Komšiluk

Liberland dobio predstavništvo i u Beogradu

Liberland, koji je osnovao Vit Jedlička na "ničijoj zemlji" između Hrvatske i Srbije, otvorio je danas svoje predstavništvo u Beogradu.

Liberland teži da postane stabilan partner srpske vlade i srpskih preduzeća, podržavajući razvoj slobodnih trgovinskih zona u Srbiji gde se može usmeriti neki od velikih investitora da ulažu u tu malu zemlju između Srbije i Hrvatske, izjavio je Jedlička povodom zvaničnog otvaranja predstavništva Liberlenda u Beogradu.

Liberland ima više od 100 predstavništava širom sveta, rekao je Jedlička, dodajući da ih predstavljaju ljudi koji su lideri u novoj kripto-ekonomiji, navodi se u saopštenju.

Jedlička je podsetio da će 13. aprila Liberlend proslaviti svoju treću godišnjicu.

"Već smo podržali ekonomiju u Apatinu u oblasti turizma, ugostiteljstva i industrije čamaca, pomažući stotinama ljudi koji žele da vide Liberland sopstvenim očima", rekao je predsednik Liberlanda.

Predstavnik Liberlanda u Beogradu Daniel Dabek, koji je u Srbiji već osnovao tri kompanije, zaposlio više od 40 ljudi, potvrdio je da će Liberlend nastaviti dosadašnja ulaganja i aktivnosti.

Jedlička je 13. aprila 2015. godine proglasio Slobodnu Republiku Liberland na sedam kvadratnih kilometara na zapadnoj obali Dunava, na "ničijoj zemlji" između Srbije i Hrvatske.

Naime, birokrate EU su u tom izveštaju "precizno i nemilosrdno, koristeći činjenice i egzaktne podatke, razotkrili politiku vlade Andreja Plenkovića kao potpuni promašaj", piše Index i navodi da, prema mišljenju EK, hrvatska vlada za dve godine mandata nije učinila skoro pa ništa kako bi poboljšala stanje u Hrvatskoj, nego je neke stvari čak i pogoršala. 

Bulgaria reacts to disturbing statement by Turkey’s Erdogan
By Georgi Gotev | EURACTIV with BulgarianPresidency.eu
7:47

Bulgaria’s foreign ministry reacted yesterday (13 March) to a statement by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who said two days ago that the Bulgarian city of Kardzhali finds itself “in the spiritual boundaries of Turkey”.

On 11 March, at the local congress of his AKP party in the city of Sakarya, Erdoğan made reference to Bulgarian Turks living in Turkey.

Bulgarian language website Haberbg.net quoted Erdoğan as saying: “From this magnificent place I personally want to congratulate my brothers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Serbia, Western Thrace, Crimea, Bulgaria and Romania.

“We send our greetings to all the victims and oppressed brothers of ours in Sarajevo, Skopje, Xanthi, Komotini, Kardzhali and Mostar. We share our cordiality with these brothers whose souls and eyes are turned to Turkey, for those who pray for the success of Turkey.

“Every time I say it – these cities are physically located in the borders of other countries, but they are part of our spiritual boundaries. The meaning of Turkey does not fit within 780,000 kilometers. The half of our hearts are in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Trabzon, Antalya, Izmir, and the other half is Aleppo, Kirkuk, Jerusalem, Sandzak and Bukhara.”

Ottoman nostalgia

Turkey’s nostalgia for the Ottoman Empire is seen by pundits as a plan to expand territorially, especially if the country loses territories as a result of the likely emergence of a Kurdish state. Such a scenario, without any doubt, is highly explosive.

Bulgaria’s foreign ministry published the following statement:
“On the occasion of the comment by the President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan referring to Kardzhali, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Bulgaria notes:
– any country with a rich and long history could claim that its spiritual and cultural borders go beyond the physical ones;
– if political rhetoric in individual countries opts for some reason to go back to the past, it can almost always outline boundaries that are different from the present ones;
– In fact, today’s state borders have been established by international treaties, recognised by all states and not subject to doubt or revision. Bulgaria and the Republic of Turkey, enjoying excellent bilateral relations, are no exception to these treaties.”

