Grand Theft Auto Review: This Videogame Is Art

The game gives our mercurial hero a conscience, a fatigue with death, a desire to start over.

How to study surveillance

By Ethan

Chris Conley leads one of the most difficult research projects we’ve undertaken at the Berkman Center - the surveillance study of the Open Net Initiative. Over the past five years, the good folks at ONI have gotten very smart about how the internet is filtered in nations around the world. What’s much less clear is how the internet is monitored and what governments, law enforcement agencies, corporations and others are able to track as far as online behavior.

One problem: if surveillance is performed competently, it should be undetectable. Second problem: it’s often to someone’s advantage to claim that surveillance is taking place, even when it’s not, as it can change behaviors. (Think about “dummy” cameras mounted on your house as part of a fake “security system”. If they’re convincing enough, perhaps they don’t actually need to work.) Conley mentions my comments about the panopticon effect of surveillance in a recent Newsweek article - I assert that Zimbabwe isn’t able effectively monitor the Internet… but by stating that they will, they’ve forced a large number of users to remove sensitive information and conversations from the Internet.

 

It's RSS Awareness Day

In blogs

Bloggers and people in the Internet industry are aware of RSS but it's reach seems to stop there. To inform more people about the benefits of RSS the RSS Awareness Day campaign was launched by Daily Blog Tips. You can find the RSS Awareness Day website at Rssday.org. The website has a page with buttons and banners for bloggers who want to spread the word about the RSS holiday. This page also contains information that shows how few Internet users know about RSS.

Digging Deeper::9 Tips to Improve Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

With search engines ranking as a top traffic driver for many blogs and content sites, optimizing a site for search engine exposure is an increasingly critical component of any online marketing effort. Search engine optimization, or “SEO,” means using technical and not-so-technical techniques to make sure that people searching for topics you write about will find your site.

Blogs, Cyber-Literature and Virtual Culture in Iran

Source: George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies (via DTIC)

Social networking applications can pose security risks

Sarah Brown is unusually cautious when it comes to social networking.The college sophomore doesn't have a MySpace page and, while she's on Facebook, she does everything she can to keep

Microsoft’s Mesh, Google’s iGoogle and Yahoo’s Y!OS

By Arun on Internet

This past few weeks definite indicators have come forth as to how the interface to the internet is being reshaped to better suite our needs. Some of the biggest names in the industry have revealed their plans on making the internet experience a lot more user centric while at the same time keeping people rooted to their respective platforms.

Tactic: Facebook used in tracking war criminals

Description: Anti-genocide group Aegis Trust created a campaign using the social networking site Facebook to find alleged war criminals in Darfur.

Tools used:Facebook, Google Maps and e-petition

Tactic: Why Don’t Chilean Parties Use Web Tools?

By Jorge Jorquera 

Description: Last week El Mercurio (one of the oldest newspapers in Chile) published a report about the use of Web technologies by political parties in the country (original source in Spanish). The article stated that what the parties were using was very very basic and lacks the “social” element. Even though each one of these parties have a website (list here), they don’t apply the latest interactive Web 2.0 technologies.

How Google thinks

By Blake Hounshell

Fortune has an interesting interview with Google cofounder Larry Page. Here he is pontificating about alternative energy, one of his company's eclectic new research areas:

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May ‘68: France's politics of memory

Patrice de Beer

France is approaching a potent anniversary in a strange mood. The student riots of May 1968 radically shook an arch-conservative society and came near to toppling then-president Charles de Gaulle - as well as inspiring students in Europe, the United States and Japan to emulate Paris's "example". It is natural, then, that the fortieth anniversary is being vigorously commemorated; more than 100 books have already been published in France to coincide with the sparking date of les événements (22 March 1968), and dozens of TV and radio programmes are on the way as the moment (3 May) when the student uprising effectively began....

and many more articles below... 

On the economy of moralism and working class properness

By Beverley Skeggs

"Who can become a proper person? Who seems to be a legitimate subject of the state? Respectability is not only about cleaning your house but also, literally, about existing as a citizen." Beverley Skeggs criticizes theories of intersectionality for their tendency to lump categories that are in complex relation to capital.

Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think: Book Review Essay

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Earlier this month, a friend recommended one “must read” book for inclusion in a short list of books and other materials on the Muslim world for a hand out at a recent symposium the World Affairs Forum held in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The symposium was entitled “Meeting Minds with the Muslim World” and was conducted on a “non-attribution” basis.

The politics of the global movement

By Magnus Wennerhag

In an extract from his book "Global movement", Magnus Wennerhag outlines how the global justice movement differs from the '68 protests: it is more political and aimed at international institutions and a globalized democracy.

Ideology's Rude Return

By Robert Kagan

Ideology matters again. The big development of recent years is the rise not only of great powers but also of the great-power autocracies of Russia and China. True realism about the international scene begins with understanding how this unanticipated shift will shape our world.

Global food shortages: a 'silent tsunami'

By Preeti Aroon

Due to skyrocketing rice prices, Liberians are switching to pasta and learning how to twirl spaghetti on a fork. In India, the government has restricted rice exports, and moms are choosing between eating and paying for their children's schooling. Meanwhile in the United States, Wal-Mart's Sam's Club warehouse stores are limiting the sale of 20-pound (9 kg) bags of jasmine, basmati, and long-grain white rice to four per customer.

The 1968 debate in Germany, Paul Hockenos

In politics of protest

There's no place like Germany for wrenching, introspective public debates over national history and collective memory. This phenomenon itself is one of the legacies of the 1967-69 student movement, known in shorthand in today's Bundesrepublik as "'68",....

David Hockney, Woldgate Lane to Burton Agnes, 2007 found in ART CHICAGOTM 2008 Attracts World's Leading Contemporary and Modern Art Galleries

Q&A: Anne-Marie Slaughter on the East-West Divide

The rift between China and the West is the most urgent foreign policy problem.

