The Netherlands go where Turkey is coming from

“Abdullah Gül has no right to speak”, I hear all the time as a reaction to President Gül resisting the ideology of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which discriminates against people and marginalises them. That’s because Gül has a problem handling minorities in his own country, the argument goes. Kurds and Christians in general and Armenians in particular are mentioned as …

Arrest warrent for coup participants

ISTANBUL – In Turkey on Thursday morning arrest warrants were issued for the perpetrators of the ‘post-modern coup’ that ended the government of Prime Minister Erbakan in 1997. House searches were carried out at more than 31 addresses, according to Turkish media reports.

The arrest warrants concern 31 high, now retired, military officials, among them one of the leaders of …

Coup leader Evren doesn’t feel guilty

ISTANBUL – General Kenan Evren, the leader of the military coup in Turkey in 1980, was not present in the court when his trial started on Tuesday. But how he feels about his actions of thirty years ago is clear: he always said he didn’t want to do it, but had no choice.

Evren was born in July 1917 in …

Turkish coup wounds remain unhealed

ISTANBUL – Several thousand Turks protested Tuesday morning in front of the court house in the Turkish capital of Ankara, where the trial of two leaders of the military coup of 1980 started. They demanded that the coup plotters be held responsible for their actions. As well, they don’t only want the leaders of the coup to be tried, but …

Trials against elderly coup leaders in Turkey

On 4 April 2012 after 32 years the trial started of the two remaining leaders of the military coup in Turkey in 1980, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Sahinkaya. On Belgian national radio I explained why it took so long before the trial could start. You can listen to it here – in Dutch though, sorry!

‘It’s going well between The Netherlands and Turkey’

Four hundred years ago it started, the official ties between the Republic of the United Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire. Jan-Paul Dirkse is now the Dutch ambassador in Turkey’s capital Ankara. How does he see the relations between the two countries now?

Published in a magazine of Schiedam Municipal Museum. The first Dutch ambassador in Turkey, Cornelis Haga, was from …

Turkish Hitler ad taken off the air

ISTANBUL – The controversial shampoo ad with Adolf Hitler in the leading role will immediately be taken off the air in Turkey, the head of the advertising agency that produced it announced on Tuesday.

The company is stopping the campaign because it caused great anger in Turkey’s Jewish community of about twenty thousand people. Hitler praised the shampoo as suitable …

Ankara wants monument Algerian war of independence

ISTANBUL – The mayor of the Turkish capital Ankara is determined to erect a monument in his city to remember the atrocities committed by France during the Algerian war of independence. The monument will be placed right in front of the French embassy.

The mayor, Melih Gökcek, told daily Hürriyet: ‘The monument will have a button, and if you press …

French bill doesn’t help genocide debate in Turkey

ISTANBUL – In Turkey it is feared that the bill passed today in France making it illegal to deny the Armenian genocide of 1915 will damage the level of debate on the topic in Turkey. The debate had been slowly making progress over the last couple of years. Calling the Armenian genocide ‘genocide’ no longer leads to a conviction by …

Erdogan apologizes for Dersim massacres

ISTANBUL – The Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan has apologized on behalf of the state for the massacres in the eastern province of Dersim, in 1937 and 1938. Around 13,000 men, women and children died in the massacres. Goal of the operation was to bring the rebellious province under the control of the republic.

The discussion about Dersim, which is called Tunceli …