Yerevan, February 11, Armenpress Turkey’s decision to declare the day of 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide as the day of commemoration of the battle of Gallipoli, which aims to change the topic of International discussion, is nothing else, but a tool of denialist policy. Turkish young historian Mehmet Polatel stated this in conversation with “Armenpress”. Also,the young historian noted that this policy of the Turkish government is “unacceptable for him and other Turkish intellectuals”. The Turkish scientist arrived in Armenia to deliver a lecture titled “The confiscation of the Armenian Property during the genocide and after it”. Among other things, Mehmet Polatel underscored: “One of the reason of the Genocide denial is the issue of returning the confiscated properties. it’s characteristic not only for the state thinking, but the common people, the Armenian will come and take their belongings away. that’s why the Turkish society is also is also against the recognition.”
İpek Çalışlar Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide
By: Hambersom Aghbashian
İpek Çalışlar (born in 1947 in Istanbul), is a Turkish prominent journalist and writer. After finishing her high school (Üsküdar American High School), she received her education at Ankara University, Faculty of Political Sciences. She lived in Hamburg-Germany, 1990-1992, where she researched about ‘Homosexuality’ and ‘women and Islam ‘ issues. In 2003 she visited Iran with her husband where they met Iranian intellectuals and wrote their book “Iran: A Man Dictatorship” in 2004. İpek Çalışlar has worked at the Turkish Cumhuriyet daily for 12 years and served at the Association for Education and Supporting Women Candidates (KA-DER), which defends equal representation of women and men in all fields of life, also at PEN Turkey. Her first literary book “Latife Hanım” has been translated into 11 languages, including Bulgarian, Arabic, German and Albanian. She wrote also “Halide Edip: Biography of Sigma Women (2008) .” (1)(2).
Ipek Çalışlar was tried for her bestselling biography of Atatürk’s first wife, Latife Hanim, under Article 5816 of the Penal Code for a passage that described the founder of the Turkish Republic escaping a life threatening situation in the guise of a woman and she was acquitted.(3)
A group of Turkish intellectuals signed a petition against a Denialist Exhibit in Denmark, an exhibition which was planned by the Turkish embassy to support their point of view concerning the Armenian Genocide . ” Don’t Stand Against Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History! ” was the message to the Royal Library of Denmark who has given the Turkish government the opportunity to present an “alternative exhibit” in response to the Armenian Genocide exhibition. Ipek Çalışlar was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed the petition.(4)
In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology as well. The complete, brief text of the apology says ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” İpek Çalışlar was one of the intellectual who signed the petition which in few days was signed by over 13,000 signatories.(5)
According to http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com, under the title “24 April, the anniversary of the 1915s events, will be remembered this year in Turkey, too.”, Taraf Newspaper of 20th April 2010 wrote ” A group of intellectuals, among them Ali Bayramoğlu, Ferhat Kentel, Neşe Düzel, Perihan Mağden and Sırrı Süreyya Önder, for the first time in Turkey, will commemorate this year on 24 April as the anniversary of the events of 1915, under the leader-ship of “Say Stop!” group. The commemoration will start in front of the tram station in Taksim Square. The group will be dressing in black and carry photos of massacred Armenian intellectuals who were deported from that station.” the following abstracts are from the text of the commemoration activity, “This pain is OUR pain. This mourning is for ALL of US. In 1915, when our population was just 13 million, 1,5 to 2 million Armenians were living in these lands…. In April 24, 1915 it was started “to send them”. We lost them. They are no longer available. They have not even graves. But the “Great Pain” of the “Great Disaster” , with its utmost gravity EXISTS in our pain”. The text was signed also by İpek Çalışlar.(6)
—————————————————————————————————————————————–1- http://www.todayszaman.com/national_ipek-calislars-biography-of-ataturks-wife-published-in-london_331881.html
2- http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/İpek_Çalışla
3- http://www.englishpen.org/campaigns/turkey-insult-trials-continue-ipek-calislar-acquitted/
4- http://www.genocide-museum.am/eng/19.12.12.php
5- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_catastrophe_of_1915
6- http://setasarmenian.blogspot.com/2010/04/good-thoughtful-and-ugly-from-turks-on.html
When Turkish Gov, can’t find Armenian or Kurd to commit atrocity it turn on it own people
More than 1,500 people injured by Turkish security forces in 2014, says report,
Some 1,539 people, including 112 children, were injured by Turkey’s security forces at protests in 2014, while 11,262 people were detained, including 241 refugees, a recent report has revealed.
