Published by Nick Nwolisa on 09 Jul 2008 at en.iepf-ngo.org. In order to see pictures just visit the web site.
I have not lived all my life in Azerbaijan, but I have lived long enough to be a witness of the Azerbaijan hospitality. One thing the Azerbaijanis are very sure of is that they are one of the most hospitable people in the world. Although this has remained their own judgment of themselves, I will not fail to say how correct they have been to adjudge themselves so. (more…)
from the July 11, 2008 edition
Think of Turkey and the lively Grand Bazaar of Istanbul comes to mind, or the massive dome of Hagia Sophia. But its political fame is as the world’s longest-lived democracy in a Muslim country – an example that Islam and civil liberties can coexist. Now that democracy faces a severe test.
Turkey’s two most powerful political forces – Islamists, who head the government, and secularists, who run the military, courts, and bureaucracy – are engaged in a fierce battle for dominance in this NATO country. Their arena is the highly politicized legal system.
A judicial duel may not sound very dangerous. But to the degree that this duel harms the very democratic principles that allow both groups to thrive in the first place, the consequences could be grave.
Completely ignoring last year’s elections that returned the mildly Islamist ruling party, the AKP, to power with more popular support than ever, secularists are trying to overthrow the AKP in a constitutional court whose judges sympathize with the secularist cause.
Last week, the state’s chief prosecutor argued that the AKP should be outlawed because it violates the constitution’s strict separation of mosque and state – the legacy of modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The trigger for the case was the AKP’s recent lifting of the ban on women’s Islamic head scarves at universities. It was a small but hugely symbolic attempt at greater religious freedom, but last month, the constitutional court rejected it.
The AKP’s general counter-strategy is to arrest alleged secular supporters of a suspected coup plot. At least 20 people were detained last week, including two retired generals. There is some evidence for the alleged plot, but some of these arrests look indiscriminate, involving journalists, for instance. The tactics mirror an AKP tendency toward intimidation, in which critics are jailed for months without charge.
Not just Turkey’s political and economic stability are at stake here. So are its membership talks with the European Union, its critical relations with neighbor Iraq (itself a fledgeling democracy), and its role-model status for Islam.
The underlying tension comes from fear of extremism – fear on one side that the AKP’s modest steps toward greater religious expression will morph into sharia law; on the other side, fear of secularists suppressing an increasingly devout population.
Both groups are at rough parity in the influence game. They need a trustworthy way to work out an acceptable balance for the role of religion in the Turkish public sphere.
A strong democracy can provide that “safe” way – but not if it’s subverted, as it is being now.
Given the high court’s track record, it’s likely to ban the AKP. A period of uncertainty will follow as the party tries to regroup, probably under a different name.
Even with this murky outlook, the onus is on the governing party to take every possible step to reassure Turks that it indeed supports a secular, rule-based democracy – as it’s said all along.
But if the undermining continues, and if Turkey’s leaders fail not only to respect the democracy they have but to improve it through eventual constitutional and judicial reform, they will simply drag their country down in a war of wills.
Wall Street Journal – USA
The young century has been good to Istanbul. Turkey has become a more prosperous place, and its largest city has turned into an international style capital.
The city’s changing fortunes are embodied in the hip young design duo Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Çaglar, who founded their firm, Autoban, in 2003 (the invented word comes from the Turkish “otoban” and the German “autobahn,” both meaning highway). In the past few years, they have become the face of contemporary Turkish design, with regular appearances in leading interior-design magazines.
Both Istanbul natives, Ms. Özdemir, 33 years old, an architect, and Mr. Çaglar, 34, who studied interior design, met in the 1990s when they were students at Istanbul’s Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. They are noted for their furniture and lighting designs, and for the interiors of some of Istanbul’s hottest restaurants and retailers. An Autoban design is marked by sleekness, solidity and humor. The Bergere bed, from 2007, has a wood-and-leather headboard that suggests an armchair. A 2003 wooden rocking chair — with continuous arms and legs — has a spaciousness that belies the clean lines of the design.
