Daily News staff win journalism awards
ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News
Daily News reporter Vercihan Ziflioğlu (R) and photo journalist Selahattin Sönmez (L) received their awards from the Contemporary Journalists Association.
Hürriyet Daily News journalists Vercihan Ziflioğlu and Selahattin Sönmez received awards from the Contemporary Journalists Association (ÇGD) at a March 26 ceremony marked by the main opposition leader’s criticism of restrictions on the media.
Ziflioğlu, a reporter at the Daily News’ Istanbul office, was given a special award in the name of journalist Behzat Miser, who passed away in 2010.
She was honored for a story revealing that an investigation into the 2010 murder of Catholic Bishop Luigi Padovese could not make headway due to a lack of support from the slain cleric’s family.
Sönmez, a photographer at the daily’s Ankara bureau, received the main photography award for a picture that captured a student being silenced by security guards during a protest against Energy Minister Taner Yıldız at Ankara’s Gazi University.
Speaking at the ceremony, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu praised the award-winning journalists while denouncing restrictions and pressure on the media.
“Democracy in Turkey is faced with a very serious deadlock. The media is not free. This is a very tough period,” he said.
“I congratulate the journalists who keep up their work. They are the bravest people in society for trying to do something despite all sorts of pressure.”
28 Mart 2012 Çarşamba
Fener Greek Patriarch ‘encourages’ Turkish government for minority rights
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News/Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Even though the Patriarch praised the government in an international platform, this does not mean all of the problems of the Greek community had been totally solved, opinion leaders from the Greek community in Turkey have said.
Turkey’s stance toward minorities is praiseworthy, Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew said while meeting the former Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou on March 23, and his statement was interpreted as giving support to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
Bartholomew said at the meeting with Papandreou: “We are able to breathe freely again on several matters thanks to the courageous administration of the Erdoğan government. Circumstances are better than the past for the Greeks and other minorities.”
On Saturday, the Patriarch once again expressed his contentment that the title deed for a Greek elementary school building had been returned to a Greek foundation. While he was expressing his satisfaction at the Galata school, he also drew attention to the fact that several churches that belonged to the community had still not been returned.
Encouraging the gov’t
Editor-in-chief of the Greek-language daily Apoyevmatini, Mihalis Vasiliadis, interpreted both of statements for Hürriyet Daily News: “The Patriarch wants to encourage the government. The whole contexts of the speeches need to be reviewed,” adding that some distance had been covered in the solution to problems, but there was still a long way to go.
“The entire speeches of the Patriarch are not repeated. The Patriarch, while thanking, also said ‘but.’ Each word that comes out of Patriarch Bartholomeos is given huge significance, and with these statements he is improving Turkey’s image in the world. But at the same time, he also gives the message: ‘Do solve our problems in the real sense.’ The Halki Seminary still has not been returned. Our population is down to 1,500 and a school in Gökçeada has yet to be opened.”
Head of the Gökçeada Association and one of the administrators of Fener Hagia Yorgi Church Foundation Stelyo Berber agreed with Vasiliadis. “The Patriarch is trying to maintain a positive approach on the solution of problems, but this does not mean our issues have totally been solved,” he said.
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News/Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Even though the Patriarch praised the government in an international platform, this does not mean all of the problems of the Greek community had been totally solved, opinion leaders from the Greek community in Turkey have said.
Turkey’s stance toward minorities is praiseworthy, Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew said while meeting the former Greek Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou on March 23, and his statement was interpreted as giving support to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.
Bartholomew said at the meeting with Papandreou: “We are able to breathe freely again on several matters thanks to the courageous administration of the Erdoğan government. Circumstances are better than the past for the Greeks and other minorities.”
On Saturday, the Patriarch once again expressed his contentment that the title deed for a Greek elementary school building had been returned to a Greek foundation. While he was expressing his satisfaction at the Galata school, he also drew attention to the fact that several churches that belonged to the community had still not been returned.
Encouraging the gov’t
Editor-in-chief of the Greek-language daily Apoyevmatini, Mihalis Vasiliadis, interpreted both of statements for Hürriyet Daily News: “The Patriarch wants to encourage the government. The whole contexts of the speeches need to be reviewed,” adding that some distance had been covered in the solution to problems, but there was still a long way to go.
“The entire speeches of the Patriarch are not repeated. The Patriarch, while thanking, also said ‘but.’ Each word that comes out of Patriarch Bartholomeos is given huge significance, and with these statements he is improving Turkey’s image in the world. But at the same time, he also gives the message: ‘Do solve our problems in the real sense.’ The Halki Seminary still has not been returned. Our population is down to 1,500 and a school in Gökçeada has yet to be opened.”
