WITH HENNA IN THEIR PALMS

Traditionally we use henna in three events: put henna on a lamb meaning to sacrifice to God, put henna on the bride before marriage to bring prosperity and acknowledge the sacrifice of the family, and put henna on the son being sent to the military to represent the sacrifice for the motherland. They are sent to their units with ceremonies, drums and pipes, folk dances and songs, and national marches. In a way, all of these show the inner acceptance of the possibility they may not come back alive.

Kurdistan Observer writes;

"Kurdish Freedom Fighters say Have Bodies of 15 of 22 Turkish Troops

“ZAKHU, Southern Kurdistan, - Kurdish PKK guerrillas said on Saturday they had recovered the bodies of 15 of the 22 Turkish soldiers they say they have killed in clashes since Turkey launched an offensive against them. The guerrillas had also begun planning reprisal attacks on Turkish soil, a spokesman for the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) said.

"There are 22 Turkish soldiers that have been killed and our soldiers have the bodies of 15," Ahmed Danees, head of foreign relations for the PKK, told Reuters by telephone, adding they would soon release the names of those killed."

Turkish media writes;

"Families mourn as bodies of soldiers flown home..

"The devastated families of soldiers martyred on the first day of a ground offensive into northern Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) yesterday waited for their fallen sons to be brought home. Five soldiers lost their lives during the operation, the biggest land incursion into Iraq to hit PKK targets in a decade, the military announced on Friday night. “Twenty-four terrorists were killed and many others were wounded. It is estimated that at least 20 more terrorists were rendered ineffective by artillery and helicopter gunships,” the military said.....
"The parents and brothers of Sgt. Yasin Keyvanoğlu were hospitalized in the central Anatolian city of Çorum after they received news the young man was among the five soldiers killed in Iraq. “He never planned to marry. For him, serving the homeland came above all else,” said father Seyfi Keyvanoğlu of his son, who had spent the past eight years in the army.

"In the central Anatolian city of Konya, father Abdullah Kemer recounted his last phone conversation with his son, Sgt. Selam Kemer, on Feb. 19. “He did not tell us anything about the operation. He only said he would send his latest photos. We got them two days ago,” said the mourning father. “I’m proud of my son. He was martyred for the fatherland.” Sgt. Kemer had been with the army for nearly five years."

Whatever the PKK ethnic nationalists say, it is not possible for Turkish Army to hide the number of causalties from Turkish public (they reached 15). Ethnic nationalism is "ethnic nationalism", whether it is for Turkish or Kurdish it’s danger don’t differ. And, ask yourself, what kind of a freedom fighter can carry the bodies of the 19-20 years old soldiers they murdered with them. Though we wrote yesterday; they are "All our sons, Not numbers", seems like terror can't see those lifes behind numbers...

Regardless of their religion or ethnicity all male Turkish citizens have to serve in the military for a certain period. Not only the culture but also the Turkish constitution defines "fallen soldiers" / "martyrs" with high regard. According to law a "martyr" is one "who dies under direct fire or is wounded and dies because of these wounds during war. Or the one who is behind the front but dies because of enemy fire, or is wounded and dies during treatment. Who dies immediately or is wounded and dies because of the wound during National Security duty, fighting against terror or anarchy, protecting the borders, etc..."

As may be seen, "defending the nation / country" is essential. The religion and beliefs of these soldiers may have great importance in their determination and heroism individually, but what they go to die for is "motherland." Martyrdom is highly regarded not only for our own people, but for all regardless of their nation or religion. A good example of this cultural acceptance is the martyrdom monuments for many nations built in the Gallipoli area (more than 30 cemeteries and memorials).

The day before, a new age group sent with ceremonies to their term of military service. Not only the young men but families were so strong too. Some TV channals tried to talk with mothers, fathers who came to farewell their sons. There was no single teardrop but reflection of honor, how proud they feel sending their sons to defend the country, although their hearts were burning with the fire of the possibility of loosing them.

One day the door may knock by three officers (one psychologist) to give the news of their son's matryrdom, his coffin may came covered with Turkish flag. Or there might be no knocking doors but their sons may declared lost, it may not be possible even reach to bodies or wait coffins.

Can there be greater pain? It is not easy to answer. But there is something greater than that pain; "acceptance" and "determination". If they can stand that pain, it is that acceptance and determination from the begining what helps the consolation.

Turkiye is not aiming to invade anyone's land. Turkiye only wants to stop the terrorism. Citizens of this country is fed up with terrorism. Every logical one should be aware of Kurdish problem and know it’s solution can’t find with armed conflicts. Terrorists announce with their own words how / what they plan in main cities, target civilians (dozens, may be hundreds but mainly in numbers again). Whatever the foreign media delivers PKK don’t and can't represents all Kurds.

We lived the Diyarbakır bombing which burned our youngsters’ only 2 months ego. We are living under threats of suicide or various kinds of bombings. When we wake up, we can not be sure what the day may bring, if all the family members may turn home alive.

So, what if they have bodies of soldiers, our sons they murdered? So, what if there are more bodies of terrorists (who are also our sons) which army didn't find and announced yet? What if we will loose more? We already know, aware and accepted to loose much more sons and daughters, to welcome much more coffins.

War is the plague imperialism feed from. Who knows how many international groups’, corporations’ benefits, plans lies behind the news we are reading about the wars which takes our children’s lives… We already lost tens of thousands, generations; can we save at least next generations…

If there is a price to pay; we already paid more than enough and ready to pay much more. If only we can manage not to play on the tunes of imperialism any more... If only some can cease from counting our sons and daughters only as numbers any more...

For us? They have never been numbers. They are the lads we sent with henna in their palms and their names carved in our hearts...

Don't your hearts ache for every life lost in wars, who ever they are; civilians or your soldiers or terrorists...

GROUND OPERATION; ALL OUR BOYS, NOT NUMBERS...

Latest news reports "Zap" base (Cemto hill and valley where kidnapped Turkish soldiers kept)of terrorists is destroyed and now the target is Kandil. Many soldiers from different units/ areas applied as volunteers to participate the operation at the front and their petitions sent to headquarters. Dozens civilians also apply to Military recruiting offices to volunteer taken under obligation and sent to northern Iraq. Police in cities are in alarm for possible suicide bomb attacks. There are some other reports about the chaos in PKK, between the leading group. There had been some members surrendered to officials in various paleces around the country.

There are two interesting points to pay attention in international news; Operation begin only few days after Bush wanted more involvement of Turkish Forces in Afghanistan and Putin announced they can use force in Kosovo only half an hour fallowing Turkiye announced the Ground Operation "Sun" (name of the daughter of a late martyr).

Ofcourse the greatest opportunism came from our own President; he signed the law on headcarf ban in universities as soon as the operation begin. Could there be a better time to prevent protests?...

Here are some news from Turkish media in English;

(HURRIYET)HIGHLIGHTS - Turkey launches ground operation vs PKK in Northern Iraq

The ground operation started after Turkish warplanes and artillery bombed suspected PKK targets on Thursday, the military said on its Web site. The operation is expected to last 15 days, CNN Turk reported, citing security sources.

-- TV channels and news agencies reported 10,000 troops were taking part in the cross-border offensive and the Turkish troops entered 10 km inside the Iraqi border. But CNN Turk reported 3,000 troops from special forces take part in the operation, citing security sources. Reports say the operation focused on the Hakurk region of northern Iraq.

-- Turkish General Staff said 24 terrorists were killed and several others were wounded in clashes between terrorists and Turkish security teams on Friday. General Staff said in a statement it is estimated that at least 20 moreterrorists were rendered ineffective by artillery and helicopter gunships. Five Turkish soldiers died in clashes, it stated.

The statement said a group of terrorists escaped to the southern part in the clash. The operation merely targeted terrorist organization, it reiterated. "Cross-border operation that was launched by Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against terrorist organization PKK in the north of Iraq as of 7 p.m. on February 21st, 2008 continues as it was planned," the statement said. Hideouts of terrorists were shelled by artillery and armed helicopters, it added

-- Iraq and the coalition forces based in the country said couple of hundred Turkish troops are taking part in the operation. Turkey's military has only sent several hundred troops into a remote part of northern Iraq to hunt PKK, Iraq's Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari told Reuters on Friday. Only a "few hundred" Turkish soldiers are taking part in an operation against PKK in northern Iraq, a senior military officer with coalition forces based in Baghdad said.

-- However, Turkish General Staff denied on Friday some new reports about the objective and the scope of the ground operation launched into north of Iraq against terrorist organization as well as the number of troops took part in the operation.

General Staff said in its website that several media organs aired news and archives footage that contradicted with the scope, objective and nature of the operation, including the number of troops, and that comments were made regarding these footage. It said they gave wrong messages to Turkish people and the international community, adding that they have the risk in some cases to lead to unnecessary tensions and expectations. It stated that information --except for given by the General Staff-- should not be given credit. General Staff also noted that terrorist organization released statements full of propaganda under cover of news agency, underlining that these statements should be disregarded.

-- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said this operation started a new phase in the efforts to isolate PKK. Erdogan repeated that the operation's sole target is PKK. "Iraqi people are not our targets" he said. Erdogan said on Friday he had spoken by telephone on Thursday night with U.S. President George W. Bush about Turkish troops' land offensive into northern Iraq.

-- Oil prices headed back towards record highs Friday with New York crude nearing 99 dollars as the market reacted to Turkeys move into northern Iraq amid persistent concerns about supply, traders said.

-- The Turkish General Staff released the photos of the operation on its official website. The photos can be viewed here. (The site is in Turkish)

Commanders in Ankara on alarm for the past 48 hours

by Metehan Demir

The historical land operation being carried out by Turkish Armed Forces into Northern Iraq is occuring with great secrecy and professional, sources said.

ANKARA - In order to ensure the success of the newly started operation, the last two days have seen a very silent and deep set of preparations.

Sources also told hurriyet.com.tr that all units in connection with the Turkish military's General Staff have been put on alarm, and that all related personnel work vacations have been cancelled for the time being.

COMMANDERS STAYED IN

In Ankara, where the General Staff headquarters of the Turkish military is based, neither General Yasar Buyukanit nor second in command, General Ergin Saygun, nor other unit commanders, have gone home in the past two days due to planning for the operation now underway. Information sharing has been limited to the principle of a "need to know" basis from the General Staff headquarters.

The land operation is being guided and run by the main coordination General Staff War Operations Center. All developments in the land invasion are being tracked on an immediate basis through video images streaming in from satellites and airplanes in the region.

(NTVMNSBC) Turkish opposition leaders back military strike into Iraq

ANKARA - The leaders of Turkey’s two largest parliamentary opposition parties have backed the military operation launched by Turkish troops into northern Iraq targeting the terrorist group the PKK.

Deniz Baykal, the leader of the centre left Republican People’s Party (CHP), said Friday that the ground attack took the fight against the PKK to a new and important stage.

It was essential that Turkey carry through with the operation and eliminate the PKK and its bases in northern Iraq, Baykal said.

“We have to conclude this operation,” he said hours after the Turkish General Staff announced it had sent troops over the border into Iraq. “We should have the responsibility to conclude the issue in a very determined and clear way.”

Once the cross border operation was completed, every effort should be made to ensure the threat posed by the PKK was removed, he said.

Devlet Bahceli, the chairman of the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), said that not only was the operation necessary but there was also the need to temporarily deploy Turkish troops inside Iraq to create a security zone in Iraq’s north.

“Although it is a belated move, this first ground operation under the rule of Justice and Development Party constitutes a very important step and it is deduced from recent statements on the issue that operation would be limited in duration and scope,” Bahceli said.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and cabinet spokesman Cemil Cecik said the Turkish army was conducting operations under severe winter conditions and was working to preserve the unity and security of the country.

“As we stated earlier, these operations target only the terrorist organization PKK and its hideouts,” he said. “We do not have any problems with civilian people living there. They are our sisters and brothers.”

(SABAH) DTP: "Return when mission is accomplished"

Erdoğan said: "we will not have a negative attitude towards Iraqi people. Turkish Armed Forces will return in a short time after reaching the target."

After Turkey's operation to Northern Iraq, the top level politicians of Turkey emphasized that the operation is against the PKK forces in the region and the local people will not be affected by the operation and added that Turkish and Kurdish people are brothers. The Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan stated that he informed the US president Bush about the land operation. Erdoğan said: "we will reach the targets in a short time and then will return immediately. The operation targets are terrorist camps. We do not have a negative attitude towards Iraqi people. I informed the US president Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. Gül spoke to Talabani."

"Stop the operation"

The only political party objecting to the land operation was DTP. Demirtaş said: "our attitude is clear, we are against operation. There are other solutions."

The only political party objecting to the land operation was DTP. Party group vice chairman Selahattin Demirtaş held a press conference and said: "our attitude is clear, we are against operation. There was a permanent solution to Kurdish issue which is dialogue." Demirtaş added: "The people attempted to show DTP as partisan of war. Turkey was dragged into a regional war; only political party objecting to this is DTP."

(Turkish Daily News)24 terrorists, 5 troops killed in clashes

ANKARA – Turkish Daily NewsThe military said at least 24 Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorists were killed in clashes in northern Iraq, in a statement posted to its website early Saturday. It also said five troops were killed.

It added that it believes around another 20 terrorists have been killed by artillery and helicopter fire, but said the exact toll would be determined once troops reach the targeted area.

