Copyright 2010 Soner Cagaptay Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:40:01 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Soner Cagaptay :: Writings http://www.cagaptay.com cagaptay@gmail.com (Soner Cagaptay) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.cagaptay.com/7031/who-lost-ergenekon Sun, 7 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST When the Ergenekon case started in 2007 based on allegations of a coup plot against the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, government, Washington agreed: "this is serious stuff." Three years, two hundred arrests, hundreds of house raids and wiretaps... http://www.cagaptay.com/7018/turkey-republic-of-fear Thu, 4 Mar 2010 09:00:00 EST Last week's arrests in Turkey of dozens of high-ranking military officers mark the country's latest step toward authoritarianism. Neither Europe nor the United States can afford to ignore Turkey's transformation. Since coming to power in 2002, the ruling... http://www.cagaptay.com/6994/turkey-turning-point Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST Turkey's Islamist ruling coalition faces the courts and military in a showdown for the nation's future. Will Turkey move closer to the liberal democracies or away from them? This tension has riven Turkey since its founding as a secular state by Atatürk.... http://www.cagaptay.com/6993/behind-turkey-coup-arrests Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST For the last several decades, the Turkish military was untouchable; no one dared to criticize the military or its top generals, lest they risk getting burned. The Turkish Armed Forces were the ultimate protectors of founding father Kemal Ataturk's... http://www.cagaptay.com/6930/diyanet-laicite-turkish-exports-to-europe Sun, 7 Feb 2010 09:00:00 EST European secularism, or laïcité, practiced in France and other European countries, is distinct from American secularism. While the United States is secular, providing for freedom of religion in education and politics, European societies are laïque,... http://www.cagaptay.com/6879/muslims-vs-islamists Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST I am thankful to Mr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab, the father of the failed Christmas day bomber. In late 2009, Mr. Abdul Mutallab, a Muslim, approached U.S. authorities in his native Nigeria to warn them of his son's slide into Islamist ideology. Mr. Abdul... http://www.cagaptay.com/6863/no-women-no-europe Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST The first president of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, is a known opponent of Turkey's EU membership. Mr. Van Rompuy may find it easy to stick to his position: seven years after the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, rose to power in Ankara,... http://www.cagaptay.com/6848/turks-vs-kurds Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Turkey's Kurdish problem, a long and bitter conflict, has taken a vicious new turn in recent weeks as ordinary Kurds and Turks have started fighting in the streets. That might sound like nothing new, but it is: although Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers'... http://www.cagaptay.com/6814/offending-the-turks Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST The diplomatic spat between Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and the Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol on Monday was the worst thing that could have happened to the already strained Ankara-Jerusalem ties. Relations between Turkey and Israel... http://www.cagaptay.com/6760/turkey-ethnic-violence Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Rising social violence between Kurds and non-Kurds in Turkey, with daily incidents occurring, is an unusual, and therefore alarming, phenomenon. This violence has been spurred as much by the recent Kurdish opening, which has created a backlash against... http://www.cagaptay.com/6670/islamist-foreign-policies-hurt-muslims Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST What is an Islamist foreign policy, exactly? Is it identifying with Muslims and their suffering, or is it identifying with anti-Western regimes even at the cost of Muslims' best interests? Turkey's foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party,... http://www.cagaptay.com/6662/as-turkey-pulls-away Sat, 5 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST On December 7, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington. The meeting follows Obama's April visit to Turkey when he reached out to the Turks to realign Ankara with the US after the tumultuous years... http://www.cagaptay.com/6678/mr-erdogan-visits-washington Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST On December 7, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Washington to meet with President Barack Obama. The meeting follows Obama's April visit to Turkey, during which the U.S. leader reached out to Ankara in an effort to realign the... http://www.cagaptay.com/6669/please-call-us-islamic Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Islamophobia is rising in the West because so many of us confuse Islam with Islamism. This confusion also inadvertently helps organizations like al-Qaeda. Not a day goes by that yet another publication or pundit uses the terms Islamic and Islamist... http://www.cagaptay.com/6667/7-years-of-akp-rule Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST The Anatolian landscape is dotted by a tall slender tree in the aspen family, known to the Turks as kavak. This is a fragile-looking but sturdy tree, so when the harsh Anatolian wind blows across the steppe, kavak can bend at incredible angles, adjusting...