Turkey
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Turkey's general election
Abdullah Gul′s choice
With Turkey facing its second general election this year on 1 November, is Abdullah Gul, the country′s former president, going to provide Turkish politics with the counterweight to Recep Tayyip Erdogan it so urgently needs? A commentary by Nina L. Khruscheva
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Interview with the Turkish Roma musician ″Balik″ Ayhan Kucukboyaci
″We Roma are more than just entertainers″
Ayhan Kucukboyaci, better known as Balik Ayhan (Fish Ayhan), is one of Turkey′s most famous Roma musicians. He also works to preserve the Romani culture. Ceyda Nurtsch talked to him about the demolition of the world′s oldest Roma settlement, Sulukule, and the situation for Roma in Turkey
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Misogynists unite?
Women, Islam and Germany's modern society
For many people Islam and misogyny are apparently inseparable. And for some, growing numbers of refugees are pushing up levels of concern over both. But if immigrants and their children are thinking in patriarchal family structures, this has less to do with their religion or culture and far more to do with German immigration policy. An essay by Susanne Kaiser
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The Ankara bombing
Presaging the end of the Turkish Republic?
What we have witnessed in the last two years, culminating in the horrible scenes of 10 October in Ankara, is the end of the Turkish Republic as we know it. A commentary by Umut Ozkirimli
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Interview with Rafik Schami
"Escape is a life-saver"
In conversation with Ruth Renee Reif, the renowned writer Rafik Schami gives his views on the European refugee crisis and has sharp criticism for the West's political dealings with the Assad regime in Syria
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The global risks of an imploding Middle East
A region in flames
Among today′s geopolitical risks, none is greater than the long arc of instability stretching from the Maghreb to the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. With the Arab Spring an increasingly distant memory, the instability along this arc is deepening. An analysis by Nouriel Roubini
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Anti-construction protests in Turkey
″Reclaim Istanbul!″ – policy vs. architecture
Turkey′s construction industry is booming. As a key pillar of the nation's economy, President Erdogan's ambitious goal is to ensure it catapults Turkey into the world's top ten economies by 2023. But the AKP's ″urban transformation project″ has many downsides. By Ceyda Nurtsch
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The Arab view of the European refugee crisis
Ludicrous squabbling
Syria’s Middle Eastern neighbours have to date absorbed four million Syrian refugees. For this reason the EU should make it plain that despite images of train stations full of refugees, Europe is only shouldering a relatively small part of the current burden. A contribution to the debate by Karim El-Gawhary
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Goethe′s fascination with the "Thousand and One Nights"
Mephistopheles spoke; Scheherazade beguiled
To date, critical studies of Faust have given little consideration to its Oriental elements, in particular the fables from the "Thousand and One Nights". Goethe′s fascination with the famous storyteller Scheherazade, and his adoption of her narrative techniques and themes, has been underestimated. By Melanie Christina Mohr
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Refugee crisis in Europe
The price of European indifference
In dealing with the refugee crisis – harassed by its xenophobes and consumed by self-doubt – Europe has turned its back on its values. Or has it lost sight of them altogether? A critical discussion by the French philosopher Bernhard-Henri Levy
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Syrian refugees in Turkey on the Syrian conflict
Keeping the revolution alive
The focus of the violent Syrian conflict has shifted from atrocities committed by the Assad regime to IS. But activists who joined peaceful protests four years ago say their commitment to the revolution hasn't dimmed. By Ruby Russell and Louise Osborne
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Civil war in Syria
First Assad, then "Islamic State"
If the self-styled "Islamic State" is to be successfully combatted, the Syrian conflict has to be resolved. And for this, one thing is necessary above all: an alternative to the Assad regime. This alternative can only be created in safe zones, writes Kristin Helberg