(By Erdağ Göknar via IslamiCommentary) Erdağ Göknar Claiming that Twitter has not responded to Turkish court requests to suspend specific accounts, the Turkish communications ministry blocked Twitter last Friday. Ruling Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was quoted as saying, “Twitter schmitter, we’ll put an end to them all. The international community can react however it […]
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Turkey
Top attempts by Dictators to Shut down Twitter in Mideast (including Turkey’s PM Erdogan)
(By Juan Cole) Trying to close down social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube has been a desperate ploy of dictatorial regimes throughout the world. It doesn’t work very well, since typically users find workarounds. But what is interesting is why authoritarian regimes make the attempt in the first place. At midnight last night, […]
Crimea Vote provokes fear of Domino Effect in Eurasia: Turkish FM
(By Juan Cole) Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday warned that Crimea’s referendum on seceding from Ukraine pose the threat of a “domino effect” in Eurasia. Will Russia’s rush to referendum and the outcome affect other populations who want to secede, throughout the world? Will it destabilize the current world order? Davutoglu likely had […]
Turkey’s PM Erdogan can weather Corruption and Islamic Politics: But Can he Weather Twitter?
(By Ahmet T. Kuru) Erdoğan has consolidated the executive, legislative, and the judicial powers under his authority; yet he has been unable to control another source of power— Twitter. When the Arab uprisings began, Turkey emerged as a role model in the Middle East in terms of combining Islam and democracy. The Arab uprisings have […]
The Theater of Conspiracy in the Run-up to Turkey’s Elections
(By Erdağ Göknar) The novel Snow by Nobel-prize-winning Turkish author Orhan Pamuk exposes the logic of Middle Eastern nationalism. Not surprisingly, political conspiracy has a prominent role to play in it. Turkish realities and their ideologically colored representations are constantly switching places in the novel. As a result, it becomes harder and harder for characters […]
Tens of Thousands in Turkey Protest Tyranny of the Majority
(By Juan Cole) Tens of thousands of Turks demonstrated in Istanbul and other cities on Wednesday coming off the funeral of 15-year-old Berkin Elvan. Elvan had been in a coma since last June, when he went out to get bread for his family and inadvertently got caught up in the Gezi Park protests. He was […]
Bill O’Reilly says Muslims will Diss Hillary; but 8 Muslim Countries Chose Female Leaders
(By Juan Cole) Bill O’Reilly maintains that one downside of having a woman president is that Muslims won’t respect her. For Mr. O’Reilly’s information, here are the women leaders of Muslim-majority countries, most of them freely elected by Muslim publics and all of them respected by the latter: Tansu Çiller, elected prime minister of Turkey, […]
Censorship: Turkish PM, President tangle over Bruited ban on Facebook, Youtube
(By Juan Cole) President Abdullah Gul has rejected a suggestion by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan that Turkey might ban Facebook and Twitter. Nearly half of Turkey’s 77 million people use Facebook at least once a month and the country ranks 15th in the world for Facebook use. Turkey had banned Youtube 2008-2010. The good news […]
The New Cold War and the Middle East
(By Victor Argo) Cold War times are back in Europe. Russian troops are standing in Crimea. The peninsula in southern Ukraine is known for its sparkling wine and the conference of Yalta in 1945, where Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed on the division of Germany and the post-war reorganization of Europe. Russian President Putin, with […]