Tag Archives: opinion

Öfkeli demeçler birbirini izliyor. Sokak ortasında vurulan astsubaylar, evlerinde katledilen polislerin yanında, güvenlik önlemlerinin yeniden devreye girmesiyle bölgede başlayan hareketlilik, bombalama ve askeri operasyonlar Türkiye açısından tehlikeli bir dönemi işaret ediyor. Duyduğumuz savaş tamtamlarının sesi. Karşımızdaki sorular basit, “çözüm süreci neden bitti” ve “ne olacak?” İki sorunun cevabı da bariz bir şekilde ortada duruyor. Çözüm süreci neden bitti? Erdoğan’ın çıkarları ...

The dramatic arrival of Da’ish (ISIS) on the stage of Iraq has shocked many in the West. Many have been perplexed — and horrified — by its violence and its evident magnetism for Sunni youth. But more than this, they find Saudi Arabia’s ambivalence in the face of this manifestation both troubling and inexplicable, wondering, “Don’t the Saudis understand that ...

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s May 2013 plan to raze Gezi Park in Central Istanbul and replace it with a replica Nineteenth Century Ottoman barrack prompted anti-government protests in Istanbul and other cities across Turkey, which led to violent confrontations in which the police used disproportionate force. Thousands of demonstrators were injured, and thousands more faced legal proceedings and ...

President Erdogan’s party has already diminished women’s rights—imagine what could happen if his power expands As Turks head to the polls on June 7 for national elections, it’s likely the conservative ruling party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), will win. What’s at stake is whether voters will give the party the close to 400 seats it desires to greatly ...

On June 7th 2015, Turkey will hold a general election. Recep Tayyip Erdogan as president is meant to be above party politics, but his desperation for his ‘ex’-party the AKP to retain power yet again is palpable, especially with some polls putting their support in this election as low as 40%. With the economy uncertain, corruption scandals, freedom of the ...

On April 8, the chief Istanbul prosecutor charged two columnists for the Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet with “inciting public hatred” for republishing the cover of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which features an image of the Prophet Muhammad. If convicted, the two journalists face up to four and a half years in prison The episode highlights Ankara’s growing sensitivity to ...

For children, the stories of religion can be fascinating things, depending on the credulity of the child in question. Jesus’ sermon on the mount, the good Samaritan, Mohammed’s famed seventy two virgins in heaven – they’re all great, compelling stuff, as all great literature should be. I don’t want to come over all Richard Dawkins in his dismissive ‘why don’t ...

Elif Shafak Before a recent interview in Istanbul, I was talking to the journalist about Turkish politics. After about 15 minutes, she looked down and lowered her voice, as though confiding a secret: “It is so tiring to be Turkish sometimes.” That mental exhaustion is caused for the most part by politics. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his leading cadres ...

Sean Bw Parker As a sometime English teacher, mostly via the Kubrickian futureworld that is Skype these days, much of my trade is now done internationally. Whilst following up an idea born during the Gezi Protests in summer 2013 in Istanbul, during which I felt like Adolf & Eva’s illegitimate son, hiding out at friend’s apartments lest the new ‘Islamo-Robocops‘ ...

Sean Bw Parker Daily our algorithm-frazzled synapses are bombarded with self-help memes, cat videos and outraged politically correct protest (anti-) propaganda, all surely designed to infotain our Kardashian-raped, Cowell-infested sensibilities. Whilst bemoaning the fact that anything consumptively enjoyable will either bankrupt or kill you, we are also unremittingly told that either Iceland or Denmark for the 16th year in a ...