Massive commemoration of murdered journalist

ISTANBUL – In a march in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul, about forty thousand people commemorated the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated exactly five years ago on Thursday. There was a lot of anger about the verdict of the judge last Tuesday, when he classified the murder as an act of individuals, rather than as an organized crime of …

Life imprisonment for ordering Dink murder

ISTANBUL – A Turkish ultranationalist has been sentenced to life imprisonment on Tuesday for ordering the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Yasin Hayal and nineteen others were however cleared of terrorism charges.

Dink was assassinated in front of the office of his newspaper in Istanbul on 19 January 2007. He was controversial among nationalist Turks, because he called the …

‘Dink murder impossible in present-day Turkey’

ISTANBUL – Almost five years on there is still a lot that is not clear about the shadowy network that ordered the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. However a start has been made in dealing with the ‘deep state’, the ‘state within the state’ that is widely held responsible for the killing. Thursday marks five years since Dink was …

Kids in southeast Turkey: smuggling to survive

SMUGGLING – At the end of December 35 people lost their lives in a bombardment by the Turkish army. Seventeen of them were less than 18 years old. They were smugglers, who brought diesel and sugar from Iraq to Turkey. There is a war going on in the area between Turkey and the PKK, a forbidden Kurdish movement. That makes …

Uludere victims’ families don’t want compensation

GÜLYAZI – The families of the 34 boys and young men killed last week in a bombing bythe Turkish air force, will not consider accepting the compensation the Turkish government is offering them. Prime Minister Erdogan announced on Tuesday that within a few days he would pay the families of the men, who were smuggling across the Iraqi border when …

‘Turkish TV can’t cover the news’

ISTANBUL – Turkish journalists are getting more frustrated about the increasing censorship in their country. Whenever there is big news concerning the fight against the Kurdish PKK, immediately the phone calls from the government in Ankara start coming in with instructions. And so it was this morning, after the news that dozens of civilians were killed in an air strike …

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 …

PKK attack hampers work on new Turkish constitution

ISTANBUL (ANP) – “Our revenge will be great”, stated the Turkish president Abdullah Gül after PKK attacks in the country’s south east. The attacks on several police and army posts left 24 soldiers dead and 22 wounded.

Turkish ground troops crossed the border with Northern Iraq for the first time since 2008 in pursuit of the PKK fighters.

The increasing violence …

Turkey finds Israeli soldiers via Facebook

ISTANBUL – The Turkish secret service made a list of 174 names of Israeli soldiers involved in the attack on the Mavi Marmara aid ship to Gaza last year, using Facebook to identify them. In that incident nine Turkish citizens died and about thirty people were wounded. Daily newspaper Sabah published the list on Monday, along with the pictures of …

‘Deep state’ costs former Turkish minister 5 years in jail

ISTANBUL – The former Turkish Minister of Internal Affairs, Mehmet Agar, has been sentenced to five years imprisonment by a Turkish court for involvement in the ‘Susurluk scandal’. In this scandal of the mid-nineties, the connections between the government, armed forces and organized crime, also known as the ‘deep state’, first became evident.

Agar was convicted for ‘establishing an armed organisation …