AVOID MUSLIM TURKEY
Bombing kills 5 in Turkish resort town
Two foreigners among dead; new attack raises
alarm in nation's tourism industry.
The Associated Press
Sunday, July 17, 2005
ANKARA, TURKEY – A bomb tore apart a minibus in a popular Aegean beach resort town Saturday, killing at least five people, including two foreigners, in the second explosion in a week aimed at Turkey's vital tourism industry.
The blast in the coastal city of Kusadasi, a favorite destination for British, Irish and German tourists, reduced the bus to a scorched, twisted heap of metal.
A man's charred body was shown in news photos draped over the remains of a seat and an injured woman lay on the road, just a few yards from the beach. Civilians rushed to the bus after the attack and carried the injured away from the burning wreckage.
Police boosted security in the town, searching cars as they entered and patrolling the town's center with dogs.
Nobody claimed responsibility for the attack. Kurdish rebels have carried out bombings in Aegean resort towns but a Kurdish rebel commander, Zubeyir Aydar, condemned Saturday's explosion in a statement to the Germany-based Mesopotamian News Agency, which often carries rebel statements. The statement could not be verified.
Leftist and Islamic militants also are active in the country, a member of NATO and one of Washington's most important Muslim allies.
Police initially said a female suicide bomber carried out the attack after a woman's torso was found torn apart on the bus, indicating she had been carrying the bomb. But authorities later said explosives had been planted on the bus and more evidence was pointing toward a bombing rather than a suicide attack.
One British citizen was killed and five were wounded, the British Foreign Office said, another blow to Britain after the July 7 bus and subway bombings in London that killed more than 50 people.
Separately, a regional governor said an Irish tourist and two Turks were also killed in the blast in Kusadasi, 45 miles south of the port city of Izmir. A fifth person killed has not been identified.
The attack - the second to hit a resort town in under a week - caused alarm in Turkey's lucrative tourist industry, which had expected to welcome more than 20 million visitors this year and take in some $19.5 billion, a 50 percent increase over revenues in 2004.
European mission unearths torture claims in
Turkey
· Reports follow launch of EU membership talks
· Ankara dismisses findings as 'silly stories'
Helena
Smith in Athens
Monday October 10, 2005
The Guardian
A European parliament delegation visiting Turkey to check on its progress in human rights has found "shocking" reports of murders and mutilations, a British MEP said yesterday. The findings, which come a week after Brussels launched membership talks with Turkey, highlight the scale of progress the predominantly Muslim country needs to make in its quest to join the European Union.
Richard Howitt, part of the mission by the parliament's seven-member human rights subcommittee, told the Guardian: "What we heard was shocking. There were accounts of soldiers cutting off people's ears and tearing out their eyes if they were thought to be Kurdish separatist sympathisers ... You can't hear these things without being emotionally affected."
The MEP, Labour's European foreign affairs spokesman and a champion of Turkey's EU accession, said the abuses had been corroborated by human rights organisations. A trip by the group to Turkey's Kurdish-dominated south-east had also confirmed allegations that security forces were reverting to tactics from "the bad old days", although statistics showed that instances of torture had fallen by around 13% since last year. Indiscriminate shootings, widespread extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and instances of masked men raiding homes in the night were reported to have made a comeback.
"Our sources were very credible and the evidence was corroborated by all the different groups we spoke to," said the MEP. "They left me in no doubt of the veracity of the claims."
But Turkey's foreign ministry spokesman, Namik Tan, called the claims "silly stories". "They are purely fictitious. They have nothing to do with the truth. You won't find anyone who is credible in Turkey saying such things."
Mr Howitt said that in September alone 95 people had been arbitrarily arrested in Van, a town near Iran. Among them was Yusuf Hasar, a 19-year-old suspected Kurdish rebel sympathiser whose body was found last week after being arrested by police the previous day. The violations have coincided with an upsurge of violence in Turkey's troubled south-east. Armed clashes have intensified since rebels lifted a unilateral ceasefire in June last year.
The delegation, whose findings will form the basis of a report that will feed into Turkey's membership negotiations, was equally appalled by reports of violence against women and allegations of body organs being removed by security forces. Mazumber, a group representing the relatives of torture victims, told the MEPs that vital organs were routinely removed from the bodies of ethnic Kurds, presumably as part of the illicit trade in people trafficking.
Mr Howitt said it was essential the abuses be confronted before Ankara got into the nitty-gritty of the talks.
