Anatoly Tsyganok, director of Russia’s Military Forecasting Centre and an associate of the Academy of Military, says Iran-Russia technical and defense cooperation will help strengthen security of the region.

Tsyganok said Iran and Russia have close cooperation to guarantee stability in the important buffer zone between their territories, including the Caspian Sea region and the strategic Middle East region. He said the two countries’ efforts at regional level are concentrated on attaining the objective and preventing infiltration of foreigners and their intervention in the affairs of the neighboring states.
He said an instance of cooperation between the two countries is guaranteeing security of the Caspian Sea without intervention of the foreign countries and through partnership of five littoral states, with Russia and Iran being the pivot.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that the migrant crisis could become a bigger challenge for the European Union than the Greek debt problem, and strongly condemned a rising spate of attacks on refugee centers in Germany.

When asked about a rising tide of arson attacks on refugee shelters in the country, Merkel said, according to Agence France-Presse: “That is unworthy of our country.” Since the beginning of this year, there have been over 200 attacks on refugee centers.

According to Merkel, the issue of migration would “preoccupy Europe much, much more than the issue of Greece and the stability of the euro.”

Europe is currently facing an unprecedented migrant crisis, fueled by growing instability in the Middle East, which has prompted hundreds of thousands of refugees — fleeing chaos in countries like Libya and Syria — to seek increasingly desperate measures to enter Europe.

The EU has mounted a naval mission against thousands of immigrants who attempt the risky crossing across the Mediterranean that leaves thousands dead or stranded in the sea. The EU naval forces have also cracked down on human traffickers who smuggle refugees into Italy and Greece. Meanwhile, the condition of migrants in refugee camps and holding centers in Greece, Italy and near the French transportation hub of Calais, has been described as abusive by human rights activists.

Merkel said that the EU’s response to the crisis so far has not been enough. “The issue of asylum could be the next major European project, in which we show whether we are really able to take joint action,” she reportedly said. She added that Germany’s response to the situation — where thousands of refugees remain in tents — was “absolutely unsatisfactory.” The country is expected to see as many as 600,000 asylum seekers this year.

Merkel called for the EU to establish a list of countries of origin of migrants deemed safe, in order to help prioritize migrants from major crisis areas like Afghanistan and Syria. Currently, about half of Germany’s asylum applications since January have come from countries in southeast Europe such as Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia.

In early August, a German police union also called for the pan-European Shengen agreement to be weakened and passport controls to be reinstituted along national borders, arguing that it would help curb illegal migration. German police have already stepped up security checks along inter-European trains and highways.

Anti-immigrant sentiment has been rising in the economically prosperous country, which has been a popular destination for migrants and asylum seekers. The anti-Islamic Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamization of the Occident, or Pegida, movement organized several rallies in 2014 and early 2015, though they were often dwarfed by counter-protests in the country. Meanwhile, several polls have shown that Germans are broadly in favor of migration and consider it a less pressing issue than the economy.

The United Nations also warned in June that the world is facing its most pressing migration crisis since World War II, estimating that up to 50 million people are displaced from their homes due to conflict and political crisis.

Local security services have staged a series of raids in Balkan countries following revelations that Islamic State terrorists have been secretly buying up land in mainland Europe.

The swoops follow an exclusive Sunday Mirror investigation which revealed that IS had developed new training grounds in the region.

Locals in the Bosnian village of Osve told our investigators that they regularly heard gunshots and a terrorism expert warned that the village is “a major threat” after it become a hideout for terrorists on the run, and a training centre for new recruits before they go to fight in Syria and Iraq.

Raids took place in five major cities across Macedonia, including the capital Skopje, and were aimed at smashing a network of recruiters and organisers for the terrorist group.

Macedonian police raided 25 homes, the Yaya Pasha and Tutunsuz mosque in Skopje, an internet cafe and the offices of two Islam-linked NGOs identified as Spark of Grace and Islamic Youth.

The nine arrested are aged between 19 and 49 and have all been detained for 30 days as police continue their investigation.

Now a senior police source in Kosovo has warned that IS is preparing a huge attack on mainland Europe.

One insider said: “There was a reluctance to talk about this in the region but the Sunday Mirror report opened the floodgates and suddenly everyone was talking about it.”

And a senior police source in Kosovo, speaking on condition of anonymity with the Sunday Mirror, has now warned that Islamic State is preparing a huge attack on mainland Europe, and that many IS recruits are based in the UK, Germany and Austria.

The high-ranking officer said: “There are thousands of Kosovo Albanians and those saying they are from Kosovo who are in the Great Britain, Germany and Austria and involved in terrorism.

“They get permits and visas and say they are religiously persecuted to hide their real activities. There are literally thousands of them.

“When the attack comes it will come from Europe, not Syria.”

The entire region is now on red alert and police in Macedonia admitted this week that they have arrested nine IS terrorists and revealed they are hunting 27 more.

Interior minister Mitko Chavkov said: “The mere fact that these people were present on those battlefields and have returned here is an indicator that terrorist acts against Macedonia are a real possibility.”

Turkey has held European countries responsible for a flawed and “orientalist” approach to the issue of foreign jihadists, saying the nations are not conducting an effective struggle against the sources of the problem.

Noting that an essential and increasing number of foreign fighters joining the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) were coming from European countries, Turkey blamed the countries for not taking sufficient measures against problems related to Islamophobia and integration, which it listed as reasons for radicalization, and for not preventing suspects from traveling abroad.