"It has been understood from preliminary information that the terrorists have suffered heavy losses under long-range weapons fire and air strikes," it said, adding that many PKK members were also wounded in the continued fighting.

(ZAMAN) Gül invites Iraq’s Talabani to Turkey

President Abdullah Gül has extended a long-awaited invitation to his Iraqi counterpart, Jalal Talabani, to visit Turkey, the presidency announced yesterday.

A visit by Talabani, a Kurd, has long been an issue of controversy in Turkey. Former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer refused to invite him during his term in office and the military has said it would avoid talks with Iraqi Kurds, accusing them of supporting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has repeatedly said there had been talks with Talabani because he is the president of Iraq, but rejected dialogue at a senior level with Massoud Barzani, leader of the semiautonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said there were still problems with Barzani since the Kurdish leader has so far not taken steps to win Turkey's trust in the fight against the PKK.

The invitation to Talabani came after the Turkish military launched a ground offensive into northern Iraq to hunt down PKK terrorists. The Presidency Press Office said Gül briefly spoke to Talabani on the phone on Thursday evening to inform the Iraqi leader about the land operation launched by the Turkish troops and to let him know that the National Security Council (MGK), which convened earlier on Thursday, had agreed to take steps to develop relations with Iraq in all areas. He also invited the Iraqi president to visit Turkey during the same conversation.

Talabani accepted Gül's invitation, an Iraqi news report said, but there was no immediate information on when the visit would take place. Talabani has said in the past that he was ready to visit Turkey as soon as he receives an invitation.

Gül's phone conversation with Talabani and the invitation appear to be aimed at containing possible damage in relations with Iraq due to the ground offensive. The MGK said in a statement after its regular meeting that cross-border operations into Iraq will continue as long they are deemed necessary, but emphasized that the top political and military officials attending the meeting also confirmed the importance Turkey attaches to Iraq's territorial integrity and political unity. The MGK said efforts to improve cooperation with Iraq in economic, commercial, cultural, military and energy fields were discussed.
Talks with Maliki

In addition to presidential talks, the prime ministers of Turkey and Iraq also spoke on the phone on Thursday evening, Turkish and Iraqi officials said.

Prime Minister Erdoğan said he informed his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, about the land offensive in their telephone conversation on Thursday. In a statement, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Maliki told Erdoğan that Iraq considered the PKK a threat to their shared border but urged dialogue to promote security.

"Maliki asked Erdoğan to respect the sovereignty of Iraq's borders and the inviolability of its lands ... and stressed the importance of avoiding a military solution," Dabbagh said. "Maliki also said the Iraqi government supports the security and stability of Turkey and considers the PKK a terrorist organization that represents a threat to Turkey and the border areas between the two countries."

GROUND OPERATION?

News Agencies break the below news a few minutes ago;

Turkey is considering a ground operation against PKK based in northern Iraq.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said a ground cross-border operation against the PKK is on the table, while the Iraqi Kurdish leader threatened Turkey on Tuesday, saying they will not "remain silent" against the operations.

"The option of a ground operation is on the table. The timing (of such an operation) and weather conditions are important," Babacan told reports on his way to Moscow, where he heads for an official visit, according to the CNN Turk.

Turkey has massed tens of thousands of troops along its mountainous frontier with Iraq. It has already carried out in recent months small-scale cross-border commando operations as well as aerial bombing raids PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by the EU and the US.

Massoud Barzani, the leader of the regional Kurdish administration in the Northern Iraq, threatened Turkey on Tuesday, saying they will not remain “silent” to Turkish army’s air operations in the region.

"It is very unnecessary for us to ask the Iraqi government 'to do something against the Turkey’s attacks'... I am declaring that if Turkey's attacks on the Federal Kurdistan's soil continue, we will not remain silent", Barzani told the al Arabiya television.

Babacan urged Barzani to declare the PKK as a terrorist organization. "Barzani should declare the PKK as a terrorist organization. He should take concrete and assuring steps" he said."

Think if this is patriotism or idiocity for any sides...

Think which hands are pulling which ropes again...

Think what is going on around the world...

Think what is going on in the country...

Think what time it is...

Think...

WOMEN OF US; CRAZY AYSEL

Today, we lost our "CRAZY AYSEL".

She was one of our women, one of our extraordinary women...

Aysel Gürel was probably one of the most colorful characters we had. Turcologist, literature teacher, actress, lyricist and composer Aysel Gurel died at the age of 80 yesterday. Born at 1928, she graduted from Istanbul University, History of Arts.

She was known by her joyful, interesting, cheerful, and original and contrast personality. She was a woman who always reminded me the immortality.

She was the mother of Turkish actresses Mujde Ar and Mehtap Ar. According to her daughter she sent a message to Turkish women before her death; "I worked till the age of 79. I worked nonstop. This should be an example to Turkish women. They should not give up working."

She left us those beautiful songs as Firuze, Yanarım (Burning), Gençlik Başımda Duman (Youth is a cloud over my head), Yalnızca Sitem (Only Reproach), 1945, Ne Kavgam Bitti Ne Sevdam (Neither My Love, Nor My Fight Ended), Değer mi? (Woul It Worth), Sır (Mystery), Yolun Başı (Begining of the Road), Sarıl Bana (Hold Me), Zor Kadın (Difficult Woman), Aşk (Love), Vur Yüreğim (Beat My Heart), Zorba Aşk (Despotic Love), Dönmeyeceğim (I Will Not Turn Back), Ayrıldık İşte (So We Seperated), Son Dua (Last Prayer) and her two books; Şiir Şimdi (Poem Now) and Senin İçin Sana Değil (For You, Not To You). Her movies include; Sarkici (Singer), Agir roman (Cholera Street), Kupa kizi (The Heart Queen), Üvey ana (The Stepmother), Meyhane koseleri, Tek kollu canavar, Yurda dönüs.

There was a wisdom making fun of life in everything related with her. In an interview she say; "Certainly. One can fall in love with potato or a painting. For example, I am in love with violin. It is not possible to believe in love between man and woman. Look at the animals; female monkeys are coupling with sixty males a day. Now men are just like that, like bulls. They climb over a woman and make gym. Their understanding of love is just like going to a gym. But there are some special people; poets, painters, writers idealize this primitive feeling and produce creations according to themselves. In fact this is a fooling system...."

Crazy Aysel didn't have an easy life. She divorce her journalist husband while she was 7 months pregnant to her second daughter. In a way, it was her choice to be known as "crazy" to survive and protect her family in the men dominated world. Müjde Ar says she always adviced her children "Don't be a thief, don't be a whore!" While she was so protective of her daughters; one day Müjde turn late from school and "crazy" Aysel punish/ gives the lesson in her own way; fallowing day she goes to school, pulls Müjde's skirt and show her underwears to everybody, saying "Come late again and I will do the same!"

It is impossible to describe her. There was something with her, which complete a naughty side of our souls. May be her whole life should be seen as an example to us, as a protest to hypocracy, fake norms of life. She was able to reply a question about her gender identity as; "I am autosexuel". At her 75th birthday she was surprising people with the words; "I am still a virgin. I will still be a wonder of world even at the age of 97".

We withnessed only the extraordinary actions she showed outside, can never know the intense feelings that interesting woman experienced. She was sure one of those characters one would be lucky to know. She was one of those women who deserve to be remembered.

Wish she rest in peace...

Wish she rest in joy...

...think she would wish us sing that unforgettable song she wrote...

it was longing it was separation
hours separated to sorrows
I saw two tears drops flowing
together with affection with separation

like a poem like a song
I lived my life with pains
memory for me now, beloved sorrows
that I hide from you

I hide you like a secret
an oath,like a hidden dream
I carry this load, you go
I dont grieve

dont cry I cant bare
dont cry my baby I cant resist you
take my heart let it be yours
if your heart remains in me I cant live

APOLOGY TO "STOLEN GENERATION"

Every nation has dark pages in their history. Some choose to face them some don't. So far, many countries apologized from others for their crimes against them during WW 2.

The news which transmitted by media a few days ago renewed my hope for humanity. We use "lost generation", "stolen generation" terms in many countries for the unlucky periods they lived. But there is an officially "Stolen Generation" in Australia.

Wikipedia writes; "The Stolen Generations (or Stolen Generation) is a term used to describe those children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were removed from their families by Australian government agencies and church missions, under various state acts of parliament, denying the rights of parents and children by making Aboriginal children wards of the state, between approximately 1869 and (officially) 1969. The Australian Parliament has accepted that this was human rights abuse and on February 13, 2008... The policy typically involved the removal of children into internment camps, orphanages and other institutions. No consensus has been reached as to the extent of the removal of children, and the reasoning behind their removal. While in some quarters it has been suggested that a eugenics policy was adopted, in others the removals were said to be done for the well-being of the children."

Below is the Australian Federal Goverment's Apology from Aborigines, the native people of the land, read by the new Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd at February 13th;

"The Federal Government's formal apology to the stolen generations:

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment. We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were stolen generations – this blemished chapter in our nation's history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australia's history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these stolen generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia. "

Some reports as; "Some in federal parliament's public gallery, including members of the stolen generations, wept as Mr Rudd delivered the formal apology - the first official business of the new Labor government. MPs were given a long, standing ovation as they rose to their feet to vote in support of the motion. In city squares and parks across Australia, and on the lawns outside Parliament House in Canberra, people cheered, applauded, hugged and cried after the apology was delivered."

We were not stranger to the "Stolen Generations" of indigenous people around the world (however they called). Similar and even worse policies performed under the name of Americanisation to Native Americans or worst in South Africa. Many cultures and native languages destroyed in this way. It is said that only in Australia 250 local languages disappeared during this period.

Of course there are some who are against the apology too. Opposition leader Dr Nelson told Parliament: "Our generation does not own these actions, nor should it feel guilt for what was done in many, but certainly not all cases, with the best intentions."

We said we are not stranger to the issue in general but we are very far to understand the heaviness of the problem from the begining. It seems like the problem of "Stolen Generation" can not end with the "Apology". There are discussions of compensations and the sociologic defination of the period; if it can be called as "assimilation", "genosite" or not. And these are very sensitive matters of our day around the world inherited from history.

Colin Tatz writes (http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/resources/history/genocide.html);"Australians understand only the stereotypical or traditional scenes of historical or present-day slaughter. For them, genocide connotes either the bulldozed corpses at Belsen or the serried rows of Cambodian skulls, the panga-wielding Hutu in pursuit of Tutsi victims or the ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia. As Australians see it, patently we cannot be connected to, or with, the stereotypes of Swastika-wearing SS psychopaths, or crazed black tribal Africans. Apart from Australia's physical killing era, there are doubtless differences between what these perpetrators did and what we did in assimilating people and removing their children. But, as we will see, we are connected - by virtue of what Raimond Gaita calls "the inexpungable moral dimension" inherent in genocide, whatever its forms or actions...

...There has been an emotional, even an hysterical, response, to the word genocide. This century has seen several particularly well-documented episodes of the removal of children. The Turks killed close to 1.5 million of their Armenian citizens between 1915 and 1923. One "choice" for Armenian parents was to save their Christian children by "giving" them to Turkish Muslim families. Turkey ferociously denies these events and rejects all talk of restitution. Of importance in our context is the origin of Article II (e) in the Convention. Certainly Lemkin, Donnedieu de Vabres and the other drafters of the Convention didn't seek to include "the forcible removal of children from one group to another group" on the basis of the Jewish experience. Jewish children had no such Armenian choice. Clearly they had the latter's case in mind. They may have had a thought for the 200,000 Polish children who were taken by Nazis to Germany to be raised as physically desirable Aryans. Again, they may have been well aware of the Swiss practice of removing Romani (Gypsy) children over the decades. Both Raphael Lemkin and the United Nations (especially the Greek delegate, Vallindis) ensured that removal of children, and hence their disappearance through assimilation, was a (physical) genocidal act. Jacqueline Jago has evaluated Aboriginal child removals in Canada and Australia. Canada's Indian Act saw to it that Indian children were forced off reservations into schools where the stated aims were "religious instruction and cultural assimilation". That Australia sits alongside some strange bedfellows is perhaps reason enough to wriggle out of a verdict of genocide."

As we see, as the all branches of humanity there are much more issues we share than we can imagine, regarlesss to the place we live, from which part of the world we are from. We may be too far from eachother but it is always important to fallow what is going on at the other side of the planet.

Australia's "Apology" should be an example, at least giving hope to all the world.

A COMMENT ON ACID ATTACKS

It is hard for a technology disturbed one like me to keep a blog. I recieved a comment but I couldn't manage to publish it (I hope to learn in time:)

A lady from Australia reading the acid attacks to young women writes;

"I am shocked that young men could feel that they had a right to harm girls because of the length of their skirts. Usually young men have other things to do rather than be vigilantes for such a cause. Is there large unemployment in this area? I realise there must be a growth in religious fundamentalism - and suppose there is also some economic aspect to it. My heart goes out to the young girls and to all other girls in that area who, for their own safety, will feel like covering up, no matter how hot it is etc.

I am glad you are letting the world know about these things. AND, of course, I love the poems you found. Kathy (Australia)"

Thanks to Kathy for her comment. She is right that the young men should have other things to do. This particular young man came out; not jobless but working in a factory, married and have a pregnant wife who will give birth in a few days and not from a very religious family.

