TurkeyWatch

"KEEP AN EYE ON TURKEY"

THIS IS TURKEY WATCH 

click here for my new blog   TURKEY WATCH

 

Several years ago I felt strongly impressed to "keep an eye on Turkey." 

• ...that Turkey would become increasingly important in world events,

• that Turkey would play a critical role with both Israel and America in the future.

• that Turkey was in a sense hidden and was not being seen for what lies beneath the surface

You see the nice travel photos...come see the beautiful old mosaics and architecture of old Constantinople, aka Instanbul; walk in the steps of the Apostle Paul and visit the towns and cities of Bible times where he established the early churches of the New Testament. Learn about the Crusades and the great middle eastern civilization they wreaked havoc upon. Visit the glorious Byzantine cathedrals that inspired the Russian Czar to make Orthodox Christianity his state religion.

The old land the Greeks called ANATOLIA, the crossroads of the east, the old capitol of the Roman Empire, the Papal seat... impressive, rich, powerful with its imprint left in the antuque splendor of the Turkey of today.

Yet most people I know are virtually ignorant about the Turkey of today, which calls itself the sovreign Republic of Turkey.

YES, the land and its people are picturesque and worth visitng.

• but  the time has come to monitor and be informed about the real Turkey.

                                                                                                                                                                                              foto ref: http://www.roadturkey.com/

TURKEY IS A BIGGER PLAYER THAN YOU THINK

DID YOU KNOW that Turkey has a larger standing army than any nation in Europe...all forces number in excess of 1,000,000 -and it is modern and well-trained!

• that Turkey has a large population, larger than any European nation except Germany

• that Turkey has a memory of recent world empire, and a national bent toward world conquest

• that Turkey is the cradle of humanity (the site of Mt Ararat for Noah's ark and the earliest known human agricultural sites)

• that Turkey was a cradle for Christianity. All 7 churches of the Book of Revelation were there.

• that Turkey is currently in great throes of change. Its old secular, pro-western, pro-Israel government is rapidly evaporating in favor of a fundamentalist Muslim rule

• that the word "genocide" was first coined in Turkey...for its treatment of non Muslims...up until last century, Turkey for centuries had a great population of Christians and many Jews.

• that Turkey has now banned Google, Facebook, and YouTube.

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EXCELLENT FILM OF TRAIN RIDE ACROSS TURKEY                                    -- you can view it right here - right now

You can ewatch a wonderful free video about Turkey at this link (just click here).

It is a safe site; no viruses, etc.

http://www.linktv.org/programs/trails_turkey_ep12

IT HAS A GREAT NARRATIVE BY FILM MAKER ROBERT HOF as he tells his experience travelling by train across the length of modernday Turkey.

Length of film: about 50 min.

If you press the little rectangle in the bottom right of the control panel of the little movie screen, the screen will expand to fill your whole compuetr screen.

Enjoy!

Urban Growth in One of the Largest Cities in the World

Turkey's Istanbul is one of the largest cities in the world with over 13,000,000 inhabitants.

Being largest is nothing new for this great city. For centuries old Constantinople was also on the top list of world contenders.

Now urban renewal is changing the landscape as Turkey experiences an urban renewal boom.

The Christian Science Monitor reports on the response of urban poor and minorities as some are being forced from their homes and businesses : Poor, minorities push back against booming Turkey's urban renewal.

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Poor, minorities push back against booming Turkey's urban renewal

The economic boom in Turkey that is driving urban renewal is also forcing many minorities and the poor from their homes. Now, some are fighting back with lawsuits.

• 

Ahmet Bulut stands in his former cafe in the coastal city of Izmir, Turkey. The compensation he received for his cafe and two apartments – which are being torn down to make way for a park area – is not enough to afford one of the new apartments being built nearby.

Jonathan Lewis

 

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By Alexander Christie-Miller, Correspondent / May 9, 2011

Izmir, Turkey

Standing in his gutted cafe, Ahmet Bulut ponders his sudden transformation from proud shop owner to scrap-metal gatherer.

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His Kurdish neighborhood, situated in this picturesque city overlooking the Aegean Sea, is being torn down to make way for a park and recreation area. He was paid 40,000 Turkish lira ($25,000) for his cafe and two apartments, but it was not enough for him to afford one of the new apartments built down the road.

Now he and scores of others comb the rubble, salvaging whatever they can find of value. "This is a terrible way to live," he says. "We are making our living from the destruction of our own community."

The demolition of Mr. Bulut's neighborhood of Imariye is the latest in a series of urban-renewal programs driven by Turkey's rapid modernization.

While the economic boom is elevating the quality of life for many, critics say that authorities are driving some of the country's most persecuted communities further into poverty, while yielding handsome profits for developers and authorities.

Former residents like Bulut are offered housing on the fringes of cities, but the price tag is often too high. Now, urban planners and residents are fighting back with lawsuits both in Turkey and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

"In many cases there's no next step offered for these people," says Andrew Gardner, Turkey researcher for Amnesty International. "The fact that people [who] the state doesn't like are getting their rights violated isn't a coincidence."

In Ankara alone, around 74,000 acres of land are subject to planned, ongoing, or recently completed urban-renewal programs.

The most controversial project to date was the demolition of the Sulukule district of Istanbul, a poor area near the city center that has been home to a community of Roma since the Byzantine era. Sulukule was torn down to build luxury villas.

The target of another forced gentrification plan is Tarlabasi, close to the city's central Taksim Square, a poor but vibrant neighborhood of Kurds, Roma, and an unlikely community of transgendered sex workers.

Squatters now on prime land

The main targets are the country's semilegal squatter communities known as "gecekondus," meaning "settled at night." They were built under cover of darkness or on weekends. Once the builders occupy their homes, Turkish law prevents them from being summarily evicted.

From the 1950s onward, successive governments have legalized many of the neighborhoods. But now they lie on what has become prime real estate, attracting developers and prompting municipalities to level them.

An amendment to Turkey's property law that was approved last year has concentrated far more power in the hands of the country's housing development administration, known by its Turkish acronym, TOKI.

"This new law is giving unlimited scope to TOKI to take property from people without caring what happens to them," says Umit Ozcan, general secretary of Turkey's Chamber of Urban Planners. "Under the Turkish Constitution, people have a right to protection of housing."

more.. to view full article, click here Poor, minorities push back against booming Turkey's urban renewal.

ref: http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0509/Poor-minorities-push-back-against-booming-Turkey-s-urban-renewal