Jets, commandos hunt PKK ın northern Iraq

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Suicide bomber kills 40 in Iraq, wounds 36 others page11
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Yo u r Way o f U n d e r s t a n d ý n g Tu r k e y
Tarkan to
sing for
peace
13
Kentel optimistic about a pluralistic
society as he sees more people
beginning to question modernism
13
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008 WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM YTL 1.50
Lindsay Lohan and Eddie Murphy,
with worst performances of 2007,
sweep Golden Raspberry Awards
OFFENSIVE IN ITS 4TH DAY TODAY
Headscarved
free to enter
universities as
of today
Jets, commandos hunt
PKK ýn northern Iraq
TSK.MÝL.TR
FIRST MARTYRS OF
GROUND OPERATION
LAID TO REST
A total of 112 terrorists have been killed and numerous PKK targets
destroyed since the ground offensive began late on Thursday. In Ankara,
Prime Minister Erdoðan pledged measures to 'isolate the PKK from society'
PHOTO
The funeral ceremony for martyred private
Ýbrahim Gedik was held in Trabzon.
Five of the 15 soldiers martyred in the
recent ground operation against the
separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
were laid to rest in funerals held in their
hometowns on Sunday. The funeral of Prv.
Gökhan Özkan was held in his hometown
of Çanakkale on Sunday. His mother
Emine, father Mehmet and sister Fatma
could barely stand from grief. In addition to
the grieving family and relatives, Çanakkale
Governor Ohran Kýrlý, Commander of the
2nd Army Corps Gen. Hayri Güner, Çanakkale Garrison Commander Gen. Erhan
Akporay attended the funeral. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
TURKEY INCREASES
SECURITY AS PKK
CALLS FOR VIOLENCE
EMRULLAH BAYRAK, DÝYARBAKIR
Security forces and police have tightened security measures in Turkey's
larger urban centers after the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) urged people of Kurdish origin living in Turkish cities
to rise up against the authorities in protest
of last week's commencement of a ground
offensive into northern Iraq. The PKK is
said to have ordered the Kurdistan
Freedom Falcons (TAK), a PKK-affiliated
group known largely for its terrorist attacks
in big cities, to resume attacks. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
A handout picture provided by the Turkish General Staff on Sunday shows soldiers taking part in the ongoing land operation in northern Iraq.
Troops backed by fighter jets destroyed outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)
hideouts and logistics centers while warplanes successfully hit a total of 63 PKK targets on
the third day of a major ground offensive in northern Iraq on Sunday, the military announced.
Eight more troops were killed on Sunday,
bringing the number of fallen soldiers to 15 since
the operation began on late Thursday. A helicopter crashed due to an unspecified reason, the
military said in a statement posted on its Web
site. The PKK had earlier claimed that it had shot
down the helicopter. The military statement said
an investigation was still under way to determine
the reason the chopper crashed.
Thirty-three terrorists, including several believed
to be leaders of the group, were killed on Sunday,
bringing the number of PKK casualties to 112 since
the start of the operation. Sources said PKK members were fleeing to the Kandil Mountains in small
groups after their Zap and Avaþin camps were
brought down by the Turkish forces.
Troops deployed in military bases that have long
been inside northern Iraq stepped up measures to
prevent PKK terrorists from fleeing the offensive to
hide in Kurdish villages in the area, sources also
said. The Zap and Avaþin camps had been subject to
aerial attacks since Dec. 16 but many hideouts there
remained unharmed after the aerial strikes because
the camps are located in a deep valley. One of these
camps, Avaþin, was used as a base for a deadly raid
by the PKK terrorists on a Turkish military post near
the Iraqi border in October. Twelve soldiers were
slain in the PKK raid in Daðlýca, one of the boldest
attacks by the terrorist group on the Turkish
Armed Forces (TSK) in many years. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04
Beginning today, covered students will be
allowed to enter some university
campuses following President Abdullah
Gül's approval of a constitutional package lifting
a long-standing ban on headscarves at
universities, while the heads of other institutions
of higher learning have vowed to uphold the ban.
The heads of many universities said they will
comply with the measure approved by Gül on
Friday to eliminate the decades-old headscarf ban
on university campuses, in a move to make
universities freer places, ensure equal treatment for
all Turkish citizens and strengthen equality before
the law in receiving an education. Gül said in a
statement released by his office that the amended
articles do not pose a threat to the basic principles
of the Turkish Republic. Referring to the approval of
the reform package by 411 deputies, the statement
said it amounted to approval by 80 percent of the
population and that various public surveys showed
that society wants the ban to be lifted.
Çukurova University Rector Alper Akýnoðlu
said heavy responsibility falls on the shoulders of
every Turkish citizen to push the country toward a
freer and more democratic future. "My university
will comply with the constitutional amendments.
I will discuss the issue with legal advisors today.
I believe Turkey's headscarf problem should be
eliminated through consensus," he said.
Ýstanbul Arel University Rector Ömer Asým
Saçlý noted that his university will back headscarf
freedom on its campus. "I will tackle the issue
with officials from our university. We will
support the abolition of the headscarf ban at
universities. Arel University backs headscarf
freedom," he said. Professor Levent Köker, a
constitutional expert, said university rectors
could comply with headscarf freedom without
waiting for an amendment to Article 17 of the
Higher Education Board (YÖK) Law. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
Hopes for talks renewed as Christofias wins
Dimitris
Christofias
Communist-rooted Dimitris Christofias won
Greek Cyprus' crucial presidential runoff on
Sunday, renewing hopes for resumption of
talks on reunification of the island. Christofias won
53 percent of the vote, against 46 percent for his conservative rival Ioannis Kasoulides.
Both Christofias, 62, and Kassoulides, 59, pledged
to try to relaunch reunification talks with the Turkish
Cypriots in the north of the island but differ on the
process. Negotiations froze under President Tassos
Papadopoulos, who had rejected a UN reunification
plan in 2004. His surprise elimination in the first
round of voting on Feb. 17 raised hopes of breaking
the deadlock.
"This is not just about Cyprus. This is about broader security and stability and political consolidation in
the critical part of the Eurasian theater," said John
Sitilides, chairman of the Washington-based
Woodrow Wilson Center's Southeast Europe Project.
It was the promise of an end to the stalemate over the
island's division that produced the shock exit of hardline incumbent Papadopoulos in a first-round vote last
week. "We will roll up our sleeves and work hard so
that our island is reunified. Enough is enough;
entrenching division is disastrous for our people and
our island," Christofias, who won endorsement from
Papadopoulos' party after the first round of the
election last weekend, told reporters after voting. "I also extend a message of friendship to
ordinary Turkish Cypriots." CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
Featuring news and articles from
President
Abdullah Gül
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02 TODAY’S ZAMAN
’
F OOD FOR THOUGHT
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad
CROSS READER
FATMA DÝÞLÝ
’
Q UOTE OF THE DAY
The best way for the US and its allies
to compensate for their mistakes is
to apologize and pay compensation.
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M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
PRESS REVIEW
columns
W ORDS OF WISDOM
I have always said that the one
thing that I have not seen myself
doing is running for elected office.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Common sense in an
uncommon degree is what
the world calls wisdom.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
press roundup
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AP
[email protected]
Socýal package
should follow
latest operatýon
agaýnst the PKK
The ground offensive that the Turkish Armed Forces
(TSK) launched into northern Iraq starting last
Thursday, followed by a series of air strikes on hideouts
of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), has
been widely hailed by the Turkish media as proving
Turkey’s determination to combat the terrorist organization. Yet there was also general consensus on the insufficiency of military solutions in the rooting out of
terrorism, with widespread agreement that the operations should be supported by social and economic policies that will improve living conditions in the country’s
Southeast, where the PKK finds much of its support.
“For my part, I am not someone who always opposes
military endeavors against terrorism in all circumstances. If
terrorism is using violence, certainly violence has to be used
to exterminate it,” says Bugün daily’s Gülay Göktürk, explaining her general stance on the military action.
Regarding the ongoing ground operation, she complains
that it was carried out before a solution package to the
Kurdish issue had been introduced. “We are still waiting for
the political solution move, as pledged by the ruling Justice
and Development [AK Party],” she says. Göktürk considers
plans to invite Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to Ankara and
to broadcast programs in Kurdish on a Turkish Radio and
Television (TRT) channel to be positive, but insufficient, developments: She thinks a total political project to address
the roots of the problem is required. Such a project should
include, she says, legal amendments that will urge PKK
members in hiding to leave the mountains; steps that
will eliminate any restrictions on Kurdish identity; and
measures that will aim to strengthen local administrations and compensate for the damage dealt to the region’s public during the fight against terrorism.
According to Sabah daily’s Soli Özel, the ground operation should not only be evaluated in terms of its military targets and scope, but also in terms of its political
targets and consequences. He believes that if the PKK’s
logistical base is destroyed and if routes by which PKK
members infiltrate Turkey are taken under control, it will
pave the way for the subsequent political openings that
have long awaited the settlement of the Kurdish problem.
“It is of crucial importance for Turkey’s internal politics
and social peace to take civilian steps toward the settlement of this problem. In this respect the government,
which bears political responsibility for the operation,
should demonstrate a creativity and courage that will
eliminate suspicion over its intentions to deepen the
process of democratization. The PKK’s isolation in the
international arena does not indicate it has no internal
political power. For this reason alone, taking extensive
steps to solve the Kurdish issue is of critical importance in
the political consequences of the operation,” says Özel.
Acknowledging that it is not yet possible to make
predictions about the results of the latest cross-border
offensive, Milliyet’s Fikret Bila thinks it very evident
even today that the operation will have tactical results
and destroy PKK hideouts it previously deemed secure,
thwarting its plans to carry out attacks in the spring
when the mountain snows melt. In his view the operation has also eliminated any belief among PKK
members that Turkey would be unable to enter
northern Iraq with a land operation in the spring.
AHMET TAÞGETÝREN, BUGÜN
Considering that the military
operations into northern Iraq
have always drawn extraordinary attention, we run the risk
of expecting a total solution to
the problem. Everybody knows
that even the military does not agree with this.
Such an image of relaxation and putting too
much trust in the military operation also weakens the potential of the Justice and
Development (AK Party) government to take an
initiative in the resolution of the Kurdish issue.
This is exactly the atmosphere the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party (PKK) and Democratic Society
Party (DTP) front needs during the course of
the regional elections. Operations, demonstrations, tanks, clashes with police, the
“martyr” discourse and funerals will ensue
and will create a very bad equation. As long
as the actions taken by the state are not conveyed in the news as part of serving the
Southeast as well, this risk will only grow bigger.
Will AK Party continue to
smash preconceptions?
MAHMUT ÖVÜR, SABAH
An undated handout picture provided by the Turkish General Staff
headquarters on Feb. 24, 2008, shows a Turkish soldier taking part in
an operation in northern Iraq. The General Staff said on Saturday
that the number of PKK terrorists killed during its military offensive in
northern Iraq had risen to 79 in a statement posted on its Web site.
zaman
“Bombs dropped on Kandil Mountains from
air and land” was the daily’s headline yesterday, referring
to the ongoing ground offensive into northern Iraq to crack
down on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
that was launched on Thursday evening. While two Turkish
soldiers were martyred in Saturday’s clashes, a total of 35
terrorists were killed. The hideouts of the PKK were
bombed both by aerial and ground strikes. The number of
PKK terrorists who were killed in clashes over the last two
days has reached 79. In the meantime, security measures
in big cities have been tightened in the event of any attacks
by PKK members in the wake of the ground operation.
taraf
It is clear that the ground offensive into
northern Iraq was launched to exterminate the PKK camps
that were damaged by last year’s air strikes rather than to
create a buffer zone in the region or for a permanent stay,
said the daily’s main story yesterday. Sources close to the
government told the daily that the latest ground operation
against the PKK will be a limited one in terms of time and
scope, contrary to some speculation. The same sources said
the goal of the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) with this
operation is to destroy the already damaged hideouts
of the PKK to make them unusable by PKK members.
radikal
If political party leaders had reached
consensus on lifting the headscarf ban at universities,
President Abdullah Gül would have vetoed the
constitutional reform package for the removal of headscarf
ban to make the solution to the problem possible without
constitutional changes, reported the daily’s headline
yesterday. According to the newspaper, Gül commissioned
Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges
(TOBB) head Rifat Hisarcýklýoðlu to urge the leaders to
find a solution to the headscarf problem in a way that
would not require constitutional changes; however,
Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal did
not welcome Gül’s proposal, saying that he has no trust
in the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
akþam
CHP leader Deniz Baykal criticized
speculation that the ongoing ground operation into
northern Iraq was launched to overshadow President
Abdullah Gül’s approval of a constitutional package to lift
the headscarf ban at universities. “It has nothing to do with
the headscarf. It is different, the operation is different,” said
Baykal during and interview with the daily’s Ýsmail
Küçükkaya. Baykal termed the latest operation against the
PKK the most critical ground operation since the Cyprus
Peace Operation, which was launched in 1974. “The
difference between them is that the Iraqi operation is being
carried out in the territories of a friendly country. We did
not easily come to this point. It is wrong to associate this
operation with the headscarf debates,” Baykal added.
It is interesting to see that three
recent and very significant
events occurred around the
same time. Practically on the
same day, a ground operation in
northern Iraq was launched,
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani was invited to
Turkey, and President Abdullah Gül approved a
new law putting an end to the two-decade-old
ban on headscarves at university campuses.
Obviously, we are faced with a significant display of political rationality. Particularly the president’s approval of the amendment package to
lift the headscarf ban would have met with unbelievable controversy had it been signed at a
different time. This clearly shows that “sound
reason” is managing the entire process very
successfully. This is what I had earlier referred
to as “AK Party reason.” Now the big question
is what this reason will be doing next. It has
shown its flexibility many times, but will it now
be able to unite with the “reason of the state”
and crush preconceived ideas people have
about political attitudes? Or will those preconceptions as we know them remain in place?
The ground operation
MAHÝR KAYNAK, STAR
We can evaluate the recent operations that have been staged
in northern Iraq for some time
from the following perspective:
The reason Turkey has been
staging air strikes at nighttime
has nothing to do with the particularities of its
targets in northern Iraq. The nighttime strikes
only seek to show the world and major players
in the region our capabilities and hopefully
have a deterrent effect on them (from actions
that could hurt Turkey’s national security). The
ground operation being carried out under severe winter conditions also seeks to show that
we can carry out ground operations under any
conditions. In addition to this, Turkey’s very
positive approach to the people of the region
shows that if and when we stage similar operations in northern Iraq at another time, we will
never target or harm the people of northern Iraq.
The ground
operation and beyond
HASAN CELAL GÜZEL, RADÝKAL
turkey ýn the foreýgn press
The Guardýan
The Washýngton Post
Turkish onslaught paves way for major PKK assault
Turkish forces used jets and heavy artillery to pound
the bases of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK) in northern Iraq on Saturday, as a prelude to a
major assault in the coming days. Turkish news
agencies reported more troops moving towards the
remote border area. Military spokesmen in Ankara
claimed that seven of its troops and 79 PKK members
had been killed in fierce fighting on Saturday and
overnight. The PKK claimed that Turkish losses
outnumber its own. ‘After clashes yesterday ... 22
Turkish soldiers were killed. Not more than five PKK
A risk ahead
due to operation
soldiers were wounded,’ Ahmed Danees, head of
foreign relations for the PKK, said, talking by satellite
phone from an undisclosed location. With the
fighting taking place in the snowbound Kandil
Mountains, which straddle the Iraqi-Turkish border,
verification of the conflicting estimates was difficult.
Turkey is thought to have deployed 1,000-3,000
soldiers and dozens of helicopter gunships in an
operation aimed as much at attracting international
attention to the continuing presence in Iraq of the
PKK, as destroying the group’s mountain bases.
Turkey’s Gül signs headscarf measure
Turkey’s president signed into law Friday
a constitutional amendment allowing
women to wear headscarves on college
campuses. The move eases a prohibition
on religious attire that had been
among the founding measures of the
modern, secular Turkish Republic.
President Abdullah Gül said in a
statement that the change is also a step
toward ensuring equal treatment under
the law for all Turkish citizens and does
CM Y K
not contradict the tenets of the almost
nine-decade-old Turkish Republic.
Parliament, dominated by the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party), had
approved the amendment Feb. 9.
Although more than 99 percent of
Turks are Muslim, founder Mustafa
Kemal Atatürk instituted laws and other
measures in the 1920s to discourage
Islamic attire as part of his drive for a
more Western and secular Turkey.
Some members of our intelligentsia had suggested that terrorists in northern Iraq have already “dispersed” due to severe
winter conditions and that we
are bombing only “rocks and
mountains in the region,” when Turkey started
air strikes in the region last year. Although it is
perfectly acceptable that last year’s air strikes
did not have the quality of being sudden
“raids” since they came too late, the same
thing cannot be said of the current ground operation. It is not entirely true that terrorists in
the area have dispersed into other regions. The
staging of these ground operations, above all
else, has shown the determination of Turkey
and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) to the
world, and our reputation in the world has improved once again. Another byproduct of this
operation is that the air forces and the land
forces have found an invaluable opportunity to
gain unequalled experience. Today, the TSK
has become the world’s most experienced and
capable military force in this respect.
18:28
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NATIONAL
TODAY’S ZAMAN 03
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
ÝSTANBUL
ANKARA
ÝZMÝR
ANTALYA
ADANA
ERZURUM
EDÝRNE
TRABZON
KAYSERÝ
Local police chief sacked
over DTP clubbing allegations
toward the Batman governor or the chief of
the national police department. We just want
the person responsible for this incident, whoever that might be, to be held accountable.”
Hundreds of Kurdish demonstrators
armed with stones battled police in southeastern Turkey, protesting on the ninth anniver-
sary of Öcalan’s capture on Feb. 16. A 15year-old boy among the protestors was killed.
Authorities immediately announced the boy
had died from a fellow protestors’ stone hitting him in the head; however, the media and
witnesses contend he was run over by an armored vehicle. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman
2°
11°
10°
9°
13°
14°
6°
1°
14°
[email protected]
MEDENÝ AKBAÞ
DTP deputy Bengi Yýldýz (right, wearing blue tie) and Batman Mayor Hüseyin Kalkan (left, in blue suit)
have filed a complaint with a prosecutor, claiming they were subject to police violence during an annual
demonstration calling for the release of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the outlawed PKK.
KONYA
ÇANAKKALE
DÝYARBAKIR
SAMSUN
BURSA
GAZÝANTEP
ESKÝÞEHÝR
MALATYA
KOCAELÝ
BÜLENT
KENEÞ
PHOTO
The chief of the police riot unit in the
southeastern city of Batman was removed from his post after a deputy and
a mayor from the pro-Kurdish Democratic
Society Party (DTP) said they were badly
beaten up by officers using batons during a
demonstration in the Southeast last week.
DTP deputy Bengi Yýldýz and Batman Mayor
Hüseyin Kalkan had claimed that police
clubbed them using batons during an annual
demonstration on Feb. 15 calling for the release
of Abdullah Öcalan -- the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) who was
captured and imprisoned nine years ago.
Batman’s Çevik Kuvvet Riot Police Chief
Hüseyin Gürbüz was removed following the
start of the investigation into the claims of
Kalkan and Yýldýz, news reports said on Sunday.
Gürbüz’s dismissal was announced by
Batman Governor Recep Kýzýlcýk, who had ordered the investigation to find out whether mistreatment by the riot police occurred during the
demonstrations. “The investigation is being carried out in a thorough manner,” Kýzýlcýk said.
Yýldýz, who commented on the news, said
the dismissal of Gürbüz was an important development. “We do not have any prejudices
12°
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What wýll ‘grand ground operatýon’ change?
Although the Turkish army’s entry into northern
Iraq -- where the Kurdistan Worker’s Party
(PKK) terrorist organization is based -- was no
surprise in itself, its timing surprised everybody.
As you will remember, Today’s Zaman’s headline
last Monday was “Turkey readies for ground operation.” However, what came as a surprise was
that the operation began at an earlier date than
the one our news article had suggested.
We had headlined the issue prior to the news article we published last Monday. When everybody
thought that the operation would be limited to air
strikes, we announced from the pen of our friend and
writer Lale Sarýibrahimoðlu, an expert on defense issues, that the Turkish army was making preparations
for a ground operation into northern Iraq in the spring.
The confirmation to our news stories came after
two days from Foreign Minister Ali Babacan. When
he remarked that “a ground operation is an option
on the table” it was interpreted as indicating that the
operation would take place in the spring. In fact, this
was the surprising part of the operation, which
everybody thought couldn’t be carried out under
harsh winter conditions. Apparently, the political officials and military authorities in Ankara prepared
the “game plan” of this surprise operation extremely
carefully and thought about every single detail.
Now we can appreciate that the biggest challenge
our political and military officials faced was to preserve
the element of surprise for an operation that was gradually becoming a public expectation and that had already made it onto the agenda of the terrorists in the
Kandil Mountains. It may sound strange, but this is
why they did not see any problems leaking some information about the operation to the press. After all, the
leaked information implied that the operation could be
carried out “in the middle of March at the earliest.”
This was undoubtedly an effective method of diversion.
This was the real trump card of the Turkish military,
which has now developed the ability to carry out massive air and ground operations even under harsh winter and night conditions. That is, the question was not
whether a ground operation would be carried out; it
was when it would be initiated. We see that the estimates were diverted and managed successfully.
That’s why I should note the criticism of some analysts, saying, “Can an operation be carried out in such
an obvious fashion?” A better way to describe the
situation would be “obviously, but all of a sudden.”
The question we should ask at this point is “What
will be the results of this operation, for which the international community was prepared with the coordinated diplomatic efforts of the Presidency, the Prime
Ministry, the Foreign Ministry and the General Staff
at all levels?” We should analyze this question well. I
should immediately note that the desperate leadership utopia Massoud Barzani is trying to spread
among Kurds by acting like the de facto authority of
northern Iraq and defying Turkey has received a very
deep wound. It’s out of the question for anybody
from now on to take into regard the high-pitched
nationalist and defiant remarks of Barzani, who
adopted an unnecessary stance against a military operation that targets a heinous terrorist organization.
The process that began within Turkish-US relations on Nov. 5 has shown Barzani, the leader of
the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), that his
power and prestige were far below the level he had
thought. This operation also revealed that Barzani’s
“virtual power” is far more fragile than many expected. His dreams of becoming a regional or international actor will fall through completely following this operation. Along with his dreams, he has
lost his credibility. The power formulations on
which international relations are built exist to prevent one from falling into such situations. Barzani
wrongly thought that he could impose a will far
greater than his actual power, but this operation
has clearly proven that he has in fact no power to
support these dreams. The operation will also have
a serious impact on the current course of the
Kirkuk problem as well as Iraq’s internal balances.
We can state that Turkey -- which certain international powers attempted to exclude from Iraqbased regional formulas following the motion of
March 1, 2003, which prevented the US from opening a northern front against Iraq -- is returning to
its strong and important place in regional balances.
In the meantime, the chief misgiving voiced
about the operation is how long the Turkish military will remain inside Iraq. It seems that Turkey,
having begun an operation 10 years after the previous one, despite the new order of Iraq, is now a
de facto element everybody should take into consideration in the region, whether its troops remain
there or not. It has also become a power that
should be taken into account for any step to be
taken in the region. Therefore, although the chief
target of this operation is the terrorist PKK, it will
produce many other greater effects. And these effects will probably be most appreciated by
Barzani, who assumed he was a superpower himself relying on temporary international support
and who displayed terrible leadership skills by
creating unnecessary tension through displays
of power based on his fallacious thoughts.
The aspect of the operation that looks inward
tells us that the Kurdish issue should now be handled regardless of PKK terrorism. As this operation
has once again demonstrated, the PKK’s political and
de facto demise has come into international view.
Therefore, the operation in question is quite different
than the previous 25. It deserves to be regarded as
the “grand ground operation,” whatever its target,
scope and duration might be. Although the terrorist
organization has not yet been completely physically
terminated, we can comfortably note that the organizational structure of the PKK will enter into a
process of rapid dissolution after this operation.
So, is this enough? Definitely not. The real job
begins afterwards. While the PKK is attacked in the
mountains, measures should be taken to eradicate
the factors that still prevent our Kurdish brothers
and sisters from feeling like first-class citizens in
this country. But we should be very meticulous
about something: Our military, which has the utmost importance in this operation, should never be
active in the process of developing and implementing these measures. It should make do with a military operation in the mountains, while leaving as
much space as possible for politics to solve these
problems, which turned gangrenous long ago.
Today’s Zaman Ankara Representative
Kerim Balcý weds in Ýstanbul
Today’s Zaman columnist and Ankara
representative Kerim Balcý tied the knot in
Ýstanbul on Saturday. Balcý married Gülhan
Karalý, a computer engineer for Bank Asya, at 5
p.m. in the Municipal Marriage Office of Ýstanbul’s Beþiktaþ district. A reception was held after
the wedding ceremony; among the guests were
Today’s Zaman Editor-in-Chief Bülent Keneþ,
Aksiyon weekly Editor-in-Chief Mehmet
Yýlmaz, Zaman columnist Abdülhamit Bilici and
Samanyolu TV anchor Kemal Gülen. Today’s
Zaman wishes the happy couple a long and
contented life together. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman
CM Y K
ÝSA ÞÝMÞEK
24.02.2008
PHOTO
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04 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Asking US for help, Iraqi Kurds call on Ankara for dialogue
ALÝHAN HASANOÐLU ARBIL
The Iraqi Kurdish administration has urged US
President George W. Bush to help stop the
Turkish operation in northern Iraq and has called on
the Turkish capital for dialogue to resolve the situation a day after it warned that Turkey's incursion into northern Iraq would be met with strong opposition if civilians or populated areas were attacked.
Iraqi Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani initiated
a telephone conversation with US President George
W. Bush and reminded him of "his responsibilities
concerning the region," after the Turkish military
on Thursday launched a major ground operation,
supported by warplanes, helicopters and artillery,
targeting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party
(PKK) across the border in northern Iraq.
Barzani's call to Bush was made public at a
press conference held yesterday in Arbil by
Nechirvan Barzani, the prime minister of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq.
Massoud Barzani told Bush that Turkey's
operation would lead to "instability" in Iraq and
asked the US president to "remedy the situation," Nechirvan Barzani said.
The incursion is the first confirmed Turkish military ground operation in Iraq since the US-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003. Iraqi
Kurds have termed the operation "bullying" and
called for non-military means to resolve the problem. On Saturday the Kurdish administration called
for an end to the Turkish offensive and Massoud
Barzani warned Turkey that it will face large-scale
resistance if it targets civilians in its ground incursion.
"Any attack on any citizen in Kurdistan or
populated areas will be answered with massive
resistance ... and all preparations have been
made in this matter," said a statement released
Saturday by Massoud Barzani's office.
"We don't approve of the PKK's violent activities. We also understand Turkey's position. These
kinds of operations have been launched for years,
and we have seen that they haven't brought about
a solution," Nechirvan Barzani said, voicing his
government's will for having a meeting between
Turkey, the Iraqi government, the regional Kurdish
government and the United States to discuss ways
of eliminating the PKK threat posed to Turkey.
Describing Turkey as "a good neighbor,"
Nechirvan Barzani said his government was ready to
travel to Ankara to meet with Turkish officials on the
issue at any time, while also urging the Turkish military to conclude its operation as soon as possible.
While Turkish forces pressed on with the incursion on Sunday, pickup trucks and minibuses full of
Iraqi Kurdish peshmerga security forces were patrolling the region's snow-covered mountain roads.
Carrying AK-47s over their shoulders and
with their heads wrapped in traditional Kurdish
turbans, the peshmerga, which in Kurdish
means "those ready to face death," said they
would fight Turkish forces if they stay too long,
Reuters news agency reported from Zakho.
