In a major political shake-up in Turkey, Ali Babacan, a former economy minister and once-close confidante of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, recently ended months of speculation and formally launched a new political party to challenge his old boss. Babacan, who resigned last July from Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, or …
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Libya’s Expanding Proxy War May Be the Ultimate Test of NATO’s Resilience
With Egypt reportedly on the brink of invading neighboring Libya, and troops from Chad said to be on their way north to join Gen. Khalifa Haftar in his fight to topple the internationally recognized government in Tripoli, what was already a complicated proxy war could soon become Africa’s first full-on …
Read More »After the U.S., Turkey Should Be Next to Leave Syria
With the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting economic crash dominating the headlines, the civil war in Syria has faded into media obscurity. But there is more bad news there that warrants the world’s attention. Turkey is engaged in a military campaign in Syria’s northwestern ldlib province that risks a conflict …
Read More »Escalating to Deescalate? Why Turkey Is Targeting Syria’s Army
For the first time in Syria’s nine-year war, the Turkish military this week launched direct attacks on the Syrian army. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that he ordered howitzers and F-16 fighter jets to hit President Bashar al-Assad’s forces near the Turkish border in response to the killing of …
Read More »Turkey and Egypt Open the Door to a Diplomatic Thaw
In mid-March, Turkey and Egypt confirmed they’d had their first diplomatic contact since breaking off relations in 2013. Though the talks were described by Egyptian sources as preliminary, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying, “Contacts at the diplomatic level have started.” The thaw comes after a decade …
Read More »How Many Bridges Can Turkey’s Erdogan Burn?
Since his sweeping overhaul of Turkey’s political system in 2017, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has cemented his near-total control over the country. Despite the worst electoral setback of Erdogan’s career in the Istanbul mayoral election in June 2019, as well as a tailspinning economy exacerbated by the fallout from the …
Read More »A Seven-Year Fuse Blows Up Czech-Russian Relations
It is hard to know what is most surprising about the fatal depot story: the timing, the scale of the Czech response, or the operation itself. It can be disconcerting to discover you have been at war for seven years. The Czech government’s announcement that Russia was behind an explosion …
Read More »Turkey’s Tightrope Between Russia and the United States
One question has been irking Turkish commentators since January: why won’t U.S. President Joe Biden speak to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan? All the key world leaders have had phone conversations with the new U.S. president—Russia’s Vladimir Putin included—but Turkey’s president has been given the cold shoulder. Erdoğan must …
Read More »Is Ukraine Ready for the Next Russian Invasion?
Though it is clear that Kiev cannot win in any scenario involving a solo defense against a Russian invasion, it can possibly prevent Moscow from achieving a blitzkrieg-style outcome through persistent military and civilian resistance. In recent weeks, the Kremlin executed the largest military build-up on the Russian-Ukrainian border since …
Read More »Russia Plans to Withdraw From ISS, Deploy Its Own National Space Station
Russia will exit the International Space Station (ISS) initiative in 2025 and will inform its international partners about that decision, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov told broadcaster Rossiya 1 on Sunday. According to the TV channel, the decision to withdraw was made during a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin …
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