By Barış Soydan

September 22, 2021

The AKP government is signaling a retreat from generous immigration policies, which were never disinterested in the first place. But a heavy responsibility falls also on the main opposition CHP, which has opted to exploit xenophobic sentiments – while remaining silent about the exploitation of the migrant workers. Given Turkey’s troubled past of ethnic violence the growing hostility to the Syrian and Afghan refugees, and the political accommodation from left to right of this hostility, is of deep concern. Turkey’s past should have taught the country’s rulers, and those leaders who aspire to rule it, that conjuring an “internal enemy,” against which the nation must defend itself, is a recipe for disaster. 

By Gareth Jenkins

August 30, 2021

The promotions and assignments announced after the August 4, 2021 annual meeting of the Supreme Military Council (YAŞ), which is responsible for deciding appointments in the Turkish high command, reaffirmed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s control over what had once been the most powerful institution in the country. Nevertheless, in recent weeks there has been considerable speculation that a career army officer, namely former Chief of the Turkish General Staff (TGS) and current Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, is trying to position himself as Erdoğan’s heir apparent. 

By Natalia Konarzewska

August 16, 2021

Turkey is strengthening its military cooperation with Poland and Ukraine. Poland has recently acquired a batch of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 armed drones. The emerging Turkish-Polish-Ukrainian axis is a powerful demonstration of Turkey’s determination to defy Russia. Turkey seeks to placate the United States and to prove its usefulness for the Western alliance in the Second Cold War with Russia.