The three parties exploring a possible coalition in Germany face an early test of their willingness to compromise on Thursday when they try to reach a common stance on deeply divisive immigration and asylum policy.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to patch together a tricky three-way coalition after her party suffered bruising losses in a national election three weeks ago, losses that even some of her allies blame on her refugee policies.

Germany’s demographic landscape changed overnight in 2015 with her decision, in the face of refugee flows on a scale not seen since World War II, to open the borders to more than a million migrants fleeing war in the Middle East and Africa.

Merkel in middle

While some hailed the move as a humanitarian act, it was less popular in her own conservative camp, where many blame her for the subsequent surge in the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany party, which took seats from her bloc.

Within her conservative bloc, the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) is demanding a cap on refugee numbers, rejected by Merkel as unconstitutional. To her left, the Greens oppose what they see as a populist-driven tightening of asylum rules.

With parties far apart, Christian Lindner, leader of the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) warned that talks could rapidly descend into conflict with Greens on the sensitive matter of allowing family members to join migrants in Germany.

“The CSU’s talk of an upper limit is empty,” Lindner told Der Spiegel magazine. “But I have sympathy for the CSU’s calls for a change in immigration policy given the need for order,” he added, warning Merkel against compromising with the Greens.

“Once control has been re-established, then we can be more open again on family reunification,” he said. “Until then it must be strictly limited to cases of hardship and to the core family — parents and children.”

First rounds go well

In the first two rounds of coalition talks, the three parties defied expectations by finding substantial common ground on fiscal policy.

But politicians from all parties have said it could take months to clinch agreement on what would be Germany’s first three-way coalition for decades.
…

Middle Eastern regional rivalries spilled over Wednesday into a U.N. meeting on human rights in Iran, when a Syrian diplomat’s outburst brought the proceedings to a temporary halt.

The meeting, an annual exercise in the U.N. committee that reviews the human rights situation in some of the countries with the worst records, began predictably enough.

Special Rapporteur Asma Jahangir outlined concerns about the rate of executions in Iran — 435 since January this year —  that included some women and juveniles. She also detailed reports she has received about the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of human rights defenders.

Jahangir, who took up her mandate in November last year, addressed the dangerous conditions for journalists, bloggers and social media activists, noting that more than two dozen were in Iranian jails as of June.

She went on to address discrimination against women, who must wear garments that cover them in public, are not allowed to watch sporting events at stadiums, are excluded from some occupations and face double the unemployment rates of men. When they do work, they are paid 41 percent less than their male counterparts.

She also expressed concern about the situation of ethnic and religious minorities, such as the Baha’is, who face “unabated discrimination” and even arbitrary arrest, torture and prosecution.

Some praise for Iran

Jahangir, an independent human rights expert who received her mandate from the U.N. Human Rights Council, also had some positive things to say.

She noted high participation rates in the May presidential and local elections and President Hassan Rouhani’s pledge to address the rights of women in Iran. She also welcomed the relatively good communication she has had with the government in carrying out her mandate, although a request to visit the country has not been granted.

Regional disputes erupt

When the discussion was opened to the floor, regional disputes came into play.

“Iran would like to divert the international community’s attention through stoking tension and instability in other countries and also through fueling hate crimes,” Saudi Arabia’s representative said. “Iran is sponsoring all problems in the Middle East.”

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran are arch enemies. They support different sides in the Syrian civil war and are fighting each other directly and indirectly in Yemen. In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia backs the legitimate government, while Iran arms the militant cum political movement Hezbollah.

Syrian diplomat Amjad Qassem Agha began by accusing the Special Rapporteur of relying “on fabricated reports provided by intelligence agencies in countries that seek to destabilize Iran.”

Agha then suggested that before appointing a Special Rapporteur for Iran, there should be one assigned to look into Saudi Arabia or countries that were involved in Afghanistan, Libya and Yemen.

Saudi Arabia’s representative asked to address the remark about his delegation and the chair allowed it.

“We are now discussing the report on human rights in Iran, I do not think it appropriate to refer to other countries in this context,” he said. “I ask the Syrian representative not to address countries that have nothing to do with this item.”

Undiplomatic behavior

“What is his country’s concern to talk about Iran in this way?” Syrian diplomat Agha shouted. “How he has to dare to talk about Iran and he needs other countries not to talk about Iran, to protect Iran!” he yelled. He lost all composure and continued shouting for four minutes.

The committee’s secretary, Moncef Khane, could be heard speaking to the chair saying, “He’s completely out of line; it’s never happened (before),” expressing his shock at the undiplomatic outburst.

Syria is Iran’s main regional ally. Iran, along with Russia, intervened militarily in the conflict to save the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in 2015, when it appeared it might fall to the opposition.

The Syrian representative’s microphone was ultimately shut off, but he could still be heard screaming, ultimately provoking the committee secretary to warn that if he continued, U.N. security would be called. Ultimately, the chair suspended the session.

After a 10-minute hiatus, that included both the Iranian representative and committee secretary Khane speaking to the Syrian diplomat, the meeting resumed and so did the insults.

“If only one reason was needed to prove how debased the third committee has become to consider country-specific situations, the Saudi intervention provides that,” said Iranian envoy Mohammad Hassani Nejad Pirkouhi.

“Saudi — a bad child killer that has recently upgraded to a good child killer — kills more children in Yemen than al-Qaida, ISIS and al-Nusra put together around the globe,” Pirkouhi said, referring to Saudi Arabia’s listing on a U.N. blacklist of countries that kill and maim children in conflict.

This year, Riyadh was listed for coalition bombings in Yemen, but the U.N. noted it has put in place measures to improve child protection.
…

Turkey has freed eight human rights activists, pending the outcome of their trials for alleged terrorism.

Those freed Wednesday included Amnesty International’s Turkey director, Idil Eser, and German and Swiss citizens.

They were arrested in July while attending a digital security workshop on Buyukada Island. They have been behind bars ever since.

A total of 11 activists have been charged with terrorism for allegedly having contact with Kurdish and leftist militants, as well as suspected members of a movement led by exiled Muslim cleric Fetullah Gulen.

Turkey said Gulen and his backers were behind last year’s failed coup, a charge Gulen denies.

Amnesty International said there was not “a shred of evidence” against the defendants. One of them, Ozlem Dalkiran, a member of the group Citizens’ Assembly, told the judge during his court appearance, “I have no idea why we’re here.”

The United States has condemned the arrests and urged Turkey to drop the charges.

Turkey has long had its eyes on joining the European Union. But some in the EU have expressed concern that Turkey may be sliding closer to authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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A new strain of malicious software has paralyzed computers at a Ukrainian airport, the Ukrainian capital’s subway and at some independent Russian media.

The Odessa international airport in Ukraine’s south, the Kyiv subway and prominent Russian media outlets such as Interfax and Fontanka on Tuesday reported being targeted.

The cyberattack appears to be similar to a major attack in June that locked the computers of hospitals, government offices and major multinationals with encryption that demanded a ransom for their release. The software appeared to have originated in Ukraine.

Moscow-based cyber security firm Group-IP said in a statement Wednesday the ransomware called BadRabbit also tried to penetrate the computers of major Russian banks but failed. None of the banks has reported any attacks.

Moscow-based cyber security company Kaspersky Lab said it was aware of more than 200 companies in Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and Germany targeted by the ransomware.

The Odessa airport said in a statement its information systems have been affected, although it continues to service flights. The subway in the capital, Kyiv, said it cannot process online payments and bank card payments.

The operations of Russia’s only privately owned news agency, Interfax, have been paralyzed since Tuesday.

 
…

Sometime in 2014, a group of analysts walked into the office of Eugene Kaspersky, the ebullient founder of Russian cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab, to deliver some sobering news. The analysts were in possession of a cache of files belonging to the Equation Group, an extraordinarily powerful band of hackers that would later be exposed as an arm of the U.S. National Security Agency. But the analysts were worried; the files were classified.

“They immediately came to my office,” Kaspersky recalled, “and they told me that they have a problem.”

According to him, there was no hesitation about what to do with the cache.

“It must be deleted,” Kaspersky says he told them.

The incident, recounted by Kaspersky during a brief telephone interview on Monday and supplemented by a preliminary timeline provided by company officials, could not be immediately corroborated. But it’s the first public acknowledgement of a story that has been building for the past three weeks — that Kaspersky’s popular anti-virus program uploaded powerful digital espionage tools belonging to the NSA and sent them to servers in Moscow.

The account provides new perspective on the U.S. government’s recent move to blacklist Kaspersky from federal computer networks, even if it still leaves important questions unanswered.

To hear Kaspersky tell it, the incident was an accident borne of carelessness.

Kaspersky was already on the trail of the Equation Group when one of its customers in the United States — Kaspersky referred to them as a “malware developer” — ran at least two anti-virus scans on their home computer after it was infected by a pirated copy of Microsoft Office 2013, according to Kaspersky’s timeline. That triggered an alert for Equation Group files hidden in a compressed archive which was spirited to Moscow for analysis.

Kaspersky’s story at least partially matches accounts published in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. All three publications recently reported that someone at the NSA’s elite hacking unit lost control of some of the agency’s powerful surveillance tools after they brought their work home with them, leaving what should have been closely guarded code on a personal computer running Kaspersky’s anti-virus software.

But information security experts reading the bits of information dropped by anonymous government officials are still puzzling at whether Kaspersky is suspected of deliberately hunting for confidential data or was merely doing its job by sniffing out suspicious files.

Much of the ambiguity is down to the nature of modern anti-virus software, which routinely submits rogue files back to company servers for analysis. The software can easily be quietly tweaked to scoop up other files too: perhaps classified documents belonging to a foreign rival’s government, for example.

Concerns have been fanned by increasingly explicit warnings from U.S. government officials after tensions with Russia escalated in the wake of the 2016 presidential election.

Kaspersky denied any inappropriate link to the Russian government, and said in his interview that any classified documents inadvertently swept up by his software would be destroyed on discovery.

“If we see confidential or classified information, it will be immediately deleted and that was exactly [what happened in] this case,” he said, adding that the order had since been written into company policy.

An AP request for a copy of that policy wasn’t immediately granted.

Kaspersky’s account still has some gaps. How did the analysts know, for example, that the data was classified? And why not alert American authorities to what happened? Several reports alleged that the U.S. learned that Kaspersky had acquired the NSA’s tools via an Israeli spying operation.

Kaspersky declined to say whether he had ever alerted U.S. authorities to the incident.

“Do you really think that I want to see in the news that I tried to contact the NSA to report this case?” he said at one point. “Definitely I don’t want to see that in the news.”

So did he alert the NSA to the incident or not?

“I’m afraid I can’t answer the question,” he said.

Even if some questions linger, Kaspersky’s explanation sounds plausible, said Jake Williams, a former NSA analyst and the founder of Augusta, Georgia-based Rendition InfoSec. He noted that Kaspersky was pitching itself at the time to government clients in the United States and may not have wanted the risk of having classified documents on its network.

“It makes sense that they pulled those up and looked at the classification marking and then deleted them,” said Williams. “I can see where it’s so toxic you may not want it on your systems.”

As for the insinuation that someone at the NSA not only walked highly classified software out of the building but put it on a computer running a bootleg version of Office, Williams called it “absolutely wild.”

“It’s hard to imagine a worse PR nightmare for the NSA,” he said.
…

Three-quarters of the world’s people live in countries that either restrict the right to religion or belief or have “a high level of social hostility involving religion or belief,” the U.N. special investigator on religious rights said Tuesday.

Ahmed Shaheed told the General Assembly’s human rights committee that religious intolerance is prevalent globally – and rising around the world.

He said over 70 countries currently have anti-blasphemy laws that can be used to suppress dissenting views, in violation of international human rights standards.

Shaheed, a former politician and human rights expert from the Maldives, urged those countries to repeal the blasphemy laws.

He also called for the repeal of all laws that undermine the exercise of the right to freedom of religion or belief – or discriminate against that right.

Shaheed urged countries to adopt and enforce “adequate criminal sanctions penalizing violent and particularly egregious discriminatory acts perpetrated by state or non-state actors against persons based on their religion or belief.”

He said governments must also pay “particular attention” to uphold the obligation to protect religious minorities.

“Increases in unlawful government restrictions against religious groups remain one of the primary and most fundamental factors resulting in higher levels of religious intolerance in any given society,” Shaheed said.

Some forms of discrimination are direct, such as prohibiting some or all religions or beliefs, he said. But others may be indirect, like zoning laws that prevent construction of certain houses of worship or bans on refugees or immigrants, “ostensibly for national security reasons, from countries where majority populations belong to particular faith communities,” he said.

The special investigator, or rapporteur, on freedom of religion or belief is an independent expert appointed by the Geneva-based U.N. Human Rights Council. Shaheed previously served for almost six years as special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran.
…

Russia used its U.N. veto Tuesday to block a resolution extending the mandate of the investigators probing chemical weapons attacks in Syria.

