Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he wanted to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin after an incident with a Russian aircraft, which had allegedly violated Turkish airspace.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Saturday it had summoned the Russian Ambassador to Ankara over an alleged Turkish airspace violation by a Russian jet.
Turkish Foreign Ministry Summons Russian Ambassador Over Alleged Airspace Violation
ANKARA (Sputnik) — The alleged incident involving a Su-34 fighter bomber took place on Friday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said earlier in the day, adding that the plane had been warned by Turkish air radar units.
The Russian Embassy in Ankara confirmed on Saturday that the ambassador had been summoned, however, did not disclose the reason for the meeting.
"Yesterday there was a violation of our airspace by a Russian aircraft. Such irresponsible steps in which we see an escalation of the crisis are not beneficial either for Russia or the NATO-Russian relations, or regional and global peace," Erdogan told reporters.
"I asked the deputy foreign minister to contact the Russian side, and inform that I want a personal conversation with President [Vladimir] Putin. Our ambassador informed that this information had been transmitted [to the Russian side], but so far we have not received any response," the Turkish leader said.
Russia's Reaction to Turkey Downing Su-24 'Is More Than Reserved' – Putin
On November 24, a Turkish F-16 fighter shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber with two pilots on board over Syria. Ankara claimed it had downed the Russian warplane as it had allegedly violated Turkish airspace. Both the Russian General Staff and the Syrian Air Defense Command have confirmed that the Russian jet never crossed into Turkish airspace.
In response to Ankara's "stab in the back," as the incident has been described by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow imposed a number of economic measures on Turkey.
Former Minister Spiro Ksera said that his arrest is politically motivated. He was arrested in a bar near his residence in the village of Dervican in Gjirokastra and then was taken to the police station without being handcuffed.
In his first comments Spiro Ksera said that his arrest is politically motivated, due to the strengthening of the Democratic Party in the area of Dropull in the recent years.
He added that all accusations will be proved over time. Ksera is accused of theft and abuse of office for a fictitious tender worth ALL 30 million for Roma community.
Citizens gathered on Friday
in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica in support of leader of the
Citizens' Initiative SDP Oliver Ivanovic.
Source: Tanjug
He was last week found guilty of war crimes and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Protesters are carrying Serbian flags and
banners reading “Freedom for Ivanovic”. Serbs from all parts of Kosovo
have come to the protest, including the displaced ones.
Ivanovic was last week convicted of war crimes that took place in
Kosovska Mitrovica in 1999. On Thursday, he was transferred from home
detention to prison after the Court of Appeals in Pristina upheld the
prosecution's appeal.
Ivanovic's defense attorney said on
Thursday evening that the decision was completely unnecessary, and that
the defense would appeal the first-instance judgment.
The Parliamentary Assembly
of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Thursday passed a resolution on the
state of human rights in Kosovo.
Source: Tanjug
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It was tabled by Rapporteur Augustin Conde of Spain.
Head of the Serbian parliamentary delegation to
PACE Aleksandra Djurovic told Tanjug that a plenary vote resulted in a
resolution that is "favorable to Serbia" as all three amendments by
Kosovo Albanians were rejected.
"The resolution is favorable to
us and it contains much criticism regarding corruption and respect of
human rights. The position of Mr. Conde and the Council of Europe (CoE)
is that they insist on status neutrality and respect of values that the
CoE deals with," Djurovic said.
The Kosovo Albanian side sought
that the obligation to establish the Community of Serb Municipalities
be dropped from the resolution, she said.
"An amendment whereby
they wanted to alter the statement that UNESCO has rejected their
membership bid and just state the result of the vote was also rejected.
They also wanted to include a direct cooperation of Kosovo with Europol
and Interpol, rather than through UNMIK, which is a part of the
resolution," she said.
She noted that Kosovo Albanians wished to use the fact Conde is no longer a member of PACE to change the draft, but failed.
Anther member of Serbia's delegation, Zarko Obradovic, commended
Conde's work on drafting the resolution, saying it was "a high quality
document that deals with CoE standards in areas of democracy, human
rights and the rule of law, and appraises to what degree all these are
respected in Kosovo."
He added that since neither Serbia nor
the UN and a large number of CoE members recognize the so-called
independence of Kosovo, he was "welcoming the status-neutral approach
that Mr. Conde applied in drafting the resolution."
"The
resolution states the numerous negative events and occurrences that
Serbia has been pointing out to for 17 years, and that remain without an
answer to this day," Obradovic stressed.
29.01.2016
Turkish jet fighters violated the Greek airspace and were intercepted, according to Greece’s defense minister. The incident took place on the anniversary of the end of the 1996 Greek-Turkish crisis.
On Thursday, Turkish jets violated the Greek airspace while Greek military commanders were laying flowers at the Imia islets where Greek servicemen were killed during the conflict 20 years ago, Minister of National Defense Panos Kammenos said.
In early-1996, a territorial dispute over the two small Imia islets of The Dodecanese archipelago in the Aegean Sea triggered a crisis in Greek-Turkish relations. Two countries, both NATO members, were at the brink of war for a few days. The conflict was settled with the help of foreign mediation, including NATO and the US.
Turkish Fighter Jets Violate Greek Airspace Over Aegean Sea… Again
During the last days of the crisis, a Greece naval helicopter crashed in the crisis zone, killing three officers. Technical failures were named the reason of the crash. Since then, Greece has honored annually the memory of the killed officers.
On Thursday, Kammenos laid flowers in the sea, in the area where the helicopter crashed. After the ceremony, he said that no one will ever challenge Greece’s sovereign rights in the Aegean Sea.
"Some try to challenge our sovereignty in the Aegean Sea. And I want to say here, at a place of national commemoration, that they will not succeed," the minister was quoted by RIA Novosti.
"Even today, when we were laying flowers to commemorate our heroes, 26,000 feet [8 km] south of Imia, Turkish jets violated our airspace and were intercepted by the Greek Air Force," he added.
According to him, everyone wants dialogue and peace, but talks must not place in doubt national priorities and political responsibility to protect the homeland.
Ksera belonging to the cabinet of Prime Minister Sali Berisha.
According to prosecutors, he is suspected of embezzling public funds.
