29 April 2013

Serbia's President Declines to Define Killing of 8,000 in Srebrenica as Genocide

"I kneel and ask for forgiveness,"

President Tomislav Nikolic told

Bosnian TV. "I apologize for the

crimes committed by any person

in the name of Serbia." Nikolic

came under fire last year short

after he was elected by declaring,

according to published reports;

there was no "genocide" in Sre-

brenica. He has since been urged

by Bosnian leaders to acknowl-

edge the killings, which the prose-

cutors at the International Crimi-

nal Tribunal for the former Yugo-

slavia have described as a sys-

tematic extermination. Over a pe-

riod of five days in July 1995, the

Bosnian Serb army conducted a

brutal takeover of the town. About

8,000 men and boys were

rounded up and killed, with many

buried in mass graves. At the time

of the massacre, Srebrenica had

been designated a U.N. "safe area"

for people, predominantly Bos-

nian Muslims, trying to escape

the advancing Bosnian Serb

army.

Continues in Page 2...

THIS

WEEK

EUROPE

PAGE 2

AMERICAS

PAGE 3

OPINION

PAGE 4-5

ASIA

PAGE 6

MIDDLE EAST&AFRICA

PAGE 7

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

PAGE 8-9

TURKEY

PAGE 10

SOCIAL

PAGE 11

EDITORIAL

PAGE 12

Serbia's president apologized Thursday for the 1995 massacre of 8,000 Muslims in the Bosnian

town of Srebrenica, but declined to characterize the killings as an act of genocide.

Volume 7, Issue 17

Withdrawal Starts on May 8

Following an appeal from PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan, KCK Executive Council declared that PKK

guerrillas within Turkey's border would gradually withdraw in groups starting from May 8.

Karayılan said PKK guerrillas

within Turkey's border would

gradually withdraw in groups

starting from May 8 and they

would stop the pullout and defend

themselves if they were con-

fronted by any attack. He also un-

derlined a three-stage process

which was named as “democratic

resolution process”. Saying that

the first stage would complete af-

ter the full withdrawal of PKK

guerrillas, the declaration an-

nounced the second and third

stage as follows: “On the second

stage, a series of constitutional

reforms will give birth to the con-

ditions in the genuine democrati-

zation of Turkey and the resolu-

tion of Kurdish problem. It is nec-

essary to eliminate entities like

village guard, special team and

private army, and create condi-

tions in harmony with a democ-

ratic civil society environment.

Continues in Page 10...

EUROPE

PAGE 2

Austerity Blamed as Unemployment

Soars in Spain and France

A gunman in the north

German town of Hamelin

has shot dead the top

district executive before

shooting himself fatally,

according to police. BBC/

April 26, 2013

A committee of the Council

of Europe, the continent's

main human rights and

democracy watchdog, has

recommended monitoring

Hungary. BBC/April 25,

2013

Relief in Parliament

contrasts with ugly street

battles as right-wing

protest turns violent after

French gay marriage law

clears last hurdle.

Independent/April 24,

2013

Serbia's President Declines to Define Killing of 8,000 in

Srebrenica as Genocide Continues from Page 1...

The people of Srebrenica, which sits a short distance from the Serbian border, were protected by just 100

lightly equipped Dutch peacekeepers. Without reinforcements, the Dutch were forced to stand aside while

Serb troops took the town. Then-Bosnian Serb commander-in-chief Gen. Ratko Mladic -now on trial on

charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity- allegedly told one woman everyone taken out of Sre-

brenica would be reunited with their loved ones, according to Serbian TV footage previously shown in

court. Truckloads of men and boys were taken from Srebrenica to execution

sites where they were bound, blindfolded, and shot with automatic rifles,

prosecutors contend. In the aftermath of the massacre, the United Nations

gave NATO the authority to launch large-scale airstrikes against Serb tar-

gets, a move that eventually forced the Serbs to the negotiating table. CNN/

April 26, 2013

More than 6 million without jobs in Mariano Rajoy's Spain while figure

in François Hollande's France is 3.2 million.

Unemployment has soared to records in both France and Spain as the im-

pact of government spending cuts and a collapse in consumer confidence

forced employers to shed thousands of workers. Spain's persistent rise in

unemployment reached new heights over the first three month of this year,

leaving a record 27% of the workforce jobless. In France, the number of

people out of work reached a record 3.2 million in March in a blow to so-

cialist president Hollande, who has struggled to stabilise the economy in

the face of declining exports and a fall in domestic demand. The Guardian/

April 25, 2013

A suspected military leader of the Basque separatist group Eta has been sen-

tenced to life in jail for the 2007 murder of two policemen in France.

