GLIMMER oF hopE oN hoRIzoN oVER MYsTERY

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Ýstanbul has recently begun to
truly deserve the title of ‘Turkey’s
cultural capital’ with a host of
exhibitions in its museums
09
19
Kýrkpýnar past
to present: From
Ahmet Taþçý to
Recep Kara
Eat as many summer
season vegetables
and fruits as you can for
your health and body
YO U R WAY O F U N D E R S TA N D I N G T U R K E Y
Featurýng News and Comment from
SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2007 WWW.SUNDAYSZAMAN.COM YTL 1.50
RELIGION
Glýmmer of hope on horýzon
over mystery polýtýcal murders
completely satisfied with the extent of the investigation,
asserting that deeper links behind the suspects have to
be uncovered, the Dink trial has indeed come a long
way, considering the Turkish tradition of shelving
political murder files in depots where a devastating
fire might scorch everything the next day.
However, in recent years, the trigger men in all
‘unresolved’ incidents were caught and brought before
justice, although the actors behind them remain in the
darkness, despite ample evidence pointing to the role of
individuals nested within the state hierarchy across
many agencies from the military, security and
intelligence forces to the judiciary in each case.
On Nov. 3, 1996, a car loaded with weapons and
passports issued in false names crashed head-on into a
truck near town of Susurluk in western Turkey. Aside
from its strange cargo, the vehicle transported an even
stranger group of passengers: a police chief; an ultra-right
wing militant wanted by Interpol and indicted for seven
politically motivated killings committed in 1978; and an
ethnic Kurdish parliamentarian and influential tribal
leader whose tribe supplied a large number of
paramilitary troops in the state's fight against Kurdish
separatism. All but the parliamentarian were killed in the
accident. While a parliamentary commission's report on
the case proved somewhat disappointing, some of the
evidence given before it did not. Hanefi Avcý, a senior
intelligence officer, testified that some within the
security apparatus had begun to seek out ‘extrajudicial’
methods of combating terrorism. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04
TIES
AYÞE KARABAT, ANKARA
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
REVISITED IN THE
HEAT OF ELECTIONS
SAMED GÜNEK, ANKARA
In our visit to Kars, we searched for the
traces of Orhan Pamuk's 'Snow,' but we found
none of its characters. As if to refute 'Snow,'
which narrates the problems of Turkey's
recent past in the setting of Kars, there is neither an Islamic nor a Kemalist junta threat
Election promises remind us that a third of the population lives in villages; they
have strange vehicles called tractors that consume diesel fuel and the cost of this fuel
determines the price of the fruit we eat and whether or not farmers remain happy with
what merchants offer them. For some politicians this means an opportunity for gathering
votes; for others it spells problems at the ballot box. BY EMÝN AYDIN & SAMED GÜNEK ON PAGE 05
20 online services for afterlife
Internet provides
"Every soul shall have the taste of death," [Al-i
a verse in the Koran. Have you ever
thought that such a verse could be a Web site
slogan? At a time when the Internet has invaded every part of our mortal lives, did you ever
imagine it might also have a say in the afterlife?
Ýmran, 185] is
13 by flourishing tourism
Tire: A small town forgotten
travel
Rural votes bring
agriculture onto the
agenda again
Searching for the footprints
novel
An icon of the prophet Elijah hiding in a cave
hangs at the door of the church in the courtyard of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.
Two ravens perch at the rim of the cave, their
beaks holding pieces of meat for Elijah, who
looks wistfully at the sky, waiting for God to
deliver him from his feeling of hopelessness.
The scene from the Old Testament is
melodramatic, but it reflects the state of
limbo, the long waiting to be heard, of
Turkey's Greeks and their patriarch.
They complain of discrimination, expropriated properties, that their patriarch's
authority is not recognized and their school
for training priests is locked and barred. The
government replies that its position on the
Greek minority and its church is grounded
in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne that founded
the republic. The problems seem
intractable but, like the "still small voice''
that led Elijah out of the cave, there are
voices in Turkey today that speak softly
and say solutions are possible, though they
will require more waiting. CONTINUED ON PAGE 02
CONTROVERSY
life
03 of ‘Snow's Ka’ in Kars
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
PHOTO
TURKEY, LATIN
AMERICA WORK TO
BUILD TRADE BRIDGE
Wearing their sombreros, Mariachi is not
the typical kind of band that performs for
Turks, but they are definitely most welcome
at Suada, the artificial island in the Bosporus
near Ortaköy in Ýstanbul. The songs they
are singing are relatively unknown to Turks,
but as one of the guests says, "[It is] something very close to us. It gives us great joy."
Selim Sarýibrahimoðlu, a member of the
Ýstanbul-based Turkish, Caribbean and
Latin American Association (TUKLAD),
defines this situation as "sambasema" -the combination of samba dance with sema,
the whirling dervish ceremony. "The perception of life that Latins and Turks have is
something they have in common; they both
approach it for its nice parts. We are a little
bit different, of course, but the synthesis
of both will make us closer," he says.
The Ýstanbulatino festival, which aims
to strengthen cultural ties between Turkey
and Latin America, was held for its fourth
time last weekend. It started with a gala
night on Suada (Water Island), promising
"33 countries on one island." Different
styles of music -- capoeira, samba and, of
course, tango -- were on stage and in
Ýstanbul's Abbas Aða Park the next day.
In addition to music, photograph and
book exhibitions were held. There were
Latin American films screened at the
Instituto Cervantes, one of the other
contributors to the festival in addition to
the Beþiktaþ Municipality. CONTINUED ON PAGE 07
NEWS ANALYSIS
By Jasper Mortimer
TURGUT ENGÝN
E. BARIÞ ALTINTAÞ, ÝSTANBUL
The greatest fear of his supporters when
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink died
was that his assassination would be another
link in Turkey's long chain of unresolved political
crimes, referred to as ‘faili meçhul,’ which literally
translates as ‘actor unknown.’ Six months after Dink's
death, 18 suspects are now on trial as a gang, accused of
having plotted his murder. Although his lawyers are not
TURKEY’S
GREEKS AND THEIR
PATRIARCH WAIT
TO BE HEARD
If there was a prize for the most
interesting small Turkish town that has
somehow managed to miss out on tourism,
it would probably have to go to Tire, which
lies just 30 kilometers inland from Selçuk
and Ephesus but gets hardly any visitors
The Turkish Parliament passed the law
abolishing capital punishment on Aug. 2,
2002. Back in 1998, due to pressure from
Turkey, Syria was forced to expel Abdullah
Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), to whom
they had been providing shelter. Öcalan first
fled to Russia, and then on to Italy. When
the Italian government was also forced to
banish him, he next sought shelter in Kenya.
Öcalan was finally apprehended in
Kenya and found to be carrying a false
Greek Cypriot passport, by Turkish security forces. He was put on trial at Ýmralý
prison -- situated on an island in the Sea
of Marmara south of Ýstanbul -- and sentenced to death. The Supreme Court of
Appeals upheld the capital punishment of
the terrorist leader on Nov. 25, 1999.
However as capital punishment was then
abolished in 2002, his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. CONTINUED ON PAGE 08
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NATIONAL
Turkey’s Greeks and theýr
patrýarch waýt to be heard
Last week Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals ruled that Patriarch Bartholomew I had no right to the title ‘ecumenical’ -- a term
meaning universal to the Orthodox faith -- and that his ‘spiritual authority’ was confined to Turkey’s 3,000 Greeks. The decision was
virtually an insult to the titular head of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians. But Bartholomew decided to issue no reply
PHOTO
AP
contýnued from page 1
A few meters above the icon, the church’s
pediment bears the symbol of the Eastern
Orthodox faith, a two-headed eagle. Carved into
the emblem’s white stone are the Greek letters for
“Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.”
Last week Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals
ruled that Patriarch Bartholomew I had no right to
the title “ecumenical” -- a term meaning universal to the Orthodox faith -- and that his “spiritual
authority” was confined to Turkey’s 3,000 Greeks.
The decision was virtually an insult to the titular
head of the world’s 300 million Orthodox Christians.
But Bartholomew decided to issue no reply. The
court upheld Bartholomew’s acquittal on a charge of
violating the religious freedom of a Bulgarian priest
whom he had dismissed. But it was the judges’
comments on the patriarch’s title that created a stir.
“We’ve had this title since the sixth century,’’ Bartholomew told the newspaper Sabah last
November. “The word ecumenical has no political content. ... I will never renounce this title.”
A Turkish expert on minorities, political scientist
Baskýn Oran of Ankara University, scoffed at the
ruling. “Oh, my God,’’ he wrote in Radikal newspaper, “How have we come to telling the Orthodox
theology what to do? Is this court the Office of
Religious Affairs (Diyanet Ýþleri Baþkanlýðý)?”
In practical terms, the ecumenical authority of
Bartholomew means he is “first among equals” of the
patriarchs and archbishops who lead the more than 12
autonomous branches of the Orthodox church. He has
no right to intervene in these branches, but they can
call on him to arbitrate a dispute. He can also establish
a church in territory outside the autonomous branches. In these territories, such as the United States
and Australia, the churches report directly to him.
The Russian church, which has the biggest
population of the Orthodox branches, has often
challenged the Istanbul patriarch and it is a
moot point as to how far it recognizes his primacy.
But there are so many millions of Orthodox
church-goers who do recognize Bartholomew as
their ultimate leader that when he visits the
European Parliament in Strasbourg, for instance, he is received by the president of the EU
commission and addresses the full assembly.
When he visited the United States in 1997,
his plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, he was hosted by President
Bill Clinton and feted by thousands of Orthodox
worshippers across the country.
For Ankara to claim that Bartholomew has no
authority outside Turkey is like King Canute standing on the beach and ordering the waves to recede.
“You cannot put limits on other people’s hearts
and beliefs,’’ said Cemal Uþþak, the secretary-general
of the Intercultural Dialogue Platform, an Istanbulbased NGO that organizes inter-faith meetings.
Interestingly, although the Turkish government denies the patriarch has global responsibilities, it actually facilitates his exercising them.
For instance, in 2005 Bartholomew convened
a synod in Istanbul to decide the fate of the
Orthodox patriarch in Jerusalem, whose clerics
had rebelled against his selling land in the Old
City to Israelis. If Turkey had wanted to, it could
have refused to grant visas to the delegates and
the synod would not have taken place.
In 1991-92, Bartholomew and his predecessor, Patriarch Demetrios, took steps to re-establish the Orthodox Church in Albania after the fall
of communism. Again, if it had wanted to, Turkey
could have hindered this process by impeding the
traffic between Istanbul and Tirana. But it did not.
Asked about the difference between what it
says and what it does, a Turkish Foreign
Ministry official said: “I don’t see a contradiction.”
“What is important to us is his legal status in
Turkey,’’ the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity as she was not the spokeswoman. “The patriarch may say he is ecumenical,
but that doesn’t change his legal status in Turkey.”
At the Lausanne peace conference in 1923, the
Turkish delegation wanted to expel the patriarchate
from Istanbul, associating it with the Greek enemy.
But the allied powers prevailed on the Turks to allow the patriarchate to remain, promising it would
have no political role. The Lausanne Treaty does
not mention the patriarchate, but it guarantees freedom of religion to the non-Muslim minorities.
Professor Oran says the minutes of the conference record Turkey’s accepting a British proposal that the Istanbul patriarch would have no
political power, only spiritual authority.
Turkey has interpreted this to place strict limits
on the patriarch. Last week’s ruling pleased the gov-
There are so many millions of Orthodox church-goers who do recognize Bartholomew as their ultimate leader that when he visits the European Parliament in Strasbourg, he is received by the president of the EU commission. When he visited the United States in 1997, his plane landed at Andrews Air Force Base and he was hosted by President Bill Clinton.
ernment as it matched its long-standing position,
which is given in a Foreign Ministry statement: “The
Patriarchate is allowed to stay in Istanbul on condition that it serves only the religious and spiritual
needs of the Greek Orthodox minority in Istanbul.”
But the foreign signatories to the treaty certainly did not intend to confine the patriarch’s
authority to the municipal boundaries of
Istanbul. It would have been political suicide for
the Greek statesman Eleftherios Veniselos, who
signed the treaty on behalf of his king, to cut his
people’s links with their beloved patriarch in Istanbul.
The Greek Foreign Ministry criticized last
week’s ruling as being “based on misinterpretations of the Lausanne Treaty.”
“Recognition of the Ecumenical Patriarch as a
spiritual leader is, and has been for centuries,
deeply rooted in the conscience of hundreds of millions of Christians,’’ the Greek Foreign Ministry said.
Mihail Vasiliadis, the editor of the Turkish
Greek newspaper Apoyevmatini, said the dispute could be solved if the government were to
pass a law saying that the relations between the
Istanbul patriarch and the other branches of the
church are for the church itself to decide; that
this is not a state matter but an ecclesiastical one.
Political scientist Niyazi Öktem of Galatasaray
University agreed, saying that in effect the law
would say: “If they use the ecumenical title, I
don’t mind. I don’t recognize it, but I don’t mind.”
However, Öktem said the Turkish establishment is so nationalistic that such a move would
be politically possible only when the EU had
shown a clear desire to admit Turkey.
“If the European Union were to say, ‘OK, we
are willing to accept you,’ we could solve the
problem of the status of the patriarchate. There
would be no problem,” Öktem said.
Öktem said that what lies behind Turkey’s objection to ecumenical is ignorance and fear. The establishment -- the politicians and the military -- fears the
emergence of a pope-like figure in Turkey. It does not
understand that unlike the centralized Roman
Catholic church, the Orthodox church has a federal
structure. “The patriarch is not the same as the pope.”
The establishment also thinks that if it elevates the patriarch, it will face similar demands
from other religious sects. This is particularly the
case with the Halki seminary, the school for
training Greek Orthodox priests on an island in
the Marmara sea that has been closed since 1971.
“They are afraid that if they accept the Halki
seminary, they would also have to accept a
Sunni [Muslim] university,” Oktem said.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry official dismissed his arguments as speculation. “We don’t
have such fears,” she said.
The closure of Halki is an extremely sore
point. In the Sabah interview, Patriarch
Bartholomew, who trained at Halki, said: “If
Muslims want to study theology, there are 24
theology faculties. Where are we going to study?”
The government closed Halki as part of a campaign to bring private educational institutions under
state control, but the move has cost Turkey a lot.
Members of the US Congress and European
Parliament often refer to Halki, asking how can
Turkey claim to practice freedom of religion when it
prevents the church from training its own priests?
What makes the situation worse is that the
law stipulates that the patriarch and his senior
clerics must be Turkish citizens. “On the one
hand we demand that the patriarch be a Turk,”
Uþþak observed, “on the other hand we obstruct
Turks from being trained as priests.”
Occasionally Turkey has relaxed the citizenship rule. In 1948 it granted citizenship to the
Greek American who was elected patriarch. In
2004 it allowed six foreigners to take their seats
at the Ýstanbul synod.
But these gestures do not make up for Halki’s
closure. What distresses the church is that those
Turkish Greeks who want to become priests have to
go abroad to be trained, and most of them never return.
Editor Vasiliadis is old enough to remember
when Istanbul had more than 100,000 Greeks.
Then came the anti-Greek riots of 1955, the property expropriations of the 1960s and 70s, and his
community dwindled to 3 percent of its former self.
Now he produces the weekly Apoyevmatini,
or Evening Post, from an old-fashioned office
behind a curtained window in an arcade off
Beyoðlu, the center of Ýstanbul and once the
heart of its Greek commercial quarter.
“What do they want?” he asks of the government, slapping his identity card down on the
table of a street cafe run by a Turkish-Greek friend.
“The constitution says that if I have this ID, then
I have the same rights as any Muslim Turk. But I can
see I don’t have the same rights,” he said. Vasiliadis
did his national service in the Turkish army, but he
could never have got a job in the diplomatic service,
the Interior Ministry or the state banks. In practice those positions are closed to non-Muslims.
Turkish Greeks regard the Halki and ecumenical disputes as almost personal attacks, he
said. The community is so small that everyone
rallies round the patriarch.
“The Greeks of Istanbul think they must
support and defend their spiritual leader,”
Vasiliadis said. “Without the patriarchate, the
Greek minority of Turkey would disappear.
Yet he sees that Turkey is changing. When his
fellow minority editor, Hrant Dink of the
Armenian paper Agos, was assassinated in
January, a massive crowd of 100,000 mourners
followed the hearse as it drove slowly through the city.
“If Dink had been killed 15 years ago, no
one would have really cared,” Vasiliadis said.
As with Professor Öktem, Vasiliadis believes
Turkey will change faster if the EU overcomes
its reservations about the country.
Öktem has filed a report to the government
suggesting that Halki be re-opened as a private
university or vocational school. Ingeniously, he
proposed it could become an inter-denominational college -- training priests of the Armenian
and Syriac churches as well as Greek Orthodox.
The students would have some classes in common, and others specific to their denominations.
The government has not told Öktem what it
thinks of his idea, but last week Foreign
Minister Abdullah Gül told the Greek newspaper Kathimerini that Turkey was seeking was to
re-open Halki “within the terms of our constitution and the secular educational system.”
Vasiliadis has heard such statements before.
What is required, he said, is “a political decision
and the political will to follow it through.”
Until then he, the patriarch and the rest of
the Greek community are like Elijah in the cave,
looking wistfully at the sky.
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S U N DAY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
ÝSTANBUL
ANKARA
ÝZMÝR
ANTALYA
ADANA
ERZURUM
EDÝRNE
TRABZON
KAYSERÝ
30°
31°
35°
38°
33°
23°
34°
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In the footprints
of ‘Snow’s Ka’ in Kars
In our visit to Kars, we searched for traces of Orhan Pamuk's 'Snow,' but we found none of its spirit or
characters. As if to refute 'Snow,' which narrates the problems of Turkey's recent past in the setting of Kars,
there is neither an Islamic nor a Kemalist junta threat -- instead, ethnic identities dominate everything
ERCAN YAVUZ KARS
As the Kars airport is closed for maintenance, we have to go to Kars via the
highway from Erzurum just like Kerim
Alakuþoðlu (Ka) did in Orhan Pamuk's novel
"Snow." In contrast with other parts of Turkey
that are suffering from one of the hottest summers due to global warming, temperatures in
Erzurum and Kars have not even reached 20 degrees Celsius. You don't have to have a gray coat
like Ka's, but you had better carry a sweater with
you. Being July, there is not the slightest trace of
snow, depicted by Pamuk as having poetic qualities. However Kars seems spring-like; everything
is green, glacial meltwater has turned Kars valley
into a huge display of flowers, and the mountains
trigger the desire to write poems just like Ka.
In Kars, unlike Ka, you don't have to change
your name. The locals understand at first glance
that you do not belong to the city. We do not
know what the election posters said in "Snow,"
but we know that election posters for the July 22
elections are the first things that meet your eye
as you enter the city. The Justice and
Development Party's (AK Party) placards read,
"No rest for us" while the Nationalist Movement
Party's (MHP) slogan "Single party government"
does not seem funny, but perhaps only in Kars
where the party has substantial support. Indeed
in Kars ethnic identities are so pronounced that
election results here seem a near foregone conclusion: one of three deputies will most likely be
the MHP's candidate, while the AK Party will secure one deputy and the Democratic Society
Party's (DTP) independent deputy candidate
Mahmut Alýnak will be the third deputy.
The Prophet's sayings and aphorisms rejecting suicide, carried by Pamuk's "Snow"
from Batman to Kars, are replaced with the
election promises of political parties. Most of
them voice unity and integrity in the face of
the different ethnic composition of Kars. The
placards are more like the name than the activities of the Equality of Peoples Party in
"Snow." This is because the colors in Kars are
made salient by ethnic identities.
The July 22 elections have brought dissidence to Shiite Azeris, Sunni Azeris
(Terekemes), Kurds and original inhabitants of
Kars. Sunni Azeris are descendants of
Karapapak Turks, but they, just like Ka, feel like
being called Terekemes. Kurds like to be designated as a "clan," as stated by Pamuk. Unlike
the bipolar grouping in Snow, there is a multicolored grouping in Kars. The Kurdish people
in Kars are known as the best Turkish speaking
Kurdish community in Turkey. An outsider is
unlikely to discern any difference of dialect or
accent among ethnic groups, nor can one distinguish any difference in their religious beliefs.
But in a small city like this, everybody knows
who is from which ethic group. Despite this
lack of religious and linguistic differences, who
can separate them along ethnic cleavages?
Nobody knows the answer.
The social influence of the original inhabitants coming from the Ottoman era is visible.
There are small numbers of Turkmen, the Lazs
of Posof, and the Germans banished by the Czar
from Russia. There is only one Armenian girl,
who is known as Polyo. Yet she does not like the
designation of "Armenian." The communist
Tbilisi radio station is now mute. The snow has
no chance of blocking the roads. Nobody listens
to any cross-border broadcasts.
Being a traditional supporter of leftist policies
in the pre-1980 era, Kars does not like the
Republican People's Party's (CHP) new neo-nationalist line. For this reason, it is no longer likely
secular juntas will take control of the city. As opposed to Bülent Ecevit's CHP, which embraced the
Kurds and Alevi Azeris before the military coup of
1980, Deniz Baykal's CHP, which excludes Kurds
and Alevis, has lost two thirds of its power. If not
for the power of the candidates with strong ethnic
identities, its presence will be altogether lost.
Unemployment, as noticed by Ka immediately upon his arrival in Kars, is still here. No
government has found solution to this problem;
the teahouses are still crowded with unemployed people. The single solution to unemployment in Kars is migration to metropolitan cities.
There have never been girls who stage headscarf protests in the history of Kars -- such
protests seem unlikely. Political Islam discourse
has never represented a plane of fissure, but is in-
stead unifying cement for inhabitants of Kars.
Nobody sees political Islam as a threat to democracy and nobody advocates a tradeoff of democracy in return for political Islam. In an environment
where even the unemployed do not protest as is
most naturally expected from them, it would be
fanciful to expect any other groups to.
All critics agree on the fact that Pamuk has
discussed the past of Turkey in general between
1990 and 2000 through the specific setting of
Kars in his novel "Snow." This can be evidenced
by reactions to it in the city. Indeed nobody has
witnessed the headscarf protests or girls committing suicide or secular junta in the past of
Kars. It seems that the suicides in Batman, Yeþil
(green) as embodying the bloody hands of the
deep state -- Lacivert (dark blue) and Kadife
(velvet) in the novel; the Jerusalem night organized in Sincan, Ankara, the Feb. 28 process, are
all conveyed by Pamuk to Kars. The locals in
Kars believe that Pamuk has failed to keep his
promise to write down the truth. Indeed, Pamuk
confesses that he chose Kars in order to depict
political Islam. The locals do not like the idea of
being used as a tool for touching on the problems of greater Turkey.
In Turkey we commonly employ the phrase
"From Edirne to Kars" in order to describe distances. However here Edirne serves as a beginning and Kars represents an end. Edirne is a step
away from you, while Kars is far away. Although
it is connected to other parts of Turkey with
highways, railways and by air, Kars is still distant. Despite this aloofness, Kars has never severed its connections with the outer world, in
contrast to Erzurum and Aðrý. About twice the
population in the city now lives in Ýstanbul,
Ýzmir and various cities in Europe.
Even this connection does not allow the control of Kars by ethnic or secular Kemalist groups.
The atmosphere of the republic rallies held in
Ankara, Ýstanbul and Ýzmir do not have any impact in Kars. The groups who voted for leftist parties before 1980 have already sided with the
MHP. Kemalist discourse generates no interest in
Kars, and it is impossible to find the Kemalist of
"Snow," but Kars has its unique conception of
secularism. The Terekemes have separated their
mosques and cemeteries from the Sunnis Azeris,
who are from the same genealogy. Kurdish
mosques are different, but the groups still tolerate
each other without any religious coercion. In this
respect the Kurds, depicted as elitist Kemalists in
Snow, do not support leftist parties here.
Kemalism is not esteemed as a political discourse.
Their only intention is to take their own candidates to Parliament. The most pro-Islamist party
of Turkey has no power in Kars. Even the AK
Party, regarded as the most conservative party,
can secure only one deputy expected to receive
the support of both Kurds and Azeris.
The locals in Kars do not make much mention of religion or conservatism, unlike Necip, a
pro-Islamist youth, and Ka, who secretly talked
about God while hiding in the toilet. It seems
that religion has a secondary place in life here.
As there is no difference in religious beliefs,
cleavages lie along ethnic and sectarian lines.
However the city's inhabitants are not as passive or bashful as Ka when they talk about their
sects. They can converse comfortably with each
other without concealing their sects or ethnic
origins. In this respect Kars serves as a model of
tolerance for regions in the world suffering
from ethnic or religious conflict.
There are huge differences between the
Alevis of Kars and the Alevis in other regions.
Iran plays an important role in this. While the
Alevis in other parts of Turkey still support the
leftist parties, the Alevis of Kars back the MHP
in the current elections. Dialogues like those between Lacivert and Kadife are still held in every
part of the city. Luckily people do not hide their
intentions when speaking to each other.
Kafkas University is still in the process of being established in Kars. Many departments are
still missing and it has only a small number of
students. Among them one cannot find even
one student with a headscarf. No headscarf incident has been reported in the Vocational School.
Other than these, Pamuk's descriptions of the
city are all there. The five big streets designed by
the urban engineers of the czar and the black
stone Russian buildings are there. One cannot
get lost in Kars, if you continue to walk turning
just left or right, you arrive at the same spot.
Only the Karpalas Hotel is missing.
