WikiLeaks vs. Mastercard

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"The War You Don't See"

Some of you might have heard of John Pilger- award- winning investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker. "The War You Don't See" is his latest film that premiered on TV and in theaters in Britain on December 12th, 2010.

Pilger's main argument in the documentary is to question mainstream media and its role in wars like in Iraq and Afghanistan and how war crimes are reported and justified.

One of the interviews in the documentary is with Julian Assange and his organization WikiLeaks.

Here is the link I received first where I watched the video about the movie (Thank you Lukasz for the link :) :



Below is the official trailer for the movie:


The War You Don't See (trailer) from John Pilger on Vimeo.


In addition, you can watch the full version of the documentary in 7 parts on YouTube here.

2010 Highlights (just few days late)

Every year, when December comes and we all get ourselves set for the New Year, many of us decide to reflect on the past year, come up with new 'new year' resolutions and think of ways to make the new year better, healthier, happier, and most importantly have it with fewer mistakes and more correct decisions. 

As I was looking through some of the blogs and 2010 recaps I came across Danny Brown, who for instance writes of his personal highlights in 2010 here, while David Armano suggests to start moving the needle in 2011 in his creative post and Gemma Went spices things up with her own way to reflect on the past year here. All very interesting and creative, it made me think of my 2010 and my personal thoughts about it. 

And so, I would like to share with you some of my highlights or the ones I 'borrowed' from one of the local Turkish news websites- NTVmsnbc, altered a bit with few personal touches and present it to you here.

And so here we go:

1. Earthquake in Haiti on January 12th 2010. The reports said that this was the worst earthquake the country saw in the last 200 years. Lives were lost, some were saved and the story of an 8 year- old Kiki inspired many that even at the worst time of our lives miracles can happen.

2. Wide- spread mass protests in Kyrgyzstan as people stormed government buildings. Situation was so dire that the authorities declared national state of emergency, enforcing curfews in some of the cities across the country. Hundreds were injured and the number of those killed is still not known. The president fled the country and was replaced by Roza Otunbayeva.

3. On April 10th, Poland witnessed its worst nightmare, its President Lech Kaczynski and his wife, died in an airplane crash. In total 97 people lost their lives that day. 

4. I couldn't skip another important event that led to many my friends and I am sure yours as well to be stuck at the airports for several days- the Iceland volcano and its magical name Eyjafjallajokull! It was unpredicted natural phenomenon freezing much of air traffic across Europe. 

5. The world's worst disaster was the explosion on BP's Gulf of Mexico platform killing 11. The leaks from the explosion resulted in loss of almost all of natural habitat in the region. The world is still talking about this huge disaster not to mention BP still fighting law suits brought up against it.

6. The WikiLeaks bomb! I couldn't have not mentioned this as it was perhaps the peak of this year's political development or contrary a set back especially for US diplomats and the country's diplomatic missions across the world. Whatever it was, I enjoyed reading up the reports and sharing them.

7. The world held its breath as we all watched Chilean mine workers getting saved from a 700 deep underground trap where they were stuck for 69 days as a result of an accident. Their final evacuation was a world relief.

8. Another natural disaster took place in Pakistan, where as a result of monsoon rain, the country lived through the biggest flood in its history. One fifth of the country was under water, approximately 2000 people lost their lives. In total around 20 million people were affected by the disaster leaving many homeless, alone, lost and deprived.

9. Perhaps the highlight for all those freedom of speech advocates out there, was the release of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi after 15 years of home arrest. 

10. There were some memorable moments at home too. Release of my friends Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada from jail after having served half of their prison sentence. The two were arrested on faked up charges and sentenced to 2.6 and 2 years respectively. 

11. I was absolutely overwhelmed (only in a good and positive way) by a city in northern Poland- Gdansk and its history for struggle for freedom and democracy. I was invited to attend the Blog Forum Gdansk (i actually wrote a post on the forum here) as a speaker where I met some incredible people, including Brian Solis and Sami Ben Gharbia.

