BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,054, May 28, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey’s official COVID-19 numbers reveal the government’s efforts to combat the pandemic as worthy of a commedia all’Italiana. As of mid-April, Turkey was the second-worst performer in the …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,038, May 20, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The departure of some Turks from Erdoğan-style manifest Islamism based on visible piety instead of spiritual and moral piety probably means their departure from Erdoğan’s voter base.
Turkey’s Islamist …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 2,002, April 20, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The emerging Islamic bloc of three Muslim states—Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan—seems feasible in theory, but its growth is constrained by the realities. Azerbaijan is still more Russian turf than …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,992, April 11, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Everything’s coming up roses for Turkey’s thriving drone industry, but a cash-strapped economy and technological challenges may slow further progress.
As recently as the early 2000s, Turkey was dependent …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,982, March 31, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkey, a member of NATO, now effectively has a jihadi proxy force deployed in its Syrian homeland as well as in faraway war theaters like Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh.
An …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,980, March 29, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The shady purchase of Cougar helicopters by the Turkish military was a 1990s-era controversy. An even bigger question than the terms of their purchase is how the Turkish military …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,958, March 10, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan needed a military success story, and the rescue of 13 hostages held by the PKK in northern Iraq would have fit the bill. Unfortunately, …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,943, February 25, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Turks have been seeking to modernize their democratic culture for a century and a half. Recently, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged to reform the constitution. Beware of an Erdoğan …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,919, February 5, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The success stories of Turkish Nobel laureate Aziz Sancar and the Turkish couple who developed a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus demonstrate that Turks are capable of spectacular achievements—provided …
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,906, January 28, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Studies have shown that only 2.4% of Turks believe their country’s biggest problem is its democratic deficit. Advanced democratic standards, or the acute lack of them, have never been …
