Turkish Forum

Category: Turkey

  • A city filled with places to go lets her follow her heart

    A city filled with places to go lets her follow her heart

    On the Bosphorus at busy Ortaköy pier square in Istanbul stands the ornate, neo-Baroque-style Ortaköy Mosque, built for the Ottoman sultan in 1856. (Essdras M Suarez/Globe Staff/File 2007)

    ISTANBUL – A sizzling June day reluctantly cools toward evening along the waterfront at Eminonu. I stop and write in my notebook.Smells: salty, moist sea; grilled lamb; car exhaust; sweat; hamburgers; flowering trees; cigarettes; sweet cologne.

    Here, where the shimmering Sea of Marmara and the Bosphorus connect at the Golden Horn, massive ferries fill to capacity with pushy commuters. They include last-minute passengers not afraid to leap across the widening gap between solid ground and the decks as deafening horns signal imminent departure and the vessels chug to destinations with names like Kabatas, Uskudar, Buyukada, Harem, and Besiktas.

    Between the ferry piers and a four-lane road clogged with rush-hour traffic, crowds stream in all directions across the wide Eminonu Meydani. I’m reminded of the concourse at Grand Central Station in New York except the twinkling overhead constellations are real, as is the crescent moon rising near the minaret of the 17th-century Yeni Cami.

    The plaza is awash with activity. Vendors vie for attention, their carts piled high with cherries, bananas, apricots, peaches, pistachios, and mussels. A boy on a bicycle leans precipitously close to pyramids of fresh grilled corn. Nearby, a musician with a long mustache strums his amplified oud and sings a mournful song.

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  • Syria: we’ll host Russian missile system

    Syria: we’ll host Russian missile system


    AFP Photo / Vladimir Rodionov

     

    <I class=annotation>Syria says it’s ready to put a Russian missile system on its soil as a counterweight to U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. The offer was made during a meeting between Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad and President Dmitry Medvedev in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Meanwhile, Moscow is considering a request from Syria for more Russian-made weapons.

    It was the first meeting between the two leaders, and President Al-Assad was keen to show Syria’s support for Russia.

    “We understand what is behind Russia’s position … We believe this is a response to Georgian provocation. We support Moscow in this and are against any attempts to blacken Russia,” Al-Assad said.
     
    Many expected a tit-for-tat response after the U.S. sealed a deal to deploy interceptors in Poland as a part of their missile defence system.

    Ahead of the visit, there were reports that Russia might deploy a missile system in Syria, in particular, the Iskander system. It’s something Syria has been requesting for a long time. After Friday’s meeting, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is ready “to consider the offers of the Syrian government in connection to the delivery of new weapons, only for defence purposes”.

    Moscow has temporarily suspended cooperation with NATO. It follows NATO’s criticism of Russia’s actions in South Ossetia and threats to shut down the NATO-Russia Council. Lavrov was clear on Russia’s course: “We are not going to slam the door on NATO. NATO could slam this door, though. Everything depends on NATO’s priorities: if the priorities are absolutely supportive of Saakashvili’s bankrupt regime to the detriment of partnership with Russia, then it is not our fault,” he said.
     
    Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Russian troops from the conflict zone is well under way. There will be at least 500 peacekeepers deployed in the so-called security zone near the border. The rest of the peacekeepers will remain within the de facto borders of South Ossetia. The rest of the troops in the area will return to Russia.

    Russia says it’s fully committed to the six principles of the cease-fire, but, according to Lavrov, some countries are resorting to diplomatic tricks.

    Both South Ossetia and Abkhazia, Georgia’s two separatist regions, have again asked Moscow to recognise their independence.

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  • Eat, play, bond

    Eat, play, bond

    Last question: How would you summarize this vacation, in one word? Megan: “Fun!” Mom: “Perfect.” We had survived each other’s company for two weeks, around-the-clock, something we had never done in her 22 years on earth.Now Megan wants to honeymoon in Santorini and live in Istanbul. Later, in a thank-you e-mail, she wrote: “My friends are surprised we didn’t kill each other, but we actually had so much fun! I’m already planning our next big trip to Africa.”

    Just so long as it doesn’t involve “hostels,” “tents,” and a “minibus.”

    Bella English can be reached at english@globe.com.

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  • GÜLEN, KÜÇÜK, AND THE EDUCATION OF SOUTH KURDISTAN

    GÜLEN, KÜÇÜK, AND THE EDUCATION OF SOUTH KURDISTAN

    Asagidaki yazi Kurt kokenli bir siteden, ilginc aciklamalar var..
    MeltemB
     

    Saturday, August 23, 2008

     

    “Gulen gave a new decree and a new kind of mobilization to assimilate Kurds and to steal their minds by injecting religious ideology and by causing them to sell their birthright.”
    ~ Aland Mizell.

    At the beginning of the month, I posted some news about the Ergenekon gang that had been published in Taraf. At the time, I mentioned that the nexus of the Ergenekon indictment could be found in a weirdo named Tuncay Güney:

    It would appear, however, that the lies surrounding the issue of “The Antidote” stem from Tuncay Güney, a one-time, small-time journalist in whose possession the original Ergenekon documents were found in 2001. Güney has been linked to Fethullah Gülen and Gülen’s Samanyolu TV. Güney claims to have brought the photos of Öcalan and Perinçek to MİT. He claims to have taken a bribe of $15,000 to PKK in order not to shut down Gülen’s schools in Hewler, although how PKK would have had any control over anything in Hewler is a huge question. Perhaps the KDP took the bribe by introducing themselves as PKK members? Güney also claıms to have delivered money from Fethullah Gülen to ultra-fascist Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu so that he could establish the BBP. 

    Zaman has some additional weird tidbits about Güney:

    “Meanwhile, in an interview with the Yeni Şafak daily, Tuncay Güney, a former journalist whose ties with various secret services, both domestic and international, have been documented, stated that Kurdish separatist terrorism would come to an end if the Ergenekon gang wanted that to happen. Güney, who now lives in Canada and works as a rabbi, has suspected ties to the group. Güney came to prominence when the first documents related to the Ergenekon gang were seized on his computer in a 2001 police raid.

    “Güney, currently a rabbi at the Jacobs House Jewish Community Center in Toronto, praised Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz for having “done a great job” so far in the investigation, although he expressed doubts that the operation would be very successful in the end. “However, they are very close to the end and I think it is very difficult moving on further from this point. There is no power in Turkey that can stop Ergenekon,” he said, expressing doubts that the investigation will bring about the collapse of the crime group.”

    A check of YouTube reveals that Güney does, in fact, appear to be a member of an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto, although he now denies any connection with Fethullah Gülen, as his appearance on Mehmet Ali Birand’s 32. Gün indicates. If the first Ergenekon documents were found in Güney’s possession, why has he not been indicted? Did he cut a deal and, if so, what kind of deal was it? Is his life now, in an Orthodox Jewish community in Toronto some kind of strange “witness protection” program?

    Now, there’s more from Güney on the connectıon between the Ergenekon gang, Fethullah Gülen, and Gülen’s schools in South Kurdistan, from Milliyet:
    Küçük knows Gülen for a long time 

    Güney, in his statement in 2001, claims that he and Mehmet Demircan, an important name in Fethullah Gülen’s movement, spent intense efforts to gain Küçük into the movement and that the two [Gülen and Küçük] knew each other for a long time.

    Tuncay Güney’s statement in 2001, which he gave to Istanbul police, is one of the most fundamental pieces of evidence that Ergenekon prosecutor Zekeriya Öz, is working on. In this statement, Tuncay Güney gave a detailed explanation of Fethullah Gülen’s movement. In the Ergenekon indictment’s 442nd file, there are interesting claims that Güney made. Here, Güney claims that, since the 1970s, Fethullah Gülen knew retired Brigadier General Veli Küçük, who is under arrest in the Ergenekon case, from the right-wing National Struggle Movement (MMH). Güney explained that he learned that Küçük and Fethullah Gülen knew each other for a long time, while he and one of Gülen’s prominent members, Mehmet Demircan, made efforts to gain Küçük to the movement.

    “All of them are strugglers for nationalism”

    When Tuncay Güney was detained in 2001 for by Istanbul police for fraud, he was working for Samanyolu TV, which is linked to the Fethullah Gülen movement. In the statement he gave to police while under interrogation, he pointed out that taking advantage of his position, he had the possibility to meet with important names in Fethullah Gülen’s movement.

    Within this framework, Güney mentions that he and Demircan tried to gain, the then active duty Veli Küçük, for the movement. “When we gain him, we will be more powerful in the eyes of Fethullah Gülen,” Güney says.

    Again, referring to Demircan, Tuncay Güney ascribed the information that Gülen knew Veli Küçük from the National Strugglers’ Movement. “Look at all of Fethullah Gülen’s members; they are all National Strugglers,” he said.

    Support for Gülen’s schools

    In his statement, Güney said that Veli Küçük helped Fethullah Gülen to open a school in Northern Iraq [South Kurdistan]. According to Güney’s statement, they had stopped in Diyarbakır, where they were on the way to Erbil, in order to open private Irbil Light College. There (in Diyarbakır), they called Veli Küçük to let him know they were there, thus Jandarma Regional Commander Eşref Hatipoğlu met them. Hatipoğlu sent Güney and Gülen’s members to Silopi in a military helicopter. From there, the group passed to Nehciban (there he means Neçirvan) and talked to Barzani and Talabani.

    “Veli Küçük’s teacher collared Erdoğan”

    Güney also made a statement about field officer Necabettin Ergenekon’s involvement with Gülen’s movement. According to Güney, Necabettin Ergenekon was Küçük’s teacher. According to Güney’s claims, Necabettin Ergenekon had talks with R. Tayyip Erdoğan, then the Refah Partisi (RP) Istanbul chairman. In one of these talks, Ergenekon caught Erdoğan by the collar and shook him. According to Guney’s statement, Erdoğan, in RP’s Tepebaşı office, was having a discussion with Necabettin Ergenekon about pan-Islamism. Then Ergenekon became nervous and grabbed Erdoğan by the collar saying, “This is bullshit, Tayyip; there won’t be pan-Islamism if there isn’t Turkism.”

    Güney said that the person who introduced him to Veli Küçük, was Veli Küçük’s teacher, Ergenekon. “The field officer in Izmit (Veli Küçük), is my student. I’ll take you and introduce you to him” said Ergenekon according to Güney.

    It was claimed that Küçük had named the Ergenekon organization after his teacher’s last name.

    He spied for Eymür about Gülen

    In his statement, Güney said that when he was in Fethullah Gülen’s movement, he was regularly informing MİT chairman Mehmet Eymür’s staff. Güney said, “When I was working there, Mehmet Eymür’s men would come and get information periodically . . . Besides this information, they were asking about the hot issues in the movement anyway.”

    In February, as war preparations against South Kurdistan were underway, Nêçîrvan Barzanî and the KRG gave the go-ahead for the foundation of a new Gülen university in Hewlêr. 

    There was no mention of anyone having given PKK a $15,000 bribe in connection with this Gülen enterprise, but that may be because any bribes would actually be given to the cehş of the KRG who are only too happy to contribute to the destruction of the Kurdish people for a price.

  • NATO sends more ships into Black Sea

    NATO sends more ships into Black Sea

     
    13:38 | 23/ 08/ 2008
     

    (Adds Russia’s General Staff comment in paras 3+4)

    ISTANBUL/MOSCOW, August 23 (RIA Novosti) – NATO has sent a Polish frigate and a U.S. destroyer through the Bosporus to boost its presence in the Black Sea, where it is delivering humanitarian cargoes to Georgia, a source in the Turkish navy said.

    “Two more NATO ships passed through the strait and entered the Black Sea on Friday evening,” the source told RIA Novosti.

    The deputy head of Russia’s General Staff said the Navy was aware that NATO was strengthening its presence in the sea.

    “The situation in the Black Sea is escalating. NATO is continuing to build up its naval presence in the area,” Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn told reporters Saturday.

    A Navy officer said Friday that Russia would continue its operations to ensure the security of shipping to and from Georgia’s separatist republic of Abkhazia.

    “The Black Sea fleet continues to carry out its task of maritime traffic security patrols off the coast of Abkhazia,” Captain Igor Dygalo said.

    The ORP General Pulaski and the USS McFaul joined two ships from Germany and Spain that entered the sea earlier Friday.

    The Turkish navy source expected the NATO presence in the Black Sea to grow to about seven vessels.

    Nogovitsyn on Friday expressed doubts that NATO vessels needed to be in the Black Sea, and he promised that Russia would respond swiftly to any provocations against its Black Sea Fleet.

    Tensions between NATO and Russia are high following the recent conflict over Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia.

  • RESPONDING TO GEORGIA CRISIS, TURKEY SEEKS NEW CAUCASUS SECURITY INITIATIVE

    RESPONDING TO GEORGIA CRISIS, TURKEY SEEKS NEW CAUCASUS SECURITY INITIATIVE

    By Alman Mir – Ismail

    Friday, August 22, 2008

     

    The Georgian-Russian military conflict has created new security dilemmas in the South Caucasus. Not only has the fragile stability established since the chaos of 1990s been ruined, but the East-West energy and transportation corridor has also been made vulnerable. Turkey, as one of the largest donors of the South Caucasus region and an active player in regional politics, surprisingly stayed out of the conflict, neither defending its regional ally Georgia nor making official statements at the governmental level. For many in the region, this was perceived as a sign of Turkish weakness, lack of interest in the South Caucasus region from the ruling AKP party, and growing dependence on Russia in terms of trade and regional alliance. Others simply called it a “sell-out of Caucasus.” Indeed, Turkey benefits from the regional energy pipelines and such a reaction can only raise surprise among regional countries.

    Partly because of the desire to refute these rumors and partly to achieve Turkey’s long-awaited goals in the Caucasus, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan came up with the “Platform for security and cooperation in the South Caucasus” initiative. The initiative, which Erdogan plans to discuss with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, is intended to create a regional security framework. It intends to accomplish this by encouraging greater integration between Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Armenia and empowering Russia and Turkey to play the leads roles of regional security guarantors. Erdogan’s vision is to solve the frozen conflicts in the region on a sustainable and long-lasting basis and to satisfy the national interests of Russia, which regards the West’s influence in the region as a “zero-sum game.” Under this initiative, NATO would be limited to an outside role in providing security for the region — a clear effort to minimize Russian distrust and anger.

    With this idea, Erdogan visited Baku on August 21 to talk with President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and unveil this plan. Azerbaijani public and politicians generally have greeted this proposal with a great degree of skepticism. Political analyst Rasim Musabeyov was quoted by ANS TV on August 21 saying, “Turkey wants to push Azerbaijan towards compromise and also make sure Armenia plays more pragmatic role. This is the vision behind the Caucasus Platform idea of Erdogan.”

    Opposition newspaper Yeni Musavat believes that under the pretext of the Common Caucasus Platform, Erdogan wants to open borders with Armenia. Indeed, since its arrival in power in 2002, the AKP party has been favoring the idea of restoring economic and trade ties with Yerevan in order to improve the economic situation in Turkey’s Eastern regions, such as Kars and Erzurum, which suffer greatly from the closed borders with Armenia. Azerbaijani officials have protested against these ideas, saying that opening borders prior to Armenia’s liberation of the occupied Azerbaijani territories would not only damage Turkish-Azerbaijani solidarity and alliance in the region, but also symbolically forgive the ethnic cleansing by Armenia. Previous Turkish governments have preconditioned the opening of the borders with Armenia to the end of the Karabakh conflict. For Azerbaijan, closed borders between Turkey and Armenia are another tool of pressure on the officials in Yerevan.

    Nevertheless, after the presidential elections in Armenia in early 2008, Turkish-Armenian relations seem to be entering a new stage. Newly elected President of Armenia Serj Sarkisian has invited his Turkish counterpart Abdulla Gul to Yerevan to watch a soccer game between the two countries. This sport event began a series of diplomatic events, culminating with the revelation by senior Turkish officials that high ranking diplomats of the two nations are engaged in negotiations in Geneva. And on August 22, Yeni Musavat even reported that Turkey opened flights into Armenia.

    Officials in Baku seem less nervous this time about the possibility of the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations than back in 2003-2004. It appears that even in the circles of the Azerbaijani political leadership, there is an understanding that the economic pressures on Armenia do not work and simply reinforce Armenian dependence on Russia. Perhaps the normalization of Turkish-Armenian relations will entice a breakthrough on the negotiation process in Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. More trust between these two nations might prompt Armenia to extend certain concessions, should Yerevan feel itself more secure.

    However, some analysts believe that this Erdogan’s initiative is doomed to failure. Nationalism, realpolitik, and irrational behavior still dominate politics in the Caucasus, and it would be unrealistic to expect Armenia to be less nationalistic or Russia to behave more pragmatically. “If the West manages to push Russia out of Caucasus, then the idea of the common Caucasus home might be possible. If Russia stays in the region, then not,” says Ilgar Mammadov, political scientist (ANS TV, August 21). His colleague Zardusht Alizadeh echoes pessimism: “The initiative of Erdigan will be unsuccessful” (Day.az, August 20).

    Similar proposals for the common Caucasus House, like the common EU, were made in the early 1990s but eventually failed due to a lack of desire from the competing powers both inside and outside of the region.