Sunday, January 07, 2024

KURDISTAN
Kalkan: Conflict arising because of internal contradictions within capitalist modernity - PART FOUR

Duran Kalkan analyzed the internal contradictions within capitalist modernity.

ANF
NEWS DESK
Jan 5,2024

KCK Executive Council member Duran Kalkan analyzed the internal contradictions within capitalist modernity.

Part one of this interview can be read here, part two here and part three here

How can the global geopolitical developments of the past year be assessed – especially with a view to the ongoing armed conflicts? In particular, the new alignment of energy routes is currently being discussed a lot and appears to be hotly contested.

There is a conflict arising because of the internal contradictions within the system of capitalist modernity. It started in the early 90s with the Gulf War. After the US attacked Afghanistan and Iraq (following the twin tower bombings), and since 2010 with the so-called Arab Spring. Succeeding the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the war in Ukraine was launched. It is this war which has left its mark on history. The system’s internal relations, contradictions and conflicts continue. There is no change in this regard. But what is the determining aspect of 2023 in this environment of contradictions and conflicts? The Ukrainian war has not come to an end. New things happened there. It was called a war between Ukraine and Russia, but it turned out to be a war between the US and Russia over Ukraine. The US dragged NATO into this war. Russia also tried to get war support from its allies. As a result, Russia suffered in many ways. It could not fully achieve what it wanted, unlike America who gained important results. With the accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO and the prevention of European trade with Russia, the US increased its economic and military influence over Europe, making them dependent on America. It put Europe in a position of weak will. I can state this clearly, America has never been able to establish this level of influence before. This influence had developed during the so-called Cold War, but it had never reached this level.

Russia, in its own way, tried to eliminate its own surpluses with this war. Just as the Ukrainian war was intended to warrant, some parties were purged. What happened? The Russian-Chinese alliance’s attempt to open an energy route to Europe through Ukraine was sabotaged and frustrated. NATO reshaped itself on this basis and new conflicts emerged. Following the G20 summit in India, it was announced that an agreement was reached on the energy route between India, the Gulf, Israel, Cyprus and Greece. What was the reaction of the Tayyip Erdoğan administration? Firstly, the war in Karabakh. Supposedly, Azerbaijan was going to take Karabakh, then they were going to take the Zengi Strait and connect a highway to Turkey. Thus, they were planning to reconnect Central Asia to Europe overland through Turkey. The Armenian community was massacred in Karabakh, a genocide was committed. But neither Iran nor Israel allowed this to go further. Turkey's plan was thwarted. Then, the Gaza war was brought onto the agenda in order to sabotage the path that was wanted to be organized under the leadership of the USA. In fact, the opponents wanted to sabotage it by turning it into a war zone. And those who wanted to open the routes wanted to eliminate forces like Hamas that posed a threat. In other words, the interests of both sides converged in this war. A war situation emerged, which was initiated by Hamas under the guidance of Tayyip Erdoğan, and which the US and Israel expected and wanted. In other words, the Gaza war marked the end of the year. Israel burned Gaza to the ground with more than 20 thousand civilian deaths being anticipated. Ceasefires are agreed on from time to time and supposedly this is being done for captives. Causing the death of 20 thousand people in order to release 50 captives is incomprehensible and inexplicable. There are those who see this as a success. This is not the case. So, on this occasion, I respectfully commemorate the victims of this war, the civilian victims. I share the pain of the Palestinian people. I also share the pain of the Jewish civilian people. There is a war of site clearing for the construction of an energy route. Both sides are covertly fighting over the route. On this basis, this war was brought onto the agenda.

What will be the result? On one side there is Hamas and Tayyip Erdoğan… sub-rosa, it is actually Turkey that is waging the war. Turkey is more involved in the Gaza war than Hamas. The Turkish press is already conducting the war to a large extent. It’s obvious, and the intentions are clear. The Tayyip administration have already met with Iraq to make them a party to the alternative route. The global capital system will not allow this. The Jewish capital is the dominant power within the global capital. Will Israel ever accept it being excluded from such a route? They used Tayyip Erdoğan in this framework. In fact, this situation showed us why they kept Tayyip Erdoğan in power again during the May elections. All along, the plan was to use him here because no one but Tayyip Erdoğan could have led Hamas to such an attack. Formerly, the jihadist gangs were on their way to Damascus when Tayyip Erdoğan turned them back to attack Kobane. Tayyip Erdoğan’s relationship with such organizations is based on interest and the global capital system uses this relationship. So they are actually using Tayyip Erdoğan. They hired him for this. Like a provocateur. In fact, they keep him in power without him realizing it, but others are also using him for their own interests.

The Tayyip administration does not have any contradiction or conflict with the US system, the global capitalist system of modernity and imperialism. Words implying otherwise are all lies being used to deceive the people of Turkey and some foreign circles, especially the dogmatic leftists. In fact, leftists in some areas have fallen for it. They have almost gone so far as to see Tayyip Erdoğan as anti-imperialist. Those who call Tayyip Erdoğan anti-imperialist should come to Kurdistan and see the truth. Therefore, we know who is what very well. We also know what these wars mean. No one can understand the suffering of the Palestinian people more than the Kurds. No people can share a relationship of empathy more than the peoples of Palestine and Kurdistan. This has been proven by their experiences and joint struggle. It was as such yesterday, and it is as such today.

What is the result now? In other words, Tayyip Erdoğan and Hamas claim that they will defeat Israel. They say that they are creating a contradiction between the state of Israel and the US, and they are propagandizing this to the people of Turkey. This has nothing to do with reality. Just as the US established control around the Gulf during the war in 1990 by landing troops in Saudi Arabia, it has now brought its warships to the Eastern Mediterranean and established control over the route. They are trying to neutralize Hamas. This is their goal. They are inflicting this war as a way to clear the site from threats. Then they would probably create a route through Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus. China is not in contradiction with this, it is as if they are in agreement. It seems China had agreed to this route by the US when there was no Ukrainian path.

Iran is also involved, evaluations regarding US – Iran conflict have fallen into void. Therefore, one should not speak by rote. Theory does not mean repeating memorized things. Those leftists who repeat what they memorized in their youth will continue to say “Lenin“ until they die. You shouldn’t be that kind of leftist. In other words, it is necessary to be able to see and understand developments, to see change, to experience a change of thought. In this respect, there is no antagonism with Iran as before. On the contrary, there is partnership and harmony. This is why there are not many problems regarding the route about Lebanon.

We don’t know if there will be a conflict with Russia in Syria. Russia has not reacted much regarding Israel. Russia is also involved. If that is overcome, it will be Cyprus and Turkey’s turn. Turkey will once again square up with the system of capitalist modernity of which it is a part, in a way similar to the world war a hundred years ago. That looks almost certain. It will have a punishing effect on Turkey.

What effect does this have on the policy of the Turkish state?

The Silk Road is a great trade route that is thousands of years old. It used to pass through Anatolia, Mesopotamia, Iran and reach China, but that route was cut off. The Berlin, Baghdad, Basra (more precisely the Europe, India trade route) line established in the early 1900s. After the First World War was fought on this road – the route was disrupted and cut off. That route passed through Turkey. In the Second World War, fascist Hitler sought a way to keep Turkey out of war for this route. Turkish politicians say that the genius Turkish administration and rulers politically managed the situation allowing Turkey to stay out of war. This has nothing to do with reality. Turkey had been tried but it failed. The Hitler administration did not want to try again and risk losing the route. They failed in the past and they fail again in the present. Now they have frustrated Turkey’s path to Ukraine. The one Turkey wanted to develop with Azerbaijan has come to naught. In the current situation, they actually wanted to pass this road through Northern Syria. Turkey sabotaged and opposed it. The US allowed Turkey to stay Jarablus, they put troops in Afrin, they officially declared war on Syria and officially entered Iraq. When this place became a war zone, the capital did not find it stable for investment. As a result, the capitalist circles made an alliance on the current path and they have excluded Turkey. Of course, it also excludes Kurdistan in some way. But Kurds have other channels. The main thing was the exclusion of Turkey. Until now, Turkey was a bridge between Asia and Europe. Turkey was called a strategic position. Based on this, they created Turkey, the Turkish state, to keep the Middle East within the system of capitalist modernity, the nation state system. Now all these functions have disappeared. Kurdish hostility has led to this.

