By ADAM ENTOUS And JOE PARKINSON

ULUDERE, Turkey—After winding along a narrow mountain ridge, a caravan of 38 men and mules paused on the Turkish-Iraqi border. Then they heard the propellers overhead. Minutes later, Turkish military aircraft dropped bombs that killed all but four of the men.

The strike in late December was meant to knock out Kurdish separatist fighters. Instead it killed civilians smuggling gasoline, a tragic blunder in Turkey’s nearly three-decade campaign against the guerrillas. The killings ignited protests across the country and prompted wide-ranging official inquiries.

The civilian toll also set off alarms at the Pentagon: It was a U.S. Predator drone that spotted the men and pack animals, officials said, and American officers alerted Turkey.

A Turkish strike to knock out Kurdish separatist fighters instead killed civilians smuggling gasoline. The blunder has been linked to intelligence from U.S. drones in the region and raised questions about their value. WSJ’s Joe Parkinson reports. Photo: WSJ

The U.S. drone flew away after reporting the caravan’s movements, leaving the Turkish military to decide whether to attack, according to an internal assessment by the U.S. Defense Department, described to The Wall Street Journal. “The Turks made the call,” a senior U.S. defense official said. “It wasn’t an American decision.”

The U.S. role, which hasn’t previously been reported, revealed the risks in a new strategy for extending American influence around the globe. It raises an outstanding question for the White House and Congress: How far do we entrust allies with our deadly drone technology?

After a decade of troop-intensive land wars, the Obama administration is promoting advanced drones, elite special forces and intelligence resources as a more nimble, and less expensive, source of military power. The strategy relies heavily on close cooperation with regional allies, in part to reduce the need for American troops on the ground.

In Pakistan and Somalia, where local authorities can’t or won’t act against militants, the U.S. employs armed drones and special-operations teams to track and kill suspected terrorists. In Yemen, the U.S. carries out drone strikes with the government’s approval. In Turkey—a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member that has a modern air force—the U.S. helps provide intelligence for operations but plays no direct role in any strikes.

The downside to such arrangements, say current and former U.S. officials, is that countries can use U.S. intelligence in ways the Pentagon and the Central Intelligence Agency can’t control. Allies have varying standards for deciding who is a justified target. And these partnerships can embroil the U.S. in local disputes with only slender links to the security of Americans.

“What happens if this information gets to the [foreign] government and they do something wrong with it, or it gets into the hands of someone who does something wrong with it?” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who didn’t know specific details of the attack.

At the Pentagon, press secretary George Little said when asked about the strike, “Without commenting on matters of intelligence, the United States strongly values its enduring military relationship with Turkey.”

The conflict between Turkish security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, has taken an estimated 40,000 lives since violence first flared in the 1980s. Ethnic Kurds, about 18% of Turkey’s population, have long sought a degree of political autonomy and the right to public education in their native tongue. Tensions have risen since Turkey last fall intensified its campaign against the PKK, which the U.S. and European Union designate a terrorist group.

U.S. drone flights in support of Turkey date from November 2007, when the Bush administration set up what is called a Combined Intelligence Fusion Cell in Ankara, part of an effort to nurture ties with the government led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. U.S. and Turkish officers sit side by side in the dimly lighted complex monitoring real-time video feeds from Predator drones.

The Obama administration has moved to expand cooperation—by stepping up intelligence sharing and by supporting Turkey’s request to buy armed and unarmed U.S. drones to give the Turks full control.

The issue is sensitive for both sides. Turkey doesn’t want to be seen as reliant on the U.S. And selling drones to Turkey faces opposition from key members of Congress, who worry about spreading the technology, as well as Turkey’s standards for deciding when to launch a strike.

While the White House is moving forward with plans to provide Italy with arms for its drones, proposals to sell or lease drones to Turkey face resistance in Congress, which reviews such sales in advance. Proponents argue they build long-term military relations with close allies, as well as give U.S. companies better access to the fast-growing global market.

The caravan strike is illustrative of the dangers. Servet Encu, 42 years old, said he had made the journey across the mountainous border separating Turkey and Iraq several times a month since he was a teenager, smuggling all kinds of goods.

