The liberal left repeated the mistakes of the Kemalist establishment that they so harshly criticized.

Turkey, which has experienced a number of military interventions and coup attempts, needs to rewrite the current constitution which is ironically the product of the Sept. 12 military coup.

The Kemalist modernization paradigm influencing Turkey's managerial mind until the 2000s slowly lost its efficacy and, in contrast with this, a perspective of modernization with stronger ties to society and more hybrid forms that offers the establishment of more rational relations with cultural regions outside its own began to come to the fore.

The real issue rose when Kurdish uprisings rose against Kemalism in response to the imposition of Turkification policies on Kurds, who were, in effect, natives of Anatolia.

Mohamed Morsi, by forcing the top names of the SCAF to resign, squeezed decades of the Turkish political calendar into a single month. From now on, in its battle against the tutelage regime he will struggle not only to come to power but also be in power.

We can assess where exactly Egypt falls on the “revolution” and “change” spectrum by tracing the “times” of Egypt post-Mubarak through the lenses of the Turkish political “calendar.

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.

When the AK Party came to power in 2002, the people were finally able to say “stop” to the gang that took the state hostage during the 1990s.

For the PKK, the process can only go from the initial “Defeat in the 1990s” to the “Second Defeat” in the 2010s.

Turkish politics is currently undergoing a heated political debate on the constitutional reform package (supported by Prime Minister Erdogan's ruling party), which is on its way to a referendum this Sunday. The package includes amendments to 26 articles of the current constitution along. In addition, it would eliminate the controversial Article 15, a ‘temporary' article that has been in the constitution since the 1980's, preventing the prosecution of officials involved in the military coup of 1980. All in all, Sunday's referendum is one of the ruling AK Party's clearest challenges thus far to Turkey's Kemalist establishment. Since the establishment of the Turkish Republic, four new constitutions have been adopted (1921, 1924, 1961, 1982) - the latest two were drafted after military interventions - and numerous amendments have been made. Since the most recent constitution was adopted in 1982, there have been 15 amendment packages, which have affected almost half of the constitution. As such, the debate on the present constitution is not exactly a new one for Turkey, as the public is quite accustomed to constitutional changes and the public debate they generate. To understand, then, why the current package has touched off such a firestorm in Turkish society and led to an intensified political atmosphere, it is important to consider both the ramifications that the current reform efforts has for the political system in Turkey and the historical context.

The results of the March 29 municipal elections go beyond the local scene and will have a bearing on the 2011 general elections. The "message" of the elections, however one reads it, has become the key word. Indeed, the electorate has told political parties, "You've got a message." The question is how to read it. 

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.

It was in 1965 when İsmet İnönü, former Turkish president and leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), defined the CHP's position in Turkish politics as the "left of center."

Last week Turkey witnessed a first. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan broke his fast with 1,000 Alevis in Ankara. The fast was in observance of the beginning of the month of Muharram.