Reforming Turkey’s education system symbolizes not only an end to weak civilian institutions but also represents an opportunity to bridge the gap between secularists and conservatives in the country.

In the wake of the Arab League’s embargo against Syria, a new period is ahead for the Baathist regime.

SETA is going to hire research assistants for the following fields:

Public demands for structural change in North Africa and the Middle East has brought Turkey to the global stage within a new context.

There is a lively debate centered on whether Turkey is undergoing an axis shift, meaning Turkey is drifting away from the Transatlantic system and heading towards the Middle East in the most acclaimed dailies and journals of the Western world.

After back-to-back visits to Turkey by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Ahmet Davutoglu, a top adviser to Turkey's prime minister, predicted that Turkish-American relations were about to enter a golden era

It may look like a paradox, but the current standoff between Turkey and northern Iraq could turn into an opportunity to solve the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the region. Turkey's increased efforts to fight Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) terrorism has the full backing of all the related actors: the Turkish public, the political establishment, security elites, regional actors and international public opinion. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government should seize this opportunity and start a process of national reconciliation and healing.  

The decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court to reject the closure case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) opens a new chapter in the history of Turkish democracy.

Currently, GAP is a regional development project that covers nine southeastern provinces extending over the wide plains in the basins of the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Political and economical instability in Turkey in the 1980s diverted attention from the GAP Project and led to consecutive failures in meeting official targets for its progress within the initial time framework. Within the last five years,  

This is a question you get all the time when the conversation turns to Islam and the Muslim world. And it is usually followed by another set of questions: What do Muslims think about terrorist attacks? Do they really believe in democracy and human rights? Are women treated equally in Muslim societies? Can Muslims live in peace with other religions and cultures?

Female students with headscarf are currently prevented to enter the university in Turkey although there is no legal ground for such a ban. The ongoing controversy about the type of clothing for female students at the higher education institutions has become more intensified since the recent constitutional change in February 2008 to lift the de facto headscarf ban. The debate over this question revolves around whether headscarf is a religious attire or a political symbol, whether it should be banned to protect the secular foundations of the state or conversely allowed on the basis of individual freedom of religion as a corollary of secularism. The solution lies in the implementation of constitutional amendments without a further delay.

The escalation in attacks by the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) on Turkish troops and civilians has brought Turkey to the brink of war with the Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, has declared that unless action is taken against the PKK, Turkey will act unilaterally. Despite the intensifying rhetoric, however, the crisis may be an opportunity to find a lasting solution to the Kurdish problem in Turkey and the region

After days of debate and uncertainty, Abdullah Gül is finally a presidential candidate. Now Gül is busy trying to garner support for his nomination and, all being well, will be elected by the end of this month. What kind of a president will he be? And will his presidency provoke another political crisis in Turkey? These two questions will dominate the agenda for months to come. However the developments so far already provide some clues. By nominating Gül again, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) read the election results in the way their constituents read them -- Gül’s presidency was part of the election campaign from the very beginning. It would be wrong to reduce the AK Party’s victory to Gül alone, but the AK Party’s record over the last four-and-a-half years and what happened during Gül’s candidacy was a complete package for the vast majority of those who voted for the AK Party on July 22.

Russia and the Islamic World explore various fields of co-operation in the context of a changing international environment wherein a search for new allies and strategic partners are an ongoing reality. In order to facilitate discussions on possible avenues of partnership, Group of Strategic Vision “Russia-Islamic World” consisting high level members from Russia and some OIV countries was formed few years ago. The Third Meeting of the Group of Strategic Vision “Russia-Islamic World” was convened on February 2-3, 2007 in Istanbul,

The Alliance of Civilizations initiative is one of the major attempts of our day to bring different cultures and civilizations together. Like all great ideas, it has arisen out of a need to address a problem: the problem of recognizing cultural differences without denying their existence on the one hand, and without turning them into causes of conflict and war, on the other. In a world in which all of us passionately seek a moral and political center, the need for uniting rather than dividing is obvious. Reaching that goal, however, remains a daunting task.