The “50/50 equality” campaign by the European Women’s Lobbydemanding equal representation for women in the decision mechanisms begins tomorrow in Ankara with a press meeting. The Turkish leg of the campaign is conducted by women’s organization KA-DER.

The newspaper Alternatif has been banned for publishing the views of Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the Kurdish Workers Party, and Murat Karayılan, a high-level officer of the same party.

Şener Eruygur, one of the retired generals arrested for the Ergenekon operation, under intensive care since last week, is released for health problems. The lieutenants and the military student are arrested. Temiz, İdiz and Soylu are released, too.

Small tradesperson Yunus Atalay, Peace Mother Hadiye Dur and worker Mahfuz Türkan had gone to the European Court of Human Rights, when their efforts to seek justice in Turkey had not brought any results. The Court sentenced Turkey on the grounds of bad treatment for the three applications.

The court sentenced the members of the organization committee of the Adana Newroz celebration after two years for “doing propaganda work for the Kurdish Workers Party”. The members are planning to appeal the decision.

Retired military judge Ümit Kardaş believes that taking five lieutenants into custody is not enough. He thinks the operation needs to go higher.

The number of those taken into custody in the latest wave of operations for the Ergenekon investigation becomes seventeen. Among them are five lieutenants and one military student, too.

Hakkari deputy for the Democratic Society Party questions the Forestry Minister about the forest fires in eastern and southeastern Turkey, claiming that they are done intentionally for security reasons.

Eleven people have been taken into custody in Ankara and Istanbul in connection with the Ergenekon investigation. Nurseli İdiz, Seyhan Soylu and Levent Temiz, who had threatened Hrant Dink, were among those taken into custody.

Sakarya’s Chief Prosecutor files a lawsuit against Aziz Koçak, the head of the Democratic Society Party's (DTP) Sakarya branch, for the “Peace and Brotherhood” night festival organized by them, which was attacked by a big crowd of far right nationalists and besieged for hours.

Bahçelievler District Governorship did not grant permission for the investigation of the police officers who had attacked reporters Esra Açıkgöz and Ali Deniz Uslu, and activist Songül Çiftçi at the May Day police violence.

Journalist Cengiz Kapmaz is sentenced to 10 months in prison for his interview with former Democracy Party (DEP) deputy Orhan Doğan, who had said in the interview that the PKK should be permitted to do politics.

In the panel held for the birthday of Hrant Dink, the participants urged for more decisive struggle against discrimination.

Turkish court has banned the access to world famous evolutionist Prof. Richard Dawkins’ internet site upon complaint by creationist Adnan Oktar on the grounds that the site contained insulting remarks about Oktar’s book “Atlas of Creation”.

The relatives of the three Protestants killed brutally in Malatya sue the Prime Ministry, the ministries of Education and Interior for negligence.

Ministry of Justice refused to give permission for the trials of Nurettin Demirtaş and Selma Irmak, former DTP party officers, under article 301. Both individuals were on trial for voicing the allegation of chemical weapons regarding the Turkish Armed Forces.

Many intellectuals, journalists, non-governmental organizations and activist under an initiative to keep the Democratic Society Party (DTP) open have started collecting signatures to support the DTP.

Ahmet Türk submited the oral defense for the Democratic Society Party and he said at the end that he was positive about the outcome of the case. Türk demanded that the European Human Rights Court and the Venice Criteria be taken into consideration.

Chief of Staff denies the charge that they have a set of accreditation criteria that keeps some of the newspapers out of its meetings, such as the newspapers Zaman, Bugün, Vakit, Taraf, Birgün and Evrensel, which were not invited to this meeting with press.

Turkey’s Education and Science Workers Union has announced that the textbooks for the religion courses still reflect the Sunnite Teaching. It demands that the government abide by the court decisions.