One of the darkest legacies of the Turkish state's fight against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the 1990's is the large number of enforced disappearances that took place in the predominantly-Kurdish southeast region. Human rights workers in the region working on the issue believe some 1,000 people were disappeared by suspected state actors during that time.
Until relatively recently, families of the Kurdish disappeared had little hope for finding answers to what happened to their relatives and little reason to believe justice would somehow be served in these cases. In the last few years, though, have given some hope that things might be changing, with victims' families, lawyers and civil society organizations in the southeast starting to push more openly for investigations into the fate of the disappeared and with the government showing some willingness to take a look at the dirty deeds that were committed in its name.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch takes a look at this issue by focusing on one of the first instances in which a Turkish military official was put on trial for suspected crimes committed during the 1990's, including the disappearance of several men. From HRW's report:
There were positive indications of change in 2009, however, when a remarkable trial began in the southeastern city of Diyarbakır of a gendarmerie officer, retired colonel Cemal Temizöz, three former PKK members turned informers, and three members of the “village guard” (local paramilitary forces armed and directed by the gendarmerie). The prosecution accused the defendants of working as a criminal gang involved in the killing and disappearance of twenty people in and around the Cizre district of Şırnak province between 1993 and 1995.
The Syrian government protested loudly when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last August that his government doesn't view what's happening across the border as a foreign problem but rather as a "domestic" one. A year later, Erdogan's words are ringing true, although perhaps not in the way the PM meant them. With the conflict in Syria dragging out and becoming more bloody, the crisis is quickly becoming a domestic issue for Turkey, although not because of what's happening in Syria as much as because of what Syrians are doing inside Turkey.
With the number of Syrian refugees in Turkey approaching 100,000, Ankara has said it is approaching the limit of how many it can accommodate, leaving thousands of Syrian fleeing the violence in their country stranded on the other side of the border. But the Turkish government is now also facing mounting questions about how its dealing with the Syrians already in camps inside the country, particularly those in one called Apaydin, which houses a large number of defected Syrian generals and other high-ranking members of the Syrian army and which has been kept off limits -- not only to journalists but also to Turkish elected officials. A recent delegation of parliamentarians from Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) was turned back at the gates of the camp after trying to visit it on Sunday, prompting the party's leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, to accuse the government of using the camp to secretly train Syrian opposition forces and to claim that Apaydin is filled with "agents and spies."
Bishkek-based writer Chris Rickleton's wonderful recent Eurasianet article about the booming domestic beer scene in Kyrgyzstan left me thirsting for more information. Rickleton, a former editor of the Bishkek-based English-language tourism and culture magazine "The Spektator," which was founded by Tom Wellings, was kind enough to answer some follow-up questions that I sent him. Our exchange is below:
1. How did you come about this story?
Wherever I live or travel to, I always make a point of trying local produce, be it beer, cheese or otherwise. In Kyrgyzstan the cheese situation is pretty dire, but happily, local beers aren't bad at all. Moreover, in the nearly four years I have been here, the number of local brews available at cafes and 'beer stations' like Pinta has grown noticeably. In 2008, it was difficult to find anything besides Russian beer on the shelves in grocery stores and Arpa was practically alone in flying the Kyrgyz flag in Bishkek's cafes. That just isn't the case anymore. I was particularly interested by the rise of microbreweries like "Venskoye" and "Chuiskoye" that have managed to stay in business over the last few years, despite political turbulence and a struggling economy. A lot of the news that comes out of Kyrgyzstan is bad news, so I wanted to do an article on what appeared to be a local success story.
2. Were you able to pinpoint anything specific that helped launch this Kyrgyz microbrew moment?
Recent weeks have seen the Kurdish issue in Turkey intensify and become more violent, in many ways marking a return to the kind of activity seen in the 1980's and 90's, at the height of the conflict between the Turkish military and the guerillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
In late July, PKK militants essentially took over a chunk of territory surrounding the town of Semdinli, near where Turkey's border meets those of both Iran and Iraq, and then fought a 20-day battle with the Turkish military before finally being dislodged. Last week, a PKK unit operating in eastern Turkey kidnapped a member of parliament from that region, releasing the MP -- Huseyin Aygun from the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) -- after 48 hours. And although there has been no claim of responsibility, the Turkish press has been quick to blame the PKK for a large car bomb explosion that occurred today near Gaziantep in southern Turkey, in which at least eight were killed and 60 injured.
