'Turkey' - tagged features

Turkey has fought many internal political battles over the past few years. Now, it's at a new crossroad. Last week Turkey's top state prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, launched a court case against the ruling AK Party. The prosecutor claims the AK Party is trying to build an Islamic state within secular Turkey. If successful, the AK Party would be banned, and 71 party members including the Prime Minister and President, face the risk of being banned from politics for 5 years. 

It can be plain old cotton or extravagant Italian silk. Tied tightly under your chin or draped elegantly over your head. Headscarves in Turkey might be a political hot potato but for many women they’re also a fashion accessory. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, how and what you wear as a headscarf can define where you’re from, who you are, and whether you’re in or out. 

The Roma community has been in Istanbul, Turkey, for almost a thousand years. They’ve lived through wars and sieges, but today they may well be facing their toughest challenge yet: a massive property boom in Istanbul, fuelled by European investors and the oil money from Middle Eastern and Russian speculators. There’s new development all over the city. And such development could mean the destruction of the Europe’s oldest Roma community. 

Probably no other First Lady in the world has been at the center of so much controversy this year as Ayrünissa Gül, the wife of the new Turkish president. The fact that Mrs Gül, as an orthodox Muslim, insists on wearing a headscarf is seen by many in Turkey as a threat to secularism. So you might not expect Mrs Gül to draw extra attention to her wardrobe. But she clearly enjoys fashion - and in fact, for her latest outfits she went to a Turkish designer who's made clothes for top Hollywood celebrities. 

For weeks now the European Union has debated about what should be done with EU candidate Turkey which is refusing to open its ports to Cypriot ships. Should the EU partially suspend accession talks or totally freeze negotiations? The European Commission recommended this week a suspension of talks on eight of the 35 "chapters", or policy areas, into which the accession talks are divided. The final decision though will be taken by EU heads of states later this month. And it will be a difficult one, as member countries are divided over Turkey. Sweden for instance warned that sending negative signals to Ankara could be a "strategic calamity", while Finland, the current president of the EU welcomed the partial freeze. And so does Cyprus, as the Cypriot Foreign Minister told Network Europe. 

Turkey's chances of joining the exclusive EU club took another downturn this week. The issue of whether Turkey joins the EU has become one of the most divisive issues in european political life. The question many want answered is if it were to become a member, would Turkey become more European or would, as some western Europeans fear, Europe become less secular? The European commission released a much anticpated report on Turkey's accession progress on Wednesday and it didn't make for cosey bed-time reading for Ankara. Turkey was attacked on its human rights, religious freedoms and its attitude towards the divided island of Cyprus. There wasn't a call for a suspension of talks but the report's bound to fuel speculation that Turkey's whole bid is going off the rails. 

As Turkey chews over what more it needs to do to win EU membership, the Turkish army's flexing its muscles in domestic politics. The chief of staff has warned prime minister Tayyip Erdogan that the secular state is facing a threat from fundamentalist Islam. The prime minister's in a difficult situation because conservative muslims form the backbone of his support. But the Turkish army, along with the middle class, fiercely defend the separation of state and religion - something many in the EU would applaud. 

Turkey has its first Nobel Prize winner, with Orhan Pamuk winning the prize for literature. But surprisingly his award has not been met with universal celebration in Turkey. The writer has become the target of the country's growing nationalist movement, which consider him a traitor. That's because Pamuk has frequently spoken out about the killing of Armenians in Turkey 90 years ago. To make matters worse for the author on the day of the announcing of his Nobel Prize, the French parliament passed a bill, which criminalizes the denial of the Armenian genocide, something Turkey strongly denies. The 2 events have placed Pamuk at the centre of the perfect nationalist storm, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul 

And the prize that gets oh-so-much speculation: the Literature Prize... 

Turkey has experienced a week of violence. Last Sunday 4 bombs hit a major tourist resort and Istanbul the country's largest city, injuring 27 people including 10 British tourists. While an explosion in Antayla killed 3 and wounded 2 dozen more. A group fighting for Kurdish rights called the Kurdish Freedoms Falcons claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing and warned foreign tourists to stay away from Turkey. The attacks have again put the national and international spotlight on the 20-year struggle between Kurdish separatists fighting the Turkish for an independent homeland. Security forces across Turkey are now on high alert following this week's attacks in Istanbul and the coastal resorts of Marmaris and Antalya. 

he United Nations and the European Union may well turn to Turkey to participate in the formation of a peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon. However, despite Turkey's political importance the latest Eurobarometer survey indicates that almost half of all Europeans are against Turkey joining the European Union. There are however wide discrepancies between member states. More than 80 % of Austrians are hostile to Turkish EU membership, closely followed by over 60% of Germans and Luxembourgers, Cypriots and Greeks - while only 23 % in Spain are against the idea of Turks joining the Union. But how is the mood in Turkey and how do Turks feel about joining the European Union? It now seems support for EU membership is dwindling rapidly. For the first time, according to a recent Turkish poll, supporters of EU entry are now a minority. That's a change from last year when Turkey was given a firm date to start accession talks and more than seventy per cent of Turks were in favor of joining. So why do Turks no longer see the EU as an attractive eldorado? 

On Thursday, leaders and representatives from more than 20 countries descended on Ceyhan, Turkey's main Mediterranean oil terminal. They are there for the official opening of the world's second longest oil pipeline. The 3 billion euro Baku Tbilisi Ceyhan pipeline runs from Azerbaijan via Georgia to Turkey And will deliver more than million tonnes of oil a week to the world's markets. The oil comes from the Eurasian states of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. The region used to be part of the former Soviet Union. And that is why this pipeline is seen as having not only economic importance but political as well. For the United States, one of the pipeline's main political backers, it is seen as a crucial step not only to unlocking urgently needed resources, but also to giving the energy rich region greater independence from its former Russian master.