Day: May 20, 2023

Türkiye's award-winning director Nuri Bilge Ceylan is back to the Cannes Film Festival this year with his latest drama "Kuru Otlar Ustune" (About Dry Grasses), the organisers have announced.

Ceylan’s latest drama focuses on the story of a young teacher who hopes to be appointed to the Turkish metropolis Istanbul after his mandatory duty at a small village in eastern Türkiye.

British director Ken Loach, American Wes Anderson, French Catherine Breillat, German Wim Wenders, Japanese Kore-eda Hirokazu, and Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki are among other film directors whose films will be vying at the 76th edition of the festival which will be held on May 16-27.

In 2014, Ceylan won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. In 2009, he was a member of the main competition jury at Cannes.

Festival's President Iris Knobloch, who took over the post last year from Pierre Lescure, and festival's artistic director Thierry Fremaux announced the lineup during a news conference in Paris.

The festival’s opening film Jeanne du Barry, starring Hollywood actor Johnny Depp, was directed by French actress and filmmaker Maiwenn.

Meanwhile, Turkish broadcaster TRT said in a statement that three films that it supported have been selected for competition in the festival.

Among them are Ceylan’s About Dry Grasses, Austrian award-winning director Jessica Hausner's Club Zero, and Italian director’s Alice Rohrwacher, it added.

Source: TRTworld.com

On this episode of Going Underground, we speak to the senior fellow and director of European Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and former national security director for European Affairs under Presidents Obama and Clinton, Professor Charles Kupchan. He has a heated exchange with Afshin Rattansi on Russia vs NATO in Ukraine, the history of US and NATO wars in the global south, Seymour Hersh’s report that the US blew up the Nord Stream pipelines, his support for more arms supplies to Ukraine while supporting a negotiated end to the conflict, the birth of the multipolar world, and much more.

Source: Russia Today

The US is providing weapons to Ukraine in a manner designed to avoid a major direct escalation with Russia, While House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan claimed on Saturday.

President Joe Biden’s “core precept… is that we are going to do everything we can to support Ukraine in its defense of its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Sullivan said during a press-conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

While providing this aid, Washington is “going to proceed in a way that avoids World War Three — that precept has remained intact,” he stated.

The press conference saw a number of questions about the possible supply of F-16 fighters to Kiev. On Friday, Biden told the G7 leaders that Washington would support an effort by the UK, the Netherlands and other European countries to train Ukrainian pilots to fly the US-made jets.

“As the training unfolds in the coming months, we will work with our allies to determine when planes will be delivered, who will be delivering them, and how many,” Sullivan explained.

For months, the US had rejected Ukraine’s push for F-16s, and the senior official was asked to explain the change in the Biden administration’s stance on the issue.

Washington is providing the Ukrainian military with the equipment that “is required at a given point in time,” he said.

According to Sullivan, the warplanes were not essential while Kiev was planning for spring and summer offensive operations. But now “we’ve reached a moment where it is time to look down the road and to say, ‘What is Ukraine going to need as part of a future force to be able to deter and defend against Russian aggression as we go forward?’,” he added.

Sullivan said the F-16 fighter jets were “part of that mix.” Any future delivery of the planes to Ukraine would not conflate “with the basic proposition that the US is not enabling or supporting attacks on Russian territory,” he maintained.

Politico reported on Friday that Biden was expected to announce another $375 million military aid package for Kiev after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky in Hiroshima over the weekend. It will include more artillery shells, armored vehicles and anti-tank weapons, according to US and Ukrainian officials.

Moscow has repeatedly condemned the delivery of weapons to Ukraine by the US and its allies, arguing that they only prolong the fighting and raise the risk of what it terms a proxy war waged by the West. The Kremlin has also said the supplies increase the chance of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.

Source: Russia Today

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky should assume more responsibility for his nation when it comes to the Volyn massacre, a mass murder committed by Ukrainian nationalists against ethnic Poles during WWII, a spokesman for the Polish Foreign Ministry, Lukasz Jasina, has said.

