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Author Website: http://brussels.chp.org.tr
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A Poetry event “Brussels Raw” and my poem “River-Long Loneliness”

Posted by kadersevinc on 07/05/12

Kader Sevinc-Brussels Raw

On Sunday at BOZAR I was part of an international poetry event “Brussels Raw” with my poem “River-long loneliness” .

I would like to thank to Brussels Poetry Collective for this great event, Galician poet  and member of BPC, Xavier Queipo for inviting me and dueting with me and ÇağdaƟ Acar for his excellent translation..

You can read it below:

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River-Long Loneliness

 

Kader Sevinç*

 

1

 

here we feel like stars

in distant skies we stand

alienated

on gondolas we depart at nights

just to be shot down

in the morning, with our suns.

 

***

2

 

river-long loneliness

highways lead to nowhere

jam-packed buses

test loneliness in the crowd.

 

***

3

 

willows bend down to tears, distance

soaks sky-wide steps

my weariness is not your fault.

 

***

4

 

an old friend pays a visit

to each and every home on the planet,

and poppy-faced kids

will reign over the world…

 

 

***

5

 

as we sleep, a horse with cracked gaze

will run by, grabbing our dreams

towards love-making butterfiles on the run.

 

 

***

6

 

until it makes any sense

it will take days and nights.

but one would smell a burnt carnation

on its route.

 

 

***

7

 

once we caressed that familiar ivy

seasons of our face got insane

running towards nothingness

 

 

***

8

 

Following gods’ curse-steps

we enjoy destruction, too

that of the wind-driven ages

 

see, the day erodes

 

 

***

9

 

O butterflies, looking for a mate

snow white butterflies

relentless gods of our sleep,

my weariness is your fault.

 

***

10

 

as we trod on a steep path

dreams besiege the soil

where the sun is silent,

foulard-like shadow plays

shade over wind of our lives.

 

***

 

11

 

the day you understand the sirens

when you sing aloud, that day

finally your voice will settle

for departure;

into a wine-brimming garden

I put all my solutide.

limbs of olive trees shade over my self

don’t even bother.

nevermind the distance.

 

***

 

12

 

when mirrors speak, words wither away.

meaning of daydreaming-eyes

a wind on the wall, a raining fire.

 

***

13

 

the wind, and the mooonlight

flowers devour the time

 

a dry taste of deception in my mouth.

the river grows in its own bed

 

dreams in non-existing languages.

 

***

 

14

 

we remember the fish

that carry the alchemy of water

 

and as we pass by dreams

they rub their wounds against ours

-our cold, grown up wounds-

 

***

 

15

 

aliens we are

we save no single word to pass to others

always poor even with our dreams

our breath is a burning basil

in the cold, cold night.

 

***

 

16

 

the shadow of our voice

the mirror of our skin

 

***

 

17

 

water made us bleed

suns have risen towards the nape of loneliness

born into wastelands, hope raised us all

we dragged dreams towards the music of the spring

 

***

 

18

 

even swans fade away, tomorrows migrate

a distance-thirst in my body

a harumscarum age

 

springs of fiction discharge

as sacristan rings the bell

 

 

***

 

19

 

one question: would I see

some fern, an old friend

if I go out?

 

my face is a kid’s old geography.

 

***

 

20

 

time’s up, sand is running out

my face has folios now,

here is a path, dumb and deaf

grapevines are today blue.

 

Translation: ÇağdaƟ Acar


*Kader Sevinç is a Turkish poet, based in Brussels. She has been publishing her poems in various poetry magazines and reviews in Turkey. She was the editor in chief of NAR poetry magazine in Antalya. She is currently member of the editorial board of the bi-monthly Siirden (“On Poetry”) magazine and actively contributes to the international literature projects and events in Brussels and Istanbul. Ms Sevinc is the co-author of a political poetry book “The European Constitution in Verse” (2009, Brussels). She is also the head of the European delegation of the Turkish socialist party.

More information is below:


Enlargement & Neighbours
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“4+4+4 formula in Turkish educational system would increase the number of child marriages and instances of child labor in Turkey”

Posted by kadersevinc on 05/03/12


AKP moved ahead with its reactionary agenda to bar women and girls from the public life with its so-called “education reform” proposal.  Dubbed 4+4+4, the bill at the sub-committee extends compulsory education from 8 to 12 years, but divides it into three four year stages.  Home schooling will be allowed after the 4 years, while there is no enforcement mechanism to deter parents from keeping their daughters at home, a common practice among Islamic conservatives.  Moreover the bill requires children as young as 11 to choose between academic-track and vocation-track schooling.  NGOs and women rights’ groups rebelled across the nation, claiming that the proposed reforms would rekindle child labor, increase child brides and condemn girls to illiteracy.

CHP has mounted a vigorous opposition to the bill:

“The government promised yesterday to ease concerns over a bill that would significantly alter Turkey’s education system, after a storm of criticism forced the bill’s submission to a parliamentary sub-commission, delaying a vote in the General Assembly.

“It is our duty to understand the concerns and eradicate them,” Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said in Antalya, adding that the decision to send the draft for possible revision to the sub-commission was made with the consent of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

Dinçer rejected accusations that the bill would undermine the schooling of girls, and stressed that the AKP had no intention of stepping back on incentives it had provided so far to encourage their education.

The bill ended up in a sub-commission late Feb. 23, after a stormy debate at Parliament’s Education Commission. The sub-commission is now scheduled to take up the draft Feb. 28. Revisions are possible, but the AKP is unlikely to back down from the main provisions. The AKP had originally planned to have the bill passed by the end of the month.

Even though the AKP presented the bill as a move to extend compulsory education from eight to 12 years, critics say it would actually open the door for conservative parents to take their daughters from school after a four-year primary education, and would cater to patriarchal traditions of marrying off underage girls.

The misgivings stem from a provision that would authorize the government to introduce home schooling after four years of basic education. Opponents say the article would allow parents to confine young girls to home, or to send them to Koranic courses instead, where they would be free to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Dinçer rejected the misgivings and said the provision would be used only in “exceptional cases” for disadvantaged groups such as handicapped children and inmates. The AKP had earlier said the provision also aims to provide child prodigies with special education at home.

Unrelenting criticism

Despite the government’s assurances, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) called yesterday for the suspension of the bill and urged a wide public debate on what education reforms Turkey needs.

The CHP’s Aytun Çıray called on women to mobilize against the bill, warning that the AKP had designed a “stranglehold” for their future.

Oktay Vural of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) slammed the fact that the bill was submitted by five AKP lawmakers, without any prior public discussion. “The state’s institutions have been by-passed. Neither pedagogues nor civic groups have been asked for an opinion,” he said.

Prominent businesswoman GĂŒler Sabanci also joined the criticism. “The main concern is that the number of child marriages and instances of child labor would increase,” she told reporters in Istanbul.
Under the bill, the education process would be divided into three tiers of four years each. That concept would allow the re-introduction of the imam-hatip vocational religious schools after primary education. [1].”

 

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EU and Turkish women: What do numbers say? What does EU do ?

Posted by kadersevinc on 05/03/12

 

National Campaign to increase the participation of women in politics

National Campaign to increase the participation of women in politics by KA-DER

No country can be competitive economically and credible democratically without highest standarts of gender equality. The Turkey’s civilisational roots and aspirations to live in an advanced information society and democracy in the 21st Century justify the highest political focus on gender equality. This is why the Turkish government, parliament and all the political parties have an ever more important responsibility to improve Turkish society’s performance on gender equality to above the European average.

With abiding faith in the vital importance of women in society, Ataturk launched many reforms to give Turkish women equal rights and opportunities. The new Civil Code, adopted in 1926, abolished polygamy and recognized the equal rights of women in divorce, custody, and inheritance. The entire educational system from the grade school to the university became coeducational. Ataturk greatly admired the support that the national liberation struggle received from women and praised their many contributions: ” In Turkish society, women have not lagged behind men in science, scholarship, and culture. Perhaps they have even gone further ahead.” He gave women the same opportunities as men, including full political rights. In the mid-1930s, 18 women, among them a villager, were elected to the national parliament. Later, Turkey had the world’s first women supreme court justice.

“Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women.” M. Kemal Ataturk


In all walks of life, AtatĂŒrk’s Turkey has produced tens of thousands of well-educated women who participate in national life as doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, writers, administrators, executives, and creative artists.

Ataturk’s reform steps on gender equality

Recognition of equal rights of men and women (1926 – 1934). The legal position of women and their place in society in the new republic was greatly improved (for example the active and passive voting right at national and local elections).

The liberation of the women of Turkey by giving them political and social rights.

a) Rights brought with “Medeni Kanun” (Civilized Law) (1926)

b) Rights for women to be elected for the parliament. (1)

First female MPs of the Turkish Parliament (1935)

Eighteen female MPs joined the Turkish Parliamentwith the 1935 general elections, at a time when women in a significant number of other European countries had no voting rights. (2)

Progress :

By the beginning of 21th century gender equality in Turkey was marking significant progress. Women in the labour force was reaching almost 40%, with women in the top positions in the business as well as professions such as lawyers, judges, bankers, engineers, medical doctors… Turkey had also already had a woman Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economy, Minister of Social Affairs, Minister of Interior…

Today’s Turkey and set back to women rights

In 2010, women protested PM Erdoğan at the International Women’s Istanbul Meeting for having said that “men and women are not equal”. Pointing to women murders they said, “”More of us are being killed when you say we are not equal”.

In the year of 2011 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said: “We are a conservative democratic party. The family is important to us” and he announced in the same breath to replace the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs by the newly established Ministry of Family and Social Policies.

This decision came despite massive protest of women organizations and a signature campaign with 3,000 participants submitted to the prime ministry on 6 June.

According to the statement, a number of institutions will be deployed under the roof of the new ministry, i.e. the General Directorate of the Status of Women (KSGM), the General Directorates of Family and Social Services, of Children Services, of Services for Disabled and the Elderly and of Social Aid.

Furthermore, the Head Department of Veterans and Families of People who Died while Serving the Turkish State will be established within the structure of the ministry in order to closely follow the problems of the two aforementioned groups.

Breach of international agreements and legal aquis of EU

Critics put forward that this application opposes international agreements signed by Turkey and also the legal acquis of the European Union (EU). This view was advanced by HĂŒlya GĂŒlbahar from the Platform for Equality Mechanisms, Dr Selma Acuner from the Ankara University Research Centre for Women’s Issues (KASAUM) and Çiğdem Aydın, Board President of the Association for Support and Education for Women Candidates (KA.DER).

The international agreements signed by the Turkish government render Turkey responsible to pursue policies that strengthen gender equality in order to end violence and discrimination against women.

By removing the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs and including the KSGM into the structure of the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the mechanism for ensuring gender equality is being eliminated. It means that women are not being positioned as individuals but as an element of the family instead.

Emma Sinclair Webb, Turkey Researcher at Human Rights Watch (HRW), expressed her concern about the application. “This is a very risky step to take in a country where violence against women is that common”, she said.

GĂŒlbahar: The end of gender equality policies

“The European Women Lobby initiated a related campaign in cooperation with approximately 4,000 organizations. The campaign will quickly spread all over the globe”.

“According to the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it cannot be seen that violence against women stems from problems within the family. The decisions of the international court underline that violence against women is an indicator of human rights violations, discrimination and inequality of men and women. At least five women are killed in Turkey every day. Nevertheless, the women’s ministry is being lifted. This heralds the end of state policies related to gender equality”, GĂŒlbahar said.

She continued: “Violence against women is not only experienced within the family. Discrimination in political representation and participation and sexual harassment at work are also forms of violence. GĂŒlbahar indicated that a state and an organization that abandon the generation of solutions and politics in this field constitute a clear breach of all the international agreements signed by Turkey”.

Acuner: Women policies erased from agenda

“On 7 April in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers chaired by Turkey approved the new Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. Turkey was the first country to sign the convention on 11 May in Istanbul” Acuner reminded.

“The crucial point of the convention is the fact that violence and discrimination against women is defined as a ‘human rights violation’. The convention read, ‘Violence in a country is the result of inequality of men and women in that country’”.

“One of the texts this agreement was constituted upon was the conviction of Turkey by the ECHR in the case of Nahide Opuz. Turkey was convicted because of the failure to protect Nahide Opuz from violence and because of a lack of effective measures for the prevention of discrimination. It was announced in the decision that Turkey needed to work on abolishing inequality and strengthening women policies”, Acuner remarked.

“The establishment of the Ministry of Family and Social Affairs is an indicator for abolishing women policies. The KSGM is the only official mechanism in charge of making policies to strengthen gender equality. It now becomes an ineffective unit without authority under the new ministry as a result of the application. After this , it will be very difficult to access sufficient monetary and human recourses to carry out efficient work. This means that women policies are being erased from the state’s agenda”.

Acuner noted that the application was contrary to the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Four Women’s Conference started in 1985 at the Nairobi World Women Conference and the Beijing Platform for Action. Moreover, it contradicts Directive 2006 of the EU, she said. (3)

The women rights NGOs made a press release is included the following important facts:

* According to the standards of the European Union (EU), one women’s shelter should be opened per 7,500 people. Hence, there should be 7,500 shelters in Turkey, but in reality there are 38. They have a total capacity of 867 people.

* In the Gender Equality report of the World Economic Forum Turkey ranks in 122th position among a total of 135 countries.

