Turkish Domestic Politics

With the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) again heating up, Turkey is promising several new strategies for fighting the group. One of these is the introduction of a counterterrorism police force that will compliment the work of the Turkish military in areas where the PKK is active inside Turkey. According to a report in Today's Zaman, the new unit will even have its own pilotless drones (UAV's) collecting intelligence. From the article:

In line with government plans to give police a more effective role in counterterrorism efforts, the Security General Directorate has established a Heron unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) unit and will purchase Heron drones to provide real-time intelligence in counterterrorism operations.

In the wake of an outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) attack that left 13 soldiers dead in the Silvan district of Diyarbakır last month, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said changes in the fight against terrorism were forthcoming and the police's responsibility in combating terrorism would be increased.

The Heron unit at the Security General Directorate will relay the real-time intelligence collected by UAVs to the police's Special Operations Teams, enabling them to carry out pinpoint strikes against the terrorist group.

There are plans to send 15 police officers of the Heron unit to the United States for UAV training. A delegation from the Aviation Bureau of the Security Directorate recently travelled to the United States to attend a Heron fair and examine the Herons to be purchased.

After a lull of several years, it appears that Turkey's battle with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) is starting to return to a more pitched level. Twelve Turkish soldiers were killed in a clash with the PKK in eastern Turkey yesterday and more than 40 soldiers have died in action over the last year. Meanwhile, the rhetoric on both sides is heating up, with Ankara promising a new and decisive round in the decades-long fight against the PKK. From Today's Zaman:

The Turkish prime minister reiterated that a new phase has begun in the fight against terrorism following increasing tension between security forces and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has left dozens of Turkish soldiers dead in the past few weeks.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking on Tuesday at an iftar dinner hosted by the Interior Ministry for families of the security personnel killed in PKK attacks, repeated his earlier promise that the government has launched a new strategy in the fight against terrorism, stressing that the struggle against the PKK does not mean stepping back from democracy and freedoms.

Erdoğan stated that Turkey is making preparation for this “new struggle” to the very last detail, adding that the assignment of professional staff to hot spots is almost completed. Stressing that the government will protect the country forever, Erdoğan said the state will protect the security, peace and happiness of 74 million citizens without stepping back from democracy, law and freedoms.

A journalist writes an article alleging financial irregularities at a Turkish municipality. Naturally, an investigation into the matter is launched -- in this case against the journalist, who ends up being fined by a court and prohibited from practicing her trade for a year. From Bianet's report on this strange and disturbing story:

Journalist Havva Karakaya from the local Kırşehir Posta newspaper was treated like a civil servant by the Kırşehir 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance. As reported on Thursday (28 July), the court decreed to prohibit Karakaya from performing his profession as a journalist for 375 days on the grounds of a news item he wrote.
In an interview with bianet, Karakaya said that he was going to lodge an appeal with the Court of Appeals 4th Chamber. He added that the lawyers he had consulted were also surprised about the decision.
Judge Kamuran Haydar presided over the final hearing. The court handed down a judicial fine corresponding to 300 days or ten months imprisonment respectively. The sentence stemmed from an article written by Karakaya on irregularities at the Kırşehir Municipality. Judge Haydar regarded the profession of journalism as a "professional organization comparable to a public institution" and prohibited Karakaya from performing his profession as a journalist for more than a year.
Karakaya added that he also received a monetary fine of TL 7,200 (€ 3,500). He told bianet that he was not going to step back from what he wrote and expressed his hope for the Court of Appeals' reversal.

Full story here. And a new report by the Committee to Protect Journalists on the press faced by parts of the Turkish media can be found here.

The stalled Semdinli case, in which elements within the military were accused of bombing a bookstore in southeast Turkey in 2005 in order to stir up trouble in the region, has long been seen by Turkish human rights activists as a failed test of democratization for their country. Although several military officials were arrested as part of the investigation into the bombing, the Turkish government ultimately backed off from pushing ahead with the case. But now it appears that the Semdinili case may be coming back to life. From Today's Zaman:

A court in the eastern province of Van agreed on Thursday to authorize an investigation of former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt and two other commanders in a trial of a 2005 bookstore bombing in the southeastern district of Şemdinli, in Hakkari province. The decision came during the first hearing of the trial after it resumed in a civilian court following a constitutional amendment that introduced restrictions on the jurisdiction of military courts. The Van 3rd Criminal Court also ruled for an investigation of two gendarmerie commanders in Van and Hakkari, Lt. Gen. Selahattin Uğurlu and Erhan Kubat, respectively, and Erdal Öztürk, the head of the General Staff’s Operations and Planning Department.

There are three suspects, including noncommissioned army officers Ali Kaya and Özcan İldeniz, on trial concerning the 2005 bombing in the Şemdinli district of Hakkari. Kaya and Özcan, who are both in the gendarmerie force, were captured as they tried to escape the scene after throwing a hand grenade at the city’s Umut bookstore, owned by a former Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) member. The third suspect is Veysel Ateş, a former PKK member who later started to work as an agent for gendarmerie intelligence.

