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Turkey, Police disperse teachers’ protest in Ankara, detain 100

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ANKARA

n_75863_1More than 100 people were detained Dec. 20 following a police crackdown on a demonstration in central Ankara organized by a teachers’ union. Report hurriyet daily news

The demonstrators gathered in the morning in the Turkish capitol’s Tandoğan Square upon a call from teachers’ union Eğitim-İş to demand “Respect to Secular Education and Labor.” Police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse the protestors when a group reportedly insisted on marching towards Kızılay.

More than 100 protesters, most of whom were members and executives of the union, were detained.

Mehmet Balık, head of the union’s Antalya branch who was being kept in custody at the police headquarters for interrogation, said that the police crackdown came without a warning.

“We arrived in two buses from Antalya in the Tandoğan .Square around 10:30 a.m.” said Balık. “The police attacked with TOMAs [ant-riot vehicles with pressurized water cannons] and tear gas without any warning. They soaked down the group, which also included children and the elderly.”

Balık said they were only guilty of “defending the homeland’s unity and protesting the thieves.”

“We stood up for the rights of our teachers and civil servants, but we were the victims of a police attack without any warning,” he added.

Turkey IHD, 28 provinces will hold a genocide memorial

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ihd copyHuman Rights Association, the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, genocide 28 provinces will hold a memorial service.

Human Rights Association, in recent months, “Right for denial of the Armenian Genocide 100th Anniversary Last Campaign” launched. Details of the event will be held under the campaign began to emerge. HRA etinlik throughout the campaign, Turkey from N Zartonk, Zana Institute, Greens and the Left Party of the Future – The dating Confrontation Working Group, the London-based Gomidas Institute, France Collectif Van, will perform with the support of the European Armenian Council and Syrian activists.

Walk Haydarpaşa

HRA 24 April 2015 in 28 provinces will hold a memorial event. In some cities where genocide was made to “Walking Genocide” will be held. Will be held in Istanbul Haydarpasa walk in front of the Turkish and Islamic Arts Museum. April 24 will be the commemoration of the second central Diyarbakir. Gomidas Institute, with the support of HRA in Diyarbakır will organize a special event from April 22-24.

Turkish Tahşiye leader Doğan says he ’loves Osama bin Ladin’

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(Photo: Today’s Zaman)

December 20, 2014,

199979_newsdetailLeader of Turkey’s Tahşiye group Mehmet Doğan, who is at the heart of the latest crackdown on media, has told CNNTurk that he “loves Osama bin Laden.” report today zaman

Turkish authorities carried out a large-scale operation in the weekend, detaining dozens of journalists, scripwriters and police officials after Doğan filed a complaint that the group plotted against him. A Turkish court issued an arrest warrant for Turkish Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen on Friday on charges of publicly criticizing the leader of the al-Qaeda group.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan defended Doğan and his group, accusing detained journalists and Gülen for orchestrating a plot against him. Doğan was jailed for 17 months and he was later released pending trial.

Speaking to Akif Beki, former spokesman of Erdoğan, Doğan denied any links to al-Qaeda, but said he loves bin Laden because he is a Muslim. When asked if he views bin Laden as a terrorist or not, Doğan said he doesn’t know if “his jihad is right or wrong” because he is living a reclusive life.

In another video extensively broadcast on TVs, Doğan is heard praising bin Laden and al-Qaeda. In one case, Yiğit Bulut, who is now Erdoğan’s chief aide, says “we need to cleanse Islam from this al-Qaide affiliates.”

Kurdish leader Salih Muslim: ISIS-Turkey relations should be investigated

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GÜLER – BRUSSELS

e0318235476330836fa0159d3ec4294fDemocratic Union Party (PYD) Co-President Salih Muslim who spoke to ANF reacted angrily to Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s comment that Turkey did not support ISIS, proposing that an independent international commission be set up to carry out an inquiry.

Defence line from Tel Kocher to Afrin

What is the current situation in the cantons of Rojava? Is there still a threat of attack?

