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  • Navy to Commission Aircraft Carrier George H.W. Bush

    Navy to Commission Aircraft Carrier George H.W. Bush

    No. ….
    December 30, 2008
    From: DoD News <dodnews@subscriptions.dod.mil>


    The Navy’s newest nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George H. W. Bush will be commissioned Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, during an 11 a.m. EST ceremony at Naval Station Norfolk, Va.
    President George W. Bush will deliver the principal address. Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch, daughter of the ship’s namesake, is the ship’s sponsor. In the time-honored Navy tradition, she will give the order to “man our ship and bring her to life!”
    The lastNimitz-class aircraft carrier is named to honor World War II naval aviator and America’s 41st president George H. W. Bush. Born on June 12, 1924, in Milton, Mass., Bush began a lifetime of service to America when he joined the Navy on his 18th birthday as a seaman.  He became the youngest pilot in the Navy at the time, receiving his commission and naval aviator wings before his 19th birthday.
    Bush flew the Avenger torpedo bomber in combat from the carrier USS San Jacinto.  During an attack on enemy installations near Chichi Jima in September 1944, his plane was hit by enemy fire while making a bombing run.  Although the plane was on fire and heavily damaged, he completed a strafing run on the target before bailing out of the doomed aircraft.  Bush parachuted into the sea and was later rescued by the Navy submarine USS Finback.  He was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and three Air Medals for his Navy service in the Pacific theater during World War II.
    After his time in the Navy ended in September 1945, Bush held a number of public service roles that included two terms as a U.S. congressman from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, chief of the U.S. Liaison Office to China and director of the Central Intelligence Agency.  He then served two terms as vice president under the late President Ronald Reagan before being elected himself as President of the United States in 1988.   As commander-in-chief, Bush led the United States and a coalition of nearly 30 other nations during Operation Desert Storm, which ended Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and liberated the people of the Persian Gulf nation.
    Capt. Kevin O’Flaherty, from Los Angeles, Calif., and a 1981 Naval Academy graduate, will become the ship’s first commanding officer, leading a crew of more than 5,500 men and women, including embarked air wing personnel. George H. W. Bush will be initially homeported in Norfolk, Va., assigned to the U.S. Atlantic Fleet.
    Construction of the tenth Nimitz-class ship took place at Northrop Grumman-Newport News, Va., starting with the ship’s keel laying Sept. 6, 2003, and christening Oct. 7, 2006. George H. W. Bush towers 20 stories above the waterline, displaces approximately 95,000 tons of water, has a flight deck width of 252 feet, and at 1,092 feet long, is nearly as long as the Empire State Building is tall. This floating airfield has a flight deck that covers 4.5 acres. Bush’s two nuclear reactors are capable of more than 20 years of continuous service without refueling, providing virtually unlimited range and endurance, and a top speed in excess of 30 knots.
    The ship will support a wide variety of aircraft, including the F/A-18C Hornet and F/A-18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters, the E-2C/D Hawkeye Airborne Early Warning aircraft, the C-2 Greyhound logistics aircraft, the EA-6B Prowler and the EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, multi-role SH-60 and MH-60 helicopters, and other future carrier-based aircraft.
    Interested media may contact the Navy Office of Information at (703) 697-5342. Additional information on Nimitz-class carriers is also available online at
    .

    U.S. Department of Defense

    GovDelivery, Inc. sending on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense · 380 Jackson Street, Suite 550 · St. Paul, MN 55101 · 1-800-439-1420

    __._,_.___

  • SOYKIRIM TACIRLERI VE GERCEKLER

    SOYKIRIM TACIRLERI VE GERCEKLER

    DEGERLI UYELERIMIZ

    TURKISH FORUM DANISMA KURULU UYESI SAYIN SUKRU SERVER AYA TARAFINDAN OZURCULERE HAKIKATIN BIR KERE DAHA ANLATILACAGI

    BU ONEMLI TOPLANTIYA KATILINIZ..

