The Weekly Newspaper of Foreign Policy and International Relations Club

Volume 6, Issue 18

24 April 2012

Hollande tops Sarkozy in French vote, Le Pen surges Far-rightist Marine Le Pen threw France's presidential race wide open on Sunday by scoring nearly

20 percent in the first round - votes that may determine a runoff between Socialist favorite Fran-

cois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy. Hollande led Sarkozy by about 28.5 percent to 26 percent meaning

the two will meet in a head-to-head decider on May 6 that may be

closer than had been expected. But Le Pen's record score of 19.6 per-

cent was the sensation of the night, beating her father's 2002 result

and outpolling hard leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon in fourth place on 11

percent. Centrist Francois Bayrou finished fifth on less than 9 per-cent. It was the first time a sitting president seeking re-election had

been beaten into second place in the first round. But Sarkozy backers

at his campaign headquarters chanted "We are going to win", inter-

preting Le Pen's score as more significant than Hollande's narrow lead

over the incumbent. Jean-Marie Le Pen, visibly elated at his daugh-ter's result, said the National Front would now focus on winning seats in June parliamentary elections.

"There is a lot of hope for us," he told France 2 television as party supporters shouted "Victory!" Voter

surveys show about half of Le Pen's supporters would back Sarkozy in a second round and perhaps one

fifth would vote for Hollande, making her a potential kingmaker in the runoff. Continues on page 2

Members of the European Parliament have condemned Argentina's decision to nationalise the

Spanish-controlled oil company YPF.

They said the move was "an attack on the exercise of free enterprise". They also demanded that the

European Commission take action against Buenos Aires at the World Trade Organization. Spain

meanwhile announced its first retaliatory step,

saying it would promote Spanish biodiesel fuel production to reduce Argentine imports. Deputy

Prime Minister Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said

Spain was considering further political and

diplomatic measures in retaliation for Argentina's

decision to take control of 51% of YPF. Argentine

officials have said they are not worried about possible reprisals. Argentine President Cristina

Fernandez de Kirchner announced the measure on

Monday, saying she was asserting sovereignty over

Argentina's energy resources. Continues on page 3

European Parliament condemns Argentina's YPF nationalisation

THIS

WEEK

EUROPE

PAGE 2

AMERICAS

PAGE 3

ASIA

PAGE 4

MIDDLE EAST&AFRICA PAGE 5

TURKEY

PAGE 6

SOCIAL

PAGE 7

EDITORIAL

PAGE 8

EUROPE

PAGE 2

Norway's Breivik gives chilling account of gun massacre

Thousands have taken to

streets of the Italian capital Rome to protest over

government plans to

introduce legislation that

will make it easier for

compan ie s t o sack employees.

Euronews / April 20,

2012

King Juan Carlos I of Spain

came under intense media

fire for hunting elephants

in Botswana in the middle

of financial crisis.

Al-Jazeera / April 19,

2012

A t t h e E u r o p e a n

Parliament in Strasbourg,

President Martin Schulz

welcomed 12 Croatian

observer MEPs. Croatia will have 12 fully-fledged MEP’s

once the country joins the

EU which is set for July 1

next year.

Euronews / April 20,

2012

Anders Behring Breivik, who admits killing 77 people in Norway last

summer, gave chilling details at his trial Friday of the gun rampage in

which he systematically shot dead scores of young people.

Hollande tops Sarkozy in French vote, Le Pen surges Far-rightist Marine Le Pen threw France's presidential race wide open on Sunday by scoring nearly

20 percent in the first round - votes that may determine a runoff between Socialist favorite Fran-

cois Hollande and conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy.