Meanwhile, the growing violence is starting to put a strain on Turkey's already polarized domestic political scene, pitting the country's major political parties against the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP). Several senior members of the party are being investigated by a prosecutor after they were seen in a recent video chatting with and hugging PKK members at a roadblock in southeastern Turkey.
The recent kidnapping of a Turkish businessman in Lebanon by a powerful Shiite clan retaliating for the abduction of one of its own by members of the opposition Free Syrian Army near Damascus is bad news for Ankara on several fronts. On the most basic level, it demonstrates that holding a Turkish passport no longer an indication that its bearer is somehow removed from or able to hover above the Middle East's current troubles. Quite the opposite -- it now appears that being Turkish makes one a major target. As Today's Zaman reports, the Turkish citizen kidnapped on Wednesday by the Lebanese Meqdad clan appears to have been abducted specifically because of Ankara's support for the FSA, which was responsible for detaining one of the clan's senior members, Hassan al-Meqdad. From TZ's report:
A spokesman for the Meqdad clan has said Turkish nationals were targeted because of Turkey's support for the FSA. The Gulf countries, which also openly support the Syrian opposition, have ordered their nationals to leave after the wave of abductions.
"If Hassan [al-Meqdad] is killed, the first hostage we will kill is the Turk," Maher al-Meqdad told Reuters on Thursday. "Regarding Saudis, Qataris and Gulf nationals, they are not targets for the Meqdad clan," he said, speaking in an area of southern Beirut controlled by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed, Shiite Lebanese party and guerrilla group.
The kidnapping has evoked memories of Lebanon's civil war, reinforcing fears that the Syria conflict could trigger more instability in a much smaller neighbor where Damascus has had a major influence over politics and security for decades.
This blog has previously written about the phenomenal success of Turkish-born Hamdi Ulukaya, who has managed to turn the Chobani brand of yogurt into the United States' most successful purveyor of of "Greek style" yogurt (more "Turkish style" in this case). Ulukaya's is a wonderful rags-to-milky-riches story: born in a small village in eastern Turkey, the businessman came to America, bought a defunct yogurt factory in upstate New York and turned into a fast-growing enterprise that had some $700 million in sales last year.
Ulukaya has been so successful that he's been dubbed the "Steve Jobs of yogurt." In fact, Chobani's success is now a driving factor in a New York state government effort to create a kind of "yogurt valley" in the dairy-producing part of the state where the company and several competitors are located. As the New York Times reports, Governor Andrew Cuomo recently presided over NY's first-ever "Yogurt Summit," designed to further boost the state's booming "Greek style" yogurt biz. From the NYT's report:
The Cuomo administration designed a logo for the meeting, featuring a cow with a spot on its side in the shape of New York State, and the governor wore a lapel pin with the yogurt logo. The administration also commissioned a custom-made backdrop, printed with “New York State Yogurt Summit” in capital letters, for Mr. Cuomo and other dignitaries to sit in front of, like professional athletes at a Super Bowl news conference.
Two years after the tragic Mavi Marmara incident, in which nine Turks were killed by Israeli commandos who stormed a ship attempting to break Israel's blockade on Gaza, Turkish-Israel relations remain frozen. Ankara maintains that only an Israeli apology, compensation to the families of the victims of the lifting of the Gaza blockade will allow it to restore relations. Israel, on the other hand, is ready to express its "regret" about the incident and pay some compensation, but is most certainly not ready to apologize or to consider changing its Gaza policy in order to appease Turkey.
