Comments on: Taraf, the military and taking sides http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/ I live in Rumeli Hisari. It is from here, the very edge of the European landmass, that I observe the world. Some of these observations I will share on this blog as a Open Society Fellow. Sat, 09 Jul 2011 00:08:58 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: emre http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/comment-page-1/#comment-3012 emre Sun, 13 Sep 2009 01:22:58 +0000 http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/#comment-3012 I appreciate Taraf very strongly. They are helping the country change. Kemalists need to understand that we are now living in a different age and most of the ideologies are not universal including some part of kemalism. As some people are living 500 years behind, they are still living in the early 20th sentury. Let's try a real democracy. Being modern is not about showing the hair, it is about being pluralist. I appreciate Taraf very strongly. They are helping the country change. Kemalists need to understand that we are now living in a different age and most of the ideologies are not universal including some part of kemalism. As some people are living 500 years behind, they are still living in the early 20th sentury. Let’s try a real democracy. Being modern is not about showing the hair, it is about being pluralist.

]]> By: melek http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/comment-page-1/#comment-2965 melek Fri, 24 Apr 2009 22:00:30 +0000 http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/#comment-2965 The thing I don't buy about Congar's arguments it the part about the educated turks. I think she is too optimistic about the daily pressures religious sects are applying on young women. She claims that Anatolia is being modernized because there are more roads, companies and stuff. That is so not true! Everyone who has been to anatolia 30 years ago and now would notice that now you cannot drink alcohol easily, good luck if you hold the hands of you boyfriend in park, good luck if you are smoking in during ramadan, and good luck if you are not married to a turban carrying wife and trying to do business with akp municipilaties. And we have a Fethullah Gulen sect problem. I am not against it but this is a problem because they are now everywhere including some of the governors, police force showing allegiance to him. They are totally closed, no one knows what is going on inside this sect. And ignore Ms.Congar because they have been very very powerful in ministry of education as well. So is this how our democracy gonna be better, by having a large sect governing our state? Is this how the religious freedoms are gonna be expanded? Also, her answer to why educated turks are worried is too simplistic. All she claims is because we are being brainwashed. I mean, come on! I am not educated in turkish schools for most of my life, I was educated abroad, have a PhD. from a US university but live in turkey now. As a young women I am very worried about the conservative agenda AKP is pushing. Ms.Congar should be blind or is really hating us not to see this. It is not just because conservative women are becoming more visible. Being religious in the sense they understand it is being encouraged, religion is being pushed out of personal sphere more and more. Ms.Congar is talking as if fasting, going to mosque, building a mosque, distributing religious propaganda has been a problem in this country! Yes, headscarfed women cannot go to university and I am against this ban. But I would like to ask, people are worried about this not oppose them having an education because we do believe that the government's aim is to have these people everywhere, even as judges, primary school instructors. If that is what Ms.Congar wants then ok, but what we will have at the end I think is gonna be the demolition of secularity in turkey. regards. Melek. The thing I don’t buy about Congar’s arguments it the part about the educated turks. I think she is too optimistic about the daily pressures religious sects are applying on young women. She claims that Anatolia is being modernized because there are more roads, companies and stuff. That is so not true! Everyone who has been to anatolia 30 years ago and now would notice that now you cannot drink alcohol easily, good luck if you hold the hands of you boyfriend in park, good luck if you are smoking in during ramadan, and good luck if you are not married to a turban carrying wife and trying to do business with akp municipilaties.
And we have a Fethullah Gulen sect problem. I am not against it but this is a problem because they are now everywhere including some of the governors, police force showing allegiance to him. They are totally closed, no one knows what is going on inside this sect. And ignore Ms.Congar because they have been very very powerful in ministry of education as well. So is this how our democracy gonna be better, by having a large sect governing our state? Is this how the religious freedoms are gonna be expanded?

Also, her answer to why educated turks are worried is too simplistic. All she claims is because we are being brainwashed. I mean, come on! I am not educated in turkish schools for most of my life, I was educated abroad, have a PhD. from a US university but live in turkey now. As a young women I am very worried about the conservative agenda AKP is pushing. Ms.Congar should be blind or is really hating us not to see this. It is not just because conservative women are becoming more visible. Being religious in the sense they understand it is being encouraged, religion is being pushed out of personal sphere more and more. Ms.Congar is talking as if fasting, going to mosque, building a mosque, distributing religious propaganda has been a problem in this country! Yes, headscarfed women cannot go to university and I am against this ban. But I would like to ask, people are worried about this not oppose them having an education because we do believe that the government’s aim is to have these people everywhere, even as judges, primary school instructors. If that is what Ms.Congar wants then ok, but what we will have at the end I think is gonna be the demolition of secularity in turkey.
regards.

