Category Archives: Uncategorized

Gaza Violence (2)

Posted on May 17, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

May 17, 2021 In my last post I tried to highlight the roller-coaster pattern of Israeli-Palestinian violence. In his New York Times article of May 14, titled “Arab World Condemns Israeli Violence but Takes Little Action”, Eric Erlanger started off … Continue reading →

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Gaza Violence

Posted on May 13, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

May 13, 2021 Palestinians remain more than frustrated with the status quo and in the absence of any progress towards the two-state solution their discontent usually hits the surface in the form of some violence.  And whenever there is violence, … Continue reading →

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The Rules-based International Order

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

May 10, 2021 The “rules-based international order” is now a recurrent theme in policy statements by senior officials of the Biden administration. Secretary Blinken, meeting with his Chinese counterparts in Anchorage on March 18, 2021, started the talks by saying … Continue reading →

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How We Lost Our Way

Posted on May 3, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

May 3, 2021 During my years at the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, I sometimes asked the ambassadors in Ankara how they viewed their job in our capital since they usually stressed Turkey’s location as a unique observation post for … Continue reading →

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West’s Turkey Dilemma

Posted on April 26, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

April 26, 2021 Turkey’s joining the Council of Europe and NATO in 1949 and 1952 respectively, and the launching of the EU accession process in 2005 had provided a progressive institutional framework for Turkey’s relations with the West. But our … Continue reading →

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The Taliban Are Back

Posted on April 19, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

April 19, 2021 An open-ended US/NATO military engagement in Afghanistan was never an option. The aim was achieving optimal conditions for withdrawal. In a Washington Post op-ed on March 12, 2012 President Obama and Prime Minister Cameron mentioned shifting to … Continue reading →

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Turkey’s Stormy Spring

Posted on April 12, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

April 12, 2021 In a recent post I gave a summary of two weeks of disarray, confusion, and wobbling in Turkey. What the country has witnessed during the following two weeks gives me no other choice than to admit that … Continue reading →

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Restoring the JCPOA

Posted on April 5, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

April 5, 2021 On July 14, 2015, the P5+1 and Iran agreed on the JCPOA. The deal represented a sea change for Iran. It came out of the negotiation process as a successful interlocutor for the P5+1 giving a boost … Continue reading →

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Turkey’s Tumultuous Days

Posted on March 26, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

March 26, 2021 The Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence Against Women and Domestic Violence,  known as the Istanbul Convention, was opened for signature on 11 May 2011, in Istanbul. Turkey was the first member state to … Continue reading →

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China and the US: A Competitive Relationship (2)

Posted on March 20, 2021 by Ali Tuygan

March 20, 2021 No one hoped for a breakthrough at the US-China talks in Anchorage. And only a few might have expected the talks to start with such an exchange of sharp rebukes. After all this was the first high-level … Continue reading →

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