* The number of women murders increased by 1,400 percent within the past seven years. There is no action plan to stop this development. In fact, the legislature and the executive do not even have an according agenda.

* At court, the murders benefit from an unjust mitigation of punishment because of provocation. The women are killed by their husbands after they come back from the police, from shelters and prosecutors. (4)

Turkey’s rank in women representation in politics is among the lowest in the world

Recently published UN map on women representation in politics in the world (prepared by the UN Women’s Unit and the Inter-Parliamentary Union) highlights very important fact as follows:

-          Turkey’s rank in women representation in parliament (% 14.2)  is 88th among 143 countries.

-          In the world there are only 9 countries which has women representation in parliaments at the level of 40 percent.

-          Women representation rates in cabinet, Turkey ranks 90th among 96 countries by one minister in charge of family policies.

-          Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland’s have the highest rates among European countries at the level of % 50 in women representation in the parliament

-          In Arab countries, women representaion in the parliament rate is % 11.3

-          There are women heads of state in 17 countries in the world, only 8 countries have woman prime minister.

The current Turkish government has proposed and implemented several projects whose official target is the improvement of the gender equality in Turkey. PM Erdoğan had also appointed a woman as Minister of Education. Many Turkish women still expect this government to reverse the actual negative trends. Moreover independently from any narrow political context in Ankara, the Turkish women and the NGOs throughout the country are firmly committed to raise Turkey’s gender equality standards to the level of best performing countries in the world.

All surveys underline that Turkish women are staunch supporters of the EU membership, more than men. They are the major supporters of accession.

So the question is : Does the EU sincerely support Turkish women with all its power  today ?

This question still needs to be answered.

Please download full UN Map on women representation in politics in 2012:

UN – Women in Politics 2012

(1) http://allaboutistanbul.tripod.com/ataturk.htm

(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atat%C3%BCrk’s_Reforms

(3) http://bianet.org/english/women/130607-women-policies-erased-from-political-agenda

(4) http://bianet.org/english/gender/125938-women-protest-pm-erdogan-in-womens-meeting

 

 

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Turkish Coffee Briefings: Time to act for Youth Employment in Europe

Posted by kadersevinc on 02/03/12

 

Turkish Coffee Briefings meeting was held on the topic of  Time to act for Youth Employment in Europe

Turkish Coffee Briefings is a roundtable debate club in Brussels. The sessions are introduced by a guest speaker, followed by 45 minutes of exchange of views by participants. Turkish coffee and delights are served.

The topics are selected in relation with the current European social, political and economic agenda. The first meeting was held early February on the topic of “Turkish foreign policy and the EU’s external actions”.

A new  Turkish Coffee Briefing was held this week on the topic of “Time to act for Youth Employment”.  The introductory speech of Mr. Jan Kreutz, Social Policy Advisor from PES (Party European Socialists) was followed by a vibrant debate among participants from European Parliament, European Council, European Commission, European media, think thanks, European youth organisations, business and civic society.

 

Jan Kreutz

The meeting was held under Chatham House rules and following issues were raised by participants:

‱ PES proposals for fighting youth unemployment. As first of 20 concrete measures, the PES proposes the introduction of a Europe-wide youth guarantee, ensuring that every young person in Europe must be offered a job, further education or work-focused training, at the latest four months after leaving education or after becoming unemployed.

‱ In order to achieve it, the PES demands to redirect at least €10 billion of unused European Social Funds to a special “youth employment strategy”. This way, 2 million new jobs and apprenticeship places for young people could be created. Another measure is the use of the 6% of all national and European budgets to be spent on high-quality education and to introduce the dual education system in all Member States.

‱ The investments needed to implement a youth guarantee are much lower than the costs of youth unemployment and a poorly skilled workforce. The European Foundation for Living and Working Conditions estimates that the consequences of millions of young people being neither employed nor receiving education or training causes costs of at least € 2 billion per
week – the equivalent of 1.1% of GDP in total. The reintegration of 10% of these young people into the labour market would achieve a yearly saving of more than € 10 billion.

‱ High-quality jobs are another of the keystones of the campaign: a public and private investment programme of € 210 billion annually in order to create new jobs and to decarbonise Europe’s economy, especially in those countries more affected by the crisis.

‱ The PES demands to revise European and national legislation to ensure a high quality of work for all young people and to end discrimination of disadvantaged groups of young people, such as young migrants and young people with disabilities. A concrete action plan is needed to overcome the gender pay gap of young employees. In addition, childcare and the mobility of young employees must be supported.

‱ In the debate, issues such as the situation of the youth in the Greek economic crises, inabilities of the European governments to act efficiently, Turkey’s education systems’ problems and its challenges as the youngest society in Europe, Spain’s new policies to promote the youth employment, the cases of the Nordic countries and factors of their relative success in this field, proposal by the youth NGOs and urgent steps to reform the European job markets were discussed by the participants.

The founder of the Turkish Coffee Briefings, Ms Kader Sevinç concluded the meeting by announcing new sessions on the media, European Parliament and gender equality.

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Turkish News Folder, 28.02.2012

Posted by kadersevinc on 28/02/12

Kemal Kilicdaroglu CHP President

CHP Amends Party Bylaws, Kilicdaroglu Promises “A New Road Map”

In two extraordinary conventions held on Sunday and Monday, CHP renewed its founding charter, making it more participatory, more democratic and more inclusive of women and the youth. Among other things, an overwhelming majority of the 967 delegates in Sunday’s 16th extraordinary convention ratified

  • A gender quote of 33%
  • A youth quote of 10%
  • Primaries for all levels of intra-party office, municipal and general elections.
  • Lowered thresholds for petitioning for new elections and recalls

By passing the amendments, CHP kept its promise to the voters that democracy must start within the party. CHP chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu also gave a speech at the 17th extraordinary convention, which sketched the road map for the new CHP.  Excerpts from the speech are below:

CHP is drawing a new road map. It shall guide us to the people; it shall reflect the will of the people. It shall focus us on the urgent problems of the country. It shall deliver us to modern democracy and freedom.  Why have we put a singular emphasis on democracy and freedom in the 16th extraordinary convention?  Because democracy is eroding underneath us.  We are being robbed off our freedoms.

The syncopathic media forged by AKP screams 7/24 that Turkey is the country of democracy to brainwash the citizens. The society is being hypnotized; this is why we decided to focus on real democracy.  Turkish democracy is not in good health. There are no more any checks and balances.  The entire media is under severe pressure. The journalists are being oppressed.  Turkey is forced to live with the shame of having the second most incarcerated journalists after China. We shall draw the attention of the entire world to this problem.

We shall also work tirelessly to explain to our citizens that our democracy is not healthy. We need to own up to our problems and do so within the framework of democracy. CHP has defended democracy and freedom since the Congresses of Erzurum and Sivas (the conventions that started the War of Independence).  Our philosophy of democracy is respect for all those who think differently.  There is no democracy when all speak with one voice, think the same thoughts.

Yesterday (Sunday) we passed a very important test. This test shall be carved with golden letters in the history of democracy in Turkey.  We forged  internal democracy by amending our founding charter. Today, a more democratic and equalitarian CHP stands proudly before our people. This society consists of equal numbers of men and women. We broke  the barriers of a male-dominated society, paving the way for women to engage in politics. CHP has always been and shall continue to be the only party that dares to do what others can only imagine. It is our historic mission to be revolutionary, to pioneer the way. Returning to our revolutionary roots, we shall go to the people with a new road map.

Another new and uniquely historic mission harks to us. This is not the time to despair. CHP must once again become the hope of our people.  This is our new mission.  Having established internal democracy, we shall focus on producing policy for the benefit of the nation; we shall tour the country to identify the problems of our people and shall dedicate ourselves to their solution.

After the unrest in Syria, AKP didn’t even bother to find out how it affects the border provinces.  CHP is the only party that sent delegations of parliamentarians to hold the pulse of the people in the region. Currently our parliamentarians are touring all 81 provinces of Turkey to hold coffee shop meetings with the ordinary people.

CHP is in love with this nation. We love our people. Regardless of ethnic identity, creed, belief, color or dress, without exception our love embraces each and all of our fellow citizens without prejudice. It shall be our duty to prove our love to each and all and persuade them that CHP is the only big tent where they can truly and freely express their identities and beliefs.

Being a CHP member is devotion to the nation. We have a single purpose:  To craft policies to enhance the welfare of the people. We build a new school of politics based on giving, rather than rent-seeking.

Each CHP members must remember that this journey will be painful.  We don’t have the luxury of relaxing, expressing self-doubt or taking time off. We shall strive to communion with our people to form a common voice, a common ideal.  We shall always respect opposing viewpoints and shall empathize with them. We must embrace each and all of our people to end alienation and isolation.

Democracy is not easily won. Freedom is not easily won. Patriots who fought to bring democracy and freedom to their nations have always paid very heavy prices. As your chairman I swear here that I’ll be the first one to pay the heaviest price. I invite all of you to do the same.  We must establish without doubt that we shall pursue our goals without fear or self-interest.

They (AKP) have their Extraordinary Felony Courts, they have partial prosecutors, and they have district administrators, governors who only do their bidding.  None of these can scare us.  None of these can intimidate us.  We have conviction.  Our conviction is democracy and freedom for all.  Our conviction has no room for hate. It is Turkey’s biggest misfortune that a hatemonger is prime minister.

Let me recite the famous lines from the great poet Nazım Hikmet.  ”If you don’t burn, if I don’t burn, who shall light the way from darkness to dawn?”

PES Interim President Sergei Stanishev

PES Interim President Sergei Stanishev’s Message to CHP Convention

Excerpts from the letter are below:

“As you are aware the PES is very committed to its relationship with the CHP and to the advancement of  Turkey on its path to reform and the EU. Since my meeting with Mr. Kiliçdaroğlu in November there have been many worrying developments in Turkey.”

“The ongoing violations against democratic and progressive parties in Turkey are unacceptable and the PES supports the CHP in all their efforts to highlight and prevent this. In the past months the PES has been vocal on a number of issues related to Turkey and the aggressive and unsustainable policies of the current government. “

“We are very supportive of Mr. Kiliçdaroğlu and his efforts to modernize the party and through this the country. Democracy within our parties is something that we should constantly monitor and place at the top of our agenda. I am glad that intra-party democracy, women and youth will be the driving force in the discussions of the upcoming Congress. I myself and the PES wish you all the best for this important party meeting and your ongoing struggles in Turkey.”

CHP defends girls’ right to education

AKP moved ahead with its reactionary agenda to bar women and girls from the public life with its so-called “education reform” proposal.  Dubbed 4+4+4, the bill at the sub-committee extends compulsory education from 8 to 12 years, but divides it into three four year stages.  Home schooling will be allowed after the 4 years, while there is no enforcement mechanism to deter parents from keeping their daughters at home, a common practice among Islamic conservatives.  Moreover the bill requires children as young as 11 to choose between academic-track and vocation-track schooling.  NGOs and women rights’ groups rebelled across the nation, claiming that the proposed reforms would rekindle child labor, increase child brides and condemn girls to illiteracy.

CHP has mounted a vigorous opposition to the bill:

“The government promised yesterday to ease concerns over a bill that would significantly alter Turkey’s education system, after a storm of criticism forced the bill’s submission to a parliamentary sub-commission, delaying a vote in the General Assembly.

“It is our duty to understand the concerns and eradicate them,” Education Minister Ömer Dinçer said in Antalya, adding that the decision to send the draft for possible revision to the sub-commission was made with the consent of the ruling Justice and Development Party.

Dinçer rejected accusations that the bill would undermine the schooling of girls, and stressed that the AKP had no intention of stepping back on incentives it had provided so far to encourage their education.

The bill ended up in a sub-commission late Feb. 23, after a stormy debate at Parliament’s Education Commission. The sub-commission is now scheduled to take up the draft Feb. 28. Revisions are possible, but the AKP is unlikely to back down from the main provisions. The AKP had originally planned to have the bill passed by the end of the month.

Even though the AKP presented the bill as a move to extend compulsory education from eight to 12 years, critics say it would actually open the door for conservative parents to take their daughters from school after a four-year primary education, and would cater to patriarchal traditions of marrying off underage girls.

The misgivings stem from a provision that would authorize the government to introduce home schooling after four years of basic education. Opponents say the article would allow parents to confine young girls to home, or to send them to Koranic courses instead, where they would be free to wear the Islamic headscarf.

Dinçer rejected the misgivings and said the provision would be used only in “exceptional cases” for disadvantaged groups such as handicapped children and inmates. The AKP had earlier said the provision also aims to provide child prodigies with special education at home.

Unrelenting criticism

Despite the government’s assurances, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) called yesterday for the suspension of the bill and urged a wide public debate on what education reforms Turkey needs.

The CHP’s Aytun Çıray called on women to mobilize against the bill, warning that the AKP had designed a “stranglehold” for their future.

Oktay Vural of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) slammed the fact that the bill was submitted by five AKP lawmakers, without any prior public discussion. “The state’s institutions have been by-passed. Neither pedagogues nor civic groups have been asked for an opinion,” he said.

Prominent businesswoman GĂŒler Sabanci also joined the criticism. “The main concern is that the number of child marriages and instances of child labor would increase,” she told reporters in Istanbul.
Under the bill, the education process would be divided into three tiers of four years each. That concept would allow the re-introduction of the imam-hatip vocational religious schools after primary education. The imam-hatip schools have been limited to the high-school level since the late 1990s, as part of a strict army-led secularist campaign that forced Turkey’s first Islamist prime minister, Necmettin Erbakan, to resign[1].”

