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

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

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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"I?m scared Ergenekon will turn out like Şemdinli

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

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

"AFP: Turkish trial against 86 alleged plotters opens chaotically

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!

 

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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"Gen. Başbuğ?s threats are counterproductive

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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"2,459 newspapers, 258 TV stations in Turkey AND hundreds of websites are closed…

2,459 newspapers, 258 TV stations in Turkey

Statistics released by the Prime Ministry Directorate General of Press and Information (BYEGM) indicate that Turkey has 2,459 newspapers and that 258 television stations are based in the country, in addition to providing a wealth of other information on electronic communications and entertainment in the country."

When You Have A Hammer, Everything Looks Like A Nail

By Jenny White on website ban in Turkey

On Turkish web censorship, a Financial Times article from August 22:

A law passed in 2007 gave judges the power to ban websites for inciting suicide, drug use, paedophilia, immorality, illegal prostitution or insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the architect of modern Turkey.

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Sağlar: ?If Susurluk had been solved, we would not be facing Ergenekon?

‘If Susurluk had been solved, we would not be facing Ergenekon’

By ERCAN YAVUZ

Former Culture and Tourism Minister Fikri Sağlar, one of the most active members of the parliamentary commission set up to investigate a 1996 car accident that led to the discovery of links between the state and criminal elements, has said if a journal kept by former Naval Commander retired Adm.

 

The ‘YouTube effect’ in Turkish politics by EMRE USLU & ÖNDER AYTAÇ

It’s no secret that widely used technological innovations fundamentally change people’s political behaviors. The Internet is one of the technological innovations that dramatically changed the behaviors of politicians, constituencies and political parties.

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"Neo-Ottomanism and Kemalist foreign policy

Neo-Ottomanism and Kemalist foreign policy

Davutoğlu argues that Turkish foreign policy had been unbalanced, with an overemphasis on ties with Western Europe and the United States to the neglect of Turkey’s interests with other countries, particularly in the Middle East. His vision displays familiar characteristics of "neo-Ottomanism," which builds on the approach of former President Turgut Özal. According to this view Turkey needs to rediscover its imperial legacy and seek a new national consensus where the multiple identities of Turkey can coexist. ………

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"Turkey fails to meet EU criteria in critical areas

Turkey fails to meet EU criteria in critical areas

The most critical norms that candidates for accession to the European Union must be committed to abiding by are the political criteria that address issues such as civil-military relations, human rights and the judiciary.

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"New era signaled in army-media relations in Turkey

New era signaled in army-media relations in Turkey

Turkey’s new army chief Gen. Ilker Basbug signaled Tuesday a new era has started regarding the relations between the military and the media.

Chief Of Staff Meets With A Select Group Of Media Organs
BİA – İstanbul,Turkey
Sedat Ergin, chief editor of the newspaper Milliyet, told that they had asked the chief of staff what their accreditation criteria regarding the newspapers

AND  "New era signaled in army-media relations in Turkey…

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"Memories of Sept. 12 coup still haunt Turkey


Erdal Eren, a high school kid, was one of the executeds…

Never without confronting Sept. 12

Sept. 12: Military coup, violence, torture, executions and lost generations.

Memories of Sept. 12 coup still haunt Turkey

Yesterday was the 28th anniversary of a bloody military coup that took place on Sept. 12, 1980, the effects and vestiges of which still cast a dark cloud over Turkish politics.

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"Yet Another Threat to The Turkish Republic: Postmodernism

Yet Another Threat to The Turkish Republic: Postmodernism

[Originally published in Turkish Daily News] Did you know that the Turkish military sees postmodernism as a “threat” that should be fought against? We all learned that about a week ago when the new Commander of Land Forces, Gen. Işık Koşaner, made a speech which summarized all the enemies that the Turkish Armed Forces despise. These included the usual groups: “Separatists,” religious orders, and “unpatriotic” circles. But the latter included a new cadre of treacherous citizens: “the post-modernists.” The high-brow general openly stated: “The propaganda network that consists of a postmodern clique of some media, academics, finance circles and NGOs are working in order to weaken and disintegrate national unity and national values.” He also added that these “postmodern” traitors are “manipulated by global powers.”

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