"Merkel asked to take lead in reshaping East-West relations

A man carries a log to his home in a small hillside settlement ...

A man carries a log to his home in a small hillside settlement located near the village of Janovce in Eastern Slovakia where none of the houses have running water or a toilet. A surprising 20 million people in the European Union do not have access to decent toilets and suffer from a lack of hygiene, posing serious health risks, experts meeting at World Water Week in Stockholm said.

(AFP/File/Joe Klamar)

 

Merkel asked to take lead in reshaping East-West relations

The notion that German Chancellor Angela Merkel should step up and take the lead within the EU to resolve tensions over Georgia and reshape the West’s relations with Moscow appears to be emerging, with analysts claiming Germany is the only country that Russia might listen to.

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"Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP

Annotated bibliography on HTS, Minerva, and PRISP

By llwynn

I’ve been working on an article on the relationship between anthropology and the military, and Nikki Kuper, an honours student in our department, has been thinking about doing her honours thesis project on the Human Terrain System. So together, Nikki and I decided to put together an annotated bibliography of sources on the Human Terrain System, Minerva, and PRISP and post them here to Culture Matters so that others can benefit from them.

If you know of any resources or links that aren’t listed below (or if you spot any mistakes), please send me an e-mail (lisa.wynn[at]mq.edu.au) and we’ll add them to our list and credit you with the contribution.

–L.L. Wynn and Nikki Kuper

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"Commission to test free access to EU research

Strasbourg not yet ready for MEPs

The European Parliament’s temporary relocation to Brussels from Strasbourg reignites a row about where it should be based.

Pieter Aertsen
found in Small Food Nation
(Pieter Aertsen, Butcher’s Stall with the Flight into Egypt, 1551. Source.)

Commission to test free access to EU research

A pilot project that will give unrestricted online access to EU-funded research results was launched yesterday (20 August), which the Commission claims will ensure better exploitation of scientific studies and guarantee a "fair return" for taxpayers. But specialist publishers are unhappy with the move.

Memories of Czech invasion

Two BBC website readers share their experiences of the Soviet invasion and living under communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

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"NATO's new role?

MAIN FOCUS: NATO’s new role? | 20/08/2008

The NATO foreign ministers gathered yesterday to confer on the crisis in the Caucasus. NATO General Secretary Jaap de Hoop Scheffer sharply condemned Russia and called for an immediate withdrawal of all Russian troops. Europe’s press discusses the role of the alliance after Moscow’s show of force.

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Erkan's further mumbling on some Quranic verses…

News
Jon Beech, Untitled, 1997

found in Works on Paper: The Natalie and Irving Forman Collection at The Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Erkan’s one new interest is to check out the Quran blog at the Guardian. Thanks to Christian, I have become aware of this blog. It is fun to have a look and although i have no interest to declare authoritative statement, i will poke around and utter my own comments from time to time.

In Injunctions to the strong Andrew Brown says:

….The first thing that strikes me about this collection of verses is how very unChristian it is…. But these qur’anic injunctions are much more addressed to the strong. They are almost an ethic of noblesse oblige: God will reward his followers and they in turn are to be just, generous, and upright in the use of the powers he has granted them……..

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"Treatment of Widows and Divorced Women

In the following text, you will find a huge round up on Turkish society. I highlighted Jenny White’s emphasis on a particular section of Turkish women but there is also stuff on the threat of a new earthquake in Istanbul, Tuzla disasters, Turkish academia and in the mean time Istanbul is burning with heat and humidity. Boy, I am doing my best to ignore the evil weather!

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Turkey's "'all-track' diplomacy"

AKP leaders are taking a risk by this all-track diplomacy. They might win big or lose big.

They have many in their cadres which could trigger this shift from traditional Turkish foreign policy and there have been signs of it already. Now, they are relieved of the closure ban and they are pushing for it. 

After the visit of Iran’s leader, now there comes the mini African Summit and a notarious African leader, Bashir comes to Turkey second time in less than a year. As part of a grand plan, these risky visits might work but they are just too risky. The plan is to create independent good, powerful and profitable relations with neigbours. The plan is very innovative. After the 2nd WW, traditional Turkish foreign policy depended on its geostrategic importance for US. This symbolically ended in the first Gulf War where Turkey lost great and it became one of the sources of economic crisis in 2001. Major reliance on EU process in recent years also ended when AKP could not get enough of the process. Since 2004, AKP lost its belief in EU in general. I don’t think this means hostile thinking against EU or US. Although ideologues of the new FP attempt might be uneasy with them, their main goal seems to make Turkey a more equal partner in relations with EU or US.