Since assuming power in 2002, Ankara's modernising Islamist government has won plaudits for overhauling the penal code, abolishing the death penalty, dismantling once-dreaded state security prisons and increasing cultural rights for ethnic minorities. But Turkish human rights defenders still speak of a pervasive "culture of violence" in the country's police, security and judicial forces.
EU to highlight Turkish torture issue
01.11.2005
By Andrew Rettman
Turkey must stop torture, allow freedom of
worship and limit the powers of the military in the next two years if it is to
join the EU by 2015, according to a draft European Commission proposal seen by
the Financial Times.
The paper on "principles, priorities and conditions" of Turkish EU membership
contains 150 short-term targets for Ankara and will be finalised later this
month.
The draft says Ankara must have "zero tolerance" against torture, must "adopt a
law comprehensively addressing all the difficulties faced by non-Muslim
religious minorities and communities ...establish full parliamentary oversight
of military and defence policy" and "ensure the independence of the judiciary".
The new document will be used to guide negotiations once they get fully under
way in late 2006 or in 2007.
The EU has already begun screening Turkish legislation for compliance with
European law in the field of science, culture and education after agreeing to
start accession talks on 3 October.
The negotiating mandate is one of the toughest ever imposed on a candidate
country, giving member states wide scope to use national vetos in closing any of
the 35 chapters of the membership process.
The mandate also states the EU can suspend talks if it finds "a serious and
persistent breach...of the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human
rights and fundamental freedoms and the rule of law".
Cultural revolution
The issue of European values is set to come to the fore in the accession process
due to its strong impact on public opinion in both Europe and Turkey.
Earlier this month, French president Jacques Chirac caused a stir by saying the
country will have to undergo a "major cultural revolution" in order to join the
EU.
Reports indicate that public support for EU membership is waning in Turkey
itself, while a Eurobarometer study in September showed that just 35 percent of
Europeans back Turkish accession and 84 percent believe Turkey must "respect
systematically human rights" to move ahead.
Turkey adopted a new penal code abolishing the death penalty in June this year
and has been a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights since 1954.
But international human rights organisations continue to ask painful questions
about the country's European credentials.
The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg upheld a ruling in May that the
Kurdish minority leader Abdullah Ocalan was denied a free trial.
Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders are also worried about
article 301 of the new penal code, which forbids insults against the "symbols of
the state's sovereignty and the honour of its organs" and could be used to gag
the press.
The trial in December of Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk over his open discussion
of Turkey's Kurdish and Armenian massacres last century will thrust the European
values debate into the spotlight as well.
BERLIN -- The European Union official overseeing Turkey's admission to the 25-nation bloc warned yesterday that Turkey's prosecution of a bestselling author for insulting ''Turkishness" could damage the country's chances of joining the EU.
''It is not Orhan Pamuk who will stand trial, but Turkey," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in an unusually blunt statement released in Brussels. ''This is a litmus test of whether Turkey is seriously committed to freedom of expression and to reforms that enhance the rule of law."
Pamuk, 53, Turkey's best-known novelist, is expected to go on trial today for stating in a Swiss magazine interview what most historians regard as unassailable facts: That some 1 million Armenians were slaughtered by Turks in the 1915-1918 genocide and that thousands of ethnic Kurds have lost their lives in more recent civil strife in modern Turkey.
The case has stirred outrage across Europe, where there is deepening opposition to allowing Turkey -- whose population is largely Muslim and whose landmass lies almost entirely in Asia -- to join an economic and political confederation whose most basic membership requirement is a commitment to democracy and to such values as freedom of speech.
Membership is considered vital to Turkey's economic future. The admission process is expected to take years.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is among the European leaders opposed to granting admission to Turkey, partly because of the country's poor human rights record and wavering attitudes toward democratic principles, including the idea that citizens have a right to criticize the government and national institutions.
Such activist organizations as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have criticized Turkey for bringing criminal charges against Pamuk and dozens of other writers and scholars for allegedly defaming ''Turkishness and Turkish national institutions," usually for making public remarks about historical events considered strictly taboo.
The cases, brought by prosecutors, come even as the government in Ankara has proclaimed a greater dedication to individual freedoms in its effort to join the European Union.
''From the world-renowned poet Nazin Hikmet in the 1930s to Orhan Pamuk today, Turkish judges have prosecuted and imprisoned the country's greatest writers," Holly Cartner, director for Europe and Central Asia for Human Rights Watch, said in a statement from Istanbul. ''A Turkish judge has to make a truly strong declaration to prove those days are over."
But prosecutors appeared determined to press ahead with a high-profile prosecution despite the international uproar -- and despite the warnings from Europe. Rehn's statements marked the first time that the EU has unequivocally linked Turkey's hopes for EU membership to an attack on free speech that has drawn criticism across the Western world.
