The Pen is Mightier than the Sword

In the immediate aftermath of the events in Paris, war has been declared on the enemies of Freedom of Expression as the international media, especially cartoonists and satirists who have been bombarding those who fear self-expression, with their own deadly weapons. There is lead in the pencil, sharpened nibs a-plenty; ink is flowing and brushes waving across the canvas of the world's collective revulsion at the cowardly acts carried out at the offices of the satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo. Pens raining like arrows from an English Longbow pierce the shields of the enemy and their guns are dashed from their grip and smashed into a state whereby conversion to plough shears might be the only option.

Pens Poised!

 Clearly what I mean to portray here is that far from being deterred from expressing world events and components of wider society, artists skilled with brushes and pens relative to the calling of the individual, have filled both newspaper and virtual media with breath-taking images of defiance, yet not a drop of blood has been split in consequence to the collective onslaught of simply devasting skill and quality. 

 The origins of course, of this artistic fusillade stem from the moment that gunmen shot dead 12 people at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in an apparent militant Islamist attack. Four of the magazine's well-known cartoonists, including its editor, were among those killed, as well as two police officers. It is believed to be the deadliest attack in France since 1961, when right-wingers who wanted to keep Algeria French bombed a train, killing 28 people.
The masked attackers opened fire with assault rifles in the office and exchanged shots with police in the street outside before escaping by car. They later abandoned the car in Rue de Meaux, northern Paris, where they hijacked a second car.

"Don't draw as you do; draw as we say!"

At the time of penning this article, in which I deliberately upload as many images as I can simply in respectful tribute not only to the artists concerned, but most definitely those who were murdered, French Police and Specialist Forces have cornered the two remaining fugatives in a small printing business in Dammartin-en-Goele, 35km (22 miles) from Paris; the gunmen reportedly said they were prepared to die: It is to be hoped that they are not denied their ambition!

Paris 7/1

In unfolding news, a shooting has been reported at a kosher business in the east of Paris. A gunman, believed to be the killer of a policewoman in Paris on Thursday, has taken 5 hostages at the store! Earlier, a police source linked the killing of the policewoman to the Charlie Hebdo attack. There can and is no doubt, that there was a great deal of planning and training involved here and it is reasonable to suggest, that these event have been planned for sometime, with some experts speculating that Yemen was the training ground and perhaps the base for a command structure.

Children draw for peace

It seems likely that if not today (9/1) but over the weekend, the fugatives will be either captured or neutralised. France is already plunged into mourning and it is right and proper that hands are extended towards them all collectively, not only across the English Channel, itself awash with a history of past conflicts, but from the wider world in general. In the meantime and behind the scenes, our respective security and intelligence services will undoubtedly be ramping up and honing their operations and it is to be hoped that pre-emptive strikes may well be initiated sooner rather than later against the world's collective enemy.

Needs no explanation!

We mere mortals can do very little but to remain as alert as we can especially at transport node points, places of worship especially perhaps, synagogue's amongst other such places. Even sporting arena's may not be immune to attack. This is not to appear scare-mongering; it is merely an expression of common-sense. As citizens of the world, irrespective of creed, colour or calling, we have a collective duty to look out for each other, to love our neighbours and to strive to do towards others as we ourselves would desire to be treated. If we do so, we adhere to the Prime Commandment not only of Christianity, but Islam too and as such, there can be no simpler and bloodless way to defeat the common enemy.

May Peace and Blessings be upon you all now, and always. Amen.

By

Chris Green

Beşparmak Media Services

 

UK loses bid to opt out of benefits with Turkey: More Foreign Meddling! – Who actually won the war?

Britain loses yet another case in the European Court!

A quietly issued ruling by The European Court means that Britain could face having to pay benefits to Turkish migrants and their families. Britain sought to exercise an opt-out from the EU-Turkey agreement and took the case the European Court where the UK Government had argued it should be allowed to opt out of an agreement giving workers from Turkey the same benefit rights as those from the EU. 

Ministers feared the Brussels ‘power grab’ would make Britain an even more attractive destination for immigrants and would lead to higher spending on welfare payments and pensions. This ruling means any Turks who are allowed to come to Britain to work will be able to claim benefits for themselves and their families as well as building up pensions, which they could then transfer back to their home countries if they retire there. Of course, they still have to obtain a visa and right to work which is anything but easy here these days, unless you are Somalian, Nigerian or such-like!

Whether or not in reality, Britain does end up shelling out a pile of cash in this direction is far from certain, for whilst there are a great many Turkish people already living in the UK, indeed many are friends and near-neighbours of this columnist, 100% of these are working, some running their own businesses and very much ‘in the system’ so to speak, in so far as they fully account for their taxes and so forth. So is this a Mail on Sunday/UKIP scare-mongering story? Some might argue this to be the case, but perhaps we should look deeper, for the UK does seem to be on the losing end of most analogous cases where the European Court gets involved. Ironically, this simply adds fuel to the Out of Europe campaign, one which is fervently supported by the writer.

Britain is in many ways a unique member-state of the European Union in as much as it is not only one of the largest net contributors to the entire cabal, it is the only nation that failed to allow its electorate a vote on whether we joined or not. The referendum in 1973 was for the Common Market, the EU followed the EEC which is something else we didn’t get a vote on either. 