But unfortunatelly there is really a great unemployment in the country. Turkiye has a very young population. 30 percent of 70.5 million population is under the age of 15 and half of the total is under 28. Education is compulsory and free from ages 6 to 15. The literacy rate is 95.3% for men and 79.6% for women, with an overall average of 87.4%. This low figure is mainly due to prevailing feudal attitudes against women in the east and southeastern provinces of the country. Total workforce is nearly 30 million while unemployment is around 10 %. The official unemployment rate conceals the fact that unemployment is up to 70.0% in some rural areas. And 20 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Growth in religious fundementalism certainly have an economic aspect as Kathy comments, but it is hard take only general indicators as economics, income, education etc for the rise of such unacceptable events. International politics have a very important role on the current situation of Turkey. Althought the tariquats always had a strong but unseen role in politics, radical Islamic groups of Middle East never managed to make base in the country. Begining with the last decades of Ottomans and raising on the strong secular construction of the Republic, any individual events like these or any kind of religious revolts could never get support in this society.

It is hard to analyze what is going on in our society now but one thing is sure; it is a part of the Cold War years' "Green Crescedent", today's "New Middle East Project" or "moderate Islam model" of world's super power.

Some young women who wear latest fashion, silk turbans, who has lots of make-up on their open faces in headscarfs can easily say they are "not secular", they prefer "sheria" on TVs today. It is impossible to understand how can not they realize that they owe even voicing these views to the democracy, secularism in this country.

Dear Kathy, you say; "My heart goes out to the young girls and to all other girls in that area who, for their own safety, will feel like covering up, no matter how hot it is etc."

How easy to make this comment for any healthy mind. We already have a name for it; "neighborhood pressure". It will happen. Ill minds will begin to measure women's belief, honour, goodname with the pieces of cloths they wear on their heads or bodies.

We will see... but we will not sit and watch...

Thanks

WHY SNOW...

There are too many things to write; houses of Turks are still set on fire in Germany, Kurdish protestors burning Turkish flag clashed with police in nort-eastern city Sırnak, Putin's interesting announcement about the hypocracy of EU on Cyprus raise comments etc. But I don't want to write on any of them. We are under a heavy snow storm again. Snow...


why do you came so suddenly snow
why you never leave behind the winds
I suspect if you deliberately drag the storms
why do you hit so suddenly snow
you know how helpless
how weak I am, how hopeless
surrendering to your sudden raids
yielding to the soul’s deepest memories

they say you are all unique snowflakes
all unique while falling in millions
pulling out the saplings with the help of winds
breaking the branches of my trees uniting in your uniqueness
so tiny that my eyes can hardly distinguish
so light that my skin can hardly sense
still so powerful in dragging me to absence
so strong bringing all the buried out to existence…

why do you come so suddenly snow
I hate welcoming you unprepared
wooden bank is facing the evergreen pines
cherry tree already lost the last leaves
those hanging the brick wall are still green jasmines
there is still cognac in the bottle left from your last visits
coffee cup in hands, eyes fallowing the falling flakes
but still I am not prepared neither to you nor your usual winds

don’t you know everything in me is as unique as you snowflakes
all unique while I buried them in millions of different ways
I can’t pull those saplings as you can with the help of winds
I can’t break them any more than they already been in their uniqueness
so valuable every one of them that I can’t differ any more
so heavy that my soul can’t carry any more, soul is so sore
buried treasures in soul, mind fallowing the breaking storms
can it ever be possible not to care, to ignore…

why do you come so suddenly snow
why with hurtful winds, blizzards
why can’t you ever leave me alone….

Storm

ACID ATTACKER CAUGHT

After seven victims (but 5 according to governor)the man who attact to the young women with nitric acid caught in immidiately, thanks to mobese cameras around streets. Two syringes found on the man. But the Governor is stil denying it was because of any ideological reasons. According to Anatolian News Agency;

"He dismissed reports that the students were attacked because they wore short skirts, noting that two of the civil servants were wearing pants when attacked.

He also said suggestions that the liquid used were nitric acid is false, adding that the investigation is continuing. “It is a liquid substance that gives a burning sensation and reddens the skin,” he said, adding that attacked individuals did not suffer from any other health problems.

Quoting one of the students, the Doğan news agency reported Thursday that a few people had first commented on the skirt one of the students was wearing as they were passing her in the street before she felt the burning sensation on the back of her legs."

What can we say; this is only the begining and are trying to be careful. This is the quickest arrest they made...

OUR WOMEN; UNDER ACID ATTACS

We were waiting this. This is the “breaking news” in Turkish media while conservative newspapers and TVs are trying to deny. Dogan News Agency and many others are reporting the victims already reached 5;

Girls attacked for wearing short skirts.

“Two teenage girls were attacked on separate occasions by unknown assailants who sprayed an acidic substance on their legs in the Mediterranean province of Mersin yesterday.

Both girls were approached from behind by a group of men in their 20s who sprayed a substance on their legs that burnt through their stockings and caused skin lacerations, according to reports.

Doctors said the substance sprayed on the girls' legs could be a strong acid. The police is still searching for the culprits. Based on witness accounts and statements by the girls, the police concluded that the same individuals had attacked them both.

One girl said she was on her way home from school when two or three men in their 20s passed by her and said her skirt was too short. Soon afterwards she felt a substance sprayed on her stockings and an immediate burning sensation. When she looked at her legs she noticed that her stockings were burnt. The incident provoked panic with rumors circulating that girls in short skirts are being attacked, reported the Doğan news agency.”

Can it surprize us? Certainly not. We withnessed examples at conservative neighborhoods before. This is the mentality which tries to put women behind veils, which want Sheria as the final goal.

The law didn’t even signed by the President yet but they begin to throw nitric acid to young girls’, teenagers’ legs.

Tomarrow covering our heads, hairs will not seem enough, they will want our faces to be locked behind veils and throw acid to our faces, eyes.

This is the mentality which banned red roses in Saudi Arabia, wanting to ban “love” itself. This is the mentality which stone women to death when they become “rape victims of men”.

Though they are unaware who they are trying to deal with this time; "Turkish women".

Reminding only two poems of Nazım Hikmet and announcing proudly to be ready to begin a new Independence War as Turkish Women is enough for now. They will not be able to turn us to their "black bugs". If needed, in price of being burried in acid wells, our women will not surrender to darkness.


THE FACES OF OUR WOMEN

Mary didn't give birth to God.
Mary isn't the mother of God.
Mary is one mother among many mothers.
Mary gave birth to a son,
a son among many sons.
That's why Mary is so beautiful in all the pictures of her.
That's why Mary's son is so close to us, like our own sons.

The faces of our women are the book of our pains.
Our pains, our faults and the blood we shed
carve scars on the faces of our women like plows.

And our joys are reflected in the eyes of women
like the dawns glowing on the lakes.

Our imaginations are on the faces of women we love.
Whether we see them or not, they are before us,
closest to our realities and furthest.

And from "THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE"

CHAPTER SEVEN 1922, THE MONTH OF AUGUST and OUR WOMEN

Ox-carts rolled under the moon.
Rolled the ox-carts on to Afyon via Akşehir.
The land was so endless and so wide,
mountains so far,
it was as if those on the move
could never reach, never any target.
The ox-carts moved on with their solid oak wheels.
And they
were the first wheels rolling under the moon.
The oxen under the moon
as if they were from a tiny alien world
were small, were stunted,
there were shimmers in their sickly broken horns
and what flowed under their feet
was land,
was land
and land.
The night was bright and warm
and in the ox-carts the dark blue shells
lay naked in their wooden crates.
And the women
without letting on
stole looks at the dead oxen and wheels under the moon
from earlier convoys.
And women,
our women:
with their huge sacred hands,
their delicate small chins and large eyes
our mothers, our wives, our beloved
and who die as if never have lived
and whose place at our table
comes after our ox
and those we abduct to the hills and go to gaol for
and those at the harvest, the tobacco, firewood and the market
and who are harnessed to the plough
and in barns
in the glint of daggers plunged into the earth
women who become ours
with their heavy rolling hips and their bells,
our women
now under the moon
following the ox-carts and cartridges
had the same peace of mind,
the same tired force of habit
of hauling stalks with amber ears to be threshed.
And slender necked children were asleep
at the steel of size 15 shrapnels.
And the ox carts were rolling under the moon
on to Afyon via Akşehir.

The sixth of August order's been issued
The first and second armies, with their troops, ox-carts and their cavalry
shifted positions, were to keep on the move.
98956 rifles,
325 artillery,
5 aeroplanes,
2800 odd light machine guns,
2500 odd swords
and 186326 brilliant human hearts
and twice as many ears, arms, feet and eyes
were stirring through the night.
Earth through the night.
Wind through the night.
Faithful to memories, outside of memories,
through the night:
humans, equipment and beasts,
huddling together with their metal, their wood, their flesh,
finding their terrible
and silent sanctuary
in huddling together,
were moving on
with their large and tired feet,
and soiled hands.

WOMEN OF US: NEYYİRE NEYİR

It is important for us to remember the pioneer women in our history, especially in these days which our society and women rights are in danger of darkness.

Yesterday was the anniversary of one of them; first Turkish female actress Neyyire Neyir.

A new era in Turkish cinema started in 1922 when theater artist Muhsin Ertuğrul returned home from Germany where he had worked as an actor and director since 1916. A film based on the novel of Halide Edip Adıvar, "Ateşten Gömlek" (The shirt of fire) in which the first Turkish Muslim women actresses, namely Bedia Muhavvit and Neyyire Neyir acted in the leading roles, was the first movie to deal with the War of Independence. This film was first screened in İstanbul which was still occupied by foreign armies, on April 23, 1923, the third anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, and only six months prior to the formation of the Turkish Republic.

Ateşten Gömlek (The shirt of fire), adapted from the novel by Halide Edip Adivar. Set during the years of the Turkish War of Independence it remains the "first" of an epic tradition and, furthermore, also the first film allowing Turkish women the freedom to work as actresses.

Neyyire Neyir made two more films with Muhsin Ertuğrul (whoM she was married).

Ankara postasi / The Courier Fom Ankara (1928) (as Münire Eyüp) - adapted from Halede Edip's novel
Atesten gömlek / The Shirt Of Fire (1923) - adapted from Francois de Curel’s “La Terre Inhumaine" and Reşat Nuri Güntekin's play adaptation
Kiz Kulesinde bir facia / A Tragedy At Leander's Tower (1923) Adapted from Pierre Antier's play "Les Gardiens de Phare" and P. Cloquemin's play "Les Gardiens de Phare" by Muhsin Ertugrul as writer.

She died at February 13th 1943. We remember her at her 65th anniversary and thankful for her influences to Turkish women's progress in the society.

Today is also important in history of Turkish women because of two other events. At 1931, Miss Turkey Naşide Saffet Hanım choosen Europe Queen of Beautiful Eyes and at 1951, our great pianist İdil Biret, performed her first piano recital in Paris, while she was only 10 years old. We will always carry them in a special place in our hearts.

HOPE; STILL SET ON FIRE...

Place: Germany

There is no need to make any comments... they are not first, they will not be the last...

Let's remember what happened at Solingen and Mölln from Human Rights Watch documents of 1995;

· Solingen, a city of 170,000 located near Cologne in the Western part of Germany, was the scene of horrifying violence and death in the early morning hours of May 29, 1993. Neighbors woke to terrified screams and saw flames racing through a house owned by the Genc family.64 They saw a young woman with a child in her arms silhouetted against the flames she was unsuccessfully trying to escape. There were "bone-chilling screams and then silence, just the noise of the flames."

Five people died. Four were sisters: Saime Genc, 5; Hulia Genc, 9; Hatice Genc, 18; Gulfun Ince, 27; the fifth, Gulistan Yuksel, was a 12-year-old visitor from Turkey. Eight others were injured in the fire, including two small children hospitalized in critical condition. Fourteen others inside the building barely escaped injury.

The Genc family had lived in Solingen for fifteen years. Their youngest children were born and had lived their whole lives in Germany.67 They owned their own home. Outside their house, fresh swastikas were painted on nearby buildings and scratched in the dirt.

· On November 23, 1992, two buildings housing Turkish families in Mölln, a town near Hamburg, were firebombed. Screams for help awakened the neighbors, who saw people jumping from the windows. Someone telephoned the Mölln fire department, announced the fire, shouted "Heil Hitler," and hung up. The firefighters could not get there in time to save the victims.

Three people were killed: Bahide Arslan, who died shielding a grandson from smoke; her 10-year-old granddaughter, Yeliz Arslan; and Ayse Yilmaz, a 14-year-old girl visiting from Turkey. Of the forty-five people in the buildings at the time, nine others, ranging in age from eighty-two years to nine months, were injured.

And let's turn to last week;

The Australian -Children were thrown from the upper floors and caught by fire fighters. "Unfortunately, we cannot exclude further victims," Eisenbarth said. Investigators were not immediately able to enter parts of the smouldering building because the structure, much of it made of wood, was in danger of collapsing. The cause of the fire, which started in the afternoon, was not clear and the victims had not yet been identified, Eisenbarth said. Police said 24 people - all Turkish citizens - were registered as living in the four-storey building, but more people had been in the house because of carnival celebrations. Police said the house's old wooden staircase swiftly collapsed after the fire broke out; and that, in some cases, residents threw their children to police officers before jumping out of the building themselves.

