When Turkey and Greece came to the brink of war in 1996 due to the Kardak/Imia crisis, it was not European powers like Germany, France or the United Kingdom that intervened to avoid a military clash between the two NATO allies.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has shared the good news with the Turkish public about the discovery of a sizeable natural gas reserves in the Black Sea, calling it the start of a new era in Turkey in terms of decreasing dependency on foreign energy resources.
The Libyan theater is observing a relative calmness as a result of a temporary cessation of military operations since mid-June as the two warring sides seem to be convinced in halting offensives against each other.
It was interesting to observe that almost all the Turkish news channels were airing a press conference by Muharrem İnce, former presidential candidate of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). What made this fact even more astonishing was that all of the pro-government news channels were broadcasting the press conference live, something they never do for any opposition politician.
A maritime demarcation agreement inked between Greece and Egypt is problematic for two main reasons, timing-wise and content-wise.
Once the Pearl of the Middle East, Lebanon is nowadays suffering from multiple crises: An almost bankrupt economy, a collapsed government intertwined with a deep mess about powers and responsibilities between different religious and sectarian groups.
The coming period ahead will be particularly tough for Turkey for two main reasons: the surge in the spread of the coronavirus (amid concerns of an impending second wave in the autumn) and the continued deterioration of the economy.
A nationwide debate on whether the Istanbul Convention is a useful tool to reduce violence against women or a threat to the unity of the family will likely continue in the near future.
Changes at the helm of the secret services attract attention all over the world. If these changes are observed in institutions like the U.K.’s MI6, the U.S.’s CIA, Israel’s Mossad and Russia’s FSB (formerly KGB), they attract much more attention.
