Turkish Prime Minister warns US: we will attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq - Times Online

 Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, front left, his deputy Hayati Yazici, front right, his minister Kursad Tuzmen, rear left, and Zafer Caglayan raise their hands in the Parliament to vote on a government motion on a military operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, in Ankara, Wednesday, Oct. 17, 2007. Turkey's Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a possible cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq, although the government appears willing to give more time to diplomatic pressure on the U.S. backed Iraqi administration.(AP Photo/Burhan Ozbilici)

Armenian Genocide Resolution in the U.S. Congress — Righting a Historical Wrong?

A very good round up by Onnik Krikorian; an outline of positions....

Continue reading ""Turkish Prime Minister warns US: we will attack Kurdish rebels in Iraq" »

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Turkey vowed strong action Sunday against Kurdish separatists after 12 of its soldiers and 32 rebels were killed in clashes sparked by an ambush near the tense border with Iraq.(AFP/Sezayi Erken)

Turkey vows to defeat PKK rebels

Turkey's leaders vow to "pay any price" to defeat terrorism after the latest attack by Kurdish rebels.

Turks back direct president poll

Demonstrators march with Turkish flags in downtown Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2007, during a protest against a recent attack on the Turkish troops by the separatist Kurdish rebels in southeastern Turkey. Kurdish rebels ambushed a military unit near Turkey's border with Iraq early Sunday, killing 12 soldiers and increasing pressure on the Turkish government to stage attacks against guerrilla camps in Iraq. (AP Photo/Serkan Senturk)

Turks plan response to Kurdish attack

Danger Signs -Times Online

"Danger Signs Turkey, a friend and ally, is becoming perilously estranged from the West

Continue reading ""Turkey vows to defeat PKK rebels" »

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EUROPEUS: WHAT EU SHOULD BE TELLING TURKEY?

On the eve of this year's progress report by the European Commission (EC), our European Union (EU) accession fever is revived again. A heavy traffic of meetings, statements and visits is the case. This hustle and bustle is as real as EU works are virtual. Mutual expectations are so low that even the tiniest “not negative” wording or an infinitesimally small gesture is exaggerated to the limit. Works to be done are self-evident, it is said. Turkey will roll up sleeves, benefit from the rosy environment created after the July 22 elections, pass foundation laws, abolish articles 301 and sail away to the brightest of the bright horizon as though nothing has happened. That is playing Pollyanna to the utmost degree. We are talking about bilateral relations in which mutual trust is badly eroded. If only were easy to rekindle this! Let's see the facts."

New York Review of Books:

Turkey at the Turning Point?

By Christopher de Bellaigue It is now clear that Turkey, a country to which Western visitors have often applied adjectives such as "timeless" and "slothful," is changing profoundly, and with un-Oriental speed. To the many Turks who welcome this transformation, it holds out the promise of a free public culture, equally open to devout Muslims, secularists, and critics of Turkey's past politics—something the country has never known. A smaller but nonetheless considerable number see the changes as a Trojan horse for Islamism as severe as one finds in Iran or Saudi Arabia....

Turkey: "Strategic & Scrappy"

by Murat Altinbasak

I was googling various issues when I discovered this link. An article in TIME magazine from October 15, 1951.. Turkey's population at that time: 20 million. My favorite quotes:.........

Armenian Allegations | Sources (PDF)

by M.A.M

Continue reading "Cengiz Aktar: WHAT EU SHOULD BE TELLING TURKEY?" »

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Empowering Europe:

by MARTTI AHTISAARI, JOSCHKA FISCHER, MABEL VAN ORANJE, MARK LEONARD

Europe's public figures press Turkey's case

This is to us. A private guarding the Hrant Dink murderers...Via Hürriyet.

New president must be elected unless amendment package changes

Turkish Islam, i guess:) Found in Beşiktaş, VIA  

Continue reading ""Europe's public figures press Turkey's case" »

Posted by erkan at 11:26 AM | Permalink

Turkish EU membership would strengthen Europe

AMANDA AKCAKOCA: The EU should not disappoint citizen Osman

Source: Al-Dustour, Jordan, August 31, 2007

Continue reading ""Turkish EU membership would strengthen Europe" »

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Cengiz Aktar in Analysis of foreign and EU affairs in the government program:

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the government program last week. At the beginning of this week, it will be discussed in the Parliament and the vote of confidence will follow. Program's foreign affairs section is unfortunately the repetition of same old policy positions. The government has apparently difficulties to make proper use of the powerful public support it received from the July 22 general elections in order to tackle chronic complexities of Turkish foreign policy. There is no trace of pondering in the new program, with one exception though, relations with the European Union! Before we consider new and powerful approach to the matter at length, let's briefly enumerate...

