Turkish highschool students run during celebrations marking May Day in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, May 1, 2011. Activists flooded Turkey’s largest city Istanbul Sunday and marked international workers’ day around the world with marches demanding more jobs, better working conditions and higher wages. About 200,000 workers gathered in Istanbul’s Taksim Square in the largest May Day rally there since 1977, when 34 people after shooting triggered a stampede. (AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)
‘Turkey is not a free country’ | Joshua Surtees
Turkey is held up by many as a beacon of democratic reform. But its youth are frustrated with social and political progress
Turkey is often held up as a symbol of progressive modernism ? a Muslim democracy on the doorstep of Europe. But the young politically active Turks I spoke to recently in Istanbul feel that social and political freedom is not yet a reality in a country still oppressing its Kurdish population, still tentative on gay rights and still operating compulsory military conscription.
Workers fill Istanbul’s Taksim Square for May Day
Thousands mark 1977 Istanbul May Day massacre | euronews, world news
May Day festival
May Day is celebrated as a festival in Turkey. When the Soviet bloc collapsed, the adoption of special days that came from the socialist/Marxist tradition became easier
Primal Instinct: Ban Ban Ban
Earlier this week, the Turkish Telecommunications Directorate (TIB) emailed a directive to Turkish web-hosting companies, ordering them to ban a total of 138 words from Turkish Internet domain names, threatening unspecified punishment if they did not. Companies initially did not know whether this was really from TIB or not, since it arrived by e-mail, or whether it was a hoax. The list caused great consternation, since it would ban a large number of ordinary words as well.
Keep Those Dirty Beatniks Out of Istanbul!
Reason Online (blog)
The Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into a book written by internationally renowned author William S. Burroughs. It was translated and published by Sel Publishing House in January. The court referred to a report written by the
Andrew Finkel, Ergenekon wars and Today’s Zaman by Orhan Kemal Cengiz
This is a difficult article to write. It is like walking on a mine field. You can step on a mine at any moment. Things are getting very sensitive and there is a high probability of being misunderstood.
35 élus kurdes arrêtés : la ville d?Hakkari se vide de ses habitants
Hakkari n?aura pas eu le temps de respirer. La semaine dernière la province était secouée de violences à l?annonce du véto frappant 7 candidats kurdes, plusieurs manifestants étaient blessés dont un grave. Le véto levé, les choses se calmaient.
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