In the meantime Orhan Pamuk received the Nobel Prize for literature and the French government banned to think or say that there might not have been an Armenian génocide. Even the NY Times called this decision "absurd" and even Turkey's Minister of Foreign Affairs mocked it by saying "We cannot be like France, we have to do something about our legislation", referring to the law that restricts the use of the g-word on the Armenian question.
In the Netherlands, some political parties have turned it into an election issue for their Turkish candidates[*] (neither elegantly nor craftily I must say...) which came out in the news a few weeks before an opinion poll that claims that young people of Turkish origin are turning radical[*]. Now at the political level the limits of integration are fixed by the Armenian question. At the identity level, I think this creates a rupture and contradicts the idea of integration which suggests some kind of amalgamation of old and new identities.
On the other hand Turkish patriots and populist media went crazy on the Nobel prize given to Pamuk. He doesn't seem to please their patriotic one-sided devotion to a particular discourse sufficiently. The best article I read on the issue is by Yıldırım Türker at Radikal: Türk'ün Nobel'le imtihanı
In the meantime, GWBush signed the infamous Guantanamo bill (tr / eng) allowing torture to be a part of US law. You might want to help Amnesty International's campaign on this by clicking here.
The last and least important thing that has taken place through this period is that I went to IKEA for the first time in my life. And I am sorry to say dear IKEA-fans but it was as terrible, as corporate, as useless, and as frustrating as I thought it was before ever being there. Actually... It was even worse! I'm back to my recycle, repair, reuse mode.
Recycling and remixing two quotes from Kermit the Frog and Janis Joplin, I have my own version: It's hard to be green, but once you do, it sure is worth it!)
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