Quantcast
Channel: Mavi Boncuk
Viewing all 3499 articles
Browse latest View live
↧

The Yıldırım Cabinet

May 24, 2016, 10:57 am
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk |

The Yıldırım Cabinet is the 65th government of the Turkish Republic, which was inaugurated on 24 May 2016. He vowed to immediately start working to change Turkey's current constitution, which came into effect two years after a military coup in 1980. Yıldırım has served as transport and communications minister since 2002 with a short interruption in 2015. The engineering-trained politician who is a founding member of the ruling party, has been credited for his role in developing major infrastructure projects which have helped buoy Turkey's economy and boost the party's popularity.

President Erdoğan will chair the first cabinet meeting at the presidential palace on May 25 in the first confirmation that Yıldırım intends to pursue a “low profile,” although the new premier did say his government would focus on “increasing the number of friends and reducing the number of enemies” in foreign policy.

Yıldırım rushed to the parliament to read out the governmental program just three hours after Erdoğan approved Turkey’s 65th government. 

The new 26-seat government features nine new ministers[*] and four re-seated ministers, while the number of female cabinet members dropped from two to one, with Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya becoming the only minister in the Family and Social Policies portfolio.

The new government illustrates a degree of balance in regards to the management of the economy. Despite expectations, Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Şimşek kept his position, which will provide assurances to foreign markets. On the other hand, Nihat Zeybekci returns to the cabinet as an economy minister who will likely focus on the production-based growth nature of the Turkish economy. As Yıldırım said in a group speech on May 24, the government will not take steps backward on financial discipline but will also concentrate on production and employment.

[*] The nine ministers to lose their seat in the cabinet are ex-Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Culture and Tourism Minister Mahir Ünal, EU Minister Volkan Bozkır, Health Minister Mehmet Müezzinoğlu, Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz, Family and Social Policies Minister Sema Ramazanoğlu, Environment and Urban Planning Minister Fatma Güldemet Sarı, Economy Minister Mustafa Elitaş and Deputy Prime Minister Yalçın Akdoğan. 


The members of Turkey’s 65th cabinet are:

Prime Minister - Binali Yildirim 
Deputy Prime Minister -  Nurettin Canikli 
Deputy Prime Minister - Mehmet Simsek 
Deputy Prime Minister -  Numan Kurtulmus
Deputy Prime Minister -  Tugrul Turkes 
Deputy Prime Minister - Veysi Kaynak
Foreign Minister - Mevlut Cavusoglu
EU Affairs Minister and Chief Negotiator - Omer Celik
Minister of Family and Social Policies -  Fatma Betul Sayan Kaya
Minister of Justice - Bekir Bozdag
Minister of Science, Industry and Technology - Faruk Ozlu
Minister of Customs and Trade - Bulent Tufenkci
Minister of Environment and Urban Planning - Mehmet Ozhaseki 
Minister of Economy - Nihat Zeybekci
Minister of Youth and Sports - Akif Cagatay Kilic
Interior Minister - Efkan Ala
Minister of Transport, Maritime and Communication - Ahmet Arslan 
Minister of Labour and Social Security - Suleyman Soylu
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources - Berat Albayrak
Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock - Faruk Celik
Development Minister - Lutfi Elvan
Minister of Culture and Tourism - Nabi Avci
Minister of Finance - Naci Agbal
Minister of National Education - Ismet Yilmaz
Minister of National Defense - Fikri Isik 
Minister of Forest and Water Management - Veysel Eroglu
Minister of Health - Recep Akdag 
↧
Search

Word Origin | Ekmek, somun, çörek, pide, poğaça, lavaş, hamur

May 26, 2016, 7:58 am
$
0
0

Turkish flatbread traditionally prepared during Ramadan.(Ramazan pidesi). Alan Davidson in The Oxford Companion to Food (OUP: Oxford 1999) states that Northern Italian dialects transformed the word pitta into pizza! 

See also: THE ORIGINS OF PIDE Words by Simon Johnson "...The first visit I made on my research into the history of pide was inevitable: historian and translator, and moreover, good friend, Brendan Freely. Freely, a long time resident of Istanbul whose work is full of great anecdotes and personal stories. If anyone would know where to begin, it would be Freely. But his first response somewhat threw me. “Which pide?”he demanded,“The Ramazan type pide? The flatter, thinner pide they have in some restaurants? The pide they use in the döner places? Or the Black Sea pide with cheese?”... The pide with cheese is found throughout this region (Black Sea) and in neighbouring country, Georgia, too where it is known as khachapuri ( - xač'ap'uri also meaning "cheese bread"). As with Turkish pide, there are many variants of khachapuri — though perhaps the most revered is the khacapuri from the Adjari area, which also bears the most resemblance to the boat shaped Turkish pides." SOURCE Babaji 

Mavi Boncuk |

Ekmek: Bread EN [1]; oldTR: [ Uygurca Maniheist metinler, 900]; ötmek [ekmek] oldTR: [ Kaşgarî, Divan-i Lugati't-Türk, 1073]; etmek: al-χubz [ekmek] (...) ötmek [ekmek, üç ayrı yerde] (...) epmek [ekmek, partially in some Oghuz and Kipchak] CumanTR: [ Codex Cumanicus, 1303]; ötmek est panis sed ötmäkči est ille qui fecit panem ['ötmek' ekmektir, 'ötmekçi' ekmek yapan kişidir]TTü: [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680]; etmek vul. ekmek: Panis. From tartar TR: [ Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876]
ekmek: ütmek ki, ütülenmiş, dough exposed to/treated with fire
from Tartar TR etmek ekmek oldTR ötmek/etmek a.a. oldTR üt- ateşte kızartmak +mAk

Somun: Loaf EN[2]; fromGR psomín ψωμίν ekmek, çörek old GR psōmós ψωμός lokma

çörek: ETü: [ Kaşgarî, Divan-i Lugati't-Türk, 1073]; çörek: al-ḳurṣ [halka? yuvarlak ekmek?]; Tartar TR: çörek otu [ Yadigâr-ı İbni Şerif, 1421 naˁnaˁyla çörek otuŋı dögüp göbek üzerüŋe yaku eyleseler; Tartar TR: [ Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876]
çöreklenmek: Kıvrılıp kangal olmak, yılan kat kat bükülmek.
oldTR çörek yuvarlak ekmek from oldTR çevür- çevirmek, yuvarlamak +Ak ; to make round, into a coil.


Pide: Pita EN[3]; pīte [ II. Bayezid Kanunnamesi, 1512]; from GR píta πίτα yassı hamur ekmeği from Aramaic pettā פתתא ekmek parçası, lokma from Aramaic pttפתת kırma, bölme, ufalama, lokma haline getirme.Break, make small morsels EN.

Poğaça: [ Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname, 1683] değirmenlerden taze ıssı poğaçalar gelüp.

From IT focaccia külde pişmiş küçük hamur işi; small dough piece baked in ashes EN oldLatin focacia a.a. Latin focus ocak, ateş; fire, oven EN

Lavaş: [ anon., Ferec ba'd eş-şidde, 1451]; götürebildügince lavāş girde külīceler biryānlar (...) aldı eve geldi; [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680]; levāş & levāşe: panis orbicularis tenuis [ince yuvarlak ekmek| flat round bread EN]; from Persian  lavāş لواش yassı ekmek, yufka from Aramaic  lawaş/layş לושׁ hamur;dough EN; Aramaic lwş hamur yoğurmak; kneading and making dough EN. Same word used in Armenian and Kurdish from Aramaic/Syriac source.

Hamur: Dough EN[4][ Codex Cumanicus, 1303] pasta - Tr: χamir [ Meninski, Thesaurus, 1680] χamīr vul. χamur: ˁacin içine kattıkları māye (...) & ipsa massa subacta [ve ayrıca, mayalanmış hamurun kendisi] [ Ahmed Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani, 1876] χamursuz bayramı fromAR χamīr خمير kabarmış, mayalanmış, mayalanmış hamur; leavened dough, fromAR χamara خمر kabardı, mayalandı; leavened and risen EN Arabic makes a distinction between leavened and unleavened dough.

[1] bread (n.) Old English bread "bit, crumb, morsel; bread," cognate with Old Norse brauð, Danish brød, Old Frisian brad, Middle Dutch brot, Dutch brood, German Brot. According to one theory [Watkins, etc.] from Proto-Germanic *brautham, which would be from the root of brew (v.) and refer to the leavening. 

But OED argues at some length for the basic sense being not "cooked food" but "piece of food," and the Old English word deriving from a Proto-Germanic *braudsmon- "fragments, bits" (cognate with Old High German brosma "crumb," Old English breotan "to break in pieces") and being related to the root of break (v.). It cites Slovenian kruh "bread," literally "a piece." 

Either way, by c. 1200 it had replaced the usual Old English word for "bread," which was hlaf (see loaf (n.)). Slang meaning "money" dates from 1940s, but compare breadwinner. Bread-and-butter in the figurative sense of "basic needs" is from 1732. Bread and circuses (1914) is from Latin, in reference to food and entertainment provided by governments to keep the populace happy. "Duas tantum res anxius optat, Panem et circenses" [Juvenal, Sat. x.80].

[2] loaf (n.)  late 13c., from Old English hlaf "portion of bread baked in a mass of definite form," from Proto-Germanic *khlaibuz (source also of Old Norse hleifr, Swedish lev, Old Frisian hlef, Old High German hleib, German Laib, Gothic hlaifs "bread, loaf"), of uncertain origin, perhaps connected to Old English hlifian "to raise higher, tower," on the notion of the bread rising as it bakes, but it is unclear whether "loaf" or "bread" is the original sense. Finnish leipä, Old Church Slavonic chlebu, Lithuanian klepas probably are Germanic loan words. Meaning "chopped meat shaped like a bread loaf" is attested from 1787.

[3] pita (n.) "thick, flat bread," 1951, from Modern Hebrew pita or Modern Greek petta "bread," perhaps from Greek peptos "cooked," or somehow connected to pizza (q.v.).

pizza (n.) 1935, from Italian pizza, originally "cake, tart, pie," of uncertain origin. The 1907 "Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiana" reports it is said to be from dialectal pinza "clamp" (from Latin pinsere "to pound, stamp"). Klein suggests a connection via loan-translation with Medieval Greek pitta "cake, pie," from Greek pitta "pitch" (cognate with Latin adjective piceus "of pitch").  

