Turkish military Archives - Page 16 of 18

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.

So did you do it?

September 26, 2009 by erkan

Ergenekon prosecutors asked the Office of Chief of Staff what they knew of coup attempts between 2000-2009:) News in Turkish. here and here.

According to an Hürriyet news, Turkish Armed Forces began to use its new slogan in army premises: “Strong Army, Strong Turkey”. This slogan has been debated recently. Pro-army people loved it, others questioned what that really means. Some suggested a change in places. Strong Turkey will provide a strong army not the other way. Not to mention the fact that Strong Army nations mostly remind dictatorships whose societies are indeed weak…

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Meet Sevil Atasoy: "An Agent Professor" according to some…

September 26, 2009 by erkan

Sevil Atasoy

Ergenekon trial yet uncovers another dirty relationship in “Turkish deep state.” Ergun Babahan named her as an “agent professor” who seemed to have worked for military intelligence and filed scandalous reports when she was the director of Forensic Science Institute.

Two Videos on Coups in Turkey

January 17, 2010September 22, 2009 by erkan

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3754193466185760812&ei=W863Sr-3HKHQ2wKI7NSGAg&q=darbe+coup# A one and an half hour documentary on Coups in Turkey in general. By Elif Savaş. and a short movie on 1980 Turkish coup d’état [it has subtitles in English]

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

Erkan has an unexpected half a day break

May 2, 2009 by erkan

From 10 am to 4 pm we are let to breath freedom again.

I had a good breakfast in the town center and then I rushed back to an internet cafe. I wasn’t expecting a break before 9 May but here we are. This is a short but still refreshing break.

As promised, our service time has become more comfortable. Our commanders tend to be more tolerant. However, some among us continously break rules which leads to collective punishment:(

Another film to remember: Das Experiment (2001) What happens when you gather and close down so many boys together…. Observable tension. Thanks god we will be distributed soon…

Yesterday, I could read nearly half of the day since it was an offical holiday (1 May- Labor Day). A very happy day. I have three books that were confirmed by the officials here:

Romantic Motives: Essays on Anthropological…

Complete Short Fiction (Penguin Classics)

Oscar Wilde

Moby Dick (Oxford World’s Classics)

Herman Melville

In Kastamonu town center, I am in an internet cafe. I am so thirsty for metal music, so i decided to listen to i.e. Exodus’s "Pleasures of the Flesh" at Fizy.org. But since the album includes "obscene" keywords, I am not let to listen to this album. Cafe software is very alert… F**k this social conservatism!

First things in my life: I used a real gun for the first time in my life. It appears that I am not a good shooter at all:( I was not the worst one but my performance is certainly below the average. One out of 6 bullets could not be found at all.

I had to wash my socks since the canteen was out of stocks. However, they were still wet so I borrowed a new pair of socks from a friends.

There is the military accessoires industry here and I will buy what I need from those stores. They even rent cell phones!

Friends around me is the best thing here. I am making some life-long friendships.

We collected money for the poor young long-terms.

There is news that this short term military service will be cancelled and beginning with December 2009, there will be 12 month service…. I am glad I will be free before that. And in any case, that does not affect us. However, when you are contained and you have little access to news, rumors and speculations make life harder. In our ward, we did forbid talk of longer term service. even though a joke is intended. We do not need a joke that implies a longer service…

@hans: military life is the most difficult thing. I can live without being online for a while:) Although I could not think that before.

@ariane: Turks are best at making life difficult for themselves.

@celil: I am soooo glad to hear that. Forza Beşiktaş!

Opppsss Shuttle arrives soon. I have to rush.

See you on May 9!

Towards the service (Part II)- "8,6 liras"

March 28, 2009 by erkan

Jan Claire made this to cheer me up:) I could still not get my “dispatch” document from the military office. In fact, last week I was at my military office in Yeni Bosna, to where it takes half an hour to reach by Metrobüs, but I was told the bring the official copies of my … Read more

"?Journalist?: the curious case of Mustafa Balbay

March 19, 2009 by erkan

‘Journalist’: the curious case of Mustafa Balbay

………………….

Let us examine the most spectacular case to date: the curious case of Mustafa Balbay.

I do hope you read his story in today’s paper. A colleague (daily Cumhuriyet) and a suspect in the Ergenekon case, Balbay, earlier taken into interrogation for alleged activities for being part of a terrorist organization with the aim of overthrowing the constitutional order and toppling the government, was recently detained again.

Immediately after the arrest, protests were heard: How dare you arrest a man who does his job, some columnists objected. Some of Balbay’s documents were taken to the prosecutor’s office and the protesters argued that he was entitled to keep secret documents at home. What’s wrong with that? some of his colleagues asked. Then, the entire episode developed into an action: A group of columnists gathered some days ago in what they call a "historic act" at Cumhuriyet and signed Balbay’s books for the public. "We are all Balbay!" they declared. According to the Press Council’s chairman, Oktay Ekşi, this act was to "defend the freedom of expression."

Then, on Monday, the Tempo weekly published the diaries of Balbay. He thought he had deleted them before the police raid and was surprised when the police told him that they had "saved" the entire text.

It is a document of shame: As you can read today, the diaries tell how deeply a "journalist" was involved in clandestine activity — as an accomplice, not as a covert reporter — to provoke top military officials to a coup.

"We are all Balbay," claimed the signatories: Ironically, it is true. The tragic fact is that when I look at them, I see only a mental impasse. The precedent they set in their capacity as leaders of journalistic organizations allows the invasion of Balbays to continue.

