When selecting the person and event of the year for 2024 in both domestic and foreign policy, establishing the criteria is the challenging part – everything else falls into place naturally. My criterion was simple: impact on the overall political trajectory. Specifically, how an individual shaped the course of political developments in 2024, and which
When President Tayyip Erdoğan began reciting the opening verses of Surah Al-Fath in Arabic during his Justice and Development Party (AKP) parliamentary group meeting on December 25, amid chants of “Conqueror of Syria,” I wrote in my notebook “We’re going into Syria.” However, launching an operation against the PKK/YPG in Syria is one thing; conquest
The rhetoric of a “new and civil constitution” and “liberation from the coup constitution,” frequently voiced by ministers appointed by President Erdoğan and AK Party officials since 12 September 2023, is not resonating with the public. The weakest point of Erdoğan’s discourse is the ambiguity regarding the reasons behind proposing a new and civil constitution.
Donald Trump was shot during his campaign rally in Pennsylvania on July 14. He sustained a minor injury to his ear, narrowly escaping death by mere millimeters. The shooter was identified as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, who was killed at the scene by the Secret Service. The FBI, in their wisdom, has announced that they
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli’s recent visit to the Police Special Operations Department (PÖH) on July 15 was an evidence that the Turkish government has not learned anything from the July 15 2016 coup attempt. The reason lies behind a scene where Süleyman Karadeniz, Head of the Police Special Operations, welcomed Bahçeli at
I read on the Hürriyet newspaper’s website that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is working on a new communication strategy. To be honest, when I heard the term “communication strategy,” I briefly wondered if President Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP officials had finally decided to change their view of the media. Would the
Devlet means state in Turkish and “Devlet (State) will come to the head of the state!” was one of the most striking slogans of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) before Devlet Bahçeli moved from the opposition ranks to the AKP government ranks via the People’s Alliance, supporting President Tayyip Erdoğan. It’s no longer used, but
I have no intention of targeting Mehmet Şimşek, the Minister of Treasury and Finance. Ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) members are already doing that enough. Despite the defeat in the March 31 elections, they act as if President Tayyip Erdoğan wasn’t the sole decision-maker and they had done everything right, still claiming, “If we
We are heading towards one of the most unfair and unequal elections in our history on March 31st. Despite its being a local elections, its results will have profound effects on Turkish poltical landscape, especially in Istanbul. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems to have mobilized the entire state machinery to prevent the re-election of Istanbul’s
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