Happy 2012…My last published story of 2011…the Turkish Republic and the Gülen movement…
Istanbul-My last story of 2011 was published Thursday by EurasiaNet.org. Turkey: Has Gülen Movement Replaced Deep State? was meant to raise a series of questions that are very prevalent in Turkey, especially in the past weeks as hundreds of people have been detained in Turkey, almost always on scant evidence.
The December 26 trial of arrested Turkish journalists Ahmet Şık and Nedim Şener has pushed a shadowy organization known as the Gülen movement to the forefront of public attention in Turkey. The group’s influence has long been an open secret. Now, its weight is being felt at a time when the country’s democratic credentials are increasingly being called into question.
To those that do not follow Turkish politics on a regular basis, the Gülen movement might appear to be the stuff of conspiracies. However, community networks, many times organized around one of the various Islamic movements in the country, have always been powerful forces in Turkey. The Gülen movement, or Gülen organization, as some people I interviewed insisted it should be called, is one of the largest and most powerful of these networks. Indeed, the Millî Görüş another Islamic organization, was instrumental in propelling the first Islamic political parties to power in Turkey. Something to note is a general consensus, among the people that agreed to be interviewed, that the Gülen movement is more confident now, especially with Turkey’s once all powerful military apparently tamed, and therefore more willing to be open about their role in the country.
The 000 Book, by detained Turkish journalist Ahmet Şık, on sale at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport on December 29, 2011. The book, originally called the Imam's Army, was initially banned before it could be published. It was later published under a new name by a group of Turkish journalists and intellectuals.
Inside Syria with the Free Syrian Army in Ain al-Baida…
Istanbul-At the beginning of December, I was back on the Syrian-Turkish border, to do a story on couriers for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that were going back and forth between the two countries, carrying supplies in and secret dispatches and wounded civilians out.
A FSA fighter in Ain al-Baida, Syria. December 2011.
While researching the story I again crossed the border into Syria, guided by a Syrian smuggler. On a hill overlooking the village of Ain al-Baida, I was introduced to a group of FSA fighters who were living in a small outpost across a valley from a Syrian military position.
The sharp pop of gunfire draws little reaction. The soldiers of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) point to a multi-storey house just across the wide valley from their base above the village of Ain al-Baida, about a mile from the Turkish border. “That is where the military is,” says commander Abo Mohammad, who wears a camouflage jacket over civilian clothes and cradles an AK-47.
Read the full article in the Independent
A FSA fighter points to a bullet hole in a building occupied by rebel fighters in Ain al-Baida, Syria. December 2011.
On the Turkish side of the border I also visited the Reyhanli refugee camp, one of several camps full of Syrians who fled the country. Many have been there for months and tensions in the camp are high. Upon arriving, I witnessed a fight break out suddenly. A group of Syrian men in their late-twenties accused a Turkish worker of speaking unkindly to some Syrian children. The situation got out of control and the Syrian men pulled up large metal stakes anchoring a tent and went after the Turkish man. Other Syrian men intervened and the situation eventually cooled down.
Inside a camp for Syrian refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey. December 2011.
It is no wonder the Syrians in the camps are frustrated. Only a few days before I witnessed the fight in Reyhanli, two Syrian men from the camp were sent back to Syria after a translation mistake by a Turkish gendarme, sparking a day of riots.
The two men returned to Syria – Azzam Haj Mahmoud and Omar Mahmoud Asheikh –had arrived in Turkey more than a week ago and were taken to Reyhanli, where some of the more than 8,000 refugees living along the border are based.
Refugees said that after five days the pair were told by camp authorities they had to return to the border to register with a gendarme.
They were driven to the frontier on Saturday and have not been heard from since.
Read the full article in the Independent
By the time I was able to covertly enter the camp, the two men had returned to Turkey after negotiations between local authorities in Turkey and and officials in Syria’s Idlib province. Before the Syrian regime’s crackdown on opposition protests and ensuing sanctions, there was a thriving trade between Turkey and Syria and officials on both sides of the border worked together closely. Inside the camp, I met Azzam and Omar, who said that they were very happy to be back in Turkey and grateful that the Turks had been able to organize their release.
Turkey is playing a pivotal role in the international efforts to pressure the Syrian regime. The FSA fighters I spoke with in Ain al-Baida were looking to the country to establish a buffer zone inside Syria from which they could fight from, similar to the role the town of Benghazi played in Libya.
The flags of the Turkish Republic and Syrian opposition atop a roof in Ain al-Baida, Syria. December 2011.
The poorly armed fighters challenging Assad’s army believe that only an armed uprising stands a chance of toppling the Syrian regime. “We cannot accept our families and friends being killed,” said a burly fighter wearing camouflage fatigues and grasping an assault rifle. “We will fight Assad by any weapon, by knife, by gun. We will fight.”
Though the FSA claims to be composed of defectors from the Syrian military, this man said he was a civilian volunteer from the town of Jisr al-Shughour, which had been demolished this summer by the Syrian army’s infamous Fourth Armored Division, under the control of the president’s brother, Maher.
