Turks must be happy now that Obama has won. At least the latest polls showed that the majority of Turks would prefer Obama to be president rather than McCain. Not so surprising, but let’s now compare both (former) candidates on their stance regarding the Armenian issue. Armenians in diaspora in the USA strongly advocate a bill that would classify the …
It’s the Republic’s birthday today. It was born 85 years ago out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire. To turn Turkey into a modern, western nation state, that was Atatürk’s aim, and that’s what he accomplished. For days now, there have been banners over the streets and on bridges, wishing people a happy ‘cumhuriyet bayrami’ (‘republic’s holiday’) and even …
Tomorrow will be the second day of the Ergenekon trial, the case against dozens of people who tried to undermine the state and government (about whom I have already written). Monday, the first day, there was total chaos in the court room. Not enough space for the accused, family, lawyers and journalists, too much noise for anybody to …
‘Don’t be rude, and get out of my way!’, Recep Tayyip Erdogan shouted at a group of photojournalists. The Prime Minister is not at his best these days. Not surprisingly, because one crisis has hardly ended (like the closure case against his AKP party, which turned out positively for him), when another crisis begins: the AKP is deeply entangled in …
Freedom of the press? I don’t think that’s really the issue these days. There’s a sort of war going on between Dogan, owner of the biggest media-group, and Prime Minister Erdogan. Dogan papers (which are all the big ones, like Sabah, Hürriyet, Radikal, and many more) have devoted a lot of space recently to a corruption scandal at Deniz Feneri,
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A headmaster who decides that the teachers’ canteen will not serve food during Ramadan. Children who don’t fast during Ramadan being bullied at school by children who do. Official functions where no drinks are served. During Ramadan Turkey becomes visibly more religious. Especially when things like this happen in schools, government or municipality buildings or other state …
I don’t really cover sport as a journalist, but this weekend, sport is politics. President Gül will visit Armenia’s capital Yerevan to watch a world cup qualification match between Armenia and Turkey on Saturday. Armenian President Sarkisyan invited him, and how could …
‘Look at that!’, says S. ‘You don’t believe there are any nurses on board that ship, do you?’ No, I don’t believe so. I’m sitting on a terrace at the Bosporus with Dutch friend A. and her Turkish boyfriend S., while the American warship USS McFaul is passing by. At first Turkey didn’t allow the ship to …
Lots of criticism this week of the Labour Minister, who suggested that the Tuzla shipyards be closed or replaced in a bid to solve the safety problems endemic there. The immediate reason behind his ‘plan’ are three more deaths this week in Tuzla. What happened? A life boat needed to be tested. Officially the test …
Three newspapers, three headlines. Cumhuriyet, strong defender of the secular republic, says: “Fine for AKP” – and they write that this proves the Constitutional Court considers the AKP to really be a focal point of anti-secular activities. Zaman, religious and pro-AKP: “Closure rejected” – and on the bottom of the page a picture of a smiling and …
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