Ksera is the first senior official to go for arrest by the prosecution of Albania, which is at the center of allegations of failing to arrest of senior officials of Albania ..
But the arrest of Spiro Ksera puts in doubt the transparency of the prosecution, which has very easy to arrest citizen's Albanians with Greek Nationality, than lobbying of politicians linked to criminal gangs in Albania
Spiro Ksera is an Albanian politician. He was Minister of Labor, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities of Albania. He was initially a member of the Greek minority's Unity for Human Rights Party but later became a member of the Democratic Party of Albania.
Ksera, an ethnic Greek, was born in the town of Derviçan, in Dropull region and studied mechanical engineering at the University of Tirana. During the period 2005-2009 he was the prefect of Gjirokastër County, in southern Albania.
Speaker of The Albanian Parliament, Mr. Ilir Meta said that the businessman George Soros has planned a series of scenarios to "eliminate" SIM, The Socialist Integration Movement Party.
Invited to show "Free Zone" of Klan TV,, Meta said that the news published by BIRN agency, funded by the Soros Foundation, has been a movement against it. Regarding his successive charges, Meta said he does not feel at all concerned, adding that his attacks launched since 1993. "Who is behind the attacks is a matter of institutions not of the head of the assembly.
These charges, the Albanians condemn with votes during elections. I will not step because the trial court makes the best people to vote, "said Meta.
The
Balkans, which are crippled with many chronic issues such as
minorities, deepening religious and ethnic divisions, and the Dayton
Agreement, which gave an end to the bloody wars that erupted following
the breakup of Yugoslavia, yet imprisoned the region to “a political
deadlock,” are on the verge of a new process which will either lead to a
“permanent and institutionalized stability,” or a new wave of violence.
Global actor’s intervention on “stability” grounds toward
Balkan countries, in the last instance, takes place in the backup of
strategic goals such as alliance axes and procurement of energy routes.
Turkey,
which has deeply-rooted historical and cultural ties with the Balkans,
has identified the region as one of the key elements of its foreign
policy; and continues its activities in the region with an embracing
perspective that is in the words of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu “not
crisis but vision-focused”.
These activities are pursued in a
way that goes beyond all current areas of conflict despite the “jarring
voices” that have come out as a result of the recent political
polarizations and hidden agendas.
Three main grounds of Turkey’s Balkans policy
Policies
perused by Turkey in the region, are established based on a
multilateral approach and on participating in international peace
initiatives. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s 2013 strategy,
the Balkans policy is being shaped based on three main axes: “High level
political dialogue”, “safety for all, maximum economic integration" and
“preservation of region’s multi-ethnic, multicultural, multi-religious
social structure”.
With this approach, Turkey is concentrated on
the social and cultural dimensions alongside economic activities.
Turkey’s focus to these soft power instruments is being perceived by
region’s people as a well-intentioned step toward increasing confidence
and stability.
Nevertheless, some section’s criticism and
accusations without objective reality toward Turkey regarding recently
increasing the Daesh threat in the Balkans, can be explained with
Balkans being at the focus of covered strategic war regarding
alternative energy routes and, on the other side, by the great powers’
competition in economic, politics and culture.
However, experts
think that this kind of approach carries the danger of being converted
to black propaganda and deepening divisions in the Balkans’ fragile
multiethnic and religions structure.
TIKA’s activities in Balkans
Turkey,
like the U.S., Germany and the Vatican, provides its services of
education, health, humanitarian aid, restoration and providing
employment in the Balkans through various institutions.
Turkish
Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), one of the institutions
whose presence in Balkans is mostly felt, has a wide field of activity
in the region. According to the activity report made public, the
sectorial distribution of projects and activities carried out by TIKA
and their proportional values are as follows: 45.5 percent health, 20.49
percent administrative and civil society, 15.81 education, 14.78
cultural cooperation and restoration, 3.45 percent water and water
hygiene.
Churches and monasteries are also being restored
The
fact that TIKA is making public works and restoration projects for
Christian places of worship in the countries as a minority is another
key sign of its conducting of efforts in Balkans region with an
inclusive approach without any discrimination. Within the framework, a
restoration company commissioned by TIKA upon request of the Republic of
Macedonia National Conservation Center handled the surveying and land
works of Saint George Church near the Macedonian city of Kumanovo.
TIKA
also established alarm, surveillance, fire alarm and response systems
for Fojnica Fransisken Monastery in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and made the
environmental planning for the Macedonian Orthodox Church Dormition of
the Most Holy Virgin Mary that hosts the Christmas and Easter services
of the Orthodox Christian community in the country.
Huge financial support for 5-percent minority
It
is remarkable that other actors actively working in the region are
usually conducting their efforts towards a goal that prioritizes the
welfare and interests of a certain group. For instance, Christians in
Kosovo constitute the five percent part of the Kosovar community and the
Holy See are providing support to the government in opening a number of
places of worship so that the Christian minority could properly perform
their religious services.
Accordingly,
a cathedral was built in 2010 in memory of Mother Teresa -- a key
historical figure for the Christians in the region. Moreover, Catholic
NGO Caritas continue its efforts including provision of social support
projects for Kosovar Christians like education, health and employment
with its Ferizaj-based organization that consists of 153 personnel and
400 volunteers.
U.S. efforts in Balkans
Most
of the projects of the U.S., one of the most influential countries in
Balkans, get completed through the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID) and focus on health, education and
employment.
USAID conducts support
investments in Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro via its Support Fund for
Micro entrepreneurs SEAF South Balkan Fund that it launched in 2005 in
Balkan countries. Serbia-based supermarket chain GOMEX is one of the key
investments that the USAID made via SEAF in the area of employment.
USAID also acts in cooperation with other NGOs in the region. It
provides financial support for the NGO named “Balkan Sunflowers,” which
makes cultural and educational efforts, together with the Rome Education
Fund founded jointly by the World Bank and Hungarian businessman George
Soros.
Mosque restoration is the fourth priority
Long
used as a pretext for the criticism against Turkey’s rising influence
and efforts in Balkans, the efforts of mosque restoration is the top
fourth priority for TIKA – which David Phillips, U.S. academician and
former advisor at the Department of State, from Huffington Post
mentioned in one of his latest articles.
