Murdered journalist Dink wins court case

ISTANBUL – The European Court for Human Rights has ruled in favour of the (murdered) Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and his family. Dink filed the case almost four years ago. The Turkish state didn’t do enough to protect Dink’s life and didn’t respect Dink’s freedom of expression. The news appeared in several Turkish media outlets on Monday.

Sources say the verdict …

Will the real Turkey please rise?

The Turkish government of Prime Minister Erdoğan keeps saying it still wants to be an EU member. But in the meantime, they become friends with Iran and Syria and agitate in strong emotional words against Israel. What does the country really want?

The story goes that at the Turkish ministry of Foreign Affairs people start tearing their hair out …

Roof sleeping causes deaths in Turkey

ISTANBUL – In Turkey this summer already dozens of people have died after not taking precautions when sleeping on the roof. The youngest victim is a ten year old girl in the western province of Bursa, who slept on the roof with her family because of the heat: she woke up at night and feel from a height of 3 …

Tension over military promotions in Turkey

ISTANBUL – Turkish President Gül rejected the promotion of eleven high officers because of possible complicity in an alleged coup plot, it is reported in several Turkish media on Thursday.

The planned promotions were to be made official during the four day long Supreme Military Council, the yearly meeting of top military personnel chaired by Prime Minister Erdoğan. Usually promotions are …

Kosaner made new Turkish Commander-in-Chief

ISTANBUL – Isik Kosaner will succeed Ilker Basbug as Commander-in-Chief of the Turkish army at the end of August. Basbug will retire as planned. The decision was made during the annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council, presided over by Prime Minister Erdoğan, as reported in the Turkish media on Monday.

That Kosaner (65) would succeed Basbug was in fact already …

Drooping and almond-shaped moustaches split Turkey

ISTANBUL – The type of moustache worn by the military personnel that will fight in special units against the Kurdish separatist movement PKK, leads to heated debate in Turkey. It shouldn’t be men with moustaches pointing down, says governing party AKP, because they are ‘bad MHP militants’. Opposition party MHP wants an apology now, and turns up the heat a …

Kurds return to Iraq from Turkey

ISTANBUL – Part of the group of PKK members and Kurdish-Turkish refugees from northern Iraq that returned to Turkey last year today started to move back to Iraq. This is according to the online version of the Turkish paper Radikal on Monday, based on reports from Kurdish news agency Firat.

The ‘peace group’, as they called themselves, returned to Turkey last …

Dutch in Turkey: ‘I want to go home’

Live in Turkey with your loved one: very romantic of course. Or is real life tougher than that? Yes. For Maaike, Ralph, Barbara and Charlene there is hardly any romance left. They want to return to Holland.

(more pictures will be published later!)

Maaike Dekkers (31) lives in Evrenseki on the south coast:
‘IF WE COULD GO TO …

Turkish writer convicted because of his characters

ISTANBUL – The Turkish writer Mehmet Güler was sentenced to fifteen months imprisonment because characters in his book allegedly made propaganda for the PKK. This story appears in the Thursday edition of Hürriyet.

Güler’s book ‘Decision harder than death’ was published last year but was soon withdrawn from the market on charges of propaganda for a terrorist organisation. The book is …

Increased security measures in Turkish tourist areas

ISTANBUL – In tourist areas of Turkey extra security measures are being taken against attacks by Kurdish separatist movement PKK, according to several Turkish media on Friday. That is one of the outcomes of deliberations between the Turkish government and the army on Thursday. Exactly which measures will be taken has not been revealed.

The security measures are being intensified after …