CNN - The carnival tradition stems from the Roman Catholic regions in the west and south of Germany. Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans and Carnival in Brazil, it is a time when residents dress up and take to the streets in celebration. The fire broke out about 4:23 p.m. (1523 GMT) on Sunday in a four-story apartment building, city police said in a statement. Its cause was unclear. Firefighters battled through the evening and into the night to bring the blaze under control. Two adjacent apartment buildings were evacuated as a safety precaution, the statement said. Fearing that there may be other victims, rescue crews brought in a large crane that lowered fire fighters into the shell of the building to conduct an initial check for additional bodies. Rescue crews have been unable to thoroughly search because the damage to the building was so severe that authorities think it may no longer be structurally sound.

Today their coffins were lined in front of the mourners from all religions and nationalities, representing the shame of humanity. Photos talk better than any words...

WHAT ARE YOU CELEBRATING?

Turkish people is already victim of PTSD which refers, to the psychological response that can result when a person is exposed to an overwhelming event or series events, that are in many cases both life threatening and catastrophic.

These events don't include only "war", "natural disasters", "rape" or "physical violence" defined in medical sources which intensify their researches either on their homecoming soldiers or individual examples of ordinary citizens in imperialist societies.

Turkish people are not lucky enough to experience only flashbacks or nightmares about the events they lived but they are made to live the same events again and again physically; meaning "layers over layers of PTSD". Their experiences may turn all the scientific foundings upside-down.

They don't easily get startled any more. They often say that they feel "empty" or "dead inside" but it lasts only seconds, at most hours or few days conterary to the thesis. They bury another layer of PTSD inside and stand up to fight again.

Today we are facing another severe trauma.

- In our complete helplessness we are watching 411 treator deputies passing the bill for headscarf from the Parliament founded by bloodshed, by our great War of Independence.

- Individually and genderly I feel myself/ we ourselves in immediate danger but don't feel completely frozen and unable to escape.

- I / many friends I am talking to are reporting that they lose track of time and space and their capacity to use language is compromised. Psychologists explain this as a result, the brain loses its ability to process conscious memory. But still "confusion" can't take our minds over and any attempt to recall the sequence of events.

- We have persistent thoughts or nightmares about the event (but don't surrender our minds).

- We have the sensation of emptiness or “being numb” but an increadable power fallow filling in our veins.

- We perceive the world and especially our country as a dangerous and unsafe place to live but also have a great urge to fight making it safe for our children and grandchildren...

- And yes, most of us also reports chronic anxiety, depression, chronic fatigue, insomnia or restless sleep, and poor concentration.

Can anybody help us? Did anybody ever helped us?

No...

Having "traumatic life experiences", "traumatic life experience periods" again and again; we very well know that it is, it can only be "us", "ourselves" who can cope this time too.

Defination of "trauma" may change. The "trauma" we are in and the "life thereatining danger" we are facing is; "putting the Turkish women's mind in ugly, dirty, dark pieces of cloths".

That young woman with headscarf on TV last night; you who said; "I am not secular!"; can't you think that you owe even having the freedom to make that announcement to this Republic and it's rules?

Why is it a sin to show your hair? Because your hair may draw "men's mind" to sin? It is not your but the "men's" problem, don't you aware where the sin, dirt lies, made it's place...

Do you think it will stop with closing your hair? Do you think they will not change all the articles of the Constitution one by one? Oh..Sheria is great for them, why should they they give the same share of your father's inheritence to you, they are "men" and Sheria says "men's" share should be more...

You may be used to your husband's infidelity untill now. But there is a better way, Sheria can show that way out of sin. Your husband may have wives up to 4 after you instead of mistresess. Honorable men, they will not sin any more with mistreses and great for you because you will not be an "unhonorable" woman who close her eyes to infidelity anymore...

You poor women who want to close your head, think it is your "religious must or freedom" today; you may be in a fake joy now, you may be so happy with the new passed law today. What a pitty, didn't they played with your mind so many times to prevent it thinking enlightment but put in the darkness of invisible cells. It is not surprizing to withness it once more...

Those who think closing your heads as freedom may be feeling great, while we, the majority are in sadness (also for you). That 90 year old lady who throw away the "traditional" scarf from her head on the podium and let her pure white hair to the wind should be an example with her words; "My forehead is clean, white. Let my life be sacrificied to this motherland!"

Think again; "what are you celebrating?"...

Opening yourselves to so many new traumas, period of loosing all your rights... this time hidden in a piece of cloth?

ALREADY DIVIDED, GET UP....

There is no more to say....

Turkiye is divided...

Not because of Kurdish issue etc... (in fact Aysel Tugluk made the best talk in Parliament)

Turkiye is divided because of political Islam from tonight and on...

Begining from tomarrow morning, every headscarf cloosing any woman's head means a flag of imperialims's sign of Green Crescedent for us...

And it is our duty to tear it off for women's real fredoom..

We will not surrender to fake religious oppressions...

WOMEN IT IS TIME TO STAND UP...

BİRŞEY YAPMALI...

TÜRKÇE ANLAMIYARSANIZ İNGİLİZCE SÖYLEYELİM...

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Preacherman, don't tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you don't know
What life is really worth.
It's not all that glitters is gold;
'Alf the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!
Stand up for your rights. Come on!

Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!
Get up, stand up: stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up: don't give up the fight!

Most people think,
Great God will come from the skies,
Take away everything
And make everybody feel high.
But if you know what life is worth,
You will look for yours on earth:
And now you see the light,
You stand up for your rights. Jah!

Get up, stand up! (Jah, Jah!)
Stand up for your rights! (Oh-hoo!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Don't give up the fight! (Life is your right!)
Get up, stand up! (So we can't give up the fight!)
Stand up for your rights! (Lord, Lord!)
Get up, stand up! (Keep on struggling on!)
Don't give up the fight! (Yeah!)

We sick an' tired of-a your ism-skism game -
Dyin' 'n' goin' to heaven in-a Jesus' name, Lord.
We know when we understand:
Almighty God is a living man.
You can fool some people sometimes,
But you can't fool all the people all the time.
So now we see the light (What you gonna do?),
We gonna stand up for our rights! (Yeah, yeah, yeah!)

So you better:
Get up, stand up! (In the morning! Git it up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Stand up for our rights!)
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight! (Don't give it up, don't give it up!)
Get up, stand up! (Get up, stand up!)
Stand up for your rights! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Don't give up the fight! (Get up, stand up!)
Get up, stand up! ( ... )
Stand up for your rights!
Get up, stand up!
Don't give up the fight!

STAY BACK DEATH

Stay Back Death

fire balls are falling from the sky
I am climbing up to hills with children I have embraced
the sea is boiling far down
green grasses under my bare feet
and fires I am trying to avoid...

“while walking alone with death he was seen
unafraid of her scythe...” says Machado of Lorca in his verses
“death, my beautiful gipsy, you are my death yesterday and today,
Oh! How eased I am when alone with you,
While inhaling the air of Granada
My Granada!”

together, arm in arm with death we walk for long
sometimes death even gets tired and gives the scythe on his hand to us
we are the ones deprived of fear, tired of travel
the ease of being alone with death is distant from us
life catches up from behind
trying to hold our flowing hair
the hills I am trying to climb, under the fireballs
the dark blue boiling up, ready to swallow
the children, the people on my lap
while I am inhaling the air of Anatolia
my Anatolia!
not very different from Lorca’s Granada
yet death, you are not beautiful, were not in yesterday, not in today
I cannot be alone with you, I cannot feel eased with you…

my hands are full
green grasses under my bare feet
and fireballs all over clashing souls
stay back death, didn’t Anatolia suffer enough from you....

1979

ON TURKISH WOMEN

Turkish Parliament is woting on headscarf ban in universities today. Though the main claim they are putting forward is the "freedom of education" for the headscarved females, defended closing their heads as their "freedom of belief"; we clearly aware of the agenda behind.

Turkiye is in another hard period, from economy to international politics and they are obsessed with our hair, heads (or is it what is in our minds)....

There is too much to think on, to remember, to analyze, to get in action etc that one get lost in the daily agenda. I frequently find myself remembering historical events, periods, characters and cant keep from comparing with the days we live in.

Lately I posted two calls to stop executions in two different countries immidiatelly, which are both about women (thanks to international public the execution in Afghanistan stopped today). Now, I want to turn into the labirenths of history a little and tell you the stories of two women from a century ago.

Let's close our eyes and imagine we are back in time... let's see how some events seem so similar to our day...

It was a time anti-Ottoman uprisings occurre in several fronts. Revolts backed by European colonials for the fall of Ottoman, as in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1875 triggered the Bulgarian uprising of 1876. The regular army was not paid for months and financially defunct Ottoman administration had to rely on irregulars (Başı bozuklar) to suppress the revolts. Irregulars suppressed the uprisings brutally, massacring thousands. In Europe, as if their countries didn't have any role in revolts, many dignitaries, including Charles Darwin, Oscar Wilde, Victor Hugo and Giuseppe Garibaldi publicly condemn the Ottoman abuses in Bulgaria. In the United Kingdom, the opposition leader, William Gladstone, wrote a booklet denouncing what he called "the Bulgarian Horrors," and calling upon Britain to withdraw its support for Ottoman.

Strongest reaction came from Russia. It was accompanied by sharp public discussions about Russian goals in this conflict: Slavophiles, led by Dostoevsky, saw in the impending war the chance to unite all Orthodox nations and fulfilling what they believed was the historic mission of Russia, while their opponents, westerners, led by Turgenev, denied the importance of religion and believed that Russian goals should not be defense of Orthodoxy but liberation of Bulgaria.

On December 11, 1876 a conference of the Great Powers opened in Istanbul to resolve the chrisis (which the Turks were not invited). Negotiations was granting autonomy to Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina under the joint control of European powers but Turks, found a way to discredit the conference by announcing on December 23, the day the conference was closed, that a constitution was adopted that declared equal rights for religious minorities within the empire.

On March 31, 1877 Russia persuaded the powers to sign the London Convention, demanding Ottoman to introduce the reforms which she already proposed herself. The powers were going to watch the operation of the reforms, and if they decide conditions remained unsatisfactory they reserved the right "to declare that such a state of things would be incompatible with their interests and those of Europe in general" (do't this remind you the EU countries support to terrorists and demands in the name of democracy from Turkiye of our day..). But Turks rejected the proposal on the grounds that it violated the Treaty of Paris.

At the end, on April 24, 1877, after nearly two years of futile negotiations, Russia declared war upon Ottoman Empire. Some legendery local wars fallowed one another. Many of the commanders under Russian Commander Nikolayevich were of Armenian descent (as generals Beybut Shelkovnikov, Mikhail Loris-Melikov, Ivan Lazarev and Arshak Ter-Ghukasov). Forces under Armenian Lieutenant-general Ter-Ghukasov, stationed near Yerevan, began their first assault into Ottoman territory by capturing the town of Bayazid on April 27. Victory in Bayazid, led Russian forces advanced further, taking the region of Ardahan on May 17; besieged the region of Kars in the final week of May.

It was hard times for the empire at all fronts in short...

There was a young Turkish woman, who born at 1857 in the city of Erzurum and grow up sending male family members to wars, waiting their returns singing laments behind them. Nobody, including herself knew she will become a legend in Turkish history yet.

Nene Hatun was a twenty year old woman with a three month old baby at the start of the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78 (which is known as the "The war of 93" / "93 Harbi" in Turkish). She was living in the Aziziye neighborhood of Erzurum, which was close to an important fortification defending the city.

In November 1877 Aziziye Fort was attacked and captured by the Russians (after a sneak attack led by a gang of Armenians) . That treacherous night between 7 and 8 November, a crowded gang moving from two Armenian villages in the vicinity, managed entering famous Aziziye bastion of Erzurum. A few Turkish soldiers defending the bastion were in deep sleep. After they put to sword, fallowing Russian forces placed themselves in Aziziye bastion without any resistance.

A wounded soldier reached Erzurum running, and gave the bad news. According to withnesses of the time, the minarets shouted "Russians entered Aziziye" instead of morning call-to-prayer: "Whole Erzurum heard the news at the same moment. And at the same time, all Erzurum flied into a passion. People having rifles took them, others took what they could find, like scythes, pickaxes, shovels, and sticks, and ran to the streets. All of Erzurum people, both women and men began to run toward Aziziye."

Nene Hatun was a newly married bride living in a humble house. Her brother Hasan was taken home being severely injured the day before, and passed away in the arms of this new bride a few hours ago. Her husband was on the front. Putting her baby to sleep, taking the meat cleaver, she joined the crowd of civilian volunteers who were mostly women running toward Aziziye madly.

Some sources writes; "A bloody and violent fight started in Aziziye. People who did not have any axes, scythes, or sticks, used their claws to throttle Russians. That army with artilleries and rifles, was totally defeated against such rush... The new bride was hitting her meat cleaver on the face and head of any Russian before her. She would never be able to end the pain of her martyred brother even if she killed a thousand Russians..."

