Month: August 2010

  • Germany’s Political Trap

    Germany’s Political Trap

    Aygül Özkan
    by Mike Giglio, Germany
    Cabinet appointments in lower saxony normally don’t receive much attention. But political success is rare for minorities in Germany, and in April, Aygül Özkan—a little-known politician of Turkish descent—was heralded as a trailblazer for becoming the state’s social-affairs minister. Her quick fall from grace shows how calcified Germany’s system remains against candidates of immigrant descent. The tide began turning against Özkan when she told a German magazine that crucifixes (and other religious symbols, such as headscarves) don’t belong in state-run schools, an opinion shared by Germany’s highest court. The statement led to a media firestorm; members of Özkan’s party—Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union—rushed to denounce the remarks. Then, in July, she caused another PR fiasco by asking journalists to sign a contract promising supportive coverage of her department’s affairs. Her appointment has since been roundly declared a flop.

    The young politician has found herself ensnared in a trap that plagues many minority candidates, says Turkish-German author Mely Kiyak. In addition to letting race and religion (Özkan is Muslim) define her term, Özkan has come across as a neophyte unworthy of her promotion. “There is a cliché, and she made the cliché,” Kiyak says. But Kiyak also criticizes the CDU for hanging Özkan out to dry. Özkan’s appointment was expected to help the party reach out to Germany’s growing segment of ethnic minorities, now 18 percent of the population. Now it has cautiously pulled away its support. “No one is protecting her,” Kiyak says.

    Like minority politicians elsewhere in the EU, such as France’s Rachida Dati—who weathered her own PR storms after receiving a key cabinet post—ethnic Turkish politicians in Germany are often isolated from the pack. During elections, for example, they tend to land in so-called alibi spots—on the party lists somewhere, but out of reach of a seat. Only 21 of the 612 members of the Bundestag have an immigrant background. Two years ago, when veteran pol Cem Özdemir rose to become co-chair of the German Green Party, its leadership denied him an expected Bundestag seat. Özdemir has since kept a low profile. He also keeps his Turkish heritage in the background, addressing hot-button immigration issues such as education in terms of class instead of race—a path ethnic Turkish politicians are too often forced to take.

    https://www.newsweek.com/isolation-germanys-immigrant-pols-71263, August 30, 2010

  • US congressmen: Turkey’s new stance on Israel welcome

    US congressmen: Turkey’s new stance on Israel welcome

    By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER
    08/31/2010 02:29

    Jewish leaders say words need to be backed up with action, more changes needed.

    WASHINGTON – Following the visit of a Turkish delegation to Washington, members of the US Congress and Jewish community are noting a change in Turkey’s rhetoric, but stress that words have to be backed up with actions.

    After Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu held meetings with key officials at the White House, State Department and Treasury as well as with representatives of US Jewish organizations last week, Turkish officials were quoted in the Turkish press making positive statements about Israel and the relationship between the two countries.

     

    RELATED:
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    In their meetings, diplomatic sources described sharp differences in Ankara and Jerusalem over Israel’s deadly raid on a Turkish-supported flotilla trying to break the Gaza blockade as an incident between “two friends,” according to the Anatolia news agency.

    A similar message was conveyed at Tuesday’s meeting with Jewish leaders, according to the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review, which reported that Turkey conveyed the message that Israel was “a friend” and that the visit ended with “smiles and good wishes.”

    Until now, positive gestures between Turkey and Israel have been few and far between since the raid, which left nine Turkish activists dead. Amid harsh criticism, calls for an apology and a UN investigation, Ankara recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.

    The reverberations of the dispute, which followed other heated exchanges over Gaza and other regional policies between the two onceclose allies, have been felt in Washington. The Obama administration has called for a calming of tensions, while members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have slammed the Turkish government. The confirmation of the next US ambassador to Turkey is being held up in the Senate, while members of the House of Representatives have threatened to block arms sales to Ankara.

    “Their stated desire to be friends with Israel has to be backed up with something.

    So far all I’ve seen is an active PR machine,” said one Democratic congressional aide who works on Turkey, speaking on condition of anonymity.

    “Actions are going to speak louder than words.”

