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119-531: Democratic initiative process ( Turkish : Demokratik açılım süreci ) is the name of the process in which the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan launched a project aiming to improve standards of democracy, freedoms and respect for human rights in Turkey . The project is called the Unity and Fraternity Project ( Turkish : Milli Birlik ve Kardeşlik Projesi ). Interior Minister Beşir Atalay stated

238-580: A FIFA World Cup qualifier football match between the Turkish and Armenian national football teams. After accepting the invitation, President Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia on September 3, 2008. This “football diplomacy” and new dialogue resulted in the signing of protocols between Turkish and Armenian Foreign Ministers in Switzerland to improve relations between the two countries. The Armenian Constitutional Court decided that

357-468: A day. On September 19, 2010, a religious ceremony was held at the historical Armenian church after permission of the Turkish government for the first time in 95 years. The museum located on Akdamar Island in Lake Van in Turkey was opened to worshippers allowing to worship once a year for a single day. In 2010, Armenian schools in Turkey received updated textbooks after a decision by Nimet Çubukçu ,

476-735: A decree he issued in the Official Gazette . Erdoğan said in his decree that despite efforts exerted in recent years for democratization and for improvement in issues regarding the Greek, Armenian and Jewish minorities in Turkey, problems have not been solved entirely due to setbacks in the implementation process. Erdoğan has ordered prompt action in issues such as the protection and maintenance of minority cemeteries, implementation in land registry offices of court orders in favor of minority foundations, and swift legal action on publications inciting hatred against non-Muslim communities. The law allows

595-475: A form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as /b d dʒ ɡ/ , is devoiced to [p t tʃ k] at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of /k/ is /g/; in native words, it is /ğ/. This is analogous to languages such as German and Russian , but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling

714-509: A message of unity and solidarity. He also hinted that his government is ready to engage with the Alevis in a serious manner and respond to their demands. The Alevi initiative is the first systematic effort to address Alevis’ identity-based contentions. During the years 2009 and 2010, the government took steps to recognize and address the concerns of the Alevi population. State Minister Faruk Çelik

833-415: A negative suffix -me to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): Necla okula gitmedi ('Necla did not go to school'). In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic mi is added after the verb and stands alone, for example Necla okula gitti mi? ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then mi comes after the predicate but before

952-404: A number of changes to the constitution was held in Turkey on 12 September 2010. The results showed the majority supported the constitutional amendments, with 58% in favour and 42% against. The changes were aimed at bringing the constitution into compliance with European Union standards. Supporters of Turkish EU membership hope constitutional reform will facilitate the membership process. After

1071-678: A petition with the Constitutional Court. This is now only possible at the European Court of Human Rights . Besides the President, the ministers and other senior government officials, the chairman of the parliament and the supreme commander of the Turkish army can now also appear in the Supreme Court (Yüce Divan). On 30 March 2010, Turkey's ruling party submitted its package of constitutional amendments to

1190-772: A program to train the Romani community on civil society organization and activism. Literacy courses for Romani women offered by the Roma Culture and Solidarity Association of Izmir continued. These associations also celebrated the International Roma Day in Ankara. Academics estimated the Alevi population at 15 to 20 million, including ethnic Turks and Kurds. In general, Alevis follow a belief system that incorporates aspects of both Shia and Sunni Islam and draws on

1309-499: A result of social trauma in the past, Erdoğan said the workshops were the first time the problems of Alevis had been listened to by the state. On August 15, 2009, Prime Minister Erdoğan and members of his cabinet hosted a meeting for religious leaders of the Greek Orthodox , Syriac Orthodox , and Jewish communities on Büyükada , an island near Istanbul, to address minority religious rights. The government did not recognize

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1428-526: A single night.” In the subsequent Q&A session, he was asked why he kept addressing them exclusively as mothers, overlooking the fact that they are fully-fledged economic, political and juridical persons. Erdoğan's widely noted answer was: "I do not believe in the equality of men and women. I believe in equal opportunities. Men and women are different and complementary." The last meeting was on September 27, 2010. Prime Minister Erdoğan invited dozens of representatives from Turkey's leading media companies. During