The Human Rights Association’s (IHD) report, titled the 2014 Human Rights Breaches Report, revealed that a total of 3,401 people were victims of torture, ill treatment, humiliation, or unjust punishment in Turkey in 2014, while 1,021 of those people were subjected to torture or ill treatment while in custody.
Documentation from the İHD also once again displayed the perilous extent of violence against women in Turkey.
“In 2014, 296 women were killed, 39 women committed suicide, 191 women were victims of sexual assault or rape, 585 women were taken to hospital after being beaten or injured and six women were victims of honor killings, while 13 women died in suspicious circumstances,” Songül Erol Abdil of the İHD said on March 5. report Hurriyet
Some 44 children were killed, while 219 children were injured in violent incidents.
Honor killings, which remain a serious problem in Turkish society, also took place last year. While six women were reportedly killed in honor killings, two men were killed in “honor attacks.” Six people were killed in hate crimes, while 17 were injured in hate crimes.
The report was prepared by gathering personal applications to İHD branches, reports from İHD branches’ human rights watch and research commissions, news that appeared on local and national media outlets, and reports from other NGOs and state institutions.
Some 64 out of the 1,021 people who were subjected to torture or ill treatment while in custody were children, while 23 out of a total 213 people who were tortured or ill-treated in places outside of custody were children.
The report also showed that 235 convicts were tortured or victims of maltreatment in jails, 54 of whom were underage children.
Special security officers also applied torture and maltreated 19 people.
The number of refugees and immigrants detained in 2014 was 241, of whom 22 were children.
News Alert: Turkish journalist charged with obtaining secret documents used in Sledgehammer case
News Alert Committee to Protect Journalists
New York, March 4, 2015—The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish authorities to release Mehmet Baransu, a columnist and correspondent for the privately-owned daily newspaper Taraf, who has been charged with obtaining secret documents and held in custody since March 1, according to news reports.
Police searched Baransu’s house in Istanbul on March 1 and detained him in connection with documents he received from an unidentified source in 2010, according to news reports. The documents were the basis for a widely reported investigation and trial related to an alleged military coup plot known as Sledgehammer.
Sercan Sakallı, the lawyer for Baransu, told CPJ a court order has branded the investigation secret and Baransu’s defense team does not yet know what evidence the prosecution has against him. He added that authorities have focused on a specific document, titled “The Sovereign Action Plan” that was part of a packet of documents Baransu shared with prosecutors in 2010. That document, the lawyer said, was never made public, and authorities did not previously question the reporter’s possession of a classified document.
Baransu was taken to Istanbul’s Metris Prison on March 2, according to news reports. No trial date has been set yet, Sakallı told CPJ. If convicted, Baransu faces up to eight years in prison, according to Turkey’s penal code.
“A journalist’s job is to report on developments in the public interest, and it is absurd that a journalist should be prosecuted for obtaining documents—which in any case were shared with authorities,” CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. “We call on Turkish authorities to immediately release Mehmet Baransufrom custody and drop allcharges against him.”
Taraf was the first paper to report on the purported coup, based on the documents obtained by Baransu according to reports . Baransu also shared the documents he received from the source with Turkish prosecutors in 2010 according to Tarafand other reports. According to police interrogation documents reviewed by CPJ, Baransu never revealed his source.
On March 3, Taraf’s founding editor Ahmet Altan defended Baransu in an op-ed
published by the daily Cumhuriyet . “Since when have coup plans been classified as ‘documents related to state security’ and ‘state knowledge that needs to be kept classified?’” wrote Altan. “I am the person who published the [Sledgehammer] story, the one who decided it needed to be published, the one who didn’t doubt for a moment that Sledgehammer was a coup plot.”
The case against Baransu comes amid increasing tension between the Turkish ruling party, the AKP, and its once-ally-turned-foe, the Gülen movement, an organization tied to U.S.-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen. The AKP backed Sledgehammer prosecutions several years ago but has since backtracked, blaming the Gülen movement with fabricating evidence, newsreports said. In June, Turkey’s Constitutional Court ordered the release of more than 230 military officers, previously imprisoned in the case, according to reports.
The contest now is between “Arab nationalists & Turkish Pan-Islamist” Political cloud becoming much clearer
libya’s internationally recognized Prime Minister Abdullah al-Thinni said his government would stop dealing with Turkey as it was sending weapons to a rival Islamist group in tripoli so “the Libyan people kill each other,” ramping up his rhetoric against ankara.
