"a Step to Allow Head Scarves" + more on Ergenekon and more...
Hürriyet provides a brief history of türban ban here (in Turkish)
In Turkey, a Step to Allow Head Scarves - New York Times
Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (C) leaves his seat to address his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) MPs during a meeting at the Turkish parliament in Ankara January 29, 2007. Erdogan's religiously oriented AK Party and nationalist MHP agreed late on Monday on details of the plan, which has sparked alarm among judges and university rectors in Turkey's powerful secular elite.
REUTERS/Umit Bektas
AK Party, MHP agree; politics takes the initiative at lastby Mustafa Şentop
Recent steps to lift the headscarf ban seem promising. Yet the issue has remained very controversial over the last decade in Turkey. Wanted: Backers of Ergenekon
[MONDAY TALK] Bayramoğlu: Dink would say ‘justice done’
Writer and intellectual Ali Bayramoğlu says slain Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink would have said "The justice has been done" if he had seen last week's detentions of people, reportedly believed to have close links to shadowy state networks, in connection with many assassinations -- including Dink's own.The Turkish Orthodox Church
The Turkish Orthodox Church, known in Turkey as the “Turkish Orthodox Patriarchy,” dates back to 1921 when the young republic decided to establish a church for Anatolian Christians. This new[The ‘deep state’ & gangs] How does a Turkish gang survive? by Faruk Mercan
I wonder if it is just a coincidence that the roots of almost every single organization and group brought before Turkish justice to be tried stretch back to either the period before 1980 or to the years of the 1980s. Definitely not is my answer.Connecting the dots... by Emre Uslu & Önder Aytaç
Operation "Sphere" (otherwise known as the Sauna case), conducted in February 2006 by the Turkish Police against a crime gang allegedly blackmailing prominent political figures and celebrities, revealed the secret relations between crime circles and security forces.Coup in 2009
Turkey cannot seem to get rid of coup debates. As there is a ban on publishing or broadcasting anything about the ongoing Ergenekon investigation, many things are being left unwritten or unsaid for now.The shallowness of the deep state
Nearly a year ago I went to visit retired Col. Fikri Karadağ, one of those currently under lock and key accused of plotting violent insurrection against the state.There are always gangs in this country, only their structures change
The Turkish Leviathan under arrest? Mustafa Akyol
Right not to be a Kemalist
Professor Atilla Yayla from Gazi University had gone through a series of trials and tribulations because of his remarks in a panel organized in 2007 by an İzmir branch of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party).Efficiency problem of universities
Whether by drafting a new and more democratic constitution or by amending the current one, the headscarf ban must be removed from the nation’s agenda and from the lives of ambitious young women.AKP denies secret agenda, launches probe against 'dissident' MP
An in-house investigation was launched yesterday about remarks made by a ruling party member on the attempted lifting of the headscarf ban for state officials alongside university students. Hüsnü...Persuasion rooms
The ongoing discussion on the headscarf ban is instructive because it points to the philosophical framework employed in the debates on fundamental rights and freedoms in Turkey.Independent Turkey divided over headscarf ban decision A small square of coloured material returns to the centre of Turkey's political stage this week as the government prepares to end the controversial headscarf ban.
What will AKP and TSK do?
Mehmet Ali BirandNYT 13 Arrested in Push to Stifle Turkish Ultranationalists Suspected in Political Killings
İlnur Çevik Turkey's judiciary has to respect the elected
Turkey's democracy under microscope - Politics & Economics - ArabianBusiness.comLifting of Headscarf Ban Angers Turkey’s Secular Opposition
Yusuf Kanlı: The growing challenge
Some people have started to feel enraged once again about the assumption that the “secularist democratic order” of the country – or to put it more bluntly, the “heritage of Atatürk” – would face an existential threat should the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with the help of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) go ahead with their declaration and conjointly make amendments to the Constitution and allow the wearing of the turban at universities by female students... A one-meter square piece of cloth posing an existential threat to the secular Turkish democracy! The problem, unfortunately, is bigger than that one meter square piece of cloth... The threat is not the headscAKP tries to dispel fears over abuse of headscarf
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will continue talks today on rewriting parts of the Constitution in an effort to lift the headscarfECONOMÍA: El laboratorio turco (2)
Imagen nocturna de Levent, el barrio de negocios de Estambul
Hace apenas una semana, y con motivo de la visita del primer minstro turco Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a España, el diario "El País" publicó en sus páginas naranja un extenso reportaje sobre la situación de la economía en el país anatolio. Como ya se ha comentado en otras ocasiones y en este mismo blog, los analistas económicos de la prensa española suelen ser más serios que sus colegas de las secciones de política internacional. En este caso se intentan encajar demasiadas cuestiones y muy dispares en un espacio limitado, mezclando consideraciones económicas con políticas; por ello, el resultado final no es de lo mejor que ha escrito Fernando Cano. Sin embargo, la pieza tiene la virtud de ponernos al día en unos cuantos datos básicos y en recordar que la economía se ha convertido en la mejor carta de presentación de Turquía. Quién lo diría hace tan sólo diez años.
