AMMAN -- No progress was made on the Iranian nuclear standoff with the West during the controversial visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey, the first NATO member state to receive him, but his mere presence in this U.S.-allied country carries important political significance.

AMMAN -- The controversy over the legality of the wearing of Muslim headscarves at universities in Turkey has taken a new turn this week that could lead to a serious political confrontation between hardcore secular institutions and the ruling party in parliament and government.

This year the Turkish Constitutional Court will hear a crucial petition aimed at banning the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), including its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Abdullah Gul, and 70 more AKP politicians. This will be the fifth petition in the history of the court to prohibit political parties. It granted four in the past.

Is a New Islamic Reformation Underway?

The Turkish parliament has given preliminary approval for a constitutional amendment allowing women university students to wear headscarves in classes, a step toward civil liberties, but one that some think could eventually unravel the countrys strict 85-year-old secular system.

Erdal Inonu, a prominent Turkish social democrat leader and an internationally renowned physicist, died of leukemia Wednesday at a hospital in Houston, TX, his family said. He was 81.

Modern Turkey marked its 84th anniversary Monday with military parades and national celebrations as its powerful army readied to launch operations against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a move threatened once Ankara exhausts efforts to find a "sa

UPDATE: Turkey celebrated Republic Day Monday with stern warnings from Baghdad that any large-scale Turkish incursion against Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq would have "disastrous" results.