Homophily, serendipity, xenophilia

By Ethan

There’s been a small but fascinating blog conversation going on surrounding the term “homophily”. Journalism and media critic Amy Gahran encountered the term in an interview I and Solana Larsen gave with Chris Lydon of Radio Open Source and explored the concept in an extended riff and a set of bookmarks. Tom, an educator living and working in Ankara, weighed in with a moving story about learning from a Guatemalan colleague. Michele Martin, an education blogger, worries that the internet as a whole is a source for homophily and may be making her (and all of us) dumber. (Here she’s pulling on some threads explored by Cass Sunstein in Republic.com and Infotopia. More on that in a bit.) And yesterday, my colleague and friend David Sasaki invoked the conversation in an important post on the difficulties of getting people to pay attention to voices from the developing world.

Why people emigrate

By New Economist

Semi-regular blogging service resumes this week with a few posts on migration - still a very topical issue on both sides of the Atlantic. The first paper I'd like to highlight is by the University of Chicago's Jeffrey Grogger, and UCSD's Gordon H. Hanson. Their recent NBER Working Paper No. 13821, Income Maximization and the Selection and Sorting of International Migrants, seeks to explain to what extent selection and sorting account for international migration flows using data on emigrant stocks...

Skilled migration boosts innovation

By New Economist

A recent paper by McGill University's Jennifer Hunt to an NBER labour studies programme conference asks whether the increase in foreign-born college graduates has contributed to innovation in the United States. Her paper, How Much Does Immigration Boost Innovation? (PDF), finds that it does: In this paper I have demonstrated the important boost to innovation per capita provided by skilled immigration to the United States in 1950-2000. A calculation of the effect of immigration in the 1990-2000 period puts the...

The emerging ‘New Middle East’ by JOSCHKA FISCHER

President George W. Bush's Middle East policy undeniably managed to achieve one thing: It has thoroughly destabilized the region. Otherwise, the results are not at all what the United States had hoped to accomplish. A democratic, pro-Western Middle East is not in the cards.

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AKP Submits Its Defense in Closure Case

By Jenny White

AKP’s Dengir Firat presenting the party’s defense to the Constitutional Court (photo from Today’s Zaman)

The ruling AK Party has submitted its defense to the Constitutional Court in answer to a case brought against it that seeks to close the party on grounds of antisecular activities, and to ban from politics 70 party members, including the prime minister, and the president (who is officially no longer an AKP member).

AK Party’s response by MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE

The case brought by the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals requesting closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has entered a new phase.

A, B and C plans of AKP

GÖKSEL BOZKURT

Why the Extreme Show of Force on May Day?

By Jenny White

Photo from Radikal

On May 1 an army of police in Istanbul closed off Taksim Square and surrounding streets to prevent a planned labor union rally.

Excerpt from a Turkish Daily News article (my comments are at the bottom):

Police break up Turkey marchers

Hundreds are arrested as riot police prevent marchers holding a May Day rally in Istanbul.

Yusuf Kanlı: The Battle of Taksim

The most glorious, vigilant, courageous and gassy army of the police – operating under the directives of their supreme commander, benevolent bureaucrat, peace-loving hawk, absolute observant servant of the all-caring and most holy government in Ankara, Governor Muammer Güler – dispersed the approaching enemy Labor Force and defended Taksim Square to the last drop of blood in their veins.Congratulations.“The best defense is attack” commander Güler instructed the gassy police army, and they gassed not only the approaching Labor Force enemy, but also the shops and even a hospital to make sure that none of those evil elements penetrate the defense lines and make their way into the sacrosanct..

May Day, a missed opportunity for the AK Party?

The government’s adoption of a prohibitive stance by rejecting demands by labor unions to hold May Day celebrations in İstanbul’s Taksim Square has led some to question its pro-freedom bid -- all this at a time when the governing party needs to back freedom and democracy the most, as it faces a case seeking its closure.

How long will this fear of May 1 continue?

By MAHMUT ÖVÜR, SABAH

How much longer do we have to be afraid of May 1? This is supposed to be a day when laborers celebrate their lives and work.

Erdoğan blames trade unions for tension in Taksim

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan placed all the blame on the trade unions yesterday for the eventful May 1 celebrations in Istanbul, saying that it was the imposition and insistence displayed by

Media reacts differently to May Day

The aftermath of May Day clashes between police and demonstrators were reported on with scarcely concealed passion and outrage by much of the Turkish media Friday, including a

National security state

By MEHMET ALTAN, STAR

The nation of Turkey is a nation of national security. To be a "national security state" means to weave the concept of "security" in and around all aspects of social life.

[Aljazeera] Clashes mark May Day in Turkey

Riot police in Turkey have clashed with labor activists trying to gather in İstanbul's Taksim square to celebrate May Day. Police used clubs, tear gas and water cannons on Thursday to disperse workers in different areas of the city.

The 'Ankara-ization' of the Islamo-liberal AKP?

Mustafa AKYOL

Yusuf Kanlı:State has done its duty, but...

While the second siege of DISK (Confederation of Revolutionary Workers' Unions) was underway in Istanbul, the tall, tired man angered with the comments in the media condemning theexcessive use of brutal force against workers trying to celebrate May Day as a demonstration of the self-catering democracy understanding of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, thundered: “Why are you calling it ‘The defense of AKP'? Have we done anything wrong and required to make a defense? The document we presented to the court is not our defense, it is our replies to the charges made by the prosecutor (in the closure case indictment)… Don't call it defense.”The tall, tired and

How the AKP's 'protestant capitalism' chastises workers

Cengiz AKTAR

Democracy alla Erdoğan?

Murat YETKİN

Bans and the AK Party

By ESER KARAKAŞ, STAR

No doubt we are going through an important political crisis. In the contemporary world, closing down a political party that has assumed office by securing 47 percent of the national vote eight months ago is not a common thing.