In a Security Council vote, 11 countries supported extending the mission for another year, while Russia and Bolivia voted against the measure, and China and Kazakhstan abstained.

The investigating team, known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism or JIM, is expected to make public a report on Thursday that could identify the party responsible for a deadly April 4 attack in the rebel-controlled town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib that killed and sickened scores of civilians.

Three days later, the United States launched an airstrike on a Syrian air base which Washington accused the regime of Bashar al-Assad of having used to launch the poison gas attack.

Accountability

While the question of whether sarin or a sarin-like substance is not disputed, who used it still has to be officially confirmed, and it is anticipated the JIM’s report could shed light on the matter.

It would be politically embarrassing for Russia, a staunch ally of President Assad, if evidence shows that the regime — and not, for example, Islamic State militants — are responsible for the attack. In Syria, the government is the only party to the conflict that possesses air capabilities. Russia has previously suggested that the gas was released from a bomb on the ground and not in the air.

Russia’s U.N. envoy, Vassily Nebenzia, first sought to postpone Tuesday’s vote through a procedural measure until after the release of the JIM’s report, saying the hastily-called vote was an effort by Washington to embarrass Moscow.

“You need to show up Russia and show that Russia is guilty of not extending the JIM, in fact you are the one who is begging for confrontation,” Nebenzia said of the U.S. delegation, which drafted the text and pushed for the vote.

While the procedural vote had the support of China, Kazakhstan and Bolivia, it fell short of the required eight-vote majority and failed to prevent the other vote going ahead, forcing Russia to use its veto.

Eighth veto on Syria

“I want to underscore that today’s voting is senseless also, because it won’t have any impact on the future of the JIM,” Nebenzia said after casting his veto — the eighth time Russia has done so on Syria. “We will return to the issue of extension in the future — we have not stopped it.”

The mission’s mandate does not expire until November 16, so the council has three weeks to approve an extension without disrupting the team’s work, as happened last year when consensus could not be reached on the JIM’s extension.

“The question we must ask ourselves is, whether the JIM is being attacked because it has failed in its job to determine the truth in Syria, or because its conclusions have been politically inconvenient for some council members,” said U.S. envoy Michele Sison.

“Russia called for the formation of the JIM, they negotiated its terms, they agreed its mission, and yet when faced with the prospect of the JIM revealing the truth, why has Russia alone chosen to shoot the messenger?” asked British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft.

Some diplomats said the move for the vote now was intended to avoid politicizing whatever conclusions the report draws and avoiding having them affect votes for the extension.

All council members expressed the hope that they could return to the issue and reach consensus on extending the JIM’s mandate before it expires next month.
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A trial began in Istanbul Tuesday for eleven prominent human rights activists, including two foreign nationals, in a case that is drawing criticism from international human rights organizations who say it is part of a campaign by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to silence criticism and scrutiny in Turkey in the wake of last year’s coup attempt.  

The defendants face prison sentences of up to 15 years in prison.

Amnesty International’s chairman in Turkey, Taner Kilic, and Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s Turkey director, are among those on trial. The case centers on a digital security seminar that was held on Buyukada, an island on the Sea of Marmara near  Istanbul, that focused on security and coping with stress. In a 15-page indictment, prosecutors allege the meeting was part of a conspiracy to unseat the government by inciting civil unrest

“It’s a completely baseless case, there is not a shred of evidence,” said Andrew Gardner, Amnesty International’s Turkey researcher. “It’s an attempt to scare and silence human rights civil society. That’s why Turkey’s most prominent human rights defenders and human rights organizations have been swept up in this case,” he said.

Key members of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly, one of Turkey’s most respected and oldest human rights groups, are among those on trial Tuesday.

Erdogan has vigorously defended the charges against the activists, portraying the case as an example that no one is above the law and evidence that Turkey faces a threat by international conspirators and unidentified countries following the failed coup. Erdogan on Tuesday lashed out at EU nations whose leaders have been critical of his crackdown and what they see as tightening controls on free speech.   “We expect European leaders to stop targeting Turkey and to return to common sense,” the Turkish leader said at an event in the capital, Ankara, on Monday.  

Mounting tensions with Europe

Tuesday’s trial is likely to further ratchet up tensions between Turkey and Europe. Two of the defendants are European nationals:  Swedish national Ali Gharavri and German Peter Steudtner, both of whom were giving seminars at the meeting where the human rights advocates were arrested.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel has strongly criticized the arrests, saying “Innocent people are caught up in the wheels of justice,” in Turkey.”

“Linking the work of Steudtner and other human rights activists, who are on trial with him, to the support of terrorism, to imprison and prosecute them, is highly absurd,” wrote European Parliamentarian Rebecca Harms in a statement released Tuesday. “The arbitrary detention of foreign citizens in Turkey proves to be more and more a measure by which the Turkish leadership wants to pressure the home countries of those concerned,” she said.

Under emergency rule introduced last year following the botched military coup, more than 50,000 people have been arrested and 150,000 others have lost their jobs.

Critics point to what they see as a lack of evidence to justify many of the prosecutions.

“If you look at the evidence, for example, against Idil Eser, Amnesty International’s director, it’s all to do with an Amnesty International campaign and public documents,” said Gardner. “The prosecutors have had three months of investigations to come up with evidence against human rights defenders and came up with nothing.”

Among the evidence against the defendants is a Tweet telling participants to turn off their phones and “enjoy the boat ride” to the island where the seminar was being held.

Courts as intimidation tool

There is a growing suspicion among observers that the trial is part of a campaign to intimidate wider civil society.

“The arrests of the human rights activists, I think, gives us a very bleak picture of the Turkish civic society, or what the regime means by ‘civic society,'” observes political scientist Cengiz Aktar. “It’s not very different from what we see in Russia, completely curtailed and diminished.”

Tuesday’s prosecution of human rights advocates comes amid a rash of arrests and trials of journalists. Media freedom groups have dubbed Turkey the world’s worst jailor of journalists, claiming more than 150 reporters are imprisoned.

On Tuesday, six more journalists went on trial for reporting on leaked emails that allegedly were written by Berat Albayrak, son-in-law of President Erdogan, and Turkey’s energy minister. The emails are considered to be in the public domain, yet observers note the journalists are being prosecuted for publishing state secrets.

The clampdown on media and freedom of expression is drawing further condemnation among Europeans already skeptical of Turkey’s readiness to continue its bid to some day join the EU.