A court in Paris ruled that Mikel Kabikoitz Karrera Sarobe must spend at least 22

years behind the bars for the shooting of the Spanish officers. Saioa Sanchez Itur-

regui, a co-defendant, was jailed for 28 years. Eta is blamed for more than 800

deaths during its decades-long campaign of violence for Basque independence. The

court in Paris also acquitted Asier Bengoa Lopez de Armentia of the murder charges.

However, he was sentenced to 15 years in jail on other charges. The two Spanish

officers, Raul Centeno Bayon and Fernando Trapero

Blazquez, were killed in the French town of Capbreton,

near the Spanish border. The authorities said they were

attacked while travelling in their vehicle on assignment in

France. In 2011, Eta announced an end to its armed

struggle for the Basque independence in northern Spain

and south-western France. Spain is rejecting Eta's offer to

enter talks with its leaders, demanding the group's uncon-

ditional dissolution first. BBC/ April 25, 2013

Eta 'Top Commander' Gets Life Sen-

tence in France

AMERICAS

PAGE 3

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been transferred from hospital to

prison, US police say.

The US Marshals Service said the 19-year-old had been moved from the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical

Center to a facility at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. He has been in hospital since his capture following a

huge police operation a week ago. The US Marshals Service said the accused, whose condition has been

described as fair, was taken overnight to the Federal Medical Center Devens some 40 miles (65km) west

of Boston. The facility, on the decommissioned Fort Devens US Army base, treats federal prisoners who

require specialised long-term medical or mental healthcare. Many of those

injured in the marathon blasts were also being treated at the Beth Israel

Deaconess Medical Center, and were reportedly unhappy at having the sus-

pect in the same building. New York police said on Thursday the Tsarnaev

brothers had concocted a spur-of-the-moment plan to drive the hijacked car

to Times Square and detonate their remaining explosives: a pressure cooker

device and five pipe bombs.

BBC News / April 26, 2013

Horacio Cartes Wins Paraguay Presidential Election

Venezuela Says US Citizen Plotted Unrest

A U.S. military spokesman

says 84 prisoners held

at Guantanamo Bay are

on hunger strike.

Associated Press, April

23, 2013

The Tunisian Embassy

says one of two men

accused of plotting to

derail a train in Canada is

a Tunisian citizen.

Associated Press, April

25, 2013

The UN has appointed

Brazilian General Carlos

Alberto dos Santos Cruz

to lead a team of

peacekeepers in a mission

to the DR Congo. The

Global Post, April 25,

2013

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Moved to Prison

An American citizen has been arrested by Venezuelan authorities who said that he had been taken into custody as he had been trained as a

spy.

Interior Minister Miguel Rodríguez identified the man as Timothy Hallett and said he was involved in a plot to destabilize the country after the recent presidential election and was connected to what Mr. Rodríguez called right-wing groups seeking to provoke violence. “The mission was to bring us to a civil war,” Mr. Rodríguez said. Officials with the UN Embassy in Caracas said they could not discuss the case because of privacy issues. Mr. Rodríguez said that Mr. Hallett had become close to a group of students involved in protests of the election results and that he had received money from nongovernmental groups and passed it on to the students. The New York Times / April 25, 2013

Wealthy businessman Horacio Cartes has been elected president of

Paraguay.

A political newcomer, Mr Cartes beat the Liberal Party's Efrain Alegre by

nine percentage points. The result restores the Colorado Party to power af-

ter its defeat by the left-wing candidate Fernando Lugo in 2008. Mr Cartes

faces the challenge of fighting high levels of poverty and of ending the coun-

try's isolation in the region following last year's disputed impeachment of

President Lugo. Regional bodies Mercosur

and Unasur suspended Paraguay over the

issue. Mr Cartes won 45.8% of the votes,

compared to 36.9% for Efrain Alegre of the

governing Liberal Party. Mr Alegre conceded

defeat shortly after the results were an-

nounced. In his victory speech, Mr Cartes

said that that he would lead Paraguay in "a

new direction". BBC / April 22, 2013

PAGE 4

OPINIONS

TURKEY

PKK Quo Vadis?

The highly anticipated announcement by Murat Karayılan was finally made at a press conference

in Kandil : “PKK will begin withdrawing its militants on May 8th.”