[4] dough (n.) Old English dag "dough," from Proto-Germanic *daigaz "something kneaded" (source also of Old Norse deig, Swedish deg, Middle Dutch deech, Dutch deeg, Old High German teic, German Teig, Gothic daigs "dough"), from PIE *dheigh- "to build, to form, to knead" (source also of Sanskrit dehah "body," literally "that which is formed," dih- "to besmear;" Greek teikhos "wall;" Latin fingere "to form, fashion," figura "a shape, form, figure;" Gothic deigan "to smear;" Old Irish digen "firm, solid," originally "kneaded into a compact mass"). Meaning "money" is from 1851.
↧
↧

Word origin | Abluka Redux

May 31, 2016, 1:43 pm
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk |

Abluka: Block, blockade[1], stoppage, jam; obstacle; chunk, piece, block, stop; bar; obstruct; hinder EN;  abloka [ Bianchi, Dictionnaire Turc-Français, 1851] fromIT blocco bahriyede bir limanı giriş çıkışı kesecek şekilde muhasara etme; Nautical term for blocking a port to stop access. FR blocus; Dutch bloc-huis’ müstahkem mevki, karakul.

Uniting a force to defend. (coalizione) : bloc, coalition (di of)
il blocco delle sinister | left-wing coalition parties
blocco di potenze | power bloc
fare blocco | to side together
fare blocco con qualcuno | to side with somebody
fare blocco contro qualcuno | to unite against somebody

[1] Blockade (n.) mid-17c., from block (v.) + -ade, false French ending (the French word is blocus, 18c. in this sense, which seems to be in part a back-formation from the verb bloquer and in part influenced by Middle Dutch blokhuus "blockhouse"). 

block (v.) "obstruct," 1590s, from French bloquer "to block, stop up," from Old French bloc (see block (n.)). Meaning "to make smooth or to give shape on a block" is from 1620s. Stage and theater sense is from 1961. Sense in cricket is from 1772; in U.S. football from 1889. 

block (n.) "solid piece," c. 1300, from Old French bloc "log, block" of wood (13c.), via Middle Dutch bloc "trunk of a tree" or Old High German bloh, from a common Germanic source, from PIE *bhlugo-, from *bhelg- "a thick plank, beam" (see balk). Meaning "mould for a hat" is from 1570s. Slang sense of "head" is from 1630s. Extended sense of "obstruction" is first recorded 1640s. In cricket from 1825; in U.S. football from 1912. The meaning in city block is 1796, from the notion of a "compact mass" of buildings; slang meaning "fashionable promenade" is 1869. BLOCK. A term applied in America to a square mass of houses included between four streets. It is a very useful one. [Bartlett]
↧

Deutscher Bundestag | Armenian Resolution

June 2, 2016, 6:46 am
$
0
0

Erinnerung und Gedenken an den Völkermord an den Armeniern vor 100 Jahren
Remembrance and commemoration of the Armenian genocide 100 years ago

Deutscher Bundestag Drucksache 18/7648 18. Wahlperiode

Mavi Boncuk | 

Read PDF http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/18/076/1807648.pdf

Der Deutsche Bundestag fordert die Bundesregierung auf,

− im Geiste der Debatte des Deutschen Bundestags vom 24.4.2015 weiterhin zu
einer breiten öffentlichen Auseinandersetzung mit der Vertreibung und fast vollständigen Vernichtung der Armenier 1915/1916 sowie der Rolle des Deutschen Reiches beizutragen,

in the spirit of the debate of the German Bundestag from 24/04/2015 to continue contribute a broad public discussion of the expulsion and the almost complete annihilation of the Armenians 1915/1916 and the role of the German Reich,

− die türkische Seite zu ermutigen, sich mit den damaligen Vertreibungen und
Massakern offen auseinanderzusetzen, um damit den notwendigen Grundstein
zu einer Versöhnung mit dem armenischen Volk zu legen,

to encourage the Turkish side, and with the former expulsions Massacres openly confront in order the necessary foundation to put to a reconciliation with the Armenian people,

− sich weiterhin dafür einzusetzen, dass zwischen Türken und Armeniern durch
die Aufarbeitung von Vergangenheit Annäherung, Versöhnung und Verzeihen
historischer Schuld erreicht wird,

to continue to ensure that by between Turks and Armenians the work-up of past rapprochement, reconciliation and forgiveness historical guilt is achieved,

− weiterhin wissenschaftliche, zivilgesellschaftliche und kulturelle Aktivitäten in
der Türkei und in Armenien im Rahmen verfügbarer Haushaltsmittel zu fördern,
die dem Austausch und der Annäherung sowie der Aufarbeitung der Geschichte
zwischen Türken und Armeniern dienen,

further scientific, civic and cultural activities in Turkey and Armenia to promote in the scope of the budgeted, the exchange and the approach and the analysis of the history serve between Turks and Armenians,

− eine Aufarbeitung der historischen Ereignisse durch die Türkei und Armenien
als ersten Schritt zur Versöhnung und zur längst überfälligen Verbesserung der
türkisch-armenischen Beziehungen aktiv zu unterstützen, z. B. durch Stipendien
für Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler oder Unterstützung zivilgesellschaftlicher Kräfte aus beiden Ländern, die sich für Aufarbeitung und Versöhnung engagieren,

a reappraisal of historical events by Turkey and Armenia as a first step to reconciliation and long overdue improvement of to support Turkish-Armenian relations actively, z. B. scholarships

for scientists or supporting civil society forces from both countries are committed to working and reconciliation,

− türkische und armenische Regierungsvertreter zu ermutigen, den derzeit stagnierenden Normalisierungsprozess der zwischenstaatlichen Beziehungen beider Länder fortzuführen,

to encourage Turkish and Armenian government representatives to continue the currently stagnant process of normalization of interstate relations between the two countries,

− sich gegenüber der türkischen und der armenischen Regierung für die Ratifizierung der 2009 unterzeichneten Züricher Protokolle, welche die Wiederaufnahme diplomatischer Beziehungen und die Öffnung der gemeinsamen Grenze vorsehen, einzusetzen,

opposite the Turkish and the Armenian government for the ratification of the protocols signed in 2009 in Zurich, which provide for the resumption of diplomatic relations and the opening of the common border, use,

− dafür einzutreten, dass die in jüngster Zeit begonnene Pflege des armenischen Kulturerbes in der Republik Türkei fortgesetzt und intensiviert wird,

it occur that the care begun recently of Armenian cultural heritage is continued and intensified in the Republic of Turkey,

− im Rahmen finanzieller Möglichkeiten auch weiterhin innerhalb Deutschlands
Initiativen und Projekte in Wissenschaft, Zivilgesellschaft und Kultur zu fördern,
die eine Auseinandersetzung mit den Geschehnissen von 1915/1916 zum
Thema haben.
under financial opportunities continue within Germany to support initiatives and projects in science, civil society and culture, the one dealing with the events of 1915/1916 for have theme.


↧

Karlovy Vary 2016 | My Father’s Wings

June 2, 2016, 10:13 am
$
0
0

Mavi Boncuk | 

The annual Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is known for debuting some of the world’s best multinational feature films and documentaries. From July 1-9, various films including the last movie from recently deceased Czech director Jan Nemec and others from Roverto Ando and Jan Hrebejk will compete at the top Czech festival.

OFFICIAL SELECTION – COMPETITION

Babamın Kanatları / My Father’s Wings / Otcova křídla 
Director: Kıvanç Sezer[1] Turkey, 2016, 101 min, 
World premiere
Section:Official Selection - Competition
COLOR, DCP World premiere  
Director:Kıvanç Sezer
Screenplay:Kıvanç Sezer
Dir. of Photography:Joerg Gruber
Music:Bajar
Editor:Umut Sakallıoğlu, Kıvanç Sezer
Art Director:Rabia Kip
Producer:Soner Alper
Cast: Menderes Samancılar – İbrahim; Musab Ekici
- Yusuf; Kübra Kip – Nihal 
Tansel Öngel – Resul
Production:Nar Film
Coproduction:Istanbul Digital
Cast:, Kübra Kip
Contact:Nar Film

Nar Film
Caferaga mah. Sarraf Ali sok. No:25/3, 34710, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 216 418 4206
E-mail: info@narfilm.com | www: www.narfilm.com



Synopsis:  Ibrahim works construction on a luxury high-rise apartment building; the pay is irregular but this income supports his family, who live with relatives outside town. The unexpected diagnosis of a malignant tumor on his lymph nodes, however, throws his life off balance, depriving him of any guarantees for even the immediate future. When a rumor gets around that the construction company paid handsome compensation to the family of an employee who lost his life in a tragic work accident, Ibrahim begins to entertain an audacious idea. 

This exceptionally mature directorial debut outlines the dangers of a system that forces workers to sacrifice their lives to the interests of economic development. In a world full of dreams and desires, where the future can be a lucrative commodity, My Father’s Wings demonstrates the dignity of a man who has run out of hope for the future, highlighting his inner strength as he contemplates sacrificing himself for his family. 

Hubert Poul 

The shootings of new feature film "My Father's Wings" was completed in December 2015 which was produced by Nar Film and directed by Kıvanç Sezer. The leading roles were performed by Menderes Samancılar, Musab Ekici, Kübra Kip and Tansel Öngel. 


[1] Kıvanç Sezer (b. 1982, Ankara) studied engineering at university before moving to Italy to take up a career as a filmmaker. He studied editing in Italy for two years at the prestigious Cineteca di Bologna. While there he met a number of important directors, who inspired his work. He returned home to Turkey in 2009, making a living as an editor on TV projects and documentaries. In addition, he has created several shorts that have been screened at a variety of domestic and international venues. My Father’s Wings represents his first foray into features as a director.
↧
↧

Word Origin | Kuruş, Mangır, Mangiz, Para ,Kayme, Kaime Redux

June 3, 2016, 6:07 am
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk
Copper coin (mangir) dated 1564 (AH 942) from the period of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I (1494-1566) Front of the coin has a geometric motif. The back says "... KOSTANTİNİYE SENE 942". Date 1564 (AH 942)


Kuruş Meninski, Thesaurus [1680], tıpk. Simurg 2000. 

ğroş/ğoroş Ottoman name for Silver Austrian thaler or gold florine.Grosch [1]

First Source: Ahmet Vefik Paşa, Lugat-ı Osmani [1876]ed. Toparlı, TDK 2000. Kamus-ı Türki [1900]facsimile İstanbul 1998. 

ğuruş 120 akçelik gümüş sikke ~ German grosch equaled one gold solidus (ve 12 silver denarius) Old Latin: denarius grossus [2]

Mangır First Source: manḳūr "copper coin" [ (before 1350 ) ] manğur [ Filippo Argenti, Regola del Parlare Turco (1533) ] from Arabic nḳr root word manḳūr منقور formed with sharp tools.

