Turkey in Europe

Friday afternoon-early evening roundup at the canteen- "New hope for alignment of civilian-military relations in Turkey…..

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I do not have particularly productive days and I hope to give an account of these stressed days soon. After my morning lecture, I met with Can at noon and went back to Mecidiyeköy to take care of some credit card issues. Then we came back to the campus, took a strategic table in the second floor of So Cafe and began to do some work. On our way back to the campus, Can was exposed to songs from two violent albums: Obzen by Meshuggah and Fabulous Disaster by Exodus…It is dark now, Friday evening starts with us sitting in the campus cafe, doing some sort of work, feeling like a loser. 
Demonstrators protest against the Scientific and Technological ...

Demonstrators protest against the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) in Middle East Technical University in Ankara March 13, 2009. Demonstrators protested against the exclusion of articles and cover page commemorating Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday from a scientific journal published by TUBITAK, Turkey’s key scientific research body. Hundreds of university teachers and students stand on the first letter of Turkish word "Devrim" which means "Revolution" to form the Turkish word "evrim" which means "evolution" painted on the stands of the university’s stadium. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

 

A roundup on Turkish politics follows: 

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"Pressure on Turkish Press"

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1. It is certain that PM Erdoğan is not good at handling the media, his is a PR disaster. Or this is a matter of perspective; ordinary AKP voters and even some others who are uneasy with DMG for ages believe he is treating DMG just as it deserves. Thus it is a PR success. It depends on who is the target.

2. In a more abstract democratic level, however, political authority must not target the media. Even if the authority has valid reasons, media should still be given autonomy. Unfortunately, AKP instigated huge tax fine is a violation of that autonomy.

3. PM Erdoğan is right: DMG acted like an opposition party. But in a country where opposition is so weak, media can assume that role. A powerful government should have accepted that. This does not fit in objectivism ideology in journalism but who cares? Objectivism was never around.

4. But if DMG assumes a political role, then it will have to accept the consequences. A political struggle will create some sorts of wounds. I would still not support a government pressure but i would not be surprised if there pressure since this becomes a field of political struggle.

5. Is a businessman, Aydın Doğan, ready or desiring such a struggle? I am not sure. Ideologically motivated senior journalists are leading the fight, I believe, as some like Fehmi Koru claim. It is never good for business to start a fight against a powerful political authority.

6. What are press or human rights organizations abroad will react? They just react according to the somewhat clichés which cannot be denied in abstract but has no relevance in a particular context. Yes, it is embarrasing for AKP to be subjected to these criticism but this does not mean, they have a subtantive impact on AKP leadership or constituencies. Because these criticism willingly or unwillingly ignore the ongoing political struggle in Turkey.

 

A roundup: 

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Warm days for US-Turkey relations

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Clinton’s visit and then Obama’s would be visit in a month are perceived as a sign for better days between these two countries. It is yet to be seen whether Mr. Obama will take Turkey to talk to Islamic World. I believe it is still early to think Turkey as the heart of Islamic World. Turkey’s new foreign policy aims at that but Turkey is still alien to most of the Islamic World. But who will represent the "Islamic World"? Saudi Arabia is moving to the leadership of Middle Eastern Arabic countries but that does not represent Islamic World itself. An Islamic World possible? There certainly a problem of representation…

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AKP's own YouTube: AK Party Tube

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AKP’s Istanbul office launched a videosharing site. Check it out here .

About 48 million Turks are entitled to vote on March 29 to choose mayors and municipal assemblies in Turkey’s 81 provinces. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party may get between 40 and 45 percent, more than its three nearest rivals combined, according to a survey commissioned by New York-based economic research firm Medley Global Advisors LLC. The study, carried out last week, had a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points.

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Hillary Clinton in town!

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Found in Girls with Guns . 1925. "Girls’ rifle team, University of Maryland." National Photo. View full size.

Public sensitivity criteria for using Turkish territory

ISTANBUL – The use of Turkish ports for the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq appears to be one of the most important items in the agenda of the Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton’s visit to Ankara this weekend.

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Erkan's course on Propaganda… Kurdish rappers vs. Islamist rappers…

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I have a spring semester elective course: Communication and Persuasion. Every semester, I change the content of the course but it is always related to course title. Last year, I had focused on Rhetoric itself. This year the theme is Propaganda. Students monitor election campaigns in groups. While they present their monitoring weekly, I lecture based on a book entitled as: Propaganda and Persuasion (by Garth S. Jowett and Victoria O’Donnell) By thebeginning of April, we may have produced a report on March 2009 local election campaigns.I will of course share it with you.

Today a group that focused on DTP’s Istanbul municipality campaign brought to our attention to DTP election song. Check out the election video here. There is a little bit of Kurdish rap there, too.

Another group showed us a Saadet party event where a Rapper group sings for this Islamist party…Here is the event video.  So comes the Turkish rap.

A round up on Turkey and Kurds follows… 

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Anatolian Armenians in 1915

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Mavi Boncuk provides us a National Geography article on Anatolian Armenians that was published back in 1915…

ARMENIA AND THE ARMENIANS by Hester Donaldson Jenkins

By M.A.M



What really happened in 1915?. 1915 Article in National Geographic is quite a source. The article was written by a professor at the American College for Girls in Constantinople from 1900-1909……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A round up on Turkish foreign policy and EU process related issues follows: 

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Erkan's election campaign brief notes

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 AKP seems to be the most prepared and professional party in the election campaign. This is not new. AKP candidates might rely on government power as opposition claims and this claim is probably true like in all previous cases. However, in any case, AKP seems to be better equipped in professional campaigning.