If Hollande wins on May 6, he would be only France's second left-wing

leader since the founding of the Fifth Republic in 1958. He has promised to

lead a push for a bigger focus on growth in the euro zone, mainly by adding pro-growth clauses to a European budget discipline treaty. If Sarkozy loses,

he would be the 11th euro zone leader to be swept out since the start of the

bloc's debt crisis in late 2009 and the first French president to lose a re-

election bid in more than 30 years. However, many economists see both

Hollande and Sarkozy being obliged to pursue fairly similar, fiscally tight,

economic policies. Daily News Analysis / April 23, 2012

Without apparent emotion, he recounted firing more bullets into teenagers

who were injured and so couldn't escape, killing those who tried to "play

dead" and driving others into the sea to drown. e told the court he had said to himself, just before he started shooting, "I just don't want to do this."But

then, he said, he thought, "It is now or never." Breivik has said his rampage

was meant to save Norway from being taken over by multicultural forces

and to prevent ethnic cleansing of Norwegians.CNN / April 20, 2012

About 550 German soldiers and

130 Austrian troops will be de-

ployed to the region by May 1 at NATO’s request in a bid to

strengthen its KFOR peacekeep-

ers mission, said German Cen-

tral command spokesman

Hauke Bunks. Serbia will hold

parliamentary and local elec-tions May 6, which could re-

ignite tensions between minority

ethnic Albanians and majority

Serbs in northern Kosovo. “In

their evaluation of the situation, NATO and the European Union found that the KFOR forces on the ground

might not be sufficient to appropriately react to possible Kosovo-wide secu-

rity incidents in connection with the elections,” the German military said in

a statement. The Washington Post / April 21, 2012

Germany says NATO set to deploy some 700 additional troops to Kosovo

ahead of Serbia election

Germany will deploy a quick reaction force of several hundred troops

to Kosovo to strengthen the NATO mission there amid heightened ten-

sions ahead of next month’s election in neighboring Serbia, an official said Saturday.

AMERICAS

PAGE 3

Members of the European Parliament have condemned Argentina's decision to nationalise the

Spanish-controlled oil company YPF.

The move has wide support in Argentina but has provoked outrage in

Spain, which has threatened reprisals. Repsol has said it wants around

$10bn for its stake in YPF, but Argentina has said it does not accept that valuation. It says YPF did not invest enough to increase output from its oil

fields, forcing Argentina to rely on imports. YPF, Argentina's biggest oil

company, was privatised in 1993. Last year it announced huge new finds of

shale oil and gas. BBC / April 20, 2012

Three more Secret Service Agents resign

Student protest brings chaos to Canada

A 5,500 metre volcano outside

Mexico City has spewed

burning rock down its slopes

and plumes of ash into the

sky.

Euronews / April 21, 2012

Graphic photos published in

an American newspaper show

US soldiers posing with the

mangled bodies of suspected

Afghan suicide bombers.

Al-Jazeera / April 19, 2012

Thousands of rural workers in

Honduras have occupied land

as part of a dispute with large

l a n d o w n e r s a n d t h e

government.

BBC / April 18, 2012

European Parliament condemns Argentina's YPF nationalisation

Canadian police resorted to tear gas and rubber bullets as a two-month

student protest brought chaos to Montreal.

They turned out in mass as Quebec’s premier, Jean Charest, delivered a

speech on a controversial development plan for the north of the province.

Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois of the student association C.L.A.S.S.E said: “We want a Quebec with accessibility to education. We want a Quebec of social

justice and not a Quebec where we sell ourselves to the mining companies.”

However some warn that the longer the strikes and demonstrations con-

tinue, the longer the list of complaints will grow. Many students are now

expressing a general anger over Charest’s government which is already dog-

ged by conflict-of-interest and ethics scandals. Euronews /April 21, 2012

The U.S. Secret Service said on Friday that three more of its employ-

ees have resigned, bringing to six the number that have left the agency

in connection with alleged misconduct involving prostitutes in Colom-bia last week before President Barack Obama's trip there.

The Secret Service also said that a 12th employee had been

implicated in the ongoing inves-

tigation into a night of partying

on April 11-12 that embar-

rassed the United States and

overshadowed Obama's partici-pation in the Summit of the

Americas last weekend. The

agency's statement said that

one employee had been cleared

of "serious misconduct" but

would face administrative ac-tion - presumably something

short of losing his job. Eleven

Secret Service agents were originally linked to the scandal last week in

which at least 21 women were brought back to a beach front hotel in the

coastal city of Cartagena, badly damaging the agency's clean-cut, security-conscious image. The 11th man was a member of the Army's Special Forces.

