News archive of July 2015

Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an could not separate himself from domestic politics even during his China-Indonesia trip, rocking coalition talks between the delegations of Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu?s Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) and Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu?s Republican People?s Party (CHP) with his words.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) government continues its cross border operations full speed, as the Turkish Air Forces conduct intensified bombardments on the Kurdistan Workers?

The Kurdish issue-focused Peoples? Democratic Party (HDP) will have four cabinet ministries, and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will have four ministries, in the case that a coalition is not formed and President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an makes the decision of an early election.

Yes, there is war in the country. Yes, there is still no government in the country. Yes, we cannot predict what will happen tomorrow in this country; for this reason, we cannot even make the most simple and basic decisions.

Why do we do this? Is it that we like to torture ourselves? Is it that we like pain? Are we masochists who strive for sorrow, pain, humiliation, destruction, poverty, violence and death? Do we have such low self-esteem that whenever we are near to some form of happiness, we sabotage ourselves? 

A recent piece of mine probed the question, "What Does Islam Say About Being Gay?" (The New York Times, July 28). I gave a response which is basically liberal: That Muslims should not attack or stigmatize gay people, assuming that this is what their religion demands from them.

It is us who are beaten. It is us who are harassed. Even when we are only children, it is us who are raped by dozens of you, by police officers and ?haji? grandfathers? 

In courtrooms, it is us who are blamed because we ?consented.? 

Turkey and the U.S. have reached an agreement on anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) struggle and are just about to start conducting joint operations against ISIL targets in northern Syria.

One of the world's most prolific screenwriters, Safa Önal, who broke a Guinness World Record in 2004 for having almost 400 scripts filmed, talks about his new projects. It would not come as a shock if one of the world's most prolific screenwriters was found to be working for Hollywood or India's gargantuan Bollywood film industry.

Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels have bombed a railway line in Turkey's eastern province of Kars and then fired at repair workers, killing one, the BBC reported.

The attack, which took place on Thursday, is the latest in the surge in violence after a fragile two-year ceasefire between PKK and the Turkish government broke last week.