erkan

PRESIDENCY CONCLUSIONS of EXTRAORDINARY EUROPEAN COUNCIL, (1 SEPTEMBER 2008)

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COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Brussels, 1 September 2008 (01.09)

12594/08

COUNCIL 3

COVER NOTE

from : Presidency to Delegations

Subject : EXTRAORDINARY EUROPEAN COUNCIL, BRUSSELS

1 SEPTEMBER 2008

PRESIDENCY CONCLUSIONS

Delegations will find attached the Presidency conclusions of the Extraordinary European Council held in Brussels (1 September 2008). 12594/08 2

The meeting of the European Council was preceded by an exposé by the President of the European Parliament, Mr Hans-Gert Pöttering, followed by an exchange of views.

1. The European Council is gravely concerned by the open conflict which has broken out in Georgia, by the resulting violence and by the disproportionate reaction of Russia. This conflict has led to great suffering on both sides. Military action of this kind is not a solution and is not acceptable. The European Council deplores the loss of human life, the suffering inflicted on the population, the number of displaced persons and refugees, and the considerable material damage.

Click here to continue. 

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"Our generals? selectivity of security threats

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Turkey's new Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, center, is flanked ...

Turkey’s new Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, center, is flanked by President Abdullah Gul, right, and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, during the Victory Day reception in Ankara, Turkey, late Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. The celebrations marking an 86-year-old victory over Greece which was considered crucial in Turkish Independence War which led to the foundation of modern Turkish republic.

(AP Photo)

 

Our generals used an updated terminology in which even Habermas was quoted but continued to maintain 1930s rhetoric.  What I feel is that those anti-postmodernist, pro-status quo Turkish scholars might now be providing service to our generals. Better than nothing (!)

Some journalists like Ruşen Çakır read between the lines and provide a more positive outlook. But of course Mr. Çakır has shown signs of anti-Ergenekon case during summer. So it is your choice. I still liked some of his commentaries in NTV and I believe at the least the Chief of Staff- though classified as an hawk- will prefer not to explicitly intervene in politics.

 As I noted before, I believe, as long as civil political authority is powerful, whatever rhetoric the military has, politics will be not be interfered…

Our generals’ selectivity of security threats

Today, telecommunications technology, globalization and increased education have transformed Turkey and provided it a level of transparency, leading many people to not be convinced by demagogic rhetoric.

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"Summit to test Europe's unity over Russia

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Summit to test Europe’s unity over Russia

European leaders will try to put on a united front during a summit in Brussels today (1 September) that will review the EU’s relations with Moscow following the conflict in Georgia. But sanctions are off the agenda for now.

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With a "tough guy" woman…

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Sarah Palin reminds me Turkey’s single female prime minister Tansu Çiller.  All that tough discourse and all. Çiller had her own discursive agenda-especially anti-Kurdish rant- while extra-judicial killings reached a record in her time.

Ms. Palin’s all that gun-love, anti-abortion rubbish- discourse- at least this is the image coming down here- is disgusting and I wonder what this can contribute to existing American foreign policies…

And she of course confirms a cliché. In order to move up as a female, you have to acquire ‘masculine’ traits…. 

Palin brings energy to ticket, but lacks foreign policy cred

By Patrick Fitzgerald on Energy

Michael Conti/AFP/Getty Images

A cursory search for Sarah Palin’s foreign policy credentials comes up with, well, nothing. It seems that John McCain figures he’s got that avenue covered, and has picked Palin to please the conservative base, add some youth to the ticket (she’s 44), and reach out to female voters.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putin: U.S. started the Georgian war to help McCain

By Joshua Keating on Russia

Vladimir Putin’s made it fairly clear over the last few years that he’s not all that concerned about his popularity in the West. Still, it’s strange to see the normally well-spoken prime minister descend to Ahmadinejad-level paranoid bombast:

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"Between the bear and the elephant

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 I don’t know why but i cannot take the new cold war tension in Black Sea very seriously. My mind is somewherelse. But there is certainly some tension.

  via and via

Between the bear and the elephant

Turkey is trying to tread a fine line of diplomacy between Russia and the West. As an American ally, Turkey has trained and partially equipped the Georgian armed forces under American guidance that aimed to encircle growing Russian power in the Caucasus.

