Author: Galip Duman

Turkey’s Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek will visit the United Arab Emirates on Thursday to seek investment for Turkish markets, following the overhaul in Ankara’s economic team, two sources familiar with the trip told Middle East Eye. Simsek will meet the president of the UAE and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Vice President Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Thursday, according to a source familiar with the details of the visit. Simsek, a former Wall Street banker and a darling of the markets, is seen as a credible persona who aims to…

Monday, 24 July, marks 100 years since Turkish representatives of the Ankara government and the Allied Powers signed a treaty in Lausanne, Switzerland. A century later, the treaty is still in force and continues to have a profound impact on Turkey and beyond. As the First World War came to a close in late 1918, European powers sought to deal a final, fatal blow to the “sick man on the Bosphorus” – as the Ottoman Empire had been referred to in its waning days.The armistice signed at Mudros on the island of Lemnos on 30 October 1918 provided for an Ottoman surrender and set the stage for Allied…

Imperialism is a difficult subject to tackle in the Arab world. The word conjures up associations with the days of French and British colonialism and the present-day settler colony of Israel. Yet the more indigenous and long-lasting form of imperial rule, Ottoman imperialism, is often left out of contemporary historical debates. Some of the states that succeeded the Ottoman Empire have chosen to sum up Ottoman rule in local curricula as simply Ottoman or Turkish “occupation”, while others repeat well-rehearsed tropes of “Ottoman atrocities” that continue to have popular purchase on a local level. In places like Syria and Lebanon,…

Turkey expects the government in Iraq to officially recognise the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or the PKK, as a “terrorist” organisation, mirroring Ankara and its Western allies, its foreign minister says. Turkey’s top diplomat, Hakan Fidan, was in Baghdad on Tuesday on his first official visit since taking office. Fidan, whose visit is also aimed at preparing for an upcoming trip by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – which as yet does not have an official date – described the PKK as a common enemy. “We cannot accept PKK challenging the sovereignty of Iraq,” he told a joint news conference after…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have held talks on Ukrainian grain exports at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Monday’s meeting came nearly two months after Russia quit a UN- and Turkey-brokered agreement that allowed Ukraine to export grain and other commodities from three of its Black Sea ports during the war with Russia. Erdogan said after talks that it would soon be possible to revive the deal. “As Turkey, we believe that we will reach a solution that will meet the expectations in a short time,” he said. On his part, Putin said at…

Brussels (07/09 – 14.29) Anies Baswedan has become the first Indonesian presidential candidate to make his vice-presidential nominee official by his selection the past weekend of Muhaimin Iskandar from the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Islamic mass movement. ALEXANDER R. ARIFIANTO argues that this nomination highlights the importance of NU’s support in next year’s presidential election. He believes both Ganjar Pranowo and Prabowo Subianto are likely to also consider nominating an NU-affiliated politician as running mate. Anies Baswedan has formally announced Muhaimin Iskandar, chairperson of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and a high-profile Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) politician, as his vice-presidential nominee. This…

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has held talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Aug. 20, focusing on enhancing their countries’ strategic partnership and addressing critical regional issues, notably the ongoing conflict in Ukraine. The leaders convened in Budapest to deliberate on trade development, economic cooperation and cultural exchange between the two nations. In an upcoming meeting, the Turkish president is scheduled to confer with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The discussions will revolve around the revival of a crucial deal concerning Ukrainian grain exports, an agreement previously facilitated by Türkiye and the United Nations in July 2022. The suspension of this agreement on July 17 by Russia, citing…

Two QAZAQ AIR flights were in Kazakhstan for the first time, the crew of which was entirely female, writes Vc.ru. Crew commander Ekaterina Sverchkova and co-pilot Azhar Nessipbayeva flew on the routes Astana – Petropavlovsk – Astana and Astana – Omsk – Astana. The crew also included two female flight attendants. Ekaterina Sverchkova has been working at QAZAQ AIR since 2018, and her passion for parachuting led her to aviation. According to her, she has never encountered gender stereotypes or prejudice in her work. Source: Turkmen Portal

Türkiye is ranked fourth globally among tourism destinations in 2022, according to a leading international tourism organization. According to the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), 963 million people traveled in 2022, while the total expenditure was $1.1 trillion. The Mediterranean was the most preferred region with 28 percent, while France was the country that hosts the most tourists in the world with 80 million. With 50.5 million visitors, Türkiye ranked fourth after the United States. According to the UNWTO report on world tourism data for 2022, the global tourism mobility in 2022 was 34 percent behind 2019. While the report stated that 963 million…

Greece and Cyprus have inched closer to Washington as Ankara’s ties with the US fray Turkey criticised the US for dispatching a warship to the divided island of Cyprus on Wednesday, accusing Washington of disrupting the balance of power in the Eastern Mediterranean. The USS Arleigh Burke, a guided-missile destroyer, arrived in Limassol, Cyprus, for a scheduled visit on Tuesday. The Turkish foreign ministry issued a statement critiquing the move: “The steps taken in the region by the US which disrupt the balance at the expense of the Turkish Cypriot side damage [United State’s] long-standing neutral position.” The statement is the second time in less…