Turkish Diary

Turkish history books discriminating Armenians may be revised

2011-12-21T19:15:00.001+01:00

http://pn.am/mobile/eng/news/86884/

posted from Bloggeroid

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTHQUAKE IN VAN

2011-10-24T20:45:00.003+02:00

If you want to help, you can find all the information on this page. Thank you in advance.

Earthquakes in Turkey: a nightmare repeating itself

2011-10-24T17:10:00.000+02:00

The devastating earthquake that struck Turkey yesterday is unfortunately only one of the many seismic events occurring periodically in this country, which has a complex tectonic structure. Everybody's mind goes back to the 1999 earthquake, in the Northwest, which had a dreadful death toll. Orhan Pamuk remembers those dramatic moments in his book Other Colours.

I was awoken between midnight and dawn - at 3 a.m., as I was later to discover - by the first jolts. It was August 17, 1999, I was in my study in our stone house on Sedef, the little island just next to Büyükada, and my bed, which was three yards from my desk, was swaying violently like a rowboat caught in a storm at sea. A terrifying groan came from underground, from what seemed to be right under my bed. Without pausing to find my glasses, following instinct more than reason, I rushed outdoors and began to run. (...)
The first tremors lasted forty-five seconds, claiming thirty thousand lives; before they were over, I had climbed the side steps to the upper floor where my wife and daughter were sleeping. They were awake and waiting in the darkness, afraid and not knowing what to do. The electricity had failed. Together we went out into the garden and the enveloping silence of the night. The awful roar had stopped, and it was as if everything around us were likewise waiting in fear.

But I want to remember now another, slightly more recent earthquake that took place in the South East of Turkey - like the latest one - on May 1, 2003. It happened in the Bingöl province, or to be more precise,

The Kandilli Observatory and Earthquake Research Institute (KOERI, 2003) of Boğaziçi University estimated that the earthquake centered at 39.01 N and 40.49 E, which places the epicenter about 15 km NW of Bingöl city.
According to official anouncements the earthquake caused the loss of 176 lives and injured about 520 people. About 362 buildings collapsed and/or were heavily damaged, and 3026 buildings were moderately-to-lightly damaged in Bingöl city center. The number of collapsed or heavily damaged buildings in the whole earthquake affected region is announced as 625 and a total of 3650 were subjected to damage of different degrees. (Japan Society of Civil Engineers, report The Bingöl Earthquake of May 1, 2003)

Non-official sources speak of more than 180 dead. 84 were children aged between 7 and 17 who were sleeping in the dormitory of their collapsed school. But it was not just a random tragedy.The Turkish State had its share of responsibility in the disaster.

The site near Bingöl where used to be the school destroyed by the 2003 earthquake

But something positive came out of it as well: a group of architects and engineers founded Bindepder, the Association in Solidarity with the Victims of Bingöl Earthquake, intending not only to intervene in times when earthquakes strike, but also to inform people before and after seismic events. I met their President, Hayip Yolcu, in Bingöl on March 2005. He explained me how dangerous this area is, how many fault lines cross it: "Bingöl is in the middle of this region, - he added-, so it's possible to reach all the cities, all the provinces around here, so it's important that this association was founded here. In the aftermath of an earthquake we don't want trained people to come from the West of Turkey to work here. We want them to come here and share their experience with us. It's important to reach people in the 6 hours following an earthquake, because you have a chance to find them alive. But after 6 hours your chances get fewer and fewer, and it takes time to come from the West, so it's essential for us to be able to be immediately operative on our own. After that, we do want the experts from the West to come, so that they can share with us their experience, information and the equipment they use".

Hayip is very critical towards the government. One example: "There was an earthquake in 1996 in Varto. After that, the government built houses for the victims. Now, during the 2003 Bingöl earthquake those houses fell down. Only two houses are OK, and if you ask people why, they answer: 'because we built them'. It's the houses built by the government that collapsed".

Hayip Yolcu showing a shoe found among the debris

It was a different government. But things don't seem to work much differently with the new one: "We know that money arrived to the government from the European Union. We know three schools were built in this area. But this money was given to people who are close to the government. For example, there are villages where the schools were not heavily damaged, but the money went to these villages, where the municipalities were close to the government".

He then brings me to the place where the school used to be. On the site, there are still trousers and shoes, macabre reminders that real children were here on that night, and that they don't need those things any more.

The new buildings

A new school has been rebuilt since, a little further away, but always on the fault line. Besides, Hayip explains, the new buildings are not earthquake-proof: "First of all, there are four floors while there shouldn't be more than two floors. Second, the restaurant should be in a separated building, while it's situated on the ground floor, where there are gases that might explode during an earthquake".

A teacher tells us what happened that night:

Hayip showing children trousers
I used to live in the school apartments. I was sleeping, and first there was a small earthquake. I went out, but it was dark, so I could not see anything. I heard voices shouting, crying... I didn't think the dormitory had collapsed, I just thought that maybe the students were crying out of fear. But then a car passed by, and when the lights fell on the school, I realized the amplitude of the destruction. Immediately, we ran to help the children. That night in the dormitory there were 199 students and one teacher. Around 50 of them managed to escape. I took my car and went to ask help from the army. People from the village and from all over the region came with lorries, and we all tried to reach the children under the debris. During the day many groups from all of Turkey arrived, but they did not have enough material, they did not have the necessary equipment. It was such a painful day, we do not want to see that happen again.

Turkey's first Kurdish dept opens amid political tension

2011-10-17T11:51:00.000+02:00

From Hürriyet Daily News:

The beginning of Turkey's first undergraduate Kurdish program has been welcomed but the development comes amid charter-related tension

After years of efforts, a number of rejections and strong debates, Turkey’s first undergraduate-level Kurdish language and literature department is welcoming students for its first class today in the southeastern province Mardin’s Artuklu University.

The beginning of the first undergraduate-level Kurdish program, which many consider a positive development, comes at a time of recent tension over discussions on Turkey’s new constitution, which are about to commence between the ruling and oppositional parties, including the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which is primarily focused on the Kurdish issue.

While tension among the delegates is expected to rise especially on the first three articles, which discuss “the characteristics of the Republic,” an academic move to officially integrate Kurdish culture into Turkey’s education system is already regarded as a sign of development.

“When we established the School of Eastern Languages, I had planned to set up a Kurdish Language and Literature Department and kept re-applying to YÖK [Higher Education Board]. This city is the center of upper Mesopotamia, and Kurdish [culture] is a major part of this,” Artuklu University Rector Serdar Bedii Omay said.

Full story here.

Fatih Akin presents Law of the Border in Lyon

2011-10-12T17:23:00.128+02:00

The theatre is full of people. Even I, with a press pass, have to sit on the floor. I must admit I didn't expect all this success for a Turkish film from French - and especially Lyonnese - people.

Fatih Akin (right) with Thierry Frémaux

It's October 4th. Fatih Akin is here, at the Institut Lumière, in Lyon, at the exact spot where cinema itself was born. The occasion is the Festival Lumière, a huge international event that Lyon people are rightfully proud of. The great German-Turkish film maker is here to present the restored version of Hudutların Kanunu (Law of the Border, 1966). The screenplay was written by Ömer Lüfti Akad, who also directed the movie, and Yilmaz Güney, the Kurdish popular actor and film maker author of the Cannes Palme d'Or winner Yol (1982).

This version of Law of the Border has been released this year by the World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna. The restoration "was made possible - the World Cinema Foundation explains - through the use of a positive print provided by Nil Gurpinar, daughter of the film’s producer, and held by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. As this print is the only known copy to survive the Turkish Coup d’Etat in 1980 – all other film sources were seized and destroyed – the restoration required a considerable amount of both physical and digital repair. The surviving print was extremely dirty, scratched, filled with mid-frame splices and sadly missing several frames. Although the film was shot in black and white, it was also printed on color stock resulting in significant decay. The restoration work produced a new 35mm dupe negative". It's pretty much what Fatih Akin tells us, adding that a full 15-second scene is missing as well.

Akin is introduced to the audience by Thierry Frémaux, manager of the Institut Lumière where the film is shown. When Frémaux thanks all the Turks present in the theater, the room is shaken by clapping and roaring. Which explains the success of this event.

Akin explain why this film is so important: "Before this movie Turkish cinema was just a sort of fairy tale cinema, with white skinned Turks and blond women. Law of the Border was the first film to show real Turks".

The role of the main character is played by Güney himself: "The film gives you an idea on how and why the Kurdish question started - continues Akin. - Güney was born here, and put much of his story in it".

Silence now. The film starts. And it is powerful.

The new French war on religion

2011-04-17T18:27:00.000+02:00

It's the title of a column (hereby linked) published on April 15 on Hürriyet on line. The article could be the usual attack by a Muslim to a Western country, but when a Turk attacks France the issue is always larger than that, and in this specific case the author, Mustafa Akyol, shows a remarkably moderate tone, he makes his point without shouting, and with a certain amount of criticism towards Turkey itself.

The issue is, ça va sans dire, as follows:

The burqa, the all-covering face veil, which is worn by very few women in France, is now banned by law. So, French policemen are fining veiled women, or, far worse, dragging them to their headquarters to admonish them about the right way of life.

And Akyol's point is:

Meanwhile the zestful president of the French Republic, Mr. Nicolas Sarkozy, is enlightening us about the virtues of this ban. It is for upholding "French values of equality and secularism," he says. I bet it is. The problem is that those "French values" do not seem to honor the right be left alone from government interference. Alas, they even justify a tyranny, which mirrors that of the Taliban: while those Afghan despots force women to put the burqa on, their French counterparts force them to take it off.
Now, what you and I think about the burqa does not matter here. In fact, I am among those who believe that it is a bad medieval tradition, which has nothing to do with Islam, and should better be abandoned. So, if the women in that excessive veil asked my opinion, I would advise them to take it off, too. But advice is the furthest point that I, and anybody else, can legitimately go. We cannot use state powers to "liberate" those women from what they wear out of their genuine convictions – just like the fact that an ideological nudist cannot claim to forcefully "liberate" us from our shirts, pants and underwear.

The attack to Sarkozy goes even farther than that:

Mr. Sarkozy, whose il-liberalism is only matched by his arrogance, heralds even more fronts in this culture war. He says he wants “no halal food options in school canteens, no prayers outside and no minarets.” Just replace the word “halal” with “kosher” here, and the “minaret” with “star of David.” You will get the poisonous French anti-Semitism of a century ago – the times of Captain Dreyfus. The difference today is just the change in the composition of the hated Semites – now they are the Arabs, and, by extension, all Muslims.

For a country where anti-Semitism is a sort of taboo (you might end up being label as "anti-Semitic" just by criticizing Israeli's politics), this is quite a blow.

But here comes the real issue, the one that Turks are sick of having to swallow all the time:

We in Turkey very well know that this rampant Islamophobia in France is the main reason why the majority of French society is categorically against Turkey’s accession into the European Union. That’s why we are not terribly impressed by the French critiques of our democracy, such as Ms. Marland-Militello, the parliamentarian who questioned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on religious freedom in Turkey in Strasbourg early this week. Erdoğan’s rhetoric was indeed a bit harsh in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, or PACE, meeting, and a few of his arguments were really not convincing. But his reaction to the self-righteous and overbearing attitude Turks have being facing from some Europeans, especially the French, was understandable.

Here comes now the self-criticism, and the reason why every attack to France from Turkey, and vice versa is more like the rage of Caliban seeing his own face in a glass.

We in Turkey are also realizing these days that some of our misfortunes in the past century stem from our big mistake of taking France as a beacon of modernity. We imported the fanatically anti-religious laicite of the Third French Republic, which not only brought oppression to our believers, but also paranoia to our seculars. Similarly, we imported the assimilation-focused nationalism of successive French Republics, and were drawn into a madness that our Ottoman ancestors would have never dreamed of: banning languages and cultures other than Turkish. Hence we created our own “Kurdish problem.”

Read the rest of it here.

Turkey going nuclear: follow-up

2011-03-20T13:25:00.000+01:00

It might seem a bit out of touch with reality, with all that's happening in Libya, to get back to the nuclear issue right now. But on one hand, the problem is certainly not solved, and it's only yesterday that <a href="http://ca.news.yahoo.com/hundreds-protest-turkeys-decision-move-ahead-plans-build-20110319-075921-435.html">activists in Turkey and <span class="yshortcuts" id="lw_1300561879_1">Cyprus</span> protested against Turkish government plans to build the country's first nuclear reactor</a>. On the other hand, I have a duty to update you on what I anticipated in my <a href="http://turkishdiary.blogspot.com/2011/03/turkey-going-nuclear-is-it-wise-after.html">previous post</a>. Fact is, the <a href="http://www.itamc.org/">International Tourism and Media Conference</a> in Bursa was canceled at the last minute.
The official reason given to us is as follows:

<blockquote>Many participants have very recently informed us that they could not come due to the ongoing problems in the Arab world and the tragic situation in Japan which keeps them buys at home.

Meanwhile we also thought that it would not be proper to hold a "tourism and media conference" while millions are mourning in Japan for the loss of possibly over 10 thousand people and decided to postpone our conference. </blockquote>
The real reasons, I was told by independent sources, appear to be linked with the current situation of journalists in Turkey, with arrests and the growing censorship situation condemned exactly by that <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2011-0090+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN">European Parliament report</a> I quoted in the previous post.

Turkey going nuclear: is it wise after what happened in Japan?

2011-03-13T21:00:00.001+01:00

I have just stumbled into this article:

Turkey reportedly plans to decide as early as this month the winner of a nuclear power plant tender. Japan had been seen ahead of its rival South Korea in the race.
As Turkey is also prone to earthquakes, the Japanese government and companies made a strong appeal based on their own quake-resistance technology. Although South Korea had enjoyed an early lead in the bidding race, Japan reversed the tide by signing a document with Turkey in December to cooperate in the development of human resources and other areas for the construction of nuclear power plants in Turkey.
But Friday's earthquake likely will cast a shadow over Japan's bid to take part in the Turkey project, sources said.

So, Turkey is going nuclear. Is it wise, knowing what just happened in Japan, a conscientious and prepared country? Turkey is one of the most seismic places in the world. While right now in France - the second biggest nuclear country in the world after the US - the discussion on the safety of nuclear installations is raging, the European Parliament on March 9th released a not-so-flattering report about Turkey where, among other things, it "Considers it regrettable that no progress has been made on limiting the immunities of Members of Parliament in respect of corruption-related offences", which sounds creepy, considering the role corruption often plays in tenders attribution. Even more creepy is the fact that Turkey has a long tradition as terrorism-striken country.

Will the Japan tsunami sweep away Turkey's dreams of nuclear glory? Will the civil society react? Or will the Turkish government just go on with its projects - just as it is doing with the GAP project in Southern-Eastern Anatolia -, ignoring the dissenting voices inside and outside the country, in the name of energy leadership in the region?

We'll try to understand it next week, at the International Tourism and Media Conference in Bursa, where we are going to meet, among others, the Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yıldız. Keep following us.

Karayilan: "The EU and the US are responsible for the stalemate in the solution of the Kurdish issue"

2010-04-18T09:25:00.023+02:00

This interview was recorded in North Iraq on March 23rd. Turkish Diary does not necessarily share the opinions of the interviewee. However, since we had a chance to look at the issue from a viewpoint different from the official ones, our duty as journalists was to take this chance and show it to our readers. We are confident they are smart enough to tell the difference between truth and propaganda.

The Qandil Mountains, in Iraqi Kurdistan. We arrived here expecting training camps and PKK fighters all over the place. We find houses, children playing, women who greet us - all we can say in Kurdish is rojbas, have a good day - and serve us rice and chicken, and a smiling representative of PKK, who, behind his glasses and thick eyebrows, explains us kindly in English what we are going to do. We are here to meet a "leader" - we were not told who, although we already imagine who that could be. After lunch, they bring us a bit further into the mountains. Here we do find young fighters armed with Kalashnikovs. And here is where we learn we were right - the person we are meeting is Murat Karayilan, top leader of the guerrilla.

In the last few years it seems your goals have changed, you are no longer a separatist group. Why are you still fighting?

You are aware that the culture, the identity, all the national rights of the Kurdish people have always been denied. There has also been violence and oppression against this people. Because of that, the Kurdish people decided to protect themselves through struggle, through arms. But since 1999, August 2nd, we have been trying to solve the Kurdish question through peaceful means, because we believe that the Kurdish question can be solved not through war but only through political means. It's a social problem, so there can be only a political solution to it. So our struggle right now is a political, democratic struggle. What we want is a political, democratic solution within the Turkish borders. Our motto is: "A democratic Turkey for an autonomous Kurdistan".

What is the model for this autonomous Kurdistan?

I have a number of examples. Spain, Scotland, Belgium... we can give quite a number of examples in Europe. Through dialogue we could take all these examples and solve the issue. We are not asking much. The question can be solved with positive side effects for everyone.
Another example is France, the first nation-based State. Turkey sees France as an example, but there are different practices in Turkey. Whatever the French government has do;nene for Corsica, all those rights, if given to Kurdish people, they will be accepted, there is nothing more.
the problem is that AKP today says that yes, there are Kurdish people, but in the meantime they say that within the Turkish people there's a Kurdish people. Other than that there is no Kurdish people. This means there are many ethnic groups in Turkey, but they are all Turkish. It's a way of playing with words. The assimilation policy that has continued for the last 86 years is still going on.

Since there are many examples of autonomy in Europe, do you think Turkey can be a part of Europe?

If there are changes in Turkey, why not?
We believe that the Kurdish issue is the main issue which can change Turkey democratically.
If Turkey changes its approach to the Kurdish issue, if it changes democratically... then why not?

The government has proposed constitutional reforms. What do you think of that?

These changes cannot bring democracy in Turkey, because of the mentality, of the approach, which is still the mentality of the 12 September 1980 coup. AKP is just having problems with the judiciary, and they are trying to overcome this. That's the only reason they are discussing the changes in the Constitution, nothing more than that. The mentality is the same, and this mentality cannot bring any democratic changes in Turkey.

But if the judiciary is less powerful, there will be no longer episodes such as the ban of DTP in Turkey. Isn't this positive?

It's not important at all. Of course it's positive, however for the Kurdish issue this has no relevance, because there will be no change on two crucial issues.
The first one is the 10 percent threshold in general elections. The second is the law on terrorism. For example, they give a lot of prison sentences to children. A woman can have a 7-year prison sentence just because she shouted certain slogans and carried a banner.
Erdogan is dealing with the problems they have, not the Kurdish people.

A few weeks ago Osman Öcalan said that if his brother was released and put to house arrest, PKK would disarm. Is this true?

That person has nothing to do with us, we do not have any relations at all, from time to time some people try to use him. So, it is not true.
Whatever that person said has nothing to do with us. At the beginning of February this year we proposed a road map for the solution of the Kurdish question in peaceful terms.
4 main steps need to be done:

all the operations - military and political - have to be stopped
since a lot of politicians have been arrested - some MPs, some mayors, members of the party, over 1.500 politicians - they have to be released
we believe Abdullah Öcalan can play an effective role in the peace process, so he should be put to house arrest
after these 3 conditions are fulfilled, the dialogue can start immediately

So, at that time, will the PKK disarm?

If the dialogue starts, this matter of arms can be taken as part of the dialogue, it can be discussed. We are not only 3 or 5 people, we are thousands of people, so what is the situation of this people going to be? How will the disarmament take place? On what conditions? Once the dialogue starts, we can discuss all these things there.

Öcalan is seen by Turks as a symbol of this war, of terrorism, so even if the government wanted to give him an effective role, it would be very difficult for them, they would meet a lot of resistance, so how do you propose to do that?

Such claims were already made before. For example, in South Africa, with the Mandela case, or for Yasser Arafat in the Palestinian case. But in the end if they hadn't spoken to Mandela, they wouldn't have solved the issue. The same happened with the Palestinian issue. Both Mandela and Arafat were seen as terrorists, terrorist leaders.
So, first of all Turkey has to change its language. Second, they have to make sincere steps, in order to solve the Kurdish issue. There is no terrorist leader, Abdullah Öcalan is not a terrorist at all. This is only a name given to the opposition.
Today millions of people - as you saw during the Newroz in Diyarbakir -shout "we are PKK". That's the reality, that's the approach of the people, and using other words, other languages is not going to help solve the Kurdish question.
But I don't believe the real problem is Turkey. The problem is Europe and the US. They are the ones who are affecting the solution period.

In what sense?

While the armed struggle was going on, the European countries never put our organisation's name in the list of terrorist organizations. But in 1999, we decided to change our strategy, Abdullah Öcalan at that time went to Europe in order to open a pathway for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish issue - as you know he has been to Italy.
At that time Mr D'Alema and the Italian government were approached frankly by Abdullah Öcalan. D'Alema even went to Germany to speak with Schroeder regarding the Kurdish issue and Abdullah Öcalan, he said Europe should make a conference on the Kurdish issue, but Germany didn't accept. After an international conspiracy our leader Abdullah Öcalan was illegally captured and given to Turkey. So at that time the European countries never approached the issue to solve it peacefully and democratically - they could, at that time, but they did not, and after 1999 our organisation made a declaration that as a new strategy we were going to find a peaceful and democratic solution.
After the declaration we made, we announced that we were giving up arms. The EU in 2002 put us in the terrorists list.
This period showed us that the EU does not want a peaceful and democratic solution of the Kurdish issue. And for all these years the EU has given support to Turkey, militarily and politically. The same occurred with the US.

All photos are ©Giovanni Sacchetti. For the full reportage visit his website.
For a video version of the interview, please contact Turkish Diary.

Armenia no longer demands Turkey recognize the genocide of its people?

2009-12-10T23:30:00.002+01:00

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan said Yerevan is ready to establish diplomatic ties with Turkey without any preconditions, “particularly without the precondition that Turkey should recognize the Armenian genocide.”

The protocols which are meant to be ratified by the countries’ parliaments and which were signed in October in Zurich, Switzerland, mean two things: the opening of the border between the states and the establishment of diplomatic ties (“the creation of an intergovernmental bilateral commission with sub-commissions dealing with every possible area of cooperation between the two countries,” the protocol says).

Read the full story

Turkey has place in a Europe of "liberté, egalité, and fraternité" says Pamuk

2009-12-04T12:27:00.004+01:00

Turkey has place in a Europe of “liberté, egalité, and fraternité” says Pamuk - Literature : news, interview | euronews

2009-11-28T13:10:00.003+01:00

He is not just the 2006 Nobel Literature Laureate.
Orhan Pamuk is also a symbol of Turkey’s struggle to be part of the EU.
In recent weeks, he has been travelling around Europe and the US to promote his latest novel, ‘The Museum of Innocence’.
Yet just as he was being honoured in France, where the Season of Turkey is underway, the Turkish High Court ruled that anybody who “suffered mentally” because of what Pamuk had said about the Armenian genocide could sue him for pain and suffering.
euronews met Orhan Pamuk at Villa Gillet, in Lyon.

Watch my interview on euronews

Turkey is to allow Kurdish television as peace process gathers pace - Times Online

2009-11-14T09:54:00.001+01:00

Turkey’s Government has unveiled a “historic” offer to end its 25-year armed conflict with Kurdish fighters that has cost more than 40,000 lives.

Besir Atalay, the Interior Minister, told parliament that he intended to end permanently the conflict with separatists, who are thought to have about 6,000 fighters. “Our slogan is more freedom for everybody,” Mr Atalay said yesterday, outlining what he described as “an open-ended process” to “end terrorism and raise the level of democracy”.

One of the first steps would be to lift a ban on private television channels broadcasting in Kurdish. The Government would then end a ban on political campaigning in the language, and permit the restoration of Kurdish names to towns and villages given Turkish names since the 1950s. A committee will be established to address Kurdish concerns that they suffer discrimination.

Read the full story on Times Online

In Turkey, fertile ground for creationism

2009-11-08T09:46:00.001+01:00

U.S. critics of evolution help translate their ideas for a society already torn between Islam and secularism

ISTANBUL -- Sema Ergezen teaches biology to Turkish students interested in teaching science themselves, and she has long struggled with her students' ignorance of, and sometimes hostility to, the notion of evolution.

But she was taken aback when several of her Marmara University students recently accused her of being an atheist, or worse, for teaching anything but the doctrine that God created the Earth and everything on it.

"They said I was a liar if I called myself a Muslim because I also accepted evolution," she said.

What especially disturbed -- and amused -- the veteran professor was that the arguments for creationism presented by some of the students came directly from the country where she was educated in the biological sciences years before -- the United States. Translated and adapted for a Muslim society, the purported proofs that Darwinism and evolution were wrong came directly from American proponents of Christian creationism and its less overtly religious offshoot, intelligent design.

Ergezen's experience has become increasingly common. While creationism and intelligent design appear to be in some retreat in the United States, they have blossomed within Muslim Turkey. With direct and indirect help from American foes of evolution, similarly-minded Turks have aggressively made the case that Charles Darwin's theory is scientifically wrong and is the underlying source of most of the world's conflicts because it excludes God from human affairs.

Read the whole story on The Washington Post

‘Military laicism quite different from Atatürk's laicism'

2009-08-26T04:00:00.001+02:00

Turkey's only Nobel laureate, author Orhan Pamuk, has stated that the understanding of laicism held by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, was very different from that of the military today.

Speaking to the Russian periodical Timeout Moscow ahead of a visit to the Russian capital planned for Aug. 27, Pamuk shared his opinion on various issues in Turkey. In an interview published under the headline “I am trying to explain Turkey to Turks,” Pamuk emphasized that his main target is the Turkish audience and not foreigners.

Read the whole story on Today's Zamam

My interview to Nedim Gürsel on YouTube

2009-06-20T12:56:00.001+02:00

Available also in 7 other languages (the original one is in French). If you are interested, just ask.

My interview to Nedim Gürsel

2009-05-22T21:00:00.003+02:00

I wish to announce the interview to Nedim Gürsel, the Turkish writer, which will be on air on euronews starting from tonight at 21.45 (CET). I met him in Paris to talk to him about his trial in Turkey and the implications in Turkey's accession to the EU.
It should be on air all over the weekend, although I don't know the exact timetable. Should you miss it, don't worry: it will soon be on air on euronews' website.

Turkish regulator to extend broadcasting time of private stations in Kurdish

2009-01-12T13:47:00.000+01:00

From EJC Media News:

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) of Turkey is planning to extend the period of time private television and radio stations are allowed to broadcast in Kurdish. Private TV stations currently have the right to broadcast programmes in Kurdish for a maximum of four hours a week, and radio stations for a maximum of five hours a week. Private TV and radio stations which broadcast in Kurdish include Gün TV, Söz TV and Medya FM. The RTÜK's decision to extend the broadcasting time allowed to private TV and radio stations for Kurdish programming came only days after the launch of the country's first 24-hour television channel broadcasting in Kurdish. The public use of Kurdish was prohibited following the 1980 military coup until 1991. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan praised the new Kurdish channel, terming it 'a very important initiative to strengthen ties between the public and the state.' (Today's Zaman via Media Network Weblog)

Why is Obama silent?

2009-01-12T04:45:00.004+01:00

Today's Zaman interviewed an expert in international relations, Mr Gökhan Bacık, about Turkey's role in the Israel-Hamas issue. The article, Academic Bacık says Turkey fills vacuum in Middle East, is interesting although not everything the professor says is really original. But what I think he gives the most lucid answer about, is the question about Obama's silence on the Gaza war. Here it goes:

Why is US President-elect Barack Obama keeping quiet?
It is much better for Obama to be silent rather than to speak out regarding what is happening in Gaza. An American president would not talk against Israel. But his silence is as symbolic as his speech. Obama’s silence at least shows a hesitancy to speak.
But the world expects something from him.
People around the world expect something different from him. Right or wrong, people look at Obama’s personality, name, background, color and rhetoric and expect a different approach. He must have realized that expectation as well. If he says, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” then his campaign balloon with all of its promises would burst. He may become another Bush. On the other hand, Obama’s Cabinet choices include quite pro-Israeli names. And it’s a dream to expect anything anti-Israeli from the Obama administration. However, expectations from his leadership in such countries as Indonesia, Iraq and Egypt have produced some global public pressure on Obama and that’s why he is silent. Moreover, an American president cannot convince the Israeli leadership by speaking on television. But by using his operational tools, he can give messages to the Israeli elite; he can emphasize the role of international organizations.

Another part of the interview that I appreciated, concerns what he calls "the Golden Age of Judaism":

You are talking about “convincing Israel.” When we think about this we see that Israel started the raids of its own initiative and continues them on its own terms and that nobody is able to stop it. Where does this power come from?
There was a historical period known as the “Golden Age of Islam.” Now we are in the Golden Age of Judaism. Israel has obtained this power by hard work. Einstein did not receive the Nobel Prize by favoritism. In many scientific disciplines, in media, politics and finance, Jewish people have considerable power. And the ones who have this power can formulate the truth. If a country has the power to stop the United States, to limit the United Nations and to influence the European Union, we need to understand how this happens. Israel’s intellectual and ideological influence is comprised of material and intellectual qualities. If you are going to face up to it, you need to have compatible intellectual and material powers to do it.

The rest of the interview concerns mainly Turkey's role in the Middle East, and how it is the only country with enough credibility to mediate between the parts. If you are interested in the issue, just click here.

Israel and Turkey: so different, yet so similar, yet so different...

2009-01-07T15:38:00.003+01:00

Turkey has recently condemned Israel's offensive in Gaza. Ankara has even decided to suspend its mediating efforts between Israel and Syria.

It would be easy to dismiss such a position as just solidarity with the Muslim brothers and sisters in Gaza. Not that it would be wrong. But I would like to change the perspective in the issue, noticing that Israel and Turkey, two long-standing allies, have more in common than one could imagine. And that is what I am going to highlight right now.

Both Turkey and Israel are countries which are strongly defined by their main religions, and yet both are convinced secular countries. In both cases religion identifies largely with ethnicity (with the important exceptions of Kurds, of course, where ethnicity is predominant, and Alevis, who are not considered as a religion minority). Which has brought discrimination and / or war against religious and / or ethnic minorities. The modalities are different, but the similarities are striking.
Both Turkey and Israel are countries which have been artificially created by the international community. Israel, through the partition of Palestine into two states decided by the United Nations in 1947; Turkey, through the Treaty of Lausanne, which in 1923 replaced the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres, actually reintegrating a series of territories which had been previously stripped off it, and frustrating the Kurds' hopes for an independent State (hopes that had been fed by the Treaty of Sèvres). I should add that the international community has not little responsibility in the Armenian genocide.
This may be little more than a curiosity, but I think it's significant. Both countries have compulsory military service. In Israel, it applies both to men (3 years) and women (2 years); in Turkey, it's mandatory only for men (15 months). I admit I don't know what the consequences of this are in Israel (where a limited amount of conscientious objection exists anyway), but I know in Turkey for a long time this situation helped PKK recruit militants, since many Kurds did not wish to be sent to fight against their own fathers or brothers, preferring rather fight at their side.
Both countries are just a few weeks away from the next electoral rendez-vous. On February 10, Israelis will vote for the next government (and, for those of you who can read French, I suggest that you go through this interesting article by Le Monde); on March 29, municipal elections will take place in Turkey.

Let me focus on this last point. The key issue in Turkey's local elections will be the Kurdish majority regions (what PKK and in general militant Kurds refer to as “Kurdistan”, a word that in Turkey can bring you straight to prison). On the subject, I can recommend you this article on the Christian Science Monitor.

Now, what has been the big news in Turkey in the last few days (apart from Nazim Hikmet's rehabilitation)? I quote from Reuters:

Turkey has launched its first 24-hour Kurdish-language TV station

Which brings me to the conclusion:

Israel is moving towards elections → Israel bombs Palestinians
Turkey is moving towards elections → Turkey gives more rights to Kurds

Of course Kurds are not satisfied, and they are not completely paranoid in considering this decision as a way by the government to get as many votes as they can, in short a propaganda move. It is also true that Ankara has quite a double-face attitude: while PKK is considered a terrorist group, soon after Hamas won the elections the AKP government welcomed to Turkey Khaled Meshal, the exiled Hamas leader. And they never uttered a word about the rockets fired against Israel.

Nonetheless, one cannot help noticing that making propaganda through opening up to minorities is a more democratic way than bombing civilians. So, what are the main differences in this situation? Why do two similar countries in two similar situations act in such different ways?

First of all, Turkey is a EU candidate. It is true that in the last few years the great reform impulse that marked the first period of the AKP government has slowed down, if not thoroughly stopped. And the new nationalistic vague has not helped in that sense. It is also true that this government is struggling hard at least to show a nice image of itself, which is surely not enough, but it's helping improvement. And improvement is never easy, especially for a proud people like Turks. The journey is still long, but the path is the right one.

Now, this doesn't mean of course that Israel should be a candidate to the EU, but at least it shows that the EU can actually have a role in international politics. More than that: personally, I think we have a responsibility in that sense.

But in all this story we must not forget one decisive point: in Turkey Kurds vote. In Israel Palestinians don't.

Turkey rehabilitates poet Hikmet

2009-01-06T10:56:00.002+01:00

From Bbc.co.uk:

Turkey says it is to restore the citizenship of one of its most illustrious poets and playwrights.
Nazim Hikmet was stripped of his citizenship for his Marxist beliefs in the 1950s after he fled the country, having spent years in Turkish prisons.
Hikmet, who died in exile in Moscow in 1963, revolutionised Turkish poetry during the 1930s and has had his work translated into some 50 languages.
Deputy PM Cemil Cicek said it was time for the government to change its mind.
"The crimes which forced the government to strip him of his citizenship at that time are no longer considered a crime," he said.

Read the full story

PM Erdogan returns to Turkey as he ends Mideast tour regarding Gaza

2009-01-04T10:21:00.005+01:00

Turkish prime minister early on Sunday returned to Turkey as he ends his Middle East tour aimed at helping to reach a ceasefire in Gaza.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday met Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh, his last stop in consultations over the past week. The Turkish prime minister met the Middle Eastern leaders in Egypt, Syria and Jordan earlier in the week.

In Egypt, he revealed a two-phase plan to end the tensions in the Gaza Strip: urging the foreign ministers of the Arab League to take the initiative for an immediate cease-fire and securing reconciliation between the Palestinian fractions of al-Fatah and Hamas.

Read the full story on Hürriyet

A beginner’s guide to Ergenekon, trial of the century

2009-01-04T09:59:00.001+01:00

Following Turkish politics can be confusing, especially in current times when the country is witnessing what analysts term the “trial of the century,” involving alleged members of a group that, as briefly described by newspapers, is suspected of a number of crimes that appear to have been committed for the ultimate political purpose of bending the country toward a certain political agenda.

For the uninitiated, the details of the case, frequent and often confusing references to past events that go back as far as 30 years ago.

Read it on Sunday's Zaman

Turkey's Kurdish TV channel opens to mixed reviews

2009-01-03T08:34:00.002+01:00

(From Reuters.com)

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Turkey has launched its first 24-hour Kurdish-language TV station in what the government called a democratic new era for minority Kurds.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan extended best wishes in once-banned Kurdish, but some Kurdish politicians criticised the New Year launch of state-run TRT 6 as a ploy to woo voters ahead of March local elections.

Some viewers were concerned that programming would become state propaganda, underscoring scepticism in a region scarred by decades of violence and poverty.

