Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Featuring news and articles from
The Cumhuriyet daily's Ankara representative, Mustafa Balbay, who is accused of “inciting the peo-ple to armed revolt against the government” as a mem-ber of Ergenekon, has denied all charges directed against him.
Ergenekon defendant Balbay denies accusations
Kurdish intellectuals and artists forced to leave Turkey in the aftermath of the country's 1980 coup d'état are hopeful that the AK Party government's democratization initiative will pave the way for their return.
Democratic move beacon of hope for exiled writers
The Ar� Foundation, a civil society organization previ-ously known for its liberal stance and contributions to the normalization of civilian-military relations, has organ-ized a conference at the US Congress, criticizing the investigation into Ergenekon.
Ar� sponsors pro-Ergenekon meeting at US Congress
‘CAGE ACTION PLAN’ PUT INTO
OPERATION IN KURTULU�, ADALAR
A devious plan by a group of members of the Naval Forces Command to intimidate the country's non-Muslim population by assassinating some of their prominent figures, and in this way undermine the power of the ruling party, had been put into operation, recent incidents in �stanbul's Kurtulu� neighborhood and Adalar district suggest. The plan was exposed at a police raid on the office of retired Maj. Levent Bekta� as part of a probe launched after the discovery of a large arms cache in the Poyrazköy district in April. By EM�NE DOLMACI CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
ERGENEKON PROBE EXPOSES SURVEILLANCE
OF ARMENIAN COMMUNITY
The investigation into an alleged illegal network known as Ergenekon has revealed that a civilian who was formerly employed by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had collected detailed informa-tion on Turkey's ethnic Armenian population. Ergenekon investiga-tors found that Fatma Cengiz, who is currently a suspect in the case against Ergenekon, collected various dossiers regarding the Armenian community in Turkey. The file included a list of subscribers to the bi-lingual Armenian weekly Agos. By B�RA ERDAL CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
17
tria
l 06
refo
rm
17
conf
eren
ce
An anti-democratic formation within the Naval Forces Command planned to destroy the gov-erning Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) by assassinating prominent non-Muslim figures in Turkey and putting the blame for the killings on the party, Taraf daily reported in its headline story yesterday. The plan was detailed in a CD seized in the office of retired Maj. Levent Bekta�, who was arrested in April for suspected links to a large cache of munitions unearthed during excavations on land owned by the �stek Foundation in �stanbul's Poyrazköy district. That discovery came as part of the investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine gang whose suspected members are currently standing trial on charges of having plotted to overthrow the government. Police raided Bekta�'s office shortly after the discov-ery and seized a large number of documents and CDs. A technical analysis showed that a sinister plan against the country's non-Muslim population was detailed in one of the CDs, called the “Cage Operation Action Plan.” The plan was signed by Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe and was planned to be put into operation by a team of 41 mem-bers of the Naval Forces Command. The hoped-for re-sult from the assassinations of prominent non-Muslim figures and propaganda and would be an increase in in-ternal and external pressure on the AK Party, leading to its demise in politics, according to the plan. The action plan would be implemented to lend support to the suspects arrested so far as part of the Ergenekon investigation; render ineffective so-called psychological warfare waged by the AK Party and its supporters (against the military); change the course of the agenda in Turkey; boost the morale of the junta within the Naval Forces Command; and win the appreciation and support of the public. The blame for each of the assassinations by the junta would be put on the AK Party. CONTINUED ON PAGE 05
A CD seized in the office of retired Maj. Levent Bekta�, an Ergenekon suspect, revealed that a junta nested within the Naval Forces Command detailed a plan, called the Cage Operation Action Plan, to assassinate
prominent non-Muslim figures and put the blame for the killings on the governing AK Party
PH
OT
OT
OD
AY
’S Z
AM
AN
, A
L�
ÜN
AL
06 06 19Alevis say they will apply to the Socialist International for the CHP’s exemption from the organization
Demirta�: If government sends the right message, we guarantee that violence will end within 3 months
Y o u r Wa y o f U n d e r s t a n d � n g T u r k e y
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM TL 1.50
page07 Civil servants to go on strike on Nov. 25
Second closure case rumors lead to massive �MKB drop
The �stanbul Stock Exchange's (�MKB) benchmark index (�MKB-100) has taken a
three-day-long dive due to political developments within Turkey, a 6.4 percent dip that has scared investors into thinking that this might be a sign of a double-dip recession. The index, which hit 51,380.65 in the last week of October, setting a three-month high, had plunged to 46,244.43 at the end of the first session of trading yesterday. According to experts this plunge has its roots in political occurrences within Turkey, especially the recent introduction of the democratic initia-tive in Parliament and the rumored possibility of a second closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Recent warnings from experts that the global recession could be a double-dip recession and a warning from Templeton Emerging Markets Fund President Mark Mobius that the �MKB might fall in the short run due to “necessary corrections” led to the �MKB's decline to a two-month low on Thursday. According to Ersagun �im�ek from Tera Stock Brokers "increasing political risks are adding to the pessimism" in the markets. CONTINUED ON PAGE 07
Hotline highlights anti-Turkish
practices in EU visa issuance
A hotline set up for Turkish citizens to re-port difficulties and perceived injustices
faced in the process of acquiring Schengen vi-sas, needed to travel to European Union mem-ber countries, has within two days of its estab-lishment already provided significant evidence of the arbitrariness of EU visa officials when it comes to issuing the visas to Turks. The hotline, set up on Nov. 17 as a joint ef-fort of the Economic Development Foundation (�KV), the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) and the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), re-ceived 57 complaints in its first two days of going into service. �KV President Haluk Kabalio�lu says the complaints will serve to document difficulties faced by what he referred to as “visa victims.” Complaints shared with the hotline include a call from three academics whose invitation to a conference in Greece was declared “invalid” by the Greek Consulate. When their counter-parts in Greece resent the invitation, the consul-ate issued them visas. But the academics missed the first two days of the three-day conference. “Even the professors in Greece were deeply sur-prised,” the caller said. Another complaint showed that the EU's desire to keep Turkish cit-izens out might easily be exploited as a means to serve the corrupt ways of petty officials and even extortion. In this case, a businessman from �stanbul, G.Y., applied for a Schengen visa to the Belgian Consulate, which redirected him to an intermediary agency. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
E. BARI� ALTINTA�, �STANBUL
ECONOMY
INJUSTICE DARK PLAN AGAINST MINORITIES
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an and Chief of General Staff Gen. �lker Ba�bu� held their weekly meeting at the Prime Ministry yesterday. The meeting lasted for one hour and 35 minutes. SEE STORY ON PAGE 17
Junta planned to d�scred�t AK Party
w�th non-Musl�m assass�nat�ons
Okur-less Utah Jazz subdue Hedo’s Raptors
CMYK
‘F O O D F O R T H O U G H T
We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantánamo will be closed next year.
US President Barack Obama
‘Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
There is nothing I can give to my people, so I should quit. My decision is clear: I will not run in any elections.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
‘W O R D S O F W I S D O M
An animal’s eyes have the power to speak a great language.
Martin Buber
columns
Democratic initiative changing everyoneSABAH MAHMUT ÖVÜR
The “democratic initiative,” much criticized by oppositi-on forces as being “empty on the inside,” has, since it spilled over into Parliament, begun to shake and change many
things in Turkey. Perhaps we are not enti-rely aware of these changes as we are living amidst them, but the fact is that everything and everyone is undergoing change, from our political institutions to our military, and from the justice system to civil society or-ganizations.Turks are learning more about Kurdish matters, of which they did not much know much. As for the Kurds, they are dis-cussing how to create a shared life for them-selves without separating from Turkey.
Turkish-Armenian normalization: Borders, hearts need to open up!M�LL�YET HASAN CEMAL
Of course the creation of new diplomatic relations and the ope-ning of borders between Turkey and Armenia are very important. And we need to recognize and commend the “political determi-
nation” on this front displayed by both Ankara and Yerevan. But still, this is not enough.
As the borders open, hearts, too, must open up. And when this happens, we must move be-yond being beholden to all the genocide deba-tes. There is one more point I would like to add on this particular front: I believe the creation of more “shared platforms” with regard to history would work to speed up normalization in re-lations between both Turkey and Armenia as well as with Turks and Armenians.
The regime had Atatürk lived…BUGÜN NUH GÖNÜLTA�
In the days that ultimately led Turkey to the Feb. 28 [1997] process, Hasan Mezarc� once said, “Turkey is being directed from the grave.” Following this statement, Mezarc� was lynched by the whole Feb. 28 media. But in fact, does the whole ongoing conversation about “Had Ata-türk lived…” not prove Mezarc� right? Whene-ver either the ruling administration or the op-position is in trouble, they turn to words, “Had Atatürk lived…” So what sort of regime, what sort of order are we looking at? We have an “If Atatürk were alive now” regime. When Nec-mettin Erbakan was prime minister, he once asserted that “Atatürk would be a supporter of the National View if he were alive.” The res-ponse to these words was supplied by the Hür-riyet daily: “If Atatürk were alive, would you re-ally have been able to become prime minister?”
Unarmed forces
at work aga�n
On Wednesday lawyers registered at the �stanbul Bar As-sociation held a demonstration in �stanbul’s Taksim Squa-re to protest the alleged wiretapping of the telephones of some members of the judiciary despite statements from Justice Minister Sadullah Ergin dismissing the wiretap-ping allegations. The lawyers taking to the streets remin-ded everyone of similar protests in 1997, which led up to the Feb. 28 post-modern coup, and the fact that their past record of silence in the wake of anti-democratic and ille-gitimate military moves have raised suspicions about their motivation to hold such a demonstration.
Sabah’s Nazl� Il�cak, who is among the witnesses of the Feb. 28 process, says, “We are faced with an attempt at psychological warfare,” again relying on her experience. She says instead of pursuing the case of Col. Dursun Çiçek, who undersigned a military plot to destroy the government and who was released from jail after he was brie� y arrested last week, and instead of making an effort to uncover the junta within the military, they point a � nger at the government as the perpetrator of wiretapping cases. “In brief, the unarmed forces are at work again. Supreme Court of Appeals Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalç�nkaya taking action against the government and some members of the judiciary taking to the streets with the excuse of protesting the ‘illegal wire-tapping cases’ have caused me think this way,” says Il�cak.
Criticizing the bar associations in Turkey, Star’s Ergun Babahan says bar associations and their heads are among the most respected institutions and people in the world, while it is not possible to say the same thing for the bar as-sociations and their heads in Turkey. In his view, the le-gal wiretapping of individuals where there is evidence that they committed certain offenses should please bar associa-tions because such a move will maintain justice.
Talking about the many shortcomings in Turkey’s ju-dicial system and the anti-democratic and illegal steps ta-ken in the country thus far, Star’s Mehmet Altan � nds it strange that the bar associations have not yet taken to the streets to protest these shortcomings, such as the exis-tence of a military council of state in Turkey, which exists nowhere else in the world, a coup-product Constitution, the military violating laws by releasing a memorandum against the government in 2007, etc. “Why did the law-yers march yesterday? To protest the legal wiretapping of some members of the judiciary who have suspected links with the Ergenekon terror organization. This is what I call judicial sensitivity. Well done,” quips Altan.
CROSS READER
FATMA D��L� [email protected]
pr ess rou ndup
PH
OT
OA
A,
HÜ
SE
Y�N
HA
SK
AN
Members of the local Human Rights Council in Silifke, Mersin, yesterday listened to Yörüks (Turkish nomads) who sought their help because they want to leave the mountains before the onset of winter.
star: When his party decided to defend Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen, who drew widespread criticism last week by defending the violent suppression of the Dersim Rebellion in 1937 in the predominantly Alevi city of Tunceli, Kemal K�l�çda-ro�lu, CHP parliamentary group deputy chairman, who earlier called on Öymen to resign, changed his mind, re-ported the daily in its main story yesterday. “I am not dis-turbed about what happened. I am thinking of resigning [in the wake of Öymen’s resistance]. This issue has been closed,” said K�l�çdaro�lu, who is also an Alevi.
radikal: “Shocking request from the FBI,” the daily said in the headline of its main story yesterday, saying head of US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Robert Mueller,
who had talks with several senior Turkish of� cials during a one-day visit to Ankara on Wednesday, requested the bio-metric data of all suspected terrorists using land, air and sea transportation in Turkey. He said by sharing the information of these suspects, the US will easily pursue suspected terro-rists traveling through Turkey. Ankara rejected the FBI’s re-quest, saying it goes against Turkish and international law.
sabah: A front-page story in the daily reported yester-day that the prosecution demanded 24 years for Cem Gari-po�lu, who killed and decapitated his girlfriend, Münevver Karabulut, in March, and a life sentence for his father, Nida Garipo�lu, for helping his son in the murder. Since Cem was a minor when he committed the murder, the prosecution co-uld not demand a life sentence for him, said the daily.
TODAY’S ZAMAN PRESS REVIEWF R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 902
Atatürk Bulvarý No:183 Kavaklýdere 06680 ANKARA
Tel: 0 312 410 55 00
RIXOS GRANDANKARA
ENJO
YTO
DAY’
SZA
MAN
AT
THES
E TO
P HO
TELS
Phone: 0 256 618 15 30Kuþadasý / Aydýn
www.korumar.com.tr
KORUMAR HOTEL DE LUXE
Phone: +90 242 824 97 00Beldibi / Kemer / Antalya
www.rixos.com
RIXOS BELDÝBÝ
Phone: +90 252 337 11 22Bodrum / Muðlawww.rixos.com
RIXOS PREMIUM BODRUM
Phone: +90 242 821 40 32Kemer / Antalyawww.rixos.com
RIXOS TEKÝROVA
Phone: +90 332 221 50 00Ýstanbul Yolu Selçuklu / Konya
www.rixos.com
RIXOS KONYA
Phone: +90 312 295 45 45Balgat / Ankara
www.metropolitanhotel.com.tr
AKTÝF METROPOLÝTANHOTEL ANKARA
Phone: 0 256 622 11 80Kuþadasý / Aydýn
www.ephesia.com
EPHESIA HOLIDAYBEACH CLUB
Phone: +90 242 710 20 00Belek / Serik / Antalya
www.rixos.com
RIXOS PREMIUMBELEK
Phone: +90 312 457 60 00www.sheraton.com/ankara
SHERATON HOTELANKARA
Phone: 0 212 468 50 00Yeþilköy / Ýstanbul
www.wowhotelsistanbul.com
WOW ÝSTANBULHotels&Convention Center
Phone: +90 212 368 12 34istanbul.regency.hyatt.com
HYATT REGENCYÝSTANBUL
Phone: +90 256 618 32 66Kuþadasý / Aydýn
www.charismahotel.com
CHARISMA DE LUXE HOTEL
Phone: +90 212 413 70 00Bakýrköy / Ýstanbulwww.titanic.com.tr
TITANIC PORT HOTEL
Phone: +90 322 455 30 30Seyhan / Adana
www.otelseyhan.com.tr
HOTEL SEYHAN
Phone: +90 312 416 88 00Ankara
www.dedeman.com
DEDEMAN ANKARA
Phone: +90 252 455 35 70Ýçmeler / Marmaris
www.letoilehotel.com
L'ETOILE BEACHHOTEL
242 824 00 00Beldibi / Kemer / Antalya
www.rixos.com
RIXOS SUNGATE
Phone: +90 212 458 28 00Sultanahmet / Ýstanbulwww.minahotel.com.tr
HOTEL MINA
Phone: +90 212 513 12 12Sirkeci / Ýstanbul
www.hotellinoistanbul.com
HOTELLINO
Phone: +90 256 618 11 43Kuþadasý / Aydýn
www.adakule.com
ADAKULE HOTEL
Phone: + 90 252 617 01 22Ölüdeniz / Fethiye
www.grandtaner.com
GRAND TANER HOTEL
Telefon: 0262 325 23 19http://www.otelsekapark.com
ÝZMÝT/KOCAELÝ
SEKA PARK OTEL
Phone: 0212.516.3232Sultanahmet / Ýstanbul
www.hotelsultanhan.com
SULTANHAN HOTEL
Phone: +90 232 722 22 22Çeþme / Ýzmir
www.clubfamilia.com
CLUB FAMILIA
Phone: +90 212 483 30 30 Merter / Ýstanbul
www.guneshotel.com.tr
GÜNEÞ HOTEL
Phone: 90 (226) 465 66 22 ALTINOVA / YALOVA
www.eleganceresort.com.tr
ELEGANCE RESORTHOTEL YALOVA
Phone: 0312 491 30 30Oran - ANKARA
www.hotelmonec.com.tr
HOTEL MONEC
Phone: +90 212 288 95 90Gayrettepe / Ýstanbul
www.residencegayrettepe.com
RESIDANCEGAYRETTEPE
Phone: +90 242 510 02 00Kargýcak / ALANYAwww.goldcity.com.tr
GOLDCITY TOURISMCOMPLEX
Phone: +90 252 617 00 13 Ölüdeniz / Fethiye
www.karbelhotel.com
HOTEL KARBEL
Phone: +90 212 315 44 44www.ramadaplazaistanbul.com
RAMADA PLAZAÝSTANBUL
03TODAY’S ZAMANF R I D A Y, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9NATIONAL
�STANBUL 16°ANKARA 13°�ZM�R 21°ANTALYA 25°ADANA 21°ERZURUM 4°ED�RNE 18°TRABZON 11°KAYSER� 12°
KONYA 13°ÇANAKKALE 18°D�YARBAKIR 14°SAMSUN 12°BURSA 18°GAZ�ANTEP 16°ESK��EH�R 14°MALATYA 11°KOCAEL� 17°
BÜLENTKENE�
Jenk�ns �s r�ght, the emperor
really has no clothesI think being a journalist in a foreign coun-try should be like this. Being a journalist in a foreign country, it seems, gives one the right to strip oneself of all journalistic quali-� cations and act like a lawyer, a prosecutor and even a judge in the face of the largest ever investigation and trial in that country. I’m talking about Gareth Jenkins. You may know him as the British journalist who has long worked in Turkey as a journalist.
Jenkins gave speeches at a meetings orga-nized by the ARI Foundation, a Washington-based extension of the ARI Movement, which was inspired by the ideas of former President Turgut Özal and intended to promote liberal-ism, individual rights, freedoms and a free-market economy. Thus, we can conclude that the ARI Movement and its supporters have now concluded that free enterprise, the rule of law, rights and freedoms and democracy can be realized in this country only through the agency of the Ergenekon terrorist organization. This is the logical conclusion one can arrive at seeing how they organized a meeting to spread disinformation. Had it not been so, they would not have exerted any effort to promote the ravings of Jenkins, who had written a report decorated with baseless claims with a view to discredit, dilute and distort the truth about Tur-key’s most important legal investigation, ap-parently acting in line with the instructions he gets from those shadowy structures. Also, they would never afford to sully their reputation, which they built with great labor. In any case, we’re not interested in the ARI Movement, but in Jenkins’ fantasy world and illusions.
Sharing his fantasies during a meetings, titled “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Er-genekon Investigation” and held in connection with the Ergenekon investigation at the Ray-burn House Of� ce Building and the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI), Jenkins said: “The emperor has no clothes; the investigation has no clothes. There is no organization called Ergenekon. The US should ask Recep Tayyip Erdo�an, ‘What do you think you are doing behind closed doors?’”
In connection with the investigation into the Ergenekon terrorist organization, whose involvement in an attack on the Council of State and a bombing of the Cumhuriyet newspaper has been proven and which we are almost sure masterminded the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and the massacre of missionaries in Malatya, Jen-kins continued to repeat his famous arguments of pro-Ergenekon circles, as if no assassination or conspiracy plots had surfaced and as if hun-dreds of weapons and bombs to be used to cre-ate chaos in the country had not been seized. Claiming that the people who were detained under the Ergenekon investigation had no common characteristic other than being op-ponents of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Jenkins maintained that these people were well known to the general public and had important positions, thereby making them unlikely members of such an organiza-tion. Despite the fact that the investigation and the trial are still under way, he did not hesitate to issue a judgment as if he were a judge: “Fif-teen to 20 of the defendants may be guilty. Fifty to 60 are ultra-nationalist hard-liners, but they have committed no crime. The rest are com-pletely innocent.” Responding to a question, Jenkins was smart enough to note that his life is now under threat due to the report he wrote.
There is no sign that Jenkins and his like are in danger, but there are a great many peo-ple who have lived under immense threat in this country. In other words, the emperor re-ally has no clothes, but not in the sense Jenkins means. Although he did say “I have lived there for 20 years, and this is the most frightening period I have ever seen,” I think he, too, will concede that we are currently living in a time where unsolved, mysterious political assassi-
nations and cases of social con� ict are at their lowest level, and that “the most frightening period” was the time when such murders and assassinations were at their peak.
Now, let us look at what happened in Turkey as Jenkins was talking nonsense in Washington, and let us read from yesterday’s headline story of the Taraf newspaper, which Jenkins frequently criticized in his speeches. “Prosecutors pursued the Ergenekon’s arsenal uncovered in Poyrazköy and discovered that the junta within the Naval Forces Command prepared the Cage Action Plan in March 2009 in order to � nish off the AK Party by using non-Muslims. The plan penned by the Spe-cial Operation Forces Command, consisting of a 41-member cell within the Naval Forces Command, was undersigned by Lt. Col. Er-can Kireçtepe, who is under arrest as part of the Ergenekon investigation. According to the � ve-stage plan, assassinations will be con-ducted against non-Muslim minorities living in Turkey and bombs will be detonated in neigh-borhoods where they live in order to increase internal and external pressure on the AK Party.
“According to the plan prepared by Lt. Col. Kireçtepe, these actions will be con-ducted by active and retired military of� cers of the Naval Forces Command who are un-der arrest as part of the Ergenekon investi-gation. The plan clearly shows what of� cer is located in which cell. Twenty-seven mili-tary of� cers have reportedly testi� ed to Er-genekon prosecutors in connection with this plan during the last two weeks.”
The plan, dated March 2009, under the heading “General,” reads: “A public percep-tion that Turkey’s non-Muslims are being targeted by reactionary groups in the country can be created after operations against Catholic priest Father Andrea Santoro, the Zirve Pub-lishing House in Malatya and Hrant Dink. But the AK Party, with support from opposi-tion media, conducted intense propaganda campaigns, saying these incidents were orga-nized by Ergenekon.” The report further em-phasizes that in order to reverse the course of events, campaigns will be organized to instill fear among non-Muslims, adding: “In order to lend support by the Special Operations Forces Command to those arrested under the Ergenekon investigation and render useless counter psychological warfare activities of the AK Party and its supporters, and to change the agenda, distract attention, boost the organi-zation’s morale and win public support, fear-instilling campaigns will be conducted against non-Muslims. Black propaganda will suggest these activities are being conducted by the AK Party and its evil supporters.”
Part of the most frightening “action” part of the plan said: “Bombings will be arranged in various neighborhoods on islands near �stanbul. People who fervently advocate about the rights of minorities will be assassinated. Percussion bombs will be detonated in desig-nated places, such as near the Agos newspa-per. Packages that appear to be bombs will be planted in various places, and the police will be noti� ed of them so that they keep busy with this. Bombings will be conducted on the docks of ferries shuttling between �stanbul and the islands. Provocative attacks will be conducted against non-Muslim cemeteries. Some of the famous non-Muslim businessmen and/or ce-lebrities will be kidnapped. Arson attacks will hit houses, workplaces and cars belonging to non-Muslims. Similar attacks will be conduct-ed in cities with a considerable non-Muslim population. In coordination with the special plan cell leader, these acts of sabotage, kidnap-pings, and assassinations will be ascribed to some reactionary organizations.”
I now have a simple question for Jenkins: What part of this plan -- which also envisages black propaganda -- do you see yourself in with your report and your speeches?
CMYK
Prosecutors: 24 years for Cem Garipo�lu, life for father
Presidency comes to aid of family struck
by terrorismHilfiger ranks sultan’s kaftan first in fashion design contest
Turkey guest of honor at French education fair
Famous designer Tommy Hilfiger chose a modified version of the kaftan, the traditional
garb of the Ottoman sultans, as the winner of in-house design contest this week at �stanbul Technical University’s (�TÜ) department of textile technology.
Hilfiger selected from among eight finalists Nihan Topalo�lu’s “Timeless Allure” design as the winner of the competition after confessing to hav-ing some difficulties in picking an overall winner.
“I want to work with young, intelligent and smart brains. This advances the value of the brand,” Hilfiger said at the award ceremony, adding: “When I first started this job at the age of 18, the point I’ve now reached was just a dream. But I have worked very hard and am very ambitious. This is teamwork. The best thing I did is work with qualified people.”
Noting that it was very difficult to choose the best work, Hilfiger stated that he noticed the disci-pline, teamwork, professionalism and talented aca-demics behind the successful designs. “The work by Nihan Topalo�lu is really impressive,” he added.
Topalo�lu said that she examined every kaftan model on display at Topkap� Palace and created a modified design to give the kaftan a modern ap-pearance. Her prize includes a three-month intern-ship at the offices of Tommy Hilfiger in Amsterdam.
Turkey is the guest of honor of an education fair that opened in Paris on Thursday. French Na-
tional Education Minister Luc Chatel inaugurated the European Education Fair yesterday at the Versailles Ex-hibition Hall. Turkey is the honorary guest at this year’s fair as part of the ongoing “Season of Turkey in France” activities. Information on Turkey is available to anyone seeking to improve their knowledge of the country or to visit as part of the EU’s ERASMUS student-exchange program. French citizens living and working in Turkey were also present to share their experiences with visi-tors to the fair, which will be open for four days. Turkish educational institutions were also present to provide information on their programs. The “Season of Tur-key” activities began in France at the beginning of July with a Fire of Anatolia dance group show and a concert by Mercan Dede. Turkey will be promoted by over 400 artistic and cultural activities in more than 70 cities in France for nine months. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Two separate indictments have been prepared against the suspects in the
murder of Münevver Karabulut (18), who was allegedly murdered by her boyfriend Cem Garipo�lu in March of this year at his home in �stanbul’s Bahçe�ehir district. In the first indictment Cem Garipo�lu, the main suspect in Karabulut’s murder, will be tried at �stanbul’s 1st Juvenile Court as he was under 18 years of age at the time of the crime. If found guilty, Garipo�lu faces between 18 and 24 years in prison.
The second indictment, prepared for the other six suspects, was accepted yesterday by the �stanbul 7th High Criminal Court, which then sent the file to the �stanbul Chief Pub-lic Prosecutor’s Office to decide which court should hear the case. The indictments were prepared by public prosecutors Faruk Esen Y�lmaz and Mustafa Öztürk and were exam-
ined by the �stanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. Karabulut’s decapitated body was found in a bin in Etiler in March. Garipo�lu surrendered to police in September after more than six months on the run.
The indictment demands between 18 and 24 years’ imprisonment for Cem Garipo�lu on the charge of the premedi-tated murder of Münevver Karabulut. The penalty was reduced from life imprisonment because he was a minor when the murder took place. If convicted, Cem Garipo�lu’s father, Mehmet Nida Garipo�lu, faces ag-gravated life imprisonment on the charge of taking part in the premeditated murder of Münevver Karabulut.
Furthermore, the second indict-ment seeks the imprisonment of Hayy-am Garipo�lu -- who is the uncle of Cem Garipo�lu -- Habib Kurt, Mehmet
Karakayal� and Ahmet Batur for a period of between six months and five years on charges of helping the suspect evade police. Prosecutors are going to request the impris-onment of Garipo�lu’s mother, Tülay Mak-bule Garipo�lu, as she allegedly destroyed, hid and tampered with evidence.
Meanwhile, the Garipo�lu family’s lawyer, Rezan Özdemir, speaking to NTV, stated that she finds the indictments gen-erally “positive” and added that there should be a debate as to whether the sentences demanded are just or not. “If someone who is over the age of 18 com-mits such a crime, the sentence is life im-prisonment, but since Cem was under 18 he will be sentenced to between 18 and 24 years in prison,” she added, implying that this punishment is the maximum possible under the law. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
President Abdullah Gül has extended a helping hand to the victims of a pro-vocative attack in Hakkari’s �emdinli
district four years ago in which taxi driver Mehmet Zahir Korkmaz (29) was killed by a hand grenade thrown at a bookstore while he was walking along the sidewalk in front of it.
Upon Gül’s direction, the Hakkari Gover-nor’s Office, the �emdinli district governor’s office and a social aid foundation are to coordi-nate in meeting the needs of Korkmaz’s widow and children. The two children’s educational expenses are being paid and in additional to aid already provided to the family, work is in prog-ress on ensuring that a regular salary be paid to the family and a home bought for them.
Widow Hamide Korkmaz has tears in her eyes when she speaks of the attentiveness with which her family is now being treated, saying: “For years there was nobody to help me. I thank the president for standing up for us; may God be pleased with him. I am waiting for my husband’s killers to be dealt the necessary punishment so
that the pain in our hearts can begin to ease.”Fatma Korkmaz, who lost her father when
she was 7 years old, says that she has a sur-prise planned for the president. Currently a fifth grader, Fatma says that for years she has cried every time report cards were sent home at school as all of her friends immediately ran to show their fathers their grades. “I would al-ways cry. When there are parent-teacher con-ferences, my uncle always comes instead of my father. I would cry all night into the morning every time I got a report card. This time I’m go-ing to take the report card to the president. He’s my godfather now,” she says in appreciation of the aid her family is receiving now. Fatma’s lit-tle brother, third-grader Yusuf, says that when he grows up and does his military service, he wants to catch the people who killed his father and bring them to justice.
According to Hakkari Governor Muammer Türker, in the first phase of aid after the president sent out a directive to help the Korkmaz family, TL 500 in cash was provided to ensure the chil-dren remain in school, and they are continuing to speak with the family to determine their needs.
From left to right, the late Mehmet Zahir Korkmaz’s, son, Yusuf, widow, Hamide, and daughter, Fatma. The family is receiving state support thanks to the efforts of President Gül following Korkmaz’s killing in a terrorist attack.
Cem Garipo�lu faces 18-24 years in prison if convicted of murder.
ORHAN FIRAT �STANBUL
Tommy Hilfiger examines an updated version of the Ottoman kaftan at a textile technology contest at �TÜ.
�BRAH�M OKUR D�YARBAKIR
PH
OT
O
C�H
AN
, O
RH
AN
FIR
AT
PH
OT
O
C�H
AN
, M
ÜH
EN
NA
KA
HV
EC
�
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N,
�BR
AH
�M O
KU
R
04 TODAY’S ZAMAN F R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 NATIONAL
CMYK
Sarkozy’s Middle East aspirations facing hurdles
Greek Cypriot leader Dimitris Christo� as said on Thursday that a deal to reunify the ethnically split
island of Cyprus is still not in sight despite more than a year of peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots.
Christo� as said “important differences” still divide both sides on several key issues. Turkish Cypriot positions con� ict with an envisioned federation between a Turkish Cypriot north and a Greek Cypriot south, he argued.
Cyprus was divided in 1974 when Turkey inter-vened after a coup by supporters who wanted union with Greece. The dispute is undermining NATO and European Union cooperation on security and hinder-ing Turkey’s bid for EU membership.
Both sides still disagree on how to settle claims by owners of property lost during the war and about grant-ing Turkey military intervention rights. But Christo� as said he remains “cautiously optimistic” that an accord can be reached with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
“We sincerely hope that the Turkish Cypriot side will rectify its stance by submitting more reasonable positions in order to pave the way to an agreed solution,” Christo� as said. Talat said the talks have produced “signi� cant prog-ress” but repeated a call for more active UN involve-ment to speed up the process. He also endorsed a pro-posal by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an for a summit of the two sides joined by Britain, Greece and Turkey. Christo� as rejected the idea, insisting an agree-ment must be Cypriot-born. Ankara Today’s Zaman with AP
Christofias: Peace deal still not in sight
US assures Turkey of ass�stance
�n captur�ng top PKK leaders
PH
OT
OA
A,
ME
HM
ET
KA
MA
N
PH
OT
OA
A
A rare rift between traditional allies the United States and Israel over Jewish settle-
ments is apparently encouraging France’s ambi-tious leader Nicolas Sarkozy to work harder to expand France’s in� uence in the Middle East, but the task seems to be a daunting one because of Arab suspicions that he may not be an impartial mediator.
Sarkozy, who has aspired to make France a key actor in the Middle East since he came to power in May 2007, is now trying to revive peace talks be-tween Israel and Syria, bring Israeli and Palestinian leaders together and � nd a role for Paris in efforts to solve Lebanon’s internal tensions. This month he offered to host an international summit in Paris to break the deadlock in the Middle East peace pro-cess. Sarkozy � rst raised the proposal in his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week, then with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The proposed conference’s participants do not include Turkey, which mediated indirect talks between Syria and Israel until they collapsed because of a deadly offensive by the Israeli military in Gaza, which killed
about 1,400 Palestinians in December and January.Sarkozy’s attempts to establish France as a
key player in the Middle East are at the expense of Turkey, a country which has a growing reputation for being a credible mediator in the Middle East due to its open criticism of Israel while still main-taining close ties with the US and Europe. Thus, when he attempted to bring Israeli Prime Min-ister Netanyahu and Syrian President al-Assad
together in Paris earlier this month, al-Assad said France could help the peace efforts by pressur-ing Israel to return to Turkish-mediated talks. Netanyahu, on the other hand, signaled readi-ness for a French role in talks with Syria.
Even in Lebanon, a former French col-ony, Paris’ influence over resolving a crisis due the presidential elections and the troubled process of forming a government was limited.
As for the Israeli-Palestinian track, Paris seems to have limited room to maneuver because the US is seen as the only country that can exert in� uence over both Israel and the Palestinians. Arab observers say France is not the most popular choice for Pales-tinians either because of Sarkozy’s perceived bias for Israel. Palestinian group Hamas and some members of the more moderate al-Fatah believe that France cannot be an impartial mediator with Israel.
Erdo�an doubtful about French roleSpeaking in Rome on Wednesday, Prime Minis-ter Recep Tayyip Erdo�an said he did not think al-Assad would accept a French role in mediating with Israel. “Now France is trying to take up the role we had,” Erdo�an said. “I’m not sure what kind of stance Bashar al-Assad will take, but from what I’ve heard from him, they’re not going to accept some-thing like this.” Erdo�an also said Turkey was ready to resume mediating talks between Israel and Syria, but added that Israel does not trust Turkey. Erdo�an singled out Netanyahu for failing to trust Ankara, unlike his predecessor Ehud Olmert. “Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert trusted Turkey, but Netan-yahu doesn’t trust us. That’s his choice,” he said.
CUMAL� ÖNAL CAIRO
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an’s pop-ularity has been boosted among Iraqi Kurds in
northern Iraq after a speech he made at Parliament last week in defense of his government’s initiative to expand rights for Turkey’s Kurds.
“When I see the premier of Turkey speak-ing about our sister country’s caring attitude in Parliament, it is similar to the happiness I experi-enced the day Saddam Hussein fell in Iraq,” said Bahez Kamil, a university student in Sulaimaniya.
The government, which vows to address the Kurdish problem through democratic reforms, sought lawmakers’ support for the initiative in a special session in Parliament on Friday. Following speeches from his Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and opposition deputies, Erdo�an de-livered a long address to the lawmakers, in which
he gave details about the content of the initiative and urged the skeptical opposition to support it.
In his speech, Erdo�an tried to frame the debate in an all-inclusive approach mentioning most eth-nic groups represented in the country. The initiative doesn’t only aim at solving the Kurdish problem but also aims at addressing other democratic issues in the country, boosting the hopes of many, including religious minorities and ethnic groups in the country.
Erdo�an’s speech, translated into Kurdish and broadcast live on various local channels in northern Iraq resounded among the Iraqi Kurds. “This brave speech deserved analysis and coverage,” said Arif Qurbani, editor-in-chief of the Aso daily newspaper, which cov-ered the issue on its front page. “The bravery of Erdo�an should be a lesson for the Iraqi Kurdish leaders to embrace the Turkmens,” Qurbani added.
Relations between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey
deteriorated sharply following the US-led inva-sion of Iraq in 2003. Turkey accused the Kurdish administration of harboring the outlawed Kurd-istan Workers’ Party (PKK), which launched at-tacks on Turkish targets from its bases in northern Iraq, and threatened to declare war if the Kurds attempted to seize control of the disputed city of Kirkuk -- home to a sizable Turkmen population.
But tension is now being replaced by a dra-matic rapprochement, and the government’s Kurdish initiative is further strengthening the positive trend in ties. In a speech delivered to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament earlier this month, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani welcomed the progress made in Turkey’s relations with the Kurdish admin-istration and described Turkey’s initiative to solve its decades-long Kurdish issue as “Prime Minister Erdo�an’s brave Kurdish peace initia-
tive.” Barzani further added that the Kurdish authorities will support Turkey in its efforts to end the conflict with the PKK.
The relations between Iraqi Kurds and Turkey reached its “golden era” after the his-toric visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto�lu to Arbil late last month. During the visit, Davuto�lu met with Barzani and Barham Sa-lih, the new prime minister of the Kurdish region.
Salih’s return to northern Iraq after many years of service in Baghdad is likely to be a further advantage for better ties with Tur-key. “He will be an excellent partner for our government’s ‘democratic initiative’,” Turkish journalist Cengiz Çandar said in a recent interview with the Kurdish media.
“We should support Turkey and Erdo�an’s democratic battle,” Khlaid Su-leiman, one of Salih’s advisers, said.
Erdo�an’s Parliament speech resonates among Iraqi KurdsHEMIN H. LIHONY SULAIMANIYA
Former US National Security Advisor and out-going American Turkish Council (ATC) Chair-
man Brent Scowcroft has said that Turkey’s deep knowledge of the eastern world will be useful for its NATO ally, the United States.
Earlier this week, Scowcroft, along with Ambas-sador Richard Armitage -- who will succeed Scow-croft as chairman in January -- had talks in Ankara with senior Turkish of� cials including President Abdullah Gül, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto�lu, Defense Minis-ter Vecdi Gönül and Energy Minister Taner Y�ld�z.
The ATC is a business association dedicated to en-hancing the promotion of US-Turkish commercial, de-fense, technological and cultural relations. Wednesday evening, the Foreign Economic Relations Board (DE�K) and the Turkish-American Business Council (TA�K) jointly hosted a dinner in �stanbul in Scowcroft’s honor.
“We need a voice that will help us in the East. We need a voice like Turkey in a region which we are not able to understand as much as you can,” Scowcroft said.
Bilateral relations between Turkey and the Unit-ed States have passed through many ups and downs, Scowcroft noted, highlighting his con� dence that a more stable era will develop with these relations from now on. By the completion of his current term on Dec. 31, Scowcroft will have served nine years as chairperson of the board of the ATC. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
US needs Turkey’s voice in eastern world, says ATC chief
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI) Chair-man Sayyed Ammar al-Hakim was in Ankara on
Thursday to hold talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayy-ip Erdo�an as part of a several-day visit to the country.
While in Ankara, Hakim also attended meetings held at several think tanks. Hakim was in �stanbul on Wednesday to speak with both President Abdullah Gül and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto�lu.
Gül’s meeting with Hakim was an opportunity for the president to once more express that Turkey has been keeping an equal distance from all segments of Iraqi so-ciety, the Anatolia news agency reported, citing sources from the president’s of� ce. In line with this stance, Turkey attaches great importance to engaging in dialogue with all segments of its neighboring country, Gül told Hakim.
Iraq has entered a critical period with its upcoming elections, Gül said, expressing con� dence that Iraq will emerge from these elections stronger than before.
For his part, voicing pleasure over Turkey’s constant support for Iraq, Hakim cited the recent postings of Tur-key’s new consul-generals in Mosul and Basra as a sign of the importance attached by Turkey to Iraq. Turkey has so far played a constructive role in Iraq and Iraq wants to see a continuation of this role, Hakim also said. Earlier on Wednesday, following talks with Hakim, Davuto�lu under-lined the significance of the upcoming Parliamentary elections scheduled for January, 2010, in Iraq. Ankara Today’s Zaman
Iraqi Shiite leader holds talks in Ankara, �stanbul
Turkey has received significant re-assurances from the United States that it will support efforts to cap-
ture commanders of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), who are largely based in northern Iraq and subject to extradition warrants, a top government official has said.
Robert Mueller, the director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was in Ankara on Wednesday. He met with Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek, Justice Minis-ter Sadullah Ergin and O�uz Ka�an Köksal, the head of the Security General Directorate, during a one-day visit to the Turkish capital.
Turkish newspapers suggested on Thursday that Turkish of� cials asked Mueller for US sup-port for the extradition of Murat Karay�lan, the head of Kongra-Gel -- another name for the PKK -- and high-ranking PKK members Ali R�za Altun and Zübeyir Aydar. All three were subject last month to a decision of the US Department of the Treasury’s Of� ce of Foreign Assets Control which is expected to deal a signi� cant blow to the � nancial resources of the PKK. The US � nancial sanctions targeted three senior PKK leaders after designating them narcotics traf� ckers.
“Why should we just ask for three of them? We want all of them,” Deputy Prime Minister Çiçek told Today’s Zaman on Thursday, deny-ing the aforementioned news reports.
“America is now our neighbor in Iraq. Iraq is now under US control and expecting such assistance [concerning PKK leaders] is our most natural right since the US is an ally that listed the PKK as a terrorist organization before all other countries in the world. It also stated that it will help us in that,” Çiçek, who also serves as the government’s spokesperson, said.
Çiçek ruled out arguments over sending PKK leaders in northern Iraq to a third country. “We told our counterparts that we want all 113 [commanders], not just three of them. Consid-ering that PKK is a terrorist organization and its members are terrorists, we want all of them to either be tried in the country where they are
captured or extradited to Turkey in order to be tried. No one is saying our demands are unfair, but we want action on this.”
In December 2005 Mueller visited Turkey to discuss al-Qaeda and PKK-related activi-ties in the country. Since then, bilateral coop-eration between the two countries against PKK activities has increased considerably.
Biometric informationA news report in the Turkish Radikal daily, meanwhile, said Thursday that Mueller had asked Turkish of� cials to share biometric in-formation of everyone who uses ports and air-ports in Turkey -- a request that was rejected by Turkish of� cials, according to the report.
While asking for information regarding all suspected passengers’ route, destination and date of travel, Mueller also asked for the collection and sharing of all biometric data of passengers who travel through Turkey as part of counter-terrorism activities.
Yet, the Turkish side rejected this request since legislation in Turkey and international trea-ties to which it is party, including EU legislation with which Turkey is trying to harmonize its laws as a candidate country, is not comfortable with such data collection methods, Radikal said.
“We cannot share people’s personal in-formation with other countries just on the grounds of suspicion,” Turkish officials told Mueller, the daily said. In February 2008, the
FBI announced an award of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to Lockheed Martin to develop what is expected to be the world’s largest crime-fighting computer database of bio-metric information, including fingerprints, palm prints, iris patterns and face images.
At the time, FBI of� cials said the system would not expand the categories of people whose prints are collected: known criminals, known or suspected terrorists, or foreign visi-tors to the United States who have been con-victed of a crime or an immigration violation. But additional types of biometric data, such as iris scans and face images, will be collected from crimi-nals and terrorists, the of� cials had said. The system has been subject to criticism by privacy experts.
Robert Mueller, the director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, had talks with Turkish officials in Ankara on Wednesday.
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad does not want French leader Nicolas Sarkozy to mediate talks with Israel.
Al-Hakim met with President Gül in �stanbul on Wednesday.
PH
OT
OR
EU
TE
RS
CMYK
Hrant Dink
NATIONAL F R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN05
Ergenekon investigation exposes surveillance of Armenian community ‘Cage action plan’ put into operation in Kurtulu�, Adalar
Called the “Cage Operation Action Plan,” the desired result from the intimidation of Tur-key’s non-Muslims and the assassination of prominent ones, was that an increase in internal and external pressure on the Justice and Devel-opment Party (AK Party) would ensue, leading to diminishing public support for the party.
A series of incidents that Kurtulu� residents ex-perienced in August suggest that the plan was put into operation by “dark powers.” The neighbor-hood is home to dozens of non-Muslim families.
On Aug. 7, 2009, some non-Muslim residents of the neighborhood found colored stickers on the doors of their buildings, which sparked increased fear among the residents. Police launched an inves-tigation into the stickers, but failed to � nd out who was responsible. The stickers disappeared “myste-riously” at night the very same day, leaving unan-swered questions behind as to who took them away.
Ahmet Günel, the mukhtar or neighbor-hood head, said the stickers aimed at foment-ing unease and fear among the neighborhood’s non-Muslims. Selami Melem�e, a lawyer who is also a resident of Kurtulu�, said the “sticker cam-paign” had achieved its objective. “The stickers managed to provoke fear among our residents. I do not think those stickers were placed on doors in Kurtulu� ‘just by coincidence.’ Some circles did it on purpose,” Melem�e added.
The action plan has sent shockwaves across �stanbul’s Adalar district, which is home to hun-dreds of non-Muslim families. Raf� Hermon Araks, the chief adviser to the mayor of Adalar in charge of cultural and arts affairs, said some non-Muslims in the district had receive threats to their lives for the past few months. “We experienced such inci-dents in Heybeliada, K�nal�ada and Büyükada. We thought these were separate incidents, but when we saw the Cage plan, we understood that they were all part of a detailed plot,” Araks remarked.
A non-Muslim resident of the district, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he had been told several times by people he did not know to leave the country. “They told me the places I be-long to. ‘You do not belong to this place. Muslims will send you away. The order has changed,’ they told me. I was very afraid. My neighbors and rela-tives experienced similar incidents. We do not wish to experience another Sept. 6-7 trauma,” he added.
The Sept. 6-7, 1955 events started after a newspaper headline said Atatürk’s home in Greece had been bombed by Greek militants. In revenge, Turkish nationalists attacked the houses and business places of non-Muslims, destroying 5,300 businesses and houses owned by Greeks, Armenians and Jews.
Etyen Mahçupyan, editor-in-chief of the Agos weekly, said the names of the country’s minorities, Alevis and Kurds will be mentioned in many other action plans unless Turkey embraces a stronger de-mocracy. According to Mahçupyan, the Cage Op-eration Action Plan is a strong indication of a war between “good Turks” and “bad Turks.” “What I mean is, there is a difference and quarrel between those who have a statist and totalitarian mindset and those who are pro-freedom and democrat,” he said and added that such action plans have a single aim: to destroy the AK Party. “To attain this target, non-Muslims get killed; clashes are sparked between Sunnis and Alevis; Turks and Kurds are made to � ght; and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party [PKK] is lent support,” he remarked. Fethiye Çe-tin, a lawyer representing the family of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was assassi-nated in 2007 by a young man strongly in� uenced by ultranationalism, said the Turkish military sees some of the country’s citizens as an “enemy” and produces plans against them. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
In addition, there were lists of names and members of Armenian foundations and churches, which were classi� ed as “active” or not, as well as the balance sheets of Agos.
Cengiz had been in the limelight before af-ter claims that she gave information to �brahim �ahin, a former deputy head of the National Police Department’s Special Operations Unit, to establish “S-1 and S-2 teams” to assassinate intellectual leaders in society.
According to sources, Cengiz also tracked the names of academics, writers and journalists who participated a two-day academic conference held on Sept. 24-25, 2005, at Istanbul Bilgi University titled “Ottoman Armenians during the Decline of
the Empire: Issues of Scienti� c Responsibility and Democracy.” The conference openly disputed the of� cial Turkish account of the Armenian massacres.
In the � les allegedly belonging to Cengiz, who is also known as Asena Öztürk, there are several fa-mous names, with notes next to their names: Halil Berktay, “professor, he had publicly said that Ar-menians were massacred”; Kaz�m Ak�nc�, “secret Armenian, he applied to a court to change his re-ligion after Dink [Turkish-Armenian editor Hrant Dink who was assassinated by an ultranationalist teenager in 2007]”; Ece Temelkuran, “she said that if something happens to her the prime minister is responsible for it, she is a graduate of the Ankara faculty of law”; Herkül Milas, “he is not an Arme-nian”; Sevan Ni�anyan, “writer at Taraf, maybe
from Agos, needed to be investigated”; Markar Esayan, “Taraf writer, information regarding him will come together with Etyen Mahçupyan”; Aytaç �lhan, “he might be a student in I�d�r, he should be investigated, he had applied to change his reli-gion”; Bask�n Oran, Adalet A�ao�lu and Elif �afak.
Investigators have also found a PowerPoint pre-sentation which was allegedly prepared by Cengiz, who signed it as Asena Öztürk. In that presentation, pictures of �ahin and Korkut Eken, a former of� cer of the TSK Special Operations, are placed side by side. There is also a photograph of former Chief of General Staff Gen. Ya�ar Büyükan�t, in addition to the expression “Everything is for the country,” writ-ten in blood on a background of weapons and the Turkish � ag. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
Naval forces junta planned to undermine AK Party with non-Muslim assassinations
The plan was divided into four phases; “Preparation,” “Raising Fear,” “Shap-
ing Public Opinion” and “Action.”As part of the “Preparation” phase, the
names and addresses of the country’s promi-nent non-Muslims would be determined. Then it would be ascertained to which newspapers and magazines they subscribe; which schools non-Muslims work for or send their children to; which associations or foundations they are members of; which places of worship they fre-quent; and where they hold their religious cel-ebrations and rituals.
Then the action plan would jump to the second phase, which consisted of posting the subscribers of a Turkish Armenian biweekly, Agos, on a number of Web sites, especially the “reactionary” ones. The editor-in-chief of Agos, Hrant Dink, was shot dead in 2007 by an ultra-nationalist Turkish adolescent. Letters that in-cluded threatening messages would be sent to Agos subscribers, and they would also receive threatening phone calls. Similar messages would be written on a number of walls of buildings in the Adalar district, which is home to hundreds of non-Muslim families.
In the “Shaping Public Opinion” phase, the list of Agos subscribers would make its way into some newspapers, and fabricated reports on the list would feature in those newspapers. TV debates would focus on the reports and columnists would be urged to write columns on them. The AK Party government would be accused of ignoring the “ap-proaching threat” to the country’s non-Muslim population in the debates. Media would recall the Sept. 6-7, 1955 incidents, a state-sponsored cam-paign designed to transfer capital from minority businessmen to Muslim Turks and to intimidate non-Turkish communities into leaving their home-land to clear the way for a homogeneous Turkish state. Several Web sites would be established to disseminate propaganda against the AK Party and criticize its domestic policies. The Web sites would have such names as “www.tehditaltindayiz.com” (We are under threat) and “www.agosasahipcika-lim.com” (Let’s protect Agos).
The most appalling phase of the plan, “Ac-tion,” would include the assassination of promi-nent non-Muslim � gures. As part of this phase, bomb attacks would be launched in Adalar; � gures who defend the rights of non-Muslims would be assassinated; percussion bombs would be planted in places close to Agos; boats carry-ing passengers to the Adalar district would be bombed; prominent non-Muslim businessmen and artists would be kidnapped; and their homes and of� ces would be set on � re. Individuals would claim responsibility for the incidents on behalf of “reactionary terrorist organizations.”
At that point, propaganda would step in, pointing to the AK Party as the cause of the in-cidents. The party would be accused of falling short of ensuring the security of non-Muslims in the country. The action plan de� ned Prime Min-ister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an as an “enemy.”
The action plan called the killings of Arme-nian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, Catholic priest Andrea Santoro and three Christians in Malatya an “operation.” The group aimed at fomenting chaos in society with those killings, but complained that the plan failed when large groups protested the killings in mass demon-
strations. “The operations created a large public outcry that non-Muslims in the country were the target of reactionary groups. But society stood by non-Muslims with a ‘We are all Armenians’ campaign. Now, we will continue the propa-ganda, showing that the cause behind the kill-ings was the AK Party and reactionary organiza-tions,” read the plan.
The plan also revealed that the anti-demo-cratic formation within the Naval Forces Com-mand was being led by three admirals, identi� ed with their initials F.Ö., K.S. and M.F.�. Retired Maj. Levent Bekta�, Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe, retired Col. Levent Gökta� and Maj. Emre Onat also worked for the junta. All of them were ar-rested as part of the ongoing Ergenekon probe.
Among other members of the formation were sergeant majors Halil Cura, Saddetin Do�an, Feridun Arslan; Maj. Emre Sezenler; and Maj. Emre Günay. All of them were employed at the Marmara Regional Command. Other members at the same command were identi� ed by their initials, sergeant majors D.E, T.V.A., H.D. and �.B.
Among the members of the group at the Mar-mara Regional Command were Col. M.S., Col. Lev-ent Gülmen, Maj. Erbay Çolako�lu, Maj. A.A.S., Capt. B.A., Lt. Gen. B.Ç., Sgt. Maj. M.A., Sgt. Maj. M.A., Maj. G.Y., Capt. Ü.Ö., Capt. B.K., Sgt. Maj. D.M., Sgt. Maj. H.E., Sgt. Maj. M.I. and Sgt. Maj. A.B.
The group also had members from the Black Sea Regional Command, including Capt. I.Z.T., Capt. �.L.O., Maj. Ö.E., Sgt. Maj. T.D., Sgt. Maj. M.A. and Sgt. Maj. M.K.
Ammunition excavated in PoyrazköyTen light anti-tank weapons, 20 percussion bombs, three other bombs, 250 grams of C4 explosives, 19 emergency � ares, 10 hand grenades, 800 G3 bullets and a large number of cartridges for revolvers were found on the �stek Foundation land. The discovery followed the unearthing of similar underground weapons caches in January during digs based on maps found in the homes of two suspects -- former Deputy Police Chief �brahim �ahin and Mustafa Dönmez, a lieutenant colonel who turned himself in a few days after a warrant for his arrest was is-sued. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
cont�nued from page 1
cont�nued from page 1
cont�nued from page 1
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N,
MU
ST
AF
A K
�RA
ZL
I
In its headline story on Thursday, the Taraf daily reported on an anti-democratic formation within the Naval Forc-es Command seeking to damage the government by assassinating prominent non-Muslim figures in Turkey.
Democratic initiative beacon of hope for exiled writers
‘Either Onur Öymen or Alevis should leave the CHP’ German NGO to dissect civilian-military relations in Turkey
A German nongovernmental organiza-tion will examine civilian-military rela-
tions in Turkey at a conference to be held this weekend in �stanbul.
Conference organizer Ulrike Dufner, a representative from the Heinrich Böll Stif-tung Turkey of� ce, said the conference, “Türkiye Siyasetinde Ordunun Rolü: Asker-Sivil �li�kileri, Güvenlik Sektörü ve Sivil De-netim” (The Military’s Role in Turkish Poli-tics: Military-Civilian Relations, the Security Sector and Civilian Supervision), is going to help break taboos in Turkey.
“Institutions established by the military tutelage in Turkey do not exist in any Euro-pean country. Institutions such as the Na-tional Security Council [MGK], the Supreme Military Council [YA�], the Turkish Armed Forces Assistance Center [OYAK] and sepa-rate civilian and military judiciaries are the biggest obstacles in front of democracy as they are also examples of interference in politics,” she said.
She noted that people on Turkey’s streets would de� nitely know that �lker Ba�bu� is the chief of General Staff of the Turkish mili-tary. But this is not the case in Europe.
“If it is not part of one’s special interest area, no one in Europe would know who the chief of general staff is,” she added.
In Turkey’s military-dominated society, she said, it is possible to see marks that past coups d’état left on the society. She recalled that they had previously organized a confer-ence in �zmir when the military issued an “electronic memorandum,” or the e-ultima-tum of April 27, 2007, to express its reserva-tions during the presidential election.
“We saw at the conference that partici-pants who had experienced the 1980 coup suddenly felt sick” -- as if they had been trau-matized by their past experience, she said.
Regarding Turkey’s process of democrati-zation, she said it is an opportunity for Turkey and marks the end of an era of coups in Turkey.
“Apparently, the government is follow-ing a good strategy as the democratic initia-tive has been discussed at all levels and at Parliament,” she said.
