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German Turks still rooted in the east: study

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A study has found most Turkish Germans feel at home in Germany but maintain a strong connection with Turkey. It comes as Mesut Özil’s decision to quit the national football team sparks an integration debate in Germany.

A study from the Center for Turkish Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany has found that most of the 3 million people with Turkish roots living Germany feel more strongly connected to Turkey than to Germany.

The study was released one day after German footballer Mesut Özil announced he was quitting the national team, citing racism, after he was criticized for meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May.

What the study found

  • About 89 percent feel they belong “strongly” or “very strongly” to Turkey, and about 81 percent to Germany.
  • About 83 percent feel somewhat or very at home in both Germany and Turkey.
  • 38 percent would not return to Turkey, 15 percent intend to return permanently and 37 percent live between Turkey and Germany.
  • 19.6 percent were strongly interested in German politics, 47 percent had little interest.
  • 33.9 percent were strongly interested in Turkish politics, 30.7 percent weren’t very interested.

The Mesut Özil affair: German football player Mesut Özil announced he was quitting the German football team on Monday, after he came under fire for meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May. The move saw some German politicians and fans question Özil’s loyalty to Germany. Özil said he was treated as being “different,” saying “I am German when we win, but I am an immigrant when we lose.” Following Özil’s announcement, a spokeswomen for German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the majority of the about 3 million people with Turkish heritage who live in Germany are well integrated and that people with migrant backgrounds were welcome in Germany.

Turkish politics in Germany: In the June Turkish presidential election this year, nearly two-thirds of votes cast by the Turkish community in Germany went to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which was more than the support he averaged in Turkey. Relations have been strained between Germany and Turkey since a failed coup against Erdogan in 2016 and the subsequent crackdown that followed 

Racism in the classroom: Another study released July 23 by the German University of Mannheim, found prospective teachers gave poorer grades to students with a Turkish name despite their work having the same number of errors as their German counterparts. The study saw 204 teaching students aged 23 grade two identical papers, one half of the group had a paper written by “Max” and the other a paper written by “Murat.” The teaching students derived different grades, with the supposedly Turkish students receiving poorer marks.

law/aw (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

 

Why so many Turks are losing faith in Islam

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Turks are losing faith in Islam

Turks are losing faith in Islam

Mustafa Akyol,

On April 10, at the Turkish parliament in Ankara, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did something unusual during his usual weekly address to the deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). He suddenly paused during his address and called the national education minister, Ismet Yilmaz, to the podium. The two men then murmured for about half a minute in front of the huge audience. Muted microphones did not catch the whole conversation, but the minister was heard speaking about “the report on deism” and “the thoughts of our youth about this.” “No,” Erdogan was heard saying in a definitive tone. “That is wrong.”

The report in question, which was discussed at a workshop by the Ministry of Education branch in Konya, a conservative Anatolian town, had made the news in early April. Titled “The Youth is Sliding to Deism,” the document shared surprising observations about the very young people that Turkish society often expects to be the most religious: the students of the state-sponsored religious “imam hatip” schools. The report says that because archaic interpretations of Islam cannot persuade the new generation on issues such as the “problem of evil” (why God allows evil to take place), some imam hatip students have begun questioning the faith. Instead of adopting atheism, the report added, these post-Islamic youths embrace the milder alternative: “deism,” or the belief in God but without religion.

The report surprised and also angered Turkey’s conservative establishment. Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Action Party, which is supposed to be an opposition party but has lately become a staunch Erdogan ally, lashed out against those who prepared the report, for “putting on the Turkish youth the stain of deism, which is one stop before atheism.” A few days later, Turkey’s top cleric, the head of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, also spoke on the deism controversy. Explaining that the term implies “a philosophy that denies prophethood,” the theologian hopefully added that once they really understand what deism is, “no member of [the] nation will accept such a deviant thought.”

