January 19, 2007
Religious freedom via Strasbourg, not Ankara or Brussels?
Dr. Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
There are now two major questions in the struggle for full religious freedom in Turkey, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-kulturen/themen/menschenrechte notes. Firstly, will the controversial Foundations Law be adopted, and if so in what form? Secondly, will the Turkish authorities move towards full religious freedom after a recent momentous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg? The ECHR did not accept the Turkish state's argumentation over the seizure of non-Muslim minorities' property, and even the Turkish judge at the Court had no objections to the ruling. In this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org, Dr Oehring suggests that, as Turkish accession negotiations with the European Union have gone quiet, the ECHR may now be the best route for Turkey's religious minorities to assert their rights..........
Armenia ready to open Turkish border, join railway project as Turkish, Armenian businesses demand border opening
It seems that we will be losing our one of childhood heroes... Rambo self-appoints himself as the advocate against Turks: "Sylvester Stallone is touting the idea that he might direct an adaptation of the controversial novel The Forty Days of Musa Dagh, which describes the Turkish massacre of its Armenian community in 1915. A movie based on the Austrian author Franz Werfel's 1934 fictionalised account would, Sly says, be "an epic about the complete destruction of a civilisation". The topic is, to understate it somewhat, a thorny issue over in Turkey, where the claimed "genocide" has never been wholly accepted as historical fact....."
Mustafa Akyol in A politically incorrect guide to Turkish politics (I)
* Turkey Concerned as Kurds Take Control of Northern Iraq
It never ends. NOW, the translators are on the firing line of expression issue; While Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK) is forcing authors such as Orhan Pamuk and Elif Şafak to stand trial, the second article of another law � the press code � threatens translators. Translators can be tried for translating articles that are "illegal," according to the press code. Organizations of authors, publishers and translators spoke to Referans this week in support of a Turkish campaign begun in November called �Translators cannot be blamed for their mission.................
Posted by erkan at January 19, 2007 02:12 PM | TrackBackPosted to Armenian Question | Kurdish Question | Minorities