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The Perils of Patriotism
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Tears glisten in Sencan Bayramoglu's eyes. The retired schoolteacher is describing how her son was one of 30,000 victims of the 15-year-long Kurdish uprising that ended with the capture and imprisonment of rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999. Bayramoglu's tears are not of grief, but of anger. Last week, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that, in order to comply with European law, Turkey must give Ocalan a new trial. Her fury is directed not only at Ocalan, whom she blames for her son's death, but also at the European institutions that demand Turkey conform to their standards...