For quite a while now Turkey has been debating whether the “Presidential System” would be suitable for the country. Opinion leaders have expressed that PM Erdoğan has made it clear he would be in favor of such a system switch in the Turkish democracy whereas many believe this would make the number one politician of Turkey even more authoritarian. The members of the ruling party have already started to talk ...

U.S. President Obama and Turkish PM Erdoğan had a meeting at White House on Thursday 16th May 2013. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, EU Minister Egemen Bağış and Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan were among the many representatives participating in the meeting on behalf of the Turkish delegation. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel also took part in the large meeting. The ...

Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu explains why his party has so far refused to be part of the ongoing peace effort. DHA photo Turkey’s main opposition head, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has criticized government’s regional policies, and referred to their efforts making the analogy “a surrogate mother for new formations in the Middle East". While explaining his p ...

Following Öcalan’s historic call on March 21 for the withdrawal, as a result of the ongoing efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Kurdish issue, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) will start withdrawing from Turkish soil on May 8th 2013. Murat Karayılan, the senior leader at the PKK base of the Kandil Mountains in northern Iraq has announced the armed members of the terror organization are sch ...

On the way to working out the Kurdish issue to establish peace in the country, the government of Turkey has took initiative to put together a bunch of people called “wise people” including artists, musicians, journalists, academics, intellectuals and representatives from non-governmental organizations who are expected to assume the task of persuading public to support one of the most important milestones in ...

21st March 2013.. Nevruz Day.. It was the day for the long awaited message from OCALAN (jailed leader of outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party) to be delivered to the people of Turkey (and not only Kurds to be realistic). Over a million people gathered in Diyarbakır’s Nevruz Park in the early hours of the morning to celebrate Nevruz and could not wait to hear with much excitement and curiosity the historic mess ...

Diyarbakır, the southeastern city of Turkey populated with citizens of Kurdish ethnicity mainly is scheduled to witness a major celebration event on March 21st, this year. As the armed conflict between Turkey and outlawed pro-Kurdish terror organization seems to be coming near the end (hopefully) and the jailed leader of the organization keeps sending peace messages from IMRALI island where he has been kept ...

It seems that the government is very determined to put an end to the terror issue which has cost tens of thousands of lives (of both Kurdish and Turkish origin) in Turkey during the few decades. In fact, the ruling AKP and the BDP often express they are committed to the ongoing process of finding a peaceful resolution to the issue. A peaceful solution has never been closer as some experts have stated and bo ...

It is reported that US State Secretary Kerry is scheduled to visit Ankara on his tour to Europe and Middle East region between February 24 and March 6. The secretary is known to have important issues on his agenda such as priorities to attend to after the crisis in Syria comes to an end. Among countries the secretary is expected to visit are the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, Saudi A ...

It is expressed by authorities that Turkey and EU have made a good start in 2013, regarding accession process of Turkey to the Union. In fact, it is also reported that new chapters are very likely to be opened in 2013 as expressed by Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert (head of Turkey delegation) at the Turkey-EU Joint Parliamentary Commission in the Turkish Parliament on Thursday. Referring to the meeting atten ...

The importance of Turkey has been endorsed again by a top important politician, namely Van der Linden, former Pace president. Mr. Van der Linden stated in an interview that Turkey was extremely important for the future of European continent. The former president of the Senate of the Dutch Parliament and former president of the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) Senator Rene van der Linden we ...

It is a known fact nowadays that Turkey and the United States disaccord in regards several major foreign policy issues and have been experiencing sort of tension between administrations, from time to time. Now, on top of this unfavorable situation the most recent critical comments from the U.S. Ambasssador regarding the undemocratic nature of the Turkish judicial system has caused great disturbance in gover ...

Turkey’s possible membership in the Shanghai Cooperation would be interesting, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Jan. 28. A few days ago Turkish PM was reported to have said in a TV interview that Turkey was seriously considering seeking membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) as an alternative at a time when EU does not seem to have a bright future. The conflict of in ...

Turkey, in parallel with its foreign policies for the past decade has been trying to be actively involved in the ever so complex Middle East politics, in particular. As Turkish Foreign Minister has often put it, Turkey wants to secure its place among major players in the region. Within this scope Turkish PM has also paid plenty of visits to the countries in the region to improve relations with concerned cou ...

After three Kurdish women were found dead on Thursday morning at Kurdish Information Center in Paris many statements have been made by parties concerned. In the meantime it was reported that Kurdish women were shot in the head which seemed to be an execution killing. PM Erdoğan commenting on the issue said that Turkey was expecting French state to find the suspects after slaying of three Kurdish women in Pa ...

A very interesting development has been reported in regards to the practices of the current government in Turkey. It has been on the agenda for a while that the Turkish government has been receiving criticism from some western sources that the rule of law and protect political freedoms in Turkey does not comply with the standards accepted in the western world. To be in parallel to this argument some leading ...

The government of Ak Party has been holding meetings with Abdullah Ocalan, jailed head of PKK terror organization for a while to stop violence exercised by pro-Kurdish terrorists in the country. Simultaneously, this plan conducted by the government has started to receive much and very strıng criticism from nationalistic front in specific, Nationalist Party to be in the first row. Accordingly, Mr. Devlet BAH ...

Terror problem has been the main headache for Turkey for the last 20 years. Several administrations to include the current Ak Party (AKP) government have failed to bring a solution to the issue which has cost tens of thousands of lives, both soldiers and civil citizens. AKP government tried to start an initiative which it called the Kurdish Opening which was later revised to Democratic Opening and din not m ...

In compliance with the agreement with Nato, Turkey has started to receive the Patriot missiles to help the country defend against any threats to come from neighbouring Syria. Germany, The Netherlands and the United States had agreed earlier to supply the ground-to-air missile batteries, which Turkey requested after repeated cross-border shelling from Syria, including an October attack that killed five civil ...

In 2012, Turkey suffered from many political issues, "Kurdish opening" to be in the first row. This certainly had to do with many armed raids by the pro-Kurdish terror organization and caused deaths of many soldiers and regular citizens. The reason put forward by the pro-Kurdish front was to get democratic rights such as "the rights to use Kurdish as native language at schools and a more powerful and author ...

Turkey and Israel were two friendly countries in the Middle East until the Mavi Marmara raid by Israeli commandos a few years back. Since said incident, Turkey has been demanding an apology from Israel for having killed passengers on board after stopping the vessel carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza. It has often been stated since then that Turkey and Israel have stopped their direct relations in spite of se ...

After incidents between students and the police at METU (Middle East technical University) in Ankara, PM Erdoğan said “The main opposition CHP and the media are encouraging student violence, PM Erdoğan” As controversy over protests at ODTÜ continue thousand of students marhced at the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) yesterday. On the same day ODTÜ rector Ahmet Acar was scheduled to meet with Prime Mi ...

The Court in charge of ODA TV case has ruled to release journalist Yalçın today. The case called Odatv (an online news portal) started after a police raid to Odatv' offices in February 2011 as part of the ongoing Ergenekon investigation. The owner and journalist Soner Yalcin had been in prison for nearly two years. The prosecutor has charged Odatv defendants for several charges  and to be most important of ...