Turkey, which aspires to join the European Union, has been under pressure to expand cultural and political rights of its estimated 12 million Kurds, a sixth of the population.

Read the full story

The women speak

2008-11-11T19:43:00.004+01:00

(In italiano)
(En français)

Here is a report by my friend Alberto and me about women literature. It was shot in Frankfurt, at the Book Fair, and two of the writers we interviewed are Turkish.

Turks in Turkey cannot read Turkish Diary...

2008-10-25T13:03:00.002+02:00

Or: another blog service closed. This time it's Blogger's turn.
From The Earth Times:

World's largets blog hosting service banned in Turkey
Ankara - A court in south-east Turkey on Friday banned Turkish internet users from accessing Blogger, the world's largest free blog hosting service. Internet users in Turkey discovered Friday afternoon that the site, which hosts millions of blogs, or web logs, had been blocked. When users tried to view a blogger's page they were redirected to a message which said: "Access to this website has been suspended in accordance with decision no. 2008/2761 of the TR Diyarbakir First Criminal Court of Peace."

No reason for the ban was given.

Turkish internet users are used to court-ordered bans of a large range of websites, including the video-sharing site Youtube, which was barred for hosting a video insulting the founder of the Turkish republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Adnan Oktar, an Islamic creationist has also been successful in getting a variety of sites banned by court decisions, including blog hosting website Wordpress and the personal website of renowned biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins.

Some pictures from the Fair

2008-10-19T12:22:00.008+02:00

Since I won't be able to do a real reportage on the Fair, for now, I'll let you have a look at it.

The first one is fun: on Wednesday I decided to visit the Forum, the space for the Guest of Honour, and as soon as I arrived, I saw ropes bocking the way and a lot of photographers and videocameras. I wandered what was happening, and thought that maybe there was going to be some event concerning Pamuk. Then, all of a sudden, there was noise behind me, so I turned and someone pushed me violently away. Actually, there happened to be Abdullah Gül right behind me. The President of Turkey had almost stumbled over me.
For the other ones, just enjoy the pictures.

Too damn busy

2008-10-17T18:11:00.002+02:00

Hi there. Your correspondent from the Fair is not playing any games. Actually, I'm too damn busy to find the time to update the blog as I should. And the moments I have the time the connection is not working.
I promise as soon as I can I'll do it. And if I cannot do it during the Fair, I'll do it once I'm back to Italy. Promised. Well, I hope.

Turkey at the Frankfurt Book Fair

2008-10-15T11:43:00.009+02:00

I'm writing from the Frankfurt Book Fair, where this year Turkey is the guest of honour.

Yesterday, at the opening ceremony, there was a clash. Oh, if you had just passed by and had a look at it, you might not have noticed it, everyone looked very happy and friendly. Orhan Pamuk was sitting next to Adullah Gül's wife, and they all smiled from time to time when the Director of the German Publishers & Booksllers Association Gottfried Honnefelder or the German Foreign Affairs Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier named one or both of them.

But you had to listen to their speeches. Pamuk spoke of freedom of expression in quite hard terms toward Turkey: "The State's habit of penalising writers and their books is still very much alive - he said -; Article 301 of the Turkish penal code continues to be used to silence and suppress many other writers, as it was use against me; there are at this moment hundreds of writers and journalists being prosecuted and found guilty under this article. While I was working on the novel that I published earlier this year, I needed to research old Turkish films and songs. I did it easily on YouTube, but now I would not be able to do the same. Because YouTube, like many other domestic and intrnational websites, has been blocked for residents of Turkey for political reasons".

As soon as he finished his speech, Pamuk left the hall in a hurry. Did he just have another appointment, or was it perhaps to avoid getting angry at what his president would say soon after him? Because Abdullah Gül critisized the lack of respet of freedom of speech in other countries, speaking of Turkey as a paradise in that respect, where the "biggest achievement" is multiculuralism. He said that in Turkey there are "Books and magazines published in different languages, as well as TV and radio programmes in different languages", even though in Turkey broadcasting in languages such as Kurdish or Arabic is still strongly limited.

This morning I went to a panel about Islam in Europe or European Islam. The guests were Islamic European scholar Tariq Ramadan and Albert Schmid of the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees. Actually the two agreed on almost everything, so there wasn't much of a debate, which was undoubtedly dominated by Ramadan. I was quite stunned by his charisma. He's a star, of course, and especially in France, but I had never bothered to learn more about him or to look for anything (a book, some TV appearance...), also because of him being a star, and my natural suspicious attitude towards such "vedettes". But I must admit he has arguments, and looks as if he believed in what he says, namely that Sharia does not mean denial of separation between the Church and the State, or that the people who are Muslim by religion but European by culture abide by what he calls "the 4 l'", that is the law of the country where they live, its language, loyalty to it, and liberty. It would deserve that I speak more about it, especially about his position on the stoning of adulterers, but unfortunately I don't have the time now.

The rest of the Fair is waiting for me (and lunch as well!).

Turkey's poisoned pens

2008-10-10T20:32:00.002+02:00

Here is a very interesting and very comprehensive article about the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Turkey is this year's guest country at the Frankfurt Book Fair. For months now, the country's writers and critics have been embroiled in a bitter feud over the politics of participation. By Constanze Letsch

The 60th Frankfurt Book Fair opens in just a few days time, a moment that has been eagerly awaited in Turkey, this year's guest country, for almost two years. The Turkish government set aside a budget of seven million euros, and rented 4.260 m² of exhibition space. The country will be represented by 100 publishers, 350 authors, translators and academics, 320 artists, 10 literary and licensing agency representatives, 110 curators, presenters and coordinators and 120 media representatives: almost 1000 people in total.

1000 minus 20. Since July, a bitter feud has been bubbling away in the Turkish media over a controversial boycott of the Book Fair, in which to date, 20 of the invited authors and literary critics are participating.

Full story on Nomadics

Will the commander resign?

2008-10-10T14:00:00.001+02:00

Well, that's what I call a piece of news!

After the attack on the Aktütün military outpost on Oct. 3, killing 17 soldiers, something new has happened; for the first time people are openly starting to question the General Staff.

See the full story on Today's Zaman.

Fulya Atacan: “The military say the State should not use religion, but they did it first"

2008-10-01T22:42:00.007+02:00

(Published also on GroundReport)

Black, long hair and an open smile that often turns ironic. I meet Fulya Atacan on a hot summer day, at the beginning of August, in the Cihangir branch of the famous Kaktüs Café. The music is quite loud, and her voice is not, but my dictaphone luckily succeeds in recording it without too much back noise.

Fulya Atacan is Professor at the Department of Social Science and International Relations at Yildiz Technical University. I have contacted her because I was told she is “an expert of Islam”. She denies it, and explains: “I have worked with Islamic groups since the end of the 1980s. I did my PhD about one of the Sufi orders in Istanbul and then I worked with one of the radical Islamic groups in Germany. I also worked with a Sufi order, the Nakshibendi order in the Eastern part of Anatolia. I studied Political Science and then I did my PhD on Sociology, so I studied social sciences through different sources, but I'm not an expert of Islam”.

She's evidently expert enough, and she has that peculiar social insight I just need. I'm surely not interested in the theological aspects of Islam. She isn't either, anyway.

How do you interpret what's happening now in Turkey?

I'm sure that Turkey is a more secular State compared to 20 years ago. If you see secularism as a kind of process in which the effect of religion is decreasing in respect to economics, in respect to social life, in respect to science, it's true that Turkey is more secular than 20 years ago. But – you know – secularism means also changes of the main components of society. Turkey was a kind of agricultural society at the beginning of the 20^th century. And only less than 20 percent of the population were living in big cities. Today 30 percent of the population is living in the agricultural area and 70 percent of the population is living in the big cities. This means that people are earning their lives not from agriculture but from industry, services, and so on. So this main change in society has also an effect on religion. Of course we cannot expect to see religion to remain unchanged. It has also changed. But we are witnessing today that religion is earning a new place in a new society.

So we are trying to get used to this new situation, and that's why some people are very upset to see how religion is getting organized. But it's normal. You know, if society is getting “evolved”, let's say, well organised, religion also will get its organization: associations, political parties... now we have all these things, and that's why people are getting a bit anxious about this change. But I don't think this change is making society more religious.

In the past they claimed that the human being cannot be represented. That's why we don't have the art of painting in Islamic society, and that's why there was a big debate at the beginning of the 20^th century. But today even the most religious Muslim has no trouble with taking pictures. It's out of question now.

Letting women have secular education, or even religious education, was unthinkable at the beginning of the century. Today all religious women want to have better education in science, engineering, arts. And nobody discusses that.

So in that sense Turkey is more secular than at the beginning of the 20^th century. But it's a new kind of existence of religion, so we are trying to get used to it, that's why it will take some time.

The issue of AKP is a little different question, because AKP is a political party. Yes, it's based on Islamic groups, no doubt about that; yes, it comes from Islamic tradition, no doubt about that; and many people are very religious in the party. But it's also a very modern organization. They want to stay in power, so they don't discuss certain issues which would be totally against the existence of the Turkish republic. AKP never thinks of changing the political system. Nobody in Turkey thinks that AKP would dissolve the parliament. Do we have this kind of fear? No. We know that AKP is a political party, it's acting according to the rules of the Turkish Republic...

Some people think they have a second-hidden agenda...

They are in power. Since 2002. So, that makes six years. No doubt that they are religious. They have faith in Islam, they want to see more conservative ways of life. But any conservative party in Turkey tries to do that. These are more conservative than them, but it doesn't mean they want to change the system, or that they want to run the country according to sharia. Because they have also changed. You know who was Recep Tayyip Erdogan? He came from a rural background, and moved to Istanbul, close to Taksim, he grew up there. He went to a religious school, and then he graduated and he became part of this political movement. Now, what about his sons and daughters? They got their education in Turkey first, and then they went to the United States. They got secular education, not religious education... I mean, they had religious education, and then they went to United States, do you expect them to become really fundamentalists like Bin Laden? They are becoming part of the ruling elite, although they have some problems. In two or three generations they will definitely be part of it, so what do you expect of him? To go against this system? To be part of – let's say – Saudi Arabia? Unthinkable. OK, some secular people do not like their style, but what don't they like? Their headscarves. They are religious images. OK, you may not like it, but it doesn't necessarily mean that these people are trying to establish a sharia State in Turkey.

On the other hand, right now in parliament, except for Kurds, in a way or another they are all conservatives...

I agree. That's why I think there is no need really to blame this party to try to establish a sharia State in Turkey. But behind all these discussions it's clear that there is a kind of tension and conflict between this conservative or religious ruling elite and the old establishment. You know, the army always considered itself as a kind of guardian of the Republican values. That's history. And the army establishment has big doubts about AKP. They believe that they are so religious that they are trying to undermine the secular State. And AKP failed to develop good relationships with the army.

On the other hand they have some problems with big industrialists. You know, these industrialists are very powerful, and they supported AKP, because these industrialists want to be part of the European Union, because they want to be part of the global market, so they believe this is the best situation for Turkey, so they supported AKP as long as AKP followed these rules, but it doesn't mean that they like AKP. Because these two “friends” or these two segments of society do not have many things in common. They did not go to the same schools, they did not get the same type of education, they did not grow up in the same environment. They are different. And the AKP government is mainly based on medium-size and small-size company owners, who support AKP. And these entrepreneurs see the European Union as a kind of way ahead of their economic improvement. They also support AKP. These new aggressive entrepreneurs want to be part of an elite. So AKP is representing more than Islam.

It seems in Turkey more and more women are wearing the Muslim headscarf. How do you interpret this tendency? Is it more religious or more political?

Maybe we should look at two different levels. The first level is very closely related with social change. As I said before, people in the agricultural, rural areas arrived in the big cities after the 1960s, then they maintained here things like covering their heads. But the people of the second generation did not like this traditional headscarf, because it shows your rural background. A new style of covering your head shows you belong to the city. So people are not very religious. They want to cover their heads, but they don't prefer this old style, which shows your rural background. They preferred headscarves, that we call türban. So in that sense it has nothing to do with religion.

On the second level, the political one, particularly after the 1980s, in universities some young female students intentionally decided to wear headscarves as a declaration of their identity. They said they were religious, they were Islamists and they wanted to use headscarves as a symbol of their identity. That's understandable. I mean, identity politics has its kind of symbols. We had some female students but the number was small. In the '90s the Islamic movement, as a political movement, becomes important and the number of the female students has grown. And today there are some female students who say: this is my identity, so I will cover my head and I must have the right to get into public places with my headscarf. That's understandable as well. Because it's partly political, because it's identity politics, but partly it's because of social change.

Actually we have now about the same number of covered female people as – say – 20 years ago. But they were not in Taksim, that's why we didn't see them. They were living in the slums. Then they got better education, they grew up in social life, so they don't want to go back, they want to sit in the cafés in Beyoğlu. We believed that this had something to do with slums and we never thought that a covered woman could sit in a café like this, so when we saw a covered woman in a place like this we were surprised. But, you know, they earn the same money as we do, they want to enjoy life as we do, but they prefer a kind of Islamic lifestyle.

What frightens people most seems to be just the fact that the headscarf is used as a symbol.

If we talk about identity politics you cannot ignore symbols. Let's look at the Kurdish movement: don't they have symbols? Of course they have. Because it's also a kind of personal identity, to show other people that I am Kurdish. This is exactly the same. I am religious, but it doesn't necessarily mean that this identity politics will create a deadly conflict.

Things are changing every day. We didn't have this kind of discussions – let's say – in the 1960s or 80s, but in 2000 we have different discussions. Nobody imagined we would have an Islamic party in power in Turkey. Since 2002 we have one. Do we have a big trouble with that? No. Okay, some segments of society have a big trouble with this government, like any governments. But mostly, no. We know that if there is an election, if there is a good opposition, then they will lose the elections. So it was unimaginable 15 years ago, it is imaginable and it is not a big deal now. In the coming years we will see what will happen. But I don't think that Turkey will become more sharia-based.

Another aspect of the problem is that many people in the West see the headscarf as a sign of oppression.

Not necessarily. In one respect it's true. You know, if you grow up in a very religious family, you don't have a right to choose. You grow up with headscarves, and that's your way of living. So, as long as you don't have a right to choose, it is oppression. But on the other hand, there are some religious women with headscarves, they use their headscarf as a kind of way out. You know, they go out of the house because they have Islamic duties to do, they are out of the house for eight hours a day, they are writing on Islamic newspapers, they are organising women non governmental organisations, they develop their skills in politics... So they also use the headscarf or the Islamic identity as a kind of means to emancipate from traditional female roles. It happens in the same quarter, let's say. On the one hand people are using the headscarf because they don't have another choice, but on the other hand some people use headscarves to become part of the public field, to try to find their way out of home, to be professional, to develop their political skills, to be political leaders... So, I cannot say that the headscarf is necessarily oppressive. In some cases, it is, but not always.

So, nothing is black and white, it's more complicated than it seems.

Islam has also been used as a tool in order to excite nationalist feelings...

That's true. I think that's the main problem. Particularly after 1980 and the coup d'etat, military governments saw that Turkey was divided and was heading towards a communist system, so it was better to keep society consolidated using religion as a kind of glue. Of course Islam has always been used by politicians, but for the first time they officially adopted a kind of State ideology called Turkish-Islamic Synthesis. They believed that Islam could be used as a kind of glue in this divided society, and Islam is also against communism. But this Islam had to be in the framework of the Turkish nation, they institutionalised it. They used it as a State ideology. Of course, it was established by the military. And there have been politicians - Motherland Party, True Path Party... - who also supported this ideology.

They believe that Kurdish separatism and Islamic fundamentalism are the main threats against the Turkish republic. So, what does it mean, once again? The military has stated that Islam should not be used by the State, but it's not easy to change it in a minute, and now nobody has a right to be surprised that AKP is using Islam in a nationalist framework.

You know, 90 percent of the population is being raised in it, because they changed the rules in primary and secondary schools after the 1980 military coup d'etat, and they taught this young generation the Turkish ideology called Turkish-Islamic Synthesis: we are good Muslims, but we are Turks, they made nationalism kind of supported by religion. So what do you expect? And nobody is trying to change it. No, of course there are some who are trying to change it, but they are a minority. That's the main problem, I believe. More important than AKP.

Now with the European Union secularists are really happy with that, they say “You cannot teach religion at school”, and the Islamists and the more conservatives say “Yes, let's make it optional”. But the problem is that it's the military government that made religious education compulsory in primary and secondary schools after 1980. Before that, it was optional in Turkey. And now nobody wants to change it. And the Erdoğan government once said that this will be compulsory but it will talk of history of religious faiths, and then another course, which is optional, will talk about Islam. And I think it's crazy, because nobody is teaching history of faiths on earth in these classes. They'll teach Islam, no doubt about that. So we will have not one, but two courses!

Actually they do not want to change this compulsory course. You know, Alevis went to the European Court of Human Rights saying that the State make them learn Sunni Islam. They are completely right. So they are against it, they don't want their children to attend these courses. And of course, they won the case, so they'll have to change the system. But nobody's doing anything.

During my education this course was optional. The State had to provide you with that course, but it was optional. And I had no trouble to say “No, I do not want it”. And after 1980 it has become compulsory. But who's going now to blame for that AKP? They did it. That's the problem, that's why we have this problem. We didn't have it 50 years ago. But now we have it.

So can we say that Turkey is a secular country? Even if religion is used by the State?

It is. I mean, if we look at the history of Italy, you know how religion is used. If you consider secularism as a kind of change in the main orientation of society, it is secular. In the political round it's a different case. You know it has begun to be used as a tool in politics. But this tool is not the base of politics. It's just a tool. The military government definitely didn't define itself as Islamist. There is no intention, it was one of the tools that can be used, so is it against secularism? It is politics. Of course it makes society more conservative. Of course they were successful in curbing the power of the leftist groups, no doubt about that. But it was a tool. They did not envision a kind of more sharia-based State.

