Ovi magazine; Friday June 3rd, 2022 – World Bicycle Day

The articles, the opinions, the stories, the poems and the cartoons Ovi magazine covers for Friday June 3rd, 2022 – World Bicycle Day

In April 2018, the United Nations General Assembly declared June 3 as World Bicycle Day. The resolution for World Bicycle Day recognizes “the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries, and that it is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transport.”

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Turkey Spoils the Big NATO Party by Dr. Binoy Kampmark

Complacency has been the hallmark of NATO expansion.  Over time, it has even become a form of derision, notably directed against Russia.  As with many historical matters, records ignored can be records revisited, the second time around sometimes nastier than the first.

With the Ukraine conflict raging, a few of Russia’s neighbours have reconsidered their position of military non-alignment and neutrality.  Last month, both Sweden and Finland submitted membership applications to formally join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

This reconsiderationmust be taken with the heaviest of qualifications.  Sweden and Finland, while they have claimed neutrality and non-alignment status, have hardly been neutral on the subject of cooperation with NATO.  Since the 1990s, Sweden has become an increasingly important partner of the alliance, using its military in concert with NATO exercises.  Finland, with its 280,000 troops and 900,000 reservists, also boasts an interoperability function with the alliance.   

Continue reading HERE!

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Demonstratives #poem by Neil Leadbeater

“On a point of grammar
demonstrative pronouns and determiners
are singular this and that
and plural these and those.“

Continue reading HERE!

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Worming #037 #cartoon by Thanos Kalamidas

For more worming, HERE!

For more Ovi Cartoons, HERE!

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More Kurds killed in Turkey airstrikes

The Turkish military launched airstrikes on Kurdish rebel positions in southeastern Turkey on Friday evening, killing 19 people, the military said.

The strikes followed a rebel attack on a military outpost in Hakkari province in which two Turkish soldiers were killed, according to the military's Web site. Turkey has been staging military attacks against rebels with the PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, in Turkey and in northern Iraq. The PKK is a leftist insurgent group that formed in 1984 to fight for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey.

These people ask nothing more than what Kosovo people asked and the Americans were so ready to recognize. If Kosovo people have a right for independence then Kurds have the history and the millions of people to support them as well.

The Ovi magazine today

Kosovo's cannibalism by Thanos Kalamidas
In a civil war, like the one that happened in the former Yugoslavia, there are good guys and bad guys, since the truth is that there were a lot of times I felt very lonely or that due to my origins I was blamed to support only one side.

Why the Poor Stay Hungry by Rene Wadlow
As the United Nations Secretary-General said on 29 April 2008 at the end of a high-level meeting of UN Agencies in Bern, Switzerland devoted to the world food crisis "The food crisis threatens to undo all our good work."

Relocation of Rohingyas in a Deserted Island in Thailand by Rohingya Human Rights
In 1852, the government of the French Emperor Napoleon III opened a penitentiary island known as "Devil's Island" which was used for the settlement of convicts ranging from political prisoners to the most hardened of thieves and murderers.

EU's Regional Policy and Kurdish Question by Europe & Us
The Republic of Turkey has a credibility problem regarding solutions to the Kurdish question. Accepting Kurds as interlocutors seems difficult for those ruling elites whether they are old-style Kemalists or new-fashion Islamists.

Turkey kills 150 Kurdish

Turkish air strikes in northern Iraq this week left more than 150 Kurdish rebels dead, the Turkish army says.

"According to initial estimates, this operation allowed us to neutralize more than 150 terrorists," the army said in a statement on its website. A PKK spokesman said that only six rebels were killed and they were from a different faction.

Turkey has staged several cross-border raids into northern Iraq over the past few months in pursuit of the rebels. The strikes, which began on Thursday and ended on Friday, were carried out against PKK guerrillas based in the Qandil Mountains in northern Iraq, the Turkish army says.

