25 April 2007

1. "Turkey's majority party picks candidate with Islamic background", Turkey's majority political party chose a prominent leader with an Islamic background Tuesday to compete for the presidency, a move expected to extend the party's reach for the first time into the heart of Turkey's secular establishment.

2. "Turkey's tense election", Turkey's governing AK party has nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as its candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

3. "Slain German Missionary Highlights Christian Plight in Turkey", the story of a quiet and deeply religious German missionary ended with the sound of dirt being scattered over his coffin in eastern Turkey, his violent death a sign of the plight of Christians in this Muslim country.

4. "Turkey's Christians Face Backlash", despite the murders' religious overtones, experts believe they can be better attributed to the extreme nationalism and anti-Western xenophobia that are both on the rise in Turkey.

5. "Magazine Critical of the Army Closed", weekly newsmagazine Nokta is closed with an unexpected decision by its owner following two consecutive articles critical of the Turkish army. Editor-in-chief Görmüs noted that amounting pressure from the General Staff led to this end.

6. "Punk rockers face jail time over tune 'insulting' Turkey", five Turkish punk rockers and their agent face up to 18 months in jail after a bureaucrat took umbrage at their song criticizing the country's unpopular university entrance exam.

1. - International Herald Tribune - "Turkey's majority party picks candidate with Islamic background":

ISTANBUL / 24 April 2007 / by Sabrina Tavernise

Turkey's majority political party chose a prominent leader with an Islamic background Tuesday to compete for the presidency, a move expected to extend the party's reach for the first time into the heart of Turkey's secular establishment.

The choice of Abdullah Gul, 56, the affable, English-speaking foreign minister who is Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's closest political ally, is expected to be confirmed by Parliament in several rounds of voting that will begin Friday.

Turkey is a Muslim country, but its government, set up in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is strictly secular, and the presidency is its most important office.

The selection of Gul, whose wife wears a head scarf, is not likely to sit well with secular Turks who worry that their lifestyles - drinking alcohol, wearing miniskirts and swimming in coed pools - could eventually be in danger. But it will accommodate an emerging, observant middle class that wants more freedom to practice Islam.

Gul, who has long been his party's public face abroad, nodded to those concerns in a news conference in Ankara after his nomination, saying, "Our differences are our richness." His candidacy was a minor concession: The choice most distasteful to the secular establishment would have been Erdogan himself, who deftly bowed out.

Still, if Gul is confirmed, his party would occupy the posts of president, prime minister and parliamentary speaker, a lineup that the opposition party leader, Deniz Baykal, called "unfavorable." Baykal's party later announced that it would boycott the vote.

The military, too, was concerned, issuing a veiled warning that the next president should be a faithful follower of the secular order. The deputy chief of the armed forces, General Ergun Saygun, said, "The next president should be tied to the Turkish republic's main principles, which were defined in the Constitution - secularism, social state and democracy."

Still, in a region where religion and government have over all been seen as hostile to modernity, Turkey has blended the two lightly.

The party Gul helped found, known by its Turkish initials, AK, sprang from Turkey's political Islamic movements of the 1990s, but moderated significantly after gaining power on a national scale in 2002. Since then, it has applied pragmatic policies that helped create an economic boom and opened up the state in ways that the rigid secular elite had never imagined, in part to qualify it for membership in Europe.

"This party has done more for the modernization of Turkey than all the secular parties in the previous years," said Joost Lagendijk, a member of the European Parliament. "They were willing to open up the system, to challenge the elite."

Although the party is publicly adamant about religion's not entering policy, bristling at shorthand descriptions of it as pro-Islamic, it draws much of its support from Turkey's religiously conservative heartland. Once on the periphery, these traditional Turks are emerging into mainstream society as a powerful middle class that has driven Turkey's economic boom. They are also beginning to press Turkey's long-governing elite for change.

"These are the new forces, the new social powers," said Ali Bulac, a columnist for a conservative, mainstream newspaper in Istanbul. "They are very devout. They don't drink. They don't gamble. They don't take holidays."

"They are loaded with a huge energy. This energy has been blocked by the state."

