[Event of the week]
Row with Roma increases tension in Manisa

A civilian search at the Special Forces Command continued as part of an ongoing probe into a suspected military plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç, despite an attempt by the General Staff and a controversial member of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) to stop the search.

Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Hüseyin Çelik said that both the jubilant reception of several members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) returning to Turkey through the Habur border gate and the handcuffing of 35 people who allegedly have links to the PKK’s urban arm caused great harm to the government’s initiative to settle the Kurdish question. “The images at Habur and Silopi were a great mistake. They have caused great damage to the [initiative] process. The images of handcuffed individuals during the KCK/TM [Kurdish Communities Union/Turkey Council] operation mean agitation,” he told Today’s Zaman.

A car accident involving a town mayor in the southern province of Antalya’s Korkuteli district claimed three lives and left seven others injured.

A passenger train crashed into another train in northwestern Turkey, killing one of the engine drivers and injuring seven other people.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu visited the International Turkish School in Riyadh on the last day of his official visit to Saudi Arabia. Davutoğlu, accompanied by his wife, Sare, spent almost three hours at the school.

Kadir Kayan, a judge at the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court, received a threatening letter saying that continuing his days-long search of the Special Forces Command headquarters would result in his death, Turkish dailies reported.

Jan. 4 Monday

An Ankara court announced that a civilian search of the Special Forces Command would continue, rejecting a request by the judicial advisory board of the General Staff for an end to the search. The request was filed with the Ankara 11th High Criminal Court in late December.

Four people died and 12 more were injured in a minibus accident in Trabzon.

Turkey’s tourism hub, Antalya, received 8.67 million tourists in 2009, a 3 percent drop from the number of tourists who visited the city in 2008. According to data released by the Antalya Culture and Tourism Directorate, 284,726 fewer tourists chose Antalya for their vacations in 2009 over 2008.

Turkey repatriated TL 47.3 billion under the “wealth amnesty” program, which allowed Turkish citizens to bring their money held in Turkey but outside the banking system or in foreign banks back to Turkish banks without penalties, an amount that is expected to help heal the Turkish economy at a time when many countries are suffering from financial problems.

Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek revealed the preliminary results of the program at a press conference.

Jan. 5 Tuesday

Retirement pensions will be increased by between TL 63 and TL 101 in the first half of the year, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said.

Both a judge and a prosecutor conducting a search at the Special Forces Command as part of a probe into a suspected military plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Arınç received separate envelopes containing Kalashnikov bullets. Judge Kayan and prosecutor Mustafa Bilgili informed Ankara police about the envelopes and an investigation was immediately launched.

An exhibition titled “90 Documents in 90 Years,” showcasing pieces from the Turkish Parliament’s archives, opened as part of ongoing celebrations to mark the assembly’s 90th birthday.

Two people died and six more were injured in collision that took place in İstanbul’s Fatih district.

Turkey warned that Bulgaria’s reported demands for compensation for people displaced in the early 20th century might harm bilateral ties and questioned the legitimacy of the Bulgarian demands, saying Turks suffered as much as Bulgarians did during that period of history.

“The continuation of Turkish-Bulgarian friendship is in the interests of both countries. It is of utmost benefit to refrain from statements that could harm this friendship,” said Foreign Minister Davutoğlu at a joint press conference with his visiting Brazilian counterpart, Celso Amorim.

More than 150 members of an aid convoy bound for Gaza faced new obstacles after landing at an airport in Egypt, delaying their arrival at the Palestinian coastal strip to deliver humanitarian aid.

President Abdullah Gül hosted a luncheon for top state officials amidst rumors of rising tensions between state institutions. The presidential luncheon brought together the heads of the legislative, executive and judicial branches.

Jan. 6 Wednesday

Members of the governing AK Party categorically ruled out the possibility of elections in 2010, in response to calls from opposition parties for early polls. Speaking at a Harmonization Committee meeting at the EU Secretariat General, State Minister and chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış said elections would be held in a timely manner.

More than 7 million tourists visited İstanbul, the capital of both the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, according to official figures. The İstanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate figures for 2009 revealed that that historic city attracted 7,509,741 foreign and local tourists last year, the Anatolia news agency reported. July saw the greatest number of tourists visiting İstanbul, at 915,620.

A French court rejected a complaint of discrimination from an ethnically Turkish woman who was forced to withdraw her candidacy in a local election last year due to pressure to publicly recognize claims of an Armenian genocide at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Sırma Oran Martz was also sentenced to pay a fine of 1,500 euros, reportedly for abusing the right to petition.

An American magazine ranked Turkey 65th on a list of countries in terms of overall quality of life. France came in first for the fifth year running in International Living magazine’s annual Quality of Life Index for 2010, which ranks 194 countries according to nine categories: cost of living, culture and leisure, the economy, environment, freedom, safety and risk, health, infrastructure and climate.

Jan. 7 Thursday

Roma residents of Manisa’s Selendi district expressed concern for their lives after being forced to leave their homes due to high tension in the area when violence broke out between locals and members of the Roma community. Incidents that erupted after a dispute between a man of Roma origin and locals in Selendi resulted in a vigilante campaign against the district’s Roma population. Seventy-four Roma, including 15 children, were forced to leave Selendi and seek refuge in nearby Gördes.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he is concerned about the fate of Turkish-Egyptian ties in the wake of tensions over the delay of an international aid convoy bound for the Hamas-run Gaza Strip and held the convoy’s leaders responsible for the standoff with Egyptian authorities, saying they have become a “propaganda tool” for Hamas. Abbas, speaking to a group of journalists in Ankara following talks with President Abdullah Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appeared to be very much concerned that the incident might damage the relations between Egypt and Turkey, both of which are heavyweights in the Middle East.

Aid trucks that entered the besieged Gaza Strip as part of an international convoy were ordered to leave the city within 24 hours, Egyptian officials announced. The trucks were expected to go in, unload their cargo and leave as quickly as possible.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said his government supports Turkey’s EU bid and that for Germans, a “pacta sunt servanda” is important. Westerwelle, speaking at a joint press with his Turkish counterpart, Davutoğlu, in Ankara, said that if Germans make a promise, they keep it and that this is true for EU-Turkey relations.

Prime Minister Erdoğan had his weekly meeting with the chief of General Staff at the military headquarters instead of at the Prime Ministry, the usual venue for the meeting.

Jan. 8 Friday

Prime Minister Erdoğan termed recent expectations for early elections in 2010 as merely a “dream,” underlining that the next parliamentary elections would definitely not be held before 2011. “Let no one dream of early elections. More than one year still remains before the next parliamentary elections. They [the opposition] will not be able to achieve their objectives regardless of what they do,” Erdoğan remarked during a speech at the AK Party women’s branch in Ankara.

Sabih Kanadoğlu, the former chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, known for his staunch secularism and unyielding opposition to the ruling AK Party, gave testimony as part of the probe into Ergenekon, a criminal network nested within the state and accused of plotting to topple the government. “From the president to the prime minister and deputies, everybody is expected to be accountable before the judiciary. I, too, did my duty as an ordinary citizen,” he said, responding to questions from journalists before he left the courthouse in Beşiktaş.

 Col. Dursun Çiçek, who is believed to have drafted a military plot to discredit the AK Party, appeared at the Beşiktaş Courthouse in İstanbul. The colonel, however, refused to respond to questions over whether he was at the courthouse to testify on a suspected military plot to assassinate Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç.