1.
Member of the Grand National Assembly
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The Grand National Assembly of Turkey, usually referred to simply as the TBMM or Parliament, is the unicameral Turkish legislature. It is the body given the legislative prerogatives by the Turkish Constitution. It was founded in Ankara on 23 April 1920 in the midst of the Turkish War of Independence. The parliament was fundamental in the efforts of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Turkey has had a history of parliamentary government before the establishment of the current national parliament. There were two parliamentary governments during the Ottoman period in what is now Turkey, the First Constitutional Era lasted for only two years, elections being held only twice. The Second Constitutional Era is considered to have begun on 23 July 1908, freedom to hold meetings and establish political parties was recognized, and the government was held responsible to the assembly, not to the sultan. During the two eras of the Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman parliament was called the General Assembly of the Ottoman Empire and was bicameral. The upper house was the Senate of the Ottoman Empire, the members of which were selected by the sultan, the lower chamber of the General Assembly was the Chamber of Deputies of the Ottoman Empire, the members of which were elected by the general public. After World War I, the victorious Allied Powers sought the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire through the Treaty of Sèvres, the political existence of the Turkish nation was to be completely eliminated under these plans, except for a small region. Nationalist Turkish sentiment rose in the Anatolian peninsula, engendering the establishment of the Turkish national movement, the political developments during this period have made a lasting impact which continues to affect the character of the Turkish nation. The Sultanate was abolished by the newly founded parliament in 1922 and he also stated that the members of the dispersed Ottoman Chamber of Deputies could also participate in the assembly in Ankara, to increase the representative power of the parliament. These elections were held as planned, in the style of the elections of the preceding Chamber of Deputies and this Grand National Assembly, established on national sovereignty, held its inaugural session on 23 April 1920. From this date until the end of the Turkish War of Independence in 1923, the Liberal Party was dissolved on 17 November 1930 and no further attempt at a multiparty democracy was made until 1945. The multi-party period in Turkey was resumed by the founding of the National Development Party, by Nuri Demirağ, under the constitution of 1961, the Grand National Assembly was a bicameral parliament with over 600 members, the newly established upper house being the Senate of the Republic. Following the 1980 military coup, the Senate was dissolved and the Turkish parliament again became unicameral under the current constitution approved in a referendum in 1982. To avoid a hung parliament and its political fragmentation, a party must win at least 10% of the national vote to qualify for representation in the parliament. As a result of this threshold, only two won seats in the legislature after the 2002 elections and three in 2007. The 2002 elections saw every party represented in the previous parliament ejected from the chamber and this rather high threshold has been internationally criticised, but a complaint with the European Court for Human Rights was turned down
2.
Turkish general election, June 2015
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The Turkish general election of June 2015 took place on 7 June 2015 in all 85 electoral districts of Turkey to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. This was the 24th general election in the history of the Turkish Republic, the result was the first hung parliament since the 1999 general election. Unsuccessful attempts to form a coalition government resulted in a general election being called for November 2015. The Justice and Development Party, which had governed Turkey since 2002, lost its parliamentary majority, the main opposition Republican Peoples Party also fared worse than their 2011 result, and won 132 seats with 25. 0% of the vote. The Nationalist Movement Party had been projected to win over many disaffected voters from the AKP and its share of the vote increased, and the party won 80 seats with 16. 3% of the vote. The party fared better than expectations, it won 13. 1% of the vote and took 80 seats, campaigning before the election focused mainly on a faltering economy, the political conflict between the government and the Gülen Movement, and Turkeys involvement in the Syrian Civil War. The vote was seen by some as a referendum on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğans call for an executive presidency, Electoral fraud claims and political violence caused controversy in the run-up to the election. Several candidates and party offices were subject to politically motivated attacks, the governing Justice and Development Party sought a fourth consecutive term in government. Its leader, Ahmet Davutoğlu, who had taken over from Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in August 2014, the Republican Peoples Party aimed to surpass the 30% boundary and to form a government, potentially with the help of smaller parties or in its own right. The CHPs leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu had publicly stated that his party would target 35% of the vote, popular support for the Nationalist Movement Party had surged during the 2014 local elections, and it aimed to participate in a coalition government. However, several politicians from the CHP and MHP resigned in protest against their unrealistic electoral prospects, the most prominent break-away party was the Anatolia Party formed by former CHP MP Emine Ülker Tarhan in November 2014. This election is the last election - presidential, local and general - scheduled in Turkey until 2019, speculation as to what the AKP government will do during four years of electorally unchecked power should they win generated both favourable predictions and concerns. The AKP also support a system, which would give greater powers to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. This would allow the AKPs new leader to seek a mandate in their own right rather than serving the remainder of Erdoğans term before seeking re-election. Although Erdoğan did win outright with 51. 79% of the vote, despite this, speculation in December 2014 as to whether the election would be brought forward in order not to clash with summer examinations remained. In the end, no initiative was taken and Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey went on with the date 7 June. Some schools changed the times of examinations in order to not clash with polling day, the AKP were widely expected to target at least 330 seats in parliament in order to pursue constitutional reforms. In the 2014 local elections, the AKP won 42. 87% of the vote, the opposition Republican Peoples Party would have won 130–145 seats, the Nationalist Movement Party would have won 75–85 and Kurdish nationalist independent candidates would win between 30–45 seats
3.
Turkish general election, November 2015
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The Turkish general election of November 2015 was held on 1 November 2015 throughout the 85 electoral districts of Turkey to elect 550 members to the Grand National Assembly. It was the 25th general election in the History of the Republic of Turkey, the election resulted in the Justice and Development Party regaining a Parliamentary majority following a shock victory, having lost it five months earlier in the June 2015 general election. The snap election was called by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on 24 August 2015 after the June election resulted in a hung parliament and coalition negotiations broke down. The election rendered the 25th Parliament of Turkey, elected in June, the election was preceded by the deadliest terrorist attack in Turkeys modern history, after two suicide bombers killed 102 people attending a peace rally in central Ankara. Numerous political parties, notably the main opposition Republican Peoples Party, Fehmi Demir, the leader of the Rights and Freedoms Party, was killed in a traffic accident six days before the election. With 49. 5% of the vote and 317 seats, the party won a majority of 84. The results were seen as a shock win for the AKP and was hailed as a massive personal victory for President Erdoğan. The MHP and the HDP both saw decreases in support, with both hovering dangerously close to the 10% election threshold needed to win seats, Turkish politics is largely dominated by four main parties. The main opposition Republican Peoples Party has remained as the second largest party since 2002, observing a centre-left social democratic, the Nationalist Movement Party observes a Turkish nationalist ideology and has maintained third party status in Parliament since the 2007 general election. The Peoples Democratic Party was founded in 2012 and originates from the left-wing Peoples Democratic Congress and it is largely seen as a pro-Kurdish party and maintains an ideology of minority rights and anti-capitalism. All four parties surpassed the 10% election threshold in the June 2015 general election and won representation in Parliament, Elections were held on 7 June 2015 in order to elect the 25th Parliament of Turkey, following the expiry of the 24th Parliaments four-year term. Suffering a 9% decrease in their share, the governing AKP won 258 out of the 550 seats,18 seats short of a majority. The CHP also suffered a decrease in their vote and seat share. The MHP and the HDP both won 80 seats, with the HDP managing to surpass the 10% election threshold despite concerns that it could fall below the boundary, the election resulted in the first hung parliament since the 1999 general election. The election result immediately raised speculation over a general election. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan invited AKP leader Ahmet Davutoğlu to form a government on 9 July 2015, if a government was not formed within 45 days, then Erdoğan reserved the right to either extend the 45-day period or call an early election. After being asked to form a government by virtue of leading the largest party in Parliament, the CHP had previously made it a condition that any coalition deal should last for four years, the entire duration of the parliamentary term. Stating that early elections were the most likely possibility, Davutoğlu requested a meeting with MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli in a attempt to form an AKP-MHP coalition
4.
Turkish general election, 1991
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General elections were held in Turkey on 20 October 1991, to elect members to the 19th Grand National Assembly. It was the first by the ruling Motherland Party to be contested without its leader, Turgut Özal. The result was a swing against Özals former party in favour of its fierce centre-right rival, the vote saw two additional parties cross the 10 percent barrier to enter parliament. Necmettin Erbakan and his Welfare Party saw a party of religious background returned for the first time in 14 years, Welfare had a greatly increased share of the vote and took several key provinces, including Istanbul in 1994 local elections. Bülent Ecevits Democratic Left Party also scraped through to win seven seats
5.
