March 22, 2007
Edition 9 Volume 5 - March 01, 2007 Turkey: election year Turning Turkish heads - an interview with Soner Cagaptay This is the first time a Turkish government is turning Turkish heads to the Muslim Middle East. Honestly,...
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February 27, 2007
The UN's highest court has cleared Serbia of direct responsibility for genocide during the 1990s Bosnian war. But the International Court of Justice did rule that Belgrade had violated international law by failing to prevent the 1995 massacre at...
February 17, 2007
"Valley of the Wolves -- Terror" is banned. In a Reuters piece it is stated that: The action-packed "Valley of the Wolves" has been hugely popular both as a television series and a movie, but the latest series, "Valley of...
February 02, 2007
Emre Toros, a political scientist and teaches at Atılım University, Ankara, says: ....I want to illustrate my argument with the slogans used during Dink's funeral: �We are all Hrant� and �We are all Armenians.� Although the former was welcomed by...
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January 22, 2007
Washington Post's PostGlobal blog starts a new discussion: Turkey's Trouble With Minorities The Panelist Ali Ettefagh starts as "The murder of Hrant Dink in Istanbul by right-wing extremists may well shatter Turkey's chances of joining the European Union...." Well, this...
January 12, 2007
According to a Haberturk news, Islamist newspaper Vakit, accuses producers of sit-com Avrupa Yakası of being blasphemous. One of the new characters, Gafur, is one of 99 names attributed to Allah and supposedly the way it is used is an...
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January 02, 2007
I have noted the statistics of Turks killed or wounded during the feast of sacrifice last year and the year before that. In terms of statistical data, same number of Turks are killed this year related to amateur butchering attempts:...
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Newsdesigner.com provides first pages of some International dailies and after providing American dailies'. I have found only one website (www.netgazete.com) thru which I could access all the first pages of Turkish dailies but unfortunately yesterday I was busy with bayram...
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December 31, 2006
My dear readers, a few hours ago, i have read two articles by some notable authors whom I respect and i will use them as pretexts to state my own developing ideas. In my style of writing, i can be...
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December 18, 2006
The Boston Globe editorial says: The 25 foreign ministers of the European Union embarrassed themselves last week when they agreed to punish Turkey for refusing to open its ports and airfields to the Greek Republic of Cyprus. The EU decision...
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December 14, 2006
Nobel laureate for literature Orhan Pamuk of Turkey holds his medal as he poses with daughter Ryya after the prize ceremony in Stockholm December 10, 2006. The European Union's decision to partially suspend Turkey's entry talks will cause problems...
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December 13, 2006
The WP PostGlobal Blog has started a new discussion: PostGlobal Question Issues such as the status of Cyprus and Turkey's accession to the EU hinge upon Greece-Turkey relations. What policy on either side do you think would be most productive...
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December 12, 2006
After a police operation against allegedly DHKP connected NGOs, Gazi and some other neighbourhoods in Istanbul witnessed fierce street demonstrations last week. Here are more pictures and a partisan report of the events. According to the latest news report...
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12:33 AM
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December 08, 2006
A journalist was telling me EU news were 'boring' and it was really difficult for them to get the reader attention. Well, this might change a bit, look at the Verheugen news: The German news magazine Focus says it...
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03:28 PM
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December 07, 2006
The EU is studying an offer by Turkey to open one port and one airport to traffic from Cyprus, Finland says. The European Commission said the move, if confirmed, was "an important step" towards breaking the deadlock over Turkey's EU...
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04:12 PM
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Survivors of the 1995 Srebrenica massacre have criticised the Dutch government for giving an insignia to UN peacekeepers who served in the city. They said honouring Dutch troops who were charged with protecting the Muslim Bosnian enclave was "scandalous"....
November 28, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI has arrived in Turkey on his first trip to a mainly Muslim country since acceding to the papacy. NY Sun claims that Turks are in Suspense As Erdogan Sets Welcome of Pope. DW-TV's religious correspondent John Berwick...
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02:26 PM
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November 17, 2006
well, i couldn't make it yet Murat, even if it was for some seconds. Murat says: That title is supposed to be funny... I am still pissed because our local "Turkish American Cultural Society of Rhode Island" (TACS-RI), of which...
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10:48 AM
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November 04, 2006
Mehmet Ali Talat talks to Euronews..... CBS asks Will Turkey And EU Divorce Before Wedding? After Years Of Waiting To Get In, Signs Indicate Turkey May Not Join EU After All. Whenever a major crisis occurs, similar questions are asked....
