Turkish Media

By Leon J Williams

When I mention the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons/Teyrêbazên Azadiya Kurdistan (TAK) to Turkish people living in Turkey they seem to have never heard of them. Instead stating that all ‘terrorist’ activities carried out in Turkey are the work of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party/Partiya Karkerên Kurdistan).
Why do the Turks think this? Because of the Turkish media, they are told that it is the work of the PKK and the fact that the TAK are FORMER members of the PKK seems to be hidden away from the public.

I was reminded of this issue this morning when I read an article from the Turkish tabloid Hürriyet Daily News with seeming ‘good news’ about Turkey’s progress in its EU application, further reading confused their own audience with some of the comments reading:

“I did not understand exactly what this means, Will they open new chapters or not?”

“Is it really what the headline says, to me it sounds like another delay”

I flicked over to EuroNews only to find an almost opposite headline about the same story…

Left: EuroNews Right: Hurriyet Daily News

Are the tables starting to turn? | A view from around the world

By Leon J Williams

A look at the news from around the world shows a clear sign, the people have had enough!

The people are fed up of having their lives dictated to them, being told who they can have sex with, who they can marry, if they can drink alcohol, where they taxes will be spent. The people are fed up of being beaten for expressing their right to free speech.

Enough is enough.

Turkey

The situation in Turkey continues as the anti-government protests evolve into the ‘Standing Man’ civil disobedience. The Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seeming losing the plot with his delusional public rants. Germany has started to stand in the way of Turkey’s EU bid because of the heavy handed police abuse much to Tayyip’s annoyance. Like any dictatorship there is heavy control and regulation of the media with more crackdowns on social media to come.

Greece

Greece’s already fragile coalition government has taken a blow as the Democratic Left Party pulls out over the closure of the national broadcaster ERT. The shock sudden closure caused protests from both the left and the right wing.

Brazil

Over a million people (possibly 2 million) took to the streets in cities all over Brazil after transport fares increased dramatically. The people are angry at widespread corruption and the cost of the upcoming football world cup. No money to keep transport costs down but plenty of money for football stadiums.
Such is the scale of the protests that Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff is holding an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the country’s most widespread unrest in two decades.

Police brutality – Turkey

Some pro-democracy victims of police brutality in Turkey

Daily Headline – 16/05/13

A day of Islam…

Today, like many days, the world news is dominated by Islam and as usual, for all the wrong reasons.

Egypt

Islamist gunmen kidnap seven Egypt security personnel in Sinai and demand that jailed militants are released in exchange for the men.

Iraq

Sectarian violence strikes again as bombings kill 17 in Baghdad and more shooting occurring in the north.

Iran

Iranian government wants talk with world leaders over its nuclear program in what some suspect will only be a case of unreasonable demands as they try to blackmail the west.

Syria

Islamist rebels execute 11 Syrian soldiers for “massacres” carried out by the military.

Afghanistan

15 foreigners are killed (6 of which were American) after a suicide car bombing in Kabul.

Yemen

Austrian man Dominik Neubaur was forced to convert to Islam at gunpoint after he was kidnapped.

Daily Headline – 08/05/13

Stephen Hawking joins Israel boycott

Stephen Hawking has pulled out of a major conference in Israel, respecting the academic boycott in place over the treatment of Palestine and Palestinians.

The invitation was for the annual president’s conference entitled ‘Facing Tomorrow’. The conference features major international personalities and attracts thousands of participants. This years conference has particular significance as it will be President Peres’s 90th birthday.

The Guardian said:

Hawking’s decision marks another victory in the campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions targeting Israeli academic institutions.

In April the Teachers’ Union of Ireland became the first lecturers’ association in Europe to call for an academic boycott of Israel, and in the United States members of the Association for Asian American Studies voted to support a boycott, the first national academic group to do so.

In typical fashion, the Israelis have responded by call Hawking an anti-Semite on his facebook page.

With Israel, anyone who disagrees with their illegal occupation of Palestine and murder of Palestinians is an anti-Semite!

Israel, fuck off!

Daily Headline – 05/05/13

7 US troops killed in Afghanistan

Yesterday saw 7 US troops killed in Afghanistan which follows 3 British troops killed 5 days ago. Two US soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier and the rest appear to have been killed by land-mines/roadside bombs.