All targeted posts in Qandil area were destroyed during the operation, according to the Turkish army's statement. But a PKK spokesman, Ahmed Danees, told the Reuters news agency only six rebels died and they were from a faction fighting against Iran.

Turkey is building up more genocide! It was the Armenian now it is the Kurds!!! Who knows how many innocent have died from the Turkish bombs and shootings the last years from innocent Kurds who only ask for their freedom?

Turkish police beats May Day marchers

Turkish riot police have used tear gas and water cannon to prevent protesters from staging a banned May Day rally in the centre of Istanbul.

The authorities say 505 people were arrested and several were hurt as crowds tried to reach Taksim Square. Stones and bottles were thrown at security forces and police wearing gas masks broke up the demonstrators.

The Turkish government banned May Day celebrations in and around the square after 34 people died in 1977. Turkey's three main union confederations had announced they would try to hold a rally, but eventually they gave up because of the clashes.

Police set up barricades around the square to enforce the ban, imposed after officials said they had received reports that radicals were planning violent protests. Local media said six police and an unknown number of demonstrators were injured.

Too much about turkey leading towards democracy. It took only hours to prove how many wrong things there are in this Asian country!

Turkey becomes …very slowly democracy

Turkey's parliament has approved the softening of a law criticized by the EU for limiting free speech.

Article 301 of the penal code has been used to prosecute Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and other intellectuals. Since 2003, hundreds of people have been tried under the controversial law for "insulting Turkishness".

However, critics argue the amendments do not go far enough. Insulting the Turkish nation will still be a crime, punishable by two years in jail. Parliament voted 250-65 in favor of a government-backed proposal to make changes to the law late on Tuesday night.

Under the reformed law:

It will be a crime to insult the Turkish nation, rather than Turkishness.

The justice minister will be required to open each case.

The maximum sentence will be two years in jail, rather than three.

The EU has long called for changes to Article 301, arguing that the law places severe restrictions on free speech in Turkey. The issue has threatened to scupper Turkey's EU accession talks.

Amazing and inexcusable that any country in the civil world would ever have this kind of laws! I hope you noticed that the Turks ...soften the law!!! these are very ...slow steps towards democracy!

Erdogan in Syria

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, as part of efforts to secure a peace deal between Syria and Israel.

Mr. Erdogan said both nations had sought Turkey's help on the issue. Mediation would begin at a low level and, if successful, progress to higher-level officials, he said.

On Thursday Syria said Israel had indicated it would be prepared to withdraw from the Golan Heights in return for peace. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has declined to comment on the reports, but Mr. Olmert has said that he is interested in peace in Syria.

Israel and Syria remain technically at war, although both sides have recently spoken of their desire for peace.

It looks like a holiday advert; dictators from all around the world come to Syria … What’s the matter with Erdogan? He heard that the North Koreans help Syria to build a nuclear reactor and they run to take their share?

UN condemns Turkey border deaths

The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) has accused Turkish police of causing the deaths of four men by forcing them into a river on the Turkey-Iraq border.

The strong current swept the men away, the UNHCR said, quoting witnesses. The incident happened on Wednesday at an unpatrolled stretch of the border near the Habur crossing point, in Sirnak province, the UNHCR said.

At least one of the four was an Iranian. They were among 18 Iranians and Syrians refused entry into Iraq. There has been no comment from the Turkish authorities.

And does anybody thinks that Turkey cares if UN condemns, they are killing daily innocent Kurds, they occupy European land and they will care for a few more dead?

The Ovi magazine today

Betting on addiction by Asa Butcher
There is rarely a news story that jumps out and waves its arms for attention, but this week I couldn't fail to overlook YLE Online News' headline "Finns Lose Millions in Online Poker to Foreign Firms Yearly".

Turkish hopes by Thanos Kalamidas
Turkey today, whether they want to admit it or not, is somehow the continuation of the Ottoman Empire and this is natural.

A Little Dab'll Do Yer by Clint Wayne
'Brylcreem', that white creamy 'gunk' that I remember my Dad unwrapping every birthday, celebrates its own birthday having been created in Birmingham by County Chemicals at their Chemico Works 80 years ago this week.