Mangiz slang for money [ Mikhail Mikhailov, Matériaux sur l'argot et les locutions... (1929) ]

Para  Money EN[3] First Source: pāre "parça TR; piece EN [ TDK, Tarama Sözlüğü (before 1400) ] Silver coin larger than  akçeden before 16th century [ (before 1520) ] from Persian  pāre2 پاره  award, tip, money Middle persian (Pehlevi  or Partian) pārak award, loan repayment. In Avesta (Zend) pāra "borrowed funds. Christian Bartholomae, Altiranisches Wörterbuch 889. |Indo-European per- root  price and prize EN

Kayme, Kaime First Source: Takvim-i Vekayi 1832 (Newspaper). sehm kāimesi ottoman treasury bond
Sultan ve Kamuoyu: Osmanlı Modernleşme Sürecinde.. [1844-1848], ed. Kırlı, T. İş B. 2009.1842 

See: From Ottoman Kaime to Republics First Emission
kāime kâğıt para TR; paper money EN from AR ḳāˀima ͭ قائمة [#ḳwm/ḳym fa. f.] stand in place of. Similarly: ikame (ikamet), istikamet, kaim (kaymakam), kavim (akvam), kayme, kayyım, kayyum, kıvam, kıyam, kıyamet, kıymet, makam (kaymakam), mukavemet, mukavim, müstakim, takvim 



"Kaime muaccele" (short-term receipt) for the amount of 10 Ghurush (=Piasters). 5th issue (1852). Ottoman Abdulmecid Kaime 10_Ghurush ND(1852) Size, mm: 80x118 (vertical) Mint: Konstantiniyye


[1] groschen (n.) 1610s, small silver coin formerly used in Germany and Austria, from German groschen, altered from Czech groš, name of a coin (about one-thirtieth of a thaler), from Medieval Latin (denarius) grossus, literally "a thick coin," from Latin grossus "thick" (see gross (adj.), and compare groat).

thaler (n.) old German silver coin; see dollar.

dollar (n.) 1550s, from Low German daler, from German taler (1530s, later thaler), abbreviation of Joachimstaler, literally "(gulden) of Joachimstal," coin minted 1519 from silver from mine opened 1516 near Joachimstal, town in Erzgebirge Mountains in northwest Bohemia. German Tal is cognate with English dale.


dale (n.) Old English dæl "dale, valley, gorge," from Proto-Germanic *dalan "valley" (source also of Old Saxon, Dutch, Gothic dal, Old Norse dalr, Old High German tal, German Tal "valley"), from PIE *dhel- "a hollow" (source also of Old Church Slavonic dolu "pit," Russian dol "valley"). Preserved by Norse influence in north of England. 

[2] GROSSO Its name comes from the Latin grossus[*], "thick", although the papal grosso had completely lost this feature. It was a name also found in other countries, e.g. the English groat. The roman people popularly referred to it as grossetto ("small grosso"), or lustrino ("little shiny"), as it was the smallest silver coin of the system, worth 5 baiocchi, or ½ giulio. 

SCUDO Another old unit found in many lands, whose name derived from the crest or shield (scudo) with the arms of the pope, or king. Some issues, though, have the pope's head. Another name for this coin was piastra. 

[3] money (n.) mid-13c., "coinage, metal currency," from Old French monoie "money, coin, currency; change" (Modern French monnaie), from Latin moneta "place for coining money, mint; coined money, money, coinage," from Moneta, a title or surname of the Roman goddess Juno, in or near whose temple money was coined; perhaps from monere "advise, warn" (see monitor (n.)), with the sense of "admonishing goddess," which is sensible, but the etymology is difficult. Extended early 19c. to include paper money. 

[*] Gross: mid-14c., "large;" early 15c., "thick," also "coarse, plain, simple," from Old French gros "big, thick, fat; tall; strong, powerful; pregnant; coarse, rude, awkward; ominous, important; arrogant" (11c.), from Late Latin grossus "thick, coarse" (of food or mind), in Medieval Latin "great, big" (source also of Spanish grueso, Italian grosso), a word of obscure origin, not in classical Latin. Said to be unrelated to Latin crassus, which meant the same thing, or to German gross "large," but said by Klein to be cognate with Old Irish bres, Middle Irish bras "big." Its meaning forked in English. Via the notion of "coarse in texture or quality" came the senses "not sensitive, dull stupid" (1520s), "vulgar, coarse in a moral sense" (1530s). Via notion of "general, not in detail" came the sense "entire, total, whole, without deductions" (early 15c.), as in gross national product (1947). Meaning "glaring, flagrant, monstrous" is from 1580s; modern meaning "disgusting" is first recorded 1958 in U.S. student slang, from earlier use as an intensifier of unpleasant things (gross stupidity, etc.). 

gross (n.)  "a dozen dozen," early 15c., from Old French grosse douzaine "large dozen;" see gross (adj.). Earlier as the name of a measure of weight equal to one-eighth of a dram (early 15c.). Sense of "total profit" (opposed to net (adj.)) is from 1520s. 

gross (v.)  "to earn a total of," 1884, from gross (adj.) in the "whole, total" sense. Slang meaning "make (someone) disgusted" (usually with out) is from 1971. Related: Grossed; grossing.
↧

Bundestag Armenian Resolution | Karin Karakaşlı Translation

June 3, 2016, 6:55 am
$
0
0
Read German Text in PDF http://dip21.bundestag.de/dip21/btd/18/076/1807648.pdf

Mavi Boncuk |

CDU/CSU, SPD ve Birlik 90/Yeşiller’in Alman Meclis’ine sunduğu tasarı önergesi

1915-1916 döneminde Ermenilere ve diğer Hıristiyan azınlıklara dönük soykırımı hatırlama ve anma

I. Almanya Federal Meclisi şu noktaları saptar:

Almanya Federal Meclisi, yüzyıl önce Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda başlayan, Ermenilere ve diğer Hıristiyan azınlıklara yönelik tehcir ve katliamların kurbanlarının anısı önünde saygıyla eğilir. Parlamento, o dönemin Jöntürk  yönetimi tarafından yapılan ve Osmanlı İmparatorluğu  içerisindeki Ermenilerin neredeyse tamamen yok edilmesine sebebiyet veren eylemlerinin yasını tutar. Aynı dönemde keza başka Hıristiyan toplulukların mensupları, özellikle de Süryani ve Keldaniler de tehcir ve katliamlara maruz kalmıştı.

O dönemin Jöntürk rejiminin emriyle 24 Nisan 1915’te  İstanbul’da bir milyonu aşkın etnik Ermeni’nin planlı tehcir ve yok ediliş süreci başladı. Bu insanların kaderi kitlesel imha, etnik temizlik, tehcir ve evet soykırımlar tarihi açısından örnek teşkil eder ve 20. yüzyıl da dehşet verici bir şekilde bütün bunlardan müteşekkildir. Bunun yanı sıra Almanya’nın suçlu ve sorumlu olduğu Holokost’un biricikliğinin de bilincindeyiz.

Federal Meclis, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun askeri baş müttefiki olan Alman İmparatorluğu’nun  Ermenilerin organize bir şekilde tehcir ve yok edilişine ilişkin Alman diplomatlar ve misyonerler aracılığıyla da gelen açık bilgilere karşın insanlığa karşı bu cürmü durdurmaya çalışmayarak oynadığı yüz kızartıcı rolden ötürü elem içindedir. Almanya Federal Meclisi’nin bu noktadaki anması yeryüzünün en eski Hıristiyan ulusuna karşı saygısının da bir ifadesidir.

Almanya Federal Meclisi 2005 yılındaki kurbanların anılması, aynı zamanda tarihle yüzleşme ve Türklerle Ermenilerin barışına katkı amacını taşıyan kararını (No: 15/5689) güçlendirmektedir.

Bütün partilerin konuşmacıları 24 Nisan 2015’te, yüzüncü yıl anmasında, Almanya Federal Meclisi’ndeki tartışmalar sırasında ve özellikle de bu tartışmadan bir akşam önce Cumhurbaşkanı bizzat, Ermenilere yönelik soykırımı lanetlemiş, kurbanları anmış ve barışma çağrısında bulunmuştur.  Alman İmparatorluğu’nun da bu olaylarda suç ortaklığı vardır.

Federal Meclis, Almanya’nın özel tarihi sorumluluğunu kabul eder.  Türkleri ve Ermenileri geçmişin mezarları üzerinden birlikte barış ve anlayış yolu arayışı konusunda desteklemek de bu sorumluluğun bir parçasıdır. Bu barışma süreci, geçtiğimiz yıllarda tökezlemiştir ve acilen yeniden hareketlendirilmeye ihtiyaç duymaktadır. 

Almanya Federal Meclisi, bu vesileyle sadece tasavvur edilemez vahşilikteki cinayetlerin kurbanlarını değil, aynı zamanda Osmanlı İmparatorluğu ve Alman İmparatorluğu içerisinde, yüzyıl önceki güç koşullar ve o dönemin yönetimlerine karşı farklı yollarla Ermeni kadın, çocuk ve erkeklerin kurtarılması için mücadele eden insanları da saygıyla anar.

Bugün Almanya’nın okul, üniversite ve siyaset eğitiminin içerisinde müfredat ve ders kitaplarına 20. yüzyılın etnik çatışmalar tarihiyle yüzleşilmesi çerçevesinde Ermenilerin tehciri ve yok edilişini de dahil etme ve gelecek kuşaklara aktarma görevi bulunmaktadır. Bu noktada özellikle eyaletlere önemli bir rol düşmektedir. 

Almanya Parlamentosu katliam ve tehcir kurbanlarının Almanya’nın rolü bağlamında anılmasının ve ülkesindeki Türk ve Ermeni kökenli yurttaşları arasında arabuluculuk yapmasının entegrasyona ve bir arada barış içinde yaşama da katkı sağlayacağı görüşündedir.

Almanya Federal Meclisi, Ermenilere yönelik cürümlerin araştırılması ve Ermenilerle Türklerin barışmasını hedefleyen Türkiye’deki bilim, sivil toplum, sanat ve kültür alanlarındaki bütün girişim ve katkıları memnuniyetle karşılamaktadır. 

Almanya Federal Meclisi, kendi hükümetini de Ermenilere yönelik tehcir ve katliamların araştırılması konusuna dikkatini yöneltmeye teşvik eder. Yine Alman Parlamentosu bu sorunun çözümüne  yardım ve destek sağlayacak her türlü girişimi memnuniyetle karşılar.

