Parliament President Martin Schulz went on an official visit to to Ankara on 1 September where he met President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and İsmail Kahraman, the Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.

“The European Parliament remains a committed supporter in advancing and deepening EU-Turkey relations,” said Schulz. He also paid tribute to “all the Turkish citizens who courageously took to the streets to defend democracy in the country” and called for the political dialogue to be set on the right footing once again: “We need to talk to each other rather than at each other.”

In a media briefing afterwards, the Parliament President said: “Essentially we largely agreed on the necessity to openly discuss our different point of views in order to develop common views from this open dialogue that bring us closer to each other again.”

On 30 August the foreign affairs committee discussed the results of the fact-finding mission to Ankara on 23- 25 of August.

MEPs expressed their concerns about the Turkish government response to the attempted coup. Thousands of people – including soldiers, judges and journalists – have been detained for questioning while some of them have also lost their job. Committee chair Elmar Brok, a German member of the EPP group, said: “Even before the coup d’état in Turkey, developments as regards the freedom of opinion were not acceptable and took Turkey farther away from EU.”

MEPs, including Dutch S&D member Kati Piri who wrote a progress report on Turkey’s efforts to become an EU member, agreed that that the attempted coup was an attack on Turkish democracy. However, they stressed that the way the country is handling the aftermath of the coup is a crucial test for the country´s democracy, especially when it comes to respecting human rights and the rule of law. MEPs also said that Turkey must meet all criteria in order to have visa restrictions lifted.

Photo: Official visit of President of the European Parliament to the Republic of Turkey.

On Friday, 1 February the suspects were arrested by the police in relation to allegations of their participation in a bank-robbery in Kozani, in the north of the country.

Police have said the four were injured during their arrest and that only necessary force was used, but family members and lawyers allege that there was no clash, and that the young men were severely beaten in detention.

“We are profoundly concerned about the recurring allegations of torture and ill-treatment by Greek police,” said Marek Marczyński, Deputy Director of the Europe and Central Asia Programme at Amnesty International.

Video and unedited pictures published by media show extensive bruising. However, the police released photographs that had been crudely edited to lighten or erase bruises and cuts.

In one case a suspect’s face in his photograph was unnaturally flattened by the removal of bruising. In another, the photograph was lightened so much that the suspect’s hair turned from brown to blond.

Despite this, the Minister for Public Order said that the editing was necessary to allow for the suspects to be recognized.

“The Greek authorities cannot just Photoshop their problems away. This culture of impunity needs to be stopped,” said Marczyński.

“There has to be an effective, thorough and impartial investigation into allegations of police torture. Such an investigation has to identify those responsible and they should promptly be brought to justice.”

Two of the four detainees are accused of being members of the armed group ‘Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire’.

In October last year 15 anti-fascist demonstrators were allegedly tortured by police following a demonstration.

The two security guards received minor injuries from the explosion, which occurred at 10:50 a.m., as the evacuation was still in process.

Although stores are closed on Sundays, cafeterias, restaurants and cinemas are open on a Sunday, with families flocking in the premises for lunch or a movie.

According to AMNA, the makeshift bomb consisted primarily of gelatin dynamite, possibly combined with ammonia nitrate/fuel oil (ANFO), that was placed inside a pressure cooker. Police found remnants of the pot and issued a call to the public for any information on the incident.

In its announcement, the police said that the construction of the bomb resembled those used by the Conspiracy of the Cells of Fire terrorist group; ANFO has also been used by this group as well as by the Revolutionary Struggle terrorist group. According to tovima.gr, cctv material has shown at least four armed men involved in setting up the bomb package near the escalators.

Speaking on Skai TV, Deputy Interior Minister Haralambos Athanasiou stated that “such actions aim at harming the democratic regime and are trying to destabilize it. Democracy is not afraid of terrorism and such actions will not bend anyone’s determination.”

“They expressed their deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the victims of these heinous acts and their families and to the people and Governments of Algeria and those countries whose nationals have been affected,” said a statement issued to the press last night by Ambassador Masood Khan of Pakistan, which holds the rotating Council presidency for January.

The siege at the facility began on 16 January when militants stormed the gas plant and took the foreign and Algerian workers there hostage. The crisis has reportedly ended, but not before several hostages and militants were killed.

“The members of the Security Council underlined the need to bring perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors of these reprehensible acts of terrorism to justice, and urge all States, in accordance with their obligations under international law and relevant Security Council resolutions, to cooperate actively with the Algerian authorities in this regard,” said the statement.

Council members also reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed.

“You can shoot a person, like the building that they shot,” Samaras told reporters yesterday evening outside ND’s offices. “You cannot shoot democracy though. Let this be heard by those who need to hear it: Democracy will not be terrorised.”

