Turkish academia is in upheaval following the government’s decision to split up 13 major universities to form new ones, while university departments say that the proposal is fueled by ulterior motives and that resources are already spread too thin.
On Wednesday show, Middle East Forum President Daniel Pipes joined me to discuss the upcoming Turkish election.
Although Turkey is technically a "NATO ally", it has become an increasingly Islamist authoritarian state under the leadership of President Erdogan.
European Union sources said on Monday that a bloc's delegation will visit Turkey in mid-May to debate a visa-free plan and the issue of refugees, who, once again are lately re-entering Europe through Greece in big numbers.
A Turkish court in Silivri sentenced 14 journalists from one of the last independent newspapers in Turkey, Cumhuriyet, with jail time on terrorism charges. The staff from this paper, known for being highly critical of President Erdogan’s administration, were found guilty of supporting Turkish exile Fethullah Gulen, who has been accused by Erdogan of leading the attempted coup in 2016. These accusations have been denied by Gulen but the Cumhuriyet journalists may face up to eight years for allegedly supporting him.
Opinion polls see Erdogan struggling to reach more than 50% of the vote in the presidential election on June 24.
Turkey’s former president Abdullah Gul said he won’t be a candidate in snap presidential elections to be held in June, putting to rest speculation that he could harm incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chances.
Following a move two years ago toward closer coordination with Russia on its Syria policy, Turkey appears to be signaling a return to working with the United States.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday told his Turkish counterpart that the United States was seriously concerned over Ankara’s decision to buy Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile batteries, which are not compatible with NATO’s defenses.
Economic confidence in Turkey slipped month-on-month in April, falling by 2 percent to 98.3, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said on April 27.
According to the official election calendar published on April 26, Turkish expats will be able to vote in the upcoming early presidential and parliamentary elections for 12 days from June 7 to June 19.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has responded to accusations that he is becoming a dictator by denying the claims and saying that it is the main opposition that is acting dictatorially, Hürriyet newspaper said .
It will take more than a snap election to fix Turkey’s fundamental economic problems or provide more than a temporary lift to the long-suffering lira.
Turkey’s central bank hasn’t boosted the lira, but it may have saved it ahead of elections.
While the currency quickly erased a jump after policy makers raised a key rate more than expected on Wednesday, it is still beating peers this week. The central bank has provided a buffer from the torrent of bad news that is hurting emerging markets, from higher U.S. Treasury yields to rising oil prices.
The Supreme Board of Elections (YSK) on April 22 had said 10 parties, including the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will run in the parliamentary and presidential elections.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has gone on the warpath to convince his country's voters to give him a wide margin of victory in the June 24 snap presidential election forwarded from November 2019. A landslide would enable him to expand his authority and strengthen his grip on power.
President Erdogan’s snap poll reinvigorates Turkish politics in unexpected ways. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a master at outflanking his political opponents. Despite rumors that an early general election would be called, no one expected it to be quite so last minute. On June 24, Turkey will go to the polls in a watershed vote that will — so the script goes — see Erdogan consolidate his grip on a new executive presidency in a transformed political landscape.
After some Western European countries banned Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s presidential election campaign rallies, the Turkish leader and his ruling party will hold their first demonstration abroad in Sarajevo.
Turkey’s central bank raised interest rates for the first time this year, lending support to the lira as it seeks to contain inflation in the weeks leading up to early presidential elections in June.
Turkey's tourism industry has launched impressive schemes to rely on the rising popularity of the ancient and enigmatic city of Troy to lure more tourists, Xinhua reports.
Human rights groups warn that thousands of Afghan refugees in Turkey face abuse and deportation as the country focuses on the millions of Syrian asylum-seekers ahead of this summer's vote.
As Turkey gears up for snap elections on June 24, the country’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a problem: Turkish society is profoundly polarized. Despite his efforts to build a stable majority as the foundation of his right-wing regime, his policies of demonizing centrist and leftist groups mean that half of Turkey opposes him vehemently and seems determined not to accept him as leader. He won last year’s referendum granting him sweeping executive powers with just a 2 percent margin, even though resources devoted to his campaign far outweighed the resources devoted to the campaign opposing him.
The Turkish regime is gradually transforming into a more developed and dangerous version of Al Qaeda. Their rhetoric and approach seem convergent or even identical. The difference is that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is leading a country of significant geopolitical importance — not a militant group scattered across Afghanistan’s mountains.
For most of Turkey's modern history, its foreign policy drew from the suggestions of the armed forces, the civilian government and career professionals in the foreign ministry. The resulting policy formulations — whether they produced positive or negative outcomes for Turkey — emerged from a set process involving myriad interagency consultations over the country's capability, capacity and interests. Today, that is no longer the case. Since taking his current office in August 2014, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the shots in Turkish foreign policy. The country's actions and objectives on the world stage are now a product of his preferences, rather than a deliberative process.