Almanya’nın kendi tarihi tecrübesi, bir toplum için tarihinin karanlık sayfalarını ele almanın ne derece zor olduğunu göstermiştir. Öte yandan tarihin dürüstçe ele alınması hem toplum içerisinde hem de başkalarıyla barışmanın en önemli temelidir. Bu noktada faillerin suçları ile bugün yaşayanların sorumluluğu arasında ayrım yapmak gerekir. Geçmişin anılması bizi ayrıca nefret ve yıkımın insanları ve halkları tekrar tekrar tehdit etmesi noktasında uyanık olma ve bu durumu önleme konusunda da uyarır. 

Almanya Federal Meclisi, Ermenistan ve Türkiye’den temsilcilerin geçmişi hatırlama ve devletler arası ilişkilerin normalleşmesi yönünde 2005’ten bu yana adım atma çabalarını dikkatle gözlemektedir. Ancak iki devlet arasındaki ilişki halen gergindir ve karşılıklı şüphe barındırmaktadır. Almanya, Türkleri ve Ermenileri birbirilerine yakınlaştırmak konusunda desteklemelidir. Tarihin yapıcı bir şekilde ele alınması bugün ve gelecekte anlayışın temeli açısından kaçınılmazdır. 

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti ile Ermenistan Cumhuriyeti arasındaki gerilimin azaltılması, ilişkinin normalleştirilmesi aynı zamanda Kafkas bölgesi için de önem arz etmektedir. Almanya bu noktada AB komşuluk politikaları çerçevesinde  Alman-Ermeni-Türk ilişkileri içerisindeki tarihi rolü dolayısıyla kendisinde özel bir sorumluluk görmektedir.

II.  Federal Meclis, hükümeti şu noktalarda göreve çağırmaktadır:

- Almanya Federal Meclisi’ndeki, 100. yıldönümüne denk gelen 24 Nisan 2015’teki tartışmanın ruhuna uygun olarak 1915-1916 döneminde Ermenilerin tercihi ve nerdeyse topyekûn imhası, keza Alman İmparatorluğu’nun rolü konusunda geniş ve kamuya açık bir yüzleşmeye katkı sağlamak.

- Türkiye tarafını, o dönemin tehcir ve katliamları ile açık bir şekilde yüzleşmeye teşvik etmek ve böylelikle Ermeni halkı ile barışmak için gereken zeminin temelini atmak. 

- Geçmişin ele alınması aracılığıyla Türkler ve Ermeniler arasında yakınlaşma, barışma ve tarihi suçun affının sağlanması konusunda çalışmaya devam etmek.

- Türklerle Ermeniler arasında görüş alışverişi, yakınlaşma ve tarihin incelenmesine katkı sağlayacak Türkiye’deki ve Ermenistan’daki bilim, sivil toplum ve kültür etkinliklerini desteklemeye ve eldeki tahsisat çerçevesinde maddi katkı sağlamaya devam etmek.

- Barışmanın ve Türk-Ermeni ilişkilerinin fazlasıyla gecikmiş iyileştirilmesi çalışmasının ilk adımı olarak Türkiye ve Ermenistan’ın tarihi olaylarla yüzleşmesini aktif bir şekilde desteklemek; örneğin biliminsanları için burs sağlamak ya da her iki ülkeden tarihin aydınlatılması ve barışma amacıyla çalışan sivil toplum örgütlerine yardımcı olmak.

- Türk ve Ermenistanlı hükümet yetkililerini, iki ülkenin devletler arası ilişkilerine yönelik hali hazırda donmuş durumda bulunan normalleşme sürecini ilerletmeye teşvik etmek.

- Türkiye ve Ermenistan hükümetlerini 2009’da imzalanan ve tarihi bilimsel yöntemle ele alacak bir komisyonun kurulması, diplomatik ilişkilerin yeniden başlaması ve ortak sınırın açılmasını öngören protokolün onayı için ikna etmek.

- Türkiye Cumhuriyeti’nde yakın zamanda başlayan Ermeni mirasının korunması  girişimlerinin devamı ve artması için çaba harcamak.

- Mali imkânlar çerçevesinde Almanya içerisinde 1915/16’da yaşananlarla ilgili yüzleşmeyi konu edinen bilim, sivil toplum, kültür girişim ve projelerini desteklemeye devam etmek.

Berlin,

Volker Kauder, 
Gerda Hasselfeldt ve Partisi

Thomas Oppermann ve Partisi

Katrin Göring-Eckardt, 
Dr. Anton Hofreiter ve Partisi 

Gerekçe:

Birinci Dünya Savaşı sırasında Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Ermenilerin yok edilişi, binlerce yıllık Ermeni tarihi içerisindeki en büyük ve sonuçları en acı felaketti. Bağımsız kaynaklara göre bir milyonu aşkın Ermeni, tehcir ve kitlesel cinayetlere kurban gitti. Sayısız tarafsız tarihçi, parlamento ve uluslararası kurum Ermenilerin tehcir ve yok edilişini soykırım olarak tanımlamaktadır. Bu tehcir ve katliamların anılması bu nedenle din ve dil dışında bu halkın kimliği açısından merkezi anlam ve önem arz etmektedir.

Almanya Federal Meclisi, bu olayları aynı zamanda Birinci Dünya Savaşı’na ilişkin güncel hatırlama edimi çerçevesinde ele almaktadır. Alman İmparatorluğu, Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun temel askeri müttefikiydi. O dönemin Ermenilerin tehciri ve katli konusunda bilgi sahibi olan Alman imparatorluk yönetimi, elindeki bu bilgiye karşın hiçbir şey yapmadı. Federal Almanya Cumhuriyeti, kendisinde geçmişle yüzleşmeyi teşvik etme ve bu konudaki anıları canlı tutma sorumluluğunu hissetmektedir.

Gerçekler aleni olarak ortaya konulmasına karşın, Türkiye bugüne kadar Ermenilere yönelik tehcir, zulüm ve cinayetlerin planlı bir şekilde uygulanmış olduğunu ya da tehcir sırasındaki kitlesel ölümlerin ve yapılan katliamların Osmanlı yönetimini arzusu dahilinde olduğunu  inkâr etmektedir.

Katliamların ve tehcirin boyutuna Türkiye’de toptan şüpheyle yaklaşılmaktadır.   Ancak bu noktada tersine eğilimler de mevcuttur.  2008 yılında her iki ülkenin devlet başkanlarının birlikte bir futbol maçını izlemesi ve böylelikle devam edecek görüşmeler için iradelerini sergilemeleri bir umut vesilesi oldu.  2009’da iki ülkenin Dışişleri bakanları arasında tarihi bilimsel olarak ele almak üzere oluşturulacak bir komisyon kurulmasını da öngören bir protokol imzalandı. Ancak söz konusu protokol bugüne kadar her iki parlamentoda da kabul edilmedi.

İki halkın barışması ancak 100 yıl önceki olayların esaslı bir şekilde aydınlatılması ve gerçeklerin artık daha fazla inkâr edilmemesi halinde mümkün olabilir. Bunun için de Türkiye’deki bilim insanları ve gazetecilerin Ermenilerin tehciri ve öldürülüşü konusundaki araştırmaları özgür ve baskılardan korku duymaksızın yürütülebilmesi elzemdir. Hali hazırda Türkiye’de katliamların araştırılmasını kendisine konu edinmiş pek çok girişim bulunmaktadır. Konu birkaç yıldan bu yana Türk kamuoyunda tartışılmaktadır. Bu gelişmeler, keza yıllardan bu yana Dışişleri tarafından mali olarak desteklenen sınır ötesi sivil toplum projeleri memnuniyetle karşılanmaktadır.

Alman İmparatorluğu da Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nun askeri baş müttefiki olarak bu sürece derinden dahildi. Alman İmparatorluğu’nun gerek siyasi gerekse askeri yönetimi ta başından beri Ermenilerin tehciri ve katledilişi konusunda bilgi sahibiydi. Protestan din adamı Dr. Johannes Lepsius, 5. Ekim 1915’te Almanya Parlamentosu’nda Temmuz/Ağustos 1915’te İstanbul’da yaptığı araştırmaların sonuçlarını sunduğunda,  konu o dönemin Alman yönetimi tarafından tamamen sansürlendi. Aynı şekilde Lepsius’un  doğrudan milletvekillerine yolladığı ‘Türkiye’de Ermeni Halkının Durumuna İlişkin Raporu’ da  1916’da Alman askeri sansür kurulu  tarafından  yasaklanarak rapora el kondu ve milletvekillerine ancak 1919’da Birinci Dünya Savaşı’nın sonunda teslim edildi. Aralarında Philipp Scheidemann, Karl Liebknecht, Matthias Erzberger gibi siyasetçilerin ve  Adolf von Harnack und Lorenz Werthmann gibi Protestan ile Katolik Kiliseleri’nden önemli isimlerin de bulunduğu pek çok Alman bilim insanı, siyasetçi ve dini temsilcinin acil dilekçelerine karşın Alman yönetimi, müttefiki Osmanlı İmparatorluğu üzerinde etkili bir baskı kurma işini sürüncemede bıraktı.

Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda görev yapmış Alman büyükelçi ve konsolosların raporlarına dayanan Alman Dışişleri’ndeki evraklar da katliamların ve tehcirin planlı uygulanışını belgelemektedir. Bu belgeler o zaman meydana gelen olayların en önemli resmi kaydı niteliğindedir.  Alman Dışişleri, yıllar önce bu belgeleri kamuya açmıştır.  1998’de Ermenistan’a söz konusu arşivin tamamı mikroçip olarak takdim edilmiştir. Aynı şekilde Türkiye’ye de bir kopya almıştır.  

Translation: Karin Karakaşlı
↧

Şapparigçe - Alman Usulü by Hrant Dink

June 3, 2016, 6:59 am
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk |

Şapparigçe[1] - Alman Usulü*

Ermeni Sorunu konusunda Alman Parlamentosu’nun oybirliğiyle almış olduğu karar, Fransız Senatosu’nda ya da diğer parlamentolarda kabul edilmiş olanlara benzemiyor.

Bir başkalığı var.

Fena halde kafa karıştırıyor.

Onun içindir ki, bugüne değin bu tür kararlara karşı benzer refleksi gösteren Türkiye, bu kez aynı refleksi bir yaz sağanağı misali sadece ilk gün gösterebildi, arkasını getirmekte güçlük çekti.