Gladio, Counter-guerrilla and Ergenekon

By NAZLI ILICAK, SABAH

Prosecutor Felice Casson, who fought against the Gladio in Italy, says that there certainly is a similar organization in Turkey.

Is it a first-head-then-body plan?

By HASAN CEMAL, MİLLİYET

First cut off the head, then conquer the body. Is this what those who gave start to the coup process in order to fend off the AK Party are trying to achieve?

May Day arrives amid debates

Just like every other year, there has been a long-lasting tug of words between the government and labor unions about the latter's demand to hold May Day celebrations in İstanbul's Taksim Square, a venue that has been closed to such demonstrations since 1977 due to the killings of dozens of demonstrators during Workers' Day celebrations that year.

Was it worth all this tension?

Mehmet Ali Birand


Turkish PM says authorities action necessary on May 1

SMEs, May Day celebrations and the middle classes

Societies, including the Turkish nation, need a strong middle class. Actually, they should become the backbone of both the economy and the society.

Pragmatism and Turkey

By Boz

Tomorrow's Asharq Al-Awsat has a clear and concise editorial defending Turkey's aspirations for EU membership. Noting that while Sarkozy spent last week's interview highlighting his pragmatism while still acting like an ideologue on the Turkish question, and then going throught the various reasons why

Turkish AKP not seeking extension in court case | World | Reuters

Istanbul's Economic Tension. - TIME

Thursday, May. 01, 2008 By ANDREW PURVIS/ISTANBUL

Turkey has attracted a lot of attention lately thanks to a series of political crises--from armed forays into neighboring Iraq in pursuit of autonomy-seeking Kurdish militants to an atavistic attempt by Turkish prosecutors to ban the country's own ruling party. The political intrigue has created a speed bump--or maybe a stop sign--for an economy that had been striding with determination toward inclusion in the European Union and recharging its ancient trade links with the Middle East."


Turkish politics | An ineffective opposition | Economist.com

EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight - Turkey: An Islamic Radical Group Resurfaces, Striving to Embrace Peaceful Change

Turkey's Uncertain Future - Middle East Forum

US expectations from Turkey on Iran

Murat YETKİN

Turkey's march toward self-destruction (II)

Mehmet Ali Birand

Ergenekon, America and the AK Party

The closure case filed against the Justice and Development (AK Party) and the investigation regarding the Ergenekon terror organization constitute a process that closely concerns the fate of the country. Where is it heading?

Whatever happened to left of center?

It was in 1965 when İsmet İnönü, former Turkish president and leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), defined the CHP's position in Turkish politics as the "left of center." This was a move to separate the CHP's political ground from that of rival right-wing parties.

MHP transformation and complexity in Turkish far right by CENAP ÇAKMAK

Ever since the first free elections in which political parties were allowed to compete for governmental posts, the Turkish far right has for the most part been represented by conservative nationalist movements and the parties their adherents formed.

TURKISH MEDIA REPORTS THAT ANKARA HAS OFFERED TO TRAIN THE IRAQI ARMY - Eurasia Daily Monitor

Why has Turkey established ties with Iraqi Kurds?

In the shadow of a strained atmosphere generated by a closure case against the ruling party and the tension of May 1, Turkey has taken an historic step and has actually broken a long-standing taboo.

Who won the Taksim war?

By NAZLI ILICAK, SABAH

No one is opposed to May Day celebrations. On the contrary, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has already officially accepted this day as the Labor and Solidarity Celebration.

May Day and Ergenekon methods

By İSMET BERKAN, RADİKAL

The government has for around the past five months been doing everything necessary to isolate itself. It has plunged into arguments with labor unions, insulting these groups.

AK Party takes action for greater good

Amid the heated May Day debates between the government and labor unions that dominated Turkey’s agenda throughout the week, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) also had to contend with a case petitioning for its closure and submitted a preliminary defense to the Constitutional Court ahead of the deadline on Wednesday.

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Turkish press ranked only 'partially free'

Turkey was ranked only “partially free” in a report that lists press freedom country-by-country by a U.S.-based nongovernmental organization. Freedom House, an NGO that advocates global

Freedom of the Press 2008 Survey Release

Source: Freedom House
From press release:

Global press freedom underwent a clear decline in 2007, with journalists struggling to work in increasingly hostile environments in almost every region in the world, according to a new survey released today by Freedom House. The decline in press freedom—which occurred in authoritarian countries and established democracies alike—continues a six-year negative trend.

Turks Support Press Freedom, But….

By Jenny White

Turks support freedom of the media in principle, but are one of the few peoples around the world divided on whether the government should have the right to restrict media freedom in order to maintain political stability. Nearly three in four (74 percent) Turks say that freedom of the media is important and 60 percent believe that people should have the right to read whatever they want on the Internet, according to the survey, conducted in 20 countries by World Public Opinion.org at the University of Maryland and released yesterday.

What Impact Would Press Freedom Have on People Without It?

Freedom of the press is treasured in the United States. This freedom is a liberty not enjoyed by everyone in the world but deemed important enough to have an entire day devoted to it. The United Nations recognizes World Press Freedom Day on May 3rd.....

Cemil Çiçek controversy by EMRE USLU & ÖNDER AYTAÇ

Renowned journalist Fikret Bila recently conducted an interview with an unidentified minister, who according to speculation is very likely to have been Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek.

Charting interactivity at newspaper websites across Europe

By Kelley Vendeland

The Online Journalism Blog (OJB) has created the European News Interactivity Index, adapting Joanna Geary's analysis of interactivity on UK business news websites to newspapers across Europe.

Media… a fair match

By MUSTAFA KARAALİOĞLU, STAR

 There is great potential for change in the media, an area close to politics, in addition to the potential for change in the political sphere. The Çalık group took the first big step toward change in the media by acquiring the ownership of the Sabah-ATV Media Group.