With the disarmament of PKK, a new process will begin in Turkey. Instead of security instru-

ments, now, the political instruments will be used for the solution. But the question that comes to mind

is what did PKK receive? Were they deceived or will they become sidelined? PKK faces with the challeng-

ing process in which it tries to get through all humiliating descriptions that both Turkish government

and citizens try to give them for many years. When an armed struggle cut out, PKK will have to prove it-

self as a 'political device'. Now they want to get rid of this “terrorist” brand on them. Democratic Society

Congress, a platform that brings together Kurdish non-government organizations, made a declaration in

this direction and called the removal of the PKK from the list of the terrorist organization. In fact, the

transition of war organizations into political organization has always been difficult to deal with. But like

the ETA and IRA which are not seen as a terrorist organizations by EU anymore, PKK would soon come

to this point. Öcalan has already been selected in Time list of the world's most influential people. Gerry

Adams who wrote the portrait of Öcalan for the Time, was a bomb throwing IRA terrorist before he be-

came a politician. I think, Karayılan’s statements to a group of journalist is more important than what he

told at a press conference. He told that they give a lot of importance to the process and it will bring the

solution of Kurdish problem which eventually leads the peace among other peoples in the Middle East.

We can understand from the countless emphasis on “Middle East” by both Karayılan and Öcalan that

despite the Kurdish problem in Turkey may triggered and developed the movement, the main goal is now

to work for the recognition of the Kurdish identity in the Middle East and become an actor in the region.

Not in the form of a nation state but in the form of democratic federalism in which all the peoples of the

Middle East live as brothers in an equal and democratic environment.It is clear that avoiding the de-

mands of Kurds by “Islamic brotherhood” discourse is not an option anymore. The solution is only possi-

ble by moving Kurds to the center of the system with their new dress on them. Let us hope they will.

Hazal AKGÜL

AMERICAS

Hunger Strike in a Grave Hunger strike in Guantanamo prison has been continuing since February. Prisoners in the Guan-

tanamo are protesting their inhumane life conditions, the nonexistence of human rights and free-

doms, and the unfairness of their condemination.

The USA which is “the most civilized” country in the world has a prison in which humans do not

even get the chance to be treated like animals. America which always tries to end torture, psychological

pressure and other barbarous situations like in other “uncivilized” countries actually does nothing when

the issue is its own shameful mistakes. It misuses the power it has and finds the right to think that no

one can ever dare to oppose it. One can draw the conclusion that the USA does all these just because it

can. The USA has been using this huge prison in order to punish the so called criminals. Actually, most

of detainees are there because they are denounced by people who wanted to benefit from the USA money

payment or by the people who wanted to get revenge on them. Therefore, I believe there is no legality in

Guantanamo. When the prisoners want to end that inhuman, illegal and painful situation, their attempts

to go on hunger strike have been prevented by the guards who feed the detainees by force which is re-

garded as a form of torture. People in Guantanamo are having the worst years of their lives, and the USA

government does not do anything but promising to change the location of prison, and it cannot even real-

ize that one. People who let that happen and who cannot dare to be brave enough to respond to that tor-

ture should be ashamed of their humanity!

Özge YÜKSEKKAYA

PAGE 5

OPINIONS

EUROPE

LONG AWAITED APOLOGY

Serbia finally apologizes from Bosnia for Srebrenica. What does that mean?

In 1995, the worst tragedy in the continent of Europe after the Second World War took place. Bos-

nian War fought between 1992 and 1995 caused the deaths of thousands of people and countless miser-

ies. Srebrenica Genocide, which is by far the most memorable tragedy of the war, happened in July 1995.

Led by Ratko Mladic, Serbian forces massacred over 8000 people. Ironically, Slobodan Milosevic, who

was the real architect of the genocide, went unpunished at that time. Only after the Kosovo War, Europe

decided that Milosevic was a war criminal. In 2001, Serbian authorities handed their former President to

The Hague. This was mostly a political move of course. Serbia wanted to be integrated to the Europe and

the only way of doing this was to ask for forgiveness for what was done during the Bosnia and Kosovo

wars. Last week, the President of Serbia, Tomislav Nikolic finally apologized for Srebrenica Genocide on

behalf of Serbia and Serbian people. It must be seen as the continuation of “washing the hands” policy.

As an official candidate of the European Union, Serbia has lately made a large progress in terms of over-

all democracy scores. With Croatia becoming the full member of the EU in July 2013, Serbian authorities

might have decided to quicken things. Better relations with Bosnia not only will ensure a better coopera-

tion in the region in economic and political sense, it will also slowly change the image of Serbia in the

eyes of EU, given that the bad memories of the wars are still fresh. In short, regardless of the motivation

the apology, it is a good sign. Better interstate relations and cooperation among the states are necessary

for a region as historically problematic as Balkans.