That energy has helped drive a spectacular economic boom. In Istanbul, progress dazzles. Shiny new fuel-efficient taxis zip down tulip-lined streets. New parks have sprung up. The air is no longer polluted. The Turkish economy has nearly doubled in size in the four years since the AK party gained power, a growth spurt that was kept on track by its strict adherence to an economic program prescribed by the International Monetary Fund.

"Socially pious administrations both locally and centrally have made enormous progress for the modernization of the country," said Omer Bolat, director Musiad, the business association that represents the new observant class. "Unfortunately, the secular circles are very much for status quo."

The country's growing wealth has drawn more observant Turks out of their homes into public life. Some religious schools now teach English, unheard of a decade ago. That has helped students from religious backgrounds to overcome handicaps imposed on them by the state for university entrance examinations.

One example is the Kartal Anadolu Imam Hatip High School in a conservative middle class neighborhood of Istanbul, where 16-year-old girls in head scarves and sweatshirts played basketball last week in brightly patterned Converse sneakers. Last year, 94 of its students got into universities, up from almost none a decade ago, said Hadir Kalkan, the school principal. Just 14 chose to continue religious training.The city pool and gym in the lower-middle-class neighborhood of Okmeydani is a testament to the ascendancy of the pious middle class. Few observant women attended in 1996 when the pool opened, an attendant said. Now they fill treadmills and lap lanes."I always wanted to but there were no places to go," said Dondu Koc, a plump 46-year-old in yellow sweat pants as she pedaled an exercise bike in a room full of women last Wednesday. Before Erdogan's stewardship as mayor of the city, there was only one public pool. Now there are three and another five under construction.The complex is separated by sex, an arrangement Koc likes because it allows her and other covered women to pedal, jog and swim without their veils. But the division irritates secular Turks who see it as an infringement on their own lifestyle preferences."There shouldn't be a split like this," said a woman whose hair was still wet from her swim. "We sit next to each other; we should swim next to each other too."

Gul's candidacy goes to the heart of a very emotional debate, because the presidency is such a revered symbol. It also holds the real powers of commander in chief and possession of a key right to veto. Turkish military leaders in the past have remarked that they would refuse to visit the presidential palace if a woman in a head scarf were living in it. Gul's wife has even filed a case in the European Court of Human Rights over the Turkish state's requiring her to remove her head scarf in public universities.

She later revoked the suit.

"How can she now become the host of a palace that represents the very same principles?" said Necmi Yuzbasioglu, a professor of constitutional law at Istanbul University. He said the opposition parties could challenge Gul's nomination in court on the grounds that he was a member of two previous Islamic political parties, which were closed for violating the state's secular principals.

Mehmet Kislali, a columnist with Radikal, who has strong sources in the military, said: "The military should not be underestimated. Thousands of officers are watching the developments."

The opposition party has the right to apply to the Constitutional Court on the ground that the nominee is not fit to perform presidential duties as the guardian of Turkey's secular republic because he has acted as the deputy chairman of two political parties closed down for violating the secular principles of the republic.

But many voters favor Erdogan's commitment to membership in the Europe Union because it would require a loosening of state restrictions on the practicing of Islam. His efforts to ease some limits on religious schools have failed, blocked by the presidential veto.

"We have no problem with women wearing miniskirts," said Elif Demir, a 19-year-old office clerk, who was waving a party flag at a youth rally for Erdogan on Sunday afternoon. "But why are they so bothered with our head scarves?"

That frustration took the form of a public scolding on the far edge of Istanbul Friday night, in a new building for workers from nearby factories.

A portly man in a white jacket recited a litany of complaints to a member of Erdogan's party.

"Why have you turned a blind eye to the closings of Imam-Khatip," religious schools, he asked, sitting in a living room crowded with people from the neighborhood who had come to listen to the party member pitch his platform.

"What about Koran courses? We are looking for generations that have morality."

The apartment bore the traces of upper middle class life: a running machine, a washing machine and a dryer. Brightly colored scarves covered the hair of the hostesses.

The representative, Kenan Danisman, paused as the evening prayer began. He then offered some pragmatic advice. "If you transfer this prayer into practical support, in three to five years, the problems that hurt peoples' consciences will be resolved."