''The trial of a novelist who expressed a nonviolent opinion casts a shadow over the accession negotiations between Turkey and the EU," said Rehn, who is Finnish. ''Considering the number of recent prosecutions, it appears that [Turkey's] new penal code does not provide sufficient protection for freedom of expression."
Pamuk, author of such highly praised bestsellers as ''Snow" and ''My Name is Red," has had his works translated into 30 languages.
At least 60 other Turkish writers, scholars, and publishers presently face charges under Turkey's recently revised ''Article 301," according to Amnesty International. Among other things, the modified penal code makes it a criminal offense to criticize ''Turkishness," national institutions, or the founder of the republic, Mustafa Kemal -- known as ''Ataturk."
If convicted, Pamuk faces up to three years behind bars, although most analysts believe it extremely unlikely he will be imprisoned if found guilty in Sisly Primary Court No. 2 in Istanbul. But a guilty verdict -- even one accompanied by a paltry fine -- would send a shocking message to European nations watching closely as Turkey strives to modernize both its political system and its economy.
''Pamuk's conviction or a postponement of his trial would signal a serious reverse to recent reforms in Turkey," Cartner said.
Charges were brought against Pamuk after he angered Turkish nationalists, fundamentalist Muslims, and many ordinary Turks by saying in a February interview with Switzerland's Das Magazin weekly that ''thirty thousand Kurds and one million Armenians were killed in these lands."
Although few historians doubt that hundreds of thousands of Armenians were killed in Turkey, discussion of the topic remains largely off-limits in Turkey and the government denies that such a genocide occurred. The taboo was lifted slightly this year when Istanbul's Bilgi University hosted a cautious conference on the ''Armenian question" -- a gathering that triggered angry protests.
''What happened to the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 was a major thing that was hidden from the Turkish nation -- it was a taboo," Pamuk told the BBC. ''But we have to be able to talk about the past."
Pamuk's other allusion was to the killing of thousands of ethnic Kurds during clashes between Turkish armed forces and Kurdish insurgents in the 1980s and 1990s. The exact numbers of casualties remain unclear, and many Turkish civilians also died at the hands of avowed Kurdish ''freedom fighters," but there is no doubt many innocent lives were lost.
Many Turks, however, believe that Pamuk insulted the nation.
''He overstepped the mark," nationalist organizer Kemal Kerincsiz told Turkish reporters. ''Orhan Pamuk should not have played with history, and with the sentiments of Turks."
Shooting kills priest in Turkey
An Italian Catholic priest has been shot dead outside his church in north-east Turkey.
Police in the Black Sea port of Trabzon said they were searching for a teenage boy seen fleeing from the scene of the attack on Sunday.
It was unclear if the shooting was connected to widespread Muslim outrage over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Turkish broadcaster NTV identified the priest as Andrea Santore and said he died from a single shot to the chest.
Turkey has seen regular protests in recent days over the Danish caricatures of Muhammad.
Leaders of the overwhelmingly Muslim country have condemned the pictures, but have also called for calm.
The Istanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is the spiritual head of the world's Orthodox Christians, and other non-Muslim clerics in Turkey have also criticised the images.
Several Italian newspapers have reprinted the pictures, saying they are defending freedom of expression.
Turkey restricts viewing of "Brokeback Mountain"
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST
Mar. 16, 2006
Turkey's Culture Ministry has restricted the viewing of the Oscar-winning gay romance "Brokeback Mountain" to viewers over the age of 18, saying that the movie violated public morals, a ministry official said Thursday.
The restriction reflects the sensitivities in overwhelmingly Muslim Turkey, where homosexuality is largely a taboo subject.
The movie ratings subcommittee of the Culture and Tourism Ministry restricted the viewing of "Brokeback Mountain" before its opening in Turkey next Friday, the ministry official said on condition of anonymity. Turkish officials cannot speak to the press without prior authorization. The subcommittee ruled that the movie would harm public morals, the official said.
Majority of Turks Oppose Hijab Ban, Back Gov't
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
ANKARA — The majority of Turks are satisfied with the performance of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government and are opposed to the official ban on hijab in public offices and universities, according to a poll published on Wednesday, June 14.
The poll, conducted by Isik and Sabanci universities in Istanbul, found that two thirds of the 1,846 people polled in more than 20 towns and cities support Erdogan's efforts to ease hijab ban on students and civil servants, Reuters reported.