"The new bride was among the wounded. She fell down in blood due to an injury she got during her fight with the meat cleaver in her hand. She was unconscious when they found her wounded, even then she did not let that bloody meat cleaver be taken... The name of this young bride was Nene. She got among the people known and respected by all Erzurumers after that day. "

Nene Hatun lived in Aziziye her entire ninty eight years life, and died there at the age of 98. She was named as "Mother of the Mothers" in 1955. Until her death, she was also known as the "Mother of the Third Army" because of her close ties with the military personnel in her region. In 1955, after being elected as the "mother of the year", she died on 22 May because of tuberculosis.

Her fight for the freedom of motherland which began that night went on actively till the end of Natiuonal Independence War. As an iconic Turkish heroine who established her reputation for bravery late in the Ottoman Age, Nene Hatun lived well into the 20th Century, and saw the new Turkish Republic successfully rise from the ashes of Ottoman. Nene Hatun (Kırkköz) earned pension from Serving to Motherland Order at 1953 of this day.

"She told about how Russians were killed in Aziziye to all Erzurumers during her life of ninety eight years. However, she told about herself with only a few words. She told to the NATO Chief Commander who visited her one year before her death that "I did what was necessary then. I would do the same if necessary now too", and stroke him with admiration.."

Certainly Nene Hatun was not the only Turkish woman who wrote their own legends. There were; Kara Fatma, Hatice Hatun, Halide Edib, Corporal Aliye, Tayyar Seher Hanım, Corporal Adile, Black Ayşe and many more we are not able to count.

But, Corporal Nezahet was a unique example between them.

She was only 9 years old when her father Colonal Hafız Halit Bey decided to unite the national resistance forces in Anatolia, with the 70th Battallion under his command. Istanbul was under invasion, her mother was already died and she had to accompany her father from front to front. Learned to fight and became a symbol between the soldiers.

She took part in many main clashes of the Independence war but named between the female heroes very late because of her early age. At the worst minutes of the clashes with Greeks at Gediz, while some of the soldiers even think to run away, Colonal Hafiz Halit Bey saw his little daughter standing on the way of the soldiers on a horse yelling; "I am going to die with my father, where are you going to!.."

This was more than the behavior of a child to help her father but a reminder to all the soldiers, which effected the end of the war at the west front. She recieved her rank "corporal" after this event. They sew her a soldier clothing to the little girl. She had interesting encounters with historical leaders as Inonu, Cerkez Ethem and even with Mustafa Kemal. It is said that, when Ataturk saw her and asked who she is, she replied as; "I am the castle, when the soldiers want to return the safety of their castle they have to find me."

After long discussions at January 30th 1921, Turkish National Assemby decided to honor this 13 year old with Independence Medal. Some deputies disagree giving such a medal to a child but several others told the events they withnessed and how she named by soldriers as "Turkish Jean D'Arch". Bolu Deputy Tunalı Hilmi Bey defended that even the medal was not enough but she should be ranked as "general" too. But though the desicion passed she could never recieve her medal.

The Independence War (1919-1922) marked a turning point for the Turkish women; "Large numbers of women left their homes and made their appearance in public, both as active participants in the war--as nurses, carriers of ammunition, and less commonly, as soldiers--and as replacement workers in the positions vacated by men who had been drafted. The war significantly influenced both the terms in which women's rights were negotiated during the first decade of the republic and the internalization of these terms by many women. When proposing legal reforms concerning women, Ataturk countered the resistance put forth by the conservative constituency in the Parliament by citing the heroic role women had played in the war. For those women, too, who were active public figures during the period, women's contribution to the war became the primary grounds on which they claimed equal worth as citizens. Nezihe Muhiddin, the president of the Women's Association , wrote in her 1931 autobiography.

Turkish woman who proved her self, identity could not be separated from the men in anyway, achieved her share of the work in the battle and the victory. The educated and peasant worked in the same field; one delivered lectures with her mastery of the language, while the other carried ammunition to the front, organized military attacs with their gangs.

Kara Fatmas and their gangs were carrying out operations for independence against the British, Armenian, French, Italian and Greek soldiers (well-known for killing and raping young girls), while another woman, spy author, acheologist, whatever of colonialists was working hard to divide the lands of Ottoman and creating new countries on maps; Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1917.

Bell earned the nickname, "the Uncrowned Queen of Iraq." Working with the new king was, however, not easy: "You may rely upon one thing — I'll never engage in creating kings again; it's too great a strain.". On July 12, 1926, Bell was discovered dead, committed suicide with an overdose of sleeping pills.

An excerpt from Bell's letters also shows us the similarities of the super powers' conspiracies on these lands in time line, it writes: "March 14, 1920: It's a problem here how to get into touch with the Shiahs, not the tribal people in the country; we're on intimate terms with all of them, but the grimly devout citizens of the holy towns and more especially the leaders of religious opinion, the Mujtahids, who can loose and bind with a word by authority which rests on an intimate acquaintance with accumulated knowledge entirely irrelevant to human affairs and worthless in any branch of human activity. There they sit in an atmosphere which reeks of antiquity and is so thick with the dust of ages that you can't see through it -- nor can they. And for the most part they are very hostile to us, a feeling we can't alter…There's a group of these worthies in Kadhimain, the holy city, 8 miles from Baghdad, bitterly pan-Islamic, anti-British…Chief among them are a family called Sadr, possibly more distinguished for religious learning than any other family in the whole Shiah world….I went yesterday [to visit them] accompanied by an advanced Shiah of Baghdad whom I knew well."

Well, let's open our eyes and look around...

Though not possible to compare with Bell, Condi Rice is succesfully performing the plans of the Super Power. The condition of the countries and their people created by Gertrude Bell and friends (drawing the borders on maps) are crystal clear. Shiahs, tribes, Mujahids and even the family called Sadr are still there and worse.

Why they are interesting us, we are not Ottoman Empire any more? We share history and borders, and important than all; we regard women, human rights above all. Middle East and near Asia is a blood dam enlarging day by day. We cant say "lake" but a "dam" because lakes are natural geographic structures while dams are artificial constructions made by human hand.

Unfortunately, that bloody hands and others infected by thoose bloody hands are now trying to reach us. Or should I say "our heads" because they were always between us invisibaly. Most probably, the treacherous deputies of AKP will pass the law about "headscarf ban" from the Parliament in a few hours. We will see the results alltogether.

What a pity for my country but there is still hope. There is still hope because we inherited endless hopes from Nene Hatuns, Corporate Nezahets and nameless thousands buried in these lands (non of them with any medals).

I recieved a comment to my post about Kubilay's massacre, from a reader of my blog asking me; "My brother, how will the Republic help you after you die?" I think this is just the appropriate time/ place to reply;

First of all, thank you asking this question brother. Before any reply, I should make it clear that I am not a "brother" but a "sister". I am very proud of being a female. I am aware of all kind of strenght, power and determination creator and nature gave to women (please dont confuse, I have nothing to do with feminism).

And you ask; "How will the Republic help me after I die?" I will not need any kind of help from any kind of being or concept of meterial world after I die. But as long as I live, I will serve "republic" and "secularism". Republic will see my/ our death but I/ we will not see the death of SECULAR REPUBLIC.

Remember the characteristic of women as "life giver and life takers". Outer and inner forces backed by super powers tested the women of this country all along the history. Not only during the wars but also in times of military juntas, lack of democracy women proved their strengsth and determination several times, under bullets and bombs or surviving tortures and jails.

Headscarved or not the women of these lands has enough intelligence to hug their democracy despite the efforts of radical Islamist pupets and imperialist super powers who pull their strings as they wish, which has nothing to do with real Islam and Kuran.

Karl Marx said; "History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce". Let's watch but don't die laughing.

STOP THE EXECUTION OF SAYED PERVAZ

Save an unfairly condemned life in Afghanistan....

Sayed Pervez Kambaksh...
He is a 23 university student living in Afghanistan.
His crime: Downloading a report on women's rights from the internet, and passing this report around to his friends.
His punishment: Death penalty, recently approved by court.
And so now, Kambas is waiting to be executed.

And we are protesting this situation. The whole world is rising up to join together and try to rescue Afghanistan from the archane Taliban regime. We have sent soldiers. In fact, Turkish generals have twice been in charge of defending Kabul.

The reason for Turkish military presence in Afghanistan is to support the United Nations and NATO calls to bring modern democracy into the nation to replace the Taliban regime. This is why Karzai became president of Afghanistan. In fact, even former Turkish Foreign Minister Hikmet Cetin served as NATO special representative there. But what events like this show is that the Taliban still maintains power here. Girls still can't go to school.


Women can't go out without burkas. And now, we see that a 23 year old student has been condemned to death for downloading a report on women's rights from the internet. It is difficult to comprehend. It is reminiscent of the "witch hunts" from the Middle Ages. And this is the point at which we raise our voices in protest. If defending women's rights brings about the death penalty in Afghanistan, then what are our soldiers doing there? And what are the United Nations and NATO doing there? The first newspaper to start up a campaign to rescue this 23 year old student was started by the British Independent newspaper. And we are joining in.

If we are able to stop this execution from occuring, we will have prevented a giant crime against humanity. If you would like to play a small role in this, please click on either the Turkish or English text below. The signed text will go to the Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry, the Turkish military's General Staff headquarters, and the United Nations. So, saving a life is only one "click" away.....

http://proje.hurriyet.com.tr/mailgonder/afganistanen.aspx

STOP STONING TO DEATH OF ZOHREH AND AZAR

There is much more I want to share about trauma, torture and all related issues. While I was writing my previous post, my main aim was coming to the point of sharing thoughts on the "real trauma" women are facing daily and incredibly in general and especially in Muslim societies.

Now, there is a very common example we all have to act immidiately. Please get in action and spread...

04/02/2008: The Women Living Under Muslim Laws international solidarity network, and the Global Campaign Stop Killing and Stoning Women! urges all concerned citizens to immediately contact the Iranian officials by phone and/or fax to request them to stop the scheduled stoning to death of Zohreh and Azar Kabiri in Iran.

Zohreh and Azar are two sisters from Khademabad, near Karaj, Iran. Both were arrested on February 5, 2007 due to allegations of adultery given by Sohreh’s husband. One month later, they were prosecuted in court, found guilty, and sentenced to 99 lashes. This sentence was executed but however, due to reasons unknown, both were returned to prison. Six months later, another prosecution took place for the same crime. This time, they were sentenced to death by stoning. The Supreme Court of Iran has confirmed this verdict.

Both Zohreh Kabiri, 27 years old and Azar Kabiri, 28 years old, have been sentenced to stoning for adultery. Their sentence is awaiting execution.

At their first trial, conducted in the absence of a defence attorney, the Judge interrogated the two sisters and unlawfully obtained a dubious confession for adultery. The women have reported that questions asked of them were manipulative and ambiguous and they had no idea as to the full consequences of their responses. The Judge then used these illegal confession and statements, along with his ‘instinct’ or ‘knowledge’ in order to justify a sentence of stoning for the defendants.

Mr. Jabar Solati is currently representing the two sisters and hopes to save their lives. He is trying to stop these two sisters’ stoning verdict based on the fact that there was only one accused crime and that its sentence has already been executed.

WHAT YOU CAN DO

We urge you to immediately contact the Iranian authorities and the embassies of Iran in your home country, via telephone and fax.

Sample Letter

Your Excellency,

I/we urge you to immediately cancel the execution of Zohreh and Azar Kabiri, two sisters from Khademabad, Iran who have been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery, in the name of Islam. We are concerned that such an unacceptable and inhumane punishment is being applied to women who have already had the sentence of 99 lashes imposed and executed and have been denied a fair and transparent trial.

I am / we are gravely concerned that Zohreh and Azar have been sentenced to death for adultery. In Iran, women are punished more harshly than men for having committed adultery; this however directly contravenes article 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides that “[a]ll persons are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to the equal protection of the law.” In a speech delivered on 21 June, 2006 President Ahmadinejad stated that “the country should be built upon the basis of justice, kindness, serving the people, progress and lofty goals.” If Zohreh and Azar are executed, although punishment has already been carried out, then justice will certainly not have been served.

Furthermore, as a state party to the ICCPR, Iran has made an explicit and unreserved commitment under article 6(2) that if the death sentence is imposed it is to be “only for the most serious crimes.” The UN Human Rights Committee (in the case of Toonen v Australia) has made it clear that treating adultery and fornication as criminal offences does not comply with international human rights standards. Therefore the sentence of execution by stoning imposed on Zohreh and Azar Kabari breaches Iran’s commitments under the ICCPR.

We request that you stop the planned executions and take immediate action to remove death by stoning from the legal system.

Yours sincerely,

____________

The Supreme Leader: Ayatollah Khamenei
Tel: +98 21 64412020
Fax: +98 251 7774 2228
His Excellency Ayatollah Sayed 'Ali Khamenei, The Office of the Supreme Leader
Shoahada Street, Qom, Islamic Republic of Iran
Email: info@leader.ir / istiftaa@wilayah.org / webmaster@wilayah.org
Salutation: Your Excellency

BACKGROUND

Fight to Stop Stoning Sentence of Two Sisters

Zohreh and Azar are two young sisters from Khademabad, near Karaj, Iran. Both were arrested on February 5, 2007 due to allegations of adultery given by Sohreh’s husband. One month later, they were prosecuted in court, found guilty, and sentenced to 99 lashes. However, due to reasons unknown, both were returned to prison. Six months later, another prosecution took place for the same crime. This time, they were sentenced to death by stoning. The Supreme Court of Iran has confirmed this verdict.