So far the peshmerga forces have stayed on
the sidelines of the Turkish military operation,
which is taking place in a remote, sparsely populated mountainous region. Iraqi Kurdish officials
regard the area as outside their control.
"We have lost our patience with the Turkish
military's shelling of our area," peshmerga fighter Rasheed Ghazi, 53, told Reuters. "We will
confront them if they push further with their
troops or try to occupy our area."
Turkey says it is carrying out a limited operation against the PKK, which is listed as a terrorist organization by a large majority of the international community and which it blames for
the death of nearly 40,000 people since it began
its armed struggle in 1984. US officials say
Ankara has given assurances it will do all it can
to avoid civilian casualties. So far there have
been no reports of any civilian casualties, but residents in villages near the border say they are being targeted in air strikes and artillery barrages.
AP
Jets, commandos destroy
PKK camps ýn northern Iraq
PHOTO
contýnued from page 1
On the Turkish side of the border, armored personnel carriers transported
troops in full combat gear, and four long-range
guns were positioned at the edge of a helicopter
base in the Çukurca district of Hakkari, located on
the border with Iraq. Helicopters taking off from
the base flew to the Iraqi side of the border
throughout the day. The base in Çukurca is one of
the main support centers for the land operation
across the border, which began Thursday.
Turkey's ground offensive in Iraq, the
biggest anti-PKK operation in a decade, continues under international scrutiny. To assuage concerns that it could destabilize
northern Iraq, the Turkish government has
given assurances that the offensive is solely
targeted at the PKK, which uses the region as
a base for attacks on Turkey. Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoðan yesterday reiterated
that the ongoing offensive was not directed at
Iraq or the people of northern Iraq and said
multi-dimensional efforts were under way to
"isolate the PKK from the society."
Erdoðan's remarks came hours before the
Iraqi government urged Turkey to end the offensive as soon as possible and sit down for talks to
resolve the problem. "The Iraqi government considers the unilateral Turkish military action ... a
threat to the stability of the region and a violation
of Iraq's sovereignty and calls on Turkey to pull its
troops from Iraq as soon as possible," a government statement said. Earlier in the day, US
Defense Secretary Robert Gates also said the offensive will not solve the problem with the terrorist group and called for Ankara to take political
and economic measures to isolate the group.
Gates, in Australia as part of an extended
Asian trip, also urged Turkey to respect Iraq's
sovereignty and improve communication with
Baghdad about both the ongoing operation and
other efforts against the PKK. "I think it's important for everybody to bear in mind the importance of the sovereignty of Iraq," Gates told
reporters on Sunday.
"There has been contact at high levels about
this activity that is in northern Iraq right now. I
think that there can always be improvement in
the timeliness and in the depth of the dialogue.
It can't be just a one-time event. It needs to be
an ongoing dialogue," added Gates.
Asked whether the military strike could resolve Turkey's problem with PKK terrorists,
Gates said, "No," adding, "I think all of our experience in Iraq and Afghanistan shows us that,
while dealing with a terrorist problem does re-
NATIONAL
Gül to deepen ties with
Africa on 4-day tour
President Abdullah Gül will tomorrow depart
for the African continent for a tour that will
take in Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, and the Republic of the Congo (CongoBrazzaville), during which he will hold talks in
preparation for the Turkey-Africa Cooperation
Summit, which will be held in Ýstanbul in August.
Gül's visit comes as Ankara steps up efforts
to forge closer ties with Africa. Turkey has been
planning to open new consulates in Africa in
2008 in Mali, Chad, Niger, Ghana, Côte
d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mozambique, Cameroon
and Tanzania. More consulates in other African
countries are planned for 2009.
The Turkish capital expects 2008 to be the
year in which it will deepen its relations with
African countries. With the cooperation summit
in August, Ankara will become a member of the
"strategic partners group" of Africa.
On his four-day tour Gül will first visit
Tanzania, which currently holds the rotating
presidency of the African Union. Following his
visits to the Democratic Republic of the Congo
and Congo-Brazzaville, Gül will in March attend
an upcoming summit of the Organization of the
Islamic Conference (OIC) that will be hosted in
the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Turkey's bid for
a temporary seat on the UN Security Council
will be a leading topic of Gül's visit, with Ankara
seeking African countries' support for its bid.
Turkey's trade volume with African counties,
which stood at $5.4 billion in 2003, reached $12 billion by the end of 2006. Ankara aims at raising this
figure to $30 billion in the near future. Several businessmen from the Turkish Confederation of
Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON) will also
accompany Gül during the trip. TUSKON, which
organized a Turkish export fair in Tanzania on May
31 to June 3 of last year, plans to establish a trade
and investment bridge between the two countries
as well as develop business opportunities there.
TUSKON held the first Turkey-Africa Foreign
Trade Bridge program in May 2006, and plans to
hold its third such program this year. Meanwhile,
in line with Turkey's goal of full assistance for
African countries, the Turkish Cooperation and
Development Administration (TÝKA) has opened
three offices on the continent since 2005.
Announcing Gül's visit to African countries,
the president's press office noted that the president
is also scheduled to attend a regular intergovernmental meeting of the United Nations Conference
on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which will
be held in Accra, Ghana, in late April. The UNCTAD Secretariat and ambassadors of Africa's
least developed countries (LDCs) in Geneva are
planning to hold a workshop in Ýzmir in early
March in preparation for the meeting in Ghana,
the press office also noted. Ankara Today's Zaman
DIPLOMACY
Top diplomat to
visit Paris for talks
A Turkish army Cobra helicopter takes off with artillery units in the background in Çukurca in Hakkari province at the Turkey-Iraq border on Sunday.
quire security operations, it also requires economic and political initiatives."
"The kinds of military activities that they
have been engaged in should be complemented
with initiatives to try and address some of the
concerns of those who are reconcilable among
the Kurds, to win their loyalty to Turkey if they
are living in Turkey and to try and eliminate
whatever popular base exists that supports the
terrorist activities of the PKK."
Confrontation with Kurds?
Gates said the local Kurdish government, accused by Ankara of supporting the PKK, had
begun doing more to help Iraqi and Turkish officials. But he warned that Turkey's concern
would not be eased until the number of PKK
attacks inside Turkish territory decreased.
"I think Turkish concern will only be al-
layed when there is a significant diminution in
PKK activity in Turkey, killing Turkish soldiers
and civilians," he said.
Iraqi Kurds, who run northern Iraq, oppose the
Turkish offensive and called for dialogue to resolve
the issue. Turkish leaders have stated several times
that the operation was targeted only at the PKK,
but there are fears over an unfriendly encounter
between the Kurdish peshmerga forces and the
Turkish troops chasing the PKK terrorists.
Sources said peshmerga forces were deployed five kilometers from a spot where
troops clashed with the PKK terrorists yesterday. The military said in the statement that "local Iraqi groups are expected to prevent the
PKK terrorist group members from entering
their region and finding safe haven there."
Massoud Barzani, head of the regional Kurdish
administration in northern Iraq, warned Turkey
on Saturday that it will face large-scale resistance
if it targets civilians in its ground incursion.
Iraq's firebrand Shiite cleric Muqtada alSadr also demanded an immediate withdrawal
of Turkish forces from northern Iraq and advised negotiations instead.
"We demand that the Turkish government
withdraw its forces immediately from Iraqi territory
and rely on negotiations to solve this conflict," alSadr's influential political committee said in a
statement issued by his office in the Shiite holy city
of Najaf. "We call upon Muslim neighbor Turkey
through its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
and its Muslim people to be an element of peace
and security in the region," the statement added.
The Sadrists also held the Iraqi government and US-led forces responsible for the
"deteriorating security situation on our northern borders." Ýstanbul/Diyarbakýr Today's Zaman with wires
Foreign Ministry Undersecretary and Ambassador
Ertuðrul Apakan is scheduled to depart today for
the French capital for a two-day visit during which
he will hold talks within the context of regular political consultations between Ankara and Paris.
Last autumn, bilateral relations between France
and Turkey, which have deteriorated since France
passed a bill making denial of the Armenian "genocide" a crime, were revived with a high-level visit to
Ankara. Then the secretary-general of the French
Foreign Ministry paid an official visit to Ankara in
early September to restart annual political consultations at a meeting with Ambassador Apakan.
In October 2006 the French parliament approved a bill that made it a crime to deny that the
Ottoman Turks committed "genocide" against
Anatolian Armenians during World War I, despite Ankara's protests. Turkey is also concerned
by Sarkozy's firm objections to Turkey's accession
to the European Union. France is to take over
the rotating presidency of the 27-member bloc
in the second half of this year. Ankara Today's Zaman
VISIT
Ankara to host Yemeni
president today
Iran reinforces Iraq border after Turkish attack
Iran said on Sunday it had reinforced its
border security after Turkey launched an offensive in north Iraq against the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), a move an analyst said was likely aimed at stopping members
of the group from hiding in Iran.
Turkey said it launched the cross-border offensive after Iraqi authorities failed to stop an estimated
3,000 members of the PKK from using northern Iraq
as a base to stage attacks on Turkish territory.
Iranian forces have also often clashed in Iraqi
border areas with members of the Party for a Free
Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), an offshoot of the PKK
and which analysts say has bases in northeastern
Iraq from where they operate against Iran.
"Necessary measures have already been taken to reinforce our borders," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a
weekly news conference.
Iran, which brands PJAK a terrorist group,
was probably concerned the PKK might seek
haven in or near Iranian territory as a result of the
Turkish action, one analyst said, adding this was
more likely than concern about a refugee influx.
"Regarding the PKK and other terrorist factions
active in the region, we stress that the best way to
face regional terrorists is for security cooperation
between the regional countries," Hosseini said.
But Iran, which has been seeking to improve
ties with the Iraq, urged Turkey to heed Iraqi government concerns in its bid to put a halt to PKK actions. "Regarding the attack of the Turkish forces
into Iraq, we believe the opinion of the Iraqi gov-
CM Y K
ernment must be valued although we also believe
the terrorists must stop their terrorist operations
there," the spokesman said. Hosseini repeated
Iran's position that the presence in the region of
"foreign forces," a term usually used to refer to the
United States and its allies, was creating instability.
Iran has postponed talks with US officials on
Iraqi security, due to be held in Baghdad, citing technical reasons. But Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to become the first Iranian president since the
1979 revolution to visit Iraq next month. Tehran Reuters
Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh is scheduled to arrive in the Turkish capital today for an
official two-day stay, marking the first presidential-level visit between the two countries.
In addition to President Abdullah Gül, Saleh
will today also meet with Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdoðan. The visiting president will also attend a business forum of Turkish and Yemeni business representatives tomorrow. Bilateral relations
between Turkey and Yemen have intensified in recent years, with Prime Minister Erdoðan paying an
official visit in October 2005. The trade volume between Turkey and Yemen reached $275 million last
year. Ankara plans to initiate cooperation in the
energy field with Yemen, which has considerable
reserves of oil and natural gas. Ankara Today's Zaman
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24.02.2008
18:29
Page 1
NATIONAL
‘Week of allaying concerns’
A comment that the coming week would
be a week of allaying concerns was made
by a Justice and Development Party (AK
Party) official. The concerns that should be
dealt with, as stressed by President
Abdullah Gül while approving the
constitutional amendments that further
consolidate the concepts of equality and
freedom in Turkey, are only one side of a
coin whose other side highlights the AK
Party's personal misgivings -- Article 301
of the Turkish Penal Code (TCK).
The AK Party has failed to reach intraparty consensus on Article 301, which
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan
wanted to bring to Parliament as a
government motion. The AK Party official,
who spoke on condition of anonymity,
said, "This week we will be bringing to
Parliament not only the tension over the
headscarf caused by the Republican
People's Party (CHP) and the Democratic
Left Party (DSP), but also our own
concerns about Article 301."
Foreign Minister Ali Babacan is the
one who has placed the most emphasis on
the troublesome nature of Article 301 and
TODAY’S ZAMAN 05
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
the lawsuits filed in connection with the
crimes defined therein. "Article 301 is the
label of Turkey's negative image," he said.
What the AK Party failed to agree
upon in the first place is the authority that
would be charged with the task of giving
permission to prosecutors to proceed with
cases opened in relation to Article 301.
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek
requested that the task be assigned to a
commission that would work like an
ombudsman, while Justice Minister
Mehmet Ali Þahin stated that the authority
had to be granted to the justice minister.
Çiçek, the former justice minister,
enumerated the potential setbacks of
charging the justice minister with the task
in question, stressing that he, as the deputy
prime minister, would not put his
signature to a bill that would place this
duty on the justice minister. Other
members of the Cabinet and the Central
Executive Board (MYK) agreed with Çiçek.
One of the greatest misgivings of the
AK Party is over Article 301, while the
other one is tacitly the removal of the
headscarf ban. AK Party officials state that
FEHMÝ
KORU
the recently enacted constitutional
amendments to lift the long-imposed
headscarf ban are being labeled with the
term "headscarf concern," but note that
people have no such fears or concerns.
The same AK Party official who we
spoke to upon the president's statement
over the necessity of allaying all worries
said: "The president is right, there is a
general misunderstanding. What we
agreed on with the Nationalist Movement
Party [MHP] was not a constitutional
amendment; it was only a regulation that
adjusts the issues of freedom and equality.
The drawing of this move into the mire of
ideological debates has not turned out
well, either for the country or for those
who generated political remarks out of it.
However, some people may have genuine
concerns, and we will, of course, do what it
takes to ease these concerns."
As the first step to allay concerns,
the AK Party will speak to the MHP,
and then will request proposals from the
CHP and the DSP on how to ease public
concerns. They will give a message,
saying: "What has been done so far was
a regulation to consolidate the notion of
equality. Let's together handle Article
17, which regulates the wearing of the
headscarf in universities."
Apparently, we are embarking on a
process that will see intense efforts made
in order to ease concerns. While Article
301 remains a problem, the formula with
which to allay public concern on headscarf
freedom will be molded according to the
decision the Constitutional Court reaches
following the CHP's appeal.
[email protected]
We are a classless
socýety, aren’t we?
When I first heard Türkan Saylan, head of the Support
for Modern Life Association (ÇYDD), speaking about
the futility of endeavors to lift the headscarf ban, I
didn't take any notice. Giving her opinion about
Parliament's efforts, she said very clearly that the
proposed changes would lead nowhere. "We own this
country," she exclaimed, and added, "Nothing can
materialize until we give our approval."
Absolute nonsense, I thought. Turkey is a
democratic country and is governed by the civilians
elected by the people. The Turkish Parliament can pass
laws on every topic. The only limitation to its power is
the changing of the sexes; it cannot make woman man
and vice versa, as is famously claimed by the British of
their own parliament. There is no blue blood in Turkey,
no hidden government, no despotic ruler; we are a
classless society. Therefore she cannot be right.
I don't feel the same now, after Parliament's
decision to amend two articles of the Turkish
Constitution to allow young ladies to study at
universities while retaining their headscarves. Now
we have newly amended articles in our Constitution
reinforcing the basic rights to university attendance
and to receiving services from civil servants on an
equal footing, but civil servants refuse to give their
services to everyone and block the rights of some to
study at university.
Rectors who are duty bound to allow every
eligible student to study at university come forward
to give their opinion on the subject one after the
other, and they take hostile positions toward the
new changes. Professor Ural Akbulut, rector of the
Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ), went so
far as to claim President Abdullah Gül's approval of
the amendments was null and void.
According to our Constitution, laws and
constitutional amendments come into force after
approval by the president and publication of the decree
in the Official Gazette. The two amendments have
received presidential approval and the changes were
published in the Official Gazette. These steps are
enough to enforce the constitutional amendments.
This is a textbook reality. Textbook realities don't
reflect the actual perception in Turkey. Otherwise
who are the rectors that challenge Parliament's
authority to enact laws and amend the Constitution,
denying young ladies their freedom to an education
after Parliament decided to reinforce it?
There are those who did exactly this by resorting to
Opposition's praise of ground operation
One of the chief issues on which the opposition had been
criticizing the government was counterterrorism, but the
ground operation launched last week has turned all the
criticism into praise. The government's latest step in its
fight against terrorism has been lauded by the opposition
for its good timing and the determination it shows.
One politician, a former military officer, said Turkey got to
this point after avoiding a lethal trap, noting that the
government thus deserved to be praised. The intensifying of
terrorism in 2007, which was a very important year in terms of
politics, was definitely not a coincidence, he said. "They
wanted to set a trap for Turkey, whose [the trap's] success
was contingent on a single mistake the government could
have made. They wanted to turn Turkey into an outcast in the
international community by forcing it to give a rash and
uncalculated response that was not diplomatically astute. …
But the government managed the situation very well. The head
of the state did not take this bait," said the politician.
South Korea's new president has Turkish friend
Lee Myung-bak, a close friend of Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, has
been elected president of South Korea. Gökçek will be among the
private guests of the new president at the inauguration today.
The close friendship of Gökçek with Myung-bak, who
was formerly the mayor of Seoul, had resulted in the
two capitals becoming sister cities. Myung-bak, in
elections held in December, garnered 48.7 percent of the
vote, becoming the 17th president of South Korea.
The president of South Korea has very broad
authorities; he can appoint or dismiss any member of
the cabinet and determine the country's foreign
policies. He is also the head of the armed forces.
PHOTO
Changes to regulations governing
Ýstanbul's Tuzla shipyards, the site of
many fatal accidents in recent years, will
be on Parliament's agenda throughout this week.
Motions of inquiry submitted by the
ruling Justice and Development Party (AK
Party), the main opposition Republican
Peoples' Party (CHP), the Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP) and the proKurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) are
slated for parliamentary discussion in
coming days. Parliament is also expected to
kick off an investigation after the discussion
on the motions in a general parliamentary
assembly scheduled for Tuesday.
A draft bill of amendments regarding the
appointment of clinic chiefs and deputy
chiefs at Health Ministry's subsidiary
education and research hospitals will also be
brought to Parliament this week. According
to the bill, clinic chief, deputy clinic chief and
chief intern assignments will be decided by
the Health Ministry and awarded to
specialized doctors based on exam
performance. In addition, the ministry will
also be able to appoint professors and
assistant professors to the positions in
question with the condition that the total
spots allocated for these positions not exceed
35 percent of the total employee posts.
The draft bill, which was submitted by AK
Party Parliamentary Group Deputy Chairman
Bekir Bozdað, will also be discussed at
Parliament. The bill concerns an amendment
to an article of the Code on Criminal
Procedure (CMK) regarding military rulings
and crimes involving terrorism.
Furthermore, the draft bill regarding an
amendment to the existing electoral law,
which allows Turkish citizens living abroad to
vote at customs offices or cast their votes by
mail or via the Internet, is also expected to be
on the parliamentary agenda this week.
HÜSEYÝN SARI
Parliament to revise shipyard safety legislation
A reform bill on social security and
state health insurance will be discussed by
the parliamentary Planning and Budget
Commission on Tuesday.
Parliament's general assembly will convene
from 3 p.m. to 11 p.m. on Tuesday and from 2
p.m. to 8 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday.
'Shipyard situation ill befits Turkey'
CHP leader Deniz Baykal visited the Tuzla
shipyards on Saturday, the site of 18
worker deaths in work-related accidents
in the past eight months alone.
While there, Baykal commented, "The
working conditions at shipyards and the
education and insurance of the workers ill
befits us and draws a negative image of
Turkey." He went on to say that despite
the improvement of shipbuilding in the
recent years, working conditions at
Turkish shipyards remain unacceptable.
Baykal added that both the ruling and
opposition parties, as well as NGOs, are looking
into the shipyard accidents carefully. He
emphasized that all kinds of support should be
provided for the improvement of quality at
shipyards, without hindering production.
Baykal dismissed claims that the
subcontracting system was solely to blame
for the accidents, adding, "Even if he is a
subcontractor, each worker must be
educated and have social insurance."
During the visit, Baykal was given
some documents by a journalist that
purportedly proved the existence of two
unregistered shipyards in Tuzla. Baykal
said he would notify the parliamentary
committee about the documents.
Parliament's Human Rights Investigation
Commission has established a subcommittee to
examine the topic following requests from CHP
deputy Çetin Soysal and Port, Dockyard and
Shipbuilding-Repairs Workers' Union (LimterÝþ) head Cem Dinç. The subcommittee carried
out an inspection of Tuzla shipyards over the
weekend. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman with wires
CM Y K
unlawful means to undermine the existing democratic
order, but they are now in prison since their activities
were regarded as criminal. In every civilized country
the heaviest penalty is meted out to those who
disregard the constitution and try to overthrow a
democratically elected government.
Today, the first day of the constitutional changes
being put into practice, when university students who
ordinarily cover their heads come to university
campuses with their headscarves, what will the attitude
of university administrations be? Will they allow them
in, or will they turn them away?
In any democratic country, the answer for these
students would automatically be "Yes." Parliament
worked hard to extract this result. The amendments
were approved by the president and the decree was
published in the Official Gazette. From today on,
university doors must be wide open to every student
regardless of his/her outfit.
I very much doubt this will be the case. Rectors
demand that Article 17 of the Higher Education Board
(YÖK) Law should also be reformulated. The existing
wording in Article 17, curiously enough, allows
students to enter universities without making any
discrimination on the basis of their dress. The two
constitutional amendments are in strict conformity
with Article 17 of the YÖK Law.
Why do the rectors demand a change in the YÖK
Law, if such change is unnecessary?
For one simple reason: They would like to again see
the Constitutional Court have the last word in this
matter. The Constitutional Court, according to our
Constitution, has no judicial authority over
Parliament's ruling on constitutional amendments and
cannot reject them unless they lack the necessary
number of votes. The court can tackle laws and
determine whether they are compatible with the
Constitution, but cannot take up constitutional
amendments in the same way.
Last year the Constitutional Court came to approve
an unbelievably strange application by the Republican
People's Party (CHP) and ruled that Parliament should
be convened with at least 367 members in attendance
to choose a president. It was an unorthodox ruling.
Very few believe the Constitutional Court could repeat
the same mistake by taking up the constitutional
amendment case, even though it is not its business.
Those who are strict supporters of the headscarf
ban put all their hopes on rephrasing Article 17 of the
YÖK Law. If Parliament reformulates the article,
adding only a single word, then the CHP will bring the
issue before the Constitutional Court. The court would
most certainly rule against lifting the headscarf ban.
Whether by the rectors' own initiative or following
the decision of the Constitutional Court, if the ban on
the headscarf survives, then I will remind you once
again what Türkan Saylan said at the beginning.
I would rather do it right away: "We own this
country. Nothing can materialize until we give our
approval."
Who are you, dear Ms. Saylan?
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06 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
INTERVIEW
Academýc sees potentýal for
overcomýng polarýzatýon
KÜRÞAT BAYHAN
'People are reacting to the modernist approach and want more freedoms. … They empathize with others' problems. … This is
unheard of in Turkey. Modernism has always taught us to think of ourselves, but now some people are empathizing. This is
new and revolutionary. This is the language of resistance. This is against totalitarianism, and the politicians need to hear that'
PHOTO
Ferhat Kentel, a sociologist at Ýstanbul Bilgi University,
says more people have started to question modernism and
that this is opening the way toward a pluralistic society.
"People want more freedoms. Modernism has
always taught us to think of ourselves, but now some
people are empathizing. This is new and revolutionary.
This is the language of resistance," he says.
Kentel sees much potential for Turkish society:
"There is potential for overcoming polarization. I think
we actually talk about polarization this much because we
have so much potential to overcome it. I think the
mentality that concentrates on polarization is
weakening. As it weakens more and more, it is trying to
find more enemies, such as the headscarf, Kurds,
Armenians and [George] Soros."
Kentel, the author a recently published book titled
"Ehlileþmemek,
Düzleþmemek,
Direnmek"
(Undomesticated, Unsubdued, Defiant) explains for
Monday Talk how people have been domesticated in
society and how they are beginning to resist pacification.
together. We do so many common things together in our
daily lives without even realizing it. Secular nationalism
has been teaching us about distinctions, divisions. When
it's teaching about Turkish nationalism, you realize that
you are a Kurd. When it's teaching about the "modern"
dress code, it makes you realize that you're covered.
Indeed, her headscarf has been symbolized by the socalled defenders of modernism, not by herself. As the
modernist structure has tried to control more of our daily
lives and tried to homogenize society, we started to have
more problems, and we stopped talking about the grey
areas of life.
In your book, you wrote about a "traumatic" type of
person. What type of a person is this?
Why do you interpret modernism as schizophrenic?
This is a type of person, for example, who has been
educated; he or she has parents of Kurdish origin or maybe
from Salonika. His or her mother wears the headscarf. His
or her parents speak different dialects, they haven't had
much education, they have a traditional village culture and
they are religious. But this educated person has been
tamed. She or he has been taught to be like the
Westerners. This person admires the ways of the West; its
classical music, its highways. So the tamed person needs to
learn these "new" and "modern" things and repress the
links to the "old." When there are orders from Ankara,
women take off their headscarves and practice the Western
style of dancing. This person has feelings of admiration,
shame and physical difficulties [because of not knowing
the Western rhythms] at the same time.
When society was going through the process of
industrialization, the ideology of the new social class, the
bourgeoisie, required the dissemination of the idea of
advancement. So as modern people we had to move
forward and learn how to advance. The old cultural
references had to be left behind to contribute to the idea
of advancement. As we started to make a distinction
between old and new, a schizophrenic process arose. We
had two sides: We had our intellect and rationality, on the
one hand, to make advancement possible and, on the
other hand, we had our private lives, cultural habits and
religion. Our old cultural habits and religion were seen as
barriers to advancement and modernism. When you went
to work in a factory, you didn't need your religion, and
that was something you had to do at home or at church
on Sundays or at the mosque on Fridays. The human
spirit was split, in a way. That's what is schizophrenic.
You signed the first manifesto calling for the
freedom of the headscarf at universities.
Yes, free the dress code so I can think freely.
How was this reflected in our lives?
What do you mean by that?
After the private and public spheres parted ways, it was
difficult for people to internalize the situation. Actually,
the two have always been together, but our private lives
and religion were not out in the open. But with the
effects of globalization, societies went beyond this
doctrine of modernism. It was understood that this
construct of modernism was the result of a power
relationship of the time. Later, different power
relationships emerged, changing the understanding of
modernism. The doctrine of modernism was not able to
get rid of the idea of religion.
Without being inclusive we cannot think freely because
we live in different worlds. We live in a world of Western
references here at the universities. The ones living with
Eastern references are doing completely different things.
We need to touch each other and learn about each other
to produce genuine ideas here. Modernist mentality has
barbed wire all around us. For example, it orders us, the
academics, go and find out how Kurdish people are
really Turks! Sociology needs people thinking seriously
about themselves. If people cannot do this, there is
nowhere the society can go except toward polarization,
because there are too many enemies.
Has Turkish society been able to go beyond this
understanding of modernism yet?
Some sociologists predict more polarization in
Turkish society, resulting even in more military
interventions. Do you agree with that?
Modernism has been questioned in Turkey, as well as
throughout the world. We have the Turkish version of
modernism in its purest form. The idea of modernism
was not rooted in Turkish society; it was imported and it
was forced on the society. Modernism has had its
references outside [of Turkish culture]. Therefore, it was
superficial. The references of modernism have become
mostly symbols and slogans in Turkey, rather than
deeply rooted ideas. The constructors of modernism in
Turkey thought, "We have been defeated by the West, so
we should imitate the West to advance."
I don't agree with that. I'm looking at the other, positive
potentials in the society. There is a potential for
overcoming polarizations. I think we actually talk about
polarizations this much because we have so much
potential to overcome them. I think the mentality that
concentrates on polarization is weakening. As it weakens
more and more, it is trying to find more enemies, such as
the headscarf, Kurds, Armenians and [George] Soros.
And it's easy to use people.
Has Turkish society not been able to modernize?
Use them for what?
Turkish society has been modernized in its own way. But
it has become aggressive over time because its repressive
and authoritarian elements have been revealed. We see
that in the case of several debates, such as the headscarf
and Kurdish issues.
