BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey’s next step in Syria, to get Europe on board BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey’s next step in Syria, to get Europe on board

In the early days of the influx of Syrian refugees, some were seen sleeping in parks, as Turkey was still getting organized for an emergency response to an ever-increasing number of Syrians fleeing their country.

October 23 2019
Turkeys safe zone in Syria does not look like a temporary fix BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey's safe zone in Syria does not look like a temporary 'fix'

A couple of weeks after Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch in Syria in 2018, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called U.S. President Donald Trump. He informed Trump that U.S. weapons had been seized in tunnels dug by the YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK, recognized by Ankara’s Western allies as a terrorist organization.

October 21 2019
Cooperation with the YPG, wasn’t it tactical BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Cooperation with the YPG, wasn’t it tactical?

Foreign reporters covering Turkey’s latest military operation in Syria say that Kurdish fighters in the YPG are seen as terrorist by the Turkish government and that Turkey claims that YPG is the Syrian wing of the illegal PKK. But they do not add that Western capitals also admit that the YPG is the Syrian wing of the PKK, which they officially recognize as a terror organization.

October 16 2019
Opera, an integration tool for Turks in Germany BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Opera, an integration tool for Turks in Germany?

Last week on Monday night, as I was in New York and as my hotel was near Times Square, I came across New York Metropolitan Opera's first piece of the season, Gershwins’ “Porgy and Bess,” which was broadcasted live from two giant screens in the square. As two black singers were performing, “It seems Met has become colorblind in its casting,” I said to myself. But in the next scene, which was performed at least by two dozen singers, there was not one single white person. I realized this was an opera performed solely by blacks.

October 02 2019
$100 billion US – Turkey trade target, easier said than done BARÇIN YİNANÇ

$100 billion US – Turkey trade target, easier said than done

When you consider that only 33 percent of women participate in the workforce, you expect the Turkish panelists in the 10th investment conference organized last week in New York to be predominantly male. Yet, out of the four speakers on the second panel, three were women, representing some of America’s biggest companies.

September 30 2019
Turkey trusts Ross’ commitment to boost trade BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey trusts Ross’ commitment to boost trade

While even some members of the Turkish business community find the target of increasing the volume of trade between Turkey and the U.S. to $100 billion too high, the two key figures that are spearheading the efforts are confident that increasing the current volume fivefold is not mission impossible.

September 25 2019
Turkey stands committed to multilateralism BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey stands committed to multilateralism

Strains in Turkey’s relations with its Western allies are perceived as Turkey’s drifting from the West and its commitment to the Trans-Atlantic alliance is being increasingly questioned.

September 24 2019
Turkey can reclaim its soft power with its refugee policy BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Turkey can reclaim its soft power with its refugee policy

“We are under instruction of responding to emergency calls from Syrian refugees. Most of the time these calls are about birth deliveries. While going for that call, it happens that we may run late to a patient with a heart attack,” a doctor working on an ambulance in the western province of İzmir had told me.

September 23 2019
Will Turkey reverse its nuclear weapons policy BARÇIN YİNANÇ

Will Turkey reverse its nuclear weapons policy?

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement on Sept. 4 on nuclear weapons was one of the most radical announcements ever made by a Turkish head of state in the course of the past few decades.

September 18 2019