In fact, the deism controversy has been on Turkey’s agenda even before these recent outbursts by prominent figures. One of the first intellectuals to draw attention to this issue was Mustafa Ozturk, a progressive Islamic theologian who writes a column in the daily Karar. In an April 2017 piece titled “The Footsteps of Deism,” Ozturk argued that despite the conviction among religious conservatives that they are in the midst of a golden age, something very fundamental is slipping out of their hands, as “the new generations are getting indifferent, even distant, to the Islamic worldview.” Most of the people who claim to represent Islam in Turkey offer a very archaic, dogmatic notion of religion, Ozturk explained, and this leads to secularization among the more cosmopolitan, questioning youths.

Since then, the erosion of Islam among young people has been an oft-repeated theme in the Turkish public sphere. At a conference in March, a conservative academic at Istanbul’s Medeniyet University said he has students who wear the Islamic headscarf because of their family environment, but “who confess in private that they are not even deists but atheists.” In the past several months, dozens of articles in the press discussed the “deism plague,” and even TV shows highlighted the issue. Yet there is no data on how many Turks have abandoned Islam to jump on the “deism” bandwagon, though plenty of anecdotal evidence suggests that this is no imaginary matter.

The most interesting question is why so many Turks are losing their faith, especially at a time when Islam seems more ascendant than ever. Answers vary, especially according to political stance.

For the staunch supporters of the government, deism seems to be just one of the many conspiracies that Western powers have cooked up against the glorious Turkish nation. Yusuf Kaplan, a columnist for the pro-government daily Yeni Safak, said deism was spreading among the children of conservative families, while the children of more secular families were going for the more radical edge: atheism. The underlying reason, according to Kaplan, was the hedonistic, materialistic and degenerate culture coming from the West. Turkey had to stand up to this cultural erosion by further Islamizing its education and media, or else “the imperialists could occupy the country, mentally, from within.”

For other Turkish commentators, however, the real reason for the loss of faith in Islam is not the West but Turkey itself: It is a reaction to all the corruption, arrogance, narrow-mindedness, bigotry, cruelty and crudeness displayed in the name of Islam.

This view is often supported by opposition voices, but even some reasonable pro-government voices in the media have given it a thought. One such voice is Kemal Ozturk, another columnist for Yeni Safak, who wrote that the rise of deism in Turkey is an unmistakable fact “observed by anyone who follows society.” He added that the religious conservatives who explain this away as slander against their beloved government or as a “foreign conspiracy” against Turkey were making a mistake. The real problem was within the very sphere of Islam, within the deep contradictions between the conservatives’ alleged ideals and actual practices, as well as within the “dogmatic clerics” and the “ignorance, animosity and immorality” among Islamic communities.

Another commentator, Akif Beki, comes from a pro-government background but has lately turned critical. Beki pointed to a more specific problem: the unabashed exploitation of Islam for political ends. A recent example, according to Beki, was a propaganda speech by Ali Murat Alatepe, a member of the ruling AKP and the mayor of Esenyurt, an Istanbul municipality. “If we lose here,” Alatepe told a large audience, referring to his municipality, “then we will lose Jerusalem, we will lose Mecca.” So, accordingly, the dominance of the AKP is indispensable to Islam. Or, in other words, Islam is indispensable to the AKP’s dominance.

I agree with Akif Beki and other like-minded Turkish commentators on why so many young Turks are losing faith in Islam. It is precisely because Islamists are empowered, and, by their own behavior, they are pushing people away from the faith they claim to uphold.

I had predicted this, in fact, in an Al-Monitor article back in March 2015 titled “Turkey is becoming more secular, not less.” “The AKP experience, including its dreams of re-Islamizing Turkey,” I then wrote, “is likely to be counterproductive and will serve to further accelerate secularization.” Today, after three years of further deterioration, the counterproductive effect seems to be in full swing. It even has a famed banner now called “deism.”

 

Attacks on Turkish communities in Germany reportedly on the rise

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There have been dozens of attacks so far this year on Turkish mosques and restaurants in Germany — a sharp rise from last year’s figures. The Interior Ministry said Turkey’s offensive in Afrin has inflamed tensions.

