Mediaboss Marketing

From America, he regularly criticized the policies of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a monthly column for the Washington Post.

Khashoggi was thought to have found an avenger in Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who told world leaders at the G20 Summit that he demanded the extradition of Khashoggis murderers. The Turkish president had stated at the G20 that Crown Prince Mohammed gave world leaders an unbelievable explanation of the situation.

President Donald Trump referred to the internationally condemned murder as the worst cover-up in history and has brought forth discussions of possible consequences, ranging from restrictions on future arms sales to Saudi Arabiato a further scaling back of American support in the ongoing Saudi intervention in the Yemeni civil war.

While the issue of journalists under fire from retaliatory governments uncomfortable with their scrutiny has received more attention from the press recently, one investigative reporters story has flown largely under the radar.

Most Americans are not familiar with Arbana Xharra, who shared her harrowing story for this piece. Xharra is a well-known journalist from Kosovo the youngest state in Europe, which declared independence in 2008 with the full support of the United States. As a result of her reporting, she has had to face humiliation, threats, and even physical attacks.

Starting in 2012, Xharra began a 12-month investigation into the rise of religious extremism following the collapse of socialism in the former Yugoslavia. She was one of the first to report on the Islamic extremists operating in Kosovo and other Balkan countriesand their links to terrorist organizations. Her work helped to uncover operational and financial links, assisting the governments efforts to address the problem.

In addition to her over 73,000 Facebook followers, she is a three-time winner of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Prize for her articles on corruption in Kosovo in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Xharra was also awarded a Balkan Fellowship for Journalistic Excellence in 2012 and won theU.S. Secretary of States International Women of Courage Awardfor the European division in 2015.

More recently, she has been noted for her extensive writing on the globalization of religious extremismfunded and executed by Erdogans regimein the Balkans and across Europe.

Her articles exposed the fact that Erdogan has financed the building of a network of mosques in the Balkans intended to be used as a vehicle for the spreading of Radical Islam. She also uncovered that Erdogan has hand-selected Turkish imams to direct the teaching of Islamto influence the young and impressionable. Her investigative reporting has brought to light the fact that Erdogan is manipulating Balkan leaders economically by selectively investing in certain countries to increase his regional power.

According to Xharra, Erdogan uses the Turkish International Cooperation and Development Agency (TIKA) and Turkeys Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) to expand influence in the Balkans, where they have built hundreds of religious institutions. This includesthe reportedly 35- to 40-million-dollar Central Mosque in Kosovo and the building of a similarly extravagant mosque on a 10,000-square-meter property on George W. Bush Street in Tirana, Albania.

This was in addition to Erdogan ensuring that numerous critical assets including airports, infrastructure, mines, and energy distribution projects are financed and largely managed by Turkey.

Her investigating has exposed Erdogans attempts to suppress the moderate Islamic movement led by Fethullah Glen. Glen is currently living in exile in the United States. She has also written extensively on theDiyanetand its involvement in promoting Erdogans Islamic agenda. She says the organization, which is also reportedly active in U.S., serves to spy on Turkish citizens who escaped from Turkey around the world.

As a result of her fearless reporting, Xharra began to receive threats not only from the targets of her stories, but from people sympathetic to radical Islam and Erdogan.

In a Skype interview for this article conducted on Christmas week, I asked Xharra about the threats made against her and her family, the way authorities handled them, and where she thinks Erdogans influence campaign is ultimately going. Regarding the initial threats she received, Xharra said, In the beginning, I underestimated the threats. Then, one weekend in 2015, I received over 200 threats via social media in just 2 days.

She claims after she reported the threats to police, one officer asked her why she was writing about Islamic groups and not Catholic groups.

The police were supposed to take my statement, not evaluate my work, Xharra said.

This wave of threats occurred in response to her reaction to propagandist material that was posted online and looked to target children.

As she continued her writing and investigating, a new, more radicalized version of Islam began spreading within her country and other bordering nations. As a result, she was painted as Islamophobic in her home region. Social media postings attempted to portray her as being against fasting during the Ramadan period and claimed that her uncle was linked to the former Serbian regime that had murdered ethnic Albanians.

She dealt with a full-on hate campaign that extended beyond just private citizens and would go on to include political figures as well. Turkish Ambassador Kvlcm Kl wrote an open letter against her in early 2017 published onlineand, just days later, her photo became viral on social media as the face of not only the anti-Islamic movementbut as an opposition figure against Turkish policy.

The threats have not been limited to Xharra; her entire family has been victimized. In February 2017, she received a threatening message via Facebook that contained a photograph of a murder victim on the ground and was captioned we know how much you love your children, and we are going to find you.

The threats against her intensified in 2017 as she was writing about Erdogans alleged efforts to use religious institutions, schools,and mosques in the Balkans to expand his influence. A few weeks after the threat against her children, Xharra found an ominous red cross painted by the front door of her apartment. One of her sons first saw the vandalism when he came home from school.

When she reported the vandalism, she says police told her, If they were going to kill you, they would have. They just want to scare you.

Three weeks later, her tormentors did more than attemptto scare her.

In May 2017, Xharra suffered a severe beating in her parking garage, requiring hospitalization. Again, she claims, police did nothing to try to find the offenders: This sends a message to journalists in my country and all around the world. This is what will happen to you when you start investigating.

The attack did receive attention from some international news media, but police never found Xharras attackers.

She is now living in New York with her two children, where she continues to write about Turkey and radical Islam in the Balkans.

The EU is underestimating Turkish influence through religious activities, and the mosques and Islamic hubs being financed by Erdogan are centers for radical political mobilization, Xharra says.

She warns that Americans should be aware of Erdogans agenda in the United States as,under the Turkish President, the Diyanet Center of America (DCA), a mosque & Islamic center in Maryland, was built just outside Washington, D.C.

Erdogans attempts to feign outrage regarding the murder of Jamal Khashoggi stands in stark contrast to theway he deals with honest investigative reporting. This weeks news of a $1.8 million Mosque to be funded by Turkey in Kosovo validate the integrity and accuracy of Xharras reporting and fears of neo-Ottomanism.

Arbana Xharra continues to focus on her work despite the threats and attacks against her, now at home in the United States.

Julio Rivera is a Political and Business Strategist, Columnist, Editorial Director for Reactionary Times and Producer and Co-Host of Americas Common Ground TV.

Here is the original post:
Khashoggi Outrage Doesn't Match Erdogan's Abuse of Journalists

President Trump made the right call to withdraw from Syria. The United States withdrawal, however, must be planned carefully and performed in cooperation with the right partners to protect the interests of the United States, the international community and the Syrian people. Turkey, which has NATOs second largest standing army, is the only country with the power and commitment to perform that task.

In 2016, Turkey became the first country to deploy ground combat troops to fight the so-called Islamic State in Syria. Our military incursion severed the groups access to NATOs borders and impeded their ability to carry out terror attacks in Turkey and Europe.

Unlike coalition operations in Raqqa and Mosul, which relied heavily on airstrikes that were carried out with little or no regard for civilian casualties, Turkish troops and fighters of the Free Syrian Army went door to door to root out insurgents in Al Bab, a former stronghold of the so-called Islamic State.

Our approach left the citys core infrastructure largely intact and made it possible for life to return to normal within days. Today, children are back at school, a Turkish-funded hospital treats the sick, and new business projects create jobs and bolster the local economy. This stable environment is the only cure for terrorism.

Turkey is committed to defeating the so-called Islamic State and other terrorist groups in Syria, because the Turkish people are all too familiar with the threat of violent extremism. In 2003, when I became prime minister, coordinated attacks by Al Qaeda claimed dozens of lives in Turkey.

More recently, the so-called Islamic State terrorists targeted our citizens, our way of life and the inclusive, moderate worldview that our civilization represents. A few years back, the terrorist group called me treacherous Satan. We saw the horror in the faces of thousands of Christians and Yazidis, who sought refuge in Turkey when these terrorists came for them in Syria and Iraq.

I say this again: There will be no victory for the terrorists. Turkey will continue to do what it must to ensure its own safety and the well-being of the international community.

Militarily speaking, the so-called Islamic State has been defeated in Syria. Yet we are deeply concerned that some outside powers may use the organizations remnants as an excuse to meddle in Syrias internal affairs.

A military victory against the terrorist group is a mere first step. The lesson of Iraq, where this terrorist group was born, is that premature declarations of victory and the reckless actions they tend to spur create more problems than they solve. The international community cannot afford to make the same mistake again today.