Umut YILMAZ

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

Women Rights On The Western Wall

Women rights are in subordinated position in the Middle East because of some religious and tradi-

tional rules.

Although Israel society is different from other countries’ society in the Middle East, we cannot say

that women are not subordinated in Israel. However, there are some positive developments which can

question the place of women at least in the religious places. For several months, a group of women,

dubbed the Women of the Wall, have held prayers in the female side, wearing traditional shawls and

reading aloud from the Torah. This caused outrage and protests from Orthodox Jewish groups, who say

women should not perform the rituals. In this atmosphere, on 11 April, five of these women were arrested

and charged with disturbing the peace. A lower court had dismissed the charges and the women were

freed, but the police appealed against this. However, Judge Moshe Sobel rejected the appeal, saying that

the 2003 ruling "did not ban the Women of the Wall from praying in any particular place" and that there

was no "reasonable suspicion" that the women had broken laws relating to holy sites. All of these re-

sulted that the Women of the Wall speak loudly because this arrest was an attack to their rights of belief.

Moreover, they can defend their rights because the ruling supported them –at least the court enforced the

law fairly. For example, Anat Hoffman, who chairs the women's group, said the ruling had "liberated the

Western Wall for all Jewish people". As a result, Natan Sharansky, the head of Jewish Agency, will pre-

sent some suggestions in the parliament in order to solve the conflicts between the Women of the Wall

and ultra-Orthodox Jews. It is hopeful that we see some incidents which can advance woman’s position

in the society. On the other hand, Netenyahu is preparing for elections with the support of ultra-

Orthodox parties. Therefore, this situation should not be used as a political strategy because it may

cause negative result for the women.

Deniz AYYILDIZ

PAGE 6

ASIA

ASIA

Japan Calls China Envoy over

Disputed Isles

At least 21 people have

been killed in fierce fighting

in China’s troubled far-west

region of Xinjiang. A

confrontation involving

knives, axes and a gun

ended with a house being

burnt down in an act local

authorities have blamed on

“terrorists”. Euronews /

April 24, 2013

Indian police have arrested

a second man in

connection with the rape of

a 5-year-old girl in New

Delhi. This case sparked

protests and raised

questions about the

treatment of women in

India. Many demonstrators

are members of a political

party of the leading anti-

corruption activists. CNN /

April 23, 2013

A Pakistani court has

ordered a three-day house

arrest on former military

ruler Pervez Musharraf over

the murder of ex-Prime

Minister Benazir Bhutto

more than five years ago.

Aljazeera / April 26,

2013

Hollande Aims to Energise Exports with China Visit

Mr Hollande is travelling with a large trade delegation, which is looking to strike deals for France's

luxury goods, energy and auto industries.

It’s not your average business trip – French President Hollande is in China on a two-day visit aimed at

boosting exports. His focus: energy and aerospace. His efforts have already been rewarded with an agree-

ment to buy 60 Airbus planes by China. That may silence some critics at home, where his approval rat-

ing has hit an all-time low. Hollande is the first Western leader to be received by the new Chinese Presi-

dent Xi Jinping. Analysts say the invitation is a signal to London. British PM

David Cameron has been snubbed by Beijing since he met with the spiritual

leader of Tibet, the Dalai Lama, last year. Previous French President

Sarkozy also felt the diplomatic freeze over a similar meeting. With only a

1.3 percent share of Chinese foreign trade, France may just stick to talking

shop. Euronews / April 25, 2013

Japanese prime minister threatens force if China attempts to land on

island chain in East China Sea.

Japan has called the Chinese ambassador in protest over a flotilla of Chi-

nese government ships that entered territorial waters near a disputed is-

land chain. The waters around the islets are rich fishing grounds and also

have potentially huge oil and gas reserves. The Chinese boats drove out a

flotilla of 10 boats carrying about 80 Japanese activists from the nationalist

Ganbare Nippon group. They then began to withdraw from the area on the

orders of Japanese Coast Guard patrol ships, when Chinese government

control ships came nearby. Japanese and Chinese patrol ships have been

playing a cat-and-mouse game near the Japanese-controlled East China

Sea islands, where China is seeking to assert its claim to sovereignty by

sending ships into the disputed waters. An accidental collision could lead to

a broader clash, which is te raising fears. Al Jazeera / April 23, 2013

Nine people captured after helicopter makes emergency landing in

Logar province, according to local officials.

