The first elections after the Arab Spring challenge the 'political correctness' concerning the idea of democracy.
What started as an intra-party row within the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has reignited debate over the controversial Dersim killings (1937-38) and turned into a debate between the opposition and...
The rising tension between Turkey and Israel is not the only a problem of confrontational regional relations, but it may also have serious implications on domestic politics.
The Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is only to be celebrated for being wise and courageous to advise “secularism” and democracy to Egyptians. It was also very good answer to the Turkish secularists who have long been skeptical of Erdoğan’s sincerity concerning secularism.
The aphorism “Peace at home, peace in the world” is often cited to summarize Kemalist foreign policy and suggests a “quietist policy.” In fact, early republican foreign policy meant denouncing the Ottoman past and the troubles of World War I and much has changed since then.
Finally, the Peace and Democracy Party, or BDP, decided to end its boycott and went to the Grand National Assembly. Everybody seems to be happy, so far. In fact, it is not a matter of being optimistic or not to have “great expectations” from this “happy end” since Kurdish question is too complicated to be solved only by BDP and “parliamentary politics”.
I do not define myself as an “optimist”. In fact, I have been accused of being “very pessimistic” on many occasions, for my comments on politics in Turkey. Nevertheless, observing Turkish politics for so long, I started to think that in fact maybe the opposite was true and I have been very optimistic concerning the political developments.
U.S. President Barack Obama thanked Turkey for its support in Afghanistan and Libya when he met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his last visit to the United States. Then, it seems that Obama focused on the “Syrian problem” in his meeting with the Turkish prime minister.
The protests and revolutions that swept across the Arab world this year began last December with the self immolation of a Tunisian street vendor. The Oct. 23 Constituent Assembly elections in Tunisia constitute the first open democratic elections in many decades. Coming after the referendum in Egypt, this election is crucial not only for Tunisia but for the whole Arab World.
