimed he had links to terrorists.
Zartonk Daily 21.08.2017
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«Let’s wake up»in: Editing
Today's report of "Zartonk" on 21.08.2017.pdf
German author arrested during vacation in Spain on Turkey’s behest
dpa-AFX International , Germany Saturday 5:42 PM GMT German author arrested during vacation in Spain on Turkey's behest Berlin (dpa) - Dogan Akhanli, a Germany-based author of Turkish origin, has been detained in Spain on the behest of Turkey, his lawyer told dpa, though it is unclear what he is being accused of. The German Foreign Ministry on Saturday confirmed only that it knew of the incident and was working on offering consular support. Spanish police, who also said the detention request came from Turkey, told local media that Akhanli would be handed over to authorities. Akhanli's lawyer, Ilias Uyar, told a German newspaper that a so-called red notice from Interpol had been out for the author. He was therefore arrested Saturday morning while on vacation in Granada. Akhanli has written extensively about the Armenian genocide, and the arrest was meant as the latest shot in the ongoing spat between Turkey and Germany, according to Spiegel, citing security sources. The PEN writer's association said the arrest was 'clearly politically motivated,' and the head of the group's German branch, Sascha Feuchert, called on Spain not to extradite Akhanli to Turkey. Akhanli, a German citizen, has been living in Germany since he fled Turkey in 1991. Akhanli was cleared in absentia by a Turkish court in 2011 after being wanted for robbery and homicide since 1989. However, his exoneration was later overturned by a higher court, saying he was linked to terrorists. A red notice issued by Interpol is a request from a member country or international tribunal to arrest an individual pending extradition. However, member countries are not forced to arrest those flagged. Copyright dpa
Germany protests Turkish-born writer’s arrest in Spain
Associated Press International Saturday 9:13 PM GMT Germany protests Turkish-born writer's arrest in Spain BERLIN BERLIN (AP) - Germany's foreign minister is urging Spain not to extradite a German writer to Turkey after he was arrested on a Turkish warrant. Sigmar Gabriel called his Spanish counterpart Saturday over the arrest of Doghan Akhanli while on holiday in Spain. Akhanli was born in Turkey but emigrated to Germany in 1991 after spending years in Turkish prison following the 1984 military coup in the country. German news agency dpa reports that Akhanli only has German citizenship. The German section of the writers' associated PEN said charges against Akhanli center on a crime committed while he wasn't in Turkey. The group said it believes the arrest warrant against Akhanli to be politically motivated, citing his writings about the mass killing of Armenians in Turkey in 1915.
German-Turkish writer held in Spain on Turkey’s order
Agence France Presse Saturday 8:26 PM GMT German-Turkish writer held in Spain on Turkey's order Berlin, Aug 19 2017 Dogan Akhanli, a German intellectual of Turkish origin who writes on Turkey's record on human rights, was arrested in Spain on Saturday at Ankara's request, the foreign ministry said in Berlin, adding that it opposed any extradition of the writer. The arrest was initially announced by German Green MP Volker Beck, who described it as a politically-motivated move by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. A foreign ministry official later confirmed the arrest. The ministry has asked Madrid not to extradite Akhanli to Turkey, and that its embassy be allowed to provide consular assistance "as quickly as possible," the official said. The Spanish interior ministry could not immediately be reached for comment. Akhanli's local newspaper, the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger in western Germany, said the Turkish-born writer was arrested in the southern Spanish town of Grenada on Saturday morning. The accusations against him were unknown. Spanish police had a so-called red notice -- an alert circulated by Interpol that is roughly equivalent to an international arrest warrant. Akhanli's website says he was born in northeastern Turkey in 1957, moved to Istanbul at the age of 12 and was held as a political prisoner from 1985 to 1987, when he was tortured. He moved to Cologne in the 1990s, was stripped of his Turkish citizenship and became a German citizen in 2001, it says. The arrest shows that Erdogan is seeking to "extend his power beyond his country's borders, to intimidate critics and to pursue them around the world," Beck charged. Akhanli has written about the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in 2007, and about the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Turkish empire. Between half a million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1917 -- a bloodletting that Armenia and Western historians describe as genocide. Turkey vehemently objects to the term. It argues that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up and sided with invading Russian troops. Akhanli was arrested in 2010 on his arrival in Istanbul airport for alleged implication in an armed robbery in 1989. He was released four months later and then declared innocent, before a court of appeal ordered new proceedings against him. German Green MPs took up his cause, saying he had been a victim of political persecution. Relations between Germany and Turkey have been at a nadir since a failed putsch against Erdogan in July 2016. Turkish accusations include the charge that Germany has given refuge to wanted Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants and suspected coup plotters. Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, the Istanbul correspondent of newspaper Die Welt, has been held in jail in Turkey since February ahead of trial on terror charges.
