This is from a Judas Priest album cover. An attacking eagle, I imagine. Just suits to the day of Beşiktaş' last game this year. If things go smoothly, this will be the last game in our Inönü stadium as we know it. There will be a huge renovation due to start this summer.

Erkan is in an unusual depression nowadays. I shouldn't feel lonely, but i felt a intensive loneliness recently and yesterday I slept all day and did not go out. After my morning class, i rushed back home, dozed off while watching some Ealing Comedies.  I got up at midnight and stayed awake until early morning.

Now we are out, Nurdan and I, have bought some presents for mum and an aunt who is visiting mum, and now we are having a rest in Cevahir's Starbucks.      

 

Having relaxed after finding some presents for the Mothers' Day and I am sure mum won't like what we bought for her, i will do some reading and and go to Beşiktaş to get some drinks before the game.

Speaking of Mothers' Day, here is one of the Turkish Army's posters for the day:

 

Hmm, I realize I didn't notify you of my new laptop. Yes, i bought an old Sony Vaio 13'' which works fine for the first three weeks. That was a long process of decision making and i am still not sure if this is the best but whatever, it works fine for the moment and here in Starbuck i can use broadband through the TTnet account i am using at home.

anyway, the plan was Nurdan would be chatting and i would be reading and now I deliver my laptop to her and get back to reading...  

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Turkey marks another Euro Day bitterly

Turkey's enthusiasm for celebrating Europe Day today is tempered once again by domestic political turbulence and deceleration of the reform process. “If we evaluate – in broader

The Democratic Turkish socialistic CHP and their threats

By Internation Musing

This week I had my ‘monthly’ meeting with another blogger in Turkey, Super Hero.:

All was fine, until we met on Taksim square where a demonstration was going of left wing party in Turkey; the ODP. Lots of policemen with their stenguns. Nothing serious happened, but I can not get used to this kind of threatening situations.

Other threats, which are made this week was done by the CHP against Joost Lagendijk, the co-chairman of the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission, a fervent supporter of a Turkey in th EU:

Kemal Anadol, deputy leader of the CHP's parliamentary group, stated on Monday that the CHP's response would be very severe if the EU continued to attack his party (...)

Rehn's categorization sparks reaction from military

A top European Union official's categorization of Turkey was strongly refuted by the country's Chief of Staff and some columnists yesterday. Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt

Report: Turkish president approves amendment enhancing free speech | Jerusalem Post

Rehn says ombudsman system may solve headscarf issue

Turkey should establish an ombudsman mechanism to tackle its headscarf problem, the European Union's enlargement commissioner said Tuesday. Olli Rehn said in an interview

MEPs welcome decision to watch Sulukule

Three members of the European Parliament sent a letter to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Tuesday welcoming the decision to task Parliament's Human Rights Commission to look

Turkey's eyes on French presidency

Turkey appears unsatisfied with French assurances that the next European Union term presidency will be objective and impartial toward Ankara's membership process. “We'll look at the

Turkey’s smart power

Turkey's increasing engagement within its region from the Balkans to the Middle East is indicative of a new perspective on the new regional and international dynamics.

Loizidou criteria for EU entry talks

Although the newly-elected Greek Cypriot president's stance toward dialogue with northern Cyprus has inspired hope of finding a solution to the Cyprus problem, Dimitris Christofias' recent

Is the EU's 'democracy check' on Turkey wrong?

Cengiz ÇANDAR

EU supports the AKP, however...

Mehmet Ali Birand

Council of Europe contemplates police ethics training for Turkey

The Council of Europe plans to take action to help align the Turkish police's professional ethics with Europe's police ethics and human rights convention standards, a move that comes days after

International labor unions condemn May 1 incidents

International labor unions condemned the incidents that occurred during the May 1 rally in Istanbul in a letter they sent to President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

Friends with wands -- but no magic -- in the EU

D. Nigar GÖKSEL

The European Union for Beginners

Elizabeth Pond:

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MAIN FOCUS: Europe's day of celebration | 09/05/2008

58 years ago today, the French Foreign Minister at the time, Robert Schuman, presented the vision of a united Europe to the world. Accordingly, each year on May 9 "Europe Day" is celebrated to mark the successful realisation of this dream. But there are also critical voices in Europe's press.

Europe Day, but not in Britain

By Richard Laming

Today is Europe Day, the anniversary of the Schuman Declaration that gave birth to the idea of the European Union. It is celebrated across Europe as a recognition of what the EU has achieved. In Poland, there is a parade through the streets of Warsaw; in Bulgaria, there are educational events around the country; and in Turkey, the foreign minister invited the ambassadors of the EU member states and candidate countries to breakfast.

Found here:  French Kissing Map Over 18.000 votes have been cast in a poll to determine once and for all the answer to the burning question: Combien de bises? That’s French for ‘How many kisses’, and kissing in France is a lot more complex the French’s somewhat overstated reputation for carefree libidinosity implies.

Europe Lacks a Risk Culture

by Joerg Wolf

InformationWeek:

London may be eclipsing Wall Street as the world financial capital, and the euro is trouncing the dollar, but Europe has yet to prove the equal of the United States in technological innovation.

Europeans get drunk 'to have sex'

Some teenagers and young adults get high on drink and drugs to improve their sex lives, research suggests.

Free movement of labour in the EU-27

Some of the EU's strongest and wealthiest 'old' member states continue to restrict access to their labour markets by workers from Eastern Europe. Germany and Austria are the only member states, however, which have voiced their intention to block access to their labour markets until 2011.

Europe's energy revolution taking shape?

As the EU's energy liberalisation drive heats up, European consumers may be wondering when and in what shape the EU's new energy policy will begin to transform the way energy is produced and consumed, and if the change will mean lower prices or higher industry profits.

National parliaments prepare for bigger role in the EU

Members of parliament from across the EU, meeting in Brdo (Slovenia) on 7-8 May, have begun developing an embryonic strategy to deal with new provisions contained in the EU's Lisbon Treaty that would significantly increase their powers within the EU.