Belgian Report by Euro Reporter
Throughout the galaxy, Belgium is the most unspeakably rude word there is... Euro Reporter heads there.

Turkey’s midnight express hits 'World peace' hitch-hiker

An Italian woman artist who was hitch-hiking to the Middle East dressed as a bride to promote world peace has been found murdered in Turkey.

The naked body of Giuseppina Pasqualino di Marineo, 33, known as Pippa Bacca, was found in bushes near the city of Gebze on Friday. She had said she wanted to show that she could put her trust in the kindness of local people.

Turkish police say they have detained a man in connection with the killing. Reports say the man led the police to the body.

And all that happened in the supposedly western side of turkey near Istanbul imagine what’s going on in other parts!

PKK not a terrorist group

A ruling to blacklist Kurdish rebel group the PKK as a terrorist organization and freeze its assets has been overturned by an EU court.

The European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg said the 2002 decision was illegal under EU law. The court said the EU had failed to tell the PKK in advance of the decision, as it was required to do. The PKK, or Kurdistan Workers' Party, has been fighting Turkish troops in its campaign for greater autonomy. Turkey has recently launched a series of cross-border attacks on Kurdish rebels who it says have used bases in northern Iraq to launch raids into Turkey.

The thin line between be a terrorist and a liberator. Let’s see how Turkey will excuse now the invasion in Iraq.

Turkey’s courts

Turkey's constitutional court is expected to rule whether or not to hear a case aimed at closing down the country's governing AK party.

The chief prosecutor has filed a petition calling for the party to be closed for "anti-secular activities". He also wants dozens of its members, including the prime minister and president, to be banned from politics. The case revives a battle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the AK party of devout Muslims.

Everyday closer to democracy in Turkey! Most likely Musharraf’s Pakistan is the example for them after all in Turkey the army is the real ruler!!!

Turks forgot the Kurds when supporting Kosovo

Clashes have broken out in a number of cities in Turkey between police and demonstrators celebrating the Kurdish spring festival. You see in Turkey Kurds have no rights in anything, language, believes, traditions.

Dozens of people were hurt and scores arrested in the protests, media said. In the worst violence, police used tear gas and water cannon in Van against protesters chanting slogans in support of the banned PKK Kurdish rebel group. Which is natural, what this people ask is very simple, independence from a tyrannical state that suppresses them.

By the way I think Turkey was one of the first countries to support the independence of Kosovo, why now don’t they support the independence of the Kurds? The unrest follows last month's incursion by Turkey's army into northern Iraq to target the PKK but why they always connect everything to PKK? The simple Kurdish people want to get rid of the Turks; they want their independence and freedom which is natural.

Turkey's real rulers

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticised a proposal to ban his ruling AK Party as being against the "national will".

He was speaking after Turkey's chief prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the party, accusing it of anti-secular activities. Turkey's secularist constitution does not allow any religious influence on the operation of the state. The AK Party, which has Islamic roots, won last year's general elections.

You must admit that it took him a bit to understand something the rest of the world knows, that Turkey is far from democracy; is just that it is Turkish style dictatorship with the generals controlling everything from the dark back rooms. Just look what happened when the puppet tried to break the strings; prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed there was enough evidence to show the party had contravened Turkey's secular constitution.

About time for Tayyip to see who are his real allies and perhaps for the Turkish people to see who's telling them the truth!

Freedom of speech and turkey

Obviously the words 'freedom of speech' and the state of Turkey have nothing to do with each other despite the title 'Turkish democracy', but after all there were a lot of dictatorships in history that liked to add the word democracy on their title.

What’s the latest from the Turkish ‘democracy’?

A Kurdish politician in Turkey has been sentenced to six months in prison for referring to jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan as "Mr Ocalan".

A court in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir said the use of "Mr" by Ahmet Turk implied respect for Ocalan.

And this country wants to join EU?