According to Turkish government sources, Ergenekon is a conspiracy formed, among others, various disparate journalists, retired military officials and opposition party leaders. To date over 80 have been detained and brought in for questioning.

It’s a rather strange conspiracy in which those ideologically attached to the left of center, such as Labor Party leader Doğu Perinçek and leading secular liberal journalists, have attached themselves to those that are normally considered to be right of center, such as the military and capitalist businessmen— specifically, retired military officers and the head of Ankara’s Chamber of Commerce. Not only is it being alleged that this motley collection of individuals with presumably differing ideologies attached themselves to each other, but that they have found something so intoxicatingly in common so as to inextricably unite and form a criminal terrorist enterprise whose aim is to promote large scale violence to justify a military coup. (more…)

The Eurasia Monitor has published an excellent article about the campaign of disinformation and deliberate untruths waged by AKP sympathetic media outlets that was written by Gareth Jenkins of the Jamestown Foundation.  An interesting question is whether Ergenekon is a game, initially designed by the west, that is now craftily being played against them. (more…)

Although Europe ignores it, the Turkey’s PM Erdogan is turning into the Turkish version of Vlad. Putin, writes Kemal. (more…)

The Turkish economy is currently moving at full throttle. Not since the privatization reforms of the venerable Turgut Özal has there been such a sustained stretch of economic progress. While the average Turk will point to the fact that unemployment, which probably unofficially hovers at 14-16%, remains a sizable dampener to overall well-being, a considerable cross-section of Turkish society would nonetheless agree that the country’s economy is enjoying unprecedented prosperity.

Taxi drivers in Istanbul and even the heads of conglomerates will tend to point to the same rationale for this long period of positive growth: the political stability experienced under the AK Party. There is little dispute that Turkey’s current period of economic success correlates nicely with the starting date of the AKP’s leadership of the Turkish political system. (more…)

During the past week, the global press has enjoyed a multimedia feast over the comments about Iran made by France’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Bernard Kouchner. While these remarks were subsequently tempered by the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, this week’s exchange nonetheless underscores the increasing weight that the Iran-question currently receives in diplomatic and political circles outside of Washington. The press in Turkey has also been following this story quite closely, which is only natural for a country that borders on the pariah-nation in question. What has particularly puzzled this observer is the general absence of Turkey’s political elite in the overall international dialog related to Iran and its potential development of nuclear weapons. While there does seem to have been discussion between Ankara and Washington concerning the Bush Administration’s view that Turkey should freeze all trade with Iran, there has been little proactive commentary about the Iranian issue on the behalf of Ankara. Such relative silence on the part of Erdoğan and Gül would seem to be misguided for two main reasons.Even a limited military attack on Iran would most likely have disastrous effects on the relatively fragile Turkish economy. In addition to losing its direct trade with Iran, the Turkish economy depends on increasing future levels of foreign investment in order continue its positive growth trends during the coming years. Needless to say, investors will be very reluctant to sink meaningful amounts of capital into Turkey if Iran is launching missiles through Turkish airspace as a retaliatory measure. Moreover, the Turkish economy has come to rely on the flow of natural gas from Iran during the past two decades. A military action against the country would clearly necessitate the cessation of this supply and force Turkey to further rely on Russia for its energy needs. (more…)

The terrorist attack in Ankara was, indeed, caused by a suicide bomber: 28-year-old Güven Akkuş, of Sivas. Akkuş “had spent two years in prison for hanging illegal posters for the Communist Workers Party, but he became affiliated with the PKK in prison.”

Governor of Ankara Kemal Önal said: “”The type of explosives and equipment employed is similar to those used by the separatist group.”

Today’s Zaman also has more information up about the victims. One of them: “Muzaffer Savaş, who died in Tuesday’s bombing in Ankara, was going to get married this week. Twenty-four-year old Savaş, at the time of bombing was looking for a tuxedo for himself. His friends and relatives, who recently received his wedding invitation, were shocked by the news of his death.”

Turkish Daily News adds that “Turkish Police captured two people yesterday, a day after a powerful bomb killed six in Ankara. In the raid that took place in the Southern city of Adana the police seized 11.3 kilograms of A-4 explosives, a detonation device and two hand-grenades.” The woman has been identified by Adana Governor İlhan Atış as a “suicide bomber.”

As a result of the bombing and of the arrests, “Turkey’s top anti-terror board convened yesterday under the leadership of Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül early in the morning to review possible measures to prevent new attacks. The Turkish Daily News learned that the police and gendarmerie units will tighten security measures in the cities, airports, bus terminals, metro and train stations. The National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and the police will conduct detailed investigations to find out the organizers of this attack.”

Meanwhile, Amnesty International, with seemingly too much time on its hands, compared “the ban imposed on women in Turkey and France for wearing headscarves in public places to the obligations imposed on women in Iran and Saudi Arabia for putting on a veil.” Amnesty:

The state has the obligation to safeguard a woman’s freedom of choice, not restrict it. To take an example, the veil and headscarf of Muslim women have become a bone of contention between different cultures, the visible symbol of oppression according to one side, and an essential attribute of religious freedom according to the other. It is wrong for women in Saudi Arabia or Iran to be compelled to put on the veil. It is equally wrong for women or girls in Turkey or France to be forbidden by law to wear the headscarf. And it is foolish of Western leaders to claim that a piece of clothing is a major barrier to social harmony,” Kahn said in strongly worded remarks.

It’s called laicism. Is AI now saying that laicism is in breach with human rights? It has nothing to do with choice in these women’s private lives, it’s about what they are allowed to wear in public buildings. Besides, Amnesty’s approach might work very well in a situation in which the headscarf is not used, and even a sign of, the oppression of women, but sadly reality shows that it is the family of the woman who demands of her to wear a headscarf.

The headscarf is, among other things, a sign that one considers women to be less than men. I thought that AI would encourage equality instead of oppression.

A Kurdish singer, Zulfu Kizildemir aka Xemgin Birhat, might face five years in prison for “performing a song that praises imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan.” Ocalan is, of course, the leader of the PKK. Ocalan is, of course, quite simply a terrorist. His men have killed tens of thousands of Turks. As TDN points out, “Kurds are not recognized as an official minority in Turkey and are denied rights granted to other minority groups,” but that’s not an excuse for terrorism.

Lastly, Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan slammed the opposition in a speech yesterday. He said that “the existence of sound and active political opposition was crucial to the preservation of democracy in any country and said that being in opposition was not tantamount to trampling underfoot the lines of legitimacy, casting a shadow over democracy or ignoring universal values.”

He also “harshly criticized President Ahmet Necdet Sezer for abusing the legal period of 15-days granted to make a decision on a draft send from Parliament. Erdoğan said the president, who is supposed to either veto or ratify a new law enabling the president to be elected by a referendum, was purposefully trying to delay the Parliament’s willingness to refer the presidential elections to the people.”