Posted by erkan at 05:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 

 SABRINA TAVERNISE and SEBNEM ARSU in The Traps in Turkey’s Power Shift says:

Five issues that will play out in coming weeks and months could begin to provide an answer:

THE EUROPEAN UNION: Mr. Gul was a leading actor in Turkey’s bid to join the E.U., and in his first speech as president, he reiterated his intent to continue to pursue it. Progress toward membership might inhibit any impulse for the army to interfere in government, since democracy is a prerequisite for union membership. But Turkey’s bid faces strong opposition from some countries like France, whose newly elected president, Nicolas Sarkozy, wants new talks in which Turkey would be considered for “special status” as well as full membership.

[the others being- THE CONSTITUTION, APPOINTMENTS, ARTICLE 301, KURDISH SEPARATISM]

A round up here:  

Continue reading "NYT in "The Traps in Turkey’s Power Shift" »

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from left to right, Köksal Toptan, head of the Parliament; Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the PM; Abdullah Gül, the President; Yaşar Büyükanıt, the Chief of Staff. all together in the Victory Day ceremony... 

Erdogan limits ministerial shake-up

On woman's purse: "Turkey."

Sources: Akhbar Al-Arab, UAE; Al-Watan, Qatar, August 29, 2007

via  

Al Jazeera: Gul Approves Pro-Eu Turkey Cabinet

Line-up of Turkey's new cabinet led Erdogan via

Prime Minister: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

    State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: Cemil Cicek

    State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: Hayati Yazici

    State Minister and Deputy Prime Minister: Nazim Ekren

    Justice Minister: Mehmet Ali Sahin

    Defense Minister: Vecdi Gonul

    Interior Minister: Besir Atalay

    Foreign Minister: Ali Babacan

    Finance Minister: Kemal Unakitan

    Education Minister: Huseyin Celik

    Public Works and Housing Minister: Faruk Nafiz Ozak

    Health Minister: Recep Akdag

    Transportation Minister: Binali Yildirim

    Agriculture and Rural Affairs Minister: Mehmet Mehdi Eker

    Labor and Social Security Minister: Faruk Celik

    Industry and Trade Minister: Mehmet Zafer Caglayan

    Energy and Natural Resources Minister: Mehmet Hilmi Guler

    Culture and Tourism Minister: Ertugrul Gunay

    Environment and Forestry Minister: Veysel Eroglu

    State Minister: Mehmet Aydin

    State Minister: Murat Basesgioglu

    State Minister: Kursad Tuzmen

    State Minister: Nimet Cubukcu

    State Minister: Mehmet Simsek

    State Minister: Mustafa Said Yazicioglu.

60th Cabinet | Biographies

Continue reading " Line-up of Turkey's new cabinet" »

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 Turkish Army ads in bilboards to celebrate the Victory Day. "Turkish nation loves her army very much; she thinks of the army as the protector of her ideal"

Turkish leader approves cabinet

Is Gul the right choice for Turkey?

In Have Your Say

Thank heavens it’s over

By EMRE AKÖZ, SABAH

The most disastrous statement Sezer ever made was during the 367 quorum discussions when he suggested that the “Constitutional Court should play a ‘balancing role’ in governing.”

Right, now i can be more critical of the government. Civil political process is maintained and it is now time for civil protest:) 

Turkey’s transformation by SOLİ ÖZEL*

Abdullah Gül’s election as Turkey’s 11th president marks a watershed in the country’s history.

Benchmarks for the new president in the new era by Yavuz Baydar:

The election in the Turkish Parliament on Tuesday will hopefully put an end to a highly turbulent period. With the unfortunate circumstances caused chiefly by a myopic decision last December by the EU, practically paralyzing the approved negotiation process, Turkey entered 2007 with many uncertainties.

[Presidential election in the headlines]

He who laughs last

Continue reading "Victory day, new cabinet, a new era...and "thanks heavens it's over"." »

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European Commission Congratulates President Gul Over His Election

Turks elect ex-Islamist president

Former Islamist Abdullah Gul is sworn in as Turkey's new president, despite strong secular opposition.