1547-407: A verb in the form of the copula ol or y (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below: The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word değil . For example, the sentence above would become Necla öğretmen değil ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of

1666-403: Is subject–object–verb . Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender . The language makes usage of honorifics and has a strong T–V distinction which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, social distance , age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect. Turkish is a member of

1785-437: Is an effort to produce concrete solutions to them. Many unmentioned, non-discussed, invisible, unknown and ignored groups and their problems have been made known thanks to you. You first noticed all those pains, sorrows, needs and then you made them public,” he said. In the afternoon there was a meeting with radio programmers. Yavuz Seçkin, one of the attendants, said he has been working in the industry for 15 years and that Erdoğan

1904-531: Is based on the dialect of Istanbul . This Istanbul Turkish ( İstanbul Türkçesi ) constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp , Ömer Seyfettin and others. Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s. Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ağız or şive , leading to an ambiguity with

2023-420: Is charged of coordinating the government's Alevi initiative aiming to find a solution to the problems of Alevis living in Turkey. The government held quarterly Alevi workshops aimed at addressing the concerns of the Alevi population. After seven workshops, a report is prepared and submitted to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for his consideration. Some Alevi groups complained that these workshops did not address

2142-406: Is closed down, but will keep their seats for the normal term. Government workers, who until now could only be a member of one labor union, will now have a choice. Additionally, warnings and reprimands given to government employees will be open to judicial review. Government employees who believe they have been punished unfairly will be able to make claims in court. Parliament will choose some of

2261-974: Is expected that the Greeks will open the first legal mosque in Athens and the Turks will open the Halki seminary in Istanbul. Reports of attacks on persons practicing Christian faiths dropped. Authorities took measures during the year to implement a 2007 Ministry of Interior circular to governors requesting action to prevent violence against non-Muslims. Non-Muslims in Ankara, Izmir, and Trabzon reported that police took extra security measures during special religious services. On May 13, 2010, Prime Minister Erdoğan ordered state officials and civil servants to avoid raising any difficulties in their formal dealings with members of Turkey's recognized non-Muslim minority groups, according to

2380-654: Is mutually intelligible with Azerbaijani . In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire , such as Iraq, Bulgaria, Cyprus , Greece (primarily in Western Thrace ), the Republic of North Macedonia , Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in

2499-635: Is one of the official languages of Cyprus . Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo , including Mamusha, , two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq. Cyprus has requested the European Union to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country. In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is

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2618-773: Is sacred for not only believers in the Black Sea but for all Orthodox and the Christian world as it is the Assumption Day of Mother Mary. We are blessed to celebrate this day here in Sümela. First it is grace from God and then it is grace from the government.” The Caferis, Turkey's principal Shi'a community of Azeri-Iranian origin, concentrated mostly in the eastern part of the country and Istanbul, do not face restrictions on their religious freedoms. They build and operate their own mosques and appoint their own imams, but as with

2737-403: Is the stage where all issues will be frankly and freely debated. This Parliament cannot fall behind Mustafa Kemal Atatürk 's Parliament. We cannot sacrifice the basic principles that were based on pluralism, freedom and democracy 89 years ago," Erdoğan said in his long-speech he delivered at the special session. Atatürk established diplomatic relations with the occupier countries as soon as the war

2856-642: Is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ad 'name' (dative ada ), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. at 'horse', dative ata ). Other exceptions are od 'fire' vs. ot 'herb', sac 'sheet metal', saç 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as kitap above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as hac 'hajj', şad 'happy', and yad 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms. Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in /k/ in dictionary form are nearly all /ğ/ in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly /k/. The vowels of

2975-431: Is usually referred to as yumuşak g ("soft g"), written ⟨ğ⟩ in Turkish orthography , represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens

3094-713: The Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya . The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish. This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak Balkan Gagauz Turkish . The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in

