'Kurdish Instinct' No images? Click here May 10, 2024 ![]() Welcome back to the Turkey Briefing, dear readers. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been a fairly quiet week. Still, we had plenty of interesting stories from our brilliant team. Thanks for reading, and have an amazing weekend! Amberin (@amberinzaman) 'Kurdish Instinct'A research and polling outfit based in Turkey’s majority Kurdish southeast province of Diyarbakir published fresh data today, shedding light on attitudes among the country’s estimated 14 to 16 million ethnic Kurds. Here are a few of Rawest’s findings that I found quite striking:
Lots to chew on there… Other top stories Rina Bassist and Ezgi Akin reported on the new row between Israel and Turkey, in which the former claimed that the latter had eased trade restrictions, drawing angry rebuttals from Ankara. Meanwhile, Erdogan’s younger son, Bilal, declared Friday that he and fellow graduates of Islamic clerical training schools were “ready to do what falls upon us for Palestine.” He offered no details. A ship called the Halit Yildirim, belonging to Erdogan junior, was, until recently, transporting goods to Israel according to open source data shared by whistleblower Metin Cihan. Barin Kayaoglu remains on top of Turkey’s defense industry with his latest on whether Turkey can acquire Eurofighters or not. Germany continues to say “nein.” Do tune into his convo with our social and multimedia editor, Kristen Talman, which takes a broader look at Turkey’s indigenous defense industry. Ezgi reported separately on how Turkey is drawing closer to the acquisition of US F-16 fighter jets. I described how the transformation of an iconic Byzantine church into a full-service mosque this week triggered a storm of angry reactions in Greece. The timing was, to put it mildly, bizarre. Inaugural prayers presided over by Erdogan came a day after the Greek Orthodox Easter and a week before Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ official visit to Turkey. For more on Turkey’s complex relations with its Greek neighbors, you can listen to my interview with Greek academic Ioannis Grigoriadis. A senior Greek official who spoke to me on background agreed with Ioannis that one should not expect any major breakthroughs in bilateral relations. Cyprus and territorial disputes over the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean are not about to disappear. Still, keeping the lines of communication open are key, including a hotline between the two militaries, who apparently have been participating in sports events together. Grease wrestling? I didn’t dare ask about that or about which side was mostly winning. The establishment of a Turkish Greek Business Council is set to be announced during the visit, which will be limited to Mitsotakis’ meeting with Erdogan in Ankara. The two leaders are expected to meet again on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit in Washington in July. Ezgi wrote about an Amnesty report on how Turkish drones used by Somalia have killed 23 civilians, including children. Don’t expect too much alarm over that in Ankara. Turkish drones used by the Turkish military have killed children in northeastern Syria and northern Iraq, as I reported last year. Ezgi also reported on a slew of deals signed between Turkey and Kuwait, while Jack Dutton had the details on Turkey’s mega contract with ExxonMobil to buy LNG. On our reading list There’s been a flood of publications on the opposition’s victory in the March 31 local elections. This is a good one on women mayors by researcher Ayse Yurekli. The US Helsinki Commission had a good lineup this week, including my favorite Turkey analysts, Gonul Tol and Nicholas Danforth, who talked about the post-election landscape. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Turkey program director, Soner Cagaptay, discusses whether Turkey can cut its ties with Israel altogether in this policy brief. Al Jazeera explores the same question here. |