‘KNOW YOUR PLACE’; WHAT LIES BEHIND TURKEY’S CURRENT FOREIGN POLICY BEHAVIOUR? Bill Park 12/08/2020 The list of Turkish actions in its neighbourhood that have caused antipathy amongst others in that neighbourhood, and beyond, is long. Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iran, Russia, Greece, Cyp... Read More...
TURKEY’S LIBYAN GAMBLE; WILL IT PROVOKE RESISTANCE OR ACCOMMODATION? Bill Park 29/06/2020 Bill Park, Visiting Research fellow, King’s College, London Turkey has been far from alone in involving itself in what has turned into a largely proxy conflict in Libya, but its recent escalation of militar... Read More...
Turkey’s Libyan gamble; what’s behind it, and will it pay off? Bill Park 17/03/2020 On 2 January 2020 Turkey’s parliament gave a green light to the Turkish government’s proposed military assistance to the Tripoli-based Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA), led by Prime Minister Fayez al... Read More...
There are no clear ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ yet in Syria Bill Park 30/10/2019 Events have moved swiftly since the Turkey-led Operation Spring Peace incursion into northern Syria in early October. The operation’s objective is to clear both the Islamic State (IS) and the Kurdish People’s ... Read More...
OPERATION SPRING PEACE; A DEEPENING SYRIAN CHAOS? Bill Park 12/10/2019 After month of preparation and repeated threats, on the 9th of October the Turkish military and its so-called Syrian National Army (SNA) allies, concocted from an assortment of sometimes jihadi-inclined elemen... Read More...
Exploiting the Eastern Mediterranean energy bubble; Turkey versus everyone else? Bill Park 01/04/2019 With the confirmation in 2010 of the existence of substantial reserves of natural gas off Israel’s coastline in the eastern Mediterranean, followed by finds off Cyprus in 2011 (in February of this year ExxonMo... Read More...
WHAT IS TURKEY UP TO IN LIBYA? Bill Park 26/02/2019 In early January 2019 Libyan authorities seized a container carrying Turkish arms from a ship docking in the port of Misrata. This followed closely on the heals of the discovery just a few weeks earlier... Read More...
AFRIN; PROTOTYPE FOR A TURKISH INCURSION EAST OF THE EUPHRATES? Bill Park 28/01/2019 As this piece was being penned, speculation was ongoing surrounding Turkey’s proposed 32 kilometre ‘safe zone’ on Syrian territory east of the Euphrates. The idea gained traction in the wake of US Pres... Read More...
YET ANOTHER TURKISH DIVE INTO SYRIA’S DEEP WATERS? Bill Park 14/12/2018 On 12 December Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that Turkish forces would within days launch an offensive aimed at clearing northern Syria east of the Euphrates from separatist terrorists eg... Read More...
Turkey’s Idlib adventure; will it end in tears? Bill Park 03/12/2018 As this piece was being penned, Turkey, Iran and Russia were winding up their eleventh high level meeting on Syria in Astana, Kazakhstan. They reiterated their commitment to a ceasefire in Idlib and to i... Read More...
Can the US-Turkey relationship survive Erdogan and Trump? Bill Park 09/08/2018 How much disagreement, tension and even mutual hostility can an alliance relationship take? Having failed to release the evangelical American pastor Andrew Brunson from prison on 18 July 2018 during a court... Read More...
TURKEY’S ELECTIONS: WHAT HAPPENED, WHY IT HAPPENED, AND WHAT WE CAN LEARN Bill Park 04/07/2018 The vote and some counter-factuals With 52.6% of the vote, on 24 June President Erdogan was re-elected without needing a second round run-off. His chief rival, Muharrem Ince of the social democratic wing of ... Read More...
ERDOGAN COMES TO LONDON; EUROPE’S TROUBLED OUTLIERS OFFER MUTUAL COMFORT Bill Park 29/05/2018 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s three-day visit to London in mid-May was billed by the British prime minister’s office as ‘an opportunity for the UK and Turkey to demonstrate our close bilateral relati... Read More...
Turkey’s Return to Authoritarianism Bill Park 09/05/2018 The AKP’s false dawn The Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, or AKP) government that came to power in Turkey November 2002 enjoyed an auspicious start. It lent its support to the U... Read More...
[OPINION] TURKEY-KRG RELATIONS AFTER THE 25 SEPTEMBER REFERENDUM; DIVORCE OR RESET? Bill Park 06/04/2018 Few were surprised that the independence referendum held in the Kurdish Region of Iraq (KRI) on 25 September 2017 produced a 93% ‘yes’ vote. But many have been surprised by the subsequent turn of events in the ... Read More...