    While he was “glad to hear” the statements of friendship with Israel, he added, “It’s actually a sad state of affairs that they have to say it. It’s not something they ever had to say before.”

    Jewish officials who met with Sinirlioglu also said they are looking for actions to make the shift in rhetoric meaningful.

    “I would like to see demonstrations that they take the relationship with Israel seriously, [such as by] sending their ambassador back to Israel, beyond the more positive words expressed to Jewish organizations,” said one participant, speaking anonymously about the off-the-record meeting. “We’ll all be looking for that.”

    Significant differences on policy clearly remain, however, and not just regarding the flotilla incident. Congress is worried about a general shift by Turkey away from the West, epitomized by its relations with Iran. Turkey infuriated the US by voting against a fourth set of UN sanctions on Iran in June despite its continued enrichment of uranium in contravention of international demands.

    Treasury officials visited Ankara earlier this month “to ask Turkey not to trade with Iran” and to coordinate on the sanctions imposed against Iran, according to sources quoted in Hürriyet. But the newspaper reported that Turkey doesn’t believe itself bound by the further, much more comprehensive sanctions, passed by Congress and other countries.

    Still, Washington sources said it was a positive sign that Turkey saw the need to act to improve its image in the US.

    One Jewish official said he was glad to see that the officials reached out to the community last week and recognized the importance of indicating they were listening to American Jewry’s perspective.

    “They’re concerned that they’ve crossed a certain line and need to find a way to walk back,” he said. “We certainly have their attention.”

    https://www.jpost.com/Israel/US-congressmen-Turkeys-new-stance-on-Israel-welcome

  • Love Stories of Ararat Mountain and People

    Love Stories of Ararat Mountain and People

    On Friday morning, with my friend İsmail, we want to see some places especially Republic Square. First, we go to places near the square. We go to the building of another friend who is journalist, but learn that he is on holiday and trying to find another address in Moskovyan Street. In this street which is on the west of Opera Square, we will meet Shushan, our friend from Sobesednik Newspaper. After a long searching process, we find the address but learn that the building is closed. In Armenia, media companies gives up most of their work when summer season comes. Sitting in the park opposite the building I text a message to Shushan and get the answer immediately. We will meet in Abovyan Street at 21:00…

    Until that time, we want to see the amazing place Cascade, so deflect our way into Opera Square. When we go in front of Cascade, we see a giant structure like a pyramid from which you can see the whole Yerevan. In the entrance, there are a couple of sculptures placed on both sides. We visit the exhibition under the monument in which there are postmodern art works. A girl comes close to us and gives some information about the work we are looking at the moment. After that, opening a personal conversation, she asks us where we are from. When she learns that we are Turks, she smiles and says Turks are the people who are coming there least. The Lebanese Armenian girl with green eyes, is trying to share some things from the Armenian culture. She presents us some interesting anecdotes in the section in which there are lots of art works about the respected fruit, pomegranate. We become aware of the belief that a bride throws a pomegranate to the floor and she will have children in the number of pomegranate seeds, is also existent in Armenian culture. In the section where there are descriptions of Noah’s Arc and Agri – Ararat Mountain, it is mentioned that the mountain is the subject of a controversy. But the situation is the same for both sides: The mountain belongs to the all people who are sharing common lands.

    After leaving the museum, we start to go up to the peak of Cascade. The place where lovers meet, others make marriage proposal or some others make peace with each other, reminds people The Love Fountain in Rome. Cascade, which homes four or five gardens with pools, of course is the main center of attraction for lovers.

    On top of Cascade we sit to relieve our tiredness and want to see Agri – Ararat Mountain which shows coyness and be invisible. Yerevan is in love with Agri – Ararat. This is indispensible and has a great importance for Yerevan. But unluckily, Yerevan cannot see Agri – Ararat because of the blurred atmosphere during summer time and the clouds during the winter season. We think this is the bad luck of Yerevan and start to watch the view of the whole city from that point.

    The city, in general, shows a view in which the big cranes goes up to the sky, construction gains speed and new social and political ideas are reflected on the buildings.  In the life under Cascade, there is a struggle of people to keep up with the speed of life, but in the further scene there is Revan with its silence reflecting  history, just like a coy lover trying to say something.

