Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
As the Turkish peace process with Kurds enters a period of turbulence following shifting dynamics and territorial changes in Syria, MHP Chair Devlet Bahçeli, who initiated the process, has stepped up efforts to prevent it from unraveling even as rhetoric hardens between the ruling bloc and the DEM Party.
This week, a century-old star of the stage passed away. He was 98. He had spent 70 of those years performing. The theater has bid farewell to one of its last great masters, Haldun Dormen. Despite this being a death, I chose a title that contains no word of mourning: “Goodbye, my sweet.” It may not appeal to everyone, but it suits Dormen.
The Casablanca line everyone remembers wrong is: “Play it again, Sam.” The film doesn’t actually include that. What Ilsa Lund says in the movie is quieter and more revealing: “Play it, Sam… Play ‘As Time Goes By.’”
When war and peace are mentioned, the first person that comes to mind is the Russian writer Leo Tolstoy and his novel of the same title, a cornerstone of world literature. In this work, Tolstoy renders war and peace with striking realism. World history, after all, is also a history of wars — and, inevitably, a history of peace.
An administrative court is expected to issue a ruling within 15 days in the case filed by jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu challenging Istanbul University’s revocation of his university diploma — a decision that will determine his eligibility to run as a presidential candidate.
Let us begin with a very old and very familiar anecdote. The famous poet Yahya Kemal was once asked: “What do you like about Ankara?” His answer: “The return to Istanbul.” Mansur Yavaş thinks the exact opposite. Wherever he is, he wants to return to Ankara at the first opportunity, and he likes it when everything returns to Ankara. Not out of anxiety to make it to work on time. But because he is a man of the land. Because he is from Ankara.
Turkey’s broadcast watchdog has imposed heavy fines on three major television channels over their most-watched programs, citing viewer complaints and alleged violations of family values and public morality.
Turkey’s main opposition party is recalibrating its political strategy, reviving a discourse of 'normalization' in a calculated bid to dismantle the country’s deep-seated polarization and lure voters from the governing alliance.
After Damascus launched a military operation against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the ruling AKP-MHP alliance linked the trajectory of Turkey’s peace process to developments in Syria.
The post–Second World War international order is no longer being reformed. It is being deliberately and systematically dismantled. The assumption that today’s turbulence represents a temporary deviation from a rules-based system misses a more uncomfortable reality: the system itself is being hollowed out by its original architects.
A dangerous escalation has erupted between Damascus forces and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in two strategically important neighborhoods of Syria’s northern city of Aleppo. As clashes intensified, evacuation notices, issued Dec. 8. by Syria’s central government in the two key districts, have raised the possibility of a military operation. Simultaneously, the Defense Ministry said that Turkey would support an expected Syrian army operation in Aleppo “if requested.”
Former İzmir Mayor Tunç Soyer and former İZBETON General Manager Heval Savaş Kaya were ordered released at the fourth hearing of the case involving allegations of corruption by subcontractors at İZBETON AŞ, a subsidiary of the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.