Nihat Ali Özcan, PhD
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Turkey’s stance on the civil war in Syria
Day by day, the clashes in Syria have been spreading to a larger area and getting more and more frequent. The government is losing control in some places and the number…
Turning points in the PKK’s fortune
With the fall of the Syrian government, the PKK would not only obtain new arms and logistics capabilities but would also find new recruits. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party…
Kurdish oil, the pipeline, and the PKK
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Necirvan Barzani paid a visit to Ankara last week. The Turkish government showed him great hospitality, because there…
Syrian insurgency and fragmentation of political Islam
Political Islamists have met the insurgencies in the Arab world with sympathy, because they thought it would give them a chance for political power. Certainly political…
Turkish citizens in uniform
Looking into the debates, officers and NCOs have recognized that the “age of heroism” is coming to an end. The Turkish military has been passing through an interesting…
Bright Ideas on Syria
Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu delivered a speech regarding the Middle East in general and Syria on Apr 24. His remarks were quite interesting and decorated with…
Iran, sectarianism and proxy war
The government continues its war of words with the Iraqi prime minister. Remarks exchanged between them have become stiffer, especially following the visit of the Sunni…
From Libyan to Syrian military intervention?
In Libya, many countries were involved in different ways soon after the anti-Gaddafi uprising started. The uprising managed to topple the regime fairly swiftly, with the…
Towards a long and dirty war?
Things are getting complicated in Syria. As for the Annan Plan, it always looked like a weak text full of optimistic wishes, unprepared for solving the problems or…
Syria and insurgency
The debate over Syria still has a place on the agenda, and it is keeping Turkey busier than any other agenda item. The Syria issue has become not only a foreign policy…
Barzani as the “Third Party”
Since last week, “new strategies” in the struggle with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK have been being argued. To me, the main problem was not “the new strategy,” but…
Two calm summers
Leaders who have to live with problems that are left hanging in the air are bound to deal with more complicated problems than those that are visible. That kind of…