3213-612: The First Nagorno-Karabakh War by closing its borders with Armenia. Since then, the border remains closed. On February 21, 2008, President Abdullah Gül send a message of congratulations to the newly elected Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and said "that he hoped the victory of Sargsyan in Armenia's presidential election would lead to a normalization of relations between their estranged countries." In reaction, Armenian President Sargsyan invited Gül to attend

3332-683: The Germanic runic alphabets . With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ( c.  6th –11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia , covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to Europe and the Mediterranean . The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks , in particular, brought their language, Oghuz —the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during

3451-623: The Laz language ). Kastamonu is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. Karamanli Turkish is spoken in Greece, where it is called Kαραμανλήδικα . It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides . At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian, although only syllable-finally. The phoneme that

3570-581: The Minister of Education . The old textbooks had not been revised since 1934. The Kurdish initiative ( Turkish : Kürt açılımı , also called Kurdish Opening ) was the most discussed initiative of the government. The main goal of the Kurdish initiative was to improve the human rights of Turkish citizens of Kurdish origin and to end a 25-year conflict between Turkey and the PKK . Interior Minister Beşir Atalay

3689-644: The Oghuz group of the Turkic family. Other members include Azerbaijani , spoken in Azerbaijan and north-west Iran , Gagauz of Gagauzia , Qashqai of south Iran and the Turkmen of Turkmenistan . Historically the Turkic family was seen as a branch of the larger Altaic family, including Japanese , Korean , Mongolian and Tungusic , with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists. Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since

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3808-437: The Ottoman Empire period ( c.  1299 –1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish , which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as kaba Türkçe or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for

3927-615: The Seljuq Turks , who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the Ottomans , the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from Arabic and Persian . Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry , was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during

4046-539: The Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of Old Anatolian Turkish , with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony . It is likely that elün meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in elün for "your hand" and kitabun for "your book",

4165-675: The Turkish Armed Forces will have the right to appeal to the judiciary, the right to legal remedies and the right of defense. Personal information such as names, photographs and ID information will be kept private. This kind of information will be stored only if the individual agrees to it, and individuals believing their personal information is being misused will be able to hold relevant entities accountable. Businesspeople with tax debts will be able to travel abroad. Businesspeople facing an investigation or prosecution are prohibited from traveling abroad under current regulations. In

4284-590: The Turkish Language Association ( Türk Dil Kurumu or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism : indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin. These changes, together with

4403-650: The United States gathered in Trabzon for a historic mass at the iconic Sümela Monastery . The monastery was for the first time in 88 years opened to worship. Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew led the mass, marking the Assumption of the Mother Mary , a sacred day for Orthodox Christians. "We owe this day of worship to our government, which was kind enough to grant us the permission", the patriarch said at Trabzon Airport. “We are most thankful as this day

4522-472: The island of Heybeli in the Sea of Marmara . The seminary was closed in 1971 when the patriarchate, to avoid the seminary being administered by the state, chose not to fulfill a government requirement for all private institutions of higher learning to nationalize. Prime Minister Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Papandreou are working together to improve the rights of Christians in Turkey and Muslims in Greece. It

4641-401: The military coup of 12 September 1980 , a new constitution was drafted, designed by the military junta that came to power. Thirty years later, a referendum was held regarding a number of amendments to that constitution. In 2010, the Turkish parliament adopted a series of constitutional amendments. The amendments did not achieve the required two-thirds majority (67%) for immediately implementing

4760-438: The state-owned TRT devoted one television and radio station to 24-hour Kurdish broadcasts without subtitles and with no time limit on news broadcasts. TRT officials indicated that there was no censorship of content on the station. On 13 November the government approved regulations to allow privately owned television and radio stations to broadcast in languages other than Turkish. The following measures were to be taken within

4879-586: The 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate , published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk ( ديوان لغات الترك ). Following the adoption of Islam around the year 950 by the Kara-Khanid Khanate and

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4998-541: The 161 minority foundations recognized by the General Directorate of Foundations (GDF) to acquire property, and in 2008 the GDF approved 365 applications by non-Muslim foundations to acquire legal ownership of properties. A February 2008 amendment to the law facilitated the return of expropriated minority foundation properties. On August 15, 2010, Orthodox Christians from Georgia , Greece , Russia , Turkey and