Silvan, Turkey
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Silvan is a city in the Diyarbakır Province of Turkey. In 69 BCE, the army of Republican Rome defeated Tigrans troops in the battle of Tigranocerta, the city lost its importance as a thriving center for trade and Hellenistic culture in the following decades. In 387 CE, with the Peace of Acilisene, Tigranakert was made part of the Byzantine Empire, around 400 CE, the citys bishop, Marutha, brought a large number of relics back from Sassanid Persia. These were relics of Christian martyrs persecuted under Sassanid rule, for this reason it was renamed Martyropolis, city of the martyrs. Following the reforms of Justinian I, the city was made the capital of the province of Fourth Armenia, the city suffered heavily in the Battle of Martyropolis in 588 CE, but soon prospered again. It was known by the name of Meiafarakin after the Arabs took over this region in the 7th century and it declined in importance over the centuries and had been reduced to a small settlement by the 12th century. It was part of successively Umayyads, Abbasids, Buyids, Marwanids, Seljuks, Ahlatshahs, Mardin branch of Artukids, Ayyubids, Sultanate of Rum, Ilkhanate, Akkoyunlu, Safavids and Ottomans. Silvan was the site of clashes between Turkish government forces and Kurdish Kurdistan Workers Party separatists in August 2015 during the wider Operation Martyr Yalçın. The Marwanid Dynasty at Mayyafariqin in the Tenth and Eleventh centuries AD, JRAS,1903, caucasica in the History of Mayyafariqin
6.
Democratic Society Party
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The Democratic Society Party was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. The party considered itself social democratic, and had status in the Socialist International. It was considered to be the successor of the Democratic Peoples Party, the ban has been widely criticized both by groups within Turkey and by several international organizations. The party was succeeded by the Peace and Democracy Party, the party was founded in 2005, as the merger of the DEHAP and the Democratic Society Movement. DTH was set up by the veteran Kurdish politicians, former deputies Leyla Zana, Orhan Doğan, Hatip Dicle, the latest leader of the DTP was Ahmet Türk. Ahmet Türk co-chaired the party with Aysel Tuğluk until 9 November 2007 when they were replaced by Nurettin Demirtaş, however, Nurettin Demirtaş was imprisoned the following month because of a fake health report that enabled him to avoid military service. In May 2008 Nurettin Demirtaş was forced to resign after being released from prison, Emine Ayna, MP for Mardin, was elected leader of the DTP in his place. Later in May, Ayna also became Chair of the DTP Parliamentary Group, however, in July 2008 Ahmet Türk became, once again, chairman of the DTP. It was also criticized by observers for not distancing itself from PKKs armed actions to confirm its refutations of its links with the PKK. As of June 2007 report by the European Union Institute for Security Studies stated that It is a secret that DTP is connected to PKK in a way. Fatma Kurtulan, whose husband is an active PKK member, is one of the MPs of the Democratic Society Party, in October 2007, in a meeting of the ambassadors of the EU countries and the U. S. A judicial investigation was initiated over her remarks, the Court declared that DTP violated Articles 68 and 69 of the Constitution and the Political Parties Law. The party became a point for terrorism against the indivisible integrity of the state. Stated Haşim Kılıç, president of the Court, chairman Ahmet Turk and legislator Aysel Tugluk were expelled from Parliament, and they and 35 other party members were banned from joining any political party for five years. These party members include, Ahmet Türk, Leyla Zana, Aysel Tuğluk, Hüseyin Kalkan, Nurettin Demirtaş, the decision of the Constitutional Court sparked reaction among AK Party parliamentarians. Mir Dengir Mehmet Fırat said, Turkey has become a graveyard for political parties that have shut down. Closing political parties does not bring any benefit to Turkey, the Constitutional Court in its decision drew a parallel to the case of Batasuna in Spain, but in my opinion, that example does not really apply. Most of the MPs who had been in the DTP decided to join the recently formed Peace, major protests were held in Turkey against the partys ban
7.
Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey)
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The Peoples Democratic Party, or Democratic Party of the Peoples, is a pro-minority political party in Turkey. Generally left-wing, the party places an emphasis on participatory democracy, feminism, minority rights. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists. It is in alliance with the Kurdish Democratic Regions Party, often described as the HDPs fraternal party, the party operates a co-presidential system of leadership, with one chairman and one chairwoman. As of 22 June 2014, these chairpersons are Selahattin Demirtaş, in the 2014 presidential election, the party put forward its chairman, Selahattin Demirtaş, who won 9. 77% of the vote. Despite concerns that it could fall short of the 10% election threshold, exceeding expectations, it polled at 13. 12%, becoming the third largest parliamentary group. The HDP is a democratic socialist party that adheres to anti-capitalism and wants to aspire to end religious, gender, the party has a 50% quota for women and a 10% quota for the LGBT community when fielding candidates. It is said to resonate with liberal, middle-class Turks, while the HDP maintains that the party looks beyond the traditional Turkish or Kurdish dichotomy, it has openly participated in talks with imprisoned PKK rebel organisation leader Abdullah Öcalan. The party has accused of maintaining direct links with the PKK. The HDP first participated in the 2014 local elections, where it ran in most provinces in western Turkey while the DBP ran in the Kurdish south-east, the two parties combined gained 6. 2% of the total votes but HDP failed to win any municipalities. Selahattin Demirtaş was the candidate for the 2014 presidential election. The 21 MPs from the Peace and Democracy Party, the predecessor of the DBP, for the June 2015 general election, the HDP took the decision to field candidates as a party despite the danger of potentially falling below the 10% threshold. Of the 550 candidates,268 were women, in 2015, Barış Sulu was the first openly gay parliamentary candidate in Turkey as a candidate of the HDP. In the 2011 general election, the HDK fielded 61 independent candidates in order to bypass the 10% parliamentary threshold under the Labour, Democracy and Freedom Block. 36 members were elected, though the election of Hatip Dicle was later annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council and this number subsequently fell to 35. Fatma Gök, one of the HDPs founding chairpersons, described the HDK as a means of providing political hope to citizens, the HDK operated by organising conferences and congresses, establishing the HDP as a means of fulfilling their political goals and establishing a means of having political influence. The formal application of the HDK for political party status was delivered to the Ministry of the Interior on 15 October 2012, one of the partys chairpersons, Yavuz Önen, claimed that the party would be the political wing of the HDK and not a replacement for it. It was further described as a party aiming to bring fundamental change to the existing Capitalist system though uniting a wide range of left-wing opposition movements
8.
Kurdish people
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The Kurds are culturally and linguistically closely related to the Iranian peoples and, as a result, are often themselves classified as an Iranian people. A recent Kurdish diaspora has also developed in Western countries, primarily in Germany, the Kurdish language refers collectively to the related dialects spoken by the Kurds. It is mainly spoken in parts of Iran, Iraq, Syria. Kurdish holds official status in Iraq as a national language alongside Arabic, is recognized in Iran as a regional language, the Kurdish languages belong to the northwestern sub‑group of the Iranian languages, which in turn belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. According to Mackenzie, there are few features that all Kurdish dialects have in common. And the fact that this reflects the sense of ethnic identity and unity of the Kurds. The number of Kurds living in Southwest Asia is estimated at close to 30 million, Kurds comprise anywhere from 18% to 20% of the population in Turkey, possibly as high as 25%,15 to 20% in Iraq, 10% in Iran, and 9% in Syria. Kurds form regional majorities in all four of these countries, viz. in Turkish Kurdistan, the Kurds are the fourth largest ethnic group in West Asia after the Arabs, Persians, and Turks. The total number of Kurds in 1991 was placed at 22.5 million, with 48% of this number living in Turkey, 18% in Iraq, 24% in Iran, and 4% in Syria. Recent emigration accounts for a population of close to 1.5 million in Western countries and this groups population was estimated at close to 0.4 million in 1990. The land of Karda is mentioned on a Sumerian clay-tablet dated to the 3rd millennium B. C. This land was inhabited by the people of Su who dwelt in the regions of Lake Van. Other Sumerian clay-tables referred to the people, who lived in the land of Karda, as the Qarduchi and the Qurti. Many Kurds consider themselves descended from the Medes, an ancient Iranian people, the claimed Median descent is reflected in the words of the Kurdish national anthem, We are the children of the Medes and Kai Khosrow. The Kurdish languages form a subgroup of the Northwestern Iranian languages like Median, some researchers consider the independent Kardouchoi as the ancestors of the Kurds. The term Kurd, however, is first encountered in Arabic sources of the seventh century, the Kurds have ethnically diverse origins. During the Sassanid era, in Kar-Namag i Ardashir i Pabagan, after initially sustaining a heavy defeat, Ardashir I was successful in subjugating the Kurds. In a letter Ardashir I received from his foe, Ardavan V, the usage of the term Kurd during this time period most likely was a social term, designating Northwestern Iranian nomads, rather than a concrete ethnic group
9.
Peace and Democracy Party
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The Peace and Democracy Party was a Kurdish political party in Turkey existing from 2008 to 2014. BDP succeeded the Democratic Society Party in 2008, following the closure of the party for its alleged connections with the Kurdistan Workers Party. The BDP is co-chaired by Selahattin Demirtaş and Gültan Kışanak, one-third of its representatives are Alevi. The Deputy Chairs are Pervin Buldan and İdris Baluken, after municipal elections on 30 March 2014, Berivan Elif Kilic became the co-mayor of Kocakoy, a farming town of 17,000 people in Turkey’s Kurdish region. Kilic shares the post of mayor with her running mate, Affullah Kar. Under BDP party rules, all top positions are split between a man and a woman, in an effort to promote participation in politics. The party chairman has called for the PKK to disarm, the BDP has observer status in the Socialist International. Pro-minority rights and feminist Peoples Democratic Party acted as the party to BDP. After the local elections, the two parties were re-organised in a joint structure, on 28 April 2014, the entire parliamentary caucus of BDP joined HDP, whereas BDP was assigned exclusively to representatives on the local administration level
10.
