Turkey
My least favourite countries in the world
Every year during Easter Week I draw up a chart of my least favourite countries and distribute the list to…
Why Erdogan is relishing making life difficult for Saudi’s crown prince
Jamal Khashoggi’s murder has been dissected by the world’s press, perhaps none more so than in Turkey, where the journalist…
Let’s talk about how the Turkish government deals with dissidents abroad
The indignation over the disappearance of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi has taken an interesting turn now that Donald Trump…
The Mesut Özil affair is an own goal for Erdogan’s critics
The morning after Mesut Özil’s shock resignation from the German national football team, his family’s ancestral home set to work.…
Erdogan, Trump and other fragile egos: Theresa May’s unenviable foreign policy dilemmas
Given the way her Cabinet ministers are behaving at the moment, Theresa May is really rather used to dealing with…
Erdogan’s victory means Turkey’s future is far from certain
Many people I know woke up yesterday morning with a knot in their stomachs. ‘Another five years,’ I heard one…
How Europe’s Turks could sweep Erdogan to victory
President Erdogan can raise a crowd. As he travels to every corner of his huge country in the month before…
Erdogan’s influence is spreading across Europe
Two video clips did the rounds in the French media at the weekend. One went global, that of the heart-warming heroism…
The dilemma of Germany’s Turkish footballers
What’s the German for ‘The best laid schemes of mice and men gang aft agley’? Mezut Özil (Arsenal) and İlkay…
Theresa May’s tricky Turkish diplomacy dilemma
Turkey’s President Erdogan is in London this week, having tea with the Queen and praising Britain as a ‘real friend’.…
What common ground will Theresa May find with President Erdogan?
When Turkey’s President Erdogan visits Theresa May in Downing Street on Tuesday, he will no doubt be on his best…
President Erdogan’s Syrian dilemma
Istanbul It is a bad time to have an ally on the fence. With US military action in Syria looking…
Erdogan is unravelling Ataturk’s legacy
If there is a place in Turkey where Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the swaggering six-foot president, looks small it is at…
Turkey’s slide into authoritarianism continues
It took only a few hours for hope to turn to fresh despair. At lunchtime on Friday, the German-Turkish journalist…
Turkey’s religious authorities tighten their grip
Turkey’s top religious body has issued a new fatwa, saying that ‘every pious Muslim must only use their right hand…
Turkey tightens control over Syria’s war narrative
Something has changed in the way we cover Syria. In 2015, Turkey began building a wall along the length of…
Thank goodness Turkey is not in the EU
What, you might well ask, could possibly make the situation in Syria look much worse, after President Erdogan’s assault on…
The West should beware encouraging Turkey to look to the East
Turkey’s decision to send troops into Syria to fight the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) shouldn’t come as a shock…
Russia damaged Turkey’s economy in the name of diplomacy. Is the US about to do the same?
Istanbul President Erdogan has spent much of this year slinging muck at Europe’s heads of state, and he has damaged…
Cypriot reunification still seems a distant prospect
In the early hours of this morning, the tired-looking Secretary General of the UN took to the stage in Switzerland…
Trump and Erdogan: the new populists
Istanbul The most dramatic part of President Erdogan’s visit to Washington this week was the punch-up between his security guards…
Erdogan keeps winning because his opponents never learn
Istanbul President Erdogan hardly swept to victory yesterday. But with 51 per cent of the electorate turning out in favour…
Turkish democracy has just died; Europe could not have saved it
Well farewell then Turkey. Or at least, farewell the Turkey of Kemal Ataturk. It’s a shame. Ataturk-ism nearly made its…
Will Turkey dare to vote ‘No’ in Erdogan’s referendum?
Istanbul The Istanbul skyline is famous for being punctuated by mosques. Great domes of worship, with minarets reaching towards the…
President Erdogan’s nationalist game plan
Ask any two Turkish nationalists how they will vote in their country’s upcoming referendum, and you’re likely to get two…
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