Everything that we know about the Turkish politics started to turn up side down. The pro-Islamic ruling party AKP started to stand strong side by side with their arch-rivals: The Army. Moreover, the main opposition party CHP and the nationalist party MHP –the admirers of the strong Turkish military- went so far as to accuse the chief of the general staff Yasar Buyukanit with being a coward.
24
02
2008
Turkish troops are in Northern Iraq
By Senerdem on Sunday, February 24 2008, 21:59
It was a matter of time. On Thursday, Turkish ground troops started to cross the Iraqi border and they initiated a mass offensive against the Kurdish militia group PKK. In October, the parliament gave the go ahead to the army for “necessary” military operations in Northern Iraq. Then we started to hear and see news about several air strikes but now things are getting serious.
11
02
2008
Turkey got headscarved
By Senerdem on Monday, February 11 2008, 22:24
It’s been a while that I couldn’t write anything but since the whole headscarf issue got “out of control” in Turkey, I feel like I need to say something about it.
21
10
2007
Invading Northern Iraq: Threat or Bluff?
By Senerdem on Sunday, October 21 2007, 12:18
I wanted to wait for a while before writing about the possible military operation in Northern Iraq. Two weeks ago the first steps for an extended military action are taken in a summit between heads of the military and the government and then the decision is voted in the parliament and deputies in parliament cast an overwhelming 507 votes in favour of the motion to 19 against, which permits the government to order military operations inside Iraq within the next year.
26
09
2007
Malaysia vs. Turkey
By Senerdem on Wednesday, September 26 2007, 20:13
Recently Turkey found itself in yet another peculiar discussion. People started to ask a weird question: “Can Turkey turn in to another Malaysia?”
10
09
2007
The president is dead, long live the new president
By Senerdem on Monday, September 10 2007, 18:38
It’s that simple, Abdullah Gul is the new president of Turkey and this time, the army just couldn’t do anything. Now this is a good sign of modernization and Europeanization if you want to call it in that way. Is he a nice guy or can he represent the country as a leader (well almost a symbolic one but a leader after all)? I doubt it. The former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer had a modest and rather low profile image but he was respected and he played a great role if you think about the checks and balances in the country. He was some kind of a control mechanism over AKP and he did a pretty good job actually.