🧵 #Borders #Aegean #Turkey #EU #NGO @Frontex
Taking a walk around twitter, I came across an interesting tweet and decided to follow the leads.
Let me show you. This is the one.
So who is TopologicalA?
It turns out TopologicalA is an other NGO of course interested in borders, migration and of course borders surveillance.
topologicalatlas.net/borders
As they inform themselves, they are funded by three parts:
Europe itself erc.europa.eu
CRA gold.ac.uk/architecture/
Goldsmiths University gold.ac.uk
( CRA is actually part of Goldsmiths University)
Is that public money? 💰
It turns out Goldsmiths University is very sensitive over certain matters, which is good... gold.ac.uk/governance/pub…
Ok, TopologicalA arranges an online event and some people that research and write, paid by 🇪🇺💰 will talk about borders, borders surveillance and migration. They don’t exactly hide their interests
Dr. Nishat Awan who shared the event and her tweet caught my attention is a “principal investigator” at TopologicalA. You can see the team of ppl occupied there her topologicalatlas.net/about/people
An architect by training focusing on borders and migration ... 🤷♀️
TopologicalA collaborates of course with others with similar interests and one of their RT I found interesting. Forensik Mimarlik
(Netherlands never misses out, they are always involved 😊)
Forensic Mimarlik is a Turkish ngo that again mix and matches architecture with migration and geopolitics
araziassembly.org/team/
Forensik Mimarlik has tweeted another interesting event about Border Infrastructures and Forensics and funny enough Goldsmiths Architecture FA is said to be a research agency at the uni ? gold.ac.uk/search-results/
The online event is on the 17 April, hosted by a Turkish platform, based in Istanbul (Constantinople)
Concluding Goldsmiths uni that funds TopolgicalA together with the European Research Counsil, an ngo interested and investigating 🇬🇷🇹🇷 borders, also houses a forensic research agency that investigates the same.
ambernetworkfestival.org/en/threshold-i…
To be continued, I’m sure.
Additionally very interesting Wikipedia info on Goldsmiths uni and more Turkish 🇹🇷 elements ( - not surprised)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goldsmith…
Going back to previous tweet about the Forensic research and the event, the workshop will be conducted by 🇬🇷Stefanos Levidis
Stefanos Levidis is part of the well know network, “investigating” and accusing #Fontex and the @HCoastGuard
And here we go ... mr. Stefanos Levidis
Well connected, well educated and conducting investigations against the guarding of Greek borders.
@bogdanosk @nmitarakis @PrimeministerGR @NikosDendias @skaigr @ertofficial_ @e_amyna @thedukeoriginal @HCoastGuard
onassis.org/el/people/stef…
The connection to bellingcat, thereby Lighthouse Reports too, comes through GLAN (see above) the founder of which is another 🇬🇷 Ioannis Kalpouzos
Global Legal Action Network is founded by two persons
Ioannis Kalpouzos glanlaw.org
Paul Kingsley Clark gardencourtchambers.co.uk/barristers/pau…
Paul Kingsley Clark who is a leading barrister at the Garden Law Chambers at the same time, is also closely connected to Bellingcat
Glan Law is connected to another NGO, funded by ESRC & Swansea University, the Hillary Rodman Clinton Rule of Law school
Osr4rights
Osr4rights co-works also with Bellingcat
So Glan Law and bellingcat participated in a rehearsal court with British judges, to see how their investigations would stand and how they would perform in court as witnesses.
Anyone can watch it here part1
And the ruling part 2
This is the part, that Nick Waters of Bellingcat takes the stand, under the name Frank Palmer (for some reason)
Eliot Higgins, who also participates as a witness, participated as Eliot Higgins.
A step back to TopologicalA, aka Topological Atlas funded by the European Union 🇪🇺, Here is the “receipt” public 💰 money ...
cordis.europa.eu/project/id/758…
GLAN Law is coming up with a new strategy on “pushbacks”. In their article of today, they argue that the word, so popularly used until now, might not be serving the cause right. Changes are to be considered as I understand it, due to their cause. ejiltalk.org/pushbacks-as-e…
Signed by two GLAN Law ppl, cudos to good colleagues of course 😉
@ NiamhKTabbal & @ itamann
A couple of tweets back to Stefanos Levidis, researcher at Forensic Architecture, Goldsmiths Uni. They have been very focused on the Greek Turkish borders too. Their investigations always finding Greece guilty in guarding its borders actually. #Frontex got in the oven too.
