Turkish Desk
The Turkish Desk is a project reporting on updates and content on Turkish politics, foreign policy, culture, history, security, as well as conflict in the region.
Academics and country experts are invited to publish and collaborate with the Diplomatic Academy on contemporary content related to Turkey on a regular basis.
The views and opinions expressed in the articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions and views of either the Diplomatic Academy or those of the University of Nicosia.
Turkey’s Foreign Policy in Africa: A New Paradigm of Turkish Foreign Policy?
While highlighting the challenges Turkish foreign policy in Africa faces, Evangelos Areteos also makes a case of this policy being a combination of "public diplomacy and visionary strategic pragmatism". This combination has led to a new paradigm in Turkish foreign policy.
“Our Bodies are Turkish, Our Soul Islamic”: The Grey Wolves and the Essence of Present-Day Turkish-Islam Mobilization
Evangelos Areteos explains how the ideology and combative activism of the Idealist Hearths is radically transforming the country’s political and cultural dynamics
“Restless Conservatives”: Turkey’s volatile kingmakers and the limits of nationalist hybridization
Recently, AKP and Erdogan have been facing challenges from their own backward, the “huzursuz muhafazakarlar” - the “restless conservatives”. This group's actions put into question how long the dominant narrative of Turkey’s grandeur can remain sustainable.
Mavi Vatan and Forward Defense: The Sinuous Journey of a Republican and Imperial Hybridization
By Evangelos Areteos: "The Mavi Vatan (Blue Homeland in English) naval doctrine of Turkey has lately emerged as one of the pillars of the Turkish foreign and security policy, aiming at establishing Turkey as a vast regional naval power in and around the Mediterranean"
From the Valley to a Pit: Legitimation of the State and Counter-Narratives through Turkish TV Series
The shadowy relations of the state with organized crime have become the central plot of a very popular sub-genre of Turkish TV series. This sub-genre of TV series, where the state and its survival intertwine with the organized crime had started with the TV series and films “Valley of the Wolves” and it resurfaced with the TV series “Eşkıya Dünyaya Hükümdar Olmaz” – Bandits. However, a new sub-genre has lately emerged, where organised crime is depicted as the way of survival of urban poor, and by doing so, it has reframed the popular culture of contestation of the legitimacy of the state.
The Cologne and the Mask: Metaphors of Modern Turkey under the Pandemic
The Cologne and the Mask: Metaphors of Modern Turkey under the Pandemic Evangelos Areteos The dilemma between an ideologically [...]