Post-Election Plain Talk on Turkey from the EU
By Albert Nekimken, Special to The Turkish Times - The earnestness of Turkey in advancing its candidacy is exposing political fissures in the EU just when Turkish politics achieved what promises to be an unprecedented, new level of stability. Only a few days after the Turkish election that brought the AKP party to power, new alarm bells began ringing in the European Union regarding Turkey's candidacy. Listening to them closely suggests that the EU will have as much homework as Turkey to resolve the issue. More

Who's Side Is Turkey's Erdogan On?
Louis Meixler, The Associated Press, November 25, 2002, ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) - On a whirlwind tour of European capitals, Turkey's new leader has been romancing the West - joking with Italy's prime minister and chatting about Turkish music with the head of rival Greece. The trip is an astonishing turnaround for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the head of Turkey's Islamic-rooted party, a man better known in Turkey for advocating Islamic law and joining party activists in group prayers. More

Religion and State
Efraim Inbar, Jerusalem Post - Nov. 11, 2002 - On November 3, the Justice and Development Party (AKP), a new party formed out of a banned Islamic movement, won 35 percent of the popular vote and 363 of the 550 seats in the Turkish parliament. Among the 18 parties contesting the elections, the Republican People's Party (CHP) also mustered the minimum 10 percent nationwide required to qualify for sending representatives to parliament with almost 20 percent of the votes. More

Europe must embrace Islam too
Denis MacShane, November 24, 2002, The Observer - Fourteen ninety-two was the best of years, the worst of years for Europe. Columbus set sail for the Americas to link the two land masses on either side of the Atlantic. The Americas remain essentially a European construct with the United States, in particular, returning to save the old continent from its follies twice last century and again being called in to restore order in the Balkans after the failure of Europe's will in the early 1990s. More

Bulgarian Democracy and the Armenian Connection - 2
"The original Bulgars were Turkic tribes running away from the Mongols of Central Asia"
Ahmet Gursoy, Special to The Turkish Times (Part II of IV) - In Bulgaria, like in Russia, the reformation of the communist party by changing a few names did not go too far. While the pressure for new elections was mounting in the Parliament, out of parliament the formation of new political parties were escalating. In the October election of 1991 the newly established party, the "Union of Democratic Forces" (UDF), took control of Parliament and Philip Dimitrov became the Prime Minister. Three months later in January 1992, Jelio Jelev was elected president. More

How an Atheist Helps Protect Islamists in Turkey
They adhere to the Voltairian maxim:
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
Ian Fisher, The New York Times – The atheist and the Islamist sat side by side, in matching polo shirts no less. "From a theological point of view," the Islamist, Abdurrahman Dilipak, said with some mischief, "it is inevitable that I would have concerns about his life in eternity. But after all, there are seven rungs of hell, and I know he won't be on the lowest one." More

THE FIRST SHOT - IV
"Historians should love the truth.
A historian has a duty to try to write only the truth."
By Prof. Justin McCarthy, University of Louisville - Azerbaijan and Armenia: At the end of World War I, it was the turn of the Turks of Azerbaijan to be attacked. Allied with Bolsheviks in Baku, Armenian nationalist forced nearly half of the Turkish population of Baku to flee the city. Between 8 and 10,000 Muslims, almost all Turks, were killed in Baku alone. The Armenian guerilla leader Andranik destroyed villages in Nahçivan and Southern Azerbaijan, forcing more than 60,000 Turkish refugees to flee. More