ISTANBUL – The Turkish parliament has adopted a law on Wednesday that allows Turks living abroad to vote from their country of residence. About 2.5 million voters are affected, according to Turkish media reports.
The law was handled as a ‘fundamental law’, which made speedy adoption by parliament possible. No opposition party opposed the law – an exception in Turkish politics. …
The Netherlands go where Turkey is coming from
“Abdullah Gül has no right to speak”, I hear all the time as a reaction to President Gül resisting the ideology of Dutch politician Geert Wilders, which discriminates against people and marginalises them. That’s because Gül has a problem handling minorities in his own country, the argument goes. Kurds and Christians in general and Armenians in particular are mentioned as …
Arrest warrent for coup participants
ISTANBUL – In Turkey on Thursday morning arrest warrants were issued for the perpetrators of the ‘post-modern coup’ that ended the government of Prime Minister Erbakan in 1997. House searches were carried out at more than 31 addresses, according to Turkish media reports.
The arrest warrants concern 31 high, now retired, military officials, among them one of the leaders of …
Coup leader Evren doesn’t feel guilty
ISTANBUL – General Kenan Evren, the leader of the military coup in Turkey in 1980, was not present in the court when his trial started on Tuesday. But how he feels about his actions of thirty years ago is clear: he always said he didn’t want to do it, but had no choice.
Evren was born in July 1917 in …
Turkish coup wounds remain unhealed
ISTANBUL – Several thousand Turks protested Tuesday morning in front of the court house in the Turkish capital of Ankara, where the trial of two leaders of the military coup of 1980 started. They demanded that the coup plotters be held responsible for their actions. As well, they don’t only want the leaders of the coup to be tried, but …
Trials against elderly coup leaders in Turkey
On 4 April 2012 after 32 years the trial started of the two remaining leaders of the military coup in Turkey in 1980, Kenan Evren and Tahsin Sahinkaya. On Belgian national radio I explained why it took so long before the trial could start. You can listen to it here – in Dutch though, sorry!
‘It’s going well between The Netherlands and Turkey’
Four hundred years ago it started, the official ties between the Republic of the United Netherlands and the Ottoman Empire. Jan-Paul Dirkse is now the Dutch ambassador in Turkey’s capital Ankara. How does he see the relations between the two countries now?
Published in a magazine of Schiedam Municipal Museum. The first Dutch ambassador in Turkey, Cornelis Haga, was from …
Turkish Hitler ad taken off the air
ISTANBUL – The controversial shampoo ad with Adolf Hitler in the leading role will immediately be taken off the air in Turkey, the head of the advertising agency that produced it announced on Tuesday.
The company is stopping the campaign because it caused great anger in Turkey’s Jewish community of about twenty thousand people. Hitler praised the shampoo as suitable …
Will Turkey release other journalists too?
The international attention for worsening press freedom in Turkey has been enormous the last couple of months. That had everything to do with the arrest of Ahmet Sik and Nedim Sener, two well known in investigative journalists. This Monday both gentlemen were released after more than a year imprisonment. Good news for them personally, bad news for their dozens of …
Turkish journalists missing in Syria
ISTANBUL – Since five days two Turkish journalists are missing in Syria. The Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Davutoglu is trying to get more information about the two from the Syrian authorities. Turkish media report that today.
Journalist Adem Özköse and camera man Hamit Çoşkun crossed the Turkish-Syrian border a week ago from the Turkish province of Hatay, where Syrian …
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