Dufner also mentioned the sins of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as it did not take more steps to change the Constitution of the 1980 military era. In addition, she said, the government should have done more in the case of assassinated Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, who was fatally shot outside his of� ce by an ultranationalist teenager.
She also touched upon the �emdinli bombing and the government’s silence. In 2005 two noncommissioned of� cers were caught red-handed by residents of �emdinli, in Hakkari province, while plant-ing a bomb at a local bookstore owned by a former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member. The land forces commander at the time praised one of the of� cers, saying, “I know him, he’s a good kid.” Four years af-ter the incident, it appears that the two men are still on active duty, despite being in and out of court over the intervening period. During the process, Van Prosecutor Ferhat Sar�kaya, who prepared the indictment, was disbarred for indicting then-Land Forces Commander Gen. Ya�ar Büyükan�t.
Dufner also pointed out that some op-position parties in Turkey do not display a democratic stance. She said the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is not per-ceived as a socialist or leftist party in Europe.
“Our European friends know the CHP as a nationalist party which protects the sta-tus quo,” she said. About CHP leader Deniz Baykal, she said he seems to be a dictator who cannot accept the fact that there might be alternatives to him. She added that Tur-key needs a democratic opposition.
She emphasized that most civil society organizations in Turkey are under the direc-tion of the military, which uses universities and the media to create an environment suit-able for a military coup.
In the conference, to be held Nov. 21-22 at the Larespark Hotel in Taksim, partici-pants will discuss how military control over civilian politics has established itself and how it is changing. Among the participants are writer and academic Ali Bayramo�lu, writer and journalist Cengiz Çandar, so-cialist monthly Birikim Editor-in-Chief Ömer Laçiner, human rights activist Y�lmaz Ensaro�lu, senior advisor to Sabanc� Univer-sity’s �stanbul Policy Center Joost Lagendijk, former diplomat Ak�n Özçer and journalist and writer Lale Kemal.
Kurdish intellectuals and artists forced to leave Turkey in the aftermath of the country’s 1980
coup d’état are hopeful that the government’s democ-ratization initiative will pave the way for their return.
Despite the disapproval of opposition parties, the details of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) democratic initiative to solve the long-standing Kurdish problem were discussed in Parliament last week, months after the govern-ment announced its intention to formulate the plan. Along with the revelation has come increased hope on the part of Kurdish writers, politicians and artists -- and their requests to return to their homeland are back on the agenda. Speaking with Today’s Zaman, Kurdish intellectuals and artists expressed a desire to return home and said they were looking to the democratic initiative to make this possible. Why shouldn’t we, who were declared guilty and stripped of our citizenship due to the things we wrote and said, be allowed to return to our country, they ask.
The road to exile for many Kurdish writers con-victed of disseminating terrorist propaganda be-cause of the lyrics to a song or poem they wrote or recited passed through Diyarbak�r Prison, now infa-mous for the torture in� icted upon its inmates. Fol-lowing their time there, they were forced by varying circumstances to � ee the country. Among them are writers, politicians, intellectuals and artists, names such as Kemal Burkay, Y�lmaz Çaml�bel, Günay Aslan, �ükrü Gülmü�, Vildan Tanr� Kulu, Garip Dost and �ivan Perver -- and most of them are still
waiting for the right time to return to their country.Kemal Burkay, an important Kurdish political
� gure who lives in Sweden, draws attention to the legal roadblocks preventing their return, saying: “I certainly want to return to my country. If the nec-essary conditions were only in place, I would have returned long ago. Our political work was paci� st; we weren’t involved in any violence. But we were still outlawed. Because of our views and demands, we were under the threat of heavy punishment. For this reason, we were forced to go abroad.”
Y�lmaz Çambl�bel, who lives in Germany, wants Parliament to amend laws to allow people like himself to return to Turkey. He spent six years at Diyarbak�r Prison following the 1980 coup and becomes emotional when he speaks about his longing to return to his home province of A�r�. The 75-year-old writer says his greatest desire is
to see A�r� again before he dies. “I try to alleviate the longing I feel for my home, which I’ve been away from for 23 years, with pictures. This longing has settled into my subconscious, so much so that I dream about A�r�, about Mt. A�r�, the �shak Pa�a Palace, the tomb of Ahmet-i Hani…” he says. “No matter how comfortable life is here, a person still wants to return to their own country.”
‘AK Party’s initiative a good move’Another Kurdish writer living in Germany for the past 30 years, Vildan Tanr�kulu, says it is the most natural right for Kurdish intellectuals to be able to return to their homeland of Turkey and says the AK Party’s democratic initiative is a step in the right direction. “I think the democratic initiative the AK Party started is valuable, and it gives us hope. The Kurdish intellectuals [in Europe] will return to Tur-
key with great social and cultural contributions to offer. This will speed up the initiative’s progress. The anxiety-free return of intellectuals to Turkey from Europe will strengthen the AK Party’s hand as much as it will promote peace,” Tanr�kulu says. “At the end of the day, we’re all underneath the same sky, and there’s enough room for all of us.”
“Of course, I want very much to return to Tur-key. A life in exile is no different from living in an open-air prison. I’m not asking for a pardon from anyone, and I’m not asking for help from anyone because I’m not guilty,” says Kurdish politician Ya�ar Kaya, who currently lives in Iraq. Referring to members of deep-state crime gangs responsible for innumerable atrocities committed against Kurds in Turkey over the years, Kaya added: “Those who have committed crimes are the Ergenekonists, the J�TEM members and the perpetrators of unsolved crimes. My yearning is for Turkey. It’s the shared homeland of Turks and Kurds.”
Striking the same note on the nature of the crimes and allegations against Kurdish intellectuals that prevent their return to Turkey, �ükrü Gülmü�, a Kurdish writer living in Sweden, says: “The in-tellectuals living abroad aren’t people convicted of murder. They have been convicted or accused due to their writings or speech. There should be an an-nouncement made that says, ‘The Kurdish diaspora in Europe and everyone whose distance [from Tur-key] is attributable to political conditions may re-turn.’ There’s only so much a government can do; the AK Party is doing what it can. Legal changes are necessary to allow such returns.”
Alevi associations based in Europe have con-tinued expressing their reactions to Republi-
can People’s Party (CHP) Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen’s remarks about a 1937 rebellion in the Al-evi town of Tunceli depicting a massacre in which 90,000 were killed as an anti-terror campaign.
Europe-based Alevi organizations the Alevi Unions Federation (AABF), the European Dersim Associations Federation (FDG) and the European Koçgirliler Union (AKB) released a joint press statement at the AABF headquarters in Cologne yesterday.
In the statement, the groups said that they would apply to the Socialist International (SI) for the CHP’s exemption from the organization. “The CHP is an obstacle in the path of democra-tization,” the statement said.
AABF Second President Ali Ertan Toprak, Sec-retary-General Hüseyin Mat, FDG Chairman Ya�ar Kaya and AKB President Kudrettin Çimen joined
the conference. Their joint statement noted that Öymen had extended a “half-hearted” apology, which they did not � nd sincere.
“The CHP administration has seen Alevis as a voter base for years, and has made no efforts to meet their rightful demands. Onur Öymen is the representative in our day of Nurettin Pa�a the Bearded who administered the Koçgiri massacre [against Alevis] and Nurettin Pa�a’s son-in-law Abdullah Alpdo�an who administered the Der-sim massacre. Onur Öymen, who has praised the Dersim massacre, should step down as a member of Parliament. Öymen’s crime is not one commit-ted against the people of Dersim and the Alevi community alone, but one against humanity. No person who so openly defends massacres in his country can continue to serve as a parliamentary deputy anywhere in the world. The CHP should apologize to the people of Dersim and all the Al-evi/K�z�lba� community both for the massacre of
1938 and for Öymen’s remarks. We, as European organizations, will be making efforts to bring this to the attention of both the European Union, the SI and European parliaments.”
At home in Turkey, more calls asking for Öy-men’s resignation came with the Mersin branch of education sector union E�itim-Bir-Sen joining the long list of organizations voicing this demand. The Mersin branch laid a black wreath in front of the lo-cal CHP of� ce. A statement made here by a spokes-person for the group referred to Öymen’s statements as a “dark stain on the history of Parliament.”
Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Ar�nç also re-buked Öymen for his remarks yesterday, speaking in Ad�yaman where he was visiting for the day. “The issue here is about legitimizing incidents that oc-curred in Dersim in 1937 and 1938. Onur Öymen’s words mean only one thing. ‘Bloodshed should continue, and if mothers cry, let them cry. Because that is what happened in Dersim. This is what we
did then, and we want to do the same thing today.’ This is what he said in plain Turkish; there is no need to embellish this in diplomatic language. We now need to see how people with conscience will stand in the face of this.”
Meanwhile, Tunceli-born CHP deputy Kemal K�l�çdaro�lu, who had earlier called on Öymen to resign but then backpedaled after CHP leader Deniz Baykal’s apparent support for Öymen, re-leased a statement yesterday. In the statement he called on CHP members to be alert against what he called the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and Democratic Society Party (DTP) col-laboration, topped with the provocation of the “pro-government media.” He said a “systematic attack” against the CHP was part of the AK Party’s efforts to instill fear across the country and sup-press all opposition. He also claimed that the reac-tions shown by Alevis to Öymen were supported by “foreign forces.” �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
CMYK
DTP cond�t�onally ready to talk
Selahattin Demirta�, the parliamentary group leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), said it would be easier for the DTP to take respon-
sibility during the democratization process if the govern-ment sent the message that “it is taking steps for the sake of the people and the elimination of violence, not only for the elimination of the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK,” which is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union.
“If government sends the right message, then we guarantee that within three months violence will be removed from Turkey’s agenda,” he told to Today’s Zaman in an exclusive interview.
In July the government launched a democratization ini-tiative which aims to solve Turkey’s decades-old Kurdish question. Since the beginning of the process there have been many topics under discussion, but one of the hottest topics is addressing the issue of whom and under which conditions, which party or side should talk to.
The government frequently underlined that it will never consider discussing the issue with the PKK, saying the only party with a voice in this process is the nation itself.
The opposition parties -- the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) -- claimed that the government is discussing the issue with the PKK. Meanwhile, the DTP was criticized for not taking a leading role in the process, instead saying the government should discuss the initiative with the PKK.
Demirta�, while explaining the reasons for their stance, said that � rst of all there is not even implicit acceptance the DTP should be considered to be party to talks during the process.
“The government is not telling us that ‘you might not con-sider yourself to be the representatives of the PKK, they do not consider you to be their representatives either, but still, by talk-ing to you and by asking for your opinion regarding the solu-tion to the Kurdish question, we will pretend that we are talk-ing to the PKK.’ The government is not telling us that whatever we say, they will be considered our comments to be the words of the PKK, they are not saying that whatever they say to us would be the same as if they were talking to the PKK.”
Demirta� claimed that the government should recognize the cultural rights of the Kurds instead of acting as though their main aim is to eliminate the PKK.
“How can you eliminate something? Either you kill it, or it surrenders. They are saying that their aim is to eliminate the PKK and they are asking to the DTP to cooperate in this elimi-nation process. To ask the DTP to cooperate in eliminating the PKK actually means telling the DTP to climb up to the gallows, put a noose around its own neck and kick away the stool. We are a political party, we are not an association created to support the AK Party [Justice and Development Party],” Demirta� said.
According to Demirta�, the crucial question is if the pro-cess is aiming to eliminate the PKK or solve the Kurdish question. “If the aim is to solve the Kurdish question, we as the DTP have suggestions to help achieve this. We suggest strong local administrations, a new Constitution and educa-tion in the mother tongue. If we are listened to on these mat-ters then the DTP can take the responsibility alone, without making the PKK intervene in the process. If we are listened to then the PKK will lay down its arms. This is what we are saying and we are even giving guarantees on this. We are that sure, we are that self-con� dent. If the government takes these steps and if the PKK still talks about an armed struggle then the PKK will have no support bases,” Demirta� argued.
According to Demirta�, if the government takes steps to give more rights to Kurds, the side effect will naturally be the elimination of violence, not only the elimination of the PKK.
“The government should talk about eliminating violence as a whole, not only the PKK, because many Kurds consider themselves to be the ones who were called ‘terrorists’. If the government says it aims to eliminate violence it will not ir-ritate Kurds because this is what they want anyway,” he said.
Demirta� underlined that if the government makes giv-ing Kurds the rights they deserve as human beings their pri-ority, the natural outcome will be the elimination of violence and then the DTP will be a party the government can talk to.
“If the aim is the elimination of the PKK then we are saying that under these conditions the party to talk to is the PKK. Despite this, in order to not to block the process, we are saying we only support the part of this process which gives people more rights,” he said.
TODAY’S ZAMAN NATIONALF R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 906
MUSTAFA GÜRLEK �STANBUL
AY�E KARABAT ANKARA
TANJU ÖZKAYA �STANBUL
Kemal Burkay �ivan Perver
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party’s Selahattin Demirta� spoke to Today’s Zaman in an exclusive interview about the government’s democratization initiative.
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N,
AL
� Ü
NA
L
CMYK
BUSINESS F R I D A Y, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN07
TCDD bids for operation of Mecca-Medina high-speed rail
Turkey’s state-owned railway company is set to sub-mit a bid in a tender to operate a Mecca-Medina high-
speed train, Turkish railway of� cials said on Thursday.A Turkish State Railways (TCDD), Siemens and
Saudi BinLadin Group consortium is one of the four consortia competing to sign a deal for the superstruc-ture project of the railroad. The railroad’s substructure is being constructed by a Chinese � rm.
The consortium will offer a technical bid for the project in January and a � nancial bid will be presented in June, said the of� cials. According to the plan, Siemens will set up the signalization system, the Saudi BinLadin Group will undertake the superstructure construction and the TCDD will operate the high-speed train for a period of 12 years on a 450-kilometer track from Mecca to Medina, an area only Muslims can enter. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
�im�ek: Constitution must reflect strict stance on taxesMinister of Finance Mehmet �im�ek has exp-lained the administration’s tough stance of
refusing to forgive tax debt, adding that the punish-ment for tax fraud was not suf� cient to prevent the commission of such a crime.
Speaking at a panel titled “Tax Administration, Tax Justice and Reform” at TOBB Economics and Technology University, organized by the Turkish Strategic, Social and Economic Research Foundati-on (VAKIF 2000), �im�ek stressed the importance of not creating incentives by pardoning tax obligations, adding that “even though we currently need the ag-
reement of a quali� ed majority within the ministry to pardon tax debts, I still think this isn’t enough. Maybe we need to add it to the Constitution under the unc-hangeable articles that tax pardons will not be given.”
�im�ek continued by noting that to increase adherence to tax laws, there need to be heftier pu-nishments for tax fraud, noting that they’ve inc-reased the time in prison for tax fraud from one year to one-and-a-half years and that it would no longer be possible to pay only a � ne.
The minister also spoke about his position on tax fraud, saying that he didn’t view it as a � nancial offense
but rather a “crime against public order.” �im�ek conti-nued: “Tax fraud is a crime against public order because it leads to budget de� cits, public debt, the weakening of the Turkish economy and other problems for the Tur-key. … This is my perspective on the issue, and thus I view tax fraud as something that needs a heavier pu-nishment.” On this note, the minister added that they have taken the � rst steps to solve the issue of tax fraud but that more is needed to completely solve the prob-lem. He added that the punishment for tax fraud should be more onerous, which will help curb any incentives to commit tax fraud that may exist. Ankara Today’s Zaman
Life to halt one day next week as civil servants stop workingMany Turkish civil servants are set to take part in a work stoppage next Wednesday
ahead of Eid al-Adha, in a move meant to warn the government of the need to listen to the demands of its civil servants.
Turkish Public Workers’ Labor Union (Kamu-Sen) President Bircan Aky�ld�z an-nounced that civil servants will not work on Nov. 25 “to cause life to stop for one day,” so that the government understands how serious the civil servants’ demands, including higher wage increases and improved social welfare conditions, truly are.
Aky�ld�z called a press conference yesterday in Ankara with Kamu-Sen managers and repre-
sentatives of Kamu-Sen member unions to pro-vide details about the labor action.
Aky�ld�z said, “The failures of inept govern-ments and the fecklessness of evil-minded ma-nagers have burdened civil servants for years.”
Civil servants come under criticism both in times of crisis and during economic prosperity, he claimed, and accused the government of bre-aking its promises made during earlier collective bargaining and dodging its obligation to ful� ll the decisions made in the mutual talks. “At the current point, civil servants have lost con� dence in the government entirely,” he asserted.
Despite earlier attempts to � nd common ground, the government has left no alternative
for civil servants but to struggle for their rights in the streets, Aky�ld�z argued. “The knife has reached the bone [a Turkish idiom meaning the last straw]. The words have come to an end, our leniency has been ignored with no proper response and the dialog between the govern-ment and civil servants has sustained a harsh blow. Now this action is our last resort. We are organizing on Nov. 25 to express our rights, to remind the government of the fact that Turkey is a democracy and the basis of democracies lies in the protection of the rights of all segments of society and in ensuring a fair allocation of the state’s resources among the people,” he said.
He said the government will need to assume
responsibility for the hitches and problems that may arise due to the lack of civil servants’ servi-ces on the action day.
Aky�ld�z threatened that “the trains will halt with all other public transportation and com-muting vehicles, teachers will not go to schools, planes will not take off, bridge tolls will not open and no tax will be collected” on the action day.
Legally, civil servants do not have the right to strike for any reason, and such an action is grounds for � ring. In light of this fact, the civil servants are using tactics such as taking a day of casual leave for a variety of reasons including illness or a relative’s death. Ankara Today’s Zaman with wires
Babacan says economy to start
grow�ng aga�n �n f�nal quarterEconomy Minister Ali Babacan said the contraction in the Turkish eco-nomy will likely continue in the third
quarter but that the economy will begin to grow again starting with the last quarter of 2009.
“We forecast that Turkey’s gross do-mestic product (GDP) will grow 3.5 percent and 4 percent in 2010 and 2011, respecti-vely, and the economy will grow by 5 per-cent in 2012,” Babacan said.
The minister shared his assessments of the economy on Thursday during his pre-sentation of the 2010 budget of the Treasury undersecretary at a parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission meeting.
Along with the growth of the economy, unemployment will also start gradually decli-ning by 2010, the minister asserted. Unemp-loyment, which was 11 percent in 2008, will probably end this year at 14.8 percent due to the harsh conditions of the global economic crisis, he estimated. However, thanks to spe-
ci� c polices favoring the labor market as set out in the government’s Middle-Term Eco-nomic Program, Babacan claimed employ-ment levels will steadily rise again.
“Recent developments point to a mo-derate recovery in the global economy,” the minister argued, but didn’t forget to call on politicians and businessmen to re-main cautious by recalling past experien-ces with recoveries lasting long after such deep � nancial crises.
Babacan also mentioned the government’s plans to increase the effecti-veness of state economic enterprises (K�Ts) by introducing a new governance method for these corporations. Within this context, the government will determine priorities among public investment projects and al-locate public expenditures accordingly, he said. “We will complete the legal infrast-ructure for well-operating cooperation bet-ween the public and private sectors in 2010,
to increase the volume of investments and accelerate them,” Babacan asserted.
Babacan claimed that the adverse ef-fects of the global economic crisis on the Turkish economy remained restricted and the structural reforms of public � nance and regulations in the banking sector imple-mented after 2002 played an integral role in the resilience of the economy.
“Turkey, which has the 15th largest economy in the world, possesses the ade-quate infrastructure and equipment to re-ach a higher level of prosperity in the pe-riod ahead. What really matters now is to be aware of the potential Turkey has and to implement policies to stir and develop that potential. I believe the policy framework that we have recently shared with the pub-lic in the Middle-Term Economic Program and the Middle-Term Fiscal Plan will sig-ni� cantly help in realizing this potential,” Babacan noted. Ankara Today’s Zaman with wires
‘�MKB is inflated, real sector stagnant’
Turkish Exporters Assembly (T�M) President Mehmet Büyü-
kek�i has said a signi� cant recovery would not take place within the � nan-cial sector or stock exchange without a serious improvement in the real sector.
Speaking on Thursday at a meeting of the Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s Association (MÜS�-AD), Büyükek�i stated that the �stan-bul Stock Exchange benchmark index (�MKB-100) increased from around 23,000-25,000 to above 50,000 and that the Turkish lira gained value. Now, Turkey, like the rest of the world, is considering adopting the same polici-es of the last six to seven years despite the absence of any real recovery taking place in the real sector, he remarked. “The bourses are in� ating, even tho-ugh there is no improvement in eco-nomic indicators like industry produc-tion, exports, capacity utilization or the unemployment rate.”
Büyükek�i recalled that the compa-nies which made the most pro� ts were the banks in the third quarter of this year with a 30 to 60 percent increase in pro� ts, while the real sector suffered a loss in pro� ts in the same period.
MÜS�AD Chairman Ömer Cihad Vardan speaking at the meeting said Turkey won the approval of several countries for its economic performan-ce during the recent crisis compared to its performance in the previous crises of 1994, 1999 and 2001. The increasing trend experienced in the country’s ex-port levels in terms of both value and quantity played an important role in this performance, he remarked.
Turkey’s exports, which were once about $30 billion, managed to increa-se to some $130 billion; however, with the crisis this � gure declined to some $100 billion, Vardan stated, stressing that recovery from the crisis has star-ted to take place. “Turkey’s foreign trade strategy in line with its recent foreign affairs policy has undertaken a very important role in this recovery process,” he said, continuing that in previous terms Turkey’s exports were dependent on European Union co-untries with nearly 60 percent of the country’s total exports going to Euro-pe. This situation then resulted in the loss of Turkey’s foreign trade elasticity, he remarked, adding that now diversity has been achieved and that 48 percent of Turkey’s exports go to the European Union. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
PH
OT
O
AA
, F
IRA
T Y
UR
DA
KU
L
Second closurecase rumors lead to massive �MKB drop
Political concerns, such as the heated arguments in Parliament regarding the recent democratic initiative put forth by the AK Party and a “legal investigation of politi-cal parties” by Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalç�nka-ya that could lead to another closure case against the AK Party, have scared away investors, according to experts.
While Russia’s stock market rose by 0.78 percent on Wednesday along with other increases in global markets, the �MKB-100 dropped by nearly 2 percent in a single day. The � rst session of Thursday’s trading closed at 46,244.43, a 10 percent drop from the three-month peak. The unex-pected drop in US home construction and residential bu-ilding permits, revealed yesterday, also sent US and inter-national stocks plunging. Experts say that this drop along with the weak performance of European stock markets had a detrimental effect on the �MKB index. �im�ek has stated that investors need to be “vigilant” regarding their investments and that there are “vague implications” for an economic recovery. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
contýnued from page 1
CarrefourSA plans further store openings in Turkey
CarrefourSA, a French retail cha-in working in partnership with
Turkey’s Sabanc� Holding, is planning further growth through opening new stores and by capitalizing on all potenti-al opportunities presented by acquisiti-ons in the Turkish domestic market.
Guillaume Deruyter, the director ge-neral of CarrefourSA Supermarkets, said on Thursday that the company will open three supermarkets along with a hundred express markets in 2010, all of which will offer work for 5,600 more people.
Deruyter spoke with the Anatolia news agency during a visit to Tarsus, Mersin province, to inaugurate the 160th CarrefourSA store. CarrefourSA opened 55 express mar-kets and four supermarkets in Turkey in 2009. Carrefour owns 58.2 percent of shares in CarrefourSA while Sabanc� Holding controls a 38.8 percent stake. The rest of the sha-res are traded on the stock market.
The third-largest food retailer in Turkey, � rst in Europe and second in the world, the Carrefour group has over 15,500 sto-res, either company operated or franchised. Deruyter said Sa-banc� Holding has always offered full support in opening new stores. “We want to acquire companies if we encounter proper opportunities,” Deruyter noted. “We want to grow more and increase our share in the market. Our aim is to be number one in every area we are involved in.” He also said the company aims to increase its number of employees in Turkey to 19,000 from the current 7,600 by 2012. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Mehmet �im�ek
Economy Minister Ali Babacan (R) is shared his assessments of the economy on Thursday during his presentation of the 2010 budget of the Trea-sury undersecretary at a parliamentary Planning and Budget Commission meeting. The meeting was also attended by Kemal Madeno�lu.
08 TODAY’S ZAMAN F R I D A Y , N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 BUSINESS
CMYK
TL / €
TL / $
US$/JP¥
EU/JP¥
EU/US$
89,20
133,47
1,4961
Light C. Oil
Gold
Copper
79,71
1146,00
313,50
Native Native ForeignForeign
Number of SharesM.capNumber of SharesM.cap
8,6
26,4
9.7
51.9
47.03
33.67
52.97
66.33
Close
Price ($) Way Change (%) High Low
DailyChange (%)
MonthlyChange (%)
YearlyChange (%)
TurkDEX
US$/JP¥
EU€/JP¥
CloseDaily
Change (%)Monthly
Change (%)Yearly
Change (%)YTD
Change (%)1-Y
Av.VolumMCAP
(million TL)Country Change
(%)Level
EGGUB 64,00 12,28%
SASA 0,55 12,24%
CLEBI 13,10 9,17%
AFYON 1.510,00 2,37%
AKGRT 4,54 2,25%
Daily Change (%)Price (TL)Ticker
GRUND 0,52 -7,14%
AEFES 15,50 -2,52%
IHLAS 0,50 -1,96%
KRDMD 0,56 -1,75%
RYSAS 3,42 -1,72%
Daily Change (%) Yearly Change (%)Price Price (TL)Ticker
ISCTR 93,7 5,5 50,94
GARAN 73,2 5,6 116,07
VAKBN 45,8 3,4 192,31
KOZAA 38,8 4,9 456,82
AKBNK 29,5 8,6 83,46
Ticker
P/E: Share price divided by earnings per share is a measure of the price paid for a share relative to the income or profit earned by the firm per share.EV/EBITDA: Enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, tax and amortization; “t” stands for trailer and means the data over the last four quarters.(*) Yesterday's closing(**) Updated at 6 p.m. by GMT+2Disclaimer: The information in this report has been prepared by BMD, Bizim Securities from sources believed to be reliable. All the information, interpretations and recommendations covered herein relating to investment actions are not within the scope of investment consultancy. Therefore investment decisions based only on the information covered herein may not bring expected results.
Mcap TL
P/E 2006/12
P/E 2007/06t
P/E 2007/09t
EV/EBITDA 2006/12*
EV/EBITDA 2007/03t*
EV/EBITDA 2007/06t*
ÝMKB 100 ÝMKB 30 ÝMKB IND RETAILER BIMAS CARFA BOYNR KIPA
-0,32 22.840,3
-0,55 9.676,8
-0,18 3.822,1
0,12 5.785,1
-0,09 5.341,1
-0,37 10.360,0
-0,83 1.797,1
-0,48 1.105,0
0,16 67.513,8
Hang Seng H.Kong
Nikkei 225 Japan
Cac 40 France
DAX Germany
FTSE 100 UK
Dow USA
NASDAQ USA
S&P USA
BOVESPA Brasil
İMKB-100
İMKB-30
İMKB-IND
İMKB-BANK
DJIMT
46.420 -1,7% -1,6% 97,6% 72,8% 269.478 1.544
58.595 -1,8% -1,7% 95,3% 67,4% 219.632 1.171
34.066 -1,6% -2,4% 83,7% 72,2% 72.114 478
103.125 -2,0% -2,0% 118,7% 84,2% 126.209 724
10,05 -2,0% -2,0% 57,0% 41,6% - 0,44
58,925 -1,67%
1,4925 -0,13%
2,200 0,0%
1,473 -0,1%
-- -- -- 6.657,2 4.592 1.205 100 760
14,4x 13,6x 11,5x 242,4x 63,8x -89,1x 15,9x -20,4x
10,3x 9,8x 8,7x 300,2x 56,9x -507,7x 6,2x -10,5x
9,9x 9,5x 8,7x 327,9x 50,7x -193,4x 5,2x -9,1x
6,3x 5,0x 7,7x 29,1x 42,2x 14,8x 6,3x 41,5x
7,0x 5,6x 7,7x 30,6x 39,3x 17,9x 5,7x 74,7x
6,7x 5,4x 7,7x 27,9x 37,2x 18,4x 5,0x 35,7x
0,9% 80,11 79,17
1,3% 1146,00 1146,00
0,9% 317,20 309,45
VolumesNo data expectedCALENDAR AT A GLANCE
Communication needed to resolve longstanding problemsTurkey has entered a period of rapid growth and should best bene� t from this period by
focusing on solving its longstanding problems with the use of much more communication, State Minister Cevdet Y�lmaz said on Thursday.
