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Post-Election Turkey: Now What?

No one among Turkey’s politicians wants an early election… Read more

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Kobani: A Symbol of Kurdish Resistance

After nearly five months of fighting for Kobani, the Kurds recaptured the town on January 26… Continue reading

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The Arab-Kurdish Battle in Syria: Implications for Turkey’s Standing

The battle over the Syrian town Ras al-Ain on the border to Turkey damaged Turkish relations with the Kurds in Syria, and with parts of Syrian opposition… Continue reading

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Turkish-Kurdistan Energy Relations: An Assessment

Much is made of the grand strategy of the Turkish-Kurdish energy puzzle… Continue reading

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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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Syria’s Assyrians, caught in the middle

Of all the Christian communities in Syria, the Assyrians, that is, those Christians who identify as such by virtue of belonging to the Assyrian Church of the East, arguably have the most complex relationship with the Assad regime… Continue reading

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Erdogan’s Way – Confrontation at Home and Abroad – May be Backfiring

Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party has been well served by the confrontational style of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan… Continue reading

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What Does Turkey Hope to Achieve with Its War Threats Against Syria?

The Turkish government appears to hope to deter the continued Syrian – and Iranian – deployment of the Kurdish card against Turkey… 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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No Escape from Authoritarianism? Turkey Suffers from the Lack of a Constituency for Liberal Change

Turkey’s old habits of state authoritarianism persist under the rule of the AKP… 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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Has Erdogan Reached His “Democratic Limits”?

Internal and external dynamics no longer compel Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to transcend his democratic limits… Continue reading

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Turkey and Syria: from Friendship to War?

The inability of the Baath regime in Damascus to bring the situation in the country under control has compelled Turkey to… Continue reading

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Syria: No Longer Revolution, It is A Civil War, A Guide to the Battle

The only honest answer to the question of what will happen in Syria is… 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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Will the CHP, Turkey’s Main Opposition Party, Ever Become a Relevant Political Alternative?

The Republican People’s Party (CHP), Turkey’s main opposition party, will have to adopt a whole new discourse and appropriate a new political… 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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Spring comes, but not for Iraq’s Kurds

Amid widespread protests during this so-called “Arab Spring,” one place that has received relatively little media coverage is Iraqi Kurdistan… Continue reading