In the article,
Phillips mentioned TIKA’s restoration efforts for the places of worship
that are among key elements of historical and cultural heritage in
Kosovo – where ninety percent of the population is Muslim – in a
baseless accusation that “religious radicalism spreads via these places
of worship.”
The timing of the article – as it was written just
the day after Serbia-Turkey Business Forum held on Dec 28, 2015 one of
Turkey’s key strategic initiatives in Balkans – arouses suspicion that
there might be some other motives behind his accusations.
"Turkey’s presence smooths out the extremism"
The
experts and academicians who know and monitor the region closely agree
that Turkey’s activities in Balkans have a critical importance in
prevention of radical tendencies unlike the contrary criticisms and
evaluations. Within this perspective, Joseph J. Kaminski, an
American Ass. Prof. at the International University of Sarajevo in
Bosnia, said these kinds of counter-discourses have been increasing
along with the strengthening presence of Turkey in the region.
“The
number of the Kosovan Muslims joining into the radical-prone groups is
not high. Its reason is that the Kosovan Muslims’ sense of religion is
based on Hanafi sect along with the fact that the religious tendencies
triggering the extremisms have been balanced by the temples
reconstructed by Turkey as a Hanafi-based country,” said Kaminski.
Underling
that his impressions on the field also confirmed his opinions, Kaminski
said, “Turkey has a rich heritage across Balkans. I was in Prizren last
summer. The people I met there said they had been appreciating Turkey’s
efforts. Turkish language has widely been used by Prizren people and
the city’s architectural style and the cafes were definitely in Ottoman
style. It’s very meaningful that President Erdogan had made one of his
speeches in Sep, 2013 in this city strongly clinged to the Ottoman
style.”
“Turkey: The shield against religious extremism in Balkans”
Prof.
Dr. Metin Izeti at the University of Tetovo in Macedonia said along
with the increasing effective position of Turkey in the region, the
religious and cultural activities of the NGOs have become more visible,
which annoys some people and has led them to carry out incitement
activities among the people living there.
“As a result of this
annoyance, they try to label Turkish foreign policy as
‘Neo-Ottomanism’," said Izeti adding, “I really can’t understand what
harm or danger Turkey’s activities in Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia
and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Montenegro can cause in the region. It is
obvious that they are sowing discord among the Balkan people who are
grateful from Turkey’s efforts to maintain the cultural inheritances."
“Unlike
some people said, Turkey had never carried out forceful religious
activities in the region. On the contrary, Turkey has always expressed
its support against the violent groups which are causing bad
attributions to Islamic ideology and tried to prevent their extremisms
to be spread among large masses.”
“The presence of Turkey in the
region,” continued Izeti, “will definitely be the most important factor
to prevent these extremisms. Turkey is the shield against religious
extremism in Balkans.”
"Opinions expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Anadolu Agency's editorial policy."
The
Corruption Perception Index of 2012 signaled out Albania as the most
corrupt country in Europe. Transparency International figured Albania
was the most corrupt sountry in Europe, after Kosovo, and the 95th
most corrupt place among the 176 nations it monitored at the time. The
trend was similarly disappointing until 2014, when Albania was
pronounced the most corrupt state in Southeastern Europe.
And then something happened. In 2015, the picture is dramatically different. The very same index published on Wednesday, January 27th,
suggests Albania has jumped 22 places in a single year and leads the
Balkans. Albania of course lags behind most EU member states, except
Bulgaria, the worst among the 27 member states.
Albania still fairs worse than Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, and
Croatia; most of these countries have all made substantial gains as well
and so Tirana must make strands even to stand still. And it is making
strands.
Not everyone is doing better, in the region or in Europe. The Former
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was seen sliding on ratings, as did
Hungary and Turkey. But, what made a difference in Albania was a
campaign, launched in September in 2015.
The key to the improvement of a country’s position in the rankings is
the word “perception.” The government went out of its way, for the
first time, to find out what people thought.
In February 2015, the government launched an anti-corruption portal
allowing citizens to record anonymously unscrupulous practices in 12 key
policy areas, including police, health and customs. In March the
government used a World Bank program to start asking citizens by SMS.
Prime Minister Rama was arguing that perception is often about
stereotyping, but then also admitted that one can only break
“perceptions” by fighting corruption, the Guardian reported at the time.
During a meeting with Socialist Party electorate in Vlora, the powerful MP of Socialist Party in Southern Albania, Koco Kokedhima, has accused Charmain of HRUP Vangjel Dule, for away from Government Coalition, raising new chauvinists issue in Himara Region.
A day earlier, HRUP and Omonia, accused Kokedhima that he destroys the Greeks in Himara businesses, making ethnic cleansing to the Greek popullation.
Kokedhima: Himara is Albanian land and Greek chauvinists should know this
Koco Kokedhima accuses Vangjel Dule left for corrupt methods by coalition with the Socialist Party, and betrayed the Greek Minority.
Kokedhima: Himara there is a minority, but are we are albanians .Dule accuses us of Greek chauvinists of Himara, that have destroyed three buildings of the Greeks, when they are from Piluri, Albanian.
Kokedhima, "we will build a European Albania in Himare and develop tourism in the interest of Albanians, not to the Greek chauvinists. Greeks strongly support the Socialist Party in Minority area, but not chauvinists of Himara.
During this interview, Tsipras has analyzed, the good friendly Relations between Greece and Albania and opportunities to add further good spirit, which is linked to the respect of the ethnic Greek minority and Albanian immigrants in Greece.
Meanwhile, not knowing what talks held Tsipras for the situation of the Greek minority in the Region of Himara, for which there is an escalation tough in practice, by the government, by destroying the assets of Greek residents, as well as charges of extortion of property and favoring Albanian oligarchs.
However, the visit of Tsipras, is considered important by the fact that he is the person close to the Prime Minister Tsipras and both are from the region of Epirus.
Also today, Omonia, The Greek Political Organizations in Albania, has made a strong statement, which parallels the Albanian police attacks against the destruction of Greek properties of Himara, as "ethnic cleansing".