However, even for those who try to be more neutral to AKP, there is the problem of substance. Is there any substance in possible relations with the new ‘allies’?  Like it or not, TR has been part of the Western system since 2WW. Political, cultural, economic relations all depended on this system although they were never satisfying. Can there be sustainable relations with others? Particularly when some of the others are subject to systemic hostility?

The ideologues of the AKP Foreign Policy (first person to come to my mind is Prof. Ahmet Davutoğlu, is known to have Neo-Ottoman tendencies. However, he and others seem to be realistic, too.

 

A new art of ‘all-track’ diplomacy

Relieved by a Constitutional Court ruling against a ban that helped it avert a political crisis, it was natural for the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, to expect a few days of relaxation.

 The Associated Press: Turkey’s Gul urges Sudan leader to end suffering

 

Sudan’s Bashir on visit to Turkey

Sudan’s president makes his first foreign trip since he was indicted on genocide charges by the International Criminal Court. 

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NATO governments divided…but later "cools relations with Russia

The way forward

Nato governments divided on what to do about Russia

BUT LATER

Nato cools relations with Russia

Nato says there will be "no business as usual" with Russia, demanding Moscow withdraw troops from Georgia immediately.

 

 

 

Genetically speaking, Finns and Italians are the most atypical Europeans. There is a large degree of overlap between other European ethnicities, but not up to the point where they would be indistinguishable from each other. Which means that forensic scientists now can use DNA to predict the region of origin of otherwise unknown persons (provided they are of European heritage). found in 306 – The Genetic Map of Europe

Who are the citizens of Europe?

Philosopher Jürgen Habermas called for a pan-European referendum in the wake of the Irish ‘No‘. He overestimates the wisdom of the masses and underestimates what has been achieved up to now, counters Alfred Grosser.

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When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, DHKPC leader died…

 But also Mahmoud Darwish died and it was anniversary of Thomas Mann’s death. Unfortunately, I haven’t read these two authors yet. Çetin is a fan of Mann and i believe at one moment I should read him..

On This Day (12 August)

1955:Thomas Mann.German novelist and Nobel Prize winner Thomas Mann died near Zürich, Switzerland.

Mahmoud Darwish: The laureate of the wretched of the earth.

By Mick Hall


To the left of this page is a short piece taken from a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, the Palestinian poet who died last week. Like that other great progressive poet Nazim Hikmat, Darwish found it impossible not to join the struggle for human emancipation and by doing so gave a voice to those who were engaged in that struggle; or suffering under the yoke of the oppressor. In tribute to Mahmoud I have republished below a short article by the writer Ahdaf Soueif. In the coming weeks I hope to publish the odd poem by the above mentioned poets and others who sided with the masses.


funeral at Gazi Neighbourhood. VIA

But the big news was the death of Dursun Karataş because of cancer. He was in hiding in Europe for years and he was the leader of the notarious DHKPC. PKK is known to Westerners but as a Turkish radical armed left wing illegal organization DHKP is less known to others, I assume. It lived out its heydas in late 80s, early 90s and lost the sympathy of many radicals when some suspicious internal killings began to happen. Now mysterious and legendary Dursun Karataş may have helped security forces in killing his own wife at that time. We might never know what happened but in early 1990s, Turkish police got many DHKP leaders and since then the organization started its efforts to reorganize in Istanbul’s mostly Alevite shanty neighbourhoods. Gazi Neighbourhood is a well know stronghold for the group. The assassination of a member of Sabanci family was the ultimate suspicious act of the organization and it is already cited in the Ergenekon case.Before his assassination, Mr. Özdemir Sabancı was giving speeches about a free society and was supporting Kurds to have more rights….

Whatever happens at the top, what I was mostly interested in this group was their constant attempt to innovate self-techniques in order to create a revolutionary subject. I believe this group went beyond all leftist groups in working with the self. The measures was sometimes beyond humane standards. I will never forgive myself for not saving a 30-something page document/guide they had released about becoming a revolutionary subject. All their rituals, death fast ceremonies, performative public acts, fetishism with sacrifice and death etc could be studied sociologically.

