Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

[hipeter924]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Pft, those 'red heads' are currenty so mad against the Government's Kurd and Armenian policies..hah, they think Mr. Erdogan is selling out the country.

True, because they want war, genocide or ethnic cleansing and no compromise, and you call the Nazi's bad....Young Turks led the way. The best Turkish Ultra Nationalist is the dead Turkish Ultra nationalist, if they fell dead today there might be hope of peace. But chance of that sadly is slim.

[may]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Well you know Turkish nationalists, because they sell Kebabs and move around in cold war tanks they think they are gods on Earth.

How do you know them so much inside out? A Turkish nationalist fleet arrived to New Zealand?

By the way, what do you want from kebabs? If properly prepared, they are delicious, let them out of this conversation...

[Alexandros]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Where is Turkey at human rights?

Monday, November 2, 2009

RIZA TÜRMEN

To what extent is the state respectful to human rights in Turkey? What are the main human rights issues?

You may find answers in the European Court of Human Rights, or ECHR, decisions and the Progress Report released by the European Commission.

The overall picture in the EHCR decisions is: In a total of 97,300 applications to the court as of Jan. 1, 2009, Russia takes the lead with 27,580 (28 percent) and Turkey follows with 11,100 (11.4 percent). Turkey leads in human rights violations. In a total of 1,857 cases, the ECHR decided against Turkey. Russia followed with 579 convictions.

Turkey violated the right to live 114 times due to lack of effective investigations and to ill treatment of officials. Turkey violated human rights 19 times due to torture and 142 times due to ill treatment, 329 times due to limiting individual freedoms, 513 times due to unfair trial, 240 times due to duration of lawsuits, 166 times due to freedom of expression, and 446 times due to property rights. Therefore, Turkey tops the list in countries violating the European Human Rights Convention. Turkey paid 5.2 million euros for pecuniary compensation in 2008.

In the Progress Report we see the following criticism mainly:

* No forensic medical doctors are recognized by courts, apart from the Forensic Medicine Council, which is under the Justice Ministry. This monopoly prevents development of effective and independent forensic services in the country.

* Impunity for perpetrators are still a cause for great concern The report on torture and ill-treatment by the parliamentary Human Rights Investigation Committee, adopted in January, notes that none of the 35 lawsuits filed against 431 members of the Istanbul police for ill-treatment or torture resulted in a conviction. Only 2 percent of police officers are subject to disciplinary sanctions as a result of an administrative investigation of allegations of torture or ill-treatment.

* Ratification of the U.N. Convention against Torture (OPCAT) has been pending before Parliament. This protocol requires parties to designate or establish an independent national preventive mechanism for monitoring places of detention.

* More than half of the inmates await trial. Members of the judiciary reportedly do not limit pre-trial detention to circumstances where it is strictly necessary in the public interest.

* There have been cases where serious illnesses that require continuous treatment have not been considered grounds for release. The ratio of one doctor to 250 prisoners, which is necessary to allow proper medical care in prisons, is not achieved in Turkey.

* With regard to respect for private and family life Turkey needs to align its legislation with the data protection acquis, and, in that context, to set up a fully independent data protection supervisory authority. Turkey also needs to ratify both the CoE Convention for the protection of individuals.

* There are still some prosecutions and convictions based on Article 301. A number of other provisions of the Turkish Criminal Code are used to restrict freedom of expression. The high fines imposed by the revenue authority potentially undermine the economic viability of the Doğan Media Group and therefore affect freedom of the press in practice. There is a need to uphold the principles of proportionality and of fairness in these tax-related procedures.

* Religious culture and ethics classes remain compulsory in primary and secondary education. The court requested Turkey to bring its education system and domestic legislation into line with the ECHR. Implementation of this judgment is still pending. The Halki (Heybeliada) Greek Orthodox seminary remains closed. ID cards still include information on religion. The overall policy of not recognizing Cem houses as places of worship has not changed. Non-Muslim religious communities report frequent discrimination.

The report also criticizes trade union rights, women and children rights, rights of the disabled and discrimination against LGBTT. Each is a separate issue. Turkey has a bad human rights report. The state in Turkey fails to provide sufficient guarantees for fundamental rights and freedoms. Those who say “Democracy makes progress in Turkey” should see concrete evidence. Human rights are the essence of democracy. It is impossible to say that a state violating individual rights, failing to protect individual rights makes progress in democracy. Human rights are needed not for impressing foreign investors but for sustainability of descent life for people living in Turkey.

* Mr. Rıza Türmen is a columnist for the daily Milliyet in which this piece appeared Monday. It was translated into English by the Daily News staff.

Link

[Eddo211]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Alexandros: thanks for those articles.

-----------------------------------

Al Jazeera

UPDATED ON:
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
20:02 Mecca time, 17:02 GMT

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2009/11/200911414025477103.html

There has been growing alarm in Turkey over the huge increase in the number of missing children.

More than 1,000 children have vanished so far this year. Nobody seems to know why, or have any idea where they may have gone.

Al Jazeera talks to Nilufer Narli, a sociology professor in Istanbul, about the shocking statistics after a report from our correspondent, Anita McNaught.

--------------------------------------

Video link on Al J's website.

[EMBED]http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/QB3--ylMe-o[/EMBED]

hmmm....Wish there was a way to embed video here in Hyeclub.

You can also see it on youTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB3--ylMe-o

[Anoush]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Thanks Alexandros and Eddo for the posts. What else is new for turkey?

What I don't understand is why in the name of logic Armenians migrate to turkey and live there?

[Pedro Xaramillo]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Thanks Alexandros and Eddo for the posts. What else is new for turkey?

What I don't understand is why in the name of logic Armenians migrate to turkey and live there?

Work maybe, or they miss the land that is rightfully theirs.

Some are in Turkey though due to human trafficking and slavery for sex sadly

[Alexandros]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?




General Convicted for Defamation of Assassinated Hrant Dink

Brigadier General Karaduman was sentenced to pay 2,000 Turkish Lira in compensation for hate speeches against assassinated Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.

Erol ÖNDEROĞLU [email protected] Istanbul - BİA News Center 09 November 2009, Monday

The Bakırköy 4th Court of First Instance in Istanbul adjudged Brigadier General Dursun Ali Karaduman from the Giresun Gendarmerie Regional Command on the eastern Black Sea Coast to pay 2,000 Turkish Lira (approximately € 900) in compensation for damages for mental anguish. Karaduman had targeted assassinated editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper Hrant Dink in a poem he read out at a soldier's funeral. Furthermore, he was quoted as saying at another soldier's funeral, "They even condemn it and raise their voices when a traitor is killed".

The Dink family symbolically set the amount of the compensation to 1 TL. Yet, in order to be able to hear the case the court raised it of 6,000 TL

"Dink family plans to donate compensation to Nezin Foundation"

Lawyer of the Dink family Deniz Tuna told bianet that the family partially accepted the amount claimed by the court and said that the family plans to donate the 2,000 TL decided by the court on 6 November to Nesin Foundation to support victims of the flood that hit parts of Istanbul in September this year.

Karaduman allegedly defamed Dink twice after the journalist had been assassinated on 19 January 2007. The first time he targeted Dink in a speech Karaduman made at a soldier's funeral on 9 April 2007. The second time he mentioned Dink's name to his disfavour in a poem he read out at another soldier's funeral on 20 June 2007.

The court found Karaduman guilty of attacking Dink's moral integrity on the grounds of his speech and his poem.

Hate speeches on 2 funerals

In his speech in April 2007 Karaduman said, "...the ones who panned this games and who was nominated for it must have been informed very well that the country and the nation of the Turkish Republic is an indivisible whole. Our fight will continue until there is not a single terrorist left. Today the American Senate, the French Parliament, the English House of Lords and the EU Parliament in Brussels have condemned the ones who killed you. They even condemn it and raise their voices when a traitor is killed. The immortal heroes who shed holy blood, who made this geography our homeland and who entrusted it with us; I condemn all the traitors and their supporters for you here today".

In June Karaduman implemented elements of hate into a poem he read at the funeral of soldier Kadir Aydın. He complained about the "world's indifference" and compared the situation of Aydın, who "carried a thoroughly original Turkish name" as Karaduman put it, with journalist Hrant Dink.

A total number of 20 defendants are tried before the 14th High Criminal Court in the context of the Dink murder., 8 gendarmerie officials of the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command are prosecuted under charges of "neglect of duty" because they did not prevent the murder despite referring information of the Intelligence Office prior to the assassination.

Link

[hipeter924]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

How do you know them so much inside out? A Turkish nationalist fleet arrived to New Zealand?

By the way, what do you want from kebabs? If properly prepared, they are delicious, let them out of this conversation...

I eat Turkish Kebabs all the time, doesn't mean I have to love the seller.

[may]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

I eat Turkish Kebabs all the time, doesn't mean I have to love the seller.

In business, both parties do not necessarily like each other. It is a trade. You pay and receive goods/services. That was not my question.

Arabs ride camels, black people sell drugs, Italians do underground business, Turks sell kebaps etc. My question: is it only valid for nationalist Turks? Or nationalist sell kebaps AND also move around in cold war tanks? I'm confused...

[hipeter924]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

In business, both parties do not necessarily like each other. It is a trade. You pay and receive goods/services. That was not my question.

Arabs ride camels, black people sell drugs, Italians do underground business, Turks sell kebaps etc. My question: is it only valid for nationalist Turks? Or nationalist sell kebaps AND also move around in cold war tanks? I'm confused...

Someone lost the word sarcasm. Many nationalist Turks feel racially superior to everyone else and hold up Stalinist ideals. while at the same time see themselves good enough to sell Kebabs and be part of society and even morally better than everyone else.