கற்றலோனியா சிதறும் அகண்ட ஐரோப்பிய ஏகாதிபத்தியக் கனவு!

ENB Poster Cataloniya சுயநிர்ணய உரிமை

Catalonia referendum a ‘coup against Europe’, says vice president of EU Parliament

Ramón Luis Valcárcel, vice president of the EU Parliament

Catalonia referendum a ‘coup against Europe’, says vice president of EU Parliament
Jen Mills for Metro.co.uk

One of the most senior EU officials has described the Catalan referendum as ‘a coup against Europe’. After the vote on October 1, Ramón Luis Valcárcel, vice president of the EU Parliament, said: ‘Today we have witnessed a nationalistic propaganda act, undemocratic; a coup attempt against Spanish democracy, and so a coup against Europe.’

Catalan officials said 90 percent of the 2.26 million voters had chosen to leave Spain, and will hold meetings to potentially move for secession as early as this week. But Mr Valcárcel, a Spanish politician and member of the ruling People’s Party, condemned the referendum saying Catalans had voted overwhelmingly in the past to approve Spain’s constitution which says the country cannot be divided. Writing an opinion piece for The Globe and Mail, he said: ‘We are witnessing the first coup against democracy in the history of the European Union.

‘A regional government is angling, in a unilateral, illegal and democratically deplorable manner, to secede from a member state. And in so doing, it is violating the fundamental rights of millions of citizens. ‘This situation is without precedent in the history of the [European] Union.’ Mr Valcárcel said Spain is an integral part of the EU, ‘which respects and safeguards the national identities and constitutional structure of its member states. ‘An attack on the constitution of one member state is therefore also an attack on the Union as a whole.’

After the vote on October 1, most senior EU officials Ramón Luis Valcárcel, vice president of the EU Parliament, said:

‘Today we have witnessed a nationalistic propaganda act, undemocratic; a coup attempt against Spanish democracy, and so a coup against Europe.’

He said the Scottish independence referendum was not the same situation, as the UK has no written constitution and the government granted consent for it to take place. More than 800 people were injured on Sunday as riot police attacked peaceful protesters and unarmed civilians gathered to cast their ballots.

After the polls closed, Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said Catalonia had ‘won the right to become an independent state,’ adding that he would keep his pledge to declare independence unilaterally from Spain. ‘Today the Spanish state wrote another shameful page in its history with Catalonia,’ Puigdemont added, saying he would appeal to the European Union to look into alleged human rights violations during the vote.

No one knows precisely what will happen if Catalan officials actually follow through on their pledge to use the vote – chaotic as it was – as a basis for declaring the north eastern region independent. Such a provocative move would threaten Spain with the possible loss of one of its most prosperous regions, including the popular coastal city of Barcelona, the regional capital. Clashes broke out less than an hour after polls opened, and hundreds of police armed with truncheons and rubber bullets were sent in from other regions to confiscate ballots and stop the voting.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said the violence, while ‘unfortunate’ and ‘unpleasant’ was ‘proportionate’. ‘If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law,’

Police were acting on a judge’s orders to stop the referendum, which the Spanish government had declared illegal and unconstitutional – and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said going forward with the vote only served to sow divisions. In a televised address after the majority of polls closed Sunday, he thanked the Spanish police, saying they had acted with ‘firmness and serenity’ – comments sure to anger Catalans.

Spanish Foreign Minister Alfonso Dastis said the violence, while ‘unfortunate’ and ‘unpleasant’ was ‘proportionate’. ‘If people insist in disregarding the law and doing something that has been consistently declared illegal and unconstitutional, law enforcement officers need to uphold the law,’

Dastis told The Associated Press.

Source: metro.co.uk Monday 2 Oct 2017

Catalans stage protests, general strike against crackdown on referendum vote

World News
October 3, 2017
Catalans stage protests, general strike against crackdown on vote
Sam Edwards

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Catalonia and road traffic, public transport and business were disrupted on Tuesday in protest against Sunday’s violent crackdown by Spanish police on an outlawed independence referendum.

