Turkey in Europe

"AKP?s Paternalism And Hierarchy, Not Conservatism, Is The Problem

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Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) is accompanied ...

Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (R) is accompanied by top military officials as he attends an official ceremony to mark the 85th anniversary of Republic Day at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of secular Turkey, in Ankara October 29, 2008. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)

 

AKP’s Paternalism And Hierarchy, Not Conservatism, Is The Problem

By Jenny White on Erik Zurcher

Turkey needs an urban, secular and liberal political movement that can successfully utilize the inherent potential of society to complete the modernization process while addressing the Kurdish and secularist-anti-secularist clash, according to Dutch historian and Turkey expert Erik Jan Zürcher.

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Blogger ban is temporarily lifted while Turkey cannot make it to the "Top 10 Countries Censoring the Web"- yet

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Top 10 Countries Censoring the Web

By Nick on Internet

When the World Wide Web was created in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee (not to be confused with the Internet itself, which is the core network developed many years earlier), its main objective was to enable the free exchange of information via interlinked hypertext documents.

Almost 20 years later, that objective has been accomplished on most parts of the world, but not in all of them. Some countries are trying hard to keep an iron hand over the flow of information that takes place on the Web. Below you will find the most controversial ones. [Click the title to see who are top countries]

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The Republic is at 85

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Hürriyet celebretes the 85th year with typical Republican iconography…

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"Turkish army defends response to PKK attack

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These white dots in this intelligence photo is a source of controversy. The army officials claim that these are villagers and Taraf daily claims these are PKK guerillas. I just wonder since when villagers in Turkey are able to walk in such an orderly manner. Even our educated citizens cannot organize themselves and I am glad to see that our peasants in that photo are such a self-disciplined folk on their way to work…

Turkish army defends response to PKK attack

In an investigation of the incident, no flaws were found in the Turkish military’s response to the bloody Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, attack on a military post in early October,

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"I?m scared Ergenekon will turn out like Şemdinli

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Ergenekon trial will continue tomorrow. Not much expected from tomorrow’s session.  There is a round up on Ergenekon trial here. Then there is another set of round up on Constitutional Court’s decisions that were released last week. Finally another set of round up on DTP leader’s last week statements and Kurdish issue in general…

I’m scared Ergenekon will turn out like Şemdinli

By NURİYE AKMAN on Interviews

The Ergenekon trial began last week. There is an expectation that some circles will try to sabotage the trial and dilute the facts. Propounding the views of those who oppose the trial prosecutors is also being seen as part of this plan.

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Blogger banned in Turkey. Turkey, a country in negotiations with the EU

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Turkish judiciary proves itself daily as the most backward section of the Establishment and AKP is about to complete its "Ankara-ization". Now relatively accepted by the gatekeepers of the Establishment, the ruling party remains indifferent to web bans.

 

Global Voices Advocacy » Blogger.com banned in Turkey

Turkish Bans

By TT

You have blogger? Turkey has blocker! First, it was WordPress. Then YouTube. And now Blogger, world’s largest ‘free’ blog service, is blocked or banned in Turkey. Why? What difference does it make? What’s next? The Internet? Is this a ploy by traditional media outlets (i.e. sensationalist Turkish newspapers whose readership among porn enthusiasts is on the way down) to shut…

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2nd day in the Ergenekon trial

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"AFP: Turkish trial against 86 alleged plotters opens chaotically

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It has been three months and they could not even prepare a room to start a proper trial.  Like the indictment itself, the court process starts in mess…

AFP: Turkish trial against 86 alleged plotters opens chaotically

Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (C) heads a National Security ...

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul (C) heads a National Security Council meeting in Ankara October 21, 2008. REUTERS/Mustafa Oztartan/President’s Press Office-Handout

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Ergenekon trial starts!

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I have been hearing in the news that the Prison is being prepared for this big trial for a month now. As a consequence of special Turkish planning mentality, the trial stopped short after it started because the room was not nig enough!

The judge adjourned for half an hour after he stated that was the biggest room they could find. 

The list of accused. 

Ergenekon trial becomes one of the 7 big trials in Turkish judiciary history:

MSP DAVASI: Necmettin Erbakan’ın Genel Başkanlığı’nı yaptığı ve 1981 yılında kapatılan Milli Selamet Partisi ile ilgili davada ise 1985 yılında sonuçlanırken tüm sanıklar beraat etti.

DEV SOL DAVASI: Dev-Sol davasında yargılanan sanık sayısında ise rekora ulaşıldı. Bin 243 kişinin yargılandığı dava henüz kesin olarak sonuçlanmadı.

YASSIADA DAVALARI: 1950-1960 döneminde Başbakanlık yapan Demokrat Parti Genel Başkanı Adnan Menderes’in idam edilmesi ile sonuçlandı. Yassıada’da yapılan yargılama sonrasında Menderes’le birlikte Menderes ve Dışişleri Bakanı Fatin Rüştü Zorlu ile Maliye Bakanı Hasan Polatkan da idam edildi.