Turkey proposes a comprehensive strategy to eliminate the root causes of radicalization. We want to ensure that citizens do not feel disconnected from government, terrorist groups do not get to prey on the grievances of local communities and ordinary people can count on a stable future.

The first step is to create a stabilization force featuring fighters from all parts of Syrian society. Only a diverse body can serve all Syrian citizens and bring law and order to various parts of the country. In this sense, I would like to point out that we have no argument with the Syrian Kurds.

Under wartime conditions, many young Syrians had no choice but to join the P.Y.D./Y.P.G., the Syrian branch of the P.K.K., that Turkey and the United States consider a terrorist organization. According to Human Rights Watch, the Y.P.G. militants have violated international law by recruiting children.

Following the United States withdrawal from Syria, we will complete an intensive vetting process to reunite child soldiers with their families and include all fighters with no links to terrorist organizations in the new stabilization force.

Ensuring adequate political representation for all communities is another priority. Under Turkeys watch, the Syrian territories that are under the control of the Y.P.G. or the so-called Islamic State will be governed by popularly elected councils. Individuals with no links to terrorist groups will be eligible to represent their communities in local governments.

Local councils in predominantly Kurdish parts of northern Syria will largely consist of the Kurdish communitys representatives whilst ensuring that all other groups enjoy fair political representation. Turkish officials with relevant experience will advise them on municipal affairs, education, health care and emergency services.

Turkey intends to cooperate and coordinate our actions with our friends and allies. We have been closely involved in the Geneva and Astana processes, and are the sole stakeholder that can work simultaneously with the United States and Russia. We will build on those partnerships to get the job done in Syria.

It is time for all stakeholders to join forces to end the terror unleashed by the Islamic State, an enemy of Islam and Muslims around the world, and to preserve Syrias territorial integrity. Turkey is volunteering to shoulder this heavy burden at a critical time in history. We are counting on the international community to stand with us.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is the president of Turkey.

Read the original:
Opinion | Erdogan: Trump Is Right on Syria. Turkey Can Get ...

New York center Enes Kanter will not travel to London for the Knicks upcoming international game because he believes he could be assassinated for his opposition toTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kanter announced his plan Friday night after the Knicks 119-112 win over the Lakers. The Knicks later said Kanter also wont make the trip because of a visa issue.

Kanter will stay in New York while the Knicks travel to face Washington at The O2 arena in London on January 17. He says he cant travel anywhere except the U.S. and Canada because theres a chance I can get killed out there.

>>'There are no checks and balances in Turkey. There's only Erdogan'

Sadly, Im not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president, Kanter said. Its pretty sad that all the stuff affects my career and basketball, because I want to be out there and help my team win. But just because of the one lunatic guy, one maniac, one dictator, I cant even go out there and do my job. Its pretty sad.

Kanter has been a vocal critic of Erdogan for years, once referring to him as the Hitler of our century. Kanters Turkish passport was revoked in 2017, and an international warrant for his arrest was issued by Turkey.

Kanter is a follower of U.S.-based Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Turkeys government accuses of masterminding a failed military coup in 2016.

We've got more newsletters we think you'll find interesting.

Please try again later.

The email address you have provided is already registered.

Kanter said it would be easy for an attempt on his life to be made in London. Theyve got a lot of spies there, he added. I think I can get killed there easy. It would be a very ugly situation.

Kanters father, Mehmet, was indicted last year and charged with membership in a terror group. The former professor lost his job after the failed military coup even though he publicly disavowed his son and his beliefs.

People often ask me why I continue to speak out if its hurting my family, Kanter wrote in a column for Time magazine last year. But thats exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.

Read the original here:
'I Can Get Killed': Enes Kanter, NBA Star and Critic of ...

LOS ANGELES (AP) New York center Enes Kanter will not travel to London for the Knicks upcoming international game because he believes he could be assassinated for his opposition to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Kanter announced his plan Friday night after the Knicks 119-112 win over the Lakers. The Knicks later said Kanter also wont make the trip because of a visa issue.

Kanter will stay in New York while the Knicks travel to face Washington at The O2 arena in London on Jan. 17. He says he cant travel anywhere except the U.S. and Canada because theres a chance I could get killed out there.

Sadly, Im not going because of that freaking lunatic, the Turkish president, Kanter said. Its pretty sad that all the stuff affects my career and basketball, because I want to be out there and help my team win. But just because of the one lunatic guy, one maniac, one dictator, I cant even go out there and do my job. Its pretty sad.