Metro stations shut down in Barcelona, pickets blocked dozens of roads and state workers walked out in response to a call for a general strike by pro-independence groups and trade unions.

FC Barcelona, the city’s football club, joined the strike, saying it would close for the day and none of its teams would train. Carmaker SEAT was forced to shut a production line.

Catalonia, Spain’s richest region, has its own language and culture and a political movement for secession that has strengthened in recent years.

Pro-independence parties who control the regional government staged Sunday’s referendum in defiance of Spanish courts that had ruled it illegal. Some 900 people were injured on polling day when police fired rubber bullets and charged at crowds with truncheons to disrupt the vote.

Those who participated voted overwhelmingly for independence, a result that was expected since residents who favor remaining part of Spain mainly boycotted the vote.

Opinion polls conducted before the vote suggested only a minority of around 40 percent of residents in the region back independence. But a majority want a referendum to be held, and protesters said the violent police crackdown against the ballot had energized the secessionist camp.

“What happened on Oct. 1 has fired up independence feeling that will never die,” said 18-year-old student Monica Ventinc, who attended a protest on Tuesday.

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont has said the referendum is valid and its result must be implemented. Spain’s Constitutional Court prohibited the ballot, siding with Madrid which argued that it contravened the country’s 1978 constitution which bars breaking up the country.

The referendum has plunged Spain into its worst constitutional crisis in decades, and is a political test for Rajoy, a conservative who has taken a hardline stance on the issue. Outside of Catalonia, Spaniards mostly hold strong views against its independence drive.

On financial markets, Spain’s 10-year borrowing costs hit their highest level in nearly three months as tensions between Madrid and Catalonia spilled on to the streets.

Several demonstrations unfolded across Catalonia on Tuesday. To the north of Barcelona, a line of tractors moved down a road blocked to traffic, accompanied by protesters chanting “Independence!” and “The streets will always be ours!”

Crowds gathered outside the local headquarters of Spain’s ruling People’s Party (PP) and the Spanish national police headquarters in Barcelona, whistling and waving the red-and-yellow regional flag.
Groups of firemen marched and played bagpipes in Barcelona as people cheered them. Outside the PP offices, people threw voting papers into the air and chanted ‘We voted’.

People entwined flowers into the gates of Ramon Llull school, where Spanish police clashed with those wanting to vote in the banned referendum on Sunday.

Barcelona tourist attractions such as museums and architect Antoni Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia church, were shut.

But some businesses operated normally and it was difficult to estimate what proportion of workers heeded the strike call.

“In no way can we accept that they come here with this kind of repression,” taxi driver Alejandro Torralbo, standing outside the PP headquarters, said of Sunday’s police action.

Spain’s Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said Puigdemont and his regional government had lost respect for the democratic process and were showing a flagrant disregard for the law.

“I’ve seen how President Puigdemont has flooded the streets with his followers to stop people obeying the law and to make them disrespect justice,” she said. “We are here to defend the rights and liberties of all Spaniards that have been trampled upon by the regional government.”

Writing by Sonya Dowsett and Adrian Croft; editing by Peter Graff
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Selected Articles- Catalonias Referendum

Selected Articles: Catalonia’s Referendum

https://www.globalresearch.ca/selected-articles-catalonias-referendum/5611676

Catalan Referendum Results

Know Catalonia

 

Catalonia History

https://youtu.be/AIvclpJb05g

 

Catolina US

https://youtu.be/VUFWY5FUZxk

 

Police Brutality

https://youtu.be/jH53_XjO_6E

https://youtu.be/3GnIutPfCyY

https://youtu.be/FiEDIpcoPzY

https://youtu.be/Kp2Mh9wgsaY

SAS hunt Osama Bin Laden's son in 'kill or capture' mission

Bin Laden Son Hamza

SAS hunt Osama Bin Laden's son in 'kill or capture' mission before he can launch revenge terror attacks against the West




Bin Laden son Hamza
© Provided by Trinity Mirror Shared Services Limited Credits: CBS

Osama bin Laden ’s son is being hunted in a “kill or capture” mission by UK special forces. Hamza bin Laden, 28, has followed in his evil dad’s footsteps to head terror group al-Qaeda.

