Urgent: Istanbul Pride march must go ahead! Amnesty International Istanbul Pride was last permitted to take place in 2014. Over 90,000 people attended a vibrant, inclusive and peaceful march where love and human rights were celebrated. Despite increasing restrictions on expression, the LGBTI community is defiant. Turkey Has No Excuse to Ban Istanbul Pride March Human Rights … Read more
Main opposition party, CHP, finally goes beyond its routine and unsuccessful campaigning. Slowly… ***************** Polls show Erdogan ahead, but should Turks trust them? Al-Monitor – Ayla Jean Yackley – Jun 13, 9:07 PM Turkey has entered the final stretch of a historic election campaign and public opinion polls are giving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a clear … Read more
Peace Index: Turkey Ranks Worse Than 148 Countries, Better Than 14 Bianet :: English Of 163 countries, Turkey has ranked 149th in the 2018 Global Peace Index, which marks a deterioration by three ranks in comparison with last year. The worst grade has been given to Turkey in the category of “neighboring countries relations”. *************** ‘Urgent Action’ … Read more
Turkish opposition İYİ Party ‘trolls’ ruling AKP with Google ads Hurriyet Daily News The opposition İYİ (Good) Party, which is set to race in the upcoming June 24 elections, has started a Google ads campaign for a number of keywords to target the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been dubbed by some social … Read more
Many believe it is a sign of good days to come. Not only in Football… a massive leadership change for someone stuck in his position for ages… In Turkey? Is that even possible? https://t.co/MrE99NR51h — Peter Nut (@nipped) June 3, 2018 Election Day for a Beleaguered Turkish Soccer Power NYT > Turkey by By PATRICK KEDDIE … Read more
My election will help unionization of women workers: Labor union DİSK’s first female chair Hurriyet Daily News The first ever female chair of the Confederation of the Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey (DİSK), Arzu Çerkezoğlu, has said she will help strengthen the fight of women workers in unionizing and increasing their representation in the union. ODTÜ’s Acar … Read more
Legal blows to Uber raise taxi plate prices in Istanbul Hurriyet Daily News The average price of a taxicab license plate in Istanbul has increased 6.6 percent in just two days, after the city municipality declared its support for the government’s new regulation to prevent “illegal passenger transportation,” particularly aimed at Uber drivers. Uber ‘is over’ in … Read more
Ezhel: Down with Censorship, Long Live Fully Independent Rap Bianet :: English Rapper Ezhel has sent a letter from the prison where he is kept. Saying in his letter that he went to the police station on his own will to give deposition, Ezhel called on the person who filed the complaint against him, “What did … Read more
I would like to introduce you a project I and many friends invested a lot. It is a kind of encyclopedia project on The Gezi Park Protests. Titles are in English but most stuff is in Turkish. You will still get a sense of what it is all about. I am open to suggestions. Please … Read more
A collapse of AKP’s 20 years of municipality policies… Not better on the justice front… Philippe Sands: behind bars with Turkey’s imprisoned writers The Financial Times – Philippe Sands – May 16, 8:36 AM Istanbul has long been special to me, the place where I fell in love 30 years ago with the woman I would … Read more
A political Twitter phenomenon Twittered this: Olm ben bunu hiç unutmadım, hiç unutmayacağım amk… pic.twitter.com/qFHM5NwR0h — TravisandTylerDurden (@travisandtyler) May 9, 2018 Many critical citizens started to subtweet announcing what moments they would not forget and thus would vote against the ruling party. I have read most of them at midnight a few days ago and … Read more
From the BBC Archives… in English…
The Famous Soccer Player Hiding Out in a Bakery in Palo Alto NYT > Turkey by By JOHN BRANCH Hakan Sukur fled Turkey in 2015 when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan clamped down on his opponents. He is unsure if he’ll ever be able to return………
A widely used imagery was that a woman in chadors took a lorry and drove with a truckload of citizens to resist against the military coup. The story got complicated when the same woman, Şerife Boz, applied to become an MP in the June 2018 elections. In her application form, she stated that job as a “veteran of … Read more
Turkish citizens feeling increasingly insecure and ‘nostalgic’: IPSOS survey Hurriyet Daily News The number of people in Turkey who say they feel insecure and “nostalgic” about the past is increasing, according to a biannual survey carried out by the IPSOS research company titled “Guide to Understanding Turkey.” *************