Sakharov Prize
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Named after Russian scientist and dissident Andrei Sakharov, the prize was established in December 1988 by the European Parliament. A shortlist of nominees is drawn up annually by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, the prize is accompanied by a monetary award of €50,000. The first prize was awarded jointly to South African Nelson Mandela, the 1990 award was given to Aung San Suu Kyi, but she could not receive it until 2013 as a result of her political imprisonment in Burma. The prize has also awarded to organisations, the first being the Argentine Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in 1992. Some Sakharov laureates still face harsh political oppression, laureates living under repressive regimes include the Belarusian Association of Journalists, Damas de Blanco and Guillermo Fariñas, Alaksandar Milinkievič and Hu Jia. Razan Zaitouneh was kidnapped in 2013 and is still missing, nasrin Sotoudeh was released from prison in September 2013, and, along with fellow 2012 laureate Jafar Panahi, is still barred from leaving Iran. Three Sakharov laureates were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi. Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought,20 years of the Sakharov Prize, rewarding courage, self-sacrifice
11.
European Parliament
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The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union. Together with the Council of the European Union and the European Commission, the Parliament is composed of 751 members, who represent the second-largest democratic electorate in the world and the largest trans-national democratic electorate in the world. It has been elected every five years by universal suffrage since 1979. However, voter turnout at European Parliament elections has fallen consecutively at each election since that date, voter turnout in 2014 stood at 42. 54% of all European voters. The Parliament is the first institution of the EU, and shares equal legislative and it likewise has equal control over the EU budget. Finally, the European Commission, the body of the EU, is accountable to Parliament. In particular, Parliament elects the President of the Commission, and it can subsequently force the Commission as a body to resign by adopting a motion of censure. The President of the European Parliament is Antonio Tajani, elected in January 2017 and he presides over a multi-party chamber, the two largest groups being the Group of the European Peoples Party and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The last union-wide elections were the 2014 elections, the European Parliament has three places of work – Brussels, the city of Luxembourg and Strasbourg. Luxembourg is home to the administrative offices, meetings of the whole Parliament take place in Strasbourg and in Brussels. Committee meetings are held in Brussels, the Parliament, like the other institutions, was not designed in its current form when it first met on 10 September 1952. One of the oldest common institutions, it began as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and it was a consultative assembly of 78 appointed parliamentarians drawn from the national parliaments of member states, having no legislative powers. Its development since its foundation shows how the European Unions structures have evolved without a master plan. Some, such as Tom Reid of the Washington Post, said of the union, nobody would have designed a government as complex. Even the Parliaments two seats, which have switched several times, are a result of various agreements or lack of agreements, the body was not mentioned in the original Schuman Declaration. It was assumed or hoped that difficulties with the British would be resolved to allow the Council of Europes Assembly to perform the task, a separate Assembly was introduced during negotiations on the Treaty as an institution which would counterbalance and monitor the executive while providing democratic legitimacy. The wording of the ECSC Treaty demonstrated the desire for more than a normal consultative assembly by using the term representatives of the people. Its early importance was highlighted when the Assembly was given the task of drawing up the treaty to establish a European Political Community
12.
Turkey
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Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country in Eurasia, mainly in Anatolia in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeast Europe. Turkey is a democratic, secular, unitary, parliamentary republic with a cultural heritage. The country is encircled by seas on three sides, the Aegean Sea is to the west, the Black Sea to the north, and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. The Bosphorus, the Sea of Marmara, and the Dardanelles, Ankara is the capital while Istanbul is the countrys largest city and main cultural and commercial centre. Approximately 70-80% of the countrys citizens identify themselves as ethnic Turks, other ethnic groups include legally recognised and unrecognised minorities. Kurds are the largest ethnic minority group, making up approximately 20% of the population, the area of Turkey has been inhabited since the Paleolithic by various ancient Anatolian civilisations, as well as Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians and Armenians. After Alexander the Greats conquest, the area was Hellenized, a process continued under the Roman Empire. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm ruled Anatolia until the Mongol invasion in 1243, the empire reached the peak of its power in the 16th century, especially during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent. During the war, the Ottoman government committed genocides against its Armenian, Assyrian, following the war, the conglomeration of territories and peoples that formerly comprised the Ottoman Empire was partitioned into several new states. Turkey is a member of the UN, an early member of NATO. Turkeys growing economy and diplomatic initiatives have led to its recognition as a regional power while her location has given it geopolitical, the name of Turkey is based on the ethnonym Türk. The first recorded use of the term Türk or Türük as an autonym is contained in the Old Turkic inscriptions of the Göktürks of Central Asia, the English name Turkey first appeared in the late 14th century and is derived from Medieval Latin Turchia. Similarly, the medieval Khazar Empire, a Turkic state on the shores of the Black. The medieval Arabs referred to the Mamluk Sultanate as al-Dawla al-Turkiyya, the Ottoman Empire was sometimes referred to as Turkey or the Turkish Empire among its European contemporaries. The Anatolian peninsula, comprising most of modern Turkey, is one of the oldest permanently settled regions in the world, various ancient Anatolian populations have lived in Anatolia, from at least the Neolithic period until the Hellenistic period. Many of these peoples spoke the Anatolian languages, a branch of the larger Indo-European language family, in fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical centre from which the Indo-European languages radiated. The European part of Turkey, called Eastern Thrace, has also been inhabited since at least forty years ago. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic site found to date, the settlement of Troy started in the Neolithic Age and continued into the Iron Age
13.
Kurdish language
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Kurdish is a continuum of Northwestern Iranian languages spoken by the Kurds in Western Asia. Kurdish forms three dialect groups known as Northern Kurdish, Central Kurdish, and Southern Kurdish, a separate group of non-Kurdish Northwestern Iranian languages, the Zaza–Gorani languages, are also spoken by several million Kurds. Recent studies estimate between 8 to 20 million native Kurdish speakers in Turkey, the majority of the Kurds speak Northern Kurdish. The literary output in Kurdish was mostly confined to poetry until the early 20th century, today, there are two principal written Kurdish dialects, namely Northern Kurdish in the northern parts of the geographical region of Kurdistan and Central Kurdish further east and south. Central Kurdish is, along with Arabic, one of the two languages of Iraq and is in political documents simply referred to as Kurdish. The Kurdish languages belong to the Iranian branch of the Indo-European family and they are generally classified as Northwestern Iranian languages, or by some scholars as intermediate between Northwestern and Southwestern Iranian. Martin van Bruinessen notes that Kurdish has a strong south-western Iranian element, whereas Zaza, windfuhr identified Kurdish dialects as Parthian, albeit with a Median substratum. The most argued hypothesis on the localisation of the territory of the Kurds remains D. N. Mackenzies theory. He has tried to reconstruct the alleged Persian-Kurdish-Baluchi linguistic unity presumably in the parts of Iran. Kurdish is divided into three groups, where dialects from different groups are not mutually intelligible without acquired bilingualism, Northern Kurdish is the largest dialect group, spoken by an estimated 15 to 20 million Kurds in Turkey, Syria, northern Iraq and northwestern Iran. Central Kurdish is spoken by an estimated 6 to 7 million Kurds in much of Iraqi Kurdistan, Sorani is a written standard of Central Kurdish developed in the 1920s and was later adopted as the standard orthography of Kurdish as an official language of Iraq. Southern Kurdish is spoken by about 3 million Kurds in Kermanshah and Ilam provinces of Iran, in historical evolution terms, Kurmanji is less modified than Sorani and Pehlewani in both phonetic and morphological structure. The Kermanshahi group has influenced by among other things its closer cultural proximity to Persian. Philip G. Kreyenbroek, a writing in 1992, says. Sorani is normally written in a form of the Arabic script. Reasons for describing Kurmanji and Sorani as dialects of one language are their common origin, for example, Sorani has neither gender nor case-endings, whereas Kurmanji has both. Differences in vocabulary and pronunciation are not as great as between German and English, but they are still considerable, according to Encyclopaedia of Islam, although Kurdish is not a unified language, its many dialects are interrelated and at the same time distinguishable from other Western Iranian languages. The same source classifies different Kurdish dialects as two groups, northern and central
14.