In other words, Tayyip Erdoğan won and stayed in power, but Turkey lost as a result. Turkey was excluded from the system. Why was it excluded? Why couldn’t this route happen? Because of the war. Because of the anti-Kurdish fascist, colonialist, genocidal mentality and politics that the AKP-MHP fascism and the Turkish state in general have been pursuing over the last hundred years. Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration has excluded Turkey from the system. They brought Turkey head-to-head with the system. It has led to the loss of its advantages within the system. In exchange for what? In exchange for his remaining in power. Therefore, Tayyip Erdoğan’s interests and Turkey’s interests are not the same. Turkish society, revolutionary democrats, everyone should see this well.

Our allies in the United Revolutionary Movement of Peoples (HBDH) did not understand this well, and they should explain it better. They should explain and show the public how Tayyip Erdoğan is leading Turkey to disaster, how its resources are drying up. Turkey is now in this situation, what will happen? Either it will settle for what it has. It will settle for being excluded and living in a weak position. If they engage in conflict, this could actually lead Turkey to internal conflict. Years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, how many times did Rêber Apo [Abdullah Öcalan] evaluate and make calls. He said don’t do it. If you do this, it will lead to disaster. They will take you to disintegration. They will take everything away from you and exploit you.

We could not make the Turkish society understand, and the current administration did not believe in this and did the opposite. It actually saw its own interest in implementing the opposite. In fact, Rêber Apo’s evaluations are now being confirmed. It is no longer possible for Turkey to become effective in the system and to have a strategic position with its position as an occupying warrior in Kurdistan. Therefore, a developing Turkey can only be a democratic Turkey if it solves the Kurdish problem and recognizes Kurdish freedom. This has been clearly revealed and seen today. We have made so much effort for this, in fact, we have struggled. We have formed alliances for the democratization of Turkey, for the solution of the Kurdish question in the field of democratic politics, in the field of revolutionary struggle.

In fact, as the HBDH, we also waged a very important struggle against this. In order to prevent the AKP-MHP fascism from causing Turkey to fall into such a state of exclusion and consuming its own resources in war. But if we pay attention, it did not yield results. Our efforts were too little. We need to struggle more, we need to understand better. In other words, we need to see what the anti-Kurdish, fascist, genocidal mentality and politics of the Tayyip Erdoğan mentality has brought to Turkey, how it has caused such a crisis in Turkey, and we need to save Turkey from this mentality and politics. It is absolutely necessary to save Turkey from the Tayyip Erdoğan administration. Otherwise, this administration has nothing to offer Turkey but oppression, exploitation, exclusion and disaster. If this continues more insistently, there will be worse consequences. Everyone must come to their senses. Rêber Apo’s warnings were very important. We see and understand them very well now. Therefore, those who love Turkey should see this and oppose it absolutely.

In 2023, there was no such approach that everything would be fixed with the elections. But the election was also an important opportunity for antifascist struggle. This opportunity was partially utilized. In fact, it was evaluated well in terms of understanding, it was put forward, it was seen. By developing a new method of struggle – or precisely by broadening the current methods – anti-fascist struggle was strengthened. We did this by developing the struggle in revolutionary alliances and guerrilla warfare. Democratic politics tried to do this. Women’s and youth struggles tried to do this. Overall, an important struggle was waged. The importance of the election was also seen. But there was also this. I mean, how shall we say, were the elections always wrong? Not exactly like that, actually. How much the election was an election is debatable. There is no such thing as a fair, equal election. Wether there was even an election is debatable because those who assigned Tayyip Erdoğan to lead the international conspiracy still want to use Tayyip Erdoğan. That was made clear. The opposition tried to create some alternatives and they also created some hope with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s “Six Table“, but it was the AKP-MHP fascism that best waged the Kurdish war. It was the Tayyip Erdoğan and Devlet Bahçeli administration that responded to the needs of the system to the detriment of Turkey. For this reason, internal and external circles of interest wanted to keep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP-MHP alliance in power and use them a little longer. As the saying goes, when crossing a bridge you don’t change horses. They did not want to change horses. They considered it inconvenient and harmful for themselves. Therefore, the end of the election was planned in advance.

How fair was the election? Whether these votes were actually taken is a matter of debate. Nobody knows. There are many who say it wasn’t like that. And that is the right thing to do. But the outcome is important. What did they do after that? They used Turkey both in Karabakh, in the Central Asia-Turkey line and in the Gaza war. They used the Tayyip Erdoğan administration in line with their own wishes, they became tools. Tayyip Erdoğan speaks against them. And everyone believes him. It has not been revealed how big a fight he has with them. Even during the Gaza war, the country with the most commercial relations to Israel is Turkey. And the children of Tayyip Erdoğan and those in the AKP administration are doing this. These have been publicly announced and exposed. Everyone must see this. Therefore, the truth of the matter is that Tayyip Erdoğan is being used. It is not very clear where else they will use Tayyip Erdoğan and what will happen. So the elections and the post-election process showed this. Tayyip Erdoğan won the election. The so-called life of the government had been extended, but Turkey was marginalized, it lost its strategic position. Turkey lost many things as a result of this. I repeat, no one should see Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration and Turkey’s interests as the same, they are opposed. If Tayyip Erdoğan wins, Turkey loses. Turkey will win only when Tayyip Erdoğan loses. The post-election process has shown this very clearly.

So what will happen and where will this situation lead? We can say that the countdown for Tayyip Erdoğan has already started. There is now a process of collapse. Will they use him for internal or external interests, we don’t know. Is there really any value left to be used? It seems not much. In that sense, Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration has no future, it is coming to an end. There is a process of dissolution and collapse. Everyone must see this. Those who say that they will make progress, do business and make gains based on the current Turkish government, AKP and MHP fascism are wrong. They will no longer be able to make gains. The dirt and rust is already showing every day. It is being revealed how much crisis and chaos this administration has created, how much dirty work it has done, from all kinds of marijuana and heroin trafficking to black money and collapse. Economic crisis, political crisis, social collapse and decay are developing under this administration. These are very clear. In that respect, the end of the road is in sight. We can say that. We don’t know exactly when and what will happen. We hope that 2024 will be the year of the total collapse of this administration. It will be the year of the collapse and defeat of fascism. This is our hope and wish. Our struggle will be on this basis. As the Kurdistan Freedom Movement, as the Democratic Forces of Turkey and as revolutionary democratic forces, we will always struggle on this basis. I can express the following. If not to accelerate this destruction, to bring it closer, to realize it if possible, that is, the other process seems to be more imminent. Because there are elections in 2024. Its results will show many things. It is obvious how difficult the current situation is for the AKP administration.

It seems that the general elections will be lost, there are also local elections but it is not easy to achieve the same level of effectiveness as in the past. On the other hand, there are also elections elsewhere. The year 2024 is also an election year for the US in terms of many things. From now, it is not clear whether such an energy route will mean everything for capitalism or whether it will be even be carried through with. If it does be constructed, will it really be able to withstand the Third World War? Or will it alleviate the crisis and chaos?

On the contrary, fascism is on the rise in Europe and America where right-wing neo-fascist movements are becoming more prominent and coming to power. They are candidates for power though they cannot become a solution to problems. On the contrary, they will deepen the contradiction and conflict. Is it possible that a solution arises from fascism? Democratization could only do that. What will really happen? It looks like 2024 will pass with some preparation, but the aftermath bears important changes. There can definitely be very serious political developments and changes in the world and in Turkey in the coming year and beyond. Of course, we will fight with all our strength to realize this in Turkey in 2024. We want everyone to see and believe this. Especially the society, intellectuals, politicians, artists, revolutionary democratic forces in Turkey really need to see this, to become conscious, to organize and to develop a common antifascist struggle on this basis. If we do it this way, we will definitely win. Everyone must believe in this. We can make 2024 the year of victory of the anti-fascist democratic revolution in Turkey. This is our goal. We will fight for this. We call on everyone to fight with this belief and attitude.

