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page10 EU hails new era as treaty goes into force

ERGENEKON TRIAL DIPLOMACY

US ASKS TURKEY
Generals to reply to evdence TO SEND MORE TROOPS
TO AFGHANISTAN
other than coup dary
Three former generals, whom prosecutors conducting the ongoing investigation into Ergenekon believe took part in army
EMNE KART, ANKARA
Ankara and Washington have been hold-
ing discussions on a US demand that its
NATO ally Turkey send more troops to war-
plots to overthrow the Justice and Development Party government, will have to give answers to a list of critical questions torn Afghanistan, the top US diplomat in Turkey
disclosed on Wednesday, while stating that the
about their alleged actions, including queries on whether they tried to oust the top army commander at the time US has asked for a “specic number” of troops
although he declined to name that number.
FATH VURAL / BÜRA ERDAL, STANBUL US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey
spoke with a small group of journalists at a
Prosecutors conducting an investigation into
round-table meeting in Ankara only hours af-
Ergenekon, a clandestine network charged with
ter US President Barack Obama unveiled his
plotting to overthrow the government, will
new strategy on Afghanistan in a long-awaited
question three generals who are mentioned in a journal
speech delivered at the US Military Academy at
detailing plans to stage a coup d'état not only about their West Point. During the meeting, Jeffrey clearly
alleged actions mentioned in the journal, but also over indicated that US expects Turkey to be “more
various other documents obtained in the investigation. exible” on the denition of tasks to be carried
On Tuesday, former Land Forces Commander out by their mission in Afghanistan. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04
Gen. Aytaç Yalman, former Air Forces Commander
Gen. brahim Frtna and former Naval Forces OBAMA FACES TOUGH SELL WITH
AFGHAN TROOP PLAN PAGE 11
Commander Adm. Özden Örnek, all of whom retired
in 2004, were called to testify to Ergenekon prosecutors.
The three men will testify on coup plans nicknamed
Moonlight, Blonde Girl and the Glove, all mentioned in
a journal detailing plans against the Justice and
TENSION
Development Party (AK Party) allegedly kept by Örnek.
The three former force commanders are being ac- DAVUTOLU, CALMY-REY
cused of having plotted to force Gen. Özkök to resign
based on a document titled “Opera-Son” -- a word DISCUSS NEW REFERENDUM
play that might mean “end of the opera” in Turkish
and sounds like the word for “operation” -- found IN MINARET ROW
among digital documents seized from Ergenekon de-
SERVET YANATMA / HASAN HACI, ATHENS
fendant retired Gen. Hurit Tolon, who was formerly
in command of the 1st Army Corps, during a search Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu has
of his house. In the document, a large number of gen- had talks with his Swiss counterpart, Mi-
erals at the time including Frtna, Tolon, Gen. Fevzi cheline Calmy-Rey, on how to contain growing
Türkeri, Gen. Oktar Ataman, Gen. Çetin Doan and global protests against a controversial referen-
several others are depicted as making an effort to Prosecutors will ask former Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman (L), former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek (C) and former Air dum to ban construction of minarets. The two
force Özkök to resign and to devise a strategy to Forces Commander Gen. brahim Frtna whether they made plans to topple the government and unseat former Chief of General Staff Gen. Hilmi Özkök. ministers have discussed a new referendum to
overthrow the AK Party government. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 reverse the ban as an option to ease tensions
simmering in the aftermath of the weekend
vote. Speaking on Wednesday to reporters in
GENERAL STAFF A new voice recording allegedly belonging to Brig. Gen. Hfz Çubuklu,
the General Staff's legal advisor, has suggested that the general and his
ÇÇEK'S PLOT PUT A military plot believed to have been drafted by Col. Dursun Çiçek, with the ulte-
rior motive of undermining the power of the governing Justice and Development
Athens, where he attended a meeting of the
Organization for Security and Cooperation in
DESTROYED EVIDENCE team -- made up of a colonel and two members of the Legal Advisory
Department of the General Staff -- destroyed some documents on mili-
INTO OPERATION IN Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement, had been put into opera-
tion, two secret witnesses have claimed during their testimony to a public prose-
Europe (OSCE), Davutolu said he had told

IN PROBE OF ERZNCAN, CLAIM

Calmy-Rey that the referendum could spark a
tary computers that would have been strong evidence against former Air cutor, according to the Star daily. The plot was exposed in a Turkish daily in June. crisis similar to the one that erupted following
Forces Judicial Undersecretary Col. Ahmet Zeki Üçok. The former colonel
FORMER COLONEL
According to the plot, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) had a systematic plan to
was demoted last month for reportedly issuing false medical reports to SECRET WITNESSES destroy the image of the AK Party government and the Gülen movement in the
the 2006 publication of caricatures in Denmark
insulting the Prophet Muhammad. CONTINUED ON PAGE 04
celebrities to help them avoid compulsory military service. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17 eyes of the public, to play down the investigation into Ergenekon. CONTINUED ON PAGE 17
IRAN ROW
BLONDE GIRL WATCHING THE SEA SPARKLE UNDER THE MOONLIGHT BY HÜSEYN GÜLERCE PAGE 15 MORNINGSTAR: TEHRAN NOT
IN A POSITION TO BECOME
Cage plan is PART OF ENERGY PROJECTS
17 terrifying, 06 reveal 04 governors
Recent incidents New deputy
says Ergenekon- to boost Iran is not currently in a position to take
part in new energy projects in the south-
rights activist PKK partnership Turkey's EU bid
analysis

diplomacy
terror

ern corridor, including plans to enable the

Human rights activist Ragp Recent clashes in both The government is preparing transportation of Iranian gas through Turkey,
Zarakolu says the Cage plan, a eastern and western cities to appoint new deputy US special envoy for Eurasian energy affairs
military plan that plotted to of Turkey between Kurdish governors for European Ambassador Richard Morningstar said on
assassinate non-Muslim fig- and Turkish groups do not Union affairs in all of Wednesday. In an assessment of projects to
ures and detonate explosives appear to be coincidental Turkey's 81 provinces, a new transport Iranian gas through Turkey, Morn-
in museums in order to scare and are more than likely to step to boost Ankara's trou- ingstar noted that it is not a new development
the public is the most terrify- be proof of a Kurdistan bled bid to join the 27-nation and that Turkey and Iran have been working
ing action plan he has seen Workers' Party and bloc, Chief EU negotiator on a gas project since the construction of the
during his career. Ergenekon partnership. Egemen Ba said. Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline. CONTINUED ON PAGE 07

Featuring news and articles from

‘ 02 TODAY’S ZAMAN

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

‘ Q U O T E O F T H E D AY
‘ THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009

WORDS OF WISDOM
PRESS REVIEW

colu m ns
Who can isolate Iran? This is something The biggest concern of bigots Where we love is home, Kemalists to India
that’s impossible. The most strategic part and the narrow-minded is the home that our feet may STAR ERGUN BABAHAN
of the world is the Middle East. expansion of freedoms. leave, but not our hearts. If it were me in the place of our ad-
ministration, I would arrange for to-
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoan Oliver Wendell Holmes urs of India, not only for the Kema-
lists in our nation, but also one fac-
tion of the Kurds. I would let them
go and see for themselves the rea-
lities of India, the world’s largest democracy. After
all, the population of India is approximately 1.2 bil-
lion, which makes it the world’s second most popu-
lated country. What’s more, it’s not a unitary state.
CROSS READER And the status of their official language is not like

FATMA DL ZIBAK

pr ess rou n du p Turkey’s; they have 22 different languages which
are all recognized in different capacities. Our Kema-

AA, KAMURAN AKKU

f.zibak@todayszaman.com
lists would practically faint if they heard the statis-
tics on this one. Not only that, but they have also di-
vided the country into 28 different states and eight
union territories for the purpose of easing the mana-

Swtzerland’s gement of the country. Every state has its own par-
liament and its own ruling cabinet. There is no one
in India who says “How happy I am to be a Hindu”
tarnshed mage or who is required to say such a thing. No one talks

PHOTO
about how the speaking of a certain language rat-
Criticism continues to rain down on Switzerland, which
her than another could divide the country, or abo-
banned minarets in the country following a referendum
ut how the country could be lost. People generally
held on Sunday, with many finding the move a severe
respect one another. No one thinks about separati-
blow to religious freedom and human rights. While some
on. This is because they know that it is to their uni-
analysts put the blame on Swiss politicians for failing to
on that they owe their strength in the world today.
inform the public about how this ruling on minarets co-
uld put the country in a difficult situation and tarnish its
image, others liken the arguments of minaret opponents
to those of the headscarf ban supporters in Turkey. On the agenda for
Milliyet’s Sami Kohen interprets the referendum re-
sults in Switzerland as an indication of public reaction in Turkey: A leftist party
the country against Muslim communities, their beliefs, RADKAL ORAL ÇALILAR
traditions, culture and lifestyles, noting that it is also a
Turkey’s need for a pro-people, freedom-backing,
sign of the hatred and anger the ultranationalist and ra-
real left political party is at its highest level in “recent
cist circles in the country feel towards minorities, which
history.” There is a need for a party which high-
they see as “foreign” and “the other.” In Kohen’s view,
lights the main points that people agree on and can
the emergence of the minaret crisis in Switzerland is a
focus on unions rather than divisions, that wants
paradox because Switzerland is a country that managed
democracy, that every citizen who sees him or her-
to establish balance and harmony in domestic politics
self as on the left and on the side of democracy can
and seems like a multicultural nation that hosts many in-
embrace, that perceives injustices in our nation as
ternational institutions such as the United Nations. Re-
the most urgent topics to be addressed and that, in
ferring to the French Liberation newspaper, which said
addition to all this, can avoid being squeezed into
Switzerland was infected with the European virus, Ko-
a tight space by marginal, socialist jargon. Turkey,
hen says the country showed that it was infected with the
which is undergoing great change and transfor-
virus of discrimination, lack of tolerance, xenophobia, Is-
mation, urgently needs an active, dynamic, realis-
lamophobia and populism. He states that this virus has
tic and pro-change political party which sees pursu-
infected many European countries which are known to
ing solutions to Turkey’s problems as its main goal.
be very democratic and modern such as France, Holland,
There are many people who think it is already too
Denmark and Austria. “Hard-line rightist parties in the-
late for all this. But in politics, it is never too late.
se countries foment fear and display their anger and hat-
Now is the time to roll up our shirtsleeves.
red of Muslims frequently to the public, and this results in
the strengthening of radical religious movements in the- Turkish charitable organizations such as Kimse Yok Mu,
se countries, deepening polarization,” suggests Kohen. Cansuyu and the Humanitarian Aid Foundation provided aid What were the
Interpreting the referendum result in Switzerland as
on the occasion of Eid al-Adha to Palestinian refugees and
an apparent violation of human rights and freedom of re-
ligion, Bugün’s Gülay Göktürk likens the minaret debate orphans residing in refugee camps in Lebanon.
Swiss thinking?
in the country to the headscarf debate in Turkey becau- ZAMAN AHMET TURAN ALKAN
se the arguments used by opponents of minarets and he- The same Swiss who have beco-
adscarves are the same. “Minarets are not mentioned in haber türk: “Withdraw your money from Switzerland, wealth, Topta told the daily, adding that he was still in shock me uncomfortable seeing minarets,
the Quran. Minarets are not a religious symbol but a po- transfer it to Turkey,” the daily said in the headline of its lead story about the results of the referendum. Saying that Switzerland has who fear their own religions are be-
litical symbol. If minarets are allowed in the country, this yesterday, quoting remarks from chief EU negotiator Egemen Ba- become a rich country thanks to the black money flowing into its ing interfered with and who believe
will be followed by the call to prayer and then a state of , who appealed to Arab and Muslim businessmen to protest a banks, he said the recent agreement with the US to share infor- they are dealing with a reality which
Shariah,” cites Göktürk as the argument of minaret op- minaret ban passed in Switzerland. “The minaret ban will lead our mation on US citizen-held accounts led to concerns about the is “anathema to general custom and
ponents in Switzerland, which are the same as the argu- peers in Muslim countries who have money in Swiss banks to re- cease of this flow, which led to increasing xenophobia. tradition” could have taken up this business in a
ments of the headscarf ban supporters in Turkey. consider their decisions to keep their money there. The doors of the much simpler and more effective way: a court decisi-
Sabah’s Erdal afak criticizes Swiss politicians for Turkish banking sector are always open to them,” Ba said. sabah: In a front-page article yesterday, the daily quoted on. I don’t know if there is anyone in Switzerland like
failing to enlighten the public and leaving the stage to remarks from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan criticizing the our own Sabih Kanadolu, but did no one ever con-
rightists, thinking that the public would not support the taraf: “From black money to black politics,” the daily opposition parties, which are against the government’s democra- sider taking the minaret case to the Swiss high court?
minaret ban. The results of the referendum, hence, sho- said in the headline of its main story yesterday, quoting remarks tization initiative, which seeks to expand the rights of Kurds. “The I guess what we can take away from all of this is that
wed how these politicians were not interacting with the from ethnic-Turkish Swiss politician Atilla Topta, who com- biggest concern of bigots and the narrow-minded is the expansi- the Swiss really don’t know how to approach these
public, says afak. “Now, they are looking for ways to fix mented on the banning of minarets in Switzerland following a on of freedoms. So, they are disturbed by the prospects of peace types of problems. They see their own public order as
this mistake, fearing the retaliation that may come from referendum on Sunday. Behind the minaret ban, there lies we- and development of democracy,” said Erdoan, who spoke at the the best in the world, and then they take a topic like
the Islamic world and fearing being isolated from the in- alth which came from black money and concerns of losing this parliamentary group meeting of his party on Tuesday. the minaret one to referendum and are exasperated
ternational community. I’m sure they’ll find a way to re- by the results. People sometimes need to look at how
verse this,” says afak. other nations deal with their problems.

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CMYK
 NATIONAL
Turkish aid in Indonesia leaves lasting impression
The assistance of Turkish people and aid
associations in healing the wounds of Ban-
da Aceh, a port in Indonesia, the world’s
largest Muslim country, badly hit by a tsunami in
2004 that left 300,000 dead and millions homeless,
has left a permanent mark in the city’s infrastruc-
ture and made lasting impressions on local people.
Residents of Banda Aceh who were impover-
ished following the tsunami expressed their grati-
tude during the distribution of sacricial meat at Eid
al-Adha (the Feast of the Sacrice). Some families
only have a monthly income of $100-150 and can
afford meat just once a year. Charitable associations
and individuals also look after orphans who lost
their families during the tragedy ve years ago.
Donations from Turkish people were used
to renovate 1,050 residences, three schools,
the city’s largest public hospital and numerous
mosques. Turkish civil society organizations
also provided emergency aid such as tents and
food shortly after the tsunami hit.
Homes in a village built by the Turkish Red
Crescent (Kzlay) called Kzlay Lampuuk Village
were seen as exemplary in their standards.
“Turkey was one of the rst countries in the
world to provide for victims,” Aydn Evirgen, the
Turkish ambassador to Indonesia, told the Anatolia
news agency. Evirgen said that various Turkish civil
TODAY’S ZAMAN, MUSTAFA KRAZLI
PHOTO
Boydak Holding executive board head Hac Boydak visited families in Diyarbakr with the Kimse Yok Mu charitable association.
Brotherhood between eastern
and western Turkey strengthened
with Eid al-Adha visit
Thousands of people, including leading Turkish
businessmen Hac Boydak, Faruk Güllü, Hazm
Sesli, Ahmet Sait Kavurmac and Rek Aydoan, trav-
eled to eastern regions of the country during Eid al-
Adha (Feast of the Sacrice) with the Kimse Yok Mu
(Is Anybody There) charitable association, visiting ar-
eas to cheer up residents and to help strengthen rela-
tionships between eastern and western Turkey.
During the four-day Eid al-Adha, participants visited
the residents of eastern provinces, including Diyarbakr,
rnak and Van, in their homes, giving meat to every house-
hold as an Eid present. The residents from the eastern prov-
inces thanked those coming from western regions of Turkey
and said the bridge of brotherhood between eastern and
western Turkey has been strengthened through these visits.
While stating that it is honorable to travel a long way
to visit people in the East during Eid, Diyarbakr Chamber
of Commerce and Industry Chairman Galip Ensariolu
stressed, “These people [who came to the eastern prov-
inces for Eid] strengthened the unity and solidarity of Tur-
key through the bridge of brotherhood they made.” Noting
that improving dialogue between the people of eastern and
western Turkey is of the utmost importance, Ensariolu said
they appreciated that the visitors from the West left their
homes during Eid to celebrate with people in the East.
T H U R S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S ZAMAN 03
STANBUL 13° KONYA 9°
ANKARA 11° ÇANAKKALE 14°
ZMR 17° DYARBAKIR 14°
ANTALYA 17° SAMSUN 17°
ADANA 19° BURSA 15°
ERZURUM 7° GAZANTEP 15°
EDRNE 13° ESKEHR 9°
TRABZON 16° MALATYA 10°
KAYSER 13° KOCAEL 14°
Evirgen said, assessing the center’s activities.
CHAN, SELM ÇA LAYAN
AA, BRAHM YAKUT
Turkish aid associations have also helped earth-
quake victims in the capital, Jakarta, and Padang
since Banda Aceh. “This has raised Turkey’s prole
in Indonesia. All this has caused Turkish people to
be regarded with affection here,” Evirgen added.
Indonesian ofcials request
PHOTO
Turkish schools for every city
“We want a Turkish school in every city in Indo-
PHOTO
nesia,” Turkish Ambassador to Indonesia Aydn
Evirgen quoted Tauk Kiemas, the Indonesian par-
liament speaker, as saying at the Turkish Embassy
while addressing Turkish aid workers and ofcials
who had come to Indonesia because of Eid al-Adha.
“There has been notable progress in Indone-
sia, and yet Turkish businessmen have not dis-
covered Indonesia. Indonesian ofcials have re-
The assistance of Turkish people and aid associations has made a lasting impression on the local people of Indonesia’s Banda Aceh, which was hit by a tsunami in 2004, leaving peatedly praised Turkish schools here,” Evirgen
300,000 dead and millions homeless. Turkish Ambassador to Indonesia Aydn Evirgen (left in the first photo) said Indonesian officials want a Turkish school in every city in Indonesia. said. “I visited Kiemas to congratulate him on his
new post as parliament speaker, and we talked
society organizations had helped victims in Banda Banda Aceh was psychological rehabilitation. en and children. Psychological counseling is of- about the Turkish schools here. He said Indone-
Aceh, and although nancial aid from Turkey had “They see our country as a trustworthy and fered by local Indonesian doctors every day of the sia had reached a new horizon due to the suc-
been far below that of other countries, Turkey had friendly country. Culturally, the most comfort- week. There are educational activities in the cen- cess of Turkish schools in international science
been very successful in revitalizing the region. “All able country here is Turkey,” Evirgen underlined. ter, too. “One can renovate buildings and repair olympiads. Evirgen said Kiemas requested that
this was appreciated in Indonesia,” he added. The Turkish Red Crescent has launched proj- physical establishments but repairing psychologi- every city in Indonesia have a Turkish school and
Evirgen also noted that one of the biggest ects at a Red Crescent center to help Indonesians cal damage is extremely difcult. The center has kindly asked for priority to be given to his home-
contributions by the Turkish people to those of heal their psychological wounds, particularly wom- undertaken a very important task in this sense,” town, Palembang. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
C URRENT IS S UE: VOL. 11 NO. 4 2009 w w w. i n s i g h t t u r k e y. c o m
AN INSIGHTFUL REFERENCE
FOR TURKISH POLITICS &
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
New Kurdish Initiative:
Ready for a Solution?
Muslim Democracies:
Changes and Challenges
Batman Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chair- Turkey in the UN Security
man Mehmet Teymur also said the visit proved that there
is brotherhood between western and eastern Turkey, add- Council
ing that “they made a gesture to the people of the region.
They showed their love and respect for the people by
visiting homes. We want such events to continue and to
gradually increase. I hope our businessmen [from eastern
Turkey] will go to visit those in need in western regions.” The Emergence of the ‘Government’s A Research Note on Islam, Democracy, Peacemaking between America and
Expressing that he found the visits very positive, rnak Perspective on the Kurdish Issue and Secularism the Muslim World: A New Beginning?
Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Osman ÜMİT CİZRE A H M E T T. K U R U N AT H A N C . F U N K
Geli said it was important that the visitors saw rnak with The Kurdish Question: The Reasons Democracy in Muslim Contexts: What The Rise and Decline of the Turkish
their own eyes, not through the media. “We are looking and Fortunes of the ‘Opening’ Africa Can Bring to the Discussion? “Deep State”: The Ergenekon Case
forward to other visits. Visits should not be limited to Eid CENGİZ ÇANDAR L E O N A R D O A . V I L L A LÓ N S E R D A R K AYA
visits. We cannot get to know each other only through the Mapping the Pathways: Public Globalization and the Crisis of Turkey in the UN Security Council:
media, and it would be nice for us to go to western regions,” Perception and Kurdish Question Authoritarian Modernization in Turkey Its Elections and Performance
he added. While thanking the organizers, Van Industrial CEMALETTİN HAŞİMİ HASAN KÖSEBAL ABAN BERDAL ARAL
Businessmen’s Association Chairman Mehmet Çalda said
people who arrived from the west witnessed the lives of
eastern people and that they got to know each other. Insight Turkey is a peer-reviewed academic journal covered by
Necla Hattapolu, chairperson of a Diyarbakr wom- major indexing and abstracting systems and databases. Edited by | İHSAN DAĞI
We welcome unsolicited manuscripts and article proposals. Middle East Technical University, Ankara
en’s association, Hamdullah Sivri, chairman of a Van aid
For subscription and editorial inquiries you may contact us at Published by | SETA Foundation for Political,
association, and Mehmet ahin, chairman of a Mardin Economic and Social Research
insight@insightturkey.com
trade association, also expressed their support for such
events and said activities such as this were more morally
than materially satisfying. stanbul Today’s Zaman
CMYK
 04 TODAY’S ZAMAN T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9
NATIONAL

US government asks Turkey to send more troops to Afghanistan LALE

contnued from page 1
In West Point, New York, Obama an-
nounced he would deepen the US involvement
in Afghanistan, sending 30,000 more troops to
ght the Taliban. He also called for additional
commitments from US allies and pledged to
strengthen ties with Pakistan, where al-Qaeda
and Taliban ghters have been based.
Jeffrey, first of all, emphasized his coun-
try’s great appreciation of Turkey’s diplomatic
efforts vis-à-vis Afghanistan and Pakistan, its
contribution to these two countries on eco-
nomic and political fronts and its contribution
to Afghanistan through its hundreds of non-
combat troops as part of the NATO-led Inter-
national Security Assistance Force (ISAF).
“But again, we’ll be asking for the Turks and for
all of our allies to do even more,” Jeffrey said.
Davutolu, Calmy-Rey dscuss
new referendum n mnaret row
“What we’re asking of all of our allies is to pro-
vide additional troops and to take on additional
roles, particularly in protecting the population. We
think that’s an extremely important mission and
that’s at the core of our request. So we are look-
ing at specic numbers, but we’re not releasing the
numbers because the numbers are a question for
discussion,” he replied when asked to elaborate on
what he meant by “do even more.” He conrmed
that US ofcials have already shared this “specic
number” with Turkish ofcials at “very high levels”
during talks, both in Ankara and Washington, ad-
mitting that the issue would likely be on the agenda
of a White House meeting between Obama and
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan on Dec. 7.
“First of all, every soldier in Afghanistan is
a combat soldier in the sense that everybody
has to carry a weapon and is subject to attack
by the Taliban. The specic missions to be car-
ried out are something that is determined within
NATO,” Jeffrey said when asked whether US
has been asking Turkey for combat-troops.
When reminded of Ankara’s unwillingness
to send combat troops, Jeffrey noted that every
NATO member has been implementing its own
“caveats,” imposed by contributor nations that
restrict where their troops can be deployed or
their range of tasks. He said he was not aware of
the details of what specic missions are needed
in Afghanistan, adding: “What I do know is gen-
erally we want fewer caveats from everybody,
we want more exibility in carrying out the mis-
sion. But the main mission is protecting the Af-
ghani people, which is a mission that the Turkish
troops are doing. We want to enhance that.”
Jeffrey’s remarks came a day before to-
day’s meeting in Brussels where Turkey’s KEMAL
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu will
loglu@todayszaman.com
join his colleagues from NATO in order to
discuss the US’s expectation that its fel-
low NATO member-states supplement the
buildup in Afghanistan with up to 10,000 of
Bureaucrat’s legal
their own troops and military trainers.
In early November, Turkey, which was already
ght n arms deals
supporting the ISAF with around 800 non-combat Among the areas in which Turkey has long been resistant
troops, took over the leadership of the Kabul Re- to complying with European standards is its arms acqui-
gional Command from France for a year. The num- sition business, still lucrative despite the economic crisis.
ber of non-combat Turkish troops at the Kabul Added to the problem is the Turkish military’s autonomous
Regional Command has gradually been increased status that allows its heavy involvement in politics. A current
to 1,800 due to the assumption of the rotating lead- trial of coup plotters that includes some retired generals and
ership. So far, Turkey has consistently voiced its active ofcers has raised expectations that this will pave the
determination to refrain from sending any combat way for an end to the military’s tradition of staging coups.
troops to Afghanistan, but it is yet not clear whether Although the deep state or Ergenekon trial has
it will respond positively to the latest US demands. started, there has been no talk or intention to inves-
tigate Turkey’s problematic arms acquisition methods
that have been conducted in a secret fashion while
leaving the heavy nancial burden on the taxpayer.
There has been no scrutiny in Parliament over arms
buying, thus preventing a debate on the rationale of arms
purchases. Turkey’s Undersecretariat for the Defense In-
dustry (SSM), though afliated to the civilian authority, has
long been controlled by the military in a de facto fashion.
This is despite the fact that the existing laws also dictate
that a clear boundary be set between the user, i.e., the mili-
tary and the buyer, i.e., the SSM or the civilian authority.
Due to the absence of transparency in the arms pro-
curement process, Turkey’s inventory is sometimes lled
with arms that are not necessary in meeting today’s threat