Ms. Özdemir and Mr. Çaglar have their studio in the shadow of the Galata Tower, the 14th-century landmark just north of the Golden Horn. Built by Genoese traders, the tower was for centuries the center of Istanbul’s enclave of Western diplomats, merchants and adventure-seekers. These days, the Galata Tower is a symbol of the city’s rapid gentrification, and the surrounding area is a blur of old and new, with traditional artisans from Anatolia rubbing shoulders with artists and designers in the district’s narrow, winding streets.
A favorite watering hole near Galata is the House Café, with an Autoban interior of mix-and-match wooden tables and chairs and geometric lamps. Started in 2002 by Ms. Özdemir’s sister, the House Café has 10 locations around Istanbul, each designed by Autoban. The firm also did the interior for the recently opened Müzedechanga restaurant at the Sakip Sabanci Museum, along the Bosporus north of the city. The design has a funky 1960s quality, with stained wood, marble and leather. (See more projects at www.autoban212.com.)
We spoke to Ms. Özdemir and Mr. Çaglar in their new showroom not far from their Galata studio.
Q: Istanbul has changed dramatically in the last few years — from the amount of traffic on the streets to the amount of disposable income of residents. How has this affected what you do?
Ms. Özdemir: Ten years ago, after we had just finished university, there were many economic and political issues, and people weren’t focused on working with designers — they didn’t understand what it meant to put something interesting in their lives. Now people communicate more — there is the Internet, and many other new things. Unlike 10 years ago, you can now buy many international [design] magazines in Istanbul. The world has changed.
Q: Your name combines the German and Turkish words for highway. Why did you choose it?
Ms. Özdemir: For us, it’s a kind of philosophy. When you are riding on a highway, everything changes around you. And you have choices: You can choose this way or that way, where you are going. For us, [design] is all about choice.
Q: For a visitor, Istanbul seems to have two predominant decorative traditions — the Byzantine and the Ottoman. How do these styles influence contemporary Turkish interiors?
Ms. Özdemir: Ten or 20 years ago, Turkish architects and designers made references to Ottoman and Byzantine culture in their designs. They couldn’t do anything new — that’s why we didn’t have Turkish design at that time. We are trying to do [something] new. Of course, we were born here, we are living here, so these old cultures are on our minds; we are inspired by them. But we are trying to do something more international.
Q: You have won attention from the design world outside Turkey, but you have only worked inside the country. Why?
Ms. Özdemir: We have so much to do in Istanbul. The city has so much energy right now — it’s so busy, so attractive. Many foreigners are starting to come here, even live here, so there are many new restaurants and new hotels opening up. We would like to do something abroad, but we don’t have time now. We have around 20 people in our office, and we are working on 20 projects.
Q: Do the archaic traditions of Anatolia inspire your furniture and lighting designs?
Ms. Özdemir: No, never. It’s interesting, though. I like to see those designs, and I would like to have them, but as a designer I don’t want to get inspiration from only one thing. I have many things in my mind; Sefer has as well.
Q: You’re very rooted in the Galata neighborhood, which is undergoing a wave of gentrification. What do you like about working there?
Ms. Özdemir: Galata is the commercial center of old Istanbul; you feel it in the buildings and the streets, in the ambience. But when we moved there five years ago, there were only local manufacturers — as product designers, we wanted to be near production. Back then nobody wanted to live there, nobody wanted to have an office there, it was too messy, too crowded. But then many people started coming — artists, designers, fashion designers. They came because of the buildings — you have wonderful architecture around you — and because it’s central. You have really good energy there. It’s the real Istanbul.
Q: You have designed several interiors for the House Café, which has locations all over the city. How do you maintain a balance between consistency and individuality when designing different versions of the same brand?
Mr. Çaglar: The House Café changes its shape but not its identity. Wherever it goes, it gets new energy from the nearby architecture and from the people in the neighborhood.
Ms. Özdemir: [At all the branches] the dishes are the same, and the furniture is mostly the same. However for each [location], we try to put in one thing that is different and unique.
Q: Many great modernist architects sought refuge in Turkey in the 1930s, and designed interesting buildings. What has been their legacy for Turkish architects?
Ms. Özdemir: After Nisan [Mimar Nisan, the architect of the Blue Mosque, who lived 1489-1588], I don’t think there was another really good architect in Turkish history. Thanks to the [foreign architects] of the 1930s, Turkey’s architects tried to create their own attitude — a “Turkish” style.
In the 1950s everything changed, especially in Istanbul. Many people came to live here from Anatolia. They were so poor, they just needed to have a place to live. The government couldn’t come up with rules for architecture, or urban planning; everyone ended up doing their own thing. After the 1990s, people here in Istanbul, including the government, understood the importance of the city. They knew if we don’t do anything to keep it, we are going to lose Istanbul. So they created new guidelines for architecture, for street life. In the last 10 years, the architectural scene in Istanbul has started changing, growing up.
Mr. Çaglar: Those modern architects who came to Istanbul — like Bruno Taut, who came from Berlin — were our teachers’ teachers.
Q: The megamall has reached Istanbul with a vengeance. You have designed retail interiors for some of the city’s largest malls. What are the special challenges in that kind of environment?
Ms. Özdemir: It is more difficult to do something in a mall than in the city, because in a city you have many things around you. [A mall] is so artificial, and yet you have to create a real life, a real interior, but you don’t really have anything that you can use. There is no context; you have to create it.
By Philipp Wittrock in Berlin
While the PKK concentrates on non-violent activities and propaganda work in Germany and Europe, in Turkey it is involved in a violent struggle for an autonomous Kurdish homeland. The kidnapping of three German tourists has put the issue firmly back on the political agenda in Berlin.
A man holds Kurdistan scarf during a demonstration in Berlin last October.
“Germany has declared war on the PKK. We can fight back. Every Kurd is a potential suicide bomber.” These combative words were spoken by Abdullah Öcalan, head of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) back in 1996, three years after the group had been banned in Germany.Öcalan soon watered down his statement: The PKK only wanted to fight Turks in Germany, not Germans, he said. Nevertheless the banning of the Kurdish separatist group was still interpreted as a declaration of war. It was a sign that Berlin had chosen Turkey’s side in the Kurdish conflict that had been raging since the early 1980s.
The Kurdish terror campaign in Germany of the early 1990s, with its arson attacks, self-immolations, the blocking of motorways and storming of Turkish consulates may now be a thing of the bloody past. And PKK supporters in Europe may also have become a lot less militant following the arrest of Öcalan in 1999, but the movement is still kept under strict survaillance by German intelligence agencies.
With Tuesday’s kidnapping of three German climbers on Mount Ararat, the Kurdish extremist military campaign is once again firmly on the political agenda in Berlin. On Thursday the PKK told the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency that as long as the German state did not end its “hostile policy against the Kurdish people and the PKK,” the tourists from the state of Bavaria would not be released.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union. In the past few years the German state prosecutor has filed charges against an increasing number of suspects, and many high-ranking PKK officials have been successfully prosecuted.
There is a huge support based for the PKK in Germany, which is home to an estimated 500,000 Kurds. According to a recent report from Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, there are around 11,500 supporters of the Kongra-Gel, the name the PKK adopted in 2003.
Following a Double-Pronged Strategy
German intelligence agencies believe that Kongra-Gel is pursuing a double-pronged strategy. In Western Europe it concentrates on non-violent propaganda work with demonstrations, marches, culture festivals and various campaigns in order to attract new supporters or to get Kurds to demand better prison conditions for Öcalan.
Meanwhile in Turkey the armed wing of the PKK, named the People’s Defense Forces (HPG) since 2000, has been fighting for an independent Kurdistan, or at the very least cultural and political autonomy for the Kurdish people in southeastern Turkey. It is this group that was responsible for the kidnapping of the three Germans this week.
Last autumn the conflict between the Kurdish separatists and the Turkish military escalated, with a number of deaths on both sides. The Turkish parliament then granted the army authorization for one year to launch military operations into northern Iraq, where many of the thousands of Kurdish guerrillas have been hiding out.
In Europe the Kongra-Gel organized huge demonstrations against the measure, during which there were clashes with Turkish nationalists. The demonstrations had originally been planned as part of a campaign that had begun last summer to bring attention to Öcalan’s poor health.
While the imprisoned Öcalan is still regarded as the ideological leader of the PKK, Zübeyir Aydar, a lawyer living in Belgium, is now officially the leader of the Kongra-Gel. However, German intelligence agencies are convinced that the real leader of the movement is Murat Karayilan, the chairman of the so-called Executive Council. He is thought to be hiding in the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq.