Both Zohreh Kabiri, 27 years old and Azar Kabiri, 28 years old, have been sentenced to stoning for adultery. Their sentence is awaiting execution. On a snowy day last month, attorney Jabar Solati met with the two women and became their counsel in the hopes of saving their lives from stoning. The attorney’s effort not only excited the two clients, but their fellow inmates as well.

Jabar Solati accepted to be these women’s lawyer because, as he says, he has strong hope to save their lives.

Jabar Solati signed on to the case at a time when his clients’ verdicts were confirmed by the Supreme Court and were sent to the department for executions. With help from prison authorities, Mr.Solaty discovered that grave inaccuracies and mistakes in his clients’ files. Mr. Solati has asked for more time to explain the matter to the prosecutor, and requested approval from the prosecutor’s first deputy to temporarily stop the executions.

According to Mr. Solati’s statements, the stoning sentences resulted from allegations by Zohreh’s husband and a document that he had submitted to the court. The primary piece of evidence consisted of video footage that was taken by a secret camera hidden in an air duct.

The initial verdict given by Branch 128 court in Karaj on 16th of March 2007 sentenced the women to 99 lashes. This verdict was confirmed and later executed.

But for unknown reasons, the two women were kept in prison detention and in less than six months, were issued to court for a second time.

In face, the second court tried the two sisters for a crime for which they were already prosecuted. Their previous sentence of 99 lashes has also already been carried out. Double-jeopardy is illegal in Iran. Despite this, however, the two women were sentenced to stoning on the 5th of August 2007 for the crime of adultery. Mr. Solati is protesting this verdict and sentence. According to him, the verdict of the initial court is absolute and has been executed, therefore the verdict of the second court, according to law, is not acceptable.

Mr Solati is also protesting the fact that he first trial was held without a defense attorney present. In that session the two women were charged and convicted without being issued a lawyer for their defense.

In the absence of a defense attorney, the Judge interrogated the two sisters and unlawfully obtained a dubious confession for adultery. The women have reported that questions asked of them were manipulative and ambiguous. They had no idea as to the full consequences of their responses.

The Judge used these illegal confession and statements, along with his ‘instinct’ or ‘knowledge’ in order to justify a sentence of stoning for each defendant.

The trial’s second session occurred with a defense lawyer present. Unfortunately, this particular lawyer did not protest the unlawful confession of the first session and did not defend his clients properly.

Mr. Solati is currently representing the two sisters and hopes to save their lives. He is trying to stop these two sisters’ stoning verdict based on the fact that there was only one accused crime and that its sentence has already been executed.

According to his statement, if there were indeed two crimes committed, there must be two separate trials with two separate indictments and processes.

According to Mr. Solati, the judge of the second trial did not notice the mistake in the case examination process. Mr.Solati is optimistic that the stoning sentence will be halted completely once the persecutor acknowledges these facts.

Zohreh and Azar are both mothers; each has one child.

According to Mehr news agency, Alireza Jamshidi, the Judiciary system spokesman, during his weekly press conference on the 15th of January 2008, gave the following statement concerning the stoning verdicts in Iran: “It is unfortunately that these unreal and tendentious reports were given to the UN and human rights organizations. They are absolutely false.”

Main resource in Farsi: http://www.iran-emrooz.net/index.php?/news1/15323/ and: http://www.meydaan.org/Showarticle.aspx?arid=453

LET'S REMEMBER; TRAUMA, TORTURE...

What is trauma?

There are two types of trauma — physical and mental. Physical trauma includes the body’s response to serious injury and threat. Mental trauma includes frightening thoughts and painful feelings. They are the mind’s response to serious injury. Mental trauma can produce strong feelings. It can also produce extreme behavior; such as intense fear or helplessness, withdrawal or detachment, lack of Concentration, irritability, sleep disturbance, aggression, hyper vigilance (intensely watching for more distressing events), or flashbacks (sense that event is reoccurring).

A response could be fear. It could be fear that a loved one will be hurt or killed. It is believed that more direct exposures to traumatic events causes greater harm...
However, second-hand exposure to violence can also be traumatic. This includes witnessing violence such as seeing or hearing about death and destruction after a building is bombed or a plane crashes.

Traumatic response in different people

There is no clear answer to this question, but it is likely that one or more of these factors are involved:

the severity of the event
the individual's personal history (which may not even be recalled)
the larger meaning the event represents for the individual (which may not be immediately evident)
coping skills, values and beliefs held by the individual (some of which may have never been identified)
the reactions and support from family, friends, and/or professionals

Anyone can become traumatized. Even professionals who work with trauma, or other people close to a traumatized person, can develop symptoms of "vicarious" or "secondary" traUmatization. Developing symptoms is never a sign of weakness. Symptoms should be taken seriously and steps should be taken to heal, just as one would take action to heal from a physical ailment. And just as with a physical
condition, the amount of time or assistance needed to recover from emotional trauma will vary from one person to another.

Symptoms of emotional trauma

There are common effects or conditions that may occur following a traumatic event. Sometimes these responses can be delayed, for months or even years after the event. Often people do not initially associate their symptoms with the precipitating trauma. The following are symptoms that may result from a more commonplace, unresolved trauma, especially if there were earlier, overwhelming life experiences:

Possible effects of emotional trauma

Even when unrecognized, emotional trauma can create lasting difficulties in an individual's life. One way to determine whether an emotional or psychological trauma has occurred, perhaps even early in life before language or conscious awareness were in place, is to look at the kinds of recurring problems one

might be experiencing. These can serve as clues to an earlier situation that caused a dysregulation in the structure or function of the brain.

Common personal and behavioral effects of emotional trauma:

substance abuse
compulsive behavior patterns
self-destructive and impulsive behavior
uncontrollable reactive thoughts
inability to make healthy professional or lifestyle choices
dissociative symptoms ("splitting off" parts of the self)
feelings of ineffectiveness, shame, despair, hopelessness
feeling permanently damaged
a loss of previously sustained beliefs
Common effects of emotional trauma on interpersonal relationships:
inability to maintain close relationships or choose appropriate friends and mates
sexual problems
hostility
arguments with family members, employers or co-workers
social withdrawal
feeling constantly threatened

What if symptoms don't go away, or appear at a later time?

Over time, even without professional treatment, symptoms of an emotional trauma generally subside, and normal daily functioning gradually returns. However, even after time has passed, sometimes the symptoms don't go away. Or they may appear to be gone, but surface again in another stressful situation. When a person's daily life functioning or life choices continue to be affected, a post-traumatic stress disorder may be the problem, requiring professional assistance.

Torture in modern society

Torture is widely practiced worldwide: Amnesty International received reports of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in more than 150 countries during the four year period from 1997 to 2000. These accusations concerned acts against political prisoners in 70 countries and other prisoners and detainees in more than 130 countries. State torture has been extensivEly documented and studied, often as part of efforts at collective memory and reconciliation in societies that have experienced a change in government.

Surveys of torture survivors reveal that torture "is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information ... Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity." When applied indiscriminately, torture is used as a tool of repression and deterrence against dissent and community empowerment.

The effects of torture are complex. While wounds, bruises and broken bones heal over time, the deeper psychological trauma often last for a lifetime. Anxiety, depression, insomnia, nightmares, memory difficulties, social withdrawal, irritability, feelings of helplessness, affective numbing, flashbacks, shame, mistrust, ruminations, unexplained pain, the feeling of being permanently injured and changed, many medical complaints, and digestive and sexual difficulties, are some of the most common symptoms. All these, especially the feeling of being permanently changed, are part of the contemporary torturer's objective: to destroy the victim's humanity through a systematic infliction of severe pain and extreme
psychological humiliation.

Survivors of torture frequently have difficulties in trusting themselves and others and in building relationships. A number of therapists hold that disempowerment and disconnection from others are the core experiences of the psychological trauma of torture, which are expressed through depression, fear, feelings of isolation and powerlessness. Thus torture affects not only the individual, but the family and the entire community.

Amnesty International's medical groups discovered three things after collecting and analyzing the findings of twenty-five years of work with survivors of torture:
1. Torture continued to persecute the survivors many years later with its physical and mental sequelae.
2. In modern times it is not aimed primarily at the extraction of information, as commonly portrayed in films. Its real aim is to break down the victim's personality and identity.
3. Torture is aimed at strong personalities, people who have stood up against repressive regimes.

Breaking down these persons effectively cows the rest of the community into silence.

The process of torture is designed to invade and destroy the belief of the subjects in their independence as a human being, to destroy presumptions of privacy, intimacy, and inviolability assumed by the subjects, and to destroy their unspoken trust that these things (or indeed society as a whole) cares, or can save them. Beyond merely invading the subjects' mental, physical independence on a one-to-one
level, such acts can be made more damaging via public humiliation, incessant repetition, depersonalization, and sadistic glee, and, on occasion, their opposites, false public praise, insidious pandering, false personalization, and masochistic manipulation.

Beatrice M. Patsalides, Ph.D describes this process in "Ethics of the unspeakable: Torture survivors in psychoanalytic treatment":[1]

"As the gap between the 'I' and the 'me' deepens, dissociation and alienation increase. The subject that, under torture, was forced into the position of pure object has lost his or her sense of interiority, intimacy, and privacy. Time is experienced now, in the present only, and perspective - that which allows for a
sense of relativity - is foreclosed. Thoughts and dreams attack the mind and invade the body as if the protective skin that normally contains our thoughts, gives us space to breathe in between the thought and the thing being thought about, and separates between inside and outside, past and present, me and you, was lost."

Post-torture psychological effects of torture

Torture subjects often suffer from a post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their strong feelings of hate, rage, terror, guilt, shame, and sorrow are also typical of subjects of mobbing, childhood abuse, domestic violence, domestic vice, rape and incest. They feel anxious because the perpetrator's behavior is seemingly arbitrary and unpredictable—or mechanically and inhumanly regular.

Inevitably, in the aftermath of torture, its subjects feel helpless and powerless. This loss of control over one's life and body is manifested physically in impotence, attention deficits, and insomnia. This is often exacerbated by the disbelief many torture subjects encounter, especially if they are unable to produce scars, or other "objective" proof of their ordeal. Language cannot communicate such an intensely private experience as pain.

Interpersonal effects

Subjects typically oscillate between emotional numbing and highly sensitive arousal: insomnia, irritability, restlessness, and attention deficits. Recollections of the traumatic events intrude in the form of dreams, night terrors, flashbacks, and distressing associations.

Long-term coping mechanisms include the development of compulsive rituals to fend off obsessive thoughts. Other psychological consequences include cognitive impairment, reduced capacity to learn, memory disorders, sexual dysfunction, social withdrawal, inability to maintain long-term relationships, or even mere intimacy, phobias, ideas of reference and superstitions, delusions, hallucinations, psychotic
microepisodes, and flat affect.

Depression and anxiety are very common. These are forms and manifestations of self-directed aggression. The sufferer rages at their own suffering and resulting multiple dysfunction. They feel shamed by their new disabilities and responsible, or even guilty, somehow, for their predicament and the dire consequences borne by their nearest and dearest. Their sense of self-worth and self-esteem are crippled.

Women: The Forgotten Majority

Of the 23 million refugees around the world today, the majority are women and girls ... a forgotten majority who constitute more than three-quarters of the world's refugee population. Of these a large number will have experienced torture, or will have family and friends who have been tortured or killed.

Women who are tortured because of their political activities often suffer special degradations at the hands of their male torturers. They may also be persecuted by authorities in order to gain information about relatives' activities. Often women suffer inhumane treatment by authorities in order to 'get at' their family, since violence against women can humiliate men who have been brought up to see their role as that of protecting women in the family.

Many children have witnessed the torture, rape, or even killing of family members. The burden of their emotional support falls on women. Men also need their wives for support in dealing with their memories of torture and trauma. Many women who have suffered rape also have to carry the burden of shame felt by their husbands since their ordeals.

Adolescents and Torture

Adolescents are targeted in oppressive regimes throughout the world. Adolescents are often coerced into combat roles by such regimes and forced to engage in warfare. In the best-case scenario, adolescence is a time of excitement, learning, and taking on new challenges. In the worst-case scenario, adolescence is a time of learning also, but learning abot violence, oppression, and murder.

Not all adolescents are impacted directly by torture or other oppressive measures. Some are affected through such traumas as the loss of family members, generalized social violence, and warfare. Direct and indirect exposure to torture can have lasting and devastating effects and without recognition, the future can be extremely bleak.

For many adolescents who have been exposed to torture there is a gap between their age and level of maturity and their academic knowledge and skills. Consequently, many youth who have lived through violent and oppressive regimes are older than their years.

After-Effects of Torture

Psychological symptoms of torture frequently include anxiety, depression, irritability, paranoia, guilt, suspiciousness, sexual dysfunction, loss of concentration, confusion, insomnia, nightmares, impaired memory, and memory loss.

Survivors of torture are often unwilling to disclose information about their experiences. They may be suspicious, frightened, or anxious to forget about what has happened. These feelings may discourage them from seeking the help they need.

