| 21 January 2012
Source: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/18/turkey-court-protects-journalist-s-killers
(Istanbul) – A Turkish court’s verdict on January 17, 2012, that there was no state involvement or organized plot behind the 2007 shooting of the Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink is a travesty of justice, Human Rights Watch said today.
“The Istanbul court’s denial of the plot behind Hrant Dink’s murder flies in the face of evidence,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Five years after the killing, Turkey’s criminal justice system remains unwilling to probe state collusion in political assassinations.”
Istanbul Heavy Penal Court No. 14 acquitted all 19 defendants accused of being part of a criminal organization responsible for Dink’s murder on January 19, 2007. The court concluded that the crime was not the work of a criminal organization motivated by ideological aims and that there was no deeper plot behind the murder.
| 20 January 2012
Dr Yiorghos Leventis, Director of the International Security Forum (ISF), participated upon invitation in the debates of the 25th Winter Course of the International School on Disarmament & Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO). The week long winter course held at Andalo - Trento, Italy, 8-15 January 2012, focused on the theme of Security in Cyberspace: Targeting Nations, Infrastructures, Individuals. Dr Yiorghos Leventis chaired a session of the course. Furthermore, he held discussions on future research cooperation with the Director of ISODARCO Professor Carlo Schaerf (Tor Vergata University, Rome), the course's director Dr. Gianpiero Giacomelo (University of Bologna), Professor Alessandro Pascolini (University of Padova) and Dr. Steve Wright (Leeds Metropolitan University, UK).
| 02 January 2012
It is common for candidates in presidential primaries to use bellicose language to prove their toughness. This kind of rhetoric is especially useful in Republican primaries, where audiences have a firm belief in the use of military power to solve problems. But toughness and wisdom are not the same thing.
The difference between the two was on display in the discussion of Iran that opened Saturday night’s Republican foreign policy debate, as it has been throughout the Republican campaign. Asked if he would consider a military option should current efforts fail to deter Iran’s work on developing nuclear weapons, Mitt Romney said, “of course you take military action, it’s unacceptable for Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
| 17 December 2011
Since at least 1791, when William Pitt denounced Russian plans to dismember Anatolia, Britain has been suspicious of, and concerned about Russian influence in the Eastern Mediterranean. Only concerns about French and German power have temporarily detracted from this. Greece was a mere geopolitical tool of the world’s largest empire, nevertheless regaining its independence to a great extent due to Russian pressure, with Britain, suspicious of the pro-Russian Capodistria, being pushed into reluctantly accepting it: the Anglo-Russian Protocol of 4 April 1826 stated that Britain would mediate to make Greece an autonomous vassal of the Ottoman Empire, but that if this proved impossible, the two powers could intervene jointly or separately. Russia intervened.










