Founded in 1922 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881–1938), the Republican People's Party (RPP) was the ruling party of the Turkish Republic from 1923 to 1950 and held power in coalition governments in the 1960s and 1970s. After the military...

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Political debate, Turkish-style A farcically out-of-touch party CONSPIRACY theories blaming the Americans for all that ails Turkey are not new, as Condoleezza Rice, America's secretary of state, may find when she visits Ankara this weekend. But when Deniz Baykal, leader of...

A committee has been called a cul-de-sac into which ideas are lured to be quietly strangled. Not so the Republican platform committee. Its handiwork shows clearly the conflicting ideas in the party's divided mind, and the nation's past. The secret of being a...

A freshly elected parliament, still dominated by the Islamic-leaning ruling party, was sworn in Saturday and expected to quickly take up the highly contentious issue of picking a new president.An opposition leader, meanwhile, warned that the new government should preserve Turkey's long-held secular principles _...

A Turkish presidential hopeful whose candidacy raised fears about the possible blurring of the line between mosque and state said Tuesday his goals would be strengthening secularism and the country's bid for European Union membership.Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul spoke after submitting to parliament his application...