    DR. KAYAALP BUYUKATAMAN

    BASKAN, TURKISH FORUMMr Sukru Server Aya’s research on the “Genocide Fanfare” aimed to find truth, amidst a multitude of disinformation has been published. The New Book “Genocide Of Truth” is based on Neutral or Anti-Turkish Sources

    Book Launch was held at Istanbul Commerce University on Monday, 14th April 2008. First Minister of Culture and present UNICEF President in Turkey Sir Talat Halman, Prof Dr Kemal Cicek, Sumerology Expert Muazzez Ilmiye Cig, Local and International Media, Diplomatic Missions, Turkish Historical Society, Academic Staff from various universities, some US Nationals (some have taken the Turkish Citizenship now), Mr Sukru Aya’s Turkish Armenian school mates from Robert College were among the guests. . . . .

    We Congratulate Sukru Server Aya On His New Book “Genocide Of Truth” and would like him to continue to further his investigative research work. He has had no time to prepare his new articles for our site due to his very time consuming book work until now.

    We believe he has, now, the full energy and the capacity to contribute his insightful posts here.



    Dear guests: (April 14, 2008 – Presentation of PPS)

    Hoş geldiniz – Welcome – Bienne venue – Vilkommen – Şalom – Parev – Merhaba and Salute in all languages of the World!

    Dear Ladies, Gentlemen, members of local and foreign media and diplomatic missions! My much valued personal or ideal sharing friends! Guests, that have kindly accepted our invitation! Thank you all for coming! Permit me to inform you that among the audience, there is a very young doctor, code named Gokalp, who calls me dede or grandpa! He is the curious person like me, who sorted and found out the headlines, which you will observe in the PP show. He came from Germany and this is the first time we see each other.

    Again, another valued friend First-Minister of Culture and present UNICEF President in Turkey, Sir Talat Halman came all the way from Ankara just for a few hours as part of his sincere efforts to convey GOOD WILL, COMPASSION and Love for all parties! This is what he teaches in Ankara Bilkent University as Dean of Humanities.

    I whole heartedly thank Rector Ates Vuran and his much valued University team, for taking the trouble of evaluating my research of some 3 – 4 years, and had the courage to publish it.

    In USA, U.K. or most Western countries, nobody would dare touch this hot potato! In Turkey too, most people prefer to bypass it as well! It is TABOO to say anything opposing the GENOCIDE FANFARE! What would they do to me in France or Switzerland, for a crime such as laying their own writings in front of them? Or penalize me for inviting them to look at the evidence, based on their own records? Even in Turkey when you walk into a bookstore, you will find plenty books even translated in Turkish, let alone a multitude of slandering books of literature, with sprinkles of this topic, which immediately gives a gloss to the book regardless how junk it may be, and pays back! May be some notice that in our TV media, flash young writers get plenty invitations to speak in favor of the Genocide MYTH, even though they make scenarios usually distorting facts! Several world-wide authorities, Turkish or of other nationality, are not welcome if they may present the other side of the fake coin. Ex Ambassador Lütem, calls all this “The Genocide Industry”. We have plenty evidence for generous research or other funds, generously allowed for propagating this subject in and out of Turkey, reminding some like me of the old time “His Master Voice” records.

    My personal beliefs, ethics and ideals are not for LEASE or SALE, but are for FREE MIND SHARING … and I thank ALL OF YOU FOR SPARING or SPENDING this very valuable section of our remaining lifetime, in search or support of TRUTH and human DECENCY, if not JUSTICE, the standing of which has been shown on my book cover!

    I am happily indebted to TWO very old friends of mine of Turkish Armenian ethnicity! One of them is loved as a father by more than 16.000 students, whom he taught and is still “teaching accounting” for more than 50 years. I bet his students would have made, a much better adding-subtracting job, about the POPULATION controversy slides you will see. Although they have their own children, they raised a Turkish girl until marriage. We shared their joy, because we were all of the same family, flesh, blood, ideal and understanding. My other younger (?) friend, nearing his 80s, is a manufacturer providing jobs to more than 300 families and he is closer and most reliable among many I know! In our school, business and daily life, we never thought and still do not think of nationality or faith or other features we inherit when we are born! You cannot imagine, how many persons in my line of thinking are disturbed with the increasing discrimination among humans, eroding our compassion.

