Hamzza
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I understand and know what the law is actually about. But nonetheless it's still risky and gave Europe and Western media great propaganda tool.
Turkish Politics & Internal Affairs
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I understand and know what the law is actually about. But nonetheless it's still risky and gave Europe and Western media great propaganda tool.
Oublious
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Hamzza
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I live in Canada, lot's of anti-erdogan(AKP) Turks and FETO supporters are going crazy on my facebook and other social media saying that "child rape is legalized in turkey'. Idiots like these should not even call themselves a Turk, trying to shame their own nation with lies.
Usually you would try to make your country look good if you live in another country but not these people.
Zulkarneyn
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Sadly, for many idiots, anti-AKP has turned into anti-Turkey propaganda. That's because they don't give the slightest about their nation. Never would any Turk use internal politics as a weapon to deligimize an entire country. Next you will see these guys in pro-Armenian and pro-PKK protests. Where everything done by the Turkish state is shameful, including operation Euphrates or our cleansing of PKK scum inside our borders
Solomon2
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ISTANBUL (JTA) — At a chic café overlooking the Bosphorus, two Turkish Jewish women are discussing their plans to emigrate when the call to Friday prayers blasts from the loudspeakers of a nearby mosque.
Unable to talk over the deafening singing that fills the café in the Bebek neighborhood of western Istanbul, the women turn to their smartphones to read the news. At least they try to.
Turkey’s government has jammed access to the internet on this November day, reportedly to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other. It spurs major traffic disruptions and overloads several cellular towers.
“This is Turkey,” said one of the women, a 42-year-old businesswoman and mother named Betty, who asks that her last name not be used for security reasons.
“If they don’t want you to communicate, you won’t,” adds her friend Suzette, who makes the same request about her surname.
Betty and Suzette are among the thousands of Turkish Jews seeking foreign passports this year amid growing religiosity in a society where civil rights activists and some ethnic minorities are feeling the weight of the increasingly authoritarian policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Islamist president who has used anti-Israel rhetoric.
“Of course we’re thinking about emigrating,” said Betty while scanning the top floor of the café — a quiet place that she proposes for an interview because she does not want to be overheard speaking about Jews to a journalist. “Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
Of the 4,500 Sephardic Jews who have applied recently for Spanish citizenship, at least 2,600 are Turks, according to Pablo Benavides, the consul general of Spain in Turkey. Last year, a law of return went into effect for Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were chased out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago.
Hundreds more have applied for naturalization in Portugal, where a similar law also went into effect last year. Indeed, Turkish Jews are the largest single group of applicants for a Portuguese passport.
And approximately 250 Jews from Turkey have immigrated to Israel in the past year — a figure that is more than double the 2015 tally and constitutes more 1 percent of Turkey’s Jewish community of approximately 17,000 people.
The rush to obtain Spanish and Portuguese passports may not reflect any imminent desire to emigrate. Several applicants, including 38-year-old Nedim Bali, describe the move merely as a contingency plan. But the figures nonetheless seem to reflect a growing insecurity among Turkish Jews, many of whom blame Erdogan of using anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitic overtones.
In 2014, he accused protesters angered by his handling of a mining tragedy of being “spawn of Israel” — a country that Erdogan had previously accused of murdering Palestinian babies.
And in 2010, Erdogan suspended diplomatic relations with Israel over the slaying by commandos of nine passengers aboard a Gaza-bound ship that had sailed from Turkey in defiance of Israel’s blockade on the coastal strip, which is controlled by Hamas. Relations were restored officially only earlier this year and remain cold, though earlier this week Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey as part of the countries’ reconciliation.
Still, discomfort over Erdogan’s rhetoric is being compounded by his crackdown on the opposition, media and civil liberties amid an increase in terrorist attacks and following the failed coup attempt in July to topple the Erdogan government.
Arbitrary internet blackouts like the one that occurred on Nov. 4 are common in Turkey, where the government since July has assumed vast executive powers under emergency laws. Even before these measures, Turkey was criticized routinely for its human rights abuses and undemocratic practices — the criticism has escalated with the abuses.
Earlier this month — amid a wave of arrests, newspaper closures and a purge of thousands of people suspected of complicity in the coup try — the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned by what appears to be an increase in official pressure on opposition media outlets in Turkey.”
To countless Turkish Jews and non-Jews, the failed overthrow was significant, not only because it ushered in more repressive policies, but because it demonstrated a potential for instability, according to Rifat Bali, a Jewish writer, publisher and historian from Istanbul.
“We turned on the TV and it was unbelievable. We thought Turkey was past the stage of coups, but we were wrong,” he said, recalling the July 15 attempt, which ended after countless civilians, called to act by a besieged Erdogan, confronted and effectively paralyzed rebellious army units.
The episode led to an explosion of nationalist sentiment in Turkey — never a particularly cosmopolitan country — where countless Turkish flags, including some the size of buildings, now dominate public urban spaces.