    It is time for us to leave the peak and go down. The luxurious, showy buildings below inform us the quietude to have before being retired.

    While going to Abovyan, we see one more time how kind are the people. Whoever we ask the address, he tries to tell the address even if he does not know foreign language or even he brings us to address himself.

    While looking at the interesting works in front of the Moscafe and Moscow Cinema, we see in the further away the hotel where the Turks, who tell their observations in Yerevan to Turkish media, prefer to stay. The fact is undeniable: The people coming from Turkey stay either in Mariott or Golden Tulip and try to observe people from there !

    We think about eating pizza until we meet Shushan. When we go to pizza house and see Turkish dishes in menu, we are not surprised. On the walls, there are photos of Armenian cinema artists. The moment our orders come, Shushan and Mihran enter the pizza shop. After shaking hands as if we have known each other for a long time, we invite our friends to the table. I am trying to both eat the pizza and talk. But I do not like the taste of the pizza and start to drink my tomato juice. Our friends ask for permission for a better place and we accept it.

    We enter a book café. Ismail is sitting next to Shushan. But her boyfriend Mihran makes a request to sit near Şuşan. The conception of being with the person you love is also existent here.

    Shushan is a journalist. Mihran works in a private company as a computer engineer. During our conversation, Şuşan and Mihran make Turkish sentences and revive the environment. We tell them that the people in Armenia resemble the people living in Turkey cities Erzurum, Van, Malatya. Azerbaijani language becomes one of the subjects of our conversation. Armenia, having the opportunity to get closely acquainted with both countries, follows the countries’ policies closely. We mentioned many subjects from the similarities between languages to the common shares. During the conversation we talk about neither 1915 nor Karabakh conflict. New generation is more open-minded and supports the dialogue. They think that the problems can be solved with having mutual talk. I ask the current position of opponent communities, especially Tashnaks. Some groups from the opposite party blame the rulership for betraying government and create a common side for this. But the rulership attaches importance to the relations to be developed with Turkey. Political problems obstruct dialogues because there is a bleeding wound, Karabakh conflict.

    With Ismail, we direct our way into Republic Square with the aim of going Erebuni. When we get in machine (dolmush), our impressions and observations make us have new ideas. Dolmushes here have night and day recipe. 100 dram during the day, 200 dram at night… An indispensible method to make profit. Just as I am thinking how this method can be applied in Turkey, my phone rings. First person to call me in Yerevan ! The person calling is Diana to whom I have been introduced by my instructor in Ankara. With her fluent Turkish she says ‘’Welcome to Yerevan Mehmet. Do you need something? The place you stay in is comfortable?’’ When I say that everything is okay, we decide to meet next day in Diamond Café… (to be continued)

    Mehmet Fatih ÖZTARSU / Caspian Weekly

  • German central banker Thilo Sarrazin echoes Nazis with blatant racism

    German central banker Thilo Sarrazin echoes Nazis with blatant racism

    Thilo Sarrazin sits on the board of Germany’s conservative Central Bank and has worked for the IMF, and so when he makes racist remarks about Jews and Muslims, you can be pretty sure he is making them with the blessing of the entire German power elite.

    The big guns of the country’s corporate media, Bild and Spiegel newspapers, have devoted acres of print to Sarrazin’s racist views, and his book on „immigration“ and „integratin“ has just been published by Bertelsmann in a fanfare of publicity.

    Caught red-handed trying to inject their own population with toxic swine flu vaccines as well as  wrecking the economy with an engineered financial crisis and now facing an awakening among the German people thanks to the alternative media, the German branch of Bilderberg elite, including their corporate media arm, are desperate to play the race card to divide and conquer and, above all, divert attention away from themselves.

    Sarrazin’s remarks that all “Jews share a certain gene…which make them different from other people” were made in an interview with Germany’s “Welt am Sonntag” this Sunday.

    In the politically correct atmosphere of Germany, the blatant racism of Sarrazin is theclearest sign yet that the German elite are modelling themselves on the Nazis.

