The Clash of Powers or The Dawn of a New Era?
“As I have said before, our two nations are trying to do something that has never been done in history, which is to write a new answer to the question...
UNESCO as an Ethno-Political Entrepreneur: The Need for Emancipating LAVASH
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), more specifically the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, has recently decided that lavash is an intangible cultural...
Anatomy of the PKK: Violence and Self-Interest
It might be quite bold to say, but the PKK does not care about anything but the existence of Kurdish cantons in Syria. It cares about this much more than...
The Big Picture in Syria is Bigger Than Any One Group
The Middle East has been persevering not because the leaders of Middle Eastern countries are just and legitimate, but because the people who live there still have hope for the...
Nongovernmental Humanitarianism In Turkey: The Quest For Internationalist Virtue
The last decade has been a golden age in the history of Turkey`s international humanitarian initiatives. Today, Turkey`s humanitarian aid organizations, both state institutions and civil society organizations, operate in...
Ebola and ISIS: Threats Derive from Fear
The threats posed by Ebola and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) might be perceived as enemies of humanity. One of them is a disease and the other...
Austerity, the Hardworking and the Feckless
About two years ago, the current UK finance minister George Osborne commented that ‘hard-working people’ left for work every morning while ‘behind the blinds’ of the house opposite people on...
Religiously Framing Turkey’s Humanitarian and Cultural Diplomacy
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, in explaining the rationale behind the presence of multiple institutions in running Turkey's foreign affairs, articulated that "the multi-faceted foreign policy of Turkey could not be...
Turkey is paying for decades of divisive politics as it fights to end its civil war
When armed conflict becomes a fact of everyday life, and generations grow up knowing nothing else, imagining life in a state of peace is hard work. The fragile state of...
Kosovo’s Sneaky Fight against Moderate Islam: Belated Reflections on Turkey’s Position
While the U.S.-led global coalition is running a fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Iraq and Syria, some states carry out a seemingly just, but...
While Kobani is Falling, Politics or Humanity?
The negligence and the reluctance of the international community to become involved in the Democratic Union Party (PYD) conflict with the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) in Kobani...
Brazil’s Presidential Election: Impacts on Relations with Turkey
Millions of Brazilians went to the polls on Oct. 5 to elect the new president of Brazil. There were three frontrunner candidates: Dilma Rousseff, the incumbent and the leader of...
The Consequences of Scottish Independence
Scotland will decide in a referendum to be held on Sept.18 whether or not to end its 307 year union with England. It seems that it is a much closer...
Turkey bombs Kurdish forces as new wave of violence threatens to spill across borders
The ongoing humanitarian tragedy of Kobanê has raised serious questions about the future of the Kurds. The unstoppable advance of Islamic State (IS) over the last few months has already...
Turkey stuck at a crossroads as Islamic State terrorises Kobanê
Kobanê, a small Kurdish town on the Syrian-Turkish border, has now become the ultimate test of Turkey’s ambivalence on how to engage the so-called Islamic State (IS) in the rapidly...