HUMAN RIGHTS

Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a statement released yesterday, stated that the Turkish government is blocking access for independent investigations into alleged mass abuses against civilians across southeast Turkey.

After the brutal murder that was committed in Armenia a few days ago, the country started to discuss violence against women and the attitude of police forces and the courts toward femicides.

With the deal made between Turkey and Israel, “humanitarian aid” to Gaza Strip is brought to the agenda once again. On the other hand, a joint Palestinian and Israeli project, which has been going on since 2002, tries to find a more permanent solution to the crisis in the region. The book titled as "Learning Each Others Historical Narrative" offers a new model for history textbooks used in Palestinian and Israeli schools. Project's co-director Sami Adwan told about this model.

“Sur Action Plan”, which was announced by Minister of Environment and Urban Planning Mehmet Özhaseki, has been criticized by NGOs and occupational organizations which are excluded from the process of project design. Referring to the plan, Chamber of Architects Diyarbakir Branch Chair Şerefhan Aydın says, “This is the first step of gaining unearned income and making benefits available.”

An organisation named 'Müslüman Anadolu Gençliği’ (Muslim Anatolian Youth) has created a violent hate campaign on social media in response to Istanbul Pride Week, held on the last week of June. Facebook staff have stated that this page, clearly asking people to commit violence, does “not violate community standards.”

The debate on “confrontation” is heated again after Bundestag's Armenian Genocide resolution. Germany is one of the remarkable countries in terms of reckoning and we talked to Prof. Nora Şeni from Paris VIII University about Germany's process of confrontation with Holocaust and what Turkey should do in order to confront with 1915.

Garo Paylan had filed a lawsuit against Tolga Adıgüzel, who is the chair of Kars branch of a Turkish nationalist organization, because of his racist statements about pianist Tigran Hamasyan who performed at Ani last year. Adıgüzel is sentenced to 7 months and 15 days of imprisonment and imposed a 11.240 TL fine. The judgment is suspended.

101st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide was commemorated with Aurora Prize, which is one of the most innovative events of the year and named after Aurora Mardiganian, a genocide survivor who witnessed the killing of her relatives. The winner of the prize that was granted for the first time is Marguerite Barankitse (Maggy), who saved hundreds of orphans' lives during the civil war in Burundi.

Prof. Dr. Baskın Oran filed a claim for compensation against President Erdoğan, because of his statements about the academics who signed the declaration titled as “We won't be accomplices to this crime”. Oran is one of the signees.

British academic Chris Stephenson was detained yesterday, while he was waiting in front of the courthouse for acting with solidarity with 3 academics who were taken into custody yesterday. He may be deported within 48 hours.