Gul Wins Vote for Turkish Presidency - New York Times

Source: Al-Watan, Saudi Arabia, August 28, 2007

Turkey elects Gul president despite army anger

Some Turkish secularists distance themselves from hard anti-Gül line by Nicolas Cheviron

Third time lucky: A new President: a new Turkey?

By Hans A.H.C. de Wit

Gul is the right man for the job

To whom does Çankaya belong? [Turkish Presidents official residence]

By Mick Hall

A New Era For Turkey

By Metin

Farewell my pretty

By Idil

I am now officially ready to leave the country.
An islamist threat was always lurking in the darkness, right where it belongs, but now it is out in the open and at the head of a once secular republic. Now that religion has taken over I am ready to set sail for bigger, better things. It breaks my heart to have to even consider leaving my country but watching it's demise is an even worse prospect.
I have compiled a list of cities that I will be visiting between December and next summer so that I can make up my mind as to where I want to settle in next. This experience is one to remember and I hope that I will one day return to Turkey and that it will not have lost its soul forever....

Continue reading "Abdullah Gül, the 11th President of Turkey" »

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Turkey's presidential hopeful Abdullah Gul addresses the media in Ankara August 17, 2007. Gul is set to be elected Turkey's next president on Tuesday, the first time in the secular but predominantly Muslim country's modern history that the post will go to a former Islamist. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

As Turkey's world turns -- The Washington Times, America's Newspaper

Some developments, good or bad, can catch us so fully by surprise that they feel like a joke. But the best jokes are a reflection of an emotional threat as they mirror the truth."...

Candidate Once Doomed as Islamist Is Ascendant - New York Times

After being shut out of the presidency last spring, Abdullah Gul, a religious man in the assiduously secular realm of Turkish politics, allowed himself a little soul-searching.

“Has the government limited women’s rights?” Mr. Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade Turkey’s establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy. "..

Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer (front) makes a farewell visit to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey, in Ankara, August 28, 2007. Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul is set to be elected Turkey's next president on Tuesday, the first time in the secular but predominantly Muslim country's modern history that the post will go to a former Islamist. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)

Continue reading "Gül poised to become the president today...." »

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Well, i have zapped TV channels. Sitcoms or soccer programs. Intensive debate on the future of Fenerbahçe. No break in regular TV schedules- so far:)

 

The army sees itself as the guardian of Turkey's secularism

 

Turkish army issues new warning

Turkey's army chief warns that the nation's secular system is being threatened by "centres of evil".

Gen Yasar Buyukanit did not name those who were "trying to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic".

His statement comes a day before MPs are expected to elect Abdullah Gul, a former Islamist, as president. His candidacy remains highly controversial.

Kayserispor fans are wearing Abdullah Gül's masks during the game between Kayserispor and Sivasspor. Kayseri is Mr. Gül's hometown...

Continue reading ""Turkish army issues new warning" »

Posted by erkan at 01:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

[at a more abstract level the use of 'Muslim' is problematic and i would agree with the current president Mr. Sezer in that sense. Turkey wants to be known as a secular republic. She has no official religion. However, abstraction does not work all the time. Actual Turkish politics lead to such a labeling. But if maybe secularists did not over-problematize AKP's standing, this would not an issue of discussion...]

Muslim Democracy in Action

By Jackson Diehl

The notion that democracy and Islam are fundamentally incompatible is about to get a resounding rebuke, just at the moment it is threatening to congeal as conventional wisdom in Washington.

...

fter all, Erdogan's government has been one of the most liberal and modernizing regimes in recent Turkish history. Under Gul's leadership, it pressed for membership talks with the European Union and in the name of winning them enacted a series of legal and human rights reforms. Minority Kurds and women won greater rights; the death penalty was abolished. The economy was liberalized and foreign investment welcomed, touching off a boom that has turned Turkey from a basket case in the International Monetary Fund's emergency ward to an emerging tiger with annual growth rates over 7 percent.

.... 

The hardening conventional wisdom is that Islamists use democracy only to gain power so as to impose their totalitarian ideology -- that any election they win will be the last one. Yet in the byzantine five-month power struggle that has preceded tomorrow's election, the sides in Turkey have been reversed. The Islamists have stood not only for democracy but also for compromise and moderation. The threat to Turkey's political stability has come from the professed secularists, who have employed street demonstrations and twisted court rulings and pulled off what has come to be known as the world's first Internet coup.