More on the Syrian rebels first attack inside Damascus…a critical Free Officers Movement wary of Turkey…
Istanbul-This morning the Independent published a piece by me on Syrian rebels carrying out their first attack inside Damascus.
Coming shortly after an assault on the air force intelligence headquarters just outside the capital, the reported attack contributes to a growing sense that the Syrian opposition is ready to make a more co-ordinated use of force against the Assad regime. The Free Syrian Army, whose leader, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, is based in neighbouring Turkey, claimed responsibility for the attack.
Due to the events in Cairo, much of the original article was cut.
Below is the rest of the article, which includes parts of an interview with a member of the Syrian Free Officers Movement who reminds us how complicated the Syria conflict, which increasingly looks like civil war, remains:
Many analysts believe the conflict inside Syria has reached a crucial point. Peaceful demonstrations have continued despite attacks by regime forces. Yet, the fractured Syrian opposition has failed to win support for direct Western intervention.
Omar al-Muqdad, a senior opposition activist who fled Syria for Turkey in March, claimed that Western diplomats were frustrated with the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) and therefore unwilling to take more rapid action.
“A lot of diplomats are saying they are not going to deal with these people,” he said. “They say all the time, ‘when the regime steps down who will lead?’ Its not clear.”
Even one of the growing number of army defectors voiced frustration with how the opposition campaign was being carried out. Basim al-Khaled, a lieutenant who defected last May, cast doubt on the Free Syrian Army’s ability to carry out attacks inside the country.
“Colonel al-As’aad has no control on the ground,” said al-Khaled. “Because [al-As'aad] is out of Syria, he controls nothing inside the country.”
A member of the Syrian Free Officers Movement who the Independent interviewed just after he held negotiations with the SNC on increasing the opposition’s political and military coordination, he was in Istanbul clandestinely to avoid Turkish security forces.
Referring to al-As’aad as a “card” used to influence events in Syria, he said his group would not speak with the Turkish government after its leader, Lt. Col. Hussein Harmoush, who had also been based in Turkey, disappeared after allegedly going to meet a Turkish intelligence agent. About two weeks later he appeared on Syrian state TV, confessing a role in the uprising.
Many in the opposition believe that Turkey handed Harmoush over to Syria in exchange for captured Kurdish militants.
“If they handed him over or not they are responsible,” al-Khaled said of Turkey’s role in Harmoush’s disappearance.
He also dismissed al-As’aad’s claims that the Free Syrian Army was composed of some 10 or 15 thousand defectors. “If it was true the regime would be finished,” he said.
Instead, he said there were “a lot” of defectors spread across the country, commanded by about one thousand defected officers, he said.
“al-As’aad wants to raise people’s spirits, but in fact he has hurt us, and people will not believe us in the future,” he said, referring to the opposition’s lack of credibility after few political or military victories.
Both al-Khaled and al-Muqdad said the Syrian opposition had to reorganise itself. “Its not unified. They need to fix the council,” said Muqdad. “Finally, [the conflict in Syria] is a political subject.”
Asked about the increase in attacks by armed opposition forces inside Syria, al-Khaled was hesitant to say who is carrying them out.
The Free Officers Movement was focused on defending towns and cities as supposed to carrying out larger-scale offensive attacks, he said. With nearly all its officers outside Syria, the Free Syrian Army did not have the ability to launch the attacks.
“It was civilians,” al-Khaled said of a recent attack on an intelligence facility in Hasrata.
After nearly nine months of peaceful demonstrations the only concrete response has been continued regime violence, al-Muqdad said. “Its normal to get some people that carry guns to defend themselves.”
The “new” young Turks…
Istanbul-I’ve got a new article out on university graduates in Turkey who are unable to find suitable jobs.
It was commissioned and first published by EurasiaNet.org
Setting the stage for the unemployment conundrum is the demographic fact that more than half of Turkey’s estimated population of 75 million people is under the age of 30. And not only are there more youngsters seeking employment, they tend to be better educated than their elders.
Read the full article and see photos here.
The article was also republished by The Atlantic
Islamic banking in Turkey, a short history involving the secular military and the Naksibendi…
Istanbul-Yesterday, EurasiaNet.org published an article by me on Islamic banking in Turkey.
Amid Turkey’s turn away from strict secularism, Islamic banking practices in the country are gaining currency. But they still face significant obstacles as they strive to enter the financial mainstream.
The Atlantic also ran the story.
While researching the article, I went through a lot of background material on the history of Islamic finance in Turkey.
Below is a short history:
Kyrgyzstan’s election…
Istanbul- Kyrgyzstan held its presidential election today (Oct. 30). The event is being described as Central Asia’s first relatively democratic election.
I ventured to Kyrgyzstan earlier this year and published a series of articles from a region I hope to continue covering.
Following June 2010 violence in the southern city of Osh, there is hope that the election will usher in a period of greater peace and freedom for the country. This will be difficult to achieve. Nationalism is on the rise in the country and the tensions remain high between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks.
