TURKEY:Political and Human Rights ... When will Erdoğan win the Omar al-Bashir Human Rights Award? After having been awarded the distinguished Al-Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has added a new decoration to his collection, the Statesman of the Year Award for Human Rights in the Turkish Cypriot Statelet. The news came only a day after Reuters ran an analysis with the headline “Hard times for media in Erdoğan’s Turkey.” On the lighter side, perhaps, “news on Turkey” is these days more suitable to humor magazines than serious publications. The Turks were still laughing at the revelation a prosecutor had indicted an opposition lawmaker for “attempting to undermine the government by means of political propaganda” when more tragic but entertaining news arrived. A woman in İzmir, for instance, who was badly beaten by the police at a police station – full video available on youtube.com for those who can stand scenes of violenc...