Taliban fighters have seized ten people from a civilian helicopter which

made an emergency landing in eastern Afghanistan, including eight Turk-

ish nationals, officials said. The helicopter made an emergency landing in

bad weather on Sunday evening, said Rais Khan Sadeq, the deputy police

chief of Logar province, south of Kabul. "Security forces found the helicop-

ter but the nine people were not in it. They are taken by the Taliban," Sadeq

said. Eight of the people captured are Turks, along with one Russian and

one Afghan, according to the helicopter company. Hamidullah Hamid, gov-

ernor of Azr district where the helicopter came down, also confirmed

that the Turks on board had been seized by the Taliban. Local tribal elders

are reportedly working to secure their release. Hamid said the aircraft,

which had come from the eastern city of Khost and was heading for Kabul,

belonged to a Turkish company which has a big project in Khost, but gave

no further details. Al Jazeera / April 22, 2013

Taliban Detain Turks in Eastern

Afghanistan

MIDDLE EAST & AFRICA

PAGE 7

The United States has evidence that the chemical weapon sarin has been used in Syria on a small scale, Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday.

In a letter sent to lawmakers before Hagel's announcement, the White House said that intelligence ana-lysts have concluded "with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weap-ons on a small scale in Syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin." The Obama administration said it is working to gather more information on the reports and is calling for a full-scale United Nations investigation into what may have happened. Earlier this week an Israeli intelligence official said Damascus was using weapons banned under international law against its own people in the country's civil war. On Wednesday, Israeli President Shimon Peres said that he expected the United States to fall in line with its estimate on chemical weapons use

in Syria. CNN/ April 26,2013

The EU has decided to ease its embargo on Syrian crude oil to help the

country’s opposition movement.

It means that European firms will be allowed to import crude and petroleum

products from opposition-controlled areas. Foreign ministers from the 27-

member states agreed to the measure following talks in Luxembourg. The

EU first slapped oil sanctions on the Syrian oil industry in September

2011.At that time, it counted for an estimated 25 percent of the Syrian

state’s revenues. Euronews correspondent in Luxembourg Andrei Beketov

said: “It appears that the EU isn’t counting on a quick resolution to the Syr-

ian conflict. With the debate on arming the rebels is

heading nowhere, an economic approach is preferred

instead.”

Euronews / April 22,2013.Graph: eia (US Energy

Information Administration) 2010.

EU Eases Oil Export Embargo on

Syria

Nearly 50 people were killed in clashes on Thursday in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, sources said, on the third day of the most wide-

spread violence in Iraq since U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011.

More than 100 people have been killed in fighting since Tuesday, when troops stormed a Sunni protest camp, triggering clashes that quickly spread to other Sunni areas in western and northern provinces. Shiite PM Nuri al-Maliki's coalition took the lead in eight of the 12 provinces that held provin-cial elections at the weekend, including the capital Baghdad, preliminary results showed on Thursday. Iraqi politics are deeply split along sectarian lines, with Maliki's government deadlocked over how to share power among Shiites, Sunni Muslims and ethnic Kurds, who run their own autonomous region in the north. Violence, including bomb attacks that have killed doz-ens of people at a time, has increased across Iraq this year. Provisional fig-ures from rights group Iraq Body Count indicate about 1,365 people have

been killed so far in 2013. Reuters / April 25,2013

Intense fighting between

the military and Islamist

militants in northern

Nigeria is reported to have

killed at least 185 people,

however the army has

disputed this figure. BBC /

April 22,2013

The Israeli air force has

shot down an unmanned

“enemy” drone over its

airspace, with suspicion

immediately falling on

Hezbollah, the Lebanese

militant group which

boasted about a similar

incursion seven months

ago. Independent /April

25,2013

F r a n c e ' s e m b a s s y

in Libya was hit by an

apparent car bomb on

Tuesday, injuring two

French guards and

bringing violence to the

capital after attacks on

foreign missions in the

east. Haaretz /April

US: Intelligence Points to Small-scale Use of Sarin

in Syria

Sectarian Violence Flares in Iraq

PAGE 8

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK

Larbi SADIKI Senior Lecturer in Middle East Politics at the University of Exeter, and author of Arab Democratization: Elections without Democracy

