Cyprus-Forum.com

[Tim Drayton]

Two university students in Izmir, woman Gamze Selçuk and man Ali Haydar Temel, have reported themselves to the public prosecutor’s office for sharing the same accommodation and have requested that action be taken, if this is indeed a crime.

Philosophy student Gamze Selçuk said, “The prime-Minister in the statement he made said that women and men cannot live together and that this is a crime. We do not think that this is in breach of the constitution. The AKP [Erdoğan’s party] is attacking society and Turkish intellectuals’ values. We, as young people, are against the AKP’s measure under which women and men may not stay in the same accommodation. We came here to prove that this is against the law. The Prime-Minister has said that he is uncomfortable about women and men staying in the same accommodation and they will inspect houses. As far as we know, nobody may conduct a search of anybody’s house without a decision of the public prosecutor and judge. We came to prove that this is impossible and in breach of the constitution. They are the ones who are actually in breach of the constitution. Prime-Minister Erdoğan and the AKP will not manage to separate women and men. This measure is an indicator of the AKP’s enmity towards women. The AKP practices enmity towards women and is trying to separate women within society. It sees us women as second class citizens. We will not permit this measure to be implemented.”

Medical student Ali Haydar Temel said, “We have stayed in the same accommodation until now. We never thought of this as being a crime. Now we feel like criminals. What will happen now? The Prime-Minister has made a laughing stock of himself with these comments. Tragedy itself has ceased to be comical and has turned into tragicomedy. Women are constantly being pushed into the background. First came alcohol restrictions, then interference in how we are to behave on the streets, and now they have come into our homes. If living together is a crime, we are reporting ourselves.”

Their lawyer Özlem Öngören said, “I commend the actions of these two young people. I am also curious as to what the legal consequence of this charge will be. We will also be enlightened as jurists.”

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/kizli ... ti-1160457

[Tim Drayton]

Fourteen-year-old Berkin Elvan, who has been unconscious and in intensive care for 155 days ever since being struck in the head by a tear gas canister during the Gezi protests (he wasn’t even a protestor, just a passer-by), has been operated on for an accumulation of fluid in the brain.



http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/8853 ... lisme.html

[Tim Drayton]

A person claiming to be Minister for Youth and Sport Suat Kılıç’s agent is reported to have visited Anadoluhisarı Female Student Hostel and told the owner of the hostel’s canteen to dismiss the eight male members of his staff. He then told the male owner of the canteen that he could only enter the hostel between the hours of 12 and 15 for accounting purposes. It is alleged that similar dismissals have taken place at other female hostels.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/ben_s ... az-1160557

[Tim Drayton]

Turkey's Cleavage Crackdown Goes to College

By Marc Champion Nov 13, 2013 6:42 AM GMT+0200

I hate to admit it, but the paranoid secularists who for a decade have been saying Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harbored a secret agenda are being proved right.

For years I've been gently pointing out to those paranoid secularists that Erdogan has been in power a long time already, and if he was really hiding an Islamist master plan -- as opposed to his declared conservative agenda -- he was doing a good job.

Besides, didn't you hear the man tell Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood leaders they needed a secular state and constitution? (They wouldn't now be wearing white jumpsuits in jail if they'd listened to him.)

I used to say Erdogan might have a majoritarian view of democracy and no regard for the civil rights of opponents, but he's way too smart a politician to break up the coalition of ex-Islamist conservatives, nationalists and liberals that made him powerful. The partnership enabled the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to capture 50 percent of the vote in 2011, up from the 21 percent its Islamist predecessor, the Welfare Party, won at its peak in 1995.
Well, things have changed. Not, I think, because Erdogan suddenly feels liberated to impose his inner-Islamist -- though there is a little of that. Rather, he has decided the best way to maximize his vote in Turkey's first direct presidential election next year is to polarize the electorate. He wants to force Turks to choose between two options: You're either with Erdogan, or against him. And if you are against him, you are with the old, wooden-headed, military-backed, secularist system and its decadent offspring.

"Those who are neutral will be disposed of," Erdogan told AKP parliamentarians today. The response was equally scary: "Everywhere is Tayyip, Everywhere is Erdogan!" It was an echo of the chant anti-government protesters used during the demonstrations that began in Istanbul's Taksim Gezi Park and spread across the country earlier this year: "Everywhere is Taksim, Everywhere is Resistance!"

