Turkey Live Coverage (7 March): Erdogan Wants A Solution to Syria

2140 GMT: The Interior Ministry's confidential report on the Uludere massacre reached to the parliament. BDP's MP Ertigril Kurkcu said that the video images of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles per se do not let to an air strike, according to the findings of the report. 

CHP's Malik Ecder Ozdemir also stated that the special report found out that no local senior military officials knew about the air strike. Therefore, the report wants a broader investigation.

1930 GMT: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met privately with his Iranian and Azerbaijani counterparts, Ali Akbar Salehi and Elmar Mammadyarov repectively, in Nakhichevan. In these meetings, it is reported that Davutoglu and Mammadyarov talked about the current political situation in South Caucasus and Azeribaijan-NATO relations since this country is in NATO's Partnership for Peace program. On the other hand, Davutoglu and Salehi reportedly talked about Iran's prospective talks with P5+1 countries (the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany) and Turkey's strong willingness to host a possible meeting in Istanbul.

Afterwards, three leaders emphasized their willingness to deepen political and economic cooperation, for instance, through establishing committees to increase cooperation in energy, transportation and tourismand to enhance trilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism, transnational organized crime and drugs and arms trafficking as well as trafficking of persons and migrant smuggling.

The trilateral declaration also emphizes an urgent solution to the Nagorno-Karabagh problem. It says:

The parties note the importance of the earliest resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict on the basis of respect for the sovereignty, territorial integrity and internationally recognized borders of states and emphasize ... the maintenance of peace and stability in the region.

1800 GMT: Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) wanted to include words such as "lesbian", "gay", "trans women" and "transexuals" into the draft law regarding 'the protection of the family and prevention of violence against women' but it was rejected in the General Assembly of the Parliament by the MPs of Justice and Development Party (AKP).

1725 GMT: Aysegul Er from Ankara reports. 

President Abdullah Gul approved the law of accommodation. By this law, the disproportion and inequality between the pensions of retired people are removed. As a result of this new regulation, there will be an increase (from 10.00 to 399.00 Turkish Lira) in the pensions of 1.9 million people. The addition will be applied by 2013.

1645 GMT: The hacktivist group Anonymous has attacked the Prime Ministry's website. They were blocked by the government's technology experts from getting access.

1620 GMT: On his way to Nakhichevan, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that the Parliament could be asked for authorization to deploy armed forces within Syria, if the Assad regime continues to use the outlawed terrorist/separatist PKK organisation. Davutoglu said: 

Turkey is ready to discuss every option in order to protect its national security. Turkish security forces are monitoring a number of PKK groups entering Turkey from Syria. Turkey would not allow any country to undermine its security.

President Abdullah Gul also reiterated the state's official view on Damascus:

We have no trust in the Syrian government anymore. Stability and peace are no longer attainable by oppression; that era is over. Therefore, the Syrian administration should make a choice. There is only darkness and disappointment at the end of their current road. It will be too late if the Syrian leadership does not agree to these proposals now.

1435 GMT: The co-chairman of the Peace and Democracy Party, Selahattin Demirtas, criticised the government, saying it is cultural genocide to remove Kurdish names given to parks by district governors:

What is missing here is that our municipalities and local administrations have no authority. That is why democratic autonomy projects is finding a formula to solve problems on the local ground. 

Destroying a language is the same thing as destroying the people of a community. It is murder, cultural genocide. Everyone, especially the state, must approach equally to all languages. Are you collecting taxes in Hakkari, Diyarbakir or Sirnak? Are you saying that we shall collect less cause they are Kurds? No. You are collecting equally from Kurds, Circassians and Laz people. So, why don't you treat equally while turning that tax into service? While the Kurdish people gvie their taxes to the state, what is wrong if they want to receive service in their own language?

Diyarbakir's Mayor Osman Baydemir said:

Service to the people is service to God. No political organisation could stay on its feet if this atrocity was in anywhere in the world. In an environment where 6 thousand employees, over 160 local administrators and MPs imprisoned, Diyarbakir is pressing forward to become a European city while keeping its local values. Green-field per capita in Diyarbakir is 18,4 metre squares while the world average is 2 metre squares. Here is Diyarbakir, here is BDP, here is ecology, here is service!

1345 GMT: In an operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), police have found plastic explosives in an excavation in Istanbul.

1320 GMT: The Kurdish Communities Union (KCK), claimed to be an umbrella organization that includes the terrorist/separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is reportedly adopting a new and broader structure consisting of 36 lower organisations. These include the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), and the Revolutionary Headquarters (DK).

It is even claimed that the inclusion of the People’s Democratic Brotherhood (HDK) has been approved by the jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. If this is true, the Kurdish movement is looking forward to consolidating ties with other social forces through a broader bottom-to-top project.

If so, the HDK's armed wing. PKK, will be probably held in standby. The critical question is that, with spring returning and greater opportunities for counter-operations, will it be practical to keep armed militants/terrorists in mountains that long? 

1245 GMT: On Tuesday, Australian-American media mogul Rupert Murdoch met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Murdoch's company is said to interested in bidding for the media assets of Turkish firm Çalık Holding, which include the daily Sabah and the ATV television channel.

The value of Sabah-ATV is estimated at between $700 million and $1 billion.

1230 GMT: Turkey's soft power shows itself in Africa. Turkish Airlines is the first international carrier in the last two decades to commence regular flights to Somalia.

On Tuesday, a delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag landed in Mogadishu, where Turkey already opened a modern hospital. Bozdag said that the second hospital would be opened later in the year. He also visited a tent city, which accommodates 12,000 people, run by the Turkish Red Crescent.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed said: “On behalf of my people, it is an honor for me that the THY plane flew here. We thank the Turkish people.”

1120 GMT: During a party meeting, PM Erdogan responded to rumours that he had colon cancer, criticised the oppositon parties for their non-cooperation on the Kurdish issue, and reiterated that journalists were imprisoned due to crimes they already committed. 

Interestingly, Erdogan did not deny that he had cancer, even as he was angry with those who claimed that he had only two years left to live. He said:

We are [members of] a party that believes in fate. We are a party that took risks to serve our people. The owner of this soul is God. God is the only one who can take it back. We did not and do not surrender to threats. Only God can determine the length of our life. Those who believe in rumors and determine the lifespan of others, for us, are not only daring but insolent as well. Those who carry these rumors on their headlines are also greatly insolent.

With regards to the Kurdish problem, Erdogan blamed the opposition parties, extracted the political dimension of the problem from its roots, and portrayed "external powers behind the terrorism" of the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party). Erdogan said:

Our vision on terrorism related with the Kurdish issue is clear from the beginning. You might call it as the Southeastern problem, the Kurdish problem or anything you like. It gained acceleration with my speech in Diyarbakir in August 2005. We put steps forward for its solution. We started a process called 'National Unity and Brotherhood Project' in 2010. This process got vote of confidence from our nation for two times. We will get its approval not from the opposition parties but from our nation. 

The Kurdish issue, terrorism issue, Southeastern issue... It is a set of problems. It is not a struggle against an armend terrorist organisation. It has political, economic and cultural dimensions. And, of course, there is a dimension of abuse, self-interests and international politics. Human smuggling, drug-trafficking, arms smuggling... Terrorism is used to design politics domestically and internationally. We have a terrorist organisation used as a sub-contractor. We are not only struggling against terrorists in mountains, but also against those dirty hands behind this as well.

Arm smugglers and drug cartels do not want this issue to be solved. Those who abuse blood of terrorists and of our martyrs do not want this issue to be solved. MHP (Nationalist Movement Party) did not support us. CHP (Republican People's Party) stood against our steps. BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) was against us too. These three parties acted together in 12 September [2010 - referandum] and in 12 June [2011 - general election]. 

As for imprisoned journalists, Erdogan said that he could send the list to the main opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, if he wishes, so Kilicdaroglu can see whether they are innocent. 