Turkey needs a new and robustly democratic constitution - only then can we talk about a regional democratisation model. Nothing is more fallacious than projecting Turkey as a model for the fledgling Arab Spring democ-racies. Not for lack of good practices on the Turkish side. Rather, the problems rest with the Arab side, in my view. The software (Turkish know-how), as it were, does not suit the existing hardware (Arab Spring republics). How and why? A few areas call for attention. The eruption of Arab revolutions has done wonders to Turkey. It is all of a sudden catapulted into the limelight as the most relevant transitional example. That is, one on which new Arab transitional candi-dates may potentially be modelled. It is not just democracy that advocates have in mind. It is precisely "Islamic" or AKP-type democratisation that draws the advocates' attention. Even here, the argument could not be more flawed. The brand of AKP democracy invokes "Muslim politics" - the use is intended to take precedence over "Political Islam" and "Islamism". The difference is often missed until Dale Eickelman and James Piscatori put the question to bed. The two scholars launched the career of the concept in the 1990s. In its gist it refers to how Islam's ideals are wedded to reality, by recycling, reviving, selecting, re-thinking and reinterpreting the wide range of sym-bols and intellectual resources cumulatively added to the religious canons over a period of 1,400 years. The upshot are contests and counter-contests over meaning, fragmentation of sacred authority, and un-precedented access of arguably more educated Muslim masses to the interpretive vocation, once the ex-

clusive bastion of the learned.

Islamism seeks civic re-branding of Islam. It is generally driven by a top-down movement in which the symbols of Islam are re-arranged to suit political ends: systematic Islamisation of state, society and culture. This movement has had its ups and downs, including periods of attrition (confrontation with the national-secular state) and disputations amongst various Brotherhood schools (Sudan, Jordan, Palestine, Gulf and Maghreb countries' reinterpretations fine-tuning those of the "mother-organisation" in Egypt). The difference between Turkish and Arab Islamism is as follows: Arab Islamists have privileged theory over practice; Turkish Islamists have almost done the opposite. Not directly tied to Turkish Islamists, but Fethullah Gulen's eclecticism (open to market economics), pragmatism (gradual renaissance, less empha-sis on dogma, stress on education) and spirituality (with a Sufi content), and nationalism (Turkish, local knowledge derived from Nuri Said's teachings) are difficult to match with Arab seminal ideologues, which count amongst their ranks brilliant thinkers such as the he late Shaykh Muhammad al-Ghazali of Egypt (open to democracy, equal gender relations, universal citizenship and rule of law).The lineage of both

brands of Islamism and the "workshops" where they are forged are different.

Muslim politics more or less facilitates participation by the previously excluded multitude. The gates of speech, too, are flung wide-open. This is where the AKP comes in handy: building resourceful-ness in politics to crystallise and prove the utility or relevance of Islamic symbols. There are no clerical oligarchs who pontificate - AKP has no analogue to Hassan al-Banna, Sayyid Qutb, Hassan al-Turabi or Rachid Ghannouchi. However, they have amongst their ranks thousands of successful industrialists, businessmen, entrepreneurs, artisans, professionals and civil servants. As if the AKP builds "Islam-city" bottom-up, acquiring the savoir-faire of both politics and Islam by engaging with the horizontal dimen-sions of life: how to build modern infrastructure, alleviate poverty, transfer factories from Europe to Tur-key and construct a robust work ethic. For Arab Islamists, "Islam-city" remains largely discursive: that is of course until the election of Islamists into power such as in Egypt and Tunisia in the context of the

Arab Spring.

Why Turkey isn't a model for the

Arab Spring

PAGE 9

There is a Turkish distinction without Arab equivalence. Since the time of Kemal Ataturk, secularism in Turkey has opened up continuous workshops in which polarities forged the dynamics of diversity within unity, and opposites who pluralised the system and eventually set it on a democratising track. Arab secularisms have been incoherent, rigidly rejecting all opposition. When socialism was state policy, de-fenders of the market or and liberal politics were constructed as state enemies. When times changed and an open-door policy evolved as the state's political mantra, discourses, moralities and ideologies on the left of the political spectrum became the new marginal. By and large, the vagaries of the "left" and the "right" proscribed religious voices and forces. East-West divides have been turned into grounds for creat-ing a workable synthesis, on Turkish terms, through which the excesses of Ataturk's quest for Europe-anisation are blended with Turko-Islamic yearnings. Turkey has transcended the "Western complex". Ar-abs, generally, and Islamists more specifically, have turned the "West" as a constant antithesis, a kind of "Orientalism in reverse", countering Western theses of "exceptionalism" about Arabs and Muslims. More-over, Turkish "Muslim politics", by under-stating dogma and verifying the symbols of Islam in engaging with modernity in a vast territory in which the bar was raised for the country's industrialists, entrepre-neurs, human rights and democracy advocates, and even EU advocates, has gradually learnt how to rec-oncile the imperatives of secularism and Islamism. Arab Islamists are, in varying degrees, too dogmatic to raise the level of the discursive and the sophistication that derives from an appreciation of "Smithean logic" (metaphorically) in making wealth for their nations, building countries that work and in competing or developing a vigorous work ethic. Only in these workshops the complex of secularism may be tested, adjusted, and, perhaps, superseded. Declarations of the much-vaunted "Islamic state" thus far lack the practical engagement with modernity's complexities, innovations and scientific, medical and technological revolutions.