“There cannot be an effective political debate when journalists cannot report or question political leaders without fear of harassment or arrest,” said Tanja Fajon, a Slovenian politician with the Social Democrats and member of the European Parliament. “As Turkey’s political situation worsens, it remains imperative to offer support to, and speak about, those imprisoned for their journalism.”

 
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The international aid group Save the Children is suspending its efforts to rescue migrants making the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing from Libya.

Tuesday, the organization said the combination of falling numbers of crossings and worsening security forced it to stop sending its ship, the Vos Hestia, out from its port in Italy.

Save the Children said the ship rescued as many as 10,000 migrants over the past year after the smugglers’ vessels they were in foundered at sea.

The announcement comes just a day after Italian authorities searched the Vos Hestia as part of Rome’s efforts to deter people smuggling across the Mediterranean. Save the Children said the decision to suspend operations wasn’t related to the search and it told journalists that Italian prosecutors had given assurances it is not under investigation. It seems the search might be linked, however, to crew members on the boat.

In August, police seized a boat operated by a German aid organization, saying there was evidence some people smugglers escorted migrants to that boat. Save the Children says it has nothing to do with that case.

Save the Children was one of the first aid groups to sign a voluntary code of conduct with the Italian government to ensure they aren’t colluding with or encouraging smuggling.

The number of arriving migrants is down about 25 percent so far this year from last year, to around 110,000. And the drop will get worse as the winter closes in. Very few rescue boats are heading out into the Mediterranean now because of falling need.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere have struggled to sail from Libya to Italy over the past few years. Hundreds of thousands of migrants have also trekked through Turkey to Europe.

Thousands have died in the sea crossing, prompting both rescue efforts by private aid groups and efforts by the Italian government to staunch the flow.

Rome, with the EU’s backing, has helped Libya with efforts to police its vast desert land borders and to patrol its coast to prevent migrants from entering.
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Britain’s democracy is one of the most secure in the world and will remain so, a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday in response to a question about a suggestion that there may have been foreign interference in the Brexit vote.

Opposition lawmaker Ben Bradshaw last week urged the government to look into reports by an advocacy group suggesting that the origin of some Brexit campaign funds was unclear.

Bradshaw said in parliament the issue should be investigated “given the widespread concern over foreign and particularly Russian interference in Western democracies.”

At a regular briefing with reporters, May’s spokesman was asked if the prime minister was concerned about the reports. “I am not aware of those concerns,” he said.

“More broadly, as we’ve always said, the UK democratic system is amongst one of the most secure in the world and will continue to be so.”

The Electoral Commission, which regulates political finance in Britain, said in April it was investigating campaign spending by pro-Brexit organization Leave.EU, without giving details.

A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said on Monday that investigation was still going on and it would not provide any further information until it was complete.

 
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The building that houses EU summits, where toxic fumes forced EU leaders to switch venues last week, will be closed for a further week as investigators

seek to resolve the problem.

The fumes leaking from the drains have forced the Europa Building, also known as “The Egg,” to be evacuated twice this month, including before a summit of EU leaders on Thursday and Friday.

The new building was opened in January amid controversy over its 321-million-euro ($378 million) price tag.

Staff and meetings will be temporarily transferred to the next door Justus Lipsius building until the issue is resolved.

About 20 catering staff had to go to hospital on October 13 and an unspecified number on Wednesday. An EU official said the Council and Belgian health and safety agencies believe the two incidents were due to the same source.

Reporting by Lily Cusack; editing by Philip Blenkinsop and Toby Chopra.
…

U.S. and Turkish diplomats continue talks on resolving a dispute over recent visa curbs, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan steps up his rhetoric against Washington. Bilateral relations are set to be further strained by an upcoming court case over Iranian sanction busting involving Turkish citizens.

Erdogan launched a scathing attack Sunday on the country’s Western allies.

He warned Turkey would respect its strategic alliances with its partners as long as those countries respected the law. Ankara has accused some of its NATO partners of conspiring against it and offering sanctuary to people it accuses of being involved in last year’s coup.

Erdogan specifically targeted Washington.

“They say the United States is the cradle of democracy. This can not be true, this can not be democracy,” he said. ” If the United States issues arrest warrants for my 13 bodyguards in a country where I went upon invitation, I am sorry, but I will not say that country is civilized.”

Erdogan’s body guards are accused by U.S. prosecutors of assaulting peaceful protesters outside the Turkish embassy during his visit to Washington in May.

The Turkish president’s scathing attack comes as diplomats from both countries are continuing efforts to resolve the mutual curbing of visas.

Washington imposed visa restrictions following the arrest on terrorism charges of two local employees working at U.S. diplomatic missions in Turkey.

That move saw Ankara retaliating with its own visa restrictions.

The U.S. State Department described the talks Thursday as productive.

Political columnist Semih Idiz of Al Monitor website said Erdogan’s increasingly tough rhetoric against Washington should be viewed in a wider context of the importance of bilateral relations to both sides.

“He [Erdogan] is a master of coming out with bellicose remarks at unexpected and sensitive moments. But we must realize Erdogan was in New York very recently and had a very chummy meeting with Donald Trump who called him a special friend. So Turkey is aware for all the problems it has with America, [it] too it has to tread carefully,” said Idiz.

Observers point out Erdogan’s tough rhetoric is in part motivated by domestic politics. A tough anti American stance plays well with Turkish nationalists Erdogan is courting for 2019 presidential and general elections.

But U.S. Turkish relations could be further strained with an upcoming Iranian sanction busting court case in the United States that involves Turkish-Iranian businessmen Reza Zarrab and senior members of a Turkish State bank.

Political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source partners warns the case can only add to bilateral tensions.

“This upcoming Reza Zarrab case which we [Turkey] consider a big conspiracy of the American deep state, so the possibility of these political shocks tampering off is almost nil,” said Yesilada.

Washington’s ongoing support of Syrian Kurdish militia fighting the Islamic State, also continues to infuriate Ankara who accuse the militia of being, linked to an armed insurgency in Turkey.
…

Amid the turmoil in Spain’s separatist-minded Catalonia region, two wealthy Italian regions voted overwhelmingly Sunday for more autonomy from Rome.

Referenda were held in Veneto – the northern region that includes the tourist haven of Venice – and in Lombardy, another northern region with the city of Milan as its main attraction.

The presidents of both regions say more than 90 percent of those who cast ballots voted in favor of more autonomy.

Both referenda are non-binding. But the presidents say the voices of their people give them a strong mandate and more leverage when they open talks with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni.