As tensions rise over the Turkish government’s offensive in Afrin, the violence is spilling over in Germany’s Kurdish and Turkish communities.

German police have logged a total of 37 attacks carried out by suspected pro-Kurdish activists so far this year, reported newspapers by the Funke media group in Germany on Tuesday. The attacks targeted Turkish mosques, restaurants and cultural organizations.

There were 13 such attacks for the entirety of last year, according to figures provided by the Interior Ministry. The figures do not include attacks carried out by suspected far-right extremists.

“Germany has long been a mirror and sounding board for Turkish-Kurdish conflicts in view of the large numbers of people with Turkish backgrounds living here,” an Interior Ministry spokeswoman told the Funke media group newspapers.

“This is especially true considering the backdrop of current events in and around Afrin,” she added.

The spokeswoman emphasized, however, that the figures for this year and for last year are still provisional and may rise or fall.

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous arson attacks, acts of vandalism and other attacks on Turkish institutions in Germany.

In one incident, three youths were seen throwing a Molotov cocktail through the window of a mosque in Berlin. In the small south western German town of Lauffen, attackers hit a Turkish-linked mosque with explosive devices.

Communities in Germany should expect further attacks, Social Democrat (SPD) parliamentarian and deputy head of the foreign policy, defense and human rights commitees Rolf Mützenich told DW.

“It was also the case in the past that domestic Turkish conflicts were also noticable in Germany,” Mützenich told DW. “Clearly the political atmosphere in these communities is such that the tensions are on the rise again.”

2 million Turks, who have Armenian grandmother, keep denying Genocide – The Independent

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Turks, with Armenian Armenian grandmother

Turks, with Armenian Armenian grandmother

By Robert Fisk,

Only in Turkey is the identity of a citizen a matter of national security. That’s why the population registry in Ankara was until now a closed book, its details a state secret. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s definition of “Turkishness” was “anyone who is attached to the Turkish state as a citizen”. Turks came from a clear ethnic identity, untainted by racial minorities or doubtful lineage. That’s one reason why the Nazis lavished praise on Ataturk’s republic, their newspapers mourning his death in black-bordered front pages.

After all, as Hitler was to ask in several newspaper interviews – and to his generals before he invaded Poland – who now remembers the Armenians? Ataturk had supposedly inherited an Armenian-free Turkey, just as Hitler intended to present his followers with a Jew-free Europe.

The Armenian genocide of 1915 – denied by the Turkish government today – destroyed a million and a half Christian Ottoman citizens in the first industrial holocaust of the 20th century. Almost the entire Armenian community had been liquidated. Or had it?

For the stunned reaction of Turks to the sudden and unexpected opening of population registers on an online genealogy database three weeks ago was so immediate and so vast that the system crashed within hours. Rather a lot of Turks, it turned out, were actually Armenians – or part-Armenians – or even partly Greek or Jewish. And across the mountains of eastern Anatolia – and around the cities of Istanbul, Izmir, Erzurum, Van and Gaziantep and along the haunted death convoy routes to Syria, ancient ghosts climbed out of century-old graves to reassert their Armenian presence in Turkish history. For the registry proved that many of them – through their families – were still alive.

Until now, for at least two decades – at least before Sultan Erdogan’s post-coup autocracy – thousands of Turks spoke freely, albeit in private, about their ancestry. They knew that amid the mass slaughter and rape of the Armenians, many Christian families sought sanctuary in conversion to Islam, while tens of thousands of young Armenian women were given in marriage to Turkish or Kurdish Muslim men. Their children grew up as Muslims and regarded themselves as Turks but often knew that they were half-Armenian. Tens of thousands of Armenian orphans were placed in Muslim schools, forced to speak Turkish and change their names. One of the largest schools was in Beirut, organised for a time by one of Turkey’s leading feminists who wrote of her experience and was later to die in America.

