"Erdogan Turns his Back on EU Membership"

Semih Idiz, a very alert Turkish journalist, describes the widening gulf of separation between the EU and the Turkish possibility of membership in the EU. This is a great article.

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Welcome to Turkey, Your Holiness

Welcome to Turkey, Your Holiness

Mustafa Aykol is a journalist known for his writings on Islam in the struggle between a secular world and a growing, conservative Muslim government in Turkey. This article is a request for a very high form of dialogue between Muslims and Christians in Turkey.

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The Pope hopes Turkey can become a Great Peacemaker

Some of the details of Pope Francis' travels in Turkey, and his first meeting with President Erdogan, in what is seen as an important visit to build bridges of trust.

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Jihad "What is it?" An article sure to make many people upset.

Burak Bedil's perceptive writing is sure to raise the hackles of many with his insight into Turkish attitudes regarding 'Jihad".

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Iraq: "Is Iraq breaking up into three countries?"

This is the situation in Iraq. Read more

Will the Kurdish forces be able to keep ISIS out of their  domain? Read more

"The existence of Iraq is in jeopardy". Read more.

Turkey: Erdogan's Attempt to Prove Muslims Discovered the Americas and Turkish Re-interpretation of History

Why is Turkey' President Erdogan attempting to reinterpret the history of the Americas? He wants Turks to believe that Muslims discovered the Americas in 1178.
Why is it necessary for Turks to "rediscover" themselves as having been the "creators of civilization", the ones who "invented the alphabet", or the "builders of the pyramids"?
And, is the best path for Turkey this: that its academics now teach this revisionism, or that academics gain "academic freedom"?

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Jerusalem: What to do about Palestinian youth who wisth to commit suicide?

"If there was any doubt, it has been laid to rest. The wave of violence — be it called the third intifada  or by some other name — has been ratcheted up a level. The Nov. 18 attack on the Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov synagogue was not an individual attack by a lone assailant on an impulsive quest for revenge driven by a calling to defend the Haram al-Sharif."

These are the opening two sentences of an article from Al Monitor following the killing of five Jews in the Bnei Torah Kehillat Yaakov Synagogue.
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Jerusalem: Kerry Finds a Way to Defuse the Temple Crisis

There are few bits of good news from the Middle East.

However, USA Secretary of State found a way to defuse one of the most complex issues in the most unresolved conflicts of the world. The flaming anger over the treatment of Muslims in Jerusalem, who can worship at the Muslim holy place, has, for the time being, lost its heat.

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Qatar: Quatar's Rise and America's Torured Middle East Policy

A fine article on Qatar can be  found here.

Egypt: "What Egypt's President really thinks"

An insightful article on Egypt is important now, when attention seems to be exclusively on Iraq and Syria.   Read more.

Erdogan: Muslims arrived in the Americas in 1178, Surprise! Surprize!

The latest theory, from the President of Turkey, is that Muslims arrived in the Americas in the year 1178. According to this estimate, a mosque was built in Cuba, and President Erdogan wants to build one on the same site that Christopher Columbus saw one, on a mountain in Cuba.

Believe it or not. Read more.

IRAN: "Erdogan's Second Home is not in such good shape!"

Burak Bekdil's sharp tongue and even sharper pen won't earn him any points at home in Turkey with this penetrating analysis of how things are going in Iran. 

This is a light-hearted read about an area of the world in serious turmoil.

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Turkey: Analysis of the new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu

Monument to Ataturk in Ankara

Turkey's new Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, wasn't known, except in academic circles, five and a half years ago. Now, however, he is the Prime Minister and is forging a  powerful following.

He is known as a conservative Sunni, a nationalist, with a strong ideological approach to both national and foreign policies. Like Erdogan, he would like to restore the Ottoman dominance to the Middle East, and these factors have brought about his unique approach to politics in the Middle East.

A series of articles analyses his approach,  and the likelihood of his "success" in view of the multiple conflicts in Turkey and around the region.

Why did Erdogan's and Davutoglu's Middle East policy miss the mark? Read More

Nuray Mert's analysis is that Davutoglu is an ambitious polfound here.
itician and is concerned that his "New Turkey" project will pull the whole of Turkey into an unknown adventure. Her article is

Kadri Gursel believes Davutoglu's most difficult task will be relating to Syria's President Assad, as he writes here.

From the USA: Read More
 

Ankara: A Turkish quest to "Liberate Jerusalem"

Burak Bekdil is at his best when simultaneously analyzing Turkish politics and Ottoman history!

Here he evaluates Turkey's Prime Minister and the Turkish effort to "Liberate Jerusalem".

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14,000,000 Refugees in the Middle East: What's going to happen to them?

"Civilizational Decline."
"The Arab Spring"
"The collapse of Syrian agriculture."

Humpty Dumpty has fallen off the wall, and all the kings' armies and all the kings' men can't put humpty-dumpty together again.

Where - just where - and what - lies ahead for these 14,000,000 refugees and displaced people?
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