DL encampment at the gates? It can be argued that what is happening now can be seen as an encouragement towards that sort of development. Not so?
Re the blog and it's topic (a considerable demand on Met resources) while gangs is the subject of the blog, is it entirely fair to say there is no attempt at balance? Excerpt from same:
"The Kurdish population, specifically Kurds from Turkish mainland, came last during the 1980’s and 1990’s. The largest estimate of residency in London is about 220,000[i], although it is important to note that over 90% of residents in all communities in the United Kingdom, regardless of race, nationality and religion are not involved in any criminal activity. The commercial structure built by a majority of law abiding immigrants however has enabled the criminal element to flourish. Many European countries trace the arrival of organised criminals from Turkey to the late 1980’s, well after the establishment of the law abiding Diaspora of Turkish, Turkish-Cypriot and Kurdish. From here on, all references and uses of the terms Turkish criminals, Turkish Mafia or Turkish Organised Crime is to describe a small sector of the three aforementioned groups that are reportedly involved in crime which is arguably organised[ii]." …
as they crack open their breakfast can of Stella. Ok.
a) it's really dull. No. It is. Really. Think about it.
b) it spawns thuggery and drunken violence and
C) and that's an upper case 'C', this is the second time this month I have turned up at my front door on Green Lanes to be confronted by vast hordes of chanting, bottle throwing, flag-waving imbeciles. I would like to think they're not actually picking on me personally but it does seem to be a hot spot just outside MY FRONT DOOR.
Oddly, my neighbour has noted that most of the bottle chucking is being done by women. Frankly, in my limited experience, as I scurry to safety, flitting like a bat from shadow to shadow trying to get home, I have noticed that there IS a goodly proportion of young women who are definitely winding the whole process up.
Alright, this may not be ALL about football. It maybe has more to do with... er... Kurds and Turks? Answers on a postcard. All I know is that running battles with police on a night when a GAME has been played converts the otherwise lovely, friendly and vibrant environs of Green Lanes in to a war zone.
If someone has a better understanding of what is going on, please feel free to inform me and put me right.…
is merits discussion and as these people appear to be our neighbours we should support them. Personally I am very interested in the socialist democratic model they have developed in northern Syria and their apparent secularism, right across the border from a powerful NATO member's tanks.
Arman's post:
Hundreds of individuals and organisations representing thousands of members from across the world have signed an urgent call for action appealing to people all over the world to show solidarity with Kobane, which is still under siege by ISIS and facing the possibility of a genocide.
Prominent signatories include Professor Noam Chomsky and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who have both been long-time supporters of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination, as well as Nobel Peace Prize Laureates like Adolfo Erez Esquivel, and Jose Ramos-Horta, former President of East Timor and Nora Cortinas, cofounder of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo in Argentina and Palestinian singer Reem Kelani. Academics, writers, lawyers, politicians and activists from political, social-justice and environmental movements from countries as diverse as India, Ecuador, Croatia, Norway and the Basque Country, have signed the call in an unprecedented show of international solidarity for the Kurdish resistance in Syria.
For nearly two months, the city of Kobane has been facing an onslaught from ISIS while the so-called international coalition, formed following ISIS incursions into Iraq, appears unwilling to come to the aid of the Kurdish resistance. Kobane is one of three cantons in the Democratic Autonomous Administration of Rojava (Western Kurdistan, Syria). The call for action states that the US-led coalition "has not fulfilled their real international legal obligations. Some of the countries in the coalition, especially Turkey, are among financial and military supporters of the ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria."
It also calls for the world to recognise that democratic autonomy in Rojava and the 'Rojava Model' promises a free future for all peoples in Syria, saying, "If the world wants democracy in the Middle East, it should support the Kurdish resistance in Kobanê".
In response to the call for action, rallies and demonstrations are being organised in dozens of cities across Europe and the world, from Brussels to California to Argentina and India. In the UK, actions will take place in Glasgow, Nottingham and other cities, while the largest rally will be in Trafalgar Square, central London from 2-5pm, organised by the Kurdish People's Assembly and Kurdish Community organisations in the UK. The occasion is an opportunity to celebrate the brave resistance of the Kurdish fighters and volunteers, and will be marked by speeches by activists and politicians, as well as music and dance.
