Vulture parties are swooping in to land and position themselves to pick up votes after the AK Party is closed.
A new political party was announced today, the Hak ve Hakikat Partisi. My preliminary translation is Truth and Reality Party (each of the terms has a number of meanings. Hak also means right and justice. Hakikat […]
Read today’s insightful column by Sahin Alpay:
The Constitutional Court in Ankara will [continue] its deliberations on the closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AKP) today. There are basically two alternatives for the court: It will either decide to ban the party or not. Whatever the verdict, it is guaranteed to have a deep […]
Photo from Zaman
The Constitutional Court has completed its meeting today in regard to the case calling for closure of the ruling AK Party, which is accused of undermining secularism, and the banning of 71 of its politicians from politics for five years. No decision was reached today after 13 hours of deliberation. The court […]
For a cellphone video of the second explosion as it occurs, click here, then play the screen that says Cihan in the top right corner. Seconds before the blast, a man in a black shirt is seen suspiciously running from the scene. In the video, it has been marked by a red square.
For a video […]
Next Monday is D-Day, when the court meets to decide about closing the AKP. A decision may be announced that day or the next. Hold on to your hat. I’ll be very surprised if they don’t close it down. With the vast Ergenekon conspiracy of coup attempts being unearthed and new arrests every week, as […]
From “Why Are Neocons Attacking Turkey? by Avni Dogru in Foreign Policy in Focus
(for article, click here) Excerpt below:
Much has changed in Turkey’s approach to foreign policy in recent years. When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, it quickly broke the old patterns of Turkish foreign policy. Turkey’s role evolved […]
Turkey Meets “Kemalist Terror” , by Mustafa Akyol. (click here)
[Last week], we heard at least a summary of the indictment in the Ergenekon case from Istanbul’s chief prosecutor, Aykut Cengiz Engin. Among the many striking things he noted, one was very new to Turkey. He said that Ergenekon was a “terrorist organization” that “used the […]
From Today’s Zaman:
Turkey’s Constitutional Court will start a final hearing on a case to close the governing AK Party for alleged Islamist activities on July 28, a court official said on Tuesday. The 11 judges will meet behind closed doors to reach a verdict in a case that also […]
This month-by-month summary and evaluation of recent crucial events in Turkey includes the AKP closure case and the AKP’s options, Ergenekon (including short bios of major characters), the headscarf issue, the new constitution, and the Kurdish situation.
Click here.
Excerpts from The Economist article on Turkey (for full article, click here)
… Many see the campaign to topple the AKP as part of a long battle pitting an old guard, used to monopolising wealth and power, against a rising class of pious Anatolians symbolised by the AKP. Others say it is mostly about an army […]