TODAY’S ZAMAN, HASAN HACI

contnued from page 1
perceptions of asymmetric warfare. While Turkey contin-
“Unless timely measures are taken, the
ues buying conventional arms, such as submarines, there
issue could snowball instantly and turn
are not adequate level of arms such as Unmanned Aerial
into a global crisis,” Davutolu told Calmy-Rey
Vehicles (UAVs), attack helicopters and other intelligence-
when they met on Tuesday afternoon.
gathering equipment required in an effective ght against
He told reporters that Calmy-Rey was the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a war secu-
aware of how important the issue is and add- rity forces have been waging for the past 24 years.
ed that he sensed that the Swiss minister was Existing laws that regulate methods of arms purchasing,
ready to take measures to address the situa- meanwhile, have frequently been violated due to the absence
tion. When holding a new referendum on the of any civilian democratic oversight of arms buying.
ban was discussed, Calmy-Rey did not rule it However, there are some legal steps being taken
out, saying such options are available. A new that may finally pave the way for the judicial process

referendum requires 100,000 signatures de-
manding a new public vote to reverse the ban.
The proposal to reverse the ban with
a new referendum has supporters among
the European Greens as well. In remarks
to Swiss state television on Tuesday night,
European Greens co-chair Daniel Cohn-
Bendit said that a referendum to reverse the
decision should be held in one year’s time.
The minaret ban is a slap in the face to
Muslims, and the issue should be taken to
the polls again in a year, he said. “Democracy
doesn’t always come up with the right answer.
During World War II the vast majority of Ger-
mans were opposed to Jews,” he added.
Speaking to Today’s Zaman on the mar-
gins of the OSCE gathering on Tuesday,
Calmy-Rey said her government did not back
the ban. She said she was herself shocked by
the referendum result, in which 57.5 percent
voted in favor of the minaret ban, but added
that this should not be interpreted as a sign of
anti-Muslim sentiment in her society.
The foreign minister said the tension could
be attributed to the global nancial crisis and
the ensuing nancial difculties people were
facing. “We must increase dialogue to get to
know one another better, and to learn more
about each other’s culture. We need to do this
not just with Muslims, but with other religious
communities as well,” she said, noting that
there were 400,000 well-integrated Muslims
living in Switzerland who were able to perform
their religious duties without any problem.
Swiss voters adopted the ban in a ref-
erendum on Sunday, defying the govern-
ment and parliament, which had rejected
the right-wing initiative as violating the
Swiss constitution, freedom of religion and
a cherished tradition of tolerance.
Turkey has joined an international chorus of
critics of the ban, which included the UN Com-
Foreign minister sees bright era ahead in Greek ties
Turkey’s relations with neighboring Greece
will further improve under the new govern-
ment of Prime Minister George Papandreou,
the architect of a rapprochement with Tur-
key in the late 1990s, Foreign Minister
Ahmet Davutolu said yesterday.
Davutolu, who had a 45-minute meet-
ing with Papandreou on the margins of a
meeting of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said he
expected serious positive developments in
missioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and
European human rights watchdog the Council
of Europe, with Turkish leaders saying the ban
is in violation of inherent rights. In a speech on
Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan
said such rights should never be put to referen-
dum. The Foreign Ministry called on Switzerland
to correct the situation in a statement released
on Tuesday. President Abdullah Gül said the
ban showed how Islamophobia was spreading
Turkish-Greek relations that will also have
implications for the eastern Mediterranean
and Cyprus. He did not elaborate. Noting
that there are issues of disagreement be-
tween the two countries, Davutolu added:
“But there are more issues in which we are
in agreement. What is important is to focus
on the wide opportunities of cooperation.”
Speaking after his talks with Papandreou,
Davutolu said the Turkish and Greek sides
shared their visions for the future of ties dur-
in Europe and opposition leaders lashed out at
Europe, saying the ban was a “black stain” on
Europe’s record of human rights and freedoms.
Davutolu requested a last-minute
change in the text of his speech at the
OSCE gathering on Wednesday when he
found out that the earlier text did not in-
clude any reference to the minaret ban.
The revised text included a paragraph, say-
ing that the Swiss ban was not in line with
PHOTO
to start investigating arms-buying methods in Turkey.
Ahmet Boynueri, an electronics engineer working
for the SSM since its creation in 1985, has made some im-
provement in his legal battle since 2006 for the prosecution
of 11 former senior and junior level ofcers. He claimed
that they caused serious losses to the country’s economy when
they violated the existing laws that set out guidelines for the
establishment of a sound Turkish defense industry base.
Boynueri led a complaint back in April 2006 with the
Military Prosecutor’s Ofce of the Turkish General Staff as
well as with the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Ofce, to inves-
tigate 11 ofcers, including two former chiefs of staff and
a service commander, over charges that they violated the
law by intervening in many arms acquisition projects such
as the Israeli modernization of M 60 tanks, and F-4 and F-5
jet fighters. He claimed that these officers used their in-
fluence in contracting the tenders to specific companies
preventing a fair negotiating process from taking place
thus hindering the creation of a sound local defense in-
dustry infrastructure. Turkey is dependant on foreign coun-
tries for about 75 per cent of its critical arms technologies.
ing the meeting. “I see a very strong ground to Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül stated that
boost Turkish-Greek relations,” he added. there was no need for an investigation into the ofcers sub-
Davutolu said high level political
ject to Boynueri’s complaint and Ankara Chief Prosecu-
dialogue between Turkey and Greece
would increase and that economic rela- tor’s Ofce did not initiate an investigation either.
However, Boynueri stubbornly re-initiated his legal
tions would be strengthened.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan proceedings last month through the 11th and 13th heavy
sent a letter to Papandreou on Aug. 30 out- criminal courts in Ankara and stanbul, which are in charge
lining a set of proposals to clear disputes, of the Ergenekon case, to have his complaints merged with
including the deep-seated territorial dis-
the deep state trial. Some names included in his allegations
agreements in the Aegean. Hasan Hac Athens
are currently being tried by the court on charges of inciting
armed action to unseat the government.
There are now reports that inspectors from the Finance
freedom of religion, protection of which is Ministry will initiate an examination of his claims.
a key responsibility for the OSCE. In a parallel process, Boynueri applied recently to
In a sign that the Swiss referendum the Strasbourg-based International Court of Human
could set an example across Europe, Italy’s Rights over charges that the Turkish General Staff
far-right coalition partner Northern League and the Ministry of Defense prevented an investiga-
said Italy, too, should adopt legislative tion based on his claims about the Turkish officers.
changes to allow referendums on issues Regardless of whether the criminal court will decide to
that are currently not put to public vote. The merge Boynueri’s claims with the Ergenekon investiga-
Northern League’s proposal, however, is not ex- tion, the fact that he initiated a legal process over Turkey’s
pected to receive support from other parties. seriously problematic arms purchases is a step forward in
opening a comprehensive debate on the future of the issue.
It is worth bearing in mind that without the strength
of the arms that they are carrying, the military cannot
stage coups that deal a serious blow to any country’s
moves towards democratization.

New deputy governors to boost Turkey’s EU bid Kouchner: Nagorno-Karabakh

MUSTAFA ÜNAL BRUSSELS nor who will be in charge of EU affairs. The chief negotiator also said the EU
may be resolved in months
TODAY’S ZAMAN, AL ÜNAL

The government is preparing to ap-
point new deputy governors for Eu-
ropean Union affairs in all of Turkey’s 81
provinces, a new step to boost Ankara’s
troubled bid to join the 27-nation bloc,
State Minister Egemen Ba, who is also
the chief negotiator for EU talks, has said.
Ba, speaking to a group of journal-
ists on the sidelines of his talks with se-
We are working with the Interior Ministry.
We will send about 150 EU experts into the
provinces. The EU membership process is now
making an impact throughout Turkey,” he said.
Turkey opened accession negotiations
with the EU in 2005, but there has been lim-
ited progress since then due to a dispute over
Cyprus and objections in certain EU countries
against Turkish accession. Surveys show pub-
lic enthusiasm for EU membership has de-
Commission’s latest progress report on Tur-
key, released in autumn, showed that Turkey France has said it hoped the years-long conict between
was in a good situation compared to previous Armenia and Azerbaijan over the breakaway mountain
years. Noting that past reports extensively region of Nagorno-Karabakh would be resolved “in months”.
highlighted issues of freedom of speech and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said during a
human rights violations, Ba said this year’s meeting of Europe’s main security body he was condent on
report has noted progress in all these elds. Tuesday that a deal could be reached. The Organization of Se-
“There is nothing in the progress report that curity and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has picked up the
would make us ashamed now,” he added. pace this year to clinch a peace agreement.
Ba also claimed that there are “In a peace process it is very difcult to force the door
PHOTO

nior EU officials -- including Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn -- in Brussels
on Wednesday, said the new appoint-
ments will be made soon. He said the
EU process would gain new momentum
if local administrators are also included
in the efforts to bring Turkish standards
into line with those of the EU. “In every
province, there will be a deputy gover-
clined considerably in Turkey in recent years.
Ba said new units are being created within
the Prime Ministry’s Secretariat-General
for EU Affairs -- the main state body that
specializes in coordinating the process
of harmonization with the EU’s extensive
regulations, called the acquis communau-
taire -- to better deal with the technical
requirements of the membership process.
more obstacles in Turkey than in Eu-
rope towards Turkey’s accession, say-
ing illegal anti-government groups are
hindering the process. “There are criminal
groups trying to hinder the EU member-
ship process. We are very determined,
as the government, and will not allow
this,” Ba said, in apparent reference
to the shadowy Ergenekon network.
or to push too hard because this is very fragile,” he told
reporters. “I am condent it will be done. Immediately?
No. In the coming months? Yes.” France, Russia and the
United States form OSCE’s Minsk group, which is leading
peace negotiations. On Tuesday, they met the Armenian
and Azeri foreign ministers in Athens and issued a statement
Egemen saying progress had been made. “They stated the willingness
Ba of their countries to complete the work,” said the statement
read by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Athens Reuters

CMYK
 NATIONAL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009 TODAY’S ZAMAN 05

‘Only so many lines can be wiretapped’ Disappointed

by CHP, Alevis
SELM KUVEL ANKARA He also said there have been recent attempts to low wiretapping. In this case, the institution that

Information Technologies and Communication

Board (BTK) head Tayfun Acarer has stated
that it is impossible for the Telecommunications Ad-
ministration (TB) to wiretap and monitor the phone
conversations of 72 million people, an allegation di-
rected at the TB by some groups.
Stating that such paranoid accusations are false,
Acarer said: “For one thing, TB does not monitor
many conversations. What’s more, they have 80
people on their staff. It is impossible to listen to the
conversations of 72 million with such a small group
of people. And it is not TB which monitors conver-
sations. It’s the police department, the gendarmerie
Fethi imek or the National Intelligence Agency [MT].”
make completely legal wiretapping orders look as
though they are illegal. He said it was impossible
requested to wiretap a certain phone line gets the
permission and does this by its own devices. TB’s
seek new
for an illegal interception to be accepted as evidence
in court. “Everyone should be happy, since TB was
responsibility here is to inspect whether the judge’s
warrant is in line with current legislation or not.”
political choices
founded and the legislation on legal interceptions has Telecommunications Minister Binali Yldrm had also EMRE SONCAN / FATH VURAL ANKARA / STANBUL
gone into force. I am very comfortable. If they need stated that it is impossible to track the phone conversa-
to monitor my conversations, that means I am such tions of 72 million people, in the face of such allegations. Alevis are looking for new political
a person whose conversations should be monitored.” “For one thing, in Turkey, there are more than 185 million choices, as one inuential Alevi leader
Reiterating that TB does not monitor phone phone conversations taking place every day. This amounts has announced plans to join a new political
conversations, Acarer explained: “Wiretapping is to more than 4 million hours. To be able to monitor 4 mil- party following offensive remarks from main
done by the MT, the police or the gendarmerie. They lion hours, 2 million employees should work eight hours opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP)
rst le a request with a prosecutor, who in turn re- a day, including Saturday and Sunday. In other words, we Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen.
lays this to a court. If the judge issues a warrant, the would have to assign all public servants to this job. … The Alevi-Bektai Federation (ABF) Chairman
decision is relayed to TB. If the TB decides that the claim that the entire population’s phone conversations Ali Balkz announced on Monday that they
judge’s warrant is in line with legislation, it will al- are being monitored is impossible in reality.” would consider joining a new political party, as
they might collaborate with the Social Demo-
cratic People’s Party (SHP). SHP leader Hüseyin
Ergün has said that they will become a party for
the masses with the participation of the Alevis.
Ergün has been engaged in talks with the
leaders of the Dec. 10 Movement, which was
launched by the Confederation of Revolution-

European citizens wiretapped ary Workers’ Unions (DSK). Their spokesman,

Burhan enatalar, had said that the CHP is no
longer a social democratic party and that Tur-
key, therefore, needs a new party to ll this gap.
The leaders of the Dec. 10 Movement in-

more than Turkish citizens clude Rza Türmen, a former judge at the Euro-
pean Court of Human Rights, DSK Chairman
Süleyman Çelebi, brahim Kabolu, a profes-
sor of law, and former Ambassador lter Turan,

TODA Y ’S Z A MA N, MU ST AF A K  RAZL I
ERCAN YAVUZ ANKARA The United Kingdom: The initial approval for as well as academics Ahmet nsel, Mithat San-
a wiretapping operation is given for two months. car, Fuat Keyman and Erol Katrcolu.
As the row continues between the gov- This period can be extended for six months at The SHP’s Ergün, who has also been talking
ernment and several judges over claims a time if it is found to be in the interests of the with independent deputy Ufuk Uras, also said that
that a chief public prosecutor and mem- country’s security or economy. There is no time they will make their party’s new manifesto public
bers of the Supreme Court of Appeals have been limit on wiretapping in the UK. In emergency by the end of the year. He added that they will
wiretapped for a long time as part of an ongo- situations, security forces can wiretap without review their name, bylaws and party program too.
ing probe into the clandestine organization Er- court approval if a court decision has not been “When there is a right choice, everything
genekon, research conducted by the Ministry of made within two days. The person under sur- will change,” Ergün said regarding the situa-
Justice has revealed that several mature democ- veillance can be wiretapped at any location. tion, which he termed a “lack of alternatives”
racies in Europe are involved in more wiretap- Germany: Initial approval for the wiretap- for the Alevi citizens.
P HOTO

ping than Turkey. The ministry addressed the
claims by revealing the amount of wiretapping in
France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.
A study on the amount of the wiretapping
in European democracies revealed that Turkey’s
wiretapping law is based on French law. France
is the most wiretapped country in Europe. In a
comparison made with France, the UK, Ger-
many and Italy, Turkey fared much better than
these countries in the wiretapping of public of-
cials and citizens suspected of criminal activity.
Wiretapping was made legal through laws
adopted in Germany in 1968, Austria in 1974,
Switzerland in 1979, the UK in 1985, Italy in
1988 and France in 1991. The Law on Fighting
Criminal Organizations adopted by Turkey in
1999 also made wiretapping legal. However, the
grounds for wiretapping were reduced through a
change in the law in 2004 during the Justice and
Development Party’s (AK Party) tenure.
Research undertaken by the Ministry of Jus-
tice has revealed that the period of wiretapping
is limited to six months in Turkey. This period
was nine months before the AK Party came to
power in 2002. Nearly 70,000 people are wire-
tapped in Turkey every year. The AK Party re-
duced the number of wiretapped people through
a change in the law in 2004. The ministry has
also discovered that security forces complain
about the six-month time limit on wiretapping
criminal and drug trafcking organizations as
these organizations’ activities are constant.
To wiretap, a court ruling is a must. The wire-
Justice Ministry research reveals that several democracies in Europe wiretap more than Turkey does.
tapping records are destroyed in the case that
no crime is detected. If the chief public prosecu-
tor’s ofce decides that there was no need for the
wiretap, they have to inform the person in ques-
tion that they were wiretapped and tell them the
reason, duration and the result of the wiretapping
in a written form within 15 days. Consequently,
those who believe that they were wiretapped
without a reason can sue for compensation.
The destruction of the wiretapping records in
European countries has stricter applications. If a
person in the UK has suspicions that he was be-
ing wiretapped, after he les a complaint, the in-
ping of an individual is given for three months,
and their ofce is permitted to be wiretapped for
four weeks. If the reasons for the initial wiretap-
ping operation continue, permission can be ex-
tended for three-month periods. As in the UK,
there is no ultimate time limit in wiretapping. In
emergency cases, decisions about wiretapping
are made within three days.
France: Legally, wiretapping can be done
through an executive order or judicial deci-
sion. In the event there is proof of a crime, an
executive order can be converted to a judicial
decision. With an executive order, wiretapping
can be done for four months, but can be ex-
tended by an additional four months if neces-
sary. Judicial permission for wiretapping can
be given for a period of 12 months. There is
no ultimate time limit on the wiretapping in
France. Wiretapping can be done everywhere.
Nearly 30,000 people are wiretapped in France
terception of communications commissioner can every year. The government also monitors the
inform the person in question whether they have Internet data of 100,000 people.
been wiretapped and the results of the wiretap- Italy: Legally, wiretapping can be done
ping. The French government does not have to through executive order or a prosecutor’s deci-
inform people about the details of the wiretap- sion. Of all the European Union countries, Italy
ping. In Germany, the government has to inform wiretaps through executive orders the most. In
a person that they have been wiretapped after
Operation Clean Hands alone, when the Italian
the investigation has been completed; however,
judiciary attempted to uncover one of the big-
there are many exceptions to this rule. The Italian
gest corruption scandals in Italian politics, 5,000
government does not have to reveal the details
people were wiretapped. Prosecutor Antonio Di
of the wiretapping. As a result of its research, the
Pietro, who was in charge of the investigation,
Ministry of Justice has summarized the situation
said not wiretapping criminals is the same as
of wiretapping in other countries as such:
giving them a Ferrari to escape.
In a Nov. 10 session on the government’s
plans to solve the Kurdish issue, former diplo-
mat and CHP Deputy Chairman Öymen made
a speech in Parliament in which he said: “Didn’t
mothers also cry at the time of the Sheikh Said
Rebellion? Didn’t mothers also cry at the time of
the Dersim Rebellion?” in response to the gov-
ernment’s use of the phrase “Let no more moth-
ers cry” as part of its efforts to end the Kurdistan
Workers’ Party’s (PKK) campaign of terror. His
words left Alevis, who traditionally give consid-
erable support to the CHP, infuriated.
At the same time, Öymen’s remarks
brought the 1938 events that took place in
Dersim, today known as Tunceli, into the lime-
light. The issue has long been glossed over.
The Kurdish name of Dersim was changed
to Tunceli in 1935. The government in 1937
formed a restructuring plan for the city, to
evacuate it and issue permits to grant residency
in the province. Members of a group that re-
belled against the plan were executed by the
state. Tunceli now has the lowest population
among all of Turkey’s provinces.
‘Radical democrat’
The new movement, which includes the ABF,
SHP and leaders like independent deputy
Uras, has no name yet. Sancar once said that it
could be named the “New Left Center Party.”
They had their rst meeting on July 4 and
another on Sept. 13. They are expected to have
their bylaws completed in January.
Uras said that the party will be a movement
basing itself on “equal citizenship rights.” He also
said that they will be an alternative to the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
“The alternative to the AK Party will emerge
from our left movement, not from a structure

Gov’t to restore Tunceli’s name, find missing graves of rebellion leaders that supports Ergenekon,” Uras said, referring
to a neo-nationalist gang believed to be the ex-
tension of a clandestine network of groups with
AA, LEVENT HARMAN

As part of its democratization initiative, the Justice President Kazm Ark made two requests to Erdoan. members in the armed forces which was plot-
and Development Party (AK Party) government One of their requests was for the restoration of the ting a coup against the government.
is preparing to restore the Kurdish name of the eastern name Dersim in place of Tunceli and the other was for DSK Chairman Çelebi voiced similar views.
province of Tunceli and nd the missing graves of rebel- the missing graves of the rebellion leaders Seyit Rza and “As the Dec. 10 Movement, we had ex-
lion leaders in the region and inform their families. Sheikh Sait to be found. pressed very clearly four years ago -- before
Since Republican People’s Party (CHP) Deputy During the meeting, Interior Minister Beir Ata- the Ergenekon investigation started -- that we
Chairman Onur Öymen last month defended the vio- lay, AK Party deputy leaders Hüseyin Çelik and Salih are against all kinds of coups and anti-demo-
lent suppression of a rebellion in 1937 in the Alevi-dom- Kapusuz and AK Party deputies Reha Çamurolu and cratic moves,” Çelebi said adding that he will
PHOTO

inated province of Tunceli, the Dersim Rebellion has
occupied the agenda of the country, with many ques-
tioning the background of the rebellion and the violent
way it was suppressed.
During a speech in Parliament on Nov. 10 criticizing
the government’s Kurdish initiative, which seeks to expand
the rights of Kurds in Turkey to alleviate and ultimately end
the separatist terrorism of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party
(PKK), Öymen said: “Didn’t mothers also cry at the time
of the Sheikh Said Rebellion? Didn’t mothers also cry at
the time of the Dersim Rebellion?” in response to the gov-
ernment’s use of the phrase “Let no more mothers cry” as
part of its efforts to end the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’
Party’s (PKK) campaign of terrorism.
Öymen’s remarks led to
an outcry among the Alevis.
Visiting Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoan at the
A delegation from Tunceli visiting Prime Minister Erdoan requested that Tunceli’s name be restored Prime Ministry on Tuesday, a delegation from Tunceli
to Dersim and that the missing graves of the rebellion leaders Seyit Rza and Sheikh Sait be found. headed by Tunceli Education and Health Foundation
brahim Yiit of Alevi origin were also in attendance.
Taking notes of the Alevi requests, Erdoan told the del-
egation that the government would hold two more Al-
evi workshops in addition to the ve already held so far
and added: “A declaration will be prepared after these
workshops. I think your requests will be included in this
declaration. We will make short, medium and long-term
studies regarding the Alevis’ problems. In time, you will
see your problems being solved one by one.”
Speaking to Today’s Zaman, Kapusuz said the Alevi
delegation’s requests were just and right. “It is possible
to meet these demands. But the prime minister did not
say these demands will be immediately fullled but he
said he will take a close interest in the issue.”
Following the meeting, Erdoan asked Atalay
whether it was possible to change Tunceli’s name to
Dersim. Atalay said it could be done through a law and
no referendum was needed for a change. Upon this,
Erdoan ordered the preparation of a draft law that will
make the name change possible. Ercan Yavuz Ankara
represent himself, not DSK, in the new party.
Regarding the views of the movement on eco-
nomic matters, Bilgi University Professor Katrcolu
said they defend the free market economy and sup-
port some state interference in the system.
He said Balkz’s statements have been in-
terpreted as though there is a certain agree-
ment on the issues, but they are still working
on the principles.
Katrcolu, who is also a columnist at Taraf
daily, said that the new movement is “left” and
“social democratic” but the best description of
it should be “radical democratic.”
His explanation regarding this denition is:
“No matter what social background peo-
ple have, we would like to be a movement
of conscience and justice for the people who
were disadvantaged by the present system;
be they Alevis, Kurds, religious people, job-
less, Roma people or anyone else.”

