A recently inaugurated mega-mosque near Washington D.C. is one of many the Turkish government has built in an effort to extend its influence and tout a moderate model of Islam.
country: Turkey
Stay updated with comprehensive news on Turkey from Worldcrunch. Discover insights on Turkish politics, economic strategies, societal issues, and cultural landmarks with translations from top international sources. Highlights include Istanbul, Turkish history, and cultural events.
Who is behind the smuggling of refugees from Turkey to the Greek islands? How are these potentially deadly trips planned and organized? Syria Deeply speaks with a human smuggler in Izmir, himself a Syrian refugee.
Near the western coast of Turkey, a humble imam recites too many lonely prayers in a cemetery that is filling with nameless victims of the perilous migrant route to Europe.
ISTANBUL — The country is at a dead end, and everything is a mess. The main Turkish opposition, if such a thing really exists, is still unable to clearly express where it stands on the Middle East, foreign policy in general, a new constitution and the debates about the presidential system. Certain opposition groups still […]
Turkey is supposed to guard our borders against more refugees and receive financial aid for its services. But refugees fleeing to Europe across the Mediterranean keep coming.
-Op-Ed- ISTANBUL — Anyone who has ever visited a toy store with a child who doesn’t really know what he wants can understand Turkey“s technological predicament. There is the mad run from shelf to shelf, listening to the child explain why he desperately needs toy after toy. And then, in the end, there is the […]
Just days after Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar accepted the 2015 Press Freedom Prize in France, he was arrested along with a colleague. He wrote this letter from the Istanbul jail where he faces life in prison for publishing articles about
After its standoff with Moscow over the downed Russian fighter jet, Ankara is making waves with its troop presence in Iraq. But Turkey does not want Shia militia to be the heroes to “rescue” Mosul from ISIS.
After the Paris attacks last month, an emergency accord between Turkey and the European Union has sealed a border that was once so porous. It has real-life effects on desperate refugees, and entire towns.
Since Turkey shot down a Russian military jet, discord between the two sides has escalated. The upshot could be unfreezing a war between Azerbaijan and an Armenian minority who have occupied its territories.
-OpEd- ANTALYA — Opportunism may be one of the accepted facts of life in foreign policy, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing. The Turkish government is busy right now trying to make the most of two pieces of the Syrian crisis that have come to the fore: The recent flood of refugees to […]
-Analysis- ISTANBUL — Why did those who gave 60% of the vote to opposition parties in the June 7 parliamentary elections turn to the ruling AKP on Sunday? The message to the various forces of the opposition was clear: “You couldn’t find a ruling coalition with 60% of the vote. You made a mess of […]
Turkish President Erdogan was quick to blame U.S. and French leaders after terror attacks struck those countries, but has failed to take responsibility for allowing the deadly Ankara attacks to occur.
Saturday’s bombings in Turkey’s capital may be the worst in the nation’s history, with a toll approaching 100 dead. Some point the finger at President Erdogan’s ruling AKP party.
A vacation destination in western Turkey is now at the center of the human trafficking of Syrian refugees and other migrants trying to make the perilous sea journey to Europe.
Turkish political leaders and ordinary citizens are blind as ever to why Kurds continue to fight for freedom. It recalls another open chapter in the nation’s troubled history.
Two British reporters for VICE news, and their translator, have been charged as supporters of Kurdish group PKK, though they were first accused of being pro-ISIS.
A volunteer who led a writing workshop for Syrian child refugees of the war did what he could to offer the aspiring writers some hope. His heart was touched in return.
What were once quaint and distinguishable summer beach towns have become Disneyfied versions of themselves, identical places to buy knockoff brands and chain store coffee.
ISTANBUL — The end of the ceasefire between Turkey and the PKK (The Kurdistan Worker’s Party) is a development that will undermine both sides’ bigger plans in the region. The Turkish government may be hoping to gain the nationalist vote and weaken the legal pro-Kurdish party (The People’s Democratic Party or HDP) by going after […]
The ordeal of the Yazidis ethnic minority began one year ago, escaping an impending ISIS massacre in northern Iraq. Tens of thousands fled to Turkey. But what happened next?
After last month’s border attack, some hard Syrian lessons for Ankara, which has finally opened a key air base for attacks against ISIS positions.
Categories
Modern Islam And The Disease Within
Even a country like Turkey can’t find its way into the modern era. What remains is a negative, aggressive “discount Islam” that creates problems around the world
ANKARA — Turkey is still struggling to form a coalition government weeks after the Parliamentary elections that denied an outright majority to the ruling AKP party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But in the meantime, another pressing question has been raised in the halls of Ankara: Will Turkey enter Syria to create a so-called “buffer […]
President Erdogan is raising the tone about a “buffer zone” needed along the Turkish-Syrian border to halt a supposed Kurdish push for independence.
The Kurdish victory over ISIS in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad has brought out the worst instincts from Turkey’s leaders.
ANKARA —Last Sunday’s general elections in Turkey represented nothing less than a cultural and political revolution: Not only did President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lose his parliamentary majority, but Kurdish politicians also succeeded for the first time in winning enough votes to enter parliament. The Turkish electorate’s disenchantment with its egomaniacal leader deals a blow to […]
Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) may not have enough seats to form a government if the main Kurdish party passes the 10% election threshold.
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — Turkey’s Roboski military outpost became infamous as the location of the 2011 bombing that killed 34 Kurdish youth, whom Turkish fighter pilots had mistaken for PKK rebel troops. Now we see the latest news about Turkish soldiers killing mules, not men, in the same area near the Turkey-Iraq border. According to Ferhat […]
Kurds, persecuted by the Turkish state, are only now beginning to face the role they played in the mass execution of Armenians a century ago.
Despite death threats, three young Syrians are fighting the jihadists terrorizing their country with the only weapon they have: pure mockery.
The Turkish government still sees the downfall of the Assad regime as the No. 1 priority. Washington is most concerned with the battle against ISIS. Is there room for an alliance?
-OpEd- ISTANBUL — The Turkish authorities all condemned the daily newspaper Cumhuriyet for publishing selections from Charlie Hebdo. From the president to the prime minister, from ministers to parliamentary deputies, the government was united in condemning the Turkish newspaper. Insulting the sacred is unacceptable, they said. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda led demonstrations at mosques around the country, […]
ISTANBUL — Instead of discussing the Paris massacres and the ties between Islam and terrorism, Turkey has instead been focused on “Islamophobia.” Someone not following the news could mistakenly believe, based on the debate here, that there had been a violent attack against Muslims in France instead of a jihadist terrorist attack against journalists, Jews […]
The rising battle between the forces of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and exiled imam Fethullah Gulen is a high-stakes power struggle. But some in Turkey want no part of it.
ISTANBUL — The Kurds’ current battle against the Islamist forces of ISIS in the border city of Kobani is just the latest in a long, hard struggle for the Kurdish people in the regions that encompass modern Syria. An estimated 8% of Syria’s 20 million citizens are Kurds; and except for some Yazidi clans, all […]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sees enemies everywhere: Assad, Kurds, but not the murderous Islamist radical group just across the border in Syria.
Diyarbakir, the “Kurdish capital” of Turkey, is living in fear of the ISIS jihadists who have gained ground across the Syrian border in Kobani. But there is also the old enemy: Ankara.
Complaints about Ankara’s inaction have come from the West and Kurds. But Turkey’s regional ambitions may very well push it into Syria to crush ISIS. The risk could be huge.