Cyprus-Forum.com

[kimon07]

Turkey’s constitution-building process is an on-going one and the upcoming months will demonstrate whether it will prove to be a product of genuine compromise among the political parties, enriched with the demands of civil society organizations and capable of addressing Turkey’s thorny issues (including civil and political rights for the Kurdish minority, religious minorities and the remnants of military tutelage)........."

http://www.comparativeconstitutions.org ... ution.html

Dreams, wet dreams.

I have said it before I will say it again and many prominent Turks said it before me, I am just repeating them (Ozal, Etchevit, Demirel and others). Turkey CAN NOT become democratic (Western European standards). If it does, i.e., if it grants democratic rights to all its citizens, it will be shred to ten pieces overnight. Kurds, Assyrians, Alevis, Sunni, Shiite, Europeans Turks who hate all the others and who are hated by al, the others, you name it. Ten pieces. Inshallah!

[wyoming cowboy]

Inshallah is right!!!! but do they have another choice then to bring all these groups together under an umbrella of EU aquis/Western Values, where minorities are protected and become a part of a western nation or wait until the eastern part of Turkey(fundemental muslim ) outnumbers the western Aegean coast Turks(european values) by 3to1 and an Iranian style revolution begins.

[humanist]

Wyoming Cowboy

thank you for the informative, interesting and educational posts. I really enjoyed your responses on the topic.

Cheers

[wyoming cowboy]

Cheers brother Humanist

[repulsewarrior]

...i include this here, rather than start a new topic:

Tuma Celik, the owner and editor-in-chief of Sabro, the first Syriac newspaper in Turkey, shares Turker's views. Celik says although he found Erdogan’s message significant, its contents have offended the Syriacs: “Although I should be optimistic about it as a starting point, it is too late. In a message about an issue the state has been persistently denying for 99 years, the impression is that nothing had happened and it was after all a mutual conflict. Showing that denial is still alive created bitterness. In particular, its total ignorance of Syriacs who lost two thirds of their population saddened us.”

Celik stressed that the Syriacs shared the fate of Armenians in 1915 and added: "If all those events were about the Armenians, then where are our people? How were they victimized? If the Syriacs suffered the same fate, how come it is never mentioned? Thinking of this makes us lose hope. You can kill someone once, but denial kills us every day. This is something that causes us agony similar to that of 1915, even more.”

Tuma Celik said the joint historical commission that was proposed by Erdogan in 2005 should also include Syriacs. “We want to be part of such a commission. We want sincerity. If they want to be sincere, they have to take steps for Syriacs also.”

Another criticism of Celik's was the omission of Syriac from the list of languages used to issue Erdogan’s message. "This message was released in nine languages, but not in our language. This shows us that ‘other Ottoman citizens’ mentioned in the message does not apply to us. That means people who lost some of their population are considered fully nonexistent.”

For Protestant Syriacs, not being mentioned in the message is a major flaw. Isa Karatas, a Syriac researcher and writer, said the message was in general positive despite its flaws. “There is no way to fully cope with old events. They happened. But it is important to show that you understand what had happened. We cannot erase the pain no matter what we do, but we have to stop the denials. [Offering] condolences was a very human approach. We too expected condolences. Syriacs had to be mentioned.”



Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politic ... z314piqWZU

...interesting to see how the years go by.