Ahmet Davutoğlu

A stigma relating to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has attached itself to Turkey and refuses to go away. The belief around the world, including part of the Middle East, as well as among Turkish opposition parties, is that Ankara is somehow complicit in the rise of this group and continues to support it.

The Supreme Court of Appeals has reversed three judgments that found main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu guilty over “insult” claims in favor of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu made two key remarks, among many others, during his speech to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Parti) parliamentary group on Dec. 2.

The first was about the possibility of lowering the 10 percent election threshold, as well as the possibility of holding parliamentary elections earlier than the currently scheduled June 2015.

The Turkish government revisited a fresh implementation of what is called “paid military service” on the eve of next year’s parliamentary elections, exempting those who are over 27-year-old from compulsory military service in return of an 18,000 Turkish Lira payment, as of Dec. 31.

Eyes are now on the Turkish government’s moves in the Kurdish issue, after a Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) team revealed remarks by the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in which he said further steps in the peace process "must be subject to a legal framework."

It started a week ago when Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu challenged Devlet Bahçeli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), to go and say in the eastern province of Tunceli the same words he said in Parliament about the 1937-38 suppression of an uprising there.

The quick depreciation of the Russian ruble against the U.S. dollar might affect Turkish tourism, warned Yusuf Hacısalihoğlu, head of the Association of Mediterranean Tourism and Hoteliers of Turkey (AKTOB), during a conference in the Turkish resort of Antalya on Nov. 28.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is "in line with his Cabinet" regarding the controversial publication ban on proceedings at a parliamentary corruption commission, arguing that the commission’s work should not be considered a routine parliamentary activity as it is “a part of the judicial process.”

Turkey’s main nationalist leader was forced to cut short a controversial visit to the eastern Anatolian province of Tunceli (Dersim) upon protests from residents infuriated with his remarks declaring their ancestors who participated in a rebellion as “terrorists.”

U.S. Vice President Biden’s trip has clarified at least the thorny issues on the Syrian debacle. Turkey wants safe-zone; the U.S. wants to operate from İncirlik. These differences are not irreconcilable for now. But they will remain frozen at least for a couple of months.