Treatment for both physical and psychological after-effects requires a great deal of sensitivity on the part of healthcare professionals. For example, it is important to remember that those seeking psychiatric help are healthy people who have been systematically subjected to treatment intended to destroy their personalities, their sense of identity, their confidence, and their ability to function socially.

http://www.ccvt.org/about_torture.html

http://www.irct.org/

http://physiciansforhumanrights.org/

SCARFING UP ICONS, SYMBOLS

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan fires the opening shot during his visit to Spain for a solution to Turkey's longtime dilemma: The "headscarf issue".

He says the issue, even if the headscarf is emblematic of a certain political ideology, will be solved as soon as possible. So, one wonders if the headscarf genuinely represents a political symbol. A heated debate has already been brewing for many years. But there is another question. Do any other political symbols exist in Turkey? If so, then, what are their origins

ENİS TAYMAN - H.HÜSEYİN TAHMAZ
ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

A man in dark sunglasses was chanting in a strong, deep voice on stage. Packed into the huge stadium, thousands holding their left fists in the air were adding their voices to the chorus of the following folk song sung spontaneously by the artist on stage: They found him lying on the ground, just lying dead in his parka. It was those criminal shootings that left him there with a bullet-riddled parka.

This was a scene in the early 1970s. The artist with the baritone voice was the late Cem Karaca, a sui generis figure, who left an indelible mark on the history of rock music in Turkey. The green parka he symbolically borrowed from Deniz Gezmiş, a prominent Marxist-Leninist activist and one of the founders of the Turkish revolutionary movement of the late 1960s, had already become one of the permanent political emblems of Turkish leftists.

The same period also witnessed the birth of another symbol of people with a distinct political proclivity. Shaped in the form of a crescent, the moustaches of Turkish
ultra-nationalists began curving around either side of the mouth toward the chin.

A couple of decades have passed, and that era has in a way come to an end. However, it was only recently that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while visiting Spain, said, "We will try to solve the headscarf issue within the framework of individual freedoms. They call it a political symbol. Even if it were a political symbol, does that give them the right to ban it?" This paved the way for a serious
discussion about ideological symbols. However, Turkey, despite having many segments in its society, has not yet developed a clear approach to how to side in that discussion. This derives mostly from the fact that while symbols define a certain segment or segments of society, they might also serve as a turnsole that is manipulated to label the very same groups. Given that fact, individual symbols or emblems are sometimes attributed with so many meanings that they further instigate
social hysteria.

Leftists' symbols

Parka-boots-scarf

The green parka was etched in people's memories thanks to Karaca's unforgettable song. Accompanying two accessories, boots and a red scarf, the green parka was a sine qua non. Indeed communist boots were primarily accessories worn by those who would be the vanguard of a guerilla war; that would start either in the countryside or in the cities. The scarf, on the other hand, acquired symbolic meaning thanks to verses of a poem by Nazım Hikmet, the grand Turkish poet. Hikmet said, "He is walking with his forehead up in the air / He is walking step by step, with his red scarf waving in the air."

Thick moustache

There is no concrete information about why leftists in Turkey wear thick moustaches. Is it because Marx and Engels or Stalin used to have thick moustaches? Some say the Alevi faith had something to do with this political fashion statement.

Peace Symbol

Recognized around the globe, the peace symbol appeared 50 years ago. It was created by Gerald Holton, a textile designer and commercial artist from Twickenham, England in the spring of 1958 when a group of peace activists in Great Britain organized a rally against the use of nuclear weapons. Holton created the symbol by combining the letters N and D, for nuclear disarmament.

V for victory

Though the exact birth date of this gesture is not known, the hand gesture in the sign of a "V" might have been made popular by former U.K. Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill. Churchill used the V sign to symbolize "V for victory" during World War II. However, later on, the sign, ironically, began to symbolize the desire for attaining victory rather than victory itself. In Turkey, V for victory was for a time identified mostly with rallies and demonstrations, but above all, with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Left and right fists

The conventional symbol of leftist ideology around the globe for a long time was a right fist in the air with a slightly bent elbow. Big guns in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union always raised their right fists when greeting the masses gathering in squares. However, the '68 Movement, reacting against the mainstream communist parties as much as it was resisting the global capitalist system, chose for itself the left fist as a political symbol. In Turkey, while pro-Soviet and pro-China leftist groups raise the right fist in protests, other leftists groups use the left fist.

A for anarchy

The initial use of the anarchy sign was during the civil war in Spain in the 1930s, historical documents tell us. According to other historical records, an anarchist group that emerged in Brussels in 1956 began using the sign to express their political discourse. In Turkey, however, the "A for anarchy" sign, symbolizing the anti-stance of anarchists against the hegemonic system, private property, class difference and certainly the state, has recently been popularized again by fan groups of the well-known football club Beşiktaş.

Nationalist symbols:

Full-grown mustache with down-turned ends

The roots of Turkish right wing nationalists' full-grown mustache, the one that turns down at the ends, date back to times when Turks lived in Central Asia. It is said that clans of Turkic origins used to grow their mustache in that style. This type of mustache is also the subject of myriad myths. For instance, it was believed that the owner of a mustache with ends pointing beneath the chin would later become the "tribal leader." In addition, Turkish nationalists' full-grown mustache with down-turned ends at the corners of the mouth, together with the two eyebrows, make "three crescents" which is emblematic of nationalist ideology in Turkey.

Gray wolf sign

The "gray wolf" sign, a hand sign symbolizing the head of a wolf, is an attribution by Turkish nationalists to a Central Asian myth about a gray wolf. In fact, the sign was not originally created by nationalists in Turkey. Entry of the gray wolf sign into Turkey took place in 1991 when Alparslan Türkeş, the late leader of the Nationalist Movement Party MHP) of Turkey, attended a rally in Azerbaijan's capital
Baku. Masses gathered in Baku greeted him with the gray wolf sign and it was from then on that nationalists and ultra-nationalists in Turkey began to make that hand gesture.

String of beads

Turkish nationalists have lately begun resembling a stereotype. And metallic bead strands have become one of the symbols of that stereotype. But the wealthier among them are fond of silver beads. It is said that nationalists, in particular, enjoy sliding the strands between their fingers.

Long coat

Some argue that a dark long coat can substitute an Islamic cloak. Here the reference is mostly to a particular behavior by supporters of the nationalist movement in Turkey who wear such coats. Thus some even argue that this type of coat is a product of Turk-Islam synthesis. Whether it is or not, the long coats are almost the trademark of Turkish ultra-nationalists.

Islamists' symbols

Greetings with index finger

Greeting people by pointing an index finger up in air was an emblem of the Nationalist Order Party (MNP), a conservative party no longer in existence but which was active in Turkey's past political life. The use of the index finger when greeting a crowd in fact traces back to the early days of Islam. When Prophet Mohammed completed delivering his "Final Khutba"(final speech to all Muslims in 632 A.D., he asked all believers who gathered to listen to him to give their blessings to him. They then said they all gave their blessings to him. Then, Prophet Mohammed pointed his index finger up into air and asked for God's testimony.

Beard

Indeed wearing a neat and trimmed beard is a "Sunnah" literally meaning "trodden path" that represents the way Prophet Mohammed lived) in Islam. The mustache, on the other hand, should not cover the upper lip, according to Sunnah.

Takke (Coif)

The etymologic roots of the word takke, or prayer caps, in Turkish trace back to the Arabic word for the verb "protect". White takkes are preferred by Muslims. Coifs and
their equivalents were used even before Islam.

Green cloak (Jilbab)

According to information provided on various Internet sites about Islam, the descendents of Prophet Mohammed's daughter Fatima used to wear a green cloak and green turban, called "Sayyid" (for males) or "Sayyidah"(for females). In contemporary Turkey, green cloaks are mostly preferred by Menzil and İsmailağa groups of the Nakşibendi order of Sunni Islam.

99-bead tasbih

Though generally the Nakşibendi order uses the 99-bead tasbih (string of prayer beads or rosary), other devout Muslims also use such tasbihs. On top of praying five times a day, many Muslims always have their tasbih in hand, similar to the Catholic rosary, but with 99 beads, corresponding to the 99 attributes the Koran gives to God: The "Compassionate," the "Merciful"... or to the 99 times the Koran mentions the name "Allah."

Clogs

It was said when Turgut Özal, a former prime minister of Turkey, was a civil servant in the State Planning Organization, the corridors of the institution were echoing
with the sound of steps taken by those wearing clogs before taking ablution for prayer. Later on, Islamic sect members trickling into the state's secular institutions were called "the ones with the clogs" which was an attribution to those
whose footsteps had resonated in the hallways of public institutions.

Çarşaf (Hijab)

In Turkey, some female members of some Islamic orders wear a large black cloth over their heads and bodies called çarşaf or hijab in Arabic. Similar to the use of prayer beads, women who are not members of particular Islamic sects also wear çarşaf
or hijab.

Headscarf

The latest dilemma in Turkey… Some say it is a political symbol while others say it is worn in compliance with religious beliefs. While the headscarf is described as the "latest fashion symbol" in Turkey, Erdoğan recently said even if headscarf were a political symbol, it does not give anyone any right to ban it. In present day Turkey, many women wear the headscarf employing different styles and degrees of covering.

Kurds' symbols

Green-yellow-red tricolor scarf and other items

Kurds' use of the colors green, yellow and red in a scarf or any other item date back to the Legend of Kawa the Blacksmith, a Kurdish myth that tells the story of Kaveh, written as Kawa in Kurdish. According to the myth, Kawa, who lived for 2,500
years under the tyranny of Zuhak or Dehak, an Assyrian figure, was waving his green, yellow and red leather apron during a rebellion he started and went on to win freedom against the tyrant. The three colors used together are the colors representing Kurdish nationalism.

Puşi-Poşu (Poshu)

Puşi or poşu (pronounced as poshu), the traditional Palestinian scarf or the Arabic head-dress kafiyyah, is also worn by many Kurds. Poşu, which means "to cover" is etymologically a Persian word. Poşu making has been a traditional handicraft among Armenians and Assyrians since the 16th century. Today, poşu is widely used by Kurds as well as by some other Middle East peoples. Poşu is most notably the Palestinian scarf and represents Arabic culture.

Secularists' symbol Atatürk pins

The image of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Turkish Republic, has always been used, and even sometimes manipulated, as an emblem by pro-Western and modernist segments. Nevertheless, the symbolism of Atatürk is still used by secularists against Islamists.

Symbols feed sense of belonging and identity

Professor Sibel Kalaycıoğlu, Sociology Department, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara

Symbols, ceremonies and rituals cannot be separated from social life. Rituals are what make a society an integrated sum of different segments. Ceremonies like weddings and funerals are special gatherings in which a set of certain symbolic patterns of behavior and rituals are observed. Such symbols and rituals as a whole function to compel individuals to be more involved with the rest of society and increase their adaptability to it through not allowing them to become just atomized persons. Thus, symbols, rituals, and ceremonies as a whole contribute to the survival of a social order. As a matter of fact, symbols are a source of acquiring a sense of belonging to a certain community or a society. They not only serve as transmitters of traditions for subsequent generations but also function as bridges between the past and present of a society. In that sense, symbols are slow to change and they even might create distinct social identities in society. Symbols do not only exist visually but also are expressed in ways of thinking and behaving. In this way, they shape the minutiae of daily life, and might even create further differences on a local level, that is to say, within small communities like neighborhoods.

http://www.turkishdailynews.com.tr/article.php?enewsid=95279

UNIVERSITIES AGAINST HEADSCARF

Turkish university heads warn against lifting headscarf ban.

Turkey’s parliament is expected debate the proposed changes to the constitution to allow the headscarf ban to be lifted some time next week.

ANKARA - Turkey will become a religious state if a ban on allowing women to wear the traditional Islamic headscarf while attending higher education courses is lifted, according to representatives of the country’s universities.

A statement issued after an extraordinary meeting of the Interuniversity Board in Ankara Friday said Turkey’s secular regime would be undermined if amendments to the constitution proposed by the government to lift the headscarf ban were implemented.

“These amendments will encourage attempts to abolish the principle of secularism, and in the end, our universities will get away from rationalism and scientific freedom and Turkey will turn into a religious state,” the board said. “It is inaccurate to assume that the changes will only cover university students and the remarks of some executives that headscarf should be allowed in all public institutions confirm our assessment.”

Universities are places where people enjoy scientific freedom, not freedom of belief, the statement said, warning that there was no doubt that real discrimination and unethical behavior will appear after the headscarf ban was lifted.

“We think that these legal changes will affect all academic studies and the acquisitions of the Republic will be lost with these changes,” the board said.

The board issued a warning to the members of the commission who had prepared the draft constitutional amendment allowing for the lifting of the headscarf ban, along with those who sport these views and who remain silent, that the proposed changes would abolish the secular order and harm the educational peace in Turkey’s universities.

Women not satisfied with headscarf criteria

The women who have been fighting for headscarf are not satisfied: "they should stop playing games on us. This adjustment makes discrimination legal."

Women organizations fighting for freedom of headscarf wearing did not find satisfactory the constitutional law amendment agreed by MHP and AKP. The women defend that this formula will create a control mechanism at university gates and will mark women. The women wanted an adjustment to make them equal with other citizens in this country.

Zeynep Göknil Piyade from Başkent Platform said: "we do not want this to be limited to only education. What's going to happen in business life? Will the women wearing headscarf go abroad to wear headscarf while working? This ban should be lifted completely. Everyone should accept that it is against democracy and human rights. They should quit playing games on us."