Leaders of both regions want to keep more tax revue and have a greater say over such matters as education, immigration, security, and the environment.
…

Several thousand Maltese citizens rallied Sunday to honor an investigative journalist killed by a car bomb, but the prime minister and opposition leader who were chief targets of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s reporting stayed away from the gathering.

Participants at the rally in Malta’s capital, Valletta, placed flowers at the foot of a memorial to the 53-year-old reporter that sprang up opposite the law court building after her October 16 slaying.  

Some wore T-shirts or carried placards emblazoned with words from Caruana Galizia’s final blog post: “There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate” in the European Union nation of some 400,000 people.

Police removed a banner describing Malta as a “Mafia state.”

Hundreds of participants later held a sit-in outside police headquarters, demanding the resignation of Malta’s police commissioner. Some hurled tomatoes, cakes and coins against an enlarged photograph of the commissioner spread out on the street.

The homicide of a journalist who devoted her career to exposing wrong-doing in Malta and raised her three sons there united many of the nation’s oft-squabbling politicians, at least for a day.

Caruana Galizia had repeatedly criticized police and judicial officials.

Malta’s two dominant political forces, the ruling Labor and opposition Nationalist parties, participated in the rally which was organized to press demands for justice in her slaying.

Official no-shows

But Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told his Labor party’s radio station a few hours before the event’s start time that he wouldn’t attend because he knew the anti-corruption reporter’s family didn’t want him to be there.

“I know where I should be and where I should not be. I am not a hypocrite and I recognize the signs,” Muscat said, adding that he supported the rally’s goals of call for justice and national unity.

Nationalist leader Adrian Delia also skipped the rally, saying he didn’t want to “stir controversy.”

“Today is not about me, but about the rule of law and democracy,” Delia told reporters.

Muscat and Delia, while fierce political rivals, have another thing in common:  Both brought libel lawsuits against Caruana Galizia. Delia withdrew his pending libel cases last week after her killing.

Caruana Galizia’s family has refused to endorse the government’s offer of a 1 million euro ($1.18 million) reward and full protection to anyone with information that leads to the arrest and prosecution of her killer or killers.

Instead, the family, which includes a son who is an investigative journalist himself, has demanded that Muscat resign. In their quest for a serious and efficient investigation, Caruana Galizia’s husband and children also want Malta’s top police office and attorney general replaced.

“The killers decided to silence her, but they won’t silence her spirit, they won’t silence us,” Christophe Deloire, a French journalist from the journalism advocacy organization Reporters Without Borders, said.  “From us they will not have more than one minute of silence.”

On Sunday morning, all seven national newspapers had their front pages black in Caruana Galizia’s memory. Printed in bold letters against the black backgrounds were the words: “The pen conquers fear.”

‘Crooks everywhere’

Just before her death, Caruana Galizia had posted on her closely followed blog, Running Commentary, that there were ‘crooks everywhere’ in Malta. The island nation has a reputation as a tax haven in the European Union and has attracted companies and money from outside Europe.

The journalist focused her reporting for years on investigating political corruption and scandals, and reported on Maltese mobsters and the island’s drug trafficking. She also wrote about Maltese links to the so-called Panama Papers leaks about offshore financial havens.  

After the rally ended, several hundred participants walked to police headquarters, and sat in the street outside shouting “Shame on you!” and “Resign!”

Malta President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca received a delegation from the Civil Society Network, a non-partisan organization of university professors, businessmen, opinion writers and authors in Malta.

The car bombing was “an attack on all of us, every single one of us,” Coleiro Preca told them. “We need to see how we are going to work together. We need to unite to have the reform that is needed.”
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Slovenia’s incumbent president Borut Pahor won the most votes in Sunday’s election, but not enough to avoid a runoff.

With nearly all the ballots counted, Pahor is expected to finish with 47 percent, while his main challenger, former comedian Marjan Sarec, will win about 25 percent.

Pahor said he expects to win the November 12 runoff as he thanked voters for backing him in Sunday’s first round.

Slovenia is a former Yugoslav republic which has frequently been in the news in the past year as the birthplace of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.

The Slovenian presidency is a largely ceremonial office. But the president nominates the prime minister, and presidential opinions greatly influence government policies.

 
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Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced Saturday he would dismiss Catalonia’s separatist government and call for new elections in an attempt to prevent the semi-autonomous region from declaring its independence.

Rajoy made the announcement after an emergency Cabinet meeting to deal with the political crisis caused by secession efforts undertaken by the regional leadership of Catalonia.

Rajoy’s office invoked Article 155 of Spain’s constitution, which gives the government the power to take away some or all of Catalonia’s autonomy. Opposition political parties have agreed to support the imposition of central rule over Catalonia. Rajoy is nearly certain to get the required votes next week from Spain’s upper legislative body, which is ruled by Rajoy’s conservative party.

Carles Puidgemont, Catalonia’s leader, said the prime minister’s move was “the worst attack on institutions and Catalan people” since the era Francisco Franco, and called for a meeting of the Catalan parliament. Franco was Spain’s military dictator from 1939 to his death in 1975.

“Mariano Rajoy has announced a de facto coup d’etat with he goal of ousting a democratically elected government,” said Catalan parliament speaker Carme Forcadell. She said Rajoy’s new move is “an authoritarian blow within a member of the European Union.”

Rajoy said Saturday Puidgemont’s threat to secede “has been unilateral, contrary to the law, and seeking confrontation.”

Barcelona police say 450,000 demonstrators took to the streets in the regional capital Saturday with many waving Catalonia’s red and yellow separatist flag. Some protesters shouted “freedom” and “independence.”

“We are here because the Spanish government made a coup without weapons against the Catalan people and their government institutions,” said Joan Portet, a 58-year-old protester.

Voters in Catalonia voted in favor of independence in the October 1 referendum, but fewer than half of those eligible to cast a ballot took part, with opponents boycotting the process. Rajoy’s government dismissed the referendum as illegal.
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Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, has been released from jail after a 20-day sentence for calling an unauthorized demonstration.

Navalny was arrested on Sept. 29 as he planned to travel to the city of Nizhny Novgorod for a rally that had been given official permission. But a court sentenced him for calling another rally, an unauthorized protest in St. Petersburg, President Vladimir Putin’s hometown.

Navalny, who plans to run for president against Putin in next March’s election, has repeatedly served jail terms connected to rallies. After his release Sunday, Navalny said on social media that he hopes to attend an evening demonstration in the southern city of Astrakhan.

The anti-corruption campaigner this year twice called for demonstrations nationwide whose size and extent rattled the Kremlin.