Continue reading ""Muslim Democracy in Action" »

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Our Mr. Cagaptay is now at work in Newsweek. After deciphering what AKP is in WSJ, he now moves to Newsweek and declares the end of secularism in Turkey. He concludes as such:

The AKP is unlikely to end Turkish secularism overnight. Gradually, however, religion will assume a larger and larger place in the country's politics and society. Turkey will become a more Islamic society in its foreign-policy outlook and culture. Anti-Western sentiments will grow. Headscarves, religious education and the rejection of alcohol will become more common. The Turkey of old will slowly disappear, leaving in its place a profoundly different—and potentially much more unstable—nation.

And check out the MEMRI blog. The way it reports from Turkey looks like it is one of the sides in the political struggle in Turkey. It is supposed to inform the American public but what it does is to scare the lay public by framing any Islam-related issues into a question of security... A secularist Turkish guy maybe at work there, too. Who knows. MEMRI recently started Turkey watch blog here.

[i.e. Turban: Symbol of Political Islam; Headscarf: What Most Traditional Turkish Women Wear ]

 Finally, there is Dr. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis and his American Chronicle. One of his posts finally got our Hans: "The Impossibility of Muslims’ Integration in Europe" and he noted his style in his post. By that time I had given up following his resentment fuelled ranting despite the insistence of Turkish Digest and Turcopundit linking to his writings regularly... Well, being a Turkey origined Greek explains most, i don't mind him much.

But the first two sources are informing the American public and global public in a very limited and resentment filled manner and I don't believe they really capture the complicated developments going on in Turkey. At best what they do is to be a side in a supposed class-warfare in which they represent the most narrow minded etatist elites in Turkey...  

 A more informative approach: Düşünce Kahvesi: Conservative Globalists versus Defensive Nationalists in Turkey

And also: JTW News - Lessons from the Turkish Experience for the US’ Fight against ‘Global Terrorism’:

Sedat Laciner: The US naming the religionist terrorists ‘Islamic’, ‘Islamist’ or ‘Jihadist’, includes many innocent Muslims into the terrorists networks. ‘Islamic’ for example means ‘something according to Islam’, or ‘something has no problem with Islam, OK for the Islam’. If you name Al Qaeda ‘Islamic’, you lose the vital public support against terrorism, because ‘Islamic’ covers all the Muslims yet Al Qaeda is a marginal group. The US has to separate very well the terrorists and the ordinary Muslims. Even ‘Islamist’ is a name of a group which is bigger than terrorists. Islamism is a political movement and all members of the Islamist group are not violent or terrorist. ‘Extremism’ or ‘radicalism’ also cannot reflect the real threat."

And in other developments: 

Continue reading "Newsweek declares the end of secularism in Turkey!" »

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Still in Bayburt, still in an internet cafe and now waiting for the second round of presidential elections. Under normal conditions Mr. Gül will be elected in the third round. I am now ready to go back to Istanbul but my plane leaves tomorrow from Erzurum. My 'Eastern' tour will end up in Erzurum, where I have never been before...

Turkey vote goes to second round

Turkish power balance shifts

Who liked Sezer?

By EMRE AKÖZ, SABAH

DTP wants a constitution recognizing Kurdish reality

Turkey and history: shoot the messenger by Taner Akçam

JTW News - Turkish lesson number one: centers and peripheries in Turkey

Continue reading ""Turkey vote goes to second round" »

Posted by erkan at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am in an internet cafe in Bayburt enjoying my time. It is sunny but not humid day. It has been raining for a while and we now have a nice afternoon. I will upload my notes and photos later and for the time being i am reviewing my bloglines feeds. Here are some excerpts:

Turkey holds new presidency vote

DOSSIER: Abdullah Gul to run again for president | 16/08/2007

Rehn says Gül appreciated in Europe

Rehn: Gul has done a lot to clear Turkey's path to the EU

Continue reading "40 minutes to go for the Presidential election..." »

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Abdullah Gul confirming he will stand as a candidate for president in a vote by parliament this month.

 The man splitting Turkish society - CNN.com

FT.com / Comment & analysis / Editorial comment - Turkish democracy

Do not betray!

By HASAN CEMAL, MİLLİYET

Do not betray democracy again. Abdullah Gül’s candidacy prompted the resurgence of the literature on military respect....

Continue reading "Abdullah Gül's candidacy; splits everywhere..." »

Posted by erkan at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 While Erkan stays up late in a hotel lobby at his first day, Turkish politics is busy with the presidential elections. Because of MHP's decision to attend the election in the parliament, I still don't believe there is a substantial crisis. But of course things are not that calm either.

