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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.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Source: Turkish Presidency via Twitter.

Turkey’s Hezbollah: Erdoğan’s new ally

To win the country’s critical May 14 elections, the Turkish premier would ally with certified terrorists.

Burak Bekdil

May 10, 2023

Turkish businessman Ethem Sancak. Source: Twitter.

How an Erdoğan crony made a fortune

The BMC affair is just one example of bone-deep corruption in Turkey.

Burak Bekdil

Sept. 1, 2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during his official visit to Serbia in 2017. Credit: Sasa Dzambic Photography/Shutterstock.

Give war a chance: Turkish leader finesses political defeat

Turks are hungry for fairy tales. Any feel-good news propaganda finds millions of receptive listeners in Turkey’s postmodern marketplace of absurdity.

Burak Bekdil

Aug. 1, 2021

The Turkish Aegean coast (at left) and the southern islands of Greece (upper right). This image was taken from the International Space Station, orbiting 256 miles above the Aegean Sea, on Oct. 10, 2018. Credit: NASA via Wikimedia Commons.

How long will the Aegean Sea’s peaceful summer last?

The specter of further Western sanctions has led Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to rein in his aggression, but Turkey’s 2023 electoral race could drive him back to his bullying ways.

Burak Bekdil

July 27, 2021

A screenshot from the fifth of 10 videos uploaded to YouTube by convicted Turkish organized crime boss Sedat Peker, purporting to detail the criminal activities of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government. The video was uploaded on May 16, 2021. Source: YouTube.

Turkey’s Mobgate reveals the Islamist ‘deep state’

Revelations on YouTube by Turkish mob boss and Erdoğan ally Sedat Peker are rattling the Turkish government.

Burak Bekdil

July 20, 2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Source: Turkish Presidency via Twitter.

Erdoğan’s caricature state

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will have a hard time uniting a majority of Turks around flag and mosque in the presidential elections of 2023.

Burak Bekdil

June 21, 2021

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Photo by Ververidis Vasilis/Shutterstock.

Erdoğan’s Eastern Med repentance: Too little, too late

Turkey’s string of failures and increasing isolation in the Eastern Med have forced President Erdoğan to recalibrate his policy towards the region.

Burak Bekdil

June 17, 2021

Hamas terrorists attend a rally in Beit Lahiya in the Gaza Strip, May 30, 2021. Photo by Atia Mohammed/Flash90.

The Gaza war and the West’s nauseating ‘post-truth’

Would the West’s underdog-nation romanticists feel better if Israel’s Iron Dome had failed, and Hamas rockets had killed 500 Israeli children instead of two?

Burak Bekdil

June 7, 2021

U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on March 29, 2021. Credit: Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson.

Biden’s use of the G-word furthers Turkey’s isolation

While not a game-changer, the U.S. president’s use of the word “genocide” on Armenian Remembrance Day further destabilizes whatever is left of Ankara’s soft power.

Burak Bekdil

June 1, 2021