It is precisely the open question of religion's role in society that makes secular Turks so uncomfortable.

Erdogan may be explicit in his opposition to Islam's entering policy, but what about the rank and file of Erdogan's party, who are filling jobs in public administration? Secular Turks worry that their conservative worldview will change interpretation of the rules and reduce tolerance for a secular lifestyle.

"People like me are not calculating the economy or what sort of policies they are making," said Basak Caglayan, 35, a financial consultant who is getting married next month. "The life we expect, we want for our children, is changing. I worry about that."

Lagendijk, the European Parliament representative, said: "They opened up a system that had to be opened up, but what replaces the dogmatism is not quite clear. What is their vision of gender equality? How tolerant are they of different lifestyles?"

Supporters of more freedom for Islam argue that Turkish society is too developed to be susceptible to extremism. The observant middle class values stability for its businesses.

And while the population is largely observant - 46 percent, according to a nationwide poll last fall - fewer than 10 percent favor imposing Islamic law.

"The people can manage," Bulac said. "We're a mature community. We've been one for thousands of years."

2. - BBC - "Turkey's tense election":

ANKARA / 24 April 2007 / by Sarah Rainsford

Turkey's governing AK party has nominated Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as its candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

The move ends weeks of heated debate over whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would run.

Mr Erdogan was once a member of a pro-Islamic party, and staunch secularists feared he would challenge the strict separation in Turkey between religion and politics.

The nomination of Mr Gul is a compromise of sorts. It follows a street protest of almost 400,000 people in the capital ten days ago, called to pressure Mr Erdogan not to stand.

Turkey's most senior general had also issued a veiled warning to the prime minister, with a reminder that the next president must be loyal to the secular constitution "at his core, not just in his words".

Contrasting styles

"This is a smart political move. It seems the prime minister decided that his own candidacy would create serious problems, and chose to put forward his next best option instead," says newspaper columnist Haluk Sahin. "This way he can appear to act like a statesman, but the presidency will still go to one of his own."

Mr Gul is a soft-spoken politician, whose style is far less confrontational than Mr Erdogan's.

As foreign minister Mr Gul has overseen Turkey's accession talks with the EU and analysts believe he is better trusted by the powerful military. His candidacy should go some way to reducing the tension that has been growing here in recent weeks.

The announcement was met with wild applause by party members in parliament.

But Mr Gul and Mr Erdogan share an identical political background.

Headscarf controversy

Both began their political careers in the pro-Islamic Welfare party, which has since been banned. Both men's wives wear the Islamic headscarf, which is a deeply divisive symbol in Turkey.

If Mr Gul is elected by parliament as expected, his wife would be the first ever First Lady in Turkey to cover her head.

Many female AK party voters also cover their heads and want to see the tight restrictions on where they can wear the headscarf relaxed.

"There may be an initial positive reaction to this choice, but it won't last," believes Professor Cengiz Aktar of Bahcesehir University, speaking of Turkey's secular establishment. "Gul will be seen as much less controversial, but not necessarily less dangerous than Erdogan in the presidency."

"If anything, he appears far closer to his Islamic roots than the prime minister."

The main opposition CHP party has already declared it will boycott the election process, which begins in parliament on Friday, and appeal to the constitutional court if fewer than two-thirds of deputies show up to vote.

The AK party does not control that many seats, but disputes any such interpretation of the law. The opposition was not consulted on the choice of candidate.

Negative reaction

It is highly unlikely the prospect of a President Gul will spark further street protests, but public reaction to the announcement in Ankara was decidedly cool.

"I'm not happy with this candidate," Iffet says. "He does not represent democracy, or Turkey. His wife wears the veil, which I don't appreciate, and I don't believe he intends to follow Ataturk's ideals."

It was Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who founded Turkey as a strictly secular state.

"Personally I don't want anyone from this party to be president," another man adds. "We should have had a neutral outsider who was accepted by all."

The Turkish president has a veto on all laws and appoints some key figures within the establishment. Secularists fear when the AK party controls that post as well as parliament, it will find it far easier to push what they insist is its "Islamic agenda".