 

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European left: AKP policies have consequently made Turkey less qualified for EU accession

Posted by kadersevinc on 22/02/12

Please see below today’s press release of PES President Sergei Stanishev on Turkey’s accession to the EU and responsibility of European & Turkish conservatives’ responsibility for the current impasse.

Twelve years after granting candidate status and six years after the start of accession negotiations, EU-Turkey relations are today at a virtual standstill. It is in the interest of Turkey and the EU that this process is reinvigorated. The goal is Turkish membership in the European Union. Accession must be an open-ended process with conditions, yes, but not with political vetoes. The European Socialist family is the political family most committed to EU integration and the enlargement process. Therefore the PES believes that it is crucial to launch a new EU-Turkey Agenda.

The right-wing majority in the EU and in Turkey, bear a major responsibility for the current impasse. EU conservatives’ leaders, Mrs Merkel in Germany and Mr. Sarkozy in France, have called for a “special partnership” instead of membership for Turkey. Their arguments against Turkish membership play on fears to keep Turkey out of the EU. As a result, this discourse has an impact on Turkish public opinion. Turkish citizens are, as a result, more and more disillusioned with the prospect of EU membership and less attracted by it. While EU membership had huge public support only a few years ago, that support has now dwindled.

In Turkey, the AKP government is no longer as committed to the goal of EU membership as it was in the past. We observe worrying trends in Turkey, jeopardizing democratic accountability time and time again. These AKP policies have consequently made Turkey less qualified for EU accession. It has resulted in a deterioration of the separation of powers, particularly on the independence of the judiciary, as well as a steady erosion of freedom of expression in Turkey. In addition, AKP’s impact on society as a whole is negatively affecting women’s rights and the LGBT community. There is growing intolerance regarding secular lifestyles.

EU Conservatives and AKP policies are weakening the chances of Turkey to become an EU member. Indeed, AKP is an observer member of the European People’s Party (EPP), sitting together with European conservatives that are ardent opponents of Turkey’s EU accession.

Turkey’s EU membership process must be revitalized. We must be committed to work with our member parties in Turkey and progressive women’s, youth and minority movements and to foster and facilitate their full participation in Turkey’s EU accession process in the different frameworks and institutions. Turkey’s democratic future is in Europe. Therefore I call for a Renewed EU-Turkey Agenda.

 

Sergei Stanishev,
PES President

 

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EU and Turkey: talks languish, trade booms

Posted by kadersevinc on 22/02/12
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

ISTANBUL (AP) — If a project has no deadline, is it really a project? What do you call a negotiation process in which the partners can’t talk about key issues? These are existential times for Turkey’s campaign to join the European Union — an ambitious vision that has become increasingly ambiguous.

At a time when Greece’s survival in the eurozone is in jeopardy, it seems academic to debate a Turkish entry to European ranks that some Turks feel won’t happen in their lifetime, if at all. The more pressing question is whether the suitors should, as with any soured romance, call it quits or rekindle the flame.

When accession talks began in 2005, the idea was that Turkey’s Muslim population would enrich the continent, culturally and economically, with Turkey itself destined to become a European-style democracy that could serve as an east-west bridge.

More than six years later, doubt haunts hope.

Economic troubles mean that Europe, where skepticism toward the Turkish bid was already building, has little energy to expand, while in Turkey reform efforts have slowed and the nation has sought to carve out a leadership role in the Middle East.

“Without a deadline, without a final aim, there is no process,” said Cengiz Aktar, a political science professor at Bahcesehir University in Istanbul. “There can’t be an endless project.”

Aktar, who attended the opening of an EU information office at the university on Friday, said it was “high time” for a reassessment of Turkey’s bid. He rejected the argument that EU-backed reform alone was enough, as though the journey was as good as the destination.

The debate is in limbo partly because France and Germany, which have spoken against full Turkish membership, hold elections this year and 2013 respectively, and no bold initiatives are expected during the political campaign season.

Even if those European heavyweights choose governments that are more sympathetic to Turkey’s candidacy, there is no sign of progress on a long-running dispute over EU member Cyprus, where the Greek-speaking south observes European rules and Turkey aids and occupies the isolated Turkish Cypriot north.

Jean-Maurice Ripert, the EU’s new ambassador to Turkey, said more joint teams would be formed to lay technical groundwork for accession in case political conditions improve in the years ahead. He cited 40,000 student exchanges between Turkey and the EU last year, as well as EU plans to spend 800 million euros ($1.06 billion) this year on European development projects in Turkey.

“Don’t think that nothing is happening,” he said in a meeting with foreign journalists. Since his January arrival, Ripert said, Turkish officials have assured him of their commitment to joining the European Union and voiced frustration with what they see as European opposition.

In the past decade, Turkey has evolved into a regional powerhouse whose foreign policy remains in step with, but no longer defined by, its allies in NATO. Europe, meanwhile, was signaling fatigue with the idea of expansion well before it sank into recession.

“In Brussels nowadays, you hear very little talk of enlargement,” said Sinan Ulgen, chairman of EDAM, a research center in Istanbul, and a visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe in the Belgian capital. “The main issue is essentially the economic crisis.”

Numbers tell the story of the failure and potential of the Turkish bid, a legacy of Ottoman sultans who sought to upgrade their crumbling empire with European ideas, as well as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the national founder who looked westward for inspiration.

Half of the three-dozen subjects, or chapters, in membership negotiations are blocked. No new chapter has been opened since June 2010. However, Europe accounts for nearly half of Turkey’s foreign trade, as well as about 85 percent of foreign direct investment there.

Turkey once highly anticipated the EU’s annual report on its membership progress. Interest has dwindled. European officials have expressed concern about minority rights, the right to a fair trial and freedom of expression, and Turkey has slammed Greek Cypriot vetoes of negotiations and a French bill that would criminalize denial that the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks was a genocide.

“The Europe that is afraid of speaking and arguing has nothing to give humanity,” Turkey’s Anadolu agency quoted Egeman Bagis, minister for EU affairs, as saying. “But the EU that we always emphasize being the most comprehensive peace project in the history of humanity has to be more courageous and liberal.”

Andrew Gardner, an Amnesty International researcher, said EU-inspired legislative reform in Turkey had resulted in fewer reported cases of torture in police stations and prisons, but warned of a “regression of the human rights situation” in Turkey, particularly with regard to free expression. He also cited the negative impact of statements by EU leaders suggesting Turkey might not be accepted as a full member even if it fulfills human rights obligations.

Suat Kiniklioglu, a former ruling party lawmaker and director of the Ankara-based Center for Strategic Communication, captured the ambiguity that shrouds Turkey’s EU campaign by offering two ways to look at it.

The first: “The process is going nowhere and neither side is willing to admit it. This is heading toward a slow death.”

The second, which he prefers: “The current impasse is actually not that bad as Europe needs time to sort out its own problems while Turkey will continue to grow and reform domestically at its own pace. The negotiations can be revived any time the two sides feel they are ready.”

Ulgen, the visiting scholar in Brussels, said a “vicious circle” had developed, in which Turkey, once praised for its reform program, loses enthusiasm for a process that it believes is unfair, while Europe loses leverage over a process that some of its leaders treat with ambivalence.

“We’re in standstill mode,” he said. According to Ulgen, Turkey and the European Union must eventually decide what kind of a relationship they want because: “We cannot continue to pretend anymore that the negotiations are continuing.”

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press.

 

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The Netherlands And Turkey: 400 Years Of Diplomatic Relations

Posted by kadersevinc on 22/02/12

The Netherlands and Turkey are commemorating the 400th anniversary of diplomatic relations this year. The first major event in this connection is the exhibition ‘Rembrandt and his contemporaries – The Golden Age of Dutch Art’ in Istanbul’s Sakip Sabancı Museum. The exhibition was opened this evening by President GĂŒl of Turkey and the Dutch foreign minister, Uri Rosenthal.

In 1612, the Dutch envoy Cornelis Haga presented his letters of credence on behalf of the Republic of the United Provinces to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, marking the start of a relationship focused on trade. Bilateral economic cooperation remains important to this day. The anniversary aims to boost the cultural and social as well as the economic ties between Turkey and the Netherlands.

Turkey is enjoying strong economic growth and, due to its strategic location, is a potential springboard to regional markets. The volume of trade between Turkey and the Netherlands has tripled in the past ten years. The Netherlands is one of the largest foreign investors in Turkey, which offers economic opportunities for, in particular, small and medium-sized companies, including those owned by successful Turkish-Dutch businesspeople. The anniversary celebrations will give special attention to these economic opportunities, for instance by way of trade missions. The focus will be on the sectors of water, the environment and waste management, energy-saving technology, agri-food, health care and the creative industry.

Apart from economic relations, there are a growing number of cultural and social ties. The Netherlands is home to 380,000 people of Turkish origin, and more and more Dutch tourists are taking holidays in Turkey. The anniversary also includes several performances and exhibitions by Dutch artists in Turkey – from the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra to the fine arts, from dance to musical theatre, and from the Nederlands Dans Theater to Dutch design. In turn, Turkish art and culture will be showcased at several locations around the Netherlands. There will also be educational and sporting exchanges between Amsterdam and Ankara, Deventer and Izmir, and Rotterdam and Istanbul, to name a few.

http://www.egovmonitor.com

 

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‘Treason’ in Turkey

Posted by kadersevinc on 21/02/12

Owen Matthew-Newsweek

Prosecutors wage war on suspected coup conspirators—but at what cost to the country?

Turkey’s reform-minded Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is nothing like his iron-fisted Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin—right? Think again. In both leaders’ countries, journalists who dare to criticize the government often end up behind bars. In Erdogan’s Turkey, as in Putin’s Russia, the ruling clique’s political adversaries have been hounded by courts and police and have spent months or years in jail without trial, while oppositionist businessmen have been slapped with ruinous tax bills. On at least two dismal indices, Turkey ranks even worse than Russia: Reporters Without Borders’ latest Press Freedom Index puts Turkey in 148th place, behind Russia at 142, and the European Court of Human Rights found Turkey guilty of 174 violations last year, while runner-up Russia had 133.

What went wrong? Erdogan came to power a decade ago in a landslide, promising to make Turkey an “advanced democracy” by getting the Army out of politics for the first time in modern history. And at first he did just that, earning warm support from Europe for his reforms. In 2005, the European Union began negotiations for full membership. But this bold reform program began to fall apart in June 2007 after police discovered two secret hoards of weapons and explosives. Investigators accused a shadowy group they called Ergenekon, an alleged ultranationalist conspiracy of military officers supposedly plotting a coup, and the roundup has been growing ever since. The latest wave of arrests, targeting alleged sympathizers of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has netted some 3,500 Kurdish politicians and activists. To date, 249 senior military officers have been jailed, including 35 generals and even the former chief of the General Staff (who denied all charges against him, calling them “tragicomic”), along with more than 100 journalists.

No one is sure whether Erdogan directly ordered the arrests or if he’s merely gone along with overzealous prosecutors whose investigations happened to suit his political aims. What’s certain is that he has repeatedly defended the Ergenekon indictments, denouncing the international “smear campaign” against the press crackdown, and insisting that any journalists currently in jail were guilty either of conspiring against the government or of having links to the Kurdish rebels.

In early February prosecutors even turned on the government itself. One of the special prosecutors summoned Erdogan’s protĂ©gĂ©, Hakan Fidan, the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (known by its Turkish initials, MIT), for questioning on suspicion of having conducted “treasonous” talks with PKK representatives. Arrest-on-sight orders were issued for former MIT chief Emre Taner and several other retired top spooks. In fact, the MIT had been talking to the rebels—on orders from Erdogan, who is openly trying to resolve the 40-year struggle between Ankara and the Kurds. “Clearly some elements within the prosecutor’s office want to stop that,” says veteran Turkey watcher Grenville Byford. “Such people believe that any compromise with the PKK is tantamount to treason.”

Erdogan has often claimed he can’t tell the prosecutors what to do, and the attack on his Kurdish initiative certainly shows they’re at least partly beyond the government’s control. Europe applauded when Turkey’s judiciary and prosecutors became self-appointing and self-regulating in 2010. But instead of building a neutral, impartial judicial system, rival factions of prosecutors have used their enormous powers for seemingly political ends. The result is starting to look something like a civil war fought not with guns but with arrest warrants.

TURKEY-COUP TRIAL

Security forces outside an Ergenekon trial. , Fatih Saribas / Reuters-Landov

Between them, the fire-breathing special prosecutors and the axe-grinding Erdogan have instilled a climate of fear in Turkey’s media world. “I had already been warned about writing ‘too much’ about two arrested journalists,” says columnist Ece Temelkuran, who had called the Ergenekon investigation a “handy tool for the government to harass the opposition.” In January she was informed that her contract with the daily Haberturk would not be renewed. “The conversation was not unexpected,” she says. And yet the media haven’t banded together against their persecutors. As Gareth Jenkins of the Washington-based Central Asia-Caucasus Institute explains, the country’s press is “characterized by the tribalism that dominates much of the political debate in the country. Each side [is] prepared to uncritically accept anything negative about the other—regardless of how preposterous it might be—and instinctively dismiss anything potentially detrimental to itself as a lie, a conspiracy, or a ‘provocation.’?”

