Labels: Islam, Paris terror attacks, soccer, Turkey, Turkish Islamization, Turkish soccer fans
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:15 AM
3 comments
"No country in the region - including Iran - is as homogenous in terms of Islam as Turkey," says writer Cengiz Aktar. "It's a mono-colour country - it's a Muslim country."
After the Turkish Republic was born in 1923, it carried out a "population exchange" with Greece to create more ethnic and religious consistency. More than a million Greeks were forced out of Turkey to Greece while around 300,000 Muslims from Greece were relocated here.
The Greeks of Istanbul were initially saved but after a crippling wealth tax, anti-Greek pogroms in 1955 and mass expulsions in 1964, the Greek community was left in tatters. And so was the Orthodox Christianity they practised.
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"The ethnic cleansing of these non-Muslim minorities was a huge brain drain," says Mr Aktar, who has created a new exhibition on the loss of the Greeks here.
"It also meant the disappearance of the bourgeoisie because not only were they wealthy but they were artisans. Istanbul lost its entire Christian and Jewish heritage."
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It was not just the exodus of the Greeks that hit Christianity here.
Armenians were the other large Christian community. Hundreds of thousands were deported in 1915. They were either killed or died from starvation and disease. The label "genocide" is rejected by the Turkish state. From a population of two million Armenians, around 50,000 remain today.
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"Most of the believers hide their cross inside their shirt. They can't open it and walk freely on the street because they could prompt a reaction. I don't want to say all the Turkish population is against Christianity but nationalism is so high that people are afraid to express themselves."And they call us 'racists'? Read the whole thing.
That is now the worry among the Christian minority here: that Turkish Muslim nationalism has grown under the Islamist-rooted government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, prime minister for 11 years before being elected president last August.
Labels: Christians, Turkey, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:18 PM
1 comments
Strong case in Die Welt that Turkey emulating Iranian nuclear buildup: http://t.co/1lukMyenl1 Great - just what we need, #Erdoğan w The Bomb
— Daniel Pipes (@DanielPipes) September 29, 2014
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Iran, nuclear proliferation, nuclear weapons, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:23 PM
0 comments
As anti-government protests continue in Istanbul, Turkish media outlets have begun reporting that the demonstrations are part of an anti-Erdogan plot organized by members of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank that is home to many former senior U.S. officials.
“Apparently, a meeting took place between some of our scholars and outsiders, and these Jews (for many, though not all, at the alleged meeting are Jews) and their fellow travelers planned the whole thing,” AEI wrote on its website Wednesday in a statement lambasting the reports.
The Turkish reports mention several former U.S. government insiders, including Bush administration national security adviser Elliott Abrams, former United Nations Ambassador John Bolton, Weekly Standard editor William Kristol, and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
The Turkish reports also claim that Jewish officials and so-called “neo-cons” associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Council (AIPAC), America’s most prominent pro-Israel lobby, are involved in the plot, which was supposedly hatched during a secret meeting in February.
“According to this, the meeting was held at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), which carries out its activities with the support of the Jewish lobby AIPAC,” stateda Tuesday report in Yeni Safak, a pro-government newspaper.
“The ‘Istanbul Uprising’ scenario was simulated on 12 February in order ‘to bring the apolitical Turkish youth out on the streets,’” the report says.
The reports erroneously claim that AEI’s Michael Rubin, a former Pentagon adviser, secretly met with other Jewish government insiders to hatch the anti-Erdogan plot.AEI's Danielle Pletka does a great job of summarizing Turkey:
“Here is the truth: Erdoğan … has begun to transform Turkey into an Islamist bastion,” Pletka wrote on AEI’s website. “The Turkish people are standing up to Erdoğan because they see what has become of their once-proud nation, and they won’t stand for it. Kudos to them.”It will be interesting to see when - if ever - Erdogan's Best Fried Forever stands up for the Turkish people. Don't hold your breath waiting.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization, Turkish obsession with Israel, Turkish spring
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:57 PM
3 comments
"The police intervened to dismantle barricades," Mr. Mutlu said. "Some individuals have clashed with the police…. We are trying to normalize the scene in Taksim. We are not going to intervene in Gezi Park."