EU questions its future direction on Europe Day

Today, as on every 9th of May, the European institutions will celebrate Europe Day, highlighting the successes of EU integration. But socialists and other political leaders say the celebration should also offer "a more political debate" about the EU's future direction.

Parliament wants EU sport budget for 2009

MEPs have backed Commission plans for a specific EU sport policy, while urging the EU executive to provide clearer guidelines on how EU law applies in sport and calling for an EU sport budget for 2009.

New EU Treaty wins approval of Baltic duo

The Lisbon Treaty yesterday (8 May) passed through the Latvian and the Lithuanian Parliaments by large majorities, increasing the number of countries having approved the text to 13 out of 27.

Interview: EU did 'right thing' ahead of Serbian elections

The EU acted boldly by signing the Stabilisation and Association Agreement with Serbia ahead of the early parliamentary elections on 11 May, Goran Svilanovic, the former minister of foreign affairs of Serbia and Montenegro, told EurActiv in an interview. He also welcomed the EU's recent visa facilitation initiative.

Payback time for bishops in Spain?

AFTER years of testy relations with the Catholic hierarchy, Spain's government is preparing to gain some distance from the Church. As El Pais reports, the vice president Maria Fernandez de la Vega has outlined a series of steps to move the country toward more equal treatment of religions. It's about time.

Lithuania in Europe, Europe in Lithuania

By Rasa Balockaite

Cultural and political life in Lithuania is marked by what Homi K. Bhabha called an "ironic compromise", writes Rasa Balockaite. The Lithuanian is "almost a European but not quite".

Nicolas Sarkozy: A new style of EU Presidency?

"Le style c'est l'homme" as the French say, yet Nicolas Sarkozy's style does not suit all European policymakers, explains Joachim Fritz-Vannahme in a February paper for the Bertelsmannstiftung.

Immigration » No Melting Pot for Germany | Furman University, Spring 2008

Financial Management in the European Union

Source: UK National Audit Office

The Decline and Fall of Sarkozy

By Boz

World Politics Review has a new article up entitled Saving Candidate Sarkozy: A Year of Disappointment and Broken Promises, suggesting that Sarkozy's fall in popularity may be because he reminds the French of what they really are:

MAIN FOCUS: 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel | 08/05/2008

The state of Israel was founded 60 years ago today. Yet the region is still among the world's most crisis-torn hot spots, and a solution seems as far-off as ever. Europe's press comments on the anniversary.

Structural change demands greater mobility

As a result of ageing populations and structural changes, mobility is set to rise in the next 15-20 years, says Stefan Schneider in an April research paper for Deutsche Bank.

Poultry case 'key test' in cutting EU-US trade barriers

High-level delegations from the EU and the United States will meet next week (13 May) for talks on eliminating remaining regulatory obstacles hampering trade and investment between the two economic giants. A long-standing poultry dispute between the two sides is topping the agenda.

Tough grilling awaits Italian commissioner in Parliament

Members of the European Parliament are expected to give a hard time to the Italian commissioner-designate Antonio Tajani during his hearing procedure in the European Parliament in the coming weeks, various Parliament sources said.

EU and Islam nations inside the European territory

By blogmanager

The EMI must not ignore the reality of countries within the European landscape which have Islam as the official religion: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Albania and possibly, in the future, Kosovo. The first premise with respect of these countries is that they should be included in future enlargements. However, a further consideration cannot be avoided. Namely, if individual

EU immigration policy and “volumes of admission”

On the one hand, the EMI approves the fact that Art. 79 TFEU establishes the regulation of immigration policy in terms comparable to the Draft Constitution. However, when mention is made of the right of each Member State to establish “volumes of admission”, the article does not dare to speak about a common policy with

Germany clashes over shape of EU corps

Senior lawmakers in the ruling 'grand coalition' want the diplomats to be part of the European Commission, thereby under direct control of the European parliament

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Özkök’s fellow journalists hit back at him for questionable comments

An unofficial gathering of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and journalists for a dinner on Saturday at Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV) President Can Paker's home seems to have angered Hürriyet daily Editor-in-Chief Ertuğrul Özkök, who was not invited to the dinner; in his Tuesday column he speculated about what was discussed during the dinner, relying only on rumors.

Why didn't you invite Mr. Özkök?

By SALİH TUNA, YENİ ŞAFAK

Well, if the prime minister wants to gather with some journalists in someone's home to talk about national issues and eat dinner, then Ertuğrul Özkök (the managing editor of daily Hürriyet) certainly should have been invited. Let's dispense with exclusion and discrimination.

Prime Ministry pens third correction in three days

The Prime Ministry issued a third correction in the space of three days on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's meeting Saturday with a group of journalists and civil society

Yusuf Kanlı: A dinner and beyond

Since last Saturday, Can Peker, chairman of the prestigious TESEV (the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation), hosted a dinner in honor of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.It was attended by some eminent members of the Turkish media and their spouses. Today the country is discussing what was and what wasnt discussed at that dinner. Of course at a time when the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is facing a closure case and the prime minister himself is among the 71 persons the prosecutor has asked the Constitutional Court be banned from politics for a five-year period, the prime minister coming together with some eminent newsmen for a “free discussion”

Newsroom Barometer: threats to newspapers, areas of investment, more results

By Jean Yves Chainon

There has been a lot of coverage of the results of the Newsroom Barometer, including Reuters' own take on the findings. If you haven't taken a look at the main findings (namely editors' massive acceptation of the integrated newsroom model, as well as about half of them believing news will be free in the future and that online will be the most common platform for news), you can read more below: Read Part 1: Presentation - main results, the integrated newsroom will be the norm Read Part 2: Multimedia, multi-skilled and integrated Read Part 3: The future of the press Read Part 4: Who participated in the survey? Read Part 5: Comments by John Zogby and WEF President George Brock Read Part 6: Threats to newspapers, areas of investment, more results

Targeted Advertising: The Role of Subscriber Characteristics in Media Markets

Source: Munich Personal RePEc Archive

Speaking anonymously

If I were you, I wouldn't believe everything I read in newspapers -- especially news items that are not attributed to a source with a name. Many reputable media outlets, including The New York Times (NYT) and The Washington Post (WP), have limited the use of unnamed sources to a minimum for fear of manipulation.

Women watch the media: 'Our eyes are on you!'

While women make up half of the population around the world and in Turkey, the rate of women represented in decision-making capacities in the media is only 15 percent. One women's media

Journalists beaten, newspapers differ in opinion

Two journalists with daily newspaper Vatan, and one member of staff, were reportedly assaulted Sunday by members of a religious community while working on a story, Vatan

Newsroom Barometer: the future of the press

By Jean Yves Chainon

Although some of the main findings of this year's Newsroom Barometer relate to trends of newsroom integration, the survey's results also revealed some major trends as to the future of the press and news in general.

America's Top 100 Newspapers

By Reflection Cafe

Mondo Newspapers covers the top 100 American newspapers in depth, based on readership data from the Newspaper Assocation of America.

Digging Deeper::NPR Considers Convergence for Next Generation of Radio Reporters

In RadioShift

The younger generation will be our future leaders. We hear that a lot in politics, but it also applies to media companies wondering who will be leading them into a digital future. National Public Radio has two programs — Next Generation Radio (NextGen) and Intern Edition — aimed at training young folks to do quality radio reporting the NPR way. Not surprisingly, those twentysomethings have also pushed NPR further into the digital realm, creating an eye-catching blog and using Public Radio Exchange (PRX), an online marketplace for radio reports, to get wider distribution for their work.

Turkish Press Scanner

SABAH Manager sends employees to May Day celebrations, loses his job The general manager of a company that works under the İzmir Municipality gave permission to his employees to participate in May Day celebrations in Istanbul, but the decision cost him his job, daily Sabah reported yesterday. Zeki Babaoğlu was the general manager of İZELMAN, one of the largest companies operating under the İzmir Municipality, 6,000 employees. Baboğlu said he was removed from office because he had allowed 82 of the company's employees to participate in May Day rallies in Istanbul his own initiative. “The mayor called me to his office when he heard

Press Roundup

EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik on Wednesday attended the awards ceremony of an inter-high school academic competition in Ankara. Rehn came to Turkey to attend a landmark meeting of the EU-Turkey Troika in Ankara on Tuesday.

Press Roundup

To mark the morning of spring festival Hıdrellez young women of marriageable age dressed in bridal array, while young unmarried men dressed smartly, and the young people danced and sang on the banks of the Tunca River in Edirne.

Turkish Press Scanner

TF '301' in northern Cyprus An article similar to Article 301 of the penal code that criminalizes insults to "Turkishness" is being applied in northern Cyprus, reported daily Taraf yesterday. In a court case in northern Cyprus, Ayhan Kaymak was fined YTL 400 under Article 154 of the northern Cypriot penal code in Northern Cyprus, the equivalent of Article 301 in Turkey. This is the first case where a court in northern Cyprus has found someone guilty of insulting "Turkishness.” It been revealed that Kaymak is the son of Faiz Kaymak, from whom former Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chairman Alparslan Türkeş said he learned about nationalism.

Press Roundup

Monks clear debris from roads littered by a cyclone in Yangon, Myanmar, on Sunday. Residents of Myanmar's biggest city on Monday used candles for lighting, lined up to buy water and hacked their way through trees felled in the cyclone that killed more than 13,000 people.

Turkish Press Scanner

AKP's love of TÜBİTAK – Taraf The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government is determined to have a say in the management of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), the daily Taraf reported yesterday. The AKP's effort to be influential in the restructuring of the council and the election of its chairman first surfaced in 2003. Not willing to appoint former TÜBİTAK chairman Namık Kemal Pak to the presidency, the government delayed the processing of the decree appointing him to the office and did not approve the names elected to the Scientific Committee. It amended the relevant law to pave the way for the government to appoint the names it wanted instead of

Turkish Press Scanner

MİLLİYET Tensions between students during parade rehearsals for May 19A fight between secondary students of Kurdish and Arab origins, who had gathered recently in a stadium in the Midyat district of Turkey's southeastern province of Mardin to rehearse for parades and ceremonies to be performed on the approaching May 19 National Youth and Sports Day, was prevented by police at the last moment, reported daily Milliyet yesterday. Rehearsals were halted when two students, one from the Istanbul Menkul Kıymetler Borsası High School attended mainly by Kurdish students, the other from the Aziz Önen High School attended mainly by students of Arab origins, began to fight with each other. The fight be

Press Roundup

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used a blowtorch to weld metal during a Saturday visit to İstanbul's Tuzla shipyards, where many have workers died due to unsafe working conditions.

Turkish Press Scanner

President's surprise visit to TV series set – Hürriyet During his visit to Macedonia to attend the “15th Summit of Central European Countries' Presidents,” President Abdullah Gül dropped by the

Press Roundup

Clashes erupted yesterday between demonstrators and police as protesters attempted to march to İstanbul's Taksim Square to hold May Day celebrations, despite such activities being banned at that spot. Masked demonstrators threw bricks at the lines of riot police and some attacked police officers with Molotov cocktails.

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Commission pushing for 'New Social Agenda'

The Commission yesterday revealed plans to update the current social agenda and better integrate it into the EU's overall policy framework. The main focus lies in addressing cross-border health care, improving workers' rights and promoting better education systems.

MAIN FOCUS: Changeover of power in Moscow | 07/05/2008

The new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will be sworn in today. His predecessor Vladimir Putin switches to the office of prime minister. The European press weighs up the concequences of the transfer of power in the Kremlin.

