According to Turkish government sources, Ergenekon is a conspiracy formed, among others, various disparate journalists, retired military officials and opposition party leaders. To date over 80 have been detained and brought in for questioning.

It’s a rather strange conspiracy in which those ideologically attached to the left of center, such as Labor Party leader Doğu Perinçek and leading secular liberal journalists, have attached themselves to those that are normally considered to be right of center, such as the military and capitalist businessmen— specifically, retired military officers and the head of Ankara’s Chamber of Commerce. Not only is it being alleged that this motley collection of individuals with presumably differing ideologies attached themselves to each other, but that they have found something so intoxicatingly in common so as to inextricably unite and form a criminal terrorist enterprise whose aim is to promote large scale violence to justify a military coup. (more…)

Turkey’s military leadership has had it with the attempt of some to portray the military as the true enemy of the state. For a while now, opponents of the military - the military is well known for being very secular - have tried to convince people abroad and at home that the military is only waiting for an opportunity to stage a coup and to oppress the average citizen.  (more…)

Umh. What the hell should we think about this? ‘On the day when the Istanbul prosecutor briefed the public on the charges faced by members of the Ergenekon gang, the Doğan news agency, or DHA, reported on the details of the indictment, noting that it said the gang had a feudal structure linked to a clan with a history of six centuries.’ (more…)

One year after the Turkish government (/ prosecutor) started arresting ’suspects’ for the alleged involvement in a group which allegedly had the aim to create chaos so that the military would be forced to stage a coup, the case has gone to court. The prosecutor in the case charged more than eighty suspects with crimes ranging from founding a terrorist organization to overthrow the government, to inciting people to hatred. (more…)

The Eurasia Monitor has published an excellent article about the campaign of disinformation and deliberate untruths waged by AKP sympathetic media outlets that was written by Gareth Jenkins of the Jamestown Foundation.  An interesting question is whether Ergenekon is a game, initially designed by the west, that is now craftily being played against them. (more…)

Although Europe ignores it, the Turkey’s PM Erdogan is turning into the Turkish version of Vlad. Putin, writes Kemal. (more…)

‘French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country took over the six-month-term presidency of the European Union yesterday, said the Turkish army played an important role in strengthening democracy in Turkey and undertook a great role in separating government affairs from those of the mosque and religion,’ Turkish Daily News reports. (more…)

Just hours before Turkey’s top prosecutor presented arguments in court that the AK Party should be closed and 70 of its top officials, including Prime Minister Erdogan banned from politics, police took yet another 22 people into custody ostensibly for plotting to overthrow the government. Three others are still “at large,” but expected to be taken into custody soon. (more…)

Whenever a Westerner like me visits Turkey, he’s surprised to see poor-looking little children working; some sell roses, other polish shoes, again other sell hand kerchiefs. These children should, one would think, be at school; they should study. They should learn, so that they can have a better future than their parents had. (more…)

You can say a lot about the leaders of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (the AK Parti), but not that they are stupid. No, they are incredibly politically savvy. On top of that, they are absolutely determined to push through the reforms they want to push through, and to remain in power for as long as they want. (more…)

Below follow several videos of MSNBC’s Matt Lauer visiting Istanbul, Turkey. Be sure to watch it so you get a better idea of just how beautiful this unique city is. (more…)

A political poll commissioned by the Swiss bank Credit Suisse depicts a discernible level of fallout from the tumult, which has surrounded Turkey’s governing AK Party. According to the poll conducted by A&G Research, support for the AKP has fallen to 39.7% from a mid-summer 2007 election result of 47%. (more…)

Turkey’s Constitutional Court has spoken: the AKP’s wish to abolish the head scarf ban is in breach with the Constitution. (more…)

In what can be dubbed the understatement of the year, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ali Babacan told a predominantly American crowd at the Atlantic Council think tank, that the changes the AK Parti has brought about have caused “some noise.” (more…)

It has been a tragic week for minority groups in Turkey.

On May 29th a local Istanbul court issued a legal order to close Lambdaistanbul LGBT Solidarity Association. Lambdaistanbul is currently Turkey’s only known non campus-affiliated association with the mission of defending and establishing the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals within Turkey’s legal sphere and society. Turkey’s constitution, which is reputed to be a document that holds the country on a secular, Westernizing course, does not currently guarantee equal rights and recognition for sexual minorities.

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The Diyanet (Ministry on Religious Affairs) in Turkey apparently would like to remind Turkish women of their place, and also that they are living provocations to male sexual urges. In the words of the recent report by the Diyanet:

“Women have to be more careful, since they have stimulants,”

Unacceptable provocative behaviour includes flirting with men, wearing perfume outside the home and exposing skin. Also unmarried men and women shouldn’t be alone together and mixed-gender workplaces are not a good idea.

I wonder if they would also like women to be forbidden from driving and for them to need 4 male witnesses to prove rape, since it sounds like they’d much rather be like Iran and Saudi Arabia than be a island of moderate Islam.

Adding to its much coveted resume as “Europe’s bridge to the Middle East”, Turkey has now been officially recognized as the facilitator of talks between Israel and Syria. Whether or not the Israeli media agrees with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s motivations for publicizing the existence of talks, Turkey can at least shine in the warm spotlight of international recognition for a few weeks. (more…)

There is something of a war going on between a member of the European Parliament, Joost Lagendijk (NL, Greens - ultra progressive), and the Turkish political party the CHP. The Kemalist party has asked the Speaker of the European Parliament to remove Lagendijk from his post as co-chairman of the interparliamentary commission. (more…)

Queen of Great Britain Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in Turkey yesterday, for their second visit to this country. The first time was 37 years ago; back then, the two were warmly welcomed by Turkish masses. This, however, the reception was colder. The reason: 37 years ago, Turkey wasn’t much of a player. It had a whole lot of catching up to do. Today the situation is different: Turkey is ready to join the European Union. (more…)

Turkish Prime-Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (finally I can write his name correctly; in the Dutch alphabet we don’t have the soft G) easily survived a no-confidence vote recently. The opposition filed the motion last week after police forces had, in their opinion, used excessive force against left-wing (socialist and communist) protestors who wanted to celebrate ‘labor day’ (May 1) by virtually destroying Istanbul’s inner-city. (more…)

Bosphorus Watch favorite, Gareth Jenkins, has authored yet another intriguing piece about Turkish society. Jenkins’ most recent essay concerns the professionalization of the Turkish military. Currently, only one in six members of Turkey’s military is a professional soldier. While the military’s total size is 600,000, the operational effectiveness of its conscripts has been repeatedly called into question especially during the recent operations in northern Iraq. In particular, Turkish conscripts have demonstrated a penchant for being abducted by the PKK, undoubtedly causing great embarrassment to the leaders of NATO’s second-largest member force. (more…)