Turkish Domestic Politics: Analysis and forecast on all relevant developments and insight about Turkish politics with its repercussions in its neighboring countries
The demand for the reinstatement of the death penalty is too serious an issue to be called a diversion. And this time though, it hits the Turkish society on a particularly sensitive spot. Discussions of the death penalty are coming up just as an Islamist sect sheik got arrested on charges of sexually harassing the
Turkey has been trying to break the France-Greece axis in the Eastern Mediterranean with intense diplomacy, while also trying to display its determination with a joint military drill with Turkish Cyprus, a move that has already irked Greece.Turkey’s recent regional diplomatic moves, mainly undertaken by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan over the weekend, seek a crack
It was obvious from day one that the Turkish-Greek crisis in the East Mediterranean would not turn into a war. Not because of the strong statements by the European Union (EU) threatening Turkey with sanctions. The EU has long lost political leverage over Turkey, and mainly due to Cyprus. However, whether you like it or
Turkey and Greek Cyprus have slammed the U.S. administration for its recent decision to lift an arms sale embargo on Greek Cyprus, saying that the move would hurt peace efforts.The Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sept. 1 that the decision “will have negative effects on the efforts to reach a settlement to
Turkey’s war on COVID is not going well at a time when the economy is also not performing well. TÜİK, the state-run statistic institute, announced on Aug. 31 that the economy shrank 9.9 percent in the second quarter of the year. The additional efforts to prevent a double-digit figure might surface when experts write on
Journalist Mehveş Evin has criticized in a column at Duvar English the “ill-planned investments” in the Black Sea region of Turkey in the wake of last weeks’ flash floods and landslides that killed nine people, with six of them being still missing.The province of Giresun was hit heavily and the town of Dereli is now
If the previous generations of EU statesmen and Turkish leaders, the men who put together the Association Agreement in 1963, and the Additional Protocol of 1971 could see the state of Turkish-EU relations today, they would be deeply dismayed. Turkey has had a functioning Customs Union with the Union on industrial goods, for very nearly
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas discussed the escalating tension in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean first with his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendios, in Athens, and then with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara on 25 August. Maas will share his impression from these meetings at the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers Meeting in Berlin
While watching President Tayyip Erdoğan announcing at a ceremony the natural gas discovery in the Black Sea, I also had the impression that we are witnessing the ceremony for the announcement of a successor to him. Of course, neither Erdoğan is the sultan nor his son-in-law and Treasury and Finance Berat Albayrak is the crown
Summer is usually a time of rest and recreation. It is also a period which diplomats dread the most. When you look back in history, most wars and conflicts have started in August. Thus, the spat in the Eastern Mediterranean with Turkish and Greek warships sailing close to each other in disputed areas has caused