"And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief. "

Khalil Gibran (How I Became a Madman)

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu

NEWS AND ARTICLES / HABERLER VE MAKALELER

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Syria urged to build ties with Lebanon-Gulf News

Victory of Friendship


SOURCE: Fenerbahce Football Club Web Site

Halep Olympic Stadium was opened with ceremonies and activities. Fenerbahce also attended to those organizations and played a friendly football match agains Al Ittihad in Syria. The Primeminister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Syria Basar el-Esad, the President of Fenerbahce Aziz Yildirim and lots of other politicians attended to the opening of the Halep Stadium.

The Primeminister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the President of Bessar Esad opened the stadium officially by playing with the symbolic balls. Later they greeted the tribunes together. The President of Fenerbahce Aziz Yildirim gave them Fenerbahce shirts with their names on it as a gift.

The tribunes were decorated with turkish and syrish flags and yellow navy coloured balloons. After the show our footballers came to the pitch and threw flowers to the fans.

There were 75000 fans in the stadium and 10000 more fans could not get into the stadium because of the fact that it had been already full.
Injured footballers Umit, Lugano, Appiah and Rüstü stayed in Istanbul to continue with their schedule.

AL İTTİHAD - FENERBAHÇE: 2-2

Al İttihad: Karker, Baghiri Tara, Muhammed Homsi, Mionel Neşet, Haydar Abdülcabbar, Anatoli, Mahmut, Yahya, Muhammed Ateş, Abdül Aga, Nassarin.

Fenerbahçe: Volkan, Önder Turacı, Can Arat, Edu, Uğur Boral, Mehmet Yozgatlı, Selçuk, Kemal, Tuncay, Deivid, Semih.

Goals: 8. Min Abdül Aga (Al İttihad), 12. Min Semih (Fenerbahçe), 86. Min Dumito (Al İttihad), 88. Min Deniz (Fenerbahçe)

Turkish PM in Syria football diplomacy- Turkish Press

Monday, April 02, 2007

Pelosi Şam'a mesaj götürüyor- BBC Turkish

Pelosi's Message For Syria (Neil Graves- New York Post)

Arabish brochure is prepeared


SOURCE: Fenerbahce Football Club Web Site


Fenerbahce created a Turkish-Arabish brochure for the opening match of the Halep Stadium in Syria on 3. April. Today Fenerbahce goes to Halep for the friendly game and will hand the brochures to the people in Halep before the game starts. The brochure has 32 pages which includes the message of our President Aziz Yildirim about this opening and about the stadium, the 2009 UEFA finale, which will take place in Fenerbahce’s Sükrü Saracoglu Stadium, informations about our club and our directors, informations about Atatürk’s support on Fenerbahce, about the Fenerbahce Museum and includes details about the matches we played 56 years ago in Syria. In this brochure the players and the trainer Zico are also introduced and it has also a poster of them within.


The President’s message in the brochure is:


’Hello after 56 years,We, as Fenerbahce Sport Club, are really glad to be here, in our neighbour, our friend Syria for a football match after 56 years. As long as this organizations, which make the people from both countries gather together, will continue, the countries will have the chance to get to know each other better. I also want to stress that we hope to see Al Ittihad team in Istanbul in Fenerbahce Sukru Saracoglu Stadium soon. It’s not only my wish but the wish of all Fenerbahce fans to watch friendly and exciting matches in this Halep Stadium which is opening today.Best wishes’


Aziz Yildirim

Sunday, April 01, 2007

Pelosi to talk to Syria on behalf of Israel

SOURCE: MSNBC

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will convey an Israeli message to Syria that the country must stop supporting Palestinian militants before Israel will engage in peace talks, Israel said Sunday.

Pelosi met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert during the Israel part of her Mideast tour, which drew criticism from the White House because of her planned stop in Syria.

“Pelosi is conveying that Israel is willing to talk if they (Syria) would openly take steps to stop supporting terrorism,” Olmert’s spokeswoman Miri Eisin said. “But at this point the Syrian government, by openly backing terror all around the Middle East, is not a partner for negotiations.”

French senator visits Syria

SOURCE: Monsters and Critics.com

French senator Philippe Marini was on Sunday to begin a five-day visit to Syria to review bilateral relations and the situation of Iraqi refugees in the country, the French embassy in Damascus said in a statement.

Marini, who chairs the Franco-Syrian friendship group in the French senate, will meet 'various political, religious, economic and cultural figures and will visit centres offering help for Iraqi refugees,' the statement said.

The senator's visit aims to see the progress of 'reform' in Syria and 'review Syrian-French relations and the situation of Iraqi refugees in Syria,' the statement added.

Marini will stay in Damascus on April 2 and 3 before travelling to to Tartous and Lattakia on the Mediterranean coast of western Syria, and Aleppo in northern Syria on April 4 and 5, the statement said.

Syrian-French relations have been strained since the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri, a personal friend of French president Jacques Chirac. Some Lebanese and Western officials have accused Syria of being involved in the assassination, a claim which Damascus has repeatedly denied.

Fenerbahçe heads to Syria for friendly

SOURCE: Todays Zaman

Fenerbahçe is heading to Syria today for a friendly against Al Ittihad -- an Aleppo team -- on the occasion of the opening of the Aleppo Olympic Stadium.

The Yellow Canaries will be flying to Aleppo with a chartered plane for the game that will take place on Tuesday April 3rd around noon. The Fenerbahçe entourage is set to include Chairman Aziz Yıldırım and administrators, along with other guests. The friendly, which will start at 7:45 p.m. will be broadcast live on Fox TV. The team last visited Syria 56 years ago when they played three matches. Information obtained from the team's Web site indicates that on June 8th of 1951 the team went to Syria, and in a game against a Damascus team defeated the home team 6-2, followed by a 2-2 draw with Cercle De La Jeunesse on June 10. The Yellow Canaries also defeated Vaspouragan 6-2 on June 12 in their third game against a Syrian team.