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Exactly 100 days left.

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@ haha.nu.found in Different Forms of Suicide Excerpts from the 13th Writing Report to Erkan dissertation committee members:  Glad to be on time. This is a Saturday afternoon, I am in my office and there are exactly 100 days left before the defense day I and Jim arranged. I am contemplating about what to do … Read more

New Orhan Pamuk novel released today and Erkan republishes his piece on Pamuk novels

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Turkey’s Nobel laureate Pamuk to release new novel

World-famous Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk, who was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, focuses on love as well as details in daily life in his latest novel ‘Masumiyet Muzesi’, (the Museum of Innocence).”

Originally published on October 20, 2006

A brief -recent- history of Erkan thru Orhan Pamuk’s novels…

Here is my most personal take with Orhan Pamuk. I had always a particular taste for his literary talents- I know this will annoy some of my loyal readers though:(- and here is an experiment of writing inspired by Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch

I don’t exactly know when the first time I read a Pamuk novel. It was probably in my first or second year in college and I should have worked hard to go beyond the intellectualist consensus not to read him. That is, there was already a Pamuk buzz and? intellectuals? do not read the popular. His current publisher in Turkey, Iletisim, had transferred him from another, Can, and though I hadn’t read him yet, I already heard the transfer price, that was a first in the history of Turkish literature I guess, and this had a negative effect on some of his would-be readers. But things change and I have a taste for the popular anyway. When I started to read Pamuk I had realized that he didn’t deserve to be popular (!), and hence Erkan’s infatuation with Pamuk novels begins.

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"Two Bits"

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I remember once linking to Cris Kelty’s Two Bits: The Cultural Significance of Free Software( by Christopher M. Kelty) but now i began reading it and i would like to recommend it again. Prof. Kelty is in my dissertation committee but more than that he is the one who encouraged me to start this blog! So readers of the blog should pay their tributes to him:) One of the experimental aspects of Two Bits is that Cris put all the book online. It has its own site and anticipates future collaborations: The book can be downloaded here:

Two Bits

 

I have just started to read. So I am still in the very first chapters. But I thank God that I don’t need to lie. This is really an exciting book to read for me!

In a related issue, there is a good discussion in the last issue of Cultural Anthropology. The title sums up the subject matter of discussion. However, this needs subscription.

ANTHROPOLOGY OF/IN CIRCULATION: The Future of Open Access and Scholarly Societies

Speaking of Cultural Anthropology, check out the journal website…

Two Bits in Interview Form

By ckelty

For those of you who’d like to know more about my book, but want it presented in a more convenient question and answer form, the media theorist and activist Geert Lovink just posted an email interview he did with me. It has some of the best questions I’ve been asked, and it means I’m in good company amongst the other interviewees. The original is on Geert’s site, Networked Cultures. I will also be making a few changes to my profile page, which the attentive reader might glean from this interview, also re-posted at twobits.net


Map - The Kula Ring by runningafterantelope.
Bronislaw Malinowski

In "Great Diagrams in Anthropology, Linguistics, & Social Theory"

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"Montreux And Turkey

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Montreux And Turkey

BY NASUHI GUNGOR

STAR- We should be watching developments in the Caucasus more closely. Yesterday Russia officially recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in response to requests from the two breakaway Georgian provinces, according to President Dmitry Medvedev. Considering the developments beginning with Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia earlier this month, this latest move might not seem surprising. But in terms of the bigger picture, one can say that through its recognition Russia took a risky step in a thorny area."

This might never happen:

EU waits for Turkey to break its political crises cycle

Now is the time for Turkey to eliminate obstacles and to continue on its path to European Union accession, said the EU enlargement commissioner in an article he wrote for Turkish daily Milliyet,

I am not sure what Mehmet Ali Birand means. Just listened the speeches of new generals. Not a single change in their discourse. Anti-globalist, anti-EU, anti postmodern. Yeah the new Army general accused of postmodern thought that are a threat to nation-state!!! :

New era at the TSK

Mehmet Ali Birand

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"The demographic time-bomb

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The demographic time-bomb

New projections for an ageing Europe

WHO’S up and who’s down in Europe? If it’s population one is counting, Britain will be on top in 50 years’ time, passing both Germany and France to become the biggest country in the European Union, according to projections in a new study.