For example, you have stories about somebody pouring
acid on the legs of some girls who wear short skirts. The
majority of people don't really experience such
horrendous things in their daily lives, but somebody is
using some people to do this to create an atmosphere of
fear. For example, you can have somebody kill Hrant
Dink [a Turkish-Armenian journalist who was
assassinated] because Dink was talking about some
things that somebody didn't want us to hear. He used to
say he was Armenian, he was Anatolian and he was a
Turkish citizen. He was using the language of pluralism.
The temples of control in modernism have been science
and schools. In the past church and religious schools,
such as madrassas, played important roles in people's
lives. Later, these were replaced by schools. Modernism
can also be directed by the military and the media.
The defenders of modernism in Turkey say the
headscarf is not modern. Is that right?
If you reduce modernism to images, the wearing of the
headscarf is not modern because you base your whole
ideology on the destruction of such religious symbols to
achieve modernism.
Ferhat Kentel
A sociology professor at Ýstanbul Bilgi University, he received a doctorate in sociology in 1989 from Ecole
des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. Author of a recent book, "Ehlileþmemek,
Düzleþmemek, Direnmek" (Undomesticated, Unsubdued, Defiant), Kentel is interested in modernism,
identity, Islamic movements, the sociology of daily life and ethnic communities. He has also written on
Turkish people living abroad and is the co-author (with Ayhan Kaya) of "Euro-Turks: A Bridge or a Breach
between Turkey and the European Union? A Comparative Study of French-Turks and German-Turks" (2005).
PROFILE
Where has modernism been directed from?
And this ideology cannot accept the headscarf even
at the universities. Why?
In the process of modernization, religion has been
replaced by science and churches have been replaced by
schools. But schools and universities are not temples.
There is nothing sacred there. If there was, we wouldn't
be able to question anything and everybody would be
talking about the same thing. Universities should be
open to everybody. But in Turkey questioning has not
been accepted. For example, a covered woman has the
potential to question dogma, so she isn't accepted. She
reminds the system of the old times and that ways the
system wanted to believe were gone. She shakes up the
power system and the mentality of the power elite. She
deconstructs all preconceptions.
The elite warn of threats to justify their actions, be it the
threat of Shariah or an Iranian style of Islamic republic…
The power elite are afraid of losing their power because top-down
modernism has been shaken up by the bottom-up movement. The
headscarf was previously in the villages, but now it's in the cities and,
as a result, in the universities, shaking up the power and legitimacy of
the elite. In a way, modernism cannot tolerate the result it has created
itself. We face a new type of modernism, which is more pluralist.
Can you see an Islamic regime coming?
Anything can happen. In this new type of modernism, we need to
be open to all types of changes. In the past the fear was about the
threat of communism. The important thing is how we negotiate all
of these possibilities. Now we discuss whether the headscarf ban
could be removed at universities. We were not used to having this
type of discussion before.
You make it sound so hopeful. Don't you think it will be
difficult for Turkey? Is society going to be able to calmly
discuss and negotiate these issues, be it the headscarf or the
Kurdish issue?
Of course it's going to be difficult. The military is among the main
foundations of modernism in Turkey. And, for the military, there
are friends and foes, black and white, good and bad. But there are
many grey areas in society. We share more of our private lives in
society. Covered and uncovered women talk with each other, they
share meals together. Kurds and Turks live together and work
CM Y K
You seem to think society is going through a healthy
process.
Yes, people are reacting to the modernist approach and
want more freedoms. The Young Civilians movement is
a good example of this. They come from various
backgrounds, be it Alevi, Kurd, Armenian or other. They
empathize with others' problems. Recently a group of
covered women issued a manifesto saying they won't be
free even though the headscarf ban will be removed at
the university because there are a number of other
freedom issues that haven't been solved. This is unheard
of in Turkey. Modernism has always taught us to think
of ourselves but now some people are empathizing. This
is new and revolutionary. This is the language of
resistance. This is against totalitarianism, and the
politicians need to hear that.
What should the politicians do other than just
listening?
For example, they should remove hateful remarks about
Armenians from textbooks, and religion classes should
give information about other belief systems and talk
about Christians, Alevis and others.
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24.02.2008
18:28
Page 1
BUSINESS
TODAY’S ZAMAN 07
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
The global fýnancýal crýsýs enters a new phase
With last week’s nationalization of Britain-based
bank Northern Rock PLC the global financial
crisis entered a new phase, entailing more direct
and more controversial state intervention in
financial markets. Such intervention can take
forms other than nationalization.
Northern Rock was nationalized after the
British government rejected two private bids for
the bank. Northern Rock is the first financial
institution to be nationalized during the global
financial crisis triggered last August by the US
sub-prime mortgage meltdown, but it may not
be the last. It is ironic that as Turkey gets ready
to privatize Halkbank and Vakýf Bank, the UK
has resorted to the nationalization of its fifthlargest mortgage-issuing bank.
Last September Northern Rock became the
focus of the first bank run in the UK since
1866. The government stopped the run, which
could have spread throughout the banking
system, by providing taxpayer-backed
guarantees to all existing deposits. That,
however, did not end Northern Rock’s misery,
which stemmed from high-risk funding of
indiscriminate mortgage lending, mostly from
short-term money markets instead of deposits.
After losing access to money markets, as the
sub-prime mortgage mess spilled outside the
US, it began to collapse, despite an emergency
credit line from the Bank of England.
Northern Rock’s nationalization might wipe
out most, if not all, shareholders’ equity,
notwithstanding the government’s promise that
shareholders would be compensated following an
ASIM
ERDÝLEK
[email protected]
independent audit to determine the bank’s market
value -- after accounting for the 55 billion pounds
in taxpayer funds for loans and guarantees already
committed to Northern Rock. Not surprisingly,
the shareholders have already threatened legal
action against the government if they are not fairly
compensated. At the same time, privately owned
banks that compete with Northern Rock have
expressed their concern that its state ownership
might put them at a competitive disadvantage.
Moreover, the British government has to contend
with the EU-imposed limits on state assistance
aimed at preventing unfair competition.
Although the British government announced
that it would privatize Northern Rock as quickly
as possible, it did not set a deadline. The bank
could remain nationalized until after the next
election, slated for May 2010. Before privatizing
Northern Rock at a decent return to taxpayers,
the government will have to take tough actions,
with huge political costs, in cutting close to half of
the bank’s 6,300 staff and evicting many people
who have defaulted on their mortgages. Northern
Rock’s nationalization could turn into a political
debacle for the Labour Party, not only costing
Prime Minister Gordon Brown his job but also
paving the way to power for the Conservative
Party, which vehemently opposed the
nationalization. Its leader, David Cameron, called
the nationalization “a disaster for the taxpayer, a
disaster for this government and a disaster for our
country.” I agree with his party’s position that the
government should have either accepted one of
the private bids for Northern Rock or asked the
Bank of England to take it over and liquidate it.
The British government’s actions in the
Northern Rock saga, first to extend credit and
then to guarantee all deposits and finally to
nationalize, is not the first government bail-out
of a beleaguered bank. The German government
has already committed more than 1 billion euros
to resuscitate IKB Deutsche Industriebank, the
first major European bank to be hit by the global
financial crisis, which is now estimated to require
at least 2.3 billion euros. I expect more bail-outs,
which might help prevent the current crisis from
deteriorating into systemic and deflationary
financial panic, at the cost of creating additional
moral hazard that would inevitably lead to more
and worse future financial crises.
The global financial crisis had highlighted the
sensitive issue of state ownership, prior to
Northern Rock’s nationalization, through the
investments of Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs)
in troubled financial institutions in the US and
Europe. (See my three previous columns on the
rise of SWFs.) Many business and political
leaders in the US and Europe have decried
inward investments by SWFs as socialism
creeping through the back door. A recent US
public opinion poll found a majority of
respondents to be opposed to SWFs.
Besides outright nationalization, more direct
state intervention in financial markets might occur
as governments become last-resort buyers of rapidly
depreciating private financial assets. During the East
Asian financial crisis (1997-1998), the Hong Kong
Monetary Authority (HKMA) -- which, with a
similar role to a central bank, oversees the Hong
Kong currency board through which the Hong
Kong dollar is pegged to the US dollar -- set an
example. By buying on a massive scale blue-chip
shares of companies included in the Hang Seng
Index, it fought off the speculators who were
shorting the Hong Kong dollar through Hang Seng
Index futures. Its two-week share buying spree,
besides impoverishing many speculators, made the
HKMA the biggest single shareholder in some of
these companies until 2001, when it began to sell off
its shares for a hefty profit. Although the HKMA
justified its intervention in terms of stabilizing the
Hong Kong dollar and the Hong Kong stock market
against speculative attacks, its detractors accused it
of outrageous market manipulation unbecoming to
the government of, by most accounts, the freest
capitalist economy in the world.
There has already been some speculation
about the US Federal Reserve Bank, which by
law can buy only US Treasury debt, US agency
debentures and mortgage-backed securities,
being forced to buy private financial assets, such
as stocks and bonds -- after a quick legal action
by US Congress that broadens the Fed’s mandate
-- to prevent the deepening financial crisis from
sinking into a global depression.
ABDULHAMÝT YILDIZ
Iran’s Khodro to ýnvest ýn
Turkey ýnstead of Bulgarýa
Iran’s biggest auto manufacturer has decided
against establishing production facilities in
Bulgaria after its Turkish distributor, MYS
Holding, convinced them that an investment in
Turkey would be much more profitable.
Planning to introduce its Samand brand
automobiles to Europe, the Iran Khodro Industrial
Group (IKCO) started the necessary studies to
establish a manufacturing plant in Turkey, where
almost all major global auto producers have
facilities. IKCO General Manager Manoucher
Manteghi said Turkey is also among the company’s
primary targets for selling its vehicles. “Turkey is
both a neighbor of Iran and a European country. We
are still at the beginning of our plan, but we are
eager to improve our business in Turkey,” he said.
Manteghi was speaking at a press conference
in Tehran with MYS Holding Chairman Þükrü
Seskýr and MYS General Manager Yiðit Seskýr to a
group of Turkish reporters who had come to visit
IKCO’s manufacturing facilities in Iran. Manteghi
stated that they had planned to send 3,000
vehicles to Turkey in the first phase but that they
had to increase the number to 10,000 to meet
demand. However, only 1,000 Samand cars have
been sold so far since the dealership network was
opened in January of 2008. The network has 16
dealers and 35 service stations in Turkey.
Seskýr gave more detailed information on
Samand’s targets in the domestic market. He said they
had put the brand in the middle of the market with
prices that are affordable for middle-class customers.
Seskýr talked about their efforts to persuade
the Iranians to shift their investment decisions to
Turkey. “We told them that the supply industry,
which is at the very core of auto manufacturing, is
very good and that it is constantly improving,” he
noted, adding, “Sales to Russia, Ukraine and the
Balkan countries will be conducted from Turkey.”
Iran Khodro and MYS will together invest an
amount between 60 and 200 million euros. The
Iranian company had first entered the Turkish
market for the distribution of their products in
2004, but had difficulties at first in complying
with Turkish standards. Now they are looking for
an opportunity to produce here.
Iran Khodro currently produces 1.2 million cars
and exports half that number. The company’s goal is to
produce 2 million cars in Iran in the middle term. Its
general manager is well aware of the necessity of
having a very strong supply industry for production of
this size. “We are planning to make Iran Khodro a
global player by 2012 at the latest, thus we need better
international relations. We prefer Islamic countries for
this, and Turkey and Malaysia have priority,” he said.
Some 12,000 people are employed at IKCO’s car
manufacturing facilities, while another 7,000 work in
the company’s engine production and commercial
vehicle departments. The average monthly wage per
person is somewhere between $400 and $450.
PHOTOS
ABDULHAMÝT YILDIZ TEHRAN
THY exceeds
goals for turnover,
profitability in 2007
Turkish Airlines (THY) Chairman
Candan Karlýtekin said although the
company has beaten its turnover and
profitability goals for 2007, it has fallen short
by 300,000 on its target of 20 million
passengers. Karlýtekin attended the THY 2008
Marketing Summit, which convened the
managers of 32 THY domestic offices and 107
international offices destinations in Antalya
over the weekend. He said THY did not
consider itself simply a company that grew
parallel to Turkey’s conditions, emphasizing
that they had established a broad network in
terms of coverage and frequency. The
chairman also noted that THY’s membership
in the Star Alliance put the entire globe in its
reach. The THY chairman emphasized that
THY did its best to make its customers’ lives
more comfortable and believed that they could
win over more customers by offering increased
alternatives. He cited THY’s goal for
passengers transported in 2008 as over 23
million. THY is also aiming to boost its
number of business-class passengers, he said,
noting that efforts to this end began in 2007
and would continue more vigorously this year.
Commenting on global recession
fears, Karlýtekin said everyone should
consider their sector specifically, noting,
“To this end, I believe 2008 will be bright
year for aviation,” adding the caveat that
there might be a slowdown in 2009.
In response to a question on demand
from tourism firms for scheduled flights from
Europe to Antalya, the chairman said they
have a subsidiary -- Sun Express -- launching
chartered flights but that tourism firms say
high-end tourists prefer non-chartered
flights. THY is trying to use its resources with
maximum efficiency and had launched flights
between Paris and Antalya, but tour
operators did not buy enough seats, he
added. “You can not fly between Antalya and
Paris with eight to 10 passengers,” he said.
“But I believe we can launch flights from
Antalya to northern European cities in
particular, which are sending more tourists to
Antalya, beginning from summer 2009.”
Karlýtekin also said there were plans to
launch new destinations, but that to do so
would take time and the introduction of a lot
of infrastructure. Proposed cities for these
plans include Aleppo, Sao Paulo, Washington
and Toronto. On the domestic market,
Karlýtekin said that liberalization would
continue. He said THY monopolized domestic
Turkish flights just half a decade ago, but this
had ended and other aviation companies were
allowed into in the market. He predicted much
“purer” competition in the sector within the
next decade. Antalya Today’s Zaman with wires
Halkbank aims to
grow in personal
banking
IKCO General Manager Manoucher Manteghi (R) shakes hands with Þükrü Seskýr, chairman of MYS Holding, the Turkish distributor for Samand cars.
CM Y K
Hüseyin Aydýn, the general manager of
state-controlled Halkbank, has said the
bank will continue to provide services for
small and medium sized-enterprises (SME)
while also improving personal banking
services and focusing on overall growth.
In an interview with the Anatolia news
agency Aydýn said they will be involved with
every project related to SMEs. He said they
will train bank employees and loan officers
on SME banking, focusing on corporate and
social responsibility.
Aydýn said they have more than 600
branches and that the pensions of 1.5 million
retirees are being paid thru Halkbank, adding
that they wanted to expand their personal
banking services. He said they are
cooperating with HSBC on credit cards and
aim to grow in credit card markets but are
not making aggressive moves in the sector.
Aydýn also noted that they are planning to
grow by increasing profitability and efficiency
in their operations. Aydýn pointed out that
they had signed an 80 million euro
agreement with the French Development
Agency (AFD) for small business financing,
which is very important for SMEs in Turkey.
Aydýn stated that the biggest problem in
Turkey in financing projects is having to make
medium or long-term investments with shortterm loans. “The repayments of the investors
start before they finish their factory
construction,” he cited as an example.
Regarding the privatization of the bank,
Aydýn said the Privatization Administration
(ÖÝB) is conducting the preliminary technical
studies and that ÖÝB is the final decision
maker on the privatization. Aydýn said they
are in talks with the Housing Development
Administration of Turkey (TOKÝ) over
building its headquarters in the west of
Ataþehir district in Ýstanbul. Ankara Today’s Zaman
T08-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
18:38
Page 1
08 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Minister highlights frenetic Turkish exporters
Minister of Foreign Trade Kürþad Tüzmen
has highlighted the excited atmosphere of
the Turkish export market, saying that Turkish
exporters seem to be running amok.
In a speech at an expanded sector-specific board
of chairmen Meeting of the Turkish Exporters'
Assembly (TÝM) yesterday in Ankara, the minister
said: "I am talking as the minister responsible for
Turkey's foreign trade. At this point in time, Turkish
exporters are yearning to sell more and more. Why?
Because, it is not so easy to re-conquer a market after losing it." Over the last five years Turkey's exports have surged to over $100 billion from $36 billion. Tüzmen said the target is to reach $125 billion
by the end of 2008 and $200 billion by 2012.
Comparing exporters to players on a national
soccer team, Tüzmen said the success of these
players is not important just for them but for all
members of the nation. "The Turkish economy will
get stronger as they score a goal, so we have to
provide every comfort for them to ensure that they
will not encounter any hurdles while doing business in the international markets," Tüzmen said.
The minister also talked about developments in
the international markets. It has become absolutely
clear that there will be severe fluctuations in the
global economy in the near future, he said, stressing
that the turbulence in the US economy does not
seem to be temporary. "The production, consumption, savings and investment figures of the US economy are not healthy and their public finance is encountering impasses," he noted. He warned exporters that the effects of the crisis will worsen as it
deepens. "The competition in the international markets will be much harsher for exporters," he said.
Turkey's share in total global exports is 1.2 percent
and it is the world's 22nd largest exporter.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State
for the Coordination of Economy Nazým Ekren
also spoke at the meeting. Ekren used the national soccer team metaphor, too, adding that
any company that produces, provides employ-
ment and exports will remain a player on the national team. He mentioned the importance of
having experience, knowledge and global vision
to attain permanent success in foreign trade.
TÝM Chairman Oðuz Satýcý addressed the
problems of the non-financial sectors -- especially
of exports -- in his speech. Despite positive
macroeconomic figures, the producers and exporters are not so happy, Satýcý claimed, noting
that the real reason behind this dissatisfaction was
the dramatic changes occurring at the global level.
"The old dogmatic forms are being replaced with
new systems and procedures, all of which are based
on change," he said. Ankara Today's Zaman with wires
The $3 trýllýon war
and no one’s countýng
BUSINESS
TRADE
Businessmen sign
$417 mln in Saudi deals
A delegation from the All Industrialists and
Businessmen's Association (TÜMSÝAD) signed $417
million in trade agreements during a visit to Saudi
Arabia last week. Önder Matlý, president of
TÜMSÝAD's Bursa branch, said they had completed
several deals and that the visit had proved more fruitful
than they had expected. He noted that 33 members
participated in the business trip, which aimed to establish trade channels and cooperation. During the visit,
the TÜMSÝAD delegation had talks with the Jeddah
Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Islamic
Development Bank, the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC), the Indian Muslim Businessmen's
Association and the Medina Chamber of Commerce,
said a statement from TÜMSÝAD. The delegation
signed an agreement with the Jeddah Chamber of
Commerce and Industry and the Turkish businessmen in the delegation signed agreements worth nearly $417 million with various Saudi companies. Matlý
said the visit also paved the way for further business
and trade deals and cooperation. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
FINANCE
Banks extend YTL 321.9
billion in loans in 2007
PHOTO
AP
Turkey's banks extended YTL 321.9 billion in loans
last year, 82 percent of which was provided by private
banks. According to Turkish Central Bank data, stateowned Vakýf Bank, Ziraat Bank and Halkbank issued
YTL 59.03 billion in loans in 2007, while private banks
provided YTL 262.89 billion. In terms of location, Ýstanbul ranked first with 47.2 percent of the total
loaned, YTL 152.9 billion. Of loans issued in Ýstanbul,
YTL 12.36 billion was provided by public banks and
YTL 139.7 billion by private banks. The second city
was Ankara, with YTL 8.53 billion in loans from public banks and YTL 33.56 billion from private banks.
Ýzmir was third with YTL 18.17 billion, of which YTL
4.6 billion was from public banks and YTL 13.6 billion
from private banks. Loans in these three cities accounted for 66 percent of the total value of loans issued last year. Hakkari was lowest ranked in terms
of loans issued, with just YTL 68.9 million, of which
YTL 45.55 million was provided via public banks and
YTL 23.4 million by private banks. Ankara Today's Zaman
FOREIGN TRADE
‘Halal certification a
must for export market’
ANALYSIS
David Smith
TODAY’S ZAMAN
What a difference a few months make. Iraq was
going to be Gordon Brown's big prime ministerial
headache but since the withdrawal of British
troops from Basra it has slipped well down the
political agenda. Brown took the poisoned chalice
left by Tony Blair and quickly poured it down the
drain. He has a sea of troubles, but Iraq, for now
at least, is not high on the list of them.
In America, Iraq was going to dominate
the presidential campaign, pundits predicted.
If Barack Obama's team have their way, it still
will. They have been trying to generate some
heat by reminding the electorate that John
McCain and Hillary Clinton supported the
war at first, unlike Obama, and have even
been calling it the "Bush/McCain war".
But, partly because of the success of the US
troop surge in reducing casualty numbers in
Iraq, and in particular the bodybag count for
American forces, the issue is not as salient as it
was. Polling in America shows that voters think
the troop surge is working. They think the war
was a mistake and are highly critical of George
W Bush's handling of it, but Bush is on his way
out and Americans have something else to think
about: the state of their economy. With mainstream forecasters talking about an election-year
recession, even a foreign policy issue as explosive as Iraq has slipped into the background.
If Joe Stiglitz has anything to do with it,
however, it will not remain there. He is the
Nobel prizewinning economist who, unlike
most who get to those dizzy intellectual
heights, has refused to remain in an ivory tower.
Eight years ago he quit his position as chief
economist at the World Bank, having launched an
outspoken attack on its sister organization, the
International Monetary Fund. He said the fund was
made up of "third-rate economists from first-rate
universities", peddling snake-oil remedies to poor
countries desperate for economic development.
He wrote a book, Globalization and Its
Discontents, which made him a poster boy for
the anti-globalization movement. Another,
Making Globalization Work, tackled how to
make the world's poor benefit from free trade.
Having been an economic adviser to Bill Clinton
in a decade he calls the Roaring Nineties, he has
been keen to contrast the success of that era - in
which a Democrat president slashed the budget
deficit - with the troubles of the Bush era.
Stiglitz's big passion now, however, is
Iraq. In his new book, The Three Trillion
Dollar War, written with Linda Bilmes (and
published by WWNorton), he argues that not
only has the cost of the conflict been much
greater than anybody close to the White
House has admitted, but that the war is closely tied in to America's present economic woes.
Three trillion dollars is a lot of money, particularly when contrasted with the White
House's initial estimates of $50-$60 billion. It
dwarfs even official estimates of the cost of the
war so far as about $645 billion.
Yet the book's title, if you believe the figures, undersells it. Three trillion dollars is just
the cost to America. The cost to the rest of the
world, he suggests, is roughly the same again.
Six trillion dollars, to put it in perspective, is
nearly half America's annual gross domestic
product. Are these numbers plausible and why
do they differ so much from the official figures?
It comes down, in the end, to what you
choose to measure. The White House, which
has an interest in playing down the financial
impact, has focused on direct budgetary costs
to America. Even these can be played in a
number of ways. If you are maintaining a large
regular army anyway, what is the additional
cost of deploying it in the theatre of war?
Stiglitz and his co-author, in contrast, have
looked at the wider costs of the war, not just the
direct military costs but the social costs, the economic costs, even the effect on the world of higher
oil prices, part of which he attributes to the war.
Pretty well everything has gone in, including the
kitchen sink, though he still claims that his numbers are almost certainly underestimates.
There is even a figure for Britain: more
than £20 billion for direct military and social
costs, not including some of the wider economic consequences. That, however, no
longer looks such a big number when set
against the £100 billion of Northern Rock debt
the government has just taken onto its books.
When you talk to Stiglitz, it is hard to resist
his enthusiasm, if not his precise figures. He
has a way of putting things straightforwardly.
Should US troops remain in Iraq, if only for
another two years? His comeback is in the
numbers. "Two years would cost us over half a
trillion dollars," he says. "Is that the best way
to spend over half a trillion dollars?"
But do the big numbers really help the debate?
Take the assumption that between $5 and $10 of
the current near-dollars 100 a barrel price of oil is
due to the Iraq war. It may or may not be true: we
are dealing here with what Donald Rumsfeld
might have called "unknown unknowns".
Even if it is true, costing it is by no means
easy. The loss to oil consumers from paying more
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for crude is offset by the gain to oil producers. If
things had followed the patterns of the past,
when the global economy was brought to its
knees by high oil prices, pointing the finger at
Iraq would have been a powerful rhetorical device. This time, however, high world oil prices
appear to have been a reflection of the global
economy's strength, and the rise of China, rather
than the fault of America's Iraq blunders.
The fact that the $3 trillion figure has the
imprimatur of a Nobel economist will give it
weight, however. If that means Americans
recognize what Stiglitz describes as the "terrible mistake" of the war and insist their government does not go down that road again he
will say it has served its purpose.
It is hard to deny his compassion. Having
dedicated the book to those who have died in
both Iraq and Afghanistan but also the returning veterans, he gives an 18-point reform plan,
a blueprint, ranging from giving Congress
greater power to veto wars on financial
grounds, to wide-ranging improvements in
how America looks after its veterans.
One idea is that taxes should be raised explicitly to pay for wars, making voters immediately aware of the costs; another is that veterans should be given the automatic right to
healthcare. Britain's treatment of its Iraq veterans has been much criticized. Compared
with the conditions in America, where
stressed and injured soldiers often have to
fight for entitlement, it stands up pretty well.
Stiglitz, despite having worked for Bill
Clinton, thinks Obama has the right answers on
Iraq. Who knows, if Obama triumphs in November, he could find himself back in the White
House, trying to put his blueprint into practice.
That will be no easy task. © The Sunday’s Times, London
Ýstanbul yesterday hosted a symposium on halal
food -- food prepared in accordance with Islamic
teachings -- where businessmen called for the establishment of a halal food certification system in
Turkey without delay. Speaking at the symposium,
organized by the Food Auditing and Certification
Research Association (GÝMDES), Independent
Industrialists and Businessmen's Association
(MÜSÝAD) President Ömer Bolat stated that many
countries have been requesting halal certificates on
their imports and that Turkey is being put at a disadvantage in these markets since it does not yet
have a certification system. Bolat pointed out that
halal certification is very important, especially for
the food industry. Bolat noted that the volume of
the halal food market is expected to hit $600 billion
this year, which constitutes 5 percent of total world
trade. He said after the establishment of a halal
food certification system, Turkey's annual exports
to the Middle East and Africa would exceed $20 billion. Professor Ahmet Akgündüz, chancellor of the
Islamic University of Rotterdam, said the halal food
concept has gained importance in recent years and
pointed out that the certification was first launched
in the non-Muslim country of Singapore. He noted
that a certification system has also been developed
in Western countries, saying that Turkey lacks
such a system. Þaban Gündüz, Mühenna Kahveci Ýstanbul
PIPELINE
Officials: Egypt to Syria
gas link near completion
Commercial volumes of gas will start flowing from
Egypt to Syria in August through an Arab gas pipeline
that is near completion, regional energy officials said
on Saturday. Testing of the pipeline from Al-Arish in
Egypt to Deir Ali in Syria is due to commence in
March. Supplies will gradually rise from 90 million cubic meters a year in August to a 2 billion maximum, depending on Syria's needs, they said. "This is the first
Arab network of its kind, representing an economic
success as well as a political one," Egyptian Oil
Minister Sameh Fahmy told reporters in the Syrian
capital. The project was agreed in 2000, to supply
Egyptian gas to Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, which has
not developed enough of its gas reserves to cover
domestic demand. The pipeline could link to Turkey
as early as the fourth quarter of 2009 and eventually
supply the European Union through the Nabucco
pipeline project, which will run from the Caspian
area to Western Europe across Turkey. Damascus Reuters
T09-25-02-08.qxd
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18:42
FOOD
Page 1
TODAY’S ZAMAN 09
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
Chemistry from
the kitchen
Eggs are very fragile things. They need to be treated
with care in the kitchen to get perfect results. Very
gentle heat is the best way to cook eggs to a safe
temperature, yet retain their light and creamy texture. For this reason, cooking egg dishes in the oven
is often done in a bath of water. Most cooks, at one
time or another, will carefully place their egg-containing dish in a bain-marie, close the oven door and
check over the next hour, or may two or even three
hours, and wonder why the mixture is not thickening. More perplexing is the fact that last time, the
same dish cooked perfectly in about an hour and a
half. Eggs coagulate or set at specific temperatures. Egg whites begin to thicken at 63 degrees
Celsius and become tender yet solid at 65 degrees
Celsius. Yolks begin at 65 degrees and become
firm at 70 degrees. A whole egg will need to be heated to 73 degrees before it will set. Addition of other
ingredients such as milk for custard will increase
that temperature to 79-83 degrees. This means
that the core temperature in the custard needs to
reach this level. Water baths, or bain-maries, in
home kitchens tend to be roasting pans, yet these
can be made out of several different materials and
each of these behaves differently when filled with
water and placed in a hot oven. Water evaporates at
100 degrees, so even if the oven temperate is 350,
the water bath will never exceed 100 and the act of
evaporation will actually cool the water down. A cast
iron pan retains more heat than a glass pan, which
retains more than a stainless steel pan; in fact a stainless steel bain-marie may not allow the water to reach
a sufficiently high temperature to set the egg mixture!
