President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed Parliament on the occasion of the beginning of the new legislative year. He provided a summary of Turkey's international standing and foreign policy, and offered both criticism and fresh proposals to improve world politics and the situation in conflict zones.
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Last week in this column, I wrote about how important the debate between two presidential candidates can be, not only for the United States election but also for the country's standing around the world.
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Armenia engaged in acts of aggression in Nagorno-Karabakh, days after its attack on Tovuz in western Azerbaijan. That country opened fire on its neighbor’s civilian population on Sunday, which elicited a strong military response from Baku. A number of villages have since come under Azerbaijani control. It would appear that Yerevan made a huge miscalculation in the Caucasus and did not take seriously enough Turkey’s commitment to stand in solidarity with Azerbaijan.
Turkey has been upgrading its status in international politics and has recently achieved a higher degree of autonomy in its foreign policy. The stronger Turkey gets, the more threats it faces from friendly countries as well as adversarial actors, and the more it is otherized by foreign governments.
Analysts regard the debates as the last opportunity for candidates to change citizens' voting preferences and thus presidential candidates make painstaking efforts to prep themselves beforehand.
With the U.S. elections five weeks away, the fight over the presidency keeps getting nastier. This is not your average disagreement between Republicans and Democrats. Even labels like globalist and patriot have long been overused. Nowadays, President Donald Trump’s critics claim that he will destroy American democracy if he gets four more years. If Joe Biden wins, others say, China will own the United States.
The dangerous escalation in the Eastern Mediterranean has given way to dialogue and negotiations.
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Since the emergence of the Eastern Mediterranean crisis, there have been a lot of debates and questions regarding the role of the major powers in the potential resolution of this dispute. After Turkey’s calls for dialogue and diplomacy fell on deaf ears in the early days of the crisis, many assumed that one of the major powers would play the role of mediator for this problem.
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The Special European Council's meeting in Brussels on the single market, digital transformation and the European Union's industrial policy was postponed following council head Charles Mitchell's decision to go into isolation due to the coronavirus.
After U.S. President Donald Trump had the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain sign the Abraham Accords on Sept. 15 at the White House, people have been wondering which Arab country will be next.
In the wake of the Arab insurgencies and revolutions, the Arab world lost touch with its role as the main carriers of Arab nationalism. In reality, the process of the dissolution of the Arab world started on 9/11 when some citizens of Saudi Arabia executed the most devastating terrorist attacks in the history of the United States. Shortly after Sept. 11, the U.S. invaded Iraq, claiming that the Saddam Hussein regime was about to produce nuclear weapons.
Turkey called back its research vessel Oruç Reis to port in order to support efforts by Germany and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to facilitate dialogue with Greece. As Ankara and Athens continue to exchange statements, tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean will be discussed at the Special European Council on Sept. 24-25.
Turkey’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has become embroiled in internal strife over the distinction between 'Mustafa Kemal' and 'Atatürk', in reference to the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
The squabble between President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and French President Emmanuel Macron continues.
In this piece, I will attempt to answer the question that I asked in last week’s column, in which I tried to assess the French approach toward Turkey. I will elaborate on the general view of the Western countries toward Turkey by answering the following questions: Why has the West been otherizing and alienating Turkey? What are the main sources of anti-Turkish sentiments in the West? Why is the West concerned about the democratic institutions in Muslim countries? Is the rise of Turkophobia related to the most recent wave of Islamophobia? Why is the West against the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government? Are they worried about the rise of the Turkish state?
Western media’s opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is possibly the world’s worst kept secret. Western commentators immediately jump to conclusions about the supposedly expansionist goals of Erdoğan’s Turkey whenever Ankara launches a fresh foreign policy initiative. Experts in Washington, Paris, Athens, Abu Dhabi and elsewhere make the same arguments in an attempt to contain Turkey’s influence to an unbearable extent. At the heart of those comments lies the claim that the Turkish president has isolated his country in the international arena, which will lead the nation to a disaster and that the Turkish people deserve better.
French President Emmanuel Macron has openly had Turkey in his crosshairs for quite some time.
For the last several weeks, French President Emmanuel Macron has been targeting Turkey and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his statements about regional developments in the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean. Although it is not uncommon for him to make such undiplomatic positions when it comes to foreign policy, his recent remarks about Turkey demonstrate that his tone is becoming more aggressive than it used to be.
Emmanuel Macron was welcomed by political leaders in Europe and the United States when he defeated his right-wing populist rival Marine Le Pen in the second round of the French presidential race in 2017.
Following the election of Donald Trump in November 2016, U.S. economist Mark Perry in his book "The Pentagon’s Wars: The Military’s Undeclared War Against American Presidents" wrote that there was overwhelming support for the new leader among members of the military.
The Eastern Mediterranean question, like a ghost train, shuttles around and around, plunging the global agenda into fright with each passing day.