Weird things...
are happening in Turkey and in Germany...
Turkey is recovering slowly from the trauma caused by the surge of attacks by the Kurdish-separatist terrorist who call themselves, PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party. For those outside Turkey, and following the news from international news conglomerates, the name is an intended oxymoron. PKK is a "party" in the same sense that Nazis were a National Socialist party. In the very last attack, in which they killed 16 Turkish soldiers -in their spare time they stop village buses and kill dozens of civilians just because they do not support them -, PKK took 8 Turkish soldiers as hostage. They were freed after involvement of certain members of the Parliament who have active links to this terrorist organization. In an unexpected move the 8 soldiers were arrested by the Military Court...
The events are rich with speculation possibilities, and have to be clarified to the public. 8 Soldiers were used as a justification for a possible incursion to the North Iraq to fight off the terrorists. Now they are charged with petty treason charges. The Turkish public has every right to know what was going on.
What amazed me, and saddened me at the same time, was the fact that the Military Courts banned the media from reporting about the case until it ends -an unlimited censorship in practice. Last time the government tried to enforce a similar ban about the actual terrorist attacks, which was overruled by the Higher Court of State Council. I hope a similar overruling decision will come up. What I cannot comprehend is how a Military Court can ban the civilian press? Thinking about it, it might be the case that the Military Courts are not subject to Higher Court of State Council decisions, which would make us an even more totalitarian state...
Western Europe is not free of political peculiarities either. Berlin has a law on Sunday opening of shops. The shops can be open up to 10 Sundays in a year. Now in an act of cooperation -or Machiavellist mutualism- the Evangelical and Catholic churches in Berlin have sued the Berlin Parliament for this law. They claim it is against the constitution that protects the religious freedom of Christians who observe Sunday as an holly day.
I find the American version of secularist principle the most understandable and clever one, so lets try to analyze this claim from this perspective:
Lets take a Muslim, Hindu, or an Atheist shop owner. He wants to open his shop on Sundays. But he is not allowed by the law. So this conflicts with the first clause.
Lets take an Christian worker who wants to observe his "Godly" Sunday. Now if his shop owner forces him to work on Sundays, by for example threatening the worker with firing him or her, this is a confliction to the second part. However if they are kept seperate, that is working on Sundays and other days are kept sperate, both clauses are met by a law allowing shops to be open on 52 Sundays. I am really keen on how the result of this case will be...
Turkey is recovering slowly from the trauma caused by the surge of attacks by the Kurdish-separatist terrorist who call themselves, PKK, Kurdistan Workers Party. For those outside Turkey, and following the news from international news conglomerates, the name is an intended oxymoron. PKK is a "party" in the same sense that Nazis were a National Socialist party. In the very last attack, in which they killed 16 Turkish soldiers -in their spare time they stop village buses and kill dozens of civilians just because they do not support them -, PKK took 8 Turkish soldiers as hostage. They were freed after involvement of certain members of the Parliament who have active links to this terrorist organization. In an unexpected move the 8 soldiers were arrested by the Military Court...
The events are rich with speculation possibilities, and have to be clarified to the public. 8 Soldiers were used as a justification for a possible incursion to the North Iraq to fight off the terrorists. Now they are charged with petty treason charges. The Turkish public has every right to know what was going on.
What amazed me, and saddened me at the same time, was the fact that the Military Courts banned the media from reporting about the case until it ends -an unlimited censorship in practice. Last time the government tried to enforce a similar ban about the actual terrorist attacks, which was overruled by the Higher Court of State Council. I hope a similar overruling decision will come up. What I cannot comprehend is how a Military Court can ban the civilian press? Thinking about it, it might be the case that the Military Courts are not subject to Higher Court of State Council decisions, which would make us an even more totalitarian state...
Western Europe is not free of political peculiarities either. Berlin has a law on Sunday opening of shops. The shops can be open up to 10 Sundays in a year. Now in an act of cooperation -or Machiavellist mutualism- the Evangelical and Catholic churches in Berlin have sued the Berlin Parliament for this law. They claim it is against the constitution that protects the religious freedom of Christians who observe Sunday as an holly day.
I find the American version of secularist principle the most understandable and clever one, so lets try to analyze this claim from this perspective:
their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,"
Lets take a Muslim, Hindu, or an Atheist shop owner. He wants to open his shop on Sundays. But he is not allowed by the law. So this conflicts with the first clause.
Lets take an Christian worker who wants to observe his "Godly" Sunday. Now if his shop owner forces him to work on Sundays, by for example threatening the worker with firing him or her, this is a confliction to the second part. However if they are kept seperate, that is working on Sundays and other days are kept sperate, both clauses are met by a law allowing shops to be open on 52 Sundays. I am really keen on how the result of this case will be...
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May
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