Monthly Archives: March 2014

The results of Sunday’s local elections — which became a vote of confidence for the governing party — have verified one crucial diagnosis many have been suggesting for some time: The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) under Prime Minister … Continue reading →

No matter how you look at it, the outcome of Sunday’s elections won’t give observers of Turkish politics a reasonable reading of what comes next, in contrast to elections the country has seen in the past. That is because the … Continue reading →

Beleaguered Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s increasingly erratic and miscalculated – but not irrational — behavior does not fit into any sound political science theories and as such makes it difficult to provide future projections for analysts and observers … Continue reading →

Drawing a lesson from the confrontation over two small and uninhabited islets called Imia/Kardak in the Aegean Sea, which led to a quick escalation of tension between Turkey and Greece in 1996 and helped to boost then-Prime Minister Tansu Çiller’s … Continue reading →

The Hizmet movement, inspired by Muslim scholar Fethullah Gülen, is a formidable actor in catalyzing change for a better Turkey and will remain so for the foreseeable future as a non-political force to be reckoned with. It does not need … Continue reading →

Turkey will likely enter a new transitional period when beleaguered Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has now become a major drag on his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) amid massive corruption scandals, realizes he is done with governing. … Continue reading →

The purpose of the two headlines run by government mouthpieces Star and Yeni Şafak claiming that over 7,000 people were wiretapped as part of the “Tawhid-Salam” (aka Tevhid-i Selam or Jerusalem Army) investigation was to discredit a secret probe that … Continue reading →

Nobody believes that the mass culling and reassignment of up to 10,000 public officials (most from the police department and the judiciary and many of whom are mid-level and senior personnel) so far by embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan … Continue reading →

It is absolutely appalling to realize how far Iranian clandestine activities have penetrated deep into Turkish state institutions with practically unhindered access to the top political leadership of the country, dominated by political Islamists and Iran sympathizers. Thanks to the … Continue reading →