Turkish Teen Convicted For Insulting Erdogan

And from the country that wants to join the E.U. but should never be allowed to, we have this: a 7 plus month jail sentence, suspended for three years, for a 17-year-old high school student who insulted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who was Prime Minister at the time. He will serve the sentence if he does it again within the next three years.

The incident took place as the student, identified only by the initials U.H.C., attended a demonstration in Attalos Square in the southern province of Antalya, in protest at a case involving two other high school students who had been charged after protesting against Erdoğan.

U.H.C., who is a member of the high school group “Young Hopes,” gathered with the group on June 15, 2014 in Attalos Square. They were protesting against the charging of two high school students who had gathered at the same square on Jan. 24, 2014 to issue Erdoğan with a satirical “report card,” after the shooting of Berkin Elvan with a tear gas canister during the Gezi Park protests of June 2013. The charges against the two students who had participated in the earlier protest were later dismissed by the prosecutor in the case.

However, during the final hearing of U.H.C.’s case at the Antalya 2nd Juvenile Court on Feb. 15, he was sentenced to 12 months in prison on charges of “insulting a public official.” The court also ruled to increase the sentence from 12 to 14 months due to the defendant’s behavior during the trial, but the sentence was later reduced to 7 months and 23 days because H.U.C. is a minor. Because there have been no previous criminal charges against H.U.C., the court then decided to put him on probation for three years.

His mum will appeal, saying:

“If there is freedom of expression in this country, no one should be convicted just because they criticize someone or chant against someone."

“The prosecutor told me to keep an eye on my child for the next three years and prevent him from committing a crime, or they will have to charge him with the same criminal act. My response is that hopefully we will not have to face injustice over this three-year period and my child won’t have to protest."

Meanwhile, the kid's dad, a teacher, is facing the same charges.

More here, and here.

Turkish Court Tells Facebook To Block Pages Insulting Mohammed, Or Else.

The Turkish government is demanding that Facebook block all pages that insult Mohammed, or else. Yes, the country that wants to join the E.U. continues to prove its unworthiness.

A Turkish court has ordered Facebook to block pages deemed insulting to the Prophet Mohammed, threatening to shut down the social media network indefinitely if it ignores the directive, state media said Monday.

The ruling came after Turkish prosecutors investigated the social media pages following a deadly attack on the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7.

The court ruled on Sunday that Facebook would be shut down altogether in Turkey if it fails to implement the order, state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

They also targeted a newspaper, the daily Cumhuriyet, for printing some Charlie Hebdo cartoons in support of freedom of speech.

It wouldn't be the first time social media has been blocked, if it comes to that.

Twitter and YouTube were temporarily blocked in Turkey last year after both platforms were used by opponents of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to post allegations of corruption within his inner circle.

More on Al Arabiya.

Erdogan Tells Europe - Handle Your Islamophobia Before You Criticize Turkey

Europe criticised Turkey (rightfully so) for its tanking freedom of the press, so the delusional President Recep Tayyip Erdogan countered by claiming Turkey has the world's "freest" press (not!)   and that Europe should tackle the rise in Islamophobia before it starts criticizing his country.

The European Union, which Turkey has been seeking to join for decades, said the media raids ran counter to European values, a criticism already dismissed by Erdogan. On Friday, the President repeated his discontent, with a visibly harsher tone.

"We are not Europe's scapegoat," Erdogan told a symposium of civil servants. "We are definitely not a country that Europe can point its finger at and scold. Instead of criticising us, Europe should find a solution to increasing racism and Islamophobia."

He made reference to an incident in the German city of Dormagen, where ultra nationalists drew Nazi signs on the walls of a mosque construction, according to reports in Turkish local media earlier this week.

First of all, any anti-Muslim rancor that exists today has been birthed by Islamic supremacy and Muslim entitlement. There were no problems with Muslims in the West until the conservative ones started with their demands, and then the violence. Prior to 9/11 hijabs were some exotic garb worn by some Middle Eastern women. Even back in the 1960s many Afghan women wore western clothing, same thing in Egypt, and Iran.  All that has changed. As they immigrated to the West and became more religious, the demands started and the refusal to integrate and assimilate.