    Of particular value of appreciation, there are few web sites that I am acquainted with. One of them is the TURKISH FORUM you may already heard of. Some of their leaders are here. The other web site is run by three young Armenians of Turkish origin living in Canada-Australia-Britain and their WebSite has done a tremendous discovery in the past two and a half years. Many of us write and follow the postings of this important OPEN FORUM in English, which has tens of thousands readers all over the world, and which offers a large Electronic free book library, easily accessible!

    Another Armenian whom I never met, but is an admirable book writer and openhearted critic, has sent me a message! I have been corresponding with him directly or on the Internet and became (Internet or) “pen-pals”. He believed, and may be still believing in the GENOCIDE myth! But, he has the courage to READ the OTHER SIDE of the coin, which most don’t have! In one of my recent postings, I wrote, “THERE IS NO MONSTER IN THE ATTIC”… but most diaspora Armenians will not read “anything that does not fit their imagery”… They believe in the monster of the attic, which is responsible for the natural death of some relatives they never met…

    The same fact applies to several Turkish historians, who JUMP into conclusions by reading ONLY WHAT SUITS them and give speeches or hold conferences, where people that they do not know if they applaud them, are not let in to listen! Even persons aged to be their fathers, old graduates of the school they are now teaching, and in the same buildings where American missionary teachers taught us ethics, debate and free thinking… are not admitted now! Such dogmatic few Universities, sympathize with anything fashionable that suits them, be head covers or closed circuit teachings! A chapter of my book is titled “Divinity for bigotry and anarchy”.

    Now let me share with you what my LONG DISTANCE Armenian friend just wrote and which I am permitted to share with you:

    Dear Friend:
    i have been reading your book. it’s a monumental achievement.
    but it seems to me you take Armenians much more seriously than I do.
    ASBAREZ and its 500,000 readers is a myth. No Armenian publication has more than a handful of readers, and those that have more than 10,000 are distributed freely mostly in Los Angeles– they survive on advertisements.

    From : Pietro Aretino, 16th Century satirist
    “I would sooner have you hate me, for telling you the truth,
    than adoring me, for telling you lies.”

    Dear friend:
    You are welcome to quote me anonymously of course. I too have no desire to be targeted for assassination by fanatics (please, quote this line also).

    Will soon see how right he is in his statement. I also wish to say Şalom and express my thanks to the valued members and president of the QUINCENTENNIAL Foundation of Turkish Jews for their togetherness of souls, now over 500 years of pleasure!

    My PP presentation, tries to squeeze 120 years of history, or some 30.000 pages of reading or scanning, and some 700 pages of EXCERPTS in only 17 minutes. Do you think that it is easy to summarize such a long and intricate history in such a short time?

    I named the presentation as only few “sample notes” from the book. If you wish to read the rest, it is about 700 pages, over 1500 verbatim excerpts plus references, notes and other documents, which may take you over a month to read all! One local newspaper columnist had proudly written an article, that he read a book “size of a brick” and four others and he was sure of Genocide.

    I wrote him an open letter, reminded him of my years of reading, and added that my book is heavier and thicker than a brick, if this is how he evaluates serious topics.

    Esteemed guests, in the later part of the show, please observe the article of a prophetic reporter back in 1915 about Armenian Diaspora propaganda! How correct he proved to be a century later !

    In his words, I simply REFUSED TO BE TAKEN AS A DUPE and what triggered this research was an 8-page article in National Geographic March 2004 about Armenia, in which the Genocide story and land ownership arguments were laid down politically in a Geographic magazine. Those who enter my name in the goggle, can read about that 4 year old adventure and the indifference of the Turkish public and media. I had tried to put an add by paying from my pocket asking the attention of the people to REACT this scandalous essay printed in all foreign language issues of the magazine, but of course not in the Turkish edition! The Turkish one had some birds etc to substitute the 8 page essay! Would you call this press ethics? All of the Turkish advertisers of this reputed magazine, continued the good business closing eyes … and some newspapers were printing the advertisements of the magazine, with no word of the news they new, about this shameful cheating!