Russia's Medvedev takes power - by Michael Stott and Oleg Shchedrov

Slovakia’s Euro Entry Bid Accepted

By Edward Hugh

Slovakia today won EU approval to adopt the euro on Jan. 1 2009, thus becoming the 16th member of the European single currency zone. The EU Commission announced today on its Web site that Slovakia had reduced both the fiscal deficit and inflation sufficiently to qualify. At the same time the Commission announced that they were terminating the excess deficit procedure, a move which is a mandatory to joining the euro region.

Sweet Sixteen

By Sandra Singh

The European Commission has given Slovakia a go to introduce the Euro. If the EU-ministers of Finance will reach an agreement on their next assembly, the Euro will be introduced on the 1st of January 2009.

Lasting euro success requires bolder proposals

The Commission is right to claim the euro is a success. It is also right to admit the euro has fallen short, say Jean Pisani-Ferry and André Sapir

The EU's new president: better quality rumours

Can Brown stomach Juncker?

IT IS a mug's game now, and always will be, to predict in advance who will end up with top jobs in the European Union. The record is consistent:

EU defends biofuels target against 'media storm'

Dmitri Medvedev’s challenge , Richard Sakwa

In his speech to Russia's Civic Forum on 22 January 2008, the incoming Russian president Dmitry Medvedev called for the struggle against corruption to become a "national programme", noting that "legal nihilism" took the form of "corruption in the power bodies". 

EU seeks more protection for energy consumers

Amid concerns over rising energy prices, the Commission is preparing a new online information pool on the rights of energy consumers, while MEPs in the Parliament's Industry Committee have voted for stronger consumer protection measures in the EU's energy market liberalisation drive.

Interview: Russia not to blame for Caucasus war threat

Speaking to EurActiv on the day the new Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took office, Vladimir Chizhov, the Russian ambassador to the EU, put the full blame on Georgia for the military build-up in the South Caucasus and portrayed his country as a whistleblower for the region.

Green Week 2008

By Pierre-Antoine Rousseau

The European Commission’s DG on Environment will be hosting their annual Green Week event from 3 - 6 June in Brussels. Green Week 2008 will take a closer look  at the sustainable use of natural resources, focusing on waste management, sustainable consumption and production. PostEurop will be there representing our 48 member Postal operators.

Swedish MEP blogs on Yourspace

By Pierre-Antoine Rousseau

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By Daniel Steinvorth in Political Tremors in Istanbul: The Rise of Turkey's New Left - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News says:

In the wake of the May riots in Turkey, another group has now entered the power struggle in Istanbul. In addition to pro-secularism Kemalists and conservative Muslims, workers and the left are now making their voices heard.

 Although there is much truth in Mr. Steinvort's article, I am not sure if we can speak of an emerging politically active group. Trade Unions are notariously politicaly savvy - not necessarily for the benefits of workers- and they know when to act. Two major labor confederations, particularly DISK, knew well that their act would be reported intensively. In a feud between the major media organizations and the government, media would become suddenly become pro-labor and cover the story in an anti-government fashion.

Unproportional use of police force has been a notorious tradition in May 1 anniversaries, and one wonders why the mainstream media becomes labor friendly in the last two years. In other times, our media would probably emphasize the "illegal leftist" groups or PKK sympathizers among the demonstrators and would justify the police force...

AFP: EU concerned over political stability in Turkey, calls for reform

Turkish people think Turkey's top court will dismantle the ruling AKP

Details of Turkey's AKP's defense disclosed

Trade Unions responsible for Police violence, says PM

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended yesterday the police action against demonstrators during May Day rallies, saying perpetrators aimed at disrupting public

CHP attacks against PM over May Day and sale of daily Sabah

The main opposition leader said yesterday his party is preparing to table two motions of censure against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan – one on the use of force by police during May Day rallies,

AKP contributes to discussion on road map against closure

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held another meeting with his deputies late Tuesday to discuss a possible plan to block efforts by the Constitutional Court to ban his party for anti-secular

Yusuf Kanlı: AKP version II?

Particularly after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) chose to engage in a “counter offensive” ridiculing the indictment against it and the chief prosecutor rather than presenting its preliminary defense to the Constitutional Court, the expectation that the ruling party will be closed down has increased. In addition, discussions regarding the establishment of an “AKP version II” party have begun to spread like a malign tumor.Some distinguished members of the ruling party have started pointing privately to the “mistakes of leadership” and “wrong priorities” as the primary causes of the party's troubled situation – as well as that of the country's political and economic stability.,

Saturday evening with Erdoğan

Cengiz ÇANDAR

Erdoğan’s choice: You break it, you own it

Let me continue from where I left off in my previous article. Noting that most of the ideas had begun to crystallize in Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's mind, it was clear that his choices on the major route of troubled politics would be visible very soon.

The turban, multiple wives, and a hundred lashes

Burak BEKDİL

'Moderate Islam'?

Murat BELGE

Why is the PM's office so edgy?

Mehmet Ali Birand

The US may lose Turkey forever by GÖKHAN BACIK

The present-day turbulence in Turkish domestic politics constructs the zeitgeist in the country, and it is one that is well worthy of external actors' attention, particularly that of the US.

Secularism, religiosity and coexistence

At a time when his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is facing possible closure over allegations of being a focal point of anti-secular activity, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, during a recent interview with the US magazine Newsweek, said: “Turkey has achieved what people said could never be achieved -- a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity.

Disproportionate use of force is weakness

By ÖZLEM ALBAYRAK, YENİ ŞAFAK

You can implement as much in the way of liberal economic policies as you want; you can think you have obtained legitimacy by shifting the course of the nation toward the EU; you can even wholeheartedly embrace a secular leadership stance, but it still won't work.

A road map and modern reforms

By ESER KARAKAŞ, STAR

In the briefest time possible Turkey must completely rip up and throw away the "crazy shirt" of so-called justice that was worn by the Sept. 12 regime; it is now very clear that with this type of constitution and legal mentality, there is no way our nation will be able to move forward or compete on a global level.

What should the AK Party do?

