Omer Aslan | 17 February 2016
The Russians flocking to Syria, a ‘lame duck’ American President, and a more daring Iran after the implementation of the nuclear deal with the west all imply that the ‘Islamic Alliance’ proposed hastily and clumsily by Saudi Arabia deserves more serious thought than it has hitherto been granted.
Galip Dalay | 17 February 2016
Before the onset of the Arab uprisings, Turkey had a functionalist approach to the region. It prioritized economic integration over the push to open up politics, in the belief that deepening economic ties would inevitably have a political spillover.
Galip Dalay | 17 February 2016
The main motivation behind the Geneva III talks was to get a deal irrespective of whether this deal was fair and sustainable.
Galip Dalay | 15 February 2016
The Kurdish question dominates Turkey’s political agenda again, this time through low-intensity urban warfare. Just a year ago, a peace deal between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and Turkey seemed attainable, but the situation has deteriorated since the summer of 2015. The government has not sufficiently appreciated how the Kurds’ gains in Syria and Iraq have become the reference points of the Kurdish movement in Turkey. Recent fighting has resulted in the further consolidation of the Kurdish movement around the PKK, which bodes ill for the future of Turkey and the Kurdish movement in general. This vicious cycle can only be broken by the mutual accommodation of Turkey and the PKK on Syria and Turkey’s Kurdish regions. Turkey will need to cease to question the Syrian Kurdish gains and look for some kind of modus vivendi with this entity; the PKK must reciprocate by terminating its urban-warfare strategy in Turkey
Mahjoob Zweiri | 15 February 2016
The nuclear deal and its ramifications have added new elements of tensions between the Islamic Republic and the Gulf States. The lifting of the sanctions will be a significant addition to Iran’s financial capacity, which is likely to further Iran’s Involvement in Iraq, Syria and Yemen. With King Salman’s new foreign policy approach to the Middle East, more Iranian involvement in the region with the removal of the sanctions is probably going to complicate regional politics between the Iran and the Gulf States and will exasperate the competition for regional and international influence.
Basheer Nafi | 21 January 2016
Identity wars are contributing to the enfeeblement and decline of states,
Galip Dalay | 21 January 2016
This attack appears intended at disrupting Turkey's tourism industry by depicting the country as unsafe.
Galip Dalay | 26 December 2015
Turkey needs to strike a fine balance between establishing public order in PKK-occupied places and avoiding military overreaction.
Basheer Nafi | 23 December 2015
Turkey's past tussles with Russia offer no guarantee of similar outcomes today, while geopolitics, rather than history, also holds lessons for Egypt
Mohammad Affan | 23 December 2015
The first Egyptian parliamentary elections since the military coup were conducted between October 17th and December 2nd this year. Although many observers have underestimated this election and its political significance, it nonetheless offers important insights into the nature of the evolving authoritarian regime in Egypt and clues as to the future of its democratic transformation.
