Gizem Yarbil.

Gizem Yarbil, an associate producer at Worldfocus who grew up in Turkey, argues Turkish immigrants may cling even more strongly to their customs– including honor killings– when faced with the difficulties of life in the West.

The first honor killing story I delved into as a journalist was of a Turkish girl from Germany.

Hatun Surucu was 23 years old when her youngest brother shot her at a bus stop in Berlin in 2005. She was training to be an electrician and she had a son.

She was born in Germany to Kurdish parents who had migrated to the country from Turkey. From the day she was born, she was confined to a secluded lifestyle under the strict scrutiny of her parents and her brothers. When Hatun was 16, she was married to her cousin in Turkey in an arranged marriage. She moved to a village in Turkey and had her son when she was 18. When Hatun decided to leave her marriage and moved back to Berlin, she knew she couldn’t return to her family home. She took refuge in a women’s shelter, got rid of her head scarf and started to rebuild her and her son’s life.

Hatun’s new western lifestyle was deemed dishonorable by her family. They decided she was bringing a bad name to the family so she had to be killed.

Hatun’s story is only one example of honor killings among Europe’s Muslim immigrant communities. A report by the Council of Europe warns that honor killings are far more prevalent in Europe than previously believed. Reasons for an honor killing range from having sex out of wedlock, refusing to consent to an arranged marriage, refusing to wear a head scarf– even having been raped.

Joschen Blaschke, the president of the European Migration Center at the time we interviewed him in 2006, traced the problem in Germany with the Turkish immigrant communities to the economy. He said that when the economy slumped in the 1980s in Germany, most immigrant Turks had to settle for lower wages and inferior work. He argued that this caused the community to become more isolated, and that many families became more religious and determined to preserve their culture, including the concept of “honor.”

In an article in 2008 by BBC reporter Alexa Dvorson about her chilling conversation with a group of boys in Germany of Turkish, Kurdish and Palestinian origin, echoes Blaschke’s sentiment.  Confronted by the reporter, a Kurdish teenager tries to justify honor killings.  “We have no money,” he says, “We have nothing except our honour. If we lose that, it’s the worst things that can happen to us.”

- Gizem Yarbil
Deutsche Welle reports on women’s groups in Turkey working to stop honor killings:

• Michael Haneke’s film “The White Ribbon,” which scooped the top prize at Cannes last year, would seem an early favorite. The German film focuses on the adolescence of young children in a village in Northern Germany on the outbreak of the First World War.

• The Peruvian film “The Milk of Sorrow” explores abuses inflicted on Peruvian women during the ascendancy of the Maoist Shining Path guerrilla movement. The title refers to the belief that the trauma inflicted upon mothers was passed onto their children through their milk, creating a legacy of psychological damage.

• The Argentine dramatic thriller “The Secret in their Eyes” follows a federal justice agent as he becomes entangled in an investigation into the murder of a young woman in 1970s Buenos Aires.

• The French film “A Prophet” follows a young French Muslim man who is sentenced to six years imprisonment in a jail dominated by the Corsican mafia. The new inmate has to quickly toughen himself up to survive in this dangerous world.

• The Israeli film “Ajami” is about life in a mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhood in the Mediterranean city of Jaffa. The film was co-directed by an Israeli Arab and an Israeli Jew and weaves together multiple perspectives.

• Read more about “Ajami” in our post Israeli Cinema: Growing Up.
• Explore the global film industry here Nigeria’s Nollywood produces more films than U.S.
• Check out our extended coverage page, The Politics of Pop Culture.

The accused Ohio resident stands trial once again. Photo: Al Jazeera

Elderly Ohio resident John Demjanjuk is being tried in Germany as an accessory to the murder of almost 28,000 Jews.

Prosecutors allege that he served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp in Poland.

Today, relatives of those killed in the camp testified — including Paul Hellmann, who lost his father.

Do you support the prosecution of an apparently ailing, 89-year-old accused Nazi guard?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please be respectful and on-point. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted, and repeat offenders will be banned.

Asian markets droppped sharply on news of Dubai World’s restructuring.

SOUTH KOREA: A report by Moody’s investor service predicted the South Korean economy would grow around 6 percent next year, adding to growing optimism about its recovery from the global economic downturn.

PHILIPPINES: Philippine’s President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has authorized the suspension of government, military, and police officials in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) following the mass murder of at least 57 people in Maguindanao.

NAMIBIA: On Friday voting for general elections began in the southern African nation of Namibia. The ruling party, the South West Africa People’s Organization, is expected to return to power.

SUDAN: The mother of a 16-year old South Sudanese girl who was lashed 40 times for wearing what a judge deemed an indecent skirt is planning to sue both the police and the presiding judge. Silva Kashif’s mother said that not only is her daughter underage but she is also a Christian.

NIGERIA: On Thursday the Nigerian president’s doctor released a statement saying President Yar’Adua is suffering from a heart condition.

GERMANY: Germany’s former defense minister resigned from his post Friday, becoming the third German official to step down following allegations of a military cover-up regarding civilian deaths in a September air strike in Afghanistan.