The current system of governance in Turkey should not be seen as a political system or a political change. Rêber Apo said, “The coup mechanism is working“. Everything happens on the basis of coups and provocations. Especially the current AKP-MHP fascist alliance, Tayyip Erdoğan and the ‘People’s Alliance’ administration use this in many ways. They use everything. They are trying to win the local elections over the blood of the people of Gaza. They turned it into election propaganda. They have no support for the Palestinian people or the people of Gaza. Yes, they are trying to save Hamas. Because one of the leaders of Hamas is Tayyip Erdoğan. AKP and Hamas are left in a fix. They were defeated in other areas. Now Hamas is being crushed. Then it will be AKP’s turn. Tayyip Erdoğan is already fighting for his life. Look at his demeanor, it is the demeanor of a person struggling between life and death. With a provocation, 21 thousand Gazans were killed. In order to keep Hamas alive or for Tayyip Erdoğan to win re-election, they have driven so many young people out of Turkey’s borders. Tayyip Erdoğan bought those people like they are for rent, using the money of others. They are driving those people against the Kurds and guerrillas, to destroy them. If one of them dies here in the snow during the winter, they try to turn this into election propaganda. You saw what happened in Amasya. What did they do to the CHP administration? I mean, I expressed it before, is this the way to approach the situation? If they really believed that those people were martyrs, would they have turned a martyr into a tool for election propaganda? But this is what the Tayyip Erdoğan administration, the AKP and the MHP administration have become.

The Sheikh Said issue is also a provocation. Some people say out of the blue that Hezbollah, the new ally of the AKP, wants this. Supposedly the trustee administrator of Amed is implementing this. So they are doing it themselves. Someone is cursing, someone is affirming. There is such a provocation. A very shameless provocation. AKP is at one end of this and Hezbollah is at the other. The mob called Hüda-Par is a contra. Everyone should see this. We must be very careful in this regard. Everyone must be careful. Especially the Kurdish people and patriotic circles should be very careful. They will do anything for their own interests. They can turn it into a tool, they can use it as an instrument. Since they used a historical figure like Sheikh Said, they will definitely use anything.

In this regard, especially Sheikh Said’s close circles, family circles, those who love Sheikh Said should be very careful. They had someone insult them. They made a despicable attack. Some people are trying to capitalize on the basis of the insult. Supposedly, they will get votes from Diyarbakir or from those who love him, they will win local elections. This group called Hezbollah is also doing this. These circles should be very careful. We should definitely not be a tool in this. Let’s not forget Sheikh Said, a historical figure. He is one of the vessels of the Kurdish national resistance. He cannot be used for such things, that is a despicable attitude. All Kurds, patriots, those who love Sheikh Said must take a stance, they must answer accordingly in the elections. The leaders of the Kurdish national resistance, their bloodlines cannot be used in such a way. They continue to live through the struggle for freedom, they live in the resistance of the guerrilla, they live in the struggle of our people and the Kurdish freedom movement. They constitute its historical foundation. Neither this manipulation by the collaborators nor the despicable attacks of the fascist genocidal diminish the importance of these historical figures. We have not allowed this until now, and we will not allow it in the future. We hope that those who love and admire Sheikh Said will also take such an attitude. Those who try to profit from this will be given the harshest lesson during this election process.
IRANIAN KURDISTAN

KCK: Erdoğan’s administration is responsible for the ISIS attack in Kerman


Condemning the ISIS massacre in Kerman, KCK said: “It is the Turkish state and the Tayyip Erdoğan administration that supports ISIS and directs it for its own purposes. They want the war in the Middle East to deepen.”


ANF
BEHDINAN
Friday, 5 Jan 2024, 16:41

The Co-Presidency of the KCK (Kurdistan Communities Union) Executive Council released a statement about the twin bombings that killed dozens in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman two days ago. The heavy explosions on the fourth anniversary of the death of Iranian General Ghassem Soleimani took place along a route leading to the grave of General Qassem Soleimani, as people had gathered to mark the fourth anniversary of his death. The first blast occurred 1.5km away from General Soleimani’s burial site. The second one took place at a 2.7km distance from the site. ISIS claimed responsibility for both “suicide attacks” on Thursday.

According to the latest balance sheet announced by the state television, 89 people, including women and children, were killed in the attack. At least 12 of the dead were reported to be Afghan citizens. The victims from Kerman were buried in the "cemetery of martyrs" near the grave of Qassem Soleimani. Others will be sent to their hometowns.

In a written statement on Friday, KCK accused the Turkish state and Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration for leading ISIS to attack Kurds and other peoples in the Middle East, especially such massacres.





The statement by the KCK Co-Presidency includes the following:

“On January 3, 2024, an attack was carried out against the people who went to the cemetery to commemorate Qasem Soleimani in Kirman, Iran, and a horrible massacre took place. Dozens of people lost their lives and hundreds were injured in this attack. On behalf of our movement and our people, we commemorate the massacred people with respect and offer our condolences to all Iranian peoples, especially to the families of those who lost their lives, and we wish a speedy recovery to the wounded. We strongly condemn this massacre, which was obvious from the beginning that it was carried out with the ISIS mentality and is now stated to have been carried out by ISIS.

This attack targeted not only the peoples of Iran, but all the peoples of the Middle East and was carried out with the aim of deepening and spreading the war in the Middle East. Some of the forces that pitted Hamas and Israel against each other, but did not get the results they expected after this happened, want the conflicts in the Middle East to deepen and the war to spread throughout the region and they are working for this. These forces have been trying to bring the Iranian state into conflict with Israel and the United States for a long time. The fact that this attack was carried out in Iran and coincided with the commemoration of Qasem Soleimani and his friends reveals such a purpose and plan. With this attack, the true faces of these forces, which try to present themselves as if they are against the war in Gaza, have been exposed.

The fact that this massacre was carried out by ISIS reveals the reality aims of them and the forces behind them. ISIS was supported by the powers that wanted to deepen the war in the Middle East and attacked all peoples, especially Kurds. Now the same forces have attacked through ISIS for the same purposes. Those who stood behind ISIS before, they are the ones who stand behind ISIS today. The Kurdish Freedom Movement and the people of Kurdistan fought against the brutality and fascism of ISIS, which was unleashed on the peoples in order to deepen the war and conflict in the Middle East and to turn the Middle East into a bloodbath and graveyard. And the Kurdish Freedom Movement saved the Middle East and the world from a great scourge by defeating ISIS. Our movement and our people will continue to fight against ISIS and the forces behind it, and to stand against all attacks of ISIS. This attack is similar to the attacks against our people and revolutionary democratic groups in many places including Northern Kurdistan, Rojava and Turkey, which resulted in massacres. Just as in the Kerman attack, people were directly targeted in these attacks and hundreds of people were killed and injured.

It was the Turkish state and Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration that led ISIS to attack Kurds and other peoples in the Middle East, especially led them to carry out such massacres. It is the Turkish state and the Tayyip Erdoğan administration again today that supports ISIS and directs it for its own purposes. They want the war in the Middle East to deepen. The fact that it attacks Kurds everywhere and carries out attacks against Rojava at a level that targets the entire infrastructure and superstructure clearly reveals this fact. This must be known and understood by everyone. War with the Kurds means the deepening and spread of war in the Middle East. It is unthinkable for those who have plans for peace and non-conflict in the Middle East to be at war with the Kurds.

We strongly condemn the Kerman massacre, which was carried out brutally. We pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the attack, wish a speedy recovery to the wounded, and share the deep sorrow of the Iranian people.”





















KURDISTAN

Paris rally: ‘Lift the state secret on massacres, free Abdullah Öcalan, delist the P
KK’

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Paris against the massacres of 9 January 2013 and 22 December 2022, demanding the lifting of the state secret order on the investigation information and the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan.


ANF
PARIS
Saturday, 6 Jan 2024, 19:02
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Tens of thousands of people gathered in Gare du Nord Square against the Paris massacres and marched to Republique square in Paris today to demand justice for the PKK founding member Sakine Cansız (Sara), Fîdan Doğan (Rojbîn) and Leyla Şaylemez (Ronahî), who were murdered by the Turkish state in Paris on 9 January 2013, and for the three victims of the second Paris massacre, which claimed the lives of Emine Kara (Evîn Goyî), Mîr Perwer and Abdurrahman Kızıl on 23 December 2022.

Speakers addressing the crowd in Republique Square at a rally after the march demanded the lifting of the state secret order on the massacre cases, the removal of the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations and the freedom of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan.