Even for tolerant people, there are disturbing aspects in some Muslim practices, such as women separated from men during the prayer...

Of course. You know, that's a big problem. If you are a very committed Muslim, you accept certain rules in Islam which make you a second-class citizen, no doubt about that. And it's the problem these Islamist women are facing now: they realize that they have education, they have better skills than men, they can be part of this society, so they do not have to accept the authority of men, and they have started questioning Islamic tradition in respect to women's position in society, in family, all these things. Of course this is not a kind of mass movement, but it's clear that it's a process, and many Islamist women won't say openly they are feminists, because you know, feminism is a kind of “bad word”. But in private they will say: I must admit that feminists have a good point in that.

All these women have to question, this is the most important process. We might have a kind of liberation theology or feminist theology in Islam, but it's in the process. It has just started, we don't know, it might be developed, they're questioning the traditional role of women in classical Islamic writings, and in that tradition it's a big step for these women, and it's reality now. You can find some Islamist female writers: they won't accept any male authority! They are very self-confident, they know what they want, they want to question it, so it's a kind of start. We cannot assume that everything is changing and only religion remains unchanged. It is also changing. You cannot expect these female lawyers, engineers, doctors or writers to remain quiet against patriarchy. We cannot imagine - let's say - 50 years ago an Islamist woman using the concept of patriarchy. But today it's part of their vocabulary.

So, yes, women are treated as second-class in that tradition, but it doesn't mean that it is remaining like that. It is changing. And most of the women in Turkey, because they grow up in a secular State, in a secular law, they don't accept second wives very easily. Traditionally we have second wives, you know, in the Eastern part of Anatolia men are married and then they can have a second wife. It's not legal, but they may have them. But most of the educated Islamist women never experienced Islamic law in Turkey, and they say: why do I have to accept a second wife? Yes, Quran says they may have it, tradition says they may have it, but there are very difficult conditions which cannot be fulfilled by any man. So, they are questioning their experiences with men. This is the most important opening point for these women. I think Islamist men will have big troubles with this kind of women in the next future.

How are men reacting to this?

They don't like it. But once they started questioning, there's no way back. You know, Islamist men supported women to go to demonstrations, to work for Islam, to sell newspapers, they had women to be out of their houses, and once they are out, it's very difficult to put them back in. It's a kind of irony that they forced women to go out to propagandate Islam, but they want women to stay at home.

Greek Cypriot leader Christofias makes ports offer to Turkish side

2008-09-30T18:04:00.000+02:00

From Hürriyet:

Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias said on Tuesday he was prepared to open ports and airports to commercial activities run by Turkish Cypriots. (UPDATED)

"The Republic of Cyprus offers our compatriot Cypriot Turks who wish to export and import goods, to trade through the free ports and airports of the Republic of Cyprus," he told a meeting of the Council of Europe.

"This is a full official declaration I am making before you," he was quoted by Reuters as saying.

Christofias also said he has called on U.N. and Turkish Cypriot leaders to abolish annual military exercises and to demilitarize Cyprus divided capital city, the AP reported.

Christofias said the moves could increase the chances of success in reunification talks with his Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
The Greek-Cypriot leader spoke to European lawmakers at the Council of Europe on Tuesday.

Read the whole story.

Turkey’s state TV to broadcast in Kurdish, Persian, Arabic in March

2008-09-19T17:08:00.000+02:00

From Media News:

Ibrahim Sahin, Director General of the state-owned Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), said a new TV station in Kurdish, Persian and Arabic will start broadcasting in March of next year. Sahin said the Kurdish station will use the Hot Bird satellite, which is used by Roj TV, a popular regional station that authorities regard as a mouthpiece for the PKK. TRT's Kurdish station will be available not only in the mainly Kurdish Southeast but also in Iraq, Iran and the European states where Kurds reside. Observers say the latest move is an attempt to attract viewers away from Denmark-based Roj TV. Kurdish critics say the TRT's allocation of a station for Kurdish-language broadcasting will prove beneficial for social unity. However, they also noted it should be well designed so as not to allow any room for bureaucratic manoeuvring. Parliament passed a bill at the end of May allowing the TRT to broadcast programmes in languages other than Turkish. State broadcaster TRT began airing weekly 30-minute programmes in Kurdish and several other minority languages in 2004 as part of Turkey's bid to join the European Union. But the Turkish political and military establishment has long feared that encouraging minority languages might harm the unity among Turkey's 72 million people. Sahin said there is a high demand in Arab countries for Arabic and Persian broadcasts from Turkey. With its Persian station, Turkey will reach at least 20 million Azerbaijanis living in Iran, Sahin added. (Today's Zaman via Media Network Weblog)

Europe, secularism, Armenia...

2008-09-05T22:11:00.003+02:00

Hopefully I'll be able to get back here with some original stuff in the near future. I have a few interviews I did in Cyprus and in Turkey, but I still have to transcribe them, and it's a hell of a work.

In the meantime, I still monitor the web for interesting subjects. Today, I want to propose you two articles.

The first one is from OpenDemocracy, a very interesting website I discovered thanks to Nicholas Whyte:

Why the European Union strengthens Turkish secularism

Many Turkish secularists are becoming ever more critical of the European Union. They should think again, say a group of prominent intellectuals led by Hakan Altinay & Kalypso Nicolaidis: for there are seven ways in which Europe can still be an agent of Turkey's secularist progress.

Read the article.

The second story I want to show concerns Armenia's invitation to the Turkish President Abdullah Gül to watch the football match between the two countries in Yerevan:

Meanwhile, in Armenia, football
Well, and also Turkish President Abdullah Gul is coming to visit.
It’s hard to overstate how bizarre and awesome this is. But first, some context. This visit is happening because of three things: football, local politics, and war.

Read the rest of it.

A bit of science fiction?

2008-08-19T19:00:00.005+02:00

So, let's talk about Turkey's future.
Let's start from today's news, from Hürriyet:

Turkey reveals new road map for EU bid

The Turkish government had prepared the draft of the third national program for the European Union in a bid to give new impetus to its accession process.

Turkey had prepared its 400-page long national document, which consists of four parts, the government spokesman told reporters late on Monday. The program expresses the government's commitments for the next four years, Cemil Cicek added.

Under the program, Turkey needs to introduce 131 new legislations, including constitutional amendments, in four years. Some of these legislations are aimed at strengthening the functioning of judiciary and other public institutions.

Sabah daily said the cost of the national program is calculated at around 21.8 billion euros, and 20.4 billion euros of this would be needed to adopt the environmental standards of the EU.

Turkey's EU process has been sluggish since the government lost its reform enthusiasm and was latter unsettled by political uncertainties. The Turkish government is expected to realize new reforms for the EU bid.

But what I really wanted to share with you is this article, published by Turkish Daily News two months ago, but that I have discovered only today. The subject is "The year 2026..." and here are a few of the fictitious headlines that amused me most. I invite you to read it all:

* Prime Minister Turgut Tayyip Erbakan, whose Justice, Welfare, Development and Felicity Party (ARKSP) has risen to power from the now-defunct AKP, said it was a grave injustice that the Constitutional Court ruled, once again, that the ban on the Islamic headscarf in public premises, including universities, should be maintained. Erbakan has protested that the court made its ruling without having consulted with the Holy Council of Imams.

* Crowds of Turks took to the streets in Istanbul and Ankara demanding broader cultural and political rights for the country's Turkish minority. The demonstrations turned violent after the police arrested 25 protestors for chanting pro-Turkish slogans.

* As Trinidad and Tobago became the 129th country where denial of Armenian genocide has been illegalized, Turkey again strongly denied that the 1915-1921 incidents were genocide. The Foreign Ministry said that it would not allow weapons suppliers from Trinidad and Tobago to bid on Turkish defense contracts.

* As Fenerbahce lost 5-0 against visiting Milan in a European Champions League group match, fans raided the club's headquarters, shouting for the return of their legendary president Aziz Yildirim, who headed the club in the 2000s. Fourteen people were killed in a shoot-out.

* Separately, Greece and Turkey came to the brink of war once again as both countries claimed jurisdiction over a dolphin that was swimming in the Aegean Sea 12 miles off the Greek coast.

* Brussels has warned Ankara over a dispute concerning the 109th chapter of the accession negotiations. The chapter, exclusively devised for Turkey's entry talks, involves household kitchen standards and per capita cholesterol consumption. Meanwhile, Ankara has protested Brussels over its swift admission of 21 new member states, including Armenia and Kazakhstan.

Turkey appoints new military chief

2008-08-05T00:02:00.000+02:00

From Al Jazeera:

Turkey has selected a secularist general and strong advocate of Nato as the country's next military commander.

General Ilker Basbug, 65, will replace the current army chief, General Yasar Buyukanit at the end of August, the army announced in a statement on Monday.
(...)
Seen by Turks to be a hawkish general who is likely to avoid open confrontation with the governing AK party, Basbug's approach differs from that of his predecessor, who often clashed publicly with the government.

"Unlike the often impulsive incumbent ... Buyukanit, Basbug is known for his cool and calculating nature," Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at political risk think-tank Eurasia Group, said.

"The result will be less likelihood of abrupt escalations in civil-military tension, but at the same time more effective political pressure from the military."

Basbug is regarded as one of the most outstanding officers of his generation, combining a strong intellect with a deep commitment to Turkish secularist, Piccoli said.

"He will occupy the post for the next two years, and is likely to prove a formidable opponent for the AK party," he said.

See the rest of it on Al Jazeera

The Top Ten Intellectuals

2008-07-28T15:33:00.000+02:00

From Middle East Online:

In a recent poll, by two prestigious Western magazines, (Foreign Policy and Prospect) the top one hundred intellectuals in the world were picked. The top ten selected were all Muslim scholars and activists, notes Patrick Seale.

Read the full story.

Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders agree to start peace talks on Sept 3

2008-07-25T17:44:00.002+02:00

From Hürriyet:

Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders agreed on Friday to start the comprehensive talks on September 3 to end the 44-year division of the Mediterranean island. Turkish and Greek Cypriots will hold separate and simultaneous referandums on the final settlement, the leaders said in a statement after the meeting.

Read the full story.

Turkey crisis: Hopes of democracy are hanging in the balance

2008-07-06T16:06:00.001+02:00

From the Observer

It is too soon to know how the battle between the AKP and the secular establishment will play itself out, but, while we wait, spare a thought for Turkey's beleaguered democrats.

They include the scholars who have questioned the very foundations of official history, the lawyers who have challenged its infamous penal code, the writers, journalists, translators and publishers who have refused to be intimidated by that code, the nationwide alliances of feminist and human rights activists, and the musicians and memoirists who defy official ideology by celebrating their multicultural roots.

I could go on. These are loose-knit networks: though many go back several decades, it was when EU accession began to look like a real possibility, in the mid to late 1990s, that they came into their own. What they saw in the EU bid was a chance for a bloodless revolution - a measured reform of its repressive state bureaucracies, a democratic resolution of the Kurdish problem, and an end to what polite political scientists call tutelary democracy.

In the Turkish context, they mean a democracy in which the army has the last word, involving itself in the day-to-day running of government and stepping in to shut it down whenever it deems it to have strayed from the righteous path.
Read the full story

Turkish top court annuls headscarf law, deals a blow to ruling AKP

2008-06-05T18:48:00.000+02:00

From Hürriyet:

Turkey's Constitutional Court annulled the bill proposing to lift the headscarf ban saying it is an attempt to change nonamendable articles of the Turkish Constitution, the court said in a statement on Thursday. NTV reported nine members of the court voted for the cancellation of the law and two voted against. The decision dealt a big blow to the government of the Islamist-rooted AKP, which is under pressure of a closure case. An official with the AKP slammed the ruling saying the court violated the constitution.

More, interesting, details here.

Rehn: Fight is between extreme secularists and Muslim democrats

2008-05-03T22:28:00.001+02:00

The European Union has for the first time announced that the fight in Turkey is between extreme secularists and Muslim democrats, declaring once more that a court case seeking to close the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is not in line with EU standards at all.

Read the story on Today's Zaman

EP committee welcomes Turkey's reform efforts

2008-04-22T22:14:00.000+02:00

A European Parliamentary committee has welcomed recent legislative activities in Turkey and urged the government to speed up reforms, it said in a report approved on Monday.

The report, prepared by the Dutch MP Ria Oomen-Ruijten, "Welcomed the commitment of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that 2008 is going to be the year of reforms," but said further delays of the reforms "will seriously affect the pace of negotiations."

The Foreign Affairs Committee adopted Turkey's 2007 Progress Report with 53 votes in favor of and to two against. The report will be put to a final vote at the general assembly of the parliament in May.

More than 250 amendments to the report were proposed ahead of the vote. In one of the amendments, the European Parliament expressed its concerns over the closure case against the ruling AKP and expectations that the Turkish Constitutional Court act in accordance with the Venice Commission guidelines on the prohibition of political parties.

Another proposal, however, urged the Turkish government to respect pluralism, secularism and democracy and to reach a compromise with political parties while passing the reforms.

Full story on Hürriyet

Turkey makes peace with Pippa

2008-04-22T22:11:00.000+02:00

(...) A day later, Hurriyet columnist Mehmet Yilmaz wrote a piece calling on Turkish women to come forward and finish Bacca's walk and has already sought the support of leading women's magazine Elele. The magazine's editor has promised to provide wedding dresses and cover the expenses of the journey.

He believes that Bacca should be an inspiration: "And, what if we were to transform the 'peace walk' of Pippa into the 'freedom walk' of Turkish women in our country ... Let's get moving. Let's stop just feeling sorry. If we don't take this opportunity to claim the right for women to travel freely on the streets and the roads of this country now, we never will." (...)

Read the whole story on Asia Times Online

Turkish parliamentary commission approves bill amending Article 301

2008-04-20T11:04:00.001+02:00

From Hürriyet:

Turkish parliament's justice committee on Friday accepted the bill to amend the controversial Article 301, which has been seen as a restriction on free speech. The committee agreed to give the mandate of opening prosecutions under the article to the justice minister, signaling a split within the ruling AKP. The initial proposal had given the mandate to the president. Turkish Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin rejected claims from the opposition that the new amendment would bring an end to the protection of "Turkish values, state and nation." (UPDATED)

The controversial bill amending the Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code busied the country's agenda recently, was accepted following to discussion held in Parliamentary Justice Committee on Friday.

Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code criminalizes insulting "Turkishness." Under the amendments proposed by the government, the term "Turkishness" will be replaced by the "Turkish nation," and the term "Republic" will be replaced with "State of the Republic of Turkey."

The committee agreed to make the justice minister responsible to approve any prosecution under the law. The initial proposal by the government sought the president's greenlight for prosecutors before they could press any charges related with the article.

The committee also removed from the amendment bill presidential approval for prosecution under Article 301, which criminalizes insults against "national interests."

The bill lowers the maximum punishment from three to two years, opening the way for the postponement of prison terms for those convicted under the law.

The European Union has been calling on Turkey to amend Article 301, which has been the basis for charges against Turkish writers and journalists including Hrant Dink, Elif Safak and Orhan Pamuk.

Japan Sings Turkish National Anthem to Celebrate Pangea Day

2008-04-17T22:14:00.003+02:00

From GroundReport:

Leading film-makers are seeking to change the way we think about other countries. This is one of a powerful series of films to be shown on Pangea Day, May 10, "the day the world comes together through film".

See all four anthems. Then visit http://www.pangeaday.org/ and register your screening for May 10. It's time to imagine a different world.

Here the Japanese troupe performs the Turkish national anthem.

The director chose the Turkish anthem because of the historical friendship between the two countries. In 1864, the frigate Ertuğrul was constructed in İstanbul. The government sent the Ertugrul with Commander Pasha and his crew to Japan. The voyage turned out to be fatal; except for 69 survivors, the Pacific Ocean claimed the lives of Pasha and his men. Deeply saddened by the tragic event, the Japanese Government helped the few survivors return to Istanbul, bringing with them the condolences of the Japanese Government. The historic event of the Ertugrul tragedy was memorialized in Oshima as a mark of friendship of the Japanese people for Turkey.

Uneasy public rallies behind AK Party

2008-04-12T14:23:00.001+02:00

Turks are uneasy and unhappy at their country's prospects against the backdrop of a case filed by Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya to close down the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), a new opinion poll has revealed.

The poll, conducted by the Ankara-based MetroPOLL Strategic & Social Research Center, found an overwhelming majority of the Turkish public (71.6 percent) does not want the court to close the AK Party. Among those polled 68.4 percent viewed the case negatively, while only 27.4 percent saw it as a positive development.

Read the full story on Today's Zaman.

Turkey jails Kurdish Nobel nominee

2008-04-11T08:57:00.000+02:00

A Turkish court has sentenced Leyla Zana, a Kurdish politician and former Nobel peace prize nominee, to two years in prison for spreading "terrorist" propaganda, court officials said.

Zana was convicted in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir for a speech she made at Kurdish festival last year. In the speech, she said that the Kurdish people had three leaders, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani, Kurdish politicians in northern Iraq, and Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader. Zana came to prominence in 1994 when she was convicted for links to the PKK, which is outlawed in Turkey.

She was released in 2004 after Turkey's appeals court overturned her conviction and that of three other Kurdish former politicians.

Full story here.

Kurdish photos

2008-04-03T19:18:00.009+02:00

Disclaimer: all the images in this post are under copyright and cannot be used, even partially, without the autors' authorization.

The photos the title is about are not mine. Luckily, I'd say.

In Diyarbakir, where I was a couple of weeks ago, for the Newroz, I met two interesting photographers, who were working on Kurdish pictures.