There is war and struggle in Rojava. While military defence against attacks is continuing efforts are also being made to establish a system, which is gradually coming into being. All the institutions and people are involved in this system. The defence of this unique system is being undertaken by the people of Rojava from Tel Kocher to Afrin.

We know that before the Kobanê resistance there were circles that were opposed to you and did not accept your system. Has this changed?

Important cities like Mosul and Raqqa did not hold out 24 hours against But a small city like Kobanê has been resisting for 3 months. The whole world has seen this. This is down to organisation. If we had not been organised we couldn’t have resisted. This has undoubtedly changed many people’s minds.

Can people who are not PYD supporters take their place in the system?

The government in Rojava is not PYD or TEV-DEM. It is the people who are resolving their own problems. There is not a classic system of authority, this needs to be understood. The circles you mention have offices and associations in many towns, particularly in Qamişlo. Nobody prevents them carrying out their activities. Everyone is free to carry out their democratic activities. Let everyone struggle for the freedom of Rojava with their own ideas.

Following the halting of ISIS in Kobanê what changes have occurred in the region?

ISIS thought it could capture the whole region, but it was mistaken. Regional states and forces also calculated this would happen. But it hasn’t worked out like that. Even the US was fooled. Until a few months ago they didn’t want to speak to us. However, now they have realised the threat posed worldwide by ISIS.

A commission of inquiry should be set up

Which forces do you think are behind ISIS?

US Deputy President Joe Biden made this abundantly clear. The whole world knows who is behind them.

Recently ISIS launched an attack on Kobanê from Turkey. In the subsequent debate Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said: “No one can say we support ISIS”. How do you evaluate this?

We claim Turkey is supporting ISIS. We suspect this. If Ahmet Davutoğlu is right and is so sure, we propose that an independent international commission be set up to investigate what has gone on.

You are calling for a commission to be established?

Yes, it should come to Turkey, to Rojava and carry out an enquiry in the border areas. Then it will emerge who is and who isn’t supporting ISIS, and the debate will stop.

How are your relations with the opposition within Syria?

They previously carried our propaganda against us. Some circles oppose us, saying we have a relationship with the PKK, and others clasim we collaborate with the regime. For those reasons they didn’t want to associate with us in international forums. But Kobanê has demonstrated who is a terrorist and who is fighting against terrorism. Both Western countries and forces in the Middle East have changed their stance as they have realised we are a serious actor in the Middle East.

In 2015 we will develop Kurdish diplomacy

Weren’t the Kurds seen as an actor previously?

International forces previously spoke to the Kurds through states such as Turkey, Iran and Iraq, but with Kobanê the Kurds began to be spoken to directly. For instance, it is because of Kobanê that states such as America, the UK and France have accepted us at a high level. This came about as a result of the struggle being waged by the Kurds in Kobanê. For three months the hearts of 40 million Kurds have been beating for Kobanê. Hence, hundreds of thousands of people all over the world came onto the streets for Kobanê. This opened many doors.

How will this assist Rojava diplomacy in 2015. What initiatives are you thinking of taking?

As a movement we are new to diplomacy and international relations. Therefore we have shortcomings. We could have achieved a lot more if we had had the cadre and organisation. I therefore take this opportunity to call on young people in academic circles in different countries to make contact with us, as we cannot go everywhere.

But despite this we have made a good start, and in 2015 we are expecting to achieve significant results in diplomacy. We do not expect ISIS and the chaotic situation in the Middle East to end soon. We are a significant force in the region, despite our shortcomings. We have proved this. Every day we receive applications from dozens of delegations wanting to visit Rojava, as we are establishing a freedom-based system in the Middle East with women playing a prominent role. Hence the interest.

At the Kurdish conference in the European Parliament you said that you would take an initiative for 1 November to be declared an international day against terrorism and in solidarity with Kobanê. Have you taken any steps?

We have announced this twice. We will continue our efforts to have this taken up by international bodies such as the UN. We decided this as a party and will wage a struggle for it.

