According to our PM it is.

He said that :

Speaking to the global forum of the Alliance of Civilisations in Vienna on Wednesday, Mr Erdogan said: “As is the case for Zionism, anti-Semitism and fascism, it is inevitable that Islamophobia be considered a crime against humanity.”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/9902255/Turkeys-Recep-Tayyip-Erdogan-under-fire-for-Zionism-remarks.html

I think the question is what do we understand from the word of ´zionism´?

Yes.

There is a new constitution in the making.

The background of all these are :

-The last election, almost all parties promised to make a new  constitution (as everybody agrees that the current one is from the army coup era- though many articles have changed)

-The last election results were AKP:%49.9, CHP %25.9  MHP %12.9, BDP %7

- 4 parties set up a committee (anayasa uzlasma komisyonu), constitution settlement committee in November 2011. (each party gave 3 MPs into this committee)

-Though not that fast and successful, the committee is still working on it.

-The PM gave a deadline for completion of the new constitution and the time will expire soon.

-If this committee can not agree on this new constitution, which seems a quite likely scenario, ruling party will put his ideas into new const. and if it can find the enough vote, it will take the country for a referendum. And possibly the ruling party will push this constitution through this path and will suceed.

- There is a catch here, because Erdogan who is running his 3rd term and in his last term, does want to stay in politics. He can go and become the president. But presidency is not that powerful in Turkey by the constitution. Erdogan wants to switch to USA style presidency in the constitution and the become the first president with full powers!! The current president´s time ends in 2014. And the new president will be elected directly by the people (previously, the presidents have been elected in the parliament)

- So this year is very important for Turkey. As far as Erdogan is concerned, he wants a new constitution with powerful presidential system. In order to get the support, he is sidelining himself with the Kurds. Since the new year he started to negotiate with Apo (the terrorist leader of PKK) directly. He says that he wants to finish Kurdish problem. Apo, as his counter part, says that he does not want Kurds to split Turkey but live in  peace in a democratic country. Part of this- or all of these wishes - requires a constitution which will let everybody feel included and bind themselves as citizens to the state. Not to a national state, more correctly to a state where everybody considered as Turks by the constitution. Because 15-20 millions don´t think themselves as Turks.

-Basically, I think the agreement about the citizenship in the new constitution will be like the first constitution of Turkey (in 1921 the definition of citizenship was slightly different). I think they are planning "a loose definition of citizenship" in which no ethnicity will be mentioned. (Personally I can not see anything wrong with that.)

Of course from the cry, you would think that ´people wont be able to call themselves Turks anymore or it will be banned´!!!! It is just that they are planning to remove the article which says ´anybody which is bound to the state of Turkey is a Turk´.

ps..There is one thing for sure : The politics in Turkey is not boring  and very dynamic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzoGNcFUza4

Muslum Gurses: Su daglarda kar olsaydim.

He was not my favorite singer or his music was not the music I like. But he was part of our culture. He died apparently this morning and I feelt upset.

Anyway, this song is the only song I liked from him. It is a ´geniune arabesque´.

Even as "too worn out", you are heart-stopping and breathtaking as ever.

OMG you are..err..slow on the uptake?

She was here 10 days ago!!!

You are missing excercising your power?

Where is Abla? 

Nothing is more boring than seeing women going on about other women´s dresses!!

Makes me yawn and then I want to goto sleep!!

He he.

Some people of my country feel like as if we are heading  in to an abyss..

Year after year, forcing people to call themselves Turks, without realizing the fact that we have been violating almost every single human rights on earth as far as the asimilation of the other ethnic origins within our borders and leaving almost 70.000 dead behind, rulers of Turkey has decided to find a solution.

They are not banning people calling themselves anything. All they are trying to do is trying to remove the articles relating to ethnic identity in the constitution.  There are some articles  like  ´Every citizen of Turkey is a Turk´. Some people believe that they are not Turk. You can not force them with the law about what they are going to call themselves. All they are trying to do is finding a solution which will be suitable for a modern country like Turkey.

Some people are really getting worried that what they are going to call themselves if our ethnicity is not mentioned in the new constitution!! ..

I guess, these ´woried people´ think that they will wake up one morning and start  wondering ´what was I? was I a Turk or a Greek or an American?´ and then they will blame the new constitution !!

I watched Lincoln. I thought Daniel Day Lewis was fantastic so as Tommy Lee Jones. When I read about how DD Lewis prepared for his roles, (which can be read from here http://movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/daniel-day-lewis-five-facts-man-beneath-lincoln-235507276.html?page=all) I really respected him.

What is it with Ann Hathaway? A girl crush? And what are these rumors of ´nipplegate´?