Now that the highly dramatic month of July has finally come to an end, the people of Istanbul can collectively turn a page and look to an immediate future, which appears considerably more certain, if not banal, in comparison to the recent past. The city’s bourgeoisie will head to their summer houses in the greater Istanbul region, while the upper classes augment their social status and darker skin tones at exclusive seaside ghettos such as mythic Bodrum. (more…)

The drama surrounding the potential closure of the ruling AKP party acquired a significant nuance with the decision of Standard & Poor’s to cut Turkey’s credit rating to three increments below investment grade (BB-) last week. The credit agency attributed its sudden decision to “the increasingly challenging political and global environment that Turkey faces in the near term”.| MORE ›

Benjamin delves into the deeper socioeconomic background of the debate over head scarves in Turkey.

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At the beginning of this past week, the world was gripped by the imminent possibility of global financial Armageddon. While the global markets have encountered and overcome small patches of turmoil over the last eight months, only this most recent turn of events has caused the Turkish media, government and upper-classes to immerse themselves in an open round of soul searching.| MORE ›

The Turkish economy is currently moving at full throttle. Not since the privatization reforms of the venerable Turgut Özal has there been such a sustained stretch of economic progress.| MORE ›

Meline Toumani’s New York Times Sunday Magazine article, “Minority Rules”, is simply phenomenal. Her account of the contemporary situation of Kurds in Turkey, which is based on an interview with Diyarbakır’s former mayor, weaves together all of the most necessary threads to describe the current state of affairs.

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