"So now the real battle will start," argues Haluk Sahin, referring to the general election due later this year.

"If the opposition can campaign and weaken the AK party ahead of that vote - and the next government is not only AKP but a coalition, then President Gul would be reduced to a mere figurehead."

3. - AP - "Slain German Missionary Highlights Christian Plight in Turkey":

The story of a quiet and deeply religious German missionary ended with the sound of dirt being scattered over his coffin in eastern Turkey, his violent death a sign of the plight of Christians in this Muslim country.

MALATYA / 24 April 2007 / by Benjamin Harvey

Tilmann Geske lived 10 of his 46 years in Turkey, a member of the country's small Christian community. He and two Turkish Christians were killed last week, their hands and feet bound and their throats slit, at a Christian publishing house that distributes Bibles. Five young men were detained and charged with murder; they allegedly said they killed to protect Islam.

Speaking after her husband's funeral Friday, his wife Susanne described a shy hardworking man who had invited people into his home for Bible study, taught English and German, and helped send Turkish children to school overseas. The couple lived with their three young children in the gritty town of Malatya, members of a tiny Christian community numbering less than 20.

In Turkey, Christians and other non-Muslims make up less than 1 percent of the population and are often viewed with suspicion. Susan Geske said her husband was sensitive to his Muslim neighbors and was not one to push his faith on others.

"He didn't have the idea of tossing out Bibles," she said. "If you knew Tilmann, he was never like that. He was very shy, he would never do that."

"This was his dream — not to be just a Christian worker, but to be a part of the world," Susanne Geske said. "He wanted to work like the Turks, not just to be a foreigner who gets money from abroad. He wanted to show that you can be both a Christian and a normal worker."

Susanne and Tilmann Geske met at a church in Lindau, Germany, when he was working mornings as a pastor at a Protestant church and afternoons as a forklift operator, and she was looking for a job. They first came to Turkey in 1992 on their honeymoon.

The next year they returned, spending three weeks in Turkey's undeveloped east, the setting for fighting between Kurdish guerrillas and Turkish government forces. The Geskes were undeterred, and a few years later decided to settle permanently in Adana, near the Mediterranean coast. They learned to speak Turkish and raised their two girls and a boy there: Michal Janina, 13, Lukas, 10 and Miriam, 8.

Susanne Geske said she planned to stay in Turkey with her children despite her husband's murder: "I feel this is my place."

The deep-seated suspicion of Christian influence was evident at the morgue Friday, where a separate family drama played out.

In a cold drizzle, a man leaned on a cane fingering Islamic prayer beads. Hatem Aydin, 56, was the older brother of one of the two slain Turkish Christians, and he had come 22 hours by bus to pick up his brother's body.

Aydin wanted to get his brother Necati's body before the man's wife did, and quickly bury it in an Islamic ceremony, but the morgue wouldn't let him. Hatem Aydin said his family hadn't spoken to Necati in years, the split driven by the younger brother's decision to convert to Christianity after marrying a Turkish Christian.

"First he told us, 'I'm reading the Bible,' and we were OK with that," Hatem Aydin said. "But after he got married, he starting bringing Christian books, then CDs, and after that we didn't talk to him anymore."

Hatem Aydin, a tailor, said he would not go to his brother's Christian funeral and turned back for the long ride home.

At Tilmann Geske's funeral in an overgrown Armenian cemetery, the Turkish pastor said the slain man's family had forgiven the suspected killers.

Throughout most of the ceremony, only the smallest girl, Miriam, broke down in tears. But as the coffin was lowered with ropes into the grave, the family collapsed into a tight little circle, their sobs drowning out the sound of the dirt and rocks being shoveled onto the grave.

4. - Christian Science Monitor - "Turkey's Christians Face Backlash":

DIYARBAKIR / 24 April 2007 / by Yigal Schleifer

The Assyrian Meryem Ana Church, nestled on a narrow cobblestone lane in this ancient walled city in eastern Turkey, has seen continuous use since about 300 A.D. But these days, its services rarely draw more than a handful of worshippers.

