Clipmarks | abailart's 'turkey' clips

Turkey is Centre of the World

Sat, 02 Aug 2008 09:14:40 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Despite the fragile situation, if Turkey were to organise autonomy for Kurds in its own borders, northern Iraq, Syria and Iran it would be a heroic act of enormous historical import.

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

Turkey's political stability is no longer just a national issue of 80 million Turks. It is a vital issue today for the international community. And Turkey's role in the Israel-Syria peace talks is only the tip of the iceberg. In the highly volatile Middle East situation, Turkey also facilitated contacts between US National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki. (The two adversaries visited Ankara recently.) Furthermore, Turkey has waded into the Iraq project.

Besides, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is poised to spread to the northern shores of the Black Sea. The new cold war has arrived in Turkey.

Turkish foreign policy is cruising at an optimal level with its prestige as a regional power running high as it mediates peace in its neighborhood and commands influence. Turkey has returned to the Middle East region after an absence of almost nine decades.

Tags: turkey

Iraq Poised to Explode

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 11:27:24 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Not a stunningly original analysis but sometimes the obvious needs repeating over and over.

Clip Source: www.thenation.com

Despite the Optimism of the Neocons, which has pushed mainstream media coverage to be increasingly flowery about Iraq's political progress, in fact the country is poised to explode.

There are at least three flashpoints for an explosion, any or all of which could blow up over the next couple of months. (Way to go, Surgin' Generals!) The first is the brewing crisis over Kirkuk, where the pushy Kurds are demanding control and Iraq's Arabs are resisting.

second is in the west, and Anbar, where the US-backed Sons of Iraq sahwa ("Awakening") movement is moving to take power against the Iraqi Islamic Party, a fundamentalist Sunni bloc

third is the restive Mahdi Army of Muqtada al-Sadr, which is chafing at gains made by its Iranian-backed rival, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI).

Tags: iraq factional internicine war, kurds, north iraq-turkey, iran shiites

Turkish site a Neolithic 'supernova'

Fri, 02 May 2008 17:50:55 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks: The archaeological discoveries in Gobeklitepe - Turkey, continues to stun the archaeology world. The site is dated to 9,500 BCE.

Clip Source: www.stonepages.com

Klaus Schmidt, a member of the German Archaeological Institute, has found in Turkey a temple complex almost twice as old as anything comparable. "This place is a supernova," said Mr. Schmidt. "Within a minute of first seeing it, I knew I had two choices: go away and tell nobody, or spend the rest of my life working here."

The stone circles of Gobekli Tepe are his workplace since 1994.

Dated at about 9500 BCE, these stones are 5,500 years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7,000 years older than Stonehenge.

"Everybody used to think only complex, hierarchical civilizations could build such monumental sites and that they only came about with the invention of agriculture," said Ian Hodder, a Stanford University anthropology professor who has directed digs at Catalhoyuk,

"Gobekli changes everything. It's elaborate, it's complex, and it is pre-agricultural. That fact alone makes the site one of the most important archaeological finds in a very long time."

Tags: archaeology, prehistory, neolithic, turkey, klaus schmidt, science

Rethinking Islam

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:31:18 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: A useful article for those who study Islam or who are interested in The secularist values of Ataturk Turkey. On another note, interesting for parallel western attempts to resurrect Christianity.

Clip Source: www.opendemocracy.net

A group of theologians at Ankara University is examining early Islamic sources in order to distinguish core elements from the accretions of later history. The process has intellectual significance beyond as well as within Turkey

does the revision of hadith by Turkey's officially sanctioned Islamic experts suggest that something truly important is happening? The answer can only be found by defining what the hadith really are - and this in turn requires a return to the roots of Islam.

In the past two decades, Turkey has seen the rise of popular modernist theologians who argue that "the Islam in the Qur'an" is much more rational and liberal than "the Islam in the tradition". Some of these popular reformists are "Muslim feminists", who argue that the "male-domination ideology" has corrupted the post-Qur'anic tradition.

Tags: islam, theology

Don't Turn Your Back on Your Brain

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 14:48:05 GMT

clipped by: wildcat
clipper's remarks: go read all of it and have some fun with your mind

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Let's start with memory. It doesn't exist. What you think of as your childhood memories are actually a haphazard pastiche of self-serving fictions, hazy re-creations and repurposed movie scenes held together with a minimal smattering of actual experiences. If you tell your mother about your Christmas memory of getting a new purple bicycle from Uncle Barnett, she will tell you that it was actually Aunt Minnie, and it was a red Go Kart. Whose memory is correct? Neither of yours! Go look at your family photos, and you'll discover that you were actually raised by hoboes in an abandoned train station in rural Turkey.

Perception? Perception is laughable. Did you ever, as a child, try to write a book report based on a quick reading of the first chapter and cover copy of a novel? That's perception. Your mind takes in a constant geyser of data every instant of the day, discards most of it as unimportant, then fills in the spaces with assumptions and diversions.

