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Israel's attack on UN-run school in Gaza - 07 Jan 09

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:17:00 +0000

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:06:00 +0000

War on Information: Palestinian and Israeli side of the story

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 12:38:00 +0000

It has been 12 days, 12 short days for the ones who could sleep, and 12 long days, for the ones who could not sleep because of the bombings of all day and nights and moaning of the families praying for their death bodies lying on the streets in Middle East. Unfortunately, world is in one more time so much in need of information about the war zone and that is why these 12 days were also hectic for the war journalist. Quite recently, when I was skimming some of the newspapers, I have realized that the war is not just in the shabby streets of Gaza, but also on the coverage of newspapers. The authorities and leaders in the region do not want any journalists, being present in the region and covering well balanced stories.

War of information is an old trick

It is obvious that the both sides of the conflict some how needs to convince the public about the legitimacy of their final actions in the region. It is certainly not a new trick to use the mass media for wining the war with the help of mass mediums. In WWII Hitler (with the help of Gobbles) and Mussolini were to be the best in that, and then in cold war times US took the leadership to convince many to believe in “American dream”, with the 1st Gulf War, for the first time live war on news channels. From our houses, we could watch the planes dropping bombs in Iraq over and over. 2nd Gulf War also started as a information war, on one hand US was making claims about the mass destruction weapons hidden in Iraq and Saddam’s hidden agendas in the region and on the other hand there was Iraqi Information Minister Muhammad Saeed al-Sahaf making “patriotic speeches” against US and the west. In the beginning, US was the first one to handle mass communication professionally, but after a while with the news and photos coming Abu Ghraib, US started to loose in the communication battle since these photos were telling more than the “claims of brining democracy” to the poor peoples of Iraq. Basically world reacted so much and some kind of awareness about war appeared and inside stories of the war started to be covered by world wide on TV channels and newspapers. There appeared a careful audience who do not approve any terrorist activity, and do not want to see war crimes taking place in other parts of the world with the help of internet, blog journalism, and even youtube. (The point where Hypodermic Needle and Magic Bullet Theories start shattering)

Control over the information

On 6th of Jan, on New York Times, Ethan Bronner (Israel Puts Media Clamp on Gaza) dealt with the information side of the war and how Israel State is trying to control journalist with the some reasons in order to keep the information in their hand and only release with their approval. Basically, Israel want “their stories to be covered about the region” in the world.

In his news, he states; “Three times in recent days, a small group of foreign correspondents was told to appear at the border crossing to Gaza. The reporters were to be permitted in to cover firsthand the Israeli war on Hamas in keeping with a Supreme Court ruling against the two-month-old Israeli ban on foreign journalists entering Gaza.” He adds; “Each time, they were turned back on security grounds, even as relief workers and other foreign citizens were permitted to cross the border. On Tuesday the reporters were told to not even bother going to the border.”

It is not surprising to see that Israel seems to be much more in control and ruling and regulating how the world will see the war, because “wining a war in the eye of people” sometimes even more matters than “wining a war in a battle”. In his interesting news Bronner also states; “Like all wars, this one is partly about public relations. But unlike any war in Israel’s history, in this one the government is seeking to entirely control the message and narrative for reasons both of politics and military strategy.”

But there is also no surprise that Hamas wants to control the information in the region and it is not easy for the foreign journalists to work freely there and as it is stated in the news “…unable to send foreign reporters into Gaza, the international news media have relied on Palestinian journalists based there for coverage.”
It is clear that Israel is much more organized to keep the message controlled, and they are working very carefully to create their “own right public message” Avic Shir-On, Deputy director general for the Foreign Ministry states “We are trying to coordinate everything that has to do with the image and content of what we are doing and to make sure that whoever goes on the air, whether a minister or professor or ex-ambassador, knows what he is saying,”

Al-Jazeera and CNN

CNN has been always one of the major sources of the world, together with BBC and there is no doubt that their peak times were 1st Gulf War, when the world was watching the war on TV and trying to understand the reasons of war. There is in recent years another challenge by the east the visual and online journalism by Al-Jazeera and it seems that as a news source it is gaining more and more popularity to give some other stories which are not covered in elsewhere.

But it is important to see that CNN journalists are not happy with the fact that Israel is not letting journalists to be in Gaza. Campbell Brown anchors CNN's "Campbell Brown: No Bias, No Bull", states “We have been trying to report as accurately as possible on the fighting in Gaza. But that is without question a challenge when we do not have reporters on the ground who can bring you first-hand information about what is taking place” and adds “the reason we have no reporters on the ground in Gaza is because Israel will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza” On Tuesday night's broadcast.

In the article, named “In USA, Gaza is a different war” by Habib Battah, there is an attempt to show how the conflict differently represented in the western news sources according to them. For example, Battah emphasizes the claim that the news are not balanced on Washington Post by stating that “when the front page photographs of the two women were published on December 30, over 350 Palestinians had reportedly been killed compared to just four Israelis. What if 350 Israelis had been killed and only four Palestinians - would the newspaper have run the stories side by side as if equal in news value?”

It is certainly a hard case to decide how much the coverage will take and considering the death and wounded people in one side and Israel’s standance in the other side. But it should definitely a journalistic responsibility to present both of the claims and how the people are feeling in the both sides of the history.

I do believe that there are not just Palestinians who are already fed up with living under the bombs with in poverty but also Israelis, desiring so much a peaceful life in the region. Civil people should be more in focus rather than the politicians to tell their own stories. Journalists should be really careful to not to be the voices of politicians whose voices are already heard quite loud and frequent, but being the “voice of quiet people”, “voice of unheard people”, from streets of Israel, and from the streets of Gaza and elsewhere in the world.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Boris Vian Le Deserteur English Subtitles

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Boris Vian and his anti-war song from 1950's.

Gaza is under attack; 10.000 Israeli troops are going deep in Gaza

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 14:07:00 +0000

Just before the Christmas time, rocket shooting started from the Palestinian side to Israel, known as fired by Hamas and Israel has started a heavy bombardment against Gaza Strip of Palestine and caused more than 500 to die and around 900 civilians are wounded in the region. The situation is escalating and a serious attempt from the world power is waited to come calm down the situation and end the war with a ceasefire.

Hamas is hold responsible by the Israel authorities since they kept shooting rockets to the Israel side and it clear that Hamas is seen as a terrorist group by Israel Government. But more importantly, it is crucial to understand that Hamas is generally supported by the public in Palestine. Mark Tran from Guardian, uses some of the comments taken from the blogs around the world and Tom Sagev writing in Ha’retz, thinks Israel is repeating the mistakes of past and believes that they can get rid of Hamas militarily. In the same news, published in Guardian, Sagev adds, "But Hamas is not a terrorist organisation holding Gaza residents hostage: It is a religious nationalist movement, and a majority of Gaza residents believe in its path.”
It is not a surprise that Hamas is strongly supported with in Palestine and also in other countries of Middle East undercover, because "Since fall of 2007, Israel has kept the 1.5 million Gazans under a blockade, interdicting food, fuel and medical supplies to one degree or another” and it seems that Israel do not want to work on changing the minds of Palestinians and politically moving them to any other milder alternative which might even take some part in cooperation with Israel and neighbouring countries. The solution seems to be easy and sharp; kill them all! Unfortunately, just as it had happened before, this reckless decision of Israel is far from being rational and it seems that extreme groups of Middle East will gain more and more public support in the long run.

Humanitarian side of the story seems to be one of the most disastrous one ever took place in Middle East in such a short time, Red Cross and ambulances are not allowed to carry any help and open air markets, universities, mosques, hospitals are even under bombardment according to recent news. More than the pain and the sorrow in the region, it seems that the tension is bound to rise immensely, if there would no emergent measure taken by US, EU and UN. There is no doubt that the Bush is still in his office and even in his last few days refuses to take a serious action to end the war. Except France, EU is also tented to emphasize the need to take an action after the rocket shootings of Israel. UN Security Council is one more time, could not function and come up with a serious resolution which would guide the sides of the conflict.

Jackson Diehl from Washington Post also points out the same important side of the story by looking at Israeli PM Olmert last actions; “he will be remembered for fighting two bloody and wasteful mini wars in les then three years in power” and he also adds “The first one, in Lebanon during the summer of 2006, punished but failed to defeat or even permanently injure Hezbollah, which is politically and militarily stronger today than it was before Olmert took office. This one will probably have about the same effect on Hamas, which almost certainly will still control Gaza and retain the capacity to strike Israel."

