COLUMNISTS
September 07, 2015, Monday
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The victory of lumpen Islam
Religious texts do not speak. They need interpretation by the human mind. But the human mind that interprets them gives a religion its own hue. An act of interpretation even recreates a religion. Interpretation is the source of the existence of many, even sometimes contending, versions of a religion. For instance, we have an Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) brand of Islam today. This raises a very keen issue: Who should interpret Islam? Unfortunately -
Body of Aylan Kurdi
I recalled these verses from the Quran when looking at the small body of Aylan on the Bodrum coastline. In its general context, the verse offers a description of Qiyamah (Last Judgment); but it also emphasizes what is happening in the world. The verse I particularly recalled reads “And when the pages are made public.” (81: 10). “Pages” in this verse refer to the personal records of every man and woman. Just like natural laws that ru -
Aylan Kurdi’s call on humanity
The image of the body of Aylan Kurdi, a three-year-old Kurdish boy lying as if he were asleep on the shores of Bodrum, touched the hearts of conscientious people all over the world. It conveyed an extraordinarily moving message that drew attention to the tragedies of the refugees moving en masse from Africa and the Middle East to Western Europe, which previous images of thousands drowned in the Mediterranean or otherwise killed could not achieve. It prompted people -
Consciences drowning in the sea
“I am a little bit fed up that politicians are called to react emotionally. Our job, as I said, is to take decisions rationally, being consistent and coherent with our emotions. So I think, I'm sure, all of us are shocked seeing that kind of picture but I expect not only for us to be shocked but also for all of us to be responsible enough to take the consequential decisions that are needed.” This was what Federica Mogherini, the high representative -
The end of the paradox in Turkey
Until recently Turkish politics was characterized by a major paradox. Analysts looking at Turkey from the West were utterly confused by the big picture offered by the top politician in the country. At the heart of the confusion was the fact that an increasingly autocratic leader who wanted to centralize decision-making in Turkey via a presidential system was also the best hope for solving the Kurdish problem, whose solution required decentralization and democratiza -
PKK’s urban war
The National Police Department's Intelligence Unit prepared a report about the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) war in the country's Southeast, according to a story in the Hürriyet daily. This is the way the National Police Department reads the PKK's war strategy: The PKK, which made use of the cease-fire period with the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK), got itself organized in the city centers, with many PKK militants who rece -
2 weeks until the Feast of the Sacrifice: Let’s get involved now!
This year's Kurban Bayramı -- the Feast of the Sacrifice -- is celebrated between Sept. 23-27. Wednesday Sept. 23 is designed as a half-day Bayramı and is called “arefesi”; one might refer to it as the eve before the actual feast begins. It is a religious holiday period and very much a cherished one. Also known as Eid al-Adha, the feast is in acknowledgement and commemoration of İbrahim's faithfulness and willingness to sacrifice his f -
Here is a court decision
The Constitution is being violated. The laws are being implemented arbitrarily. In such cases, cruelty and brutality take the form of justice, and anybody can be declared a traitor or a terrorist. However, without a court decision, you cannot raise such grave accusations against anybody or any group. This cannot be done by a prosecutor, a judge, a politician or a journalist. What is the rule? Prosecutors collect evidence for and against the suspects. This -
Power in the media ebbs and flows
A mob campaign against one of Turkey's best-known journalists has just taken place, forcing Ertuğrul Özkök to flee his job. After a photo of the dead body of a young Syrian child that washed up on the Turkish shoreline began circulating in the media, Ozkok wrote a very emotional column, issuing the following accusation against the many tyrannical leaders of the Middle East: “You are all murderers.” In a sense, Özkök's use of -
Erdoğan’s perilous gamble will backfire
Only after the June 7 election did Turkey decide to join the efforts to actively fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). However, after an initial targeting of ISIL, Turkey directed its efforts towards bombing the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which led to convictions that the interim Justice and Development Party (AKP) government has been using the ISIL agreement as a cover to reach its domestic political purposes. Turkey has the right -
Time for Turkey to face the water crisis
Preoccupied by the current heavy political atmosphere, we don't speak enough about the future dangers facing this country. The most critical danger is the increasing shortage of water. Water is something that cannot be produced by humans, and the amount of it around the world is not increasing. Water resources have been decreasing due to a lack of precipitation and over-evaporation caused by global warming, fast consumption and contamination. The level
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