IRELAND: A 720-page report commissioned by the Irish government found that at least 3 archbishops ignored complaints of child abuse dating as far back as the 1940s, choosing instead to protect priests.

BRAZIL: Brazilian President Lula said that Western nations should help pay to keep the Amazon rainforest from being deforested, saying that “gringos” have cause much more destruction in the region than small-scale farmers who cut down trees for farmland.

CUBA: Cuba prepared for what it called a possible invasion by the U.S. with its first military exercises in five years.

CHILE: More details on the murder of a popular Chilean pop singer during the early days of the country’s military dictatorship in 1973 have surfaced this week.

Muslims around the world are celebrating the start of the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha or the ‘Festival of Sacrifice’.

Dubai skyscapers. Photo: flickr user H4NUM4N

DUBAI: A government official in Dubai says that its intervention in the government-owned investment company Dubai World was “carefully planned.”

IRAN: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday passed a new resolution against Iran. That country’s envoy to the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned it would cause tension.

SAUDI ARABIA: The death toll from flash floods in the city of Jeddah has risen to 83.  The city is a gateway for Muslim pilgrims headed to Mecca.

ISRAEL: Israeli newspaper Haaretz, citing Fox News,  is reporting that a deal could be reached soon between Israel and Hamas on prisoner release.

Worldfocus special correspondent Martin Seemungal reported late last year on the rising Christian-Muslim tensions in Cologne, Germany — home to 120,000 Muslims — where the city’s first official mosque is in construction.

We’d like to know what you think.

Should the U.S. consider its own version of an “integration contract” for new arrivals?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

As a reporter, Thomas Kleine-Brockhoff hitchhiked overnight to Berlin to cover the story. He is now the senior director at the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

Many residents relive their glee over the end of the hated division between East and West Germany. But there is also a growing contingent who remember the positive aspects of the socialist society in the east, including state-sponsored health care, education, and housing.  They speak with nostalgia and admiration about the lost collectivist values of East Germany.

Mike Kraus, a freelance video journalist, reports from Berlin.

So, Berlin has also played host to some of America’s greatest presidential speeches. In June 1963, President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous “Ich bin ein Berliner” address:

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan delivered his “Tear Down This Wall” speech at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, imploring the Soviet leader to end the Cold War:

And most recently, in July 2008, Barack Obama spoke to 200,000 Europeans about re-establishing transatlantic bonds in one of his most memorable campaign addresses:

In light of the highly-publicized murder of a pregnant Egyptian woman in Germany, Gustin discusses Muslim immigration in France, Germany and the United Kingdom with Daljit Dhaliwal.

This week, the Anne Frank Museum officially launched its own channel on You Tube. The channel has begun showing the only known film footage of Anne Frank. It was taken during a neighbor’s wedding in 1941 and shows Anne Frank leaning outside a window to get a good look at the bride and groom — a happy day, four years before Anne Frank’s death.

Guido Westerwelle

Following Sunday’s election in Germany, there is a new coalition that will govern the country for the next four years. Not only will the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel shift a bit to the right with the Free Democrats Party as its main partner, but the head of that party and the man who will become the vice chancellor — Guido Westerwelle — will become the first openly gay person to hold that position.

Is the United States ready to elect an openly gay man or woman as vice president, or even president?

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Please remember to be respectful and on-point in your comments. Malicious or offensive comments will be deleted and repeat offenders will be banned.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user michaelthurm under a Creative Commons license.

See more Worldfocus coverage on Homosexuality Around the World.

Sunday’s vote for members of the lower house of parliament gave Merkel a comfortable center-right majority, thanks to a strong performance by the pro-business Free Democrats, who will become the key partner in Merkel’s alliance. As she prepares for a second four-year term, she made it clear that she will continue to seek consensus as Germany weathers the economic crisis.

Nikolaus Piper, a senior correspondent in New York for the German daily Suddeutsche Zeitung, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the major issues of the German election and Merkel’s victory.

The event featured a panel discussion moderated by Garrick Utley, Chairman of the American Council on Germany, and featured panelists Klaus Peter Siegloch, bureau chief of ZDF German Television, Nikolaus Piper, Senior Correspondent for the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and Cathleen Fisher, PhD, of George Washington University.

Though the election results were expected, observers said the record low turnout suggests dissatisfaction with the current options in German politics.

The country votes for members of its lower house of parliament, who in turn choose the head of the government.

Barnaby Phillips of Worldfocus partner Al Jazeera English reports from Hamburg, a port city hit hard by the global recession.

If you’ve ever tried to zoom in from a very high to a very low altitude on Google Earth,  you will have noticed that it takes a while to process the zoom and adjust the resolution.  In addition, on the broadcast we use color overlays on our wide views of countries, which we don’t need when we zoom in close on a city.

You can see the problem in this zoom of the island of Capri, off the coast of Naples, Italy:

A nice way we found to work around this was to create two maps: one of the wider view, and one of the close-up.

