Turkey

Recently, Ankara has crossed the line by transforming its supposed anti-terrorist operation in Syria into a full-fledged invasion. Essentially, it wouldn’t stop in spite of Moscow’s repeated attempts to talk some sense into its partner and the repeated warnings voiced by Damascus. In fact, Ankara has been answering attempts at pursuing deescalation in Syria…

Despite every effort to mediate over the increase in violence in Idlib, it has become clear that Turkey’s root intentions are to retain, or attempt to retain, Syrian territory it has long coveted. To do this, Turkey, as the other Sochi Agreement partners, Iran and Russia, see it, has failed to keep its word. Turkey has clearly failed to separate terrorists recognized as such…

Whereas the mainstream western and Arab media have been claiming a ‘serious rift’ between Russia and Turkey over the death of Turkish soldiers in a Syrian offensive in Idlib, this is far from the case. While there is no gainsaying that Russian and Syrian interests do not always converge fully and that there are some contentious areas, this then is also quite…

While many reports in the western main stream media claimed that Turkey’s ‘real motive’ behind its direct intervention in Libya is (a reflection of Erdogan’s obsession with) creating a neo-Ottoman empire in the region, it may not be true. Creating an ‘empire’, even if the word is not literally translated and is broadly understood as a chain of countries under Turkish influence…

During his election campaign in 2011, the current leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, expressed his intention to bring to life several grandiose political and infrastructure initiatives. The most ambitious of these projects entails the construction of a new waterway, to the west of the Bosporus, that will connect the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. Officially…

The latest Armenian related news, in the US Senate, follows on from the House Resolution from the end of October. Such genocide recognition is a testament to the tenacity of the Armenian-American advocacy community, within the context of broader US-Turkish relations. The motivations behind the vote are open…

The well-established relations between Washington and one of its most important NATO allies – Turkey, has recently come under strain due to a growing list of differences between the two and their often conflicting interests. Washington has responded to this development by sending the Turkish lira into a free fall that has recently…

I recently wrote to Nareg Sererian, a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech University, US, who is also an old friend whom I know very well, bringing to his attention a website report by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs about different transcripts, “takes-on-history,” on the events of the Armenian genocide and its…

There’s no denying that recent years have witnessed bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States taking a massive plunge. These days, those are characterized by a long list of contradictions that render Ankara incompatible with the status of a NATO-ally. It’s hardly a secret that ties between…

Whereas Trump’s telephonic conversation with Erdogan opened the way for a US exit from (northern) Syria and Turkey’s subsequent incursions into Syria against Kurdish militias, the very fallout of Turkish operation in Syria has led to events that appear to be at the centre of US efforts to ‘appease’ Turkey in such a way as to not only to make amends for previous US policies but also to…

Against the backdrop of the West’s condemnation of Turkey’s military operation code-named ‘Peace Spring’ launched in north-eastern Syria against pro-American Kurdish militants, the topic of Turkey’s “nuclear umbrella” began gaining a lot of attention in the media. The discussion escalated even further, once Turkey’s leader Erdogan threatened…

While the mainstream Western media has spent last two years or so predicting a ‘downfall’ of Turkish-Russian relations because of some (perceived) fundamental strategic differences between the two countries in Syria, the actual trajectory of their bi-lateral relations has been just the opposite of what seemed…