TURKEY: Gaza Panel & more – 5th Mar 2024

Merhaba from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Turkey Update from the 5th of March twenty twenty-four A quick summary of what's going down in Turkey.

On Saturday the 2nd, during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum, Mahmoud Abbas, the President of Palestine, announced that he was planning to visit Turkey on Tuesday the 5th.

The situation in Palestine was one of the main points at the forum. Hakan Fidan, the Turkish Foreign Minister, moderated a panel titled Gaza Contact Group, which The Palestinian Foreign Minister attended. Fidan stated that Palestine needed to return to its nineteen sixty-seven borders to ensure regional security. He also asked Palestinian authorities what Turkey can do to resolve the conflict. The Palestinian Foreign Minister responded that Netanyahu, Israel’s Prime Minister, wishes to expand the conflict beyond Gaza, namely to Lebanon. So, he said that this should be prevented since, if the conflict spreads to Lebanon, it’ll also quickly spread to Syria, Iran, and Iraq.

Next up, on Friday the 1st, Twitter’s Global Government Affairs team announced their legal victory against the Turkish government's attempt to ban forty-five tweets related to the Erzincan mining disaster. Recall that a gold mine collapsed in Erzincan, trapping miners. The collapse also caused cyanide to leak into the surrounding environment. Initially, a criminal court in Ankara issued a removal order, targeting posts including those of Ümit Özdağ, the chair of the Victory Party, the nationalistic opposition. However, Twitter appealed to the Ankara 9th Criminal Court of Peace, which overturned the decision, citing protection of freedom of press and expression. Twitter emphasized its global commitment to defending user rights against government censorship.

Speaking of mining disasters, on Tuesday the 27th, a clean-up crew member at the recently collapsed Çöpler gold mine was hospitalized after fainting from nausea and vomiting. The hospital stated that his cyanide poisoning test came back negative. Nevertheless, the workers are concerned about health risks, reporting strong odors causing headaches at the site. The Centers for Disease Control said that symptoms like headache, nausea, and vomiting are signs of cyanide poisoning and can lead to more severe conditions.

Let’s talk about the upcoming elections… On Friday the 1st, Turkey's third-largest party, the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy, or DEM Party, published its manifesto for the Istanbul local elections. Co-mayoral candidates Meral Danış Beştaş and Murat Çepni presented the manifesto at a press release in Istanbul’s Şişli district. Beştaş emphasized their vision of making Istanbul a city of women and pledged to prioritize women's perspectives in urban planning and services. The manifesto also addressed earthquake preparedness, emphasizing affordable and resilient housing without disrupting neighborhood dynamics. Additionally, the party promised to support community participation in governance, enhance public transportation, and ensure humane treatment of stray animals, as well as promote language diversity.

However, the last promise is a controversial one, as the Turkish government, and a large portion of the public argues that the official language of the country is Turkish, and language diversity, especially that of minority groups in the country like Kurds, might disrupt nationalistic values. Still, there’s also a substantial Kurdish popularity in Turkey, as well as in İstanbul. So, in the end, the people will decide.

Ahmet Akın, the CHP’s mayoral candidate for Balıkesir, condemned an independent candidate with the same name, calling it the ruling AKP’s ploy to disrupt the upcoming elections. This rival reportedly lacks public engagement and has no online presence. He works at a local restaurant and has no political background, which backs Akın’s remarks that the AKP attempts to cause confusion. However, the CHP’s candidate is confident that the voters will pick the right Akın regardless.

Moving on… Mansur Yavaş, the CHP’s current Ankara mayor and the mayor candidate in the upcoming elections, announced that if he’s re-elected this year, it would be his last term. He expressed that he intends to pass on his expertise in municipal governance before stepping down.

In some more political news, on Thursday the 29th, the main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, held a meeting with the state-run Turkish Radio and Television Corporation, or TRT’s director general in Ankara. During the meeting, the party addressed concerns about the broadcaster's favoritism towards the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP. The TRT's director talked about the CHP’s airtime reports, which said that Erdoğan had more airtime than CHP's leader. He labeled them as unofficial and said they lacked scientific methodology. He also said that President Erdoğan's appearances as a leader and as president varied and it should be taken into account while analyzing. The CHP requested a transparent tally system for political party airtime, and the TRT agreed to consider it.

In our last update we talked about some polemic ÇEDES teachings… Well, reportedly, as a component of the Religious Affairs Directorate’s controversial environmental values class, children at one school learned animal slaughter methods, while students at another school posed for a picture pretending to have their hands tied to portray the sufferings of Palestinian women and children. These are children between ten and fourteen years old.

However, lately the project expanded to all students, including preschoolers, and many think that the curriculum for the class isn’t appropriate for young children. Also, critics fear it imposes ideology and ignores fundamental values like kindness, honesty, and empathy.

Still on education…Yusuf Tekin, the Minister of National Education, addressed concerns about changes to the math curriculum. Last year, the ministry announced that it would simplify it for primary and secondary education. The Turkish curriculum is notorious for its advanced and immersive lesson content in subjects like math, history and science for middle and high schools. While it’s nice that students are introduced to many subjects, it’s impossible for them to learn every topic in every subject because it leads to burnout.

Tekin stated that the new curriculum will focus on age-appropriate subjects and added that it is almost complete with nearly two thousand experts working on it. Reportedly, the ministry will introduce the curriculum gradually, starting next year in first, fifth and ninth grades.

Good news for those who are gluten-free! On Tuesday the 5th, the Ministry of Trade stated in the Official Gazette that starting from the 1st of June, large supermarket chains with over 200 stores must now have gluten-free options to make it easier for people with gluten intolerance to find suitable food.

Since we mentioned markets, A101, a well-known market chain, now offers tiny houses alongside boats and cars. The houses cost between 400 thousand liras, around thirteen thousand US Dollars and 430 thousand liras, around thirteen dollars and a half thousand US Dollars, and can be paid in installments. The market chain ventures into the housing market amidst an 84% yearly increase in average housing prices.

On Wednesday the 28th of February, the Istanbul Municipality reopened the historical Bulgur Palace nestled in Istanbul following extensive restoration. It’s now a public cultural and art center run by the Municipality. The palace is named after Mehmet Habib Bey, known as the Bulgur King, for his bulgur trade during World War I. The inauguration features a Magnum Photos exhibition showcasing over 200 works, including some prominent local artists.

On that note about İstanbul… A worker from the AKP-led Güngören Municipality said that he was fired after reporting illegal dumping of chemical waste on a land that the opposition Istanbul Municipality leads. He was a construction waste collector and witnessed unauthorized dumping during his shift. He reported this to the Deputy Mayor who said they were aware and warned him against further involvement, leading to his dismissal.

Aaaaand that’s it for this week.

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