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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2015)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, September 5, 2015 I East Oregonian Page 5A Press often targeted when it’s doing its job t’s dif¿cult to imagine taking up residence in a land without freedom of expression. Under the stars and stripes, we have the right to protest oil drilling, probe intelligence agencies over shady surveillance programs and pen columns in the local daily expressing discontent over whichever issue we choose — from a governor’s latest scandal to a government’s perverse handling of the migrant crisis. The journalist’s pencil is at its sharpest in this kind of arrangement. But this year I traveled to a little-known country where unchecked extravagance is the law of the land — and free speech is not. Tucked between Jonathan Russia and Iran, Azerbaijan Bach emerged from behind the Comment Iron Curtain and within two decades seemed to transform into a state leveraging massive oil reserves to pay for international credibility. Here rules President Ilham Aliyev, a politician so far on the side of demolishing discord from journalists that he almost tripped over his buddy Vladimir Putin’s foot getting there. At the start of this week, Azeri investigative reporter Khadija Ismayilova — who in May received the PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write award — was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Oregon Public Broadcasting President and CEO Steve Bass, who traveled to Azerbaijan within the last few years, reacted thus in an email to me: “In many countries around the world, journalists take enormous risks in order to inform the public about important events and issues. In some places, the risk to journalism comes from powerful oligarchs who control the media outlets and ¿nd ways to shape news coverage to suit their interests.” He later adds, “Far too often, journalists like Khadija Ismayilova, who brought to light signi¿cant corruption by Azerbaijan’s ruling family, pay a huge personal price for practicing journalism, something that some take for granted and sometimes don’t appreciate enough in the United States.” Artwork by Ben Schwartz, courtesy of PEN American Center The charges brought against Ismayilova were: illegal business activity, tax evasion and abuse of power, according to RFE/ RL, the news source for which she used to produce scathing reports on the presidential family’s business dealings. Human rights organizations roundly described the court’s indictments to be trumped-up and Aliyev’s administration to be about as straight as the last letter of the president’s last name. I’ve made a fuss in other columns about press freedom in the country and how, according to Ismayilova’s reports for RFE/RL, the president’s family has made huge sums of Quick takes On using marijuana sales tax to pay for roads Pendleton POThole tax! Oh ... after Round-Up of course, we wouldn’t want out of towners to pay for any of that! LoriAnne Dunagan Not if I have to smell marijuana on the streets! I have friends that have children! Shane Christensen I thinN you, as a community, should ¿ll them with dirt and plant Àowers in them or pot ... whichever makes more sense. Cheryl Cone Keep the potholes. Shawn O’Donnell On the death of Mario Zubiria My heart goes out to the family, all wonderful people, I hope God loves a good BBQ. Leland Wilson I once had a blue heeler that was mean and hard headed as hell. My dad told me “that dog has to go, he is biting the horses.” So I put him in a stall in my brother’s barn. Mario was at my brother’s and asked why I was upset, I told him about my dog and he said “I will take him! He can come live with me, I like them just as he is.” He was a family friend and the day he saved my dog from what I was sure to come I will never forget! RIP! Jennifer Hamlin He was amazing with remembering people. Once while ordering food at Round-Up he walked over and asked if I was Chalmers. I had no idea what he was talking about. As I later told my mom about the odd question, she smiled and said that my grandpa, who passed away before I was born and went by the name Chuck Sauers was actually named Chalmers. I have no idea how he could put the two of us together but I’ll never forget it. Monica Hoffman One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is that much can be summed up in just a few words. Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours @Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian. com, and keep them to 140 characters. A money off the construction of a stadium for the international singing competition Eurovision, and that they hold a stake in a gold mine near the Armenian border through various façade companies. In the Azeri capital Baku, a city experiencing a boom that might put Seattle to shame, the president’s pet architectural projects stand as symbols of his dominance over the country, from the swooping, white and arched walls of the Heydar Aliyev Center (just think of a Sydney Opera House knock-off transplanted into Southwest Asia); to the LED-lit exteriors of the colossal Flame Tower skyscrapers; to the glowing blue Olympic Stadium, which the government used when it hosted the ¿rst inaugural European Games this June, an Olympics-style event that drew thousands of athletes and spectators to the otherwise obscure oil