State of emergency and respect for human rights

In France the situation got so bad the president and his entourage thought it advisable to extend the state of emergency.

In the wake of the failed coup of Friday July 15 the Turkish president who took unseen unprecedented measures has also declared a state of emergency.

Turkey’s parliament has approved a three-month state of emergency, on Thursday by 346 votes to 115, which will allow the government to rule by decree, passing bills that have the force of law unless they are overturned by parliament, where the majority of MPs belong to the ruling Justice and Development party.a bill declaring a state of emergency in the wake of last weekend’s coup attempt and informed the Council of Europe of a partial withdrawal from the European convention on human rights.

At the same time we in Europe could be surprised that Erdogan could so quickly know who was behind the coup and had already on the day after so many people arrested we can question if this not was prepared in advance.

A member of the military is arrested in Turkey. EPA

The secretary general of the Council of Europe required Turkey to provide regular updates on the measures taken under the state of emergency, according to the terms of the treaty.
Turkey initially said it had informed the Council of Europe that it would suspend the convention entirely, a more wide-ranging measure likely to have drawn criticism from allies.

“Turkey will derogate the European convention on human rights insofar as it does not conflict with its international obligations,”

the deputy prime minister, Numan Kurtulmuş, was quoted as saying by the state-run Anadolu news agency, in a corrected statement.

Kurtulmuş said Turkey would take the step “just like France has done” under article 15 of the convention, which allows signatory states to derogate certain rights, including freedom of movement, expression and association, during times of war or a major public emergency.

But we do have do question  if Turkey is really willing to respect the human rights, because what we could see already on television shows that they have no respect at all for those international laws of defence and human dignity.

The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) may be vague about the conditions that constitute an emergency, so in some ways, it’s not clear whether what is happening in Turkey constitutes one.

It is not because Erdogan may be elected in a democratic way that he is keeping to democratic laws and is respecting human laws of freedom. even a democratic elected person can not be above the law. An independent and functioning judiciary is fundamental to this. Erdoğan’s purging of the judiciary in Turkey is deeply worrying, to say the least.


Read also:

France, Turkey and human rights: is a state of emergency the new normal?

'We see him as one of us': why many Turks still back authoritarian Erdoğan

Christadelphian Newsupdates from 2016 July onwards

From this month onwards some changes take place on this platform.

First: You might have noticed that some pages are added.

Second: since 2013/14 not so many news events were announced or messages published on what was until then Christgadelphian World. After the name change we still published about activities about certain Christadelphians and we had always an open door for Christadelphians wanting to notice others of their activities. This still stand.

From now onwards the news messages shall be presented on the Christadelphian Ecclesia site and I 'll present a short review of them her in a two weekly or monthly overview.

I do hope the readers coming along this platform shall click on the links and find the individual articles of interest to read more about it, on the Ecclesia site.

For the month of July we notice that some of us shall be pleased to have brethren and sisters form England joining us to distribute leaflets and to have some nice Biblestudies and breaking of the bread services together in a nice Dutch environment.

The additional preaching we can do when we meet people on the street is a necessary asset in these days. Also the preaching by the leaflets, magazines and dvd's is an important task we do have to take on. For that preaching work on the publication market and on the internet we always can use some extra people, as well in the centres where we do present a Bible exhibition and more information on our faith.

From Guestwriters and Stepping toes can use some extra writers and for the Sunday School magazine of the Christadelphian Sunday School Union (CSSU), The Word an editor would be welcome.

We do not often ask for contributions or money, but to be honest, this is something of the world's evil things we often need and have a shortage of. This time we dare to bring the financial situations of a family and of the organisation who tries to provide answers to those who have many questions, and created the dvd Life's Big Questions.


Our first overview for 2016 brings following notices in the picture:

1. Notification and news feed for Facebook users
2. Life’s Big Questions, distribution and Google Adwords
3. Launch of the new orange Worship Book
4. The Bible Learning Centre in Swansea needs help
5. CSSU – New Editor needed for The Word magazine
6. Nanaimo Ecclesia, Canada
7. July 29-August 5 Netherlands Fellowship / Campaign Week
8. August 1-6 Harper Adams Bible School
9. New Start Study Week
10. The Big Conversation UK 2016
11. Help requested for Tristen Simmons who has endocarditis

Newly added pages to Our World

On July the 24th of 2016 six pages where added to "Our World".

From this month onwards a new policy is taken. I still shall concentrate on what happens in the religious regions of this world. I also shall keep looking at what happens from my Christadelphian point of view or my faith.
Though now I shall give some more space to general news as well and I started to restore the links which originally were created in the previous Multiply platforms but do not work any more.

The restoration of the links and re-edited articles shall be announced on some Facebook Pages. Because from now on I provide also Facebook users to receive notifications. When they shall "Like" the Facebook Page of the Biblestudents Community and indicate they want notifications, they shall receive automatically a message of a new or restored article on this but also on some other sites and news from fellow Bible students.

Therefore I do hope those readers who do not receive any information of a new publication will either join my e-mail list or follow me with Google+ or follow the publications by the Facebook Page of the Biblestudents.

The added pages in English

1. Aims
2. My faith and hope 
3. Stay informed

In Dutch

1. Betrachting
2. Mijn geloof en hoop
3. Blijf geïnformeerd

Wordt verlicht met betrekking tot de betekenis van de tijd waarin we nu leven

English version: Being enlightened concerning the significance of the times in which we are now living

 

In deze wereld van beproeving kijken wij best uit naar diegene die de Weg naar Vrede heeft afgetekend.
Ook al wil een groot deel van de bevolking in het duister blijven vertoeven is het mogelijk om het Licht in de wereld  te zien. Daarom wordt verlicht met betrekking tot de betekenis van de tijd waarin we nu leven.

Christenen, boven alle anderen, moeten worden verlicht met betrekking tot de betekenis van de tijd waarin we nu leven. Dit zijn de antitypische dagen van Noach en Lot.
De Heer Jezus Christus waarschuwde dat het kwaad en de boosheid, die die tijden kenmerkte de samenleving zou onderscheiden in het uur van zijn wederkomst.

Zonde cultiveert negatieve energie

Ik heb uw woord gekoesterd in mijn hart, zodat ik niet tegen U kan zondigen. Psalm 119: 11.

Het probleem met de zonde is dat het negatieve energie cultiveert. Van uit de hersenen (de geest) waar het begint of waar de oorsprong is, kruipt het naar beneden in je hart. Dan ben je in de problemen. Dat is waarom het geen zonde is om te denken aan iets verkeerd of een slechte gedachte te hebben, als je het ze maar weet te ontslaan. Wanneer je er niet naar handelt. Daarom is het geen zonde. Maar als je stil staat bij de verkeerde gedachte, zal zij verder kruipen naar beneden diep in je hart en zal het een deel van je worden. Dus, boven alles, beschermen uw hart.

 > English version / Engelse versie: Sin cultivates negative energy