COLUMNISTS
November 13, 2015, Friday
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Turkey’s apartheid regime under the Islamists
Turkey's governing Islamist elites, backed by their neo-nationalist partners, have started to change the republican regime based on parliamentary democracy and the separation of powers into a totalitarian regime that employs outdated apartheid repression tactics against critics and opponents from all walks of life. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the top Islamist, and his Islamist zealots are determinedly pursuing a crackdown on all opposition elements in Turkey -
Handcuffs
I believe it was around a month after the December 14th raid. I was at a funeral ceremony. I heard a top level official from the security bureaucracy say this: "I'm going to see that man in handcuffs!" The edict had clearly come down from somewhere on high; but with the conditions not quite ripe, they hadn't had the chance to put on that particular show yet. Naturally, I asked "Who gave those orders?" The official gave a strange stare; his eyes said clearly -
How should the EU handle Erdoğan?
It was a busy week in EU-Turkey relations. Finally, on Tuesday the long-awaited annual EU report on Turkey was published, and a few days later EU leaders gave the green light to the swift finalization of an EU-Turkey deal on refugees. At the end of this month or at the beginning of December, the agreement will be officially adopted at a special EU-Turkey summit in Brussels. The new round of intensified contacts between Brussels and Ankara has led to mixed reactions -
Obama can make a difference in Turkey
From Syria and violent extremism to global economic recovery, there will be lots of things on US President Barack Obama's plate at the G-20 summit in Turkey. However, that should not prevent him from using this opportunity to address the dismal state of press and other freedoms in Turkey. During his first visit to Turkey in 2009, President Obama highlighted the “common values” that the US and Turkey share as democracies. He praised Ankara for having -
SOS
Democracy in Turkey, or whatever remains of it, has been witnessing its worst days. Even in military coup times, we could be hopeful, since the Turkish military could not directly rule Turkey for a variety of reasons and after a few years, it had to transfer government power to civilians. Now, it is worse, since we have a ruthlessly authoritarian government that is supported by the 50 percent of the voters who do not care about human rights violations, oppression and persecution again -
Islamic radicalization in Europe: what policies?
I have known for 20 years that academic research in the social sciences in Western countries guides current issues. Actually it's the opposite, current issues lead social sciences and the results of the scientific research have an effect on current issues; it is an interactional relationship. It was 25 five years ago that I started to work, think and try to understand religious minorities in Eastern Europe. At that time, I thought that I was interested in t -
On minimum wage
The hottest debate in the Turkish economy currently is about the large increase in the minimum wage promised by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the last electoral campaign. The AKP government is getting ready to increase the minimum wage by 30 percent in January. This rather unexpected promise was made under pressure in response to the opposition parties who had promised even more before the June 7 election. When the AKP lost that election, it decided to -
I face two life sentences because of an article
Turkish officials tend to speak to international media networks as if Turkey is the world's most advanced democracy. They try to fool the interviewing journalists and the international community. With their statements, they think they can deceive the international community, assuming that they don't closely monitor developments in Turkey. Speaking to Christiane Amanpour of CNN International last week, for example, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu ind -
The fairest city of the Orient
Many Westerners do not realize that two of the most famous rivers in the world flow through eastern Turkey -- the Tigris and the Euphrates. Their names conjure up images of the Garden of Eden and a peaceful paradise. Another river that has been much fought over for centuries is the Orontes, which flows northward from Lebanon through Syria and into Turkey, entering the Mediterranean Sea. Earlier this week I had the privilege of staying at a quaint boutique -
Is the slaughter of critical media for a presidential system?
Polling companies keep asking participants the same question over and over again: “Would you say yes if there was a referendum on the presidential system?” Adil Gür, the owner of the A&G research company, declared that according to its survey in December 2014 and January 2015, 70 percent of respondents said no. He concludes that the Turkish public is against the presidential system. A report by another polling company, Konsensus, -
Change afoot in Iraqi Kurdistan
In the northern Iraqi city of Süleymaniye, homes receive running water every three days for two hours. When water does run, it tends to be yellow and smells. Apartment buildings in Suleymaniye have large depots for storing water; these are filled by water trucks that come and pump it in every now and then. As for electricity, in winter and summer months, homes receive 16 hours a day, while in the spring, it goes up to 20 hours a day. The electricity here is pro
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