Turkish FILMS to watch

my mission for the next couple of weeks - further recommendations welcome...

Press and Pressure

After this weeks suicide bomb in Ankara the Police are to be given 'terror authorisation'
Hürriyet reports the draft bill proposes:

- Authorisation of use of all types of human and technical resources and intelligence activities, including the use of cameras, voice recording facilities and the internet, to survey possible criminals. It was explained that this could also mean the ability to listen to telephone conversations without obtaining any prior permission.

- The police will be able to obtain fingerprints from anybody applying for a gun license, driving license or passport.

- The police will be able to carry out body searches and searches of cars, personal documents and personal effects after obtaining authority from the civil authorities.

Then from the UK...

The home secretary, John Reid, made clear yesterday he is prepared to declare a "state of emergency" to suspend key parts of the human rights convention if the law lords do not overturn a series of judgments that have weakened the anti-terrorist control order regime...... MPs fear the control order regime is in danger of becoming a public laughing stock since six of the current 17 terror suspects subject to orders have managed to disappear.

In the Guardian this week Press Repression in Russia and Turkey Growing

Yavuz Baydar, the ombudsman for the Sabah newspaper, spoke of a similar pattern of fear and self-censorship in Turkey following the murder of Hrant Dink in January this year.

Investigative reporting was disappearing. There was a sense of fatigue among editors. As many as 15 of Baydar's colleagues now had round-the-clock bodyguards: some had armoured cars and feared for their relatives.

Journalists, intellectuals and writers had become used to being jailed in Turkey, said Baydar. However, the murder of a leading commentator such as Dink was different: it was intended to unleash instability, polarise society and legitimise hatred.

Baydar said he could not pretend that the murder of Dink had resulted in solidarity among journalists. There had been a march of 100,000 mourners protesting at Dink's murder - but he had seen only one rival editor at the funeral, and no rival publishers or proprietors.

Another weekend of Turkish flags

The 19th May is the Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day, or simply Atatürk Commemoration (Atatürk'ü Anma) or Youth and Sports Day (Gençlik ve Spor Bayramı). It is an annual national holiday to memorialize the start of the Turkish War of Independence.
Huge flags adorn many of the buildings in Istanbul to celebrate this significant day.







AND...

The BBC reports that:

Tens of thousands of Turks have massed in the city of Samsun in the latest demonstration in support of secularism. The crowds waved national flags and chanted slogans opposing any change to Turkey's secular political model. The protest in Samsun, a port on the Black Sea, followed huge rallies in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.Samsun was the place where Ataturk launched the country's war of independence against ruling powers after the end of World War I. Police estimated that about 50,000 people attended the rally, Reuters news agency reported.

Istanbul-tattoed

I love living in Istanbul. I have been here since February 2007 and will return to London this September. I have joined a flickr group called ISTANBUL-TATTOED. I made my first posting this week of some graffiti I saw in Galata down Yüksek Kaldırım Cad. where all the music shops are. It is really worth taking a look at the Graffiti Research Lab blog.

All eyes on Izmir

Hundreds of thousands of pro-secular Turks gathered in the third largest city of Turkey on Sunday to protest against the Islamist-rooted government that they fear is working to raise the influence of religion on society and pressure the secularist center-left parties unite ahead of parliamentary elections set for July 22.

Organizers of the pro-secular rally estimated the participating crowd at around two million. This was the first ever rally which was staged simultaneously both on land and sea as scores of small ferry boats and fisherman boats packed with demonstrators joined the rally from the sea.

FROM TURKISH DAILY NEWS

This follows on from the rally in Ankara on 14 April the Istanbul in 29 April 2007