Coup suspects candidates for Turkey elections
ISTANBUL – The Turkish opposition party MHP will put up as candidate a retired general who is in jail as suspect in the Balyoz case, a coup plot against the government. MHP leader Bahceli announced that, as reported in Turkish news papers on Wednesday.
The ultra-nationalist MHP is not the first to propose coup plot suspects as potential parliamentarians. Opposition party …
The economic crisis? For Turks that’s not something we are slowly recovering from now, but something they went through ten years ago. In 2001, Turkey experienced one of the hardest economic periods ever. But the lessons learned from the mistakes leading to the 2001 crisis saved Turkey from being hit very hard this time. So, fast forward? Or better be …
About press freedom, or: shut up
Inciting hatred among the people, that seems to be the law most often used to shut up journalists. It’s been used again and again against Kurdish journalists writing about the PKK or other subjects related to the Kurdish issue, and journalists arrested for alleged links to Ergenekon are also accused of it. The latest victims: journalists of the online news …
I admit, I had sort of a panic moment at the beginning of the week. Too many things to arrange on very short notice, and they all seemed impossible to begin with. I complained to my colleagues at the office: ‘I was hired by an Indonesian TV crew to arrange all sorts of things for them to film, but how …
‘You should come’, says marketing manager Miss Aylin, ‘on the 8th of May. It could be the last Formula 1 race in Istanbul Park’. But the general manager of the racing circuit, Mr. Bülent, is rather confident that the contract with the Formula 1 management will be renewed after the current contract expires later this year, and that there will …
ANKARA – In an explosion in the Turkish capital Ankara at least three people were killed and thirty people wounded, and five people are missing, according to Turkish TV station NTV.
The explosion took place in an industrial area and seems to have been caused by a broken gas installation. Two floors of a four-storey building were destroyed. Emergency services arrived …
How the Egypt events could strengthen Turkish democracy
Will Middle Eastern countries look more like Turkey, or will Turkey look more like Middle Eastern countries? A very interesting question, seen from a Turkish perspective.
As I write this, news is coming in that Egyptian state TV is claiming that countries which once occupied Egypt are now plotting against it. Besides the USA, Britain and Israel, of course Turkey was …
Turkish minister says Wilders is ‘not relevant’
ANKARA – Turkish Minister for Foreign Affairs Ahmet Davutoglu doesn’t find the stance of (right wing politician, FG) Wilders on Turkey relevant enough to discuss. Davutoglu preferred to emphasize the good relations between the Netherlands and Turkey during a press conference on the occasion of the visit to Turkey of his Dutch colleague Uri Rosenthal. ‘Our partner is the Dutch …
Rosenthal says Mubarak’s promise is ‘first step’
ANKARA – The Dutch Minister for Foreign Affairs Uri Rosenthal says it’s up to the Egyptian people to decide who is in power in Egypt and when free elections are to be held. He called the promise by President Mubarak to not run for the presidency in September ‘a first step’. ‘After that, other steps must follow, that’s only logical …
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