Perspectives

We’re happy to announce that the second issue of our quarterly magazine Perspectives – Political analysis and commentary from Turkey just appeared today with a rich collection of articles on hot political issues, foreign policy and economy as well as the political system, the environment, ecology, the arts and many other subjects. The highlight in this second issue will be on the “ Middle East andTurkey ” with perspectives by Soli Özel, Bayram Balcı, Sedat Aybar, Şah İsmail Bedirhanoğlu, and Sezgin Tanrıkulu not to mention a first-hand account of what’s happening in Hatay by Nidal Özdemir, a local resident. The authors draw a critical analysis on the so-called new foreign policy of Foreign Minister Davutoglu. They clearly show, why this policy was meant to fail from the beginning. Turkey’s policy towards Syria and its perception in Syria will be debated based on a up to date view from within.

The feature articles of this first issue deal with the historical background and recent developments concerning the “deep state” of Turkey. We regard the “deep state” as one of the important impediments in the democratization of this country. With the different reforms that led to a change in the civil-military relationship, with the law suits such as the Ergenekon trial, and with the trial against responsible personality of the coup d’état in 1980, it became a much discussed topic; if the AKP government attempts to destroy the deep state; if it is accommodating to it or just changing the actors of the “deep state”. In our first issue, we try to give answer to these questions. In addition to the feature articles, topical articles on issues such as the reform of the educational system, censorship in the arts as well as the renewable energy law and the reform of the health system are addressed.