Derek Royden – Friend or Foe? How Turkey’s Turn Toward Authoritarianism Threatens Syria and the World

“We’ll eradicate Twitter. I don’t care what the international community says. Everyone will witness the power of the Turkish Republic.” -Tayyip Erdogan, President of Turkey There was a time, not so very long ago, when all seemed well with the Turkish Republic. Although the country’s long running efforts to join the EU had been stymied, through canny diplomacy Turkey had …

Graham E. Fuller -Turkey’s Perilous Crossroad

What does Turkey need to do to overcome its present foreign policy fiasco, one of the worst in modern Turkish history? The irony of all this is that those directly responsible for this mess — the team of Recep Tayyip Erdogan (now president) and Ahmet Davutoglu, (former foreign minister and now prime minister) — is exactly the team that one …

Vijay Prashad – Turkey’s war on the Kurds

“Much of the explanation for the assault on the Kurds is to be found in Turkey’s failed policy in Syria.” Picture shows Kurds clashing with the Turkish police as they protest against the curfew imposed in Kurdish towns, in Diyarbakir. A war of words has broken out between the Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and the leader of the left-wing …

Turkey’s President gives Hitler example in call for powers boost

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who wants to expand the powers of his office, has cited Hitler’s Germany as an example of a presidential political system. Asked whether the system he wants could exist within a “unitary state”, Mr Erdogan told reporters that Adolf Hitler’s Germany was one example in history, among others, where the presidential system had functioned. Mr …

David Lindsay – Maltese ships owned by Turkish president’s son being implicated in ISIS oil trade

As Russia continues to accuse Turkey and its presidential family of directly benefitting from the trade in oil with the Islamic State, it transpires that the oil tankers allegedly involved in the illicit business are registered in Malta and all fly the Maltese flag. Moreover, at least one of dozens of companies set up in Malta by Azerbaijani billionaire Mubariz …

Turkey Arrests Generals for Stopping Syria-Bound Trucks ‘Filled With Arms’

Two Turkish generals and a colonel were detained on Saturday for intercepting Syria-bound trucks that belonged to Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MIT), the newspaper Today’s Zaman reported. In January 2014, Ankara Gendarmerie Major-General Ibrahim Aydin, former Adana Gendarmerie Brigadier-General Hamza Celepoglu and former Gendarmerie Criminal Laboratory Head Colonel Burhanettin Cihangiroglu stopped Syrian-bound trucks in southern Turkey after they received information from an anonymous …

Reynard Loki – World’s Biggest Economies Devise Plan That Spells Doom for Planet Earth

More than 80 of the world’s leading scientists, environmentalists, indigenous leaders, farmers, philanthropists and authors have signed a letter [3] to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, current president of the G20 group of the world’s major economies, saying that they are “deeply concerned” about the G20’s focus on mobilizing as much as $60-$70 trillion of investments in large infrastructure projects …

Michael Hudson – Whitewashing the IMF’s Destructive Role in Greece

This autumn may see anti-austerity coalitions gain power in Portugal, Spain and Italy, while Marine le Pen’s National Front in France presses for outright withdrawal from the eurozone. These countries face a common problem: how to resist the economic devastation that the European Central Bank (ECB), European Council and IMF “troika” has inflicted on Greece and is now intending to …

Blaise Misztal – The U.S. picked the wrong ally in the fight against Islamic State

When Turkey finally agreed to join U.S.-led efforts to fight Islamic State, Ankara was supposed to make the battle against the extremist group more effective. Yet within days, Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, bombed not just Islamic State forces but also, with even greater fervor, the one group showing some success in keeping them at bay: the Kurds. The United …