By contrast, the 4-year-old Diyarbakir Evangelical Church across the street, held a sturdy congregation of 40 this past Sunday -- mostly Islamic converts -- who were rocking and clapping exuberantly to a vaguely familiar hymn: A distinctly eastern rendition of Amazing Grace, accompanied by the saz, a long-necked Anatolian lute.

As evangelical groups like the one at Diyarbakir make inroads among a largely Islamic population, their visibility has vexed many Turks who seem them as foreign interlopers. An increasingly violent nationalist backlash, fed by both secular and religious rhetoric from politicians and the media, church leaders say, has had deadly consequences for Turkey's growing evangelical community.

Last week saw the brutal murder of three evangelical Christians -- two Turks and a German -- working at a Bible publisher about 150 miles away in the city of Malatya. According to Turkish newspaper reports, the five young males arrested at the scene told investigators they committed the crime in defense of Islam.

"There's a huge witch hunt that has been opened up in Turkey about missionary work," says Jerry Mattix, a missionary from Yakima, Wash., who has been working with the Diyarbakir church for the last five years. "The risk is that we live in an overwhelmingly Muslim society where certain segments of the society see you as divisive to the country. We are a target."

Church officials say their work has become both easier and harder in recent years. On the one hand, reforms associated with Turkey's European Union (EU) membership process have meant that proselytizing is now legal and that more churches have an opportunity to obtain legal status.

On the other hand, violent attacks against Christian targets are becoming more frequent. Last year, several evangelical churches were fire-bombed, and a Protestant church leader in the city of Adana was severely beaten by a group of assailants. Last February, Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest working in the Black Sea city of Trabzon, was shot and killed by a 16-year-old.

"We didn't expect [the Malatya murders], but on the other hand it wasn't a surprise," says Carlos Madrigal, leader of an evangelical church in Istanbul, the first such church given legal status in the Turkish republic's 84-year history..

"There are always communications from the authorities and the media accusing Christians and missionaries of trying to divide the country, and this [the murders in Malatya] is, in a way, a result of these declarations and this approach to Christians in the country," says Mr. Madrigal. "They cut their throats like an animal, like a sacrifice. They were the first martyrs of the evangelical church in this country."

Despite the murders' religious overtones, experts believe they can be better attributed to the extreme nationalism and anti-Western xenophobia that are both on the rise in Turkey.

"Islam is a strong identity and you have these people who think they are Muslims and Turks and that all others are infiltrating the country and plotting against it," says Mustafa Akyol, a Turkish journalist who writes frequently about Islam and nationalism. "The problem is that this kind of ideology -- anti-Western and anti-Christian -- is being promulgated by some very powerful people."

Some of the most forceful language warning against missionary activity has actually come from Turkey's secular establishment. For example, a 2001 report by Turkey's National Security Council (MGK) listed missionaries (along with Islamic fundamentalists) as a security threat.

Last year, Rahsan Ecevit, the wife of late prime minister Bulent Ecevit, who was a paragon of the Turkish secular left, told the press that missionaries are working to divide Turkey and are paying Muslims to convert. "We are losing our religion," she said.

Salim Cohce, a professor of history and sociology at the state-run Inonu University in Malatya, says he believes that the missionaries working in Turkey are focusing on "on destabilization, manipulation, and propaganda."

"If they are not controlled, this can be dangerous for Turkey, " adds the professor, who claims that Turkey today has 500,000 of what he calls "crypto-Christians."

The influx of evangelicals joins a historical Turkish antipathy toward missionaries, who were active in the region during the final days of the Ottoman Empire and who were seen as little more than agents for the European powers that opposed the Ottomans.

Turkey's evangelists, meanwhile, say they would like to see the government take a more proactive approach against the antimissionary rhetoric and violence.

"Our congregation is used to this kind of thing, maybe not of this magnitude, but we have no fear," says Ahmet Guvener, the Diyarbakir Evangelical Church's gray-haired leader. "We are keeping our trust in God."

5. - Bianet - "Magazine Critical of the Army Closed":

Weekly newsmagazine Nokta is closed with an unexpected decision by its owner following two consecutive articles critical of the Turkish army. Editor-in-chief Görmüs noted that amounting pressure from the General Staff led to this end.

