In a striking turn of events last week, Greece came to the rescue of Israel by curbing the highly anticipated “Freedom Flotilla II.” The contingency of 350 activists on 10 boats, mostly from the U.S. and Europe, was determined to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. All boats were either intercepted by the Greek coastguard […]
The same day Iraq signed a $365 million agreement to install a pipeline network to import 25 million cubic meters of Iranian natural gas a day to the Sadr, al-Quds and South Baghdad power stations in the Iraqi capital, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki hinted to aides that he was considering cutting half of his government’s […]
Turkey faces a growing danger of Syrian economic and social disruption spilling onto its soil, with some fearing an influx of refugees could draw Turkish troops into border operations uncomfortably close to Syrian forces.President Bashar Al Assad’s crackdown on opposition has pushed once-warm ties between Turkey and Syria close to breaking point. Syrian policy towards […]
Since AKP’s unquestionable victory, Washington analysts have finally quit looking at the Turkish poll results and started to ask, how this all will shape Turkey’s future foreign policy? I recently attended an event at the Brookings Institution, where Turkish and American scholars presented their interpretations of post-election Turkey. The event brought together Panelists include Fuat […]
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) managed to win its third consecutive general election, while increasing its vote percentage again. AKP’s single-party government had received 34.28% of the votes in 2002; then 46.58% in 2007 and now 49.90% in 2011 elections, exceeding many expectations and analyses that foresaw AKP’s probable vote percentage around the […]
Syrian President Esad’s regime is still standing despite the weeks long protests and callings for a regime change in Syria. Recently, the Syrian National Television released the videos of military operations on a northern town, Cisr el Sugur. Many people from Cisr el Sugur and surrounding towns are already on the move to run from […]
Originally appeared in: Political Reflection Quarterly. Volume 2, Issue 1. (Spring, 2011) H. Akın Ünver, PhD — Turkey’s opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been undergoing an important and profound transformation since May 2010, which began with the resignation of Deniz Baykal, the party’s chairman for more than 15 years, as a result of sex scandal allegations. Following Baykal’s resignation, […]
According to Hurriyet News, Recep Tayip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, visited one of the main opposition parties’ office during his last tours for election campaign. I think it is a great accomplishment for Mr. Erdogan to stop, point fingers, and start a dialog with the “other” side of Turkey, the side that has […]
Obama’s speech did not receive much attention in the Turkish press. Most newspapers mentioned it in a tiny box on their front pages with a little more mention in their foreign affairs sections. Newspapers Akşam, Güneş, Sabah, Yeni Şafak highlighted the part of Obama’s speech concerning Syria, interpreting it as a ‘clear ultimatum’ to Assad. […]
Not one single word in Obama’s Middle East speech included or even made a remote reference to Turkey. This, from Turkey’s perspective, was the most important part of yesterday’s policy position statement. In traditional Turkish collective memory, Middle East has been a realm of ‘problem’, which Turkey had to stay away from; some of those […]
Thousands of Turks gathered in some 40 cities and towns around the country on Sunday, May 15th, to join marches organized on Facebook against state Internet censorship. The trigger for the protests was a decision by Turkey’s Internet regulator, the Information and Communication Technologies Authority, or BTK, to introduce a selection of filters that Turkish […]
Washington is an interesting town. You never know who you may have lunch with on a day which seems quite ordinary. As part of my quest in following Turkish policy makers, today I found myself in a room with Ian O. Lesser from the German Marshall Fund and Semih Idiz who is a senior […]
A recent Ipsos survey has indicated that Turkey is the most critical NATO member of the operations in Libya. According to the survey the most support for military intervention is in Belgium (78%) followed by strong support in France (72%) and Canada (70%), whereas the weakest support among NATO countries registers in Hungary (54%), Italy […]
AFGHANISTAN: ALREADY AT UNEASE FOR POST-WAR Afghanistan may be one place, where its people have legitimate worries after the elimination of one of the strongest points of the U.S. war on terror. Now that the “terrorist” is gone, the war might be shortened, making the Afghan lands abandoned once again. No surprise that there were […]
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had a phone meeting last evening with Barack Obama over the growing violence in Syria. According to a White House statement, Turkey and the United States agreed on the necessity of Gaddafi’s departure from Libya, as well as condemning Syrian leader Assad’s ”violent acts against his own citizens”. Turkish […]