I have updated several radio shows about the mine disaster in Soma, Turkey. Listen back here: 13 May, Dichtbij Nederland, Radio5, Netherlands. The interview starts at 13.20 (scroll down for the podcast). 14 May, The Pat Kenny Show, Newstalk, Ireland. The interview starts at 17.51. 14 May, De Ochtend KRO/NCRV, Radio1, Netherlands. I couldn’t find […]
In the small town of Cumaliköy, right by the Soma mine, there is not much other work than being a miner, I read in an article about last week’s disaster. The work is dangerous, it doesn’t pay much, but you just have no choice if you want to feed your family. And again, like so […]
The peace process in Turkey, that started in March 2013, still continues. One part of the problem that doesn’t get much attention, is the village guard system. It will have to be abolished, but for now, the state continues to expand the system. Village guard Seymus Akbulut: ‘We want peace, but we want to be safe […]
Sivas massacre, Ergenekon trial, Uludere, the Van earthquake and its aftermath, press freedom, May Day celebrations, KCK trials, the Fenerbahce court case, Berkin Elvan, Medeni Yildirim, the countless ‘unsolved murders’ in the southeast, and the Constitutional Court: the head of the Bar Associations, Metin Feyzioglu, spoke out against a wide range of injustices in Turkey’s […]
‘BDP HDP or what should we call them’ seems to be the latest newcomer to the Turkish political spectrum. It’s not a very practical name for a political party, I have to say. And now the rumour is that they, the politicians from BDP HDP or what shall we call them, want to change the […]
The last 33 prisoners in the main case of the KCK trial in Istanbul were set free last Thursday. Some twelve days before that, in the wee hours of the morning, 48 defendants in the main KCK trial in Diyarbakir were set free. Halfway through March all the lawyers in the KCK ‘lawyers case’ were […]
A new era is starting in my life. Well, it started in the summer of 2012 when I moved to Diyarbakir, but now I am really leaving the previous era behind me. The era when I lived in Üsküdar, on the Anatolian side of Istanbul. For the past one and a half years I managed […]
‘Tu çawa yî?’ is how I always start my letters. How are you? Then: ‘Ez baş im’, I am fine. But then? What do you write to a friend who’s been spending the last 27 months of his life in a few square metres behind bars? I don’t even know if he can see the […]
Did you ever go to a ‘birahane’, a ‘beer house’ in Turkey? I didn’t. Not even once in the more than seven years that I have lived here. I often passed them. And of course, if the doors were open, I have slowed my pace and looked inside. Birahanes are dark, uninviting and sad places, […]
The one year old peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government seems to be leading nowhere. The ceasefire is holding, but the government has taken no steps towards democratization and is now distracted by accusations of corruption. The KCK, the umbrella organization of Kurdish groups that also represents the PKK, has stated that […]