Regime stability is of paramount importance to Turkish Jews, whose synagogues are under heavy army guard following terrorist attacks and threats. A 2015 survey by the Anti-Defamation League suggested that 71% of the population holds anti-Semitic views — by contrast, in Iran the figure was 60 percent.
Before Erdogan’s rise to power in 2003 — the year he was elected to lead the ruling Islamist AKP party — the army was an important political player, poised to neutralize forces perceived as detrimental to a ruling class that was committed, on paper at least, to Turkey’s Western allies and to some principles, including a separation between religion and state.
Under Erdogan, however, the army gradually was subjected to a succession of five AKP-led governments whose policies, many Turkish Jews say, are promoting greater religiosity than ever before in modern Turkey.
“You never used to see women in veils here,” Betty said of Bebek, a Westernized seaside neighborhood. “Now they are everywhere. And that’s bad news not only for religious minorities but also for working, independent women like us.”
Suzette says she believes that Turkey’s normalization of ties with Israel “was a show.” But Mario Levi, a well-known Turkish Jewish novelist and columnist, says it was an important development toward reassuring Turkish Jews of their future in their country of birth.
“I disagree with the policies of the Israeli government, but I am deeply attached to the Jewish state,” he said. “The fact that my country is in friendly relations with Israel, therefore, means a lot.”
In 2014, Erdogan said anti-Semitism was a “sin” — perhaps in an effort to deflect criticism over vitriolic statements made by him and his associates.
Additionally, in recent years, the Turkish government has poured millions of dollars into renovating Jewish heritage sites, including toward the reopening last year of the Edirne Great Synagogue.
The Grand Synagogue of Edirne in Northwest Turkey following the completion of its restoration in 2015. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Ultimately, the rise of the role of religion in society, along with the crackdown on civil liberties, is making Turkish Jews uncomfortable “not as Jews, primarily, but simply as members of a liberal class,” Levi said.
“I have many friends who have been arrested for writing critically about the government,” he said, adding that he exercises “caution” in what he writes on social media about Turkey. “You don’t need to be Jewish to not feel comfortable in this kind of climate.”
Rifat Bali’s son, Nedim, who has applied for a Spanish passport, says he is considering emigrating to “give a better future” to his two children, though not necessarily to Spain.
Economically speaking, Turkey “is a great country with great, great potential,” Bali said. “But it’s not for people, Jews or non-Jews, with intellectual motives, as it gradually becomes more conservative with more restrictions on free thought and expression, and popular culture impregnated by conspiracy theories overwhelms the cultural space.”
Unable to talk over the deafening singing that fills the café in the Bebek neighborhood of western Istanbul, the women turn to their smartphones to read the news. At least they try to.
Turkey’s government has jammed access to the internet on this November day, reportedly to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other. It spurs major traffic disruptions and overloads several cellular towers.
“This is Turkey,” said one of the women, a 42-year-old businesswoman and mother named Betty, who asks that her last name not be used for security reasons.
“If they don’t want you to communicate, you won’t,” adds her friend Suzette, who makes the same request about her surname.
Betty and Suzette are among the thousands of Turkish Jews seeking foreign passports this year amid growing religiosity in a society where civil rights activists and some ethnic minorities are feeling the weight of the increasingly authoritarian policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Islamist president who has used anti-Israel rhetoric.
“Of course we’re thinking about emigrating,” said Betty while scanning the top floor of the café — a quiet place that she proposes for an interview because she does not want to be overheard speaking about Jews to a journalist. “Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
Of the 4,500 Sephardic Jews who have applied recently for Spanish citizenship, at least 2,600 are Turks, according to Pablo Benavides, the consul general of Spain in Turkey. Last year, a law of return went into effect for Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were chased out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago.
Hundreds more have applied for naturalization in Portugal, where a similar law also went into effect last year. Indeed, Turkish Jews are the largest single group of applicants for a Portuguese passport.
And approximately 250 Jews from Turkey have immigrated to Israel in the past year — a figure that is more than double the 2015 tally and constitutes more 1 percent of Turkey’s Jewish community of approximately 17,000 people.
The rush to obtain Spanish and Portuguese passports may not reflect any imminent desire to emigrate. Several applicants, including 38-year-old Nedim Bali, describe the move merely as a contingency plan. But the figures nonetheless seem to reflect a growing insecurity among Turkish Jews, many of whom blame Erdogan of using anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitic overtones.
In 2014, he accused protesters angered by his handling of a mining tragedy of being “spawn of Israel” — a country that Erdogan had previously accused of murdering Palestinian babies.
And in 2010, Erdogan suspended diplomatic relations with Israel over the slaying by commandos of nine passengers aboard a Gaza-bound ship that had sailed from Turkey in defiance of Israel’s blockade on the coastal strip, which is controlled by Hamas. Relations were restored officially only earlier this year and remain cold, though earlier this week Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey as part of the countries’ reconciliation.
Still, discomfort over Erdogan’s rhetoric is being compounded by his crackdown on the opposition, media and civil liberties amid an increase in terrorist attacks and following the failed coup attempt in July to topple the Erdogan government.
Arbitrary internet blackouts like the one that occurred on Nov. 4 are common in Turkey, where the government since July has assumed vast executive powers under emergency laws. Even before these measures, Turkey was criticized routinely for its human rights abuses and undemocratic practices — the criticism has escalated with the abuses.
Earlier this month — amid a wave of arrests, newspaper closures and a purge of thousands of people suspected of complicity in the coup try — the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned by what appears to be an increase in official pressure on opposition media outlets in Turkey.”
To countless Turkish Jews and non-Jews, the failed overthrow was significant, not only because it ushered in more repressive policies, but because it demonstrated a potential for instability, according to Rifat Bali, a Jewish writer, publisher and historian from Istanbul.
“We turned on the TV and it was unbelievable. We thought Turkey was past the stage of coups, but we were wrong,” he said, recalling the July 15 attempt, which ended after countless civilians, called to act by a besieged Erdogan, confronted and effectively paralyzed rebellious army units.
The episode led to an explosion of nationalist sentiment in Turkey — never a particularly cosmopolitan country — where countless Turkish flags, including some the size of buildings, now dominate public urban spaces.
Regime stability is of paramount importance to Turkish Jews, whose synagogues are under heavy army guard following terrorist attacks and threats. A 2015 survey by the Anti-Defamation League suggested that 71% of the population holds anti-Semitic views — by contrast, in Iran the figure was 60 percent.
Before Erdogan’s rise to power in 2003 — the year he was elected to lead the ruling Islamist AKP party — the army was an important political player, poised to neutralize forces perceived as detrimental to a ruling class that was committed, on paper at least, to Turkey’s Western allies and to some principles, including a separation between religion and state.
Under Erdogan, however, the army gradually was subjected to a succession of five AKP-led governments whose policies, many Turkish Jews say, are promoting greater religiosity than ever before in modern Turkey.
“You never used to see women in veils here,” Betty said of Bebek, a Westernized seaside neighborhood. “Now they are everywhere. And that’s bad news not only for religious minorities but also for working, independent women like us.”
Suzette says she believes that Turkey’s normalization of ties with Israel “was a show.” But Mario Levi, a well-known Turkish Jewish novelist and columnist, says it was an important development toward reassuring Turkish Jews of their future in their country of birth.
“I disagree with the policies of the Israeli government, but I am deeply attached to the Jewish state,” he said. “The fact that my country is in friendly relations with Israel, therefore, means a lot.”
In 2014, Erdogan said anti-Semitism was a “sin” — perhaps in an effort to deflect criticism over vitriolic statements made by him and his associates.
Additionally, in recent years, the Turkish government has poured millions of dollars into renovating Jewish heritage sites, including toward the reopening last year of the Edirne Great Synagogue.
The Grand Synagogue of Edirne in Northwest Turkey following the completion of its restoration in 2015. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Ultimately, the rise of the role of religion in society, along with the crackdown on civil liberties, is making Turkish Jews uncomfortable “not as Jews, primarily, but simply as members of a liberal class,” Levi said.
“I have many friends who have been arrested for writing critically about the government,” he said, adding that he exercises “caution” in what he writes on social media about Turkey. “You don’t need to be Jewish to not feel comfortable in this kind of climate.”
Rifat Bali’s son, Nedim, who has applied for a Spanish passport, says he is considering emigrating to “give a better future” to his two children, though not necessarily to Spain.
Economically speaking, Turkey “is a great country with great, great potential,” Bali said. “But it’s not for people, Jews or non-Jews, with intellectual motives, as it gradually becomes more conservative with more restrictions on free thought and expression, and popular culture impregnated by conspiracy theories overwhelms the cultural space.”
Last edited:
CrimsonFury
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They are free to leave or stay as they please. What's the point of this drivel ?ISTANBUL (JTA) — At a chic café overlooking the Bosphorus, two Turkish Jewish women are discussing their plans to emigrate when the call to Friday prayers blasts from the loudspeakers of a nearby mosque.
Unable to talk over the deafening singing that fills the café in the Bebek neighborhood of western Istanbul, the women turn to their smartphones to read the news. At least they try to.
Turkey’s government has jammed access to the internet on this November day, reportedly to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other. It spurs major traffic disruptions and overloads several cellular towers.
“This is Turkey,” said one of the women, a 42-year-old businesswoman and mother named Betty, who asks that her last name not be used for security reasons.
“If they don’t want you to communicate, you won’t,” adds her friend Suzette, who makes the same request about her surname.
Betty and Suzette are among the thousands of Turkish Jews seeking foreign passports this year amid growing religiosity in a society where civil rights activists and some ethnic minorities are feeling the weight of the increasingly authoritarian policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Islamist president who has used anti-Israel rhetoric.
“Of course we’re thinking about emigrating,” said Betty while scanning the top floor of the café — a quiet place that she proposes for an interview because she does not want to be overheard speaking about Jews to a journalist. “Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
Of the 4,500 Sephardic Jews who have applied recently for Spanish citizenship, at least 2,600 are Turks, according to Pablo Benavides, the consul general of Spain in Turkey. Last year, a law of return went into effect for Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were chased out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago.
