A woman's group is stirring controversy in Turkey with a campaign to elect headscarf-wearing women to parliament. Some of the fiercest opposition to the initiative is coming not from secularists, but from religious conservatives.
The credibility of a four-year investigation into a vast coup conspiracy in Turkey is coming under assault after Istanbul prosecutors accused two journalists acclaimed for their work revealing military abuses of being co-conspirators.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu declared a successful end February 28 to what he called "the most comprehensive evacuation operation" in Turkey's history, as the arrival at an Istanbul airport of 132 Turks caught in Libyan fighting pushed the total number of Turks repatriated during the past week to over 17,500.
Tens of thousands of Turkish Cypriots are preparing a second round of protests against Turkey in early March. There is a growing mood of bitterness among Turkish Cypriots over the way nationalist electioneering in Cyprus and Turkey, along with Ankara's fading enthusiasm for European Union accession, is eroding hopes for a lasting settlement on the divided Mediterranean island.
It has been a whirlwind 18 months for Turkey's international reputation. Just a year ago, as Turkish-Israeli relations cooled and Turkish-Iranian relations warmed, Western media portrayed Turkey as a country shifting on its axis toward the Muslim Middle East.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a former Islamist politician who has restyled himself as a conservative democrat, has made use of Islamist-tinged populism in the past.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on February 1 joined a growing chorus of critics taking aim at embattled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Given Turkey’s rising influence in the Muslim world, Erdogan’s words seemed set to catalyze Egyptian protesters. His comments also underscored a looming democratization dilemma for Ankara.
The flight of nine of 10 convicted terrorists who were recently released from prison pending the outcome of their appeal is driving a whirlwind debate in Turkey about flaws in the judicial system.
If you ask practicing Turkish Muslims, virtually all will tell you there is one Islam, based on one Koran, and one set of traditions of the Prophet. But very few Turks speak Arabic, the language of the Koran, and a recent proliferation of translations and commentaries.
An armed Kurdish group slowly weaning itself off Marxist-Leninism and a powerful Islamic movement that preaches interfaith dialogue laced with Turkish nationalism: the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Fethullah Gulen Movement do not seem to be natural bed-fellows.
