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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.

To win the country’s critical May 14 elections, the Turkish premier would ally with certified terrorists.
The BMC affair is just one example of bone-deep corruption in Turkey.
Turks are hungry for fairy tales. Any feel-good news propaganda finds millions of receptive listeners in Turkey’s postmodern marketplace of absurdity.
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.
Revelations on YouTube by Turkish mob boss and Erdoğan ally Sedat Peker are rattling the Turkish government.
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.
Turkey’s string of failures and increasing isolation in the Eastern Med have forced President Erdoğan to recalibrate his policy towards the region.
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?
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.
The strategic alliance of three Muslim states—Turkey, Azerbaijan and Pakistan—seems feasible in theory, but is constrained by several realities.
Everything’s coming up roses for Turkey’s thriving drone industry, but a cash-strapped economy and technological challenges may slow further progress.
The umbrella militant group SNA is Ankara’s official ally and combat force in Syria.