5117-411: The 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After

5236-457: The 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though the Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists. The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with Finnish , Hungarian and Altaic languages, is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection. The theory

5355-625: The Alevis, their places of worship have no legal status and receive no support from the Diyanet. On December 27, 2009, more than thousand members of the Caferi community gathered for the 1370th anniversary of the events in which Prophet Muhammad 's grandson Hüseyin bin Ali and 72 others became a martyr in Karbala . The leader of this community, Selahattin Özgündüz, held a speech about the importance of

5474-567: The CHP also demands a review of the content of the package. The CHP also demands a stay of the referendum results, bringing the total of CHP demands to three. On 7 July 2010, the Turkish Constitutional Court delivered its final verdict on a package of constitutional amendments, which is to be subject to a public referendum on 12 September. The court has ruled in favour of the vast majority of the government's proposed reforms to

5593-472: The Constitutional Court. Measures enacted to ensure equal rights for men and women will not be interpreted as contrary to the principle of equality, nor those enacted to protect children, elderly people, disabled people, widows and orphans of martyrs as well as for invalid and veterans. Since the structure of the Constitutional Court will change, closing down parties will not be as easy as it used to be. Deputies will not be banned from politics if their party

5712-506: The DTP for "being a center of activities against the unity of the state and the nation." The court's decision stated that it closed the party because of DTP members' involvement in activities that "supported the armed attacks" of the PKK. The court also found that the DTP was in "touch and solidarity" with the PKK. The closure resulted in the banning of 37 DTP members from politics for five years, including two members of parliament. In January 2009,

5831-471: The European Convention on Human Rights,” Atalay said, disclosing six medium-term goals as part of the democratic initiative. On the same day, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on parliamentary deputies to support the democratic initiative in respect to pluralist structure of the first Turkish Parliament, which commanded the country's independence war in the early 1920s. “Parliament

5950-476: The French loanword parti ). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example betik (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean " script " in computer science . Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are: Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. The Turkish language

6069-527: The Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. Some immigrants to Turkey from Rumelia speak Rumelian Turkish , which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie , Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theorized Balkan sprachbund . Kıbrıs Türkçesi is the name for Cypriot Turkish and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots . Edirne is the dialect of Edirne . Ege is spoken in

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6188-567: The Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in

6307-528: The Ottoman Roma today are known as Xoraxane Roma and are of the Islamic faith. In modern Turkey there are officially about 500,000 Roma in Turkey. The Roma in Turkey have long faced discrimination in terms of access to housing, employment and education. On March 14, 2010, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with nearly 10,000 Roma citizens in Istanbul as part of the government's Roma initiative. “As

6426-726: The Roma in school textbooks and the elimination of insulting expressions about the Roma from course books as well as the provision of identity cards for all Roma and social programs to keep Roma children from abusing drugs, along with the prevention of early marriages. In the same year, the European Roma Rights Centre , the Helsinki Citizens Assembly , and the Edirne Roma Culture Research and Solidarity Association conducted

6545-505: The SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes. Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb: Ahmet Ahmet yumurta-yı 2010 Turkish constitutional referendum A constitutional referendum on

6664-559: The Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State. A total of 11 judges from around 13,000 judges will be appointed to the board to represent judges on the bench. Dismissed judges will be able to appeal to the judiciary. The HSYK's decisions, like YAŞ decisions, will be open to judicial review. Prosecutors and judges dismissed by the board will be able to challenge dismissal decisions in court. All citizens will be able to file

6783-469: The TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries. In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual Ottoman-Turkish /Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform. Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before

6902-539: The Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, ⟨a⟩ , ⟨e⟩ , ⟨ı⟩ , ⟨i⟩ , ⟨o⟩ , ⟨ö⟩ , ⟨u⟩ , ⟨ü⟩ . The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back , rounded and unrounded and vowel height . Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high]. The only diphthongs in

7021-721: The Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire —spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Perso-Arabic script -based Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with the Latin script -based Turkish alphabet . Some distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are vowel harmony and extensive agglutination . The basic word order of Turkish