Head of the Gökçeada Association and one of the administrators of Fener Hagia Yorgi Church Foundation Stelyo Berber agreed with Vasiliadis. “The Patriarch is trying to maintain a positive approach on the solution of problems, but this does not mean our issues have totally been solved,” he said.
Sequel to film on Dersim on the way
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioğlu
vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr
A couple who produced the documentary “Two Strands of Hair: The Lost Girls of Dersim” is preparing to shoot a sequel to the film, which chronicled victims’ accounts of the bloody Dersim operation of 1938.
“When we were shooting the first documentary, we thought the subject matter would spur debate, but it had not occurred to us even remotely that a taboo would be shattered in such a way, and that even the prime minister of the Turkish Republic would define the events as a ‘massacre,’” the documentary’s researcher and scriptwriter, Kazım Gündoğan, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Whereas the first documentary featured the testimonies of female children who were forcibly taken away from their families, the sequel, in turn, will include the accounts of the families of the troops who took them away. Documentary filmmakers Kazım and Nezahat Gündoğan will also investigate the parallels between the massacre in Dersim – which is now the eastern province of Tunceli – and the forced deportation of Armenians in 1915.
“Soldiers’ children who said their fathers and grandfathers had brought female children from Dersim called us after the first documentary. They opened up their archives and related the [incidents] they witnessed. The personal archives and notes of troops and civil servants who participated in that process bear great significance,” Kazım Gündoğan said.
The families in question gave their archives away to old book collectors to unload their burden in connection with the bloody military operation that was launched against Alevi clans in Dersim, he said.
“The archives of Turkey’s black boxes are now [lying] in old book collector shops.”
Kazım Gündoğan also added they had received much criticism from historians.
“We believe in the power of human stories. ... They ask us which documents [illustrate] that the events in Dersim constituted not a rebellion but a massacre, and we present to them the testimonies of the people who experienced all the pain first hand. Which one [represents] the truth of history? The report prepared by the troops who personally participated in the massacre, or the eyewitnesses?” he said.
March/28/2012
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioğlu
vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr
A couple who produced the documentary “Two Strands of Hair: The Lost Girls of Dersim” is preparing to shoot a sequel to the film, which chronicled victims’ accounts of the bloody Dersim operation of 1938.
“When we were shooting the first documentary, we thought the subject matter would spur debate, but it had not occurred to us even remotely that a taboo would be shattered in such a way, and that even the prime minister of the Turkish Republic would define the events as a ‘massacre,’” the documentary’s researcher and scriptwriter, Kazım Gündoğan, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Whereas the first documentary featured the testimonies of female children who were forcibly taken away from their families, the sequel, in turn, will include the accounts of the families of the troops who took them away. Documentary filmmakers Kazım and Nezahat Gündoğan will also investigate the parallels between the massacre in Dersim – which is now the eastern province of Tunceli – and the forced deportation of Armenians in 1915.
“Soldiers’ children who said their fathers and grandfathers had brought female children from Dersim called us after the first documentary. They opened up their archives and related the [incidents] they witnessed. The personal archives and notes of troops and civil servants who participated in that process bear great significance,” Kazım Gündoğan said.
The families in question gave their archives away to old book collectors to unload their burden in connection with the bloody military operation that was launched against Alevi clans in Dersim, he said.
“The archives of Turkey’s black boxes are now [lying] in old book collector shops.”
Kazım Gündoğan also added they had received much criticism from historians.
“We believe in the power of human stories. ... They ask us which documents [illustrate] that the events in Dersim constituted not a rebellion but a massacre, and we present to them the testimonies of the people who experienced all the pain first hand. Which one [represents] the truth of history? The report prepared by the troops who personally participated in the massacre, or the eyewitnesses?” he said.
March/28/2012
22 Mart 2012 Perşembe
Syriac leader refuses to move patriarchate to Turkey
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan Ziflioğlu
The head of the Syriac Union Party in Syria stated his opposition to the relocation of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus and the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate in Beirut back into Turkey.
“We have a large population in Syria, and the patriarchate is the highest institution that holds them together. The relocation of the patriarchate would be tantamount to our people losing their presence [in Syria],” Echove Gouriye, head of the Syrian Syriac Union Party, told Hürriyet Daily News.
