Monthly Archives: April 2012

Behind the façade of maintaining good neighborly relations with Iran as often portrayed in the public remarks of Turkish officials, there is a starkly different picture in reality driving the policies of the Turkish government. I hear, for example, that … Continue reading →

The central Anatolian city of Kayseri, stretched under the snow-capped mountains, represents possibly the best example of Turkey’s entrepreneurship in the heartland that has changed the landscape of Turkey in the last decade not only in terms of economic progress … Continue reading →

After trailing the chief of the world’s largest Islamic body last week in the West African country of Gabon, in which three-quarters of the population is Christian yet ruled by a Muslim leader with no major hiccups, I’ve come to … Continue reading →

Libreville — In an unlikely Francophone country, Gabon, in central western Africa, Turkey has found a partner that is willing to work with Ankara on a number of regional and international issues despite the approximate 5,000 kilometer distance between the … Continue reading →

Lost in popular rhetoric and cynical campaign speeches amid a rapidly rising xenophobic and anti-Muslim mood among the French population was the embattled French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s deliberate attempt to pick a fight with Turkey, which was Europe’s fastest growing … Continue reading →

More than anything else that keeps security analysts working on the Syrian desks in the Turkish capital around the clock with little sleep and many cups of black Turkish coffee is the “unknown” prospect of a chemical weapons stockpile by … Continue reading →

Bloody dictator Bashar al-Assad’s minority Alawite government in Syria is doing exactly what Turkey has been wanting it to do all along. The Syrian internal crisis is becoming increasingly internationalized, with the regime’s heavy clampdown sending a fresh wave of … Continue reading →

Albeit slightly late, Turkey has nevertheless finally started to accede to and ratify a number of international sea conventions to align its maritime laws and legal framework with norms and standards developed by the London-based International Maritime Organization (IMO), a … Continue reading →

Beijing — The positive news in Turkey’s exports to China in the first quarter of this year was announced just on the eve of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to China, set to start on April 7. … Continue reading →