The Al-Qaeda Media Machine

Source: Military Review

11 Layers of CitJ, according to blog, A FAITHful voice

By Carolyn Lo

A FAITHful voice blog details "The 11 Layers of Citizen Journalism, a step-by-step approach in dealing with the changing landscape of journalism by integrating the professional with the amateur."

Should citizen journalists follow the rules of journalism?

By Carolyn Lo

Earlier this month, Mayhill Fowler, a citizen journalist, had reported comments made by U.S. presidential hopeful Barack Obama, describing rural, white voters as "bitter," to Huffington Post's blog "Off the Bus." Guardian America editor Michael Tomasky believes there is a need for blogging rules and questions the ethics of citizen journalism, while Jeff Jarvis of the blog Buzzmachine has similar beliefs as Robert Niles that "nothing is off-the-record anymore" and that citizen journalists are now necessary.

Crisis in News::State of Investigative Reporting at Newspapers, Broadcasting

BERKELEY, CA — I am blogging live from the conference, “Crisis in News: Symposium on Investgative Reporting,” at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism. It is perhaps the most beautiful day outside here, with glorious blue skies, but investigative journalists are like vampires, hiding out in dark spaces when it’s warm and sunny outside. So here we are in an auditorium talking about the very serious subject of what’s going to happen to investigative journalism with newspapers cutting so many jobs.

‘Jury is still out about crowdsourcing’

A panel on online journalism at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism recently discussed what works online, citizen journalism and crowdsourcing. …

Future of journalism series: Financial Times - Dan Bogler

By Jean Yves Chainon

The Editors Weblog is running a series of exclusive interviews about the future of journalism with top editors at leading newspapers around the world. Here is the latest installment with Dan Bogler, Managing Editor of the Financial Times in the UK.

Press Roundup

President Abdullah Gül poses wearing a seatbelt for a campaign launched on Tuesday to minimize the number of deadly traffic accidents and raise the public's awareness of car safety measures.

Press Roundup

Seedlings in the grain fields of southeastern Turkey have withered due to a drought that has been severely affecting the region, leading to concern among the region’s farmers.

Turkish Press Scanner

MİLLİYET Council of State prevents big historical mistakeThe Council of State ordered to halt ongoing construction works to expand the Four Seasons Hotel in Istanbul's historic Sultanahment district due to an archaeological site that includes artifacts dating back to the Byzantine era, reported daily Milliyet yesterday. The decision said that the work undertaken by the hotel “unlawful” and “a clear ruling out of the very existence of the cultural heritage dating back to Ottoman, Byzantine and Roman times.” The Four Seasons Hotel must now stop the activities until the court process comes to an end. After daily Milliyet reported on the issue, the Council of State's Sixth

Turkish Press Scanner

ZAMAN Smugglers go hunting for butterflies Foreign researchers disguised as tourists have been smuggling butterflies in southeastern Anatolia, daily Zaman reported yesterday. Professor Dr. Ahmet Koçak, dean of the Science and Arts Department at Yüzüncü Yıl University, said the Lake Van basin was a rich area in terms of butterflies, sheltering more than 350,000 different species. Koçak said only 100,000 butterfly species have been identified according to studies conducted in the area since 2001. “Many researchers come here and collect butterfly and moth samples,” he said. “The recurrence of this phenomenon led to a decline in the butterfly population, even risking the exterminat

Turkish Press Scanner

Yeni Şafak Missile defense systems to be stationed in Istanbul, Ankara Turkey plans to station four long-range missile defense systems, two of which will be stationed in Istanbul and Ankara, daily Yeni Şafak reported yesterday. In an attempt to establish an effective air defense system against missile threats, the Undersecretariat for Defense Industries, Turkey's main procurement office, opened bids for air defense systems against mid- and long-range missiles. The long-range missile defense systems are expected to become active by 2010. Two systems are expected to be stationed in Istanbul and Ankara, while the other two are expected to be deployed according to necessity.

Press Roundup

Four young Palestinian siblings and their mother were killed after an Israeli shell struck a Palestinian home in the northern Gaza Strip early Monday.

Turkish Press Scanner

TAKVİM ‘Mini city' project for foreigners living in Turkey As part of the government's recent efforts to prepare new legislation regarding property sales to foreigners, a project to build residential units and holiday villages for foreigners in Turkish resort towns, put forward by Finance Minister Kemal Unakıtan, has gained momentum, daily Takvim reported yesterday. Unakıtan's project “The Spanish model” is based on the construction of “mini cities” in coastal areas of Turkey. Unakıtan has already approved the transfer of the land appropriated for the project to the Mass Housing Administration (TOKİ). Once the project is completed, the expected $20-million revenue from the sales of

Turkish Press Scanner

MİLLİYET 'Turks make better guinea pigs' Due to the low level of drugs and alcohol consumption in the country, foreign pharmaceutical companies choose Turks to be their test subjects, daily Milliyet resported yesterday. “We only use human test subjects for domestically produced drugs which are equivalent to medicine sold in pharmacies,” said Dr. Aydın Erenmemişoğlu, head of the Hakan Çetinsaya Experimental and Clinical Research Center in Erciyes University's medical department. It is the only center in Turkey to participate in clinical drug research with the permission of the Health Ministry. Tests are conducted on pain medication, antidepressants and antibiotics. Cancer

Turkish Press Scanner

Hürriyet AKP deputy: Party was wrong in lifting the headscarf ban The governing party's efforts to lift the headscarf ban and introduce constitutional changes on the issue were wrong,

Press Roundup

Clashes erupted between groups representing Deniz Baykal and his leadership rivals during the 32nd Republican People's Party (CHP) General Assembly on Saturday.

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EU hails Turkey free speech move

Turkey's vote to amend a law that limits freedom of speech is welcomed by the EU.