Now US and British intelligence officers are believed to have listed him as being among their most wanted targets.

Hamza disappeared from his father’s remote safe house in Pakistan weeks before Osama was shot dead by US Navy Seals in 2011.



© Provided by Trinity Mirror Shared Services Limited

He is now said to want revenge for the killing and is believed to be plotting an attack on the West .
Hamza re-emerged from hiding two years ago and has since issued twisted video messages praising “lone wolf” attacks in London, while calling on militants across the globe to take action.
Hamza re-emerged from hiding two years ago and has since issued twisted video messages praising “lone wolf” attacks in London, while calling on militants across the globe to take action.

He is understood to want to re-build is father’s terror organisation and is said to have been spotted in Syria in May.



Bin Laden Son Hamza

© Provided by Trinity Mirror Shared Services Limited

A Joint Coalition Special Operations Unit, including 40 SAS soldiers, have reportedly been flown in to Syria on a covert mission to find Hamza and his gang.

He is now considered in the top 10 “high-value” targets being hunted by Coalition forces deployed on Operation Shader.

ENB POSTER : Catalonia வெகுஜன வாக்கெடுப்பு வெல்க!

 

Iraqi Kurdish leader says 'yes' vote won independence referendum

“The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,” he said in Erbil on Monday. “If the ‘yes’ vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully.”

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani

World News
September 26, 2017
Iraqi Kurdish leader says 'yes' vote won independence referendum




Iraqi Kurdish president Masoud Barzani speaks during a news conference
in Erbil, Iraq September 24, 2017. REUTERS/Azad Lashkari

 

BAGHDAD/ERBIL, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani said on Tuesday that Kurds had voted “yes” to independence in a referendum held in defiance of the government in Baghdad and which had angered their neighbors and their U.S. allies.

The Kurds, who have ruled over an autonomous region within Iraq since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, consider Monday’s referendum to be an historic step in a generations-old quest for a state of their own.

Iraq considers the vote unconstitutional, especially as it was held not only within the Kurdish region itself but also on disputed territory held by Kurds elsewhere in northern Iraq.

The United States, major European countries and neighbors Turkey and Iran strongly opposed the decision to hold the referendum, which they described as destabilizing at a time when all sides are still fighting against Islamic State militants.

In a televised address, Barzani said the “yes” vote had won and he called on Iraq’s central government in Baghdad to engage in “serious dialogue” instead of threatening the Kurdish Regional Government with sanctions.

The Iraqi government earlier ruled out talks on Kurdish independence and Turkey threatened to impose a blockade.

“We may face hardship but we will overcome,” Barzani said, calling on world powers “to respect the will of millions of people” who voted in the referendum.

Earlier, the Kurdish Rudaw TV channel said an overwhelming majority, possibly over 90 percent, had voted “yes”. Final results are expected by Wednesday.

Celebrations continued until the early hours of Tuesday in Erbil, capital of the Kurdish region, which was lit by fireworks and adorned with Kurdish red-white-green flags. People danced in the squares as convoys of cars drove around honking their horns.

In ethnically mixed Kirkuk, where Arabs and Turkmen opposed the vote, authorities lifted an overnight curfew imposed to maintain control. Kirkuk, located atop huge oil resources, is outside the Kurdish region but controlled by Kurdish forces that occupied it in 2014 after driving out Islamic State fighters.

In neighboring Iran, which also has a large Kurdish minority, thousands of Kurds marched in support of the referendum, defying a show of strength by Tehran which flew fighter jets over their areas.
The referendum has fueled fears of a new regional conflict. Turkey, which has fought a Kurdish insurgency within its borders for decades, reiterated threats of economic and military retaliation.
Barzani, who is president of the Kurdish Regional Government, has said the vote is not binding, but meant to provide a mandate for negotiations with Baghdad and neighboring countries over the peaceful secession of the region from Iraq.

IRAQI OPPOSITION

Baghdad said there would be no such talks.

