The following articles are compiled by:

Rick Allinson

Rick@WatchmenWatching.com

 

 

 

New euro coin stuffs Turkey
Source: The Register  

27 September 2007 – The European Commission has admitted the new euro coin - designed to sport a revised map showing the expanded happy band of brothers - is "not exactly the one the commission has proposed" after the powers that be decided to omit Turkey from the monetary celebration of the EU. According to EUobserver, the Commission's plan was to "change the map of Europe currently seen on the ten-cent to two-euro coins into a larger one going east to the Caspian Sea and including Turkey".

However, while the final result includes Belarus and parts of Russia, poor old Turkey is conspicuous by its absence.

Unsurprisingly, some have suggested the move is politically motivated, given various existing members' reluctance to admit Turkey to full EU membership. The most vociferous among these is France, which is actively opposed to the islamic nation hooking up with its western neighbours.

Italian Liberal MEPs Marco Cappato and Marco Pannella declared in a statement: "The council [the member states' body] has deliberately and secretly wiped Turkey from the new face of the euro. Dictatorships, such as Belarus do figure on the new euro coins' map, but not a democratic country like Turkey with whom accession talks are ongoing."

 

Turkey’s EU Reform Process Fading
Source: Defense News

27 September 2007 – When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory in the Turkish national elections on July 22, he promised progress on Turkey’s application to join the European Union (EU). Abdullah Gul, Erdogan’s former foreign minister, made a similar pledge when he was elected president by parliament one month later.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he hoped Gul’s presidency would boost Turkey’s EU process. Despite their roots in political Islam, both Erdogan and Gul are viewed in the West as reformist politicians. But the re-elected Turkish government appears to be slowing the reforms the EU has been anxiously asking Ankara to speed up.

The government is working on constitutional amendments that will be put to referendum in 2008. A government official said the EU reforms would be tackled only after the constitutional overhaul.

“The new constitution will make the basic guideline for further EU reforms,” the official said Sept. 25.

EU diplomats say the government’s preference of the constitutional reform over EU reforms could damage Turkey’s membership process.

“A constitution takes a long time. The Turkish penal code and the [religious] foundations law can be addressed today,” Jean-Christophe Filori, head of the Turkey desk in the European Commission’s enlargement section, told a gathering at the European Parliament. “The constitutional process shouldn’t become the receptacle for all the reforms needed today.”

An EU diplomat in Ankara said lack of reform may lead to a poor grade in the commission’s annual progress report on Turkey’s membership process, due in November.

“We just can’t ignore Turkey’s reluctance to go ahead with the necessary reforms,” he said.  

 

Turkey defends energy ties with Iran, Russia
Source: The Hindu  

23 September 2007 – Countering American pressure, Turkey has defended its growing energy ties with Iran and Russia.

“Russia and Iran are Turkey’s most important sources in terms of natural gas,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters before emplaning for the United States.

Mr. Erdogan said Turkey’s natural gas demand was increasing because of domestic industrial growth and the growing requirements for heating. “It is impossible for us to say, we are cutting natural gas cooperation with these countries.”

Mr. Erodgan was responding to comments made in Ankara by U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. Mr. Burns had said U.S. allies should consider imposing sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme.

Following up on Mr. Erdogan’s remarks, Turkey’s Energy Minister Hilmi Guler has said he would meet his Iranian counterpart next month to sign a major energy deal. Turkey and Iran signed a preliminary agreement on July 24, which revolved around the construction of two pipelines. The first pipeline would originate from Iran’s South Pars gas field and second from Turkmenistan, Iran’s Central Asian neighbour. Analysts say Turkey can use part of this gas for its own consumption. The rest can be transferred further into Europe along the upcoming Nabucco pipeline.  

 

Comments:  Turkey’s bid to become a member in the prestigious European Union is fast fading into oblivion. Talks have almost broken down and it is becoming clear to Turkey that the EU does not want them in their club. Turkey would be the only Muslim country to join the EU (if they were allowed in) but countries like France who have a strong pull in the Union are the main reason Turkey is being pushed aside. Europe needs Turkey as a close partner for Energy concerns and because they are neighbours but the membership door is almost closed. Turkey is on the outside looking in and they are doing what any other country would do in their position, they are looking for other friends. Turkey is making ties with Russia and Iran. If you remember the article from yesterday, Europe is looking to create an Energy Supremo to oversee their concerns. Europe gets most of their oil and gas from Russia, Iran and Turkey with the major (see pics) pipelines (#2) passing from Russia, Iran through Turkey into the Mediterranean and onto Europe. Russia controls much of the oil in the Caucasus.

Now that Turkey, Iran and Russia are shoring up energy ties, Europe is getting a little worried. But what is interesting is that for many years bible prophecy students have been looking for an alliance between these three countries as a prelude to the Gog Magog war in Eze. 38 and 39: who eventually go against Israel. The area of Russia, Turkey, Iran and the caucuses that control all this oil are the same countries that will take part in this soon coming war.

 

Eze 38:2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,

Eze 38:3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:

Eze 38:5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

 6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.

 7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

 8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.

 

Excerpts Bible Dictionary.

 

Gog - It has been supposed to be the name of a district in the wild north-east steppes of Central Asia, north of the Hindu-Kush, now a part of Turkestan, a region about 2,000 miles north-east of Nineveh.

Magog - denotes "Scythian nations, fierce and innumerable, who live beyond the Caucasus and the Lake Maeotis, and near the Caspian Sea,

Meshech - They were in all probability the Moschi, a people inhabiting the Moschian Mountains, between the Black and the Caspian Seas… a large number of them crossed the Caucasus range and spread over the northern steppes, mingling with the Scythians. There they became known as Muscovs, and gave that name to the Russian nation and its ancient capital by which they are still generally known throughout the East"

Tubal - This nation was probably the Tiberini of the Greek historian Herodotus, a people of the Asiatic highland west of the Upper Euphrates, the southern range of the Caucasus, on the east of the Black Sea.

Gomer  - the ancestor of the Celtae and the Cimmerii, who in early times settled to the north of the Black Sea, and gave their name to the Crimea, the ancient Chersonesus Taurica.

Togarmah - A nation which traded in horses and mules at the fairs of Tyre (Ezek. 27:14; 38:6); probably an Armenian or a Scythian race;

 

Note: Now take a look at the map again and see where all the oil pipelines are and compare.

 

 

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Keep watching (Matt 24:42)!

 

Until next time,

Shalom!

 

 

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