LET OUR HAIR FREE!

I met this mind for the first time at 15, when I fall ill and taken to Medical Faculty Hospital. The mind was in the form of an elder professor, MD, who tried to examine me with his eyes (avoiding eye contact), avoiding to touch with his hands.

MD aunts and uncles explained that he is very religious but a great doctor at his area, and brother of our famous religious party leader Erbakan.

My 15 year old mind couldn't understand how his religious beliefs could prevent his mind examining me by his hands, but put a dot there in the memory. Thanks god, there were other doctors and I survived. But the question put in my mind with this experience made me reject the religion from politics or any area of life from that day on.

Was it a sin to be a female? Was I a sin to stay away, even to treat? Was it a sin to be beautiful to look at? Which was sick; my young and science hungry mind or his old mind rejecting even his own scientist identity? They were big questions for a 15 year old mind to answer but good to think on.

Though, it was not possible to recognize them for sure during those days. They breed like crabs while people was dealing with fascist attacks, military rules and anti-democratic laws. Suddenly we looked around and realized we are surrounded with black beetles reducing democracy, democratic rights we fought for decades; to the black sheets they cover themselves, to turbans to cover their hair.

So, they politicized the religion, Islam, and standing in front of us...

Last week Prime Minister Erdoğan blurted his already known aim out at last. He remarked on whether the ban on wearing headscarves at universities should be removed or not in his usual language; "Even if it [the headscarf] is worn as a political symbol, can you consider wearing a political symbol a crime? Can you bring in a ban on symbols?"

So, Mr Erdogan knows better than the founders of this Republic...

Conservative media stepped immediately; "His remarks renewed hope that the government will finally take the necessary steps to resolve Turkey's seemingly endless headscarf problem through the new constitution."

So; their endless problem is with hair...

Yesterday top prosecutor warned that "easing restrictions on wearing the Islamic headscarf could lead to civil unrest and undermine the secular nature of the Turkish state". Supreme Court Chief Public Prosecutor Yalcinkaya said political parties cannot have the goal to change the republic’s secular character; "Disregarding the main principles of the republic and 85 years of achievements and providing certain rights to ethnic groups, sects and racists will divide the people and lead to clashes."

So, Mr Erdogan can forget the character of this state easily (or he thinks he is able to change anything he wish or worse; dreaming caliphate)...

That is right; Turkiye bans women from wearing the headscarf while attending schools or universities, or while working in state positions. Turkiye is a secular democracy with a predominantly Muslim population. Turkish women have many good conditions than any Islamic or Muslim dominated countries.

When the Turkish Republic formed in 1923, clear choices made by secularizing the country. Equal rights and the right to vote are given to Turkish women. All kinds of turbans and religious clothing banned from government institutions and women liberated from the darkness (we didn't know burkas even then).

Thanks to the political Islam; more than 80 years after the liberation from the veil, some can take to the streets for the right to wear the Islamic headscarf. Even Mrs Gul, now first lady, applied to Europe Human Rights Court but took her case back when her husband won the elections (don't even mention how they shame Turkish women around the world).

If you visit Anıtkabir, mosoleum of Atatürk, you can see the set of statues of a group of three women. Three women represent the common people and are wearing traditional clothes, not veil or turban. Two of them holds a large wreath that reaches the ground and is made up of sheaves of grain, symbolizing Turkey’s fertile land. The woman on the left holds a cup in her hand, asking in earnest for God’s blessings for their great leader. The woman standing in the middle has covered her face and is a symbol of national grief. They reflect the pride, serenity and determination of Turkish women who made countless sacrifices in the struggle for national liberation.

Some may need to remember;
Recognition of equal rights to men and women (1926 - 1934)
Reform of Headgear and Dress (1925)
Closure of mausoleums and dervish lodges (1925)
Law on family names (1934)
Abolishment of titles and by-names (1934)

In these short years of reforms Turkish women transported from the harem and veil to membership in Parliament, to which seventeen women were admitted in 1935. Reforms also stripped the imams, mollas, hodjas from their privileges. The old order changed; traditional fez was abandoned, harems banned and monogamy became the law. Social and cultural reforms, included banning religious schools, revoking the Shariah courts, and abolishing religious titles and orders.

There is no need to remind the history of veil or what happened when or why once more, but better to look at the higher literacy and professional-employment rates for Turkish women compared to anywhere else in the Middle East and even the developed countries in Europe and America: "In the fields of architecture, science, medicine, pharmacy and law, at least one out of three employed is a woman. In colleges women constitute about 35 percent of the faculty. Almost 40 percent of all young traders at the Istanbul Stock Exchange are women. Even in the technical world of engineering, with a participation level of 12 percent, Turkish women are slightly ahead of their American counterparts."

While Turkish women granted the right to elect and be elected at 1934, French women gained the same rights in 1944, Italian women in 1945 and the Swiss in 1971. In Iran in the 1930s, Reza Shah Pahlevi issued a proclamation banning the veil outright but Shah went and we can see the situation of women thanks to Islamic revolution.

So...

What they want from us now? Turn back to darkness? Having democracy by closing their hair? Making 8-10 year olds close their heads?

Will headscarved doctors serve 15 year old boys? Will 15 year old girls have treatment by male doctors? How will headscarved teachers, judges, polices etc serve to public while trying to avoid touching? Headscarf is not only a religious symbol but a symbol of fanatic behavior, mentality.

How would closing their heads bring them freedom? Some say it prevents men looking them as sex objects but recognize their personalities, bullshit... If it is "what in or on a man's head" or "not", you can't change it by closing your head or opening your ass (just as "what is in a woman's head" or "not")...

Of course this ill mind is explaining it from the point of "freedom of education", explain it to my shoes...

We certainly don't have anything to say about the freedom of education but we have a say about "the freedom of having services". What would a diploma on the wall can bring to an ill mind who would avoid to touch the opposite sex in any area of life, science...

It all begins and ends in the mind. Now Mr. genius PM Erdoğan blurts; "Even if it [the headscarf] is worn as a political symbol, can you consider wearing a political symbol a crime? Can you bring in a ban on symbols?"

Those words are enough to show that their aim is not limited with education in universities. Yes Mr. genius / idiot, we can... carry your symbol "in" your heart and mind and take your minds "out" of women's body...

Educated population, youth is our "national treasure". We neither have enough "sources" to waste for their uncertainty on their "own" beliefs nor enough "time" waste for our future.

Political Islam is the plague cherished by imperialism. They shouldn't’t confuse us with the women of Arab or any other Islamic countries and take their hands and minds from our hair...

And those women who want to close their head; would you stroke our boys' heads as teachers when we send them to schools, would you treat our sons when they get wounded fighting for our country as doctors, would you carry their burned bodies after terrorist attacks as police officers, would you fight side by side with them or be bussy with closing your heads, not touching them under the rain of bullets to our freedom?...

Or just; "what is freedom" for you?... Or just, “what” is in your mind?...

What is in our mind is the "clear and clean" wind of civilisation, humanity, equality, respect waving our hair free for both our daughters and sons...

This is a photo of Afghan King Amanullah Han during his visit to Turkiye at 1928... Think about the Afghan women in burkas now, 80 years later...

Well, Allah gave you the intelligence, think on...

JANUARY; MONTH OF LOSTS

January is one of those sad months for us. I can't begin with Mustafa Suphi and his 14 friends, even my parents were not born yet. Though mom used to transfer quotes from grandpa's stories about them during her own childhood, they are just a light shining in our far history for me.

It is not possible to count all we lost so far, better not to loose my self in the dark labyrinths of the history. The years we lived, witnessed our selves are hard enough to describe.

It was the first week of January 1976 when I get acquainted with death. Şükrü Bulut was a Hacettepe University Medical Faculty student murdered by fascist. It is not possible to forget how the news spread to all universities in Ankara, how thousands gathered, shouted slogans and walked after his coffin in respect and determination.

His name is one of the dozens which are still in my mind because his murder was the first after March 12th Military Memorandum. Fallowing years took so many from us that we are not able to remember all their names any more.

Sometimes memories of a death or funeral rush out from darkness. It is possible to remember every detail closing your eyes only for a second. It is not hard to remember everything from the marches sang to the routes fallowed but mind fail when it comes to names. I don't know why, may be because they were so many. So many that days came when the news begun to give numbers instead of names.

The dark forces, fascists couldn't satisfied with the murder of students, youth who was in love with their country and freedom. Mass murders are another story. Their bullets were/ are always hungry for the blood of our academicians, teachers, intellectuals too. Dr. Orhan Yavuz, Dr. Server Tanilli, Att. Doğan Öz, Dean Prof. Bedri Karafakioğlu, Dr. Necdet Bulut, Prof. Cavit Orhan Tütengil, Writer Ümit Kaftanoğlu were some of their targets.

So came and passed September 12th, 1980 Military Coup. But treacherous murders don't end. January is one of the months of loss. So many anniversaries we have to remember, so many we have to show respect in memories..

Last week it was young journalist Metin Göktepe's anniversary who found dead after his arrest at January 8th, 1996. His elder, writer and journalist Onat Kutlar lost his life a year before him, a bombing to The Marmara Hotel took his life at January 11th, 1995.

The day after tomorrow, January 19th people will meet at the same place, at the same time for Hrant Dink. Time made us accept the death of others but Hrant is so new. Journalist Hrant Dink was an Armenian origin citizen of Turkiye, editor of Turkish/ Armenian newspaper Agos, writer in many newspapers and defender of human rights and freedom of speech.

It is as only yesterday I learned his assassination from TV. Getting dressed in hurry and calling friends with my wounded arm in hanger, rushing to the area to meet the people mourning for him. One by one people from all ages gathering under the rain, night falling on the candles in their hands.


The lines in my note book; "I lost myself at the flame of the blue candle in my hand last night. I found myself at a peace conference 3 years back, then I step to an interview ten years ago. Than, suddenly; I realized the candle in my hand don't have only one flame, as if it has hundreds of reflections around it. And every single lightened candle, every single fading light, every single life shot behind I witnessed during the last 32 years passed in front of my eyes one by one. I wished our country's lights don't fade, dreams don't end any more. Gandhi said "God don't have religion", I wanted to shout "Does humanity have nationality?" Mercy and grace upon you Hrant Dink!"

And notes to a friend from his funeral;

"That was one of the slogans of the crowds last night; "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism". "We are all Turks, we are all Armenians", "We are all Hrants " and many more. People carried flowers, candles, poster, peace flags. I first called a close Armenian friend, other than family friendship who was a member of the Party which we were both member and worked together during last elections. He was already at Agos newspaper's building, told there will be a march from city center at 8 pm. Then I called another Armenian friend when I get closer and see the crowds already gathered. To my surprise she rejected to came. It made the reality hit me once again; it is not a matter of nationality but who you are. Hrant Dink was so courageous in his beliefs that he didn't hesitate to criticize the Armenian diaspora and even the Patriarch in Istanbul as well as the governments of Turkey and Armenia. There were also many Armenians against him as well as the ethnic fascist Turkish groups. It surprises me to the reaction of Armenian diaspora now, he was the first one who oppose the genocide laws in France etc. criticizing them hard.

It was too cold. Though I put on the thermal underwear my son used at military, I freeze to my ass. At first it was possible to enter the cafes etc but in time they closed. I should seem so bad that some friends insisted to turn home. I left nearly 10pm but I saw from TV that the crowds were still there at midnight. It was the most emotional event of the last years. I wonder how his burial will happen. He was a patriarch, who ever shot him shot Turkey. Shot Hrant and us from BEHIND."



"This assassination may seem something extraordinary to many but not to us. We lost so many of our people, students, professors, intellectuals in similar cruel murders. I even forget how many times I walked behind coffins, how many funerals I attended, how many slogans I shouted at uncountable marches in the last 32 years. Only difference is; it was more during mid 70s - 80s. When one witness so much, she can remember only the first 2-3 but last one always make you remember all one by one again. I was only 17 when I witnessed a friend's death and marched that city square for the first time, and here I am still marching, still shedding tears, still attending to funerals of people who only wanted peace, human rights and freedom. Some call my generation as "the lost generation" in my country, but I don't think so. We still managed to live and go on. I saw two old friends yesterday, one said his son is in prison because of an event in the university. It seemed so ironic; we went to prisons ourselves for the future of our future children. And look, that future already come and those children we sacrificed for are in prisons now. Same prisons which hosted us decades ago."

And next week it will be Journalist Ugur Mumcu who we will remember once more. He assassinated January 24th, 1993 with a bomb placed under his car by Islami Cihad. He was the courageous columnist of Cumhuriyet newspaper and writer of many books about the dark relations behind terror.

At the last day of January we will commemorate our Law Professor at Political Science Faculty of Ankara University, Muammer Aksoy. He shot in the backhead in front of his house at 1990, like many of his former students.

Than we will welcome February with the assasination of journalist Abdi İpekçi, editor and general director of Milliyet newspaper. Though, unlike others world knows his assassin very closely. World acquinted with the assassin Mehmet Ali Ağca when he tried to assassinate the Pope, John Paul II in 1981, two years after murdering Abdi İpekçi.

In fact January is not guilty. Losts don't belong only that month but all months of this country...