    There was only ONE Turkish paper who accepted my “public call add” against payment. So, when Diaspora speakers who did not permit Patriarch Mutafyan to address in a U.S. University, speak of “Turkish State Propaganda” and payments, I laugh, but not with my front side! It is this GIGANTIC negligence and lack of curiosity of several scholars, which dragged me in this research. Ex-minister of Health and Culture, Mr. Bulent Akarcali, when he had a chance to argue with me on the subject, asked me to write a book. I said, “I am not a scholar, I have no title, who would care about what I say”? He answered that, since I was an outside reader, I could be neutral!

    I had no ambitions or objects I must serve, and that was “different”!

    My convincer Mr. Akarcali, could not be here on this very important day, but it was through his introduction that Rector Ates Vuran (if he were to be an Indian… we would have called him STRIKING FIRE) indeed proved to be FIRE-hot on this challenging debate and STRIKED by publishing this book, all by his Independent University, with no strings of any sort ever attached.

    Being a business person, I am extremely honored that this University accepted to study “my hair counting study on several sheep or goat skins” or so many books, with given references. I am no writer, I do not hold any titles, but by now, I understand that earning some degrees or prizes are not that hard, when it is done for a chair or benefit! The hard part, is to DOUBT and SEARCH as for as many as possible for comparison, and then have the guts to stand up and speak, challenging many impostors who may want to defy what I have excerpted and be ready for a multitude of slanders and labels to be affixed on my personality, if not on the book. I would not wonder if some persons still carrying a Turkish ID, but fed by some institutes under ZOR or other IAN ending names, will immediately try to counter attack this research, which will self-shooting! I must confess that I did not WRITE this book, except for very few paragraphs needing my guidance and some commentary notes. I am just a READER like ONE OF YOU… May be I was curious on the subject, because I have too many good friends of Armenian ethnicity, and I wanted to find out if I bear any responsibility because of my birth. My findings are here in this book.

    If the PPS or the book is different news to you, you may ask other historians, why they did not read by profession “OTHER SOURCES” who were neutral or pro-Armenian? What I found out and compiled was there, too many long years ahead of me! For example many scholars who did not do their job properly, could freely speak up, as if what they say is totally TRUE! When I read that in Trabzon, where about 6-7000 Armenians lived, over 10.000 were drowned by Turks, I asked myself: it is not that so many people never lived there and the available small boats would not hold in total more than a few hundreds, but all ports being blockaded by the Allied Navy, how so many people can be drowned in few days? Why the Allied Navy saw no corpses? There are no sharks in the Black sea to feast over 10.000 corpses… The reply is again in the Reno Gazette, because these are İMPOSSİBLE STORIES… BUT THE WORLD READILY WANTS TO ACCEPT THESE PALAVERS because -Christians never Lie- and -all Moslems have harems, they are unspeakable and are criminals by nature-.

    My research proves by LOGIC and available written evidence that there was NO CAUSE, NO TIME, NO PLACE, NO MEANS, NO DATES, NO MURDER TOOLS, NO MASS GRAVES, NO RELIABLE EYEWITNESSES, NO DOCUMENTS (other than few forgeries) and NO COURT CASE and NO VERDICT… NOT EVEN AN OPEN TALK DEBATE! The CUP Government had already court martial more than 1600 persons, executed some 67, penalized the rest other than 400 found innocent, for their wrong doings during the relocation. Those who had all the archives searched after Mudros in full in 1919, could not find a single evidence to be able to open a court case against any of the 144 dignitaries held there for two and a half years in Malta to be put on trial, for which NO legal documents could be found anywhere. After you watch the PP Show, you will understand that THIS “GENOCIDE MUPPET SHOW” MUST GO ON, so that those behind the stage, which is very small but loudmouth group within the Diaspora, keep COLLECTING MONEY for DIVERSE REASONS by selling “grudge and hate” as their psychic marketing product.

    Why should they care for the poor people in Armenia or the fate of the desperate workers in Turkey? Why they invest in monuments, museums of hatred… instead of investing for good in Armenia? Or, worry if they upset the long time comfort of the Turkish Armenian community which does not pay them or even worse provoke some idiot Turkish fanatics!