Her ne kadar ilk gün Ankara’da Alman Büyükelçiliği önünde gerçekleştirilen protesto gösterisinde bir öfkeye, ardından Başbakan Erdoğan’ın Schröder’e yönelik “Kemiksiz, omurgasız politikacı” suçlamasına tanık olduksa da, ertesi günden itibaren çok çabuk kendimize geldik.

Gördük ki alışıldık refleksin, bu kez bir anlamı yok.

Çünkü Alman kararı diğerlerinden hayli farklı.

Ne de olsa Alman usulü.

***

Öncekiler tamamen Türkiye’ye karşıydı. Hedeflerinde hep Türkiye vardı.

Türkiye’yi suçluyor, soykırımı kabul etmeye davet ediyorlardı.

Tarihle yüzleşmeyi dayatıyorlardı. Ama Almanlar’ınki öyle mi?

“Alman usulü” dedikleri şey tam da bu olsa gerek.

Muhtemelen bencilliklerinden (!), bu kez de hesabı yarı yarıya görmüşler.

Tüm sorumluluğu Türkiye’ye yüklememişler.

Yarısını da kendilerine ayırmışlar.

“Biz de suçluyduk” diyorlar.

***

Peki Türkiye şimdi bu usul karşısında ne yapacak?

Bu usulü hangi usulle cevaplandıracak?

“Almanya’daki Ermeni lobisinin etkisiyle bu kararı aldılar” dese, dediğine kendi inanmayacak. Nitekim koca Almanya’da Ermeniler’in sayısı toplasan toplasan 25 bini geçmiyor. Türkler’in legal sayısı ise üç milyonu aşkın.

“Almanya bize düşmanlığından yapıyor” derse, koca bir nankörlük de o olacak. Adamlar ezelden ve ebedden beri Türkiye’nin müttefiki.

Hele 1915’lerin o kanlı günlerinde, bugünün deyimiyle tam bir “Kanka”.

***

Hani karar oybirliğiyle alınmış olmasa “Merkel bizi zaten istemiyor, onun için yaptı” deyip işin içinden çıkmak da var ama sadece Merkel’in partisi değil ki, firesiz, istisnasız, tam bir oybirliği.

Türkiye’yi destekleyen Yeşiller ve Sosyal Demokratlar da karara ortaklar.

“Ne olacak bu Almanlar zaten soykırımcı, şimdi bu kararla kendilerine baş­ka soykırımcı ortaklar da aramaya çalışıyorlar” diyenler de var, ama o da laf değil.

“Madem onlar soykırımcı, senin onlarla ezeli ortaklığın niye ki?” diye sor­maz­lar mı?

Hem sonra “Üzüm üzüme baka baka kararır” diye de bir söz yok mu?

***

Velhasıl bu Almanlar Türklere çok kötü ihanet ettiler.

“Soykırım” kelimesini kullanmadılar ama ondan da beter bir duruma düşürdüler.

En kötüsü de, ezberini bozdular.

Türkiye ne yapacağını, ne diyeceğini şaşırdı.

“Siz soykırım yaptınız” deselerdi, bundan iyiydi.

Nihayet ona verilecek bir cevap, bir alışkanlık vardı.

“Hayır biz yapmadık, Ermeniler bizi öldürdü, işte toplu mezarlar” denebilirdi.

Ama adamlar şimdi “Biz de sorumluyuz” diyorlar.

Ne denilecek şimdi bu soykırımcılara...

“Hayır siz iyi insanlarsınız, ne olur bir daha düşünün, siz sorumlu olamazsınız” mı?

Sözün kısası: “Kanka”nın ihaneti hakikaten bir başkaymış!  

*Bu yazı, 24 Haziran 2005 yılında Agos Gazetesi'nde yayımlanmıştır. 

[1] Hrant Dink’in ilham verdiği ve Ümit Kıvanç tarafından türetilen bir kelime. Lûgatta şöyle tanımlanmış: “Şapur şupur öpen ağabey mânâsına gelen kelime, Ümit Kıvanç tarafından Hrant Dink'i betimlemek için uydurulmuştur. Ağabey ya da erkek kardeş mânâsına gelen Ermenice ahparig kelimesinden türetilmiştir. SOURCE 
↧
Search

Plenarprotokoll 18/173 Deutscher Bundestag

June 3, 2016, 8:08 am
↧
↧

Country Reports on Terrorism 2015

June 3, 2016, 9:18 am
$
0
0

Country Reports on Terrorism 2105


Country Reports on Terrorism 2015 is submitted in compliance with Title 22 of the United States Code, Section 2656f (the “Act”), which requires the Department of State to provide to Congress a full and complete annual report on terrorism for those countries and groups meeting the criteria of the Act.
Beginning with the report for 2004, it replaced the previously published Patterns of Global Terrorism.

Chapters

-Chapter 1. Strategic Assessment
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: Africa Overview
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: East Asia and Pacific Overview
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: Europe Overview
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: Middle East and North Africa Overview
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: South and Central Asia Overview
-Chapter 2. Country Reports: Western Hemisphere Overview
-Chapter 3: State Sponsors of Terrorism Overview
-Chapter 4: The Global Challenge of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, or Nuclear (CBRN) Terrorism
-Chapter 5: Terrorist Safe Havens (Update to 7120 Report)
-Chapter 6. Foreign Terrorist Organizations
-Chapter 7. Legislative Requirements and Key Terms

Annexes

-National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism: Annex of Statistical Information [Get Acrobat ReaderPDF version   ]
-Terrorism Deaths, Injuries and Kidnappings of Private U.S. Citizens Overseas in 2015

Full Report



Mavi Boncuk |

TURKEY

Overview: Turkey has voiced increasing concern about terrorist groups near its border, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and al-Nusrah Front. In 2015, Turkey continued to face significant internal terrorist threats – including the deadliest attack in Turkey’s history on October 10 – attributed to ISIL – and took strong action in response. Turkey is a source and transit country for foreign terrorist fighters wishing to join these and other groups in Syria and Iraq. The Government of Turkey intensified efforts to interdict the travel of suspected foreign terrorist fighters through Turkey to and from Syria and Iraq. These efforts included the development and implementation of a “banned from entry list;” standing up additional “Risk Analysis Units” to detect suspected foreign terrorist fighters at airports, seaports, bus terminals, and border cities; deploying additional military units to the border; and undertaking physical improvements to the security infrastructure along the border. Cooperation with other source countries increased during the year in response to the foreign terrorist fighter threat, with both Turkey and source countries seeking to improve information sharing. The United States and Turkey also improved their sharing of counterterrorism information. Turkey deported 2,337 suspected foreign terrorist fighters from 85 countries in 2015.

Turkey is an active member of the Global Coalition to Counter ISIL. It served as a co-chair of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF), with the United States and later with the Netherlands, and also co-chaired the Working Group on Foreign Terrorist Fighters (WGFTF) with the Netherlands. The WGFTF held three meetings in 2015, in Istanbul April 7, in The Hague June 9, and in Ankara November 23. Turkey opened Incirlik Air Base to Coalition partners in July and formally joined the Coalition’s air operations against ISIL in August.

Prominent among terrorist groups in Turkey is the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). Following three decades of conflict with the PKK, in late 2012 the Government of Turkey and PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan began talks for a peace process. The PKK called for a ceasefire in March of 2013, which both sides largely observed until July 2015. From January to mid-July 2015, the PKK carried out small-scale armed attacks against Turkey’s security forces and military bases, which killed at least two security personnel. From mid-July to the end of 2015, more than 180 security personnel died from PKK-attributed attacks. On July 24, Turkish security forces launched large-scale operations against the PKK, as well as operations against ISIL-affiliated targets. Turkish military airstrikes against PKK camps, shelters, underground bunkers and weapon emplacements in Turkey’s southeast and Northern Iraq continued through year’s end.

In 2015, Turkey continued to face significant internal terrorist threats and took strong action in response. Activity by the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), a terrorist Marxist-Leninist group with anti-U.S. and anti-NATO views that seeks the violent overthrow of the Turkish state, threatened the security of both U.S. and Turkish interests. So too did the actions of the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons/Hawks (TAK).

Another terrorist group in Turkey is Turkish (Kurdish) Hizballah (unrelated to the similarly-named Hizballah that operates in Lebanon). The Government of Turkey considers the Turkish Workers’ and Peasants’ Liberation Army, and the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP), although largely inactive, to be threats. Turkey also considers the Syria-based Democratic Union Party and its military wing, The People’s Protection Units, to be terrorist organizations. The Government of Turkey continued to engage diplomatically with Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Meshaal.

According to Turkey’s semi-official news agency, the Anadolu Agency, from July 24 to November 20, the Turkish National Police (TNP) carried out counterterrorism operations against 7,303 suspects belonging to PKK, ISIL, and other terrorist organizations. Of the 5,624 PKK suspects detained and officially questioned, 1,602 were arrested, while 2,908 were released by judicial order and 1,114 were released under judicial control. Of the 1,132 ISIL suspects detained, 346, including 63 non-Turkish foreign nationals were arrested, while 588 were released by judicial order and 198 were released on judicial control. Of the 386 DHKP/C, MLKP, and other terrorist suspects detained, 122 suspects were arrested, while 167 were released by judicial order and 97 were released on judicial control.

Turkey is a long-standing counterterrorism partner of the United States. It continued to receive U.S. assistance to address the terrorist threat posed by the PKK in 2015. The ceasefire between the PKK and the Turkish government ended in July. In October and November, the PKK issued a unilateral declaration of inaction, but small-scale incidents continued.

