Word: turkeys
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...trial underway in Istanbul. The case pits the state against a shadowy ultra-right-wing network allegedly led by retired generals. Prosecutors accuse the group of staging bomb attacks and assassinations in a bid to overthrow the ruling Justice and Development Party and create a pretext for military rule. Turkey is no stranger to coups - the military has stepped in to push the government this way or that three times in as many decades. As recently as 2007, a veiled threat prompted early elections...
...including the extrajudicial killings of dozens of Kurdish activists. The Ergenekon trial - the group named itself after a mythic central Asian valley Turks believe they come from - "is a milestone," says Nuserivan Elci, who represents some 50 families of the 'missing' in Silopi. "It's a historic opportunity for Turkey to deal with its past...
Four years ago, Aslan tried to have military commanders in charge of the region at the time of his son's abduction subpoenaed. The military has still not responded to his appeal. That snub doesn't surprise Kardas, the former military judge. "Turkey's most fundamental issue is how to get the military back into the barracks," he says. "The Kurdish problem is at the heart of that. The military have been deciding policy. If military officers committed crimes, they should be held accountable...
...carrot of E.U. membership is one way of scaling back the military's influence. "A chief condition of joining the E.U. is that the military is transparent and accountable to parliament," says Kardas. But that process has largely stalled, with European leaders divided over Turkey's future membership. New hope has arrived in the shape of U.S. President Barack Obama, who will visit Turkey next week and whose administration is keen to have Turkey - Muslim yet officially secular and democratic - play a larger role in the region...
...Turkey will need to deal with its Kurdish problem, including ending hostilities with a militant group, the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who have about 3,000 guerrillas based in the mountains of northern Iraq. Turkish officials seem to recognize this. A trilateral commission of Iraqi Kurd, Turkish and U.S. officials meets regularly to discuss a possible PKK amnesty. Other measures on the agenda in Ankara include restoring Kurdish place-names and cleaning up the jingoistic billboards that litter the southeast. What's really needed is a more democratic constitution. But the government has backtracked on that promise before...