Kanter has been a vocal critic of Erdogan for years, once referring to him as the Hitler of our century. Kanters Turkish passport was revoked in 2017, and an international warrant for his arrest was issued by Turkey.

Kanter is a follower of a U.S.-based Turkish cleric accused by Turkeys government of masterminding a failed military coup in 2016.

Kanter said it would be easy for an attempt on his life to be made in London.

Theyve got a lot of spies there, he added. I think I can get killed there easy. It would be a very ugly situation.

Kanters father, Mehmet, was indicted last year and charged with membership in a terror group. The former professor lost his job after the failed military coup even though he publicly disavowed his son and his beliefs.

People often ask me why I continue to speak out if its hurting my family, Kanter wrote in a column for Time magazine last year. But thats exactly why I speak out. The people Erdogan is targeting are my family, my friends, my neighbors, my classmates. I need to speak out, or my country will suffer in silence.

___

More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Continued here:
Knicks' Kanter to skip London trip, fearing Erdogan reprisal

ISTANBUL For 17 years, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won elections by offering voters a vision of restoring the glories of Turkeys Ottoman past. He extended his countrys influence with increased trade and military deployments, and he raised living standards with years of unbroken economic growth.

But after a failed 2016 coup, Mr. Erdogan embarked on a sweeping crackdown. Last year, the economy wobbled and the lira plunged soon after he won re-election with even greater powers. As cronyism and authoritarianism seep deeper into his administration, Turks are voting differently this time with their feet.

They are leaving the country in droves and taking talent and capital with them in a way that indicates a broad and alarming loss of confidence in Mr. Erdogans vision, according to government statistics and analysts.

In the last two to three years, not only have students and academics fled the country, but also entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and thousands of wealthy individuals who are selling everything and moving their families and their money abroad.

More than a quarter of a million Turks emigrated in 2017, according to the Turkish Institute of Statistics, an increase of 42 percent over 2016, when nearly 178,000 citizens left the country.

Turkey has seen waves of students and teachers leave before, but this exodus looks like a more permanent reordering of the society and threatens to set Turkey back decades, said Ibrahim Sirkeci, director of transnational studies at Regents University in London, and other analysts.

The brain drain is real, Mr. Sirkeci said.

The flight of people, talent and capital is being driven by a powerful combination of factors that have come to define life under Mr. Erdogan and that his opponents increasingly despair is here to stay.

They include fear of political persecution, terrorism, a deepening distrust of the judiciary and the arbitrariness of the rule of law, and a deteriorating business climate, accelerated by worries that Mr. Erdogan is unsoundly manipulating management of the economy to benefit himself and his inner circle.

The result is that, for the first time since the republic was founded nearly a century ago, many from the old moneyed class, in particular the secular elite who have dominated Turkeys cultural and business life for decades, are moving away and the new rich close to Mr. Erdogan and his governing party are taking their place.

One of those leaving is Merve Bayindir, 38, who is relocating to London after becoming Turkeys go-to hat designer in the fashionable Nisantasi district of Istanbul.

We are selling everything, she said in an interview during a return trip to Istanbul last month to close what was left of her business, MerveBayindir, which she runs with her mother, and to sell their four-story house.

Ms. Bayindir was an active participant in the 2013 protests against the governments attempt to develop Taksim Square in Istanbul. She said she remains traumatized by the violence and fearful in her own city.

Mr. Erdogan denounced the protesters as delinquents and after enduring arrests and harassment many have left the country.

There is so much discrimination, not only cultural but personal, the anger, the violence is impossible to handle, Ms. Bayindir said. If you had something better and you see it dissolving, its a hopeless road.

Thousands of Turks like her have applied for business visas in Britain or for golden visa programs in Greece, Portugal and Spain, which grant immigrants residency if they buy property at a certain level.

Applications for asylum in Europe by Turks have also multiplied in the last three years, according to Mr. Sirkeci, who has studied the migration of Turks to Britain for 25 years.

He estimates that 10,000 Turks have made use of a business visa plan to move to Britain in the last few years, with a sharp jump in applications since the beginning of 2016. That is double the number from 2004 to 2015.

