• Editor's Note, Volume 14 No 2

    As the spring issue of Insight Turkey goes to print the Middle East nears another great crisis or even a war. The Syrian quagmire may be the current harbinger of full-out war in the region. It has been a year since the uprisings started. The Syrian regime met the peaceful demonstrations of its people with violent and bloody repression.

    Editor's Note, Volume 14 No 2

  • The Syrian Quagmire: What’s Holding Turkey Back?

    The Assad regime has been playing all the diplomatic, political, and security cards it has accumulated over the past several decades. While keeping the violence under a certain threshold on a daily basis so as not to provoke immediate international action, the regime has benefited from the entangled and often conflicted international interests in Syria.

    The Syrian Quagmire: What’s Holding Turkey Back?

  • The Rise and Fall of Military Tutelage in Turkey: Fears of Islamism, Kurdism, and Communism

    What explains the rise and fall of military tutelage over Turkish democracy? This article argues that the military’s civilian allies, particularly in the judiciary, political parties, and the media, provided it with political power.

    The Rise and Fall of Military Tutelage in Turkey: Fears of Islamism, Kurdism, and Communism

  • The Political Origins of the Greek Crisis: Domestic Failures and the EU Factor

    This article argues that the origins of the Greek malaise are primarily political rather than economic and rooted in the delay, postponement, and half-hearted implementation of public policy reforms that preceded the crisis.

    The Political Origins of the Greek Crisis: Domestic Failures and the EU Factor

Charting Transitions in the Middle East: Lessons Learned from Tunisia and Egypt
Commentary
Charting Transitions in the Middle East: Lessons Learned from Tunisia and Egypt

Leila Hilal

The Arab revolts have resulted in deposed heads of state in Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. Of these countries the latter two—Egypt and Tunisia—saw mass street protestors quickly topple entrenched autocrats without significant violence or foreign intervention...

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Monetary Policy of Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey after Global Financial Crisis
Commentary
Monetary Policy of Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey after Global Financial Crisis

Erdem Başçı

The recent global financial crisis presented substantial challenges and lessons for all economic agents.
One of the most important lessons learned was the indispensability of financial stability for the smooth
functioning of the economy as a whole...

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Insight Greece: The Origins of the Present Crisis
Commentary
Insight Greece: The Origins of the Present Crisis

Vassilis K. Fouskas

This commentary counters conservative, liberal, and social democratic explanations about Greece’s sovereign debt crisis. It advances an original analysis as to what the sources of the Greek debt are and what steps should be taken in order to emerge successfully from it...

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Rationalization of Turkey-Iran Relations: Prospects and Limits
Article
Rationalization of Turkey-Iran Relations: Prospects and Limits

Bayram Sinkaya

This article examines Turkish Iranian relations in the 2000s, when the two countries initiated an unprecedented rapprochement. It argues that modification of foreign policy paradigms in Turkey
and Iran led to the rationalization of bilateral relations that paved the way for improvement of
economic and political ties between the two states...

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America’s Asia-Pacific Strategy and Turkish-American Partnership
Article
America’s Asia-Pacific Strategy and Turkish-American Partnership

Kılıç Buğra Kanat

The debate on the future of the Turkish-American partnership has puzzled scholars in recent years due to its constant fluctuations. In the first year of the Obama administration, the parties tried to heal relations with high level exchanges and a new conceptual framework to define the relationship...

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Turkey Between Environmental Protection and Energy Security : A Regional Perspective
Article
An Unfulfilled Opportunity for Reconciliation: Israel and Turkey during the Arab Spring

Nimrod Goren

2011 brought an opportunity for Israel and Turkey to mend their bilateral relations. The re-election of Erdoğan in June 2011, coupled with the dramatic events of the Arab Spring, provided a new political and regional context in which the relations could be reevaluated...

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Allies with the Infidels, The Ottoman and French Alliance in the Sixteenth Century

Allies with the Infidels, The Ottoman and French Alliance in the Sixteenth Century

Reviewed by Nicolas Vatin

The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals

The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals

Reviewed by Christine Philliou

Turkey: A Short History

Turkey: A Short History

Reviewed by William Armstrong

The Influence of the European Union on Turkish Foreign Policy

The Influence of the European Union on Turkish Foreign Policy

Reviewed by Levent Kirval