Sunday’s Zaman , Turkey
Jan 10 2010
Row with Roma increases tension in Manisa
Tension erupted between locals and members of the Roma community in
the past week in Selendi district of Manisa after a dispute between a
man of Roma origin and locals.
Burhan Uçkun, a Roma man residing in Selendi, was told to leave the
premises when he wanted to have a cup of tea at a coffeehouse in the
district on Dec. 31. The owner of the coffeehouse reportedly told
Uçkun that he would not allow a `Gypsy’ to have tea in his place.
Uçkun, however, insisted on drinking tea at the coffeehouse. Upon his
insistence, the owner and some other customers beat Uçkun. After the
incident, the coffeehouse remained closed for a few days. Some
sources, however, claimed that the tension erupted because Uçkun
wanted to smoke in the coffeehouse. It is against the law to smoke in
indoor areas in Turkey. When the coffeehouse was reopened on
Wednesday, Uçkun and a group of relatives attacked the place,
shattering its windows. The attack drew indignation in the district,
with more than 1,000 locals stoning and setting ablaze tents and
shanty houses belonging to Roma people. The angry crowd also destroyed
numerous vehicles in neighborhoods mainly populated by Roma. Unable to
control the frustrated crowd, the mayor of Selendi had to send the
Roma residents from his district to Gördes. The incidents caused a
wave of concern and fear among the Roma community, who said they were
afraid of being killed by angry nationalists in Selendi.
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Jan. 3 Sunday
ï¼A civilian search at the Special Forces Command continued as part of
an ongoing probe into a suspected military plot to assassinate Deputy
Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, despite an attempt by the General Staff
and a controversial member of the Supreme Board of Judges and
Prosecutors (HSYK) to stop the search.
ï¼Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Hüseyin
Ã?elik said that both the jubilant reception of several members of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) returning to Turkey through
the Habur border gate and the handcuffing of 35 people who allegedly
have links to the PKK’s urban arm caused great harm to the
government’s initiative to settle the Kurdish question. `The images at
Habur and Silopi were a great mistake. They have caused great damage
to the [initiative] process. The images of handcuffed individuals
during the KCK/TM [Kurdish Communities Union/Turkey Council] operation
mean agitation,’ he told Today’s Zaman.
ï¼A car accident involving a town mayor in the southern province of
Antalya’s Korkuteli district claimed three lives and left seven others
injured.
ï¼A passenger train crashed into another train in northwestern Turkey,
killing one of the engine drivers and injuring seven other people.
ï¼Foreign Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu visited the International Turkish
School in Riyadh on the last day of his official visit to Saudi
Arabia. DavutoÄ?lu, accompanied by his wife, Sare, spent almost three
hours at the school.
ï¼Kadir Kayan, a judge at the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court, received
a threatening letter saying that continuing his days-long search of
the Special Forces Command headquarters would result in his death,
Turkish dailies reported.
Jan. 4 Monday
ï¼An Ankara court announced that a civilian search of the Special
Forces Command would continue, rejecting a request by the judicial
advisory board of the General Staff for an end to the search. The
request was filed with the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court in late
December.
ï¼Four people died and 12 more were injured in a minibus accident in Trabzon.
ï¼Turkey’s tourism hub, Antalya, received 8.67 million tourists in
2009, a 3 percent drop from the number of tourists who visited the
city in 2008. According to data released by the Antalya Culture and
Tourism Directorate, 284,726 fewer tourists chose Antalya for their
vacations in 2009 over 2008.
ï¼Turkey repatriated TL 47.3 billion under the `wealth amnesty’
program, which allowed Turkish citizens to bring their money held in
Turkey but outside the banking system or in foreign banks back to
Turkish banks without penalties, an amount that is expected to help
heal the Turkish economy at a time when many countries are suffering
from financial problems.
Finance Minister Mehmet Å?imÅ?ek revealed the preliminary results of the
program at a press conference.
Jan. 5 Tuesday
ï¼Retirement pensions will be increased by between TL 63 and TL 101 in
the first half of the year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said.
ï¼Both a judge and a prosecutor conducting a search at the Special
Forces Command as part of a probe into a suspected military plot to
assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Arınç received separate envelopes
containing Kalashnikov bullets. Judge Kayan and prosecutor Mustafa
Bilgili informed Ankara police about the envelopes and an
investigation was immediately launched.
ï¼An exhibition titled `90 Documents in 90 Years,’ showcasing pieces
from the Turkish Parliament’s archives, opened as part of ongoing
celebrations to mark the assembly’s 90th birthday.
ï¼Two people died and six more were injured in collision that took
place in Ä°stanbul’s Fatih district.
ï¼Turkey warned that Bulgaria’s reported demands for compensation for
people displaced in the early 20th century might harm bilateral ties
and questioned the legitimacy of the Bulgarian demands, saying Turks
suffered as much as Bulgarians did during that period of history.
`The continuation of Turkish-Bulgarian friendship is in the interests
of both countries. It is of utmost benefit to refrain from statements
that could harm this friendship,’ said Foreign Minister DavutoÄ?lu at a
joint press conference with his visiting Brazilian counterpart, Celso
Amorim.