EASY RECIPES
Çýlbýr (poached eggs
with yogurt)
(Serves two) Ingredients: 500 ml water, 3 eggs,
250 grams yoghurt, 45 grams butter ½ tsp red
flaked pepper, Freshly cracked black pepper,
Additional salt Optional: 1 tsp vinegar ,1/4 tsp salt
Method: 1. Place water in shallow pan and bring to
boil, then reduce heat to bare simmer (if your eggs
are slightly old add vinegar and salt to water) 2. Beat
yogurt and season with salt, then set aside. 3. Melt
butter, add red pepper, stir and keep warm. 4. Break
eggs into a small cup and slip into water one by one.
5. Remove eggs with slotted spoon and hold on
paper towel before transferring to serving dish.
6. Pour yogurt then butter over eggs and serve.
Eggs
in their most basic form
are little packages of life.
Intended to produce the next
chicken, they contain everything
necessary to produce and sustain the life
of a chick. The yolk contains 21 days of
nutrition, the length of time it
takes for the chick to grow
and hatch
Soðan börek
(onion pastry)
The humble egg
SHARON CROXFORD ÝSTANBUL
Small grocers and specialist shops across
Turkey will have stacks and stacks of eggs
lined up on shelves on the ground or anywhere they can fit them. Separated by size
and color, they sell by the single unit, carefully
placed in plastic bags to be cautiously carried home.
Supermarkets, of course, opt for sturdier cardboard cartons, and so
shoppers are able to take less care in transporting the fragile food.
They are everywhere and everyday -- so everyday in fact that their
true value has been misinterpreted, denied or simply forgotten.
Eggs as we know them today come from chickens that
descended from both the red and grey jungle fowls, members of
the pheasant family. The red jungle fowl was first raised in captivity at least 5,000 years ago in India and had reached the Sumerian
kitchen by 1500 B.C. and the Greeks by 800 B.C. As with chickens today, both the eggs and flesh are valuable food sources.
Recipes for egg dishes can be found in Apicius, the Roman
cookery book of the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Omelets
were regular menu items in medieval France and the precursor
of crème anglaise; the culinary world's best-known custard was
dressing poached eggs in England around the same time. More
and more sophisticated dishes developed and by famous French
chef Auguste Escoffier's time in the mid-late 1800s and early
1900s, he was cooking at least 300 different egg dishes.
Back east in the kitchens of the Ottomans eggs were used for a
multitude of dishes. Sauces, soups, sweet and savory pastry dishes,
vegetable mücver (a type of patty or köfte bound with egg) and some
köfte and börek recipes included eggs. Other dishes featured egg as
the main ingredient. Kaygana, the crepe-type dish, and çýlbýr,
poached eggs with yogurt, are just two. Recipes for kaygana are found
in one of the first Ottoman recipe books, written by Þirvani in the 15th
century. Eggs for çýlbýr are referred to indirectly in the kitchen register
of Mehmet IV (1648-1687), where the list includes a number of eggs
required in excess of those required to make çýlbýr. Menemen (eggs
scrambled with tomatoes) is perhaps a more popular egg dish these
days, with almost all restaurants serving breakfast offering a version of the dish, which is in reality eaten at any time of the day.
Eggs in their most basic form are little packages of life. Intended
to produce the next chicken, they contain everything necessary to
produce and sustain the life of a chick. The yolk contains 21 days of
nutrition, the length of time it takes for the chick to grow and hatch.
The white contains proteins with various functions, but is composed
mostly of water. Once cooked, to deactivate the protective anti-nutritional proteins, eggs are a great package. This cooking is essential to
make the eggs' nutrition available for human digestion. Raw eggs
often seen in bodybuilding concoctions and equally obscure dietary
patterns ignore this fact and falsely assume that the egg's protein has
some magical power. Experiments have shown weight loss in rats
fed raw eggs, a conundrum that escapes many bodybuilders.
The hens that lay the eggs most commonly consumed today are
from the Gallus gallus species. As their popularity picked up, chicken breeding began in earnest with layers and meat producers
developed for their specific purpose along with breeds that were
acceptable for both. Domestic chickens are particularly valuable for
their egg production, as they continue laying until they accumulate
a certain number in the nest. As human "predators" remove the
eggs, the chickens will continue laying. In today's mass production world, an average chicken will lay about 250 eggs per year.
In these commercial enterprises, chickens are fed on standard diets,
live in cramped quarters and work all year round. Many protest that the
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flavor of eggs from these chickens, whilst uniform, is lacking. In recent
years people, particularly those in Western countries who have become
re-interested in food and especially in how it is produced, are prepared
to pay a little extra for both their chicken flesh and egg. This has meant
that de-industrialization has occurred to a degree and some chickens
are leading more humane lives. Another advantage of the downscaling
of egg production is the reduction in the spread of salmonella, the
bacteria responsible for contaminating chickens and their eggs.
If salmonella is controlled then the only other real concern that
has blighted the humble egg is the cholesterol naturally contained
within the yolk. When elevated levels of blood cholesterol were
identified as a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, all fingers pointed to foods that contained cholesterol. Liver, shellfish
and eggs were some of the foods immediately struck off a "healthy
diet." As nutrition scientists' understanding of the complexities of
heart disease and stroke developed, fatty acids were implicated and cholesterol in food let off the hook. Eggs went from
never being allowed to one a week, then three -- nowadays
one a day is seen to be acceptable for the average population.
Now that eggs are well and truly back on the menu, how
can you tell a fresh from a stale egg? The shell of an egg, whilst
seeming solid, is in fact porous. As an egg ages, moisture is
lost and replaced by air. Placing a whole egg in a bowl of water
will indicate whether the eggs should be used for poaching,
making mücver or just thrown away. If the egg quickly sinks to
the bottom, it is fresh. If it rises to the top, toss it in the bin.
The white of a fresh egg will be more solid then liquid and is
ideal for poaching and frying, where straggly bits of white will
not overcook and turn rubbery. If the white is a little thinner
then scrambling or boiling will do. The greater proportion of
air in the egg, the easier it is to peel once boiled.
(Serves eight) In this börek recipe taken from
Turabî Efendi's "Osmanlý Mutfaðý," which has
been translated into English (London, 1862),
the eggs are used to add texture and richness
to the dish, but care needs to be taken when
adding to eggs to make sure they do not curdle. Ingredients: 850 grams onion, sliced, 60
grams butter, 30 grams of which melted, 4
eggs, beaten,4 large round sheets yufka, Salt,
Freshly ground black pepper 1 egg and 60 ml
milk, beaten together for brushing yufka
Method: 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees
Celsius/350 degrees Fahrenheit 2. Place
onions in a large pan of salted water, bring to
the boil over a medium heat then simmer for
five minutes then drain. 3. Heat 30 grams of
butter in a large frying pan and add onions. 4.
Cook over medium-low heat until all the liquid
has evaporated, ensuring that the onions do
not burn. 5. Remove from heat and when cool
enough slowly add eggs, stirring continuously.
6. Return to heat and cook gently for a few
minutes, until egg incorporated with onions.
7. Season generously with salt and pepper. 8.
Grease a 25-centimeter börek dish and crumple a one-third or half sheet of yufka on the
bottom. 9. Lay a further sheet in this fashion,
brush with egg wash and repeat once or twice
again. 10. Spread onion mixture over the
yufka. 11. Repeat the layering of yufka as
above. 12. Mark the top layer with a knife, cutting into the yufka, pour over remaining butter
and bake for 30 minutes or until golden. 13.
Allow to cool slightly before cutting and serving.
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24.02.2008
18:26
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10 TODAY’S ZAMAN
WORLD
REUTERS
M O N D AY, FEBRUARY 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
CONFLICT
WEATHER
Winter gales damage
homes, disrupt transport
Winter gales raged on Sunday across northeastern
Japan, grounding dozens of flights and causing huge
waves that flooded coastal homes, drowned one fisherman and swept an octogenarian out to sea, officials
said. In Imizu, a fishing town in northern Toyama prefecture (state), a 72-year-old fisherman was swept overboard and drowned in rough seas, prefectural official
Jun Shimada said. His companion was plucked from
the water by other fishermen and survived with a minor
injury, Shimada said. In Nyuzen, Toyama, a man in his
80s was swept away as he walked along a coastal road
watching the dramatic waves, Shimada said, adding
that a rescue party was searching for him. Five more
people were injured in Nyuzen, including two who
both suffered a broken leg and a broken arm, as high
waves gushed into their coastal neighborhood, either
knocking them against parked cars or propelling loose
objects at them, he said. The Meteorological Agency
has issued warnings for more gales, heavy snow and
high waves in the region, predicting winds of up to 90
kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour) in northern
and eastern coastal Japan through late Sunday. Tokyo AP
Kosovo marked its first full week of
independence with prayers and
protests on Sunday as outraged
Serbs staged demonstrations in the new nation’s tense north and across Europe.
Refusing to let Kosovo secede from
Serbia without a fight, up to 1,000 protesters
gathered briefly in the ethnically divided
northern town of Kosovska Mitrovica in a
seventh day of demonstrations denouncing
Kosovo’s independence.
They listened to a rock concert by a
Belgrade band playing on a stage decorated
with a poster of Russian President Vladimir
Putin and a sign reading: “Russia Help!”
Moscow supports Serbia’s resistance and has
declared Kosovo’s independence illegal.
Serbs also organized anti-independence
rallies on Sunday in other European capitals.
In central Vienna, about 5,000 protesters
waved pro-Serbia banners, and a few burned,
spit or stomped on American flags before
some demonstrators fanned out across the
city, throwing bottles as riot police pursued
them. In Geneva, 3,000 people massed outside UN offices, and in Brussels, several hun-
dred Serbs gathered outside EU offices to
chant “Kosovo is Serbia,” and held placards
reading “Ask any lawyer” and “Don’t legalize
it.” Sunday’s protest in Mitrovica was peaceful, and the smallest of daily rallies held there
for a week -- a stark difference from the rioting that broke out Thursday in Belgrade,
where demonstrators stormed the US
Embassy and set part of it ablaze. Cameron
Munter, the US ambassador to Serbia,
warned leaders in Belgrade on Sunday to
prevent future violence against diplomatic
missions. “I’m very angry at what happened.
It had better not happen again,” he told The
Associated Press in an interview.
In Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian-dominated
capital, Pristina, the curious gathered around
a sculpture spelling out “NEWBORN” in giant yellow letters and covered in graffiti scribbled by revelers after lawmakers proclaimed
independence on Feb. 17. “We love you
Kosovo!” someone signed in English.
“We celebrate this important day with
historic responsibility and a very satisfying result bringing huge recognition from the entire
world for an independent Kosovo,” Prime
Minister Hashim Thaci said Sunday while
visiting the grave of the late pacifist President
Ibrahim Rugova, revered among ethnic
Albanians for his drive for statehood.
Thaci, a former guerrilla leader of the
now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army in
the 1998-99 war with Serbian troops, which
claimed 10,000 lives, reached out anew to
Kosovo’s Serbian minority.
“I will be beside them to help them to integrate in Kosovo’s democratic institutions, to
integrate in the democratic society of our
country,” Thaci said. “They, as citizens of this
country, should be comfortable with this new
reality since Kosovo is a homeland to all its
citizens and all the rights of minorities will be
respected.” But in Belgrade, fury over
Kosovo’s declaration of independence
showed no signs of abating. Branislav
Ristivojevic, an adviser to nationalist Prime
Minister Vojislav Kostunica, said the only way
to ease tensions in the Balkans would be for
the United States, “which has produced the
crisis,” to convene an emergency session of
the UN Security Council and “reaffirm”
Kosovo as part of Serbian territory. Pristina AP
REACTION
Belarus prisoner starts
hunger strike over funeral
Belarus's most prominent detainee, Alexander Kozulin,
whose release is demanded by Western countries,
launched a hunger strike on Sunday to secure permission to attend his wife's funeral. Kozulin challenged
President Alexander Lukashenko's re-election in 2006
but was jailed for 5 1/2 years after helping organise
protests afterwards. His wife Irina, 48, died of cancer
late on Saturday. The family's lawyer said her funeral
was planned for today. "Alexander Kozulin has
launched a hunger strike in connection with delays in
granting him compassionate leave," family lawyer Igor
Rynkevich told Reuters. The family has told me that
without Kozulin there will be no funeral. Kozulin, an
academic, is one of two remaining detainees described
as political prisoners by the West, which says they must
be freed to improve ties with Lukashenko. The other is
Andrei Kim, held over January protests by small businessmen. The president proposed Kozulin leave for
Germany to secure treatment for his wife, but she rejected any suggestion she should leave the country to secure
her husband's release. Kozulin was jailed after urging
protesters at a rally denouncing the president's re-election to march to a prison where some activists were being held. He staged a 53-day hunger strike to draw attention to human rights complaints in Belarus. Minsk Reuters
Serbs hold pictures of Russian President Vladimir Putin as they gather for a protest in the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica in Kosovo.
Belgrade looting and rioting becomes hit on YouTube
Can looting be patriotic? Two women who took part in
the Belgrade riots to protest Kosovo’s independence
seem to think the two go hand in hand. A video clip now
on the Internet -- entitled “Kosovo for Sneakers” -shows two girls going from shop to shop with armfuls of
looted items. Goods drip from their overburdened arms.
They drop a sweater, but pick up a box of chocolates -and on and on. The mobile phone footage posted Friday
on the videosharing Web site YouTube had more than
half a million hits by Saturday afternoon and triggered
dozens of comments on local blogs and forums. The
girls, surprised at sudden fame, contacted a local television to tell their side of the story. “We came to Belgrade
to defend Kosovo,” one of the girls, her face blurred to
protect identity and identified only as Maja, told B92 television. “We started looting when they all did.” Belgrade AP
FUNERAL
UK to release Georgia
tycoon's body for burial
The body of wealthy Georgian opposition leader
Badri Patarkatsishvili will be flown home from
Britain to his native Georgia for burial while the investigation into his death continues, his family said
on Sunday. Patarkatsishvili, Georgia's richest man,
dropped dead on Feb. 13 at his mansion in southern
England. He had frequently spoken of his fear of being assassinated. British police have already said they
have no reason to believe the 52-year-old was killed,
but that toxicology tests to determine the cause of his
death could take up to 10 weeks. "Despite the ongoing investigation into the cause of Badri's death, the
family can repatriate him," the family said in a
statement. The British coroner for the case had
sanctioned the release of the body, the statement
said, adding that Patarkatsishvili would be buried in
Tbilisi on Feb. 28. British police were not immediately available for comment. Patarkatsishvili had
lived in Britain since late last year, after Georgian authorities issued an arrest warrant against him, accusing
him of plotting a coup against the president. Tbilisi Reuters
PHOTO
Prayers, protests as
Kosovo marks fýrst
week of ýndependence
Robert Kocharyan
Armenian leader
Kocharyan warns
of tough action
REUTERS
An Afghan woman and child were killed during a
US-led operation against Taliban fighters in the
southern Helmand province, the US military said on
Sunday. A number of insurgents were also killed in
the operation in Kajaki district of the province on
Saturday, it said in a statement. "A search of the site
after the exchange revealed a dead female and child
in one of the rooms the assailants used to engage
coalition forces, it added blaming the Taliban for
placing women and children in harm's way." The
statement did not say if there were any casualties
among coalition forces. Civilian casualties are a sensitive issue for foreign troops stationed in Afghanistan
and President Hamid Karzai's government, as it feeds
anger among already frustrated Afghans. More than 520
civilians were killed last year alone during operations by
NATO and coalition troops hunting the Taliban, aid
groups say. More than 50,000 foreign troops are stationed in Afghanistan. Coalition forces overthrew the
country's Taliban government in 2001 after it refused to
hand over al Qaeda chief, Osama bin Laden, architect of
the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. Kabul Reuters
PHOTO
Afghan child, woman
killed in US-led operation
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan accused the opposition Saturday of attempting
to forcibly seize power in the small ex-Soviet nation as protests against alleged fraud in last week’s
presidential vote entered a fourth day.
“Our actions will be resolute and harsh and
aimed at preserving stability and constitutional
order,” Kocharyan said during a meeting with
top law enforcement officials.
“This is an attempt to seize power,” Kocharyan
said. “No organization can place itself above the
law and constitution and engage in illegal activities.” The opposition claims last Tuesday’s presidential vote was rigged and demands a recount.
Election officials said Prime Minister Serge
Sarkisyan -- the favorite to succeed Kocharyan - won the election with 53 percent of the vote
while opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan
had 21 percent. Thousands of opposition supporters have staged daily rallies in the capital,
Yerevan, since Wednesday and maintained
overnight vigils since Thursday. They have set
up about two dozen tents on the city’s main
square and built campfires to stay warm.
Several Armenian diplomats who expressed their support for the opposition were
dismissed by Kocharyan on Saturday. They included the ambassadors to Italy and
Kyrgyzstan, the No. 2 at the Armenian Embassy
in Ukraine and a deputy foreign minister.
They were dismissed after a statement they
signed was read out to the protesters on Saturday.
Ter-Petrosyan denied the president’s accusations
that the opposition was planning to use force.
“We are for maintaining stability and will act
within the law,” he told journalists after a rally at
which an estimated 30,000 protesters waved flags,
raised clenched fists and shouted “Levon! Levon!”
Government opponents have said the election was marred by widespread violations and violence targeting opposition activists who monitored the vote. Election observers from the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
Europe said there were concerns about the vote
count, but issued a generally positive assessment.
The standoff has raised concerns about stability in the volatile, strategic country at the junction of the energy-rich Caspian Sea region and
southern Europe, with Russia and Iran nearby.
Memories of economic hardships of the
early 1990s and the devastating conflict with
neighboring Azerbaijan over the territory of
Nagorno-Karabakh are still fresh. Many
Armenians long for calm and stability. TerPetrosyan was Armenia’s first president after its
independence from the Soviet Union. Yerevan AP
Pakistan Taliban militants tell
new government to keep clear
Philippine President Arroyo says
she is not perfect as scandal brews
killing hundreds in attacks over the past few years.
Pakistan militants linked to al-Qaeda
In northwest Pakistan on Sunday, militants atwarned any incoming civilian government
tacked a security post, killing a policeman and two
on Sunday they would strike even more viciously
paramilitary servicemen and wounding six others,
if President Pervez Musharraf’s US-backed war
officials said. Maulvi Omar, a
on terror continued in tribal areas.
spokesman for the Pakistan
Following last week’s inconclusive
Taliban, told Reuters by telephone
election, several political parties
from an undisclosed location that
are in talks to form a coalition
any new military operation in tribstrong enough for a ruling majorial areas would lead to more vioty in the National Assembly. How
lence. “Whoever makes the govthey deal with militants will be
ernment, we want to make it clear
one of their most pressing chalto them we don’t want fighting.
lenges. The Pakistan Taliban have
We want peace, but if they impose
been blamed for the assassination
war on us, we will not spare
of former Prime Minister Benazir
them,” he said. Islamabad Reuters
Bhutto on Dec. 27, as well as
Pervez Musharraf
Saturday, Arroyo said she was made aware in
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal
April of possible corruption in the $329 milArroyo adopted a contrite tone on
lion deal with ZTE Corp, China’s secondSunday after admitting she knew about posbiggest telecoms equipment maker. Arroyo
sible corruption in a telecommunications deal
said she was told about possiwith a Chinese company nearble irregularities the night bely 6 months before she canfore she attended the signing
celled it. “We all know I am
ceremony in China. “How can
not perfect, but I have worked
you cancel the night before
hard everyday to achieve posiwhen you are negotiating
tive and lasting change for the
with a foreign country?,” she
nation,” said the former econsaid. The signing proceeded,
omist, who has seen off three
but at the first opportunity, I
impeachment bids and at least
spoke with the president of
three coup attempts over alleChina to tell him that we have to
gations of vote fraud and corG. Macapagal Arroyo
cancel the project. Manila Reuters
ruption. In a radio interview on
Page 1
TODAY’S ZAMAN 11
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Suicide bomber kills
40 in Iraq, wounds
at least 36 others
A suicide bomber targeting pilgrims heading
to one of Shiite Islam's holiest festivals killed
40 people, including women and children, south
of Baghdad on Sunday, police said.
Police and the US military said the bomber struck
in the town of Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of
Baghdad, hours after militants killed three pilgrims
and wounded 36 others in an attack in southern
Baghdad, police said. Police said 40 people were killed
and 46 wounded, despite a major tightening of security. The US military had said hospital officials were reporting 25 dead and 50 wounded. The military said in
a statement that the attack took place on a two-lane
highway near a residential area where about 42,000
pilgrims had passed through earlier in the day.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers and police
have been deployed for the Arbain festival after suspected Sunni Arab insurgents killed 149 pilgrims on
their way to Karabala for the event last year, in one
of the worst spasms of violence since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The pilgrims are particularly
vulnerable to attack because many prefer to walk to
Karabala, 110 km (70 miles) south of Baghdad.
They believe the effort will bring them greater
spiritual reward. In the Baghdad attack, the pilgrims were hit by a roadside bomb and then fired
on by gunmen on a road used by thousands of pilgrims walking to the festival of Arbain in the holy
southern Shiite city of Karabala, police said.
The US military gave a different account, saying
gunmen had lobbed hand grenades at the pilgrims in
Baghdad, killing one and wounding 17. It said US and
Iraqi forces would increase patrols and checkpoints,
restricting vehicle access through key routes to
Karabala from southern Baghdad. Karbala Reuters
Iran: US to blame
for Tehran's lack of
response on nukes
A senior Iranian official blamed the US on Sunday
for Tehran's refusal to respond to accusations it tried
to make nuclear weapons, saying information provided by
Washington was not only fake but came three years too
late. Ali Ashgar Soltanieh, Iran's chief delegate to the
International Atomic Energy Agency, also acknowledged
that his country's uranium enrichment program -- under
sanctions by the UN Security Council -- was experiencing
"ups and downs." The comment appeared to be the first
instance of Tehran acknowledging that its enrichment activities were running into some difficulties. The United
States rejected the notion that it was at fault. Gregory L.
Schulte, Soltanieh's American counterpart, said "Iran did
not need to wait for information to answer" the accusations coming at it from all sides that it was trying to make
nuclear arms. "Iranian authorities could have started
explaining these activities years ago, if only they had
made the decision to come fully clean about their
program." Schulte and Soltanieh spoke separately
to The Associated Press in the wake of an IAEA report saying that suspicions about most past Iranian
nuclear activities had eased or been laid to rest.
But the report also noted that Iran had rejected
documents that link it to missile and explosives experiments and other work connected to a possible
nuclear weapons program, calling the information
false and irrelevant. Calling weaponization "the one
major ... unsolved issue relevant to the nature of
Iran's nuclear program," the report also confirmed
that Iran is defying UN Security Council demands
that it suspend enrichment, which can generate nuclear fuel and the fissile core of warheads. Vienna AP
‘Shame on you,’
Clinton tells Obama
Many analysts say Clinton must win contests in the delegate-rich states of Ohio and
Texas on March 4 to cut Obama's lead and still have a chance at the nomination. A
New York senator and former first lady, she would be the first woman president
Hillary Clinton slammed rival Barack
Obama on Saturday for campaign
leaflets on her health-care plan that
she called "blatantly false" and accused him of
using Republican tactics in their contest for the
Democratic US presidential nomination. In a
bitter exchange, Obama defended the leaflet as
accurate and campaign spokesman Bill Burton
decried Clinton's "negative campaign." "Shame
on you, Barack Obama," Clinton said, speaking
to reporters after a rally in Ohio, a state that is
key to her struggling campaign. Brandishing a
copy of the leaflet, Clinton said the Obama
campaign was spreading "false, misleading, discredited information" about her health-care
plan. "Senator Obama knows it is not true that
my plan forces people to buy insurance even if
they can't afford it," Clinton said. "It is blatantly false and yet he continues to spend millions
of dollars perpetuating falsehoods. It is not
hopeful. It is destructive, particularly for a
Democrat to be discrediting universal health
care." Obama said the content of the leaflet
was correct. He said he was puzzled by the
sudden "change in tone" by his rival because the leaflets Clinton referred to were
sent out days or weeks ago. He suggested
there was something "tactical" about her
attacks now. "The notion that somehow we're engaging in nefarious tactics I think is pretty hard to swallow,"
he told reporters. "There's nothing in
there that's factually inaccurate."
tion this summer where the party will pick a
candidate for the November election. An
Illinois senator, he would be the first black US
president. Many analysts say Clinton must win
contests in the delegate-rich states of Ohio and
Texas on March 4 to cut Obama's lead and
still have a chance at the nomination. A
New York senator and former first lady, she
would be the first woman president.
Campaigning in Ohio, Obama told a
roundtable on health care at a hospital in
Columbus that his health care plan would cut
medical costs more than hers. He also touched
on the issue that Clinton had complained
about. "The main difference between us is that
Senator Clinton includes a mandate, which
means she'd have the government force you to
buy health insurance, and she said that she'd
consider 'going after your wages' if you don't,"
Obama said, adding that he disagreed with that
March 4 contests
Obama, has won 10 consecutive state nominating contests since Feb. 5. The string of victories has put him ahead in the
race for delegates to a
nominating conven-
Angela Merkel
Big German
parties face test
in Hamburg vote
approach. Meanwhile, Clinton said the campaign leaflet on health care reminded her of
health insurance industry attacks on her plan.
She also said another leaflet Obama's campaign issued misrepresented her views on trade
agreements such as the North American Free
Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
‘Rove’s playbook’
"Let's have a real campaign. Enough with
the speeches and big rallies and then using
tactics that are right out of Karl Rove's playbook," she said, referring to the Republican
political strategist behind George W. Bush's
winning presidential campaigns.
Obama, speaking to reporters, acknowledged that on the NAFTA mailer, a story using
the word "boon" to describe her feelings
about the trade accord with Mexico and
Canada had been amended after the mailers
were sent out. But at a rally Saturday
evening in Akron, Ohio, Obama ripped into Clinton for switching positions on NAFTA, which he said she had lauded as a success of her husband President Bill
Clinton's administration. "You can't be
for something or take credit for an
administration and 35 years of experience and then when you run for
president suggest somehow that
you didn't really mean what you
said back then. It doesn't work
that way," he said.
At the earlier rally Clinton had
trained her fire on Bush to try to undermine Obama's message of change.
