By Cengiz Candar

December 20,  2017

The roots of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s “New Turkey” can be found in the decades that preceded the foundation of the Turkish republic. The ultranationalist Young Turks who ruled the Ottoman Empire during its final years – with catastrophic consequences – have extended their tentacles into the present. To preserve his power, Erdoğan has made a Faustian deal with their incarnations.

By Svante E. Cornell and Halil Karaveli

December 6,  2017

Reza Zarrab’s testimony in early December to a New York court was hardly helpful in breaking the impasse in Turkish-American relations. By implicating Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan directly in the oil-for-gold trade that is the subject of the trial, Zarrab may have contributed to a new low in the fraught alliance. However, the case is symptomatic of the fact that Turks and Americans lack basic trust. It also illustrates that they are now on completely different frequencies. The Zarrab case means entirely different things to Turks and Americans, and this disconnect risks contributing to a break that neither party may actually want.

By Nicholas Danforth

November 8,  2017

In both the United States Congress and Executive Branch, previous efforts to assuage Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s anti-American anger are increasingly being seen as a form of appeasement. However, the risk is that Erdoğan’s paranoid view of American intentions could prevent Ankara from responding rationally to the pressures of the United States. Matters are complicated by what appears to be the Turkish president’s genuine belief that the United States is seeking to depose him.