Step by step, Kurdish initiative continues….

We were expecting more fist-fighting in the parliament meeting on Friday but relatively civilized quarrels dominated Friday’s meeting. Main opposition CHP is gone all crazy- literally indeed- and their reaction is ridiculous and beyond reason. Their childlike reaction and nearly criminal discourse (one higher official of CHP explicity stated that the best solution is what the State did during Dersim Rebellion, that is outright massacre…) have to be contained. I believe that AKP, DTP and a few liberals with possible indirect support from MHP can further the Initiative. Yes, MHP, nationalist party, does in fact acted quite civilized yesterday and despite their harsh criticism on the Kurdish Initiative their love of and support for the State may turn out to be a positive sign in this case. Because they wery well realized that this initiative may help unite the nation again. Armed suppression did not work as the the three decades had demonstrated…

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal addresses members of parliament as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his Education Minister Nimet Cubukcu listen in the background during a debate at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, November 13, 2009. Turkey’s parliament is set to discuss on Friday reforms designed to boost the rights of the country’s Kurdish minority and end a 25-year separatist conflict, moves seen boosting its European Union membership ambitions.REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Turkey unveils reforms for Kurds

Turkish opposition leaders speak out against Kurdish initiative – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

CSM: To solve Turkey’s culture clash, old elite must yield to free speech – by Orhan Pamuk

For the complete report from the csmonitor.com click on this link

Pamuk: “I identify with Kemal’s attention as a lover to his beloved because it is like a novelist’s attention to words. In the end, being a novelist, in a way, is loving the world, caressing the world with words. It is paying attention to all the details that you have lived and experienced. This book is my most personal, intimate book. It is all the things I have lived and seen in Istanbul in my entire life. It is a panorama written with loving detail.”

Populist opposition

Emergence of new political space in Kurdish domain by EMRE USLU

With the government having brought its proposal to address the Kurdish question to Parliament, Turkey has been concentrating on the details of the proposal.