A Turkish Social Democrat: Ismail Cem.

Is a democratization and globalization process in conformity with the state's founding principles possible for Turkey? This question undoubtedly has become one of crucial questions in the last decade due to Turkey's problems in overcoming difficulties related to globalization, accession to the European Union, the Kurdish question, civil-military relations and the secularism-Islamism clash. These problems became apparent and much stronger after the collapse of the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and the takeover of the Islamist-originated Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2002. Ismail Cem, a distinguished Turkish social democratic theoretician, journalist and politician who was one of the most important members of the collapsed coalition government as the Foreign Minister of Turkey, with his unique approach to Turkish modernity and political system as well as his moderate propositions for Turkey's democratic problems deserves to be remembered as Turkey is further challenged by these problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]