"insulting Turkish identity"

[Gavur]

İHD Istanbul chief detained at Atatürk Airport

Tuesday, November 1, 2005

ANKARA - Turkish Daily News


Lawyer Eren Keskin, head of the Istanbul Human Rights Association (İHD), was taken into custody at Atatürk Airport, reported NTV television on its Web site.

A court had issued an arrest warrant in absentia for Keskin since she failed to show up for a court session in which she was being tried for a speech she delivered in Germany. She is claimed to have insulted the Turkish Armed Forces in her speech.

Police detained Keskin at the airport upon her return from Germany on Sunday evening.

Keskin is a human rights activist in Turkey and has been involved in many highly publicized human rights defense projects.

[Gavur]

Memoir about the Armenian Genocide, Published in Turkey

Bestselling author Peter Balakian's Black Dog of Fate, Prizewinning
Memoir about the Armenian Genocide, Published in Turkey

Publisher Risks Prosecution in Turkish Criminal Court

HarperCollins Publishers
October 20, 2005
Contact: Tim Brazier, [email protected]
212-207-6926

For Immediate Release

Now in its 23rd printing in the U.S., Peter Balakian's memoir Black Dog
of Fate: An American Son Uncovers His Armenian Past has just been
published in Turkey with the title Kaderin Kara Köpeği by Belge
International Publishers in Istanbul. Black Dog of Fate was published to
critical acclaim in 1997, was a New York Times Notable Book, and won the
1998 PEN/Martha Albrand Prize for memoir.

Ragip Zarakolu, director of Belge Yayinlari publishing house, has
published several books on subjects considered dangerous by the Turkish
government and has been tried and imprisoned repeatedly for his
intellectual principles. His late wife and partner at Belge Yayinlari,
Ayse Zarakalou, was arrested more than 30 times and was jailed several
times. For her courage, Mrs. Zarakolu was awarded the Freedom Prize by
Germany's Frankfort Book Fair in 1998.

Zarakolu was indicted in December 2004 for `insulting and undermining
the state and insulting the memory of Ataturk''charges that carry a
possible prison sentence of three years [to double-check] 'for
publishing a Turkish edition of British writer George Jerjian's The
Truth Will Set Us Free: Armenians and Turks Reconciled. At a hearing in
March to appeal his indictment, Zarakolu defended his publication of
Jerjian's book, declaring that he stood by the principles of the World
Publishers' Union and that publishing `involves an ethical duty' and
provides `humankind with the means of accessing information.' He noted
that Jerjian's book had `no other aim than to provide knowledge of world
ideas. Turkish readers,' he said, `have the right to know what kind of
publications are out there in the world.'

`The political establishment claims that it has expanded the limits of
freedom of expression in the recent reform process,' Zarakolu said at
his March trial.
`Unfortunately we have not seen this in practice.' He continued, `Of
course, the easiest kind of publishing in the world would be to practice
autocensorship with regard to views we don't like, and therefore do
something that keeps everyone smiling. But how honest is this, and to
what extent does it reflect the true situation? It really is nothing
more than self-deception.'

For a country hoping to enter the European Community, the censorship of
books and the lack of intellectual freedom are serious obstacles. The
hearing was attended by delegates from Human Rights Watch and
International PEN.
Zarakolu's appeal was rejected, and his trial is scheduled to take place
this month. Observers from International PEN are expected to attend.
Zarakolou is also on trial for publishing Canadian author Dora Sakayan's
book Journal of a Doctor's Life, about the burning of Smyrna (Izmir) in
1922.

Balakian's memoir, called an `essential American story,' is a boy's
coming-of-age story about growing up in the affluent New Jersey suburbs
of the `50s and `60s. Set amidst American pop culture and adolescent
experience, Black Dog of Fate deals with the author's journey into his
family's past as it intertwines with the history of the Armenian
Genocide of 1915 and his grandmother's dramatic story of survival.

Black Dog of Fate was a `best book of the year' for the LA Times,
Library Journal, and Publisher's Weekly, which called the memoir `a
prose masterpiece by an acclaimed poet.' The Philadelphia Inquirer
called it `a landmark chapter in the literature of witness.'