For information contact:
Peace in Kurdistan Campaign for a political solution of the Kurdish Question Email: estella24@tiscali.co.uk www.peaceinkurdistancampaign.com Contacts Estella Schmid 020 7586 5892 & Melanie Sirinathsingh - Tel: 020 7272 7890
Patrons: Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Dholakia, Baroness Sarah Ludford, Jill Evans MEP, Jean Lambert MEP, Jeremy Corbyn MP, Hywel Williams MP, Elfyn Llwyd MP, Conor Murphy MP, John Austin, Bruce Kent, Gareth Peirce, Julie Christie, Noam Chomsky, John Berger, Edward Albee, Margaret Owen OBE, Prof Mary Davis, Mark Thomas, Nick Hildyard, Stephen Smellie
Kurdish People's Council
…
had been daubed with white paint and we speculated as to the motivation.
I've now found out more about what might be behind this and, as we suspected, it seems that the political battle between Kurds and Turks is playing out on our high street.
According to local turkish commentators on social media, the Harringay Bridge piece showed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan making a getaway with a sack full of cash. He is apparently being followed by his son, Bilal, gathering notes that fell as he fled. This depiction apparently originates from a story that broke on social media in February, claiming to reveal Erdogan and Bilal discussing how to hide large sums of money.
The street art/graffiti was first spotted on Sunday (updated), and it's potential to act as a bone of contention was quickly identified. Then in the early hours of Thursday morning, at around 12.45 am, yellow paint was splashed on the wall, hiding the faces of both the "president" and "his son". Local Twitter user Rhiannon Jones reported that the paint was splashed by supporters of Erdogan. She tweeted,
Just witnessed Erdogan sympathisers defacing the new #banksy and instantly local Kurdish men went to clean it up.
Rhiannon attached the following pictures to her tweet.
By early Thursday morning, the piece was messed up again, daubed in white, as reported to us by Alison Park and later by Pav. David Sweeney posted the following picture on Twitter.
When I passed by the bridge last night the whole area had been covered with blocks of black paint. Pav took this picture today.
The current state of play (Photo: Pav)
We've all become used to Kurdish marches along Green Lanes, and so have some awareness of the political issues they speak to. We may not realise how much tensions between Turks and Kurds have escalated in recent months, however.
Sit down protest on Green Lanes in Harringay last weekend (Picture: @meltsheep)
The current struggle began in Turkey in 1984, when the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), started an armed struggle against Turkey’s government. A subsequent ceasefire that went into effect two years ago broke down in July, when the PKK blamed Turkish authorities for failing to prevent an attack in Suruc that killed at least 30 people.
Last week, the situation was exacerbated when a terror attack at a pro-Kurdish rally in the Turkish capital killed 128 people.
We will no doubt see to what extent these heightened tensions ar played out on Harringay's high street.
…
ree North London councils – Camden, Haringey and Barnet – have made £684million over six years in capital receipts, the term given to non-recurring income from one-off sales.
Care homes, council houses, community centres and a football club are among the sites that passed into private hands, mostly to pay for capital expenditure elsewhere.
But Haringey also used some of the cash from to pay for “service reforms”, including nearly £8million to help meet the cost of redundancies.
According to research by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Haringey is one of 64 local authorities to have used capital receipts in this way since 2016.
Haringey has made £122m in capital receipts since 2014/15, and provided information about 28 of the assets it disposed of in that time.
Early sales included the Hornsey High Street depot, which was sold to Sainsbury’s for £14.1m in January 2015, and the Technopark in Ashley Road, Tottenham, sold for £9m that March to make way for the Harris Academy.
Cash earned through capital receipts is normally ring-fenced for buying other property, but since 2016 changes to government guidelines have allowed councils to use them “flexibly” for service reforms.
Haringey used the income from selling assets in this way to pay for more than £2.1m of service “transformation” in 2017/18.
But it was also one of five local authorities in London to deploy some of the money from capital receipts towards meeting the cost of staff redundancies, spending £3,949,416 in 2016/17 and £4,041,664 in 2017/18.
Overall, some 259 people were made redundant from the council in 2017/18, a notable rise on the 152 of the previous year and followed by 132 more in 2017/18.
The council’s total reserves dropped by 38.6 per cent between 2016 and 2019.
From 2016/17 Haringey received £55m in capital receipts, with the former base of the Maya Angelou Family Contact Centre in Keston Road sold for £3.6m to be re-developed for affordable housing. The service has since moved to nearby Winkfield Road.
Elsewhere, the eastern part of the Ashley Road depot was sold for £1.4m to the Harris Federation for sports facilities, and the Kurdish community centre in Harringay for £593,000 to local organisation the Yek-Kurd Community Interest Company.
The council declined to comment on the record.