Here is one of articles I wrote from Kyrgyzstan:
Kyrgyzstan: Where the Restaurants in Osh Have New Names
Kyrgyz and Uzbeks offer starkly different versions of how the “events,” or the “war” – as last year’s violence is known locally – unfolded. While they differ on many points about the causes and the effects of the violence, the two groups tend to agree on one point: the Kyrgyz “won.” In an atmosphere of rising Kyrgyz nationalism, Kyrgyz-language newspapers have printed racist attacks on minorities, offering justifications for harsh measures aimed at defending their “ancestral lands.” Kyrgyz politicians, meanwhile, have demanded “respect” from minorities. Azamat Temirkulov, a professor of political science at the American University of Central Asia in Bishkek, confirmed that nationalist sentiment has intensified over the past year, especially in Osh. “After the events last year, Kyrgyz have this trend to dominate culturally, and, maybe, also dominate economically,” he told EurasiaNet.org. “There is nationalism, there are some nationalist groups. They are present not only in the street, but also in official institutions.”
With only best wishes for the country, here is a random assortment of photos taken during the weeks I was in Kyrgyzstan.
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Turkey’s green energy village…
Istanbul- Last week I published a story on green energy in Turkey with EurasiaNet.org
Turkey: Betting on Wind Power, One Village at a Time
The story focuses on the rural village of Akbiyik in Turkey’s Western Bursa province, which has high hopes for a windmill it built to provide green energy.
From the story:
Akbiyik, a village with 365 residents in Turkey’s western Bursa province, has a head start on the country’s plans to increase domestic energy production. The reason is simple — it has a wind turbine and villagers eager to capitalize on a government push toward alternative energies.
Read the full article with a photo essay here.
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Two new Turkey articles…back after four days in Bursa…a wind-seeking village…
Istanbul-I’m back home after four days working on an alternative energy story in Turkey’s western province of Bursa. That story is forthcoming.
Mustafa Çiçek, the mukhtar Akbıyık, a tiny village in Turkey's Western province of Bursa that built a windmill to produce electricity for a local water pump.
While I was there, EurasiaNet.org and business new europe published stories by me:
Turkey: Cartoonist Faces Trial for Asserting that “Religion Is a Lie”
Not too long ago, when the military acted as the enforcer of a rigidly secular system, a politician in Turkey could be punished merely for reciting religious poetry. Now, with the military’s influence waning and moderate Islamists firmly in charge of the machinery of state, government agencies are trying to punish a cartoonist, Bahadir Baruter, for blasphemy.
While this piece focused on the strange case of cartoonist Bahdir Baruter, I also wanted to make the point that the West, in particular, needs to focus on how it views Muslim countries.
This is made all the more important as many countries overturning dictatorships as part of the Arab Spring are viewing Turkey as a kind of model for Muslim democracy. Islam is a force that the world needs to become more familiar with and view less as a threat and more of culture that will need to be recognized further and learned about.
Turkey – a hero to some, but a bully to others
The EU’s 2011 progress report on Turkey highlighted concerns over a growing energy dispute with Greek Cyprus and comes at a low-point for Turkey-EU relations. Riding a wave of popularity as the Arab Spring struggles on, Turkey is increasingly throwing its weight around the region – a hero to some, but a bully to others.
Travels 2006-2009…Golubac…Eurovision…June 2008…
Eurovision has come and gone in a blur. The song contest is a meant to symbolize European unity. That significance of its appearance in Serbia after the country voted for a pro-EU path is lost on no one.
DS has a majority in parliament, allowing Tadic strong control over the government. Radovan Karadzic will be arrested in July and sent to the Hague. Kostunica is no longer prime minister. DSS has joined the Radicals in the opposition and their attempt to bring down Tadic’s government with a no confidence vote gets postponed “indefinitely.” Tadic has even managed to get Novi Pazar’s Sulejman Ugljanin to join the new government, hopefully neutralizing him as a political threat in Sandzak.
However, Ugljanin being made part of Tadic’s government angers Zukorlic. From Novi Pazar he issues a statement saying that while the Democrats still have the support of Bosniaks in Sandzak, it has failed to meet its promises.
“That will most certainly cost them dearly in the future,” he says.
Members of the Russian delegation demonstration on the final night of Eurovision 2008 in Belgrade Serbia.
Travels 2006-2009…Election day in Serbia…May 11, 2008…
“This wine is like giggles in my mouth,” Mia says.
She looks around. “I haven’t drunk wine in a park for ages.” She laughs with the tips of her fingers pressed against her lips and seems to have a thought, but does not voice it. She sighs and we begin.
“If I had the power to change anything? I would close the borders to all foreign journalists. They are so boring. I’m kidding. Actually I would put a condition that they had to have a special visa. So they could understand our frustration. We have to buy our airplane tickets without knowing if we have the visa to go somewhere. Most of the people that are making the big decisions in the world have no why to relate to the rest of it. The people that are defining the final status of Kosovo are doing it without ever having been to Kosovo. That bothers me.”
Party members await election results outside the offices of the Democratic Party (DS) in Belgrade, Serbia on May 11, 2008.
