March 17th, 2010
Editor-in-chief of the Firat newspaper
Hacı Boğatekin (http://www NULL.ifex NULL.org/turkey/2010/03/11/jail_sentences/) has been sentenced to five years in jail. Bogatekin was charged with “insult” and “defamation” and “attempting to influence a fair trial”. Three other journalists were
charged with similar offences (http://www NULL.bianet NULL.org/english/freedom-of-expression/120493-heavy-sentences-for-three-journalists-in-south-east-turkey). In one of the offending articles Bogatekin argued that the real threat did not come from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party but from religious leader Fethullah Gülen’s congregation. He also published prosecutor Sadullah Ovacıklı’s criticism of his abbreviation of Gülen’s name to “Feto” and made allegations about the prosecutors relationship with Güle. Boğatekin was awarded the Press Freedom Award in 2008 and was awarded by the Contemporary Journalists’ Association (ÇGD) in 2009.
March 15th, 2010
Baris Yarkadas (http://www NULL.bianet NULL.org/english/freedom-of-expression/120435-prison-sentence-for-posting-reader-comment), editor of online newspaper Gercek Gündem, faces five years in jail for failing to remove a comment posted on his website insulting President Gül. The comment, written by an anonymous reader, accused President Gül of allowing his Armenian counter-part to defy him, and of bringing shame upon Turkey. Yarkadas is also charged with insulting the head of the Turkey’s Institute for Forensic Medicine by reporting allegations brought about by human rights NGOs (http://www NULL.ifex NULL.org/turkey/2010/03/03/yarkadas_on_trial/).
March 8th, 2010
How do the Turk’s view Congress’s resolution? Jennifer Amur examines the outrage and anger
A relatively minor victory in the US Congress for Armenians who claim that 1.5 million of their ancestors were killed by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 triggered indignant headlines across Turkish media Friday.
For years, Armenia and the Armenian diaspora have been lobbying Washington (http://www NULL.guardian NULL.co NULL.uk/uk/2010/mar/08/marcel-berlins-us-genocide-ruling ) to recognise the deaths as genocide, a move they believe will force Turkey into recognising the massacre and, some say, paying reparations with money and land in eastern Anatolia.
The panel vote by the Committee on Foreign Affairs has few if any practical implications, but it caused a backlash from Turkey, which said the result dealt a deathblow to its ongoing normalization process with Armenia.
Turkish newspaper headlines after the vote reflected a predictable outrage; Turkey has long denied that genocide occurred, arguing instead that both Turks and Armenians were killed in civil strife during the last days of the Ottoman Empire.
Daily Hürriyet (http://www NULL.hurriyetdailynews NULL.com), one of the country’s largest newspapers, led with news that Turkey recalled its ambassador for consultations immediately after the vote. Before the vote, the Turkish foreign ministry had warned that everything was “on the table,” including recalling the ambassador and cutting back in Afghanistan.
Ambassador Namık Tan’s recall made headlines in several of the country’s dailies, but Milliyet went further, with views from experts who compared the situation to Russia’s recognition of the genocide.
After Russia recognised the genocide in the 1990s, Turkey continued to develop bilateral relations, and ties grew in the following years. The experts in the Milliyet story asked why the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, couldn’t respond similarly to the United States, which often cites Turkey, a NATO member, as an important ally in the Middle East. The US maintains an Air Force base in a Turkish city near Iraq, and Turkey has mediated peace talks between Syria and Israel.
Daily Vatan took a different approach, focusing instead on committee Chairman Howard Berman, who was very vocal in his support for the resolution, and his influence on the vote. The story alleged that the chairman ruled to extend the voting time in order to sway the result.
Other newspapers blamed the result on the Obama administration, which just a few minutes before the session advised the panel to take no action on the resolution. Several dailies asserted the administration was too late and too weak in its opposition.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday that the vote was not aligned with the administration’s policy of not intervening in the countries’ negotiations. Part of the plan to establish diplomatic ties is the creation of an expert commission to investigate the genocide claims, but this and several other parts of plan have been criticized by those who say impartiality by “experts” endorsed by either country on this issue is next to impossible.
Jennifer Amur is a Web editor at the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review in Istanbul
March 8th, 2010
Vedat Kursun (http://www NULL.ifex NULL.org/turkey/2010/02/23/kursun_charged/), former editor of Azadiya Welat, has been charged with 105 counts of “helping and abetting [the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party] by spreading propaganda” and “glorifying crimes and criminals”. His newspaper published numerous articles regarding statements and activities of the organisation, which his lawyer cites as published under the scope of freedom of expression and right to inform. His successor,
Ozan Kilinç (http://www NULL.hurriyetdailynews NULL.com/n NULL.php?n=turkey-under-fire-over-journalist-trial-2010-02-23), was convicted and sentenced to
21 years imprisonment on similar charges in February.
March 5th, 2010
Congress’s resolution condemning the 1915 Armenian genocide gives Turkey a chance to disavow a grotesque state crime and abandon its hideous charade of bullying, propaganda and falsified history says Nouritza Matossian
(more…)
February 15th, 2010
Hackers took control of the website of
Agos (http://www NULL.upi NULL.com/Top_News/International/2010/02/12/Turkish-Armenian-newspaper-site-hacked/UPI-82061265983543/), a leading Turkish-Armenian newspaper
(http://www NULL.upi NULL.com/Top_News/International/2010/02/12/Turkish-Armenian-newspaper-site-hacked/UPI-82061265983543/)last Friday, the cyber-attackers uploaded images of the alleged murderer of the newspaper’s former editor-in-chief, and winner of the Index on Censorship’s 2008 journalism award,
Hrant Dink. The hackers claimed there would be more of the same if the newspaper did not fix its reporting to
“the way we see fit” (http://www NULL.asbarez NULL.com/2008/12/10/turkey-to-recognize-genocide-within-the-decade-says-agos-editor/).
Agos has regularly published articles about the Armenian genocide.
February 11th, 2010
Ozan Kilinc (http://news NULL.bbc NULL.co NULL.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8509455 NULL.stm), editor of Kurdish newspaper Azadiya Welat, has been sentenced to 21 years in jail for publishing ‘Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) propaganda’. Comments or acts judged supportive of the PKK are a serious crime in Turkey. The PKK, branded a
terrorist organisation (http://www NULL.reuters NULL.com/article/idUSTRE61A21020100211), launched an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in 1984.
February 1st, 2010
A
15-year-old girl (http://www NULL.guardian NULL.co NULL.uk/world/2010/jan/31/turkey-terror-jail-human-rights)has been sentenced to jail for nearly eight years after having been arrested at a demonstration in support of the banned Kurdish group PPK. The girl has been convicted of ’terrorist’ offences, including ‘crimes on behalf of an illegal organisation’, ‘attending meetings and demonstrations in opposition to the law’ and ‘spreading propaganda for an illegal organisation. ’ In her defence the girl claimed that she did not know what the word propaganda meant and that she had only confessed after having been beaten while in custody.