Once I export these two map moves, I bring them both into Final Cut Pro and dissolve them together. Take a look at this zoom into the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin:

- Channtal Fleischfresser

Marvin Weinbaum, a scholar at the Middle East Institute and former U.S. State Department analyst on Afghanistan, discusses the potential exit strategy of U.S. allies and waning support for the fight in Afghanistan among Americans.

But despite a turnaround for those countries, much of Europe is still mired in recession.

Roben Farzad, a senior writer for BusinessWeek, joins Martin Savidge to discuss how fast the world economy is rebounding and to analyze what it will mean for the United States.

From the $787 billion stimulus package in the U.S. to China’s $586 billion, world governments are hoping that they can lay the groundwork for economic recovery. Some analysts say the worst is over.

In Japan, the downward spiral is getting steeper, with exports falling and companies slashing production. In the first quarter of the year, Japan’s economy shrank more quickly than at any time in the past 50 years. The country has pumped $154 billion in stimulus into the economy. 

With unemployment now at 4.8 percent, Brazilians of Japanese descent who were welcomed just 10 years ago as guest workers are now being offered money to take a one way ticket and go home.

Blogger “Peter” in Japan visits a town populated mostly by Brazilians and describes the hardships there: 

My daughter recently asked me if I could drive her to the nearby town of Oizumi so she could visit a friend who lived there, and I was happy to do it. In my 18 years here I’d never been to the “Brazil in Japan,” famous for having the highest percentage of nikkei Brazilians and Peruvians in the country. […]

It was certainly interesting to drive down the street and see all the businesses sporting Brazilian flags, and walking into the all-Brazilian convenience store was a good excuse to buy some interesting chocolates and something called Inca Kola. The people of the town are largely dependent on factory jobs at companies like Sanyo, and times are very hard for them right now, prompting the Japanese government to take the unprecedented step of offering financial assistance to any guest worker who wants to go home but who is unable to for economic reasons.

From Germany, where there are signs that the worst may be over, an anonymous comment on a forum reflects the continued suffering of the country’s worst recession since World War II:

I was made redundant, I have several friends in Munich that have been made redundant, no point going home cause the situation is just as bad there. The industry that I worked in is in freefall with more job loses to come. It is absolutely unbelieveable and very scary. After a masters degree and several years of experience at very good companies, I have very little chance of finding a job. It’s like someone pressed the reset button on the economy. 

In Spain, where new statistics say the country’s economy actually contracted by nearly 2 percent in the first quarter of 2009, unemployment has reached 17 percent. Blogger Alex in Spain describes his experience:

Here in Spain, unemployment has reached an all-time high. Back in March my part-time job had to cut out my English as a Second Language class because the government severely cut back on funding to adult education. Then yesterday was my partner’s last day at his job and he is now on the unemployment line.

In Africa, economies have been growing at a rate of six percent a year since 2000. But the head of the International Monetary Fund warned on Wednesday that growth on that continent will be only 1.5 percent this year.  He called Africa “an innocent victim” of the recession and asked international donors to keep their aid commitments to Africa in the coming year.

Blogger “MrK” of “Zambian Economist” argues that aid is less important than economic reform: 

What is needed is fargoing nationalisation of industries. Reinvest profits from raw materials in other economic sectors, and the economies will grow. There really is a need for economic diversification, and using the mines is the way to do it. 

Economic reform, government reform, land reform, not more ‘aid’.

From Bahrain, blogger “Mahmood” describes how consumers have reacted to high vehicle prices:

There is an active campaign in Bahrain at the moment by consumers to force greedy car dealerships to reduce their prices. It’s apparently fashioned after a Saudi campaign which some say already bore fruit.

The essence of this campaign is to not buy cars, let the stock rust if need be, until dealers take active steps to make car prices in Bahrain comparable to world markets. 

Barbados is suffering from decreased tourism and mounting government debt. A blogger at the “Living in Barbados” blog reacts to the new budget announced by Prime Minister David Thompson:

I remember when I first got here most of the criticism I heard from Mr. Thompson, when in opposition, was that the economic ills, especially rising prices, could be put at the door of the government of Mr. Owen Arthur. Now that the hat has a new wearer he is quick to point out he was having to deal with ‘circumstances not of our making’, and much blame is laid on the world recession. I don’t have a problem with that observation, but I wonder what changed in the shifting of positions.

Much of the success in economic policy is about confidence and credibility. Barbados needs foreigners’ money and it comes in three main forms–from tourists, from those setting up and operating international businesses here, and from investors in real estate on the island. My own view is that the government did not see that nothing should be done to jeopardise any of those pillars especially in the current fragile economic conditions. People are fickle when it comes to putting their money to work abroad. Tough economic conditions in the UK, Canada and the US will crimp tourists arrivals and spending. Plans by the world’s economic ‘big boys’ to rein in what they call ‘tax havens’ have had Barbados and other countries with relatively low taxes scrambling to paint themselves as less harmful. But, I think the ball was missed in making foreign property investors less welcome, and I fear that once they turn their backs it will be hard to get them to change their minds.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user glennharper under a Creative Commons license.