ترکیه

Under the rule of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), Turkey has cultivated close ties with Iran, Syria, Sudan, the Gulf Countries, as well as with Russia. In the West, the reorientation of Turkish foreign policy had until recently generally been interpreted as neo-Ottomanist, i.e., a benevolent attempt by Turkey

President Barack Obama's visit to Turkey could not have gone better in terms of winning Turkish hearts and minds. Obama did all the right things, visiting Ataturk's mausoleum, the Blue Mosque and the Turkish parliament, capturing the complexity of a country that is Turkish by birth, Muslim in culture and

On April 9, 2009, Institute senior fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program Soner Cagaptay addressed the Middle East Forum. The following is a summary of his remarks. Read more about this briefing at the Middle East Forum's website. To illustrate how Turkey has changed under AK Party rule

President Barack Obama will visit Turkey today and tomorrow, flying there from NATO and European Union meetings. Mr. Obama should be applauded for his vision. America can address the challenges it faces in Turkey only by emphasizing that country's place in the West. Turkish public opinion is growing increasingly anti-Western

On April 6 and 7, after attending the NATO and European Union summits, President Obama will visit Ankara and Istanbul as part of his European tour. The visit seeks to build on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's March 7 trip to Ankara, where she underscored Washington's commitment to a European

A trap awaits Turkey analysts seeking to explain rising anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in Turkey. There is a tendency to look into the historic roots of both phenomena and to explain both as hardwired in the Turkish polity, not as products of current politics. To be sure, there are anti-Western instincts

On February 18, 2009, Soner Cagaptay, Mark Parris, and Ian Lesser addressed a Policy Forum luncheon hosted by The Washington Institute's Turkish Research Program to review Dr. Cagaptay's recent four-month sabbatical in Turkey and to discuss the Obama administration's policy toward Turkey. Dr. Cagaptay is a senior fellow and director

Israel's new prime minister has a challenge: The Turkish-Israeli relationship -- the country's only public and normal relationship with a Muslim-majority country -- is dangerously strained. The deterioration of the public face of the relationship, exemplified by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's harsh anti-Israeli rhetoric, attacks against Israeli athletes in

Europeans watched nervously during the December 2008 Russian-Ukrainian crisis, wondering whether Russia might cut off gas supplies to them as well. This situation was yet another illustration of the potential benefits of Turkey's accession to the European Union, since Turkey could serve as an alternate route for oil and gas