Sunday, September 19, 2010 

What can I say? I bleed Honolulu-blue. I am a fan of the Detroit Lions.

I didn't choose to cheer for them. Maybe if there had been cable TV or the internet when I was a kid, I would have had the chance to follow a different team, a better team. But I didn't. There were only three networks, the only team you could watch regularly was your own (assuming they sold out, which the Lions amazingly did often, even in the monstrously big Pontiac Silverdome). So I watched Detroit, and they became my team.


The Silverdome of Pontiac

Now? I still watch them, even though I'm trying to cut down on watching sports on TV. I'm starting to have issues about professional football (too many players' brains getting turned to mush, never mind my own), but I justify my fandom by reasoning that I'm actually just cheering for the people of Detroit—let the improving Detroit Lions take people's minds off of their troubles, perhaps.

So go Detroit! Onwards and upwards!




On that note, I guess it's time for some N & P...



Jamestown spooks report on creeping authoritarianism in (now "pro-Russian") Ukraine.

Cool—but the Jamestown folks would be a lot more credible with respect to these things if they ever wrote about authoritarianism in countries with pro-American governments.

Or do our allies in the former USSR not engage in such behavior?



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More on Ukraine: court-packing alleged after four new judges placed on constitutional court.

Sound familiar? I've noted a number of times the extent to which leaders in Turkey, Russia, and elsewhere in the ex-USSR seem to be emulating one another at times with respect to their policies towards opposition media and state institutions. Is there a Eurasian model of political organization that we should start talking about?

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Pro-Medvedev group formed in Russia.

Talk about bringing coal to Newcastle!

Medvedev, according to reports, is currently embroiled in a dispute with Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkkov.

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Journalist investigating Hrant Dink murder in Turkey, already under trial for violating state security, now has case sent to the same "Special Authority High Criminal Court" where Dink's accused murderers are being tried.

Having your case heard at this court implies that the state is treating your case with particular seriousness—not a good sign.

I frankly don't know a lot about the Hrant Dink murder, though it seems clear that a large number of people in Turkey think that some sort of a cover-up is taking place in the trial. Bianet, the source from which this article was taken, frequently publishes pieces on press freedoms in Turkey, especially re Kurdish issues. 
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"Extending the range of liberties." Police in Turkey reportedly using closed-circuit video and credit-card records to find Turkish basketball fans who booed Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul last Sunday. Erdogan and Gul had been passing out championship hardware to Chauncey Billups & Friends after team USA's glorious victory last Sunday in Istanbul.

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Residents of Moscow are objecting to the construction of a mosque in their neighborhood. According to this article, there are more than two million Muslims in Moscow and just four official mosques.

That means there are probably a lot of Muslims going to unofficial mosques, no? Is that what Russian authorities prefer?

There are several muftiates in Russia, though the Russian authorities appear reluctant to use them much in their relations with Muslim communities—not unlike the case in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which was the last time these institutions had much of an opportunity to play an important role in the lives of the region's Muslim communities.

The Moscow residents submitted their petition against the new mosque on September 11—which is now celebrated worldwide, apparently, as Muslim demonization day.

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Remembering Menderes: Turkish PM Erdogan pays visit to tomb of Adnan Menderes.

Meanwhile: Adnan Menderes' son, Aydin Menderes, says his father would be happy at the result of last Sunday's referendum.

Menderes, of course, is treated by some people in Turkey as a sort of "democracy martyr," after he was executed in the aftermath of the 1960 military takeover in Turkey (indeed, the development of this narrative was the subject of my MA thesis at Princeton).

It's worth keeping in mind that Menderes was in power for ten years, longer than the AKP has been in power. As was the case with Menderes' government, the AKP was attacked immediately by an opposition that would brook no compromise. A closure case was initiated against the AKP. Just a couple of years ago, all 11 members of the Constitutional Court agreed to hear a case in which the ruling party, which had won 47% of the vote just eight months earlier, would be closed and the Prime Minister banned from politics. The AKP wasn't closed, of course, but the experience of this trial has played a large role, I think, in the way a number of developments—the Ergenekon trial and the referendum in particular—have taken place since then.

Menderes, I think, will continue to be invoked as the AKP prepares to propose a new constitution for Turkey in 2011. The AKP will continue to press the military, and now (thanks to Sunday's referendum) the government is armed with the ability to try officers in civilian courts.

Nevertheless, the military is armed with other things, like guns. That's one reason why, I think, the AKP is going to keep the heat on the military. By making their constitutional referendum a referendum against the military (and winning with 58% of the vote!), the AKP has sent a strong signal to military leaders: you might act against us, but people won't support it.

Speaking of victims of military violence, it would be nice to see people remember somebody in addition to Menderes—it's not like he's the only civilian ever murdered by the Turkish military.

There were lots of innocent people who were badly mistreated or murdered by Turkish security forces after the coup of 1980, for example. Or victims of state violence whose trial (Ergenekon) has been hijacked and steered away from its apparent original direction. Sure these people, and others, deserve to be remembered as well.