Most recent articles by Fatma Kayabal
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Turkey's New OmbudsmanAnti-Qualified
The first chief ombudsman of Turkey, appointed to ensure the administration acts in line with a sense of justice based on human rights, has sparked public outcry due to his role in the conviction of the late journalist Hrant Dink. The new ombudsman also faces accusations of being too close to the government. Fatma Kayabal reports from İstanbul
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Reaction in Turkey to AKP's Policy on SyriaDivided Society, Polarised Politics
With relations between Ankara and Damascus already strained, recent military escalation in the Syria conflict is also threatening to deepen the long existing rifts that run between Turkey's political sphere and society as a whole. By Fatma Kayabal in Istanbul
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The Turkish Women's Rights Activist Selen Lermioğlu Yılmaz''The Government Is Trying to Intrude in People's Private Lives''
In May the Turkish government announced its plan to limit women's access to legal abortion, later dropping the item from the parliament's agenda after harsh reactions from society. While the debate was a divisive one, it did at least provide an umbrella issue beneath which women's groups rallied, says Selen Lermioğlu Yılmaz in this interview
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Press Freedom in TurkeyAgainst the Criminalization of Journalism
Despite some reforms and ongoing negotiations for EU membership, Turkey's ranking in the Reporters without Borders Press Freedom Index remains strikingly low. Qantara's Fatma Kayabal spoke to, Erol Önderoğlu, the organization's correspondent in Istanbul
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Turkey's Military versus the GovernmentFrom Military Tutelage to Civilian Authoritarianism?
Opinion in Turkey remains divided over whether the recent remand of a former chief of General Staff on charges of coup plotting represents a further blow against an older, less democratic order, or a move by the incumbent government to further consolidate its power. Fatma Kayabal investigates
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The Battle between Army and GovernmentA New Republic in Turkey?
Ahead of a key military meeting this week, chaired by the country's prime minister, the Turkish army has been rocked by a series of top-level resignations. Fatma Kayabal investigates the latest developments in Ankara's ongoing power struggle between the military and civil spheres