state. Dr. Karin Deutsch Karlekar, PEN American Center’s Director of Free Expression Programs in New York, said over the phone that Azerbaijan had “orchestrated” one of the largest-scale human rights and free expression “crackdowns” in the region. Ismayilova “was one of the most pioneering and important journalists” in Azerbaijan, said Karlekar. To jail her is to deter others from following in her footsteps and acting as watchdogs. While Azerbaijan is a small country, “it does have an important geopolitical position,” she said, noting its proximity to Russia and Iran. Plus, “a lot of oil Àows from Azerbaijan to the West,” she said. Most goes to Europe, but actions on the part of the Azeri government affect the world stage nonetheless, she said. She said European leaders have decried the Azeri government’s efforts to suppress human rights, but letting it host international sporting events and singing competitions is counterproductive. Bans against high-level of¿cials should be put in place, though not broad sanctions that may trickle down to the general population, she said. Here in the United States, Americans can advocate for free press by spreading awareness via social media, she said. Negative media coverage of the European Games also helped. But there are still eight journalists in jail, according to Karlekar, and 80 to 100 politically motivated imprisonments. This week’s sentence is a bitter reminder that in some lands, advocacy and journalism have no home — but in 2015, that must not remain the status quo. Ŷ Jonathan Bach is a Charles Snowden Excellence in Journalism intern at the East Oregonian and research fellow with the University of Oregon-UNESCO Crossings Institute. Contact him at jbach@eastorego- nian.com or call 541-966-0809. Turkey newly attacking ISIS, wrongly attacking Kurds fter four years of steady Islamic freeing more Syrian Kurd enclaves and State (ISIS) expansion from Iraq cutting off important ISIS supply routes. into Syria, Turkey ¿nally permitted The Kurds are a very ancient ethnic group in July the use of its NATO bases for in West Asia. They number some 30 million airstrikes. Intense U.S. pressure and the ¿rst today and were split up in the post-World ISIS suicide bomber deaths inside Turkey War I agreements among Turkey, Syria, Iraq this summer ¿nally clinched it. and Iran. They desire a country of But, alarmingly, Turkey has their own but those countries’ rulers begun bombing the Kurds of have prevented it. Neither has the Turkey and Syria far more than ISIS U.S. supported their independence targets, showing President Recep goal so far. However, we obviously Tayyip Erdogan’s still differing value enormously the pro-American priorities. Erdogan has seen ISIS attitude and the effectiveness of Syrian as useful in helping defeat Syria’s and Iraqi Kurd forces in combatting President Bashar Assad. He regards ISIS. In reality, the Kurds have been Harriet boosting their autonomy on their own the independence-seeking Kurds Isom of Turkey/Syria as greater enemies because of the chaos in Syria and Comment than ISIS. (In contrast, he has good western Iraq. relations with the Iraqi Kurds who Turkey has a home-grown are a source of considerable oil Marxist Kurd group called the PKK purchases.) And now for domestic political who operate in southeastern Turkey and reasons described below, he has abandoned are on the U.S. terrorist list. But not all of peace talks with Turkey’s militant Kurds and Turkey’s Kurds are PKK. Many Kurds have resumed military operations against them. been assimilated in Turkish urban areas and Erdogan has too long permitted, in many others abhor violent tactics. spite of denials, the Àow through Turkey In the fall of 2014, several Pendletonians of ¿ghters, materiel and ISIS black market — Dr. Dan Marier, Dr. Connie Umphred, oil, thus enormously aiding ISIS. But his Susan DeMarsh and myself — were placating ISIS has not paid off, as the travelling in Turkey’s southeastern Anatolia recent suicide bombing that killed 30 Turks as tourists seeing its remarkable ancient indicated. Worrisomely, ISIS sleeper cells sites. Anatolia is the heartland of Islamic have undoubtedly been established all over support for Erdogan, and he has cemented Turkey. that support with billions of dollars in Erdogan has been upset by the success development for roads, dams, irrigation of a domestic Kurdish party (HDP) and its and tourist facilities. Visiting the ruins of charismatic young leader in Turkey’s June Harran (between Gaziantep and Urfa), parliamentary elections that foiled his plan where Abraham is said to have lived on his for augmenting his presidential powers. way to the Promised Land, we were close The HDP appealed beyond the Kurdish to Kobani across the border in Syria where population to urbanites, youth, women and the ISIS siege was in full swing. We and secularists. our guide were closely monitoring the news He also hated the dramatic victory of for what was happening but we weren’t the Kurds over ISIS in Kobani with the key learning much at the time. help of U.S. air strikes, air drops and an Erdogan, as it turned out, was refusing insertion of Peshmerga troops from northern to let the Peshmerga troops from Iraq Iraq. Again with the help of coordinated through Turkey to aid the desperate U.S. air strikes, the Syrian Kurds since situation in Kobani. Furious Kurds began January have easily captured from ISIS 245 