Turkish Forum

Category: News

  • Swiss FM offers Turkey regular dialogue on PKK

    Swiss FM offers Turkey regular dialogue on PKK

    The Turkish and Swiss foreign ministers signed on Thursday an annex to a memorandum of understanding in Bern, Switzerland.

    Friday, 12 September 2008 07:48
    Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan and his Swiss counterpart Micheline Calmy-Rey put their signatures under an annex to a memorandum of understanding, signed in the Swiss capital in 2001 that envisaged establishment of a political consultation mechanism between Turkish and Swiss foreign ministries.

    During the signature ceremony, Babacan said that two countries were broadening the mechanism of dialogue.

    “From now on, we will meet more often to discuss several issues like energy, migration, fight against terrorism, consulate affairs, culture and tourism,” he also said.

    In their tete-a-tete meeting, Babacan briefed Calmy-Rey on the militants whom Turkey wanted to be extradited from Switzerland and asked for support.

    Babacan expressed Turkey’s concerns over insufficient cooperation between the two countries in countering terrorism.

    “Under which name it operates, PKK is a terrorist organization,” Babacan told his Swiss counterpart.

    In return, Calmy-Rey said that Switzerland did not have a black list but this did not mean that her country was weak in fight against terrorism, and condemned all types of terrorism.

    Calmy-Rey said that her country was not one embracing terrorism, and proposed to set up a regular dialogue between the two countries, send experts to Turkey, and establish a firmer cooperation between Turkish and Swiss justice ministries.

    AA

    Source: www.worldbulletin.net, 12 September 2008

  • Revelation Road

    Revelation Road

    With more biblical sites than anywhere outside of Israel, Turkey’s spiritual tourism leads travelers and pilgrims to ruins

    By Peter Manseau
    Sunday, September 14, 2008; Page W16

    From 3,000 loudspeakers affixed to the city’s 3,000 minarets, the canned wailing of muezzins rings out the call to prayer five times a day. Istanbul has been a Muslim city for more than 500 years, and yet there still seems to be no coordination when it comes to scheduling this most basic of Islamic customs. With each chorus of “allahu akbar” beginning imprecisely at sunrise, it’s pretty much every mosque for itself. Some start 10 seconds early, some 10 seconds late; at least one seems to wait until the coast is clear so that its adhan will have the air all to itself.

    I don’t hear a thing once inside the immaculate, Muzak-filled confines of the Point Hotel. The Point is one of a new generation of high-end Istanbul lodgings — most within a few blocks of trendy Taksim Square — that seem to cater to travelers who do not want to know they are in Turkey. To enter the lobby from the predawn din is to suddenly inhabit another universe, one equipped with a Japanese restaurant, a “wellness spa” and molded plastic furniture apparently borrowed from the lounge deck of the Starship Enterprise.

    Revelation Road – washingtonpost.com.

  • Tide of Nationalism Threatens Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Community

    Tide of Nationalism Threatens Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Community

    by Anne Szustek

    Rising Islamism and nationalism within Turkey are hurting Istanbul’s once robust Orthodox Christian community. Possible EU accession has brought the situation into the limelight.

    Istanbul’s Orthodox Patriarchate Fighting for Survival

    In 2007, 42 of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee’s 50 members sent Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan a letter pleading on behalf of the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, established in Istanbul in the 4th century. Bartholomew I, the leader of the world’s 300 million members of Eastern Orthodox churches, sits in the Patriarchate’s headquarters in Fener, a blighted neighborhood on Istanbul’s Golden Horn.

    Former Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., then the head of the committee, called the patriarchate “one of the world’s oldest and greatest treasures.”

    Tide of Nationalism Threatens Istanbul’s Greek Orthodox Community.

  • Student protesters arrested in Istanbul

    Student protesters arrested in Istanbul

    Istanbul, 12 Sept. (AKI) – Eighteen students have been arrested in the Turkish city of Istanbul for protesting against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

    News agency, Dogan, said on Friday that members of the Turkish Communist Party and an Istanbul Technical University student club were protesting against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

    The protest coincided with a visit by Erdogan who attended a ceremony to mark the university’s new school year.

    The agency said protesters chanted slogans against the AKP and the ITU’s newly elected rector.

    Eighteen student club members, who continued to chant slogans, were taken into custody by police.

    Gul reportedly appointed a pro-AKP candidate as rector who had come third in the voting among academic staff instead of the candidate who won the majority of votes.

    Source : Adnkronos

  • Art of Islamic World on display in Istanbul

    Art of Islamic World on display in Istanbul

    TEHRAN, Sept. 12 (MNA) — “Art of Islamic World: From Turkey to Indonesia” exhibition is currently underway at the Istanbul’s Asian Art Museum that will run through March 1.

    Ranging from the tenth to the twenty-first century, the sixty works of art include paintings, manuscripts, ceramics, textiles, metal wares, historic photographs, and puppets.

    The artworks are from Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, China, Indonesia, and the Philippines and many are on display for the first time.

    One of the ceramic pieces on display is a large blue-and-white dish from Iran dated 1650-1670, which might be thought at first glance to be Chinese. During the Safavid empire (1501-1722), Persia and China had admired each other’s artwork and luxury goods for many centuries, and both had at various times adopted forms and motifs from each other’s creations.

    The early 1600s—the last decades of the Ming dynasty—Chinese production was disrupted by natural disasters and social disorder. Persian ceramic factories seized the opportunity and geared up production to satisfy the enormous demand for large, splendid blue-and-white dishes. Persian artisans did not have the materials or China’s technical secrets for making true porcelain, but they managed to make credible imitations.

    The exhibition also is timed to coincide with the publication of the museum catalog, “Persian Ceramics: From the Collections of the Asian Art Museum”, scheduled for release in mid-September.

    SB/YAW
    END
    MNA

    Source : mehr news agency

  • Turkish PM meets head of Ericsson

    Turkish PM meets head of Ericsson

    The Turkish prime minister met the head of a telecommunication provider Ericsspn in Istanbul on Thursday, the company said on Friday.

    Carl-Henric Svanberg, the president and CEO of Sweden based telecommunication provider Ericsson, paid a courtesy visit to Turkey’s Premier Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday, a company statement said.

    Svanberg also met executives of Turkey’s telecom sector in Istanbul, and later paid a visit to Erdogan.

    Ericsson has been operation for 118 years in Turkey, and made its first investment in the country by establishing a telephone line at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul in 1890, which still works.

    Ericsson, based in Stockholm, is a provider of telecommunications equipment and related services to mobile and fixed network operators globally.

    Source : Hurriyet