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October 25, 2006
Talking or Patronizing Turkishness Here is my late note on the Talking Turkishness show that was aired on October 17th, 2006. One expects from a relatively independent and alternative news source a more nuanced production but what happened in the...
October 15, 2006
The Chief of Staff, Mr. Buyukanit, talked back yesterday against what Agar said a few days ago. Mr. Agar had said if they were the government, the army could not make those speeches, implying Buyukanit's speech indeed. The leader...
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I am curious about our fans' political stance towards the developments concerning Turkey. "Creative fans of Besiktas" might produce a political stance today but we have a sophisticated situation: That is, our beloved fan leader, Alen, is a Turkish Armenian...
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02:56 PM
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October 13, 2006
Turkey has condemned a French parliamentary vote which would make it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered "genocide" at the hands of the Turks. Brussels also condemns the French law...a thin turnout of French legislators approved a bill, but...
October 07, 2006
Mehmet Ali Birand says: Today, no one has anything good to say about the EU. Tomorrow, when the EU negotiations derail, I would like to hear what these critics will say. Do you know why those who attack the EU...
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03:11 PM
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October 03, 2006
Two major media shaped the mass media programming in Turkey and live coverage personnel had to work hard not to be behind of the rivals. First of all, The Turkish army's new top commander Gen. Yasar Buyukanit spoke during a...
October 01, 2006
BBC says "A Kurdish rebel group fighting for autonomy in south-east Turkey has declared a unilateral ceasefire with the government in Ankara." And MA Birands laments that: People will not be dying anymore. The heart-rending screams at funerals of martyred...
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French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, left, French President Jacques Chirac, second left, and his wife Bernadette, right, take part in a wreath laying ceremony as they pay tribute to the Armenian genocide victims at the Tsiteernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan,...
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September 21, 2006
Yusuf Kanli was able to discuss with Justice Minister Cemil Cicek, while at a reception hosted by Guler Sabanci, the president of Sabanci Holding, at the Hilton Hotel on Tuesday evening, the reform package being legislated by Parliament, as...
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September 16, 2006
Ali Bardakoglu (2nd R), president of the Turkey's religious affairs, attends the foundation-laying ceremony of a local religious affairs office building as he is flanked by officials in Duzce September 15, 2006. REUTERS/Anatolian/Tuncay Turkgulu (TURKEY) Well, this is Turkish...
September 05, 2006
Protesters chained to the fence of a military building across the street from the Turkish parliament shout slogans and hold a banner reads 'Women won't allow the parliament approval for troops to Lebanon' during a protest in Ankara, September...
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08:59 PM
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August 15, 2006
Eksi Sozluk, a collaborative hypertext dictionary based on the concept of Web sites built up on user contribution, provides the most fun a Turk can have online by ARMAN TURGUT. It is a pity that I am not a writer...
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02:21 PM
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August 10, 2006
Anthropologi Info extends its entry on Anthropologists on the Israel-Lebanon conflict......... What I would add to whatever already written is that Israeli government has become 'oriental', I believe. Ever since an official from the government (I guess it was in...
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04:41 PM
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August 06, 2006
The war in the Middle East boosts the significance of Turkey's bid to join the European Union where it could serve as the bloc's "bridge" with Islam, top EU enlargement official Olli Rehn said... Again the bridge metaphor... This bridge...
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July 30, 2006
An old razor ad. Found in this exhibition. Well, although our dear blogger friend Metin admits that "I admit my shortcoming when it comes to the mastery of the religion of Islam as I am not a scholar on...
July 17, 2006
Mark Mazower: In 1949, Europeans spearheaded an international move to outlaw collective punishment. This came after two world wars in which they had witnessed whole towns and villages razed and civilians executed, conscripted for slave labour or deliberately made homeless....
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July 16, 2006
The European Union’s relations with Turkey will be one of the issues topping the agenda of Finland, which has taken over the EU's six-month presidency, one of its top diplomats told Kathimerini yesterday.... Saniye Toydemir, wife of Hakan Toydemir, one...
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11:51 PM
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July 05, 2006
BBC: Newspapers in Italy and Germany reflect starkly different emotions following Tuesday's World Cup semi-final..... Thousands of women and girls will be trafficked to Germany for the World Cup and forced by criminals to have sex against their will. Maybe...