By HASAN CELAL GÜZEL, RADİKAL

This is not a legal battle, but a struggle for administrative power. Those who did not emerge from the ballot boxes winning either the trust or the affection of the people of Turkey have now prepared a political conspiracy by using the nation's legal system, which is opposing the very will of the people of Turkey.

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France pledges not to hinder Turkey's EU accession process

Turkey’s clash of values: memo to Europe by CEM ÖZDEMİR

For almost a year now, Turkey has been undergoing a profound domestic crisis.

Turkey's Headscarf Legislation: The Negative Impact on EU Accession

By Antonia Ruiz Jimenez


In February 2008, Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) passed two constitutional amendments that intend to lift the ban on Islamic headscarves on college campuses. Although it is still unclear how the legislation will be implemented, the new laws are likely to have a negative impact on how the European Union sees Turkey.

EU warns of negative consequences if Turkish ruling party is banned : Europe World

Babacan to attend Council of Europe meeting

More than 30 ministers from Council of Europe member states will meet in Strasbourg Wednesday.

Turkey's top judge takes office

The new Turkish judge of the European Court of Human Rights, Işıl Karakaş, was sworn into office yesterday at a

'Colony governor' Lagendijk a new member of AKP team: CHP

A member of the main opposition party harshly criticized yesterday the Dutch politician who co-chairs a joint parliamentary commission between the Turkish and European parliaments because

La Cappadoce, l’autre Turquie

Centre Presse (France)

4 mai 2008, p. 34 à 37

Sur la Route de la soie, immersion dans une région passerelle entre l’Orient et l’Occident.

Sur une autre planète ? On se le demande tant l’Anatolie, ce haut plateau de Turquie, recèle des contrées aux paysages plus que singuliers. À une heure de vol d’Istanbul, la Cappadoce ouvre les portes d’une contrée unique. Du haut de ces 3 900 mètres d’altitude, le mont Argée, totalement enneigé, se dessine au loin… Ce géant surplombe la plaine et la ville de Kayseri…

Cyprus new, communist-rooted president scores high marks in opinion poll

A poll published Sunday gave the Greek Cypiot president a 75 percent approval rating two months after taking office, reflecting wide support for his efforts to end the island's ethnic division.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION IS INCREASINGLY RESTRICTED IN TURKEY - Eurasia Daily Monitor

EDVARD NALBANDIAN: ARMENIA READY TO ESTABLISH RELATIONS WITH TURKEY WITHOUT PRELIMINARY CONDITIONS

EU urges Turkey to probe May Day police crackdown | Reuters

Turkey: Land Registry and Cadastre Modernization Project | Worldbank

Statement for greater energy cooperation

The European Union, Arab-Mashreq countries, Iraq and Turkey agreed Monday on the importance of developing additional gas pipelines linking Iraq to Turkey and Iraq to Arab countries.

Turkey: in or out?, by Andrew Finkel

Just the promise of EU membership has attracted much desired investment to Turkey, while at the same time inducing the Turkish government to improve its democratic accountability and standard of governance. However, negotiations are going through a difficult patch at present."

Turkish Weekly Comment - International Retirement Migration in Turkey

Bulgaria is watching

"We are watching the AKP closure case very closely," said Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin during a visit for the May 6 Saint George and

No gov't effect on judiciary for full impartiality

In order to ensure judicial independence, governments should not attempt to influence the judiciary, the head of the Supreme Court of Appeals said yesterday. “Full

Government to amend labor union law

The government plans to amend the law on trade unions, strikes and collective bargaining as part of the country's accession negotiations with the European Union, the government's spokesman said

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Morning Brief : The nominee?

By Blake Hounshell

Top Story

Barack Obama carried North Carolina by 14 points and lost narrowly to Hillary Clinton in Indiana, by 23,000 votes. "If anything, Mrs. Clinton's hopes for overtaking Senator Barack Obama dwindled further on Tuesday night," writes Adam Nagourney for the New York Times. "We now know who the nominee is going to be," NBC's Tim Russert proclaimed (video), noting that Clinton had canceled most of her Wednesday public appearances.

Publicly, she vowed to fight on, saying, "It's full speed on to the White House." But it would appear that she didn't pick up enough votes or delegates to remain viable, and her campaign is running out of money.

 

Morning Brief: Judgment day

By Blake Hounshell 

Top Story

Voters in Indiana and North Carolina will choose between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama today.

 

Democrat Obama 'outraged' by former pastor

Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, trying to quell a political firestorm that has roiled his presidential campaign, strongly denounced his former pastor on Tuesday and called his racially charged

Why Aren’t Clinton and Obama Raising Constitutional Issues?

By Patricia Lee Sharpe

John Yoo, the Benedict Arnold of our constitutional system, is in the news again. His memos, those secret messages he so treacherously delivered to the Bush administration, are gradually coming to light. One of the latest to surface (so far as I know) held that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t apply to “domestic military operations” against terrorists. Pressed to the wall, the slippery new Attorney General conceded, very reluctantly, that the Fourth Amendment, which protects Americans against unreasonable search and seizure, is indeed still in effect “across the board.”

The New U.S. - Russia Relationship?

By Nikolas K. Gvosdev

I was recently asked what happened to the "realist" agenda for the U.S.-Russia relationship. I think that Alexey Pushkov's comments last week are quite apropos: the core fundamentals--anti-terrorism, promoting stability in the international system, stemming nuclear proliferation, and so on--were never really operationalized with clear criteria and where both sides took the "in principle" and moved to "what we do" (e.g., from Moscow's statement that, "in principle", Russia does not want Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon, to what Moscow actually thinks is the problem and what it is prepared to do about it).

US: New online tools for covering the election

By Kelley Vendeland

At the NewsTools 2008 conference last week, the Sunlight Foundation debuted some new tools out of their Sunlight Labs that stand to help any journalist covering American national politics.











From The Telegraph, a look at the 50 most influential US political pundits.

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BLOG - POLITICAL

Webby Award Winner	Agency/Credited Organization
The Huffington Post http://huffingtonpost.com	The Huffington Post
People's Voice Winner
The Huffington Post http://huffingtonpost.com	The Huffington Post

AND HUNDREDS OF MORE CATEGORIES....

