Now What?
(bottom photo from Milliyet)
(bottom photo from Milliyet)
March 31, 2008, 2:30 pm
Turkey’s Constitutional Court has just announced that it WILL hear a case calling for closure of the governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The court’s vote was unanimous, except for the case of President Abdullah Gül, where there were four dissenting votes, but the majority voted to include him in [...]
Today Turkey expects to learn whether its Constitutional Court will agree to hear an indictment of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) party, requesting that the party be closed down for undermining the secular nature of the state. The indictment has brought turmoil to Turkish politics as the AKP-led government is trying to [...]
Photo from Zaman
Every year, thousands of agricultural workers flock from east and southeast Turkey to the Cukurova Plain, to work in the fields. Among them are many children, kept out of school and working at very young ages for minimal wages. A report in Zaman newspaper suggests that many of these children are put to [...]
The other day I saw hundreds of storks circling high over Bebek on their northward migration. The blooms on the trees have faded and the leaves are still only brilliant green specks, but the street medians suddenly are a riot of color. Tulips and other spring flowers are so densely planted you can’t see the [...]
Suzan Sabanci Dinçer has been elected chairman of the Board of Directors of Turkey’s largest private sector bank, Akbank, replacing her father, Erol Sabanci. She is the first woman in Turkey to hold this position at a bank. Akbank is owned by Sabanci Holding. In an interview with Bloomberg Markets, the 43-year-old Ms. Sabanci Dinçer [...]
The rapporteur for the Constitutional Court has released a 70-page opinion on whether the court should hear the case that has been brought against the ruling AK Party. The indictment accuses the party of trying to undermine secularism and proposes banning the party. The rapporteur’s opinion was yes — and no.
Citing Article 174 of the [...]
A correspondent working for the Taraf daily was taken into custody yesterday afternoon in Ankara. Veteran legal correspondent Soner Arikanoglu had written recent exclusive reports in Taraf under his byline concerning an ongoing probe into an illegal neo-nationalist gang known as Ergenekon that was allegedly paving the way for a military coup against the ruling [...]
The journalist Nicole Pope has spent many years traveling in all corners of Turkey. In her column, she writes about the background issues and implications of the UNDP report on the state of Turkish youth (see my March 22 blog entry, where you can access the full report). She pays particular attention to the hidden [...]
In response to the closure case filed against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) on March 14 by the chief prosecutor at the Supreme Court of Appeals, the AKP-led government is planning to introduce a series of constitutional amendments that will make it more difficult for the Constitutional Court to close down political [...]