Comparing his philosophy and that of Hegel, the German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein is reported to have said that while Hegel tries to show all differences to be the same, he sees all similarities as essentially different.

With the appointment of Yusuf Ziya Özcan as the new president of Turkey’s Higher Education Board (YÖK), there is renewed hope for the future of the Turkish university system. For too long Turkish universities have performed way below acceptable international standards. Nor have they catered to the increasing needs of Turkish society. Instead of improving the standards of higher education in Turkey, YÖK has acted like an academic police controlling everything in the universities.

A recent survey claims that the number of women covering their heads in Turkey has increased “fourfold” over the last four years. While some interpret this as a natural result of Turkey’s democratization, others see it as a dangerous development for Turkish secularism. The choice of the words “fourfold increase” and “over the last four years” is no accident -- they imply that this is the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) fault. Turkey has been debating the headscarf issue for over two decades now.

Çağımızın ruhunu yansıtan kavramların başında gelen çoğulculuk 90’lı yıllardaki heyecanını yitirmiş görünüyor. Batılı ülkelerin tehdit algılarıyla genişleyip daralan çoğulculuk, hoşgörü ve çok kültürlülük kavramları, 11 Eylül’den sonra yeni bir boyut kazandı. Çoğulculuk politikalarını pratik kaygılarla eleştirenler, artık çoğulculuk söylemlerine ilke düzeyinde de karşı çıkıyorlar. Batının bugünkü çoğulculuk tartışmalarının sınırlarını, 11 Eylül sonrasında yükselişe geçen güvenlik algıları belirliyor.

A recent poll by Pollmark, presented at the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) think tank in Ankara, shows that terrorism is the number-one problem for many in Turkey.  

The current meeting between the Israeli and Palestinian presidents in Ankara comes only a few weeks before the multilateral summit in Annapolis, Maryland, in the US.  

A historic step was taken in Rome last week. The first seminar of the Catholic-Muslim Forum was held on Nov. 4-6 at the Vatican with the participation of about 60 Muslim and Catholic religious leaders and scholars from around the world.

The meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and President George W. Bush at the White House last Monday was expected to be a turning point for Turkey’s war on Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism as well as for US-Turkish relations; at least some on the Turkish side thought so. While Prime Minister Erdoğan said he was happy with the outcome of the meeting, it is simplistic to interpret this as a watershed event in US-Turkish relations.