 

 

Social network downtime Jan-Apr 2008:

Downtime summary, January through April

This table is sorted so that the highest downtime is at the top. In other words, it is one of the few lists where it is a good thing to be near the bottom.

Social network site downtime, Jan 1 - April 30, 2008

Social Network	Home page (monitored)	Downtime	Uptime %
Twitter	www.twitter.com	37h 16m	98.72%
Reunion.com	www.reunion.com	18h 55m	99.35%
Pownce *	www.pownce.com	13h 20m	99.44%
Bebo	www.bebo.com	14h 13m	99.51%
hi5	www.hi5.com	12h 59m	99.55%
Windows Live Spaces	spaces.live.com	9h 40m	99.67%
LinkedIn	www.linkedin.com	7h 40m	99.74%
Friendster	www.friendster.com	6h 50m	99.76%
Last.fm	www.last.fm	6h 10m	99.79%
Orkut	www.orkut.com	3h 0m	99.90%
Facebook	www.facebook.com	2h 29m	99.91%
Classmates.com	www.classmates.com	2h 20m	99.92%
Yahoo! 360	360.yahoo.com	1h 40m	99.94%
LiveJournal	www.livejournal.com	1h 25m	99.95%
Xanga	www.xanga.com	1h 25m	99.95%
MySpace	www.myspace.com	1h 5m	99.96%

* Pownce has only been monitored since January 22, when the site went public.

Twitter Apps and Tools Becoming More Plentiful

The number of new Twitter tools and services launching seems to really be accelerating. In the past couple weeks we have seen the launch of tools like TrackThis, a useful tool that tracks package deliveries, and TwittEarth, a 3-D model of the Twitter universe that uses cute avatars to represent Twitter users. Here are some of the new apps and tools recently added to the Twitter tools list.

Automatically Assessing the Quality of Wikipedia Articles

By Joshua E. Blumenstock

Since its inception in 2001, Wikipedia has fast become one of the Internet's most dominant sources of information. Dubbed "the free encyclopedia", Wikipedia contains millions of articles that are written, edited, and maintained by volunteers. Due in part to the open, collaborative process by which content is generated, many have questioned the reliability of these articles. The high variance in quality between articles is a potential source of confusion that likely leaves many visitors unable to distinguish between good articles and bad. In this work, we describe how a very simple metric - word count - can be used to as a proxy for article quality, and discuss the implications of this result for Wikipedia in particular, and quality assessment in general.

Financial Information: The Internet and its Effects

By Bayram Orazov

The abundance of online advertisements for stock brokers, mutual funds and currency trading suggests that web-based trading in the financial markets has been widely embraced by the general public. Stock trading once had high entry barriers, including startup capital, a good understanding of the market, and access to special information. This paper explores how the Web has reduced entry barriers and in the process has transformed personal investing and related services. Issues of information quality, timeliness, aggregation and analysis as related to web-based trading are considered.

Campaign: Brazilian bloggers vs. a WordPress ban

Description: After an unauthorized sex tape was posted on a Brazilian WordPress blog, a judicial order to shut down the blog was issued. This would mean a block on all WordPress blogs in Brazil, as they all share the same IP address.  Blocking that one IP would mean that no blogs on the WordPress platform would be accessible from within Brazil. Similar blocks have been imposed before in Brazil, and bloggers want to make sure it won’t happen again.

Digital Activism tools:blog, Orkut group, blog badge

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Sarkozy 'non' to Blair presidency

Nicolas Sarkozy has withdrawn his backing of Tony Blair to become the first EU president, sources say.

EU summit to open talks on full-time president

European Union leaders are pencilling in a Brussels -summit on June 19-20 for their first substantive discussions on who should become the bloc's first full-time...

Biofuels 'scapegoat' in food price row, says EU farm chief

EU Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer-Boel has rejected allegations that EU policies to promote biofuels are to blame for rising food prices amid calls by the UN to "cut back significantly" on agrofuel support programmes.

Serbia's EU course turns into question of life and death

Just days before crucial parliamentary elections (11 May), the question of Serbia's future accession to the EU has become an issue of existential importance as the country's President Boris Tadic has received a death threat over his pro-EU stance.

MAIN FOCUS: The catastrophe in Burma from the European perspective | 06/05/2008

Burma is on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe. 10,000 people were killed and hundreds of thousands left homeless when a cyclone ravaged the country several days ago. The Burmese military government, however, still plans to go ahead with a constitutional referendum to be held in a few days' time, to secure its grip on power. What does Europe have to say?

Has Sarkozy Met US Expectations?

By Joerg Wolf

When Nicolas Sarkozy was elected president one year ago today, the US media was full of praise for him and expected a big improvement in transatlantic relations.

Mission at sea over illegal migrants

THE case of 27 immigrants left clinging to fishing nets in the Mediterranean was just one recent example of the desperate measures people will take to get into Europe. The UNHCR reckons that last year the number of "irregular arrivals" by sea numbered about 19,900 in Italy, 18,000 in Spain (including the Canary Islands) and 1,800 in Malta. The numbers this year are expected to be at least as high.

Why EU rules matter (as shown by baguettes from Barnsley)

By Jon

Apparently the rules for what ingredients you’re allowed in bread are more precisely determined in French law than European law. As a result, a bakery in Barnsley is managing to sell baguettes to that very French institution - SNCF. I’ve tried to look into this is more depth, and via Wikipedia have come across this French bread law, .................

Parliament wins battle against Council on procedures for granting and withdrawing refugee status

Today the European Court of Justice ruled that the Council is abusing its powers regarding European asylum policy. Decisions to change the European common list of safe third countries should be subject to the co-decision procedure, whereby the European Parliament is fully involved as co-legislator. Initially the Council just wanted to consult Parliament. 