She said Bush, who campaigned on a
platform of "compassionate conservatism," also had promised Americans
change. "He promised change, didn't
he?" she said. "The American people
got shafted and we're going to have to
make up for it." Cincinnati Reuters
PHOTO
REUTERS
Mayor of Israeli
town seeks truce
talks with Hamas
The mayor of a southern Israeli town traumatized
by near-daily Palestinian rocket attacks on Sunday
called for truce talks with Gaza's Hamas rulers.Sderot
Mayor Eli Moyal, whose town is the most frequent target
of attacks from Gaza, told Army Radio on Sunday that he
was prepared to meet with Hamas if that would get the
rocket assaults to stop. "I'll meet with anyone I have to,"
said Moyal, a member of the hawkish Likud Party. "We
can't bear to see this hell in Sderot." Gaza's prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, and other group officials have signaled readiness to enter into a truce
with Israel if it stops its campaign of military strikes
and economic sanctions against the territory.
But Israel insists it will not talk to Hamas unless the
group renounces violence, recognizes Israel's right to exist and accepts previous peace agreements. In an interview published over the weekend, Moyal told the British
newspaper The Guardian that he'd be willing to negotiate directly with Hamas to stop the rocket fire and restore
normal life in Sderot, a working class town of 23,000
people 2 kilometers (1 mile) from the Gaza border. The
Israel-Hamas standoff has put tens of thousands of
Israeli residents on constant alert for incoming rockets
and mortars, badly fraying their nerves. Although the
rockets are crude and inaccurate, they have killed 12
people over the past seven years, and an 8-year-old
boy recently lost his leg in an attack. Jerusalem AP
REUTERS
WORLD
PHOTO
18:41
Germans in the northern city-state of
Hamburg voted on Sunday in an election expected to keep Chancellor Angela
Merkel's conservatives in power but give a
bigger boost to a new far-left party.
At 10 a.m. 21 percent of Hamburg's 1.2
million eligible voters had cast their ballots, up
slightly from the last election in 2004. Polls
showed Ole von Beust, a member of Merkel's
Christian Democrats (CDU) who has ruled
Hamburg since 2001, would lose his absolute majority in parliament but retain
power by forming a coalition, possibly with
the environmentalist Greens.
That partnership would be a first at state
level and, if successful, could persuade Merkel
to try a similar tie-up at the national level when
she seeks re-election in 2009. She now heads
an uneasy grand coalition with the Social
Democrats (SPD), who have dominated
the left in the post-World War II era.
Hamburg is a city of contrasts -- home to
some of the wealthiest Germans as well as a
large number of immigrants and blue-collar laborers, who work in Europe's second biggest
port and the city's large Airbus factory.
The center-left SPD, which ran the city for
over four decades before von Beust wrested
control from them seven years ago, has vowed
to heal the "social split" it says has developed
under the CDU premier between Hamburg's
rich and poor. But it is fighting off a leftflank assault from the Left Party, a new
grouping of ex-communists and SPD deserters, which did surprisingly well in state
votes in Hesse and Lower Saxony last
month and may do even better in Hamburg.
The Left, which seeks a generous new
minimum wage and curbs on managers'
salaries, has risen in the polls since it
emerged this month that hundreds of rich
Germans may have evaded taxes by hiding cash in secret accounts in
Liechtenstein. The party's rise has injected new uncertainty into the German political process by forcing the country's big
parties, the CDU and SPD, to consider
ties with new coalition partners in the
run-up to the next federal vote in 2009.
"The two big players in Berlin seem
to be going in circles around themselves
at the moment," said Jackson Janes, director of the American Institute for
Contemporary German Studies. "And
they will watch what is happening
around the country as they try to figure
out how to prepare for next year. " The
SPD's national leadership will be watching the Hamburg result closely for signs
of how its supporters view Red-Red cooperation with the Left Party.
Chairman Kurt Beck has set off a storm
of protest within his own party by suggesting the SPD break a taboo and use Left
party votes to seize power in Hesse after a
deadlocked vote there in January. Many
moderate SPD voters see the Left as dangerous populists and could desert the party
in Hamburg as a result. Berlin Reuters
Cuba names new leader to succeed Fidel Castro
Cuba's National Assembly met on Sunday to
name a successor to Fidel Castro, bringing a
formal end to the rule of the bearded revolutionary
who dominated the island for five decades of communism and confrontation with the United States.
His brother Raul Castro, who has been running Cuba since the 81-year-old leader was sidelined by illness 19 months ago, was widely expected to become the next president.Whether Raul
Castro will open the door to limited economic reforms is foremost in the minds of many Cubans,
who are struggling to cope with low wages and
shortages of basic goods. The 614-member legislature was to announce the composition of the
Council of State, the island's highest executive
body, later on Sunday. "It is going to be Raul
Castro, because he has always been the Number 2
and kept to the revolution's line. Continuity is
guaranteed," said an employee of the armyowned tourism company Gaviota who have gave
is name as Moreno. Dressed in a dark business
suit, Raul Castro led the way as the National
Assembly leadership arrived for Sunday's meeting.
Fidel Castro, transformed by illness from a tireless firebrand who gave seven-hour speeches under
the Caribbean sun into a shuffling old man, has not
appeared in public since undergoing intestinal surgery in July 2006. He will retain significant but potentially waning influence as first secretary of the
ruling Communist Party. Castro, who announced
his retirement as president last Tuesday, ousted a
US-backed dictator in an armed revolution in 1959
CM Y K
to become an icon of the left, a tyrant to his foes and
a perpetual thorn in Washington's side.
Castro said he was too weakened by his undisclosed illness to continue governing but would soldier on in the "battle of ideas" by writing articles on
world affairs. Anti-Castro exiles and US President
George W. Bush have led calls for democratic reform
on the island. But in the streets of Havana, few
Cubans think that, with Fidel Castro gone, the
West's last communist state will crumble swiftly like
many Soviet allies did. There was no increase in police presence. "For me, it's like a normal day. I'm not
worried because everything's going to carry on the
same," said Carlos, 44, as he laid out green peppers
at a corner market in the Vedado district. "Fidel was
great, we won't have anyone like him." Havana Reuters
AP
24.02.2008
Raul Castro
PHOTO
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12 TODAY’S ZAMAN
EXPAT ZONE
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Put out the smoke!
CULTURAL CORNER
CHARLOTTE
McPHERSON
cause the smell gets into my clothes.”
Janet describes how funny she finds the “no-smoking” sections in some places. She says:
“Dear Charlotte, I cannot get away from the smoke here.
It does not matter whether it is in an office, a cafe or just
walking down the street, the smell of cigarettes is everywhere!
Even though some cafes have tried to create ‘no-smoking’
sections, they’ve not got quite the hang of it, because the
smoke drifts over to the no-smoking section. In some places
the table next to you may be for smokers and there is nothing
between you to stop the smoke coming your way.”
Dear Today’s Zaman readers, if you are concerned about this
situation, be encouraged. The situation here is improving for nonsmokers. In the past you could always count on a Turk having a
match, because so many people smoked. Now when you have to
ask someone for a light they have a match or a lighter, but it
doesn’t necessarily mean they smoke. It is handy to carry one just
in case you need to light a candle, if the electricity goes out.
Some of you may remember Bea Vanni, who started a blog
about Turkey that provided a venue for her and fellow bloggers to express personal and professional experiences on
everyday events that we many not necessarily understand.
Sadly, Bea left Turkey in December. But her blog remains at
www.remarkablesolutionsblog.com
Bea wrote about this in her blog and offers the following
practical advice: If you are a smoker and wish to stop or if your
loved one smokes and you want to help them quit, here are a
few facts to share with them from www.cancer.org
In 2006 there will be an estimated 174,470 new cases of
lung cancer in the US and an estimated 162,460 Americans
will die from the disease. The statistics for Turkish smokers are
probably worse. I don’t know.
Roughly 10 percent of all lung cancer cases occur in people without a history of smoking. What is this number for
Turkey. Does anyone know?
Known risk factors that may affect people regardless of
their personal history of smoking include exposure to secondhand smoke and radon, as well as occupational exposure to asbestos and certain chemicals and metals. The Turkish people
do not yet have the benefit of many special programs for combating the other chemicals that are killing them in their homes
or places of work.
There are 46 million former smokers in the US. How
many former smokers are there in Turkey? Can anyone tell me?
If you know about these statistics for Turkey, please share
them with us so we can all benefit.
If you want to learn more about the health issues plaguing
Turkey, go to the Ministry of Health website at
www.saglik.gov.tr/eng. You can also find out about the annual
event in November called the Great Smokeout, which is now an
annual event in Turkey. This event is held every year to bring attention to an international epidemic and to encourage smokers to
stop smoking for just one day with the hope of quitting forever.
If you know the answers to any of Bea’s questions, drop
me a note. I’d be interested in knowing, too.
Stay healthy!
PHOTOS
The best gýfts Turkey has to offer
KÜRÞAT BAYHAN,TURGUT ENGÝN,HÜSEYÝN SARI,CÝHAN
How much control do you have over the air you breathe? You
may have complete control over the choice to smoke or not, but
you cannot personally have control over the air you breathe.
Visitors to Turkey are pleased to hear that more efforts are
being made to educate people about the dangers of smoking and
passive smoking. Smoking can create health problems not just
for the smoker, but for non-smokers, too. Through passive
smoking, a person who has never smoked can get lung cancer.
Turkey is known for its tobacco industry and the wide use of
cigarettes at an early age. Ads on television and in other forms
of mass media aim to cut cigarette smoking in Turkey. A number of people have written to me to express their delight that
Turkey is taking steps in this direction and have even recently
introduced changes in its anti-smoking laws.
Many foreign visitors are surprised to be approached by
young children asking for a cigarette -- even around the young
and impressionable age of 9 or 10.
Deborah writes: “Dear Charlotte, it seems that everywhere I
go in Turkey there is cigarette smoke or the scent of it. Coming
from a culture where smoking is not ‘in,’ I find it hard to always
be around it. … I find I have to do my laundry more often be-
KATHY HAMILTON ÝSTANBUL
I am an admitted shopping junkie, although I don’t actually buy too many items. But I do love to poke around
in the back streets of the Grand Bazaar. In fact, friends
often call me for advice on what they can take home for gifts on
their visits. I have become their Ýstanbul market maven. Trying to
come up with interesting and useful presents can be a challenge
after living in Turkey for more than a year or so -- there are just
so many tee-shirts, fezzes, Turkish tea sets and knock-off handbags that can be handed out for holidays and birthdays.
For those readers facing the gift-giving dilemma for yet another time, I offer some suggestions to get away from the touristy
knick-knack vendors. The first step is to avoid the shops with
pushy, slightly dubious sales staff. Instead, journey into the
bazaar past the belly-dancer outfits and fake swords.
Go to the hans, or workshop areas, off the main
streets. Don’t be nervous if you don’t speak the
language. Just plunge in and have fun.
Turkish carpets and kilims are good to
hand out back home, but only if the people you are giving them to will use
them. Be creative and think of other
uses for these textiles instead of just as
floor coverings. A long, thin runner
makes a great accent on a buffet
table. I use one in my office draped
over a filing cabinet to disguise the
unattractive metal finish. Rugs and
kilims, the flat woven rugs, make interesting wall hangings. One couple I
know has so many kilims that they
began hanging them from their ceiling
to create the feeling of a tent in their
living room. We often use lightweight
carpets and kilims at home as tablecloths.
Pashminas were all the rage a couple
years ago and they remain very popular
gifts, especially the newer, lighter versions.
Now you can find them in every color and pattern imaginable. They pack well and are great gifts
for travelers since they can be used as pillows or blankets on planes, trains and buses. I have some that have
had several years of hard use and they still look like new.
Silk scarves are presents that many people appreciate. These,
too, should not be relegated to merely fashion accessories. Some
make stunning framed wall hangings. With a plain backing sewn
on to the backside they make very attractive and eye catching
throw pillows. The larger scarves can serve as table cloths and the
long, narrow ones make nice table runners. I keep several on
hand at home and tie them around other smaller packages to
make an usual gift wrapping that won’t be thrown away.
An easily prepared gift is a small ceramic or metal bowl
with a couple of bars of laurel soap inside, along with a
bath mitt or two. The bowls can be used later as soap dishes or for snacks. If you have room in the suitcase, fluffy
Turkish towels are a wonderful and welcome addition to
the soaps and will perk up any bathroom décor.
One of my favorite buys at the moment is ikat coats from
Uzbekistan. With their unusual, brightly colored weaves, they
look fantastic over plain black trousers and shirt for a night on
the town. We have a small collection of antique ones at home
adorning the walls. As a part of our interior design, they add an
interesting flair to the rooms. Older ones tend to be a little expensive, but recently coats made from new material but in the
traditional style are arriving almost daily and these new ones can
be very easy on the wallet. They can be a little bulky for packing
into a suitcase, but I always try to make room for one or two
when I head back to Texas for visits. And inevitably, someone
will ask if they can literally buy the coat off my back.
Friends who like to experiment with different cuisines
love it when I give them saffron. A pricey purchase in
the United States, it is a good bargain in Turkey. An
added plus is that several small boxes of the reddish threads can be easily tucked into corners
of baggage, taking up almost no room at all.
While out picking up saffron as gifts I also
like to stop in the Spice Bazaar and purchase small vials of essential oils.
Tightly sealed and well-padded, they
are easily transported in a suitcase. A
nice touch is to also get some small,
eye-catching glass bottles to accompany the oils. The stores will
carefully wrap them up, but I usually put them in a small box before
packing them away in the luggage. So far I’ve had good luck in
arriving with everything intact.
Nuts and dried fruits are more
good ideas to take back home, depending on importation regulations.
Pistachios in sealed packets are always a
welcome addition to any pile of presents I
arrive with. Actually, they are often the mostappreciated item I bring along with me. A doctor friend in London was so thrilled that I arrived
for my appointment with a two-kilogram package
of pistachios as a surprise that he waived his fee for
that visit. We both were pleased with the exchange.
If I have a fairly direct route homeward bound, without
overnight stopovers to break up the trip, I try to stop on the
way to the airport and pick up several small boxes of fresh
baklava for friends and family I will be seeing soon after my
arrival. Boxed and securely enclosed in a plastic bag or two it
arrives in good shape after a couple long flights safely ensconced in my suitcase. A few seconds in the oven or microwave before serving and it tastes as fresh and crispy as ever.
These are just a few ideas that I pass along to friends who
are stumped on what to bring along as tokens of Turkey. None
of these will break the bank and can generally be stuffed into the
checked luggage, even with the new lower weight limits on
bags. And this list is just the tip of the iceberg of potential gifts
from Turkey. There are many ways to use different items and
with a little creativity, everyone should be able to come bearing gifts and still have change left in the bank account.
LEGAL CORNER
BERK
ÇEKTiR
Tax matters and
land deed values
Welcome back to sunny days in Ýstanbul. We believe that there are certain stages that come before spring weather officially begins. The first one
took place last week. I don't know if you can
smell the spring weather during the nights yet.
Ok, I know that it is still cold and the weather
forecast is saying -29 for Erzurum, but if you are
living in Ýstanbul or any other city in the West,
just try to observe the changes in the weather.
Here I have letter from a reader about declaring low prices on land deeds in Turkey. I would
like to publish the letter today and tomorrow I
will provide some information on this matter.
"Dear Mr. Çektir, Last year I started purchasing a new project in Bodrum. It is an apartment
and I have already made most of the payments.
The cost was paid in four payments over a period
of one year. The apartment costs 50,000 pounds.
I was told that the price reflected on the land
deed would be YTL 50,000. This is already a low
registration price, but I thought that this was
normal. The developer that is both building and
selling the apartment is handling the whole legal
procedure. So they arrange everything for you.
This is an advantage that we (most buyers) are
not familiar with in Turkey.
When I came to Bodrum to settle the transfer
of the land deed, I went to the registration office.
There was a translator present who translated the
whole thing in five seconds. I noticed that the value
was suddenly reduced to YTL 10,000! I made a remark about this to the developer, who declared
that this was because the building is not finished
and that it would change once the building was
finished. I believed him and signed the documents!
When we returned to the office he sent me an
email in my presence stating that he would raise
the land deed value to YTL 50,000 when the project was finished. Following this, I returned home
and five days later he sent me an email, declaring
that the Turkish tax office had agreed on this value and that the value on the land deed would
stay like this! I sent him an email back and what
would happen when I sell the apartment in five
years? This will cause big problems for me and I
told him I would not agree to it. He replied that
he would sort the matter out and that I should
give him time. Can you give me some information on this matter? Thank you in advance."
I think that some of my readers will be familiar with what has happened in this case.
Turkish consumer law follow-up
Last week I wrote about issues related to consumer rights and I hope that you benefited from
those articles. Since I have quoted a reader's letter and published the name of a Turkish company, I would like to give you a follow up about
what happened in the end. My reader wrote after
I published his letter: "Hello Berk. Many thanks
for taking up the consumer law issue for us and
giving us some clarity. I should say at this stage
that five months after the TV went in for repairs
we were given a new one as replacement with a
new guarantee, so full credit to Beko. Again,
many thanks from all of us for your continued interest and help."
I am glad to see that this file is closed with a
happy ending.
NOTE: Berk Çektir is a licensed attorney at law and available to
answer questions on the legal aspects of living in Turkey. Send
enquiries to [email protected] The names of the readers are disclosed only upon written approval of the sender.
NOTE: Today's Zaman intends to provide a lively forum for expatriates living in Turkey. We encourage you to contact us at [email protected] and share your experiences, questions and problems in all walks of life for publication in Today's Zaman.
CM Y K
DISCLAIMER: The information provided here is intended to give
basic legal information. You should get legal assistance from a licensed attorney at law while conducting legal transactions and
not just rely on the information in this corner.
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TURGUT ENGÝN
CULTURE&ARTS
TODAY’S ZAMAN 13
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Ýnanýr says executioner drama will
be landmark for Turkish cinema
Turkish cinema's veteran actor Kadir Ýnanýr says artistic concerns dominate the film 'Son Cellat,' currently
being filmed in Amasya, and predicts it will be a frontrunner for awards at international film festivals
ALÝ ASLAN KILIÇ, SAVAÞ AK AMASYA, ANKARA
Kadir Ýnanýr, successful actor of the Turkish cinema,
will soon be making an addition to his stack of prison
films. Ýnanýr says he has played in a record number of
prison films in Turkey and describes "Son Cellat" (The Last
Executioner), currently being filmed in the central Black
Sea province of Amasya, as a "landmark in Turkish cinema."
"Son Cellat" seems to have a special place in Ýnanýr's career. "Like everyone, I will be leaving this world one day. But I
will always be remembered for having made such a film," he
notes. He indicates that despite difficult winter conditions, the
team is working tirelessly and with great dedication. He notes
that artistic concerns dominate the film. "I assure you this film
Inspired from a real-life story
What an old executioner told journalist Bengüç Özerdem during an interview inspired the writing of "Son
Cellat." In that interview, the executioner told Özerdem that executioners were seen by society as
"cursed people" and that all his friends had left him,
adding that he had lost both inner peace and even his
ability to sleep. The executioner said he was like the
living dead and that when he got older, they wanted to
replace him with a younger executioner. Writing the
script based on this true story, well-known screenwriter Macit Koper has highlighted human feelings.
He has emphasized how inner conflicts affect one's
social relations. Ýnanýr points out that "Son Cellat"
encourages the viewers to ponder the themes of the
film. "There is more to 'Son Cellat' than an interesting story about the small world of a man," he says.
will have a special place in the history of Turkish cinema," he
says confidently, adding: "I believe this is one of the landmark
films in Turkish cinema. The film has no commercial interests,
and we'll be glad if it does not sustain a loss. As for myself, I
do not demand any payment for my acting because I want to
contribute to the making of such a film. It is worthy of awards
in international film festivals. Artistic concerns, rather than
commercial ones, dominate the film. I assure you that this
will be one of the top films in century-old Turkish cinema."
Filmmakers do not know Amasya
Ýnanýr notes that the success of the film can be attributed to
the efforts of the Culture and Tourism Ministry and the people of Amasya, and he was extremely pleased with the
warm welcome extended to him in the Black Sea province.
For him, Amasya is a treasure awaiting discovery.
"Filmmakers do not know about Amasya. If they had
known about it, they would have made 50 films here," he
says. He describes Amasya as a natural film set and is particularly attracted to the city for its preserved historical texture.
"For us, this is Amasya's real selling point. Amasya being a
natural film set was particularly influential in our decision to
pick it as the setting for our film. Wherever you point you
camera, you'll see a paradise on earth. It is my belief that
'Son Cellat' will promote Amasya to filmmakers," he says.
to the film's wealth. All the members of the crew have
worked with the knowledge that the owner of the film, the
Culture and Tourism Ministry, will take 'Son Cellat' to international platforms. They have worked meticulously as if they
were embroidering every second of the film, aware of its destination to international film festivals. Undesirable weather
conditions could not dampen their dedication and rigor. If
you keep up your work with respect to your profession,
you will always get the reward in the end. We believe that
we will get the reward of our work in 'Son Cellat'," he says.
Ýnanýr, noting the permanence of movies, states that
new technology adds both to this permanence and the
effectiveness of the work.
Shot at a real prison
Ýnanýr explains that most of the film has been shot in a real
prison setting. "We have been working at a real prison. We
have obtained very powerful snapshots and images," he
says. He notes that when they initially planned to use a historical prison for "Son Cellat," the prisons in Sinop and
Amasya were identified as candidates. "Since the Sinop
prison had been used for another project in the past, we settled on Amasya. The historical structure of the city has added
My films are not like soap bubbles
Ýnanýr says his films are not transient like soap bubbles. He sees prisons as an important part of life,
and he has played in a record number of films about
prisons. One of Turkish cinema's most important
actors spoke about his newest film and Turkish cinema in an exclusive interview with Today's Zaman.
Mr. Ýnanýr, in how many prison films have you acted?
There is no other actor who has played in so
many films on prisons. The record belongs to me.
"72'nci Koðuþ" (72nd Ward), "Karýlar Koðuþu"
(The Women's Ward), "Tatar Ramazan." "Son
Cellat" is my fourth film set in a prison.
You say that "Son Cellat" will leave its mark on
Turkish cinema.
Yes, this is my claim. About 6,500 films have
been produced in Turkish cinema to date, and
this film will be among the top 200.
Tarkan in talks to sing for world peace
Turkish pop star Tarkan is in discussions over tak- roots as well as institutional, in the history of the world."
The campaign will begin with a series of concerts on
ing part in a series of international concerts
May 17 in Beijing, Ýstanbul, London, Johannesburg and
planned as part of a 10-year global campaign for peace.
World Peace One, a non-profit global peace ad- Miami, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Portugal,
vocacy group whose mission is to bring peace to the Brazil, Puerto Rico, Colombia, India and possibly other
world, is planning the concerts as a part of its 10- locations. World Peace One is currently nailing down the
year campaign that will also include education and venues and offering artists choices of where they can pergovernment initiatives, reported the music industry form. "We are going to have at least seven major international venues where we can host anywhere from 65,000
publication Billboard on its Web site last week.
The group has targeted some of the top acts in the people up to several hundred thousand," Ivanovich said.
world for the international concert series, which is slated
Tarkan, who released his latest album,
to begin May 17. Among well-known acts the organiza- "Metamorfoz" (Metamorphosis), towards the end of
tion is in talks with are U2, Madonna,
2007, has been known for his dynamic
Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, Lionel
live onstage performances since the
Richie, Celine Dion and Justin
very beginning of his career in the earTimberlake, World Peace One
ly 1990s. The singer-songwriter -founder Doug Ivanovich told
whose hits include "Kiss Kiss," which
Billboard. Artists from Brazil, China
hit charts in more than a dozen counand Africa are also being considered.
tries in the late 1990s -- has lately
"Our mission is ending all war at the
been actively involved in charitable
end of our 10-year period," Ivanovich
projects, signing a partnership contract
was quoted as saying by Billboard.
earlier this year with the Doða
"Our intent is to foster and generate
(Nature) Foundation, a Turkish NGO for
Turkish pop star Tarkan
the largest people's movement, grass
nature conservation. Ýstanbul Today's Zaman
LAY YOUR BURDEN DOWN AND PUT YOUR TRUST IN GOD.
DOING SO WILL DELIVER YOU FROM THE PRESSURES OF
THIS LIFE AND THE TORMENTS OF THE HEREAFTER.
A MAGAZINE OF SCIENTIFIC AND SPIRITUAL THOUGHT (nO.61)
LEAD ARTICLE
Logic is in disposal of the tongue in crowds where there is speech without thought.
HEALTH
Clinical research on stem cells is quite promising with respect to many diseases.
SOCIOLOGY
Creating fear of “the other,” animated movies make children grow up with groundless stereotypes.
A MOMENT FOR REFLECTION
Make your child see the transforming world around him rather than the transformer robots!
Lohan, Murphy named
worst actors of 2007
‘Juno’ delivers top
prize at indie awards
and much more
st
ýn the 61 ýssue
(January-February 2008)
Eddie Murphy and Lindsay Lohan were
crowned the worst actors of 2007 at the
Golden Raspberry Awards on Saturday and, perhaps not surprisingly, neither star showed up to
accept the spoof Oscars. For their lack of acting
prowess, the veteran comic and the young actress
with the hard-living reputation each won three
gold spray-painted Razzie trophies worth $4.89
each. The annual honors were announced by the
Golden Raspberry Foundation at a presentation
that pokes fun at the Academy Awards ceremony.
Murphy, who starred in the critically savaged
comedy "Norbit," set a record by winning three
of the four worst acting categories. Despite bad
reviews, moviegoers had turned out for the film,
which took in $158 million at worldwide box offices based mostly on Murphy's popularity.
Lohan won two worst actress awards for playing
twins in "I Know Who Killed Me," a film that
was named worst of the year. She also won worst
screen couple for a scene in which she appears opposite herself in the tale about psychically linked
siblings stalked by a serial killer. "I Know Who
Killed Me," a major box office flop with a $9 million take worldwide, won eight of nine Raspberries
for which it was nominated, breaking a record
of seven wins previously held by “Showgirls”
and “Battlefield Earth.” Los Angeles Reuters
"Juno," a runaway hit comedy about a wisecracking pregnant teen, picked up the top
prize at the Spirit Awards, the independent film
community's version of the Oscars, on Saturday.
The movie was named best feature, while Canadian
actress Ellen Page won the female lead award for
her role as the titular heroine, and former stripper
Cody Diablo won for first screenplay. The only category "Juno" missed out on was best director, which
went to Julian Schnabel, who made the French-language drama "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly."
"Juno" and "I'm Not There," an innovative
drama in which six actors depict the many sides
of Bob Dylan, led the field with four nominations each. Australian actress Cate Blanchett
won the supporting female statuette for playing
the tireless troubadour in the mid-1960s.
The Spirit Awards, in their 23rd year, honor
low-budget American films based on such criteria as original, provocative subject matter and
degree of independent financing. The budget
threshold is $20 million -- about one-third of
the average cost for a big-studio film.
Other winners included Philip Seymour
Hoffman in the male lead category for his role as
a son dealing with an ailing father in "The
Savages." The film's director, Tamara Jenkins, also won the screenplay award. Santa Monica Reuters
Islam and Democracy: A Critical
Perspective on a Misconstrued
Relationship
Blue Light, Daytime Sleep and the
Prophetic Tradition
What Fuzzy Logic Lets Us Think
Do Not Underestimate Small Thinks
Peer Instruction: A Better Way to Learn
Citadel of the Self: Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem
Quantum Entanglement: Illusion or Reality?
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Communitarian Imperative
Descent from the Ivory Tower
The Qur’an: A Biography
What is new in 2008?
64 pages instead of 48 pages
6 issues instead of 4 issues a year
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Last day to subscribe for a cheaper price.
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Tel: (0216) 318 60 11 Fax: (0216) 318 68 58 www.fountainmagazine.com e-mail: [email protected]
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14 TODAY’S ZAMAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
Armenýan brutalýty that
targeted all of humanýty
ZAKÝR HAÞÝMOV*
ÝSA ÞÝMÞEK
The Hocalý massacre has gone down as one
of the worst and most striking pages in
Azerbaijanian history.