    Dear guests this is not truly a friction between races, faiths or nations… We surely bilaterally shared some dramas highly aggravated by the “trigger-happy looting mood of some humpabets or gang leaders! But this new myth was INVENTED after 1965 to put the Armenian communities in different parts of the World together, to do as told and pay for security when asked. And this grudge circulating pump works at full speed in every country of the world successfully. This is a struggle between very smart invisible swindlers (or rascals) who can arson fires and keep them aflame, whilst the benevolent, good wishing people who don’t understand and do not react are respected as DUPES! The majority of the Diaspora, cannot even read or think anything different from what they are told… They MUST BELIEVE IN THE EXISTENCE OF THE MONSTER… otherwise their fury would be replaced by compassion!

    I thank you sincerely for devoting your valuable time… If you can escape from being called a DUPE, this should justify your patience and sharing these breaths of your life with us. I salute all of you, with my deepest thanks and the honor of being ONE OF YOU!

    I sincerely thank many of my American College friends for being here and conveying their compliments to the Rector and the University by sending these flowers.

    After the show, I will be ready to take few questions within permitted time, better written on some paper or last note pages of the PPS booklet, available for those who could not read or see because of distance. Those which cannot be answered because of time, will be tried to be answered by e-mail, in due course!

    The text of this speech is available in English or Turkish translation, in limited copies at the exit, for foreign and local press. Both texts can be transmitted by E-mail later, but on written request!

    The Turkish translation of the PPS has not been prepared! This presentation is aimed for persons who can read in English. Interested Turkish correspondents can easily have it translated! Another Turkish but shorter version of this research or book is ready for printing within the next few months hopefully to be decided by Mr. Akarcali.

    Thank you all most cordially!

    Şükrü Server Aya

  • Variety Article | Turkish box office is up

    Variety Article | Turkish box office is up

    Saturday, December 27, 2008

    Turkish box office is up | Local hits have helped attract private money
    By NICK HOLDSWORTH | Fri., Oct. 3, 2008,

    As Turkey’s Golden Orange Film Festival gets ready to kick off its 45th year, local films are burning up the wickets, with domestic pics set to capture some 50% of the country’s box office this year.

    A wave of local hits — dominated by comedies and action movies — has helped attract private money and investment from TV companies in home-grown product, Turkish film industry professionals say.

    Box office figures for 2008 through August show the top six positions all taken by Turkish films, with comedy “Recep Ivedik” at the top of the list, pulling in 4.3 million viewers since its release late February.

    “We are witnessing an explosion in the number of films being produced in Turkey,” says Ahmet Boyacioglu, chairman of the Ankara Cinema Assn. “Two years ago, a couple of dozens films were produced, last year 43 (were made) and this year already around 60. Currently there are some 30 films waiting to be released, reflecting films from across a range of genres — comedies, arthouse, personal (auteur) films.”

    Boyacioglu says it is hard to identify precisely what factors have contributed to the sharp increase in interest among audiences in domestic movies, but notes that institutional and industry investors have been quick to capitalize on it.

    “Television channels are increasingly interested in buying films before they are shot, and we even have an example of a single private investor putting up the entire $2 million budget for one film currently in production,” Boyacioglu adds.

    Market share for Turkish films went from just 13% in 2002 to 51% in 2006, he says. Although the share dipped to 38% last year, latest figures suggest that by year’s end the figure will be back up around 50%, with “Recep Ivedik” accounting for approximately 12% of total market share based on an average annual audience in Turkey of 30 million-35 million.

    Figures like that are knocking some of Hollywood’s best efforts off the charts: “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” pulled in just 323,000 viewers.

    “It’s a disaster for American films. Why the Turkish people have decided to watch more Turkish films over the last six years I don’t know, but now anyone with any interest or opportunity in cinema wants to make a film here,” Boyacioglu says.

    Although many of the blockbuster local films will rarely be seen beyond Turkey’s borders — or outside its large diaspora communities in countries such as Germany — festival fare is also enjoying a new wave.

    Turkish films have been featured heavily in the competition and showcase programs of virtually all European film festivals this year, with Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s taking the director prize at Cannes this year for “Three Monkeys.”