Here is a sample of Piergiorgio Casotti's work. Many more photos (and, I would say, even better than this one, that he graciously allowed me to use) are on his website.

He was in Turkey for a few weeks, so he has quite a portfolio on Kurds.

Below you can see Ipek, one of our guides. A Kurdish young woman who, like most Kurds, has a story that deserves to be told, one day. This picture, as well as the last one, was taken by Melania Comoretto. She too has a website, and she seems to prefer portraits. She especially likes to work on women who, just like Ipek, have stories that deserve to be told.

On Sunday Melania will be one of the photographers to take part in the Rome International Festival.

A threat of turmoil in Turkey

2008-04-03T08:09:00.001+02:00

Considering a ban on the ruling party

TURKEY edged towards prolonged political and economic turmoil on Monday March 31st after the country's most senior court unanimously agreed to consider a case calling for the banning of the ruling Justice and Development (AK) party and for the prime minister to be barred from office.

The decision by the Constitutional Court could lead to a dangerous escalation in tensions between the AK party, with its roots in Islam, and its secular detractors in the army and the judiciary, who accuse the party of leading the country towards sharia rule.

In a 162-page indictment AK is accused of becoming “a centre for anti-secular activities” and the prosecutor calls for 71 of the party’s officials, including the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to be banned from politics for five years. The court, which is dominated by secular judges, voted without exception to consider the case. A majority of the judges also agreed to hear similar charges against the president, Abdullah Gul.

Read the full story on The Economist

Journalist to appear in court for 301 case

2008-04-03T07:00:00.001+02:00

Recent revelations by two gendarmes that their superiors received prior warning of a plan to murder ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in İstanbul early last year have strengthened the case of a Turkish journalist facing trial on charges of insulting the military.

Today's Zaman columnist Lale Sarıibrahim-oğlu is facing prosecution under the infamous Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) due to remarks she made concerning images of the gunman who allegedly shot Dink to death posing with a gendarmerie officer and a police officer in two separate pictures published by Turkish dailies.

Gendarmes Sgt. Okan S. and Spc. Sgt. Veysel Ş., appearing in a Trabzon court on March 20, confirmed the earlier testimony of witness Coskun İğci -- the ex-husband of a relative of one of the prime suspects in the Dink murder -- that they had been warned about the plan to murder Dink.

The two soldiers said they informed their superior, Col. Ali Öz, then the Trabzon gendarmerie provincial commander, of the plot. They also testified that they had previously given false statements during the course of the investigation after being pressured to do so by the colonel.

Following the testimonies by the two soldiers, Öz was removed from his post as gendarmerie provincial commander of Bilecik and posted to the Bursa Regional Command, which amounted to a demotion.

The two gendarmes’ testimony has been added to Sarıibrahimoğlu’s case file as evidence justifying her criticism of security forces’ behavior after Dink’s murder.
Sarıibrahimoğlu’s second hearing will take place today at the Bakırköy 2nd Court of First Instance in İstanbul.

Read the full story on Today's Zaman

US refuses engine production in Turkey for attack choppers

2008-04-02T12:07:00.004+02:00

The US administration has turned down an Italian request for the transfer of technology for US T800 engines to pave the way for their production in Turkey and to be mounted on Turkish attack helicopters intended to be co-produced with Italian Agusta Westland.

Unlike an earlier statement made by Undersecretary Murad Bayar of the Undersecretariat for the Defense Industry (SSM) to daily Hürriyet that the Italians had ensured that an export license for production of T800 engines in Turkey at Tusas Engine Industries Inc. (TEI) facilities, local sources close to the project told Today's Zaman that the US has only agreed to extend technical assistance support for the engines, not their production in Turkey.

The engines to be mounted on Turkey’s attack helicopter play an important role in the project since it would increase the efficiency of the helicopters in line with the request made by the Turkish Land Forces Command.

The US refused to sign a manufacturing license agreement (MLA) with Italy for the LH Tech T800 engines but agreed to sign a technical assistance agreement (TAA) that envisages technical support to be given for the engines to be fitted on Turkish attack helicopters, said the same sources.

The SSM and Italian manufacturer Agusta Westland signed an agreement in September of last year for the co-production of 51 A129 attack and tactical reconnaissance helicopters at the Tusaş Aerospace Industries (TAI) facilities in Ankara. The project, worth around $2.7 billion, is codenamed T-129.

The project involves local production of software source codes and hardware as well as the integration of high-technology avionics on the helicopters. But due to delays in both export license approval by the US, as well as the Italian government’s late approval of its company transferring the necessary technology for the production of helicopters in Turkey, the project has not yet begun.

The SSM, believing that the latest technical hurdles have been overcome, plans to make the project effective in the first half of April, soon after the planned meeting of the SSM Executive Committee on April 9, during which the procurement of some arms projects will be decided.

More on Today's Zaman

Turkish Invasion of Iraq "Less Likely"

2007-11-20T14:36:00.000+01:00

From Military.com:

Turkey has shown "great restraint" in dealing with attacks on its soil carried out by Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) militants based in northern Iraq and the risk of a "major invasion" has diminished, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said in Brussels on Nov. 20.
Zebari was in Brussels to meet European Union officials in view of forging a trade and cooperation agreement between his country and the 27-member bloc.
Speaking ahead of a meeting planned for later on Tuesday with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Zebari said his government was "working closely with Turkey" to find "a reasonable solution" to the crisis.

Full story

About Hasankeyf and the Ilisu dam

2007-11-13T21:56:00.000+01:00

I copy and paste from the AquaSav newsletter:

Arbitrary expropriation started at contested Ilisu dam site
Berlin, 23.10.2007 - The European Ilisu campaign has learned during a site visit, that without the knowledge of responsible authorities in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, the Turkish government has begun to expropriate the first affected villages at the controversial Ilisu dam site on the Tigris river in a move that violates conditions imposed by European export credit agencies.

Expropriated people are in despair and overall resentment by the affected population is growing against the Ilisu dam in the southeast of Turkey, as Christine Eberlein of the Swiss organisation "Berne Declaration" and member of the European Ilisu campaign learned when she visited the villages of Ilisu and Karabayir in mid-October. Her report reveals the miserable compensation packages offered and the unfair processes by which the Turkish authorities are forcing the affected families to resettle.

By attaching 150 conditions to their approval of export credit guarantees, the governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland intended to ensure that the resettlement victims receive fair compensations and new income possibilities. Although the final guarantee contracts have not yet been signed, the Turkish government started the expropriations - completely ignoring these conditions.

No adequate settlement alternatives were offered to the affected families, as the conditions demand, but merely one scanty piece of mountainous land was offered. As a result, all families have preferred cash compensation, which is however, far too low to provide for a new life. The loss of income from tourism is not compensated for at all. The expropriated families feel cheated and have taken their complaints to the courts. It is especially ironic that the head of Ilisu village, who came to Germany, Austria and Switzerland last year at the invitation of the Ilisu consortium to promote the construction of the dam, has now voiced his annoyance with the expropriation process in a letter to European authorities and asks for rapid support. “What shall we work in town? How can we make a living in the future?“ he asks for the desperate village population.

"The first badly run expropriations reveal the whole tragedy of the Ilisu dam project", states Heike Drillisch of the German non-governmental organisation WEED, which has monitored the Ilisu dam project for many years. NGOs alerted the export credit agencies (ECAs) to the lack of adequate resettlement land a long time ago. “It is a shame that the agencies believed obviously unsubstantiated assertions by Turkish officials. The affected population is now faced with ruin.” Christine Eberlein adds: “The conditions are completely worthless if they can be ignored so easily by the Turkish government. The ECAs now say that they take our concerns very seriously. Had they been more diligent in their assessment of the project in the first place, they would have easily foreseen the problems that are now arising, and would never have become involved.” The NGOs demand that the export credit agencies press for corrections to the expropriation process and insist that conditions be honoured.

Background:

The governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland approved export credit guarantees for the Ilisu project of some €500 million at the end of March 2007, enabling Andritz AG (A), Ed Züblin GmbH (GER) and Swiss companies Alstom, Colenco, Maggia and Stucky, to profit from the project. The private banks DekaBank (GER), Bank Austria Creditanstalt (A) and Société Générale (F) signed financing contracts in August 2007. The final guarantee contracts have not been signed yet however.

The Ilisu dam project will affect between 55,000 and 78,000 people, mainly Kurds. At least 11,000 people will lose all of their land. The expropriation has started in the villages next to the construction site, including Ilisu and Karabayir. Their resettlement has been called a test for the expropriation of the villages in the future reservoir area, which will take place at a later stage.

Further information:

The fact-finding mission report by C. Eberlein and the letter by the head of the Ilisu village, as well as further project information can be found at www.evb.ch/ilisu and www.weed-online.org/ilisu

Evaluation of the conditions attached to the Ilisu dam and their implementation

+++ Berne Declaration +++ WEED +++ Eca-Watch Austria +++

28 september 2007

A comprehensive analysis by the international Ilisu campaign indicates that the conditions attached to the export credit guarantees granted by the governments of Germany, Austria and Switzerland for the Ilisu dam are far from meeting international standards. The report, released by Berne Declaration, WEED and Eca-Watch Austria in collaboration with FERN, The Corner House and Kurdish Human Rights Project finds numerous omissions and inadequacies in the ToRs and approval process for the Ilisu Dam Project. In addition, the report reveals that the Turkish government did not even apply the conditions when starting expropriation in the Ilisu region.

The Ilisu dam will affect up to 78,000 people, mainly Kurds, in Southeast Turkey, will have massive environmental impacts and lead to the destruction of invaluable cultural heritage. It breaches international law as the Turkish government has not consulted the neighboring states although the project will severely affect Iraq's (and to a lesser extent Syria's) access to water, and the vast majority of the local population strictly opposes the project.

Conditions attached to the approval of the Ilisu Dam by export credit agencies (other wise known as Terms of Reference or ToR) concerning the resettlement of local communities drastically fail to reach World Bank standards. Turkish resettlement and compensation laws were redrafted in 2006, however these too show serious deficiencies. As the ToR however are not imbedded into Turkey's legal framework, any promises for income restoration et. al. made in the ToR that go beyond the Turkish laws, are not legally enforceable for the affected population. In addition, a sound cost-benefit-analysis of the project is absent, and benefit sharing mechanisms as demanded by the World Bank are limited to the construction of infrastructure and mosques.

Although the ToR take into account some criticism expressed by non-governmental organizations, basic information for a serious planning is missing regarding relocation, environment, cultural heritage. Therefore no authorities in any European country, neither the World Bank would even have accepted the project for appraisal. The environmental ToR clearly show vast contradictions and the unscientific manner by which the conditions were created:

Despite key information missing from the environmental impact assessment, the ToR confirmed at the same time that no severe damages to the environment will occur. On the one hand, the ToR demand further studies; on the other hand there is no clarification about what consequences further studies may have on the project. The ToR's conditions concerning cultural heritage protection totally ignore the significance of the highly valued cultural sites threatened by flooding, and above all, the ToR on riparian states do not adequately respect international law.

In addition to deficiencies recognised in the ToR, the analyses by the Ilisu campaign highlight deficiencies in the implementation of the conditions that have already become evident. For example the expropriation of properties in the first villages has already begun, albeit without the structures envisaged for determining compensation and the grievance mechanism as planned in the ToR being in place. Very low compensation amounts were offered to the affected people so the majority of them have already sought redress in courts. A central problem of the relocation planning is that the Turkish legislation on resettlement makes it extremely unattractive for the affected population to participate in a governmental relocation program. Most resettlers will therefore opt for cash compensation and relocate on
their own to the big cities in the area. City mayors however have emphasized repeatedly that they cannot cope with the influx of new residents and a further
growth of the slums is to be feared. The new relocation law does not correct this deficit. Moreover the NGOs highlight that out of the total relocation budget of USD 1.02 billion, only USD 25 million will be allocated for the income restoration. The remaining money will serve to compensate the small group of landowners, who possess the largest part of the land, and to reconstruct the destroyed infrastructure.

The non-government organizations therefore demand that no final export credit guarantee contracts will be signed and no credits disbursed until a comprehensive environmental impact assessment, a resettlement plan and a plan to save the cultural heritage have been completed in line with World Bank standards. Such assessment and plans must have been agreed to by the affected people and an agreement by neighbouring nation states must be reached before export guarantees can be finalised.

The analysis can be found at www.weed-online.org/ilisu resp. http://www.weed-online.org/themen/747223.html

Tracking Orhan Pamuk

2007-10-07T23:49:00.001+02:00

I've been tracking Orhan Pamuk lately, and I have found a couple of interesting things. First of all, this interview on France 24 (in French. I couldn't find the English version, I'm sure it is somewhere); I don't know when it was done, probably when he went to France last Spring, certainly not a few days ago, since he is currently in the US. Where, among other things, a couple of days ago he met another literary giant, Salman Rushdie.

(The picture is mine: I took it at the Mantua Literature Festival last month)

Update 18.10.2007: I think now the France 24 interview was actually made at the end of September, when Pamuk was briefly in Paris.

Laçiner: "Turkey's EU accession is first of all an ethical issue"

2007-09-24T18:50:00.002+02:00

Do you like this article? Rate it on GroundReport.

I was in Istanbul on holiday, so I wasn't prepared for an interview. But when Aykan, a friend from Ankara, proposed me to meet Ömer Laçiner, it would have been a crime to refuse.

Laçiner is a writer, an editor, but first of all a socialist. One of those who had to live several years abroad as a political refugee in the past. He did so in France, that's why he speaks to me in French. Today, he's so respected in Turkey that even Zaman, a newspaper with Islamist sympathies, happens to interview him.

I meet him at Iletişim's, Orhan Pamuk's publishing house, where he's the editor in chief of the monthly Birikim. I forget to take a picture of him so I have to confess that the photo you can see here is stolen from some website. And, since I had no recorder with me, all I'm going to write now comes just out of my memory.

I haven't prepared an interview, so I tell him we are just going to have a friendly chat, and the beginning is quite embarassing. I have no idea where to start, but he expects me to do it. So, since I have met him because of my book, and my book is about Turkey's EU accession, I ask him his opinion on the matter. I don't know much of him, but Aykan has briefed me a little, so I already know he's in favour of Turkey joining the EU. I expect the usual list of advantages for Turkey and the EU and, maybe, the whole world, if the accession process will be successful. But he surprises me: "I think a real socialist is first of all an internationalist, so that's why I'm in favour of the EU accession". I'm not sure I have understood, so I ask him what kind of advantages would come out of it, but he says: "The issue are not advantages. There will be advantages and disadvantages. For me it's an ethical question".

I begin to like the man: for once I find someone who is simply coherent with his political positions, who doesn't just put pros and cons on a balance and then calculates what's best for their own interests. I could agree or not with him, but I surely could not help respecting him.

The conversation then gets easier, and I ask him questions about anything that comes to my mind: the present government, Kurds, the military... My first impression is confirmed.

About AKP and the present government, he doesn't believe in a secret Islamist agenda, but he also thinks sometimes they are not doing enough for the accession process. I tell him that once I met people from IHD, a human rights organization, in Diyarbakir, who said that reforms had been made too fast and judges can't keep the pace. I also evoke the past incoherences, when the government actually fuelled anti-EU nationalism, and he says: "This government is not going to go fast on reforms, because they are afraid to lose consensus. When nationalism rises, they slow down".

And about the judges: "There is a fight going on between the juduciary and the government. The problem is that many judges are very conservative". I evoke the Wordpress issue, and tell him I had to explain to someone that Wordpress was blocked in Turkey not by the government but by a court. Too many people think they are the same thing, but it isn't so.

And, of course, there is the "secularist-Islamist" issue. The night before, Aykan had tried to explain to me that... well, I stopped him by saying: "Yes, I know: it's just a fight for power". I'm not the naïve Westerner who believes it's a fight for ideas. Of course it has to do with the military progressively losing power. I ask Laçiner what are the economical issues, and he answers: "The military is the third or fourth financial force in Turkey". This explains a lot of things.

But it doesn't explain why the rallies have stopped. It seems to me that everything got quiet, last Spring, after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met Armed forces chief General Yaşar Büyükanıt. I ask him what they could possibly have said to each other, and he answers: "Who knows?", with that ironical smile you can often see on Turkish faces when they don't want to say too much. But he adds: "I think it's the election that has made all the difference: with such results, AKP and the government have got stronger. But maybe the military is just up to something, and preparing to counterattack. Nobody can tell".

So, I ask him if the Parliament "new entry", the Kurds, could make some difference and push for reforms, since they are strongly in favour of the EU accession. He looks disenchanted: "Unfortunately the Kurds don't have good politicians. The Kurdish issue is the most important issue in Turkey, but it is not the only one. And they only think of that, they don't have a wider agenda". After years covering the Kurdish issue, I can't but agree - although painfully - with him.

The two souls of Turkey

2007-07-21T22:45:00.002+02:00

The two souls of Turkey Originally uploaded by falena

Where is the DTP candidate?

2007-07-21T18:21:00.001+02:00

Five years ago, the pro-Kurdish party, which was called DEHAP, and now is DTP, failed to enter parliament, in spite of collecting more than 6 percent of the national vote, because of the 10 percent threshold. Once bitten, twice shy, so this time, to cirvumvent the threshold, DTP doesn't run as a party for the elections, but there are DTP representatives who run as independents.

But only a few months ago, when early elections were called, the rules changed. Here is how Turkish Daily News explains it:

As regards independent candidates, on the other hand, no one can defend that either the ruling AKP or the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) performed in any manner compatible with democracy when they legislated in haste to include names on independents in the joint ballot sheets rather than letting them run on separate voting papers. They did that hoping that the practice will lead to confusion among the mostly illiterate voters of the southeast "where many pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) people are running as independent candidates" and thus the number of "unwanted DTP people" in Parliament would be limited.