Forensic Archtecture, their about and their funding info
Their investigations forensic-architecture.org
I understand Soros is funding them, being their customer due to The Open Borders Society opensocietyfoundations.org
But EU spending 1.197.704 € public 💰on an NGO -agency undermining eu’s own institution of borders safety #Frontex 🤷♀️
How does that comply? cordis.europa.eu/project/id/682…
Alain the babushka effekt
It turns out mr. Itamar Mann, involved in GLAN Law, is also in an NGO named Equal Rights Beyond Borders along with Nora Markard. They are operating in Greece (surprise) equal-rights.org/en/about/
Equal Rights Beyond Borders finance is neither transparent, but I did manage to find some sources and numbers
ERBB collaborates with Stiftungsfonds Zivile Seenotrettung founded in September 2019 when a call for donations by Jan Böhmermann and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf raised over one million euros, following the rescue operation involving Carola Rackete and the Sea-Watch 3. 🤓😎🤷♀️
ERBB has various interesting partners and supporters equal-rights.org/en/people-and-…
It is very interesting that Nora Markard is on the advisory board, she is also member of HEINRICH-BÖLL-STIFTUNG, the German green political party family 👨👩👧👦👨👩👧👦
Funny she doesn’t mention ERBB 🤷♀️ eu.boell.org/en/person/prof…
Just adding this one, even though we all know.
Came across a happy man this evening Ansgar Gilster.
“The second alliance ship is direction # Mittelmeer on road! Thanks to the strong teamwork from @ seaeyeorg & @ United4Rescue , but above all countless supporters who do not stand idly by when people drown.” - he writes
He’s 😃 he is back in business. A. Gilster is founding member of united4rescue. He believes he is a philanthropist, the rest of the world, not working in NGO, sees him as a smuggler. Any way, the hot is that he is a board member of ERBB, the founded NGO by Nora Markard ... yes 👇
All businessmen like to expand
united4rescue.com/forderungen
rememberhumanrights.org/en/home/
“Funny” that the mayor of Palermo has a take in some way in the United4Rescue churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2019/…
coe.int/en/web/portal/…
socialdifference.columbia.edu/faculty-/nabil…
Back to the connection btw
GLAN Law
Lighthouse Reports
Bellingcat
It turns out they have established a cooperation on a project called EUarms, aiming to expose the dependency-relations between European arms-suppliers and abusive end-users
euarms.com/weapon
As they inform themselves, the funds come from
Open Society Foundation (Soros)
Nuhanovic Foundation (Dutch)
Stiching Democratic en media (Dutch)
Nuhanovic Foundation, they fund, but they are also funded themselves 🤷♀️
The last figuring founder on EUarms, joined project by Bellingcat, Lighthouse Reports and GLAN Law (also previously connected to ERBB and Nora Markard, that joined their forces against Frontex), is the Dutch Democracy and Media foundation
stdem.org/en/who-we-are/…
A visit to the 🇪🇺press price webpage, confirms the connection to Media Development Investment fund
europeanpressprize.com
The Media Development Investment fund leads back to money from Open Society Foundations, that is Soros, but reveals another connection, that leads back to the official funding of Lighthouse Reports, (according to them selves). The DOEN Stitchting.
mdif.org
Actually they gather the profits from three Dutch lottery institutes and fund various ngo and projects.
One of the three is the Dutch national post code lottery, that formally funds Lighthouse Reports 🤷♀️
💰 makes the 🌎 go around
DOEN Stichting annual report for 2019 and the setup.
Not bad, pretty smart actually.
Ppl play the lottery, sometimes someone wins, (I hope) and the rest of the profit is distributed to ngos and projects of choose.
jaarverslag.doen.nl/jaarverslag-20…
And since we are at Lighthouse Reports, Daniel Howden managing director at LR, (based in Athens by the way), is also an expert at the Global Initiative against TransNational Organized Crime, funded by support of the Gov of Norway and Switzerland.
globalinitiative.net/about-us/our-s…
Leading to another source that connects financial support to Daniel Howden and Open Society Foundation, that is Soros, again. 🤷♀️
journalismfund.eu @ journalismfund
Staying on the Open Society Foundation, I watched an uploaded meeting uploaded on their channel. It turns out Erik Marquardt was supposed to join, but he was busy in Lesvos, as the meeting took place a week after the big fire in Moria camp
His stand in.
A Greek NGO HumanRights360, founded by Epaminondas Farmakis, participated too, very passionate about the “illegal pushbacks” saying that they were joining forces for the investigation of #Frontex with others and stating the need for an “independent” investigation
They are quite frank at their webpage. No fooling around with words there. HumanRights360
humanrights360.org/promote-and-de…
And as they say themselves in black and white both the 🇬🇷🇹🇷border monitoring and the research is supported by the Open Society Foundation. #Frontex @nmitarakis
Checking the Twitter accounts leave no doubt of it.
HumanRights360 links to a website, called EndPushbacks, made especially to gather forces ... or the ones that do not remain anonymous. 🤷♀️
endpushbacks.com
If I may come with a personal conclusion at this point, it makes perfect sense, that the Open Society foundation, who advocates a no borders society and the demolition of nations as we know them, puts up the fight with @Frontex and 🇬🇷& 🇪🇺 for guarding our borders.
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