It ultimately makes little difference whether the crackdown on journalists, publishers, and academics is a war by prosecutors against presumed enemies of the state or by Erdogan against his critics. In either case, his outspoken support of the arrests betrays an ugly authoritarian streak—and Turkey’s democracy has been the No. 1 victim. “We are moving away from the rule of law day by day,” warns Umit Boyner, chairwoman of Turkey’s Industry & Business Association. “We are watching the power struggle within the Turkish state with horror and an increased sense of insecurity.” European Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan FĂŒle recently expressed “serious concerns” about “the large number of legal cases and investigations against journalists, writers, academics, and human-rights defenders.” The regime’s international critics include the American novelist Paul Auster, who caused a minor furor when he refused to visit Turkey in protest of the jailing of journalists. Erdogan responded by calling him “ignorant.”

There are clear signs that after 10 years in power, the top Justice and Development Party (AKP) leadership has grown confused, even paranoid. And yet the paranoia has some basis. Despite the AKP’s repeated election wins, the Islamist-rooted party has suffered a decade of almost constant attack from what Turks call the “deep state”—the judges and military men who regard themselves as the guardians of Turkey’s secular state. There’s credible evidence that sections of the military really have been hatching plots to destabilize the government with assassinations, bombings, and disinformation. Ultrasecularist judges, egged on and publicly supported by the generals, have mounted a series of legal challenges to the AKP’s very existence, even as the country’s voters have continued to back the party. “Only the paranoid survive,” says one longtime associate of Erdogan’s who requested anonymity.

At this point, Erdogan’s Turkey is backsliding toward the authoritarian military rule of the 1980s. Revolutionaries always need to guard against becoming a reflection of the regime they replaced. In other words, as the jailed journalist Ahmed Sik told an Istanbul court a few weeks ago, “History proves [to] us that any power that tears down its predecessor keeps the bad seeds of the overthrown inside itself.” Perhaps the attack on Erdogan’s Kurdish initiative will finally convince him that the judicial machine has run amok, despite having served his interests for so long. Cracking down on it will inevitably—and ironically—provoke charges that he’s trying to influence the judicial process. But Turkey’s broken justice system has become a disgrace to him and a serious obstacle to his old dream of an “advanced democracy.” As Putin also is learning, jailing opponents doesn’t silence criticism. It amplifies it.

 

 

 

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Turkish News Folder, 21 February 2012

Posted by kadersevinc on 21/02/12

CHP to Appeal MIT Act to Constitutional Court


AKP missed another major chance to democratize Turkey by passing a one-article MIT Act.  The act requires prosecutors to obtain  permission from the Prime Minister’s office before investigating or interrogating MIT operatives.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu bashed the act in the starkest terms possible:

“Turkey’s main opposition accused the prime minister on Tuesday of trying to tighten his grip on the security services with a proposed law that would curb the powers of the judiciary to investigate senior intelligence officials.

It was hastily drafted after prosecutors summoned Turkey’s top spy last week and lawmakers from Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party pushed it through a parliamentary commission on Tuesday night. It will be put to a general assembly vote this week.

The law would mean top officials from Turkey’s spy agency could not be questioned without the Prime Minister’s permission.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party – CHP, said by limiting the powers of the state to investigate top spies, the prime minister would effectively be creating a “gang” answerable only to him.

“Will Tayyip Erdogan be given the power to establish a gang? Even if this gang betrays its country it will not be able to be tried,” Kilicdaroglu said.

“The prime minister could say to his gang: ‘Go kill the president’. Is this a possibility? It is a possibility.”[1]

As it is its custom AKP refused to heed the warnings by the opposition, passing the bill unilaterally.  It was signed into law within six hours by Turkey’s docile and pro-AKP president Mr. Gul. Thus, Premier Erdogan’s pet bureaucrat MIT chief Mr. Hakan Fidan and all of his associates have been decked in a mantle of immunity, a privilege nowadays not even granted to Chiefs of Military Staff, or to 8 deputies who still languish in the prison.

On Monday, CHP announced its appeal of the law at the Constitutional Court:

“The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Monday announced that it will challenge a law passed last week making changes to the law on the National Intelligence Organization (MÄ°T), which was swiftly adopted after a prosecutor attempted to summon five former and current MÄ°T executives as suspects in an outlawed investigation.

The announcement came from CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman Akif Hamzaçebi. “Mr. President might have ratified this law,” he said. “It might be in force. The prosecutors might have ended the probe [into MİT execs], but we will speedily challenge this law at the Constitutional Court.”

Hamzaçebi did not specify when the CHP will make the move, but said “in a very short time” in response to a journalist’s query on the planned timing.

He also said the CHP found the president’s speedy ratification of the law questionable, saying the hastiness the president showed in ratifying the law was a “violation of the will of the nation.” He added the parliamentary majority of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) did not reflect the will of the Turkish nation.

The MÄ°T law was changed to necessitate special permission from the Prime Ministry for investigating high-level intelligence officials after a prosecutor investigating the Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), an outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)-related network, alleged that some MÄ°T agents inside the KCK/PKK had collaborated in terror crimes.

The amendment, Hamzaçebi said, was a “grave” mistake, noting that the law concerning MİT, which has been in force since 1983, was very specific about the sphere of MİT duties. He said that according to this law, the prime minister did not have the authority to give assignments to MİT. “The prime minister did not have the right to give an assignment to MİT until the latest amendment. This has opened the possibility of the government using MİT outside its own sphere of duty and for its own interests. This new amendment implicitly gives the prime minister the right to give assignments to MİT. This is unacceptable in a democracy.”

Hamzaçebi also expressed his opinion that the public was against the legislative change that amended the law on MÄ°T. He recalled that two MÄ°T officers had been arrested as part of a probe in Erzincan last year. He claimed that the government’s move to change the legislation to prevent the interrogation of MÄ°T officers by a prosecutor this time could open a “shady area” in which the government will have greater room to maneuver.[2]”

Kilicdaroglu Proposes Abolishing Special Criminal Courts

AKP’s opportunism is a major misfortune for Turkey.  The MIT  bill could have been enlarged to amend the Anti-Terror Law, Felony Court Procedures Law and finally the notorious Special Criminal Court Law to rein in a judiciary—largely appointed by AKP- running amok with human rights, civil liberties and freedom of expression in the country.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu expressed his views on Special Criminal Courts in an interview with private broadcaster NTV:

“Special Criminal Courts date back to the coup era. Courts established under the supervision of the military junta
. As Turkey retuned to civilian control, somehow the authorities could not let go of these courts.  Hence, they were re-named “State Security Courts”. Then, as accession with EU began, to counter objections they were re-named a second time.  The military judge on the bench was replaced with a civilian, and they were called “Special Criminal Courts”. They still get their powers and inspiration from the junta-drafted constitution. In a state where rule of law reigns supreme, there is no room for special courts using extralegal methods to try the defendants.

Special Criminal Courts are not expert courts, either. I mean they are not like family court or juvenile courts. These courts act as the sharp end of the political authority, to oppress the society, to intimate it by demonstrating the politicians’ power by employing special methods of trial against defendants. We strongly advocate the abolishment of these courts. There is not one example of Special Criminal Courts in EU. We emphasize that the judiciary is an integrated whole that treats all the defendants equally”[3].

CHP Secretary General Bihlun Tamayligil Defends HEPP Victims

With most of the judiciary firmly under AKP’s thumb, and the rest-reportedly—taking instructions from religious leader Fethullah Gulen, Turkey is rapidly becoming the country in Kafka’s nightmarish novels. CHP is the only party that is putting up a principled resistance against the politicization of the judiciary and its increasing propensity to become a tool for totalitarian control.

CHP Secretary General Mrs. Bihlun Tamayligil defended 17 year old Ms Leyla Yalcinkaya, currently charged with nine years in a sham trial for protesting against the construction of a HEPP that would destroy her village and her way of life. “With each passing day, Turkey is distancing itself from the rule of law. The latest and most tragic evidence for that are the charges against 17 year old Leyla Çetinkaya for protesting against the HEPP in Tortum, Erzurum.  She is charged with 9 years.”

She is not the only one, for the grand crime of protesting peacefully, many women from the village including 86 year old “Grandma Nafiye” have been dragged on the ground, detained and mistreated.  Ms Leyla Çetinkaya was slapped a gag order forbidding her to speak with her grandma and the rest of her family.

 

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Financial Times: Ataturk’s reforms, more than anything the AKP has done…

Posted by kadersevinc on 12/02/12

It is time to banish wishful thinking about Islamism By Ayaan Hirsi Ali

February 8, 2012

A year ago many western commentators were celebrating an Arab spring. The internet generation personified by Wael Ghonim, the Google marketing executive, would take over power from military dictators and absolute monarchs in democratic elections. Those of us who warned that political Islam would be the principal beneficiary of elections in north Africa and the Middle East were dismissed as scaremongers.

Ever since 9/11, opinions in the west have been sharply divided on the popularity and legitimacy of political Islam. A minority – and I am one of them – argued that Islamism as a political doctrine was held by the mainstream in most of the House of Islam and particularly among Arabs; that violence was inherent in Islamist theory; and that if Islamists won state power they would not deliver prosperity.

 

 

Go through the literature of the past decade on this and you will find that initially most thinkers agreed with the second and third observations but dismissed the first as an unfair stereotyping of Muslims in general and Arabs in particular. The majority of western policymakers clung to the hope that Islamism as a political doctrine was accepted only by a fringe.

The fringe thesis inspired a series of policies aimed at capturing and/or killing the ultraradical violent leaders and marginalising the remainder. In the United States, conservatives and liberals accepted the basic assumptions of the fringe thesis but differed only in their methods. What has become clear after the uprisings of the past year is that Islamism is in fact mainstream, not fringe. The elections in Tunisia, Morocco and Egypt confirm that it is secular individuals and groups who are on the fringes of Arab politics.

 

You would think the wishful thinkers among commentators would by now have accepted this. Instead, they have moved all too easily to the fresh delusion that a fringe group among Islamists is “extreme” and “violent”, whereas mainstream Islamists are not. Indeed, we should learn to view them as we view the Christian democrats of western Europe – a view advanced recently by Germany’s foreign minister, or, perhaps more plausibly, like the Islamists who govern Turkey.

This is the same train of thought that has led some analysts to call for talks with the Taliban. It is based once again on the premise that there are some “good” (read non-violent) elements in the Taliban and some “bad” (violent) ones. But in this new perception, the good Talibs are the mainstream and the violent ones are marginal. And so the fringe thesis is adjusted, but not discarded.

 

To compare Islamists of today with the Christian democrats of postwar Europe is absurd. To take them at their word that they will govern like the Islamists of Turkey is not much better. Europe’s Christian democrats may claim to be inspired by the Bible but they would not dream of proposing legislation straight from the book of Leviticus. By contrast, the Islamists of north Africa and the Middle East have for decades promoted the agenda that legislation should come from the suras of the Koran and other Islamic scripture.

 

The leaders of the political parties of the Brotherhood movement in Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have insisted they are no different from Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). They say they will adopt the same economic policies as the AKP. Surveys by Pew and others show that, all over north Africa, the government in Ankara is seen as a role model.

 

Yet the circumstances of Turkey are radically different from these north African states. In the 1920s, under Kemal Ataturk, Turkey embarked on a sustained policy of westernisation. Ataturk’s reforms, more than anything the AKP has done, help explain why the Turkish economy is among the most dynamic in the Muslim world. The AKP’s Islamist zeal is checked by the military, judiciary and press – though for how much longer remains to be seen.

These checks and balances are largely absent in the Arab world, as are the basic institutions conducive to economic prosperity. What is the likelihood then that Islamist parties will discard the project to impose sharia law that they have been promoting for decades? I think it is very low. My expectation is that Islamist parties will sweet-talk their voters and the west until their power is well established and then govern like Iran’s regime or Hamas in Gaza.

The transition from closed to open societies will be slow and painful for the Arab-Muslim world. Given that, it would be better for the west to invest in the future by offering more support to the secular groups that brought about this revolution. Cairo is not Ankara post-Ataturk, much less Bonn post-Adenauer. It is time to abandon the overconfident assumption that there is a moderate mainstream in the Arab world.

 

The writer is a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and author of ‘Infidel’ and ‘Nomad’

 

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Turkish News Folder, 13 Febuary 2012

Posted by kadersevinc on 12/02/12

Click here to download as pdf file >> Turkish News_Folder,13 Feb 2012

Kemal Kilicdaroglu’s Editorial at Washington Post

CHP Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu wrote an editorial to the influential American daily Washington Post on 6 Feb, which needs to be repeated in these lines because it happens to be so prescient as to be scary.

“Many in Washington have been debating whether Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) could be a model for the Arab Spring , as our neighbors in the Middle East aspire to get rid of totalitarian regimes and become true democracies. But the reality in Turkey makes clear that the AKP model does not hold.

On Nov. 9 I visited the Silivri prison where hundreds of journalists, publishers, military officers, academics and politicians are being held. Trials were opened in 2007 on charges that an ultranationalist underground organization had plotted for years to overthrow the government. Many of those indicted have been detained for years without trial. There has not been a single conviction to date. Justice is at stake — and, so far, has been flagrantly denied. At work is an insidious attack on the rule of law by Turkey’s governing party. These trials could have been an occasion for Turkey to achieve a much-needed catharsis for correcting past wrongs, but they have been turned into instruments to silence the opposition and suppress freedoms.

