Turkey's local elections which looked more like parliamentary elections are finally behind us. Never had an election season in the country's history been so aggressive and tense.

In an atmosphere where the Kurdish issue is interpreted as Turkey's most important political problem aside from terror, the position and responsibility of both the government and the Kurdish political movement is growing.

Once again, Turkey is bracing itself for an extremely tense and contentious atmosphere of political debate as we approach what is undoubtedly the most critical municipal election in recent years.

While no big surprises are expected from the local elections, the perception of success or failure of the ruling party will have an impact on its calculations with respect to the presidential election and the parliamentary election in 2015.

All of the Western media, having received their information from the same 20-30 top individuals, all of whom share the same point of view, paint a particular picture of Turkey.

The slanderous claim of Erdoğan-al Qaeda link has been systematically voiced by the Gulen Group in Turkey. It is impossible to distinguish the mentality behind this slander from the Baath mentality in Syria or the US mentality in Afghanistan.

Since the operational political engineering that the Gulen Movement has launched by leveraging its power within the bureaucracy corresponds to a developing new form of tutelary, it threatens democracy in Turkey.

The December 17, 2013 process must succeed to transform the structure of the Gulen Movement into a civilian-religious movement for the sake of the religion, the movement and the country.

Foreign policy activities of Turkey continue in distant and different lands of the world, and Somalia is the best example of this.

The political performance presented in the Diyarbakır visit of Massoud Barzani, President of the Kurdish Regional Administration in Northern Iraq, and of Erdoğan will create an effect of clearing the early reservations of the Kurdish Movement about the political ground and political strength of Erdoğan.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) may become more isolated in doing politic as well. As it continues to carry the burden of progressive democratization all by itself, there is no reason for the AK Party not to maintain its political hegemony.

As the presence of the foreign mainstream media in Turkey is felt more every day, young and unemployed foreigners who want to be journalists and free-lance reporters around the world rush to Turkey.

As Gezi Park protests became politicized in a short time, the social aspect of the protests did not get adequate coverage and protests bequeathed a significant political legacy.

The high interest - low exchange rate method was employed in the past yet resulted in high current deficit which was later compensated by low economic growth.

Is it possible and correct that Muslim-majority societies and Islam accept the concept of “deliberative democracy” which is acceptable in fully secular West European societies and U.S. where Christianity has almost no effect on political and social spheres given its transformation in centuries?