Tag: Turkey

Benjamin Hall reports on the reprieve for the millions bombarded by jets in Idlib. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news. The number one network…

Incident follows weeks of escalating tensions between the U.S. and Turkey; Rich Edson reports from the State Department. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news.…

Financial turmoil in Turkey might have global ripple effects as the nation’s currency plunges after the U.S. imposed tariffs on Turkey’s aluminum and steel on Friday. Stephanie Ruhle and CNBC’s Steve Liesman break it down. » Subscribe to MSNBC: http://on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc…

Iran test-fires ballistic missile as Trump hits Turkey, Russia and Iran with economic punishments; General Jack Keane weighs in on 'The Story with Martha MacCallum.' FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news…

Turkish court ruled U.S. pastor held on espionage charges must remain in prison. Gillian Turner has the story. FOX News Channel (FNC) is a 24-hour all-encompassing news service dedicated to delivering breaking news as well as political and business news.…

President will gain new powers after election, though the balance in parliament could play a key role in Turkey's political future ISTANBUL, Turkey - A year after Turkey voted to leave behind decades of parliamentary politics for a presidential system, citizens have again found themselves preparing for an election with implications that go far beyond choosing their next leader. Polls indicate an Erdogan victory against his rival Muharrem Ince; predictions are mixed as to whether the AKP, in coalition with their former opponents, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), will secure a majority in parliament. "All the opposition parties are saying if they win, they'll rein back power." The executive presidency that will begin after the 24 June election will abolish the prime minister's office, transfer the role of drafting the budget from parliament to the president, and give greater control over the civil service. Turkey's opposition parties with often conflicting ideologies have formed an alliance to oppose Erdogan and the AKP, and while questions remain over their ability to work together, they are united by their shared rejection of the presidential system in the 2016 referendum. Leftist journalist Umit Kivanc believes any changes would hinge on whether parties can work together despite hostile pasts, questioning whether the secular CHP can co-operate with the religiously rooted Saadet Party or whether the nationalist Iyi Party and Kurdish People’s Democratic Movement can tolerate each other. Some commentators believe that losing a majority in parliament could see an internal review of the AKP's unconditional support of Erdogan, which has seen him emerge as the party's sole leading figure. "The team he started his political career with - very few of them are together with him right now," said conservative political commentator Izzet Akyol. MHP is directly a state organisation," he said. "As 'the master' of great election victories, Erdogan will have no problem reining in enough democratic support for the new presidential government system," he wrote.

The populist uprising in the US, Britain, and Europe is a backlash against elites of the mainstream parties, but its most conspicuous casualties have been liberal and centre-left political parties – the Democratic Party in the US; the Labour Party in Britain; the Social Democratic Party in Germany, whose share of the vote reached a historic low in the last federal election; Italy’s Democratic Party, whose vote share dropped this year to less than 20 per cent; and the Socialist Party in France, whose presidential nominee won only 6 per cent of the vote in the first round of last year’s election. In today’s economy, it is not easy to rise. The dignity of work The loss of jobs to technology and outsourcing has coincided with a sense that society accords less respect to the kind of work the working class does. To think it through, political parties will have to grapple with the meaning of work and its place in a good life. But this principled response, valid though it is, fails to address an important set of questions implicit in the populist complaint. But this strategy of avoidance, this insistence on liberal neutrality, is a mistake. Liberal neutrality flattens questions of meaning, identity and purpose into questions of fairness. And liberal public reason is not a morally neutral way of arriving at principles of justice. Three decades of market-driven globalisation and technocratic liberalism have hollowed out democratic public discourse, disempowered ordinary citizens, and prompted a populist backlash that seeks to clothe the naked public square with an intolerant, vengeful nationalism. It draws upon material from Sandel’s articles “Lessons from the Populist Revolt”, in Project Syndicate, and “Populism, Liberalism, and Democracy”, in Philosophy & Social Criticism (2018).

Russian President Vladimir Putin, over the last 18 years, has maintained strong political, military and economic relations – sometimes welcome, sometimes not – with these countries and their leaders in an attempt to keep them on Russia’s side. Russia’s intervention in Syria’s civil war and its growing alliances with Iran and Turkey makes maintaining influence over the South Caucasus states even more enticing for Putin. In extending the rule of Sargsyan, Armenia followed the Putinist model of government. The grand bargain of this model is the promise of political stability in exchange for closed-door politics. Armenia and Russia are still close allies and likely will remain allies no matter who succeeds Sargsyan. As in Armenia, Russia did not export the Putinist model to these places so much as these leaders eagerly adopted it. Nor will Russia’s. Sargsyan could build a similar model of influence over Armenian affairs and continue his own “politics of eternity.” Sargsyan’s forced resignation was a blow to the Putinist model of leadership. It is simply a loud and important statement by fiercely independent Armenians. This article was originally published on The Conversation.

Read more: How a more divided Turkey could change the way we think about Gallipoli We undertook fieldwork last Anzac Day on this ritual as part of a proposed larger research project examining how the memory of Gallipoli has become central to tension between Turkish republicans and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Nowhere is this memory politics more significant than in this re-enactment ritual, which under AKP rule has been renamed the Loyalty March for the 57th Regiment. The origins of the re-enactment are closely tied to this mythology – it was originally known as the 57th Regiment March in the Track of Atatürk. This commemorative form has proved particularly significant for AKP memory politics by allowing a focus on the martyrdom of 57th Regiment, which suffered heavy casualties. But, since 2005, Turkish authorities have built 11 cemeteries for the fallen soldiers. These have become popular sites for prayer by the 1 million-plus Turkish visitors to the battlefields per year, in large part funded as social tourism by municipalities. The AKP has a vested interest in advancing re-enactment as a commemorative form at Gallipoli, as it provides an opportunity for increased religious references and contexts. To ensure the re-enactment remains popular, though, the AKP has retained much of its original carnival-like character. The Republican People’s Party (CHP), for example, had a re-enactment as part of its four-day Justice Congress at Gallipoli in August 2017. But ritual performances on the battlefields on April 25 are almost certain to remain politically significant in Turkey.

Brexit phrasebook: what is the customs union? Customs union members cannot negotiate their own trade deals outside the EU, which is why leaving it – while hopefully negotiating a bespoke arrangement – has been one of the government’s Brexit goals. He fully supports the prime minister’s position that this means leaving the customs union.” Although the loss of other pledges in negotiations have been reluctantly accepted, such as the promise to reclaim control over fishing quotas from March 2019, accepting continued membership of a customs union would be of a different and much larger scale. Morgan is one of the 12 select committee chairs who are backing that policy in a potentially difficult debate in the Commons on Thursday on customs union membership. “The majority of the party would not entertain a leadership contest at the moment and those who want to ... should think very carefully if they really want to intervene in the negotiations in the way a leadership contest would.” Labour MP Chuka Umunna, and pro-remain Tory Anna Soubry have tabled amendments to the trade and customs bill, due to be debated on Thursday, that would make staying in the customs union a legal objective of the government. In the House of Lords, the government is braced for more defeats as peers begin a second week of votes on the EU withdrawal bill on Monday. Last week, 24 Tory peers backed the customs union amendment. The government nearly lost a vote in the Commons on a similar amendment, which seeks to incorporate the charter into the legislation. Scared about your human rights after Brexit? The government is vulnerable on the issue, with Tory rebels such as the former attorney general Dominic Grieve only dropping their opposition when the bill passed its earlier stages after ministers pledged to publish a review of the rights conferred by the charter and set out their view.