Polarization, hate and hostility are eroding Turkey’s social, political, and economic accomplishments, Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD) Chairwoman Ümit Boyner has said. Terrorist activities and the deaths, suffering families and collective sorrows they cause have been on Turkey’s agenda for a long time, Boyner said, speaking at the association’s Supreme Consultation Council (YİK) on Sept. ...

Turkey which received a real strong applause from western democracies for a long time - until a short while ago - has been attracting criticism for a while  from some major unbiased sources in those countries. This criticism is mainly targeted at the pressure exerted on the press, institutions and citizens by the current administration - and the head of government, in specific. One of the harshest articles ...

President Gül is expected to make a public statement to end the argument regarding a debate over the presidential elections, set to take place in 2014. Turkey’s head of state and head of government are seeking to leave a recent row over the future of the Turkish presidency behind them, with President Abdullah Gül expected to soon make a public statement to end the argument. Gül and Prime Minister Recep Tayy ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently criticized the government's stance on Syria, saying Turkey is now "a country in trouble." "We do not want our people to pay the price for Western interests," Kılıçdaroğlu said. "We do not want Turkey to be dragged into the swamp." "In summary, we do not want war," he added. Kılıçdaroğlu likened the AKP's stance to "shooting someone else's bird with someone ...

Turkey drew $15.9 billion in direct international investment in 2011, according to the World Investment Report issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) yesterday. The investments increased 75.7 percent when compared to 2010, said Secretary-General Ozlem Ozyigit of the International Investors Association of Turkey (YASED). YASED discloses the report in Turkey on behalf of UNC ...

A country ‘begging’ for 100 billion euros in order not to collapse cannot be model for Turkey, PM Erdoğan says in an open reference to Greece. Opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu is doubtful of the official growth figures The leaders of Turkey’s ruling and main opposition parties engaged in a battle of words yesterday at the Turkish Exporters Assembly’s (TİM) general meeting yesterday, with Prime Minister Recep ...

Heated debate has gripped Turkey over the redrafting of a military-era constitution and a related question -- whether Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to cling to power as president. Parliament has started work to rewrite the 30-year-old national charter to replace a text passed two years after a 1980 military coup, reflecting deep changes in a country now ruled by a moderate Islamist government. Civi ...

According to RSF report, Turkey is one of the top-five countries ranked in "the countries with the most journalists in jail”. According to Reporters Without Borders Organization (RSF) data, 21 journalists, Internet users and citizen journalists are killed in the first 4 months of 2012 and 161 journalists are imprisoned.RSF stated that the most journalists' murders took place in Syria and Somali; 4 journalis ...

Three prosecutors, who were abruptly removed from the Lighthouse probe last year appear in court on charges of forgery of official documents and abuse of office. The prosecutors deny all accusations The three prosecutors removed from the high-profile probe into the Deniz Feneri (Lighthouse) charity last year went on trial on May 4 in a lawsuit that has fuelled accusations the government is seeking to cover ...

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) petitioned the Constitutional Court to suspend and scrap a controversial law that will profoundly overhaul Turkey’s education system and introduce the Quran as an elective course. The party asked the court to cancel the law on procedural grounds, saying it reserved its right also for an application over the legislation’s content. The petition argued that t ...

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chair Faruk Loğoğlu has slammed Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for saying Turkey has a pioneering role in the new Middle East, calling this view a “dangerous fantasy.” “I am only smiling at this. I interpret this as a fantasy. I wouldn’t have a word to say if it was a safe fantasy, but it is a dangerous fantasy. The Turkish foreign minister, w ...

President Gül weighs into the debate over imprisoned deputies, expressing his desire to see them released pending trial to assume their parliamentary seats President Abdullah Gül called for a solution to the problem of jailed lawmakers that would secure their release while the trials continue, after parliamentary opposition parties agreed on a legal amendment on the issue. “I’d like to see all elected deput ...

The Ankara court order to jail retired lieutenant-general Yildirim Turker along with eight other serving and retired officers, brought the number held pending trial to 35 since prosecutors launched an investigation earlier this month. Turker, according to media reports, had been head of personnel in the General Staff and belonged to a group within the top brass, known as the Western Study Group, suspected o ...

Turkish police have launched a third wave of raids as part of a probe into the Feb. 28 post-modern coup of 1997 amid complaints by the main opposition’s leader that the investigation is turning into a "witch hunt." A specially authorized prosecutor in Ankara has ordered the detentions of 13 military personnel located in Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir and Kars. The former General Commander of the Gendarmerie Forces ...

Turkish government, (AK PARTİ currently) has always claimed to have adopted the target of establishing advanced democracy in Turkey, based on many statements made by PM Erdoğan and his deputies. The giant program on the way to advanced democracy has covered many different measures so far, to include coup investigations, wide arresting operations carried out by the police and ending up with detainments of ma ...

The Family and Social Policies Ministry has completed a draft law on regulations governing women’s shelters with special provisions to combat violence toward women. The draft will oblige all municipalities in settlements with a population of over 50,000 residents to open a women’s shelter home. Another section in the proposed law stipulates that no written communication between the victims and Violence Prev ...

The AKP government in power at the moment has about 50 percent of the votes in Turkey. Turkey, established as a secular country by Mustafa Kemal ATATÜRK (and his friends) after the war of independence against the occupying emperialistic powers at the time has been governed by as secular system where religion and state matters are seperated from each other and the state does not impose its citizens any means ...

The police intervened against KESK members who wanted to demonstrate in Ankara against the 4+4+4 Education Draft Law and the Draft Bill on Public Servants' Trade Unions. The union confederation announced to continue their protest till the morning. Members of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Public Employees (KESK) came to Ankara on Wednesday (28 March) to demand the withdrawal of the so-called 4+4+4 Edu ...

KESK members in Şanlıurfa and some other spots in Turkey were prevented from reaching Ankara. In anticipation of a rally organized by the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) today in protest of the new education reform bill, police stopped some buses outside Ankara this morning, but they were later allowed to enter the city, daily Hürriyet reported. The police first tried to prevent demonstra ...

The CHP takes its opposition to education reform to the streets, drawing 20,000 to an Ankara square in a bid to halt a government bill Tens of thousands of people flocked to the streets of Ankara March 27 to protest the government-backed education reform bill, only hours before it was set to be debated in Parliament, potentially igniting a fresh row between lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties. ...

  Joint Struggle for Release of Journalists Must be Continued ... Renowned Turkish writers, lawyers and journalists drew attention to the situation of arrested and laid-off journalists in Turkey at the Symposium on Freedom of Thought and Expression from 12 to 12 held in Istanbul on 15 March. At the Symposium on Freedom of Thought and Expression from 12 to 12, writers, publishers and lawyers discussed t ...

To comply with several positive indicators regarding econony in Turkey, unemployment rate dropped 1.6 points year-on-year to 9.8percent in December 2011 as announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). In spite of the recession still in effect in several European countries Turkey has managed  to improve its unemployment figures. Accordinglyrate of joblessness in urban areas has dropped 2 points ...

A new government plan to reform Turkey’s education system could create a new generation of child brides and child laborers, according to one of Turkey’s top business leaders. “There is a concern that the number of child brides and child laborers will increase” with the new system, said Güler Sabancı, the head of Sabancı Holding’s executive committee. “I hope these concerns and discussion will be taken into ...