2015 Terrorist Incidents: Representative attacks included:

On January 6, a female suicide bomber detonated her vest at a police station in Istanbul's central Sultanahmet district. The attack killed one police officer and injured another. The assailant was identified as a Russian citizen from Dagestan, who had links to ISIL.
On June 5, four civilians were killed and more than 100 were injured in two bomb blasts at an election rally of the People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Diyarbakir. The assailant was subsequently identified as an ISIL member and arrested on charges of intentional homicide and membership in a terrorist organization.
On July 20, 32 civilians were killed and 104 were injured in a suicide bombing at the Amara Culture Center in the Suruc district of Sanliurfa province. Victims were mostly members of the Socialist Party of the Oppressed (ESP) youth wing and the Socialist Youth Associations Federation (SGDF). The assailant, an ethnic Kurd from Adiyaman, was tied to ISIL.
On July 23, ISIL opened fire on Turkish border elements in Kilis, which killed one noncommissioned officer. The incident prompted Turkey to launch “Operation Martyr Yalcin,” a series of airstrikes against ISIL positions in Northern Syria. Four Turkish security personnel died as a result of ISIL attacks since July 20.
On August 10, two individuals fired weapons at the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul. One assailant escaped, and the other was captured and subsequently identified as a member of the DHKP/C.
On October 10, 102 people died and more than 400 were injured in twin suicide bombings outside Ankara’s central railway station. The bombs targeted a "Labor, Peace and Democracy" rally organized by the Peoples' Democratic Party, the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions of Turkey, the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, the Turkish Medical Association and the Confederation of Public Workers' Unions. One of the two suicide bombers was identified as the younger brother of the perpetrator of the July 20 Suruc bombing. Both brothers had suspected links to ISIL and the ISIL-affiliated “Dokumacilar” group based in Turkey’s Adiyaman province.
On December 23, TAK conducted a mortar attack against Istanbul’s Sabiha Gokcen International Airport. One person was killed, another wounded, and several passenger planes were damaged in the attack.
Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: Counterterrorism law enforcement efforts in Turkey remained focused on the domestic threat posed by several terrorist groups, including the PKK. Although resources have also been devoted towards countering threats posed by international terrorist organizations, Turkey’s methodology and legislation are geared towards confronting this internal threat. Efforts to counter international terrorism are hampered by legislation that defines terrorism narrowly as a crime targeting the Turkish state or Turkish citizens, although courts have begun to interpret the term more broadly to include all activities associated with foreign terrorist fighters transiting Turkey to join ISIL, including facilitation networks. Turkey’s definition of terrorism can be an impediment to operational and legal cooperation against global terrorist networks.

On August 31, the Ministry of Interior instituted a program providing monetary rewards to individuals who volunteer information to the government about suspected terrorists and terrorist-related activities. A seven-member interagency commission representing the police and gendarmerie may award up to approximately US $69,000 to an individual should the information lead to the apprehension of a terrorist or of an individual who provides information about a terrorist’s identity or location. Information pertaining to the capture of a high-level terrorist or preventing significant criminal acts against society may be awarded up to approximately US $1.38 million upon the approval of the Interior Minister. Members of law enforcement, the military and employees of the Turkish government assigned to counterterrorism tasks are not eligible to benefit from the program.

On October 8, in support of these initiatives, the government launched a website (http://www.terorarananlar.pol.tr) that provides information on the identity of wanted terrorists categorized in order of importance, and the corresponding monetary award for information leading to their capture.

Due to amendments made in 2013, Turkey’s counterterrorism legislation conforms more closely to EU freedom of expression standards, has a narrower definition of terrorist propaganda, and criminalizes propagation of the declarations of an illegal organization only if the content legitimizes or encourages acts of violence, threats or force. Nevertheless, the legislation remains broad-reaching and is still being widely applied. In 2015, Turkish authorities continued to use it to detain and prosecute politicians, reporters, and activists.

While Turkey’s law enforcement capacity is advanced, criminal procedure secrecy rules continued to prevent Turkish National Police (TNP) authorities from sharing investigative information once a prosecutor is assigned to the case, which occurs almost immediately.

The Government of Turkey compiled a “banned from entry list” with a view to prevent travel into Turkey by individuals identified by foreign governments and internal security units as potential foreign terrorist fighters. Although the Turkish government does not have an automated Advanced Passenger Information/Passenger Name Record system, it has approached the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for technical assistance in developing its own automated system. Risk Analysis Units operated at major international and domestic airports, land border crossings, interior transit terminals, and border cities to identify and interdict potential foreign terrorist fighters. Border forces increased their ability to patrol and interdict persons and contraband from crossing the border. According to government statistics, during the April to November timeframe, Turkish military units along the Syria-Turkey border apprehended more than 110,000 individuals, mostly refugees, attempting to illegally cross the border.

The TNP has highly developed counterterrorism capabilities in a number of areas and is planning to expand its law enforcement training for other countries in the region. Notwithstanding police capacity, Turkey’s criminal justice system is only beginning to show success in prosecuting and dismantling terrorist or organized crime organizations.

The Department of State provided select bilateral and regional trainings in the areas of border security, aviation security, and investigations, in partnership with Turkish law enforcement authorities and counterparts.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: Turkey is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and an observer of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, a FATF-style regional group. In October 2014, the FATF cited improvements in Turkey’s counterterrorism finance (CFT) regime and approved Turkey’s exit from the targeted follow-up process of the third round of mutual evaluations. No terrorism finance cases were prosecuted in 2015.

While the Government of Turkey has issued freezing orders without delay (three to five days), it remains unknown whether any assets have actually been frozen. Freezing orders are published in the official Gazette. The nonprofit sector is not audited on a regular basis for CFT vulnerabilities and does not receive adequate anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism outreach or guidance from the Turkish government. The General Director of Foundations issues licenses for charitable foundations and oversees them, but there are a limited number of auditors to cover the more than 70,000 institutions.

The Department of State supported a Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) from the Department of Justice’s Office of Overseas Prosecutorial Development and Assistance Training, based in-country. The RLA partnered with Turkish counterparts on programs to enhance legal frameworks and the investigative skillsets of law enforcement officials to effectively counter the financing of terrorism.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2016 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Countering Violent Extremism: The Turkish government has two significant programs to counter violent extremism. The first, administered by the Turkish National Police, is a broad-based outreach program to affected communities, similar to anti-gang activities in the United States. Police work to reach vulnerable populations (before terrorists do) to alter the prevailing group dynamics and to prevent recruitment. Police use social science research to undertake social projects, activities with parents, and in-service training for officers and teachers. Programs prepare trainers, psychologists, coaches, and religious leaders to intervene to undermine violent extremist messages and to prevent recruitment.

The second program, administered by the Turkish government’s Religious Affairs Office (Diyanet), works to undercut violent extremist messaging. In Turkey, all Sunni imams are employees of the Diyanet. In support of its message of traditional religious values, more than 140,000 Diyanet religious officials throughout Turkey conducted individualized outreach to their congregations. The Diyanet similarly worked with religious associations among the Turkish diaspora to provide them with access to instruction and to assist them in establishing umbrella organizations. The Diyanet supported in-service training for religious officials and lay-workers via a network of 20 centers throughout Turkey.

On August 10, Diyanet released a report “DAESH’s Basic Philosophy and Religious References” which provided a Quran-based refutation of ISIL’s interpretation of Islam.

International and Regional Cooperation: Turkey is an active member of the UN, NATO, and the Committee of Experts on Terrorism. Turkey is a founding member of the GCTF and is co-chair with the Netherlands (previously with the United States); as co-chair, Turkey provided extensive secretariat support. It is also a co-chair for the GCTF’s Horn of Africa Working Group. Turkey also participated in OSCE expert meetings on the Prevention of Violent Extremism and Radicalization that Lead to Terrorism organized by the OSCE/Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights and the OSCE Secretariat. It is also a founding member of the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law and seconded a judicial expert to the Institute to assist with trainings for judges and prosecutors who are handling terrorism cases.

The Government of Turkey is considering effective means to implement UNSCR 2178. As GCTF co-chair, it is developing policies in line with the framework of The Hague – Marrakech Memorandum on Good Practices for a More Effective Response to the "Foreign Terrorist Fighters" Phenomenon.

Turkey increased its cooperation with European countries regarding the activities of members of the DHKP/C. It also worked with countries from Asia, Europe, North Africa, North America and the Middle East to interdict the travel of potential foreign terrorist fighters planning to travel through Turkey to Syria.
↧

Empty Seats and Empty Hopes from Bundestag

June 3, 2016, 10:49 am
$
0
0

Voted by show of hands of around 250 members only. Out of 631 [1]members who knows who attended. Not Legal or political. Non binding theatro-political action. House speaker Norbert Lammert spoke of a "remarkable majority." How many members were there. 150 plus. 25% of members is an overwhelming majority in Bundestag.

Präsident Dr. Norbert Lammert[2]: Wer stimmt für diesen Antrag? – Wer stimmt dagegen?– Wer enthält sich der Stimme? – Dann ist bei einer Gegenstimme und einer Enthaltung diese Entschließung mit einer bemerkenswerten Mehrheit des Deutschen Bundestages angenommen.

(show of hands) Then at a Vote against and one abstention this resolution with a remarkable majority of German Bundestag adopted. (clapping in the Bundestag)

Mavi Boncuk |

Even before Germany's Bundestag lower house of parliament passed the symbolic resolution by an overwhelming majority, Turkey's prime minister had condemned the motion as "irrational" and said it would test the friendship between the NATO partners.

Germany's Bundestag passed a resolution qualifying the Ottoman era Armenian killings as 'genocide'. The lower house of parliament voted almost unanimously, with one vote against the motion and one abstention. House speaker Norbert Lammert spoke of a "remarkable majority."

The vote in the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, was nearly unanimous, with one lawmaker voting against and another abstaining. Ms. Merkel and the two most senior Social Democrat ministers — Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier — were not present.

Norbert Lammert, the president of the Bundestag, kicked off the debate with a clear message. “Parliament is not a historians’ commission, and certainly not a court,” he said. He added that the current Turkish government “is not responsible for what happened 100 years ago, but it does have responsibility for what becomes of this” in present times.

Mr. Lammert, a Christian Democrat, labeled the Ottomans’ killing of Armenians as genocide last year. Particularly because of “our own chapters of dark history,” Germans know that only by working through past events can one achieve reconciliation and cooperation, Mr. Lammert said on Thursday.

Turkey's official line is that ethnic Armenians represented a fifth column backed by Russia during World War I, and that the mass deportation and accompanying Armenian deaths were not premeditated or intentional - a key requirement in the legal definition of genocide.

Three largest Turkish political parties condemned Thursday's German resolution in a joint declaration. The statement by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) was read out at the parliament.
The pro-Kurdish opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) did not take part in the declaration. 

Germany has been working with Turkey on an agreement with the EU to stem the flow of migrants and refugees to Europe. Prior to Thursday’s vote, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the “genocide” designation could hurt “diplomatic, economic, business, political and military ties” between the two countries.

[1] The Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany: The German Bundestag is the national Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its seat is the Reichstag Building in Berlin. In the current electoral term, Parliament is composed of 630 Members. This is the 18th electoral term since the establishment of the Federal Republic in 1949. 

