Free Republic

HAGUE, 30/01/08 - Another Labour (PvdA) politician has turned out to be supporting the radical Islamic group Hizb ut Tahrir. This time, it is Hatice Can-Engin, an alderman in the town of Gilze-Rijen. Can-Engin, of Turkish origin, signed a petition of Hizb ut Tahrir against the insulting of Islam. Gilze-Rijen Mayor Rene Roep has confirmed that Can-Engin signed the online petition. The alderman herself had initially denied this. Whether her action will have consequences for her functioning as alderman is not yet clear. Hizb ut-Tahrir, banned in Germany, aspires to worldwide Islamic dominance. Chairman Okay Pala recently said in newspaper...

(IsraelNN.com) Fahri Guven of the Islamist Turkish daily Milli Gazete quoted in his column the following excerpts from a recently published book by M. Ertugrul Duzdag and Ali Ulvi Kurucu presenting them as historical truths that every Muslim must take into account (translated by MEMRI): “The Jew is a curse. If you enter a war against the Jew you end up fighting powerful nations behind him. If you try to make peace, years pass with no result. He lies 70 lies. It is not surprising that America supports Israel. It is because America is a province of Israel! Last century...

ISTANBUL, Nov. 30 — A Turkish passenger jet crashed in the mountains of western Turkey early Friday, killing all 57 people on board, including several prominent nuclear physicists on their way to a conference, Turkish authorities said. The plane, a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 operated by Atlasjet, an airline based in Istanbul, took off from Istanbul and disappeared from radar shortly before it was due to land at the airport in Isparta. It crashed about seven miles from the airport, near the town of Keciborlu, the authorities said. The cause of the crash was unclear. The weather was good, airline officials...

Text of report in English by Turkish news agency Anatolia Antalya, 18 August: Hayrettin Balcioglu, deputy governor of the southern city of Antalya, said that two hijackers, who hijacked the AtlasJet passenger plane during a flight from the Turkish Republic of [self-declared] Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to Istanbul, surrendered to security forces. Balcioglu told the A.A [Anatolia Agency] that the hijackers were arrested by security forces. Source: Anatolia news agency, Ankara, in English 1009 gmt 18 Aug 07

Turkish elections to test Islamic democracy By Amberin Zaman in Ankara Last Updated: 12:41am BST 21/07/2007 Turkish PM Erdogan Holds final pre-election rally It is a sign of his enduring strength that Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's charismatic prime minister, has vowed to retire from politics unless voters return him to power with a strong mandate in tomorrow's general election. "If we do not come to power alone I will withdraw from my party," Mr Erdogan said during a campaign rally. Tens of thousands of supporters waving Turkish flags burst into applause as he challenged his secular rivals to do the...

Turkish and Iranian forces shelled Kurdish rebel positions across the border in northern Iraq, Iraqi Kurd officials reported Friday, amid fears that the conflict could open a new front in Iraq. Turkey has been building up its forces along the border with Iraq, and its leaders are debating whether to stage a major incursion to pursue separatist rebels who cross over from bases in Iraq to attack Turkish targets. Such an operation could ignite a wider conflict involving Iraqi Kurds, and disrupt Turkey's ties with its NATO ally, the United States. Iran has also clashed with Iranian Kurd fighters who...

By Hidir Goktas ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's president vetoed a constitutional amendment on Friday under which the head of state would have been elected directly by the people, a move likely to deepen a standoff between the secular elite and the government. At present the head of state is elected by parliament, which last month narrowly rejected the Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party's candidate for the presidency. President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's office said the controversial constitutional amendment was vetoed partly because it could weaken the current balance of power within the political system. "President Ahmet Necdet Sezer did not find the...law...

In Turkey, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets for the third time in a month to demonstrate against Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. His conservative Islamic AK party is suffering under the severe criticism of secular Turks in favour of maintaining the strict separation of church and state. After mass demonstrations in Ankara and Istanbul, more than a million people are expected in Izmir, the second largest city in Turkey. The organisers hope the demonstrations will help unite the divided opposition in the run up to the parliamentary elections in July. The Turkish government decided to bring...

Turkish Presidential Candidate Out Published: 5/6/07, 11:45 PM EDT By SUZAN FRASER ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - The candidate of Turkey's Islamic-rooted ruling party halted his run for the presidency Sunday after opposition lawmakers boycotted the second vote on his candidacy over worries that he could inject religion into the country's long tradition of secular politics. The candidate, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, said the rift between his party and opposition secularists had compromised the parliament's ability to choose a president. He said the way forward was a constitutional amendment proposed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan allowing direct election of the...

Turkey poll halted over Islamic fears By Amberin Zaman in Istanbul Last Updated: 1:52am BST 02/05/2007 Turkey lurched deeper into political crisis last night after a court halted the country's presidential election. Police and demonstrators engaged in bitter clashes during an unofficial May Day march in Istanbul yesterday. About 700 arrests were made The constitutional court annulled the first round vote of the ruling party's candidate, Abdullah Gul, amid fears that he wanted to take the country in a pro-Islamic direction. The court ruled that not enough MPs took part in the vote last Friday for it to be valid....

