President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s emphasis on “a fresh mobilization for the economy, the law and democracy” energized the country. The scope, nature and sustainability of “the new chapter” and “reform” remain unclear. For now, there are a number of reform packages on the table that are intended to restore faith in Turkey’s justice system and to attract foreign investors.

The second Karabakh war ended on Nov. 10, 2020, when the Armenian government admitted defeat and signed a cease-fire agreement with Azerbaijan. The nearly 30-year-old conflict finally has come to an end.

Whatever the circumstances, Erdoğan can catch the political zeitgeist and use it for the benefit of Turkish interests

President-elect Biden's repetition of Obama's wrongdoings in foreign policy in the Middle East could further tarnish the U.S.' international image

It is in the U.S.' and Turkey’s best interest for the Democrats to set aside “ideological” prejudice for a while.

After six weeks of fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia, a cease-fire agreement was signed between the two conflicting sides. Azerbaijan won a huge victory on Tuesday that ended the 30-year-long occupation of Armenia and liberated Azerbaijan's territory. The peace deal, which was declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has historic importance and amounts to the capitulation of Armenia.

The 2020 U.S. presidential election will go down in history as a sign of the U.S. democracy's deepening crisis. The ongoing problems are not just about Donald Trump's unusual presidency or the popularity of Trumpism.

The U.S. election is over. Contrary to expectations, there was no landslide in the elections. There was no blue wave and there was no overwhelming victory of one candidate over the other. The major losers of this election are again the pollsters. It turned out that the Democrats were right to have anxiety over the polls as they demonstrated a solid and consistent Democratic lead in major key battleground states. There will be a lot of evaluations and assessments of the election results. My initial observations include the following.

Provided that the incoming president will take over on Jan. 20, 2021, the transition period is expected to be painful if Trump loses the election. The elephant in the room is not unknown: Even if Trump were to lose, what he stands for (let’s call it Trumpism) remains influential among American voters.

To be clear, Turkey is actively involved in not just regional but also global issues. Ankara intends to remain part of those conversations, too. The driving force behind Turkey's actions is the challenges of geopolitics and the responsibilities they entail – as opposed to ideology.

Historically, Western governments prefer liberal values and principles in their foreign relations only when they enjoy a competitive advantage. When the governments experience crises and find themselves in a disadvantaged position, hatred, alienization and otherization increases. This has been the case recently with the Western world knee-deep in political, social and economic crises.

A French high school teacher, Samuel Paty, was brutally murdered by a young, Russian-born Muslim of Chechen descent, Abdoullakh Abouyedovich Anzorov. This heinous terrorist attack caused outrage in French society. The murder of Paty was not the country's first such incident. France had also previously suffered Daesh violence and the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack. Many leaders, including those from Muslim countries, demonstrated solidarity with France in the aftermath of those acts but Muslim communities and institutions were still put under surveillance and heavy pressure.

There have been ongoing debates about the U.S.'s declining relevance in regional crises over the last several years. Although the U.S. administration has consistently reiterated its interest in the developments across different regions and expressed certain positions on regional crises, its effectiveness in determining the outcome of these crises is in constant decline.

On Tuesday, millions of Americans will go to the ballots to vote for the president that will occupy the White House for the next four years. As asserted several times in this column, it will be an election like no other, taking place during the deadliest pandemic for the U.S. after the Spanish Flu of 1918.

People trying to put labels on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strong reaction to French President Emmanuel Macron’s Islamophobic provocations make plenty of accusations – all part of a broader, ideologically charged campaign to distort the truth. Critics accuse Erdoğan of waging a "culture war" and contributing to the radicalization of Muslims by promoting an atmosphere of violence. Others question why the Turkish president seeks to write a new, anti-Western story.

French President Emmanuel Macron is in a dangerous tailspin. His government not only turned a blind eye to offensive depictions of Prophet Muhammad, an insult against Muslims’ sacred values but projected them on public buildings in the name of free speech.

The current European governments and politicians who face many political, social and economic problems try to use other states, peoples and civilizations as a tool for their own interests. They try to instrumentalize them for their own good, no matter how it might harm others.