For 200 years the people of Azerbaijan were victims of
constant nationalist, chauvinist attempts on the part of
the Armenians to engage in ethnic cleansing and to carry
out the politics of genocide. The Azeris were kicked out of
their historic lands and forced to migrate, events which
were brought about through massacres carried out by the
Armenians. The forced migrations of the Azeris off their
own ethnic soil continued through the Soviet era, with
150,000 Azeris being deported from Armenia between
1948 and 1953. These deportees were moved to the KurAraz region of Azerbaijan. In 1988, 250,000 Azeris living
on their own land were forced to move from this land
and, in the process, Armenia became a mono-ethnic
state. The events that began in and around the NagornoKarabakh region in 1988 were aimed at bringing about
the ideal of an "Armenia from sea to sea" that some
Armenian ideologues were proclaiming. Villages and
cities were destroyed, tens of thousands of innocent people were killed and hundreds of thousands of Azeris
turned into refugees, fleeing from their own lands.
In the face of all international legal norms, the
Armenian state has shown that it is prepared to carry
out murder and terror to unite its lands with the lands
of Nagorno-Karabakh. The massacre at Hocalý was a
result of this determination. This massacre was
planned not just against the people of Azerbaijan, but
against all of humanity. The massacre at Hocalý stands
along with other terrible stains that mark human history, such as Katyn, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
What was the goal of the Armenians when they
targeted Hocalý? There were two goals: One was to remove the strategically problematic presence of Azeris
in the mountainous region of Karabakh, and the other
was to wipe Hocalý from the face of the earth in one
move. This was because Hocalý was a place that was
intertwined with Azerbaijan's own history and culture.
The special cultural history sheltered in Hocalý was
known as Hocalý-Gedebey culture. Hocalý's antiquities
were cultural examples of the special dynamic that occurs when human communities develop. These cultural
monuments were destroyed by the Armenian invasion
and occupation. The ancient Hocalý cemetery -- one of
the oldest cemeteries in the world -- was also lost.
These events were not just clear examples of Armenian
vandalism, they were attacks against world culture.
On the night of Feb. 25, 1992 terrorist Armenian gangs,
backed by Brigade 366 from the Soviet Union's armed
forces which was based in the city of Handeki, attacked
Hocalý. At that time there were 2,500 civilians living in
Hocalý. The civilians planned to go straight to the city nearest them, Agdam, to escape from the heavy rocket and gun
fire. But this effort turned out not to help and 613 people
were massacred during this vicious attack. Of these, 63
were children, 106 were women and 70 were elderly. Eight
families were completely wiped out. Also, 25 children were
left orphaned, and 130 children lost at least one of their parents. At least 487 people were injured, with 76 of these being
children. Also, 1,275 people were taken hostage, while there
are still 150 people who are still unaccounted for. In fact, the
city of Hocalý was wiped clean from the map, marking the
bloodiest page in the armed struggle between Armenia and
Azerbaijan over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
An Armenian writer who has revealed this massacre
in all of its horror is one of the founders of the "Greater
Armenia" ideology, Zori Balayan, who is still being
sought by Interpol. In his book titled "Revival of Our
Souls," written in Armenian in 1996, Balayan describes
the viciousness and horror of the attack on Hocalý thus:
"Entering into one of the seized homes along with gang
member Hachatur, we saw that our soldiers had nailed a 13year-old Turkish child to one of the windows. In order to
keep the child from screaming, Hachatur took the sliced-off
breast of the child's mother and put it in the boy's mouth.
Then I did to this child what his father and their like had
done to our children: I flayed the skin from his stomach,
head and chest. Then I looked at my clock. The child died
seven minutes later from loss of blood. Later, Hachatur cut
up the child's body and tossed it to dogs that came from the
same roots as the child -- Turkish dogs. We did the same
thing to three other Turkish children that night. My soul was
filled with happiness just knowing that we had achieved 1
percent of revenge in the name of our people."
Sixteen years have passed now since the Hocalý massacre. Photographs and video images exist documenting this
massacre, as do live witnesses. The Armenians are calling
events which took place 90 years ago under the Ottoman
Empire, which no longer exists, a "genocide." Going further,
Armenian lobby groups have used pressure to force the parliaments of many nations to officially accept the events of
1915 as genocide. Armenian sources discount the research
done by Turkish historians on this topic, despite the fact that
these historians have referenced Armenian documents in
this research. As for the incidents in Hocalý, they need no research. Just watching the video images is enough.
It is the Armenians who are creating the difficulty
surrounding the question of Nagorno-Karabakh.
Twenty percent of Azeri land is under Armenian occupation. There are around 1 million Azeri people who
have been forced into refugee status because of this.
Unfortunately, we see that foreign politicians interested in examining events from 90 years ago from a
one-sided stance continue to ignore a tragedy that occurred only 16 years ago. Still, our belief is strong and
we continue to believe that justice will find its place.
Murder should not remain unpunished. The
Armenians should be charged by world communities in the
military-political rape they carried out against the Azeris. In
addition, international organizations and world parliaments
should seek justice for the murders that took place on Azeri
lands in Armenia. We believe that the Turkish Parliament - a friendly and brotherly organization -- will recognize this
massacre for what it was, and that Turkish and Azeri
lobbies can cooperate in letting the world know
about what really happened in Hocalý.
PHOTO
*Zakir Haþimov is Azerbaijan's
ambassador to Turkey.
CHARLES LARSON*
Earlier this month, in the Maryland state primary, I cast my vote
for Senator Barack Obama, praying that he will be the next
president of the United States. As a 70-year-old white
American, I have to confess that until as recently as a few months ago, I
never thought that I would have the opportunity to vote for a black man
for president of the United States. It was an exhilarating experience to
touch the electronic voting screen and cast my vote -- not only for
Obama but for hopeful change, any change that will end the wretched
years of George Bush's presidency.
Even more significantly, I am not alone. A strong wave is sweeping
across the country, as old racial and gender stereotypes are finally being
broken down. People are equally committed to voting for Hillary
Rodham Clinton -- especially women, who have also waited their entire
lives for such a possibility. Thus, two strong tsunamis are sweeping
across the country and, fortunately, most Democrats say they will be
happy with either of them as the presidential candidate for their party.
What they want is change, the opportunity to sweep up all the shattered
pieces scattered everywhere by the Bush administration and start afresh.
Rarely do people or countries have such an opportunity. Instead,
they sink further and further into the morass of stagnation, defeatism
and negativism -- all prohibiting the possibility of renewal. I remember
the last time a similar opportunity captured the imaginations of so many
American citizens, and it was a long time ago. In 1961, when John F.
Kennedy became president, many of us rallied to his call for thinking beyond ourselves and imagining what we could do for our country instead.
Along with thousands of others, I joined the Peace Corps, a journey that
took me to Nigeria and changed my life forever.
This is precisely why I cast my vote today for Obama, the son of a
Kenyan man and an American woman. No other candidate (of either
party) can offer the international perspective and certainly not the global
heritage embodied in Obama's credentials. In these troubled times,
when America's esteem has been so diminished by the war in Iraq, by
the failures of arrogant diplomacy and most recently by the distinct possibility that America's deteriorating economic position will have a worldwide impact, only Obama's election can signal the beginning of the essential repair work that we all know -- at least Democrats all know -will take years of heavy lifting in order to restore the trust and the admiration once accorded the United States.
Obama's youth and hope not only match John F. Kennedy's but
they are already proof that younger Americans -- particularly university
students who have been so disaffected in recent elections -- can once
again become politically engaged. In huge numbers, younger people are
voting for Obama in the primaries and caucuses across the nation. At a
recent rally for him at American University, in Washington, where I
teach, Senator Edward Kennedy (John F. Kennedy's surviving brother)
endorsed Obama instead of Clinton.
Kennedy made it clear that the United States needs to heed the call
of a younger generation, that those of his own generation have made a
mess of things and that it is time for the elders to relinquish power and
try something different. It was a bold endorsement by Kennedy, who is
old enough to be Obama's father. The cheering from students in the audience was electrifying. They were making their choice obvious with
their voices, as they have begun to do with their ballots.
Even if Obama wins the nomination for the Democratic Party and
becomes the country's next president, it is not going to be easy for him to
revitalize the country and convince Americans that our overwhelming
problems can no longer be ignored. For too many years, Bush has deceived Americans into believing that they can undertake the most expensive war ever and not have to pay for it, that they can recklessly spend
their own money as well as the country's and never have to worry about
the day when the bills come due. Ditto the long-term issues of environment and infrastructure, retirements and the quality of health care. Yes,
America is still the richest country in the world, but it is also the most
wasteful, the most spendthrift, and, sadly, the most self-centered.
The overwhelming majority of Americans believe that the country is
on the wrong track. They hunger for a leader who will not lie to them.
They understand that the country is as polarized as it has ever been.
They regard Congress as a body as ineffectual as the president.
Agreement on any issue confronting the country appears to be impossible with our current leaders. But of all the candidates who have
been running in either party, Obama appears willing to negotiate, to listen, to ask Americans for sacrifice. Fortunately, deep down inside, most
Americans know what must be done to restore our credibility to ourselves and the rest of the world.
If he is elected, Obama will provide those opportunities; but then all
Americans will need to face reality and look beyond themselves.
*Professor Charles R. Larson is an instructor of literature at American
University in Washington, D.C.
[email protected]
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COLUMNS
TODAY’S ZAMAN 15
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
Ground operatýon scenarýos
On Feb. 19 a group of representatives handed President Abdullah
Gül a letter signed by 100 academics and intellectuals. The letter,
in summary, stated the following: At the core of Turkey's Kurdish
problem is an official mentality that is unwilling to recognize differences in thought, belief and culture among citizens. The solution to the problem, therefore, necessitates amendment of laws
that are the product of this undemocratic mentality.
There is absolutely no reason for the government to avoid talking
about measures necessary for the solution of the problem with the
pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). The promised demilitarization of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) requires measures
designed as a comprehensive peace and reconciliation project. The
Constitution has assigned the duty of representing the whole nation
to the president of the republic. We, therefore, demand that the president assumes an active role in promoting the solution of the problem.
According to press reports, Gül told the group of intellectuals
that the state is working on a project to demilitarize the PKK, that
the military is also involved in the project and that the military
does not perceive the problem as being solely a security issue. He
MÜMTAZ’ER
TÜRKÖNE
ÞAHÝN
ALPAY
[email protected]
said the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) will
soon start broadcasts in Kurdish that will target Kurdish women
in particular, adding that he was in dialogue with the DTP.
The day the letter was presented to Gül, Foreign Minister Ali
Babacan -- in what seemed to be a response to Massoud Barzani,
president of the Kurdish regional administration, who had complained about Turkish air operations in northern Iraq -- stated that
the option of a ground operation in northern Iraq was on the table.
The same day an entry on YouTube noted that the ground operation was to take place on Feb. 20-22. According to a prominent
Turkish columnist, Ahmet Altan, the PKK representatives he had
recently interviewed in the Kandil Mountains had told him they
No Comment
were expecting a ground operation to follow the air operations.
When the ground operation started on Feb. 21, Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoðan declared that it was aimed solely at the PKK
in northern Iraq and that the local population would in no way be
harmed. It was announced the same day that Gül had invited Iraqi
President Jalal Talabani to Ankara, an invitation that was avoided
by former Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.
What will the Turkish ground operation lead to? In order to
be able to address this question it is necessary to remember the
background of the current phase of Turkey's fight against the
PKK. When at the end of last October the PKK escalated its
attacks against Turkey from bases in northern Iraq, its plan
appeared to be to provoke Ankara to take hard-line measures
against the pro-Kurdish political parties in the country and to
invade northern Iraq. Support for the PKK among Turkey's
Kurds was declining due partly to recognition of some cultural
rights of the Kurds in Turkey in the context of EU reforms and
the growing awareness (both in Turkey and the world) that the
PKK is a truly terrorist organization. The PKK seemed to be try-
EMRE ÖZDEMÝR
[email protected]
ÝHSAN
DAÐI
[email protected]
[email protected]
Can Turkýsh
Cyprýots go for
referendum on
ýndependence?
Polýtýcal
leadershýp
Turkey is conducting a large-scale ground operation in a territory that is under US occupation,
ruled by an autonomous government. Both the
military and diplomatic aspects of the operation are
being coordinated like clockwork. Violent options
are becoming meaningless for separatist groups.
Foe and friend alike are reminded of the existence of a state that is sensitive and capable of protecting its interests. It is obvious that behind this
harmonic coordination is a powerful political leadership that can correctly assess the prevailing conditions and determine the correct timing for the
operation, mobilizing resources accordingly.
The "Kurdish problem" is not a simple ethnic
problem. It is Turkey's most fundamental and primordial problem, which also sucks up a great deal of the
nation's energy and hopes for other matters. The military operation currently being taking place beyond our
borders will affect only some aspects of this problem.
Turkey proves its diplomatic power in the face of its
ethnic problem, getting the countries in the region into
line and deterring those who use terrorism for their
purposes. There is a long way to go toward the solution
of the problem, taking into consideration its
entrenched roots and complicated nature. The implications of the July 22 general election results with respect
to the Kurdish problem have not been fully perceived
by many. With this election, Turkey gained an opportunity -- fully attributable to democracy -- to integrate
the offended and alienated Kurdish population with
the rest of the country. One can argue that a single
political party now represents the country's unity and
integrity. In order to exact a solution from this opportunity, we need a powerful political leadership that can
masterfully orchestrate the rich resources of democracy. In 1999 we missed such an opportunity because at
that time we did not have such a powerful leadership.
A strong leadership has the will and executive power
to make courageous decisions, thwart the resistance of
the status quo and reconcile opposite groups toward a
common goal. The democracy that has given us this
opportunity also has the tools that will take us toward
the solution. We need only a political leadership that
can make decisions fearlessly and mobilize resources
to execute these decisions. As in the political leadership that has solved the headscarf ban issue.
However you look at it, the headscarf ban was an
obstacle before Turkey. This problem has been used by
a small group of privileged people in the public sector,
the media and the finance sector to impose pressures
on government administrations. Let us see the headscarf issue as a purely political problem. The headscarf
ban is the vehicle for this minority's show of power.
They have been using this openly unjust and tyrannical ban roughly, to show and remind the political
power that their power and rule is limited. The storm in
a teacup following the lifting of the headscarf ban
through constitutional amendments is because this
privileged minority lost an important power tool.
We have seen moments of tension that are largely
meaningless. If Turkey had managed to solve this
problem once and for all, we would see that our
democracy has made a giant leap forward. The problem Turkey has solved is not the problem of several
thousands of headscarf-wearing girls that are not
allowed to enter university campuses, but an essential
democracy problem. As the agenda changes, we will
forget the storms that accompanied this problem, but
our gain will be permanent. Then we will need to
watch the political leadership that resolutely took steps
to solve this problem as it solves other problems.
We have numerous problems that await us.
There are concerns that worldwide economic
balances are being disrupted. The reforms stated
in the accession partnership document should be
realized. More than ever, we desperately need
the skills and courage of the political leadership
to create solutions using democratic means.
ing to regain the upper hand by triggering a region wide
Turkish-Kurdish conflict. Ankara, however, did not fall into the
trap, avoided taking hasty domestic measures and with patient
diplomatic effort was able to convince all concerned, including
the US, of its legitimate right to strike back at the PKK.
In an optimistic scenario, a brief ground operation would eliminate
the logistic infrastructure of the PKK in northern Iraq. When this mission is accomplished an amnesty for rank-and-file PKK militants and
new reforms to broaden Kurdish linguistic and cultural rights in Turkey
would follow. Enhanced cooperation between Ankara, Washington,
Baghdad and Arbil would finally put an end to the PKK activity in Iraq.
In a pessimistic scenario, on the other hand, the operation
gets out of control and leads to clashes between the Turkish
troops and the peshmerga, the Iraqi Kurdish forces, as hoped for
by nationalist circles in Turkey who regard the Kurdish regional
government as sponsors of the PKK. Conflict with the Kurds of
Iraq would further alienate Turkey's Kurds from Ankara and thus
finally lead to Turkey falling into the PKK trap.
The latter scenario seems unlikely, while the former too good to be true.
The dynamýcs behýnd the ground operatýon
ÖMER
TAÞPINAR
[email protected]
There is no doubt that Ankara has Washington's full support for its
current ground operations in northern Iraq. The reason is simple: The
US has decided to contain Iran and this requires not "losing" Turkey.
In that sense, it is important to note that Washington's Turkey policy
has started to change since Robert Gates assumed his position as the
head of the Pentagon. Unlike Donald Rumsfeld, who had an ideological view of the dynamics in the Middle East, Gates is a realist oriented toward a "balance of power." His priority immediately became to
contain Iran. This required re-launching the semblance of an ArabIsraeli peace process and beefing up the Sunni moderate coalition
with substantial arms sales. It also required getting Turkey right.
Although Ankara has full American support, this will certainly
not be enough to "solve" the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) problem. The internal dynamics in Turkey are very complicated.
The PKK always wanted a Turkish intervention in northern Iraq
that would go beyond just air strikes. The objectives of the PKK are
twofold. The first and foremost goal of the PKK is to gain international
legitimacy as "freedom fighters." Since most of the international press
refers to them as "rebels" or "guerillas," this is a propaganda campaign
they seem to be getting better at. Gaining legitimacy is crucial for the
PKK. Once it achieves such global status, the PKK believes it will have
much stronger bargaining power with Iraqi Kurds. But perhaps more
importantly, the PKK desperately wants to become the representative
voice of the Kurdish question in Turkey and the main interlocutor of the
Turkish government. In short, it wants respect and recognition.
The second goal of the PKK in trying to secure a large-scale
Turkish military intervention is to create Turkish-Kurdish polarization in the Turkish urban centers that are home to significant Kurdish
populations. This is an extremely dangerous plan with the potential
of fatally destabilizing Turkish politics and society for years to come.
And there are already alarming signs that the process is under way.
The sad reality is that Turkish nationalism fuels Kurdish nationalism.
The Turkish press is already playing into the hands of such sinister
plans with its inflammatory headlines against Massoud Barzani, the
leader of the regional Kurdish administration in northern Iraq. Given
Barzani's own reckless declarations, there is no shortage of people in
Turkey who want to go beyond the PKK in their definition of the
enemy in northern Iraq. This is something that greatly benefits the
PKK, because a real war between Barzani and the Turkish army in
northern Iraq would secure further international sympathy for the
Kurdish cause. Such a war would also significantly increase TurkishKurdish polarization and confrontations in urban Turkey.
In short, we are going through depressingly dangerous times and a
very limited operation against the PKK appears to be best option to avert
further damage in the region. One can only hope that the Justice and
Development Party (AK Party) has a plan to start the democratization
process on the Kurdish front after these military steps. Ankara should coopt rather than confront the Kurdish challenge and simultaneously pursue a constructive engagement with the broader region. With visionary
leadership in Ankara and Arbil, Turkish-Kurdish economic, political and
military cooperation could lead to genuine friendship. A TurkishKurdish confrontation is not fated. After all, Turkey is the most democratic, secular and pro-Western of Iraq's neighbors, attributes that
the administration in northern Iraq also shares. Ultimately, whether
Turkey can properly balance its policy will depend on democratic
reforms at home. Much hinges on Turkey's chances of becoming a liberal and multicultural state that makes progress toward the EU.
In 2004, when the referendum was held on the Annan
plan to reunite the island, Greek Cypriots thought the status quo was in their favor. Then, they expected they could
get anything they wanted from the Turkish side, given that
they were soon to be a full EU member while Turkey was
knocking on the door of the EU and that the isolation of
the Turkish north was causing hardship to the people who
wanted to be part of an EU-member Cyprus, even if it was
only represented by the Greeks. The Greek Cypriots, as a
result, misled by their president, Tassos Papadopoulos,
voted overwhelmingly against the Annan plan.
The attitude of the Greek Cypriots in 2004 was very similar to that of the Turks, who thought the Cyprus question
had been resolved in 1974 and that maintaining the status
quo was in their favor. This state of mind has changed since
2002. Turkish Cypriots took their fate into their own hands,
challenging the status quo, and voted for the UN plan for
reunification. They even ousted their national leader, Rauf
Denktaþ, who appeared out of line with his people's desire for
a solution. A year after the referendum, realizing that he would
lose, Denktaþ did not dare run in the presidential race.
Interestingly his dropping out of politics in the north is a very
rare case in which the leader of a "national movement" is ousted by his own people. This, I think, demonstrates the determination of the Turks on the island to find a fair and durable solution, and their willingness to engage in negotiation.
Anyhow, the Turks realized that holding on to the status
quo does not pay off. So did the Greeks, with some delay.
Papadopoulos, the architect of the failure of the last peace
plan, was left out in the race for the presidency.
The Greeks are on the defensive now and likely to
remain so if the Turkish side takes additional assertive
steps. For example, if the Turkish government decides to
seek the approval in Parliament of a protocol for a customs
union to open its airports and harbors to Greek Cypriot
vessels, the Greek Cypriot government will lose the most
important leverage against Turkey in the EU context.
Then the suspended eight negotiation chapters will be
opened for accession negotiations, speeding up the integration of Turkey into the EU. The Greek side then could
not afford any attempt to put pressure on Turkey via the
EU, since it would further alienate them in Europe.
Furthermore, the Greek side has to deal with the
possible impact of Kosovar independence on the
Cyprus question. Since 2004, as everyone knows, the
government of northern Cyprus has received increasing
international visibility and even acquired some degree
of recognition. After the independence of Kosovo many
ask the question: why not northern Cyprus?
I think the Greek side is under tremendous pressure. Time
is not on their side as they assumed it to be in 2004. There is in
fact another move that the Turks on the island might make,
which would certainly increase the anxiety of the Greeks.
What can the Greek Cypriot government do if the Turks
on the island decide to hold a referendum on their future and
ask if the Turkish Cypriots favor independence?
It is pretty clear that the outcome of such a referendum
would be independence in the wake of disappointment with the
Greek side in 2004 and disillusionment with the EU. Nor should
we forget the growing self-confidence of the Turks in recent
years. No longer expecting salvation through the EU, the Turks
on the island have taken their own course of action to improve
the standard of life on the island. The north is prospering.
Some may ask in what capacity the Turkish Cypriots
would hold a referendum. The answer is in the same capacity they had in 2004. The 2004 referendum for the UN plan
endorsed the Turkish side as a political and legal entity
capable of deciding its own fate. In fact the 2004 referendum
was an exercise of the right to self-determination. The right
to determine its fate was exercised by the Turks in 2004;
then they opted for a united state of the Turks and the
Greeks. But this was not reciprocated by the Greeks. If the
Turks make another decision now, this time for a divided
island, they can do so. And such a decision will be as legitimate as the one of the 2004 referendum for a united island.
T16-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
18:23
Page 1
16 TODAY’S ZAMAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
LEISURE
tv guýde
Gregorian Calendar: 25 February 2008 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 18 Safar 1429 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 19 Adar I 5768
[email protected]
movýe guýde
Suriname, ousting then-Prime Minister Henck Arron.
Today is Freedom Day (or People's Power Day) in the
Philippines. On this day 1986 the People's Revolution came
to its culmination as the dictator of the country, Ferdinand
Marcos, left the Philippines after 21 years in power.
On this day in 1964 American boxer Cassius Clay beat
Sonny Liston after six rounds in Miami to win the world
heavyweight boxing title. The same year Clay announced his
conversion to the Nation of Islam, changing his name to
Muhammad Ali. In 1999 Ali was crowned "Sportsman of the
Century" by Sports Illustrated. He won the World
Today is Kuwait's national day, celebrating the
creation of Kuwait as a nation in 1961. The day
is marked with national celebrations that
include public meetings, fireworks displays and a spirit
of celebration. Public buildings are illuminated on the
occasion and Kuwaitis, whether young or old, wear
their traditional attire to participate in the festivities.
Suriname remembers the Revolution of Feb. 25,
1980 on this day. The Military Council of Suriname
decided on this day in 1980 to take over the military,
police and administrative leadership of the Republic of
‘Sweeney Todd’
E2
Heavyweight Boxing championship three times and the
North American Boxing Federation championship once, as
well as having won an Olympic gold medal in boxing.
On Feb. 25, 1996 the wealthiest person of Turkey,
businessman and pioneer Vehbi Koç, passed away.
One of the first great Turkish entrepreneurs, Koç was
responsible for the development of a culture of professional management and corporate identity in
Turkey. Koç Group is still Turkey's largest holding,
owning prestigious trademarks like Arçelik, Aygaz,
Tofaþ, Garanti Bank and Beko. By Kerim Balcý
WINX CLUB: THE SECRET
OF THE LOST KINGDOM
(All showings in Turkish) ÝSTANBUL:
Þiþli Megaplex Cevahir: 11:00 13:00
15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 Suadiye
Movieplex: 11:00 12:45 14:30 16:15 18:00
19:45 ANKARA: Ata On Tower: 11:00
12:45 14:30 16:15 18:00 ÝZMÝR: Karþýyaka
Deniz: 12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00 21:00
Cinebonus Konak Pier: 11:00 13:00
15:00 17:00 19:00 ANTALYA: Cinebonus
Migros: 10:30 12:30 14:30 16:30 18:30
Endless Ocean: an undersea
trýp that leaves gamýng home
BAYRAMPAÞA: BEN
FAZLA KALMAYACAÐIM
MIKE MUSGROVE
ÝSTANBUL: Levent Cinebonus Kanyon:
11:00 13:30 16:00 18:30 21:00 Fri/Sat:
24:00 Kadýköy Cinebonus Nautilus:
11:15 13:45 16:15 18:45 21:15 Fri/Sat:
23:45 ANKARA: Ata On Tower: 11:00
13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 Fri/Sat:
24:00 ÝZMÝR: Cinebonus Konak Pier:
11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 Fri/Sat:
24:00 ANTALYA: Cinebonus Migros:
12:00 14:30 17:00 19:30 22:00 Fri/Sat:
24:15
ÝSTANBUL: Etiler AFM Akmerkez: 11:00
13:40 15:00 16:20 17:40 19:00 20:20 21:40
Fri/Sat: 23:00 24:00 Altunizade Capitol
Spectrum: 11:15 12:30 13:45 14:15 15:00
16:15 16:45 17:30 18:45 19:15 20:00 21:15
21:45 22:30 Fri/Sat: 23:40 ANKARA:
Cinebonus Bilkent: 11:45 14:15 15:30
16:45 19:15 20:30 21:45 Fri/Sat: 24:15
ÝZMÝR: Konak AFM Passtel: 11:00 12:15
13:30 14:45 16:00 17:15 18:30 19:45 21:00
22:00 Fri/Sat: 23:30 ANTALYA:
Cinebonus Migros: 11:30 14:00 16:30
19:00 20:30 21:30 Fri/Sat: 23:00 24:15
SWEENEY TODD
ÝSTANBUL: Beyoðlu AFM Fitaþ: 10:40
13:05 15:40 18:10 20:45 Kadýköy
Cinebonus Nautilus: 11:45 14:15 16:45
19:15 21:45 Fri/Sat: 24:15 ANKARA: Ata
On Tower: 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15 21:45
Fri/Sat: 24:00 ÝZMÝR: Cinebonus Konak
Pier: 10:45 13:30 16:15 19:00 21:45
Fri/Sat: 24:30 ANTALYA: Cinebonus
Migros: 11:00 13:30 16:15 19:00 21:45
THERE WILL BE BLOOD
ÝSTANBUL: Levent Cinebonus Kanyon:
11:00 14:30 18:00 21:30 Fri/Sat: 24:30
Caddebostan AFM: 11:20 14:30 17:40
21:00 ANKARA: Ankamall: 11:15 14:35
18:15 21:35 ÝZMÝR: Cinebonus Konak
Pier: 14:15 17:30 20:45 Fri/Sat: 24:00
goldmax
Sudoku
movýemax
A screenshot from Endless Ocean
teaches guitar chord changes to popular songs by artists like
Beck and Bob Dylan. Last week, the company announced it
is developing a DS title aimed at helping users maintain a weight-loss regimen, a scaled-back version of a
more ambitious title that was originally called My Life
Coach. Ubisoft plans to package a pedometer with the
title, which is scheduled for a release this summer.
