Tag: World News

  • Merkel’s Visit to Turkey Marks a Positive Change of Mind

    Merkel’s Visit to Turkey Marks a Positive Change of Mind

    As the eurozone crisis shows signs of further deepening with the new uncertainties in the wake of Italian ‘non-elections’, Germany is increasingly under strain to keep the European Union intact.

    Berlin has to deal not only with the brewing anti-austerity and anti-unionism in the Mediterranean strip of the EU (all the way from Cyprus through Portugal, except, perhaps, France), but also with an uneasy Britain and loudly impatient Turkey on the continent’s both flanks.

    In that context, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to Turkey must be added as another positive step toward melting the icy relationship between Ankara and the EU.

    It follows two other important recent steps. First, France unblocked a chapter (of five) of Ankara’s negotiations with Brussels, coming during its current peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and secondly, Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly (57.5 percent) voted for the Democratic Rally (DISY) leader, Nicos Anastasiades in the presidential election, a strong signal of a mood change on the island.

    Merkel’s visit was long overdue. It has been well-noted that she has visited Turkey only once in three years, while Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has visited Germany four times.

    Should it be interpreted as the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) now being in accord with its coalition partner, the Free Democratic Party (FDP), about the strategic importance, economic performance and crucial democratic transformation of Turkey? Perhaps. Does this mean that the German chancellor comes closer to CDU heavyweights who have been vocally pro-Turkish membership, such as Ruprecht Polenz, Chariman of the Bundestag’s Committee on Foreign Affairs, and gets ready to be challenged by others within?

    Could be. Deep down she knows that she has the backing of those CDU strong figures, on central and local level, although a few, about remaining committed to coalition protocol on Turkey’s accession and support for it to continue. But a slight challenge nevertheless.

    No matter what,one can hope that the visit and the positive sound of her messages indicate a long-lasting change of mind.

    Cynics in Turkey and Germany think they have seen “no progress” between Erdoğan and Merkel on Turkey’s EU accession process. Populist Bild Zeitung, in another outburst of sensationalist Turkophobia, totally insensitive to Turkey’s internationally important democratization process as ever, declared that ‘Turkey would never be a full member of the EU’ — despite its powerful economy. (This view reveals more about some parts of the Europe than Turkey itself).

    Bild is joined in Turkey by voices that have been anti-reform, anti-AKP and anti-Europe.

    The truth, and the good news, is, Merkel not only endorsed France’s unblocking move, but also signaled that other chapters may follow, with perhaps a second one even before the end of the Irish term presidency in the EU. One understands that she needs to balance very carefully in an election year for Germany on a subject which can shake and stir the votes.

    There are many aspects to why Germany should be more active, frank and clear about its relations with Turkey and its policy on the EU negotiations. Pro-EU arguments based on today’s Turkish economy speak for themselves, as outlined by Kemal Derviş, the vice president of the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., and a former minister of economic affairs of Turkey, for the daily Handelsblatt on Feb. 25, 2013 in an article titled “Die Politik ist am Zug” (“The policy is on track”).

    Apart from fine figures on inflation, growth, reduced deficit, employment, strong currency and reserves, German politicians do look with admiration at “hardworking” Turks (a virtue they value highly), when they compare them with the Mediterranean citizens of the EU.

    Turkey with such an economy is now too big for Germany to ignore, and far too important to be seen only as a simple trading partner, no doubt. Therefore, the tough visa regulations and the particularly rigid implementation of it attributed to German general councils in Turkey must be eased — liberalized in the sense that, once having passed a security check, Turkish citizens must be given five-year, multiple-entry Schengen visas.

    Nor should there be any doubt that increasing defense cooperation through NATO on Syria creates a new momentum for Berlin to realize more deeply Turkey’s significance on the southeastern flank of the continent, as it shoulders increasing burdens. Stability in Turkey, in that sense, can be said to be serving the stability of Germany, and of Europe as a whole.

    Merkel did not say much on Turkey’s Kurdish peace process, but given the presence of large, politicized Turkish communities; Alevi and Kurdish diasporas in her own country — take it for granted that solutions on all social rifts here will ease tensions there. Interests overlap.

    And in that case, it is demanded that Germany more thoroughly consider indirect, discreet assistance to endorse Turkey in its struggle against historical demons. The EU membership process, kept alive and well, is the best help.

    What Bild Zeitung and other populist tabloids do miss is that, what still matters most for Turkey’s reformist camp is the perspective of, and not necessarily, membership.

    Given the current turmoil and identity crisis the EU is in, it can be said that there will have to be referendums on Turkish membership — in Europe and Turkey – between now and the final decision. The process is still premature: It needs a decade or more. So, no need for myopia.

    Merkel is certainly right in her arguments about Cyprus (that Turkey opens its sea and airports to its flights and vessels), even if it is an issue that still needs time, given the stalemate. Before that, both sides on the island must show a concrete, willful progress on reaching a settlement.

    It has become also clear that Erdoğan is willing to resolve the issue in a broader context.

    He expects a complementary signal from Anastasiades, and has in mind a “package solution” that should involve Cypriots as well as Greece, energy, security and economic cooperation in Eastern Mediterranean, with the backing of Britain and the U.S.

    Germany can play a crucial role, in both EU and NATO context, if Erdoğan’s ideas make any sense.

  • PKK Executions: Turkey, Kurds Blame Each Other For Slayings Of Sakine Cansiz, Militant Activists

    PARIS — Turkey’s prime minister suggested Friday that a feud among Kurdish rebels was behind the shooting deaths of three Kurdish activists in Paris, and the rebels said it was an attempt to undermine peace talks that their jailed leader is holding with Turkey.

    The three activists, including reportedly the founding member of the autonomy-seeking Kurdish rebel group Kurdistan Workers Party, also known as PKK, were found inside a Kurdish center in the French capital on Thursday. The killings stunned the Kurdish community in Europe and put France in a delicate position as it tries to improve ties with Turkey.

    Kurds have accused Turkey of the slayings, while Turkish officials have suggested the killings may be part of an internal feud or an attempt to derail the talks.

    Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday that the need for a code to enter the Kurdish center where the women died, suggested that the women probably knew the killer. Erdogan indicated that the center was locked from the inside.

    “It’s not something that people who don’t know the code can open,” Erdogan told a group of journalists aboard a plane on his return from a visit to Senegal. “Those three opened (the door). They wouldn’t open the door to people they don’t know.”

    A PKK statement, carried by the Kurdish Firat news agency, condemned the killings and said they were an “attempt to undermine” the talks between Turkey and Ocalan.

    It blamed the deaths on “international powers” and alleged secretive forces in Turkey and added: “the killings will not remain without a response.”

    Turkey is holding peace talks with the Kurdistan Workers Party, which seeks self-rule for Kurds in the country’s southeast, to try to persuade it to disarm. The conflict between PKK and the Turkish government has claimed tens of thousands of lives since 1984.

    Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor, said one of the women killed was “very, very probably” Sakine Cansiz, a founding member of the PKK in her 50s. The other two victims have been identified as Leyla Soylemez and Fidan Dogan, Kurdish activists in their 20s.

    The three women were all killed with multiple gunshots to the head, Thibault-Lecuivre said. France’s interior minister has called the slayings an “execution.”

    Family members of the victims came to Paris and were meeting with French authorities and members of the Kurdish community Friday. Visitors placed candles and flowers in front of the building housing the information center where they were killed.

    Mourner Selik Hick said he had known one of the victims, Cansiz. She “gave her life for freedom and for the freedom of the Kurdish people,” Hick, 46, said at the site.

    Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency reported that the autopsies will take about a week, and that the families planned to take the bodies to Turkey for burial. It said police spoke with the Kurdistan Information Center’s neighbors, but that no one had witnessed the attack.

    Kurds from Germany and Turkey came to Paris to express support, and planned a demonstration in the French capital Saturday.

    ___

    Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, contributed to this report.

    via PKK Executions: Turkey, Kurds Blame Each Other For Slayings Of Sakine Cansiz, Militant Activists.

  • The WISE Women of Islam: What a Conference in Istanbul Can Tell Us About the Future of Women in the Muslim World

    Fritz Lodge

    Blogger

    [Reported from the WISE Conference in Istanbul. All non-cited quotations or paraphrasings drawn from notes on the conference or interviews with WISE participants.]

    The “fearful fatalistic apathy”, which a young Winston Churchill once noted amongst the “curses [of] Mohammedanism”, (Churchill, River Wars, 1899) has found frequent repetition over the years as one base assumption behind explanations as to precisely why a political revolution, like the Arab Spring, could never come to pass in the Muslim Middle East. A similar logic has often been applied to the concept that women in Islamic societies might strive to become anything other than the “absolute property of some man” (another Churchillian gem). Such apathy was, however, on poor display October 14 as some 170 Muslim women leaders gathered at the Marriott Hotel in Istanbul to attend a four-day conference organized by the Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality and Equality (WISE) — an offshoot of the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) dedicated to promoting women’s rights in the Muslim world. Here, the word apathy does not spring easily to mind. As women from every far-flung province of Islam’s reach stream into the empty conference hall, the air hums with voices raised in vigorous conversation. Flowery greetings and small talk segue swiftly into meatier discussion. Stories are told, tactics exchanged, politics debated, and by the end of each speaking event lines for questioning stretch towards the door. It quickly becomes clear that four days will not be nearly enough to contain the vitality of this group. African, Asian or European, bareheaded or modestly garbed in flowered hijab (traditional head scarf), these women brim not with resigned fatalism but with energy, conviction and, incredibly, an overriding sense of optimism.

    There seems little evidence to support such confidence. Muslim women, especially those hailing from the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, remain notoriously underprivileged and underrepresented. A recent report released by Freedom House on women’s rights in those nations did find marginal gains — specifically in the fields of education, employment, and political participation. However, it remains the region where “the gap between the rights of men and those of women has been the most visible and severe.” This is hardly news for the women of WISE, nor is such iniquity exclusive to Islam’s heartland. Standing to speak before the conference, Sophia Abdi Noor — a member of Kenya’s 10th parliament- rattles off a list of offences. “I have been a victim myself,” she admits, “who has gone through female genital mutilation at a very tender age, who has lost her two friends in the operation… who was forced to marriage.” Later, when she ran for parliament, conservative Islamic leaders within the community convinced the president to disqualify Ms. Noor’s bid, despite her victory at the polls. “But”, she states to laughter from the crowd, “I did not stop at that!” She smiles triumphantly, “Now I am a member of parliament… and I am proud to tell you that I am one of the framers of the new constitution of Kenya!” This tone of dogged defiance in the face of adversity is one struck often and well here. From Suraya Pakzad, a fearless campaigner for women’s rights in Afghanistan, to Santanina Rasul, who remains the only Muslim woman to win a senate seat in the Philippines, each participant pairs tales of hardship and bias with the casual assumption that no obstacle is insurmountable.

    That mentality is one which seems to define this gathering but what is, perhaps, most striking about WISE is the religious framework within which it operates. This is a Muslim women’s conference above all else and, in large part, it is this Islamic identity, which the organization seeks to empower. “Women are the glue that holds society together”, states Daisy Khan — WISE founder and executive director of ASMA — their status in the Muslim world must change but, Daisy notes, “Islam can effect that change.” That statement might seem antithetical to some, considering the frequency with which theological arguments are used to rationalize rights abuses in the Muslim world. However the women here maintain that, for the most part, these arguments represent only the manifestation of cultural and tribal mores in the guise of Islamic law. They argue that, contrary to popular perception, the six basic objectives which guide Sharia law — the protection and promotion of religion (al-din), life (al-nafs), mind (al-aql), family (al-nasl), wealth (al-mal), and dignity (al-‘ird) — provide the same fundamental rights to both men and women.

    The promotion of Sharia interpretations refocused upon these universal values is one of WISE’s main objectives and the organization sponsors several programs aimed at balancing the narrative on woman’s place within Islam. One such program, the NOOR Educational Center run by Jamila Afghani, has experienced marked success in educating Afghani Imams on the religious illegality of common cultural practices such as early and forced marriage. While the Shura Council, WISE’s flagship project, brings together influential female leaders and scholars specializing in Islamic law to produce detailed and thoroughly sourced theological position statements on certain controversial elements of Sharia.

    As Islamist parties stand poised to win a large share in government at upcoming elections in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia, the promotion of an inclusive, non-restrictive approach to Sharia is particularly important. Efforts such as these, if spread successfully, have the potential to blunt the power of those who would use Islam as a weapon of repression, and inform those who would assert their intrinsic rights within the religion. However the tendency for Muslim women, bound by cultural and traditional norms, to censure themselves and prolong their own discrimination remains a major obstacle in efforts toward equality. Judge Kholoud al-Faqih — Palestine’s first Sharia court judge — underlined this dilemma during a panel on spiritual leadership, recalling her disappointment at the reaction of many women who, upon seeing a female judge, clicked their tongues in admonishment and sought out male judges to try their case. “It is very sad to see this” she says with a shrug, “because this is cultural baggage and doesn’t have anything to do with Islam.” So, perhaps, Churchill’s “fearful apathy” retains some of its power to convince the disenfranchised to stay that way. As long as it does, progress remains a distant prospect. Still, the events of the Arab spring should provide a lesson in the folly of underestimating the spark of individualism in the Islamic world. If the ladies of WISE 2011 are anything to go by, Muslim women may celebrate their own spring sooner than we think.