It's always a pleasure to learn tricks and counter-tricks in Turkey. Even funnier than in Naples. Even in this case, Kurds didn't stop to complain, and acted. As says the Kurdish blog Rastî,

DTP has been working to overcome the obstacles placed in its path by those in power who keep Kurds out of the political process. Specifically, it's been educating its voter base on the new ballots and how to find DTP candidates on the ballots. This is no small task given that Amed"s (Diyarbakır) ballot is some two meters long. DTP has hit upon the idea of creating and passing out templates for the ballots, that have a hole in the place where the independent DTP candidate's name is located. Another plan is to use pieces of string to measure the distance to the independent's name. Failing these helps, DTP is encouraging voters to take underage children with them, who can read the ballot for them, a rule that is applied throughout Turkey.

More details in Turkish Daily News:

In an effort to overcome the obstacles in front of it, the DTP has launched a regional program to ensure its electorate vote for them.

The first plan is to divide provinces into smaller regions in order to ensure that all DTP candidates receive an equal share of the vote by assigning specific regions to individual candidates.

While preparing their election placards, the DTP placed the photos of each candidate with a list of regions underneath in an effort to ensure all votes don't go to a single popular candidate.

In Diyarbakır, four candidates were assigned regions according to the support the party received in the 2002 elections. (...)

Meanwhile in Van, the local DTP bureau has turned its election campaign into a literacy drive in an effort to ensure that its voters, some of whom don't read Turkish, find the independent DTP candidate on the ballot box.

Illiterate women are taught how to find the name of the candidate on the paper. (...)

In Van alone, 150 DTP members are assigned the duty of teaching supporters how to locate the candidate's name on the paper.

The only independent candidate supported by the DTP, Fatma Kurtulan from Van, said other parties had their logo on the ballot paper. "We are having some problems about some women not knowing how to read and write. We need to visit each woman in their home and teach them how to find our name."

And here is how it works in practice:

Gender equality and Islam in Turkey

2007-06-18T23:28:00.001+02:00

Here is an interesting issue that highlights the complexity of the Islam-secularism opposition: women.
It is also one of the "hot"issues concerning human rights in the EU accession dossiers. Turkey is considered not to be advanced enough in the field. It is not wrong, actually. But the situation, as usual, is more complex than that.

The occasion to speak of this issue has been given to me by a Turkish Daily Times article, Gender equality given carrot and stick in ESI report, where we can read:

The European Stability Initiative (ESI), the Berlin-based think tank, launched a report on gender equality in Turkey last week. The report titled “Sex and power in Turkey” claims that gender equality in Turkey is largely a popular myth, which lays down the fact that legislation was reformed only recently to grant equal status to women.

The report distinguishes two periods in the history of the Turkish Republic when major improvements were made to the status of women: the reforms of Atatürk in 1920s and the period since 2001.

What strikes me in the second chapter is the last part: one of the two periods in the whole history of the Turkish Republic when women saw major improvements starts in 2001. Which, as you know, is the period when the Akp, the "Islamist" party, went to power.

Please don't get me wrong. I know I may look like a fan of Akp. I'm not. I mean, I'm fully aware of their many faults - not only in the last weeks - and I know they are far from being the solution to Turkey's problems. But I must recognise Turkey has made lots of improvements under their rule.

Now that I have made this point clear, let me go back to the subject of this post. A couple of years ago, in Istanbul, I met the leader of a feminist organization. One of the things she said that struck me most was: "There are two kinds of discriminated women in Turkey: those who don't want to wear the headscarf, and are forced to; and those who want to wear the headscarf, and are forced not to".

Of course, one could think that a headscarf is just a piece of tissue and that women have far worse problems to think of. But don't forget that Atatürk, just to abolish the fez, didn't hesitate to kill the men who wore it. For women who wear the headscarf, this may mean not having access to university. Or renouncing a political career. Is this fair?

Now, I have heard many arguments against the Islamic headscarf in public places. None of them ever convinced me, in Turkey or in France. While I heard women who are against the scarf but, in spite of that, think that the France law against it is one of the most stupid things the French government could have done. One of them is Nobel Prize Shirin Ebadi. I agree one hundred percent with them.

I won't go into details on this specific issue, I only want to point out that the "Islamist" party many are so afraid of is the one that, according to a European think-tank, has made the biggest improvements in the condition of women ever. Or, as the article says,

the reforms of the last two years have been “the most radical changes in the legal status of Turkish women in 80 years.”

I wish one could say the same of Italy!

“For the first time in its history, Turkey has the legal framework of a post-patriarchal society. The period since 2001 is the second period since the 1920s when the state has improved women's rights. Reforms to the Turkish Civil Code have granted women and men equal rights in marriage, divorce and property ownership.”

The credit, of course, does not go entirely to politics.

The report states that the recent reforms have come about in a very different way from those of the 1920s: “as the result of a very effective campaign by a broad-based women's movement, triggering a wide-ranging national debate.”

Knaus says that the changes in the last two years are spectacular and that they are mainly due to the active lobbying of women's organizations.

“What is even more significant is that in the past years, women's organizations have actually been able to affect the political process. The current government has been largely open to be influenced regardless of its conservative voters and agreed to change the penal code. Also, the Turkish media has visibly shaped the debate in recent years,” Knaus explains.

But the part I'm most interested in is the one titled Fears of Shariah not based on reality:

The ESI report also questions the fears of those who accuse the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for trying to introduce Islamic Shariah law in Turkey.

“There are some who fear that Turkey may be turning its back on its secular traditions. Some of the loudest voices come from Kemalist women, who insist that the rise of ‘political Islam' represents an acute threat to the rights and freedoms of Turkish women,” it says.

“There have even been calls for restrictions to Turkish democracy, to protect women's rights. Yet such ‘authoritarian feminism' is out of touch with the reality of contemporary Turkey and the achievements of recent years,” the report says.

Today, in 2007, Germany, the president of the European Union, is ruled by a Christian-Democrat government. Nobody objects to it. Italy was ruled by Christian-Democrat governments for half a century, and nobody ever had anything to object. It is also true that during the CD rule Italy made laws on divorce and abortion, and the church had little or no influence on politics. Today things are different: a law about civil unions (Dico, something similar to the French Pacs, but much less radical) is stuck in parliament because of the catholic lobbies. And it's only the tip of the iceberg. As an Italian, I'm convinced Italy has a bigger problem with secularism than Turkey.

Speculations about political motives in Eurovision results

2007-05-15T01:23:00.000+02:00

Eurovision contest, as you know, has been won by Serbia. Turkey scored fourth. Speculation is inevitable.

Singer Kenan Dogulu claimed that political considerations were behind Serbia’s win in the contest, held on Saturday night.

“I am very sad,” Dogulu said at Helsinki airport ahead of flying back to Istanbul. “There was something political there and the points went to the Serbians.”

(Source: NTVMSNBC)

But it's not only Turkey that is musing about Eurovision results:

It attracted the interest of many that Turkey only gave the maximum 12 points to Armenian singer Hayko’s “Anytime You Need.” Musical tastes aside, most
people believe this is a political message.

“We are neighbors. We need to be friends. It goes to show how prominent a role music, friendship, and art play,” said Sezen Cumhur Onal, a celebrated music critic in Turkey. He believes the votes cast from Turkey for the Armenian contestant to be political and said there could not have been a better Mothers’ Day present.

On the other hand, Alin Tasciyan an Armenian-Turkish journalist and acclaimed film critic believes that political messages given through the Eurovision song contest fall short, as the contest itself has no political significance. She does not believe it is possible for Armenia to receive so many votes from only the Armenian community in Turkey. “I do not believe it is a high probability Because the number of Armenian living in Turkey is not that high,” she said, Turkish daily News reports.

Hayko with his song “Anytime You Need” took the 8th place in Eurovision 2007. He got 138 points. The highest 12 points he got from Turkey and Georgia.

(From PanArmenian.net)

What's really happening in Turkey?

2007-05-15T00:30:00.001+02:00

The recent events in Turkey seem to have stirred many people's curiosity. Friends and colleagues keep asking me questions such as: "Are all these demonstrations real or is it just the media?" or "Is AKP really an Islamist party?" or "Why is the current president opposing the constitutional reform?" and so on.

So, I think it's time for me to give you some insight, with a selection of articles and analyses I have found on the web.

Concerning the cohabitation between secularism and Islam in Turkey, I find this article most illuminating:

KONYA, Turkey: In the not too distant past here in Turkey's religious heartland, women would not appear in public unless they were modestly dressed; a single woman was not able to rent an apartment on her own, and the mayor proposed restoring a segregation of the city's buses by sex.

Fears of those kinds of restrictions have led thousands of Turks to march in many cities over the past month, inflamed by secularist politicians. A political party with a past in Islamic politics, led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has tried to capture the country's highest secular post. Once it succeeds, their argument goes, Turkey will be dragged back to an earlier era when Islam ran the state.

But here in Konya, a leafy city on the plains of central Turkey, the rule of Erdogan's party has done no such thing. In the paradox of modern Turkey, the party here has had a moderating influence, helping to open a guarded society and make it more flexible.

Full article (Source: Herald Tribune)

And what is going on between the government and the military? A "war of nerves" according to the Lebanese Daily Star, which explains:

(...) these tensions have heightened as a result of changes in the top echelons of the Turkish armed forces, particularly the replacement last August of General Hilmi Ozkok as chief of the Turkish General Staff. Ozkok was a moderate who maintained a low profile and sought to develop good working relations with Erdogan. By contrast, his successor, General Yasar Buyukanit, is a strong secularist who has been far more outspoken in asserting the military's views.

Full article

As for the constitutional reform, even the judiciary, whose independence from the power has been reasserted by the decision to invalidate the first presidential vote, does not consider it a threat:

Tülay Tuğcu, Chief Justice of the Turkish Supreme Court, said that parliament-approved changes to the constitution that would allow Turks to elect their president by popular vote do not mean a “regime change in Turkey.”

Full article (Source: Hürriyet)

But there is a category of people who see themselves threatened by one of the reforms: the Kurds, as explains in detail France Presse:

The bill, which needs the approval of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to come into force, amends a constitutional provision relating to independent candidates.

It was passed a day after the DTP decided to field independents rather than run as a party in the July 22 election to bypass the 10-percent national threshold that allows parties access to parliament.

Once they are voted in as independents, the Kurdish deputies can regroup under the DTP banner.

Under the bill, the names of independent candidates will figure on the same ballot paper as all the parties in the running, contrary to current practice under which their names appear on separate voting slips.

The measure is widely seen as a bid to obstruct voters in the mainly Kurdish southeast, where many are illiterate or do not speak Turkish, and are likely to have trouble picking their candidate's name from the long list of parties and other independents.

Many Kurds have become legislators in Turkey as members of mainstream parties, but pro-Kurdish movements failed to overcome the 10-percent national threshold despite usually dominating in the southeast, where they traditionally win the local elections.

Full article (Source: Kurdish Aspect)

But why do secularists oppose the reform? The answer is in Southeast European Times:

Outgoing President Ahmet Necdet Sezer is a staunch secularist. Over the past five years, he has played an important role in striking a balance between the country's fiercely secular military and the Islamic-rooted government. Sezer vetoed several bills on the grounds that they violated the principle of secularism, and he also vetoed the appointments of at least 350 Islamist-leaning officials to key positions.

Turkey's political system is a parliamentary democracy, with power vested mainly in the government. But the president can veto laws after their initial adoption by Parliament, and then has the right to file an appeal to the Constitutional Court against legislation he opposes. He also appoints governors, ambassadors, police chiefs, ministry department heads and their deputies, senior judges, members of Higher Education Board, university rectors, and the head of the central bank. He is commander-in-chief of the armed forces. Turkey's military, courts and universities are traditional bastions of secularism.

Given this significant role of the president, the reaction to Gul's candidacy is not surprising. The AKP already controls parliament and the government. If it won the presidency, the party would hold all the key branches of power. Turkey would, practically speaking, be under one-party rule. Secularists have not welcomed the idea of directly electing the president, seeing the AKP's move as another threat to checks and balances. The influential business association TUSIAD warns that such changes should only be introduced following general elections, after comprehensive discussion and consensus among all the parties.

Full article

Finally, if you are interested in the Arab perspective of the issue, I suggest you to have a look at the Financial Times.

Hasankeyf on my French blog

2007-05-04T17:01:00.001+02:00

On my French travel blog A la recherche du lieu perdu I posted yesterday the report of my 2005 travel to Hasankeyf. If you can read French, you might enjoy it.

Untying Turkey's head-scarf knot

2007-05-01T11:27:00.000+02:00

From The Christian Science Monitor:

That strategic ally so vital to NATO; that bridge between Europe and the Middle East; that symbol of a relatively stable, secular democracy in a Muslim nation: Could Turkey now rupture over Islam's role in public life?
On Sunday, at least 700,000 protesters marched in Istanbul, insisting that Turkey maintain its secular laws and demanding the resignation of the government, which is led by the Islamic Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

Sparking the protest is the election of Turkey's president, who is chosen by parliament - which in turn is dominated by the AKP. At first the AKP prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wanted the job. That met with a backlash from demonstrators and a warning from the military. Last week, the AKP foreign
minister, Abdullah Gul, became the party's official candidate - setting off Sunday's much larger protest and another military warning.

What's objectionable about these men? Their wives wear the head scarf, a sign of Islamic modesty.

The controversy stretches further than a piece of silk fabric, although the covering itself is no small matter. The strictly secularist Constitution forbids wearing a head scarf in a public building. The ban is thanks to the revered founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who also gave women the right to vote and changed the alphabet from Arabic to Roman letters.

Full story

See also:
Time to start talking Turkey (dailynews.com)

ISTANBUL may be a far cry from the Vegas strip, but when it comes to politics, what happens in Turkey does not stay in Turkey.

In fact, this country could have a greater impact on the spread of Islamism and the direction of the war in Iraq than anywhere else.

Full story

Europe: Turkey: Fine For Upsetting Prime Minister

2007-04-30T20:28:00.000+02:00

From the New York Times:

An Ankara court fined an elderly man 10,000 lira ($6,700) for criticizing Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in a visitors' book at the onetime home of Ataturk, who founded the Turkish Republic in 1923.

Full story

In Turkey, Fear About Religious Lifestyle

2007-04-30T18:25:00.000+02:00

From the New York Times:

When hundreds of thousands of protesters filled the streets of Istanbul on Sunday, it may have looked like a protest of government policy.

It was not.

Behind the slogans and signs of marchers in Istanbul on Sunday and in Ankara two weeks ago was something much more basic: a fear of the lifestyles of their more religious compatriots.

Some concerns were snobbish: religious Turks were uneducated and poor, their pesky prayer rugs got underfoot in hospital halls.

Others were less elitist and had more personal worries: how much tolerance for our secular lifestyles will an emerging class of religious Turks have?

“These people are from poor areas; they just don’t know what the government stands for,” said Aysel Tuikman, 39, a civil servant wearing a skirt, a sweater, beige pumps and pearls. “They’re only being manipulated. We are here for their good also.”

“People here are the real Turkey,” she said, waving a flag high above her head.

It is an emotional reaction to a relatively new layering of society that began 20 years ago but has accelerated recently. A massive migration from rural areas to Turkey’s cities and a large-scale economic boom have drawn an entirely new class of religious Turks from the country’s heartland into the life of its secular cities.

The class is represented by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is challenging the secular elite, forcing a presidential candidate upon them whom they find completely distasteful.

On Friday, the military gave him a warning. It has ousted four elected governments since 1960, and seemed to be considering whether to make Mr. Erdogan’s the fifth. On Sunday, Mr. Erdogan gave a warning of his own: He will continue to push his candidate, an action that will probably lead to early national elections.

Secular Turks fear that Mr. Erdogan has a secret agenda to impose Islamic law on Turkey and that his party’s move to secure the presidency, the highest seat of secularism in Turkey, is one of the final steps needed to start that process.

Mr. Erdogan, for his part, came from Turkey’s political Islamic movements of the 1990s, but he broke with them and formed his own, which swept national elections in 2002. He has said that he would keep religion out of policy decisions, and for the most part, he has.

But for the protesters on Sunday, that was not enough.

Full story

See also:

Constitution Court discusses the report (Sabah)
Civil initiatives protest military’s statement, remember past coups (Today's Zaman)
Turkey faces a democracy test (Turkish Daily News)
Turkey seeks a way out of crisis in the generals' shadow (m&c)
US urges Turk reconciliation on basis of democracy, secularism, constitution (Turkish Daily News)
Dialogue with 'Opportunists' (Dar Al-Hayat)
Turkey will be just fine (Turkish Daily News)
The post-April 27 -- the Emergence of a Two-Turkey (Turkish Daily News)
The Turkish military intervenes: Will the West lose Turkey? (The Journal of Turkish Weekly)

If the Reverse Happened . . .

2007-04-28T15:35:00.000+02:00

Metin writes:

If the tables were turned, and the reverse of the current situation played out in Turkey, the 'secular' establishment would have been up in arms about 'Muslims' ruining democracy and its inevitabilities and 'unpredictable-ness.' But now the whole world is watching and enjoying the comedy of errors as democracy backfires and produces results that the secularists didn't intend or count on. What a mockery to avoid showing up for work for the 'politicians' of the opposition parties who lack 'individual' courage! Even if they were to vote 'No' for the Gul Presidency, they should have at least shown up. Gul will still be elected President in the third round if not the second according to the Turkish constitution. But I think the opposition simply wanted to be heard. Why they waited until the last minute to resort to idiotic tactics I'll never know.
Maybe they lack credibility and the proper etiquette to have formed an opinion earlier even when they knew all along the scenario was going to play out as it is doing so right now.

