Burak Bekdil
ARTICLES BY: Burak Bekdil
Turks Turn on Each Other — and the ‘Enemy Within’
For two despicable decades starting at the end of the 1960s, Italy was racked by the Anni di Piombo (Years of Lead). That era was...
Turkey’s Selective Amnesia With the Palestinians
The collective Turkish memory has clear perceptions of which nations are friends and which are foes. In Turkey, the average length of schooling is only...
Don’t Fall for Turkey’s Duplicitous Charm Offensive
In an article published in 2016, “Erdogan: The World’s Most Insulted President,” I suggested that the perpetually angry Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, would...
Turkey Won’t Recover Quickly From the Coronavirus
The coronavirus pandemic has deepened fundamental imbalances in the Turkish economy, making a post-crisis freefall quite likely. However, as far as Turkey’s difficult foreign policy...
Turkish Divisions Thrive Amid Coronavirus
Turks often boast about their strong national unity “in good and bad times.” “Dozens of ethnicities came together to win the War of Independence (1920-22),”...
Turkey and Coronavirus: Conspiracy Theories and Religious Fantasy
Turkey’s fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) is generally accepted to be rational, well-timed, not too badly planned, and fairly effective. At a time when the German case...
Islamist Parties in Turkey: A Perpetual Matryoshka
The principal ideologue and leader of Islamism in Turkey was Necmettin Erbakan (1926-2011), none of whose various political parties managed to win enough of a...
Turkey and Israel: Can Pragmatism Defeat ‘Bad Blood’?
For the first time in several years, the word “Israel” is not automatically accompanied in Turkey by bold pejoratives like “baby killer” or “terrorist state.”...
The Soleimani Affair Reveals Turkey’s Directionless Regional Policy
The Turkish Foreign Ministry, which is usually quick to weigh in on matters of world affairs, was silent for hours after news broke of the...
With Friends Like Turkey’s Erdogan, Trump’s America Won’t Need Enemies
With the rise of Islamic State (ISIS) in large parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014, Turkey became known as a “jihadist highway” that transported...
Washington and Ankara: Sweet Words, But Differences Remain
“Don’t be a tough guy. Don’t be a fool. I will call you later,” Donald Trump ended his undiplomatic letter to Turkish President Recep Tayyip...
The West Tolerates Turkey Mainly Out of Fear
Turkey’s value for the West is not about the good it can offer, but the evil it might choose not to spread. In recent years,...
Turkey’s Pyrrhic Victory in Syria
Turkey’s military incursion into northeastern Syria had an ostensibly happy ending on its seventh day, with all state and non-state actors in the Syrian theater...
The Invincible Sultan: Is Erdogan Losing His Populist Charm?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan behaves like a cornered cat when it comes to regional politics: he acts savagely and erratically, lashing out at both...