Still, some recent reports would indicate that, at least on the Israeli side, there is a desire to break out of the impasse (or at least create the impression that such a desire exists). Although it's been clear for some time that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and some top military leaders believe apologizing to Turkey would make strategic sense, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far balked at doing this. But as veteran Israeli journalist David Horovitz writes in The Times of Israel, the news website he edits, this may be changing. Writes Horovitz:
As US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Israel on Tuesday night, the Iranian nuclear drive was, as ever, high on the agenda for his talks with Israeli leaders. So too, unsurprisingly, was the bloodshed in Syria, and concerns over President Bashar Assad’s chemical weapons falling into the hands of Hezbollah, Al-Qaeda, or other terror groups.
Perhaps not surprisingly, it didn't take long for the the European Union's decision to grant Georgia the exclusive right to market its wine bottles with the slogan "Georgia - The Cradle of Wine" to create some controversy in the Caucasus.
As the Hvino News website, which covers the Georgian wine scene, reports, the Union of Winemakers of Armenia is looking into how it might appeal Brussels' decision. From Hvino's report:
As noted by the Chairman of Union Mr. Avag Harutyunyan, not only Georgia can claim the status of "the cradle of wine", but also other countries in the region, primarily Armenia.
Armenian archeologists agree that in Georgia there are facts which prove the antiquity of the local wine. But for the moment the wine-making complex in Areni is considered the world's oldest, discovered during excavations "Areni-1" in 2011. According to the Director of Academic Institute of Archeology and Ethnography Mr. Pavel Avetisyan, both Georgia and Armenia can be considered the cradle of wine, as well as Iran, and even part of Azerbaijan, in view of the fact that the relevant archaeological materials have been found in all these countries.
This would not be the first time wine is dragged into the region's rivalries. In late June, Azeri hackers took over the website of an Armenian wine company in order to score some political points. More on that in this previous post.
Although Turkey late last year indicated its concern about the threat of ballistic missiles by agreeing to host part of NATO's new missile defense shield, Ankara now appears to be moving past this defensive posture towards something more robust.
As Today's Zaman recently reported, officials in Ankara have said that Turkey will soon start developing its own ballistic missiles. From TZ's article:
According to information acquired by Today’s Zaman from sources within the Defense Ministry, Ankara will produce its own ballistic missile system to avert any threat directed against Turkish national security. The decision was taken in a recent meeting of the Defense Industry Executive Committee led by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on July 17....
....Officials underlined that it is an imperative and necessity for Turkey to produce and develop such missiles to maintain its deterrent capability and to feel safe in an insecure environment. The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) is now developing a missile called an SOM with a range of 300 kilometers. This will be a first step towards developing a ballistic missile with a range of 2,500 kilometers. Unlike other types of missiles, ballistic missiles can fly beyond the Earth’s atmosphere as they don’t burn oxygen, meeting no air resistance. A ballistic missile spends most of its flight in space. After the lunch, the missile arches up from one point and lands at another point. It is difficult to detect a ballistic missile on radar and harder to intercept a ballistic missile than a conventional one.
The title of being the birthplace of wine is a contested one, with Georgia, Armenia, Turkey and even Azerbaijan all vying for it. But now Georgia can at least claim that it is officially the "cradle of wine."
As the all-things-Georgian-wine blog Hvino News reports, the European Union has just awarded Georgia the exclusive right to sell wine within its territory with the tagline "Georgia - the Cradle of Wine." From Hvino's dispatch:
According to "Sakstat" (Georgia's statistical institution), until 2011 this brand has belonged to a British company. The new registration allows Georgia to ban any other company using the name without permission. Use of the brand "Cradle of Wine" is supposed to help promote Georgia as the oldest wine-producing country.
But even before Georgians had a chance to raise a celebratory glass, the Financial Times weighed in on the question of Tbilisi's plan to label every bottle of wine with the now exclusive slogan, calling the victory in Brussels a "mixed blessing":
Emphasising its rich heritage is the obvious way for Georgian wine to make its mark in a highly competitive global market. But some consumers may more readily associate cradles with babies or bottle racks than the history of the Alazani Valley.
