Keyword: Democracy

Abant meeting calls for commitment to EU process, new constitution

SEVGİ AKARÇEŞME, ABANT/BOLU/TURKEY Participants of the three-day-long Abant Platform meeting have emphasized the need to finish drafting a new constitution, stressed the importance of a state that is equidistant to all beliefs and underlined the significance of reviving Turkey’s membership talks with the European Union. Long a byword for describing a gathering that attracts a […]

Abant Platform meeting launches with identity debates in Turkey

SEVGİ AKARÇEŞME, ABANT/BOLU/TURKEY The Abant Platform started its 28th meeting on Friday at Lake Abant with the participation of over a hundred intellectuals, academics, journalists and pundits from different ideological backgrounds to discuss the current issues in Turkey. The first theme of the meeting was on Turkey’s issues of identity. Participants agreed that the misinterpretation […]

27th Abant Final Declaration on Democratization of Turkey

Democratization 1- Turkey’s culture is at present characterized by a susceptibility to in-group / out-group tension, the effects of which impede democratization. Authoritarianism and patriarchal hierarchy are aspects of group culture that are reflected at the family level and scaled up to the political level as majoritarian democracy and internally undemocratic institutions. Two basic institutions […]

Abant participants: Turkey needs EU support to improve its democracy

24 June 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, ABANT No matter the problems related to the European Union’s historical financial crisis and Turkey’s loss of enthusiasm regarding membership in the EU; participants of the 27th Abant meeting, titled “Different Perspectives on Turkey,” have said that Turkey needs the EU in order to improve its fragile democracy. […]

Abant Platform: perspectives on Turkey

Ihsan YILMAZ  June 22, 2012 The Abant Platform, being an innovative institution, has now initiated a new discussion forum which, as far as I am aware, is a first in Turkey. We will be discussing different perspectives on Turkey together with non-Turkish academics, diplomats and journalists working in the country. For three days, we will […]

Local, foreign participants debate Turkish democracy at Abant platform

22 June 2012 / YONCA POYRAZ DOĞAN, ABANT Even though Turkey has achieved great economic development in the past 10 years, it is still having trouble consolidating its democracy, according to both native and non-native participants of the 27th Abant Platform. In his introductory speech, Sabancı University’s Ersin Kalaycıoğlu said on Friday at the 27th […]

The role of civil society in Turkey’s democratization

BÜLENT KENEŞ  May 22, 2012 Neither the state nor political parties can act as guarantees for democratization and democracy. With the fact that the main impetus behind and guarantee for our democratization is our ever-growing civil society, we need to consider whether we are attaching due importance to “Civil Society Organizations”. In the speech I […]

The Gülen community and the AKP

TAHA AKYOL The Journalists and Writers Foundation (GYV), which is in line with Fethullah Gülen, has issued an announcement on relations with the ruling party. It is certain that Gülen made the last retouches on the text himself. Gülen defines the movement shortly as “Hizmet” (translated roughly as “service” in English). I asked those who […]

Society ready for a new constitution, but how about politics?

Abdulhamit Bilici, March 16, 2012 If I were to touch on Turkey’s national agenda by discussing the recent successful trip made by President Abdullah Gül to Tunisia, my sense of disappointment would be great. As I tried to express in my recent column “Tunisia will be a model for Turkey,” the Tunisians, who only one […]

Abant Platform Proposes Mother Tongue Education

The Journal of Turkish Weekly  Thursday, 15 March 2012 The 26th Abant Platform, which brings together high-profile intellectuals, journalists, legal experts and politicians, concluded on Sunday (March 11th) with a recommendation that Turkey’s Constitution recognise the right to education in languages other than Turkish. “Education in one’s mother tongue is an essential human right. The […]

New Constitution should have no barriers to mother tongue education

11 March 2012 / BÜŞRA ERDAL, ABANT The 26th meeting of the Abant Platform, which discussed problematic areas of the constitutional drafting process, suggested in its final declaration on Sunday regarding education being given in languages other than Turkish — one of the most contentious issues that needs to be addressed in the new constitution […]

New constitution must bear spirit of Abant

ABANT — Turkey has long been trying to rid itself of the remnants of the Constitution of 1982, which was the product of the military coup of September 12, 1980, as it goes through a process of confronting and settling accounts with military tutelage and coups. Bülent Keneş, Sunday March 11, 2012 Almost all political […]

Debating the constitution

Mümtazer Türköne, 12 March 2012 I attended the debates on a new constitution over the weekend. The environment that the Abant Platform offers is intense and rich. Opposite ideas and views meet there, and holders of these views debate matters. Communicating directly with those who hold different views, reacting to their views instantly and reviewing […]

Abant tackles contentious issue of drafting new constitution

9 March 2012 / TODAY’S ZAMAN, İSTANBUL As this year’s Abant Platform tackles the pressing issue of shaping Turkey’s new constitution, a wide spectrum of intellectuals, lawyers, political leaders and journalists are discussing the problematic areas of, and proposing solutions to, the constitutional drafting process. “Deliberations should continue with the spirit of respecting each other’s […]

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