    Other Turkish pics on festival and award radars include “Pandora’s Box” by Yesim Ustaoglu; “Milk” by Semi Kaplanoglu; “Autumn” by Ozcan Alper; “My Marlon and Brando” by Huseyin Karabey; and Seyfi Teoman’s feature debut “Summer Book.”

    Deniz Ziya Temeltas, of the Eurasia Production Platform and Film Market — a professional sidebar that runs during the Eurasia film festival in Antalya — says local films look likely to remain a force in Turkey for the foreseeable future.

    “With the arrival of new festivals, production platforms and markets as well as various new media, there is a question whether the U.S. will be able keep its market share,” Ziya Temeltas says. “More and more local productions are airing on primetime TV. … In Turkey, there is not a U.S. series on a major network in primetime.”

    Labels: article, B.O

  • 7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists

    7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists

    İşte size 12000 yıllık bir haber…… Gazetelerimizde hiç yer almıyor, ilgi görmüyor desek yeridir. Yukarıda saydığım “bıkıntı” konuların hepsi gidici ve geçici ama bu 12000 yıl dayanmış, umarım Türkiyenin bu ilgisizliğine karşın 12000 yıl daha dayanır.

    ilginize sunarim.
    K. A.

    7,000 years older than Stonehenge: the site that stunned archaeologists

    Circles of elaborately carved stones from about 9,500BC predate even agriculture

    • Nicholas Birch in Istanbul
    • The Guardian, Wednesday 23 April 2008
    • Article history

    As a child, Klaus Schmidt used to grub around in caves in his native Germany in the hope of finding prehistoric paintings. Thirty years later, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, he found something infinitely more important: a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable on the planet.

    “This place is a supernova,” said Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hilltop 35 miles north of Turkey’s border with Syria. “Within a minute of first seeing it I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here.”

    Behind him are the first folds of the Anatolian plateau. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain, like a dust-coloured sea, stretches south hundreds of miles. The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe are just in front, hidden under the brow of the hill.

    Compared with Stonehenge, they are humble affairs. None of the circles excavated (four out of an estimated 20) are more than 30 metres across. T-shaped pillars like the rest, two five-metre stones tower at least a metre above their peers. What makes them remarkable are their carved reliefs of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions, and their age. Dated at around 9,500BC, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia, and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

    Never mind wheels or writing, the people who erected them did not even have pottery or domesticated wheat. They lived in villages. But they were hunters, not farmers.

    “Everybody used to think only complex, hierarchical civilisations could build such monumental sites, and that they only came about with the invention of agriculture”, said Ian Hodder, a Stanford University professor of anthropology who has directed digs at Catalhoyuk, Turkey’s best known neolithic site, since 1993. “Gobekli changes everything. It’s elaborate, it’s complex and it is pre-agricultural. That alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time.”

    With only a fraction of the site opened up after a decade of excavation, Gobekli Tepe’s significance to the people who built it remains unclear. Some think it was the centre of a fertility rite, with the two tall stones at the centre of each circle representing a man and woman. It is a theory the tourist board in nearby Urfa has taken up with alacrity. Visit the Garden of Eden, its brochures trumpet; see Adam and Eve.

    Schmidt is sceptical. He agrees Gobekli Tepe may well be “the last flowering of a semi-nomadic world that farming was just about to destroy”, and points out that if it is in near perfect condition today, it is because those who built it buried it soon after under tons of soil, as though its wild animal-rich world had lost all meaning.

    But the site is devoid of the fertility symbols found at other neolithic sites, and the T-shaped columns, while clearly semi-human, are sexless.

    Gods

    “I think here we are face to face with the earliest representation of gods,” said Schmidt, patting one of the biggest stones. “They have no eyes, no mouths, no faces. But they have arms and they have hands. They are makers.

    “In my opinion, the people who carved them were asking themselves the biggest questions of all. What is this universe? Why are we here?”

    With no evidence of houses or graves near the stones, Schmidt believes the hilltop was a site of pilgrimage for communities within a radius of roughly a hundred miles. The tallest stones all face south-east, as if scanning plains that are scattered with contemporary sites in many ways no less remarkable than Gobekli Tepe.