HRUP: The action of Albanian Inspectorate in Himare against Greek citizens properties, is selective, and performed by Kokëdhima "Klan" Tow month ago SManalysis, has analyzed the raise of tensions between people of The Himara Region and the Albanian Government, particularly after demolition of the Agio Athanassios Church in Dhermi, and a series of initiatives of the Albanian Parliament, to changes the Laws, factorizing the Albanian Oligarchs, to take lands and properties by 1 euro, from Himara Region.
HRUP through a press release calls the illegal actions of government selective action IKMT take a few days ago in Himare.
These actions "have only one goal: to harm repeatedly and adjusting economic activity and demographics of the Hellenic community in Himare" declared in a joint statement of HRUP and Omonia branch Himare
"On 01/25/2016 phalanxes IKMT's illegal actions destroyed three objects which exercised their economic activity over 30 years, on the grounds that an investment will be made for reforming the center of Himare.
But all this destruction, like background, demolitions that belong Greeks of Himara Region and exchange of population with Albanian inhabitants, considering that this is an action for ethnic cleansing in Himara by the Albanian government.
Tow month ago SManalysis, has analyzed the raise of
tensions between people of The Himara Region and the Albanian Government,
particularly after demolition of the Agio Athanassios Church in Dhermi,
and a series of initiatives of the Albanian Parliament, to changes the
Laws, factorizing the Albanian Oligarchs, to take lands and properties
by 1 euro, from Himara Region.
Reports of "ethnic cleansing" in Himara Region, are made by The Himara Community, which said the fact that leaders of the Albanian politics, have created favorable conditions, through changes in the Constitution, that the lands of Community, to be administered by the Albanian State, and after, to be distributed for the oligarchs, in the name of tourism development of the country.
The whole process of "ethnic cleansing" is a formalized after the decision of the Albanian Parliament, to organize the Territorial Division, which unites the Himara region inhabited by oldest Greek Christians, with another area, Albanian Myslyms.
Munich
Security Conference Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger has urged NATO and
Russia to settle their differences and called on NATO to revive the
NATO-Russia Council; both sides, he stressed, have in their possession
thousands of nuclear warheads, which will pose a real danger if a
military conflict escalates.
In the run-up to the 52nd annual Munich Security Conference,
its Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger delivered a speech during a press
conference at the Federal Press Office in Berlin on Wednesday.
Ischinger has called on NATO and Russia to set aside their
differences and resume actively exchanging information bi-laterally
in order to avoid new conflicts and unnecessarily aggravate relations.
He reminded the journalists that the relationship became strained due to the Ukrainian crisis and both NATO and Russia should bring the “diplomatic machine” back into action.
“It is important to talk to each other not only
through a megaphone, and I think there is an urgent need for the
Alliance to increase its already growing struggle to revive the
NATO-Russia Council,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.
Ischinger
added that the danger of escalation became only more evident
after Turkey downed the Russian bomber over Syria. The incident
highlighted the danger
of military escalation between NATO and Russia, which, since the end
of the Cold War has never been as high as it is now, as Turkey is a NATO
member state.
He called on all the parties not to forget that both sides have
in their possession thousands of strategic nuclear warheads, and tens
of thousands of non-strategic ones.
“Only imagine if Russia, also by mistake, have reacted by downing an American jet. The problem should be treated seriously,” concluded the top diplomat.
The NATO-Russia Council (NRC), was established at the NATO-Russia
Summit in Rome on May 28, 2002. It replaced the Permanent Joint Council
(PJC), a forum for consultation and cooperation created by the 1997
NATO-Russia Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security,
which remains the formal basis for NATO-Russia relations.
It is a mechanism for consultation, consensus-building, cooperation,
joint decision and joint action, in which the individual NATO member
states and Russia work as equal partners on a wide spectrum of security
issues of common interest.
The Brussels agreement will
be implemented and the Community of Serb Municipalities (ZSO) will be
formed, says Kosovo PM Isa Mustafa.
Source: Beta
(Beta/AP, file)
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However, he added, Pristina "will continue to insist on abolishment of parallel Serbian institutions in Kosovo."
"While dialogue in Brussels is ongoing, the
Serbian government nominates or determines parallel authorities in
education and health care in Kosovo municipalities," Mustafa told
Vojvodina's provincial public broadcaster RTV in what Beta agency said
was his first interview with a Serb media.
According to the
report, he added that "the formation of parallel institutions is
unacceptable for the Kosovo side and announced that further dialogue
will concern the process of abolishment of Serbian parallel structures."
"Until Serbia abolishes these institutions, it will seem that
it is not willing to participate in adequate normalization," said
Mustafa.
He "added that he feels bad when he goes to Brussels
for talks, while his fellow citizens have not yet been enabled visa
liberalization with EU countries."
As Mustafa announced, one of
the topics of this year's first meeting with Serbian Prime Minister
Aleksandar Vucic will be air travel. He said they will discuss an
agreement on rail and air traffic between Belgrade and Pristina, but
also Macedonia.
Mustafa added that this would enable for "shorter flight times, reduced costs, especially of transportation of goods by rail."
He also said he occasionally hears from Vucic, and that their last conversation was about the flooding in Kosovo.
"We have no problem in communication. He called me to express Serbia's
readiness to help during the floods we've had," said Mustafa.
Mustafa stated there was "no political crisis in Kosovo" - because the government has a two-thirds majority in the assembly.
"Parliament and the government can function without any problems, but
the opposition, being the opposition, have their reasons to interfere,"
said Mustafa.
Athens “is seriously
neglecting its obligations and there are serious deficiencies in the
carrying out of external border controls that must be overcome and dealt
with by the Greek authorities,” according to a Schengen Evaluation draft report, which was discussed by the Commission on Wednesday.
The
report is expected to be adopted by the EU Commission, which would then
recommend that Greece take specific measures to remedy the situation.
Greece will then have three months to correct the deficiencies and
comply with the Schengen rules.
Should
it fail to meet the deadline, it could face the deployment of European
border guard teams on its borders or even be suspended from the Schengen
free travel area, with the Commission recommending that “one or more Member States reintroduce border controls at all or at specific parts of their internal borders,” the press release says.
“If
the necessary action is not being taken and deficiencies persist, there
is a possibility to ... allow member states to temporarily close their
borders,” the Commission’s Vice President, Valdis Dombrovskis, said during a news briefing.
