Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appears to see the construction of a canal near Istanbul that would link the Black and Marmara seas as a lynchpin of his political legacy. But political experts and economists are viewing the project with caution, worrying that it could have a destabilizing impact on existing energy and security arrangements.
With just weeks to go before Turkey’s June 12 parliamentary vote, discontent among the country’s ethnic Kurdish minority is fostering political uncertainty for the governing Justice and Development Party.
When Apple’s iPad went on sale recently in Turkey it sold out in less than an hour. The voracious appetite of Turks for web gadgetry seems matched only by the Turkish government’s desire to control access to the Internet.
As Turkey gears up for a general election in June, the government has pledged to investigate the fates of the thousands of citizens who vanished during the government’s decades-long crackdown on individuals suspected of aiding Kurdish rebels. But questions persist about how thorough that investigation will be.
In one of Istanbul's numerous chic cafes in the central Beyoglu district, Eleni Varmazi sits drinking a coffee, savoring city life. Varmazi teaches media studies at one of Istanbul's numerous private English-speaking universities. She’s also a member of the vanguard of Greeks coming to Turkey to work.
When Turkish rail workers began construction on a tunnel that would connect Europe and Asia and relieve traffic congestion in the heart of Istanbul in 2004, they hoped to finish the project by 2010. What they didn’t count on was the discovery of the city’s largest Byzantine-era harbor, Port Theodosias, along the way.