KONYA
ÇANAKKALE
DÝYARBAKIR
SAMSUN
BURSA
GAZÝANTEP
ESKÝÞEHÝR
MALATYA
KOCAELÝ
33°
31°
40°
26°
33°
39°
30°
34°
31°
AYÞE
KARABAT
a.karabat@todayszaman.com
How to say
good mornýng
A friend of mine is very happy with the kindergarten that she sends her son to because she says
he is learning to how to greet people there.
"Every morning, when the kids arrive at the school,
they have to say 'good morning' to everyone, including
their friends. It is so lovely to see these kids shaking
hands, looking into each others eyes and greeting each
other. If they don't do it properly, for example if they
don't look each other in the eye, the teachers ask them
to repeat the process," she says.
In this country we are usually very polite to foreigners, but when it comes to each other, we don't
pay attention to this sort of nicety. Since we don't
have this habit of smiling when we make eye contact with strangers, most of Turks visiting Europe
are surprised if someone smiles at them.
We don't have the habit of saying "thank you"
or "please" when we are getting services; we don't
say "hello" in elevators. We have difficulties in saying "excuse me" as well.
Even when we phone our friends we don't ask if
they are available to talk. Since our lives are invaded by
mobile telephones, failure to ask about availability
sometimes leads to funny results.
Although I don't like these habits of ours, I can
still get by despite them. But there is something unsettling about hearing "you" in certain sentences.
What I mean to say is, there is a difference between
"you are wrong" instead of "I think this is not right."
When I hear this "you" language, it becomes very difficult for me to continue the conversation.
This "you" language is not something that belongs only to Turks; it is everywhere, but in a diverse
country like Turkey this "you" language makes life
more difficult than anywhere else.
***
This week I was swapping concerns with a
friend of mine who, as a Muslim woman, cannot
practice her freedom of belief as she wishes.
I told her that foreign colleagues are pouring into Turkey because of the elections. Since they are
doing parachute journalism -- they don't live in
Turkey and have few contacts -- they naturally ask
for help from Turkish journalists. But some of them
are coming to Turkey with "ready" stories on their
minds and trying to find them, so it does not matter
if these ready-made stories actually exist or not. I
told my friend that such attitudes make me sick.
She had a similar complaint. She said that some foreigners have a tendency to see Muslim women with restricted freedom of belief in Turkey the way that they
want to, rather than as the actual situation is. "Some of
us are refusing to meet with foreigners because of this
attitude -- I feel tired sometimes. But I do believe in the
necessity of communication," she underlined.
Then we started to talk about how difficult it is to
communicate with some people who share our language. My friend told me, "After a point I suddenly realize that there is no reason to talk, because they don't
want to listen, thanks to their prejudices."
I told her that I was recently talking with some
people with whom I share a certain part of my life.
They were claiming that Turkey is coming to a very
dangerous point. They were worried that in the near
future it would be impossible for them to use their
swimming pools in their backyards, not because of a
water shortage, but because it could be banned by political authorities. For this reason, they were saying
that a military coup might be necessary.
This conversation made my friend and I laugh.
But I told her that at the time I had real difficulties
even smiling; I told the person what I was thinking in
a polite way, but then ran away afterwards because
there was no reason to keep communicating.
My friend took it even further. She said when she
participates in demonstrations to protect the rights of different groups, she is sometimes not welcome and accused
of being used by the other crowd. "Can't we say anything
on the economic rights of civil servants?" she asked.
The exhaustion of not being able to communicate
made us both feel little sour, although we agreed that
we should keep trying to do so. But in order to succeed, maybe all of society should start to learn how to
say "good morning," like in kindergarten.
Good morning.
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S U N DAY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
Glýmmer of hope on horýzon
over mystery polýtýcal murders
PHOTO
ALÝ ÜNAL
‘Such murders never even went to court earlier. They would be put away on dusty shelves, where a fire would
start and destroy the file. I am very sorry, but I am also very hopeful,’ says professor of politics and an independent
parliamentary candidate Baskýn Oran, speaking on the first day of the Hrant Dink murder trial
Retired Capt. Muzaffer Tekin (M) who was taken into custody as part of an investigation that uncovered 27 hand grenades, a large amount of TNT explosives and fuses in the Ümraniye district of Ýstanbul, have been arrested by an Ýstanbul court last month. Tekin, who was taken into custody during the investigation of the Council of State attack of last summer but later released.
contýnued from page 1
A later report prepared for the Prime Ministry
also admitted that security forces had teamed
up with organized crime figures and ultranationalists to fight the terrorist Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK).
On Nov. 9, 2005, a bomb exploded in a
bookstore owned by a former member of
the PKK in the Þemdinli district of the eastern province of Hakkari. Two noncommissioned officers found to have planted the
bomb each received 40-year sentences. The
investigation revealed that the officers were
acting on orders from higher-ranking officials. The prosecutor who tried to indict
then-Land Forces Commander (and current
chief of General Staff) Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt
lost his job and the Supreme Court of
Appeals overturned the jail term imposed
on the officers, but most of the truth was
revealed in the investigation -- although not
yet acknowledged by the judiciary.
More recently, members of a far-right
association were taken into custody last week
for various financial and violent crimes. The
investigation revealed that they take their
orders from a “retired army general,” who
also ordered the shooting of the Council of
State in 2006, where a senior judge was killed.
A retired army captain, also a suspect in the
shooting, was recently sent to jail on charges
of illegally possessing a stash of hand
grenades and explosives. Although the trial of
the suspects is not yet over, prosecutors now
know that they have links with retired army
officers as well as some who are currently on
duty. Dink’s lawyers insist that the same
group has ties to his murder.
These incidents reignited the public
debate concerning the state’s role in “actor
unknown killings,” and its use of extrajudicial methods, generally referred to as the
“deep state.” Until recently, in most of
Turkey’s political murders, bombings or
pogroms against minorities since the 1970s,
the evidence almost always disappeared,
the suspects always got away from the
hands of justice and the cases were covered
up until the end of time. However recent
investigations are fundamentally different
from those of the past; while still not totally
satisfactory they nonetheless leave much
more information out in the open.
Father Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest
in Trabzon, Turkey, was shot as he prayed in
his church on a Sunday in February last year.
The murderer was a 16-year-old high school
student, who was captured a couple of days
after the murder and sentenced to 18 years
and 10 months in prison. The culprits who
provided him with a gun and incited him to a
murder remain unidentified. The teenager
who later confessed to shooting Dink was
captured within hours of the assassination.
Sezgin Tanrýkulu, head of Diyarbakýr’s Bar
Association and a lifetime human rights advo-
cate with long experience in the sphere of the
“unresolved,” which he says is an “unfortunate career,” makes a distinction between
unresolved murders/bombings with no
assailants and murders where a culprit is
caught, without the organizers being captured.
“Earlier the trigger men were never
caught,” he explains. “They would escape and
that would be the end of it. Now there are
efforts to bring the trigger man before justice,
but there is no real will on the part of the state
institutions to go further.”
In comparison with the past, the public
now applies more pressure to find out the real
culprits behind the murders, but the security
forces and the judiciary remain reluctant to do
so. Here Tanrýkulu recalls the case of 12-yearold Uður Kaymaz, killed along with his father
in cold blood by four policemen. The policemen were brought to trial; defendants said
the victims were terrorists who attacked them
and therefore they had no choice but to
shoot. Despite the clear absence of any evidence of an armed clash, they were found not
guilty by a court in Eskiþehir.
Tanrýkulu believes the case is the same for
Dink. “Clearly the suspects in the Dink case are
not capable of staging the act by their own
means. The real culprits are not being prosecuted.” However, Tanrýkulu says we can’t
expect prosecutors to act heroically, recalling
that Ferhat Sarýkaya, the prosecutor of the
Þemdinli incident who indicted Gen.
Büyükanýt, was sacked by the Justice Ministry,
and then disbarred by a supreme board
supervising the activities of judges and prosecutors. “We can’t expect judges and prosecutors to be heroes in Turkey’s restricted
democracy,” Tanrýkulu reasons.
If the public interest continues,
“Maybe there wouldn’t be any more
political murders and we’d even be
grateful for that much,” he adds.
On the day of the Dink murder trial,
Baskýn Oran, a professor of politics and an
independent parliamentary candidate, told a
group of journalists: “Such murders never even
went to court earlier. They would be put away
on dusty shelves, where a fire would start and
destroy the file. I am very sorry, but I am also
very hopeful,” expressing optimism that the
fact that an investigation was being carried out
showed that Turkey has come a long way.
Osman Miroðlu, deputy chairman of the
Democratic Society Party (DTP), who was the
victim of a political attack himself is less optimistic. Kurdish Journalist Musa Anter was
shot dead 14 years ago in Diyarbakýr where he
was attending a festival held by the local
council. Miroðlu, who was there with him and
was shot five times, survived.
But hasn’t Turkey, after Susurluk and a
southeastern bombing where two army members were found guilty, come at least a little way
in judicially facing the reality of involvement of
individuals with access to state powers?
“Where is the confrontation?” Miroðlu asks,
and also draws on the Kaymaz case, along with
the case of a student murdered in Diyarbakýr.
Just as in the past, in today’s murders evidence
is destroyed, the culprits are protected.
Fikri Saðlar, a former minister of culture
who was also a member of a parliamentary
commission investigating the Susurluk case,
agrees that increased commitment by the civil
society and the media to pursue trials of unresolved incidents is needed; an important reason why now, at least, the assailants are
unidentified. However he also states that
efforts to reach the behind-the-scenes forces
remain limited. “The Umut (hope) Operation
for example. The triggermen in the Uður
Mumcu case and Ahmet Taner Kýþlalý murder
were caught, but unfortunately, those who
planned the murders were never found. The
same thing goes for the Santoro murder; the
Hrant Dink murder and the Council of State
shooting,” he said, referring to the operation
launched to shed light on unsolved murders.
According to Saðlar, this is a new method.
“Assailants, usually of a very young age, are
caught immediately, but the planners are never
there.” However, considering Turkey’s crowded history of political murders, Saðlar agrees
that a court process is better than a murder
with no suspects. “Still, there is some hope.”
Celal Baþlangýç, an investigative journalist
who reported on many of Turkey’s unresolved cases tracking the traces of groups with
state involvement, says the public reaction to
and awareness of unresolved murders is significant. “On the day of Hrant’s trial, a Greek
friend of mine who worked as a journalist for
20 years in both Greece and Turkey told me
he couldn’t believe the large crowd of supporters outside the courtroom,” he explains.
“He said to me that when he was being tried
in the same court some 20 years ago, Greek
lawyers would be too scared to walk into the
courtroom and none of the Turkish lawyers
would even take on the case.”
Comparing society’s show of reaction,
which was very subtle, to the Ýstanbul pogrom
of 1955 -- the Kristallnacht against Greeks -to the hundreds of thousands that attended
Dink’s funeral, Baþlangýç suggested that democratic society is developing in the Turkish
society. “There is a serious contribution of the
EU process in this.”
Looking through decades of experience
as a journalist, Baþlangýç maintains, “Today it
is not easy to cover-up every incident in
Turkey.” He admits it is hardly enough, but at
least there is room for some optimism.
Killings of the past
In 1990, Professor Bahriye Üçok was killed by
a bomb sent to her home inside a book.
Üçok, a theology professor who frequently expressed her view that Islam was
being misinterpreted, emphasized in most
her speeches that fasting in the holy month
of Ramadan or wearing the headscarf were
not elements of Islam -- views that were
blasphemous for many.
For nine years the Üçok murder file
remained unsolved. In 1999 the Ankara Police
Department set up a special unit to review
unsolved murders. In 2000, suspects whom the
prosecutors said to be related to the Üçok assassination, as well as some other unsolved murders, were interrogated, under a police operation dubbed Umut (hope). The clues hinted at
the Iranian Hezbollah. Although many details
were revealed, including the man whose fingerprints were the same as those found on the
bomb package, a result that would ease the
public’s conscience never emerged.
Another promise to find the culprits
was made in 1993, when the silence of a
regular cold and snowy January morning of
Ankara was shattered by a C-4 plastic
bomb placed in the car of Uður Mumcu, a
Turkish intellectual and an investigative
journalist; instantly killing him.
Hundreds of thousands attended his
funeral. Ýsmet Sezgin, the interior minister at
the time, said “shedding light on this murder
is the honor of the state.”
Officials said the assassination of the
staunchly secularist journalist appeared to
be a religiously motivated act of killing, most
likely to have been sponsored by the Islamic
Republic of Iran. Six days after Mumcu’s
death, the police announced that members
of the Islamic Movement Organization had
been captured -- the prime suspects. The
assailants were the same people responsible
for the assassinations of Turan Dursun
(1990), an outspoken critique of Islam, and
Çetin Emeç (1990), another journalist. Every
year after that new suspects were
announced as Mumcu’s killers.
More than 500 suspects had been interrogated during the Mumcu assassination investigation by 2000, when Operation Hope was
launched to shed light on 22 unsolved murders, including the Mumcu assassination. The
trial of suspects captured as part of the operation continued until 2002. Three suspects
were sentenced to death; the rest were later
released by a pardon. The three death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment
with the abolishment of the death penalty.
Nobody yet knows why Mumcu was killed.
Ahmet Taner Kýþlalý, another Turkish mind
lost to an assassination was a prominent journalist and academic. Kýþlalý was killed on Oct.
21, 1999 in Ankara after handling a bomb that
had been placed on his car. Islamic militants
were again blamed in his case. Ditto the case of
Necip Hablemitoðlu, a fiercely secular academic at Ankara University known for his penchant
for impossibly intricate conspiracy theories,
shot and killed outside his home in Ankara in
2002. The Turkish media quickly blamed
Islamist extremists. Needless to say, we still
don’t know who killed Hablemitoðlu or why.
POLITICS
Polls and representatýon
Public opinion polls are frequently surfacing in media outlets. They
differ by up to 10 percent in what share of the public vote various
parties will receive in the upcoming elections. If this is not manipulative, then we are faced with faulty research methods. Yet, let us
play around with the more reasonable figures that do not bother
our common sense. Let us start with the speculation that the support for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) borders on 40
percent of the electorate. How many parliamentary deputies does
this correspond to? Well, it depends on how many actual parties
pass the 10 percent election threshold and make it into Parliament
as much as how well the AK Party do at the ballot box.
Considering that politics in Turkey today center around opposition to the AK Party, new alliances are being forged on the right and
left. As an example of the latter, the so-called left has clinched hands
as the leaders of the main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) and the late Bulent Ecevit’s Democratic Left Party (DSP)
agreed on an election alliance. However they left out the other center-left party, the Social Democratic People’s Party (SHP), failing to
forge a “united left.” Would this incomplete alliance closed to its further left create a synergy? No one knows. But let us assume that,
together, the CHP and DSP will get the same volume of votes as they
did in the 2002 elections, and so earn 175 seats in the new Parliament.
Meanwhile on the right of the political spectrum, the much-heralded merger of the True Path Party (DYP) and Motherland Party
(ANAVATAN) failed because it had no program to agree on except
candidates and numbers thereof that were bargained for. So a new
party under the name of the Democrat Party (DP) arrived stillborn.
This leaves, for the remainder of the choice on the right wing, the
most opportunistic and colorless party that thrives on hopes, reactions
and disillusionment with almost everything and all other political
organizations, namely the Young Party (GP), scraping over the 10 percent barrier with approximately 50 deputies elected to Parliament.
As for what is left on the right, the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP) always benefits from terrorism when people choose security
over democracy. Most likely it will be the third largest party to make into
Parliament in surmounting the threshold. Between them, the MHP and
the GP will have at least 100 deputies elected. MHP leaders and some
pollsters even believe that this party will not just exceed the threshold
and but also carry more representatives to Parliament than expected.
Add another 25-35 independent ethnic Kurdish candidates -supported by their root pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP) -- for a fuller picture of the next assembly.
With a little stretch of the imagination, two to three left-wing independents competing in the metropolitan cities of Istanbul, Ankara and
Izmir may further diminish the AK Party’s majority in the new Parliament.
This means the AK Party may still be the first party, but not necessarily the
dominant party, that will be able to form the post-election government.
The political landscape following the elections may yield three
possibilities: (1) An AK Party minority government; (2) A coalition
government in which the AK Party will be the major partner; (3) A
grand coalition, leaving out the AK Party.
The AK Party will definitely avoid the first option after the bitter
experience it went through as the dominant party wielding unfettered
government power. In the second scenario, the AK Party will not forge a
coalition with the pro-Kurdish deputies that will be elected individually
but regroup in Parliament under the umbrella of a political party. It is
obvious that a likely pro-Kurdish party will bargain for constitutional
change and local autonomy. As regards partnership with another centerright party, today’s atmosphere is not so friendly when the game plan is
to reduce the power of the AK Party and sway the voters away from it.
What, then, will be the outcome? The most probable result of
the elections is one of uncertainty: an uncertainty born out of weak
and mixed coalitions that may find it quite hard to produce the
common will for change and further democratization.
Another factor that will increase uncertainty is the likelihood of
holding presidential elections, based on the requirement of 367 deputies
to be present in the assembly hall at the time of voting. Intra and extraparliamentary forces have already colluded in adopting this principle that
was not applied during past presidential elections. Now those parties
who did not take the AK Party’s side in defending due procedure, and
accepted the military’s intervention into politics as a matter of fact, may
face the odd result of going to another election, as the Constitution stipulates, if the President is not elected in less than two months.
Another fatal mistake, which all the competing parties committed
collectively, is disavowing the reduction of the unmatched 10 percent
national election barrier. This system let the winning parties earn 107
extra seats in Parliament in 1999 just because they passed the threshold.
The 2002 elections brought an even bigger prize for the two parties that
made it into Parliament. Together, they won 282 extra seats without the
public support behind such a gain. This is political scavenging; but, then
again, it was the military will that determined the election laws following the 1980 coup. They did it in the name of “stability,” and now we are
talking about “instability” born out of the same laws and procedures.
Another anti-democratic quality of the system is due to the political party law. Based on this law, political parties have become fiefdoms of their respective leaders. They hardly facilitate popular participation in politics. The management and leaders of political parties
cannot be changed if the management and the leader resist such
change. Party members cannot identify candidates freely and vote for
them. Party bosses make up the list of candidates and prepare the
election ticket. People in general, and party supporters in particular,
vote for these lists which they have no part in their making.
Citizens vote not for greater participation in the political process
for the following reasons:
(1) When they vote for smaller parties, these parties remain under the
10 percent threshold. Their votes are squandered.
(2) When they vote for one of the middle-weight parties, they diminish
the chances of another similar party on the same ideological wavelength.
(3) When they vote for a big party, they diminish the chances of a
small and medium-sized party to pass the election barrier.
In all likelihood, the election system works against widening
the popular base of participation and leaves large numbers of voters unrepresented. The proportion of voters unrepresented
(whose votes were added to parties they had not voted for) was
not less than 45 percent in the 2002 elections.
We are now entering into an election process with all the ills that
have caused the present crisis. It looks like a political crisis, but in fact
it stands as a legitimacy crisis which is more serious and damaging.
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PHOTO
AA
NATIONAL
Once more the effendis of the nation:
Rural votes put agriculture onto the agenda
EMÝN AYDIN & SAMED GÜNEK ANKARA
The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk, used to call villagers the “effendis of the nation”. The Turkish term “effendi” didn’t suggest an elite status when he used it.
Atatürk was referring instead to the rural character of
the demography of the young republic and the large
share of agriculture in the gross national product
(GNP) of the country. Of the 14 million people in the
country at the time, 10.5 million lived in villages. With
a 75 percent demographic majority, villagers were the
nation itself -- not only its effendis.
Turkish urbanization in the second half of the 20th
century was a remarkable social mobility process. By
1950 the overall population of the nation had grown to
21 million, with 15.1 million still living in villages. From
then on, each year saw an average 1 percent growth in
population and average 1 percent decrease in the proportion of villagers of the population. Today Turkey has
a villager population of less than 30 percent. Are they
still the “effendis” of the nation? In terms of economic
productivity, certainly not. Why then do both incumbent and opposition political parties rally for villagers’
votes? One explanation is of course that this is the
Achilles’ heel of the governing Justice and
Development Party (AK Party). Another reason might
be that this is the power center of the AK Party which
needs to be overthrown in order to release their hold
on political power. From an urban socio-psychological
point of view, one may also suggest that a large portion
of the urban population of Turkey still behaves both
socially and politically as villagers.
Any way you look at it, villagers and farmers are
once again in the spotlight. They are not the effendis,
but the effendis bow in front of them with promises,
statistics, projects, distortion of facts and downright
lies. Opposition parties followed the trend set by the
Young Party (GP) in promising a price of YTL 1 per
liter for diesel fuel (as if the sole problem of the agriculture sector is transportation and as if tractors are the
only means of transportation).
Professor Halis Akder is a lecturer in Middle East
Technical University’s (ODTÜ) Agricultural Economics
Department. He complains that nobody is working towards solving the real structural problems of Turkish
agriculture. “Subsidizing diesel fuel prices will solve
nothing. This is not related to agriculture at all. We may
see absurd scenes where people start to use tractors as
means of transportation. It is already proven that fuel
subsidies do not help agriculture at all. We tried this in
the early years of the republic and it didn’t work,”
he explains. According to him the structural problems in agriculture have not made it onto the parties’ agendas at all. “Look at the election meetings;
neither the political parties nor the farmers say
anything about these real problems. All are chasing short-term benefits,” Akder says.
Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy Ahmet
Küçük defends his leader’s promise to sell diesel fuel to
farmers for YTL 1. “This is not a gift, but a right. He
(the prime minister) promised he would give diesel fuel
to both the farmers in normal agriculture and aquaculture without the Private Consumption Tax (ÖTV). He
kept his promise with aquaculture only,” he says.
Sami Güçlü is an AK Party deputy and a former
agriculture minister. He accepts that the costs of production inputs like fertilizers and diesel fuel are too
high. He also reminds people that the government
subsidized these costs 35 to 40 percent. “But Turkey is
dependent on foreign countries in both these inputs. It
is not that the AK Party didn’t care about agriculture at
all, but the priority was given to health and education.
Additionally, agricultural investments were directed towards infrastructure [in line with EU accession criteria],” he says.
The statistics pertaining to agriculture are amazing.
A prior decision to support or reject an incumbent party’s policies defines the outcome. Listening to Dr.
Gökhan Günaydýn, chairman of the Chamber of
Agricultural Engineers, one would think that Turkish
agriculture is on the verge of complete catastrophe.
Meanwhile Þemsi Bayraktar, secretary-general of the
Turkish Union of Agricultural Chambers (TZOB) paints
a rosy picture. The AK Party’s Güçlü has a shorter list
of statistics that further complicate the picture: If the
farmers are down in the mouth, how can we explain
the fact that agriculture’s share in GNP increased from
YTL 1.8 billion to YTL 5 billion during the AK Party’s
governance?
The apparent inconsistency does not deter
Günaydýn. “When you look at the costs of production
inputs, feed increased from YTL 4 to YTL 25 [per kilo],
diesel fuel increased from YTL 1.224 to YTL 2.200 [per
liter] and fertilizer increased from YTL 185 to YTL 330
[per ton]. These are all input prices. On the other hand
the output prices didn’t change at all. For over four
years milk has been sold at YTL 0.3-0.4 [per liter] -cheaper than water. Meat is YTL 8 [per kilo]. Meat production dropped from 491 thousand tons to 450 thousand tons. Per capita animal protein production in
Turkey is 22 grams, whereas it is 65 to 70 grams in
European Union countries,” Günaydýn says. According
to him Turkish agricultural policies are extravagantly
liberal. “The EU gives more than 40 percent of its
budget to agriculture. It does not make production-related subsidies but declares market prices for the coming 10 years and, if the actual prices fall below these, it
makes support acquisitions,” he explains.
Bayraktar from the TZOB does not concern himself
with input and output statistics. “In 1925 our country
was able to produce 1 million tons of wheat, in 1950
this amount rose to 3.9 million and in 2005 it was 21.5
million tons. Turkey is the number one producer of
nuts, figs, cherries and apricots. It is second place in
watermelon, cucumber and beans, and third place in
tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and lentils. In any set of
statistics, Turkey is in the top five when it comes to
production of fruits and vegetables. Similar increases
can be observed in animal products. Compared to 1936
Farmers are rarely
remembered by opposition
parties. However when
they do find
themselves in the
political spotlight, all of
their sorrows and woes
are voiced by politicians
with some exaggeration.
Is Turkish agriculture on
the verge of total
catastrophe the way
the opposition parties
claim? Is the only problem
the cost of
production inputs like
diesel fuel and
fertilizers? Or are there
more systemic problems
that need years of
attention and
planning to overcome?
our meat production has increased 11 times and compared to 1961 white meat production increased 15
times,” he says.
On the other hand the CHP’s Küçük prefers to
speak in terms of irrigable lands. “Turkey can irrigate
only 55 percent of its agricultural lands. That means 45
percent is still devoid of water. In previous periods irrigable lands increased each year by about 100 thousand
hectares. The AK Party caused a decrease to 40,000. By
this calculation it will take 100 years to open our lands
to irrigated agriculture,” he says. Küçük is also critical
of foreign dominance in the agricultural markets in
Turkey. “Foreigners control 51 percent of our milk
market,” he claims.
Güçlü accepts with regret that the AK Party was
not able to spare resources for irrigation infrastructure.
“The resources of the state are ultimately scarce. But
the AK Party is aware of this neglect and in its election
manifesto it promises to provide resources for all the irrigable lands of Turkey up until 2010. We are starting a
new drive,” he says.
Bayraktar warns that reducing the structural problems of agriculture to the level of irrigation won’t help
either. He has a long to-do list for the next government, including organization of agricultural marketing,
storage, processing and standardization; improved use
of technological and modern agricultural applications;
education of the farmers; enhancement of agricultural
research and development; increase in agricultural
credits; encouragement of rural industry; restructuring
of the Ministry of Agriculture; and speeding up of the
EU harmonization process.