Tags: mind, fun, memory, perception, exploratorium

Turkey: the essence of the secularist debate

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:20:43 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: I am with the first view. Secularism should include the freedom of view and the removal of primitive impediments to democratic participation. the lifting of the Kurdish linguistic ban is a step forward too. Even if the move results in accelerating value clashes and violence, the principle holds true.

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

In Wednesday's heated debate, Bekir Bozdag, deputy chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said the amendment bill would strengthen Turkey's characteristic principle of secularism.

"Giving equal right to education to every citizen is not against the state of law and democracy," he said.

Some women refuse to go to university because of the ban

"Isn't secularism the guarantee for everyone who wants to benefit from the equal right to education?"

But Hakki Suha Okay, a member of the strictly secular main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), said the package "aims to render the principle of secularism ineffective".

"This step will encourage radical [Islamic] circles in Turkey, accelerate movement towards a state founded on religion, lead to further demands" against the spirit of the republic, he said.

Tags: secularism, turkey

Turkish Troops Enter Iraqi Kurdistan

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 10:41:30 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

About 300 Turkish troops have crossed into northern Iraq, officials in Iraq have said.

The lightly-armed soldiers entered Iraq overnight and moved up to three kilometres (1.9 miles) inside, an Iraqi Kurdish spokesman said.

So far Ankara has not confirmed the reports.

It is believed to be the first major Turkish deployment of troops in Iraq since the Cabinet backed the move last month, in a bid to hunt Kurdish rebels.

The Turkish army blames rebels from the Kurdistan's Workers' Party (PKK) of using bases inside Iraq to launch attacks on Turkey.

The deployment came just two days after Turkey sent up to 50 planes to attack PKK bases inside northern Iraq, in what was seen as an escalation of weeks of cross-border tensions

Ankara has massed up to 100,000 troops near the mountainous border with northern Iraq, backed by tanks, artillery and warplanes.

But Iraq and the US have urged Turkey not to carry out its threat.

Tags: kurdistan, iraq, turkey

Tehran Calls Iranian Kurds "Terrorists"

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 06:59:10 GMT

clipped by: merrie
clipper's remarks: In an exclusive interview with Newsmax recently in Berlin, Ahmadi says that Iran was now working hand-in-glove with Turkey to get PJAK labeled as a terrorist organization.

“Iran knows they can’t make trouble for us directly because they have such bad relations with Europe. That’s why they are going through Turkey.”

The Iranian regime has been telling journalists and diplomats that PJAK and the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers Party) are the same. “But we are an Iranian party, and have nothing to do with Turkey,” he says.

PJAK has become a serious threat to the regime in Tehran because it is fighting to overthrow the clerical regime in favor of a secular republic and because it favors equality between men and women, Ahmadi asserts. The group has around 2,500 armed guerilla fighters, 40 percent of whom are women.

Clip Source: www.newsmax.com

Unable to defeat rebel Kurds in their mountain strongholds in Northern Iraq, the Iranian regime has launched a campaign of terror against its own Kurdish citizens in an effort to paint regime opponents as terrorists.

“The regime is planning to blame this attack on PJAK, even though their own agents carried it out,” a well-placed Iranian source tells Newsmax. “They did the same thing in Sistan-va-Balouchestan province earlier this year, then went to [neighboring] Pakistan demanding the extradition of Balouchi activists.”

A PJAK liaison representative in Washington, D.C. denied that the group had any involvement in the Sanandaj explosion, calling the allegations “an Iranian fabrication.”

“PJAK does not carry out operations against civilians,” Saif Badrakhan tells Newsmax. “Iran is behind this kind of operation to terrorize the Kurdish population.”

PJAK President Rahman Haj-Ahmadi, the prime target of the Iranian regime effort, has lived in Germany for the past 35 years

Tags: iranian kurds, pjak, tehran, turkey, europe, terrorists

More Underground Cities (This one's in Turkey)

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 20:01:20 GMT

clipped by: sahara
clipper's remarks: The last photo is from a different city, did not mean to get it into this collection.

Clip Source: www.hitit.co.uk

The underground cities of Cappadocia are worthy of a visit. Let's take Derinkuyu for example. The one time home of up to 20,000 people, it's 18 storeys descend into the Anatolian plateau 50 kms south of Goreme. Stop and think about that for a while. A large, market town sized community digging a settlement out to guarantee themselves a degree of protection.

There are actually 40 or so subterranean settlements in the area although only a few are open to the public. Kaymakli, 10 kilometers to the north of Derinkuyu, is smaller and less excavated but 5 levels are accessible and the experience is pretty much the same. Not For The Claustrophobic.

Clip Source: www.hitit.co.uk

Clip Source: www.travelblog.org

Underground confusion
Taken from inside an underground city. These cities were started by the Hittites, then finished by Christians seeking to escape persucution by the Romans. They could fit upwards of 150,000 people in... [more]

Clip Source: www.wright-photo.com

The upper levels housed the animals and people.