(edited from an article originally published in the Ham & High)
…
host proclaims:
"Parking's FREE along Green Lanes!"
Pavement parking's just the thing -
Yasar's packed but Baldwin's King.
Turkey dressed with Lemon Kurd
(Watch your step - a canine turd!)
Midnight mobs in nave and aisle -
Sainsb'ry's cashmobs prey in style.
Ringed in flesh our Saturn see,
Hail our incarnate Obesity -
Pleased as Punch with us to shop,
Jesus, our December prop.
"Park!" those Kober Sirens sing,
"Park! You needn't pay a thing!"
Hail Lord Salisbury's wat'ring hole;
W/assail his phallic totem pole!
And if you're sick of all that crap,
Put Garden Ladder on your Map.
But lest towards Beaconsfield you're drawn
Hail REDEMPTION's Hoppy Dawn!
For Urban Dusk with decent grub
Hail Coliseum's Redemption Pub.
Then Hail a cab to ferry me
To down a pint at the O.A.E.!
Hail the heav'n-born Canver Queen!
Hail the Kober Leaderene!
Light and life to all they bring -
a touch of tinsel in their bling.
Shef the Shereef born to save,
Born that man no more need shave,
Born to lead the Sons of Trade,
Born to rule our Grand Parade.
"Park!" HOL's Herald Hugh doth sing,
Hark! our virtual Ladder King!
Sorry Alan - no such thing as a free lunch Christmas pud.…
ached a critical stage. A ferocious turf war between Bombacilar and the Tottenham Boys is spiralling out of control.
Three weeks ago the feud's most audacious killing took place. Oktay Erbasli, a prominent member of the Tottenham Boys, was waiting at traffic lights at a busy junction in his Range Rover when a motorcycle pulled alongside. A hitman linked to the Bombacilar gang opened fire, killing the 23-year-old.
Within the tit-for-tat mentality of gangland retribution, reprisals are inevitable. In Erbasli's case it came within 72 hours: Cem Duzgun, 21, had been playing snooker in a Clapton social club with friends when two hooded men approached at 10.50pm and opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon.
For Scotland Yard's senior command, Duzgun's death was the final straw. Something had to give, something drastic was required to tackle the vortex of violence. The decision was taken; for the first time, officers armed with Heckler & Koch semi-automatic sub-machine guns would be deployed on routine patrol on London's streets. They could also have fast motorbikes at their disposal.
The decision, ratified in a recent meeting between Met borough commanders and CO19 senior officers, had followed months of anxious reports from community leaders that their areas were under siege and concerns among senior officers that they risked losing control.
Kavanagh, the officer in charge of policing the area, said the wives of extorted shopkeepers and the girlfriends of gangsters had, for months, pleaded with him to do something; anything to break the cycle of violence. Skirmishes between the Bombacilar and Tottenham Boys have seen 11 major shootings since August, all confined to the slender north London corridor between the Green Lanes area of Haringey and Clapton to the east.
Suleyman Ergun, formerly one of Britain's most prominent Turkish criminals, who at the age of 21 became the world's third-biggest heroin dealer before being jailed for 14 years, told the Observer how easy it was for gangs to obtain guns.
Ergun believes that the trade in heroin, traditionally controlled in London by Turkish organised criminals, remains as rife as ever. He said: "You've got the Kurds bringing it over, 10, 15, 20 kilos at a time, and these youngsters are buying it off them and selling it on the street, and that's where the war is coming from.
Widening gang links
One theory behind the surge in shootings points to the power vacuum left in the wake of Ergun's imprisonment and, three years ago, the jailing of Abdullah Baybasin, who was one of the country's most feared criminals and who ruled his £10bn heroin empire with violence and intimidation.
The Turkish 48-year-old, who lived in north London, commanded a gang of foot soldiers who racketeered, imported drugs and instilled fear into London's Turkish and Kurdish communities. His jailing for 22 years destabilised the gangs' natural order, creating a power struggle now filled by the dozens of young men affiliated to the Bombacilar and Tottenham Boys.
What added to the decision to use armed patrols was the intelligence that both Turkish groups had forged alliances with some of London's most notorious black gangs, all of whom held a long-standing reputation for violence and the casual use of firearms.
Kavanagh believes that the unprecedented union suggests that the long-standing black gangs of Hackney had joined forces with the Turkish crews to widen their drugs markets and broaden their influence. "The expansion is to do with drugs and violence and kudos and what opportunities they have to support each other. Those bonds are quite chaotic relationships.
