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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his visit to Northern Cyprus, July 2021 (photo: Mustafa Oztartan/Presidential Press Office/Reuters)

Erdogan in Cyprus

No movement in the mediation deadlock

On his recent visit to Cyprus, Turkish President Erdogan continued to bang his two-state drum, insisting that this is now the only viable option for the divided island. By announcing the next phase of a plan to partially reopen the coastal resort of Varosha for Turkish Cypriot settlement, he is once again pushing his own agenda. By Ronald Meinardus in IstanbulMore

Gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean: Detente between Greece and Turkey?Qantara dossier: CyprusUS to lift 33-year arms embargo on Cyprus, angering TurkeyEscalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereignty
Film poster "Invisible" (source: YouTube screenshot)

Film review: Marianna Kakaounaki’s "Invisible"

Turkish refugees in Greece – out of sight, out of mind

Turkish refugees are for the most part invisible in Greece. In her film debut, the Greek journalist and filmmaker Marianna Kakaounaki portrays the fate of Turkish followers of the preacher Fethullah Gulen forced to flee their country after the coup attempt against Erdogan in 2016. Rene Wildangel caught a screening at the Thessaloniki Documentary FestivalMore

After the fire in Moria: For many migrants, the dream of freedom ends in LesbosGreece and the asylum-seekers: How do you solve a problem like Moria?Exiled Turks in Greece: Bridge-building in 'enemy country'Escalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereignty
Turkey's President Erdogan visiting Greece, 2017 (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/AP/Presidency Press Service/K.Ozer)

Conflict between Ankara and Athens

Has Erdogan's foreign policy hit rock bottom?

The change in U.S. president is also having an impact on the conflict between Turkey and Greece. Since the USA has started to play the Greek card, the strategic situation in the Eastern Mediterranean has shifted to Turkey's disadvantage. Ronald Meinardus reports from IstanbulMore

Gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean: Detente between Greece and Turkey?Interview with Middle East analyst Stephan Roll: "Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"Mask diplomacy and power politics: Erdogan's foreign policy in the shadow of coronavirusA truly international conflict: How can Europe help prevent the carving-up of Libya?
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a ceremony at the Algerian Martyrs monument in Algiers, Algeria, 26 February 2018 (photo: Kayhan Ozer/Pool Photo via AP)

Ankara’s Maghreb moment

Advancing Turkey's economic, energy, and military aims

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, disappointed by the European Union’s reluctance to integrate Turkey into its ranks, has re-directed his country’s diplomacy toward the Maghreb and Africa to expand Turkey’s sway in the Mediterranean, writes Dalia GhanemMore

Mask diplomacy and power politics: Erdogan's foreign policy in the shadow of coronavirusEastern Mediterranean: Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereigntyMiddle East analyst Stephan Roll: "Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"Turkey seeks its role in the Middle East: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's foreign policy rethink
Turkish military in Tajoura, southeast of Tripoli, November 2020

Turkey seeks its role in the Middle East

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's foreign policy rethink

Turkey is largely isolated in the Middle East. Partners are few and far between. Its closest ally, Qatar, has just made peace with its neighbours. Together with the change of power in the USA, this is forcing Ankara to rethink. Background by Kersten KnippMore

U.S.-Turkey relations in 2021: Biden and Erdogan – how much carrot, how much stick?Securitising Turkish foreign policy: Turning back the clockTurkish-U.S. relations: Erdogan's Machiavellian motives
Military escort for Turkish exploration vessel Oruc Reis in the Eastern Mediterranean (photo: picture-alliance/abaka/Turkish Naval Forces)

Gas resources in the Eastern Mediterranean

Detente between Greece and Turkey?

Ever since natural gas deposits were discovered in the eastern Mediterranean, Greece and Turkey have been mired in a fierce dispute over their exploitation. Now both sides are making a new attempt to resolve the conflict diplomatically. However, deep-seated enmity and age-old stereotypes make political rapprochement difficult, reports Ronald Meinardus from IstanbulMore

Interview with Middle East analyst: Stephan Roll "Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"Mask diplomacy and power politics: Erdogan's foreign policy in the shadow of coronavirusTreading the Turkish tightrope: The European Union risks empowering Erdogan at its perilEscalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereignty
Symbolic image: EU and Turkey. The EU heads of state and government will meet for a summit in Brussels on 10 and 11 December. The meeting will also discuss possible sanctions against Turkey over its controversial search for natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean (photo: Reuters)

Turkey expert Gunter Seufert

"Turkey is aware of how dependent it is on the EU"

Sanctions against Ankara are being considered at the EU summit. The number of those in favour has risen. It remains unclear how Germany will behave. But would such measures have any impact on Turkey?More

Treading the Turkish tightrope: The European Union risks empowering Erdogan at its perilTurkish views on Erdogan's feud with Macron: "Religion is the President's last resort"Erdogan and Turkish foreign policy: Neo-Ottoman rumblingsEscalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereignty
Photo montage: Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Emmanuel Macron (photo: AFP/various sources/Adem ALTAN and Ludovic Marin)

Turkish views on Erdogan's feud with Macron

"Religion is the President's last resort"

Relations between Ankara and Paris have reached a new low, with presidential communications contributing to the escalation. To describe recent bilateral exchanges as undiplomatic would be the height of diplomacy. By Ronald MeinardusMore