Athens
rejected the criticism, saying that the Schengen Evaluation visits were
conducted at a time when the situation differed greatly from the
current one, the Guardian reports. “Greece has surpassed itself in order to keep its obligations,” government spokeswoman Olga Gerovasili told the paper.
Greek
authorities also accused Turkey of not fulfilling its part of the deal,
which was struck between the Turkish government and the EU in November
of 2015. According to Athens, Turkey has failed to clamp down on people
smugglers and curb the refugee inflow.
At the same time, the report admits that Greek authorities are under pressure and stresses that Greece “can
be assisted in fulfilling the recommendations via practical and/or
financial measures from the Commission, Frontex or other EU bodies.”
In
the meantime, Greek migration minister Ioannis Mouzalas said that his
country is seeking help from the EU to swiftly deport refugees who are
denied asylum. According to the minister, EU-supervised screening
centers established on the Greek islands could be used to send such
refugees back “the next morning,” Sky News reports.
Mouzalas
stressed earlier that his country is doing everything possible to
ensure better control over its border with Turkey and accused other EU
countries of not sending enough help and not fulfilling their promises,
stressing that only 800 agents from Frontex, the EU’s border control
agency, had been dispatched to Greece, while the EU had promised to send
1800.
In interview with Die Zeit last week, Mouzalas said that the Greek border is “perfectly protected” and stressed that threatening to suspend his country from the Schengen area was “absolutely senseless,” adding that “[European] politicians resort to the populist accusations only to appease their own voters.”
EU and US support seem likely to guarantee eventual adoption of major changes to the justice system – but the ruling coalition will continue to struggle with internal rifts and a stagnant economy.
Aleksandra Bogdani BIRN Tirana Albanian parliament | Photo: parlament.al
The US ambassador to Albania, Donald Lu, has intensified meetings with local leaders lately in an effort to secure the votes needed in parliament for the passage of a radical reform to the justice system in the spring.
Lu, who has been called the “godfather” of the reform by the local media thanks to his tirades against corrupt judges, needs 94 votes in favour of the bill in the assembly of 140 MPs.
The ambassador has taken on the role of negotiator with political leaders and justice officials who still oppose the proposed changes to the system, which is widely perceived as corrupt.
“There are people who are afraid of losing their jobs and dirty money,” Lu said at a year-end public appearance. “These people are afraid of going to prison. Maybe they should be afraid,” he added.
TIRANA,
Albania (AP) — An Albanian Muslim cleric has been put on trial in
absentia in Tirana on terrorism charges for allegedly joining the
extremist Islamic State group in Syria with his wife and two children.
Prosecutors say Almir Daci, 31, a former imam in an eastern Albanian village, left the country in 2013 with his family, and fought with the group.
His father, Xhevahir Daci, denied his son had joined the group, saying he left Albania to seek a job abroad.
The trial opened Wednesday.
Separately,
another nine Albanian Muslims, including two preachers, are on trial
accused of allegedly of recruiting more than 70 men to fight with rebels
in Syria.
About
two-thirds of Albania's 3.2 million inhabitants are Muslims. Mainstream
religious leaders have asked believers not to join rebel groups in
Syria.
The author discusses the war against ISIL, his public spat with the Turkish president and Russia's annexation of Crimea.
Noam
Chomsky has been described as "arguably the most important intellectual
alive". And as one of the world's most celebrated academics, he has
published more than 100 books and is a leading critic on US foreign
policy.
In the first of a special two-part interview, Chomsky sits down
with Mehdi Hasan to discuss the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
group, Ukraine and Turkey. Chomsky and other "so-called intellectuals" were recently
criticised by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for supporting
Kurdish separatists. The author and activist, who has accused the Turkish government of waging a "terrorist war" against the Kurds, tells UpFront
that President Erdogan is "undoubtedly carrying out vicious repressive
actions attacking the Kurdish population", adding that he would call him
a "murderer". Chomsky also talks about imperialism, and comments on the row between Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Part two of the interview to be aired Friday, January 29 at
1930GMT includes who Chomsky would vote for in the US presidential
election, why he doesn't support a full boycott of Israel, and the
impact of the rise of Islamophobia.
The Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Ministry and the Shipping and Island Policy Ministry in cooperation with the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF) are planning to grant licenses for the construction of waterways on the islands of Paxoi, Zakynthos, Kefalonia and Lefkada as well as in Patras with the view to creating the first network of waterways in Greece.
The first waterway in Greece will operate at the port of Corfu. Procedures for the licensing of another 50 waterways are underway.
TIRANA, Albania — Police
in Albania say they have arrested five suspects as part of a crackdown
on an international human and drug trafficking ring, coordinated with
authorities in Italy, Slovakia and Belgium.
Police said Tuesday that the operation, codenamed
Tempesta 2015, was launched in Italy. It also led to the arrest in other
participating countries of 12 people suspected of criminal activity in
prostitution and drug trafficking between September 2014 and June 2015.
Post-communist Albania has been a major source of human and drug trafficking.
In the past two years, Albanian police have destroyed
more than 100 tons of marijuana and about 1.3 million cannabis plants,
with a total estimated value of 7 billion euros ($7.6 billion) —
equivalent to more than 60 percent of the country's annual GDP.
Migrants
and refugees beg Macedonian policemen to allow them across the border
from Greece. European leaders have threatened to effectively exclude
Greece from the Schengen zone. Yannis Behrakis/Reuters
Greece has responded
furiously to proposals to modify the Schengen agreement which would see
the country’s borders effectively sealed off from the rest of the
continent.
EU interior ministers meeting in Amsterdam on Monday
discussed moving the southern frontier of the passport-free travel zone,
which includes most of the EU, to the north, deploying joint police
forces along the Macedonia-Greece border. Other European states piled
pressure on Greece to do more to control the influx of migrants into
Europe via its shores.
Athens’s Syriza-led government
denounced the plans, with Ioannis Mouzalas, the migration minister,
calling it an “experiment” that would turn Greece into a “cemetery of
souls,” according to reports. He warned against turning the migration
debate into a “blame game.” Subscribe now - Free phone/tablet charger worth over $60Greek
public order minister Nikos Toskas said, “It is very difficult to stop
small boats coming [to Greece]...except sinking or shooting them, which
is against our European values and Greek values and we will not do
that.”