7140-405: The United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom. Due to the cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency. In 2005, 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish, about 67 million at the time, with Kurdish languages making up most of

7259-440: The ability of the Supreme Court to dissolve political parties, did not meet this threshold in the second round and was therefore dropped from the package. The main opposition party CHP not only argues that the constitutional package includes unconstitutional reforms, but also that it was passed through procedural violations. It wants the Constitutional Court to review the proposal process. The CHP's legal advisers also argued that

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7378-437: The adoption of the new Turkish alphabet in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982 , following the military coup d'état of 1980 . Modern standard Turkish

7497-406: The aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by

7616-409: The amendments, businesspeople will be able to travel abroad provided there is no court order restricting their travel. Right to collective bargaining for government employees. While government employees will be granted the right to collective bargaining, the Public Employees' Arbitration Board consisting of government employee representatives will have the final say. The same right will be granted to

7735-407: The areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with Azerbaijani , the language of Azerbaijan. The Central Anatolia Region speaks Orta Anadolu . Karadeniz , spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from Greek in phonology and syntax ; it is also known as Laz dialect (not to be confused with

7854-421: The cemevis should have a legal status and that they should be financially supported by the state in accordance with the principle of equality. The views of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and those of the State Minister Faruk Çelik, who coordinated the workshops, were also included in the final report. Noting that certain layers of society have been neglected, despised and subjected to unjust treatment as

7973-403: The changes the package makes to the structures of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) are in violation of the constitutional principle of separation of powers. With this claim, the CHP alleges that the AKP is attempting to change one of Turkey's constitutional articles that cannot be amended. So in addition to a review of the package on procedural grounds,

8092-416: The changes. However, a majority of 330 votes (60%) was achieved and sufficient to present the amendments to the electorate in a referendum. A constitutional change, to make it more difficult for the Supreme Court to dissolve parties, failed to pass. The reform package was accepted by parliament on 7 May, initiating the referendum process. The referendum was expected to be held 60 days after the publication of

8211-405: The constitution. The court did not annul the whole package. Judges annulled certain parts of two articles, but rejected the demands of the Turkish opposition to scrap the whole package on technical grounds. The partially annulled articles pertain to the structure of the Constitutional Court and the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK). They were controversial due to the changes envisioned in

8330-438: The context of the democratic initiative: The Roma are an ethnic minority of Turkey. They descend from the times of the Byzantine Empire . Records about their presence in 9th century Asia Minor exist, where they arrived from Persia . With the expanse of the Ottoman Empire Turkish Roma settled also in Rumelia ( Southern Europe under the Ottoman rule). Sulukule is the oldest Roma settlement in Europe . The descendants of

8449-513: The continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as bölem to replace fırka , "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval ( fırka has been replaced by

8568-530: The country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the distinctive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over

8687-431: The curriculum for children. In the next academic year, there will be a clear definition in the curriculum between religious practice and religious culture, Çelik said. “In culture lessons children will be taught about who Alevis are and what it means to be an Alevi in addition to daily Alevi practices,” he said. In December 2009, state-owned TRT broadcast documentaries and religious and cultural programs about Alevism during

8806-487: The democratic initiative. On October 9, 2010, the Presidency of Religious Affairs prepared two separate "ilmihal" (an Islamic version of a catechism) for the Caferi and Shafi`i communities in Turkey. In 2010, Erdoğan became the first prime minister of Turkey to attend a ceremony organized to commemorate the tragedy at Karbala. Turkish language To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish —the variety of

8925-555: The development of the country and the nation. They waste our energy and resources.” The fourth meeting was on June 5, 2010. Erdoğan met with prominent figures of the sports world and the internet media. In the fifth meeting on July 18, Erdoğan met with women representatives from various civil society groups, including NGOs such as KA-DER  [ tr ] or the Foundation for Women's Solidarity ( Turkish : Kadın Dayanışma Vakfı ). In his opening address, Erdoğan stressed that

