PEACE IN KURDISTAN CAMPAIGN: Open Letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown: We, the undersigned, call on Prime Minister Gordon Brown to use all available diplomatic means to bring an immediate end to the repression of Kurdish politicians in Turkey and to promote a political and negotiated solution to the Kurdish conflict. The mass arrest of some 80 leading members of the new Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) that took place in Turkey on Christmas Eve is a deeply disturbing development that can only have grave consequences for the country’s future peace and stability. The action followed the banning of the popular pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) on 11 December by Turkey’s Constitutional Court.
Black Pink Triangle Association in Izmir is the fifth LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) organisation that faces closure by the Turkish government. The first hearing will take place on February 19, 2010. The threat of closure comes in the wake of accusations that the organisation is “against the law and morality.”
"One of the men interviewed in prison told Onal, "It's easy for women's charities and the EU to say 'stop killing' from afar, but people will not stop. If you live in our neighborhoods, you would kill. We have to change our neighborhoods..."
Journalist Ayse Onal's coverage of the Turkish men who murdered their sisters and mothers in "honor" killings finds they often feel betrayed by their families. Many killers also want to guide other men away from such crimes.
Sertaç Sehlikoğlu Karakaş, a Women Living Under Muslim Laws' networker, examines how Turkey's hybrid secular-Muslim identity has affected its commitment to empowering women.