The Armenian diaspora – the 11 million Armenians living outside Turkey or Armenia itself, and who trace their ancestry back to the survivors of the 1915 genocide – were the first to understand the significance of the newly-opened population registers, noting that some information dated back to the early 1800s. Up to four million Turkish citizens were reported to have sought access to their family tree within 48 hours – which is why the system crashed – and in the days since it was re-established, according to retired statistician and Armenian demographer George Aghjayan, eight million Turks have requested their pedigrees. That’s 10 per cent of the entire Turkish population.

The documents can be vague. And they are not complete. There are examples of known Armenian ancestors listed as Muslim without reference to their origin. The names shown for those known to have converted during the 1915 genocide are Muslim names – but the Christian names of their parents are also shown. There will always be discrepancies and unknown details. Many Ottoman registrars did not give accurate details of birthdays: Turkish officials might travel to a village once a month and simply list its newborn under the date of their visit. There are still centenarians alive in Lebanon and Syria, for example, who all possess the same birth date, whatever their origin.

So why has Turkey released these files now? Erdogan is quoted to have once complained that Turks were “accused of being Jews, Armenians or Greeks”. Tayfun Atay, a columnist for the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet, wrote that he was “advised in a friendly matter not to admit that I am a Georgian…What about those who risk learning that they are of Armenian ancestry or a convert? Just think: you think you are a red-blooded Turk but turn out to be a pure-blood Armenian.”

 

Journalist Serdar Korucu told Al-Monitor that “if they had done this a few years ago when we were [becoming more tolerant], conspiracy theories would not have been as strong as today, when the state believes we are in a struggle for existence. This is how Turkey reinvigorates the spirit of the Independence War” – to inspire patriotism and pro-government thinking.

In 2003, the Armenian newspaper Agos, whose editor Hrant Dink was assassinated outside his office in 2007, reported that the Turkish government was secretly coding minorities in registers: Greeks were one, according to the paper. Armenians were two. Jews were three. Korucu recalled how the director of the Turkish Historical Society threatened minorities in 2007. “Don’t make me angry. I have a list of converts I can reveal down to their streets and homes.” The director later became a politician in the rightist Nationalist Action Party.

Ethnic Armenian columnist Hayko Bagdat placed this in a story he told the Al-Monitor website – including an individual family tale which might be humorous if it was not so charged with tragedy. “During the 1915 genocide, along with mass conversions, there were also thousands of children in exile…The society is not yet ready to deal with this reality.” Imagine, Bagdat said, that Lutfi Dogan, who had served as Turkey’s director of religious affairs, was the brother of someone who was the Armenian patriarch, Sinozk Kalustyan.

 

Defying Erdogan’s calls, Turks rush for dollars

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Defying Erdogan’s calls, Turks rush for dollarsBy Zülfikar Doğan

On July 15, 2016, the day of the botched coup attempt in Turkey, the foreign-exchange bank deposits of Turkish citizens and companies totaled $191 billion. The putsch worsened the country’s already troubled economic outlook, stoking concerns of political and economic instability. In the ensuing months, international credit rating agencies cut Turkey to non-investment grade, while global factors contributed to a drastic slump in the Turkish lira, which further compounded the problems. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the downturn as an economic coup that sought “to bring Turkey to its knees.” He urged citizens and institutions to convert their foreign exchange savings to Turkish liras.

As of Dec. 30, 2016, Turkey’s foreign exchange deposits had declined by about $17 billion to $174 billion. In fact, the dollar and the euro had appreciated so much against the Turkish lira that exchanging them at those rates was quite profitable.

In the past several months, however, the tide seems to have turned. According to central bank figures released May 12, foreign exchange deposits stood at $195 billion, up from $173 billion Jan. 6. In other words, deposits increased by $22 billion over five months, a trend that seems to have picked up ahead of and after the April 16 referendum. From Jan. 6 to Feb. 3, the total increased by $7 billion to $180 billion. On April 14, just before the eve of the referendum, deposits reached $188 billion, and rose further to $194 billion on April 28.