Politicians and the decision makers are, in general, expected to be rational and making sensible decisions, but it is obvious that rather than calming down the already boiling pot of Middle East, adding a bit “more gasoline on the fire” might also discomfort Israel as well as Palestine in the long run. Extreme religious groups in both sides can well be see the situation as a “new crusade” or a kind of “jihad”, but more than these word, rational politicians should start thinking peace in the region and showing the needed efforts urgently, since the each casualty creates more hate and sorrow which are the main fuels of the any extreme groups taking violent actions in the region.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Reference: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2008/dec/29/israel-gaza-attacks-motives

LIFESTYLE 2: Magnificent History of Coffee

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 13:42:00 +0000

The history of coffee bean, the magic beans that activate billons of people in the early mornings, goes back to tenth century. It’s evolution through the timeline and variety of uses serves for different purposes makes this fascinating beans much more than basic fruits of a regular plant, but a source of beverage which still attracts entrepreneurs, investors and marketing people from all around the world.

It is known as the coffee beans were discovered in Ethiopia, and it is recognized as the motherland of it. From that time, coffee has been a well appreciated economically valuable product which later travelled to Arabian Peninsula whit the hands of traders. Attractiveness of the taste was also irresistible for the traders and name of coffee reached to India and later on to Europe via Turks who gave the used the word “kava” which derived from Arabic. In 1683, with Vienna Siege of Ottoman Turks, remarkable journey of coffee on Europe started. It is believed that the Turks left the city in a rush after the siege and they left the coffee bean bags in Vien. A man named Kolschitzky knew what these beans were used for and naturally he became the owner of the first coffee shop in Vienna. Around the same, even earlier Venetians also traded coffee in small quantities since there were numerous people who knew about it and also Arabs were strict about the trade since it was thought that coffee beans could have used to grow in other lands too. What was not known that the climate was not suitable to grow it in Europe naturally but only in green houses? It has been thought as a sinful drink which was maybe coming from Muslim lands and identified very much with Arab and Turks. But there is not sure that the actual product began to be served first in Venice in coffee houses and then these coffee houses spread around all Europe.

The coffee was banned for some time until it was blessed by Pope Celement VIII who tried it and enjoyed the taste very much. In 17th century Dutch people brought coffee beans from Malabar and grew them in green houses and they were amazed with the possible income that they can have if they had larger lands where they can grow them without green houses. This led Dutch colonies such as Java in Asia and Surinam in America to be one of the most important suppliers of Europe.

Britain, even though it is much more associated with tea, has been also an important spot for the traders after the 1674 with the opening of the first coffee house in London by a Lebanese Jew. In central Europe, coffee and coffeehouses became one of the symbols of liberty which is often now associated with “comfort” and “joy” in today’s advertisements. There have been various attempts to grow this magic product and be independent from Arab traders. This has been achieved first by Dutch and then by French entrepreneurs with the help of green houses. This was a new method to grow the beans in Europe and with Dutch’s gift; noble tree, the method was used to produce billions of Arabica trees which were used in various French colonies in Latin America and Central America. It became a way of living and representation of values such as "Liberté, égalité, fraternité, ou la mort!" ("Liberty, equality, fraternity, or death!")" in French revolution against bourgeoisie.

Later on from the beans of Noble Tree, Chevalier Gabriel Mathiew de Clieu produced immense amount of new trees which were used to produce coffee in Haiti, Caribbia, and Mexico and spread to all Latin America after 1720’s. While the coffee and this addictive joyful habit was spreading all around the world, in every spot, it was being prepared in a different way and named according to preparation process. Such as mocha, frappachino, latte, Turkish coffee, macchiato. Espresso and so on. Coffee houses and their purposes was also varied, some were used as a meeting spots for a break in daily rush, some were used a meeting place for sharing political ideas such as Sons of Liberty of American Revolution and abortive Beer Hall Putsch by German Nazi Party in 1923. Boston Tea Party which is known as a place where United States Declaration of Independence was read was also a coffeehouse in a contradiction to its actual name.

Coming to 20th century. Brazil became the main and the biggest produce of the coffee and it continued to be the monopoly until new countries such as Colombia, Guatemala, Vietnam and Indonesia started to be highly productive countries of coffee to sell the various coffee chains surrounding the main cities day by day. Through out the coffees’ journey from one continent to the other, there is great fact that coffee itself moves from being just an ordinary drink but a powerful sign of a wealth for the traders for centuries and a trendy choice for the customers living in big cities in their rush times. There is no doubt that the coffee is today not just a drink but a beverage which brings set of rules both for consuming and marketing. According to the needs of the consumers, in 21st century, the coffee might be served after different processes, grinding types, shapes and kinds of beans, as an instant or fresh, cold or hot, iced or flavoured, in glass on ceramic mugs, as take away or in cosy chairs with house music. Is that all? Certainly not! Coffeehouses, coffee chains and side products in 21st century makes coffee a kind of extension of customers own identity with their personalized drinks. Even though the standard component can be seen as the coffee beans, outcome so always varied with partial configurations just as in most of the products in 21st century markets.

In today’s world, according to statistics given by NCA coffee drinking survey in 2000, the average coffee consumption per capita in the United States is around 4.4 Kg. Among coffee drinkers (i.e. not per capita) the average coffee consumption in the United States is 3.1 cups of coffee per day (NCA). Per capita men drink approximately 1.9 cups per day, whereas women drink an average of 1.4 cups of coffee a day. Still these numbers are showing that coffee market still expand since there is a strong capability as long as right strategy and marketing methods are used as well as configuration of the product and service according to the varied needs of customers.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Bibliography

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/coffee/history.htm
http://www.coffeeresearch.org/market/usa.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coffee
http://www.decentcoffee.com/history.html

LIFE STYLE: Café Guide of Turku; Coffee is never just caffeine!

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 11:52:00 +0000

Turku…for the ones who never heard of the name of the first capital of Finland, the name is not coming from Turkey and the actually it is believed that the word comes from Slavic languages, meaning “market place”. Basically Turku has both sea and river and should be counted as one of the lucky city. But funnily enough except few close districts Naantali, Kaarina, and the city harbour, the city seems to be turned its back to the sea and more in love with the river called “Aurajoki” side one. Most of the cafes and restaurants are mainly either in market place “tori” or by the river banks.

The coffee has a very meaningful part in Finnish life since according to many statistics; they are the first one in the consumption of coffee. The morning starts with coffee and the dark days enjoyed with strong and attractive smell of coffee. Since Finnish people like spending time at home, they are also into buying from basic filter coffee machines to very sophisticated espresso machines. But day by day, in each corner, you can see new coffee houses opening and it seems that coffee is more than loading caffeine in their body but sharing every moment with the friends and having long chats just like in southern Europe. To get a nice grasp of a the city, one should definitely know the nice cafes since they do not make a lot promotion and stay as humble alternative for the “coffee lovers”. In last one and a half year, I spend most of my time in Turku and I would like to share my comment and suggestions on the cafes in the city.

I will try to tell you “best” ones first and then I will also give few examples of the “army cafeterias” called so because of being far from a coffee house. Starting with the best one, there is no doubt it is Three Beans in the centre of Turku. (Humalistonkatu 3).From the moment the one opens the door of this unique and mini place, the coffee smells get you to another world. Owner is so friendly and running the place by herself but for sure preparing the greatest mocha you can drink in Turku. Prices are affordable even for low budged students and the second cup is always with discount. Good coffee, friendly owner, handy location and nice decoration…Ten out of ten. The best of Turku and at the top of the list!

The second alternative is Café Brahe on Yliopistankatu 37 and now it has also a new branch in Hansa Shopping Center. More than the new one, the one of Yliopistankatu has a character and a nice view of the most vivid street of Turku. Coffee is accompanied with “giant muffins”, well enough for two people and wide variety of pastries, cookies and sandwiches.

Art Café by the river on Läntinen Rantakatu 5, (ph:2719000) is also another good choice. Cheese cakes are worth to mention and espresso and cappuccinos. They always care about the service and the happiness of the customers. The decoration is really artistic and the river view from the windows really moving while you are having your coffee. They also place some chairs and tables by the river outside in summer time the ones “sunshine and coffee lovers”.

Alwar, it is a great place because of many reasons. You can just get addicted there since it offers everything in this small city. People working there are not just working but enjoying every moment, and becoming your friends. They always treat you as their friends and after a while know you likes and dislikes. The music is always good and the relax young and middle ages people, musicians, students, authors, poets hang out in this semi-bohemian café bar. There is only filter coffee and hot chocolate but there is a great selection of world beer and comfortable smoking section as well as window side, street viewed tables. If you want to know more people and make new friends, it is the first step you should take in Turku, a “must visit” regularly.

