With the opening of Turkey’s parliament on October 1 and the start of work on replacing the country’s constitution, members of the country’s religious minority groups are hoping that years of institutional and legal discrimination will come to an end in the not-too-distant future.
A fatal blast in Ankara and increasing violence in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast are overshadowing the country’s long-awaited constitutional reform process. The recent troubles will hamper efforts to broaden the rights of the country’s Kurdish minority.
Gezi Park in downtown Istanbul has become the battleground in a struggle over the significance of Ramadan and a growing concern over the chasm that has opened between rich and poor in Turkish society.
Few Turks disagree that the late July resignations of Turkey's armed forces chiefs handed Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a decisive political victory over the military.
These are difficult times for football-crazy Turkey, where a match-fixing scandal is riling fans. Some observers suggest, however, the continuing investigation could mark an important victory for civil society.
Turkey's newly re-elected Justice and Development Party had hoped that parliament’s recent vote of confidence in Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s cabinet would be a powerful reminder of its landslide victory in last month’s general election. Instead, it has become a symbol of a deepening political crisis that could hinder constitutional reform.
With an annual gay pride march planned for this weekend and a vibrant gay nightlife, Istanbul, in many ways, is an oasis for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people in the Muslim world. But instances of hate crimes, along with sluggish police responses, emphasize that Turkey remains divided on the matter of equal rights for LGBT individuals, a new report from Amnesty International suggests.
After retaining control of parliament with nearly 50 percent of the vote, Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party remains fixated on introducing a compulsory Internet filtering system later this summer, even in the face of mounting criticism.
Turkey’s June 12 general election saw the pro-Kurdish movement score its biggest-ever parliamentary victory, with an increase from 20 to 36 seats in the country’s 550-member parliament. Ironically, though, the triumph comes as hopes for a peaceful solution to meeting Kurdish demands are fading.
Tens of thousands of Kurds are taking part in an increasingly potent act of civil disobedience that has become a focal point of an increasingly bitter election contest between the governing Justice and Development Party and Kurdish nationalists in Turkey’s restive Kurdish southeast.
