On March 31, Turkey’s Constitutional Court agreed to hear the case filed by Public Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya for the closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). In the indictment filed with the court on March 14, Yalcinkaya had asked for the AKP to... MORE

The deepening political and social polarization triggered by the attempts by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to change the Turkish constitution to lift the headscarf ban in universities (see EDM, February 11) currently shows no sign of abating ahead of the expected Constitutional... MORE

Turkey, located in the middle of the East-West energy corridor, and natural-gas-rich Turkmenistan have recently improved their relations after almost seven years without any high-level dialogue. This development has raised hopes for the revitalization of the long stalled, U.S.-backed Trans-Caspian pipeline (TCP) project aimed at... MORE

When covering Turkey’s complex relationship with its Kurdish minority, Western media outlets have tended to focus on the military activities in southeastern Anatolia against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The reality is much more complex, however. For nearly 40 years Turkey’s Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP)... MORE

Over a period of four days from March 21-24, two people were killed and several hundred injured in clashes with Turkish security forces, as hundreds of thousands of Kurds took the streets to celebrate the Kurdish New Year of Newroz. No reliable figures are available... MORE

The application to the Constitutional Court for the closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has had party officials poring over the statute books to see whether they can preempt the court’s decision by pushing through legal amendments that would make it impossible... MORE

On March 20, two members of the Turkish Gendarmerie admitted receiving detailed intelligence regarding a plot to assassinate Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and then, after Dink’s murder, trying to cover up their knowledge by lying to investigators. The confessions came as two Gendarmerie officers, known... MORE

Turkey’s February 21-29 military incursion into northern Iraq is roiling Turkish domestic politics. Both right-wing and left-wing parties accuse the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) high command of yielding to pressure from Washington, as U.S. Secretary of... MORE

The latest employment figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) suggest that, despite six years of robust macro-economic growth, Turkey is failing to create enough jobs for its growing population. On March 17, TURKSTAT reported that, at the end of 2007, the unemployment rate... MORE

The application by Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, the public prosecutor at the High Court of Appeals (Yargitay), to the Turkish Constitutional Court for the closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has initiated what appears likely to be a period of sustained uncertainty amid the... MORE