In an interview with Poland’s Onet online news media outlet on Friday, the official was asked if Zelensky should apologize for the massacre.

“The Ukrainian side did not do this but president Zelensky should take more responsibility [for] Ukraine,” Jasina said. The issue has such an importance for Warsaw that it must be dealt with at the highest level, he added.

The dark legacy of the Volyn massacre still haunts the bilateral relations between the two neighbors and “blocks many joint initiatives,” the ministry’s spokesman said. In 2016, the Polish parliament recognized the Volyn Massacres as genocide at the hands of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA).

“You can't change that fact. You can't turn back time and there will never be a good time to talk about it…” Jasina said.

According to the official, saying “I'm sorry and please forgive me” always works very well in Polish-Ukrainian relations “but there is still not enough of it.”

The Volyn massacre was part of an ethnic cleansing campaign waged by UPA nationalist militants against the local Polish population in the regions of Western Ukraine and eastern Poland also known as Volhynia and Galicia between 1943 and 1944, during the Nazi occupation. According to various estimates, from 40,000 to 60,000 Poles were killed in total.

The UPA was a paramilitary wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) known for its radical anti-Semitic ideology. The UPA assisted Nazi Germany’s troops in the extermination of Jews on the territory of Ukraine on multiple occasions, in addition to the tens of thousands of Poles it killed in western Ukraine.

Glorification of Ukrainian nationalists by Kiev, including the OUN leader, Stepan Bandera, has long been a contentious issue in relations between Ukraine and Poland as well as Israel. In 2018, Polish President Andrzej Duda signed a bill that banned the promotion of the ideology associated with Stepan Bandera. Israel also repeatedly urged Kiev to refrain from glorifying “war criminals.”

Kiev still apparently fails to understand just how important this issue is for the Poles, Jasina said, adding that “this is… not the most important thing for Ukrainians” and their “understanding is still too weak.” The people in Poland, however, “clearly said this is more important than some behind-the-scenes diplomatic negotiations,” he added.

Kiev blasted Warsaw over what it called bossing Ukraine around. “Any attempt to impose on the Ukrainian president or Ukraine [and tell us] what we must [do] about our common past is unacceptable and unfortunate,” Ukraine’s ambassador to Warsaw, Vasily Zvarych said on Twitter on Saturday. He also said that Ukraine “remembers history” and called for what he called “balance and respect in statements.”

Bandera has been officially hailed as a national hero in Ukraine since 2010. Ukrainian nationalists have regularly marked his birthday on January 1 with torchlit marches and massive demonstrations. Warsaw has repeatedly protested such actions. In January, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki vowed to raise the issue of Bandera with Kiev at the first opportunity.

Source: Russia Today

Hertha Berlin were relegated from the Bundesliga on Saturday following an injury-time equalizer by Bochum. Hertha coach Pal Dardai urged the club to focus on the future following three years of turbulence.

An unmarked Keven Schlotterbeck seemed to hang in the air for an eternity before crashing a 94th-minute header into the back of the Hertha Berlin net.

The goal was scored at the flame end of the Olympic Stadium and sparked wild scenes in the away end. Schlotterbeck was mobbed in front of the few thousand fans that had made the cross-country journey to the capital from the Ruhr as flares were ignited.

The goal was crucial to Bochum’s own survival hopes, which as a result of that goal, remain in their own hands. The struggle for survival will go down to the final day, with Schalke, Stuttgart and Bochum all in the mix; one will stay up, another will head into the relegation playoff, the other will go down.

From Windhorst to 777: a road to ruin

But Hertha’s fate is already sealed. Lucas Tousart’s 63rd-minute goal had tilted the contest their way, raising hopes that an extraordinary escape under coach Pal Dardai was still on the cards. But Schlotterbeck’s towering header silenced the stadium; the game was up — the fans knew it, the players knew it, Dardai knew it.

The reality of Hertha’s first relegation since 2009-10 was inescapable but the writing had been on the wall for months, long before Dardai was drafted in following the firing of Sandro Schwarz in April. It’s three years since American investor Lars Windhorst hailed the arrival of a new era for the club under the slogan "big city club” after an investment of €374 million ($410 million).