    Last year, for instance, French archaeologists working at Djade al-Mughara in northern Syria uncovered the oldest mural ever found. “Two square metres of geometric shapes, in red, black and white – like a Paul Klee painting”, said Eric Coqueugniot, of the University of Lyon, who is leading the excavation.

    Coqueugniot describes Schmidt’s hypothesis that Gobekli Tepe was a meeting point for rituals as “tempting”, given its spectacular position. But surveys of the region were still in their infancy. “Tomorrow, somebody might find somewhere even more dramatic.”

    Vecihi Ozkaya, the director of a dig at Kortiktepe, 120 miles east of Urfa, doubts the thousands of stone pots he has found since 2001 in hundreds of 11,500-year-old graves quite qualify as that. But his excitement fills his austere office at Dicle University in Diyarbakir.

    “Look at this”, he said, pointing at a photo of an exquisitely carved sculpture showing an animal, half-human, half-lion. “It’s a sphinx, thousands of years before Egypt. South-eastern Turkey, northern Syria – this region saw the wedding night of our civilisation.”

    Bir arkadaşımın mesajından alıntı:
    “Bir arkadasimdan gelen, Urfa Gobekli Tepe ile ilgili haber iceren gazete linkini yolluyorum. Turkcesi de arkadasimin yorumuyla asagida…

    Bu ilginc yeri de gezmek umidiyle…

    The Guardian:
    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2008/apr/23/archaeology.turkey

    Harran yakinlarindaki Gobeklitepe’de uzun yillardir surdurulen kazilar, prehistorik ve neolitik cag tarihiyle ilgili bilinenleri yerle bir edecek, tarih kitaplarinin yeniden yazilmasini gerektirecek kadar onemli bulgulari birbiri ardina dunyanin gozleri onune sermeyi surduruyor.

    Kazilari yoneten Alman Arkeoloji Birligi bilim adamlarindan Prof. Klaus Schmidt, yaptigi basin aciklamasinda, “Bu mekan bir supernova,” dedi, “Gordugum anda, yalnizca iki secenegim oldugunu anladim:

    Ya arkami donup buradan gidecek ve bundan hic kimseye soz etmeyecektim ya da butun omrumu buraya adayacaktim.”

    Gobeklitepe’deki arkeolojik bulgular, gunumuzden yaklasik 12 bin yil oncesine, I.O. 9500’lere tarihleniyor. Yani, Stonehenge’den yaklasik 7, Mezopotamya’daki ilk kentlerden de 6 bin yil daha eski. Bir baska deyisle, dunyanin bilinen en eski uygarligi.

    Calismalarin yapildigi alandaki en etkileyici kalinti, yaklasik 30 metre capinda bir megalitik “anit” ya da rituel merkezi. Kimler tarafindan ne amacla kullanildigi bilinmeyen bu alandaki dikilitaslarin uzerinde, yaban domuzu, tilki, aslan, kus, yilan ve akrep kabartmalari yer aliyor. T bicimli tas sutunlarin uzerinde, Klaus Schmidt’in “bilinen ilk tanri betimlemesi” adini verdigi figurler de yer almakta. Alandaki dikilitaslar, belirgin bicimde ve hassasiyetle, guneydogu yonune bakacak bicimde yerlestirilmis. (Akla ister istemez “Duat”i ve guneydogu goklerinde Orion ve Sirius’un yukselislerine ozel bir onem veren Eski Misir rahip kultlerini getiriyor.)

    Bulgular, Catalhoyuk calismalarini yoneten Prof. Ian Hodder’i da oldukca heyecanlandirmisa benziyor. Hodder, “Gobeklitepe, bilinen herseyi tumuyle degistirdi,” diyor. Heyecanlanmayan, hatta bunu neredeyse hic umursamayansa, yalnizca biziz galiba. Uzerinde yasadigimiz topraklarin, dunyanin bilinen en eski uygarligina ev sahipligi yaptigi gibi muazzam bir bulgu ortaya cikiyor, arkeoloji dunyasi bu ruzgarla sallaniyor ama, bizim gazetelerimizde birakin manset olmayi, iki satir bir habere bile rastlamiyoruz. (Umarim, benim gozumden kacmistir ve birileri sayfa dibine bile olsa, iki kelam etmistir Gobeklitepe’yle ilgili.)”