 
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Slovenians are voting in a presidential election Sunday that is expected to be an easy re-election for President Borut Pahor, a veteran politician and former model known for his use of social media.

Some 1.7 million voters were choosing among nine presidential candidates, including five women, for the largely ceremonial but influential post. This nation in Central Europe is a member of the European Union and the homeland of U.S. first lady Melania Trump.

Slovenia’s presidency holds no executive powers, but the president proposes the prime minister, who runs the government, and the president’s opinion carries weight on important issues.

Pre-election surveys say the 53-year-old Pahor could possibly win a majority of votes and avoid a runoff. His main opponent is Marjan Sarec, a former comedian who is the mayor of the northern town of Kamnik. 

Pahor has been nicknamed Slovenia’s “King of Instagram” for his frequent presence on social media. He walked about 700 kilometers (420 miles) during the presidential campaign, posting photos and short videos all along the way. 

Critics think Pahor has degraded the presidency by turning himself into a celebrity.

Sarec starred in Slovenian satirical shows until he mounted an independent bid for mayor in 2010 and won against an established candidate. The 39-year-old is serving his second term as mayor.

Other presidential candidates include Romana Tomc, a tax expert backed by the conservatives; Ljudmila Novak, a former teacher who leads the New Slovenia Christian-Democrats; and Angelca Likovic, who is promoting Catholic Christian values.

Key topics facing Slovenia include the economy and a border dispute with neighboring Croatia stemming from the 1990s’ breakup of the former Yugoslavia.
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Some 200 people rallied on Saturday in the Belarusian capital of Minsk, calling for the resignation of the president who has ruled the former Soviet republic since 1994.

Opposition activists carrying Belarusian and European Union flags urged President Alexander Lukashenko to step down. They criticized some of the laws he recently pushed through, including one forcing citizens to register with the state employment exchange or pay a hefty fine.

“We demand that authorities stop stealing from people – and only Lukashenko’s resignation can change that,” said Mykola Statkevich, a former presidential candidate who spent five years in prison on what was largely viewed as politically motivated charges.

Police allowed the protesters chanting “For shame!” to rally outside the seat of government and KGB headquarters. They did not make any arrests during the protest, but an Associated Press reporter saw at least two people detained afterward.

Lukashenko, who has been described as Europe’s last dictator, in recent years has often allowed Belarusian opposition, fragmented and largely unpopular, to protest unhindered.
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A man with a knife attacked four people in Munich on Saturday and then fled, police said. A suspect was arrested a few hours later, and authorities were working to determine whether he was the assailant.

Police received initial reports of an attack in the Haidhausen area, just east of downtown Munich, at about 8:30 a.m., spokesman Marcus da Gloria Martins said. They determined that a lone attacker apparently had gone after passers-by indiscriminately with a knife.

The assailant attacked six people – five men and one woman – at different sites in the area, with four of them wounded and none seriously, da Gloria Martins said. They mainly had superficial stab wounds and in one case had been hit, he added.

After the attack, police took to Twitter to warn people in the Rosenheimer Platz area to stay indoors and cautioned them to avoid the area around the nearby Ostbahnhof railway station and a park amid conflicting accounts of the direction in which the suspect fled.

Police also issued a description of the suspect, who they said appeared to be about 40 years old and had a black bicycle, gray trousers, a green jacket and a backpack. They decribed him as having a “corpulent figure” and added that he had short blond hair and was unshaven.

About three hours after the stabbing, police arrested a man matching that description who initially tried to evade officers. “We can’t yet confirm whether he is the perpetrator,” da Gloria Martins said.

There was no immediate word on a possible motive.
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Police say a man with a knife has lightly wounded four people in Munich. Officers are looking for the assailant.

Munich police called on people in the Rosenheimer Platz area, located close to the German city’s downtown, to stay inside after the incident Saturday morning.

The perpetrator fled the scene. Police said he appeared to be about 40 years old and had a black bicycle, gray trousers, a green jacket and a backpack.

The police department said on Twitter that officers are looking for the assailant “with all available police forces.”

It said the motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

None of the injuries were considered life-threatening.
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The European Union will push to conclude free trade talks with South American bloc Mercosur by the end of the year, leaders said, despite French reservations over the surge of farm imports an agreement would bring.

French President Emmanuel Macron had said he was in no hurry to do a deal with the beef-exporting Mercosur countries of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay and succeeded in pushing trade onto the agenda of an EU leaders summit in Brussels.

“We had a short moment just after midnight to discuss international trade,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told a news conference after the leaders met on Friday.

Juncker said Europe had a great opportunity to seal trade deals with countries across the world, while respecting European values and standards and the “reciprocity sought by the French president.”

“We will continue to do everything we can to conclude the negotiations with Mercosur before the end of the year. It’s important. We underestimate the importance of Mercosur for the European Union,” he said.

The European Commission says the savings the EU could make from reduced import tariffs with Mercosur would be three times greater than for deals with Canada and Japan combined.

EU exports to Mercosur from cars to pharmaceuticals are subject to duties of about 4.4 billion euros ($5.2 billion) per year. France, said a Commission source, would be among one of the greatest beneficiaries if these were cut.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said he and fellow EU leaders had decided not to slow down the talks and still wanted a deal by the end of the year.

The French president said Europe faced an internal challenge to persuade the public to support to trade deals.

“And an external one which is to have a growth agenda and, at a time when the United States is turning isolationist, to be able to build strategic commercial relationships with several regions of the world.”

France has been concerned that the Commission was rushing towards a deal with Mercosur, while also seeking to open talks with Australia and New Zealand, two other countries that want to expand exports of farm products.

With 10 other countries, it told the Commission last month that Europe first needed to determine how much beef, ethanol and other farm products it can afford to let in under current and future deals.

One of them, Ireland, injected a note of caution on Friday. “A Mercosur deal by Christmas is optimistic,” its Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said.

($1 = 0.8472 euros)

Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski and Robert-Jan Bartunek; Editing by Andrew Heavens.
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Ankara is facing growing national and international criticism over Wednesday’s arrest of Turkish philanthropist and businessman Osman Kavala. Kavala –  a leading member of Turkey’s civic society – was detained Wednesday night at Istanbul airport. According to his lawyer, he is being held at Istanbul’s counterterrorism department.  

U.S. State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert voiced concern on Thursday.

“It’s just another example, right, of a lot of things taking place, of respected civil society leaders, human rights defenders, journalists  we’ve all followed this story closely  academics, also activists detained in that country,” she said. “The detentions are often made without  very little evidence, very little transparency, and we consider that to be a very alarming trend in that country.”