The governor said authorities "will not allow a siege" around the statue in the square of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of Turkey's republic, and a nearby cultural center, vowing not to allow protest material back around the statue.
"The Ataturk statue and cultural center have become like an advertisement board," he said. "It's very bad for the image of Turkey and Istanbul." The governor said authorities are committed "to be very careful and sensitive in handling the situation."Forgive me for saying this Governor, but seeing riot police beat people and spray them with water canons and tear gas on my computer screen is much worse for the image of Istanbul and Turkey than a bunch of posters covering a statue. But then, what do I know? I've never been out of the airport in Istanbul anyway.
"We have been waiting for this to happen," said protester Ugur Hacan, a 24-year-old artistic director for TV series and movies, who was sleeping at the park with friends when police entered the square.
"As long as the police don't interfere with Gezi Park, the protests will continue. I believe more people might come after this action," Mr. Hacan said. He and three other friends at the park said police didn't confront the protesters directly.
Taksim Square subway was still functioning on Tuesday, and some commuters emerging from the metro were caught in the melee. "We need to talk rather than fight each other. I hope this can be resolved quickly," said Can Ozdemir, a hotel waiter, as his eyes streamed from the tear gas.
Speaking after a weekly cabinet meeting in Ankara Monday, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said Mr. Erdogan would meet some demonstration representatives Wednesday and others at another time, without providing additional details.Remember what the Iranian election looked like in 2009? That's what the next Turkish election will look like...
Labels: Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization, Turkish spring
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:32 PM
1 comments
Labels: Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization, Turkish spring
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:07 AM
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Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan warned protesters who have taken to the streets across Turkey demanding his resignation that his patience has its limits and compared the unrest with an army attempt six years ago to curb his power.
Riot police used teargas and water cannon to disperse anti-government protesters from a square in the capital, Ankara, just a few kilometers from where Erdogan spoke.
He held six rallies on Sunday, a measure of tensions after a week of the biggest demonstrations and worst rioting of his decade in power. Thousands waved red Turkish flags and shouted Allahu Akbar (God Is Greatest) as he accused protesters of attacking women wearing headscarves and desecrating mosques by taking beer bottles into them.
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In the commercial center Istanbul, tens of thousands flooded the central Taksim Square, where protests began nine days ago when police used teargas and water cannon against a peaceful demonstration over plans to build on a park there. Many see Turkey's secular order threatened by Erdogan.
Protesters, many camped out in tents, now control a large area around the square, with approach roads barricaded by masonry, paving stones and steel rods. Police have withdrawn completely from the area, water cannon kept hundreds of meters away by the side of the Bosphorus waterway.
Western countries have held up Erdogan's Turkey as an example of an Islamic democracy that could be emulated elsewhere in the Middle East. Violent police action, however, has drawn criticism from the West and Erdogan has increasingly accused foreign forces of trying to aggravate the troubles.
He also rounded on speculators, foreign and domestic, in the country's capital markets, vowing to "choke" those who he said were growing rich off "the sweat of the people", and urging Turks to put their money in state not private banks.
"Those who attempt to sink the bourse, you will collapse ... If we catch your speculation, we will choke you. No matter who you are, we will choke you," he said.
Turkey's financial markets were turbulent last week and investors are preparing for more volatility this week.
Early on Friday, the lira hit its weakest point against its euro/dollar basket since October 2011, while Istanbul's main share index lost around 15 percent over the week. The yield of Turkey's two-year benchmark sovereign bond hit a six-month high on Thursday.As some of you might recall, Turkey's economy is all a lie. It's constructed on a house of cards. That's likely part of the play here as well. Erdogan is trying to take Turkey Islamist and then make up its deficits through trade with Iran. Turkey already has a waiver on the Iran sanctions regime - it can just go back to trading gold for oil.
Labels: Iran, Iranian oil, Islamist, Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization, Turkish spring
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:54 AM
0 comments
According to a law passed in 1925, Turkey uses the 30th meridian east of Greenwich to set its time. This meridian, which passes through Izmit, puts Turkey in the same time zone as many European countries and is identified as GMT+2. The meridian our ministry wants to use now is 40th, which passes through eastern Turkey. If we adopt that, then Turkey will be GMT+3, which will distance us from Europe one more hour.
As the 40th meridian also passes through Saudi Arabia, it will mean Turkey will be twinned with Riyadh instead of Athens, as it is now.
Then I noticed something else relevant. It was a news report about the Mecca Kingdom Clock that is being installed in Zem Zem Towers Building, close to the Kaaba. Six tons of gold were used in that impressive structure.
The Saudi Kingdom is now calling on Muslim countries to use Islamic Mean Time (IMT), which will based on this clock tower as a reference, and abandon Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). According to reports, many Arab media outlets, led by Al-Jazeera, are now arranging their programs according to the new time reference.
Our ministry said it postponed the ending of winter time for “technical reasons.” We have not been told why, and the proposed dropping of winter time will take place in 2014 instead.So when will they be adding 'Islamic' to the name Republic of Turkey? What could go wrong?
We hear that the ministry is determined to use the 40th meridian. This will mean we will have to set our time according to IMT — that is, the Islamic time — from now on. Remember when the idea was first floated, and how international traders and financial concerns in this country had risen against it on grounds it would negatively affect Turkey's foreign trade?
Labels: Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:42 AM
2 comments
I am sure that many of you recall the Turkish concert pianist Fazil Say, who faces a prison term for tweets on his Twitter account that defame the 'religion of peace.'Labels: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:44 PM
0 comments
A world-renowned Turkish pianist faces prosecution for 'insulting Islam' as a result of tweets posted to his Twitter account (Hat Tip: Tuna T and Joshua I). The state-run Anatolia news agency reported on Friday that an İstanbul court will decide whether to accept the proposed indictment against Fazıl Say, who has played piano with the New York Philharmonic, Berliner Symphoniker, Israel Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France and Tokyo Symphony.I have been told that the tweets also included the following (translated from Turkish):
The prosecutor accuses 42-year-old Say of inciting hatred and public enmity and insulting "religious values." Say, who has served as a culture ambassador for the European Union, allegedly mocked Islamic beliefs on Twitter.
Last month, Say sent controversial tweets questioning whether heaven in Islamic belief is like a brothel or pub because the Quran says there are rivers of drinks and houris, or very beautiful women, in heaven for those who commit good deeds while they are on earth.
the tweet's translation is "is allah something you live for or kill for?...Every murderer, rapist, thief is a believer in allah. Is this not a paradox. I am an atheist and proud of it" This was has his tweet.And Turkey's leader is Barack Hussein Obama's best friend forever. Is this where the US is heading as well?
Labels: Turkey, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:29 PM
4 comments
At the Republican Presidential debate in South Carolina on Monday, former Texas Governor Rick Perry called a spade, a spade. He slammed Turkey for being governed by Islamic terrorists and urged NATO to expel the Islamic state. The Turks are furious (Hat Tip: Joshua I).Perry made the remarks when he was asked by moderator of the program whether Turkey should still belong in NATO, given that “the murder rate of women has increased 1,400 percent, press freedom has declined to the level of Russia, Prime Minister of Turkey has embraced Hamas and Turkey threatened military action against both Israel and Cyprus since the Islamist-oriented party took over.”And in case anyone didn't get it, a Perry spokesperson explained it.
“Obviously when you have a country that is being ruled by what many would perceive to be Islamic terrorists, when you start seeing that type of activity against their own citizens, then, yes, not only is it time for us to have a conversation about whether or not they belong to be in NATO but it’s time for the United States, when we look at their foreign aid, to go to zero with it,” Perry boldly claimed.
“And you go to zero with foreign aid for all of those countries. It does not make any difference who they are. You go to zero with foreign aid and you have the conversation about do they have America’s best interests in mind. When you have countries that are moving far away from the country that I lived in back in the 1970s as a pilot of the US Air Force, that was our ally, they worked with us. But today, we don’t see that,” Perry said.
Victoria Coates, his foreign policy advisor, said that some view the leaders of Turkey as Islamic terrorists due to their support of Hamas and the flotilla against Israel, according to ABC News.Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Outside the Beltway).
“The governor was responding to the questioners references to violence against women and to association with Hamas, I think both of which are things that many people do associate as he said with Islamic terrorists,” Coates was quoted as telling reporters by ABC News. “He was referring to those things, and while he would welcome the opportunity to work with Turkey on regional issues like Syria or Iraq, this kind of behavior on the part of that country is disturbing and I think we should concerned about it.”
