Albania and Turkey have signed a military cooperation plan, but this document has attracted increased media attention because it is shrouded in secrecy. Albanian media are confident that the leaders of the two countries have agreed to relocate 30 000 Syrian refugees to southern Albania. This news alarmed Greece, since around 120 000 ethnic Greeks live the region known as Northern Epirus.

Athens fears that Ankara and Tirana agreed on such a plan in order to “dilute the national minority in this Albanian region”.

On February 27, 2020, the defense ministers of Albania and Turkey signed a plan for military cooperation but details of the document were not disclosed. It is only known that part of the agreement “includes actions which the ministries of defense of the two countries undertake to carry out in 2020 in order to strengthen and intensify cooperation in the field of security and defense”.

The Albanian, and subsequently the Greek media have claimed that Ankara and Tirana are talking about their intention to accommodate 30 000 “refugees” and illegal migrants in Albania, who are now in Turkey.

News agencies citing sources, claim that the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed on this earlier. At the same time, the area where migrants will be relocated to has also been determined – in Northern Epirus, located on the border of Albania and Greece.

Greece liberated this area during the First Balkan War in 1912–1913, but the international powers decided to give it to Albania, with the same scenario being repeated after the World War II. The region thus remained in Albania.

Greek newspapers reported that Orthodox Greeks in the area “were constantly harassed by Muslims”.

Tensions intensified in the 1990s. Today, there are even fewer Greek schools in the region, “the shops of Greeks are attacked, property is sometimes confiscated by means of a far-fetched pretext, and they are not allowed to conduct religious rites”. In addition, Greeks are discriminated against on a national basis. For example, Greeks can neither serve in the police, the army, nor occupy high positions of state, etc.

Albanian media reported in early March that the construction of six refugee reception centers were being planned on the border with Greece, able to accommodate 30 000 people, as well as first aid centers. It was noted that construction was necessary if ever “Albania faces an influx of Syrian refugees from Greece”.

More information has been leaked since: that “work is being carried out to provide the resettlement of refugees either in rural houses or in new special settlements in the area”. At the same time, the media has been drawing attention to the fact that Tirana has no money for the construction of the corresponding infrastructure.

Albania is still struggling to recover from the earthquake that happened on November 26, 2019.

Additional indirect confirmation of cooperation between Tirana and Ankara, is the fact that, in the background of the Coronavirus pandemic, Albania has banned all international flights to the capital, except flights to and from Istanbul.

There is no official evidence that Turkey and Albania have entered into a secret agreement. However, the Greek community in Northern Epirus is very concerned about this prospect.

Thodoris Goumas, the editor of the news portal Himara.gr, which is located in one of the biggest Greek towns of Northern Epirus Himara, gave an interview to the Greek newspaper Protothema. He expressed the huge misgivings that both native Greeks and their brethren in Northern Epirus have about the deal between Ankara and Tirana.

“The activities of the Albanian Prime Minister are rather suspicious, rumors do not come out of nowhere. The choice of the Northern Epirus region for resettlement of Muslim refugees means a deliberate provocation against Greece,” Goumas concluded.

Vladimir Avatkov, associate professor at the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, noted the existence of rather close ties between Ankara and Tirana and believes that agreements regarding the resettlement of refugees to Albania quite likely exist:

“Turkey is an extremely active player in the Balkans, it proceeds from the fact that Albania, like many other states on this peninsula, is within Turkey’s sphere of influence. Ankara supported Tirana’s entry into NATO. It is through Albania, as well as through some other states of the Balkan peninsula, that Turkey pursues its active policy of influencing Europe.

“Albania is also important from the point of view of the refugee transfer, and for blackmailing Europe with the migration crisis. Turkey proceeds from the fact that it is a world power and is capable of exerting pressure on a number of states, including the developed countries of Europe.

“In addition, despite the fact that some states of the Balkan peninsula have a negative historical perception of Turkey due to the fact that it occupied these lands a while back, some states have close ties with Ankara and carry out functions of a conductor for Turkey.”

Currently, there are 3,6 million refugees in Turkey. In March 2016, Ankara entered into an agreement with Brussels, according to which Turkey agreed to keep migrants out of European countries. In exchange, the EU promised Turkey assistance in supporting refugees, a visa-free regime and a launch of negotiations on accession to the European Union.

However, Erdogan had repeatedly complained that the funds allocated by the European Union are insufficient and, moreover, Brussels does not comply with other conditions of the agreement.