Erdoğan’s statement has the potential to upset the efforts of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov to host a “leaders’ meeting” between Erdoğan and the presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Junker, in Varna, on 26 March.

The summit was basically agreed until Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiades convinced his colleagues at the last EU summit to make a planned “leaders’ meeting” with Erdoğan in Varna conditional on stopping “illegal violations” in the Cypriot economic zone.

https://www.euractiv.com/section/global-europe/news/bulgaria-reacts-to-disturbing-statement-by-turkeys-erdogan/

Turkey to send drill ship to contested gas field off Cyprus
President Erdoğan says he will not let natural reserves be exploited by Greek Cypriots
Helena Smith in Nicosia
Thu 22 Mar 2018 08.11 GMT


A showdown over natural gas and oil deposits in the seas off Cyprus is set to intensify, with Turkey announcing it is to send a drilling ship to the region days after the US energy company ExxonMobil dispatched its own survey vessels to the area.

As tensions flare over the potential spoils off the coast of the divided island, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has declared he will not tolerate the prospect of reserves being exploited by Greek Cypriots at a time when his country is engaged in conflicts elsewhere, not least against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Last month, Turkish warships were ordered to prevent drilling operations by ENI, an Italian energy company commissioned by Cyprus’s government, in what was seen as a brazen act of brinkmanship.

Turkey argues the self-proclaimed Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus should also be allowed to exploit the region, although others claim that areas designated for drilling fall under Ankara’s maritime jurisdiction or that of the Turkish Cypriots.

“Hopefully it has been instructive for some who saw an opportunity to act unilaterally when Turkey is engaged in anti-terrorism operations elsewhere,” Erdoğan said on Tuesday, adding that Ankara would be deploying its own newly acquired drillship to the waters off Cyprus imminently.

The sabre-rattling is causing growing concern. Optimism had mounted over the region’s potential as a gas-producing hub after geological surveys pointed to vast reserves around Cyprus. If unlocked, the resources could reshape energy geopolitics, transforming the region economically and lessening Europe’s – and Turkey’s – dependence on Russia for gas.

“Our approach is to keep calm and go on,” said the Cypriot government spokesman, Prodromos Prodromou, told the Guardian. “We cannot accept Turkey interfering and creating problems in what, as underlined by the EU, is a sovereign right to exploit our natural wealth.”

As ExxonMobil’s two ships began work, Wess Mitchell, the US state department official in charge of American policy in Europe, visited Nicosia for talks. Four foreign energy firms have been licensed to explore for oil and gas in areas off Cyprus’ southern coast.

But euphoria over an energy bonanza has run up against old enmities and the failure to reunite the island – divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded in response to a coup aimed at creating a union with Greece.
“We are heading for a full-blown crisis in the eastern Mediterranean,” said Hubert Faustmann, professor of political science at the University of Nicosia. “And that is because Turkey is determined not to allow exploitation of any resources without its consent and participation of Turkish Cypriots.”

Talks aimed at uniting Cyprus’s feuding communities collapsed last summer and it had been hoped discovery of hydrocarbons would help re-energise negotiations. The island’s president, Nicos Anastasiades, insists the offshore wealth will be shared by both communities once a solution is reached. But many now fear worse is to come.

The brinkmanship coincides with already strained relations ties between Greece and Turkey. Warning foreign energy companies not to “overstep the mark” last month, Erdoğan said Turkey would be prepared to take military action, just as it had done in Syria, if required.

“We recommend that foreign companies operating in Cypriot waters not trust the Greek [Cypriot] side and become a tool for business that exceeds their place and powers,” he said. “The Greeks and Greek Cypriots would stop swaggering when they saw the Turkish military with its ships and warplanes approaching.”

Erdoğan, whose Islamist AKP movement has teamed up with the nationalist MHP party in the run-up to the elections, has increasingly spoken of the need to protect Turkey from its “bad neighbours”, triggering fears among western diplomats in Athens, Ankara and Nicosia that tensions will be further stoked over Cyprus.

Despite drawing a strong rebuke from the EU, which says it is the island republic’s sovereign right to exploit the resources, the Turkish government appears unfazed by criticism of its gunboat diplomacy. Several weeks after warships sabotaged ENI’s drilling efforts, Turkey’s prime minister, Binali Yıldırım, repeated that “provocative actions will be met with the appropriate response”.

