Latest Articles about Turkey

TURKEY COURTS AFRICA

As American, European, and Asian governments and markets nervously contemplate the economic chaos of the past month, Turkey is quietly pressing forward with plans to increase its presence in the world's most distressed continent—Africa. On September 22 while attending the 63rd session of the UN... MORE

AKP PUSHES AHEAD WITH NUCLEAR POWER TENDER

Despite calls for a delay, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is pushing ahead to award the tender for building the country’s first nuclear power plant. On September 24 the state-owned Turkish Electricity Trading and Contracting, Inc., (TETAS) will open the bids for building... MORE

FACT, FANTASY, AND FARCE AS MORE ARE DETAINED IN ERGENEKON PROBE

On September 18 the Turkish security forces detained 19 more people as part of the continuing judicial investigations into a shadowy ultranationalist group known to the Turkish media as Ergenekon (see Terrorism Focus, January 29). The Ergenekon investigation was launched following the discovery of a... MORE

ERDOGAN LAMBASTS EU OVER SLOW PACE OF TURKISH ACCESSION

On September 16 Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan harshly criticized the EU for the slow pace of Turkey’s accession negotiations. Speaking at an iftar—the meal at sunset at which Muslims break their daytime fast during the month of Ramadan—held for foreign ambassadors in Ankara,... MORE

WALL STREET CHAOS AFFECTS TURKEY

The reverberations from the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers investment bank after its shares dropped more than 80 percent before the September 15 opening bell on the New York Stock Exchange have thrown Wall Street into a volatile situation with worldwide echoes, and the fiscal uncertainties... MORE

DTP PRESENTS FINAL DEFENSE IN CLOSURE CASE

On September 16 the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) presented its final defense in the case filed for its closure at the Turkish Constitutional Court. Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya first applied to the court for the DTP’s closure on November 16, 2007, arguing that it... MORE

POLL SUGGESTS ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN IS ERODING AKP’S POPULARITY

A recent public opinion poll conducted by the Sonar Research company suggests that the slowdown in the Turkish economy is eroding the popularity of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Sonar Research interviewed 2,927 people in 22 of Turkey’s 81 provinces over the period... MORE

TURKEY LAUNCHES KARABAKH PEACE INITIATIVE

On September 10 Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan announced that he expected to meet with his Azeri and Armenian counterparts in New York later this month on the fringes of the annual UN General Assembly meetings to discuss a solution to the problem of Karabakh... MORE

ALL THE PRIME MINISTER’S MEN?

Over the last week, the domestic political agenda in Turkey has been dominated by an unprecedented war of words between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Dogan Group, the largest media organization in the country. The confrontation has swept both the repercussions of President... MORE