The armed conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan enters its third week with no permanent ceasefire in sight. Russian mediation for a humanitarian truce declared on Oct. 10 did not survive. There is no convincing international initiative to persuade the two warring sides to cease their military activities in the region either.
Nobody thought that the de-escalation in the eastern Mediterranean and reconciliation between Turkey and Greece would be easy. On the contrary, almost all the stakeholders were quite aware that only intensified diplomacy accompanied by concrete acts would provide a genuine basis for the resumption of Turkish-Greek talks over their long-standing disputes stemming from the Aegean and Mediterranean.
Ali Babacan, the chair of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA), was in Diyarbakır over the weekend to chair his party’s first provincial convention in the southeastern region’s most important city.
A recent proposal by Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli to restructure the Constitutional Court in line with the executive presidential system so as to curb its independence has sparked a new debate in the country.
When it’s about ties between Turkey and Greece, especially in the context of tensions in the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean, it’s hard and even risky to report in 100 percent precision about the scheduled bilateral meetings and joint announcements.
Turkey’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has observed a new milestone after it announced that the daily figures released by the Health Ministry only reflect the number of COVID-19 patients and not asymptomatic positive cases.
A much-anticipated EU summit on the recent escalation in the eastern Mediterranean and ties with Turkey has actually opened a new window of opportunity between Ankara and Brussels and between Ankara and Athens.
The rapid intensification of the clashes between the Armenian and Azerbaijani armies has once again and incontrovertibly shown that the Nagorno-Karabakh dispute is no longer a frozen conflict.
Three important developments occurred last week. On Sept. 22 and 23, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan engaged in a dialogue with almost all prominent European leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, as well as European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula van der Leyen, signaling the re-installation of constructive communication channels in the aftermath of the withdrawal of Oruç Reis from the contested waters of the eastern Mediterranean.