Delivering a speech at the Regional Devel-opment and Governance Symposium, jointly organized by the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and Middle East Technical University’s (ODTÜ) social policy de-partment yesterday, Y�lmaz noted that Turkey should achieve a rapid growth rate and assure sustainable growth while ensuring that the dis-tribution of growth in different regions and seg-
ments of society will be equal.Y�lmaz stated that the process of develop-
ment cannot be completed solely with growth but should also take into account social and en-vironmental dimensions. Otherwise, he added, the re� ection of growth on social welfare will be limited. “Our primary goals are to raise the quality of life and boost social welfare. In order to achieve these goals we should create policies to pursue. We should implement these policies at both the national and local levels.”
Regarding regional policies, there is a tradi-tional mindset that there are large inequalities between the regions of Turkey, and we should
close this gap, which is actually accurate, the minister said, adding, however, that the new concept of “regional competitiveness” has also started to gain importance. The power of com-petitiveness should be increased in the country as a whole, Y�lmaz said, adding that this can only be achieved by mobilizing local dynamics.
The minister went on to call for the creation of a platform to coordinate participation at the national and regional level, noting that commu-nication is key to effective governance.
Behind all of the longstanding problems of Turkey lies either a communication failure or an institutional con� ict, he asserted. Y�lmaz, stress-
ing that this situation should be resolved, con-tinued by saying: “Turkey is entering a period of rapid growth. It will be a bright era in both the middle and long term. In order to best bene� t from this growth, we should focus on resolving the longstanding problems of the country by making use of more communication.”
World Bank Turkey Director Ulrich Zachau, speaking at the symposium, noted that Turkey has large regional discrepancies and the country is exerting signi� cant efforts to overcome this situation. Zachau expressed approval of projects currently under way in the southeastern Anato-lia region. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
OECD: Recovery �n global
economy gather�ng paceRecovery in developed econo-mies will accelerate next year due to “substantial improvements” in
� nancial markets and fast-growing Asian countries, but is likely to remain fragile, the Organization for Economic Coopera-tion and Development said Thursday as it doubled its 2010 growth forecast.
The Paris-based watchdog’s chief econ-omist, Jorgen Elmeskov, told a news confer-ence that the recovery has been mostly driv-en by government stimulus measures and interest rate cuts. Those bene� ted � nancial markets, whose recovery is “considerably faster and stronger” than anticipated in the June economic outlook, he said.
Still, the recovery will remain modest next year, with the US and Japan outpacing Eu-rope, the OECD report said.
Elmeskov warned banks not to use the “fat margins” they have accrued thanks to government policies designed to keep mon-ey � owing to the real economy to line their own pockets. He said the margins “are the result of both weak competition in the sector
and public policy interventions. It is impor-tant that these fat margins do not just end up as higher bonuses, dividends or buybacks.”
While banks have started to loosen lend-ing conditions -- a vital condition for the economy to grow again -- there are still some concerns about the health of their balance sheets and their ability to provide credit to fund the economy, he said.
The OECD more than doubled its esti-mate for 2010 growth in its 30 member coun-tries -- which include the US, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom -- to 1.9 percent, compared with 0.7 percent forecast in June. The projections are based on the assumption that by the middle of next year, � nancial con-ditions will have returned to normal.
The OECD publishes its economic outlook twice a year, although it updated some 2009 forecasts in an interim assess-ment published in September.
The US economy has been boosted by stimulus measures, improving � nan-cial conditions, demand from the fast-growing non-OECD economies of Asia
-- especially China -- and the stabilization of the housing market, the OECD said. It predicted unemployment will start to ease after peaking in the � rst half of 2010.
The OECD predicts the US economy will expand at a rate of 2.5 percent in 2010, up from a June forecast of 0.9 percent. It also expects a smaller contraction this year: a 2.5 percent fall in output compared with an interim Septem-ber forecast of a 2.8 percent drop.
In Europe, the economies of the 16 countries sharing the euro are now expected to grow by 0.9 percent next year compared to a June forecast of zero growth. However, the OECD predicts a greater contraction of 4 percent this year, more than the 3.9 per-cent it calculated in September. Unemploy-ment is not set to peak before the end of 2010 or the beginning of 2011, and is likely to sap the strength of recovery, the OECD said. Elmeskov said central banks should keep interest rates low and should beware of the dangers of de� ation, while govern-ments should work on plans to reduce debt levels as the economy recovers. Paris AP
‘Incentives needed toreinvigorate auto market’
Nissan Otomotiv A� Deputy Director Gener-al �klim Sancaktaro�lu has said that the auto-
motive market has started to suffer from a recession after the expiration of a cut in private consumption taxes (ÖTV) that was introduced in March and was in effect until the end of September.
Speaking in Antalya, where he attended Auto Show 2009, Sancaktaro�lu said that while demand for private cars was relatively high, the amount of commercial vehicles sold had decreased by some 15 percent compared to last year’s � gures. Noting that as the sector had entered a slowdown with the expiration of the tax incentives, Sancaktaro�lu stated that the sales � gure was 21,000 last month and that the projected � gure for November was some 30,000. “We were predicting approximately 100,000 automobile sales for the last quarter of the year, however sales have decelerated.”
Expecting a contrac-tion in the market
in the year ahead, Sancaktaro�lu said that the A u t o m o t i v e Distributors As-sociation will
present a plan to the government en-
visioning cuts in taxes along with decreasing vehicle costs.
According to the situation, the market value of the sector will increase to $1 million, he said. The number of vehicles sold in Turkey remains low due to the relatively low average income, and Sancaktaro�lu warned that the sector will have no option but to contract by some 20 per-cent in 2010 unless an incentive is introduced. In order to ensure continuous auto production, the domestic market should be kept alive, he said. Recalling that the sector was about to stop operations at the beginning of this year he said that the sector managed to overcome this situ-ation by the help of the incentives introduced in March.
Nissan managed to raise both its sales and market share despite the crisis, Sancaktaro�lu said. Nissan’s current share in the overall auto market is 1.5 percent, and this � gure is expect-ed to be increased to 2.5 percent in the near future. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
PH
OT
O
RE
UT
ER
S,
CH
AR
LE
S P
LA
TIA
U
Gulf capital head-to-head with co-ops in sugar refineries bid
Yesterday was the last day to submit bids on state-owned Turkish Sugar Re� neries Cor-
poration (TÜRK�EKER) facilities in Kastamonu, K�r�ehir, Turhal, Yozgat, Çorum and Çar�amba, in a privatization auction that attracted interest from both Gulf interests and local cooperatives.
Offers for the re� neries, which are being sold as part of a larger plan to privatize 25 TÜRK�EKER re� neries, were being accepted through last night. TÜRK�EKER’s total production for 2010 is expected to be 10.4 million tons of sugar; however, only 61 percent of the re� neries’ capacity is expected to be utilized.
The Turkish Agriculture Credit Cooperative Central Union (TTKKMB) will make a joint offer with Saudi Arabian-based Savola Group and Nes-ma Holding, also a Saudi company. The partner-ship, if the offer is accepted, would give the TTKK-MB and Savola Group 40 percent ownership of the re� neries apiece, with Nesma Holding receiving 20 percent. The Savola Group currently holds a 68 per-cent market share in the Saudi sugar industry, while Nesma Holding has a diverse portfolio, including business activities in advertising and logistics.
The bid has drawn criticism from many groups, especially from the individual re� neries them-selves, which have raised concerns about foreign-ers buying Turkey’s sugar re� neries. Ali Öz���k, chairman of the Kayseri Sugar Re� neries, which are also being privatized in a separate lot, claimed that “[these foreign companies] would not be able to meet the needs of our farmers.” To make a counteroffer for the lot, the S.S. Beet Farms Co-operative Union (PANKOB�RL�K) joined forces with other sugar re� neries and farming coopera-tives in the Central Anatolian region to form the Northern Anatolia Sugar Re� neries Joint Ven-ture. They hope to buy the re� neries on offer with their own capital. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
Technology does not kill jobs, academic study shows
The negative impact that technological change has on employment is being coun-
teracted by another effect -- an increase in pro-duction, Associate Professor Aykut Lenger of Ege University’s department of economics has said.
Speaking during a seminar held to promote his re-cent study, “Analysis of Inter-industry Effects of Tech-nological Change on Employment,” at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA), Lenger said: “The � rst perception is that technological change increases unemployment. However, there is an-other mechanism that replaces the negative impact of technological change on employment: Decreasing costs lead to an increase in production. Employment created by increasing production cancels out the loss of labor due to technological change,” he told Today’s Zaman.
When asked about how this positive impact seen in one sector in� uences other sectors, Lenger respond-ed, “As inter-industry relations are not very strong in Turkey, I found in my research that this positive impact remained limited to only the sector where the techno-logical change took place.” Even though production in Turkey is mostly labor intensive, the country still has a serious unemployment problem, Lenger said, add-ing that this situation has given rise to questions such as whether adopting a more technology-intensive production model would lead to increased unem-ployment. “However, we can say that technological change, by increasing production, eliminates its nega-tive impact on employment,” he explained, calling on � rms to invest more in technology. Ali Aslan K�l�ç Ankara
Turkmenistan seen as top gas supplier for Nabucco
Energy-rich Turkmenistan could become a top supplier to � ll a Western-backed natural gas pipe-
line aimed at reducing Europe’s dependency on Russian gas, a top executive on the project said Thursday.
The planned7.9 billion euros Nabucco pipeline would run 3,300 kilometers from to Turkey through Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and end in Austria, circum-venting Russia. “We hope and expect Turkmenistan to be one of the main suppliers of gas to various markets through Nabucco,” consortium Vice President Johann Gallistl told an investors conference in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat. The remarks highlighted the crucial role that Western politicians and energy executives see the isolated Central Asian nation playing in ensuring Eu-ropean energy supplies over the coming decades.
Construction of a trans-Caspian pipeline could be inde� nitely stalled by differences on how to divide the sea between � ve littoral nations, including Russia and Iran. Talks have dragged for years without an end in sight. Gallistl said alternative options included mov-ing gas through Iran, liquefying it, and then transport-ing it by sea. He also suggested it might be possible to deliver gas from offshore Turkmen � elds to Azerbai-jan, which lies across the Caspian from Turkmenistan. Other potential suppliers for Nabucco could include Azerbaijan, Iran and Iraq, Gallistl said. Ashgabat AP
OECD Chief Economist Jorgen Elmeskov
TRAVEL F R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN09
CMYK
LOME -- Togo is a West African nation which has neither an em-
bassy nor a consulate in Turkey. You can enter Togo, which has At-
lantic Ocean coastlines and Ghana, Benin, and Burkina Faso as its
neighbors, by purchasing a $20 visa at its border.
Togo was � rst colonized by the Portuguese and then later by the
Germans and then the French. This fate of foreign colonization was
one shared by Togo’s immediate neighbors, though Ghana, for exam-
ple, was colonized by the British instead. And as with many nations
that were colonized in the past, Togo has had to deal with the dif� cult
aftermath, which has included civil unrest, coups and much chaos.
Togo achieved independence in 1960, though its of� cial
language still remains French. In fact, a signi� cant amount of
its foreign trade and imports are conducted in French.
The world’s fourth largest producer of phosphate, Togo has
a national per capita income of just around $360. Thirty-two
percent of its population lives below the poverty level.
In Togo, which has a 56-kilometer coastline along the At-
lantic Ocean, fishing is an important means of earning a living.
Fishing boats head out early in the morning with their nets and
spend a good part of the day waiting for a catch.
Of course, this is not an easy business: The nets that get thrown
into the ocean’s waters need at least 14-15 people to pull them in.
Sometimes these nets are tied to trees on the shore to prevent them
from being pulled out too far by waves. Just pulling nets in from the
water takes up to one-and-a-half hours. After the � sh are caught,
they are smoked and cured before they are sold. This occurs right
next to the shoreline where they are caught, generally.
Agriculture is the main source of income in Togo, with 65 percent
of the work force working the land. The export of cacao, coffee and
cotton make up 40 percent of Togo’s total export pro� ts.
The distance between the Togo-Ghana border and the Togo capi-
tal of Lome is very short. Thanks to governmental agreement, citizens
of Ghana and Togo have only to show identity cards at the border
when crossing from one country to the other. So there is also quite a
bit of chaos at the border because of this; visitors back and forth, sell-
ers carrying their wares, shouting, yelling, crowds everywhere.
Lome’s beautiful coast
The population of Lome is around 1,200,000. The coast road
is Lome’s most beautiful boulevard. There are beaches, palm
trees and, of course, the endless vista of the ocean stretching
as far as the eye can see. A statue that stands in the middle of
the city commemorates those who died while � ghting against
the French to declare their independence.
The open city markets you see as you stroll around Lome are
quite interesting, the most famous of which is the Apatua mar-
ket. It features dried � sh, fruits, vegetables, clothing, shoes and
all sorts of prepared foods. Something you won’t � nd at this open
market, or any like it in Togo, is a scale. Foods are not sold by
weight here, but by eye estimation. You can buy your onions or
your tomatoes by telling the seller you want a few, or perhaps
picking out one of the bags the seller has already prepared.
You can also � nd roving pharmacies at these open markets: the
seller sets up medicines, some of whose use-by dates are already
past, and you can � nd everything from pain killers to ointments
here. There are medicines in boxes and medicines without boxes. Of
course, the ones without boxes have no information about when they
have passed their use-by dates, though this
doesn’t keep people from buying them, es-
pecially since they are so much cheaper than
medicines you might � nd in a pharmacy.
Other needs can be met at these
sorts of open markets; for example, if
you have to make a phone call, there is
always a spot where you can stop and
use the phone, one minute for 50 “cefa,”
or West African CFA francs.
In touring Lome, another spot of interest
for you might be the open air restaurant set
up in the shady grove next to the Ministry of
Economy. You can � nd all sorts of traditional
Togolese food here, including “akume,”
which is maize that has been ground into
� our and mixed with water, served with
“sauces” which are actually thick stews.
One of the sights that may surprise
you in Togo is the crowds standing around
newspaper stands, trying to read the
newspapers on foot just standing there.
No, nothing has necessarily happened; it
is just the crowd trying to get the news.
If you happen to be in Lome during celebrations for the
recently renamed “Peace and Compromise Day,” (this used
to be the celebration of the anniversary of the rise to power
of the previous president, who ruled for 38 years), you will
see some amazing sights. There are military parades and
official marches, and the current Togolese president, Faure
Gnassingbe, comes out to wave to the people of the city.
We note that there are French soldiers watching these cer-
emonies. We also notice many bearded soldiers marching in the
parade and understand that as a bearded man is considered a
symbol of strength here, many soldiers let beards grow on their
chins. After the military show, dancers take the stage, with lots of
color and music and much waving of the Togolese � ag, of course.
A Turkish school opened by Turkish entrepreneurs in Togo
has its own star and crescent � ag waving in front. This Lome
school opened up for the 2006-2007 educational year and boasts
a wonderful building as its home. It is called the International
Burç School. All of the goods with which this school is stocked
have been brought in from overseas. And in a very brief time,
the school has managed to make a good name for itself in Togo.
There are both Turkish and local teachers working here.
Of course, Turkey has not had much of an in� uence in
these lands over the years, which is why the signi� cance of
this new Turkish school here is quite something.
37 different tribes
There are 37 different tribes in Togo, and the most well-
known of these are the Ewe, Mina and Kabre. Each of these
tribes has its own language and distinct culture. Around half
of the Togolese population practices local tribal religions.
Another common sight while traveling in Togo is to see youths
selling strings of crabs by the side of the road. The price for one small
lot of crabs is $1, while a larger string of crabs goes for around $2.
The road that heads from Lome to Togoville is the same road
that would take you towards Benin and then Nigeria. The asphalt
road ends, and the rest of your journey towards Togoville will
take place on a dirt road, ultimately bringing you to this village
of around 8,500 people. Togoville was the � rst spot in Togo to fall
under colonization. Before the French arrived, it was the Germans
who colonized Togo, arriving in 1850. A large church built by the
Germans during the period of German colonization stands at the
center of Togoville. In 1985, Pope John Paul II visited this church.
It is said that many of the people who were taken from Togo as
slaves were sent to Haiti. Even now in Haiti, there are many people
who practice a religion -- Vodou -- with strains left from Togo. In
Togoville, local religion is strongly practiced, with sacri� ces made
to various gods who protect different aspects of life. These sacri� ces
can be in the form of chickens or goats, most commonly. If you have
the chance to witness any of the religious ceremonies that take place
in Togoville, you will see lots of dancing and hear much music.
AFRICA’S SILENT CHILD -- TOGOThe open city markets you see as you stroll around Lome are quite
interesting, the most famous of which is the Apatua market. It features
dried � sh, fruits, vegetables, clothing, shoes and all sorts of prepared
foods. Foods are not sold by weight here, but by eye estimation
Capital: Lome
Official language: French
Government: Republic under transition to multiparty demo-
cratic rule
President: Faure GNASSINGBE
Area: 56,785 square kilometers
Population: 6,019,877 *
Gross domestic product (PPP) $5.13 billion**
Main religions: Christianity (29 percent), Islam (20
percent), indigenous beliefs (51 percent)
*July 2009 estimate
**2008 estimate
[QUICK FACTS]
Students at a Turkish school in Lome
Merchants at the
Akodossewa fetish market
Participants during Peace and Compromise Day
Congregrational prayer at a mosque
PH
OT
OS
SA
�M O
RH
AN
PH
OT
OS
RE
UT
ER
S
MA
PY
UN
US
EM
RE
HA
TU
NO
L
U
Russian court extends moratorium on death penalty
Russia’s Constitutional Court extended a 13-year-old moratorium on the death
penalty on Thursday, just weeks before it was due to expire. Russian society is divided between those who back complete abolition of the death penalty those who believe it deters serious crime.
Capital punishment remains part of Russia’s criminal code but it has observed a moratorium since 1996.
“A sustainable constitutional legal re-gime guaranteeing the rights of a person to not be subjected to the death penalty and aimed at the gradual abolition of capital pun-ishment has formed in Russia,” the Constitu-tional Court said in Thursday’s ruling.
For the death penalty to be abolished, the Duma, or lower house of parliament, must ratify it. The last formal obstacle in bringing back capital punishment will be cleared at the beginning of next year.
On Jan. 1, Russia’s turbulent Chechnya region, on the country’s Muslim-dominated southern fringe, will become the last re-gion to replace traditional panels of judges in courts with juries, a requirement for the death penalty to return.
Surveys show that between 65 percent and 74 percent of Russians favor resuming executions, carried out before the morato-rium by a pistol shot to the back of the head.
Russia committed itself to scrapping the death penalty in 1996, when it signed a pro-tocol to the European Convention on Human Rights but it has never rati� ed the document, citing public opposition. St. Petersburg Reuters
Serbs bid farewell to Patriarch Pavle
Hundreds of thousands of people joined a somber funeral procession
Thursday for Patriarch Pavle, who led the Serbian Orthodox Church through its post-Communist revival and the bloody Balkan ethnic con� icts in the 1990s.
White-robed church elders led funeral prayers in Belgrade’s Saborna Curch, where Pavle’s body covered by green-and-gold em-broidered cloth lay surrounded by � ickering candles in an open casket.
Pavle, a highly popular patriarch known for his modesty and humility, died over the weekend after being hospitalized for two years with heart and lung problems. He had led the 7 million-member church since 1990.
The casket was placed on a hearse-drawn caisson as crowds joined Serbian leaders and clergy in a solemn procession to the St. Sava Temple, the biggest Orthodox Christian church in the Balkans. The � nal liturgy, led by �stanbul-based Patriarch Bartholomew I -- the spiritual leader of world’s Orthodox Christians -- was held there. The state TV estimated that about half a million Orthodox believers, many from neighboring Bosnia and Montenegro, attend-ed the funeral procession through downtown Belgrade as bells tolled from churches.
Pavle is to be buried later Thursday at a monastery in a Belgrade suburb in a private ceremony attended only by church leaders and Serbian of� cials. “I come to bid last farewell to the best man who ever lived,” said Gojko Ljubovic, 53-year-old teacher from the south-ern town of Vranje. “He has done so much for the Serbian nation.” The frail-looking Pavle, known here as “the walking saint,” had called for peace and conciliation during the Balkan wars. But critics say he had failed to openly condemn extreme Serb nationalism of former President Slobodan Milosevic, which triggered the clashes with Catholic Croats and Bosnian and Kosovo Muslims in the 1990s. Belgrade AP
CMYK
TODAY’S ZAMAN WORLDF R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 910
CONFERENCE
‘NATO must not forsake Afghanis’NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmus-sen said on Thursday the alliance must not turn its back on Afghanistan as this would raise the threat from al-Qaeda and lead to insecurity throughout central Asia. “I have absolutely no doubt that if we were to walk away and turn our backs on Afghan-istan al-Qaeda would be right back,” Rasmussen told a conference in Budapest. ”And if we were to walk away, just imagine the pressure on nuclear-armed Pakistan and the way instability would spread like wild� re through central Asia.” Ras-mussen said that, although the cost of the NATO operation in Afghanistan might appear high, the cost of walking away would be far higher. NATO wants more troops to be sent to Afghanistan to step up training of Afghan forces so they can take over responsibility for security, a process NATO hopes to start in some areas next year. Rasmussen said Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was sworn in on Thursday for a second � ve-year term, should use his new mandate to pursue reforms and � ght corruption. Budapest Reuters
POLL
Berlusconi’s party stronger despite splitSilvio Berlusconi’s conservative People of Free-dom (PDL) coalition has bolstered its popular-ity despite judicial problems dogging the Italian prime minister and splits among its leadership, according to an opinion poll on Thursday. The survey, carried out for the pro-government newspaper Libero by the respected Piepoli in-stitute, showed the PDL increasing its share of voting intentions to 38.5 percent, versus the 35.3 percent it garnered in July’s European elections. The poll was carried out before this week’s talk of early elections. Pollster Nicola Piepoli said, however, that when the poll was taken political parties were focused on regional elections due in March. The main opposition Democratic Party (PD) also saw its popularity rise to 27.5 percent from 26.1 percent. The main losers were smaller coalition partners on the left and right and in-dependent parties, according to the survey. The � gures contrasted with a survey by pollsters ISPO, published in late October in Corriere della Sera newspaper, which showed the govern-ment’s popularity slipping. Rome Reuters
SECURITY
Air gun found at Taiwan leader’s eventTaiwan authorities arrested a man who tried to take a BB gun, a type of air gun, into a cam-paign event led by President Ma Ying-jeou, the president’s of� ce said on Thursday. Authorities at a late Wednesday campaign rally in south-ern Pingtung county, where Ma’s ruling party seeks to unseat the opposition in an election for magistrate next month, found the gun during a routine security check shortly before the presi-dent arrived, his spokesman Tony Wang said. A 19-year-old man who brought the gun was ar-rested, he said. A BB gun shoots small metal balls with enough force to puncture the skin and eyes. “He might have had the intent to kill or injure,” Wang said. “We need to do further checks.” Ma was unfazed by the incident and grateful for event security’s early detection, he said. Elected last year on pledges to improve relations with po-litical rival China, Ma has angered citizens who support Taiwan’s formal independence. China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949 and vowed to bring the island under its rule, by force if necessary. Taipei Reuters
DISMISSAL
Medvedev sacks his senior adviserRussian President Dmitry Medvedev has dis-missed an in� uential Kremlin media adviser for breaching government rules, the � rst such sack-ing of his presidency, local media reported on Thursday. The Kremlin announced the departure of Mikhail Lesin, who founded Russia’s main TV advertising company in 1990 and held senior posts in news, television and the government, on Tuesday in a terse statement saying Lesin left “at his own request.” But Interfax news agency, cit-ing an unidenti� ed Kremlin of� cial, reported that Lesin was sacked for using “his position to re-solve questions not related to his of� cial duties.” It quoted the Kremlin of� cial as saying Lesin, 51, had breached discipline and rules on state ser-vice. Other Russian newspapers also ran stories on Thursday saying Lesin, who looked after media, information technology and intellectual property issues in the Kremlin administration, was sacked for con� icts of interest with his own businesses. A Kremlin spokesman refused to comment on the reports but the in� uential Kom-mersant newspaper said such harsh comments are rarely made by senior Kremlin of� cials with-out the president’s permission. Moscow Reuters
At least 19 killed in courthouse bombing in NW PakistanA suicide bomber killed at least 19 people on Thursday outside a courthouse in northwestern
Pakistan, the latest attack in an onslaught by extremist militants � ghting back against an army offensive in the nearby Afghan border region.
The bombing was the seventh attack in less than two weeks in and around Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest. The attacks have killed more than 80 people.
The bomber, who arrived in a taxi, was being searched by police of� cers at the gate of the city’s lower court when he detonated explosives on his body, gov-ernment of� cial Sahibzada Anees said.
Several damaged motorbikes were strewn about the site, and � re� ghters sprayed water on a charred, smoking white car.
Dr. Saib Gul of the city’s Lady Reading Hospital said 19 people were killed in the attack and 51 had been wounded. At least three of the dead were police. “These attacks will not deter us in our � ght against these beasts who are killing our children,” said Bashir Ahmad Bilour,
senior minister of the North West Frontier Province.The army launched its offensive against the Pakistani
Taliban in South Waziristan in mid-October. It has retak-en many towns in the region, but the militants say they avoided � ghting and will now begin a guerrilla campaign.
The United States has welcomed the assault, but wants the army to do more against the insurgents in the border area blamed for violence across the border in Afghanistan. Pakistan of� cials � agged the offensive in South Waziristan several months before it actually began, something Bilour claimed allowed the militants to escape and plan the current wave of terror.
“Unfortunately the announcement of the opera-tion in Waziristan prior to the actual operation caused this problem,” he said. “They [the militants] are hiding in villages surrounding Peshawar and make their way in despite security.” Since the beginning of October, more than 300 people have been killed in bombings and mili-tant raids on government, civilian and Western targets in the country, most of them in the northwest. Peshawar AP
Kosovo st�ll poor
and �dle, desp�te
b�ll�ons �n a�d Thaci came to power in 2007 promising jobs, less poverty, better roads, 24-hour power and water. But while Kosovo elected local of� cials on Sunday in its � rst vote
since independence from Serbia in 2008, many are pessimistic about the future
Nezir Jonuzi sips black tea, stares at Prime Minister Hashim Thaci’s boy-
hood home and wonders whether he can get a job to feed his family.
Thaci came to power in 2007 promis-ing jobs, less poverty, better roads, 24-hour power and water. But while Kosovo elected local of� cials on Sunday in its � rst vote since independence from Serbia in 2008, many are pessimistic about the future.
In the heartland of the ethnic Albanian re-bellion against Serb rule 10 years ago, people like Jonuzi and his ethnic Albanian family are among the 15 percent of Kosovo’s two million people living in extreme poverty, making less than 93 cents a day, according to the World Bank.
“I know there will be nothing, no work during the winter,” said Jonuzi, 42, who has done odd jobs at construction sites.
For decades the poorest part of socialist Yugoslavia, Kosovo is weighed down by the destruction of the 1998-99 war and a legacy of waste and corruption, illustrating the limita-tions of international help.
Over the past decade it has received 3 bil-lion euros in aid, according to the World Bank, and is expecting another billion by 2011. Yet of� cials in Pristina say they may need more.
