‘Cîyekî wek Kurdîstanê tuneye!’ Gava ku hun li ser Kurdan tiştekî dinivîsînin, Tirk bi awayekî şaşmayî dibêjin ku, cîyekî wek Kurdîstanê tuneye. Ne tenê gava ku ez qala Kurdîstanê dikim –ez zêde jî bi kar nînim – lê ev yek gelek caran tê serê min. Hin caran ez zorê didim xwe, dibêjim ku welat bi […]
‘Kürdistan diye bir yer yok!’ Kürtler hakkında yazdığınızda zaman zaman Türkler ünlem işaretleriyle dolu bir biçimde Kürdistan diye bir yer olmadığını söylerler. Sadece bu deyimi kullandığım zaman değil – ki çok sık kullanmıyorum – ama sıklıkla bu başıma geliyor. Bazen zahmete katlanıp ülkelerin sadece resmi sınırlarla tanımlanmadığını, Kürdistan’ın birçok Kürtün kalbinde, aklında ve rüyalarında var […]
Analysts see ruling as a positive symbolic step, but its practical impact is unclear. The Constitutional Court decision easing restrictions on use of Kurdish in political activities has received mixed interpretations, with observers offering cautious praise amid lingering uncertainty over the ruling’s legal ramifications. The decision, which went into effect last week after being issued […]
ANKARA – Dutch politician René van der Linden received a high Turkish honour from the Turkish President Abdullah Gül on Thursday. The ChristianDemocrat is now a member of the Order of the Republic, the highest honour for non heads of state. Van der Linden (69) received the honour for his years of efforts to improve […]
Sarai Sierra is dead. She was on a trip to Istanbul, her first trip outside her own country, the US. A 33 year old woman, a wife, and a mother of two boys. She loved photography and that’s why she came to the city. She went missing on 21 January, and on Saturday her body […]
‘Could it be the work of one individual?’ That is the question that occupied my thoughts in recent days. Four elderly Armenian women have been brutally attacked in Istanbul. And whatever the outcome of the police investigation – if any – there is one thing I am sure of: it is not the work of […]
ISTANBUL – The Turkish parliament has passed a law that permits the use of Kurdish in court houses. The right to defend oneself in one’s mother tongue is an important demand of the Kurdish political movement. The law was approved after an emotional debate. Some opposition MP’s claim the use of any other language than […]
DERSIM/TUNCELI – ‘Our heart cries blood’, laments Kurdish politician Aysel Tugluk into the microphone. With long sustained tones she speaks to the thousands of people attending the funeral of Sakine Cansiz, one of the founders of the armed Kurdish movement, the PKK. Cansiz was murdered in Paris two weeks ago. Shortly after Tugluk is one […]
ISTANBUL – It’s the ‘transfer of the century’, according to the big Turkish sports paper Fanatik. Competitor FotoMac brings the news too and adds that ‘it’s not a joke but reality’ and that Sneijder is ‘very excited’. Many normal newspapers also report the transfer of the Dutch star player to the Istanbul club Galatasaray on […]
The breaking news in Turkey is: the Kurds finally want peace. At the big rally last Thursday at which tens of thousands of Kurds said goodbye to the three Kurdish women assassinated in Paris on 9 January, several Kurdish politicians expressed their support for a road towards peace. First, I thought the fact that Turkish […]