Erkan's field diary

Sceptic on Turkey to chair EU "wise people" group - International Herald Tribune

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders on Friday named former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, a past critic of Turkey's EU membership bid, to head a "reflection group" to study the long-term future of the 27-nation bloc."...

EU laws trickle down

Turkey's journey on the path to the European Union is continuing albeit at a snail's pace but amid the noise of political

BBC NEWS | Europe | Turkey faces testing year ahead

2007 has been a turbulent year in Turkey.

First, secularist protesters poured onto the streets as the religious conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) steered its way towards a second term in office, and devout Muslim Abdullah Gul geared up to take the presidency. "

Le Monde Paranoïas séparatistes en Turquie

EU grants Turkish agriculture 300 mln EUR

Turkish farmers are to receive 300 million EUR from the European Union, as they prepare the country’s agricultural industry for EU access.

‘The European Union, Turkey, and Islam’

Erik Jan Zürcher is one of the most distinguished scholars of Turkish social and political history. Zürcher, who is a Swiss citizen, since 1997 has been professor of Turkish studies at Holland’s Leiden University.

Guardian Brain drain Stephen Kinzer Turkey's intellectual elite are under attack, as militant nationalism and religious intolerance are on the rise

Assyrian revival stirs in Turkey

Returning families bring signs of revival to the ancient heartland of the Syriac Orthodox church in Turkey, reports Sarah Rainsford.

Academician responds to Armenian parliament demands

2007 Almanac of Turkey

As a result of Climate Change, 2007 will be remembered with drought, flood, firestorms in the world....

Kerplunk - Common sense from Down Under: One Turk's view of the French Revolution

Massive Protest in Cologne: Muslim Minority Marches Against German Crime Show - SPIEGEL ONLINE

THE 'NEW' TURKEY AND GREECE

Cyprus’ history from 1960 to 1974 (3)
(b) Taxes: Since a majority vote of Turkish deputies in the House was needed to pass tax legislation, Turkish Cypriots sought to use this as leverage to force compliance over the 70:30 ratio, over legislation for separate municipalities and a more generous approach towards the grant of subsidies to the Turkish Communal Chamber.

Cyprus’ history from 1960 to 1974 (4)

Polycarpos Yorgadjis, a man who ran his ministry as if he were still in EOKA and who attracted to himself attributions of the most intricate plotting, used the constitutional breakdown over tax collection as an excuse for getting Makarios’s authority for building up a “secret army” of ex-EOKA men.

“Mamma li Turchi!!” and the Saladin Syndrome : Part Two

By Gabriele Marranci on Immigration Issues

Not only are Muslims in Italy disrupted in their efforts to establish official (hence controlled and approved by the councils and the state) congregational spaces, but they are also demonised and misrepresented in a hardly believable way. Recently, Giancarlo Gentilini, deputy mayor of Treviso and a staunch anti-Muslim activist, has said that Muslims, are a ‘cancer which must be eradicated before they start to spread’. Political posters and leaflets often speak of ‘Islamic invasion’ in Italy, of a Europe being controlled by an Islamic lobby, or Muslim women, all of them, as passive creatures oppressed by an archaic and primitive religion, Islam.

“Mamma li Turchi!!” and the Saladin Syndrome : Part One

By Gabriele Marranci on Immigration Issues

 

Here is the work of an unknown Italian artist, representing a Muslim and his hate for our civilization….No, oops, sorry…it is not a Muslim, it is a Jew. Well, to correct the mistake, this is an unknown Italian artist in 1941 representing the Jewish domination of America, in particular New York City, recognizable here by the Statue of Liberty and the New York City skyline....

In north Cyprus, the Turkish lira is official currency, but euro is embraced - International Herald Tribune

Interdependent Blog: Will the Euro bring new hope of reunification to Cyprus?

2008: might be a 'make or break' year for Cyprus, politicians agree

For over forty years, Turkish and Greek Cypriots of the island have successfully defied each other as well as the efforts of an...

En Turquie, l’islam peut être cordial

La Croix (France)

27 décembre 2007
 
Ce pays offre un paysage religieux qui va depuis l’ouverture cordiale aux croyants des autres religions monothéistes, jusqu’à une hostilité oppressante envers les chrétiens. Bursa, Ürgüp, Istamboul. De notre envoyé spécial

Andrew Finkel: Punk rock, homophobia, Islam and EU accession

I myself have never worn a safety pin through my nose, but the first newspaper story that I ever had published was in the International Herald Tribune about a punk rock group in Northern Ireland.

'New Istanbul'

Cengiz AKTAR

The EU & Turkey in 2008: more of the same?

Turkey will enter 2008 with a new self-confidence. Through crucial parliamentary and presidential elections in 2007 Turkey regained political stability and shed its image of a country in chaos unable to accomplish political conciliation.

Sarkozy’s France

By CEVDET AKÇALI, YENİ ŞAFAK

Turkey’s biggest mistakes on the way to Westernization are, first, thinking that France represents the entirety of Europe and, second, modeling its modernization on France.

What is the Western Balkans? by HAJRUDIN SOMUN

What is meant by “the Western Balkans” or the Balkans in general?

2008 holds promise of new constitution

By MUSTAFA ÜNAL, ZAMAN

As it stands, it appears that the development of the new Turkish constitution is a candidate to become the most important event of 2008.