Kurdistan Workers Party
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The Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK is a left-wing organization based in Turkey and Iraq. The group was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan. In May 2007, former members of the PKK helped form the Kurdistan Communities Union, an organisation of Kurds from Turkey, Iran, Iraq. It takes its power from the people and adapts to reach self-sufficiency in every field including the economy, in July 2015, the PKK announced that a ceasefire was over and said that Ankara had welched on its promises regarding the Kurdish issue. In August 2015, the PKK announced that they would accept a ceasefire with Turkey under United Nations or US guarantees, the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by several states and organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States and the European Union. However, the United Nations and countries such as Switzerland, China, India, Russia, in the early 1970s, the organizations core group was made up largely of students led by Abdullah Öcalan in Ankara. The group focused to the large oppressed Kurdish population in south-east Turkey, a meeting on 25 November 1978, in a tea house near Diyarbakır is considered the founding meeting. On 27 November 1978, the group adopted the name Kurdistan Workers Party, espousing a Marxist ideology, the group took part in violent conflicts with right-wing entities as a part of the political chaos in Turkey at the time. Some sources claimed that the tried to assassinate the Kurdish tribal leader Mehmet Celal Bucak in 1979. They claimed that he exploited the peasants, and collaborated with Turkey in oppressing the Kurds and it is believed that this marked a period of intense urban warfare among other political elements. The PKK didnt take responsibility despite a numerous of accusations, starting in 1984, the PKK transformed into a paramilitary group, using training camps in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and France. It launched attacks and bombings against Turkish governmental installations, the military, the PKK mainly focused on attacks against Turkish military targets in Turkey. At the same time, the government started to use more violence methods to suppress Kurdish activists, from 1996 to 1999, the PKK conducted hundreds of bomb attacks against military and police bases. In the late 1990s, Turkey increased the pressure and the war between Turkey and Syria ended open Syrian support. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict was in its peak in the 90s,1999, Öcalan was captured, prosecuted and sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life imprisonment as part of the governments seeking European Union membership. It partially relaxed the bans on broadcasting and publishing in the Kurdish language, at the same time, the PKK was blacklisted in many countries. On 2 April 2004, the Council of the European Union added the PKK to its list of terrorist organizations, later that year, the US Treasury moved to freeze assets of branches of the organization. The PKK went through a series of changes, and in 2003 it ended the unilateral truce declared when Öcalan was captured, despite a numerous of large offensives against the PKK bases, the government has failed in its war against the PKK
15.
Prisoner of conscience
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Prisoner of conscience is a term coined by Peter Benenson in a 28 May 1961 article for the London Observer newspaper. Most often associated with the human rights organisation Amnesty International, the term can refer to anyone imprisoned because of their race, sexual orientation, religion and it also refers to those who have been imprisoned and/or persecuted for the non-violent expression of their conscientiously held beliefs. The article The Forgotten Prisoners by Peter Benenson, published in The Observer 28 May 1961, launched the campaign Appeal for Amnesty 1961, any person who is physically restrained from expressing any opinion which he honestly holds and which does not advocate or condone personal violence. We also exclude those people who have conspired with a government to overthrow their own. In early 1962, the campaign had received public support to become a permanent organization and was renamed Amnesty International. Under British law, Amnesty International was classed as a political organisation, to work around this, the Fund for the Persecuted was established in 1962 to receive donations to support prisoners and their families. Amnesty International has, since its founding, pressured governments to release those persons it considers to be prisoners of conscience, below is an incomplete list of individuals that Amnesty International considers to be prisoners of conscience, organized by country. Amnesty International resources about prisoners of conscience Prisoners of Conscience Appeal Fund
16.
Amnesty International
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Amnesty International is a non-governmental organisation focused on human rights that claims to have over 7 million members and supporters around the world. The stated objective of the organisation is to research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights. Amnesty International was founded in London in 1961, following the publication of the article The Forgotten Prisoners in The Observer on 28 May 1961, Amnesty draws attention to human rights abuses and campaigns for compliance with international laws and standards. It works to public opinion to put pressure on governments that let abuse take place. Amnesty considers capital punishment to be the ultimate, irreversible denial of human rights, the organisation was awarded the 1977 Nobel Peace Prize for its campaign against torture, and the United Nations Prize in the Field of Human Rights in 1978. Amnesty International was founded in London in July 1961 by English labour lawyer Peter Benenson, researchers have never traced the alleged newspaper article in question. In 1960, Portugal was ruled by the Estado Novo government of António de Oliveira Salazar, the government was authoritarian in nature and strongly anti-communist, suppressing enemies of the state as anti-Portuguese. The newspaper reader feels a sense of impotence. Yet if these feelings of disgust could be united into common action, Benenson worked with friend Eric Baker. It marked the launch of Appeal for Amnesty,1961, the aim of which was to mobilise public opinion, quickly and widely, in defence of these individuals, the Appeal for Amnesty was reprinted by a large number of international newspapers. In the same year, Benenson had a published, Persecution 1961. In July 1961 the leadership had decided that the appeal would form the basis of a permanent organisation, Amnesty, Benenson ensured that all three major political parties were represented, enlisting members of parliament from the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, and the Liberal Party. On 30 September 1962, it was officially named Amnesty International, between the Appeal for Amnesty,1961 and September 1962 the organisation had been known simply as Amnesty. From the very beginning, research and campaigning were present in Amnesty Internationals work, a library was established for information about prisoners of conscience and a network of local groups, called THREES groups, was started. Each group worked on behalf of three prisoners, one each of the then three main ideological regions of the world, communist, capitalist and developing. The international movement was starting to agree on its principles and techniques. In 1967 Peter Benenson resigned after an independent inquiry did not support his claims that AI had been infiltrated by British agents, later he claimed that the Central Intelligence Agency had become involved in Amnesty. Leading Amnesty International in the 1970s were key figures Seán MacBride, Amnesty International believed that the reasons underlying torture of prisoners by governments, were either to acquire and obtain information or to quell opposition by the use of terror, or both
17.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
18.
European Court of Human Rights
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The European Court of Human Rights is a supra-national or international court established by the European Convention on Human Rights. It hears applications alleging that a state has breached one or more of the human rights provisions concerning civil and political rights set out in the Convention. An application can be lodged by an individual, a group of individuals or one or more of the contracting states, and, besides judgments. The Convention was adopted within the context of the Council of Europe, the Court is based in Strasbourg, France. The jurisdiction of the Court has been recognised to date by all 47 member states of the Council of Europe. In 1998, the Court became an institution and the European Commission of Human Rights. The accession of new states to the European Convention on Human Rights following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 led to a increase in applications filed in the Court. The efficiency of the Court was threatened seriously by the number of pending applications. In 19998,400 applications were allocated to be heard, in 200327,200 cases were filed and the number of pending applications rose to approximately 65,000. In 2005, the Court opened 45,500 case files, in 200957,200 applications were allocated, with the number of pending applications rose to 119,300. Protocol 14 entered into force on 1 June 2010, three months after it was ratified by all 47 contracting states to the Convention, between 2006 and 2010, Russia was the only contracting state to refuse to ratify Protocol 14. In 2010, Russia ended its opposition to the protocol, in exchange for a guarantee that Russian judges would be involved in reviewing complaints against Russia. Protocol 14 amended the Convention so that judges would be elected for a term of nine years. Amendments were also made so that a judge could reject plainly inadmissible applications. In cases of doubt, the single judge refers the applications to the Committee of the Court, a single judge may not examine applications against the state which nominated him. The three judge committee has jurisdiction to declare applications admissible and decide on the merits of the if it was clearly well founded and based on well established case law. Protocol 14 also provides that when a three judge committee decides on the merits of a case, the elected to represent that state is no longer a compulsory member of this committee. The judge can be invited by the committee, to one of its members
19.
High Court of Appeals
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The Court of Cassation, also called Supreme Court of Appeals of Turkey which was founded in 1868 is the last instance for reviewing verdicts given by courts of criminal and civil justice. The institution of the court of appeals was Divan in the Ottoman Empire until the 19th century, the first modern court of appeals which was the first form of todays Yargıtay was established during the reign of Abdülaziz on 6 March 1868. There are different view on the date of foundation, some jurists hold that 6 March 1868 is the founding date when the Padishah announced his will and others hold that 1 April 1868, when the statute of the court was passed is the founding date. Its first president was Ahmet Cevdet Pasha, the governor of Aleppo, the high court was composed of members from Muslim and non-Muslim communities in a ratio of two thirds and one third respectively. The name Divan-ı Ahkam-ı Adliye was changed June 18,1879 to Mahkeme-i Temyiz by an act on foundation of courts. On 7 June 1920 the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law established four chambers for appeal cases referring to civil, criminal, religious justice. The Court of Cassation in Istanbul continued to exist, when Istanbul came under the reign of the national government on 4 November 1922 the court were united by transferring the files from Istanbul to Sivas. The Temporary Committee of Appeals moved from Sivas to Eskişehir on November 14,1923 due to better transportation potential, at the same time, the committees name was changed to Court of Appeals. In 1935, the Supreme Court of Appeals moved to its new building in Ankara, on January 10,1945, the name of the Court of Appeals was changed to Court of Cassation. The latest act related to the Court of Cassation is from February 4,1983, the Court is divided into 30 chambers according to their particular specialized field. There are 20 civil chambers,10 penal chambers, until 2001 there were 21 civil and 11 criminal chambers. A chamber has five members, one of which is president of the chamber, one elected judge by the all judges of the Court of Cassation presides over the entire Court as general President. All presidents and judge-members of civil chambers form the General Civil Assembly, in the civil chambers, average case-file number which come to these chambers annually is 261,716 and duration of handling the case-file changes from two months to three months. In the criminal chambers,139,025 case-files are concluded on the average annually. The Law provides that the Courts are to be established within two years of its entry into force. ”The progress report of the European Commission on Turkey dated 9 November 2010 stated, The regional courts of appeal are not operational yet. By law, they should have been in operation by June 2007. ”In a report of 17 June 2010 Amnesty International called for an end of prosecution of children under anti-terrorism legislation, prosecutions are often based on insubstantive evidence or statements taken from the children under pressure. The anti-terrorism legislation that the children are prosecuted under is vague and overly broad in its wording and unfair in its application by judges and these and other criticisms led to further reforms. On 1 March 2011 the Law Library of Congress reported, Turkeys Parliament passed a controversial judicial reform bill on February 9,2011, under the Law on the Amendment of Certain Laws, the highest level of the judiciary will be restructured
20.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
21.