Turkish officials have been holding talks toward relocating the Catholic and Orthodox Syriac Patriarchates back into Turkey, Gouriye said, adding they were under great strain due to the repressive attitude of the al-Assad regime in Syria. Many party members have been arrested, he said.
“If Turkey truly wants to do something, then the restoration of Syriacs’ rights in Turkey would suffice for us,” said Gouriye, who is currently in Turkey for a visit.
“As you know, there is a single party administration in Syria. As such, all parties are regarded as illegal. We continue waging our struggle to act as the voice of Syriacs, Greeks, Maronites and Muslim Syriacs,” Gouriye said, adding that the party was established in 2005.
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan Ziflioğlu
The head of the Syriac Union Party in Syria stated his opposition to the relocation of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus and the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate in Beirut back into Turkey.
“We have a large population in Syria, and the patriarchate is the highest institution that holds them together. The relocation of the patriarchate would be tantamount to our people losing their presence [in Syria],” Echove Gouriye, head of the Syrian Syriac Union Party, told Hürriyet Daily News.
Turkish officials have been holding talks toward relocating the Catholic and Orthodox Syriac Patriarchates back into Turkey, Gouriye said, adding they were under great strain due to the repressive attitude of the al-Assad regime in Syria. Many party members have been arrested, he said.
“If Turkey truly wants to do something, then the restoration of Syriacs’ rights in Turkey would suffice for us,” said Gouriye, who is currently in Turkey for a visit.
“As you know, there is a single party administration in Syria. As such, all parties are regarded as illegal. We continue waging our struggle to act as the voice of Syriacs, Greeks, Maronites and Muslim Syriacs,” Gouriye said, adding that the party was established in 2005.
New regulations on minority schools causing confusion in Turkey
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Recent regulations concerning minority schools in Turkey create questions among those who claim the changes don’t solve the problems faced by the children of foreign nationals currently residing in Turkey
New regulations that came into effect on March 20 regarding minority schools in Turkey are causing confusion among educators, who claim the latest changes don’t solve the problems faced by the children of foreign nationals.
“We have [read] the regulations from top to bottom. Frankly we, too, remain perplexed,” Istanbul deputy education director Nedat İlhan told the Hürriyet Daily News.
The regulations concerning private schools in Turkey and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne allow only for Turkish citizens to attend minority schools. A clause stipulating the children of Turkish citizens can attend only their own minority community’s schools was removed in the new regulations that appeared in the Official Gazette on March 20, however.
“The article was removed, but we are going to take a look at its infrastructure and whether it is applicable or not. Minorities in Turkey are classified under different titles in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. As such, there is a critical question mark over here,” said İlhan, who is also in charge of affairs related to private schools in Istanbul, where all of Turkey’s minority schools are located.
Illegal immigrants
Some 15,000 Armenian citizens are currently residing in Turkey as illegal immigrants, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s data. Their children cannot attend minority schools in Turkey both due to their illegal status and the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. They were granted the status of “guest students” some two years ago, however, so they may now attend schools but cannot receive any diplomas or report cards.
“Even the children of ambassadors and officers from NATO-member Greece cannot receive diplomas from our schools with guest student status. The new regulations do not alleviate the problems concerning foreign nationals,” Yanni Demircioğlu, the headmaster of the historical Anatolian Greek Zoğrafyon High School in Istanbul, told the Daily News.
Some 70 “guest students” attend the Armenian and Anatolian Greek minority schools in Istanbul, although many illegal Armenian immigrants choose not to take advantage of the new “guest student” policy, as they prefer not to reveal their identities.
“Firstly, we are not a ‘private’ but a minority school. More importantly, special regulations have to be devised for each minority group. Different circumstances [apply to] Armenian and Anatolian Greek schools. These issues can only be set straight by provision of law,” Garo Paylan, a member of the Minority Schools Education Commission, told the Daily News.
“Minority schools have a quota problem. Let us assume for a moment that a Syriac or a Protestant Armenian wants to attend a minority school. Then what is going to happen? We need to figure out what will happen to converts and examine the population data regarding minorities in Turkey,” İlhan said.
İlhan said Turkey has diplomatic relations with Greece but not with Armenia, and Armenian immigrants come to Turkey illegally. The children of illegal Armenian immigrants will still not be able to attend school regardless of the changes in regulations.
Another minority school director who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity said they were disappointed by the lack of progress on the matter despite all the talks held with the government. He also expressed his frustration that the new regulations did not abolish the requirement for minority schools to have a Turkish deputy assistant.
“We wanted to determine [the deputy assistants’] term of service ourselves, but we are back to where we were five years ago, it seems,” he said.
