Publications

This policy brief offers possible explanations for the current peace talks between the Turkish government and PKK.

This policy brief explores the possible motives of those who may be behind the killing of three female PKK activists in Paris.

This policy brief examines the Kurdish response to Turkey's support for Syrian rebels.

This policy brief examines sources of pressure on Turkey's media.

This policy brief profiles one of Turkey's main opposition party leaders.

This brief looks at the Turkish ruling party's apparent strategy to appeal to its conservative base.

This policy brief examines the domestic ramifications of the Wikileaks cable release in Turkey.

Turkey’s ruling AKP faces difficult choices ahead of next year’s elections, either engaging the Kurds or bowing to nationalist pressure against pro-Kurdish groups.

Next month’s expected visit of Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdistan Regional Government, to Turkey is a first step ending hostility between Ankara and the Kurdish leadership and ending Turkey’s long-time Kurdish problem.

This month's vote by the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the U.S. House of Representatives condemning the mass slaughter of Ottoman Armenians during WWI as "genocide" is being cast as the final blow to Turkish-Armenian reconciliation. The bill might have been quashed had the parliament in Turkey ratified a set of protocols that would have established diplomatic ties and re-opened the border between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has launched a bold campaign to end the country's long-running Kurdish problem.

A year ago, a World Cup qualifying match between Turkey and Armenia signaled a thaw in relations between the traditionally hostile neighbors. However, Armenia and Turkey have conflicting interests in Azerbaijan that have brought rapprochement between the two countries to a stand still, making the prospects of peace that much more unlikely.

The campaign for an independent Kurdish state by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has been termed Turkey's number one headache. This brief examines the steps necessary for both sides to come to a peaceful solution.

On May 1, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced his new cabinet ushering in nine new ministers and letting go of eight others. This dramatic reshuffle reflects Erdogan's hallmark strategy of balancing different and often competing constituents within his party.

After months of tortuous diplomacy, Turkey and Armenia have put the final touches to a deal that would establish diplomatic ties and re-open their borders. The agreement is poised to end decades of mutual hostility, to blunt Russian influence, and to help foster economic prosperity and democracy in the Southern Caucasus.

Despite the dramatic walkout by Turkey’s prime minister from the World Economic Forum at Davos, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently made the announcement that President Barack Obama will visit the country next month. As Turkey's international profile rises as it embraces its role as a regional peacemaker, are Turkish-American relations entering a "golden era"?

The dramatic walkout by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, from the World Economic Forum at Davos during a debate with the Israeli president has raised questions about Turkey’s relations with the West and its role in the Middle East. Was his outburst simply rhetoric, or does it signify Turkey’s shift away from the West?

Is Turkey’s unusually harsh response, both official and public, to Israel’s assault against Hamas in Gaza merely a reaction to Israel’s policies? Or does it mirror latent anti-Semitism in Turkish society? These questions are increasingly being raised, especially among Jewish-American groups who are among Turkey’s firmest friends in Washington.

President Barack Obama faces a formidable set of international challenges including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the prospect of a nuclear Iran, a resurgent Russia, and a short calendar for a new treaty on climate change. On each of these issues, Europeans have the potential to play a key role as allies. President Obama has called for the mending of relations with Europeans, but the ability of the United States and Europe to address these pressing foreign policy challenges will be constrained by the financial and economic crisis.

As the only NATO member to border the Caucasus. Turkey control the Bosporus and Dardanelles, through which Russia and other Black Sea countries conduct most of their trade. The conflict between Georgia and Russia offers Turkey a unique opportunity to bolster its regional clout, to check Russian and Iranian influence, and to help secure the flow of Western-bound oil and natural gas from former Soviet Central Asia and Azerbaijan. Will Turkey's leaders rise to the occasion?

As the dust begins to settle in the aftermath of the constitutional court's surprise decision not to ban the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the most pressing question in the Turkish capital, Ankara, is what impact it will have on the country's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.