Hundreds more have applied for naturalization in Portugal, where a similar law also went into effect last year. Indeed, Turkish Jews are the largest single group of applicants for a Portuguese passport.
And approximately 250 Jews from Turkey have immigrated to Israel in the past year — a figure that is more than double the 2015 tally and constitutes more 1 percent of Turkey’s Jewish community of approximately 17,000 people.
The rush to obtain Spanish and Portuguese passports may not reflect any imminent desire to emigrate. Several applicants, including 38-year-old Nedim Bali, describe the move merely as a contingency plan. But the figures nonetheless seem to reflect a growing insecurity among Turkish Jews, many of whom blame Erdogan of using anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitic overtones.
In 2014, he accused protesters angered by his handling of a mining tragedy of being “spawn of Israel” — a country that Erdogan had previously accused of murdering Palestinian babies.
And in 2010, Erdogan suspended diplomatic relations with Israel over the slaying by commandos of nine passengers aboard a Gaza-bound ship that had sailed from Turkey in defiance of Israel’s blockade on the coastal strip, which is controlled by Hamas. Relations were restored officially only earlier this year and remain cold, though earlier this week Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey as part of the countries’ reconciliation.
Still, discomfort over Erdogan’s rhetoric is being compounded by his crackdown on the opposition, media and civil liberties amid an increase in terrorist attacks and following the failed coup attempt in July to topple the Erdogan government.
Arbitrary internet blackouts like the one that occurred on Nov. 4 are common in Turkey, where the government since July has assumed vast executive powers under emergency laws. Even before these measures, Turkey was criticized routinely for its human rights abuses and undemocratic practices — the criticism has escalated with the abuses.
Earlier this month — amid a wave of arrests, newspaper closures and a purge of thousands of people suspected of complicity in the coup try — the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned by what appears to be an increase in official pressure on opposition media outlets in Turkey.”
To countless Turkish Jews and non-Jews, the failed overthrow was significant, not only because it ushered in more repressive policies, but because it demonstrated a potential for instability, according to Rifat Bali, a Jewish writer, publisher and historian from Istanbul.
“We turned on the TV and it was unbelievable. We thought Turkey was past the stage of coups, but we were wrong,” he said, recalling the July 15 attempt, which ended after countless civilians, called to act by a besieged Erdogan, confronted and effectively paralyzed rebellious army units.
The episode led to an explosion of nationalist sentiment in Turkey — never a particularly cosmopolitan country — where countless Turkish flags, including some the size of buildings, now dominate public urban spaces.
Regime stability is of paramount importance to Turkish Jews, whose synagogues are under heavy army guard following terrorist attacks and threats. A 2015 survey by the Anti-Defamation League suggested that 71% of the population holds anti-Semitic views — by contrast, in Iran the figure was 60 percent.
Before Erdogan’s rise to power in 2003 — the year he was elected to lead the ruling Islamist AKP party — the army was an important political player, poised to neutralize forces perceived as detrimental to a ruling class that was committed, on paper at least, to Turkey’s Western allies and to some principles, including a separation between religion and state.
Under Erdogan, however, the army gradually was subjected to a succession of five AKP-led governments whose policies, many Turkish Jews say, are promoting greater religiosity than ever before in modern Turkey.
“You never used to see women in veils here,” Betty said of Bebek, a Westernized seaside neighborhood. “Now they are everywhere. And that’s bad news not only for religious minorities but also for working, independent women like us.”
Suzette says she believes that Turkey’s normalization of ties with Israel “was a show.” But Mario Levi, a well-known Turkish Jewish novelist and columnist, says it was an important development toward reassuring Turkish Jews of their future in their country of birth.
“I disagree with the policies of the Israeli government, but I am deeply attached to the Jewish state,” he said. “The fact that my country is in friendly relations with Israel, therefore, means a lot.”
In 2014, Erdogan said anti-Semitism was a “sin” — perhaps in an effort to deflect criticism over vitriolic statements made by him and his associates.
Additionally, in recent years, the Turkish government has poured millions of dollars into renovating Jewish heritage sites, including toward the reopening last year of the Edirne Great Synagogue.
The Grand Synagogue of Edirne in Northwest Turkey following the completion of its restoration in 2015. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Ultimately, the rise of the role of religion in society, along with the crackdown on civil liberties, is making Turkish Jews uncomfortable “not as Jews, primarily, but simply as members of a liberal class,” Levi said.
“I have many friends who have been arrested for writing critically about the government,” he said, adding that he exercises “caution” in what he writes on social media about Turkey. “You don’t need to be Jewish to not feel comfortable in this kind of climate.”
Rifat Bali’s son, Nedim, who has applied for a Spanish passport, says he is considering emigrating to “give a better future” to his two children, though not necessarily to Spain.
Economically speaking, Turkey “is a great country with great, great potential,” Bali said. “But it’s not for people, Jews or non-Jews, with intellectual motives, as it gradually becomes more conservative with more restrictions on free thought and expression, and popular culture impregnated by conspiracy theories overwhelms the cultural space.”
