April 2, 2014

The Erdoğan-Gülen encounter and democracy

Ali Yurttagül*

It is not normal that the non-political Gülen movement would occupy such a central space in election campaigning; this is why the situation calls for some special scrutiny.

Gulen factor in Turkey's turmoil

Mian Wakeel Uddin

For the last few weeks, Turkey has been rocked by the country's biggest-ever bribery investigation which has led to the detention of some influential people within the ruling AKP party. In the aftermath, top ranking officials of police and judiciary have also been sacked in Ankara and Istanbul by the political government for "abuse of office". The Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan termed the graft probe as a "dirty operation" with international links to undermine Turkey's growing economy and to topple his popular government.

Erdogan Jumps out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire

Henri J. Barkey*

Prime Minister Erdogan won the day in Turkey’s municipal elections, but his one-party rule will be even more hotly contested as the August presidential election approaches.

Election results and the Hizmet movement

İhsan Yılmaz

Unlike the perception that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan tried to create, with the help of tremendous media power, the contention in the run-up to the elections was never between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Hizmet movement (or the so-called foreign forces that colluded with it).

Ballot box victory in an illiberal democracy

Begüm Burak

In a 1997 article titled “Democracy with Adjectives: Conceptual Innovation in Comparative Research,” David Collier and Steven Levistky wrote about “diminished sub-types of democracy.”

Cyber attacks on news websites threaten freedom of press, expression

Ongoing major cyber attacks on a number of popular news websites, including the Zaman, Today's Zaman and Taraf newspapers as well as the Cihan news agency, are not only preventing the portals from reporting the news to their readers but also constitute a big threat to freedom of the press and expression.

Stability unlikely

Amanda Paul

Based on election surveys, last Sunday's local elections were not expected to deliver any groundbreaking results despite the fact that many people were wishing for such a thing.

What will Erdoğan do?

Emre Uslu

There is nothing Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan can do to hurt the societal groups that oppose him if he acts within the law, because his opponents have not committed any crime. Opposition to Erdoğan is not a crime. However, it is obvious that Erdoğan will not remain within the limits of the law.

Erdoğan gov’t may soon launch witch-hunt type prosecution against opponents

There has been increased chatter in the Turkish capital signaling that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government may soon open legal cases in order to harass his opponents, especially people and companies affiliated with the Hizmet movement inspired by Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen, for their critical stand against corruption that has implicated senior government officials.

Interior Ministry planning to dismiss all reassigned police officers

Having conducted a sweeping purge in the police force resulting in the reassignment of nearly 15,000 police officers since a major corruption and bribery probe became public on Dec. 17 of last year, the Interior Ministry is now preparing to dismiss the reassigned officers in the upcoming weeks, sources close to the ministry claim.

US says criticism of Erdoğan has nothing to do with Gülen

US State Department Deputy Spokesperson Marie Harf has said that regardless of whether Islamic scholar Fethullah Gülen was living in Pennsylvania or not, it would still not be OK for the government of Turkey to ban Twitter or crack down on dissenting voices.

Koza gold firm starts up company in UK

The Turkish gold firm Koza Altın, which has faced several setbacks in its mines in Turkey, has started up a 60-million pound ($100 million) capitalized company in the United Kingdom.