The Greek government also stresses that other EU member
states need to start taking their share of refugees. Plans agreed in
2015 are supposed to see 160,000 refugees relocated from Greece and
Italy but thus far only 331 have been moved.
“If we cannot protect
the external EU border, the Greek-Turkish border, then the Schengen
external border will move towards central Europe,” said Austria’s
Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner at a meeting of interior
ministers in Amsterdam on Monday, Reuters reports.
“In
the end, if a country doesn’t live up to its obligations, we will have
to restrict its connections to the Schengen area,” Sweden’s Interior
Minister Anders Ygeman said.
Proposals to be considered by the
European Commission following the meeting would allow passport checks
within the Schengen zone for up to two years. Germany, France, Austria
and Sweden have already introduced some level of border controls as the
continent struggles to deal with the arrival of millions of refugees and
migrants on its shores.
BELGRADE – Islamic State is expanding its activities to a global level, with a particular focus on the European Union, which should be getting ready for a growing number of terror attacks similar to the ones that took place in Paris, the chief of EU police agency Europol said.
“The so-called Islamic State has developed a new combat-style capability to carry out a campaign of large-scale terrorist attacks on a global stage — with a particular focus in Europe,” Europol director Rob Wainwright told media at a news conference at the Europol headquarters in The Hague on Monday.
Islamic State (IS, former ISIS/ISIL) has “a willingness and a capability to carry out further attacks in Europe, and of course all national authorities are working to prevent that from happening,” Wainwright said.
The news conference was dedicated to the presentation of Europol’s report on changes in operational tactics by the jihadist group.
“Both the November Paris attacks and the October 2015 bombing of a Russian airliner suggest a shift in IS strategy towards going global,” the report said.
The publication of the Europol report coincided with the release of a new terrorist propaganda video from ISIS, featuring the Paris attackers apparently participating in gruesome murders somewhere in an undisclosed desert location before they infiltrated the EU and subsequently conducted attacks in the French capital.
The video depicting the nine terrorists who participated in the November 13 Paris attacks that left 130 people dead threatens the countries of the US-led anti-ISIS coalition.
“IS is preparing more terrorist attacks, including more ‘Mumbai-style’ attacks, to be executed in member states of the EU, and in France in particular,” the Europol report says, specifying that the attacks will be primarily aimed at “soft targets,” i.e. vulnerable installations and civilians, because of the “impact it generates.”
To implement those plans for terror on an international level, ISIS has developed an “external action command” capable of staging “special forces-style attacks,” the report says.
Europol downplayed the fears that Islamic State is using the influx of refugees coming to Europe to infiltrate the EU, stressing there is no “concrete evidence” that terrorists are using the migrant influx “systematically.”
However, the report notes, newcomers to Europe remain highly vulnerable to radicalization and recruitment to the terrorist group. The agency reports that there is evidence that jihadist recruiters are particularly interested in operating in refugee centers.
The spike of terrorist activities in Europe has become Europol’s primary interest for quite some time, as the agency has just launched its new counterterrorism center in The Hague.
According to Europol’s chief, Europeans who have joined the jihad in the Middle East remain in the spotlight of the agency, which is collecting information on them.
“We already have details on 3,700 fighters actively engaged in the conflict zone, but that’s not the full picture and it’s something we will be addressing through priority work by the new center,” Wainwright said, estimating the total number of EU citizens that have joined terrorist groups in Iraq and Syria at 5,000.
Abused by gangsters, disowned by their families, and let down by the
state, Albanian women who were trafficked as sex slaves face an uphill
battle to build new lives.
The area around the Place de I’Yser in Brussels is the Albanian sex
workers' patch. Their territory is just a couple of kilometres from the
city's central square, the Grand Place, where thousands of tourists
flock every day, and from the EU institutions.
The US accuses Albanian authorities of failing to tackle sex-trafficking (Photo: asp.gov.al)
After a coffee at a corner cafe around midday, the women wait for
clients on the streets. Ten minutes of sex costs no more than €50.
Voluptuous, with long curly hair and big black eyes, 31-year old Eva
speaks without embarrassment about the clients she goes with, how much
she charges, sexual positions and even the fights among the women who
share the street.
"I first came here with my fiance 14 years ago," recalls Eva (a
pseudonym, like the names of all current or former sex workers in this
story). The man she had fallen for told her she needed to make a
"sacrifice for the sake of our love" - to have sex with other men to
earn some money for them as a couple.
Without realising, at first, what was happening, Eva had become a
victim of sex trafficking - or, as it is more formally known,
trafficking in women for sexual exploitation.
There may be as many as 140,000 sex-trafficking victims in Europe and around a third come from the Balkans, according to a UN report from 2010.
Thousands of women and girls have been trafficked from Albania alone
to western Europe as sex slaves in the last two decades. Well-organised
criminal gangs control the trafficking, sometimes with the complicity of
the victims' own family members, and launder profits by buying property
back in Albania, police and experts say.
Efforts to crack down on the gangs face serious obstacles. Complex
international investigations are required and it is widely accepted that
criminals can buy influence in the justice system of Albania, one of
Europe's poorest countries.
"Corruption and high rates of turnover within the police force
inhibit law enforcement action to address trafficking. Official
complicity in trafficking crimes remains a significant concern," says
the section on Albania in the US State Department's 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report.
It also notes that when the report was published, in July, “a sitting
member of [the Albanian] parliament had prior convictions for
trafficking-related crimes”.
Meanwhile, many victims who escape from the gangs end up back in the
sex trade after being shunned by their own families and communities and
after receiving only modest help from the Albanian state to build a new
life.
Abused by their families
A previously unpublished Albanian police report from 2007, obtained
by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN, says at least 5,162
women and girls were trafficked to be exploited as sex workers between
1992 and 2005.
Some 22% were minors when they were trafficked, 7% of all victims
were kidnapped, raped, or had their families threatened, 4% were sold
into forced prostitution by their own families.
Since the period covered by the report, around 1,000 more trafficking
victims have been identified, according to annual crime reports issued
by the Albanian state prosecutor.