Güçlü thinks that one of the chronic problems of
Turkish agriculture is over-employment and mentions
the AK Party’s legal regulations to cope with this problem. However Professor Akder denies the existence of
such a crucial problem. “There is a grave misunderstanding about agricultural employment in Turkey. An
important portion of agricultural labor in Turkey is mobile labor. They spend their summers in the villages
and the winters in the cities. It is hard to place this mobile population economically. Maybe we need a third
category. My learned estimation is that our fulltime and
year-round agricultural labor is no more than 20 percent of the total population,” he explains.
Whether agricultural employment is a burden on
the sector or not, Professor Akder thinks that the size
of the agricultural enterprises is what really matters.
“With these smaller enterprises it is almost impossible
to compete with the European farmers,” he warns.
Güçlü could not agree more. “Turkish agricultural enterprises are mainly small-sized businesses set up for
domestic consumption. With these it is neither possible
to increase agricultural production nor to compete with
larger farms of Europe,” he adds. But he also mentions
that Turkey’s capacity to invest is already consumed by
industry and service sectors. “With its own resources,
Turkey can invest about $60 billion annually. This
amount is not enough for the employment of people in
the industry and service sectors. In order to see
Turkish agriculture in a stable and sustainable
position, foreign direct investment (FDI) is indispensable,” the former minister says.
Günaydýn is not that pessimistic about
Turkey’s potential. “We have 78 million hectares
of land with biological diversity and various microclimate zones. This is a huge agriculture potential. The only thing the state needs to do is set
aside a larger share of the budget for the agricultural sector. If we were to implement the EU agriculture plan in Turkey, 3 billion euros should go
to agriculture. This is four times more than what
Turkey is spending for subsidies now,” he says.
He is aware of the Direct Income Support
(DGD) the government is providing for the sector, but is critical of the method by which DGD is
distributed. “DGD is given as YTL 10 per hectare.
What the farmer is producing and in what quantity is not taken into consideration. So this is not
a support for agriculture. This is a support for the
poorer sector of the population,” he reiterates.
Küçük is even more harsh when is comes
to DGD. According to him this support
scheme was originally established in order to
tally the amount of cultivatable land. “This
was established for only a five-year period,
but it continues to be the main support mechanism of the government. DGD is a kind of
support given to the registries,” he says.
Küçük is also skeptical of subsidies. He believes that subsidies demolish the competitive
character of the sector and agricultural businesses
become abnormal enterprises that cannot experience loss. “We have already signed the World
Trade Organization (WTO) charter. Within 10
years we have to prepare Turkish farmers for the
competitive world market,” he insists.
Professor Akder is also critical of state
protectionism when it comes to agriculture.
He thinks that a ban on imports of meat and
milk products is actually demolishing the
competitive character of the sector. “Just because of this,” he says, “our animal farming
is moving westward. In the past animal farms
were located in eastern Anatolia; now they
are moving to the Aegean region. The social
consequences of this mobility will be even
more destructive than the collapse of the
agricultural sector itself.”
The ultimate reality is that the problems of
Turkish agriculture are not yet being discussed
by politicians. They continue to fish for votes
among the farmers with bait like “YTL 1 for
diesel fuel!” The effendis decide what to give
and when to give.
“The villagers are the effendis of the nations,” said Atatürk -- but he was not running
in the elections against an opposition party.
Those were the good old days of the singleparty period.
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06 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
BUSINESS
Banks rush to support
stabýlýzng, profýtable SMEs
Small and medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs) can be regarded as the backbone
for any kind of stable economy. That’s
why in rapidly developing but often economically unstable countries like Turkey, SME policies are seen as part of a border strategy for economic growth -- one reason why this issue has
been high on the European Union’s policy agenda.
As the interest rates fell when Turkey started enjoying political and economic stability, banks shifted
their attentions to financing the “real economy” -- the
non-financial sectors -- instead of bankrolling the
Treasury by buying its bills. Garanti Bank was one of
the leading banks even before the rush for SMEs started four years ago. It has been operating in the corporate banking business since 1999 and serving more
than 700,000 SMEs country-wide. Garanti issued YTL
1.7 billion in loans to SMEs in 2005. Ýþ Bank was another leader in SME banking. The number of SMEs it
delivered loans to exceeded 300,000 and the amount
exceeded YTL 5 billion. Yapý Kredi has also been providing funds to the SMEs since 1996. Some 70 percent
in numbers of loans and more than 50 percent in value of the loans were delivered to SMEs.
Akbank has increased its efforts in SME banking
since 2003 and its number of SME customers now exceeds 400,000. For example, the latest mass advertisements of Akbank on SME banking have shown their
assertiveness in addressing the field. The commercial
depicts a chorus of Akbank white-collar workers
singing together in harmony a song in which they
praise small companies by calling them “the King”
and calling on them to knock on the doors of Akbank
for royal service. Denizbank began to provide special
loans for agriculture after it was acquired by Dexia
Group and has a target of serving 350,000 SME customers by 2008. Finansbank started SME banking in
2003 and their target is to become a leader in 2007.
Despite following a conservative approach to SME
financing, Britain-based HSBC bank also started to
lean towards having a greater interest in small companies in 2004. The bank’s target is to have served at
least 300,000 companies with loans by 2010.
Oyakbank, which was recently taken over by the
Dutch ING group, also grew a special interest in the
SME banking. Although it reached only 15,000 companies in 2005, the bank increased its targets for 2006
and now they are looking to contact more than
100,000 companies.
The banks are distributing loans to small companies with extremely good conditions with respect to
their other loan types. For example, there may be huge
differences in the conditions of a home loan if it is
used by a small company or if it acquired by private individuals. SMEs are now capable of getting cheaper
loans at longer maturity dates, thanks to the fierce
competition among the banks.
Many may think that smaller enterprises play just
a secondary role in economic terms. The bigger the
enterprise, the bigger the economies of scale seems a
more logical conclusion because an increase in the
scale of the firm causes a decrease in the long run price
of each unit. But contradictory to this first intuition, it is
PHOTO
AA
KRISTINA KAMP ÝSTANBUL
long as there is no consolidation of the general economic climate? The instability of the macroeconomic
environment has long constituted the greatest obstacle
to the complete success of all these policies, which
apart from all their overall influences on the economy,
gave a direct impact on the development of the SME’s
long-term development strategy. Several steps have
been done here and, as we see, in macroeconomic
terms Turkey’s performance over the last years was
obviously satisfying.
The future of the SME economy
Especially in industries where flexibility, responsiveness, quickness, face-to-face and need-based customer relationships are important, SMEs certainly have more advantages.
the small companies that have an enormous role in
maintaining a stable society. Especially in industries
where flexibility, responsiveness, quickness, face-toface and need-based customer relationships are important, SMEs certainly have more advantages.
Another point is that smaller firms can be far more
easily be restructured in accordance with the changing
nature of both the domestic as well as the external environment. Therewith they can cope very well with rising
competitive pressures. And besides the purely economic factors, they also produce a fair amount of social capital by providing strong networks and therewith trust.
In these terms, what we see developing in Turkey
nowadays is a success story: Turkish SMEs recently
gained an important economic role. Covering a 99.5
percent share in the total number of manufacturing enterprises and therewith providing around 61.1 percent
of all workplaces in manufacturing, they nowadays
form the definite backbone of Turkish development.
This rise is especially astonishing because the environment in which these enterprises are operating
has for a long time been extremely difficult. Turkey
suffered several economic crises in its recent history,
which gave way to a general lack of confidence. The
major reasons behind these crises can be stipulated as
the high inflation rates, an increasing public sector
debt and a severely fluctuating gross domestic product
(GDP) followed by a sharp rise in real interest rates.
Additionally, Turkey’s SMEs suddenly found
themselves in even fiercer international competition
due to opening up the economy to the customs union
with the European Union in 1996.
The origins of SMEs’ economic force
So where did this rise come from? It goes back to
the ambitious efforts of government authorities to develop a framework of international integration starting
in 2000. Therefore, Turkey’s participation in the first
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) conference in 2000 in Bologna
was a first essential step towards an SME action plan.
Turkey took over the Bologna Charter on SME
Politics. Ratifying also the European Charter for small
companies in 2002, Turkey established the main
framework to provide an adequate environment on
the national and international level for these to grow.
Additionally, a range of policy initiatives in the eighth
Five-Year-Development plan, running from 2001 to
2005, were done to establish the productivity of
Turkish SME’s and enhance their international com-
petitiveness. Based on the best international practices,
the main aims were to raise product quality and enhance innovation and technology capacity of small
business. This was realized especially through collaborations with universities and the introduction of new
financing instruments, such as risk capital and modern
management techniques. Also encouraged were cooperation with other, and especially foreign, companies in order to develop SMEs’ export capacities. A
new approach to improve and expand service delivery
to SMEs was to create joint centers at local levels -the so called “synergy focal points” between the Small
and Medium Industry Development Organization
(KOSGEB) and the Turkish Union of Chambers and
Commodities Exchanges (TOBB). Associate Professor
Ýbrahim Öztürk said, unlike past implementations
when sound criteria for getting credits had not been
well defined, today there is a concrete roadmap for
those firms applying for support. “In that regard, firms
must have concrete, applicable, realistic and profitable
projects. Capacity for effective application does matter.
After creating such a plan, small firms should also
have the capacity to effectively use it in the process of
implementing their so-called roadmap,” Öztürk said.
Despite all this, do these objectives not matter as
A special focus should be put here on the banking
sector: The financial bank crisis at the end of 2000 had
direct and indirect severe effects on SMEs. In that
time, banks had funded small and medium-sized enterprises’ long-term investments with short-term
loans, assuming that interest rates would decline. But
the swelling current account deficit and delays in the
privatization scheme prompted a rise in interest rates,
forcing these banks to sell their governmental debts
and therewith triggering a deep lack of confidence in
the entire banking system, especially among foreign
investors. The volume of credit to the private sector
shrank by nearly 15 percent in real terms between
2001 and mid-2002. Additionally hard was the tendency of the biggest banks to give priority to large
firms, with which they tended to have cross shareholdings, while small and medium-size banks had
links to their own established network of customers.
As a partial remedy, the government intervened to assist small business, including those in the agricultural,
construction and SME sectors, through public banks
that offered, not hedged, subsidized loans. The quasi
budget transactions resulted in even more heavy losses for the public banks, thereby aggravating the problems of the financial sector.
A new banking law was finally enacted at the end
of May 2001. A new central bank law was enacted at
the same time, assigning the central bank the major
objective of ensuring price stability, while bolstering its
independence.
Certainly, policies and programs exist to strengthen SMEs and most of them are well designed to international standards. But this doesn’t mean that the
work is done now. Still, their chances to mobilize financial funds, to upgrade their technological
capability, to improve their human capital stocks
and to broaden their own marketing channels are
quite limited in Turkey. That is, slowing down the
reform tempo would, despite all allowed optimism, mean finishing half way. Still necessary is a
broader mandate for KOSGEB, there is further
need for better financing strategies and policies to
strengthen SMEs’ capacity to use information and
communication technologies. Industry should be
engaged more to assist with training and enhancing skills, cooperation should play a bigger role
and finally a proper evaluation frame must be
worked out to measure both costs and benefits
of SME policies. “At later stages, much deeper
problems of perpetuity or maintenance come to
the forefront. In order to solve this problem, a
minimum requirement is to define a concrete plan
and to get professional consulting,” Öztürk said.
Orient-Express tipped as hotel sector’s next buyout target
DOMINIC WALSH LONDON
Orient-Express Hotels, the
company that owns the eponymous train and some of the
world’s most luxurious hotels, is being
tipped as the next bid target in a sector
attracting private equity interest.
Financial predators, including an
unnamed American hedge fund and
Starwood Capital, which has a 4 percent stake, are understood to have run
a slide rule over the New York-listed
group in recent months. Blackstone
and Morgan Stanley are also thought
to have looked at the business. This
week Blackstone has offered $26 billion
for Hilton Hotels Corporation.
The Times understands that Von
Essen Hotels, the British luxury hotel
operator, is keen to buy OrientExpress’s European properties and has
been talking to financial institutions
about a joint approach.
Von Essen, worth an estimated
$500 million, has been dismissed by
analysts as too small to bid for all of
the company, which is likely to fetch
more than $3 billion after including
debt. However, its involvement in a
break-up looks more feasible.
Andrew Davis, its chairman and
sole shareholder, has bought 23 hotels
since he founded Von Essen, including
Cliveden, in Berkshire, and the Royal
Crescent, in Bath. In January it bought
the Chateau de Bagnols in Beaujolais
for about $34 million.
A separate business, Von Essen
Aviation, owns 15 helicopters and
three private jets and recently acquired
PremiAir Aviation, which manages a
helicopter and jet charter operation. Its
assets include London Heliport in
Battersea, where it is also planning to
develop a luxury hotel.
Orient-Express has been seen as
vulnerable to a bid since the resignations in quick succession of its chairman, chief executive and chief financial
officer. Only the chairman’s post has
been filled, although a new chief executive could be named within weeks.
Despite mounting speculation of
bid interest, Orient-Express has said
nothing and it is not clear whether its
board, such as at is, is receptive to approaches or has appointed advisers.
Some shareholders contacted by The
Times have expressed frustration over
lack of information from the company.
Orient-Express owns or runs 39 of
the world’s best-known hotels, including Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, in
Oxfordshire, and the Cipriani, Venice.
It runs six tourist trains, including the
Venice Simplon-Orient-Express.
Analysts said that private equity firms
were studying most of the world’s top
hotel
companies,
including
InterContinental Hotels Group and
Starwood Hotels & Resorts, which is
reputed to have rejected an approach
in recent weeks.
Separately, the luxury Columbus
Hotel in Monaco is about to be put up
for sale through Christie & Co, the
property agent, for an estimated $68
million. The 181- room hotel is being
sold by Ken McCulloch, founder of
the Malmaison Hotels chain, and
David Coulthard, the racing driver.
The sale has been precipitated by a
falling out between McCulloch and a
third partner, the Chicago multimillionaire Peter Morris. McCulloch is
selling up to focus on his Dakota hotel
chain. © The Times, London
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BUSINESS
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 07
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
KÜRÞAT BAYHAN
PHOTOS
Wýll the euro
dethrone the
dollar?
OPINION
William L.Silber*
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
Turkey, Latin America
work to build trade bridge
Trade between Turkey and Latin American countries is at unsatisfactory levels for both sides,
so the Istanbulatino festival is trying to find cultural inroads to improve economic ties
contýnued from page 1
Martha Ardilla, a Colombian citizen who has been living in
Turkey for 16 years and one of the organizers of the festival,
says Latin American culture is being discovered by Turks. She
thinks there are many things to be shared between Turks and
Latin Americans. “There are numerous opportunities because of globalization. In addition to trade there are other areas of opportunity such as Brazil’s bio-diesel [industry], which is attracting interest from the Turkish energy
sector,” she says. According to her and Sarýibrahimoðlu,
cultural ties should be improved in order to benefit from
those opportunities and tap into the huge potential.
Ardilla, who is the honorary consul general of Colombia in
Turkey, says Latin Americans do not know much about Turkey
or they have wrong ideas. She says those known as Turks in
Latin America immigrated to those countries with their
Ottoman passports, but most them were Arabs, not Turks.
“But now, students are coming and going. There are conferences about Turkey in Latin countries. Diplomatically,
relations are getting closer,” she says. According to her, it
would be very nice to hold Turkish festivals in Latin
America countries, but it is difficult to do so.
Ardilla says she loves Turkey. When she was an international relations student in the US, she met Turks and became
interested in Turkish culture. After marrying a Turk, she settled
in Ýskenderun and later moved to Ýstanbul, where she established a trade firm. When she was asked to join TUKLAD, she
says she hesitated little bit, thinking that it would only serve
trade relations, but found later this was not the case. Ardilla
says that seeing the fourth Latin festival makes her happy.
TUKLAD, established in 2002, says in its manifesto it aims
to develop economic and social relations with the Caribbean
and Latin American countries, which represent a very big market. TUKLAD says it is trying to work with chambers of commerce and industry in those countries in order to reach
this goal. According to the Turkish Foreign Ministry,
which declared 2006 the year of Latin America, the trade
volume between the region and Turkey is increasing daily
and has passed $3 billion annually, but it could be more.
For example, according to TUKLAD, Turkish exports to
Argentina have only been $9.1 million for 2007 so far, while
Argentine exports to Turkey were $50.9 million. “These figures
show the trend for this year is similar to the level of trade in
2006. These figures are not satisfactory, considering the importance of both countries and the fact that the common trade is
less than 0.25 percent of their respective total trade. This also
indicates that the common trade is still far from its real poten-
tial. Surely, there is a vast camp to increase it, be it in volume or
in the number of products to exchange,” the report says.
The 10 biggest-selling products of Turkey to Argentina are
electrical items, household machinery (refrigerators, washing
machines), iron bars, cables, tobacco, textiles, tires, plastics and
olive oil. At the same time, the 10 most-sold products of
Argentina to Turkey are cooking oil, animal food, automobile
parts, machinery, wool, tobacco, soya, iron tubes, medicine and
plastics. In both cases, those 10 products made up 85 percent of
each country’s total exports to the other, making most trade
concentrated on a few products.
While most of the Turkish exports to Argentina are
industrial equipment, most Argentine exports to Turkey
are food products.
Everybody who is interested in developing relations looks
forward to the beginning of direct flights between Turkey and
Brazil. Transit to other Latin America countries will be from
Brazil, not from Europe as it is now.
Sarýibrahimoðlu says the distance between the region and
Turkey is not the real roadblock for reaching full trade potential.
He thinks new ideas have to be developed.
“For example, Brazilians need very big ships in order to
send their products. Turkey can devote part of one of its harbors
and distribute the Brazilian products by small ships,” he says.
He expresses another idea -- he says in Brazil, the leather
used for shoe production is used in large quantity. But if this
leather is shipped in the shape of shoes, it takes up too much
cargo space in the vessels. But if it were shipped as unshaped
leather and turned into shoes in free trade areas, it could be
sold to Central Asia and other countries.
As a lawyer, Sarýibrahimoðlu points out that with some Latin
American countries, necessary agreements like legal cooperation
agreements, which are the basis of trade, have not yet been signed.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry is working on this subject - they are trying to prepare the groundwork for bilateral
agreements. They are also paying attention to establishment
of parliamentary friendship groups and cultural cooperation.
Also included on their agenda is holding Turkish festivals in
Latin America.
Turkey, which is a candidate for a seat on the United
Nations Security Council, is also after the votes of the Latin
American countries.
Taha Özhan, from the Foundation for Political, Economic
and Social Research (SETA), says Latin America is a postcolonial region and is still experiencing problems stemming
from this situation. Efforts to establish cooperation between
themselves are not always successful. According to Özhan,
whatever the political developments are, Latin America is
under the shadow of the US.
Özhan says agreements with the EU, both with Turkey and
Latin American countries, will also play a role. “Because of the
customs union agreement with the EU, it is inevitable that
Turkey will develop closer relations with Latin American
countries, like Mexico and Chile, which also have trade
agreements with the EU,” Özhan says. He also points out
that the only way to solve the problem of Turkey’s trade
deficit with Latin America is to develop the cooperation
agreements with the Organization of American States and
Organization of Eastern Caribbean States.
Özhan adds that relations between the region and
Turkey are still weak and that reaching their full potential
will require much effort. But Ardilla, as the organizer of the
Istanbulatino, says, “The first festival was a seed, but it is
growing every year -- we are really working hard for this.”
Much of America’s dominance in world finance
comes from the dollar’s status as international
money. America’s commitment to free capital
markets, the rule of law, and price stability confer
credibility on the dollar as a store of value. But
American spending habits have undermined the
dollar’s reputation, with the excess supply of dollars on world markets depressing its price. In April
2007, the euro’s exchange rate against the dollar
reached an all-time high, and central banks have
increased the euro share of their international reserves. Is the dollar about to lose the crown of
world finance to the euro?
History suggests otherwise, despite the vulnerability of the dollar.
American financial supremacy in the twentyfirst century resembles Britain’s position in world
finance a century ago. Before the outbreak of
World War I in August 1914, the pound sterling
served as the currency of choice for international
transactions, just as the dollar does today, and
the world’s borrowers visited the City of London
to raise capital.
The British economist John Maynard Keynes
worried that countries would not use sterling to
settle trading balances with each other if the
pound were not viewed as a reliable store of value. The “future position of the City of London,”
according to Keynes, depended on the pound
sterling continuing to serve the business world as
the equivalent of gold. Britain maintained the
pound’s convertibility into gold at the outbreak of
the Great War to preserve its credibility as the international medium of exchange.
The dollar could not challenge sterling’s role
as the world’s currency without matching its reputation. But Treasury Secretary William G.
McAdoo secured American financial honor in
August 1914 by remaining true to gold while
everyone else, except for the British, abandoned
their obligations. Despite the dollar’s instant credibility, however, it took more than a decade for
America’s currency to match Britain’s as an international medium of exchange. Payment habits
melt at a glacier’s pace.
Britain’s transformation from international
creditor to international debtor during the Great
War gave the dollar a second wind in its battle
with sterling. The British were forced to abandon gold convertibility in April 1919. Six years
later, in April 1925, Britain returned to the gold
standard, but the pound had already suffered irreparable damage.
The experience of 1914 implies that a credible alternative can replace an entrenched world
currency, especially after an unfavorable balance of trade has weakened it. But even then,
dethroning the reigning king of international
exchange takes time.
Recent experience with the euro as an official
reserve asset is instructive. Between 2000 and
2005, the dollar lost more than 25 percent of its
value against the euro. Meanwhile, the fraction of
international reserves held in euros grew from 18
percent to 24 percent, and the dollar’s share
dropped from 71 percent to 66 percent. In short,
the euro has clearly made some headway during
this period of US balance of payment deficits, but
this reflects an evolutionary decline in the dollar’s
dominance, not a revolutionary regime shift.
What might trigger a fatal run on the dollar in
world markets? While a broad and abrupt sell-off
by major foreign holders of dollars - for example,
China - appears unlikely, a cataclysmic event,
similar to the outbreak of the Great War in 1914,
could prompt a search for a new international
medium of exchange. In the modern era of automated payments, the upheaval might come from
a terrorist attack that undermines the computerized transfer facilities of the world’s banking system. A catastrophic loss of electronic records
could surely destroy the credibility of the dollar
as the international medium of exchange.
But exactly what would replace the dollar under such circumstances remains an open question.
After all, a loss of computer records would make
the euro equally suspect. Perhaps gold, a store of
value impervious to physical distortion, could
make a comeback. Of course, one can only hope
that such a scenario remains pure conjecture.
*William L. Silber is Professor of Finance and
Economics at NYU’s Stern School of Business and author of
When Washington Shut Down Wall Street: The Great
Financial Crisis of 1914 and the Origins of America’s
Monetary Supremacy. © Project Syndicate, 2007.
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PHOTOS
AP
08 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
‘
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
Recent elections rallies have been marked with disputes waged
between MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli and PM Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan over the execution of PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan. As
the July 22 poll day draws near, politicians are bringing the
issue of the ultimate deterrent onto the agenda
‘
FOCUS
The opposition parties claim that Öcalan gives instructions to the PKK from Ýmralý prison. The government,
on the other hand, accuses the MHP and CHP of trying
to obtain easy votes by bringing capital punishment and
terrorism onto the electoral agenda
The late Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, (R) and his coalition partners, ANAVATAN leader Mesut Yýlmaz, (L) and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli, vote for the bill abolishing the death penalty on Aug. 3, 2002. After the decison, on Oct. 3, 2002, the State Security
Court commuted the death sentence of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, to life imprisonment.
Capýtal punýshment revýsýted
ýn the heat of electýons
contýnued from page 1
Now after five years, the issue of Öcalan’s execution
has resurfaced. During their party election rally in
Erzurum, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet
Bahçeli asked the Justice and Development party (AK Party)
government why they had not executed Öcalan.
“Didn’t you have any execution rope to hang him with?”
asked Bahçeli, dramatically throwing a piece of rope to the
crowd. “Here is the rope!” he said.
Emre Aköz, a columnist for the Sabah daily, regards
Bahçeli’s throwing of the rope as nothing but an act.
“The bickering between Erdoðan and Bahçeli over the execution of Öcalan and the ensuing ‘political’ comments have
provided me a view with a bitter smile. This is a show of nationalism to prove who is more nationalist than the other,” he says.
Later, Erdoðan responded from his own party election
rally, asking Bahçeli why the MHP did not hang Öcalan after
his handover, as his party was then one of the coalition partners of the ruling government of the day.
Political scientist Professor Naci Bostancý sees this row as
a typical political brawl in the run-up to the general elections.
“Rallies have their unique languages. Political parties hold
their rallies as if they are isolated from real life. They need a discourse which will unite the voters and address their sentiments.
Bahçeli builds this discourse around the execution debate,” he says.
AK Party Adana deputy Abdullah Torun stresses that the
execution debate will be forgotten after the elections.
“This debate is a specifically election-centered discourse.
Voters do not find Bahçeli’s act of rope throwing as appropriate. Moreover, his ‘why don’t you authorize the army for a
cross-border operation’ discourse is not liked by people, either.
MHP deputy candidate Deniz Bölükbaþý says that an incursion
into northern Iraq is not possible without the cooperation of
the United States. The MHP has its own inner conflicts. This
execution debate won’t continue. It will be dropped after the
elections. They just want to make use of this material,” he says.
Orhan Eraslan, a Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy
and a specialist in legal matters, assumes a different approach
to the incident. Eraslan describes this row between Bahçeli
and Erdoðan as “rope talk.”