Full article

THE CORRIDOR

2007-04-28T11:48:00.000+02:00

From Turkish Daily News:

If Turkey goes to elections, will the distribution of seats in Parliament change? Turkey is debating early elections. While some argue that early elections will be held in mid-July, others believe that Turkey will go to elections in August or September. Meanwhile, some argue that in case of annullation of the presidential elections by the Constitutional Court, the election will be held sooner.

If Turkey goes to elections, will the distribution of the seats in Parliament change? Which party will pass the election threshold? Which party will be the first party after elections? Which party will be in the government's place in Parliament? Will the government be composed of a single party or a coalition? How will the Parliament's two powers, Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Republican People's Party (CHP), perform in the elections? Ankara based Metropoll Strategic and Social Research Center conducted research on "Political Conditions in Turkey –April 2007.” The research shows the highlights of Turkey's political picture and it is very important to analyze the results of the study. If the general elections were held today, only the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) will be able to surpass the 10 percent threshold to enter Parliament. As of April, the AKP's vote is at 31.6 percent and the CHP's is at 14.2 percent. With no other party able to pass the election barrier, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) trails the other two parties with 7.5 percent of the vote. While the True Path Party's (DYP) vote is at 4.7 percent, the Motherland Party's (ANAVATAN) is at 3.2 percent. The total votes of the two parties who continue their efforts to unite are at 8.3 percent. The Young Party's (GP) vote is at 4.7 percent and the Democratic Left Party's (DSP) is at 3 percent. The research shows that CHP, which raised its votes 1.3 percent due to its opposition to AKP during the presidential election process, will profit in elections. Professor Özer Sencar of Metropoll said the increase of supporters
for the main opposition party takes root from CHP's leader Deniz Baykal's strong opposition against AKP. DYP and MHP lost votes due to their passive attitudes during the presidential election process. Other independent research illustrates that three or four parties will be able to surpass the 10 percent threshold to enter Parliament. According to the research, AKP, CHP, MHP and probably DYP – if they unite with ANAVATAN- will enter Parliament. The research argues that if the Constitutional Court annuls the presidential elections, AKP, who will act as an aggrieved party, would increase its supporters and would poll at 40 percent of
the votes. Thus, the election campaign could stand on the secular-anti secular axis and only two parties, AKP and CHP would pass the election threshold. All the research shows that the political picture in Turkey will not change, if Turkey goes to election today. As Turkey's former president Süleyman Demirel stated, “Twenty-four hours are a very long time in politics.” It will be better for us to assess research results by not forgetting these cyclical factors and developments. Ankara is marching rapidly toward elections. How will Turkey's future be shaped by the presidential elections process? Which parties will pass the election threshold? We all see them.

Full article

See also:

Turkey's powerful army weighs into presidential vote (AFP)
EU warns Turkey's army on democracy (Aljazeera.net)
Headscarved "First Lady" elicits strong reaction from women in Turkey (Hürriyet)
Abramowitz: Major Political Clash in Turkey between ‘Secularists’ and ‘Islamists’ (Council on Foreign Relation)
Gül replies to state-party criticism: Turkey is not Iraq (Today's Zaman)
Abdullah Gül, Turkey's next president (Turkish Daily News)
Gül declared candidate for president (Turkish Daily News)
A compromise candidate? (Cyprus Observer)
Discretion before valour (Economist.com)
EPP president supports Gül's candidacy for president (ABHaber)
Threat of coup d'etat in Turkey (Atılım)
ANAVATAN, DYP take CHP bait, fail the democracy test (Today's Zaman)

Turkey Bolsters Its Regional Energy Role

2007-04-22T18:07:00.000+02:00

From Dar Al Hayat:

Three major projects to transport natural gas from the Middle East and the Caspian Sea via Turkey to Europe, and building two refineries for crude oil in the Turkish Mediterranean port of Gehan are currently in the study and design stage.

These projects are seen as a response to the US' insistence not to export oil and gas from the Caspian Sea area via Iran or Russia, and the decision by the EU to diversify sources of imported gas, particularly aimed at reducing dependence on Russian gas supplies.

Once executed, these projects, along with the (Kirkuk-Gehan) Iraqi oil pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.6 million barrels per day, will certainly allow Turkey - despite its low oil and gas production levels - to play a key role in the oil industry in the East Mediterranean area.

These three gas projects include the Trans Adriatic Pipeline to the south of Italy, near the Brindisi port, from where it will link with European gas network.

Full story

Turkey secures Iran-E.U. talks

2007-04-22T16:52:00.000+02:00

From Turkish Weekly:

Iran and the European Union (E.U.) have agreed to discuss Iran’s nuclear activities later this week following Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki’s impromptu visit to Ankara. Telephone-diplomacy between Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and E.U. High Commissioner Javier Solana produced the planned meeting with an Iranian delegation, which is expected to take place on April 25th in Vienna.

Full story

Turkey at a Crossroads, as Always

2007-04-22T15:32:00.000+02:00

From Znet:

“Turkey is always at a crossroads,” I said. “That’s what we have been reading in the newspapers in Turkey and in the West for years now. It seems it is convenient to stay at a crossroads.”

There is no choice but to take the road to EU integration, he insisted. It is the only way to bring freedom of expression, minority rights and democracy to Turkey. For Turkish-Armenians, too, it is crucial. “There are people in this country who—if given the chance—would slaughter us again,” he told me.

This was in June 2005 in Istanbul.

On Jan. 19, 2007, I woke up from a phone call from Turkey. “It is all over Turkish TV,” I was told. “They killed him.”
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was slaughtered in front of the editorial offices of his newspaper Agos. He had met one of the people who was “given the chance” and acted upon it.

Three months have passed since Dink’s murder, and—you guessed it—the country is still at a crossroads. I talked about today’s Turkey with Amberin Zaman, Turkey correspondent for The Economist.

“Even I, as a journalist, have to measure my words very very carefully, because I don’t know when some extremist will consider what I said to be ‘insulting Turkishness’ and take me to court on that,” Zaman says in this interview. “ It’s a very nefarious, poisonous atmosphere that we live in today,
and all the more so because we really can’t pinpoint where the danger is coming from. And what’s really obscene about it is that these people use Turkish law to attack intellectuals,” she adds.

Full story

French genocide bill prompts Turkey to suspend pipeline talks

2007-04-05T16:35:00.000+02:00

From the International Herald Tribune:

ANKARA: Turkey has suspended talks with Gaz de France over a pipeline project that would bring Caspian natural gas to Europe in reaction to a French bill on the mass killings of Armenians during Ottoman rule, senior Turkish energy officials told Reuters on Thursday.

Nabucco is a 4.6-billion euro ($6.14 billion) project to transport natural gas from Turkey to Austria, passing through Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary. The planned pipeline would reduce Europe's dependency on Russian gas.

France angered Ankara last year when its national assembly passed a bill making it a crime to deny that the mass killings of Armenians during the fall of the Ottoman Empire amounted to genocide.

"We will suspend partnership by Gaz de France until the French presidential elections. We will decide according to policies to be followed after the elections," a senior energy ministry official, who declined to be named, said.

Full story

Turkey's prime minister avoids prosecution for comment on Kurdish rebel chief

2007-04-05T15:28:00.000+02:00

From the International Herald Tribune:

ANKARA, Turkey: A Turkish prosecutor ruled Thursday that the prime minister had not committed a crime by referring to jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan as "esteemed Ocalan" in a radio interview seven years ago, the government-run Anatolia news agency reported.

A prosecutor investigated whether Recep Tayyip Erdogan had violated a law which bans the praising of crime and criminals when he made the remark.

Dozens of Kurdish politicians have been charged with the offense, including Ahmet Turk, the leader of the Kurdish Democratic Society Party, who received a six-month jail sentence.

But on Thursday, Ankara's Deputy Chief Prosecutor Hikmet Onen said he found no ground to prosecute Erdogan after listening to recordings of the interview with Australia's SBS Network and added that the statute of limitations would prevent him from opening a case, Anatolia reported.

Full story

Next President of Turkey

2007-03-28T09:27:00.000+02:00

From talkturkey:

As you may know, there will be a new President of Turkey in May, appointed by the General Assembly. There have been speculations for too long about Prime Minister Erdogan's interest in the post, which is of figurehead nature. I believe that Erdogan has still a lot to prove and do for the country. Oh and by the way, his wife wears a headscarf, which is a no-no in Turkey, at least for the Presidential Palace.

The next President for sure will come from within the representatives of the General Assembly, and most likely from the ruling party (AKP.) Who do you think will be chosen for this seven-year appointment? Should the people choose the President instead? Will it matter who the President is? Do you even care?

Read the rest and vote

Turkey advances on minorities list

2007-03-22T11:40:00.000+01:00

From Today's Zaman:

Turkey has risen to 39 from 54 on a list of countries with the most-threatened minorities amid fears about the safety of its Kurdish and Roma populations, according to a report by a leading human rights group on Tuesday.

Read the rest of the article.

See also:

Scuffles overshadow Kurdish New Year in Turkey (EuroNews)
Nowruz is peaceful; Zana is tense (Sabah)

Nevruz in Turkey and Nevruz in north Iraq ...

2007-03-20T10:17:00.000+01:00

From The New Anatolian:

On Monday afternoon the Kurds of the Kurdistan region of Iraq started a five-day holiday to mark Nevruz, the Kurdish festivities that mark the start of spring.

Nevruz is a period of festivities and relaxation for many Kurds. In the past Nevruz was celebrated with bonfires and people shooting in the air. In the past few years it has become more of a period of relaxation for the people of the region.It is a period to look forward to when the nation shuts down and masses flock to picnic areas.

In contrast, Nevruz has become a period of tension and violence in Turkey. We unfortunately hear that the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is gearing up for violent incidents during Nevruz, which will be marked tomorrow ...

Turkish authorities in the past have tried to dilute Nevruz by declaring it as a festive period for all the peoples of Central Asia and have tried to distance it from the Kurds ...

Turkish officials who have never acknowledged or celebrated Nevruz were seen going to pains in the past years to mark the occasion. A rather empty gesture ...

Read the rest of the article

See also: Turkey readying for spring offensive against PKK (Today's Zaman)

EU’s soft power is defunct in Turkey

2007-03-15T21:51:00.000+01:00

From Turquie Européenne:

At the end of last week, the think tank where I work in Brussels — the European Policy Centre — held a breakfast meeting with Turkey’s chief negotiator for the EU, Ali Babacan, at which he gave a presentation on “Turkey and the EU: Relations, Negotiations and Challenges Ahead.”

This was the first time I had heard Babacan speak in English for quite some time and I was impressed. He delivered an impressive and information-packed speech to a captivated audience of some 200 people. He then went on to answer numerous questions on many different issues, including regional development, climate change, foreign policy, the economy and relations with Cyprus. Could it be that he is being groomed to be the next foreign minister? I believe that it is a real possibility.

Babacan’s message was very clear — what happened in December happened and there is nothing anybody can do about it now, but the effects of the EU decision to freeze eight negotiating chapters continue to be felt in Turkey and recovery is not guaranteed. Although Babacan emphasized that Turkey would never be the party walking away from the negotiating table, he also said that the EU’s famous “soft power” no longer had any major effect in the country.

To my mind this is not really surprising given that a number of member states continue to repeat like parrots that Turkey’s negotiations are open ended, that alternatives should also be looked at. As Olli Rehn, European commissioner for enlargement, has rightly pointed out on many occasions, these people are doing more harm than good as they are creating a negative wave in Turkey towards the EU which has affected the relationship and the pace of reform. It is also particularly pointless when you bear in mind that in at least one member state — France — Turkish accession will face a referendum, leaving the final decision, for all intents and purposes, up to the citizens. Indeed, there are no longer any guaranteed places at the EU table given that after the accession of Croatia — probably in 2009 — all countries who aspire to be members of the club will have to face a referendum in at least France. Babacan emphasized that Turkey still had many, many reforms to do in many areas and that numerous reforms, already carried out, still needed to be implemented. He added that the only way forward was for the reform process to be owned by the people.

The AK Party aspires to remove all “taboos” from Turkish society. This was one of Erdoğan’s goals when he created the party. The time he spent in jail during his time as mayor of Istanbul for reciting a poem gave him a taste of Turkish justice and more particularly the stranglehold on freedom of expression. Pressure for change on such sensitive issues very much linked to Turkey’s nationalistic past has to come from within. Although it is totally unacceptable to see academics, journalists, writers and others marched back and forth to the courthouse, the necessity for change has to come from the hearts of the Turkish people and not the EU or the US.

Read the rest of the article

Turkish and Armenian youth are talking

2007-01-27T23:33:00.000+01:00

A very popular online networking site called Facebook has rivaling groups such as 'Recognize the Armenian Genocide' group and 'The Armenian Genocide is a Huge Lie' group. A much smaller group exists called 'Peace for Armenia and Turkey.' But its participants skyrocketed since the murder of Hrant Dink.

Read the story on Turkish Daily News

See also:

Mesrob II weeps at mass for Dink (Hürriyet)
Extreme parties point finger at foreign circles for Dink murder (The New Anatolian)
Nationalist group warns of bomb attacks (Turkish Daily News)
Chief Prosecutor Engin: An armed organization involved in Hrant Dink's murder (Hürriyet)
Trabzon circle of suspects widens; Ogun Samast says "I am sorry I killed him" (Hürriyet)
Trabzon suspect: Orhan Pamuk had better wise-up! (Hürriyet)
Top Trabzon officials suspended after Dink killing (The New Anatolian)
The mayor and the police chief removed from the office (Sabah)
Governor accepts suspension, police chief angered (The New Anatolian)
Authorities charge 6th suspect in Dink killing (Turkish Daily News)
Ankara slams Armenian proposal to open ties without preconditions (The New Anatolian)
Gul reproves Douste-Blazy on French passage of Armenian bill (The New Anatolian)
Ankara responds sharply to Yerevan comments (Hürriyet)
Canada: Conservatives modify position on Turkey (rabble)
Robert Fisk: Award-winning writer shot by assassin in Istanbul street (The Independent)
An interesting debate about the Armenian Genocide (The Infidel)

Turkey Bids Farewell to Former FM Ismail Cem

2007-01-27T22:32:00.000+01:00

Istanbul. Former Foreign Minister Ismail Cem, who died of lung cancer at 67 on Wednesday, was laid to rest on Thursday following a state ceremony held after Friday prayers, Cihan news agency reports.

The funeral was held at Istanbul's Tesvikiye Mosque. Cem's wife, son and daughter accepted condolences from numerous visitors. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc, main opposition Republican People's Party leader Deniz Baykal, former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, former ministers and other state officials attended the funeral.

Former Greek Foreign Minister Yorgo Papandreou was also in Istanbul for his close friend's funeral. Papandreou was reported to have postponed his visit to India to attend the funeral. After the religious ceremony, a state ceremony was performed for former foreign minister. He was then taken to Zincirlikuyu Cemetery and laid to rest.

Read the rest of the story on Focus News Agency

See also:

İsmail Cem laid to rest in state ceremony (Today's Zaman)
Cem laid to rest with state funeral (Turkish Daily News)
Yorgo's last duty for his friend Cem (Sabah)
İsmail Cem leaves a gentleman's legacy (Turkish Daily News)
An interview with Ismail Cem (The New Anatolian)

Airplane disaster averted

2007-01-27T22:18:00.000+01:00

A Turkish-owned private plane and an Air France Airbus passenger plane almost collided in mid-air over Russian air space, but Russian traffic controllers manage to prevent a tragedy at the last second.

Read the story on Hürriyet

Cyprus row halts EU-Turkey talks

2006-11-28T00:54:00.001+01:00

Talks between the EU and Turkey over Cyprus have broken down without agreement, Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja has said.

EU officials have said that a failure to break the impasse could lead to the collapse of Turkey's EU membership bid.

The EU had given Turkey until 6 December to open its ports to traffic from Cyprus, whose government Turkey refuses to recognise.

"An agreement could not be reached," said Mr Tuomioja in Tampere, Finland.

Finland holds the rotating presidency of the EU until the end of the year.

Mr Tuomioja was speaking after holding separate meetings with the Turkish and Cypriot foreign ministers - Abdullah Gul and George Lillikas.

He said no new talks had been arranged and the EU would have to decide where this left Turkey's membership bid.

"There will be consequences," he said. "Business as usual cannot continue."

Read the rest of the article on BBC News

The pope and Islam - A chance to get friendlier

2006-11-27T23:38:00.000+01:00

The pope prepares for a controversial trip to Turkey

IT HAS been called the most hazardous journey undertaken by a Roman pontiff in modern times. Some of the hazards of this week’s papal visit to Turkey may be unavoidable, others may have been of his own making. The trip by Pope Benedict XVI, which begins on Tuesday November 28th, was first conceived as an exercise in intra-Christian diplomacy: a visit to the Patriarch Bartholomew I, the most senior bishop of the worldwide Orthodox church, who resides in Istanbul.

It was largely at the insistence of the government in Ankara that the purpose of the journey was broadened into an opportunity for the pontiff to test and possibly re-examine his hitherto sceptical view of Turkey. But the omens in recent months have not been benign. The pope upset two large sections of Turkish society with a lecture on September 12th in which he quoted (without endorsing) a Byzantine emperor who suggested that Islam had engendered nothing but violence. Devout Muslims in Turkey (and around the world) were offended by the insult to their faith. Secular-nationalist Turks bristled at the mention of a Byzantine monarch. No wonder that some leading members of Turkey’s mildly Islamist government have seemed at pains to find excuses not to meet the pontiff, although the prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, now says that he will do so.

Read the rest of the article on the Economist.com

Journalists Without Borders ranks Turkey 100th in "media freedom"

2006-10-28T20:19:00.000+02:00

According to the Paris-based media organization "Journalists Without Borders," Turkey ranks 100th in the world in the arena of "freedom in the media." A list published yesterday by Journalists Without Borders puts Finland, Iceland, Ireland, and the Netherlands in a tie for first place in this category. Other noteable placements on the list were Armenia, which ranked immediately before Turkey at 99, and Denmark, which gained notoriety for the caricature crisis earlier in the year: Danish media ranked 20th. The US was ranked at 56th, while North Korea came in last at 168.