9044-523: The discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the Old Turkic language written using the Old Turkic alphabet , which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to

9163-550: The ecumenical status of the Greek Orthodox patriarch , acknowledging him only as the head of the country's Greek Orthodox community. As a result, the state has long maintained that only citizens of the country could become patriarch, serve as members of the Greek Orthodox Holy Synod, and participate in patriarchal elections. Prime Minister Erdoğan has stated that the Greek Orthodox patriarch's use of

9282-417: The first 12 days of Muharram, a month held sacred by Alevis and other Muslims. On January 7, 2010, the 12th day of the month, TRT aired live programs from three large cemevis in Istanbul and Ankara. On March 31, 2011, the Turkish government released its final report on the Alevi workshops. The report was the result of a series of workshops organized by the government to hear the Alevi community. The report said

9401-435: The importance and the necessity of the democratic initiative. The meetings were broadcast live on television and radio. It was the first time in Turkish history that a prime minister hosted such meetings. The first meeting was on February 20, 2010. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan came together with renowned names of Turkish pop, folk and classical music to ask for their support for the democratic initiative. “Your songs have

9520-430: The inspiration it received from messages given by artists. “We set off on the road after having seen the issues raised by artists, starting from their products, and taking inspiration and strength from them. Thus, your words, suggestions and criticism bear a vital significance for us. What we are doing today is simply bringing all those problems you talked about in your movies, soap operas, plays and shows onto our agenda. It

9639-473: The lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — elun and kitabun . With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable). Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or

9758-466: The language are found in loanwords and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel. The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort. This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules: The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to

9877-429: The language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995. The past few decades have seen

9996-525: The linguistic concept of accent , which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out projects investigating Turkish dialects. As of 2002 work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect- atlas of the Turkish language. Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than

10115-506: The meeting, the prime minister touched upon a large number of hot issues, including the referendum , expectations for a new constitution, approaching parliamentary elections and compulsory military service. Turkey was among the first countries in the world to recognize the state of Armenia after its independence in 1991. After Armenia's occupation of the Azeri territory Nagorno-Karabakh , Turkey sided with its Turkic ally Azerbaijan over

10234-566: The member appointment processes. Both the government and the opposition expressed disappointment with the Court's decision. A poll by Sonar Research in August 2010 forecasted 49.1% in favour of the draft and 50.9% opposed. A poll by KONDA Research in September 2010 forecasted 56.8% in favour of the draft, 25.6% were opposed, while 17.6% were undecided. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu , the leader of

10353-522: The members of the Constitutional Court . The number of Constitutional Court members will be expanded. Parliament will appoint three members while the president will appoint 14 members. The Constitutional Court will obtain a more democratic structure, consisting of two parts and functioning as a general assembly. The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) will increase in number from 7 to 22. Members will no longer be elected only by

10472-597: The military's commitment in preserving Turkey's “unitary” structure and said the Kurdish move cannot be accepted as a compromise process with the PKK. On 13 November 2009, Atalay informed the Parliament about the initiative and had preliminary talks with opposition parties regarding the issue. The democratic initiative aimed to protect and extend the human rights and freedoms of every citizen, regardless of ethnicity, religion and political or social choices, Atalay said. “These developments will align our domestic policies with

10591-402: The modern Turkish language. While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana , Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish: Reforms Kemalism After the foundation of the modern state of Turkey and the script reform , the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk , with

10710-421: The municipality like other recognized places of worship, but they did not have the authority to grant formal "temple status" to cem houses. In 2008, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan broke his fast with 1,000 Alevis in Ankara. For the first time in the history of the republic, a Turkish prime minister sat with Alevis to share their mourning and participate in a typically Alevi event. Prime Minister Erdoğan gave

10829-410: The national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian. In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel Foreign Languages TV was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and

10948-405: The needs of all Alevi groups, but only the ones close to the government. Faruk Çelik has announced that Alevi children should receive religious education in Alevi houses of worship, or cemevis. The minister has launched commissioning bodies that will work toward the legal recognition of cemevis as houses of worship and Alevi textbooks to differentiate religious education and religious culture within

