Erkan's mumbles

Hanefi Avcı: Latest hero of the Ancien Régime

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Hanefi Avcı is currently a police chief in Eskişehir. He used to have higher positions but he was put under political pressure when he had talked about the gang organizations within the State. He had been accused of being “government’s man” by Kemalists.  But with his recently published book, Haliç?te Yaşayan Simonlar; Dün Devlet Bugün … Read more

Such a frustrating day…A few words on manners and Open source in academy (!)

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I was accused of Piracy today by a quite well-known scholar on web censorship issues.  Not publicly though. In a previous post I gave a link to his book whose link I found through my friendfeed news flow. I admit it was my mistake to give link to a piratedly submitted copy of the book. … Read more

Web Censorship in Turkey: An Impasse due to a Minister who takes it personal, Kemalist complicity with the politically conservative judiciary and Indifferent user base

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I feel that Mr. Yıldırım takes the web censorship issues in a very personal level in his continuously apologetic speeches. Maybe indifference of Google administrators made him angry and he is also annoyed by netizens who criticize him of web ignorance. He keeps on using nationalistic arguments, he acts as if he is the minister of finance and he keeps telling his successes in infrastructural developments and in the mean time he builds an alliance within the information technology community (see the infotech awards below). His road-making etc is all right but I wish he wasn’t involved in information highways. Yes, during his ministry Turkey succeeded to contain all fiber highways in and out of Turkey so that all web flow can be controlled. Now private companies are not allowed to have their own. All submits the central authority. Very successful Mr. Yıldırım…

In a recent BBC news (see below) head of the Ataturk Thought Association defends their position in complaining about videos etc that insult Atatürk. Her mindset is so small that she cannot see that this in long turn weakens Atatürk’s image. She and her crew live so far away from fellow netizens…

And users are quite tech savvy. They can still access Youtube etc. and they don’t need to protest in any way. I saw tons of videos about Sonisphere are already uploaded to YouTube, which is banned for more than 2 years… But the growing censorship begins to threaten digital economies. That’s what I hear. but this does not have an impact on ordinary users yet…

These are Turkish ways sometimes I like (having such ridiculous situations is not easy to achieve) and mostly I hate…

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PKK’s latest terror campaign might be the end of Kurdish gains

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Once I stated that Turkish State have lost Kurds after the closure of DTP. Kurdish opening etc progressed slowly but there had been gains. 30 years ago, you could not utter the word “Kurdish” publicly in this country. Now there is a state TV channel in Kurdish. I don’t claim these are enough but such a thorny issue cannot be solved easily. And Kurdish national consciousness has been gaining ground, more and more public spaces for Kurdishness appeared in the last year. However, organized Kurdish response to politics is to step up terroristic activities. Unfortunately not only the guerilla movement but its political dimension, many leaders of BDP explicitly support terrorist activities. Latest wave of attacks are unbearable. It is highly possible that the Turkish State may start an anti-terror campaign in unprecedented scales with an unforeseen popular support…

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Turks reading, Grup Yorum, Ali Nesin

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It is a bit of old news now. In last weeks, a Turkish NGO in cooperation with a local municipality tried to break a world record: Biggest number of people reading together. People gathered in a stadium to do it. They could not break the record. The act itself is a little bit silly and I assume conservative sections of Turkish public attempt to create new sphere of action like this. Still it is better than nothing. It was a nice try:)

Toplu okumada rekor kırılamadı

more photos here. 14 thousand gathered, says Hürriyet.

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Attempts to take Turkey back to pre-AKP political scene: PKK increase attacks, Top courts intervene in favor of Ergenekon, American neocons scream for battle

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Top Statesmen visit the ambushed site … and a few ask why the all powerful Turkish army cannot defend its own soldiers… And the government doesn’t have any other support than its own constituencies. Hard times to be an AKP official. Middle Eastern sympathies cannot become a concrete support in near future, AKP has to … Read more

Foreign policy roundup: Turkey is not a piece of cake anymore

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I have stated several times that Turkey has started a new foreign policy which is riskier but more attractive than the old obedient silent ally policy. I sincerely wish for its success.  EU hesitancy certainly helped the change. Before this new line of policy started, many Turks had already lost hope in the EU front. It is not easy for a nation to wait for more than 50 years for a membership. It is a great humiliation and Turkey is not the only reason for that.

Current Turkish leaders’ Islamic origins certainly gave them the courage to continue. Even if previous leaders thought to have more assertive foreign policy, that hardcore secularist line had little ties with the public but dependent on Western powers in terms of lifestyles and ideological background, social capital etc.

“Moving Eastward” is a mistaken thinking. I believe new FP is an attempt of neo-Ottomanism. I believe Turkish elites are trying to gather power from Middle East to negotiate in better terms with the major Western policy makers…

and for the critics of being isolated, was Turkey ever not isolated? always in fight with her neighbours, dependent on mostly US to survive. Is that being not isolated?

In the mean time, with the existing leaders in both countries Israel and Turkey relations are doomed to end and US-Turkey relations will be worse… US Foreign Policy Establishment is too conservative to change and has forgotten diplomacy for ages and doesn’t want to see that being a superior war machine is not enough, something proved hundreds of times…

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Deniz Baykal gives in to the concentrated attack

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Turkeys main opposition Republican Peoples ...

