Kamil Pasha

I just published an essay on the situation in Turkey on the SSRC (Social Science Research Council) blog, The Immanent Frame. To read it, click here.

Tags: AKP closure case, Deep state/Ergenekon, Headscarf Debate, Kurds, Nationalism, Politics, Religion, Rights, Uncategorized by Jenny White
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An Istanbul court on Tuesday ruled against a demand to start an investigation into Istanbul Police Chief Celalettin Cerrah and seven other police officers, including former Police Department Intelligence Bureau Chief Ahmet Ilhan Güler, who were accused of having disregarded intelligence information regarding a plot to kill Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was shot dead […]

Tags: Nationalism, Politics, Religion, Rights by Jenny White
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Photo from The Independent
Excerpt from The Independent: (for full article, click here)
In a corner of Istanbul today, the man who might be described as Turkey’s gay poster boy will be buried – a victim, his friends believe, of the country’s deepening friction between an increasingly liberal society and its entrenched conservative traditions.
Ahmet Yildiz, 26, […]

Tags: Culture, Istanbul, Rights by Jenny White
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Photo from Today’s Zaman
Fethiye Cetin, a lawyer representing the family of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassinated by a young man under the influence of ultranationalism, discusses the status of the case against Dink’s killers, including the involvement of state officials and security forces in the assassination, with possible links to the Ergenekon group, […]

Tags: Deep state/Ergenekon, Nationalism, Politics, Religion, Rights by Jenny White
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Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink was assassinated before his office a year and a half ago. The ostensible reason was that Dink had “insulted Turkish blood”. The gunman was arrested and put on trial, along with his associates. Since then, it has emerged in the investigation and trial that security officials had been warned several times […]

Tags: Nationalism, Rights by Jenny White
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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 […]

Tags: AKP closure case, Politics, Rights by Jenny White
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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 […]

Tags: AKP closure case, Headscarf Debate, Politics, Rights by Jenny White
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Click for:
The 2008 Amnesty International Turkey Report
2008 Human Rights Watch: Turkey  Report
2008 Reporters Without Borders Turkey Report

Tags: Rights by Jenny White
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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 […]

Tags: Rights by Jenny White
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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 […]

Tags: Rights by Jenny White
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