In his and other impoverished Kurdish villages of southeastern Turkey, smuggling is a trade made profitable by differences between the two countries, including taxes and currency values. Fuel costs twice as much in Turkey as in Iraq, a substantial oil producer, rewarding smugglers who ferry jugs of gasoline through the mountains. The Turkish military usually doesn’t bother villagers crossing the border, as long as they aren’t smuggling weapons or drugs. But PKK militants also cross the border in the region.

The convoy, laden with food and gasoline, was returning to Turkey on Dec. 28. They were less than an hour from home after hiking along barren, icy ridges for more than four hours, Mr. Encu said in an interview.

Mr. Encu called his Kurdish village by cellphone for help picking a route to avoid Turkish soldiers who might confiscate their cargo, he recalled.

Above and out of sight, a U.S. Predator drone loitered. It was on a routine patrol when U.S. personnel monitoring its video feeds spotted the caravan just inside Iraq and moving toward the Turkish border, according to U.S. officials and the Pentagon’s assessment of the fatal strike.

U.S. military officers at the Fusion Cell in Ankara couldn’t tell whether the men, bundled in heavy jackets, were civilians or guerrilla fighters. But their location in an area frequented by guerrilla fighters raised suspicions. The Americans alerted their Turkish counterparts.

U.S. officials said additional surveillance from the Predator might have helped the Turks better identify the convoy. But, they said, Turkish officers instead directed the Americans who were remotely piloting the drone to fly it somewhere else. U.S. officials said compliance with the Turks’ request was standard procedure.

As darkness fell, Mr. Encu said, the men in the caravan heard the dull hum of Herons—the Israeli-made surveillance aircraft used by Turkey and less sophisticated than U.S. drones.

Then Turkish warplanes appeared. “It was like a lightning bolt,” Mr. Encu said. “I saw a bright light and the force of the explosion threw me to the ground…When I turned my head I could see bodies on fire and some were missing their heads.”

The strikes lasted for about 40 minutes, survivors said. Of the 34 men killed, 11 were members of Mr. Encu’s extended family. It was the largest number of Kurdish civilians killed in a single attack in Turkey’s long conflict with the region’s militants.

Rescuers dug for corpses under a collapsed mountain ridge. They wrapped body parts and loaded them on a trailer that was towed to the nearest village, according to accounts of residents and local officials.

The killings sparked clashes between hundreds of stone-throwing protesters and the police in Kurdish parts of Turkey. In the town of Uludere, Mayor Fehmi Yaman charged that the attack marked the latest in a series of government efforts to intimidate the local population, much of which supports Kurdish militancy.

“The military knew these people were civilians. It was a deliberate attack,” he said. “The government has tried all means of suppression, which have failed, and now they tried this.”

The Turkish military initially said it ordered the strike because the convoy moved along a pathway frequently used as a staging point for attacks by the PKK. Turkey’s government and its armed forces both have open investigations into the matter.

Turkey’s military didn’t respond to repeated requests for comment for this article. Turkey’s Prime Ministry, Interior Ministry and Defense Ministry said they would neither comment on the incident nor on questions over the scale of military cooperation between Turkey and the U.S.

The killings threaten to spoil efforts to forge a Turkish-Kurdish consensus for a planned new constitution expected to partly address the issue of rights for the Kurdish minority.

A former senior U.S. military official, involved in sharing intelligence with Turkey before the December attack, said he and fellow officers were sometimes troubled by Turkish standards for selecting targets. The former official said Turkish officers sometimes picked targets based on a notion of “guilt by association” with the PKK.

A current U.S. intelligence official defended the partnership. “That is going to be the exception. It is a horrible exception. It’s a tragic exception,” he said of the caravan strike. “But the vast majority of efforts to expand our information sharing and to work with our partners and allies around the world are going to have positive outcomes.”

U.S. personnel work in the Ankara Fusion Cell, in part, to monitor Turkey’s use of U.S. intelligence, U.S. officials said.