Turkey has repeatedly stated that it is becoming increasingly difficult for the country to cope with the placement of refugees. At the end of February this year, the Turkish authorities announced that they were not going to interfere with the free movement of refugees to Europe. This caused consternation in Greece, which has already suffered a lot due to the migration crisis.

freewestmedia.com/2020/04/26/greeks-in-danger/

The Corona hysteria has ensured that fitness centres and sports facilities throughout Germany remain closed. Even joint training of football, handball and other teams is not possible because of the ban on physical contact. Obviously, however, this only applies to Germans. Quite different in Elsterwerda in the state of Brandenburg, as the newspaper Lausitzer Allgemeine (article with a paywall) reports:There is standing – full of sadness and with proper distance to each other – a group of German recreational sportsmen in front of their supposedly closed sports hall. They discuss how things could go on during and after the lockdown.The group couldn’t hardly believe it when all of a sudden the light inside turns on and the training starts:but only for “unaccompanied minor refugees”. Dozens of young people practice team sports, work out, play. No distance, no masks, fully physical contact. Germans, however, have to stay outside. The crazy statement by the authorities: All young migrants live together in one institution. This could well be seen as a “family bond” and so they could do everything together – even do sports.Corona is facing German families with problems that cannot be overcome: daycare and school closed, jobs at risk, no money. But if you enter our country saying the magic word “asylum”, you don’t need to bother with such things and – thanks to the red tape – you can even enjoy the currently empty gym. Unbelievable!

politikstube.com/brandenburg-kontaktverbot-gilt-wohl-nicht-fuer-fluechtlinge/

The village church of Saint-Remy in northern France was found vandalized on Friday despite a coronavirus lockdown confining people to their homes.

The mayor of the town of Marly-Gomont, Dominique Delache, posted a message on his Facebook page to say he was “very angry” to have discovered the church vandalized, in which he notes that “the door was broken, the Easter candle destroyed, the microphone torn off and a fire extinguisher struck and sprayed throughout the church.”

“This is a lack of respect that shocks me deeply,” the mayor added, before announcing that until further the order the church will remain closed because “cleaning is complicated.”

The pictures below, supplied via Facebook, give an indication of the damage suffered.

According to the mayor, this was the second time that the church has been targeted in the middle of the night in the last two years.

Europe has experienced a growing number of acts of vandalism and profanation of Christian sites, with the greatest number of such acts occurring in France, where churches, schools, cemeteries, and monuments “are being vandalized, desecrated, and burned at an average rate of three per day,” according to reports drawing from government statistics.

French churches and other Christian monuments have come increasingly under attack, with an average of nearly three churches per day targeted for vandalism over the past three years.

https://www.breitbart.com/faith/2020/04/26/vandals-desecrate-catholic-church-in-northern-france/

The Palestinian Authority (PA), and the PLO’s largest party, Fatah, on Thursday marked the anniversary of the “deaths as martyrs” of three terrorists who participated in the planning, kidnapping and murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, according to a report released by the watchdog group Palestinian Media Watch. In a Facebook post, Palestinian Authority President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas honored Mahmoud Yusuf al-Najjar, Kamal Nasser and Kamal Adwan, who were all senior members of the PLO and Black September in the 1970s.  

The three Black September terrorist were later assassinated by the Israeli Mossad in Beirut in April 1973 due to their involvement in the Munich Massacre.  Tawfiq Tirawi, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, also commemorated Najjar, Nasser and Adwan as “leaders” who “redeemed Palestine with their souls” and understood “the value of self-sacrificing activity.”Other terrorists involved in the Munich Massacre have also been honored by the PA and Fatah in recent months, including in February, when Fatah saluted them by sharing a video that includes an infamous photo of a terrorist standing masked on the balcony of the Israeli athletes’ room in the Munich Olympic Village.Similarly, both the PA and Fatah marked the 41st anniversary of the death of Hassan Ali Salameh, Black September’s commander of operations in Europe throughout 1970s. The official PA daily said in his honor that he “…is connected to many quality operations, such as sending explosive packages from Amsterdam to many Mossad agents in Europe,” in addition to the Munich Massacre. 

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/pa-and-fatah-honor-munich-massacre-terrorists-in-anniversary-posts-625872

The president of the Germany’s 105,000 member Central Council of Jews called on Saturday for the dismissal of Stefanie Carp, the anti-Israel director of the Ruhrtriennale music and cultural festival, who passionately defended a South African-based academic who supports the “global isolation” of the Jewish state as the opening speaker for the now cancelledevent.The Jerusalem Post sent a press query to Josef Schuster, the head of the Central Council, this week. He said “I have no understanding for the invitation of Achille Mbembe as opening speaker of the Ruhrtriennale – even if the event has now been cancelled due to corona,” according to a report in the Neuen Osnabrücker Zeitung.

