Just as change does not necessarily mean progress, political scheming in Hatay fell short of raising the city to the level of the rest of Turkey. We residents are people who live freely in peace and security regardless of what religion or sect we belong to. Our lives had no traces of blood, tears, grudges, hatred, suspicion or fear. Our level of tension would be less than one percent of the tension existing in the Southeastern province. It is apt to use a well-worn adage: In peace, children bury their parents; in war, parents bury their children.

The city of Al Bab to the northwest of Aleppo that the Syrian regime had been forced to totally withdraw from was like a test ground where one could clearly observe the difficult and painful steps the people had to take in order to build democracy. The townspeople of Al Bab were engaged in a struggle to plot the course of their own destiny when a bloody battle was raging in Aleppo only 35 km away. Who will emerge victorious from the fighting in Aleppo would doubtless determine the fate of the smaller Al Bab.

Turkey’s traditional security-centered policies to deal with the Kurdish problem became stuck during the rule of the AKP governments that enjoyed a powerful majority in parliament for ten years. Instead of laying groundwork for a peaceful solution along the lines of social consensus, democracy and liberties, the AKP governments chose to raise false hopes by means of so-called “reforms” and “initiatives” and to rely on policies which, in essence, were security-centered in spite of strong support they had in parliament and international circumstances that were favorable to democratization and liberties such as the process of full membership in the EU, not to mention possibilities served up by political developments in the Middle East.

The region’s economy is directly tied to the volume of trade with neighboring countries and border trade. When Gaziantep is added in, 40% of the exports to Iraq are made via Southeast Anatolia. Gaziantep alone accounts for 30% of total exports. Profiling the economic relations between the provinces in the region and neighboring countries by taking Iraq as an example, we see that 50% of the exports from Diyarbakir go there, with ores and metals taking the lead in volume at 38%. Marble probably makes up 80% of this amount.

Worldwide, annual pesticide use is 3 million tons on average, whereas it is around 33 thousand tons in Turkey. Actually, this number does not mean anything; one has to delve further. Around 700 grams (Reference 1) of pesticides per hectare are used in Turkey. In comparison, the Netherlands, which has the highest pesticide use in Europe, uses nearly 13 kilograms and in Finland, the country with the lowest pesticide use, it is around 1.2 kilograms. From this perspective, the amount of pesticides used in Turkey seems quite low. However, this is not the case.

The main argument used to justify the decision towards building nuclear plants in Turkey is the rapid increase in energy/electricity demand. According to the data of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, between 1990 and 2008, the annual average rate of increase in primary energy demand was realized as 4.3%.1 Since the planned nuclear reactors can generate only electricity, it would be more appropriate to look at the increase in electricity consumption of Turkey.

The climate change brought about by men, which was scientifically uncovered with long-term observations, today manifests itself in the events we have encountered in the short run. The global record heat and flood-related disasters that took place in a number of countries in 2010 are some global examples of this. The melting of the ice cap in Greenland on 8-12, July, 2012 by 97 percent gave us a more vivid idea of what the speed of climate change in its current stage could be. The whirlwinds that happened in Turkey in the winter months, the flooding that took place in a number of towns and regions in the summer months, with Samsun ranking first, as well the heat waves are a few examples.

The main subject of this article is providing information regarding the KCK cases and assisting in the determination and comprehensibleness of the legal situation The goal is not seeking an answer to the question of how the Kurdish problem can be resolved. Instead, it is to reflect upon the KCK cases and the criminal justice system in conjunction with the accusations put forth in the indictments.

Turkey has begun the process of drafting a new constitution. A new constitution means redefining the state and society and remaking basic political choices. Therefore, preparing a constitution is a turning point for a nation. Constitutions have two main functions: to restrict political power by rule of law and to safeguard fundamental rights and liberties. Democracies carry the risk of a political party acquiring power through elections then shifting to an undemocratic, oppressive regime by wielding power to advance its own political aims. Constitutions offer structural and institutional arrangements to lessen this risk.

The acute problems in the Caucasus, the Balkans and the Middle East pressured Turkey to continue playing its regional harmonizing role between its strategic allies and neighbours. The challenge of managing these tensions also appeared to put Davutoglu’s foreign policy formulations and above mentioned principles to the test. The changing nature of the economic and political set-up forced a reconciliation of domestic issues with foreign affairs; in other words, international relations that are now used to meet Turkey’s economic, democratic, social and religious ambitions as defined according to the perceptions of the ruling cadre within the AKP of the “existing realities of the world” setting.