The government has talked with the In-ternational Monetary Fund about a loan of $200 to $300 million and hopes to conclude a deal this month, according to the central bank governor. In Kosovo, unemployment is 40 percent and average per capita income is 1,760 euros. That compares with average job-lessness of just under 10 percent in the Eu-
ropean Union and an average salary of about 24,000 euros ($35,930). The government hopes big public projects will pull the roughly 45 percent of the population who earn up to 1.42 euros a day out of poverty.
“If nothing improves in the next two years there will be social unrest from those who have no jobs and those working in the public sector but are not paid well,” said Alban Ha-shani, an economist working for development and research group Riinvest.
Its lack of exposure to � nancial markets, the unilateral use of the euro, � scal stabil-ity and a balanced budget has saved Kosovo some of the woes of the global economic crisis.
Deputy Economy Minister Bedri Hamza says energy, roads and the private sector will fuel future growth. The country is expected to grow 4 percent in 2009, down from 5.4 in 2008.
But years of high growth will be needed
to gain ground on even the poorest EU states. “To reduce poverty and unemployment we need to have economic growth of more than 8 percent for the next six or seven years,” said Hamza. Economists are skeptical. An invest-ment boom, widely expected after indepen-dence, has not materialized.
This week Kosovo abandoned a project to build a 2,000 megawatt power plant due to lack of investor interest, a problem in a coun-try where water and power shortages happen every day. With a budget surplus, privatiza-tion and pension revenues this year, Kosovo has a billion euros in unused cash, but of� cials are unsure how to use such funds effectively. Hashani said government should use it to cre-ate jobs. ”The country with the highest unem-ployment rate in Europe has a surplus? This is an economic phenomenon that does not hap-pen anywhere in the world,” he said. Reuters
Policemen and rescue workers stand near a vehicle which was damaged by a suicide bomb blast outside a court house in Peshawar on Thursday.
PH
OT
O
RE
UT
ER
S
FATOS BYTYCI DRENICA VALLEY
Two Albanian brothers collecting scrap metal sit in a horse-drawn cart in the town of Mitrovica. The World Bank says half of Kosovo’s population live under the poverty line and 15 percent are “extremely poor.”
A Kosovo Albanian cycles through the ruins of the Roma Mahala, which was destroyed after the 1998-99 war, in northern Kosovo in this May 5, 2005, file photo.
PH
OT
OS
R
EU
TE
RS
, H
AZ
IR R
EK
A
11TODAY’S ZAMANF R I D A Y, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9WORLD
CMYK
Palest�ne
after Abbas?
RAMALLAH –- A political leader’s decision not to seek re-election usually triggers fervent discussion about potential heirs. Yet, President Mahmoud Abbas’s withdrawal from the presidential election scheduled for Jan. 24, 2010, has produced nothing of the kind in Palestine -- not because of a dearth of leadership or a reluctance to mention possible successors, but because the presidency of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has become irrelevant.
Abbas’s withdrawal comes at a time when Palestinian frustration with the political process has rendered suspect the entire rationale behind the PA, established in the mid-1990’s, following the Oslo Accords. The main component of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) agreement with Israel was a � ve-year interim period during which ne-gotiations were expected to lead to an independent Pales-tinian state alongside Israel.
Sixteen years later, it has become clear that the Is-raelis have made no effort to come to terms with Pales-tinian national aspirations -- and that no effective effort has been made to convince them. The number of illegal Jewish settlers in Palestinian areas has doubled, leaving Palestinians increasingly convinced that negotiations are a waste of time. Many recall the preferred strategy of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir: “I would have conducted negotiations on autonomy for 10 years, and in the meantime we would have reached a half-million people in the West Bank.”
Initially, the � ve-year interim agreement called for the election of a Palestinian Legislative Council and an executive leader whom the Israelis wanted to call a “chairman,” spurning the word “president.” Because Arabic makes no distinction between chairman and president, the Israelis accepted use of the Arabic word rayyes in the of� cial English text.
Palestinian refugees in exile and other Palestinians living in the diaspora were not allowed to vote. East Jeru-salem Palestinians were allowed to vote only at the post of� ce or at booths outside the citty limits.
Abbas’s withdrawal merely con� rms the obvious. Another such election in the near future, including the one set for January, is unlikely to occur, mainly owing to the continuing rift between the PLO and Hamas, which controls Gaza.
Hamas participated in the 2006 legislative elections which followed Israel’s military withdrawal from Gaza. But for years Hamas and other radical Palestinian groups have rejected the Oslo process, on the grounds that free elections under Israeli occupation would be absurd. Hamas has the power to stymie the vote and has indicated that it would do so.
Moreover, Abbas has not given up his positions as head of the PLO and leader of its biggest faction, Fa-tah, which remains in control in the West Bank. Abbas cannot resign from his post for the foreseeable future, lest the Hamas-backed speaker of the Palestinian Leg-islative Council take over. At the same time, no PLO of� cial is likely to seek the presidency without Abbas’s approval, which he will withhold until a new mecha-nism for ending the occupation is found.
The PLO will likely gain much from Abbas’s decision, because it de-emphasizes the status of the PA president and raises the pro� le of his post as chairman of the PLO’s executive committee. That shift, in turn, clears the way for a generational change in leadership -- and, more impor-tantly, a transition to post-Oslo politics.
The PLO’s old guard -- men like Yasser Arafat and Abbas, who led the liberation organization from exile and returned home with the Oslo Accords -- dominat-ed the Palestinian political landscape up to now. After they depart the scene, Palestinian leaders who were born under occupation and spent time in Israeli prisons will most likely � ll the vacuum.
The most prominent such � gure is Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the student movement at Birzeit University in the 1980s and one of the main organizers of the First Inti-fada, resulting in his deportation by Israel in the late 1980s. In 2002, he was arrested and sentenced to a long prison term on charges that he led the Second Intifada, which had begun two years earlier, and ordered some of its military attacks.
Despite being imprisoned, Barghouti was recently elected to Fatah’s central council, and a number of others who spent time in Israeli prisons will join him. One is Jibril Rajoub, imprisoned for 19 years and deported in the First In-tifada, only to return to lead one of the security services after the PA was established. Another is Mahmoud Dahlan, also an ex-prisoner and former security of� cial, although the loss of Gaza to Hamas, for which many Palestinians hold him partly responsible, has dimmed his leadership prospects.
Finally, there is Nasser al-Qudwa, the former PLO rep-resentative at the United Nations. Qudwa is a dark-horse candidate to succeed Abbas -- a possible compromise � gure who has never been directly involved in security or military activities. For many Palestinians, Qudwa, a soft-spoken, multi-lingual nationalist (and Arafat’s nephew), presents an acceptable face for Palestine both locally and internationally.
The coming months will reveal whether we are, indeed, witnessing the dawn of the post-Oslo era in Palestinian pol-itics, and whether a new leader, with new supporters, will be required to revive the Palestinian cause. Whoever emerges on top will have to present an effective strategy to end four decades of military occupation and bring about a truly inde-pendent state that a majority of Palestinians can embrace.
*Daoud Kuttab is an award-winning Palestinian journal-ist and former professor of journalism at Princeton Uni-versity. © Project Syndicate, 2009
OPINION
TODAY’S ZAMAN
Daoud Kuttab
Spain’s conservative opposition called on Thursday on the country’s intelligence chief
to testify over whether ransom was paid for the release of a hijacked Spanish trawler by Somali pi-rates. Popular Party spokeswoman Soraya Saenz de Santamaria said they want the director of the National Intelligence Center, Felix Sanz Roldan, to testify behind closed doors at parliament. The Spanish trawler Alakrana was released on Tuesday after an alleged ransom payment of $3.3 million. Somali pirates held the ship and its 36-member crew for 47 days. The Spanish government refuses to say if a ransom was paid, although Prime Minis-ter Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has done little to
deny it, saying the government “did what it had to do.” The Popular Party has refrained publicly from criticizing the alleged payment, but it has assailed the government’s handling of the crisis. “We want to know what happened in order to take measures and help in any way we can,” Saenz de Santamaria said in a television interview. She was answering a question as to whether she thought the government or the ship’s owner had made the reported ransom payment. The party said Zapa-tero has ignored repeated calls from it and other parties for troops be stationed on Spanish � shing boats in the Indian Ocean after a series of hijack-ings or attempts over the past year. Madrid AP
Peace talks with Israel have failed and the Palestinians must launch popular and
diplomatic campaigns to achieve statehood, Marwan Barghouti said in an interview from his prison cell. Still popular and articulate despite � ve years behind bars, the 50-year-old activist is seen by some as a Palestinian Nelson Man-dela, the man who could galvanize a drifting and divided national movement if only he were set free by Israel. With US peace diplomacy at a standstill, Barghouti said, there is no justi� cation for the split between the Fatah movement he belongs to and the Hamas Islamists who control Gaza. “I do not see that there are fundamental
political differences between Fatah and Hamas,” said Barghouti, a leading � gure in the two In-tifadas, or uprisings against Israeli occupation, waged by the Palestinians since 1987. Convicted of murder for his role in attacks on Israelis, Barg-houti was jailed for life by Israel in 2004 during the second Intifada, which broke out in 2000. From his prison cell he responded in writing to questions from Reuters delivered by his lawyers. Before his arrest, Barghouti had been seen as a contender to succeed Yasser Arafat as Palestin-ian leader -- a position assumed by current Pal-estinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas after Arafat’s death in 2004. Ramallah Reuters
Spanish opposition queries alleged ransom payment to Somali pirates
Palestinian leader Barghouti wants popular, diplomatic action
Karzai sworn in as Afghan president, vows to fight graft
Afghan forces should be ready to take over security in Afghanistan in � ve years, President Hamid Karzai said
at his inauguration on Thursday, and pledged to tackle graft which has left his reputation in tatters. Karzai was sworn in as Washington decides whether to send tens of thousands more troops to � ght an increasingly unpopular war. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was among foreign of� cials at the ceremony.
Karzai, 51, also called for a “loya jirga,” a tradi-tional grand assembly, which under Afghanistan’s constitution can take precedence over all govern-ment institutions, including the presidency itself. His inauguration for his second � ve-year term came against the backdrop of a rising Taliban insurgency, doubts over his legitimacy after an election tainted by fraud, and complaints his government is riddled with corruption and mismanagement.
“We are determined that by the next � ve years, Afghan forces are capable of taking the lead in ensuring security and stability across the country,” Karzai said. He said Afghanistan’s se-curity forces should be able to assume responsi-bility of unstable areas in three years.
US of� cials say Afghan forces must be able to take over security across the country before foreign
troops can leave. There are nearly 110,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, including 68,000 Americans, more than half arriving this year. Despite an an-nouncement this week that Afghanistan would set up an anti-corruption unit, Clinton, in her � rst visit as secretary of state, earlier criticized Karzai for not taking enough measures to combat graft.
“They’ve done some work on that, but in our view, not nearly enough to demonstrate a serious-ness of purpose to tackle corruption,” she told re-porters en route to Kabul on Wednesday.
‘Very dangerous issue’Clinton said Washington would support the new government but expected serious results in building an “accountable, transparent gov-ernment.” Karzai said corruption was “a very dangerous issue” and pledged to appoint com-petent and professional ministers.
A decision by US President Barack Obama on whether to send up to 40,000 troops to com-bat a resurgent Taliban partly depends on whether Karzai can be trusted to press ahead with reforms. Obama said on Wednesday he sought to bring the con� ict to an end before he leaves of� ce.
A UN-backed probe found that nearly a third of votes for Karzai in the Aug. 20 election
were fake. While Karzai had been expected to win anyway, the extent of the fraud in his favor severely damaged his credibility at home and among Western and other nations with troops � ghting to support his government.
He has since faced tough pressure from West-ern leaders to clamp down on widespread corrup-tion and replace former guerrilla leaders and cro-nies with able technocrats in his new government.
Streets deserted Karzai had been set to take on former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah in a Nov. 7 run-off before his opponent withdrew, citing more fraud fears. Despite pressure from the West for a power-sharing deal, Abdullah has ruled out joining Karzai. “I have no intention of taking part in Karzai’s government,” Abdullah told Afghanistan’s Tolo television on Thursday.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari, the most prominent foreign leader at the ceremo-ny, watched Karzai’s inauguration with foreign ministers from Britain, France and Turkey. Ka-bul’s streets were deserted early on Thursday with armored vehicles blocking off major roads. Security of� cers even stopped people from walking on the streets. Kabul Reuters
US warns Iran of consequences over nuclear standoffWorld powers could have a package of measures against Iran “within
weeks,” US President Barack Obama said on Thursday, warning Tehran of conse-quences for its failure to respond to an of-fer of a nuclear deal.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Ma-nouchehr Mottaki dismissed talk of further punitive sanctions, saying the West had learnt from past failures. Iran on Wednes-day rejected a deal to send enriched ura-nium abroad for rendering into fuel for medical purposes in Tehran, defying world powers which regarded the offer as a way to delay Iran’s potential ability to make atomic bombs by at least a year by divesting the
country of most of its re� ned uranium stock.Under the plan brokered by the UN
nuclear watchdog, Iran would ship some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Rus-sia and France, where it would be converted into fuel plates for a Tehran reactor that makes isotopes for cancer treatment.
“Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal ... and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our interna-tional partners about the importance of having consequences,” Obama said at a joint news conference with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Seoul.
He said Iran would not be given an
unlimited amount of time, likening the Iranian nuclear issue to years of stop-and-start negotiations with North Korea about its nuclear ambitions.
“We weren’t going to duplicate what has happened with North Korea, in which talks just continue forever without any ac-tual resolution to the issue,” said Obama. He has advocated a policy of increased engagement, rather than confrontation, on thorny international issues. In appar-ent response to Obama’s comments, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiter-ated in a speech in Tabriz that Iran would respond positively to a change in big pow-ers’ policy. Seoul/Manila Reuters
Karzai was sworn in as Washington decides whether to send tens of thousands more troops to � ght an increasingly unpopular war. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was among foreign of� cials at the ceremony
PH
OT
OR
EU
TE
RS
, JE
RR
Y L
AM
PE
N
Afghan President Hamid Karzai (C) is flanked by his vice presidents Mohammad Qasim Fahim (L) and Karim Khalili, as he takes the oath in Kabul on Thursday.
Davuto�lu attends Karzai’s
inaugurationForeign Minister Ahmet Davuto�lu rep-resented Turkey at a ceremony in Kabul where Afghan President Hamid Karzai was sworn in for a second term, after being returned to power despite a fraud-tainted poll in which more than a quarter of his votes were invalidated. Karzai was returned to power after election officials cancelled a needless run-off vote that was to be held on Nov. 7. A UN-backed probe had earlier invalidated tens of thou-sands of his votes from the Aug. 20 bal-lot. World leaders have since congratulat-ed Karzai on his win, but the fraud-marred poll has hurt his reputation among West-ern countries that have nearly 110,000 troops defending his government from a growing Taliban insurgency.
Earlier this month, Ankara congratu-lated Karzai on his re-election, with the For-eign Ministry expressing hope to see that those groups who opposed Karzai in the elections will support the new administra-tion. Ahead of the inauguration, Davuto�lu attended a breakfast meeting hosted by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clin-ton for foreign ministers of the countries which have supported the NATO-led Inter-national Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
Davuto�lu was scheduled to visit the Ka-bul Regional Command later in the day. Tur-key had already been supporting ISAF with around 800 non-combat troops in Afghani-stan, but gradually increased this number to 1,600 after assuming the Kabul Regional Command’s rotating leadership. Turkey has constantly voiced its determination to refrain from sending any combat troops to Afghani-stan. Ankara Today’s Zaman with wires
US President Barack Obama speaks to American soldiers at Osan Air Base in Osan, South Korea, on Thursday.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after Karzai was sworn on Thursday.
PH
OT
OA
P,
AH
N Y
OU
NG
-JO
ON
PH
OT
OR
EU
TE
RS
TODAY’S ZAMAN EXPAT ZONEF R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 912
CMYK
It is said that Muhammad liked cats.He said dogs, hearing the word of man, obeyed him; but cats,
hearing God’s word, would not obey man, only God.Dogs are purported to be un-Islamic. Don’t tell that to most
Turks. They love their dogs, dogs are everywhere, well-cared for, even the strays. That blue chip you may see in a stray’s ear means someone’s seeing to it that that dog is getting his shots. You see Turks walking their dogs all the time. They will not let them in the house, wanting the house clean and it is ritual to forbid dogs from the home, but many Turks OWN dogs, they just keep them out-side, in kennels. Not dog houses -- fenced-in multi-dog apartment dwellings. But the strays are always around too, especially at night, so around 2 a.m., it’s like listening to all the late-night bark shows.
“My next guest [single dog, running through woods, is an-nounced from a kilometer away], ROWR ROWR ROWR, my next guest ROWR is, well you all know him, he’s the sultan of the neigh-borhood, cur of the caddesis, a big WHOOF warm �stanbul welcome BARK BARK BARK for Mehmet!” And the entire local dog audience erupts from multiple homes, RAWR RAWR BARK BARK ROWF ROWF RAWRF RAWRF BARK! Until 10 minutes later, when after his gig, Mehmet runs to his SECOND show of the night, ROWR ROWR ROWFFF! and it starts all over again. I hardly notice it anymore.
�stanbul’s cats, they are everywhere, many very beautiful and striped. Most of ‘em look contented and will come over if you ask, although they’ll be annoyed if you don’t have food. Or if they want petting and you try and stop, “MRRRowll!” Hey, petting to continue, please! If you’re a hit, the cat will follow you. A big orange tabby, he is my new friend by the gym; I like that cat. I would say there’s mutual interest. I am doing a heck of a lot better with cats than with women, although the similarities are obvious. The cats are a comfort, and they encourage me in the other. Except I know how to talk to a cat.
That’s been true as long as I can remember; with cats and dogs, I get them to come over when no one else can, and then they don’t want to leave. Some part of me is always amazed not everyone knows how to talk to dogs and cats. I once made new friends in a bar with this acquaintance’s roommates’ dog; he was dogsitting. The guy was there with his German boss. Poor little girl, a young orange pit bull, she was neglected and lonesome, and we talked about it a long, long time and I let her tell me her whole story. Much petting and cud-dling and looking her in the face, she whined, she was so sad. I let her know we were pals. We wrestled some on the � oor. The German fel-low, who’d been formal and stiff when we were introduced, stared in amazement. “What is zis? You say he does not know ze dog? That is ridiculous! He does not know the dog? But look at him! He … the dog … obviously he knows zis dog, anyone can see it, or how … how is it like this then with the dog?” I didn’t want to interfere with the boss-employee meeting, but I had to answer. “She’s just lonely,” I said.
NOTE: Today’s Zaman intends to provide a lively forum for expatriates living in Turkey. We encourage you to contact us at [email protected] and share your experiences, questions and problems in all walks of life for publication in Today’s Zaman.
�stanbul from the
one-meter and
below perspect�ve
Parents raising their children in another culture often feel overwhelmed with all the challenges. A few Turks have made comments to me, saying they think that resident foreigners have a superiority complex and try to transplant their own culture in the host country by their choices of where they live and how their children are educated.
Education is a particularly touchy subject for most parents, re-gardless of nationality. Turks who can afford to do so also send their children to private Turkish schools where they are sure their children will receive the best education they can afford.
Often Turks seem to observe that foreign kids are sent to in-ternational private schools where children may only enroll if they hold a foreign passport. Although these schools range in price, they are usually the most expensive ones.
Not every foreigner who lives in Turkey is someone who basically thinks that if you keep out of my life, I’ll keep out of yours and is somebody who feels no obligation to integrate into the host culture’s way of life.
Many foreign parents would like for their children to make friends with local children and learn about the host culture, but their primary concern has to be about the quality of education that their children receive. They want to be sure that their children can go back to their
homeland and not be different from their peers at university.For one reason or another, not every child adjusts to other
cultures. Mom and dad have expressed concerns that when they moved as a family overseas they wanted to encourage their chil-dren to get involved in extracurricular activities such as sports and music. They also say it is important that they talk with their chil-dren at the end of each day and recognize that parental involve-ment with the school is essential. Parents who have children with special learning disabilities face an even greater challenge:
Here is a letter from one parent who requests to remain anonymous:
Dear Charlotte: We have a daughter in year 5 at a private school. She suffers from a learning disability -- dyslexia. Before we knew it was this, we were told by the school that our child should be held back in school and placed into a class with students a few years younger, which would help her do better. There was concern for her low self-esteem and low self-con� dence. We were aware of these traits because we had read that this can be a symptom of dyslexic children. We did not feel comfortable with the school’s recommendation that our child, age 9, should be in a class with children that young. We refused.
Because private schools are not just an educational institu-tion but also have to operate as a business, we believe that the lack of feedback on our child’s performance in her earlier years has now created a worse problem for us to deal with. We have paid the school a fortune. We are disappointed that we have not been given more advice and support. We can’t help but think that they were more concerned in keeping us as their customer than risk telling us something that we may have not wanted to hear. The scary thing is that if suf� cient help is not available in private schools I cringe to think what happens to children in government schools who have special needs.
We have taken our child out of the school and are now
homeschooling her.Dear Anonymous: You are very courageous. Many schools may
have a speech and linguist specialist on staff, but most schools are not equipped to offer a diagnosis of dyslexia as this should be done by a certi� ed professional. Although it seems that usually Turkey is later than others in forming speci� c organizations to support and help in special cases, in this case, you will be glad to know that there is an organization in Turkey based in Lefkosa, called North Cyprus Dyslexia Association and approved by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), who are determined to help teachers and parents better understand dyslexia.
There are many Web sites to help parents learn more about dys-lexia. I was impressed with one that provides a good de� nition of the learning disability and spells it out by age groups. You can visit it at: http://www.psychnet-uk.com/dsm_iv/dyslexia.htm
“Anyone can give up, it’s the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that’s true strength.” -- Christopher Reeves
Note: Charlotte McPherson is the author of “Culture Smart: Turkey, 2005.” Please keep your questions and observations coming: I want to ensure this column is a help to you, Today’s Zaman’s readers. Email: [email protected]
“Hello. What is your name?” How many times had I heard these words from kids of all ages during my years of traveling through Turkey? Then, when
I � nally moved to downtown Antalya some four years ago, no prizes for guessing the � rst question I was asked by the neighborhood kids! I soon learned that while it was � ne to give a straight “My name is…” reply, anything else would bring nothing but the blank look of incomprehension. The English most kids learned here was by rote -- which is all very well when answering teachers’ questions or marking the correct answer in a multiple-choice test -- but next to useless out on the street when faced with a real live for-eigner. I’d been taught French at school in exactly the same way, so I could easily empathize with the exuberant neigh-borhood kids. It meant, though, that I started my new job in an Antalya crèche with some trepidation. How could I succeed in helping my class of multinational 3-year-olds learn to speak a new language � uently?
Firstly, all kids need to be motivated. In the UK, praise for a child’s efforts, making learning a fun and positive expe-rience and, as a last resort, dishing out reward-stickers was usually suf� cient. But here I had a much more powerful tool -- my own very obvious inability to speak their language -- whether it be Turkish, Dutch, Russian, Hebrew or whatever. This proved a fantastic incentive. The kids soon learned that if they wanted to communicate with their teacher and their classmates they would have to learn English -- and fast!
The � rst job was to establish some familiar and catchy rhymes and songs with which to gain their attention and encourage some listening skills. My � rst attempt was to launch into a rendition of “Baa baa black sheep, have you any wool,” etc. Needless to say this was met with a wall of total blankness -- even after I had found the toy sheep from the farm box and some wool with which to explain the lyrics. I fared better with the “Five Little Monkeys” -- especially with the chosen few acting out the monkey parts.
Circle games such as “Ring a Ring of Roses” and “The Farmer’s in His Den” became popular, too. But what sense could these children possibly make of any of these, where the language and allusions are beyond the comprehen-sion even for native speakers? Ask any English 3-year-old to sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” and they will -- and they’ll even be able to tell you that it is about a star. But what’s in it for a child who, initially at least, has no idea what the song or rhyme is about?
Well, there’s the rhyme, the rhythm, the simple tunes and the joy of communal singing. They soon learned to love these and many more rhymes and songs, belting them out with an ever increasing gusto. “What is a bobbin?” asked the mom of one of my charges at my � rst parents’ consultation. I was a little taken aback un-til I realized where she’d picked up that rather obscure English word -- from the rhyme “Wind Your Bobbin Up.” Her child had been singing it incessantly at home, probably driving them, if not to drink, at least in search of a dictionary. (A bobbin, by the way, is a small reel on which threads such as cotton or wool are wound.) Having been alerted to the problem, I began to send copies of the words to each rhyme/song home with the children.
Next strategy -- repetition -- and lots of it. Within a week, all the children understood the “Go to the toilet and wash your hands” phrase, along with the “Tidy up time,” “Change your shoes” and “Line up” instructions. With the three meals and three trips to the garden per day, these were generally the � rst English words the parents would hear their offspring utter. Not only did the kids quickly learn these phrases, they very soon understood them and would echo my words and pass the instruction on to those who hadn’t
heard my requests � rst time around.The rest was relatively simple -- I
taught as I had always taught in the UK: topic-based work with lots of stories, games, creative activities and play, the only difference being a mas-sive use of exaggerated gestures, tone of voice and play-acting. And yes, the children did progress through the language learning stages. Firstly, they quietly absorbed a growing vocabu-lary, then they began to repeat my words and next my phrases. Before long they were able to answer ques-tions with an appropriate word and soon to combine two or three words. At last came the eureka moment -- they were able to string enough words together to express their own ideas.
Of course, there are many blips in the learning process. For example, rather than answering my question “What color is this?” with “Red,” “blue” or “green,” some kids will just parrot back, frustratingly, my own question.
In every area of learning, children progress at their own speed, but I have learned that certain factors make a huge difference to how quickly a child acquires a new language. Those who learn English the quickest are those who are al-ready bilingual; unfortunately, this is not an option for most kids. But almost as important is the attitude of the parents to other languages -- the more positive the better.
The ability of young children to learn never fails to amaze and fascinate me. Young children, given the right motivation and input, can learn a whole new language in a relatively short period of time. The satisfaction and pleasure of hearing these children speak to me in English, together with their parents’ delight, never fails to give me a huge buzz. So despite my initial worries and lack of con� dence, my new career has been a hugely rewarding experience.
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N,
ME
HM
ET
YA
MA
N
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N,
ME
HM
ET
YA
MA
N
CULTURAL CORNER
McPHERSONCHARLOTTE
3-year-old linguists
Stray cats and dogs make up a sizeable community in the city of �stanbul.
JOHN FOSTER �STANBUL
Parent of a ch�ld w�th spec�al needs
[ EXPAT VOICE ]
In every area of learning, children progress at their own speed, but I have learned that certain factors make a big difference to how quickly a child acquires a new language. Those who learn the quickest are those who are already bilingual
ALISON KENNY ANTALYA
CULTURE&ARTS F R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN13
CMYK
Prominent Turkish author Ömer Lütfi Mete dies
Ömer Lüt� Mete, a 59-year-old journa-list, author and scriptwriter, passed away
on Wednesday due to heart failure.Mete experienced a heart attack last year
and had since been in outpatient care. Upon going into cardiac arrest on Tuesday at his house, he was taken to Ac�badem Kad�köy Hospital’s intensive care unit, where he died on Wednesday.
Mete worked as an editor, manager and author at Sabah, Bizim Anadolu, Tercüman, Türkiye, Yeni Haber, Orta Do�u, Yeni �afak, Ayy�ld�z and the Yeni Biny�l dailies. He also contributed numerous articles to the Türk Edebiyat�, Bo�aziçi and Ça�r���m journals.
Mete was buried yesterday at the Çengel-köy Cemetery in �stanbul, following a funeral prayer at the Marmara �lahiyat Vakf� Mosque.
Parliament Speaker Mehmet Ali �ahin released a statement offering his condolen-ces over Mete’s death. “Mete, having long served our media as a journalist, also cont-ributed to Turkish cinema by writing scripts for � lms and television shows. I believe Mete will live in the heart of our public through his works,” he noted.
Professor �skender Pala, author Mahir Kaynak, journalist and poet Olcay Yaz�c�, aut-hor Dursun Gürlek, journalist and author Ab-durrahman �en, and journalist and author Be-�ir Ayvazo�lu also expressed their condolen-ces over Mete’s death.