The mainly Muslim country of 72 million has a strongly secular political tradition. In 1997, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer issued a decree banning hijab in state-run institutions, including schools and universities. Hijab-donned women were also banned from frequenting any social clubs affiliated to the military institution. Even veiled journalists have been repeatedly prevented from covering news conferences inside government institutions. Many in Turkey's military, academic and judicial establishment view this ban as a key pillar of Turkey's secular order. Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
Conservative
The poll, conducted in March and April, showed that the majority of Turks were more conservative on social and moral issues. Three fifths of those interviewed attributed failure in life to a lack of religious faith. Nearly a third said boys and girls should be taught in separate classes at school. They also opposed allowing their Muslim daughters to marrying non-Muslims. Nearly half of the respondents said tourists spoil Turkish morality and harm its culture. They voiced unease with the spectacle of naked or near-naked tourists soaking up the sun at Turkish resorts. Nearly a third of those polled expressed dissatisfaction with the democratic process in the country. More than half said they were happy with the government of the ruling Justice and Development party.
Turkey faces a general election by November 2007. Forty percent of those polled said they would prefer a military-led government and nearly a third expressed dissatisfaction with the democratic process. Turkey's powerful armed forces traditionally rank as the institution most respected by Turks. The military has ousted democratically elected governments four times in the past 50 years but has seen its powers trimmed by EU-backed reforms.
The poll also confirmed falling support for joining the 25-member euro club, down to 57 percent from 74 percent a few years ago. The European Union and Turkey officially kickstarted on Monday, June 12, the long-awaited accession talks, the most important cornerstone of membership process, after EU foreign ministers overcame last-minute objections from Cyprus. Turkey has been trying to join the European club since the 1960s.
TODAY'S COLUMNIST
By Tulin Daloglu
May 9, 2006
ANKARA, Turkey. -- "Let those wearing
headscarves go to Arabistan," Turkey's former president, Suleyman Demirel, said
recently. Yet when I arrived in Ankara's Esenboga international airport last
week, I thought for a second that no unveiled women remained in the capital of
this Muslim nation. Hundreds were returning from umrah — visiting the sacred
lands in Saudi Arabia. Some even had black hijab, showing only a glimpse of
their eyes. The baggage claim was chaos, and at the exit gate the passengers
were outnumbered by nearly twice as many loved ones waiting to pick them up.
Most of them wore a shalwar — a very loose pant, with a skirt on top of it. All
wore dark colors.
It would have been a moment of truth if Mr. Demirel could see these people
arriving in their homeland rather than leaving it. When Turkish President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan was elected almost four years ago, he didn't bring them from
Arabistan; he just encouraged them not to hide any longer. I would argue that
even the black hijab is not a threat to the secular republic. It is, after all,
just a piece of fabric. The problem is the mindset that puts women under the
black hijab.
The problem is uneducated people pushing and shoving while doing something
simple like passing through passport control and collecting their bags. The
problem is men ordering women around: "stay," "don't move anywhere," "pick that
luggage up and bring it here."
Mr. Demirel should be the last person to advise any Turkish nationals to go
anywhere but Turkey. As one of the longest-serving public officials, he should
question how he and the politicians of his generation let the secular republic
down, jeopardizing the aim of Westernizing the country. He should question how
the first lady of the first revolutionary Muslim nation in the region was
accustomed not to shake men's hands because it is not religiously "appropriate,"
but advised to break that rule in the course of her state duties.
Turkey's so-called secular and Western politicians did not prioritize either
the education or the rule of law as they should have. They let the economy down
and introduced corruption. And they are exactly the ones who allowed political
Islam to emerge and are responsible for the backward image of women wearing
hijab and headscarves in today's Turkey.
While Turkey had its domestic troubles, Europe exploited its
vulnerabilities. Before awakening to the presence of radical Muslim terrorists
and ideology, European policies helped feed and encourage political Islam in
Turkey. After September 11, French President Jacques Chirac defended secularism
by banning all religious symbols from public and government places. Previously,
France slammed the Turkish Republic by challenging a Turkish deputy who wanted
to be sworn in while wearing her headscarf. Leyla Sahin, a medical student who
was expelled from Istanbul University in 1998 because she insisted on wearing
the headscarf to class, lost her appeal — in the aftermath of horrendous
terrorist attacks on America — when the European Court of Human Rights ruled
that the state has a right to protect the public's interest and its secular
nature.
However, before September 11, Europeans viewed political Islam differently
than the Turkish Republic that was trying to challenge it. They have a
different, Christian history. But the Islamists challenged the secular nature of
the new republic from day one. "All these problems do occur because of different
interpretations of the principles of secularism," Turkish Parliament spokesman
Bulent Arinc said recently.