So, you only have yourselves to blame Mr. Erdogan.

More here.

Turkey Has World's Freest Press- Claims Erdogan

Oh, that joker, Erdogan. The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims that his country takes top honors when it comes to freedom of the press.

“Nowhere in the world is the press freer than it is in Turkey. I'm very sure of myself when I say this,” he said in a televised speech to a conference in Ankara.

“The press is so free in Turkey that one can make insults, slanders, defamation, racism and commit hate crimes that are not tolerated even in democratic countries.”

“I've personally experienced this, so has my family."

The actual truth:

Turkey was the world’s top jailer of journalists in 2012 and 2013, ahead of Iran and China, according to the international Committee to Protect Journalists, before improving to tenth place this year.

But Erdogan just arrested a bunch of media folk affiliated with his rival Fethullah Gulen.

And this 16-year-old boy:

The remarks also coincided with the release pending trial of a 16-year-old schoolboy who was controversially arrested on charges of insulting Erdogan by accusing him of being the “chief of corruption.”

But Erdogan said: “You cannot insult them (his family) like this in any other country. There is no limit to the insults (we receive). You cannot run such headlines in Europe or the U.S.”

“Europeans accuse us as if such things never happen in their countries. No one raises their voice when journalists are detained in Europe.”

As for top dog for freedom of the press- according to Reporters Without Borders, Finland, the Netherlands and Norway received that honor in 2013.  Turkey ranked 154 out of 179.

Dream on Recep.

Birth Control Is Treason, Claims Turkey's Prez Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other conservative politicians there have been coming out with some doozies recently. Women shouldn't laugh in public. Women are not equal to men. Gender equality leads to more suicides. Now Erdogan has said that promoting birth control is "treason".

Erdogan made the comments on Sunday, addressing the bride and groom at the wedding ceremony of the son of businessman Mustafa Kefeli who is one his close allies.

He told the newly-weds that using birth control was a betrayal of Turkey’s ambition to make itself a flourishing nation with an expanding young population.

“One or two (children) is not enough. To make our nation stronger, we need a more dynamic and younger population. We need this to take Turkey above the level of modern civilizations,” Erdogan said.

“In this country, they (opponents) have been engaged in the treason of birth control for years and sought to dry up our generation,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan went on to praise marriage and said: “Marriage is a long journey. There are good days and bad days. Good days become more frequent as we share them and bad days finally bring happiness if we are patient.”

“One (child) means loneliness, two means rivalry, three means balance and four means abundance. And God takes care of the rest,” he added, in comments reported by the Dogan news agency, which also posted a video of his speech.

Now that's waging a war on women.

 Guess he didn't get the memo that three's a crowd.

The man has two boys and two girls.

Turkey's population is 76 million.

Turkish Police Raid Media Outlets Of Erdogan's Rival Fethullah Gulen

In a nationwide raid, 23 people affiliated with Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen have been arrested. Gulen- who is now based in the U.S.- was a former ally-turned-critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In what they termed "anti-terrorism" the police raided media outlets, including a TV station and the Anatolia news agency.  There were also attempts to raid the Zaman Daily, but crowds prevented that from happening. Some of those detained were an executive, producers and directors of the TV station, and employees of the state-run Anatolia news agency.  This seems to be payback for investigations into a mega bribery and corruption scandal involving members of Erdogan's administration.

The raids on Zaman newspaper and Samanyolu television marked an escalation of Erdogan's battle with former ally Gulen, with whom he has been in open conflict since a graft investigation targeting Erdogan's inner circle emerged a year ago.

"The free press cannot be silenced," a crowd chanted at the offices of Zaman as its editor Ekrem Dumanli made a speech defiantly challenging police to detain him, while elsewhere in Istanbul the chairman of Samanyolu TV was being detained.

"This is a shameful sight for Turkey," Samanyolu TV group chairman Hidayet Karaca told reporters just before he himself was held.

"Sadly in 21st Century Turkey this is the treatment they dish out to a media group with tens of television and radio stations, internet media and magazines."

Media reports said arrest warrants had been issued for 32 people. State broadcaster TRT Haber said 23 people had been detained in raids across EU-candidate Turkey, including two former police chiefs. As well as Karaca, a television producer, a director and scriptwriters were held.

