In Turkey’s recent elections, almost half the voters opted for continuity and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) won an impressive parliamentary majority (340 out of 550 seats in parliament) that will enable it to govern without coalition partners. With close to 47% of the popular vote, AK even surpassed its performance (34%) in the previous elections, although its parliamentary representation will actually drop somewhat because of the electoral system and the entry of an additional party into parliament. The other...
Viewed through the prism of the Turkish media, the visit to Israel of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoִan was not just another visit of a Turkish state dignitary to yet another foreign country. That is because Turkish-Israeli relations are widely seen, not as a “bilateral” matter, but rather as part of a much broader and more intricate framework containing major Middle Eastern, European and, of course, American components.