By the way, Chairman of the Press Council Ekşi is well known for his constant efforts in the 1990s to issue report after report to refute international organizations as CPJ, Reporters sans frontières, etc., which published lists of jailed journalists. Ekşi fully devoted his energies to tell them they were "terrorists," not "journalists." Those poor colleagues worked for small, leftist and fundamentalist journals. They were not entitled to be Balbays.

Towards the service (Part I)

March 14, 2009 by erkan

My dear readers,
In less than a month, I am joining the mandatory military service. Every male Turkish citizens has to do the service and it is time for me now. After finishing the dissertation I have no more excuses and I have to do that.

There are several unknownables in the process. It is sort of a public secret. All served people know something but no one can know what expects you there. There is a great deal of arbitrariness. I will write about my curiosities until I join the service and in the mean time, we can discuss about these…

First of all there is the Turkish Penal Code (TCK 318): "Alienating people from military service". If one discusses about the military service in Turkey, s/he should bear in mind that you can be sued because of this article. This is already an issue between Turkey and EU but relatively minor one compared to other articles. Honestly, I do not believe I might be subject to this article anyway, but still it exists there as a check point:)

One frequent metaphor that comes to my mind is prison. Your freedom to act like in your daily life is temporarily lifted. To what extent, I have no idea. Can I continue to read? How much I can read? Can I be online? Only in weekends? Will I have permission to have weekends off? I know that service men are given temporary leaves in weekends. But how much? You sexual life is stopped. It is not very active anyway but still you know that even masturbation is hard to perfom among tens of men you will live with. Will I have any privacy at all? Your eating and sleeping patterns are also controlled. You have to sleep with tens of other fellow service men in the barracks. My hobbies, like cinema or music will also be abrupted. My means of communication will also be limited and controlled to a large extent. And of course my scholarly studies will also be paused. I will lose my salary, and I may even lose my job….

However, these questions may partially be answered in the first days of April where I will attend a symbolic test in the recruitment center somewhere on the far end of Istanbul and it will be determined: a) whether I will serve for 5.5 months as a private or will serve 12 months as a sort of lietunant. If I become a private, which I want because it is shorter, I will certainly lose most of my freedoms and prison analogy will work just fine. If I serve for the longer term, it will be like a civil servant and I will probably have my nights and weekends back and i will also be paid. Still less than my salary but better than nothing. b) where I will serve. Anywhere in Turkey possible at the moment. c) as what I will serve. Which section of the Turkish army I will be in…

to be continued.

Turkish army posters for Women’s Day. "How happy is the Turkish woman who gave birth to Atatürk." Two more posters can be found here .

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

March 13, 2009 by erkan

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 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:

Office of Chief of Staff gives Turkish journalists a ride to Southeast region…

December 7, 2008 by erkan

40 journalists are invited by Turkish army officials to have a tour in Kurdish populated southeastern regions in Turkey. So that these journalists will know better how the struggle between the security forces and terrorists continue… News in Turkish here.

Civil Society in “European Commission 2008 Progress Report on Turkey”

By USAK:

"The old Erdoğan versus the new Erdoğan

December 5, 2008 by erkan

"Reform Stalls, and Liberals Can No Longer Hold Their Fire

November 25, 2008 by erkan

If only there were more Greeks and Armenians…

November 15, 2008 by erkan

… Turkey would be a better country to live. Maybe we wouldn’t have to put up with some rulers whose only skill in life is to be born as a Turk…

Murdered journalist’s son condemns minister

ISTANBUL – Arat Dink and the defense minister both agree that the population exchanges involving thousands of Turks, Greeks and Armenians are what made the country what it is today. The disagreement is on the nature of the consequences."

Gönül blunders in remark on history

ANKARA – With remarks in honor of Atatürk, the ruling AKP’s defense minister recalls the population exchanges between Greece and Turkey after World War I, attracting criticism for his nationalist language and the drift toward pro-state stances."

In the mean time,

Ara Kocunyan, chief editor of the Armenian daily newspaper Jamanak, poses for a photo at a printing house in Istanbul, in October. Jamanak, the oldest Armenian newspaper in operation in Turkey, celebrates this fall a hundred years of existence beaten by the undertow of an often tragic history.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)

For a few more municipalities…

November 6, 2008 by erkan

PM Erdoğan gone crazy. His latest statements are unbelievable. He has explicitly supported citizens’ use of weapons against protesters. He is riding on the nationalistic discourse even MHP does not use any more: Love or Leave… We will see what this will lead to. I am afraid that AKP now alienates most of Kurds. Mr. Erdoğan believes he has already secured more pious, traditional Kurds but he seems to ignore that religious Kurds are not like religious Turks. Every Kurd I know that does not support PKK still have a nationalistic consciousness. They voted for AKP because they thought this party was the only one that could embrace them. Now it seems this may not be the case. AKP might witness a big time disappointment in the region…

Prime Minister along with some other ministers…

In the mean time, militaristic propaganda knows no boundaries in major Turkish TV channels. Those respected anchormen/journalists like Uğur Dündar and Mehmet Ali Birand have spent considerable amount of prime time coverage from commando education centers this week! Just watch the prime time news, you will see what I mean. This week most of the members of Turkish government got briefed at the commando center!

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A roundup on Turkish politics follows:

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40 journalists are invited by Turkish army officials to have a tour in Kurdish populated southeastern regions in Turkey. So that these journalists will know better how the struggle between the security forces and terrorists continue… News in Turkish here.

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… Turkey would be a better country to live. Maybe we wouldn’t have to put up with some rulers whose only skill in life is to be born as a Turk…

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