It is here argued that the primary reason why successive governments have not allowed a vote on further and deeper European integration is because each has known intuitively, that the outcome of the vote would be resoundingly negative AND in the event that we do get an in-out vote in 2017, it is likely that more than two-thirds of the electorate will vote in favour of leaving and this writer will cast his vote in a like-manner too. Of course, this materially depends on our having a Tory government next May and as things stand, this is far from a certainty although at least the weak, pro-Federal EU Lib Dems are likely to cease to exist post-May 2015 and this has to be a good thing.

The main thrust of the argument being made within this article has nothing to do with the limited possibility that we might have to make payouts to Turkish migrants. It is more that the UK has slowly but surely lost its ability to govern its own affairs. More and more legislative powers are being ceded via the Channel Tunnel to what is effectively a foreign entity and a non-democratic one at that. Britain more than just contributed to winning two World Wars yet Germany has in effect, gained far more pan-European dominance in peace time than could ever have been so achieved in war! Some politicians actually want a Federal EU and these are not limited to the Lib-Dem benches either as there are both Tory and Labour MP’s who share this ambition. Indeed the Prime Minister himself is intuitively pro-EU although not, thankfully a Federalist. 

To quote Winston Churchill in respect of Europe, consider these words: "We are with Europe, not of it. We are linked but not compromised. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed."

By

 Chris Green

Beşparmak Media Services

 

“Islamic State is in Kobane – where next?”

 At the time of penning this article, fighting between Islamic State (IS) militants and Syrian Kurds is reported to have spread to a southern district of the town of Kobane on the Turkish border, as US-led air strikes continue. In excess of 40% of this key border town is now in Islamic State hands; who knows what terrors await those inhabitants who remain there. Eerily, the menacing Black Flags of Islamic State are said to be flying in a number of locations over the eastern side of Kobane, a Syrian Kurdish town. 

Before the offensive, Kobane, known as Ayn al-Arab in Arabic, was home to refugees from the civil war which pits rebels against President Bashar al-Assad and has deteriorated into hundreds of localised battles between different factions. In the past week or so, more than 2,000 Syrian Kurds including women and children have been evacuated from the town, a member of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) has suggested, joining countless thousand other refugees in Turkey.

It seems quite astonishing that the IS hordes have been allowed to advance as far as they have, for it is quite obvious that Kobane has a high strategic value giving IS a clear run at the Syrian/Turkey border, thereby posing a significant threat to Turkish security, which may already have been compromised as it seems inconceivable that there are not already a number of ‘sleeper cells’ or dormant IS units behind Turkish lines awaiting 'orders'. 

Turkey finds herself in a difficult position seemingly, although Ankara did recently pledge to prevent Kobane from falling to the militants and its parliament authorised military operations against militants in Iraq and Syria. Turkey - a regional superpower with significant troops and armour in the area – does seem to be extremely reluctant to intervene despite that government pledge to do whatever it takes to prevent the Kurdish town of Kobane from falling. 

It (Turkey) wants the US-led coalition to agree on a number of things first, including setting up a no-fly zone and a buffer zone in northern Syria and, crucially, a renewed focus on getting rid of President Assad - which remains Turkey's principal objective. Add to that the very bad blood that has existed for decades between Turkey and its own Kurdish population. Turkey has fought a bloody war against the Kurdish terrorist group, PKK for some 30+ years, and this helps to explain why Ankara remains deeply reluctant to get engaged. It is emphasised here that the PKK are recognised by the UN as a terrorist organisation and rightly so.

 Turkey is at loggerheads primarily with Washington as they demand a concerted Nato effort to depose the Assad regime, together with a multi-force armed buffer zone in the region of the border and the establishment of a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, although given that IS do not appear to have air-force resources, this demand is harder to understand.

More recently, both Iran and Russia have pointedly threatened Turkey of 'consequences', should Ankara attempt to bring down the Assad regime, or 'dynastic kleptocracy', which better describes it. 


An estimated 180,000 people have fled into Turkey from the Kobane region following the ISIL advance boosting the already huge refugee communities that have been established throughout large areas of Turkey. IS/ISIL has also boosted its forces with foreign fighters and defectors from other rebel groups and has gained additional heavy weaponry after its fighters swept through northern Iraq in June, seizing arms from the fleeing Iraqi army. An all out assault on Turkey itself, must been seen as a primary objective of IS/ISIL although their overall objective is not so clear. A ground based counter-offensive against IS would seem to be essential, but Turkey seems highly reluctant to unleash her formidable forces, unilaterally. 

It seems that both IS/ISIL and Turkey do have one thing in common and that is to draw NATO into all out combat. In the event that Turkey - a key NATO member – is attacked, then the other member states are bound to come to their aid, this is very clear. As a parenthetic aside, quite what role Greece would (or could) offer to play in such a scenario, is a matter purely for speculation! One thing does seem to be clear and that is that if NATO is drawn into a land and air war in this region, it will be as close to a World-War situation as we have had since 1945. This is truly a very frightening situation and one hopes that one day, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, both of whom have been key funder’s of Islamic State, will look upon themselves and ask if they were mutually ‘proud’ of what they have materially assisted in creating! They both have blood on their respective hands.

By

Chris Green

Beşparmak Media Services