The Common Sense Movement, a platform bringing together civil society [organizations], opinion leaders, journalists, academics, writers and politicians from different segments of society, held its first meeting opposing coup attempts and anti-democratic practices in Turkey in the eastern province of Malatya on Saturday….
[Zaman newspaper estimates 50,000 attended.]
The Common Sense Movement will continue its string of […]
Photos from Zaman
A diverse crowd of thousands of people (Zaman claims 20,000) marched in Istanbul on Saturday to support democracy and to protest the coup that many believe is occurring as a result of the Constitutional Court case against the ruling AK Party. A variety of non-governmental organizations were represented and the march […]
Click for:
The 2008 Amnesty International Turkey Report
2008 Human Rights Watch: Turkey Report
2008 Reporters Without Borders Turkey Report
While statistics regarding torture while in detention shows a decrease, pre-detention torture continues, that is, mistreatment while not “officially “detained. Yesterday passersby saw a wounded man lying in front of the wall of the Taksim Teaching and Research Hospital in Istanbul. Most walked on, but one good Samaritan woke the man and discovered that […]
YouTube Ban
A court order blocking access to popular video-sharing Web site YouTube that has been in place for one-and-a-half months was rescinded on Tuesday night; however, the Web site remained open only for several hours as it was banned again around 10 a.m. Wednesday morning. Turkey’s frequent YouTube bans, often caused by videos deemed insulting […]
Photo from Zaman
Mehmet Yilmaz’s column in Hurriyet:
I saw a very interesting picture published in one of Turkey’s pro-Islamic newspapers on Thursday. To protest the Constitutional Court ruling*, a group of male students at Yuzuncu Yil University in Van marched wearing white headscarves.
I was touched by their show of concern for their female friends to find a solution to the issue. After seeing […]
I couldn’t have said it better!
Soli Ozel’s excellent article in today’s Financial Times (click here)
An excerpt:
Turkey’s constitutional court is considering a case to close the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and ban 71 of its politicians from politics….
Many voters are offended by this crude attempt to nullify their vote. It is the judicial equivalent […]
Excerpts from an article by M. K. Bhadrakumar (former Indian ambassador to Turkey) in Asia Times (click here for full article)
… It seemed for a fleeting moment that last year’s elections in Turkey would lead to engendering a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity. The AKP secured its mandate as a party […]
A new TESEV publication analyzes the training and ethical standards of Turkey’s police and security services. Of particular interest is the definition of “deep state” on page 27 and institutional paranoia on p. 38. For the report, click here.
With a vote of nine to two, Turkey’s Constitutional Court decided yesterday to annul constitutional amendments that would have allowed women to wear the Muslim headscarf at Turkish universities. This decision came despite the fact that last month the court rapporteur Osman Can had recommended that the case be thrown out, arguing that while […]