The excitement Turkey generates in the Arab world and beyond (the Balkans, Europe and parts of Africa can easily be added to the list) seems to be sustained by the confluence of substantial changes in three areas: Turkey, the region and the world.

Hours before the Turkey-Germany match in Basel, here is my wildest UEFA finals cup scenario: Turkey beats Germany and Russia beats Spain. Turks and Russians, the two nations the Europeans have historically feared the most, play the final.

The decision by the Turkish Constitutional Court on June 5 to annul the amendments of Articles 10 and 42 was a turning point in the country's legal and political history.

The revamped Southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP) was launched by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Diyarbakır last week in the company of 12 of his ministers, 75 deputies and an army of bureaucrats. In the biggest sports stadium in Diyarbakır (which only hosts 1,300 people), he spoke for two hours about the new program and how it will change the socioeconomic structure of the region.

The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will hold its general congress over the weekend. Deniz Baykal is once again a candidate for the party's leadership and appears to not have a viable challenger so far.

Sharing power is never easy. Politics thrives on accumulating more power. Empires are built around it. You can defeat your opponents by stick or by carrot, but either way you need power.

On Monday, the Justice and Development Party's (AK Party) highest body announced the party's strategy for the closure case opened against it.

With the court case against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officially started, Turkey has entered a new period of political uncertainty.

Everybody from Ankara to Brussels is asking the question “With the Justice and Devlopment Party (AK Party) strengthening its position in government and Abdullah Gül as the new president, will Turkey renew its efforts to join the EU as a full member?” No matter how the AK Party and the Turkish people answer the question, much still depends on what happens next in Europe.

Abdullah Gül has been elected the 11th president of the Turkish Republic. Some analysts called his candidacy controversial and warned of a major backlash. All that is past now. A number of challenges lie ahead for Gül. The challenges, however, are not only for him but also for the future of Turkish democracy. Gül received 339 votes in the third round. This is more than the last three presidents got: Turgut Özal got 263, Süleyman Demirel 244 and Ahmet Necdet Sezer 330. The choice of the new Turkish Parliament reflects the will of the majority of Turkish voters. According to a recent poll conducted by research firm Konda, if there was an election today the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) would get 54 percent of the vote. This means two things: First of all, there is still a steady flow of votes from the center-right (Democrat Party, DP, and Motherland Party, ANAVATAN) to the AK Party. And second, Gül’s presidency has been interpreted as the right choice by both the AK Party and other center-right voters.  

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.

Recent events have once again thrown into sharp focus the question of democracy and secularism in Turkey. The table talk topic is whether Turkey should be democratic or secular. The July 22 elections will be a battleground for the Turkish political system to decide if it can be both secular and democratic while remaining civilized.

At its face value, these are exciting times for Turkish politics. A number of attempts are underway to unite the political right and the political left. They are driven by a zeal to save the Republic again. But no alliance is good without a common enemy. And the new enemy is AK Party Such attempts at unification have been undertaken before. Leadership for the political right and the political left in Turkey has always been up for grabs.

With July 22nd set for national elections, Turkish politics has entered a new phase. While AK Party is faced with the most important challenge of its political life to date, Turkish democracy is also put to the test. Over the next ten weeks, we will see a deep identity politics playing out in the Turkish political space.

The string of events beginning with Abdullah Gül’s candidacy for president has revealed once more the fragile nature of Turkish democracy. While an ideological battle is being fought over who owns the core values of the republic, the current crisis puts democracy in Turkey to the test. The current crisis is carefully crafted and based on an old theme in Turkish politics: the ideological legitimacy of those who demand change

In one of his farewell speeches the outgoing Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer reiterated his belief that the regime in Turkey is in danger. He thinks that if Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan becomes president the secular principles of the republic will be jeopardized. President Sezer is not alone in this.

Turkish politics is stuck on the question of who should become the next president of Turkey. The more Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan avoids talking about it, the more aggressive the opposition becomes. It is not only the opposition parties that are stuck on the question. The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) cadres are in no better a position. No one dares speak about the new president. From the heavyweights to the ordinary supporters of the AK Party, they all say the same thing: if Erdoğan wants it, he should get it because he deserves it. No other presidential election in recent memory, with the exception of that of Turgut Özal, has been as hotly debated as this one.