There seems like no end to the Afghan war despite the casualty list on the ‘allied’ side in 2013 set to be the lowest since 2004. It’s not always easy to to know the impact of such deaths on the general public of the US and UK but their respective electorate must be getting fed up of seeing ‘their boys’ returning in flag-laden coffins.

Spot on casualty figures are hard (impossible) to get especially if you try to take into account the civilian casualties of war.

Costs of War put the current civilian casualty list at somewhere below 20,000 (that’s from start to now, 2001-2013). However the Guardian reckon up to 20,000 could have been killed just in the first 4 months!

According to iCasualties so far there have been 2215 US military fatalities, 444 UK military fatalities and 640 other military fatalities.

As the war continues, so do the fatalities.

Daily Headline – 02/04/13

Support the troops!

US and UK troops are always in the press it seems for the wrong reasons, the constant abuses carried out be these representatives of their respective countries.

Support the troops? Support abuses.

It has long been known of the human-rights abuses carried out by the US and UK at Camp Nama in Baghdad but now for the first time two UK military personnel have spoken out to the Guardian about the abuses they personally witnessed.

The abuses they say they saw include:

• Iraqi prisoners being held for prolonged periods in cells the size of large dog kennels.

• Prisoners being subjected to electric shocks.

• Prisoners being routinely hooded.

• Inmates being taken into a sound-proofed shipping container for interrogation, and emerging in a state of physical distress.

For full details on the story click here.

Iraq; an illegal war carried out by thugs under the orders of callus morons.

Daily Headline – 29/03/13

Turkey deporting Syrian refugees

The UN are looking into reports that Turkey has deported up to 600 Syrian refugees from a relief camp.

Officials at the site said the deportations happened but the Turkish government denies this.

Two days ago a protest was sparked off at the camp following the death of a teenager caused by Turkish incompetence as a power line failed and set fire to a tent.

Daily Headline – 21/03/13

Kurdish independence bid from Turkey over?

It seems that the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) has given up on its 30 year guerilla campaign for an independent Kurdish state.

Abdullah Ocalan the imprisoned PKK leader will announce today, the day of Newroz (Kurdish and Persian new year), that there will be a ceasefire between them and the Turkish authorities.

Ocalan has stated that in his ‘peace roadmap’ that the Kurdish people did not demand a separate independent state, but that substantial constitutional and judicial changes that would guarantee Turkey’s Kurdish population all cultural rights and give more power to local authorities.

There is still uncertainty about what will happen next as negotiations between Ocalan and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan continue. One hope is that Abdullah Ocalan will be released from prison and take up party politics for the 2015 Turkish general elections. This could lead to a democratic independence bid.

Turkey has 3 major parties:

1st AKP – similar to UKIP (right-wing)
2nd CHP – similar to Labour (centralist)
3rd MHP – similar to the BNP (far-right)

Turkey has 3 left-wing parties, the BDP, TKP and EMEP. At the 2011 elections the BDP didn’t take part and their candidates all stood as independents as their former incarnation, the DTP had to disband due to being pro Kurdish.
If the BDP stood as a party they would be the 4th largest with TKP and EMEP both being very small parties.

Whatever happens with Ocalan and the Kurdish situation one thing is for sure, Turkey will continue to be incredibly right-wing and extremely religious and reactionary for a long time to come.

Daily Headline – 20/03/13

Cyprus rejects EU bailout

Cypriot MPs all vote to reject the EU bailout, the terms had been amended to to save the poor, there would be no levy on savings under €20,000 but still it was rejected.

If you are Cypriot and have under €20,000 of savings in the bank then surely you would have been happy at the deal, the poor wont have to pay for the crises and the wealthier will.

However Cypriots are up in arms! One could assume that the vast majority have more than €20,000 of savings, is Cyprus one of the richest countries in the world?

Admittedly this is coming from the same people who voted not to unite their island while those in the illegally occupied north voted yes!

Maybe the Cypriots would be happy if the 0% line was raised to €50,000 or do they think someone else should help keep their country afloat, can they not accept responsibility for their own decisions?

With the mafia, dodgy Russian money, Greece, Turkey and the EU it’s about time the Cypriots woke up, grew up and took control of their lives, the reality is capitalism doesn’t work, stop keeping it on life support!