DTP MP Akin Birdal holds the Siirt governor and chief of police responsible for riots at Newroz celebrations, as well as the Minister of the Interior and the Prime Minister.

In some cities in the southeast of Turkey, the governors did not allow Newroz celebrations to take place. Two people died in Van and Hakkari. Hundreds of people were taken into police custody.

The two gendarmerie officers on trial in Trabzon have stated that they had informed their superiors of the planned Dink murder. The superiors are said to have faked documents to hide their previous knowledge.

As preparations for a big Newroz celebration in Diyarbakir are nearing their end, some say “we have to go for peace.” However, others fear trouble and will stay away.

After threatening Agos and Armenians pere mail, Zafer Filiz has been sentenced to three years imprisonment. Lawyer Cetin has welcomed the sentence.

The Turkish Peace Parliament has called on the spring festival to be “an opportunity to face the past" and ÖDP MP Uras has called for "a beginning of a solution."

After one of their writers was taken into custody for an article he wrote, two representatives of the Taraf newspaper have been investigated for supporting the anti-militarist statement of singer Bülent Ersoy.

Turkey has been sentenced to paying 1,000 YTL compensation in an appeal brought by two human rights activists from the Izmir branch of IHD.

Boyd Tonkin called her “A writer who weds the modern and the mystic,” when he interviewed her for the Independent newspaper in July 2007. On the occasion of her nomination for the Orange Prize, bianet publishes the interview.

"The Bastard of Istanbul," the book which landed Turkish writer Elif Shafak in court under the controversial Article 301, has now won her a nomination for the long list of the prestigious Orange Prize.

Conscientious objector Ismail Saygi, who was taken into custody on 16 March, has been arrested. His supporters have planned a campaign for today.

There have been memorial events of the Halabja Massacre in 1988, in which Saddam Hussein ordered the massacre of thousands of Kurds in Northern Iraq.

The fourth hearing in the Malatya Murders case ended with a postponement as the joint attorneys had demanded a recusation of judges.

Doctors from a private hospital in Bursa traveled to the province of Tunceli for the Day of Medicine on 14 March. They examined patients in the districts and also gained a new perspective on Tunceli.

Joint attorneys in the case against the suspected bombers of the Semdinli bookshop have withdrawn from the case in protest. They argue that the military court is not independent and there will not be a fair trial.

An Izmir court has sentenced Prof. Dr. Yayla to a suspended 15-month prison sentence for saying that Kemalism was “more regressive than progressive.”

The US Department of State released its 2007 report on Turkey on 11 March. The report criticises the fact that there has been an increase in torture, that the judiciary is not impartial, and that violence towards women continues.

In the DTP closure case, the Prosecution of the Supreme Court of Appeals has demanded that 221 people be banned from politics. Prof. Köker says there can be no solution when “political participation is prevented.”

Chief of General Staff Büyükanit expressed in an interview that he was open to criticism. So how come so many people are taken to court for “denigrating the armed forces”?