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

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"

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?

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

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

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

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

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'

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

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

My interview to Nedim Gürsel

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

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?

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...

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.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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:

1. Israel is moving towards elections → Israel bombs Palestinians

2. 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

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

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

See also:

• Gaza operation strains ties with Turkey (The Jerusalem Post)
• Turkey seeks end to Gaza violence (AP)
  

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

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

(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

(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...

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

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.