11067-606: The opposition parties in addition to the one of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP). However, the CHP and the MHP wouldn't be supportive to the project to admit PKK members to benefit from Article 221 of the Turkish Penal Code, popularly known as the Active Repentance Law. Both alleged it carried the risk of dividing Turkey. On 11 December 2009, the Constitutional Court voted unanimously to close

11186-467: The opposition represented by the Republican People's Party (CHP), could not vote because of a mix-up over where he should cast his ballot. "It was my responsibility to check the register of electors, but I could not do it due to my intense referendum campaign," he said. The result of the referendum was welcomed by a number of international observers. The Human Rights Association launched

11305-691: The package in the Official Gazette , but the Supreme Election Board (YSK) announced that it would be held 120 days later, on 12 September. Provisional Article 15 of the Constitution, which provided protection to coup leaders, will be abolished. The amendments will allow the leaders of the 1980 coup to be sent to court. Military officers who commit crimes against the state, such as preparing coup plans, will be tried in civilian courts. Military personnel who are dismissed from

11424-401: The parliament. The changes were passed in parliament in late April and early May 2010 with over 330 votes, below the two-thirds majority of 367 votes needed to pass them directly, but enough to send them to a referendum within sixty days after President Abdullah Gül signs the law. On 13 May 2010, president Gül signed the reform package. The composition of the parliament (550 seats) during

11543-489: The personal ending, so for example Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz ? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?'). Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally subject–object–verb , as in Korean and Latin , but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often

11662-435: The phenomenon of labial assimilation: if the lips are rounded (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels. If they are unrounded for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently. Grammatical affixes have "a chameleon-like quality", and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony: Practically,

11781-402: The power to transcend deaf walls. You are the heartfelt voice of this country. I ask you to help this movement of change with your artistic sensitivity.” Erdoğan said. Rojin, a singer of Kurdish origin, came to the meeting with dossiers in her hand, asking for justice for the minors facing long-term jail sentences for throwing stones at the police in the southeastern provinces. The second meeting

11900-638: The preceding vowel. In native Turkic words, the sounds [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] are mainly in complementary distribution with [k] , [ɡ] , and [ɫ] ; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these phonemes is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, [c] , [ɟ] , and [l] often occur with back vowels: some examples are given below. However, there are minimal pairs that distinguish between these sounds, such as kar [kɑɾ] "snow" vs kâr [cɑɾ] "profit". Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing ,

12019-536: The primary goals of the initiative as improving the democratic standards and to end terrorism in Turkey. "We will issue circulars in the short term, pass laws in the medium term, and make constitutional amendments in the long term and take required steps," Prime Minister Erdoğan said. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hold several meetings with prominent figures of the Turkish society at the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul. In these meetings, Erdoğan explained

12138-440: The principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: Türkiye' dir ("it is Turkey"), kapı dır ("it is the door"), but gün dür ("it is the day"), palto dur ("it is the coat"). These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony: The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features: The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in

12257-497: The project has not lost any speed, but noting that the government and society cannot successfully solve the nation's issues without the constructive input and participation of others. He advised them to contribute instead of just criticizing, saying "those who allege that the democratic opening has no content, they can fill it themselves. We are ready for this." “Despite our calls, nobody is coming up to us with anything. You can't resolve issues that were developed over hundreds of years in

12376-590: The protocols “cannot be interpreted or applied in the legislative process and application practice of the Republic of Armenia as well as in the interstate relations in a way that would contradict the provisions of the preamble to the RA Constitution and the requirements of Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of Independence of Armenia.” Turkey said that Armenian court's ruling on the protocols is not acceptable. The parliament of Armenia and Turkey decided for

12495-401: The remainder. Azerbaijani language , official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in

12614-418: The retired. Government employees who believe they have been punished unfairly will be able to go to court. Restrictions on the right to strike will be removed. Restrictions on politically motivated strikes and lockouts will be removed to advance workers' rights. Labor unions will not be held liable for material damage to a workplace where a strike is being held as a result of deliberately negligent behavior by