0540 GMT: Starting the day in Turkey....

Syria High on the Agenda

On Tuesday,  Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Parliament, targeted both Syrian President Bashar Assad and those countries who have been holding out against intervention:

I am calling out to those countries that have been silent to the massacre in Syria, to those institutions that couldn’t produce a solution to the crisis. A drop of blood of an innocent child is so much more above any  kind of strategy. That drop will stick to the hands and faces of those who watch this massacre as if they watch a movie and it will never go away. I am reminding to Bashar Assad once more. His father had never been called into account for what he had done in this world but, sooner or later, it will be asked from the son Assad.  

Erdogan continued:

Humanitarian aid corridors should be established immediately. The international community should impose pressure on the Syrian government so that aid can be delivered to the people of Syria, especially in Homs. The Arab League plan should be implemented without any more delay and further loss of lives.

Translation: Turkey wants the establishment and enforcements of safe zones in northwest Syria, but it is also wants public --- not private --- co-operation amongst the Arab League and "Western" countries. 

Turkey’s European Vision and Its Imprisoned Journalists

Last weekend, Minister of European Affairs and Chief Negotiator Egemen Bagıs was interviewed by the BBC’s HardTalk programme. Asked what he was thinking about the European Union, Bagis said that the EU is already preoccupied with its own crises right now and “cannot see the light." He added, “Hold on, Europe, Turkey is coming, coming to rescue you!”

Reminded that the EU will headed by Cyprus in the second half of 2012, Bagis said: “We will not freeze our relations with the entire EU. We will just ignore the so-called Presidency of a half a state” 

On the issue, the freedom of expression, imprisoned journalists and 16,000 cases pending in the court of European Human Rights about Turkey. Bagis said:

There is no journalist detained because of his profession. There are some people who carry journalist identification cards who have been caught while raping another person, while robbing a bank. They are not detained because of their articles that I did not like; there journalists who have written much worse articles and they enjoy their right to continue doing that.  

I would not like to see one intellectual behind any bar in any country. As Voltaire says, I would risk my own life to make them express their own views. But, being a member of media does not provide immunity to commit crimes. I don’t know if it does in Turkey but it shouldn’t in Turkey. If someone is caught while robbing a bank or killing another, they are not going to get away because they are journalists. 

Opposition Furious over New Education Bill:

Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, speaking at his parliamentary group meeting, said that the controversial education reform bill was more important than the Constitution. He continued: 

We seek social consensus for a new constitution. A commission was created for that. But the education bill is much more important than the constitution. Why don’t we seek conciliation?

I’m extending a hand to the government and calling for a compromise. Let’s make a new education law peacefully. Education is not a conflict area for political parties. 

Kilicdaroglu’s remarks came after PM Erdogan’s criticism of the current education system:

I’m a graduate of an imam-hatip school, and I was not accepted to university. I had to also finish high-school. They raised barriers against us. They still cannot stomach me. Like it or not, the people of Anatolia are embracing and supporting me. This is how we mustered 21.5 million votes.

The Rights of the Alevi Community

The Alevis are a religious and cultural community, emanating from the Bektashi-Sufi lineage within Shi'a Islam and incorporating many elements of local Anatolian folk culture.

On Tuesday,  representatives in Turkey demanded constitutional protection through a recognition of their identity and regulatory steps against hate crimes. They also asked Parlaiment to abolish the Religious Affairs Directorate, founded in 1924 to maintain secularism and state control over religion.

"The new charter must be people-centered, as well as multi-cultural, multi-identity and multi-faith,” said Alevi Federation Chairman Selahattin Ozel. 

Last week, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu visited non-Muslim minority leaders and listened to their demands for the new Constitution.  

However, on Tuesday, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP)’s MPs voted against the proposal of the opposition CHP to lift the lapse-of-time rule for the murderers in the Sivas massacre, where 37 people, mostly Alevi intellectuals, were killed in 1993.

The Erdogan Cancer Rumour

According to one of the leaked documents from Stratfor, dated 10 December, 2011, PM Erdogan had colon cancer and only two years left to live. This source is described as a “former NSC (National Security Council) official in Turkey, adviser to Erdogan, energy expert negotiator”.

After tissue growths were removed from his bowel last November, Erdogan underwent a second stomach operation in February.