Evidently, Europe's former approach to Islamist groups is partly responsible
for the confusion. Otherwise, the Turkish Republic's stand on the issue before
September 11 seem to be in perfect alliance with Europe's decisions after
September 11. Europe should have known that political Islam, conducted in the
absence of women, has an ideology quite different than the freedoms they pretend
to defend in the name of human rights or freedom of religion.
Before September 11, Europe condemned Turkey by not respecting freedom of
religious expression. Before September 11, they never dared question the
responsibilities of the religious elites being open-minded to the standards of
today's and tomorrow's education. They did not question the content of some
so-called religious practices and culture. What's more, Turkey's so-called
secular former presidents and prime ministers should question why Turkish
emigrants have trouble adjusting to the European way of life, and why the
Indians, with their distinct culture and religion, face no similar negative
tension in foreign societies. India is a rising power, from its nuclear journey
to its competition with Silicon Valley.
Turkey, however, is wasting time trying to solve the controversy over "a
piece of fabric" on women's heads. With women making up just 4 percent of
parliament's membership, men evidently make the final decisions over their
affairs.
Failing a miracle that would take this matter out of the political arena,
there is no hope that the issue will be solved in a peaceful manner soon. The
question is, will the increasingly veiled masses be able to change the spirit of
the secular republic?
Tulin Daloglu is the Washington correspondent and columnist for Turkey's
Star TV and newspaper. A former BBC reporter, she writes occasionally for The
Washington Times.
A tense time for a papal visit
Turkey, which doesn't recognize the Roman Catholic Church, is still rankled by Benedict's comments on Islam.
By Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writer
November 25, 2006
'It's a kind of preemptive intolerance: Don't let it flourish because it might take over. Everyone is afraid of something.'— Mustafa Akyol - Writer and expert on interfaith relations, on why the vast majority of the Turkish people mistrust Christianity.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY — To reach Turkey's most important
Roman Catholic church, a visitor must scour a traffic-choked street to find the
metal doors, walk down a flight of stairs, cross a courtyard and finally step
into the consecrated basilica.
Inside the Holy Spirit Cathedral here, the lights remain low until a minute
before evening Mass, and then reveal frescoed ceilings with gold-trimmed arches,
22 crystal chandeliers and blond-marble columns. On this night, 14 worshipers
dot the pews.
In the Turkish capital, Ankara, the only Catholic church is even more discreet:
It is marked simply by a French flag.
When Pope Benedict XVI travels to Turkey next week, he will be making his first
trip to a predominantly Muslim country at a moment of diplomatic fragility.
He also will be traversing some of the most ancient and revered milestones of
Christianity, in a land where Christianity is disappearing and where non-Muslim
minorities complain of systemic discrimination, harassment and violence against
them.
It is a complex agenda. The pope's main purpose is to meet with the
Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world's 250 million Eastern Orthodox
Christians in a show of ecumenical solidarity. But he must also use the visit to
attempt to repair the damage from comments he has made that cast Islam in a
negative light.
Among Turkey's nearly 70 million Muslims, reaction to Benedict's visit ranges
from disinterest to intense anger. A man opened fire early this month on the
Italian Consulate in Istanbul, telling police later that he wanted to "strangle"
the pope. A nationalist gang called the Gray Wolves is staging regular
demonstrations protesting the pontiff's arrival.
Among the estimated 100,000 Christians who live in Turkey, there is hope that
Benedict's presence will cast light on their difficulties.
The Roman Catholic Church is not legally recognized in Turkey. It functions
largely attached to foreign embassies; its priests do not wear their collars in
public.
Most Christians in Turkey are of the Armenian, Greek and other Orthodox
denominations, and although most of these are recognized in the Turkish
Constitution as minority communities, they face severe restrictions on property
ownership and cannot build places of worship or run seminaries to train their
clerics.
Such hardships make it almost impossible for Christians to sustain and expand
their communities, advocates say. The Greek Orthodox, for example, have dwindled
to no more than 3,000, just 2% of the community's size in the 1960s.
Fueled by a vitriolic, and growing, potion of nationalism and Islamic
radicalism, spasms of violence have led to the killing of one priest this year,
the beatings of two others and the burning of a Christian prayer center.
Christian tombstones are often vandalized and property frequently confiscated by
authorities.
Turkey has come under repeated criticism from Western human rights organizations
and the Vatican for its failure to promote religious freedom. Turkey is an
Islamic but secular country; in reality, this means that all religious activity,
including mosques and imams, is controlled by the government.