The revenue brought in by Turkey’s main foreign exchange earners — the tourism sector, exporters, and contractors working overseas — has been on the decline for some time. One cannot help but wonder how foreign exchange deposits have increased while foreign exchange earnings have decreased. Where did the foreign exchange come from?

One explanation is the renewed flight from the Turkish lira to hard currency, which many in Turkey see as a means to protect their savings in times of economic distress and uncertainty. Yet, there is another important factor: the abundant issuance of loans that the government encouraged ahead of the referendum in a bid to secure the approval of the critical constitutional changes.

In its campaign ahead of the vote, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) mobilized all budget funds and public resources at its disposal, encouraging the issuance of hundreds of thousands of loans under a newly established credit guarantee fund, among other steps. About 7% of those loans were in the scope of Treasury guarantees. In addition, hundreds of thousands of small enterprises and shopkeepers received “lifeline loans” of 50,000 Turkish liras ($14,000) with zero interest rates and a one-year grace period. Public lender Halkbank issued the loans under the guarantee of another public institution, the Directorate for the Development of Small- and Medium-Scale Industry (KOSGEB).

Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said in early May that loans worth 160 billion Turkish liras ($45 billion) had been issued as part of the credit guarantee fund system over a month and a half, while those issued under KOSGEB guarantees totaled 6 billion Turkish liras (about $2 billion). In sum, the government funneled 166 billion Turkish liras into the private sector ahead of and after the referendum until the end of April, with the stated aim of reviving the economy and encouraging investment.

Despite this sizable support, the investment drive is nowhere to be seen.

Bankers, some bureaucrats and opposition lawmakers claim that most of those low-cost loans were misused, and that huge sums went to government cronies. The money, they claim, was spent not on investment but on homes and cars or was deposited to high-yield accounts in other banks.

Erdogan Toprak, a lawmaker for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), points to the more than $20 billion increase in foreign exchange deposits since the beginning of the year. He claims that loan recipients converted significant amounts into hard currency, taking advantage of the relatively low exchange rates in recent weeks, with a view of making profits in the future. “If they fail to repay those 166 billion Turkish liras [in loans], the debt burden will fall on the credit guarantee fund and the Treasury. So, the whole nation will be paying the bill of loans that the AKP distributed to enrich certain people,” Toprak said in a May 20 statement.

A former Treasury deputy undersecretary, Hakan Ozyildiz, voiced similar concerns, urging an “immediate” and “detailed” investigation into how the loans were spent.

The fact that the foreign exchange deposits increased simultaneously with the loan drive adds credence to the claims.

The Turkish Statistical Institute’s figures for home sales in April point to a new boom on the property market. The number of home sales increased by 10.8% in April, when loan issuance accelerated, which suggests that an important portion of the loan money could have been used for home purchases as well.

Then, along with the increase in foreign exchange deposits, there was a race among banks to raise the maximum interest rate on Turkish lira deposits. The rate eventually reached 20% amid criticism that loan money, borrowed on very low or zero interest rates, was traveling to high-yield deposits in other banks. The interest rates that banks offered on foreign exchange deposits, meanwhile, climbed to as much as 10%, according to central bank data.

Given that Turkey’s inflation is 12% and the central bank’s maximum rate stands at 12.5%, the banks’ eagerness to offer 20% on Turkish lira deposits and 10% on hard currency is the sign of a risky outlook. It suggests that banks have begun to feel financial strains and are competing to lure money by hiking interest rates.

Since the beginning of the year, Turkish lira deposits have increased by 16%, while foreign exchange deposits have grown by 24%, according to the latest central bank figures.

As allegations of loan misuse intensified, the head of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Board, Mehmet Ali Akben, said May 13 that the board would investigate the claims.