Turkish Parliament softens restrictions on freedom of speech

Turkey inched closer to the EU yesterday (29 April) as its legislators approved a bill easing a controversial clause in its penal code which outlaws criticism of Turkish identity. The move was a key condition laid down by the EU in view of accession, but sceptics said the amendments were purely superficial.

Turkish free speech

The AKP-dominated parliament has just amended Article 301 of the penal code but it must be completely overhauled or – better still – repealed

Can Turkish-Armenian relations normalize? - Turquie Européenne - Friday 2 May 2008 - Actualités de la Turquie et traductions de la presse turque

Yerevan Sees ‘Positive’ Signals From Ankara

Sarkozy is Wrong About Turkey Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)


European Union Skeptical of Closure Case In Turkey

Europe’s Fate and Turkey’s Progress | The Brussels Journal

Tackling Turkey's Image Problem in the European Union

Turkey Can Feed Its E.U. Membership Aspiration With Reforms, Pierini

The Image of the Turks in European Art

By TAT

by Prof. Dr. Gunsel Renda

original source: http://www.turkey-now.org/Default.aspx?pgID=663

Throughout history, the Turks have had close relations with the Western Christian world. Europe and the Ottomans had become immediate neighbors on the Balkans and the Mediterranean since the westward expansion of the Ottomans. Through the centuries, the two cultures met in different geographies and under different conditions and their relations stayed firmly behind their political and economic relations. The manner, in which these relations were reflected in art and culture, reveals variations according to political alliances, victories and defeats and even the personalities of the patrons of the arts.

Portrait: A Turk as Miss Germany!

By TAT

from The Times

May 1, 2008

Asli Bayram: out of the wings on to centre stage

The German beauty queen and actress whose Turkish father was killed by neo-Nazis tackles Anne Frank on stage

Foreigners and property in Turkey

NEŞE YAHYA

Pro-European Turks versus pro-Turkish Europeans

Gerald KNAUS

‘EU process complex and technical'

Turkey can further its European Union membership process with reforms, said the head of the delegation of the

Germany 'skeptical' about AKP closure case

A senior member of the German Bundestag said his country has been following the ongoing closure case filed against Turkey's ruling party with certain skepticism. “[The closure case] will be a

Two Turks make Time's top 100 for 2008

Alongside Robert Gates, the Dalai Lama, Oprah Winfrey and Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg, two Turks were praised by Time magazine for their lifetime achievements – one in the area

The closure case, the US and the EU

Cengiz ÇANDAR

The EU and the Wider Black Sea Region: Challenges and policy options

Agence Europe, 15 avril 2008

Bibliothèque européenne N° 774

Le réseau Garnet, issu du 6ème programme cadre de l’Union et composé de 42 Universités et centres de recherche européens, regroupe chercheurs, analystes et praticiens issus de multiples disciplines.  Coordonné par le Centre pour l’Etude de la globalisation et de la régionalisation de l’Université de Warwick (le Centre d’études et de recherches internationales de Sciences Po se chargeant de la dissémination des travaux),

Turquie : le syndrome de la crise

La Tribune (France)

9 avril 2008

L’incohérence de l’agenda politique et économique du gouvernement turc pourrait produire un effet dissuasif à moyen terme sur les investisseurs, prévient Dorothée Schmid *, de l’Ifri.

La crise politique turque débouchera-t-elle sur une crise économique? La perspective d’une possible fermeture du parti AKP, qui gouverne le pays depuis 2002, accrédite cette hypothèse qui se répand dans le débat public turc avec la rapidité d’une rumeur.

Military

It is no secret that one of the biggest obstacles to Turkey's European Union bid is the military's influence on civil politics. This fact is highlighted in almost every EU annual progress report.

Social legitimacy of a coup

For three centuries Turkey has been a country that has been affected by changes in Europe and has tried to adapt to this transformation. It has been proud of relying on Western notions and institutions.

Why do they interfere with our affairs? by GÖKHAN BACIK

The stance of some European institutions vis-à-vis the closure of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been criticized by certain circles on the grounds that it constituted an unacceptable attempt at interference.

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Five years after 'Mission Accomplished'

By Joshua Keating

Today is the fifth anniversary of the day George W. Bush declared "mission accomplished" from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, just 42 days after the invasion of Iraq.

 

and some election news roundup:  

Evangelicals, hate speech, and US foreign policy

Nejdan YILDIZ

Europe should beware not to antagonise US on climate change

Europeans would be well-advised to examine the US presidential candidates' climate plans rather than focus on the Bush administration, writes Stephen Boucher, co-secretary general of Notre Europe, a Paris-based think thank.

No, Hillary Clinton, It’s Shame on You: More on Clinton’s Racism (updated)

By Maximilian Forte on U.S.

Of course this issue cannot be laid to rest until it gets wider, more meaningful recognition, not to mention some profuse apologizing from Hillary Clinton and the white troops in her white-oriented campaign. If one wants to have a discussion about race and gender, then one way not to preclude the need for any such discussion is to do as Clinton: proving that being black in America still carries greater stigma than being a woman, and bears a greater load of disadvantage, mistrust, and hostility. This post was motivated by three items; let’s go through each of these in turn.

First, in an editorial by Geoffrey Dunn inBlack Star Newstitled, “Hillary Clinton’s Disgraceful Campaign: Racism and Hypocrisy” (23 April, 2008), which echoes many of the same sentiments inmy previous post on this topic, we read the following, an extract provided here:

A Pastor's Influence

By David S. Broder

In his achingly slow steps toward repudiating the repugnant words of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Barack Obama has run the risk of serious political damage by leaving vague what it was that attracted him to this outspoken critic of American society.