May 29, 2006
Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik (C) and EU foreign ministers pose for the family photo of the Informal Council at Klosterneuburg Abbey near Vienna. The European Union has admitted there was no hope of rapidly reviving its ailing constitution...
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May 25, 2006
It seems that Turkey's days in relative stability and domestic peace are over. I don't tend to be pessimistic but it seems that TR elites has started the fight for political hegemony. The most concrete position over which the political...
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May 21, 2006
eheheh Long live the headbangers! Turkey's 'Super Star' is somewhere on the 10th or 11th in the score list... Bosnia got Turkey's higher score as usual, but Turkey's significant neighbour of 2006 was Armenia! Armenia got Turkey's second higher score......
May 20, 2006
For those outside the anthropology circles in the US, it might not be significant, but within those circles a bill related to National Science Foundation funding gets real attention nowadays. In its simplistic form, I have been hearing for more...
The murderer qualifies to be an agent provocateur as a columnist likened him to Mehmet Ali Agca. He had been an active ultra nationalist in his college years. Some left wing sites had already identified him (click here for...
May 18, 2006
(Yesterday) Papoulias berates Turkey; Greek President Karolos Papoulias delivered a tough message to Turkey yesterday when addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg, saying that Ankara had to overcome “serious problems” if it wants to become a member of the European...
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May 15, 2006
It was kind of a taken for granted fact; Fenerbahce would win the championship. But in a literally last minute case, Galatasaray got the victory. This reminds me a childhood fable, against the fast rabbit, the victory of a turtle....
May 14, 2006
Why does the EU have to patent food items like Baklava? I know EU officials have an obsession of codification but how can they be so foolish to start a crisis like this? Here are some recent news: *...
May 10, 2006
Ads from Associação Socioambientalista Somos Ubatuba (ASSU), the Brazilian socio-environmentalist Association of Ubatuba. Copy: The ends don’t justify the means, Agency FCB Brazil This is the title of Mr. Sahin's column today in Radikal. It is in Turkish and...
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May 08, 2006
DEP MPs Alinak, Sakik and Turk win claims. ECHR rules in favor of claimants in 3 cases - sentences Turkey to pay 33,052 in compensation for complaints under freedom of expression. It also criticizes journalist Ergin's trial by a Turkish...
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May 05, 2006
Via Advertising/Design Goodness Mehmet Ali Birand says if French politicians don’t wake up to what they’re doing and approve the genocide bill just for 400,000 Armenian votes, a huge crisis will erupt between Turkey and France.... Turkish civil groups...
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May 04, 2006
Ingmar Karlsson In my fieldwork this rarely happens. Lots of people know what I am doing but few thinks of inviting me in some occasions. (What you were thinking Erkan? Why are you so special?) Anyway, I was particularly...
May 01, 2006
Aylin, this post is for you:) The Editors Weblog has published two articles that compares Citizen journalism and professional journalism. Here is Part I and Part II In another post, it is argued that 'In spite of the blogosphere, the...
April 30, 2006
"Very interesting artwork for the Consiliul National Roman pentru Refugiati (CNRR), the Romanian national Council for Refugees. It combines the oldstyle socialist artwork with today problems from refugees." Zaman says "Even with its low level of national income per...
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April 26, 2006
Here is an interesting new way of advertising plastic surgery. It is already 11 a.m. but I am still earlier than the previous two days instarting life. I have already had shower, chose what to wear (this wasn't very...
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11:22 AM
April 21, 2006
Turkey has sent nearly 40,000 troops to the southeast to prepare for an expected rise in Kurdish rebel incursions from northern Iraq, a senior military official said on Thursday. Of course, this news was immediately interpreted as a sign of...
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11:58 AM
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April 19, 2006
Here it comes. Terrorist activities increased to a degree that the ordinary citizens began to demand for tougher measures. Now comes an anti-terror law that might annoy even the ordinary citizens. That seems to be a vicious cycle in modern...
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11:47 PM
April 08, 2006
The Observer says "After the recent Kurdish-related violence in Turkey, it was likely that the EU would issue a call for calm. The Commission representative at the European parliament's Strasbourg session duly did so yesterday, asking Ankara "to make sure...
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03:44 PM
Deborah Ann Dilley made an excellent job of collecting comments on recent riots in Turkey from Kurdish and Turkish blogs.......