OguzSenturk
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I think he finally lost it lol
Attila the Hun
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ISTANBUL (JTA) — At a chic café overlooking the Bosphorus, two Turkish Jewish women are discussing their plans to emigrate when the call to Friday prayers blasts from the loudspeakers of a nearby mosque.
Unable to talk over the deafening singing that fills the café in the Bebek neighborhood of western Istanbul, the women turn to their smartphones to read the news. At least they try to.
Turkey’s government has jammed access to the internet on this November day, reportedly to prevent terrorists from communicating with each other. It spurs major traffic disruptions and overloads several cellular towers.
“This is Turkey,” said one of the women, a 42-year-old businesswoman and mother named Betty, who asks that her last name not be used for security reasons.
“If they don’t want you to communicate, you won’t,” adds her friend Suzette, who makes the same request about her surname.
Betty and Suzette are among the thousands of Turkish Jews seeking foreign passports this year amid growing religiosity in a society where civil rights activists and some ethnic minorities are feeling the weight of the increasingly authoritarian policies of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Islamist president who has used anti-Israel rhetoric.
“Of course we’re thinking about emigrating,” said Betty while scanning the top floor of the café — a quiet place that she proposes for an interview because she does not want to be overheard speaking about Jews to a journalist. “Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
Of the 4,500 Sephardic Jews who have applied recently for Spanish citizenship, at least 2,600 are Turks, according to Pablo Benavides, the consul general of Spain in Turkey. Last year, a law of return went into effect for Sephardic Jews whose ancestors were chased out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition 500 years ago.
Hundreds more have applied for naturalization in Portugal, where a similar law also went into effect last year. Indeed, Turkish Jews are the largest single group of applicants for a Portuguese passport.
And approximately 250 Jews from Turkey have immigrated to Israel in the past year — a figure that is more than double the 2015 tally and constitutes more 1 percent of Turkey’s Jewish community of approximately 17,000 people.
The rush to obtain Spanish and Portuguese passports may not reflect any imminent desire to emigrate. Several applicants, including 38-year-old Nedim Bali, describe the move merely as a contingency plan. But the figures nonetheless seem to reflect a growing insecurity among Turkish Jews, many of whom blame Erdogan of using anti-Israel rhetoric with anti-Semitic overtones.
In 2014, he accused protesters angered by his handling of a mining tragedy of being “spawn of Israel” — a country that Erdogan had previously accused of murdering Palestinian babies.
And in 2010, Erdogan suspended diplomatic relations with Israel over the slaying by commandos of nine passengers aboard a Gaza-bound ship that had sailed from Turkey in defiance of Israel’s blockade on the coastal strip, which is controlled by Hamas. Relations were restored officially only earlier this year and remain cold, though earlier this week Israel appointed an ambassador to Turkey as part of the countries’ reconciliation.
Still, discomfort over Erdogan’s rhetoric is being compounded by his crackdown on the opposition, media and civil liberties amid an increase in terrorist attacks and following the failed coup attempt in July to topple the Erdogan government.
Arbitrary internet blackouts like the one that occurred on Nov. 4 are common in Turkey, where the government since July has assumed vast executive powers under emergency laws. Even before these measures, Turkey was criticized routinely for its human rights abuses and undemocratic practices — the criticism has escalated with the abuses.
Earlier this month — amid a wave of arrests, newspaper closures and a purge of thousands of people suspected of complicity in the coup try — the US State Department said it was “deeply concerned by what appears to be an increase in official pressure on opposition media outlets in Turkey.”
To countless Turkish Jews and non-Jews, the failed overthrow was significant, not only because it ushered in more repressive policies, but because it demonstrated a potential for instability, according to Rifat Bali, a Jewish writer, publisher and historian from Istanbul.
“We turned on the TV and it was unbelievable. We thought Turkey was past the stage of coups, but we were wrong,” he said, recalling the July 15 attempt, which ended after countless civilians, called to act by a besieged Erdogan, confronted and effectively paralyzed rebellious army units.
The episode led to an explosion of nationalist sentiment in Turkey — never a particularly cosmopolitan country — where countless Turkish flags, including some the size of buildings, now dominate public urban spaces.
Regime stability is of paramount importance to Turkish Jews, whose synagogues are under heavy army guard following terrorist attacks and threats. A 2015 survey by the Anti-Defamation League suggested that 71% of the population holds anti-Semitic views — by contrast, in Iran the figure was 60 percent.
Before Erdogan’s rise to power in 2003 — the year he was elected to lead the ruling Islamist AKP party — the army was an important political player, poised to neutralize forces perceived as detrimental to a ruling class that was committed, on paper at least, to Turkey’s Western allies and to some principles, including a separation between religion and state.
Under Erdogan, however, the army gradually was subjected to a succession of five AKP-led governments whose policies, many Turkish Jews say, are promoting greater religiosity than ever before in modern Turkey.