Among those being held are eight opposition members of parliament. Turkey’s high election board declared that these people were qualified to stand for elections, and all won seats in parliament. That they are incarcerated violates their rights under Turkish law as elected representatives of the people.

A universal norm of the rule of law is that one is innocent until proven guilty. Another is that evidence leads to the arrest of a suspect. In today’s Turkey, however, people are treated as guilty until proven innocent. One gets arrested; then authorities gather evidence to establish an infraction. Presumed guilt is the norm. Sadly, all opponents of the government are viewed as potential terrorists or plotters against the state.

The AKP is systematic and ruthless in its persecution of any opposition to its policies. Authoritarian pressure methods such as heavy tax fines and illegal videotaping and phone tapping are widely used to silence opponents. Even more disturbing is the AKP’s claim that such things are being done in the name of democratic progress. The latest government target is the primary vestige of our democracy, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which I lead.

While at the Silivri center in November, I likened the conditions to those of a concentration camp and said that prosecutors and judges were not meting out justice and did not deserve to be called upholders of justice. This month, I learned that the prosecutor’s office had opened an inquiry into my comments, contending that I was “seeking to influence a fair trial” and “insulting public officials.” Never mind that not a day passes without some comment by government officials, such as the prime minister, on the process of law and justice. Clearly, an effort to single out the leader of the main opposition party ratchets up the pressures on freedom of expression. Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court penalized our party when we asked for the chief justice to recuse himself from particular cases. Our request was based on ill will, we were told when the $3,000 fine was levied, and the CHP was unnecessarily preoccupying the court’s time. It all boils down to this: In today’s Turkey, when one criticizes the justice system, one is prosecuted. When one appeals to the courts, one is penalized.

But here is why I stand behind my words: I have the right and duty to be critical of all that is wrong in my country. It is my inalienable right to point to injustices and to ask for justice. If the courts are not performing their duty, one can, and should, stand up and say so. I do not ask for forgiveness. Rather, I want my own immunity as a member of parliament to be lifted so that I can be tried in a court for all to witness the outcome. Righteousness is the ultimate immunity.

Turkey today is a country where people live in fear and are divided politically, economically and socially. Our democracy is regressing in terms of the separation of powers, basic human rights and freedoms and social development and justice. Citizens worry deeply about their future. These points are, sadly, reflected in most major international indexes, such as Human Rights Watch, which rank Turkey quite low in terms of human rights, democracy, freedoms and equality.

Our party stands for democracy, secularism, the rule of law, human rights and freedoms. We envision a progressive Turkey where citizens, regardless of their faith, ethnicity, gender or political view, are equal before the law. Building political, economic and cultural walls between people is not consistent with democracy or social justice. Only a nation at peace with itself can be a model for its neighbors. A nation plagued by multiple forms of division and polarization is doomed to failure.

Tactics such as oppression, preying on fear and restricting freedoms can help sustain a government’s rule for only so long. Never in history has a government succeeded in ruling permanently through authoritarian measures. Oppression does not endure; righteousness does. Turkey will be no exception.”

Hakan Fidan Incident and Special Criminal Courts

Before the ink dried on this article, Turkey was shaken to the roots by yet another judicial scandal.  A Special Prosecutor in Istanbul ordered Mr. Hakan Fidan, the current boss of the National Intelligence Agency (MIT), two of his colleagues and two retired top MIT servants to testify as suspects in the KCK cases.  MIT was accused of helping form KCK, providing valuable information to it and even serving as an intermediary between convicted PKK boss Ocalan and the terror organization’s mountain leadership at the Qandil Mountains.  When Fidan and the co-suspects turned down the invitation, claiming immunity under the Civil Service Act, the 14th Special Crimes Court in Istanbul ordered their arrest.

While no civil servant or politician should be above the law, constitutional scholars agree that the court overstepped its boundaries, as similar courts had done in cases of former Chief of staff Gen Basbug, not to mention the case Kilicdaroglu referred to in his editorial to WP.

According to many observers, the arrest warrants had more to do with yet another power struggle between AKP and the Gulen Order, than actual evidence that MIT might have been implicated as charged.  While the nation debated the battle between a religious sect it claims it doesn’t exist and the legitimately elected government of Turkey, Kilicdaroglu was the only one who pointed out the real problem in Fidan Incident[1]:

Turkey’s main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu has slammed the government over Turkey’s specially authorized courts saying that the courts are transforming Turkey into a Nazi camp day by day.

“These courts are converting Turkey to a Nazi camp day by day, the government convinced Turkey that they were getting rid of coup institutions but they just maintain the same methods with a different image,” Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kilicdaroglu said.

The courts were transformed from the (now defunct) State Security Court (DGM) system and their roots go back to the military commissions of 1980 coup, Kilicdaroglu said, adding that the courts function as extensions of the 1980 coup institutions.

Kilicdaroglu also called on Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to make a statement on the recent detention orders for four Turkish Intelligence Service (MİT) staff saying that “Turkey is in a chaos today which cannot be managed by the government.”

He called on the Erdogan administration:

Kilicdaroglu said Erdoğan did not know how to handle this crisis surrounding an Istanbul prosecutor’s order to detain Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) chief staff Hakan Fidan.
“President Abdullah GĂŒl, the Chief of General staff and the Prime Minister, they are all involved in [this chaotic situation] and we do not know what is going on in this country. Is it an internal feud or are there real guilty people?” he said.

“To make a way out of the chaotic environment, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan must make a press statement urgently instead of keeping silent.”

Indeed, he was prescient again, Mr. Erdoğan and his fellows had no clue how to deal with the problem, and hence they resorted to their conventional weapon.  Within 48 hours the Special Prosecutor was removed from the case by the order of the same court that issued the arrest warrants. The decision adds infamy to an error, because when similar prosecutors had ordered the arrests of hundreds of journalists, protesting university students, academics and other dissidents, the AKP chorus always sang the same tune.  “Our hands are tied; we can’t interfere with the judicial proceedings”.

Then, AKP resorted to its second-best weapon:  To pass unconstitutional   legislation. To rescue Mr. Fidan, a draft will be submitted to the Grand Assembly as early as Tuesday, which specifically exempts all MIT operatives from ANY prosecution unless a prime ministerial order is given.

The solution is more alarming than the problem. It goes without saying that important public servants, in particular those in security, constabulary and the military should not be arrested unless there is a very strong evidence pointing to their culpability, but releasing an agency of state completely from judicial oversight is called impunity.  It is NOT condoned in a democratic state.

Kilicdaroglu Explains How to Deal With the Arrests

Kemal Kilicdaroglu suggested the proper remedy:

“In a country where democracy and equality before law prevails, legislation for specific persons is not allowable.  We must use this opportunity to address all anti-democratic legislation.  We repeat our offer to the administration: Let’s abolish Article 250-252 of the Felony Court Procedures Law, let’s abolish Special Criminal Courts altogether. AKP is trying to get rid of the monster it created by circumventing the law once again.  This is not the right way; let’s use this occasion to rid the country of the relic of the 1980 Coup, namely the Special Criminal Courts”.

“Erdoğan is forming his own gangs, his own gladio” lamented Kilicdaroglu.

 

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Perspectives of the CHP

Posted by kadersevinc on 01/02/12

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Leader and Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) at the PES Convention, Brussels – 26.11.2011

Kemal Kilicdaroglu, PES Convention

Not only Europe but the entire world is in the midst of difficult and challenging times ranging from global financial crisis to political unrest. Today’s financial infrastructure, the rate and the way we deplete natural resources and traditional consumption models are no longer sustainable. Type and the magnitude of the current economic and financial crisis will continue developing in an unprecedented way which we have never experienced before.  Furthermore, we are living through this crisis concurrently with political instability around the globe along with rapid escalation of rage and violence. As social democrats, we have to start taking action now. Within the light of our principles we have to leverage our skills and intellectual capacity to manage the change that is taking place in the global landscape. We are all part of this change, thus we have obligation and responsibility for directing it.

 

In such an environment, when I look for  an answer to the question of “why” and “how” we need a better Europe, I find that the answer itself is hidden underneath the secret dynamics of  the forces that have created these problems.

 

I think influencing these dynamics and pointing them to the right direction must be our primary objective as politicians of the 21st century. We urgently need a better, stronger, more integrated and effective Europe. The Europe of the near future should

 

  • be able to assume the new political and normative leadership of the rapidly changing world; and
  • redefine itself along the axis of cultural diversity, human rights and universal democratic values.
  • be the driving force of the global governance system that can resolve conflicts, poverty, climate change and financial crisis.
  • utilize the opportunities offered by the economic power of the Euro-Atlantic community and their evolution towards a stronger economic environment must be ensured,
  • develop effective relations with the emerging Asia, the dynamic South America and with Africa that is in need of stability,
  • be influential in developing the area stretching from the Mediterranean to Central Asia.
  • prove its potential as a large single market, a social role model and a true political union.

 

These propositions also constitute the fundamentals behind our belief that Turkey will become a member of the EU and of our will as well as commitment towards working in achieving this goal. When Turkey becomes a full member of the EU in the near, but not too distant future, both Turkey and the European Union will not look the same as today: A “new” Turkey that has fully met the conditions for EU membership will no doubt play a very important and positive role needed in reshaping the future of Europe.

CHP President Kemal Kilicdaroglu

Turkey that is an EU member will:

 

  • have a high positive multiplier effect, with its ability to contribute to the global role of Europe in a wide range of ways,
  • offer new opportunities to Europe in terms of its geopolitical location, economic dynamism, young population and workforce, in security and energy areas, and in terms of its rich  culture, history and natural resources
  • facilitate the EU’s expansion to the Caucasus, Central Asia and Middle East, and ensure that the EU is influential in the development of these areas.

 

Hence, establishment of a fair economic environment in conformity with the requirements of the global competitive economy and with the European standards is the fundamental goal for CHP.

 

CHP’s targets for the Turkish economy are in line with the EU’s 2020 objectives of “inclusive, creative and sustainable growth”. Our priority areas are the issues that raise concern among the European social democrats, such as employment the young population, education, vocational training and increasing the support given to small and medium sized enterprises.

 

The challenges that will be encountered in eliminating our common concerns should be added to the agenda of the “Pre-Accession Strategy for Turkey”. In short, the destiny of the EU and Turkey should be unified.

 

As you know, Turkey has a long history in its relations with the EU. Even if we consider the official starting date of the negotiations, October 2005, as the beginning, we have completed six long years. During that period, Turkey was able to open only 13 of the 33 negotiation chapters as others were blocked by a few EU member states due to their own political agendas. Even this situation alone proves that we need a better Europe.

As the social democratic and main opposition party of Turkey, CHP has always supported Turkey’s EU membership process. We have our signature under the reforms that have been moving Turkey forward for years. Our programme, our discourses and our position in the parliament are all supportive of our EU membership. For years we have been strongly criticizing the Government for deliberately acting slowly and without real commitment in the process of EU accession negotiations. Be aware of Europeans and Turks telling you that “CHP is against Europe”. They are either ignorant or want to mislead you with malice. They are not honest.

As CHP, we want Turkey to meet the requirements of the Copenhagen political criteria of the EU and to undertake additional legal and social reforms. Croatia, which started the negotiations at the same time with us six years ago, has already completed its membership negotiations and will soon join the EU. A lot has changed in Europe and in Turkey since 2005. In Turkish, we call it “lots of water flowed under the bridge”.  In our view, while getting stronger in some areas, Turkey has moved backwards in the most crucial areas like fundamental human rights, freedoms and particularly with regard to women’s rights, judicial independence, freedom of expression and free independent media.

Turkey represents a very different case from all the other countries that have gone through the EU membership process. None has experienced the downfall that Turkey has in the areas of fundamental rights and freedoms.  I would like to share with you some examples:

  • Of the 139,630 cases brought before the European Court of Human Rights in 2010, 15,206 were against Turkey. And Turkey was found to be in violation of human rights in 278 cases. 
  • In the report evaluated the freedom of the media in Turkey, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Dunja Mijatovic, observed that there were 57 journalists prisoned as of the spring of 2011, while additional 700-1000 journalists face the possibility of being arrested. As of today there are 70 journalists in detention, more than the number in China.
  • There are more than 600 students detained, most of them on grounds of protesting the government and demanding free education.
  • In the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Press Freedom Index, Turkey ranked the 138th among 178 countries, dropping from 101 in 2007.
  • ATV and Sabah groups were sold via lending credits from public banks, and the Prime Minister’s son-in law was unethically appointed as the director general of these media organizations. The government’s direct and indirect control over the media has reached 75-80%. Reporters not following the Government’s path are either fired from their jobs or their TV programmes are terminated. And these instances have escalated after the last elections.
  • Especially in the light of the developments in 2011, the growing internet usage and of the social media have upset all authoritarian governments in the world, leading to efforts to establish state control over them. In Turkey, control of the internet initially started as banning of well-known websites such as YouTube and Blogger, continued to rise in 2011 and has reached to the level of censorship. 
  • Reporters Without Borders included Turkey among the top 16 countries that are globally watched with regards to internet censorship.
  • In United Nations Development Programme’s 2010 Global Gender Inequality Index, Turkey ranked 83rd. This represents a drop by 6 levels compared to 2008.
  • In the World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report 2011, Turkey ranked 122nd among 135 countries.
  • In 2002, 66 women were murdered in Turkey; in 2010, this figure rose to 1550. Cases of violence against women increased by 1400% in the last 7 years
  • Of the 4.7 million illiterate citizens in Turkey, 3.8 million are women.
  • Women’s participation in labour (26%) is lower than in all EU countries, and is the lowest among OECD (employment rate of 56.5%) countries.
  • · Following the constitutional amendment, the first action of the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) was to reduce women’s representation in the high judiciary court from 36% to 2%.
  • · HSYK recommended that that women raped should be married to their rapists.
  • According to the latest results of the International Corruption Survey, last year one out of every four individuals had to pay bribes in order to get the services they needed.
  • In the International Corruption Survey, Turkey ranked 6th among countries with the most bribery. Considering that the most bribed 5 countries were not from Europe, thus Turkey ranks at the top of the list of most corrupt countries in Europe. 
  • In Turkey (according to official figures), the ratio of the population at risk of poverty is quite high (17%). The OECD average is 10%. 

The rising violations of fundamental rights and freedoms in recent years in Turkey have been mostly observed with silence from Europe. The European Union failed or refused to see this dangerous trend in Turkey. I believe the following issues deserve more than some non-committal, diplomatically expressed statements of “concern” prepared in a room in one of the EU institutions:

  • · the oppressive judges and prosecutors,
  • · the parliamentarians who are detained in prison cells (an explanatory memorandum is attached),
  • · the telephones that are tapped,
  • · the violation of privacy,
  • · the politically motivated control on  scientific institutions and universities,
  • · the termination of the independence of autonomous financial, administrative and similar agencies and their placement under government control
  • · the calls for boycott  made by the Prime Minister against the largest media group of Turkey, and the levying of  unfair severe tax fines imposed on the same media group,
  • · silencing the voices of the press and all dissidents, firing the reporters from their positions
  • · the restrictions imposed on  internet content and social networks
  • · the long unjustified detention periods,
  • · The rapid increase in the number of appointments by the incumbent government to political positions in the public sector.
  • · creation of a state of suppression and fear.

I regret to say that Europe has lost its cogency and credibility regarding the current state of human rights violations in Turkey.

The values, on which Europe was built upon, belong to all of us. We cannot let anyone to irresponsibly destroy them.

I would also like to share with you some examples of the positive role that the European Union should, but somehow does not, play.

 

In Turkey’s membership negotiations, there are three chapters that can be opened provided that the technical criteria for opening them are met: competition policy, public procurements, and Social policy and employment chapters. As the main opposition party, we are saying that we support the reforms needed to open these chapters. Let’s open these chapters. Yet we neither hear a strong voice from the European front nor do we foresee any willingness on the part of the Turkish Government to open these three chapters.

 

CHP has long fought against the misconception that hat “CHP is against the EU membership”, a misconception created and nurtured in Brussels by pro-government groups. Realizing this should not have been that difficult for the EU.

 

Earlier I mentioned that Croatia stands to be the next EU member. Why do the members of the European Parliament and the European Commission, critical in their reports of the lack of political consensus in Turkey not support the model used in Croatia and which we had also proposed for Turkey? Why didn’t they act as an element of influence and pressure in this matter? It is difficult to understand this. Let alone taking the leadership regarding a consensus model, our people and our parliament are not even informed about the official negotiation position documents submitted by our country to the EU since the initiation of the negotiations. Unlike the other countries, these documents are not shared with the people of Turkey.

 

We also regrettably observed that some European politicians supposedly supporting Turkey in some critical situations actually sided with the governing party in Turkey.  These also clearly demonstrate that there is a common agenda between the ruling party in Turkey and those politicians and political groups in Europe who do not want to see Turkey in the EU. This is an extremely dangerous game they are playing to damage European values and the interests of Europe in the changing global environment.

 

Last September, a package of amendments to some articles of the Constitution was submitted for a referendum. In fact the package was imposed on the public by a variety of means.  The European Union remained silent and demonstrated some very contradictory attitudes in the face of these changes that eliminated the independence of the judiciary and rendered the problems in the current system even more damaging. The EU failed to take a progressive step by justifying its inaction through reference to some practices at some EU member states. On that day, we painfully saw that the EU becomes hostage to the erroneous practices of some of its member states and of the status-quo. Today, Turkey is paying a heavy price for the arrangements approved at that referendum. The referendum package included provisions that emphasized some principles that already existed in our laws in areas such as women’s and children’s rights. Naturally, we were not against those articles. But in addition to those, there were also some articles that had some tangible consequences regarding the functioning of the judiciary. CHP also wanted a judiciary reform. But in the constitutional amendment package, the appointment of judges and prosecutors was being left to the political preferences of a simple majority of the parliament and the President of the Republic. We objected to it. A mistake should not be replaced with another mistake. As a result, today the judiciary has become politicized, and has lost the public’s trust. There was a very recent event. The prosecutors who wanted to investigate the corruption claims against the ruling AKP and a charity organization with German connections were immediately removed from office. Unfortunately, some European social democrat politicians were also among those who supported the anti-democratic policies of the AKP during the constitutional referendum, seeing no reason to even consult with CHP. We have to protect the European and social democratic values. The universality and the customs of social democracy teach and remind us to always support each other.

 

Lastly, a few words are in order about the 2011 Progress Report. The European Commission’s Turkey 2011 Progress Report emphasized some very important steps that Turkey has to take for EU membership. However, it also showed that it is always necessary to make deeper analyses in order to rectify the shortcomings in the areas of the independence and impartiality of the judiciary, individual freedoms, the freedom of the media, women’s rights, social policy, and free and fair market economy, and in order to tackle the retrogression through reforms. On the other hand, the report was seriously lacking in terms of demonstrating the internal contradictions and impasses of the European Union with regard to the negotiation chapters that were unfairly blocked by the Greek Cypriot administration in Southern Cyprus and France. We expect the European Commission to defend more strongly the European values and principles at the EU level in its relations with Turkey.

 

Our suggestions regarding the process and solution are perfectly clear. We suggest that Turkey’s EU membership process be revitalized. Turkey’s democratic future is in Europe. We would like to emphasize the importance of at least five issues in order to support a new period with Turkey beyond the current situation:

 

  • Firstly, Turkey’s EU process should be approached in a manner that will encourage the broadest political and social consensus, free from partisanship and narrow-minded political calculations. As in the case of Croatia, a monitoring committee chaired by the opposition party is a good example in this sense.

 

  • Secondly, the political agenda should be oriented to meet the needs of a democratic country that has to focus on the issues of growth, employment, reform of the system, educational reforms, energy security, the EU harmonization process and global competition policies within the framework of the EU2020 Strategy.
  • Thirdly, the Turkish public should be provided with more information on how the EU process will raise social standards, democracy and economy to higher levels.
  • Fourthly, Turkey’s constructive and results-oriented approach to the Cyprus issue should continue, but must be reciprocated.
  • Lastly and most importantly, it is crucial that EU politicians directly support Turkey. However, they should avoid falling into the contradiction of “supporting the political agenda of a government” in their initiatives and discourses in the name of “supporting the future of Turks in Europe”.

 

This is also a significant opportunity for European politicians to take the leadership in telling the truth to the entire European community regarding the global situation. A Turkey that has fulfilled the membership criteria will really become a strong model for democracy. At the same time, it will create economic and political added value for the Union in the international arena. The enlargement of the European Union will be to the benefit of the futures of the European citizens in an environment of increasing economic competition in the world.

 

Turkey’s problems will be better solved with an EU process revitalized through more concrete, more prudent policies without questioning the goal of full membership on the Turkish side or on the EU side. It should not be forgotten that a well-functioning Turkish democracy is in the common interest of Turkey and Europe.

 

CHP is the guarantee, owner and leader of the social democratic change in Turkey.  Our goal is to strengthen the social state, which is one of the founding principles and unchangeable qualities of our Republic, and to ensure social justice and prosperity and dignity for our people.

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Turkish News Folder 1 Febuary 2012

Posted by kadersevinc on 01/02/12

Click here to download as pdf file >> Turkish News Folder 1 Feb2012

Former lighthouse prosecutors indicted, Kilicdaroglu outraged

After being demoted to passive duty, the three former prosecutors in the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity scandal investigation have been formally charged with counterfeiting official documents and abuse of office.  All will be tried and if convicted serve prison terms.

Meanwhile, the prime suspect in the German and Turkish Lighthouse case, former chairman of Turkish TV and Radio Censorship Board (RTUK) Mr. Zahit Akman is not only walking free, but continues to violate the law as we write. He recently returned to the media by opening an office in the Channel 7 TV building, another institution implicated in the donation embezzlement scandal.  This constitutes a revolving door and violates the current laws restricting employment of former members of independent regulatory boards. However with three brave prosecutors facing prison terms for even contemplating that he might be guilty, who is going to dare to stop him?

Speaking to a grass-roots crowd in the Eryaman chapter of CHP, Kilicdaroglu reminded the public that the three prosecutors in question have abided the law during their evidence gathering. He added “Suddenly they were removed from the case without sufficient cause.  It is claimed that the prosecutors have tempered with official documents presented to the court, but what they had done is a wide-spread custom in court business to expedite the process. Besides only one of the three is found guilty of tempering with the said document. We are yet to be provided with a valid reason for the removal of the other two. Now, they are facing prison terms. This   is shameful for the Turkish judiciary. The government protects illegal wire-tapping, counterfeiting court documents are permitted in cases against AKP dissidents, but three prosecutors are persecuted for advancing the Lighthouse prob.  Such practices are common to dictatorships.  This is why we call AKP “the post-modern dictatorship”.

Kilicdaroglu also expressed his opinion on the DA’s decision to turn over the investigation about alleged sex tapes involving former chairman Baykal to a Special Prosecutor reporting to the notorious Extraordinary Courts. “I’m pretty sure the process will be no different than other trials in these courts, where secret witnesses and anonymous letters of complaints will be used to dilute and obfuscate the justice.” CHP Chairman expressed once again that Extraordinary Courts are under the control of the political authority and can not be relied on to reach impartial verdicts.

Kilicdaroglu:  AKP is obligated to come clean on Uludere

Kilicdaroglu also talked about the Uludere incident where 34 citizens of Kurdish ethnic descent were bombed to death. Kilicdaroglu thinks that the intel prompting the air raid had been given by a foreign intelligence service.

“It is 100% certain that the intel is based on a foreign agency. Why hasn’t it been filtered? The Chiefs of Staff claims that it had acted on reliable intelligence.  MIT (Turkish Intelligence Service) denies that it supplied the information. The government must explain to the public what source produced the intelligence.”

Kilicdaroglu maintains that the AKP government would never dare to come clean on the Uludere incident, because it was the party which subjugated Turkish spy agencies to the control of foreign ones.

Izmir Mayor and associates indicted, CHP claims a campaign of intimidation

CHP deputy chairman Gokhan Gunaydın objected to the indictments for the Izmir mayor and associates in a 438 page file. Gunaydin claimed that the case was politically motivated: ”The will of the public is trampled by these phony indictments.  The penalty for shooting someone on the street is 15 years, but for being a mayor of CHP is 400 years.”

Gunaydın stressed that the government was pursuing a policy of intimidation, oppression and obstruction against CHP run municipalities. The Interior Ministry is clearly biased in deciding which mayors can be investigated and which not. With one minor exemption, the Ministry only permits DA’s offices to probe accusations against CHP mayors.

GĂŒnaydin cited the recent raids in the offices of Eskisehir, Princess Island (Istanbul) and Izmir municipalities as the latest evidence of this policy of intimidation. “The raids have been staged as reality shows, with pro-AKP media invited to come along and the crack of the dawn is used to add dramatic effect” he said.

 

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Turkish Coffee Briefings: A debate club on Europe and Turkey in Brussels

Posted by kadersevinc on 28/01/12

www.turkishcoffeebriefings.org

 

 

ï»ż- Would you like a cup of coffee or tea?

This is how a business meeting or friendly encounter starts in the Turkish tradition. Especially a cup of  Turkish coffee, prepared with or withoutsugar and served with lokum (Turkish delight) is the main facilitator offrank and creative conversation.

As a student and international relations professional, I have enjoyed taking part in the think tank events in many European, American and Asian cities. In Brussels, where I have been spending the essential part of my professional life since 2005, the rich think tank environment has always been inspiring and refreshing for me.

The Turkish Coffee Briefings is the fruit of this experience. It aims to add an unambitious new formula: just a short coffee break transformedto an opportunity of exchange of views; a relaxed moment of professionaland friendly conversation in a small group around an actual topic of European and international agenda.

Then comes the basic question:

- How sweet do you like your coffee?

 

Debate style


Turkish Coffee Briefings is a roundtable debate club in Brussels. The sessions are introduced by a guest speaker, followed by 45 minutes of exchange of views by participants. Turkish coffee and delights are served. The topics are selected in relation with the current European social, political and economic agenda. Each session may be followed by a short report summarizing the debate points based on the Chatham House rules.The purpose is to create an intellectual framework of debate from a selected group of participants, structured in a way to enable open discussion and stimulate new ideas.

 

First meeting of Turkish Coffee Briefings

The Turkish Coffee Briefings aims to add a new formula Brussels’ rich think tank environment:

- just a short coffee break transformed to an opportunity of exchange of views;
- a relaxed moment of professional and friendly conversation in a small group around an actual topic of European and international agenda.

In our first meeting, the topic was Turkish Foreign Policy and Europe

We were honoured to have with us as guest speaker Mr Faruk Logoglu, Vice-President of the CHP ( Turkish social democratic / main opposition party) and former Turkish Ambassador to Washington.
It was very nice to listen this fruitful exchange of views with moderation of Georgy Gotev, Senior Editor of Euractiv. The participants were from European Parliament, European External Action Service, European Commission, business and civic society.

