The rumor is that they talk about the Kurdish initiative…
Mrs. Çubukçu, the new minister, started new school year with a course on “discrimination”. A great symbolic move.
In the mean time,
Chatting about Kurdish initiative?
Turkey in Europe
So did you do it?
Ergenekon prosecutors asked the Office of Chief of Staff what they knew of coup attempts between 2000-2009:) News in Turkish. here and here.
Güler Zere (and more judicial news)
Last evening
, in Istiklal Street, Taksim, I happened to witness around a thousand demonstrators protesting Güler Zere’s situation. She is a detainee in Adana prison ill with fourth stage cancer and if she is not released she may die. A web report claims that Ministry of Justice has just started the release process; let’s hope for the best.
“Stop Sexual Harassment in Police and Gendarmerie”
Bianet – Emine Özcan – ?Aug 31, 2009?
Güler Zere is a detainee in Adana prison ill with fourth stage cancer. According to a medical report, Zere is in danger of dying and the hospital’s prison
Unfortunately, not good news follow:
When struggle for rights turns into violation of rights
Bülent Forta, the president of MÜYAP, defends himself here (in Turkish). He has become the main target of protesters against the MySpace and LastFm ban. He says they did not intend the ban itself but protect musicians’ rights. His was a “struggle for rights”. In fact, Mr. Forta is known to be decades-long leftist activist. … Read more
Patriot missiles and more on Turkish foreign policy
Patriot issue came out of blue and we will see where it will lead to.. Yigal’s substantive piece and a more provocative link in addition to other issues in Turkish foreign policy..
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks about Turkey’s global priorities to a gathering at Princeton University Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009, in Princeton. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Patriot Games
by Yigal Schleifer
There’s a certain feeling of Cold War déjà vu in Turkey these days. Back then, NATO ally Turkey was seen as a front line state in the standoff against a dangerous nuclear power and was even home to American missiles (the intermediate range Jupiters, quietly removed as part of the deal made to end the Cuban missile crisis). Cut to 2009, when western ally Turkey is again being viewed by some as a front-line defense against a (potential) nuclear power — this time around Iran — and might soon be home to an American-made long-range missile defense system.
"Real-spam" campaign against MÜ-YAP
A Friendfeed group organizes to send empty CDs to MÜYAP [Turkish Phonographic Industry Society] who sued MySpace and LastFm and who is behind the current ban.
Yarın sabahtan itibaren boş CD kapaklarının içine yerleştirip MÜ-YAP’ın posta adresine yağdıracağımıSource: friendfeed.comYarın sabahtan itibaren boş CD kapaklarının içine yerleştirip MÜ-YAP’ın posta adresine yağdıracağımız CD kapağı görselleri hazır! MÜ-YAP’ı “real spam”e boğalım! Mü-Yap Bağlantılı Hak Sahibi Fonogram Yapımcıları Meslek Birliği Kuloğlu Mah. …
Two Videos on Coups in Turkey
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3754193466185760812&ei=W863Sr-3HKHQ2wKI7NSGAg&q=darbe+coup# A one and an half hour documentary on Coups in Turkey in general. By Elif Savaş. and a short movie on 1980 Turkish coup d’état [it has subtitles in English]
"Banners are from the Dinosaur Age"
Kristian Hammerstad’s gallery of haunted and monster art has me shivering with delight. Kristian Hammerstad (via Street Anatomy) in Monstrous art This reminds me website banners (!)
Assoc. Prof. Yaman Akdeniz (Law School, Istanbul Bilgi University) is interviewed at BiaNet. He talks about the ban; which articles might be used to ban in Turkish legal system and he declares his hopelessness. I realized there that a Turkish Video Sharing site Akilli.Tv is also banned.
Access to Myspace and Last.fm blocked from Turkey
As of Friday, 18 September, 2009 access to popular social networks Myspace and Last.fm are blocked from Turkey. The blocking order is issued by the Beyoğlu Chief Public Prosecutor?s Office (order not 2009/45 dated 26.06.2009). It is suspected that both sites are blocked because of ?intellectual property infringements? following a request by Mu-yap, the Turkish Phonographic Industry Society. [Blog entry by Dr. Yaman Akdeniz – I will update this story as more information is made available]
turkeybans: MUYAP banned more than 1700 websites in Turkey for copyright reasons.
Subversive sites?
by Fréderike GeerdinkNetwork site myspace.com has been closed down in Turkey. It?s not totally clear yet why, but it?s said it has to do with copyright laws being infringed. On myspace, a lot of music is shared among members, and it?s of course feasible that in the process copyrights are not always respected.
