Turkey policy paper: Israel's actions threaten Mideast

Ankara's National Security Council names Israel as central threat to Turkey's security for first time since 1949, fails to mention Iran, Syria.

By Haaretz Service Published 13:50 30.10.10

Turkey's already tense relations with Israel continued their apparent downward spiral on Saturday as Channel 10 reported that a central Ankara policy paper defined Israel as a central threat to Turkey's security, blaming Jerusalem's policies for destabilizing the entire region.

Tensions between Israel and Turkey peaked earlier this year, following a deadly Israeli raid aboard a Turkish aid ship sailing to Gaza in attempt to violate the Israeli naval blockade. On May 31, Israeli navy commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara and killed nine Turkish activists on board after facing violence from the passengers.

Read the whole story from Haaretz

“Strong Turkey” open Armenian-Turkish border, without preconditions

October 29, 2010 | 13:16 

 Chairman of the “Strong Turkey” Tuna Beklevic is dissatisfied with the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s indifferent attitude.

"Arriving in Yerevan, we were hoping to have a cup of tea or coffee in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Armenia and to chat, but it did not happen," - noted Beklevic with regret, hinting at the same time that the MFA can fill this “gap” until tomorrow morning.

"Yesterday’s statement by Foreign Minister regarding our visit saddened us and broke our hearts. This is our third visit already; we arrived with purpose of the opening of the border and the strengthening of relations between the two nations. This is somewhat a community effort. Neither the Turkish Government has sent us here, nor has the Armenian government invited us. We are not obliged to listen to the Turkish or Armenian governments. We consider our visit joint efforts of the Armenian and Turkish youth. This is a visit of Peace and Friendship”- said Beklevic, expressing  hope that one day they will sit at a table with the Armenian Government  and drink tea or coffee together.

Read the whole story from News.am

Turkey's military shun reception with first lady

By Alexandra Hudson

ISTANBUL | Sat Oct 30, 2010 1:14am IST

(Reuters) - Turkey's staunchly secularist military shunned the President's Republic Day reception on Friday night, attended for the first time by his headscarf-wearing wife, in a snub to the country's pious rulers.

In the past President Abdullah Gul had given two separate parties, pandering to secularist sensitivities by conducting the higher-profile evening affair without his spouse, but this year he held just one event, which she co-hosted.

The military held a separate party, Turkish media reported, demonstrating the lingering divide between the secularist old guard and the rising class of conservative Muslims, epitomised by Gul and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

Read more from Reuters

Turkey's relationship with west on the line in European missile defence negotiations

By Praveen Swami, Diplomatic Editor

Published: 9:00PM BST 29 Oct 2010

Turkey's government has been told that its relationship with the West could be seriously damaged if it rejects Nato's request to house part of a £165 million ballistic missile-defence shield that is being built to protect Europe from nuclear attack."


Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state and Robert Gates, the US secretary of defence, have held out the warning in behind-the-scenes talks with Turkish officials ahead of a Nato summit to be held in Lisbon on November 19, where a final decision is expected to be made on the missile-defence plan.


"Essentially we've told Turkey that missile-defence is an acid test of its commitment to the collective security arrangements it has with its western allies," a senior US official told The Daily Telegraph.

Read more from The Daily Telegraph

Turkey in Dilemma Over NATO Shield

By MARC CHAMPION | OCTOBER 27, 2010 

ISTANBUL—Turkey's top security body is set to discuss Wednesday whether to back a U.S.-led plan to build a missile-defense shield against rogue states—a moment that could force Ankara to choose between its longstanding westward orientation and its recent courtship of Iran.

The National Security Council, which consists of top military commanders and political leaders, is expected to debate the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's proposal for a defense shield largely built and funded by the U.S. A senior Turkish diplomat said Ankara will have to decide its position before next month's summit of the 28-nation alliance in Lisbon, Portugal, where Turkey and other NATO members are due to decide whether to go ahead with the plan.

Read more from WSJ

Turkey's Trade Deficit Widens

By JOE PARKINSON | OCTOBER 27, 2010

ISTANBUL—Turkey's trade deficit widened almost 70% on the year in September to $6.7 billion, data showed Wednesday, marking the fastest expansion since April and stoking concerns that the emerging market's structural imbalance could pose a longer-term threat to growth.

According to figures released Wednesday by the official statistics agency Turkstat, September's $25 billion of imports rose five times as fast as exports, underscoring the powerful impact of domestic demand in an economy that's expected to expand 6.8% this year, after tying China for the fastest growth in the Group of 20 in the second quarter, at 10.3%.

Read from WSJ

Turkey kinda underperforms according to Legatum Prosperity Index

by me a.k.a mutecessisgozler

Legatum Prosperity Index, which defines itself as the world's only global assessment of wealth and wellbeing, reveals that Turkey underperforms (literally sucks) according to some wealth and wellbeing criteria. 


Of course these findings reveal nothing new. Even though the economic activity within the country has increased enormously in the last 7-8 years, It is not a secret that the distribution of wealth has got worse than ever. Without fighting against a strong left-leaning party in Turkey, because there is not any, the governing party AKP undermines the social state in Turkey by trimming further the equality of opportunity and distribution of wealth. 

