For nervous U.S. Democrats, the big question now is: How bad will November's congressional elections be? The answer: Pretty bad. Battling a tough political climate fueled by economic fears and President Barack Obama's political difficulties, Democrats face an uphill struggle to retain control in the House of Representatives and avoid big losses in the Senate. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs's recent statement of the obvious -- that enough races are in play for Republicans to reclaim House control -- was the latest sign of growing Democratic nervousness. All 435 House seats, 36 of 100 Senate seats and 37 governorships are at stake in November, with Republicans needing to gain 39 House seats and 10 Senate seats to reclaim majorities. The non-partisan Cook Political Report lists more than 70 House seats as highly competitive and predicts Republicans will pick up 30 to 40 seats in November -- putting them on the cusp of a majority. "The House is in play," said David Wasserman, Cook's House analyst. "A couple of months ago our forecast for Republican pick-ups would have been 25 to 35 seats. We're at 30 to 40 now. I don't know where we will be in a few months." In the Senate, Republicans would need to sweep nearly all of about 16 competitive races to reclaim the 51 seats needed for control. Poll averages compiled by the web site Real Clear Politics show the Democrats are likely to suffer big Senate losses but narrowly keep control.
II. JPOST - US may list Turkish IHH as terror group
The US State Department is considering adding Turkish Muslim charity organization IHH (The Foundation for Human Rights and Humanitarian Relief) to the list of foreign terrorist organizations, Fox News reported Thursday. The report came after the organization financed and operated the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara on which nine people were killed in a confrontation with IDF soldiers. According to the Fox News report, US State Department spokesman Mark Toner explained that the US government is examining whether the nongovernmental organization will be considered a terrorist group. "I believe we are looking at the IHH, but it's a long process to designate something a foreign terrorist organization and ...there's nothing to announce on that," Toner said. Despite some resistance from within the Obama administration, Fox News sources said that sections of the US Treasury Department are actively investigating the Turkish Muslim charity organization in an attempt to list it as a terror group. The Treasury Department has voiced worries about IHH with Turish officials in the past, yet refused to comment on the alleged considerations. The IHH was recognized by US federal court papers in its role in a failed bomb plot of Los Angeles International Airport 10 years ago. A CIA report in 1996 classifies the group as having ties to terrorist groups. The group was created in 1992 with the intended goal of aiding Bosnian Muslims but since then, it has evolved and spread to many locations throughout the world including Lebanon, Pakistan, Sudan, Somali and the Palestinian territories. The US State and Treasury Departments' investigations follow a letter written by a bipartisan group made up of 87 US senators to US President Obama in June in which the senators called upon Obama not to waiver his administration's support for Israel. The letter also requested Obama investigate IHH. "We are deeply concerned about the IHH's role in this incident and have additional questions about Turkey and any connections to Hamas," the letter read. "The IHH is a member of a group of Muslim charities, the Union of Good, which was designated by the US Treasury Department as a terrorist organization. The Union of Good was created by, and strongly supports Hamas, which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the US State Department. We recommend that your administration consider whether the IHH should be put on the list of foreign terrorist organizations, after an examination by the intelligence community, the State Department, and the Treasury Department." Once designating IHH as a terror group, the Turkish government "will be between a rock and a hard place," Dr. Soner Cagaptay, senior fellow and director of the Turkish research program at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy in Washington, told Fox News. "Will it ban IHH, to which it has close ties? Or will it choose to ignore the US designation, doing something quite unfitting a NATO ally, therefore creating a serious rift in bilateral ties?" speculated Cagaptay. Fox News had not received a response from the Turkish Embassy in Washington after the network questioned the possibility of adding IHH as a terror group.