Coffee World is chain coffee house and recently there is a new one in the Tori (right on the corner of the main square) and it offers luxury and wide variety of selection but it a bit impersonal. Just as in other chain stores, like Starbucks and Gloria Jeans, people working are just working and they will never remember you and what you get all the time even if you go every day. But still the interior decoration is impressive and location is very central. For the ones to take a little coffee break, it offers nice coffee and comfort.

Café Serious, on Linnankatu 2 is an alternative for the sophisticated customers since it is right inside of the main library. Regular visitors of the library have their lunches and also coffees in this small but very cosy café. Stefano is the Italian owner of the place and he is always friendly and welcoming. He will offer you the best espresso and tiramisu cake; there is no doubt about it.

Naantalin Aurinkoinen on Hämeenkatu 3 (Ph:075 325 7313) is a typically Finnish chain and it has many specialities of Finnish deserts. On specific days such as Christmas, Easter, Midsummer festival, you can always find something “Finnish” to eat with you coffee. It has a warm and humble atmosphere and best filter coffee of Finland; Juhla. Finns basically likes the taste of Juhla even though it is not really my favourite.

The other good alternatives are Domcafe under the first floor of the main church of Turku (Tuomiokirko) and Aschan, another chain café of Finland (Eerikinkatu 15, in Hansa, on Kauppiaskatu 9, Eerikinkatu 16, Humalistonkatu 5, Hämeenkatu 8, and Yliopistonkatu 20 in Hansa). The prices are always more than what you get and the coffee is not the best but not the worst, on average. But if you are into coffee and hot chocolate and want to give a kick to your caffeine crises, the Robert’s Coffee on Kauppiaskatu 11, is a good alternative of an internationally known chain.

Arnold is always cheap and easy to access and the favourite place of youngsters because of the doughnuts (Eerikinkatu 15 in Hansa and Viilarinkatu 3). In Hansa, the well known shopping centre of Turku, you can find a café of Stockmann. Stockhmann is known as the most of expensive clothing store of Finland and basically the coffee is also expensive enough to make you forget its taste. Nothing really special but maybe a bit of comfort, and taking a part in high class of Turku if you are into fashion and luxury. But if you are driven by the need of coffee, I would recommend you the top names in the list I mentioned before.

Rento and Poro are right on the vivid street called Yliopistonkatu but they are not really customer friendly, too snobby and nothing reminding coffee but mass of people staring at each other in high volume of disturbance, and soccer matches on TV screens not watched by anyone but heard since you could not avoid. Security of Poro is also known as not accepting foreigners few times and I personally experienced one case. With his broken English he said I could not get in (daytime) with my German and Italian friends since we are all foreigners and he said some foreigners caused some problems a day before. Funny and irritating but definitely they do not represent friendly Finns and they need to learn about welcoming foreigners since Turku will be the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2011 and streets will be packed with the wonderers soon, want to learn about Finnish culture and Turku.

In general, there are many good alternatives, absolutely inviting and charm of coffee is for sure enough to make your day a nice one. You can take walk in the small and handy centre of the city and also take a brake in one of these cafes and enjoy your memories in every sip of your freshly brewed coffee and make your plans for discovering new parts of the city. Coffee is sure not coffee for Finns and they know how to appreciate the chat and coffee together, and they will always reward you back if you once invite them for a coffee joy out in the centre. Next time you will be called back and basically coffee will be the first step of your friendships…enjoy your coffees and enjoy Turku.

1-Three Beans
2-Café Brahe
3-Art Café
4-Alwar
5-Coffee world
6-Café Serious
7-Naantlain Aurinkoinen
8-Domcafe
9-Robert’s Coffee
10-Aschan

Gokhan KURTARAN

Turkey has blocked blooger.com

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:13:00 +0000

(Cartoon by Cem Yalcin; "“Testing, 1,2 , ich bin haynnin siwanynin, hmm, sound test 1,2,3,4, Heil Tayyipler, hmm this will succeed!”)

Turkey has added a new worldwide known blog base; blogger.com to the internet banning history of the country on this Friday. Bloger.com is a blog publishing system first crated by Pyra Labs. and owned by Google in 2003.

Today, many internet users in the country were shocked to see that they can not access to Blogger.com which is was ranked 16 on the list of top 50 domains in terms of number of unique visitors in 2007 in the world.

Millions of blog user updating their sited regularly and sharing new ideas, publishing their own thoughts, sometimes about minor things about daily life but sometimes about the news which are skipped by the main stream TV channels and newspapers in the world.

According to the news of Today’s Zaman; “there are currently 853 Web sites banned in Turkey, including video-sharing site Youtube and dailymotion.com, placing Turkey in the league of countries such as China and Saudi Arabia, famous for restricting freedom of speech.”

Local Criminal Courts of Turkey do have the right to ban a web site and some of the sites have been banned without no justification such as gundemonline.com. The sites are generally banned on the grounds of claims of insulting the founding father and the First President of Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, or having sexual content, containing violence, gambling etc. Youtube.com was banned more than six months this year and now the world wide meeting point of blog users; www.blogger.com is also banned. No justification has been made by the court yet on the ground of the decision.

Turkey is not alone in its antidemocratic attempt to ban the free thought and expression right of internet users in the world. China, Armenia, Iran, Tunisia, Indonesia, Syria and Saudi Arabia have the similar kinds of banning record.
Government of Turkey, does not seem to be taking any part in making regulations in order to put Turkey into the league of shame in 21st century and more than the videos of insulting Ataturk, current ruling politicians of Turkey seems to be disturbed by the criticisms they are receiving from internet.

Prime Minister Erdogan also known as taking Musa Kart and his newspaper, Cumhuriyet, to court after he was portrayed as a cat entangled in a ball of wool. He also launched a lawsuit against a small, local newspaper, Sakarya, which reprinted the cartoon. Few weeks ago, he also called the whole nation to protest and not to buy and read the newspapers owned by Aydin Dogan. It is highly luckily that Justice and Development Party this time is disturbed by the bloggers writing against them.

There are still ways to access to banned sites

Thanks to international platforms such as ktunnel.com and vtunnel.com which allow internet users of Turkey to access the banned sites. Because of the banning of the courts well known web sites, popularity of the bridge web sites has increased rapidly and according to the statistics of August, they are ranked as 37th most visited sites.
Gokhan KURTARAN

“Islam in Finland” Seminar in Turku

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:33:00 +0000

“Islam in Finland” Seminar took place under the theme of “Muslims and Researchers in Dialogue” on Tuesday, at 10.15, in Axelia, Auditorium Salin of Abo Academia in Turku, Finland with the support of 1001 Actions for Dialogue, The Anna Lindh Foundation. Leading researchers in the field and students took part in the interactive seminar and had the chance to search for a possible co-operation between different religious groups. “Islam and Suomessa” (Islam in Finland) book is also released in the before the seminar written by Tuomas Martikainen, Tuula Sakaranaho & Marko Juntunen.

In the morning part of the seminar, Tuomas Martikaninen from Abo Akademi greeted the participants and Marko Juntunen, Tuomas Martikainen, Minna Säävälä, Antero Leitzinger, Hanna Virtanen, Mari Maasilta, Karin Creutz-Kämppi continued with their views in the matter. Ahmed Akar fom Kulttuurikeskus Caisa of Finland also shared his view in the frame of “Islam in Finland”.

Islam in USA: Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration

Second part of the seminar was chaired by Prof. Antti Laato and Prof. Alex Stepick from Florida International University, USA made his presentation on “Contemporary Trends in Religion and Immigration” which really contributed another approach from the examples of US experience of immigration and adaptation of immigrants in their new environment. Generally, he started with the researches done on the “understanding of religion and God” in US and in comparison with Europe. According to him, more or less, religion is important to %60 of the Americans in USA, while it’s only 20% of in Europe. In USA, %63 the respondents also stated that they know God exists and in Europe around %20 of the respondents stated that they know God exists. According to statistics, %44 of the respondents attend the worship at least once a week, while in Europe it is around %15. In conclusion, “religion is very important in social life in US” stated Mr.Stepick.

