Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ismail Yasha
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Israel’s concerns regarding Turkish influence in Syria
In recent days, Israeli officials have been expressing their displeasure at the growing Turkish influence in the Levant, amid reports that Turkiye is preparing to establish military bases near Syria’s border with occupied Palestine and to deploy air defence systems there. Israeli media outlets are also discussing on a daily…
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Why is Erdogan in a hurry to meet Assad?
The President of the Turkish Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, mentioned a few days ago that he may extend an invitation to Bashar Al-Assad to visit Turkiye at any moment, expressing his desire to restore his country’s relations with the Syrian regime. He said in his statements to reporters, “We have…
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Where does Istanbul Mayor Imamoglu get his popularity from?
There are only about ten days remaining before the local elections in Turkiye and the candidates are making their final campaign efforts to convince hesitant voters to vote for them on 31 March. Istanbul is expected to witness the fiercest democratic competition in the city’s election. The full attention of…
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Turkiye: The opposition coalition has gone with the wind of local elections
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, known by the acronym, DEM, announced that it will be running in the local elections in Istanbul with its candidates, without allying with any other party. This turned the calculations of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) candidate and the Mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu,…
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Will Erdogan hand the refugees back to the Syrian regime?
Last week, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar met with his Russian and Syrian counterparts, Sergei Shoigu and Ali Mahmoud Abbas respectively, in Moscow, in what was the first official contact between Ankara and Damascus at the ministerial level in eleven years. The heads of Turkish and Syrian intelligence were also…
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What does Turkey gain from gifting Lithuania a drone?
Lithuania launched a popular campaign to collect donations to buy the armed Bayraktar drone from Turkey to gift to Ukraine. The required amount was raised within days, but Turkey’s Baykar, the company that manufactures the drones, announced that it is gifting one of the drones to Lithuania and asked the…
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There’s more to the gas crisis between Iran and Turkey than meets the eye
Iran has announced that it stopped the flow of natural gas to Turkey for ten days, starting from 20 January, due to a “technical failure”. This resulted in an electricity crisis for factories in Turkey. Questions have been raised about the validity of the Iranian justification and the reality behind…
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Erdogan’s upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his intention to visit Saudi Arabia in February, at the invitation of King Salman Bin Abdulaziz. The announcement came in Erdogan’s answer to a Turkish businesswoman’s question about the undeclared Saudi ban on Turkish goods and her demand that this problem be solved. The…
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Turkey faces a new round in its economic battle
Turkey witnessed a historic night on Monday after the statements made by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan when announcing that the government will take new measures to prevent the decline of the Turkish lira against the US dollar. The price of the dollar fell sharply within minutes, from the rate of…
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Turkish-American relations face a new test
Reuters news agency published news a few days ago about Ankara’s desire to buy 40 F-16 fighters from the US, as well as purchasing 80 modernization kits to service its existing warplanes, after Turkey was excluded from the F-35 program and denied access to those planes since Ankara purchased the…
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Relief in Ankara at signs of improved relations with Riyadh
Turkish-Saudi relations have witnessed signs of improvement in recent days, in light of other developments and new international and regional equations imposed by the victory of the Democratic candidate, Joe Biden, in the US presidential elections. These indicators led to relief in Ankara, because it would give it the opportunity…
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Why is the Turkish opposition demanding early elections?
Speaking on a television programme two weeks ago, the head of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, urged the head of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, to demand early elections: “The salvation of this country lies in an early election as soon as possible. I tell this…
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An Egyptian or Russian message?
Last week, the Russian Ministry of Defence announced that the Russian and Egyptian parties will meet in order to prepare for joint naval exercises to be held in the Black Sea under the name “Friendship Bridge 2020”. In December 2019, Russia and Egypt held naval exercises in the Mediterranean with…
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Turkey aims to rid itself of the shackles imposed by energy imports
Last Friday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced in Istanbul that the Fatih drilling ship has discovered reserves of 320 billion cubic metres of natural gas in the Black Sea, and that Turkey will start using this in 2023. This is also when the country will celebrate its centenary as…
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Turkey has a legitimate presence in the Mediterranean Sea
The Turkish ship Oruc Reis set off from the port of Antalya and reached its destination on Monday morning where it is to carry out seismic surveys after Ankara issued a warning on Sunday evening regarding an area located within its territorial waters. However, Greece claims that the area in…
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How will Turkey respond to Egypt’s intervention in Libya?
The Egyptian parliament agreed on Monday to authorise President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to send the army on combat missions abroad to “defend Egyptian national security”. The move came as the date approaches for the military operation expected to be launched by the internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) to…
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Quartet summit and its files
On Tuesday evening, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the files of Syria and Libya, in addition to the files of illegal immigration, Turkish-European relations, and the coronavirus crisis, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron. This quadripartite summit would have been…
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Turkey has given Europe a choice: deter Russia from bombing Idlib, or face more refugees
When Turkey opened its border to refugees wishing to go to Europe this week, a large number started flocking to Edirne and the coastal areas from all over the country to cross via land and sea into Greece. This has raised concerns in Athens and other European capitals. Since the…
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Turkey’s message to Russia is clear
At dawn on Monday, Syrian regime forces targeted a Turkish observation post in the Idlib governorate, killing eight Turkish citizens, one of them a civilian. The Turkish army responded immediately to the attack, explained Defence Minister Hulusi Akar, and bombed 54 targets belonging to the regime, killing 76 Syrian soldiers.…