Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

[Alexandros]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Holy mass at occupied church

FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE 18.JUL.10

For the first time after 36 years a holy mass was held on Saturday at Ayia Marina church in the village of Ayia Marina Skyllouras, occupied since the Turkish invasion of 1974.

More than 500 people visited the Maronite church to attend the mass, held by Youssef Soueif, the Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus.

Pilgrims had to go through a long procedure before entering the church. The Turkish regime registered their personal data and controlled their personal bags.

The church of Ayia Marina, which was built two years before the Turkish invasion, is situated in the centre of the village and in the center of a military camp of the Turkish occupation troops.

The regime did not allow journalists or TV stations to enter the area with cameras, saying that “it is a forbidden area and no photographs are allowed”.

The church of Ayia Marina, like many other churches in occupied Cyprus, is currently being used by the Turkish military as a storehouse.

The Maronite Archbishop, who held the mass, described the day as historic and prayed for justice and peace in Cyprus.

“This day is historic for us Maronites of Cyprus, especially for the people of Ayia Marina, who have always wished to come here, pray and attend the holy mass in the church of Ayia Marina, in their village, in their beloved country, in our country”, he stressed.

Many churches in the Turkish occupied areas of Cyprus have been converted to mosques, military camps, hen houses, mortuaries or silos.

Since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, about 550 churches were desecrated and between 15,000 to 20,000 icons went missing, believed to be stolen or sold on the black market. - (KYPE)

Link

[Davo88]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Our sophisticated fascists

by ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ

It is a well-known fact that Talat Pasha was quite talented in mathematics and statistics. In 1915 he sent ciphered telegrams to every corner of Anatolia orchestrating the deportation of Armenians.

He was not only deporting Armenians to the deserts of Syria, but also relocating Muslims to the areas the Armenians left. He knew not only the number of Armenians deported, but also their professions and skills, how many Armenian carpenters, bakers, vinedressers, farmers and so on lived in each town and village. After evacuating a town or village he would try to create an identical population in its place. If, for example, there were three bakers in the Armenian population who were deported, then he would send three Muslim bakers to this region who had immigrated from the Balkans to Turkey.

Talat Pasha and his supporters in the massacre and deportation of Armenians were well-educated people, speaking a couple of foreign languages, quite secular and had very “modern” lifestyles.

When I think of these Unionists who prepared the architecture of modern Turkey, the image of a Nazi officer who sent xxxs to gas chambers by day and played Bach quite enthusiastically on a piano by night comes before my eyes. There are so many parallels between Nazis and our Unionists. Both of them were modern, secular, positivist, progressive and “scientific.”

Actually, our new republic was established based on these values and beliefs in 1923. It also, of course, created its own elite who owed their wealth to the sins committed by the Unionists. Nation building based on the exclusion of non-Muslims on the one hand, and the “civilization” project of the republic on the other created a unique political atmosphere and actors in Turkey. Without knowing this background you cannot understand what is really going on in Turkey today.

I think a perfect example of these Turkish elites is the people who created and directed the Hürriyet daily newspaper, which daily uses the famous motto “Turkey belongs to Turks” beneath its logo. Hürriyet’s founders and directors were also quite modern, secular and educated people like Talat Pasha, who first uttered this motto, “Turkey belongs to Turks.”

All these thoughts went through my mind as I read the column of Fatih Altaylı, editor-in-chief of Haber Türk. Altaylı was explaining the Hürriyet daily’s contribution to the 1995 Kardak Island crisis between Greece and Turkey. We have now learned from Altaylı that in the year of the crisis Hürriyet had sent a correspondent to this tiny island to take down the Greek flag and to plant a Turkish flag in its place. And the other day, the photo of this flag was used in a headline story in Hürriyet. Altaylı also told us how Hürriyet’s editor-in-chief defended this provocative news story by saying that they had pursued the same policy when covering news in Cyprus.

Actually, Hürriyet and its writers’ provocative pieces are not limited to sabotaging Turkey’s relations with Greece and creating a crisis in Cyprus. Hürriyet has always whitewashed the deep state and its crimes. Today it is the most talented advocate of the Ergenekon gang. Their campaign sent Hrant Dink to court and made him a target for ultranationalists. During its long life Hürriyet has always been a leading figure in launching smear campaigns against intellectuals and artists who in one way or another crossed the line drawn by the deep state, from Nazım Hikmet to Ahmet Kaya, from Taner Akçam to Osman Can.