ï¼More than 150 members of an aid convoy bound for Gaza faced new
obstacles after landing at an airport in Egypt, delaying their arrival
at the Palestinian coastal strip to deliver humanitarian aid.
ï¼President Abdullah Gül hosted a luncheon for top state officials
amidst rumors of rising tensions between state institutions. The
presidential luncheon brought together the heads of the legislative,
executive and judicial branches.
Jan. 6 Wednesday
ï¼Members of the governing AK Party categorically ruled out the
possibility of elections in 2010, in response to calls from opposition
parties for early polls. Speaking at a Harmonization Committee meeting
at the EU Secretariat General, State Minister and chief EU negotiator
Egemen BaÄ?ıÅ? said elections would be held in a timely manner.
ï¼More than 7 million tourists visited Ä°stanbul, the capital of both
the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, according to official figures. The
Ä°stanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate figures for 2009 revealed
that that historic city attracted 7,509,741 foreign and local tourists
last year, the Anatolia news agency reported. July saw the greatest
number of tourists visiting Ä°stanbul, at 915,620.
ï¼A French court rejected a complaint of discrimination from an
ethnically Turkish woman who was forced to withdraw her candidacy in a
local election last year due to pressure to publicly recognize claims
of an Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Sırma Oran
Martz was also sentenced to pay a fine of 1,500 euros, reportedly for
abusing the right to petition.
ï¼An American magazine ranked Turkey 65th on a list of countries in
terms of overall quality of life. France came in first for the fifth
year running in International Living magazine’s annual Quality of Life
Index for 2010, which ranks 194 countries according to nine
categories: cost of living, culture and leisure, the economy,
environment, freedom, safety and risk, health, infrastructure and
climate.
Jan. 7 Thursday
ï¼Roma residents of Manisa’s Selendi district expressed concern for
their lives after being forced to leave their homes due to high
tension in the area when violence broke out between locals and members
of the Roma community. Incidents that erupted after a dispute between
a man of Roma origin and locals in Selendi resulted in a vigilante
campaign against the district’s Roma population. Seventy-four Roma,
including 15 children, were forced to leave Selendi and seek refuge in
nearby Gördes.
ï¼Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is concerned about the
fate of Turkish-Egyptian ties in the wake of tensions over the delay
of an international aid convoy bound for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and
held the convoy’s leaders responsible for the standoff with Egyptian
authorities, saying they have become a `propaganda tool’ for Hamas.
Abbas, speaking to a group of journalists in Ankara following talks
with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an,
appeared to be very much concerned that the incident might damage the
relations between Egypt and Turkey, both of which are heavyweights in
the Middle East.
ï¼Aid trucks that entered the besieged Gaza Strip as part of an
international convoy were ordered to leave the city within 24 hours,
Egyptian officials announced. The trucks were expected to go in,
unload their cargo and leave as quickly as possible.
ï¼German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his government
supports Turkey’s EU bid and that for Germans, a `pacta sunt servanda’
is important. Westerwelle, speaking at a joint press with his Turkish
counterpart, DavutoÄ?lu, in Ankara, said that if Germans make a
promise, they keep it and that this is true for EU-Turkey relations.
ï¼Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an had his weekly meeting with the chief of
General Staff at the military headquarters instead of at the Prime
Ministry, the usual venue for the meeting.
Jan. 8 Friday
ï¼Prime Minister ErdoÄ?an termed recent expectations for early elections
in 2010 as merely a `dream,’ underlining that the next parliamentary
elections would definitely not be held before 2011. `Let no one dream
of early elections. More than one year still remains before the next
parliamentary elections. They [the opposition] will not be able to
achieve their objectives regardless of what they do,’ ErdoÄ?an remarked
during a speech at the AK Party women’s branch in Ankara.
ï¼Sabih KanadoÄ?lu, the former chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of
Appeals, known for his staunch secularism and unyielding opposition to
the ruling AK Party, gave testimony as part of the probe into
Ergenekon, a criminal network nested within the state and accused of
plotting to topple the government. `From the president to the prime
minister and deputies, everybody is expected to be accountable before
the judiciary. I, too, did my duty as an ordinary citizen,’ he said,
responding to questions from journalists before he left the courthouse
in BeÅ?iktaÅ?.
ï¼ Col. Dursun Ã?içek, who is believed to have drafted a military plot
to discredit the AK Party, appeared at the BeÅ?iktaÅ? Courthouse in
Ä°stanbul. The colonel, however, refused to respond to questions over
whether he was at the courthouse to testify on a suspected military
plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.
ï¼German Foreign Minister Westerwelle praised Turkey’s global role as a
cultural, political and economic bridge and said ties with Ankara were
very important for the EU, which Turkey aspires to join. `We cannot
ignore a growing country like Turkey. We need to take Turkey into
consideration both politically and economically,’ Westerwelle said at
a joint press conference with BaÄ?ıÅ?, Turkey’s chief negotiator for EU
talks, in Ä°stanbul.
10 January 2010, Sunday