TEN-T Progress Report has to be more detailed and published every six months

Today at the informal Council of Transport Ministers in Brdo (Slovenia), the European Commission presented a progress report on the implementation of the Trans European Transport Network priority projects (TEN-T).

Benefits of renewable energy useless without caps on coal

New funding measures and the mandatory use of carbon capture and storage (CCS) techniques are being proposed by Chris Davies MEP (UK Lib Dem), EP rapporteur on the draft legislation. Chris Davies warns that unless coal-fired power stations are forced to adopt CCS to prevent carbon emissions escaping to the atmosphere all the benefits of developing renewable energy will be cancelled out.

Norway

by Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission

On Monday this week I was in Norway. It was a sad feeling to leave my family on a sunny Sunday afternoon to catch the flight to Oslo. I was there to participate in a debate on the theme ‘does the EU threaten the Nordic welfare system?’. The debate that attracted around 300 people was very lively and interesting. The majority of the participants - including the Norwegian and Finnish Ministers for Foreign Affairs, Jonas Gahr Støre and Alexander Stubb, the Norwegian Minister of Labour, Bjarne Håkon Hanssen, the President of the Norwegian Labour Union Federation, Roar Flathen, and Mona Sahlin leader of the Swedish Social Democratic party, agreed that the EU is not a threat to the Nordic welfare model and that it could serve as a model for other countries.

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 live coverage of the conference begins!

Media Clientelism
Lecturer: Daniel C.Hallin
Date: 6 May 2008
Time: 4:00 p.m.
Place: santralistanbul E-3 101 

 

Charactesteristics of media clientelism:

Lower levels of newspaper circulation.  

 Instrumentalization of media
"give me a ministry, or i will start a newspaper!
examples from Greece, Italy, Latin America

Limited development of journalism in terms of lower levels of professionalism.

Clientelism and media.
In some countries, journalists are directly part of clientelism. Many Latin American countries.

In others, indirect connections. Political context shapes, produces the indirect links.

and in some, there are no causal connections. but historical commonalities btw poli


liberal model - northern america, UK - commercial media

democratic corporate model- northern europe - coexistence of partisanship, strong role of state, high degree of press freedom, and corporate structures.

polarized model - southern europe, lower level of journalistic professionalism, strong role of state without strong press freedom.

Clientelism leads to instrumentalization of media.

Thus the Greek businessman needs to establish a media institution.

Early American media was also depended on clientelism. But by late 19 C the reform movement originating from Business circles led development of a rational-legalistic journalistic model. Business needed a more predictable outcome.

FCC is now sort of neutral. Business does not need to be anxious because of how comes to power.

but for instance in Spain, every institutions are shared by two major camps.

Clientelism breaks down horizontal relations. C. is a vertital relationship. It acts an anti-solidarity tool. Journalistic organizations in Southern Europe are not strong as journalists belong to other more vertical entities that weaken the journalistic solidarity.

neutral expertise. the ideology of journalism in US developed eventually. But Italians (journalists) would be writing politically...

in Northern Europe. Partisanship was still important. But there were certain rules of the game that all parties could agree on. So they could agree on a code of ethics while South Europeans still think code of ethnics unnecessary.

Polarized plural model that is found in South Europe is the most relevant all over the world. It is a deviation from the ideal but it is what really helps us to explain journalistic matters.

the literature on clientelism in this model-countries is that they use different theoretical tools. For instance in Greece, Marxian state theory ideas are used...

Trust and reciprocity needed in the code of ethics in clientelist systems. They certainly have their own code of ethics. Clientelism does not need to be anti-democratic all the time.

In Spain, for power relations you have to look at the ownership relations, in US you should look at the journalistic routines. But i don't mean one system is better than the other...

undermining:
globalization undermines the clientelism as we know.

large scale economic enterprises. It is hard to start a newspaper any more... 

Theories of press. was a product of Cold War. It has been used for 50 years. It is not even a good comparative work. Only UK, US and Russia. Does not help you to understand the rest of the world.
We attempted to create universal models based on a larger sample of countries...
we try to escape from normative models. We indeed need to be empirical, historically relevant.

Four Theories of the Press: The Authoritarian, Libertarian, Social Responsibility and Soviet Communist Concepts of What the Press Should Be and Do (Illini Books) by Fred S. Siebert, Theodore Peterson, and Wilbur Schramm (Paperback

vs.

Comparing Media Systems: Three Models of Media and Politics (Communication, Society and Politics) by Daniel C. Hallin and Paolo Mancini (Paperback

Q. your third model seems to be Orientalistic despite your reservations. don't you feel orientalistic there?

We want to decenter the media studies. Polarized pluralistic media covers most of the world but we don't suppose that all will fit in here. all models are power relations. just the power works in different ways.

When speaking of media freedom. Do you mean the freedom of the media owner or the freedom of journalist!
 

Posted by erkan at 03:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When to publish blog posts for increased popularity

By Jean Yves Chainon

A US software developer, Jake Luciani, has determined the best days and times to publish blog posts, analyzing the connection between timing and popularity on social bookmarking sites such as Del.icio.us, Digg, Reddit and Mixx.

The conclusions are straightforward: Thursdays are the best day, and the best times are between 1pm and 3pm PST (after lunch) or between 5pm and 7pm PST (after work). The worst times to post are between 3pm and 5pm PST on weekends..........

Yahoo-Microsoft Drama::Takeover Tiff Best Thing to Happen to Yahoo

Microsoft made what appeared to be its last bid for Yahoo at $33 per share, and Yahoo wanted $37. Microsoft walked away.

What a weird way for this entire drama to end — if it is indeed over. Most people expect this to be a very bad week for Yahoo on Wall Street, with Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget predicting Yahoo’s stock will “drop at least to the low 20s.”

First Major U.S. Exhibition in 20 Years for Abstract Expressionism at The Jewish Museum Jackson Pollock, Convergence, 1952, oil on canvas. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.

Blogs, fashion and the future

By Richard Bailey on Weblogs

Blogging's no longer new; it's no longer fashionable. But that doesn't mean that it's no longer useful.