“We will not take part in this rope talk between Bahçeli
and Erdoðan,” he says.
The PKK first appeared in Turkey in 1984. Since then,
they have conducted terrorist acts in various parts of Turkey,
killing tens of thousands of Turkish people.
Sabah columnist Aköz views the issue as nothing to do
with current politics. “Since its inception, the PKK has killed
thousands of innocent people. Turkey has spent millions of
dollars in its combat with the PKK. The social texture, particularly in southeastern Anatolia, has been ripped out,” he says.
Aköz sheds further light on the history of events: “After 15
years, the US decided to [help] hand Apo [Öcalan] over to
Turkey. On Feb. 16, 1999, Apo was taken to Turkey. He was
tried. He was given the death penalty. But since the legislation
was amended, his penalty was commuted to life imprisonment.
Neither Bahçeli nor the late Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit, who
were coalition partners in the then-ruling government, had a
say over Öcalan’s execution. The US had set a condition before
the handover of the PKK leader -- that he not be executed.”
“As it is so apparent,” he concludes, “this issue has nothing to do with internal politics.”
Professor Bostancý states that this dispute does not have
any connection to real life.
“In throwing the rope to the crowd, Bahçeli knows full well that
capital punishment cannot be reinstated. But the referential foundations of the MHP’s rhetoric are built on nationalism. Even if this
dispute has no concrete referents in real life, the MHP uses it as a
reinforcement of the nationalist sentiments of its voters,” he says.
When the capital punishment of Öcalan was being discussed in
Turkey, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE)
stated that the death penalty should be eliminated in Europe by the
year 2000. At the time, Renate Wohlwend, the rapporteur commissioned by PACE in connection with the death penalty, described the
constitutional court rulings of both Ukraine and Albania on the
death penalty as unconstitutional as “historic steps in human rights.”
Tuðrul Türkeþ, the son of MHP’s legendary leader Alparslan
Türkeþ and the MHP’s Ankara deputy candidate, assumes an
approach to this execution issue different from that of Bahçeli.
“You cannot apply legal rules backwards. Even if the death
penalty is reintroduced, Öcalan cannot be executed,” he says.
CHP Deputy Eraslan agrees with him.
“Everything is confused. At that time, such a law was enacted due to foreign pressures. We were not in Parliament at
that time. It will not be put on to the agenda in the next term.
Penal law has established the principles. The debate on the
execution of Apo, waged between Bahçeli and the prime
minister, had nothing to do with law,” he says.
AK Party Deputy Torun notes that the execution issue is
brought to the fore during an election atmosphere.
“The opposition parties do not have projects to promote,”
he comments. “They do not have projects related to health,
education or foreign policy. For instance, the CHP was opposing the AK Party’s project for opening certain forest areas to
settlement. Now they include this project in their own program. The opposition does not have a solution, or a project to
present to the people. Now they are trying to cover their defects with talk on terrorism. They passed Law no. 4448 which abolished the death penalty and they did not execute Öcalan,” he says.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, the deputy chairman
of the MHP, Mehmet Þandýr, accused Erdoðan and the AK Party
of distorting the facts. Saying that the MHP was the only party in
Parliament that had voted against the bill on the abolishment of
the death penalty, including for crimes of terrorism in 2002,
when a coalition government comprising the Democratic Left
Party (DSP), the MHP and the Motherland Party (ANAVATAN)
was in power. “At that time, our 117 deputies voted against the
abolishment of the death penalty. Our coalition partners, the
DSP and the ANAVATAN, and the opposition parties in
Parliament accepted the amendment. Thus, the chieftain of the
terrorist organization was saved from the rope with the support of the political parties other than the MHP. The saviors
of the chieftain include ministers, Parliamentary group deputy
chairmen and deputies of the current government,” he said.
Eraslan, of the CHP, points to the support from the US
PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, (R), stands next to a Turkish gendarme during his trial on the prison island of Ýmralý, in this June
29, 1999, file photo after he was sentenced to death at a special court.
and Israel’s Mossad in the apprehension of Öcalan.
“We all know that the power that caught Öcalan would
not allow his execution. This is so obvious. We could not
pass the election threshold because of this. They caught him
and delivered him to us,” he says.
In connection with the escalating terrorist attacks from
the PKK, the opposition parties accuse the government of not
taking necessary measures. The AK Party, on the other hand,
maintains that they have taken all political and technical
measures against terrorist acts. Erdoðan accuses the opposition parties of using terrorism for election purposes.
“The AK Party government has made great economic and social
strides in every field during its term. The issue of terrorism is not specific to today. The terrorist organization has been in existence since
1984. The opposition is bringing it to the agenda as if it is a novel
thing. Years ago, when Deniz Baykal was the Antalya deputy of the
Social Democratic People’s Party (SHP), Zübeyir Aybar -- the current
leader of PKK splinter group Kongra-Gel -- was the Siirt deputy.
Depending on conjectures, they establish coalitions or they use
terrorism as a tool for manipulating election results,” Torun says.
Does Öcalan send instructions to
the PKK militants from Ýmralý?
Öcalan is currently serving his time as the only inmate of Ýmralý
prison. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) have implemented tight security measures on the prison island. There are claims that Öcalan
is sending instructions via his lawyers to the terrorist organization.
MHP leader Bahçeli claims that if they took office they
would send Öcalan to an F-type prison.
Vedat Demir, a MHP deputy candidate and member of the
Central Decision and Administration Board (MKYK), accuses the
government of taking no notice of Öcalan’s administering the PKK.
“We know that legal rules cannot be applied backward.
But I cannot accept Öcalan’s accommodation in Ýmralý with
hospitality given to guests,” he says.
In response to several news reports that claim that Öcalan
is sending messages and instructions via his lawyers and relatives to the terrorist organizations, the General Directorate
of Prisons and Detention Centers issued a statement.
“The prisoner in question is kept in a single-person room, and is
allowed to go outside into the open air and do sports for one hour
daily. The prisoner in question is provided with the basic rights of prisoners such as accommodation, nutrition, bathing, reading daily newspapers or books, writing petitions, seeing visitors, carrying out correspondence, meeting with lawyers, using health and psychosocial services, going into the open air, listening to the radio, etc., as identified in
national and international prison rules. However, the prisoner in
question cannot have access to the Internet and his communications
are supervised by the prison administration,” the statement reads.
CHP deputy Eraslan notes that there are suspicions as to
Öcalan’s sending messages to the terrorists via his lawyers.
“Without enacting a new law, you can prevent Öcalan
from administering the terrorist organization. AK Party sees
prisons as hotels in an effort to have a good image in the eyes
of the European Union and the US. There are serious difficulties in administrative terms in the Ýmralý prison,” he says.
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BEAUTY
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 09
S U N DAY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
Is the detox diet a hoax?
DÝLEK CÝHAN ÝSTANBUL
In recent years many people have been
experimenting with unusual weight loss
programs to slim down and improve
health. The most interesting of these programs is
the detox diet, a short-term diet to eliminate toxins from the body. While detoxification has
gained ground in Turkey and the world in recent
years, new studies suggest the process is
extremely unhealthy. Studies by Hacettepe
University's Nutrition and Dietetics Department,
the Turkish Dieticians Association, the American
Dieticians Association and the British Dieticians
Association debunk health claims about detox
diets and argue they are marked by empty promises. Studies note that detoxification has caused
heart attacks, loss of brain function, psychological
issues and intestinal problems for some people.
Some experts have defended that people can
lose weight by eliminating toxins from the body.
However studies suggest that the body is naturally
set up to deal with the toxins it does not want and
excretes them -- eliminating any need for detoxification. Still, detox diets have found a place in the
health sector, particularly at competitive spa centers.
Trucco offers you the
best color suntan
Trucco's Afterglow Bronzer rouge is very
popular among women this summer.
With a suntanned appearance being fashionable this year, Afterglow Bronzer offers
the beauty of a tan without the harmful
effects of sunbathing. You can apply the
bronzer to your face and neck for a more
attractive appearance. Price: YTL 54
Facts about detox
People think they can lose weight fast with detox
programs, but they are only actually eliminating
toxins from their body. There are some detox
diets that promise five kilograms in one week.
However, weight lost during detox diets are
regained immediately after the program ends
because a person does not actually lose weight
unless they burn fat. The water weight lost during detox is regained and wrinkles and sagging
can appear in the face. Too much herbal tea consumption, like that recommended for detox
diets, can lead to intestinal problems. There have
been cases where people have needed surgery
after detoxification. Vitamin, mineral and fluid
losses can also lead to nutrition problems.
Ready for Sebastian
Originals' hair care?
Why we don't need detox
There is no need for detox because the body naturally cleans itself of accumulated waste in the metabolic
and digestive systems, medications, dead cells, toxins
and bacteria. The liver renews itself every six to 10
months and our kidneys, skin, digestive system and
lungs all have natural detoxification functions.
Dietician Yasemin Batmaca (diet formula):
Detox is a weekly quick-fix diet plan that includes
plenty of water and herbal tea. According to doctors who recommend detoxification, a person on
the plan can have unlimited whole grain and
limited milk products. Meat is consumed very
little, if at all. Coffee, tea and alcohol are completely eliminated. In other words, it is a restrictive nutrition plan resulting in low energy. The
diet can lead to emotional distress, sleep discomfort, headaches, nausea and bad breath.
Get rid of edemas and lose weight naturally
SEDA KARAN ÝSTANBUL
Even though the ideal and healthy way to
lose weight is by shedding one kilogram per
week, most people would jump at promised
losses of four kilograms a week that would make
your waist thinner anywhere from two to 10 centimeters. Well, this is possible with traditional
Chinese medicine. Natural therapy expert and
advanced massage techniques instructor Haluk
Otman says the weight we think our body gains during the winter is actually tissue full of edemas (lymphatic fluids). At the same time, the fat the body
accumulates during the cold season as a natural protection not yet become tissue is considered to be extra
kilograms. With a one-week program, you can safely
lose weight in a healthy way and get rid of excess
mass, cellulite and slackness visible at your waist,
underarms, legs and hips. Otman has had many successes and it careful to record individual weight and
body dimensions at the start of the program.
Therapy continues with soup that has a fatburning characteristic, allowing you to avoid a strict
diet. With two lymph-drainage massages a week,
all of the edemas collected until the massage day is
lost. The massage should only be performed by
experts and loss of edemas varies in quantity from
500 grams to three kilograms, depending on the
individual. This method is used in cellulite treatment as well. A "fat-burning massage" in conjunction with tightening solutions produced made of
ecologic herbal essences strongly tightens the skin.
Eat summer season fruits as much as you can
We already know that consuming
summer fruits and vegetables is
good for your health and body.
But did you know that these summer
treats also protect the skin while preventing
weakness and shortness of memory? Also
according to experts, wrinkles which appear
from aging, inactivity, problems of weakness
and shortness of memory are all signs that
the body lacks some chemicals with antioxidant effects. They stress that certain fresh
foods are a good solution to these problems:
Plum: Along with a high antioxidant
capacity, it provides significant anti-aging
nourishment with its detoxification power.
Watermelon: It is rich with Hem
lycopene, vitamins and minerals and is a
fruit with high antioxidant capacity.
Peaches and apricots are depots for
potassium. They contain Vitamin C and
a lot of flavonoids. Rich with fiber and
beta-carotene, they are summer fruits
very beneficial for the body's health.
Strawberries and cherries are fruits rich
with anthocyanin. Rose hip and currant
could be added for added benefits.
Broccoli and brussels sprouts:
Containing sulphoraphane, they are among
the top when it comes to anti-aging nourishment during the summer period. Broccoli is
full of antioxidants as well as Vitamin C,
beta-carotene, glutathione and lutein.
Grapes: A trusted source of the very
powerful antioxidant oligomeric proantho-
cyanidin. It is known that grapes contain
approximately 20 antioxidant substances.
Take advantage of black grapes especially.
Tomatoes: A very rich source of lycopene
-- a strong antioxidant that protects the
physical and mental health of elder people.
Lycopene reduces cancer risks, protects your
veins and nourishes your skin and memory.
Avocado: This is one of the best sources
of the very powerful antioxidant glutathione.
Even though rich with oils, avocado oils are
mostly unsaturated and harmless.
Onions: Especially red onions are very
powerful health protectors. It is one of richest
sources of quarcetin, an antioxidant that is
important in protecting against cancer.
Onions also are good in preventing infections.
The Sebastian Originals collection has been completed with the addition of new shampoo and hair
conditioner products. The seven products in the
Penetraitt, 2+1 and Potion 7 categories provide
your hair with whatever it needs. The novel products from Sebastian influence the hair care and
cosmetics world with the brand's unique style. The
new formulas of the collection provide richer
options for those with high expectations for their
hair products. Maximum performance is provided
by moisture and protein fortified ingredients.
Sebastian Originals Penetraitt products are
rich in protein, which strengthens and nourishes thin hair. There are three products in
Penetraitt group: daily strength shampoo, daily
strength hair conditioner and a reconstructive
protein treatment. The importance of hydration
and protein cannot be ignored for a healthy
body and the same formula applies to hair. For
this reason, the products including this compound are defined as the recipe of healthy hair.
Reflexology and head-neck massages are applied
for balancing and strengthening of the body.
You can ask for two things in therapy: to simply lose weight or tighten your skin and thin your
body while doing it. The period of treatment
depends on your physiology and the average
length is eight to ten days. With massage, the fat
gathered during wintertime and edemas remaining inside your body, now appearing as extra kilograms, are directed into channels. Lymph
drainage massage is done with light touches as
the pressure is not applied to the muscles because
the system is under the skin. The expert applies
minimal fingertip touches on your entire body.
The therapy costs YTL 750 because organic products are expensive and their quantity is limited.
Outshine the sun
with Pantene
Pantene's new Brightness Series for the
summer season marks a new period of
shine for women now able to capture some
of the stars' brilliance. Women with well
cared for, healthy and shining hair will not
outshine even the summer sun.
The spring and summer trends of 2007
indicate that this lustrous look is in fashion
when it comes to hair, costumes, makeup
and accessories. Pantene Brightness includes
both a shampoo and conditioner which
smoothes, strengthens and nourishes hair
with formulas enriched by proteins and provitamins. Now women can begin each new
day with shining hair to match their energy.
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10 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
CULTURE&ARTS
MEHMET DEMÝRCÝ
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
CULTURAL AGENDA
FESTIVAL
PHOTO
Ýstanbul's annual international jazz festival continues at full speed with an average of two performances each day. Today's program features the Jazz
Boat, where the New Orleans-based Algiers Brass
Band and the Ýstanbul Saxophone Quartet will play
jazz standards throughout a Bosporus journey. The
Jazz Boat will depart from Kabataþ Ferry Port at
11 a.m. and will return to the same spot at 4 p.m.
after a stop at the Anatolian Fortress for two hours.
The Ýzmir State Opera and Ballet is scheduled to perform Puccini's famous opera "Tosca" on July 11 at the
Aspendos Ancient Theater as part of the ongoing 14th
edition of Antalya's annual opera and ballet festival.
The three-act opera is directed by Aytaç Manizade.
The Canetti International Music Festival travels to
Antalya for its 12th edition on July 7-23, featuring
performances by distinguished musicians in addition to offering a chance for young instrumentalists to attend master classes of the Canetti
International Music Course. The festival takes
place at the Antalya Culture Center.
The fourth edition of the Ýstanbul Tango Festival will
wrap up today after showcasing breathtaking tango
performances by dancers from 26 countries. For more
information, visit http://www.tangointurkey.com
CONCERT
Colombian pop star Shakira is scheduled for a live
performance tomorrow at Ýstanbul's Kuruçeþme
Arena, where she will sing songs from her latest
album "Oral Fixation Vol. 2" as well as her older
hits. Tickets available on www.biletix.com
Italian pop singer-songwriter Albano Carrisi and
tenor Alessandro Safina, accompanied by Turkish
singer Ferhat Göçer, are scheduled for a concert
on July 10 at 9:30 p.m. at the Ýstanbul Arena.
Tickets can be purchased at the Ýstanbul Arena
box office and on www.biletix.com
A youth festival titled Masstival, organized by the
telecommunication company Avea, will take place
July 14-15 at Ýstanbul's Parkorman, featuring concerts by famous singers Avril Lavigne, Tori Amos,
Sinead O'Connor and Lauren Hill.
EXHIBITION
An exhibition bringing together paintings by
Mediterranean University Fine Arts Faculty lecturer Hande Rastgeldi with underwater photographs
by Hümeyra Baysarý is on display through July 14
at Antalya's AHK Art Gallery. Tel: (242) 316 5300
The Ankara-based Nezih Danyal Cartoon
Foundation in Kýzýlay hosts two cartoon exhibitions through July 26, one featuring pictures by
Oðuz Gürel, who won the Spanish Santomera
Cartoon Contest, and another from the
Bahceþehir College Cartoon Group.
Antalya's Orkun Ozan Art Gallery hosts an exhibition of graphic work by various artists on loan
from the Ýstanbul Museum of Graphic Arts (IMOGA) through July 10. Tel.: (242) 248 3852
Documentary photographer Nicos Economopoulos'
latest photography collection and book titled "In the
Balkans" is on display at the Leica Gallery in the Ýstanbul Photography Center through July 28.
PANEL
The Ýstanbul jazz festival features three panel discussions at the French Culture Center. Admission
to the panels, which will be held in English, will
be free of charge. The first session on July 10 at 4
p.m. will feature trumpet player Wynton Marsalis,
the artistic director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center
Orchestra. www.iksv.org/cazsoylesi
‘Lýfe on the Golden Horn’
MARION JAMES ÝSTANBUL
Without fail, every single one of my
guests who is visiting Istanbul for the
first time exclaims, "I never thought it
would be this green." And a very large proportion of them say that they expected the
women to be veiled, wearing something akin
to the afghan burkha, and many are surprised
to find that alcohol is freely available.
I blame the Fry's Turkish Delight advertisements, personally. This rose-flavored jelly, covered
in delicious milk chocolate, has been advertised in
the UK for decades with scenes reminiscent of
Disney's Aladdin or the Tales of the Arabian
Nights: a rich nomadic tent set among the sand
dunes, a prince sitting on an exquisite carpet, with
a feast spread before him, and a dusky maiden
performing the Dance of the Seven Veils … and
then the strap-line: "Full of Eastern Promise."
Result: A pre-conception in the mind of
many Englishmen that a trip to Turkey will
be like an excerpt from Lawrence of Arabia.
They may not expect to be picked up from
the airport on a camel-train, but they will not
expect major highways, jeeps and MercedesBenz luxury coaches everywhere.
How can Turkey overcome this wrong perception? It is a tough call. Sitting next to a smart businesswoman on the Underground (metro), talking
into her cell phone, Londoners are unlikely to instantly recognize her as a Turk. She appears no different from them. But if they see an immigrant
family that has kept up their village dress they are
likely to think, "I am sitting opposite Turks."
Each and every one of us is an advertisement,
or a cultural ambassador for Turkey, whether we
are Turks abroad, or foreigners living here.
No one understood this concept better than
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who traveled to
Istanbul (then known as Constantinople) in
1716 with her husband, the Hanoverian ambassador to the Ottoman court. Her collection of
letters home has been enjoyed by Westerners
over the ensuing centuries as a record of the
spectacular customs of the period. But, as well
as taking great delight in describing what she
saw, Lady Wortley Montague was a correspondent on a mission: to correct the wrong impression the recipients of her letters had of the
Ottoman lands, modern-day Turkey.
Reading between the lines of the scathing
comments she passes on travel writers before
her, Lady Mary probably traveled from
Rotterdam to Constantinople via Vienna, the
Danube, and Adrianople (Edirne) with exactly
the same mindset as she tries to correct, her
opinions having been formed from reading the
tales of previous eye-witness reports. When she
arrives, she finds her prejudices confronted with the truth,
and she falls in love
with the city of her
husband's posting. This
makes her twice as zealous to correct the lie.
Writing from a village
outside town, near the
Belgrade forest, and replying to an aristocrat, she says
"your whole letter is full of
mistakes from one end to the
other. I see you have taken your
ideas of Turkey from that worthy
author Dumont, who has writ
with equal ignorance and confidence. 'Tis a particular pleasure to
me here to read the voyages to the
Levant, which are generally so far removed from the truth and so full of absurdities I
am very well diverted with them. They never fail
to give you account of the women, which 'tis
certain they never saw, and talking very wisely of
the genius of men, into whose company they are
never admitted, and very often describe
mosques which they dare not peep into."
What sets Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
apart from these other writers, so that she can
demand we trust her accounts over theirs? She
was a long-term resident rather than an author
traveling through. She was not writing a book to
make a name for herself, but simply writing
home to her sister, friends and acquaintances.
Her husband's position meant that they were
admitted into the society of the important members of sultan's entourage, and visited the court,
rather than relying on viewing it from afar and
reporting on rumors of what was said and done.
With an incisive wit she pours scorn on
those who wrote guidebooks without seeing: "[Gemelli writes] that there are no remains of Chalcedon (Kadýköy). This is certainly a mistake. I was there yesterday."
The extra fascination with her letters is that,
as a woman, Lady Mary gained
unique insight into the world of
Turkish ladies. No male travelwriter could even converse with a
lady, let alone attend parties in
the harem and share in the ritual
of the hamam (bath). "[Mr. Hill]
and all his brethren voyagewriters lament on the miserable confinement of the
Turkish ladies, who are, perhaps, freer than any ladies
in the universe, and are the
only women in the world
that lead a life of uninterrupted pleasure, exempt
from cares, their whole
time being spent in
visiting, bathing or the agreeable amusement of spending money and
inventing new fashions. 'Tis true they have no
public places but the bagnios, and there can be
seen only by their own sex. However that is a diversion they take great pleasure in."
But, do not imagine that these letters describe boring scenes, chosen to correct foreign
misunderstandings. Lady Mary's letters are tailored to each recipient, with episodes from her
everyday life selected to interest the reader.
To Lady X she describes with great delight, a visit to the Turkish hamam in Sofia.
The detail she gives enables a vivid picture to
spring up in your mind's eye: ladies in conversation, drinking coffee or sherbet, negligently
lying on cushions while their slaves were embroidering their hair in several pretty manners.
To Lady Bristol she reports that she has
been unsuccessful in finding materials to send
to her for making a coat, since "kaftans and
manteaus need different material."
To Alexander Pope, one of the greatest English
poets of the early 18th century, she gives a critique
of Turkish poetry, praising its musical sound.
"Their expressions of love are very passionate and
lovely. I am so much pleased with them."
To Her Royal Highness the Princess of
Wales she engages in furthering her husband's
career, informing the princess how eager her
husband is in the service of his monarch.
To her sister, Lady Mary describes the procession of the sultan to the mosque preceded by
numerous Janissary guards. She gives intimate
information concerning her Turkish dress and
extols the beauty of the Turkish ladies: "'Tis surprising to see a young woman that isn't handsome. They have the most beautiful complexion
in the world and large black eyes."
To the Abbé Conti she describes the mosque of
Edirne and the dervishes at prayer. As a Catholic
priest, this reader receives a discussion on differences between the practices of the two religions, in
particular an analysis of the Islamic view of women.
But perhaps it is to us, the modern-day reader visiting or resident abroad, that Lady Mary
speaks most directly. Firstly, she encourages
those of us living in Turkey to explore the reality
around us. Then she insists we tell the truth,
without embroidering, to correct misunderstandings. When writing again to Lady Bristol
she exclaims, "'Tis certain there are many people
that pass years here in Pera without ever having
seen it, and yet they all pretend to describe it."
I suspect she would have been an avid reader of Today's Zaman, as part of her quest to truly understand Turkey and to represent it accurately to those "back home"!
"Life on the Golden Horn" by Mary Wortley
Montagu, Published by Penguin, ISBN: 978014102542-1, 4.99 pounds in paperback
YOUR ENGLISH
BOOKSTORE !
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customs charges when you order
books from abroad?
SOLUTION: Order from us,
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serakitapevi@superonline.com
‘SECRETS OF
CARIBBEAN
COOKING'
‘JANE AUSTEN
AND THE
THEATRE'
Published by Star Fire
20 pounds in hardback
Cookery
by Paula Byrne
Published by Continuum
14.99 pounds in paperback
Literature
Recipes, landscapes and the people of the
Caribbean, with its thousands of islands,
reefs and stunning panoramas are the subject of this new cookery book. Focusing on
these islands, this book features more than
50 recipes from the national cuisine.
Paula Byrne shows how "Sense and
Sensibility," "Pride and Prejudice" and
"Emma" are shaped by the comic drama of
the period, and by Jane Austen's own understanding of men and women. The book
coincides with the film "Becoming Jane."
‘THE CORONER'S
LUNCH'
‘ADVENTURE
MASKS'
by Colin Cotterill
Published by Quercus
12.99 pounds in hardback
Fiction Crime Thrillers
by Emma Carlow
Published by Macmillan
4.99 pounds in hardback
Children age 0-5
The time is the 1970s. In the newly-communist Laos, murdered bodies are piling
up, and the new coroner, with no training
or equipment, must find out who is killing
them and why, before a disaster of international proportions is unleashed.
Would you like to sail on the high seas like
a pirate, save the world with a superhero
or swing your lasso like a cowboy? This
book enables you to join in with your favorite action characters. Just press out and
play, and let your imagination fly!
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CULTURE&ARTS
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 11
Museums: Ýstanbul’s cultural remedy
for hot summers and cold winters
PHOTO
PHOTO
consists of 18th and 19th century artwork including
collections of calligraphy, Koran manuscripts, porcelain, furniture, Ottoman imperial seals, as well as
Ottoman and early republican era paintings by notable Turkish and European artists.