That Turkey is today on course to economic greatness and democratic consolidation must be understood within Turkish specificity: "democratising dialectics" that locked polity and society into a reformist logic of no return. It is through this that structural achievements over a 60-year period, since multi-partyism was launched, that the building blocks of political and economic development have been laid. En route to the current context, Ataturk and Erdogan represent, on the surface, opposites. In practice, combined, respectively, as thesis-antithesis, have created the synthesis that is today Turkey. Thus each of the politi-cal figures in the leadership phalanx in Turkey represents a necessity to mother the invention of the sys-temic processes of Ataturkist nationalism, military-bureaucratic centralism, followed by multi-partyism, including religious parties, through to democratisation. Ataturk preserved the Anatolian motherland, and dismantled the Ottoman imperial regime, founding a brand of centralised republicanism. By introducing multi-partyism , "Neo-Ataturkist" Ismet Inonu rebelled against Ataturk's single-party and patrimonial polity, and reaching to the periphery. He ended the dominance of Ataturk's Republican People's Party (RPP), and along with RPP rebels, they had the Democrat Party (DP) as a contender for power by the 1946 general election. Four years later, multi-partyism was in full swing, with the DP winning the 1950 elec-tion and leading the government for close to 10 years.

The 1960s, which was marked by a coup against Prime Minister Adnan Menderes' government, created sufficient democratic dialectics the upshot of which was a momentum pitting civil society against the military and bureaucracy. This was a prime example of how opposites created the transformative dynam-ics of internal sparring between the forces of paternalistic political patronage and democratic plural-ism.Even throughout the 1960s and 1970s, under military tutelage and façade democratic competition, from Suleyman Demirel's Justice Party politics through to Bulent Ecevit of the RPP, Turkey's polity was acquiring the structural conditions of democratic transitions and society was enabling itself by consolida-tion of the agency to organise politically. By the 1980s, the military under General Kenan Evren waseager to steer politics from the sidelines, aided by constitutional guardianship, as new dialectics began with the birth of Kemalism's most vigorous antithesis: the National Salvation Party and its leader Necmettin Er-bakan. Just as qualitative as the rise of Muslim politics in Turkey, which shook the military, the defend-ers of the Kemalist republic, was Turgut Ozal and the Motherland Party who helped modernise and transform Turkey in the 1980s and early 1990s. This was an historical moment that marked the severing of the umbilical cord with the generals, unlike under the Demirel and Bulent Ulusu's governments, which pandered to the top brass. The 1983 election fought under a proportional system, and won by Ozal , as-serted society's thirst for autonomy from the army, setting in motion the process of civilianisation of pol-ity. Erdogan closed the circle: deepening Ozal's quest for civilianisation of polity (hence the systematic dismantling of the deep state), economic development and globalisation, and closer ties with the Euro-pean Union. There would have been neither Ozal nor Erdogan without Ataturk, Evran, Demirel, or Er-bakan.

Ozal has no Arab analogue in any of the republics ousted by three revolutions in 2011, Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Arab politics were drenched in deep singularity, literally with ruling mass-mobilisation parties occupying the state, eventually privatising politics. The difference could not be starker: Turkey's state-building began with a narrow ideational and leadership base, which continuously widened, creating openings generated by democratic dialectics, through which thesis and antithesis yield synergy. Arab state-building started with a wide power base, which had been tattered gradually under the juggernaut of eliminating all opposition in the name of national unity and uniformity. Al Jazeera

TURKEY

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Continues from Page 1...