Cemalettin Haşimi, head of the Turkish Prime Ministry’s Directorate General of Press and Information, told reporters in Paris on Aug. 12 that the rate of expulsions from Turkey was increasing, with 700 expelled so far this year versus just 520 in all of 2014.

In total, since the start of the civil war in Syria in 2011, more than 1,800 suspected fighters have been prevented from slipping into the country from Turkey, said Haşimi. Turkey has also drawn up a list of 16,000 “foreign terrorist fighters banned from entering Turkey” from 108 countries, he said.

In Ankara, an official statement by the Prime Ministry argued that Western analyses try to explain radicalization in European countries with religious and cultural motives.

“This orientalist perspective is far from explaining the issue of radicalization. Quite the contrary, the processes that lead to radicalization in the region are purely political, and is a result of the representativeness and legitimacy crises and of the failures in regional and global politics” said the Prime Ministry’s Office of Public Diplomacy in an information note released on Aug. 13.

“As of July 2015, the number of Turkish citizens who joined the Daesh terrorist organization, returned or died is between 1000 and 1,300. Despite Turkey sharing a 1,300-kilometer-long borders with Syria and Iraq and having a population of almost 80 million Muslims, Turkey does not appear even in the first 10 countries with the highest participation in Daesh” said the note, “Foreign Terrorist Fighters and Border Security” which used the Arabic name for ISIL.

“On the other hand, the number of citizens of the Republic of Turkey who joined the PYD [Syria’s Democratic Union Party] ranks, mainly since June 2014, is around 1,000 to 1,500” it said.

In Paris, Haşimi urged greater international cooperation to prevent the suspected fighters from leaving their home countries to wage jihad in Syria.

The issue of foreign fighters is an “international problem that requires an international response,” Haşimi said.

“It is much easier for the countries of origin to intercept them before they leave the country than to wait for the Turkish authorities to intercept them” he said.

Turkey attracts around 40 million tourists every year and “there’s no question of carrying out security checks on everyone that comes to our country” he said.

http://diplomacy.bgnnews.com/ankara-states-europe-is-responsible-for-foreign-fighters-issue-haberi/8521

The head of royal family security announced Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II of England and her family were still planning to lead festivities for VJ Day, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, despite threats of assassination or bombing from the Islamic State militant group. Supporters of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or ISIL, said over the weekend they were planning an attack on the queen at the ceremony in an exclusive report published by Sky News.

VJ Day, which is scheduled for Saturday, commemorates the day when Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces in 1945, ending World War II. The day has long been celebrated as a symbolic moment of freedom in countries across Europe as well as in the United States.

ISIS has taken over vast portions of Iraq and Syria in an attempt to impose worldwide Sharia law, or conservative Islamic regulations. The group has terrorized populations across the Middle East and threatened attacks in the U.S. and Europe. In the past year, it has begun to garner support from some European Muslims, several thousand of whom have tried to cross into Syria to join the group.

‘Very determined’ Queen to ignore ISIS bomb plot to lead Britain’s VJ Day celebrations http://t.co/237MCpnkb4 pic.twitter.com/II2MqUvOVr

— Daily Express (@Daily_Express) August 13, 2015

“IS already has a number of potential bombers in the U.K. – some of whom have been trained in Syria and are ready to attack,” reported Sky News, citing firsthand ISIS allies within the U.K. Authorities estimated that at least 700 British nationals have joined or attempted to join ISIS in Syria. One of the most well-known members of the terrorist group was “Jihadi John,” a British national-turned-ISIS fighter who beheaded several journalists and aid workers in highly-publicized videos.

Despite the threats of violence against Queen Elizabeth, she and her family are expected to go ahead with plans to lead the celebrations this weekend. When asked about how Queen Elizabeth, Prince William and Princess Kate were feeling ahead of the coming weekend’s celebrations, the royal head of security told Express, “[They have] a very determined attitude.”

The French Ministry of the Interior as well as church leaders have warned France’s churches and churchgoers alike to be on high alert during an upcoming holy day, following the attempted terrorist attack on a church four months ago. The Feast of the Assumption, on Saturday, is a highlight of the church calendar, and French officials fear it could be another target for Muslim extremism.

“Parishioners, whether regular or occasional and visitors, be involved in your own security,” read an article published in the Catholic journal La Croix that was set to be posted in all churches, according to the Local. “Don’t leave your bags alone during communion, signal any abandoned object and keep an eye out for clothing not appropriate for the occasion,” the article continued.

France terror alert raised to highest level, increases security at churches, transportation hubs, media offices pic.twitter.com/BiXMdB7bZA

— KING 5 News (@KING5Seattle) January 7, 2015

Following the attacks at the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo that killed 12, threats of terrorism in France have only grown in the past eight months. A 24-year-old student’s planned attack on a Paris church in April was foiled when he accidentally shot himself while preparing his assault. Sid Ahmed Ghlam was forced to call an ambulance, and when authorities searched his student residence in Paris and found Kalashnikov assault rifles, grenades and other weapons, he was arrested on suspicion of plotting a terror attack. Ghlam, along with a cohort in Syria, reportedly had been targeting the church.

France is one of the most historically Christian nations in Europe, and more than half of the population identifies as Catholic. With more than 46,000 churches across the nation, secular and religious authorities alike have said it would be impossible to put security in place at all of them. Only a couple hundred churches that are designated landmarks, such as Notre Dame in Paris, have any kind of security, forcing parishioners and priests to be responsible for their own safety.