Monthly Archives: April 2013

The terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party’s (PKK) leader Murat Karayılan (whose last name literally means Blacksnake) claimed that it was, in fact, the US that killed 34 Kurdish smugglers on Dec. 28, 2011, on their way from Iraq to the Turkish … Continue reading →

Iran’s clandestine presence in Turkey is largely hidden from public view in part because Iran prefers to keep a low profile on its activities in Turkey and hides behind ostensibly charitable causes, cultural and educational programs. In fact, this sinister … Continue reading →

As the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) only Israeli member, 71-year old Alex Gilady must have breathed a sigh of relief when US President Barack Obama brokered a deal between the Turkish and Israeli prime ministers to pave the way for … Continue reading →

There are growing woes on the part of opposition parties in Turkey regarding the draft bill on petroleum law that was adopted in March in the parliamentary commission on industry, trade, energy, natural resources and information technology. It will be … Continue reading →

I have been writing extensively on the Council of Europe (CoE) and the works of its institutions, including the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), the European Commission for Democracy through … Continue reading →

As the US is mulling how to resuscitate peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, there has been considerable exchange between Turkey and the US on the Middle East peace process before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s meeting with US … Continue reading →

If you think Turkey has enough troubles in the Middle East, where it tries to navigate a fragile sectarian fault line represented by Iran, Iraq and Syria on the one side and Sunni Gulf monarchies and Egypt on the other, … Continue reading →

If it is any indication, the remarks made by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani, one of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s strongest allies, who said that the central government in Baghdad will consider oil exported to Turkey by the autonomous … Continue reading →

This country owes a great deal to the European Union membership bid process for the unprecedented transformation and modernization of Turkey’s railway industry and rail network over the last decade, even though Turkish government officials would not openly admit this … Continue reading →