Erkan's Field Diary

We have another ban: No “insemination trips

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:46:35 +0000

Turkey ban on insemination trips

from BBC News | Europe | World Edition

A new law in Turkey makes it a criminal offence for a woman to go abroad and get pregnant via artificial insemination.

LGBT Association Sues State Minister

from Bianet :: English

“Resign, Aliye Kavaf” was written on the banner in the protest of the Pink Life LGBTT Association. The organization filed a criminal complaint against Minister Kavaf who said “Homosexuality is a disease and should be treated”.

Freedom of Thought Vanquished Charges of Insult

from Bianet :: English

Alper Ateş was acquitted in the first hearing related to addressing the Prime Minister with the curse “God damn you”. Ateş claimed he had “only told the truth about his living conditions”. M.B.G., who stands accused of similar allegations, will have to appear before the court on 5 April.

Internet Censorship: Turkey “Under Surveillance” of RSF

from Bianet :: English

Reporters Without Borders added Turkey and Russia to the organization’s “under surveillance” list published in the latest report on 12 March. “Taboo topics” for Turkey are quoted as mainly related to Atatürk, the army, minorities and the dignity of the nation.

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EU enlargement chief was in town…

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:46:22 +0000

EU enlargement chief presses Turkey on Cyprus, Armenia (AFP via Yahoo! News)

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt (C) and his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu (R) talk to the media after their meeting in Saariselka Inari, in the Finnish Lapland March 12, 2010. REUTERS/Lehtikuva/Jussi Nukari

Sweden’s PM apologizes for ‘genocide’ vote

Turkey calls for more active EU foreign policy

from EUobserver.com – Headline News

Turkey, Cyprus and the EU: issues and hurdles (1) by SÜHA BÖLÜKBAŞI

It is not much of a secret that Nicosia [1] has for the last few years functioned as a major hurdle to Turkey’s European Union accession process.

EU enlargement commissioner Stefan Fule gives a press conference on February 2010 at EU headquarters in Brussels. Fule urged Turkey Monday to open its ports to Cyprus under a trade pact with the bloc and to press on with peace efforts with Armenia.(AFP/File/Georges Gobet)

[CROSS READER] Turkish foreign policy under the spotlight in wake of ‘genocide’ bills

Turkey’s domestic agenda has been full of challenging issues such as a series of discoveries of alleged coup plots to topple the government and a yet-to-be-achieved compromise on a constitutional amendment package, but now all the attention is focused outward.

PAT YALE – The EU cometh

I’m passing through Nevşehir, vaguely admiring the smart new fire station and wondering anew at the excessive size of the new Kipa shopping mall when something unexpected catches my eye.

ŞAHİN ALPAY – Where is Turkey in regard to its ‘Armenian problem’?

Turkey has a problem in brief called “the Armenian problem.” It may be defined as the question as to how the Turkish state and society is to face its history concerning the great tragedy that befell Ottoman Armenians when the Union and Progress dictators during World War I, in response to the uprising by Armenian nationalists who sided with the Russian enemy, punished nearly the entire Armenian citizenry by forcefully deporting them to Syria, thus leading to the deaths of several hundreds of thousands of them due to massacres, famine and epidemics.

İHSAN DAĞI – Back to reactionary foreign policy?

An old issue has again occupied Turkey’s foreign policy vision: the Armenian question. On this the Turkish government seems ready to bury all its foreign policy achievements of the last several years. Parliamentary decisions in the US and Sweden on the Armenian genocide claims are exaggerated. The reactions that we see towards these two countries are reminiscent of old policy perspectives.

That annual March madness: the Armenian Genocide Resolution Yet Again

from WhirledView

By Patricia H. Kushlis

Here we go again. No it’s not US collegiate basketball finals. It’s the perennial debate in the US House of Representatives over the Armenian genocide resolution. This time it squeaked through the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, 2010 by just one vote (23-22). In November 2007 said resolution which had been voted out of the same committee by a 27-21 margin and nearly 230 sponsors and cosponsors almost made it onto the floor with the strong support of then and now Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

FATMA DİŞLİ ZIBAK – Rethinking the ‘genocide’ resolutions

Commenting on the recent passage of resolutions that recognize the killings of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1915 as “genocide” by a US House committee and the Swedish Parliament, analysts have said Turkey should change its discourse with regard to the incidents of 1915 and claimed that the passage of these resolutions is related more to negative perceptions of Turkey than to history.

Recent Operations Against the PKK in Belgium

from U.S.A.K. Blog

Now PM points out the “Jewish lobby” for the course of genocide resolution… The Resolution Saga Continues, Erdogan Points to “Jewish Lobby” from...
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Looks like Sarkozy has a problem

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 01:20:17 +0000

French voters deliver blow to Sarkozy

from FT.com – World, Europe

French voters deliver a rebuke to the government of Nicolas Sarkozy with opposition parties winning an unprecedented share of the vote in the first round of regional elections

Far-right elections blow for Sarkozy

from FT.com – World, Europe

President Nicolas Sarkozy’s strategy of wooing far right voters with a hard line on immigration, crime and national identity appeared to have backfired

Greece: General strike rallies met with violence

from Global Voices Online by Asteris Masouras

General strike rallies in Athens and Thessaloniki on Thursday, 11 March against a second wave of austerity measures dictated by eurozone finance ministers were met with preemptive and simultaneous police attacks, according to citizen media reports.

MAIN FOCUS: Sarkozy facing defeat | 12/03/2010

from euro|topics

Regional elections will take place in France on Sunday, and opinion polls are predicting a defeat for the conservatives in the governing UMP. Commentators say President Nicolas Sarkozy has disappointed his voters, and lay the blame for his party’s drop in popularity squarely on his shoulders.

Western Europe criticized in State Department’s annual human rights report

from FP Passport by Andrew Swift

The State Department’s 2010 Human Rights Report examines abuse and discrimination the world over, featuring China, Iran, and… the E.U.?

Europe is not exactly at the forefront of one’s mind when thinking of places with poor human rights records. But creeping into European society are widespread and insidious anti-Muslim sentiments, says the report. These prejudices are increasingly visible across the Continent, with numerous cases last year highlighting the issue. The document puts it rather bluntly: “Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has been an increasing concern.”

About that Greek public sector

from A Fistful Of Euros » A Fistful Of Euros by Douglas Muir

Charlemagne, over at the Economist blog, can be… uneven. But this recent post about Greece’s public sector is IMO top notch. It puts the creation of Greece’s huge, poorly paid, inefficient public sector in historical context:

Take the painful question of the huge public sector, and all those civil servants with jobs for life, and unusually generous retirement packages. The existence of those jobs for life is not a cultural quirk, in which Greek officials simply like coffee and backgammon too much to do any work. It is the end result of a brutal, multi-decade power struggle between the left and the right: a struggle that got people killed within living memory…

Killing Democracy: How Berlusconi Made Italian Democracy Unconstitonal

from EU-DIGEST by A-News

When Mussolini decided it was time to turn the Italian kingdom into a criminal tyranny, he organized the so-called “Marcia su Roma” (March to Rome): on the 22nd of October 1922, tens of thousands of fascists converged on the capital city to claim political power. This occurrence defined the death of the liberal state and the final rise to power of the fascist party. On that occasion, the king, Vittorio Emanuele III, didn’t show any courage in preventing this coup, bowed his head and assigned Mussolini, the leader of the Partito Nazionale Fascista (National Fascist Party), the task of forming a new government.

The involvement of the European Parliament: International agreements

from Julien Frisch

Scientists unite against EU paperwork

from EurActiv.com by Gary

Almost 7,000 researchers from 41 countries have signed a petition demanding less red tape for EU-funded scientific cooperation programmes. Olivier Küttel, co-founder of the Trust Researchers campaign, says Europe’s funding programmes must be streamlined if they are to be effective.