Turkey, Stories of Armenian survivors of 1915 compiled in new book

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n_75826_1The stories of Armenians who survived the mass killings of the late Ottoman era have been gathered in a book titled “100 years… Real Stories.”
The 47 stories inside the book – which were collected as part of the “Turk Who Saved Me” project supported by the U.K. Foreign and Commonwealth Office and realized by the Armenia-based Armedia Agency and the European Integration Non-Governmental Organization – are presented in the words of the survivors with minimal editing, bilingual Turkish-Armenian newspaper Agos has reported.

The book has been translated into Armenian, English and Turkish, and will be distributed free of charge as part of the project.

Lilit Gasparyan, who translated the book into Turkish, said they had selected 47 stories for publication but received many more after initially calling for contributions.

“We deliver the verified, real stories of the people who survived the genocide thanks to the efforts of their Turkish neighbors, friends or ordinary Turks,” said Gasparyan.

Journalist Aris Nalcı, who coordinated the project, said similar projects also needed to be conducted in Turkey.

The year 2015 marks the centenary of the 1915 Ottoman Armenian mass killings during World War I. While Armenia and some countries legally refer to the incidents as “genocide,” the Turkish state does not accept the term and says the issue should be reviewed from a wider perspective.

Turkish court issues arrest warrant for US-based cleric Fethullah Gülen

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Toygun Atilla ISTANBUL

n_75831_1A Turkish court has issued an arrest warrant for U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, a former ally turned arch-enemy of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Report hurriyet daily news

The Prosecutor’s Office in Istanbul described Gülen in a Dec. 18 request to the 1st Criminal Court of Peace as, “The leader of a criminal organization publicly known as the ‘Hizmet Movement,’ which was structured in media, economy and bureaucracy in violation of laws and regulations.”

Prosecutor Hasan Yılmaz requested the arrest warrant by stressing that “enough concrete evidence showing that Gülen committed a crime was collected during the investigation” into the activity of his community.

The request noted that Gülen has been abroad since 1998 and the prosecution was not able to contact him for the investigation, Anadolu Agency reported.

According to the request that the court accepted Dec. 19, Gülen is accused by the prosecution on three counts: 1) Forming and managing a terrorist organization, which carries a 10-15 years prison sentence. 2) Causing a victim to be unrightfully prosecuted due to slander, which carries 3-7 years of prison sentence. 3) Depriving a person from his/her freedom through force, threat and fraud, which carries a 2-7 years prison sentence.

Earlier, TRT Haber, the state-run television news station, had rescinded a story in which it claimed an Istanbul court issued an arrest warrant for Gülen.

In police raids on Dec. 14, Samanyolu Media Group head Hidayet Karaca was arrested, along with daily Zaman Editor-in-Chief Ekrem Dumanlı. Dumanlı, however, was released by the court on Dec. 19. Both the Samanyolu channel and the Zaman newspaper are linked to Gülen.

Erdoğan has repeatedly accused Gülen, whose followers are thought to hold influential positions within the police and judiciary, of conducting the graft investigation in December 2013 as part of a “coup attempt” to overthrow the government.

December/19/2014

Turkey 6 prosecutors Gökalp Kökçü the Dink murder investigation

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hrant-dinkNew prosecutor investigating the murder of Hrant Dink was Kökçü Gökalp.

Hrant Dink murder investigation, Istanbul Public Prosecutor Joseph Right membership will conduct the nature of the Supreme Court because prosecutors Gökalp Kökçü be selected.

Dink murder investigation conducted by the Istanbul Public Prosecutor about 7 months Yusuf Rights of Nature, the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) was selected by the membership of the Supreme Court. Thereupon Istanbul Public Prosecutor’s Office, Terrorism and Organized Crime Bureau Gökalp rootlets of the prosecutor assigned to the investigation.

Gökalp Kökçü, Dink murder was committed deployed since January 19, 2007 was the sixth prosecutors.

Selim Berna Altay first prosecutor’s investigation has prepared the indictment for murder. Continued after the trial and public officials about the investigation carried out in order prosecutors and Rebecca chose Cihan Bloodless served. Prosecutors bloodless after carrying out investigations at the same time on 25 December Muammar Akkas, looked at three year investigation into Dink. Following the appointment of the Prosecutor Akkas elsewhere investigation was given to Prosecutor Joseph Rights of Nature.

