Turkey’s long-standing Kurdish issue was also mentioned in the commentaries as a major issue that awaited a comprehensive solution.

 SETA-DC PANEL DISCUSSION  Chair:     Kadir Ustun, SETA-DC   Speakers: Daniel Levy, New America Fnd. Stevn A. Cook, Council on F.R. Erol Cebeci,SETA-DC  Date: September 19, 2011 Monday  Venue: SETA-DC, Washington

 SETA PANEL DISCUSSION  Chair:     Taha Özhan, SETA    Panelists:     Ali Çarkoğlu, Sabancı Univ.       Cengiz Çandar, Radikal     Yavuz Baydar, Sabah  Date: June 15, 2011 Wednesday  Time: 14.00-16.00  Venue: SETA, Ankara   

Turkey, after a long time, is undertaking elections to build a new future instead of overcoming a crisis situation.

Returning to Tunisia after 20 years in exile,the opposition leader Ghannouchi said Turkey provided political inspiration.

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressed in Ankara that Hosni Mubarak should listen to the demands of the Egyptian people.

Israel so preoccupied with who should stay in power in Turkey, that they cannot read what is really happening in Turkish domestic politics.

The world’s economics in 2010 were still struggling to overcome the financial crisis, which began in 2008 in the United States and became global in 2009.

The talk of a “new Turkey” is generating lively debates both in Turkey and abroad. Last week we discussed  Washington where the US government was trying to recover from the embarrassment of WikiLeaks.

Changing patterns or direction in Turkey’s exports and imports could serve as a well-qualified parameter in order to assess the so-called shift in the country’s orientation.

SETA CONFERENCE Chair:     Taha Özhan, SETA Konuşmacılar:     İhsan Dağı, METU     Ertan Aydın, Pollmark     Date: September 22, 2010 Wednesday Time: 14.00 – 15.30 Venue: SETA Foundation, ANKARA

On Sunday September 12th, 2010, Turkey voted "yes" in a referendum to a package of amendments by a wide margin (58 percent yes; 42 percent no) with a high level of participation (77.5 percent) despite the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party's (BDP) boycott. The amendments were designed to restrict the power of the military and the judicial bureaucracy in Turkey that originated from the 1982 junta-made Turkish constitution. The immediate political consequence of the referendum will be a serious relaxation of domestic political tensions, which have been undergirded for over 50 years by the one constant in Turkish politics: the ever present threat of military coup.

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.