Following the assassination of Hassan Nasrullah and 17 other senior Hezbollah leaders, Israel has launched a limited ground operation targeting the organization’s military infrastructure and leadership in Lebanon, which could significantly alter the geopolitical and security balance in the Middle East. As Iran’s most powerful proxy, Hezbollah plays a critical role in maintaining Tehran’s influence
The situation in Lebanon has taken a precarious turn, as highlighted by Israel’s recent attacks on Hezbollah. The country finds itself at risk of descending into a more complex and potentially bloodier conflict than it has seen before. This escalation is pushing Lebanon to its limits, with the potential for spillover effects reaching as far
In a single move, Israel turned Hezbollah’s inter-organizational communication pagers into bombs that exploded at the same time, disabling at least 3,000 Hezbollah cadres, and killing at least nine people. It didn’t even need to know the names of the Hezbollah-affiliated people to be eliminated; now it knows all of them: It is enough for
When asked what would change for Türkiye if Donald Trump or Kamala Harris won the presidential elections in the US on November 5th, I can hear many of you saying “Nothing”. To understand, we need to look at which of today’s problems in Türkiye-US relations would be “normalized” – let’s not say solved – under
President Tayyip Erdogan delivered a speech on August 24th at the Aksaz Naval Base in Marmaris, vowing to further strengthen Turkey’s navy and army. The impressive TCG Anadolu, Turkey’s first amphibious assault ship, served as a backdrop. Anadolu had just returned to Aksaz after participating in a joint military exercise with the United States in
I first heard the phrase “Two states, one nation” from Abulfaz Elchibey. It was early 1992, just after Azerbaijan had declared independence from the Soviet Union. Elchibey was still officially banned from politics, but my colleagues Semih İdiz, Aziz Utkan, and I managed to interview him in a basement belonging to the Popular Front in
A recent claim has set diplomatic circles abuzz. Ömer Önhon, Türkiye’s last ambassador to Damascus before ties were severed, suggested in an Arabic newspaper El Mecelle that President Erdogan might arrange a meeting between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas leadership in Ankara. Abbas is scheduled to address the Turkish Parliament on August 15. While
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on August 12 and, summarizing from the American State Department’s statement, asked Türkiye to use its influence to get Hamas to return to the negotiation table with Israel on August 15. Fidan, as I summarize from Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Öncü Keçeli’s statement, told him
Perhaps you’re among those who no longer want to hear bad news. Just in Turkish news, neither the efforts of animal lovers to prevent what is almost a revenge massacre against animals, nor imprisoned lawmaker Can Atalay’s right to parliamentary immunity, nor the imprisonment of Osman Kavala and Selahattin Demirtaş, nor the increasing poverty of
As the world rapidly returns to a period defined by traditional power balances and violence, it is imperative that we strengthen ourselves across all domains, from the economy and military power to science, technology, art, culture, and the quality of human capital. To achieve this, we must urgently resolve our internal issues and focus on