Salon.com > Suzanna Koster

Marxist terrorism is alive and well in Turkey

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 14:08:00 +0000

ANKARA, Turkey — When a suicide bomber blew himself up at the US Embassy here on Friday, many suspected Al Qaeda or another militant group. After all, it’s been only five months since Islamists killed a US ambassador in Benghazi, Libya.

Friday’s attack killed a Turkish security guard and seriously injured a well-known Turkish journalist. She’s now recovering in the hospital.

Even before American officials would discuss a possible motive, however, Turkish police linked the attack to a domestic leftist militant group called the People’s Liberation Party-Front, or DHKP-C. It took responsibility the following day.

In a statement posted on the internet, the group accused the Turkish ruling AK Party of being a US puppet and condemned Washington for waging war in the Middle East.

How to survive the end of the world

Tue, 18 Dec 2012 17:24:00 +0000

SIRINCE, Turkey — For most of us, if you believe the doomsday theory, the world will end on Dec. 21.

The whole world, that is, except two small, seemingly random villages. Since some believe they possess high levels of “positive energy,” Sirince in Turkey and Bugarach in France will be spared the Armageddon.

For Sirince, a town of just 650 people, such beliefs are good for business.

“It’s a big event for Sirince. We could make it a tradition,” said a cheerful Ahmet Kocak, the owner of a boutique hotel here, as he sat on the hotel terrace overlooking the village’s historic Greek cottages.

For the first time ever in the history of his hotel, all of his rooms were booked eight months ahead of time — all by Americans.

Turkey: America’s new key ally in the Middle East?

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 18:11:00 +0000

ISTANBUL, Turkey — It’s probably a matter of geography. But the Turkish government has been masterful in recent years at keeping friends in both the Middle East and the West, despite all the conflicts in between.

Turkey has carefully calibrated relations with countries in its neighborhood — which include perennial thorns like Iran, Syria, Iraq and Russia — and with the United States, which is so engaged in the region some there feel they should be able to vote in the US presidential election.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to expand trade with its immediate neighbors, irking the West but never alienating it — no easy task.

But with the Arab Spring and the Syrian conflict, things are changing in the region, and it might be the administration of US President Barack Obama that wins out in the end.

Since Obama took office, relations with Turkey are perhaps the best they’ve ever been.

Turkey and Syria on the brink

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 22:40:00 +0000

A day after the Turkish parliament authorized military action in Syria, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan issued strong words to its troubled neighbor.

“We are not interested in war, but we're not far from it either," Erdoğan said in a speech in Istanbul on Friday.

According to Turkish reports, the country is attempting to establish a buffer zone around the border, calling on the Syrian military to stay 10 kilometers away from the Turkish side.

While there have a been a number of cross-border incursions since the civil war in Syria broke out, the two countries appear the closest yet to a full confrontation. Syria’s conflict has perhaps weighed the heaviest on Turkey, which has taken in hundreds of thousands of refugees and is dealing with an increasingly vocal — and violent — Kurdish independence movement along its borders.

Pakistan’s crippling turf war

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 14:07:00 +0000

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s story has long been dominated by a power struggle between its two main characters: the country’s mighty military and its weak civilian government. Now, as if the story weren’t sordid enough, the rise of Pakistan’s judiciary has introduced a third character, one that analysts worry could be highly unpredictable.

Its power was on display this week when the country's Supreme Court formally charged Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani with contempt of court, a move that could eventually lead to the leader’s dismissal.

And then, not to appear unfair, the court took on the military as well. For the first time in the country’s history, Pakistan's Supreme Court forced the Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), the country’s formidable spy organization, to bring before the court seven prisoners it is accused of detaining illegally.

Proponents and critics raise points from both ends regarding the surge of the judiciary's power.

Has Pakistan missed its “Arab Spring” moment?

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 16:56:00 +0000

HAJI SAINDAD RIND, Pakistan — It could have been an Arab Spring moment. Taking an apparent cue from the young Tunisian who, tired of the poverty in which he lived, set himself on fire and launched a protest movement around the world, Raja Khan, 23, went to Pakistan’s parliament late last month and did the same.

But in a country where poverty and unemployment is more a norm than an exception, the reaction has been muted.

Police in Islamabad said Khan left a note to say he couldn’t bear to live in such condition anymore. On the day of his burial, his 20-year-old wife, Najma, gave birth to their third son.

“He said, ‘I am taking fuel with me and I’m going to set myself on fire.’ I said, ‘please, don’t do this, for the sake of your children.’ I begged him, ‘don’t do this for the sake of God. Think of me. Who will take care of me if you are gone?’ But he didn’t listen,” Najma said, sitting outside her simple brick house, while her brothers wiped away her tears.