Turkey

The Israeli-Turkish-U.S. trilateral search-and-rescue exercise taking place this week near Israel's Mediterranean coast highlights the thickening network of ties between Washington's two major non-Arab, Middle Eastern allies. A plus for U.S. interests in the region, Israeli-Turkish relations are watched with growing unease in Damascus, Baghdad, and Tehran, on the one

For the past three decades, Turkey's political establishment has equated success in its quest for full acceptance as a Western state with admission to the European Union (EU)-a goal likely to be dealt a severe, if not crippling, blow at an historic EU summit that starts tomorrow. The EU's implicit

During the Cold War, Turkey played a vital role as the southeast bastion of NATO. However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, a new configuration in the Middle East has emerged, one that has actually increased Turkey's importance in the region. The

The actions of former Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan caused chaos in the formulation and implementation of Turkish foreign policy, concern in the West, and a higher profile for the half-military National Security Council (and the military itself) in the policymaking process. Erbakan and Tansu Ciller, former deputy Prime Minister

The Turkish military was the driving force behind events that led to Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's resignation. Also important, however, were civilian elements of the Turkish establishment, which was acting on all cylinders. The most powerful delegitimation of Erbakan's government was the unprecedented cooperation between rival trade unions and

A tense confrontation between the Turkish military and Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan's governing Refah Party may come to a head Thursday, when the Turkish cabinet meets to consider a set of uncompromisingly tough pro-secular measures inspired by the military. There is little doubt the military mistrusts Erbakan and wants

Necmettin Erbakan, who holds power with a bare five-vote majority, nevertheless has a surprisingly strong grip on the prime ministry. Although constrained from implementing the more radical aspects of his foreign policy agenda, Erbakan has marked Turkish policy with a firm stamp of orientation toward Islamic states, particularly radicals like

Erbakan's pro-Islamist Refah Party finished first, with only 21.4 percent of the vote, in December 1995 parliamentary elections. Initially shut out of government, Erbakan managed to bring down the minority secularist government and, on June 28, formed a coalition with former Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who has long touted herself

As Turkey lurches from political crisis to crisis, with only caretaker or minority governments for the past nine months, government instability has begun to affect key parts of foreign policy. Yesterday, for example, the Turkish parliament voted to renew Operation Provide Comfort -- the Turkey-based, U.S.-led multinational military operation to