“You never used to see women in veils here,” Betty said of Bebek, a Westernized seaside neighborhood. “Now they are everywhere. And that’s bad news not only for religious minorities but also for working, independent women like us.”
Suzette says she believes that Turkey’s normalization of ties with Israel “was a show.” But Mario Levi, a well-known Turkish Jewish novelist and columnist, says it was an important development toward reassuring Turkish Jews of their future in their country of birth.
“I disagree with the policies of the Israeli government, but I am deeply attached to the Jewish state,” he said. “The fact that my country is in friendly relations with Israel, therefore, means a lot.”
In 2014, Erdogan said anti-Semitism was a “sin” — perhaps in an effort to deflect criticism over vitriolic statements made by him and his associates.
Additionally, in recent years, the Turkish government has poured millions of dollars into renovating Jewish heritage sites, including toward the reopening last year of the Edirne Great Synagogue.
The Grand Synagogue of Edirne in Northwest Turkey following the completion of its restoration in 2015. (Screen capture: YouTube)
Ultimately, the rise of the role of religion in society, along with the crackdown on civil liberties, is making Turkish Jews uncomfortable “not as Jews, primarily, but simply as members of a liberal class,” Levi said.
“I have many friends who have been arrested for writing critically about the government,” he said, adding that he exercises “caution” in what he writes on social media about Turkey. “You don’t need to be Jewish to not feel comfortable in this kind of climate.”
Rifat Bali’s son, Nedim, who has applied for a Spanish passport, says he is considering emigrating to “give a better future” to his two children, though not necessarily to Spain.
Economically speaking, Turkey “is a great country with great, great potential,” Bali said. “But it’s not for people, Jews or non-Jews, with intellectual motives, as it gradually becomes more conservative with more restrictions on free thought and expression, and popular culture impregnated by conspiracy theories overwhelms the cultural space.”
..“Of course we’re thinking about emigrating,” said Betty while scanning the top floor of the café — a quiet place that she proposes for an interview because she does not want to be overheard speaking about Jews to a journalist. “Everyone in the Jewish community is because it is hard to imagine a future for ourselves here. Many Muslims are, too.”
Aye, the Jews and Muslims are all leaving Turkiye.
Everyone is leaving Turkiye for SPAIN - Please Tell me people don't actually believe this rubbish?
Solomon2
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Turkey Widens Crackdown, Purging 15,000 More Officials
More than 125,000 have now been dismissed.
11/22/2016 08:47 am ET
Tuvan Gumrukcu
Turkey on Tuesday dismissed 15,000 more officials, from soldiers and police officers to tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and news outlets, deepening purges condemned by Western allies and rights groups after a failed coup.
The latest dismissals, announced in two decrees, bring to more than 125,000 the number of people sacked or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere since July’s failed coup. Some 36,000 have been jailed pending trial.
European allies have criticized the breadth of the purges under President Tayyip Erdogan, with some calling for a freezing of Turkey’s EU membership talks. A senior U.N. official has called the measures “draconian” and “unjustified.”
Erdogan has rejected such criticism, saying Turkey is determined to root out its enemies at home and abroad, and could reintroduce the death penalty. He has accused Western nations of siding with plotters behind the coup attempt in July and of harboring terrorists.
Nearly 2,000 members of the armed forces, 7,600 police officers, 400 members of the gendarmerie, and more than 5,000 people from public institutions, including nurses, doctors and engineers, were dismissed in Tuesday’s decrees for suspected links to terrorist organizations.
Their names were listed in the Official Gazette, which made clear they would not be able to claim any severance or seek any other job in public service. The decrees were issued under emergency rule imposed in the wake of the failed coup, which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament.
Ankara blames U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his network of followers, which it refers to as the “Gulenist Terror Organisation” (FETO), for orchestrating the coup bid, in which more than 240 people were killed. The cleric denies involvement.
Erdogan’s opponents say the purges go well beyond a crackdown on suspected Gulenists and are being used to crush dissent. Those accused are often left unable to find other work and ostracized in their community, with Turkish media reports saying some have committed suicide before being put on trial.
PILOTS, PRISON WARDENS AND TELECOM EXECS
Separately from the latest decrees, authorities issued arrest warrants for 60 people including air force pilots in the central city of Konya over suspected Gulenist links.
More than 300 pilots have already been detained or dismissed since the coup, in which the plotters commandeered fighter jets, tanks and military helicopters, bombing parliament and other government buildings in their bid to seize power.
In another operation around Istanbul, 19 prison staff including the warden of Turkey’s largest jail Silivri were held on suspicion of using smart-phone messaging app ByLock, which authorities say is used by Gulen’s network.
Arrest warrants were also issued for 22 executives from telecoms firm Turk Telekom, the Hurriyet newspaper said. It said 12 of them had been detained in an operation spanning four provinces. Turk Telekom shares fell 0.35 percent, underperforming a 0.4 percent rise on the Istanbul stock index.
Tuesday’s decrees also announced the closure of 375 institutions, 18 charities, and nine media outlets. Turkey has closed more than 130 media outlets since July.
