By Burak Bilgehan Özpek (vol. 6, no. 19 of the Turkey Analyst)

In traditional Turkish bazaars, salesmen ask the same question if you have purchased a precious good: Do you want me to package this? This question actually aims to find the answer whether the good is going to be used by the buyer or if it is intended to be presented as a gift. Thus, the  word “package” acquires a new meaning. It refers to a cover and it is applied to estheticize a good, which is presented as a gift. Such a  discourse analysis in fact helps us understand why the government of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has used the word “package” in promoting its democratization  reforms.  Yet measured against liberal principles and expectations, the democratization package makes little or no contribution to the liberalization of Turkey.

By Halil M. Karaveli (vol. 6, no. 19 of the Turkey Analyst)

The Turkish decision to choose a Chinese anti-missile system demonstrates Turkey’s ambition to forge an independent defense identity. It is another indication that the ruling Islamic conservatives do not feel indebted to the United States. But the decision is also a reminder that the Turkish generals no longer do America’s bidding.  Western policymakers who are angered by the Turkish decision to go Chinese in missile defense would do well to ask if the assumptions that have guided their policies toward Turkey during the last decade may have been flawed.

By Svante E. Cornell (vol. 6, no. 18 of the Turkey Analyst)

Following the Taksim square protests, Prime Minister Erdogan has instigated a witch hunt targeting the country’s largest industrial conglomerate, the Koç Group. Since the Koç Group-owned Divan hotel allowed a crowd fleeing tear gas fired by the police to take refuge in the hotel, the conglomerate has seen an unprecedented army of financial inspectors descend on its companies in the energy sector, saw the cancellation of a tender to construct warships for the Turkish navy, and had a lawsuit filed against for abetting the military intervention in 1997. This attack on a group responsible for a tenth of Turkey’s GDP is not only further evidence of Erdogan’s authoritarianism, but also dangerous for Turkey’s economic development. Coming at a time of uncertainty over the economic prospects of large emerging markets like Turkey, punitive action against the Koç Group would be taken very seriously by international markets.