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Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Turkey’s Internal Power Struggle

Reining in the Gülenists can be seen as a welcome development, but it will also consolidate Erdoğan’s already alarming monopolization of power… Continue reading

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How Serious is Erdogan about Joining the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Instead of the EU?

Erdoğan is not going to initiate a divorce from the EU, but he may very well hope that the Europeans will “relieve” Turkey… Continue reading

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The End of Taraf: The Liberals Have Outlived their Usefulness for the AKP

The mood among the few remaining, scattered liberal voices in the Turkish media landscape is gloomy as critical expression in Turkey is being systematically narrowed… Continue reading

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Fighting Blind: The AKP’s Increasingly Hardline Kurdish Policy

Even if the Turkish military wins every battle against the PKK, an even more dangerous war is being lost… Continue reading

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Egypt “Democratically” Adopts an Anti-Western Dictatorship

What are the next steps for Mursi?… Continue reading

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Revolutionary Islamism Overshadows the “New Egypt”

What are the early warning signs of an Islamist totalitarian state… Continue reading

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Contemporary Kemalist Intellectuals: Europeanizers Against Europe?

During the last decades, Kemalism, the modernization ideology of the Republic of Turkey, has been vehemently criticized… Continue reading

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Breaking Anchor: Turkey’s Disappearing EU Accession Process

The European Commission issued its most critical report on Turkey’s progress towards meeting the criteria for EU membership since accession negotiations were formally inaugurated in 2005… Continue reading

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Egypt’s Islamist President Assumes Dictatorial Powers

Egypt’s President Morsi assumes sweeping powers, branded new pharaoh… Continue reading

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Erdogan’s Way – Confrontation at Home and Abroad – May be Backfiring

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party has been well served by the confrontational style of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan… Continue reading

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Bluff and Bravado: Turkey’s Long Presidential Campaign

President Abdullah Gül criticized the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan for its failure to push ahead with Turkey’s bid for EU membership and protested the continuing imprisonment of seven elected opposition members of the assembly… Continue reading

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Reverting to His Roots

It is becoming increasingly obvious that Turkey’ ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is reverting to its Islamist roots… Continue reading

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Watching the new state of South Sudan fall into chaos

The worst problem South Sudan faces is tribalism, despite the unity that was cultivated among South Sudanese rebels during decades of resistance to Khartoum’s aggressive campaigns of Islamization… Continue reading

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The General who Staged the 1980 Coup is Put on Trial, But His Legacy Reigns Supreme

The trial of the two surviving members of the junta that seized power on September 12, 1980, in a coup that altered Turkey’s course, is an historic event, but… Continue reading

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No Escape from Authoritarianism? Turkey Suffers from the Lack of a Constituency for Liberal Change

Turkey’s old habits of state authoritarianism persist under the rule of the AKP… Continue reading

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The Coalition Crumbles: Erdoğan, the Gülenists, and Turkish Democracy

The authority of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been challenged by the security apparatus, the police and parts of the judiciary that enjoy the backing of the brotherhood of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen… Continue reading

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A House Divided Against Itself: The Deteriorating State of Media Freedom in Turkey

Most international attention has focused on the more than 100 journalists who are now in jail in Turkey as a result of what they have written or said… Continue reading

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Arabism Is Dead! Long Live…?

Many of the arguments and assumptions that governed the Arabic-speaking world for six decades have simply vanished… Continue reading

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The Changing Objects of Fear: The Arrest of Ilker Basbug

In the early hours of January 6, General İlker Başbuğ, chief of the Turkish General Staff from 2008 to 2010, was arrested and imprisoned on allegations of “founding or directing an armed terrorist organization, inciting the overthrow of the government of the Turkish Republic or the prevention of it fulfilling its duties”… Continue reading

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Has Erdogan Reached His “Democratic Limits”?

Internal and external dynamics no longer compel Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to transcend his democratic limits… Continue reading

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Beyond Memory and Imagination: Civil-Military Relations and Turkey’s New Authoritarianism

The resignations on July 29, 2011, of the Turkish chief of staff and all three force commanders are without precedent in… Continue reading

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Erdogan headed for significant Win as Turks cast Votes

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to return to office for a third consecutive term as Turks began voting… Continue reading

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Turkey’s Threshold

Turkey faces what could be historic elections on June 12. Opinion polls suggest the ruling Justice and Development Party… Continue reading

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Will Turkey’s Next Constitution be a Societal Covenant Imbued with Respect for Differences?

Agreeing upon the rules for how they are going to live together, with mutual respect for differences, is the fundamental challenge that faces… Continue reading

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Turkey Remains an “Angry Nation” but could still serve as a Democratic Inspiration

Turkey remains an “Angry nation”, tormented by the many ghosts of its history, some of which still lurk in the shadows. Its political system… Continue reading