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02:25 PM
March 30, 2006
Mayor Osman Baydemir persuades a masked protester to end a protest in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir March 29, 2006. Hundreds of Kurdish protesters hurled stones and set tyres ablaze in the second day of street battles with...
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11:40 AM
March 29, 2006
Prof. Belge is one of the greatest intellectuals ever lived in Modern Turkey. This looks like an act of flattery, but this is just too apparent in Turkey. His cosmopolitan stance is not well-received by many especially nowadays when...
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10:03 AM
March 27, 2006
A student of mine who has graduated from a well-known French college in Istanbul told during a lecture discussion: "Our professors used to treat us as if we were from a Third World Country. When I went to Paris this...
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02:05 PM
March 07, 2006
The Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has denied claims that accusations against Land Force Commander Yasar Buyukanit aim at preventing him from becoming Chief of General Staff, saying that the government has no connection with the incident..... What is...
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01:40 AM
February 16, 2006
[I am sorry I cannot provide any photos for this event. I got a great hangover and I forgot to bring camera with me:) Drinking rakı without water and taking pills might be quite interesting but not if you have...
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05:56 PM
February 14, 2006
I was asked why I don't mention PM Erdoğan's addressing style to a peasant a few days ago. I don't know, I wasn't that stunned when I heard about it. Two blog entries frame the debate and I am...
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11:13 PM
February 12, 2006
[oppsss I forgot the EU project story] A friend of mine who has become an 'expert' on project proposal writing told me that purchases related to EU funded projects are exempted from VAT. This is a new regulation by Ministry...
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03:03 AM
February 10, 2006
This picture was taken on Thursday evening in Sarahane, Istanbul. At the background you can see the Byzantinian aquaducts. Behind the photo taker, that is me, there is the headquarters of Istanbul Municipality. As far as I could observe,...
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The Berlin Film Festival opens on Thursday with a gala screening of Snow Cake, starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman. Is it good or bad I don't really know but I am surprised to see how my mood depends...
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02:24 AM
February 09, 2006
I finally watched the movie. It wasn't crowded as I was hoping. A gang of 5-6 youths forced a group of long-haired boys to leave their seats for other seats and, in my part, a family union requested me to...
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01:28 AM
February 07, 2006
Dutch member of the European Parliament, Joost Lagendijk, arrives at a courthouse in Istanbul, Turkey, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2006, to attend the trial of Turkish journalists. The trial of five prominent Turkish journalists charged with insulting the country's courts...
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10:07 PM
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February 04, 2006
Muslim protesters shout slogans and carry banners denouncing EU as they protest in front of honorary consulate of Denmark in Izmir, western Turkey, February 3, 2006. The demonstrators gathered on Friday to protest over offensive cartoons published in several...
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01:28 AM
January 31, 2006
This is an entry of first impressions and I am sure some of my readers will be angry with me: 1) If Erdoğan wants to cheat, he will do it perfectly, he is a natural born merchant and opposition's...
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05:30 PM
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January 27, 2006
Two bus drivers try to repair their cars in Tandogan Square in Ankara, January 24. Air, road and sea transport throughout Turkey are in a state of semi-paralysis after three days of bitter cold and heavy snows, with more...
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12:34 AM
January 19, 2006
Turkish children play soccer in the eastern Turkish village of Bardakci, near the city of Van, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006. Residents of a village on the shores of lake Van wait for Agriculture department teams to cull their fowl...
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03:31 AM
January 18, 2006
Anthropologi.Info continues to provide good commentaries and resources on the use of blogging in anthropology. You will find links in his recent entry and a quote from another blogger in 'how blogging sharpens the attention', [Oh if you are already...
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01:34 AM
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January 17, 2006
Today is not that productive so far. It is still the mid-day but I feel dizzy and sad. Despite tons of cafein in the form of coffee and coke, I don't feel good. In Bilgi mailing list, professors talk about...
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03:58 PM
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January 15, 2006
As usual, I was determined not to do what everyone does while watching this movie, but I couldn't resist myself when the second half of the movie started...This movie is probably one of the best cultural artifacts to represent...
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12:42 AM
January 14, 2006
A chicken tries to escape from Turkish Agriculture Ministry employees collecting poultry in Uzunyazi, Turkey, on Jan. 13. By Pier Paolo / AP Prof. Ronen Shamir from Tel-Aviv University kindly sent me his notes on bird flu and allowed...
