Turkish military

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

by
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.

Read more

"Turkish army defends response to PKK attack

by

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,

Read more

2nd day in the Ergenekon trial

by

"AFP: Turkish trial against 86 alleged plotters opens chaotically

by

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

Read more

Ergenekon trial starts!

by

 

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

Read more

Turkish Establishment attacks Taraf altogether.

by

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.

 

Read more

"Gen. Başbuğ?s threats are counterproductive

by

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.

 

Read more

Why is Gen. Başbuğ so angry?

by

 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!

by

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

Read more

"Counterterrorism perspective in transformation

by

Counterterrorism perspective in transformation by MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE

Turkey has been accustomed to living with terror. This habit goes back many years.

Read more

"Will the commander resign?

by
Turkey's Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, left, and Land Forces ...

Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Ilker Basbug, left, and Land Forces Commander Gen. Isik Kosaner, center, are seen amongst unidentified army officers, as they arrive for a security meeting with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip. Turkey’s leaders met Thursday to discuss increasing the military’s powers to combat Kurdish rebels following a surge in attacks, some launched from rebel bases in northern Iraq.

(AP Photo)

 

Will the commander resign?

After the attack on the Aktütün military outpost on Oct. 3, killing 17 soldiers, something new has happened; for the first time people are openly starting to question the General Staff.

Read more

Nationalist imagery after PKK's Aktütün Military Station ambush

by

While Turkish press is critical of army’s security weaknesses, nationalist imagery is abound.

Roberto Carlos of Fenerbahçe in the special uniform.

Fenerbahçe players before their their league game. 

Some of the stuff is older but re-published in newspapers or in internet. There are at least two Facebook groups that protest PKK attack. and of course there is more than i could find immediately…

Read more

"The verdict on the DTP is in the wind, but…

by

Ethnic rift and my retirement

Although I was not surprised to hear that there was an ethnic clash in Altınova between Turks and Kurds, this news hurt me like a knife to the heart.

The verdict on the DTP is in the wind, but…

The Constitutional Court is about to submit its verdict on the closure case against the Democratic Society Party, or DTP.

Fulya Atacan: “In Turkey the military say the State should not use religion, but they did it first

Black, long, curly hair and an open smile that often turns ironic. I meet Fulya Atacan on a hot summer day, at the beginning of August, in the Cihangir branch of the famous Kaktüs Café. The music is quite loud, and her voice is not, but my dictaphone luckily succeeds in recording it without too much back noise."

Read more

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

by

‘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.

Read more

" The high cost of anti-democratic fantasies

by
 The high cost of anti-democratic fantasies
 
Macroeconomic indicators, released one after another, show that Turkey’s economic growth has slowed and that there has been a sharp decline in inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Turkey.
 
Turkish singer Bulent Ersoy arrives at a court house in Istanbul, ...

Turkish singer Bulent Ersoy arrives at a court house in Istanbul, Turkey, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 2008. Ersoy, a popular transsexual Turkish singer, has showed up for the second hearing of her trial on charges of trying to turn the public against obligatory military service. Ersoy could face more than two years in prison for saying during a live television show that if she had children, she would not want them to join the army to fight Kurdish rebels. Military service is obligatory for men over the age of 20 in Turkey, and it is a crime to speak against it. Banners in Kurdish in the background read that:

‘Long live the diva’ (AP Photo/Ibrahim Usta)

 

Kılıçdaroğlu and Fırat remain unsatisfied

The ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, deputy leader defended himself against claims made by the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, parliamentary group deputy leader

 allegations.

What happens when the military defines the concepts? by LÜTFÜ ÖZŞAHİN

Relations between the military and politics in Turkey have once again become the focal point of discussion following the recent press conferences held by the General Staff, additional arrests in connection with the Ergenekon case, a visit paid by the military to retired generals held in prison and the discharge of retired Gen. Şener Eruygur, who is also a prime suspect in the Ergenekon case.

Read more