The Philosophy Behind The Turkish Coffee Briefings


According to the Turkish tradition, it is customary for the host to serve Turkish coffee to guests as soon as they arrive, as a gesture of hospitality.  As parties start sipping their coffee from traditional demitasse cups, they also engage in a short pep talk to “melt the ice” which spurs on the main conversation. Therefore a cup of Turkish coffee is an important part of daily social and business life in Turkey as stated in the following proverb:

“A cup of coffee will not be forgotten for 40 years”



The intent of the Turkish Coffee Briefings is to carry that tradition over to our roundtable discussions in Brussels. Since the Turkish coffee is inherent in the social customs in showing respect to each other, intrinsic in interpersonal relations of people as the icebreaker and it is an expression of hospitality, we want to apply the same principles to our intellectual debates.

Kader Sevinç

Founder of the Turkish Coffee Briefings

www.turkishcoffeebriefings.org

 

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PES Secretary General Philip Cordery met with Mr Faruk Loğoğlu, Deputy Chairman of the CHP, Turkey

Posted by kadersevinc on 25/01/12
Deputy Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Mr. Faruk Loğoğlu and PES
Deputy Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Mr. Faruk Loğoğlu and PES Secretary General Philip Cordery

Today the PES Secretary General Philip Cordery met with Deputy Chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Mr. Faruk Loğoğlu. During the meeting the current political situation and struggles in Turkey were discussed. The PES is concerned about the continuing repressions of freedom of speech and assembly in Turkey. This ominous situation has recently escalated with the case against CHP leader Mr. Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The PES criticizes the politically motivated actions of the State Prosecutor in this case.

During the meeting, the upcoming PES paper entitled “A Call for a Renewed EU-Turkey Agenda”, was discussed. Following eight years of negotiations the Turkish Accession is still stalled, with no expectations that things will change. The PES is committed to furthering the Accession negotiations with Turkey and urges the EU Commission and EU Member States to ensure that this occurs.

Mr. Cordery stated that “the meeting was very positive. The PES will continue to support Mr. Kilicdaroglu in the struggle for democracy and social justice in Turkey. The PES believes that the EU should have an inclusionary vision and that Turkish membership is the ultimate goal.”

 

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PES condemns politically motivated legal proceedings against CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu

Posted by kadersevinc on 23/01/12

Following the recent launch of a probe into Mr Kemal Kilicdaroglu by the Turkish judiciary, there is growing concern regarding the impartiality of the Turkish judiciary. The Turkish public prosecutor has requested that Mr Kilicdaroglu waive his right to parliamentary immunity so that charges can be brought against him for ‘attempting to influence a fair trial’ and ‘insulting public servants on duty’.

These allegations were made following remarks by Mr. Kilicdaroglu about two CHP members, who have been held in pre-detention for several years for alleged involvement in the Ergenekon case. In a show of support for Mr Kilicdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), all of the MPs from the party have asked for the lifting of their parliamentary immunity.

PES President Sergei Stanishev has stated that “this decision against the CHP leader Mr. Kemal Kilicdaroglu is unacceptable and raises even more concerns about the independence of the judiciary in Turkey. I regret that we face once again the presence of political motives behind the decisions of fundamental state institutions which are meant to be impartial. Furthermore the ambiguous position of the Anti-Terror and Criminal Law in Turkey places severe restrictions on politicians and journalists, effectively resulting in a gagging order on all dissent”.

He added that; “The PES believes that a separation of powers between the judiciary and government is a cornerstone to any democracy and the Turkish government must take necessary steps to ensure full independence of the courts. The PES condemns politically targeted legal proceedings and continues to support the CHP and its leader in the ongoing struggle for the necessary reforms in the field of rule of law and universal freedoms in Turkey and Mr Kilicdaroglu in this time of politically motivated attacks.”

 

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Turkish News Folder, 13 January 2012

Posted by kadersevinc on 13/01/12

Click here to download as pdf file >> Turkish News Folder 13 Jan 2012

Deputy Chairman Faik Öztrak urges AKP to take the World Bank Report seriously:

 

Faik Öztrak said “CHP has been warning this government for six months along the lines of the conclusions of the recent World Bank report, which apparently—because it is said in Turkish—has been completely ignored by this government.” World Bank had commented on Turkey’s conditions in its recent Outlook 2012 Report:

“In scenarios where financing becomes tighter and re-financing of foreign debt becomes more difficult, some countries may either have to run down their foreign currency reserves or constrain domestic demand. These risks are particularly pronounced for countries like Turkey which have very high current account deficits, a short-term maturity profile and low level of F/X reserves.”

Öztrak added that “in the report, Turkey and Romania have suffered the largest cuts in 2012 growth forecasts. Six months ago, WB had predicted that Turkey would grow by 5.1% in 2012, now this has been revised down to 2.9%. A deceleration of growth from 8.2% in 2011 to 2.9% in 2012 amounts to a hard landing.

Also according to this report, Turkey is the only country among Europe and Eurasian economies that will suffer from higher inflation.  Moreover in scenarios of credit bottlenecks, Turkey is deemed the 6th most vulnerable developing country in a universe of 30.

DB projects that in the geographical vicinity of Turkey net foreign financial flows will amount to US$76.3 billion. It would be very hard to maintain the US$65.4 billion current account deficit that AKP had forecasted in its 2012 macro-projections. We are facing either a sharp growth slowdown or a rapid exhaustion of Central Bank F/X reserves. The bill will paid by the Turkish citizens, currently being unwisely encouraged by AKP to borrow and spend more.”

“For the last six months, CHP had voiced very similar concerns to those of WB, which the PM has ignored completely. Perhaps, the English language warnings by WB will now be taken more seriously. AKP can’t restore confidence in the economy merely by enunciating a Medium Term Economic Program when the world is experiencing a severe bout of uncertainty.  The failure of the Medium Term Economic Program is demonstrated by the interest rate paid on Turkey’s 10 year dollar denominated bond, where the Treasury was forced to pay 6.35%.  At the same maturity USA pays 1.87%, Germany 1.93%. France and Spain, two countries the credit ratings of which have been cut very recently, had only paid 3.25% and %5.1 respectively.”

“AKP’s mismanagement of the economy caused loan rates for consumer to escalate to 20%.  The cost of AKP’s neglect to adopt the measures suggested by CHP is rising rapidly and burdening an already overstretched citizenry.”

Kilicdaroglu mocks AKP’s amnesty proposal

Shocked by the national and international criticism that erupted after a prosecutor charged CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu for obstructing the justice, AKP rushed a judiciary reform package to the Grand assembly, which also includes an amnesty for the kind of “crimes” committed by Kilicdaroglu.

Speaking to victims of Van earthquake hosted by the Istanbul borough of Kartal on Sunday, Kilicdaroglu turned down the amnesty article.  “We are starved for justice in this country in the 21st century” starts Kilicdaroglu. “I don’t demand forgiveness.  I want to be tried and acquitted.”

He added “I never asked for a pardon.  I want to be tried and acquitted in impartial courts of law. This is the 21st century, we still cry out for justice, freedom and an independent press.  We must end the Reign of Fear imposed on by AKP”.

Why was Kilicdaroglu charged?

Kemal Kilicdaroglu gave a speech to the Turkish press in November following a visit to Mustafa Balbay and Mehmet Haberal, who are both jailed in Silivri Prison as part of an investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine criminal network charged with plotting to overthrow the government. During his speech, Kilicdaroglu likened Silivri Prison to a “concentration camp,” and said he could not accept calling the judges hearing the Ergenekon case “judges.” Public Prosecutor Ali İƟgören launched the investigation into those remarks, accusing Kilicdaroglu of “attempting to influence a fair trial”

Claiming that the judiciary should also be called into account in a democratic system, Kilicdaroglu said on a program broadcast on HabertĂŒrk TV: “I have to oppose what I see as wrong. That’s my duty being the opposition party leader.” “The probe aims to deprive someone of his freedom of expression, which is a fundamental democratic freedom.” he stated.

Kilicdaroglu reiterated his previous comments on Silivri Prison, depicting it as a concentration camp. He expressed his belief that specially authorized courts hearing the Ergenekon trial are under the influence of the government, taking a judge who resigned in September from his post after being under institutional pressure as an example.

On Wednesday, Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul GĂŒnay also made parallel statements to the CHP leader in a TV broadcast, criticizing the investigation and stressing the importance of freedom of expression in general.

Meanwhile, the investigation against Kilicdaroglu also sparked negative reactions from the European Parliament. Emine Bozkurt, a Dutch deputy of Turkish descent in the European Parliament, was quoted by the Milliyet daily as saying that the investigation aims to silence the opposition. (ZAMAN, 13 January 2012).

Kilicdaroglu defiant in the face of judicial intimidation

Main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu applied yesterday for the abolition of his judicial immunity and stepped up accusations that the judiciary has become a political weapon in government hands.

“You cannot intimidate me with your special-authority courts. I am not bowing down to you. I will say what I say even if you send me to prison and even to the gallows,” Kilicdaroglu said in an emotional address to his Republican People’s Party (CHP) parliamentary group, from whom the CHP leader received a hero’s welcome.

The deputies were scheduled to collectively follow him today in applying to have their immunities lifted.

“What needed to happen has happened,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, showing no sympathy for his arch-rival. Erdoğan said the prosecutor’s move targeting Kilicdaroglu was long due.

Speaking to his lawmakers, Kilicdaroglu reiterated that the Silivri Prison, where two CHP deputies are awaiting trial, had become a “concentration camp” for opponents of the Justice and Development Party (AKP). For such remarks, he now risks standing trial for “attempting to influence a fair trial” and “insulting court members.”

The CHP leader will land in court if the justice minister approves the request for his trial and sends it to Parliament, where a vote is required to abolish his immunity.

Kilicdaroglu said the trial of hundreds of people on charges of plotting to unseat the government had degenerated into a “blood feud” and added that he had “not even the slightest trust” in the judicial system. “By fair trial, they mean seizing unpublished books and jailing students who demand free education. What we are asking for is the supremacy of law. Taking revenge is not normalization,” he said. (Hurriyet Daily News, 11 January 2012).

Constitutional Court makes a mockery of justice

It is hard to disagree with the accusations by Kilicdaroglu that the courts have become pawns of the government and had lost the trust of the nation.  In a recent survey conducted by Kadir Has University of Istanbul 46% of the participants expressed lack of faith in the judiciary.  In a recent ruling the Constitutional Court added to the concerns of the opposition. The bench ruled against CHP’s request for Chief Justice Hasim Kilic to recuse himself from the deliberations on the petition filed by CHP to overturn 11 Cabinet decrees with the force of law, and than convicted the party to pay a fine of  TL6,000 for filing false charges.  (VATAN)

Kılıcdaroglu expresses his condolences to Hrant Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink

CHP is not the only quarter which has severely criticized Turkish judiciary.  The whole nation was outraged by the verdict in the case of the murder of Hrant Dink, where the court found no evidence of a conspiracy.

In connection with the fifth anniversary of the murder of Hrant Dink—the founder and former chief editor of Istanbul’s Agos Armenian weekly, who was killed on January 19, 2007—Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu telephoned Dink’s widow, Rakel Dink.

During the telephone conversation, Kilicdaroglu said: “Your pain is very deep. I know that the verdict of the judicial system, which is a subject of the ruling party, increased your pain twice as much,” CNN Turk news agency informs.

Kemal Kilicdaroglu had harshly criticized the court’s ruling on Hrant Dink’s murder case, and stressed that, on the one hand, they are trying students, who demand free education, for being members of an organized criminal group, and, on the other hand, they note that Dink’s killers are not criminal group members, and that they functioned alone. “This is the justice of the[Turkey’s ruling] Justice and Development Party [AKP],” Kilicdaroglu had stated.

To note, on Tuesday, the Turkish court found Yasin Hayal guilty of planning and organizing Hrant Dink’s murder, and sentenced him to life in prison. Erhan Tuncel, on the other hand, was found not guilty of prompting Dink’s murder, and, instead, he was sentenced to 10 years and 6 months for an explosion in a McDonald’s store. But taking into account that Tuncel was already incarcerated for that amount of time, the court ruled his release. The court also found the nineteen defendants not guilty of being members of a terrorist organization. And earlier, Hrant Dink’s actual killer, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to a total of 22 years and 10 months for Dink’s murder and for bearing illegal arms. But Samast was tried at a juvenile court, since he was a minor at the time of the murder.

PM Erdogan wowed that “the real murderers will not disappear into the shadowy underground labyrinth of Ankara” suggesting he, too suspects foul play beyond what the court found.  Having governed the country for 10 years and folded the nation that the 12th of September referendum would bring about a free and independent judiciary that shall no longer “cover up” for the crimes of the deep State, it is astonishing to find the prime minister himself still complaining of the monster he had created. Had his party not used the opportunity to stuff the benches with cronies and ultraconservatives with a grudge against dissidents and republicans, Dink might have found justice.

Human Rights Watch condemns Turkey

Finally, impartial international human rights monitoring group Human Rights Watch issued a report on the Turkish judiciary which confirms CHP’s views:

– Turkey‘s international credibility as a rising regional power will be compromised as long as it imprisons journalists, Kurdish political activists, and other government critics, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.