ISTANBUL (AP) — More than a dozen Turkish opposition lawmakers switched parties Sunday in a show of solidarity as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's rivals scramble to challenge him in a surprise snap election that could solidify his rule.
ISTANBUL, Turkey — The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party predicted Saturday that voters who backed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the past would “side with democracy” instead of a “dictatorship” during the next elections in June.
Will they be allowed inside?
That is the question asked of the İyi Parti, or Good Party, after Turkey suddenly called a snap election for 24 June.
Six months after a group of MHP rebels finally formalised their movement, many have been asking whether it may fall foul of complicated rules that suggesting it must have held its first congress at least six months before an election.
Why has Turkey’s president called early elections?
The Economist explains Apr 21st 2018 SINCE the start of the year, the question on the minds of many Turks was not whether President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured, left) would call early presidential and parliamentary elections, but when. The answer arrived on April 18th, when the Turkish strongman pushed the vote forward by eighteen months, to June 24th 2018, earlier than almost everyone had expected. So what does Mr Erdogan hope to achieve by marching Turks to the polls for the sixth time in four years, and for the second time under emergency law?
On Apr. 8, Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s party the Hungarian Civic Alliance (Fidesz) won parliamentary elections to extend his eight-year rule over NATO and European Union (EU) member Hungary. Many say that Hungary is drifting away from democracy under the rule of Orban and is on its way to becoming a second Turkey.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Businesses should welcome Turkey’s state of emergency because it guards against terrorism and prevents workers from going out on strike, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.
ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogan’s shock announcement of snap elections in June has caught Turkey’s troubled opposition off guard and brought him within reach of his cherished goal, a powerful presidency with sweeping executive powers.
BERLIN, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish politicians will not be allowed to campaign in Germany ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Turkey on June 24, the German government clarified on Friday.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it had concerns about Turkey's ability to hold free and fair elections given the ongoing state of emergency, a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan called for a snap vote on June 24.
Stratfor's 2018 Second-Quarter Forecast indicated that Turkey's economic strain and attempts to capitalize on military successes could drive the country to hold early elections. That analysis has proved accurate, as Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for parliamentary and presidential elections to be held almost a year and a half ahead of schedule.
Since the Trump administration began, U.S.-Turkish relations have looked as muddled and disjointed as our dealings with the Russians and North Koreans.
Turkey is heading for early elections on June 24. The winner of the crucial vote will wield extraordinary power, which is exactly what President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants, says DW's Seda Serdar.
The Turkish Parliament on April 18 extended the ongoing state of emergency for the seventh time for another three months, meaning the upcoming early elections on June 24 will be held under the emergency rule despite widespread disapproval from opposition parties.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has caught Turkey off guard by calling early elections for June, in a move that could cement his grip on power a year ahead of schedule.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country will hold early parliamentary and presidential elections on June 24.
Senior Turkish official accuses bloc of 'bias' and 'lacking empathy' after report urges lifting of state of emergency.
April 17, 2018, at 4:45 a.m.
After an eight-and-a-half-week campaign, Operation Olive Branch has finally come to an end with the fall of Afrin by the hands of the Turkish and Free Syrian Army forces. Nevertheless, caution must be exercised in viewing the occupation of the Kurdish enclave as the end of Turkey’s intervention in Syria. Although Mr Erdogan ruled out any plans of annexation, it is likely that Turkey will proceed to secure the rest of its south-eastern border by concentrating its efforts in a continued military campaign against the Kurds. What instead seems less likely is a continuation of Mr Erdogan’s post-Arab Spring imperial fantasy.
Turkey recently announced the route for Kanal Istanbul, a planned artificial channel between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara. While it promises to bring huge economic advantages to the country, environmentalists are putting up a fight, claiming it could cause an ecological disaster.
Erdogan’s American Hostage Andrew Brunson’s case is part of a larger problem with Turkey.
Turkish strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan has imprisoned opponents and moved the country toward authoritarian rule. That’s the political context through which to understand the trial of American pastor Andrew Brunson.
Turkey's lira has hit record lows for the past week, thanks to what analysts say is the Turkish government's unwillingness to balance monetary policy to counter double-digit inflation. And the fall has been accelerated by geopolitical uncertainty over US and Russian military actions in neighboring Syria, CNBC reported.
Article Summary Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's promotion of a soccer team that subscribes to conservative Islamic values has more so polarized fans than won them over.
