tekel 51 is a documentary about the 51th. day of tekel resistance ? before the day of general strike – it contains interviews with the resisters and quite good view of the squatted streets which turned to a village of tents.-
download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/367886567/tekel_51.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/367877652/tekel_51.part2.rar
RTUK (Turkish Radio and Television High Council) allows 14 languages and accents to be used in media production.
News in Turkish here.
But of course there are still many human rights issues to be solved….
The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors of Turkey (HSYK) had just ripped of a key special Prosecutor’s judicial authority who decreed the arrest of a Prosecutor related to Ergenekon case. HSYK had been effective in obstructing judicial investigations against the military tutelage.
Venice Commission secretary slams HSYK, urges judicial reform
nice photos and strike diary in this blog. Censorship Costs Turkey 43,000 Euro at ECHR from Bianet :: English The European Court of Human Rights sentenced Turkey to a ? 36,000 compensation fine for closing five newspapers because of their focus on the Kurdish question. Aziz Özer, who had been silenced for describing prison operations … Read more
Recently, Hürriyet posted service photos of popular actors, footballers etc…
* My house is your house
Former DTP Chair Ahmet Türk is having troubles to find a place to rent. After banished from politics by the Constitutional Court, Mr. Türk decided to leave the place he was living because of neighbours and move to a new apartment. Apparently, his contract for the new apartment was cancelled before he could even more there because of a military official living in the same building. In the mean time, a group of intellectuals started a campaign in favor of Mr. Türk. “My house is your house… “
A Turkish nationalist (left) fires a gun during clashes with Kurdish activists in the Beyoglu area of Istanbul. Turkish nationalists and Kurdish activists clashed in Istanbul, leaving at least one person injured from a gunshot during street battles, an AFP reporter said. (AFP/Bulent Kilic)
As of now, Turkey has lost her Kurds. If there is any cooperation between Turks and Kurds from now on, Turkish nationalists have no role to play. I have been watching news and commentaries and these sorry asses are so happy that DTP is closed and they are having hard times to contain their fascistic attitudes. Many of my Kurdish friends are going through a very intense bitterness towards the nation state they are living in and towards Turks in general. Even I was subject to a slight dose of bitterness. I do not think there has been much street action but this state of bitterness is more dangerous in the long run. I am sorry that our nationalists and our nationalist establishment circles are so fixed minded and arrogant. Their mental capacities are so limited that they cannot see what is happening: The unity of their country is in peril…
Supporters of Turkey’s opposition Nationalist Action Party wave national and party flags during a rally to defend Turkey national unity and denounce the government’s ‘Kurdish initiative’, in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, Dec. 13, 2009. (AP Photo )
Banned Kurdish party may boycott Turkish parliament – CNN.com
Great illustration from Eminimsi. All contributed to the closure of DTP. Two opposition party leaders have been howling to create a tense political climate. Captured PKK leader Öcalan and hawkish DTP leader Emine Ayna got their part and Constitutional Court concluded….
ISTANBUL Turkey?s constitutional court disbanded the only pro-Kurdish party in Parliament on Friday, a move that could threaten efforts to resolve the conflict with the Kurdish minority by peaceful means.
last updated: 12 Dec 2009- 00:20 (all updates at the very end)
Warning! Judiciary is armed in this country. (by İç Mihrak)
One of what Turkish judiciary is best is closing political parties. Here comes the 25th party closed in modern Turkish history. Pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party has just been closed by the Constitutional Court. Hürriyet lists 141 reasons for the closure.
Nothing but nothing will be resolved by closing a party. This party has been closed and re-opened with a new name for several times. Just satisfying establishment desires, nothing else…
37 Kurdish politicians are banned. Some like Ahmet Türk are indeed moderates… Head of Turkish Constitutional Court stated that they relied on ECHR’s ETA decision…By banning moderates, the Court may have empowered hawkish ones in both sides…
Nationalism; Dominant group Dominated group- VIA
In the mean time, it seems that PKK admitted the responsibility of 7 killed soldiers. Head of murdering PKK team’s photo is released here. That does not mean they are still part of a conspiracy though..and that does still not mean they did thinking of all propaganda tactics used in Turkish media…
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….
Serap Eser died today. She was burnt in high degrees when rioters threw molotov cocktails to a public bus…Facebook page.
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
A nearly 12 square meter room for Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned PKK leader, caused uproar among PKK members. Ministry of Justice yesterday released photos of Öcalan’s cell which is nearly 1 m2 smaller than the previous one. More photos here.
Pro-PKK Kurds used Öcalan’s cell as a pretext to celebrate the anniversary of PKK’s establishment. There were riots in many cities and I provide some photos below. My first reaction is that this is a case of habitus. PKK members does not know any other way to continue. After 3 decades of fighting, Kurdish question has come to a new and positive level and with major parts’ contribution, we might witness historical moments. However, PKK reactions mostly serve Turkish nationalists…I do not claim AKP does all good but I am not sure if pro-PKK Kurds help the process at all.. but let me not forget to add. This is a friend’s idea. There are nearly no PKK leaders who can really handle the process. Most of reasonable PKK leaders like Musa Anter were assassinated by either hawkish Kurds or the State apparatus and now we have a different sort of leadership problem…
AFP: Turkey defends prison conditions of Kurdish leader
In a move likely to block the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government?s Kurdish initiative, which aims to expand the rights of the country?s Kurds, sympathizers of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers? Party (PKK) and the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) are taking to the streets and resorting to violence in the cities.
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:
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An anarchist art case: juxtaposing Quranic verse with Turkey’s first female pilot, Sabiha Gökçen, who was one of the bombers over the Dersim rebels in a fictional stamp: “And send against them swarms of flying creatures,…” (Quran, 105/3)
First Kurdish signs by Diyarbakır municipality, a huge roundup on Ergenekon case etc follow:
Main opposition party, CHP, has recently opened up an office in Brussels. Some thought it as a good sign that finally CHP would actually support the EU process. There has not been any positive signs though. In the mean time, Brussels office sends email-bulletins. The last one was about CHP’s views on the Kurdish Question. EU leadership proves to be more and more naive and I guess in this respect good, abstract but without substance statements may have an impact on EU public. If only ignores the fact that CHP triggers more nationalist hysteria than nationalist MHP does…Below, there is also a roundup on the EU-TR relations and TR’s Foreign Policy moves…
CHP VIEWS AND PROPOSALS ON THE KURDISH QUESTION
The Turkish Parliament debated the government?s initiative on the Kurdish question on November 10th and 13th.
Background: In 1991, the first proposal of law in Turkey on the abolishment of all obstacles to the use of the Kurdish language was a social-democratic initiative. It was signed and introduced by Mr Deniz Baykal and his colleagues. In 2002, during the rule of the coalition government (Social-Democrats-Liberals-Nationalists) several reforms were adopted to allow the teaching and broadcasting in Kurdish. Recently, the Turkish government declared its intention to implement a new reform on the ethnic issues without making public its proposal. CHP responded in reminding its previous comprehensive reports on the Kurdish question and its very recent concrete proposals.