Three Facebook Groups to Protest MySpace/LastFm ban- and more
Last Update: 21 September 2009: 21:50
A twitter account gives updates on the ban and reactions: Turkey Bans.
Source: www.petitiononline.com
Unblock The Banned Websites In Turkey Petition, hosted at PetitionOnline.com
Özgür Uçkan writes extensively on web censorship in Turkey (all pieces in Turkish though)
Myspace, Lastfm, sansür, kültür ve “bir avuç insan”…
by Özgür Uçkan
“Türkiye’de internet sansürünün kısa tarihi… ve mümkün geleceği!
“Fransa, telifli içerik indirene ceza getiren HADOPI2 Yasası?nı kabul etti. Türkiye bu akımdan etkilenir mi?”
More ban’s in Turkey
by Internation MusingBt Arda Kutsal:Access to MySpace and Last.fm is banned by Turkish court. We are currently not fully informed about the reason of the ban, but it may be due to music copyright violations. And again, this ban may be a consequence of a case filed by Turkish Union of Music Producers (MÜYAP) in order to protect music rights.
Turkish internet users can still reach both sites via OpenDNS. Also, you can reach last.fm by changing language settings to English, since the ban on last.fm is over the address lastfm.com.tr and only users with Turkish language selection are redirected.
As usual there hasn’t been a powerful reaction to the most recent web censorship case. However, I see a rising anger in Facebook status messages and emerging groups. The Groups all in Turkish and they are not tailored to activate masses yet. As of early September 21, here are the groups and their current number of members:
Damn! Last.Fm and MySpace.com banned now!
last UPDATED- 21 September 2009- 00:17 At http://www.myspace.com/ as of 15:16 19 September 2009: Bu siteye erişim mahkeme kararıyla engellenmiştir. T.C. Beyoğlu Cumhuriyet Başsavcılığı’nın 26.06.2009 tarih ve 2009/45 sayılı kararı gereği erişime kapanmıştır. Facebook groups, I found so far, to protest the ban: Myspace ve Lastfm’i geri ver !! Sansüre Hayır !! 19 Eylül 2009. … Read more
Q, W, X
Three new letters, X, W, Q are proposed to be added to the Turkish alphabet as part of the attempts to integrate Kurdish language. Once upon a time, only in the last decade, people were sentenced because they used these letters in their political rhetoric…
I am not sure but in this classical photo of Atatürk where he teaches the new Latin alphabet to citizens, one can see the W letter on the left upper side of the blackboard. So nationalist reaction to the addition to these letters a bit derailed?
Are Kurdish letters welcome in the Turkish alphabet?
Some news reports on Wednesday claimed that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, which is currently working on a democratization initiative to settle Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish problem, plans to add the letters q, w and x, which are used in Kurdish but not in Turkish, to the Turkish alphabet as part of its efforts to reconcile with Kurds, who have been prevented from enjoying their language and culture.
Full list of proposed reforms can be found in this post:
State of Turkish women; surveys, stats etc.
A keen observer of state of Turkish women, Jenny White writes:
Women and Work: Some Reflections On The Numbers
The World Bank together with the Turkish State Planning Organization are about to release a report on the status of women’s work in Turkey. A preview: 3 of 4 Turkish women neither work at paid employment nor are looking for work. Turkey has a 22 % female labor participation rate, compared to 62% average in OECD countries and 33% in developing countries).
Turkey’s Oguz Savas (L) Engin Atsur and Omer Asik (R) look on after losing their FIBA EuroBasket 2009 quarter-final basketball game against Greece in Katowice September 18, 2009. REUTERS/Ivan Milutinovic
After football, Turkish dreams shattered in basketball, too….
As Erkan arrives Istanbul, an overview of Turkish agenda
One of the murder stories I have read about throughout the summer reaches at a new level:
Karabulut murder suspect surrenders to police
Dear Prof. Jenny White emphasizes a study on the political identities of Turkish youth. A vital issue to think about.
Political Identities of Turkish Youth
I was very intrigued by Professor Selçuk Sirin’s study of political identities of Turkish youth but wanted more information than given in the press and the interview linked to in my previous post. Unable to find the original study on the web, I contacted Professor Sirin at New York University and he kindly sent me a summary of the results (presumably what had been released to the media). (21 pp in Turkish, click here sirin-basin-raporu.doc to download. For non-Turkish speakers, there are many clear pie charts, some of which I discuss below) Professor Sirin said he is still working through the rest of the data.
Relatively good news: