Turkey Archives

Turkey A Greek Orthodox Church door set ablaze in Istanbul

June 10, 2015 By administrator

A Greek Orthodox church’s door was set ablaze in the evening of June 9 in the Kadıköy district on Istanbul’s Anatolia side.

A door of the Hagia Triada Greek Orthodox Church was set on fire on June 9 by Muhammed Şimdi, 25, who reportedly suffers from a mental illness. The church is located on Nispetiye Street, a side street of Bahariye, Kadıköy’s main thoroughfare.

The perpetrator rolled around the church holding a paper box of paint thinner, which he used to set one of the church’s unused doors on fire at around 8:30 p.m. after he jumped over the walls of the church compound.

The door immediately caught fire and the perpetrator attempted to escape shouting “Allahu Akbar.”

He was captured by officers of the municipal police and the people who saw the flames at the time. The fire was extinguished by the locals near the scene.

Şimdi was reported to have a criminal record and to be suffering from some form of mental illness, as he had previously undergone mental treatment in the Erenköy Mental Hospital, according to police records.

Konstantin Kiracopolos, an employee working for the foundation running the church, told reporters the perpetrator set the door on fire after claiming he saw Jesus Christ in a dream. The foundation has filed a complaint against the perpetrator, Kiracopolos added.

Armenian Ramifications of Cilicia Catholicosate’s Lawsuit Against Turkey

June 9, 2015 By administrator

BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN

HARUT SASSOUNIAN

Armenians worldwide applauded the Cilician Catholicosate for filing a lawsuit in the Turkish Constitutional Court on April 27, demanding the return of its historic seat in Sis, Kozan district of Turkey’s Adana province. The Cilician See’s former headquarters, established in 1293, was confiscated by the Turkish government in 1921, at the culmination of the Armenian Genocide.

Catholicos Aram I announced that should the Turkish court reject the lawsuit, the Catholicosate intends to appeal the ruling to the European Court of Human Rights, which requires that all domestic legal remedies are exhausted before it considers appeals on cases filed against Council of Europe members states. Skeptics of Turkish acceptance of European Court decisions should know that the Republic of Turkey has complied with all rulings since its acceptance of the Court’s jurisdiction in 1990.

The Catholicosate’s lawsuit is a landmark case for several reasons:

— It seeks to restore partial justice for the enormous human, material, and territorial losses suffered by Armenians during the Genocide.
— It shifts “Hai Tad [Armenian Cause] efforts beyond the recognition of the Armenian Genocide into the legal sphere,” as stated by Catholicos Aram I.
— It could set a precedent for similar legal claims, as His Holiness informed The New York Times last month: “After 100 years, I thought it was high time that we put the emphasis on reparation…. This is the first legal step. This will be followed by our claim to return all the churches, the monasteries, the church-related properties and, finally, the individual properties.”

Despite the noble objectives pursued by the Catholicosate’s lawsuit, a controversy surfaced in the Armenian community last week, when several websites and newspapers reported that the Catholicosate of Cilicia had demanded that the Turkish government “either return the property of the Catholicosate of Sis or pay a compensation of 100 million Turkish Liras ($37 million).” Garo Armenian, a prominent Armenian community leader, wrote a cautionary article titled, “Our Sacred Sites are not Personal Possessions.” He stressed that “the Catholicosate’s lawsuit raises a series of important questions which must be collectively considered forthwith with prudent diligence in order to prevent any undesirable precedents.” He also urged the Catholicosate to clarify this issue if the news reports have not accurately reflected the content of the lawsuit.

I contacted last week the Catholicosate’s representatives seeking such a clarification. I was assured in an e-mail by Father Housig Mardirossian, Assistant to His Holiness Aram I, that “The lawsuit of the Catholicosate has one clear objective: The return of the Catholicosate of Cilicia.”

In response to my request for a copy of the lawsuit, Payam Akhavan, a prominent international lawyer and lead counsel for the Catholicosate, stated that “it is not possible or advisable at this stage to share the full application while it is still pending before the Turkish Constitutional Court.”

On questions regarding monetary compensation, attorney Akhavan provided the following explanation: “The fundamental claim before the Turkish Constitutional Court is that Turkey should return the Monastery and Cathedral of St. Sofia, both because of the Catholicosate’s property rights, as well as its religious significance for Armenians. The claim is not for compensation, given that this is not merely private property, but rather, property of religious and historical significance. However, I have been advised by our Turkish lawyer that under Turkish laws and procedures it is necessary, with respect to the property rights claim (and not the religious rights claim) to reserve the Catholicosate’s alternate right to seek compensation by providing a provisional amount…. But I want to emphasize that the claim is not for compensation; it is for the return of the property, to be used for religious worship and related cultural purposes.”

I contacted an independent lawyer in Istanbul who confirmed that Turkish law indeed required that a specific value be stated for a property under litigation.

Now that the financial issue is clarified, there are other important matters facing the Catholicosate and Armenians in general. Some of these questions might be a little premature, but Armenians may want to reflect upon them in order to anticipate the consequences of any eventual decisions by Turkish or European courts:

1. What would the Catholicosate do should the Turkish court or government allow the restoration of the Sis church and its use for religious worship without returning ownership of the property to the Catholicosate? Moreover, what if the Turkish government also offered monetary compensation for the repair of the church headquarters while retaining the property rights?

2. In case the Turkish Court or the European Court of Human Rights decided to return the Sis church property, would the Catholicosate relocate to its historic headquarters or continue to remain in exile in Antelias, Lebanon?

In view of the Turkish government’s recent overtures to the heads of Assyrian and Syriac churches to return to their historic headquarters in Turkey from temporary exile in Syria, Turkey’s leaders may use the Armenian lawsuit as a cover vis-à-vis their own hardliners, and make a similar offer to the Catholicosate of Cilicia.

President Erdogan may make such a gesture for three reasons:

1. To preempt a ruling by the European Court of Human Rights in favor of the Catholicosate, and avoid setting a legal precedent for future Armenian lawsuits;

2. To score a public relations victory in international circles, particularly after his party’s loss of parliamentary majority in last Sunday’s elections;

3. To reap the economic benefits of foreign tourists and Armenian visitors to the historic headquarters of the Cilician Catholicosate at Sis.

Turkish govt resigns, Erdogan seeks to form 1st coalition after 12 yrs majority rule

June 9, 2015 By administrator

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accepted the government’s resignation on Tuesday, asking Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to stay on in his post until a new Cabinet is formed.

The prime minister’s resignation is a standard procedure after Sunday’s parliamentary election before the new government starts operating, the Turkish president’s office said.

“The president thanked the government for its work to date. [The acting] Cabinet will continue working until the new government is put together,” Erdogan’s office said in a statement, Tass reported.

After a swearing-in ceremony on June 25, the new Turkish parliament members will have 45 days to agree on the composition of the cabinet.

If they fail to form a government by that deadline, Erdogan has the power to call a new parliamentary election.

After the announcement of the preliminary results of Turkey’s parliamentary election it became clear that Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) had fallen short of a majority for the first time in 12 years.

According to Turkey’s NTV channel, AKP claimed some 41 per cent of the votes, a loss of 9 percentage points, which will only allow it to occupy 258 seats in the country’s 550-seat Grand National Assembly.

Erdogan’s party will now face the prospect of entering a coalition with one of the three opposition parties that passed the 10 percent barrier necessary to enter parliament.

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has preliminarily garnered about 25 percent of the vote (a rise of 4 percentage points), taking about 130 seats in parliament.

The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) took about 17 percent (an increase of 3 percentage points), claiming a little over 80 seats.

For the time in Turkish history a pro-Kurdish party, the People’s Democratic Party (HDP), has made it into the parliament, with around 13 percent of the vote.

The official results of the election are set to be announced 11 or 12 days after Sunday’s vote.

Eduard Sharmazanov: Erdogan’s failure in parliamentary elections in Turkey may trigger changes in Armenian-Turkish relations

June 9, 2015 By administrator

by Tatevik Shahunya,

The parliamentary elections in Turkey have marked the beginning of a new game, but it is early to forecast the results. In the meantime, it is doubtless that essential changes will happen in Ankara’s political course given that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has lost its monopoly in decision-making, Eduard Sharmazanov, Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, has told ArmInfo.

He says that the Turkish society voted against Erdogan’s political course rather than for something. “This is also proved by the unprecedented success of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party, whose views are different from the ruling party’s views in almost all topical matters, including the Armenian-Turkish relations and the Armenian Genocide,” says Sharmazanov.

He also predicts certain a force majeure in formation of the government, because the ruling party that has failed to receive an absolute majority, should form a coalition with one of the forces, but at the moment none of the parties agrees to enter into a coalition with the AKP. “This may trigger new parliamentary elections. In that case, the ruling party might even fail to retain its current 40%. But even if the situation remains the same, Ankara’s policy will undergo considerable changes because Erdogan will no longer be able to promote his programs unequivocally. This may contribute to stabilization of the situation in the Middle East and to the progress in the Armenian-Turkish normalization. The other forces in the Turkish Parliament do not display such an anti-Armenian hysteria,” says Sharmazanov. He also points out that the elections have probably marked the beginning of the end of Erdogan’s political course.

According to the results of the parliamentary elections in Turkey, the AKP received 40.80 percent of Sunday’s votes (256 seats in the 550-seat Parliament), while the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) scored 25.20 percent (133 seats). The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) secured 16.50 percent of the votes (83 seats), while the country’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democracy Party (HDP) won 12.90 percent (78 seats). They all crossed the 10 percent electoral threshold that affected the distribution of seats in the Grand National Assembly. The turnout was 84%. Erdogan had campaigned to write a new constitution to bolster the powers of the country’s presidential office. The AKP needed at least 330 seats to unilaterally initiate such a change and take it to a referendum. If the party managed to get 367 seats in the Parliament, it would be able to approve the amendments to the Constitution by means of simple voting, without any referendum

Islamic association head shot dead in southeast Turkey

June 9, 2015 By administrator

Four people were killed in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast on Tuesday after the shooting of an Islamic aid group leader touched off a violent clash, security sources said, two days after a historic election win for Kurds, Reuters reports.

The cause of the killings was not immediately clear, although there have been sporadic clashes in the southeast in recent years between Islamists and supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

Security sources confirmed that Aytac Baran, a leader of the Yeni Ihya Der aid group was shot dead as he left his office in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir.

Three more people were killed in a clash that followed, the security sources said.

Turkey recalls ambassador to Brazil over Armenian genocide legislation

June 8, 2015 By administrator

ISTANBUL

(Reuters) The Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Monday it had recalled its ambassador to Brazil for consultation, after the Latin American country’s Senate passed legislation recognizing the massacre of Armenians during World War One in Turkey as genocide.

The ministry also summoned Brazil’s ambassador to Ankara on June 3 over the matter, it said in an emailed statement.

Muslim Turkey accepts that Christian Armenians died during the upheaval of World War One but rejects declarations or legislation by foreign governments that classify the deaths as genocide.

“We view the decision by the Brazilian Senate that distorts reality and overlooks the law as irresponsible and we condemn it,” the Foreign Ministry said.

Armenians, two dozen countries and most Western scholars consider the killings genocide.

(Reporting by Ayla Jean Yackley; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Turkey Election Divisions in AK Party emerges on post-election scenarios

June 8, 2015 By administrator

In the aftermath of the June 7 general elections, which ended the AK party’s chance to form a government on its own, divisions are emerging within the party over what strategy to proceed with.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is divided between exiting delegates and the new entries to the party on whether to seek a partner for a coalition, form a minority government or embark on early elections. Report BGNNews

The AK Party only managed to get 259 delegates in the Parliament, well short of the 276 required to form government and way below the 330 delegates President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan dreamed of to push forward a constitutional change for the sake of granting his presidency supreme powers.

In around 12 days the High Electoral Board (YSK) will release the final tally of the election. Afterwards the newly-elected parliamentarians will be sworn in and the president will designate an individual from the assembly, most likely Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, to establish a government and get a vote of confidence in 45 days. Failure to do so may result in the president calling for early elections.

A high number of prominent AK Party delegates, totaling 68, who will no longer be in the government now that their third term in the party will expire after the new government is formed. They include heavyweights such as spokesperson Bülent Arınç, Turkey’s highly credited economy tsar Ali Babacan, Minister of Labor Faruk Çelik, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Minister of Energy Taner Yıldız, Mehdi Eker, Nurettin Canikli as well as Ömer Çelik.

They are against a coalition or a minority government and will instead want to take their chances to run for Parliament in the early elections.

The new parliamentarians of the AK party on the other hand view the idea of early elections as a risk, and believe that the options of forming a coalition or minority government need to be explored to the fullest.

Swept off in east and southeast

The shocking election results saw the AK Party being swept off the map in the east and the southeast of Turkey, losing the Kurdish vote to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

The AK Party was unable to get a single delegate out of five provinces of Ağrı, Tunceli, Şırnak and Hakkari in addition to Iğdır, where it also lost seats to the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

The sweep of AK Party votes in the southeast was most prominent in Turkey’s main southeastern province of Diyarbakır, where it was only able to get one seat as opposed to its 11 in the 2011 general elections.

The picture overall in Turkey also struck a crushing blow to their leadership. In 2011 the AK Party which was able to get all the available seats in 12 provinces was only able to repeat the feat in 3 provinces.

Turkey Seismic vote shift shakes the ruling party

June 8, 2015 By administrator

Compared to the 2011 general elections, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) lost more than 2.5 million votes in the June 7 elections, while the Republican People’s Party (CHP) remained around the same level, with some of its votes going to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) increased its votes by 1.9 million. Kurdish problem-focused independent candidates had received 2.8 million votes in 2011, but the HDP managed to get 5.8 million votes.

