Turkish Society Archives - Page 125 of 127

Enver Aydemir still needs our attention and Hrant Dink case, too

February 11, 2010 by admin

Disciplinary Fine for Detained Conscientious Objector Aydemir from Bianet :: English The Eskişehir Military Court imposed a one-month disciplinary fine on conscientious objector Enver Aydemir because of his refusal to wear prison clothes and disobedience of orders. Aydemir is not allowed for one month to see anybody else but his lawyer. Police forget to bring … Read more

Neighborhood Pressure revisited

February 11, 2010 by admin

On the ?Neighborhood Pressure?: The Review of Binnaz Toprak?s Report by Ahmet Kuru

by Changing Turkey

On the ?Neighborhood Pressure?: The Review of ?Being Different in Turkey: Alienation on the Axis of Religion and Conservatism? by Binnaz Toprak et al. (2008).

On November 22, 2009, I was the discussant of a panel at the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) Conference, in which the panelists?Binnaz Toprak, Berna Turam, Metin Heper, and Ayşe Saktanberk?analyzed the recent debates on the ?neighborhood pressure? in Turkey, a term coined by Şerif Mardin referring to the negative impact of neighborhood interactions over individual freedoms. The main survey data about this issue were collected by Prof. Toprak and her colleagues and published in Turkish with the title ?Being Different in Turkey? (hereafter ?the report?). My conversations with Prof. Toprak during and following the MESA panel were very helpful in the course of writing this review.

“Details of honor killing shocks Turkey” (UPI)

February 6, 2010 by admin

The hole where Medine Memi was buried by her relatives in the courtyard of their house in Adiyaman, southeastern Turkey, February 4, 2010. Memi, a 16-year-old girl, was buried alive by relatives in southeastern Turkey in a gruesome honor killing carried out because she reportedly befriended boys, the Anatolia news agency reported Thursday. REUTERS/Tevfik Parlak/Anatolian

Details of honor killing shocks Turkey (UPI)

from Yahoo news

ISTANBUL, Turkey, Feb. 5 (UPI) — The father and grandfather of a teenage girl buried alive for talking to boys have been arrested and are being held for trial, authorities in Turkey say.

Prof. Aydın Uğur on Turkish cultural analysis

February 5, 2010 by admin

From Aydın Uğur’s talk Culture and Politics in Turkey. 11/24/2009. Well, i am quite late to post it but it is still valid.

Prof. Aydın Uğur, who is one of two life-saving academicians in my early academic years, gave a special lecture for our Media Studies MA program a while ago. The lecture was open to public. Prof. Uğur focused on the development of concept of culture in Turkish social sciences with particular emphasis on Communication studies. Here are my brief notes:

Culture was not in the agenda at all in the early years of Communication studies in Turkey. A sociology graduate would be accepted as a TA to the Communication faculty as sociology was alien and irrelevant to Communication studies. [This had happened 22 years ago: When our current Media dept chair Prof. Halil Nalçaoğlu applied to a teaching assistantship position in a Communication school in Ankara after graduating from METU Sociology, he wouldn’t be accepted. Then a newly PhD graduate, that is Aydın Uğur would try hard to persuade the faculty and only in the end Halil hoca would become a TA and Aydın hoca’s very first graduate student:)

2 million workers are expected to strike today. Strike diary will be updated all day

February 6, 2010February 4, 2010 by admin

Honestly, it will surprise me if the strike succeeds. I will keep an eye on what happens today. update: 6 Feb 2010. It seemed that the general strike did not really work. Worker actions remained low profile… Petrolİş started a unionisation campaign here. What we accomplished with ?Tekel resistance? by ORAL ÇALIŞLAR – RADİKAL The … Read more

every male soul tastes the military service (in Turkey) (!)

January 31, 2010 by admin

Recently, Hürriyet posted service photos of popular actors, footballers etc…

ÜNLÜLER ASKERLİKLERİNİ NEREDE YAPTI 2010 / 12

Kadir İnanır and Mazhar Alanson

Barış Manço

Tarkan

R.I.P. for an exceptional Turk, Şakir Eczacıbaşı.

January 24, 2010 by admin

Among the rich families of Turkey Eczacıbaşı family is exceptional. No other families can challenge Eczacıbaşı in the amount of investment in arts and cultural fields. But not only in terms of investment, this family is exceptionally urban, modern and politically liberal in their reactions and positionings. One of their leading members, Şakir Eczacıbaşı, passed … Read more

No Memati for a kid’s name…

January 11, 2010 by admin

Memati

A father wanted to rename his two sons after the famous characters in the TV serials Valley of the Wolves: Polat and Memati. A local court rejected one of the names: Memati. Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed the local court decision: Memati is an Arabic word that means “death” or “fatal” and thus not suitable for a kid’s name… Well, nobody knows what Memati means really. I did not know myself. So I am not sure if this is really a good decision. I would feel better for a name like “Ayetullah”. That was a friend’s name back in college. His father was an Islamist and he named him like that. That was a loaded name to carry along… …

In the mean time, Turkish police forbidden a MultiPlayerOnline Game to be played in Internet Cafes (I wonder if they really have the authority to do that): Metin 2. A popular game with too much violent stuff. The police thinks it is not good for the kids.