Starting in January 2008, the SSM will be home to
more than 200 artifacts on loan from France's Louvre
Museum as part of a five-year partnership deal the two
museums signed earlier this year. Titled "From the
Louvre to Ýstanbul -- Three Imperial Centers of Islamic
Art: Ýstanbul, Isfahan, Delhi," the show will present a selection depicting the imperial arts from the Ottoman,
Mongol and the Safavid Empires, three major Islamic
empires between the 15th and 18th centuries.
Meanwhile Ýstanbul's third major private museum,
the Pera Museum, which marked its second year anniversary last month, is gearing up to host an impressive
collection in autumn, where pieces from one of the
world's most prestigious private art collections, the JP
Morgan Chase collection, will be showcased.
Titled "Collected Visions," the exhibition will
open Oct. 26, featuring artwork by 59 renowned
artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Jasper Johns, Andy
Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Cy
Twombly, Joseph Beuys, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons,
Cindy Sherman, Joseph Kosuth, Gilbert and George,
Bruce Nauman, Nam June Paik and Zaha Hadid.
The museum, run by the Suna and Ýnan Kýraç
Foundation, currently hosts three temporary and three permanent exhibitions. The fourth floor of the museum is
home to the collection titled "Kariye: From Theodore
Metochites to Thomas Whittemore -- One Monument,
Two Monumental Personalities," which opened on April
13, together with the "Wall, Arch, Dome: Byzantine Ýstanbul in the Eyes of Ottoman Photographers" on the fifth
floor. The "Ali Emiri Efendi and His World: Fermans, berats,
calligraphies, books" has also been on display since Jan. 24.
All three exhibits are slated to wrap up next Sunday.
Pera Museum's permanent collections include the
Suna and Ýnan Kýraç Foundation's collection of Orientalist
art, which consists of more than 300 paintings. This rich
collection brings together important works by European
artists inspired by the Ottoman world from the 17th to the
early 19th century. Other two permanent collections in
the museum are the "Anatolian Weights and Measures"
and the "Kütahya Tiles and Ceramics" collections.
In the two years that have passed since its inauguration, the museum has welcomed 190,000 visitors with three permanent and 18 temporary exhibitions, in addition to releasing 25 catalogues and
books and hosting more than 50 art events.
Just like the SSM, the Pera Museum is also located in a
renovated historical building, which was constructed towards
the end of the 19th century by architect Achille Manoussos.
The Sadberk Haným Museum, run by the Vehbi Koç
Foundation; the state-run Ýstanbul Archaeology Museum in
Eminönü; the Topkapý Palace, which was the administrative
center of the Ottoman Empire for four centuries; the Turkish
and Islamic Arts Museum in Sultanahmet; and the Ýstanbul
Museum of Graphic Arts (IMOGA) are other remarkable
museums, which add to the cultural wealth of Ýstanbul, calling on everyone to explore both the past and the present
under the enlightening guidance of art. Ýstanbul Sunday's Zaman
ÝBRAHÝM USTA
Pera Museum
Ýstanbul Museum of Modern Art
MUSTAFA KÝRAZLI
When Osman Hamdi Bey -- the famed 19th-century statesman, archaeologist and painter who pioneered the profession of museum curator in the
Ottoman Empire -- laid the foundation for Turkey's first
museum, the Ýstanbul Archaeology Museum in 1881, he
probably did not think it would take so long for others to
follow in his steps to gain Ýstanbul an array of museums
showcasing all kinds of art, both old and new.
Yet, however belated it may be, Ýstanbul has in recent
years gradually begun to truly deserve the title of "Turkey's
cultural capital" with a host of exhibitions in its museums,
both private and state-run; performances by worldrenowned acts in its concert halls that pop up in numerous
corners of the city; and of course its numerous film, theater,
music, dance and photography festivals that are capable of
taking up an art lover's agenda all year round.
With centuries of history written by various civilizations
in its logbook, Ýstanbul is also a treasure trove of remnants
from bygone eras still standing tall to challenge the many
centuries to come -- that is, if a probable earthquake does
not strike the city as hard as scientists predict. Most of Ýstanbul's grand and historical edifices are now housing museums, such as the Kariye (Chora) museum, the Topkapý,
Dolmabahçe and Yýldýz palaces, the Hagia Sophia and the
Anatolian and Rumeli fortresses, among others.
But it's not only the history of the city that allures
art lovers. This 15-million-strong metropolis is now
also home to numerous private museums, showcasing major art collections from around the world, hosting retrospectives of contemporary artists of worldwide fame, holding educational programs for kids
and helping the public gain more acquaintance with
art -- although they currently only reach a limited audience who are lucky enough to come and visit them.
However limited their audience might be, still it has
to be said, museums in Ýstanbul are in a sweet rivalry
with exhibits that are all compelling. And what they have
to offer is not merely showcases of artifacts: For an art
aficionado, no better way of relaxing can be found other
than a visit to the museum for a respite from the sweltering days of summer -- as it is the case nowadays -- and,
of course, from the chilly winter that penetrates into each
and every cell of one's body at the tail end of the year.
Here's a quick look at what Ýstanbul's private museums
have to offer these days. Currently there are temporary
exhibits in all three major private museums in Ýstanbul.
One of the most popular, the Ýstanbul Museum of
Modern Art, better known as the Ýstanbul Modern, is hosting three exhibitions throughout summer. One is a retrospective of German photographer Andreas Gursky, also featuring the artist's 2001 photo "99 Cent II, Diptychon," which
broke the record for the world's most expensive photograph
by a living photographer when it was sold for $3.3 million
this year. Internationally renowned Turkish photographer
Ahmet Polat is also showcasing his latest photography collection titled "Who Are You?" in the museum's photography gallery. Both exhibits are slated to run through Aug. 26
at the museum, which has attracted more than 2 million visitors to its 26 exhibitions since it first opened in 2004.
Located in a converted warehouse in the Tophane district on
the Bosporus, the Ýstanbul Modern is the first museum in
Turkey to be dedicated to contemporary arts in its entirety.
The two-storey museum's permanent exhibition,
located on the top floor along with its restaurant and
shop, is titled "Modern Experiences," which in a
sense is a retrospective of modern art in Turkey.
Among the upcoming exhibitions the museum will
host within the next 12 months is a selection titled
"Time Present, Time Past," exploring the 20-year history of the Ýstanbul Biennial. Jointly curated by Ýstanbul Modern Director David Elliott and chief curator
Rosa Martinez, the exhibit is slated to open on Sept. 6.
Also going on display on the same date will be an exhibition showcasing the latest work of young Turkish
photographers Ahmet Elhan, Murat Germen, Cemal
Emden, Orhan Cem Çetin, Merih Akoðul and Ömer
Orhon, in which they depict the Galata Bridge.
Meanwhile the Sabancý University's Sakýp Sabancý
Museum, or the SSM, which has hosted around 600,000 visitors since it first opened four years ago, is currently home to
an exhibition titled "In Praise of God: Anatolian Rugs in
Transylvanian Churches 1500-1750," bringing together 41
western Anatolian rugs selected from churches and museums in Romania and Hungary. Slated to run through Aug.
19, the Sabancý Museum exhibit is the first major exhibition
of Anatolian carpets since a Budapest exhibition in 1914. The
SSM made headlines with its impressive exhibitions such as
the "Picasso in Ýstanbul," which made the museum the first
of its kind in Turkey to host a solo exhibition of a major
Western artist when it opened in November 2005. Other
remarkable exhibitions the museum has housed to date
include the "Master Sculptor Rodin in Ýstanbul" in 2006,
and the "Genghis Khan and his Heirs -- The Great
Mongolian Empire" which wrapped up earlier this year.
The museum building, aside from the exhibits it
hosts, is a sightseeing attraction of its own with its
breathtaking view of the Bosporus from Emirgan, and its
status of being home for the Sabancý family for nearly five
decades. The museum building, also known as the
Equestrian Mansion, was built in the early 1900s.
The museum's extensive permanent exhibition
BURAK SOYSAL
YASEMÝN GÜRKAN ÝSTANBUL
PHOTO
With centuries
of history written
by various
civilizations in
its logbook,
Ýstanbul is
a treasure trove
of remnants
from bygone eras
standing tall to
challenge the
many centuries
to come. Most of
the city’s grand
and historical
edifices are now
housing museums,
such as the Kariye
Museum, the
Topkapý,
Dolmabahçe and
Yýldýz palaces,
the Hagia Sophia
and the Anatolian
and Rumeli
fortresses
ensuring its status
as Turkey’s
capital of culture
Sakýp Sabancý Museum
S12-08-07-07.qxd
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12 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
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ALMANAC
Event of the week
July 1
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül accused the EU of playing
games with Turkey and of lacking a broad vision. “The EU has now
become a group playing petty games. ... The EU can keep its door
shut to Turkey if it wishes,” Gül said in televised comments during
campaigning for this month’s parliamentary elections.
Four ex-members of the PKK said the militants were vacating
camps in northern Iraq due to fear of a possible incursion into the
area by Turkish troops. In the last few days the rumors of a crossborder operation triggered fear within the organization and all PKK
camps have been emptied, one of the men said at a news conference held at a paramilitary police base in the southeastern province
of Þýrnak. The four -- who wore masks to disguise their identities -also said they had seen two US armored vehicles deliver weapons
to the PKK at their camp. The claim, which could not be independently verified, was widely reported in the Turkish media.
Kubad Talabani, the Washington representative of the
Kurdish regional government of Iraq and the son of Iraqi President
Jalal Talabani, confirmed that some Turkish military officers objected to a topic addressed at the Hudson Institute, a neo-conservative think tank meeting that discussed the handing over of PKK
terrorists captured in northern Iraq to Turkish authorities.
The Council of the Socialist International (SI) launched a monitoring process into the main opposition Republican People’s Party
(CHP) over its commitment to the principles of democracy. A SI delegation will visit Turkey to hold talks with CHP directors shortly
after the general elections scheduled for July 22 as part of a
process that might result in the eventual expulsion of the CHP
from the world gathering of social democratic parties.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Mecit Ceylan, representing the prosecutor’s office in Ýstanbul’s Þiþli district, and Savings Deposit Insurance
Fund (TMSF) official Hidayet Nalçacý took off for Switzerland to
reclaim $200 million belonging to the Uzan business dynasty. The
accounts had been frozen by an international court order on a
telecommunications company controlled by the Uzan family.
The family is estimated to have at least $1 billion in Swiss banks.
July 2
Commemorative services and tributes were held all over Turkey
to honor the 14th anniversary of the Sivas incident in which 37 Aleviorientated intellectuals, poets and musicians were killed in a hotel firebombed by rioting fundamentalists. During the commemorative services held in Ýstanbul, Ankara and Ýzmir, mourners demanded a full
investigation into events of nearly a decade and a half ago.
Authorities said that almost one ton of explosive material was
seized by security forces in the first half of 2007.
The US Embassy in Ankara strongly rejected a claim that US
forces in Iraq were seen delivering weapons to members of the
PKK based there, describing the claim as “ridiculous.” “We refute
this allegation, which is certainly ridiculous. As we said many
times before -- and I’ll say it again -- the PKK is a terrorist organization and US designated it as a terrorist organization. We don’t
help terrorists, we don’t deal and work with terrorists,” US
PHOTO
MEHMET KAMAN
June 30
An outbreak of Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever
(CCHF) claimed the lives of three more people in the central
Anatolian cities of Sivas and Tokat, increasing the death toll to
17 this year, media reports said.
The EU’s incoming president, Portugal’s Prime Minister Jose
Socrates, said he aimed to keep entry negotiations with Turkey on
track despite French opposition. “We must be first and foremost
loyal at what we pledged to do,” Socrates said on the eve of taking over the European Council presidency from Germany.
Two Turkish citizens were arrested on suspicion of breaking Swiss anti-racism laws for allegedly denying that the killing
of Armenians in the early 20th century was genocide. The two
were arrested at a conference in the Zurich suburb of
Winterthur, where posters were hung up and leaflets distributed rejecting the so-called genocide.
Militants from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) detonated a roadside bomb, martyring three soldiers in
the eastern city of Tunceli.
Constitutional Court makes surprise ruling, referendum on the horizon
Surprising many, the Constitutional Court, which became a
target of harsh criticism for an early ruling that paved the
way for the cancellation of the presidential elections in
May, rejected appeals from the main opposition
Republican People’s Party (CHP) and President Ahmet
Necdet Sezer to cancel constitutional reforms due to a
technicality. The constitutional changes, which included
election of the president by a popular vote on a renewable
five-year-term, reducing the parliamentary election period
from five years to four and stipulating a quorum of 184
Embassy Press Attaché Kathryn Schalow told Today’s Zaman.
Hundreds of protesters appealed for justice to be done as
the trial of the alleged killer of Turkish-Armenian journalist
Hrant Dink began. A total of 18 people, including the teenage
self-confessed gunman, O.S., went on trial for the killing in an
Ýstanbul court. Human rights groups advocates said that the
trial will be a test for Turkey’s justice system.
Turkey’s economy grew by 6.7 percent in the first quarter
of 2007 compared to the same period last year, the Turkish
Statistics Institute (Turkstat) said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that she continues to
support Turkey’s EU membership talks, but reiterated her party’s
argument that a privileged partnership would be a better outcome.
“You know our position and it has not been changed. We want a very
close linkage of Turkey to the EU; we favor the idea of a privileged partnership; we are loyal to agreements and so are participating in the membership negotiations, which have now been
extended by two chapters,” Merkel said at a news conference.
The World Bank said it had approved a loan of 367.3 million
euros (about $500 million) for Turkey in support of a government program aimed at promoting growth and generating employment. “The
benefits to Turkey from this program are great -- in terms of
increased investment, higher productivity and most importantly
more and better jobs, including more formal sector jobs,” Ulrich
Zachau, country director for Turkey, said in a statement.
July 3
A Turkish court decided to broaden the investigation into the
deputies to elect a president, will be put to a referendum
with the court’s ruling. There will be a referendum, Haþim
Kýlýç, deputy head of the Constitutional Court, told a news
conference. Asked whether this meant the Turkish people
would be able to elect their president directly, Kýlýç said:
Undoubtedly. However, a referendum on the constitutional amendments is not expected before October, as
President Sezer vetoed a separate amendment to reduce
the referendum period from the current 120 days following publication of the changes in the Official Gazette to
45. The changes were published in the Official Gazette
on June 16. In May, the court had backed the opposition
against the government in a row over how many deputies
need to be in Parliament for a presidential election to be
valid, setting the quorum at two-thirds, or 367, in the
550-seat parliament. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoðan’s government, unable to elect its presidential
candidate Abdullah Gül, called early elections and prepared these amendments in an attempt to get over the
political impasse of the presidential elections.
killing of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink to consider allegations of official negligence in the slaying, a lawyer said. After a 12-hour
hearing on Monday, the court released four of the 18 suspects implicated in the killing of Dink until the resumption of the trial on Oct. 1.
Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt criticized what he
said was a lack of international cooperation in combating the PKK
based in northern Iraq during a security conference in the
Mediterranean resort city of Antalya. “While we maintain our struggle
against this terrorist organization and expect international cooperation
in this struggle, we are having difficulty in understanding some
positions and attitudes that we face,” said Büyükanýt. “These not
only disappoint us but they also hurt the basic understanding that
combating terrorism requires better cooperation.”
Consumer prices decreased by 0.24 percent in June from
the previous month but increased by 8.60 percent on a 12month basis, the Turkish Statistics Institute (Türkstat) said.
Turkey invited officials from Afghanistan and Pakistan to meet
in Turkey to discuss the fight against the Taliban and boost confidence
between the troubled neighbors, the Foreign Mi ations of the
Pentagon’s Joint Staff. But he cautioned: “As the secretary of
defense [Robert Gates] has said, any disruption up in northern
Iraq would not be helpful at this time.”
Energy-rich Azerbaijan integrated its Shahdeniz natural
gas network in the Caspian Sea with Turkey’s domestic network
through Baku-Tbýlisi-Erzurum pipeline, the press service of the
State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) said.
Nineteen members of the Association for the Union of
Patriotic Forces (VKGB), taken into custody on Monday after
PHOTOS
CÝHAN
Photo of the week
Political polemic plumbs new depths: Revisiting Öcalan execution controversy
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli reignited
discussions over the fate of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan when he threw a thick rope to crowds
at a party rally in a vivid gesture accompanying harsh words slamming Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan for not having hanged
Öcalan. Bahçeli was responding to criticism from Erdoðan, who had
similarly accused him of failing to have Öcalan executed after the
PKK leader was tried and sentenced to death during the MHP’s
term in office as a coalition partner. The premier’s original remarks
were themselves a riposte to the MHP leader’s criticism of the
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government for “not
doing enough” to tackle the PKK. Speaking at the party’s election
campaign in the eastern city of Erzurum last Sunday, Bahçeli blasted Erdoðan, saying: “You are the one who came to power alone.
Why didn’t you hang him? You could afford to buy a boat for your
son, but [not] to find enough rope to hang him (Öcalan).” Urging
both himself and the crowd into a frenzy, Bahçeli then took out a
piece of rope and threw it to the thronged MHP supporters. The dis-
pute over the execution of the PKK leader -- and more particularly
its use an election tool -- has sickened many in Turkey, being met
with a negative reception by a large number of commentators and
leading figures in society. Turkey has realized many democratic reforms and made progress to make good a poor human
rights record as it has pursued its EU aspirations over recent
years, and many perceive such polemic as a step backwards.
The death penalty was abolished in 2002 in Turkey, Öcalan’s
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment accordingly.
an extensive operation by the Anti-Organized
Crime and Smuggling Department of the Ankara
Police, were referred to court after their interrogation at the police station.
July 4
The death toll from a suicide bombing in
May in Ankara rose to nine when one of the
wounded died in hospital.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan again
called on allies to act on a promise to tackle PKK militants who have been staging attacks from bases in
northern Iraq.Erdoðan said Turks no longer wanted to
hear words of support against the PKK and expected
action instead at a speech to a meeting of trade
chambers from more than 100 countries at Ýstanbul’s Lütfi Kýrdar Congress and Exhibition Center.
Ankara never pledged to Washington not to
stage a cross-border operation into northern Iraq
under a loan deal with the US signed at the time
of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, and there was
no secrecy, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
Wednesday in a written statement.
Barýþ Akarsu, a young rock musician and
actor, died late at night after being severely
injured in a traffic accident in Bodrum. He had
been in intensive care for five days and was being
kept alive with the help of a respirator.
July 5
Turkish soldiers killed five PKK militants including two women, in clashes in the eastern city of Tunceli.
Justice for victims of human rights violations in
Turkey is either delayed or never seen, the Londonbased Amnesty International (AI) said in its report urging
Ankara to reform the existing Turkish judiciary system.
Turkish police and gendarmerie are “torturing, ill-treating and committing murders,” the AI statement said.
The Constitutional Court unexpectedly rejected
appeals from both the main opposition party and
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to quash the reforms on
a legal technicality, paving the way for a referendum.
There will be a referendum, Haþim Kýlýç, deputy head of
the Constitutional Court, told a news conference.
A consortium of Kazakh and Russian companies made the highest bid to buy a 51 percent stake
in Turkish petrochemicals giant Petkim.
Transcentralasia Petrochemical Holding, a Kazakhdominated group, agreed to pay $2.05 billion (1.50
billion euros) for the company, in a televised tender.
July 6
The government and military agreed on detailed
plans for a cross-border operation against the PKK
based in northern Iraq, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül
said. He urged the United States and Iraq, which
oppose a Turkish military move into Iraq, to crack down
on the PKK militants. But he said Turkey was ready to
stage an offensive if necessary. “We have decided how
to act, everything is clear. We know what to do and when
to do it,” he said without providing details.
Mustafa Öztaþkýn, head of Petrol-Ýþ, appealed to
Turkey’s top administrative court to cancel the planned
sale of a majority stake in Turkey’s petrochemicals giant
Petkim. He said the deal should be called off a day after
Transcentralasia Petrochemical Holding, a KazakhRussian consortium, outbid other conglomerates and
offered to pay $2.05 billion for a 51 percent stake.
07.07.2007
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PAT YALE, AA
TRAVEL
PHOTOS
S13-08-07-07.qxd
Tire: Town forgotten
by flourishing tourism
PAT YALE TÝRE
Historical
monuments are
simply fascinating.
But if you visit Tire
on a Tuesday you
may well find your
attention equally
taken up with the
wonderful street
market
If there was a prize for the most interesting small Turkish town that
has somehow managed to miss out
on tourism, it would probably have to go to
Tire, which lies just 30 kilometers inland
from Selçuk and Ephesus but gets hardly
any visitors other than those who come to
shop at its famous Tuesday market.
Tire (the ancient Teira) is a hillside
town that dates right back to Hittite
times, although most of what there is to
see there today springs from the days
when it was part of the fiefdom of the
Aydýnoðlus, and from early Ottoman
days. From the 15th to 18th centuries this
was a town important enough to have its
own mint and its own fire brigade. Even
today its narrow streets are packed with
wonderful old mosques, and with the remains of many old hans and hamams.
Even the local library repays a quick look.
Dolmuþes from Selçuk drop visitors off
near Tire's sleepy little museum which
contains a collection of Roman glass, ancient tombstones and Byzantine crosses, all
of it so casually labeled that it is impossible
to find out where anything came from. In
spite of that unfortunate fact, it's still worth
pausing to admire an exquisite statuette of
Aphrodite and one of her many lovers, and
a huge sarcophagus that looks unnervingly like a terracotta submarine.
Most people choose to come to Tire on
a Tuesday when one of Turkey's largest
street markets insinuates itself into every
nook and cranny. Not far from the museum a road is closed off for the market, and
this makes a good starting point for touring the older part of the town. In a small
park on the corner stands the tomb of
Süleyman Þah, one of the Aydýnoðlu dynasty who ruled Tire in the period following the collapse of the Selçuk Sultanate of
Rum, and who briefly made Tire their capital from 1390 to 1405. Right next to the
park is the neat little Necippaþa
Kütüphanesi, which dates back to 1827.
Normally the library is open during working hours, and it's worth popping inside to
see a collection of more than 2,000 beautiful Ottoman manuscripts carefully preserved in what resembles a wooden library
within a library. A bit further along the
road a turning on the right leads to the attractive Yeþil Cami and Ýmaret (Green
Mosque and Soup Kitchen), which is
named for the lovely blue-green tiles that
decorate its brick minaret. The complex
was built in 1442 for Halil Yahsi Bey, a general under the Aydýnoðlu ruler Murad II,
and incorporated a semahane (ceremony
hall) for dervishes to carry out their rituals.
If you leave the mosque grounds from
the rear and walk along Karahasan
Caddesi, it will bring you to the 15th-century Karahasan Cami, set in a pretty little
garden. The mosque has a wonderful fluted
minaret, rather like the better-known Yivli
Minare in Antalya, and the columns of the
triple-arched portico that front it reuse old
marble capitals from ancient Teira. In the
grounds beside the mosque stands a neglected tomb (presumably of Karahasan -Black Hasan), its dome long since caved in.
Past the mosque, Karahasan Caddesi
climbs up the hillside, passing some wonderful old Ottoman houses and arriving,
eventually, at the 14th-century Kazýroðlu
Cami with a ruined medrese to the rear and
some lovely old Ottoman tombstones in the
graveyard at the front. From here it's possible to look out over Tire and count the multitude of minarets jutting up into the sky.
If you return down Karahasan Caddesi
and turn right onto Ankara Caddesi you
come eventually to the Ulu Cami, which was
probably built for Cüneyt Bey of the
Aydýnoðlu clan, although in his
"Seyahatname" (Travels) the great 17th-century writer Evliya Çelibi assigned it a later
date. This, too, has an imposing minaret with
a pattern picked out in brick ringing its base.
From the Ulu Cami it's easy to step
back into the bustle of the market, which
completely fills the narrow streets of the
normal bazaar area. In amongst the bazaar
streets it's worth looking out for the Ali Efe
Han, a crumbling old caravanserai which
incorporates a lofty old-fashioned teahouse -- the sort of place it's hard to believe will ever go the way of a Starbucks.
Also nearby is a street where it's still possible to find an old-fashioned tinsmith, hard
at work lining copper cauldrons. Right next
door is a shop which specializes in selling
instruments made out of gourds. Both
shops are set into the side of what was
once a vast bedesten (covered bazaar);
WHERE TO STAY: Most people will
prefer to stay in Selçuk, which has accommodation to suit all budgets.
HOW TO GET THERE
Hourly dolmuþes link Selçuk and Tire.
the entrance is just round the corner and
the tinsmith may lend you the key.
Right in the heart of the bazaar is the
Yeni Cami (New Mosque), built in 1597
for Behram Bey, an Ottoman army officer.
Of the hospital that used to stand beside
it there is no longer any trace, but the
mosque retains its delicate brick minaret
and a triple portico with newly painted
ceilings. Like the Yeni Cami, the nearby
Tahtakale Cami (1401) is set into the
slope of the hill so that from one side it
has to be approached up steps. The lower
part of its minaret is partially concealed
so that it used to be nicknamed the
"mosque whose minaret has no base."
As you start to walk back down from
upper Tire, it's worth looking for the
part of the bazaar that specializes in
shoes. Tucked into this area are the ruins of the Yahsibey Hamamý, which
must, in its time, have been a truly magnificent bathhouse. Near the hamam
there is also a section of what was once
the 16th-century Kurþunlu Kervansarayý,
built for Mustafa Lütfü Paþa, a grand
vizier to Süleyman the Magnificent. In its
heyday this was used by copper traders
who slept in the rooms upstairs and
stabled their animals below them.
Tire's historical monuments are all the
more fascinating for being so little known.
But if you come to visit on a Tuesday you
may well find your attention equally taken
up with the wonderful street market.
Mainly this is a market for locals who
come here to shop for fruit and veg, nohut
ekmeði (chickpea bread) and other household necessities, and as you browse the
stalls you will be rubbing shoulders with
women from nearby villages who still
wear distinctive wraparound maroon and
black striped skirts over their leggings.
For visitors, two sections of the market are likely to be of particular interest.
The first is the fabric market where it's
sometimes possible to pick up old embroidered towels and tiny knitted
Ottoman purses, although prices are not
exactly bargains. The second is the street
where the saddle and felt-makers still
ply their trades. While few foreign visitors are likely to want to invest in a saddle, however attractively decorated, the
felt shops sell wall hangings, small rugs,
and seat covers, as well as surprisingly
delicate shawls and extremely comfortable slippers that make excellent gifts.
The prices are not at all bad, either.
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14 SUNDAY’S ZAMAN
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S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
OPINION
PHOTO
The ethýcal
questýons that
death recalls
Dr. ÖZGÜR YALÇINKAYA*
The Blaýr optýon ýn Palestýne
Blair is the most senior out-of-power statesman ever to get engaged in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He cannot be dismissed as a functionary
with no political base. His role has been blessed both by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has a long history of
engagement in Arab-Israeli issues and for years pressed for effective outside efforts to move the Palestine problem toward resolution
ROBERT E. HUNTER*
The release of an abducted BBC journalist
in Gaza is being seen by some as an attempt by Hamas (which denies any part
in the kidnapping) to curry favor with Tony Blair,
who on stepping down as Britain’s prime minister
was appointed international envoy to Israel and
Palestine. Blair has the thankless task of helping
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas build institutions for a viable state, following Hamas’ military
takeover of Gaza.
Given the stakes, this is a task worth doing despite the high risk of failure. But unless Blair gets a lot of unexpected support,
failure is what will happen.
Four basic facts govern Blair’s role:
No peace is possible unless the Palestinian
government becomes master in its own house;
Nothing is possible if Gaza remains a virtual
charnel house;
Abbas cannot succeed and Hamas cannot be
politically weakened unless there is massive external economic assistance;
It is imperative to limit the damage caused
by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to everything else
that has to be done in the Middle East.
Blair isn’t the first statesman to try helping
the Palestinians. James D. Wolfensohn, former
head of the World Bank, tried earlier in Bush’s
term. Wolfensohn made some progress, but it
was not enough, especially when the US, Israel
and the EU chose to starve the Palestinians financially after Hamas won its unexpected victory in the January 2006 Palestinian elections.
Wolfensohn quit in frustration.
Blair is the most senior out-of-power statesman
ever to get engaged in the Arab-Israeli conflict. He
cannot be dismissed as a functionary with no political base. His role has been blessed both by Abbas
and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. He has a
long history of engagement in Arab-Israeli issues
and for years pressed for effective outside efforts to
move the Palestine problem toward resolution.
At the same time Blair won’t just take orders
from the US. That would be the kiss of death, following Blair’s controversial mimicking of US policy
in Iraq. Instead, at least on paper, Blair will work
for the so-called Quartet, which also includes the
EU, the UN and Russia. Also, his formal role is
limited to helping the Palestinians sort out their
economic and political affairs, not trying to negotiate a peace settlement -- a task reserved for US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. But Blair’s
high political profile means that what he does can’t
be divorced from the broader politics or quietly
played down if things don’t go well.
At the least Blair must press for a radical increase in funds provided by the outside world to
the Palestinian government as well as to the 1.4
million Palestinians trapped in Hamas-run
Gaza. So far America has pledged $40 million in
humanitarian funds for Gaza (just $30 a person), and about $86 million in security training
money for the West Bank. These sums will be
added to Palestinian tax receipts that Israel collected but refused to hand to over to a government that included Hamas; Israel is now releasing about half of the approximately $700 million. But total funds pledged by all sources are
only a small fraction of what is urgently needed.
If Abbas is to compete with Hamas and its
well-developed social-welfare structure and to
avert human catastrophe in Gaza, he needs billions
rather than millions of dollars in aid. Along with a
major increase in US funds, the EU needs to increase its aid dramatically. But if outside money is
to flow, Blair must get the Palestinian government
to rein in its rampant corruption.
All this requires clear thinking. At the RAND
Corporation, for example, a team of researchers
has laid out a comprehensive approach to building
a successful Palestinian state, covering governance, security, education, health, water, investment -- as well as long-term economic relations
with Israel and the outside world. RAND’s practical ideas have drawn praise from some Palestinian
as well as Israeli leaders, precisely because they
are about people more than about politics.
But even if Blair can get the economic development issues right, he can’t stop there if Abbas is to
have a chance to succeed. Blair will need to gain
Israel’s assurances that life for Palestinians, both in
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the West Bank and in Gaza, will become better.
That includes greater freedom of movement, both
within the West Bank and between it and Gaza.
Blair will also likely press Israel to prove
its intentions by stopping all settlement activity in the West Bank -- no new settlements, no
expansion of existing ones.
By the same token, Blair will need to press the
Palestinians to deliver a virtual cessation of attacks
on Israel from Palestinian territories, including by
Hamas, lest all peace efforts be blown apart by renewed fighting. As always, such a cessation would
be at the mercy of extremists competing for power
or bent on making peace impossible.
In the process Blair will have to talk to all
parties, including Hamas -- an Israeli and
US sticking-point.
These are all needs to be met even before
the US can try again to broker a political settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. In the
end the obstacles may cause the “Blair option”
to fall short. But everyone committed to a positive outcome for Israel, Palestine, and the
Middle East should wish Blair good luck.
* US ambassador to NATO from 1993-1998 and
senior advisor at the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research organization. The RAND study cited
above, “Building a Successful Palestinian State”
can be downloaded at www.rand.org/palestine ©
Project Syndicate / RAND, 2007
The events that happened to singer and actor Barýþ
Akarsu after his car accident, during the five days in
the intensive care unit and until his death on
Wednesday evening have recalled some of the ethical problems present in many institutions, especially in the media. Simply we can analyze the problem from three perspectives: media ethics, medical ethics and social ethics.
The media and public interest in a person famous in
popular music culture is understandable. The media allocates coverage to these types of people from time to
time, interviews them and catches them at unexpected
moments. But the question is how much of this is a person’s private life? In other words, what are the boundaries for private life? Where does it begin and end?
This is a question that involves media ethics and this is
the area in which we must search for an answer.
But the media has never proved itself to be good in this
area. We experienced similar cases when the late former
Prime Minister Bülent Ecevit’s medical records were printed
in newspapers, the images of victims of child exploitation
were printed and when images of honor killing and traffic
accidents were displayed -- and we continue to experience
the same problems. But private life strictly involves the individual. Whether it is bad or good, images should not be
printed without the consent of the individual involved.
Are not the ethics in reporting a snatch and run incident the same as when covering or taking a photo of a
famous or ordinary person? It should be, because you
don’t know if the former person will approve of the image or story. If we were to give a name to this situation,
the best term would be “media snatch and run.” The
only exception should be events open to the public,
directly involving society and declared to officials.
A while ago my friend asked a company that turned
him down why he was not hired. Their response was simple
and straightforward. They told him that they searched for
his name on the Internet and found articles about his being
associated with fraud and said that they did not want to
work with a morally flawed character like him. But the court
had actually ruled in favor of my friend. The allegations
against him were dropped, but the media did not write even
one sentence on his innocence. Now how will my friend
be able to prove his innocence? How will he be able to
change or delete those articles that remain in the media?
Then there is deontology, which consists of the moral
conduct of health care professionals, who have access
to an individual’s most private information and are responsible for the protection of confidential material.
The recent events we’ve witnessed are hints of the
severe problem that can be caused by inadequate medical ethics classes in medical schools and faculties for
health care. If every health professional in the intensive
care unit was aware and sensitive to the code of ethics
these images would not have appeared in the media.
Would the situation have been different if it was in another city and not Bodrum? It is certain that we have encountered an issue that the medical world must explore.
The third dimension to the issue is social ethics. On
that same day 40 other people died in car accidents. But
news channels only gave about 30 seconds for each accident, while Akarsu’s accident was the first news on every
channel and live broadcasts were made from the hospital.
Famous and ordinary people gave interviews to the different channels. Thousands of people sent online condolences to Akarsu, but no one remembered the other people who died in car accidents that same day. In fact no
one even wondered about the other two people who died
in the same accident or where their funerals were held. I
won’t even mention the rating debates in front of the
cameras and the “I have the latest photo” barters.
I wonder when we became an inconsiderate, unconstructive society so influenced by the media that it
accepts everything it sees; that hurries to take a picture with its cell phone when it sees two popular people; that has even turned crying into a show.
* Deontology (medical ethics) expert
Daðýstan Çetinkaya
dagistancetinkaya@todayszaman.com.tr
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COLUMNS
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 15
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
War ýs a hot ball ýn messy polýtýcs
The main bulk of the election campaign is built on the excited rhetoric on entering Iraq to deal with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) problem. The military has been, as repeated by the top commander, on stand-by. The opposition, the Republican People’s
Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the
lead, does not seem to run out of ammunition for pressing the
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for a decree. CHP leader
Deniz Baykal took hours in TV channels to work the issue to new
heights, as it was apparent that it would be the main topic to confront the AK Party with before the voters.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan and Foreign Minister
Abdullah Gül tiptoe cautiously, while retaliating with threat-filled
rhetoric, as the clock counts down to the elections.
But those who have been hoping for a gain in votes by raising the
flag of invasion may be proved wrong on July 23. Does the voter really
expect military action? Response to the question is interesting.
Tarhan Erdem, a columnist with Radikal, published what appears to be his own research (he conducts polls regularly) on what
the voters think about the Iraq issue.
Should Turkey go to war? There seems to be an almost equal
division there. Some 52 percent agree that Turkey should invade
northern Iraq, while 48 percent say no.
Then comes the follow-up question: Do you think that such an inva-
ANDREW
FINKEL
YAVUZ
BAYDAR
y.baydar@todayszaman.com
sion would solve the terrorism problem? Forty-eight percent say no. Only
25 percent of those asked say “yes, it will.” (Of those who do not want an
invasion, up to 85 percent believe it will not lead to any solution at all.)
When you look at this on a party basis, 61 percent of those
who would vote for the AK Party are against an invasion. CHP
and MHP voters are more enthusiastic: Respectively, 64 percent
and 75 percent of their voters are for military action. Some 59
percent of the AK Party supporters do not believe it will bring
any solution. But here things take an interesting turn: Only onethird of the CHP voters believe in it forming a solution and even
among MHP voters this figure is not higher than 45 percent.
In my new TV show (STV), I asked Bülent Korucu, the head of
Cihan news agency, which took the pulse of “deep Turkey” -- as opposed to the “deep state” -- about these sentiments. The people are
mostly against a war, families fear an invasion into Iraq would bring
more death and suffering, was the prompt answer. It overlaps, to a de-
No Comment
gree, with the confused and contradictory picture of the voters’ mindset.
We are faced, obviously, with a mess caused by cheap tricks of populist
Turkish politicians, some of whom cynically love to dance on blood.
As the pressure continues can we expect a decree by Parliament, a
go-ahead from the government? Unless a “dramatic new terrorist act”
-- to paraphrase Marc Parris, a former ambassador of the US in
Ankara -- could force Erdoðan into taking a drastic step. Otherwise
here is the game plan: as the CHP and the MHP keep shouting that
the government is chickening out on any action, the AK Party will
keep the issue of a decree on the table, close to the doors of
Parliament, it may even convene (if conditions so demand) Parliament
to issue a decision, leaving implementation to the post-election period.
But the question remains. In a very lucid article published by
the Washington Times, Parris asks: “Will Turkey shoot?” A very
cautious “maybe” follows as an answer. Because, he says, “there
are good reasons why Turkey’s generals may not, in fact, be anxious to cross the border.” Parris goes on, referring to Chief of
General Staff Gen. Yaþar Büyükanýt: “He has explicitly mused on
the difficulty in defining the mission and on potential unintended
consequences. How to declare ‘success’ against so illusive a foe?
What if Massoud Barzani’s peshmerga shoot back? He has not articulated, but cannot have failed to realize, other likely downsides:
sparking an actual increase in terror inside Turkey by a PKK anx-
REUTERS, IRAQ
a.finkel@todayszaman.com
ÝHSAN
YILMAZ
i.yilmaz@todayszaman.com
A modest proposal
You can’t keep sex out of politics, but what about gender?
I suppose I should be confessing this on a
psychiatrist’s couch rather than the column of a
national newspaper, but it strikes me that the logo for the Genç (”youth”) Party resembles a patriotic bikini top. Whether the designer of the two
symmetrical crescents “attached” to a single star
had this in mind from the start I do not know, but
the party has a slightly sexy image.
Admittedly, its policies could have been written
by the late Saparmurat Niyazov of Turkmenistan,
but its campaign methods are up to date. Cem Uzan
struts the stage like a middle-aged rock star as he
woos women voters with celebrity candidate Ýbrahim
Tatlýses on hand to croon. It is no coincidence that
Genç tops the league in putting female candidates in
electable positions. Alas, this is not in itself, it strikes
me, a good reason to win it any votes.
Which all goes to show that having more women
in politics is not a sufficient condition to getting issues
that matter to women higher up on the ballot. The argument of KA-DER, the organization dedicated to
getting women accepted into politics, is that at the
very least it is a first step. Prior to the selection of candidates KA-DER mounted a high-impact advertising
campaign that resulted in only limited success. Emine
Bozkurt, Dutch Euro MEP and rapporteur for
women’s rights in Turkey, in an interview for this paper said that despite all their hopes, the door had
been shut in women’s faces. The chances are that the
next parliament will only have a 7 percent contingent
of women, compared to 22 percent in Bulgaria next
door. There is not even a single token woman in first
place on the governing AK Party’s candidate lists.
KA-DER wants to see positive discrimination -- a
quota system that will ensure more women MPs, and
I see nothing wrong with this. The real priority, of
course, is to break up a backroom system of candidate
selection. That this system so palpably discriminates
on gender lines is symptomatic of an even greater
malaise -- a lack of connectedness between deputies
and their electorate, the rulers and the ruled.
So I have a modest proposal. It is a lot less
outrageous than the one that Jonathan Swift’s
“modest proposal” in 1729 that the Irish solve the
problem of poverty by eating their babies, but it
might be slightly more difficult to implement.
Why not have an Equality Party at the next election after this? According to the Constitution it
could not recruit on a gender basis or be
“women’s only,” but even for only half its candidates to be women would be a great improvement
on the current miserable state. There are, of
course, women’s parties in elsewhere and their
performance has been pretty grim, but this is because they are deemed to be radical. What I am
proposing is something mainstream.
Given the general vacuousness of most of the party programs or the discontent between party programs and what politician do once they get into office,
it wouldn’t be hard to forge a wide-based coalition.
All it would take would be for one in every five
women to vote for the EP, and there are bound to be
men who would support it as well. After all, there
must be old people who vote for the “Youth” Party.
And think of all the problems that would be
solved. The reason the headscarf is such an issue
in Turkey is because men don’t wear one. Imagine
what would happen if people who snored couldn’t work in the upper echelons of the civil service,
or those who suffered from unsightly nasal hair
were excluded from university. The men would
make sure the problem would be solved quickly. I
won’t predict how the Equality Party will get secular and religious women to resolve their differences, but I am sure it will be done.
ious to show it is still in business; jeopardizing quiet but significant
US intelligence and other cooperation against the PKK.” And:
“Most importantly, the generals must know that intervention in
Iraq could drive the United States and Mr. Barzani closer together
in the run-up to this fall’s referendum on the status of Kirkuk.
If the Americans have used capital with Iraqi Kurds to manage
the consequences of a Turkish incursion, they may find Mr.
Barzani harder to handle when they turn to Kirkuk.”
I agree also with Parris that “there is no question that the military’s periodic emphasis on the utility of a cross-border operation has
been the key factor in ‘terror’ having displaced ‘secularism’ as the hot
button issue in Turkey’s ongoing general election campaign.”
Here we see the unfolding of the major political tactics of the
establishment: fear and disgust of terror as an instrument to
gamble with the election outcome. Hence the increasing worry
in the ultra-secularist camp as the MHP shows signs of falling
foul of the critical 10 percent threshold. CHP and MHP voters
are not completely happy with their leaders, nor are they very
joyful about the prospect of a coalition between the two.
The genuine worry remains: The real threat of ongoing PKK
violence. Its damaging potential for more instability in Turkey and
further damage to Turco-American relations is there. There is
much to be worked out after the elections. Tough indeed.
Turkýsh foreýgn
polýcy and strategýc
soft power
Caspýan themes
FÝKRET
ERTAN
f.ertan@todayszaman.co m
“Despite positive moments, the current legal status of the
Caspian Sea leaves many questions unanswered. Today we are
all witnessing the Caspian Sea’s role growing with each day,
which has created new geopolitical conditions in the region.’’
These are the words of Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar
Mamedyarov, spoken at the most recent Caspian Five ministerial conference.
As Mamedyarov aptly pointed out, the Caspian Sea has been
assuming an important role and adding new factors to the geopolitical map, not only in regional but also in global terms -- the sea and
its surrounding region has become a new and promising energy
source, a major reason all eyes were on the ministerial conference of
Caspian countries held June 20-22 in Tehran.
The first summit of the Caspian Sea countries took place in
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in April 2002. At the summit the presidents
of the five Caspian countries agreed that they would meet every year
and that the next summit would be held in Tehran. Five years have
passed since then, and the Tehran summit has still not become a reality -- the recent meeting was only on a ministerial level. The core
issue is an agreement between the five countries that calls for their
presidents to adopt a convention on the legal status of the Caspian
Sea, but the various governments have so far been unable to reach
consensus on the terms and framework of the convention.
The meeting also failed to formulate a convention, as openly
admitted by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. ‘’It is clear
that the convention will not be ready for the highest-level meeting
between the presidents,” he said, proposing a draft of an ‘’interim
document that would enact rules governing the use of the Caspian
that are as general and acceptable to all as possible.’’
This proposal clearly shows that Russia aims to save the
most difficult problems for the presidential level. In this context
Lavrov mentioned two key problems that the presidents of the
five countries must resolve: creating international boundaries for
the area and the carrying out of military exercises.
From Russia’s point of view these two problems are interrelated and
they differ from at least three of the other four countries already unilaterally establishing their sovereignty over their share of the Caspian.
In this respect Russia is particularly concerned that the
division of the Caspian Sea into national sections will pave
the way for laying pipelines along the bottom of the sea to
transport oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan and
Kazakhstan to Europe and beyond, thus bypassing Russia.
Another important concern for Russia is that after any division of the sea the surrounding countries would assume the
right to consent to foreign military presence from such bodies
as the US or NATO in their national sections. Azerbaijan is
particularly worrying Russia in this respect, since this country
has significant military ties with US within the framework of
the Azeri-American joint ‘’Caspian Defense’’ project.
To counter this project, Russia has been promoting the ‘’Kasfor’’
(Caspian Force) project, which would bring together all the five littoral states in a naval force based in the Caspian. Despite several
Russian overtures, Azerbaijan still refuses to participate in Kasfor,
which would also prohibit the presence of ‘’third-party’’ naval forces
in the region. Kazakhstan, while much more receptive to Kasfor, has
been pressuring Russia on equalizing weapons arsenals all around
the Caspian Sea, a proposal Russia seems very reluctant to accept.
From these considerations one can easily see that Russia’s
only remaining ally in the Caspian region is Iran, which, like
Russia, is vehemently opposed to the presence of any foreign
naval force in the Caspian. It also seems to support the Russian
Kasfor project. On plans and projects for laying underwater transCaspian pipelines, Iran is also backing Russia strongly.
These are the themes and thoughts that the last Caspian conference evoked in my mind.
Turkey has been discussing a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to eliminate the terrorist
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) headquarters. Yet
many in the region suspect that the real Turkish intention is to intervene in Kirkuk. It is a well-known
fact that Turkey does not want oil-rich Kirkuk to be
a part of a Kurdish state, as a prosperous entity
could attract Kurds in Turkey. We all know that a
military incursion is only an ad hoc remedy.
A strategic soft power backed by a powerful military and efficient intelligence, in addition to socioeconomic measures, is needed to eliminate the roots of
terror. Our Kurdish citizens should be convinced that
Turkey is also their country; that they do not have to
abandon or hide their ethnic identities to be first-class
citizens; and that Ýstanbul is a more pleasant and comfortable place to live for Kurds than northern Iraq.
Turkey has been encouraging its citizens in the
West to integrate into the new societies; to adopt dual
nationalities; and, in a world of multiple loyalties, to
help Turkish interests by participating in the economic,
social and political life of the West. Integration is not
assimilation. One does not need to jettison one’s ethnic
and cultural identity, religion or language. So why do
we expect our Kurdish citizens to hide their Kurdish
identity? Every time we despise their culture, language
and people as tribal with a hooligan attitude, we are
pushing them toward the terrorist rhetoric.
Remember Özal? He tried to develop a strategic
soft power by emphasizing that in Turkey we have
brothers in all our neighboring countries and this is
an asset to be utilized for a peaceful coexistence.
Instead of meting out punishments or threatening
with physical coercion, he tried to make Turkey a
comfortable home for all ethnicities.
America’s mighty military force has been humbled in Iraq; it has become a wounded superpower
and is now looking for ways to cooperate with Iran
and Syria, who it once called the “axis of evil.” Who
likes the Americans in the Middle East now? Why
should we repeat similar mistakes?
It is also high time to change our image among
the Middle Eastern peoples. For instance, why do we
not talk about opening TV channels and universities
in the Middle East, including northern Iraq, instead
of focusing only on a military incursion?
There are many intelligent ways of dealing with terror, our terrorist-loving allies, neo-cons and Likudniks.
Kandil is only a symptom. Remember where Öcalan
went after he was evicted from Syria? All Kandil-folk
will come to Western Europe if they are not already
here. That is why our strategic soft power should include
elements of strengthening ties with the Turkish,
Kurdish, Alevi and even all greater Middle East diasporas, first to prevent these communities’ possible support
of terrorism and second to lobby for Turkey. The best
way of “not achieving” this is to send hawkish generals
there to harangue people. Instead, if Turkey wants to
win the hearts and minds of these people who will be
very rich and effective a decade from now, Turkish civil
society should be motivated to form strong ties with
these communities; to establish civil society institutions; and to develop different schemes to interact
with these people. Our foreign and national security
policies should include these elements.
Turkey as an island of peace has huge potential to
become a super soft power in the region with its strategic depth, multiethnic population, historical and
transnational ties and relatively developed democracy.
The only thing we need in order to realize this potential is a proper democracy, despite our allies -- who
should know that Turkey with a strategic soft power is
also in their reasonable, not emotional, interest.
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S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
LEISURE
tv guýde
Gregorian Calendar: 08 July 2007 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 23 Jumada al-Akhir 1428 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 22 Tamuz 5767
calendar@todayszaman.com
mous French fabulist and probably the most widely
read French poet of the 17th century. The works of La
Fontaine, the total bulk of which is considerable, fall no
less naturally than traditionally into three divisions: the
Fables, the Contes and the miscellaneous works. Of
these the first may be said to be known universally, the
second to be known to all lovers of French literature the
third to be with a few exceptions practically forgotten.
Today is the birthday of John D. Rockefeller
(1839-1937), the American industrialist and philanthropist that revolutionized the oil industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870,
Rockefeller founded the Standard Oil Company and
Today is Liberty Bell Day in the US. This may
sound strange to most Americans but on this
day in 1776 this bell proclaimed the
Declaration of Independence to the world, and on
July 8, 1835, rang for the death of John Marshall, the
American statesman and jurist who shaped
American constitutional law and made the Supreme
Court a center of power. On this second occasion the
bell had a second crack. As this crack became the
distinctive character of the Liberty Bell, July 8 became known as the Liberty Bell Day for some time.
Today is the birthday of French poet Jean de La
Fontaine (1621-1695). La Fontaine was the most fa-
Transformers
TRANSFORMERS
ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu AFM Fitaþ: 11:45
13:25 15:00 18:15 19:50 21:30 Kadýköy
Cinebonus Nautilus: 11:00 12:30 14:00
15:30 17:00 18:30 20:00 21:30 Fri/Sat:
23:00 ANKARA: Ata On Tower: 11:15
14:15 15:45 17:15 18:45 20:15 21:45
Fri/Sat: 24:00 Kýzýlay Büyülü Fener:
11:30 13:00 14:30 16:00 17:30 19:00
20:30 ÝZMÝR: Cinebonus Konak Pier:
11:00 12:30 14:15 17:30 20:45 Fri/Sat:
24:00 ANTALYA: Cinebonus Migros:
11:30 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:45 15:15
16:15 16:45 18:00 18:30 19:30 20:00
21:15 21:45 Fri/Sat: 23:30
e2
ran it until he retired in the late 1890s. He kept his
stock and as gasoline grew in importance, his
wealth soared and he became the world’s richest
man and first billionaire. Rockefeller is often regarded as the richest person in history.
Today is also the birthday of The Wall Street Journal
(WSJ). This influential financial newspaper was first
published on this day in 1889. For more than a century
the WSJ was the largest circulating US newspaper until
it was surpassed by USA Today in 2003. The WSJ is
published by Dow Jones & Company today and has a
worldwide daily circulation of more than 2 million with
about 1 million paying online subscribers. By Kerim Balcý
Bluesman Vieux Farka Toure
keeps his father’s spirit alive
COLD PREY
sicians in Europe and the United
States, but some have been criticized for doing too little to promote Africa’s home-grown talent.