This megalomaniacal approach began after Erdogan's overwhelming victory in the 2011 election, at which point he declared that this third term in office would be his "master period." When his autocratic policies triggered the backlash in Gezi Park, he became even more uncompromising and aggressive.
The latest example of Erdogan's usefully divisive initiatives is a proposal to ban co-ed housing at universities. That may sound like social conservatism, but it's more than that. Erdogan said he was implementing the constitution's requirement to protect "the youth," but college students are adults. So Erdogan wants to override the constitution, which protects privacy in the home, to impose his idea of the behavior that Islam demands. That's a pretty good definition of Islamism and has made a lot of people angry, which was the purpose.

Erdogan's acolytes in the AKP have since been casting around for other ways to legally justify the move. The result was Interior Minister Muammar Guler's pronouncement that "terrorist organizations have started to significantly abuse the relationships between the boys and girls, those among the university youth. They use it as a recruitment base.”

Today, party spokesman Huseyin Celik went on to express concern that student dormitories were being used for prostitution. He also said that while his party was broad and diverse, he personally didn't approve of Christianity or Judaism. A few weeks ago, Celik got a TV talent show host fired by complaining that she showed too much cleavage.

Erdogan sees secular students and women who dress provocatively on TV as a useful enemy. Just as he labeled the Gezi Park protesters terrorists, he and his supporters are demonizing opponents to galvanize and solidify his support, not least against moderates from his own party, such as President Abdullah Gul, who will compete with him for power until next year's election and beyond.

Erdogan has already lost the liberals from his coalition. Even supporters such as the columnist Mustafa Akyol, who believe strongly that Islam and liberalism are compatible and have bent over backwards to measure Erdogan's transgressions against his contributions, are now giving up on him. In a country with a conservative majority, however, Erdogan doesn't seem to care about losing the liberals. He hopes to scoop up the rest.

The hope to nurture now is that Erdogan will go so far in personalizing state power and promoting social conflict that more moderate party leaders, in particular the AKP's two other founders, Gul and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, will split with him. There are signs this could happen. “I am not responsible for the remarks of the prime minister,” Arinc told state-run TRT television after opposing Erdogan's dormitory crackdown. “I am not just a minister. I represent the past, future and the vision of the party. I should not be ignored."

I still don't agree with secular Turks who say Erdogan is turning Turkey into Iran or a Gulf state. He isn't capable of moving Turkey to a new location or undoing the last 100 years of history. Erdogan can, however, change Turkey's direction. After a decade in power he is now, without question, doing more damage than good to the country he rules.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-1 ... llege.html

[bill cobbett]

After being arrested, students from the ODTU protests and their friends get roughed-up ...

[Tim Drayton]

After being arrested, students from the ODTU protests and their friends get roughed-up ...

This was during a prison visit to two of their mates being held in pre-trial detention, accused of membership of a terror organsiation under Turkey's draconian anti-terror laws, simply for protesting against the illegal incursion by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality into the university's campus leading to the felling of thousands of trees.

[Tim Drayton]

Lawyer Yusuf Özer, who lives in Adana, has, in the petition which he has filed with Adana Public Prosecution for forwarding to the Court of Cassation Public Prosecution, called for public proceedings to be brought against Adana Provincial Governor Hüseyin Avni Coş and for a decision to be taken for him to be punished and removed from his duties by way of interim measure. The petition includes the following:

“To impose a fine after having insulted a citizen who had voiced his opposition to him constitutes the offence of ‘abuse of position’. In no democratic law-based state and under the existing legal system of the Republic of Turkey, it is not correct for a provincial governor to directly impose a fine under the Law of Misdemeanours on those who criticise him. In both cases, it is clear that both citizens, who live in Adana, are justified in having complaints. The acts performed by the suspect have clearly harmed Adana and the people of Adana.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/9159 ... urusu.html

[Tim Drayton]

After being arrested, students from the ODTU protests and their friends get roughed-up ...

This was during a prison visit to two of their mates being held in pre-trial detention, accused of membership of a terror organsiation under Turkey's draconian anti-terror laws, simply for protesting against the illegal incursion by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality into the university's campus leading to the felling of thousands of trees.

In connection with this event, the public prosecution has charged the prison visitors Özkan Kayoz, Ezgi Antmen, Murat Egemen Akkuş, Mayıs Kurt, Zeynep Arslan and Aydın Doğan with 'insulting officers on duty', 'wounding officers on duty' and 'resisting officers on duty', while dropping the charges against the officers who beat up the visitors and the two detainees.

[Tim Drayton]

In a public opinion survey conducted in Turkey with 1430 respondents, to the question:

“Do you find it correct for women and men who are not related or engaged to one another to live together in the same home?”

75.2% responded ‘no’, and 20.9% ‘yes’.

http://www.radikal.com.tr/turkiye/tolum ... si-1160769

[GreekIslandGirl]

A 'country' going backwards ....