In Turkish Press, most mentioned columnist of the week:

No	Köşe Yazarı	Haber/Yazı Adedi
1	Ertuğrul Özkök	135
2	Cengiz Çandar	85
3	Nuray Mert	52
4	Rıdvan Dilmen	44
5	Ahmet Hakan Coşkun	41
*MTM Medya Takip Merkezi’nin, 4-10 Ocak 2010 tarihlerinde, basında yaptığı haber takibi sonuçlarından derlenmiştir.

source

Recep İvedik 3 on February 2010

December 29, 2009 by admin

Turkish blockbuster returns with a new sequel: Recep İvedik 3. It will also become a blockbuster. That’s for sure. However, the preview is not promising as it did in the second one. I kind of liked and promoted the second one here. But in the new sequel, at least in the previews, more banality based … Read more

Rakı industry strikes back, Rakı viral ads in the net

December 29, 2009December 27, 2009 by admin

Since advertising of alcoholic beverages are very limited, more video ads are circulating thru social media. Here is the latest one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gf-IyC-zKNw

And Muslim Turks make peace with Christmas

December 25, 2009 by admin

My older sister loves all kinds of decorations on special days. This was always an annoyment for the rest of kids in the family. Now she is married and I hear that she takes her hobby to a new level. They have a Christmas tree and had worked on decorating it. Of course, they do this to welcome the new year. Christmas and new year practices are blended in many Turkish minds into new year celebrations. Surprisingly enough, my sister always criticises me for consuming alcohol. She is not veiled at all but she is quite a practicing religion woman and I am frequently subject to her anger that I am not a good Muslim. Funny.

Santa movie spotlights Turkey’s east-west divide
CNN
ISTANBUL, Turkey (CNN) — It may be the first modern Christmas movie ever made for audiences in Turkey, a mostly Muslim country that does not celebrate

EurasiaNet Eurasia Insight – Turkey: Istanbul Gets in the Christmas Spirit

13 December: World Rakı Day

December 13, 2009 by erkan

updated: 13 Dec 2009- 20:30 A local Rakı producer company declared the existence of World Rakı Day in 2006 and since then more and more Turks (and certainly Kurds) are happily joining ranks to celebrate Rakı drinking. The exact day changes one or two days since then – since this tradition is still being invented- … Read more

Turks at War (with themselves). Part V. 1954 wounded, 2 died in a single day.

November 29, 2009 by erkan

112820093169 — Waiting to be sacrificed. I took it as I was waiting for the green light...

At the end of the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice, 1954 people were reported to be injured in Turkey as they were trying to slaughter sheep and cows, as Hürriyet reports.2 died of heart attack during the act of amateur butchership.

Eid al-Adha | Turkish Islam | Muslim holidays

Previous year reports here.

And more the Turkish society:

GA, GI, GU

November 16, 2009 by erkan

According to a Hürriyet news, Diyarbakır Police Department, who issues car licence plates, is having a problem with GA, GI and GU letters. Because GA means “ox”, GU means “shit” in Kurdish. And finally, GU means “shit” again in the local Zaza accent…

Turkey's Chief Rabbi Ishak Haleva (C) is accompanied by ...

Haleva (C) is accompanied by Beyoglu district Mayor Ahmet Misbah Demircan (R) as they walk together with residents during a commemoration near the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul, November 15, 2009. Relatives and friends gathered at a peace monument near the Neve Shalom synagogue to mark the sixth anniversary of the Al Qaeda-linked twin suicide car bomb attacks against the city’s two main synagogues. Neve Shalom and Beit Israel synagogues had been devastated in twin suicide car bomb attacks on November 15, 2003, killing around 30 people including Jewish people praying as well as Muslim passersby.REUTERS/Murad Sezer

and a few more from the Turkish society…

Read more

The first President to be in Tunceli in 19 years

November 6, 2009 by erkan

In another positively historical political moment in Turkey, President Abdullah Gül pays a visit to Tunceli. This city, predominantly Alevite, has been the symbol of radical opposition to Establishment. [I had just heard that fatally ill political prisoner Güler Zere may be released, news coming soon]

Cumhurbaşkanı Gül, Zere'yi affetti — Güler Zere

oh yes, she is released (though it might be too late)…

Enver Aydemir still needs our attention and Hrant Dink case, too

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Neighborhood Pressure revisited

On the ?Neighborhood Pressure?: The Review of Binnaz Toprak?s Report by Ahmet Kuru

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“Details of honor killing shocks Turkey” (UPI)

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Prof. Aydın Uğur on Turkish cultural analysis

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2 million workers are expected to strike today. Strike diary will be updated all day

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every male soul tastes the military service (in Turkey) (!)

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R.I.P. for an exceptional Turk, Şakir Eczacıbaşı.

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No Memati for a kid’s name…

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Recep İvedik 3 on February 2010

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Rakı industry strikes back, Rakı viral ads in the net

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And Muslim Turks make peace with Christmas

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13 December: World Rakı Day

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Turks at War (with themselves). Part V. 1954 wounded, 2 died in a single day.

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GA, GI, GU

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The first President to be in Tunceli in 19 years

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