Amnesty International have expressed outrage at Turkey for routinely firing rounds of bullets at Syrian refugees, including children. According to reports, Ankara refused to allow wounded civilians from Syria enter their country, whilst Turkish border guards attacked refugees, forcing them to seek aid from illegal carriers. Pravdareport.com reports: “There have been many reports of incidents on the border.
Submitted by Raul Ilargi Meijer via The Automatic Earth blog,
“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.”
– Groucho Marx
Journalists in Turkey clashed with authorities in protests against a government-orchestrated take-over of Turkish newspaper Zaman earlier this week, as a mass crackdown on independent media in Turkey has been implemented by Erdogan’s administration. The Turkish government have said they will shutdown or take over any media that is critical of government policy. The Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Murat Emir has criticised the crackdown as illegally stifling free speech and independent media.
Thousands took to the streets of London to protest against Ankara’s military operation against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which causes suffering to the Kurdish minority both in Turkey and beyond. Organized by an activist group known as Stop War on Kurds, the protest took place in central London on Sunday amid media silence. RT reports: The crowd was a mixture of both Kurds and non-Kurdish supporters.
On Monday, officials from the EU and Turkey are gathered in Brussels to do some talking about the refugee crisis that threatens to tear Europe apart at the seams. And make no mistake, “talk” is probably all they’ll do.