So, simply put, all the other major parties got stronger while the ruling party got weaker in all provinces, particularly in metropolises. The CHP broke the domination of the AKP in the Black Sea region by taking the province of Zonguldak and dealt it significant blows in the Aegean. The MHP hit the AKP in Central Anatolian and Black Sea provinces, while the HDP grabbed five southeastern and eastern provinces from the ruling party’s hands.

Source: hurriyetdailynews

3 ethnic Armenians elected to Turkish parliament

June 8, 2015 By administrator

About 86 percent of around 53 million eligible voters cast their ballots and elected 550 members to Turkey’s parliament, including ethnic Armenians: Garapet (Garo) Paylan, who ran on the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) list, Markar Esayan from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), and Selina Özuzun Doğan from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the Armenian Weekly reported, citing Turkish media.

According to 99 percent of the votes counted, AKP garnered around 41 percent of the votes (258 seats) in the June 7 parliamentary election, based on data released by the state-run TRT. HDP, on the other hand, broke the 10 percent barrier and received around 13 percent of the votes, gaining 79 seats in parliament, while CHP earned 25 percent (132 seats), and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) 16 percent (81 seats).

As the results trickled in, and it became clear that HDP had earned more than 10 percent of the votes, party co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş told journalists gathered at the Istanbul offices of the HDP that the party now truly belonged to all of Turkey.

Among HDP’s other Armenian candidates were Murad Mihçi and Filor Uluk Benli. HDP candidates also included Yezidis and Assyrians alongside Kurds. Moreover, 268 female candidates ran on the HDP list—the highest number of women among the political parties running for election.

HDP faired especially well in the southeast of the country. In the provinces of Diyarbakir, Mardin, Batman, Van, and Hakkari, the party received over 70 percent of the votes.

AKP needed 367 seats in order to introduce the “new constitution,” an objective President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had talked about on many occasions. The new constitution would have turned Turkey from a parliamentary system into an executive presidency, giving the president more powers. The AKP’s support was down from the 50 percent of the votes (327 seats) it received in the 2011 election.

http://tert.am/am/news/2015/06/08/turkish-parliament-armenians/1699775

Injured Kurd when twin bomb blasts hit the HDP’s rally in Diyarbakır on June 5 cast their votes.

June 7, 2015 By administrator

More than 53.7 million Turkish voters head to the polls on June 7 for a crucial parliamentary election. report hurriyetdailynews

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has framed the June 7 election in Turkey as a key hurdle on the path to the powerful presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to introduce.

However, if the Kurdish problem-focused Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) crosses the 10 percent election threshold, the number of AKP lawmakers will decrease considerably, making it almost impossible to reach the 330 seats necessary for a constitutional change.

The HDP has faced scores of physical attacks during its campaign. One of its campaign bus drivers, Hamdullah Öğe, was murdered on June 3, and three of its supporters were killed when twin bomb blasts hit its milestone rally in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır on June 5.

Election safety has also been a hot item on the agenda during the campaign ahead of the vote, amid the opposition’s claims that there was fraud in the vote counting process. The government has strictly denied the claim and mobilized a total of 404,000 security personnel to maintain security throughout the day of the election.

Here are the live updates:

6:30 p.m. – 22.2 percent of the votes have been counted so far.

6:20 p.m. – 16 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

6:10 p.m. – 10.6 percent of the votes have been counted so far.

6.00 p.m. – According to a consolidated vote tally from Anadolu and Cihan news agencies, 6.6 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

5.50 p.m. – During the counting of votes coming from abroad, a group claimed that some ballots were illegally thrown into the garbage at the Ankara Chamber of Commerce, according to private broadcaster CNN Türk. Police have arrived to stop a resulting fist-fight between party officials. “There is no problem at the place where votes from abroad are being counted. Our friends are on duty there. No need to panic,” HDP co-chair Demirtaş has said.

5.45 p.m. – 0.9 percent of the votes have been counted so far, but the official publication ban on the initial results is continuing.

5:00 p.m. – Polls close across Turkey and vote-counting starts at 174,240 ballot boxes.

Click for real-time results shown on a map
4.55 p.m. – A headman in Batman’s Yolveren village was all by lonesome on June 7, as he was the only person to cast a vote at his polling booth because the locality’s other 16 registered voters all now live in Germany. (Click here to read more)

4:50 p.m. – Residents of the Kuşu village in Turkey’s western province of Kütahya have boycotted the elections for a third time since 2011, when the town’s status was reduced to “village” due to a population decrease. (Click here to read more)

4:42 p.m. – Istanbul Gov. Vasip Şahin has confirmed the cars without license plates cannot belong to the police, according to CHP Istanbul provincial head Murat Karayalçın, who spoke with Şahin on the phone.

4:10 p.m. – A Turkish voter in the Aegean province of Manisa stamped himself in the forehead rather than the ballot paper to protest the elections, in which he said he had no faith. (Click here to read more)