“Constitutional reform: a summary of key amendments

Serap Yazıcı

Constitutional reform: a summary of key amendments

Serap Yazıcı has a very useful article in the most recent issue of Insight Turkey, outlining the constitutional amendments that are currently with the Constitutional Court for consideration and that are set to be voted on in a referendum on 12 September.

The most controversial of the proposed amendments relate to changes in the higher echelons of Turkey?s judiciary. These are seen by critics as a dangerous land-grab by the AK Party government.

Summary of the Workshop ?The Reflections of Turkey-EU Relations beyond Politics: Watching the Daily Life? by Ayca Tunc

Ayca Tunc reports on the Research Workshop The Reflections of Turkey-EU Relations beyond Politics: Watching the Daily Life

I am a final year PhD student in Media Arts Department at Royal Holloway College, University of London. Together with Didem Buhari Gulmez and Baris Gulmez, two fellow PhD students in the Politics and International Relations Department (PIR), I co-organized a Research Workshop which received generous funding from the Royal Holloway Graduate School, the PIR Centre for Global and Transnational Politics and Royal Holloway?s Annual Fund. The theme of this interdisciplinary workshop, which was held on 5 May 2010, was ?Turkey-EU relations?.

Turkey’s New Diplomacy

International Herald Tribune
I take exception to Thomas Friedman’s two ?Letters from Istanbul? (Views, June 17 and 21). It is common practice for states in conflicts to use the media in

The Quote of the Week: ?Turkish Parliamentarians? by Dr. Elise Massicard

Excerpt from Elise Massicard, « Differences in role orientation among Turkish MPs », European Journal of Turkish Studies [Online], 3 | 2005, Online since 04 janvier 2010.

How do MPs perceive these contradictory expectations? How do they rationalize their role-set? As a matter of fact, all the MPs I have interviewed declared that they perceived divergent role expectations. In his memoirs, Kocaoğlu states that expectations from the voters and from his party (ANAP) diverged: ?The voter (?) does not ask you what you have done for the European Union. But he wants a weapon permit, he wants a job in the civil service, he wants the appointment or the promotion of somebody from his home region, he wants his nephew who failed the exam to pass in the next class (?) And you, by force, you get busy with these strange affairs. Because if you don?t do that, you?re considered to be a ?bad MP?? (Kocaoğlu 2003: 48). ?In general, the party organisation gives excessive importance to personal advantages and spoil demands? (Kocaoğlu 2003: 27).

Only Turkey can play ultimate mediator role in Islamic world, US expert says

ŞAHİN ALPAY – Liberal principles inspire Turkish foreign policy

İHSAN DAĞI – A ?sickening? letter from Congressman Ackerman

[Systemic precepts — state politics] Turkey?s realpolitik in context of conflict (1) by Bala Çelebi Şentürk

Egyptian analyst Howeidy: Turkey embarrassed Arab regimes

Egyptian political analyst Fahmy Howeidy has said most of the Arab governments are not happy with the Turkish role in the Middle East because of Turkey’s firm stance against Israel as opposed to the standing of the Arabic regimes.

HASAN KANBOLAT – A critical look at the still shallow Turkish-Arab rapprochement

KERİM BALCI – The language of EU accession

Journalists create a world of words. This world is a world of perceptions, images, prejudices and labels. More often than not the link between actual reality and the media coverage of it are not as determined as one would expect.

Response to Thomas Friedman and his ‘letters’ from Istanbul

Does one need to go by the name Thomas Friedman to be such a superficial ?analyst,? to be a writer of columns that glisten with shallowness? This is the question that arises, inevitably, when one reads his two recent articles titled ?Letter From İstanbul,? published by The New York Times on June 15 and 18.