Turkey

Russia and Karabakh: A Diplomatic Triumph and Dubious Victory

Ever since the oft-violated cease-fire accord of 1994, Russian interests have defined the art of the possible in Karabakh. Whether Russia connived in conflicts, acquiesced in them or prevented them, the protagonists understood that it would be their ultimate arbiter. Even Russia’s titular partners in the OSCE Minsk Group — perhaps the sole format of post-Cold War cooperation to preserve its relevance — never challenged its standing as first amongst equals. Whatever its ups and downs, this was a closed game.

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Interview: is the dream of Peace Pipelines coming to an end?

The dispute between Greece and Turkey over maritime territories goes back generations and remains unresolved. As competition over natural gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean intensifies, the situation has become dangerously militarised. With the help of Dimitrios Triantaphyllou, professor of International Relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul, we assess what is different about the same old debate this time and why it has become heated now, and we look at the fallout between the two NATO allies, reactions within the EU, the grievances of both countries and the wider international setting that contributes to the tensions.

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NATO Will Suffer as Allies Quarrel in the Eastern Mediterranean

The credibility of NATO’s deterrence posture rests heavily on the solidarity and cohesion of the Allies. A potential adversary is more likely to refrain from aggression if he believes—as Article 5 of the Washington Treaty states—that the Allies will indeed consider an armed attack against one or more of them to be an attack against them all.

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Syria is Getting Hotter

On December 11th 2017, five days after he announced his expected intention to run for the fourth time for Russia’s presidency, Vladimir Putin visited Hmeimim air base, met Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and declared that Russia’s military mission in Syria had been “accomplished.”

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The Dutch-Turkish Row: Can It Be Solved?

If you want to make an argument pointless, call your opponent a ‘Nazi’. That is exactly what happened between the Netherlands and Turkey recently, when the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called the Dutch ‘Nazi remnants’. Before Erdoğan’s furious statement, the Dutch authorities had already denied entry to Rotterdam to both Turkish foreign minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and families minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya. Çavuşoğlu had threatened the Dutch with sanctions—which constituted a red line for Mark Rutte’s government.

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