Last September a video message from Karayilan was shown at the International Kurdish Culture Festival in Gelsenkirchen, which was attended by around 40,000 Kurds. According to a report from German intelligence, he called on the Kurds of Europe to: “Strengthen your fight, wherever you are. Those who are in a position to do so should join the guerrillas; those who cannot, should fulfil their patriotic duty.”
Financing the ‘Freedom Fight’
According to the German domestic intelligence agency, Kongra-Gel has recently reorganized its structure in Germany. Instead of being divided into three regions, northern, middle and southern Germany, there are now seven so-called “Eyalets,” which each encompass 28 districts. The leaders of the units are appointed by the European PKK leadership. The authorities consider these organizational units and their officials to be acting in a conspiratorial manner. “Command and Obey” is their principle for implementing strategies.
A demonstrator demanding freedom for imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan in Berlin in November.
There are numerous contact points for sympathizers, with associations spread across the country, such as the “Kurdish Women’s Movement in Europe” or the youth group “Komalen Civan.”According to the intelligence agencies, Kongra-Gel collects millions of euros in Germany each year for its “freedom fight.” The organization usually demands that its supporters donate one month’s wages per year, and those unwilling to cough up are expressly reminded that they have to pay this “tax.” It is uncertain where exactly this money then goes. The lion’s share is assumed to be funnelled towards the movement’s European institutions and its extensive propaganda apparatus.
Kongra-Gel’s main propaganda tools in Germany are thought to be the Yenir Özgür Politika newspaper — which is largely filled with news provided by the Netherlands-based Firat new agency — and Roj TV, a Denmark-based television station that was banned in Germany on June 19.
It is assumed that the ban on Roj TV was the immediate impetus behind this week’s kidnapping. In May the station’s two studios in Wuppertal and Berlin were raided and investigators seized a number of files and photographs. One of the studios was immediately closed down and then a few weeks later the station was banned, with Interior Minister Wolfgang Schäuble saying it was a mouthpiece for the PKK.
Kurds across Europe protested against the closing of the station. “This latest repressive measure is proof that German politicians are willingly meeting the repeated demands from the Turkish state to destroy the structures of the Kurdish movement,” said Azadi, a legal aid organization for Kurds based in Düsseldorf.
The editor-in-chief of Roj TV in Belgium, Sores Toprak, denies that the station is a PKK mouthpiece. “Naturally we do not glamorize the armed operations, even if some people claim we do. However, there is a war in Turkey and we show these images,” he told SPIEGEL ONLINE. “We address the problems in Turkey,” he said, adding that the PKK and other Kurdish organizations must be given a voice.
Berlin Will ‘not Be Blackmailed’
Toprak said the banning of the Roj TV was just the tip of the iceberg, accusing the German authorities of carrying out searches in private homes and Kurdish associations and fining and imprisoning Kurds.
On Thursday the PKK issued its political demands for the release of the hostages through the Firat agency. At the same time it said that the Germans were being well treated and were doing well. The guerrillas said they felt no enmity towards the German people.
The Kurdish separatists are unlikely to persuade the German government to meet their demands. “Germany does not allow itself to be blackmailed,” Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Thursday.
It is unlikely the Kurdish rebels ever really thought they could force Germany to shift its policy. Indeed, the kidnappings are likely intended as a show of strength, the PKK demonstrating its capacity to take action. The Turkish military offensive has put the Kurdish militants under pressure, Heinz Kramer of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs explained to the Associated Press on Thursday.
By taking the three Germans hostages, the PKK has definitely succeeded in grabbing people’s attention — just like it did back in the 1990s when its militants repeatedly kidnapped Western tourists. In 1993 alone they took 19 tourists hostage. All were later released.
With reporting by Ferda Ataman.
Title: Deadline for nuclear power station
Location: ANKARA
Description: Deadline for bids in tender to build Turkey\’s first
nuclear power station.
Date: 2008-09-24
Title: Deadline for bids for Meram and Aras
Location: ANKARA
Description: Deadline for bids for Meram and Aras electricity
grid privatisation (extended from July 15).
Date: 2008-09-15
