October 18, 2007
Lets Talk Turkey
The resolution to authorize Turkish troops to cross into Iraq to hunt the PKK is more of an appeal to the US and Iraqi forces to crack down on the group:
Like a shy bride, Turkey is taking a fundamental decision but at the same time wishing to stay away from all the possible repercussions arising from that step, which might disrupt the comfort at home, as well as complicate its web of ties with the international community, headed by the U.S. and the European Union.
Gays, however, are under legal attack by the government, in the form of the governor of Istanbul, who filed a suit to close a LGBT human rights organization:
In 2005, sexual orientation was included as a protected status in an early draft of an anti-discrimination bill in Parliament, but lawmakers later eliminated the language. Meanwhile, laws and regulations that refer to “general morality” are still used to restrict LGBT people's rights of association and expression, and also to justify police arrests and harassment on the streets.
And linguistics is always an issue the world over:
The Turkish government does not deny that massacres that affected both sides of the conflict took place but rather deny that there was any intent to destroy a group or a nation, which is a pre-requisite for an incident to be labeled as “genocide” instead of a “massacre.” The term “genocide,” due to its nature, requires central planning and machinery to execute the plan. Current attempts at a resolution between the two countries are at a dead end.