More interesting info here regarding the arrests and the Gulen/Erdogan battle.

Tell me why Turkey deserves to join the E.U.?

Gender Equality Leads To More Suicides, Claims Turkey's Prime Minister

"Mechanical [gender] equality" leads to increased suicide. That's what Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu (of the conservative AKP Party) believes.

“Why is the Gross National Product in most developed countries – I don’t want to name it but in Scandinavian countries and in many other countries – at the highest level on one side [GDP], but the suicide rate is also at the highest level there. Why?” 

The premier, who was speaking at a meeting hosted by the women’s branch of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), described “mechanical equality” as something that it is beginning to “destroy the complementary relationship in life.”

“That’s why, since our women are fulfilling that divine mission of keeping humanity alive, then they have the right to rest before and after becoming a mother and spare time for their children. Granting this is not a favor, it is just paying a debt.”

Yes, keep them barefoot and pregnant.

Of course, he's just parroting what Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who has already said women are not equal to men.

Then we have these other enlightened pronouncements:

Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç encouraged women not to laugh in public because it's morally corrupt.

And Muslims discovered the Americas.

He does get points for denouncing the rampant violence against women.

Secular Parents In Turkey Upset By Rise In Islamic Religious Schooling

More proof that Turkey is hiking the road to Islamization: there has been a huge increase in Islamic religious schooling. This has secular Turks very upset, considering the country was once proudly secular, until President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist AK party came into power.

Almost a million students are enrolled in “imam hatip” schools this year, up from just 65,000 in 2002 when Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted AK Party first came to power, he told the opening of one of the schools in Ankara last month.

The schools teach boys and girls separately, and give around 13 hours a week of Islamic instruction on top of the regular curriculum, including study of Arabic, the Quran and the life of the Prophet Mohammad.

“When there is no such thing as religious culture and moral education, serious social problems such as drug addiction and racism fill the gap,” Erdogan told a symposium on drug policy and public health earlier this year.

But in the drive to create more imam hatip places, parts of schools have been requisitioned, prompting protests from parents who want secular education for their children.

“We are against the governance of education by religious rules,” said Ilknur Birol, spokeswoman for the “Don’t Touch My School” initiative, an umbrella grouping for angry parents. “This system is not rooted in youth with a forward-looking perspective enlightened by science, but in a generation that values obedience.”

Filiz Gurlu, a parent at the Kadir Rezan Has school in Istanbul where two buildings were converted to imam hatip facilities, said primary students were now cramped in a single building.

“The library, laboratory, computer and music rooms were in the confiscated part, so the kids don’t have access anymore."

The rest here.

Two Years Of Jail For Turkish Professor Who Banned Hijabi From Campus

A 64-year-old former astrophysics professor at Ege University in Turkey will spend the next two years in jail for allegedly banning a hijab-clad student from coming on campus several years ago. Rennan Pekunlu could spend 12 years if charged on two other counts of doing the same thing.

Pekunlu began his sentence in a prison in the western city of Izmir, becoming the first individual in Turkey to be jailed for such an offence, his lawyer Murat Fatih Ulku told AFP.

Before heading to prison, the 64-year-old professor gave a public lecture on the “universe and evolution” to an audience including his former students, colleagues as well as members of several labour unions.

“This is not our last lecture. We have a lot more to do. This is not the end,” Pekunlu said before bursting into tears, as gasps and sobbing erupted inside the packed hall.

“Professor Rennan is not alone,” the crowd chanted, according to the website of Hurriyet newspaper.

“AKP dictatorship is doomed to collapse,” they shouted, referring to the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party.

Pekunlu denies the charges, saying he did not prevent any student from entering the university or attending his classes, insisting that he would just “report them to university authorities”, to which he is entitled under Turkish laws.

“I would have done the same in similar circumstances. I have done my duty,” he told CNN-Turk television by phone.

His lawyer said they took the decision to the European Court of Human Rights. “It’s an unfortunate decision in a secular, constitutional state,” Ulku said.

Way to go, Turkey.

More here.

