What Is the Historic Opportunity'?
President Abdullah Gül said it's a “historic opportunity” and called on everyone not to miss it. Prime Minister Erdoğan said “good things may happen.” Interior Minister Beşir Atalay confirmed that “some steps are being taken.” A few weeks earlier, the chief of general staff, İlker Başbuğ, outlined the military's vision on the problem and gave the most progressive speech by any top general.
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The Cabinet Reshuffle and Erdoğan's Next Move
Everyone seems to agree that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan read the results of the March 29 elections right. The Cabinet reshuffle last week has created new momentum for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government. Yet Erdoğan will have to do more to recapture the reformist spirit of the early years of his rule.
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Chief of General Staff Gen. İlker Başbuğ delivered an unprecedented speech on Tuesday. Given its tone, arguments and scope, Başbuğ's speech may herald the beginning of a new era in civilian-military relations in Turkey
The results of the March 29 municipal elections go beyond the local scene and will have a bearing on the 2011 general elections. The "message" of the elections, however one reads it, has become the key word. Indeed, the electorate has told political parties, "You've got a message." The question is how to read it.
Can the Turkish military be democratic? This is a crucial question for Turkish democracy and by extension for a number of chronic problems which have plagued Turkish society for decades
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's walkout in the midst of a discussion on Gaza in Davos won him millions of supporters not only in Turkey, but around the world. With his bold position on the Middle East peace process, Erdoğan has the Arab and Muslim streets behind him.
Crossing the border between Turkey and Iraqi Kurdistan
The birth pangs of a new human geography and geographic imagination are being felt across the Middle East. As the ethnic and sectarian models of cultural and political identities are being questioned, new patterns of cultural affinity and association are emerging with a new sense of shared history and common geography.
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Erdoğan, Peres and the Unclothed Emperor
The Gaza panel at this year's Davos meeting will be remembered as one of the most dramatic moments in the entire history of Davos. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's face-to-face blasting of Israeli President Shimon Peres was unprecedented, as was his storming out of the meeting.
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In a rather unprecedented cry of outrage, Prince Turki al-Faisal, one of the most prominent figures of the Saudi state, put it bluntly: If the US under the new Obama administration does not change its policy toward Israel and Palestine, the Saudis will no longer maintain their “special relationship” with the US (“Saudi Arabia’s patience is running out,” Financial Times, Jan. 23, 2009). Quoting from the Saudi king that his peace plan, called “the Arab peace initiative,” is still on the table, the prince added that “it would not remain there for long.”
Today is President Barack Obama's third day in the White House. I have no idea what he will be doing today or if he has figured out the layout of his home and office for the next four years; but I know that his task of meeting expectations is already weighing heavily on his shoulders.
The Turkish Constitutional Court’s verdict annulling the Parliament’s amendments to Articles 10 and 42 of the Constitution disregards popular will, legalizes arbitrary restrictions on the right to equal access to education, and erodes the separation of powers by permitting itself to act outside of the legal order.
In the parliamentary elections of July 22, 2007, AKP (Justice and Development Party) won 47% of the votes, obtaining a very strong mandate to take issue with Turkey’s outstanding problems. In the predominantly Kurdish east and southeast region, the AKP doubled its vote from 26% to 53%. The AKP seemed to have persuaded the Kurds thanks to the party’s earlier moves to solve the Kurdish problem by granting more rights and freedoms as well as jobs and economic prosperity. Having started the negotiation process with the EU and obtaining such a strong mandate from the Kurdish voters, why did the AKP turn its back to the Kurdish issue? This can be explained with reference to three groups of factors working at the domestic, the EU and international levels.
The closure case against AK Party heralds a new era in Turkish politics marked by the increased intervention of the judiciary in politics. Inasmuch as the governing party enjoys support of half of the Turkish electorate, the case has harmed the image of Turkish democracy and consequently risks jeopardizing Turkey's quest for full membership in the EU
Female students with headscarf are currently prevented to enter the university in Turkey although there is no legal ground for such a ban. The ongoing controversy about the type of clothing for female students at the higher education institutions has become more intensified since the recent constitutional change in February 2008 to lift the de facto headscarf ban. The debate over this question revolves around whether headscarf is a religious attire or a political symbol, whether it should be banned to protect the secular foundations of the state or conversely allowed on the basis of individual freedom of religion as a corollary of secularism. The solution lies in the implementation of constitutional amendments without a further delay.
The two-day summit in Annapolis ended on 29 November, 2007. Israel and the Palestine Authority agreed to start a new peace initiative
To fulfill Turkey's mission as a "civilizational connector" between Europe and Asia, Turkey must be a full member of the East Asian Summit. The path towards this goal, among others, requires Turkey to be a Dialogue Partner of ASEAN. Once ASEAN sponsors Turkey's membership in East Asian Summit,
