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.
Dimitar Bechev | 18 December 2015
Before the downing of the jet, Turkey failed to reap significant trade benefits from the Western sanctions on Russia.
Galip Dalay | 18 December 2015
Theocratic apocalypse and secular totalitarianism are strange bedfellows when it comes to their visions for political space and active citizenry.
Basheer Nafi | 14 December 2015
It does not seem that Putin has accomplished any of his own objectives
Galip Dalay | 09 December 2015
The EU is giving the impression that it is once again supporting authoritarian stability instead of a more lasting democratic stability
Mesut Ozcan | 08 December 2015
With the increasing involvement of Russia in the Syrian conflict, relations between Turkey and Russia have also soured, and a bitter taste has been left with the recent downing of a jet. As Assad's regime has weakened, Russia has begun directly intervening in Syria and Turkey has begun interpreting the relationship between Russia and Syria as a return of the Cold War years. Russia’s involvement in regional conflicts in general and in Syria in particular led people to establish similarities with the 1950s, as it benefits from the chaos in the region and aims to fill the gap left by the disengagement of the US.. In those years, as a new member of the NATO alliance, Turkey was very concerned by the ideological and military connections between the Soviet Union and Syria. With the longevity of the conflict in Syria and increasing involvement of Russia, there is the danger of a similar scenario—possibly in a different form—emerging in Turkish-Syrian relations.
Wadah Khanfar | 08 December 2015
The necessities of geography and the interests of the economy take precedence over the bitterness of history and the reactions of the present
Khalid Hajji | 07 December 2015 | TR
The concept of Euro-Islam is laden with different meanings, depending on who uses it. Some young Muslims in Europe might use the term to underline the fact that they are Europeans in order to avoid being tarred with the discourse of integration. Some European politicians might use it to emphasize the need to strip Islam of its outside influences. Euro-Islam can be a platform for negotiations between Europe and its immigrants from an Islamic background. It can also be an appellation that designates a hue of Islamic religiosity similar to Asian Islam, African Islam, Egyptian Islam, or Moroccan Islam. Euro-Islam is, however, a contested concept when it is used to imply a geographical line of division between an enlightened Islam and an obscurantist one. This division enhances the dichotomy of inside and outside on which the clash of civilizations thesis is predicated. The separation between a European Islam of enlightenment and outside versions of an unenlightened Islam is, to say the least, counterproductive.
Al Sharq Strategic Research | 06 December 2015
More than 50 intellectuals, experts, activists and politicians gathered Saturday for the launch of the Common Action Forum, a Madrid-based NGO aimed at providing a research and development platform for ideas and practical steps to make political and international systems more fair and equal.
