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The AKP’s New Dialogue with Öcalan: A Process but Which Process?

The AKP is conducting a “psychological war” rather than sincerely trying to solve the Kurdish Issue… Continue reading

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Fighting Blind: The AKP’s Increasingly Hardline Kurdish Policy

Even if the Turkish military wins every battle against the PKK, an even more dangerous war is being lost… Continue reading

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Turkey and Syria: An Undeclared State of War

After Syria’s downing of a Turkish aircraft over the eastern Mediterranean, the question is not so much why Syria shot it down as why the two neighbors have become embroiled in a confrontation in the first place… Continue reading

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Values and Identity: The Resurgence of the Kurdish Hizbullah

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in the center of Diyarbakır for a celebration of the Prophet Muhammad’s birth. The event was organized by a coalition of NGOs affiliated with the radical Sunni Islamist organization known in Turkey as Hizbullah… Continue reading

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Reinventing a Broken Wheel: The AKP’s ‘New’ Kurdish Strategy

On 21 March 2012, Turkish government officials began briefing trusted journalists on what they described as the new strategy of the ruling AKP for solving the country’s long-running Kurdish problem… Continue reading

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The Snake that Doesn’t Touch Me: Turkey’s Special Authority Courts

In response to increasing international concern about controversial cases such as Ergenekon, Sledgehammer and KCK, the AKP has repeatedly insisted that the judicial system is independent and that there is nothing that it can do… Continue reading

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Turkey as an Arena for Iranian and Hezbollah Terrorism and Subversion

Turkey and Iran often state that there has been peace along their border for more than four hundred years… Continue reading

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The Coalition Crumbles: Erdoğan, the Gülenists, and Turkish Democracy

The authority of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been challenged by the security apparatus, the police and parts of the judiciary that enjoy the backing of the brotherhood of the Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen… Continue reading

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Ankara and Baghdad: A Parting of Ways?

Until now, Turkey’s presence in Iraq has generally been encouraged by all major Iraqi groups… Continue reading

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Syria, Turkey and the Kurds

Bashar al-Assad is apparently aiming to destabilize Turkey… Continue reading

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The Latest KCK Arrests: One Step Closer to Breaking Point

The AKP is using the KCK investigation as an instrument to try to crush all opposition to its increasingly hawkish policies on the Kurdish issue… Continue reading

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Turkey’s Anti-PKK Operation Faces Major Obstacles

The Turkish government has now responded with one of its largest counterinsurgency operations in years… Continue reading

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Turkey’s New Constitution: a Last Chance to Solve the Kurdish Issue?

There has long been a broad consensus that Turkey’s current constitution needs to be replaced… Continue reading

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The Secret MIT-PKK Talks: Was a Turkish-Kurdish Peace Accord Ever Close?

The effort to explore a peaceful solution was doomed because ultimately the ruling AKP has not disengaged from Turkish state tradition… Continue reading

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Erdogan’s War: Will Turkey’s Most Powerful Leader Since Ataturk Succeed in Securing the Country’s Unity?

Attacks carried out by Kurdish separatists since mid-July have set Turkey on the road to war… Continue reading

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Turkey and Syria: a Parting of Ways

The turmoil in Syria threatens to deprive Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party of one of its most significant foreign policy achievements… Continue reading

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Fading Hopes, Rising Demands: Kurdish Problem Moves Closer To the Point of No Return

In the general election of June 12, 2011, candidates backed by the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) won 36 seats in Turkey… Continue reading

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Is the AKP that “Vanquished” the Military Caught in the Trap of Militarism?

There is a grim irony to the fact that while the AKP’s 2007 victory represented a defeat for the military, victory four years later requires… Continue reading

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Will Turkey’s Next Constitution be a Societal Covenant Imbued with Respect for Differences?

Agreeing upon the rules for how they are going to live together, with mutual respect for differences, is the fundamental challenge that faces… Continue reading

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Squaring the Circle: The PKK Return to Violence and Turkey’s Intractable Kurdish Problem

On February 28, 2011, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) announced that it was abrogating its unilateral ceasefire first declared on… Continue reading