CMYK
 06 TODAY’S ZAMAN
DTP: Country in danger because Öcalan placed in smaller room
TODAY’S ZAMAN, AL ÜNAL
AYE KARABAT ANKARA
The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party
(DTP) has begun to portray the living condi-
tions of imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK)
leader Abdullah Öcalan as the priority of the Kurd-
ish people and urged the government to improve his
living conditions immediately, warning that anything
to the contrary would drag the country into clashes.
“The mral system should be abandoned im-
PHOTO
mediately and not used as a tool to blackmail and
threaten [others]. [Doing otherwise] will take the
country to a dangerous point,” DTP leader Ahmet
Türk said at a press conference yesterday. The con-
ference was also attended by several DTP deputies.
Öcalan is serving a life sentence in a prison on
mral Island, located off the coast of stanbul. He
was the sole inmate until recently, but eight other
convicts have now been transferred to the island,
and he was placed in a different cell.
Öcalan’s lawyers claim his new cell is six-
and-a-half square meters, compared to the old
cell’s 12 square meters. The new cell’s window
is reportedly high and cannot be looked through
unassisted. Öcalan, in his latest meeting with his
lawyers last week, warned that his new prison
conditions are harming his health.
In a written statement released on Monday, the
Recent ncdents reveal
PKK-Ergenekon partnershp
NEWS ANALYSIS
Melik Duvakl
TODAY’S ZAMAN
Recent clashes in both eastern and western cities
of Turkey between Kurdish and Turkish groups
do not appear to be coincidental and are more
than likely to be proof of a Kurdistan Workers’
Party (PKK) and Ergenekon partnership.
These incidents started on Oct. 30 and have
since systematically escalated. In a recent meet-
ing with his lawyers, jailed PKK leader Abdullah
Öcalan stated that the Turkish state is trying to
destroy him, perhaps cause his death by gradual-
ly poisoning him. On the day Öcalan said this to
his lawyers, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu
was in Arbil speaking to Massoud Barzani, head
of the Iraqi Kurdish regional government. Up to
that point, Öcalan had made statements sup-
porting the government’s democratic initia-
tive that seeks to end terrorism by giving more
rights to the country’s Kurds. However, after the
government’s plan for a rapprochement with
northern Iraq, Öcalan turned against the demo-
cratic initiative, believing that the government
is working to eliminate the PKK by establishing
dialogue with northern Iraq. Following Öcalan’s
statements about others allegedly planning to
kill him, the Kurdistan Democratic Confedera-
tion (KCK) -- the PKK’s urban arm -- started
provoking incidents across the country.
The places where these incidents occurred
also hint that they have been carefully picked.
Mersin, where the rst incidents began, is a
pilot city for Ergenekon, which is remembered
for the burning of Turkish ags in the Nevruz
celebrations -- a spring festival marked mainly
by Kurds -- of 2005. Later, it was revealed that
Ali Kutlu -- now a suspect in Ergenekon -- gave
Turkish ags to children and told them to burn
them to foment chaos. An unidentied witness
Turkish university to begin operations in Nigeria
AA, LEVENT HARMAN
PHOTO
The Nigerian Turkish Nile University will open its doors to students on Dec. 9 in the capital city of Abuja.
country on Nov. 27, the anniversary of the estab-
lishment of the PKK terrorist organization.
“There are certain issues on which the Kurds
are sensitive. The rst and foremost of these is Öca-
lan and his living conditions,” Türk said.
He urged the European Committee for the Pre-
vention of Torture (CPT) to pay an immediate visit
to the island to examine Öcalan’s new living condi-
tions. The CPT has already visited the island four
times and prepared reports critical of his situation.
Türk claimed that the recent changes were
made to “improve” Öcalan’s situation but in real-
ity do the exact opposite. He also suggested that a
commission should be established by civil society
organizations and politicians to visit Öcalan.
“The conditions under which Öcalan will con-
tribute to peace should be created,” he said.
Türk claimed that Kurds take personally all posi-
tive and negative approaches to mral. “mral serves
Ahmet Türk as a mirror for the process that the government has
described as the democratization initiative. If this
PKK also depicted Öcalan’s new cell as a “death process is to turn into a real democratization process,
hole” and claimed that the aim of the move is to kill one prerequisite must be met: mral,” he said.
him. The same statement also suggested that they He further added that a process in which Öca-
consider Öcalan’s health to be the health of the lan is ignored and neglected and dialogue is blocked
“Kurdish nation.” will not serve to solve the problem, but rather will
In order to protest the conditions Öcalan is in, deepen it. “While conditions on mral get worse,
illegal and violent demonstrations began across the talks about a process are not convincing,” Türk said.
A A , A R  F Y A K IC I
P HOTO
The head of the DTP’s zmir branch alleges that an attack on a DTP convoy was planned, not a momentary reaction.
and a former Ergenekon member who testi- in the death of one person. A probe into that
ed to prosecutors conducting the Ergenekon incident showed that most of the main suspects
investigation also conrmed that the 2005 ag were from outside Sakarya, brought to town
burning incident was organized by the group. just to start incidents. Like the events of 2008,
According to this, Ergenekon members that in- recent clashes between Democratic Society
ltrate groups of opposing views provoke them Party (DTP) members and nationalist groups
to make sure there are clashes. have shown that the Ergenekon-PKK link is
Eastern cities saw demonstrations orga- rmly in place. Both organizations are working
nized by the KCK, but in the West, there were to sabotage the democratic initiative and Tur-
other kinds of protests and even attempts to
lynch Kurdish individuals. Last week, an inci-
key’s dialogue with northern Iraq.
In these incidents, the primary subject of
dent in Çanakalle Bayramiç occurred. The ght, these groups’ cell organizations is to turn frivo-
which started out as a discussion between two lous brawls into lynching attempts, playing peo-
men over a woman, turned into a Kurdish- ple with ethnic differences against each other.
Turkish clash. A similar ght between Turkish
and Kurdish groups on Apr. 27, 2008 resulted
The common target here also shows that the two
groups have complex and strong links.
Nigerian Turkish Nile University (NTNU), a Turk-
ish university, will open its doors to students on
Dec. 9 in the Nigerian capital of Abuja.
The NTNU is the product of a network of Turkish
high schools in various Nigerian states including Ka-
duna, Kano, Lagos, Abuja and Yobe.
Stating that a university campus must sit on
at least 1,000 decares of land under Nigerian law,
NTNU Vice Chancellor Levent Altntop told the
Anatolia news agency that the land for the NTNU
was provided by the Nigerian president and the
foundation of the university was laid on Jan. 20.
After the completion of the university buildings, the
Nigerian government granted the university its license,
allowing it to begin operations on Dec. 9.
“We took the chairman and several ofcials from
the National Universities Commission [NUC] of Ni-
geria, which functions the same as the Higher Educa-
tion Board [YÖK] in Turkey, to Turkey and visited a
CMYK
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
The government at the end of the summer
launched an initiative to solve Turkey’s decades-old
Kurdish question and termed the process the de-
mocratization initiative.
The government chose “More freedom for ev-
eryone” as the slogan of the initiative and it fre-
quently underlined that it will never consider dis-
cussing the issue with the PKK, saying the only
party with a voice in this process is the nation itself.
The government also suggested that the de-
mocratization initiative will take place in several
phases and as one of the very rst steps, there will
be mechanisms established such as an anti-dis-
crimination institution which is to monitor claims
of discrimination. Another government plan is to
have names of settlements and geographical places
revert to their original Kurdish names.
Türk described these government attempts as
“tactics to delay the matter.”
“The question is whether to recognize the exis-
tence of Kurds in the Constitution,” he said.
Türk also claimed that the government aims to
“eliminate the dynamics of Kurds with the assis-
tance of foreign powers.”
“The government, instead of developing elimi-
nation plans with foreign forces, should develop
solutions with internal dynamics immediately and
without any further delay,” he said.
‘We try to restrain
dangerous groups’
The head of the DTP’s zmir branch has ac-
knowledged that there is a risk of provoca-
tion but noted that his party always tries to
restrain those groups that it has influence
over. Speaking about incidents in zmir when
nationalists attacked a DTP convoy on Nov.
23, he said: “They [DTP affiliated groups]
called us. Told us ‘let us go there and give
them the answer they deserve.’ We don’t
want to allow such things. We don’t want to
undermine peace. Everyone should contrib-
ute to the peace process, but unfortunately,
there are those who cause tension.” He
also said the zmir convoy attack was not a
momentary reaction; on the contrary, it had
been planned. He said, however, his party
was having difficulty stopping clashes and
incidents occurring in the East. “These are
their democratic demands. Of course, we
are not on the side of violence and fighting.”
Kubilay said, and also criticized the police
for not intervening in a timely manner to pre-
vent the events in zmir.
‘Serious provocation
in zmir events’
Yavuz Alphan, head of zmir Martyrs’ Fami-
lies Human Rights and Solidarity Associa-
tion, said the events in zmir occurred due
to intense provocation and warned national-
ist groups against using families of soldiers
killed in clashes with the terrorist PKK. He
said he was deeply saddened by the inci-
dents and criticized the protestors for chant-
ing slogans like, “Martyrs don’t die; the coun-
try cannot be divided.” He said those who
never visited their association or the home
of a family whose child or children were slain
should never use such words. Alphan said
violence would never get anyone anywhere.
Terror should have been axed in 30 years. We
should act with common sense,” he said.
number of Turkish educational institutions. After see-
ing our institutions, the NUC ofcials approved the
ofcial opening of the NTNU within a year. Our uni-
versity, one of 41 private universities in Nigeria, will
start its rst academic year with 400 students. Cur-
rently about 300 students, 40 of whom are Turkish,
have enrolled at the university, and the enrollment
period is still continuing,” Altntop explained.
Pointing out that there will be 10 departments, in-
cluding science, engineering and management facul-
ties, at the university, Altntop noted they have hired 15
Turkish lecturers with advanced English levels and plan
to hire Nigerian lecturers as well.
The vice chancellor further said that they aim to
increase the educational level of not only Nigerians
but also others residing in Africa and added that they
plan to open a faculty of medicine within two years
to meet the demand of Nigeria and Africa in health
issues. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
NATIONAL
Barkey: Gov’t plan
far-reaching step for
Kurdish problem
A US political expert considers the demo-
cratic initiative, launched by the govern-
ment with the goal of achieving a solution to Tur-
key’s Kurdish problem by granting more rights
and freedoms to Kurdish citizens, as the most
comprehensive attempt at solving the problem.
“The democratic initiative, which is a real
opportunity for the resolution of the Kurdish
problem, is the most comprehensive and con-
sistent initiative that has been carried out,”
said Henri Barkey, an expert at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace and a
professor of international relations on leave
from Lehigh University, in a conference titled
“Kurdish Opening in Turkey: Origins and Fu-
ture?” at the Carnegie Endowment in Wash-
ington, D.C., on Tuesday. He stressed that
since the end of Turgut Özal’s presidency in
1993, there had not been any serious non-mil-
itary attempts to solve the Kurdish problem in
Turkey. Although he does not know whether it
will be successful or not, Barkey said the cur-
rent Kurdish opening is the most inclusive step
concerning the Kurdish question since then.
“It has signaled a change in the mentality to-
wards this issue. It is important.”
Commenting on the factors that triggered the
start of the democratic initiative, Barkey indicated
the war in Iraq and US plans for withdrawal from
Iraq and emphasized the dramatic change in Tur-
key’s politics vis-à-vis northern Iraq. “The rela-
tions between Turkey and the Kurds in northern
Iraq have changed in the last year, and Turks and
Kurds have become closer,” he said.
Barkey also stated that the outlawed Kurd-
istan Workers’ Party (PKK) is not backed by
the local Kurds in northern Iraq and argued
that the PKK realized violence is useless. He
talked about National Intelligence Organiza-
tion (MT) Undersecretary Emre Taner’s visit
to northern Iraq in the early 2000s and said the
democratic initiative had not been launched
recently but rather some years ago.
Backing away from the
initiative is impossible
Barkey also pointed out the change in mental-
ity occurring in the Turkish military and re-
called the statements of Chief of General Staff
Gen. lker Babu that said it was impossible
to reach a solution to the Kurdish question
through military means.
It is widely argued that without a peace-
ful solution to the Kurdish question in Turkey,
the candidate country’s full edged European
Union membership is not seen as possible,
said Barkey, stressing that there may be some
problems in the process as well as some in its
procedure, but that stepping back from the ini-
tiative was impossible.
Furthermore, Steven Cook from the Coun-
cil on Foreign Relations, a think tank in the US,
claimed that Turkey’s steps that ensure the po-
litical stability of northern Iraq will be welcomed
and supported by the US administration and
added that the Kurdish problem, however, has
always been seen by the US as a domestic issue
for Turkey. He also underlined that the four im-
portant points that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdoan will discuss with US President Barack
Obama on his visit to Washington on Dec. 6 are
Afghanistan-Pakistan, ran, Armenia and An-
kara’s relations with the Kurdish administration
in northern Iraq. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Human Rights
Foundation to set
up data bank for
missing persons
The Turkish Human Rights Foundation
(THV) is planning to establish a data bank
for the relatives of people who disappeared in
southeastern Anatolia during the 1990s. During
those years, some suspects in the Ergenekon case
-- the investigation into an underground terrorist
organization -- were posted in the Southeast as
state ofcials, when many extra-judicial killings
took place. According to various human rights
organizations, during the ‘90s around 17,000
people were the victims of extra-judicial killings
and approximately 1,500 people disappeared,
most of them whilst in custody.
THV chairperson and forensic expert
ebnem Fincanc Korur said the importance of a
data bank which includes a DNA bank was par-
amount. She said that the THV has started to
collect information on 150 people. For that, the
organization will receive support from various
other civil society groups like the Human Rights
Association (HD), Solidarity Association for
Bereaved Families (YAKAY-DER) and the As-
sociation of Human Rights and Solidarity for
Oppressed Peoples (MAZLUM-DER). “Digs
should be done scientically. Most of the times,
bulldozers go into an area where the bodies of
the missing persons might lie. They destroy evi-
dence because they lack the know-how,” Korur
said. Emine Dolmac / Melik Duvakl stanbul
 BUSINESS
TurkStat changes
data release
procedures
The Turkish Statistics Institute (TurkStat) has
made several important changes in the calen-
dar and procedures of some data releases for 2010.
Accordingly, ination and foreign trade gu-
res, which are currently disclosed at 5 p.m., will
be announced at 10 a.m. TurkStat currently an-
nounces key gures to the public after the mar-
kets are closed to avoid investors’ knee-jerk re-
actions without full and satisfactory information.
Meanwhile, starting in 2010 the central
bank will be responsible for releasing the re-
sults of tendency surveys in the manufacturing
industry, like capacity utilization rates. Addi-
tionally, the Turkish Union of Chambers and
Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) will be respon-
sible for recording and announcing gures on
company openings and liquidations.
The consumer and producer price indexes
will continue to be released on the third day of
every month. If the third day of a month falls
on the weekend, the data will be disclosed on
the next working day. Foreign trade statistics
will also continue to be announced on the last
working day of the month. Similarly, no change
has been made in the calendar of revealing the
industrial output numbers. This set of data will
be released on the 8th of every month or the clo-
sest working day if it is a weekend day.
TurkStat will start preparing new data series in
the new year, including sector-specic wastewater
statistics, labor participation rates by province and
construction sector turnover. Ankara Today’s Zaman
Sugar workers fight
privatization with
newspaper ads
eker-, the union representing workers
in the sugar production business, placed
full-page ads in the Wednesday editions of a
number of national newspapers to present the-
ir case in their rejection of the privatization of
the state’s sugar reneries.
The ads were titled “An open letter to our pri-
me minister.” The ads pointed out that sugar wor-
kers are eager to make Turkey a leading country in
the global sugar production market and are ready
to make any sacrice for the sake of this goal. Ho-
wever, the sugar workers claimed, the privatizati-
ons will present a serious obstacle to reaching this
aim by triggering the closure of at least 18 sugar
reneries, pushing over 350,000 beet farmers out
of business, causing nearly 9,000 workers to lose
their jobs and all in all making Turkey fully depen-
dent on foreigners for its sugar needs.
The ads called on the government to bring abo-
ut a series of reforms to increase efciency rather
than selling off its reneries, such as increasing the
capacity utilization of facilities and “transferring to-
tal ownership of sugar reneries to beet producers,
as in the US and Europe.” stanbul Today’s Zaman
Livestock breeders
left with unsold
animals after Eid
Unexpectedly low animal sales during Eid
al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrice) have left
breeders in a difcult situation with many unsold
animals, stated Nazif Karabulut, president of the
Union of Red Meat Producers in Konya.
High feed prices, drought and the trade of
smuggled animals, compounded with unsold lives-
tock left over from Eid al-Adha, have led to difcul-
ties for livestock breeders. According to Karabulut,
the decreased purchasing power of customers along
with the high prices of livestock this year led to a tro-
ugh in sales. “We haven’t been able to meet our sales
goals and are very disappointed right now,” he said.
He highlighted that charitable organizations
also contributed to the low sales as citizens in
these difcult nancial times preferred to donate
their sacrices to the needy -- a cost of TL 280
compared to TL 500 for animals sacriced for con-
sumption by the customer. “Breeders who didn’t
heed our warning to lower their prices were left
with many unsold animals,” he added.
Chamber of Butchers President Mehmet Cengiz
noted that they expected a drop in the price per ki-
logram of lamb to TL 14 compared to TL 16.5 before
the Eid al-Adha holiday. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
Morningstar: Iran not in position to take part in energy projects
contýnued from page 1
Morningstar, who was in Turkey for ofcial
talks, responded to journalists’ questions after a
meeting with Turkish Energy and Natural Resour-
ces Minister Taner Yldz.
“We have been constantly saying that, in our
opinion, Iran is not in a position to become a part
of any new projects in the southern corridor. If
the relations with Iran are normalized and nuc-
lear issues are resolved then it will of course be a
positive development,” he said, adding that this
situation will be to Turkey’s advantage thanks to
the important and powerful role it plays in the
region. The US also wants Iraqi gas to be trans-
President Abdullah Gül and his wife, Hayrünnisa, are pictured visiting the grave of Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. Gül signed a long-awaited
free trade agreement with Jordan on Tuesday as part of talks to increase economic cooperation between the two countries.
Jordan, Turkey sign free trade
deal, scrap visa requirements
Turkish President Abdullah Gül and
Jordan’s King Abdullah II signed a
long-awaited free trade agreement
on Tuesday as part of ofcial talks to further
economic relations between the two countries.
“The free trade agreement, which was sig-
ned today, is key to enhancing bilateral eco-
nomic cooperation and boosting trade as well
as investments between Jordan and Turkey,”
a statement from the palace quoted the king
telling Gül. “The two sides discussed efforts to
strengthen cooperation in the elds of trans-
port and energy,” the statement added.
The free trade agreement abolishes all tariff
and non-tariff barriers on trade while aiming to
strengthen economic, technical and industrial
Antibiotics consumption reaches $5.5 billion in last five years
Turkish Pharmacists Union (TEB) Secretary-
General Özgür Özel revealed that Turkey has
consumed TL 7.6 billion worth of antibiotics in the
past ve years, adding that public expectations and
pressure on physicians add to the above-average
consumption of antibiotics in Turkey.
Özel, speaking to an Anatolia news agency
reporter yesterday, noted that Turkey’s consump-
tion of antibiotics is higher than many European
nations, and that according to data from the past
ve years the most consumed antibiotics are for a
broad spectrum of uses. He noted that antibiotics
were mostly used for upper and lower respiratory
tract infections.
According to the data supplied by Özel, Turkey
consumed TL 7.6 billion, or $5.5 billion, worth of
antibiotics in the period from January 2005 to Oc-
ported through the Nabucco gas pipeline, he said.
Turkey supports the normalization of rela-
tions between Iraq and Iran, Yldz said, adding
that Turkey is ready to do its own part in this re-
gard. Both Iran and Turkey will allow gas trans-
portation through their territories, the minister
said, stressing that Turkey is determined to beco-
me a crossroad for energy transportation.
Asked about the project to build a nuclear
plant in Turkey, Morningstar stated that the US
absolutely supports Turkey’s decision to construct
a nuclear power plant, stressing that they want
the tender for the project to be done through
open tender procedures. Speaking on the sub-
cooperation between the two countries. The go-
vernments also agreed to scrap visa requirements.
Turkey has been negotiating a free trade deal
with Jordan since 2005. Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoan and his Jordanian counter-
part, Nader Dahabi, agreed last month in Ankara
to sign the agreement before the end of the year.
A statement by the Turkish Foreign Trade
Ministry stated yesterday that the agreement will
contribute to commercial relations with an aim
to increase annual trade volume between the
two nations from $486 million as of the end of
2008 to $1 billion within two years. Trade betwe-
en the two countries in the rst half of this year
exceeded $150 million, while Turkish invest-
ments in Jordan were estimated at $90 million.
tober 2009, which adds up to more than 1 billion
boxes. He added that 95 percent of medicines sold
in Turkey are paid for by various social security ins-
titutions and that on average TL 1.4 billion per year
was spent by the government for medicine consu-
med in the last ve years.
Speaking on the social habit of using antibiotics,
Özel said: “The sick tend to scan and treat themsel-
ves with antibiotics, especially in cases of upper res-
piratory tract and urinary tract infections. The pati-
ents’ expectations and the pressure they put on the
doctors have a great role to play in the number of
prescriptions written for antibiotics. Moreover, doc-
tors who don’t want to damage the patient-doctor
relationship also fall into the same trap and will
prescribe antibiotics needlessly. The same applies
to pharmacists, who for the same reasons dole out
CMYK
TODAY’S ZAMAN 07
jects discussed in the meeting with Morningstar,
Yldz said possible ways to increase trade volu-
me between Turkey and the US in line with the-
ir strategic partnership was also on the agenda.
Cooperation opportunities between the two co-
untries in oil exploration in Turkey or a third co-
untry were also discussed during the meeting, the
minister added. Yldz said Iraq will organize 10
tenders in the eld of oil exploration. The Turkish
Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) will attend four
of these tenders alone and remaining six with a
consortium, he said, adding that the TPAO might
establish consortiums for one to two tenders
with American companies. stanbul Today’s Zaman
AA, RIZA ÖZEL
PHOTO
Gül participated in a ceremony on Wednes-
day to inaugurate a $990 million plan to extract
100 million cubic meters of water a year from the
300,000-year-old Disi aquifer in southern Jordan.
The four-year project is being carried out by Tur-
kish construction giant GAMA.
Gül is on a three-day visit to Jordan until
Dec. 3. Even though he had a busy schedule,
the president found time to visit some impor-
tant places in the country. While in Jordan,
the president visited a memorial for Turkish
martyrs. He then visited the tombs of Prophet
Joshua and Prophet Muhammad’s compani-
on Abu Ubaidah ibn al-Jarrah. Gül and the
delegation accompanying him later had lunch
in a hotel by the Dead Sea. stanbul Today’s Zaman
antibiotics without prescriptions.” He added that
this is an especially critical problem in rural areas,
highlighting, “The basic approach to antibiotics --
much like the rest of the world -- should be that a
doctor prescribes them when they are needed and
a pharmacist then lls the prescription.”
As regards the general health situation in
Turkey and its effects on antibiotics consumption,
Özel noted, “Besides the habit of prescribing anti-
biotics, consuming more than Europe shows that,
much like other developing nations, we are more
susceptible to infections.” He stated that access to
clean drinking water, living in healthy dwellings
and having adequate nutrition also affected antibi-
otics use. According to Özel, the biggest problems
in antibiotics use is that patients stop the treat-
ment halfway through. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
Richard
Morningstar
Unemployment
to increase
from pharmacy
closures
A written statement released on Wed-
nesday by the Trade Union of Public
Employees in Health and Social Services
(SES) states that a decrease in medicine pri-
ces to be implemented on Dec. 4 will lead to
the closure of 7,000 pharmacies and an inc-
rease in unemployment in the health sector.
The statement, released yesterday by SES,
is in response to a price decrease of 2,750 me-
dicines that will go into effect on Dec. 4, which
will leave many pharmacies strapped for cash
as medicine that has already been bought at
higher prices from pharmaceutical companies
will need to be sold for the newer lower price
-- sometimes less than half the previous price.
The statement criticized the recent de-
velopments in health policy in the name of
cost cutting, stressing that “an approach that
increases check-up costs, puts a price on
primary care, withholds rights from health
workers and transforms public hospitals into
businesses will not cut costs but rather create
a catastrophe in the health sector.”
“These new implementations in the
name of cost cutting will lead to 7,000 clo-
sed pharmacies, a loss of jobs and restricted
access to health services for citizens. As a
solution, instead of nationalizing pharmaci-
es we want pharmaceuticals to lower their
prices and subsidize the losses incurred from
the new lower prices,” added the statement.
“We, the 24,000 pharmacists who want to
continue providing health services to our
citizens, want the catastrophe-creating cost-
cutting measures to stop. We will not be sub-
ject to footing the unjust bill for these measu-
res,” stressed the statement.
International Pharmaceutical Fede-
ration (FIP) President Kamal Midha has
sent a letter to Health Minister Recep Ak-
da, asking him to support pharmacists by
not putting them at risk for closure as a
result of these harsh regulations.
Midha, who met with Akda at the 69th
International FIP Congress in November, sent
a letter regarding the new price changes for
medicines, noting that this regulation would
not only affect pharmacists but also the public
at large. “If this situation endangers pharma-
cists’ businesses, then it will affect the services
that patients receive, and patients may lose trust
in their pharmacist. I ask that if steps are to be
taken, we tread carefully. If you would like your
decisions to be successfully implemented, it is
important that you consult with pharmacies
linked to the Turkish Pharmacists Union [TEB].
I respect the decisions that your government
has made, but as FIP president, I would like
to respectfully say pharmacists are vital to the
public health of a nation.” stanbul Today’s Zaman
TODAY’S ZAMAN
GRAPHIC
 08 TODAY’S ZAMAN THURSDAY DECEMBER 3, 2009
BUSINESS

TODAY’S ZAMAN
Mineks again securing Arab funds to plow Turkish fields MÜSAD Chairman
Ömer Cihad Vardan

ROBERTA DAVENPORT ANTALYA in the Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) -- hit the tion. The second group [comprises companies focus- ing has been nancing limitations -- which can
rocks when the banks were affected by the continued ing on the production of] seeds. This is followed by be solved with the procurement of such a large
On the rebound from plans run ashore amidst spiral of the nancial crisis. Mineks decided to work fruits or vegetables and then animal husbandry.” investment fund, he said. “I can see that these

the global nancial storm, Mineks International
is back in action, securing new Arab funds to develop
Turkish agricultural technologies.
Speaking with journalists on the sidelines of
a tournament at the National Golf Club, Bülent
Göktuna, chairman of the board of directors of the
Mineks International M&A consultancy rm, said
Mineks had withdrawn from the Vision3 project.
Announced last November, the strategic alliance be-
tween three major Gulf banks to bring a $9 billion in-
vestment trust to Turkey -- particularly in investment
PHOTO
directly with other investment funds to nd new Göktuna explained that they were thinking companies could just explode in size with an in-
sources of funding and their pursuit has borne fruit. of entering the eld either through a merger or vestment, an injection of cash like this,” he said.
“As Mineks, we continued our pursuit of [sover- acquisition and then as a second stage, bring the Göktuna also spoke about plans for new in-
eign wealth funds],” Göktuna said, announcing that technologies developed in Turkey to the Gulf and vestments in solar energy, saying Mineks had
they had neared an agreement with a new Arab in- northern Africa and develop agriculture there. reached an agreement with the world’s biggest
vestment fund. Declining to disclose the name of the The investment is to begin with $200 million and, producer of solar panels and that they were
investment group, Göktuna did comment: “It’s an sparing any new disasters in the global markets, planning to reach the same stage soon with a
Arab investment group. Right now we’re looking at is expected to grow to $9 billion in the next two Bahraini company. “They want to invest here [in
companies active in the private Turkish agricultural to three years, Göktuna said. The Turkish agricul- Turkey]. We’re aiming for a 200 megawatt solar
sector. Our main focus here is on the companies who ture sector is rather developed, he noted, and the investment. Investments will be made in areas
have developed themselves in terms of grain produc- only thing that has prevented rms from grow- like Konya, Nide and Antalya,” he said.

