Russian and Ukrainian delegations met in İstanbul on May 16 for possible peace talks. These are the third round of negotiations between the two countries, since the Russian war on Ukraine started in 2022; the previous two were also held in Türkiye with the mediation of the Turkish government. This time, a high-ranking US delegation
On May 7, the European Parliament approved, by majority vote, the report of Türkiye rapporteur Nacho Sánchez Amor during its session in Strasbourg. The report largely reiterates concerns that have been voiced since 2018. It emphasizes that Türkiye’s democratic standards have significantly deteriorated due to its counter-terrorism legislation, the lack of cooperation between Turkish law
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
The return of Donald Trump to the White House has reshaped global geopolitics overnight. His administration’s reassertion of the America First doctrine, alongside public threats to reduce US commitments to NATO and pressuring European nations to shoulder more of their own defense costs, has placed the European Union at a crossroads. While Europe has long
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
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
Donald Trump’s warm and friendly phone call with Vladimir Putin and his subsequent approach to determining Ukraine’s fate resembles a real estate mogul deciding which bankrupt casino to offload next. One can almost hear him thinking, “Why pay for something when you can just give it away?” Trump and his loyal Secretary of Defense, Pete
Ukraine’s recent attempt to attack the TurkStream pipeline represents an alarming and perilous escalation. The fact that this initiative failed should not bring us comfort; after all, a similar attempt occurred in May 2023, and there is no assurance that future attacks will be thwarted. Should another assault take place, we would find ourselves unable
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
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar told the Financial Times on April 28 that negotiations were continuing with the US energy giant Exxon Mobil for 2.5 million tons of liquefied natural gas (LNG) worth 1.1 billion dollars. The Minister was talking about Türkiye’s need to diversify its resources to avoid being dependent on “a single supplier”;
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