Gul outlines his presidential priorities

Abdullah Gul, Turkey's probable next president, intends to play a prominent role in foreign affairs if he is elected to the post in the next three weeks by the country's parliament

 FT also claimed that:

Gul defies Turkish military by standing again for presidency

in the mean time,

PM reshuffles half the cabinet

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday continued his efforts to form a new cabinet. He has to select 22 ministers out of many deputies who have strong ministerial ambitions.

From republican meetings to general elections by Prof. Dr. ATİLLA YAYLA

Great rallies were organized in Ankara, İstanbul and İzmir in April under the name of “republican rallies.” Many things were written and said about these rallies; they were given wide coverage by the media and stirred up a variety of feelings in various segments of society.
 

Ahmet Necdet Sezer

By HASAN CEMAL, MİLLİYET

Continue reading ""Gul outlines his presidential priorities" »

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Islamic Calvinist as Turkish president

Turkey's likely next president, Abdullah Gül, is familiar to ESI readers, as he plays a central role in our 2005 report on Islamic Calvinists which explored the social, economic and cultural changes and the role of Islam in his home province of Kayseri. There is more background information on Gül's home region of Kayseri and on other leading figures of the post-election AKP on our website.

 

Conventional wisdoms overthrown

For political forces trying to capitalize on anti-EU sentiments in Turkey the results of the July elections were a surprising setback. The nationalist and EU-skeptical MHP did enter the Turkish parliament, but with a smaller share of the popular vote (14 percent) than in 1999 (18 percent). The no less nationalist Youth Party lost. So did the Islamist Felicity Party. The Democratic Party did not enter parliament despite an election manifesto meant to capitalize on frustration with the EU: "we do not embrace a negotiation process that is open ended and in which the result is not guaranteed … We categorically reject the impositions that are being made on Turkey that are not a part of the Copenhagen Criteria, that threaten Turkey's independence, national sovereignty, unity and safety of borders, and that are only being brought up by the EU because of AKP's submissiveness." The Republican People's Party (CHP), whose leader Deniz Baykal repeatedly warned that "nationalism is this society's main glue … nobody should toy with the nation's honor, and nobody should show disrespect to this nation's basic values", also tried unsuccessfully to benefit from EU-skepticism.

Continue reading "From the new ESI newsletter: Islamic Calvinist as Turkish president" »

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Despite the elitist media row recently, I believe the new presidential election process will be without much row except the usual CHP whining. But one can never be sure and the international quality media this time expects row...

BBC: New Turkey presidency row looms

Turkey's Abdullah Gul says he will run again for president, raising fears of a clash with the army and secular elite.

FT: Turkey set for clashes over presidency

 Turkish Presidential Pick Sets Up Clash, Again - New York Times

Continue reading "Erkan does not believe that a new row looms..." »

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YAVUZ BAYDAR: The political rationale speaks exclusively for Gül

After a very bumpy journey, here we are, about to face the moment of truth. Despite all the efforts of derailing democracy, inventing a fundamentalist boogey man, fictionalizing a climate in which one hoped that the natural trust of the common citizen in a party one voted for would instantly evaporate, the crucial question still remains the same: Will the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) be able to elect a president, nominated by its will, for the next seven years?

OMER TASPINAR: The roots of Turkey’s frustration with west

TURKEY REFUSES TO BACK DOWN ON IRAN ENERGY DEAL - Eurasia Daily Monitor 

Continue reading "AKP nominates Abdullah Gül as the candidate for presidency!" »

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Turkey lines up presidential poll

The Turkish parliament announces a timetable for another attempt to elect a president....Voting for the new president will take place on 20 August, with a second round four days later and the third round on 28 August.

Turkey's newly elected Parliament Speaker Koksal Toptan (front) addresses the members of parliament as Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan (rear L) and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul (rear R) listen at the Turkish parliament in Ankara August 9, 2007. Turkey's parliament elected the ruling AK Party's candidate, non-Islamist conservative Toptan, as its speaker on Thursday after he secured backing from the secularist opposition. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

A moderate man: Köksal Toptan

A man of consensus, romantic, sensitive and a poet, Köksal Toptan, was elected as parliament's 24th speaker of Parliament yesterday. After engaging in politics for the center-right True Path...