Turkey accuses daily Zaman newspaper chief of terror activity

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390804_turkey-mediaProsecutors in Turkey have accused the editor-in-chief of a popular daily of establishing an armed terror network.

Ekrem Dumanli, who serves as editor-in-chief of the Zaman newspaper, faces charges of membership in a terrorist group. He, along with 15 other journalists and media activists, is also accused of depriving people of liberty by using force and making threats and slander. Report Presstv

Dumanli denied all charges against him during his testimony to prosecutors. He has been also accused of having links to Fethullah Gulen, a religious scholar who resides in the United States and current President Recep Tayyip Erdogan views him as his main enemy.

Turkish police arrested 28 people over the weekend as part of the broader campaign against the followers of Gullen. The move was heavily criticized with many calling it the most unprecedented attack on the freedom of speech in the country.

European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, and a number of other European leaders have lamented Turkey’s raid on journalists and media people and said the arrests went against European values. Erdogan hit back at the criticism hours later by asking the EU to “mind its own business.”

For years, Turkey has made its utmost to join the European Union. The bid, however, has been stalled due to various reasons including the EU’s ongoing criticism of Turkey’s record in human rights and restriction of freedom of speech.

 

Turkey Atatürk in the Nazi imagination

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by William Armstrong – william.armstrong@hdn.com.tr

n_75743_1Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination’ by Stefan Ihrig (Harvard University Press, 311 pages, $30)

It isn’t easy to find much original to say about Nazi Germany, but this new title on the Nazis’ view of Turkey and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has recently caused quite a stir. Harvard historian Stefan Ihrig’s deeply researched book explores the extraordinary, hitherto little-known hold that the Turkish war of liberation and the Kemalist nation-building project had on the minds of Nazi ideologues. Postwar Germany’ fixation with Turkey “bordered on the obsessive,” Ihrig writes, with events in Anatolia striking a chord with far-right newspapers and official propaganda, as well as among figures like Goebbels and Hitler. For many, events in Turkey were “a nationalist dream come true, or rather something like hypernationalist pornography.”

Military ties between the Ottoman and German empires went back to long before their ill-fated alliance in the First World War. The nationalist German “obsession,” however, really began with news of Turkey’s post-war resistance, which seemed to contrast so sharply with the Weimer Republic’s genuflection to the demands of the victorious Entente powers. Mustafa Kemal’s refusal to accept the division imposed by the post-WWI Treaty of Sevres fired the militaristic imagination of German nationalists, who felt humiliated by the uncontested Treaty of Versailles. As the official Nazi paper, the Völkischer Beobachter, put it in 1921, “Today the Turks are the most youthful nation. The German nation will one day have no other choice but to resort to Turkish methods as well.” When the success of the Turkish resistance was assured nazi imaginationtwo years later, weekly Heimatland observed that “The fate of Turkey shows extraordinarily many similarities to our own; through Turkey we can learn how we should have done it. If we want to be free, then we will have no choice but to follow the Turkish example in one way or another.” Ihrig describes the Turkish case as a revisionist-nationalist dream come true, “even a fetishized version of it, because it had been achieved by the sword, in the field, with major battles, and many epic twists.” Nationalist Germans asked themselves the question: If Sevres can be revised, why can’t Versailles?

One of the most important aspects of events in Turkey for the Nazis was the “völkisch purity” of the New Turkey and the “cleansing” of the new state of “parasitical” minorities. The obvious example was the population exchange of Greeks and Turks in 1923, but a darker case was, of course, the fate of the Ottoman Armenians in 1915-16. Exploring the echoes between the Armenians and the Jews is beyond the scope of Ihrig’s book, but he does comment on the similarities in the ideological “justifications” – both German and Turkish nationalists saw minority groups as “bloodsuckers” that had “stabbed the nation in the back.” Hitler himself often referred to the Armenians, in one article declaring the “wretched Armenian” to be “swine, corrupt, sordid, without conscience, like beggars, submissive, even doglike.” At the same time, the Kemalists contrasted the multiethnic, cosmopolitan Istanbul unfavorably with Ankara, the “pure” new capital in the Anatolian heartland; similarly, the Nazis contrasted the decadent Berlin with the völkisch Bavarian city Munich.

