THERE ARE MANY THINGS I remember about the night of July 15 in Istanbul. I was with my then girlfriend and her friends when we heard a military coup was taking place. We decided to do the most sensible thing we could think of: buy beer and
Reuters – Gulsen Solaker – Nov 28, 6:57 AM
ANKARA Turkish authorities are investigating foster families for suspected ties to a failed coup and may remove children from homes if their guardians are found to be supporters of the putsch, a government official said on Monday. The government
Post-coup crackdowns in Turkey are wrong in themselves and risk putting relations with Europe in jeopardyFor the past four months, Turkey’s leader has subjected his country to sweeping political purges – but there are few signs of an end soon. The new announcement that 6,000 teachers will be reinstated in their jobs after having been suspended is a welcome gesture but does little to reduce the level of tension.
While our elected representatives are in jail, we have learned that the government has selected a group of people from influential families to launch a new “peace process”.
Turkish TOMA’s. Wikicommons/Vikiçizer. Some rights reserved.Last Friday 370 civil society organizations were closed by the government under the allegation of supporting terrorist groups. 50 of these organizations are based in Diyarbakir, in my city. There are associations that support the families who lost their houses during the curfews or families who live under the poverty line in the region. Associations that represent women and children’s rights, Kurdish linguistic rights, “lost” people, reconciliation, Kurdish culture, lawyers rights have all been closed by the government.
The state will also try to put those into high positions who are close to the government or available to switch alliances. In other words: divide and rule.
Police using teargas and water cannon,Diyarbakir region, December 2015. Demotix/ Avni Kantan. All rights reserved.On November 2, 2016, the Metropolitan Municipality of Diyarbakir has been put under forced administration by the central Turkish government. This act of repression is part of a larger campaign of the AKP government to crush the Kurdish and left opposition, increasingly so since the failed military coup in July 2016. In total 35 municipalities ruled by the HDP (People’s Democratic Party), respectively its member party DBP (Democratic Regions Party), have now been taken over by an AKP administrator, are occupied by a big number of police and to date hundreds of employees have been fired. This is an account of the life within the Municipality of Diyarbakir by one of the employees after the occupation.
For approximately 20 years I have been working as an academic and since 1993 I have also been active in the media. I started my journey in journalism at the Milliyet newspaper as a correspondent and continued as an analyst and columnist. I worked…
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