Past violence on Green Lanes
Kavanagh is no stranger to the lethal potential of north London's gunmen and the Turkish gangs' propensity for violence. He was the senior investigating officer in the 2002 murder of Alisan Dogan, 43, a cleaner who was caught in the crossfire and died from stab wounds when dozens of criminals staged a running battle in the busy shopping street of Green Lanes. The incident – which left four men with gunshot wounds – is thought to be connected to Turkish organised crime involving the Bombacilars.
Losing respect in gangland Britain these days is, say police, sufficient to ignite long-running feuds. When you lose face in a stand-off between the Bombacilar and the Tottenham Boys, north London's most prominent and feared Turkish crews, the fallout can be fatal.
Be careful on your local high street.…
h Community Centre here in Uk.
Looking at what you said I felt the need to express some points on how TUSC and trade unions have more common with the Turkish speaking community then the three political parties.
Lets start with the event which took place in Turkey over the summer of 2013. When things kicked off in Turkey in the summer, as a Community organisation based here in UK we felt it will be sensible to speak to the politicians, trade unions to put pressure on the turkish government to stop the barbaric attack on its own people. We made a call to all of the parties and expected them to support this call as things were getting worse by the day. Not one of these main parties have responded to our call to show solidarity with the people of turkey. Whats worse is, when Turkish speaking community living here in Uk were holding protest at Trafalgar square everyday for a month not one of the politicians showed up to express their wishes of solidarity. And even worse was the Turkish speaking councillors from these main parties, again not one of them turned up to express support. Apart from Nilgun who is the councillor at st Anns ward no one else got in touch. Baring in mind that there were on average 400-500 people at these protest in was very disappointing not be shown any respect. Also these gatherings were organised by all of the community organisation here in UK, from the most nationalist to socialist...
I'll tell you who was there, trade union unionist, socialist, community activists. Not only that they made sure that 'true news' about what was happening in turkey was spread around the country here in UK. Socialist also came, well you might say well they came to promote their paper, ideas etc..- well all could have supported and showed solidarity and all could have done the same. Not only that trade unionist from NUT, PCS, RMT have accepted our our request to go Turkey during the trouble and make observations - this was part of european wide initiative. Guess what, they went, and in fact all of them paid for their own flight and stayed in the cheapest hotels in Istanbul. They even had their own share of the tear gas! they were happy to come back and report back. They were also the key in forming the group SPOT Solidarity with people of TURKEY. TUSC and members of TUSC were also at these events showing solidarity, expressing support through out. Hence where how most of our members involvement with TUSC.
In terms of cynical TUSC Turkish posters - I'll tell you whats cynical, three main political parties forming groups called 'Labour for Kurds/Turks' 'Liberal Turks' and trying to attract votes from the community by getting careerist, self obsessed individuals, who have never done anything for the community to stand as candidates. Shall I tell you the line they use when they knock on Turkish speaking families doors 'Vote for me because I will care for Turkish people'. For years they did this and they continue to do so. I am now hearing that there are serious debates on the candidacy of some of the Turkish labour party candidates!
I'll give you another example, we have centre called North London Community Centre in Bruce Grove, this is a centre mainly attended mainly by Turkish and Kurdish community. It attracts over 200-250 young people, children and adults per week doing educational, cultural and social courses. One of the councillors for Bruce grove is Turkish, cllr Dilek Dogus, the centre has been there for 7 years, do you know how many times she visited the centre? Ones - to cut the opening ribbon!!! I think when it comes to being cynical no one can beat Labour and other main parties with their tricks.
TUSC is different simply because its not racist, not scapegoating migrant communities, they are against cuts and privatisation to public services that we all helped build - we all use public services regardless of our race, colour, religion and ethnicity. We all also need to protect public services regardless of our race, colour, religion and ethnicity. Labour Party has simply followed the requests of central government in imposing cuts and taking vital services away from us, youth centres (12 closed) community centres being closed, day care centres, libraries, parks - are they not services used by the Turkish speaking community? Off course they are, and just like everyone in Haringey we want to keep these services and make them better if possible. Labour's track record is out there, they are good at making the cuts, even when they seem like they don't agree with them, so is liberals and conservatives.
So TUSC is an option and a viable option. Regardless of what happens on Thursday, we will continue to build it. Simply because of the demands, we want councillors who will defend their community and look after it, we don't want careerist councillors who are willing to damage communities and services for their own political interest!
Apologies for the long response, I hope this makes sense. You are also always welcome to attend the North London Community House to have some Turkish tea and discuss this issue further.
Regards,
OKTAY…
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