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 …
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 …
Turkey investigates Israel-PKK ties
ISTANBUL –Turkish intelligence services are investigating whether there is a connection between the Israeli attack on the aid convoy to Gaza and a PKK attack on a Turkish marine base on the Mediterranean Sea a few hours earlier. Speculation about a link is rising in the Turkish press.
Newspapers have been printing articles about a possible connection between the two events …
Turkish opposition has new leader
ISTANBUL – Turkey’s biggest opposition party, the CHP, has a new leader after eighteen years. Kemal Kilicdaroglu was elected chairman with a historic majority on the party’s convention on Saturday. The previous party leader, Deniz Baykal, recently stepped down after a sex scandal.
The CHP congress this weekend in Ankara is already being called the ‘congress of hope’: party supporters hope …
Kurdish allowed in election campaign
ISTANBUL – The Turkish parliament has passed an amendment legalising the use of Kurdish in election campaigns, and thus removing an important restriction on the use of the language. This is according to reports in several Turkish media on Thursday. In parliament Turkish remains the only language allowed.
During last year’s local government elections, several Kurdish politicians got into trouble for …
Turkey wants to prosecute coup participants
ISTANBUL – The Turkish government plans a constitutional change to make possible the prosecution of military personnel involved in the coup of 1980. Several Turkish online media report this on Thursday.
In Turkey the constitution of 1982 is still valid, written by the military rulers and including an article that makes prosecution of the coup participants impossible. The Erdogan government wants …
‘Tensions Turkey are fight for democracy’
ISTANBUL – The current tensions in Turkey are often seen as a power struggle between the army and the government of Prime Minister Erdogan. Unjustified, say several Turkish opinion makers: it’s a struggle for real democracy.
Earlier this week, once again dozens of (high-ranking) military personnel, some retired and some still on active duty, were arrested for alleged links with Balyoz …
ISTANBUL – After the banning of the DTP last Friday, Kurdish activists have formed a new political party: the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). The party was founded last year to take over the activiteis of the DTP in case the DTP was closed down. According to DTP leader Ahmet Türk, the BDP is a new party with new people …
The promised land – refugees in Turkey
Turkey is trying to bring its laws on refugees into line with Europe’s. In the meantime, refugees and asylum seekers who reach safety in Turkey live in a legal and social wasteland.
(published December 2009)
Several Turkish newspapers called it a disgrace last spring, when in Didim, a town on Turkey’s west coast, 65 people were forced to camp …
It looks like a postcard, Northern Iraq. The mountains, the plains, the colours, the light. But in these mountains the PKK is hiding. And a bit further south, in the middle of such an empty plain, live ten thousand Turkish-Kurdish refugees in a gloomy camp. They want to go back home.
(published with a big beautiful picture of Northern …
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