President Obama was briefed on the investigation on Friday in the Oval Of-

fice by Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, a White House official said,

but gave no details of the content. Reuters / April 20, 2012

PAGE 4

ASIA

US says China has helped North Korea missile programme

The US government says it believes China has provided help for North Korea’s missile programme.

Reports have suggested a missile transporting vehicle seen at a Pyongyang military parade resembled

others of Chinese design.At a Washington hearing, US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta was asked whether Beijing had supported North Korea’s missile programme via “trade and technology

exchanges”.“I’m sure there’s been some help coming from China. I don’t

know, you know, the exact extent of that. I think we’d have to deal with it

in another context in terms of the sensitivity of that information. But

clearly there’s been assistance along those lines,” he replied.China and

other countries are banned under two UN Security Council resolutions from helping North Korea with its ballistic missile programme.Beijing has denied

breaking any rules.Pyongyang has rejected Western criticism of last

Friday’s failed rocket launch, vowing to continue putting satellites into

space for peaceful purposes.The US believes it was a long-range missile

test. Euronews / April 20, 2012

More than 800 people participated in a regular rally held by Russian

communists to protest the creation of a NATO transit hub in the Volga

city of Ulyanovsk, birthplace of Vladimir Lenin, on Saturday, a local interior affairs department official said.

Members of the country's Communist Party from different regions, includ-ing the parliamentary faction led by party's leader Gennady Zyuganov,

gathered in the city's downtown on Saturday afternoon to hold the rally.

Supporters of A Just Russia Party as well as activists of the Left Front

Movement and The Other Russia independent news web-site took part in

the rally and the following march. The Kremlin's intention to allow NATO to

set up a hub for Afghan transit operations in the Volga region city of Uly-anovsk has triggered mass protests amid claims the deal would undermine

Russia's national interests and security. The Russian authorities have re-

peatedly dismissed concerns over the deployment of a NATO transit hub in

the middle of the country claiming it would involve only the transport of

non-lethal cargoes, which would be subject to customs checks. Ria No-

vosti / April 21, 2012

China says India is a 'partner, not rival' after missile launch

China downplayed India's successful missile launch this week, saying

that the two sides are not rivals but cooperating partners.

"China and India are both emerging countries, we are not

rivals but cooperation partners," said Liu Weimin, China's

foreign ministry spokesman, on Thursday. India's govern-ment touted the successful Thursday launch of the Agni V

missile. "This launch has given a message to the entire

world that India has the capability to design, develop,

build and manufacture missiles of this class, and we are

today a missile power," VK Saraswat, chief of the Defence

Research and Development Organisation, told India's Eco-nomic Times.While China has not perceived India as a threat, experts say

India has boosted military spending in recent years in part due to China's

increasing dominance in the Indian Ocean. CNN / April 20, 2012

Over 800 Protesters Hold Anti-NATO Rally on Volga

Australian Prime Minister

Julia Gillard announces

plans for troops' exit from Afghanistan a year before

2 0 1 4 d e a d l i n e f o r

international withdrawal.

Al-Jazeera / April 17,

2012

Russia failed to sway Italy

on NATO’s missile defense

shield that is to be deployed in Europe,

Russian Defense Minister

Anatoly Serdyukov said on

Friday.

Ria Novosti / April 20,

2012

The Myanmar opposition

leader Aung San Suu Kyi

and members of her party

are unlikely to attend the

first session of parliament

since their election amid a dispute over the wording of

the oath that lawmakers

have to take, a party

spokesman said Friday.

CNN / April 20, 2012

PAGE 5

The ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting in Paris stressed the UN-backed peace plan was the only game in

town to prevent the country from sliding into all out civil war.