12733-428: The state, we have shouldered the responsibility on this issue. From now on, your problems are my problems. Nobody in this country can be treated as ‘half’ a person,” he said. This was the first time a Turkish prime minister had come out to meet with Roma citizens. The Turkish government has started to construct close to 3,500 new homes for the Roma across Turkey. It has also launched a project to include information about

12852-533: The suspension of the ratification process. Between May 2005 and October 2006, the Turkish Ministry of Culture financed the restoration of an old Armenian church located in an eastern Turkish province . The restoration had a stated budget of 2 million Turkish lira (approximately 1.4 million USD) On April 2, 2009, the Turkish state television started broadcasts in Armenian on for half an hour twice

12971-585: The title "ecumenical" should not be a matter on which the state should rule. In December 2008 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided one-year visas for foreign clergy working at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Previously, such clergy had to leave and return every three months to obtain new tourist visas. The Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul continued to seek to reopen the Halki seminary on

13090-468: The traditions of other religions found in Anatolia as well. The government considers Alevism a heterodox Muslim sect; however, some Alevis and Sunnis maintain that Alevis are not Muslims. Alevi " cem houses " (places of gathering) have no legal status as places of worship in the state. However, Kuşadası and Tunceli municipalities ruled that Alevi cem houses could receive free water and electricity from

13209-432: The twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back. The following examples, based on the copula -dir ("[it] is"), illustrate

13328-480: The voting was as follows: AKP : 336, CHP : 97, MHP : 69, BDP : 20, Independent : 12, DSP : 6, DP : 1, TP : 1. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has 336 seats, but deputy Mehmet Ali Şahin cannot vote as he is the parliament speaker. CHP and BDP decided to boycott the voting. The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) voted against the articles. Each article required more than 330 votes in order to pass. The amendment for Article 69, which would have limited

13447-541: The workers and by the labor union. The Economic and Social Council (ESK), which comprises representatives from unions, associations and confederations, will be given constitutional protection. The council will be effective in determining economic policies and the government's involvement in council activities will be removed. Problems between the state and citizens will be resolved by way of an ombudsman without having to go to court. If citizens are not satisfied with judicial decisions, they will be able to directly petition

13566-489: Was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination , vowel harmony and lack of grammatical gender. The earliest known Old Turkic inscriptions are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia . Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan , these date back to the Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE). After

13685-485: Was on March 20, 2010. The Prime Minister met with prominent figures of the Turkish cinema. Erdoğan stressed that the democratic initiative would be incomplete without the artists’ support. “Deep down in my heart I believe that you will shoulder the process and lend your support, contribute and make an effort to solving Turkey's painful problems,” he said. Erdoğan also argued that the AKP government had embarked on this journey with

13804-409: Was over, Erdoğan said, repeating his famous remark, “Peace at home and peace in the world.” The final aim is to reach national unity and brotherhood. It is a process of democracy,” he said while describing the move. The deputies representing the Republican People's Party (CHP), later left the parliamentary hall in protest. CHP leader Deniz Baykal commented that Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party

13923-474: Was responsible for the coordination of the initiative. On 29 July 2009, Minister Beşir Atalay announced the government's Kurdish move, vowing to solve the problem through “more freedom and more democracy.” Few days later, the government held its first workshop to hear suggestions on the move from important intellectuals, including columnists and academics. On August 25, 2009, the General Staff reiterated

14042-473: Was the first prime minister to ask about their views on a matter troubling the country. On April 17, 2010 was the third meeting with authors and thinkers. The Prime Minister told the attendees that there has recently been a serious change of paradigm in the administration of the state. According to the prime minister, the goal of the meetings is to discuss the country's chronic problems and reach broad agreement on ways to solve them. “Long-lasting problems obstruct

14161-493: Was trying to divide the country. Erdoğan stated that he would travel to all 81 provinces to explain the content of the democratic initiative. He also accused the main opposition party CHP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) of ignoring the citizens in eastern Anatolia . “The difference is richness,” he said. In order to make a constitutional amendment, the government was in need of the support from

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