Turkey in Europe

"Montreux And Turkey

by

Montreux And Turkey

BY NASUHI GUNGOR

STAR- We should be watching developments in the Caucasus more closely. Yesterday Russia officially recognized the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, in response to requests from the two breakaway Georgian provinces, according to President Dmitry Medvedev. Considering the developments beginning with Georgia’s attack on South Ossetia earlier this month, this latest move might not seem surprising. But in terms of the bigger picture, one can say that through its recognition Russia took a risky step in a thorny area."

This might never happen:

EU waits for Turkey to break its political crises cycle

Now is the time for Turkey to eliminate obstacles and to continue on its path to European Union accession, said the EU enlargement commissioner in an article he wrote for Turkish daily Milliyet,

I am not sure what Mehmet Ali Birand means. Just listened the speeches of new generals. Not a single change in their discourse. Anti-globalist, anti-EU, anti postmodern. Yeah the new Army general accused of postmodern thought that are a threat to nation-state!!! :

New era at the TSK

Mehmet Ali Birand

Read more

"Nosemonkey interviewed: On EU blogs and Russia

by

Nosemonkey interviewed: On EU blogs and Russia

By nosemonkey

Believe it or not, from time to time people actually ask me for my opinion on things, rather than me just spouting out unsolicited words into the electronic ether and hoping that someone may spot them and correct my mistakes.

As such, this evening I’ll be doing the talking head thing on the BBC World Service’s World Have Your Say, trying to come up with a coherent theory about Russia’s current plans and how the rest of the world should respond. (Likely argument? Russia’s being childish and throwing a tantrum, and there’s usually two responses to tantrums: smack them or ignore them. Unfortunately, neither option’s really possible in this case.) Any suggestions much appreciated.

The Caucasus war viewed through Europe’s blogs

By Ole Skambraks

Blogospheres are vibrating in the aftermath of the war in the Caucasus. The need to understand and debate is huge, as spin doctors have been manipulating the news on both sides

NEXT NEWS IS WRONG. YOUTUBE STATED TODAY THAT THE BAN CONTINUES; Erkan now believes only a YouTube generation can save Turkey. So far, I haven’t heard a single person who defends the ban. Only after the system does not support any more those unique cases who goes to court for a ban and of course those backward-minded judges who support the unique cases…As you can see if these were particular, exceptional cases there would not be a ban. There is something more systemic.

 

YouTube returns after three-month ban

Access to YouTube, a popular video sharing Web site banned in early May by a controversial court decision for broadcasting videos deemed insulting to the nation’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, was reinstated on Saturday night."

Read more

JITEM Linked To Human and Arms Trafficking…

by

Ergenekon divides Kurdish politicans, too.

Ergenekon Investigation: Military Unit Linked To Human and Arms Trafficking

By Jenny White on Jitem

Documents seized in a police raid on the house of an executive of a TV station as part of the ongoing Ergenekon operation have revealed that a secret and illicit military intelligence unit known as JITEM was engaged in several illegal acts, including drug and human smuggling and arms trade with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)….

Read more

"Anti-Turk Biden's Pelosi impasse

by

If things continue like this, Turkey-US relations will have tense moments. Mr. Bidden is good for Mr. Obama but not for Turkey. Or is it really the case?

An anti-Turkish vice president according to Hürriyet. He is known to defend Armenian, Greek, Cyprus lobby theses. But Foreign Policy experts state that Turkey is already changing is foreign policy attitudes and there won’t much new tension btw Turkey and US….

Barack Obama chooses Senator Joe Biden as his Vice Presidential running mate for 2008

Anti-Turk Biden’s Pelosi impasse

By MILLIYET, SEMIH İDIZ

It is impossible to expect that Ankara will welcome Barack Obama’s decision to appoint Senator Joe Biden as his running mate.

 

Read more

Turkey's Third National Program

by

The Third National Program

By Jenny White on Turkey’s Third National Program

Though the Third National Program declared last Monday by government spokesperson and State Minister Cemil Cicek raised hopes among the pro-EU intellectuals of Turkey, many are skeptical about the program’s prospects….

Is the third national program viable?

Read more

"Ergenekon: worries and hopes

by

 last week something like a minor judiciary coup happened within judiciary circles. I realize today that I have not emphasized that enough. A prosecutor from Ankara ordered the search of Ergenekon’s Istanbul based prosecutor’s headquarters. The claim was that Ankara prosecutor believed there was illegal phone listening happening in Istanbul prosecutor’s office. So  like an ambush, some officials visited the Istanbul office, then began to  have a look who was being listened.  This is a giant scandal. Some officials were found to be listing those who was being listened. This is a scandal. This is a judiciary intervention to an ongoing trial by another section of Turkish judiciary. I hear that some bureaucrats in Ankara are very anxious because of the Ergenekon trial.

I hear that there are already new ‘understandings’ after the AKP closure case.  One shouldn’t be very hopeful any more (!).

Ergenekon: worries and hopes

What will the outcome of the Ergenekon case be? This question alone is sufficient to explain the hopes and worries about the future of Turkey.

Elder brother caught in Dink case

The older brother of one of the main suspects in the murder of journalist Hrant Dink was detained by police yesterday. Osman Hayal was detained for being in Istanbul when a teenage nationalist

Ergenekon questions in Malatya massacre case

The lead suspect in the Malatya massacre case denied any connection with retired Maj. Gen. Levent Ersöz, who was arrested in relation to the Ergenekon case, in a trial at Malatya’s Third Court

Read more

"853 Websites Banned in Turkey

by

FT.com / World – Turkish bloggers censure the censors

By Alex Barker in Ankara and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Turkish bloggers are closing their websites to protest against courts banning dozens of mainstream sites for carrying content deemed “immoral” or insulting to Turkey’s founding father."

