"Hrant Dink, Ergenekon, and the saucy Turkish media
Hrant Dink, Ergenekon, and the saucy Turkish media
Cengiz ÇANDARBlocked and blurred, Dink trial feeds sense of despair
Attending proceedings of the Hrant Dink murder trial has always been a painful experience. For those of us journalists whose careers have been full of experiences of the never-ending legal and illegal processes against Turkey's intellectuals -- free speech "violations" or assassinations -- it is like a watching the same movie and knowing how it will end.Hrant Dink Trial: The Lightheartedness of the Perpetrators
Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated before his office a year and a half ago. The ostensible reason was that Dink had “insulted Turkish blood”. The gunman was arrested and put on trial, along with his associates. Since then, it has emerged in the investigation and trial that security officials had been warned several times about the plot to murder Dink, but did nothing and instead told the concerned citizen to tell no one. Since the trial began, evidence and files have mysteriously disappeared. Also disturbing has been the lightheartedness of the perpetrators and the seeming collusion of police. On the day of his arrest, grinning police officers took photos of themselves with the happy murderer in front of a Turkish flag. In yesterday’s trial session, that mockery again was apparent.
Informer says he tried to prevent Dink murder
Coşkun İğci, a gendarmerie informer and brother-in-law of Yasin Hayal, the suspected inciter of the murder of prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, was cross-examined for the first timeThe most important event in the history of the Republic
Cengiz ÇANDARPolitical Strife Deepens in Turkey
Two cases have the nation on edge. While the government goes after an ultranationalist gang, prosecutors want to ban the ruling party on charges of Islamist subversion.
Doğu Ergil: Calculated or coincidental?
One of my brightest graduate students joined a newly formed think tank six years ago. It looked like an NGO with financial resources of unprecedented magnitude for a civil society organization.
He quit soon after, and I asked why. He said the department head he was working under, a retired general, asked him to produce an instant report against the Annan plan -- designed to unite the Turks and the Greeks of Cyprus and named after the UN secretary-general of the time. The full text of the report had not been publicized yet but the news of it had hit the press. The former general was asking for a negative report in opposition to an as-yet nonexistent report. It was obvious that his bunch did not want reconciliation on the island. The young man was so disgusted with this reactionary behavior that he quit the day after.
The generals' game sealed Turkey's fate
İsmet BERKANJournalistic imperatives: Saying what others might not
Ramzy BAROUDSuch justice makes no sense
Mehmet Ali BirandWho, really, are Turkey's untouchables?
Burak BEKDİLJudicial, political, judicial, political, judi…
In Turkey, it has become common to say that a court case is not judicial but political. This situation is not only true for cases before the Constitutional Court, but also penal cases.A newspaper waits for arrival of Gen. Godot
Only a few months old, the liberal daily Taraf has emerged at the forefront and often at the center of political controversies rocking the country, with the staff watching each day over its collective shoulder for a raid that has yet to come.The Big Question: Why is tension rising in Turkey, and is the country turning Islamist? - Europe, World - The Independent
Threat to secular state or modernising force? Ruling party awaits the verdict | World news | The Guardian
After meetings in Turkey, Foxman says fallout over 'genocide' flap is 'behind... | Jerusalem PostADL Leaders Discuss Israel-Turkey Relations with Top Government Officials in Ankara
I am really confused!
Cüneyt ÜLSEVERPolitical strife deepens in Turkey | csmonitor.com
The Battle for Turkey: Coup Plot Intensifies Ankara's Power Struggle - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News:
Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code - WORLD Law Direct Forums
A CONTROVERSIAL ARTICLE OF TURKISH PENAL CODE1 -Article 301 of Turkish Penal Code
A - Introduction of Issue
Man in developed countries have some inalienable basic rights that have a very important role in their lives. Freedom of speech is basic one. In fact, because freedom of speech leads societies to improve, it is seen as an opportunity for the public in developed countries. In Turkey, there is a highly controversial regulation named article 301 that is related to freedom of speech. It is article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, law no 5237. Article 301 regulated by the penal code in 1936 and has been changed seven times up to now. It was regulated as Article 159 of the previous penal code. This article consists of four clauses, and was introduced with the legislative reforms of 1 June 2005 and replaced Article 159 of the old penal code. Because some writers and journalists have been prosecuted under this law so far, it is being widely debated in Turkey and throughout Europe."
Yusuf Kanlı: Cost of uncertainty
The country is heading full storm into an unprecedented deadlock. The atmosphere of political uncertainty which was created with the closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, further intensified with a spree of detentions on July 1 within the framework of the so-called “Ergenekon probe” into alleged “patriotic gang activities aimed at toppling the elected government of the country.”Economy Minister Mehmet Şimşek has been sounding alarm bells for the Turkish economy and complaining that the domestic political uncertainty atmosphere has so far cost Turkey around $20 billion – how he explained it we have no idea –Emerging from Ergenekon with games of balance
The entire Ergenekon operation, a recent police crackdown on a shadowy crime organization, is one which no person in Turkey who has even a drop of concern for justice, democracy, transparent governance and clean societal values would protest.Not a coup, but an armed gang
It appears that the suspects in the Ergenekon investigation are to be charged with "forming an armed gang" and "encouraging the people of the nation towards insurrection."Pursuing peace and a common future together
The Abant Platform took up the Kurdish question this year amidst ongoing debates on the closure case against the AK Party and the Ergenekon investigation.Gülen-inspired schools and SMOs by Muhammed Çetin
In an attempt to distract the public from Fethullah Gülen's acquittal by Turkey's top court and perturbed by his top ranking in Foreign Policy magazine's poll, elements of the Turkish media are using a lawyer's wording in an attempt to engineer a setback for Gülen. Abant Platform suggests new language to settle Kurdish problem
Amidst increasing tension over the latest detentions in the investigation into the Ergenekon gang, a shadowy criminal network that is alleged to have links to the state, the Abant Platform gathered last week for a three-day conference to discuss Turkey's thorny Kurdish problem.Democratic rights and ornamental plants of Turkey by BEJAN MATUR
A friend of mine told me that a Greek friend of his, who is now living in Greece, responded to those who, in reference to the Greeks in İstanbul, said: "You are the beauty of this country. 