ANKARA, April 14 (Xinhua) — The Incirlik air base in southern Turkey was not used in the U.S.-led airstrikes on Syria, Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Saturday.
On July 31st, 1959, 28 months after the original six signatories, Belgium, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, had signed the Treaty of Rome, Turkey applied for associate membership in the European Economic Community (EEC). Since that time, Turkey’s goal was to achieve full membership in the EEC, then, it became to obtain membership in the European Union (EU). The benefits that Turkish citizens would gain have been coveted for many years. Understanding that membership would threaten his leadership, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sought to dash that hope. Erdogan’s domestic and foreign policies have followed a line to deny that end.
ANKARA: The coalition strike against Syrian targets has made Turkey’s policy of balancing Russia and the Western powers more challenging.
ANKARA: Turkey was informed ahead of U.S., British and French strikes on Syria, ruling AK Party spokesman Mahir Unal said in a televised interview on CNN Turk.
The intriguing case of Turkish gold trader Reza Zarrab triggered massive waves in Turkey’s domestic politics, waves so large they are being felt in the United States.
Ankara: Turkish authorities believe members of the movement it blames for 2016’s failed coup used a mobile phone puzzle game to mask communications on an encryption app, state media reported on Friday.
ANKARA, April 12 (Reuters) - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at international investors on Thursday, saying that no one could use exchange rates to bring the country to heel - casting a slide in value of its currency, the lira, as a foreign conspiracy.
The Syrian Kurds have been notably silent on US President Donald Trump’s threat to punish Damascus over a suspected chemical attack on Douma, likely disillusioned and choosing to focus on condemning Turkey's ongoing offensive in Afrin.
Shorting the Turkish lira is becoming one of the easiest trades in town.
Dutch parliament votes for "Erdoğan law"
The House of Representatives in the Netherlands has voted in favour of a legal reform, known as the “Erdoğan law” to replace a law against insulting foreign leaders, BBC Türkçe reported on Wednesday.
The lira has plummeted to another record low after an escalation in rhetoric by Donald Trump regarding Russia’s support for the Syrian government and following a fresh slate of data highlighted that Turkey’s vulnerability to external shocks.
A U.S. judge demanded more information about Turkish banker Mehmet Hakan Atilla and his role in a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions on billions of dollars in oil revenue before deciding deciding the sentence for his crimes.
April 8, 2018 By Zakir Gul, Ph.D.
ISTANBUL, April 9 (Reuters) - Turkey needs to lower interest rates to save investors from the burden of high borrowing costs and allow them to invest easily, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.
The sale of Turkey’s biggest media group, Dogan Media Company, is likely to negatively affect the health of the country’s economy while diminishing access to accurate information from and within Turkey.
Turkey’s lira fell to new record lows against the dollar and euro as investor concerns about an overheating economy and unresponsive central bank mounted.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands has sent out a letter warning Dutch travellers visiting Turkey, China, Russia and Iran that their electronic devices may be unsafe in these countries, BBC Türkçe reported on Monday.
How low can the Turkish lira go?
Turkey’s government is following imprudent economic practices and its insistence on implementing unreal economic theories means the lira is bound to weaken in the months ahead.
The Turkish lira took a tumble amid reports that Mehmet Simsek, the deputy prime minister in charge of Turkey's economy, had resigned.
The Turkish economy is overheating. That could be a problem for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as much as it is for the nation's creditors.
As the mystery surrounding the arrest and deportation of six Turkish nationals from Kosovo to Turkey threatens to drive a wedge between the two countries, a crisis between the prime minister and the president may also be deepening.
Turkish lira comes under renewed pressure, weakening for a fourth day against the dollar and suffering the worst losses among emerging market currencies while nearing an all-time low.
Article Summary The presidents of Turkey, Russia and Iran emerged from a summit on Syria as a united front, though the image hardly indicates an alignment in their priorities.
Over the weekend, Ankara stated that France could become a target for its backing of Kurdish forces in Syria.
This follows the comments of Turkey's firebrand president Recep Tayyip Erdogan who had earlier threatened to "Ottoman slap" US forces fighting alongside the Kurds against ISIS in Syria.
Ankara: The leaders of Russia and Turkey on Tuesday launched the start of construction for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant, as ties between the two nations deepen.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, on his first foreign visit since being re-elected on March 18, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remotely gave the go-ahead for the construction of the Russian-built nuclear plant on the Mediterranean coast at Akkuyu.
The U.S. pharmaceutical pioneer Amgen invested $35 million in biotech medicine in Istanbul. Amgen Global Research and Development Director Thomas Felix said Turkey's expansion in pharmaceuticals is very important.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to meet in Turkey, where they will be joined by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for negotiations to end the fighting in Syria.