Politics of Turkey

Despite holding a lengthy meeting that did not reflect a particularly negative mood, neither the government nor the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) have stepped back in their position regarding the definition of public order and its place in the resolution process.

Former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) deputy Feyzi İşbaşaran, who has been arrested on allegations of "insulting the president," was punched in the face and attacked with eggs in two separate protests against him in Istanbul on Dec. 8.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has accused the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) of "acting with enmity toward their own history," while also describing the debates over the Ottoman language courses as simply "a storm in a teacup."

Brazilian caricaturist Carlos Latuff, who earned fame during the Arab Spring for his cartoons of Middle Eastern leaders, has confessed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has recently become his “muse” - a fact that he is burning to tell him personally.

British Prime Minister David Cameron will travel to Turkey on Dec. 9 to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss how to stop Britons crossing into Syria and Iraq to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) fighters via the Turkish border, his spokesman said.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini is due to meet Turkish leaders an an attempt to secure Ankara's support for the fight against Islamic State (IS) and sanctions against Russia.

According to her own Twitter account Mogherini is also to touch the issue of Turkey's EU accession which has been blocked for years now by the stalled negotiation process.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has waded into the heated debate over the possible inclusion of Ottoman language classes in the high school curriculum, vowing that the classes will be introduced “no matter what they say.”

New European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini was to meet Turkish leaders Dec. 8 for talks expected to focus partly on the war against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in neighboring Syria.

"The Syrian crisis is going to be one of the key issues on her agenda," an EU official told AFP on Dec. 8. Turkey's EU membership ambitions were also up for discussion.

At one of Ankara’s large hotels, on the sidelines of an intellectual exercise of state, individual, democracy, power and rotten politics, I was talking with Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat on the transformation within the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Turkey has asked three unnamed banks to cooperate in the struggle against financing of terrorism and crime, Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek says Turkey has warned three banks and urged them to cooperate more effectively with the government to share transaction data "in the fight against terrorism," Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said on Dec. 7.