In Egypt President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi drove Muslim brotherhood out of power which was supported by Turkish Islamic government
In Syria Bashar Al-Assad 3 years fight against Turkish backed islamist Terrorist try to hold on Arab nationalism against Turkish Pan-Islamist
In Iraq Government fighting Turkish islamist with multi names ISIS, ISIL, Islamic State etc.
Davutoglu zero problem neighborhood now Turkey is the number one Problem.
US and Turkey again starting to train Turkish terrorist called FSA against Syria.
‘Pan-Islamist Davutoğlu’ thesis ruffling feathers in Turkey
Is Turkey’s new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu a pan-Islamist ideologue, with imperialist ambitions to reshape the Middle East into a post-national order based on Turkish and Sunni religious supremacy? That is the blockbuster thesis currently turning heads both inside and outside Turkey, thanks to a series of recent articles by Marmara University Assistant Professor Behlül Özkan.
Özkan, a one-time student of Davutoğlu’s from the latter’s time as an international relations professor, bases his provocative conclusion on close study of 300 articles penned by Davutoğlu in the 1980s and 90s. He first made his case in an essay for the August-September edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ journal “Survival,” before introducing it to a wider English audience with pieces on Al-Monitor and in the New York Times.
In his NYT op-ed “Turkey’s Imperial Fantasy” published last week, Özkan remembered Professor Davutoğlu as a hard-working and “genial figure” who “enjoyed spending hours conversing with his students.” In contrast with his academic peers, however, he believed that Turkey would “soon emerge as the leader of the Islamic world by taking advantage of its proud heritage and geographical potential … encompass[ing] the Middle East, the Caucasus and Central Asia, and include Albania and Bosnia”:
Mr. Davutoglu’s classroom pronouncements often sounded more like fairy tales than political analysis. He cited the historical precedents of Britain, which created a global empire in the aftermath of its 17th-century civil war, and Germany, a fragmented nation which became a global power following its 19th-century unification. Mr. Davutoglu was confident that his vision could transform what was then an inflation-battered nation, nearly torn apart by a war with Kurdish separatists, into a global power.
He crystallized these ideas in the book ‘Strategic Depth,’ in 2001, a year before the Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., came to power. In the book, he defined Turkey as a nation that does not study history, but writes it — a nation that is not at the periphery of the West, but at the center of Islamic civilization … Mr. Davutoglu saw himself as a grand theorist at the helm of his country as it navigated what he called the ‘river of history.’ He and his country were not mere pawns in world politics, but the players who moved the pieces.
Özkan rejects that Davutoğlu’s ideas amount to “neo-Ottomanism,” as often accused. Instead, he gives Turkey’s new prime minister the even heftier label of “pan-Islamist”:
The movement known as Ottomanism emerged in the 1830s as the empire’s elites decided to replace existing Islamic institutions with modern European-style ones, in fields from education to politics. By contrast, Mr. Davutoglu believes that Turkey should look to the past and embrace Islamic values and institutions.
But, ironically, he bases his pan-Islamist vision on the political theories that were used to legitimize Western imperial expansion prior to 1945. While purporting to offer Turkey a new foreign policy for the 21st century, his magnum opus draws on the outdated concepts of geopolitical thinkers like the American Alfred Thayer Mahan, the Briton Halford Mackinder and the German Karl Haushofer, who popularized the term “Lebensraum,” or living space, a phrase most famously employed by Germany during the 1920s and 1930s to emphasize the need to expand its borders.
According to Mr. Davutoglu, the nation states established after the breakup of the Ottoman Empire are artificial creations and Turkey must now carve out its own Lebensraum — a phrase he uses unapologetically. Doing so would bring about the cultural and economic integration of the Islamic world, which Turkey would eventually lead. Turkey must either establish economic hegemony over the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East, or remain a conflict-riven nation-state that risks falling apart.
After becoming Turkey’s foreign minister from 2009, Davutoğlu had the opportunity to put these ideas into practice – with disastrous results:
As foreign minister, Mr. Davutoglu fervently believed that the Arab Spring had finally provided Turkey with a historic opportunity to put these ideas into practice. He predicted that the overthrown dictatorships would be replaced with Islamic regimes, thus creating a regional ‘Muslim Brotherhood belt’ under Turkey’s leadership.