big demonstrations throughout Anatolia. miles of the border east of Kobani, thus Erdogan relented and did let 150 Peshmerga troops and weapons through and Kobani was saved. Erdogan’s foot dragging over Kobani started the slide toward disrupted peace talks between Erdogan and the PKK, and it seriously affected the Kurd vote for Erdogan’s party in the June elections. Up to this time, Turkey’s Kurds had given him strong election support for his effort to ¿nd a peace settlement. Unfortunately, Erdogan has been becoming more autocratic and erratic after 11 years as prime minister and as the new president, elected last year. He initially made Turkey a model of democracy, economic development and friendly foreign relations. But he has recently gone on a binge promoting a neo-Ottoman revival in Turkey with himself as a strong man leader of the Sunni Turks. He has moved into a new $600 million palace with 1,000 rooms and Ottoman- era garbed honor guards. He is busy unraveling the secular government model that Ataturk set up for Turkey in the 1930s. And his statements have been increasingly anti-Western, anti-press and anti-women’s equality and more pro-China and pro-Russia. His relentless drive for enhanced presidential power continues. He just announced new parliamentary elections on Nov. 1 to try again for a parliamentary majority for his party. His military attacks on the PKK appear designed to foster Turkish nationalism and to discredit the earlier broad appeal of the Kurdish party by linking it to the PKK — and it may work. The good news about Turkey is that it is still a functioning democracy as the June elections proved. It will be of interest to see if Turkish voters in November succumb to Erdogan’s campaign tactics. From my perspective, it’s too bad that Erdogan didn’t opt to stay a mediator rather than an autocratic Ottoman. Ŷ Ambassador Harriet Isom grew up in Pendleton and has retired to the family ranch. She was a career diplomat serving in Asia and Africa from 1961 to 1996. If gambling brings in most of the income, it’s a casino The (Eugene) Register-Guard, Aug. 31 T he Oregon Constitution clearly prohibits casinos, yet state regulators have failed to crack down on the more than 200 “delis” that rake in big bucks from video gambling and selling cigarettes while offering menus that consist of little more than microwave burritos and popcorn. An audit released last week by the secretary of state’s of¿ce suggests one reason for that lax enforcement is the absence of a legislative de¿nition of what exactly constitutes a casino. Two decades ago, the state Supreme Court ruled that “voters intended to prohibit the operation of establishments whose dominant use or dominant purpose, or both, is for gambling.” But, as the audit’s authors note, “neither the court nor the Legislature has de¿ned the terms µcasino,’ µdominant use,’ or µdominant.”’ Common sense leaves little doubt that the bulk of the so-called “limited-menu” purveyors across the state are operating in violation of state administrative rules intended to prevent retailers from making more than half their sales from gambling. As former state Rep. Carolyn Tomei, D-Milwaukie, a proponent of lottery reform until her retirement two years ago, recently told The Oregonian newspaper, “It’s clear what they are. They are gambling casinos ... it was never the intent of the public to have little casinos all over the state.” Compounding the problems caused by absence of de¿nitions is a recent shift in the lottery’s casino enforcement program. Regulators now rely mostly on visual records and less on ¿nancial records to judge compliance. That change needs to be reversed. Auditors reviewed the ¿nancial records of 20 of the state’s 234 food-light retailers and found the majority earn most of their income from gambling. The audit makes several recommendations. The ¿rst is that state lawmakers work with lottery of¿cials to establish a “clear and enforceable de¿nition” of a casino. The audit also recommends that lottery regulators analyze the ¿nancial records of food-light retailers to determine compliance with the 50 percent non-lottery income threshold. For retailers found in violation, the lottery should determine whether removal of some video machines could bring the business into compliance. The audit’s recommendations won’t please some lottery propo- nents in the Legislature. Lottery Director Jack Roberts warned in a formal response accompanying the audit that the recommended actions might diminish lottery revenues, reducing funding for schools, parks and economic development. But court rulings and state rules are more than suggestions — they’re the law. The constitutional prohibition on casinos and the state’s administrative rules also serve important purposes. One is to put sideboards on a lottery operation that has helped create a dismayingly large number of problem gamblers across the state. The ready availability of video machines in food-light delis across the state contributes to the problem. Like many other states, Oregon has yet to fully acknowledge that its growing dependence on lottery revenue continues to create human costs that undermine its economic bene¿ts. It’s unrealistic to expect that the state can afford to eliminate or signi¿cantly scale back the lottery, but it should clarify and enforce rules intended to limit the ready availability of highly addictive lottery machines.