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputies Bihlun Tamayligil and Savci Sayan (R) cry as their leader Deniz Baykal (not pictured) addresses the media in Ankara May 10, 2010. Baykal resigned on Monday saying he was the victim of a conspiracy following the release of a videotape on the Internet purporting to show him and a woman in a bedroom. Baykal said the ruling party – the AK Party, whose roots lie in political Islam – must have had knowledge of the videotape.? Read more »REUTERS/Stringe

Deniz Baykal seems to have accused AKP, the ruling party, when he resigned but a simple observation of the process shows that he was dethroned by his own “side”… On Thursday a videotape emerged at Vakit‘s website. Although Vakit is an Islamist newspaper and framed the news accordingly, other Islamist dailies were quick to accuse Vakit of being manipulated. In the next day, not the Islamist newspapers such as Yeni Şafak, Zaman or anti-secularist and militantly liberal Taraf but the mainstream secularist dailies such as Vatan headlined the videotape issue. On the same day, CHP administration accused Mustafa Sarıgül who seems to be the main opponent to Baykal’s regime within CHP circles (although Mr. Sarıgül has been expelled from the party). In the next days, many pro-CHP columnists attacked Baykal and implied the veracity of the tape. Apparently, it was time to go for Baykal and in a way betrayed by his own men in an orchestrated campaign…

The leader of Turkeys main opposition Republican ...
The leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deniz Baykal (C) is surrounded by his supporters as he leaves the party headquarters in Ankara May 10, 2010.REUTERS/Stringer

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The Turkish Army wants you.

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It was first proposed when I was serving. We had some bad moments then we thought this will legally affect the following generations of conscripts. That is, instead of different service terms, all conscripts will serve for 12 months. This means those, who are not college graduate and thus serving for 15 months will have … Read more

TÜBA President represents the state of Turkish academia…

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I always heard it as a gossip but a few days ago TÜBA (The Turkish Academy of Sciences) President Prof. Yücal Kanpolat made it official in my eyes: Prof. Şerif Mardin was not accepted as a member of the Academy because he “polished” Said Nursi too much. Prof. Kanpolat claims that not because Prof. Mardin studied on Said Nursi but because he praised him he was not accepted to the Academy.  Şerif Mardin is one of the best social scientists ever lived in modern Turkey and his work on Said Nursi (Religion and social change in modern Turkey: the case of Bediüzzaman Said Nursi) is probably the first sociological work on this religious figure. Because he did not explicitly demonize Said Nursi, he was “excommunicated”. Kemalist scholarly establishment could never forgive him while generations of social scientists relied on his many works to create a better understanding of the social…

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Formula of AKP’s success

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Any suggestions and comments are of course welcome. Here is a formula (!): Having one strong, charismatic leader (RTE), who had proved his administrative capacity as a mayor of Istanbul, who is surrounded by credible advisors (whom he listens to whenever he cares), who is surrounded by loyal, low profile and but politics savvy cabinet … Read more

Is Democracy possible in a country where journalists write op-eds in NYT to support the army?

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Take the case of Aslı Aydıntaşbaş of Milliyet who had written an op-ed in NYT in defending Turkish military. She represents a more moderate secular breed of journalists who gave up in the end and began openly attacking a case that thrashes military tutelage in the country. She is yet another one to shed crocodile … Read more

Iranian Revolution. 30 years after.

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 Abbas Milani in Open Democracy lists three paradoxes of the revolution. have a look. I have also learned the following data, which sounds funny. I do not know how one can really calculate this but: It was, by near-consensus among scholars and experts, the most "popular revolution" in modern times: almost 11% of the population … Read more

What happens on April 25th?

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Yuvakuran below urges us to think about what might happen after April 24:

On 24th April 2009 Friday morning, it is most likely that the new US President will make an unavoidable and regrettable speech on so-called genocide, to put fuel on an 100-years old sad historical story in order to please his Armenian voters and to repay his election debt.

And he announced the most likely response:

The day after, we may read that Incirlik Air Base is closed to all foreign access.

New Turkish foreign policy seemed to have decided not to rely on the Jewish lobby in US that had helped prevent the becoming of this scenario before.
One likely idea might be that Turkish leaders believe Turkey has now self-confidence, that she is indispensable in Middle East. So that nothing changes.
But more likely idea is that Mr. Obama may try to bypass Turkey. His special envoy did not even visit Turkey… I do not think US or EU countries give much credit to Turkey at the moment and I am not sure if this is right or wrong but this seems to be the case. Turkey is risking her chances, she might win or not. Mr. Obama may have revolutionary ideas for domestic politics but in foreign policy he might have relied on the overall FP structure. Honestly, the best thing he could do would be not to start another war. We will see. But in the mean time, this dark scenario may happen. That is, the closure of İncirlik Base.

That seems inevitable. AKP cannot act against a sweeping nationalist reaction.

In the mean time, in these tense and but exciting times, your Erkan will be serving his military duty. Yes, it is time. I will write about it soon.  I might miss some but experience some other things. We will see…

The Day After April 24th 2009

By yuvakuran

Dear Energy Professional, Dear Colleagues,

On 24th April 2009 Friday morning, it is most likely that the new US President will make an unavoidable and regrettable speech on so-called genocide, to put fuel on an 100-years old sad historical story in order to please his Armenian voters and to repay his election debt.

The day after, we may read that Incirlik Air Base is closed to all foreign access.

After every US presidential elections, Turkish Ministry of foreign affairs, Turkish armed forces, Turkish media, and Turkish intellectuals have an important task. When the winner is a democrat candidate, we should start to educate the newcomer, and his/her staff/ advisers, what they can expect, what to say, what not to say. ……………

Erdoğan in weekly satire magazine covers:

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Erkan looks at Turkey's news channels…

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As a news junkie, I may live in the right country. At the moment, there are at least 6 TV channels that specialize in news, that they call themselves as news channels. After bought by Ciner Group, which is heading towards to rebuild its media conglomerate and possibly becoming the second biggest one again, Haberturk … Read more