He also supplied information on Islam in US and gave approximate numbers on Muslims living in US. According to him, there are over 12,000 mosques and more than half of them are founded in last 25 years. Islam is still the fastest growing religion in US and approximate Muslim population is around 5, 8 million and %30-%40 of them are African Americans (non-immigrants), 25% of them are South Asians, around 25% of them are Arabic speaking and rest is from N.Africa. First Muslim settlement was N. Dokato in 1900’s and later on Indiana Islamic Center was founded in 1914 in Iawo, the oldest American mosque still exist there and actively used. What was interesting is both states are in the heartland of US, still known as the most conservative parts of US.

Prof. Alex Stepick went on by giving information on immigration waves of US and on average Muslim goers. In 1924, US shut down all the immigrations, and 3rd wave immigration started only in 1947, dominantly from Pakistan and India. 4th wave followed in 1965 with mainly highly qualified professionals due to the immigration regulations. According to Mr. Stepick, average Muslim goers today “has a Bachelor degree of higher”, “earns around 74 thousand US dollar”, and “married with children” in US.

Prof. Alex Stepick: Path towards Integration

According to Prof. Alex Stepick, tension between religiously differed groups is inevitable. But “cooperation can be encouraged” and “positive context of reception” can be attainable and integration process might be successful with “strong leaders” and “cooperative activities”. Spots, music, food can well be used as a common international bridge between different groups.

He also emphasized the importance of “welcoming” immigrants in their new environment. It generally produces a smooth integration process and well adapted immigrants at the end. The other way to “reject” them and this act highly luckily to crates reactive response, and emphasizes on differences rather than commonalities.

Prof. Alex Stepick stated that he found Bush having a positive response toward US Muslims after September 11 was worked well to distinguish the terrorism and Muslims living in US. Certainly this example was highly debatable on. He concluded his words summing up his core points; such as “religious leadership”, “projects moral authority”, “links congregants with power or people who come to power”, “cooperative activities that effect solidarity” (such as food, dance, music, sport, education and our communication rhetoric”.

Dr. Sean McLoughlin :Muslim Leadership and Public Engagement in Britain

Dr. Sean McLoughlin from University of Leeds, UK took the stage and overviewed his presentation under the topics of “Muslim in Britain”, “From Race to Faith: The State Multiculturalism”, “From Local to National: Old & New Movement”, “The Rise and Fall of Muslim Council of Britain” and “The State & Muslim Leadership after 7/7”

He pictured the current Muslim demography in UK and stated that 1/3 of all the Muslims of UK live in London. According to Religious Question 2001, there are around 1,6 million Muslims living in UK and the number grew up around %60 since 1991.Generally Muslims are in UK described as “less mobile and more conservative” than other groups and the word of YUMMies (Young and Upperly Mobile Muslims) often used to describe the new generation.

In the “From the Race and Faith Relations”, Dr. Sean McLoughlin made an outline of immigration, citizenship, race and ethnic relations in UK. First started with Post Colonial Commonwealth Citizenship and race riots of 1950’s. Immigration legislation from 1950’s and discrimination legislation after 1966 were important attempt to create a base for unity in diversity. Multiculturalism was seen as a way out from most of the problems by the liberals starting from 60’s and the same thinking went for quite a long time. Dr. Sean McLoughlin continued his presentation with “From Race to Faith Relations” and gave the examples of “Riots in Northern mill towns”, “failure in multiculturalism”, “islamaphobia”, and possibility of “shared experiences and common citizenship to minimize the further disorder”.

He also overviewed the attempts of Muslims to be organized in UK under an umbrella organisation such as a council or a council in order to defend their rights. This came to real in 1997 with the name of “Muslim Council of Britain” as something similar to Jewish Board of Deputies”, but the council lacked representatives of Pakistani Sufis while the majority of the Muslims in UK are Pakistani originated. At the end, in 2006 Sufi Muslim Council appeared on the stage as a power. They called themselves as “the silent majority” but lacked the institutional expression. Meanwhile traditional Islamist took the stage under the name of “struggle for Islam”. Generally Dr. Sean McLoughlin stated that there seems to be tendency towards “wider trends since Sept. 11, mature, self critical, cosmopolitan Muslim voices”.

Dr Anas Hajjar:Finnish Muslims and Dialogue of Religions

Dr Anas Hajjar from Islamic Council of Finland started giving information on his background as an immigrant who came to Finland 22 years ago. He overviewed the history of Islam in Finland by referring to Tatars who came from Russia in 19th century to Finland as Muslims. In 1940, Tatars even found their first mosque in Järvenpää. Later on 1980’s, a new wave of immigration started mainly from Middle East and Africa to Finland and in 1990’s Somalians, Kosovians and Bosnians came as immigrants due to the conflicts in their own regions. Muslim population is thought to be around 40.000 and Dr Anas Hajjar stated that 7000 of them are registered members of Islamic Council of Finland and rest prefers to be free believers of Islam rather than having any ties with any council or associations.

He stated that, after September 11, President of Finland and leaders of religious groups wanted to meet more often to know more about each other and have talks about a possible cooperation. Dr Anas Hajjar stated that it is about cooperation not about bossing to prove who is better than the other, or who is more right, but mainly for dialogue between religions on an equal level and understanding of each other in order to work together for a better society. He stated that the regular meeting between the leaders of different religions still taking place in Finland.

Director Seppo Rissanen :The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Dialogue

Director Seppo Rissanen from The Finnish Evangelical Lutheran Mission also informed the audience about his background and told that they are having regular meeting with the countries; Lebanon, Syria and Iran for cooperation. He stated that dialogue attempts are quite new not because they did not want but it was because there were not a Muslim community existing other than Tatars. According to him, all together number of Tatars and Jews were around 2000. But the whole picture started to change in homogeneous Finland in especially 90’s with new immigrants. Especially with the rise of religious extremism, dialogue stated to be a new challenge. “Peace between religions can not be taken for granted” Director Seppo Rissanen stated. Because the whole situation can turn into intolerance, discrimination, and violence at the end.

He gave an example of an actual case happened few years ago in south west of Finland; young Finns and young Muslims had a fight on the street and after the fight the leaders of religious groups condemned the action all together. According to Mr.Rissanen, moment of crises can be used as a starting point of active cooperation. He also stated that they have open invitation to other religions to come together and discuss and cooperate. He said twice a year, they are having such meetings and so far there has not been any tense argument. He said they are aware of they are major differences in their beliefs but it does not prevent them to respect each other. “Personally I am convinced dialogue is becoming part of our life” stated Director Seppo Rissanen.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Economical Crisis; finding a way out within complete chaos

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 11:23:00 +0000

Right in the middle of the most chaotic days of the economic crises, there are many crucial questions to be asked and answered immediately. Immediately, because it seems that the world does not have a long time to think, negotiate, vote and decide in the European standards. The domino effect of the crisis is faster than precautions and the complete chaos is spreading from Wall Street to even villages of Finland.

Is it really end of capitalism and the liberal values in the world, with serial state intervention into the market and strict regulations and flow of financial support to the banks in order to stabilize the current situation? It is still discussable. But there are various theories and most of them are related with the lessons taken from the biggest economical disaster in west; Great Depression. Some says that the world will never have a similar experience again, but if we have not something in similar way, maybe a minor model of the crisis, would the people able to survive while the life conditions might change rapidly? Is west really ready for that in upcoming years?

Is another Great Depression on the way?

A prominent journalist and columnist of Turkey, Altan Oymen (Radikal, 11.10.08) stated “ let’s look after 1929; USA somehow managed to be solving the problem in the democracy, UK and Switzerland, and Scandinavian countries almost did the same way, they managed to put the things right. But Germany could not do that. They found the way out of unemployment and other disasters related with crisis, in Hitler’s Nazism. And some other European countries also undergone through dictatorial regimes. Italy was already in Mussolini’s fascism. Mussolini used the crisis to reinforce his power in Italy and region. USSR also emphasized “how Marxism was right” and used the crisis as the proof of the “fact”. The crisis worked well for Stalin in over there too.”

He also emphasizes that there is a great change in everything in today’s age, so it does not mean that the same things will happen again in Europe or in any part of the world. But what is not thought and analysed today, who might be benefiting in today’s economical crisis? What sort of political movements might use the crisis as a scenario of the last day of the world, in order to gain the public’s support? How would the whole situation affect the actors of the world in the political-economical-sociological senses?

When will Europe act together?

It seems that every economic and political change in the world is a test for Europe’s acting together or independently. Unfortunately, the system which does seem to be perfect, does not really work in the practice since EU first could not agree on a common reaction after the Georgia and Russia Conflict broke out on 08.08.08. There are variety of opinions with in EU about the situation, such as the one of the Finnish Ambassador stated "Europe has been watching the actions of Russia in a state of paralysis, and has taken hardly any concrete action in the matter” in his two pages of assessment on the situation in the world asked by Finnish Foreign Minister Stub. According to the news of another Finnish ambassador also wrote “Europe is increasingly dependent on energy from Russia, and in Georgia, Russia showed how easy it would be to cut off the important pipelines to the west as well. Russia has already used the energy weapon in its foreign policy, when the state-owned company Gazprom turned off the taps to its pro-Western neighbour Ukraine for some time” in his assessment. The description is really telling a lot about the current situation in EU; “paralysed” by the Finnish Ambassador.

The second biggest test about the unity of EU was the economical crisis and it seems that one more time member nations are acting independently rather than acting as one actor. It seems that the decision taking process with in EU makes the actions to be take immediately almost impossible and the leaders of EU are finding the only way out by securing their own garden with the fences, not thinking about the neighbourhood that they are living in.

Changing roles and new infrastructure

Whether we like or not, it is time for questioning the economical and political pillars of EU, rather then praising “how good we are” then the other parts of the world. “The others” of Europe for centuries are finding their own ways and whether they are democratically ruled or not, countries are like Chine, India and Russia seems to be the new economical fore leaders of the world. They do consider all the options and they play this chess game according to its own “liberal rules”. Certainly, meanwhile this economic power does not stay as “innocent economic power” but evolve into a strong, willing and daring political power. We can see that clearly, day by day Chine and Russia having more “say” in every matter and “Russia” is so much aware of the west to be dependent on new energy sources. The whole matter might lead us to the question; is it really still matter to be part of EU or not? If the nations of EU will act independently in major cases as we have seen in Russia-Georgia Conflict and current economical crisis, does it still carry a meaning to be called a “union”? Sooner or later we will learn the answers of these questions, hopefully not through sad experiences.

Note: In the second picture, unemployed people are lined in order to get food and drink in 1927.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Lighthouse fiasco butters not the bread but slide of AKP for the downfall !

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 18:39:00 +0000

Deniz Feneri, with its name in English; Lighthouse Charity Foundation which works with the same name both in Germany and in Turkey, collects billions of Euros every year as well as donations from business people and middle class, to help the needed people suffering economically hard times in varied parts of the world. The aim might seem very innocent but the reality seems to be harsh and disturbing. It is claimed by the German prosecutors have found the illegal transfer of the charity fund worth more than 1,5 million Euro, from Germany to Turkey.

It is not known where this great amount of the charity funds ended up and used for. It is also claimed that the illegal money used by AK Party (Justice and Development Party) through the hand of Deniz Feneri (Light House Charity) and Kanal 7 (known as a religious broadcasting channel close to the ruling government).

This is claim the to be one of the biggest scandal took place both in Germany and Turkey since the millions of Turkish people living abroad seems to be deceived by the religious looking “black hearted” creatures. The case opened up by the German Courts and it can well be called like “Pandora’s Box” for the country. AK Party (literally “AK” means “white and clean”) seems to be unable to continue to investigate the roots of the “Green money” coming from Europe to Turkey. The doubts are increasing more and more about the party since Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan rather seems to be getting more angry about the claims then taking a side from the one who are deceived and defending their right by taking action against fraud.

Tayyip Erdogan has stated a “press war” against the newspapers and TV channels making the news of Deniz Feneri case recently. He claimed that the media owned by Aydin Dogan opened a fire against him through media since he was disappointed by the changes not done in rules and the regulations about his Hilton Hotel according to his will. This might be the case; no one can make a decision about the motives of the people about their actions. It can be “because of anything”, but what about the journalism part of the matter? What is the understanding of journalism and media for him? It is obvious that Erdogan does not seem to take the events as a serious fraud sucking the charity funds and pumping them to the conservative Islamists’ hands. Is it because Erdogan is actually tightly connected with these Conservative Islamists, suspected names in Kanal 7 and Deniz Feneri. If it is not, why does he step back and take action against to journalists who are serving for the public to know more about the case which is not a minor case but a huge fraud which has a wide web in Europe.

Last week, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan even called the whole nation to not to buy newspapers of those who are making the news of Deniz Feneri case and called everyone to protest them with this way. How horrible it is? To hear the steps of a giant dictatorship trying to emphasize his power on the top of a state.

I am wondering that he must be a very lonely person who does not a have a wise guidance or a friendly suggestion to not to take these kinds of dangerous steps towards to press. It seems that Deniz Feneri case is really buttering not the bread but the slide of the AK Party for the final fall down with not a closure decision of the Constitutional Court by people who voted YES previously.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Breaking News: School shooting in Kauhajoki in Finland

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:47:00 +0000

At 11 a.m., a 22 years old student came to the school in Kauhajoki in western Finland, with arm and start shooting students in the class and nine dead and still the news are not clear about the end of the attacker, he shot himself but not know whether he died or wounded for sure by the public and press.

According to the news of Helsingin Sanomot, the attacker open a fire with a automatic gun to the students taking an exam in the first ground of the building. The whole building is evacuated right away but so far 9 students could not be saved to life.

Last year, on November at High School, a gunman aged 18 also had killed 11 people and also himself afterwards. It is obvious that the school shootings will be discussed more and more in public openly in order to find a way out to prevent such sad cases in Finland.

According to the upcoming news, there will be updates soon.

It has been found out that, just like the previous case took place on November 2007, the attacker of Kauhajoki School had also loaded a video on well known video site youtube.com to announce his planned action which caused 9 students death at 11.00 in this morning.

For the video; http://videogaleri.hurriyet.com.tr/Video.aspx?s=5&vid=2755

According to BBC news, because of the previous cases, Finland's government pledged to raise the minimum age for buying guns. The country still keeps his long tradition of hunting and owning weapons, there is a struggle to distinguish for what aims 1.6 million private arms could be used for in the future. The recent indicators show that there is a tendency of owning weapons in Finland and the question is how to regulate the ongoing process in order to be sure that the weapons are in the right hands such as hunters rather than young students.

Top photo is taken from Helsingin Sanomat and the rest of them are from the official web site of BBC.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Counting down and “waiting for CERN”

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 21:44:00 +0000

CERN, Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research), well known particular physics laboratory with 20 member states and 8 observers , founded in 1954 for the high tech researches for the scientific improvement in physic. The name of CERN is known as the core of the scientific knowledge since the most of the revolutionary steps are taken in its laboratories and attendants of scientist from all around the world. What is there to attract the top scientists to be attracted in the core? There is no doubt that it is not because of Dan Brown and his books, but the love of knowledge and eternal wonder for the unknown.

On the official website of CERN, mission of the organization is described as “Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.”

It is obvious that the attempt is very much seen as acting like the hand of God and almost the acting as God and making researched on unknown. That is why; internet has been the online harbour of global rumours about the important test which will take place tomorrow. There is no doubt that tomorrow will not be the same, and it will be remembered as an important moment. Even though there happens nothing, this will prove how good the paved ways of the science up to now and where should be traced back and found the most reliable theory in the cumulative achieves of the science. We can certainly not take theories as granted and assume that they are laws; I do not think any scientists think so. Unfortunately, the public is quite misdirected about the concepts of “law” and “theory”, the main differences between them. This is why some people are so ready to react against the theory of evaluation without not thinking much about what the “theory” means scientifically. It is obvious that the theory itself is an attempt to explain a situation, object, being etc. and when this attempt is considered as “the fact”, it is generally named as “law”; just like “gravitation law”. The easiest way one can do is to refer to Oxford Dictionary and I will refer to that in order to be clearer; “1-a supposition or a system of ideas intended to explain something; especially one based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained. 2-an idea accounting for or justifying something. 3- A set of principles on which an activity is based.”. Then, my word is to ones who are that much being in opposition to any sorts of “theories” by thinking them as “facts” presented by the science and putting the scientists into the place of advocate of devils, please turn of your computers and hand off the technological life and all the benefit we get through the attempts of scientists. I am sure the reaction is that, “no it is not possible”, because there are many good things we achieved with the science, and scientist will always have some theories and not necessarily we have to like all of them. I do also try to understand the concerns of the religious people from all around the world, but the end all we need is a bit more of a common understanding and trust in goodwill of the people.