If Sarkozy and Merkel are against Blair, maybe we should support him:) Merkel and Sarkozy unite to end Blair’s European dream from...
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Journalists working for Intelligence

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:08:08 +0000

Well-known journalist-interviewer Neşe Düzel interviews former chief editor of Sabah, Ergun Babahan. It is in Turkish. Many notable journalists/columnists voluntarily or professionally worked with military and civil intelligence institutions in Turkey. Now some defend them in the name of press freedom. Such a low point for the Turkish press…

and a Turkish politics roundup here:

The Roma Initiative

from Istanbul Calling by Yigal Schleifer

The AKP government organized a historic event yesterday, bringing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan together with some 10,000 Turkish Roma. From a report about the meeting in Today’s Zaman:………..

Roubini Global Economics – RGE Monitor — Europe EconoMonitor

Claire Berlinski on Turkey as a Nation of Conspiracies – WSJ.com

Başbuğ’s remarks confirm state of denial, damage credibility
Today’s Zaman
Ergenekon is a clandestine criminal organization accused of working to overthrow the government. A new military investigation has been launched into a coup

LALE KEMAL – Suggested Turkish military model incongruous with 21st century

The unprecedented move of arresting dozens of current and former high-ranking Turkish generals, some of whom served as force commanders, as part of recent investigations over allegations of masterminding coup plots to unseat the government, has made it more urgent than ever to take legal measures to send the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) back to its barracks for the sake of NATO member Turkey’s stability.

YAVUZ BAYDAR – Discussing Ergenekon — and ‘the state within’

The Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the ARI Movement should be commended for opening up the controversial report by Gareth Jenkins, titled “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation,” to public debate.

The most successful main opposition leader

by ERGUN BABAHAN, SABAH

Baykal is the most successful main opposition leader ever seen in the history of the Turkish Republic.

The Investigation of the Generals and Conspiracy Theories

from U.S.A.K. Blog by USAK

Prof. Dr. Ihsan Bal, Director of USAK Center for Security Studies

The detention of 49 people, most of whom are retired high ranking military officials, as a result of the operations simultaneously conducted in 9 different cities on Monday, February 22, has caused much bewilderment for many.

Turkey After Atatürk

from Newsweek International Editions – Top News

Turkey coup plot: What’s behind the tumultuous identity crisis / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

BÜLENT KENEŞ – Can the fate of the judiciary be left to the judiciary?

The Journalists and Writers Foundation, perhaps the only civil society organization in Turkey that can bring people of differing thoughts together by addressing Turkey’s most ominous subjects with courage, continues to leave a strong impression on everyone with the events it organizes.

Latest in Intelligence wars: alleged Gen. Başbuğ’s tape leaked Nothing really secret about what he said, but it is...
Domestic intelligence wars continue; was there an assasination attempt or not? Suspected Turkish Coup Plotter Kills Self – Report – NYTimes.com...
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EU-Digest’s list of TV news reports…

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 13:56:20 +0000

Alternative TV News Reports

from EU-DIGEST:

Listed below are a few of these alternative TV news stations, which in streaming video and right on your own lap – or desktop can provide you with a different perspective of what is really happening in the world.

EURO-News Live: http://www.livestation.com/channels/1?page=466
BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/video_and_audio/news_summary/8070822.stm
RT Russian World News reports: http://rt.com/On_Air.html
ITV: http://www.itv.com/news/tonight/
Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
CBC Canadian World news: http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/
PBS: USA : http://www.pbs.org/nbr/info/video.html
For News from China in English go to: http://english.cctv.com/live/

News is a social experience

from CyberJournalist.net by Jon

The latest Pew Internet & American Life Project report, “Understanding the Participatory News Consumer,” examines how Americans are increasingly using their social networks and social networking technology to filter, assess, and react to news.