Asked if the leaders of Turkey have performed any actions which place them in the category of Islamic terrorists, Coates responded: “What he said was that many people associate that kind of behavior with that of Islamic terrorists. I think also their support for the flotilla against Israel this fall. It's deeply concerning, and I think it's something any future American president needs to be aware of."
Labels: Campaign 2012, NATO, Rick Perry, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:48 PM
3 comments
In an earlier post, I noted that the Obama administration has agreed to sell SuperCobra helicopters to Turkey to replace helicopters that were shot down by Kurdish rebels over Iraq, and Predator drones to help Turkey in its fight with the PKK. Michael Rubin reports that by doing so, Obama is refusing to take advantage of strategic leverage it has against Turkey, which could at least be used to ameliorate the Islamist state's behavior. In particular, Rubin notes that the helicopters could be turned against Cyprus or Israel. He also reports that the Obama administration is pushing to supply Turkey with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter without so much as a report to Congress. This is from the second link. The United States and Turkey will share military relations so long as Turkey remains a NATO member. However, maintenance of military relations does not mean the United States should supply Turkey with weaponry it might share with Iran or use against American allies. Turkey’s change is ideological; it is not a country the United States can co-opt. It’s time for Congress to tell the White House: enough is enough. No more cutting edge weaponry for Turkey.Indeed, it is. Let's hope House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) is listening.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:59 AM
3 comments
The resignations of Turkey's Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the commanders of the Army, Navy and Air Force, may symbolize the end of the Turkish military's power in the country's government. “This is effectively the end of the military’s role in Turkish democracy,” said Asli Aydintasbas, a columnist for the Turkish daily newspaper Milliyet. “This is the symbolic moment where the first Turkish republic ends and the second republic begins.”Two analysts have raised the possibility that the resignations are preparations for a military coup, but that appears unlikely with so many officers imprisoned. One report even claimed that Kosaner's resignation was forced by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Mr. Erdogan has rolled back the military’s political power substantially since he took office in 2002, in part through legal reforms that assert civilian control. But the single biggest blow to the military’s clout has been a sprawling series of investigations and trials in which a number of senior military commanders, as well as journalists and others, were charged with conspiring to overthrow Mr. Erdogan’s government.
The resignations were the culmination of a year of frustrations, in which more than 40 generals — approximately a tenth of the senior military command — were taken into custody, an assault that has infuriated the military but left it essentially helpless to fight back.
A more immediate spark may have come in the form of new arrest warrants for 22 more people, among them two top generals, which were issued Friday, the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency reported.
“This is the first time in the history of the republic that we are seeing something like this,” said Gursel Tekin, vice president of the main opposition political party, who was speaking in the seaside city of Canakkale. “Honestly, this situation is not good.”
Historically, the military has wielded immense power in Turkey. The modern nation was founded in 1923 by Gen. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and the military remained involved in politics after the country went to a multiparty political system in the 1950s.
Military leaders have deposed elected governments four times in Turkish history, beginning in 1960, when they went so far as to execute the country’s first democratically elected prime minister, Adnan Menderes. But the Turkish political system has gone through profound changes in recent years, and many analysts argued that resigning was the only weapon left in the military’s arsenal. Few people interviewed on Friday thought that a coup was likely, both because Turkey’s democracy now has deep roots and because the military appeared diminished.
“Besides this one act, the military doesn’t really have that much left in the tank,” said Steven Cook, an expert at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Mr. Cook argued that the resignations also said a great deal about Turkey as a democracy, because its citizens — even those who dislike Mr. Erdogan’s increasingly powerful Justice and Development Party — were no longer willing to accept military rule.
“Turkey has grown out of that,” he said.
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The resignations seemed intended to send a message that the military was still powerful enough to shake up the country’s political system. But they seemed almost to have had the opposite effect, with Mr. Erdogan acting fast to choose a new leader.
“This was their last resort,” Ms. Aydintasbas said of the resignations. “It is happening precisely because there is no likelihood of a coup. There is nothing else for them to do.”
Labels: Isik Kosaner, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:51 PM
2 comments
Now that Turkey's Jews are on the run, Turkey's Muslim government has turned to the un-Islamic intellectuals (Hat Tip: Joshua I). University professors have accused the government of Prime Minister Recep Erdogan of blocking academic freedom at the nation's institutions of higher education. They said Erdogan, re-elected on June 12, has ordered the Interior Ministry and security forces to raid universities suspected of un-Islamic behavior.What could go wrong?
"Erdogan is turning out the light — not all at once, but very slowly," Bedri Baykam, a leading Turkish artist, said. "He is dimming it until one day it will be completely dark."
In January, Turkish security forces raided Istanbul's Bilgi University amid reports that a student had produced a pornographic film for his dissertation. At least three university lecturers were dismissed amid pressure by Turkish prosecutors.
Critics said Erdogan has launched a crackdown on university freedom as well as the arts. In a recent visit to the Armenian border, the prime minister called for the destruction of a monument that depicted friendship between Ankara and Yerevan.
So far, authorities have not released any evidence that the student film was pornographic. The 53-year-old Baykam said this marked the latest evidence of official harassment of non-Islamic university professors and students.
"Our government is trying, step by step, to turn our community inside out," Baykam told the German weekly Der Spiegel. "Professors are being intimidated, and university rectors are being brought into line ideologically. Things that ostensibly do not fit with Islam are being eradicated."
Labels: AKP, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkish Islamization
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:34 PM
0 comments
There are elections in Turkey on Sunday, and barring a last minute miracle, they're a disaster in the making. The AKP party seems poised to ride to victory and continue the Islamization of Turkey and the repression of dissent. Barry Rubin explains. If the regime gets a big enough majority it will rewrite the Turkish constitution. Turkey, as we have known it, a secular democratic state since the 1920s, will no longer exist. Of course, not everything will be obvious and happen overnight, but the repression we have already seen will increase. The courts, the armed forces, and other institutions will be taken over by this Islamist government.Read the whole thing.
It will be a disaster for Western interests. And coupled with the same thing happening in Egypt, these events will catapult the region back a half-century or more into strife.
Meanwhile, the West snores on. Western media coverage of the Turkish regime is glowing. Yet if one actually looks at what’s happening in the country, reading the Turkish-language media and talking to the many Turks horrified by these developments, the picture is horrifying.
Here is an example of life in contemporary Turkey. The town of Hopa received a visit from Prime Minister Erdogan. Opposition banners are removed by the police. When local people resisted, the police attacked. A retired teacher who had been trying to negotiate with the police died.
Scores of journalists have been arrested and thrown into jail. One-third of the media has been bought up by the regime; much of the rest intimidated. Military officers, college professors, union leaders, activists, and peaceful critics of every description are thrown into jail on trumped up charges and kept there for months, years. The waiting time for a trial during which people are jailed is now three years. Yes, three years without proof of any wrongdoing.
A respected investigative journalist is arrested and accused of terrorism. His crime? Writing a critical book on Fathi Gulen, Turkey’s leading Islamist cleric. All of the copies of the manuscript are confiscated. Gulen controls the police.
Two other journalists are arrested. Their crime? Saying that they were about to publish documentation showing that the government’s claims of conspiracy, used to arrest so many, are bogus. Gareth Jenkins, a serious scholar, has gone through thousands of pages of court documents and shown that the hundreds of people imprisoned have not even been accused of any specific act. I know of a half-dozen journalists fired for daring to criticize the government. There are many more.
How to intimidate the media? Tax officials arrive and take over offices, going through all of the documents trying to find some technicality on which to bring charges. The largest media group in Turkey, the Dogan Group, was told that it owed $2.5 billion in penalties. That is not a typographical error. It is several times the worth of the entire company. The government demanded that they pay the fines first and then if they wanted they could go to court. To provide a partial payment and bank guarantees, the Dogan Group had to sell two newspapers.
People feel that they are watched, wire-tapped, and spied on. Turkey was never a perfect democracy. Yet this atmosphere is closer to that of a country under Communism than the Turkey they have known all their lives.
Labels: AKP, Turkey, Turkish anti-Semitism, Turkish elections, Turkish Islamization, Turkish repression
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:27 AM
1 comments
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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