The decrees also said that institutions previously closed over alleged links to terrorist organizations should be handed over to the state’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), which has already taken control of a bank, several media firms and other businesses suspected of links to Gulen.
More than 125,000 have now been dismissed.
11/22/2016 08:47 am ET
Tuvan Gumrukcu
Turkey on Tuesday dismissed 15,000 more officials, from soldiers and police officers to tax inspectors and midwives, and shut 375 institutions and news outlets, deepening purges condemned by Western allies and rights groups after a failed coup.
The latest dismissals, announced in two decrees, bring to more than 125,000 the number of people sacked or suspended in the military, civil service, judiciary and elsewhere since July’s failed coup. Some 36,000 have been jailed pending trial.
European allies have criticized the breadth of the purges under President Tayyip Erdogan, with some calling for a freezing of Turkey’s EU membership talks. A senior U.N. official has called the measures “draconian” and “unjustified.”
Erdogan has rejected such criticism, saying Turkey is determined to root out its enemies at home and abroad, and could reintroduce the death penalty. He has accused Western nations of siding with plotters behind the coup attempt in July and of harboring terrorists.
Nearly 2,000 members of the armed forces, 7,600 police officers, 400 members of the gendarmerie, and more than 5,000 people from public institutions, including nurses, doctors and engineers, were dismissed in Tuesday’s decrees for suspected links to terrorist organizations.
Their names were listed in the Official Gazette, which made clear they would not be able to claim any severance or seek any other job in public service. The decrees were issued under emergency rule imposed in the wake of the failed coup, which allows Erdogan and the government to bypass parliament.
Ankara blames U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen and his network of followers, which it refers to as the “Gulenist Terror Organisation” (FETO), for orchestrating the coup bid, in which more than 240 people were killed. The cleric denies involvement.
Erdogan’s opponents say the purges go well beyond a crackdown on suspected Gulenists and are being used to crush dissent. Those accused are often left unable to find other work and ostracized in their community, with Turkish media reports saying some have committed suicide before being put on trial.
PILOTS, PRISON WARDENS AND TELECOM EXECS
Separately from the latest decrees, authorities issued arrest warrants for 60 people including air force pilots in the central city of Konya over suspected Gulenist links.
More than 300 pilots have already been detained or dismissed since the coup, in which the plotters commandeered fighter jets, tanks and military helicopters, bombing parliament and other government buildings in their bid to seize power.
In another operation around Istanbul, 19 prison staff including the warden of Turkey’s largest jail Silivri were held on suspicion of using smart-phone messaging app ByLock, which authorities say is used by Gulen’s network.
Arrest warrants were also issued for 22 executives from telecoms firm Turk Telekom, the Hurriyet newspaper said. It said 12 of them had been detained in an operation spanning four provinces. Turk Telekom shares fell 0.35 percent, underperforming a 0.4 percent rise on the Istanbul stock index.
Tuesday’s decrees also announced the closure of 375 institutions, 18 charities, and nine media outlets. Turkey has closed more than 130 media outlets since July.
The decrees also said that institutions previously closed over alleged links to terrorist organizations should be handed over to the state’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF), which has already taken control of a bank, several media firms and other businesses suspected of links to Gulen.
OguzSenturk
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If one Kemalist Party came to power at 14 July 2015, we would do the same thing like AKP does right now, about those FETÖ terrorists. I waited 10 damn years to see those FETÖ scum is being arrested and taken down. They arrested/assasinated/massacred thousands of Kemalist Professors, Generals, Writers, Academics, Students etc. Now time to payback 
I am pretty happy right now, but that number should increase to 250k-300k since there are nearly 150k HDP/PKK terrorists in the State Institutions whom needs to be fired and arrested.
I am pretty happy right now, but that number should increase to 250k-300k since there are nearly 150k HDP/PKK terrorists in the State Institutions whom needs to be fired and arrested.
Attila the Hun
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Ankara in fury after Euro parliament vote
The Turkish government has reacted angrily to the European Parliament’s Nov. 24 overwhelming recommendation to freeze Ankara’s EU accession negotiations, with chief negotiator Ömer Çelik saying his government regards the decision as “void.”
“On a day like this, I would not want to make statements over the EP’s [European Parliament] visionless decision. In reality, we regard this decision as void,” said Çelik, who is also Turkey’s EU minister.
“It is easy to talk like this in places where terror has not occurred. At a time when Turkey, which has a 1,295-kilometer border with Syria and Iraq, is involved in a heightened fight against terror, there are visionless and imprudent debates going on in Europe, instead of solidarity,” Çelik said in reaction to the non-binding vote.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldrım also called the parliament’s move “two-faced” and the result of “double standards.”
Some 479 of the votes in parliament were in favor of freezing the talks with Turkey while 37 were against it, and 107 abstained. The main reason behind the halt in negotiations was “disproportionate repressive measures” introduced under the state of emergency in Turkey that came after the July 15 coup attempt.