A White Woman’s Burden: Hillary Clinton, Imperialism, and Racism

By Maximilian Forte on white man's burden

The imperialist syndrome that has been institutionalized at least since 1492 in the Americas, with its familiar register of notions of superiority, a right to dominate, of the civilizing beneficence of Western rule, of force needed to tame wild creatures so that they can learn to take responsibility, with routinized actions and customary rituals, acting through mechanisms of inequality, is not something that can be shed overnight. It is too lucrative, and too self-affirming, at least for a while. As the United States enters its own phase of Soviet-style structural fatigue, we might see greater internal critiques of imperial manifest destiny, but for now, and as evidenced in the current electoral campaign in the United States, this syndrome is still firmly in place. Indeed, none of those who are presented as alternatives, promise an alternative to quests for continued imperial dominance abroad, and heightened national “security” (fear, surveillance) at home.

McCain's crackpot ideas

Blake Hounshell

Fareed Zakaria rightly notes that while everyone has been beating up on Barack Obama for proposing talks with Chávez and Ahmadinejad, John McCain has quietly espoused some genuine crackpot ideas about foreign policy. Especially wrongheaded is his idea to create a "League of Democracies," which would only antagonize Russia and China, two great powers whose cooperation the United States needs on a host of regional and global issues. (Paul Saunders ably dispatched a similar plan mooted by McCain advisor Robert Kagan and Obama advisor Ivo Daalder last August, but some bad ideas just won't die.)

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Social Europe Interview with EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn

By Henning Laptop

In the last years, the number of EU member states has almost doubled from 15 to 27 members. This major extension has obviously had economic, political and cultural consequences. How do you think this enlargement was absorbed by the Union? And were there any political consequences?

Gazprom Hardens Its Grip on Europe

Marek Swierczynski: Greece and Russia signed an agreement to build the southern branch of the South Stream natural gas pipeline. President Putin’s last victory hardens Gazprom’s grip on Europe and makes any energy diversification projects more difficult. Unless the EU looks at the map and acts.

Extremist violence rocks Hamburg

Street battles lasting several hours grip the German city of Hamburg - said to be the worst riots there for years.

Europe's CAP the 'answer' to food crisis

Africa and Latin America should adopt their own versions of the Common Agricultural Policy as a response to the rising demand for food, according to France's farm minister

A profitable Union: enlarged Europe finds new ways to work

Far from rendering the EU unmanageable as many feared, the 'Big Bang' expansion of four years ago has even helped to streamline decision-making – though not to everyone's liking

Labour suffers big UK election losses

Gordon Brown admits to "bad and disappointing" results, as Labour has its worst election showing in decades.

Solving Europe's population crisis

France and Spain have two very different answers to the problem of Europe's shrinking birth-rate, reports the BBC's Paul Henley.

How Europe can shape the global system

We need to focus on the issues where the bloc can make a difference, rather than thinking in terms of a superstate, writes Zaki Laïdi

EU to create new diplomatic service

The EU is set to acquire a so-called External Action Service uniting officials in Brussels with diplomats from national foreign ministries

Map: EU growth will slow down in 2008

The EU’s economy will grow slower than expected, falling from 2.7% in 2007 to 2.0% in 2008. Things will worsen in 2009. Take a look at your countries’ growth rates

Crisis looms over Kosovo plan

Uncertainty surrounds the involvement of the EU and the UN in Kosovo after independence on 15 June.

Payment Services Directive: The end of the cash era?

From November 2009 new EU rules will allow alternative providers such as mobile phone operators to deliver new payment services alongside banks and credit card firms, paving the way for a more efficient non-cash economy. However, details of the actual implementation of the rules in member states remain unclear.

'Moment of truth' approaching for lobbying transparency

The European Parliament is widely expected to approve a landmark report on lobbying during its Brussels plenary session next week (8 May), representing a key moment in the drive to improve the transparency of the EU institutions and the estimated 15,000 lobbyists who seek to influence them.

EU Presidency upset over Lithuanian veto of EU-Russia accord

The Slovenian government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, has heavily criticised Lithuania for not withdrawing its objections to initiating talks on a new partnership pact between the EU and Russia.

Privacy chief: EU research must consider data protection

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) wants EU research projects to take account of privacy and data protection requirements from early on, in particular when developing information and communication technologies.

DOSSIER: Russia mounts pressure on Georgia | 02/05/2008

The conflict between Georgia and Russia over the secessionist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia and Georgia's wish to join NATO has been smouldering for a long time. On Thursday Russia strengthened its troops in Abkhazia. What consequences will this demonstration of power have for the region?

Spain and Italy: More alike than we think?

By Dexter Thillien

Over the past two months, Spaniards and Italians voted in, it may seem, very different governments. On the one hand, a progressive government, mostly made up of women ministers and headed by a young leader, won the election while on the other hand, an older conservative politician got elected to his third victory in the past 15 years. I am not going to deny there are genuine differences between Zapatero and Berlusconi but I believe both polls showed similarities between the situations of the two countries.

DOSSIER: An association agreement with a proviso | 30/04/2008

The EU and Serbia have signed a stabilisation and association agreement. However it will only take effect if Serbia cooperates with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The EU hopes this will serve to bolster the pro-European forces in Serbia's parliamentary elections on May 11.

A deal for Serbia

The EU must stay the course, despite pressures to go slow on enlargement. Leaving the Balkans out of the union would leave a dangerous hole in the heart of Europe

Signature of SAA with Serbia opens door to Europe

Commenting on today's signing of a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) between the EU and Serbia, Jelko Kacin MEP (LDS, Slovenia) and EP rapporteur on Serbia welcomed the EU's flexible approach towards the challenges of stabilising the countries of the Western Balkans.

Rethinking European Defense Policy

Daniel Rackowski: With Sarkozy contemplating bringing France back into the NATO fold, the need for a strong European defense force is at the forefront, writes Daniel Rackowski for ISN Security Watch.

Swedes start to question their welcome for refugees

Nader will not give his real name but he does not hide why he chose Sweden as a refuge after Islamic gunmen threatened to murder him unless he fled Mosul in northern...

