IN FOCUS: Turkey Talk (2011-06-17)

http://www.newmexicoinfocus.org - For the last six months, the world has watched as dramatic change has rocked the middle east. From Tunisia, to Egypt, Libya to Syria, public protests have upset - or severely weakened - long-sitting rulers and restrictive regimes. Those events have many looking at Turkey, a Muslim country with a secular democracy and booming economy, as a model for others in the region. But, change has come to Turkey, too. Long a trusted U.S. ally, Turkey has pulled slightly away from American and begun developing better relationships with its Muslim neighbors. The Turkish people on Sunday re-elected Recep Erdogan, whoe party is made up of religious conservatives and entrepreneurs. That happened just a couple of weeks after a group of New Mexico journalists visited the country, meeting with other journalists, politicians and regular folks. Gene Grant sits down with them to talk about what they learned and why New Mexico should also be paying attention to what is going on in Turkey right now.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• politics

[ufster81]

@humanrights85

well you might want to check that with the akp government who currently authorizes crackdowns on a daily basis against kurdish politicians, ngos and individuals who don't toe the official line...

[ufster81]

@humanrights85

democracy ? we don't need more democracy... people vote, governments get elected, end of story as long democracy is concerned.

we need decentralization of power, a more efficient and objective judicial system, laws that are in tune with basic human rights as accepted by the european union. we need true secularism. what we don't need is absolute worship of mob rule that is devoid of the protection by a sound constitution based on equality and freedom.

[ufster81]

@humanrights85

the absurdity of your argument merits no respect... kurds are facing similar issues that they faced in the past and the government is not doing anything other than to let the police and the military suppress their demands. to argue that this is "less brutal than before" therefore people should somehow think highly of akp gov't is ridiculous to say the least.

[ufster81]

@humanrights85

the akp as of now controls the judiciary branch of the gov't as well as the interior ministry thus the police force... now, explain to me how you, as the idiot you are, try and justify current governments human rights abuses by citing that other people have done it as well...

you're like a rapist who rapes a women who has been gangraped before and claim that it's getting better for her and we shouldn't blame you for raping her...

go fuck yourself, hypocrite.

[ufster81]

islam was suppressed in turkey ? not the case... in any country where a religion is suppressed they don't get financial support from the government in the excess of 2.5 billion usd every year as well as being subsidized by the general population as they pay no money for electricity, water and pay no taxes in the religious institutions.

[ufster81]

@humanrights85

oh shut the fuck up you dumb apologist... there are hundreds of members of kurdish political spectrum who are in prison right now. who are you fucking kidding ?

[MrReoNetro]

Very good analysis!! Thank you for being so open-minded. I dont think honor killings have gone up around turkey. It happens mostly in the south-east and in these areas there used to be few family records and no news. Now most Kurds live in the cities that have sprung up, and these kinds of murders happen in town and thus the media finds out.