On Tuesday, 23 people, including three former army commanders, a journalist and the leader of a business group, were detained in operations in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, Erzurum and Trabzon as part of an investigation into a powerful and illegal organization suspected of plotting to overthrow the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) […]
Turkish police have detained two retired generals, a leading businessman and a senior journalist, hours ahead of the first hearing in a closure case against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The Anatolia news agency reported that said Ankara Chamber of Commerce (ATO) Chairman Sinan Aygün and the former head of the gendarmerie forces, […]
Article by Mustafa Akyol (for full article, click here):
The people of Damal, a district of the eastern city of Ardahan, couldn’t have imagined that their modest and destitute town would attract droves of visitors and become the focus of the Turkish media. But that is exactly what happened in the past few years with the […]
Yasemin Congar wrote a hard-hitting Opinion piece in Taraf Daily on the Army General Staff’s Information Support Plan, dated September 2007, a document unearthed by Taraf Daily that it claims describes a comprehensive plan of action to intervene in politics and civilian life.
From a Todays Zaman article: The plan went into effect in September 2007, according to the document, […]
What is Ergenekon?
Over the past few months, the Turkish police have arrested a diverse group of shadowy figures, including former military officers, secret police, prosecutors, and others, accused of plotting to overthrow the Turkish government, preparing to assassinate the Turkish Nobel Laureate writer Orhan Pamuk, and of being involved in the murder of other prominent […]
I couldn’t have said it better!
Soli Ozel’s excellent article in today’s Financial Times (click here)
An excerpt:
Turkey’s constitutional court is considering a case to close the ruling Justice and Development party (AKP) and ban 71 of its politicians from politics….
Many voters are offended by this crude attempt to nullify their vote. It is the judicial equivalent […]
Photo by DPA
The German news magazine Spiegel predicts street protests after the expected banning of Turkey’s ruling AK Party around September. Other observers point to the widespread passive acceptance of the closing as a fait accomplis (A coup? “Oh, no, not again!” Shrug.) and the maneuvering that has already begun to get around the closure […]
Excerpts from an article by M. K. Bhadrakumar (former Indian ambassador to Turkey) in Asia Times (click here for full article)
… It seemed for a fleeting moment that last year’s elections in Turkey would lead to engendering a balance between Islam, democracy, secularism and modernity. The AKP secured its mandate as a party […]
Turkey recently ranked 115 out of 140 countries on the Global Peace Index (GPI), which measures the relative peacefulness of nations and regions around the globe. Turkey’s overall peace score was below that of Libya, Cuba, Syria, Jamaica, and Iran.
The GPI forms part of the Institute for Economics and Peace. The report is written in […]
Mustafa Akyol on education and nationalism (excerpts):
One particular discovery of Europeans has been that the secularist Turkish elite is not sharing some of their fundamental values, such as democracy and individual freedom. These European-looking Turks are also quite militarist and nationalist according to Western standards. The curious point is that this illiberal elite of Turkey […]