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Good for Europe, bad for the rest?
The Green Deal was first announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in December 2019. This “jobs and growth agenda for Europe” was the talk of the…
Afghan exodus reaches Turkey
Afghanistan is very rich in pomegranates. Afghans call it by the Persian word for pomegranate, “anar.” We in Turkey chop off the first letter and call it “nar.” The…
Back to basics in Cyprus?
Cyprus gained its independence from Britain in 1960. Since then, we have had a simmering conflict between the Turkish and Greek Cypriot communities of the island. There…
Learning how to swim: China vs. Turkey
2021 is the centenary of the establishment of the Communist Party of China (CCP). It is also the centenary of the first constitution of modern Turkey. Accepted in…
European Leaders Talk Turkey
Since 2018, Turkey only comes up in EU Commission documents under the heading of the Eastern Mediterranean, treated not as a “necessary partner” but as an “adversary.”…
Time to start modernizing the EU-Turkey Custom Union
Turkey’s relationship with the West was a marriage of reason. Despite recent tensions, the reasons for that union continue to exist. Turkey’s economic and social…
Our toolkit is becoming obsolete
With pandemic affecting our lives not only in one quarter but so far a total of five quarters, from inflation to growth to well-being, the meaning of the indicators…
Inequality rising in Turkey and across the world
Living in Ankara these days increasingly feels like being in the world of the fictional Hunger Games series, the dystopian novel by Suzanne Collins. In the world of…
Income inequality in post-pandemic Turkey
In the rapidly changing agenda of our fair country, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan points to robust growth in the first quarter of 2021. The official figures will be…
Say no to global green gentrification
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) released unemployment figures in Turkey this week. The youth unemployment rate has now reached 25.3 percent, which of course,…
Another goat, another dunam
Doing Business in Israel is easy. Doing business in neighboring Palestine is not. I learned this the hard way, through experience. I was talking to a truly frustrated…
Trading in the Middle East
I was talking to a foreign diplomat in Ankara the other day about how establishing diplomatic ties between countries is simpler than building up economic ties.…