By Alon Ben Meir and Arbana Xharra Until five years ago, Fethullah Gülen and Turkey’s President Erdogan were allies who supported each other. Both use Islam as the basis for their doctrine, which made them ideologically different from the revolutionary secularist stateman Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the new Republic of Turkey in 1923….

Last week I conducted a panel discussion about Turkey under the leadership of Erdogan. The day before the event, we were alerted that several of Erdogan’s stooges will await us to disrupt the event, and we feared that violence may erupt. Earlier in the morning, NYU received a letter from one of the Turkish dictator’s…

By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra A billboard at a construction site, with a photo of an Ottoman-style mosque with four minarets and the flag of Turkey, was erected recently in the center of Pristina, the capital of Kosovo. With less than 2 million people, Kosovo, which declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, is…

With Syria’s civil war nearing an end with the takeover of the city of Idlib by Assad’s forces and his allies, I do not expect that Syria will soon enter a period of calm and amicably divide the spoils of the war. Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the US have conflicting strategic interests in Syria, which…

Alon-Ben Meir and Arbana Xharra As Turkey’s President Erdogan runs out of money, he is now, more than any time before, using religion to exploit the Balkans, especially the states that are more susceptible to Islamic influence. Bosnia is at the fore of Erdogan’s ambitious Islamic agenda, where he is sparing no political capital or…

Artwork by Michael Anderson and Sam Ben-Meir The reelection of Turkey’s President Erdogan, falsely considered to be free, fair, and representative of the will of the majority of the Turkish population, has dire implications both domestic and foreign. Supporters of Erdogan suggest that the elections only reinforce the democratic nature of the country and that…

By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra As the EU seeks to increase its influence in the Balkans, Russia and Turkey have been working hard to strengthen their own ties to the region. The EU’s renewed interest in its southern backyard has been prompted by fears of Moscow’s mounting impact in the Balkans. Although Russia’s closest…

By Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra The ‘Sultan’ of an illusionary Ottoman Empire—Turkey’s President Erdogan—is pressuring submissive politicians throughout the Balkan countries to do his bidding to restore the glory of the Ottoman period. For Erdogan, this is not simply an unfulfilled quest; he has been targeting the Balkans for the past several years (which…

By Gilles Pargneaux, Alon Ben-Meir, and Arbana Xharra The summit held in Ankara on April 4 between Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani provides an eye-opening depiction of the rapidly changing discourse of 2018’s geostrategic international rivalry. The Syrian conflict, the center of global attention for more than seven years, is now in the hands of three…