Mitch Joel makes the case well in Blogging gets a second wind. The one point I'd add is that because they're not twitch-speed (in Marc Prensky's phrase), blogs have been emerging as a useful tool to support reflective learning and reflective practice. Twitter and Facebook may be more immediate and interactive for digitial pioneers and digital natives, but there's useful thinking being expressed on blogs. (There's useful thinking on videos and podcasts, too - but published words are still the best way to achieve SEO, as Joel points out).....

Why I follow thousands of friends on Facebook, Twitter, Friendfeed and Seesmic

By Loïc Le Meur

This morning I noticed that 224 of my 4359 Facebook friends were online and I could talk to them in chat. Fascinating that I could talk to any of them right at this second I thought. This started a conversation on Twitter (link) and Friendfeed (link), so I thought it was worth a blog post and a video. I also started a video conversation about it on Seesmic. You can reply in video on this thread, no need for invites anymore just hit the reply button and signin.

-"it goest against the meaning of Facebook"

Hot Trend: Microblogging on Twitter

The hottest trend going right now is microblogging on Twitter. So what's a microblog? What's a twitter? Twitter is a microblogging service where entries can only be 140 characters long. In addition to letting you keep up-to-date on what your friends and families are doing Twitter can also be a great place to share your latest book project and interact with fellow bloggers and writers. You can have a blog and a twitter: the twitter entries are short and sweet and can end with a link of interest. An individual twitter entry is called a "tweet."

China's Cyberwar Against India

An anonymous reader writes "China's cyber warfare army is marching on, and India is suffering silently. Over the past one and a half years, officials said, China has mounted almost daily attacks on Indian computer networks, both government and private, showing its intent and capability."

Tactic: Using MSN Chat Logo to Show China Pride

By Mary on tibet

Description: Users of MSN chat in China are adding a red heart to their MSN names (see image left) to demonstrate their support for China and the Olympics.

Organizer: Unknown but has official support from Microsoft. Appeal asking “Chinese people worldwide to use the red heart to express their love for China and to support Beijing’s Olympic Games” appeared on the Chinese MSN homepage.

Purpose of Action: Many Chinese feel under attack from France and CNN because the West “supports” Tibetan independence and is “anti-China” and “anti-Olympics.”

Organizing tools used: instant messaging (MSN chat)

Microsoft and Yahoo: Is It Really The End?

In AOL LLC

What the failed deal means for the Net—and users.

Latina Web Content Study

By Romelia Salinas

The Latina Web Content (LWC) study spotlights "lack of relevant content" as a vital element of the digital divide that has been overshadowed by discussions emphasizing technology and/or literacy. There are millions of documents available via the web, thus it may seem implausible to suggest that content benefiting everyone does not exist (Carvin 2000). The reality, however, is that content gaps do exist and contribute to the persistence of the digital divide (Children's Partnership 2000; Taglang 2001; Tomas Rivera Policy Institute 2002).

CMLP Launches New Legal Guide Section: Intellectual Property

By syoung

The first cut of the Citizen Media Law Project's in-depth Legal Guide is nearly complete! Last Friday's release of the section on "intellectual property" adds an essential area of law to this extensive resource. The section on "risks associated with publication" is in the works. Together with CMLP's unique Legal Threats Database, the Legal Guide provides invaluable information for anyone engaging in online speech. Get involved!

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MAIN FOCUS: The end of Labour and the consequences for Europe | 05/05/2008

The Labour Party and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown have suffered disastrous results in local elections in England and Wales. It looks like the end is near for Labour after over ten years in power. What consequences does this shift have for Europe as a whole?

Archipelago Europe

By Karl Schlögel

Instead of two homogeneous European regions -- "the East" and "the West" -- there are now fragments, enclaves, and islands. From Baden-Baden to Bucharest, Majorca to Moscow, Karl Schlögel experiences Europe as a series of spaces both distinct and connected.

Dušan Reljić

Serbia's Parliamentary Election May 11

And the Real Winner is . . . Koštunica, Again!

SWP Comments 2008/C 10, April 2008, 5 pages

Q&A: Serbian election

Serbs go to the polls on 11 May in the first general election since Kosovo declared independence on 17 February.

Gudrun Wacker

Beijing Is Haunted by Olympic Ghosts

SWP Comments 2008/C 09, April 2008, 4 pages

Liberalising the EU energy sector

Industries and private households are in theory able to freely choose their energy supplier following the entry into force of EU directives in 2004 and 2007, but many obstacles remain, with a single European energy market still far from reality. To make up for the shortcomings, the Commission has made further legislative proposals, including controversial plans to separate the production and distribution arms of large integrated energy firms such as France's EDF and Germany's E.ON.

Vidal Quadras: 'National' aspect to dictate EU energy vote

A compromise deal is taking shape in Brussels that could see France and Germany win a six-year delay in opening their energy markets to full competition, according to Alejo Vidal-Quadras, one of the leading MEPs on the dossier.

'Foreigners' in Europe: the real eurogeneration?

More and more young people around the world are setting their feet on European soil, and seem to fit in well despite bureaucratic complications. We hear from Russian, African and Peruvian students living in Italy and France on their idea of Europe

Serb elections: rising nationalism imperils Mladic, Karadzic hunt

Where will the ballot results place Serbia in its snap election on 11 May - isolation, towards the European Union or eventually towards Russia?

Interview: 'NATO sent the wrong signal to Russia'

Russia is destabilising the breakaway region of Abkhazia because Moscow wants to divert Georgia from its NATO bid, Salome Samadashvili, the Georgian ambassador to NATO and the EU, told EurActiv in an interview.

EU to give extra boost to its neighbours

The Commission is set to launch a new initiative today (6 May) aimed at increasing investments in its southern and eastern partner countries, the main focus of which will be on infrastructure projects in the energy, transport and environment sectors.

Islam is a part of Europe, says EU's Barroso

Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said there are millions of Muslims

Brussels turns to gods f