TJK-E Spokesperson Ayten Kaplan thanked the participants of the march and rally and pointed out that those who ordered the massacre were protected. Kaplan said, "You did not accept France keeping this case in the dark. We appeal to the French state, we want justice to be done finally in this case. This massacre cannot remain in the dark. The killers are clear. Those who gave the instruction are clear. France must hold those responsible to account. Dirty games, dirty negotiations, dirty politics are being conducted. There are negotiations over the genocide of Kurds. These plans are being carried out by keeping Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the Kurdish people, on Imrali Island. We will not stop. Our search for justice will continue. We will be on the streets. We will march until the end by claiming the legacy of the martyrs, and we will say justice until the end. Jin Jiyan Azadi!"

After Ayten Kaplan's speech, Hélène Bidard, a senator from the Communist Party of France, took the stage with the senators and addressed the crowd, stating: "The three women killed in the massacre represented three different generations. The massacre was carried out by Turkish intelligence. We want light to be shed on this incident. These women were feminists and were fighting for all women. 10 years later, three more Kurds were murdered in Paris. Evîn Goyî fought against ISIS. She was murdered in Paris just like her friends martyred 10 years ago. I would like to commemorate Jina Amini here. She fought for the Kurdish women's feminist struggle and for the women of the world. On behalf of the French Communist Party, I call for the lifting of state secrecy. We want the Anti-Terrorism Court to deal with the matter. The French state is protecting the criminals in the massacre. France must clarify its position for the freedom of Kurdistan. On behalf of the FKP, I also call on the European Union to implement the judgments of the ECtHR. France must protect the Kurds in the country. We are with you against the dark forces".

İbrahim Bilen, speaking on behalf of the families of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan, Leyla Şaylemez, Evin Goyi, Mir Perwer and Abdurrahman Kızıl, said: "We bow with respect in front of all our martyrs. If we can speak our language freely today, it is thanks to our martyrs, Leader Öcalan and those who resisted on the war front. We are here thanks to those who fought for this cause. Claim your martyrs. We are here thanks to our leader. We will not step back. We exist, we will exist. We are bigger than dungeons and chemical weapons.”

After the speech on behalf of the families of martyrs, Evin Goyi's little nephew Meles Bilen sang a song dedicated to all the martyrs of Paris.

Pascal Torre, co-chair of the Coordination Nationale Solidarité Kurdistan (CNSK), emphasised in his speech that the massacres cannot be brought to light until the state secret order on the case files is lifted. Torre said: "Those who were martyred in the massacre were murdered by Turkish intelligence. For 11 years, the CNSK has been with the CDK-F. We are in solidarity with them. However, no steps have been taken to shed light on the massacre because of the 'state secret' decision. Erdoğan is responsible for the massacre, the embassy is guilty. A crime has been committed against the Kurds. Why didn't the French state lift the state secret? The French state works in harmony with Turkish intelligence.

We want those who planned the massacre to be brought to justice. We condemn the Turkish state. We must work for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan. The PKK must be removed from the terrorist list. We condemn the bombing of Shengal by the Turkish state. France should support the Kurds.

Know that we will stand with you as the French committee of solidarity with Kurdistan. Long live the solidarity of peoples."

KCDK-E Co-President Zübeyde Zümrüt stated the following: "I bow with respect to the martyrs of the revolution in the person of Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan, Mîr Perwer and Evîn Goyî. As a Kurdish woman, I am grateful for their legacy. 11 years ago, Sakine Cansız, the pioneer of the Kurdish society, Leyla Şaylemez, the youth pioneer, and Fidan Doğan, a diplomat of the Kurdish people, were targeted. Kurdish women were targeted. For the second time in 10 years, we were murdered. We know our killers. The Kurdish people handed over those who played a role in both massacres to France. But the French state did not shed light on the massacre. We will not give up the search for justice. We will increase our struggle as much as our hatred. The French state closed its eyes. It swept the files under the carpet with state secrets. We will remove these secrets through people's struggle. We will be in action until we liberate Leader Öcalan."

Speaking after, KCDK-E Co-Chair Engin Sever said that the strongest response to the massacre would be the freedom of the Kurdish people's leader: “We have been massacred in Paris twice in 10 years. They wanted to keep the Kurdistan Freedom Struggle down. Leader Öcalan gave the greatest answer to them with the liberation of Rojava. In response to the second massacre, we will give the strongest response by liberating Leader Öcalan in 2024. These massacres were carried out by the Turkish state. The French state also has a hand. Both states are NATO members; it seems that there is a NATO finger in it. France is an EU member, there is an EU finger. Therefore, we must turn every area in Europe into a site of resistance.”

Mathilde Panot of the French Non-Submission Movement said in her speech: "I am a member of the Paris parliamentary group. The parliamentarians of our party are with us. Justice and truth have still not emerged. The Anti-Terrorism Court must be involved in this attack. We want to learn the details of this investigation. We support your struggle. We appeal to the French government. Lift state secrecy! We don't want people to be slaughtered in this city. We do not want this regime to commit massacres in Paris or elsewhere. The Kurdish people fought ISIS for the sake of all humanity. That is why every Kurd needs to be protected in this country. The Turkish state is using blackmail. We demand the release of political prisoners in Turkish prisons. We condemn the Turkish state’s bombing of Rojava, where a democratic, ecological, women's libertarian system is being formed there. Our struggle for justice and truth will continue."

Senator Remi Féraud, speaking on behalf of the municipality of Paris, also called for the lifting of the state secrecy on the massacre cases and stated: "I speak on behalf of the municipality of the 10th district of Paris and the municipality of Paris. I commemorate Sara, Rojbin, Ronahi once again. The state secrecy on the massacre cases must be lifted. These are political massacres committed in the centre of Paris. On behalf of the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, I say that we do not want such massacres to happen in Paris. This should be labeled as a terrorist attack and an Anti-Terrorism Court should hear the case. We are in solidarity with Rojava and we are with the Kurdish people. We stand with all Kurds in the struggle for the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan. We are fighting for justice and for the truth to be revealed."

KCK Executive Council member Zübeyir Aydar emphasised that the French state did not conduct an effective investigation into the massacre cases: "We are in search of justice. Last year, 3 more Kurds were massacred here. 11 years have passed but justice has not been done yet. This case has been covered up until now. The French state has not taken a positive step in this matter. It did not carry out an investigation. It was MIT that carried out this massacre. There are voice recordings, there is evidence; but still no case has been opened against the Turkish State. Once again, we do not accept it. We appeal to the French state. You are also responsible. Kurds will follow their cases. We will follow these cases."

Aydar further spoke about the isolation of Kurdish people's leader Abdullah Öcalan, the "Freedom for Abdullah Öcalan, a Political Solution to the Kurdish Question" campaign initiated worldwide on 10 October, the hunger strikes started in Turkish prisons and the guerrilla resistance against the Turkish state attacks in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

"We are going through a very important process. We have not heard anything from Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of our movement and our people, for 34 months. No one is allowed to meet with him, neither his family, nor his lawyers, or anyone else. Our friends started a campaign on 10 October for freedom for Öcalan and a solution to the Kurdish question. We call on our people to embrace this campaign because the freedom of Leader Öcalan and the freedom of the Kurdish people are interconnected. On the other hand, thousands of prisoners are on hunger strike for over 40 days. We must take our place in this process. We must fulfil our duty towards the prisoners in Iran and Turkey. I salute them. In addition, let the friend and foe know that the caravan of freedom is marching. The caravan of freedom that set out 50 years ago is today marching to freedom in the north, south, east and west. That is why thousands of Kurdish youths are fighting in the mountains of Kurdistan in these cold days to protect the values of our people.”

Speaking on behalf of the National Women's Movement, Suzy Rothman stated the following: “In the first massacre which took place in 2013, and the second in 2022, we know that the Kurdish women's movement was targeted in Paris because the target was Kurdish women pioneers. These women were exiled to France because they struggled against the mentality of power, and they were murdered here. The Kurdish women's movement is a feminist movement, and we take to the streets together on 25 November and 8 March, fighting for the women of the world. We must show solidarity for the realisation of the democratic society project developed in Rojava. Our struggle is up-to-date. And we want the truth to be revealed. We want light to be shed on the massacres. We are with you for truth and justice."

