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Burak Bekdil

Burak Bekdil

Burak Bekdil is an Ankara-based columnist. He regularly writes for the Gatestone Institute and Defense News, and is a fellow at the Middle East Forum. He is also a founder of, and associate editor at, the Ankara-based think tank Sigma.

Pragmatic Arab states are lining up to normalize relations with Israel, leaving Turkey isolated internationally—exactly what Ankara had planned for the Jewish state.
Modern Islamists in Turkey have created a new version of Islam for themselves that differs from the religion’s origins.
If the UAE, as Ankara argues, has betrayed the “Palestinian cause” just by having diplomatic relations with Israel, then Turkey has been betraying the Palestinians since 1949.
Turkey never ceases to amaze: The latest survey reveals that Turks consider America both the greatest threat and the second-best choice as a foreign policy partner.
Just as it did in 2018, U.S. ally Doha has rushed billions of dollars to U.S. ally Turkey to thwart the Turkish lira’s slide in the face of U.S. sanctions.
The country claims the title of world’s greatest friend to the Palestinians, yet forgets that the Palestinians assisted both the Armenians and the Kurds in their bloody fights against it.
Try as he might, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s propaganda efforts keep getting undone by his routine authoritarianism.
The pandemic has forcefully reminded Turks how divided they remain—a division that is stopping them from coming together to stem a potential catastrophe that is national, not ideological.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan thought he could have his cake and eat it, too: simultaneously run Turkey with an iron fist, make Turkey an E.U. member and have access to critical Western arms systems.
Though it appears to be handling the coronavirus crisis relatively well, Turkey’s low case numbers mainly reflect the low number of tests being administered. Pious Turkish Muslims are blaming dark anti-Turkish forces and, of course, the Jews for unleashing the virus on the world.
The Turkish admiral who masterminded Turkey’s maritime deal with Libya thinks a similar agreement should also be signed with Israel—and there are some subtle signs suggesting this may not be as impossible as it sounds.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry’s belated statement in response to the Soleimani killing reflects the government’s deep confusion regarding its regional interests.