Britain’s best commuter train: Eurostar

By Jon

It goes at 300km/h, has 18 air conditioned carriages, runs on its own dedicated tracks, no-one ever has to stand up, it doesn’t smell, and it arrives at the fabulous St Pancras International station. It’s Eurostar - Britain’s best commuter train.

'Old' Europe dropping opposition to new EU workers

Access to documents is a test of EU commitment to transparency

The European Commission today is due to outline proposals for updating Regulation 1049/2001 on public access to documents held by the EU Institutions following recommendations from Parliament and a ruling by the European Court of Justice that criticised Member States' objections to disclosure. Currently a Member State can veto the disclosure of any document held by the Commission which it considers sensitive. The proposals would also aim to relax existing rules on the details of names of office holders and interest groups mentioned in documents but double the time available for responding to appeals against refusal.

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Just arrived Istanbul. I missed May 1 action (!).  Like last year, there was an unproportional use of police power.

"if only i catch you" 

The head of Istanbul police says no considerable problems occurred today.  

 

"we are coming for the doomsday"

Well, mainstream Turkish press has become pro-labor today in order to develop another strike at the government. However, one point is missed: Unions knew that there would be violent scenes and instead of designated areas for demonstrations, they declared days before to send their workers to areas that police would react....

 "thanks to policemen, Taksim square has no litter today."

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From Irvine to San Juan Capistrano

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Guess what another dear friend from Rice, Kat happens to live in San Diego, settled as a married woman working for an international agency located in her hometown. We decided to meet in half way, in a town called San Juan Capistrani...

from Irvine to Ontario

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Ayhan shows up today. I haven't seen him for more than a year and here he comes to Irvine to see me for a day. I have such good friends. I, Metin and Ayhan did hang out around but we also ended up going to Ontario to see one of Ayhan's stores.

Ayhan is in toy business; he actually owns the company, himself a success story in that respect and a long time friend of mine now based in Houston....

Tomorrow is the last day in the US.

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Turkey reforms controversial law

Turkey's parliament approves the softening of a law criticised by the EU for limiting free speech, reports say.

EU Recommendations for Turkey

By Jenny White

Based on its 2007 Turkey Progress Report, the European Parliament is pressing Turkey to step up its reforms and expressed concern about the chief prosecutor’s move to shut down the ruling party and ban many of its lawmakers from politics, including the prime minister and the president, accusing them of Islamist subversion. (Click here for article)

What happens if the AKP is not closed down?

Cüneyt ÜLSEVER

Leader of Kurdish party in Turkey released and sent to military service

Gov't stance on May Day celebrations shadow its pro-freedom bid

In a move that irritated labor unions and some left-wing groups, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government refused permission for May Day celebrations in İstanbul's Taksim Square, citing security concerns.

Opposition CHP introduces Kurdish initiative

A return to villages vacated in the Southeast must be supported and limitations on private education and broadcasting in Kurdish must be removed, said the opposition Republican People's Party

Top court's president rejects split between democracy and secularism

The president of the Constitutional Court warned that prioritizing democracy over secularism or vice versa is scientifically flawed and politically hazardous, in his address at a ceremony marking

‘Fully independent Turkey'

By MURAT BELGE, RADİKAL

Haşim Kılıç, the president of the Constitutional Court, gave a speech, saying much that is true about law and the supremacy of justice and about how everyone must be involved. Many of us have written words of praise about this speech.

Yusuf Kanlı: Wise words from the top judge

Haşim Kılıç, the chief judge of the Constitutional Court must be having some serious headache nowadays as whatever he does, or does not, where he sat at a reception, who sat next to him, who whispered what into his ears, the color of the headscarf of his wife, who participated and who did not in the wedding ceremony of his daughter are all exposed in the media… It is as if he no longer has a private life.That's of course normal as whatever the decision of the high court of the country will be in the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will have long-term impacts on the politics, as well as economy and social life in the country.Yesterday was the 46th ann

With ruined chemistry, Erdoğan makes big political mistakes

Cengiz ÇANDAR

Who should the Kurds vote for?by BEJAN MATUR

Imagine that you live in Diyarbakır. If you did not vote for the Democratic Society Party (DTP) in the last election, you must have chosen the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). You did so for a number of reasons.

Baykal, ‘xenophobic’ leader of the opposition

Unsurprisingly this weekend's 32nd general assembly of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) ended with the re-election of its leader of 16 years, Deniz Baykal.

Why are rightist bureaucrats more cowardly?

Whenever I mention the Turkish right or left in an article, I feel an urge to include the following sentence: "Essentially, we can neither call the right in Turkey a right wing, nor the left a left wing; however, I need these terms for a rough description." True.

CHP incident

Turkey has embarked upon a new process of intervention, called a "judicial coup" by the international community. The judiciary contributes greatly to this, but the Republican People's Party (CHP) is also among the actors with a hand in this process.

There is no match for Turkish secularism in the world by BİLAL SAMBUR

The closure case filed against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) led to a perception in the international arena that the Turkish political system as designed by the state-centric actors has a serious problem.

The CHP of 30 years ago and party closure

By MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE, ZAMAN

The headline story of the Zaman daily yesterday called for some serious thought. In his article, Habib Guler shows a connection between 30 years ago and today regarding the forced closure of political parties.

Ergenekon's fingerprints

By ERGUN BABAHAN, SABAH

An organization that is trying to pull Turkey further and further into instability is making its presence more felt these days.

Why did the AK Party stumble?

By ESER KARAKAŞ, STAR

The AK Party lost the significant advantage of political position it acquired in the July 22 elections in seven months and now faces a closure case.

What Turkey needs is a real political opposition

The general congress of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), which ended with the re-election of its leader of 16 years Deniz Baykal this weekend, continues to dominate the newspaper columns, with writers examining the CHP under Baykal's rule and making predictions about the party's future.

Turkey’s Turning Point: Could There Be an Islamic Revolution in Turkey?

Source: On the Issues (American Enterprise Institute)

The Turkish question

by David Casa

Last week, during the Parliamentary session that was held in Strasbourg, the delegation to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee adopted the committee’s progress report on Turkey. The report follows the progress of reform that is being made by the Eurasian country in its bid to join the European Union."

More:INDEPENDENT online

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Turkey’s clash of values: memo to Europe, Cem Özdemir

Cem Özdemir is a member of the European parliament (MEP) and spokesperson for foreign affairs of the Greens/EFA parliamentary group. His website is here

The eyes and ears of the Netherlands in Turkey, Bouwman: I became more humanistic in Turkey

By ALİ ÇİMEN

Bernard Bouwman, a Western correspondent living and reporting in İstanbul, is the eyes and ears of the Netherlands in Turkey. Indeed, his is a name synonymous with Turkey.

 

Qantara.de - Turkey Joins European Cultural Elite - My Tie is Red

Turkey is changing – the economic arguments alone are reason enough for many influential businessmen and economists to favour the country's EU membership. This also influences the cultural perception of the country, writes Christiane Schlötzer"

Lisbon Treaty? What’s that?

In Turkey, debates concerning the EU membership process often include talks about the necessary reforms to be accomplished.

Turkey, the EU and the enemy within

Turkey is clearly the tortoise of the EU candidate countries when it comes to membership negotiations. But let's bear in mind that these negotiations have broken new ground for both Turkey and the EU.

With or without the IMF

Only two months ago, the economy minister declared Turkey was no longer in need of the IMF. The existing standby agreement that provided a $10 billion loan to Turkey will expire this May.

Turkey and the compulsory laicism

By Pierre-Antoine Rousseau

To decide whether we admit Turkey as part of the EU family, the following consideration is pertinent. A dictatorial laicism which violates freedoms of expression, assembly, and the untrammelled functioning of political parties, constitutes and will constitute, as long as it exists, an obstacle for its integration in the EU. This post was submitted by Consejo

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Strategic aspects of EU-China commercial and monetary relations

China's emergence as the world's third economic power has changed the "global chessboard" by adding a new tactical dimension of the Sino-European relationship, says an April study led by associate researcher at London's Royal Institute of International Affairs Karine Lisbonne-de Vergeron for the Robert Schuman Foundation.

New parliament power may complicate EU trade policy

The way the European Union draws up its trade policy baffles many outsiders and it is about to get more complicated when new powers are granted to the European Parliament. The Lisbon Treaty --

Robert Skidelsky: Recovering from Kosovo

LONDON – Kosovo’s recent unilateral declaration of independence brought back memories. I publicly opposed NATO’s attack on Serbia – carried out in the name of protecting the Kosovars from Serb atrocities – in March 1999. At that time, I was a member of the Opposition Front Bench – or Shadow Government – in Britain’s House of Lords. The then Conservative leader, William Hague, immediately expelled me to the “back benches.” Thus ended my (minor) political career. Ever since, I have wondered whether I was right or wrong.

EU Plots to Destroy Britain - Again

By strangemaps 

It’s déjà vu all over again. Post #163 of this blog (d.d. Aug 5, 2007) dealt with a secretive plan by the European Union to carve up the United Kingdom into several transnational zones, linking parts of the UK with parts of the Continent and wiping out the British state in the process.

The plan was ‘revealed’ by the europhobic Daily Mail. This time around, it’s the equally populist newspaper The Sun that has ‘discovered’ the same plan, albeit with a slightly different map. It must be that the europhobic segment of the Great British Public love a good EU horror story and don’t mind being scared twice by the same one. I don’t know if the deliberatlely misleading article, oozing paranoia and xenophobia, should make me laugh or cry:

Interview: Lisbon Treaty 'not as necessary as we thought'

The EU has continued to function as well as it ever did following the 'big bang' enlargement of 2004, Professor Anand Menon, from the University of Birmingham's European Research Institute, told EurActiv.sk in an interview, expressing his scepticism over the real need for the Lisbon Treaty.

Interview: EU 'credibility gap' on human rights in Russia

While negotiating a new Partnership Agreement with Russia, the EU should not neglect the fact that the country's human rights conditions seriously worsened during outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin's era, Tanya Lokshina of Human Rights Watch told EurActiv in an interview.

EU: Flights and restaurants risky for payment cards

Purchasing plane tickets online is one of the least secure transactions that can be carried out with a payment card and chances are high that customers will be targeted by fraudsters, according to a report published yesterday (28 April) by the European Commission.

Rome votes for right-wing mayor

Right winger Gianni Alemanno wins Rome's mayoral poll, in another blow to Italy's centre-left.

In France, Prisons Filled With Muslims

By Molly Moore 

SEQUEDIN, France -- Samia El Alaoui Talibi walks her beat in a cream-colored head scarf and an ink-black robe with sunset-orange piping, an outfit she picked up at a yard sale.

Pitfalls of harmonising the EU corporate tax base

Introducing a common corporate tax base as proposed by the Commission and backed by the upcoming French Presidency of the EU would be wrong and unfeasible, claim Sebastian Dullien and Daniela Schwarzer in a 13 April review for Eurozone Watch.

DOSSIER: Lithuania blocks EU treaty with Russia | 29/04/2008

For years the EU has been trying to sign a new partnership and cooperation agreement with Russia. First Poland blocked the agreement, but once the dispute over Polish meat exports was settled it seemed there was nothing to prevent its signing. Now, however, Lithuania is blocking the negotiations because Russia has failed to deliver oil supplies in the amount agreed on.

EU food price rises seen as unjustified

Only about two-thirds of the rise in food prices in Europe can be attributed to increases in the cost of ingredients, the European Commission said

German (European) education

By Guy La Roche

New Europe-based weblog Escape Indifference has an interesting post on higher education in Germany called Not welcome in Germany. Chris Osman, the author of the weblog, is a student at a German university. In his post h