12 EYLÜL DAVALARI: 12 Eylül 1980 tarihinden sonra da çok sanıklı davalar ardarda geldi. Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi davası ile ilgili olarak o dönemde genel başkanlık görevini yürüten Alpaslan Türkeş’le birlikte 392 kişi yargılandı. Yargılama yıllarca devam etti.

DİSK DAVASI: Barış Davası’nda aydınlar, DİSK Davası’nda da yüzlerce sendikacı hakkında dava açıldı. Aylarca süren bu davalarda da sanıkların çoğu beraat ederken, bazı sanıklar hakkındakı suçlamalar zaman aşımına uğradı.

DENİZ GEZMİŞ DAVASI: Deniz Gezmiş ve arkadaşları Ankara 1 Numaralı Sıkıyönetim Mahkemesi’nde yargılandılar. Deniz Gezmiş, Yusuf Aslan ve Hüseyin İnan’ın cezaları 6 Mayıs 1972 tarihinde infaz edildi. 

 Under normal conditions it will take 10 days to finish reading the Indictment…

 

Kemal Alemdaroğlu. One of the accuseds. A big time provocateur.  As a former rector of Istanbul University, he is personally responsible for spreading the headscarf ban and inciting the last decade’s row on headscarf. He may escape from arrest in the end but i would not mind if he did rot in prison… 

Ergenekon trial begins in Turkey 20/10 07:44 CET euronews
Ergenekon case: Trial of the century starts today Today’s Zaman
Turkey puts 86 on trial over planned coup Times Online
Independent – Aljazeera.net

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Turkish Establishment attacks Taraf altogether.

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PM Erdoğan actively supported Gen. Başbuğ yesterday and today.  Mr. Erdoğan was very offended by today’s Taraf headline: "His Pasha’s Prime Minister". He is probably just too happy to be seen as an ally of the army now. Establishment journalists today worked hard to attack Taraf.

To the chief of staff

By TARAF, AHMET ALTAN

Where do you get the courage to speak so recklessly, so impolitely and so threateningly? Do you even hear what you are saying?

Who are you trying to scare? Do you really believe you can scare us? Let me tell you something in a friendly manner, general, please stop making such threats, such gestures full of hatred and anger. These do not scare us. Don’t you understand that some people will do anything to make their country a happy and free one? Please try to understand this and abandon these efforts to frighten us.

 

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"Turkey: Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008..

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Turkey: Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008

By Eurozine News Item

To coincide with Turkey’s status as Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, Eurozine publishes articles from "Varlik" magazine’s 75-year anniversary anthology. The texts display many of the concerns that continue to occupy Turkish writers today. Also: Turkey in the Eurozine archives

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"Gen. Başbuğ?s threats are counterproductive

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Taraf: Stop threatening and explain what happened!

Gen. Başbuğ’s threats are counterproductive

Turks have increasingly begun using their democratic right to criticize in such taboo areas as the role of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) in politics since the Helsinki Summit of 1999, the year Turkey gained candidate status for accession to the European Union.

 

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Why is Gen. Başbuğ so angry?

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 update: a military court decision: stop reporting on the issue as of 15 Oct evening… Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug speaks to the media during a military ceremony in the western Turkish city of Balikesir, Turkey, Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008. Gen. Basbug said that ‘those who praise the actions of the separatist terrorists … Read more

the Minister apologizes!

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Minister of Justice apologizes because of the death of Engin Ceber. He said investigation continues in Metris Prison and 19 officials temporarily suspended….

Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies Emine Ayna ...

Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) deputies Emine Ayna (front L) and Ibrahim Binici (front R) hold Azadiya Welat newspapers, which is published in Turkey in Kurdish language, during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara October 14, 2008, as they are flanked by their colleagues (back). DTP deputies on Tuesday protested against a Turkish court’s decision to ban the publication of the Azadiya Welat newspaper for a month.

REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)

Heavy criticism over torture allegations

Torture and mistreatment by the state have again come to the fore after the death of a leftist activist, allegedly due to injuries from a beating by police and prison guards. Opposition deputies criticized

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Engin Ceber

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because he is a radical leftist, his case may be lost and may just be another item in Turkey’s shameful human rights history…

 Turkey probes death of activist
International Herald Tribune, France – Oct 12, 2008
Human rights groups say 29-year-old Engin Ceber was severely beaten by officers while in custody. He died in a hospital from a brain hemorrhage on Saturday

A Torture Death And Three Still In Danger

By Jenny White on torture in Turkey

...[Engin] Ceber, an inmate at Istanbul’s Metris Prison, died last week after allegedly being abused and tortured at the hands of police and prison guards. Ceber was reportedly taken into custody along with three friends in Istanbul for selling a leftist magazine. They were later convicted and sent to Metris Prison. The four inmates were allegedly subjected to disproportionate use of force and heavy torture by policemen and prison guards. Ceber was taken to the hospital last week and was pronounced dead there after suffering from a brain hemorrhage as a result of a head injury…

 

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