{"id":27534,"date":"2014-12-26T06:01:22","date_gmt":"2014-12-26T06:01:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/?p=27534"},"modified":"2014-12-26T06:12:14","modified_gmt":"2014-12-26T06:12:14","slug":"tragedy-or-farce-a-brief-review-of-the-year-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/tragedy-or-farce-a-brief-review-of-the-year-in-turkey\/","title":{"rendered":"Tragedy or farce? A brief review of the year in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Closing in on the end of the year, \u00a0I toyed with the idea of compiling an end of the year review of Turkey, reflecting on the 2014\u2019s headline grabbers. Halfway through my research, I realised a random selection of the past week\u2019s news alone would do just as well to summarize and present a stunningly accurate account of what has been happening during the past 12 months..<\/p>\n<p>Here is my totally non-chronological review of the past week in Turkey.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/Default.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=75870&amp;NewsCatID=341\">A Turkish university is planning to develop a new lie detector unique to the Turkish people, on the grounds that \u201csome statements which are regarded as lies in western countries are not lies for Turks.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 According to \u00dcsk\u00fcdar University\u2019s Rector Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, the new type of lie detector which will be in line with Turkish culture would be sensitive to cultural differences.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Speaking at his party\u2019s provincial congress in Ankara, Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu said he would not think twice about \u201ctearing the arm off\u201d anyone who attempted graft. \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/turkish-pm-davutoglu-vows-to-cut-off-arms-of-corrupt-people.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=75878&amp;NewsCatID=338\">We are determined to cut off the arms of whoever attempts to embezzle our national resources, even if that is our brother,\u201d<\/a> he said. \u201cHowever, we will also stop those who attempted to attack the national will with false claims of corruption,\u201d he added.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cTurkey does not deserve to be robbed in the name of religion,\u201d the country\u2019s main opposition leader Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu said, criticising what he called \u201cgovernment interference that prompted a parliamentary commission to postpone a decision on whether four former ministers should stand trial on graft claims\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.todayszaman.com\/national_police-raid-chp-building-over-banner-of-ex-ministers-charged-with-corruption_367425.html\">The Republican People&#8217;s Party (CHP) building in Kocaeli was raided on Thursday by the police because a banner was hung from it featuring four former ministers who were accused of corruption in a scandal that went public on 17<sup>th<\/sup> December last year.<\/a> CHP wanted to post posters on public billboards in several cities before but discovered none were available.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/graft-probe-suspects-receive-seized-money-.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=75993&amp;NewsCatID=509\">Former interior minister\u2019s son Bar\u0131\u015f G\u00fcler and Iranian businessman Abdullah Happani, who were arrested as part of the 17<sup>th<\/sup> December 2013 massive corruption and bribery probe had their money and gold seized last year returned.<\/a> \u00a0Following the dismissal of the investigation alleging corruption, the money seized from the accused was paid back with interest.<\/li>\n<li>A 16-year-old high school student was arrested in the central Turkish city of Konya, for insulting the President.\u00a0 The youth, who denies insulting the president by his comments referring to the corruption allegations, could face up to four years in prison if convicted.\u00a0 Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu backed the court&#8217;s decision to arrest the high-school student by saying\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u201cEveryone has to respect the office of the president whoever they are\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>The heated debate on the intervention of the state in theatres has revived after the role of a prostitute was removed from the play \u201cCibali Karakolu,\u201d based on Henri Keroul and Albert Barre\u2019s comedy \u201cUne nuit de noce\u201d staged in Istanbul. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hurriyetdailynews.com\/removal-of-prostitute-role-in-play-stir-censorship-debate-in-state-theatres.aspx?pageID=238&amp;nID=75968&amp;NewsCatID=385\">Hurriyet Daily News,<\/a> the same play became the subject of debate in the past for the removal of a line in the play suggesting that the government robbed its citizens, which was considered too &#8220;sensitive&#8221;, in the aftermath of massive graft investigations into senior government officials and businessman close to them last year.<\/li>\n<li>A municipal worker that lost an eye during last year\u2019s Gezi protests in Ankara lost his compensation claim against the Interior \u00a0The Ministry\u2019s defense that the worker on duty did not take \u201creasonable caution\u201d against damage by tear gas capsules thrown by the police was accepted by the court. CCTV cameras in the area were found to be defective at the time of incident.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan declared birth control as a form of \u201ctreason\u201d. &#8220;For years they committed treason by advocating birth control in this country, seeking to dry up our bloodline. The lineage is very important both economically and spiritually,&#8221; he said, adding, \u201cOne child means loneliness, two means rivalry, three means balance and four means abundance. \u00a0God takes care of the rest\u201d .<\/li>\n<li>The Turkish Gynecology and Obstetricians Association put out a statement objecting to the President\u2019s comments on birth control. Recalling his earlier speech describing abortion as \u201cmurder\u201d, they expressed surprise at the rejection of birth control. \u201cOur esteemed President must be aware that in order to avoid abortions, use of birth control to prevent unwanted pregnancies is necessary\u201d they said.<\/li>\n<li>Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto\u011flu <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yenisafak.com.tr\/dunya\/turk-bayragi-kuran-meali-ve-sozluk-verecegiz-2052126\">promised<\/a> to send all Turkish speaking homes in Macedonia a Turkish flag, Quran in Turkish and Turkish dictionary.<\/li>\n<li>President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s recent comments in support of introducing Ottoman language classes in high schools claiming that with the existing vocabulary in Turkish, you cannot do philosophy\u201d was in contradiction to his earlier comments in 2012. Then he had said \u201c It is sometimes claimed that one cannot do philosophy with Turkish. Turkish is not good enough for the sciences. These sorts of comments are smacking of racism. It is a racist way of thinking\u201d .<\/li>\n<li>Yusuf Kaplan, columnist at Yeni \u015eafak, who claimed that the European Union student exchange programme Erasmus was a \u201cproject to raise sex-obsessed idiots\u201d, was found out to have a daughter who studied in Paris with an Erasmus scholarship. Saying that Erasmus \u00a0was known as \u00a0\u2018orgasmus\u2019 by some European students,\u00a0 Mr Kaplan also caused controversy by suggesting Turkey\u2019s two best universities The Middle East Technical University and Bilkent should be raised to the ground.<\/li>\n<li>Local Ministry of Education Commissioner in Bartin sent text messages to school heads reminding them that Christmas and the New Year celebrations were Christian propaganda and should not be allowed to invade the minds of the children of beautiful Anatolia.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Closing in on the end of the year, \u00a0I toyed with the idea of compiling an end of the year review of Turkey, reflecting on the 2014\u2019s headline grabbers. Halfway through my research, I realised a random selection of the past week\u2019s news alone would do just as well to summarize and present a stunningly [&hellip;]<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27534"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27534"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27540,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27534\/revisions\/27540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.firdevstalkturkey.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}