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Kati Piri, wrote on Twitter, “Very disturbing news that Osman Kavala has been detained in Istanbul.” Piri added she would propose the European Parliament launch an urgent call for his release.

The European Union has been voicing growing concern over Turkey’s ongoing crackdown following last year’s coup, which has seen over 60,000 people arrested.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, attending a summit of EU leaders this week, described developments in Turkey as very negative and said she would propose funding to Turkey be curbed.  

Kavala has set up and funded projects to bridge deep social and ethnic divides in Turkey and encourage cultural diversity. Human rights groups nationally and internationally have voiced outrage over his arrest.

Political scientist Cengiz Aktar said Kavala’s arrest is a watershed moment.

“He was one of the main movers and shakers of the Turkish liberal civil society and nothing will be like before since the custody of Osman Kavala,” he said. I think now the Turkish liberal civil society activist will be much move cautious in their actions in Turkey. It actually confirms a very frightening trend whereby the Turkish liberal civil society is targeted if not annihilated.”

Ankara strongly defends the ongoing crackdown, insisting it is facing a continuing threat from conspirators seeking to overthrow the government.

International pressure over the crackdown is likely to grow with the trial beginning Wednesday (Oct. 25) of leading Turkish members of Amnesty International and two European nationals detained at a human rights meeting.
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Slovenia, the Alpine home country of Melania Trump, is holding a presidential election Sunday that incumbent President Borut Pahor — a former fashion model, like the U.S. first lady — is favored to win. Eight other candidates are vying for the largely ceremonial, but still influential head of state post.

Opinion polls show Pahor, a veteran politician who gave up modeling long ago, could win a majority of votes and avoid a runoff election two weeks later.

Below is some background on the race being decided in nature-loving Slovenia:

A president who is king of Instagram

The 53-year-old Pahor started his political career when Slovenia was part of the former Yugoslavia. He served as parliament speaker, a member of the European Parliament, prime minister before he took office as president in December 2012.

Pahor has been nicknamed Slovenia’s “King of Instagram” for his frequent presence on social media. He walked about 700 kilometers (420 miles) during the presidential campaign, posting photos and short videos all along the way. Critics think Pahor has degraded the presidency by turning himself into a “celebrity.”

The competition

Pahor’s main opponent is Marjan Sarec, a former actor and comedian who is the mayor of the northern town of Kamnik. Before becoming a politician himself, Sarec was known for imitating politicians. He starred in Slovenian satirical shows until he mounted an independent bid for mayor in 2010 and won against an established candidate.

Sarec, 39, is currently serving his second term as mayor. He toured Slovenia in a rented bus during his campaign.

Other presidential candidates include Romana Tomc, a tax expert backed by the conservatives; Ljudmila Novak, a former teacher who leads the New Slovenia Christian-Democrats; and Angelca Likovic, who is promoting Catholic Christian values.

What opinion surveys say

Pre-election surveys showed Pahor could win as much as 55 percent of the vote on Sunday, trailed by Sarec with 21 percent. The survey conducted by Ninamedia polling agency has put all other candidates far behind.

Why the vote matters

Slovenia’s presidency holds no executive powers. However, the president proposes the prime minister who runs the government and the office-holder’s opinion carries weight on important issues. Key topics facing Slovenia include the economy, a border dispute with neighboring Croatia stemming from the 1990s’ breakup of the former Yugoslavia, the future of the European Union, the large numbers of migrants and refugees who have reached Europe or are attempting to immigrate.

Election day

Slovenia, which has a population of around 2 million, has about 1.7 million voters. Polling places are set to open Sunday at 0500GMT and close 12 hours later. Initial results are expected a few hours after the polls close.
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The U.N. Children’s Fund warns that more than 320,000 Rohingya refugee children are living in desperate conditions in squalid makeshift settlements in Bangladesh, putting them at risk of disease and vulnerable to exploitation by traffickers.

UNICEF reports that up to 12,000 children a week are fleeing to Bangladesh to escape violence and persecution in Myanmar. In what is the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis, nearly 600,000 Rohingyas have arrived in Cox’s Bazar since the end of August. Almost 60 percent are children.

Heart-breaking report

The UNICEF report graphically describes the fearful existence of these many children. It says they arrive in Bangladesh — painfully thin, malnourished and hungry. After having escaped a near-death experience, the report says the children find themselves living in flimsy shelters. They are reduced to drinking dirty water and having to scrounge for whatever food might be available.

Author and UNICEF senior communications adviser, Simon Ingram, says the chaotic, overcrowded refugee camps are dangerous and challenging for the children.

“People surging in all directions.” he said. “So, for children caught up in that, they are getting lost. … And then in the longer term, it is the sense that these children feel so abandoned. So, completely remote and without a means of finding support or help. And, in a sense, it is no surprise that they must truly see these places as a hell on earth.”

Traumatized children

Ingram said it was particularly painful to see how traumatized the children were from their horrendous experiences in Myanmar.

“Talking to children, hearing their stories and really getting the sense that they had been through something absolutely terrible, absolutely horrific. And, yet, so often the delivery that came across was almost matter of fact. It was almost like they were already shutting it out from their minds,” he said.

UNICEF is calling for an end to the atrocities against civilians in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and for aid agencies to be given unrestricted access to all child victims of violence there.
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European Union leaders pledged more money Thursday to help Italy work with Libya to stem the flow of migrants from North Africa trying to get to Europe.

“We have a real chance of closing the central Mediterranean route,” European Council President Donald Tusk told reporters at a Brussels summit.

Tusk was referring to the extremely dangerous sea crossing between Libya and Italy’s Lampedusa island — the first EU territory the migrants encounter. Thousands have died trying to cross the Mediterranean on unsafe boats or after being left on their own by human smugglers.

Italian officials say the number of migrants leaving Libyan shores has dropped 20 percent in 2017, since Italy began working with Libya to stop the flow. This includes Italy providing more training to the Libyan coast guard to crack down on human smugglers and rescuing migrants stranded at sea.

Italy has been demanding more money and help from the EU for several years.

“Member states so far have committed 175 million euros [$207 million]. This is clearly not enough,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said.
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U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Thursday described Russian interference in U.S. elections as “warfare.”

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia used cyber-enabled means in an attempt to help President Donald Trump win the White House, an allegation the Kremlin has denied.

“We have to be so hard on this and we have to hold them accountable,” Haley said during a panel discussion with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice held by the George W. Bush Institute in New York on Thursday.