The 14-nation group called on the Syrian government to stop all violence

amid fears an escalation could spill out into the wider region. French For-eign Minister Alain Juppe said: “Today for us the priority is to put into place

the Annan plan, which for us is the last chance for peace, the last chance to

avoid civil war in Syria. To make sure the plan works a strong observation

mission has to be deployed as quickly as possible.” “Still the absence of

Russia and China and the manner Moscow spoke about the talks suggest

the unity needed to resolve the Syrian crisis is still very far away.” said Eu-ronews correspondent Giovanni Magi. Euronews / April 20, 2012

Al-Wefaq, Bahrain's main opposition bloc, has said that a man has

been found dead after clashes with riot police in the village of Shak-houra, a day before the Gulf state stages its Formula One Grand Prix.

Al-Wefaq named the dead demonstrator on Saturday as Salah Abbas Habib,

37.It said Habib was part of a group who were beaten by police during

clashes late on Friday night. Violence has escalated in the run-up to the Grand Prix, which has come under huge criticism from country’s mainly

Shia protesters, while the government wants the race to run as per schedule

to send out a signal to the

world of a return of nor-

malcy. The protesters have

blamed the Sunni ruling elite for shutting them out

of opportunities, jobs and

housing. They have made it

clear they will use the inter-

national attention the motor race has focused on Bah-

rain to air their grievances.

Al-Jazeera / April 21,

2012

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

'Protester killed' during Bahrain clashes

Ahead of elections, Egyptians protest military rule

Thousands of Egyptians from across the political spectrum turned out

at the iconic plaza unified in their opposition to remnants of Hosni Mubarak's regime and in their determination to protect the goals of a

hard-fought revolution.

Rival factions put their differences aside to come together against military

rule. The Muslim Brotherhood joined hands with liberals to voice discontent

with an electoral process that has disqualified several candidates, including

the leader of the Islamist group. Next month's polling will be the nation's

first presidential election since Mubarak's ouster in February 2011.The

Muslim Brotherhood's political wing won nearly half the seats in the first parliamentary elections in November. Adding to the tension is an effort to

craft a new constitution and a verdict in Mubarak's murder trial, scheduled

for June. CNN / April 20, 2012

Two minutes silence was

marked across Israel on Thursday to remember the

victims of the Holocaust.

Sirens echoed across the

country to mark the

national memorial day. A silent protest was held

outside the German

embassy in Tel Aviv to

denounce a poem – critical

of Israel – by German

author Guenter Grass.

Euronews / April 19,

2012

The Sudanese president

has vowed to "never give

up" a disputed oil-rich region that has escalated

tensions with South Sudan

and sparked fears of the

two neighbors' return to

war. CNN / April 20, 2012

The leader who Guinea-

Bissau's military rulers proposed to run a

two-year transition to

democracy has refused the

offer, casting doubt on the

country's roadmap toward

elections as the UN Security Council

threatened sanctions

against the West African

nation.

Al-Jazeera / April 21,

2012

‘Friends of Syria’ stress UN plan is last chance for peace

The terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) should lay down its weapons for a peaceful solution

to the Kurdish issue, Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) President Massoud Barzani said on Friday during an official visit to Turkey.

Barzani arrived in Turkey for a two-day visit on Thursday and met with Erdoğan, Gül and Davutoğlu on

Friday. The fight against the PKK was also among the issues discussed during Barzani and Davutoğlu’s

meeting. According to Foreign Ministry sources, a more effective strategy

against the PKK and economic cooperation were also discussed during the meeting. In addition, the two sides reportedly agreed to continue consulta-

tion on various issues, particularly the fight against terrorism. Barzani

also met with pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) Co-Chairman

Selahattin Demirtaş, Co-Chairwoman Gültan Kışanak and Mardin deputy

Ahmet Türk, on Friday afternoon. Demirtaş told reporters after the meeting

that they did not have a “special agenda” but just had lunch with the Iraqi Kurdish leader. Today’s Zaman / April 20, 2012

TURKEY

Ankara starts initiative for Bosnia’s NATO status

Turkey started an initiative with several Balkan countries yesterday

to push NATO to recognize the Membership Action Plan (MAP) status of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to the Turkish foreign minister.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkey and Bulgaria, along with several Balkan countries, have prepared a joint letter, speaking after the

NATO foreign and defense ministers’ meeting. “After the formation of a gov-

ernment in Bosnia, there was a compromise for paving the way for Bosnia’s

membership in NATO,” said Davutoğlu yesterday at a joint press confer-

ence with his Azerbaijani counterpart Elmar Memmedyarov in Brussels.