Women Not Equal To Men, Claims Turkey's President Erdogan

Women are not equal to men, and should focus on motherhood. This, from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of a country that has been battling to join the European Union for a decade or so.

He shared that morsel of Islamic idiocy (though, granted, there are other religious conservatives who believe the same) at a meeting regarding women's rights.

And feminists suck, because they don't embrace motherhood.

“Our religion gave woman a station. What station is this? The station of motherhood ... Motherhood is something different and is the most unobtainable, the highest station."

“There are those who understand this, those who don't. You can't tell this to feminists, because they do not accept motherhood. They have no such concerns.

More here.

Muslims Discovered The Americas, Claims Turkey's President Erdogan

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claims Christopher Columbus did not discover the Americas, it was actually a bunch of Muslim sailors in 1178 that have that honor.

He shared those thoughts with some Latin American Muslim leaders at a summit in Istanbul.

“Contacts between Latin America and Islam date back to the 12th century. Muslims discovered America in 1178, not Christopher Columbus."

“Muslim sailors arrived in America from 1178. Columbus mentioned the existence of a mosque on a hill on the Cuban coast."

There are a few other Muslims who believe the same thing.

In one contentious article published in 1996, historian Youssef Mroueh cites a diary entry by Columbus that described what seems to be a mosque in Cuba.

However, some understand the passage to be a metaphorical reference to the shape of the landscape.

So now Erdogan wants to build a mosque in Cuba.

“I would like to talk about it to my Cuban brothers. A mosque would go perfectly on the hill today."

Right-o, because Mroueh claims Columbus saw a mosque makes it true. Not. Blogger Jason Colavito debunks that theory.

Remarking on the position of the river and port, to which he gave the name of San Salvador, he describes its mountains as lofty and beautiful, like the Pena de las Enamoradas, and one of them has another little hill on its summit, like a graceful mosque. The other river and port, in which he now was, has two round mountains to the S.W., and a fine low cape running out to the W.S.W.

This reminds me of the slew of Muslims who believe that Jesus Christ was a Muslim. That we all are Muslims, never mind that Judaism and Christianity pre-date Islam.

Wishful thinking.

Source: Al Arabiya

ISIS Video Threatens Turkey While Turkey Does Nothing To Save Kobani Border Town

One would think that Turkey would be more actively involved in aiding the Western coalition in its fight against the Islamic State (aka ISIS or ISIL), since ISIS is poised to capture the Syria/Turkey border town of Kobani. It's just a wire fence that separates Kobani from Turkey, and yet Turkey's conservative Muslim president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is doing very little to help. In fact, he's thwarting efforts by Turkish Kurds to cross the border into Syria to aid fellow Kurds in Kobani who are desperate for help.

As Turkish troops and tanks stand guard at the border, many Kurds are desperate and angry, assaulted by Turkish teargas, water cannon, and police violence.

“Isis are inhuman, they are the terrorists. The YPG is fighting not only for the Kurds and their land, but for all of humanity,” said Nesrattin from the border town of Siirt. “We’re protecting Turkey, too. Why can’t they see that? We are Turkey’s friends.”

He is surrounded by a throng of other Kurds from Siirt who have come to the border “to make sure that Turkey does not support Isis”.

But they have been. They have been allowing foreign jihadists to freely cross the border into Syria, while forcefully banning Kurdish fighters to help in Kobani.

“Why do they use so much force against us?” asked Hatice, 38. “Many of our friends were hurt in clashes with the police on this side of the border. They use teargas and water cannon, some of our cars were damaged. We’re not doing anything bad, we just want to stand here to support the YPG fighters in Kobani.”

But apparently, Erdoğan hates the Kurds more than he fears ISIS.

“Erdoğan hates the Syrian Kurds. He thinks they’re worse than Isis. Turkey has many problems with this and has always been ambiguous,” said a European diplomat involved in the effort to build an anti-Isis coalition.

That view appeared to be vindicated this week when Erdoğan equated the Kurds of Kobani and their defenders with the jihadi assailants. “It is wrong to view them differently, we need to deal with them jointly,” he told journalists in Istanbul.

That's because he considers the banned the Kurdish PKK army as terrorists.