The Toptan example

Continue reading ""Turkey lines up presidential poll" »

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 Mainstream Turkish press played "the bad cop" before the elections and now they are playing "the good cop". Influential columnists like Ertuğrul Özkök, not threatens directly any more but asks Mr. Gül to do a favor for the "nation". the PM is now accused of not keeping up his "promise" which is that there would be 'consensus' in electing the President. One of course should ask since when there was a "consensus" in presidential elections? Most of the presidents were generals and all civil presidents were chosen by their own parties, i.e. Özal, Demirel with even fewer votes than Mr. Gül will probably get, and the current President Mr. Sezer's election is a fruit of a coalition government which was formed after the February 28 coup. The establishment party, CHP, once again attempts to fetter the elections and establishment spokesmen in the press become more vocal.

There are lots of points to be discussed but this idea of consensus needs more thought. In a modern society, in a regime of representative democracy, I am not sure a type of consensus like the one propagated now for the presidential election can ever be achieved. Politics make strange bedfellows and we witness it daily but a full-scale consensus ever possible? Will CHP, the embodiment of status quo, ever agree to dismantle the higher education council (YÖK)? No. Then no more words and no more nonsense talk.

Of course, this emphasis on "consensus" is a discursive strategy by some sections of power elites. And some journalists are already in it. But then one asks to what extent they are successful in interpellating the society. So far no success. I speculate that as they increasingly fall apart from the emerging tendencies in society, they will be less effective in their discursive strategies. In the immediate aftermath of elections, some columnists produced some self-critical essays about this situation, but it seems that they are moving back to their older positions. Why? I guess there should be more look at the elite formations...

  Köksal Toptan

Moderate elected Turkish speaker

A moderate conservative from Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party, Koksal Toptan, is elected parliament Speaker.

Turkish parliament elects new speaker

Media elements launch crusade against Gül’s presidency

They’ll get accustomed to the new period

By MÜMTAZ’ER TÜRKÖNE, ZAMAN

Everybody will adapt and get used to the new conditions in Turkey. A country so used to living with crises; which institutionalized its relations, methods and way of doing politics according to crisis conditions, is switching to a serene and peaceful life....

Continue reading "Good cop/bad cop- "Media elements launch crusade against Gül’s presidency..." »

Posted by erkan at 02:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

 Ankara left in political limbo after election and Gul future uncertain as Erdogan picks team... It is claimed that AKP Searches Candidate for Parliament Speaker Among Those Whose Wives Don't Cover Their Heads though I believe this claim is more like a "recommendation from the secularist media and circles" rather than a fact.

In the mean time;  

 Easing Turkey-US Tensions Faces a Catch while Top Turkish diplomat to visit Washington.

  Turkey's Liberal AK Party H. Cuneyd Zapsu. Mr. Zapsu replies back to Mr. Cagaptay...

‘Stop speaking in tongues!’

“The problem is not who will be the president or if his wife wears a headscarf; it is the readjustment of presidential prerogatives in a democratic country.”

The real meaning of the Turkish elections (2) by RICHARD FALK

Why were the soldiers not in Parliament?

By FEHMİ KORU, YENİ ŞAFAK

The absence of soldiers in the spot reserved for them during the swearing-in ceremony last weekend has been interpreted in various ways.

The prime minister’s deadlocks

By CÜNEYT ÜLSEVER, HÜRRİYET

I repeat this every chance I get. If the parliamentary democratic regime is properly implemented, the leader (Recep Tayyip Erdoğan) of the most successful party (the Justice and Development Party [AK Party]) in the last election will become president.

MHP-DTP flirtation draws quiet approval

In the mean time, 

Continue reading ""Ankara left in political limbo after election..." »

Posted by erkan at 06:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A very good journalistic work. 50 most important persons around Mr. Erdoğan. Click here for Hürriyet's portrayal of 50 men...

Turkish Islamic exceptionalism

The landslide victory of the post -Islamist Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the recent parliamentary elections in Turkey has once more drawn attention to the peculiar, sui generic and exceptional characteristics of Islam in Turkey as compared with other Muslim-majority societies.

Representing the Kurds, presenting the solution

Political tension: The DTP and political normalizationby Dr. FAHRETTİN ALTUN

[MONDAY TALK]'Turkey needs an ombudsman for secularism issue'

By YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN

Government to push for reforms before EU report

Portugal’s Futile Fight for Turkey

Top bureaucrats eagerly awaiting new president

Working time flexibility in European companies Source: Eurofound

PostGlobal: Turkey's Elected Islamists

Continue reading "Erdoğan and his 50 men...." »