Erkan’s novel reading spree

I am about to finish reading Murat Menteş’ last novel. This is the last of a series of quality novels I have been reading. He has earned quite a fame in Turkey and he deserves it. Good geeky appropriation of popular culture images. All other novels are award winning novels and I would recommend all … Read more

Istanbul under snow (#istanbul2010)

İstanbul beyaza büründü 23.01.2010

More photos can be found here.

Istanbul is under snow and life stopped in our European capital of culture. I decided to give a break to my life, and now camping in my parents’ place. Watching tens of episodes of How I Met Your Mother, reading, eating and napping. But this of course entails family thingies like watching food (in the morning) and marriage programs (afternoon) with mum….I hear that snow will be affective until Monday…

Another Istanbul 2010 video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0C8xWl8dq1k

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Nuray Mert should be happy. Constitutional Court assures military tutelage…

Nuray Mert should be happy. The columnist who has been writing recently about a possible civilian dictatorship (AKP one party regime) should feel satisfied with the latest Constitutional Court decision that assures military tutelage…

Turkey’s Constitutional Court rules against civil trials for military
Hurriyet Daily News
That includes the Ergenekon trial of former military officers charged with attempting to overthrow the government. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s

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Solve the Dink assassination, solve the Ergenekon….

last updated: 21 Jan

It has been three years and not much progress in the Hrant Dink Assassination case. I believe if judiciary and authorities will push forward to solve the Dink case, Ergenekon trial will also progress. Evidence is just there and accomplices are alive  but unfortunately “authorities” are hesitant to solve the case… Today, we, as friends of Hrant Dink, attended the commemoration at the place where he was murdered. It was sharply cold and snowy and many people I know just did not attend because of that. Thanks God, I am in peace with my consciousness, I stood by Him today and I will continue follow his case…

Hrant Dink ölümünün 3.'ncü yılında anıldı

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Istanbul: one of the European cultural capitals for 2010 (#istanbul2010)

It was a bit of unlucky for Istanbul as there were 7 concerts all over Istanbul in such a cold night. Well, I am more concerned for future “cultural” activities. Pop music concerts and fireworks are now handy. In nearly every national or religious days, Istanbul witnesses similar events. Let’s see what will differ now… In the mean time, for tweeter people #istanbul2010 where you will find Istanbul 2010 news…

İstanbul 2010 Avrupa Kültür Başkenti

More photos here.

Istanbul launches year as European cultural capital
AFP
ISTANBUL ? Istanbul on Saturday launched a year of art events as it became one of three Cultural Capitals of Europe for 2010, feting the occasion with



Google Turkey‘s logo to celebrate the event!

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19 January. Friends of Hrant invite you to remember the assassination

19 Jan 2007: Hrant Dink was killed by an armed attack he was exposed to at around 15.00 hrs on his way out of Agos newspaper on Halaskargazi street, Istanbul. His friends invite you to commemorate in front of the Agos newspaper on Jan 19. More possible info in English here.

Introducing Turkish Cybersphere (3)- Turkish online news sites and more

A list of Turkish online news sites. Not necessarily the completed list. All new additions are welcome. Aktif Haber Açık İstihbarat BIANET Boyut Haber Cafe Siyaset Dünya Bülteni En Son Haber EtikHaber GazeteDergi.com gazetem.net Gazeteport Gazeteciler Gerçek Gündem: Haber3.com Haber7 Haberkenti Haberler.Com HABERTÜRK haberciler.com Haber Vitrini Haber X Haksöz Haber İnternethaber iyibilgi.com Kodadimedya.com Leyditurk.com MEDYATAVA … Read more

Turkey is not heading towards civilian fascism…

http://img.blogcu.com/uploads/5nolu_bizim-cocuklar.jpg

As the military tutelage is under heavy assault, another wave of counter-attack comes from the pro-military circles. That definitely does not mean anyone suspecting of a possible civilian fascism era is pro-military. But hegemonic issues are complicated and thus it is hard to detect who is who in these hegemonic struggles. A sincerely concerned columnist’s ideas may easily be manipulated. Like Şerif Mardin’s ideas on “neighborhood pressure” before, some sincere ideas seems to be manipulated these days. My brief ideas for the moment:

1. It is a normalization baby.In many fronts. Turkey’s leadership was so distanced from the ordinary citizens. A total separation of worlds. Now it looks a bit similar. Is this good? I don’t know. But arrogant materially westernized but mentally oriental and distanced Turkish elites are replaced arrogant materially local and mentally local and seemingly less distanced elites.This annoys circles associated with older elites. These maybe sincerely democratic in thought but class counts. Social class reflexes rise unconsciously as the transformation of elites continue…

2. Just having a larger historical perspective: Was there any time in Turkish Republican that is better than now? This strongly worded “civilian fascism” always existed if one has to admit its existence. But there was always a military tutelage to this civilian fascism. (As if military tutelage was possible without civilian backing). Now the latter is gone (I am still not sure about that, too), civilians can enter into intelligible communication about democratization. Now that some parties will not call the Army for help!

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Who will stop the Edirne lynchers?

In the last two weeks, there have been at least three incidents of communal lynching attempts in Turkey. Lynchers are frustrated and but coward people. They act only after they feel they will not be punished. Security forces in these incidents prove the theory that they are late to react… Today same group of lynchers … Read more

T. Boellstorff: Coming of Age in Second Life

I recently finished reading Tom Boellstorff’s Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human. As an anthropologist Prof. Boellstroff added another site to the Archive of anthropology. It surely became a must-read in the growing anthropological literature on cybercultures. My major concern is what he repeatedly insists (also in the quotation … Read more

Deserved buzz for Flashforward

Just finished watching the first 10 episodes of Flashforward. A Serial that got quite a buzz around me. Most of the people got an interest in it because of its relatedness (thru producers and casting) to the TV Series Lost. Well, Lost remains to be one of my all time TV series favorite. Flashforward remains … Read more

A documentary on Hrant Dink

[links updated] A documentary by Ümit Kıvanç. “Justice for Hrant Dink” Check out the channel for Dink: vimeo.com/channels/hrantdink And more info about the documentary here.

Erkan’s collection of year lists: 2007-2010

Update: 3 Jan 2010 Some links may not work. 2007 2008 2009 2010 caricaturque has a great collection of New year greeting e-cards: Greeting e-cards arrived on the New Year’s Eve and more here New Year 2010 greeting e-cards most recently received From the anthro world: Happy New Year with lists!

Erkan’s Field Diary wishes a happy 2010…

http://www.softskull.com/news/HAPPY%20NEW%20YEAR!!!%20copy.jpg
VIA

Special days like New Year’s Eve make me so tense. Social pressure. Such alienation, such loneliness. It all comes back to Durkheim’s arguments in Suicide. I hope it passes very quickly. As a man of ordinary life and finding bliss in it, it is very hard to go through these days. Yesterday we had a Faculty happy new year cocktail. I found refuge in my office and out of frustration, I did this silly thing of collecting interesting happy new year images in the web while checking my emails and finding tens of  new year greetings. Yes, I have my own resolutions and plans and hopeful indeed but of course happiness and peace of mind are not something planned to happen… In this sunny Istanbul afternoon, I meet with Çetin and other friends to make the final decision on Milli İstirahat’s template. We re-launch our old fanzine as a a web-zine any time now. This might make me happy.

http://oolongiv.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/happynewyear-2000.jpg
VIA

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Ertuğrul Özkök resigns.

update: 05 Jan 2010 (Aydın Doğan is gone, too) Probably one of the most reviled Turkish journalist, Ertuğrul Özkök resigned from his position as the Chief Editor of Hürriyet. His Wikipedia portrayal is ironic: Ertuğrul Özkök is a Turkish journalist and a daily columnist, currently the editorial writer for Hürriyet, a daily newspaper published in … Read more