Black Dog of Fate has also appeared in German, Dutch, Greek, and
Armenian editions and is published in paperback by Broadway Books.
Balakian, who holds a B.A. from Bucknell University and a Ph.D. from
Brown University, is the Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of
Humanities at Colgate University. His other books include the New York
Times bestseller The Burning Tigris: The Armenian Genocide and America's
Response and June-tree: New and Selected Poems 1974-2000.

Ragip Zarakolu is not alone in risking imprisonment to defend freedom of
expression in Turkey. Internationally acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan
Pamuk was recently indicted for `public denigration of Turkish identity'
after he was quoted in a Swiss newspaper as saying, `Thirty thousand
Kurds and 1 million Armenians were killed in these lands and nobody but
me dares to talk about it.' His trial is scheduled for December.

http://groong.usc.edu/news/msg127923.html

[Hovik]

EU Demands of Turkey to Include Suits against Pamuk and Dink

Pan Armenian

EU Demands of Turkey to Include Suits against Pamuk and Dink

05.11.2005 20:05 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Next week the EU will present a list of 150 requirements
to Turkey. The list will include suits against Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk
and ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. Orhan Pamuk had stated that one
million Armenians were killed and will appear before court due to that in
December. It should be reminded that EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli
Rehn urged Turkish authorities to withdraw indictments against Pamuk. The
Agos newspaper editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was conditionally sentenced to 6
months of imprisonment «for insulting Turkish dignity.»

[Gavur]

Not-so-unveiled convictions: Professor stands up for religious freedom

by Malak Hamwi
Hatchet Staff Writer
Issue date: 11/7/05


When Merve Kavakci tried to take her oath to enter the Turkish Parliament in 1999, other members of the national assembly shouted "get out" for 45 minutes.

One of only a handful of women in the 550-member body, the Elliott School of International Affairs professor expected some opposition from her fellow parliamentarians, but she wasn't prepared for everything that happened. She recalled the prime minister pointing at her and saying, "Put this woman in her place."

The members successfully blocked Kavakci from taking her oath, and within 11 days of the incident, Kavakci was stripped of her citizenship, banned from political activity until June 2006 and charged with instigating hatred.

What offended the members of Parliament, however, was not her gender. It was her refusal to remove her hijab, or headscarf, which they considered a challenge to Turkish secularism, she said.

The state's westernization policy began as a movement to separate mosque and state, but has become a form "secular fundamentalism," said Kavakci, 37, who has worn a hijab for 20 years. Turkey is about 99 percent Muslim.

"The state intervenes with religion so much so that (secularism) becomes a state religion," Kavakci said. "It's state-created Turkish Islam."

Turkey bans federal employees and public school students up to the university level from wearing a hijab, said Kavakci, who was forced to quit studying medicine at the University of Ankara in 1988 for refusing to take off her hijab. The ban began in the 1980s as a provision to regulate the dress code of federal employees.

Kavakci's book "Scarfless Democracy" has been published in Turkish and is awaiting English translation. She has become an activist trying to "raise consciousness" about the hijab ban that has spread to countries such as Belgium, France and Tunisia.

In March 2005, Kavakci testified before the United Nations Commission on Human Rights that Turkey's ban on the hijab violates the international treaties Turkey has signed.

Kavakci is also bringing suit against the Turkish government in the European Court of Human Rights for depriving her of her right to serve in Parliament and for denying her constituency the right to representation, she said. Kavakci is awaiting the court's ruling, which is expected in the coming months.

"If you're a political activist in Turkey and you haven't been charged with anything than you're not a real political activist," Kavakci said. "It's a badge of honor."

The hijab Kavakci wore to her now infamous swearing-in ceremony was on display on Capital Hill from Oct. 24 to 28 as part of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty's "Body of Belief" exhibit.

The exhibit, which is on a three-year international tour, features a collection of banned religious clothing, such as a Sikh turban that is restricted in many countries, and a necktie, which is banned in Iran, said Jared Leland, the fund's spokesman and legal counsel.

"Merve is the focal point, and some could argue, the very reason as to what prompted the Body of Belief exhibit," Leland said. "She is the posterchild for individuals, internationally-speaking, who have been persecuted or discriminated against for religious garb."

Despite 25 years of restriction, Kavakci remains hopeful that one day the hijab ban will be lifted. Her former Islamist Virtue Party was banned in 2001, but reorganized as the Justice and Development Party and holds two-thirds of the seats in Parliament.

