Russian President Vladimir Putin’s predetermined victory in March 18’s elections is good news for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The latest crises between Moscow and London over the poisoning of former Russian spy Sergey Skripal and his daughter in the U.K., which has poured more fuel on Russia’s rivalry with the West, is also good news for Erdoğan.
Turkey is forging on against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Afrin, amid statements from the government about major advances under its “Operation Olive Branch.”
The alliance between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the far right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) is more of a reflection of weakness than of strength on both parties’ sides.
It is not just government opponents who can make little sense of how the law works in Turkey today. Even avid supporters of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are highlighting the inconsistencies of the latest rulings against journalists accused of being supporters of terrorist organizations.
Turkey-U.S. relations are under scrutiny today as they have never been before. There is little to suggest that the “strategic partnership” that the sides continue to underline actually exists anymore.
The situation in Syria is getting even more complicated and confusing. After Russia’s failed attempt to bring the representatives of the warring sides together in Sochi, the military dimension has come to the foreground again.
A former chief of general staff, senior retired generals and diplomats, as well as many veteran politicians are all saying that if Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wants to achieve his military and political aims in northern Syria, he has to overcome his antipathy for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and come to a security arrangement with Damascus along Turkey’s long border with Syria.
Turkey’s operation against the enclave of Afrin, held by the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) - which Ankara says is a terrorist groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - seems to be unfolding much better than some expected or may have wished for.
Turkey’s EU membership dream has come to an anticlimactic end. This is even more apparent after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Paris last week. President Emmanuel Macron did not mince his words when he publicly announced that there was no way Turkey could join the EU given the current state of Turkish democracy.
