Latest Articles about Turkey

Moscow and Beijing Seek to Counter Growing Turkish Influence in Central Asia
Geopolitical competition over Central Asia is intensifying, with the two most prominent longstanding rivals, Russia and China, now confronted by the rising power of a third, Turkey. Thus, Moscow and Beijing have worked to limit Ankara’s influence in this landlocked region; but each has sought... MORE

How Islamic State Commandeers Syrian Tribal Networks—The Case Study of Saddam al-Jamal
Saddam al-Jamal, a.k.a. Abu Roqaiyya al-Ansari, is a notorious member of Islamic State (IS), and his arrest in May 2018 evoked strong reactions, both in the region and across the world. Al-Jamal was captured, along with four other high-level IS members, by Iraq’s intelligence agency... MORE

Yemen’s Emerging Political Coalitions: A First Step Toward De-escalation?
Politics in Yemen are best described as kaleidoscopic. Loyalties, alliances, and linkages within and between factions and parties shift with every rotation of the cell. Most of Yemen’s ever-increasing number of factions and armed groups defy easy categorization. As with all political and armed groups,... MORE

Baku-Ashgabat Accord Transforms Geopolitics of Caspian Region
When the five Caspian littoral states (Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan) finally agreed, in August 2018, to the delimitation of the surface of the sea after almost two decades of on-again, off-again talks, many assumed that accord meant the situation in and around the... MORE

Turkish-Greek Relations in the Aegean: Is a Solution Possible?
Turkish-Greek negotiations over the delimitation of their maritime zones in the Aegean Sea have persisted for decades. But the dispute spilled out into the wider Eastern Mediterranean after the discovery of large hydrocarbon resources there and efforts by other actors to solidify their own offshore... MORE

China’s Xinjiang Propaganda and United Front Work in Turkey: Part Two
Introduction The accelerated repression of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities inside and outside of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) since 2016 has highlighted the Chinese state’s extreme methods of governance and power projection abroad. The crisis in Xinjiang has become a liability for the... MORE

The Syrian National Army and the Future of Turkey’s Frontier Land Force
From the summer of 2016 to early 2020, the Turkish military launched four expeditionary military campaigns into northern Syria. The first campaign, Operation Euphrates Shield, marked the first time that a NATO nation deployed conventional formations to confront Islamic State (IS). The second and third... MORE

Azerbaijan, Turkey Watching Armenia’s Political Crisis
Viewed from Baku and Ankara, the political conflict in Armenia pits military and civilian nationalists unreconciled to defeat in the Second Karabakh War (September 27–November 9, 2020) versus the armistice-accepting government of Nikol Pashinian. As the former seek to oust the latter from power (see... MORE

Russia Tries to Counter US Moves in the Middle East, in Vain
As its relations with Europe deteriorate and partnership with China hits an apparent pause, Russia searches for new opportunities to restore its compromised global status. Moscow found quite a few such prospects in the Middle East in recent years. And yet, as it sought to... MORE

The Xinjiang Crisis and Sino-Turkish Relations During the Pandemic: Part One
Introduction Since 2016, Chinese Communist Party (CCP) policies in Xinjiang have not only shaken the lives of Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other groups inside and outside the region, but also heralded a new era in the CCP’s domestic governance and power projection abroad (China Brief, December... MORE