Insight Turkey
Insight Turkey
Challenging ideas
On Turkish politics and International affairs

The Reasons Behind the AK Party s November 1st Victory

The Reasons Behind the AK Party’s November 1st Victory

In June 2015, Turkey’s governing Justice and Development Party (AK Party) lost its parliamentary majority after thirteen consecutive years in...

HDP Torn Between Violence and Politics

HDP Torn Between Violence and Politics

Although the Kurdish political movement has been participating in elections since 1991, never until June 2015 were they able to receive more than 7...

Obama s Missed Opportunity to Pivot Away from the Middle

Obama’s Missed Opportunity to Pivot Away from the Middle East

Washington’s Middle East policy is a shambles. The region’s turmoil fundamentally stems from the George W. Bush Administration’s disastrous...

Palestine After the Arab Spring

Palestine After the Arab Spring

Many expected the Arab uprisings to strengthen official and popular Arab support for Palestinian self-determination, and, for a time, they did....

Groundhog Day and the Repetitive Failure of Western Counterterrorism Policy

Groundhog Day and the Repetitive Failure of Western Counterterrorism Policy in the Middle East

This commentary discusses the ways in which Western counterterrorism policy in the Middle East resembles the Hollywood Film, Groundhog Day, in that...

The Iranian Nuclear Deal Long-Term Implications for the Middle East

The Iranian Nuclear Deal: Long-Term Implications for the Middle East

The Iran nuclear deal has the potential to become a game changer in the Middle East by providing the opportunity for rapprochement between Iran,...

The Arab Spring s Effect on Kurdish Political Fortunes

The “Arab Spring’s” Effect on Kurdish Political Fortunes

The Arab Spring offered Kurdish political actors in the region significant opportunities to advance their goals. Particularly in Syria and Iraq,...

Nation-Building in Iraq Iran 1 the United States 0

Nation-Building in Iraq: Iran 1, the United States 0

In different ways, both the United States and Iran have engaged in nation-building in Iraq. The United States did so very explicitly, announcing to...

Iran versus ISIL

Iran versus ISIL

Iran’s response to the rise of ISIL has been driven by realpolitik rather than religious identity. ISIL threatens to undermine Iran’s regional...

Turkey s Energy Security Strategy in the Emergent Global Energy

Turkey’s Energy Security Strategy in the Emergent Global Energy Outlook

Since the beginning of the 2000s the global energy landscape has undergone constant change. Various factors have affected both the demand and...

From Energy Security to Energy Governance Turkey s Role in

From Energy Security to Energy Governance: Turkey’s Role in a Globalizing Energy Landscape

The logic of energy security is changing, with supply security being de-emphasized, governance and collective solutions are being increasingly...

The Turkish Stream Project in the EU-Russia-Turkey Triangle

The Turkish Stream Project in the EU-Russia-Turkey Triangle

The cancellation of the South Stream Project and the announcement of a new pipeline project in its stead, recently promoted and called the Turkish...

When Foreign Policy Matters The Gülen Movement s Fight with

When Foreign Policy Matters: The Gülen Movement’s Fight with the AK Party over Iran

It is widely accepted that identities are stable and they are one of the main motivations for alliance formations. The recent political rivalry...

What Has Been Is What Will Be The 2015 Israeli

What Has Been Is What Will Be: The 2015 Israeli Elections and the State of Turkish-Israeli Relations

The most notable aspect of the 2015 Israeli parliamentary elections was that the incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has entered his fourth...

War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria

War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity in Syria

This article evaluates the civil war in Syria from a human rights perspective from March 2011 until this article went to press. I tried to evaluate...

The Blue Peace Achieving Peace and Security through Water Cooperation

The Blue Peace: Achieving Peace and Security through Water Cooperation

Water is about people and human security. Unfortunately water has become a source of conflicts around the world, especially in the Middle East....

Responding to Religious Claims in a Secular Democracy The Turkish

Responding to Religious Claims in a Secular Democracy: The Turkish Case

This article examines state responses to claims made by religious groups, unorthodox communities and minority religions in Turkey and argues that...

Toward a Turkish-Russian Axis Conflicts in Georgia Syria and Ukraine

Toward a Turkish-Russian Axis? Conflicts in Georgia, Syria, and Ukraine, and Cooperation over Nuclear Energy

This article analyzes Turkish-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War (1992-2014) from a neorealist perspective, while highlighting...

A Post-2014 Vision for Turkey-Africa Relations

A Post-2014 Vision for Turkey-Africa Relations

Turkey’s foreign policy in Africa has achieved more than what initially has been planned as Opening to Africa in the last decade. A new post-2014...

A Year After Euromaidan Pro-European Forces Wins the New Parliament

A Year After Euromaidan: Pro-European Forces Wins the New Parliament

Despite the annexation of Crimea and the war in Donbas, early presidential and parliamentary elections in Ukraine were held in accordance with the...

The Political Economy of a Lasting Israel-Hamas Truce

The Political Economy of a Lasting Israel-Hamas Truce

At the conclusion of the summer 2014 Gaza War Israel, Hamas, and the P.A. agreed to meet in Cairo, Egypt to discuss a long-term ceasefire. The goal...

Migration Urban Space and Diversity A Case from Istanbul

Migration, Urban Space and Diversity: A Case from Istanbul

The growing flow of international migration to Turkey has serious implications for the social, economic and spatial transformation of recipient...

Perceptions of Syrians in Turkey

Perceptions of Syrians in Turkey

This article is a summary of the study “Syrians in Turkey: Social Acceptance and Integration,” which was conducted by the Hacettepe University...

Counter-Trafficking Policy and Immigrant Rights in Turkey

Counter-Trafficking Policy and Immigrant Rights in Turkey

Turkey has long been a transit site for irregular migration, and policy makers and advocates have stressed the vulnerability of many of these...

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