March/22/2012
ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Recent regulations concerning minority schools in Turkey create questions among those who claim the changes don’t solve the problems faced by the children of foreign nationals currently residing in Turkey
New regulations that came into effect on March 20 regarding minority schools in Turkey are causing confusion among educators, who claim the latest changes don’t solve the problems faced by the children of foreign nationals.
“We have [read] the regulations from top to bottom. Frankly we, too, remain perplexed,” Istanbul deputy education director Nedat İlhan told the Hürriyet Daily News.
The regulations concerning private schools in Turkey and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne allow only for Turkish citizens to attend minority schools. A clause stipulating the children of Turkish citizens can attend only their own minority community’s schools was removed in the new regulations that appeared in the Official Gazette on March 20, however.
“The article was removed, but we are going to take a look at its infrastructure and whether it is applicable or not. Minorities in Turkey are classified under different titles in the Lausanne Treaty of 1923. As such, there is a critical question mark over here,” said İlhan, who is also in charge of affairs related to private schools in Istanbul, where all of Turkey’s minority schools are located.
Illegal immigrants
Some 15,000 Armenian citizens are currently residing in Turkey as illegal immigrants, according to the Armenian Foreign Ministry’s data. Their children cannot attend minority schools in Turkey both due to their illegal status and the terms of the Treaty of Lausanne. They were granted the status of “guest students” some two years ago, however, so they may now attend schools but cannot receive any diplomas or report cards.
“Even the children of ambassadors and officers from NATO-member Greece cannot receive diplomas from our schools with guest student status. The new regulations do not alleviate the problems concerning foreign nationals,” Yanni Demircioğlu, the headmaster of the historical Anatolian Greek Zoğrafyon High School in Istanbul, told the Daily News.
Some 70 “guest students” attend the Armenian and Anatolian Greek minority schools in Istanbul, although many illegal Armenian immigrants choose not to take advantage of the new “guest student” policy, as they prefer not to reveal their identities.
“Firstly, we are not a ‘private’ but a minority school. More importantly, special regulations have to be devised for each minority group. Different circumstances [apply to] Armenian and Anatolian Greek schools. These issues can only be set straight by provision of law,” Garo Paylan, a member of the Minority Schools Education Commission, told the Daily News.
“Minority schools have a quota problem. Let us assume for a moment that a Syriac or a Protestant Armenian wants to attend a minority school. Then what is going to happen? We need to figure out what will happen to converts and examine the population data regarding minorities in Turkey,” İlhan said.
İlhan said Turkey has diplomatic relations with Greece but not with Armenia, and Armenian immigrants come to Turkey illegally. The children of illegal Armenian immigrants will still not be able to attend school regardless of the changes in regulations.
Another minority school director who spoke to the Daily News on condition of anonymity said they were disappointed by the lack of progress on the matter despite all the talks held with the government. He also expressed his frustration that the new regulations did not abolish the requirement for minority schools to have a Turkish deputy assistant.
“We wanted to determine [the deputy assistants’] term of service ourselves, but we are back to where we were five years ago, it seems,” he said.
March/22/2012
16 Mart 2012 Cuma
Armenian Patriarchate files suit in Turkey for property return
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News - Vercihan Ziflioğlu
Following a legal claim on the Sansaryan Shopping Center in central Istanbul, the Armenian Patriarchate files a lawsuit for the return of more Sansarayan properties around the country, including a building that was home to the historic Erzurum Congress in 1919
The Armenian Patriarchate has filed a landmark suit in Ankara for the return of the historical Sansaryan School in the eastern province of Erzurum that was the site of the 1919 Erzurum Congress, an assembly by modern Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.“Some other foundations belong to [minority] communities, but the Sansaryan Foundation was granted to the patriarchate by philanthropist Mıgırdiç Sansaryan in the 1800s. The administration and management of the Sansaryan Foundation legally belongs to the patriarchate,” lawyer Ali Elbeyoğlu, who represents the Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate in court, told the Hürriyet Daily News yesterday.
The patriarchate also demanded the return of other properties in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas formerly owned by the Sansaryan Foundation in the lawsuit it filed March 14.
“We are not going to content ourselves with the mere return of historical buildings. We are also going to demand compensation from the Foundations General Directorate for all material losses incurred by the patriarchate since 1936,” Elbeyoğlu said.
Upon the government’s request, Turkey’s minority groups in 1936 gave the government declarations detailing their real property. Over the years, however, many of these properties did not remain registered under the minority foundations’ names, and some were even sold to third parties.