Jean Christophe Sellin, National Coordinator of the Left Party, then took the floor and said: "For truth and justice, we demand the lifting of state secrecy on these cases. We support the YPG and YPJ fighters in Rojava. We are with you against the Paris massacres. We want the PKK to be removed from the terror list. We will continue our struggle for truth and justice.

We want the freedom of Abdullah Öcalan, Apo. And we believe that only Öcalan can develop a solution for the Kurdish people. The PKK and Kurdish parties are developing their project for democracy and ecological life. AKP is against this. We are with the Kurds in Rojava and with the Palestinians in Gaza.

Macron should lift the state secrecy on the case files and shed light on the Paris massacres. He should host the families of martyrs and do what is necessary.”

Oliver Besancenot, spokesperson of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, stated: "We must put pressure on the French state so that the state secret on the massacres is lifted. We send our greetings to the families of the martyrs. We stand with the Kurdish people. We are inspired by the project of democratic confederalism. We must fight together. Right-wing fascist governments are developing everywhere, in France too. These governments are not against Erdogan. France must do what is necessary to remove the PKK from the list of terrorist organisations. Political prisoners in Turkey and Öcalan must be released."

After the speeches, the message sent by the KJK Coordination was read to the participants, after which Denis Gravouil from the CGT union took the floor and said: “On behalf of the CGT union, we see very well that Kurdish people were murdered twice in Paris. These 6 people were murdered because they defended the Kurdish cause. We know that a fascist was responsible for the 2nd massacre, but he was used for other purposes. For this reason, the state secret on the massacres should be lifted and the Anti-Terrorism Court should hear the cases. The communes of the Kurdish people must be protected and those responsible must be put on trial. As CGT we want to show our solidarity. We demand truth and justice."

Jerome Gleizes, a member of the Paris Council for the Ecologists, said: "11 years ago Sakine Cansız, Fidan Doğan, Leyla Şaylemez were murdered in Paris. A year ago, Evîn Goyî, Mîr Perwer, Abdurrahman Kızıl were murdered in Paris. We want you to know that ecologists are on the side of the Kurds. Erdoğan's Turkey is behind these massacres. Courts must be functional for truth and justice to emerge. Ecologists are with the Kurds. The Treaty of Lausanne, which has just marked its hundredth year, is a betrayal of the Kurds. There can be no solution without recognizing Kurdish rights. I believe that in the future we will find realistic justice."

René le Mignot called for a dialog with Kurdish People's Leader Abdullah Öcalan for a democratic solution to the Kurdish question. "Leyla Şaylemez was fighting for Kurdish youth. Fidan Doğan was conducting diplomacy for the Kurdish people. Sakine Cansız was a founder of the PKK and was fighting for the freedom of her people. That is why they were murdered. We have been calling for truth on this massacre for 11 years. All the evidence shows that the Turkish state is involved. Why wasn't the killer ever tried? If the killer was sick, why wasn't he out on trial earlier? We know that Erdoğan and the Turkish Embassy are behind this massacre. We reiterate our call upon the French state to lift the state secret on the massacre file. Because 10 years later another massacre was committed at a time when 60 Kurdish women activists were set to gather at the CDK-F. This attack was not a racist, but a terrorist attack. The Turkish state's war continues in a similar way in Rojava, Iraq and Iran. We know what the Kurdish people's leader is fighting for in the Middle East. Abdullah Öcalan, Kurdish politicians, and Selahattin Demirtaş must be released. We want the PKK to be removed from the list of terrorist organizations. As stated in the human rights convention, when the state attacks people, the people have the right to defend themselves. For a democratic solution to the Kurdish question, there must be dialogue between Abdullah Öcalan and the state,” said René le Mignot and ended her speech with a victory sign.

Lila Ayahalaa, on behalf of the Union Communiste Libertarie (Libertarian Communist Union-UCL), also called for the lifting of state secrecy on the massacre cases. In her speech, Lila Ayahalaa said: "Comrades, our organization stands with you today. The state secret on the 2013 attack must be lifted for the truth to be revealed. It is a political attack against the Kurdish people, against the peoples of Kurdistan. The strategy of the occupying Turkish state is the same. It attacks the Kurdish people everywhere. The enemies of women know very well that women's struggle brings revolution. Democratic confederalism inspires peoples all over the world. The PKK is waging a struggle of self-defense against fascism. Therefore, Abdullah Öcalan must be released. Revolution is universal."

The rally ended with a concert by TEV-ÇAND artists.






ECOCIDE
World War II-era munitions discovered in underwater dump sites off LA

By Angela Barbuti
Published Jan. 6, 2024
Marine researchers in California discovered World War II-era munitions, such as anti-submarine weapons and smoke device, in underwater dump sites.Getty Images/iStockphoto

They were a true blast from the past.

World War II-era munitions, such as anti-submarine weapons and smoke devices, were discovered in underwater dump sites off the Los Angeles coast, marine researchers announced Friday.

The munitions were first found through a survey of the areas by deep-water vehicles with sonar and video cameras on board back in April, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, which led the survey, explained via email.

The region was known for being a government-approved industrial and chemical waste dumping ground from the 1930s until 1972, when the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, also known as the Ocean Dumping Act, was enacted.

In 2021, a Scripps sonar survey using underwater drones located over 25,000 “barrel-like objects” on the sea floor off the Southern California coast near Catalina Island.


The objects may have contained DDT, an insecticide that was banned in 1972, and other toxic chemicals, which were found in marine mammals in the region, and linked to cancer in sea lions.

A Navy review will determine “the best path forward to ensure that the risk to human health and the environment is managed appropriately,” the military branch said.

With Post wires




AND THEN IT GETS EVEN WORSE 

Massive dumping ground of WWII-era munitions discovered off Los Angeles coast

Using advanced robotics and an underwater camera, scientists recently discovered World War-II era munitions littered across the seafloor off the coast of Los Angeles. 

(UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

STAFF WRITER 
LA TIMES
JAN. 5, 2024

It’s not just toxic chemical waste and mysterious barrels that litter the seafloor off the coast of Los Angeles. Oceanographers have now discovered what appears to be a massive dumping ground of military weaponry.

As part of an unprecedented effort to map and better understand the history of ocean dumping in the region, scientists have found a multitude of discarded munition boxes, smoke floats and depth charges lurking 3,000 feet underwater. Most appear to be from the World War II era, and it remains unclear what risk they might pose to the environment.

“We started to find the same objects by the dozens, if not hundreds, consistently… It actually took a few days to really understand what we were seeing on the seabed,” said Eric Terrill, who co-led the deep-ocean survey with Sophia Merrifield at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Who knew that right in our backyard, the more you look, the more you find.”


Scripps researchers were able to group most of the military waste that they found underwater into four general categories: munition boxes, smoke floats, and two types of WWII-era depth charges.
(UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Among the munitions documented were Hedgehog and Mark 9 depth charges — explosives that were typically dropped from warships to attack submarines. Researchers also identified Mark 1 smoke floats — chemical smoke munitions that were dropped by ships to mark locations or to conceal their movements.

These findings, made public Friday, build on a stunning 2021 underwater sonar survey that identified tens of thousands of barrel-like objects between Los Angeles and Catalina Island. Merrifield and Terrill’s research team, assisted by a rare partnership with the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage, set sail again last year — this time with even more advanced sonar technology, as well as a high-definition deep-sea camera that sought to visually identify as many objects as possible.

Discarding military waste at sea was not uncommon in decades past, but this once-forgotten history of ocean dumping continues to haunt our environment today. (A WWII-era practice bomb, in fact, washed ashore just last week in Santa Cruz County after a particularly high tide.)

The U.S. Navy has confirmed that what the Scripps team discovered “are likely a result of World War II-era disposal practices” and noted in a statement that “disposal of munitions at sea at this location was approved at that time to ensure safe disposal when naval vessels returned to U.S. port.” Officials are now reviewing the latest Scripps findings and “determining the best path forward to ensure that the risk to human health and the environment is managed appropriately.”



Here’s what we know about the legacy of DDT dumping off L.A.’s coast
DDT was banned 50 years ago, but its toxic legacy continues to affect the California marine ecosystem and threaten various animal species.
Jan. 5, 2024

Public interest in the legacy of ocean-dumping in Southern California has intensified since the Los Angeles Times reported that as many as half a million barrels of DDT acid waste had been unaccounted for in the deep ocean, according to old shipping logs and a UC Santa Barbara study that provided the first real glimpse into how the Los Angeles coast became an industrial dumping ground.