Full article (Hürriyet)

See also:

A prize affair - Orhan Pamuk, the French parliament and the Armenian massacres (The Economist)
Freedom of expression and the European Union (Zaman)
Pamuk is not invited for the October 29 (Sabah)
All eyes turn to observe trial of Sumerian expert in Turkey (Hürriyet)
French Radio Halts Broadcasting in Turkish (Zaman)
TÜSİAD invites Armenian businessmen to Istanbul (Turkish Daily News)
Freedom of speech under continuing attack in Turkey (IndyBay)

Progress Report Leaked to Greek Cypriot Press

2006-10-28T18:19:00.000+02:00

Parts of the European Commission (EC) progress report, to be revealed on Nov. 8, has been reportedly leaked to the press.

In a draft of the report published in the Greek Cypriot press, there is strong emphasis on Turkey’s recognizing the Greek Cypriot administration.

The Greek Cypriot Philelefteros newspaper published Turkey EU Progress Report, claiming it had obtained the draft from Markos Kyprianou, Greek Cypriot member of the EC.

Though the document has some “disturbing” points, it is “considerably pleasing” for Greek Cypriots, the newspaper said.

The draft report is said to “have mentioned Ankara’s Emergency Plan on Cyprus, referred to the issues on direct trade and removing of isolations and praised Turkey’s constructive attitude on Cyprus.”

Full article (Zaman)

See also:

EU finally delivers 38.1 million euros in aid to TRNC (The New Anatolian)
Poll: Turks' trust in EU waning (Abhaber.com)
Turkey EU Progress Report Open to Future Revisions (Zaman)
Turkish Foreign Ministry Reacts to Barroso (Zaman)
Turkey running short of time on Cyprus (The New Anatolian)

Mega-flags to adorn Turkey for Republic Day ceremonies

2006-10-28T17:41:00.000+02:00

Cities nationwide will be hanging over 3 million flags in the honor of the Turkish Republic's 83rd anniversary this weekend.

Especially the Istanbul Greater Municipality, which once adorned the highest hills of the city with 10 flags -- each weighing nearly 50 kilos -- will hang 120 posters of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk on traffic crossovers bearing his saying, "Saving the republic is your sacred duty" to mark this Sunday, Oct. 29, Republic Day.

Several observers had criticized the huge flags of Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas, saying they could fuel nationalism by manipulating public sentiments.

Full article (The New Anatolian)

Turkish Trains Now Internet-Ready

2006-10-28T17:01:00.000+02:00

The Internet, now considered by many to be indispensable, will no longer be unavailable on train trips in Turkey.

Taking into consideration requests for Internet access on trains, the State Railways Association (TCDD) realized the project on the Ankara-Istanbul line, and has begun to provide a 24-hour wireless connection on the Baskent and Cumhuriyet trains.

After months-long preparation, the TCDD managed to establish a continuous connection for 95 percent of the line. Now those traveling on trains will be able to use the Internet with their laptop computers during the course of the voyage.

Seemingly never-ending dull train trips will turn into a pleasant and entertaining event, particularly for young travelers. The service will be offered free of charge.

Full article (Zaman)

‘No concrete evidence’ that Turkey used missing in tests

2006-10-28T13:33:00.000+02:00

According to news reports appearing in the South, the Head of the International Strategic Studies Association (ISSA), Gregory Copley had previously reported that Turkey had used Greek Cypriot prisoners captured in 1974 as guinea pigs for chemical weapons experiments, he said yesterday that he had “no concrete evidence” that such allegations were true. He refused to withdraw the claims that allegations existed but none of the allegations had been confirmed. These unsupported allegations are apparently being taken seriously by Greek Cypriot officials, and prompted Cypriot Minister of Foreign Affairs Lillikas to say on Monday he would be opening an enquiry into their validity.

Full article (Observer Cyprus)

Women-only park plan causes stir in secular Turkey

2006-10-28T11:46:00.000+02:00

ISTANBUL - Strong reaction to a plan for a women-only park in Istanbul has focused attention on the divisions between Turkey’s secularists and supporters of the ruling AK Party, which has its roots in political Islam.

Critics of the plan see it as the latest sign that the ruling party is trying to push through an Islamist agenda, but several female voters in the district said on Friday they loved the idea.

News that the AK Party-run municipality of Bagcilar was planning to create a park exclusively for women, reported in the local press this week, prompted a fierce reaction among secular Turks who say the party is trying to give Islam a greater role in public life.

The controversy reached parliament on Thursday, when opposition CHP lawmaker Bihlun Tamayligil asked the assembly: ”Can you reconcile the principles of the Republic with applying the segregation of men and women?” according to local media.

The row is the latest of several between pro-secular and Islamist-leaning camps in Turkey, which is officially secular but overwhelmingly Muslim.

Full article (Khaleej Times)

See also: Poll: 12 pct of university students say 'honor' killings normal (The New Anatolian)

Turkey's Orhan Pamuk wins Nobel literature prize

2006-10-12T18:11:00.000+02:00

'I will try to recover from the shock,' he added, saying he planned to attend the December 10 award ceremony.

In its citation, the academy said Pamuk, who lives and works in Istanbul, 'in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.'

Pamuk,54, was born in Istanbul into a well-off family. After studies at Robert College in his native city where he planned to become an artist, he studied architecture and journalism.
From 1985-1988 he was at Columbia University in New York and also briefly at the University of Iowa.

Pamuk's literary debut came in 1982 with the publication of Cevdet Bey and His Sons, a family saga spanning three generations similar to 1929 German laureate Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, the academy said.

However, Pamuk's international breakthrough came a decade later with the English translation of The White Castle, set in 16th century Istanbul.

The academy also noted that Pamuk became well known for condemning the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, his defence of Kurdish author Yasar Kemal in the mid-1990s, and most recently for mentioning the charged subject of the massacre of a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds by Ottoman forces during the First World War.

Pamuk's interview on the massacre with a Swiss newspaper led to a highly mediatized prosecution on charges of 'insulting Turkishness' but the case was later dropped after international protests.

Read the whole story on Monsters&Critics

Kurdish rebel boss in truce plea

2006-09-29T13:11:00.000+02:00

Jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan has called on his Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to implement a ceasefire, a Kurdish news agency says.

Ocalan also urged the PKK to seek a peaceful solution to their conflict with Turkey, Firat news agency says.

Ocalan's statement was released from prison through his lawyers.

The PKK separatists implemented a five-year unilateral ceasefire after Ocalan was arrested in 1999, but resumed armed activities in 2004.

"The PKK should not use weapons unless it is attacked with the aim of annihilation," Ocalan's statement said.

It said it was "very important to build a democratic union between Turks and Kurds. With this process, the way to democratic dialogue will be also opened".

Read the whole story on BBC News

See also:

7 reportedly killed in explosion in Turkey's Kurdish region

2006-09-12T22:10:00.000+02:00

(CNN) -- Seven people were killed and 14 wounded Tuesday evening in an explosion in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, according to CNN Turk.

The cause of the explosion near a car park was not immediately known. Authorities are looking at the possibility it could have been a bomb left in a package, The Associated Press reported citing an official from the local governor's office said on customary condition of anonymity.

Read the whole story on CNN

See also:

Blast In Diyarbakir - 6 People Died, 16 Others Injured (TurkishPress)
Turkish bomb blast kills seven, 14 injured: police (Reuters)

Saudi Arabian King Abdullah's Visit To Turkey

2006-08-15T20:45:00.000+02:00

BAYRAMOGLU: ``APPROACH OF KING ABDULLAH IS IMPORTANT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF ECONOMIC RELATIONS``

ISTANBUL - ``The approach of King Abdullah is highly important for the development of economic relations,`` said Ali Bayramoglu, Chairman of the Turkish-Saudi Business Council, today.

In an exclusive interview with the AA, Bayramoglu indicated that the issue of converting high income from oil to investments in Turkey must be carefully considered. ``We also must focus on how we can make our bilateral trade balanced,`` told Bayramoglu.

Bayramoglu stressed that kingdom administration is quite different compared to democracies. ``In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, what the king says is what matters. When the king makes a promise, that promise is fulfilled without any questioning by Saudi officials. Therefore, King Abdullah`s approach and his promises to be made in Turkey are very important,`` underlined Bayramoglu.

Read the whole story on TurkishPress.com

FM Gul expected to visit Middle East in coming days

2006-08-15T20:37:00.000+02:00

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is expected to have contacts in Lebanon and Israel in the upcoming days to discuss the possible deployment of Turkish peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon.

The latest developments in the Middle East were evaluated at Monday's meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) top executive body chaired by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

PM Erdogan stated that Turkey would await a UN decision on the issue. However, he added that the Turkish government would support the deployment of international forces in the region if there was a pro-peace resolution.

"Turkey will arrive in the region to help with the distribution of humanitarian aid, not to be entangled in a conflict environment," remarked Erdogan.

Read the whole story on Cihan

KazMunaiGaz works on a refinery project in Turkey

2006-08-15T20:28:00.000+02:00

Kazakh Oil and Gas Company (KazMunaiGaz), Kazakhstan’s national oil company, is carrying out feasibility studies to build a refinery in Black Sea at Turkish coast.
KazMunaiGaz wants to build the refinery to transfer Kazakh oil to the Mediterranean region.
The company, even if it cannot build a refinery, is positive towards a consortium with Russian Lukoil which formally applied to the Energy Market Regulatory Authority (EPDK) to build a refinery in Turkish northern city of Zonguldak. Recently, Petrol Ofisi as well as Çalık Enerji& Indian Oil Corp. applied to EPDK to build a refinery and petrochemicals complex in oil pipelines terminal town of Ceyhan in Adana province.

Source: The New Anatolian

Turkey needs constructive engagement with Kurds on Kirkuk

2006-08-15T20:15:00.000+02:00

''So Turkey is welcome to host many delegations from Iraq, but those of us who know anything about Iraq simply because we spend most of the year there know well that a lack of dialogue with the Turkmens of Erbil or the Kurdish leaders will not get Turkey anywhere in its fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) or on the Kirkuk issue‘‘ wrote Ilnur Cevik.

And Ilnur Cevik is right. I earlier wrote that ''Turkmen and Kurds could solve Kurdish issue in Turkey and Iraq’‘. But this can only work when Turkey engages the Kurds on a constructive way. It will not work if Turkey doesn’t invite Turkmens without Turkmen representatives from Hewler (Erbil). Currently Turkey is saying, I quote Gül: ’‘Needless to say that there is a tie between the Turkish Republic and the Turkmen. The Turkmen, Kurds and all other groups in Iraq are our relatives. We have shown sympathy towards all of them’‘.

Abdullah Gül is saying this without inviting representatives of the 200.000 Turkmens in Hewler (Erbil). So it’s clear he isn’t showing sympathy towards all of them. Turkey’s stance towards Kirkuk also doesn’t show their ''sympathy’‘ towards their Kurdish relatives, but more the reverse situation. In the past Turkey threatened to close the oil pipeline between Iraq-Turkey, if Saddam gave the Kurds autonomy. As a result Saddam didn’t accept the demands of the KDP. After the establishment of the safe-haven, one of Turkey’s red lines was the formation of a federal Kurdistan region. But gradually Turkey had to accept the reality. They still like to call the Kurdish region (northern iraq’‘, despite that the Iraqi constitution accepts it as a (Kurdistan region’‘. Although some Turks say that Kurdistan doesn’t exist, it were actually the Seldjuk Turks who created the term Kurdistan in the 12th century.

But to get back to the problem: According to the Turkish government the Kirkuk issue can only be resolved via consensus. ''The point is not to reach unproductive results by holding a referendum, but reaching consensus. [The point] is producing a consensus by which people living there -- all of the Turkmen, Kurds and Arabs -- will be able to live in peace and quiet, and then taking this consensus to a referendum. Otherwise, a referendum in itself will not be a solution,’‘ Gul said. Gül states that the results will be unproductive no matter what, this while Turkey doesn’t know the outcome. Or do they know the outcome? Do they know the majority of Kirkuk is Kurdish and that the Arabisation campaign of Saddam changed the ethnic balance in favour to the Arabic inhabitants of Kirkuk? Apparently they do, because they think Kurds are in the majority in Kirkuk.

Read the whole article on KurdishMedia

Turkey dam project back to haunt Kurds

2006-08-05T23:41:00.000+02:00

A controversial project to build a dam in Turkey has re-emerged, four years after it collapsed when major backers pulled out.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to attend an inauguration ceremony for the proposed Ilisu dam on Saturday, despite continuing concerns over its impact on people living in the area.

The dam - which would be the second largest in Turkey by volume of water - is to be sited on the upper Tigris River, in the mainly Kurdish south-east of the country.

The Turkish government says the project, planned for more than two decades, will provide much-needed hydro-electric energy and jobs in a poor region.

But opponents believe it will devastate the area's environment and cultural heritage, as well as displacing more than 50,000 people.

Among hundreds of sites to be flooded would be the ancient town of Hasankeyf, considered an archaeological treasure and home to at least 3,800 people.

Read the whole story on BBC News

Rome meeting:Turkey waiting, France eager to lead Lebanon peace force

2006-07-25T21:34:00.000+02:00

The Middle East problem and the details of an international force to be sent to Lebanon will be taken up at a key conference in Rome this Wednesday, after which Turkey's stance on whether to lead or to join the force is expected to be clearer.

Italy and United States are both taking the lead in the foreign minister-level meeting that will bring scores of dignitaries to Rome in order to focus on reaching an agreement on the political underpinnings of a cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia. "There are three key topics of the meeting that will be hosted by Italy: Humanitarian aid, possible deployment of an international force to Lebanon and, of course, an Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire." Italian Ambassador to Turkey Carlo Marsili told The New Anatolian on Sunday.

A final declaration is expected to be made at the end of the half-day conference Wednesday at the Italian Foreign Ministry, he added. The declaration may clarify the fog over the modalities of the possible peace force, whose planning is in the early stages. According to an article published in the Washington Post, officials said they anticipate it would include some 10,000 to 20,000 troops led by a contingent from France or Turkey. In addition to Turkey and France, nations that might send military units include Italy, Brazil, Pakistan, India, and Germany, officials in Washington and at the UN said, according to the newspaper. In a departure from past peacekeeping missions to Lebanon, the force currently being discussed would not include U.S. troops, U.S. officials told the newspaper, citing their country's heavy presence in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkey is following a wait-and-see approach towards discussions on whether the country will lead an international peacekeeping force in Lebanon, while France has expressed its intention to lead the force.

Read the whole story on Abhaber.com

Analysis: Turkey eyes nuclear energy

2006-07-25T21:05:00.000+02:00

TEL AVIV, Israel (UPI) -- Despite a recent visit to Turkey by Mohammed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the country`s plans to add nuclear power are still in their earliest stages, IAEA officials said.

Turkey is aiming to build three nuclear power plants over the next decade, though no locations have been announced and no licenses have been issued. The country also lacks a nuclear regulatory agency, which it must establish as separate from the licensing authority before any project can move forward.

Read the whole story on M&C News

The Secrets Behind 'State Secrets':How Turkey's Mafia-like 'Deep State' (and its Neocon Friends) Penetrated the American

2006-07-25T20:38:00.000+02:00

French filmmaker Mathieu Verboud is set to release a new documentary for European television this fall, which will reveal important new insights into the case of former FBI translator and president of the National Security Whistleblower's Coalition Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds, a Turkish-American whose wrongful termination lawsuit was suppressed by the government's invocation of the all-too-common "state secrets privilege", reported to her superiors espionage and deliberate mistranslations on the part of fellow Turkish translator, Melek Can Dickerson. It seems Ms. Dickerson had relationships with targets of FBI investigation working at the Turkish Embassy and the American Turkish Council, a fact which meant that anything she translated was likely to be false. However, instead of receiving a promotion for bringing Ms. Dickerson's' espionage to the attention of her bosses, Edmonds was fired after she went in frustration to the U.S. Senate. The FBI refused to investigate Edmonds' claims, at least in part, because the contract linguist had discovered quite a messy scandal: the content of the mistranslated documents revealed that some very powerful people in the U.S. government, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, were connected to foreign organized crime. Even worse, these foreign criminals connected to the high and mighty in the U.S. were also connected internationally, through the heroin trade and associated money laundering, to international terrorist organizations like al Qaeda.

Read the whole story on OpEdNews.com

Iran, Turkey review private sector cooperation

2006-07-25T15:33:00.000+02:00

LONDON, July 25 (IranMania) - An Iranian economic and trade delegation met with a group of Turkey's private sector representatives, IRNA reported.

The two groups discussed ways of expansion of bilateral trade ties in the fields of electricity, food and household items, pharmaceuticals and project management.

Iranian ambassador to Turkey Firouz Dowlatabadi said the expansion of trade between Iran and Turkey, as two powerful countries in the region, could boost security in the area and thwart the influence of foreign powers.

Read the whole story on IranMania

Leftist and rightist Turks protest against Israeli attacks

2006-07-23T23:32:00.000+02:00

Some 5,000 Turks held a protest in Istanbul on Sunday against Israeli attacks in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, chanting slogans against USA and Israel.

Leftist protestors, who gathered in Istanbul's Kadikoy district, chanted slogans; «Down with Israel» and «U.S. get out of Middle East». Protesters also burned effigies with signs on them saying «murderer Israel,» and «murderer U.S.A.».

In another protest, some 2000 Turkish rightists gathered in the district of Besiktas to protest Israel. They also chanted slogans against Jewish state, saying that Israel would be drown in the blood of innocent people.

Read the whole story on Cihan