For Vieux, fighting malaria
and struggling for impoverished
African cotton farmers to get
equal access to world markets
are causes close to home which
he will be supporting as he tours
cities including New York, Los
Angeles, London and Dublin. “Life is tough in
Niafunke,” he said. “Somebody who cannot find 100
CFA francs (20 cents) to feed themselves cannot find
three, four or five thousand to pay for malaria medicine.”
Ten percent of revenues from his record sales
go back to Niafunke and the Timbuktu region to
buy mosquito nets, while the tour is being promoted under the “Fight Malaria” banner.
His clothes are made by young Malian designer Awa
Meite, at the forefront of a campaign to support cotton
farmers in a nation where eight out of 10 people lead a rural existence which US farm subsidies threaten to kill off.
Vieux’s debut album, which features two tracks
recorded with his father just before he died in March
2006, has won widespread praise around the world.
A remix by leading DJs is due to hit dancefloors this
summer on the back of its success. Despite the
growing fame, Vieux is determined to emulate the
modesty of his father, who, when he won his first
Grammy was quoted as saying: “I don’t know what
a Grammy means, but if someone has something for
me they can come and give it to me here in
Niafunke, where I was singing when nobody knew me.”
“I may be able to live well but I will never change,”
Vieux said. “I will always stay like my father.” Dakar Reuters
When desert blues pioneer Ali Farka Toure,
one of Africa’s bestloved musicians, died last year in
his native Mali few could have
imagined his son would follow
so quickly in his footsteps.
Barely a year after the death of
his double Grammy-winning father, Vieux Farka Toure begins
his first major tour of North
America and the British Isles this weekend, a critically acclaimed debut album already under his belt.
Drawing on the same haunting Saharan blues
that made his father famous, his music pays homage to his family roots around Niafunke, a village
on the banks of Mali’s Niger river near the fabled
trading town of Timbuktu. “That’s where I have
everything, my fields, my mother, my family,” he
told Reuters in an interview from Bamako on
Thursday before leaving for London to begin his tour.
As well as inheriting a blues-inflected guitar style, albeit infused with a new generation of influences from reggae to rock, Vieux Farka Toure is also continuing his father’s quiet campaign to improve the lot of some of the
poorest in his country. Dubbed “the African John Lee
Hooker,” Ali Farka Toure eschewed glamour. Considering
himself above all a farmer, he tended 350 hectares
(865 acres) in Niafunke, where he was made mayor
for setting up projects to help local women and children.
“Me and my father, it was like a pupil and his
teacher. He did not just teach me music, he taught me
to live daily life, what was good, what was bad. They’re
the same instructions I follow to this day,” Vieux said.
Championing the fight against poverty and disease
in Africa has become a fashionable cause for many mu-
ÝSTANBUL: Levent Cinebonus Kanyon:
11:00 13:00 15:15 19:30 Fri/Sat: 24:15
Caddebostan AFM Budak: 11:30 13:50
16:10 18:30 21:00 Fri/Sat: 23:20
RISE: BLOOD HUNTER
ÝSTANBUL: Levent Cinebonus Kanyon:
11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 Fri/Sat:
24:15 Kadýköy Cinebonus Nautilus:
11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat:
24:00 ANKARA: Ata On Tower: 11:00
13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 Fri/Sat:
24:00 Kýzýlay Büyülü Fener: 11:20 13:20
15:20 17:20 19:20 21:20 ÝZMÝR:
Cinebonus Konak Pier: 10:30 12:45
15:00 17:15 19:30 21:45 Fri/Sat: 24:00
ANTALYA:Cinebonus Migros: 11:45
14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat: 24:15
CANDY
ÝSTANBUL: Levent Cinebonus Kanyon:
11:45 14:15 16:45 22:00 Fri/Sat: 24:30
LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD
ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu CineMajestic:
12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00 21:00
Kadýköy Cinebonus Nautilus: 17:00
21:30 ANKARA: Kýzýlay Büyülü
Fener: 12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00 21:15
ÝZMÝR: Karþýyaka Deniz: 12:15 14:30
16:45 19:00 21:30
DEAD IN THREE DAYS
ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu CineMajestic:
12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00 21:00
Kadýköy Cinebonus Nautilus: 17:00
21:30 ANKARA: Kýzýlay Büyülü
Fener: 12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00 21:15
ÝZMÝR: Karþýyaka Deniz: 12:15 14:30
16:45 19:00 21:30
goldmax
movýemax
07:25 The Ape
09:10 Bigger Than the Sky
11:00 Inside The Actors’ Studio:
Naomi Watts
12:10 In the Mix
13:50 Coach Carter
16:10 Poseidon
16:40 Nouvelle-France - New
France
19:15 Inside The Actors’ Studio:
Matt Damon
20:30 Where the Truth Lies
22:30 Team America: World
Police
mgm movýes
Cem Kýzýltuð
c.kiziltug@todayszaman.com
172
HARD
8
6
HARD
2
4
6 2 3 5 8 7 9 4 1
8 4 5 9 6 1 7 3 2
9 7 1 3 2 4 5 8 6
6
5 1 2 6 4 9 3 7 8
3 6 8 2 7 5 1 9 4
7 9 4 1 3 8 2 6 5
1
1
6
2
1
9
3
6
3
EASY
8
6
7
3
1
1
4
5
1
8
5
3
3
7
8
9
7
4
9
1
4
5
8
9
EASY
6 9 2 3 7 8 1 5 4
3 8 4 1 5 9 7 2 6
5 7 1 6 2 4 9 8 3
2 4 8 7 6 1 5 3 9
1 5 3 8 9 2 6 4 7
9 6 7 5 4 3 8 1 2
7 1 6 2 3 5 4 9 8
4 3 5 9 8 6 2 7 1
8 2 9 4 1 7 3 6 5
2
2
3
9
4
5
6
12
1
8
2
7
9
8
4
8
14
15
18
19
23
13
16
20
24
17
21
25
26
27
29
30
9
3
7
10
11
22
6
2
172
Crossword
9
1
© NI Syndication
28
THE TIMES CROSSWORD
ACROSS
1 Put out, having honour but no heart,
and was pained when ace dropped (8)
6 Lied about being in the lead and performing well (2,4)
9 Couple participating in white magic (4)
10 Providing rides is drudgery (6-4)
11 Show off in America or Greece balancing feat that’s not hard (10)
13 Pondered leaving motorway, with some
traffic (4)
14 Foreign invaders endlessly observe
island (8)
16 The man that’s rearranged the song (6)
18 You and I corrupt little creature (6)
20 You’ll find game here almost secured
(2,3,3)
22 Jug in which we got incarcerated by
Her Majesty (4)
24 Impracticable cities laid out (10)
26 Egalitarian protest about despicable
character in charge (10)
28 Incline to be skinny (4)
29 One supplanted by general in revolution shows bad temper (6)
30 Boss takes worker round colliery (8)
06:05 Mississippi Burning
08:10 Xena: Warrior Princess
09:00 Shao Lin san shi liu fang 36th Chamber of Shaolin
11:00 Mars Attacks!
12:50 Enterprise
13:40 Xena: Warrior Princess
14:30 City Heat
16:15 The Sea Wolves
18:20 Diplomatic Siege - Enemy
of my Enemy
20:00 Shao Lin san shi liu fang 36th Chamber of Shaolin
22:00 Shu Dan Long Wei Meltdown
23:45 Private Wars
hallmark
23,349
DOWN
2 Complete middle of house for speech
(9)
3 Small number, 1000 altogether, less 50
(7)
4 The underworld has to keep notes … (5)
5 … to demand payment for horse (3)
6 Unconventional advert for form of borrowing (9)
7 Witnessed corpse — the result of use
of blade (7)
8 Runs into icy mass, exhibiting courage
(5)
12 Amenity at one’s disposal night and
day (3,4)
15 Fighter willing to persevere (7,2)
17 Destroy 30 heartlessly after a long time
(9)
19 Observe changes of many words (7)
21 Record store given new character in
Greece (7)
23 Give birth, with assistance (5)
25 See copper mark stand-in (5)
27 Hang out to dry — that’s easily done in
the front (3)
Solution to Prize Crossword 23,348
D I S A P PROV E
I T EM
O P
I
U E
I
A
CH I NCH I L L A ANON
K N K N V S O O
B U NGE E J UMP E R
S A P
T C E H
N I GH TMARE K ENDO
A G H R E
I
E U
PURGE MANA T ARMS
D E
T
A
A S E
R I S E ANDSH I NE
A S B
I
A D A
I
GR I D U L T RA SON I C
O O
L
D E
T O
N I NE PO L YNE S I AN
Check today’s answers
by ringing
Yesterday’s
puzzle
solved
0906 957 1502. Calls cost 75p per
minute.
The winners of Prize Crossword
23,348 are:
Mark Eden, London NW3;
Mrs P. Tooley, East Tilbury, Essex;
Bernard Carter, Marlow, Bucks;
Mr P.D. Forde, Drumree,
Co. Meath, Eire;
Alasdair Mackenzie, London SW9
(via email).
7
travelers’ s.o.s
HOW TO PLAY? : The objective of the game is to fill all the blank squares in a game with
the correct numbers. There are three very simple constraints to follow. In a 9 by 9
square Sudoku game:
Every row of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order
Every column of 9 numbers must include all digits 1 through 9 in any order
Every 3 by 3 subsection of the 9 by 9 square must include all digits 1 through 9
08:45 Crime and Punishment in
Suburbia
10:30 Murders in the Rue Morgue
12:15 Master of Dragonard Hill
13:50 Fuzz
15:30 O.C. & Stiggs
17:20 Bandido
18:55 Tomorrow Is Forever
20:45 Blood and Lace
22:20 The Killer Elite
actýonmax
1 3 6 8 9 2 4 5 7
2 8 7 4 5 3 6 1 9
4 5 9 7 1 6 8 2 3
3
3
cnbc-e
07:00 The Fairly Oddparents
07:30 Danny Phantom
08:00 Dora the Explorer
10:00 Avatar
10:30 Spongebob Squarepants
11:30 Malcolm in the Middle
12:30 My Name is Earl
13:00 The King of Queens
13:30 The New Adventures of Old
Christine
14:00 Ghost Whisperer
15:00 Cold Case
16:00 ER
17:00 The Simpsons
17:30 Family Guy
18:00 Prison Break
19:00 The X-Files
20:00 Smallville
21:00 Heroes
22:00 24
24:00 Ren and Stimpy
00:30 Heroes
01:30 Smallville
02:30 The X-Files
03:30 24
05:00 Without a Trace
06:00 Married with Children
07:05 Shallow Hal
07:30 Play It to the Bone
09:35 Zeus and Roxanne
11:20 Die Hard 2
13:30 Stage Fright
15:20 Syriana
15:40 All the President’s Men
18:05 Dangerous Liaisons
20:15 Delivering Milo
22:00 Chasing Amy
23:55 After Hours
Mr. DýploMAT!
Sudoku
08:00 Married with Children
09:00 Two and a Half Men
10:00 Rachael Ray Show
12:00 Ellen DeGeneres Show
14:00 Desperate Housewives
16:00 Late Night with Conan
O’Brien
18:00 American Idol
18:00 The Closer
21:00 The Sarah Silverman
Program
21:30 The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart
22:00 Dirt
23:00 Dexter
24:00 Nip/Tuck
01:00 Footballers’ Wives
02:00 Celebrity Poker
03:30 Dexter
04:30 Nip/Tuck
05:30 CSI: NY
06:30 Late Night with Conan
O’Brien
Ambulance: 112 Fire: 110171 Police:155 156 Maritime: 158 Unknown numbers: 118 Turkish Airlines: 444 0 849, U.S. Embassy: 0312 455 5555 U.S. Consulate:
0212 2513602-3-4 Russian Embassy: 0312 439 2122 Russian Consulate: 0212 244 1693-2610 British Embassy: 0312 455 3344 British Consulate: 0212 293
7540 German Embassy. 0312 455 5100 German Consulate: 0212 251 5404-05 French Embassy: 0312 455 4545 French Consulate: 0212 292 4810-11 Indian
Embassy: 0312 438 2195 Pakistani Embassy: 0312 427 1410 Austrian Embassy: 0312 419 0431-33 Austrian Consulate: 0212 262 9315 Belgian Embassy:
0312 446 8247 Belgian Consulate: 0212 243 3300 Egyptian Embassy: 0312 426 1026 Egyptian Consulate: 0212 263 6038 Israeli Embassy: 0312 446 3605
06:00 They Still Call Me Bruce
08:00 Dynasty: Behind the Scenes
09:30 Alice in Wonderland
11:45 The Deliverance of Elaine
13:15 From the Mixed-Up Files of
Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
15:00 Dynasty: Behind the Scenes
16:45 Alice in Wonderland
19:00 The Deliverance of Elaine
20:30 Wild at Heart
21:30 The Right to Remain Silent
23:15 The Youngest Godfather
comedymax
06:00 The Parkers
07:00 Rodney
07:30 Raising Dad
08:30 Frasier
09:30 American Dad
11:00 Reba
12:00 The Office
12:30 Two Guys & A Girl
14:00 Jake In Progress
15:00 Spin City
16:30 Sons & Daughters
17:00 Reba
18:00 Til Death
18:30 Frasier
19:30 In Case of Emergency
20:00 Two Guys & A Girl
21:30 30 Rock
22:00 Reba
23:00 Curb Your Enthusiasm
07.07.2007
01:21
Page 1
WORLD
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 17
S U N D AY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
Western forces hooked on
air power in Afghan war
PHOTO
REUTERS
Despite repeated criticism of Western tactics by President Hamid Karzai, and pledges by NATO and US officials
to review procedures, few expect an overhaul of strategy by the 50,000 international troops there any time soon
MARK JOHN BRUSSELS
Too few troops?
De Hoop Scheffer has urged better coordination
on the ground between NATO forces, the separate US-led coalition and Afghan troops. He also wants faster investigations of incidents and
more humanitarian relief for victims.
While coordination with Afghan forces has
been messy, alliance sources are broadly happy
with ties between ISAF and the US-led coalition.
The coalition has focused on aggressive
counter-terrorism operations, whereas the
40,000 ISAF troops have a peacekeeping mandate, but the line between the two has been
blurred by the mounting insurgency.
Some say more aid and faster probes of accidents might limit the public relations damage
from incidents, but would not in themselves reduce casualties. Others blame the small size of
the troop presence -- less than a third of that in
Iraq for a country 1.5 times as big -- for what
they see as excessive reliance on air power.
"If the Taliban withdraw to a village, there is
an inability to send troops forward on the ground
to clear that village. That is very manpower-intensive," said Christopher Langton of the Londonbased International Institute for Strategic Studies.
Even if further troops were available -- and
there are no signs that any of NATO's 26 members
or partner nations are in the mood to stump up
more -- some analysts sense a preference for air
power over riskier deployments of ground troops.
"Countries such as Canada are already under pressure to reduce troops," said Matthew
Clements, Eurasia editor at Jane's Country Risk
report. "They don't want more casualties."
Given the limitations of Western forces and
the Taliban tactic of using human shields,
Langton said NATO and its allies would do better to adopt a less aggressive approach and consider negotiating cease-fire deals in some cases.
However, noting how the US general currently running the NATO Afghan effort bluntly condemned one such pact made by his
British predecessor, Langton added: "I don't
think Dan McNeill would ever accept that."
Reacting to criticism that they were losing
the public relations battle, NATO officials have
stepped up criticism of the insurgents, with de
Hoop Scheffer lashing out at those who behead
people, burn schools, kill women and children.
And, despite McNeill's reputation as a noholds-barred commander, alliance sources insist there has been a subtle fine-tuning of operations under his watch that they hope will start
to translate into a lower toll in civilian lives.
Ultimately it is up to a commander whether
there are fewer air strikes. "But is killing 10 Taliban
worth killing five civilians? The answer is 'No', and
that is fully understood," one source said. Reuters
JAN RAATH HARARE
President Robert Mugabe has ordered
petrol stations to slash the price of fuel
by 70 percent in a desperate bid to bring
down the world's highest rate of inflation. Mr.
Mugabe ordered the price of fuel to be cut to
18p per liter, as his politburo announced plans
to "tighten and intensify" price controls.
Shops have already been ordered to reduce
prices as the president seeks to beat hyper-inflation that he fears may spark civil unrest and
drive him from power.
State radio called on the movement of war
veterans -- a reserve unit of the armed forces
made up of former guerillas who fought to end
white rule more than 25 years ago -- the youth
militia and the women's league of Mr. Mugabe's
ZANU(PF) Party, to report to party headquarters.
Observers believe that the groups have been
summoned to support trade inspectors, police
and state secret agents in enforcing the price cuts.
Supermarkets, shops and warehouses are
being forced to sell produce at prices far below
the cost of replacing stock. The operation has
been accompanied by state-approved looting as
hungry Zimbabweans, impoverished by Mr.
Mugabe's ruinous economic policies, loaded
cheap goods -- which were often resold on the
black market the same day at far higher prices.
Lawyers have denounced the forced price cuts
as illegal, while many businessmen have been arrested for failing to comply. "It's all by edict in
the state press," said one lawyer who asked not
to be named. "And even if they did make it official, it would be in violation of the Constitution,
for depriving people unlawfully of their property. It is legalized looting and legalized theft."
Mr. Mugabe's onslaught is seen as a response to repeated forecasts that Zimbabwe's
wild inflation will bring the economy to a halt
within six months and cause civil upheaval that
will drive him from power.
"Mugabe is taking these forecasts very seriously," John Makumbe, a political commentator,
said. "But he thinks he can bring down inflation
by manipulating it manually. He doesn't realize
it will rocket even higher. It's unbelievable." On
Friday, traders in the capital's predominantly
Indian business area had placed detachable
steel-grilled gates outside their shop doors,
ready to be shut at short notice.
Shortly after dawn, hundreds of cars began
queuing at service stations in the city, after state
radio announced that fuel would have to be sold
at dollars Zim55,000 (about 18p) per liter. It had
been selling for dollars Zim180,000 per liter.
"This is going to be a very short honeymoon,"
John Robertson, an economist, said. "There will
be no fuel to be had anywhere in the country by
the middle of next week. That will bring an end
to all business activity. A shutdown of the entire
country is coming. In a week's time, people are
going to be struggling to find food."
Mr. Mugabe told supporters that any businesses that halted production because of the
price cuts would be forcibly nationalized. "We are
saying to all factory owners 'you must produce,'"
Mr. Mugabe said. "If you don't produce, we certainly will seize the factories." © The Times, London
PHOTO
Western forces are unlikely to curtail the
use of lethal air power against Taliban
forces in Afghanistan, despite a wave of
civilian casualties threatening support for the
mission, analysts and military sources say.
An aversion in NATO capitals to allied casualties, plus all-too-frequent shortages of ground
troops, have forced commanders to turn to the
sky in efforts to beat insurgents still going
strong six years after the US-led invasion.
Despite repeated criticism of Western tactics by President Hamid Karzai, and pledges by
NATO and US officials to review procedures,
few expect an overhaul of strategy by the 50,000
international troops there any time soon.
"We are aware this problem has grown
and we must redouble our efforts. But there
will be no overnight transformation," an alliance source said on condition of anonymity.
The Afghan government, rights and aid
groups say over 300 civilians have died this year
from Western operations, mostly when air power is called in to get allied troops out of trouble.
While NATO officials point to surveys
showing a majority of Afghans still in favor of
their presence, the deaths tarnish the image of
the Western-backed Karzai and have triggered
protests demanding the exit of foreign troops.
NATO's top operational commander, US
General John Craddock, announced a review of
procedures in May. Days later President George
W. Bush pledged with NATO SecretaryGeneral Jaap de Hoop Scheffer to try to reduce
the casualties. Yet the deaths keep coming.
Afghan officials say 45 civilians were killed last
weekend by an air strike in the south -- a figure
the NATO-led International Security
Assistance Force (ISAF) says is inflated.
Zimbabwe’s
Mugabe calls
in thugs to
police prices
AP
S17-08-07-07.qxd
PHOTO
REUTERS
Poland’s ruling twins prepare for more EU battles
Polish President Lech Kaczynski (L) leaves the
stage with his twin brother Jaroslaw Kaczynski.
The twins who rule Poland played the
town's troublemakers as child stars in a
1962 hit movie. That is just the role the
European Union can expect from the Kaczynski
brothers as long as they remain in power.
Analysts say there is little chance the
Eurosceptics will back away from the latest confrontation, barely a week after being pressured into
compromising on a new EU treaty at a summit that
sealed their reputation as the bloc's awkward squad.
"They will not move back a single centimetre
... because they do not believe in the European
project," said Marek Migalski of the Silesia
University in Katowice. "They have said they are
tough and they are keeping their promise."
The twins -- President Lech and Prime Minister
Jaroslaw Kaczynski -- have even less sympathy
from EU partners for the point at issue now than
they did as lonely voices demanding changes to the
voting system at the Brussels summit.
Warsaw believes it won the right there for
countries to delay EU decisions for up to two years
if they have almost enough votes to block them,
but EU officials argue that delays would only be
for up to four months. The spat looks set to sour
the next meeting of EU governments in three
weeks, designed to push ahead with the treaty for
reforming the bloc's creaking institutions.
"We negotiated two years and this was not
written down... Nobody signed anything, everything was verbal," the prime minister said on
Wednesday, insisting that he wanted it included
in the treaty. Poland will push for it.
"If there was a misunderstanding, nobody
appears quite sure how it came about."
Poland's foreign minister talks of a
Gentleman's Agreement with other EU leaders.
No time limit for the delay is specified in the
treaty itself, it is implied by the EU legalese of an
older document referred to by the treaty.
EU officials are very firm that discussion on the
matter ended in Brussels and will not be reopened.
The bloc's heavyweights were exasperated by
the Kaczynskis at the summit and horrified by their
suggestion that Poland deserved more EU votes because it would have had more people if not for the
Nazi German occupation during World War II.
"We cannot allow matters to be reopened on
which agreement has already been reached,"
European Commission President Barroso said this
week. Poland's economy is booming thanks to a
large inflow of EU funds and the Kaczynskis' combative behavior will not put that money at risk.
But analysts say the repeated fights will leave
permanent scars in relations with key partners for
the future and sideline the country in EU politics.
The Kaczynskis appear to have little to lose
by quietly acquiescing. By the time the new voting rules take effect in another decade, they
could well have left the scene if Poland's often
turbulent politics are anything to go by.
It is not even a big issue in Poland. Opinion
surveys show most Poles are happier with the EU
than their leaders, and the EU quarrels inspire far
fewer headlines than a strike by doctors and nurses. Natalia Reiter and Matthew Tostevin Warsaw Reuters
A petrol pump attendant holds coupons at a
petrol station in Harare. Coupons are sent to relatives in Harare from London via Mukuru.com.
S18-08-07-07.qxd
07.07.2007
01:21
Page 1
SPORT
Van de Velde to miss British Open
Frenchman Jean Van de Velde will miss the July 19-22 British Open
at Carnoustie, his manager Jamie Cunningham said. De Velde is still
remembered for letting slip what looked like a certain winning position the last time the Open was played there in 1999. Straffan Reuters
SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2007
Bad news eclýpses
good at grand slams
PHOTO
Roger Federer (R) and Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero leave the Centre Court for a rain break during their quarterfinals match.
100 years of grand slam tennis and police said they
were under-prepared to deal with the scuffling fans.
Days later, another controversy marred the Open
when news broke that police were investigating reports that a five-year-old boy had been assaulted in
the men's toilets alongside the Rod Laver Arena.
Such incidents were a far cry from the normal
headline news at grand slam tournaments.
Usually the only unsavory occurrences are
when players engage in verbal spats with officials or smash their rackets in anger.
On a really bad day, over-zealous parents of
young women players have also produced the
odd headline.
The Australian Open's problems were compounded when its extreme heat policy was called into
question after several players struggled to last the distance under a blazing sun with temperatures on the
court soaring towards 50 degrees celsius.
When the grand slam circuit rolled into Paris, the
apparent effects of global warming also hit Roland
Garros. The French Open was drenched during the
first weak and fans and officials bemoaned the arrival
of the `dreaded English weather'.
But luckily for them, they did not have to deal
with the kind of backlog faced by Wimbledon referee
Andrew Jarrett, the worst since 1982.
With third round matches not finished until the
second Wednesday of the championships -- four days
behind schedule -- Jarrett has come under fire for not
allowing play on the middle Sunday of the tournament, traditionally a rest day at Wimbledon.
By Tuesday, the backlog stood at 177 matches and players in the bottom half of the men's
draw, including triple French Open champion
Rafael Nadal, were facing the prospect of playing every day this week to reach Sunday's final.
The Spaniard lambasted officials for not
thinking about about the players.
While the bosses at Wimbledon keep their
fingers crossed for a dry weekend, US Open
chiefs will be anxiously waiting to see what fate
has in store for them when the season's final
slam begins in August. London Reuters
REUTERS
The people who run grand slam tennis will
not look back too fondly on 2007.
Instead of spectacular action hitting
the headlines, organizers of the Australian
Open, French Open and Wimbledon have had
to cope with unwelcome publicity.
Unbearable heat, unrelenting rain, security
concerns, indecent assaults and brawling fans have
all taken the spotlight away from the racket wielding feats of Roger Federer and company.
Disappointment has been a running theme at
this year's blue riband tennis events and critics in
Britain have been asking whether this has been
the worst ever Wimbledon after a soggy fortnight
and only a handful of standout matches.
If All England Club chief Ian Ritchie feels the
rain over the past two weeks has caused him
more headaches than he deserves, at least he
has been spared the trouble faced by Tennis
Australia CEO Steve Wood in January.