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"Nosemonkey interviewed: On EU blogs and Russia

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Nosemonkey interviewed: On EU blogs and Russia

By nosemonkey

Believe it or not, from time to time people actually ask me for my opinion on things, rather than me just spouting out unsolicited words into the electronic ether and hoping that someone may spot them and correct my mistakes.

As such, this evening I’ll be doing the talking head thing on the BBC World Service’s World Have Your Say, trying to come up with a coherent theory about Russia’s current plans and how the rest of the world should respond. (Likely argument? Russia’s being childish and throwing a tantrum, and there’s usually two responses to tantrums: smack them or ignore them. Unfortunately, neither option’s really possible in this case.) Any suggestions much appreciated.

The Caucasus war viewed through Europe’s blogs

By Ole Skambraks

Blogospheres are vibrating in the aftermath of the war in the Caucasus. The need to understand and debate is huge, as spin doctors have been manipulating the news on both sides

NEXT NEWS IS WRONG. YOUTUBE STATED TODAY THAT THE BAN CONTINUES; Erkan now believes only a YouTube generation can save Turkey. So far, I haven’t heard a single person who defends the ban. Only after the system does not support any more those unique cases who goes to court for a ban and of course those backward-minded judges who support the unique cases…As you can see if these were particular, exceptional cases there would not be a ban. There is something more systemic.

 

YouTube returns after three-month ban

Access to YouTube, a popular video sharing Web site banned in early May by a controversial court decision for broadcasting videos deemed insulting to the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was reinstated on Saturday night."

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"Has Updike's Hatred for the Web Hurt His Writing?

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I am very disappointed when a respected author, scholar etc expresses his/her dislike with the web.

 

Updike piece will be found below. In the mean time, someone notified me of a new research network site. For the interested parties:

here, membership free until sometime.

oh boy, I am tired. 

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JITEM Linked To Human and Arms Trafficking…

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Ergenekon divides Kurdish politicans, too.

Ergenekon Investigation: Military Unit Linked To Human and Arms Trafficking

By Jenny White on Jitem

Documents seized in a police raid on the house of an executive of a TV station as part of the ongoing Ergenekon operation have revealed that a secret and illicit military intelligence unit known as JITEM was engaged in several illegal acts, including drug and human smuggling and arms trade with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)….

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"Can the EU win the peace in Georgia?

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Can the EU win the peace in Georgia?

The conflict between Georgia and Russia has seen the EU become the main diplomatic mediator between the two and it should use this status to develop peaceful relations in the region, argue Nicu Popescu et al. in an August 2008 commentary for the European Council on Foreign Relations.

USAK Report: Change in Caucasia brings burdens and opportunities for Turkey

By USAK

Turkey is one of the countries that will be most vulnerable vis-à-vis a new global order triggered by the conflict between Georgia and Russia, a study by the Ankara-based International Strategic Research Organization (ISRO/ USAK) has noted.

The conflict erupted on Aug. 7-8 when Georgia tried to retake South Ossetia. A Russian counter-offensive pushed into Georgia proper, crossing its east-west highway and nearing a Western-backed oil pipeline. Russia ignored Western demands to remove its remaining troops from Georgia’s heartland, saying the residual troops are peacekeepers needed to avert further bloodshed and to protect the people of Georgia’s separatist, pro-Moscow provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, two days after Moscow said it had wrapped up its withdrawal.

 

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"Anti-Turk Biden's Pelosi impasse

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If things continue like this, Turkey-US relations will have tense moments. Mr. Bidden is good for Mr. Obama but not for Turkey. Or is it really the case?

An anti-Turkish vice president according to Hürriyet. He is known to defend Armenian, Greek, Cyprus lobby theses. But Foreign Policy experts state that Turkey is already changing is foreign policy attitudes and there won’t much new tension btw Turkey and US….

Barack Obama chooses Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate for 2008

Anti-Turk Biden’s Pelosi impasse

By MILLIYET, SEMIH İDIZ

It is impossible to expect that Ankara will welcome Barack Obama’s decision to appoint Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

 

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