Highlighting that Mete is an irreplaceable artist, Pala said, “His death is a loss for Turkey.”
Stressing that Mete will live another life-time through his works, Gürlek said he knew Mete for over 30 years and added he was a productive author.
Yaz�c�, who worked with Mete at a journal of Turkish literature, said Mete created his own style by synthesizing the East and the West. No-ting that Mete was also a prominent scriptwriter and an intellectual, he added: “He was not an ad-mirer of foreign cultures like other intellectuals. He was aware of the values of the soil where he was born.” �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Ezel Akay’s movie premieres at Bursa festival
The Turkish premiere of Ezel Akay’s latest movie, “Yedi Kocal� Hürmüz”
(Hürmüz’s Seven Husbands), was held on Wednesday during the fourth Bursa Interna-tional Silk Road Film Festival.
The premiere brought together the movie’s director, Akay, cast members Gülse Birsel, Erkan Can, Müjdat Gezen, Öner Er-kan, Aral Sesk�r and several members of the crew with cinema lovers at the Korupark Ci-netech movie theater. The premiere was at-tended by a large audience, who applauded the � lm enthusiastically.
“This movie was miraculous for me. We wanted to make something different and we wanted to show this movie to an audience for the � rst time in a place other than �stanbul,” Akay said before the premiere.
Noting that they had fun during the ma-king of the movie, actress Birsel said: “The three weeks were so fun. The cast and crew were in harmony and the director was not tense, no matter what happened on the set. I already loved the play version [of Hürmüz’s Seven Husbands]. It was a nice experience.”
Erkan Can, an actor in the movie who was born in Bursa, said the movie’s script was already quite old but it would retain its popu-larity even after 100 years.
“Hürmüz’s Seven Husbands,” featuring prominent Turkish actors including Nurgül Ye�ilçay (as Hürmüz), Haluk Bilginer, Meh-met Ali Alabora and Cengiz Küçükayvaz, will open in Turkish theaters today. The mo-vie tells the story of Hürmüz, who marries six men illegally and then falls in love with a doctor. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
�stanbul and Venice exhibition opens
An exhibition highlighting the interaction between �stanbul and Venice from the 15th
century to the 1990s in the diplomatic, military, commercial and artistic spheres opened yester-day at Sak�p Sabanc� Museum in �stanbul.
Titled “Osmanl� Döneminde Venedik ve �s-tanbul: Nam-� Di�er A�k” (Venice and �stanbul During the Ottoman Era: In Other Words, Love), the exhibition showcases items from a number of museums in Venice and �stanbul, including the Topkap� Palace Museum, the Museum of Turkish and Islamic Arts, the Pera Museum and the Yap� Kredi Vedat Nedim Tör Museum.
Speaking at the opening event on Wednes-day, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davuto�lu said the exhibition on �stanbul and Venice tells the love story of water with nature and history. “We will get the chance to see different examples of a centuries-old cultural relationship between Italy and Turkey,” he added. Davuto�lu’s Italian co-unterpart, Franco Frattini, thanked the organi-zers of the exhibition. �stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Onay Akba� confronts demons and angelsTurkish artist Onay Akba�, who has been living in Paris for the last 21 ye-ars, is currently exhibiting a collection
of his paintings as part of the Season of Tur-key in France.
Titled “Mes inachevés,” the show repre-sents a continuation of the concepts behind his previous exhibitions in �stanbul and Anka-ra. Altogether, the series is an outcome of three years of work. The current show includes 23 canvases that are both thematically and aest-hetically parallel to his earlier paintings.
Every artist and artwork has its own ad-venture and story, Akba� says in an interview
with Today’s Zaman. “In this adventure, your own existence and studies accompany you. My paintings also have their own stories, of cour-se. The ground of art consists of challenge, but despite rejecting the art that came before, con-temporary art is nevertheless constructed on it. Thus, it is not a result of tradition. My cal-ling myself ‘the spoiled kid of the history of art’ is also related to this. It is an important thing if a student who received a classical education in the academy challenges this education and � nds his own authentic artistic language. This was also my story,” he explains.
Akba� was born in Turkey’s Black Sea regi-on and graduated from the department of pa-inting of Marmara University in �stanbul. The
45-year-old artist eventually moved to Paris and still continues his work there. “In the be-ginning, it was all because of curiosity and in order to go on an adventure,” he says about his move to Paris. “Our generation and the previ-ous generations were washed in French cultu-re and art and Paris was an inevitable directi-on of our 150 years of modernization. Of cour-se I was affected by all these and I was 24 years old at the time. I believe that I am now living in a city that helps its residents in their existential challenges, having all the possible cultural faci-lities, such as museums, galleries, libraries and collectors; a place that is totally integrated with the century and a cultural and economical cen-ter. I believe all these things keep an artist more
alive and lead him to question himself and the things around him,” he emphasizes.
Akba� notes that his work has gone thro-ugh various periods, starting with a baro-que period and then passing into an impres-sionist period marked by a strong relationship with nature. Then he passed on to a new type of representation related to comic art, though it lacked the third dimension and failed to integ-rate space, which is very important in painting.
Asked about his creative process, Akba� says he has to have a reason in order to paint. “I am not one of those people who wake up in the morning and say, ‘I have to paint today and feel better.’ Even if I acknowledge the the-rapeutic aspect of painting, the tendency of art
is an intellectual one, I believe,” he stresses, adding, “It is an act of releasing demons and angels in the deepest parts of your existence.” He continues: “I pick a concept that I think su-its the time and start working on that concept inch by inch. From all these studies I produ-ce sketches, designs and compositions, and I do not touch the canvas in this process until I am psychologically, philosophically and tech-nically ready to paint.” Despite this rigorous process, not everything is under his control, the painter confesses. “I do not really know what I am supposed to do. It is a time open to all kinds of surprises.”
“Mes inachevés” will run through Dec. 12 at Galerie Regard Sud in Lyon.
RUMEYSA KIGER �STANBUL
PH
OT
O
TO
DA
Y’S
ZA
MA
N
Onay Akba�’s Lyon exhibition, featuring 23 canvases, represents a continuation of the concepts behind his previous exhibitions in �stanbul and Ankara. Altogether, the series is an outcome of three years of work.
CMYK
[email protected]ðýstan Çetinkaya
´Thýnk tank cafe
Michel Foucault says you can understand a society from what it excludes. We generally tend to look at what a soci-ety includes, what they are willing to embrace. But Foucault draws our attention to a different angle. I agree with him. When it comes to Turkey, I believe, not only what it ex-cludes but also how it does this are important factors to look at in order to have a better understanding of this country.
What does Turkey exclude? Without any doubt it excludes non-Muslims. This non-Muslim identity is rejected by secular state elites who are the founders of the Turkish republic. This is another tricky part which confuses outsiders and they have a serious dif� culty to understand. In Turkey so called “secular people” have a much stronger allergy towards non-Muslims than devout Muslims have towards non-Muslims. This is im-portant to understand because of the complex policy towards non-Muslims developed by the secular elites and so called sec-ular state apparatuses. Today’s so called “secular elites” are just the inheritors of the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) which orchestrated massacres against Armenians. If devout Muslims could play a quite dynamic reformist role in Turkey, they can do that because they do not have any historical linkage with this political movement. On the contrary, the same politi-cal movement has always oppressed them in Turkey.
While the Ottoman Empire was collapsing, the CUP decided that they should create a homogenous society in the remaining part of the empire. Because they believed if they did not do that they would have lost more territory, even Anatolia would be bro-ken into smaller pieces. On the orders of Talat Pasha, in 1915, Ar-menians were forcefully expelled to the Syrian deserts, massacred and all their belongings were seized. Turkey’s history of getting rid of non-Muslims is also the history of the Turki� cation of capital. It is not a coincidence that the richest Turkish families in Turkey are from the cities and regions in which the biggest massacres were carried out; Adana, Kayseri and so on. This may also explain why we have such an obedient bourgeoisie in Turkey.
After this initial and brutal blow, a certain policy was vigorously and relentlessly applied towards non-Muslims during the Repub-lican era in Turkey. If you look at the history of non-Muslims, you can clearly see the repetition of certain patterns. Sudden and un-expected attacks followed certain periods of inaction and after a while, another unexpected attack followed this inactive period. This is called a ‘fait accompli’ strategy. A fait accompli strategy works like this: You want to get something. You take it without discussion or warning and you give your enemy/opponent a choice, they will either � ght back or accept the loss. You also act upon the conser-vative attitudes of your opponent; you know that they will act to protect what is left to them rather than � ghting for what has been taken from them. After a while what you have taken becomes a part of the status quo. Sooner or later you take something else from your opponent, but again they do not react believing that they have a lot to lose if they � ght back. These actions and waiting periods follow each other; after a while your opponents start to see the pat-tern, but this time, if they react, they would have lost most of their material possessions and freedoms when you set out for a new at-tack; they think it will not be worth � ghting back because they did not � ght while most things were taken from them.
This is exactly what happened to non-Muslims during the republican era. They were scared away with pogroms. They were condemned to poverty by wealth taxes. Their properties, their foundations were taken from them one-by-one by carefully calcu-lated legal tricks. They were never given any legal status and they suffered from this ambiguity. Their schools were closed and so on. Attacks followed inaction. Inaction was followed by new attacks. The so called Lausanne minorities suffered from these policies a lot and they have come to the verge of extinction. I have already explained the plight of the ecumenical patriarchate in this column before. And as I said earlier, minority groups are also a part of this game with their submissive and passive attitude. They never suf-� ciently use and bene� t from existing remedies; they have never developed any strategic litigation to gain new rights to loosen the noose around their necks. This fait accompli strategy has been ap-plied on automatic pilot since the republic was established. Its aim is obvious. It will be repeated until non-Muslims completely vanish. This strategy is one of the biggest stumbling blocks to democracy in this country. We need to develop awareness, an understanding of it � rst and then a serious struggle for its eradication can be started. There is no place for fait accompli in any democracy!
TODAY’S ZAMAN OPINIONF R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 914
Public Relations Contact Information: Publication Type: Periodical, Daily Headquarters: Today’s Zaman, 34194 Yenibosna, ÝSTANBUL. Phone Number: +90 212 454 1 444 Fax: 0212 454 14 97, Web Address: http://www.todayszaman.com, Printed at: Feza Gazetecilik A.Þ. Tesisleri. Advertisement Phone: +90 212 454 82 47,
Fax: +90 212 454 86 33. Ankara Bureau Phone: +90 312 207 42 02Today's Zaman abides by the rules of press ethics.
Owner on Behalf of Feza Gazetecilik A.Þ
ALÝ AKBULUTChief Executive Officer
EKREM DUMANLIEditor-in-Chief
BÜLENT KENEÞ
Managing Editors
Ankara RepresentativeBusiness News EditorCulture & Arts Editor
Features EditorChief Copy Editor General Manager
Chief Marketing OfficerBrand Marketing
Responsible Manager and Representative of the Owner
OKAN UDO BASSEYFATMA DEMÝRELLÝ EMRAH ÜLKERABDULLAH BOZKURTÝBRAHÝM TÜRKMENYASEMÝN GÜRKANPINAR VURUCUHELEN P. BETTSFARUK KARDIÇYAKUP ÞÝMÞEKHAYDAR DURUSOY
ALÝ ODABAÞI
Established on January 16, 2007 NO: 0920Friday, November 20, 2009
Fa�t accompl�
strategy aga�nst
non-Musl�ms
[SILENT TURKEY-3]
NATIONALISTS
Many justi� cations may be found to defend a counter argument, but how Turks perceive the notion of “nationalism” (milliyetçi-lik) is different from the widely accepted de� nition of national-ism and from the popularly held idea of racism. Perhaps that’s why nationalism is so widely accepted by the general public. This strand of nationalism, which is predominantly based on patrio-tism, can also coexist peacefully with Islamic sentiments. In other words, this nationalism is not built on any sort of racism. Since this main strand of nationalism, which preaches such sentiments as love of country, respect for the � ag, etc., does not approve of xenophobia, it is wrong to equate it with today’s neo-nationalism or regard the people who consider themselves to be nationalists -- particularly in Anatolia -- as racists, and this is an observation made from a strong outsiders’ perspective . The fact that people can assume nationalist, conservative and religious identities all at the same time indicates that nationalism, in its general sense, does not correspond to a racist or fascist mindset.
Islam strongly prohibits racism, and this prohibition has been implemented in practice since the advent of Islam, tailoring nationalism into a more reasonable and more mature form. It is this group of nationalists who opt for silence in this muted Turkey. In other words, it is the main strand. The groups who today regard themselves as neo-nationalist and Kemalist and secular, etc., at the same time have nothing do with Anatolia’s nationalist vein.
Nationalism has recently suffered two major breaks. The � rst and the most tragic of these occurred in 1980. The oppression of the idealist (ülkücü) young people at the hands of the military rule of Sept. 12 was not something that one would expect in re-turn for their toil for the good of the country. The urge to “protect the country against threats,” which peaked in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, had garnered sym-pathy among the general public toward the nationalist struggle. The terrible fate of Afghanistan might become true also for Tur-key; therefore, it was necessary to “protect the state” and “� ght against the collaborators within.” This mentality also sought to “protect the country” and to “do services to the state.” It was a generation of dynamic young people who would not criticize the army in the least and would carry signs reading “The army, the nation hand-in-hand” during rallies. The military coup of Sept. 12 not only devastated these childish feelings but also caused major trauma. The young people who strove for the “survival of the state” were tortured by the most cruel and degrading meth-ods. This great disappointment was translated into a self-critique of “what was our mistake” among the nationalist groups, and
they arrived at the conclusion that “the state could protect itself, but it chose to use and then discard us.” Indeed, after the coup, these groups gave a big, unexpected “no” to the requests from the state to conduct some illegal work “for the sake of the state.”
Another break was experienced in the 1990s. The idea of fusing and coexisting with Islam that started in the 1980s was being discarded 20 years later. Of course, not among the base. This alienation, observable among the politicians of this mental-ity, signi� ed a certain distancing away from the “Turko-Islamic idea” discourse and from the “Dervish and veteran,” or “Alp-eren,” characterization. At the peak of this alienation, the Red Apple (K�z�l Elma) alliance was proposed. The tight-knit rela-tions between certain � gures that were considered “problem-atic” for the nationalist groups, such as Do�u Perinçek and �lhan Selçuk, disturbed mainstream nationalists. This was a serious shift in orientation. The people who cautioned that it was too risky to ally oneself with the groups who politically tended to lend support to military coups or juntas and who regarded na-tionalism as an enemy were not heeded, and when the allied teams -- who were � rst said to be retired military of� cers and then corrected to be retired public servants -- attempted to conduct an operation inside the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), this led to the separation of many nationalists from the party. And this was a good development. Otherwise, they would send the idealist (ülkücü) youth to the streets to use them as a tool for their operations and make them part of the psychological warfare “to pave the way” for their ends.
At this point, the resistance conducted inside also intended to maintain authority and balance therein. Could the neo-na-tionalism virus be contained without contaminating the main body? It is not easy to give a quick “yes” to this question. Unfor-tunately, the aftershocks of the Red Apple alliance still continue, and there is a serious shift in orientation in the political movements which claim to represent nationalism. More clearly, nationalism in some groups is shifting toward neo-nationalism and coming closer to the left wing and Kemalism. In other words, the Islamic side of the nationalism and religion scale is being emptied out. As such, we can witness a series of chain reactions ranging from
the support of Ergenekon to a cold attitude toward Islam. The masses, who have long regarded themselves as “na-
tionalist, patriotic, conservative,” etc., tend to remain silent in the face of these developments and wonder what the out-come of this alienation will be among the elites. The break-ing away of the constituencies that are regarded as typical “strongholds of nationalism” such as Erzurum and Yozgat from the party elites is the � rst sign of things to come in Ana-tolia. Nationalism’s shift toward neo-nationalism has driv-en some political parties from Anatolia and toward coastal regions where the Kemalists left are traditionally stronger. There is also an added danger: The rise of the MHP in the cit-ies receiving an in� ow of people migrating from the South-east and the concerns that some reactions in these cities may be translated into racism imply that the progression is toward an unhealthy structure where social peace may be violated.
Nationalism is under the threat of neo-nationalism. Neo-nationalism referred to such values as “homeland, country, national assets,” but at the same time, it advocated xenophobia. In this structure characterized by ultra-national-ism and militarism, the cold stance toward Islam did not go unnoticed. It was not without reason that senior members of Ergenekon worked hard to provoke nationalists while seek-ing peace at the Turkish Orthodox Church (a group whose members include some Ergenekon suspects), and longing for the pre-Islam era of Turks was for a reason.
The minds of the people who regard themselves as auto-matically nationalist since they are patriotic were confused in the face of these intricate relations because the neo-national-ist wave transmitted some dirty information to these people. There is a strong link between the popularity of conspiracy theories and the penetration of pro-coup neo-nationalists among nationalists. There were developments that created concerns among the religious people --religious communi-ties, religious orders, civil society organizations -- whom they treated with sympathy in the past and which would sympa-thize with them. The mainstream nationalists have not severed their ties with Islam or with devout Muslims, while the political elites within this group are increasingly distancing themselves from devout Muslims through both their harsh rhetoric and aggressive discourse. The ability of the current elites to understand the main-stream nationalists, who in the past garnered everyone’s sympathy for their digni� ed and sincere struggle for the good of the home-land, is dependent on whether they have come to the current position from among the grass roots. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
EKREMDUMANLI
ORHAN KEMALCENG�Z
PH
OT
OC
IHA
N,
BU
RÇ
�N S
EL
ÇU
K D
OK
GÖ
Z
CMYK
COLUMNS F R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN 15
‘F�ct�on of � ct�on’
and ‘the deep state’
Turk�sh
modern�zat�on
and la�c�sm
Turkish-EU relations feed on a tradition of mutual uneasiness. The establishment’s adventures in this country are character-ized by the events that led to the creation of a great distrust to-ward the West. Still, the real reason is the lack of sincerity in the attitudes of both sides toward each other. This, in return, can be attributed to the remnants of the anti-Christian foreign policy of the Ottoman Empire on one side, and to the colonialist and domineering policies of the Western powers on the other. The emotional perception in Anatolia is that “Westerners will never accept ‘us’ among themselves” and that “they will never favor ‘our’ good.” In addition, there is an established reference to “barbarism” based on years of experience, and the expectation that potential harm can be expected from the East and “Turks.”
Therefore, relations between Turkey and the EU cannot be dis-cussed with reference to a simple mechanism of accession. There is a confrontation at hand that goes deeper than the tension between France and Germany or the repressed con� ict between the UK and continental Europe. So, we can safely argue that if it were not for Turkey’s candidacy for EU membership, bilateral relations would be much softer and the parties would treat each other with much more understanding and tolerance. However, when the ancient “other” came closer and the distance between them decreased with the likelihood of it becoming part of the same identity, this created discomfort on both sides which is hard to de� ne.
Thanks to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), Turkey is quickly overcoming this uneasiness. This is because having its roots in social groups with increased Islamic sensitivities, the AK Party has pursued policies that are openly pro-EU, and this has greatly mitigated the anti-Western at-titudes of the conservatives in the country. Yet, the main dy-namics are on the reverse. The new middle classes of Anatolia, who seek to integrate with the world and who have become secularized while preserving their religiosity, no longer regard the West as the “other.” This is mostly attributable to the self-con� dence that the religious groups have built since the 1990s as modernity began to lose its luster.
As the salient elements of this foreign policy, we can list the new dynamics of the global world, the room for maneuver in this world, and the dialogue-based method for settling issues -- which was embodied by US President Barack Obama, and in general, extensions of a democrat mentality. On the other hand,
I would also like to note that the AK Party has moved away from the Turkish Republic’s ethnicity-oriented vision and come closer to the Ottoman Empire’s multi-cultural mindset.
The Western world, on the other hand, has not yet been able to come up with a perspective to understand Turkey. West-ern observers, though they are EU members, still have nation-state-based analytical perspectives. Accordingly, they fail to grasp the real changes as they try to place every development on the past’s typical foreign policy framework. In this case, they cannot realize that the new relations Turkey established with its neighbors are prerequisites of “global harmony” and rather, they tend to view it as an “axis shift.” Those who want to un-derstand Turkey should never forget this simple truth: Turkey seeks to become a global player in the world and to this end, it is eager to ful� ll attitudes, behaviors and actions that being a global player requires, and more. While doing this, it also tries to integrate two different understandings: its proximity to reli-gious identity and to the Muslim world on the one hand, and the democratic politics and the opportunity to become a global player thanks to this, on the other. In the past, the merger of the two was not possible. For many Westerners, this is probably still not possible. This is because although the great majority of Westerners are the natural carriers of globalization -- and perhaps due to the convenience this has created -- they are far
from the democratic mentality that today’s world requires. As a result of the modernist perspective, they think that secularism is a categorical constant and, and what’s worse, they nurture the non-secular assumption that the Muslim identity cannot be categorically secularized.
Yet, the success of the dynamics of change in Turkey is not independent from the developments in the West. The current amalgamation of Muslim sensitivity with democratic politics -- which would have been impossible in the past -- is still attrib-utable to the emerging critique of modernism in the West and, more concretely, the collapse of the Bush world.
Many people are uneasy about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an’s position about Iran’s nuclear energy policy. The Turkish prime minister does not think it is ethical to block Iran from devel-oping nuclear power while allowing every other country to do so. Still, his position cannot be explained by merely resorting to solidar-ity among Muslims because Turkey is as uneasy as any other West-ern country concerning how Iran will use this power. But there are ethical norms which we want to dominate the world of the future.
These days, the world is being re-established. Not every country may feel this renewal at the same rate. The societies that have Western Europe’s established political culture, and its habits may not even be aware of such a change. But in Turkey, we can feel this new world to our core because we live in it.
Those who read the latest shocking story in daily Taraf yesterday would possibly not have been able to help smiling ironically. While the attempts to inject further confusion amongst ill-informed, distracted and already confused “Westerners” -- particularly those in Washington, D.C. -- about the Ergenekon trial seemingly intensify, Taraf revealed why dozens of naval of� cers a short while ago were arrested and interrogated: A large cell within the navy -- Taraf describes it as a “junta” -- has been planning a comprehensive action plan with Turkey’s non-Muslims as the target.
The plan (decoded from the contents of a CD belonging to a mayor who is a detained suspect of Ergenekon) called “kafes” (cage) contains, in four phases, a large set of directives, including the � ling of non-Muslims’ whereabouts -- work places and where their children study, community registers, etc., -- and identities; the systematic exposure of them in public places and on the Internet; the massive usage of media with the aim of discrediting the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as “indiffer-ent” to those secret threats and accusing the government of being the culprit of all these campaigns. In the � nal phase, called “action,” it gives details of bombings on the Princes’ Islands near �stanbul (where the non-Muslim density is higher) and kidnappings and assassinations on which the responsibility will later be claimed by fundamentalist organizations.
As of the Malatya slayings of Christian missionaries (a key case which contains all the elements of how the Ergenekon network operates), Priest Santoro’s murder in Trabzon and Hrant Dink’s assassination, this plan (which also contains allegations of assassination plans to murder a former commander of the navy, and a commander of the � eet) has aimed to kill two birds with one stone: it would scare the hell out of the non-Muslim minorities by telling them, simply, “you have no place in this country” and, more importantly, it would send the “strong” message to the world that “Islamo-fascism is now on the full offensive” in Turkey.
The shocking details in this deep investigation may be yet another slap in the face for those who desperately try to make us believe that Ergenekon is closer to � ction than fantasy.
For people like Ahmet Aras, it is an insult. An elderly Kurdish social-ist, a staunch anti-Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) � gure, who served as a founding member of Turkey’s Workers’ Party (T�P) in the sixties and suf-fered massive oppression, Aras welcomes all the revelations with pleasure.
I had invited him onto the TV program “ROTA” that I present to talk about the Dersim uprising/massacre (during which some 15,000 Alevi Kurds were indiscriminately slaughtered in 1937). Almost in tears, he told me: “I had never imagined that I would live to see these days, where a prime minister speaks of crimes of humanity and incredible cruelty.” After years of prison and exile, Aras lives in �zmir, researching Kurdish history.
“I am also very, very glad to see now who was serving Ergenekon and who was not,” he said, referring to his “leftist” comrades. “Some were not leftists or socialists at all, they were only disguised Kemalists; they were part of the big lies that were repeated, year after year.”
It is clear why people like Aras, who had once believed that the struggle of the left could be conducted though free elections and paid dearly (his party, elected to Parliament in the mid ‘60s, was forced out of the political scene by constant physical harassment), feel truly in-sulted when one mentions the efforts to discredit the “real content” of Ergenekon. They feel closer to justice, more than ever before.
Meanwhile, as I predicted, Deniz Baykal, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), taking Onur Öymen under his protective wing, without blinking an eye, continues as if the latter’s Dersim gaffe has no signi� cance. The “pale hope” of the party, deputy Kemal K�l�çdaro�lu of the same party, who also happens to have his origins in Dersim, also switched his rhetoric, saying “the case is closed.”
I asked a knowledgeable retired military judge what the “deep state” (the state within) in Turkey actually is: “It is the chief of general staff and the higher judiciary” was his brief and swift response. He went on: “The executive power, the governments, have never had con-trol over the higher judiciary and never will. Everyone should keep this in mind. The issue is, therefore, to separate forever the higher judiciary from the generals and move it to its independent and impartial posi-tion, as is necessary for any democracy.”
Today, Turkey may look as if it is sinking deeper into a crisis. It could very well be to the contrary, at the end of the day. What will hap-pen is this: All the dirty linen is put on the table for cleaning, taboos are broken (the latest approaching � rmly to that of Atatürk himself), a nasty struggle is staged in order to separate and “liberate” the judi-ciary from “the state within” mentality and the “politicized” military is pushed back to its barracks, possibly out of the cities.
Most probably, for the � rst time man, in reliance with the thoughts of the Enlightenment and modernity that is based on its fundamental assumptions, has assumed the inherent right to interfere with religion. At least the classical era of the Enlightenment period provides concrete examples of this. Said interference is still in effect in Turkey in an exaggerated form; this interference is embedded in the legal and educational sys-tem as well as daily culture. Strangely, this policy attracts sup-port from politicians, scholars, writers and intellectuals. Serdar Turgut, at a time when he was serving as a columnist at the Hürriyet daily, responded to complaints from individuals re-garding restrictions over religious freedom by stating that they had no option but to change their religion.
After pointing out this fundamental matter, it is possible to argue that the Turkish style of laicism is actually based on such a conceptual framework because of some historical reasons. I think this is closely related to the Turkish modernization project.
Turkish modernization is not a recent phenomenon; it did not come to the forefront with the arrival of a republican re-gime. It was formulated in the 19th century � rst. The Turkish modernization project designed by Mahmud II seemed to ap-pear as the choice of the state; it was subsequently de� ned as Westernization and based on a non-religious concept. The three basic assumptions of the Turkish modernization project may be summarized as follows: It emerged as the preference of the state, and because of this, the state and state actors acquired a domi-nant position in the determination of its content. This also led to the ignorance of the democratic rights of the masses and the people. Maybe modernization was a requirement and a need, and maybe it is still able to respond to some important needs. But this is the case because the state makes its choice towards this end. Modernization was the choice of the administration in the Ottoman era and then it became the preference of the state.
Secondly, modernization was viewed as purely a West-ernization attempt, and this attempt sought to make sure that social life was adapted to the Western lifestyle. This was the primary assumption of Mahmud II. This is the leading factor that led to the perception of modernization as a moderniza-tion process. Modernization has always been seen as a form, a formal change and a combination of symbols.
Within the context of modernization policies, the state assumed a dominant position and mission to impose mod-ernization by relying on this position.
Thirdly, modernization was seen as a non-religious pro-cess. Attributing the retreat of the Ottoman state in the � elds of military, economy and politics to religion is the primary reason for the negative stance of the ruling elite vis-à-vis religion. The state elites viewed religion as contrary to development, prog-ress and modernization. In consideration of this assumption, they sought to make religious scholars ineffective in the ad-ministration of the state and replace them with a new group of intellectuals. In other words, according to the jointly held con-viction of state actors and intellectuals, religion was against de-velopment and modernization; for this reason, it should have been purged from not only public affairs but also from daily life.
At this point, a problem fairly different from the one en-countered in the West should be recalled: In Islam, there is no clearly de� ned boundaries of a religious clergy and a church representing the body of God. Islamic theology rejects refer-ence to an organized class of religious clergy and a body of religious leaders. Because it lacks a class of religious clerics that constitute the fundamentals of historical theocracy, the secularist claims have turned into a program to purge religion from social and individual life. The historical dichotomy that created laicism led the state to look for an enemy or opposition in the absence of two different and opposite actors (church and state); and in such a case, the state found its enemy in religion that it held responsible for underdevelopment and lack of progress. In conclusion, if laicism fails to acquire demo-cratic content, the historical clash that Turkey has been going through for over a century will repeat itself in the Middle East, in case Turkey seeks to present itself as a model to this region.
Nov. 20 marks the 20th anniversary of the Conven-tion on the Right of the Child. All around the world, children still suffer numerous forms of abuse, but I thought this anniversary was a good opportunity to look at the situation of children here in Turkey.
It seems particularly timely since one of the most egregious violations of the convention activists complain about bears a direct connection to -- and appears to be in � agrant contradiction with -- the democratic opening promoted by the government to solve the Kurdish issue.
Turkey is party to the convention, which came into force in this country in 1995. But since the counterter-rorism legislation was amended in 2006, hundreds of children -- de� ned as under 18 -- have been arrested, prosecuted and sentenced as adults for taking part in demonstrations in the Southeast.
A report published by the Justice for Children organi-zation in April mentioned a � gure of 500 children aged be-tween 12 and 18 who had been charged for “making pro-paganda on behalf of an illegal organization” or “being a member of an organization.” Further charges are frequently added for throwing stones or damaging public property.
Amendments have been introduced as part of the recent democratic initiative to allow sentences to be sus-pended or converted into � nes. But when I recently spoke to Canan Atabay, a lawyer from Diyarbakir who specializes in children’s rights, she told me that 80 percent of the teens who are being prosecuted remain outside the scope of this new provision because they face cumulative charges.
Here is the irony: On the one hand, the government
is encouraging militants to lay down their weapons, and some of them have been released upon their return to Turkey. At a time when Turkey is discussing the rehabili-tation of former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) � ght-ers, it seems strangely counterproductive to create a new generation of militants by putting youngsters behind bars. Children should simply not be tried as terrorists.
Revisiting the Convention on the Rights of the Child is also needed in other areas. Turkey must be one of the few countries in the world that celebrates Children’s Day. Al-though under 18s are feted on April 23, it is not always obvi-ous in everyday life that adults see them as worthy interlocu-tors who have a right to express their views and be consulted. Too often, young people are simply not heard in this society.
States have a responsibility to promote the provisions of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, but the notion that parents or elders know best and youngsters should just follow their orders still holds � rm. In fact, the Civil Code even contains an article stating that children have to obey their parents. Although corporal punishment is banned in schools and state institutions, incidents are still frequently reported. At home, it is not banned and surveys suggested parents use is widely. Many young girls stay at home to look after siblings or are forced into early marriage.
Progress has been reported in several areas. School attendance, of girls in particular, has increased. The So-cial Services and Child Protection Agency (SHÇEK) is working on improving the situation of children in state institutions but many challenges remain.
According to a report published last year by NGOs moni-toring implementation of the convention, more than 3,850,000 million children are working, more than half a million of them between the age of 6 and 14. In rural areas, they are often hired out for back-breaking labor during the summer months and face not just exploitation but also potential abuse.
In short, on the 20th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, Turkey still has plenty of homework to do.
No Comment
Turkey’s new ax�s
An open�ng for ch�ldren, too?
AL�BULAÇ
ETYENMAHÇUPYAN
NICOLE POPE
YAVUZBAYDAR
EMRE ÖZDEM�R
Today is Universal Children’s Day as observed by the United Nations and the UN Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In 1954 the UN declared that this day be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. Since then, several critical UN resolutions relating to children have been passed on this day, including the 1959 Declara-tion of the Rights of the Child and the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Today is Africa Industrialization Day, declared by the UN in 1989. The day is intended to mobilize the commitment of the international community to the industrialization of Africa. It also serves as a reminder that more than 30 of the world’s 48 least-developed countries are located in Africa.
Today is Black Consciousness Day (or Zumbi Day) in Brazil. Observed in the states of Sao Paulo and Rio de Ja-
neiro, this day commemorates the beheading of Zumbi dos Palmares (1655-1695), a legendary fugitive slave settlement leader. Zumbi was regarded by the fugitive slaves as an im-mortal leader who was ordained to free all black slaves.
Today is Revolution Day in Mexico. This day com-memorates the Mexican social revolution that was started by Francisco I. Madero in 1910. This revolution lasted until 1917 and cost the lives of more than 1 million people out of a total population of 15 million.
Today is the anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg War Crime Trials. The first session of the trials was held in Berlin against 24 former Nazi leaders. Later sessions were held in Nuremberg, starting on Nov. 20, 1945. It took 10 months to finish the trials, at the end of which 12 defen-dants were sentenced to death.
Today is the birthday of Microsoft Windows 1.0.
On this day in 1985, Microsoft released its first version of Windows. This 16-bit graphical operating environ-ment was the first attempt to implement a multitask-ing graphical user interface-based operating environ-ment on the PC platform.
Today is the anniversary of the birth of Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953), the American astronomer who made the “most spectacular astronomical discovery” of the 20th century. Hubble discovered and developed the concept of an expanding universe. Out of appreciation for his contri-butions to the field of astronomy, an asteroid, a crater on the Moon and a space telescope were named after him.
On this day in 1916, the Turkish cities of Adakl� and Ki�� (Bingöl) were liberated from Russian occupa-tion. Also, the city of �psala (Edirne) was liberated from Greek occupation on this day in 1922.
16 TODAY’S ZAMAN F R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 LEISURE
E208:00 Gossip Girl10:00 The Martha Stewart Show11:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show12:00 Desperate Housewives14:00 The Martha Stewart Show15:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show16:00 Gossip Girl18:00 The Martha Stewart Show19:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show20:00 Family Guy21:00 Heroes22:15 Later With Jools Holland23:00 The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien24:00 Later With Jools Holland01:00 Family Guy01:30 The Jay Leno Show02:30 The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien
CNBC-E17:55 How I Met Your Mother18:50 The Jay Leno Show20:00 Merlin21:00 One Tree Hill22:00 The Host00:45 The Jay Leno Show01:45 Merlin02:30 One Tree Hill
GOLDMAX07:00 One True Thing 09:10 Once Upon A Forest10:25 The Godfather III 13:10 Good Morning, Vietnam 15:15 Doctor Zhivago 18:30 Wild West Comedy Show 20:15 Lolita23:00 Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights 00:50 The People vs. Larry Flynt
MOVIEMAX06:00 The Architect07:25 Standing Still08:55 Pauly Shore is Dead 10:20 Surf's Up11:50 El Aura14:10 21x16:20 Ratatouille18:25 Taking Chance20:00 Drillbit Taylor21:55 Fifty Dead Men Walking00:05 Scar01:35 Mulberry Street
MGM MOVIES07:25 The Private Files Of J. Edgar Hoover 09:20 Twelve Angry Men 11:00 The Gunfight At Dodge City 12:25 Dead Man's Gun Season 2/1: Ties That Bind 13:15 Dead Man's Gun Season 2/2: The Judgement of Joe Dean Bonner 14:05 The Delinquents 15:20 Thieves Like Us15:30 Yellowbeard 17:10 The Man In The Moon 18:55 Wanda Nevada 20:45 The Siege Of Firebase Gloria Short 22:25 Avanti! 00:50 Interiors 02:25 The Closer You Get
COMEDYMAX08:30 The Middle09:00 The Cosby Show09:30 The Cosby Show10:00 According to Jim10:30 According to Jim11:00 Everybody Loves Raymond11:30 Everybody Loves Raymond12:00 The Office12:30 The Office13:00 The Game13:30 Ugly Betty14:30 The Middle15:00 The Cosby Show15:30 The Cosby Show16:00 According to Jim16:30 According to Jim17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond17:30 Everybody Loves Raymond18:00 3rd Rock from the Sun18:30 The Game19:00 The Cosby Show19:30 Ugly Betty20:30 The Middle21:00 According to Jim21:30 Everybody Loves Raymond22:00 The Office22:30 The Office23:00 Californication23:30 Weeds00:00 The Middle00:30 Ugly Betty01:30 The Game02:00 3rd Rock from the Sun
TRT Tour�sm Rad�o
00:00 Identification and Programming 00:25 Music 07:25 Identification and Programming07:30 Music 08:30 News (English, French, German) 08:40 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 10:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 10:45 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 12:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 12.45 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 15:00 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 15:15 Live Broadcast (English, German, Russian) 18:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 18:45 Live Broadcast (English, French) 21:30 News (English, French, German, Greek, Russian) 21:45 Live Broadcast (English, Greek) 23:58 Identification
Broadcast Areas:
Alanya FM 94.4Ankara FM 100.3Antalya FM 92.1Ayval�k FM 101.1Bodrum FM 97.4Fethiye FM 103.1�stanbul FM 101.6�zmir FM 101.6Kalkan FM 105.9Kapadokya FM 103.0Ku�adas� FM 101.9Marmaris FM 101.0Pamukkale FM 101.0Trabzon FM 101.5
tv gu�de
rad�o gu�de
mov�e gu�de
“The Watercolor”
2012�STANBUL: BEYO�LU AFM F�TA� 11:00 12:50 14:30 16:20 18:00 19:45 21:30 23:30 MAÇKA C�NEBONUS 11:30 12:15 14:45 15:30 18:00 18:45 21:15 22:00 00:15 CADDEBOSTAN AFM 10:30 12:15 14:00 15:50 17:40 19:30 21:20 23:10 ANKARA: ATA ON TOWER 11:00 12:30 14:00 15:30 17:15 18:45 20:30 22:00 23:00 00:00 B�LKENT C�NEBONUS 10:45 12:15 13:55 15:30 17:10 18:45 20:25 22:00 00:00 �ZM�R: C�NEBONUS KONAK P�ER 10:30 12:00 13:45 15:15 17:00 18:30 20:15 21:45 23:45 ANTALYA: C�NEBONUS M�GROS 10:45 12:15 14:00 15:30 17:30 19:00 20:45 22:15 00:00 14:45 18:15 21:45
BORNOVA BORNOVA�STANBUL: Ataköy Galleria Prestige 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 20:00 22:00 00:00 Beyo�lu Alkazar 12:00 14:00 16:15 18:45 21:00 Maçka Cinebonus 11:00 13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 00:15 Altunizade Capitol 11:00 15:30 17:40 19:50 22:00 00:10 Ankara: Bilkent Cinebonus 11:00 13:10 15:20 17:30 19:40 21:50 00:00 Cinebonus Panora 11:00 13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 �zmir: Afm Forum Bornova 11:00 13:10 15:50 18:30 21:00 23:45 Cinecity Kipa Çi�li 11:15 13:15 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:15 23:45
THE WATERCOLOR�stanbul: Esentepe Cinebonus Astoria 11:00 12:45 14:30 16:15 18:00 19:45 21:45 23:45 Maçka Cinebonus 11:30 13:30 15:30 17:30 19:30 21:30 23:30 Kozyata�� Cinebonus Palladium 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 Ankara: Bilkent Cinebonus 11:30 13:30 15:30 17:30 19:30 21:30 23:45 Cinebonus Gordion 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 �zmir: Balçova Cinebonus Kipa 11:00 12:45 14:30 16:15 18:00 19:45 21:30 23:15
THE TOURNAMENT�stanbul: Bak�rköy Cinebonus Capacity 11:00 13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 Esentepe Cinebonus Astoria 11:15 13:15 15:15 17:15 19:15 21:15 23:15 Kadiköy Cinebonus 11:00 15:30 17:30 19:45 22:00 00:15 Ankara: Cinebonus Panora 11:00 13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 00:00 �zmir: Balçova Cinebonus Kipa 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00
Oscar organizers joined the MTV generation on Wednesday, nam-ing Hamish Hamilton as director of
March’s movie awards ceremony, and they also unveiled their shortlist of films vying for a best documentary nomination.
British-born Hamilton, 43, is a first-time Oscar director, but he is a veteran of nu-merous live-event programs including this year’s MTV Video Music Awards, and the MTV Europe Music Awards and Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in 2008.
“His approach definitely won’t feel like ‘business as usual;” said one of the show’s co-producers, Bill Mechanic.
The Oscars, given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are the second most-watched US television show after professional football’s Super Bowl. The ceremony also is seen in some 200 countries worldwide.
But viewership has been in a general decline for many years due to the growing number of honors programs, among other reasons. As a re-sult, Oscar organizers have tried to liven up their show, especially for younger movie fans.
For February’s show, they brought on song-and-dance man Hugh Jackman to host, and for the upcoming program on March 7, they have
paired comedian Steve Martin and comic actor Alec Baldwin to boost the laughter.
Mechanic’s co-producer Adam Shank-man, who directed “Hairspray,” said Hamil-ton “will bring enthusiasm, experience and a fresh eye to the table.”
Organizers also unveiled their list of 15 films that will vie for a best documentary nomination, including well-known titles such as “Food, Inc.”, which looks at the food industry, and “The Cove,” about the capture of dolphins in Japan.
The other 13 documentaries up for con-sideration are:
“The Beaches of Agnes”“Burma VJ”“Every Little Step”“Facing Ali”“Garbage Dreams”“Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors
Without Borders”“The Most Dangerous Man in America:
Daniel Ellsberg and The Pentagon Papers”“Mugabe and the White African”“Sergio”“Soundtrack for a Revolution”“Under Our Skin”“Valentino The Last Emperor”“Which Way Home” Los Angeles Reuters
Mr. D�ploMAT!Crossword
Sudoku
ACROSS 1 Easily
carved gem 5 Harts and
does 10 640 acres
(Abbr.) 14 Body lotion
ingredient 15 Available for
occupation 16 “Clan of the
Cave Bear” author
17 Hockshop proprietor
19 Dudley Do-Right’s girl
20 Pigged out 21 Go to the
mat, hillbilly style
22 Tennis units 23 South
Africa’s Mandela
25 Revenuers, for short
27 Astronomical phenomenon
33 Utter nonsense
36 Chinese fruit (Var.)
37 “... ___ the fields we go ...”
38 “How much am ___?” (auction query)
39 ___-mouthed (insincere)
40 “Terrible” title
41 “___ of Frankenstein”
42 “High Plains Drifter” actress
Bloom 43 Ashtray fill 44 Division into
parts 47 Helped with
a line 48 Jazz players,
e.g. 52 Bagpiper,
often 54 Quick
impression 58 Web address
feature 59 Forbidden
perfume? 60 South African
Nobel Peace Prize winner
62 South side? 63 Wings hit
“___ In” 64 Touch-
screen image 65 Bell
emanation 66 Eliminate 67 Corporate
benefitDOWN 1 “The Mikado”
locale 2 Get ___ start
(run behind) 3 Carpenter’s
pin 4 Evening, in
an ode 5 2007-08
NBA Rookie of the Year
6 TV dep-uty from Hazzard
7 “Benevolent & Protective” group
8 Walk dizzily 9 Like elastic 10 American of
Japanese ancestry
11 Vertical tie in a roof truss
12 Sandwich with cheese
13 Targets of social reform
18 “___ Hilda” 24 Variety of
poker 26 1051, to Nero 28 Ready for
anything 29 Tropical
forest vine 30 Brilliant
display 31 Stock-
exchange membership
32 Commits a faux pas
33 “Boo” accompani-ment
34 Wind in a pit 35 Large
venomous snake
39 Like easily repaired things
40 Food fish 42 Letter made
with two fingers
43 Bounce to the surface
45 Type of funds 46 Money
earned 49 Draw out 50 Chopper
spinner 51 Smelled to
high heaven 52 “Go no
further!” 53 Birthday
party staple 55 Debarking
point 56 Spanish 101
word 57 Letters on
baseball scoreboards
61 Word of advice
PREVIOUS PUZZLE ANSWER
© 2009 Universal Uclickwww.upuzzles.com
EASY
EASY
HOW TO PLAY? : The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9 square Sudoku game:
Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9
tr
av
ele
rs’
s.o
.s
Ambulance: 112 Fire: 110 171 Police: 155156 Maritime: 158 Unknown numbers: 118 Turkish Airlines: 444 0 849 U.S. Embassy: 0312 455 5555 U.S. Consu-
late: 0212 2513602-3-4 Russian Embassy: 0312 439 2122 Russian Consulate: 0212 244 1693-2610 British Embassy: 0312 455 3344 British Consulate: 0212
293 7540 German Embassy: 0312 455 5100 German Consulate: 0212 334 61 00 French Embassy: 0312 455 4545 French Consulate: 0212 292 4810-11 Indian
Embassy: 0312 438 2195 Pakistani Embassy: 0312 427 1410 Austrian Embassy: 0312 419 0431-33 Austrian Consulate: 0212 262 9315 Belgian Embassy:
0312 446 8247 Belgian Consulate: 0212 243 3300 Egyptian Embassy: 0312 426 1026 Egyptian Consulate: 0212 263 6038 Israeli Embassy: 0312 446 3605
Gregorian Calendar: 20 November 2009 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 03 Dhul-Hijjah 1430 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 03 Kislev 5770 [email protected]
940
CMYK
HARD
Cem K�z�ltu�[email protected]
HARD
Host Hugh Jackman speaks on stage during the 81st Academy Awards in Hollywood on Feb. 22.
PH
OT
O
RE
UT
ER
S,
GA
RY
HE
RS
HO
RN
Oscars p�ck d�rector, unve�l
documentary shortl�st
2
1
8
7
1
8
5
8
1
5
9 5
1
7
5
6
1 7
7
9
6 8 3
1
6
5 8
4
9
3
5
2
1 8
2
4
5 8
7
6
9
4
6 5
9
1 4 7 8
9
4
3
3
2
7
9 8 7
6
4 8 9
6
3
4
1
5
9
2
2 7 9
1 8 4
3 6 5
4 5 8
3 7 6
9 2 1
1 6 3
5 9 2
4 7 8
7 4 8
9 2 3
6 5 1
2 6 3
5 1 4
7 8 9
9 1 5
7 8 6
3 2 4
4 3 7
5 1 6
8 9 2
6 9 2
8 4 7
1 3 5
8 5 1
2 3 9
6 4 7
8 5 6
3 2 9
1 4 7
2 3 7
4 6 1
8 9 5
1 4 9
5 8 7
3 2 6
2 9 1
4 7 5
6 3 8
7 5 4
6 8 3
9 1 2
6 3 8
2 9 1
4 7 5
7 1 4
5 6 2
9 8 3
5 2 8
3 7 9
1 4 6
9 6 3
8 1 4
7 5 2
CONTINUATION F R I DAY, N OV E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN 17
CMYK
‘Government does not pressure judiciary through Justice Ministry’
Claims that the government is pressuring the judiciary through Justice Ministry inspectors are not true, Justi-
ce Ministry statistics have shown. According to statistics from the last 11 years, Justice Ministry inspectors handled only 2,180 of the 25,515 complaints about judges and prosecutors between 1999 and 2009, and the rest of the complaints were handled by senior judges and prosecutors.
In 2003, senior judges and prosecutors handled 3,103 in-vestigations into judges and prosecutors while Justice Mi-nistry inspectors handled only 208. The � gures were simi-lar in 2009, as senior judges and prosecutors handled 2,431 investigations into judges and prosecutors while Justice Mi-nistry inspectors handled only 202. When there was a closu-re case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2007, only 155 complaints were investigated by Justice Mi-nistry of� cials compared to 2,204 complaints investigated by senior judges and prosecutors. Judges and prosecutors who are being investigated can also appeal the decisions of Justi-ce Ministry inspectors. According to Justice Ministry statistics, judges and prosecutors who were being investigated � led 217 lawsuits in 2005-2009 against the ministry’s inspections.
The statistics also showed that the Justice Ministry did not launch an investigation into all of the complaints abo-ut judges and prosecutors. In 1999, the Justice Ministry did not start an inspection process for about 77 percent of the complaints, which totaled 1,636, while this � gure was 47 percent in 2005 when the number of complaints reached 3,655. The number of complaints was 4,530 in the � rst 10 months of 2009, while the percentage of inspections rema-ined at 47 percent. In 2007, the year the AK Party closu-re case occurred, 47 percent of 4,151 complaints about jud-ges and prosecutors were not inspected. In 2005, a change in Article 97 of the Judges and Prosecutors Law made � ling a complaint about judges and prosecutors harder in order to reduce pressure on those professionals. Duygu Koç �stanbul
‘No evidence that Deniz Feneri misused funds’
A prosecutor’s of� ce has declined to investigate the directors of the Deniz Feneri charitable foundation in
response to a criminal complaint by the Republican People’s Party (CHP). The Bak�rköy Prosecutor’s Of� ce on Oct. 7 de-cided that there is no reason to open an investigation into the issue due to a lack of evidence showing the foundation uses its income for purposes other than for the public good.
Main opposition CHP leader Deniz Baykal had � led a complaint alleging Deniz Feneri misuses its funds.
In September of last year a German court convicted three Turks of funneling $26 million in charitable contri-butions raised by Deniz Feneri to conservative compani-es in Turkey. The case sparked a bitter polemic between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an and Baykal, who accused the government of pressuring the Capital Mar-kets Board (SPK) to suppress a case against the conser-vative Kanal 7 television station, which was accused of being one of the companies Deniz Feneri’s funds were illegally forwarded to. Baran Ta� �stanbul
Ergenekon defendant Balbay denies accusations
Ar� sponsors pro-Ergenekon conference at US Congress
Hotline highlights anti-Turkish practices in EU visa issuance
The Cumhuriyet daily’s Ankara representati-ve, Mustafa Balbay, who is accused of “inciting
the people to armed revolt against the government” as a member of Ergenekon -- a clandestine network accused of plotting to overthrow the government -- has denied all charges directed against him. Giving his defense testimony yesterday to the judges of the �stanbul 13th Higher Criminal Court, which is hea-ring the Ergenekon trial, Balbay said the indictment was riddled with inconsistencies. He said, “I deny all accusations. I haven’t incited people to revolt unar-med, let alone inciting them to armed revolt.”
Stating that he is a secular democratic journa-list, Balbay claimed that the prosecutors had failed to � nd anything linking him to any terrorist organiza-
tions in the over 5,000 essays and 23 bo-oks he has written. He also accused the prosecution of holding back documents that the prosecution used as evidence in the indictment against him.
Balbay also said that journal entries allegedly kept by him had been modi� -ed, claiming the entries were not written in the order in which they were listed in the indictment. He said the media was acting as a court. “The indictment is, in a sense, an execution warrant,” he said. Using Turkish wordplay, he said, “If I say this courtroom is too narrow [which sounds like the Turkish word for ‘coup’], they will say, ‘Oh, here he said it, he wants a coup’.” He said he was
going to present his defense statements in two parts; one focusing on the legal aspect and the other one focusing on the speci� cs of his profession. “A journalist is the witness of the age he lives in. The prosecutors want to turn me into a sus-pect of the age. These notes [entries] are the professional bedroom of a journa-list. They never have any value as docu-
ments. They have been kept by the journalist to al-low him to recollect things. These entries in no way are quali� ed to be evidence in a trial. They have been clipped and tweezed out and put together in a spe-cial way. There is nothing I cannot account for as a journalist,” Balbay said. He also accused the prose-
cution of smearing Cumhuriyet as the headquarters of a terror organization in the indictment. “In the in-dictment, Cumhuriyet is a terrorist base and �lhan Selçuk and Balbay are its chiefs. My contacts with 10th President Ahmet Necdet Sezer are included in the indictment. There is no evidence to prove that I have ever relayed Sezer’s messages to [Ergenekon] suspects. The indictment implies that the Presidency was in control of a terrorist organization. I have had 11 meetings with Sezer. The president occupies the highest rank in the state. If he is to send a message to an agency, he can do so without using an inter-mediary. Meeting with the president is the power of a journalist. I would not think in a million years that this would be counted a crime.” �stanbul Today’s Zaman
The Ar� Foundation, a civil society organization previously known for its liberal stance and contributions
to the normalization of civilian-military re-lations in Turkey, sponsored a conference on Wednesday at a US Congress of� ce buil-ding, criticizing the investigation into Erge-nekon, a gang classi� ed by prosecutors as a terrorist organization that attempted to sta-ge a coup against the government.
Ergenekon is known as a terrorist or-ganization in Turkey, suspected of count-less atrocities, all committed in the hope of overthrowing the democratically elected Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government, but its supporters are trying to brand the trial of suspected Ergenekon members as the government’s attempt to suppress its opponents.
The Ar� Movement, known up till now for its liberal mentality favoring freedoms, may be joining these efforts on an interna-tional level, as its af� liated Ar� Foundati-on, based in Washington, D.C., sponsored a discussion on the Ergenekon investigation at the Rayburn House Of� ce Building of the US Congress on Wednesday.
A keynote speaker attending the conferen-ce was British journalist Gareth H. Jenkins, the author of a report on Ergenekon titled “Betwe-en Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon In-vestigation.” Jenkins’ report has been found by many pundits to be too one-sided in its criti-cism of how the investigation is being handled. On the same day, Jenkins talked at the Cent-ral Asia-Caucasus Institute (CACI), part of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced Internatio-nal Studies (SAIS) of The Johns Hopkins Uni-versity at a forum titled “From Rhetoric to Re-ality: Prospects for Turkey’s Future and the AKP’s Authoritarian Tendencies.”
In his speeches, of which Today’s Za-man had a Turkish translation, Jenkins defen-ded the idea that the US administration sho-uld pressure the AK Party regarding Ergene-kon. “It’s pretty much like a children’s story; the emperor has no clothes. The investigation has no clothes. The emperor is naked. There is no such organization,” Jenkins said, claiming that Ergenekon was not real.
He said he believed 15 or 20 of the sus-pects might be guilty of certain crimes. He declared his verdict saying, as translated into
Turkish, “Fifty to 60 are ultranationalists, but they have not really committed any crimes. And the rest are completely innocent.”
Jenkins said Turkey has a long history of secret organizations, de� ned as “deep state” structures and Gladio-like organizations, but said there was no evidence to back the allega-tion that Ergenekon was part of the “deep sta-te.” He said most of the perpetrators of tho-usands of killings -- organized by an illegal and secret organization inside the gendarme-rie known as J�TEM -- of Kurds in the Southe-ast in the 1990s have not been apprehended as part of the Ergenekon investigation.
In both of his presentations, Jenkins sta-ted that the indictments against the Ergene-kon suspects were poorly drafted; adding his opinion that the evidence presented was ina-
dequate. He said for this reason, Turkey had missed the opportunity to have its own “clean-hands,” the name of an extensive corruption operation into the remnants of the Gladio in Italy carried out in the 1990s.
He also expressed the opinion that it is not Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an’s government that is the driving force behind the trial, but the Gülen movement. He also criticized the Zaman and Taraf newspapers, which have provided extensive coverage of plots against democracy. Jenkins claimed that the “main factor” in the Ergenekon in-vestigation was to “damage the reputation of the government’s opponents.”
During the conference held at SAIS, the institute’s research director, Svante Cor-nell, raised the question of what the US co-
uld do to reverse the situation in the Ergene-kon case. In response to this question, Jen-kins said the US administration openly criti-cizing the Ergenekon trial could be “twisted” and lead to new conspiracy theories, sugges-ting that the best way to talk to the Turkish government was behind closed doors, and not directly to Erdo�an -- who he said, ac-cording to what was translated into Turkish, is a “short tempered” character -- but to ot-hers who are more likely to listen.
Dr. Cornell also spoke at the SAIS me-eting. In his speech, he said there was no system of checks and balances in Turkey to prevent the AK Party from developing aut-horitarian tendencies.
