...Berna Öney This essay explores the evolution of the constitutional debate in Turkey during the 2009–11 period in terms of political parties' strategies. It provides analytical insight via quantitative text analysis into party positions based on the four major parties' proposed constitutional drafts...

... grow from pariahs to kingmakers in northern Syria? This essay surveys the strategy of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the most powerful organization among the Syrian Kurds, from 2011 until the first half of 2016, and shows how the PYD's realpolitik secured the party's survival and, eventually...

.... 2007 Sudan and the National Congress Party Roger P. Winter Sudan’s National Congress Party is controlled by an intellectually capable, radically committed, conspiratorial, and compassionless nucleus of individu- als, long referred to as the National Islamic...

...Emrullah Uslu Copyright 2008 by Mediterranean Affairs, Inc. 2008 Emrullah Uslu is a doctoral candidate at the Middle East Center, University of Utah. He has worked as a policy analyst for the Turkish National Police. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party Turns against...

...Hafizullah Emadi The Baath Party has ruled Syria with an iron fist since the 1960s, curbing civil liberties and imprisoning and executing anyone who dared oppose its rule. A major anti-Baath struggle erupted in the 1980s as Syrians rebelled, trying to topple the repressive regime. The ruling party...

..., or How We Can Understand the Shas Party Omar Kamil We teach our children the things that are relevant to them: Jewish history, Sephardi religious customs, Torah, Mishna, Jewish values, and not the French...

...-Islamic Parties Sultan Tepe Since the early 1990s, major features of Turkish politics have been the vot- ers’ tendency to support parties that seem to be on the margin of politics, the unprecedented electoral victories of pro-Islamic parties, and an increas...

...István Hegedűs Mediterranean Affairs, Inc. 2006 István Hegedűs is a former member of the Hungarian parliament (1990-94). In 1989 he served on the team that negotiated the country's transition to democracy. The Mass Media, Political Parties...

...Petros Vamvakas The global financial crisis of 2009–2010 has further underscored the demise of social democracy as a legitimate political alternative, for example, due to an absence of a clearly articulated alternative approach to the crisis offered by Social Democratic parties, even though...

...Syaza Farhana Mohamad Shukri; Ishtiaq Hossain Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has been accused of Islamizing society through its family-centered policies that overlap with discourses originating from the Islamic faith. At the same time, the AKP government has maintained that it abides...

... nationalism in Iraq represented by the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the influence that these two parties could potentially have on the domestic politics of Turkey, especially the challenge from the Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and the Kurdistan...

...Richard T. Sale Islam is on the march in the Middle East. For the past few years, in every Mideast election, the Islamic parties have won: in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and in Iraq and Tunisia in 2010. In 2011, they won again in Turkey and Morocco, and in Egypt the Islamist parties confirmed...

...Zafer Yilmaz The Gezi uprising can be considered a crucial turning in Turkish politics. As a response to countrywide democratic protests, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government revived the security state, escalated authoritarian tendencies, and started to organize a nationalist...

...George Bistis This essay traces the history of the Far Right in Greece, which is on the rise again almost four decades after the collapse of the military junta that ruled the Mediterranean country from 1967 to 1974. The author examines how the Golden Dawn party capitalized on Greek citizens...

...Philip Giraldi The US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 has resulted in a resurgence in Kurdish nationalism. There has also been a revival of the terrorist threat directed against Turkey coming from the Kurdistan Workers' Party based in northern Iraq. The inability of the United States to curb...

...Hasan Kösebalaban So far the prospect of Turkey.s accession to the EU has been studied with exclusive reference to Turkey.s progress in meeting the Copenhagen criteria for membership. However, as the recent electoral success of anti.Turkish European political parties and politicians suggests...

...Mohamed A. El-Khawas Following a 1999 coup, Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf ruled by decree with the support of the military. He held a presidential referendum and got his party elected. He amended the constitution to legitimize his military rule. His involvement in the war on terrorism led...

...Gawdat Bahgat On 27 December 2008, Israeli forces attacked Gaza to stop missile attacks by Hamas. The military operation lasted twenty-two days and ended with a fragile cease-fire. This study seeks to provide an assessment of all involved parties' stances. The author argues that some parties gained...

...Nikos Christofis The essay shows how Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and, most importantly, the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, use the concept of Yeni Turkiye (New Turkey) in attempts to construct a new national state tradition, a counterhegemonic narrative to replace...

... Abidine Ben Ali’s regime, new political parties were established and free and fair multiparty elections were held, a giant step forward in the march toward democracy. The economy continues to be a deep source of discontent, however. Youth blame the government’s inaction for continued unemployment...