Turkey’s Foundations General Directorate expropriated the Sansaryan Foundation citing the 1936 Declaration, according to Elbeyoğlu.
The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate also filed another suit against the Foundations Directorate General in recent months demanding that the Sansaryan Shopping Center in Istanbul’s Eminönü district be returned to the patriarchate. However, the head of Turkey’s Foundations Directorate General has said it will not be returned despite a ruling by an Istanbul court to impose an interim injunction over the building.
“This runs counter to all international legal [norms] as well as the Treaty of Lausanne. The Patriarchate is still in possession of the title deed,” Elbeyoğlu said.
The Armenian community currently owns three small foundations across the whole of Anatolia. If the patriarchate wins its lawsuit, it will mark the first time that Turkey’s Armenian community has regained control of a foundation in Anatolia.
“If the Armenian community had not hesitated for various reasons, they could have filed this suit in 1936, as they are legally in the right. There is a case dated to 1936, and its files indicate that the patriarchate officially owns Sansaryan. Our research shows that the best-preserved archival documents are located at the Land Registry Cadastre,” Elbeyoğlu said.
Elbeyoğlu also dismissed suggestions indicating a link between the lawsuit and the Foundations Law that recently came into effect. The Turkish government enacted a measure that went into effect on Aug. 27, 2011, to return properties seized from minority foundations through the 1936 Declaration.
The Foundations Directorate General still classifies Sansaryan as a property left without a manager and whose ownership consequently passed onto the Foundation Directorate General, but for that definition to hold up in court, it would require there to be no citizens of Armenian descent in Turkey, according to Elbeyoğlu.
The Sansaryan Foundation was established by Mıgırdiç Sansaryan, a Russian-Armenian philanthropist. The police used the Sansaryan Shopping Center in Istanbul for a long period during which torture was widespread.
March/16/2012
PEN official, publisher slam Turkey on scribes
“We were led to believe that the AKP’s [Justice and Development Party] accession to power would trigger a change and transformation in Turkey and that democracy would develop, but the picture has turned upside down,” PEN International Vice President Eugene Schoulgin, who is currently writing his new novel in Turkey, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.
William Nygaard, Rushdie’s publisher, also lent his weight to the protest.
Schoulgin said people were labeled terrorists because of their thoughts and that individuals who were fighting for a brighter future in Turkey, such as human rights activist and author Ragıp Zarakolu and Professor Büşra Ersanlı, kept landing in jail.
“By contrast, [the authorities] are freeing those who incinerated people alive in the Sivas Massacre, and Hrant Dink’s murderers are freely roaming about. What sort of a contradiction is that?” Schoulgin said.
Schoulgin also criticized European Union Minister Egemen Bağış.
“Minister Bağış had said there were no journalists jailed in Turkey due to their occupational [activities], and that those in prison were rapists and bank robbers. Following these comments, [the authorities] released journalists Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık after [they had spent] a year [behind bars]. Should we then draw this conclusion: Those who are currently held in prison are rapists and robbers? These are tragic comments,” he said.
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News - Vercihan Ziflioğluvercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr
The vice president of the prominent global writers’ association PEN International and the publisher for renowned British author Salman Rushdie have criticized the continued arrest of intellectuals and journalists in Turkey.“We were led to believe that the AKP’s [Justice and Development Party] accession to power would trigger a change and transformation in Turkey and that democracy would develop, but the picture has turned upside down,” PEN International Vice President Eugene Schoulgin, who is currently writing his new novel in Turkey, recently told the Hürriyet Daily News.
William Nygaard, Rushdie’s publisher, also lent his weight to the protest.
Schoulgin said people were labeled terrorists because of their thoughts and that individuals who were fighting for a brighter future in Turkey, such as human rights activist and author Ragıp Zarakolu and Professor Büşra Ersanlı, kept landing in jail.
“By contrast, [the authorities] are freeing those who incinerated people alive in the Sivas Massacre, and Hrant Dink’s murderers are freely roaming about. What sort of a contradiction is that?” Schoulgin said.
Schoulgin also criticized European Union Minister Egemen Bağış.
“Minister Bağış had said there were no journalists jailed in Turkey due to their occupational [activities], and that those in prison were rapists and bank robbers. Following these comments, [the authorities] released journalists Nedim Şener and Ahmet Şık after [they had spent] a year [behind bars]. Should we then draw this conclusion: Those who are currently held in prison are rapists and robbers? These are tragic comments,” he said.
March/15/2012
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