MAIN FOCUS: NATO's new role? | 20/08/2008

The NATO foreign ministers gathered yesterday to confer on the crisis in the Caucasus. NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sharply condemned Russia and called for an immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops. Europe's press discusses the role of the alliance after Moscow's show of force.

Continue reading ""NATO's new role?" »

Posted by erkan at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to EU Foreign Policy | European Economy | State of Europe

Jon Beech, Untitled, 1997
found in Works on Paper: The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection at The Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Continue reading "Erkan's further mumbling on some Quranic verses..." »

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Posted to Erkan's mumbles

In the following text, you will find a huge round up on Turkish society. I highlighted Jenny White's emphasis on a particular section of Turkish women but there is also stuff on the threat of a new earthquake in Istanbul, Tuzla disasters, Turkish academia and in the mean time Istanbul is burning with heat and humidity. Boy, I am doing my best to ignore the evil weather!

Continue reading ""Treatment of Widows and Divorced Women" »

Posted by erkan at 12:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Turkish Society | Turkish economy | Turkish education/academy | Turkish women

AKP leaders are taking a risk by this all-track diplomacy. They might win big or lose big.

They have many in their cadres which could trigger this shift from traditional Turkish foreign policy and there have been signs of it already. Now, they are relieved of the closure ban and they are pushing for it. 

After the visit of Iran's leader, now there comes the mini African Summit and a notarious African leader, Bashir comes to Turkey second time in less than a year. As part of a grand plan, these risky visits might work but they are just too risky. The plan is to create independent good, powerful and profitable relations with neigbours. The plan is very innovative. After the 2nd WW, traditional Turkish foreign policy depended on its geostrategic importance for US. This symbolically ended in the first Gulf War where Turkey lost great and it became one of the sources of economic crisis in 2001. Major reliance on EU process in recent years also ended when AKP could not get enough of the process. Since 2004, AKP lost its belief in EU in general. I don't think this means hostile thinking against EU or US. Although ideologues of the new FP attempt might be uneasy with them, their main goal seems to make Turkey a more equal partner in relations with EU or US.

However, even for those who try to be more neutral to AKP, there is the problem of substance. Is there any substance in possible relations with the new 'allies'?  Like it or not, TR has been part of the Western system since 2WW. Political, cultural, economic relations all depended on this system although they were never satisfying. Can there be sustainable relations with others? Particularly when some of the others are subject to systemic hostility?

The ideologues of the AKP Foreign Policy (first person to come to my mind is Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is known to have Neo-Ottoman tendencies. However, he and others seem to be realistic, too.

A new art of 'all-track' diplomacy

Relieved by a Constitutional Court ruling against a ban that helped it avert a political crisis, it was natural for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to expect a few days of relaxation.

 The Associated Press: Turkey's Gul urges Sudan leader to end suffering

Sudan's Bashir on visit to Turkey

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Posted by erkan at 11:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Erkan's mumbles | TR-US relations | Turkey in Europe | Turkish foreign policy

The way forward

Nato governments divided on what to do about Russia

BUT LATER

Nato cools relations with Russia

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage). found in 306 - The Genetic Map of Europe

Who are the citizens of Europe?

Continue reading "NATO governments divided...but later "cools relations with Russia" »

Posted by erkan at 06:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to EU summits/meetings | Energy | European Economy | Russia-Georgia Conflict | State of Europe

 But also Mahmoud Darwish died and it was anniversary of Thomas Mann's death. Unfortunately, I haven't read these two authors yet. Çetin is a fan of Mann and i believe at one moment I should read him..

On This Day (12 August)

1955:

German novelist and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann died near Zürich, Switzerland.

Mahmoud Darwish: The laureate of the wretched of the earth.

