[Event of the week]
DTP withdraws initiative support after Öcalan cell controversy

On Friday Ayna said the government’s approach to the needs of Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan, who is serving a life sentence on İmralı Island in the Marmara Sea, showed its attitude towards the Kurdish question. “The initiative is now over with the treatment [of Öcalan] on İmralı,” she said. She did not elaborate, but she was referring to recent allegations voiced by the DTP that Öcalan was being treated poorly.

Throughout last week there has been controversy about the prison conditions of terrorist PKK leader Öcalan. Öcalan’s lawyers claimed that a new cell built for Öcalan is six-and-a-half square meters, compared to the old cell’s 12 square meters. The new cell’s window is reportedly high and cannot be looked through unassisted. Öcalan, in his latest meeting with his lawyers last week, warned that his new prison conditions are harming his health, and he feels that he is at the bottom of a well.

Since the statement to his lawyers there have been demonstrations across the country to protest his new living conditions. The Justice Ministry yesterday released a statement, asserting that the quality of Öcalan’s new cell was much higher than standards set for inmates by the EU and the UN. The ministry also released pictures of the new cell. However, 98 members of the DTP released a joint statement, reacting to the ministry’s statement that Öcalan’s living conditions are in line with international standards.

Swiss voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on minarets in a referendum that has been condemned by human rights defenders and Muslim groups in Switzerland and abroad, including Turkey.

Nov. 30 Monday

A document known as the Cage plan, which plots to assassinate non-Muslim community leaders, allegedly prepared by a group in the military, appears to be authentic, according to a report by the Council of Forensic Medicine (ATK). The report also established that the signature which appears on the document belongs to Lt. Col. Ercan Kireçtepe.

Heavy fog continued to paralyze daily life in some parts of Turkey on the last day of the four-day Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice) holiday, causing multiple traffic accidents and pile-ups.

The Internet Technologies Association (İTD) sued the government of Turkey at the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) due to a ban on access to the popular video-sharing Web site YouTube, İTD President Mustafa Akgül announced. Akgül said the decision by an Ankara court to ban access to the site in response to videos posted on the Web site deemed insulting to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, censors people’s right to access Internet resources and media freedom in Turkey.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu sees Turkey becoming a member of the European Union by 2023, when the country marks the 100th anniversary of its foundation. In an interview with Newsweek, Davutoğlu also said Turkey will become a key player in world organizations shaping global economic decisions. “I see a country that has managed to start economic integration and has solid relations with all its neighbors. Also, a country that has become a member of the EU,” he said.

The Turkish leadership and the leadership of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC) had talks in Ankara, about a month after similar talks were held in the Turkish capital. KKTC President Mehmet Ali Talat, accompanied by KKTC Foreign Minister Hüseyin Özgürgün, arrived in Ankara at the invitation of Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoğlu.

The Eid al-Adha holiday, which began last Friday and ended on this day, raised spirits among residents in Turkey’s impoverished Southeast and people in need throughout the world, through the work of various Turkish charities. Following a month-long fundraising drive to collect money for the traditional Muslim sacrifice of an animal on the occasion of the Eid al-Adha holiday, a portion or all of the meat from which is distributed to the poor, Turkish charities sprung into action to deliver the meat and other forms of aid to those in need throughout Turkey and the world. Several Turkish charity groups distributed food, clothing, money and other forms of assistance to the less fortunate in most of Turkey’s 81 provinces and over 120 nations around the world.

Dec. 1 Tuesday

Prosecutors conducting an investigation into Ergenekon, a clandestine network charged with plotting to overthrow the government, called three generals who are mentioned in an admiral’s journal detailing plans to stage a coup d’état against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government to testify as part of the ongoing probe. Former Land Forces Commander Gen. Aytaç Yalman, former Air Forces Commander Gen. İbrahim Fırtına and former Naval Forces Commander Adm. Özden Örnek, all of whom retired in 2004, will be testifying to the Ergenekon prosecutors. The three men will testify regarding coup plans named Moonlight, Blonde Girl and the Glove, all mentioned in the journal entries.

The decision to establish a living languages department at Mardin Artuklu University was published in today’s Official Gazette following a Cabinet resolution in October. Ministers had decided on Oct. 12 that Turkey’s Living Languages Institute would be established at Mardin Artuklu University in response a request by the Ministry of Education on Oct. 7.