Democratic People's Party (Turkey)
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Democratic Peoples Party was a Kurdish nationalist political party in Turkey. DEHAP was founded 24 October 1997 and it was the continuation of the Peoples Democracy Party, which was banned in March 2003 by the Constitutional Court on the grounds that it supported the Kurdistan Workers Party. At its last legislative elections in November 2002, the party won 6. 2% of the popular vote, on 17 August 2005 DEHAP announced its merger with the Democratic Society Movement founded by Leyla Zana to form the Democratic Society Party. Blood and Belief, The PKK and the Kurdish Fight for Independence, New York, New York University Press. From Patriarchy to Empowerment, Womens Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
22.
Massoud Barzani
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Masoud Barzani is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who has been President of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region since 2005, as well as leader of the Kurdistan Democratic Party since 1979. Masoud Barzani succeeded his father, the Kurdish nationalist leader Mustafa Barzani, working closely with his brother Idris Barzani until Idriss death, Barzani and various other Kurdish groups fought the forces of the Iraqi government in Baghdad during the Iran–Iraq War. For much of time, the Kurdish leadership was exiled to Iran. Just a few months after the creation of the autonomous zone, the two main Kurdish parties, namely Barzanis KDP and the Jalal Talabani-led Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, split the vote, and subsequently split the government ministries evenly. In May 1994, however, fighting broke out between the Peshmerga of the PUK and of KDP, on August 31,1996 Barzani called on the assistance of Saddam Husseins regime to help him combat the PUK, which was receiving Iranian assistance. With the aid of the Iraqi army, the KDP drove the PUK from Iraqi Kurdistans major cities, the PUK eventually regrouped and retook Suleimani and parts of Hawler province. An end to the war was brokered in 1998 in the Washington Peace Accords. After the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the KDP and PUK have gradually established a regional government. Barzani became a member of the Iraqi Governing Council and was the president of the council in April 2004 and he was elected as the President of Iraqi Kurdistan by the Parliament of Iraqi Kurdistan in June 2005. In his presidency Barzani has established institutions in the Kurdistan Region to develop its emerging democracy, strengthen alliances. During the same visit Pope Benedict XVI received Barzani and paid tribute to the President for his role in providing refuge, the Atlantic Award is annually conferred to prominent international figures for their role in promoting peace, stability and religious tolerance in their regions. As President of the Kurdistan Region, Barzani has made visits to several countries including, meeting with US President George W. In July 2009, in the first direct elections for the presidency of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Masoud Barzani was reelected as president by a popular ballot, the elections were closely monitored by international observers and the Iraqi Electoral Commission. In August 2013, after the expiration of his 8-year term, insufficient financial transparency in the region serves to both exacerbate the accusations and hamper efforts to find any evidence of malfeasance. In July 2010 the opposition paper Rozhnama accused the Barzani-led KDP of pocketing large sums from illegal oil-smuggling, in May 2010 the journalist Sardasht Osman was killed after criticising the Barzani family. In December 2005, Kamal Qadir, a Kurdish legal scholar with Austrian citizenship, was arrested in Iraqi Kurdistan for a series of articles criticizing Barzanis government and he was charged with defamation and sentenced to thirty years imprisonment. He was released in 2006 following international pressure from Amnesty International, Reporters Without Borders, Barzani was born in Mahabad, Iran, during the rule of the Republic of Mahabad. He has five sons and three daughters, sirwan Barzani is a nephew of his
23.
Celal Talabani
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Jalal Talabani is an Iraqi Kurdish politician who served as the sixth President of Iraq from 2005 to 2014, as well as the President of the Governing Council of Iraq. He was the first non-Arab president of Iraq, although Abdul Karim Qasim was of partial Kurdish heritage and he is known as Mam Jalal meaning uncle Jalal among Kurdish people. Talabani is the founder and has been secretary general of one of the main Kurdish political parties and he was a prominent member of the Interim Iraq Governing Council, which was established following the overthrow of the Saddam Hussein regime by the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Talabani has been an advocate for Kurdish rights and democracy in Iraq for more than 50 years, apart from his native Kurdish, Talabani is fluent in Arabic, Persian, and English. He received his elementary and intermediate education in Koya and his high school education in Erbil. When he was in his teens, Talabanis peers began referring to him as Mam Jalal, as mam meaning paternal uncle in Kurdish, and the Kurds have called him by this affectionate name ever since. In 1957, during the year of his studies for a degree in law at Baghdad University. He completed his two years later. In March 1962, he led an offensive that brought about the liberation of the district of Sharbazher from Iraqi government forces. When not engaged in fighting in the early and mid-1960s, Talabani undertook numerous missions, representing the Kurdish leadership at meetings in Europe. The Kurdish separatist movement collapsed in March 1975, after Iran ended their support in exchange for an agreement with Iraq. This agreement was the 1975 Algiers Agreement, where Iraq gave up claims to the Shatt al-Arab waterway and Khuzestan, in 1976, he began organizing an armed campaign for Kurdish independence inside Iraqi Kurdistan. During the 1980s, Talabani sided with Iranian Kurdistan and led a Kurdish struggle from bases inside Iraq until the crackdown against Kurdish separatists from 1987 to 1988, in 1991, he helped inspire a renewed effort for Kurdish independence. In 1992 the Kurdistan Regional Government was founded, Talabani has pursued a negotiated settlement to the internecine problems plaguing the Kurdish movement, as well as the larger issue of Kurdish rights in the current regional context. He works closely with other Kurdish politicians as well as the rest of the Iraqi opposition factions, in close coordination with Masoud Barzani, Talabani and the Kurds played a key role as a partner of the US-led Coalition in the invasion of Iraq. Talabani was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council that negotiated the Transitional Administrative Law, the TAL governed all politics in Iraq and the process of writing and adopting the final constitution. Talabani was elected President of Iraq on April 6,2005 by the Iraqi National Assembly, on April 22,2006, Talabani began his second term as President of Iraq, becoming the first President elected under the countrys new constitution. His office was part of the Presidency Council of Iraq, nawshirwan Mustafa was Talabanis deputy until Mustafa resigned in 2006 and formed an opposition party called Gorran
24.
Kurdistan Workers' Party
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The Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK is a left-wing organization based in Turkey and Iraq. The group was founded in 1978 in the village of Fis by a group of Kurdish students led by Abdullah Öcalan. In May 2007, former members of the PKK helped form the Kurdistan Communities Union, an organisation of Kurds from Turkey, Iran, Iraq. It takes its power from the people and adapts to reach self-sufficiency in every field including the economy, in July 2015, the PKK announced that a ceasefire was over and said that Ankara had welched on its promises regarding the Kurdish issue. In August 2015, the PKK announced that they would accept a ceasefire with Turkey under United Nations or US guarantees, the PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by several states and organizations, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the United States and the European Union. However, the United Nations and countries such as Switzerland, China, India, Russia, in the early 1970s, the organizations core group was made up largely of students led by Abdullah Öcalan in Ankara. The group focused to the large oppressed Kurdish population in south-east Turkey, a meeting on 25 November 1978, in a tea house near Diyarbakır is considered the founding meeting. On 27 November 1978, the group adopted the name Kurdistan Workers Party, espousing a Marxist ideology, the group took part in violent conflicts with right-wing entities as a part of the political chaos in Turkey at the time. Some sources claimed that the tried to assassinate the Kurdish tribal leader Mehmet Celal Bucak in 1979. They claimed that he exploited the peasants, and collaborated with Turkey in oppressing the Kurds and it is believed that this marked a period of intense urban warfare among other political elements. The PKK didnt take responsibility despite a numerous of accusations, starting in 1984, the PKK transformed into a paramilitary group, using training camps in Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and France. It launched attacks and bombings against Turkish governmental installations, the military, the PKK mainly focused on attacks against Turkish military targets in Turkey. At the same time, the government started to use more violence methods to suppress Kurdish activists, from 1996 to 1999, the PKK conducted hundreds of bomb attacks against military and police bases. In the late 1990s, Turkey increased the pressure and the war between Turkey and Syria ended open Syrian support. The Kurdish-Turkish conflict was in its peak in the 90s,1999, Öcalan was captured, prosecuted and sentenced to death, but this was later commuted to life imprisonment as part of the governments seeking European Union membership. It partially relaxed the bans on broadcasting and publishing in the Kurdish language, at the same time, the PKK was blacklisted in many countries. On 2 April 2004, the Council of the European Union added the PKK to its list of terrorist organizations, later that year, the US Treasury moved to freeze assets of branches of the organization. The PKK went through a series of changes, and in 2003 it ended the unilateral truce declared when Öcalan was captured, despite a numerous of large offensives against the PKK bases, the government has failed in its war against the PKK
25.