"Obviously, more needs to be done to promote religious freedom for all
denominations," Ali Bardakoglu, president of Turkey's powerful Religious Affairs
Directorate, said in an interview. But he defended the government's treatment of
minorities, contending that Christians and other non-Muslims do not face serious
problems.
Bardakoglu was one of the most emphatic critics of Benedict after the pope
delivered a speech in Regensburg, Germany, in September that denounced Islamic
violence and quoted a medieval Byzantine emperor who disdained Islam and its
prophet, Muhammad. Adding insult to injury, as far as many Turks were concerned,
the emperor was defending Constantinople, cradle of Orthodox Christianity,
against the Muslim conquest that gave the city its name today: Istanbul.
Bardakoglu said the pope was welcome in Turkey despite the speech, which touched
off outrage throughout the Muslim world. And although he said he accepted
Benedict's subsequent explanations, Bardakoglu did not appear completely
appeased.
"It is unfortunate that there are circles within Western society that attempt to
blacken the name of our religion and are infected with Islamophobia," he said.
"The role of the Vatican and the pope should be to help fight stereotypes.
Rather than open debate, they should be seeking to heal wounds."
In a remarkable gesture, the pope will meet with Bardakoglu, the country's top
religious figure, at his ministry, a modern, imposing building on Ankara's
outskirts, on the first day of his Turkey visit. Bardakoglu's directorate
commands a huge budget and oversees all of Turkey's imams.
Originally, the Vatican expected Bardakoglu to call on the pope at the Vatican
Embassy, as protocol would have dictated. But the Turks refused. After a series
of negotiations, the pope agreed to go to Bardakoglu. "It is a gesture of
goodwill," a senior Vatican official said.
The pope's controversial presence in Turkey represents a balancing act for the
government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which regards itself a vital
bridge between the West and East, a way for Westerners to deal with a modern and
democratic Islam. But it also cannot appear too cozy with a pontiff who, in the
view of many, is not fond of Muslims or Turks.
Erdogan is not scheduled to receive
Benedict, citing a previous commitment to attend a NATO summit in Latvia on
Tuesday and Wednesday. And there is no plan for the prime minister to see him
off when the pope departs Dec. 1.
Both the Vatican and Turkish officials said this was not a snub, but Erdogan
told visiting reporters in Istanbul last month, "You can't expect me to arrange
my timetable according to the pope."
The frictions are rooted in history. The Ottoman Empire, which ruled the region
for more than six centuries, was relatively tolerant of Jews, Christians and
other non-Muslims. But before and during World War I, Western powers
collaborated with Christian and other minorities to bring down the Ottomans. In
the carnage that followed, as many as 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered, a
similar number of ethnic Greeks expelled and 1 million Turks deported from
Greece.
The 1923 Lausanne Treaty founded the Republic of Turkey and recognized
minorities. But deep mistrust persists, and even today among ardent
nationalists, Christians are seen as a potential fifth column.
"It's a kind of preemptive intolerance: Don't let it flourish because it might
take over," said Mustafa Akyol, a writer and expert on interfaith relations.
"Everyone is afraid of something."
Akyol, a Muslim, said he once wrote a column advocating that the museum of St.
Sophia, or Aya Sofya, in Istanbul be returned to its original use, that of a
church. The response was harsh: He was threatened and castigated as a "secret
Greek." The pope is scheduled to visit St. Sophia, built in the 6th century as a
Byzantine church and converted to a mosque in the 15th century by the Ottomans.
The mere rumor that the pope might say a prayer at the site has led to a bit of
hysteria. Islamic newspaper Milli Gazete, in a front-page commentary last week,
lashed out at the government for permitting the "Crusaders" to plan to bless the
former church in a brazen attempt to "revive Byzantium."
For their part, Turkish officials have sought to minimize the pontiff's main
mission on this trip: to worship alongside Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I,
head of the world's Orthodox Christians. The coming together of the two
religious leaders is meant as a bridging of the 1,000-year-old rift between the
two ancient branches of Christianity.
Such frictions notwithstanding, Turkey, compared with many Muslim countries, is
relatively hospitable to non-Muslims. But its failure to make more progress on
freedom-of-religion issues has been an important stumbling block in its
years-long campaign to join the European Union.
It is EU pressure that has nudged Ankara along in easing some of the
restrictions on minorities; for example, a Protestant group in Istanbul has for
the first time been allowed to open a church.
"The EU reforms give people a sense of hope that there is light at the end of
the tunnel," said Greek Orthodox Father Alexander Karloutsos. "It's been very
dark here."