Melek.

]]> By: Hasan Teoman http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/comment-page-1/#comment-1827 Hasan Teoman Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:10:52 +0000 http://www.esiweb.org/rumeliobserver/2008/10/17/taraf-the-military-and-taking-sides/#comment-1827 While one can agree with many of the arguments presented by Yasemin Congar there is a very strong intellectual distrust on my part towards the newspaper Taraf and Ms. Congar herself. I will not resort to the now cliché (but valid) questions about the source of financing for the paper and for the steady and visible change in the views and interpretations of Ms. Congar over the several years she reported from Washington DC and, particularly, after her “landing” on the Taraf leadership team in Turkey. I will, however, ask you, Mr. Knaus, whether you intend to inform your readers that the aerial photos presented by Taraf newspaper were actually taken far away from the location of the attack (as evidenced by the coordinates printed on the same photos) and that the majority of the Turkish media critized Ms. Congar and Taraf for unfair and unwarranted criticism of the military using false (or falsified) material. Taraf is the only paper which appears to have as its primary duty/mandate to attempt regularly to discredit the Turkish military. This paper, in fact, undermines the bona fida efforts of many who advocate the need for openness and accountability also on the part of the military. I will also take issue with Ms. Congar’s very generalized views on Turkish society in Anatolia. It takes more than one superficial visit (after 15 years, as she admits) to really understand the sociological and economic changes in any place in the world and to reach concrete conclusions, particularly on religious issues, unless it is used to service her own ideology. Taraf is indeed “taking sides” but you, as a respectable intellectual, should be fair and present also the “other side”. It is curious that your quotes about Taraf’s publication of the aerial photos are exclusively from Zaman, another Turkish daily, known to be one of the unconditional supporters of the current government. You have lived in Istanbul long enough to know the expression “BOZACININ SAHIDI SIRACI”. Freedom of speech is indeed a fundamental value in the European Union but it should not be used as a weapon for psychological warfare. Having said all this, I applause Perihan Magden ,who was featured in one of your previous issues, for her solid and consistent position and her outspoken attitude in defending fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey. Her situation fits the freedom of speech definition of the EU more than the one of Yasemin Congar and Taraf newspaper. Thank you very much. I continue to read your writings and follow the activities of ESI with great interest. While one can agree with many of the arguments presented by Yasemin Congar there is a very strong intellectual distrust on my part towards the newspaper Taraf and Ms. Congar herself. I will not resort to the now cliché (but valid) questions about the source of financing for the paper and for the steady and visible change in the views and interpretations of Ms. Congar over the several years she reported from Washington DC and, particularly, after her “landing” on the Taraf leadership team in Turkey. I will, however, ask you, Mr. Knaus, whether you intend to inform your readers that the aerial photos presented by Taraf newspaper were actually taken far away from the location of the attack (as evidenced by the coordinates printed on the same photos) and that the majority of the Turkish media critized Ms. Congar and Taraf for unfair and unwarranted criticism of the military using false (or falsified) material. Taraf is the only paper which appears to have as its primary duty/mandate to attempt regularly to discredit the Turkish military. This paper, in fact, undermines the bona fida efforts of many who advocate the need for openness and accountability also on the part of the military. I will also take issue with Ms. Congar’s very generalized views on Turkish society in Anatolia. It takes more than one superficial visit (after 15 years, as she admits) to really understand the sociological and economic changes in any place in the world and to reach concrete conclusions, particularly on religious issues, unless it is used to service her own ideology. Taraf is indeed “taking sides” but you, as a respectable intellectual, should be fair and present also the “other side”. It is curious that your quotes about Taraf’s publication of the aerial photos are exclusively from Zaman, another Turkish daily, known to be one of the unconditional supporters of the current government. You have lived in Istanbul long enough to know the expression “BOZACININ SAHIDI SIRACI”. Freedom of speech is indeed a fundamental value in the European Union but it should not be used as a weapon for psychological warfare. Having said all this, I applause Perihan Magden ,who was featured in one of your previous issues, for her solid and consistent position and her outspoken attitude in defending fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey. Her situation fits the freedom of speech definition of the EU more than the one of Yasemin Congar and Taraf newspaper.

Thank you very much. I continue to read your writings and follow the activities of ESI with great interest.

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