AKP has a somewhat unexpected rival! SP (Felicity Part, religious conservative party that happens to be the one that many AKP leaders hadlearnt politics) is campaigning hard and I believe SP will divert some percentage of AKP votes…

MHP can also divert some of the AKP votes. I am expecting a slight rise. 

CHP does not obsessively focus on secularism this time and I belive this is a winning strategy. I don’t expect CHP to increase its votes much, but at least the new focus on government corruption diverts alliance with AKP. AKP always benefitted from CHP secularism strategy. That solidified its ranks and many MHP and SP followers prefered to vote for AKP against CHP challenge.

DTP does not have any strategy except tension-making to solidify its already existing follower-cadres. DTP may preserve its voting base in Kurdish areas and but may lose a little bit to AKP.

Economic issues are weakening AKP. I don’t see any opposition party that can really challenge AKP but AKP is challenging itself and weakening… 

I believe AKP may still reach 40 % of votes. But there is a nearly one month to go. There might be many changes…

AK PARTY MHP DSP
CHP DEHAP INDIPENDENT
DYP SP

 

 here is a roundup:

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1 March 2009 in Turkish press…

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  Ciner Group is back in business. Its ambitious newspaper, Habertürk, was released today for the first time.  Editor in chief is Fatih Altaylı who is a long time professional journalist/columnist in mainstream media. High quality in print, but not much novelty in content. My first impression. I feel it will first challenge Sabah, which … Read more

Ahmet Turk's Kurdish, a scandal?, a crisis?

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Ahmet Turk, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society ...

Ahmet Turk, the leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party or DTP, makes a speech in Kurdish in open defiance of Turkish laws, as he addresses his party members at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. Ahmet Turk’s speech in Kurdish could be used by a prosecutor as new evidence to shut down the party on charges of alleged ties to Kurdish rebels. (AP Photo)

 Despite the initial media hype, i don’t see Mr. Türk’s Kurdish speaking in the Turkish parliament as a crisis or scandalous act. Interested parties will speak out, nationalist rhetorics and cliches will be employed, there will be a great fuss momentarily but most know that something has already changed. In 1980, Turkish states officially denied the existence of a language called Kurdish, and now there is already a state TV channel in Kurdish…

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Battle for Diyarbakır continues, AKP expects another victory, Kurdish and Turkish dialogue in Arbil, CHP's election tactics and more…

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PM Erdoğan’s Davos reaction is appropriated in popular culture artifacts. This is the latest one. "One minute" tshirts are sold here… 

 

Erdoğan’s latest appearance was less eventful than his visit in last November. 

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A round up in Turkey's foreign policy issues…

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A German court’s visa regulation about Turkish visitors is notable….

Israeli Chief of Staff officially apologizes because of Gen. Mizrahi’s statements…

Mr. Obama will not likely to use the word "genocide", so that there is less tension between TR-US recently.. 

There more op-eds about Turkey’s new foreign policy attempts and more questions arise whether Turkey leaves the "Western" front or not…

and there is more of course… 

 

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Sarı Gelin

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A controversial documentary was intended to be shown in all primary school in Turkey. For the moment, Ministry of Education backs up after increasing reactions. The documentary supports the official line in Armenian Genocide claims and but does it in quite a graphic way as some articles in the following round up highlights. Despite various positive developments in our Foreign policy, this does not seem to have a parallel development in lower levels of education system. I haven’t myself done a research, but what I hear from colleagues suggest that most of the newly written text books continue to reproduce grossly biased historical and political claims…

Turkey halts controversial Armenia documentary distribution to schools

Turkey’s Education Ministry has halted the distribution of a controversial documentary about the Armenian issue to all elementary schools after its move incited fierce reactions among academics and intellectuals.

 

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Gen. Mizrahi's big mistake.

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Gen. Avi Mizrahi, the head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Ground Forces "issued a tongue-lashing to Turkey’s prime minister to remind the country of past atrocities" in an international meeting. PM Erdoğan was targeted but the way he was targeted involved the Turkish army. In both Armenian question and Kurdish questions, Turkish army feels more involved with the traditional and still official Turkish state discourses. Thus, Gen. Mizrahi angered Chief of Staff more than PM himself, probably. This is not good for Israel because it seems that major relations between Israel and Turkey take place in the field of military relations and now Israel risks these relations. Despite AKP’s distance from Israel, this so far had not extended to a break in military relations – as the staunchly secular Turkish Army plays her own game- but this might change from now on… We will see…

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"Turkey slammed for slowing down reform again

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the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee released its report on Turkey a few days ago. It was expectedly critical. In the mean time, Turkey uses her NATO cards in his foreign policy dealings and of course Middle East affairs remain to be a significant field in Turkish foreign policy that might possibly influence TR-US relations…and CHP has taken anew interest in the EU process. Mr. Baykal paid a visit to Brussels… 

Turkey slammed for slowing down reform again

As it has done on various occasions over the last three years, the European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee yesterday (11 February) expressed concern about a "continuous slowdown of the reform process" in Turkey, in a resolution adopted by overwhelming majority…

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