January 5, 2015

Will the AKP-Gülen rift save Turkey’s secularists

Mustafa Gürbüz*

In Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's “New Turkey,” anyone could be next. The "New Turkey" is ever more synonymous with the old military-backed regime as Erdoğan seeks allies in his war.

The meaning of this crisis

Ali Bulaç

In the wake of the Dec. 17 and 25 bribery and corruption operations, the faction led by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has directed two main accusations at the Hizmet movement: a) that the Hizmet movement has become involved in a plot constructed by foreign powers -- notably, the US and Israel -- with the aim of overthrowing the elected government of Turkey, and b) that the Hizmet movement has gone all the way into people's bedrooms with its wiretaps.

Erdoğan fatigue in Turkey

Abdullah Bozkurt

Turkey's combative president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has miscalculated in believing that the fatigue factor will set in on the opposition with his strategy of buying off and intimidating the critical and independent media, narrowing political space for dissent, partisan interference into the judiciary and working through informal political networks and a patronage system to keep his support base from erosion.

Hello Ankara, are you there?

Ali Aslan

Readers of The Washington Post who opened the paper on Friday morning saw an article on the op-ed page titled "Turkey's witch hunt." It was written by Ekrem Dumanlı, the editor-in-chief of the Zaman daily. The editors of the paper wrote in the sub-title that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's media crackdown is tarnishing his nation’s image. A photo of a group of women holding copies of Zaman and Turkish flags in their hands and protesting the Dec. 14 operation against the media also made its way onto the same page. An article by prominent US opinion leader Fareed Zakaria was placed below Dumanlı's article. All the choices of The Washington Post editors with regards to the publication and presentation of Dumanlı's article showed that they gave this article a lot of importance. Why?

Latest salvo against political opponents in Turkey

Scott Bleiweis

In April 2014 I touched on attempts to expose corruption among government leaders in Turkey. It is sad to hear that this struggle continues, and those in power are taking increasingly aggressive measures to stay there.