By Mick Hall

To the left of this page is a short piece taken from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet who died last week. Like that other great progressive poet Nazim Hikmat, Darwish found it impossible not to join the struggle for human emancipation and by doing so gave a voice to those who were engaged in that struggle; or suffering under the yoke of the oppressor. In tribute to Mahmoud I have republished below a short article by the writer Ahdaf Soueif. In the coming weeks I hope to publish the odd poem by the above mentioned poets and others who sided with the masses.

funeral at Gazi Neighbourhood. VIA

But the big news was the death of Dursun Karataş because of cancer. He was in hiding in Europe for years and he was the leader of the notarious DHKPC. PKK is known to Westerners but as a Turkish radical armed left wing illegal organization DHKP is less known to others, I assume. It lived out its heydas in late 80s, early 90s and lost the sympathy of many radicals when some suspicious internal killings began to happen. Now mysterious and legendary Dursun Karataş may have helped security forces in killing his own wife at that time. We might never know what happened but in early 1990s, Turkish police got many DHKP leaders and since then the organization started its efforts to reorganize in Istanbul's mostly Alevite shanty neighbourhoods. Gazi Neighbourhood is a well know stronghold for the group. The assassination of a member of Sabanci family was the ultimate suspicious act of the organization and it is already cited in the Ergenekon case.Before his assassination, Mr. Özdemir Sabancı was giving speeches about a free society and was supporting Kurds to have more rights....

Whatever happens at the top, what I was mostly interested in this group was their constant attempt to innovate self-techniques in order to create a revolutionary subject. I believe this group went beyond all leftist groups in working with the self. The measures was sometimes beyond humane standards. I will never forgive myself for not saving a 30-something page document/guide they had released about becoming a revolutionary subject. All their rituals, death fast ceremonies, performative public acts, fetishism with sacrifice and death etc could be studied sociologically.

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, DHKPC leader died..." »

Posted by erkan at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Erkan's readings

View of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. EFE/Emilio Naranjo. found in Chinese Director Zhang Yimou Presents Dazzling Opening Ceremony at The Olympic Games

 I was not aware of this campaign as my life was disrupted by Yahoo! But probably I would not hear it on time. As usual, there is also a blogger community which is reclusive in some sense and I am an outsider. I realized this in a recent Turkish blogging awards stuff. I heard about the competition when the list of candidates were released. I compared mine and others in many categories and could not know why I wasn't there. Most of blogs are in Turkish of course and blog networks are based on some sort of friendship networks. If you are not in it, then you are out. This is the same for many issues (like cinema circles) and not different in new media stuff. Otherwise, mine is known, too but only needed when they need a sample for 'English language' blogs:) Still the campaign is good though 'authorities' will only be happy to see more closed websites (!)

Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest

148 Turkish websites in protest against government ban

This week 148 153 (the number is rising) Turkish websites are shut down as a protest against the government ban. The Turkish government blocks YouTube since January this year. And in the last few weeks various other international websites like DailyMotion are also blocked. The 148 website as listed here show this text at their frontpage:
Bu siteye erişim kendi kararıyla engellenmiştir

Continue reading ""Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest" »

Posted by erkan at 06:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Cyberculture | Erkan's mumbles | Turkish judiciary

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983 VIA

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, another wave of Ergenekon arrests happened!" »

Posted by erkan at 04:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Ergenekon Case | Turkish education/academy | Turkish judiciary | Turkish politics

Wed Aug 13, 9:10 AM ET

From left, the Estonia's President; Toomas Ilves, Poland's President; Lech Kaczynski, Georgia's President; Mikhail Saakashvili, Lithuania's President; Valdas Adamkus and Latvian Prime Minister; Ivars Godmanis take part in their joint news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. The top officials from several former Soviet republics, recent members of the European Union, arrived Tuesday in Tbilisi to express their support for President Mikhail Saakashvili after Georgia came under attack from Russian forces.

(AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

InterRail facts: discover Europe by train

By Benjamin Lasry

It has existed for over three decades, but it remains one of the most popular ways to visit Europe. New offers take you to the biggest festivals in Europe – via train

Stupid’s guide to travelling light in Europe

By mani sharpe

Luggage, travel necessities, cigarettes, alcohol, calls abroad and insurance: a simple factual list of what you can and can’t do when travelling Europe

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, "Has Russia really achieved its goal?..." »

Posted by erkan at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to EU summits/meetings | European Economy | Russia-Georgia Conflict | State of Europe

oriental show off messed up the daily lives of Istanbul... always smiling Mr. Ahmadinejad is not really sympathetic in this context but he still apologized from Istanbulians, whereas our leaders did not bother to do that. Another center-wise reflex of AKP: Shut up you ordinary people, we are doing energy business here!