 [2] The President of the German Bundestag holds the second highest office of state in Germany, after the Federal President. Professor Norbert Lammert has held the position of President of the Bundestag since 2005. He is a member of the largest parliamentary group, the CDU/CSU.
↧

Dave Brubeck Quartet "Blue Rondo à la Turk,"

June 6, 2016, 9:13 am
$
0
0
Dave Brubeck Quartet "Blue Rondo à la Turk,"[1]


Mavi Boncuk |

"...He was most famous for “Take Five,” which the Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded in 1959, for their album “Time Out.” There’s a story behind the song. In the nineteen-fifties, the U.S. State Department cultivated a group of “jazz ambassadors,” whom they would send on tour around the world to demonstrate the overwhelming coolness of American culture. In 1958, they sent the Dave Brubeck Quartet to East Germany, Poland, Turkey, Afghanistan, India, Sri Lanka, Iran, and Iraq. Fred Kaplan, in his book “1959,” describes the origin of “Time Out” this way:

Walking around Istanbul one morning, Brubeck heard a group of street musicians playing an exotic rhythm, fast and syncopated. It was in 9/8 time—nine eighth notes per measure—a very unusual meter for Western music…. Later that day, Brubeck had an interview scheduled at a local radio station. Like many broadcasters at the time, the station had its own symphony orchestra. When Brubeck arrived, the musicians were taking a break from a rehearsal. He told some of them about the rhythm that he’d heard on the streets and asked if anyone knew what it was. He hummed the tune, and several of the musicians started playing it, adding flourishes and counterpoint, even improvising on it. It was a traditional Turkish folk song, widely known—in Turkey.

As the tour continued, Brubeck kept listening for interesting rhythms, and he kept asking his quartet to experiment with them. Later, back in the States, the group recorded “Time Out”—an album of songs with unusual time signatures. “Take Five,” which is written in 5/4 time, was the breakout hit single. On the single’s b-side was “Blue Rondo a la Turk,” a song written in 9/8 time, like the music Brubeck had heard in Istanbul. SOURCE 

See Also : In Memoriam | Dave Brubeck (1920- 2012)

 [1] "Blue Rondo à la Turk" is a jazz standard composition by Dave Brubeck. It appeared on the album Time Out in 1959. It is written in 9/8 and 4/4. It was originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet with Dave Brubeck at piano, Paul Desmond at alto saxophone, Eugene Wright at bass, and Joe Morello at drums. Brubeck heard this unusual rhythm performed by Turkish musicians on the street. Upon asking the musicians where they got the rhythm, one replied "This rhythm is to us what the blues is to you." Hence the title "Blue Rondo à la Turk."[The rhythm consists of three measures of 2+2+2+3 followed by one measure of 3+3+3 and the cycle then repeats. (See additive rhythm.) Although the theme of Time Out is non-common-time signatures, things are not quite so simple. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" starts in 9/8, with a typically Balkan 2+2+2+3 subdivision into short and long beats (the rhythm of the Turkish zeybek, equivalent of the Greek zeibekiko) as opposed to the more Western 3+3+3 pattern, but the saxophone and piano solos are in 4/4. The title is a play on Mozart's "Rondo alla Turca" from his Piano Sonata No. 11, and reflects the fact that the band heard the rhythm while traveling in Turkey. In 2003, during an interview, Dave Brubeck commented that "I should've just called it 'Blue Rondo', because the title just seemed to confuse people.
↧

Harry S. Truman wants to go to Constantinople

June 6, 2016, 9:45 am
$
0
0
Letter, Harry S. Truman to Mary Ethel Noland, January 20, 1919. Correspondence File, Noland Papers.

HARRY S. TRUMAN, 33rd President of the United States, from 1905 to 1911, served in the Missouri National Guard. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, he helped organize the 2nd Regiment of Missouri Field Artillery, which was quickly called into Federal service as the 129th Field Artillery and sent to France. Truman was promoted to Captain and given command of the regiment's Battery D. He and his unit saw action in the Vosges, Saint Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne campaigns. Truman joined the reserves after the war, rising eventually to the rank of colonel. He sought to return to active duty at the outbreak of World War II, but Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall declined his offer to serve. On June 28, 1919, Truman married Bess Wallace, whom he had known since childhood. Their only child, Mary Margaret, was born on February 17, 1924. From 1919 to 1922 he ran a men's clothing store in Kansas City with his wartime friend, Eddie Jacobson. The store failed in the postwar recession. Truman narrowly avoided bankruptcy, and through determination and over many years he paid off his share of the store's debts.



Mavi Boncuk |

Camp LaBeholle
Near Verdun
Jan 20, 1919
My Dear Cousins:

      Your very interesting and highly appreciated letter arrived day before yesterday and I was most happy to hear from you especially that you had out fought and conquered the "flu." I only heard you had it about a week before I got your letter saying you were getting well. You've no idea how uneasy I've been with you and Mary[1] and Bess all sick with the dreadful thing. I guess I can somewhat appreciate how the home folks felt when we were a little under fire. Our risks do not seem to have been one half as great as those for whom we supposed we were taking them. For my part I've had a very enjoyable trip, have seen France after dark mostly and on foot some times, really got to see some pretty severe fighting (from a safe distance), have collected a few souvenirs, been to Paris Nice and Marseilles and since I can't go to Jerusalem and Constantinople, I am very anxious that Woodie[2] cease his gallevantin' around and send us home at once and quickly. 

As far as we're concerned most of us don't give a whoop (to put it mildly) whether Russia has a Red Government or no Government and if the King of the Lollipops wants to slaughter his subjects or his Prime Minister it's all the same to us. The Hun is whipped and is fast killing and murdering himself so why should we be kept over here to brow beat a Peace Conference that'll skin us anyway. As I told you before Germany fought for land, England for sea (and she's got it) France for liberty and we fought for souvenirs (helmets, skulls, teeth and belt buckles principly [sic]) and I bet we've got several ship loads in the A.E.F. 

You've no idea how disgusting peace soldiering is to most of us. When there was a great object to be obtained we'd study our heads off to accomplish it, work at night, march half across France, sleep in the mud and do anything to get there. But now - well some old General has gone horse crazy and he sends around inspectors (mostly staff Cols & Majs who didn't get thier [sic] feet off the desk during the argument) who tell us that the horses need currying morning noon and night, that they must be fed chaff out of the hay, and if they won't eat it why salt it so they will. We haven't the salt most of the time. Then some other nut comes along and wants 'em to have oatmeal cooked and we don't get started on that until another one comes along and says not [to] do it. The next bird is a more maniac on soft soaping harness and another one forces us to make the men sleep with only three blankets when they've been used to four and so it goes from day to day. You know those fellows half of 'em never saw a man until they inspected thier [sic] first National Guard organization and the other half never saw a man nor a horse and as to hearing any shells drop well staff headquarters is always in a nice safe place emhasis on the safe. Most of 'em are West Pointers and old army men and you know that when a great many of those fellows were made the good Lord forgot to give 'em a good share of common sense. Next time they want a war fought I reckon the same kind of a bunch will fight it that fought this one and after it's over they'll give the professional fighters nice soft jobs just as they've done now. 

For my part I don't care a hoot because I'm going to be happy following a mule down a corn row for the rest of my happy existance [sic]. No one wants to be a proffessional [sic] soldier who is not as the youth who answered at West Point when they asked him why he wanted to go there; that the world was going to be divided into the oppressors and the oppressed and he wanted to be among the former. I bet he was of German extraction. Enough of such foolishness.


It's some work to keep 190 men out of devilment now. I have to think up all sorts of tortures for delinquents . It's very very lucky that we are far from wine women and song or we'd have one h--- of a time. Sometimes I have to soak a man with extra duty that I sure hate to punish. You know justice is an awful tyrant and if I give one man a nice kindly wagon to wash on Sunday because he went to Verdun without asking me if he could then I've got to give another one the same dose if he does the same thing even if he has the most plausible excuse. I'm crazy about every one of 'em and I wouldn't trade any ornerest [sic] buck private for anybody's top sergeant. It very nearly breaks my heart sometimes to have to be mean as the dickens to some nice boy who has been a model soldier on the front and whose mail I've probably censored and I know he's plum crazy about some nice girl at home but that makes no difference. I have to make 'em walk the chalk. You'd never recognize me when I'm acting Bty Commander. 

      I hope this won't bore you to death and that Aunt Ella and Uncle Joe, Nellie, Ruth [3] and all the kids are well and happy and that you'll write me when you feel like it.
     

Most Sincerely
Harry
Harry S Truman
Capt Bty D 129FA
American EF

SOURCE: The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum 

[1] Mary Jane Truman, Harry's sister 
[2] Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States 
[3] Margaret Ellen (Ella) Truman Noland, Aunt of Harry S. Truman 
Joseph T. Noland, Uncle of Harry S. Truman 
Ellen Tilford (Nellie) Noland, First cousin of Harry S. Truman 
Ruth Noland Ragland, First cousin of Harry S. Truman
↧
↧

1948 | Declassified Kurdish Report

June 6, 2016, 10:01 am
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk |  1948 | Declassified Kurdish Report See PDF

↧

Declassified | US Support for Kurds in Iraq

June 7, 2016, 6:59 am
$
0
0
US Support for Kurds in Iraq | Memorandum for Ambassador Helms Re: Kurdish assistance.

Mavi Boncuk |

See also 6 page letter of support
↧
Search

Staging the Ottoman Turk | British Drama, 1656–1792

June 7, 2016, 7:08 am
$
0
0
"Undoubtedly a major scholarly contribution to the discussion and analysis of the European perceptions and stereotyping of the Turkish image and the Turkish Orient... A very useful study that will certainly appeal not only to students of English literature but also to historians, students of cultural studies, and those interested in Orientalism in general and the Ottoman Orient in particular." Himmet Umunç, Baskent University, Ankara 

 Mavi Boncuk |

Staging the Ottoman Turk | British Drama, 1656–1792
Esin Akalin[1]
ibidem Press

In the wake of the fear that gripped Europe after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, English dramatists, like their continental counterparts, began representing the Ottoman Turks in plays inspired by historical events. The Ottoman milieu as a dramatic setting provided English audiences with a common experience of fascination and fear of the Other. The stereotyping of the Turks in these plays—revolving around complex themes such as tyranny, captivity, war, and conquests—arose from their perception of Islam. The Ottomans' failure in the second siege of Vienna in 1683 led to the reversal of trends in the representation of the Turks on stage. As the ascending strength of a web of European alliances began to check Ottoman expansion, what then began to dazzle the aesthetic imagination of eighteenth century England was the sultan's seraglio with images of extravaganza and decadence. In this book, Esin Akalin draws upon a selective range of seventeenth and eighteenth century plays to reach an understanding, both from a non-European perspective and Western standpoint, how one culture represents the other through discourse, historiography, and drama. The book explores a cluster of issues revolving around identity and difference in terms of history, ideology, and the politics of representation. In contextualizing political, cultural, and intellectual roots in the ideology of representing the Ottoman/Muslim as the West's Other, the author tackles with the questions of how history serves literature and to what extent literature creates history.

