The Pope visits Turkey, Turkish Nationalist leader Bahçeli visits Dersim (Tunceli)

Pope Francis set for Turkey visit  BBC News | Europe | World Edition Pope Francis is set to visit Turkey for what is being billed as a historic trip to help interfaith dialogue in the country. Pope set to visit Turkey under security clampdown Pope Francis is set to visit Turkey to meet with top officials and … Read more

PM Davutoğlu in Dersim to reveal Alevi reform package as protesters gassed…

Conservative, Sunni and anti-leftist Cihan agency frames the news like this: Police disperses ultra-leftist demonstrators protesting PM in Tunceli Cihan News Agency–54 minutes ago About 300 people attempted to protest Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Tunceli province on Sunday, but police did not allow them to hold Turkish gov’t against discrimination toward Alevis, says PM Davutoğlu … Read more

Anniversary of ’38 Dersim Massacre… #4MayısDersimSoykırımı

Dersim Massacre – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersim_Massacre The Dersim Massacre took place in 1937 and 1938 in Dersim, now called Tunceli Province, in Turkey. It was the outcome of a Turkish military campaign against Dersim Massacre, 1937-1938 – Online Encyclopedia of … www.massviolence.org/Dersim–Massacre-1937-1938?Diese Seite übersetzen Hans-Lukas KIESER, Dersim Massacre, 1937-1938, The Suppression of the … Read more

Abdulhamid II style. Informant boxes in neighbourhoods…Student loan cuts claim for Gezi participants.. A social fabric roundup

Abdul Hamid II Turkish minister refutes student loan cuts claim for Gezi participants Youth and Sports Minister Suat Kılıç has refuted allegations that university students who participated in the Gezi Park protests will not be eligible for loans ?Informant boxes? to be installed in Turkey The police will install informant stations in neighborhoods, ostensibly to … Read more

Recep İvedik vs. PSY’s Gentleman… A social fabric roundup from Turkey

The Irresistible Attraction of the Turkish Yokel from The Istanbulian by Emre Kızılkaya Turkish yokels probably have some kind of personal magnetism, as global superstars seem to keep copying them.   Firstly, it was reported that Borat could be a plagiarized character, derived from the real-life Mahir Cagri.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASO_zypdnsQ   Minorities seen as threat by … Read more

EFD Rights Watch: Turkish PM on the verge of hate speech towards Alevis… French student detained in Turkey finally released…

Turkish PM calls Alevi cemevi a ‘freak’ from Hurriyet Daily News An Alevi cemevi standing next to a cemetery in Istanbul is a “freak,” according to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.   ?The State is Responsible for Unlicensed Alevi Houses of Worship? from Bianet :: English Alevi Elder Muharrem Ercan questioned how their community … Read more

Turkish politics roundup: Erdogan undergoes surgery; Dersim polemics; Kurdish issue…

Turkey?s Erdogan undergoes successful surgery from Yahoo news ANKARA, Turkey ? Officials say Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has undergone successful abdominal surgery. Monday?s statement from his office was the first indication by the government that Erdogan had undergone laparoscopic surgery on his digestive system on Saturday. It says the prime minister is … Read more

A hypocritical apology will not sooth Dersim anxieties…

CHP is a hopeless can and they cannot apologize for a massacre from their golden age period. AKP seizes this moment and forces them to the corner. AKP leadership adopted this policy of apology for the past -from the Kemalist era- events while creating new issues to be apologized. It is very likely that some … Read more

Dark games at play against the Democratic Initiative?

Is it a coincidence that 7 Turkish soldiers are killed probably by Kurdish guerillas, a Kurdish demonstrator killed in riots, and a civilian dies wounded by Kurdish rioters in 48 hours?

All have their own genealogies, but happening at the same moment signifies a conspiracy of parties against further democratization. It is ironic to see that both pro-Kurdish activists and nationalist Turks are campaigning against government’s Democratization Initiative a.k.a. Kurdish initiative. Both militaristic and both will lose initiative if the Initiative has success…

here comes: Gov’t said it postponed to discuss an amendment to lower down charges against under-age demonstrators….

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Serap Eser died today. She was burnt in high degrees when rioters threw molotov cocktails to a public bus…Facebook page.

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Aydın Erdem, a demonstrator, a college student, was killed yesterday during pro-PKK riots with a bullet…Facebook page.

AFP: One dead as violence flares in Turkey protests

May god bless their souls, those 7 soldiers killed today:

Uzman çavuş Harun Arslanbey (Adana); erler: Onur Bozdemir (Adıyaman), Kemal Pide (Ordu), Ferit Demir (Muş), Yakup Mutlu (Muş), Cengiz Sarıbaş (Giresun) ve Fatih Yonca?nın (Hatay)

HUMAN RIGHTS RELATED ROUNDUP FOLLOWS

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Only 9 Years of Imprisonment for Lieutenant Killing 4 Soldiers…

9 Years Imprisonment for Lieutenant Killing 4 Soldiers

from Bianet :: English
The Military Court sentenced Lieutenant Tümer to 9 years and 2 months imprisonment on the grounds of “causing death by deliberate negligence”. Tümer is being held responsible for the deaths of soldiers Yaman, Öztürk, Altın and Bulut’un because he had pulled the pin from a hand grenade and handed it to one of them….
bio of dersim’s seyyit rıza below…

As "Cagers" caged…

A new leaked document claims that “Operation Cage” by the Ergenekon gang planned assassinations on non-Muslim Turkish citizens to provoke and contain AKP rule…

Ministry announces number of people tapped
Hurriyet Daily News- The ministry had earlier said that within the last five years, 69 judicial officers were tapped ? 56 of them related to the Ergenekon case

Third letter from military source raises tensions in Turkey (SETimes.com)

Turkey probes fresh allegations of anti-govt plot
Reuters
They say these conspirators belong to a shadowy, nationalist group dubbed the “Ergenekon” network. A judge suspended until Monday a hearing in the

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of CHP backed down and gave support to Onur Öylem who had explicity supported the Dersim Massacre of Alevite citizens. Two those who claim him to be the “Gandhi of Turkey”: Gandhi my ass.

A documentary on Dersim Massacre (In Turkish)

In order to create a Turkish nation from above, Turkish nationalists waged a campaign against non-Turkish and non-Muslim elements of the empire.The First World War served as an excuse for the Young Turks, then the Turkish goverment, to exterminate Armenians. It was a deliberate and sustain war, in the course of which hundreds of thousands Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks had been ruthlessly killed or forced into exile.The collapse of the Ottomans had left a power vacuum, filled by another section of the Turkish nationalists, called Kemalists at a later time.In 1937-38, i.e., at a time when world attention was focused on the Second World War, the Turkish nationalists commited another genocide. This time the victims were Dersimis, who are also known as Kızılbash or Alevis. Approximately 40.000-70.000 of them were killed and thousands were taken into exile. The Dersim Genocide of 1937-1938 was on one hand a continuation of the Kızılbash extermination of the Ottoman times and also an extermination of an ethnically distinct and separate people from Turks.

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Pro-Ergenekon lawyers' support march in Taksim…

A nation’s lawyers: Pro-establishment. Tools of power plays. Is there any hope that they will actually work for justice? To overthrow the corrupt Establishment?
Avukatlar dinleme için yürüdü
Yesterday many lawyers had a march in Taksim to protest “phonetappings”. In principle, this sounds like a good move. To protect the privacy rights… All bullshit. They did not walk before when current PM was tapped for 6 years! Illegally! Now at least phonetapping cases are legally registered. In such a complicated case like Ergenekon, to tap phones through legal channels may not be that harmful. What they are afraid of is that many legal personalities were indeed part of the Ergenekon gang and now they are scared. Yes, you should be scared. You, pro-military “lawyers”….

Avukatlar dinleme için yürüdü

Young civilians protested the march and some lawyers did try to lynch the protesters. Any surprise?

Young civilians protest: “You, pro-coup Bar, welcome to Taksim” banner was attacked by lawyers…

How Turkey massacred the Kurds of Dersim

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Step by step, Kurdish initiative continues….

We were expecting more fist-fighting in the parliament meeting on Friday but relatively civilized quarrels dominated Friday’s meeting. Main opposition CHP is gone all crazy- literally indeed- and their reaction is ridiculous and beyond reason. Their childlike reaction and nearly criminal discourse (one higher official of CHP explicity stated that the best solution is what the State did during Dersim Rebellion, that is outright massacre…) have to be contained. I believe that AKP, DTP and a few liberals with possible indirect support from MHP can further the Initiative. Yes, MHP, nationalist party, does in fact acted quite civilized yesterday and despite their harsh criticism on the Kurdish Initiative their love of and support for the State may turn out to be a positive sign in this case. Because they wery well realized that this initiative may help unite the nation again. Armed suppression did not work as the the three decades had demonstrated…

Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) ...

Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal addresses members of parliament as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (L) and his Education Minister Nimet Cubukcu listen in the background during a debate at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara, November 13, 2009. Turkey’s parliament is set to discuss on Friday reforms designed to boost the rights of the country’s Kurdish minority and end a 25-year separatist conflict, moves seen boosting its European Union membership ambitions.REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Turkey unveils reforms for Kurds

from BBC News
The Turkish government announces plans to expand the rights of Kurds, who for years have alleged discrimination.

 

A full list of reforms in Turkish here.

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