erkan, Author at Erkan's Field Diary

"Yahoo! aims to be "number one" independent news source

August 26, 2008 by erkan

Yahoo! aims to be "number one" independent news source

By Alisa Zykova

Yahoo! News may be considered as a news organization, according to Jessica Barron, director of editorial programming. Unlike online news outlets that aggregate news content from the Web, Yahoo! is not only investing in its own journalists but is also signing agreements with wire services and "traditional" sources.

Two dancers act during the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing. Photo: EFE / Bernd Thissen.
found in World Watches in Awe as Beijing Olympics Close With Carnival-themed Extravaganza

Turkey's Third National Program

August 25, 2008 by erkan

The Third National Program

By Jenny White on Turkey’s Third National Program

Though the Third National Program declared last Monday by government spokesperson and State Minister Cemil Cicek raised hopes among the pro-EU intellectuals of Turkey, many are skeptical about the program’s prospects….

Is the third national program viable?

"On duty"

August 25, 2008 by erkan

Pablo Picasso, Untitled (Arlequín y Polichinela), 1924 Found in 20th Century Works on Paper from the Fundacion Mapfre Collection: Picasso, Tapies, Miro Erkan is ‘on duty’ this week. So I will be in the campus representing PR and Advertising departments everyday btw 10 am-6 pm. I am always in the campus but normally I come … Read more

"Ergenekon: worries and hopes

August 25, 2008 by erkan

last week something like a minor judiciary coup happened within judiciary circles. I realize today that I have not emphasized that enough. A prosecutor from Ankara ordered the search of Ergenekon’s Istanbul based prosecutor’s headquarters. The claim was that Ankara prosecutor believed there was illegal phone listening happening in Istanbul prosecutor’s office. So like an ambush, some officials visited the Istanbul office, then began to have a look who was being listened. This is a giant scandal. Some officials were found to be listing those who was being listened. This is a scandal. This is a judiciary intervention to an ongoing trial by another section of Turkish judiciary. I hear that some bureaucrats in Ankara are very anxious because of the Ergenekon trial.

I hear that there are already new ‘understandings’ after the AKP closure case. One shouldn’t be very hopeful any more (!).

Ergenekon: worries and hopes

What will the outcome of the Ergenekon case be? This question alone is sufficient to explain the hopes and worries about the future of Turkey.

Elder brother caught in Dink case

The older brother of one of the main suspects in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink was detained by police yesterday. Osman Hayal was detained for being in Istanbul when a teenage nationalist

Ergenekon questions in Malatya massacre case

The lead suspect in the Malatya massacre case denied any connection with retired Maj. Gen. Levent Ersöz, who was arrested in relation to the Ergenekon case, in a trial at Malatya’s Third Court

"853 Websites Banned in Turkey

August 24, 2008 by erkan

FT.com / World – Turkish bloggers censure the censors

By Alex Barker in Ankara and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Turkish bloggers are closing their websites to protest against courts banning dozens of mainstream sites for carrying content deemed “immoral” or insulting to Turkey’s founding father."

853 Websites Banned in Turkey

By Jenny White

There are currently 853 Web sites banned in Turkey, including video-sharing site YouTube and dailymotion.com, placing Turkey in the league of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, famous for restricting freedom of speech.

Web sites are most often banned on grounds that they insult the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, contain vulgarity, enable gambling or promote suicide. Many sites have also been banned for crimes covered under the Internet Security Law. But a number of sites are banned for no apparent reason. The latest Web site to be banned was gundemonline.com, which was blocked by Ankara’s 11th High Criminal Court without any justification. VIA

Here comes the Turkish Super League!

August 23, 2008 by erkan

The league start today! Beşiktaş plays with Antalyaspor tomorrow.

Well, for those who are familiar the photo above is my season pass card. Erkan returns to İnönü. I couldn’t help buying this year’s pass. The photo used in the card is as far as I remember from the 1949-50 season when Beşiktaş defeated Fenerbahçe 1-0 and became the champion. A giant poster of this photo is hanged in Inönü Stadium Store and the title is ‘Being a BJK fan’

Before an evening of football, in two hours I will have to attend a wedding ceremony. A friend and former colleague, Erol, gets married today.

"What did you do for the EU today?

August 22, 2008 by erkan

This is a column title by İsmet Berkan but it well portrays my state of affairs; sort of. For the last few days, I am satisfied with the pace of writing and unfortunately these lonely office hours in evenings do not help. I would prefer a crowded and noisy office to this silent and being-alone office. I am glad this damn summer is ending. and here comes a round up mostly on Turkey’s fantasies with all-track diplomacy…

"Merkel asked to take lead in reshaping East-West relations

August 22, 2008 by erkan

A man carries a log to his home in a small hillside settlement located near the village of Janovce in Eastern Slovakia where none of the houses have running water or a toilet. A surprising 20 million people in the European Union do not have access to decent toilets and suffer from a lack of hygiene, posing serious health risks, experts meeting at World Water Week in Stockholm said.

(AFP/File/Joe Klamar)

Merkel asked to take lead in reshaping East-West relations

The notion that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should step up and take the lead within the EU to resolve tensions over Georgia and reshape the West’s relations with Moscow appears to be emerging, with analysts claiming Germany is the only country that Russia might listen to.

"Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP

August 21, 2008 by erkan

Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP

By llwynn

I’ve been working on an article on the relationship between anthropology and the military, and Nikki Kuper, an honours student in our department, has been thinking about doing her honours thesis project on the Human Terrain System. So together, Nikki and I decided to put together an annotated bibliography of sources on the Human Terrain System, Minerva, and PRISP and post them here to Culture Matters so that others can benefit from them.

