Turkey's Science Council Under Fire for Censoring Darwin
AFP: ANKARA — Turkey's main science council came under fire Wednesday after a magazine it publishes was reported to have been forced to scrap a cover article on Charles Darwin under pressure from managers.

Newspapers and academics slammed the incident as meddling by the Islamist-rooted government, which has long been accused of favouring religious-minded loyalists for senior posts at the council.

The mass-selling Hurriyet daily described the incident at the Scientific and Technological Research Council (TUBITAK) as "a typical spectacle of cosying up to the government," while the popular Vatan said it was "a scandalous example of censorship that will go down in science history." >>> | Wednesday, March 11, 2009

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More Proof of Turkey’s Unsuitability for Accession to the EU
BLOOMBERG: Lazari Kozmaoglu, Istanbul's last pork butcher, takes a break from a two-hour backgammon session to recall the days he spent slicing bacon instead of rolling dice.

Eight workers used to rush in and out of the cutting room, placing wrapped meat in refrigerators, Kozmaoglu, 63, recalls in his store in central Istanbul. Today the shop is down to its last two months of stock and attracts only a handful of customers.

Turkey's Islamist-rooted government has clamped down on the pork industry since 2004, closing all but two of the country's 25 pig farms and revoking slaughterhouse licenses. Kozmaoglu, unable to add to his meat supplies, spends most of his time shuffling paperwork as he seeks permission to reopen his abattoir.

"I don't know what I can do if they don't give it to me; this business is my life,'' Kozmaoglu says as he watches a news bulletin on Greek television.

He's one of about 2,000 ethnic Greeks remaining in Istanbul. Most Greeks left the city after Turkish mobs attacked their homes and workplaces in 1955. Others were expelled in 1964 after fighting between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus.

Before the 2004 crackdown, Kozmaoglu was one of four pork butchers in Istanbul. All of his competitors quit handling pigs after losing their slaughterhouse permits. The state granted Kozmaoglu temporary licenses to let him kill the swine on outlawed farms, but those have now been cut off, he says. Istanbul's Last Pork Butcher Fights Islamist Crackdown on Swine >>> By Firat Kayakiran | April 10, 2008

Hat tip: Dhimmi Watch

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)