Going back the where had started; CERN, tomorrow the first beam will be tested under the name of Large Hadron Collider and in this test “almost a minor simulation of the big bang will take place”, at least this is what expected and it might certainly cost few more billions of Euros, and endless efforts and lives of hundreds and thousands of more scientists lives in order to gain more information about the essence of nature and the “creation of the world”. Still many of the people do not put trust in to big bang theory which was first come to existence after 1912, with the attempts of Vesto Slipher and ideas on “spiral nebula” and this idea later on improved by Alexander Friedmannn, Albert Einstein and so on. Strongly enough Georges Lemaitre was a Belgian physicist and Roman Catholic Priest, predicted the recession of the nebulae was due to the expansion of the universe. It is quite surprising to see that the cumulative knowledge of the science in the specific matter of “big bang” also contributed by a priest. Why not? Because the eternal wonder about the unknown is inside of all the people of the world and for some these attempts are “a way of justifying the existence of the God” since they are already believing to God and the miracles of him. On the other hand, religious people who are opposing the theory of “Big Bang” should be supporting the researches of CERN, since there will be more information about the theory and findings will prove or shake the standing foundations of the theory.

This is a chance for all to know the more for all of us and tomorrow is long waited, unforgettable day for all of us and there is no doubt that we will benefit out of the experiments of tomorrow in upcoming years in the different parts of technology. I consider myself lucky to see something imagined and searched for many scientists like Einstein who passed away, and now I am able to see this historical moment.

Gokhan KURTARAN

New hint of the international politics: How long taking a decision takes!

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:08:00 +0000

Changing balance of the world will push some of the countries from the trustable sphere of the USA for sure, and the first one of these will be Georgia. Instability in the region will sooner or later push Georgia to loosen its ties with USA and have a leader who is more mild in the language and actions and bended towards to Russian politics in the region. Because Russia has strongly reminded the red cross borderlines of on its zone and whatever happens Russia will show all its power both economically and militarily in the region.

Starting from the first years of 2000, there has been clear attempts of USA in the neighbouring countries of Russia, such as supporting “US friendly” leaders and political movements economically. The outcome came out quite suddenly in Ukraine and Georgia. Later step was to place weapons and security shields in Czech Republic and Poland. These steps should be strong interventions of the borderline of the Russian Zone. Even though these countries are not an actual part of the Russia, still having their unique characteristic as ex-members of Soviet Union and communist movements. Since both ex-Soviet and ex-Yugoslavian countries are not politically stable and strong in enough to stand in front of the Russia, most of them found the way out by joining to EU? This was a practical solution for the small countries both in numbers and economical powers. But Russian intervention into Georgia on August, 2008 opened up a new page and started most of the residents of EU to question; how EU might stand in front of Russian politics while Putin is making decisions in a minute, and EU could not agree on basic matters for months and months. In a metaphorical way, this is a bit like trying to communicate with letter in the age of internet. Because so far, it is really important to keep in mind that Russian politics are so much moving in a fast decision making character, and the same element can well be seen in China and Iran.

Certainly, the ones who play chess will remember that the one who moves fast, because of not using the sufficient time and hurrying up is more likely to be tramped and not see the whole game and loose the game eventually. But does it really be like that? In this game does really EU (as a player) have the chance of waiting for more than the it’s allowed in the rules of the game, and start “asking the ideas of everyone watching the game from the tribune”? Since this matter does not have a complete and clear answer and it is discussable, but if our minds starts to analyze the differences and its effects of the decision taking systems both in east and west and, there is no doubt that there will be some benefits to find maybe some “hybrid models” in decision taking systems.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Note: The photo is taken from www.tngleaders.com

Ossetia Conflict causes the fire between Georgia and Russia

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 22:36:00 +0000

Georgia tried to take the control in the South Ossetia yesterday, which might carry a significant meaning because of the great match of the numbers of the date; 08.08.08 and also the starting day of the Olympiads 2008 in Beijing.

No surprise that Russia fired back and sent 150 tanks to the capital of South Ossetia. According to the latest news, the city has already been taken by the Russian forces.

On Friday, Georgian Prime Minister Mikhael Saakasvili stated that Russia is fighting a war with his country in their own territory, on a TV channel.

“"It's not about Georgia anymore. It's about America, its values," Prime Minister of Georgia, Mr. Saakasvili stated and emphasized that "We are a freedom-loving nation that is right now under attack."

According to the strategists in the region, the matter is not just about the Georgia and Russia but more about the west and Russia. Georgia is in such a strategically important spot of the region and has well interest in the North and South Osseetia. At the same time, their army is known to be trained by US soldiers and it is also known that Georgia is constantly supported by USA in the international arena. This can well be understood from the remarks of the Saakasvili by saying “It is not about Georgia anymore, it is about America, it is values”.

It seems that the Prime Minister is more concerned about the values of USA than the future of Georgia as we see that he is expecting the sudden reaction of the west to attack Russia and US to start a war against Moscow. It must be a dream in the region so far? It is known that the western world and US called urged boths sides to calm down and start a ceasefire. But politically it is obvious that this can never been understood as taking a part in the war but just being active in words, just watching what happens in the region in next few days. Georgia seems to be taking a great risk in the region in front of a giant power of the world so far.

Source of the picture: www.milliyet.com.tr

Gokhan KURTARAN

Turkey :PKK is the responsible for the double blasts in Istanbul

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 17:15:00 +0000

Interior Minister of Turkey has stated after important investigations that PKK terrorists have been caught in Istanbul. All of the responsible, supporters and organizers of the double bomb attacks have been arrested and the exact number and the information on their identities are still not declared to the press. It is stated that they are responsible for the blast which killed 17 people on last Sunday in Istanbul. 150 people were also wounded in the terrorist attack.

According to the online news of Hurriyet newspaper, Interior Minister of Besir Atalay stated; "Our judgment is that this merciless attack was the work of the bloody separatist group.”

On the day of the attack, terrorists placed their two bombs in the rubbish bins in the vivid street of the Gungoren region in Istanbul and they activated the bombs with a remote system worked with mobile phone. It is stated that the order of the attack was given from the Kandil Mountain which is known as base for the terrorist activities in the north of Iraq against Turkey.

PKK is a terrorist organisation which is recognized as so by US, EU and many other countries in the world and PKK killed more than 30.000 people since 1984 to 2008.

Note: Besir Atalay, Interior Minister of Turkey on the photo. It is taken from www.sestv.com.tr

Gokhan KURTARAN

On the edge of heaven or hell

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:18:00 +0000

Last year, on 22nd of July, voters of Turkey used their legitimate right by voting for the political party with good intentions by trusting the goodwill of the politicians. Expectations of masses were generally “no army de coup, no Sheri at (Islamic law)” and this dream was the main theme of the meetings of Cumhuriyet (Republic) in the most cosmopolitan cities; Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir. Millions of people, only with Turkish flags, by criticizing the governing party; Justice and Development Party, were marching on the roads with no violence at all but only dreams of a better Turkey. There were millions of people who did not attend to those meetings and who approved the politics of the current government. These differences in the way that people were thinking, in a way, was the symbol of the democracy and both sides of the country, supporting AKP or not, were expecting politicians to get rid of their main concerns about the secularism and create a successful Turkey in economy, internal and foreign politics, good quality of education and social security.

Finally on 22nd of July, Justice and Development Party (AK Party) got %47 of the whole votes. There is no doubt that this was a victory of AK Party, but it remained to be the last victory at the same time. At the end, the power Erdogan got in his hands seems to turn him into a “tiran” just as the Financial Times stated in recent issue of the newspaper.

Erdogan is accused to lead the country into a more Islamic direction. Well, for the ones living in the country, this is not hard to realize if one is following the current news. In many districts of the Turkey, there have been serious attempts of the city majors to ban the alcohol consumption in the restaurants, while “Islamic tourism” with alcohol free lifestyle opening their doors to their visitors every single day. Especially, in the second term of Justice and Development Party, it seems that Erdogan started to think that he has the total power and able to do what ever he desires without considering the current constitution.

On presidential elections of the country, Erdogan did not prefer to apply use the methods of consensus but he choose to decide for “who will be the president” rather than asking the preferences of the other main political parties represented in the parliament such as CHP (Republican People’s Party) and MHP (Nationalist Movement Party). He assigned his close friend and also one of the main founders of the Justice and Development Party Abdullah Gul as the president. Certainly, it has been voted by the parliament but the communication problem started by Mr.Erdogan’s ignorance about the desires of other parties for a neutral candidate for the presidential elections.

