![A labourer works on the gold bars which are going to be melted in a smelter at a plant of gold refiner in Istanbul February 27, 2009. Gold extended gains to session highs in Europe on Friday as risk aversion spurred by worse-than- expected U.S. GDP data lifted the metal from the two-week lows it hit earlier in the day. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/TurkishGold.jpg/TurkishGold.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=8hgU2uzt)
![fehimtastekin.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/authors/fehimtastekin.jpg/fehimtastekin.jpg?h=55541bb6&itok=JaPh89DV)
In Paris, reporting on Turkish politics
Al Monitor-Türkiye’nin Nabzı bölümünün yazarlarındandır. Farklı gazetelerde çalıştıktan sonra uzun süre Radikal gazetesinde köşe yazarlığı yaptı. Ajans Kafkas’ın kurucu editörüydü. IMC TV’de dış politika programı ‘SINIRSIZ’ın daimi yorumcusuydu. Türk dış politikası, Kafkasya, Orta Doğu ve Avrupa Birliği konularında uzmanlaşmıştır. “Suriye: Yıkıl Git, Diren Kal”, “Rojava: Kürtlerin Zamanı” ve “Karanlık Çöktüğünde: IŞİD” adlı kitapların yazarıdır. Twitter: @fehimtastekin
![A labourer works on the gold bars which are going to be melted in a smelter at a plant of gold refiner in Istanbul February 27, 2009. Gold extended gains to session highs in Europe on Friday as risk aversion spurred by worse-than- expected U.S. GDP data lifted the metal from the two-week lows it hit earlier in the day. REUTERS/Osman Orsal (TURKEY)](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/TurkishGold.jpg/TurkishGold.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=8hgU2uzt)
![Turkey's European Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis listens to European Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule (R) after EU-Turkey accession talks in Brussels November 5, 2013. REUTERS/Francois Lenoir (BELGIUM - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX150NH](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTX150NH.jpg/RTX150NH.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=j9_IEagv)
![Weapons are seen in the sand near Adra, east of Damascus, in this handout photograph distributed by Syria's national news agency SANA August 7, 2013. Sixty-two rebel fighters were killed in a Syrian army ambush at dawn on Wednesday near the town of Adra, east of Damascus, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. The state news agency SANA did not give a death toll for the ambush but said the rebels were from the al Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front. It](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTX12D46.jpg/RTX12D46.jpg?h=f7822858&itok=xMOEQlVN)
![Demonstrators shout slogans as they hold up banners while staging a protest in central Istanbul December 11, 2004. Hundreds of protesters formed a human chain through the busy shopping street of Istiklal on Saturday to protest the recent killing of a 12-year-old boy and his father by security forces in Kiziltepe in the southeast Turkish province of Mardin which is now under investigation. Banner at left reads in Turkish "I am Turkish, Kurdish, Circassian and Laz from Turkey" and the banner at top right read](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/12/RTRI051.jpg/RTRI051.jpg?h=c9f93661&itok=RRMK9FzF)
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![Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (R) shakes hands with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari after a news conference in Ankara October 25, 2013. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX14NP6](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX14NP6.jpg/RTX14NP6.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=indMlgex)
![President of the Syrian National Coalition, Ahmad Al-Jarba (L), looks on during a meeting with Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi (not pictured) in Cairo, November 2, 2013. Arab League Foreign Ministers will meet in Cairo in an emergency session to discuss the ongoing crisis in Syria on Sunday. REUTERS/Stringer (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS) - RTX14XDS](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/RTX14XDS-001.jpg/RTX14XDS-001.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=m1PwIvu_)
![Ayse Gokkan.jpg](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/11/Ayse%20Gokkan.jpg/Ayse%20Gokkan.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=f-nW4LE2)
![Anti-government Alevi protesters shout slogans during a demonstration in Istanbul June 23, 2013. The European Union is on the verge of scrapping a new round of membership talks with Turkey, a move that would further undermine Ankara's already slim hopes of joining the bloc and damage its relations with Brussels. Germany, the EU's biggest economic power, is blocking efforts to revive Turkey's EU membership bid, partly because of its handling of anti-government protests that have swept the country in the last](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/levi%20turk.jpg/levi%20turk.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=qfxf0gqy)
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![A picture shot through the window of a house that has to be torn down as it is within the perimeters of the Olympic Park shows the Olympic stadium for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics at the Olympic Park in Adler, near Sochi February 18, 2013. Although many complexes and venues in the Black Sea resort of Sochi mostly resemble building sites that are still under construction, there is nothing to suggest any concern over readiness. Construction will be completed by August 2013 according to organizers. The Sochi](/sites/default/files/styles/article_header/public/almpics/2013/10/sochighost.jpg/sochighost.jpg?h=2d235432&itok=CFfc8Wwh)