Diyarbakir
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Diyarbakır is one of the largest cities in southeastern Turkey. Situated on the banks of the Tigris River, it is the capital of the Diyarbakır Province. With a population of about 930,000 it is the second largest city in Turkeys Southeastern Anatolia Region, Diyarbakir is considered the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan. As such, it has been a point for conflict between Turkeys government and Kurdish insurgent groups. The name Diyarbakir is inscribed as Amid on the sheath of a sword from the Assyrian period, the Romans and Byzantines called the city Amida. Another medieval use of the term as Amit is found in Empire of Trebizond official documents in 1358. Among the Artukid and Akkoyunlu it was known as Black Amid for the color of its walls, while in the Zafername, or eulogies in praise of military victories. In the Book of Dede Korkut and some other Turkish works it appears as Kara Hamid, following the Arab conquests in the seventh century, the Arab Bakr tribe settled in this region, which became known as the Diyar Bakr. The earliest reference to the city comes from Assyrian records which identify it as being the capital of the Aramean kingdom of Bit-Zamani, in the ninth century BC, the city joined a rebellion against the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III. The city was reduced to being a province of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. From 189 BCE to 384 CE, the region to the east, later, the Romans colonized the city and named it Amida, after the earlier Assyrian name Amid. During the Roman rule, the first city walls were constructed in 297, later, the greater walls were built as per the command of the Roman emperor Constantius II. After the Romans, the Persians came to power and were succeeded by the Muslim Arabs and it was the leader of the Arab Bekr tribe, Bekr Bin Vail, who named the city Diyar Bakr, meaning the country of Bakr, i. e. Arabs. After a few centuries, Diyarbakır came under the Ottoman Empire, the city became the base of army troops who guarded the region against Persian invasion. Diyarbakır faced turbulence in the 20th century, particularly with the onset of World War I, the majority of the citys Syriac and Armenian population were massacred and deported during the Armenian Genocide in 1915. In 1925, the Kurdish population rose in the Sheikh Said rebellion against the established government of the Republic of Turkey. The area around Diyarbakır has been inhabited by humans from the age with tools from that period having been discovered in the nearby Hilar cave complex. The pre-pottery neolothic B settlement of Çayönü dates to over 10,000 years ago, another important site is Girikihaciyan Tumulus in Eğil
26.
SOAS
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SOAS University of London, is a public research university in London, England, and a constituent college of the University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS was ranked within the top 30 universities in the United Kingdom by The Guardian University Guide 2017, the School is organised into faculties of humanities, languages and social sciences. It is home to the SOAS School of Law, SOAS offers around 350 undergraduate bachelors degree combinations, over 100 one-year masters degrees and PhD programmes in nearly every department. SOAS has produced several heads of states, government ministers, diplomats, Supreme Court judges, the School of Oriental Studies was founded in 1916 at 2 Finsbury Circus, London, the then premises of the London Institution. The school received its charter on 5 June 1916 and admitted its first students on 18 January 1917. The school was inaugurated a month later on 23 February 1917 by King George V. Among those in attendance were Earl Curzon of Kedleston, formerly Viceroy of India, the School of Oriental Studies was founded by the British state as an instrument to strengthen Britains political, commercial and military presence in Asia and Africa. The school immediately became integral in training British administrators, colonial officials, Africa was added to the schools name in 1938. Its move to new premises in Bloomsbury was held up by delays in construction, with the onset of the Second World War, many University of London colleges were evacuated from London in 1939 and billeted on universities all over the provinces. The School was, on the Governments advice, transferred to Christs College, Cambridge. In 1940, when it became apparent that a return to London was possible, in 1942, the War Office joined with the schools Japanese department to help alleviate the shortage in Japanese linguists. State scholarships were offered to select grammar and public school boys to train as military translators, lodged at Dulwich College in south London, the students became affectionately known as the Dulwich boys. The courses were directed by army cryptographer, Col. John Tiltman, the SOAS School of Law was established in 1947 with Professor Vesey-Fitzgerald as its first head. Growth however was curtailed by following years of austerity, and upon Sir Cyril Philips assuming the directorship in 1956. Over his twenty-year stewardship, Phillips transformed the school, raising funds, a college of the University of London, the Schools fields include Law, Social Sciences, Humanities and Languages with special reference to Asia and Africa. The SOAS Library, located in the Philips Building, is the UKs national resource for materials relating to Asia and Africa and is the largest of its kind in the world. The school has grown considerably over the past thirty years, from fewer than 1,000 students in the 1970s to more than 6,000 students today, nearly half of them postgraduates. SOAS is partnered with the Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales in Paris which is considered the French equivalent of SOAS
27.
Prime Minister of Turkey
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The Prime Minister of Turkey is the head of government of Turkey. The prime minister is the leader of a coalition in the Turkish parliament. The current holder of the position is Binali Yıldırım of the Justice and Development Party, in the Ottoman Empire, the prime minister of the Ottoman sultan held the title of Grand Vizier. After the Tanzimat period in the 19th century, the grand viziers came to assume a more like that of the prime ministers of contemporary Western European monarchies. Later, with the Ottoman constitution of 1876, a parliament was established to oversee the prime minister, with the amendments to the constitution during the Second Constitutional Era, the prime minister was made answerable to the parliament rather than the sultan. Finally, with the declaration of republic in 1923, the appointer of the minister became the president
28.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
29.
Rotten Tomatoes
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Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by Senh Duong and since January 2010 has been owned by Flixster, in February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcasts Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, since 2007, the websites editor-in-chief has been Matt Atchity. The name, Rotten Tomatoes, derives from the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes when disapproving of a stage performance. From early 2008 to September 2010, Current Television aired the weekly The Rotten Tomatoes Show, featuring hosts, a shorter segment was incorporated into the weekly show, InfoMania, which ended in 2011. In September 2013, the website introduced TV Zone, a section for reviewing scripted TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12,1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His goal in creating Rotten Tomatoes was to create a site where people can get access to reviews from a variety of critics in the U. S. As a fan of Jackie Chans, Duong was inspired to create the website after collecting all the reviews of Chans movies as they were being published in the United States, the first movie whose reviews were featured on Rotten Tomatoes was Your Friends & Neighbors. The website was an success, receiving mentions by Netscape, Yahoo. and USA Today within the first week of its launch. They officially launched it on April 1,2000, in June 2004, IGN Entertainment acquired rottentomatoes. com for an undisclosed sum. In September 2005, IGN was bought by News Corps Fox Interactive Media, in January 2010, IGN sold the website to Flixster. The combined reach of both companies is 30 million unique visitors a month across all different platforms, according to the companies, in May 2011, Flixster was acquired by Warner Bros. In early 2009, Current Television launched the version of the web review site. It was hosted by Brett Erlich and Ellen Fox and written by Mark Ganek, the show aired every Thursday at 10,30 EST on the Current TV network. The last episode aired on September 16,2010 and it returned as a much shorter segment of InfoMania, a satirical news show that ended in 2011. By late 2009, the website was designed to enable Rotten Tomatoes users to create, one group, The Golden Oyster Awards, accepted votes of members for different awards, as if in parallel to the better-known Oscars or Golden Globes. When Flixster bought the company, they disbanded the groups, announcing, in the meantime, please use the Forums to continue your conversations about your favorite movie topics. As of February 2011, new community features have been added, for example, users can no longer sort films by fresh ratings from rotten ratings, and vice versa
30.
Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
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The Justice and Development Party, abbreviated AKP in Turkish, is a conservative political party in Turkey. Developed from the tradition of moderate Islamism, the party is the largest in Turkey, the party held a majority of seats for 13 years, but lost it in June 2015, only to regain it in the snap election of November 2015. Its electoral success has been mirrored in the three elections held since the partys establishment, coming first in 2004,2009 and 2014 respectively. The current party leader Binali Yıldırım is the Prime Minister of Turkey, the party has for a long time been supported by the Cemaat Movement of exiled Islamic cleric Fethullah Gülen, whose influence in the judiciary has helped to weaken the opposition against the AKP. Having been an observer in the center-right European Peoples Party since 2005, it left to join the eurosceptic Alliance of Conservatives. Since then, the party has brought about tighter regulations on use, abortion and alcohol consumption, having temporarily blocked access to Twitter. Especially after the government corruption scandal involving several AKP ministers in 2013, the AKP favours a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013. The AK Party was established by a range of politicians of various political parties. The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party, including such as Abdullah Gül. A second founding group consisted of members of the social conservative Motherland Party who had close to Turgut Özal, such as Cemil Çiçek. Some members of the True Path Party, such as Hüseyin Çelik and Köksal Toptan, some members, such as Kürşad Tüzmen had nationalist or Ertuğrul Günay, had center-left backgrounds while representatives of the nascent Muslim left current were largely excluded. In addition a number of people joined a political party for the first time, such as Ali Babacan, Selma Aliye Kavaf, Egemen Bağış. All of these people joined Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to found the new party, although the party is described as an Islamist party in some media, party officials reject those claims. These characterizations do not reflect the truth, and they sadden us, Çelik added, The AK Party is a conservative democratic party. The AK Partys conservatism is limited to moral and social issues, also in a separate speech made in 2005, Prime Minister Erdoğan stated, We are not an Islamic party, and we also refuse labels such as Muslim-democrat. Erdoğan went on to say that the AK Partys agenda is limited to conservative democracy, however, the partys leadership has also rejected this label. In 2005, the party was granted membership in the European Peoples Party. In November 2013, the party left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives
31.
