In France, Samuel Paty was beheaded on October 16 near Paris. He was a history teacher who had shown caricatures of Prophet Muhammad to his students in a lesson on freedom of speech and freedom of conscience. Paty’s killer, Abdullakh Anzorov, is an 18-year-old of Chechen origin. He arrived in...
On July 10, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan issued a decree reconverting the Hagia Sophia museum into a mosque, thus realizing a long-cherished dream of conservative currents in Turkish society. Originally built as a cathedral by the Romans, the Hagia Sophia functioned as Istanbul’s main mosque...
In a recent interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT World, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made clear his ambition for Ankara’s military offensive against Kurds in northern Syria. In an almost two-hour program on October 24, he explained his plan for demographic change in the Kurdish region....
It is becoming harder and harder to ascertain who exactly are Turkey’s long-term allies. On July 26, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan threatened that Turkey would simply look elsewhere for fighter jets if frozen out of the US F-35 program, of which it has been an integral part. It came with...
The American pastor detained for two years in Turkey was as much a symbol as he was a defendant. This was always how it was going to end. US Pastor Andrew Brunson is released, despite being sentenced to a three-year jail term in Turkey, based on time served in detention. He flies home to Andrews...
Recent ruptures in US-Turkish relations are part of a new populist presidential politics, not a major geopolitical realignment. “We are for every kind of cooperation to eat the grapes. But we will never give the opportunity to those whose aim is to beat the grape grower.” So said Turkish...
The new presidential term offers Erdogan room for consolidation, but also the need to contain his allies. Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s inauguration on July 9 was a little different. Not in terms of personnel, since he has been president of Turkey for four years already, but in terms of substance....
Never mind who’s afraid of President Erdogan — what about his supporters’ fear of life without him? When Turks go to the polls on June 24 — only a little over a year since the controversial referendum that paved the way for a new presidential system of government — the question of...
Dogu Perincek looks set to be a winner in Turkey even if he does not make it into parliament. He’s been in and out of prison during Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rule and is running against the president in the Turkish elections on June 24, with no chance of defeating him and little hope of winning...
Erdogan’s hope that a snap parliamentary and presidential election would easily secure him another term is in question. Electoral upsets have become the norm. The latest upheaval that swept aside the long-standing president of Fenerbahce SC, the political crown jewel of Turkish football, has...
The Turkish president may get his win next month, but when trouble comes, he'll own it. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for a presidential and parliamentary election on June 24 — jumping the gun by more than a year — the outcome seemed foreordained. After all, Turkey is...
The excitement over a viral Twitter campaign obscures deeper realities upon which Erdogan’s power rests in Turkey. In a speech on May 8, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, “If one day our nation says ‘enough,’ only then will we step aside.” It may have seemed innocuous, but...
President Erdogan’s snap poll reinvigorates Turkish politics in unexpected ways. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a master at outflanking his political opponents. Despite rumors that an early general election would be called, no one expected it to be quite so last minute. On June...
Don’t expect major improvements in the old alliance any time soon, but don’t expect it to vanish either. The scepter of Turkey’s reorientation from its traditional pro-US foreign policy has been the subject of fevered speculation in Western policy circles for many years now. The latest...
The diplomatic rift amounts to the White House getting a taste of its own medicine for ignoring human rights abuse by some of its closest allies. The latest move by the United States and Turkey, which largely bans travel of their nationals between the two countries, is about more than just two...