Dozens of marine scientists and ecotoxicologists have since convened regularly to discuss the data gaps in our understanding of DDT, a pesticide (banned in 1972) that was largely manufactured in Los Angeles and was so powerful it poisoned birds and fish. Congress — at the urging of U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) — allocated more than $11 million to work on the issue, and Gov. Gavin Newsom also boosted further research with an additional $5.6 million.

In another recent plot twist, an exhaustive historical investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concluded that the pesticide waste had not actually been contained in barrels — rather, the chemicals were poured straight into the ocean from massive tank barges. In the process of digging up old records, the EPA also discovered that from the 1930s to the early 1970s, 13 other areas off the Southern California coast had also been approved for dumping of military explosives, radioactive waste and various refinery byproducts — including 3 million metric tons of petroleum waste.


History of DDT ocean dumping off L.A. coast even worse than expected, EPA finds
Aug. 4, 2022

“When the deepwater dumping was first uncovered in more detail by the team at UC Santa Barbara, the response was, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is the tip of the iceberg.’ And now we’re seeing just how big this iceberg is — we still don’t even know how big it is,” said Mark Gold, an environmental scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council who has worked on the DDT problem since the 1990s.

“What’s scary — as if we needed it to be more scary — is that we’re now up to more than 100 square miles of contamination from this dumpsite, with high DDT concentrations at depths that nobody’s even ever looked before, and now we’re seeing all the other stuff that was dumped as well,” he said. “And it’s only what we see, from the standpoint of big munitions, as opposed to: How do we know there weren’t other chemicals that were dumped by the Department of Defense?”

David Valentine, the UC Santa Barbara scientist whose marine research team first came across dozens of eerie-looking barrels, also emphasized that the less-visible pollution is more cause for concern. The legacy of DDT contamination is still haunting sea lions and dolphins in mysterious ways, and fellow researchers have traced high concentrations of the forever chemical all the way up the marine food chain to critically endangered condors.


Scientists uncover startling concentrations of pure DDT along seafloor off L.A. coast
March 23, 2023

“We can’t lose sight of the 500-pound gorilla down there, which is the massive amounts of chemical waste that was dumped and spread all over the place,” said Valentine, who noted that the contents of the barrels his team discovered remain a mystery.

“Now that we know that the military had their thing going on, and that the chemical dumping was being bulk dumped, it really begs the question: So what else could have required being contained in these barrels?” he said.

Valentine, who has also been working with a number of scientists to piece together how DDT might be remobilizing from the seafloor, added that the latest high-resolution imaging from Scripps is instrumental in helping the entire research community understand what the seafloor actually looks like.

The deepest parts of the seafloor between Los Angeles and Catalina Island, in fact, had never been mapped before in this way. Locating specific objects across such a wide swath of seafloor has been likened to searching for the smallest needles in the largest haystack.

On the most recent expedition, a crew of nine Scripps researchers and 10 specialists from the Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage scanned the seafloor for more than 300 hours — capturing as many images as possible with high-resolution technology not typically available to scientists.

Patterns started to emerge. Object after object came into view, and the scientists found themselves processing and interpreting an overwhelming amount of data in live time.

Terrill, an oceanographer who also specializes in scouring the deep sea for downed military aircraft as a co-founder of the nonprofit Project Recover, tapped an underwater archaeologist on his team to help identify the vintage military debris.


Using an advanced deep-sea camera, Scripps researchers found numerous World War-II era munition boxes on the seafloor off the coast of Los Angeles.
(UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

Another surprise for researchers was the discovery of scores of whale skeletons and carcasses, known as whale falls. Advanced sonar readings pinpointed potentially more than 60 whale falls, and researchers were able to visually confirm seven with their camera system.

Craig Smith, a professor emeritus of oceanography at the University of Hawaii who has dedicated much of his life to studying whale falls, noted that this finding is particularly groundbreaking in his field. Across the entire world, only about 50 naturally occurring whale falls have ever been identified, so locating 60 more off the coast of Los Angeles alone essentially doubles the number of known whale falls.

Many questions remain on why there appears to be such a high concentration of dead whales slowly decomposing off the coast of Southern California. Smith and his colleagues are eager to study this further.


In a recent underwater survey, researchers also came across numerous sunken whale carcasses, known as whale falls.
(UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography)

“When we do population-level calculations, we estimate there may be on the order of 600,000 or more whale falls in the global ocean. But they fall more or less randomly, so they’re hard to find,” said Smith, who noted that whale falls become fascinating yet elusive ecosystems for deep-sea critters.

Merrifield, the physical oceanographer who co-led the Scripps expedition, noted there remains an immense amount of new data to refine and analyze. Her team was able to capture high-resolution images of different seafloor textures, for example, as well as mounds that might indicate small burrowing animals that could stir up any chemicals half-buried in the sediment.

“New technologies are really changing the way we look at the seafloor, and there’s interdisciplinary problems from microbiology and remediation, to chemistry, to geology, to physical oceanography and transport that require all sorts of specialists to come together,” she said. “I hope the takeaway here is that maybe we didn’t find what we thought we were going to find, but we found a lot of really important objects and insights that will hopefully lead to really good scientific outcomes for the community.”

CLIMATE & ENVIRONMENTCALIFORNIA

Rosanna Xia is an environment reporter for the Los Angeles Times, where she specializes in stories about the coast and ocean. She was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020 for explanatory reporting, and her first book, “California Against the Sea,” examines the future of our vanishing coastline in the face of rising water.
France Reports Record Number of Corporate Bankruptcies




TEHRAN (FNA)- More than 55,000 businesses were shut down in France in 2023, marking a record high for company closures since 2017, according to the data, compiled at the close of December by the Bank of France.

The statistics released by the regulator on Saturday shows that 55,492 companies, on average, faced bankruptcy or liquidation over the past 12 months, RT reported.

Although the recorded surge in closures was significant, the Bank of France noted that the level is still below the average annual bankruptcy filings of 59,342 scored between 2010 and 2019. The pandemic years saw a considerably lower number of companies going out of business, almost half of the current figures.

According to the report, mostly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were bearing the brunt of the closures in 2023. Businesses, employing up to 250 people, accounted for vast majority of the total, with 55,435 closures.

Meanwhile, medium and large firms with over 250 employees, also saw an increase in closures, the regulator noted, adding that their numbers reached 57, doubling from 2022.

The negative trend became the most notable in the restaurant and hotel business, where the number of busts surged 44.6% year-on-year, while the sector of information and communication technologies saw an increase of 44.4%.

The country’s agricultural sector was the only one recording a drop of 1.3% in the number of bankruptcy filings.

In December, the Financial Times reported that the number of corporate bankruptcies across the world exceeded levels reached during the 2008 global financial crisis.

Analysts attribute the surge to higher key rates, as well as self-liquidation of so-called ‘zombie firms,’ which had pulled through the COVID era only thanks to government support.




WAIT, WHO?!

Ex-NRA official reaches settlement ahead of New York corruption trial

Mr Powell was ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution


Kelly Rissman

Just days before the corruption trial involving NRA leaders was set to begin, a former executive agreed to a $100,000 settlement with the New YorkAttorney General’s office.

Joshua Powell, the organisation’s ex-Executive Director of Operations, has admitted to the “claims of wrongdoing” brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James in her 2020 civil corruption suit. The trial is slated to begin on 8 January.

As part of the settlement, Mr Powell admitted misusing the nonprofit’s funds. He was ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution.

“Powell breached his fiduciary duties and failed to administer the charitable assets entrusted to his care by…using his powers as an officer and senior executive of the NRA to convert charitable assets for his own benefit and for the benefit of his family members,” the stipulation of settlement filing states.

“Joshua Powell’s admission of wrongdoing and Wayne LaPierre’s resignation confirm what we have alleged for years: the NRA and its senior leaders are financially corrupt,” Ms James said in a statement.

“More than three years ago, my office sued the NRA and its senior management for decades of financial abuse and mismanagement. These are important victories in our case, and we look forward to ensuring the NRA and the defendants face justice for their actions,” she added.

The AG’s office wrote that as a nonprofit, the NRA “has legal obligations to use its funds for charitable purposes, not to support the lavish lifestyles of senior management and organization insiders.”

