|
Secret Witness
A secret witness (or anonymous witness) is a witness which is granted anonymity in a trial by the juridical authority. The identity of the witness is not disclosed to the defendant and the general public except the secret witness agrees to it. It is a juridical procedure currently often used in Turkish law. Prominent examples are the case against Andrew Brunson and the Ergenekon trials. In several trials against politicians of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) secret witnesses are also used. Following the attempted coup d'état in 2016, secret witnesses were used in many trials. Turkey Evidence provided by the secret witness dubbed ''Garson'' was used in trials against 4000 Turkish police officers accused of being members of the Gülen movement. In the Kobani trial, the former Mayor of Diyarbakır Gültan Kişanak is accused by secret witnesses of organizing the Kobanî protests supporting the Kurds during the Siege of Kobanî by the Islamic State (IS). Eren Erdem of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Andrew Brunson
Andrew Craig Brunson (born January 3, 1968) is an American pastor and a teaching elder of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Brunson was an evangelical pastor of the Izmir Resurrection Church, a small Protestant church with about 24 congregants. German news service T-Online describes the church as having been held in a room in a tenement. Brunson was arrested in October 2016 in Turkey, where he had lived since the mid-1990s, for being associated with the Gülenist Terror Group ( FETÖ) and the PKK as well as espionage, during the purges following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt against the democratically elected government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (along with the arrests of tens of thousands of Gulenist Turkish military personnel, civil servants, educators, academics, dissidents, and journalists). In 2019, Brunson published a memoir about his ordeal. On September 28, 2017, Erdoğan unsuccessfully proposed exchanging Brunson for Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic preach ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ergenekon (allegation)
Ergenekon () was the name given to an alleged clandestine, secular ultra-nationalist organization in Turkey with possible ties to members of the country's military and security forces. The would-be group, named after Ergenekon, a mythical place located in the inaccessible valleys of the Altay Mountains, was accused of terrorism in Turkey. Some believed Ergenekon was part of the " deep state". The existence of the "deep state" was affirmed in Turkish opinion after the Susurluk scandal in 1996. Alleged members had been indicted on charges of plotting to foment unrest, among other things by assassinating intellectuals, politicians, judges, military staff, and religious leaders, with the ultimate goal of toppling the incumbent government. Ergenekon's ''modus operandi'' had been compared to Operation Gladio's Turkish branch, the Counter-Guerrilla. By April 2011, over 500 people had been taken into custody and nearly 300 formally charged with membership in what prosecutors de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Secret Trial
A secret trial is a trial that is not open to the public or generally reported in the news, especially any in-trial proceedings. Generally, no official record of the case or the judge's verdict is made available. Often there is no indictment. Secret trials have been characteristic of many dictatorships in the modern era, but are also used in many democratic nations, with the explanation of being necessary for national security. They are a hotly debated topic in many circles, but are generally accepted in the western world as they are seen as protecting the " greater good". Australia It is possible that some wholly-secret trials occurred in Australia during World War I or World War II. In the 21st century, several secret trials have occurred or are set to occur in Australia: * In 2018, " Witness J" was tried and imprisoned by the Australian government in near-total secrecy. The existence of Witness J was discovered only by chance by a judge, and the scant details were reporte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Murder Of Charlene Ellis And Letisha Shakespeare
Two teenage girls, Charlene Ellis, 18, and Letisha Shakespeare, 17, were shot with a MAC-10 machine pistol, outside a hair salon in Birchfield Road, Aston, Birmingham, England, as they were leaving a party in the early hours of 2 January 2003, in a gang-related drive-by shooting. Shakespeare and Ellis were described as "best friends" and "innocent victims". Charlene's twin sister Sophie, cousin Cheryl Shaw and a friend, Leon Harris, were also injured. Shaw was shot in the hand. The shooting, investigated by the West Midlands Police under its new Chief Constable, Paul Scott-Lee, was part of a feud between two Birmingham gangs, the "Johnson Crew" and the "Burger Bar Boys", and was in response to the murder of Yohanne Martin, a Burger Bar Boys associate. Four men were each convicted of murder and attempted murder at Leicester Crown Court in March 2005. Marcus Ellis, 24 (Charlene's half-brother), Michael Gregory, 22, and Nathan Martin, 26 (brother of Yohanne), were jailed for ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Arrested Mayors In Turkey
The following is an incomplete list of arrested mayors in Turkey. {, class="wikitable" , +Arrested Mayors !Mayor !District !Arrested !Released !Status !Charge !Party !Source , - , Mehdi Zana , Diyarbakır , March 1980 , 1992 , released , , Independent , , - , colspan="8" , 1999–2009 , - , Recep Tayyip Erdogan , Istanbul , 27 March 1999 , July 1999 , released after four months , sentenced to 10 months imprisonment for citing a poem , Welfare Party , , - , Feridun Çelik , Diyarbakır , Feb. 2000 , 28 Feb. 2000 , released , For allegedly supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). , HADEP , , - , Selim Özalp , Siirt , Feb. 2000 , Feb. 2000 , released , For allegedly supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). , HADEP , , - , Feyzullah Karaaslan , Bingöl , Feb. 2000 , Feb. 2000 , released , For allegedly supporting the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). , HADEP , , - , colspan="8" , 2009–2014 , - , Ferit Çelik , Karliova , 5 April 2012 , , sentenced ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human rights abusers to denounce abuse and respect human rights, and the group often works on behalf of refugees, children, migrants, and political prisoners. Human Rights Watch, in 1997, shared the Nobel Peace Prize as a founding member of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and it played a leading role in the 2008 treaty banning cluster munitions. The organization's annual expenses totaled $50.6 million in 2011, $69.2 million in 2014, and $75.5 million in 2017. History Human Rights Watch was co-founded by Robert L. Bernstein Jeri Laber and Aryeh Neier as a private American NGO in 1978, under the name Helsinki Watch, to monitor the then-Soviet Union's compliance with the Helsinki Accords. Helsinki Watch adopted a practice of p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nationalist Movement Party
The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; tr, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right and ultranationalist political party. The group is often described as neo-fascist, and has been linked to some violent paramilitaries and organized crime groups. The party is represented by 48 MPs in the Turkish Parliament which support the AKP government. Its leader is Devlet Bahçeli. The party was formed in 1969 by former Turkish Army colonel Alparslan Türkeş, who had become leader of the Republican Villagers Nation Party (CKMP) in 1965. The party mainly followed a Pan-Turkist and Turkish nationalist political agenda throughout the latter half of the 20th century. Devlet Bahçeli took over after Türkeş's death in 1997. The party's youth wing is the Grey Wolves (''Bozkurtlar'') organization, which is also known as the "Nationalist Hearths" (''Ülkü Ocakları'') which contributed to the political violence in Turkey ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voice Of America
Voice of America (VOA or VoA) is the state-owned news network and international radio broadcaster of the United States of America. It is the largest and oldest U.S.-funded international broadcaster. VOA produces digital, TV, and radio content in 48 languages which it distributes to affiliate stations around the globe. It is primarily viewed by a non-American audience. VOA was established in 1942, and the VOA charter (Public Laws 94-350 and 103–415) was signed into law in 1976 by President Gerald Ford. VOA is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent agency of the U.S. government. Funds are appropriated annually under the budget for embassies and consulates. In 2016, VOA broadcast an estimated 1,800 hours of radio and TV programming each week to approximately 236.6 million people worldwide with about 1,050 employees and a taxpayer-funded annual budget of . While Voice of America is seen by some foreign liste ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was established in London in 1851 by the German-born Paul Reuter. It was acquired by the Thomson Corporation of Canada in 2008 and now makes up the media division of Thomson Reuters. History 19th century Paul Reuter worked at a book-publishing firm in Berlin and was involved in distributing radical pamphlets at the beginning of the Revolutions in 1848. These publications brought much attention to Reuter, who in 1850 developed a prototype news service in Aachen using homing pigeons and electric telegraphy from 1851 on, in order to transmit messages between Brussels and Aachen, in what today is Aachen's Reuters House. Reuter moved to London in 1851 and established a news wire agency at the London Royal Exchange. Headquartered in London, R ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of southeastern Turkey and northern Iraq. Since 1984, the PKK has utilized asymmetric warfare in the Kurdish–Turkish conflict (with several ceasefires between 1993 and 2013–2015). Although the PKK once sought an independent Kurdish state, in the 1990s its aims shifted toward autonomy and increased rights for Kurds within Turkey. The PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, the EU and some other countries; however, the labeling of the PKK as a terrorist organization is controversial, and some analysts and organizations contend that the PKK no longer engages in organized terrorist activities or systemically targets civilians. Turkey has often viewed the demand for education in Kurdish language as supportin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Şemdin Sakık
Şemdin Sakık (born Muş Province, Turkey 1959), nicknamed ''Semo'' or ''Parmaksiz Zeki'' (fingerless Zeki) for having lost a finger while firing a rocket, is a former commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. He is best known for ordering the May 24, 1993 PKK ambush. He has been imprisoned since his capture in Iraqi Kurdistan by Turkish forces in 1998, shortly after his defection to the Kurdistan Democratic Party. He was a key witness in the Ergenekon trials. Background In statements to the Ergenekon trials in 2012, he said that he became a PKK sympathizer in 1979, and joined after the 1980 Turkish coup d'état as a way of leaving the country'' Today's Zaman'', 6 November 2012Secret witness reveals identity, shady ties between PKK and Ergenekon/ref> after a dispute with his father in which he shot and wounded him. His brother Sırrı Sakık was a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Bingöl massa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle East Institute
The Middle East Institute (MEI) is a non-profit, non-partisan think tank and cultural center in Washington, D.C., founded in 1946. It seeks to "increase knowledge of the Middle East among the United States citizens and promote a better understanding between the people of these two areas." History Founding years In 1946, architect George Camp Keiser felt strongly that the Middle East, a region he had traveled through before World War II, should be better understood in the United States, so he brought together a group of like-minded people to form the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. His colleagues on the original Board of Governors included Halford L. Hoskins, Director of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS); Christian A. Herter, then-congressman from Massachusetts and later Dwight Eisenhower's Secretary of State; Ambassador George V. Allen; Harold Glidden, Director of the Islamic Department at the Library of Congress; and Ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
.svg "Click for more on -> Voice Of America")