Turkish officials have assured the U.S. of their measures to avoid civilian casualties. They say privately that Predator drones help reduce attacks on the PKK using less precise weapons, such as artillery.

But U.S. officials say such mistakes are feeding a debate within the intelligence community and the Defense Department about setting better guidelines for sharing of U.S. intelligence.

Intelligence officials are divided on the issue. Some say the U.S. should withhold intelligence if it believes an ally might abuse the information. Others warn new rules could slow intelligence sharing during emergencies.

In Uludere, December’s events continue to reverberate. Local men have reduced cross-border smuggling trips, slowing the local economy.

Monuments to the dead have sprung up in villages. In Gulyazi, home to 13 of those killed, a 30-foot-high tent shelters a memorial where residents left handwritten messages next to portraits of the dead.

On the outskirts of one village, widows and bereaved mothers gather regularly. One day last month, scores of women marched along a dirt track to a makeshift cemetery where many of the dead were buried.

Fatma Encu, a cousin of Servet Encu, clutched a framed portrait of her eldest son, Huseyin, who was killed at age 19. “I don’t want compensation,” she said. “I just want the murderers to be found and punished.”

Chief of the Turkish general staff, Necdet Ozel, said the military was sharing information with prosecutors, according to a Turkish news agency. “We are not hiding anything,” he said.

—Ayla Albayrak and Siobhan Gorman contributed to this article.

Write to Adam Entous at adam.entous@wsj.com and Joe Parkinson at joe.parkinson@dowjones.com

A version of this article appeared May 16, 2012, on page A1 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Turkey’s Attack on Civilians Tied to U.S. Military Drone.

Turkish authorities say the marble dates from ancient times, making it a historical artifact, The Local reported. It was about 10 centimeters or less than 4 inches in length.

The man’s wife told Expressen, a Swedish national newspaper, she and her husband were never told that pieces of stone were relics.

“This is ludicrous. We had no idea that you couldn’t take stones home as souvenirs,” she said. “We don’t know now what will happen, or how long we’ll have to wait for a decision, but this is a mistake.”

The man, who currently is based at the Foreign Ministry in Stockholm, has not yet been formally charged. He remains in custody in Turkey.

via Swedish diplomat faces charges in Turkey – UPI.com.

Illegal Muslim Immigrants Invading Greece from… von V1683

Then they use their inaction over these illegal immigrants as an extortion tool to get the EU to grant visa-free travel to Turks! And Europe’s leaders are so weak they give in to this!

There is a clear solution to this problem. Whenever the system picks up an illegal immigrant who has made his way into Europe from Turkey, an invoice should be created for the costs of housing and processing him. Interest should be added and the invoice should be continually updated as new costs arise. Until Turkey takes the immigrant back, the costs continue mounting. If the Turkish government refuses to pay, the EU should impose import duties on all imports from Turkey and recover the money in that way. Within a few years of introducing a system like this, I estimate that the problem of illegal immigration from Turkey (80% of all illegal immigration into the EU) would largely have been solved. The problem only exists because the Turkish government tacitly condones it. But Europe’s leaders are paralysed by their own psychological weakness.

via Islam versus Europe: Hordes of Muslim Illegals Invading Greece from Turkey.

Photograph by Balint Porneczi/Bloomberg

That may seem eccentric in light of everything Hollande already faces, what with the euro area’s economic meltdown. But it isn’t. The European project as a whole is faltering under the political strain of the crisis. EU leaders need to show direction and create momentum for the bloc, in areas where they can reaffirm its purpose and values, even as the economy sputters.

Turkey’s a good place to start. Unblocking its membership process would end the widespread impression that the EU discriminates against Muslims, at a time when xenophobia, anti- immigrant feelings and isolationism are rising within the mainly Christian nations of Europe. Allowing talks to continue is a very different issue from Turkey, population 73 million, actually joining the EU. That remains a distant prospect.

In 2004, the EU agreed to give Turkey the chance to join the bloc, if it could show it had adopted the required 100,000- plus pages of EU legislation and other conditions of membership. Since then, 19 of the 35 negotiating chapters that are involved in this process have been blocked. Turkey is the only country in the EU’s history to have its membership bid frozen in this way.