If you know of any resources or links that aren’t listed below (or if you spot any mistakes), please send me an e-mail (lisa.wynn[at]mq.edu.au) and we’ll add them to our list and credit you with the contribution.

–L.L. Wynn and Nikki Kuper

"Commission to test free access to EU research

August 21, 2008 by erkan

Strasbourg not yet ready for MEPs

The European Parliament’s temporary relocation to Brussels from Strasbourg reignites a row about where it should be based.

found in Small Food Nation
(Pieter Aertsen, Butcher’s Stall with the Flight into Egypt, 1551. Source.)

Commission to test free access to EU research

A pilot project that will give unrestricted online access to EU-funded research results was launched yesterday (20 August), which the Commission claims will ensure better exploitation of scientific studies and guarantee a "fair return" for taxpayers. But specialist publishers are unhappy with the move.

Memories of Czech invasion

Two BBC website readers share their experiences of the Soviet invasion and living under communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

"NATO's new role?

August 20, 2008 by erkan

MAIN FOCUS: NATO’s new role? | 20/08/2008

The NATO foreign ministers gathered yesterday to confer on the crisis in the Caucasus. NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sharply condemned Russia and called for an immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops. Europe’s press discusses the role of the alliance after Moscow’s show of force.

Erkan's further mumbling on some Quranic verses…

August 20, 2008 by erkan

Jon Beech, Untitled, 1997

found in Works on Paper: The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection at The Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Erkan’s one new interest is to check out the Quran blog at the Guardian. Thanks to Christian, I have become aware of this blog. It is fun to have a look and although i have no interest to declare authoritative statement, i will poke around and utter my own comments from time to time.

In Injunctions to the strong Andrew Brown says:

….The first thing that strikes me about this collection of verses is how very unChristian it is…. But these qur’anic injunctions are much more addressed to the strong. They are almost an ethic of noblesse oblige: God will reward his followers and they in turn are to be just, generous, and upright in the use of the powers he has granted them……..

"Treatment of Widows and Divorced Women

August 20, 2008 by erkan

In the following text, you will find a huge round up on Turkish society. I highlighted Jenny White’s emphasis on a particular section of Turkish women but there is also stuff on the threat of a new earthquake in Istanbul, Tuzla disasters, Turkish academia and in the mean time Istanbul is burning with heat and humidity. Boy, I am doing my best to ignore the evil weather!

Turkey's "'all-track' diplomacy"

August 19, 2008 by erkan

AKP leaders are taking a risk by this all-track diplomacy. They might win big or lose big.

They have many in their cadres which could trigger this shift from traditional Turkish foreign policy and there have been signs of it already. Now, they are relieved of the closure ban and they are pushing for it.

After the visit of Iran’s leader, now there comes the mini African Summit and a notarious African leader, Bashir comes to Turkey second time in less than a year. As part of a grand plan, these risky visits might work but they are just too risky. The plan is to create independent good, powerful and profitable relations with neigbours. The plan is very innovative. After the 2nd WW, traditional Turkish foreign policy depended on its geostrategic importance for US. This symbolically ended in the first Gulf War where Turkey lost great and it became one of the sources of economic crisis in 2001. Major reliance on EU process in recent years also ended when AKP could not get enough of the process. Since 2004, AKP lost its belief in EU in general. I don’t think this means hostile thinking against EU or US. Although ideologues of the new FP attempt might be uneasy with them, their main goal seems to make Turkey a more equal partner in relations with EU or US.

However, even for those who try to be more neutral to AKP, there is the problem of substance. Is there any substance in possible relations with the new ‘allies’? Like it or not, TR has been part of the Western system since 2WW. Political, cultural, economic relations all depended on this system although they were never satisfying. Can there be sustainable relations with others? Particularly when some of the others are subject to systemic hostility?

The ideologues of the AKP Foreign Policy (first person to come to my mind is Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is known to have Neo-Ottoman tendencies. However, he and others seem to be realistic, too.

A new art of ‘all-track’ diplomacy

Relieved by a Constitutional Court ruling against a ban that helped it avert a political crisis, it was natural for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to expect a few days of relaxation.

The Associated Press: Turkey’s Gul urges Sudan leader to end suffering

Sudan’s Bashir on visit to Turkey

Sudan’s president makes his first foreign trip since he was indicted on genocide charges by the International Criminal Court.

NATO governments divided…but later "cools relations with Russia

August 19, 2008 by erkan

The way forward

Nato governments divided on what to do about Russia

BUT LATER

Nato cools relations with Russia

Nato says there will be "no business as usual" with Russia, demanding Moscow withdraw troops from Georgia immediately.

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage). found in 306 – The Genetic Map of Europe

Who are the citizens of Europe?

Philosopher Jürgen Habermas called for a pan-European referendum in the wake of the Irish ‘No‘. He overestimates the wisdom of the masses and underestimates what has been achieved up to now, counters Alfred Grosser.

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I hear that there are already new ‘understandings’ after the AKP closure case. One shouldn’t be very hopeful any more (!).

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AKP leaders are taking a risk by this all-track diplomacy. They might win big or lose big.

They have many in their cadres which could trigger this shift from traditional Turkish foreign policy and there have been signs of it already. Now, they are relieved of the closure ban and they are pushing for it.

The ideologues of the AKP Foreign Policy (first person to come to my mind is Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is known to have Neo-Ottoman tendencies. However, he and others seem to be realistic, too.

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