Schuster called on the festival’s organization to fire Stefanie Carp, the director of Ruhrtriennale, who has invited Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions  speakers over the years to the festival to bash Israel.Schuster said Mbembe propagates the view that Israel’s conduct is worse than the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Schuster said that is historically false and unacceptable.Schuster also criticized Mbembe’s writings because they argue that Israel’s interaction with the Palestinians in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is worse than the Holocaust.
 “With that he [Mbembe] disqualifies himself.” said Schuster, adding “I wonder what the director was thinking when she invited him. Apparently, her attitude has not changed at all.”Schuster said “I can no longer understand that she continues to be director of the Ruhrtriennale, and I appeal to those responsible to finally draw the necessary conclusions.”
 The Post reported on that Andreas Görgen,the director of the foreign ministry’s department for culture and communication, tweeted a series of articles in support of Mbembe.When asked about the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s criticism of Görgen and his tweets in support of an academic who allegedly trivialized the Shoah and spreads antisemitism, the foreign ministry told the Post on Friday: “”We ask for your understanding that we won’t comment on the issue mentioned.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the Post on Friday that the German foreign minister needs to launch an investigation into Görgen’s tweets in support of Mbembe.Görgen refused to answer numerous Post media queries on Twitter and via email.Last year, the director of the German Foreign Ministry’s representation for the Palestinian territories, Christian Clages, was revealed to have liked scores of antisemitic tweets while using his government Twitter feed. Clages retained his job. The German paper Bild broke the story about Clages.The foreign ministry disciplined Clages for liking neo-Nazi and KKK tweets.Mbembe did not immediately return a Post press query on Saturday.

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/german-jewish-head-opposes-bds-speaker-wants-anti-israel-director-fired-625858?fbclid=IwAR2Lk8LD7AwvlvfSxmTHqFZTAIRlR0X9bVlB30RsMdeHiEP12B5zlKxMSPU

A female vice-director of HKSTV Hong Kong Satellite Television, a Beijing-backed broadcast network in Hong Kong, claims that Kim Jong-un is dead, citing a “very solid source.” TMZ reports the woman is a niece of the Chinese foreign minister.

HKSTV is not owned by the Chinese government, nor is it an official media outlet of the government. But it allowed the Hong Kong-based network to broadcast its programming into mainland China.

The report is not on the HKTV website. It appeared on the Chinese messaging app Weibo. There is a viral image that includes a picture of Kim supposedly lying in a glass coffin, but that appears to be a faked image from 2017.

There are other unconfirmed reports that Kim’s heart surgery was so botched that he slipped into a coma and is now in a vegetative state.

The outlet reports — citing a Chinese medical expert privy to the situation — that Kim had clutched his chest in early April and fell down while visiting the countryside there. He needed a stent procedure done, but apparently … it either wasn’t done rapidly enough, or it was botched completely by the surgeon — with some reports saying he had shaky hands.

There’s a lot of rumors swirling about the guy’s condition — and the fact is … he hasn’t made any major public appearances looking to be okay in several weeks now. About a week or so ago, CNN reported Kim was in “grave danger” after a medical procedure.

How good is this rumor? The fact that the woman’s own network isn’t reporting the story says something. And you would expect some outward manifestation — a change in NoKo’s military readiness perhaps — if the rumor were true. When a Soviet leader died, they played funeral dirges on the radio all day before the announcement. Enough media outlets around the world are running with the story, which makes it news anyway. But it’s doubtful the regime is ready to go public with the news that their “dear leader” is dead.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/china-backed-satellite-tv-network-reporting-that-kim-jong-un-is-dead/

Rumors about the health of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un are swirling around the world, with one report out of Japan claiming that the Communist leader is in a “vegetative state.” Other reports say that Kim is experiencing complications from heart surgery. Still, other reports claim that Kim is not ill, but that he left the capitol because the political situation was heating up.

Whatever the reason, Kim has not been seen in public since April 11, despite two national celebrations. He failed to show at the commemoration of his grandfather’s birthday, and he’s nowhere to be seen on the anniversary of the formation of the North Korean army.

Something is amiss in the Hermit Kingdom.

Fox News:

Reports emerged earlier this week that Kim was  gravely ill following heart surgery, although that has since been disputed. However, Japanese media now claims that  Kim is in a vegetative state following a stent procedure.

Japanese magazine Shukan Gendai reported that Kim collapsed during a visit to a rural area in April. Kim reportedly required a stent procedure following the incident.

Shukan Gendai subsequently detailed how the surgeon in charge of Kim’s operation was not used to dealing with obese patients and was too nervous during the operation, leading to delays that left Kim in a “vegetative state.”

The magazine cited an unnamed member of Kim’s medical team.

Kim is 36 years old, but I bet his arteries are twice that age. His gorging on fatty, fried western foods that he has flown in for his personal enjoyment, may have caught up with him.