853 Websites Banned in Turkey

By Jenny White

There are currently 853 Web sites banned in Turkey, including video-sharing site YouTube and dailymotion.com, placing Turkey in the league of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, famous for restricting freedom of speech.

Web sites are most often banned on grounds that they insult the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, contain vulgarity, enable gambling or promote suicide. Many sites have also been banned for crimes covered under the Internet Security Law. But a number of sites are banned for no apparent reason. The latest Web site to be banned was gundemonline.com, which was blocked by Ankara’s 11th High Criminal Court without any justification. VIA

Read more

"What did you do for the EU today?

by

This is a column title by İsmet Berkan but it well portrays my state of affairs; sort of. For the last few days, I am satisfied with the pace of writing and unfortunately these lonely office hours in evenings do not help. I would prefer a crowded and noisy office to this silent and being-alone office. I am glad this damn summer is ending. and here comes a round up mostly on Turkey’s fantasies with all-track diplomacy…

Read more

"Treatment of Widows and Divorced Women

by

In the following text, you will find a huge round up on Turkish society. I highlighted Jenny White’s emphasis on a particular section of Turkish women but there is also stuff on the threat of a new earthquake in Istanbul, Tuzla disasters, Turkish academia and in the mean time Istanbul is burning with heat and humidity. Boy, I am doing my best to ignore the evil weather!

Read more

Turkey's "'all-track' diplomacy"

by

AKP leaders are taking a risk by this all-track diplomacy. They might win big or lose big.

They have many in their cadres which could trigger this shift from traditional Turkish foreign policy and there have been signs of it already. Now, they are relieved of the closure ban and they are pushing for it. 

After the visit of Iran’s leader, now there comes the mini African Summit and a notarious African leader, Bashir comes to Turkey second time in less than a year. As part of a grand plan, these risky visits might work but they are just too risky. The plan is to create independent good, powerful and profitable relations with neigbours. The plan is very innovative. After the 2nd WW, traditional Turkish foreign policy depended on its geostrategic importance for US. This symbolically ended in the first Gulf War where Turkey lost great and it became one of the sources of economic crisis in 2001. Major reliance on EU process in recent years also ended when AKP could not get enough of the process. Since 2004, AKP lost its belief in EU in general. I don’t think this means hostile thinking against EU or US. Although ideologues of the new FP attempt might be uneasy with them, their main goal seems to make Turkey a more equal partner in relations with EU or US.

However, even for those who try to be more neutral to AKP, there is the problem of substance. Is there any substance in possible relations with the new ‘allies’?  Like it or not, TR has been part of the Western system since 2WW. Political, cultural, economic relations all depended on this system although they were never satisfying. Can there be sustainable relations with others? Particularly when some of the others are subject to systemic hostility?

The ideologues of the AKP Foreign Policy (first person to come to my mind is Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is known to have Neo-Ottoman tendencies. However, he and others seem to be realistic, too.

 

A new art of ‘all-track’ diplomacy

Relieved by a Constitutional Court ruling against a ban that helped it avert a political crisis, it was natural for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to expect a few days of relaxation.

 The Associated Press: Turkey’s Gul urges Sudan leader to end suffering

 

Sudan’s Bashir on visit to Turkey

Sudan’s president makes his first foreign trip since he was indicted on genocide charges by the International Criminal Court. 

Read more

"Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest

by

News

View of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. EFE/Emilio Naranjo. found in Chinese Director Zhang Yimou Presents Dazzling Opening Ceremony at The Olympic Games

 I was not aware of this campaign as my life was disrupted by Yahoo! But probably I would not hear it on time. As usual, there is also a blogger community which is reclusive in some sense and I am an outsider. I realized this in a recent Turkish blogging awards stuff. I heard about the competition when the list of candidates were released. I compared mine and others in many categories and could not know why I wasn’t there. Most of blogs are in Turkish of course and blog networks are based on some sort of friendship networks. If you are not in it, then you are out. This is the same for many issues (like cinema circles) and not different in new media stuff. Otherwise, mine is known, too but only needed when they need a sample for ‘English language’ blogs:) Still the campaign is good though ‘authorities’ will only be happy to see more closed websites (!)

Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest

Erick Schonfeld

It doesn’t take much to get your Website banned in Turkey. Pretty much any complaint to a lower court can get a Website blocked in the country. Websites including YouTube, DailyMotion, Alibaba, Slide.com, and some WordPress blogs have all been banned, usually because of some purported slight to the Turkish government or Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.”

148 Turkish websites in protest against government ban

This week 148 153 (the number is rising) Turkish websites are shut down as a protest against the government ban. The Turkish government blocks YouTube since January this year. And in the last few weeks various other international websites like DailyMotion are also blocked. The 148 website as listed here show this text at their frontpage:
Bu siteye erişim kendi kararıyla engellenmiştir

Read more

When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, another wave of Ergenekon arrests happened!

by

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983 VIA

Read more

When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, Mr. Ahmadinejad visited Istanbul,

by

oriental show off messed up the daily lives of Istanbul… always smiling Mr. Ahmadinejad is not really sympathetic in this context but he still apologized from Istanbulians, whereas our leaders did not bother to do that. Another center-wise reflex of AKP: Shut up you ordinary people, we are doing energy business here!

 

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) smiles while hugging ...

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) smiles while hugging his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul August 14, 2008.

REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY)

Read more