Jenkins said he was deeply worried abo-ut the future of democracy in Turkey.
He paid TL 45 in fees for this agency, which demanded TL 400 for a health report that it said had to be obtained from the Ger-man Hospital in �stanbul. “Why are they seeing this as a way to make pro� t? Why don’t they trust Turkish doctors? Do they think the Tur-kish public is that stupid? Why is the health re-port under the monopoly of a single hospital,” G.Y. asked in his complaint.
A.G., a senior executive at an �stanbul-based construction company, in his call said: “I got an invitation from the Austrian Central Bank, from which I am trying to take out a loan. I took the invitation and applied to the Austri-an Consulate, which demanded 23 separate do-cuments for my application, including an ‘inter-
national birth certi� cate.’ I decided to not go to Austria in protest of this. Do they think Turkey is a banana republic? The Austrian bankers ex-pecting my arrival were also surprised.”
A businessman who called from �anl�urfa identi� ed by the hotline of� cials as M.T. was de-nied a visa he needed to visit a professional fair in Hanover, Germany. “They denied me a visa without citing a reason despite the presence of previous Schengen visas in my passport.”
Germany tops blacklistMelih Özsöz, the coordinator of the project, says Germany ranks � rst on the list of count-ries most complained about, followed by Fran-ce, England, Belgium and Greece. According to Özsöz, 30 of the callers complained that their
visa applications were rejected. Twenty-two of these individuals were not informed of the rea-son why they were denied a visa. The eight pe-ople who received statements citing the rea-son for visa denial had to apply to translators, as these noti� cations were not served in Turkish. Other complaints received include the lengthi-ness of the list of documents needed for visa applications and questions of visa-issuers about intimate details of a person’s life -- which visa applicants feel is a violation of human rights.
Özsöz told reporters on Thursday that the data from the hotline would be relayed to the EU Commission as well as to Turkish authori-ties. Stating that the highest number of calls to the hotline came from �stanbul, followed by An-kara and �anl�urfa, Özsöz said: “Honestly, we
weren’t expecting such strong interest when we set the hotline up. The more people know abo-ut the hotline, the more complaints we get.” The highest number of complaints so far has been from businessmen, followed by students, acade-mics and housewives.
The fact that there is a signi� cant number of applicants for tourist visas shows that the EU is also being hard on Turkish tourists. Coordina-tor Özsöz, who pointed out that embassies and consulates are creating super� uous dif� culties for applicants, said EU visa-issuers gave the most dif� cult time to applicants who would like to vi-sit an EU country for business or on a family visit.
The EU visa hotline is active between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays. It can be reached at 0 (212) 324 51 88 and at 0 (212) 324 51 99.
Erdo�an, Ba�bu� hold weekly meeting
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdo�an and Chief of Ge-neral Staff Gen. �lker Ba�bu� held their weekly meeting at
the Prime Ministry yesterday. The meeting lasted for one hour and 35 minutes. Erdo�an and Ba�bu� were expected to discuss the latest developments on Turkey’s agenda such as the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government’s Kurdish ini-tiative, which aims to resolve Turkey’s Kurdish problem. The initiative came to Parliament’s � oor last week despite adverse reaction from the opposition parties. Another item which was supposed to be on the agenda of the Erdo�an-Ba�bu� meeting was a letter sent by an unnamed military of� cer to prosecutors last week, which included subversive military plans to destroy the government. The letter came with a CD attached contai-ning numerous con� dential military documents which showed that the generals were plotting to damage the AK Party’s ima-ge in the eyes of the public. Ankara Today’s Zaman
SILENT TURKEY (3)
Nationalists Jacobean elites may fail to decode the all-embracing,
peaceful nationalism of Anatolia, but it is not a hard gu-ess for the silent majority of grass roots to realize that a re-turn to the nationalism of Nihal Ats�z is nothing but a bre-aking way from the nation. This conclusion is already be-ing implemented, which partially accounts for the silen-ce of the majority. This is because the young people who-se nails were removed in torture during the military rule of Sept. 12 tend to adopt a realistic stance to today’s deve-lopments, and they see that it is a grave sin to turn one’s back to the nation in return for some shadowy connecti-ons. They know best that the entrenched problems of the country cannot be solved by just shouting or making no-ise. They also know that seeking shelter in mere heroism without offering any feasible solution to problems carri-es a big price. It is important not only for those who base their policies on nationalism but also for everyone who lo-ves this country to lend an ear to the scream of this silent majority because there is no fault line that can withstand a third shock here. Otherwise, the resulting earthquake will be a great one, with the aftershocks being alienation giving way to the militarism and racism of marginalized groups.
Tomorrow: Conservatives.
Gareth H. Jenkins, the author of “Between Fact and Fantasy: Turkey’s Ergenekon Investigation,” which many pundits find to be too one-sided, spoke yesterday at a conference in Washington on the Ergenekon trial sponsored by the Ari Foundation.
cont�nued from page 14
cont�nued from page 1
Mustafa Balbay
AL� ASLAN WASHINGTON
PH
OT
O
AL
� A
SL
AN
KIL
IÇ
Gareth H. Jenkins
CM Y K
TODAY’S LEARNING F R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 918 TODAY’S ZAMAN
10th & 11th GRADERS
WEEKLY ESSAY COMPETITION
LAST WEEK’S SUCCESSFUL ESSAY SUBMISSION
Nothing but workingMan constantly runs after his goals on this field-likeworld. Besides, that's the reason why he was created.There is always something to succeed in and somethingto help him achieve this.
Yet, the greatest helper -- except God -- is he, him-self. If he waits for someone's help, it means he will waittoo long. Because of this, man has to create his own op-portunities by working hard. As I am a student, I have tostruggle to accomplish my own goals. The more I study,the more I will gain. For another example, if you are anarcheologist, you have to get an education, determine theplace of excavation and excavate with patience. So, itmeans you have to work hard. Who on earth could men-tion that it is possible by chance? As it is said: "The fa-vorites of the Goddess of Chance are those who are hard-working."
I want to summarize by saying that it will not be a re-al matter whatever our profession or our situation is. Ifwe have a target -- that of course we have -- we must trydeterminedly. Remember: no pain, no gain!
(Some minor corrections have been made)
Emre GÜRBÜZ -- 11 Language AYüksel Ilhan Alanyalý Teacher Training High
School Kartal, Istanbul
This week’s essay question:Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using tech-nology today. (Talk about television, cell phones, theInternet, etc. in you essay)Requirements of essays:
Maximum number of words: 250
Essay format and use of formal written English
Must be submitted by the following Thursday of eachweek's English Corner
Must have student's full name, school and city
SOME COMMON CONTRACTIONSWITH EXAMPLES AND NOTES
Did you - didja or 'dja: How didja do it? How 'dja' do it?
NOTE : When followed by a word beginning with theletter "e," or "a" 'dja is commonly contracted to ‘dj' :
Did you eat yet? - 'dj' eat yet?Did you ask her? - 'dj' ask 'er?Does she - dushi : Dushi speak English?Don't know - dunno : I dunno where you live.For - fer : He works fer his father.
NOTE : This also applies to the following words :Forgive - fergive forget - ferget
Give me - gimme : Gimme thatGoing to - gonna : I'm gonna give him a present.
NE’ER CAST A CLOUT TILL MAY IS OUT
Early spring in Britain often turns warm for a few days. But ifyou start leaving off clothes you will run a risk, as it may be-come very cold again -- right up to the end of May. "Cast aclout" is an old way of saying "leave off clothes."
Purchase not friends by gifts; when thou ceasest togive, such will cease to love.
Thomas Fuller
* QUOTE OF THE DAY
Q: Is learning English and grammardifficult?
A: English is an easy language to startlearning because:
It has no genders. Apart from people, allobjects are "neuter," neither "masculine" nor"feminine." So you say "it" for such things,and do not need to learn any genders.
It usually has easy verb endings. Apartfrom a few "irregular" verbs, verb endingsare easy and hardly change.
Adjectives remain the same for all words
-- there are no different endings to learn.The singular and plural pronoun "you"
is the same. There is no need to decidewhether to use a polite form, or an inti-mate form.
Q: What are the most difficult aspectsof learning English?
A: The most difficult things aboutlearning English are:
Spelling and pronunciation -- thespelling of a word may not show what thepronunciation is. This is because English
words came from many different sources.English came from two main sources -
- old French and old Anglo-Saxon. Thereis a very large vocabulary of words. Watchout for words that seem similar. They mayhave come from your language and meanthe same; these are called cognates, orthey may have different meanings, theseare false cognates.
Idioms -- native English speakers use alot of idioms; that is, words used in a waywhich is not their obvious meaning.
ILL
US
TR
AT
ION
ST
OD
AY
’S Z
AM
AN
, C
EM
KIZ
ILT
UÐ
IS LEARNING ENGLISH DIFFICULT?
1. stationery / stationarystationery (n.): the items needed for writ-ing, such as paper, pens, pencils and en-velopese.g.: The students spend most of theirmoney on stationery.stationary (adj.): not moving, or notchanging:e.g.: The rate of inflation has been station-ary for several months.2. sensible / sensitivesensible (adj.): based on or acting ongood judgment and practical ideas or un-derstanding:e.g.: I think the sensible thing to do isphone before you go and ask for direc-tions.sensitive (adj.): easily upset by the thingspeople say or do, or causing people to beupset, embarrassed or angry:e.g.: Her reply showed that she was verysensitive to criticism.
3. affect / effectaffect (v.): to have an influence on some-one or something, or to cause them tochange:e.g.: Both buildings were badly affected bythe fire.effect (n.): the result of a particular influ-ence:e.g.: I tried taking tablets for the headachebut they didn't have any effect.4. past / passedpast (adj.): 1. used to refer to a period oftime before and until the present:e.g.: I've been walking three miles a dayfor the past 30 years.2. [before noun] having happened or ex-isted before now:e.g.: I know from past experience that youcan't judge someone by their appearance.passed (pass) (v.): 1. to go past some-thing or someone or move in relation to it:e.g.: I passed him on the stairs this morn-ing.2. to be successful in an exam, course, etc:e.g.: Guess what? I've passed my drivingtest!5. economic / economicaleconomic (adj.): relating to trade, indus-try and money:e.g.: The country has been in a very pooreconomic state ever since the decline of itstwo major industries.economical (adj.): not using a lot of fuel,money, etc:e.g.: What's the most economical way ofheating this building?
TRIVIAL PURSUIT 1. What is the strongest muscle in the body?2. Who lives longer, left-handed or right-handed people?3. Which hand do polar bears use, left or right?4. How many taste buds does a catfish have?5. Which living creature tastes its own feet?6. Which bird's brain is smaller than its eye?7. Which fish does not have a brain?8. Which animal kills more people a year than any other animal?9. What are most dust particles in your house made of?
PAIRS OF WORDS OFTEN CONFUSED
Last week’s answers: 1 Will iam Wallace, 2 Apartheid, 3 Cambuskenneth in 1297, 4 The Confederate States of America, 5 Joseph Stalin,6 A net, 7 George Bush, 8 Christopher Columbus, 9 Anne Boleyn, 10 China
PH
OT
OA
PP
HO
TO
CÝH
AN
PH
OT
OA
PP
HO
TO
RE
UT
ER
S
T18-20-11-09.qxd 19.11.2009 15:03 Page 1
CMYK
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2009
SPORTS French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova will launch her 2010 Australian Open campaign at the Sydney International. The 24-year-
old Russian joins Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka as the fifth player in the women’s
top 10 rankings to sign up for the Jan. 10-16 event. Sydney Reuters
Men’s Turkish Basketball League (TBL) leader Efes Pilsen entertains Galatasaray
Cafe Crown in week six action at the Ayhan �ahenk Sports Hall in �stanbul this evening.
Efes Pilsen, which downed previously unbeaten Be�ikta� Cola Turka 88-84 in a thrilling �stanbul derby at the BJK Cola Turka Arena last weekend to take over top spot, is highly favored over scandal-hit Galatasaray Cafe Crown, in what has been dubbed the “match of the week” by the local media.
Galatasaray outlasted archrival Fener-bahçe Ülker 74-72 in overtime in a trouble-marred �stanbul derby at Abdi �pekçi Sports Arena in game � ve last weekend to stay in touch with the league frontrunners. But Efes is a more formidable opponent than Fener Ülker and so Galatasaray Cafe Crown players may need more than a Houdini touch to be able to upset mighty Efes Pilsen this evening.
The game kicks off at 8 p.m. and will be aired live on Spormax. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
Raikkonen open to Mercedes offers
Kimi Raikkonen’s plans for a one year sabbatical from Formula One lasted
less than 24 hours before his manager suggested that he might be open to of-fers from Brawn’s new owners Mercedes. Steve Robertson told the autosport.com Web site on Thursday that the Finn, who failed to reach a deal with McLaren after leaving Ferrari, was not 100 percent cer-tain to be absent next year. London Reuters
UAE striker dies of heart attack
Striker Salem Saad of United Arab Emirates club side Al Nasr has died
after suffering a massive heart attack at training, the club’s Web site (www.alnasr.com) reported on Thursday. The club said the 31-year-old collapsed on the pitch during a regular practice session and was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital but died shortly after arrival. Sydney Reuters
No cause for alarm, Hami says after U-21s held
France leads 5 more qualifiers into World Cup
The Turkish Under-21 national soc-cer team, beaten 3-1 by leader Swit-
zerland in their 2011 UEFA European Un-der-21 Championship Group qualifying match in Trabzon last Saturday, drew 0-0 with Estonia in a lackluster game at the Yeni Rize Stadium in Rize on Wednesday.
Going into this match, only one point separated Turkey (9) and Estonia (8), and so nothing changed for the two teams after their match ended exactly the way it started.
The result has only served to strengthen the position of the Swiss, who beat Georgia 1-0 at home position, in the group whereas Turkey’s hopes of qualifying seem to be hang-ing by a thread. Turkey coach Hami Mand�ral� agrees that the going had gotten tougher after his team dropped four precious points in two home matches. But the former Trabzon and Turkey striker is still optimistic nonetheless.
“As you can see, we wanted to appease our fans and so tried to play good soccer but our opponent [Estonia] wouldn’t let us as they resorted to anti-soccer. We had glaring chanc-es but failed to convert them,” he lamented.
“Against the Swiss in Trabzon we domi-nated the one-sided match from the begin-ning to the end, but lost. Today against Es-tonia, we did not succeed as a team though there were some commendable individual efforts. Estonia is not a strong team and there is no team we cannot beat. But at times things just don’t go your way,” he further stated.
“All in all, it has been a week not to re-member. Yes, we are down but by no way out. We have only garnered one point out of a possible six [in two matches], but there are still four games to go and as many as 12 points at stake. And we are still capable of making the impossible possible,” he added.
These are words of consolation from a frustrated coach, but the fans are not happy one bit with what is go-ing on. And they made their dissatisfac-tion abundantly clear by staying away from Wednesday’s match. Only 2,500 fans were in attendance at the Yeni Rize Stadium even though no gate fees were charged. Saturday’s loss to Switzerland had dampened fan enthusiasm, to say the least. Okan Udo Bassey �stanbul
France, with a controversial extra-time goal from William Gallas,
squeezed into the World Cup finals de-spite failing to beat Ireland in Paris while Slovenia upset Russia on a nailbiting night of qualifiers on Wednesday.
France progressed after a 1-1 draw with Ireland gave the 2006 � nalists a 2-1 aggre-gate victory but they needed Gallas’s close-range goal -- after a blatant Thierry Henry handball in the build-up -- to win the tie.
The French go through to next year’s extravaganza in South Africa along with Slovenia, Greece, Portugal and Algeria, which beat archrivals Egypt 1-0 in neutral Sudan to win a tense sudden-death playoff to secure the � nal African qualifying berth.
Uruguay struggled to tame Costa Rica before booking their place in the World Cup � nals with a 1-1 draw at home in the second leg of their South America/CONCACAF playoff. The Uruguayans went through 2-1 on aggregate after winning the � rst leg in San Jose on Saturday. London Reuters
A scene from an Efes-Gala-tasaray game
last season. Efes is highly favored over. Galatasaray
today.
Leader Efes hosts Galatasaray in TBL ‘match of the week’
Hami Mand�ral�
Bulgaria goalkeeper Dimitar Ivankov has announced his retirement from in-
ternational soccer following his country’s 4-1 win against Malta in a friendly on Wednes-day. “I quit and this is my final decision,” the 34-year-old Ivankov told reporters. Ivankov, capped 62 times for his country, was part of Bulgaria’s squad at the Euro 2004 finals in Portugal. He also won three Bulgarian league titles and five Bulgarian cups while playing for Levski Sofia. Sofia Reuters
Ivankov quits internationals
Galatasaray Café Crown was caught red-handed after it was discovered that the
�stanbul side fielded suspended player Cemal Nalga by making him wear the No. 7 jersey of injured player Tufan Ersöz during two warm-up matches in Europe. When the scandal broke out, the Galatasaray club management held an emergency meeting and decided to sack the administrative and technical personnel in the men’s basketball branch. The Turkish Basketball Federation sent a notice to Galatasaray demand-ing an urgent verbal explanation from the club and the team’s head coach as well as Cemal Na-lga. The Galatasaray basketball team faces very severe penalties, including being relegated to lower division if these claims are proven. Nalga was suspended for five matches for punching an opponent during the match against Cibona Za-greb on Sept. 16. After the league match on Oct. 17 at �stanbul’s Abdi �pekçi Sports Arena, Oyak Renault complained to the federation that Na-lga’s five-match suspension was still under way. In response, the federation rejected the com-plaint, listing the five matches in which Nalga had not played on its Web site, and the matches included those against the Skyliners on Sept. 24 and Ludwigsburg on Sept. 25. According to evidence provided on the Web site of Ludwigs-burg, Nalga’s name was not on the list while the photos and videos showed that he was there wearing Ersöz’s No. 7 jersey. �stanbul Today’s Zaman
GS Cafe Crown caught in act
PH
OT
O
AA
Kuznetsova to warm up in Sydney
Okur-less Jazz subdue Hedo’s Toronto Raptors
It was a scenario that has played out in Utah’s home arena for many years: a tight game in the fourth quarter, when the Jazz
turn to their point guard to make the game’s deci-sive plays. It just wasn’t that point guard.
Eric Maynor, a rookie out of Virginia Common-wealth, ran the team for much of the fourth quarter, while Deron Williams moved over to the two-spot.
The move paid off nicely for the Jazz, who blew open a tight game to defeat Hedo Türko�lu’s To-ronto Raptors 104-91 in Salt Lake City on Wednes-day night for their ninth straight win over the Rap-tors. The Turkish superstar scored 11 points with six rebounds and four assists, but that was not enough to save his team from defeat.
The Utah Jazz were without another Turkish star, Mehmet Okur, who was sidelined by the � u. His teammates nonetheless did a very good job.
“Two words: Eric Maynor,” was how Jazz forward Carlos Boozer loudly greeted report-ers for his postgame interview. “Eric’s been playing great, man. He’s stepped in, he’s got swag, he’s got con� dence. When he comes in the game, he knows what he’s sup-
posed to do out there and does a great job of doing it.”
The Jazz opened the fourth quarter leading by three and with a seldom-used lineup combination of Maynor, Williams, Boozer, Andrei Kirilenko and Paul Millsap. Maynor quickly took charge, as he made a free throw and assisted on a reverse layup by Kirilenko to put Utah up by four.
Boozer had a team-high 22 points and 18 rebounds for Utah, while Williams and Kirilenko each had 20 points.
Maynor also hit a jump hook and scored on an uncontested layup -- thanks to an as- s i s t from Williams to put the Jazz up 89-79 with six minutes re-maining. Maynor scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, includ-ing a stretch
where he scored eight straight points. Those eight points gave the Jazz a 91-79 lead.
Chris Bosh helped the Toronto Raptors trim an 18-point de� cit to just nine in the � nal three minutes of the � rst half. Bosh scored 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the � rst half and the Jazz didn’t look to have anyone that could guard him.
Both teams adjusted well defensively af-ter the break. The Jazz � nished with a total of 54 points in the paint and Bosh scored 32 points. It was the fourth time Bosh has scored at least 30 points this season, but he got four of them in the � nal two minutes with the game already decided. Bosh recorded his
NBA-leading 10th double-double of the season with 17 rebounds.
Other NBA results on Wednesday: Dallas 99, San Antonio Spurs 94; Hous-ton 97, Minnesota 84; Washington 108, Cleveland 91; Boston 109, Golden State 95; New York 110, Indiana 103; Orlan-
do 108, Oklahoma City 94; Atlanta 105, Miami 90; Philadelphia 86, Charlotte 84;
Memphis 106, LA Clippers 91; Portland 87,
Rookie Eric Maynor scored 11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter and helped the Jazz, who let an 18-point lead slip to one early in the fourth
before pulling away for their ninth straight win over the Raptors
day night for their ninth straight win over the Rap-tors. The Turkish superstar scored 11 points with six rebounds and four assists, but that was not enough to save his team from defeat.
The Utah Jazz were without another Turkish star, Mehmet Okur, who was sidelined by the � u. His teammates nonetheless did a very good job.
“Two words: Eric Maynor,” was how Jazz forward Carlos Boozer loudly greeted report-ers for his postgame interview. “Eric’s been playing great, man. He’s stepped in, he’s got swag, he’s got con� dence.When he comes in the game, he knows what he’s sup-
Maynor also hit a jump hook and scored on an uncontested layup -- thanks to an as- s i s t from Williams to put the Jazz up 89-79 with six minutes re-maining. Maynor scored11 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter, includ-ing a stretch
at least 30 points this season, but he got four of them in the � nal two minutes with the game already decided. Bosh recorded his
NBA-leading 10th double-double of the season with 17 rebounds.
Other NBA results on Wednesday: Dallas 99, San Antonio Spurs 94; Hous-ton 97, Minnesota 84; Washington 108, Cleveland 91; Boston 109, Golden State 95; New York 110, Indiana 103; Orlan-
do 108, Oklahoma City 94; Atlanta 105, Miami 90; Philadelphia 86, Charlotte 84;
Memphis 106, LA Clippers 91; Portland 87,
Turkish star Hedo Türko�lu stumbles as he dribbles past Utah Jazz’s Paul Millsap during the second half of their NBA game in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Wednesday.
PH
OT
O
AP
, S
TE
VE
C W
ILS
ON
Mahela Jayawardene and Prasanna Jayawardene broke a 72-year-old
world record on Thursday as Sri Lanka took a 334-run first-innings lead on the fourth day of the first test against India. Sri Lanka declared its first innings at 760-7 -- thanks to a 351-run sixth-wicket stand between Jayawardenes. It is the highest innings total ever scored in India. India, which made 426 in its first innings, was 77-0 in its second in-nings at tea, with Virender Sehwag making an adventourous 47 and Gautam Gambhir not out on 28. The home team still trails by 257 runs with four sessions remaining in the test. Wicketkeeper Jayawardene dropped Sehwag off a no-ball in Chanaka Welegedara first over before Dammika Prasad found an edge in the next over which flew between the first slip and the wicketkeeper to the boundary. Ahmedabad AP
Jayawardenes sets new world record
W W W. T O D AY S Z A M A N . C O M F R I D AY, N O V E M B E R 2 0 , 2 0 0 9
Forbes: Will Ferrell is Hollywood’s most overpaid Star
S�tes sell�ng
Beatles songs
to rema�n
shut down
Funnyman Will Ferrell and British actor Ewan McGregor on Wednesday headed a Forbes.
com list of Hollywood’s most overpaid stars when looking at the � nancial returns of their movies. Bil-ly Bob Thornton, Tom Cruise and Jim Carrey also made the top 10 tally of actors who cost more to hire than they appear to be worth at box of� ces.
Ferrell took � rst place largely due to the � op of his summer 2009 movie “Land of the Lost,” which Forbes said cost an estimated $100 million to make but earned just $65 million at box of� ces worldwide for movie stu-dio Universal Pictures. The movie followed a disap-pointing $43 million box of� ce for Ferrell’s 2008 outing “Semi-Pro,” and $128 million for “Step Brothers.”
Using a formula that calculated the actor’s esti-mated salary on each � lm, including DVD and TV sales, compared to the � lm’s revenues from theater box of� ces and elsewhere, Forbes.com said that for every dollar Ferrell was paid, his � lms earned an av-erage $3.29. To create the list, the � nancial news Web site looked at Hollywood’s 100 biggest stars who had lead performances in at least three widely distributed movies in the last � ve years. McGregor, best known for “Trainspotting” and his work in the “Star Wars” franchise, is not among Hollywood’s highest paid ac-tors but has recently proved a poor investment, aver-aging a return of $3.75. Los Angeles Reuters
PH
OT
OA
P,
RIC
HA
RD
DR
EW
Actor Will Ferrell appears on the NBC “Today” televi-sion program in New York in this June 3 file photo.
CMYK
Woman leaves $40,000 at shrine
Lost man drives nine hours to get newspaper
A woman quietly left $40,000 worth of rare US coins near a Catholic shrine for safekeeping
so the Virgin Mary could watch over her life savings while she was out of town, and apparently it worked: The money was returned to her when she got back a week later. Operators of the National Shrine Grotto of Our Lady of Lourdes near Emmitsburg thought they had been blessed with a big donation when a groundskeeper found the two plastic freezer bags � lled with gold and silver while raking leaves.
But Shrine Director William Tronolone said the woman approached him after a noon Mass Sunday, six days after the discovery, to ask whether anyone had found some coins she had hidden beneath fallen leaves at the site on the campus of Mount St. Mary’s University. “I said, ‘Why did you leave it there?’ And she said, ‘Well, I had to go away and I was afraid to leave it and I wanted the Blessed Mother to watch over it for me -- and evidently she did because you found it,’” Tronolone said. Hagerstown, Md. AP
An elderly man who went out to fetch a morn-ing newspaper ended up driving nearly 400
miles after getting lost and taking a wrong turn onto a major Australian highway, police said on Wednes-day. The man, 81-year-old Eric Steward, eventually stopped and asked for directions after driving for nine hours, from the New South Wales country town of Yass to Geelong in the southern Victoria state.
Steward, who did not know where he was, even-tually approached a policeman at a petrol station and asked for help late on Wednesday. “This little old man came up to me saying he was lost. He handed me his mobile and asked if I could speak to his wife,” said Vic-torian Police Senior Constable Clayton Smith. Steward, who was reunited with his family on Wednesday, said he took the wrong turn and just kept on going. “I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful drive,” he told reporters, adding he did not need a satellite naviga-tion device as he’d only been lost once. Canberra Reuters
Bon Jovi comes full ‘Circle’ on US chartBon Jovi claimed its fourth No. 1 album on the US pop chart
Wednesday, despite a sharp drop in sales. “The Circle” sold 163,000 copies during the week ended Nov. 16, ac-
cording to Nielsen SoundScan. Los Angeles, Reuters
Two Web sites that sold songs by The Beatles for 25 cents apiece should re-
main shut down inde� nitely, a fed-eral judge ruled on Wednesday. US District Judge John F. Walter issued a preliminary injunction against Blue-Beat.com and Basebeat.com at the re-quest of music company EMI Group. The injunction prohibits the sites
and their owner, Hank Risan, from streaming or selling songs by the Fab Four and other popular artists, includ-ing Lily Allen and Coldplay.
A hearing in the case had been scheduled for today, but Walter de-cided the issue based on pleadings by attorneys for Risan and the mu-sic label. A phone message left on Wednesday evening for Risan’s attor-
ney was not immediately returned.EMI Group sued Risan and the sites
earlier this month to stop the sites from streaming or selling its music. It claimed the sites were selling high-quality ver-sions of copyrighted songs, including Beatles music, which has never been legally released digitally. Risan argued in court � lings that he had re-recorded the music and inserted artistic touches
based on a technique he pioneered called “psycho-acoustic simulation.”
The process involved re-recording store-bought CDs and improving the quality and trying to simulate how a live listener would hear the music, Risan explained in � lings. Attorneys for the music label dismissed the ex-planation in a � ling as “technobabble and doublespeak.” Los Angeles AP
