The foreign policy of Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, has been described by some as "neo-Ottoman." And now, after a recent shakeup in the state body responsible for overseeing Islam nationally, some experts are wondering whether the AKP is mulling plans to resurrect the Ottoman-era institution of the Caliphate.
Could a revolution in Turkey within the political party founded by Ataturk actually be occurring? It is a word many observers are using these days, after the head of the chief opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP, recently overhauled the party’s leadership.
A scandal is brewing in Turkey around judicial proceedings against a group of men accused of murdering Hrant Dink, a prominent Turkish-Armenian journalist. Interior Ministry bureaucrats are being assailed for acting above the law, and the government in general is facing criticism for not doing enough to pursue allegations of official misconduct.
Turkey's most powerful religious group, the Fethullah Gulen Movement, has been feted at home and abroad as a model of moderate Islam. These days, however, the group’s reputation appears to be taking a hit in a controversy involving the arrest of a popular senior police officer.
Homosexuality and sexual violence on prime time Turkish television: there is a lot of shocking stuff being broadcast in Turkey these days. And Turkish conservatives are horrified.
Have Turkey's Kurds discovered the power of Gandhi and Rosa Parks?
It certainly looked that way in mid-September as thousands of school children across Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast stayed away from school to protest the lack of Kurdish-language education in Turkish state schools.
Turkish voters on September 12 will cast ballots on a constitutional referendum that has encouraged the polarization of society, and has taken on the appearance of a vote of confidence in the country's charismatic prime minister.
The stage erupts into flashing blue and white light. The music is thunderous. A little girl from Mozambique appears, dressed in a traditional costume.
"Hello Turkey,” she shouts in Turkish, the microphone fastened behind her right ear, Houston ground control-style. "Turkey," she shouts again, "I want to see your hands."