He sought Western support by packaging his project as a ‘democratic transformation’ of the Middle East. Yet today, instead of the democratic regimes promised three years ago, Turkey shares a border with ISIS’s self-proclaimed caliphate. Two months ago, its fighters raided the Turkish consulate in the Iraqi city of Mosul, and is still holding 49 Turkish diplomats hostage. Mr. Davutoglu, who has argued that Turkey should create an Islamic Union by abolishing borders, seems to have no idea how to deal with the jihadis in Syria and Iraq, who have made Turkey’s own borders as porous as Swiss cheese.
To repair this dire situation as prime minister, Özkan says Davutoğlu needs to pragmatically reconnect Turkey’s regional policy with reality:
The new prime minister is mistaken in believing that the clock in the Middle East stopped in 1918 — the year the Ottoman Empire was destroyed — or that Turkey can erase the region’s borders and become the leader of an Islamic Union, ignoring an entire century of Arab nationalism and secularism. What Mr. Davutoglu needs to do, above all, is to accept that his pan-Islamist worldview, based on archaic theories of expansionism, is obsolete.
Los Angeles Cancels $845,000 Contract with Turkey’s Lobbyist Gephardt Group
BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
I wrote a column last August warning that the Armenian-American community and all people of good will would boycott the products and services of Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Chevron, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, General Electric, Goldman Sachs, Google, Los Angeles Airport, National Football League, Port of Oakland, and United Airlines, unless these companies cancelled their contracts with the Gephardt Group, one of Turkey’s notorious lobbying firms.
Ironically, former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt had championed recognition of the Armenian Genocide during his long years in Congress. Yet, soon-after his retirement, Gephardt became a staunch opponent of Armenian issues by peddling Turkish denials of the Armenian Genocide. The latest contract on file with the U.S. Justice Department reveals that the Gephardt Group is paid $1.4 million a year to lobby for Turkey in Washington.
Documents filed by the Gephardt Group with the Justice Department under the ‘Foreign Agent Registration Act’ indicate that Gephardt and his colleagues contacted dozens of House and Senate Members last year to lobby against:
1. Congressional resolutions on the Armenian Genocide and return of Christian Churches by Turkey, and
2. Revelations that Turkey supported Islamic Jihadists during their invasion of the Armenian-inhabited town of Kessab in Syria.
More ominously, Justice Department records show that just before April 24, 2014, Janice O’Connell, Gephardt’s colleague, contacted Brian McKeon, Chief of Staff of the National Security Council at the White House and Chad Kreikemeier, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Legislative Affairs, to modify Pres. Obama’s annual statement on the Armenian Genocide, following Prime Minister Erdogan’s deceptive and disingenuous apology for all victims of World War I in Ottoman Turkey.
Justice Department’s records also reveal that Gephardt and O’Connell traveled to Istanbul and Ankara on Turkish Airlines on March 3, 2014 to meet Turkey’s National Security Advisor. Gephardt flew from Paris to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $1,513, while O’Connell flew from Washington, DC to Istanbul and Ankara at a round trip cost of $6,986. The two lobbyists stayed at the Conrad Hotel in Istanbul for three nights at the cost of $710 each. While in Turkey, they spent $600 on limousine service.
Last month, the Armenian National Committee of America, Armenian Assembly of America, and Armenian Youth Federation (Eastern and Western U.S.) sent over 200 letters to businesses, universities, and NGOs that are clients of the Gephardt Group and four other lobbying firms for Turkey: Dickstein Shapiro, LLC; Greenberg Traurig; Alpaytac; and LB International. One such letter asked the United Airlines to demand the lobbying firm to end its contract with the Turkish government, if not, the airline should then terminate its own contract with the lobbying firm. If neither action is taken by Feb. 28, Armenian-Americans would carry out a protest campaign against both the lobbying firm and United Airlines.
The efforts to counter Turkey’s lobbying firms already bore its first fruits. On February 23, ANCA-WR announced that Los Angeles World Airports [LAWA], a wholly-owned entity of the City of Los Angeles, has decided to terminate its contract worth over $845,000 with the Gephardt Group, after ANCA called upon Mayor Eric Garcetti last December, “to end any ties between the City of Los Angeles and Dick Gephardt.”
ANCA-WR Chair Nora Hovsepian applauded “LAWA and City of Los Angeles officials for their principled stand enforcing a zero-tolerance policy against deniers of genocide. LAWA’s action reflects the highest standards of good governance and reinforces the proud standing of Los Angeles as a leader — nationally and internationally — on issues of genocide prevention and human rights. As a genocide denier, Gephardt does not deserve a single dollar from the citizens of Los Angeles, and should have no association with our city.”