Turks near coup
By MARTIN WALKER
UPI Editor Emeritus
April 30, 2007
WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- Turkey is currently one of the most important hubs
of the diplomatic universe. Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf flew in for
the weekend for fence-mending talks with his neighbor, Afghan President Hamid
Karzai. They might just be in time to witness a military coup.
The Turks have also been playing a crucial role in the discreet talks about a new dialogue between Iran and the United States, and last week hosted a meeting between the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana, and Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, underlining Turkey's growing diplomatic profile. Both Solana and Larijani made a point of praising Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul for his diplomacy and publicly welcomed his candidacy to become Turkey's new president.
And yet half a million Turks took to the streets Sunday to protest Gul's candidacy, just as 300,000 had been on the streets a week earlier to protest the prospect of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan becoming the next president.
Even more ominously, the Turkish military has signaled its own deep disapproval of either Erdogan or Gul getting the top job because, despite the overwhelming electoral mandate of their AK (Justice and Development) Party, the two politicians are moderate Islamists.
Gul's wife, Hayrunissa, wears a headscarf, a controversial symbol of her faith in a Turkey that was founded and run as a completely secular state. And the Turkish military, which has mounted three coups in the last 35 years, sees itself as the custodian of the country's secular constitution as laid down by the founder of modern Turkey, Kemal Ataturk.
"It is observed that some circles who have been carrying out endless efforts to disturb fundamental values of the Republic of Turkey, especially secularism, have escalated their efforts recently," said a formal statement from the Turkish military last week. "The problem that emerged in the presidential election process is focused on arguments over secularism. Turkish Armed Forces are concerned about the recent situation.
"It should not be forgotten that the Turkish Armed Forces are a party in those arguments, and absolute defender of secularism," the statement went on. "Also the Turkish Armed Forces (are) definitely opposed to those arguments and negative comments. It will display its attitude and action openly and clearly whenever it is necessary."
And yet Erdogan's government has been one of the most successful in modern Turkish history. The economy is booming. The EU has accepted Turkey as a candidate for membership and opened formal accession negotiations. Turkey, a veteran NATO member, has peacekeeping troops in Lebanon, has good relations with Iran and Israel and also with much of the Arab world, and in general has played a highly responsible role in the region.
All of this is now at risk in the growing row over the next presidency. Erdogan backed away from the post after seeing the scale of the opposition to him, and possibly recalling his own time in prison after what the military saw as an inflammatory Islamist speech. (He had quoted a poem that included the lines: "the minarets shall be our bayonets.") As a result, the internationally popular and very diplomatic Foreign Minister Gul became the presidential candidate, and the AK Party's dominance should easily ensure him the required 367 votes in the 550-seat parliament.
At least that was the case until the military spoke, until the secular opposition parties boycotted a parliamentary vote that would have seen Gul installed, and until the 500,000 pro-secular demonstrators took to the streets Sunday. Turkey is now in the throes of a full-blown political crisis, and a military coup cannot be ruled out.
"The president must be loyal to secular principles. If I am elected, I will act accordingly," Gul pledged at his nomination for the presidency.
The problem for secular Turks is that a Gul presidency would mean that the Islamists, however moderate and pro-democracy, would control the presidency, the government, the parliament and the judiciary -- appointed by the president. That would leave only the military as a bastion of traditional secular values.
"Turkey is secular and will remain secular," chanted the hundreds of thousands who protested in Istanbul Sunday. Significantly, they also chanted: "We want neither Sharia, nor a coup, but a fully democratic Turkey."
The opposition parties, and also the military, apparently want the country's Constitutional Court to intervene and call for new elections. The likelihood is that Erdogan and Gul would win another majority in Parliament, although possibly not enough to secure the two-thirds vote required to elect a president.
That could mean a compromise. But it would be a compromise secured through a threat of military intervention, casting a dark shadow over Turkey's democratic credentials and giving a strong boost to those in the EU who oppose Turkish entry. And that would leave Turkey with few places to turn but back to the Middle East and the Islamic world. The West is left with the unhappy choice of welcoming a moderate Islamist Turkey living under constant threat of military coup or losing one of its few friends in a dangerous neighborhood.
There is one other option, which could be even uglier. Some Turkish observers speculate that the military might drop its opposition to Gul's presidency if they are given the green light to crush the renewed threat of Kurdish nationalism and the prospect of a sovereign Kurdish state that could attract their own Kurdish minority. This would mean an invasion of northern Iraq, where the autonomous Kurdish provinces are one of the few success stories of modern Iraq. Of all three options, this could be the most dangerous.