“We are not ready to discuss or have a dialogue about the results of the referendum because it is unconstitutional,” Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said on Monday night.

Abadi ordered the Kurds to hand over control of their airports to the central government within three days or face an international embargo on flights.

Abadi, a moderate from Iraq’s Shi‘ite Arab majority, is coming under pressure at home to take punitive measures against the Kurds. Hardline Iranian-backed Shi‘ite groups have threatened to march on Kirkuk.

“We as Popular Mobilisation would be fully prepared to carry out orders from Abadi if he asks to liberate Kirkuk and the oilfields from the separatist militias,” said Hashim al-Mouasawi, a spokesman for the al-Nujabaa paramilitary group.

The Kurds, who speak their own language related to Persian, were left without a state of their own when the Ottoman empire crumbled a century ago. Around 30 million are scattered in northern Iraq, southastern Turkey and parts of Syria and Iran.

The autonomous region they control in Iraq is the closest the Kurds have come in modern times to a state. It has flourished, largely remaining at peace while the rest of Iraq has been in a continuous state of civil war for 14 years.

Since the fall of Saddam, they have had to carefully balance their ambitions for full independence with the threat of a backlash from their neighbors and the reluctance of Washington to redraw borders.

In the past four years they achieved a measure of economic independence by opening a route to sell oil through pipelines to a port in Turkey. But that still leaves them at the mercy of Ankara, which draws a firm line at formal independence.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan warned that Iraqi Kurds would go hungry if Turkey imposed sanctions, and said military and economic measures could be used against them.

“This referendum decision, which has been taken without any consultation, is treachery,” he said, repeating threats to cut off the pipeline.

The Kurds say the referendum acknowledges their contribution in confronting Islamic State after it overwhelmed the Iraqi army in 2014 and seized control of a third of Iraq.

Voters were asked to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: “Do you want the Kurdistan Region and Kurdistani areas outside the (Kurdistan) Region to become an independent country?”

Iraqi soldiers joined Turkish troops for military exercises in southeast Turkey on Tuesday near the border with the Kurdistan region. Turkey also took the Rudaw TV channel off its satellite service TurkSat.

STATE DEPARTMENT

Iraq’s Kurds have been close allies of the United States since Washington offered them protection from Saddam in 1991. But the United States has long encouraged the Kurds to avoid unilateral steps so as not to jeopardize the stability of Iraq or antagonize Turkey.

The U.S. State Department said it was “deeply disappointed” by the decision to conduct the referendum but Washington’s relationship with region’s people would not change.

Asked about the referendum, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday: “We hope for a unified Iraq to annihilate ISIS (Islamic State) and certainly a unified Iraq to push back on Iran.”
The European Union regretted that the Kurds had failed to heed its call not to hold the referendum and said Iraqi unity remained essential in facing the threat from Islamic State.

The Kremlin said Moscow backed the territorial integrity of countries in the region. Unlike other powers, Russia had not directly called on the Kurds to cancel the referendum. Moscow has quietly pledged billions of dollars in investment in the past year, becoming the biggest funders of the Kurds.
Iran banned flights to and from Kurdistan on Sunday, while Baghdad asked foreign countries to stop oil trading with the Kurdish region and demanded that the KRG hand over control of its international airports and border posts with Iran, Turkey and Syria.

Iranian Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top adviser to the Supreme Leader, called on “the four neighboring countries to block land borders” with the Iraqi Kurdish region, according to state news agency IRNA. Tehran supports Shi‘ite Muslim groups that are powerful in Baghdad.

Syria, embroiled in a civil war and whose Kurds are pressing ahead with their own self-determination, also rejected the referendum.

KRG Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said he hoped to maintain good relations with Turkey.
“The referendum does not mean independence will happen tomorrow, nor are we redrawing borders,” he said in Erbil on Monday. “If the ‘yes’ vote wins, we will resolve our issues with Baghdad peacefully.”

Additional reporting by Ece Toksabay in ANKARA and Umit Bektas in HABUR, Turkey; Editing by Philippa Fletcher, Peter Graff and Giles Elgood
Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.