To have a look at the study, please click here. 

For the PDF version, please click here.

Headscarf debate in Turkey: No one has to worry

By Kai Strittmatter, Istanbul 

Turks are fed up with the fight over headscarf. Now President Gül invites for the first time the military representatives and prominent women with head scarves to a common official reception- a historic confrontation.  

Two out of the three women in Turkey wear head scarves, while this country, compared to all other European countries, has for decades the strictest ban on headscarf. Gradually, however, this is getting less strict- and almost nobody is getting upset about it. On this Friday, the anniversary of the foundation of the republic, Turkey overcomes another battle in headscarf dispute. President Gül invites the military leaders and prominent women with head scarves, among whom is his wife Hayrünnisa Gül, to the traditional reception. 

Read More from Süddeutsche in German 

Jörg Haider's party to expand into Germany

By Tony Paterson 
Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Austria's far-right Freedom Party has announced plans to expand into neighbouring Germany, where it hopes to join forces with another militant anti-Islamic group and campaign against Turkey's accession to the European Union as part of a widening bid for political power.


The party, which swept to power in Austria under the leadership of the late Jörg Haider a decade ago, made huge gains in Vienna elections earlier this month when it won 26 per cent of the vote and overnight became the city's second most powerful party. 


Read More from The Independent

FP Explainer: Why Does Turkey Always Arrest So Many People at the Same Time?

To make a statement.

BY JOSHUA E. KEATING | OCTOBER 21, 2010

This week in the eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, 151 Kurdish activists, including 12 mayors of local towns, were put on trial for ties to the militant Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK). In addition to the crime of belonging to the group, the activists are also accused of holding illegal demonstrations and distributing anti-government propaganda. According to reports, a special courtroom had to be built in Diyarbakir because of the number of defendants.

Read more at Foreign Policy 

Disgracefully, Turkey's EU accession bid is going nowhere soon

As a weak Europe frets over Turkey's membership, the booming south-eastern nation is increasingly thinking: why bother?
Martin Kettle, guardian.co.uk, Thursday 28 October 2010 20.30 BST

Seen from Turkey, the squabble about the EU budget seems like fiddling while Brussels burns. In the Turkish perspective, the large issues for Europe should not be the latest carve-up of the budgetary cake, or the palace power struggle between the European parliament and the member states, or even the necessary budgetary disciplines that Germany demands of its more rule-resistant partners and to which economically booming Turkey, unlike its economically wracked neighbour Greece, could sign up with barely a second's thought.

Read More at The Guardian

Armed EU guards to patrol Greece-Turkey border

Brussels deploys new force in attempt to curb entry of hundreds of illegal migrants a day via large unmonitored area
Ian Traynor in Brussels and Helena Smith in Samos | Monday 25 October 2010

A new force of armed European guards is to be dispatched to Greece to patrol the country's border with Turkey in an attempt to stem steeply increasing illegal immigration into Europe.

The deployment of the Rapid Intervention Border Teams, assembled from the border guard forces of other European countries, will be the first time Brussels has deployed multinational armed units on the EU's external land border.

Read More at The Guardian

German President's Criticism of Turkey Was Also Aimed at Germans

German President Christian Wulff told the Turkish parliament on Tuesday that Christianity belongs to their country, just as a few weeks ago he insisted that Islam belongs to Germany. The German press is impressed by a president who sticks up for what he thinks is right.

German President Christian Wulff

It was the first time a German president had ever addressed the Turkish parliament. But coming as it did just a few weeks after his remarks on the anniversary of German reunification that "Islam belongs to Germany," it was inevitable that there would be even more than the usual interest in Christian Wulff's speech on Tuesday in Ankara.

Read More at Spiegel Online International

Diyarbakir Mayor to Armenians: ‘This city is yours as much as it is mine’

Largest Church in Middle East Being Renovated

DIYARBAKIR (A.W.)—Speaking at a reception held on the occasion of the closing of the dome of the Sourp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, the mayor of the greater Diyarbakir municipality Osman Baydemir told the Armenians gathered there: “This city is yours as much as it is mine. You have as much a claim to this city as I do.”

Read More at Armenian Weekly

Turkish media comes under legal pressure

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA and EROL ISRAFIL | October 26, 2010; 5:24 AM
These days, Busra Erdal wears two hats on her trips to Turkish courts. She writes for a newspaper, mainly about the trials of suspected coup plotters. And she defends herself - in about 60 cases that claim she broke confidentiality codes and other laws in her stories.

Read more at Washington Post

Uncovering Hidden Istanbul, Page by Page

Istanbul, SUSANNE FOWLER, NYT

Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

Cheap eats? Check. Bargain shopping on ancient side streets? Check. Photos of that mansion used in a favorite soap opera? Check.

Thanks to a handful of new books by locals in the know, visitors to Istanbul can now delve even deeper into this city’s culinary, artisanal and historical delights.

Read More at New York Times