Copyright 2010 Soner Cagaptay Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:40:01 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Soner Cagaptay :: Writings http://www.cagaptay.com cagaptay@gmail.com (Soner Cagaptay) webmaster@pundicity.com en-us http://www.cagaptay.com/6879/muslims-vs-islamists Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST I am thankful to Mr. Umaru Abdul Mutallab, the father of the failed Christmas day bomber. In late 2009, Mr. Abdul Mutallab, a Muslim, approached U.S. authorities in his native Nigeria to warn them of his son's slide into Islamist ideology. Mr. Abdul... http://www.cagaptay.com/6863/no-women-no-europe Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST The first president of the European Union, Herman Van Rompuy, is a known opponent of Turkey's EU membership. Mr. Van Rompuy may find it easy to stick to his position: seven years after the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, rose to power in Ankara,... http://www.cagaptay.com/6848/turks-vs-kurds Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST Turkey's Kurdish problem, a long and bitter conflict, has taken a vicious new turn in recent weeks as ordinary Kurds and Turks have started fighting in the streets. That might sound like nothing new, but it is: although Ankara and the Kurdistan Workers'... http://www.cagaptay.com/6814/offending-the-turks Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:00:00 EST The diplomatic spat between Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon and the Turkish ambassador Oguz Celikkol on Monday was the worst thing that could have happened to the already strained Ankara-Jerusalem ties. Relations between Turkey and Israel... http://www.cagaptay.com/6760/turkey-ethnic-violence Sun, 20 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Rising social violence between Kurds and non-Kurds in Turkey, with daily incidents occurring, is an unusual, and therefore alarming, phenomenon. This violence has been spurred as much by the recent Kurdish opening, which has created a backlash against... http://www.cagaptay.com/6670/islamist-foreign-policies-hurt-muslims Mon, 7 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST What is an Islamist foreign policy, exactly? Is it identifying with Muslims and their suffering, or is it identifying with anti-Western regimes even at the cost of Muslims' best interests? Turkey's foreign policy under the Justice and Development Party,... http://www.cagaptay.com/6662/as-turkey-pulls-away Sat, 5 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST On December 7, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet with US President Barack Obama in Washington. The meeting follows Obama's April visit to Turkey when he reached out to the Turks to realign Ankara with the US after the tumultuous years... http://www.cagaptay.com/6678/mr-erdogan-visits-washington Thu, 3 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST On December 7, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Washington to meet with President Barack Obama. The meeting follows Obama's April visit to Turkey, during which the U.S. leader reached out to Ankara in an effort to realign the... http://www.cagaptay.com/6669/please-call-us-islamic Wed, 2 Dec 2009 09:00:00 EST Islamophobia is rising in the West because so many of us confuse Islam with Islamism. This confusion also inadvertently helps organizations like al-Qaeda. Not a day goes by that yet another publication or pundit uses the terms Islamic and Islamist... http://www.cagaptay.com/6667/7-years-of-akp-rule Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST The Anatolian landscape is dotted by a tall slender tree in the aspen family, known to the Turks as kavak. This is a fragile-looking but sturdy tree, so when the harsh Anatolian wind blows across the steppe, kavak can bend at incredible angles, adjusting... http://www.cagaptay.com/6668/rapprochement-obama-will-praise-erdogan Wed, 25 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST What will U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discuss when they meet in the White House on Dec. 7? There is going to be some give and take on a variety of issues, including Iran. But both leaders will agree on Iraq... http://www.cagaptay.com/6553/ergenekon-case Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:00:00 EST When US President Barack Obama visited Turkey in April, hopes were high that the US-Turkish relationship was finally getting the boost it needed. Ties between Washington and Ankara, wounded during the previous US administration, needed a presidential... http://www.cagaptay.com/6497/kurdish-opening-closed-shut Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST On Oct. 24, Kurdish migrant farm workers started a fight in the town of Ipsala, in the northwest region of Turkey. After the Kurdish workers apparently harassed local girls, some of the town's youth attacked the workers in retaliation. The conflict... http://www.cagaptay.com/6485/turkey-leaving-the-west Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST In early October, Turkey disinvited Israel from Anatolian Eagle, an annual Turkish air force exercise that it had held with Israel, NATO, and the United States since the mid-1990s. It marked the first time Turkey's governing Justice and Development Party... http://www.cagaptay.com/6484/a-trap-for-muslims Sun, 25 Oct 2009 09:00:00 EST How does one deal with and explain rising anti-Americanism, anti-Semitism, and anti-Israeli sentiments in Turkey? A dangerous tendency is to look into the historic roots of these phenomena and explain them as being hardwired in the Turkish polity, not as...