Text size:
-
UAE
-
World
-
Business
-
Sport
-
Lifestyle
-
Arts & Culture
-
Opinion
Thomas Seibert
Foreign Correspondent
Our Journalists
Latest Comments
cya
The offer of a referendum by the Turkish government is just a ploy. This is once again an abuse of the Turkish democracy which brought them to power in the first place. How can anyone expect a referendum to deliver a healthy result in a country where all the mainstream media is under the control of the government? The correct action in my opinion should be to form an independent committee of urban planning experts, architects and environmental scientists - no politicians please - to review the existing proposal together with some alternatives and then report on their findings and recommendations. After that a fair and transparent process of consultation with the public is essential. Finally, the committee members should vote to select the most favoured option. This particular case should be treated as a special case and kept outside the pre-existing municipal procedures which obviously failed to deliver a satisfactory outcome previously. Beyond the particular issue of Gezi Park the Turkish government should seriously review their stance on personal freedoms and democracy and change themselves, their attitudes and in my opinion their leader who has now made himself a laughing stock in front of his nation and the world.
cya
It is the current Turkish government who has lost the moral edge, not Turkey or Turkish people. On the contrary Turkish people have been displaying superb levels of democratic maturity in the last week and Turkey continues to be a shining beacon for the rest of the Middle East as a secular and democratic country with a predominantly Muslim population. In the last few days, hundreds of thousands of Turks in many provinces across the country have left behind all their differences and come out on the streets in unison to demonstrate against the increasing autocracy and arrogance of their government. They have done this in such style that would leave many a Western nation envious. Their largely peaceful and graceful demonstrations have left behind thousands of inspirational pictures and heartwarming stories. The pictures of protesters clearing up debris from the streets; rival football fans embracing each other; young women offering food and flowers to the riot police; men carrying an injured policeman; medical students attending to the first aid of the wounded; mothers serving sandwiches and home-baked pastries to the young protesters; the lone guitarist’s confrontation with the police armed with no other than his guitar; people nursing street dogs affected by tear gas… The high profile presence and bravery of Turkish women in the protests… Turks have been fantastically chivalrous in the last week and their moral edge remains intact as a democratic nation.
Top five writers in...
-
News
-
Business
-
Sport
-
Lifestyle
-
Arts & Culture
