Turkey

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It is not entirely clear why Mevlut Altintas, a young policeman in, ironically, a counter-terrorism unit in the Turkish capital of Ankara, shot Andrei Karlov– the Russian ambassador to Turkey– in the back on Monday. Was he a lone wolf? Part of a far-right Muslim vigilante […]

Iraq

Does Turkey’s Erdogan Dream of Neighboring Mosul?

contributors

By Lucy DerTavitian | (Informed Comment) | – – The battle over Mosul appears to have ignited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s expansionist Ottoman era fantasies. He gained a few more adversaries recently when he claimed that Mosul, along with Aleppo, Western Thrace in Greece, and Kosovo, are part of Turkey. Erdogan’s comments come at […]

censorship

European journalists brand Turkey ‘biggest prison in the world’

contributors

By Herbert Vytiska | EurActiv.de | Translated By Samuel Morgan | EurActiv | – – Curbs on press freedom have been dramatically increased since the failed coup attempt against President Erdoğan. The Association of European Journalists (AEJ) has called on the European institutions to exert more pressure on Turkey, in face of further restrictions on […]

Authoritarianism

Turkey: the road towards dictatorship and the west’s responsibility

contributors

By Mehmet Ugur | ( OpenDemocracy.net) | – – Let us stop pretending otherwise: Turkey is now under a dictatorial regime established step by step under the gaze of, and with tacit support from western governments and institutions. Kurdish and democratic forces within the country are paying a heavy price, not only because of the […]

Featured

Turkish Gov’t arrests 15 Opposition MPs in Further Descent into Dictatorship

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Turkish government has detained 11 members of parliament from the leftist, feminist and pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP),including the party’s co-chairs. This step is intended to give Erdogan the majority in parliament he needs to make himself president for life, and to give Turkey (currently […]

Featured

War within War – Iraqi PM: We don’t want to fight Turkey but we’re Ready

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – AFP Arabic reports that Iraqi PM Haydar al-Abadi said Tuesday that “We do not want a war with Turkey, and do not want a confrontation with Turkey, but if a confrontation takes place, we are ready for it.” He added that if Turkey “attacks Iraq, it […]

Iraq

Will Turkey, Iran & Iraq make the Mosul Campaign a Land Grab?

contributors

By James Miller | ( RFE/RL ) | – – We may be witnessing the end of the extremist group, the [so-called] Islamic State [group] (IS), as we know it. Over the weekend, the coalition of Turkish military soldiers and Syrian rebel groups, backed by a small number of U.S. Special Operations Forces and air […]

Featured

Russia and Turkey Make up: What implications for Syria, Kurds?

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Russian President Vladimir Putin was in Turkey on Monday for direct talks with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, in a bid to further normalize relations between the two countries. Russian-Turkish trade and diplomatic ties were stress late last fall when Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet […]

Millenarianism

The Millenarian Dimensions of the Attempted Coup in Turkey and implications for Muslim Modernism & Traditionalism

contributors

By Mohammed Nuruzzaman | (Informed Comment) | – – The failed July 15 coup in Turkey has generated a whole range of debates on who was really behind the coup, Turkey’s future relations with NATO and the U.S., and President Erdogan’s possible pivot to Russia and Iran. A more serious debate that did not receive […]