SXSW: Expo Hall Photos

from CenterNetworks by Allen Stern

Rethinking creative rights for the Internet age

by Julien Frisch

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is asking the 47 member states of the Council of Europe to rethink creative rights for the Internet age.

In a report that was decided upon by the Standing Committee of the assembly uniting parliamentarians from 47 European states on Friday, our national parliamentarians demand, inter alia, from European governments united in the Council of Ministers of the Council of Europe to

Ads-oriented media breeds biased journalism – Mark Crispin Miller

from EU-DIGEST by A-News

Modern America’s media is a cartel system that is owned and dominated by a handful of huge corporations saddled with heavy debts, said author Mark Crispin Miller, who shared his views on American media and propaganda.

5 New Studies Show Facebook a Marketing Powerhouse

from Social Media Examiner by Amy Porterfield

When you hear that Facebook is yanking Yahoo from its ranks and inching up on Google’s traffic throne, you can’t help but pay attention.

And if you work for a business or own one, it’s likely that social media marketing is on your radar. More and more marketing dollars are beginning to shift toward social media marketing and this trend only continues to climb.

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Cartoonists DRAW for children who are in prison due to Law on Struggle Against Terrorism in Turkey

admin — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 04:11:03 +0000

All the world’s cartoonists DRAW for children

from KARAKOK OTONOMU TR/CH by Karakök

I have received 62 cartoons from 22 cartoonists so far for the project to support children victimised by Law on Struggle Against Terrorism. The event is still on…

by Cem Koç
Click here for more cartoons.

Kavaf and Homophobia

Minister of Women and family Selma Aliye Kavaf
PHOTO from Hurriyet

Minister of Family and Women Selma Aliye Kavaf’s recent interview with Hurriyet (in Turkish) will do little to counter homophonia in Turkey. In the intervew, Kavfaf said she believes “homosexuality is a biological disorder, an illness. For me, it is something to be cured/treated. Therefore, I do not have a positive stand for the same-sex relationships.” In recent months, members of the LBGT community have fallen victim to an increasing number of hate crimes.

Edoğan’s ‘Warning’ to Columnists Creates a Growing Stir

from Bianet :: English

DSP MP Süleyman Yağız addressed Prime Minister Erdoğan with a letter of inquiry. The Prime Minister’s ‘warning’ towards columnists caused strong reactions among journalists. Yağız asked Erdoğan critical questions about his statement and his attitude on press freedom.

War of Cartoons

from Mavi Boncuk by M.A.M

A Turkish court fined British artist Michael Dickinson [1] a sum equal to $ 4,500 for a cartoon of Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan but postponed the payment for 5 years if he doesn’t repeat his “crime”. The cartoon was published back in September 2006 and shows Erdogan as a dog on a lead made of a US flag, chewing a pack of dollars and wearing a vest with “We won’t be Bush’s dogs” written on it.

Hope renewed for bill on stone-throwing children in Turkey – Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

“Draft Law Pending – Children in Prison and on Trial Draft Law Pending – Children in Prison and on Trial...
We have another ban: No “insemination trips Turkey ban on insemination trips from BBC News | Europe...
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An “uneventful” week for Erkan

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:26:34 +0000

Playing chess with my students. Yes, I won:)

Since I came back from the service, I have been meaning to have some peace of mind but unfortunately life is not fair, which I had learnt several times before, and things do not flow as smoothly as I hoped for.
During the last month,
1) I left my roommate, Can, with whom I had great plans to achieve, and went back to live with Family temporarily. Our apartment was too small to handle our socializations. So I left it with Can. My parents’ ever existing plans to buy an apartment for me continue but I guess I will rent an apartment at the beginning of summer and live there for a longer while…
2) The girl I have been flirting for three months or so rejected me in the end. This seriously broke my heart and made believe for sure I am a failure in some aspects of life (!)
3) I got arrested when before I took of to Brussels. (Still to calculate the financial cost by the way)
4) I learnt that my appointment as an Assistant Professor is postponed to some indefinite time. That was the last part of a chain of uncomfortable things happening to me. I cooled off during last week but I seriously lost my appetite to work at Bilgi where I was happy and proud to be before.
So I was expecting another bad thing to happen but it looks like I had an uneventful week, mostly spent in beings lost in thoughts.