Novickas cited the success of a quiz game for the
Nintendo DS, called Brain Age, as a title that helped
open publishers' eyes. "We realized there is a market
out there for nontraditional games and people looking
for an experience that is a little different," he said. The
publisher might decide to release this type of title for
other consoles down the road, depending on sales.
I like the idea of getting hooked on games that push
education or self-improvement. But it's still too early to
tell where this is going, or how big of a phenomenon this
might turn out to be. © The Washington Post, 2008
Cem Kýzýltuð
[email protected]
396
HARD
6
2
8
3
7
5
2
8
6
trt tourýsm radýo
3
6
EASY
8
8
1
9
9
3
5
9
5
1
4
1 5 9 2 3 8 6 7 4
2 6 4 5 7 9 3 1 8
8 3 7 4 1 6 2 9 5
8
3 2 8 6 5 7 1 4 9
6 9 5 1 4 3 7 8 2
4 7 1 8 9 2 5 6 3
3
6
7
7
3
4
5
1
2
5
5
6
5
2
7
9
4
9
7
8
2
1
EASY
5 8 6 9 2 1 4 3 7
7 1 2 3 8 4 9 5 6
9 4 3 7 6 5 8 2 1
2
3
9
9
4
4
5
10
12
13
6
7
8
11
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
24
25
2
3
9
23
6
396
Crossword
7
4
26
Across
1 Stumbled, proceeding from
one hill to another (4,4)
5 A bit sweet (6)
9 Domestic employee standing at a stop caught bus (9)
11 Force fails to open lock (5)
12 Literati principally merited
such a description? (7)
13 Transport system runs on
time, American-style (7)
14 Mark once converted by
these people unwelcome in
temple? (5,8)
16 Criminal locates impure
gold, perhaps (8,5)
20 Foreign character makes
one’s lip curl (7)
21 Destructive person causing
a flap (7)
23 Scoundrel, one brought
before a court (5)
24 Finished in warm clothing
(7,2)
25 Fiddle without piano is less
spirited (6)
26 Decorators notice colour’s
initially wanting in parts of
room (8)
Down
1 Unreliable female has little
for small children (6)
2 Animal tethered by guerrilla, maybe (5)
3 Sketch pad may be thus
used (5,2)
4 Fancy alternative title for
many a quiz show? (4,2,3,4)
6 Be taught new skills for
working on public transport (7)
7 With no commitments,
have inclination to tour
west coast (9)
8 Writer, for example, is
included among the elite
when book is out (8)
10 Harvested brassica plant
that met required standards (3,3,7)
14 Mere mortals about to dis- BA E NA T EL E ST SA E VA I AL L EA
appear, tossed in whirlpool R I N G A B E L L L U N A R
L
U
N
E
E
A
C
P
(9)
E I L A T
L EMON P E E L
Y
M O
B
C
U
15 Drug wasted? That’s a
E A S Y L I S T E N I NG
blow (5,3)
F
N
U
H
F
S
I N T R A V E NOU S L Y
17 LA film shot with English
S
T
W E
O W
celebrity of sorts (3,4)
H A L F L I GH T
L OU S E
T
I
A
L
R
L
L
S
18 Account written up about
A D L E R
E D I T OR I A L
old soldier (7)
I
A
G
A
A
U
K
E
L E C T E R N
L O T T E R Y
19 Lord shouts out, seizing
power (6)
Yesterday’s puzzle solved
22 Book slightly too big for
this shelf (5)
Yesterday’s solution 23,598
B E A T L
A
N
E
R I NG A
L
U
N
E I L A T
Y
M O
E A S
F
N
I N T R A
S
T
H A L F L
T
I
A
A D L E R
I
A
G
L E C T E
E S
T
B E
E
L
B
Y L
U
V E
S E V I L
A
A
A
L L
L U N
E
A
C
EMON P E
C
I S T E N I
H
F
NOU S L Y
W E
O
I GH T
L OU
L
R
L
L
E D I T OR I
A
A
U
K
R N
L O T T E
L E
A
A R
P
E L
U
NG
S
W
S E
S
A L
E
R Y
© NI Syndication
7
comedymax
08:00 Carpoolers
08:30 What I Like About You
09:00 Maggie Winters
09:30 Complete Savages
10:00 Everybody Loves Raymond
11:00 Will & Grace
12:00 The Nanny
12:30 Reba
13:00 Frasier
13:30 Yes Dear
14:00 Carpoolers
14:30 What I Like About You
15:00 Maggie Winters
15:30 Complete Savages
16:00 Everybody Loves Raymond
17:00 Will & Grace
18:00 The Nanny
18:30 Reba
19:00 Frasier
19:30 Yes Dear
20:00 Carpoolers
20:30 What I Like About You
21:00 Everybody Loves Raymond
22:00 Will & Grace
23:00 Entourage
radýo guýde
7 4 3 1 2 8 9 6 5
9 6 8 4 7 5 1 3 2
5 2 1 9 6 3 7 4 8
2
8
07:30 Jane Doe: Vanishing Act
09:15 McLeod's Daughters
10:00 The Hollywood Mom's
Mystery
11:45 Return of Alex Kelly
13:30 Ordinary Miracles
15:15 McLeod's Daughters
16:00 The Man from Left Field
18:00 Miss Marple: The Sittaford
Mystery
20:00 Two Twisted
20:30 Varian's War
23:00 Black Fox: Good Men and
Bad
00:45 The Stranger Beside Me
02:30 Black Fox: Good Men and Bad
8 9 2 3 5 4 6 1 7
3 5 6 7 8 1 4 2 9
1 7 4 2 9 6 5 8 3
4
9
3
HARD
6 3 7 5 4 2 8 9 1
4 1 5 8 3 9 2 7 6
2 8 9 6 1 7 3 5 4
2
06:45 K-PAX
08:50 Hello Sister, Goodbye Life
10:30 Invincible
12:30 Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire
15:10 Dating Games People Play
16:50 Broken
18:35 This is England
20:30 Invincible
22:35 Flawless
00:30 Lady in the Water
02:25 This is England
hallmark
given its owners a new way to interact with games. The
device is up to worldwide sales of 65 million.
In Japan, the Nintendo DS has already featured interactive cookbooks and a financial planning diary, and more
such "non-games" are on the way. Square Enix, a game
publisher more famous for sword-and-sorcery adventures,
has announced it is working on gardening title for the system. Master of Illusion, released in the US this past holiday
season, comes with a deck of cards and teaches sleight-ofhand tricks that can be performed in the real world. "This is
new for us," said Adam Novickas, director of marketing at
game publisher Ubisoft. "This is uncharted territory for every
publisher." Ubisoft, famous among gamers for hit franchises
such as the Tom Clancy-themed Splinter Cell series, recently released a flurry of instructional titles for the Nintendo systems designed to increase a player's vocabulary or their command of foreign languages. One new music title from the
company, called Jam Sessions, gives ear training lessons and
Mr. DýploMAT!
6
cnbc-e
18:10 How I Met Your Mother
18:50 Las Vegas
20:00 Cold Case
21:00 Without a Trace
22:00 Gothika
24:00 Cold Case
01:00 Without a Trace
02:00 Gothika
04:00 Cold Case
05:00 Without a Trace
07:20 Star Trek: Insurrection
09:10 Soylent Green
10:45 Black Beauty
12:20 The Truth About Cats & Dogs
14:00 The Untouchables
16:05 Noises Off...
17:50 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious
Circle
20:00 Young Guns
21:55 Power
23:50 13 Tzameti
01:25 The Faculty
03:10 Nanny McPhee
Some video game fans are puzzled over a new title
for the Nintendo Wii system -- mainly because it's
not really a game. In the aquatic-themed Endless
Ocean, you don't hunt for gold coins and there's no
princess to save. There's no way to get your scuba-diving
character in any trouble, much less get him killed.
Players spend their time exploring an ocean floor accompanied by an Enya-esque soundtrack. Click on that fish or
penguin or sea lion swimming by and you might find out a little about, say, its migration habits. The "game" periodically
suggests tasks, but they can be ignored if the player is having
enough fun learning about the real-world habits of the
Oriental Butterflyfish in the fictional sea of Manoa Lai.
A reviewer on the video game news site Destructoid
described Endless Ocean as both "amazing" and "extremely dull." Another critic, in the February edition of Electronic
Gaming Monthly, simply found the title exasperating. "I'm
not saying Endless Ocean needs to give players the bends,
but it'd be nice if the occasional fish at least tried to eat you,"
wrote one of the magazine's editors, Crispin Boyer.
I'm not entirely sure whether to classify it as refreshing
or boring, but Endless Ocean is another example of a relatively new experience that Nintendo has introduced to the
world with its fast-selling Wii game console, the one that
has players waving their arms around to control their game
characters. With its intuitive control system, the Wii has
attracted such non-stereotypical gamers as mothers and
senior citizens. To woo this new audience, game publishers
are trying out some unusual software titles that don't quite
fit under the traditional heading of video game.
"In the past, not many people paid attention to casual gamers," said Marc Franklin, director of public relations at Nintendo of America, in an e-mail last week.
"But now that's all anyone is talking about." So far the
Wii has sold 20 million units worldwide, according to the
company, and its handheld DS system has also been a
hit. With an innovative touchscreen, the DS has also
RECEP ÝVEDÝK
08:00 Rachael Ray Show
09:00 The O.C.
10:00 The Martha Stewart Show
11:00 The O.C.
12:00 Ellen DeGeneres Show
13:00 Hollyoaks
13:30 Rachael Ray Show
14:30 The Martha Stewart Show
15:30 The O.C.
16:30 Ellen DeGeneres Show
17:30 Hollyoaks
18:00 The Martha Stewart Show
19:00 The O.C.
20:00 Married with Children
20:30 Hollyoaks
21:00 24
22:15 Rome
23:00 The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart
23:30 How I Met Your Mother
24:00 High Stakes Poker
01:00 Rome
02:00 24
03:00 The Daily Show with Jon
Stewart
1
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
travelers’ s.o.s
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 334 61 00 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
CM Y K
00:00 Identification and
Programmes
00:25 Music
07:25 Identification and
Programmes
07:30 Music
08:30 News (English, French,
German)
08:40 Live Broadcast (English,
German, Russian)
10:30 News (English, French,
German, Greek, Russian)
10:45 Live Broadcast (English,
German, Russian)
12:30 News (English, French,
German, Greek, Russian)
12.45 Live Broadcast (English,
German, Russian)
15:00 News (English, French,
German, Greek, Russian)
15:15 Live Broadcast (English,
German, Russian)
18:30 News (English, French,
German, Greek, Russian)
18:45 Live Broadcast (English,
French)
21:30 News (English, French,
German, Greek, Russian)
21:45 Live Broadcast (English,
Greek)
23:58 Identification
Broadcast Areas:
Alanya FM 94.4
Ankara FM 100.3
Antalya FM 92.1
Ayvalýk FM 101.1
Bodrum FM 97.4
Fethiye FM 103.1
Ýstanbul FM 101.6
Ýzmir FM 101.6
Kalkan FM 105.9
Kapadokya FM 103.0
Kuþadasý FM 101.9
Marmaris FM 101.0
Pamukkale FM 101.0
Trabzon FM 101.5
T17-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
18:55
Page 1
CONTINUATION
TODAY’S ZAMAN 17
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
First martyrs of ground
operation laid to rest
PHOTO
Christofias’ communist roots. “I voted
for Kassoulides because I do not want to
see the hammer and sickle on the
Cyprus
flag,”
said
Costas
Christodoulides, 74. Kassoulides’ appeal
includes his experience as a foreign minister, and with his seat in the European
Parliament, he is seen as more able to
approach Greek Cyprus’ EU partners.
While Papadopoulos may be out,
he will not be entirely without power.
A win in Sunday’s runoff depends on
attracting many of the nearly 32 percent of voters who cast their ballots for
the president in the first round.
But this would not mean he could
shackle the winner and prevent him
from carrying out his policies. Power
in Greek Cyprus rests with the president, who is the head of the government and state.
Nearly 516,000 voters -- including
390 Turkish Cypriots living in the south
-- are eligible to vote. Turkish Cypriot
voters in the northern Cyprus are not.
Controversial Kurdish politician Leyla Zana on Saturday described
February as a “black month” for Kurds, adding that Turkey’s cross-border operations into northern Iraq should be protested. Zana, speaking
to a congress of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) in
Diyarbakýr, called on Kurdish citizens to take a stance against the
ground operation currently under way in northern Iraq. She also asserted that Turkey’s Constitution needed to recognize the Kurdish identity.
“The headscarf ban was not based on any legal
arrangement. Following Gül’s approval of the
headscarf measure, rectors can allow covered students
entry to university campuses. They will be doing the right
thing by making such a move,” noted Köker.
Some university rectors, on the other hand, termed
the headscarf a political symbol and said they will not
comply with the scarf amendments.
Uludað University Rector Mustafa Yurtkuran said he
will not allow covered students to enter his university.
“The constitutional amendments approved by Gül on
Friday do not remove the legal hurdles before headscarf
freedom on university campuses. We will continue to
comply with previous regulations on the use of the headscarf at universities. For us, the headscarf is a political symbol and it cannot be allowed at our university,” he said.
Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) Rector
Ural Akbulut and Ondokuz Mayýs University Rector Ferit
Bernay noted that Parliament needs to work further on
Article 17 of the YÖK Law to provide a clear definition of
the headscarf. “We can open the doors of our universities
to covered students only when the work on the said article is completed,” they said.
Professor Mustafa Akaydýn, the Akdeniz University
rector who also heads the Inter-university Board (ÜAK),
said he will not allow headscarf wearing students to enter his campus.
“We will not allow covered students to enter our university until the ambiguity over Article 17 of the YÖK Law
is eliminated. Covered students will take their headscarves
off before entering our campus until then,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Radikal daily reported yesterday that
Gül approved the headscarf measure after Republican
People’s Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal reportedly declined to reach a settlement with other parties on Turkey’s
long-standing headscarf problem, saying that his party
would not take part in headscarf bargains.
According to Radikal’s article, Turkish Union of
Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President
Rifat Hisarcýklýoðlu launched an initiative to eliminate
the problems over the abolition of the headscarf ban on
university campuses through a compromise among political parties to avert a social crisis after Parliament approved the amendment package earlier this month.
CM Y K
TARIK ÖZTÜRK
PHOTO
Dimitris
Christofias
February a black month for Kurds, says Zana
contýnued from page 1
AP
contýnued from page 1
while trying to protect his country. Turkey will not be divided, no matter what happens. This country will remain united as long as there are courageous people who prefer to die
rather than to see it divided. There are thousands of youths
to replace Aslan. We are proud of them all,” Eroðlu said.
Hundreds of citizens who attended the funeral chanted
slogans against the PKK separatist organization.
A funeral ceremony was held for Private Ýbrahim Ülger, 20, who was also martyred during clashes with the
PKK in the latest ground operation into northern Iraq, in
his hometown of Kýrýkkale yesterday.
Ülger’s wife Gülsema, his father Ali and his mother Zennure burst into tears as a prayer was held in the
Nur Mosque in the Etiler neighborhood of Kýrklareli.
The funeral was attended by a huge crowd as well as
AK Party Kýrýkkale deputy Vahit Erdem, MHP
Kýrýkkale deputy Osman Durmuþ and Kýrýkkale
Governor Bahrettin Demirer.
The people chanted slogans against the PKK as they carried Ülger’s coffin to the cemetery. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Two automobiles parked in the central Beyoðlu district of Ýstanbul late
Saturday night were set alight by individuals believed to be PKK sympathizers, known to have been torching vehicles in protest since
Turkey started air strikes against the terrorists in December of last year.
Approximately 100 vehicles parked on the streets of various cities
were set ablaze in a series of arson attacks that began in Ýstanbul in
December. In January a statement posted on a PKK-linked Web site
alleged that the arsons were perpetrated by Kurdish youth in response
to the Turkish military’s operations in northern Iraq. The Interior
Ministry has proposed employing traditional night watchmen to prevent the fires. Most of the cases are believed to have been perpetrated
by the outlawed PKK. At least 70 people have been detained and 35
arrested in connection with the arsons in the past two months.
Headscarved free to enter universities
Hopes for Cyprus talks
renewed as Christofias wins
Ankara Today’s Zaman with AP
Two more arsons in Ýstanbul
A funeral was held for martyred
sergeant Emre Bolat in Eskiþehir.
Noting that he had sacrificed his son for his nation,
Gedik also said: “Now there is me and my other sons. We
are ready to fight against the terrorists. My heart is burning;
I hope the other fathers do not experience the same pain.”
Noting that his brother came to Trabzon during the
Feast of Sacrifice to visit the family, Ýbrahim Gedik’s brother, Emin Gedik, said: “He called me two days before the
operation. He used to call every three or four days. Then I
tried to contact him, but this was our last talk.”
Martyr Pvt. Aslan was also laid to rest amid tears yesterday in the village of Balaban in Diyarbakýr’s Eðil district after
noon prayers. Diyarbakýr Governor Hüseyin Avni Mutlu,
Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Diyarbakýr
deputies Abdurrahman Kurt and Kutbettin Arzu and officials
from the gendarmerie were present at the funeral.
Ýsmet Eroðlu, an official from the gendarmerie, said
Aslan was martyred while he was performing his military
service for the unity of his nation.
“We are deep in grief. We can’t bring him back to life,
but we find consolation knowing that he was martyred
TAK has stated it will launch a new wave of attacks against
Turkey. TAK is known to use university students who sympathize
with the PKK in its terrorist attacks. “If they want to destroy us, our
young people must make [Turkey’s] cities uninhabitable,” a senior
TAK commander in northern Iraq was quoted as saying. “In the big
cities Kurdish youth must give their reply to the military operations.
Kurdistan’s guerrillas are not just 7,000 or 10,000, they number hundreds of thousands. They are everywhere ... in all Turkish cities. Just a
couple of youths could, for example, set fire to hundreds of vehicles.”
TAK first came to the public’s attention with a string of attacks
in 2004, claiming responsibility for the majority of some 60 terrorist attacks against civilians in the western parts of Turkey between
June 1, 2004 -- the end of a unilateral cease-fire announced by the
PKK -- and Oct. 1, 2005. They also claimed an incident that killed
three people and wounded 65 in 2006. TAK is led by Feyman
Hüseyin, aka Bahoz Erdal, who is also in charge of the PKK’s
armed wing, the People’s Defense Units (HPG).
Turkish troops backed by warplanes crossed into northern Iraq on
Thursday in pursuit of PKK terrorists, who use the region as a launching pad for attacks on southern Turkey. The ground offensive continues.
The ongoing conflict with the PKK has claimed nearly 40,000 lives
since the group launched its terrorist attacks in 1984, seeking an ethnic
homeland in southeastern Turkey. Previous Turkish military operations
across the border into northern Iraq in the 1990s failed to wipe out the
elusive and highly mobile terrorists. The United States and European
Union classify the PKK as a terrorist organization, as does Turkey.
PHOTO
Justice and Development Party (AK Party)
Çanakkale Deputy Mehmet Daniþ, Çanakkale
Chief Prosecutor Ýlmettin Köklü, mayors from
Çanakkale districts, local bureaucrats and military officials as well as a large number of ordinary citizens
holding Turkish flags also attended the funeral.
Özkan’s family was devastated by the death of their
son. His relatives noted that Özkan had served in Siirt.
Özkan became the third person his village has lost to PKK
terrorism, his relatives said.
In a speech at the funeral, Gendarmerie Capt. Ömer
Ebabil said the country had lost one more of its children.
“My martyred brother. Rest in peace. We have the determination to destroy all the attacks directed at the unity of our
state thanks to the strength we take from you.”
The martyred private was buried in the village of
Boynanlar.
Twenty-five-year-old Selam Kemer was laid to rest
in his hometown of Ilgýn in the province of Konya.
Thousands attended his funeral, including Konya
Governor Osman Aydýn, Konya Garrison Commander
Gen. Uður Uzal and a large number of mayors from
districts of Konya. Thousands of Konya residents
chanted anti-PKK slogans and held flags. Observers
said Kemer’s his grieving father, Abdullah Kemer,
nearly collapsed during the funeral.
Abdullah Kemer talked briefly about his last interaction with his son before his death. “He called me on Feb.
19 and asked how we were. He did not say anything about
taking part in the operation. He only told us that he had
sent us his most recent photos. We received the photos
two days ago. He would have marked five years in the
military four months later. He has served in Bolu, Þýrnak
and Siirt. He has participated in many operations.”
Twenty-one year old Ýbrahim Gedik was laid to rest in a
military cemetery in the Black Sea city of Trabzon yesterday.
His father, Abdurrahman, brothers Emin and Habip,
sisters Düriye and Makbule and relatives, Trabzon
Governor Nuri Okutan, Commander of the 48th Motor
Brigade Gen. Bahadýr Uçkan, local mayors, AK Party
Trabzon deputies, military officials, police officers and a
large number of ordinary citizens attended the funeral. The
crowd chanted slogans condemning the terrorist PKK.
Abdurrahman Gedik, who has five children, said: “My
elder son served in Yüksekova in the province of Hakkari
and the other served in Þýrnak. Ýbrahim was sent to Siirt
following initial training in Ýzmir.”
Both Kassoulides and Christofias
accused Papadopoulos of regressive
tactics edging Greek Cyprus toward a
permanent split with Turkish Cypriots.
A week after rejecting the UN reunification plan, Greek Cyprus joined the EU
as official representative of the entire
island. EU legislation is not implemented in the north and Turkish
Cypriots are not granted EU citizenship
rights, despite the clear will for reunification displayed by an overwhelming
“yes” in the 2004 referendum.
Kassoulides has vowed to meet with
Turkish Cypriot President Mehmet Ali
Talat in the northern part of the island
the day after the election if he wins. Talat
has said he is ready to resume talks with
the winner. Kassoulides said Cyprus was
“deciding whether we move forward to
the heart of Europe ... and whether to
bring an end to the division and occupation of our island.”
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkey militarily intervened in response to a failed
coup to unite the island with Greece.
The island has one of the world’s
longest-serving UN peacekeeping missions; UN soldiers arrived in 1964 and
the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus
(UNFICYP) remains today.
Kassoulides is from the right-wing
Democratic Rally (DISI) party, the
long-standing rival of Christofias’
communist-based Progressive Party of
Working People (AKEL).
“I believe in a better welfare state
and a settlement to the Cyprus issue.
Christofias is the person to do that,”
said Michalakis Michaelides, 50, outside a Nicosia polling station.
But some voters are wary of
contýnued from page 1
AA
contýnued from page 1
Turkey increases
security as PKK
calls for violence
Hisarcýklýoðlu said if the parties failed to reach agreement on the headscarf problem and if the CHP and the
Democratic Left party (DSP) applied to the
Constitutional Court to challenge the amendments, then
the country would be dragged into greater chaos.
Thus, he devised a plan to help the ruling Justice
and Development Party (AK Party), the Nationalist
Movement Party (MHP), the CHP and the DSP reach
an agreement over the elimination of the decades-old
headscarf ban at universities. According to
Hisarcýklýoðlu’s plan, leaders of the four parties,
namely Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoðan, Deniz
Baykal, Devlet Bahçeli and Zeki Sezer, would be invited to a dinner at the Çankaya presidential palace,
where they would be asked to agree on a plan to solve
the headscarf problem. At the end of the dinner, the
four would be expected to declare that they would do
their utmost to reach consensus on the headscarf issue
without making an amendment to the Constitution,
and Gül would veto the constitutional amendments.
Hisarcýklýoðlu’s plan came to naught as Baykal stated last Friday that his party would not engage in a bargain over the headscarf.
“I didn’t receive a direct proposal from the president
for a compromise over the scarf problem. I was told that a
proposal would be taken to Gül to persuade him to veto
the constitutional amendments. I have no intention of negotiating with people behind closed doors. My party doesn’t need to persuade Gül on any issue,” said Baykal.
He also noted that he completely distrusts Erdoðan
and Bahçeli, without mentioning them by name, saying
he wouldn’t trust those who cheat their partners in
closed-door negotiations.
After Baykal’s refusal to reach a settlement with the
other parties over the headscarf crisis, Gül approved
the constitutional amendments the very same day, saying that some nongovernmental organizations had
tried their best to introduce alternative plans to solve
Turkey’s long-standing scarf problem.
“We have waited for parties to reach an agreement
over the elimination of this problem so that there would
be no need for an amendment to the Constitution, but the
parties failed to agree on a proper plan,” read a statement
released by Gül on the approval of the amendments.
Meanwhile, Baykal is expected to apply to the
Constitutional Court for the annulment of the amendments in question on Wednesday.
Hakký Süha Okay, deputy chairman of the CHP parliamentary group, announced yesterday that his party
had completed its preparations to challenge the constitutional amendments before the top court.
“We will apply to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of the amendments this Wednesday. The DSP officials and independent Tunceli deputy Kamer Genç support us on this matter. The changes made to articles 10 and
42 of the Constitution to allow the headscarf on campus
contravene secularism, a founding principle of the
Republic of Turkey, which, under Article 2 of the
Constitution, cannot be changed and the amendment of
which cannot even be proposed. These changes will, inevitably, bring with them social division and polarization
within the public,” said Okay. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
T18-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
16:06
Page 1
18 TODAY’S ZAMAN
M O N D AY, F E B R U A R Y 2 5 , 2 0 0 8
TODAY’S LEARNING TIME
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two
bodies.” Aristotle
elementary
OSMAN TURHAN
READING
Computer matter
advanced
ILLUSTRATIONS
Kevin and Marie are playing their new computer game on the
computer at school. Kevin is 10, and is in the fifth grade. Marie is 12
and is in the seventh grade. The computer is in the library, so they
have to wear headphones. They must be quiet.
"This is a great game," Marie says. "But, we have to play it
here."
"You are right," Kevin says. "I want a computer at home. So
do you and Dad. We should get one."
"You know the rules at home. Everyone must agree. Mom
doesn't want a computer."
"I know. She thinks they are not useful. She thinks they are
too expensive. We should talk to Dad. Maybe he can change her
mind."
That night, the children are watching TV. Their mother, Alice,
is taking a bath. Their father, Stewart, is reading the newspaper.
"Dad," Kevin shouts. "Can I ask you a question?"
"Yes, you can. But please don't shout. I am right here," their
father says.
"Okay. Sorry. Marie and I were talking at school. We think it's
a good idea to buy a computer. We can use it for our homework.
We can read newspapers and magazines on it!"
"Yeah, Dad," Marie says. "We could email our cousins. I think
we are the only family in America without a computer."
"I don't know about that, Marie. But you are right. We should
have a computer. I could do some of my work here at home."
"There is a big problem," Kevin says. "Mom. She's a big problem."
"What is that? I'm a big problem!" Kevin and Marie's mother
is standing on the top of the stairs. "I heard everything you have
said. I agree with you. If you want a computer, then let's buy one."
"Oh boy!" Marie says. "No more library. No more headphones!"
"Why did you change your mind?" Stewart asks.
"My friend Abby showed me all the clothes you can buy on
the internet. I hope your credit card isn't full, honey!"
Activity: WORDS WORDS WORDS!!!
