|
Turkey is gearing up for a referendum on April 16 that could give President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan more power for his 2019 re-election bid. Votes from the Turkish diaspora have become a key battleground in its lead-up with some politicians being denied visas to European countries as they fight for the hearts and minds of large overseas communities.
Now another crisis is adding to the already strained relations between Turkey and European countries. According to leaked documents, several imams from the Diyanet, the country’s Directorate of Religious Affairs, may have spied for the regime on Turkish members of the opposition within the diaspora. Ahmet Erdi Öztürk explains its origins and growing closeness with the Erdoğan government, noting how this latest scandal jeopardises Turkey’s quest to join the European Union.
|
The Merkez mosque in the Kreuzberg neighbourhood of Berlin is run by Turkey’s Dinayet agency, like 900 other mosques in Germany.
Christian Mang/Reuters
Ahmet Erdi Öztürk, Université de Strasbourg
The religious arm of Turkey's government, Dinayet, has European authorities up in arms after leaked documents suggested the agency was engaged in international espionage.
|
Arts + Culture
|
-
Gideon Lasco, University of Amsterdam
There is something troubling in the thought of people being made to aspire to heights that are literally beyond their reach.
|
|
Politics + Society
|
-
Innar Liiv, Tallinn University of Technology
Big data, analytics and predictive models will play the main role in the the next wave of e-government innovation.
-
Carolyn Logan, Michigan State University
Most Africans see courts as legitimate but only a slim majority trust them while one in three people believe judges are corrupt.
|
|
Environment + Energy
|
-
Michael Howes, Griffith University
Why, after decades of international agreements, are we still damaging the environment? New research, looking at dozens of unsuccessful policies, has uncovered the basic elements of failure.
|
|
