Turkey has been in the spotlight of international media, particularly since the flotilla attack in late May. Is Turkey severing its ties with Israel? Is it looking to the East from the West? How will the fallout affect the whole situation in the Middle East?
Read the story »News outlets close their foreign bureaus all the time – we’re living in a time of budget shortcuts. International coverage has been outsourced to news wires and 24-hour television coverage for far too long, and the Internet has both helped and hurt foreign correspondents. Sometimes newsrooms are able to get their stories from afar before their correspondents on the ground, but having foreign bureaus lends prestige to a publication. But apparently sometimes that kind of prestige isn’t seen as valuable.
Read the story »People all over the world yearn for freedom – to have the ability to shape their own destinies. The process of getting it, however, is never easy – and it raises all kinds of questions about how to achieve greater freedom while creating an environment that both tolerates and respects differences. If the goal is to assure social security and justice and to maintain a functional government with safeguards against at least some uncertainties, the United States is by far the champion of this ideal.
Read the story »Listening to Prime Minister Erdogan’s amped-up rhetoric against the United States and Israel makes me genuinely scared for my country. I believe that people should be able to think for themselves, and to assess a situation based on the facts, not based on someone trying to make them afraid or blame some outside “bogeyman” for what’s going wrong with their lives or their country. It’s time to see those tactics for what they are: popular demagogy is a manipulative act that requires close scrutiny as people are looking toward the future to what they could become.
Read the story »The past couple of weeks have found Turkey at the center of a lot of international news. First, there’s this week’s news—the deal with Iran that Turkey and Brazil helped broker, in which Tehran would ship half its stockpile of nuclear fuel to Ankara in exchange for fuel rods. It’s an interesting agreement that became much less relevant on Tuesday when the United States, Great Britain, Russia, China, France and Germany all agreed to pursue tougher sanctions against Iran—precisely the outcome Tehran had furiously been trying to avoid.
Read the story »Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Washington this week to attend the Nuclear Security Summit showed once again that he and the United States are simply not seeing eye to eye. The White House statement following Erdogan’s Tuesday meeting with President Barack Obama stated that the two leaders “affirmed the strategic partnership between their countries” and “discussed their joint interest in achieving the nonproliferation goals of the Summit,” including halting Iran’s development of a nuclear weapon. But this was purely rhetoric: In fact, the two countries are agreeing on little these days.
Read the story »Has Congress considered any measure as often over the last four decades as the “Armenian Genocide” resolution? Again and again the bill has returned to Capitol Hill, only to fail each time. The House Foreign Affairs Committee has debated the bill at least four times since 2000, and it has become increasingly clear that each committee member believes that what happened to the Armenians during World War I was indeed a “genocide.” Yet despite that seemingly unanimous position, the resolution passed last week on a 23-22 vote. When it was considered in 2007, the committee passed it by six votes. Given how the gap has closed, the measure doesn’t stand a chance to get a floor vote this time.
Read the story »The Daily Caller
By Tülin Daloglu
Iran’s defiance to cooperate with the world powers over its nuclear program clearly adds to an already dangerous situation. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs sent a clear warning on Tuesday that “time and patience is running out” for Iran to come clean on its nuclear program. But President Obama is right to declare that “the door is still open” for to Iran engage in serious negotiations. So far, both sides have blamed one another for the lack of a breakthrough in talks. Given its ever-increasing profile in the Middle East, Turkey is now trying to break this impasse. The question is, though, whether the current Turkish leadership has the capacity to play the game adequate to Turkey’s significance in the region.
Read the story »Turkey Analyst
Tülin Daloğlu
For a long time, the relationship between Turkey and Iraq has been defined by the fact that Iraqi Kurds provide a safe haven for the separatist Kurdish terrorist organization, the PKK. Yet Gen. Ilker Basbug, Turkey’s Chief of Staff, said recently in Washington that Iraq’s Kurdish region is no longer a safe place for PKK terrorists. that gain cannot yet be counted as permanent. Next January, Iraq will see general elections as well as a referendum on controversial issues like the future of Kirkuk. With U.S. troops withdrawing from Iraqi cities, escalating high-profile attacks raise concerns about the Iraqi forces’ ability to secure the country. In this make it-or-break it year for Iraq, the Kurds must decide the price they will pay to retain Kirkuk inside their territory. They will also have to decide whether they are willing to risk a possible breakaway from Iraq.
Read the story »Turkey Analyst
Tülin Daloğlu
The relationship between the United States and Turkey has traditionally relied heavily on military cooperation. However, President Barack Obama’s April trip to Turkey created an impetus to build a stronger economic connection – provided that businesses find a profitable incentive to work together. But the most significant step toward “normalizing” relations between the countries came when the U.S. recognized that the separatist Kurdish organization PKK poses a threat not only to Turkey but also to America, and Iraq, as well. It was a step destined to ease the tension that has characterized, even poisoned the U.S.-Turkish relationship since the invasion of Iraq.
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