Latest Articles about Turkey
TURKISH GENERAL PILLORIED BY THE FUNDAMENTALIST PRESS
Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey 85 years ago, the Turkish Armed Forces (Turk Silahli Kuvvetleri--TSK) has seen itself as the guardian of the nation’s secular Kemalist traditions. The unresolved tension between the country’s Islamic heritage and its secular traditions is rising due... MORE
THE BLACK SEA OIL FIELDS MAY MAKE TURKEY ENERGY INDEPENDENT
In recent years Turkey has geared up its efforts to diversify its energy sources. The State Planning Agency estimated that there is a need for an $80 billion investment in the next 15 years to meet the country’s energy needs (Dogu Karadeniz Bolgesi Bolgesel Gelisme... MORE
SYRIA PROPOSES NUCLEAR COOPERATION WITH TURKEY
On June 13, during a visit to Istanbul for the Third Turkish-Arab Economic Forum, Syrian Oil Minister Sufiyan al-AW announced that Syria and Turkey were preparing to create a joint oil company to conduct oil prospecting activities in Syria, Turkey and third countries. Al-AW said... MORE
TURKEY’S LAST TABOO
On June 12 the public prosecutor in the Istanbul neighborhood of Beyoglu initiated a criminal investigation of two young women wearing head scarves who had told the host of a popular television program that they did not like Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938), who founded the... MORE
TURKEY BEGINNING TO PAY THE PRICE FOR POOR PLANNING, POPULISM IN ENERGY
On June 11 the Turkish Privatization Administration (PA), which handles sales under the country’s privatization program, announced that it had received just five bids each for the electricity distribution grids in the capital of Ankara and the northwestern city of Sakarya. In 2006, 24 companies... MORE
DOES TURKISH-RUSSIAN AGRICULTURAL DISPUTE HAVE UNDERLYING CAUSES?
From Cold War enemies on opposite sides, Turkey and Russia have developed flourishing trade ties since 1991, so much so that last year bilateral trade exceeded $20 billion. Now a dispute over Turkish agricultural exports to the Russian Federation threatens to disrupt the burgeoning trade.... MORE
TURKEY’S AKP FINALLY BEGINS TO PREPARE FOR THE INEVITABLE
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has finally begun to prepare for what now appears to be its almost inevitable closure by the country’s Constitutional Court, according to reports in the Turkish media. On March 14 Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya applied to the Constitutional... MORE
COURT POSTPONES SEMDINLI HEARING ONCE AGAIN
On June 6 the military court in the southeastern city of Van once again postponed a scheduled hearing in a case brought against three members of the security forces who are accused of carrying out an extra-judicial execution in the Kurdish town of Semdinli in... MORE
TURKISH MILITARY RALLIES BEHIND JUDICIARY IN HEADSCARF CASE
The Turkish military has been quick to endorse the June 5 ruling of the country’s Constitutional Court annulling the attempts by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to create a legal framework for lifting the ban that currently prevents women wearing headscarves from attending... MORE
TURKISH PUBLIC PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR INVESTIGATION OF ALLEGED COUP PLOT
Public Prosecutor Suleyman Aydin has called for an investigation into allegations of a 2004 plot to topple Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), according to a report in the Islamist daily Zaman (June 4). In March 2007 the weekly news magazine Nokta published what... MORE