Most curiously, Reuters is reporting that a delegation from the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left for North Korea this week. The delegation is headed up by a bureaucrat but Reuters is reporting that there are medical experts in the delegation.

China has dispatched a team to North Korea including medical experts to advise on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, according to three people familiar with the situation.

The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader. Reuters was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim’s health.

A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the people said. The department is the main Chinese body dealing with neighbouring North Korea.

The South Korean media is trying to avoid speculation and is playing the story pretty straight. U.S. intelligence is also reporting that there appears to be no unusual moves by the North Korean government.

Could Kim’s absence be related to politics more than the leader’s health? Kim’s sister, Kim Yo Jong was recently given the job of propaganda chief and has been seen in close proximity to her brother on several occasions. There is even speculation that she is next in line to succeed her brother.

Her elevation may have ruffled feathers and I’m sure there are plenty of people who would give her a fight for the top spot if Kim dies. Unless Kim dies suddenly, you wouldn’t think she has much of a chance.

Succession in Communist countries is always a guessing game and some of the rumors of Kim’s imminent demise may be coming from rivals in North Korea. Still, North Korea is an unstable nuclear-armed dictatorship. Whenever these sorts of rumors surface, they deserve close observation.

https://pjmedia.com/trending/report-kim-jong-un-in-vegetative-state-as-china-dispatches-health-experts-to-north-korea/?fbclid=IwAR3YFgSY___g8PZxPZBb3V1aoztakJgRsmTlQnh8USnleFv2W3AkDzn8pE0

Germany’s Right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is calling for the government to provide aid to the country’s local breweries and inns, many of which are threatened with disaster because of the ongoing lockdown in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

Germany, which has a long brewing tradition, is home to many breweries, some of which have been in existence for centuries. And although there had been a boom in small breweries in recent years due to the explosive popularity of craft beers around the world, the sudden shock of a long-term lockdown is now threatening their very existence, as previously reported by Voice of Europe. Pubs and restaurants have all been closed, public events where beer is served have been cancelled, and exports have decreased as a result of border closings.

In response, the AfD is saying that the government must provide financial aid to breweries and inns that does not need to be repaid. “Loans and deferrals do not help them,” Stephan Protschka, an AfD MP from Bavaria, said in a report by Junge Freiheit.

Alice Weidel, the Chairman of the AfD’s parliamentary group in the Bundestag, urged for small- and medium-sized restaurants to be allowed to reopen as soon as possible. She pointed out that there are social distancing measures that can be taken in such places, such as if only every other table is occupied by patrons, and that the eating areas can be regularly disinfected.

Beatrix von Storch, Weidel’s deputy, seconded Weidel’s recommendation, and said, “What applies to shops must also apply to beer gardens, restaurants, and cafes.” She expressed disapproval that on April 23, which is Germany’s national Beer Day, beer gardens and restaurants were all closed, despite the fact that countries like South Korea have already demonstrated that it is possible to reconcile safety with reopenings.

voiceofeurope.com/2020/04/germany-populist-afd-calls-for-aid-for-local-breweries-and-inns/

No matter how many worthless face masks and test kits, the People’s Republic of Coronavirus sends to European countries, they will continue to kowtow to Beijing. If only the European governments were as comfortable confronting China as they are America.

Bowing to heavy pressure from Beijing, European Union officials softened their criticism of China this week in a report documenting how governments push disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents, emails and interviews.

The initial European Union report, obtained by The New York Times, was not particularly strident: a routine roundup of publicly available information and news reports.

It cited Beijing’s efforts to curtail mentions of the virus’s origins in China, in part by blaming the United States for spreading the disease internationally. It noted that Beijing had criticized France as slow to respond to the pandemic and had pushed false accusations that French politicians used racist slurs against the head of the World Health Organization. The report also highlighted Russian efforts to promote false health information and sow distrust in Western institutions.

“China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image,” the initial report said. “Both overt and covert tactics have been observed.”

And then China cracked the whip, and the EU joined the disinformation campaign.

But China moved quickly to block the document’s release, and the European Union pulled back. The report had been on the verge of publication, until senior officials ordered revisions to soften the language.

“The Chinese are already threatening with reactions if the report comes out,” Lutz Güllner, a European Union diplomat, wrote to colleagues on Tuesday in an email seen by The Times.

The sentence about China’s “global disinformation” campaign was removed, as was any mention of the dispute between China and France. Other language was toned down.

In the US, Chinese disinformation campaigns included inciting panic about the virus and claiming through text messages that President Trump intends to declare martial law. But Europe continues to put Made in China ahead of any pride, dignity, and truth.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/european-union-bows-china-daniel-greenfield/