Sobering as they are, the statistics tell only a small fraction of a
bigger story. The true number of victims is likely to be much higher, as
the official figures only include women known to authorities.
The numbers, in any case, hardly convey what each individual woman has suffered.
Interviews with trafficked women reveal that, in some cases, they
were subjected to violence and sexual abuse by members of their own
families.
"One night my dad drank a lot and sometime after two o’clock I found
myself naked and he was over me," recalls Vera, a 27-year old woman at
the Different & Equal charity centre in Tirana, which offers help to
trafficking victims.
"I felt totally numb … and left home with the first man who promised
to marry me and who, the moment we arrived on the outskirts of Tirana,
forced me to have sex with other men for money," she says.
She adds, between sobs, that her father raped her so often that she does not remember how many times he did it.
Vera’s mother took her own life in 2009. Police believe she committed
suicide after discovering her husband was sexually abusing their
daughter.
Maria, from the Malesia e Madhe region in northern Albania, was only
16 when her father married her to an older man. Her new husband forced
her into prostitution in Greece.
"Every night, it was like I was being raped," she recalls in another
centre for trafficking victims, in the city of Elbasan. "When I told my
mum, she would scream that I couldn't go back home, telling me that I
had walked out of that door for good."
Elsa, from the northern town of Kukes, became a target of her father’s rage after her mother died when she was six.
"When he would return home, he would beat me with a water hose just
because I existed," she says in a low voice, as if still gripped by
fear.
After being raped by her brother at the age of 13, she ran away and
was forced to work as a prostitute, first in Tirana and later in Kosovo.
"No one understands the pain of passing through the hands of many
people, of going through these things in your family, of losing your
innocence without knowing why," she says at a centre for trafficking
victims in the town of Vlora.
"No one taught me what love is, what right and wrong are. I've been
stigmatised since I was a child and as far as everyone's concerned I'll
always be a whore."
Low conviction rates
In their 2007 report, Albanian police identified more than 2,000
people suspected of trafficking over the past decade and a half. But
only 23% of them were in prison, in Albania, or abroad, for trafficking
or other crimes.
Tougher sentences for human trafficking of between 10 and 15 years in
jail were introduced in Albania in 2013 but the number of convictions
has been small. Albania convicted nine people of trafficking in 2014 and
three people the previous year, according to the US State Department.
Some convicted traffickers manage to avoid jail by pursuing appeals.
Hysni Sokolaj, a 43-year old man from the town of Tropoje, was found
guilty in absentia in 2011 of human trafficking and prostitution. He was
sentenced to 20 years in prison. His conviction was upheld by a higher
court, but later overturned by the Supreme Court.
Sokolaj was accused of deceiving an 18-year old woman with false
promises of love and marriage, and then of trafficking her and forcing
her into prostitution in Belgium and in the UK, according to a copy of
his case file obtained by BIRN.
In 2006, after he was deported from Britain as an illegal alien, the
woman returned to Albania, found refuge at the centre for trafficking
victims in Vlora and filed charges against him.
"When she came she was traumatised, fearing her pimp, who had
threatened to kill her brothers," recalls Enkelejda Abdylaj, a
coordinator at the centre.
"She was ashamed to say what had happened to her and felt guilty for running away from home with him [Sokolaj].”
The case against Sokolaj was first registered in the prosecutor’s
office in Fier, which refused to start criminal proceedings against him,
saying it could not collect any evidence. Following protests from
victims' support groups, the case was transferred to the Serious Crimes
Prosecutor’s Office in Tirana.
The office brought charges against Sokolaj, who was believed to have
returned to Britain, and an international warrant was issued for his
arrest. In 2012, British police declared Sokolaj one of the most wanted
foreign nationals in the country.
But in December the same year, the Supreme Court overturned his
conviction, saying the lower courts had deliberately misinterpreted the
law.
Sokolaj’s lawyer, Ferit Muca, says his client, who does not live in Albania any more, has always maintained he is not guilty.
"The Supreme Court delivered justice because my client was innocent," he says.
"He lived with the accuser and didn’t traffic her. The charges
against him were filed on the basis of manipulations by prosecutors. The
girl was unstable."
Family business
One recent case investigated by serious crimes prosecutors in Tirana
involves two brothers, Bledar and Shyqeri Stafuga, aged 33 and 24,
respectively.
Two courts found them guilty of being part of a criminal gang which
trafficked at least six young women into sexual slavery. The Supreme
Court is considering an appeal against their conviction.
One woman testified that she was only 16 years old when Shyqeri
Stafuga trafficked her to Switzerland and Germany and forced her to have
sex with 10 men every day.
"He put a knife to my throat; he would stub out his cigarette on my
body ... He would threaten to kill my family if I didn't make 1,000
[Swiss] francs every night," she said.
In November 2014, Bledar and Shyqeri Stafuga were convicted of human
trafficking and trafficking of minors by the Court of Serious Crimes in
Tirana and sentenced to 12 and a half and 12 years in prison,
respectively.
Anila Trimi, an anti-trafficking expert with the Albanian state
police, tells BIRN the brothers were part of a larger, well-structured
criminal organisation and investigations continue into other possible
members of the group.
Dolores Musabelliu, a prosecutor in the Serious Crimes Prosecutor’s
Office, says human trafficking and prostitution cases are difficult to
prove in court.
"The reasons behind the failure of many cases is that prosecutors
base their charges only on the testimony of the victim," she says.
However, victims often decide not to testify or withdraw testimony
because they cannot face a drawn-out court case and fear vengeance from
the traffickers.
"So I denounced him and what did I gain?,” asks Lola, a 21-year old
woman from a small village north of Tirana, who filed criminal charges
against her pimp in late 2014 and who lives in Albania's only state-run
shelter for trafficking victims.
"He knows where I live, knows everything about me and is still free," she says.
Asset unfreeze
The Albanian government's national anti-trafficking strategy,
approved in November 2014, named Belgium as one of the main destinations
in Western Europe for Albanian women trafficked for prostitution.
In Brussels, Didier Dochain, the deputy head of the federal police's
anti-trafficking unit, told BIRN the Belgian authorities are focusing
increasingly on trying to seize the assets of foreign traffickers.