Unilateral Stop

There are several causes for this, including a dispute over Cyprus, an EU member that Turkey doesn’t recognize. In 2007, French President Nicolas Sarkozy unilaterally blocked five chapters that relate to Turkey’s ultimate membership, and so long as that decision remains, Turkey has little cause to compromise on Cyprus. Sarkozy made his reasoning clear: namely, that Turkey wasn’t part of Europe geographically and doesn’t belong in it.

Removing the French veto would inject new life not only into the European project, but also into its economic fortunes. Turkey grew by 8.5 percent last year, and has a population with a median age of about 28, compared with 45 in Germany. Slow growing and demographically challenged as it is, the EU needs the fresh blood and energy that Turkey has to offer. The two economies are already closely tied. They have a customs union and trade heavily. More than $11 billion of the $16 billion of foreign direct investment made in Turkey last year came from the EU.

It could have been more. From nuclear plants to infrastructure, French companies have been told they needn’t bid for some government contracts in Turkey, so long as Sarkozy and his policy are in place. So French jobs are at stake, too.

Another reason that the EU shouldn’t slam shut its door to the east is geopolitical. Turkey today is very different from 20, or even two, years ago. It has the kind of reach and soft power in the Middle East that the ex-colonial powers of Europe, including France, now lack. It has more troops than France and the U.K. combined. And it has learned, after a few years of hubris, that its anchorage in Western alliances is critical to its influence and security elsewhere.

This is why Turkey last year agreed to host the radar shield for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s planned missile defense system, despite incurring the anger of Iran. It’s also why at NATO’s summit in Chicago this weekend, Turkey plans to push the membership bids of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro in the Balkans, and to go on supporting that of Georgia, in the Caucasus. Hollande will attend the summit as part of a baptism by fire, after visiting Germany.

Lure of Membership

Finally, Turkey itself needs the EU membership process. It’s highly uncertain that Turks would vote to join Europe if they were eventually to fulfill all the conditions. But the past few years have shown that without the active pull of the EU negotiations, Turkey’s development as a free democracy has stalled or even reversed in some areas, including free speech and the rule of law. A stable, democratic Turkey is very much in the interests of the EU.

Turkey would be an awkward EU member. It is a former empire, has feet planted in the Middle East as well as Europe, remains one of the worst performers at the European Court of Human Rights, and historically was seen in the Christian capitals of Europe as the enemy. Yet the EU was created after World War II to resolve this kind of enmity, a purpose increasingly overshadowed by the effort to create and sustain the euro. Besides, which of the EU’s larger nations are not awkward, not to mention Turkey’s neighbor and rival Greece?

Hollande’s victory was celebrated as much in Turkey as anywhere in Europe. Sarkozy’s policy panders to segments of French popular opinion, but it reversed one set by President Jacques Chirac, and it can be reversed again. As soon as Hollande has next month’s French parliamentary elections in his rearview mirror, he should do so. Then it will be up to Turkey – - not France — to decide just how badly it wants to make the kinds of transformations and sacrifices that are needed to join the EU.

via End France’s Block on Turkey’s EU Bid, President Hollande – Bloomberg.

Democracy is the most ideal form of government in the contemporary world. In the post-Cold War era, with the triumph of liberal democracy against Soviet Communism, the importance of democratic norms and principles were emphasized. In fact, the emphasis put upon the virtues of democracy was a product of the Second World War, with the United States’ victory as proof for the necessity of democracy in the new world order.

“…[the] Turkish Army is determined to defend the unitary secular state founded by Ataturk… [and the] Protection of fundamental characteristics of the republic cannot be considered as an intervention in domestic politics.” Isık Kosaner, ex-Chief of the General Staff[1]

Turkey first experienced democracy in the 1800s. Despite the fact that the official history in Turkey states that the parliament was founded in 1920 in Ankara, the truth is a bit different. As a columnist writes:

“Turkey’s [Ottoman Empire’s] first parliament, that is the Meclis-i Mebusan, was founded on March 31, 1877, and it had 115 members. And the parliament founded in 1920 in Ankara was not a new parliament, but a successor to the former one. Almost half of the members of the Meclis-i Mebusan were in the parliament founded in 1920, for example.” [2]

In the world we live in, with the impact of globalisation and the increasing awareness among the people about the developments taking place all over the world, democracy today is not an alien concept. Almost every single person knows that democracy in its simplest terms consists of ‘free and fair elections’. However, this is just a minimal definition of democracy.

Robert Dahl (1982) has offered the most generally accepted listing of what he terms the “procedural minimal” conditions that must be present for modern  political democracy (or as he puts it, “polyarchy”) to exist:

1) Control over government decisions about policy is constitutionally vested in elected officials.

2) Elected officials are chosen in frequent and fairly conducted elections in which coercion is comparatively uncommon.

3) Practically all adults have the fight to vote in the election of officials.

4) Practically all adults have the fight to run for elective offices in the government . . . .

5) Citizens have a fight to express themselves without the danger of severe punishment on political matters broadly defined . . . .

6) Citizens have a fight to seek out alternative sources of information. Moreover, alternative sources of information exist and are protected by law.

7) . . . Citizens also have the fight to form relatively independent associations or organizations, including independent political parties and interest groups.

On the other hand, democracy in the Turkish case has generally been a contested concept over which the military elites, bureaucratic class and the politicians generally disagree. The foremost characteristic of Turkish Republic since 1923 has been her secular identity and not a democratic political system. In this context, according to the founders of Turkey among whom Mustafa Kemal Ataturk has had an undisputedly decisive and dominant role, the most important priority was to make Turkey a modern state with a precisely secular(ist) character.

It is obvious that the secularist drive was the most characteristic element of the Kemalist reform movement. Ironically, the way these reforms were implemented has impeded another important aim of the Kemalist modernisation process, that is, realising democracy in the practical sense. Becoming a modern state for the Kemalist elites meant having a Western type of political, social and cultural life (for instance listening to Western music, wearing “modern” Western type of clothes).

But how does democracy become “the only game in town”? The functioning of the economic system, state-religion relations, civil-military relations, the minority rights etc., all have a considerable degree of significance in the establishment of democratic consolidation. Some people argue that Turkey has got an illiberal democracy. An illiberal democracy, as described by Fareed Zakaria, is a political system in which free and fair elections exist, but civil liberties are not fully protected and state power is not limited by liberal principles.[3] Illiberal practices are seen most virulently in the religious sphere and persecution of minority rights. However, it must be noted that these illiberal practices are being challenged today thanks to the EU harmonisation laws and the strengthening of civil society in Turkey.

The Turkish Republic inherited from the Ottoman Empire a strong, centralised, and highly bureaucratic state. Indeed, the “output” structures of the state (the civil service, armed forces, police, and courts) have been so highly institutionalised that this overdevelopment of the state machinery, coupled with the predominance of a “strong-state tradition” in Turkish political culture,[4] impede the emergence of a consolidated democracy.[5]

Despite the EU reform process and other legal and institutional regulations, Turkey still has a long way to go for further democracy. Despite the trial of the coup makers, broadcasting in Kurdish language, the strengthening of a free-market economy and the relative softening of the secularist policies, some pathological state codes constitute a major threat for democratic consolidation.

As Şahin Alpay proposes:

“Reasonable people in Turkey (or abroad) have to face the simple and naked truth: Kemalism, that is, Turkish secular nationalism, is not compatible with liberal and pluralistic democracy. All of Turkey’s major political problems today are the consequence of the forced imposition in accordance with the ‘founding philosophy’ of the republic, that is Kemalism, of a uniform identity onto a religiously and ethnically heterogeneous society”[6]

Last but not the least, I think the most influential factor that is used to block Turkish political progress and harm democracy is the nature of the relationship between the state and religion. As İhsan Yılmaz states:In contemporary Turkey, besides the ruling elites (namely the Justice and Development Party- the AKP[7]), the civil society actors and the bureaucracy occupy undisputedly important roles for making democracy stronger. Because a new, civilian constitution can only be drafted in a pluralistic process through which all the different segments of the society, different ideologies and worldviews reach a common reasoning.

“Laicism was the primary and sacred norm of the country, and for its sake everything else, including democracy, could be sacrificed. Hopefully, this perverted conception of modernity and progress is fading away in Turkey. As we are now talking about crimes against democracy, it is only normal that we start with the main perpetrators of these crimes: coup-loving soldiers.” [8]

Hampden Park

Countries have until midnight on Tuesday night to declare an interest in hosting Euro 2020. Photograph: Bongarts/Getty Images

Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland have formally declared an interest in hosting Euro 2020. A source close to Uefa has confirmed that a written expression of interest has been submitted by the countries to host the European Championships on a three-way basis.

So far Turkey are the only other nation to inform Uefa that they want to want host the tournament. The European governing body has a deadline of midnight on Tuesday night for any other declarations of interest.

Bidders would need to put forward up to 10 stadiums to host matches in the European Championships, which is being expanded from 16 teams to 24 from 2016. Scotland and Wales would struggle to provide that number of stadiums to satisfy Uefa requirements but Ireland’s involvement would cover the shortfall.

The formal declaration of interest does not commit the Celtic countries to proceeding with a bid – a decision is not due to be taken by Uefa for 18 months.

The countries have not fared well in the past in bidding for the tournament. Scotland and the Republic of Ireland bid jointly for Euro 2008 but were one of the first to be eliminated, and Scotland and Wales considered bidding jointly for Euro 2016 but decided against it.

Turkey’s bid is in some disarray already because their FA has been engulfed by allegations of corruption and match-fixing in Turkish football, and it also conflicts with Istanbul’s bid to land the Olympics in the same year. The Uefa president, Michel Platini, had signalled he would support Turkey bid but only if Istanbul fails to secure the Olympics.

The Scottish Football Association chief executive, Stewart Regan, said the idea of bidding for Euro 2020 had been discussed but would not confirm or deny whether an expression of interest had been made.

“I’m not able to comment publicly at this stage because it has not gone to our board but there will be an exchange of correspondence before the deadline,” he said. “It’s obviously something that has been discussed.”

Asked if Scotland and Wales would be able to meet the Uefa criteria for stadiums, Regan replied: “There are other ways of skinning a cat and alternative ways of being considered for a major tournament.”

via Scotland, Wales and Republic of Ireland interested in Euro 2020 bid | Football | guardian.co.uk.

Turkish authorities announced Tuesday that they have recovered the body of a daring Israeli spy—replete with feathers. And a belly full of bees.

According to reports from Israeli news site YNet, a farmer discovered the dead bird, a Merops Apiaster aka the European Bee-Eater, in a field outside of Gaziantep and turned it over to authorities after he noticed an Israeli serial band on the bird’s leg.

Never mind that band turned out to be a common means of ornithological tracking—the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel has even confirmed the bands serial number as being legitimate. But Turkey has a an even more damning piece of evidence—the size of the Bee-eater’s nostrils! Dun dun dunnnnnnnn.

Turns out, and don’t ask how they verified this, that the European Bee-Eater’s spacious nasal cavity is ample enough to accommodate a perceived suite of microelectronics—spy cameras, tiny mics, tracking bugs, and whatnot—turning these otherwise benign fowl into flying espionage centers. At least that’s what Ankara’s security services, who are now in possession of the 61 gram “spy,” believe. Or, you know, it could just be one of a large population of European Bee-eaters that inhabits the Northern tip of Israel and migrate across Turkey in their annual trek to, you guessed it, Southern Europe. [Ynet via Business Insider - Image: William Kreijkes]

via Turkey Thinks This Bird Is an Israeli Spy Because Its Nostril Is Big Enough to Hold Microchips.

Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey

by MICHAEL DICKINSON

On February 20th 2010 Cihan Kırmızıgül, a junior industrial engineering student of Galatasaray University, was waiting at a bus stop in Istanbul after a visit to a college friend’s home. Suddenly he was approached by Turkish police who arrested him violently, one cracking his skull with a blow from his rifle butt, and took him away to be detained at a prison in the west of Istanbul, charged with “membership of an illegal organization” and “harming private property”. The reason for his surprise arrest was the scarf he was wearing around his neck – the traditional black and white checked Arab headdress known as the ‘keffiyeh’.

The keffiyeh, called a ‘poshu’ or a ‘pushi’ scarf in Turkish is also common among Palestinians and the Kurds in the South of Turkey. It’s a useful garment. It keeps your neck warm in the winter and protects your head from rain and hot sunshine. It’s not such a common sight in cosmopolitan Istanbul however, and unfortunately for Cihan Kırmızıgül, just at that moment police in the area were on the lookout for anybody wearing one. Unbeknownst to Cihan, shortly before he joined the bus queue there had been an attack on an empty supermarket in the district by a group of about 50 people who threw Molotov cocktails at the building before fleeing the scene. The assailants were suspected members of the outlawed PKK (Kurdish Workers’ Party) and all had been wearing keffiyehs.

Simply for sporting the same item of clothing (and also being Kurdish) Cihan was arrested on the suspicion that “he might have been part of the incident” and charged with being a ‘terrorist’. Whilst being held in prison custody a series of 8 court hearings began.

In the second hearing a ‘secret witness’ stated that he had seen Kırmızıgül throwing a Molotov cocktail. Later on, the secret witness changed his statement and said, “Kırmızıgül was not at the scene of the incident, I have never seen him before”. However, the court decided to keep Kırmızıgül in detention.

In the text of a petition calling for Cihan’s release fellow Galatasaray students wrote: “Kırmızıgül’s continued arrest has turned into a hefty and unjust punishment because law requires “presumption of innocence” until convincing and lawful evidence is presented in court concerning his alleged crime.”

Finally, on the 23rd March 2012, after 25 months detention in prison, where he lost weight and was subjected to physical and psychological violence, and not allowed to continue his studies or take exams, Cihan was finally released pending trial of his case. However, after less than 2 months out of captivity, at the court hearing on May 11th he was found guilty of “committing a crime on behalf of an organization without being a member of that organization”, “throwing Molotov cocktails”, and “damaging property”. He was sentenced to 11 years 3 months of imprisonment in total. The judge decreed that “The piece of cloth called “pushi” (keffiyeh) was strong criminal evidence.”

Suat Eren, Kırmızıgül’s attorney said after the trial: “There are hundreds of files like Cihan’s. For that reason, I believe Cihan’s case must be supported by the public, as such attacks continue unabated against defenseless people by relying on the powers of the state. I define this as terror. This constitutes attacking a defenseless person. People are not taken into custody at a moment’s notice, or live in fear of their houses being raided in a state of law. ”

A spokesperson from Amnesty International said: “Anti- Terror Laws have to be changed and comply with the international standards. It’s very important to implement fair trial standards at all prosecutions in Turkey. We are very concerned as Cihan is back to prison and the hearing is based on the conflicting testimony of witnesses and the keffiyeh (Puşi) he was wearing.”

The case has come under widespread criticism, with protest demonstrations by supporters and sympathisers, and teaching staff from Galatasaray University wearing badges featuring the slogan “Don’t touch my student!” Famous Turkish singer Aysegul Erce has written and performed a song about the case, dedicated to Cihan Kırmızıgül – “For Justice. For Freedom..” Exactly.

Michael Dickinson lives in Istanbul. He can be contacted via his website – http://yabanji.tripod.com/

via Keffiyeh Crime in Turkey » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names.

The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede,” circa 1670, by the Dutch artist Jacob Isaacksz van Ruisdael.

Turkey and the Netherlands are celebrating 400 years of diplomatic relations this year, and for Istanbul, that means compelling additions to the cultural calendar, including a major exhibit of Dutch Masters at the Sakip Sabanci Museum.

“Where Darkness Meets Light — Rembrandt and his Contemporaries: The Golden Age of Dutch Art,” which runs through June 10, takes advantage of the remodeling of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the availability of valuable 17th century portraits, still lifes, and objets d’art to travel as a result. (The Rijksmuseum is set to reopen next spring.)

Because the economy of the Netherlands was booming in the 17th century, thanks to a sailing fleet that could bring gold from the Americas, spices from Asia and carpets from the Ottoman Empire, there was a surge in the number of middle-class Dutch who could afford to buy or commission works of art. As trade boomed, so did painting.

“By choosing a couple of particular individuals from the Golden Era who had a kind of key role within society, we think that we will encourage the public a little bit more to identify with them,’’ said Pieter Roelofs, the Dutch curator, “and understand how the era’s art patrons functioned within Dutch society.’’

Turkish themes surface in many of the works, where tulips are given pride of place, and colorful carpets are shown decorating homes or artists’ studios. And be sure to look for the ingenious silver windmill cup, circa 1636, designed for drinking games: the brew had to be swallowed before the sails of the windmill stopped turning.

Other activities under the 400th-anniversary umbrella include a special floral design at the annual Istanbul tulip festival, and, throughout the year, special exhibitions at SALT Beyoglu in collaboration with the Van Abbe museum in Eindhoven, curated by Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun, the team that ran the 2005 Istanbul Biennial.

via Dutch Masters Travel to Istanbul – NYTimes.com.

Chapter 9

WHY SOCIALISM WILL FAIL OVER THE LONG TERM

“Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.”                    Winston Churchill

Socialism is a noble cause for those pure in heart.  Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) President of the United States from 1932- 1945 used it to try to pull the United States out of a depression.

His programs had universal appeal and once the economy started to recover he raised taxes to pay for the programs. The recovery would have been working at a slower speed until WWII changed the course of history.

Once a government starts giving entitlements to the public it becomes accustomed to them. The problem is how does one pay for these services?

One can raise taxes on the wealthiest, but they soon start looking to “tax shelters”. Raising taxes of any kind creates other avenues of avoidance.

The underground economy is where one provides a service or product for a credit. Then one uses those credits with another member.  This will ultimately create more government debt as tax receipts fail. These deficits weaken an economy and encourage politicians to accumulate vast sums of “compensation” for running the country.

It also demoralizes the public in their desire to improve ones lot through hard work and effort. It is the individual that provides growth to an economy by wanting to earn more through an extra effort to succeed.

Countries with limited surplus or assets use a peaceful solution by hiring foreigners as cheap labor. Eventually these labor pools increase in size and start demanding more equal pay and benefits. They can appease them for a time, but the cinders will start burning the fires of resentment and hatred.

As time starts to diminish funds, the wealthy are the first to feel the pinch as their taxes are raised. “It is their civic duty and pride” to partake in this noble effort.

After that the sales taxes are imitated or increased. Now everyone feels poorer. The sales tax hurts the poor most. A 6% sales tax on dollar leaves only $.94.  If a dollar is all one has – ouch.  6% of a hundred dollars amounts to $6.00, but one still has $94.00 left.

During this time the country has been borrowing, and at first their costs were low, but as the debt builds up the costs rise and suddenly the borrowing is to mainly pay the interest charges.

The next to get hit is foreign companies who have local plants that will have a tax on them. They will find all kinds of ways. If it is hard assets, then they will find a way to nationalize them.

Then as the situation becomes dire, the governments become bolder and greedy in ways to find moneys. Mind you, in the 13^th century the French monarchs had the habit of inviting domestic creditors to dinner and for desert they were beheaded. This was called “bloodletting”.

A better example of heavy debt load is when the credit-card companies start adding interest penalties to ones debit balance and there comes a point of no return. Socialism will self-destruct if you have assets because the government will want them to pay for various entitlement programs. The “poor” will now be in force to protect their entitlements so they can remain on the gravy train. The wealthy will soon become poor and the nouveau rich will be “our representatives” in Washington and various state capitols across our nation.

When the flow of funds ceases is when the riots would expand from the inner cities out to the suburbs.

If it is not too late, governments can slowly wean thy public off the welfare rolls by delisting people who are not legal citizens of the community and cannot speak the common language of the area. This makes the employers honest and also assures they are not using public funds for their corrupted earnings.