By Abby Bedard Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria’s de facto leader since the fall of Assad late last year, was recently appointed president of Syria for a transitional period. A slew of other announcements followed, including the dissolution of the Syrian constitution, Bashar al-Assad’s Baath party, the Syrian military and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), al-Sharaa’s own organization.... Continue Reading →
By John W. Parks As war in Ukraine continues to damage Russia’s credibility and economic security, other Eurasian producers have been forced to utilize alternative avenues of trade. In response, China, along with Turkey, the European Union, and Central Asian states have dedicated increasingly more resources to the development and expansion of a bypass route.... Continue Reading →
By Julian Fischer-Lhamon Türkiye reacted relatively positively to President-elect Trump’s second electoral victory; markets rallied and President Erdogan invited Trump to visit the country and claimed to hope for a relationship reset. Cool relations between Washington and Ankara have persisted since the Trump administration when in 2018, the wrongful arrest of the American pastor Andrew... Continue Reading →
By Julian Fischer-Lhamon Turkey is in a precarious, though strategic, position between East and West. This also holds true for conflict between Israel and the Arab world. Nominally, Turkey’s leader, Erdoğan, is resolutely in favor of the Palestinian cause. However, his words do not align with his actions. As the East-West rivalry intensifies, Turkey’s balancing... Continue Reading →
By Julian Fischer-Lhamon The Turkic peoples have long been separated politically as well as geographically by Russia, Persia, and the Caspian Sea. In spite of, or rather because of, this separation, a great sense of Turkic identity has spread and survived over the centuries between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Central Asia. Although Turkish nationalists have dreamed... Continue Reading →
By Julian Fischer-Lhamon Historically, tensions between Turkey and Russia have remained tense over the centuries. Their shared interest in the Black Sea, the Crimea, and Russia’s desire for unrestricted access to the Mediterranean have led to them facing off against each other in the Crimean War, the First World War, and very nearly again in... Continue Reading →
The Patterson Journal of International Affairs 