“MEPs strongly condemn the ‘disproportionate repressive measures’ taken by the Turkish government since the failed coup attempt in July 2016. These ‘violate basic rights and freedoms protected by the Turkish Constitution itself,’” according to the parliamentarians.
“Turkey is an important partner of the EU. But in partnerships, the will to cooperate has to be two-sided... Turkey is not showing this political will as the government’s actions are further diverting Turkey from its European path,” the members of the parliament noted.
It also noted that the re-introduction of the capital punishment would also pave way for the “formal suspension of the accession process,” as Turkey has already complied with the requirement set out by EU acquis – the legislation of the community.
Meanwhile, Çelik added that the decision was not binding but it bore a meaning as a “manifestation” of what has occurred between the two parties up until now.
“Unfortunately, they have signed a decision that will go down badly in history,” said Çelik, highlighting the vote’s timing, which he called the “situation in which relations with Europe were practically halted.”
“We are separating the values on which the European Parliament was established and this decision because these values are, like the founding fathers of Europe said, democracy and the state of law. But today members of the European Parliament have shown an attitude that clashed with its own values to a country that has defended its democracy to the death,” said Çelik.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said on Nov. 23 said the vote was worthless while accusing Europe of taking the side of “terror organizations.”
Meanwhile, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy leader Öztürk Yılmaz said the decision paved the way for Turkey to become a “one-man regime” and reiterated his party’s continued support for the continuation of the negotiations.
“The decision, within the given circumstances that Turkey is in, is not a decision to help Turkey in its democratic struggle. On the contrary, it is a decision that paves the way for the government to continue on its own path,” Yılmaz said Nov. 24.
“They [EP] give the government leverage in the executive presidency debate so that the European Union cannot be a part of it. We think this is wrong. This decision is not legally binding; it is a political decision,” he said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/an...vote.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106529&NewsCatID=338
--------------------
Erdogan is a disgrace to Turkiye.
The Turkish government has reacted angrily to the European Parliament’s Nov. 24 overwhelming recommendation to freeze Ankara’s EU accession negotiations, with chief negotiator Ömer Çelik saying his government regards the decision as “void.”
“On a day like this, I would not want to make statements over the EP’s [European Parliament] visionless decision. In reality, we regard this decision as void,” said Çelik, who is also Turkey’s EU minister.
“It is easy to talk like this in places where terror has not occurred. At a time when Turkey, which has a 1,295-kilometer border with Syria and Iraq, is involved in a heightened fight against terror, there are visionless and imprudent debates going on in Europe, instead of solidarity,” Çelik said in reaction to the non-binding vote.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yıldrım also called the parliament’s move “two-faced” and the result of “double standards.”
Some 479 of the votes in parliament were in favor of freezing the talks with Turkey while 37 were against it, and 107 abstained. The main reason behind the halt in negotiations was “disproportionate repressive measures” introduced under the state of emergency in Turkey that came after the July 15 coup attempt.
“MEPs strongly condemn the ‘disproportionate repressive measures’ taken by the Turkish government since the failed coup attempt in July 2016. These ‘violate basic rights and freedoms protected by the Turkish Constitution itself,’” according to the parliamentarians.
“Turkey is an important partner of the EU. But in partnerships, the will to cooperate has to be two-sided... Turkey is not showing this political will as the government’s actions are further diverting Turkey from its European path,” the members of the parliament noted.
It also noted that the re-introduction of the capital punishment would also pave way for the “formal suspension of the accession process,” as Turkey has already complied with the requirement set out by EU acquis – the legislation of the community.
Meanwhile, Çelik added that the decision was not binding but it bore a meaning as a “manifestation” of what has occurred between the two parties up until now.
“Unfortunately, they have signed a decision that will go down badly in history,” said Çelik, highlighting the vote’s timing, which he called the “situation in which relations with Europe were practically halted.”
“We are separating the values on which the European Parliament was established and this decision because these values are, like the founding fathers of Europe said, democracy and the state of law. But today members of the European Parliament have shown an attitude that clashed with its own values to a country that has defended its democracy to the death,” said Çelik.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said on Nov. 23 said the vote was worthless while accusing Europe of taking the side of “terror organizations.”
Meanwhile, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy leader Öztürk Yılmaz said the decision paved the way for Turkey to become a “one-man regime” and reiterated his party’s continued support for the continuation of the negotiations.
“The decision, within the given circumstances that Turkey is in, is not a decision to help Turkey in its democratic struggle. On the contrary, it is a decision that paves the way for the government to continue on its own path,” Yılmaz said Nov. 24.
“They [EP] give the government leverage in the executive presidency debate so that the European Union cannot be a part of it. We think this is wrong. This decision is not legally binding; it is a political decision,” he said.
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/an...vote.aspx?pageID=238&nID=106529&NewsCatID=338
--------------------
Erdogan is a disgrace to Turkiye.
blondeturkish
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does anybody know what happend to meral akşener? she was a beacon of hope for the country and erdogan ekp dictatrship,i even see her in allot of international newspeprs like the guardian and new york times, but since july she disapeared. did they kidnap her or what......
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