ISTANBUL / 24 April 2007 / by Erol Onderoglu

Faced with pressure from the General Staff on recent articles related to alleged coup plans from within the army, weekly news magazine Nokta has been closed with the unexpected announcement of its owner, businessperson Ayhan Durgun.

Editor-in-chief of the magazine Alper Görmüs disclosed the news in a press conference on Saturday.

He said: "Durgun didn't revealed any financial or political harship thet led to this decision. But it was impossible to not notice that he was stressed during the past month".

Six-month-old magazine first revealed an internal army report which classified the Turkish media outlets as pro or against the army. It was alleged that the army based its accredidation process on such reports.

Later, Nokta published the diaries of a retired Admiral which included detailed military coup plans by other generals in 2004. The article caused controversy, General Staff reacting hardly that the news aimed at weakening its reputation.

Following such comments, police raided the magazine's offices lat week and confiscated the computers.

Görmüs noted that the magazine would continue its life with another propriator.

He protested the lack of poltical sport from the government and other politicians regarding the pressure on the magazine.

"Me and my friends here, we're very sorry to reach this point. Our readers reflect their dissapointment too. Our editorial policy once again conveyed that the media has the responsibility and the power to act as the fourth power in a democracy".

Görmüs blamed the government and the judiciary for not pursuing an investigation into the military coup allegations.

6. - THE WASHINGTON TIMES - "Punk rockers face jail time over tune 'insulting' Turkey":

ISTANBUL / 24 April 2007 / by Nicholas Birch

Five Turkish punk rockers and their agent face up to 18 months in jail after a bureaucrat took umbrage at their song criticizing the country's unpopular university entrance exam.

Unal Yarimagan, head of Turkey's Student Selection and Placement Center, (OSYM) reportedly smiled when he first saw a clip of the hit song, "OSYM, kiss my [expletive]," by Deli, a group from the western city of Bursa.

"I'm a tolerant person, but that didn't stop me doing my duty and checking it wasn't breaking any laws," Mr. Yarimagan said. Last month, an Ankara prosecutor said it broke the law because it was insulting.

The court case starts on May 2.

"It's ridiculous," said lead singer and lyricist Cengiz Sari, 24. "I was 17 when I wrote that song. I was just your typical rebellious teenager. It shouldn't be a problem."

Sensitivity to criticism is a common trait of Turkey's, where it is against the law to "insult Turkishness."

Since March 2005, when he sued a cartoonist who portrayed him as a cat tangled in wool, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is believed to have earned at least $215,000 in damages from insult cases.

Turkey's quirky understanding of freedom of expression surfaced again last month when a judge ordered the popular Web site YouTube to be blocked after a Greek nationalist posted a video describing Turkey's founder, Kemal Ataturk, as a homosexual.

YouTube has a central role to play in Deli's story, too. Until last June, few had heard of the band. It was then that a 16-year old fan uploaded a clip of himself lip-synching his way through the OSYM ditty.

"I worked day and night / to pass the exam / What's changed now / My future is unclear," a fan named Hako mouthed over a sound track.

"So let me tell you something / [expletive] your exam system."

Posted days before 1.5 million Turkish teenagers took the university entrance exam, Hako's clip became an overnight sensation. Within a week, 300,000 people had gone on line to watch it.

"I had the tune in my head throughout the test," one teenager commented on YouTube.

Others said that Deli should represent Turkey at this year's Eurovision Song Contest.

The three-hour long, multiple-choice test has long been criticized. It's too competitive, critics say, pointing to the fact that only 20 percent of those who take it pass.

With youth unemployment high in Turkey, students are so desperate to succeed that they routinely skip school to attend expensive cram courses in preparation for the exam.

"We've already had half a dozen lawyers offering to represent us for free," said Mustafa Kirgul, the band's manager. "Which is just as well, because we don't have any money."

That might just change after the release this week of Deli's first album -- minus "OSYM" -- by Kadikoy Muzik Yapim, an Istanbul-based alternative label.

"It may not be EMI," Mr. Kirgul said, "but you can't get better publicity than this, can you?"