According to U.S. Government documents obtained by ANCA-WR, the Gephardt Group “had a contract worth over $845,000 with LAWA, which was agreed to in 2012 during the term of former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Since the approval of the contract with LAWA, the Gephardt Group has been drawing over $23,000 a month for its work for the airport, while simultaneously representing the interests of the Turkish Government against the interests of the Armenian-American community.”
After this first major victory, Armenian-Americans should continue urging the remaining 200 companies that are clients of the Gephardt Group and other lobbying firms hired by Turkey to terminate their contracts, because hiring Genocide denialists is patently unethical and bad for business!
Turkish Mayor a ” perfect candidate for international war crimes” Calls Armenian Massacres Heroism
BAYBURT, Turkey—The mayor of Bayburt, Turkey (historically Baberd), Mete Memis, called the deeds of Turkish soldiers who massacred Armenians a hundred years ago “heroism.”
Memis made a congratulatory statement on the 97th anniversary of Bayburt’s sacking and capture from its historically Armenian residents, who were massacred and exiled as part of the Armenian Genocide, and claimed that 97 years ago, the Turkish soldiers in Bayburt had “written their name in history” for defending the “homeland,” reported Haberler.
The Turkish mayor claimed that in February of 1918, Turkish soldiers had acted heroically and had “liberated” Bayburt from the Armenians.
Ayşe Berktay, Turkish Intellectuals Who Have Recognized The Armenian Genocide
By: Hambersom Aghbashian,
In December 2008, two hundred prominent Turkish intellectuals released an apology for the “great catastrophe of 1915”. This was a clear reference to the Armenian Genocide, a term still too sensitive to use so openly. The signatories also announced a website related to this apology, and called on others to visit the site and sign the apology as well. The complete, brief text of the apology says ” My conscience does not accept the insensitivity showed to and the denial of the Great Catastrophe that the Ottoman Armenians were subjected to in 1915. I reject this injustice and for my share, I empathize with the feelings and pain of my Armenian brothers and sisters. I apologize to them.” Ayşe Berktay was one of the Turkish intellectual who has signed the petition. (2)
Ayşe Berktay was one of the Turkish intellectuals who signed a petition against Denialist Exhibit in Denmark, an exhibition which was planned by the Turkish embassy to support their point of view concerning the Armenian Genocide . ” Don’t Stand Against Turkey’s Democratization and Confrontation with its History! ” was the message to the Royal Library of Denmark who has given the Turkish government the opportunity to present an “alternative exhibit” in response to the Armenian Genocide exhibition.(3)
In the 99th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the members of the 24 April Commemorating Armenian Genocide Platform came together in front of the historical Haydarpaşa Railhead to commemorate the Armenian intellectuals who were put in trains from Haydarpaşa Railhead in 1915 and sent to death. The citizens left red carnations on the placards writing in both English and Armenian reading “We are remembering the victims of Armenian genocide” and they carried the photos of Armenian intellectuals. The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Central Executive Board (MYK) member Garo Paylan, Author Ayşe Berktay, Academiscian Fatmagül Berktay, Human Rights Association (İHD) İstanbul Branch Head Ümit Efe, İHD executives, Armenians coming from Diaspora; and lots of citizens joined in the commemoration activity.(4)
Ayşe Berktay is a translator, scholar, author, cultural and women’s rights activist. Her publications include “History and Society: New Perspectives, 2008”, and “The Ottoman Empire and the World Around with Suraiya Faroqhi”; moreover, she is the editor of “Women and Men in the 75th Year of the Turkish Republic”. Her translations include “The Imperial Harm: Gender and Power in the Ottoman Empire, 1520-1656 “by Leslie Penn Pierce; and “The Ottoman Empire, 1700-1922 ,New Approaches to European History” by Donald Quataert.
