SETA Foreign Policy Studies Director Ufuk Ulutaş said that the recent Gulf crisis is an attempt to redesign Middle East politics and it is not about the alleged support of terrorism by Qatar, but rather a result of Qatar following its own terms in regional matters.

In order to become a key player in the Middle East again, Washington needs to repair its damaged relations with Ankara

Normalization in Turkish foreign policy to proceed despite terrorist attacks

The Turkish-Israeli agreement, which is a historical step for the region that has reached a dead end, brings many vital projects to better Gazans' lives

The policymakers in Ankara are required to accomplish a structural transformation program for socio-economic development, while fighting a low-intensity war in the southeast and overcoming the international repercussions of the crisis with Russia. Not an easy job for sure. But then, who said that politics was an easy job?

Although abounding in energy sources compared to other regions, the Middle East suffers from the increasing significance of the energy market in shaping the nations' foreign policy in the 21st century.

Civil wars in Syria and Iraq are reshaping the Middle East, followed by issue-based alliances, thinking ahead and working on multiple scenarios.

Qatar and Turkey are mutually dependent on one other in stabilizing their domestic politics and normalizing the region.

Prof. Efraim Inbar - whose works on Turkish-Israeli relations deserve much credit - recently wrote an op-ed piece "An open letter to my Turkish friends" in The Jerusalem Post in which he paints a grotesque picture of Turkey's new foreign policy vision and domestic political developments. It misleadingly confines the multi-dimensional Turkish foreign policy vision to politics of ideology that is reminiscent of the Cold War years.

One often gets this question from academics and experts: What will be the framework of international relations in the 21st century? Will it be determined by "hard instruments" such as energy, security and population?

During a visit to the United States that preceded President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey, Ahmet Davutoglu, chief advisor to Turkey's prime minister, stated that "Our approach and principles are almost the same, very similar to the US on issues such as the Middle East, Caucasus, Balkans and energy security.

Al-Jazeera invited almost a dozen Turkish scholars and journalists to its Fourth Annual Forum last month in Doha. It was the first time so many Turkish participants attended. Why did al-Jazeera invite so many Turks to an event focused on the Arab world? More generally, why do people in the Middle East pay attention to Turkish perspectives on their affairs?

After back-to-back visits to Turkey by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Ahmet Davutoglu, a top adviser to Turkey's prime minister, predicted that Turkish-American relations were about to enter a golden era

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's walkout in the midst of a discussion on Gaza in Davos won him millions of supporters not only in Turkey, but around the world. With his bold position on the Middle East peace process, Erdoğan has the Arab and Muslim streets behind him. 

The birth pangs of a new human geography and geographic imagination are being felt across the Middle East. As the ethnic and sectarian models of cultural and political identities are being questioned, new patterns of cultural affinity and association are emerging with a new sense of shared history and common geography.         

The Gaza panel at this year's Davos meeting will be remembered as one of the most dramatic moments in the entire history of Davos. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's face-to-face blasting of Israeli President Shimon Peres was unprecedented, as was his storming out of the meeting. 

In a rather unprecedented cry of outrage, Prince Turki al-Faisal, one of the most prominent figures of the Saudi state, put it bluntly: If the US under the new Obama administration does not change its policy toward Israel and Palestine, the Saudis will no longer maintain their “special relationship” with the US (“Saudi Arabia’s patience is running out,” Financial Times, Jan. 23, 2009). Quoting from the Saudi king that his peace plan, called “the Arab peace initiative,” is still on the table, the prince added that “it would not remain there for long.”