[1] Esin Akalin teaches in the department of English language and literature at Istanbul Kültür University. She has written and directed several bilingual plays in Canada. Her research interests include early modern drama, modern drama, and gender studies.

PUB DATE: October 2016
ISBN: 9783838269191
352 pages
FORMAT: E-book

PUB DATE: October 2016
ISBN: 9783838209494
352 pages
FORMAT: Paperback

↧

Sinan, the Wright Architect

June 8, 2016, 1:06 pm
$
0
0
"Less[1] is only more where more is no good." Frank Lloyd Wright

Mavi Boncuk |

Every great architect is – necessarily – a great poet. He must be a great original interpreter of his time, his day, his age,” proclaimed the famed 20th-century American architect Frank Lloyd Wright. The ever-humble Mr. Wright also maintained that there were only two architects in the history of the world worth talking about: himself and Mimar Sinan[2].

Frank Lloyd Wright, wrote in his book: ‘Two architects have come on earth. The first one is the Ottoman architect Sinan and the other one is myself. Sinan was a contemporary of both Italian Michelangelo and British Christopher Wren. While the cracks on the dome.., built by Michelangelo are being repaired by iron hoops by the blacksmiths of Rome. Sinan’s temples will stand until Doomsday.’

[1] Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969) adopted the motto "Less is more" to describe his aesthetic tactic of arranging the necessary components of a building to create an impression of extreme simplicity—he enlisted every element and detail to serve multiple visual and functional purposes; for example, designing a floor to also serve as the radiator, or a massive fireplace to also house the bathroom.

[2] Sinan served four Sultans and was profoundly admired and appreciated by all of them. He had 77 properties, 40 of which were shops, inns, Turkish baths. Before he died, he established and funded a waqf (charity trust) and specified in his will that the house he resided in be made into a school, with six akche a day (old currency) to be allocated for the teachers of that school, and that orphans and widows be given clothes, and wood and coal for heating. Only a small percentage of the income of the trust was given to his family in accordance with the will. He also wished that one-thirtieth of the Qur’an be recited for his soul’s sake and one akche be given for this. As we learn from the biographies written of him, he was a very generous man. Every day and evening, some twenty to thirty people used to come and eat at his expense.
↧
↧

Istanbul | The Spirit of Mediterranean Places by Michel Butor

June 9, 2016, 9:38 am
$
0
0
"I woke up in the train, which was still moving. I lifted the curtain and looked out. I had never in my life seen such desolation. Rain was falling on the Thrace plateau, where not a single tree grew, only small thorny bushes and asphodels among its pebbles. Here and there, inside barbed wire enclosures near their sheet metals camps, Turkish soldiers watched the railway cars go by, coming from the West. We were already several hours late. I closed the curtain and went back to sleep.

The next thing I saw was the long stretch of suburbs on the shores of the Marmara, the airfield and the beaches, then the great golden gate with its two cracked towers of marble white, the maritime ramparts through which we slowly snaked our way, the tall houses of gray wood, the irregular squares, which were not level but littered with rubble, the rising streets, the swarming crowds, the minarets like great pencils.

It was hard getting out of the station. The platform was being repaired, and I had to make my way among piles of stones. The weather had cleared a little. As soon as I emerged into the square, I was caught up and deafened by stridency of the city, by the noise of its taxis and red, yellow or green tramways with their grinding switches, and large billboards proclaiming the merits of different banks wherever you looked on the black facades of this Oriental Liverpool. 

It was lucky for me there was rain and fog the first time I crossed the floating bridge of Galata, which breathes gently under your feet every time a tugboat goes by. This bridge is in fact both a bridge and a railway station with two levels, with many iron stairways, flanked by loading quays with landing steps, for the Bosphorus, the Princes Islands or Eyup; with ticket windows, waiting rooms, shops, and cafes, congested with a crowd of fishermen dropping their nylon lines, leaning on the railings or crouching on the edges, and with travelers carrying their baskets, or people walking by, dressed in European style, except for their fur caps, but mostly with profoundly foreign faces, with olive skin, wide cheekbones, a slow and uncertain gait. 

The coast of Asia was barely visible. Soaked to the skin, worn out because I had been walking for so long, I sat down to drink a glass of tea at a little square green-painted table. In the room, which was decorated only by advertisements in Turkish, other customers were also drinking in silence. Like me, they watched the people walked by, serious in their dark and dull suits, passing between us and the overloaded river buses coming alongside, the small boats in which men were frying freshly-caught fish over a cooker and stuffing half of each fish into a round loaf, other small boats painted and even sometimes sculpted and hung round with old pieces of tire to cushion the bumps, large caiques with sails, long strings of black barges, to the left the big ships that ran to Smyrna and Alexandria, to the right the cranes, the smoke from the trains, the trees of Gulhane Park, and, above the roofs of the Seraglio with its odd bell tower like a French church, the cupola of Saint Irené, then the Sophia looking as though it were floating, as though it were being borne away in a very slow, imperturbable flight by its four enormous buttresses. "

Mavi Boncuk | Butor visited istanbul twice in 1969 and was a guest at a book fair in 1997.

The Spirit of Mediterranean Places
Michel Butor[1], Trans. by Lydia Davis PDF LINK (excerpt) 

This book gathers French writer Michel Butor's essays on his travel in the Mediterranean. Included are pieces on Cordova, Istanbul, Salonica, Delphi, Crete, and northern Italy, as well as an extended essay on Egypt--where, when he was 24, Butor spent a year teaching French in a secondary school. Michel Butor is one of the leading exponents of the avant-garde writing that emerged in France in the 1950s .


The Spirit of Mediterranean Places A collection of dense, dreamy travel essays, first published in France in 1958, by an acclaimed poet, critic, and proponent of the ""new novel."" Butor's travelogues, like his novels, excel in exact descriptions of physical states. Here, landscapes are often reduced to geometric patterns; Cordova is remembered for ""the cleanliness of the sun and the coolness of the precise shadows it cast, triangles or trapezoids changing proportions according to the day and the hour."" Other places whose patterns Butor traces include Istanbul (an ""Oriental Liverpool""), Salonica, Mantua, Ferrara, and Minya in Middle Egypt, where he passed eight months as a French language instructor. Sometimes the descriptions are impossibly gaseous or vague; of Istanbul, Butor claims in a typical French hyperintellectual inflation that ""this city was at the origin of everything, it has left its mark on everything."" Kirkus Review


[1] Michel Butor (b. 14 September 1926) is a French writer. Michel Marie François Butor was born in Mons-en-Barœul, a suburb of Lille. He studied philosophy at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1947. He has taught in Egypt, Manchester, Salonika, the United States, and Geneva. He has won many literary awards for his work, including the Prix Apollo, the Prix Fénéon; and the Prix Renaudot.

Journalists and critics have associated his novels with the nouveau roman, but Butor himself has long resisted that association. The main point of similarity is a very general one, not much beyond that; like exponents of the nouveau roman, he can be described as an experimental writer. His best-known novel, La Modification, for instance, is written entirely in the second person.

In his 1967 La critique et l'invention, he famously said that even the most literal quotation is already a kind of parody because of its "trans-contextualization."
For decades now, he has chosen to work in other forms, from essays to poetry to artist's books[6] to unclassifiable works like Mobile. Literature, painting and travel are subjects particularly dear to Butor. Part of the fascination of his writing is the way it combines the rigorous symmetries that led Roland Barthes to praise him as an epitome of structuralism (exemplified, for instance, by the architectural scheme of Passage de Milan or the calendrical structure of L'emploi du temps) with a lyrical sensibility more akin to Baudelaire than to Robbe-Grillet.
↧

Turkish Fish Names in Armenian

June 9, 2016, 9:43 am
$
0
0
Mavi Boncuk | Compiled by Dr Sarkis Adam

Kırlangıç: ԾԻԾԵՌՆԱԿԱՁՈՒԿ  (Dzidzernagadzug)
Levrek: ԼԱԲՐԱԿ   (Laprag)
Lüfer: ԼԻՒՖԷՐ (Lüfer)
Mavi balık ԿԱՊՈՒՅՏ ՁՈՒԿ(Gabuyd Dzug)
Mercan: ՄԱՐՋԱՆ ՁՈՒԿ(Marcan Dzug)
Midye: ՈՒԼԱԿԱՆՋ,    (Ulaganç)
Balık kulağı :ՁԿՆԱԿԱՆՋ   (Dzıgnaganç)
Palamut: ԹԻՒՆՆՈՍ  (Tünnos)
Pavurya: ՄԵԾ ԽԵՑԳԵՏԻՆ (Medz Khetskedin)
Sardalye: ԱՂԿԵՐ  (Ağhger)
Sazan Balığı: ԾԱԾԱՆ (Dzadzan)
Somon  ՍԱՂՄՈՆ (Sağhmon)
Alabalık:ԻՇԽԱՆԱՁՈՒԿ  (İşkhanadzug),
Sevan balığı: ՍԵՒԱՆԱՁՈՒԿ (Sevanadzug)
Tekir : ԱՐՔԱՅԱՁՈՒԿ  (Arkayadzug)
Turna Balığı : ԳԱՅԼԱՁՈՒԿ (Kayladzug)
Gringa balığı ԿՌՆԿԱՁՈՒԿ  (Grngadzug)
Uskumru : ԹԻՒՆԻԿ  (Tünıg)
İsdiridye  ՈՍՏՐԷ  (Vosdre)

See also: Baliklar

Word Origin | Barbunya, Tekir, Kefal, Likornoz 
Word origin | çiroz, lakerda, garato, botargo, havyar, tarama, abudaraho 
Many names of Lüfer | Pomatomus saltatrix 
Pomatomus Saltatrix and Trigla Lucerna Time 
Recommended | Fish Culture 
Istanbul and Fish 
Fish from Turkey 
↧

Kurds | Memo for Kissinger from Saunders June 7, 1972

June 9, 2016, 1:20 pm
$
0
0

Mavi Boncuk | LINK to Document from Nixon Library | Memo for Kissinger from Saunders June 7, 1972[1]

[1] Harold Henry Saunders was the United States Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs between 1978 and 1981.
↧
Viewing all 3499 articles
Browse latest View live
Search