Whistle blower arrested in Turkey

ISTANBUL – In the Turkish capital Ankara on Tuesday morning Hanefi Avci was arrested, a police chief who wrote arevealing book about the infiltration by a religious movement in state institutions. This story appeared in several Turkish media on Tuesday.

The book was published this summer and sent shock waves through the country. Avci wrote from his years of experience working …

Diyarbakir prison

A school, who could be against founding a school? In Diyarbakir, the biggest Kurdish city in the southeast, many people are strongly against it. Well, against one special government project. The former (military) prison of Diyarbakir should be given new life as a school, says the government. No, say many Kurds, it should be a museum, so nobody ever forgets …

Fights over alcohol in Istanbul

ISTANBUL – At two galleries in Istanbul on Tuesday night five people were wounded after a group using sticks and stones objected to alcohol being consumed in the street. At the two galleries exhibitions were being opened with hundreds of guests from Turkey and abroad. Several Turkish media outlets reported that on Wednesday.

A group of about thirty people threw stones …

Church or museum?

Churches are hot news these days in Turkey. Yesterday a mass was held at the Armenian Church of the Holy Cross in the eastern province of Van; some weeks ago a religious service was held outside the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Sümela in Trabzon province. And last week, a group of Greeks from the United States were set to come …

A man at age seven

He was proud and brave the whole day, smiling and dancing like he was supposed to do. But at the end, he cried and clung to his mother for comfort. All the tension of the day, all the excitement of what had just happened, it was just too much.

Cenker is seven, and he just got circumcised. In …

Lawsuits filed against coup perpetrators

ISTANBUL – Two Turkish human rights organisations and an action group have filed a complaint at the Ankara prosecutor’s office against Kenan Evren, leader of the military coup in 1980. The retired general can be brought to trial since the Turkish people in a referendum yesterday approved of a package of constitutional changes. Complaints have also been filed  against other high-ranking …

The day after

A victory of 58%, you can call that rather solid as a starting point for the campaign for the general elections, in July 2011. That’s eleven months to go. The popularity of Erdogan and the AKP could decline, of course, and how well the party will do, also depends on several other actors in Turkey and abroad. Let me mention …

Dutch Turks involved in Turkish referendum

ISTANBUL – The Turkish government on Sunday won a referendum over constitu- tional changes. A majority of 58% voted in favour of changes to the judicial system and less power for the military.
Dutch Turks today also cast their vote during the referendum on constitutional changes in Turkey, some of them even taking a plane to Turkey especially to vote.

His Yes …

A tiny human figure in Rize

It felt like I was stepping into a painting: from an asphalted road lined with ugly shops,  one step up a mostly dark green hill with wooden houses on it and woods behind it. On the grass a family having a picnic, a bit higher up the hill two children running around, laughing. I had seen this very …

Referendum Turkey is about more than constitution

ISTANBUL – While the latest polls suggest that a majority of Turks will approve the package of constitutional changes in a referendum this Sunday, the campaigning came to a halt on Thursday. It’s Idul Fitri, and that makes Turkey quiet:: no noisy election caravans any more, no rousing music any more from stands of a wide range of political parties, …