  • Day.Az releases statement about resentment of several public organizations of Armenia

    Day.Az releases statement about resentment of several public organizations of Armenia

    Several public organizations of Armenia appealed to the leading television companies of the country with the demand to include the Karabakh province of Azerbaijan not to the borders of the former NKAO, but along with other seven occupied regions of Azerbaijan. (more…)

  • TURKMEN TERRORIZED BY THE US FORCES

    TURKMEN TERRORIZED BY THE US FORCES

    TURKMEN TERRORIZED BY THE US FORCES
    Mr.Falah Hassan Younis is a Turkmen citizen and a member of the Iraqi Turkmen Advisory Council in Kerkuk who works as a Director of the sub district of Alaiyaziya which is a link to the Turkmen district of Telafer. Currently he is in charge of the district in the absence of its councillor.
    On the 25th of the December Mr. Falah Hassan Younis was summoned by the American forces for a meeting and Mr. Falah Hassan was obliged to attend at the request of the American forces. He attended the meeting with the US forces while he was accompanied by his bodyguards.
    During the meeting with the American counterpart his body guards were disarmed by the American forces as this was backed up by the Iraqi Turkmen Front representative in the Turkmen District of Telafer Mr. Nabil Harbu.
    Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and his body guards were physically abused and beaten badly by the US forces.
    Mr.Falah Hassan Younis and one of his body guards were detained by the US forces whereas the remaining body guards were released. Then both the body guards were handed over to the Iraqi forces in the city of Mosul. As the election approaches in Iraq, they would like to silence the voice of the Turkmen; various steps have been taken by Kurdish parties and American forces to do this.
    However, the Turkmen, Arabs, and Chaldo Assyrians had high expectations of the interim administration established after April 9, 2003. The Turkmen expected to see democracy, fairness, an end to discrimination, the right to self-determination and an end to violence. Unfortunately, the opposite has occurred regarding the human rights situation in Iraq, in particular concerning the Iraqi Turkmen. The Turkmen have been subject to campaigns by the Kurds and the American in Turkmeneli in an often more brutal fashion than carried out on Kurds by Saddam Hussein.
    The arbitrary arrests of the Turkmen citizen Mr. Falah Hassan Younis US force is a clear violation of human rights. They are still detained and being imprisoned by the Iraqi forces and no one knows where they are imprisoned. The most striking thing is that, the detainees have not been given any reason for their arrest and have not been given access for a lawyer.

    Turkmen of Iraq call upon the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki, Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Journalists Union, all Iraqi and international organizations defending the human rights and freedom to move immediately to the authorities of the Iraqi government at the highest levels for the protection of the Turkmen, Arabs and Assyrian from the Kurdish and American oppression that are carried out under the pretext of fighting of the terrors.

    Mofak Salman
    Turkmeneli Party Representative for Both Ireland and United Kingdom
    [1] Turkmen: The Iraqi Turkmen live in an area that they call “Turkmenia” in Latin or Turkmeneli” which means, “Land of the Turkmen. It was referred to as “Turcomania” by the British geographer William Guthrie in 1785. The Turkmen are a Turkic group that has a unique heritage and culture as well as linguistic, historical and cultural links with the surrounding Turkic groups such as those in Turkey and Azerbaijan. Their spoken language is closer to Azeri but their official written language is like the Turkish spoken in present-day Turkey. Their real population has always being suppressed by the authorities in Iraq for political reasons and estimated at 2%, whereas in reality their numbers are more realistically between 2.5 to 3 million, i .e. 12% of the Iraqi population.
    [2] Turkmeneli is a diagonal strip of land stretching from the Syrian and Turkish border areas from
    around Telafer in the north of Iraq, reaching down to the town of Mendeli on the Iranian border in Central Iraq. The Turkmen of Iraq settled in Turkmeneli in three successive and constant migrations from Central Asia, this increased their numbers and enabled them to establish six states in Iraq.