Some are not ready to digest

October 23, 2009 by erkan

Kurdish rebels address thousands of jubilant supporters in Diyarbakir, Turkey, late Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009. Supporters gathered to celebrate the arrival of rebels and refugees who crossed into Turkey from northern Iraq in response to a Turkish government initiative to try to end decades-long fighting between autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebels and Turkish troops. The rebels saluted and addressed crowds throughout their journey from Turkey’s border crossing of Habur with Iraq to Diyarbakir, the largest city in Turkey’s Kurdish-dominated southeast. (AP Photo )

We have been discussing the event, arrival of a group of PKK and thinking how great and novel this is. In the history of Turkish Republic, I do not remember an explicit moment of peace like this. A rebel group might actually end using arms. Still early to imagine this may be but it is now an substantive possibility.

Happy ending for the first session.

October 22, 2009 by erkan

Kurds Released After Surrender to Turkish Authorities

by By REUTERS

SILOPI, Turkey (Reuters) – Turkey on Tuesday freed a group of Kurdish rebels who had surrendered to the army after returning from Iraq, a move which could help efforts to end a 25-year old separatist conflict.

Eight fighters from a PKK camp in the Kandil Mountains wait before their departure to the border of Turkey to surrender to Turkish authorities in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil October 19, 2009. A group of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas is expected to surrender to Turkish military forces on Monday in a gesture of support for Turkey’s Kurdish initiative, a PKK official said late on Saturday. Eight fighters from a PKK camp in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq will cross the border to Turkey on the wishes of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, said Rouzh Welat, a member of the group’s foreign affairs department.REUTERS/Cihan/Alihan Hasanoglu

It can be a glorious moment

October 19, 2009 by erkan

A group of unarmed PKK members are entering Turkey borders now. It could be a giant step; it depends how the group will be met…

photos from Milliyet

PKK ‘surrender’ tests Turkey plan

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition

Eight Kurdish rebels cross into Turkey from Iraq to surrender in a sign of support for Ankara’s peace efforts.

Nefes. The best Turkish war movie?

October 19, 2009 by erkan

Official site.

Nefes can easily be argued to be the best war movie made in Turkey. Previews remind you Full Metal Jacket but i felt like it is in the mood of Apocalpyse Now. Technically it is not worse than any ordinary Hollywood war movie and its plot is well made in such a politically charged subject. According to IMDB: The film is “Story of 40-man Turkish task force who must defend a relay station.” which maybe attacked by Kurdish guerillas. The film gives in to some nationalist themes and nationalists may like the heroic stances but a clever viewer will classify the movie as an anti-war one. There are fantastic fighting scenes but psychological aspects are more dominant. There are great ethnographic insights- as some of my friends already know, I have a plan to write an etnographic piece on military service-such as a dialogue among soldiers about organ donation, soldiers’ phone talks with their relatives, soldiers’ self-entertainment events, an official waking up a soldiers and making a military sermon – which I witnessed that, too, officials are in need of talking-, Kurdish soldiers singing in Kurdish etc are great. My only objection is that there is nearly no swearing. Especially, it in the opening scene there had to be a hard dose swearing. Military talk is impossible without referring to female and male genital organs frequently:)

The preview:

Read more

Social fabric roundup

October 17, 2009 by erkan

trilemma: rotten, soldier, objector

çürüğüm-askerim-reddediyorum

A documentary from Turkey examining how gays and the Turkish military view each other in a complex and changing society in which military service is considered a rite of passage for every man. The Turkish army regards gays as sick or diseased and issue medical exemption reports to gays known as ?rotten? reports. Gays have to decide whether to try to get such a report, do their military service, or become conscientious objectors.

LINKS to DOWNLOAD HERE.

Human chain for Ceylan, this evening in Taksim

October 15, 2009 by erkan

I have an evening lecture, I will probably not be there but let me announce the event for Ceylan. Another shame for the Turkish authorities. In the mean time, not much progress in the Hrant Dink assassination trial, censorship issues and a note on infamous Diyarbakır Prison. Erkan’s Field Diary offers a roundup on the darker side.

An asymmetrical war against the military

by ADEM YAVUZ ARSLAN

We have heard this so many times in the past, but we heard it once more this past Friday at the weekly press conference held at the military?s General Staff headquarters: ?There is an asymmetrical war being waged against the military.?

TURKEY 2009 PROGRESS REPORT

October 14, 2009 by erkan

COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT

TURKEY 2009 PROGRESS REPORT

accompanying the
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL
Enlargement Strategy and Main Challenges 2009-2010

And another roundup on Turkey’s foreign policy issues and its place in Europe:

Turkey and human rights – Some progress and many setbacks

October 8, 2009 by erkan

I am still optimistic, still, really. But there are not all good news here.
In the mean time: a first case. a policeman arrested because of assault to a young citizen:

Police Officer Arrested After Attacking Student

Efkan Bolaç, lawyer of the severely beaten student Güney Tuna, stated that 8 police officers were involved in the assault on her client: “Tuna was not …
PM Erdoğan’s speech at his party convention was discursively promising:

This Star daily headline underlines the fact that PM Erdoğan named political outsiders of Republican history from a wide range of political opposition.

[CROSS READER] Democratic initiative leaves its mark on AK Party congress

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) held its third ordinary party congress on Saturday at the ASKİ Sports Hall in Ankara.

Hülya Avşar and Ceylan Önkol; ending up in the same, Kurdish narrative…

October 2, 2009 by erkan

After some disappointing and unnecessary remarks, a popular culture icon, Hülya Avşar was interviewed in Milliyet and this ended up with an investigation.

Challenge for Infamous Prosecutor: BIA Quotes Avşar Interview
Bakırköy Public Prosecutor Ali Çakır’s investigation against Hülya Avşar and Devrim Sevimay has nothing to do with “justice”. This abuse of public power under the pretense of the “Kurdish Initiative” is nothing else but mobbing against the two women. We are protesting.

In the mean time, a scandal might be developing:

A Facebook group accusing military forces in the local area

“The family of a girl killed by a mortar shell fired from an unknown location overlooking the village of Şenlik in Diyarbakır province has asked how it can request an investigation into her death when there are no state authorities in the area…VIA

Diyarbakır Chief Prosecutor Durdu Kavak has said that two bomb experts are conducting an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Ceylan Önkol in the village of Şenlik in Diyarbakır province following her family’s allegations that there were no state authorities in the area to provide assistance. VIA

Chatting about Kurdish initiative?

September 27, 2009 by erkan

Obama and Erdogan chat at G20 meeting. This photo hit the first pages of many Turkish dailies today...

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,

Q, W, X

September 19, 2009 by erkan

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?

by FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK

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:

As Erkan arrives Istanbul, an overview of Turkish agenda

September 17, 2009 by erkan

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

from Kamil Pasha by Jenny White

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:

A few more words on the "Kurdish Opening"

September 12, 2009 by erkan

Well, Turkish political agenda is full of new openings and summer was not a vacation time. Alas, I was in a sort of vacation and thus missed blogging about these openings (and crises, of course).

Brief ideas on the Kurdish opening:

1) High officials in the Turkish army backs the gov’t move. Without that backing, I do not believe AKP would be courageos enough to declare the move.

2) In the last elections, AKP realized that there is no way it can win hearts of CHP voting masses in Western, and Southern parts of Anatolia. Plus, despite the dose of rising nationalism, AKP lost votes to nationalist MHP in Central Anatolian towns. On the other hand, in Kurdish lands, AKP has a real chance. This opening may win some extra votes. This opening might be a "revenge" against nationalist Turks.

3) Nationalist reactions stayed at a ridiculous level. MHP leader’s too angry rhetoric reaches to absurdity instead of substantive opposition. CHP is already in an absurd situation since it now rejects what it had proposed as solution to Kurdish crisis decades ago…

Turkish army officers salute flag-covered coffin of Orhan Kilic, one of nine Turkish soldiers killed by Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK at the Turkey-Iraq border two days ago, during a funeral service at the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara, Turkey, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2009.

(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

But of course, those opposing the opening, were quick to manipulate the funeral of killed Turkish soldiers… No surprise; hawks of both sides do not like an opening.

In the mean time, another opening comes with the Armenian side. And yet another comes with the EU as the wise men talk. Unfortunately, the gov’t scores miserably against the media. Even I am getting angry with gov’t moves against the Doğan Media Group. All about these can be found below…

Between social integration and political dissociation: Turkey’s Kurdish issue perception (1) by TAHA ÖZHAN

On Sept. 11, Armenian massacres, butterflies, the caliphate and the EU

by ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

Turkey hopeful on Armenia border

Turkey hopes to open its border with Armenia by the end of the year after the two countries announced they would sign accords to help end a century of hostility

An anectode from the Victory Day celebration while 12 Days left…

September 5, 2009 by erkan

It is unbelievable but I have only 12 days left here. I do not have any night duties any more and thus I can sleep more and there is less physical work to do. I will probably be more online by next week. Last weekend there was the Victory Day celebrations and we were not … Read more

Last 24 days. Doable.

August 23, 2009 by erkan

I don’t like Nil Karaibrahimgil’s too girlish attitude much but I like this song as it bangs on my head in the internet cafe. Her summer hit. There are 24 days to freedom. Now I am one of the closest ones to finish the service- called "tezkereciler". I am now bolder to ask for … Read more

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trilemma: rotten, soldier, objector

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Bakırköy Public Prosecutor Ali Çakır’s investigation against Hülya Avşar and Devrim Sevimay has nothing to do with “justice”. This abuse of public power under the pretense of the “Kurdish Initiative” is nothing else but mobbing against the two women. We are protesting.

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