12. I became one of authors at Global Voices Online.

13. I have discovered a whole bunch of new media tools as I was getting ready to give trainings, which made me appreciate the art of learning even more- you never stop learning, no matter what you do!

14. And finally, 2010 was a special year for me as I tied the knot with my lovely boyfriend of almost four years in July and became a married woman. I have lost few friends as I unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) learned of their true intentions and made lots of new ones.

It was an interesting year overall, and I look forward to 2011 as I take on new responsibilities professionally and personally and hope this year will be better, healthier, happier, and most importantly with fewer mistakes and more correct decisions and successes! 

Happy New Year Everyone! 

Dirty secrets behind closed doors revealed

Ask what everyone is reading worldwide today and the answer would be no doubt the WikiLeaks. Released on Saturday, November 27th and continuing to publish, WikiLeaks is putting some interesting leaks on US Embassies cable correspondence with Washington D.C. 

Open any leading newspaper, and the headline of the paper would be on WikiLeaks. Of course, there is no doubt there is some interesting stuff on Azerbaijan too- its relations with neighbors, arrest of young activists Emin Milli and Adnan Hajizada, Nagorno Karabakh, its sudden decision to sell gas to Russia and much more. Below I have added some of the sections from this correspondence. Perhaps someone else will find them interesting too.

On Iran, President Aliyev said he supported economic isolation and believed it could be effective if enforced by a broad coalition [...] On energy cooperation, President Aliyev said that if the Turks demonstrate "constructive behavior" this year that a gas transit deal can happen [...] Aliyev spelled out the reasons Azerbaijan decided to sell gas to Russia last year, noting that "Moscow had asked" and offered a good price for gas that was surplus anyway. But the real reason, Aliyev confided, was that the sale illustrated to "our Turkish friends" that will not be allowed to create a gas distribution hub. "Aliyev made clear his distaste for the Erdogan government in Turkey, underscoring the "naivete" of their foreign policy and the failure of their initiatives, including the loss of support for Turkey among traditional international friends because of Ankara's hostility to Israel.

[...] on the jailed youth activists, U/S Burns said that one of the ways Azerbaijan could show leadership as a tolerant and secular country was in advancing democracy and human rights. He specifically asked that, following the appeal process of the two youth activists, the President find a way on humanitarian grounds to release the two men. Aliyev made no firm commitment but responded, "I think (a pardon or amnesty) can be done. I had no intention to hurt anyone."

[...] In response to U/S Burns' question about the Russian role in the NK talks Aliyev responded that he was convinced that Medvedev's efforts have been sincere [...] He said that at Sochi, Medvedev tried to persuade Sargsian to achieve a breakthrough. He added, however, that it was strange that with so much pressure from Moscow and Lavrov's visit to Yerevan, the Armenians not only resisted progress, but actually backtracked on previously- agreed items. 

The Amnesty International USAWeb Log published a short comment on the part of this discussion that touched youth activists. 

Another WikiLeak published on guardian.co.uk and titled "US embassy cables: US steps up pressure on Turkey over Iran" is all about Turkey and two of its neighbors- Iran and Azerbaijan. Below is an interesting passage from that leak:

[...] Sinirlioglu appealed for "simultaneity" between Armenian Protocols ratification and the Minsk Process. He emphasized "a strong reaction" against the protocols among ruling party MPs had to be overcome before the government would hazard a ratification effort. He warned Congressional passage of an Armenian genocide resolution would "complicate" his government's domestic political calculations regarding ratification. He said if something acceptable to Azerbaijani President Aliyev can found, then "we can move" the protocols forward. Sinirlioglu suggested Azerbaijan and Armenia's announcement of an agreed framework for Minsk Group progress would provide the GoT with the necessary political cover. Burns inquired about the prospect for progress on a natural gas deal between Turkey and Azerbaijan. Sinirlioglu implied Aliyev is HOLDING AN AGREEMENT HOSTAGE TO TURKEY'S HANDLING OF THE PROTOCOLS: "He doesn't TRUST us" [...]

To read more on WikiLeaks and the Caucasus you can visit this address, an outstanding compilation of many interesting leaks on Turkey as well by Liana Aghajanian.