MÜSAD head:
bubble economies
not sustainable
Gold sets new record, Independent Industrialists and Businessmen’s
Association (MÜSAD) Chairman Ömer Cihad
Vardan has said the debt crisis that erupted recently
in Dubai has revealed once again that bubble econ-

rsk appette boosts shares omies cannot be sustained for a long time.
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency, Vardan
stressed the importance of the real sector in the
economy. “The latest developments in Dubai have
shown us again that bubble economies are not sus-

REUTERS
European stock markets took a breath-
er Wednesday following big gains the tainable and do not help economies progress. It
previous day as investors awaited key should not be forgotten that the main components
economic news out of the US. Meanwhile, of the economy are the real sector, production in line

PHOTO
gold struck another new record high as the with demand and the buying and selling of goods in
dollar remained weak. real terms,” he said, adding that he hoped this event
In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading would serve as a strong warning, especially for the
British shares was down 9.10 points, or 0.2 nancial sector.
percent, at 5,303.07 while Germany’s DAX Assessing Turkey’s situation in overcoming the
fell just over a point to 5,775.35. The CAC- global nancial crisis, Vardan noted that Turkey has
40 in France was 3.28 points, or 0.1 percent, worked to rise above the adverse effects of the crisis
higher at 3,779.02. through proactive policies and realistic planning. “It
Wall Street was also poised to open is not possible to think that Turkey, with the 17th
steady after a solid advance on Tuesday -- largest economy in the world and sixth largest in
Dow futures were down 5 points, or 0.1 per- Europe, along with its foreign trade volume of ap-
cent, at 10,456 while the broader Standard & proximately $340 billion, would remain unaffected
Poor’s 500 futures fell 0.4 point to 1,108. by global developments. Thus, as was expected,
Markets are awaiting a raft of economic Turkey suffered as a result of the crisis,” he said.
news over the coming couple of days, includ- However, he added that improvements have started
ing Thursday’s monetary policy meeting of to take place both in capacity utilization rates and
the European Central Bank and Friday’s US the industry production index along with a recovery
nonfarm payrolls report for November -- the in global demand, all of which will have a positive
jobs data often set the tone in the markets impact on Turkey in the days to come.
for a week or two. If over the week inves- Asked about whether there will be a new crisis,
tors conclude that the US economy is losing he asserted that the prediction of an eruption of a
steam, then that could well pave the way for new crisis does not stem from real market indica-
an end of year bout of prot-taking following tors as it is all speculation. “In this regard, the up-
an eight-month bull run. swing in prices of especially gold and oil has reached
The main piece of economic data Wednes- noteworthy levels. However, the decisions made in
day will be the monthly US jobs survey from both G-20 meetings and the International Monetary
the ADP payrolls rm -- markets take a close Fund [IMF]-World Bank meetings are being deci-
look at the data to see if they have to revise sively pursued by the governments, and it seems
their expectations for Friday’s ofcial govern- that it will prevent any possible crisis from taking
ment report. At the moment, the consensus in Gold broke $1,200 an ounce, surging to a new record of $1,218.40 yesterday. By the afternoon gold was up 0.9 percent on the day at $1,211.30. place again.” stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
the markets is that November payrolls fell by
around 120,000 but the unemployment rate last week will not materialize. or 0.8 percent, to 22,289.57 and South Ko- the euro. By early afternoon London time, the
held steady at a 26-year high of 10.2 percent. Earlier, Asian stocks powered ahead as rea’s Kospi jumped 21.91 points, or 1.4 dollar was up 0.5 percent on the day at 87.18
So far this week, investor jitters related they responded to the continuing recovery percent, to 1,591.63. Australia’s benchmark yen while the euro was steady at $1.5084.
‘Crisis in Dubai unlikely
to Dubai’s debt problems have calmed down
amid hopes that Dubai World, the govern-
in Europe and the US On Tuesday, stocks
were helped by an easing of tensions re-
advanced 0.9 percent and China’s Shanghai
index climbed 1.1 percent.
Currency traders are on the lookout to see if
the euro can push back up towards last week’s
to influence Turkish
ment investment company, will have around
$26 billion worth of its debts restructured.
lated to Dubai’s debt problems and further
encouraging US economic data, particularly
Oil prices hung above $78 after a big jump
overnight while gold, which Tuesday broke
16-month high of $1.5144. If it does so, then it
could start to target its all-time highs above $1.60.
iron and steel sector’
Last week, the company -- with a total of from the housing sector. Tokyo shares closed above $1,200 an ounce surged to a new record “There is potential in the short term for Dubai’s economic meltdown and the restruc-
$60 billion worth of debt -- sent shockwaves nearly 1 percent higher as investors gave a of $1,218.40. By early afternoon London time, some further upside but with the European turing of its debt have raised concerns over the
around global nancial markets when it said muted thumbs-up to the Bank of Japan’s new oil was trading 57 cents lower at $77.80 while Central Bank meeting this week, there is bound Turkish iron and steel sector, as Dubai was among the
it was looking to postpone forthcoming debt measures to offer cheap loans to commercial gold was up 0.9 percent on the day at $1,211.30. to be some concern about the high level of the largest importers of Turkish iron and steel.
payments until May. banks. The Nikkei 225 stock average was up Commodity and energy prices are mostly euro with respect to European exporters and In an attempt to allay worries, Steel and Iron Pro-
The hope in the markets is that the 36.74 points, or 0.4 percent, at 9,608.94. priced in gold so invariably strengthen when this could weigh,” said Michael Hewson, an ducers Association (DÇÜD) Secretary-General Veysel
fear of contagion that gripped investors Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 176.42, the dollar is on the retreat, particularly against analyst at CMC Markets. London AP Yayan told the Anatolia news agency on Wednesday
that Turkey’s iron and steel exports -- especially to
neighboring countries -- are on the rise and that they
are not pessimistic about the year ahead.
Even though an important share of the sector’s ex-
ports used to go to Dubai, exports to Dubai have been
declining since the end of the global nancial crisis,
Yayan said. “Exports to Dubai dropped by one-third
Daily Monthly Yearly YTD MCAP 1-Y Country Change Level over time. This decline led several rms to North Af-
Close Change (%) Change (%) Change (%) Change (%) (million TL) Av.Volum (%)
İMKB-100
rican or other countries. We predict that the impact
46.084 1,6% 1,6% 89,4% 71,5% 259.376 1.558 Hang Seng H.Kong 1,34 22.113,2 66.33
İMKB-30 58.340 1,6% 1,6% 88,1% 66,7% 211.978 1.176 Nikkei 225 Japan 2,43 9.572,2 52.97
of the debt crisis in Dubai will be very limited on the
51.6
İMKB-IND 34.197 1,7% 1,7% 84,2% 72,9% 70.268 493 Cac 40 France 1,82 3.747,2 47.03 sector. We do not expect a sharp decline in exports,”
İMKB-BANK 101.738 1,9% 1,9% 110,7% 81,7% 119.865 716 DAX Germany 1,80 5.727,0 he said, adding that the effect of the crisis has been
33.67
DJIMT 10,00 1,8% 1,8% 42,1% 40,9% - 0,44 FTSE 100 UK 1,70 5.278,8 26,2
9.6
minimal on the iron and steel bourse so far.
Dow USA 0,83 10.420,0 8,5
TurkDEX NASDAQ USA 1,14 1.787,5 According to data provided by the stanbul Steel
US$/JP¥ Native Foreign Native Foreign
58,400 2,10% S&P USA 0,78 1.104,2 and Iron Exporters Union, Egypt imported the largest
EU€/JP¥ 1,5135 0,17% BOVESPA Brasil 1,84 68.274,7 Number of Shares M.cap Number of Shares M.cap
amount of Turkish iron and steel in the January-Oc-
AT A GL ANCE
CALENDAR tober period of this year. Exports to Egypt amounted
pected
No data ex Daily Monthly Yearly
to 2.28 billion tons at a cost of $1.03 billion. Exports
Ticker Price (TL) Daily Change (%) Ticker Price Daily Change (%) Ticker Volumes Price (TL) Yearly Change (%)
Close Change (%) Change (%) Change (%) US$/JP¥ 86,70 to the United Arab Emirates, which used to rank rst
MERKO 1,33 15,65% GRUND 0,52 -7,14% KOZAA 286,6 5,0 468,18
TL / € 2,263 1,5% EU/JP¥ 130,85 in previous years, decreased by 69 percent in the rst
AKSA 1,83 10,91% FROTO 8,25 -3,51% GARAN 200,9 5,3 106,34 TL / $ 1,502 1,3% EU/US$ 1,5092
DGZTE 3,20 10,34% PETKM 6,35 -2,31% ISCTR 128,1 5,3 45,40
10 months of the year compared to the same period
HURGZ 1,72 8,18% TOASO 4,00 -1,96% ECILC 125,7 2,0 146,47
of last year, and totaled 1.54 million tons. With a 188
ECILC 2,01 7,49% PEGYO 0,50 -1,96% THYAO 93,1 4,9 358,72 Price ($) Way Change (%) High Low percent increase in exports in the rst 10 months of
Light C. Oil 79,33 1,1% 79,89 78,25 this year over the same period of 2008, Iraq came in
Gold 1193,50 1,8% 1193,50 1193,50 third, after the UAE. Total exports of Turkish iron and
Copper 318,45 0,8% 319,80 314,05
ÝMKB 100 ÝMKB 30 ÝMKB IND RETAILER BIMAS CARFA BOYNR KIPA steel companies to Iraq totaled 672,000 tons.
Mcap TL -- -- -- 6.695,8 4.554 1.320 95 727 P/E: Share price divided by earnings per share is a measure of the price paid for a share relative to the Libya also imported signicant amounts of iron
P/E 2006/12 income or profit earned by the firm per share.
P/E 2007/06t 13,9x 13,1x 11,2x 243,8x 63,3x -97,7x 15,0x -19,5x EV/EBITDA: Enterprise value divided by earnings before interest, tax and amortization; “t” stands for and steel from Turkey. Annual exports to the coun-
P/E 2007/09t 9,9x 9,4x 8,5x 301,9x 56,5x -556,5x 5,9x -10,0x trailer and means the data over the last four quarters. try were on average 40,000-45,000 tons in previous
(*) Yesterday's closing(**) Updated at 6 p.m. by GMT+2
EV/EBITDA 2006/12* 9,5x 9,1x 8,4x 329,8x 50,3x -212,0x 4,9x -8,7x years; this gure climbed to 546,000 tons in the rst 10
Disclaimer: The information in this report has been prepared by BMD, Bizim Securities from sources believed
EV/EBITDA 2007/03t* 6,2x 4,9x 7,6x 29,3x 41,8x 16,4x 6,1x 39,8x
EV/EBITDA 2007/06t*
to be reliable. All the information, interpretations and recommendations covered herein relating to months of this year. Yemen, Singapore, Saudi Arabia
6,8x 5,5x 7,5x 30,8x 39,0x 19,8x 5,6x 71,6x investment actions are not within the scope of investment consultancy. Therefore investment decisions
6,6x 5,3x 7,6x 28,1x 36,9x 20,4x 4,8x 34,2x based only on the information covered herein may not bring expected results. and Ethiopia all increased the amount of iron and steel
they import from Turkey. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires

CMYK
 TRAVEL THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
Women praying The clock tower
in front of the and Ottoman
AP
al-Aqsa Mosque mosques in Acre
PHOTO
JERUSALEM,
THE AL-AQSA
JERUSALEM-- Jerusalem is a city that three major religions
all see as very important. It is a city which people have not
wanted to share for thousands of years now, a sacred city. In
MOSQUE AND
the year 1517, the Ottomans took Jerusalem, and it remained
under their jurisdiction for another 400 years. During these
years, Sultan Süleyman the Magnicent commissioned some
important walls, fountains and large gateways in Jerusalem.
In short, it was a period during which much construction was
THE CITY OF
completed and even sped up in Jerusalem. In fact, the historical
walls still standing and encircling Jerusalem today were built
during Sultan Süleyman’s time. Also, it was the Ottomans who
gave the city the name it still holds in Turkish: Kudüs-u erif.
The land of Jerusalem is one in which mosques, church-
ACRE
es and synagogues stand side by side. There is the al-Aqsa
Mosque, the Wailing Wall and the Armageddon Church.
The open markets of this sacred city are places where
people from all three of the major religions try to earn a living.
Our rst stop was the al-Aqsa Mosque. This mosque lived
out its rst golden age during the times of the Prophets Da-
YUNUS EMRE HATUN LU
vid and Solomon. And after Prophet Muhammad came and
prayer became mandatory, the early Muslims turned toward
it when praying. Two years after the Hijra, during which
Prophet Muhammad migrated from Mecca to Medina, the
Angel Gabriel revealed verses of the Quran that changed the
direction of prayer from the al-Aqsa Mosque to the Kaaba, a
cube-like structure in the center of Mecca. To this day, Mus-
lims turn in the direction of the Kaaba while praying.
The most sacred mosques in the world are the al-Harem
Mosque in Mecca, the Nabawi Mosque in Medina and the
MAP
al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The Prophet Muhammad is
reported to have said that prayers performed in these three
mosques are more valued than prayers done in other mosques.
The second golden age of the al-Aqsa Mosque came during
the reign of the Caliph Umar. During the Crusades, the mosque
was taken over by Crusaders and used as a church. When Sala-
huddin Ayyubi, popularly known as Saladin, came into Jerusa-
lem, the al-Aqsa Mosque was re-opened as a mosque.
Near the structure of the al-Aqsa Mosque is the Dome
of the Rock, topped with a golden dome. This octagonal
shaped mosque has inside it a rock from which the Prophet
Muhammad is believed to have ascended to heaven.
Fethullah Gülen, a famous Turkish scholar of Islam, de-
scribes the miraculous atmosphere of peace and serenity
contained in the al-Aqsa Mosque in those times as
such: “During that time period, the al-Aqsa
Mosque and the Kaaba rose high upon or-
ders that came from the sky, bursting forth
as if from the ground into the air. The
sacred mihrabs and minbars opened
their wings for the ages… It became
a literal ‘paradise on earth,’ a holy
and sacred spot. It is such a great
spot that you can hear the voice
of the Prophet Adam resound-
ing within it, and you can feel
the breath of Prophet Solomon
around it. Under the dome,
the words spoken by the
CMYK
TODAY’S ZAMAN 09
The Dome of
the Rock
SAM ORHAN
PHOTO
Prophets David and Solomon echo.”
“Yes, if only this sacred spot could speak, and if it could
The land of
relate the events it has witnessed throughout the past, Jerusalem is one
as well as everything it goes through today. Perhaps if it
could do this, the faithless friends of the mosque would in which mosques,
come to their senses” Gülen says. churches and
Our next stop was the Wailing Wall. Everyone is searched
on their approach to this wall, held sacred by the world’s synagogues stand
Jews. In the year 70, the Romans destroyed Solomon’s Tem-
ple for the second time and killed or drove out many Jewish
side by side. There is
residents of the city. The only part to remain of the second the al-Aqsa Mosque,
temple was what is now called the Wailing Wall. The wall is
100 meters long and 20 meters high. And so, with their tal-
the Wailing Wall and
lith shawls on their shoulders and kippahs or yarmulkes on the Armageddon
their heads, Jewish men come to pray here, right next to the
al-Aqsa Mosque. Some of the Jewish men here wear fedoras Church. The open
and long black coats, swaying and repeating their prayers.
Religious, married Jewish women are careful to wear heads-
markets of this sacred
carves over their hair. In fact, some wear wigs, which are very city are places where
popular among Orthodox Jewish women in general. Orthodox
Jewish families often see to it that their children receive a mostly
people from all three
of the major religions
religious education. At the same time, members of the Orthodox
community often vote for the more conservative parties in Israel.
Near the Wailing Wall are many tunnels. Some of these run try to earn a living
near and under the al-Aqsa Mosque. In fact, there was a great
worry in the Muslim world that these tunnels might be used to ap-
proach and harm the sacred al-Aqsa Mosque from underneath.
Christianity also holds Jerusalem in high esteem. The
route last walked by Jesus Christ was through the city of Jeru-
salem and the site where Christians believe he was crucied is
now home to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.
Our next stop was the historic city of Acre. A short walk
through Acre feels like a walk through a real Ottoman city.
The city of Acre is home to the Akko Tower, a major land-
mark. After being taken over by the Byzantines, the Mamluks
and the Ottomans, this tower fell into the hands of the British.
Other Ottoman masterpieces include the Jezzar Ahmet
Pasha Mosque. Its architectural style is a clear sign that it is
an Ottoman mosque. On Leyletu-l-Qadr, the 27th night of
Ramadan, visitors have the opportunity to see a hair from
the beard of Prophet Muhammad here. Other strands of
the Prophet’s beard are held in various places throughout
the world, including Konya and stanbul. The grave of Jez-
zar Ahmet Pasha is located in the courtyard of this mosque.
This beautiful mosque is a direct reminder of the presence of
the Ottomans in these lands. The buildings are still the same, the
soil beneath us is still the same, it is only the people who have
changed. The Jewish population of this city, only around 500 in
the 1500s, rose to around 85,000 by the time of World War I.
In the evening hours, we met with the mayor of Acre. He told
us that “wherever you look in our city, you will see traces of the
Ottomans. In fact, these Ottomans structures encompass the most
important sections of Acre. There are other subjects of which we are
very proud here. In this city, Muslims, Bahais, Jews and Christians
all live in peace together. These aren’t merely words. Let’s take a
look at the city council as an example. There are four Arab mem-
bers on this council and, in fact, one of them is my assistant. And I
would also like to add that the Arab population of the city makes a
full quarter of the city’s population. This is not a small group at all.”
With Acre behind us, we headed straight for the city of
Yafa (Jaffa or Haifa). This port city has many Ottoman mas-
terpieces left over, with many beautiful mosques and mina-
rets grabbing our attention. One of the historical mosques
here is the Mahmudiye Mosque. There is also a very his-
torical clock tower that resembles ones in Jerusalem and
Acre and was built in 1906 on the occasion of Sultan Abdül-
hamit II ascending to the throne of the Ottoman Empire.
TODAY’S ZAMAN, ADEM YAVUZ ARSLAN
PHOTO
The al-Aqsa
Mosque
 10 TODAY’S ZAMAN
TRIAL
Son of Gotti eludes
conviction fourth time
The trial of John “Junior” Gotti on murder and racke-
teering charges ended in a mistrial on Tuesday, allow-
ing the prominent mob gure to elude conviction in
his fourth racketeering trial in ve years. John A. Gotti,
45, the son of late notorious Gambino crime family
boss John J. Gotti, escaped conviction on charges of
ordering or taking part in the drug-related killings
of two men in 1988 and 1991 and racketeering con-
spiracy that included murder, kidnapping, robbery,
extortion and drug dealing. US District Judge Kevin
Castel declared a mistrial after the jury was unable to
reach a decision on any charge. Gotti bowed his head
and rubbed his eyes upon hearing the judge declare
a mistrial, while family members cheered and cried
in the courtroom’s gallery. “Why me? I am blessed.
I can’t complain,” Gotti told reporters outside the
courthouse. “I am walking out the door. I am going
to have a healthy and happy Christmas.” US Attorney
in Manhattan Preet Bharara said in a statement the
ofce was evaluating whether to retry the case. Gotti’s
previous trials in 2005 and 2006 on similar charges all
ended in hung juries. His lawyer said Gotti was once
a high-ranking member of the Gambinos but 10 years
ago. Prosecutors say Gotti, nicknamed Junior, took
control as street boss of the Gambinos from his father,
who was known as the “Teon Don” for his many
years of evading criminal conviction. New York Reuters
SCANDAL
WH gate-crashers
went without invitation
Copies of e-mails between the White House party
crashers and a Pentagon ofcial undermine their
claims that they were invited to President Barack
Obama’s rst state dinner. Tareq and Michaele Salahi
pressed the friendly Pentagon aide for four days to
score tickets to the big event. By their own admission
in the e-mails, they showed up at the White House
gates at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 24 without an invitation
-- “to just check in, in case it got approved since we
didn’t know, and our name was indeed on the list!”
But the Secret Service has said they weren’t on that
list and that it erred by letting them in anyway. In
an e-mail sent just hours after last week’s dinner to
Pentagon ofcial Michele Jones, the Salahis claimed a
dead cell phone battery prevented them from hearing
Jones’ voice mail earlier that day advising them they
did not make the guest list. A collection of e-mails be-
tween the Salahis and Jones was obtained on Tuesday
night by The Associated Press from a source who got
them in a manner that conrmed their authenticity.
Last week’s White House gate caper has captivated a
capital where high-end social life and celebrity erup-
tions frequently enliven the day-to-day business of
governing. Congress also is about to hold a hearing.
President Barack Obama and rst lady Michelle are
described as angry. Washington AP
OPTIMISM
‘Croatia may move
further on EU path’
European Union president Sweden plans one more
round of entry talks with EU candidate Croatia this
month, a Swedish diplomat said on Tuesday, in a
boost for Zagreb’s efforts to wrap up accession negoti-
ations next year. The former Yugoslav republic, which
hopes to join the 27-nation EU in 2012, resumed talks
in October after a 10-month stalemate due to a bor-
der dispute with EU neighbor Slovenia. It has since
had two negotiating sessions to make up for lost time.
“We don’t know the date and the number of chapters
on the agenda, but our intention is to organise one
more accession conference,” Sweden’s ambassador
to Croatia, Fredrik Vahlquist, told a news confer-
ence. Candidates have to clinch agreement on entry
terms in 33 policy areas or chapters. Croatia has so far
opened talks on 28 chapters and closed 15. Some of
the toughest areas are still ahead, notably on judicial
reform and competition policy, which concerns the
fate of ailing shipyards kept alive by high state sub-
sidies. “Croatia is moving in the right direction, but a
few important challenges are still ahead. They include
ght against corruption and organised crime, coop-
eration with the UN war crimes tribunal and tenders
for shipyards,” said chief EU envoy to Croatia Paul
Vandoren. Zagreb Reuters
PROPOSAL
US spy Pollard:
Kill Hamas prisoners
An American convicted of spying for Israel is
reportedly proposing that Israel kill Hamas pris-
oners rather than swap them for a captive Israeli
soldier. The Jerusalem Post daily reports that Jon-
athan Pollard says Israel should kill one Hamas
prisoner every day until the militant group frees
Sgt. Gilad Schalit. Pollard, who is serving a life
sentence in the US for his 1985 spy conviction,
also says he’d refuse to be exchanged for “ter-
rorists.” The paper said Wednesday that Pollard
made the remarks to Israeli ultranationalist activ-
ist Moshe Feiglin who visited him in a prison in
Buttner, North Carolina. Israel and Gaza’s Hamas
rulers are believed to be nearing a deal to swap
1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Schalit, who has
been held in Gaza since 2006. Jerusalem AP
Russian proposal on security gets cautious response
American and European ofcials identied
potential problems with Russia’s proposal
to overhaul security agreements spanning western
and central Asian countries.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev outlined
his country’s plan in letters sent to Western leaders
over the weekend, and Russian ofcials at a meeting
of foreign ministers from the 56-nation Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) de-
scribed the proposals as a vital post-Cold War reform.
But Britain noted the plan made no mention of arms
control, human rights or new security threats, which
Britain’s ambassador to the OSCE, Ian Cliff, said were
”all vital elements to the debate on security.” Others said
that the region’s existing security structures should be
bolstered instead of searching to create new ones.
“My take is that European security has been
very well managed by three organizations over the
past 60 years -- the OSCE, the European Union
and NATO -- so one would have to prove the value
EU hails new era as
treaty goes into force
The treaty, which aims to make decision-making smoother, creates a long-term
president and enhances the powers of the EU foreign policy chief, is intended to
give the 27-country bloc more political clout to match its economic weight
Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates delivers his speech as the flag of his country is seen on the screen (L) with European flag (R)
during the inaugural session of the new European treaty at the Belem Tower in Lisbon. The EU hailed the treaty as the start of a new era.
The European Union hailed the start
of a new era on Tuesday night after its
Lisbon reform treaty went into force,
carrying with it the bloc’s hopes of becoming a
more powerful force on the world stage.
The treaty, which aims to make decision-
making smoother, creates a long-term president
and enhances the powers of the EU foreign pol-
icy chief, is intended to give the 27-country bloc
more political clout to match its economic weight.
Portugal, which held the rotating EU presi-
dency two years ago when the treaty was signed,
held a ceremony for key EU ofcials on the banks
of the Tagus River to mark the day. “This is the day
of the Treaty of Lisbon, a day of new beginnings,”
said Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.
“We can now show the world that the EU
will be better prepared for the challenges ahead
of us,” said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Rein-
feldt, whose country currently holds the rotating
EU presidency. Briton Catherine Ashton started
work immediately as foreign affairs chief. Belgian
Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy takes over
as president of the Council of EU leaders on Jan. 1.
But the impact of the changes under the
treaty will not be felt overnight and the EU has
struggled to assert itself as emerging powers
such as China become more inuential fol-
lowing the global economic crisis. “The con-
struction of Europe needs to be legitimized at
all times,” Van Rompuy said, adding that the
treaty was a “powerful tool for us to tackle the
challenges of our time.”
Although the Union is an important political
and trading bloc representing nearly 500 million
people, its leaders have often looked divided dur-
ing the eight years it took to negotiate and ratify
the Lisbon treaty. They reached agreement on
the appointment of Ashton and Van Rompuy
only at the last minute last month, and critics say
Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mamedyarov (R) chats with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner (2nd L) in front
of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (C), Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian (2nd R) and US Deputy
Secretary of State James Steinberg after their meeting at the 17th Ministerial Council of the OSCE in Athens.
added of new security structures on top of this,”
Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb said. The
cool response came amid dampened expectations
over hopes that OSCE delegates would issue a po-
litical declaration on a new security agreement that
Former Belgian Prime Minister and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy (R) poses for photogra-
phers with Socrates as he arrives for a ceremony to mark the start of the EU ’s Lisbon reform treaty.
the choice of two leaders who are little known
even in the EU raises questions about how the
EU will raise its global prole.
“I think it is good that the rest of the world
reminds us that they would welcome some peo-
ple with ideas and some drive. Unfortunately it
is not a widely felt view in the EU,” said Daniel
Gros of the Centre for European Policy Studies.
New rules
The Lisbon treaty changes the rules on how de-
cisions are reached by the EU because decision-
making has become unwieldy since the accession
of 10 countries, mostly from eastern and central
Europe, in 2004 and two more in 2007. It hands
more power to the European Parliament, which
shares some legislative responsibilities with the
European Commission -- the EU executive and
a powerful regulatory body. Member states’ lead-
CMYK
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009 WORLD
REUTERS
a measured response to Medvedev’s letter and
said Washington was studying the document.
“Like other leaders, President [Barack] Obama re-
ceived President Medvedev’s letter containing a draft
PHOTO
European security treaty on Saturday,” said Steinberg.
“We are studying this proposal carefully and we wel-
come the opportunity to continue dialogue that has
been taking place within the OSCE.” However, Stein-
berg said reforms should not affect the role of NATO --
a common concern expressed by some alliance mem-
bers when discussing security changes.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov pro-
moted Medvedev’s letter as a way of improving
cooperation between the former Cold War foes.
“There is a need to undertake decisive steps to over-
would cover much of the northern hemisphere. come remaining dividing lines in the Euro-Atlantic
US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton region,” Lavrov said. “[It] seemed so achievable
did not attend the talks in Greece, nor did the for- right after the fall of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago.
eign ministers of Britain and Canada. James Stein- We can only blame remaining prejudices and inertia
berg, a deputy US secretary of state who did, gave for the fact that it has not been achieved.” Athens AP
REUTERS
PHOTO
Muntazer al-Zaidi (R) reacts as a shoe is thrown
at him during a news conference in Paris in this
video grab obtained on Wednesday.
Fellow Iraqi turns
tables on Bush
AP,ALVARO BARRIENTOS
shoe-thrower Zaidi
An Iraqi reporter imprisoned for throwing
his shoes at US President George W. Bush
found himself on the receiving end of a similar
footwear attack in Paris on Tuesday. Muntazer
al-Zaidi, whose are-up against Bush last De-
cember turned into a symbol of Iraqi anger, was
PHOTO
speaking at a news conference to promote his
campaign for victims of the war in Iraq when a
man in the audience hurled a shoe at him.
It hit the wall next to his head and a scuf-
e ensued in the audience, television footage
showed. French media said the attacker was an
exiled Iraqi journalist who spoke in defense of
US policy, accusing Zaidi of siding with a dicta-
torship, before throwing his shoe.
Zaidi’s own outburst summed up the feelings of
many Iraqis about the US military invasion of their
country and the ensuing bloodshed and sectarian
killing. Millions of people around the world saw im-
ages of him shouting “this is a goodbye kiss from the
Iraqi people, dog,” during a news conference by the
former US leader, before throwing his shoes at him.
Zaidi, a television reporter, was sentenced to
three years’ imprisonment for assaulting a head of
state. This was later reduced to one year and he was
released in September. He has alleged that he was
tortured by guards after his arrest. Paris Reuters
REUTERS, MARCOS BORGA
UK warns EU not to
stifle City of London
Britain has warned its EU partners not to stie
the City of London’s nancial services industry
with excessive regulation, responding to concerns that
France will push for tighter rules at its expense.
“London, whether others like it or not, is New
PHOTO
York’s only rival as a truly global nancial center. No
other center in Europe offers the same range of ser-
vices: banking, insurance, fund management, law and
accountancy,” nance minister Alistair Darling wrote
in The Times. “It is in all of Europe’s interests that they
prosper alongside their close European partners,” he
added in an article published on Wednesday.
His comments come after French President
Nicolas Sarkozy said on Tuesday that the nomina-
tion of a French commissioner in charge of EU mar-
kets will help continental economic ideals prevail
ers retain a lot of power.
over the discredited Anglo-Saxon model. Sarkozy
“I’m delighted that we now have the right
blamed the reputedly free-wheeling Anglo-Sax-
institutions to act and a period of stability, so that
on model for the global economic downturn and
we can focus all our energy on delivering what
matters to our citizens,” saidEuropean Com-
hailed the recent appointment of Michel Barnier, a
former agriculture minister in his government, as
mission President Jose Manuel Barroso. The
EU internal market commissioner. Finance minis-
Commission said the EU would now focus on
ters from the 27-country European Union met on
“managing a smooth exit from the economic and
Wednesday to discuss decit reduction and nan-
nancial crisis,” which opinion polls suggest is
cial regulation folllowing the global credit crisis.
the main concern of voters, many of whom re-
Britain has chaired the G-20 group of rich
gard the EU as out of touch with ordinary people.
and emerging nations this year and has stressed
Central to economic recovery will be reduc-
that tougher rules must be coordinated glob-
ing member states’ bloated budget decits and
ally to prevent one region from being disadvan-
deciding when to stop emergency nancial mea-
taged. Darling said that new rules on nancial
sures that were used to prop up the economy.
regulation must not undermine the functioning
Gross domestic product is expected to rise by
of the single European market.
only about 0.7 percent in 2010 and ofcial data
He said national supervisors, such as Brit-
show unemployment is expected to rise above 10
ain’s Financial Services Authority (FSA), must
percent in the EU next year. Lisbon Reuters
remain responsible for supervising individual
companies. London Reuters
 WORLD
Pakstan’s
next ght
OPINION
Hassan Abbas
TODAY’S ZAMAN
NEW YORK -- The terrorist sanctuary in the South
Waziristan region of Pakistan’s tribal frontier with
Afghanistan is coming apart. It took a while for the
Pakistani army to move against the region’s rising
violence and chaos, but its campaign in South Wa-
ziristan is making progress.
The campaign’s immediate impact consists in
Pakistan’s determination to establish its authority in
the area. But the window for the military to ll the
power vacuum will be open only briey. The terrorists
have shown before that they can take a punch, strike
back and even rebuild their networks.
Indeed, even as the Pakistani army launched
operation Rah-e-Nijat (Path to Salvation) in Oc-
tober, a dozen devastating terrorist attacks in Paki-
stan’s major cities demonstrated the reach of the
South Waziristan militants. In a few instances, se-
nior army and intelligence ofcers were targeted
outside their homes in Islamabad, despite extensive
security measures in and around the capital.
The Oct. 11 attack on army headquarters in Rawal-
pindi was the most daring of all -- and sent shudders
across the military command, because the terrorists
knew the layout of the military and security buildings.
But this inside knowledge also worked against the
militants, because it demonstrated what was at stake
for the country at large. No large street protests against
the military operation in South Waziristan have been
reported from anywhere in Pakistan.
But success in South Waziristan is only the
starting point for dealing with the problem. Mili-
tant hubs are scattered throughout the sparsely
populated tribal areas, including the North Wa-
ziristan, Orakzai and Mohmand regions. Moreover,
violent militancy has now spread into Pakistan
proper. Southern Punjab is seeing a rapid growth
in the number of religious fanatics, and rooting out
the problem there is much more challenging than
acting in the Pashtun tribal areas.
Many militants in Punjab worked closely with the
Pakistani intelligence services for years, and their in-
frastructure is dispersed and hidden in various towns
and villages. The army, which recruits heavily in the
Punjab, will not use force there in the way it is doing
in the tribal areas. Only a concerted law-enforcement
effort, with the full support of the intelligence services,
can succeed in the Pakistani heartland.
The deep security crisis in Pakistan is mirrored
across the border in Afghanistan, which offers a mod-
el of what not to do. The Afghan Taliban, removed
from power and routed from the country by the end
of 2001, needed only a few years to revive itself, owing
to the failure of the Afghan government and its inter-
national backers to rebuild and stabilize the country.
A critical factor in the Taliban’s revival was the ha-
ven that it found in the distant reaches of the Pakistan-
Afghanistan border and the support that it continued
to receive from elements within Pakistan. This time, as
the Afghan Taliban are expelled from Pakistan, NATO
and Afghan forces must be ready to take them on.
Observing the ghting in Pakistan, the United
States, Afghanistan and India, expect the Pakistani
army to take on both the Afghan Taliban and the Pak-
istani militants. But thousands of ghters are thought
to be dispersed in the Pashtun tribal areas of Pakistan,
with many of them focused on operations in Afghani-
stan. The cross-border movement of radicals suggests
the importance of international cooperation.
Moreover, alliances among radical groups are
constantly shifting, a reection of tribal traditions
and opportunism. Outsiders watching these shifts,
and the Pakistani government’s handling of them,
have been unable to discern a consistent pattern that
would explain Pakistani policy. But here, regional pol-
itics must be taken into account, especially the con-
tinuing rivalry between India and Pakistan.
At every stage of the lengthy conict that
has brought the US into the region, Pakistan has
sought to limit Indian inuence in Afghanistan.
Indeed, India’s growing inuence and investment
in Afghanistan is disturbing to Pakistan’s national
security apparatus. Ultimately, the dynamics of
Afghan politics will determine Afghanistan’s fate.
But a collaborative India-Pakistan effort to stabilize
the country could work wonders.
For both Pakistan and India, Afghanistan risks
turning into a new disputed territory, like Kash-
mir, where conict has damaged both countries
for more than 60 years. In Afghanistan today, they
have an opportunity to reject that precedent and act
on their mutual interest in stability.
Pakistan must be able to focus internally on its
future. Financially insolvent and politically paralyzed,
Pakistan needs international help to bring devel-
opment to its liberated tribal areas and hope to the
young people -- 65 percent of the population -- who
live there. For India, stability in Pakistan and Afghani-
stan would ease its rise to global economic power.
Both countries should take advantage of the opportu-
nity for cooperation provided by the Pakistani army’s
campaign against Waziristan’s militants.
*Hassan Abbas is a senior advisor to Harvard’s
Kennedy School of Government’s Belfer Center.
© Project Syndicate, 2009.
T H U R S D A Y, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9
AP,MUSADEQ SADEQ
PHOTO
US soldiers patrol in the center of Kabul on Wednesday. US President Barack Obama (below), in a defining moment of his presidency, an-
nounced that he will deepen the US involvement in Afghanistan by sending 30,000 more troops to fight the Taliban militants in the country.
Obama faces tough sell
with Afghan troop plan
Rising combat deaths and military costs have sapped US public support for the eight-
year-old war and Obama’s 30,000-strong troop increase plan has prompted protests from
left-leaning leaders of his Democratic Party ahead of next year’s congressional elections
President Barack Obama’s national
security team headed to Congress
on Wednesday to sell lawmakers
on his dramatic escalation of the Afghan
war, which his eld commander said would
make a “huge difference.”
Rising combat deaths and military costs have
sapped US public support for the eight-year-old
war and Obama’s 30,000-strong troop increase
plan has prompted protests from left-leaning
leaders of his Democratic Party ahead of next
year’s congressional elections.
Within hours of Obama’s speech an-
nouncing the extra troops would arrive within
months -- delivered as Wednesday dawned
in Afghanistan -- top US and NATO com-
mander Gen. Stanley McChrystal set off on a
battleeld tour to rally his forces.
Speaking to his commanders by video-
phone, McChrystal promised a dramatic change
in strategy, faster training of Afghan troops and
renewed emphasis on winning public support
for the Afghan government.
“I think it is going to make a huge difference,”
he told reporters. “I think we’ll be in great shape.”
Later on Wednesday, top Obama administra-
tion ofcials were in Congress, where they were
grilled from Democrats dubious of escalating the
war and Republicans suspicious of Obama’s call
for an 18-month timeline to begin withdrawing.
In his televised speech on Tuesday,
Obama said the goal of raising US troop lev-
els to nearly 100,000 was to step up the battle
against the Taliban, secure key centers and
train Afghan forces so they can take over, al-
lowing for a US withdrawal.
Allies were also expected to send more sol-
diers, with Obama saying “the common security
of the world” was at stake.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown
urged coalition countries to back Obama’s
plans. French President Nicolas Sarkozy wel-
comed the plans, but did not immediately
Iran releases five detained Britons from yacht, radio says
REUTERS
PHOTO
Iran on Wednesday released five British sailors who were de-
tained last week. The photograph shows unidentified crew mem-
bers and passengers before the yacht departed for a Dubai race.
TODAY’S ZAMAN 11
Afghans not
impressed by
troop surge
Thirty thousand more US troops for Afghani-
stan? Esmatullah only shrugged.
”Even if they bring the whole of America,
they won’t be able to stabilize Afghanistan,”
said the young construction worker out on a
Kabul street corner on Wednesday morning.
“Only Afghans understand our traditions, ge-
ography and way of life.”
US President Barack Obama’s announce-
ment of a massive new escalation of the eight-
year-old war seemed to have impressed no-
body in the Afghan capital, where few watched
the speech on TV before dawn and fewer
seemed to think new troops would help.
Obama said his goal was to “disrupt, dis-
mantle and defeat” al-Qaeda in Afghanistan
and “reverse the Taliban’s momentum.”
The extra US forces, and at least 5,000
expected from other NATO allies, would
join 110,000 Western troops already in the
country in an effort to reverse gains made
by the extremist militants, at their strongest
since being ousted in 2001.
Shopkeeper Ahmad Fawad, 25, said it
would not help.
“The troops will be stationed in popu-
lated areas where the Taliban will somehow
infiltrate and then may attack the troops,”
he said. “Instead of pouring in more soldiers,
they need to focus on equipping and raising
Afghan forces, which is cheap and easy.”
For many, the prospect of more troops
meant one thing: more civilian deaths.
“More troops will mean more targets for
the Taliban and the troops are bound to fight,
and fighting certainly will cause civilian casual-
ties,” Ahmad Shah Ahmadzai, a former Afghan
prime minister, told Reuters.
“The civilian casualties will be further a
blow to the US image and cause more indigna-
tion among Afghans.”
‘Nothing really new’
By late morning, the Afghan government had
commit France to following suit. McChrystal, who had recommended
yet to issue an official response to Obama’s
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner sending 40,000 more troops, will testify next statement. President Hamid Karzai has in the
said that “for the moment” France had no need week. His tour of the battleeld on Wednes- past said he favors additional Western troops,
for additional soldiers in the areas where it was day would take him to his ve regional com- although he wants Afghan forces to take over
operating in Afghanistan. mand headquarters across the country to security for the country within five years.
Poland said it might send 600 more troops to meet troops and explain the steps ahead. Although Obama pointedly addressed
boost its contingent of 2,000. Afghans, telling them the United States was
Troop moves from January not interested in occupying their country, par-
Shorter timeline Major US troop movements are likely to be-
liamentarian Shukriya Barakzai said she was
disappointed because the speech contained
There was no initial word in the morning gin in January and all 30,000 should be in little talk of civilian aid.
from President Hamid Karzai, who has had a place by the end of August, far faster than “It was a very wonderful speech for
fraught relationship with the Obama admin- planners had earlier suggested and in line America ...but when it comes to strategy in
istration amid his re-election which involved with McChrystal’s request for reinforcements Afghanistan there was nothing really new
widespread voter fraud. before the summer ghting season. which was disappointing,” she told Re-
ho
uters from her home.
But after meeting Karzai, McChrystal
Chrystal Other NATO members are ex-
”It seems to me that President
said the Afghan president backed the he plan. pected to commit between 5,000 Obama is very far away from the re-
“It was really positive. The president ent was and 7,000 additional troops, al- trut in Afghanistan. His
ality and truth
very upbeat, very resolute.” though some of them are already strategy was to pay lip-service,
Karzai is due to announce the makeup deployed as part of the alliance’s and did not focus on civilians,
of his new government in coming days, ays, and 42,000-strong contingent. nation-buildin
nation-building, democracy and
Washington says it is watching closely osely for In his speech, Obama also fo- rights
human rights.”
A
Other Afghans, hardened by
signs he will combat corruption and appoint cused on Pakistan, saying a cancer
decades of war and wary of
competent ministers. had taken root in its border region foreign forces whom have
Obama’s pledge to start bringing US troops with Afghanistan and promised US for years fought proxy
home in 2011, provided conditions on thee ground help to end it. Some ofcials in Islamabad bat
battles in Afghanistan,
n among
allow it, may help him contain rebellion fear the US surge in Afghanistan will fur- w
were skeptical of the
Democrats but drew swift condemnation ion from ther destabilize their coun- U intentions.
US
wal time-
Republicans, who argue setting withdrawal try. Washington/Kabul Reuters Kabul money chan-
ger Ehsanullah won-
dermines
lines emboldens the Taliban and undermines
dered why US forces
support for US-backed governments in n Af- had managed to find
ghanistan and Pakistan. former Iraqi President
Congressional committees sched- Saddam Hussein, but
uled hearings on Wednesday and to- had yet to locate al-
day to review Obama’s revised strat- t- Qaeda head Osama
egy, estimated to cost $30 billion thiss bin Laden or Taliban
leader Mullah Moham-
scal year. Obama has the authority
mad Omar, who both
to send the soldiers but Congress f
fled US troops in Af-
must approve the cost. ghanistan in 2001.
Secretary of State Hillary Clin- “This is part of
ton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates America’s further occu-
and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs pation of Afghanistan,”
of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, are he said. Kabul Reuters
scheduled to appear before Congress.
Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards have Britain and Iran are at loggerheads over Iran’s election unrest in the Islamic state. London and
released ve Britons detained in the Gulf nuclear program, which Washington and its Eu- Washington deny the claim.
after their yacht apparently strayed into Iranian ropean allies fear is a cover to build bombs. Iran The June 12 presidential vote returned hard-
waters, state radio said on Wednesday. insists its nuclear work is aimed at generating line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power
Britain stressed the ve men, detained on power to meet booming domestic demand. with a wide margin, his reformist opponents cried
Nov. 25, were civilians and called for their speedy Hard-line President Ahmadinejad accused foul and thousands of Iranians took to the streets
release. A senior Iranian ofcial warned on Tues- Britain on Tuesday of “tainting the tranquility” of in the biggest anti-government protests in the 30-
day that Iran would take serious measures against Iran’s talks with six major powers over its nuclear year history of the Islamic Republic.
the ve if it proved they had “evil intentions.” activities, state television reported. The election dispute also exposed deep rifts
“After getting necessary guarantees, Iran re- Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the detention of within the normally opaque political and religious
leased the ve,” the Guards said, state radio reported. the ve Britions was not politically motivated. establishment.
“We reached the conclusion that they en- “Britain exaggerated about the detention Three Americans who crossed into Iran from
tered Iran’s territorial waters by mistake.” of the ve. They wanted to use this case to Iraq in July are still in detention and face spying
The Foreign Ofce in London could not con- pressure Iran,” Foreign Ministry spokes- charges. Their families say they were hiking and
rm the yachtsmen’s release. man Ramin Mehmanparast told semi-ofcial strayed across the border accidentally.
“We are seeking urgent clarication with our Mehr news agency. Iran seized eight British Royal Navy sailors
colleagues in Tehran as to whether these reports Iran also accuses the West, particularly Brit- and seven marines off its coast in 2007. They were
are correct or not,” a spokesman said. ain and the United States of fomenting the post- released after 15 days. Tehran Reuters/AP
CMYK
 12 TODAY’S ZAMAN
Confessons of a faled shopper
I’m out and about in stanbul trying to buy new clothes for the
winter before returning to Cappadocia. Unfortunately things are
not going well. Already I’ve been in the shopping mall for two
hours, purse primed, credit card at the ready, but so far I’ve not
managed to make it to even one of the checkout tills.
Before I go any further I’d better put up my hand and con-
fess that this is not a new problem. It’s hardly surprising that I
have trouble making a purchase in Turkey since I’ve never been
good at shopping anywhere (unless it’s for books, of course, in
which case I never come home empty-handed). It’s just that
living in Turkey -- and more specically living in Göreme -- has
added a whole new layer of difculty to the matter.
Before, the problems were obvious. I’m short, which means
that “ready-to-wear” skirts and trousers are always too long for
me and I have to try and imagine what they’d look like after I’ve
IN THE TOURISM SECTOR
AN EXPAT’S MODERN ADVENTURE
Corinna Sommer-Boncuklu
NOTE: Today’s Zaman intends to provide a lively forum for expatriates living in Turkey. We encourage you to contact us at voice@todayszaman.com and share your experiences, questions and problems in all walks of life for publication in Today’s Zaman.
CAVE LIFE
PAT YALE
hacked off roughly 20 centimeters of trailing material. Then I’m
blessed with the sort of gure that the kind would call curvy and
the unkind fat, which means that dresses that t snugly on one
part of my body completely fail to pass over another part of it.
So far, so bad. The trouble is that since moving to Göreme,
‘It’s expected that around
65,000 couples will come to
Turkey to get married and
spend their honeymoon here,”
says Sommer-Boncuku’
THERESA DAY ANTALYA
When someone tells you that they work in tourism, do
you really appreciate what that entails and what kind
of person you’re talking about? Amongst other things,
you need to be extremely exible and have a sense of adventure
to survive in the sector, Corinna Sommer-Boncuklu explained.
Corinna’s the perfect example of how to make working in tour-
ism a success. After doing a variety of jobs (she’s a trained nurse
and was a marketing assistant in a German bank and an au pair
in Italy), she took the plunge in 1993, starting out as a repre-
sentative in Majorca and was transferred to Turkey in 1994. She
hasn’t looked back since.
A challenge if ever there was one
“Living abroad has changed the way I think and my perception
of the world,” Corinna pointed out, adding that “working in a
country is, of course, quite different to visiting, and I’ve always
loved making friends with the locals and discovering how they
think and live. I’ve lived in different countries such as Sri Lanka
and Spain. I’ve seen lots of different lifestyles and met very rich
and very poor people, and both are still close friends. I’ve also
learned a lot about different religions; what most impressed me
when I was working in Sri Lanka was that on the same street you
nd a mosque, a church and Hindu and Buddhist temples. Even
now, after being in Turkey for 15 years, I still discover something
new about the people, the culture and the country every day.”
On a professional level, you learn more about the sector with
each job. “Tourism is such a vast sector that offers a wide range of
job opportunities to suit all kinds of people,” she highlighted, add-
ing that “it has always been important for me to develop my career
no matter what I’m doing, and in my rst job I had the chance to
work in different departments of the company. I started out as a
representative and then transferred to ofce-based work. As I stayed
with them for 12 years, I was able to learn what it meant to be a sec-
retary, a cashier and a member of the airport crew. I also worked in
their ight department and in customer service. Later on, I was also
an assistant manager, an area manager. Every year the company of-
fered several seminars, and I made a point of attending at least one.”
But it’s no bed of roses
“There are downsides to working in tourism, however,” she ex-
plained, adding that “the most frustrating aspect of tourism is
seasonal contracts, which mean constant job insecurity. Most
people are on seasonal contracts in Turkey, and after the sum-
mer they never know whether they also have work for the
winter. Even if they do manage to get winter work, they
also end up having to take non-paid vacations, depend-
ing on bookings. Representatives have at least two
months’ unpaid vacation each year, and hotel staff
T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9
I’ve discovered a whole lot more reasons why nothing is ever
quite buyable. Let’s look at what this season has to offer us
women. Three-quarter-length sleeves, for example. Hmm, ne
if you live in centrally heated, hermetically sealed snugness, but
not quite so wonderful if you’re living in a draughty (code for
cold) cave-house and doing your best to hold the heating bills at
a level that won’t leave you so poor you have to dress in rags for
the rest of the year. The same goes for the sort of trendy cardies
that button up only to mid-bust level and then are away to the
waist. Lovely to look at but apparently designed in deance of
the sole purpose of a cardigan which, one would have thought,
was to pile on another layer of coziness.
Then there are the plunge necklines (or at least the moder-
ately plunging Turkish versions). Place one of these in my shop-
ping trolley and which of my neighbors would I be able to visit
Corinna Sommer-Boncuklu
is the perfect example of how
to make working in tourism
a success. After doing a
variety of jobs, she took the
plunge in 1993, starting
out as a representative in
Majorca and was transferred
to Turkey in 1994. She hasn’t
looked back since
quite often only work three weeks out of four every month in
the winter. If they don’t work, they don’t get paid, of course.
You can’t talk about working in tourism without highlighting
the terrible hours we work sometimes. I’ve worked 20 hours a
day even though my contract stated that we wouldn’t be paid
overtime for extra hours or for working weekends and public
holidays. I’ve even ended up working New Year’s Eve and New
Year’s Day at times. As many as 80 percent of new staff don’t
last their rst season, but I stuck it out because I could see the
benets of working in tourism.”
Then there’s the effect that a job in tourism has on your pri-
vate life. “At rst I only socialized with other people who worked
in tourism. Luckily my husband also works in tourism, so there’s
never a problem if one of us comes home really late. It would be
very difcult to have a relationship with someone who worked
outside tourism because of the long hours in general or because
of the night shifts we have to do sometimes. Another potential
problem is that even if your partner also works in tourism, you
could actually nd yourself separated for half the year depending
on where your company sends you that season.”
Emerging market: Wedding tourism
The Antalya region is associated with package holidays, so is
there anything new on the horizon? “Wedding tourism is be-
coming more popular,” Corinna pointed out, adding that “ac-
cording to recent gures, from 1998 to 2009, the sector expanded
by 400 percent worldwide, and every year an estimated 650,000
couples choose to get married and to honeymoon abroad. As
CMYK
EXPAT ZONE
to show off my new purchase? Ditto anything with holes cut out
of it, or cropped to uncover the knees.
Even footwear has a nasty habit of tripping me up. It goes
without saying that anything with a heel, let alone anything with
a scary stiletto version, would result in instant ankle-breakage
as soon as I stepped out of my front door. Forget prettiness and
style. What I need is something sturdy with the sort of grip
more normally associated with mountaineering combined with
absolute waterproofness and preferably a bit of warmth. Is that
really too much to ask?
So I amble miserably round and round the stores fending off
over-enthusiastic salespersons on all sides. It’s coming up for clos-
ing time now and still my basket is empty. Ah well, at least there’s
a handy branch of Remzi Kitabevi (bookshop) just across the way.
Pat Yale lives in a restored cave-house in Göreme in Cappadocia.
TODAY’S ZAMAN
PHOTOS
stanbul will be the European Capital of Culture next year, it’s
expected that around 65,000 couples will come to Turkey to get
married and spend their honeymoon here.”
Do couples really need to go through a specialist agency? “Get-
ting married abroad can be a bit of a mineeld as the rules and regula-
tions vary from country to country,” she explained, adding that “some
people who come to Turkey just want help with the paperwork, and
as the wedding ceremony is in Turkish, they often need a translator,
too. All the couples I helped get married in Turkey while working at
my last company told me that they couldn’t have done the paper-
work, health checks and blood tests without help from someone who
knew what they were doing and who could speak Turkish.”
So why are more couples choosing to get married in Turkey
and not somewhere more exotic like Seychelles or Las Vegas, the
wedding capital of the world? “Most couples have been to Turkey
before and love the country,” she highlighted, adding that “for
couples from Europe, it’s also cheaper to get married in Turkey
than in Seychelles or Las Vegas. And, of course, Turkey also offers
a wide range of romantic locations where one can get married and
then go on a honeymoon. Last year Wedding City, based in An-
talya , organized 23 weddings, and their most recent venture is to
offer week-long group weddings in Demre, the site of the Church
of St. Nicholas, at specic times of the year, for example during
European or Russian Christmas. Other than locations, Turkey also
has many administrative advantages: It only takes a few days (not
months) to get the necessary paperwork processed before getting
married in Turkey; couples don’t have to wait weeks to get their
marriage license (they are given it right after the ceremony); and
there’s no minimum residency requirement in Turkey.”
One major criticism of the mass tourism sector is that a lot
of the income generated stays outside the country. Now that
Turkish companies -- as opposed to the larger, well-established
foreign vacation companies -- are getting involved in wedding
tourism, it’s more likely to have a positive impact on the local
economy. “There are no specic gures available for this sector
of the tourism market yet,” she explained, “but it would be fair to
estimate that businesses such as local orists, hotels, caterers or
car rental services could double their annual incomes this way.”
Despite the ups and downs of working in tourism, Corin-
na continues to be enthusiastic about her profession. She
recently started working for a Turkish company -- Polente
Tours -- which, offering beach vacations and cruises around
the country, also organizes special interest vacations such as
golng, history, art or religious tourism. “As last year was the
year of St. Paul, they started a tour to places St. Paul went
when he was in Anatolia, and they’re enthusiastic about orga-
nizing tailored vacations for both groups and individuals,” she
explained. It looks like Corinna won’t have a dull moment.
For more info on getting married in the Antalya region, visit:
www.weddingcity.com
 CULTURE&ARTS
Jesse Cook
makes first-ever appearance in city linked to his music
RUMEYSA KIGER STANBUL
Latin Grammy Award-winning Ca-
nadian amenco guitarist Jesse Cook,
praised for his energetic stage shows,
is currently in stanbul for his rst-ever appea-
rance in Turkey this week. Cook is performing
at the -Sanat Cultural Center tonight at 8 p.m.
Considered to be one of the best represen-
tatives of modern amenco music, Cook is also
known for his collaborations with such prominent
names as B.B. King, Ray Charles and Diana Krall.
Having released seven records so far, Cook’s most
recent album, “The Rumba Foundation,” delves
into the origins of “rumba amenca” in Cuba.
Cook said he was excited about his rst-ever
trip to stanbul, which he has always considered
to be somehow connected to his music. “Becau-
se it is a place where East meets West. Many ti-
mes I have considered naming my albums ‘Cons-
tantinople,’ and I did once name a song of mine
‘Byzantium Underground’,” Cook said during an
interview with Today’s Zaman.
What led you to explore the musical traditi-
ons of Colombia on your latest album?
When I rst started working on “The Rum-
ba Foundation,” my idea was to explore the ro-
ots of amenco’s “Ida y Vuelta” forms. Originally,
the rumba part of “rumba amenca” came from
Cuba. The “Colombiana” part came from Colom-
bia. My rst contact with Colombian music was
through Carlos Vives’ work. There is something
very infectious about the way he blends traditio-
nal Vallenato and Gaita music with popular mu-
sic. I began to wonder what these music forms
would sound like if they were blended with rum-
ba amenca. I wrote “Gaita,” “Santa Marta” and
EXHIBITION
Selçuk Demirel questions
‘who we are’ in new show
Paris-based Turkish artist Selçuk Demirel will be
showcasing his most recent drawings at an exhibiti-
on that opens tomorrow at Gallery Nev in stanbul’s
Beyolu. Titled “Yüzde Yüz” (Hundred Percent),
the show features over 50 pieces Demirel has crea-
ted under various themes such as “Who are we?,”
“Where does the body end?” and “Why don’t chips
have brains?” The show will run through Jan. 2 at
the gallery on the fth oor of Msr Apartman.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
“Bogota by Bus” and was really happy with the
results. But it wasn’t until I actually went to Co-
lombia and recorded with “Los Gaiteros de San
Jacinto” that the tracks really became airborne.
What was your original inspiration for
playing music? Why did you pick up the gui-
tar, in particular?
When I was very young my mother used to
play her Manitas de Plata records at our home in
France. She tells me I used to run around the ho-
use strumming the guitar trying to sound like him.
My rst teacher was a amenco guitarist, later
my Dad retiring to Arles where he was neighbors
with Nicolas Reyes of the Gipsy Kings, all of these
things probably contributed to my interest in, and
eventually devotion to, this type of music.
How have your experiences recording your
latest album affected you as an artist?
I was very excited to hear rumba amenca
mixed with vallenato, cumbia and gaita music.
I don’t think it has ever been done before. I am
very thankful that in this life I have been given
the luxury of being able to chase my dreams.
And how sweet it is when one of my crazy no-
tions actually bears fruit.
Do you have any new projects in mind
for the future?
More touring. More writing. I would like to
still be giving concerts when I’m an old man.
What new perspectives on your music do
you get from your live performances?
Every time I nish recording a CD, I nd
myself confronted with the daunting task of
trying to represent live, with four or ve musici-
ans, the music I created in the studio using un-
limited tracks and musicians. As of yet, we have
never resorted to using sequenced tracks or pla-
CONCERT
Lamdin’s Nostalgia 77 to
bring funky jazz to Ghetto
Nostalgia 77, the brainchild of brilliant English
producer Benedic Lamdin, will take to the stage
for an extraordinary night of funk-jazz at stanbul’s
Ghetto Club this week. Creating a magical space
with funky jazz compositions in the spirit of Ho-
race Silver, Don Cherry and Sun Ra, Nostalgia 77
will present its intriguing mixture of free, spiritual
jazz and period tempos in their performance, sche-
duled for Friday at 10:30 p.m. Ticket price: TL 30
ying to a DAT tape. Every sound that comes off
the stage is being played live, although many of
us are doing double duty, playing several instru-
ments during the show or playing acoustic ins-
truments equipped with synthesizer interfaces,
which helps us to achieve a bigger sound.
You have performed with many different
artists throughout your career. Who has had
the most lasting influence on your work?
I have to acknowledge the inuence of the
Gipsy Kings. Although these days I am mixing
music of many different backgrounds and cul-
tures, rumba amenca is still a big part of what
I do. And for me, the Gipsy Kings’ particular
FILM SCREENING
Wortmann’s ‘Miracle’
comes to Goethe Institut
“Das Wunder von Bern” (The Miracle of Bern),
German lmmaker Sönke Wortmann’s 2003 box
ofce hit, will be shown this week at the Goethe
Institut in stanbul as part of the center’s weekly lm
program. The lm, regarded as a portrait of post-war
Germany, tells the story of a German family and the
unexpected West German victory in the 1954 World
Cup Final in Bern, Switzerland. The admission-free
showing is slated for Friday at 7 p.m.
CMYK
TODAY’S ZAMAN 13
style of rumba was seminal. I learned so much
from their music. The way they were able to
take what might be considered a folkloric tra-
dition and transform it into such a powerful
and universally embraceable sound.
Aside from other musicians, where do
you draw inspiration from?
I have been inspired by my travels. My previo-
us album, “Frontiers,” drew inspiration from a pe-
riod where my wife and I moved to Seville, Spa-
in. “Nomad,” the CD before “Frontiers” was pro-
duced by traveling to Egypt, Spain, England and
the United States. I nd it very inspirational to re-
cord music in foreign countries, to immerse myself
in another musical language. It forces me to re-
examine my own musical assumptions and habits.
This will be your rst concert in Turkey.
What are you impressions of the country?
This will be my rst trip to Turkey. I am re-
ally looking forward to it. My favorite roomma-
te in college was from stanbul. We were very
close. I have always considered stanbul to be
somehow connected to my music, because it is
a place where East meets West. Many times I
have considered naming my albums “Constan-
tinople,” and I did once name a song of mine
“Byzantium Underground.”
How will you select the set list for your
concert here? What can your audience ex-
pect from your performance?
I will be playing a mixture of old and new
songs. I have recently discovered a Facebook
group called “Turkish Fans of Jesse Cook.” I was
quite surprised. I did not realize that people in
Turkey knew my work. So knowing that there
may be fans of different periods of my career, I
will try to cover songs from each of my CDs.
CONCERT
Philip Glass to play his
own works at CRR concert
Philip Glass, the prolic American composer who
won the best original music Oscar for the score
he composed for the 1999 movie “The Truman
Show,” will be in stanbul next week for an
eagerly anticipated performance at the Cemal
Reit Rey (CRR) Concert Hall. Glass will present a
program titled “Etudes for solo piano” at his recital,
scheduled for Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. Tickets, priced at
TL 26, can be purchased at Biletix sales points.
Farewell to Uluçay as
directors ponder taking
on incomplete film
Turkey bid its last farewell to late lmmaker
Ahmet Uluçay on Wednesday with a funeral
in the central Aegean hamlet of Tepecik near Kütah-
ya, where the self-taught director was born and rai-
sed and developed a lifetime passion for cinema.
Uluçay, best known for the critically acclaimed
“Karpuz Kabuundan Gemiler Yapmak” (Boats
out of Watermelon Rinds), died Monday afterno-
on at stanbul’s Çapa University Hospital, where
he had been receiving treatment for a brain tumor
and pneumonia for the past two months. He was
55. Uluçay was buried at the Tepecik village ceme-
tery following noon prayers on Wednesday.
Uluçay was born in 1954 in Kütahya and was
rst introduced to the world of cinema in 1960, as a
primary school student, when a traveling movie pro-
jector came to his village for a few days. In only a few
years, Uluçay was screening movies to fellow villa-
gers through a makeshift movie projector in a ma-
keshift theater he and one of his friends built in a
stallion. This story is told in his 2004 feature “Boats
out of Watermelon Rinds,” which was loosely based
on the director’s own childhood.
For the past two years Uluçay had been wor-
king on his much-anticipated sophomore featu-
re, “Bozkrda Deniz Kabuu” (Seashell in a Waste-
land), which he planned on completing around late
2008, but could not as he had to battle serious he-
alth problems along the way, including a major bra-
in surgery. When Uluçay’s health deteriorated follo-
wing the completion of the lm’s winter scenes in
April 2008, the lm remained incomplete.
On Tuesday, during a special ceremony for Ulu-
çay at the Emek Theater in stanbul’s Beyolu, well-
known lmmakers Ezel Akay and Mustafa Altok-
lar said they would be pleased to take part in a colla-
borative effort to complete Uluçay’s “Bozkrda Deniz
Kabuu” as a way of paying their tributes to the late
director. “I’m sure many of my fellow lmmakers
would like to take part in this effort, too. We should
gather around this subject if there is anything that
can be done about ‘Bozkrda Deniz Kabuu.’ That
would be a good nale for Ahmet and a contribution
to cinema,” Akay said. stanbul Today’s Zaman
‘Precious,’ ‘Station’
top Spirit Award nods
The race for Hollywood lm honors picked
up pace on Tuesday when a key indepen-
dent movie group unveiled Spirit Award nomine-
es, giving dramas “Precious” and “The Last Stati-
on” ve nods each, including best movie.
Joining them among best lm nominees
for the awards that often spotlight indie movi-
es competing for Oscars were romantic comedy
“(500) Days of Summer” and immigration dra-
mas “Amreeka,” and “Sin Nombre.”
Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe, who plays an abu-
sed young woman in “Precious: Based on the Novel
Push by Sapphire,” and Helen Mirren in “Last Sta-
tion,” about the last year in the life of Russian wri-
ter Leo Tolstoy, were given nods for best actress. Jo-
ining them were Gwyneth Paltrow in drama “Two
Lovers.” The race for lead actor pits Joseph Gordon-
Levitt in art house hit “(500) Days of Summer,” aga-
inst veteran Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart” and Colin
Firth in critical hit “A Single Man.”
“Last Station” earned nods for Michael Hoffman
as best director and best screenplay, as well as vete-
ran Christopher Plummer for supporting actor. “Pre-
cious” brought nominations for director Lee Daniels,
actress Mo’Nique in a supporting role, and screenw-
riting for Geoffrey Fletcher. “Crazy Heart,” the tale of
an outlaw country singer named Bad Blake (Bridges),
was among several lms that earned three nominati-
ons apiece, and it earned debut lmmaker Scott Co-
oper nods for best rst feature and rst screenplay.
The Spirit Awards are given out by Los An-
geles non-prot group Film Independent. The
awards will be shown live on US cable TV chan-
nel IFC on March 5. Los Angeles Reuters
Contemporary stanbul
unveiling fourth edition
stanbul’s annual Contemporary stanbul art
fair is launching its fourth edition today at
stanbul’s Lüt Krdar International Convention
and Exhibition Center when it opens its doors to the
public following yesterday’s invitation-only preview.
Running through Dec. 6, the four-day inter-
national fair offers a wide range of works in vari-
ous disciplines such as painting, sculpture, pho-
tography, installation, video and new media art.
CI’09 brings together 73 art galleries, art institu-
tions and artist initiatives to showcase works of
art by 306 artists from Turkey and abroad.
This year the fair’s organizers are aiming to
widen the scope of the event with the additi-
on of 12 established art institutions such as the
stanbul-based Sakp Sabanc Museum, the Ak-
bank Art Center, stanbul Modern, the stanbul
Foundation for Culture and Art (KSV) and the
Doançay Museum, founded by renowned Tur-
kish contemporary abstract artist Burhan Do-
ançay. The fair is expected to attract more than
50,000 visitors. stanbul Today’s Zaman
 14 TODAY’S ZAMAN THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009 OPINION

COUNCIL OF STATE= LEGISLATIVE

+ EXECUTIVE + JUDICIARY
BEKR S. GÜR*

TODAY’S ZAMAN, CELL KIRNAPÇI

There are inequalities in education all over the world, for
basically cultural and social reasons. But no civilized coun-
try in the world would attempt to make a legal defense of
the inequalities in education. Therefore, inequality in education can
continue only implicitly and latently. All around the world law func-
tions to eliminate open -- if any -- and implicit inequalities, and its
legitimacy is dependent on this function. However, with the deci-
sion of the Council of State on Nov. 25, 2009, the judicial system in
Turkey has openly defended the institutionalization of inequality in
education, which is another form of social inequality. The Council
of State’s decision to cancel the recent decision to apply equal coef-
cients for all secondary school graduates will be a nasty gift to the

PHOTO
annals of world education from Turkey as an example of a country
where inequality in education is legally defended and justied.
The most important characteristic of the modern state is,
from the perspective of sociology of education, its ability to
introduce equal educational opportunities to all social strata,
making education accessible by all. Traditionally, Turkey had
an egalitarian education system that did not deny higher
education to anyone depending on his/her social class or the
type of the high school they graduated from. But in 1999 the
Higher Education Board (YÖK) introduced a system of using dif-
ferent coefcients and weighted “secondary education success
points” (AOBP), and put an end to the egalitarian structure of
education in Turkey. As the results of this decision became appar-
ent over the next few years, even some of those who defended this
decision admitted that the coefcient system must be abolished.
The Council of State’s 2009 decision indicates a reverse direction in
all aspects from YÖK’s 1999 coefcient decision. YÖK at the time did not
hide the fact that it actually intended to block certain high schools. Today
we are in 2009, some 10 years after that decision. During that time, doz-
ens of scientic reports have demonstrated the destruction caused by the
coefcient system, and there are even some international reports
about this matter. The Council of State’s argument that there
cannot be a causal relationship between its coefcient system
and the decline in demand for vocational high schools is clear
proof that it is completely and voluntarily blind to all the statistics
and qualitative data that accumulated during the last 10 years.

‘Orientation’ a la 1909
It is an anachronism that in order to defend its decision, the Council
of State refers to the “orientation” principle of the National Educa-
tion Law of 1973. For the Council of State, the students’ choosing a
high school type at the age of 13 or 14 can be regarded as a legitimate
justication for a strict guidance and separation system, which is ac-
ceptable only to the positivist education psychology of 1909, which
would treat children as nothing but objects. At the very early stages
of the development of psychology as a scientic branch, some psy-
chologists argued, based on some tests about success in natural sci-
ences, that children’s “probable destinations” should be determined
and they should be trained (oriented) accordingly. Before too long,
about 21 years later, the colleagues of these psychologists admitted
that neither those tests nor those psychologists could be trusted.
The aw of these psychologists was in basing their ap-
proaches on an incorrect philosophical assumption, or more spe-
cically, metaphysics. According to this approach, a child can be
considered an object which can be controlled and whose actions
can be predicted. But a child is not an object; his/her interests
may change over time. Therefore, to set an education destiny
for an individual according to his/her performance in childhood
and never to allow him/her any form of compensation is unten-
able from a pedagogical perspective. The interviews with people
who attend and graduate from vocational high schools make
it very clear that these students do not attend vocational high
school just to learn a profession, but also to prepare for higher
education. Under current legislation, the denition of vocational
high schools is suitable for this. The Council of State’s attempts
to treat the perspectives of these students and their parents as
wrong with references to the orientation principle of the education sys-
tem and to create a predestined course of education based on their “pos-
sible destinations” deserve to be treated as an outdated example of
the positivist approach. This approach treats the child as an object
and is based on a wrong metaphysics, and therefore, believes that it
Protesters gather in front of the stanbul Bar Association in demonstration against the Council of State decision dated Nov. 25, 2009, which opened the way for the institutionalization of inequality in Turkey’s educational system.
is entitled to guide the child and set a predestination for him/her.
It would be unfair to expect the Council of State to have pro-
found information about the philosophical aspects of education,
which requires specialization. But, how can they issue nal decisions
without consulting experts, even for show? Leaving aside the philo-
sophical aspects of the matter at hand, the council should have some
technical knowledge about its decision, shouldn’t it? The justica-
tion it provided for its decision makes it clear that the Council of
State does not know the technical details of the differential
coefficient system used in university entrance exams. The er-
rors of facts in the decision -- for instance, it wrongly says
that the coefficient in the new system is 0.5, while the correct
figure is 0.15, and also it wrongly says that the coefcient was
implemented at 0.3 and 0.5 starting in 1999, while in reality it was
originally 0.2 and 0.5, and was later changed 0.3 and 0.8 -- are indi-
cations that it was made based on prejudice and without knowledge.
Creating castes
It is flawed to adopt a normal high school and vocational
high school dichotomy. According to this system, a gradu-
ate of a science high school who was trained in science and
math will be disadvantaged in the university entrance exam
if s/he wishes to enroll in a sociology, international relations
or law department due to the coefficient system. Similarly,
a graduate of a social sciences high school will be disadvan-
taged when s/he wants to attend a medical faculty. Therefore,
the system of differential coefficient application is not just a
problem concerning vocational high schools, but is an issue
of concern for all students. Since it concerns everyone, this
matter must be radically solved. Education experts assert that
it is wrong in terms of orientation to build solid walls within
the education system. Today, many universities do not force
their students to specify a department during admission but expect them
to make up their minds about the department in the rst or second class.
The economy has started to distance itself from overspecializa-
tion but tends to emphasize the need for individuals who have re-
ceived good general education and who are informed about many
things, and many education systems around the world, particu-
larly in the European Union, place greater emphasis on lifelong
learning. But it is a basic contradiction for the judicial system
in Turkey not to allow the porousness of the education system.
This creates a structure which prevents people from developing
and acquiring different skills, and eventually leads to an auto-
matic system making poor students proletarian and unskilled.
Higher education opportunities ‘in the field’
Another issue is the opportunities available to vocational high
schools. The Council of State argues that it is wrong to say that
the decision blocks vocational high schools, since the gradu-
ates of these schools are basically oriented to higher education
in their own elds as they are entitled to attend the vocational
schools of universities (MYOs) without taking any exam. How-
ever, students from vocational high schools and their parents do
not view this right to attend vocational schools without an exam
as a meaningful opportunity. The respectability of the MYOs has
been considerably damaged in the eyes of the general public.
Anyone who graduates from a normal high school can attend an
MYO without any disadvantage in the scoring system. So these
schools do not provide any privilege to graduates of vocational
high schools. Moreover, the damage caused to the higher edu-
cation system and to the vocational high schools by this right to
attend a MYO without an exam is well known. This is even ac-
knowledged in a report titled “Turkey’s Higher Education Strat-
egy,” prepared when Erdoan Teziç was YÖK president. Fur-
thermore, vocational high school graduates also seek to attend four-year
undergraduate programs. However, the Council of State does not seem
to hear these demands and tells these students: “You have very good
opportunities. You have the right to attend an MYO without an exam.”
Education system
entrusted to the Council of State
In its reasoned decision, the Council of State underlines that it
has acted with a view to preserving the stability, harmony and
integrity of the education system. These phrases remind one of
the justications voiced by the generals of the military coup of
1980, implying that the government and YÖK fail to preserve the
harmony of the education system and therefore the judiciary has
stepped in to fulll this duty. The Council of State notes that the
targets mentioned in the Eighth Five-Year Development Plan
should not disrupt the integrity and harmony of the education
system. But these targets do not contradict the basic principles
of the education system, and this can be scientifically proven.
Already, these plans are prepared with extensive participa-
tion and scientific support from specialized committees.
In sum, the Council of State oversteps its powers and author-
ities to assume and use those of the legislative and the executive
-- without having to deal with the costs of being the executive --
and tries to preach what should be done or what should not be
done in the education system. Moreover, they do this not
for the sake of removing some inequalities, but to ensure
that the existing ones are maintained. As the judiciary con-
tinues to defend the caste system in education, the meaning
of the education system and the existing legal system is lost.
*Dr.Bekir S.Gür is an instructor in the department of Computer
Engineering at Karabük University, Turkey.

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CMYK
 COLUMNS T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9
The Swss vote and the lmts of multculturalsm n Europe
The Swiss vote last Sunday to ban the building of minarets in new
mosques in Switzerland came as a shock to many. Some dismissed the
vote as a trivial issue. Only half of the Swiss citizens, they argued, par-
ticipated in the referendum, and about 58 percent of those said no to
the minarets. In other words, not all Swiss condoned the act. After all,
the referendum will be taken to higher courts both in Switzerland and
Europe, and it could be overturned. But the decision to restrict religious
freedom in a provocative manner by one of the most liberal societies of
Europe is fraught with prospects beyond the minaret issue.
The repercussions of the Swiss vote will be felt at three levels, and
all three are vital for the future. The rst is the prospect that the rac-
ist elements within European politics will be invigorated. The vote has
already mobilized right-wing political parties which have an aversion
to foreigners and minorities in Europe. Dutch politician Geert Wilders,
who is fast becoming Europe’s most visible Islamophobe and an ad-
vocate of blatantly racist policies, has already called for a similar ban in
the Netherlands. The Swiss vote could set a precedent for such extreme
views to be seen as part of the mainstream when in reality they are no
less discriminatory and inammatory than anti-Semitism and racism.
I will not be surprised if the extremists in the UK, Austria, Germany,
France and other European countries will start similar campaigns.
Secondly, the Swiss vote will have far-reaching repercussions for
the future of Muslims in Europe. If European Muslims in Switzerland,
MUHAMMED
ÇETN
cetin.m@todayszaman.com
Resgnaton
s not only
for Germans
“With this step I want to allow the government to continue its successful
work and prevent further damage to the armed forces.”
These were the words of former Labor Minister Franz J. Jung of
Germany when he announced his resignation after accepting political
responsibility for withholding details about an air strike in Kunduz, Af-
ghanistan, in September that had resulted in civilian and child casual-
ties. (German and international agencies reported this week that the
death toll from the air strike has reached 142.)
The scandal and resignation are not about the German-ordered
bombing and the deaths of civilians in Kunduz but about communication
in the Defense Ministry, which tried to conceal information from prosecu-
tors and the people for weeks. Jung’s position was further weakened after
a report suggested that commanders on the ground did not adhere to the
rules of engagement. The scandal was sending all the wrong signals when
Germany needed a sober foreign policy debate.
Jung, defense minister at the time, quit a day after the army’s chief
of staff and the deputy defense minister resigned over the incident. The
German ofcials’ resignations due to the cover-up raise the questions:
Could this teach other politicians across the globe a lesson, perhaps
even the chief of General Staff in Turkey and the junta plotting to kill
civilians, children and non-Muslim citizens of Turkey? Can we expect
any of our generals to step down any time soon after multiple revela-
tions about plots, documents, extra-judicial killings and discoveries of
caches of weapons and ammunition?
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “A minister who is respon-
sible for giving such false [information] and misinformation to the Par-
liament has no place in the Cabinet.” Her government, therefore, has
managed to get rid of this whole affair quickly and gain political room to
distance itself from Jung and his staff’s alleged cover-up.
So what about our General Staff, which covers up many plots, killings,
the mistreatment of civilians and ethnic and religious groups? It retains
ofcers who are accused of having terrorized, tortured and killed a multi-
tude of civilians in the Southeast and other places. It has failed to pass on
information to prosecutors and courts about Ergenekon and the Cage plot.
Who will assume the political and legal responsibility for the internal lack
of communication and cooperation between the government, judicial and
military ofces? Who will adhere to the ethics of work and responsibil-
ity among the elected government and their ofcers under the Ministry
of Defense, the prime minister and Parliament? Could we too rapidly re-
move those who are alleged to be members of the latest junta in order to
distance the Turkish military from further damage?
Resignation is the ethical and formal act of quitting an ofce or
position one holds. It is voluntarily stepping down from a position in
honor when one fails to fulll the expected obligations. Someone can
make a personal decision to exit a position when he or she may not be
eligible for or capable of the tasks at hand, too.
However, rejecting calls for resignation or, more correctly, not even
heeding any calls by the wider public, has been seen as a method of cen-
sorship used by the General Staff in Turkey. Several military ofcers who
spoke or acted somewhat freely about the junta and dark dealings within
the military have recently lost their lives. Not the plotters but the whistle-
blowers are investigated and charged by the military. Moreover, ve navy
ofcers who were implicated either in the formation or revelation of plots by
Ergenekon have mysteriously committed suicide in their ofces or homes.
Junta members’ involvement in sexual and prostitution schemes to
blackmail people, actions to secure elections for their candidates whom
they assume would cooperate to further their regime in the future, the
military’s inadequate response to terrorist attacks on the military outpost
at the border in spite of receiving intelligence about the assaults, its failure
after several cross-border interventions to eliminate terrorist camps and
leadership for almost two decades, its utilization and supervision of death
squads in the Southeast and other parts of the country, its schemes to re-
move legitimately elected presidents and governments, its numerous ex-
tortions and smuggling of people, drugs and arms and improper nancial
dealings, and much more that lls the les of ongoing Ergenekon trials
-- all this is not enough to bring the implicated military staff, who are still
in their posts, to retire or be removed in today’s Turkey.
The junta embedded in the military may escape any legal measures today,
but future generations will denitely pursue and prosecute them. They should
see that resignation is also a valid and ethical option for them. Rank and re-
sources are entrusted to them only so that they may serve the public, not their
own illegitimate interests. After all, resignation is not only for Germans.
BRAHM
KALIN
i.kalin@todayszaman.com
a supposed bastion of liberalism and tolerance at least legally if not so-
cially, can be singled out as potential threats, what can we expect in
other countries where failed government policies and exclusivist leg-
islation have already alienated disempowered Muslim communities?
The Swiss Muslim community, which numbers around 400,000, is
probably the most peaceful and well-integrated group in Europe. We
have hardly seen any individuals or groups causing political or social
trouble in the country. If they are seen as suspect and their religious
rights severely undermined, what kind of a message would this send to
other Muslims of Europe? Even perfect integration will not suface to
give a space for civility toward Muslims in the middle of Europe?
The logic of the anti-minaret campaign is awed because it con-
fuses integration with assimilation and discrimination. The Swiss MP
Ulrich Schlüer, one of the architects of the referendum and the cam-
paign, told the Los Angeles Times that the minaret is “a political sym-
bol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and rst of all,
No Comment
Blonde Grl watchng the Sea
Sparkle under the Moonlght
HÜSEYN
GÜLERCE
h.gulerce@todayszaman.com
The Ergenekon case has entered a new phase with the
summoning of three force commanders from 2004 to tes-
tify as “suspects.” Until now people were being tried for
laying the groundwork for a coup but now it is time to try
people for attempting a coup. This stage is very important.
For the rst time ever in Turkey people will be prosecuted
for trying to overthrow the legitimate ruling power by stag-
ing a coup. This is very important because Turkey cannot
democratize until it settles it account with coup and junta
supporters. Former Land Forces Commander Gen. Ay-
taç Yalman, former Air Forces Commander Gen. brahim
Frtna and former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden
Örnek were rst brought to public attention in 2007 when
the Nokta magazine published excerpts from diaries con-
taining information about coup attempts. Örnek claimed
the diaries did not belong to him. Both former Chief of
General Staff Gen. Yaar Büyükant and current Chief of
General Staff Gen. lker Babu back him up. However, Er-
genekon prosecutors had the diaries examined by experts.
Four experts found that the source of the diaries was the
computer of the “Naval Commander” and its author was
“Adm. Örnek” and the person who made the last modi-
cation was the “Naval Forces Commander.”
The three force commanders were requested to tes-
tify after a particular development in the Ergenekon case
last week. The presiding judge, Köksal engün, said to the
prosecutors, “As far as I know there is no investigation
into the coup attempt, is there?” to which the prosecutors
said: “The Ay (Moonlight), Yakamoz (Sea Sparkle)
and Eldiven (Glove) coup attempts constitute the essence
of the case. We are trying the coup attempts in that case.
That is the essence of the second case.”
Those who are trying to disrupt the Ergenekon case and
a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights.” How
and when has the minaret, an integral part of mosque architecture for
centuries and across the Muslim world, become a symbol of “political
Islam”? From now on, are we supposed to treat the cross a symbol of
fundamentalist Christianity?
Thirdly, the Swiss vote will affect the fate of pluralism in Europe
and the future relations between Muslim and Western societies. The
Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor wrote in the Guardian in 2007
that multiculturalism has become suspect and inextricably linked with
Islam because “almost every reason for toleration’s apparent fall into
disrepute concerns Islam.” The rising tide of Islamophobia, a concern
for all human and civil rights groups, is directly related to the larger
debate about the future of pluralism and multiculturalism in Europe.
In an alarming way, “Islam” as an ideological category has be-
come part of a public debate in certain European corners to determine
how far pluralism and multiculturalism will go. We had a trial case of
this in the 2004 French decision, this time by the government, to ban
headscarves in public schools. Like the Swiss vote, the attempts by
the French to justify the ban went beyond girls covering their heads in
public schools. The debate became xated upon the “soul” of France
and Europe. Not surprisingly, “Islam” and “Muslims,” again as abstract
ideological categories, were presented as the eternal other of Europe.
When in 2007 Louise Arbour, the then United Nations High Com-
IRAQ, AP
protect the suspects are having an increasingly hard time
doing it. I know that when the trial of the coup planners be-
gins they will start a campaign saying: “It is not a crime to be
involved in a coup attempt. How can there be a case against
a coup that did not even take place?” As if there can be a
trial for a coup that did take place. But all these efforts are in
vain because the dirty and bloody structure they are trying
to hide is becoming a bit more exposed and torn each day.
How will they be able to conceal and cover every aspect?
On the rst day of the holiday two colonels and one lieu-
tenant colonel were arrested in relation to the Cage Opera-
tion Action Plan. Don’t think lightly of it for it had plans to
secretly place explosives in a submarine at the Koç Museum
and detonate it while a large group of students were visiting.
The executive editors of dailies such as Hürriyet, Mil-
liyet, Vatan and Akam all chose to ignore the Cage plan.
But when three ofcers were arrested some of them could
not continue to stay silent. Güngör Mengi from Vatan re-
membered responsible reporting and said, “We made a
mistake in discretion due to extreme cautiousness.” Reha
Muhtar protested saying, “If this isn’t news then what is?”
Another development happened yesterday. It was
decided that separate indictments will be prepared for the
loaded 15 light anti-tank weapons and ammunition found
on land owned by Ergenekon suspect Bedrettin Dalan’s
stek Foundation in stanbul’s Poyrazköy district and the
Cage Operation Action Plan. In a new report released by
the European Parliament that was debated yesterday, the
point that the Ergenekon case is an opportunity for democ-
racy and law was underlined once again and it was also
noted again that the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) interven-
tion in politics and foreign policy was alarming. This is not
a story. In other words it’s not a children’s fairy tale about a
“Blond Girl watching the Sea Sparkle under the Moonlight
when a man wearing a Glove brings her a Cage.”
An entire society has awakened and even the Eu-
ropeans have opened their eyes. We are tired of fairy
tales. We announce this especially to all pro-status
quo policeman and the well-regarded individuals
who insist on protecting junta supporters.
CMYK
TODAY’S ZAMAN 15
missioner for Human Rights, said bigotry and prejudice, especially
in regard to Muslims, were common in Europe, many dismissed her
remarks as an overstatement. But she insisted that Europeans “are
shocked at times when it is pointed out that bigotry, prejudice and ste-
reotyping is still sometimes very present in their attitude to others.” The
myopic view that the civilized nations of the world have left all traces
of racism and discrimination in the past is not only arrogance but also
deadly ignorance. The Swiss vote is a painful reminder that no one can
take freedom and rights for granted, even in Europe.
What is encouraging is that many conscientious Swiss and Eu-
ropeans have reacted against to the ban and will take action together
with Swiss Muslims. Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Hu-
man Rights, said the ban was “discriminatory, deeply divisive and a
thoroughly unfortunate step for Switzerland to take and risks putting
the country on a collision course with its international human rights
obligations.” The Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt suggested that
the UN reconsider its presence in Geneva, home to its second largest
ofce, if the Swiss high courts did not overturn the vote.
The Swiss vote is disturbing. But it is also an excellent opportunity for
Swiss Muslims and others to rally behind the principle of human rights
and civil liberties. This is a golden opportunity for everyone from the
Catholics and Protestants to the secular to demonstrate that the future
of multiculturalism in Europe will not be dictated by fear and mistrust.
ANDREW
FINKEL
a.finkel@todayszaman.com
The vew from
the mnaret
I live in a Bosporus-side community in stanbul where morning
and night, the chimes of bells from one of the local churches joins
the call from the minaret in marking the rhythm of the day. If I
stroll to the shoreline, I see on the distant horizon two domes
separated by 1,000 years of history -- the Church of the Divine
Wisdom (Aya Soa) and the Blue Mosque, all part of a harmoni-
ous skyline. What better vantage point, you might think, to look
down my nose at the decision by a handsome majority of voters in
far away Switzerland to revel in intolerance and forbid the future
building of minarets. And yet I am feeling far from smug.
Condemnation of the Swiss referendum has been near univer-
sal. From the Vatican to the United Nations, from the Organiza-
tion for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to the Swedish
presidency of the European Union, from the editorial columns of The
New York Times to the Euro-phobic headlines of Vakit, statements
of horror and incredulity have been swift. “An example of growing
anti-Islamic incitement in Europe by the extremist, anti-immigrant,
xenophobic, racist, scare-mongering ultra-right politicians who reign
over common sense, wisdom and universal values,” said Ekmeled-
din hsanolu, secretary-general of the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC), managing to hit pretty much all the stops. Eveline
Widmer-Schlumpf, the Swiss justice minister, described the ban as
contravening the European Convention on Human Rights but also
an attempt to stir up trouble. Although she did not use the word “Er-
genekon,” she portrayed it as a malicious provocation, an attempt to
stage a “proxy war” between native Swiss and Muslim immigrants.
Adding my own reedy voice to this vast international chorus of
dismay is, I admit, a low priority. Instead, I have been asking myself
“What if…” It is, of course, most unlikely that Turkey would imitate
the Swiss habit of direct democracy and hold a referendum on wheth-
er there should be a freeze on building new churches on Turkish soil or
whether they regard missionary activities as a form of militant Christi-
anity. However, there are enough recent opinion polls to give Turkey
pause for thought and to ask if what is happening in Switzerland is not
simply a reection of what has long been the case in its own backyard.
A recent study published by Ali Çarkolu and Ersin Kalaycolu of
Sabanc University records that 59 percent of those surveyed believed
those from different religions should not be allowed to propagate their
beliefs in public and 54 percent should not be allowed to do so in print
-- levels roughly comparable to 57 percent of the Swiss who voted to
ban the minaret. In his column yesterday Orhan Kemal Cengiz makes
the all too obvious point that minority religious communities in Turkey
-- not immigrants but people whose ancestors were born on Turkish
soil -- have experienced all too real difculties in repairing their own
places of worship and preventing their land and property from being
taken over by the forestry commission or simple seizure. The Radikal
newspaper recently (Sept. 30) splashed a public survey which suggest-
ed that sizeable portions of the Turkish public wanted no contact with
people who did not believe in the exact same God as themselves and
certainly did not want them living in the house next door.
Some of the worst manifestations of intolerance in Turkey as in
Switzerland have been calculated provocations. In Turkey the stakes
have been higher and more violent, including, one suspects, the mur-
der of the Armenian editor Hrant Dink or the brutal killings of three
Christians in Malatya in 2007. The latest round of newspaper accusa-
tions point to a conspiracy within the military to stage a series of vio-
lent incidents intended to terrorize Turkey’s non-Muslim communi-
ties as part of an attempt to discredit the current government.
However, the government does itself no favors by being cow-
ardly about addressing discrimination at home. If Turkish ofcialdom
is openly critical of what has happened in Switzerland (Minister for
EU Affairs Egemen Ba suggested with perhaps a touch of facetious-
ness that Islamic petrol wealth should ee the bankers of Zurich for the
gnomes of stanbul), then it should wage war on racism in Turkey itself.
To take one horrendous example after the murders in Malatya,
according to the US State Department’s International Religious Free-
dom Report: “The governor of Malatya was initially hesitant to per-
mit the burial of the German victim in Malatya. He told the German
victim’s widow that no Christian should be buried in the country’s
soil. After negotiations between German and Turkish government
ofcials, the victim was buried in a private Armenian cemetery in
Malatya.” It is one thing to blame Ergenekon for the country’s woes,
and another for the country to serve at Ergenekon’s beck and call.
 16 TODAY’S ZAMAN T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9
LEISURE

Gregorian Calendar: 03 December 2009 C.E. Hijri Calendar: 16 Dhul-Hijjah 1430 A.H. Hebrew Calendar: 16 Kislev 5770 tv gude
calendar@todayszaman.com
E2
08:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
Today is the International Day of Persons with Dis- the secretary-general of the Soviet Union’s Communist who campaigned for a comprehensive reform of the postal sys- 09:00 Umutsuz Evkadnlar
10:00 The Martha Stewart Show
abilities. On Oct. 14, 1992, at the end of the Decade Party, Mikhail Gorbachev, came together in Malta and de- tem. He is usually credited with forming the basic elements of 11:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
move gude of Disabled Persons, the UN proclaimed Dec. 3 as a day clared an end to the Cold War. modern postal service, including the invention of the postage 12:00 The Rachael Ray Show
13:00 Dedikoducu Kz
of annual observance to promote the continuation of in- Today is Heart Transplant Day. This day commemo- stamp. In 1997 the British Royal Mail started the Rowland Hill 14:00 The Martha Stewart Show
tegrating the disabled into general society. In 1997, Aus- rates the anniversary of the first hearat transplant, which Awards for philatelic innovation, initiative and enterprise. 15:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
16:00 The Rachael Ray Show
tralia renamed this observance as the International Day of was performed in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1967 by Dr. Today is Advocate’s Day in India. Celebrated annually on 17:00 Umutsuz Evkadnlar
People with a Disability in recognition of the abilities and Christiaan Barnard. Dec. 3 by the community of lawyers in India, this day marks the 18:00 The Martha Stewart Show
19:00 The Ellen DeGeneres Show
achievements of people living with disabilities. Today is Sir Rowland Hill Day, observed by the philatelists anniversary of the birth of Rajendra Prasad (Dec. 3, 1884-Feb. 20:00 Family Guy
Today is the anniversary of the official end of the Cold of the world. This day commemorates the birthday of Sir Row- 28, 1963), who was the first president of the Republic of India 21:00 Heroes
22:15 Hung
War. On this day in 1989, US President George Bush and land Hill (1795-1879), the British teacher and social reformer and a very eminent lawyer himself. 23:00 The Tonight Show With
Conan O'Brien
24:00 Hung
01:00 The Jay Leno Show
02:00 The Tonight Show With
“Türkler Çldrm Olmal: Görev Afrika” Conan O'Brien
03:00 Heroes
NEEL HAYAT 04:00 Family Guy

STANBUL: Bakrköy AFM Carousel CNBC-E

11:15 13:50 16:20 19:00 21:30 Beyolu
CineMajestic 11:30 12:45 13:45 15:00 16:15
17:30 18:45 20:00 21:15 22:30 Beyolu
AFM Fita 10:30 11:40 13:00 14:20 15:40
17:00 18:20 19:40 21:00 22:20 23:40 Levent
Cinebonus Kanyon 11:15 12:00 13:45 14:30
Fresh faces obscured n 17:55 The Simpsons
18:50 The Jay Leno Show
20:00 Leverage
21:00 The Closer
22:00 Coco Chanel
01:15 The Jay Leno Show
02:15 The Closer
16:30 17:15 19:15 20:00 22:00 22:45 24:45
Ataehir 10:30 12:45 15:00 17:15 19:30
21:45 24:00 Caddebostan AFM 10:40 12:00
13:20 14:40 16:00 17:20 18:40 20:00 21:20
23:15 Kozyata Cinebonus Palladium
11:00 12:15 13:30 14:45 16:00 17:15
renvented comedy ‘Scrubs’
EMILY YAHR WASHINGTON down the premiere. As great as it is to see J.D. and his BFF
03:15 Coco Chanel

18:30 19:45 21:00 22:15 23:30 ANKARA:
Cinebonus Bilkent 11:45 14:15 16:45 19:15
21:45 24:15 Ata On Tower 11:00 12:00 13:00
14:15 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 24:00 ZMR:
Alsancak Karaca 12:15 14:30 16:45 19:00
21:15 AFM Bornova Forum 11:00 13:30
16:00 18:30 21:15 23:45 Cinebonus Konak
Pier 11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 24:00
ANTALYA: Lara Prestige 11:30 12:45 13:45
15:00 16:00 17:15 18:15 19:30 20:30 21:45
22:45 Cinebonus Migros 11:15 13:45 16:15
19:00 21:45 24:15 AFM Laura 12:00 14:15
16:45 19:15 21:45 23:45
TÜRKLER ÇILDIRMI OLMALI:
GÖREV AFRKA
STANBUL: Bakrköy Cinebonus Capacity
11:00 13:00 15:15 17:30 19:45 22:00 24:15
Beyolu CineMajestic 11:30 13:45 16:00
17:45 18:30 19:45 21:00 21:45 23:00 Beyolu
AFM Fita 10:40 12:50 15:10 17:30 19:50 22:10
ili Megaplex Cevahir 11:00 12:00 14:15
15:20 16:30 19:00 21:30 23:00 Ataehir 10:00
12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 24:30 Kadköy
Rexx 11:15 13:15 15:15 16:15 17:15 18:15
19:15 21:15 ANKARA: Cinebonus Bilkent
11:30 14:00 16:30 19:00 21:30 24:00 Ata On
Tower 11:00 13:15 15:30 17:45 20:00 22:00
24:00 Cinebonus Panora 11:00 13:20 15:30
17:40 19:50 22:00 ZMR: Agora Balçova
11:00 13:15 15:30 17:45 20:00 22:15 Konak
AFM Passtel 11:15 13:45 16:00 18:30 21:15
ANTALYA: Lara Prestige 12:30 14:45 17:00
19:15 21:30 Cinebonus Migros 11:45 14:00
16:30 19:00 21:30 24:00
VIAGGIO SECRETO
STANBUL: Beyolu Pera 12:00 14:15
16:30 18:45 21:00
GOLDMAX
07:50 The Addams Family
09:35 Wall Street (1987)
11:40 Where's Marlowe?
13:25 St. Elmo’s Fire
Turk have a glorious, slow-motion reunion while “Guy Love” 15:15 Camille
Imagine indulging in a passionate goodbye with -- the power ballad from Season 6’s musical episode -- 17:00 Year of the Dog
18:40 Addams Family Values
someone, only to turn the corner and bump plays in the background, the inside jokes detract from 20:15 I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
22:05 The In-Laws
into him five minutes later. That sums up getting to know the new characters.
23:50 Oscar and Lucinda
the experience of watching the season premiere of The veteran actors are clearly having a blast, but 02:00 Beyond The Valley Of The
the medical comedy “Scrubs,” which, after seeming- it feels too much like college students who crash the Dolls
03:50 3 Women
ly wrapping up for good last spring after eight years, high school party. The best part of a new show is the
makes an inexplicable return as a hybrid reincarnation/ mystery and discovering hidden depths to odd MOVIEMAX
06:25 The Brothers Solomon
sort-of spinoff of its former self. characters, so there’s a bit of a letdown here. 08:05 Jesse Stone: Death in
After Season 8’s touching finale, which tied up ev- While this “Scrubs” is technically “new,” Paradise
09:40 Daddy Day Care
ery story line, no one seems more nervous for reaction we’re already well-versed with the characters’ 11:20 Walking Tall: Lone Justice
about “Scrubs” 2.0 than the people who make the quirks; such as knowing Dr. Cox does indeed 13:05 The Jane Austen Book Club
15:05 Assassination of Jesse
show. “‘Scrubs’ will be back, but in a new incarnation. have a heart, despite telling a class in the first James by the Coward Robert
... I know many of you will have very strong opinions episode: “Turns out you’re not actually medical Ford
17:55 Ratatouille
on this topic,” series star Zach Braff, who plays J.D., students at all. You’re all murderers and assassins 20:00 Made Of Honor
wrote on his MySpace page back in May, adding, that have been sent here to try to kill my patients.” 21:55 Warm Springs
00:05 Hostel II
“Don’t hate it until you see what [executive pro- Not enough time is spent on the “Scrubs” 2.0 01:40 Catacombs
ducer Bill Lawrence] comes up with.” cast to tell whether they’ll be any fun, though the 03:10 South Of Heaven, West
Of Hell
The first few minutes of Tuesday’s premiere most promising are Denise (Eliza Coupe) and Drew 05:25 Ratatouille
takes place at some vague point in the future. Sa- (Michael Mosley). Both are brilliant yet incapable of
cred Heart Hospital has been torn down, replaced emotion, so naturally they start a torrid affair. Lucy (Kerry
MGM MOVIES
06:50 Castaway
by a new hospital built on the campus of a medical Bishe), a socially inept student, takes over from J.D. as narra- 08:50 Leona Helmsley: The
Queen of Mean
school, in which implausible -- but hopefully hilarious tor of the series through her inner monologue. 10:30 The Group
-- medical melodramas will surely play out. By the second episode, there are fewer fantasy sequences -- 13:05 The White Buffalo
14:45 Smile
Some of the show’s original cast members (John C. Mc- thereby moving away from a signature “Scrubs” device -- though 16:50 What Did You Do in the War
Daddy?
Ginley as Dr. Cox, Donald Faison as Turk) have stayed behind the plot is familiar as the naive Lucy puts blind faith in a sketchy
18:50 King of the Gypsies
as teachers, while others make guest appearances (including patient. This happened to other characters one or two or seven 20:45 Witness for the Prosecution
Sarah Chalke as Elliot, now J.D.’s pregnant wife, and Ken Jen- times in seasons past -- and luckily, they’re all right there to help. 22:45 Dead Man's Gun Season
2/5: Sisters of Mercy
kins as Dr. Kelso); and the real action focuses on a group of Conventional wisdom suggests the audience will find
four new, and of course much younger, faces. comfort in the familiar original characters. In reality, the
23:35 Dead Man's Gun Season
2/6: Hangman
The original cast of NBC’s “Scrubs.” The medical comedy re- 00:25 The Long Goodbye
Yet having members of the previous cast remain even turns with a spin-off of its former self, featuring a new group best plan is to go forward. We’ve said our goodbyes; it’s 03:00 What Did You Do in the War
temporarily -- Braff will only appear in six episodes -- weighs Daddy?
of characters, played by four new and younger actors. time to move on. © The Washington Post 2009
05:40 Garwood: Prisoner Of War

COMEDYMAX
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Crossword Mr. DploMAT! Cem Kzltu
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949 13:00 The Game
ACROSS marsh 9 Declare keen vision
1 Coins of the 45 Kind of effort under oath 38 Regiment or 13:30 30 Rock
realm 46 Take for a 10 Gaucho’s patrol 14:00 American Dad
6 Instrument bride cow-catcher 39 Son of Jacob 14:30 Til Death
in an Italian 47 Work bit 11 Bob famous and Leah 15:00 The Cosby Show
orchestra 49 Bit of for his 40 Senate tally 16:00 According to Jim
10 It goes sediment sausage 42 Kind of
through 51 ’Twas in the 12 Turn loose engine 17:00 Everybody Loves Raymond
loops present? 13 Classic 43 High guy in 18:00 3rd Rock from the Sun
14 Outboard 52 Seasonal Joyce Kilmer Dubai (Var.) 18:30 The Game
motor’s affliction poem 48 Avid 19:00 The Cosby Show
locale 55 School 21 Quarter- 50 Stable hands
15 How perfec- conveyance, rounded 52 British jour- 19:30 30 Rock
tionists do often molding nalist’s street 20:00 American Dad
things 57 Parisian papa 22 Case of the 53 Fraternal club 20:30 Til Death
16 Radio- 59 Neil Diamond sniffles 54 Iris layers 21:00 According to Jim
message hit 26 Romanian’s 56 Toss about, 21:30 Everybody Loves Raymond
ender 64 Heavenly neighbor as petals
17 Irritating to garden on 27 Vocal solo, 58 Enthusiastic 22:00 The Office
the nose earth sometimes approval 23:00 Californication
18 Bounce from 65 Color for a 28 Good at 60 Means 23:30 Weeds
the bar, say wolf or whale dodging justifiers, at 00:00 Til Death
19 How worka- 66 Butterlike questions times
holics often spreads (Var.) 61 Relative of a
work 68 “Zounds!” 30 Kicked in, as rabbit
20 Where the cousin chips 62 Game of
deer and
the antelope
69 “Take some!”
70 It’s
32 Acknowledge
frankly 63
chance
Carol, e.g.
rado gude
play heaven-sent 34 There may 67 Give voice to
23 Cover a lot 71 Durbeyfield be a spat
of ground?
24 Campfire
remnant
of fiction
72 Was in debt
73 Smelly
about it
36 Having very
Sudoku TRT Toursm Rado
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CMYK
 CONTINUATION
Çiçek’s plot put into operation in Erzincan, claim witnesses
contnued from page 1
The armed forces also hoped to gather
support for members of the military arrested as
part of the Ergenekon probe. Dozens of Erge-
nekon members, including businessmen, mem-
bers of the military and journalists, are currently
incarcerated while standing trial.
The plot also aimed to show followers of
the Gülen movement as being engaged in ille-
gal acts. “We will enable the discovery of wea-
pons, ammunition and documents at the add-
resses of Gülen’s followers as if they were mem-
bers of a terrorist organization. The movement
will be named ‘Fethullah’s Armed Terrorist Or-
ganization’ [FSTÖ], and investigations into its
Generals to respond to
evidence other than coup diary
contnued from page 1
It is also mentioned in the Tolon do-
cument that the generals would en-
sure that Gen. Yalman was appointed at the
August Supreme Military Council (YA) me-
eting that year. It wasn’t clear what year the
document was from, but the three former for-
ce commanders were called to testify concer-
ning their alleged activities between 2001 and
2004. The document also noted that it would
be impossible to go on with the coup plan if
they failed to force Özkök to resign, asking all
generals to exhort the utmost effort to make
that resignation possible.
Sources say that the prosecutors will not
only question the generals on the alleged dia-
ries or the Tolon document, but also similarly
incriminating entries from a journal kept by
Cumhuriyet daily writer Mustafa Balbay, who
is also a jailed defendant in the Ergenekon tri-
al. Yalman’s name also frequently appears in
these entries. The prosecution also has reason
to suspect that Yalman was the general who
pushed for a story published in Cumhuriyet
on May 23, 2003, reporting that younger of-
cers in the military would like to see an overt-
hrow of the government.
Earlier, Özkök testied as a witness in
the investigation. In the third indictment,
Özkök’s response to a question on the May
Cumhuriyet story -- which claimed that yo-
unger ofcers who were uneasy about the go-
vernment complained to Özkök in a collec-
tive letter about the government’s tendenci-
es they deemed to be unsecular -- was that
although he knew that some in the military
were unhappy about the government, he did
not have the impression that they were plan-
ning to resort to such methods.
Indictments on Cage and Poyrazköy
Meanwhile, reports say that the prosecuti-
on will be submitting two new indictments to
the court hearing the Ergenekon trial. So far,
three indictments covering various operations
conducted in the course of the investigation
have been accepted by the stanbul 13th High
Criminal Court. Charges arising from more
recent operations, including the discovery of
a weapons cache in stanbul’s Poyrazköy dist-
rict in April and a document named the Cage
Operation which laid out the generals’ plans
General Staff destroyed evidence in probe of former colonel
contnued from page 1
Üçok was appointed as a disciplinary of-
cer. The voice recording posted anonymo-
usly online on Wednesday suggested that Çu-
buklu called his team for a meeting immedia-
tely after civilian prosecutors insisted on exa-
mining the General Staff computers used by
Üçok. Üçok was previously one of the military
prosecutors conducting an investigation into
secret meeting places of ofcers and War Aca-
demy cadets known as command centers, or
Karargah houses.
In the recording, the voice allegedly be-
longing to Çubuklu is heard saying compu-
ters at the General Staff were not “cleaned
up.” A member of the Legal Advisory Depart-
ment of the General Staff expressed confusion
over whether to send the computers to civili-
an prosecutors. “I am not sure, indeed. We are
worried that they may be leaked to the press,”
the voice says. Col. Neet -- identied only by
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
members will be carried out by military prosecu-
tors,” read the plot.
Two secret witnesses, interrogated recently
by an Erzurum public prosecutor, claimed that
they were offered a bribe by three members of
the military -- one major, a lieutenant colonel
and a sergeant major – to plant weapons at the
addresses of Gülen’s followers. The three mem-
bers of the military were arrested and put in jail
last month.
“I met a man named Kerim, who works for
the intelligence unit of the gendarmerie, at a res-
taurant. He put pressure on me to plant wea-
pons at the addresses of Gülen’s followers. I said
I would not do it. He took out a check from his
Navy Commander
ADMRAL ÖZDEN ÖRNEK
to assassinate various non-Muslim commu-
nity leaders to foment chaos, will be included
in the new indictments. The prosecutors will
submit two separate documents for each in-
cident.
According to the Cage operation, which
was retrieved from a CD seized from the of-
ce of retired Maj. Levent Bekta, who is cur-
rently under arrest over suspected links to the
Poyrazköy arms excavation, Ergenekon was
planning to assassinate non-Muslim commu-
nity leaders.
The CD was found along with many ot-
hers in Bekta’s ofce during a police raid in
April, which came after the discovery of mu-
nitions on land owned by the stek Foun-
his rst name -- suggests that
they should claim that the do-
cuments in the computers be-
long to the Operations Unit if
they are leaked to the press.
The team later starts de-
termining which computers at
the General Staff were used
by Üçok to erase “condenti-
al documents” from them. The
member of the Legal Advisory
Department says civilian prose-
cutors lack technical knowledge
and will believe what an analy- Ahmet Zeki Üçok
sis to be conducted by police of-
cers suggests. “I believe it would be beneci-
al if police prepare a report that says the com-
puters are ‘empty,’” the member remarks.
Çubuklu orders his team not to submit
any documents to civilian prosecutors that
were prepared by software company Ha-
pocket. The check was for TL 800,000. He said
he knew how much my family needed the mo-
ney. Then he asked me to place a hand gun and
illegal books and documents in the bag of a man
named Yldrm,” one of the secret witnesses,
dubbed Erzincan, told the prosecutor.
Col. Çiçek was arrested last month for sus-
pected membership in a clandestine terrorist or-
ganization but was released after being briey
detained. He was also arrested and released in
July. The witness also said his family was threa-
tened by a public prosecutor. “Prosecutor Hüse-
yin asked me why I did not comply with the or-
ders. He said I had a family and that my resistan-
ce could result in their deaths. He threatened me
Former Land Forces Commander
GEN. AYTAÇ YALMAN
dation in Poyrazköy the same month. The
CD exposed the group’s plans to assassina-
te Turkey’s prominent non-Muslim gures
and place the blame for the killings on the AK
Party as part of the Cage Plan. The desired re-
sult of the killings was an increase in internal
and external pressure on the party, leading to
diminishing public support for the AK Party.
Various supplies of munitions have been
found hidden in shanty houses or buried un-
derground since the start of the investigation
into Ergenekon, apparently taken out of the
arms depots of the TSK.
The Ergenekon investigation itself started
in June 2007 with the discovery of weapons in
a shanty house in a district of stanbul. Since
velsan. “These are Havelsan’s
documents. They were pre-
pared by Havelsan. These are
things that should not be sent.
They were omitted. We need
to have a closer look [at the
documents],” the general no-
tes. Another participant of the
meeting, named Olcay, war-
ned the team to be extra ca-
utious when deciding which
computers or documents to
give to civilian prosecutors.
However, no detailed infor-
mation was available as to the
rank or position of Olcay. “We should not
overlook a critical thing related to the inves-
tigations. Beware that all of these documents
will be read by police line by line. They will
later be sent to the counterterrorism depart-
ment. If we overlook a critical document, we
CMYK
several more times and said my family would be
killed if they were implicated in the planting of
weapons and illegal documents at the addres-
ses of Gülen’s followers,” continued the witness.
Another secret witness, dubbed X, cla-
imed that he was asked by a lieutenant co-
lonel, Ersin, to blame police ofcers for mu-
nitions that would be discovered. “They told
me to testify to prosecutors that ammuniti-
ons unearthed in [a lake close to] Çatalarmut
[village in Erzincan] were placed there by the
police. I refused to do so. They said they wo-
uld nd a job for me and give me TL 10,000.”
A large cache of munitions was discovered in
the lake on Oct. 27. stanbul Today’s Zaman
Air Forces Commander
GEN. BRAHM FIRTINA
the start of the investigation, hand grenades,
explosives, light anti-tank weapons, rocket
launchers, Kalashnikov ries, assault ries,
thousands of bullets and various other muni-
tions have been discovered in secret depots
or buried underground in various cities inclu-
ding Eskiehir, Ankara and Sapanca.
In April of this year, a large cache of mu-
nitions including 10 light anti-tank weapons,
20 percussion bombs and bullets was uneart-
hed on land owned by Ergenekon suspect-
at-large Bedrettin Dalan in Poyrazköy. Dalan
was in the US during the wave of detentions
and discoveries, which started on Jan. 7, 2009.
He still has not been captured and is believed
to be abroad.
will be in trouble,” he warns. Hereupon, Col.
Neet suggests that they prepare a report to
be submitted to civilian prosecutors which
will read “No document belonging to Col.
Üçok was found.” Olcay, however, nds the
suggestion “dangerous” because such a re-
port could place the General Staff in a dif-
cult position.
The team then continues to examine
the documents and decides to send some of
them to civilian prosecutors, which they tho-
ught would not cause any problems for the
General Staff.
The member of the Legal Advisory De-
partment says Çubuklu would “talk” directly
to the prosecutors if they insisted on being
sent more documents. “They may be insistent.
In this case, we will communicate with these
guys on a higher level. Hfz Pasha will inter-
vene and ask what their problem is. That’s it!”
he remarks. stanbul Today’s Zaman with wires
TODAY’S ZAMAN 17
Cage plan is terrifying,
says rights activist
EMNE DOLMACI STANBUL
Human rights activist and publisher Ragp Zarakolu says
the Cage plan, a military plan which was exposed earli-
er this month that plotted to assassinate non-Muslim gures
and detonate explosives in museums in order to scare the pub-
lic and make them turn against the ruling party, is the most ter-
rifying action plan he has seen during his career as an activist.
In an interview with Today’s Zaman last week, Zara-
kolu, who is the deputy chairman of the Human Rights
Association (HD), said: “We have been following such
things as human rights defenders. Even for us this was
unbelievably horrendous.”
Zarakolu also criticized the government for turning back
on earlier positive steps in the eld of freedom of thought
and expression after the year 2005, such as an amendment
to Article 8 of the Anti-Terrorism Law that introduced a new
denition of “terrorism,” making it possible for as few as two
people who are jointly engaged in what is dened as “pro-
paganda against the indestructible integrity of the state” to
be tried as terrorists. He said it is this attitude of compromi-
sing in the face of militarist tendencies that was responsible
for documents such as the Cage plan. He said attacks against
Alevis in Çorum and Kahranmanmara in the late 1970s and
in Sivas in 1993 show that such plans are highly provocative.
He also classied these as crimes against humanity.
Referring to illegal groups inside the armed forces, he said:
“If some groups have the freedom to commit crimes and if the-
se groups are accepted as being above the law then we can’t
speak of the state in question as a land of rule of law or a de-
mocratic regime or a republic. This is a shameful situation.”
Zarakolu says privileged groups having the freedom to com-
mit crimes as they wish is a cancer, saying this situation owes
it existence to the militarism of the Constitution which was the
product of the Sept. 12, 1980, military coup.
Freedom of speech
As a publisher, Zarakolu has frequently been a victim of vio-
lations of freedom of speech. N. Mehmet Güler’s book “De-
cisions More Difcult than Death,” which was published by
Zarakolu’s Belge Publishing, was taken of the shelves by a co-
urt ruling which charged the author and the publisher with
spreading propaganda on behalf of a terrorist organization.
This was followed by a lawsuit against the publisher on May
29, 2009. Zarakolu said he was involved two similar cases be-
fore. In the rst case, he found himself before a court in 1982
for publishing Dido Sotiriu’s “Farewell Anatolia” -- a bestsel-
ler in Turkey for many years. He was nally acquitted. In 2004,
he was once again in court for publishing George Jerjian’s “The
Truth Will Set Us Free: Armenians and Turks Reconciled.” He
was sentenced to six months in prison which was commuted
to a monetary ne for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal
Code (TCK) -- which criminalizes defaming the Turkish nation
-- and another law that criminalizes insulting Atatürk. Zarako-
lu, who is against paying such nes on principle, has appealed
the ruling. He also notes that the ruling makes him the rst per-
son to be ned under Article 301 after the article was changed
to make it more difcult to convict individuals under it.
Zarakolu also made a call to Erdoan, saying unconditio-
nal freedom of expression and publishing has to be guarante-
ed to ensure the success of any democratic initiative. Zarako-
lu also recommended the government add a new article to the
Constitution that says, “Freedom of thought and expression
cannot be restrained for any reason.” Zarakolu said the United
Kingdom has ensured this without a written constitution, whi-
le the United States has done so under the First Amendment.
He said it would be much more signicant if such a change oc-
curred under the rule of Prime Minister Erdoan, who himself
was jailed for several months in the past for reciting a poem.
‘Suspects were tortured
at Lice boarding school’
MEHMET GÖKÇE DYARBAKIR
A witness who testied to Diyarbakr public prosecu-
tors recently about unsolved murders in the Southeast
in the 1990s claimed that he saw many suspects being tortu-
red by soldiers at a boarding school in the Lice district of Di-
yarbakr. Ramazan Akçiçek asserted that he was also tortured
at the school, in 1994. “There were 10 people. We were put in
the bathrooms of the Lice boarding school. We were tortured.
When I woke up one morning, I saw that some of my friends
were not there. The soldiers said they were taken away. I did
not see them again,” the witness reportedly told prosecutors.
The bones of three of the missing suspects -- Mehmet Se-
lim, Hasan Örhan and Cezair Örhan -- were found in the Ba-
clar village in Diyarbakr in 2003. Their bones were sent to the
stanbul Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK) for an analysis,
but mysteriously got lost en route. “Everybody was taken into
the bathrooms, one by one. They were subjected to unimagi-
nable torture. The Lice boarding school was called ‘the home
of torture’ in Diyarbakr. People accused of supporting the
terrorist organization [the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK]
were detained and tortured at the school. I saw Selim and the
Örhan brothers at the school. They were tortured the same
night they were brought to the school. Hasan Örhan told the
soldiers that his son was also a soldier. He begged them not to
torture him any more. One night, the soldiers blindfolded us.
When our eyes were uncovered, we saw that there were now
only three people in the bathroom,” Akçiçek stated.
According to the witness, he saw Cezair Örhan later
in one of the rooms at the boarding school. “I asked him
what had happened to them. He said the soldiers made
them wear peshmerga clothes and said they would be fre-
ed in the mountains the next morning. Cezair was crying.
He told me to tell his relatives about him if I was freed.
Then I returned to the bathroom. The next morning the
soldiers told us that the Selim, Cezair and Hasan had been
taken away. I did not see them again,” Akçiçek noted.
T18-03-12-09.qxd 02.12.2009 14:20 Page 1

18 TODAY’S ZAMAN T H U R S D AY, D E C E M B E R 3 , 2 0 0 9 TODAY’S LEARNING

8th & 9th GRADERS

THE MOST POPULAR TOY * QUOTES ABOUT TEACHERS

MÜHENNA KAHVECÝ
OF THE 20TH CENTURY
A small cube that obsessed the world

PHOTO
AP, BELA SZANDELSZKY
I disapprove of what you say, but I will
defend to the death your right to say it.
(paraphrasing Voltaire)

PHOTO
The highest result of education
is tolerance.
Helen Keller

It is easy to be tolerant of the principles

of other people if you have none
of your own.
Herbert Samuel

Overview of Rubik's cube:
It seemed simple enough. You would pick
up the Rubik's cube and turn it a few times.
The goal was to make each side a solid color,
as it was when you first took it out of the box.
After a couple of hours, you realized you were
mesmerized by the puzzle and yet no closer to
solving it. This exact situation happened to
millions of people in 1980 as the Rubik's cube
became an obsession around the world.
Who created the Rubik's cube?
Ernö Rubik is the one to praise or to blame,
depending on how frustrated you got with the
Rubik's cube. Ernö Rubik was born on July 13,
1944 in Budapest, Hungary. Rubik combined
the divergent talents of his parents (his father
was an engineer who designed gliders and his
mother was an artist and a poetess) to become
both a sculptor and an architect.
Fascinated with the concept of space, Rubik
spent his free time -- while working as a profes-
sor at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in
Budapest -- designing puzzles that would make
his students think in new ways about three-di-
mensional geometry. In the spring of 1974, just
shy of his 30th birthday, Rubik envisioned a small
cube, with each side constructed of moveable
squares. By the fall of 1974, his friends had helped
him create the first wooden model of his idea.
At first, Rubik just enjoyed watching how
the squares moved as he turned one section and
then another. However, when he attempted to Read the article about "Rubik's cube".
put the colors back again, he ran into difficulty. Are sentences "right" (A) or "wrong" (B)? COMPLETE THE CONVERSATION
Oddly entranced by the challenge, Rubik spent a If there is not enough information to answer "right" (A) or
BETWEEN DÝLÞAD AND EMILY BY
month turning the cube this way and that way "wrong"(B), choose "doesn't say" (C).
until he finally realigned the colors. When he
USING THE WORDS IN THE BOX.
handed other people the cube and they too had 1. It is not as difficult as it seems to solve the Rubik's cube. point of as out about like to ll
the same fascinated reaction, he realized he A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say
Dilþad: Well, we could fly ………… (1) Ankara in-
might have a fun toy puzzle on his hands.
A world obsession 2. Millions of people around the world manage to solve the stead …….. (2) taking the bus. It's the fastest option.
Rubik's cubes instantaneously became an in- Rubik's Cube puzzle in only a couple of minutes. Emily: But if we fly, we'll miss ……… (3)
ternational sensation. Everyone wanted one. It ap- A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say on the landscape.
pealed to youngsters as well as adults. There was Dilþad: Oh! Right. It's a good …………… (4) you are
something obsessive about the little cube. While 3. Ernö Rubik designed the Rubik's cube with the help of his making there. Airplanes are out, then. We've already
millions of people were stumped, frustrated and parents. rented a car. How ……………. (5) hitchhiking?
yet still obsessed with their Rubik's cubes, rumors A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say Emily: You are not kidding, are you? That
began to circulate as to how to solve the puzzle. sounds dangerous. I'….. (6)pass.
While some Rubik's cube owners were so 4. Ernö Rubik became a professor at a university in the spring of Dilþad: The only other options are the train or a bus.
frustrated that they began smashing open their 1974.
Emily: I'd ……….. (7) to see what a
cubes for a peek inside (they hoped to discover A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say
Turkish train is like.
some inner secret that would help them solve the
puzzle), other Rubik's cube owners were setting Dilþad: They're not as nice …….. (8) buses.
5. After he had scrambled the Rubik's cube, it took Ernö Rubik
speed records. Starting in 1982, the first annual about four weeks to rearrange it.
International Rubik's Championships were held A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say
in Budapest, where people competed to see who
could solve the Rubik's cube the fastest. These 6. Some people tried to dismantle the Rubik's cube in the hope
competitions are places for "cubers" to show off of solving it.
their "speed cubing." The current world record is A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say
8.72 seconds, held by Yu Nakajima of Japan.
To date, more than 300 million Rubik's 7. The first world record of solving the Rubik's cube was set by
cubes have been sold, making it one of the a Hungarian student.
most popular toys of the 20th century. A) right B) wrong C) doesn't say

THE ANATOLIAN SHEPHERD

TODAY’S ZAMAN, ÝSA ÞÝMÞEK

The Anatolian Shepherd is native ……. dog. The Anatolian Shepherd is very
(1) Asia Minor. It protects flocks and closely related to the Kangal dog and
serves ……… (2) a shepherd's compan- some people even declare all Turkish
CEM KIZILTUÐ

ion. On the high Anatolian Plateau, sum-
mers are hot and very dry and winters are
…….. (3). The Anatolian Shepherd dog is
able to live outside all year round. For cen-
turies the ancestors of the Anatolian
shepherd's, i.e., the Kangal dog, to be one DOCTOR!
breed, the Anatolian Shepherd; however,
………(7) true Turkish Kangal dogs are Doctor, doctor I've lost my memory!
said to be a separate breed from the When did this happen?
generic Turkish shepherd's dog. The iso- When did what happen?
ILLUSTRATIONS

Shepherd were used as combat dogs lated historical conditions of the Sivas-
PHOTO

……. (4) war and for hunting. It was par-
ticularly valued for the victorious battles it
could fight with wolves. The Turks would
put a spiked color on them to protect
…….. (5) necks from getting bit by preda-
tors who attacked their charges.
As a sheepdog, it was bothered by neither
fatigue ……. (6) bad weather. Today it is
still used as a sheep dog as well as a guard
Kangal region has resulted in the develop- Doctor, doctor I think I'm a rubber band.
ment of the Kangal dog as a distinct Why don't you stretch yourself out on the couch
breed, which has been declared the na- there and tell me all about it!
tional dog of Turkey and a national treas-
ure. The true Turkish Kangal dogs are first Doctor, doctor everyone thinks I'm a liar.
and foremost still primarily working shep- I can't believe that!
herds. The export of pure Kangal dogs
from Turkey has been controlled and now Doctor, doctor I need something to keep my
……. (8) virtually forbidden. falling hair in.
What about a matchbox?

Fill in the gaps with the appropriate option. Doctor, doctor I keep seeing double.
Please sit on the couch.
1. A) to B) too C) two Which one?
2. A) if B) as C) as if
3. A) hot B) very C) cold Doctor, doctor I keep seeing an insect spinning
4. A) on B) onto C) in around.
5. A) them B) their C) theirs Don't worry, it's just a bug that's going around!
6. A) or B) so C) nor
7. A) the B) a C) an Doctor, doctor I think I'm a moth.
8. A) is B) were C) are Get out of the way, you are in my light!

Last week’s answers: 1-B, 2-A, 3-B, 4-C, 5-B, 6-C / 1-A, 2-C, 3-B, 4-B, 5-C, 6- C, 7-A, 8-A

CM Y K
 SPORTS
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009
AP, SCOTT HECKEL
PHOTO
Tiger Woods, who suffered facial cuts and brief-
ly lost consciousness after crashing his SUV
outside his Florida home on Friday, is not play-
ing in this week’s Chevron World Challenge.
Absence of host
Tiger Woods a hot
topic at Sherwood
The conspicuous absence of tournament host
Tiger Woods from this week’s Chevron World
Challenge was a major talking point for the play-
ers as they prepared for today’s opening round.
World number one Woods pulled out of
the event on Monday, citing injuries from a
mysterious car crash outside his Florida home
last week, and his non-attendance here was de-
scribed as a bitter disappointment by his peers.
“It’s a real shame,” European number one
and world number four Lee Westwood told
Reuters on the putting green at Sherwood
Country Club on Tuesday.
“It’s a shame for the tournament, a shame
for the sponsors and a shame for Tiger because
I’m sure he would have liked to be here. It’s cer-
tainly a little strange without him but everybody
knows that it would have been very difcult for
him to play this week with all the publicity.”
Woods, the greatest player of his generation
and one of the world’s most recognizable gures,
has dominated news headlines since crashing his
SUV into a re hydrant and a neighbor’s tree in
the early hours of Friday morning.
The full eld is: Stricker, Westwood, Har-
rington, Paul Casey, Kenny Perry, Jim Furyk,
Martin Kaymer, Ian Poulter, Cink, Sean O’Hair,
Glover, Anthony Kim, Camilo Villegas, Zach
Johnson, Yang, Mike Weir, Justin Leonard and
Graeme McDowell. Thousands Oaks, Calif. Reuters
Strong start pushes
Heat over Blazers
The Miami Heat took control from the start to
record a 107-100 win over the Portland Trail
Blazers in the NBA on Tuesday. Michael Beas-
ley scored a season-high 27 points and Dwyane
Wade had 18 points and 12 assists for Miami.
Beasley was 8 of 15 from the eld and 11 of 12
for free throws as the Heat shot 53.3 percent
from the eld. Greg Oden grabbed a career-high
20 rebounds and scored 13 points for Portland,
which shot .391 in losing its third consecutive
game. The Blazers were without forward La-
Marcus Aldridge, who has a bruised right knee.
Miami scored the game’s rst seven points on
the way to a 32-28 lead at the end of the rst
quarter. Other NBA results: Boston 108, Char-
lotte 90; Washington 106, Toronto 102; New
York 126, Phoenix 99; Miami 107, Portland 100;
LA Lakers 110, New Orleans 99. Portland, Ore. AP
Man United and Villa
advance to Cup semis
Defending champion Manchester United ad-
vanced to the League Cup seminals by beating
Tottenham 2-0, while Aston Villa won 4-2 over
Portsmouth. Man United midelder Darron Gib-
son struck twice in the rst half in a rematch of last
season’s nal that was won by United in a penalty
shootout. Anderson was the creator of the 17th-
minute opening goal, surging forward before cut-
ting inside to lay the ball into the path of Gibson,
whose low shot crept into the corner of the net.
The second came at the end of a owing move
started by Park Ji-sung and continued by Dimitar
Berbatov, who picked out Danny Welbeck and
played a one-two with Gibson. The Northern
Ireland midelder struck high into the net from
the edge of the area. At Fratton Park, Portsmouth
took the lead in the 10th when Villa’s Stiliyan
Petrov sliced a corner into his own net, but the
visitors replied immediately through Emile Hes-
key. England winger James Milner struck in the
27th and Stewart Downing added a third goal on
his rst Villa start in the 74th. Kanu gave Villa a
late scare by pulling one back, but Ashley Young
made sure of victory with a fourth goal to send
Martin O’Neill’s side through. London AP
Arsenal looking to buy players in January
Arsenal will be seeking new players in the January transfer window
because of Robin van Persie’s long-term injury, manager Arsene Wenger
has said. Wenger had said earlier that he was unlikely to spend and
was happy with the squad but losing the Dutch striker for four to five
months with an ankle injury has changed his thinking. London, Reuters
Efes Pilsen at home to Rytas,
Fener Ülker goes to Barcelona
TODAY’S ZAMAN, MESUT YILDIRIM
PHOTO
A scene from the Fener-FC Barcelona Euroleague opener in stanbul. The two teams meet Barcelona today.
AP, MINDAUGAS KULBIS
PHOTO
Donatas Zavadskas (L) of Lithuania’s BC Lietuvos Rytas vies for the ball with Charles Smith of Efes
Pilsen during their Euroleague match in Vilnius on Oct. 22.
Already qualified Lions take on Panathinaikos at Ali Sami Yen
OKAN UDO BASSEY STANBUL
The unbeaten Galatasaray Lions, who have
GROUP F standings
already qualied for the UEFA Europa League P W D L GF GA Pts
Round of 32, host Greek side Panathinaikos in their Galatasaray 4 3 1 0 11 3 10*
Group F game ve at stanbul’s Ali Sami Yen Sta- Panathinaikos 4 3 0 1 4 3 9
dium this evening. D.Bucharest 4 1 0 3 2 8 3
The fact of the matter is that any match between Sturm Graz 4 0 1 3 1 4 1
a Turkish and Greek side has much at stake because
Live on Euro Futbol
there is always everything to play for -- national
20:05 Galatasaray vs. Panathinaikos
pride, prestige as well as bragging rights. And so
even though the Lions already have a ticket for the
next round in their pocket, they are taking this eve-
ning’s game very seriously. to rest on their laurels because the Greek side will be
Galatasaray Dutch coach Frank Rijkaard is back all out for vengeance today. Since that home defeat
at the helm after a brief visit to the Netherlands on to Galatasaray on Sept. 17, Panathinaikos has won
Friday to see his ill, pregnant wife. The Dutchman its last three European games by the same score: 1-0.
as a result missed the Bursa match, where his team A win today would conrm Galatasaray as the
was not only beaten 1-0 but also dropped from sec- group leader, while a draw would be enough for
ond to fourth in the domestic league standings. Panathinaikos to qualify for the Round of 32.
Rijkaard, therefore, knows more than everyone The Galatasaray Lions are undefeated in 10 Euro-
that the patience of the fans and anyone associated pean matches this season, with seven wins and three
with Galatasaray has run thin. Hence nothing other draws. In their ve home games, they have won four
than a win over Panathinaikos today will appease and drawn one, with 18 goals for and only two against.
the irate fans, who are already hopping mad and However the Galatasaray Lions have been expe-
looking for an opportunity to explode. riencing a goal drought ever since Czech striker Milan
Galatasaray humiliated Panathinaikos 3-1 on Baros broke his foot during the “mother of all derbies”
Matchday 1 in Athens, but the Lions cannot afford against the Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries on Oct. 25.
CMYK
It is incumbent upon Efes to take revenge on third-
placed Rytas because the stanbul side was beaten on
the road by Rytas in their Euroleague Group B open-
er at the packed Siemens Arena on Oct. 22. Fener
needs to go down ghting even if it loses to Barca
OKAN UDO BASSEY STANBUL Fener at Barcelona
Fenerbahçe Ülker (3-2) is third in Group A,
Efes Pilsen, the reigning men’s and it is the wish of every basketball lover in
Beko Turkish Basketball League
this country that Fener beat Royal FC Barce-
champion, hosts Lithuanian side lona (5-0) away this evening and hand the
Lietuvos Rytas in their Euroleague Group Catalans their rst Euroleague defeat.
B game at stanbul’s Darüafaka Ayhan However, if wishes were horses, beggars
ahenk Spor Hall this evening. would ride. Barcelona is not only the reigning
Fenerbahçe Ülker, last season’s UEFA Champions League soccer champion
Turkish league runner-up, faces an up- but is also one of the best basketball teams
hill battle when it takes on rampaging on the European continent. And the team is
unbeaten leader Regal FC Barcelona on not only winning, it is also winning with air.
the road in Group A. Barcelona taught Italian side Montepas-
Efes is the team to beat in the domes- chi a good basketball lesson last Thursday,
tic league, but the fact of the matter is that winning 84-65 in Siena to hand the Italians
things are just not going its way in Europe. their rst Euroleague loss of the season.
With a miserable 2-3 record, the same as Boni Ndong was the top scorer for Barcelo-
Serbian side Partizan, Efes Pilsen still faces na with 19 points, followed by Pete Mickeal
an early exit threat from the Euroleague
with 14 and Juan Carlos Navarro with 12.
unless it beats the Lithuanians today. These three sharpshooters could be
Furthermore, it is also incumbent a thorn in the esh for Fener, and so the
upon Efes to take revenge on third-placed stanbul side should not let them loose.
Rytas (3-2) because the stanbul side was Fener stunned Zalgiris Kaunas 84-78
beaten 77-70 on the road by Rytas in their in Lithuania on the road last Wednesday to
Euroleague Group B opener at the packed catapult itself into contention in Group A
Siemens Arena on Oct. 22. and improve its record to 3-2. Ömer Onan
Efes Pilsen beat winless Entente Or- scored 13 points for Fener, Gordan Giricek
leanaise 77-64 in stanbul last Wednes- and Semih Erden had 12 apiece, while Ömer
day to keep its hopes for survival alive. Ak and Emir Preldzic scored 10 each.
And it is worthy to note that Efes won No game is ever won or lost before it is
that match as a result of teamwork, with
Bostjan Nachbar banging in 12 points,
actually played. So Fener should go out this
evening and do what has to be done. And
Igor Rakocevic nine and Charles Smith,
Mario Kasun, Bootsy Thornton and Sinan
even if it loses, it should go down ghting.
Other Euroleague match-ups today:
Güler all scoring eight. Such a team effort Montepaschi vs. Cibona Zagreb; Asvel
is what Efes needs this evening to bring Basket vs. Zalgiris Kaunas; Union Olimpija
down Lithuania’s Rytas. vs. Maccabi Electra; Panathinaikos vs. AJ
Rytas was beaten 91-84 by unbeaten Milano; EWE Baskets vs. Asseco Prokom.
Unicaja in Malaga, Spain, last Thursday. But
despite the defeat, Arturas Jomantas had 16
points, Bojan Popovic and Dejan Borovn-
Live on SkyTürk
20:00 Efes Pilsen-Lietuvos Rytas
jak 15 each, Milko Bjelica 12 and Steponas
Babrauskas 11 for Rytas. These are the play- Live on Spormax
21:34 Regal Barcelona-Fenerbahçe Ülker
ers Efes must watch closely this evening.
C H AN
PHOTO
Galatatasaray players during a training session ahead of their UEFA Europa League against Pan-
athinaikos at stanbul’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium this evening.
Galatasaray assistant coach Johan Neeskens “We started playing matches on June 22,” the
said after the loss on Wednesday that the team’s loss Dutchman said. “We have played more matches
in form was because it started the season too early. than every other team in the league. But we have to
Stand-in Congo striker Shabani Christophe overcome this mentally and otherwise,” he added.
Nonda has failed to deliver. Against Bursa on Friday, No ifs or buts! Rijkaard, therefore, must
Galatasaray tried Harry Kewell, Arda Turan and Ab- come up with solutions against revenge-seeking
dul Kader Keita upfront, but that also did not work. Panathinaikos today.
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