Erdoğan switches to nationalist mood again

This is from last week. PM Erdoğan could make to the covers of four most best selling weekly satire magazines after his attack on columnists…

The last time he was continuously reacting in a nationalist tone I remember was the pre-municipality elections period. That costed him dearly. He could not persuade nationalist Turks and he lost non-nationalist Turks and Kurds of all sorts…

Now he is back into his nationalist tone. He supports the policies of Union and Progress Party of late Ottoman period which is the prime suspect of Armenian massacres. Well done. He attacked a columnist Cengiz Çandar, who criticized him in these terms. What may be the only good point is that policy elites care for what columnists state. They would not care at all. But they care and want to shape their ideas. In the mean time, in a totally different angle I am also angry with Mr. Çandar because he had ditched me once. After he scheduled an interview for my dissertation research, he did not answer back my calls:)

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Google thinks Erkan’s Field Diary has “adult material”

http://www.zacharyzezima.com VIA Zachary Zezima This week’s issue in Erkan’s life maybe this message from Google Adsense service which is disabled at the moment: Hello, While reviewing your account, we noticed that you are currently displaying Google ads in a manner that is not compliant with our policies. For instance, we found violations of AdSense policies … Read more

An “uneventful” week for Erkan

Playing chess with my students. Yes, I won:) Since I came back from the service, I have been meaning to have some peace of mind but unfortunately life is not fair, which I had learnt several times before, and things do not flow as smoothly as I hoped for. During the last month, 1) I … Read more

Introducing Turkish Cybersphere (6)- Cinema related blogs, Censorship news and more…

Nominations for Turkish Blog Awards Turkish Blog Awards started. Check out an interview (in Turkish) with Hasan Yalçınkaya, a pioneer in Turkish blogger… An ambitious Football Manager online game, Efsane Ol [Be a Legend], in Turkish is launched here. I guess I will start playing, too:) Two old time bloggers: http://nahnu.org/ http://ferruh.mavituna.com/ News.Az – 23 … Read more

A film and An album, I recently discovered

A Prophet is a French movie I have recently watched. It is definitely worth watching. It is a story of “A young Arab man is sent to a French prison where he becomes a mafia kingpin.” Not all action packed and i did not feel a strong claustrophobia I sometimes have when watching prison etc … Read more

A super busy week ends with a disappointing news.

This semester I have four courses to teach. It is a relatively heavy workload but I am fine with that. I like teaching anyway. One of the courses is an MA course on Cyberculture studies which is very satisfying. In fact, all courses so far went well. On Mondays I start teaching at 9.30 am … Read more

Introducing Turkish Cybersphere (5)- Tivibu and more…

Dear readers, would you let me know of new sites and blogs I haven’t mentioned yet for the next issues of this series of posting… TTNET, the major ADSL provider, launched a website, Tivibu, to watch TV channels online. First mostly positive impressions in Turkish here. Most visited Turkish news sites according to ComScore: Hurriyet.com.tr, Milliyet.com.tr, … Read more

Turkish TV series, a threat to conservative imaginations

TV serial industry is booming in Turkey. Now these are exported to Middle Eastern countries and some other countries (about exports coverage). Level of sexuality or political debates (“Hatirla sevgili”, Çemberimde gül oya) within the plots are making authorities uncomfortable. Not that I condone every TV serial but I observe this an exciting media emergence.

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

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

28 February Coup heritage is dead, plotters are in jail but not all

http://www.haksozhaber.net/images/other/16590.jpg

As a symbolic act, Çetin Doğan, one of the military leaders of 28 February coup was jailed just before the anniversary of the event. All civilian political leaders that became part of the post-coup coalition are gone except Devlet Bahçeli. All these happened in 13 years and this is a lesson for all, even for the then victims of the coup who became the governing bodies of Turkey, if you know I mean…

http://www.gencsiviller.net/images/haber/470.jpg

A scene of anti-coup protest in the anniversary of 28 February coup.

For more protest photos see the Islamist Haksöz website here.

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Today I was arrested (and then released…)

at 7.30 after check-in, I went through the passport control and the policeman told me that there was an arrest warrant about me. He did not know what the reason was and I was taken to a detention room. Later there I learnt the reason. It was about a trial of evading military service. As … Read more

Erkan on his way to Belgium

I wasn’t sure if I could make it to get my visa on time but that was resolved and tomorrow morning I fly to Brussels. I will then move to Ghent where EUPRERA’s spring symposium takes place. All details about the event can be found in their website. This year’s theme is “Social Media Go … Read more

“Ergenekon sees biggest raid today!

Eski komutanlar gözaltında

update: 22:15

49 arrested so far.

Turkish police arrest 50 officers in move against anti-Islamist coup – Times Online

Former Top Generals Detained in Turkish Coup Inquiry – NYTimes.com

Ergenekon sees biggest raid, two former force commanders detained
Today’s Zaman
The plot was allegedly devised by the military members of Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal organization accused of plotting to overthrow the government.

Turkish military ‘plotters’ held

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition
Fourteen top Turkish military figures are arrested over an alleged coup plot dating back to 2003, media report.

File transfer to Istanbul sparks new debate on legal authority
Hurriyet Daily News
Legal experts engaged in a fresh debate after the files of the recently arrested Erzincan prosecutor were transferred to Istanbul, saying Ergenekon

Prosecutor versus Prosecutor – Bar Associations Object

from Bianet :: English
Istanbul prosecutors will follow up the file of Erzincan Chief Prosecutor Cihaner. HSYK appointed successors for the Erzurum prosecutors responsible for the search and arrest of Cihaner. Lawyer Serbest applied to the ECHR upon the HSYK decision. 25 bar associations objected Cihaner’s arrest.

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It was the 40th birthday of Heavy Metal

From Metal Injection: On February 13, 1970, the Birmingham quartet known as Black Sabbath released their self titled debut LP to the world. Fourty years ago today Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler & Bill Ward began a music revolution that would breath new life into the world’s bastard social scene of the time. It … Read more

“We Live in Public”

We live in Public is the most impressive movie/documentary I have seen recently. It is about the life of Josh Harris who happened to be one of the stars of early internet era. Such a visionary and understandably eccentric. I believe he might show up time sometime soon with a new web idea. The film … Read more