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'You Are the Future of Europe,' Erdogan Tells Turks New York Times Live in the best houses, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday in the city of Eskisehir, while campaigning for a referendum that would solidify his power. Make not three, but five children. Because you are the future of Europe. That will be the ... Erdogan holds rally on referendum at Turkey WWI eventAljazeera.com Did Putin Try To Influence The Dutch Elections Through Erdogan?Forbes Turkish President Erdogan tells Turk migrants to have as many kids as possible to 'get revenge' on the WestThe Sun Washington Post -Irish Times -The New Arab all 684 news articles »

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'You Are the Future of Europe,' Erdogan Tells Turks - New York Times

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to visit the Netherlands for a stadium-sized campaign event for a referendum that would give him more power, the Telegraaf reports. Turkish organizations tried to rent the Amsterdam ArenA, the Ziggo Dome or the Gelder Dome for the event, but all refused.

According to the newspaper, Erdogan was only willing to visit the Netherlands if he could arrange a meeting attended by tens of thousands of his supporters. He wanted it to be a "historic" meeting.

But as no suitable location could be found, his visit was canceled. Instead it was decided to send Turkish Ministers to campaign for the referendum. The Netherlands refusal to allow these Ministers access to the country to campaign started an ongoing diplomatic row between the two countries.

The Amsterdam ArenA, the Gelderdome and Ziggo Dome all confirmed to the newspaper that they received multiple applications from Turkish organizations in late February.

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Erdogan wanted to hold massive stadium-sized rally in Netherlands: report - NL Times

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Top eurocrats delivered a withering assessment of those attacking the pact, accusing them of being keyboard warriors who had no serious solutions to Europes refugee crisis.

The unusually pointed rebuke came amid speculation that the deal could be close to collapse, with the increasingly authoritarian and erratic Turkish president Recep Erdogan having repeatedly threatened to ditch it.

Ankaras actions have alarmed senior EU officials in recent weeks and months, especially in terms of its crackdowns on free speech and human rights, but they are still determined to keep the agreement in place.

That is because it has been a resounding success in terms of reducing the numbers of new arrivals entering struggling Greece by a whopping 98 per cent in the space of a year.

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Statistics from the UNCHR show that in the first three months of 2016 a massive 151,452 people made it to Greece on rafts from Turkey, but by the same period this year that number had dropped to just 2,813.

And today, despite all its trials and tribulations, top eurocrats continued to hail the pact as a game-changer and said it had saved countless lives by dissuading millions from making the dangerous sea crossing.

EU Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Chinas told a briefing in Brussels: The EU-Turkey statement was a game-changer which allowed us to break the cruel business model of smugglers exploiting human misery and putting peoples lives in danger.

We hear many voices criticising the agreement, but we hear none providing viable alternatives that would have saved as many lives.

EU Commission chief spokesman Margaritis Schinas

He added: We hear many voices criticising the agreement, but we hear none providing viable alternatives that would have saved as many lives.

Yes, implementation continues to be challenging. But whilst others are running social media campaigns, we together with our member states are busy working day in and day out improving the situation on the ground.

Senior EU figures have become increasingly defensive of the accord in recent weeks in light of a series of ever more provocative statements from Turkey over its future.

Last week Ankaras interior minister threatened to scrap the deal and allow 15,000 refugees through to Europe every month if European countries did not back down over a ban on pro-Erdogan rallies.

AFP/Getty Images

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A young boy cries at a makeshift camp for migrants and refugees at the Greek-Macedonian border near the village of Idomeni

Under the terms of the agreement, all economic migrants arriving in Greece are sent back across the Aegean, with the EU taking one Syrian refugee from a camp in Turkey for every person returned.

And EU Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned: It is not in Turkeys interests to have smuggling rings and bandits in charge along its coast.

Operating in cahoots with bandits is not in the travel guide of a candidate country.

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Put up or shut up! Brussels blasts 'keyboard warrior critics' of EU-Turkey migrant deal - Express.co.uk

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended the thirteenth summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), held in Islamabad, Pakistan on the first of March. One of the topics Erdogan spoke about in his speech was the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which he called the mountainous Karabakh problem.

Nagorno-Karabakh, historically known as Artsakh, is a small, diplomatically unrecognized Armenian republic in the southeastern part of Caucasus Minor. Following the constitutional referendum in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic on February 20, the country was renamed Artsakh Republic.

Artsakh has for millennia been an integral part of historic Armenia. Even when Artsakh fell under the rule of foreign conquerors at different periods in history, the population and culture of the land remained predominantly Armenian. However, the Soviet regime established the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Oblast in 1923 within the borders of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic although the area was mostly inhabited by ethnic Armenians.

The 1988 Karabakh File by the Zoryan Institute states that Karabakh, the historic Artsakh province, is central to Armenian cultural and historical identify and statehood...

[It is also] one of the few remaining districts of historic Armenia still inhabited by a majority Armenian population.

For Azerbaijan, the fact that the majority of the Mountainous Karabakh population is Armenian is incidental and secondary to facts: Karabakh is theirs now and it has been part of the development of Azerbaijani national consciousness, largely a post-Sovietization phenomenon... Any change in the status of the territory would be considered at the present time an unacceptable blow to Azerbaijani national pride.

Azerbaijan, which Turkey calls the real owner of mountainous Karabakh, has conducted several violent attacks against the Armenian population, such as the racially motivated pogroms in the cities of Sumgait (February 27-29, 1988), Kirovabad (November 21-27, 1988) and Baku (January 13-19, 1990).

In the face of continued persecution, Nagorno-Karabakh finally declared independence in 1991, to which Azerbaijan, supported by Turkey, responded with military aggression that continued until the 1994 cease-fire. The war had a devastating effect on Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the official website of the Office of the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR) in the US, the countrys health care system, entire road system, water supply systems as well as many social, economic and educational facilities, private homes and residential buildings were completely or partially destroyed.

In his speech in Islamabad, Erdogan announced: Azerbaijan has been suffering from problems for years... We especially cannot ignore the Nagorno-Karabakh problem.

The talks, which have gone on for more than 20 years, have reached no conclusion. The Minsk Group has not been able to resolve this matter. Therefore, we have to take care of ourselves. We have to take these steps in solidarity with the ECO and the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] in a determined manner. We must express Armenias occupation at all kinds of international meetings together. I believe if we do this together, it will be easier to get results.

Erdogan has often expressed Turkeys desire to give mountainous Karabakh to Azerbaijan. For example, during a meeting of the Turkish Red Crescent General Assembly in Ankara last year, Erdogan recited a poem about Karabakh written by the Turkish poet Abdurrahim Karakoc, and added, The persecution will not continue forever.

Karabakh will certainly return to its real owner and belong to Azerbaijan one day.

What would happen if Artsakh Republic were given to Azerbaijan? The answer lies in what happened during the April 2016 Four Day War Azerbaijans Islamic Statelike treatment of the people of Artsakh that included but was not limited to the murder of elderly civilians in their home, who had their ears cut off, and the mutilation or torture of Armenian soldiers from April 2 to April 5 which was well-documented with photographs, video and testimony surrounding several news reports and human rights reports.

During the same war, uniformed Azerbaijani soldiers even posed with the severed head of Yezidi-Armenian soldier Kyaram Sloyan in photos and videos. The soldier who held Sloyans head up by the ears in one of the photos was later reportedly decorated with a medal by the president of Azerbaijan.

Erdogan also mentioned the Cyprus issue in his speech in Islamabad, saying that solidarity with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which is unfairly subjected to isolation, should be enhanced.

Erdogan continued: In this sense, it will be beneficial to make the Turkish Republic of Northern Cypruss temporary observer status in the Economic Cooperation Organization permanent and encourage holding activities of the Economic Cooperation Organization in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

The northern part of the Republic of Cyprus has been under the occupation of Turkish military since 1974. The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey.

Cyprus has been a part of the Greek world as far back as can be attested by recorded history, wrote the author Constantine Tzanos.

After the collapse of the Byzantine Empire and the defeat of the Venetians it fell to Ottoman rule from 1571 to 1878. In 1878 it was placed under British administration, was annexed by Britain in 1914, and in 1925 became a British colony.

On 20 July 1974, Turkey, a UN member state, in violation of the UN charter, claiming a right (which is also questionable) under the Treaty of Guarantee to intervene, invaded Cyprus and defying the UN Security Council quickly occupied 37% of the island, and forced the separation of Greek and Turkish Cypriots into two communities.

Never until the Turkish invasion in 1974 was the northern part of the island majority- Turkish. Turkey has forcibly changed the demographic character of the northern part of Cyprus by driving out Greek Cypriots to the southern part and bringing in thousands of settlers from Turkey as well as some 40,000 Turkish soldiers. Turkey continues to Turkify and Islamize northern Cyprus and wipe out its historic Hellenic and Christian identity through destruction of cultural heritage.

Turkeys extremely different stance toward the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and mountainous Karabakh speaks volumes about Turkeys worldview, hostile to its non-Turkish neighbors. Turkey may try to convince the world that as a NATO member it has largely adopted democratic values and is ready to enter the European Union. But its foreign policy demonstrates that Turkey still carries Islams flag of conquest.

Unfortunately, this world view shaped by Turkish-Islamic supremacism prevents Turkish governments from respecting the sovereignty of non-Turkish and non-Islamic nations, which causes a continued lack of justice, security and stability in the region.

The author is a Turkish journalist based in Washington DC.

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Erdogan condemns Armenian 'occupation,' but says Northern Cyprus 'unfairly isolated - Jerusalem Post Israel News

ANKARA, Turkey Opposition figures in Turkey say they have faced threats, violence, arbitrary detentions, a lack of TV airtime and even sabotage in the campaign for a referendum on expanding the president's powers.

The complaints come even as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan himself has slammed European countries for not letting his ministers campaign on their soil for the April 16 vote on giving his office more power.

Politicians campaigning against the constitutional changes proposed by Erdogan also say the state of emergency in Turkey since a failed coup attempt in July prevents them from getting their message out ahead of the vote.

"Those who advocate for a 'no' vote are faced with a series of obstructions," said Utku Cakirozer, a former journalist who is now a lawmaker for the opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP.

While he, too, criticized moves by Germany and the Netherlands to stop Turkish ministers from campaigning to Turkish citizens abroad, Cakirozer said "our democracy bar has been lowered a great deal and needs to be raised rapidly."

At stake are changes that would usher in an executive presidential system, merging the powers of the prime minister and the president. Erdogan argues that a strong presidency will make Turkey better equipped to deal with economic and security challenges.

Critics say it would give Erdogan too much control and further erode the democratic separation of powers in the country.

With opinion polls suggesting the outcome of the tight race could be determined by yet-undecided voters, "no" campaigners say they face an uphill battle because Turkey's TV channels are either pro-government or refrain from broadcasts critical of the government for fear of reprisals.

Erdogan and members of the government have dominated the airwaves, holding twice-daily campaign speeches that are televised live in their entirety on all channels. Inauguration ceremonies and state-funded official trips also frequently turn into "yes" campaign events.

Meanwhile, the pro-government media largely ignore campaign rallies by the "no" camp. Even state-owned media, which is obliged to be neutral, cuts away early from speeches delivered by CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

Ibrahim Kalin, Erdogan's spokesman, disputed claims of an uneven playing field, saying the opposition was allowed to campaign freely.

"Just because the president and the prime minister's rallies attract more numbers and it looks like only 'yes' campaigning, that's not true. It's a misperception," he told journalists last week.

The CHP says it has counted more than 100 incidents of obstructions to the "no" camp, ranging from physical assaults and death threats to detentions by police.

Sinan Ogan, a "no" campaigner who broke away from a nationalist party that backs Erdogan, was interrupted in mid-speech this month at a university in Istanbul by a man who ran on the stage and knocked down the podium, sparking scuffles in the hall.

"It's either our electricity cut (during rallies) or leaflets torn apart, or (the rally venue) is being restored at the last moment, or the podium is attacked, or there is an interruption attempt so that we cannot speak," he told The Associated Press. "And even if you do speak, no TV station will air it."

His political ally, Meral Aksener, was forced to hold a campaign event in the dark after the electricity at her venue in the city of Canakkale was cut off.

Erdogan, who called the Dutch and German governments Nazis and fascists for barring Turkish ministers from campaigning in those countries, has said those who oppose the constitutional changes include terrorists and coup-plotters.

"That is why I believe my citizens, my brothers, will vote 'yes,'" he said.

Turkey's state of emergency allows the government to rule by decree and to suppress demonstrations and gatherings. Some 41,000 people have been arrested and tens of thousands of others dismissed from public sector jobs for alleged links to the coup attempt or alleged ties to terror groups.

Those in jail include some 150 journalists and a dozen legislators from Turkey's pro-Kurdish party, which also opposes the constitutional changes.

A decree issued under the emergency powers has eliminated the High Electoral Board's ability to slap fines on TV stations that don't devote equal campaign time to opposing sides.

During a visit to Ankara last month, German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for election observers to be allowed to monitor the vote. European institutions have also expressed concerns over the campaign process, including the restrictions on the freedom of expression and the right to assembly.

"If a constitutional referendum must absolutely be held during a state of emergency, restrictions on political freedoms have to be lifted," the Venice Commission, a legal advisory body of the Strasbourg, France-based Council of Europe, said in a recent report. "If the restrictions may not be repealed, the constitutional referendum should be postponed until after the state of emergency."

The Sozcu newspaper, one of the few remaining outlets critical of the government, said in a front-page article Wednesday that what the Netherlands did was "wrong," but questioned what was going on at home.

"The country's system of governance is changing but those who say 'no' are given no space to breathe," it wrote.

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Associated Press writer Mehmet Guzel contributed from Istanbul.

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