The ban on the hijab is creating a new social class of women who identify with one another not through age or occupation, but through the violation of their civil rights, Kavakci said.

"This is a 1950s Montgomery, Alabama," she said.

Although she was prevented from taking her formal oath of office, Kavakci still considers herself a parliamentarian. Her constituency, however, has changed, she said.

"Before I saw myself as representing the people of Istanbul, but now I realized I represent the victims of the headscarf ban," Kavakci said.

Younger generations are more tolerant of the hijab, said Kavakci, who estimated that more than 70 percent of Turkish women wear a headscarf.

"We're part of the Turkish reality," she said. "We will not be quieted."



Gavur=There is one of her constituents

[Gavur]

Turkish publisher charged with insult of state for translating U.Sauthor's book.

20:02 2005-11-08

A Turkish publisher said Tuesday he has been charged with insulting
the Turkish state and the founder of the Turkish Republic for
translating a book by an American author. Fatih Tas, owner of the
pro-Kurdish Aram publishing house, published "Spoils of War: The Human
Cost of America's Arms Trade" by John Tirman, executive director of
the center for international studies at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, earlier this year.

Prosecutors have charged Tas under two items in the penal code, one
that makes it a crime to insult the Turkish identity or the Turkish
government, and another making it a crime to insult Ataturk, the
revered founder of the Turkish Republic.

Tas, 26, said he could face six years in prison if convicted.

Tirman, the author of the book, called the prosecution "the act of an
immature and self-promoting prosecutor" and said it raised questions
about Turkey's commitment to fulfilling European democratic norms as
it seeks EU membership.

"For Turkey to be part of the West, to have a claim to be part of
Europe and in particular the European Union, it needs to be able to
tolerate these kinds of debates _ about the Kurds, about the
implications of nationalism and so on," Tirman said.

"Spoils of War" deals with the human costs of the U.S. military
relationship with Turkey, and is highly critical of Turkish
nationalism and Turkey's treatment of its Kurdish minority, especially
during a 15-year Kurdish rebel insurgency in southeast Turkey that
began in the early 1980s.

Tirman said the issues raised in the book were "well within the bounds
of political debate in the West" and that controversies on issues such
as nationalism and ethnicity are "things that we must deal with in a
democracy all the time."

European officials and human rights groups have been highly critical
of Turkey's performance on freedom of expression, and especially of
prosecutions under clauses in the penal code on insults against the
state and Turkish identity.

Acclaimed Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk and the Armenian-Turkish editor
Hrant Dink face similar charges, the AP reports.

Tas said he has some 25 cases opened against him and faces fines
approaching US$20,000. He was earlier prosecuted for publishing a book
by linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky, but the charges were
dropped at the trial in Turkey, which Chomsky attended.

Tas is to appear in an Istanbul court Nov. 17.

The Aram Web site has been converted to a petition campaign calling
for Turkey to abolish the articles in the penal code under which Tas
was charged. The petition has more than 250 signatures, including
those of Chomsky and other activists and professors from the United
States.

http://groong.usc.edu/world/tr/msg04004.html

[Gavur]

Something Rotten in Denmark: Could It be The Turkish Prime Minister's Attitude?

COPENHAGEN (Combined Sources)--Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a NATO Parliamentary Assembly (PA) gathering in Denmark that Turkey expects the same positive attitude from Armenia that it has been displaying to its neighbor recently. He stressed, however, that the genocide of Armenians has never been a part of Turkish history.

He noted that Turkey has recently opened air-space between the two countries, has begun to reconstruct an Armenian church in Akhtamar in historical Armenia, and has agreed to share its national archives with historians, reported the Anadolu news agency.

"Genocide has never been a part of our history. It is a serious mistake to accuse a government, which had to relocate some of its people due to uprisings, of genocide,'' Erdogan emphasized.

He also told NATO PA that Turkey's EU membership would confirm that Islam and Christianity can co-exist in peace. Humanity needs peace and prosperity, so such exclusions [rejecting Turkey's EU bid] will not bring peace and tranquility,'' said Erdogan.

He also warned that Turkey's exclusion would be "a dangerous" move for Europe particularly and the the West generally, describing it as a ''a separation of path'' with the Islamic world.

Erdogan did opt, however, to part paths with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, refusing to attend a joint press conference with the Danish leader.