Over the past decade, Ayşe conducted work at the History Trust, where she was part of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Board on Human Rights. In Dec. 2009 Ayşe became a member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), which has 36 elected representatives in the Turkish Parliament. In March 2010 she was elected to the BDP Istanbul Province Executive, where she worked in the Press Committee, then in Oct. 2010 she was elected to the BDP Central Women’s Committee, Foreign Relations Office. Ayşe Berktay was arrested on October 3, 2011, and seized personal papers and materials. Eventually, she was charged under Turkey’s anti-terror legislation of “membership in an illegal organization” .She was released from Prison in Istanbul on Dec. 20, 2013 and still faces a lengthy trial process, where she could face up to 15 years in prison. (1)
——————————————————————————————————————————————
1- http://www.pen.org/defending-writers/ay%C5%9Fe-berktay
2- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/200_prominent_Turks_apologize_for_great_catastrophe_
3- http://www.armeniapedia.org/wiki/The_Armenian_Genocide_and_the_Scandinavian_Respon
4- http://www.diclehaber.com/en/news/content/view/398100?page=11&from=314584322
Armenian be aware of Turkish soft propoganada, Starbucks to Remove Offensive Posters from Stores
Apologizes for upsetting customers
ARA KHACHATOURIAN
While ordering their morning drinks on Wednesday, many Starbucks customers were shocked to see posters depicting women wearing Armenian traditional costumes under the Turkish Crescent and Star.
After inquiries from Asbarez, a spokesperson said that Starbucks has already begun the removal of the offensive posters and apologized for upsetting their customers.
“Serving as a place for the community to connect is core to our business and we strive to be locally relevant in all of our stores. We missed the mark here and we apologize for upsetting our customers and the community. We have removed this art in our Mulholland & Calabasas store in Woodland Hills and are working to make this right,” a spokesperson told Asbarez via email. The spokesperson said that the company was “looking into this to ensure this image is not in any other Starbucks locations.”
Starbucks did not comment about what prompted the company to display the posters.
The swift response to this matter can also be attributed to a wave of protests on social media from Armenians who were insulted and taken aback by what appeared to be lack of sensitivity from Starbucks, a company that prides itself on social justice and social issues.
Starbucks was facing a “Venti” debacle, when angry posts began to circulate on Facebook and Twitter, some calling for a boycott of the largest coffee retailer in the world. This was yet another sign of collective grassroots activism on the part of the Armenian community.
In addressing the issue with Starbucks, Asbarez pointed to many actions by the Turkish government that were in stark contrast to the company’s standards of ethics.
“Why would Starbucks promote a country that in the last year was deemed as the largest jailer of journalists; has shut down Twitter and YouTube in its campaign to oppress freedom of speech; has jailed demonstrators for reform; whose president has called for legislation to categorize women as second class citizens; and continues to deny the Armenian Genocide, which killed more than 1.5 million people in 1915 among other things, which include calling Israel a terrorist state,” Asbarez inquired from Starbucks corporate communications.
If readers spot more of these posters, please alert Starbucks customer service at 800.792.7282.
ECHR rejects Turkish appeal to ruling on compulsory religion classes
Güven Özalp BRUSSELS
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has rejected Turkey’s appeal to a ruling that said high school students must be allowed to opt out of religious education classes, which are currently compulsory.
ECHR ruled on Sept. 16, 2014, that the Turkish education system was “still inadequately equipped to ensure respect for parents’ convictions” and violated the “right to education,” in a case stemming from Alevi complaints about mandatory religious classes.
In December 2014, Turkey appealed to the ECHR’s Grand Chamber, the court’s office of appeal, on the last day available to do so, requesting that the case be reviewed. The Grand Chamber, however, rejected Turkey’s appeal on Feb. 17, 2015, with no elaboration, rendering the decision as ultimate. report hurriyet
In 2011, applicants Mansur Yalçın, Yüksel Polat and Hasan Kılıç, who are adherents of the Alevi faith and whose children were at secondary school at the time in question, complained that the content of the compulsory classes in religion and ethics in schools was based exclusively on the Sunni understanding of Islam, claiming that Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights Protocol No. 1 (right to education) had been violated.
In its ruling, the court observed in particular that in the field of religious instruction, Turkey’s education system was still inadequately equipped to ensure respect for parents’ convictions.
“Turkey has to remedy the situation without delay, in particular by introducing a system whereby pupils could be exempted from religion and ethics classes without their parents having to disclose their own religious or philosophical convictions,” said the court.
According to the directive sent by the Education Ministry’s Religious Education Directorate to provincial officials on Feb. 3, the “religion” field of a child’s identity card will be checked to decide whether they are allowed to opt out of religious education classes. If the field is left empty, or if any religion other than Christianity and Judaism is written, then the student will be obliged to take the class.
Previously, Turkish authorities had considered it adequate for a student to opt out of the controversial classes if their father or mother is either Christian or Jewish. Other faiths, like Alevism, or a lack of faith, have never been recognized by Turkish authorities as a reason for exemption from the mandatory classes.
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