Plotters seized as tension mounts in Turkey
(CNN-July 1, 2008)
-- Political tensions rose Tuesday across Turkey as police seized two retired
generals, a prominent journalist and others accused of plotting to overthrow the
government and prosecutors undertook a court case to ban the Islamic-rooted
ruling party.
The developments dramatize the sharp and serious political tensions between the country's Islamic-rooted ruling party -- the Justice and Development Party, or AKP -- and its outspoken critics from the nation's secularist establishment.
Since autumn, police have been arresting and jailing people accused of being part of Ergenekon, an alleged plot to overthrow the government. During the effort, there has been harassment of journalists, and news reports have said many people are being held without charge.
On Tuesday, police made 22 arrests in Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya and Trabzon, according to Turkey's semi-official Anadolu Agency, which said its information came from prosecutors. Three other people were being sought, the agency said.
Those seized include former generals Hursit Tolon and Sener Eruygur; Mustafa Balbay of the Cumhuriyet newspaper; Sinan Aygun, leader of the Ankara Trade Organization; and Ecument Ovali, a college professor. The newspaper said police conducted a search at its Ankara headquarters.
This came hours before a Turkish prosecutor presented evidence in a court case that would ban the AKP because of its alleged involvement in what prosecutors call anti-secularist activities, such as its failed support for toppling the ban on Muslim headscarf at universities.
Turkish secularists believe the AKP is intent on undermining the secular constitution and nature of the modern Turkish state and on intimidating political opposition. The popularly elected AKP believes the effort to disband the party is a political move and says it is promoting democracy and pursuing goals that would bring Turkey into the European Union.
This is the second time Cumhuriyet has been targeted with accusations of involvement in Ergenekon. In the spring, police briefly held the newspaper's editor, Ilhan Selcuk.
"We spoke with our lawyers after Balbay was taken away ... about these operations happening now as the chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, started presenting his verbal explanations in the constitutional court," Arcayurek said.
"We don't know if this is a special treatment, or a coincidence. But I can say on behalf of everyone at Cumhuriyet newspaper, including editor in chief Ilhan Selcuk, we cannot be guilty of anything else but loving our country very much and protecting its rights. They cannot find anything else against us."
Turkey, a strong U.S. ally and NATO member, is a democratic state and has long been regarded as a bridge from Asia and Europe and from the West to the Muslim world.
Although it is a predominantly Muslim nation, Turkey has taken the trappings of religion out of public life, in accordance with the policies of Kemal Ataturk, the revered founder of the modern Turkish republic.
Ovali made reference to Ataturk when he spoke to reporters watching him being detained in Trabzon.
"I am being found guilty of loving Ataturk and the republic," he said.
Wolfgang Piccolo, an analyst for the Eurasia Group, said in a report Tuesday that the timing of the arrests and the high profile of those seized reflects the political nature of the Ergenekon probe.
"Coming a few hours before the first hearing in the closure case against the AKP, the arrests will further reinforce the already widely shared impression in Turkey that the operation is part of the power struggle between the AKP and the hard-line secularists, most notably the military," he said.
6 Die in Attack on U.S. Post in Turkey
New York Times
By ALAN COWELL and SEBNEM ARSU
July 10, 2008
PARIS — A group of unidentified gunmen opened fire on Turkish security guards outside the United States Consulate in Istanbul on Wednesday, the Turkish authorities said, and at least three police officers and three assailants were killed in a brief gun battle. Officials said that a fourth assailant escaped.
The late-morning attack was the first on a diplomatic mission in the city since 2003 when 62 people were killed in assaults on the British consulate, a bank and two synagogues. While the motives behind this attack were not immediately clear, Turkish officials described the gunmen as terrorists.
“Turkey struggles and will struggle against the mentalities that organize and stand behind these attacks until the very end,” President Abdullah Gul said in a statement. “Everyone, after all, has seen that nothing can be achieved through terror.”
In a televised news conference, Istanbul’s governor, Muammer Guler, said one of the police officers died at the scene and two others died of bullet wounds in a hospital. One of the officers was part of the consulate security detail, while the other two were traffic police officers. Another police officer and a tow-truck driver were also wounded.
“Three policemen were martyred and three attackers were killed,” Mr. Guler said. He added later that, while the authorities were waiting for final confirmation of the identity of the assailants, all three were believed to be Turkish citizens. Ross Wilson, the United States ambassador in Turkey, said that none of the dead or injured were Americans.
Later, the Turkish interior minister, Besir Atalay, said that two of the slain attackers had been traced through their fingerprints. Speaking to the Anatolian news agency, he identified them as Erkan Kargin, 26, from the eastern town of Bitlis, and Cinar Bulent. Both, he said, had records of petty crime.