Nelson Mandela
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Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary, politician, and philanthropist, who served as President of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the countrys first black head of state and the first elected in a representative democratic election. His government focused on dismantling the legacy of apartheid by tackling institutionalised racism, ideologically an African nationalist and socialist, he served as President of the African National Congress party from 1991 to 1997. A Xhosa, Mandela was born in Mvezo to the Thembu royal family and he studied law at the University of Fort Hare and the University of the Witwatersrand before working as a lawyer in Johannesburg. There he became involved in anti-colonial and African nationalist politics, joining the ANC in 1943, after the National Partys white-only government established apartheid—a system of racial segregation that privileged whites—he and the ANC committed themselves to its overthrow. Mandela was appointed President of the ANCs Transvaal branch, rising to prominence for his involvement in the 1952 Defiance Campaign and he was repeatedly arrested for seditious activities and was unsuccessfully prosecuted in the 1956 Treason Trial. Influenced by Marxism, he joined the banned South African Communist Party. Although initially committed to non-violent protest, in association with the SACP he co-founded the militant Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1961, in 1962, he was arrested for conspiring to overthrow the state and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela served 27 years in prison, initially on Robben Island, amid growing domestic and international pressure, and with fears of a racial civil war, President F. W. de Klerk released him in 1990. Mandela and de Klerk negotiated an end to apartheid and organised the 1994 multiracial general election in which Mandela led the ANC to victory, internationally, he acted as mediator in the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial and served as Secretary-General of the Non-Aligned Movement from 1998 to 1999. He declined a presidential term and in 1999 was succeeded by his deputy. Mandela became a statesman and focused on combating poverty and HIV/AIDS through the charitable Nelson Mandela Foundation. Mandela was a figure for much of his life. Widely regarded as an icon of democracy and social justice, he received more than 250 honours—including the Nobel Peace Prize—and became the subject of a cult of personality. He is held in deep respect within South Africa, where he is referred to by his Xhosa clan name, Madiba. Mandela was born on 18 July 1918 in the village of Mvezo in Umtata, given the forename Rolihlahla, a Xhosa term colloquially meaning troublemaker, in later years he became known by his clan name, Madiba. His patrilineal great-grandfather, Ngubengcuka, was king of the Thembu people in the Transkeian Territories of South Africas modern Eastern Cape province, one of Ngubengcukas sons, named Mandela, was Nelsons grandfather and the source of his surname. In 1926, Gadla was also sacked for corruption, but Nelson was told that his father had lost his job for standing up to the magistrates unreasonable demands
32.
Anatoly Marchenko
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After limited circulation inside the Soviet Union as samizdat, the book caused a sensation in the West after it revealed that the Soviet gulag system had continued after the death of Joseph Stalin. In 1968, in the run-up to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, arrested again, he was released in the early 1970s, but in 1974 he was interrogated and internally exiled to Irkutsk Oblast. Becoming one of the Soviet Unions perpetual prisoner, Anatoly Marchenko died at age 48 in Chistopol prison hospital, as a result of a three-month-long hunger strike with the goal of which was the release of all Soviet prisoners of conscience. His father, Tikon Akhimovich, was a fireman. The couple had two sons, one of whom died in infancy. His grandfather had shot by Aleksandr Kolchak. Marchenko left school short of the normal full secondary education in the Soviet Union. He then joined the Komsomol, and became a foreman for an oil drilling group. Two-years later, Marchenko escaped from the camp, ironically just as his sentence was about to be overturned. Seeing no future for himself in the Soviet Union, he tried to escape over the border into Iran, however he was captured on October 29 near Ashkabad, just short of the border. On 3 March 1961, he was convicted for treason and was sentenced to six-years in labour camp, officially designating Marchenko a political prisoner, while in Vladimir, he went on a long hunger strike, a tactic he would often later repeat. In 1963, Marchenko was moved from Vladimir back to the camp in Mordovia. While there, in March 1966, he survived a bout of meningitis with almost no medical care, Marchenko also met a number of intellectual political prisoners, including Yuli Daniel. Marchenko was released on 2 November 1966, and spent months travelling through the Russian SFSR and he finally succeeded in being allowed to register in his birthplace Barabinsk, and later in Alexandrov, Vladimir Oblast. From May 1968, while still living in Alexandrov, Marchenko was working in Moscow as a loader. During this time he had met several fellow dissidents, including Larisa Bogoraz, the wife of his associate Yuli Daniel, Marchenko was determined to write a record of the camps, and his fellow prisoners, and he enlisted their aid in his project. They also helped him receive medical care, both for his ears, and for problems with internal bleeding in his stomach, most of those released were convicted for common crimes, however the release of political prisoners started in 1954 and became widespread. The Gulag institution was closed by the MVD order No and my Testimony provided a detailed account of both his time in labour camps and in prison, as well as a wide-ranging look at conditions there
33.
Aung San Suu Kyi
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Aung San Suu Kyi is a Burmese politician, diplomat, and author who is the First and incumbent State Counsellor and Leader of the National League for Democracy. The youngest daughter of Aung San, Father of the Nation of modern-day Myanmar, after graduating from the University of Delhi in 1964 and the University of Oxford in 1968, she worked at the United Nations for three years. She married Michael Aris in 1972, and gave birth to two children, Aung San Suu Kyi rose to prominence in the 1988 Uprisings, and became the General Secretary of the newly formed National League for Democracy. In the 1990 elections, NLD won 81% of the seats in Parliament and she had, however, already been detained under house arrest before the elections. She remained under house arrest for almost 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010 and her party boycotted the 2010 elections, resulting in a decisive victory for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party. Aung San Suu Kyi became a Pyithu Hluttaw MP while her party won 43 of the 45 vacant seats in the 2012 by-elections and she is an honorary citizen of many countries, including Canada, and was an honorary member of Nelson Mandelas Elders. The Burmese refer to her as Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Daw, literally meaning aunt, is not part of her name but is a Burmese honorific for any older and revered woman, akin to Madame. Burmese sometimes address her as Daw Suu or Amay Suu, Aung San Suu Kyi was born on 19 June 1945 in Rangoon, British Burma. According to Peter Popham, she was born in a village outside Rangoon called Hmway Saung. Her father, Aung San, founded the modern Burmese army and negotiated Burmas independence from the British Empire in 1947 and she grew up with her mother, Khin Kyi, and two brothers, Aung San Lin and Aung San Oo, in Rangoon. Aung San Lin died at the age of eight, when he drowned in a lake on the grounds of the house. Her elder brother emigrated to San Diego, California, becoming a United States citizen, after Aung San Lins death, the family moved to a house by Inya Lake where Aung San Suu Kyi met people of various backgrounds, political views and religions. She was educated in Methodist English High School for much of her childhood in Burma and she speaks four languages, Burmese, English, French and Japanese. Suu Kyis mother, Khin Kyi, gained prominence as a figure in the newly formed Burmese government. She was appointed Burmese ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960 and she studied in the Convent of Jesus and Mary School in New Delhi, and graduated from Lady Shri Ram College in New Delhi with a degree in politics in 1964. Suu Kyi continued her education at St Hughs College, Oxford, obtaining a B. A degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics in 1967, graduating with a third and M. A degree in politics in 1968. After graduating, she lived in New York City with family friend Ma Than E and she worked at the United Nations for three years, primarily on budget matters, writing daily to her future husband, Dr. Michael Aris. On 1 January 1972, Aung San Suu Kyi and Aris, the following year she gave birth to their first son, Alexander Aris, in London, their second son, Kim, was born in 1977
34.
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
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The Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo is an association of Argentine mothers whose children were disappeared during the state terrorism of the military dictatorship, between 1976 and 1983. To the people of the country, this era represents the lives taken, families broken, the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo were the initial responders to these human rights violations. Together, the created a dynamic and unexpected force, which existed in opposition to traditional limitations on women. The mothers came together, and pushed for information on the whereabouts of their children, in carrying out these efforts they also highlighted for the world the human rights violations occurring, and raised awareness on local and global scales. Their legacy and subsequent progress have been due to their sustained group organization, use of symbols and slogans. Today, the Mothers are persistently engaged in the struggle for human, political, on April 30,1977, Azucena Villaflor de De Vincenti was accompanied by a dozen other mothers to the Plaza de Mayo in Argentinas capital city. Arising from a multitude of histories and families, the women had one universally shared experience, together they made the decision to protest. The location they zeroed in on was just across the street from the office building. In choosing this location the mothers utilized their visibility as a means to information on. While they held weekly marches, the mothers also began a campaign to defy the propaganda distributed by the military regime. This campaign brought the attention of the world to Argentina, the Mothers association was made up of women who had met each other while trying to find their missing sons and daughters. In the years of the regime, citizens were highly fearful of attracting the governments attention. Opposition was not tolerated, those opposing the government were made to go away, just a year after the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo was created, hundreds of women were participating, gathering in the Plaza for weekly demonstrations. They found strength in each other by marching in public, and they made signs with photos of their children and publicized their childrens names. The government tried to marginalize and trivialize their work by calling them las locas, as the number of disappeared grew, the movement grew, and the Mothers gained international attention during the years of the Dirty War. They drew international attention, and began to try and build pressure by outside governments against the Argentine dictatorship by sharing the stories of the disappeared. On 10 December 1977, International Human Rights Day, the Mothers published an advertisement with the names of their missing children. That same night, Azucena Villaflor was kidnapped from her home in Avellaneda by a group of armed men and she is reported to have been taken to the infamous ESMA torture centre, and from there on one of the “death flights” to the middle of the ocean
35.
