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 …

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 …

Girl imitates suicide and dies

ISTANBUL – In the Turkish city of Istanbul an 8 year old girl died Friday night while trying to imitate a suicide scene from a TV series. She was standing on her bed with her mother’s headscarf around her neck and the heating pipe, and slipped. This was reported on the website of daily paper Radikal …

Baby in Turkey killed for ‘honour’

ISTANBUL – In the far west of Turkey a 2 day old baby has been killed to save the ‘honour’ of the family. The mother was not married to the father of the child, and this brought shame upon the family. Several Turkish papers report this story on Saturday.

The 25 year old mother got pregnant by her boyfriend before he …

Al Qaeda suspects arrested in Turkey

ISTANBUL – The police this week arrested more than 150 people in a raid against terror organisation Al Qaeda. The operation was speeded up for fear of terrorist attacks in the country. According to Turkish press agency Anatolia on Friday, around 120 suspects were arrested in more than ten provinces.

Before 2003 Al Qaeda was not known to be present in …

Arzu Erbas an ‘angel’ in Turkish press

ISTANBUL – An ‘Angel of goodness,’ she is called in the Turkish press, the crèche owner of Turkish descent, Erzu Erbas, who was murdered in Amsterdam on Monday night. Several Turkish newspapers report on the Turkish émigrée and mainly focus on the fact that she helped poor people in Turkey with the income she earned in the Netherlands.
Arzu appears on …

Violent Turk sentenced to give flowers

ISTANBUL – A Turkish judge sentenced a man convicted of domestic violence to give his wife a weekly bouquet of flowers for the next six months. He also has to read five books on raising children, writes daily Hürriyet today.
For the last four years Turkish judges have had the possibility of handing out alternative punishments. Lately more and more sensational …

Families of murderers flee Turkish village

ISTANBUL – A hundred and twenty people from twelve families have fled from Bilge, the Turkish village where on Monday night 44 people were murdered at a wedding ceremony. The families fear for their lives, as they have ties  to the gunmen and they have been threatened with revenge.
Since the killings the families fleeing the village in the southeast of …

Stone-throwing children could be jailed for 58 years

ISTANBUL – Prison sentences of up to 58 years are being demanded by prosecutors for six children aged between 13 and 16 years.  The children threw stones at the police during demonstrations in October over the alleged mistreatment in prison of PKK leader Öcalan. This is the story according to several Turkish newspapers.
The children were part of a group of …

Karataş was one of Turkey’s most notorious terrorists

ISTANBUL – With the death of Dursun Karataş, who died in the Netherlands last Monday of cancer, one of Turkey’s most notorious terrorists has left the stage. Karataş, leader of the far-left DHKP-C, lived in various European countries with a false identity since he escaped from an Istanbul prison in 1990. Whether the death of Karataş also means the end …