Last week, I discussed the three perceptions of threat regarding Islamic political parties and groups: they’re a threat to democracy, they’re a threat to Western interests, and they are violent. 

There is a discrepancy and even contradiction between Turkey's foreign policy activism and the polarization of its domestic politics. While the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) keeps surprising everyone with its bold and decisive foreign policy moves, it is losing its grip on the domestic pulse.   

The two-day summit in Annapolis ended on 29 November, 2007. Israel and the Palestine Authority agreed to start a new peace initiative

This article considers the August 2008 visit to Turkey by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and analyzes relations between Turkey and Iran in general.

This article considers the August 2008 visit to Turkey by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, and analyzes relations between Turkey and Iran in general. The tensions and crises that followed the 1979 Iranian Revolution are briefly presented in order to provide a better understanding of the present state of relations. Then we draw a picture of the situation after the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, bringing widespread changes to Turkish foreign policy. We also call attention to Turkey’s changing role in the regional balance of power, and to the significance of that role both in Turkey’s relations with Iran and with the United States.

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.

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.  

One of the most significant findings of a study conducted jointly by the Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research (SETA) and PollMark, titled “Turkey's perception of the Kurdish issue,” is that the majority of society views the Kurdish issue as the most important political issue of Turkey after unemployment, which can be seen as an economic problem.

Universities that have not been active in debates concerning long-standing higher education problems are preparing to discuss these issues, and two ambitious academicians, Professor Talip Küçükcan and Associate Professor Bekir S. Gür, are leading efforts to start debates at universities.

First it was a devastating attack in Dağlıca. Now it is Aktütün. And countless other attacks occurred in between. Outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) terrorism is back.

BBC covered the story as a "landmark visit to Armenia." CNN called it "football diplomacy." French President Nicolas Sarkozy applauded the visit as "courageous and historic."

Current developments and recent social and cultural transformations under the forces of globalization indicate that the prophecy of traditional secularization thesis seems to have failed to capture the ongoing influence of religion. Proponents of secularization thesis established an unavoidable and casual connection between the beginning of modernity and the decline of traditional forms of religious life. Generally speaking theorists of secularization process argued that religion would lose its influence on social and political life once the society absorbs the values and institutions of modernization. For B. Wilson for example “secularization relates to the diminution in the social significance of religion”. L. Shiner on the other hand, argued that the culmination of secularization would be religionless society.

In no period of recorded history have human beings known about different cultures as much as we do. Thanks to the pervasive nature of globalization, what happens in Washington, London or France has an immediate impact on what positions are taken in Istanbul, Cairo or Kuala Lumpur. Our global public space is so powerful yet also so elusive that it leads many to believe that more information brings more understanding. Getting to know each other from close up, however, is not always a smooth and easy experience. It may result in some pleasant surprises and enriching experiences. Yet it may also result in disappointment, frustration and mistrust. In the current state of relations between Muslim and Western societies, we are doomed when we refuse to recognize each other in one way or another. Yet, we also run up against tremendous difficulties when we show the courage and honesty of knowing each other closely for there is too long a history of doubt, mistrust and refusal.

The recent Russia-Georgia conflict was long in the making. The reason was not the problems between Moscow and Tbilisi, but the new round of a cold war between Russia and the Western bloc.

This is the question everybody is seeking an answer for. The Bush administration thinks it knows what the power is for and Mr. Bush believes he is putting it to good use in Iraq, Afghanistan, potentially in Iran and elsewhere. But the hard realities of war and what is happening in the real world belie this false sense of confidence.

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."