Cyprus-Forum.com

[antifon]

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011

Constitutional Overhaul Basics

“Now in its 40th year, TÜSİAD has come very close to ending its mission. Either they change their attitude drastically toward democracy and revise their image, or they will wither like a rose and close themselves and become ossified. They are dead afraid of the military. They are not aware of the fact that Turkish society has been changing quickly. They are happy with the old system of having military pressure on the elected government. It’s a shameful approach to a democratic system” İshak Alaton told Today's Zaman for Monday Talk regarding the attitude of TÜSİAD.

Please ask yourselves how this process in Turkish politics, for a constitutional overhaul, is any different than what Makarios attempted in 1963. Both countries still face the challenge of a seamless and democratic integration of a significant ethnic minority, without violating the rights of the majority population. Why not demand of Europe and the USA to demand of Turkey the application of similar principles, Turkey being the minority "protector" for both the Kurds at home and the Turkish Cypriots abroad?



Q. The pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party [BDP] has a campaign of civil disobedience and had a sit-in in Taksim Gezi Park around a small tent they had put up. What have you learned from visiting the place?

A. I’ve learned that finding a peaceful solution to that endemic problem is moving in the right direction. I went there on March 30. A lot of people were there sipping coffee and tea and chatting. They were not paying attention to who was coming or going. It was a very relaxed atmosphere. There was no atmosphere of nervousness. It was a very peaceful demonstration. This peaceful attitude will help greatly in reaching a solution. I have the feeling that the street is ready to accept any solution that would be first ratified by the government and then Parliament.

Q. When you say “solution,” what does it consist of?
A. It consists of including into the new constitution the right to have equality as Turkish citizens and respect for their Kurdish identity.

Q. Why do you think this problem remained unsolved for so long?
A. We’ve been brainwashed since our childhood that there are Turks but nobody else. There have been objections to this idea, but we were unable to express our views because of being afraid of the state. Now it is time to become more democratic, take the bull by the horns and call a spade a spade, and Kurdistan as Kurdistan. Five years ago, we would not utter the word Kurdistan. Today we can say that Kurdistan is part of Turkey in the Southeast.

Q. When you say Kurdistan, is this a reference to separation or a federative system?

Read here >> & link to entire Today's Zaman article >> http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/con ... asics.html

[antifon]

TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 2011

X-raying Turkey

Hürriyet Daily News - Discussions over “a Turkey/AKP model for Arabs” due to the “Arab Spring” have put Turkish democracy into an X-ray machine, and made more visible the weaknesses, discrepancies, but more importantly, the course of events leading in the direction of authoritarianism. After all, if many in the West say, “A country where journalists are arrested and where press freedom is spirited off cannot be presented as a model to Arab countries,” it is not Arabs but Turkey that loses.



What’s more important, however, is the historic overlapping between “masses in the Middle East turning into actors,” and “popularization of the Kurdish question.” Plus, any kind of cause and demands defended by the popularization in consequence of the “Arab Spring” in the region become legitimate in the eye of the world. Popularization has now become a machine of legitimacy. Expected victory of the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in the June 12 [2011] elections will not change the fact that the Kurdish question is the “Achilles’ heel” of Turkey. Even more so, the Kurdish question has become more sensitive “Achilles’ heel” of Turkey because of the “Arab Spring.”

Read more » http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/x-r ... urkey.html

[antifon]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13, 2011

Why not apply your Cyprus logic to your Kurdish problem?

“We hope the visit of the president [Gül] will be a start, a step to prepare the conditions in which our people can govern themselves freely within the realities of Turkey, including, firstly, education in mother tongue and using Kurdish in the public sphere,” Aysel Tuğluk, co-head of the Democratic Society Congress, or DTK, an umbrella organization of Kurdish groups, Diyarbakir December/2010



More statements by Kurds >> http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/why ... -your.html

[antifon]

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011

Blind no more?

When confronted with the comparative politics approach between the plights for rights and freedoms of Cyprus' Turkish Cypriot and Turkey's Kurdish ethnic minority communities Turks are all too quick to dismiss the validity of the comparison by arguing that history and circumstances of any place and people are unique to that place and people. The statement is of course right. What makes the plight for rights of the minorities of the Republics of Turkey and Cyprus however, both circa 20%, acutely related to each other is the defining role of Turkey herself in both situations, a pariah state being heralded as a 'model for democracy' in the region, a bully that throws her weight around:




Read more » http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/blind-no-more.html

[DTA]

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011

Blind no more?

When confronted with the comparative politics approach between the plights for rights and freedoms of Cyprus' Turkish Cypriot and Turkey's Kurdish ethnic minority communities Turks are all too quick to dismiss the validity of the comparison by arguing that history and circumstances of any place and people are unique to that place and people. The statement is of course right. What makes the plight for rights of the minorities of the Republics of Turkey and Cyprus however, both circa 20%, acutely related to each other is the defining role of Turkey herself in both situations, a pariah state being heralded as a 'model for democracy' in the region, a bully that throws her weight around:




Read more » http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/blind-no-more.html

Riddle me this booooooyyyy

With the uprising of the arab nations and political autonomy being sought by all kinds of ethnicities throughout the region how come the Kurdish population of eastern turkey (claimed by you to be 20m) has not done the same..... my opinion is because kurds and Turks are in the main brothers.... what is your take on in boy.

[antifon]

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011

Blind no more?

When confronted with the comparative politics approach between the plights for rights and freedoms of Cyprus' Turkish Cypriot and Turkey's Kurdish ethnic minority communities Turks are all too quick to dismiss the validity of the comparison by arguing that history and circumstances of any place and people are unique to that place and people. The statement is of course right. What makes the plight for rights of the minorities of the Republics of Turkey and Cyprus however, both circa 20%, acutely related to each other is the defining role of Turkey herself in both situations, a pariah state being heralded as a 'model for democracy' in the region, a bully that throws her weight around:




Read more » http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/blind-no-more.html

Riddle me this booooooyyyy

With the uprising of the arab nations and political autonomy being sought by all kinds of ethnicities throughout the region how come the Kurdish population of eastern turkey (claimed by you to be 20m) has not done the same..... my opinion is because kurds and Turks are in the main brothers.... what is your take on in boy.

Turkish state terror under the guise of 'counter-terrorism' has historically enabled the eradication of Kurdish identity and culture. The legacy of Turkish state violence against the Kurds remains in the unsolved mass disappearances and the lack of justice and accountability for torture and other crimes against humanity. Kurds today still routinely face collective repression for speaking in their mother tongue. Prosecutions under terrorism laws for simply saying the words 'Kurd' and 'Kurdistan' indicate the scale of the institutional violence of denying an entire people the right to speak their language and express their true identity.

I say that after 50.000 deaths in the last 30 years alone the Kurds of Turkey have chosen a different strategy:

Their aim is the transformation in the medium term of Turkey into a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation between ethnic Turks/small minorities & ethnic Kurds, with the first step being the recognition of Kurdish as an official language of Turkey. Even PKK shares this goal now. The long term goal will depend on how fascistic the Turks will remain. If excessively fascistic, as they have been for 87 years towards the Kurds, then an independent Kurdistan will come about. Little Turks can do to prevent such a scenario.

That is why I offer my four-party conference solution. It will be very beneficial to all:

SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2011
A four-party conference to break the stalemate



A four-party conference is indeed the way to go but not the way Turkey envisions it. The Republics of Turkey and Cyprus along with the Turkish Cypriot and Turkey's Kurdish communities need to be present. Only at such a conference can principles to govern majority-minority relations within the confines of unitary states, where minorities are ethnic minorities circa 20%, can be agreed upon. Else Turkey will continue to use force to oppress her minority and "protect" Cyprus's one, as well as use propaganda to demonize the Kurds and the Greek Cypriots. Such a conference promises to end both Cyprus' and the Kurds' Turkeyish problem!

[antifon]

TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 2011

Shocking hypocrisy!

“We can never think of a second state under this [Turkish] flag. We can never permit this kind of separatism and discrimination ... What is your problem with this flag? Its color represents the blood of our ancestors and its crescent ... It represents our independence ... I have never talked about a ‘single language’ but a single official language ... There is no longer a Kurdish question in this country. There are issues of my Kurdish brothers. There is an exploitation of my Kurdish brothers but they will not be deceived,” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a ceremony held to introduce his party’s parliamentary candidates to the press.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/n.php? ... 2011-04-18

The above from the leader of the country which insisted on Turkish being an official language of the Republic of Cyprus, for its then 18% Turkish speaking minority, from day one. She went on to declare war on Cyprus, divide, chase away a third of the population from their homes, colonize and create a "statelet" in northern Cyprus with its "own flag", Turkey alone recognizes, a pseudo-statelet she occupies with 45.000 troops and pursues polices of separation and discrimination since her UN/ECHR condemned actions in 1974.

The hypocrisy of the ethnic Turks is simply shocking!

Kurds must employ Turkey's Cyprus logic in their plight for political, community, cultural and civic rights in Turkey. It is by far their best political weapon.

Cartoon: http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/sho ... crisy.html

[antifon]

“This decision is clearly a decision of war on the Kurds. It is a decision to send the Kurds to the mountains [to become guerillas]. If the rulers of this country have decided for war, then that is just fine. Then the Kurds will fight the war.” Bengi Yıldız, BDP politician | April 19 2011

http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/if- ... -will.html


Is Turkey living Cyprus' 1960s?



WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12, 2011
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan following in the footsteps of Makarios

My thoughts on Merkel's visit to Cyprus and Papandreou's in Ankara
Both visits produced good results. Let us not forget that there is a "WAR" going on in Turkey itself between the so called deep-state & the CDU-CSU equivalent of Turkey, i.e. the "mild" islamist AKP.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sometimes reminds me of Makarios in the early 60s, trying to push forth with some desperately needed fundamental changes while keeping the military/militaristic idiots at bay. Not an easy thing to do, especially when their most revered jewel is Cyprus & the current constitution bestowing upon them the obligation to do whatever necessary, as they perceive it, to preserve the unity of the state.

Cyprus is inextricably linked to Turkey and its need to adopt her first ever democratic constitution. Spend 5% of your time understanding Turkish developments & that is the amount of understanding you will have about the solution to Cyprus.

I am very hopeful about Cyprus and all her legitimate inhabitants.

[antifon]

SATURDAY, APRIL 23, 2011

Why are tCypriots not sympathetic to Turkey's Kurdish community's plight?
I liked the post below by a Kurd on The Economist website. As you read it please ask yourselves why tCypriots are not sympathetic to the plight of the Kurds in Turkey who ask for nothing less or more than tCypriots themselves ask for in Cyprus. Kurds are similar to tCypriots in that they suffered and continue to suffer immensely more than tCypriots ever did in Cyprus, Kurds are a large ethnic ethnic minority of a unitary state (23+%), and moreover they can claim residency of a part of Turkey since millennia ago and even before Turks ever set foot in Kurdistan, a claim tCypriots cannot make for any specific part of Cyprus, as they were first welcome to Cyprus just 400 years ago by the gCypriots who can trace their identity's root more than one thousand years before the birth of Christ!



Hevallo, Apr 22nd 2011 9:05 GMT

"Basically, in a nutshell the Turkish people have been like Mushrooms for years! In the dark and fed manure in the form of misinformation about the Kurdish struggle for basic rights in Turkey.

Not long after the formation of the Turkish state, shamefully after the Kurds were called to help the Turks fight the foreign 'infidels', the Turkish state had a stated policy of forced assimilation and cultural genocide.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been killed in brutal and barbaric campaigns that have been kept from the Turkish public.

Even as late as the nineties the Turkish state were systematically razing Kurdish villages, towns and hamlets. In fact when the international media were talking about the 'ethnic cleansing' of Kosovans by Serbians the Turkish army were in full flow doing the exact same thing to the Kurds in Turkey but away from the eyes of the international community.

In short, the Kurds have never given up struggling against the denial of their culture, identity and language and have fought back. This fight back has been labelled 'Terrorism' by the Turkish state and because of strategic interests of the West they look the other way and accept this label thereby 'criminalising' millions of Kurds.

A shame!

But today the Kurds are changing the status quo and promise to the Turkish people that they will bring peace and democracy to Turkey.

The Turks once they know the full extent of the Kurdish experience in Turkey will find common cause against the perpetrators of these war crimes.

That day is coming closer every day!"

http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/04/why ... ic-to.html

http://www.economist.com/node/18561207/ ... t-comments

[antifon]

Recently I made the decision of referring to Turkey as Minor Turkey. It prompted an angry response from a Turkish blogger who accused me of "[believing in my] own biological superiority and [Turkish] inferiority, that Nazis thought similarly, concluding that, as Hitler also believed, one has to use military power to crush those with an attitude like mine [find his full post on my blog at the link below].

Allow me to offer a brief explanation for my decision to refer to Turkey as Minor Turkey, although the order of the words should be reversed to read 'Turkey Minor'.



First, Turkey Minor is a name not foreign to the region bringing to mind Minor Asia or Asia Minor, also called Anatolia, taking up a large part of the Asian part of Turkey. Many great historical people, like the Hittites, Greeks, Persians, Armenians, Romans, Goths, Byzantines, Kurds and Turks, have lived in or occupied Asia Minor.The Roman Empire had a province called Asia, which was in Asia Minor. Later people started to call the entire continent Asia, so the peninsula Asia was called Asia Minor (little Asia). In my native language, Greek, 'Asia Minor' reads as 'Minor Asia' (Μικρά Ασία) which explains my adopting initially the name 'Minor Turkey'. The correct name thus is 'Turkey Minor', as opposed to the other way around.

Second, Turkey Minor unilaterally addresses Cyprus or the Republic of Cyprus as Greek Cyprus, to make room for an illegal statelet in illegally occupied Cyprus, a "country" Turkey Minor alone in the world recognizes. My advice to Turks is to allow people, especially Cypriots, to be as liberal with their own country's name. As the saying goes, if you can't take it, then don't dish it out.

Third, Turkey Minor better reflects the realities of the country, whereby Kurdistan or the eastern part of the country is not represented in the decision making bodies. Turkey Minor neglects the interests and rights [community, cultural, civic] of 25% of the country's population, representing only the national interests of ethnic Turks, thus earning it the new name.

I prefer Turkey Minor better than Turkish Turkey. Do you feel otherwise?

http://antifon.blogspot.com/2011/05/ref ... minor.html