‘Teflon Tayyip’ has bounced back to win the Turkish presidency but a new leftist party may be the success story of the election They call him “Teflon Tayyip”. The man who can face down the challenge of Gezi Park, where 11 protesters were killed and 8,000 injured, and tell the world that they’re drunks and terrorists. The man who can tell [...] → Read the full article…
At a rally in Bakırköy last Saturday, members of the all-female audience were whipped up like teenagers at a pop concert long before the main speaker arrived. “Who are we waiting for?” teased the compere. “Recep Tayyip Erdoğan!” they roared in reply. When I asked some of the women what they liked about Turkey’s Prime Minister, most struggled at first [...] → Read the full article…
Late one night last summer, at the height of antigovernment demonstrations sweeping Turkey, a group of protest leaders rushed to the home of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, the capital, to negotiate a solution to the growing crisis.They came away with a tentative agreement, but it was never accepted by the rank-and-file protesters, and so the movement was [...] → Read the full article…
ANKARA – The debate over a controversial road construction on the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) campus shows that “some people have not learned their lessons,” according to the outgoing EU ambassador to Turkey. “It is unfortunate that it was undertaken without waiting for the final [court] decision.,” Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, Head of the Delegation of the European Union, told [...] → Read the full article…
By Patrick Cockburn World View: The country could have enhanced its influence and saved a lot of lives. It did the exact opposite Whatever happened to the idea that Turkey was the coming power in the Middle East, with its surging economy and stable democracy under a mildly Islamic government which might be the model for Arab states as they [...] → Read the full article…
AKP deputy Galip Ensarioğlu said 164 policemen faced investigation regarding their conduct during Gezi Resistance protests. However, police authorities announced the toll to be 31. “These numbers are products of imagination,” said Interior Minister Güler. İstanbul – BIA News Desk Police authorities released a statement, saying that 31 active-duty policemen faced investigation due to their conduct during Gezi Resistance protests [...] → Read the full article…
Seyla Benhabib is the Eugene Mayer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at Yale University. Recently, Begum Adalet, Defne Over, Onur Ozgode and Semih Salihoglu interviewed Professor Benhabib about Gezi Park protests, their significance within the wider pattern of cosmopolitan, contentious politics emerging alongside neoliberal global capitalism and their impact on the future of Turkish politics. Gezi Park protests, June 15, 2013 A recent [...] → Read the full article…
Joint Declaration by Alevi organizations in Turkey, Europe, North America and Australia to the world and Turkish public The Turkish media are reporting the presence of proposals relating to the Alevi community in the so-called “democratization package” that is currently being prepared by the AKP government. As much as we can gather from the media, these proposals – presented as [...] → Read the full article…
By Semih Idiz With Ankara acting as one of the principal cheerleaders for a military strike against Syria, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowing Turkey’s participation in any military coalition, increasingly concerned Turks, unaware of what exactly the Turkish contribution will be, are bracing themselves for all possible consequences from a US-led operation against the Syrian regime. Damascus’ chilling [...] → Read the full article…
By Dalia Mortada In Turkey, the government has been outspoken in its support of a foreign intervention in Syria. The country currently hosts close to half a million refugees from its southern neighbor, and thousands more pour in through Turkey’s borders each week. Turkey’s Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out against Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad from the start [...] → Read the full article…