Applications by Turkish citizens for political asylum also jumped threefold in Britain in the six months after the coup attempt, and sixfold among Turks applying for asylum in Germany, he said, citing figures obtained from the United Nations refugee agency. The number of Turks applying for asylum worldwide jumped by 10,000 in 2017 to more than 33,000.

A large proportion of those fleeing have been followers of Fethullah Gulen, the Pennsylvania-based preacher who is charged with instigating the 2016 coup, or people accused of being followers, often on flimsy evidence.

Tens of thousands of teachers and academics were purged from their jobs after the coup, including hundreds who had signed a peace petition calling on the government to cease military action in Kurdish cities and return to the peace process. Hundreds have taken up posts abroad.

Mr. Erdogan has tried to make Turkey more conservative and religious, with a growing middle class and a tight circle of elites who are especially beholden to him for their economic success.

The flight of capital and talent is the result of this conscious effort by Mr. Erdogan to transform the society, said Bekir Agirdir, director of the Konda polling company.

With the help of subsidies and favorable contracts, the government has helped new businesses to emerge, and they are rapidly replacing the old ones, he said. There is a transfer of capital underway, he said. It is social and political engineering.

Ilker Birbil, a mathematician who faces charges for signing the peace petition and left Turkey to take up a position at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands, warned that the country was losing people permanently.

People who are leaving do not want to come back, Mr. Birbil said, citing the polarized political climate in the country. This is alarming for Turkey.

I have received so many emails from students and friends who are trying to get out of Turkey, he said.

Students are despairing of change partly because they have grown up with Mr. Erdogan in power for 17 years, said Erhan Erkut, a founder of MEF University in Istanbul, which teaches innovation and entrepreneurship.

This is the only government they have seen, they do not know there is another possibility, he said.

Families are setting up businesses abroad for the next generation to inherit, said Mr. Sirkeci of Regents University, adding that many students at his private university fell into that category.

At least 12,000 of Turkeys millionaires around 12 percent of the countrys wealthy class moved their assets out of the country in 2016 and 2017, according to the Global Wealth Migration Review, an annual report produced by AfrAsia Bank.

Most of them moved to Europe or the United Arab Emirates, the report said. Turkeys largest business center, Istanbul, was listed among the top seven cities worldwide experiencing an exodus of wealthy people.

If one looks at any major country collapse in history, it is normally preceded by a migration of wealthy people away from that country, the report said.

Mr. Erdogan has reviled as traitors businesspeople who have moved their assets abroad as the Turkish economy began to falter.

Pardon us, we do not forgive, he warned in a speech at the Foreign Economic Relations Board, a business association in Istanbul in April. The hands of our nation would be on their collars both in this world and in the afterlife.

Behavior like this cannot have a valid explanation, Mr. Erdogan added.

His comments came amid reports that some of Turkeys largest companies were divesting in Turkey. Several such companies have made significant transfers of capital abroad, amid fears they would be targeted in the post-coup crackdown or as the economy began to contract.

One is the Turkish food giant Yildiz Holding, which came under fire on social media as being linked to Mr. Gulens movement.

Soon after, Yildiz rescheduled $7 billion of debt and sold shares of its Turkish biscuit maker, Ulker, to its London-based holding company, essentially transferring the familys majority holding of Ulker out of reach of Turkish courts.

(Yildiz representatives did not immediately respond to requests for an interview, but after publication of this article, they said that its companies were in no way associated with the Gulenist movement, which it called a terrorist group, and that the transfer of its debt and shares to its London-based holding company had no impact on its companys commitment to and operations in Turkey.)

Billions of dollars have fled Turkey in the last couple of years, especially after the coup attempt when people started to feel threatened, said Mehmet Gun, the owner of a law firm in Istanbul.

Ms. Bayindir, the designer, began slowly moving her company to London two years ago. In Turkey she had half a dozen workers and a showroom, but now she designs and makes the hats herself out of a rented atelier in London.

I could have stayed, in Istanbul, she said. I would be better off.

But life in Turkey had become so tense, she said, that she fears civil strife or even civil war could develop between Erdogan supporters and their opponents.

Now when I come here I dont see the same Istanbul. She does not have energy anymore. She looks tired, Ms. Bayindir said. Me not wanting to come here is a big, big thing, because I am one of those people who is in love with the city itself.

Read more:
Spurning Erdogans Vision, Turks Leave in Droves, Draining ...