“There is a real danger of a Turkish confrontation with international drill ships,” said John Roberts, energy security specialist at the Atlantic Council. “The Turkish government does not recognise the government of Cyprus in the way the rest of the world does and that means its does not recognise the Republic of Cyprus has an exclusive economic [maritime] zone. If it pursues this argument to its logical end, it will use force to keep uninvited visitors at bay, which would put it at odds not only with the EU but partners in Nato.”

The best way to resolve the crisis speedily, he said, was for Anastasiades to come to some agreement that whatever is found is shared equitably. Even if extracted, experts have cautioned that it may take decades for the offshore resources to be commercialised at a time when markets are flooded by cheap gas. But in a region riven with competing claims over maritime boundaries, the spectre of Cyprus teaming up with Egypt and Israel to become an alternate supply hub has further incensed Turkey, itself keen to remain a major transit hub.

Egypt, which has the eastern Mediterranean’s biggest gas reserves, and has signed a key agreement with Cyprus, has also exchanged angry barbs with Ankara. With some fearing Ankara could take on ExxonMobil, officials have sought to downplay the prospect of the two survey ships running into trouble. Addressing reporters, the US ambassador to Nicosia, Kathleen Doherty, said activity would be limited to environmental and archaeological research in an area south-west of Cyprus.

Exploratory drilling – which Ankara has vowed to stop – would follow later this year. “I sincerely hope that both sides use that time to find a way to resume negotiations to reunify the island,” she said.

More than 10,000 people rally to unify Romania and Moldova
Alexander Tanas

3 Min Read

CHISINAU (Reuters) - The former president of Romania Traian Basescu joined more than 10,000 people in the Moldovan capital on Sunday to rally in support of reunification between Romania and Moldova.


Union between European Union member Romania and its smaller neighbor to the northeast looks unlikely but the issue highlights a divide in Moldova between pro-Western and Moscow-backed political factions ahead of elections in November.

The country that is now Moldova was part of Tsarist Russia during the 19th century and known as Bessarabia. After World War One it joined what was known as Greater Romania but it was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, it became independent under the name Moldova.

It is now split between a Romanian-speaking majority and the breakaway region Transdniestria, which is propped up by Russia in one of a series of “frozen conflicts” that have kept separatist regions in several former Soviet republics under Moscow’s wing.

“We call upon the deputies of the Moldovan and Romanian parliament to vote in the near future for unification,” Basescu said at the demonstration, which was timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Moldova joining Greater Romania.

There was no official reaction from the Romanian side.



The demonstration was peaceful though police said they detained 21 people who wanted to disrupt the rally, seizing gas masks, masks and knives.

The Moldovan government, which favors closer ties with the European Union and the United States, often locks horns with the pro-Russian President Igor Dodon, who wants closer ties to Moscow and to join a Moscow-led customs union.

If his Socialist party wins elections due in 2018, Dodon has previously suggested passing a law that bans unionist organizations seen to be undermining the integrity of the state because they want to join Romania.

Dodon asked those who oppose reunification not to stage a rival rally on Sunday.




“I urge all patriots and statesmen not to march against the unionists on March 25. We should not give them an additional reason for demonstrations or provocations,” Dodon said.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-moldova-independence/more-than-10000-people-rally-to-unify-romania-and-moldova-idUSKBN1H10NP

According to latest poll 35% of Moldovans support union with Romania. Pics of pro and anti billboards on the streets of Chisinau. One idea is an East German option -cut the EU integration hassle by merging with Romania. Also jettisoning Transnistria, never part of Bessarabia. pic.twitter.com/Hzh1ujHsrf

— Tim Judah (@timjudah1) 06. април 2018.

#Erdogan ally nationalist party MHP leader Devlet Bahceli calls for an early presidential and parliamentary elections in #Turkey on August 26, 2018, on the anniversary of the 1071 Battle of Manzikert that was fought between the Byzantine and the Seljuk Empires. pic.twitter.com/9BJPbS9AqA

— Abdullah Bozkurt (@abdbozkurt) 17. април 2018.

Romanian Ex-Journalist Indicted for Disinformation Over 1989 Revolt

A former TV news anchor in 1989 has been charged with crimes against humanity for spreading disinformation during the anti-communist uprising that resulted in deaths.