Mr Powell also served as the chief of staff for Wayne LaPierre, who served as the organisation’s CEO and executive vice president since 1991. Mr LaPierre announced last week that he was stepping down from his position, citing “health reasons.”

The lawsuit claims Mr LaPierre “routinely abused his authority,” accusing him of funnelling NRA funds for his own personal travel and luxurious gifts.

Following the announcement of his departure, Ms James said, “LaPierre’s resignation validates our claims against him, but it will not insulate him or the NRA from accountability.”

Other members of the NRA’s leadership team are still set to stand trial. The other two defendants have denied any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit accuses Mr LaPierre of having “handpicked” certain employees “to faciliate his misuse of charitable assets

Ms James is seeking to dissolve the NRA, declaring that the nonprofit “has abused its powers” and that its leaders have “looted” the group’s charitable funds, removing Mr LaPierre from his position, and barring other defendants from serving in leadership positions in other nonprofit organisations in the state.
Myanmar confirms a key northeastern city on border with China has been seized by an ethnic alliance

This photo provided by Kyaw Ko Lin shows a view of Laukkaing city in Shan state, Myanmar, Nov. 20, 2023. An alliance of ethnic armed groups in northeastern Myanmar has reportedly achieved one of the main goals it set when … more >

By Grant Peck - Associated Press - Saturday, January 6, 2024


BANGKOK — Myanmar’s military government has acknowledged that it withdrew its forces from a key city on the northeastern border with China after it was taken over by an alliance of ethnic armed groups it has been battling for months.

The fall of Laukkaing late Thursday is the biggest in a series of defeats suffered by Myanmar’s military government since the ethnic alliance launched an offensive Oct. 27. It underlines the pressure the government is under as it battles pro-democracy guerrillas in the wake of a 2021 military takeover as well as ethnic minority armed groups across the country.

Ethnic armed organizations have battled for greater autonomy for decades, but Myanmar has been wracked by what amounts to civil war since the army seized power in February 2021 from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking nationwide armed resistance by pro-democracy forces.

Laukkaing is the capital of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone, which is geographically part of northern Shan state in Myanmar.

Myanmar government spokesperson Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun told the Popular News Journal, a pro-army website, on Saturday that the military and its local commanders relinquished control of Laukkaing after considering many aspects, including the safety of the family members of the soldiers stationed there.


He said the military also took into consideration Myanmar’s relationship with China, which is just across the border from Laukkaing. China, which has good relations with both the military and the ethnic alliance, has been seeking an end to the fighting.

Beijing protested after artillery shells landed in its territory on Wednesday, wounding five people. Zaw Min Tun said the alliance had fired the shells and that it tried to blame the military in order to damage its relationship with China.

A statement posted by the alliance on social media late Friday declared that the entire Kokang region had become a “Military Council-free area,” referring to Myanmar‘s ruling junta,

It said 2,389 military personnel - including six brigadier generals - and their family members had surrendered by Friday and that all were evacuated to safety.

Video clips circulating on social media purportedly showed the soldiers and their family members being transported in various vehicles. The Shwe Phee Myay News Agency, an online news site reporting from Shan state, reported that many of them were taken to Lashio, the capital of Shan’s northern region, under an agreement with the MNDAA for their repatriation.

It’s unclear whether the Three Brotherhood Alliance will try to extend its offensive outside of Shan state, but it has vowed to keep fighting against military rule.

The alliance cast its offensive as a struggle against military rule and an effort to rid the region of major organized criminal enterprises. China has publicly sought to eradicate cyberscam operations in Laukkaing that have entrapped tens of thousands of Chinese nationals, who have been repatriated to China in recent weeks.

But the offensive was also widely recognized as an effort by the MNDAA to regain control of the Kokang Self-Administered Zone by ousting a rival Kokang group backed by the military government from its seat of power.

Peng Deren, the MNDAA commander, said in a New Year’s speech published by The Kokang, an affiliated online media site, that the alliance had seized over 250 military targets and five border crossings with China. He said more than 300 cyberscam centers were raided and more than 40,000 Chinese involved in the operations were repatriated.



Copyright © 2024 The Washington Times, LLC.
Bangladesh opposition starts 48-hour strike ahead of Sunday's election

Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) cites concerns over the fairness of the election.




AFP

The Election Commission said ballot boxes and other election supplies had been distributed in preparation for the vote on Sunday in over 42,000 precincts. There are more than 119 million registered voters. / Photo: AFP

Bangladesh’s main opposition party has started a 48-hour general strike on the eve on a general election, calling on people to boycott the vote because it says the government of incumbent Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina can’t guarantee its fairness.

Hasina is seeking to return to power for a fourth consecutive term. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by former premier Khaleda Zia, has vowed to disrupt the election through the strike and boycott.

Detectives arrested seven men belonging to the BNP and its youth wing for their alleged involvement in an arson attack on a passenger train on Friday night in which four people were killed, the head of Dhaka's Detective Branch, Harun Or Rashid, said on Saturday.

They were arrested in separate raids in the city, he said adding that the suspects held a meeting online two days ago about committing such attacks on polling stations and trains.

Campaigning in the nation of 169 million people has been marred by violence, with at least 15 people killed since October. Bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy but has a history of military coups and assassinations.

On Saturday morning, a small group of BNP supporters marched across the Shahbagh neighborhood in the capital, Dhaka, calling on people to join the strike. Another rally by about 200 left-wing protesters took place outside the National Press Club to denounce the election.

The Election Commission said ballot boxes and other election supplies had been distributed in preparation for the vote on Sunday in over 42,000 precincts. There are more than 119 million registered voters.

Ruhul Kabir Rizvi, a BNP senior official, repeated his party's demand for Hasina to resign, calling the election “skewed.”

“The government is again playing with fire. The government has resorted to its old tactics of holding a one-sided election,” he said.

Chief Election Commissioner Kazi Habibul Awal told reporters on Saturday that the parliamentary election would be free and fair, adding, “We want our election to be observed not only nationally, but internationally as well.”

Responding to questions on the main opposition shunning the vote, Awal said that had the BNP participated, the election would have been “more competitive” and “more festive." He acknowledged that the recent violence may have a negative impact on voters turning up on Sunday.

On Friday, an apparent arson attack on a train in Dhaka killed four people. Mahid Uddin, an additional police commissioner with the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, said the fire was “clearly an act of sabotage” aimed at scaring people ahead of the election.

He did not name any political party or groups as suspects, but said police would seek those responsible.

Foreign Minister A.K. Abdul Momen said in a statement on Saturday that the timing of the attack, just days before the election, was meant to hinder the democratic process. "This reprehensible incident, undoubtedly orchestrated by those with malicious intent, strikes at the very heart of our democratic values,” he said.

Police said a murder case was filed by a railway official on Saturday, accusing unidentified people as suspects.



Local media reported arsons targeting at least five polling stations outside Dhaka since Friday, with police calling them acts of sabotage.

Talha Bin Jasim, an official with the Media Cell of the Fire Service and Civil Defense in Dhaka, told The Associated Press by phone on Saturday night that at least 18 arson attacks had been reported from across the country since Friday midnight.

He said a small fire was reported early Saturday at a Buddhist monastery at Ramu area in southern Cox's Bazar district. Local media, quoting police in the area, said that it was not clear if it was merely a fire incident or an act of sabotage. Local authorities said they would investigate.

The Election Commission has asked authorities to increase security around polling stations.

Faruk Hossain, a spokesperson of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, told The Associated Press police had reinforced security across Dhaka and that railway transportation was back to normal following Friday’s attack.

Bangladesh's increasingly polarized political culture has been dominated by a struggle between two powerful women, Hasina and Zia.

Zia, head of the BNP, is ailing and currently under house arrest. Her party says the charges of corruption are politically motivated, an allegation the government denied.

Tensions have spiked since October when violence broke out at a massive anti-government rally demanding Hasina’s resignation and a caretaker government to oversee the election. Hasina's administration said there was no constitutional provision to allow a caretaker government.

Critics have accused Hasina of systemically suffocating the opposition by implementing repressive security measures. Zia’s party claimed that more than 20,000 opposition supporters have been arrested, but the government said those figures were inflated and denied arrests were made due to political leanings. The attorney general put the figure between 2,000-3,000 while the law minister said the numbers were a bout 10,000.