Kobani Kurdish fighters are running out of ammunition, though, and  U.S. airstrikes are doing little to help. If and when Kobani falls, Turkey is just a stone's throw away.

Kobani from Turkey border - Photo credit Lefteris Pitarakis

According to Pentagon's Rear Adm. John Kirby, those airstrikes "are not going to save" Kobani.

"I think we all should be steeling ourselves for that eventuality," he told reporters in a daily briefing Wednesday.

"We are doing everything we can to halt" ISIS' progress against the town, but airstrikes alone cannot stop the Islamist militants, Kirby added.

"We've been very honest about the limits of air power here. The ground forces that matter the most are indigenous ground forces, and we don't have a willing, capable, effective partner on the ground inside Syria right now -- it's just a fact," he said.

Erdoğan would do well to help Kobani, considering ISIS has now posted another propaganda video, claiming Turkey is next- that ISIS will conquer Turkey and rid the country of Erdoğan.

The YouTube video here.

Video: Why The Turks Are Protesting

In less than four minutes, this video pretty much sums up what the Turkish people are currently protesting.

It started off as a demonstration against turning Taksim Square and one of the few small sections of green in Istanbul- Gezi Park- into a 19th century Ottoman barracks which would house a shopping mall, possibly a museum and luxury apartments, but has escalated into something far bigger: anti-government protests. Dissatisfaction with the conservative ruling leadership which, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has been attempting to turn secular Turkey into more of an Islamic state. The secular in that country are not happy about this.

The video outlines some of their gripes.

It doesn't help matters that protesters have been met with  violence.

TV Channel Fined For Airing Blasphemous "Simpsons" Episode

I don't think I've ever watched an episode of 'The Simpsons', and other than Homer's famous "Doh" I don't know much about it, but apparently the Turkish people do. They've been watching for almost ten years now. But the TV station that airs the adult cartoon series, CNBC-e, will have to fork over £18,600 after being fined for an episode that was deemed blasphemous by "making fun of God, encouraging the young people to exercise violence by showing the murders as God's orders."

The Halloween special "Treehouse of Horrors XXII"  that aired on September 20 in Turkey had actually aired last year in the U.S.

 In one segment of the episode, titled "Dial D for Diddly", the religiously-devout character Ned Flanders goes on a killing rampage after being given orders by what he thinks is the voice of God. Later in the episode, the Devil demands God bring him a cup of coffee. "Yes sir," God responds, revealing it is actually the Devil that runs the world.

According to RTUK, the state broadcasting regulator the entity that fined CNBC-e:

.. the episode shows "one of the characters is abusing another one's religious beliefs to make him commit murders.

The Bible is publicly burned in one scene and God and the Devil are shown in human bodies."

RTUK also said that God serving the Devil coffee can be considered an insult to religious beliefs.

Mehmet Yilmaz of the Hurriyet newspaper said of the fine:

"I wonder what the script writers will do when they hear that the jokes on their show are taken seriously and trigger fines in a country called Turkey. Maybe they will add an almond-moustached RTUK expert to the series," he added, evoking a popular Turkish stereotype of a pious government supporter.

One of the few, democratic, secular Muslim-majority nations in that region- thanks to its founder and first President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk- it is slowly creeping away from the secular roots that Atatürk fought so hard to maintain, mostly because of the current Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a devout, conservative Muslim.

But it's not just mocking religion that can get you in hot water in Turkey, a popular Turkish soap opera was targeted for depicting the famed 16th century Ottoman Sultan "Suleiman the Magnificent" (the one who orchestrated the conquest of  most of the Middle-East, much of Africa and parts of Europe until he was stopped at the Gates of Vienna in 1529), in a not so glamorous light.

The show, 'Magnificent Century', shows the 16th century Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent drinking alcohol and spending more time with his harem than conquering the surrounding lands.

Mr Erdogan – who has been accused of fostering a more reactionary environment – said the owner of the channel that broadcasts the show had been warned and that he expected the judiciary to act.

But to show just how religious and conservative the Turkish people are becoming, the 'Magnificent Century' has garnered 70,000 complaints since January 2011.  They apparently want the  RTUK to ban the show. Touchy.

Sources: TelegraphUK, GuardianUK