The Turkish experience also confirmed the “Führer” ideal for Nazi propagandists. The example of Atatürk and the Turkish Republic apparently showed that one nation united under a Führer offered a path to greatness. According to “Goebbels’ teacher” Freidrich Hussong, Atatürk offered “proof that history was made by great men. Neither ‘the masses’ nor democracy offered a way to greatness, only a Führer.” Hitler described the “Turkish Führer” as his “shining star” in the “dark 1920s,” and a bust of the Turkish leader was one of his most cherished possessions. Although Hitler’s own words on Atatürk were not plentiful, they were always admiring; in 1938 he even observed that “Atatürk was a teacher; Mussolini was his first and I his second student.”

Some pro-government voices have been getting very excited about Ihrig’s book, saying it proves the fascist tendencies in elements of the Turkish Republic’s founding ideology. That may not be entirely wrong, but it misses the point: The book is fundamentally about German perception, not Turkish reality. Ihrig repeatedly emphasizes that the Nazi vision of Atatürk and Kemalist Turkey was highly selective and unresponsive to actual developments in the country, with the Nazis simply accentuating whatever they wanted to see. Kemalism may well have contained elements that foreshadowed fascism, but the Nazi fascination with Atatürk and Turkey does not in itself prove that Kemalism was fascist. “It only illustrates,” Ihrig suggests, “how selective and predetermined the Nazi vision of Turkey was and … how ambiguous the Kemalist project still was, that it could ‘accommodate’ such perceptions.”

While a more casual reader may find the sheer meticulousness of Ihrig’s research heavy going, it is full of interesting details. Providing both a new perspective on Nazi Germany and shining fresh light on the early Turkish Republic, overall the book is a fascinating read.

Source: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674368378

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/30/book-review-ataturk-in-the-nazi-imagination/

Source: hurriyetdailynews.com

December/18/2014

Turkey Mass Graves Foundation established

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toplumezarlarVarious human rights organizations operating in Turkey decided to take joint action, HRA under the leadership of ‘Mass Graves Foundation’ builds. Studies will be conducted to reveal the mass graves, the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which occurred after 1925 will be allocated to the period as the Kurds and Kurdish rebellions happened in the war.

Turkey’s recent history, but also a history of massacres. Thousands of people are still under the ground. Who they are, when they are unknown even murdered. After increasingly violent Kurdish 1915 genocide and war in the 1990s, where the bones come under excavation is performed. Calls are being made, is going to the door of the prosecution, but the state still have not any concrete step in this regard. Unable to get results from the prosecutor’s investigation.

Mass graves fact, for many years in the agenda of human rights organizations. In particular, the Human Rights Association Diyarbakır Branch, has long been trying to identify the location of mass graves. Association was prepared in a map of the location of detection. According to a report released on Tuesday, December 16, 348 mass graves have the body of 4 thousand 201 people. According to the reports, does not include the figures for the 1915 Genocide.

Forces of human rights organizations

Various human rights organizations operating in Turkey, is conducting studies related to the mass graves. Work more effectively act together to make the decision of the field of human rights organizations, led by HRA ‘Mass Graves Foundation’ builds. The studies for the establishment of the Foundation, largely completed. Human Rights Foundation of Turkey, Truth and Memory Center of the human rights organizations, among them, are supporting this project.

IHD Diyarbakir Branch Raci seer, noting that recently established the foundation said: “Trying to HRA very limited possibilities. Either a material we still have difficulty in terms of human resources. For a while, we just work on the applications made to us. Mass graves work, a work that requires more material and human resources. Therefore, there is a necessity that can receive scientific support work done by setting up a separate foundation. “

Seer, of the work to be done to reveal the mass graves, the 1915 Armenian Genocide, which occurred after 1925 Kurds and Kurdish rebellions to do is divided into periods expressed as happened in the war.