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"Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest

News

View of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games. EFE/Emilio Naranjo. found in Chinese Director Zhang Yimou Presents Dazzling Opening Ceremony at The Olympic Games

 I was not aware of this campaign as my life was disrupted by Yahoo! But probably I would not hear it on time. As usual, there is also a blogger community which is reclusive in some sense and I am an outsider. I realized this in a recent Turkish blogging awards stuff. I heard about the competition when the list of candidates were released. I compared mine and others in many categories and could not know why I wasn’t there. Most of blogs are in Turkish of course and blog networks are based on some sort of friendship networks. If you are not in it, then you are out. This is the same for many issues (like cinema circles) and not different in new media stuff. Otherwise, mine is known, too but only needed when they need a sample for ‘English language’ blogs:) Still the campaign is good though ‘authorities’ will only be happy to see more closed websites (!)

Web Censorship Is So Bad in Turkey That Blogs Are Shutting Themselves Down In Protest

Erick Schonfeld

It doesn’t take much to get your Website banned in Turkey. Pretty much any complaint to a lower court can get a Website blocked in the country. Websites including YouTube, DailyMotion, Alibaba, Slide.com, and some WordPress blogs have all been banned, usually because of some purported slight to the Turkish government or Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.”

148 Turkish websites in protest against government ban

This week 148 153 (the number is rising) Turkish websites are shut down as a protest against the government ban. The Turkish government blocks YouTube since January this year. And in the last few weeks various other international websites like DailyMotion are also blocked. The 148 website as listed here show this text at their frontpage:
Bu siteye erişim kendi kararıyla engellenmiştir

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When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, another wave of Ergenekon arrests happened!

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983 VIA

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When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, "Has Russia really achieved its goal?…

From left, the Estonia's President; Toomas Ilves, Poland's President; ...
AP

Wed Aug 13, 9:10 AM ET

From left, the Estonia’s President; Toomas Ilves, Poland’s President; Lech Kaczynski, Georgia’s President; Mikhail Saakashvili, Lithuania’s President; Valdas Adamkus and Latvian Prime Minister; Ivars Godmanis take part in their joint news conference in Tbilisi, Georgia, Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2008. The top officials from several former Soviet republics, recent members of the European Union, arrived Tuesday in Tbilisi to express their support for President Mikhail Saakashvili after Georgia came under attack from Russian forces.

(AP Photo/Shakh Aivazov)

InterRail facts: discover Europe by train

By Benjamin Lasry

It has existed for over three decades, but it remains one of the most popular ways to visit Europe. New offers take you to the biggest festivals in Europe – via train

 

Stupid’s guide to travelling light in Europe

By mani sharpe

Luggage, travel necessities, cigarettes, alcohol, calls abroad and insurance: a simple factual list of what you can and can’t do when travelling Europe

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When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, Mr. Ahmadinejad visited Istanbul,

oriental show off messed up the daily lives of Istanbul… always smiling Mr. Ahmadinejad is not really sympathetic in this context but he still apologized from Istanbulians, whereas our leaders did not bother to do that. Another center-wise reflex of AKP: Shut up you ordinary people, we are doing energy business here!

 

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) smiles while hugging ...

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (R) smiles while hugging his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul at the Ciragan Palace in Istanbul August 14, 2008.

REUTERS/Fatih Saribas (TURKEY)

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When Erkan was working to re-active the blog, EP ceiling collapsed, Georgia and Russia conflict was resolved in a way…

The BBC's Emma Jane Kirby at the 2CV exhibition in Paris

One of France’s most iconic cars, the Citroen 2CV, is celebrating its 60th birthday this October. The BBC’s Emma Jane Kirby in Paris has been looking at how this vehicle revolutionised the French motor industry.

 

European Parliament ceiling collapses

 

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Yahoo! Hosting. A Nightmare for the blogger!

But I assume Movable Type is the accomplice. After 5 days, i have solved the problem myself with losing some stuff as you can see. All categories are gone etc. Thanks God, i have reasoned to save many features, so that i can restore them soon. here is a bunch of correspondence with Yahoo! Customer … Read more