Strategic Council Online – A university professor said that Turkey and Egypt are forced to negotiate on issues of common interests in the Mediterranean and North Africa, adding: It is likely that in the near future we will see the start of negotiations and somehow redefine cooperation between Egypt and Turkey, the two active actors in the Libyan equation.
Strategic Council Online – Turkey withdrew from the Istanbul Convention following the instructions and decision of its president which was also published in the Official Gazette. The decree says that the decision had been taken pursuant to Paragraph 3 of the presidential circular No. 9 on the cancellation of the Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, signed by the Republic of Turkey in 2011 and approved by cabinet ministers one year later.
Mahmoud Fazeli – Analyst of international affairs
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced in a news conference that Ankara has sent a positive message to the Egyptian government in Cairo. After eight years of turbulent relations between the two countries, Cavusoglu said Turkey has made contacts at the intelligence and diplomatic levels with Egypt and Ankara is ready to sign an agreement with Cairo to assign marine borders through negotiation under the present circumstances. And Turkey considers as positive the activities of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea excavations. Egypt has implicitly recognized Turkey’s marine borders and sent a positive message to Ankara in this way.
Mahmoud Fazeli—Analyst of international relations
Strategic Council Online – Turkey has started its foreign policy in the New Year with fear and hope. Its relations with the United States, the European Union, Greece, Russia, the Zionist regime, Syria and Saudi Arabia are among Turkey’s most important challenges.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – The two governments of Iran and Turkey have been the two balanced, stable and important governments in the region for centuries, and these two governments, within the historical context, have always been the main players in the region.
Dr. Mohsen Eslami – Faculty member of Tarbiat Modarres University
Strategic Council Online – Note: Iran and Turkey are the two important countries in the West Asia region and inheritors of great empires and historical hegemony that have always been in “competition and cooperation” with each other. Although the two countries have different and sometimes competitive roles and effects in the region and disagree on various issues, those differences have never meant ignoring and overshadowing the many common interests in bilateral relations.
Hamid Khoshayand – International Affairs Analyst
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: Due to consciously cooperation with Russian arms company Rosoboronexport and the purchase of the S-400 missile defense systems, Turkey has gone under US sanctions of CAATSA as Washington does not tolerate interaction with Russia in military domains by other countries. The purchase of S-400 missile defense systems by Turkey has endangered the safety of the US military personnel and technology and would provide access for Russia to the armed forces and defense industries of Turkey. The main goal of US sanctions on Turkey is to prevent Russia from reaping huge financial gains and accessing and impacting the NATO defense systems. US Foreign Secretary Mike Pompeo has asked Turkey to resolve the issue of S-400 with long-term cooperation in the defense sector and adapt once again itself with the rules of NATO and the purchase of arms compatible with this military alliance treaty.
Mahmoud Fazeli, expert of international issues
Strategic Council Online – Europe is pursuing a kind of “tilt but don’t spill” attitude towards Turkey, based on which it is neither indifferent nor reacts harshly.
Afshin Zargar – PhD in International Relations, Faculty Member
Strategic Council Online – A faculty member of Tarbiat Modares University, stating that Turkey seeks to revive its soft power with the idea of regional convergence, said: Details of this plan, its common interests and threats are not clear and there is an ambiguity that basically to what extent bringing those countries together can be realistic and practical.
Strategic Council Online – An expert on West Asia affairs assessed the US letter to Ansarollah and the attempt to negotiate with them as a sign of the effectiveness of the Resistance and said: One of the factors that led Mohammed bin Salman to resort to the United States for putting an end to the war in Yemen is the issue of balance of power which has now changed in favour of Ansarollah.
Strategic Council Online—Interview: A researcher of the Caucasus region says the opposition of some political parties in the Republic of Azerbaijan to the ceasefire deal with the Republic of Armenia can play a significant role given the Caucasus conflict has not yet been finished.
Strategic Council Online – The pendulum feature of Turkey’s foreign policy has a high risk and will impose heavy costs on the Turkish structure in the event of an impasse in the enforcement of policies.
Ali Saadat Azar – Expert on Turkey’s affairs
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: Turkey is one of the main regional players which has been pursuing an aggressive foreign policy during the past several years—a country which once prioritized in its foreign policy the zero-tension approach with its neighbors but has now turned down that policy by entering into various levels of political, security, military and field operational engagements in the West Asia, the Caucasus and North Africa regions. In fact, you can find very few hot spots in the region in which Turkey has not been actively involved.
Hamid Khoshayand-International issues analyst
Strategic Council Online—Interview: An expert of Turkish studies says Turkish activities in Syria are the continuation of the previous policies of the Turkish government that seems will not take new measures in Syria.
Strategic Council Online: At present, part of Turkey’s tensions with neighbouring countries and its surrounding areas are rooted in the “geopolitical coordinates and characteristics” of that country.
Strategic Council Online: A university professor, stating that Saudi Arabia claims to have achieved concessions for the Palestinians, concessions that may never be realized in practice, said: Normalization of relations between Arab regimes and the Zionist regime will certainly not lead to lasting peace. Because, Palestine has simply turned into a scoring ground for other players and their issue has been ignored.
Strategic Council Online—Editorial: In recent weeks, more and more European countries and institutions have been attacking Turkish policies in the Mediterranean.
Mahmood Fazeli, International affairs analyst
Online Strategic Council—interview: An expert of international relations says foreign players in the East Mediterranean region are seeking to prolong Turkey-Greece conflict in order to secure their own interests and obtain excessive concessions.
Strategic Council Online – In recent weeks, tensions in the eastern Mediterranean have been escalated apparently as a result of a simple competition over the possession of energy resources; but beyond these tensions lie the historical wounds and geopolitical origins.
Qadir Golkarian – Professor of University of Near East, Cyprus
Strategic Council Online – Explaining the geopolitical complexities in the Eastern Mediterranean, a faculty member said: “One of the concerns about this region, especially in Europe, is the addition of this crisis to the Middle East security crisis which due to Europe’s geographical proximity to the region, it will have negative consequences for Europe.