PART 1: True (T) or False (F)
Underline the correct word or phrase
1. Elizabeth is a(n) early bird / night owl. She gets up at six every morning.
2. Lizards are mammals / reptiles.
3. My job is boring / tiring. Because I work long hours.
4. Use a spoon / knife to eat your soup.
5. Lions are wild / farm animals.
6. If it's hot and snowy / sunny, we will go to the beach.
7. My brother trains dolphins. He works at a(n) fitness center / aquarium.
8. You should wear heavy jackets / hats if you want to go out.
9. Michael is really bored / satisfied with his job. He likes it a lot.
10. Strawberries are my favorite fruit / vegetables.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
READING
Who wants to be famous?
Everyone wants to be famous. Maybe
as a movie star. Perhaps as a pop
singer. Or possibly an astronaut,
writer or politician. It must be great to
be recognized everywhere by everyone. Famous people are rich, so they
have no problems. They don't have to
worry about the economy, global
warming or terrorism. They have
homes in several countries, on several
continents. Celebrities seem to lead
lives of nonstop bliss. No problems?
Total happiness? Is this really true?
Not in my book.
- Celebrities never have a real life.
They must do what their managers,
promoters and agents want them to
do. If they step out of bounds, their
movies don't do well, or their books
and CDs stop selling.
- Celebrities basically have no
freedom. Their lives are under constant scrutiny by the public. Because
of this, they are followed everywhere
by greedy paparazzi, hoping to sell
their photos to sensationalistic newspapers and magazines.
- Celebrities have problems involving themselves in long relationships. Marriages are usually short -
lived. There are too many temptations
for actors and musicians to be completely faithful. Raising "normal" children is extremely difficult.
- Most celebrities must work continuously to maintain their images. A
fat actor or model will not find work.
Celebrities must always look their best.
- Celebrities have no real friends.
"Friends", who are nothing but parasites, attach themselves to the celebrity to suck the money out of their bank
accounts. Even a celebrity's relatives
have been known to do this. When
you are rich, everyone is your buddy.
- Many celebrities, especially child
actors, face a very uncertain future. As
they grow older, the movie offers decrease while their waistlines increase.
Many musicians lose much of their
audience as they grow older. They
must change their image as they age
to attract new listeners.
It seems that famous people have
just as many problems as ordinary citizens have. After following the news
on Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan
over the past few months, I am totally
happy living the boring and penniless
life of a writer.
Marie is in high school. _____
The children hate computers. _____
Their mother doesn't want a computer. _____
Kevin thinks their father can change their mother's mind. _____
Alice thinks computers are cheap. _____
The children could use the computer to help with their homework. ____
Marie wants to email her aunts. _____
Alice hears their conversation. _____
She still doesn't want to buy a computer. _____
Alice wants to buy things on the internet. _____
ýntermedýate
READING
The scarecrow
Billy and his brother, Ray, are walking down the road. It is a beautiful
October day. The leaves on the trees
are red, orange and yellow. There
are pumpkins in the fields. Geese
are flying overhead. It is a wonderful
day to be a 12-year-old boy.
In the middle of one of the fields,
there is a scarecrow. It is wearing
an old flannel shirt, and a pair of
torn jeans. An ancient red sneaker
is on his left foot; a black cowboy
boot on his right. The scarecrow
seems to be smiling as if he is enjoying his life on a pole.
"Heh, Ray," Billy says, picking up
a rock. "Let's see who can hit that
old scarecrow in the noggin." Billy
throws his Stone, but it misses by a
large margin.
"You were never a good shot,
Billy. Watch me." Ray picks up a
small pebble. His throw is accurate,
and it hits the green baseball cap
on top of its head. The cap flies off
into the broken corn stalks.
"Great shot, Ray!" Billy says.
"Maybe we'd better get out of here
before old farmer Rasmussen sees
what we've done."
"Wait a minute, Billy. Let's put
the hat back on its head. Then no
one will see the difference."
Ray grabs Billy's arm, and togeth-
er they trudge through the muddy
cornfield towards the hat. A lone
crow sits on a fence post and caws.
As they near the scarecrow, Billy
stares at what is left of its head.
"Heh, Ray. Wait a minute. What's
that? It looks like a human skull.
The scarecrow's head was real!"
"Nah….It's probably fake. Let's
check it out."
The two boys make their way
slowly to the scarecrow. Ray reaches into the straw and pulls it out.
"It is real!" Ray shouts, throwing
the skull on the ground. "It's from
a dead person! Let's get out of
here. We'll tell Sheriff Harris what
we found."
"You ain't gonna tell nobody!"
The boys turn around. Farmer
Rasmussen is standing near the
road with a pitchfork in his right
hand. "Do you know what happened to the last nosy boy who
trespassed in my field?" Rasmussen
says, looking at the skull.
Idioms are spoken or written sentences where the meaning is not obvious from the individual words used.
Match the underlined idioms with the meaning keywords below:
Meaning Keywords:
a) Secretive.
b) Compliment.
c) Working all hours.
d) Efficient.
e) No choice.
f) Not secret anymore.
g) Wait.
h) Complex problem.
i) Apologise.
j) Puzzling.
VOCABULARY
Specialized Vocabulary
Business: hybrid business (noun) a traditional business firm that combines an
internet front-end with its brick and mortar back-ends, such as warehouses and order fulfillment services.
In the mid 90’s, many traditional businesses transformed into more modern hybrid business.
Legal: carrier (noun) in general, any person or business which transports property or people by any means of conveyance (truck, auto, taxi, bus, airplane, railroad,
ship), almost always for a charge.
The carrier delivered the court documents on time.
Military: unplanned target (noun) a target of opportunity that is known to exist
in the operational environment.
Even though the munitions factory was an unplanned target, it was destroyed during the air-raid.
Medical: vertebra (noun) the 33 bones making up the spine (slang- back bone).
I often get pain in my lower vertebra as I never sit up straight.
Political: anarchism (noun) the idea or reality of a stateless society that allows
total individual freedom.
Communism and anarchism are controversial.
Fill in the blanks with the correct letters.
PART 1: Vocabulary
Activity: NATURE Crossword Puzzle
1. pumpkin _____
Select the correct definition
for each word from the
reading.
1. bliss _____
a. happiness b. stupidity
c. sorrow d. amusement
2. promoter _____
a. enemy b. child
c. advertiser d. accountant
3. step out of bounds _____
a. do something foolish
b. make money
c. play basketball
d. leave the country
4. scrutiny _____
a. boredom b. examination
c. illness d. search
5. sensationalistic _____
a. expensive b. colorful
c. revealing d. boring
6. temptation _____
a. odor b. addiction
c. film d. attraction
7. parasite _____
a. enemy b. friend
c. leech d. fan
8. buddy _____
a. friend b. wallet
c. agent d. manager
9. waistline _____
a. bank account b. shoes
c. stomach d. age
10. penniless _____
a. ugly b. rich
c. stylish d. poor
Directions: Solve the puzzle about nature according to the definitions given below.
a. a kind of bird
b. a kind of bear
c. a kind of tree
d. a kind of vegetable
2. scarecrow _____
a. a long thick fruit
b. a figure used to
c. a kind of bird house
frighten birds
d. a type of farm machinery
3. noggin _____
a. shoulder
b. head
c. stomach
d. foot
4. a large margin _____
a. a bit
b. a little bit
c. sometimes
d. a lot
5. trudge _____
a. walk with difficulty
c. walk quickly
b. walk easily
d. run
6. lone _____
a. friendly
b. loud
c. one
d. black
7. skull _____
Activity: IDIOMS
Idioms Used in Context:
1. My hands are tied, I'm afraid.
2. Don't jump the gun.
3. You'll have to swallow your pride.
4. Have you been burning the candle at both ends?
5. There's something fishy going on.
6. He's a dark horse.
7. I killed two birds with one stone.
8. That's a real can of worms.
9. I'm sorry - I've let the cat out of the bag.
10. You look like a million dollars.
PART 1: Vocabulary Comprehension
Idiom of the Day
dicey
MEANING:
a big risk with an
uncertain result,
taking a big
chance
EXAMPLE:
Gambling all your
life’s savings is
rather dicey.
a. foot bone
b. arm bone
c. backbone
d. head bone
8. fake _____
a. real
b. funny
c. accurate
d. not real
9. pitchfork _____
a. kind of fruit
c. shovel
b. sharp farming tool
d. flashlight
10. trespass _____
a. throw stones
ACROSS
2- The stem of any
such plant
4- The portion of the
earth's surface consisting of disintegrated rock and humus
6- The more or less
fine debris of rocks,
consisting of small,
loose grains
7- A place used by
insects, fishes, turtles,
rabbits, etc., for depositing their eggs or
young
9- A division or subdivision of the stem or axis of a tree, shrub, or other plant
10- An elongated depression between uplands,
hills, or mountains, esp. one following the course
of a stream
DOWN
1- A tract of grassland in an upland area near the
timberline
3- A tract of land completely surrounded by water,
and not large enough to be called a continent
5- A body of fresh or salt water of considerable
size, surrounded by land
8- A body of water flowing in a channel or watercourse, as a river, rivulet, or brook
b. grow vegetables
c. enter without permission
d. leave
Useful Abbreviations
yammer on (about)
meaning: to be very annoying and talk about the same
thing for a very long time
example: He kept yammering on about his promotion. He wouldn’t shut up about it.
FRIDAY’S
ANSWER KEY:
ELEMENTARY: (Part 1) Across: 3) Rock, 4) Computer, 5) Saturday, 6) Philips,
9) Theatre, 10) Seven Down: 1) Dark, 2) Hospital, 7) Sixteen, 8) Leo (Part 2)
1) Canada, 2) Joe and Kate, 3) Leo, 4) Nine, 5) Grandparents, 6) Surgeon, 7)
Teacher, 8) Primary School, 9) City Centre, 10) Guns’n’Roses (Activity) 1.c 2.b 3.e 4.a 5.d INTERMEDIATE: (Part 1) 1. b 2. a 3. c 4. b 5. a 6. c 7. c 8. c 9. b 10. a (Part 2) a.3 b.1 c.5 d.4 e.2
(Activity) Across: 3) Called, 4) Has, 6) Escaping, 8) Built, 10) See Down: 1) Graduate, 2) Open, 5)
Visit, 7) Speak, 9) Take ADVANCED: (Part 1) 1. b 2. d 3. a 4. b 5. a 6. c 7. d 8. a 9. b 10. d (Activity) 1stand-up comedians 2- dry 3- impression 4- twisted 5- humorous 6- giggling 7- silly 8- cracking up 9witty 10- kidding Spec.Vocab.Ans.Key: (Part 1) 1. f 2.g 3. h 4. b 5.c 6. i 7. j 8.d 9. a 10.e (Part
2) Business (premium) Legal (hung jury) Military (deserter) Slang (I.D.) Political (bleeding heart)
run out of something
meaning: to not have anymore of something you need
example: We have run out of milk. Could you pop to
the shop and buy some more?
Slang: underdog
meaning: the one who is least likely to win or succeed.
example: Mark Chapman is the underdog in today’s race.
Common Words in American and British English
British
American
Cab
Drapes
CM Y K
Taxi
Curtains
In cooperation with English Time
T19-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
18:30
Page 1
SPORTS
Klitschko beats Ibragimov in drab clash
International Boxing Federation heavyweight champion
Wladimir Klitschko of Ukraine outboxed Sultan Ibragimov of
Russia Saturday to add the World Boxing Organization title to his
collection. The judges scored the one-sided, though largely dull
contest, 119-110, 118-110 and 117-111. New York, Reuters
TODAY’S ZAMAN
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
BASKETBALL
Double trouble
for Fenerbahçe
PHOTO
Fener nemesýs Sinan
returns to haunt Canarýes
OKAN UDO BASSEY ÝSTANBUL
Beþiktaþ keeper
Rüþtü Reçber
The Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries had not
lost in 37 official matches at their Þükür
Saraçoglu Stadium in Ýstanbul, but that
all came to an abrupt end on Saturday evening
when they were humiliated 2-0 by the Bursaspor
Green Crocs in a Turkcell Super League week-23
encounter. And the man at the center of it all was
prolific striker Sinan Kaloðlu, who scored a goal in
each half to burst the Fener bubble again. Who
says history does not repeat itself in soccer?
The last time the Canaries had lost at Þükür
Saraçoglu was in week eight of the Super League
last season. Ironically the Fener conqueror was
Bursapor and the goal-scorer again was Sinan.
The only difference is that the Crocs won that
match 1-0 and Saturday’s score was 2-0. Going
into this match, the Fener Canaries were brimming with confidence after having beaten Spain’s
Sevilla 3-2 in their exciting UEFA Champions
League first knockout round, first-leg match in Ýstanbul on Wednesday. But past experience shows
that a 3-2 home win in a European competition is
not a comfortable score because away goals count
double. Nonetheless the Canaries won and everyone was happy and laughing loudly.
Fener’s victory-drunk coach Arthur Zico
made a grave mistake that, in soccer, is tantamount to committing suicide -- he underestimated the opponent. Zico started with a bunch
of reserves and convalescing players: Volkan
Demirel, Önder Turacý, Can Arat, Yasin Çak-
Black Eagles
conceding goals
far too easily
OKAN UDO BASSEY ÝSTANBUL
SOCCER
Bremen stunned by
Eintracht Frankfurt
Ten-man Werder Bremen lost 1-0 at Eintracht
Frankfurt on Saturday, handing Bayern Munich a
chance to move six points clear at the top of the
Bundesliga. Werder had Brazilian Diego sent off after
40 minutes and Frankfurt took advantage with a goal
from Greece striker Ioannis Amanatidis 11 minutes
after the break. Bayer Leverkusen, like Werder playing their second match in under 48 hours, showed
no such signs of post-UEFA Cup fatigue as they won
1-0 at home to Schalke 04 with a wonder goal from
Manuel Friedrich five minutes from time. Berlin Reuters
SOCCER
PHOTO
Arsenal drop points,
Eduardo breaks leg
Premier League leaders Arsenal suffered a double
blow at 10-man Birmingham City on Saturday, conceding a stoppage-time penalty in a 2-2 draw and
striker Eduardo da Silva breaking his left leg. Kicking
off later, champions Manchester United seized their
chance to reduce Arsenal's lead to three points when
they thrashed Newcastle United 5-1 away from
home -- Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney both
scoring twice at St James' Park. Fernando Torres
scored a hat-trick for Liverpool in a 3-2 home victory
over Middlesbrough that moved them above
Everton into fourth place and UEFA Cup-chasing
Portsmouth beat Sunderland 1-0. London Reuters
SOCCER
Sevilla striker's family
robbed at gunpoint
ELATION AND DEJECTION Bursaspor players (R) celebrate after Sinan scored the second goal. At left, Fener players are seen in a dejected mood.
End of Canaydýn
era draws near
AP
Jazz notch 14th straight home win
PHOTO
The Canaydýn era is coming to an end at
Galatasaray. In a recent surprise decision, club President Özhan Canaydýn announced that he will not run for presidency in
the elections on March 15 -- or March 22 in
the event of its postponement. Speaking at
the annual regular financial general assembly
meeting of the club held at the Sheraton
Hotel, Canaydýn officially declared before the
board members that he would not take part in
the election. The Galatasaray chairman who
was elected to this position on March 23,
2002, has remained in charge for three consecutive terms. Born on Jan. 23, 1943,
Canaydýn had serious surgery due to pancreatic failure last September. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman
of the net. Hence Sinan repeated history at Þükür
Saraçoðlu, ending the Canaries’ unbeaten streak
again and sending them home with heads bowed.
Yes, what goes up must come down.
The loss on Sunday also meant the Canaries
missed a golden opportunity to go top of the
league as leader Galatasaray was idle on Saturday
and was still playing relegation-bound Kasýmpaþa
on Sunday night when this page went to press.
Zico defended his decision to rest the regular starters, saying every player on the Fener
squad is a professional and so has to be ready
to perform whenever he is called up for duty.
If we may add, there is no sense in crying
over spilled milk. The truth of the matter is that
if Zico repeats the same mistake in the Fortis
Turkish Cup against arch-foe Galatasaray this
week or against Sevilla in the Champions
League next week, the outcomes could be even
more disastrous. Bursa coach Samet Aybaba
praised his players for their superb performance and said they had to win in order to keep
their hopes of avoiding the drop alive.
Elsewhere on Saturday, there was a goal
feast at Ankara’s 19 Mayýs Stadium where
Gençlerbirliði crushed visiting Konyaspor 6-1.
Gaziantepspor and Gençlerbirliði OFTAÞ
Spor shared the spoils after a dreary 1-1 draw
at Antep’s Kamil Ocak Stadium.
Sunday results: Ankaraspor 0, Kayserispor
3; Sivasspor 0, Çaykur Rizespor 0; Ýstanbul
Büyükþehir Belediyespor 1, Ankaragücü and
Trabzonspor 2, Vestel Manisaspor 2.
M. BURAK BÜRKÜK
Beþiktaþ is one of the three greatest
teams in this country -- the other two
are Ýstanbul rivals Fener and Galatasaray -and so Turkish soccer would not be complete without mentioning the Beþiktaþ Black
Eagles; yet for reasons that are very difficult
to understand, the Eagles have become
something of an enigma this season -- they
are conceding goals far too easily.
The Black Eagles have won seven of
their last eight matches and lost one; this
cannot be considered a bad result. But the
fact of the matter is that the Eagles have
not kept clean sheets in any of the eight
games. In other words they have conceded
goals in all of them. This means Beþiktaþ
boasts a good balanced offense, but the
same cannot be said about its defense.
On Friday the Eagles defeated the Denizli
Roosters 2-1 away, despite playing with 10
men for about 30 minutes. The Eagles led 2-0
at halftime but in the final analysis were just
lucky to escape with a slim win. It was the
same old story the weekend before last
when they almost squandered a 2-0 lead
but eventually won 3-2 -- the match winner
coming in the last second of added time.
Furthermore, the Eagles have had to
come from behind four times this season to
snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. No
doubt about it, offense is the best form of
defense. But sometimes the best defense is a
good offense, because in this sport you can’t
lose if you don’t concede goals.
Bad defending cost the Eagles dearly in a
UEFA Champions League qualifying round,
second-leg last November when they were
beaten 8-0 away by Liverpool. Beþiktaþ had
won the first leg in Ýstanbul 2-1 and needed a
rock-solid defense to defend that score. But
the Eagles did exactly the opposite as their
defense crumbled like a piece of tissue paper.
Unfortunately the humiliating 8-0 loss is now
a new Champions League record, beating 70 score lines by Arsenal against Slavia Prague
last October and Juventus against
Olympiakos in December of 2003.
The “defense wins championships” theory is not merely conventional wisdom bunk;
it can be true at times. So young Ertuðrul
Saðlam, the coach of Beþiktaþ, in which finishing second in the league is equal to finishing last, has to work overtime on his defense.
And he must make hay while the sun shines.
mak, Gökçek Wederson, Colin Kazým Richards,
Mehmet Aurelio, Kemal Aslan, Ali Bilgin, Ýlhan
Parlak, Semih Þentürk -- that was the Canaries’
starting XI and it was enough to give Fener fans
stomach ulcers. Injured Roberto Carlos and
newly signed Cladio Maldonado were absent,
that is understandable. But what on earth was
captain-playmaker Alex De Souza, striker
Deivid De Souza, in-form striker Mateja
Kezman and fast leftie Uður Boral -- the best
players on the squad -- doing on the bench.
Players like Önder, Can, Ýlhan and Yasin
have played no more than three matches this
season and these were Zico’s starters. This weak
line-up, without mincing words, meant a humiliating defeat was inescapable. As so it was no surprise when Bursa took the game to the Canaries
immediately after referee Bünyamin Gezer blew
the starting whistle. And because several Fener
players had not played together before, except at
training sessions, bad skills, bad vision and poor
passes dominated their play. The Bursa Crocs
took advantage of a confused Fener and upped
the tempo of the game. They were rewarded in
the 28th minute when Sinan converted a penalty,
after he was felled in the Fener box.
Zico brought in Uður and Alex in the 56th
minute to substitute Ýlhan and Kemal, respectively, and Deivid in the 70th in place of Kazým. But
these regular starters could not stop Sinan from
doubling the score in the 85th, when he dribbled
past the entire Fener defense before slotting the
ball past unrushing keeper Volkan into the back
It was not only the Fenerbahçe soccer team, beaten
2-0 by Bursaspor, that lost at home on Saturday; the
club’s basketball team, Fenerbahçe Ülker, sang the
same refrain, bowing 70-77 to visiting Ankara side
Casa TED Ankara Kolejliler in their Beko Men’s
Basketball League (TBL) clash at Ýstanbul’s Abdi
Ýpekçi Sports Arena. Ömer Aþýk was the top scorer
for TED with 20 points, while Will Solomon of Fener
Ülker topped the overall scoring list with 21 points.
Other TBL results were as follows: Türk Telekom 76,
Antalya Büyükþehir Belediye 78; Darüþþafaka 59,
Beþiktaþ Cola Turka 79; Kepez Belediye 99, Pýnar
Karþýyaka 93 and Galatasaray Cafe Crown 73,
Mersin Büyükþehir Belediye 68. In the Women’s
Basketball League (TBBL) Bahçeþehir Burhaniye
Belediye beat Mersin Büyükþehir Belediye 86-77;
BOTAÞ Spor downed Ýstanbul Üniversitesi
78-68 and Migrosspor pounded Panküp TED
Kayseri Koleji 72-57. Ýstanbul Today’s Zaman
Carlos Boozer
Utah Jazz brought up its 14th straight home win by
downing Atlanta Hawks 100-84 in the NBA. Carlos
Boozer had 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Jazz, who remain 2-1/2 games clear atop the Northwest Division and
Turkish star Mehmet Okur added eight points, six rebounds
and four assists for the Jazz. The Hawks will close their
stretch of six straight road games today in San Antonio.
Elsewhere, the San Antonio Spurs scored a 98-89
home win over New Orleans to record their fifth win
in a row and join the Hornets at the top of the
Southwest Division. Argentine Ginobili scored 30
points and added a career-high 12 assists and grabbed
six rebounds. Tim Duncan had 25 points, 11 rebounds,
six assists and four blocked shots in the victory. The
CM Y K
Hornets rallied from a 17-point deficit and tied the
game with 7:05 remaining but the Spurs regained control to avenge a 102-78 home loss in January. Chris
Paul scored 27 points and David West 16 for the
Hornets, who lost for the second night in a row.
In other NBA action the New Jersey Nets scored a
102-91 win over Indiana. The Philadelphia 76ers scored
the last 10 points in overtime to record a 101-96 road victory over the Miami Heat. The Washington Wizards
picked up only their second win in the last 12 games, a
110-95 home victory over the Charlotte Bobcats. Pau
Gasol scored 23 points and added six assists and five
rebounds to help the Lakers earn a 113-95 victory over
the Los Angeles Clippers. Ýstanbul/Salt Lake City Today’s Zaman
Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano's family were robbed at
gunpoint in their home last Friday the day after
goalkeeper Andres Palop had his house burgled,
manager Manolo Jimenez said. Speaking to reporters after Saturday's 5-0 win over Real
Zaragoza, Jimenez said Brazilian Fabiano had been
at training during the robbery while Palop and his
family had been asleep when they were burgled.
“The robberies have been another obstacle the
side have had to overcome. The squad have
come together, talked a lot, and we dedicate the
win to our families, in particular Luis's,” Sevilla
coach Jimenez said. “The players have made a
great effort, bearing in mind that some of them
have had little sleep, and that the incidents have
had a negative effect on morale.” Madrid Reuters
RUGBY
Wales only unbeaten
side in Six Nations
Wales emerged as the only unbeaten team in the
Six Nations championship on Saturday after
England repeated their World Cup semifinal victory over defending champions France. The Welsh
romped to a 47-8 home victory over Italy, Ireland
defeated Scotland 34-13 in Dublin and England
out-muscled France 24-13 in Paris in the final
match of the day. Wales ran Italy ragged in the
second half at the Millennium Stadium with manof-the-match Lee Byrne picking up his second try
and wing Shane Williams also scoring twice.
Coach Warren Gatland would not speculate on a
possible reprise of the wonderful 2005 grand slam
season but did say he had been confident his team
could put 40 points on the board. London Reuters
T20-25-02-08.qxd
24.02.2008
18:21
Page 1
Keys postpones shows in Scotland, England
Alicia Keys postponed two concerts on her European tour after being put
on vocal rest by her doctor, her publicist said. Keys, whose latest album,
"As I Am," has sold millions of copies worldwide, was supposed to perform
today in Glasgow, Scotland, and Tuesday in Manchester, England. NY, AP
WWW.TODAYSZAMAN.COM MONDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2008
AP
The Florida Marlins are looking for some
footloose fat men. The National League
team is creating an all-male, plus-size
cheerleading squad to be dubbed the
Manatees. Tryouts were held on Sunday.
The team hopes to recruit seven to 10 tubby
men to dance, cheer and jiggle during Friday and
Saturday home games this season. Real
manatees, 1,200-pound mammals sometimes
referred to as "sea cows," are not considered the
most agile of creatures and often get caught in
boat propellers. The Marlins want their
Manatees to have the same dimensions, but to
be decidedly more agile. Men will be judged on
how well they dance a choreographed routine.
The Marlins already have a cheerleading
squad, the considerably more svelte Mermaids.
Men selected for the Manatees won't be
paid. They'll get tickets to games they
perform at, and the honor of dancing in front
of crowds that have been smallest in major
league baseball for the last two seasons. The
Marlins aren't the only pro sports team
capitalizing on Americans' expanding
waistlines. The Chicago Bulls basketball team
have the Matadors, a big-man dance troupe
that's entertained fans at home games since
2003.And although cheerleaders might be
an unfamiliar site in baseball, big men
aren't, as fans have long cheered on the likes
of Babe Ruth and Kirby Puckett. Miami AP
Diana inquest probes espionage world
British intelligence officers are facing
unprecedented public scrutiny as they
take the stand at the inquest into Princess
Diana's death to deny claims that the security
services killed her on the royal family's orders.
Their former boss has already given a
fascinating glimpse into the murky world of
espionage -- but this is not all about glamorous
007 figures. Theirs is a more mundane world of
bureaucratic checks and balances.
With his deadly array of guns and gadgets,
James Bond has a License to Kill in his constant
battle to thwart villains plotting world domination.
In reality, the world's most famous spy
would need a Class Seven authorization agreed
by his line managers and personally signed by
the foreign secretary. Britain's former spy chief
Richard Dearlove gingerly lifted the lid on this
secret world when giving evidence to the
inquest into the 1997 deaths of Diana and her
lover Dodi al-Fayed in a Paris car crash. "His
testimony made the security services sound
more like a firm of accountants than a bunch of
007s," The Daily Telegraph concluded.
Now it is the turn of 10 serving and former
intelligence officers to appear in court -- but
their identities will be protected and they will
be just referred to as numbers or letters. The
court will be cleared of the media and public
on Tuesday when they start to give evidence,
PHOTO
Florida Marlins
want fat men
who can dance
The late Princess Diana
CM Y K
which will be piped by audio link to an annex.
In an unprecedented move by the Secret
Intelligence Service (SIS) they are going public
to deny allegations from Dodi's father, luxury
storeowner Mohamed al-Fayed, that the
security services killed the couple on orders
from Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth's
husband and Diana's former father-in-law.
Dearlove dismissed al-Fayed's allegations as
"utterly ridiculous" and went into a detailed
description of the bureaucratic hoops a real-life
James Bond would face. "When the paperwork
was completed -- and this would apply to an
initiative overseas as much as to one developed
within head office -- it would be signed off by,
let's say, the senior regional official," he said.
But the checks do not stop there.
"It would come to me for further signature
and then it would go down restricted channels
to the foreign secretary," Dearlove told the
court. Renegade British spies have in the past
accused British intelligence of hatching plots
to assassinate Serbia's President Slobodan
Milosevic and Libya's Colonel Muammar
Gaddafi. But both these allegations have
been officially denied and Dearlove was
adamant when asked in court if he was
ever aware of the Secret Intelligence Service
ever assassinating anyone during his 38
years with the organization. London Reuters