Journalist-Writer
The photos taken during Erdoğan’s meeting with Putin at the Shanghai Summit reveal a lot about Turkey-Russia relations and, beyond that, East-West relations. (Photos: Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs) I obtained the photos from the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Telegram page. They are from the meeting between President Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin on
August 18, 2025, may go down in history as a dark day for European diplomacy. Three days after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on August 15, U.S. President Donald Trump, outmaneuvering European leaders, summoned them to his doorstep, saying, “Come, let me explain.” Putin had not wanted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the
The three-hour meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15 at the Elmendorf–Richardson Air Force base in Anchorage, Alaska, bore some resemblance to the Yalta Conference of 1945, which marked the end of World War II. Eighty years ago, the United States, the Soviet Union (USSR), and the United
The agreement reached on August 8 in Washington by Azerbaijani and Armenian leaders Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, facilitated by US President Donald Trump, has the potential to reshape not only the Caucasus but also the political and economic balances in Central Asia and the Middle East. Notably, the mutual pledge of non-aggression and the
The Turkish opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel can mobilize people to fill squares in his protest rallies in the hottest summer in recent years, in the heat of July and August; there’s more than one reason for it. Let’s be clear: if crowds in Anatolian cities, in cities where President Tayyip Erdoğan’s
On July 22, The New York Times published an article titled, “No, Israel Is Not Committing Genocide in Gaza.” Its author, Bret Stephens, is known as one of the newspaper’s “conservative” columnists. On the same day in Gaza On the day the article was published, 80 more people were killed in Israel’s Gaza operation. Of
In Turkish politics, the threat of imprisonment has reached CHP leader Özgür Özel. Presidential decrees have been sent to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TBMM) to lift the parliamentary immunity of Özel and CHP İzmir MP Tuncay Özkan for trial. The reason is their accusation of the Court of Appeals members of staging a “coup
It is understood that the meeting on June 29 between MİT President İbrahim Kalın and Hamas Shura Council President Muhammed Ismail Darwish, as announced by Turkish security sources, was conducted under four main topics: 1- The humanitarian tragedy in Gaza, 2- Turkish efforts with the international community to end Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and destruction, ensuring
After five years, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had the opportunity to meet face-to-face again with U.S. President Donald Trump, whom he calls his “friend,” at the NATO Summit held in The Hague, Netherlands, on June 24-25. However, unlike Erdoğan’s meetings with leaders from Germany, France, the UK, or the host Netherlands, which were held with
The U.S. Struck Iran at Israel’s Request. The U.S. launched B-2 heavy bombers from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, with a 37-hour flight involving mid-air refueling, to drop reportedly six bunker-busting bombs on three Iranian nuclear facilities in Isfahan, Natanz, and Fordow, early on June 22, local time. While both European leaders and Turkish