III. PEOPLESDAILY - Differences over Cyprus, identity make Turkey's EU membership a remote dream
Though EU officials have repeatedly assured Turkey over its bid to join the bloc, analysts believe some EU members' strong objection has made the Muslim-majority country's accession almost impossible in the foreseeable future. During a Tuesday meeting in Istanbul, EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton reiterated that the 27-member bloc has a "clear mandate" on Ankara's EU membership bid and called for accelerated negotiations. The meeting rekindled hope for Turkey to join the EU more than two decades after Ankara requested for the EU membership in 1987. However, bilateral talks have been slow since the EU opened accession talks with Turkey in 2005. Until now, both sides have completed negotiations on only one policy area out of a total 35 needed for an EU membership. Mensur Akgun, director of Turkey's Global Politics Trend Research Center, attributed Ankara's failure to seek an EU membership to a combination of domestic politics and foreign policy factors. "The Cyprus issue remains the biggest obstacle for Turkey to join the EU," Akgun said, referring to Ankara's dispute with Athens over the Cyprus issue. Greece, an EU member, staunchly opposes Turkey's EU bid unless Turkey agreed to withdraw its 35,000 [40,000] troops in northern Cyprus, which has been divided between a Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974 when Turkey militarily intervened and occupied the north of the island. The two heavyweights of the EU -- France and Germany -- also voiced clear opposition to Turkey's bid, fearing that the Islamic country with over 70 million Muslims would threaten the bloc's identity. French President Nicolas Sarkozy said earlier that Turkey does not belong to Europe and the EU and Turkey should establish a special partnership instead of a full membership. Meanwhile, EU has demanded that Turkey amend its constitution which was drafted following the 1980 coup to prevent the intervention of state affairs by the military. It also demanded improvement of human rights and greater rights to Turkey's ethnic minorities. Turkey's bid, many analysts believe, will not succeed in a short time as many EU members don't really see Muslim-populated Turkey as a European country. Some experts even claim that Ankara will not be able to join the EU in 15 years. As a result, the EU has so far only paid lip service to Turkey over its accession, keeping Turkey in high hopes but refusing to set a timetable for the accession process, analysts say.
A Libyan ship that tried to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza docked in the Egyptian port of El Arish on Thursday afternoon, amid claims by the ship’s sponsor, Saif al-Islam el-Qaddafi, that the boat agreed not to go to Gaza after a deal was struck with the Israeli government that would allow Libya to send building and reconstruction supplies to the Palestinians. In an interview with an Arabic newspaper, Al Sharq Al Awsat, Mr. Qaddafi, the son of Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, said that the Israelis “agreed to let Libya spend $50 million” through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. The money, he said, would be used “to support the Palestinians and for reconstruction, including allowing construction materials and prefabricated homes,” and said the aid would be dispersed “without any intervention or problem.” A spokesman for the United Nations agency did not immediately comment. According to the port director in El Arish the ship, the Amalthea, docked at about 1 p.m. and was expected to immediately begin unloading more than 1,500 tons of food and medical supplies.
V. ETAIWANNEWS - EU police raid Kosovo telecom and its top official
Police in Kosovo have raided several offices of Kosovo Post and Telecom as well as the residence of its top official, Shyqyri Haxha, searching for evidence of corruption, according to a European Union official. No arrests were reported. Nicholas Hawton, the EU police spokesman in Kosovo, said as many as 60 officers took part in Thursday's action. He said some of the raids were linked to a telecom license allegedly issued "under fraudulent circumstances" to a privately owned company called Dardafon. The offices of Dardafon and two other companies linked to the deal _ Devolli company and Z mobile company _ were also searched, Hawton said. Kosovo Post and Telecom is the country's most profitable company and operates a cell phone network under a deal with Monaco Telecom. Cash-strapped Kosovo authorities have been looking to privatize the publicly owned company in hopes of luring foreign investment. The transport and telecommunications minister, Fatmir Limaj, is under investigation for alleged embezzlement of public funds. In April, EU police raided his offices and home, as well as the homes of people linked to the ministry in relation to road construction tenders. The European Union has 2,000 policemen stationed in Kosovo. They oversee local authorities, and are in charge of investigating war crimes and organized crime. The force, first deployed in 2008 and known as EULEX, has been criticized as being too lax. In recent months EULEX officials have pledged to increase their efforts to tackle organized crime and corruption, sparking friction with Kosovo's ethnic Albanian-run government, which accuses the force of political bias. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, with backing from the United States. Serbia however rejects Kosovo's independence and claims the territory as its own.
Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called on German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday to boost ties between the two countries, describing Germany as Russia’s “key strategic partner”. Mr Medvedev announced that Russia was prepared to increase its investment in Germany as German companies such as Siemens, the industrial conglomerate, contributed to Russia’s modernisation. The announcement came as Siemens reiterated its commitment to Russia and its future technology hub, Skolkovo. The president said turnover between the two countries had returned to pre-financial crisis levels but admitted there was a “definite disproportion” between the size of Russia’s investment in Germany and Germany’s investment in Russia. “German investments in Russia amount to about $20bn, while the amount of Russian investments in Germany is considerably less,” he told reporters in Yekaterinburg. Ms Merkel was travelling in Russia with a delegation of companies including Siemens, aircraft producer Airbus and Volkswagen, the carmaker.
VII. EURASIANET - Orthodox Patriarchate in Turkey Wins One Battle, Still Faces Struggle for Survival
On the picturesque island of Buyukada in the Marmara Sea about an hour’s ferry ride from Istanbul, tourists climb a steep track through pine trees to peer through locked gates at the decaying remains of an old Greek orphanage. Sealed behind crumbling walls, reinforced with ornate rusting bedsteads, the derelict property, formerly the Prinkipo Orphanage, is six stories high and 100 meters long. Valued at 80 million euros, the structure is reputed to be Europe’s largest wooden building. It also has been the focal point of a legal battle that has seen Turkey’s fragile Greek community assert its rights, amid jockeying between Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and entrenched secularists, for control of the country’s cultural identity. Built in 1898 and originally intended as a hotel, the old orphanage building was acquired in 1902 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the senior church of the world’s Orthodox Christians. After running it as an orphanage, the church stopped using the building in 1964 as Turkey's Greek population experienced a precipitous decline. In 1997, the property was seized by the Turkish state. Five years ago, the church took its battle to recover the building to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). In July 2008, the court delivered a unanimous verdict condemning the seizure. And on June 15 of this year, another court ruling ordered Turkey to return it to the Ecumenical Patriarchate within three months and to pay 26,000 euros in compensation. Father Dositheos said that even before the ECHR ruling, the Ecumenical Patriarchate had opened a dialogue with Islamist AKP officials. “We are now able to speak with this government- something in the past that never happened,” said Father Dositheos, speaking to Eurasianet.org at the Patriarchate’s headquarters in Istanbul’s Fener District. An open channel of communication, however, does not ensure that broader problems facing the church can be easily resolved, some observers contend. Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a leading Turkish lawyer and human rights activist, said the government has not done much to reverse the effects of decades of punitive laws. “Turkey has had a quite consistent policy towards non-Muslims, namely, to get rid of them,” Cengiz said. “This government might be the most non-Muslim friendly government, but they haven’t initiated a policy to overthrow the old one.” In 1971, for example, a law banning private religious education led to the closure of the church’s main Halki seminary, making it virtually impossible to train new clergy. The legal hurdles still threatening the Patriarchate's existence are formidable, and in an interview last December, the church’s leader, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, told the Milliyet newspaper: “We are without oxygen. The Patriarchate is dying.” Bartholomew is regarded as the spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, and his church has existed in Istanbul, formerly know as Constantinople, for more than 1,700 years. However, the church is not recognized as a legal entity under Turkish law and thus cannot own property. Its establishments are run through separate bodies, which are themselves tightly regulated by the General Directorate of Foundations. Church officials claim that 75 percent of the church’s property has been seized by the directorate over the years. Cengiz believes a more proactive approach by the Patriarchate and the other religious minorities is required if it is to capitalize on its ECHR victory. “They only try to get back what they have lost- they don’t fight for new rights. If they decide to change this old stance then this case and others could provide them with strong material to fight,” he said. "We need to create legal instruments and structures and the Ecumenical Patriarchate and other religious minorities need to unite to work out their common interests,” Cengiz added. "We have huge problems in this area; we have the good will of the government, but quite strong customs and habits which prevent them being solved.” To read more about the Ecumenical Patriarchate, click here.