According to the police, shots were fired early Monday at the headquarters of New Democracy party, with one of the bullets penetrating the office of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras. Two men fired two guns at the building at around 2:30 am (0030 GMT), police said. No one was injured.

A window was pierced on the side of the building and a bullet was found in Samaras’ office, according to government spokesman Simos Kedikoglou.

“A symbolic bullet for the prime minister, this is unheard of,” Kedikoglou told state television NET. “We will not let them terrorise us,” he said. “The government will do what is required to protect democracy.”

According to protothema.gr, security cameras show two hooded men armed with Kalashnikovs getting off a car and after walking 50 meters, stopping and from a 70-meter distance shooting at the neon sign of the ND offices.

Meanwhile, the burnt car found in Paleo Faliro is being thoroughly examined. While the inside of the vehicle is completely destroyed by the fire, police are trying to locate fingerprints or DNA from the offenders.

“They [Council members] expressed their deep sympathy and sincere condolences to the families of the victims of these heinous acts and to the people of Syria,” added Ambassador Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala, which holds the Presidency of the Security Council for the month of October, in a statement he read out to the media at UN Headquarters in New York.

In the press statement, the Council noted that Jebhat al-Nusra – an Islamist militant group affiliated with the Al-Qaida terrorist group – had claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to media reports, at least two car bombs exploded on Wednesday in Aleppo’s main Saadallah al-Jabiri Square and another bomb exploded a few hundred metres away, killing at least 48 people.

“The members of the Security Council reaffirmed that terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security, and that any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation, wherever, whenever and by whomsoever committed,” Ambassador Rosenthal said in the press statement.

In addition, the Council members reiterated their determination to combat all forms of terrorism, in accordance with its responsibilities under the UN Charter.

They also reminded States that they must ensure that measures taken to combat terrorism comply with all their obligations under international law, in particular international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law.

“It may be more difficult, it may be more challenging, [but] we have moved from transition to transformation which entails peacebuilding [and] around it is state-building,” the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Somalia, Augustine Mahiga, told a news conference in Nairobi, in neighbouring Kenya, of the UN’s future role in a country that had been torn apart by more than 20 years of internecine warfare.

“There is definitely unimaginable change in Somalia from a war situation to an increasing peaceful situation,” he added.

The UN envoy paid tribute to the UN-backed African Union force in Somalia (AMISOM) and Somali forces, which last month drove the Al Shabaab out of the port city of Kismayo, in the country’s south, and praised Somalia’s transition process which has seen the adoption of a new constitution, the convening of a new parliament, and the selection of a new president in recent months.

“Ending the transition was momentous because this was a success story which Somalia has not witnessed in the past 21 years,” Mahiga said, using phrases such as “turning the corner” and “quantum leap” to describe the progress made.

But he warned that the capture of Kismayo does not mean the end of the Al Shabaab, noting that the challenge from a degraded Al Shabaab may continue.

“We have seen it in Mogadishu. They do what they are best at: terrorist bombs, devices, suicide bombs, roadside bombs. That is likely to continue,” he said, noting that there could still be guerrilla warfare and even more conventional warfare in some parts of Somalia.

Turning to the role of the UN Political Office for Somalia (UNPOS), which he heads, Mr. Mahiga said Somalia’s new President, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, had already had two telephone calls with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the two had agreed to begin with peacebuilding activities, with every UN agency, fund and programme working there.

“The UN will begin an internal strategic review of its strategies, objectives, priorities,” he stated, stressing that the world body was now moving “from a light foot print to a heavy footprint” in a country where it has so far had only a limited physical presence.

He also stressed the need for reconciliation among Somalia’s many actors, suggesting that the chances of reaching some elements of the Al Shabaab may be better now as their security and military situation has been degraded.

Stabilization, he noted, needs include establishing law and order and the creation of military and police services, setting up local and regional administrations, and the delivery of basic services such a water and health.

Mahiga’s most vivid description of the improvement in the country came when he described his own experience since he took up his post.

“When I first went to Mogadishu two years ago I was in a military truck. The distance from the airport to Villa Somalia (Government centre) is may be six or seven kilometres,” he said.

“The only person I could see crossing the street was either a woman carrying some food, crossing the street but running or a child trying to cross the street. Otherwise everything was shut. The only thing on wheels I could see were military trucks and occasionally a donkey cart pulling some supplies on that whole stretch.

“There wasn’t a single building that did no have let alone bullet holes but had been destroyed. When I was sitting with the president talking to him for two hours, sometimes three hours, from minute one to minute finish it was just sounds of guns and guns of different calibre, small guns, big guns, big booms, whatever…

“Today, the streets are full of human beings. There are traffic jams similar to what is seen travelling from here to the town centre (of Nairobi). Construction and repair work is going on, the sound of hammers and all this has replaced the sound of guns. I see young men and women walking in the streets of Mogadishu well beyond 8 o’clock… to 10 o’clock.

“There are shopping areas in Mogadishu that you can buy things that you can buy here (in Nairobi) coming from Dubai and this place, so there is really normalization at least in Mogadishu and I hope this continues in the other areas.”

More international airlines now fly into Mogadishu, and, internally, one can go from the capital to Baidoa, Garowe and other towns, where previously fighting and factional tensions had made such journeys prohibitively perilous, he added.

“This is a quantum change in 18 months and improving,” Mr. Mahiga said, while warning that there was still much to be done in the fields of both stabilization and humanitarian endeavour in a country where 1.5 million people still need humanitarian assistance to survive.

Lawmakers plans to hold a hearing on the report Tuesday morning, to question senior executives from the London-based bank.

The Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said London-based HSBC (HBC) failed to review thousands of suspicious transactions over the past decade.According to the report in 2007 and 2008, HSBC’s Mexico unit shipped $7 billion in cash to the bank’s U.S. affiliate, a volume of shipments that law enforcement officials said could reach that size “only if they included illegal drug proceeds,” bloomberg reports.HSBC Mexico had a number of high-profile clients linked to drug trafficking, the report says, as well as “a huge backlog of accounts marked for closure due to suspicious activity, but whose closures were delayed.”

In addition, some HSBC bank affiliates bypassed US government bans against financial transactions with Iran and other countries, according to the report.

And HSBC’s US affiliate provided money and banking services to some banks in Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh believed to have links to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, the report said.

“We will acknowledge that, in the past, we have sometimes failed to meet the standards that regulators and customers expect,” Robert Sherman, an HSBC spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement. “We will apologize, acknowledge these mistakes, answer for our actions and give our absolute commitment to fixing what went wrong.”

Adopted by the Assembly in September 2006, the Strategy is based on four pillars: tackling the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism; preventing and combating terrorism; building States’ capacity to prevent and combat terrorism and to strengthen the role of the UN system in that regard; ensuring respect for human rights for all and the rule of law as the fundamental basis for the fight against terrorism.

In a resolution adopted at the end of the two-day review of the Strategy, the Assembly called on Member States, the UN and other appropriate international, regional and subregional organizations to step up their efforts to implement the framework in an integrated and balanced manner.

It also recognized the need to continue measures aimed at preventing and suppressing the financing of terrorism, and encouraged UN entities to cooperate with Member States on providing assistance, in particular to implement respective obligations to prevent such financing.

Recognizing the role that victims of terrorism could play, including in countering the appeal of terrorism, the Assembly emphasized the need to promote international solidarity in support of such victims and to ensure that they were treated with dignity and respect.

It also recognized the work of UN bodies and other organizations aimed at the support, recognition and protection of the rights of victims and urged them to step up their efforts to provide technical assistance for building the capacity of Member States to develop and implement programmes of assistance and support for victims of terrorism.

Opening the meeting yesterday, Assembly President Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser had noted that the Strategy is “a watershed document in the international community’s fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.” He also voiced the hope that the review would provide the necessary momentum towards the full implementation of the Strategy on the ground.

“We cannot have a ‘one size fits all’ approach,” the President of the General Assembly Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, told the Seminar on Dialogue, Understanding and Countering the Appeal of Terrorism held at UN Headquarters in New York.

“We need to develop a better and deeper understanding of how to combat intolerance, ideological factors, social marginalization and the discrimination of minority communities. These are some of the factors that lead to radicalization and by considering them we can be in a better position to identify the best policies for addressing these challenges successfully,” he added.

The seminar, organized by Assembly President Al-Nasser in partnership with the UN Inter-regional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) and the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force, seeks to give countries the opportunity to learn from existing good practices that are being used in various regional and national programmes to counter the appeal of terrorism through a series of interactive panel discussions.

Mr. Al-Nasser emphasized that the seminar was taking place at a “critical time” as the third review of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 2006, would start on Thursday.

“We have the opportunity to push forward the agenda on dialogue, understanding and countering the appeal of terrorism,” Mr. Al-Nasser said.

The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy underscores the need to tackle the conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism, prevent and combat terrorism, build States’ capacity to counter terrorism, and ensure respect for human rights against the backdrop of the fight against terrorism.

In his remarks to the Seminar, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon highlighted the role of dialogue and understanding between communities and called on governments to boost their efforts to build “tolerant and resilient societies that reject the hate-filled narratives of terrorists.”

“It takes more than traditional security approaches to counter terrorism,” Mr. Ban said. “We must work together to extinguish the flames of hate and intolerance that breed terrorist violence.”

The UN chief encouraged symposium participants to explore how the mass media can contribute to peaceful exchanges of views and leverage public-private partnerships that promote understanding.

“We must spare no effort to provide all people – particularly children – with an environment where they cherish the values that bring us as humans and nourish the diversity that enriches our souls,” Ban said.