So some ice-breaking manouevres happen between PM Erdoğan and main opposition leader Baykal. Mr. Baykal plays the capricious partner. They have to meet and talk about reforms but this could not be done because of Baykal’s boycott. So we hear Erdoğan sends a gently written letter and Baykal replies him back and they are now deciding the time, place and conditions of their date. Latest request includes having cameras, having all the meeting recorded. Erdoğan did not like the idea according to today’s news reports. Since when dates are recorded anyway? 🙂
a huge roundup on Turkish politics. (it looks like Erkan is back with roundups)
Erdoğan-Baykal meeting inspires limited hope
A letter six pages too long
Why is it that everything conciliatory regarding Deniz Baykal, the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), becomes an issue of endless and fruitless rhetoric? Many may argue that it is particularly this attitude of his, rather than what he defends or reacts to, that causes deep frustration with his powerful rival in government, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Turkey?s new political discourse: Ülke without vatan
As a new academic year starts
The 2009-2010 academic year started this week. Criticism regarding the education system in general focuses on physical facilities. It is said that about 150,000 more teachers and about 100,000 more classrooms are needed for primary and secondary education, while accommodation and academic facilities for university students are being criticized.
Passive secularism and the poverty of the Kemalists
Last week Professor Ergun Özbudun gave an interview about a book he had co-authored with Professor William Hale titled ?Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey.? In the interview Professor Özbudun underlined the need for adopting a ?passive secularism? instead of an authoritarian one.
What kind of secularism? Policies, justifications, and scope (Comment on the interview with Dr. Kuru)
Sune Lægaard is assistant professor in Philosophy and affiliated with the Centre for the Study of Equality and Multiculturalism at the University of Copenhagen. Among his publications are ?Normative Interpretations of Diversity: The Danish Cartoons Controversy and the Importance of Context?, Ethnicities 9(3), August 2009; ?Moderate Secularism and Multicultural Equality?, Politics 28(3), September 2008; ?Moderate Secularism, Difference Sensitivity, and Contextualism: A Rejoinder to Modood?, Politics 29(1), January 2009; Nils Holtug, Kasper Lippert-Rasmussen and Sune Lægaard (Eds.), Nationalism and Multiculturalism in a World of Immigration (Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2009).
AK Party policies redefine the values of conservatism and nationalism
INTERVIEW WITH DR. JOCHEN WALTER ON TURKEY AND WORLD SOCIETY
Dr. Jochen Walter holds a PhD from Bielefeld University, Germany. His research interests include theories of international community and world society, constructivist methodology and processes of European identity formation. He is member of the Institute for World Society Studies (Bielefeld University) and research associate at the collaborative research center ?The Political as Communicative Space in History? (Bielefeld University). Latest publications: Transnational Political Spaces. Agents-Structures-Encounters (ed. with M. Albert, G. Bluhm, A. Leutzsch, J. Helmig)(Frankfurt/New York, 2009); Die Türkei-?Das Ding auf der Schwelle?.(De-)Konstruktionen der Grenzen Europas (Wiesbaden, 2008).
Turkish foreign policy after the end of Cold War: Response to Paula Sandrin
By Dr. Rabia Karakaya Polat (Işık University, TURKEY)
Paula Sandrin?s contribution on the recent changes in Turkish foreign policy (TFP) orientation draws upon securitization theory in explaining these changes. Securitization theory provides her the tools to demonstrate the links between domestic and foreign policy. The contribution of securitization theory to her work can be increased with more insights from this literature especially on the following points:
INTERVIEW WITH PROF. AYHAN KAYA ON TURKISH POLITICS
Prof. Ayhan Kaya,Professor of Political Science, Istanbul Bilgi University (Turkey)
Lecturer at the Department of International Relations, Istanbul Bilgi University; Director of the European Institute; specialised on European identities, Euro-Turks in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Islam in Europe, Circassian diaspora in Turkey, and the construction and articulation of modern diasporic identities; received his PhD and MA degrees at the University of Warwick; his latest book is on the comparison of contemporary 
integration, citizenship and integration regimes of Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands (Islam, Migration and Integration: The Age of Securitization, London: Palgrave, 2009 May);
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