In the aftermath of the 2001 economic crisis, Ayşe Buğra writes, “I think that Turkish society welcomed the February 2001 crisis very softly.” Many people in Turkey lost their jobs, and even when they kept them, they lost a significant percentage of their earnings because of the unprecedented depreciation of the Turkish Lira. Yet they
Journalists Murat Ağırel, Barış Pehlivan and Hülya Kılınç, who were sentenced to prison for violating the Law on State Intelligence Services and the National Intelligence Organization (MIT) by revealing the identity of a member of the office with their news, sent back to prison after the high court upheld their sentence. Ağırel and Pehlivan released
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s reconciliation visit to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) coincided with Valentine’s Day, February 14. While Erdogan was in the UAE, two countries signed 13 cooperation agreements. Erdogan and bin Zayed seemed to reconcile the past nine years of fighting and accusations. Among the agreements was
Turkey’s six opposition party leaders held a critical meeting on February 12 announcing their collaboration against President Tayyip Erdoğan’s Presidential System, indicating a formation of an unprecedented opposition block. In the 2019 local elections, many metropolitan municipalities, including Istanbul and Ankara, were taken from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) governance. That victory paved
Four global players will define how our near future will look: the United States (US), the European Union (EU), China and Russia. The relationship between these “four horsemen of the Apocalypse” will – to a large degree – determine the new World Order. All indications today are that we are moving towards an even more
The Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV) is a non-profit cultural institution that began its activity precisely 50 years ago, in 1972. During his student years in Germany, Nejat Eczacıbaşı had attended city festivals such as the Salzburg Festival. He returned to Turkey with the dream of a similar festival for Istanbul and took
DEVA Party Leader Ali Babacan’s opened the pandora’s box in Ankara saying that if elected, opposition block should not rush to change the Presidential System of Government. The statement brought out the concern that the ruling People Alliance has been avoiding. If President Tayyip Erdogan is not re-elected, his successor will continue to play the
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu announced that he would not pay his electricity bills, calling out President Tayyip Erdoğan to take back the gradual electricity price hikes that were taken into effect at the beginning of the year that raised protests all over Turkey. You may say that it is
Portugal went to early elections in a quiet atmosphre on January 30. The Socialist Party which has been ruling the country with a minority government for the last 6 years managed to secure the neccesary majority to form a government on her own. Portugal is a small country in the West of Europe with a
As Turkey-wide protests to the rising energy prices continue, opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) metropolitan mayors issued a joint call to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government asking for exclusive energy tariffs for the municipalities. Eleven CHP metropolitan mayors stated that the rising energy prices have become “unbearable” for the mayoralties to provide