There is no shortage of important items on Turkey's political agenda. Ahead of Sunday's Istanbul rerun, the Turkish people are focused on Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's death, the United Nations Human Rights Council report on the Jamal Khashoggi murder, the start of drilling efforts in the Eastern Mediterranean, the sentences being handed down in coup trials, the latest polling numbers, Republican People's Party (CHP) mayoral candidate Ekrem Imamoğlu's secret meeting with the moderator of the election debate and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan weighing in on the mayoral race.

A few weeks ago, this column detailed how, in the last two decades, U.S. administrations have periodically made war plans and debated conflict scenarios. Both the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations did it, and now the Donald Trump administration has come to a similar point of deliberating a military response against Iran.

Pentagon officials continue to maintain the same dysfunctional and hostile policies against Turkey. They are now using Turkey's purchase of the S-400 air defense systems from Russia as a pretext to pressure and threaten Turkey. The Pentagon's recently resigned chief Patrick Shanahan had warned his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar about economic sanctions and the abandonment of military cooperation between the two NATO allies.

This analysis mainly focuses on the description of the PYD/PKK’s drug routes and Turkey’s struggle against the PKK’s narco-terrorism.

U.S. governments have been questioning the contribution of the NATO alliance for the last two decades. Although the U.S. pioneered the enlargement of the alliance, it mostly prefers to act unilaterally in its security policy, which creates problems for NATO.

The level of polemic in Istanbul's mayoral election campaign remained limited in the month of Ramadan. The general campaign discourse, though, is built on positive messages for both sides.

The United States took its first 'concrete step' to encourage Turkey to rethink its plan to purchase the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. Washington was going to exclude Turkish pilots from the F-35 fighter jet training program, Reuters reported last week.

Istanbul's June 23 local election is about two weeks away. On the occasion of the Ramadan Bayram, or Eid al-Fitr, election campaigns have moved out of Istanbul, with the mayoral candidates preferring to address fellow citizens in various Anatolian provinces.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled his administration's new judicial reform package on Thursday.

Moscow should turn the current situation in Idlib into an internationally recognized political deal rather than another brutal victory for the Assad regime

The growing tension between the U.S. and Iran is in the spotlight in our region. Washington is approaching Iran with a policy of "maximum pressure." They have not only strengthened the sanctions but also sent an aircraft carrier to the Gulf.

Idlib province is the only region under the control of the Syrian opposition. More than 3 million people, most of whom migrated from other parts of the country, live there. The tension has increased following the Bashar Assad regime's ground forces' operations in the region over the last several weeks.

It is now almost a ritual of U.S. administrations to escalate tension with Iran. At least in the last three administrations we have seen similar forms of escalations between the two countries. During the Bush administration, Iran became part of the axis of evil and there were speculations and rumors that if things do not go so terribly in Iraq the next target will be Iran.

Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated dangerously over the past week. Although both sides deny that war is imminent, a violent confrontation grows more likely with every passing day.

Over the last five years, Turkey-U.S. ties have gone through one of the most turbulent periods in the long history of relations between the two countries. Despite previous crises, seldom have we seen so many incidents over such a short period of time.

The mayoral candidates of Turkey's major electoral alliances will compete once again on June 23. Provided that electoral volatility is low between rival camps, both contenders will primarily focus on maintaining their original level of popular support.

The U.S. is concentrating too much on the Middle East, which may cost it dearly; it has already issues such as the trade war with China, the Venezuelan crisis and Russia's increasing global effectiveness to handle