PKK Commanders Split with Imprisoned Kurdish Leader on Reconciliation with Ankara

After an almost 30-year-long struggle, the Turkish government is currently pursuing what could be an historic agreement with the Kurdish separatist Partiya Karkeren Kurdistan (PKK). Past attempts at seeking a mutually acceptable solution have failed bitterly, thwarted by the lack of trust between the two sides and the ideological and strategic divergences within them. Two years ago, negotiations ended when the organization’s hardliners staged an ambush against Turkish troops and killed 13 soldie...

The Georgia Crisis and Russia-Turkey Relations

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The August 2008 Russia-Georgia war has triggered some major shifts in regional geopolitics. The Caucasus crisis also directly affected the relationship between the two main regional powers – Russia and Turkey. Even before the Georgia war, the relations between Moscow and Ankara were quite complex – combining the elements of largescale cooperation and subtle competition.

The ambivalent situation which existed in the South Caucasus before Au...

Toward a Historical Peace Between Turks and Kurds?

Since March 21, new year’s day or “Newroz” for Kurds and Central Asian nations, Turkey has been witnessing a historical transformation in its decades’ old Kurdish question. On this day, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist organization that has been fighting for an independent Kurdistan since 1984, announced that “the time for armed struggle ended, and it is now time for a political struggle. The PKK is on the verge of withdrawing its forces f...

Turkish Prime Minister’s Visit to Mongolia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Mongolia last month (April 11–12) is likely to result in closer bilateral economic cooperation in addition to the two countries’ already well-established cultural, educational and security ties. As is traditional for Turkish high-level guests to Mongolia, Prime Minister Erdogan visited the Tonyukuk monuments near the capital city. He also opened the Konya Cultural Center and Mosque and attended the opening ceremony of Ankara Boulevard in Ula...

Turkey More Cooperative with Western Energy Companies than It Seems

Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz has seemingly threatened Italian ENI—and, implicitly, other foreign energy companies—with retaliation against their projects in Turkey, if they sign offshore gas development deals with the government of Greek Cyprus while ignoring Turkey’s and the Cypriot Turks’ interests in those same offshore areas. Yildiz issued those warnings in two separate statements on March 27, with international reverberations (Anatolia news agency, Dow Jones, ...

Turkish Prime Minister’s Visit to Mongolia

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Mongolia last month (April 11–12) is likely to result in closer bilateral economic cooperation in addition to the two countries’ already well-established cultural, educational and security ties. As is traditional for Turkish high-level guests to Mongolia, Prime Minister Erdogan visited the Tonyukuk monuments near the capital city. He also opened the Konya Cultural Center and Mosque and attended the opening ceremony of Ankara Boulevard in Ula...

Toward a Historical Peace Between Turks and Kurds?

Since March 21, new year’s day or “Newroz” for Kurds and Central Asian nations, Turkey has been witnessing a historical transformation in its decades’ old Kurdish question. On this day, Abdullah Ocalan, the imprisoned leader of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist organization that has been fighting for an independent Kurdistan since 1984, announced that “the time for armed struggle ended, and it is now time for a political struggle. The PKK is on the verge of withdrawing its forces f...

Is Russian Gold Being Used to Support North Caucasus Insurgency?

On November 16, Russia’s Federal Security Service announced it had intercepted a channel that supplied gold from Russia’s north to Ingushetia. The security services confiscated over 17 kilograms of gold from an unnamed individual in the city of Kazan, Tatarstan. The same individual, a resident of Magadan region, reportedly transported shipments of gold to Ingushetia. “Part of the revenue from this criminal business went to the Caucasus, where it may have been used to support the bandit groups,” ...