A nation’s lawyers: Pro-establishment. Tools of power plays. Is there any hope that they will actually work for justice? To overthrow the corrupt Establishment?
Yesterday many lawyers had a march in Taksim to protest “phonetappings”. In principle, this sounds like a good move. To protect the privacy rights… All bullshit. They did not walk before when current PM was tapped for 6 years! Illegally! Now at least phonetapping cases are legally registered. In such a complicated case like Ergenekon, to tap phones through legal channels may not be that harmful. What they are afraid of is that many legal personalities were indeed part of the Ergenekon gang and now they are scared. Yes, you should be scared. You, pro-military “lawyers”….
Young civilians protested the march and some lawyers did try to lynch the protesters. Any surprise?
Young civilians protest: “You, pro-coup Bar, welcome to Taksim” banner was attacked by lawyers…
How Turkey massacred the Kurds of Dersim
[Originally published in the Hurriyet Daily News] After five months on book leave, it is nice to be back in the Daily News. I hope all has been well for everybody since June. As for Turkey, many new events and debates seem to have unfolded, but the scene is pretty much the same. Once again, one of the taboos of our not-so-democratic Republic is being hotly debated. (This time it is the “Kurdish question.”) Once again, our incumbent “Islamist” party, despite the reckless machismo of its leader, proves to be more liberal and reformist than its secularist opponents. And, once again, some pundits in Turkey, or Washington, are propagating the line that this “Islamist” government is pushing us into “darkness,” by ending the good old days of the Kemalist quasi-dictatorship. In fact, understanding the true nature of that Kemalist era is the key to realizing whether Turkey is heading toward “darkness,” or actually moving away from it. And Onur Ã?ymen, the second man of the secularist opposition, the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, just gave us a good opportunity to reflect on that question a little bit. Dersim? What Dersim?
Alevites continue to protest CHP’s Öymen who explicitly supported the Dersim massacre…
The rise of Öymen, and the ideological bankruptcy of a party
Arı Foundation invites pro-Ergenekon speaker to Congress event
Ergenekon is known as a terrorist organization in Turkey, suspected of countless atrocities all committed in the hope of overthrowing the democratically elected Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, but its supporters are trying to brand the trial of suspected members as the government?s attempt to suppress its opponents.