In his speech at the 14th Ambassadors Conference on August 7, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced Ankara’s vision for the 100th anniversary of the Republic as “making Türkiye one of the playmaker actors”. I wish he had emphasized more the importance of the Republic of Türkiye entering its second century against all obstacles, but a
Since the July 11 – 12, 2023 NATO Summit in Vilnius, Turkey – European Union relations have started to be discussed again. However, it is important to see if there is any substance to this debate. Relations have gone backwards, especially since the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, the seventh anniversary of which we just
In an unexpected move, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan linked Sweden’s application to the Western defense alliance NATO on July 10 with practically frozen relations of Türkiye with the European Union (EU). “First, let’s pave the way for Türkiye in the EU, and then we will pave the way for Sweden just as we did for
1923 marks not only the centenary of our Republic, but also the sixtieth anniversary of the Ankara Agreement with the European Union. During this time, our relations have gone through many different phases. The last few years have witnessed a steady decline in these relations. After the presidential and parliamentary elections in May, it is
Russia does not hide the fact that it is in favor of Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan winning the upcoming 2023 elections in Türkiye. Their domestic interests require such support. With the S-400 issue, they started a debate in NATO over Türkiye that they could not have caused if they had spent billions of dollars on
The photograph above is taken on March 9, 2023 in Brussels. President Tayyip Erdoğan’s Chief Foreign and Security Policy Advisor and Spokesperson, İbrahim Kalın, with Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar on his left, holing a press conference. The topic is whether Türkiye should give its approval to Sweden and Finland, two countries that want to join
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will soon pass ten months. This event not only disrupted the existing order in Europe set since the Second World War, but also caused global shocks. While the effectiveness of the United Nations and similar organizations established after 1945 had been questioned for a long time, this war launched by a
European Commission’s 2022 Turkey observation report entered Turkey’s agenda and exited almost at the same time it was published, mainly because it carves the contentious issues in the EU’s favour and the righteous determinations and criticism of the report get to be officially ignored. While the penultimate statement in the report that “Turkey is a
The issue of Syrian refugees returning to their home country from Türkiye has become the second hot electoral topic after the economic crisis. The public discussion came to a point that recent polls indicate Ümit Özdağ’s Victory Party, the real promise of which is to send the Syrians to Syria immediately, gaining 3 percent of