Six months ago Wood was struggling to salvage the image of the Australian Open after security at the event was called into question.
About 150 fans were evicted from the
Melbourne Park grounds during the season's
opening major after fighting flared between rival
Croatian and Serbian supporters.
Such violence had been unheard of in more than
REUTERS
PRITHA SARKAR LONDON
Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen
had the best times in the practice session for the British Grand Prix as the
sabotage scandal involving McLaren and
Ferrari implicated a third team.
Hamilton, who leads the standings over
McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso, clocked
1 minute, 21.100 seconds in Friday's session at
the 5.1-kilometer (3.2-mile) Silverstone circuit. Hamilton will try to extend his perfect
eight-for-eight streak of top-three finishes in
his rookie Formula One season.
Raikkonen, who won last week's French
GP, was the fastest in the afternoon for
Ferrari in 1:20.639. In the first session, he
was second with 1:21.211, just ahead of
teammate Felipe Massa in 1:21.2855.
The battle for supremacy between Ferrari
and McLaren has been overshadowed this week
by sabotage allegations. Ferrari fired technician
Nigel Stepney after he allegedly sent a package
of technical information to McLaren chief designer Mike Coughlan in April. McLaren subsequently suspended Coughlan, but would not
say whether he is still with the team.
FIA, motor sport's governing body, said
both teams have agreed to cooperate with an
investigation into the incident. Ferrari has also
filed a criminal complaint against Stepney.
The allegations involved a third unnamed
team on Friday. McLaren boss Ron Dennis
said he had a meeting with two other teams at
the Silverstone circuit to discuss the situation.
"Over the next 48 hours, definitely more
information will be available into insight
and into motives and what lies behind some
peoples' actions," Dennis said. "I am optimistic that some of the things will be established quickly. The first thing is confirma-
tion that no intellectual property is on cars,
and never has been and never will be, that
belongs to another Grand Prix team."
Honda later released a statement stating
that team boss Nick Fry had met Stepney and
Coughlan at their instigation in June to discuss job opportunities at Honda.
"Honda would like to stress that at no
point during the meeting was any confidential
information offered or received," the statement said. "Nick Fry informed (Ferrari boss)
Jean Todt and Ron Dennis of the meeting and
has offered to provide any information required by Ferrari and McLaren."
Italian news agency ANSA reported that
Stepney met with lawyer Sonia Bartolini late
on Thursday in the small northern Italian village called Pavullo. Police were present to officially inform Stepney that he is under investigation, and search his house for the second
time after an initial search on June 21.
"I am very calm, I'm certain I will be able
to demonstrate that I had nothing to do with
what I am accused of," Stepney said. "I know
justice takes a long time, but I am confident
that in the end I will prove my innocence."
Alonso, the two-time champion with
Renault before moving to McLaren this season, had a mixed day Friday. He was fourth in
the morning in 1:21.675, and sixth later in
1:21.616. He won last year's race.
Hamilton leads the driver standings with
64 points, 14 ahead of Alonso and 17 in front
of Massa with nine races remaining.
"To win at this race would be immense, but
we have to be realistic with our expectations,"
Hamilton said. "This is one race out of 17, and as
with all the Grands Prix, I will do my best to win
for the fans." Today's race is 60 laps. Silverstone AP
PHOTO
Lewis Hamilton
leads, but F1 sabotage
scandal rumbles on
McLaren Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain walks away after a practice session
ahead of the British F1 Grand Prix at the Silverstone race track in central England on Friday.
Sport bodies
set to win
battle over EU
reform paper
BY DARREN ENNIS
Europe's top sports organizations look
set to win their battle to keep control
of their games as part of a shake-up of
how sport should be run across the European
Union to be unveiled next week.
Sports bodies, such as European soccer's
UEFA, and European Union politicians have
criticized proposals by the European
Commission for new laws on sport in the 27nation bloc due to be published on July 11.
However, the impact of the strategy paper -- covering areas such as TV rights,
transfers, security and gambling -- seems to
have been softened by last month's agreement on a new EU treaty which could also
enhance the powers of those running sport.
The main sports organizations are seeking
specificity, or special exemption from EU rules.
The EU's executive arm said it could not
agree to that because although sport has
such a status under an EU treaty signed in
Nice in 2000, this was not made legally
binding. But the proposals for the new
treaty go towards making it legal.
"The sports paper is still very important and
we cannot predetermine the final agreement on
the treaty, but yes, this does change things very
much," a Commission source told Reuters.
Following an Inter-Governmental
Conference (IGC), EU leaders are expected
to endorse a new treaty in October or
December and have it ratified before the
2009 European elections.
According to the conclusions agreed at last
month's meeting, the wording on sports agreed
in the original EU constitution -- rejected by
Dutch and French voters in 2005 -- will be inserted into the treaty in the usual manner.
Specificity of sport
The article related to sport in the constitution
says the EU takes into account sport's specific
nature, its structures based on voluntary activity and its social and educational function .
It also gives sports ministers for the first
time the power to ask the Commission to propose EU legislation on sport.
"If the IGC agrees to the conclusions,
then this would give sports specificity a legal
basis and more importantly give the
Commission more scope to be bolder in any
future legislation in the area of sport," another Commission source said.
This view is reflected by a conclusion
added to the final draft of the paper, obtained by Reuters, which states: "The complexity of the issues addressed in the paper
shows that further clarification on the basis
of the treaties would be beneficial."
Sports bodies, EU governments and the
European Parliament said the initial draft of
the paper was vague and would create more
court cases rather than fewer -- one of its
chief aims. They wanted more legal certainty from the strategy paper.
"We are not completely happy with
the paper, although from what we hear it
has improved a lot from the first draft," a
UEFA spokesman said.
But the treaty conclusion now gives us a
legal basis upon which to work and it allows
the Commission to come back again with
more robust ideas in the future.
The main differing points between Brussels
and its opponents are multi-billion-euro television
rights and rules for soccer and other sports that require a quota of local, or homegrown, players.
Politicians and the major sports bodies
wanted the paper to recommend central marketing and collective TV rights as the fairest model,
rather than individual selling by clubs, which allows the big names to dominate revenues.
The final draft says the Commission sees
benefits in both systems.
On homegrown players, the Commission
has strengthened its view from the first draft,
saying such rules could be compatible with EU
laws and justified. It intends to carry out an
impact assessment in this area. Brussels Reuters
S19-08-07-07.qxd
07.07.2007
01:18
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SPORTS
SUNDAY’S ZAMAN 19
S U N DAY, J U LY 8 , 2 0 0 7
KADRÝ KILIÇ
PHOTO
During the first years of the Turkish Republic, wrestler Hüseyin of Tekirdað
couldn't find a single opponent to challenge him; he was practically taking on his
own shadow. Nowadays becoming the head wrestler at the Kýrkpýnar Oil Wrestling
Competition is a far more competitive task which requires more than confidence
Trabzonspor coach Ziya Doðan gives instructions
during a training session earlier this week.
Storm
expected to
sweep aside
Shkoder today
OKAN UDO BASSEY ÝSTANBUL
The Trabzonspor Black Sea Storm
faces a relatively easy task when it
hosts Albanian side Vllaznia
Shkoder in the second-round, first-leg of
the UEFA Intertoto Cup at Hüseyin Avni
Aker Stadium this evening.
The UEFA Intertoto Cup, also abbreviated
as UI Cup, is a summer soccer competition for
European clubs that failed to qualify for one of
the two major UEFA competitions, the
Champions League or the UEFA Cup. In
short, the competition provides an opportunity for clubs that otherwise would not have had
the chance to play in Europe.
Hence the Intertoto Cup is not a quality
competition. Trabzonspor finished fifth in
the Turkcell Super League last season and
so missed out on the UEFA Cup. So instead
of wiling away the summer, they decided to
register for this competition in bid to play in
Europe -- by qualifying for the UEFA Cup
via the UI Cup.
Trabzonspor, under the tutelage of coach
Ziya Doðan, has been training nonstop since
June. The team has been revamped by the
signing of Fener attacking midfielder Serkan
Balcý and two rising stars from the Trabzon
junior team -- Abdülaziz Solmaz, Fahrettin
Býyýklý and several other players.
The Albanians are no match for the
Trabzon Storm. Maybe, just maybe, a single
star player on the Storm squad costs more
than the entire Vllaznia Shkoder team.
However this is all on paper; the truth of the
matter, though, is that soccer is not played on
paper. In other words, the Storm should
guard against complacency.
What happened two years ago -- to be
more precise on July 26, 2005 -- is still fresh
in our memories. Tiny little Greek Cypriot
side Anorthosis Famagusta FC beat
“mighty” Trabzonspor 3-1 at home in their
UEFA Champions League second-round,
first-round qualifier and though the Greek
Cypriots lost 1-0 in the return leg in
Trabzon, they nonetheless progressed to the
third qualifying round. This was a bad lesson Trabzon will never ever forget.
Vllaznia Shkoder is no stranger to Turkish
opposition. In the 2001-2002 UEFA
Champions league qualifiers the Albanian
side beat KR Reykvavik of Iceland before being eliminated by Ýstanbul club Galatasaray.
In soccer you may underestimate your opponent, but never underrate him. This rule the
Storm must bear in mind as it embarks upon
its European campaign this evening.
Last season Kayserispor advanced to the
UEFA Cup through the UI Cup. Trabzonspor
can even fare much better by staying the
course and clinching the UEFA Cup itself. The
Trabzon-Vllaznia Shkoder kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Other second-round, first-leg fixtures
today: FC Honka (Finland) vs. AaB Aalborg
(Denmark); Vetra Vilnius (Lithuania) vs.
Legia Warsaw (Poland).
Hüseyin of Tekirdað:
champion without victories
Just imagine that Kýrkpýnar was once a sport in which one
could lift the gold belt merely by having all other opponents throwing in the towel. When we go back 72 years we
encounter the 1935 Kýrkpýnar competition, in which 178
wrestlers were competing; of them seven were in the top
wrestler division. They were Molla Mehmet, Çoban
Mahmut, Rýfat of Manisa, Ahmet of Mandýra, Arif of
Sumnu and Cemal of Bolu, and last but not
least Hüseyin of Tekirdað. All these
men save the last had one thing in
common: They conceded that
Hüseyin of Tekirdað was
stronger than them and they
would not stand a chance.
Thus the referee committee
announced their decision without a single match taking place
PHOTO
The annual Kýrkpýnar Oil Wrestling
Competition, the 646th edition of which took
place last weekend, is one of the oldest
known organized sporting events.
Kýrkpýnar, a pillar of Turkish sports, has seen its fair
share of turbulence, especially during the times of the
newly formed Turkish Republic. Back then local municipalities and social organizations such as children's aid
committees lent a helping hand to the sport.
There was very limited participation in the sport,
resulting in an imbalance that reflected in the competitions. It was for this reason that during the 1930s
Hüseyin Aklaya of Tekirdað reined supreme in
Kýrkpýnar for a full decade. There was no other
wrestler of his caliber; he was practically wrestling
his own shadow. Nowadays even wrestling in the
top wrestler division, let alone becoming head
wrestler, is an incredibly arduous task.
In the olden days contests would be held at local
weddings to determine the region's strongest men,
who would then find themselves on the road to
Kýrkpýnar. Those days when anyone who had sufficient strength stood a fair chance of making it to
Kýrkpýnar are long gone. Back then matches would
go on until sunset if one party couldn't overpower
the other, but now a time limit has been set for
wrestlers -- a regulation that has picked up the pace
of the sport considerably, turning it into a marathon
when compared to the origins of the sport.
AA
ÖMER ALTAY ÝSTANBUL
a turn for the worse in 1975 when the head-wrestling
matches were not conducted fully and instead stopped
halfway through. Following that spectacle, Aydýn Demir of
Karamürsel won the championship three times in a row.
The same winning streak was also attained by Hüseyin
Çokal of Denizli, who also lifted the golden belt.
Taþçý: A champion only stopped
by doping accusations
Tekirdaðlý Hüseyin
in the division: "Hüseyin of Tekirdað is this year's champion." The remaining head wrestler hopefuls would battle it
out among one another for second place. The enthusiastic
crowds, who came out for the main event of head wrestler
matches, chanted in protest, demanding to see some head
wrestling action. Hüseyin therefore faced Yenici Mehmet in
a gesture of sportsmanship, polishing his championship.
The following year Hüseyin would face the same opponent, but after two hours of an unresolved match, he did
not want to be paired against anyone else competing in the
division and was declared top wrestler once again.
In former Kýrkpýnar matches, if a determining score
couldn't be obtained following the final matches, the referees would stop the match and decide on the winner. In
1945 Ýbrahim of Babaeski and Halil of Manisa would wrestle it out until late in the evening when the referee finally
intervened, stopping the competition to declare Ýbrahim,
who already held two victories against Halil, the winner.
Süleyman of Hayrabolu wins by way of 'draw'
There were occasions when the head wrestler was determined by draw. In 1950 Þeir of Sýndýrgý and
Süleyman of Hayrabolu faced off in a final that ended in
just that way. The announcer, Halil Yýlmaz, performed
the ritualistic "salavat" -- evoking blessings on both
wrestlers -- and the two greased-up men faced each
other, however neither of them were able to come out
the stronger, resulting in a "draw" that took place at
8:30 p.m. giving Süleyman the title for the year.
In 1962 Kara Ali of Ýzmir and Mehmet Ali Yaðcý
were not able to overpower one another during the
Kýrkpýnar finals and a head wrestler simply couldn't be named that year; there was a similar outcome in the 1970 bout between Kara Ali Çelik of
Ýzmir and Aydýn Demir of Karamürsel. Things took
to Recep Kara
From Ahmet Taþçý
In the 1990s a new name would appear on the Kýrkpýnar
wrestling scene. Ahmet Taþçý of Karamürsel, who had become a local celebrity in Sarayiçi, would face off against
Sezgin Yüksel, who had the full support of Antalya locals,
after defeating Cengiz Elbeye in the second leg of the competition. Even though they were in favor of Yüksel, they
couldn't deny the sheer strength of Taþçý, who won the final fair and square that year. The all-time undisputed
strongest champion of Kýrkpýnar, Taþçý was so formidable a
force that the only person to overcome him was Antalya's
Cengiz Elbeye in 1994 and 1998. Perhaps the only reason
Elbeye didn't win more championships was that he
emerged on the scene at the same time as Taþçý.
Following his head-wrestling championship in the
new millennium, Taþçý was accused of taking performance
enhancing drugs. This accusation would mar the strength
of the legendary wrestler. "My family life was ruined by
people who sentenced me for two years without as much
as a trial. Everywhere I went people looked at me as
though I was busy. I am a wrestler who has competed in
the Kýrkpýnar finals 11 times and won nine of those championships; I lifted the golden belt two times. No one has
ever heard of me being involved in a conflict -- I devoted
my life to wrestling and fought with all that I had -- I am
glad that I have finally been cleared of any charges and my
name has been cleared," he said.
Taþçý's unbroken record
Taþçý's phenomenal performance may fade with age,
though. Taþçý, who carved
out a career in the '90s
with nine championships,
eventually lost ground
against Vedat Ergin of
Ankara in 2001. The next
year, when Savaþ Yýldýrým
failed a doping test, Hasan
Tuna was declared Kýrkpýnar
champion. In 2003 Kenan
Þimþek of Ordu, a silver medalist from 2003, won the title. In
2004 Turkey was introduced to a
new wrestler who would go down
in history as the youngest to ever
win the head wrestler title at Kýrkpýnar.
Recep Kara was only 19 when he
achieved that first. In 2005 the victory lap
that Þaban Yýlmaz took around the Kýrkpýnar
field was cheered on by fans. Last year's champion was Osman Aynur, who was able to defeat
the previous years' champion Kara in a mere seven
minutes. This year the two faced off yet again. This
time Kara got the last laugh, winning the Kýrkpýnar
championship for the second time.
Ahmet Taþçý, who won the
head-wrestler title nine times
over, has been awarded the
gold belt permanently twice.
Osman Aynur of Antalya, who defeated Recep Kara in last year's finals, lost to Kara this year, losing
his chance of becoming the head
wrestler for two cosecutive years.
S20-08-07-07.qxd
07.07.2007
01:16
Page 1
Smith pleads guilty to drunken driving count
Jessica Smith, a former cast member of MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County,"
received three years probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor drunken driving charge,
prosecutors said. Smith's attorney entered the plea on her behalf Monday without her appearing, said Orange County district attorney's spokeswoman Susan Schroeder.Santa Ana, AP
WWW.SUNDAYSZAMAN.COM SUNDAY, JULY 8, 2007
TODAY’S ZAMAN
An 11-year-old girl was charged with drunken driving
after leading police on a chase at speeds of up to 100
mph that ended when she flipped the car in an
Alabama beach town. A video camera in the police car
captured the look of surprise on the officer's face when
he approached the wrecked car and got a look at the
motorist. The Mobile Press-Register newspaper said
the patrolman saw the Chevrolet Monte Carlo speeding and flashed his lights to signal the driver to stop.
Instead, the car sped faster, traveling at up to 100 mph
(160 kph) before sideswiping another vehicle and flipping over in the Gulf Coast town of Orange Beach,
Alabama, on Tuesday night. The young driver, who
lived nearby in Perdido Key, Florida, was treated at a
hospital for scrapes and bruises and released to relatives. Police also charged her with speeding, leaving
the scene of an accident and reckless endangerment.
The car belonged to a relative and police were still trying to find out where she got the alcohol. Miami Reuters
Internet provýdes onlýne
servýces for afterlýfe
PHOTO
11-year-old charged
with driving drunk
Elton wins damages
over fake statues
Elton John has won 116,000 euros ($157,700) in
damages and costs from a Paris art dealer who sold
him sculptures apparently dating from the 18th
century that turned out to be fake, according to
court papers. In a judgment issued on June 26, the
dealer, Jean Renoncourt, was ordered to pay the
singer the purchase price of $360,000 plus interest
from the time the statues were sold in 1996. He was
also ordered to take back the statues. The four statues, representing figures from Greek mythology,
were sold as the work of the Italian sculptor Luigi
Grossi, who died in 1795. According to an expert
judgment commissioned by the court, the sculptures were determined to date from the late 20th
century. The judgment comes after a long legal battle by the singer, who discovered the forgery when
he had the statues assessed for insurance purposes.
In 2003, he was ordered to pay Renoncourt 21,000
euros in legal costs after an attempt to win damages was dismissed for lack of evidence. Paris Reuters
Kennedy rapped
for smoking on train
Former Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy
was ticked off by police on Friday for smoking out of
a train window. Kennedy, 47, who resigned as party
chief last year after admitting that he had a drink
problem, was reported by train staff who saw him
light up. Officers met him on the platform when the
train arrived at at Plymouth and reminded him that
smoking is banned on public transport. A British
Transport Police (BTP) said the matter had been
resolved informally. "He basically said he thought it
was OK because he was leaning out of a window," a
police spokesman said. "It was explained that that
wasn't OK, and that was that." A ban on smoking in
enclosed public places came into force in England last
weekend. Anyone caught smoking illegally can be
fined up to 200 pounds. Many trains were already
smoke-free. Kennedy has repeatedly said in interviews that he wants to cut down or give up smoking.
After rumors of his poor health surfaced in December
2005, Kennedy said his doctor had asked him to quit
smoking. He voted last year in favor of an outright ban
on smoking in public. Kennedy led the party to its best
showing in decades in the 2005 election. London Reuters
China public restroom
has 1,000 stalls
They're flush with pride in a southwestern
Chinese city where a recently-opened porcelain
palace features an Egyptian facade, soothing music
and more than 1,000 toilets spread out over 32,290
square feet. Officials in Chongqing are preparing
to submit an application to Guinness World
Records to have the free four-story public bathroom listed as the world's largest, the state-run
China Central Television reported. "We are
spreading toilet culture. People can listen to gentle
music and watch TV," said Lu Xiaoqing, an official
with the Yangrenjie, or "Foreigners Street," tourist
area where the bathroom is located. "After they
use the bathroom they will be very, very happy."
Footage aired on CCTV showed people milling
about the sprawling facility and washing their
hands at trough sinks. For open-aired relief, there
is a cluster of stalls without a roof. Beijing AP
ZEKÝ GÜLEN ÝSTANBUL
“Every soul shall have the taste of
death,” [Al-i Imran, 185] is a verse in
the Koran. Have you ever thought that
such a verse could be a Web site slogan? At a
time when the Internet has invaded every part
of our mortal lives, did you ever imagine it
might also have a say in the afterlife?
Services are already available that target
our afterlife by means of a little entrepreneurial intelligence -- “Virtual cemetery visit,”
“Virtual prayer for rest,” “Cemetery online”
and “Virtual memorials” are but a few. There
are Web sites aiming to maintain graves for
people unable to visit and care for the final
resting places of their relatives. There are
even Web sites that provide virtual prayer
mechanisms for people who cannot visit
graves to pray for their loved ones.
Of course those virtual services do not
claim to be serving the dead. They are targeting the living and offering a kind of remembrance and memorial service for those who can
not access graves because of distance and time.
Today’s Zaman spoke to webmasters and
religious authorities about their take on the
Web sites providing cemetery maintenance
and virtual prayer services.
Grave maintenance online:
www.kabristan.net
The occupants of graves are certainly unable
to maintain their resting place. But now there
are companies to take care of the necessary
cleaning, polishing marble and gardening -and some are plying their trade online. The
Web address above redirects you to a commercial site belonging to a marble company
that engages in graveyard maintenance work.
Company owner Erkan Uçar spoke to
Today’s Zaman in a phone interview about
their services. He summarized their work by
saying: “We are a marble company, we build
graveyards. We do maintenance work in
graveyards such as gardening and landscaping.” When asked what makes them different
from other companies, he responded that
they are selling their services online.
In response to a question about how the
service works, Uçar said they take photographs of a grave both before and after services to demonstrate their work. Both pictures
can only by consumers in a password-protected area of their Web site. In this way customers can see how well their service
improved the grave.
The Uçar marble company uses a bank
transfer method to charge for the Internetbased services. “We are at the very beginning
of this online service. We are trying to make
the service more value added. After that we
may think of registering it as a trademark,” he
explained, noting that business was still not
as good as he hoped for.
Virtual memorials for loved ones
The diversification of services on the Internet is
unbelievable in that it even provides services for
people who cannot visit relatives’ and
friends’ graves. Such sites can be
found in any language in the
virtual
world.
While
www.tekin.info, www.sarvan.net , www.allahrahmeteylesin.com and many
others are in Turkish,
www.virtualmemorials.org
and www.a-virtualmemorial.org use English.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, there are differences between Turkish
and English sites. Most
of those in Turkish are
only interested in the
very basic details of the
dead, taking a picture of
them and a picture of
their graves. However
English versions incorporate biographies of
the people, guest books
and background music.
The Web site www.tekin.info has its real
world base in the town of Güney in Burdur
province, southern Turkey. Webmaster
Burçin Batur says the idea came from one of
the villagers who lives and works in
Germany. The expatriate asked Batur whether
it was possible to put the graves’ pictures on
the Web site. His positive feedback was the
first step in developing his Web site. Batur
later added some prayers recorded by his
town’s imam. Now people can easily utter
their feelings and the idea became an inspiration for other villages in Turkey.
The webmasters underline their objectives
are not to earn money. Some even bear declarations in which the aim of sites is clearly stated. “Of course we didn’t think of making
money. We want to help the people who cannot visit often. He couldn’t visit his hometown
all the time. We want to share at least the pictures of the graves,” said Batur.
‘It is not important where
and how people pray’
‘Of course we
didn’t think of
making money.
We want to help
the people who
cannot visit often.
He couldn’t visit
his hometown all
the time. We want
to share at least
the pictures of
the graves,’ says
webmaster
Burçin Batur
Religious authorities mostly
give positive feedback
about these virtual services. Professor Hayreddin Karaman, a guest
lecturer at Islamic
University in Rotterdam, told Today’s
Zaman that in terms of
Islam visiting graves
(and later photographing people) was once
forbidden as it could
open a means for
“shirk” (the Islamic
concept of the sin of
polytheism specifically,
more generally refers to
serving anything other
than the One God).
However the Prophet
Mohammed permitted
visiting graves when it
became clear that they were doing so in a
proper and pious fashion. Nowadays photographing people is also generally accepted by
Islamic scholars. Additionally, offering
prayers to people and remembering their
good deeds is encouraged and accepted for
the most part. Therefore such services are not
forbidden from an Islamic point of view.
Professor Karaman also said that in
modern times people could not find an
opportunity to visit their beloved relatives’
graves because of lack of time and the often
long distances to be traveled. Such applications serve the need for such observances,
albeit virtually. “They are reminding us to
pray for those people (the deceased),” he
added. In response to a question about
earning money from such services Karaman
replied that intentions matter. “It is
required that people are divided into two
parts; the first part is the people serving
those Web sites and second part is the people being served via those Web sites. For
example, when you want to visit a distant
grave you may need to use transportation
services and you pay for travel to pray at the
gravesite. Now you use Web sites to access
the gravesite virtually; it doesn’t matter
whether the webmasters benefit. Intentions
matter,” he explained.
According to Hüseyin Uslu, an imam
from the Religious Affairs Directorate, it is
not important where and how people pray
for the dead. Thus unless someone misuses
such a system, it is acceptable. Uslu added:
“Nobody should think of earning money by
manipulating people’s feelings. It is not
condoned by religion. Apart from that, people can pray and remember their loved ones
anywhere and anytime.”
Batur also explained that he had asked
the Burdur Mufti Office whether his Web
site was permitted under Islam or not. The
authority at the office replied with a similar
sentiment to that expressed by Karaman and
Uslu, saying the most important thing was
that Batur’s effort was good-intentioned.