France, terrorism and identity politics: Emmanuel Macron's determination to pick the wrong battleEscalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereigntyMuhammad cartoon controversy: Macron and the Muhammad tempest in a Twitter teapot
President Erdogan gives a speech (photo: picture-alliance/dpa/Turkish Presidential Press Office)

Treading the Turkish tightrope

The European Union risks empowering Erdogan at its peril

Fraught with disagreement, relations between the EU and Turkey under Erdogan have rarely been easy. Bearing in mind recent developments, the Union needs to present a clear and united front in its dealings with Ankara. By Marc PieriniMore

Escalation or mediation in the Eastern Med? Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereigntyInterview with Middle East analyst Stephan Roll: "Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"Libyan civil war: Turkey versus France – a game of one-upmanship in Libya?
Refugees in makeshift tents on a road in Lesbos (photo: Henning Goll/DW)

After the fire in Moria

For many migrants, the dream of freedom ends in Lesbos

After the devastating fires in the Moria migrant camp on Lesbos, Muhammad spent days on a sealed-off section of road with thousands of others. His most fervent wish is to leave the island, as Max Zander reportsMore

Greece and the asylum-seekers: How do you solve a problem like Moria?Refugees don’t have to be grateful; they have no debt to repayRefugees and migration in the Aegean: The EU and Turkey need each other – and a new refugee deal
Turkish drilling ship Yavuz off the coast of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean (photo: Reuters/M. Sezer)

Escalation or mediation in the Eastern Med?

Turkey and Greece at loggerheads over maritime sovereignty

Will German attempts at mediation avert the Eastern Mediterranean crisis? Greece has accused Turkey of conducting illegal explorations for shale gas close to the Greek islands. Yet Ankara maintains that the waters are part of the Turkish continental shelf. Ronald Meinardus reports from IstanbulMore

Interview with Middle East analyst Stephan Roll: "Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"EU urges Turkey to halt gas hunt in east MediterraneanMask diplomacy and power politics: Erdogan's foreign policy in the shadow of coronavirus
Middle East analyst Stephan Roll is head of the Middle East and Africa research division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. Roll's areas of expertise include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, elites and social mobilisation in Arab countries (photo: SWP)

Interview with Middle East analyst Stephan Roll

"Egypt's leadership feels markedly threatened by Turkey"

The dispute about maritime territories between Turkey and Greece is heating up. Egypt's involvement has added a new dimension to the conflict, says Middle East analyst Stephan Roll. Interview by Panagiotis KouparanisMore

Mask diplomacy and power politics: Erdogan's foreign policy in the shadow of coronavirusThe collapse of Haftar's offensive: Is Egypt really preparing to jump into the Libyan fray?Turkey and the coup in Egypt: Isolation or "precious loneliness"?A truly international conflict: How can Europe help prevent the carving-up of Libya?
President Erdoğan and senior Turkish ministers attend Friday prayers at Hagia Sofia, 24.07.20 (photo: picture-alliance/AA/M. Kamachi)

Interview with Olivier Roy on the conversion of Hagia Sophia

"Islamising stones is easier than Islamising souls"

The photos of the first Friday prayers in Hagia Sofia in 86 years triggered passionate and diverse responses around the world. Surrounded by a coterie of ministers, Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, led worshippers in prayer at the recently rededicated mosque. Eren Güvercin spoke to the renowned French political scientist Olivier Roy and asked him about the significance of the controversial reconversionMore

Erdogan to pray in Hagia Sophia after mosque reconversionInterview with Olivier Roy: They love death as we love life – jihad and the roots of terrorInterview with Olivier Roy: "Radicalisation is not the result of failed integration"
Unaccompanied minor refugees wearing protective masks, who were living in overcrowded migrant camps on the Greek islands, board an aeroplane at Athens International Airport to fly to Luxembourg on 15 April 2020 (photo: AFP/O. Panagiotou)

Refugees and migration in the Aegean

The EU and Turkey need each other – and a new refugee deal

The refugee crisis on Turkey's borders can only be resolved with a new EU deal. It should build on the current plan, but avoid its flaws, writes Ozgur Unluhisarcikli of the German Marshall Fund of the United StatesMore

Europe's liberal warriors put democracy to the swordEurope′s refugee deal with Turkey: The end of the roadEU-Turkey deal: The alternative is IdomeniTurkey and the refugee deal: False friends forever
Countless migrants gather at the blocked Turkish-Greek border crossing near Edirne (photo: picture-alliance)

Refugee crisis on the Greek-Turkish border

Europe's liberal warriors put democracy to the sword

The parties at the centre of Germany's political landscape have often exhorted citizens to distance themselves from the right-wing AfD party. And yet, Europe's response to what is happening on its outer border in Greece shows that the ruling centre has itself assimilated some fundamental nationalist ideas. An essay by Stefan BuchenMore

Migrants stranded amid EU-Turkey stand-offClashes erupt on Greek-Turkish border as migrants seek entryQantara dossier: Refugees
Entrance to the Moria camp on Lesbos, Greece (photo: Reuters)

Greece and the asylum-seekers

How do you solve a problem like Moria?

The Greek government has vowed to do something about its overcrowded island migrant camps. Transfers and stricter asylum legislation were meant to provide the answer. But things are not getting much better, as Max Zander reports from the island of LesbosMore

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