Since winning a third term with a strong showing of 50 percent of the vote in the June 12 general election, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) government has taken increasing steps to abridge rights at home, Human Rights Watch said. It has restricted freedom of expression, association, and assembly with laws that allow authorities to jail its critics for many months or years while they stand trial for alleged terrorism offenses on the basis of flimsy evidence.

“The Turkish government’s jailing of journalists and non-violent political activists undermines its democratic credentials in the region,” said Emma Sinclair-Webb, the Turkey researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government needs to end the clampdown and reform its terrorism laws.”

In its 676-page report, Human Rights Watch assessed progress on human rights during the past year in more than 90 countries, including popular uprisings in the Arab world that few would have imagined. Given the violent forces resisting the “Arab Spring,” the international community has an important role to play in assisting the birth of rights-respecting democracies in the region, Human Rights Watch said in the report.

Human Rights Watch also highlighted the endemic violence against women in Turkey, police violence and use of force, moves to combat impunity for human rights violations, and international pressure on Turkey over its human rights record.

The government has pledged to rewrite the constitution to further human rights. But the intensified clampdown centering on officials of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BarÄ±ĆŸ ve Demokrasi Partisi, BDP), but also including other critics of the government, threatens that process, Human Rights Watch said.

Thousands of people ­– including party activists, elected serving mayors, lawyers, journalists, several human rights defenders, and an academic – are on trial. Many of them are in prolonged pre-trial detention. They are accused of  links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (Partiya KarkerĂȘn Kurdistan, PKK) and the Kurdistan Communities Union (Koma CiwakĂȘn Kurdistan, KCK), which the authorities claim is the PKK’s urban wing.

An increasing number of journalists and editors were arrested during 2011. On December 24, 36 journalists with the pro-Kurdish press were imprisoned on terrorism charges in the context of the broader clampdown on Kurdish political activity. In March, several other journalists including Ahmet ƞık and Nedim ƞener were imprisoned on terrorism charges for alleged links with coup plots against the government. The evidence presented against ƞık and ƞener was writings that do not incite violence.

The conflict with the PKK in Turkey escalated during 2011, with a rising number of civilian casualties in the second half of the year. PKK-related attacks killed and injured civilians in several cities. On December 28, Turkish air force jets bombed and killed 34 Kurdish villagers, 19 of them children, in ƞırnak province near the Iraq border. An investigation into the lethal air strike is under way.

Human Rights Watch called for the full and impartial investigation into all civilian deaths and said that those responsible for unlawful killings should be brought to justice.

“Turkey seeks to play a role in advocating democratic reforms in the region, but it needs to accompany its regional outreach with democratic reform at home,” Sinclair-Webb said.

The Third Judicial Reform Package a joke

Panicked by the incessant criticism of the conduct of the judiciary and the party’s pervasive influence on the courts, AKP rushed a 100 article “Third Judicial Reform Package” to the Grand assembly. The package was greeted with disbelief by independent observers, because 80% of its concerns common misdemeanors, rather than violations of habeas corpus, due process and other severe abuses by the judiciary in cases concerning dissidents.

Regarding the long trial periods and the Press Code, the new draft law essentially instructs the judges to obey the spirit of the existing laws by documenting clearly why they deny bail in a particular case.  The new draft doesn’t change the definition of the crime, which is the main concern, but reduces some penalties.  It is still up to the prosecutors and judges to decide under which article of the Turkish Penal Code a particular defendant will be tried. The new draft, if approved in the current form, would not lead to the releases of generals, journalists or dissidents, because they are all charged with high treason (coup-plotting).  Neither are there any measures to reduce the massive and whole-sale crack down on PKK’s front organizations BDP and KCK.

Europe also unhappy with the Third Judicial Reform Package

A top official from the Council of Europe has heavily criticized Turkey’s judicial system and urged the country to stage a “radical overhaul” rather than conduct limited reforms.

“Progress is certainly possible but it will require a radical overhaul of the whole system. It will demand education and training of the judges and the prosecutors as there is an issue of eradicating old habits,” Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg recently told daily HĂŒrriyet in Istanbul.

The government announced plans this week to speed up the judicial process but Hammarberg said the new laws would be insufficient on their own.

“It will take a bit of time,” said the commissioner, urging instead a complete change in mentality.
“The procedures are too lengthy and some indictments are of such low quality it is difficult for the judges to understand what is meant,” said Hammerberg.

The recent ruling in the Hrant Dink murder case was also on the official’s agenda. “When it comes to the Hrant Dink and Ergenekon cases, the energy invested in detaining people has been much more obvious in the case of Ergenekon in comparison to Dink,” said Hammarberg, who participated in a public commemoration of the late Armenian-Turkish journalist on Jan. 19, the fifth anniversary of the murder. “So few have been charged and sentenced, indicating there was a broader base for this conspiracy.”
On Jan. 17, a court sentenced one conspirator to life in prison for Dink’s murder but acquitted another. The court also failed to investigate state officials’ alleged links with the murder and ruled that no organized terror networks were behind the hit, angering people from all sides of the political spectrum.
Hammarberg said Turkey might be sentenced by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if the Dink verdict was approved by in an appeal.

“There is still an emphasis on the role of the state. Of course the situation is particularly sensitive in a case where there is involvement of officials from the state side as well as ordinary individuals,” he said.
The need for authorities to obtain permission before putting a civil servant on trial “is a reflection that there is something wrong in the justice system which needs to be addressed.”

When asked about the arrest of former Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker BaƟbuğ, the commissioner said long detention periods were a major problem for the Turkish judicial system.

“The implementation of detention before sentencing should be absolutely exceptional,” Hammarberg said. “We feel the issue is not only the length of detentions but whether there should be any detention at all. Detentions before a sentence is served should only be utilized when there is an extreme risk the person will disappear or would put pressure on the witnesses if they were free, for example. But that is not the situation in majority of the cases. (The Journal of Turkish Weekly)

 

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Listen this song and reasses Schengen visa regime

Posted by kadersevinc on 15/11/11

Listen:

 

Sarpinto – Schengen Macht Frei by Sarpinto

 

“Schengen is the name of the discriminatory and ill-designed visa regime of the European Union”

Sarp Yeletaysi from Istanbul found a creative way of criticizing the Schengen visa procedure Turkish citizens are faced with when they travel to Europe. There are also messages to Merkel, Sarkozy.

“Schengen is the name of the discriminatory and ill-designed visa regime of the European Union (EU). This song is the product of many visits to embassies of European countries to obtain a visa which is a painful, costly, time-consuming and humiliating process. I believe it reflects the experiences and feelings of many people who have ever attempted to obtain a Schengen Visa. I realized that many of my European friends are unaware of the difficulties non-EU citizens face when traveling to Europe as most EU passport holders can travel to many countries without the need to obtain a visa. This is my attempt to raise awareness about the Schengen Problem which I believe is a violation of basic human rights and I wrote this song to pass the message across.” says Sarp.

Please click on the link above to listen this creative song.

Congratulations Sarp !

Looking forward to host you in Brussels,

Kader

http://soundcloud.com/sarpinto/sarpinto-schengen-macht-frei

Lyrics of the song

Sarpinto – Schengen Macht Frei (Lyrics)
One – The applicant must submit documents in person
Two – The documents should be presented in this order – Jawohl FĂŒhrer
Three – 2 Biometric passport-sized pictures newly taken
Four – Passport not more than – 10 years old – and valid for – at least – at least 6 months
Five – One x Schengen visa application form
Six – Copy of – hotel – reservation
Seven – Details of your flight itenary
Eight – Make sure to bring your civil registry
Nine – Travel Health Insurance
Ten – Birth certificate or national identity card
Elf – Employment Verification
Twelfe – Verification of time off during length of stay
.stay
stay
stay
stay
stay
stay…

CHORUS

Schengen macht frei
If you don’t die
In the embassy
From frustration

Schengen macht frei
Grenzen aus Stahl
21st century
Democracy

Thirteen – List of authorized signatories –
Fourteen – Tax Registration Certificate of employer
Fifteen – Chamber of Commerce Registration not older than 6 months
Sixteen – Proof of income, recent payroll
Seventeen – Bank Statements – House deeds – Rental Contract – Title of Property
Eighteen – And Finally – Pay the processing fee – 60 Euros which is non – non-refundable

Wait-wait-wait-wait-in line-in line-just to get in-get in-to Clastrofobize
Cold faces-faces-behind the thick glass-thick glass-take your papers-papers-like you are a convict in their eyes
Questions-stupid questions-You’ll have to answer-answer-You ‘re a refugee-Alien-Illegal Immigrant
Approved or denied you wished you never applied-to go through this hell-in the name of Schengen Macht Frei

CHORUS

GUITAR SOLO

CHORUS

OUTRO (Instrumental)

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CHP ASKS FOR MORE REFORMS IN ANKARA AND MORE VISION IN BRUSSELS IN VIEW OF TURKEY’S EU MEMBERSHIP

Posted by kadersevinc on 12/10/11

 

Kader Sevinç

Kader Sevinç

The CHP as Turkey’s social-democratic party and main opposition has always been a firm defender of EU’s enlargement to Turkey. CHP asks better fulfillment of the EU’s Copenhagen political criteria by Turkey and more regulatory and social reforms. The world needs a better global order as a result of the actual financial, social and political transitions in the international system. In this respect, our world needs a better Europe which will prove its potential to become a larger single market, social model and political unity in an expanding world.  A successful Turkey in the EU membership process will bring Europe more geo-strategic role, economic dynamism, youthful force, natural, cultural and historical richness, security and energy

The European Commission’s Progress Report on Turkey for 2011 highlights crucial steps to be taken by Turkey in view of EU membership. However it had to better emphasize the Turkish government’s increasing deficiencies in the fields of independence and impartiality of the judiciary power, individual freedoms, freedom of press, women rights, social policy and free and fair market economy. On the other hand, the report fails short of pointing to the EU’s own contradictions in the unjustified blocking of negotiation chapters because of Southern Cypriote government and the France. We expect the European Commission to more firmly defend the European values and principles in dealing with Turkey.

CHP proposes to re-vitalise Turkey’s EU accession process. Turkey’s democratic future is in Europe. We see at least five pillars to support a new era for Turkey, beyond the current situation:

- Firstly, a renewed approach in Turkey to the EU process avoiding partisan and short-sighted political calculations and promoting at least bi-partisan or wider political and social consensus. The example of Croatia, having a monitoring committee led by the opposition party is very inspiring in this respect.

- Secondly, a political agenda adopting itself to the requirements of a democratic country which has to focus on the growth, jobs, reform of the judiciary system, educational reform, energy security, EU harmonization process and global competition policies within the framework of the EU 2020 Strategy.

- Thirdly, better communicating to the Turkish public that the EU process is about upgrading the social standards, democracy and economy.

-  Fourthly, the continuity of Turkey’s pro-European, constructive and result-oriented position on Cyprus. (Let’s keep in mind that Turkey supported the UN peace plan as it was asked by the EU. The EU’s inability to keep its promises on Cyprus severely damaged the pro-European trends in Turkey).

- Last but not least, we also ask to the EU politicians to express their support to Turkey, addressing directly to the Turkish people. The confusion between “supporting Turkish people’s European future” on the one hand and “supporting a government’s political destiny” on the other hand should be avoided. This also time for the European politicians to demonstrate leadership in telling the truth to the European public on the requirements of the global situation: in fulfilling the membership criteria Turkey will become a crucial member of the European Union enhancing its international economic and political power. Enlarging the EU to Turkey is in the interest of the European citizens’ future in an increasingly competitive world.

Turkey’s current problems can be better solved within the EU process, which should be re-energized by both the EU and Turkey through more rational policies and without questioning the target of membership. Let’s do not forget that the reinforcement of the Turkish democracy is a common European interest for all of us.

(Ms) Kader Sevinc

CHP Representative to the EU

PES Presidency Member

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Kader Sevinc – Turkish Social Democratic View – Brussels rss

EU Enlargement and the future of Europe. Click here to read more.



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  • About Kader Sevinc

    Kader Sevinç is the representative for the European Union of the Turkish social democratic party, the CHP, in Brussels . She was appointed as the representative in July 2008 and in her capacity she is in charge of driving the EU policy initiatives of the CHP. She is also in charge of representing the party as PES (Party European Socialist) Presidency Member. She started her career in private sector and then worked for three years in the European Parliament as a political advisor. She was awarded by the Turkish Industrialists’ and Business Association for her entrepreneurship project and by the European Commission for her project entitled “Turkey’stransformation and human capital in the EU accession process”. Kader Sevinç served as vice-president of TOSED (Turkish Business Association-Brussels), member of the EU advisory board of Kagider (Women Entrepreneurs Association). Ms Sevinç is currently a European board member of TEMA, member of Ka-Der (Association to Support the Women in Politics) and EU adviser for Forum Istanbul. Kader Sevinç is a frequent speaker in international policy circles with experience at the European Commission, European Parliament, Forum İstanbul, College of Europe and various think-tanks. Kader Sevinç is a honors graduate from the Akdeniz University and Jean Monnet European Integration Program, she pursued “business communication” training at the Harvard University USA. Ms Sevinç obtained her MA on International Relations from CERIS-Brussels/Univ. Paris XI with “grand distinction” (Thesis: Theories of International Negotiation, European Union’s Enlargement and the Turkish Case”). She is the co-author of a political poetry book “The European Constitution in Verse” (2009, Brussels).

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