Recently, Ayşe Hür, from the Taraf daily newspaper, explained Hürriyet’s role in the chain of events leading up to the Sept. 6-7, 1955, pogroms in Istanbul, which had long-lasting and devastating effects on Turkey’s non-Muslim population. Hür states: “What was most effective in contributing to the events of Sept. 6-7 were the provocative articles written by journalists on Turkey’s Greek population after the Cyprus issue emerged. In these pieces, spearheaded by the Hürriyet and Yeni Sabah newspapers, both the Istanbul Fener Greek Patriarchate and its leader Patriarch Athinagoras were criticized for remaining silent in the face of the Greek operation that was unfolding with Makarios III at the helm. Newspapers were pointing the finger at the patriarch, stressing that Fener represented the whole of the Orthodox world and that with his ecumenical status he could interfere in Makarios’ actions, and so, remaining silent meant condoning Makarios.”

As a result of these provocations 4,124 houses, 1,004 businesses, 73 churches and many other buildings belonging to non-Muslims were destroyed. Dozens of people were killed, 300 wounded and many women were raped.

Hürriyet not only bears the words of Talat Pasha on its front page, but keeps his spirit alive. They are the founders and owners of modern Turkey. They are the smart, educated and sophisticated people of Turkey. They are progressive, scientific, secular and modern. They are the descendants of Talat Pasha. Until Turkey has an open confrontation with Talat Pasha’s sins, we will not be able to understand exactly how these people have ruled this country all these years. Until then, neither will we understand why Turkey’s modern, secular elites are so anti-democratically fighting against minorities and pluralism, nor why they give support to an authoritarian regime in Turkey. To understand our sophisticated fascists and the real nature of the political regime, we have to go to the very foundations.

21 July 2010, Wednesday

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-216635-109-centerour-sophisticated-fascists-bribyi-brorhan-kemal-cengiz-center.html

[londontsi]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

http://www.mirrorspectator.com/?p=3795

20 Years for Murder, 28 Years for Book on Murder

ISTANBUL (Hurriyet) — More than two years after Agos editor Hrant Dink was shot dead, a reporter stands trial for writing about the circumstances surrounding the murder. For his alleged crimes, he faces 28 years in prison, eight years more than what the murder suspect would serve if convicted.
A reporter who wrote a book about the intelligence failures before and after the murder of Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian weekly Agos, is facing a prison term of 28 years if found guilty. The chief suspect in the murder case could serve a maximum of 20 years if convicted.

Milliyet daily reporter Nedim Sener’s book, The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies, focuses on the intelligence deficiencies by security agencies before and after Dink was shot dead, leading to a police officer and three senior Police Department intelligence chiefs filing complaints against him.

Dink, who was prosecuted for insulting Turkishness, was killed in front of the Agos office. The chief suspect, a teenage nationalist, is currently on trial along with several alleged accomplices.

Milliyet daily reported that the complaints have led the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office to charge Sener with publication of secret information and turning antiterrorism officials into targets. The reporter faces a maximum prison term of 28 years if found guilty.

Sener, speaking to Anatolia news agency on his way to the opening hearing this week, said he is facing a total of 28 years in prison if convicted on two charges, obtaining classified documents and insulting government officials.

Sener has two trials pending as a result of the complaints. This trial at the Istanbul Second Court was for revealing official secrets. Sener, who faces up to eight years in jail on this charge, defended himself by saying that the information in his book was from phone conversations that were made public in the media months before his book was printed. “These conversations are also on the Internet and can be found when one searches Google,” he said.

Sener said the trial aimed to prevent the public from learning the facts about Dink’s murder and the status of press freedom. He asked the court to find him not guilty. The judge decided to postpone the trial to another date in order for the defendant’s lawyers to prepare for the prosecutor’s case.

Milliyet Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin told the Anatolia news agency that his presence at court was to support not only Sener but also press freedom in Turkey.

“We are showing this solidarity in order to ensure press freedom in respected,” he said.

The Turkish Journalists’ Association, or TGC, released a statement on the case, saying it was “worrying” and a problem for democracy. It said it was necessary to reassess a law that prosecuted a journalist for trying to uncover the facts behind Dink’s murder, reported Milliyet. “Expert journalists like Nedim Sener uncovering crimes and making the facts public is a service to address the public’s anger about such crimes,” said the TGC. On the issue, Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review’s Editor-in-Chief David Judson said: “Institutions of free expression and individuals expressing themselves freely have collectively made great strides in recent years. That some institutions of the state lag behind in understanding the nature of these important democratic concepts in unfortunate. But we are confident at the Daily News that they will mature along with the rest of society.”

After the book’s release in January of this year, Muhittin Zenit, a police officer working at the intelligence division at Trabzon when Dink was assassinated, filed a criminal complaint about Sener for “targeting personnel in service of fighting terrorism, obtaining secret documents, disclosing secret documents, violating the secrecy of communication and attempting to influence fair trial” through his book.

Case for Other Accusations

At the end of the investigation, Prosecutor Selim Berna Altay charged Sener with “making targets of the personnel in service of fighting terrorism, and obtaining and declaring secret information that is forbidden to be declared,” asking for a prison term of 20 years.

Since they do not fall under his authority, Altay sent the dossier on “violation of the secrecy of communication” and “attempting to influence fair trial” to the Istanbul Second Court. In the meantime, it was also claimed the book contained the offense of “insulting governmental institutions,” and that too was added to the second investigation. Prosecutor Ismail Onaran handled this investigation and filed a second case against Sener asking for his imprisonment for three to eight years.

There is another case ongoing in a Trabzon court against eight personnel from the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command who are accused of neglecting their duties regarding Dink’s death. The accused are facing up to two years in prison if found guilty.

“Some of the security personnel that sued me are under investigation for neglecting their duty for Dink’s murder. They want to punish the journalist writing about the responsibilities of those people,” said Sener.

[Joseph]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

http://www.mirrorspectator.com/?p=3795

20 Years for Murder, 28 Years for Book on Murder

ISTANBUL (Hurriyet) — More than two years after Agos editor Hrant Dink was shot dead, a reporter stands trial for writing about the circumstances surrounding the murder. For his alleged crimes, he faces 28 years in prison, eight years more than what the murder suspect would serve if convicted.
A reporter who wrote a book about the intelligence failures before and after the murder of Dink, the editor-in-chief of Armenian weekly Agos, is facing a prison term of 28 years if found guilty. The chief suspect in the murder case could serve a maximum of 20 years if convicted.

Milliyet daily reporter Nedim Sener’s book, The Dink Murder and Intelligence Lies, focuses on the intelligence deficiencies by security agencies before and after Dink was shot dead, leading to a police officer and three senior Police Department intelligence chiefs filing complaints against him.

Dink, who was prosecuted for insulting Turkishness, was killed in front of the Agos office. The chief suspect, a teenage nationalist, is currently on trial along with several alleged accomplices.

Milliyet daily reported that the complaints have led the Istanbul Prosecutor’s Office to charge Sener with publication of secret information and turning antiterrorism officials into targets. The reporter faces a maximum prison term of 28 years if found guilty.

Sener, speaking to Anatolia news agency on his way to the opening hearing this week, said he is facing a total of 28 years in prison if convicted on two charges, obtaining classified documents and insulting government officials.

Sener has two trials pending as a result of the complaints. This trial at the Istanbul Second Court was for revealing official secrets. Sener, who faces up to eight years in jail on this charge, defended himself by saying that the information in his book was from phone conversations that were made public in the media months before his book was printed. “These conversations are also on the Internet and can be found when one searches Google,” he said.

Sener said the trial aimed to prevent the public from learning the facts about Dink’s murder and the status of press freedom. He asked the court to find him not guilty. The judge decided to postpone the trial to another date in order for the defendant’s lawyers to prepare for the prosecutor’s case.

Milliyet Editor-in-Chief Sedat Ergin told the Anatolia news agency that his presence at court was to support not only Sener but also press freedom in Turkey.

“We are showing this solidarity in order to ensure press freedom in respected,” he said.

The Turkish Journalists’ Association, or TGC, released a statement on the case, saying it was “worrying” and a problem for democracy. It said it was necessary to reassess a law that prosecuted a journalist for trying to uncover the facts behind Dink’s murder, reported Milliyet. “Expert journalists like Nedim Sener uncovering crimes and making the facts public is a service to address the public’s anger about such crimes,” said the TGC. On the issue, Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review’s Editor-in-Chief David Judson said: “Institutions of free expression and individuals expressing themselves freely have collectively made great strides in recent years. That some institutions of the state lag behind in understanding the nature of these important democratic concepts in unfortunate. But we are confident at the Daily News that they will mature along with the rest of society.”

After the book’s release in January of this year, Muhittin Zenit, a police officer working at the intelligence division at Trabzon when Dink was assassinated, filed a criminal complaint about Sener for “targeting personnel in service of fighting terrorism, obtaining secret documents, disclosing secret documents, violating the secrecy of communication and attempting to influence fair trial” through his book.

Case for Other Accusations

At the end of the investigation, Prosecutor Selim Berna Altay charged Sener with “making targets of the personnel in service of fighting terrorism, and obtaining and declaring secret information that is forbidden to be declared,” asking for a prison term of 20 years.

Since they do not fall under his authority, Altay sent the dossier on “violation of the secrecy of communication” and “attempting to influence fair trial” to the Istanbul Second Court. In the meantime, it was also claimed the book contained the offense of “insulting governmental institutions,” and that too was added to the second investigation. Prosecutor Ismail Onaran handled this investigation and filed a second case against Sener asking for his imprisonment for three to eight years.

There is another case ongoing in a Trabzon court against eight personnel from the Trabzon Gendarmerie Command who are accused of neglecting their duties regarding Dink’s death. The accused are facing up to two years in prison if found guilty.

“Some of the security personnel that sued me are under investigation for neglecting their duty for Dink’s murder. They want to punish the journalist writing about the responsibilities of those people,” said Sener.

Pitiful.

[araratsi]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

and they still want to be part of the E.U.

[garod]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Turkish FM expresses regret over Nazi defense at Dink defense

Turkey’s foreign minister has said he regrets the defense the Turkish state gave at the European Court of Human Rights in a case concerning murdered journalist Hrant Dink.

Rejecting the text that drew parallels between Hrant Dink’s perspectives and Neo-Nazism that were prepared by his ministry, Ahmet Davutoğlu gave signals that Turkey could negotiate with the family of Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin murdered in 2007.

“I feel regret for sending a defense to the European court regarding the freedom of expression. Our defense like this could not have come to mind. As an intellectual and a minister, I could not digest this,” said Davutoğlu, noting that he felt depressed when he heard about the event on Sunday.

The foreign minister said he had not signed the document because he was abroad in August 2009, when the defense was first filed at the European court.

Davutoğlu said he was often saddened by having to sign defense cases that were going to the European court.

“Generally, I am the person who signs the negotiation and compensation decisions, which are the heaviest ones for me because you accept both the guilt and the deficiency of your country. Furthermore, money goes out of the government’s pocket. We compensate what the judiciary lacks from the government’s sources. You are also condemned in front of the whole world. After Russia, we’re the country whose cases go to the European court the second-most frequently,” said Davutoğlu.

“If the defenses that I examine are related with the freedom of expression, I will resend them to the Ministry of Justice,” said Davutoğlu, adding that the minister was a sensitive person.

The country should not be judged because of freedom of expression, said Davutoğlu emphasizing that domestic law should be based on such sound basis that there would never be any reason to go to the European court.

“Hrant Dink is an intellectual of this country whom I know and respect,” said Davutoğlu, who said he personally knew Dink was a sympathetic person.

“A day after Sept. 11 while Dink and I were talking in a panel, he told me that his son had been taken into custody in the United States for being a Muslim,” said Davutoğlu, adding that Dink had told him that the Turkish Armenian community was a part of the country.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.p...ter-2010-08-18

[Alexandros]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

garod,

Davutoglou may regret all he wants but the damage is already done. And if he was abroad, who signed the document in 2009 when the defense was filed at the ECHR? And wouldn`t it be better to focus to find allt hose who were involved in the killing of Hrant Dink (and not only the fishes but also those at the top) instead of regretting here and there and coming with lame excuses? Another problem is that if you write a book about this case you might even face trial. This trial has become a joke. I`m starting to wonder if even AKP - and not only the military or the deep state - had a finger in the killing of Dink.

[garod]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Sure that being regretful doesnt bring back the lost one and cannot put you right on the wrong defense but there is an awakening in the some part of Turkish state which even regrets or accepts the mistakes.

According the news below,Abdullah Gul admitted state's responsibility for Dink murder.This is so important confession which nobody could hear in the past from Turkish presidents.Time will show that his words will bring quick action or not.Also answer of your question regarding defense is hidden in the current news.

President Gül Admits State's Responsibility for Dink Murder

President Abdullah Gül accepted the state's responsibility for the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Gül said that Dink died because "necessary precautions" had not been taken prior to the murder.

In an announcement made prior to a state visit to Azerbaijan on Monday (16 August), President Abdullah Gül said that "necessary precautions" to prevent the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink had not been taken. Gül admitted the responsibility of the state for the killing of the journalist.

Gül is currently paying an official visit to Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. In a press conference at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul held prior to his departure, Gül stated, "Unfortunately, Hrant Dink died because the necessary precautions had not been taken".

With Gül's statement, the state's responsibility for the murder of the then editor-in-chief of the Armenian Agos newspaper was admitted on the highest level.

Foreign Minister claimed Dink to have "insulted Turkishness"
When Dink had been sentenced to prison on the grounds of his writings, he had applied to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). One week later, on 19 January 2007, he was assassinated. While the case at the ECHR was still pending, the Dink family opened another trial and raised the question why the murder had not been prevented. In the defence of the Turkish government before the ECHR the government had just recently claimed, "Dink insulted Turkishness, he wrote a hate speech. This kind of writing incites the public to hatred and creates a public offence".

Pointing to the fact that the person who threatened employees of the Agos newspaper had been penalized, the government said, ""If it is agreed that the protection of freedom of thought is a positive responsibility of the state, then the ideas expressed on a disputable matter as in the letters sent by this person should also be agreed on as discussable and these thoughts must be protected as well. It is however impossible to protect thoughts of hatred".

The Minister of Foreign Affairs said that this defence was a technical statement based on previous defences.

http://bianet.org/english/minorities...or-dink-murder

[Alexandros]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

garod,

maybe the AKP, deep state or the military has found a new "Dink": Sevan Nisanyan

Sevan Nişanyan. DAILY NEWS photo, Emrah GÜREL


Nişanyan Houses in Turkish holiday town to be demolished

Thursday, August 19, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

Already facing a prison sentence due to 16 different cases filed against him, author Sevan Nişanyan is now facing a demolition order on a hotel he owns in the village of Şirince in İzmir.

Nişanyan, who is also a linguist and academic, told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review that he would resist the demolition order for his Nişanyan Houses Hotel by every possible avenue.

“Those buildings are my children, each of them have my endless labor, creativity, sincerity and most importantly, sacrifice in them,” said Nişanyan. “What would you do if someone came with a bulldozer and killed your 16 children because of ideological prejudice and your identity? I will not limit myself to only protesting, let no one doubt this.”

The hotel owner said he would continue to operate the houses he has built with his own hands despite all the pressure. “Neither the threats I receive nor can the ideological pressure intimidate me. I will never, never give up on these houses. I do not intend to move anywhere else, either. They’ll need to kill me in order to make me give up on these houses.”

‘I have struggled for 20 years’

Nişanyan entered the tourism business in the early 2000s by restoring historic the Greek houses of Şirince, but a demolition order was issued for them as soon as the buildings were opened for service as a boutique hotel.

“That order was not carried out in those years,” said Nişanyan, who said he built 12 more houses in 2005 and 2006 in addition to the original historic buildings.

The new houses were built from mud bricks and stone in harmony with the 2,000-year-old tradition of the Aegean, Nişanyan said, adding that they were original enough to stand as examples of this method.

Sixteen different legal cases were filed against him in the months that followed the construction of the houses he said.

“The process regarding the demolition order was accelerated after my columns on the Turkish Armed Forces and [modern Turkish founder Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk in a newspaper,” he said.

“Şirince was a slowly dying agricultural village 20 years ago. I have transformed it to a center of attraction by my own means,” he said.

Two lawsuits on ‘zoning pollution’

Nişanyan has worked on the project of a “Mathematics Village” in Şirince in recent years in cooperation with Ali Nesin, the son of internationally known Turkish writer Aziz Nesin.

A legal case was also filed against Nişanyan and Nesin regarding the project, but the demolition order could not be executed due to pressure from public opinion and the village is now offering advanced mathematics education to 120 students.

“During this process I have experienced only hostility, doubt and hindrance from the authorities,” he said.

Nişanyan said his houses had been padlocked numerous times and that he had received countless threats.

“More than 100 cases were filed against me and demolition orders were issued for all the buildings I have built, including the henhouses,” Nişanyan said, counting the cases against him as seven for unsanctioned construction, two for zoning pollution and eight for padlock-breaking cases.

“The sentences [demanded] for all of them are at the upper limit and the total sentence could be 10 years [in prison]. An arrest order may be issued against me at any time, but I am not afraid,” he said.

Link

Don`t criticize the TSK, Kemal Ataturk or speak openly about the Armenian Genocide - especially if you`re an Armenian living in Turkey. Whenever Turkey takes one step forward to improve human rights, it later takes two steps back(sigh). Oh well, it`s going to take time before we see a stable and democratic Turkey as a neighbour.

[garod]

Re: Can Turkey Learn Tolerance?

Actually when I watched a TV programme between Sevan Nisanyan and Yusuf Halacoglu regarding Armenian Genocide, I also felt that Nisanyan can be a new target for the nationalists who expressed his views so harshly and emotional .The only hopeful thing is that recently everything is not easy for the nationalists whose some of leaders or provocateurs are in jail now.

Status quo still continue in Turkey and It is not a surprise that some local units or judgement specially force him due to his identity or views.

Hope that new constitution works and people's increasing criticism will prevent this kind of unequal treatments.