It is essential to draft a new constitution that will democratize Turkey, end the denial of Kurdish people

and accept their existence and freedom, ensure the rights and freedoms of all faiths and sects, and estab-

lish equilibrium. On the third stage, the 'normalization process' will begin. This process is the process of

perpetuation of peace, societal reconciliation, freedom and equality. Upon the emancipation of everyone

including our leader Apo, it will also bring the discussion on complete fare-

well to arms and guerrillas' demilitarization."Asked about what these guer-

rillas would do after the withdrawal, BDP Deputy Sirri Sureyya Onder said

that militants would leave for political training in the Kandil Mountains of

northern Iraq. “KCK staff is currently working on a program for involve-

ment of guerrillas in civil democratic politics on the basis of democratic

liberation. Nobody will return to their homes, everyone will go to Kandil to

receive this training and an overall democratization campaign will be

launched in the country. Bianet / April 26, 2013

There will not be any change in PM Erdoğan’s Gaza visit plans despite

U.S Secretary of State John Kerry’s demand to postpone the visit.

Speaking to the press following the Friends of Syria Core Group meeting which took place in Istanbul, Kerry stated, "We have expressed to the PM that we really think it would be best if Erdoğan’s planned trip to Gaza were delayed and that we feel it shouldn't take place at this point in time." PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan responded to US Secretary of State John Kerry's request for him to delay his planned visit to Gaza by saying “Kerry’s diplomacy on Gaza trip was incorrect. Delaying my trip to Gaza is out of question. As I said in the past the Gaza trip will take place after my trip to the US. There will be no delay.” US Secretary of State John Kerry has also announced a doubling of US aid to Syria's rebels and told a Friends of Syria meeting its members were committed to a peaceful transition. Sa-

bah / April 23, 2013

Withdrawal Starts on May 8

Turkish PM to Visit Gaza Despite

US Request for Delay

Turkey and Israel have agreed on the compensation for the Mavi Mar-

mara incident and to hold a second meeting in the near future.

Turkish and Israeli officials met in Ankara to discuss details regarding Is-

rael’s pledge to pay compensation to the families of the Turkish victims of

the incident after issuing an official apology to Turkey. But the families of

nine victims who were killed in an Israeli raid aboard the Mavi Marmara

aid ship in 2010 have harshly criticized the government ahead of talks with

the Israeli delegation to negotiate compensation for the families held week

in Turkey. The families have also insisted

that the blockade on the Gaza Strip be lifted,

underlining that without ending the block-

ade and embargo, Israel’s apology and com-

pensation for the victim’s families and those

injured would have no meaning. Today’s

Zaman / April 25, 2013

Turkey to Sign Deal With Israel For

Compensation

Police seized a large number

of arms in a Libyan-flagged

ship off the coast of

Istanbul’s Tuzla distinct

during customs procedures.

As a result of operation, the

ship’s captain and another

crewmember were detained.

Today’s Zaman / April 24,

2013

The investigation into the

murder of Hrant Dink is set

to start again from square

one, as the new prosecutor

in the case has collected

new testimonies and asked

for the re-interrogation of

key witnesses. Hurriyet

Daily News / April 27,

2013

Two journalists were

released in the case of KCK.

Sadık Topaloğlu and Zeynep

Kuray were released

pending trial at a hearing in

the KCK case in which

dozens of people face

charges of aiding and

abetting the terrorist

organization or being

members of it. Today’s

Zaman / April 26, 2013

1 May

Mabel Matiz – Nefes Bar

2 May

TNK Konseri - IF Ankara

3 May

Athena Konseri – Jolly Joker

Ankara

Kafanız Hayrolsun – Anadolu

Gösteri Merkezi

4 May

Fourinthepocket – Passage Pub

Gökhan Tepe Konseri – Jolly Joker

Ankara

5 May

Hıdırellez Ankara 2013 – ODTÜ

Vişnelik

6 May

Atılım Üniversitesi Bahar Şenliği

Politics with Cartoons

PAGE 11

EVENT

CALENDAR

INFO & ADS

GENERAL DIRECTOR

Alper AKGÜN

CO-EDITOR

Yiğitcan ERDOĞAN

COORDINATORS

Hazal AKGÜL, Cansu BULUKLU, Recep Sinan USTA,

Asude Dilan YİĞİT

EUROPE CORRESPONDENTS

Ekin BOZKURT, Özge YÜKSEKKAYA

AMERICAS CORRESPONDENTS

Didem ELERMAN, Ayça ŞEN

ASIA CORRESPONDENTS

H. Sinan GÜLER, Ayşenur ŞANLI

M. EAST & AFRICAS CORRESPONDENT

Meriç YAŞAR, Merve O'KEEFE, Deniz AYYILDIZ

TURKEY CORRESPONDENT

Okan İDUĞ, Deniz PERÇİN

SOCIAL EVENTS CORRESPONDENT

Yağmur ÇİFTÇİ

Twitter: @metunewsreport

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