12 OCT 2021 · Azerbaijan and Iran have become locked in a war of words after they held competing military drills next to their common border. Any sharp military escalation risks drawing in Turkey, Hamidreza Azizi, a visiting fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), said in comments during the latest episode of Ahval’s Turkey Abroad podcast.

20 SEP 2021 · The United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan may have shifted geopolitical calculations in the Middle Eat, enhancing uncertainty and a power vacuum across the region. But the U.S. pullout could have the unexpected side effect of helping to get two regional foes to reconsider their differences - Turkey and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), said Caroline Rose, a program head at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington D.C.

8 SEP 2021 · Now that the United States has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, Turkey has been among the regional players scrambling to understand the new geopolitical landscape. For whatever concerns Ankara has about instability in a post-U.S. Afghanistan, it also sees room to maneuver as part of a long game with strategic benefits waiting to be reaped. Dr. Kamran Bokhari, the director of analytical development at the Newlines Institute for Strategy and Policy in Washington D.C, told Ahval News in a recent podcast that the current vacuum has Washington still looking for a means to maintain some access to Afghanistan. To that end, Turkey is still ready to lend its assistance.

24 AUG 2021 · A new system of alliances may be shaking shape that stretches from India to Greece that threatens to leave Turkey out in the diplomatic cold. Mohammed Soliman, a non-resident fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI) in Washington D.C. contends that Turkey’s own aggression in recent years has pushed these countries into a closer alignment. “Erdogan’s Turkey in terms of foreign policy moved from a zero enemies foreign policy to a zero friends over the last few years,” Soliman explained to Ahval News in a recent podcast.

16 AUG 2021 · An anti-Syrian rampage by angry residents in the Ankara suburb of Altındağ on Wednesday is a latest sign that Turkey may be approaching a dangerous social tipping point. The incident reflects poor policy decisions worsened by hyperpolarised politics and a struggling economy, Cevdet Acu, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Exeter and an expert on migration in Turkey, said in a podcast.

7 AUG 2021 · With the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan nearing its completion, Turkey is preparing to step into the gap and may find support from a surprising partner; India. Nayanima Basu, the diplomacy editor for online newspaper ThePrint, explained to Ahval News that for all their disagreements in recent years, India welcomes a Turkish role in a post-war Afghanistan. “India realises the role Turkey wants to play and has played in Afghanistan,” Bosu told Ahval in a recent podcast. She said that for India, a Turkish role after the U.S. exit is in fact considered something of a welcome move in New Delhi.

27 JUL 2021 · International abductions conducted by Turkey’s security services should draw more concern from its Western partners than it is currently receiving, said Serdar San, an Ph.D candidate at the University of Toronto and a researcher on transnational repression. San, who wrote an article examining Turkey’s practice of using covert methods that include outright kidnapping opponents in other countries, has grown increasingly aggressive under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish allies in NATO and the European Union should regard this practice with more concern. In a recent podcast with Ahval News, San walked through a series of incidents in recent years where pro-government proxies or Turkish agents themselves took bold operations in the heart of the West aimed at Ankara’s perceived enemies. These include a failed kidnapping attempt of a Turkish businessman in Switzerland, a thwarted assassination attempt against a sitting member of Austria’s parliament, and a recent assault against journalist Erk Acarer outside his home in Berlin.

24 JUL 2021 · Turkey is risking the start of a new intra-Kurdish conflict in northern Iraq by pushing the regional government to deepen its involvement in Ankara’s campaign against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), pro-Kurdish activist Sarah Glynn told Ahval News in a recent podcast. Glynn, who recently wrote that Turkey risked pushing Iraqi Kurdistan towards a civil war in an article for Open Democracy, believes that this desire is not an implausible one because it would be the only party to benefit. Using its deepening ties with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), local peshmerga units have clashed heavily in the last year with PKK militants who have long operated out of Iraq’s mountainous north.

29 JUN 2021 · Turkey’s ruling coalition has embarked on a campaign against the country’s LGBTQ community in a bid to fracture its political opposition. Tünay Altay, a researcher and doctoral candidate at Humboldt University of Berlin in Germany, believes that by embracing “political homophobia” , the so-called People’s Alliance is betting they are picking a fight they are confident they can win. Altay explained to Ahval News in a recent podcast that the decision to target Turkey’s LGBTQ community, or other groups that are stigmatised by the current government, is a common tactic chosen when faced with concerns about their unpopularity.

21 JUN 2021 · United States President Joe Biden arrived at his first NATO summit on Monday to make the case for the alliance to reinvigorate the democratic values of its member states. Rachel Ellehuus, who is the deputy director and senior fellow with the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington D.C, said Turkey is among the NATO members now who present a challenge to protecting these core values and it has company. “Turkey is not alone” within NATO as a member who has steadily retreated from the democratic values that underpin the alliance, said Ellehuus to Ahval News in a recent podcast. Members, including Poland and Hungary, have traveled along a similar authoritarian path as Turkey while others like Greece are of concern in some areas.