“The mother of all problems”
What do Turkey, a non EU member, Spain and Romania have in common ? All three countries are currently affected by the re-emergence of powerful ethnic conflicts. Not long ago, the Catalunians took to...
View Article“Erdogan Buries Ataturk”
This is the title used by Istanbul-based “Zaman” to announce Mr. Erdogan’s victory in the constitutional referendum which took place on September 12. At first glance, the headline appears an...
View ArticleEgypt: Ex Oriente Lux
After almost one week of tribulations, the European Commission has officially announced that it will put together aid packages to help smooth Tunisia’s and Egypt’s transition to democracy. The United...
View ArticleSyria’s monarchic republic
Assad family’s Syria has been credited by an Arab expert, wrongly I believe, with being the political model emulated by the likes of Hosni Mubarak, Saddam Hussein or Ali Saleh. The same expert calls...
View ArticleEU and the Arab uprisings in geopolitical perspective
The ongoing turmoil in the Arab world is sadly being shadowed by a relatively minor refugee crisis. There are a lot of misgivings voiced in the media and even in the blogosphere about the negative...
View ArticleA beacon of Islamic democracy
When it comes to geopolitics, few major shifts are more important than the emergence of an Islamic democracy in Turkey. Long resisted by the Turkish military and its western allies, the accession to...
View ArticleTurkey, the indispensable negotiating partner
Over the last two weeks, Turkish diplomacy went all out to capitalise on the country’s increasing international clout. President Abdullah Gul has made a 4-day visit to Germany, Turkey’s main European...
View ArticleThe Eurasian Union: two competing geopolitical visions
The implosion of the Soviet Union has in many ways adversely affected the stability of the Central Asian republics like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan. Since 1991, a loose alliance...
View ArticleHedging one’s bets
At the periphery of the European Union, two candidates for membership are trying to hedge their geopolitical bets. Turkey, the largest of the two, is a long-standing NATO member but has also...
View ArticleOpposition-sponsored social turmoil
That the EU’s democracies are in crisis, courtesy of the global financial markets and the troika, is by now clear to all. These threats to democracy, however, are external. A more dangerous challenge...
View ArticleEgypt and the ” dictator factory”
It might seem odd to some of my regular readers that I have avoided tackling the latest developments in Egypt or Syria. Alas, geopolitics also deals with spheres of influence, and I am usually writing...
View ArticleMaking Room for Alternative Democracies
The landslide success of Erdogan’s party, the AKP, and Vladimir Putin’s skyrocketing domestic popularity in the wake of the Crimean crisis are golden opportunities for a rethink of Western...
View ArticleDoes the Eurasian Union have enlargement potential ?
The recently-signed Eurasian Union agreement between Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan in Astana has brought into being the world’s newest trade bloc, as envisaged by President Putin since 2010. The...
View ArticleTurkey invited to join Eurasian Union
President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan has officially invited Turkey to become a member of the new Eurasian Union during a 2-day conference on the 4th and 5th of June 2014 which took place in the...
View ArticleTurkey: time to mend diplomatic fences with Egypt
Turkey has today announced its budget for 2015. Total spending is estimated at 225 billion dollars, whereas revenue is expected to be around 216 billion USD, leaving a deficit of only 9 billion USD....
View ArticleThe migrant crisis and EU border fences
A few days ago while seeing the hundreds of refugees from the Middle East flock on Greek ferries, buses, taxis and trains in their drive north to the Macedonian border, I recalled a 20-page seminar...
View ArticleTurkey still a model for Arab youth
Saturday’s horrific terrorist attack in Ankara where more than 100 people lost their lives brings to mind similar gruesome deeds, from New York in 2001 or London in 2007. The similarities between these...
View ArticleEU: no silver-bullet solution for the migrant crisis
The recent flurry of diplomatic activity by EU leaders who are trying to slow down the migrant influx has not as yet yielded any tangible results. In truth, the situation has become so complicated that...
View ArticleThe “New Europe” NATO summit in Bucharest
The fact that the EU is undergoing its most profound existential crisis ever is by now an open secret. The Greek debt crisis had produced a North-South divide in Europe, whereas the migrant crisis has...
View ArticleTurkey’s confused geopolitics
The downing of a Russian jet over Syria by the Turkish military brings to a sad conclusion a hitherto promising international relations agenda, whose author was none other than Ahmet Davutoglu, the...
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