    The Nazis also considered Jews to be genetically different – and crucially racially inferior. This alleged racial inferiority was supposed to be the justification for butchering millions of Jews in concentration camps in world war two.

    By positing the existence of a Jewish gene, Sarrazin is only one step away from criminalising it and then punishing it just as the Nazi did.

    Sarrazin regularly launches racist tirades against Muslims and scathing attacks on the millions of Germans impoverished by the bankers scams who are forced to draw the meagre Hartz IV benefits while the bankers get billions if not trillions of tax payer money thrown at them under the pretext of one bailout or another by their friends in government.

    Sarrazins’s views are a chilling echo of the statements of NSDAP Interior Minister Wilhelm Frick, who complained in 1933 about the low birth rate among Germans and the growing proportion of „inferior people“.

    Predictably, Sarrazin’s remarks have met with only luke warm condemnation for the public from Germany’s Bilderberg political elite.

    Helmut Schmidt, the former Social Demcorat Chancellor, said that he would have agreed with much of what Sarrazin said if he had expressed himself more carefully. CDU Chancellor and Bilderberg member Angela Merkel made a half-hearted attempt to appear outraged on television on Sunday.

    But there can be no doubt that Sarrazin is just a puppet of the elite and from his remarks, it is clear the Jews and the Muslims look set to be made the scapegoats again for Germany’s very real decline, which has been caused by the Bilderberg elite and the bankers like Sarrazin.

    It is this global elite that has introduced policies that have led to the decimation of the middle class in Germany, the erosion of the education system and the collapse of social security, the impoverishment of large sections of the population through the euro and financial crisis scam as well as the introducion of a police surveillance state just as has happened in the USA.

    The global “elite’s” agenda for a one world government and police state has been documented by websites such as Infowars.

    To achieve their goal of igniting world war three with Iran in 2011, the German power eilite clearly believe they have to whip up hatred against the Muslims and Jews living inside the country as a first step.

    Cue Sarrazin: the central banker, former finance senator of deeply-indebted Berlin and a top manager of German state railways is wheeled onto the corporate media stage to portray the Muslims and Jews as the „enemy within“. He implies they are racially despoiling the German people with their low „IQs“ and foreign „genes“.

    A false flag (bio?) terrorism incident is all that is needed to provide the pretext for a big internal crackdown as well as for world war three. We can all read the script.

    In the meantime, hardly a day goes by without Bild newspaper showing the Defence Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg – the George Bush of Germany from the pampered Bilderberg elite circle – parading around as a psdeuo patriot, visiting German troops in Afghanistan while placing yet more orders for weapons, which will generate yet more profits for his banker and industrialist friends.

    Aside from engaging in photo opportunities for mass media war mongering, Guttenberg is also pushing plans to scrap military conscription, the last block to Germany engaging in another disastrous offensive war. Conscripts, at least, can only serve on German territory.

    At a time when the German people are increasingly waking up to the fact that it is their own corrupted government and corporations that are their biggest problem, the country’s elite cannot, it seems, divert attention away from their activities fast enough.

    An example of the growing grass roots anger among Germans were the demonstractions against the Stuttgart 21 project: more than four billion euro is to be devoted to plans to build a supermodern, underground station which will benefit only a tiny corporate elite will use the expensive trains.

    Germans from all age groups marched together in Stuttgart to demand an end to the waste of their tax money money on the pet projects of the elite when budgets for schools, hospitals are being slashed and not even the climate conditioners of the trains work.

    State railways manager elite have — with typical disdain for the ordinary people who have to fund their many lavish projects — vowed to press on with their pet hi-tech railway project in Stuttgart and called in the police to guard the station while slashing social budgets to the bone.

    It is not just in Germany but also in Austria that political parties are whipping up racism: the far right Freedom Party is also scape goating Muslims while the OVP Interior Minister Maria Fekter has made insulting remarks about the Roma.

    In France, President Nioclas Sarkozy has ordered police to raid Roma camps and deport Gypsies, sparking protests The Roma were another target of Nazi racism during the second world war.

    The Germans and Austrians have seen this all before, and awakened by the independent media, they will reject the barbaric brew racism and wars being concocted by the Bilderberg elite this time round, and bring this group to court to account for their many financial and other crimes.

    Source:

  • LGBT Activists in Turkey Launch Ground-Breaking Publication

    LGBT Activists in Turkey Launch Ground-Breaking Publication

    Hevjin, a magazine founded by Kurdish LGBT activists, hopes to attract about 2,000 readers and eventually bring about the kind of change that will allow lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual Kurds to march openly through the streets of Diyarbakir in eastern Turkey. (Photos: Alexander Christie-Miller and Hevjin)

    by Alexander Christie-Miller

    Speaking in his apartment in a suburb of Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey, Solin and his colleague Koya are so scared of being identified that they will not allow even an obscured photograph of themselves to be published. Nor do they want their real names to be known. “People here see homosexuality as a poison – a disease,” says Solin, the ash of his cigarette making a quick, quiet hiss as he taps it into a jar of water.

    For all their fear, however, the pair embarked on a radical experiment, launching the first-ever magazine for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) Kurds this July. Called ‘Hevjin’, meaning ‘intercommunity’ in Kurdish, the first issue of the free publication is available online and in a few bookshops and cafés in Diyarbakir, a city with a large Kurdish population.

    It took three years of patient work before Koya and Solin, both gay Kurds themselves, were ready to bring out the first issue. “There are 15 million Kurds in Turkey, and one in 10 people is gay, but where are the Kurdish gay people?” asked Solin. “That is the question that led to this. We wanted to find out how people express their sexuality in this culture.”

    In the Kurdish east and the mass of rural Anatolia, Islamic values and extended family networks make it impossible to live an openly gay lifestyle. “No one is openly homosexual,” says Koya. “There are a few, maybe a couple in our group, who are accepted within their families on the condition of not being open in the community.”

    Gays have good reason to be scared here. In July 2008, a 26-year-old Kurdish man, Ahmet Yildiz, became the victim of what many believe to be Turkey’s first gay honor killing to be publicly exposed. Yildiz, who was openly homosexual and had even represented Turkey at an international gay gathering in San Francisco the previous year, had left his conservative Kurdish family in the southeast in order to live more openly in the West. He was shot dead as he left a café in the Uskudar district of Istanbul. His own father Yahya, who disappeared after his death and has still not been found, is currently being tried in absentia for his murder.

    Going to great lengths to hide his sexual orientation, Solin said he got engaged to a lesbian woman from abroad in order to allay the suspicions of his own family. “You are always anxious, and I wish my family did not live in this area because I could be more open,” he said.

    Three years ago, Solin, Koya and others began to organize secret meetings in each other’s homes to lay the foundations of a Kurdish LGBT activist movement. “There was no individual or political awareness of this issue at all. There was no healthy understanding of what it is to be homosexual,” says Koya. A large percentage of the people they gathered were sex workers.

    Even in more liberal areas of western of Turkey, acceptance of homosexuality is growing fitfully. Though homosexuality has never been technically illegal in Turkey, vaguely worded ‘public morality’ laws have often provided a legal means for banning LGBT marches. In March this year, the Families and Children Minister for Turkey’s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party government, Selma Aliye Kavaf, angered gay rights groups when she described homosexuality as a “curable disease.”

    Recent polling data indicates that a majority of Turks are approving of restrictions on gay rights. But Nevin Oztop, editor-in-chief of Turkey’s only other LGBT magazine, Kaos GL, asserted that the country is undergoing a rapid transformation. “The western world went through this movement 40 years ago, but we’ve started only in the last 10, even five years,” Oztop said. “In Turkey it’s happening very fast, which is why you have both progress, and violence.”

    The Kaos GL magazine, which started 20 years ago, has for the past five years run a regular section called “My Lovely Family,” in which openly gay Turks interview their own parents. “It’s amazing today to see a macho Turkish father accepting his own gay son, and I think the same thing could eventually happen in Diyarbakir,” said Oztop.

    But when Solin’s and Koya’s group first announced itself on Turkey’s gay activism scene, its Kurdish orientation became a source of difficulty. “Many organizations in the West of Turkey resisted us at first because we identified ourselves as Kurds,” said Koya. “Even within this community we’re a minority.”

    Many Turks holding liberal personal views these days can be staunchly conservative in their approach to politics – something that Oztop contends is a legacy of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state, who blended liberal and secular social ideas with a decidedly authoritarian and nationalist approach to statecraft. “In the gay movement in this country, there are ‘Kemalist’ people who are not tolerant of minority ethnic identities,” said Oztop. “They say the only politics we can do is for the rights of gay people – but they don’t see the country as a whole.”

    “I don’t want to create a hierarchy in discrimination, but I would say that they [the Kurdish LGBT activists] are doubly discriminated against,” Oztop added.

    For their part, Koya and Solin affirmed that they feel locked in a twin struggle, one ethnic, the other sexual. Upsetting gay Turks and straight Kurds won’t stop them, they added.

    They expressed hope that their periodical, Hevjin, would soon surpass 2,000 readers. Over the longer term, they seek to bring about the kind of change that will allow homosexuals to rally openly in Diyarbakir some day in the not too distant future. “In the past it was very popular for Kurds to say that there were no Kurdish homosexuals. We’ve already got to a point where it’s no longer possible for people to say this.”

    Editor’s note:

    Alexander Christie-Miller is a freelance journalist based in Istanbul, where he writes for the Times.

    , 30 August 2010

  • ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY

    ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY

    ARMENIANS COMMEMORATE THE 95TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FORTY DAYS OF
    DEFENSE OF MUSA DAGH AND 70TH ANNIVERSARY OF ANJAR

    Noyan Tapan 25.08.2010 | 18:30

    Anjar – On Saturday 23 August in the afternoon, His Holiness Aram I,
    accompanied by the President of Arzakh (Nagorno Karabagh), and members
    of the clergy, arrived in Anjar. After a warm welcome by the people of
    Anjar and pilgrims arriving from the diaspora, the Catholicos and his
    entourage walked to St. Paul’s Church for the service of the
    canonical hour. At the end of the service, Catholicos Aram I thanked
    everyone for their warm welcome, and said that the presence of the
    President of Arzakh, Pago Sahakian, added to the significance of these
    anniversaries.

    The procession then moved to the monument of the martyrs of Musa Dagh,
    which they inaugurated with wreathes, and marked the event with
    speeches and cultural presentations. His Holiness Aram I closed the
    evening with the following words: `The past should shape our vision
    for future action. Our history has shown that since the foundation of
    our nation by our forefather Haig, we have struggled for our
    independence and for justice for our people. The heroic defense of
    Musa Dagh against the Ottomans demonstrates that in spite of our
    different convictions we can unite and defy our oppressors.’
    Referring to the present, His Holiness continued, `After the
    genocide and deportation, we built `little Armenias’ wherever we
    went. Anjar is a living example of this `little Armenia’. As
    diaspora communities, we express our loyalty to our host countries,
    without giving up our demand for justice, and today, we are assisting
    our young Armenian Republic to grow and thrive. I am certain that we
    shall remain united in our demand for justice in memory of our
    martyrs’. At the end of his speech, Catholicos Aram I decorated
    Dr. Vazken Der Kaloustian with the ensignia of St. Mesrob Mashdotz, in
    recognition of his services to his people of Musa Dagh and the Church,
    following the steps of his late father, Movses Der Kaloustian, one of
    the heroes of Musa Dagh.

    On Sunday, His Holiness Aram I presided over the Eucharistic
    celebration. The two-day celebration came to an end with a Service in
    Memory of the martyrs and an agape meal. Before giving his final
    blessing, Catholicos Aram said, `Anniversaries should be the yeast,
    the leavening agent that shapes our future actions. Our actions should
    safeguard our specificity as Armenians, as they have in Anjar,
    strengthen our common will as a people and deepen our Christian faith
    through the teachings and spirituality of our Church’.

    Armenian Catholicosate Of Cilicia

    The Armenian Catholicosate of Cilicia is one of the two Catholicosates
    of the Armenian Orthodox Church. Its jurisdiction extends over the
    Armenian Communities in the Middle East, Europe and North and South
    America. The Catholicosate, the administrative center of the church is
    located in Antelias, Lebanon.