Dec. 2 Wednesday

A new voice recording allegedly belonging to Brig. Gen. Hıfzı Çubuklu, the General Staff’s legal advisor, suggested that the general and his team -- made up of a colonel and two members of the Legal Advisory Department of the General Staff -- destroyed some documents on military computers that would have been strong evidence against former Air Forces Judicial Undersecretary Col. Ahmet Zeki Üçok.

The former colonel was demoted last month for reportedly issuing false medical reports to celebrities to help them avoid compulsory military service. Üçok was appointed as a disciplinary officer.

Thousands of people, including leading Turkish businessmen Hacı Boydak, Faruk Güllü, Hazım Sesli, Ahmet Sait Kavurmacı and Refik Aydoğan, traveled to eastern regions of the country during Eid al-Adha with the Kimse Yok Mu (Is Anybody There) charitable association, visiting areas to cheer up residents and to help strengthen relationships between eastern and western Turkey.

During the four-day Eid al-Adha, participants visited the residents of eastern provinces, including Diyarbakır, Şırnak and Van, in their homes, giving meat to every household as an Eid present.

Ankara and Washington have been holding discussions on a US demand that its NATO ally Turkey send more troops to war-torn Afghanistan, the top US diplomat in Turkey disclosed, while stating that the US has asked for a “specific number” of troops, although he declined to name that number.

US Ambassador to Turkey James Jeffrey spoke with a small group of journalists at a round-table meeting in Ankara only hours after US President Barack Obama unveiled his new strategy on Afghanistan in a long-awaited speech delivered at the US Military Academy at West Point. During the meeting, Jeffrey clearly indicated that US expects Turkey to be “more flexible” on the definition of tasks to be carried out by their mission in Afghanistan.

Foreign Minister Davutoğlu had talks with his Swiss counterpart, Micheline Calmy-Rey, on how to contain growing global protests against a controversial referendum to ban construction of minarets. The two ministers discussed a new referendum to reverse the ban as an option to ease tensions simmering in the aftermath of the weekend vote.

The pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) began to portray the living conditions of imprisoned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Öcalan as the priority of the Kurdish people and urged the government to improve his living conditions immediately, warning that anything to the contrary would drag the country into clashes.

“The İmralı system should be abandoned immediately and not used as a tool to blackmail and threaten [others]. [Doing otherwise] will take the country to a dangerous point,” DTP leader Ahmet Türk said at a press conference. The conference was also attended by several DTP deputies.

A written statement released by the Trade Union of Public Employees in Health and Social Services (SES) stated that a decrease in medicine prices to be implemented on Dec. 4 will lead to the closure of 7,000 pharmacies and an increase in unemployment in the health sector.

The statement, released by SES, is in response to a price decrease of 2,750 medicines that will go into effect on Dec. 4, which will leave many pharmacies strapped for cash as medicine that has already been bought at higher prices from pharmaceutical companies will need to be sold for the newer lower price -- sometimes less than half the previous price.

Dec. 3 Thursday

The Constitutional Court announced on Tuesday that it will start hearing the case of the Supreme Court of Appeals vs. the DTP, which demands the party’s closure on charges of separatism.

Four members of the military were detained for plotting to assassinate admirals at the Naval Forces Command.

Lieutenants Ali Seyhur Dişli, Burak Anaç and Fatih Göktaş and noncommissioned officer Burak Özkan were taken to the İstanbul Beşiktaş Courthouse early in the morning. They were questioned there by prosecutor Süleyman Pehlivan about the alleged plot. Three of the soldiers were released after their interrogation, while one of them was transferred to an İstanbul court for arrest.

The pro-Kurdish DTP withdrew its support for the government’s efforts to settle the long-standing Kurdish question through a massive democratization package, claiming that the efforts were aimed at “eliminating” the party and İmralı, referring to the jailed leader of the terrorist PKK, Öcalan. Deputy Chairman of the DTP Selahattin Demirtaş announced during a program broadcast live on NTV that the DTP would not lend its support to the Kurdish initiative under existing conditions.

Dec. 4 Friday

Pharmacies across Turkey, except for pharmacies listed to stay open, were closed to protest a decrease in the price of medicine.

In a number of pharmacies across Turkey, various placards were displayed reading “We would close one by one eventually, now we are closed altogether,” “We are closed today, we do not know about tomorrow” and “As pharmacists, we will not let our labor, our employees’ livelihoods, the future of our children and the health of our patients be played with.”