The summer of 2018 saw the crisis in Turkish-U.S. relations reach a climax when U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson was not released despite negotiations between Washington and Ankara. His release later had come only as a temporary relief.
It is unfortunate that at a time when NATO is celebrating its 70st anniversary, Turkey’s membership to the Alliance is being put into question both inside and outside.
Wars were always a part of Turkish-Russian history, and the two countries have spent at least half a century during the Cold War in rival hostile camps.
Under normal circumstances, we (or Turkey watchers) would not have asked this question. But for some time we haven’t been living under normal circumstances and that is due partly to the fact that Turkey is in a transition from a parliamentary to a presidential system.
Democracy is not a lose-lose game, it is a win-win game. Democratic elections are not about voting only for the party you want to see in government, but they are also about voting for an opposition that needs to be strong enough to represent voices that differ from those who supported the ruling party.
One of the findings of the poll conducted by Kadir Has University’s Center for Energy and Sustainable Development was about the Turkish public’s view on Turkey’s most important problems.
My last touristic destination abroad in 2018 was Sri Lanka, followed by Myanmar, my first touristic destination abroad in 2019.
Turkish-EU relations will briefly come to the agenda in the following couple of days. Following the vote on Turkey by the European Parliament on March 13, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu will attend a Syria summit by the EU. And finally on March 15 a Turkey-EU association council meeting will convene in Brussels, where Turkey will be represented by Çavuşoğlu.
It is impossible to recall how many times Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his capacity as prime minister and later as president has severely criticized Western leaders. He never held back when targeting Western leadership. He even called Germans Nazis.