Taslima Nasrin
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Taslima Nasrin is a Bangladeshi author and former physician who has been living in exile since 1994. After living more than a decade in Europe and the USA, Taslima moved to India in 2005 and she advocates freedom of thought and human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning. She has been unable to either to her home in Bangladesh or to her adopted home of West Bengal. Nasrin was born to Dr. Rajab Ali and Edul Ara in the town of Mymensingh and her father was a renowned physician, and a professor of Medical Jurisprudence in Mymensingh Medical College, also at Sir Salimullah Medical College, Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College. Taslima studied medicine and became a physician, while she studied and practised medicine, she saw girls who had been raped, she also heard women cry out in despair in the delivery room if their baby was a girl. She was born into a Muslim family, however, she became an atheist over time and this publication changed her life and career dramatically. Nasrin suffered a number of physical and other following the publication of Lajja. She had written against Islamic philosophy, angering many Muslims of Bangladesh, in October 1993, a radical fundamentalist group called the Council of Islamic Soldiers offered a bounty for her death. In August 1994 she was brought up on charges of making inflammatory statements, after spending two months in hiding, at the end of 1994 she escaped to Sweden, consequently ceasing her medical practice and becoming a full-time writer and activist. After fleeing Bangladesh in 1994, Nasrin spent the ten years in exile in Europe. She returned to the east and relocated to Kolkata, India, in 2004, after renewed unrest broke out, and after spending several months in hiding, Nasrin left for Europe and America again in 2008. Leaving Bangladesh towards the end of 1994, Nasrin lived in exile in Western Europe and her Bangladeshi passport had been revoked, she was granted citizenship by the Swedish government and took refuge in Germany. She allegedly had to wait for six years to get a visa to visit India, in 1998 she wrote Meyebela, My Bengali Girlhood her biographical account from birth to adolescence. She never got a Bangladeshi passport to return to the country when her mother, in March 2000, she visited Mumbai to promote a translation of her novel Shodh. Secular atheist groups seized upon the occasion to celebrate freedom of expression, the government of India extended her visa to stay in the country on a periodic basis, though it refused to grant her Indian citizenship. Back in India, the All India Muslim Personal Board offered 500,000 rupees for her beheading in March 2007, the groups president, Tauqeer Raza Khan, said the only way the bounty would be lifted was if Nasrin apologises, burns her books and leaves. In 2007, elected and serving members of All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen made threats against Tasleema Nasreen, pledging that the fatwa against her and Salman Rushdie were to be abided by. A week later, on 17 August, Muslim leaders in Kolkata revived an old fatwa against her, urging her to leave the country, on 21 November, Kolkata witnessed a protest against Nasrin
36.
Wei Jingsheng
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Wei Jingsheng is a Chinese human rights activist known for his involvement in the Chinese democracy movement. He is most prominent for having authored the essay, Fifth Modernization, due to the manifesto, Wei was arrested and convicted of counterrevolutionary activities, and was detained as a political prisoner from 1979–93. Released briefly in 1993, Wei continued with his dissident activities by speaking to visiting journalists and he was deported to the United States on 16 November 1997, on medical parole. Still a Chinese citizen, in 1998 Wei established the Wei Jingsheng Foundation in New York City whose stated aim is to work to improve human rights, Wei was the oldest of four children, brought up by Chinese Communist Party cadres. In 1966, Wei joined the Red Guards as a 16-year-old student during the Cultural Revolution and he lived in remote rural areas in Northern China and was able to speak with peasant farmers about the widespread famines that had occurred a few years before, during the Great Leap Forward. He uncovered the role that the communist government under Mao Zedong played in causing the famines, Wei would later write about this period, I felt as if I had suddenly awakened from a long dream, but everyone around me was still plunged in darkness. In 1973, he working as an electrician at the Beijing Zoo. Wei did not publicly voice his feelings until 1978, when he decided to part in the newly emerged Democracy Wall movement taking place in Beijing. On 5 December 1978, he posted an essay he authored to the wall, entitled, the Fifth Modernization as a response to Paramount leader Deng Xiaopings essay, the Four Modernizations. Weis basic theme in the essay is that democracy should be also be a goal for China along with the other four proposed by Deng. Wei signed the essay with his name and address. The essay immediately caused a stir because of its boldness and because it was not anonymous and it was also the only essay to address Deng Xiaoping by name, and refer to him as a dictator. Wei was also known for his work in the short-lived magazine Explorations in 1979. He had also published a letter under his name in March 1979 denouncing the conditions of the Chinese Qincheng Prison. His dissident writings eventually saw him tried and imprisoned, writes Orville Schell, a writer and academic specializing in China, Wei ultimately spent a total of 18 years in different prisons in China. The letters that he wrote while he was in prison explaining his views were compiled into a book, The Courage to Stand Alone, Letters from Prison, some of the letters were addressed directly to Deng Xiaoping, others to different family members of Wei. Wei continued to out, despite the threat of arrest. On 27 February 1994, Wei met with United States Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights John Shattuck to discuss human rights conditions in China, Wei was arrested the following week along with fifteen other democracy and labor activists
37.
Ibrahim Rugova
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He oversaw a popular struggle for independence, advocating a peaceful resistance to Yugoslav rule and lobbying for U. S. and European support, especially during the Kosovo War. Ibrahim Rugova was born on 2 December 1944 to a family that is a branch of the Kelmendi Albanian clan, at this time, the major part of Kosovo was unified with Albania. Yugoslav control was re-established towards the end of November when the area was liberated by Bulgarian Army and his father Ukë Rugova and his paternal grandfather Rrustë Rugova were summarily executed in January 1945 by Yugoslav communists. Rugova finished primary school in Istok and high school in Peć and he studied literature at the University of Prishtina and the University of Paris, and received a doctorate with a dissertation on Albanian literary criticism. As a student, he participated in a civil rights movement for the Albanians and he moved on to the newly established University of Pristina, where he was a student in the Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Albanian Studies and participated in the 1968 Kosovo Protests. He graduated in 1971 and re-enrolled as a research student concentrating on literary theory, as part of his studies, he spent two years at the École Pratique des Hautes Études of the University of Paris, where he studied under Roland Barthes. He received his doctorate in 1984 after delivering his thesis, The Directions and Premises of Albanian Literary Criticism, Rugova was active as a journalist throughout the 1970s, editing the student newspaper Bota e Re and the magazine Dituria. He also worked in the Institute for Albanian Studies in Pristina and he formally joined the Yugoslav Communist Party during this period, as in many other communist states, Party membership was essential for anyone who wanted to advance their careers. Rugova managed to make a name for himself, publishing a number of works on literary theory, criticism and his output earned him recognition as a leading member of Kosovos Albanian intelligentsia and in 1988 he was elected chairman of the Kosovo Writers Union. In 1998, Rugova secured a second term as president, but was placed at odds with the KLA as the Kosovo War broke out, in 1999, he participated in the failed Rambouillet talks, as a member of the Kosovar delegation, seeking an end to the hostilities. Rugova was exiled to Rome in May 1999 and returned to Kosovo in the summer that year, shortly after the KLA, effective power, however, was in the hands of the United Nations administration. In 2000, Rugova and Thaçi agreed to relinquish their positions, Rugova was elected president of Kosovo by the newly formed parliament in 2002 and again in 2005. While his pre-war popularity had diminished, he remained the most powerful leader in the country until his death from lung cancer in 2006. In 1992, Rugova won the first presidential election in the Republic of Kosova, serbia, led by Slobodan Milošević, retained effective power in Kosovo throughout most of the 1990s, but did not secure the full cooperation of the Albanian population. Since 1974, the Socialist Republic of Serbias local authority had no rule over Kosovo. In 1989, unilateral measures taken by Serbian President Slobodan Milošević shattered Kosovos autonomy by reverting it to its pre-1974 status, a harsh system was imposed, leading to widespread violations of human rights and the repression of dissenters. Miloševićs actions were opposed by the Kosovo Albanian political élite, by ethnic Albanians. Members of the abolished Kosovo assembly met to declare an independent Republic of Kosovo, the local Serbian government responded by arresting 112 of the 120 members of the assembly and six members of the Kosovo government and charging them with counter-revolutionary activity
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