When it comes to foreign policy, will Erdogan resort to 'wily Oriental means'? - Al-Monitor: The Middle Eastʼs leading independent news source since 2012

Semih Idiz

Semih Idiz

Oct 27, 2015

A member of security forces watches as Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan casts a shadow as he addresses to supporters in front of the party headquarters in Ankara August 10, 2014. Erdogan secured his place in history as Turkey's first directly elected president on Sunday, sweeping more than half the vote in a result his opponents fear heralds an increasingly authoritarian state. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS ELECTIONS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR41WAO — A member of security forces watches as Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan casts a shadow as he addresses supporters in front of the party headquarters in Ankara, Aug. 10, 2014. — REUTERS/Murad Sezer

Turkish soldiers stand guard near the Mursitpinar border gate in Suruc, bordering with the northern Kurdish town of Kobani, in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, June 26, 2015. Islamic State fighters killed at least 145 civilians in an attack on the Syrian town of Kobani and a nearby village, in what a monitoring group described on Friday as the second worst massacre carried out by the hardline group in Syria. Fighting between the Kurdish YPG militia and Islamic State fighters who infiltrated the town at the Turki

Erdogan talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk

Semih Idiz

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a wreath-laying ceremony at the Ninos Heroes monument at Chapultepec Park in Mexico City February 12, 2015. Erdogan is in Mexico for an official visit. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido (MEXICO - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4PCV0

Some see snubs, Erdogan sees envy

Semih Idiz

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu attends the opening of a meeting of foreign ministers at the Zaatari refugee camp in the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, May 4, 2014. Foreign ministers of major refugee hosting countries attended a one-day meeting in the Zaatari refugee camp to discuss a resolution for the Syrian refugee crisis. The meeting - the third for countries harbouring the largest number of Syrian refugees - brought together Foreign Ministers from Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt,

Turkey finds out one is the loneliest number

Kadri Gürsel

A Kurdish refugee woman from the Syrian town of Kobani walks with her children at a refugee camp in the border town of Suruc, Sanliurfa province November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT) - RTR4EES6

Turkey's Middle East policy 'fiasco'

Semih Idiz