The destruction of the thousand-year-old Sulukule neighborhood (see my previous Sulukule blogs under the ‘Istanbul’ category) and the displacement of its Romani (gypsy) residents continues. This “urban renewal” project will destroy Istanbul’s Romani community –which dates from Byzantine times — by pushing its residents 40 kilometers outside of the city and replacing their neighborhood with […]
Based on its 2007 Turkey Progress Report, the European Parliament is pressing Turkey to step up its reforms and expressed concern about the chief prosecutor’s move to shut down the ruling party and ban many of its lawmakers from politics, including the prime minister and the president, accusing them of Islamist subversion. (Click […]
From Ihsan Dagi’s column (click here for full text):
A highly critical public attitude toward the United States that emerged after 2003 has certainly damaged Turkish-American relations. This state of mind toward the US, however, is not confined to the public at large but apparently influences some critical sectors and institutions too, including the Turkish military. […]
Click here for an interesting approach to the headscarf debate in an essay by Prof. Ayse Kadioglu. Here is a quote from her essay:
Interestingly, there are two different styles of headscarves: the traditional one is called basörtüsü, and is worn by women who are considered “peasants” even though they live in big cities. They usually […]
April 23 is National Sovereignty and Children’s Day in Turkey. Every municipality puts on displays to celebrate nationalism and children. There was a news report that a town in the Antalya region opened the festivities with a child reciting the call to prayer, then the children prayed together. When the girls began their coordinated dance, […]
From the article (click here for full text):
A police officer who on his day off attended a panel organized by a rights group was dismissed from his position for “unbecoming conduct”.
Ercan Elmastas attended a panel on the Constitution organized by a Kurdish rights organization, the Rights and Freedoms Front (HÖC), at the Tunceli Municipal […]
Meanwhile AKP is preparing to present a raft of constitutional amendments to parliament, covering many important issues ranging from making it more difficult for courts to close parties, to gender equity and reform.
Quote from the article:
The package will include the establishment of a political ethics commission. Laws concerning political campaign financing and the duties and […]
What did Onur Oymen of the radically secular-nationalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) really say? In an interview with a US publication, he compared the Turkish headscarf (particularly the contemporary tesettur style) with the black and brown shirts worn by German Nazis and Italian fascists, and he compared the Islamist ideology in Turkey with Nazism and […]
From the fashion show held last week by Tekbir, the leading fashion company for conservative clothing (tesettur).