I am leaving Houston tomorrow. I do not know when I can be here again, it became my second home for a while, probably the second most familiar city in my life and now I am leaving. I did not have much nostalgia really but when I was passing through Grad Apartments where I stayed … Read more
We’ve decided to host something that has not been done before – the first yearly edition of The Best of Anthropology Blogging. An increasing number of anthropologists are blogging about their work and their ideas, sharing how anthropology in all its forms is relevant to the wider world.
Undersea internet and phone cables from Europe to the Middle East are severed, raising fears of major economic repercussions.
the list of Intellectuals who started the apology campaign is impressive. Here is their website and the list. There are some intellectuals who are always found in a position against official discourses, sometimes just for the sake of being opponent. But there are many others who occupy more moderate liberal positions.. I have some reservations to this campaign but so far I could not really articulate them. So I am waiting and in the mean time here is another round up about the apology campaign. PM Erdoğan, in his newly acquired nationalism, was quick to react and but there are more reactions of course…
update –
I agree with Nuray Mert’s arguments (in Turkish).
The Turkish army said Friday it does not find appropriate the recent internet campaign launched to issue a public apology to Armenians. Turkish FM said the issue could hurt efforts to improve diplomatic ties with Armenia. (UPDATED)
A collection of cartoons on shoe throwing, mostly from Turkish press..
Iraqi Journalist’s Shoes Make Turkish Media Happy – The Jamestown Foundation
I don’t feel the heat here in Houston, but Erdoğan seems to continue to hit the pro-Kurdish DTP with much fever. Now that he has all-mighty Turkish nationalist rhetoric behind. Or better to say, he believes he has it… Check out the following news from the March election process…
The world of blogging has a new member. I have quoted Yigal Schleifer, a freelance journalist based in Istanbul, extensively in this blog. Especially for his writings in the Christian Science Monitor and in the end I was also quoted in one of his articles there. Yigal has just started a blog, Istanbul Calling. In … Read more
2009 will be critical in determining the direction in which Turkey’s EU accession talks are headed, states a new report from the International Crisis Group (ICG), which pcictures two alternatives: either there will be a break through or talks might break off.
The European Court on Human Rights (ECHR) ruled Tuesday that Turkey violated the property rights of two Armenian foundations in Istanbul. (UPDATED)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS – Opposition to the Bologna Process, an EU-inspired series of university and college reforms, has expanded substantially across Spain in recent weeks, as students protest, occupy school buildings and even block rail lines.
In the last week, demonstrations and occupations have in particular stepped up in Madrid with sit-ins taking over faculties or otherwise protesting at the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), the rectorate of the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) and University of Alcalá de Henares northeast of the capital. Actions have also taken place in Valencia, Seville and further afield. In Barcelona, students blocked railway lines. The Bologna Process has also provoked significant student opposition in Italy, Finland and Croatia.
The charming city of Leyden in the Netherlands (’Leiden’ in Dutch, pop. 120,000) could without much hyperbole be called the Dutch Oxford. The town boasts the country’s oldest university and is home to museums, libraries, botanical gardens and other institutions connected to its position as the country’s prime centre of learning. Leyden is also home to Oudt Leyden, Europe’s (and possibly the world’s) oldest pancake house. VIA
Intellectuals break taboo to acknowledge genocide by Ottoman Turks
By Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
Monday, 15 December 2008
Around 200 Turkish intellectuals and academics are to apologise on the internet today for the ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the First World War, in the most public sign yet that Turkey’s most sensitive taboo is slowly melting away.
"My conscience does not accept the denial of the great catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915," the text prepared by the group reads. "I reject this injustice and … empathise with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers. I apologise to them."
[counter campaign by retired diplomats had also started (in Turkish)]
Ex-Turkish envoys slam campaign apologizing to Armenians
A group of intellectuals led by Baskın Oran, Ahmet İnsel, Cengiz Aktar and Ali Bayramoğlu prepared and opened up for signatures a text regarding the events of 1915. The body of the text, which they debated for a long time before coming to an agreement on, was as follows: