Journalist-Writer
I have been watching to see who would name it correctly. Finally, it was Tuncer Bakırhan, the Co-Chairman of the Kurdish-problem-focused Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM). The following sentence in Bakırhan’s address to the DEM Parliamentary Group on April 8 seemed like a routine proposal to the government. Still, it contained the actual name
In Türkiye, as main opposition CHP leader Özgür Özel called on the masses who filled İstanbul’s Saraçhane Square despite police batons, pepper spray and threats of arrest to resist the “one-man regime”, US President Donald Trump endorsed Erdoğan as “a good leader”. Trump gave this support during a meeting on March 25 at the White
The İmamoğlu Crisis continues. Not only on the Turkish domestic political front, but also in terms of its effects on the economy. Foreign investors, preoccupied with the Russia-Ukraine crisis, noticed the Türkiye bleep on their radar screens by the detention of İstanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 19. Following his arrest by the court,
When I say hypocrisy of the European Union’s suggestion to Türkiye, I am not referring to the proposal by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to President Tayyip Erdoğan in Ankara on March 12. Tusk wants Turkey to take a leading role in the Russia-Ukraine talks. But this is not just in the hands of Poland,
The agreement announced on March 10 on the Kurdish-base Syrian Defense Forces, SDF joining the Syrian army was brokered by the US, with Ankara playing a secondary role. Nevertheless, Ankara does not want to bind itself to the agreement, saying it is “cautiously optimistic” and will observe whether it is implemented by both the Ahmed
This sentence, uttered by the Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to the Financial Times, summarizes the view of Türkiye regarding the changing global geopolitics in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s comments in the last few weeks. This sentence is preceded by “Türkiye would want to be part of any new European security architecture
When I was writing my book “Kürt Kapanı (The Kurdish Trap)” about the full story of the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, the founding leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Süleyman Demirel, the Turkish President of the time, told me that İsmail Hakkı Karadayı, the Chief of General Staff at the time, had said
The most challenging hurdle was Abdullah Öcalan—who founded the PKK nearly half a century ago—declaring that the organization has run its course and should lay down arms and dissolve itself. This critical threshold was crossed when the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM Party) delegation, visiting İmralı for the third time on February 27, clearly
Following a cabinet meeting on February 24, President Tayyip Erdoğan made provocative statements likely to irritate European Union officials already caught between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Erdoğan, “liberal democracy, the most captivating ideology of the last century, has entered a serious crisis and impasse.” He claims the resulting
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seeking to run for office once again by securing a parliamentary majority and exploiting a constitutional ambiguity. The opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has two formidable potential candidates to challenge him: Mansur Yavaş, the Metropolitan Mayor of Ankara, and Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Metropolitan Mayor of Istanbul. While Erdoğan has thus