Ana Maria Luca



Romanian military prosecutors investigating for the fourth time the bloodshed that occurred during the 1989 uprising that ousted communist leader Nicolae Ceausescu on Wednesday indicted a former television news anchor for crimes against humanity.

Investigators said Teodor Brates helped spread false information that led to deaths and violence during the December 1989 uprising that followed Ceausescu’s ousting.

Brates, who was deputy editor-in-chief of the news department of the Romanian Public Broadcaster TVR in December 1989, was summoned by prosecutors on Wednesday to officially receive the notification of his indictment.

Charges say he coordinated the TVR broadcasts on December 22-24 1989, when anti-communist protesters took over the studios of the broadcaster.




Brates went live on television to announce that “terrorists” were shooting at people and that “water has been poisoned.”

The indictment says Brates was “the main factor disseminating fake news, meant to create diversions, thus highly contributing to forming the terrorist psychosis which affected Romania’s entire population (both military and civilians).”

Brates came to the prosecutor’s office but refused to answer any questions from journalists.



Military prosecutors indicted Romania's former president Ion Iliescu on Tuesday for crimes against humanity during the violent uprising in December 1989.

In the indictment they claim that, as initiator and coordinator of the commanding unit of the uprising, which comprised both political and military members, Iliescu approved military moves that were seen as diversions designed to create panic among the people and which allegedly led to numerous deaths.

The former president also refused to comment on the indictment.

Also on Tuesday, military prosecutors also indicted the former commander of the Air Force in 1989, General Iosif Rus, as well as Admiral Emil Dumitrescu, who was a captain at the time.

Rus will stand trial for allegedly giving orders that confused the security forces and led to a bloody fight at Bucharest International airport between the army and forces of the intelligence service. The battle on December 23, 1989 left 48 dead, including 40 soldiers, and 15 wounded.

Rus also allegedly ordered the repainting of some of the air force helicopters to replace the logo with different shapes, which also led to confusion and more fighting between security forces and the army.

Dumitrescu, who was part of the commanding groups that occupied the Romanian broadcaster, has been charged with spreading false information about alleged terrorists shooting at the people.

http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/article/romanian-former-journalist-indicted-for-1989-disinformation-04-18-2018#.WtcTD9KTJx8.twitter

Turkish warplanes harrased a helicopter carrying Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and the Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis on Tuesday, Greek newspaper Ekathimerini reports.

The helicopter was flying from the Greek islet of Ro to Rhodes, another Greek island in the Aegean Sea.

The Turkish jets, which were flying at approximately 10,000 feet, contacted the pilot of the Greek helicopter and asked for flight details. The Hellenic Air Force (HAF) responded by sending its own jets, which caused the Turkish fighters to veer off and leave.

Ro and Rhodes are two of the hundreds of islands in the Aegean Sea that are controlled by Greece, but they are geographically closer to the Turkish mainland than to Athens. Rhodes is just 29 miles from the Turkish port of Marmaris.

Ro is even closer to the Turkish mainland, and has been the site of territorial disputes in the past. The Hellenic Army does have a presence on the small island, and earlier this month they fired tracer rounds at a Turkish helicopter that flew over its airspace.

The episode comes just over a week after a HAF pilot died after his Mirage 2000-5 fighter jet crashed near the island of Skyros. The pilot was returning from intercepting two Turkish Air Force F-16 fighters that had intruded into Greek airspace.

The crash does not appear to be due to the Turkish mission, but made the situation in the region more tense.

Just a few hours before the incident, Tsipras was speaking to a crowd at the island of Kastellorizo, pledging that Greece would defend its principles "in any way it can … and will not cede an inch of territory."

The speech appeared to reference Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's statement that the Treaty of Lausanne, which recognized the sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey and defined its borders after the Turkish War of Independence, needed to be "updated."

"Our neighbors do not always behave in a manner befitting good neighbors," Tsipras said, but added that he was sending Ankara "a message of cooperation and peaceful coexistence, but also of determination."

The map of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918) overlapping the results of the 2014 presidential elections in Romania

An example of the long term impact of past institutions. pic.twitter.com/2nzexOd7rX

— Xavi Ruiz (@xruiztru) 20. април 2018.