28th Abant Meeting “Diverse Perspectives on Turkey” to be held in February 2013
Date posted: December 29, 2012
Turkey’s foremost civil intellectual forum, Abant Platform‘s workshop on “Diverse Perspectives on Turkey,” will be held in February 8-10, 2013 in Abant, Bolu.
The Abant Platform is founded as an intellectual forum by the Journalists and Writers Foundation to promote democratic engagement for expanding social consensus and the coexistence of society’s rich cultural resources within a peaceful environment in Turkey.
Within the Abant Platform’s upcoming meeting, nearly 120 intellectuals, journalists and academics from a variety of countries and diverse backgrounds who are currently residing in Turkey will meet their Turkish counterparts and have free discussion on the following topics in 5 separate workshops:
– Identities, Demands and New Citizenship
– Turkey’s Regional Role and Foreign Policy
– EU Negotiation Process and Current Situation
– Problems and Difficulties for the New Constitution
The narrative, behavior pattern and policy decisions of Turkey’s chief political Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggests that he believes the caliphate can be resurrected, with himself as the sole contender to become caliph, thereby gaining autonomous political authority over at least part of the Islamic world.
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At this point, the only thing Erdoğan can do is manufacture false charges and evidence against the Hizmet movement, which wouldn’t be persuasive. In a normal democratic state where the rule of law is cherished, there must be concrete evidence to press charges against anyone, and those so charged are presumed innocent until they are proven guilty. In a party state, however, imaginary charges are first voiced and then meddlesome public authorities manufacture crimes and criminals to fit those charges.
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