With Hertha no better off following the investment, Windhorst eventually sold to another American investment group, 777 Partners, and former ultra Kay Bernstein was elected as the club's president. But with reports that 777 breached the 50+1 rule, Hertha’s problems may only be beginning.

The humiliation attached to their relegation is compounded by the extraordinary success of their city rivals, Union Berlin, who could qualify for the Champions League on the final day and have established themselves among Germany’s top six. In less than four seasons Union have replaced Hertha as the German capital’s big city club — a trend that won’t reverse any time soon.

Dardai’s future in Hertha’s hands

Dardai is believed to be considered internally as the ideal figure to galvanize the club in the second tier and bring them back up — but Dardai said his future is in the hands of the club.

“I work for Hertha, in what position we'll have to wait and see.” Dardai will submit a “written analysis” of how he sees the state of the club after the final game at Wolfsburg next weekend. "I am always honest. We will see how the club sees it," said Dardai, who is in his third spell in charge of the club.

“Hertha did not get relegated today, the performance was good,” a crestfallen Dardai said, reflecting on the problems he inherited. “Relegation is bad for everyone. We have to put it behind us, learn from our mistakes and then be proud again. It hurts. It is hard. It's not nice. But we have to work for the future now.”

Kevin-Prince Boateng was fighting back the tears after the game, admitting that he “needed a bit of time to think things over” regarding his future at the club.

"I can't realize it yet,” the Berlin-born midfielder said. "It is just bitter, I love this club. I came here and I knew that not everything would be rosy. The fans are angry, disappointed and sad, that is completely normal.

“I can understand them, I am a Hertha fan myself."

Source: Deutsche Welle

Greeks go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new parliament. The country's politicians have a long tradition of making big pledges during election campaigns. DW takes a look at some of the most overblown promises.

Georgios Papandreou, Greece's first postwar prime minister, once famously said that while making an election promise doesn't hurt, keeping it might.

Papandreou, the head of one of the country's most influential political clans, knew that the only way to get anywhere in national politics in Greece was to promise the electorate the Earth. It's become a tradition kept alive by many of his successors.

One particularly impressive example came in the run-up to the parliamentary election in 2012, which took place at the height of the Greek sovereign debt crisis. In a high-profile address on the national budget, opposition leader Alexis Tsipras promised to nullify the austerity dictates of the country's international creditors in a single day, with a single law — indeed, with a single paragraph. In short, Tsipras simply intended to ban austerity measures. Such fighting talk went down a storm with left-wing voters.

But things turned out very differently. After his election victory in 2015, the leftist Tsipras had to face the cold, harsh reality of his country's financial situation: He had no choice but to agree to new loans and austerity conditions.

Tsipras explained to the Greek parliament that the country had no alternative; the agreed program of reforms would have to be implemented. Any other course of action, he said, would lead to catastrophe.

Incorrect figures sent to Brussels

This does not mean Tsipras was responsible for the debt crisis. In the decades preceding his appointment as prime minister, Greece had been ruled by conservatives and socialists who had long been running up massive debts.

From 2004 to 2009 alone, conservative prime minister Kostas Karamanlis, a nephew of former premier Konstantinos Karamanlis, almost doubled the national debt while reporting incorrect figures to Brussels.

There was already speculation about the likelihood of Greek bankruptcy while Kostas Karamanlis was still in power. Nevertheless, just before the parliamentary election in 2009, his finance minister, Giorgos Alogoskoufis, assured the public there was no need to worry: Greece was well-equipped to deal with the international financial crisis, he said. This also turned out to be another empty campaign pledge.

'The money is there'

Around about this time, George Papandreou — whose father and grandfather before him had also been prime minister — enjoyed a boost to his popularity in opinion polls.

He, too, made big promises about social reform, pledging to distribute wealth in the country more evenly in his first 100 days in office. When asked by a journalist how he intended to pay for this pledge, Papandreou gave the now legendary reply: "The money is there" ("Lefta Yparchoun").

A 'titanic struggle' against bankruptcy

Papandreou went on to win an absolute majority in the election. But once again, the voters did not get what they were promised. Shortly after taking office, the socialist prime minister announced the start of a "titanic struggle" against his country's impending bankruptcy.

The rest is history: Papandreou asked the International Monetary Fund and the European Union for financial assistance and in return, agreed to austerity measures that saw Greece's economic performance shrink by over 30%.

Promise of cheaper cars

Other recurring themes in Greek election campaigns are cheap loans and tax relief. One classic in this respect is the pledge made by the conservative opposition leader Constantine Mitsotakis in the run-up to the parliamentary election of 1985.

Mitsotakis — father of the current Greek prime minister — promised to drastically cut taxes and customs duties on cars so that every family would be able to afford a new car. In the 1980s, Greece's socialist government levied massive taxes on imported industrial products in order to protect Greece's industry and fill the state's coffers. This was possible at the time because the European single market had not yet come into force. At the time, a German mid-range car was completely out of reach for many families in Greece.

Mitsotakis hoped this pledge would once more make his party appeal to hard-working middle-class voters. But the ruling socialists responded with a campaign slogan that mobilized young voters in particular: "Better ride a moped than vote Mitsotakis!" Socialist Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou scored a clear victory in the poll and was reelected for a second term.

A Stasi fake?

Another reason for this resounding victory was, however, "negative campaigning," which reached a historic peak during this particular campaign. Four weeks before the election, the pro-government newspaper Avriani printed a photo from World War II that showed a young Mitsotakis socializing with two German Nazi officers.

The photo caused a scandal, especially as Mitsotakis had been a member of the resistance and had been imprisoned as a result.

The conservatives cried foul and accused the socialists of forgery and fostering political conspiracy. But the damage was done.

It was only in 2016 that Athens-based investigative journalist Kostas Vaxevanis reported that the Nazi allegations against Mitsotakis had been fabricated and that the Stasi, East Germany's secret police, had been involved. All Greek media outlets considered this version of events to be plausible. But what did the Stasi have to do with the ruling socialists in Athens at the time? That question remains unanswered to this day.

Source: Deutsche Welle

Ukrainian authorities have cracked down on corruption at the highest level of the country's judiciary. Experts say that while the case reveals just how deep the problem goes, it's also a step in the right direction.

It could be the largest case of bribery that Ukraine's judiciary has ever seen.

On May 16, Supreme Court Chairman Vsevolod Kniaziev and another unnamed court representative were convicted of corruption amounting to $2.7 million (around €2.5 million) by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine (SAP).

Both have since been arrested and face eight to 12 years in prison if found guilty.

According to NABU Director Semen Kryvonos, the case involves judges, the leadership of the Supreme Court and intermediaries from the Finance and Credit group of companies owned by billionaire and former parliamentarian Kostiantyn Zhevago, who is currently abroad.

Zhevago's press office said that he had nothing to do with the case. But the anti-corruption watchdog said in a statement that "as a result of complex operational and technical measures, NABU obtained information about the contacts between a businessman, the owner of the Finance and Credit group, and a lawyer, the head of a bar association. During the investigation, it was revealed that the bar association was used to conceal criminal activities. Under the guise of legal services, members of the group arranged with judges about rulings in favor of their "clients" (individuals or legal entities) for a certain 'reward'."

NABU did not disclose which lawyers' association was involved.

Millions for a favorable ruling?

A court hearing scheduled for March 15 was postponed "to gain time for the accumulation of certain funds and to reach agreements," NABU director Kryvonos said. The mediators were to collect $900,000, and representatives of the Supreme Court were to collect about $1.8 million — all from Zhevago.

Then, on April 19, the Supreme Court reached a verdict in favor of the entrepreneur, revalidating a 2002 contract. It concerned the purchase and sale of 40.19% of the shares in a mining combine in Ukraine's Poltava region, owned by Zhevago's Ferrexpo, the country's largest exporter of iron ore pellets. The shares in the combine were to be transferred to four companies of former shareholders.

On May 3, the parties involved reportedly received the first tranche of their illegal "reward," followed by a second tranche on May 15.

"The leadership of the Supreme Court was caught in the act," NABU Director Kryvonos said, adding that investigators found a substantial amount of money while searching the suspects' apartments, homes and offices, "proving the activities of this criminal organization."

NABU and SAP also presented recordings of conversations between the suspects, which they collected in a YouTube video summary of the case.

Officials stressed that although only two people have so far been arrested, other judges potentially involved remain under investigation. SAP head Oleksandr Klymenko also said that the crimes uncovered in this operation could be part of an even larger corruption network in the courts.

Chief justice removed

The Supreme Court convened a meeting in Kyiv on May 16, at which the justices said they were "shocked" by the investigation. They pledged to act in accordance with the "principle of self-purification" and to handle all necessary measures.

Additionally, 140 of the 142 judges present expressed their no-confidence in the court's chairman, Vsevolod Kniaziev, via secret ballot. Until a new chairman is elected, Dmytro Luspenchyk, the judge with the longest tenure, will perform his duties.

Hope in further reforms

"I am surprised by how many people seem amazed that there is bribery in the Supreme Court," Mykhailo Zhernakov, head of Ukraine's DEJURE Foundation, a civic organization that promotes the rule of law and reforms in the justice system, told DW.

He also sits on the Public Integrity Council, one of two entities in the country that determines judicial eligibility for candidates by evaluating their ethics and integrity.

"We at the Public Integrity Council, which has been closely monitoring the Supreme Court's staffing, have always pointed this out, as early as 2017," Zhernakov added.

Despite such complaints about the lack of integrity among judges, the High Qualification Commission of Judges, which decides on appointments to the court, has not wanted to acknowledge this situation, he said. Zhernakov also pointed out that 12 of the 18 judges who voted in favor of the Zhevago case verdict in April were rated negatively in terms of integrity.

"I don't want to say that all 18 who passed this verdict are corrupt. But in order for a verdict to be steered in a certain direction, you need a majority to vote for it," he added.

Kateryna Ryzhenko of anti-corruption NGO Transparency International Ukraine believes that the Knyazyev case is a serious blow to Ukraine, including in terms of judicial reform.

"I would not say that this is the end of reforms, because this case is a positive indicator of work by the country's anti-corruption authorities," she told DW, adding that authorities are investigating despite Russia's war of aggression on Ukraine and are not afraid to take action even against officials as high-ranking as Supreme Court judges. "This is exactly the system of checks and balances we have been talking about for years," Ryzhenko said.

Ukraine hopes to join both NATO and the European Union, both of which will require a massive reduction in corruption in the country, which ranks quite low on global indices. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself ran for office on an anti-corruption and reform platform.

In light of this bribery case, the selection process for Supreme Court judges should be reviewed, Ryzhenko added. "This is another confirmation that reforms, especially judicial reform, must continue."

That's because independent courts will also play a crucial role in the country's post-war reconstruction, she said.

"This is what the society in the country expects, in addition to our foreign partners. If we want big international financial injections for reconstruction, we need to show that our judiciary is capable of punishing all the violations of those who greedily grab large sums of money coming to Ukraine."

Source: Deutsche Welle

Germany's government is getting closer to allowing immigrants multiple citizenships after overturning a decadeslong ban. The idea, a long-standing tradition in many countries, is well overdue, say those affected.

The German government has announced that its new citizenship law is in the final drafting stages. Legislation proposed by Interior Minister Nancy Faeser will make dual citizenship easier as well as naturalization for non-EU citizens.

It is a reform that has been in the works since the coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Free Democrats took office in the fall of 2021. DW has reported on the government's plans several times, and last December interviewed several people affected by the issue.

For example, Marc Young, for whom Germany's reform to allow dual citizenship came 10 years too late: "Back then I would have been the keenest German citizen you could have imagined," he told DW. "But I refused to give up my US passport. Retaining your old citizenship does not mean you have split loyalties, like so many German conservatives claim. It just reflects who you really are. Changing it is way overdue."

Young said that he had been living in Germany for 20 years and had long wearied of the political debate.

The reforms the Social-Democrat-led government are part of a wide-ranging overhaul of Germany's immigration law that is mainly aimed at encouraging more skilled workers to come to Germany and fill the massive shortages in the labor market.

Planned changes to the law

The new citizenship plans boil down to three changes:

Immigrants legally living in Germany will be allowed to apply for citizenship after five years, rather than the current eight;

Children born in Germany of at least one parent who has been living legally in the country for five or more years will automatically get German citizenship;

Multiple citizenships will be allowed.

The opposition center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), which has consistently blocked any such reforms in the past, attacked the government's plans in December. "German citizenship is something very precious, and one should treat it very carefully," CDU leader Friedrich Merz told public broadcaster ARD.

Immigrants currently include EU and Swiss nationals, those whose country of origin does not allow people to renounce citizenship (e.g. Iran, Afghanistan, Morocco), children of parents with German and other citizenship, refugees who are threatened with persecution in their home country, and Israelis. Syrians who came to Germany as refugees and are considered to have integrated well may also be fast-tracked to German citizenship.

The reforms will bring Germany in line with other European countries. In the EU, Sweden had the highest naturalization rate in 2020, with 8.6% of all foreigners living there naturalized. In Germany, the rate was 1.1%.

"The German citizenship law is based on the principle of avoiding multiple citizenships," Greta Agustini, a German-based lawyer who specializes in immigration, told DW in December. "Other European countries, such as Italy, Sweden, Ireland, France, etc, allow dual citizenship and they have less bureaucratic laws regarding this issue."

Many of Agustini's clients had struggled to find a way to gain German citizenship. "They refuse to give up their home country citizenship, yet they also want to gain the German one," she said.

According to Germany's Federal Statistics Office, there are about 2.9 million people with more than one citizenship living in Germany, about 3.5% of the population. Though the actual number is likely to be higher, as it has recorded an uptick, with 69% of new German nationals holding on to their original passport. People with Polish, Russian, or Turkish passports top the list.

'Too late for the guestworker generation'

The group that has felt the effect of Germany's citizenship laws more keenly than any other is the Turkish community, many of whom came to Germany the last time the country needed workers: In the 1960s.

At this time, a rapidly growing West Germany signed deals with several states to recruit "guest workers," mainly for menial industry-based jobs.

By far the most came from Turkey, and there are now an estimated 3 million people of Turkish heritage living in Germany — 1.45 million of whom still have Turkish citizenship. Aslihan Yesilkaya-Yurtbay, co-leader of the Turkish Community in Germany organization (TGD), said the reforms came "too late" for many of that original generation — "but [it's] better late than never."

"For the guestworker generation, this reform means recognition and respect for their lives and their work in and for this country," Yesilkaya-Yurtbay told DW. "A lot of Turkish people of the second and third generation will, I think, feel empowered by it because they always had an identity dilemma."

"Many people have waited for this, and have maybe given up hope," she said. "And if it really happens, then I think many will become German."

Yesilkaya-Yurtbay said that Germany would have been a different country if the reform had been brought in earlier. "People would have identified more with Germany if that possibility had been in place," she explained. "I'm sure people would have been more politically interested and more active in society if this opportunity had been there 20 or 30 years ago."

Marc Young also said that his own experience had given him a "small inkling" of what people with Turkish roots had had to put up with for decades. He added that he had raised German children and had no intention of leaving, and would probably apply for German citizenship when the reforms are passed.

"I would still apply if Germany allowed dual citizenship but I would see it now far more transactional in nature," he said. "I've paid my taxes and one day will be a German pensioner whether CDU leader Friedrich Merz likes it or not. Maybe that would change once I became German, but right now the bloom is off the Teutonic rose for me."

Source: Deutsche Welle

Turkish citizens living in the UK and in countries across Europe are voting once again for their president, the first time they have done so in a run-off. Polls for overseas voters are open until the 24th of May, after which the ballots will be shipped to Türkiye for counting with domestic voting slips on the 28th of May. Lape Olarinoye has more from London.

Source: TRTworld.com