Is Gulen an Armenian?

Pinar Tremblay

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly told the world and his people that the words “Islam” and “terrorism” should not be used together, because Muslims cannot be terrorists. Indeed, Erdogan has insisted that students who attend Turkey's religious imam hatip high schools would never become terrorists. Yet the man Erdogan accuses of masterminding the July 15 coup attempt is none other than the president's former close friend and ally, Fethullah Gulen, a Sunni imam. This has made the situation rather uncomfortable for the president and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Acknowledging that Muslims might deliberately hurt and even murder other Muslims is not easy in general for the majority of Turks, so what can be done to address this uncomfortable reality?

Turkey’s Premier Tries to Keep Power, as President

Sebnum Arsu

Tin Arango

 

Just before Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s motorcade swept into the airport here [Ankara], workers rolled up a red carpet that had been used for the departing president and put down a turquoise one for Mr. Erdogan.

Turquoise was the primary color of the Ottoman Empire, and Mr. Erdogan’s preference for it is a subtle, yet telling, symbol of his ambitions as he campaigns to become president — crisscrossing the country in a bid to expand his pre-eminence over Turkish political life and become, as many of his critics put it, a modern-day sultan.

On Sunday, Turks, for the first time in history, will vote for their president, a position that on paper is largely, but not entirely, ceremonial. As the campaign has unfolded, any sense of its historical importance has been eclipsed by a sense of certitude: Mr. Erdogan is widely expected to win, and widely expected to govern the country from the presidential palace.

In Local Election, a Referendum on Turkey’s Leader

Tim Arango

Ceylan Yeginsu 

As the campaign bus moved through Istanbul’s traffic, the cityscape blurred: construction cranes, new shopping malls and boutiques, a billboard for the luxury department store Harvey Nichols — all signposts of a city more populous than some European countries, vastly reshaped under the Islamist government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Inside the bus was a secular candidate to be the next mayor, Mustafa Sarigul, who for years has led Istanbul’s most affluent district, Sisli, and is now the greatest hope among Mr. Erdogan’s opponents. They see Sunday’s mayoral elections as the first step in loosening the hold that Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, known as the A.K.P., has over Turkish politics.