Author: Zeynep Gurcanli (Zeynep Gurcanli)

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI Tensions between the USA and Turkey seem to be getting worse with new sanctions placed on a Turkish businessman by the US Treasury Department. For this new decision, the US Treasury used the same reasoning as in the case of Reza Zarrab-Hakan Atilla and the case against Halkbank in the New York...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI In the new multipolar world order, which the Ukraine war set aflame, ranks are tightening. Especially on the Western front, led by the USA, things are very active these days. One of the western front’s strategies seems to be to impose new tariffs on steel and aluminum imported from China, in the...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI Just months before a critical election in Turkey, the strategy that will be followed by the AK Party is taking shape. This can be summarized as follows: internal tension contrasted with external normalization. Given this, it is not a surprise that the AKP has brought back the old “survival” discourse. Following the...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI It is obvious that the elections in Turkey next year will bring about transformation in many areas. Whichever side wins, either the ruling alliance or the opposition alliance, the country looks set to undergo a major transformation. As a matter of fact, the first steps of this transformation have already begun. It...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI The ‘normalization’ policy that Turkey recently undertook with other Middle Eastern countries is in peril. The AK Party government revealed that it had given up on its isolation policy, which had caused tensions with almost everyone in the region, by reaching out to its neighbors. It held normalization talks with Egypt, hosted...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI President Erdogan’s indication that “there could be a meeting with Assad if necessary” was a turning point for the AK Party government’s Syria policy. This statement was a sign that the Damascus regime, which Turkey officially declared as “enemy” 11 years ago and which it opposed with both political and military support,...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI It is a rule in international relations: when a country falls from power attempts to weaken it come, further, from all sides. This is what is currently happening to Russia. Russian Leader Vladimir Putin’s miscalculated attempt to invade Ukraine has brought about the erosion of “Russian influence” in various parts of the...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI There is an unchanging tradition in 20 years of AKP rule. Foreign policy is shaped by whether or not an “appointment” can be arranged for President Erdoğan with the President of the USA at the UN General Assembly meeting, which is held in New York every year in September. With only months...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI It is not easy to make predictions on any subject regarding Turkish foreign policy as of late. The reception of foreign statesmen that the AK Party government previously accused of financing the July 15 coup attempt or of murdering or committing state terrorism with turquoise carpets by the President has become the...

BY ZEYNEP GURCANLI Diplomacy is not a one-sided game; There is always an “opposite side.” Therefore, a country’s sharp turns in international relations do not always provide the expected reaction from the “other side.” This is the biggest problem in the recent foreign policy of the AK Party government. The “other side” cannot or does...