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) smiles while hugging his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul August 14, 2008.

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, Mr. Ahmadinejad visited Istanbul," »

Posted by erkan at 09:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to Energy | TR-US relations | Turkey in Europe

One of France's most iconic cars, the Citroen 2CV, is celebrating its 60th birthday this October. The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby in Paris has been looking at how this vehicle revolutionised the French motor industry.

Continue reading "When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, EP ceiling collapsed, Georgia and Russia conflict was resolved in a way..." »

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Posted to European Economy | European Parliament | Russia-Georgia Conflict | State of Europe

Posted by erkan at 08:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Posted to

But I assume Movable Type is the accomplice. After 5 days, i have solved the problem myself with losing some stuff as you can see. All categories are gone etc. Thanks God, i have reasoned to save many features, so that i can restore them soon.

here is a bunch of correspondence with Yahoo! Customer Service:

MAIL 1 

Yahoo Id: sakaerka
First Name:
Last Name:
Email Address: sakaerka@yahoo.com
Domain Name: erkansaka.net
Comments: for more than 3 hours, i cannot have access to my blog management page and I receive this message:

Couldn't load blog; perhaps you have not upgraded your MT database? - Loading data failed with SQL error Can't open file: 'mt_blog.MYI' (errno: 145)


I do not have at that level of technical knowledgeable, and i will be grateful if you can fix it and i can resume my usual blogging...

Thanks in advance!

Erkan

MAIL 2

 Dear Sir or Madam,

It has been more than 24 hours passed and I did not get a response from you.

I had mailed you that:

I cannot access my blog and get this message:

Couldn't load blog; perhaps you have not upgraded your MT database? - Loading data failed with SQL error Can't open file: 'mt_blog.MYI' (errno: 145)

I post 3 times a day nearly and I cannot post since yesterday. It has been frustrating that my problem is still not fixed.

Looking forward to hearing from you real soon now...

Erkan

MAIL 3

 It has been 49 hours and 50 minutes past since my last post and i cannot access to my blog management site.

This is the third message to you and i cannot even get a response. This is becoming really frustrating.

MAIL 4

This is my fourth (or fifth) message. Thank you for ruining my day.

I am going to bed and hoping to get a finally positive response from you by the time I get up. This is a nightmare. Yahoo, the giant new media organization, cannot respond to its customer for hours and days.

I cannot access to my blog:

Couldn't load blog; perhaps you have not upgraded your MT database? - Loading data failed with SQL error Can't open file: 'mt_blog.MYI' (errno: 145)

I very much hope you will finally fix it.

MAIL 5

I am getting this message, and i cannot blog from 4 days. Can you help?

Couldn't load blog; perhaps you have not upgraded your MT database? - Loading data failed with SQL error Can't open file:

AND HERE COMES AN ANSWER after 4 days!

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Web Hosting.

We understand that you need assistance with the Movable Type blog in
your website of "erkansaka.net".

Movable Type is a free utility that we have made available through your
Web Hosting Control Panel as a service to you. We'll help you install
Movable Type on your site, and we provide the technical infrastructure
you need to run Movable Type (Perl and MySQL), but we do not offer any
technical support or a warranty with the Movable Type software.

We apologize for any inconvenience this caused you.

Please do not hesitate to reply if you need further assistance.

Regards,

Luke M. 

 AND MY REPLY

 Dear Luke,
after 4 days and great frustration and disappointment your customer service caused, Is that YOUR ANSWER? CAN YOU PLEASE AT LEAST DIRECT ME WHERE I CAN GET HELP? Isn't that part of your service. I bought Yahoo hosting plan because you were offering Movable Type and you can still send me some help info.

Because of this frustration, I have already canceled a hosting plan by Yahoo....

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