“When a country can come interfere in another country’s elections that is warfare. It really is, because you’re making sure that the democracy shifts from what the people want,” she said. “This is their new weapon of choice and we have to get in front of it.”

Congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating alleged Russian interference in the election, including whether there was any collusion between Trump associates and Moscow. Trump has denied that there was any collusion between his campaign and associates and Russia.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has called on mayors of three major cities to resign, including the high-profile mayor of the capital, Ankara, the Hurriyet newspaper reported Thursday, in a push to revitalize his ruling party ahead of 2019 elections.

The comments mark Erdogan’s most explicit demand yet for a shake-up of veteran politicians, some of whom are nationally prominent, after voters in many cities rejected an April referendum granting him sweeping power.

While Erdogan narrowly won the referendum to change the constitution and create an executive presidency, voters in 17 of Turkey’s 30 largest cities voted against the change. Since then, Erdogan has spoken of the need for renewal in local government and the ruling AK Party, citing signs of “metal fatigue” within administrations.

“People do not take these offices as independent candidates but as candidates shown by parties. We cannot regard these posts as chairs, which are kept eternally and never abandoned,” the Hurriyet quoted him as telling reporters on his plane back from a trip to Poland this week.

A request had been conveyed for the resignation of the mayor of Balikesir in northwest Turkey, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Likewise, this situation was conveyed to (Ankara Mayor) Melih (Gokcek). The same with Bursa,” he was quoted as saying. Bursa is a city in northwest Turkey.

The mayor of Istanbul has resigned in the last month, as has the mayor of Duzce city in northwest Turkey. The mayor of Nigde city in central Turkey, resigned Wednesday.

But Gokcek, who has been Ankara mayor since 1994 and won five consecutive elections, has so far stayed in place, despite widespread speculation that he would step down.

Gokcek has avoided addressing the resignation issue and pointedly steered clear of the subject in public when he made an unexpected visit to the presidential palace this month.

“I presented to my president all the project details of the museum to be built opposite the (presidential) palace. I also gave various information about ongoing municipal projects. … For the public’s information,” he wrote on Twitter.

Gokcek, generally regarded as a staunch Erdogan loyalist, is well known in Turkey for tweets in which he has engaged in spats with journalists and other senior members of the AKP.

In February he suggested the U.S.-based cleric blamed for last year’s failed coup might be plotting an earthquake, with the help of foreign powers, to damage the economy.
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Catalonia’s leader on Thursday threatened to explicitly declare independence if no talks with the central government were offered. Spain then called a special Cabinet session to be held over the weekend to activate measures to take control of Catalonia’s semi-autonomous powers.

Catalan president Carles Puigdemont’s warning came in a letter to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy with minutes to spare before the expiration of a deadline set by the central government for him to backtrack on his calls for secession.

“If the central government persists in impeding dialogue and continuing its repression, Catalonia’s parliament will proceed … with a vote to formally declare independence,” Puigdemont’s letter said.

Cabinet session called

Spain’s government quickly responded with a statement saying it was calling a special Cabinet session for Saturday in which it would trigger the process to activate Article 155 of Spain’s Constitution. It allows for central authorities to take over the semi-autonomous powers of any of the country’s 17 regions, including Catalonia.

The Cabinet meeting will “approve the measures that will be sent to the Senate to protect the general interest of all Spaniards,” the statement said.

The measure has never been used in the four decades since democracy was restored at the end of Gen. Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.

Spain’s government needs to outline what are the exact measures it wants to apply in Catalonia and submit them for a vote in Spain’s Senate.

The ruling Popular Party’s majority in the top chamber would be enough to approve the measure, but Rajoy has held discussions with opposition leaders to rally further support.

Referendum and violence

Catalans would consider the application of the measure an “invasion” of the region’s self-government, while Spain’s central authorities have portrayed it as an undesired move, yet a necessary one, to restore legality after Puigdemont’s government pushed ahead with a banned referendum that violated the country’s constitution.

More than 40 percent of Catalonia’s 5.5 million eligible voters cast ballots in the illegal Oct. 1 referendum as police used violence to try to enforce a court order to stop it from going ahead.Opponents boycotted the vote.

Catalan officials say that hundreds of people were injured in police violence, while Spanish authorities say hundreds of police officers were also hurt and the use of force was proportional to the resistance they met.

The separatists declared an overwhelming victory despite the boycott by opponents and on the grounds that it was illegal and lacked basic guarantees such as an independent electoral board.

Spain’s government had said it would be willing to hold off on applying Article 155 if the Catalan separatist leader were to call a snap regional election. But Catalan officials have ruled that out.

The Catalan government’s international affairs director, Raul Romeva, told reporters in Brussels on Wednesday that Catalonia’s banned secession referendum gave the region’s separatist government a mandate to declare independence from Spain.
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Catalonia is one of 17 autonomous areas of Spain, but as home to the country’s second-largest city and 20 percent of its economic output, the region holds special prominence as its leaders seek independence.

History of separatism

— The history of separatism movements in Catalonia stretches back several centuries, including a decision in 1640 to align itself with neighboring France.

— More recently, in moves rejected by the Spanish government, voters in Catalonia approved independence referendums in 2014 and earlier this month, while in 2015 lawmakers approved a roadmap for secession.

— The independence movement gained momentum in the past decade as Spain went through an economic crisis, but polls in the region show support for self-rule declining as the economy rebounds. A vast majority of those who voted in the latest referendum chose for independence, though well under half of eligible voters cast a ballot and polls suggest more Catalans favor remaining in Spain.

Tourism key to region’s economy

— With its Mediterranean coast and the historic city of Barcelona, tourism is a key part of the region’s economy.

— An estimated 18 million foreign tourists visited there last year.

— One in every seven people in Spain live in Catalonia, which has been operating as an autonomous region in its current form since 1979.That structure includes its own president and parliament.

Rich cultural history

— The latest version of its official Statement of Autonomy, issued in 2006, highlights Catalonia as a community “based on respect for individual dignity.”

— “The civil and associative tradition of Catalonia has always underlined the importance of Catalan language and culture, of rights and duties, of knowledge, of education, of social cohesion, of sustainable development and equality of rights, and today, especially, of equality between men and women,” the preamble reads.

Economic powerhouse

— The region is one of the richest in Spain and accounted for about one-fourth of the country’s exports last year.

— There is a large agricultural sector, as well as an automotive industry that includes factories that make cars for Nissan and a division of Volkswagen.

— Catalonia is also home to a large portion of Spain’s pharmaceutical industry, housing major drug makers, biotech firms, medical device manufacturers and research institutions.
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