Still I am an hopeful person and I know what I have. I could have a long list of goodies in life I have. Still thankful to God for I have and looking forward to overcoming recent troubles…

A super busy week ends with a disappointing news. This semester I have four courses to teach. It...
Roj xelat* – Erkan is all right now. No more worries. *Dawn is born (In Kurdish) I see this wall writing on...
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Erkan’s field diary: Top posts of the week and month

admin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 10:42:31 +0000

@ haha.nu

Behemoth concert tomorrow.

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 13:54:22 +0000

Via
Metal concerts season in Istanbul started last week with Destruction. I could not make it to that one but I will make it to tomorrow’s Behemoth concert. Behemoth is an explicitly Satanist Black Metal band from Poland. They are notarious in album imagery and I am just curious about their live performance… at 20:00 -Balans Club, Taksim….

BEHEMOTH’S Frontman Formally Charged for Bible Destruction

from Metal Injection

By: Navjot Kaur With close to two decades of music that feeds upon the ideals of all that is Pagan and “Antichristian,” it seems that Poland-based blackened death metallers Behemoth have made an all-too overt statement contra their Roman Catholic critics. On Monday, March 8th, frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski was formally charged for insults towards Catholicism,

Click here to get yours!

Finntroll Interview

from About.com Heavy Metal

The latest release from Finntroll is Nifelvind, their fifth full-length and first since signing to Century Media Records. The Finnish folksters will be supporting the CD with a U.S. tour in April, and are currently on the road in Europe. I’m not sure if the bus fumes got to him, if the questions were answered after a long night of partying, or if he’s just an aspiring comedian, but guitarist Skrymer’s responses are definitely interesting, very creative and sometimes downright bizarre.

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Introducing Turkish Cybersphere (6)- Cinema related blogs, Censorship news and more…

admin — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 11:34:48 +0000

Nominations for Turkish Blog Awards Turkish Blog Awards started.

Check out an interview (in Turkish) with Hasan Yalçınkaya, a pioneer in Turkish blogger…

An ambitious Football Manager online game, Efsane Ol [Be a Legend], in Turkish is launched here. I guess I will start playing, too:)

Two old time bloggers:
http://nahnu.org/
http://ferruh.mavituna.com/

News.Az – 23 Kurdish hackers arrested in Turkey

Turkey’s Internet Laws “Under Surveillance”

from Istanbul Calling by Yigal Schleifer

Reporters Without Borders has just issued its latest list of “Internet Enemies,” looking at countries where online activity is monitored, restricted or punished…..
……..
You can read RSF’s report on Turkey here.

Turkish Reporters Unite to Protest YouTube Ban

from MediaShift

The Turkish courts banned YouTube in May 2008, and now a new protest campaign launched by the editorial team of the Milliyet newspaper is drawing attention to how long the country has been prevented from using the website.

The initiative, which was was launched on February 19, is not the first campaign of this type. But it’s notable because previous protests came from the blogosphere and, as a result, did not receive international coverage. The current ban is the fourth such action by the Turkish courts since 2007; hopefully, this campaign will draw attention to this policy of censorship.

Web Access a Fundamental Right

from Turkish Politics in Action by Ragan Updegraff

In a BBC poll, 90% of Turks surveyed expressed their belief that the access to freely surf the Internet was a fundamental right, more than any other European country. Yet, the Turkish government is one of the most restrictive in the world when it comes to Internet freedom (see past posts on Internet freedom.)

Statistics on web censorship in Turkey here.

Start TV opened up its video archive.

2,5 million Turks are registered to online relationship sites.

Anti Capitalist Ads contest here.