Full article here.

Amnesty International is strongly criticizing an ongoing "urban transformation" project in the heart of Istanbul which is leading to the forced eviction of dozens of low-income families. The project is taking place in Tarlabasi, a historic neighborhood in Istanbul's Beyoglu district, which used to be home to Greeks and Armenians but over the decades became a low-income area, populated by a large number of Kurds from southeast Turkey who had been displaced from their homes there during the height of the Kurdish conflict in the 1980's and 90's.

The "transformation" plan for Tarlabasi includes demolishing many of the area's historic, through rundown, buildings and replacing them with newer, more expensive, housing units. From Amnesty's release about the issue:

Eviction notices seen by Amnesty International indicate that the Beyoğlu municipality is intent on carrying out forced evictions in Tarlabaşı with the assistance of lawyers and law enforcement officials. The notices do not give definite timetables or provide details of opportunities for legal or administrative challenges to the evictions. Dozens of families in the area have been affected. Some have made serious allegations of intimidation and threats by the authorities. Many residents have reported that they were made to sign eviction documents around six months ago without being able to read them. They were threatened that they would be evicted immediately by the police if they did not sign them. There has been no adequate consultation process with the affected people, and they have not been provided with alternatives to eviction or with an adequate plan for alternative housing.

The unresolved conflict in Cyprus stands as perhaps the greatest obstacle towards Turkey's joining the European Union and one of Ankara's major foreign policy headaches. Although the island's reconciliation efforts have mostly come to a standstill, there appears to be new hope that a resolution might be in sight. Dogu Ergil, a Turkish academic and columnist for Today's Zaman, recently wrote about the reasons behind this new momentum. From his column:

Following the third electoral victory of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), the Cabinet was reshaped with several basic goals. The first is to increase the innovative and productive capacity of Turkey to have it promoted to the list of developed countries; the other is to enhance relations with the European Union with the aim of gaining possible membership in due course.

Achieving both goals is connected with the solution of the so-called “Cyprus problem, which” has become a burden on Turkey in diplomatic, political and economic terms. Two pieces of news on the Cyprus issue surfaced in the papers recently -- one came from the UN (reported by the Greek Fileleftheros), which said they expected a resolution by December; otherwise they would consider redeploying the UN military forces elsewhere because both sides would have proved they have no intention of reconciling.

Proving you can never be too old to run afoul of the law, 102-year-old Lalihan Akbay from predominantly-Kurdish southeastern Turkey, is being investigated for "making propaganda" on behalf of a terrorist organization. The centenarian would-be criminal is the mother of a killed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) guerilla and had attended a recent memorial for her son, where she spoke to the local press, which is what appears to have led to the investigation against her. From Bianet:

Bianet talked with her son, Tevfik Akbay. He said that the investigation was initiated after she talked with the media during the religious ceremony organized in the Tatvan Democratic Solution Tent on April 16, 2011. "She can barely hear and speak" he said.
Tevfik Akbay cannot understand how the prosecutor initiate an invesitgation for someone of her age and health condition. "She immediately forgets what she said."
"She is 102, can't speak, can't hear and her crime is going to the mawlid for her son who died 26 years ago. I really cannot understand the 'making propaganda for a terrorist organisation' allegation."

One of the more notable additions to the new Turkish cabinet, whose members were announced today, is Erdogan Bayraktar, head of the newly-created Ministry of the Environment and Urban Planning. An argument could be made for making one ministry in charge of both protecting the environment and developing the cities (rapidly growing, in Turkey's case) that are threatening it, but the appointment of Bayraktar is certain to raise red flags. A first-time MP, Bayraktar was most recently head of TOKI, Turkey's powerful state housing agency, which has been one of the main forces behind Turkey's much-criticized "urban renewal" projects, which have led to entire communities being displaced and vast swathes of undeveloped land turned into cookie-cutter high-rise neighborhoods. In terms of both environmental protection and urban planning, TOKI's record is not great. Several Eurasianet articles about the agency and its actions can be found here.

The European Council on Foreign Relations recently released an interesting study called "What Does Turkey Think?", which consists of several essays by prominent Turkish analysts who take a look at key keys issues facing Turkey foreign and domestic policy. The whole study is worth reading, but I found an article written by Osman Baydemir, the Kurdish mayor of Diyarbakir, particularly interesting -- especially in light of recent events.

For those who are not in power, there is little democracy. There is no legal protection for workers whose factories are closed down, for women who are murdered by their husbands, and for children given 100-year jail sentences for throwing stones at armed policemen, or for regions in which the natural environment has been destroyed. The most significant cause of insecurity is the fact that, from the day it was founded, the republic has been informed by a belief that “the people do not know what is best for them, but we do”. This has shaped efforts to modernise and then democratise society from the top down, using radical methods to realise an exclusionist enlightenment mission.