Davutoğlu said he met with his Bosnian counterpart on April 18 and planned some steps to take ahead of the alliance’s crucial Chicago summit

on May 21. Hurriyet Daily News / April 20, 2012

Turkey says Sudan has

asked Ankara for immediate

help in border clashes with South Sudan that are

threatening to spiral into full

-scale war.

Today’s Zaman / April 20,

2012

Turkey, US and EU High

Representative for External

Affairs Catherine Ashton

declined to join in press

conference with host country France after the “Friends of

Syria” meeting in Paris

aimed at putting pressure on

Syrian regime to end 13-

month violence in the country.

Today’s Zaman / April 20, 2012

Turkey must not threaten or

try to undermine Greek Cyprus' European Union

presidency once the divided

island assumes the bloc's

helm in July, Poland's prime

minister said Wednesday.

Today’s Zaman / April 19,

2012

KRG's Barzani in Ankara, calls on terrorist Pkk to lay down arms

Turkish officials board ship possibly

carrying weapons to Syria Turkish port authorities boarded a German-owned cargo ship reported

to be carrying Iranian weapons bound for Syria, TV news footage

showed on Wednesday.

Citing unnamed dissident sources within the Syrian government, the Ger-

man magazine Der Spiegel first reported last week that the Atlantic Cruiser

was carrying Iranian arms, which were loaded at a port in Djibouti, to

Syria. The report put pressure on the German government, which, as part of the European Union, is obliged to enforce an EU arms embargo against

Syria. The ship's Hamburg-based

owner, W. Bockstiegel Reederei GMBH,

issued a statement Monday denying the

Atlantic Cruiser was carrying weapons.

Despite the ship-owner's denials, the foreign minister of Cyprus announced

last weekend that if the Atlantic Cruiser

requested to dock at a Cypriot port, it

would be denied access. CNN / April

18, 2012

PAGE 6

PAGE 7

Soccer ball swept up by Japanese tsunami found in Alaska

A soccer ball that bobbed onto the shore of a remote Alaska island is likely

the first salvageable debris from last year's Japanese tsunami that could be

returned to its owner, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration. Reuters / April 23, 2012

ODDLY ENOUGH

WHAT IS KFOR?

The Kosovo Force (KFOR) is a NATO-led international peacekeeping

force responsible for establishing a secure environment in Kosovo.

KFOR entered Kosovo on 12 June 1999 under a United

Nations mandate, two days after the adoption of UN Security

Council Resolution 1244. At the time of UN Security Council

Resolution 1244, Kosovo was facing a grave humanitarian crisis, with

military forces from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and

the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in daily engagement. Ethnic tensions

were at their highest and the death toll had reached a historic high.

Nearly one million people had fled Kosovo as refugees. As of February

1, 2012, KFOR consists of 5,790 troops.

KFOR contingents were originally grouped into 4 regionally based

multinational brigades. The brigades were responsible for a specific

area of operations, but under a single chain of command under the authority of Commander KFOR. In

August 2005, the North Atlantic Council decided to restructure KFOR, replacing the four existing

multinational brigades with five task forces, to allow for greater flexibility with, for instance, the removal

of restrictions on the cross-boundary movement of units based in different sectors of Kosovo.

EDITORIAL

GENERAL DIRECTOR

SİBEL DÜZ

COORDINATORS

ALPER AKGÜN

HANDE KAYMA

TALYA YÜZÜCÜ

CORRESPONDENTS

BEGÜM ÇELİKTUTAN

BETÜL OFLAZ

FURKAN ÖZTÜRK

MANSUR ALİ GEDİK

MELTEM SÖĞÜTCEPINAR

NURGÜL ÜLKÜ

RYSBEK AKYLBEK UULU

YAĞMUR ERŞAN

YİĞİT AYDOĞ

ZEYNEP NUR GÖZÜTOK

Official website of the organization:

http://eurosima2012.org/home/

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