Erdogan slams German rebukes over election ‘interference’
The Nation, Pakistan
Aug 20 2017
Aug 20 2017
Erdogan slams German rebukes over election ‘interference’
ISTANBUL – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at the German government on Saturday for criticising his call to ethnic Turks to vote against Germany’s two ruling parties in September elections, warning the foreign minister to “know your limits”.
The latest spat between Ankara and Berlin risks propelling a months-long crisis in ties between two NATO allies with deep historic links to a new level ahead of Germany’s general election on September 24.
Erdogan had a day earlier caused consternation in Berlin by urging ethnic Turks in Germany to vote against both parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s governing coalition.
Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had bitterly condemned Erdogan’s comments as an “unprecedented act of interference” in Germany’s sovereignty.
But speaking to supporters in the southwestern province of Denizli, Erdogan launched a stinging personal attack on Gabriel.
“He knows no limits! Who are you to talk to the president of Turkey? Know your limits. He is trying to teach us a lesson… How long have you been in politics? How old are you?” Erdogan said.
Erdogan repeated his controversial call for ethnic Turks eligible to vote in the German elections not to cast their ballots for Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), their coalition partner the Social Democratic Party (SPD), or the Greens.
“Teach them a lesson in the German elections,” he said. “They are waging a campaign against Turkey. Vote for those who don’t have enmity towards Turkey.”
He added: “It’s not important for us whether Germany opens its doors to us or not. We have enough doors.” Tensions have spiralled between Germany and Turkey in recent months.
Berlin has lambasted Ankara over the magnitude of the crackdown that followed last year’s failed coup, which has seen several German citizens arrested, including journalists. Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, the Istanbul correspondent of the Die Welt daily, has been jailed in Turkey since February ahead of trial on terror charges.
German journalist Mesale Tolu has been held on similar charges since May, while activist Peter Steudtner was arrested in a July raid.
Ankara meanwhile has accused Berlin of failing to extradite suspected Kurdish militants and coup plotters who have taken refuge in Germany.
Addressing Merkel as “Madam”, Erdogan said the Turkish authorities had sent Germany dossiers on 4,500 suspects wanted for extradition to Germany on terror charges and received no answer.
“And she wanted one or two people to be sent home by me,” he said in apparent reference to the detained journalists and activist. “Forgive me but you have your legal system and so do we,” he added.
In a potential further bone of contention, Dogan Akhanli, a German writer of Turkish origin who has written extensively on Turkey’s human-rights record, was arrested in Spain on Saturday at Ankara’s request, Greens MP Volker Beck said. It was not clear why.
Earlier, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag, who is also the official government spokesman, defended Erdogan’s comments and said the reactions were “very disrespectful and very arrogant” and “beyond the bounds of decency.”
Gabriel’s SPD – whose candidate for the chancellorship is ex-EU parliament speaker Martin Schulz – and Merkel’s CDU are rivals in the election. But they have been in broad agreement on the policy regarding Turkey within the country’s grand coalition.
Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert said on Twitter: “We expect foreign governments to not interfere in our internal affairs.”
The opposition Greens meanwhile have pushed for an even tougher line against Ankara, with its co-leader Cem Ozdemir, who is himself of Turkish origin, a vocal critic of Erdogan. Ankara Mayor Melih Gokcek, a staunch Erdogan loyalist, lashed out against Ozdemir on Twitter, warning: “Sit tight! You Armenian servant…”
Ozdemir had previously pressed Ankara to recognise the World War I killings of Armenians as genocide.
Analysts estimate that about 1.2 million people of Turkish origin will have the right to vote in the September elections.
Spain releases Dogan Akhanli, German author detained on Turkish warrant
Deutsche Welle, Germany
Aug 20 2017
German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli, who was detained in Spain after Turkey issued an Interpol arrest warrant, has been released. His detention added more strain to ties between Ankara and Berlin.
German-Turkish author Dogan Akhanli has been released from a Spanish jail, his lawyer said Sunday following a court hearing.
“The fight was worth it. Dogan Akhanli is being released,” Ilias Uyar said in a Facebook post.
Akhanli will be released from detention on the condition that he remain in Madrid, Uyar added.
The 60-year-old writer was detained Saturday morning at his hotel in the southern Spanish city of Granada.
Spanish authorities were acting on a Turkish Interpol arrest warrant for Akhanli with a so-called red notice.
Merkel: ‘unacceptable that Erdogan does this’
German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized Turkey’s use of Interpol to detain Akhanli, saying it ammounted to an abuse of the international police agency.
“It is not right and I’m very glad that Spain has now released him,” Merkel said. “We must not misuse international organizations like Interpol for such purposes,” Merkel said on RTL television at a townhall election event with voters.
She noted that it was just one of many cases of Turkey pursuing and detaining German citizens.
“That’s why we have massively changed our Turkish policy recently … because it’s quite unacceptable that Erdogan does this,” Merkel said.
German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed Akhanli’s release, describing it as a win against the Turkish government’s crackdown on critics.
“It would be horrible if Turkey could also have people jailed on the other end of Europe for raising their voice against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” Gabriel said in a statement on Sunday.
Armenian genocide
It was unclear why Turkish authorities issued the arrest warrant, but Uyar suggested in a Facebook post on Saturday that Turkey targeted the Cologne-based writer for his advocacy for recognition of the Armenian genocide.
The German parliament voted to recognize the massacre, deportation and starvation of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the dying days of the Ottoman Empire as “genocide” last summer. As the successor state to the Ottoman Empire, Turkey denies that the “events of 1915” amounted to genocide and has lashed out at countries that have officially recognized the term.
Turkey responded to the German genocide resolution by blocking parliamentarians from visiting German soldiers who were stationed at Incirlik base in southern Turkey as part of the international anti-“Islamic State” coalition. In response to repeated blocking of parliamentary visits, the German parliament in June voted to pull its troops from Incirlik and move them to a base in Jordan.
Politcally motivated
German officials including Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who is in Barcelona to pay his respects to the victims of this week’s twin terror attacks, called the arrest warrant politically motivated.
Gabriel also pressed his Spanish counterpart to free Akhanli and not to extradite him to Turkey, where the rule of law has deteriorated under Erdogan’s authoritarian government.
Akhanli has been living in Germany since fleeing Turkey in 1991 and has German citizenship. He has written extensively on Turkey’s human rights record and the Armenian genocide.
He was also detained in August 2010 on manslaughter and robbery charges when he traveled to Istanbul, but was set free in December that year.
The relationship between Ankara and Berlin has become increasingly strained following last year’s failed coup.
Under a state of emergency, authorities have fired or suspended some 150,000 people and detained over 50,000 people. Those detained include German human rights activist Peter Steudtner and German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yucel.
Turkey accuses Germany of supporting coup plotters and terrorists, charges Berlin vehemently denies.
rs, cw/rc (AP, AFP, epd, dpa, Reuters)
Spain grants conditional release to German-Turkish writer: Lawyer
Middle East Eye
Aug 20 2017
#TurkeyPolitics
Dogan Akhanli was arrested on Saturday after an Interpol red notice was issued at Ankara’s request
German writer of Turkish origin Dogan Akhanli, in a January 2011 picture taken in Cologne, western Germany (AFP)
A Spanish court Sunday granted conditional release from custody to German-Turkish writer Dogan Akhanli a day after police arrested him at Ankara’s request, his lawyer Ilias Uyar wrote on Facebook.
“The battle was worth it,” wrote Uyar, adding that Akhanli “is being released from detention on condition he stays in Madrid”.
Akhanli, a German intellectual of Turkish origin who writes on Turkey’s record on human rights, was arrested on a so-called Interpol red notice in Spain on Saturday at Ankara’s request, the foreign ministry said in Berlin, adding that it opposed any extradition of the writer.
The arrest was initially announced by German Green MP Volker Beck, who described it as a politically motivated move by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
A foreign ministry official later confirmed the arrest. The ministry has asked Madrid not to extradite Akhanli to Turkey and that its embassy be allowed to provide consular assistance “as quickly as possible,” the official said.
The Spanish interior ministry could not immediately be reached for comment.
Akhanli’s local newspaper, the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger in western Germany, said the Turkish-born writer was arrested in the southern Spanish town of Grenada on Saturday morning. The accusations against him were unknown.
Spanish police had a red notice – an alert circulated by Interpol that is roughly equivalent to an international arrest warrant.
Akhanli’s website says he was born in northeastern Turkey in 1957, moved to Istanbul at the age of 12 and was held as a political prisoner from 1985 to 1987, when he was tortured.
He moved to Cologne in the 1990s, was stripped of his Turkish citizenship and became a German citizen in 2001, it says.
The arrest shows that Erdogan is seeking to “extend his power beyond his country’s borders, to intimidate critics and to pursue them around the world,” Beck said.
Akhanli has written about the killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was murdered in 2007, and about the killing of Armenians under the Ottoman Turkish empire.
Between half a million and 1.5 million Armenians were killed between 1915 and 1917, a bloodletting that Armenia and Western historians describe as genocide.
Turkey vehemently objects to the term. It argues that 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose up and sided with invading Russian troops.
Akhanli was arrested in 2010 on his arrival in Istanbul airport for alleged implication in an armed robbery in 1989. He was released four months later and was then declared innocent before a court of appeal ordered new proceedings against him.
German Green MPs took up his cause, saying he had been a victim of political persecution.
Relations between Germany and Turkey have been at a nadir since a failed putsch against Erdogan in July 2016.
Turkish accusations include the charge that Germany has given refuge to wanted Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militants and suspected coup plotters.
Turkish-German journalist Deniz Yucel, the Istanbul correspondent of newspaper Die Welt, has been held in jail in Turkey since February ahead of trial on terror charges.
Please do not defend the Klan
Daily Herald
Aug 20 2017