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03:22 AM
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Abdi Ipekci became editor in chief of Milliyet at just 25-years-old and made it Turkeys most influential newspaper. He was killed on Feb. 1, 1979, by the same right-wing militant who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II. The...
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01:17 AM
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January 10, 2006
AFP Photo: Turkish Health Minister Recep Akdag (R) embraces Zeki Kocyigit -- the father of two children... Mr. Akdag says people shouldn't have chicken and poultry in general but the problem is in a country whose half of the...
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02:07 AM
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January 03, 2006
I don't know if there are any rhetorical terms to describe the situation - I am sure Stephen Tyler could tell though- but in an interesting polemic among the islamists, the parties accuse each other for acting like some well-known...
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10:22 AM
December 19, 2005
Pamuk trial triggered a burst of articles on Turkey and EU. Some of them directly focus on the trial itself and some contemplate on the fate of negotiations... It is so difficult to propose an argument, because you will immediately...
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03:47 PM
December 18, 2005
From Seattle Times by WILLIAM BROWN I don't know why I am not surprised anymore when I hear Erdoğan's message to the EU: Turk PM warns against EU meddling . According to a BBC news by Sarah Rainsford The...
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02:50 PM
There have been a burst of articles on Vodafone's purchase of Turkey's second biggest mobile service, Telsim, in global business circles. I haven't had a commentary translated to English from a Turkish author yet but I can speculate that Turkish...
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02:42 PM
December 17, 2005
It is a pity that literary contributions of Pamuk remains limited in Turkish public. It is surprising to see that anti-Pamuk front has a wide range of membership. I resist to comment on his recent political manouvres, some of which...
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02:19 AM
December 12, 2005
Pauloya, a Portuguese software engineer who lives in Istanbul, shares my anxiety for Istiklal Street. Thanks man:) While I was grading some of the papers written about the movie, All the President's Men, I remembered how I admired the way...
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02:56 AM
Just a day after FBI chief leaves, CIA director comes to town. Porter Goss will have several meetings and probably I will have lots of commentaries to publish soon. Ozkok comments on Nilufer Gole's latest book, Interpretations: Islam and...
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02:29 AM
November 28, 2005
Fenerbahce won again. Galatasaray sucked and lost the game at home. I didn't talk to my brother Hakan. He is probably too upset and will use this excuse not to study for his university entrance exams. For my part, I...
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03:37 AM
November 12, 2005
I would like to point out a low-selling but very informative Turkish newspaper: Referans. Its daily circulation is around 10 thousand and it is accepted to be low even in Turkey's standards. It replaced a more economy focused newspaper...
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04:00 PM
November 07, 2005
Zaman newspaper is the third bestselling newspaper in Turkey. Its circulation is around 500.000. Why this religious (dinci) sells so much? 1- It depends on a religious movement (Fethullah Gulen's group). 2- It has a different marketing system. It depends...
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03:43 PM
June 04, 2005
Today is the very first year in Istanbul as an ethnographer. My brother Hakan reminded me that I landed to Istanbul a year ago in 4 June 2004. I am glad that at the moment of writing these lines, I...
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03:46 PM
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February 19, 2005
I have been thinking of mentioning rising anti-Americanism in Turkey but Pollock acted first:) Pollock article has been circulating here for a while and i today i began to see counter-Pollock or pro-Pollock essays in Turkish newspapers. Pollock essay is...
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05:43 PM
December 05, 2004
I am in my office on a Sunday evening. I have just finished my last 'invigilation' work for the midterm season. The room supervisor was my Chair here. So I learnt that she had a double date last night and...
Posted by erkan at
07:26 PM
November 10, 2004
from http://www.deltur.cec.eu.int/english/e-info-overview.html The Communication Strategy for Enlargement has allocated, 5,8 million for Turkey to cover the period between 2001 and 2006. Under the "Europe HORIZONS" Information Programme, Turkey was allocated in 2001 903,000, to implement the first phase of the...
Posted by erkan at
02:10 PM
November 06, 2004
From the introduction of my proposal's latest version: "The proposed research is an ethnographic study of the role of Turkish journalists both as the receivers and the producers of the European Union (EU) discourses in Turkey. My study of the...
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03:08 PM
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August 24, 2004
This entry is a quick summary of this summer. It includes fragments about my research and my life. Home-Field An initial point about being at home and doing fieldwork can be summarized as such: If I started my fieldwork in...
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02:37 PM
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