Insights into Turkish domestic and international politics during June 2011

Key Points:

• Despite the fact that the ruling AKP did not gain the electoral majority it requiredto unilaterally re-write the country’s constitution, the party continues to be the overwhelmingly dominant player in the Turkish political landscape.


• As was inevitably the case with Turkey’s position towards Libya following prolonged civil conflict in the country, Ankara’s position towards Syria is slowly but surely adjusting towards a tougher stance


• Turkey continues to keep one foot in Nabucco’s door, and the other in bilateral energy arrangements with neighbouring states. READ MORE

• July 14, 2011

Must the world prepare itself for a nuclear Iran — and therefore a hot zone that stretches from the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean?

• July 13, 2011

Japan has no choice but to reduce its reliance on nuclear power, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said on Tuesday, as the country battles to end a four-month-old radiation crisis at a tsunami-crippled nuclear plant.

• July 13, 2011

Boosting cooperation between countries sharing the waters of the Amu Darya, Central Asia's longest river, could be key to future peace and security in the region a new report launched today by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says.

• July 13, 2011

Pakistan is pressing ahead with work on two transnational natural gas pipelines, and is talking about a third, as it looks to expand its regional influence after the war in Afghanistan, officials and analysts said.

• July 11, 2011

When the pro-Western national movement, the so-called revolution of “Roses,” caught fire and swept away the Soviet-style Georgian authorities in 2003, the revolutionary news captured the Lithuanian media’s front page headlines for many weeks to come.

• July 11, 2011

The U.S. nuclear industry this week gets its first peek at a roadmap for new regulations that ultimately could cost it billions in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi disaster.

• July 11, 2011

Last month, thousands of Japanese took to the streets to demand an end to nuclear power in their country. For more than half a century, Japan had been in the uncomfortable situation of being both the only nation that has suffered an atomic attack, but also one of the countries that are most reliant on atomic energy.

• July 11, 2011