Turkey put aid on hold on purpose

The Turkish deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay caused uproar with his explanation as to why Turkey refused foreign help in the first two days after Sunday’s earthquake. ‘We first wanted to see our own potential’, he said today during a press conference in the disaster area.

Many Turks and media reacted angrily, because in the meantime many people died. According …

Erdogan wants safer villages

ISTANBUL –Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan announced in a speech on Wednesday morning that he wants to make villages in earthquake areas safer. In the villages practically all houses that were built with ‘mud bricks’ collapsed in the strong earthquake that hit the area on Sunday. ‘We want sturdy houses there of not more than one floor’, he said.

Erdogan didn’t give …

‘Aid to Kurdish municipalities delayed’

ISTANBUL – Although the earthquake in the east of Turkey intensifies brotherhood between Turks and Kurds, on the other hand ethnic tensions are rising. Saban Isiktas, working for the Istanbul office of pro-Kurdish party BDP: ‘There are rumours that the aid to Van is being delayed because Van is governed by the BDP and not by governing party AKP. I …

Turks give en masse aid to earthquake victims

ISTANBUL – After the heavy earthquake yesterday in the East Turkish province of Van, everywhere in Turkey initiatives have started to gather aid for the victims. Municipalities coordinate the aid, arrange boxes and transport, and civilians bring blankets, coats, nappies,  socks and sweaters.

A truck arrives at the town hall of Kadiköy, a municipality of Istanbul. it parks by the entrance, …

More deaths Turkey due to bad building constructions

ISTANBUL – The bad state of many buildings in Turkey results in more deaths than necessary after yesterday’s earthquake. Really solving the problem would mean pulling down and renewing parts of cities. Also the education on how the behave during and after an earthquake, is often not sufficient.

In many Turkish cities and villages people live in appartment blocks of at …

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 …

Kurdish party ends boycott of parliament

ISTANBUL – The pro-Kurdish party BDP is ending its boycott of the Turkish parliament. The MP’s will take their oath on Saturday, at the opening of the parliamentary year, the party announced on Wednesday. The BDP members refused to take their seats after the elections in June because some of their group members had not been released from prison.

The BDP …

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 …

Freelance correspondent doesn’t get satiated but specialized

After almost five years of freelance correspondence, somebody recently asked me if I’m not satiated by now. Am I still able to look at Turkey with ‘Dutch eyes’? Can I still think of stories that appeal to Dutch readers? ‘It is not for no reason’, this colleague and friend mailed me, ‘that correspondents with a contract rotate after about five …

‘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 …