Clip Source: x.atamanhotel.com

Tags: cities, world, mystery

Turkey's Hatred of Free Speech

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 08:06:48 GMT

clipped by: abailart
clipper's remarks: Until recently, Turkey banned public usage (eduaction, broadcasting etc) of Kurdish language. Kurds make up a fifth of population. There is a strong strand of nationalism which seeks to reframe the Armenian holocaust as the fault of the Armenians. Turkey is seeking membership of the european union.

Clip Source: books.guardian.co.uk

Nearly two years after the internationally acclaimed author Orhan Pamuk narrowly escaped imprisonment for statements that were thought to "insult Turkishness", the publisher of a British writer goes on trial today accused of the same charge.

Ragip Zarakolu is facing up to three years in prison for publishing a book - promoting reconciliation between Turks and Armenians - by George Jerjian, a writer living in London.

Zarakolu is being tried under Turkey's 301 article of law, the same legislation that was used against Pamuk, a Nobel prize winner, as well as 60 other local writers and journalists. Today's hearing comes in the wake of repeated promises by senior officials in Turkey's reform-minded neo-Islamist administration to rescind the notorious piece of legislation.

In a climate of unabated nationalism, state prosecutors and police officials continue to level charges against artists, musicians and writers perceived to publicly denigrate Turkishness.

Tags: turkey, article 301

Iraqi Kurdistan Defies Baghdad over Oil

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 08:34:45 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

Despite opposition from the national government in Baghdad and its neighbors, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has refused to be held back by the indecision and infighting that characterizes the central government. They have charged ahead, passing their own Oil and Gas Law and forming four regional oil-related companies - the Kurdistan Exploration and Production Company, Kurdistan National Oil Company, Kurdistan Oil Marketing Organization and Kurdistan Organization for Downstream Operations - and signed seven new exploration deals with both Kurdish and international petroleum firms. Kurdish officials claim they are well within their legal right to go forward with the exploration deals and that fears of the KRG monopolizing subsequent oil revenues are unfounded.

the oil deals threaten to exacerbate their fragile and historically hostile relationship with Turkey.

Tags: kurdistan, syria, turkey, iran, iraq, oil, shiite government

Us in Covert War on Iraq-Iran Border

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:34:51 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.atimes.com

While the PKK has been in the international spotlight in recent weeks, with Turkey mounting cross-border raids and threatening to launch an invasion of Iraq, not so much attention has been given to the Iranian offshoot, the PJAK. The group has been waging an insurgency against Tehran since 2004, which recently has escalated. A guerrilla leader told the New York Times last month that PJAK fighters had killed at least 150 Iranian soldiers and officials in Iran since August.

Iran accuses Washington of backing the group, and while the US denies this, local and foreign intelligence sources say the accusation is most likely true. According to a former US Special Forces (SF) commando currently based in Iraq who spoke on condition of anonymity, Special Forces troops are currently operating inside Iran, working with insurgent forces like the PJAK. "That's what the SF does," he said. "They train and build up indigenous anti-government forces."

Tags: iran, iraq, us trained militia, kurdistan

Turkey Authorises Iraq Strike

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 17:26:11 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

The Turkish government has authorised the army to carry out strikes against separatist Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's prime minister, said: "We made a decision at the cabinet meeting on November 28 and, with the president's approval, the Turkish armed forces were authorised regarding a cross-border operation."

Faced with mounting violence, the government secured parliamentary approval last month to order a cross-border military operation against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Answering journalists' questions on television, Erdogan did not give any indication whether such action was imminent.

Tags: turkey, iraq, kurdistan, pkk, us=iraqi+turkish diplomacy

Thanksgiving: Gobble Gobble

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 18:57:48 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.economist.com

THANKSGIVING is a happy day for most Americans, but a gloomier one for turkeys. Around 46m birds will be served up at the dinner table says the National Turkey Federation, a trade body. Turkey farmers also have reason for cheer. Americans each scoff 16.9lb (7.7kg) of turkey meat annually, up from 8.3lb in 1975. Production reflects this growing appetite: some 272m turkeys will be raised this year compared with 124m in 1975.

Tags: thanksgiving, turkey consumption

Turkish Police Break Up Kurdish Rally

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:00:53 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: english.aljazeera.net

Ten people have been arrested as Turkish police used warning shots and tear gas to break up a rally by a Kurdish party that authorities are trying to ban.

Police broke up demonstrators chanting slogans in favour of Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Turkey's NTV news channel reported.

As many as 2,000 demonstrators loyal to Ocalan rallied in the city of Van on Saturday.

The demonstration was organised by the country's main Kurdish political movement, the Democratic Society Party (DTP) – a group accused by Ankara of colluding with PKK fighters.

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in Turkey's 550-member parliament, rejects charges of links to the PKK.

Tags: kurds, pkk, dtp, turkey