"This is the motivation, of course, of all these criminal activities -
it's to gain illegal profit and so if we can cut, seize, confiscate ...
this profit, then it's a good thing," Dochain said.
But, he added, traffickers generally send their profits back to their
home countries so Belgian police needed cooperation from authorities
there.
"They invest in land, houses, expensive cars and things like that and
they live a good life back in their own country," he says. "They can
live as barons or princes because they make a big profit and big money
but the problem is first of all to trace this illegal money flow."
Unfortunately, Dochain says, the response from foreign authorities in
many cases is that they cannot find the money. Often this is because
financial transactions were not recorded as thoroughly as they are in
Belgium, he explains, but he cannot rule out that corruption also plays a
role.
Back in Tirana, Dolores Musabelliu at the prosecutor’s office says
Albanian authorities face their own problems getting information from
foreign countries for complex investigations.
"Investigating these cases depends on legal assistance requests, to
which the responses are often late, and this is often the reason cases
are dismissed," she says.
While some officials and MPs work to counter sex trafficking, two
Albanian politicians have been accused of active involvement in it.
Belgian prosecutors have accused Mark Frroku, a lawmaker from the
Christian Democratic Party, of murdering another Albanian in Brussels in
1999. The victim was allegedly blackmailing a woman who was exploited
by a prostitution ring run by a brother of Frroku.
An Albanian court is considering a Belgian request for Frroku's
extradition. Frroku has denied any wrongdoing and described the charges
against him as politically motivated.
Arben Ndoka, who served as a member of parliament from the ruling
Socialist Party, has admitted he was convicted by an Italian court in
the 1990s for running prostitutes and kidnapping.
Ndoka made the admission last year after his criminal record was
exposed by the opposition. But he maintained that he was innocent of the
charges and stayed on in parliament, before eventually resigning in
September 2015.
Shunned by society
Even though they are victims, many women who have been trafficked and
forced into prostitution are disowned by their own families and
stigmatised by society.
The mother of the woman who was allegedly being blackmailed in the
Frroku case lives in the small town of Puka in mountainous northern
Albania.
Her home is a ground floor flat in an old apartment block. She is 63
years old, but looks much older, with dark rings around her eyes. For
her, any connection with the sex trade is a source of shame. As far as
she is concerned, she no longer has a daughter.
"I don’t know what happened to her," she says, standing on her doorstep. "All I know is what I've heard in the news."
Over the past 25 years, 83 young women and girls from Puka have been
trafficked into prostitution, according to local police. Their stories
are still the talk of a town of just 3,600 inhabitants. Zajmira Laci, a doctor and women’s rights activist in Puka
Zajmira Laci, a local doctor and women’s rights activist, says that,
just like the woman in the Frroku case, many trafficking victims have
never returned to Puka.
"Because of the shame, their families don’t accept them," Laci says.
"Girls also haven't returned because they fear everyone will be pointing
fingers at them."
Road to rehabilitation
Many Western countries now have well-resourced programmes to help victims of trafficking make a fresh start.
In the Belgian city of Antwerp, Patsy Sorensen, the director of
Payoke, a charity that helps trafficking victims, can point to dozens of
examples of women reintegrating into Belgian society.
The women can request a work permit and can attend education and
training courses free of charge, Sorensen explains. They also receive a
basic income of around €800/month even if they are not working.
"They have a lot of possibilities to rebuild their lives and most of them like to work as quickly as possible," Sorensen says.
Women she knows have found work as cleaners and shop assistants.
Others have started nail studios, Sorensen says. Others yet, including
some Albanian women, have gone to university.
However, Sorensen admits, there are cases where women have ended up being trafficked again. Patsy Sorensen, director of the Payoke anti-trafficking organisation in Antwerp
In Albania, after women are identified as trafficking victims, they
are generally referred to the state-run shelter or one of three
rehabilitation centres.
The shelter in the village of Linze, near Tirana, houses victims
awaiting the results of preliminary investigations. The centres in
Tirana, Elbasan and Vlora are run by non-profit organisations and offer
courses in skills such as cookery and hairdressing with the aim of
helping women find employment.
The US State Department's 2015 human trafficking report says
psychological, medical, and reintegration services at the shelter are
inadequate and the government has not given enough money - even though
it could have used a special crime prevention fund which held at least
25 million lek (about €180,000).
But even after going through rehabilitation programmes, trafficking victims struggle to find work.
"We've had only one case of employment in a state institution and
this was due to our mediation," says Enkelejda Avdylaj, the coordinator
at the Vatra centre in Vlora.
"We talk to businesses, but when we tell them the profile of the employee they refuse to hire them."
If trafficking victims are able to find a job, even a poorly paid
one, they still suffer the stigma attached to their former lives.
Diana Kaso, executive director of the Another Vision centre in
Elbasan, says that 80% of the women who go through its rehabilitation
programmes aim to rebuild their lives away from their home towns.
Maria, the woman who was forced into prostitution in Greece, is following that path.
She lives in a city far from her birthplace with her 12-year-old son, whom she says is the only source of joy in her life.
After a rehabilitation programme, she worked for years as a cleaning
lady in bars and is now a pastry chef on a monthly salary of about €110,
half of which goes on rent.
"Many people have tried to exploit my misfortune rather than help,"
she says. When she goes to a government office to claim a small payment
for trafficking victims, officials ask for sex, Maria says. "It’s scary
to enter an office.”
Kaso says that few women have the strength Maria has shown to build a new life.
Of all the cases she has handled, about 100 women have ended up back in prostitution.
"Sometimes they don’t have the necessary support or they think that
because of the stigma they have no other options," Kaso explains.
At the Place de l'Yser in Brussels, Eva is one of those women who
reached that conclusion. She first lived in Belgium for five years with
her fiance-cum-pimp, until he disappeared with all their money.
Eva returned to Albania for a while but decided to go back to Belgium
and work again in the sex trade. This allows her to send money back to
her family, who think she is a care worker for an elderly couple.
"In Albania, there was no job for me," Eva says. "The only job that I
know how to do is this one. And here I can earn much more." This article was produced as part of the Balkan Fellowship for
Journalistic Excellence, supported by the ERSTE Foundation and Open
Society Foundations, in cooperation with the Balkan Investigative
Reporting Network