Turkey's constitutional court has ruled the first round of the contentious presidential election null and void. The case was brought by a secular opposition party. It wanted to prevent the only candidate, Abdullah Gül of the Islamic AK party, coming to power. His opponents fear Mr Gül will end Turkey's separation of church and state. Turkish presidents are chosen by parliament every seven years, and the court ruled the poll invalid because not enough MPs were present when voting began. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says he now wants to hold an early general election possibly in June. The last...

Turkish anti-Islamic rally draws 500,000 By Duncan Hooper and agencies Last Updated: 2:51pm BST 29/04/2007 Around half a million people gathered in Istanbul today demanding the resignation of the pro-Islamic government. The streets of Istanbul were a sea of red Turkish flags The rally will spur fears of a military coup as it follows a steep rise in tensions between Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the country's prime minister, and the pro-secular army, which accuses the government of tolerating the activities of radical Muslims. "Turkey is secular and will remain secular," the protesters chanted, waving the national flag. Ahmet Yurdakul, 63 year-old...

Turkish ruling party warns army Turkey's army chief (left) is said to have talked to the PM by phone Turkey's ruling party has sharply criticised an army threat to intervene in politics, saying the military must remain under civilian control. Cemil Cicek, spokesman for the Islamist-rooted party, was commenting after an unusual statement by the army vowing to defend the secular system. The army, which led coups in the past, said it was concerned by the party's choice of presidential candidate. Mr Cicek said any army intervention was "inconceivable in a democratic state". "The chief of the general staff is...

Turkish Islamists face Christians' death trial By Damien McElroy in Malatya, Turkey Last Updated: 12:54am BST 23/04/2007 A gang of suspected Islamic nationalists was facing the possibility of trial for the torture and murder of three Christians at a Bible publishers in Turkey last night after investigators called for their prosecution. A judge was considering whether the group - 11 men and one woman - should face trial after they were questioned for eight hours over the deaths of two Turks and a German, who were bound to chairs and had their throats slit in Malatya on Wednesday. As the...

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) -- Attackers on Wednesday slit the throats of three people in a Turkish publishing house which printed bibles, security officials said, the latest attack on minorities in mainly Muslim Turkey.

Turkish novelist flees to US 'in fear for life' By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 14/02/2007 The Turkish novelist and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk is living in exile in the United States and is believed to be in fear for his life. Amid a climate of intimidation that has seen the prosecution and even murder of dissident intellectuals throwing into doubt Turkey's aspiration to the join the European Union, Mr Pamuk, 54, who is living in New York, is said to have told friends he has set no deadline for his return. Instead, according to the...

Turkey is unlikely to join the EU for at least 15 years Turkey finally began talks on joining the European Union in October 2005, more than 40 years after it first began to woo the emerging bloc. Now it seems that things are already going wrong. What are the main problems? More generally, what are the main arguments for and against Turkish membership of the EU, and how does the accession process work? Why is Turkey's EU membership bid in trouble? There are two issues. TURKISH MARATHON 1959 - Turkey applies for associate membership of EEC 1963 - Association...

Four Austrian police officers have been suspended after allegations they made racist comments to an Olympic athlete. Tuncay Caliskan,an Austrian of Turkish descent, competes at the international level in Taekwondo. Mr Caliskan, 29, said the racist slurs came when he sought help at a Vienna police station after being threatened by a man with a baseball bat. The city's police have been accused of several cases of brutality towards immigrants over the past two years. In this case, a police spokesman confirmed that there had been a "violent and loud" confrontation in the police station. He said all four...

October 31, 2006 Turkish Minister Supports Intelligent Design In a recent TV debate on the Turkish educational system, the country's Minister of Education, Mr. Hüseyin Çelik**, argued in favor of intelligent design and for incorporating the theory into Turkish high school biology textbooks. The debate was aired on CNNTurk* on 17 October 2006, on the popular TV show Tarafsiz Bölge (Neutral Zone), which is hosted by the trendy Turkish journalist Ahmet Hakan Coskun. During the 2.5 hour-long program, the minister was challenged by another leading journalist, Ismet Berkan, who has previously argued for Darwinism and against ID in his columns....

AMSTERDAM — The continued radicalisation of especially young Muslims remains concerning, the national anti-terrorism co-ordination office NCTb said on Monday. The NCTb also said it was "remarkable" that a rising number of Turkish youths were finding their way into networks of radical Muslims prepared to use violence against western society. Earlier, Dutch Turkish youths were appearing occasionally in "jihad networks" made up primarily of North Africans, but there now appears to be whole groups of youths susceptible to radical Islam. "Frustration over the position of Muslims in the Netherlands and anger over the events in conflict regions give food to...