TURKISH STUDIES

Burak Bekdil
(Journalist, Hurriyet daily News, Turkey)

Copyright: www.hurriyet.com.tr

Belatedly, the State of Israel has done what it ought to have done a long time ago. That was Israel’s moral obligation for the silly operation in which Israeli commandos killed civilians onboard the Mavi Marmara – a moral obligation regardless of whether the activists onboard were activists, sympathizers of terrorists or activists who sympathized with terrorists. The apology is easy to sell on the Turkish market: for most Turks, the “myth of Israel,” cracks after cracks, has eventually bowed before the emerging “myth of neo-Ottoman Turkey.” And the apology is not hard to sell on the Israeli market: many, if not most, Israelis believe that the apology and its de facto / de jure consequence, compensation for the families of victims, is well justified for humane reasons. The apology has not ridiculed, humiliated or belittled the State of Israel..... Read more

Daniel Pipes
(President of the Middle East Forum)

Copyright:  http://www.danielpipes.org

The menu for meals on my Turkish Airlines flight earlier this month assured passengers that food selections "do not contain pork." The menu also offered a serious selection of alcoholic drinks, including champagne, whiskey, gin, vodka, rakı, wine, beer, liqueur, and cognac. This oddity of simultaneously adhering to and ignoring Islamic law, the Shari'a, symbolizes the uniquely complex public role of Islam in today's Turkey, as well as the challenge of understanding the Justice and Development Party (known by its Turkish abbreviation, AKP) which has dominated the country's national government since 2002......  Read more

Dr. Srdja Trifkovic
(An expert on foreign affairs, is the author of The Sword of the Prophet and Defeating Jihad. His latest book is The Krajina Chronicle: A History of the Serbs in Croatia, Slavonia and Dalmatia)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

Over the past decade Prime Minister Rejep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government and his AKP (Justice and Development Party) have been successful in undermining Mustafa Kemal’s legacy and the character of the state founded upon that legacy. What remained, until the 2010 referendum on constitutional amendments, was an increasingly empty shell of constitutional secularism. That shell was nevertheless an obstacle to the formal grounding of the new legitimacy in Islam at home and neo-Ottomanism abroad. Erdoğan and his team were determined to remove such vestiges, however, and on September 12, 2010, they succeeded. On that day Turkey’s voters approved, by a large margin, a 26-article package which ended the role of the Army as the guardian of secularism. In 2011 Erdoğan was duly reelected with a substantial majority for a third term.

By Joseph Lerner
(Political Analyst)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

On June 01, 2011 Business Insider published an article. Its headline was: "CIA Now Thinks Greece Military Coup Possible". Even if the CIA possessed sure information, this would be a risky prediction for Central Intelligence Agency to openly address in the media. There is hardly any evidence showing that the CIA has made such an announcement. Any intelligence analyst could notice the irregularity in this article. At one point the article reads:

Nickolaos Mavromates
(Security Analyst-Historian)

Copyright: www.rieas.gr

"The fate of Jerusalem is not different from the fate of Istanbul," he said, in language reflecting the significance of the holy city to Muslims throughout the world. "The fate of Gaza is not different from the fate of Ankara." Read more

RIEAS is publishing “Greek Oil Exploration Licenses and Economic Zone agreements in Eastern Mediterranean,” by Sema Sezer of the Turkish Center for Eurasian Strategic Studies (ASAM), not because it agrees with its arguments, but, rather, as a challenge to Greek experts to deliver a rebuttal.

Ms Sezer, an expert in Cyprus-Greece studies with an established academic record, has delivered a well documented paper. The fact, in itself, does testify to the author's organized preparation. Beyond the technical part, of course, lies the test of the arguments presented in the paper and the shaping of counter-arguments by those in this country who address the same issues as Ms Sezer.