There can be well said that all these huge discussions of today are rooted in the presidential elections. In the hot debates of the political parties in 2008, we have seen that Abdullah Gul as the president of Turkey was so away from being a neutral middle man between AK Party and the main opposition party CHP According to the news of Hurriyet and Milliyet which are known as the respected news sources of Turkey, he also proved this reputation by meeting secretly far from the eyes of journalist –at least they aimed to do so- with Mr.Erdogan on 29th of July in an apartment for five hours. This was not an official meeting and the meeting place was just an ordinary apartment in Istanbul. How come the President of Turkey preferred taking a side from his old friend Mr.Erdogan on the day that Constitutional Court started to overview the indictment for the closure of Justice and Development Party? Was it fair, both politically, and ethically? Or was it a proof of the suspicions of Mr.Gul to be “hidden supporter” of Mr.Erdogan and not being able to perform a neutral presidential mandate.

At the end, Gul failed to balance the high waves of the political discussions in Turkey and heated debates on secularism and the accusations and suspicions on AK Party’s hidden agenda in order to turn Turkey into a “conservative Islamist Republic” brought the whole country on the edge of heaven and hell. In this long discussion, one more time, it has been seen that Presidential seat should have been taken by someone who could gain the trust of the majority of people and supported by all the political parties, someone more capable to bring the two diverse edges together around the same table. Someone who could call himself as a neutral person, not in the side of Erdogan, but in the side of consensus in Turkey.

It seems that the hot debates in Turkey on secular system will continue for many years, since still millions of people still carries the honour of being the democratic country with a majority of Muslim population in the world as a golden medal and still have the concerns about the intention of Mr.Erdogan and Justice & Development Party. Consensus is the only way out in country, but understanding the concerns, not paving the ways of ignorance.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Turkey's Top Court warns AKP, but rules not to close the ruling party

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:51:00 +0000

Top Court of Turkey did not close the rulling party; Justice and Development Party, instead choose the middle way by sending a serious warning to the party because of the actions of the members of AK Party and also decided that the party will only receive the half of the financial support from the state of Turkey.

Six members of the Constitutional Court voted for the closure of the party and the Chairperson of the Court Hasim Kilic voted against the closure of the party. Four member of the court voted for the reduction of the financial support to AK Party in order to warn members of the party. In normal conditions, for the closure of party, there needs to be 7 votes in favour of the closure. At the end, the final decision is Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will deprived of the financial assistance with an amount of half of the last assistance from treasure of the state.

Chairperson of the court Hasim Kilic also stated that “this is a serious warning for the AKP” and “political parties should make the necessary legal arrangements to avoid any further party closure cases”. Kilic who stated that he voted against the closure of the party also stated“. I hope the party will evaluate this result very well and get the message it should get”.

While the main opposition party Deputy of Republican People’s Party (CHP) Onur Oymen stated “this is a meaningful warning for the ruling party, Chairperson of the Parliament Koksal Toptan stated “this is a serious relief will be felt in Turkey”.

Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey started Justice and Development Party in 2001 after in his first election on Nov 3 2002, the party got the 34 % of the whole voters and started it’s first term. In the last election on 22nd of July, 2007, Justice and Development Party got the 42 % of the whole votes in Turkey by naming a great victory. At the same time, the parties actions claimed to be against secular system in Turkey and the party is still in the spot point of Islamic movement which is named as “conservative Islamism” in Turkey.

While Erdogan does seem to be successful in the voting boxes but his failure still continues in gaining the trust of almost half of the country, who are still in doubt about Erdogan’s actions, such as allocating the economical sources and the main authorities of the state to “conservative Islamist” people rather than being equal to people from different religions, beliefs, ethnicities and backgrounds.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Photo: Cihan News Agency

Two bomb attacks in Istanbul; 17 killed and 150 wounded

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:58:00 +0000

In Gungoren district of Istanbul, two bombs exploded and killed 17 civilians and 150 wounded by the terror attack took place around 22.00 in the vivid street of the district. Police is still working on finding information about the identities of the attackers and reach the correct information on which terror group since there had not been any extremist groups taking up one of the deadliest attack in last 5 years. Because of the attacks carries the similar patterns in the last 25 years, PKK is highly suspected to commit the crime against the civilians by the various authorities and public in Turkey.

Funerals took place in Istanbul at Fetih Mosque and Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek and Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler attended to prayer as well. Various protests against the PKK took place in the funerals.

Most of the witnesses of the event stated in the TV channels that the first bomb exploded and people enjoying the night out in the vivid street of the district came to help to wounded people in panic and gathered in the place of explosion. The second bomb, just after seven minutes then the first one, exploded with a great pressure breaking the walls and killing 17 people. 150 people are wounded in double bombs in the district. On 29th, there proud and silent answers of the civilians of the district to terror by hanging great Turkish flags hanging in every corner of the street.

The attacks are highly suspected to be organized PKK, after Turkish Army’s constant operation in the Northern Iraq which is know a base for PKK. It is widely believed that the operations are causing chaos in the terrorist group and turning the only “safe heaven” of the region a highly risky area. Turkish Army still continues the operations in the region in order to secure the borders of Turkey from any other terror attacks in the future.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Source of the photo: Taken from Hurriyet Newspaper,30th of July, internet issue.

Indictment of Ergenekon Case is declared

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Long waited indictment of the controversial case of Ergenekon case has been declared by the Turkish Chief Prosecutor Aykut Cengiz Engin with a great interest of press and national and international TV channels at 9.45 am.

Under the name of Ergenekon. 85 people are charged with forming a terrorist group in order to destroy the government of Turkish Republic and reshaping the system and causing nation to riots against the state and the government.

According the indictment, the grenades found in June, 2007, in Umraniye district of Istanbul are suspected to be connected with Ergenekon network and so far known 85 people are suspected and 49 of them are in custody. Retired Colonel Veli Kucuk and Workers’ Party Leader Dogu Perincek have been in custody since March 2008.

Kuddisi Okkir, well know businessman was accused to be funding the whole Ergenekon network and held under custody for more than 13 months without any indictment. He has been released only few days before when he died of cancer spread to whole of his body on June 6. This event has dropped many more question marks into minds since his wife could not even afford his cemetery expenses and he was accused to be the funding person of the terrorist organization.

On July 1, there were new custodies including Sinan Aygun who is Head of Chamber of Commerce in Ankara Region, and Retired General Sener Eruygur who is Head of Kemalist Thought Association Chairman and Retired General Hursit Tolon. More than the well known names are being under custody, the way that they are taken from their houses at early morning even though they could have been called to the court on through the stages of the case.

By the main opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party) leader Deniz Baykal, Tayyip Erdogan, the current Prime Minister of Turkey is accused to be “trying to solve his own case” by arresting Anti-AKP ( Justice and Development Party) in order to create a wind of fear for his opponents. Not having an indictment for a long time while there are many custodies caused well known intellectuals reactions against the prosecutor of Ergenekon case.

Recent news around 19.30 has been given by the leading TV channels of Turkey that Sinan Aygun, Head of Chamber of Commerce in Ankara Region is released.

Gökhan Kurtaran

Breaking News: Teror Attack on U.S. Consulate in Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 11:11:00 +0000

On Wednesday, around 11.00 am there has been a terrorist attack to the consulate by three unidentified gunmen coming with gray colored van. Three gunmen shot the police guard post office in front of the consulate. According to the recent news, three polices (two male and one female) and three terrorist are killed.

The officials of Turkey defined the action as a terrorist attack and Istanbul Governor Muammer Guler has visited the Istinye district where the consulate is situated with high and well secured walls and stated that “There is not doubt that this is a terrorist attack”.

There are news which are also not verified by the officials yet such as the terrorist’s having Syrian passports with them. Some claims that they are Turkish people who had visited Afghanistan before for few times.

U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson made a statement that he is not in a position to make speculations over the attack and he stated that he is appreciated the police forces ability to secure the U.S Consulate under this attack.

On 20th of November, 2003, two major terrorist attacks took place in to HSBS Bank main building in Levent and British Consulate in Istanbul and 27 civilians were killed including British Ambassador Roger Short and around 450 were wounded.

Gokhan KURTARAN

New custodies under the name of Ergenekon Operation

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:31:00 +0000

Early in the morning around 25 people from different professions and cities have been taken into custody with a sudden operation. Two former army commanders, a leader of a business group in Ankara region and a well known journalist have been taken into custody as well.

Claims under these operations are known as “the under cover preparations of army coap against the ruling party Justice and Development Party. Operations took more than a year without any indictment and there are still people under the custody including Dogu Perincek; the leader of Labor Party. On March, well known columnist, journalist and author Ilhan Selcuk was taken into custody at early morning.

