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Monday, May 13, 2013

The situation in "democratic" Turkey after the car bombings


This is how the  associate member of the EU, on it's way to becoming a full fledged part of the EU, thinks about democracy and freedom of the Press.  Yup, there's a great future in-waiting for not only Turkey but the entire EU.

From TodaysZaman:
.....The Reyhanlı 2nd Court of First Instance announced on Sunday that a broadcasting ban had been imposed on the deadly attack, which took place on Saturday. In accordance with the ban, TV stations, newspapers and Internet broadcasters will not be allowed to show or report on images of the victims. The ban was issued upon a request by the Reyhanlı Chief Public Prosecutor's Office.
Once the seven-day period is over, the court will reconvene to decide whether to lift or extend the ban......

From Haaretz via France24:
...Turkish citizens in Reyhanli shouted at Syrian refugees gathered to aid those wounded in the inferno of the bomb blasts Saturday, telling them to get out of town. Syrian doctors who work in the local hospital were asked to hastily return to their homes and drivers who arrived in the city with cars from Syria were asked to remove their Syrian license plates. The lethal twin blasts quickly drew hundreds of Turkish soldiers and police to the city, which straddles the Turkish-Syrian border, fearing not only an outbreak of violence against thousands of Syrian refugees, but also the eruption a sectarian war in Turkey's Hatay Province.

The province is home to a mosaic of different ethnic groups and languages. Arabic-speaking Turkish citizens live there – both Sunni Muslims and Alawites (who are not identical to Syrian Alawites) – along with Kurds and other minorities. Together, they have lived routine lives for decades, even though some of them view the region as a “stolen” part of Syria, which Turkey annexed in 1939.

Thousands of Syrians have joined the region’s local population in the past two years, adding to the 300,000 to 350,000 Syrian refugees now living in Turkey. Local residents have claimed in Turkish media that the refugees have begun to act as if they control the area, instead of like guests. "They have eaten in restaurants without paying," residents told Turkish media. "They have received medical care at the expense of area residents while Turkish citizens have been forced to wait and they have brought with them the social ills of Syrian society including prostitution and drug trafficking."

The tension between the refugees and residents has thickened as Turkish citizens have accused the refugees, who have unrestricted freedom of movement, of theft and robbery, harassing women and, more fundamentally, upsetting the demographic balance of the province. Most of the refugees are Sunni Muslims, while a large portion of the province's Turkish residents are Alawite, who in contrast with the Turkish government, support the Assad regime and have even held several demonstrations in support of the Syrian regime...........

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