Press-Review: Turkey in International Media

Turkey accused of “ambiguity” in its opposition to the Islamic State.
A row has erupted between Turkey and the UK over the  case of the three British schoolgirls who ran away from home to reach IS-ruled territory via Istanbul. Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Arinç accused Britain for waiting three days before informing the Turkish authorities of the young teenagers’ disappearance. On Tuesday, Feb 19 Scotland Yard hit back, insisting they had notified the Turkish embassy the day after the girls went missing.

“Turkey must decide if it’s our friend or foe,” declared Roger Boyes  in his column for The Times, accusing Ankara of pursuing its own geopolitical goals. These include the disempowerment of Assad in Syria and the prevention of an independent Kurdish state. Instead of working together with the NATO as stabilising force in the Middle East, Turkey sees Isis more as “a useful tool” than an enemy, maintaining communications lines with IS-commanders, facilitating jihadists’ way to Syria and sustaining economic ties, Boyes maintains.

In an editorial for  Financial Times former Sinan Ülgen writes that he only way for Turkey to regain its role as ally of the West for both Turkey and Europe to re-engage. If it wants the key position of challenging radicalisation and Islamisation in Europe Turkey has to establish an inclusive and democratic state based on rule of law and secularism, according to Ülgen. But he says Europe, too, must demonstrate sincerity.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/feb/24/turkey-uk-missing-london-schoolgirls
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article4364443.ece?CMP=Spklr-150747057-Editorial-TWITTER-thetimes-20150225-Comment%20and%20Opinion&linkId=12547053
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/c582b03c-aadf-11e4-81bc-00144feab7de.html?ftcamp=published_links/rss/comment/feed//product
 

In memory of murdered Özgecan Aslan men demonstrate their support for women’s rights by wearing skirts.
After the brutal murder of Özgecan Aslan, who fought off an attempt to rape her before she was killed by a minibus driver, people in Turkey showed their concern in social media and in the streets. Following the call #ozgecanicinminietekgiy, “wear a miniskirt for Özgecan“ men protested for women’s rights in Istanbul last Saturday.

In order to make the point that “my dress is not an excuse for your rape or sexual harassment” the men showed their feminine side, activist Hulya Gulbahar explains. According to U.N. Women two out of five women in Turkey have been exposed to sexual or physical violence. 26 women were murdered in January 2015.

Many accuse AKP of enhancing the acceptance of sexual violence in Turkish society by blaming women for the way they dress. Court orders reducing the sentences for rape or murder because of women’s behaviour contribute to a patriarchal mind-set, Pınar Tremblay argues in Al-Monitor.

“The miniskirt protest is a clever way to raise awareness about gender inequality in society and to make people reconsider their attitudes,” CNN quotes Andrew Finkel – but he asks whether  liberal men supporting a liberal cause is enough to turn the tide.

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/02/22/europe/turkey-men-miniskirts/index.html
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-ozgecan-sex-crimes-murder.html
 
Turkish troops enter Syria via Kobane to rescue 38 soldiers protecting a tomb against a siege by the Islamic State.
Last Saturday night Turkey launched its first open military operation into Syria since the outbreak of the civil war to evacuate 38 soldiers, who were protecting a historical tomb located between Aleppo and Kobane. Turkey considers the small enclave housing the tomb of Suleyman Shah, grandfather of the Ottoman Empire’s founder, as its own sovereign territory under a 1921 treaty with France. Some  100 armoured vehicles and 570 soldiers reached the grave, now, besieged by Islamic State militants. The remains been returned to Turkey for now, but in a few days’ time the site will be relocated to the Kurdish-controlled region of Esme close to the Turkish border.

Despite the accidental death of one soldier, Prime Minister Davatoğlu framed the operation as a victory calling it an affirmation of Turkey’s sovereignty. Both politicians of the republican (CHP) and the nationalist party (MHP) criticised the government for “selling out the territory of the motherland” to Isis and weakening the country’s military position in the Middle East.

Turkey informed the Syrian government about the operation in advance but then acted without permission of Damascus. Condemning Ankara for this “flagrant aggression” Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, warned about the consequences of this offence.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/22/turkish-military-completes-operation-to-evacuate-troops-from-tomb-in-syria
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-syria-suleiman-shah-operation.html
 

The United States hopes to fight Isis by training and arming Syrina rebels, whereas Turkey seeks to weaken the Assad regime and secure its borders.
A “Hürriyet” story is widely quoted outside Turkey, concerning the information allegedly obtained by the Turkish intelligence service, MIT, that fighters of Isis plan to attack embassies in Turkey. Purportedly, some 3.000 radical Islamists are waiting at the border to enter the country from Syria, some of them aiming to get to Europe via Bulgaria in the attempt to commit terrorist attacks.

In the meantime Turkey and the United States have agreed on a program to train and arm 15.000 moderate Syrian rebels within three years. Starting “in the coming months” the train-and-equip program is only supposed to fight the Islamic State group, the Pentagon explains. Turkish Foreign Minister Causoğlu, however, suggested that the trained rebels could also target Syrian forces in keeping with his own government’s priority of topploing the Assad regime
Only recently, on Feb 16 the Syrian military managed to undermine opposition-controlled areas around Aleppo cutting major supply lines to Turkey. If Aleppo falls, the Turkish border would come under heavy pressure, which explains the Turkish president’s impatience with the training program.

http://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article137633927/IS-soll-Anschlaege-in-der-Tuerkei-planen.html?wtrid=socialmedia.socialflow….socialflow_twitter
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/19/turkey-us-train-syrian-rebels-fight-isis
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-syrian-army-turkish-border.html
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-usa-train-equip-syrian-opposition.html
 

Members of Parliament brawl over a new security law that would provide the police with even greater powers.
A gavel, a bell and some chairs were just some of the offensive weapons which left five MPs injured people at a tumultuous session of parliament in the night of Feb 17. The reason for the brawl is the new security bill drafted by the government giving police and the courts greater powers to deal with demonstrators . The proposed “Internal Security Law“ would allow detention for up to 48 hours based on “reasonable doubt”, to use firearms against people throwing Molotov cocktails and envisages sentence of up to five years for protesters who conceal their faces.

The opposition accuses Erdoğan of trying to turnTurkey into a police state. “Under this law the police can claim reasonable doubt and intervene against any two people standing together,” human rights lawyer Rozerin Seda Kip explains. Washington-based watchdog Freedom House concludes that Turkish democracy “hangs in the balance” and agrees with concerns voice by the European Union and Human Rights Watch’ about the new bill.

The Turkish president in turn has accused the proposed law’s critics of supporting chaos and those whom, who “only want the right to throw Molotov cocktails.” There is a consensus in the foreign press that with general elections in June, the ruling AKP is eager to prevent a repetition of anti-governmental rallies like the Kurdish demonstrations in October 2014 or the 2013 Gezi Park Protests.

The opposition is expected to keep up attempts to delay the its passage, but AKP’s majority in parliament means that the bill is most likely to succeed.
http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/tuerkei-parlament-der-schlaege/11391680.html
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/02/turkey-becoming-police-state.html