In recent custodies, there names of Sener Eruygur and Hursit Tolon who are former commanders, The Chamber of Trade in Ankara; Sinan Aygun, and Cumhuriyet Newspaper’s Ankara Bureau and well known journalist Mustafa Balbay. Sener Eruygur is also currently the leader of the Atuturk’s Thought Association (ADD). All of the names are known to be against Justice and Development Party and its internal and foreign politics.

Timing of the operations are driving many of the people into doubt as the custodies took place in the same day with Top Prosecutor Abdullah Yalcinkaya verbal defense to support his claims about the closure of Justice and Development Party. The operations have been taking place for so many months, there are also doubts about Justice and Development Party to use police forced to deactivate the names that are in opposition to the party.

Police forces have been also accused many times having close connection with the Fethullah Gulen who is residing in USA and well known controversial figure in Islamic movements about his funding anti-secular global movements through his wide spread schools in many countries. There are various doubts stated by the opposition parties that Justice and Development Party might be using their close connection with police forces in order to destroy any opposition towards the party. Recently heard that Turhan Comez, former Justice and Development Party member of parliament is being searched by the police forces to take into custody as well.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Turkish Top Prosecutor Yalcinkaya makes his verbal defence

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:41:00 +0000

Top Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya has made his verbal defence about his written statement for the closure of the current ruling political party Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Authorities from AK Party; Bekir Bozdag and Cemil Cicek will make their own defence in the case on 3rd of July to the Constitutional Court.

On March, Yalcinkaya made written statement and demanded closure of AK Party and 71 members of the party including Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and President of Turkey; Abdullah Gul. Yalcinkaya claimed that the party is “the focal point of anti-secular activities”. Yalcinkaya claims are mainly on thread the party is creating to the laic system in the country and leading the country to a more Islamist path.

Trail is expected to take around one to three months after the AK Party’s speeding up the process of the case in order be able to see the future of the party and also their decide on their political strategies. There are also wide spread claims that AK Party has already started to found a new party which would gather the remains of AK Party under it’s umbrella for the coming elections.

Gökhan KURTARAN

Turkish Top Court seeks the accounts of the main opposition party; CHP

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:51:00 +0000

The accounts of the main opposition party CHP (Republican People’s Party) have been reviewed by the Constitutional Court and there observed some irregularities in the accounts in last four years.

The court discovered that CHP's irregular expenses were 35,300 YTL in 1998; 267,800 YTL in 2004; 161,600 YTL in 2005; and 465,600 YTL in 2006.
Top Court has made an explanation on the case by stating that the party has to return the amount to the main treasury of the country. Responsible of the irregularities might be subjected to a trial as well.

Claims of seeking the accounts of the party were raised together with the accusations of party’s possible financial relations with Kanalturk formerly known as a nationalist right wing channel, owned by Tuncay Ozkan.

Top Court of Turkey has also stated that the all the financial relations between the party and the TV channel are in regular mode and all the income and outcome are documented correctly. In this sense, the decision of the Top Court means that CHP has cleared its name from the claims of funding a TV channel for making the constant propaganda of the party and hosting their members on TV programs in return of financial help.

Gokhan KURTARAN

Greek media questions its stance over Turkey

noreply@blogger.com (Gökhan Kurtaran) — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:33:00 +0000

Ariana FERENTINOU

I do not know whether the Turkish prime minister is aware of how popular he is in Greece. But if any of his close associates were to translate to him what some of the Greek commentators are writing about him, he would be very happy.

At least happy with some of them who have been covering the fascinating developments in Turkey since the prevalence of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) in the Turkish political scene. The basis of their analyses of the Turkish reality, especially since AKP's second term in office, is simple. On the one hand, the democratically elected AKP, recently re-elected with a large majority and representing the new European-oriented Turkey with a moderate Islamic reformist government and a dynamic economy. On the other, the secular Kemalist anti-democratic state-military establishment with its deep roots to the past representing the dark, oppressive, corrupt, criminal “deep state.” Erdoğan is the representative of the “new Turkey” the one that was oppressed under years of an autocratic Kemalist-military sequence of governments and coups which sustained and supported a dark world of interconnected semi illegal groups in order to stay in power. Erdoğan is being described as the “best leader Turkey had in its recent history” and his rise to power has been seen as the biggest opportunity that Turkey ever had to democratize its society through a party which represents a large segment of the society.

Erdoğan the hero:

Naturally, the crisis between AKP and the Constitutional Court has become an opportunity for a renewed support to the “reformist” government who is fighting a war of democracy against yet another attempt by the “deep state” to stop the flow of democratic reforms planned by AKP, like the “headscarf issue” and a change of the Constitution.

“The rationale of those who planned this counter attack – through a judicial coup- was simple: If the Constitutional Court accepts the indictment there will be a long procedure of several months, Erdogan will be in difficult position as he will have either to freeze the reforms until the conclusion of the case or choose a “flight forward” by incorporating a clause in the new Constitution which would abolish the ability of the court to interfere in the political life,” writes a commentator of Imerisia newspaper.

The same commentator is furious about the recent developments in Turkey:

“The prosecutor's indictment is the most provocative action by the Kemalist establishment since the first victory of Erdogan in 2002… Mutatis mutandis, the situation in Turkey reminds of the rabid attack by the party mechanism in Soviet Union against Gorbacev's reforms: like in USSR, in Turkey, the self-reproduced nomenclature has declared itself as the lead of the society and cannot conceive giving up its privileges without a fight… If the prosecutor's indictment is accepted by the court, Turkey will find itself domestically split in a background of civil conflict and with the Kurdish issue in a state of frenzy inside and outside its borders,” writes the commentator who has been one of the most faithful supporters of the Turkish prime minister since the beginning of the rise of AKP.

The May 1 confusion:

However this wholesale supportive stance for AKP by a large majority of Greek commentators, received a serious challenge by the events in Taksim Square on May the 1st as the TV footage reached also the Greek TV screens. Another commentator from TA NEA newspaper, who visits Turkey regularly and has many friends among media circles, became skeptical about the lack of proper reporting from Turkey “Why is it that news from Turkey, bad news, precursors of an imminent crisis, leave us so indifferent, why do they pass unnoticed by the whole of Greek media?” he rightly wonders and explains why we all should be more careful:

“The news from Turkey justify both interest and worry with almost daily sweeping developments showing a conflict of two Turkeys. On one hand the Ergenekon investigation and one the other the legal procedure through the Constitutional Court for the closure of a governing party which governs by a large popular mandate.”

In this general uncertainty, he warns of possible hiccups in the Greek-Turkish diplomatic from: “What is certain is that with the prospect of Turkey's entry negotiations in the EU half dead, Turkey has surrendered to a domestic crisis, the reform process has frozen and the motives for a constructive stance by Turkey in its foreign front-like Cyprus and Greece-has gone up in smoke. We have every reason to worry. We should give support to powers that are for a democratic solution to the crisis. But we should also wonder if the Greek foreign policy which was based on the European card, has a plan B”, he writes echoing the moaning of the Greek opposition parties who are attacking the Karamanlis government for an ineffective policy towards Turkey.

The American factor:

Of course, the American factor cannot be left out in any analysis involving Turkey or Greece. An interesting scenario surfaced in yesterday's Greek press which suggests that the American neocons, led by such known figures like Richard Perle, Michel Rubin, Daniel Pipes and Frank Gaffney are behind the present crisis in Turkey. According to this scenario, the American neocons after the defeat in their policy in Iraq which blocked their plan to attack Iran and Syria, are now trying to impose an economic and political embargo against them before a military strike.

But AKP followed a policy of no tension towards Turkey's neighbors, signing a contract with Iran for the transportation of Iranian natural gas to Europe via Turkey. According to the scenario, it is the pro-Iranian policy of AKP that has turned the American conservative circles against Erdogan by pushing forward the idea-through certain publications- that he has a secret agenda for the Islamization of the Turkish society. It is them who have started a dirty campaign against AKP “by supporting the undemocratic actions of secular circles, which reached its peak with the prosecutor's indictment against AKP. It this neocon lobby that also supports the military, aims at the erosion of democracy and the creation of new opportunities of influence of Washington over Ankara”.

There is no doubt that Turkey poses a big challenge for any commentator. The factors that effect social and political developments are not always visible let alone logical. One has to make a large number of computations in order to arrive at a result. Sometimes, like now, an unusual constellation of factors seem to influence developments in the society as well as in political life. Maybe it would be wiser to discover these factors rather than jumping to sweeping conclusions.

Turkish Daily News