Speaking to entrepreneurs and tradesmen on May 24, Erdogan reiterated his opposition to high interest rates, describing them as “an exploitation instrument.” He urged the business community to boost investments and renewed calls for one of his most coveted projects: “an automobile that is 100% locally produced.” His words were met with applause by the same people who are said to have put their loans into high-yield deposits and hard currency — a contradiction that reflects the business community’s mistrust in the future of the Turkish economy.

Zülfikar Doğan

Zülfikar Doğan began his career in journalism in 1976 at the Yanki news magazine in Ankara. He has worked as a reporter, news editor, representative and columnist at Milliyet, Posta, Aksam, Finansal Forum, Star and Karsi newspapers, and as a TV programmer and commentator on the economy and politics for TRT-1, Star, NTV and CNBC-e. He is currently editor in chief and columnist at the Korhaber news site.

That’s rich: Turks seek escape to Greece

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rich: Turks seek escape to GreeceWith purges intensifying, rich Turks are mopping up real estate in Greece. Old tensions may loom, but the incentive for secular Turks is sweet: visa-free stay in an EU member state. Anthee Carassava reports from Athens.

A lanky man in a bright red shirt paces across a wood-paneled waiting room. He peers out of the window, then plops into a comfy black chair, bouncing back up again within minutes to place a string of telephone calls, pacing the room once again.

Unnerved by the presence of a reporter, the lanky man shies away from any conversation, refusing to divulge his name and details of his family and their whereabouts.

“I’m just looking,” he says, glancing over a listing of apartments on sale in central Athens, making casual and polite talk.

When the conversation, however, shifts to developments in his homeland, the mid-aged man raises a critical eyebrow. And when the name of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan comes up, he breaks his silence. “I never trusted that man,” he tells DW in broken English. “God knows what he is capable of and what more he can do. One can only be prepared.”

Read: Greece rejects new extradition request for Turkish soldiers

For hundreds of thousands of secular Turks concerned about Erdogan’s descent from democracy, Greece is proving a surprise escape.

Escaping Erdogan

Since a mutinous faction of Turkey’s armed forces moved to overthrow the government there, real estate agents in Athens have been inundated by Turkish clients. Many realtors speak of a 50 percent rise in interest in the past year. But following the April referendum that gave sweeping powers to Erdogan – intensifying a colossal purge tearing the heart of any remaining hope of democracy that depends on independents voices, justice and an unfettered political competition – interest has rocketed even further.

That’s 10 times more than the 37 Turkish nationals who searched his site ahead of the April 16 referendum.

“Turks have a knack for rebounding and maneuvering during crises,” says. “So what this new-found interest comes down to is not that Turks have suddenly decided to pick up their belongings and move to Greece,” says the Turkish-born realtor, “it’s that Turkey’s wealthy, well-educated 1 percent is preparing for a ‘Plan B’ if things go really sour there.”

Sweet incentive

With Greece offering visa-free stay for investments over 250,000 euros, well-to-do Turkish families are mopping up real estate deals to secure the future of their offspring.

Read: Greeks still hostile to reforms despite economic depression

On one sunny afternoon this week, the lanky man in the bright red shirt met up with Arslanoglou to survey a number of flats in central Athens. Hours prior, and as the Turkish government mounted a fresh crackdown on dissent and free expression, a high-profile Turkish newscaster flew to Athens to close a deal, purchasing a seaside penthouse along the Greek capital’s southern suburbs.

Under the so-called Golden Visa program, Greece offers five year visa-free stay to investors and their immediate family. The plan was set up in 2013 to attract much-needed foreign capital, luring deep-pocketed Chinese, Egyptian, Lebanese and Russian nationals. Since then, only 49 visas had been issued to Turkish nationals.

In the month that followed the July attempted coup, Greece’s interior ministry issued 21 permits, decreeing 100 percent more in the last three months, in the run up to the controversial April referendum. Scores more are said to be being processed, while the government, eager to attract more investments, is considering dropping the 250,000 euros benchmark investment for the Golden Visa program, according to local media.

Bad blood forgotten?

“Our most modest projections,” says Ioannis Ziavras of the Remax real estate agency, “forecast a 30-percent rise within the next six months.”

