TURKISH STUDIES

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 18 April 2017

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Erdogan won the April 16 referendum by a narrow margin. How dangerous is he now as newly minted sultan-for-life, provided he lasts?
Erdogan is unpredictable, suspicious, and impulsive. He is also revengeful and ruthless when dealing with enemies, both true and fictional. He sees conspiracies coming from all points of the horizon. In other words, he clearly demonstrates the obsessive character traits which distinguish dictators from normal people. His paranoia is increasing proportionally to his recent revengeful, hostile rants against Europe. In a recent reshuffle of his spy agency, he created a unit of dark “special operations” to wage total war against enemies inside and outside Turkey...Read more

Τάσσος Συμεωνίδης
(Ακαδημαικός Σύμβουλος)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 30 November 2016

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

Seventeen years later the above is current and relevant except for Turkey having lost its “indispensability” for Western defense--although some continue to argue along the old Cold War lines in favor of Ankara....Read more

Shaun Riordan
[Senior Visiting Fellow of the Netherlands Institute for International Relations (“Clingendael”) and a senior analyst with Wikistrat. At Clingendael, Shaun heads the project on Business Diplomacy and is a member of the Futures for Diplomacy team].

Copyright: http://www.shaunriordan.com/?p=295

Publication date in RIEAS web site (www.rieas.gr) on 23 July 2016

The analysis of the motivation and consequences of the Turkish coup have underestimated the geopolitics.

Motivation

First it is important to understand Turkish geopolitical dilemmas and reactions. In recent months Turkey (together with Saudi Arabia) has emerged as the major loser in the Middle East. Turkey’s proteges are losing out in Syria. Russian support has reinforced the Assad regime....Read more

Nickolaos Mavromates
(Security Analyst-Historian)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) Publication date: 17 July 2016

Note: The article reflects the opinion of the author and not necessarily the views of the Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS).

“Nations have no permanent friends or allies, they only have permanent interests.” Lord Palmerstone (1784-1865)

President Tayyip Erdoğan's success in putting down the Turkish military Putsch aimed at him and his administration with the help of Dr Hakan Fidan automatically elevates him in the foreseeable future as the new premier of Turkey. Without the support of Chief of the Turkish Intelligence Dr. Hakan Fidan any resistance by Erdoğan to the Coup mutineers actions would had been futile.....Read more

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 8 May 2016

The disgraceful fracas over the European Commission's proposal to grant visa-free travel to75 million Turks inside the Schengen area proves beyond any doubt the real worth of our European «leaders» beginning with no other than Germany's Frau Merkel.

With the European dis-Union on the verge of a ignominious retreat, no rational pundit -- or bookmaker for that matter -- would put the collective value of our present European «leadership group» above a few petty euro cents. The entire European mandarinate, led by the German chancellor, has simply cowered in the face of Turkey's government, the Islamist president Erdogan, threatening to unleash millions of unwanted Moslem illegal immigrants upon Europe unless Europe's «leaders» kowtow to Turkish demands. Subverted by the Four Ms -- Merkel's Moslems & Merkel's Madness -- that emerged in the summer of 2015, Europe is now prostrate before Erdogan's criminal whims and fundamentalist Islamic threats...Read more

(And the trembling Europeans)

Tassos Symeonides
(RIEAS Academic Advisor)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (www.rieas.gr) – Publication date: 13 March 2016

Tayyip Erdogan, the rising Islamic despot of Turkey, isn't a man to be dissuaded by the usual tricks of politics. Attacking all those who oppose him with blind fury, he has set a new measure of brewing totalitarianism in Turkey's violent history. His most recent brutality against Zaman, Turkey's largest circulation daily, has added to the growing Western unease about the "model Muslim democracy" that was touted for decades as the best thing that happened to the Islamic world since the coming of the Prophet (peace be unto him)...Read more