HRA has identified 348 mass graves

IHD Diyarbakir Branch, according to the mass graves report update, opened in Turkey and has opened including 348 bodies in a mass grave of 4 thousand 201 people. According to the report, that the density of the mass graves provinces, Diyarbakir, Siirt, Bitlis, Hakkari and Bingol. Prepared ‘Mass Grave Map’, which is predominantly Kurdish war involves periods of. The report made so far in the campaign, despite appeals and criminal complaint noted that the state take any concrete steps.

DNA banks are created

HRA, in its report, relating to the loss to the prosecutor urged to take action. The HRA also military and civilian officials to reveal documents in hand, asked that document and the opening of the tomb after a work to be done by determining the identity of the missing information and the DNA bank to be established. The report, “Turkey is now in mass graves in the region must face the fact. This tomb should take action as soon as the authorities of the opening “was given in the statements.

Facts and Research Commission in the HRA report where the call establishment, has drawn attention to the international standards: “The opening of the search for missing and grave, Minnesota Autopsy Protocol and must be conducted in accordance with international standards on how to open the tomb. The tomb of the destruction of finds from lost business machines opened in a sloppy manner, or should prevent the loss. “

48 mass graves in Siirt

Siirt, one of the densely inhabited center of the Armenians before 1915. 7 thousand 500 people in Siirt, 32 thousand Armenians lived in 1914 4. Three churches and two educational institutions of Siirt, not only Armenians, Assyrians was also an important settlements. If the massacre of the Armenians, continues to maintain its freshness in memory. Batches where they massacred the Armenians, know almost everyone in the city.

Hrant Dink Foundation Publications published ‘Sound of Silence’ from the book, Eruhl an Armenian, he says the following about 1915: “My father used to say, ‘I will say to you infidel, they do not enjoy their say but the sound in the other. You kill, eat the beatings, raise your voice, come home to. Removing a lot of the breaks in the sound. ‘ This consciousness, my father gave me. So I grew up eating a beaten. While seven or eight years, big men were beating me to the ground holding my ears, ‘is Gâvur, unbreakable bones are solid, they were. Us there is a gap (Tehtameterxanê) had. From there they took our people, was on top of the bones, they took me to the cliff. ‘Grandfather of bones there, we will take you there, “he had threatened. (…)”

Butchers Creek massacre common place

After 1915, the city began to rapidly Kurdicized. One of the important centers of the Kurdish political movement in Siirt, on the grounds that killed more than 300 people in 1989, known as the PKK militants were thrown into the creek newal town butcher. Newal town is known also as one of the places where the Armenian Genocide happened.

Human Rights Association (IHD) Siirt Branch, opened the mass grave in the town newal, I want the user to determine the identity of those killed. The HRA has prepared a report on the mass graves they discovered in Siirt. According to HRA report, where at least 822 people in Siirt 48 graves have been identified cases. Not result from any of the applications were made about the graves. Only in 1989 the prosecutor’s order in excavations in newal of the town, has been reached 8 person’s body. However, the excavations made by the prosecutor’s office launched an investigation and behind fate is unknown. Identification are not even made.

Bones in the abyss

HRA report contained the following information is given about the Kasaba’yl newal on: “Our country and our province in particular have stayed in the dark and to expose one of the places where the events took place that are waiting to Qeseba newal. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their life, humanity had recalled the mass killing with great sorrow and shame of the family and the fact that mass graves were formed. Newal to qesebesi were brought to a place where hundreds of Armenians and Kurds buried collectively. “

HRA Siirt Branch Zana Yavuz, so far not received the results of any application made and saying that the bones of the Armenians massacred in some places in the city, Agosta found the following assessments: “Siirt Armenians and Assyrians were the city. After 1915 turned into a Kurdish city. Everyone knows the city. Tehtameterxanê and newal that the killings of Armenians also knew everyone in town. There are still bones in the rocky cliffs of Tehtameterxanê. “