TURKISH STUDIES

A Foreign Policy Project

Copyright: Bipartisan Policy Centre (www.bipartisanpolicy.org) based in Washington D.C., USA.

On March 30, 2014, Turks will vote in municipal elections amid an ongoing political conflict within the Islamic conservative movement between two former allies turned bitter foes. Though sharp divisions within Turkish society are hardly new, the fault line along which the current clash is being contested opened up only within the last three years. These elections, however, are unlikely to speed its resolution....  Read more

George Protopapas
(RIEAS Media Analyst)

Copyright: http://thedailyjournalist.com  (Date of Republication at the Research Institute for European and American Studies: 23 February 2014)

The corruption’s scandal that has deeply wounded the Islamic government of Prime- Minister of Turkey, Tayip Erdogan, is a complex issue with important consequences to the politics, economy, society and the foreign policy. Turkey has become a “battlefield” between two powerful men, two former allies. PM Erdogan and the influential Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen are in bitter power struggle. The old alliances are now void and new allegiances are being created. Erdogan re-approaches the old – enemy, the Army, seeking to review those convictions of whom have accused for conspiracy for overthrowing the Islamic government. In this analysis we refer to the domestic and foreign policy implications of this crisis.....  Read more

Markos Troulis
(PhD Candidate, Department of International and European Studies, University of Piraeus, Greece)

Copyright: Research Institute for European and American Studies (RIEAS) – www.rieas.gr – based in Athens, Greece - (Date of Publication: 1 February 2014).

It is broadly recognized in the light of contradictory theoretical approaches that states form their grand strategy rationally. This does not mean that their decisions are always right; states make decisions via cost-benefit analyses under the prospect of achieving survival and thus, at least preserving their power status in the region they belong to.  Therefore, balance of power is the crux of the matter. As Arnold Wolfers declared in 1962, ‘[a nation tends] to regard any shift in the balance of power that favors its adversary as at least an indirect threat to its own survival’. .... Read more

by George Protopapas
(RIEAS Media Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Could you explain how the dogma of “strategic depth” of Ahmet Davutoğlu influences the Turkish foreign policy?

“Strategic Depth” is one of the most important analyses about Turkish foreign policy. In order to say that it is important, it is not necessary to agree with Davutoğlu’s ideas. Davutoğlu is not the only academics who have ever supported policy making process in Turkey. However, he brought a different academic perspective to policy making process by starting from a different analysis of world politics. It is important because of a few reasons:.... Read more

Florentia Kallitsi
(RIEAS Internship Senior Student, Department of Asian and Turkish Studies, University of Athens, Greece)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

We are in a period in which Middle East has experienced the so-called ‘’Arab Spring’’, with whichever changes that means, ethnic, political and strategic power. World experiences significant evolutions in the region of Middle East and this period exactly another strained situation in Syria is noted, where the anti-regimes combat against the Assad’s regime. 

Burak Bekdil
(Journalist, Hurriyet daily News, Turkey)

Copyright: www.hurriyet.com.tr

Belatedly, the State of Israel has done what it ought to have done a long time ago. That was Israel’s moral obligation for the silly operation in which Israeli commandos killed civilians onboard the Mavi Marmara – a moral obligation regardless of whether the activists onboard were activists, sympathizers of terrorists or activists who sympathized with terrorists. The apology is easy to sell on the Turkish market: for most Turks, the “myth of Israel,” cracks after cracks, has eventually bowed before the emerging “myth of neo-Ottoman Turkey.” And the apology is not hard to sell on the Israeli market: many, if not most, Israelis believe that the apology and its de facto / de jure consequence, compensation for the families of victims, is well justified for humane reasons. The apology has not ridiculed, humiliated or belittled the State of Israel..... Read more