TURKEY

After the Mosul operation is launched in this morning, Turkish authorities started to make their first statements. While President Erdoğan stated that Turkey will be involved both in the operation and negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said that Turkey has Plan B and C for Mosul.

Working in various international human rights associations, Harout Ekmanian made a presentation in "Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in 21st Century". Being an Armenian from Aleppo, Ekmanian follows the war in Syria as an observer in order to record the violations of rights and war crimes. We talked to Ekmanian about Syria, focusing on the Armenian community in Aleppo, which he knows very well.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi stated that the operation for retaking the city back from ISIS has been launched.

Emre Can Dağlıoğlu made a presentation titled as “September 12th Regime and the Re-Shaped Identity of Armenians in Turkey” in “Critical Approaches to Armenian Identity in 21st Century: Vulnerability, Resilience, and Transformation” conference. We talked to him about his presentation and coup’s effects on the Armenian identity.

Prof. Dr. Taner Akçam, in his recent book, published the memoirs of Naim Bey, who played an important part in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide and whose existence had been denied. With this book, Prof. Akçam responded the claims and broke a new ground in the historiography of the Armenian Genocide.

Turkey, with a unilateral decision, left the “Creative Europe” program, which supports the culture and media sectors in Europe. The negotiation is started with the officials from European Commission in order to organize Turkey's withdrawal from the program starting from June 1, 2017. This decision is initiated by Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Almost 12 TV and radio channels, including Hayatın Sesi TV, Denge TV, Jiyan TV, Zarok TV and Van TV, has been dropped from TURKSAT. Among these dissident media organs, there are also channels that broadcast in Kurdish. Now, news portals of Özgür Radyo, Hayatın Sesi and IMC TV are also blocked.

We talked to Fehim Taştekin about the recent developments in Syrian Civil War, based on his recently published book “Rojava: The Time of Kurds" (Kürtlerin Zamanı).

This year, 8th Hrant Dink Award is granted to Diyarbakir Bar Association, one of the prominent institutions struggling for human rights in Turkey, and Malawian activist Theresa Kachindamoto, who tries to prevent child marriage in her country, defending children's right to education.

Burhan Güzelaydan died in 2009 during the military service and investigating authorities claimed that he committed suicide. ECHR convicted Turkey due to violation of right to life.