Just a decade ago, a mere blink in centuries of testy ties and bad blood between rival Greeks and Turks, such interest would have been snubbed. But now, strapped for cash, seven years into a devastating crisis that has seen property price plunge by as much as 50 percent, many locals claim they can not afford to be defiant.

Read: Foreclosed Greek homes go under the online hammer

“I’ve been trying to sell a flat for over a year to pay tens of thousands of euros in debt and back taxes,” says Michalis Zafiriou a young restaurant owner. “I couldn’t care less whether a Turk picks it up.”

Others, though, remain wary. “We must not forget. And all, is definitely not forgiven,” Maria Beinoglou, whose parents were forced out of Istanbul last century and who defiantly still calls the city Constantinople, told DW. “These people, though, are not to blame. It’s politics and Erdogan we have to keep under close watch.”

Turks protest against referendum result in Istanbul

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Several hundred demonstrators have poured out onto the streets of Istanbul to protest the outcome of last week’s disputed referendum in which voters narrowly approved expanding President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s executive powers.

Chanting anti-Erdogan slogans during Saturday’s march, the protesters vowed to stay on the streets until the referendum’s result is annulled.

They carried banners reading, “No to one-man rule,” “Referendum should be annulled,” and “No. We won!” A demonstrator held up a cartoon of Erdogan reading, “They don’t let me be the president.”

“There is hatred and anxiety around us. We are going in the direction opposite to one we should be going. I am trying to make myself heard as this is the only thing I can do,” said protester Aysu Kaya.

In the April 16 referendum, Erdogan’s ‘Yes’ campaign won 51.36 percent of the votes, while the ‘No’ campaign gained 48.64 percent. Turkey’s three largest cities – Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir – voted against the constitutional reforms.

Erdogan declared victory in the vote, but opponents said the referendum was deeply flawed.

On Friday, Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) filed a court appeal against a decision by electoral authorities to accept unstamped ballot papers in the tightly contested vote.

Protester Yasar Sagturk said the demonstrators “have never had expectations from the judicial process.”

“They have always been partial. We will continue to be in the streets. We will be in the streets until the end,” he said.

Additionally, Sahin Akcay, another participant in Saturday’s rally, said, “We embarked on a journey and there is no return. We are resisting, and we will be the winners in the end.”

Supporters of the fresh constitutional changes argue that they will modernize the country, but opponents fear a possible authoritarian rule.

Under the new system, the office and position of prime minister would be scrapped in Turkey and the president would be granted executive powers to directly appoint top public officials, including ministers, and assign one or several vice presidents.

It further states that Turkey’s next presidential and parliamentary elections will be held simultaneously on November 3, 2019 and the head of state would have a five-year tenure, for a maximum of two terms.

The constitutional changes would mean that Erdogan could stay in power for another two terms until 2029.

Izmir: Watch true Turkish Terrorism on Syrian refugees with knives, burn tents VIDEO

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This photo shows angry Turkish citizens going to attack Syrian refugees in Torbali district of Turkey’s Izmir province on April 8, 2017.IDEO

Some 500 Syrian refugees have been forced to flee a makeshift housing in Turkey’s western Izmir province after being violently attacked by locals who burnt their tents.

The attack took place in Izmir’s Torbali district on Saturday after reports claiming that a local child had been beaten by the Syrians.

A mob of around 300 Turkish people, armed with knives and clubs, stormed into the makeshift housing and set fire to refugees’ tents.

Local media reports said 40 tents were destroyed in the fighting and about 30 people were injured, one of them identified as 22-year-old Mustafa critically. The wounded were all taken to hospital.

“It was impossible to stop the neighborhood. They are full of rage. We don’t want Syrians in our area. Problems have increased since they arrived,” Ali Curukcu, the local headman, was quoted as saying by the Turkish Dogan news agency.

https://youtu.be/FGZ2UfbVKjY

Images showed there were no police officers at the site.

The Syrian refugees were seen walking on the highway towards Izmir’s Tire neighborhood as no driver took them to their destination. Angry Turkish citizens also closed the highway for some time.

During the early years of the war in neighboring Syria, Turkey had an open-door policy and allowed Syrian refugees into the country as it also let extremists from around the world travel to the Arab country to topple the government.

Although Turkey says it still maintains its open-door policy, the number of Syrian refugees allowed in during the past two years has dwindled considerably, with many saying the borders are essentially closed to refugees.

The high number of Syrian refugees in Turkish towns and cities has led to multiple instances of a serious nature, including clashes in the past.

Many locals also revile them and the Turkish government only provides assistance to those staying in officially sanctioned camps.

Ankara does not even grant Syrians refugee status and they only have temporary protection status as guests. Turkey does not accept refugees from non-European countries.

Turkey has been a staunch supporter of a campaign pushed by Western countries and their regional allies to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad since 2011. Ankara has allowed militants from around the world to freely enter Syria and wreak havoc in the Arab country.

Erdogan urges Turks living in Europe to Outbreed Whites in Europe

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called on Turks living in Europe to have at least five children so that they can outbreed whites and take over the continent—and in that way become “the future of Europe.”

There are at least 7.8 million Turks in Europe, and very likely more who have become European citizens and are thus no longer counted as “Turks” by the deliberately race-denying liberal governments.

Erdogan made his call for the racial colonization of Europe by Turks while campaigning last week in the city of Eskisehir for a referendum that would usher in a presidential system and enhance his powers.

Erdogan’s comments were made in reaction to moves by the governments of Germany and the Netherlands to outlaw Turkish election meetings in those counties.

The Dutch government prevented a Turkish minister from addressing a crowd in Rotterdam, and later used water cannons to disperse Turkish demonstrators in the city after they turned violent.

On Friday, Erdogan told Turks in Europe that they must “Go live in better neighborhoods. Drive the best cars. Live in the best houses. Make not three, but five children. Because you are the future of Europe. That will be the best response to the injustices against you.”

Erdogan has also accused the Dutch government of state terrorism, acting like “Nazi remnants,” and having a “rotten” character.

In addition, Turkey’s interior minister, Suleyman Soylu, said last week that the EU was  “playing games” to prevent Ankara from becoming strong, and that Turkey could send 15,000 “refugees” a month to Europe to “blow its mind.”

“I’m telling you, Europe, do you have that courage? If you want, we could open the way for 15,000 refugees that we don’t send each month and blow your mind,” Süleyman Soylu said late Thursday, according to Hurriyet.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu warned that Europe is headed for “wars of religion,” claiming Dutch politicians are taking the continent “to a cliff.”

“There is no difference between the mindsets of Geert Wilders and social democrats in the Netherlands. They all have the same mindset…that mindset is taking Europe to the cliff. Soon wars of religion may and will start in Europe.”

The statements—and the racial demographic reality—underline the fact that Europe can only be saved through the mass repatriation of all non-Europeans back to their homelands. Anything less is simply ignoring the reality of nonwhite population growth and its inevitable consequence of swamping native Europeans in their own nations.

Source: http://newobserveronline.com/erdogan-urges-turks-outbreed-whites-europe/

Greece Kammenos: Turks will not set foot on Greek islands

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Speaking about Turks, the Greek Minister of National Defense, Panagiotis “Panos” Kammenos, said “they will not set foot on Greek Islands,” and Turkey will receive a response in case of new provocations.

During an interview with Skai TV of Greece, he commented on Turkish FM Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu’s statement that Turkey could set foot on Imia islets whenever it wanted.

“There will be no case that they [i.e. Turks] set foot on Greek islands; we will hinder it,” said Kammenos. “If they enter, we will see how they will flee from there.”

In his words, the current Greek government considerably differs from the government in 1996, and it will not withdraw.

Greece does not respond to verbal battle cries. But the government will not back away in matters of national sovereignty, added the minister.