SOURCE: AP



PM Hasina set to extend tenure as main Bangladesh opposition boycotts election

A student holds a placard of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as they celebrate the formation day of Bangladesh Chhatra League, the student wing of Bangladesh Awami League, at the University of Dhaka, ahead of the general election in Dhaka, Bangladesh, January 4, 2024. 
REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain

DHAKA - Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to win a fourth straight term and the fifth overall for her Awami League-led alliance in a general election on Sunday boycotted by the main opposition party and marred by violence ahead of the vote.

Voting will begin at 8 a.m. (0200 GMT) and end at 4 p.m. (1000 GMT). Counting will start soon after the end of voting, with initial results expected by early Monday.

Rights groups say the country of 170 million is headed for virtual one-party rule, after the boycott by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and some of its smaller allies.

The United States and Western nations, important customers of its garment industry, have called for a free and fair election - the country's 12th since independence in 1971.

About 120 million voters will choose from nearly 2,000 candidates for the 300 directly elected parliamentary seats. There are 436 independent candidates, the most since 2001.

The BNP says the Awami League has propped up "dummy" candidates as independents to try to make the election look credible, a claim the ruling party denies.

The BNP, which also boycotted the 2014 poll but took part in 2018, has asked people to shun the poll and called a two-day strike nationwide from Saturday.

Hasina, who has refused BNP demands to resign and cede power to a neutral authority to run the election, accuses the opposition of instigating anti-government protests that have rocked Dhaka since late October and killed at least 14 people.

With the ballot outcome all but assured and high risk of violence, turnout could be low on Sunday.

Violence erupted on the eve of the election, with a passenger train fire, which the government called arson, killing at least four people while several polling booths and institutions were set ablaze around the country.

Troops have fanned out across Bangladesh to maintain peace while nearly 800,000 police, paramilitary and police auxiliaries will guard polling booths on Sunday.

In her last 15 years in power, Hasina, 76, has been credited with turning around Bangladesh's economy and the garment industry. But critics have also accused her of authoritarianism, human rights violations, crackdowns on free speech and suppression of dissent.

Her main rival and two-time premier, BNP leader Khaleda Zia, is effectively under house arrest on corruption charges the opposition says have been trumped up.

Khaleda's son, Tarique Rahman, is the acting chairman of the party, but he is in exile, facing charges that he denies.

The economy has also slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing Bangladesh to turn to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout of $4.7 billion last year. 

REUTERS


US Pressures Bangladesh as Opposition Boycotts Election

Arun Devnath and Eltaf Najafizada
Fri, January 5, 2024 




(Bloomberg) -- Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is set to extend her 15-year rule in a boycotted election on Sunday. The question now is whether Western governments led by the US will punish the country for its democratic backsliding and push it closer to China.

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The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, the country’s largest opposition group, and its allies said they will boycott the polls, which they say are a sham. They’re concerned about vote-rigging and have been calling on Hasina to resign to make way for a caretaker administration that can oversee the election.

The US, the biggest buyer of Bangladesh’s exports, has become more vocal in its calls for a free and fair election, imposing visa curbs on members of Hasina’s ruling party and law enforcement officials in September. Hasina, 76, will need to prevent the US from taking harsher steps that could hurt the economy more directly and complicate the International Monetary Fund’s lending program.

“The US applied so much pressure on Bangladesh for free and fair elections, through both carrots and sticks, and for so long, yet to no avail,” said Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Washington-based Wilson Center. “Consequently, there is a possibility that the administration could respond post-election with harsher steps.”

Those measures could be “punitive actions in the space that would hurt Bangladesh the most,” which is trade, Kugelman added.

About $9 billion, or roughly one-fifth, of Bangladesh’s clothing exports went to the US in 2022, with Walmart Inc. and Gap Inc. being the top buyers. The garment industry employs around 4 million workers and contributes about 10% to the $460 billion economy.

The political environment in Bangladesh has been tense for months. Opposition supporters have clashed with police in mass protests calling for Hasina to step down. Human Rights Watch said in a November report that almost 10,000 opposition activists were arrested since a planned rally by the BNP on Oct. 28. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who Hasina views as an opponent, was this week given a six-month jail sentence by a Dhaka court in a case his supporters say was politically motivated.

Hasina said in a televised speech Thursday that her Awami League-led government has created stability over three terms, improving the quality of lives of people. The government believes in the principle of “friendship with all” at the international level, she said, and has improved institutions in the country to protect freedom and sovereignty.

The US has stepped up its calls for free and fair elections. In May last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new visa restrictions on any Bangladeshi citizens believed to be interfering in the elections, such as rigging votes or using intimidation or violence. In September, the US imposed visa curbs on unidentified officials of the ruling party, law enforcement and political opposition.

India has maintained strong ties with Hasina and is concerned that more assertive steps by the US will push Bangladesh closer to China, both of which already enjoy strong commercial and defense ties.

When India and US defense and foreign ministers met in November in New Delhi, Bangladesh’s elections and the US visa curbs figured prominently in the talks, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified since the discussions were private. India raised concerns with US officials that the sanctions could antagonize Hasina’s government, the people said.

Peter Haas, the US ambassador to Bangladesh, also made a quiet six-day visit to India in the last week of December, meeting senior officials in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office, the people said.

On Friday, a State Department spokesperson declined to comment on the US-India talks. The spokesperson said Haas was on personal travel over the holiday and didn’t meet Indian officials.

In a regular press briefing on Wednesday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said the US is watching the outcome of the Bangladesh elections “very closely” but wouldn’t speculate in advance on “what actions we may or may not take in response to any development.”

India and Bangladesh share a historic, cultural and linguistic ties, and New Delhi played a key role in the country’s independence from Pakistan in 1971 by deploying troops in support of the Bengali resistance force.

“As a close friend and partner of Bangladesh we would like to see peaceful elections there and we will continue to support Bangladesh’s vision for stable, peaceful and progressive nation,” Arindam Bagchi, a spokesman for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, said in his weekly press briefing on Dec. 29.

Economic Strains

Although still an impoverished country with 172 million people, Bangladesh has made economic progress under Hasina. The country is one of fastest-growing economies in Asia, poverty rates have steadily declined, and it has a higher per-capita income than India.

The pandemic and soaring commodity prices put the economy under strain in recent years, depleting its foreign exchange reserves and forcing Hasina to turn to the IMF for $4.7 billion in emergency loans. The economy is still facing dollar shortages, prompting Moody’s Investors Service and others to downgrade the nation’s credit ratings.

The currency fell almost 6% last year, among the worst performers in Asia. Stocks declined 5%. The country’s currency dealers currently set limits on the exchange rate.

“From the investor perspective, on top of the election outcome and post-election stability, eyes will be on the central bank’s action on stabilizing foreign exchange reserves and how the market responds,” said Salim Afzal Shawon, head of research at Dhaka-based BRAC EPL Stock Brokerage Ltd. “Investors will also assess how the US reacts after the election in terms of sanction possibilities.”

To keep the IMF funds coming, Hasina’s government has promised to raise taxes and interest rates. In December, the cash-strapped nation won approval from the IMF for the disbursement of $690 million in loans.

In its next review, “the IMF will likely be a bit more stringent with ensuring that the authorities meet the requirements,” Marcus Yiu, a Moody’s analyst, said in an interview. That would include fiscal reforms and freeing up the currency, he said.

The main opposition BNP said it will press on with its demands and urged supporters to avoid paying taxes in order to halt what they dub “farcical” elections.

With the opposition set to boycott the elections, Hasina’s win now looks inevitable and her ruling Awami League party will likely face off against independent candidates and parties such as the Jatiyo Party, which was founded by the late military ruler Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who took power in a coup in 1982.

Voters will elect 300 of the 350 seats in parliament in Sunday’s election. The remaining 50 seats are reserved exclusively for women and filled by a vote of 300 members, based on proportional representation.

If Hasina returns, as is likely, the risk is that she may “feel that she can conduct her governance in any way that she chooses, which leads to an abusive situation,” Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said in an interview. “It leads to circumstances where there is no accountability whatsoever.”

--With assistance from Sudhi Ranjan Sen, Iain Marlow, Karl Lester M. Yap and Swati Gupta.

(Updates with State Department response in 13th paragraph.)

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