Erdogan declined to take part in the briefing at Rasmussen's office in Copenhagen, claiming that the TV station, Roj TV, was controlled by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.

The Turkish prime minister was meeting with Rasmussen as he tours European capitals to discuss the prospects of Turkey's EU membership bid.

Rasmussen condemned Erdogan's decision, saying it is a ``basic principle that no government should in any way influence the freedom of the media,'' adding that ``precisely the principle of freedom of speech is absolutely fundamental as far as EU membership goes. It's crucial that applicant countries 100 percent fulfil the political criteria, including freedom of expression.''

``There is no official comment, and the events are self-explanatory,'' said a spokeswoman at Turkey's embassy in Copenhagen, who declined to give her name. ``There is freedom of speech in Turkey.''

Copenhagen-based Roj TV said it had no links with the PKK, Danish public television and radio broadcaster Danmarks Radio reported today.

Rasmussen said he had ``no legal basis to exclude journalists from press conferences as long as they work within the law.''

Fifty-five percent of Danes are opposed to Turkish EU-membership, according to a poll conducted on November 13. The newspaper didn't say how many people participated in the poll or give a margin of error.
© 2005 ASBAREZ ONLINE. All Rights Reserved.
ASBAREZ provides this news service for academic research or personal use only and may not be reproduced in or through mass media outlets.
URL:www.asbarez.com

[1.5 million]

"Genocide has never been a part of our history. It is a serious mistake to accuse a government, which had to relocate some of its people due to uprisings, of genocide,''

Still clinging to an argument that has absolutly no factual basis - that is so patently false on a great numner of levels - that is a deliberate propogandistic distortion that amounts to outright denial in the face of all evidence to the contrary. This one comment alone needs to be pushed back into an Turkey's face so hard until they repudiate it.

[neutral]

Still clinging to an argument that has absolutly no factual basis - that is so patently false on a great numner of levels - that is a deliberate propogandistic distortion that amounts to outright denial in the face of all evidence to the contrary. This one comment alone needs to be pushed back into an Turkey's face so hard until they repudiate it.

As a neutral I feel that I have to comment. Most of the world denies that this "Genocide" took place, sure a few of Armenia's allies have recognised it but that doesn't mean a thing.

Turkey doesn't accept this Genocide theory therefore one can say that it must not be true. Surely, since the events that occured happened in Turkey, the Turks and especially the Turkish government know the truth.

[TurkishG]

As a neutral I feel that I have to comment. Most of the world denies that this "Genocide" took place, sure a few of Armenia's allies have recognised it but that doesn't mean a thing.

Turkey doesn't accept this Genocide theory therefore one can say that it must not be true. Surely, since the events that occured happened in Turkey, the Turks and especially the Turkish government know the truth.

I agree with your estimates of 5,000,000 Turks killed by Armenians in over a period of little less than a 1,000 years but I feel that I should make you aware that Turkish victims of Greek terrors over a similar period of time is double the Armenian figure. At least 10,000,000 Turks died because of the Greeks, thats funny I thought Greece was the birth place of Democracy and Civilisation.

[1.5 million]

As a neutral I feel that I have to comment. Most of the world denies that this "Genocide" took place, sure a few of Armenia's allies have recognised it but that doesn't mean a thing.

Turkey doesn't accept this Genocide theory therefore one can say that it must not be true. Surely, since the events that occured happened in Turkey, the Turks and especially the Turkish government know the truth.

Where is the laughing icon when you need it. Most of the word does not deny that the Armenian Genocide took place - perhaps they are indifferent or what have you but please - proove that just because some admionistrative process to document some state's offical recognition of such has not occured that it is denied. How many nation's have passed specific resolutions recognizing the Cambodian Genocide or the Rwandan Genocide I wonder. If a nation hasn't passed/adopted such a resolution does it mean that it didn't happen?

If the Soviet Union never admitted slughtering 20 million of its own - did it not happen? If they denied that the Tartars were deported to Siberia - did it not occur? If Al Queda claims that they never sponsored any terrorism in NYC are we to assume that the Two Towers are still standing? Give it a break - all this thinking must really be hurting your head...I'd say brain - but the jury is out on that one...no evidence of such...in fact this forum has yet to pass a resolution declaring that you have a brain - so lacking such I guess we must just assume (by your logic) that you are not in possession of such....