Angle, Anchor, and Voice

The emerging shape of the Kurdish process vis à vis Turkey, Syria and Israel

This week, I bring together the latest developments in Turkey’s Kurdish negotiation process. These include the talks with Damascus and Israel’s evolving…

Dec 4 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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November 2025

An American imam and a British sheikh on Islam and capitalism; the Brotherhood’s terror designation; mysterious UAE spies in Turkey

Three angles for the week. The conversation on Islam and capitalism, the push to brand Brotherhood branches as terrorists, and the strange case of the…

Nov 27 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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5

How al-Sharaa’s Syria May Work with the Turkish Toolkit

Syria’s govt draws on the AKP’s mode of development and control. This frame shows how Islamist praxis adapts when survival requires efficient…

Nov 19 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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The players of 'the biggest game in town': Trump, Sharaa, Erdogan, Netanyahu, and the Kurds

At the White House, Sharaa’s meeting with Trump redrew the lines of advantage. Some emerged stronger, while others were left unsettled in their own…

Nov 13 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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Oxford Union and the Debate on the Ottoman Empire’s Demise

This week, after my italic introduction, a prominent Turkish intellectual Dr Cengiz Aktar shares his encounter with the Oxford Union and his regret over…

Nov 6 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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October 2025

The successes of Erdogan abroad and unhappiness it conceals at home

It is realpolitik in its purest form. The bitter irony is that the Palestinians, and even the people of Turkey, remain excluded from its rewards.

Oct 29 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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All Eyes on These Two Turkish Men: Hakan Fidan v. Ibrahim Kalın

Too many tributes, too many comparisons, too many convenient stories about Turkey's FM Fidan and spy chief Kalın. Therefore, I believe, several dynamics…

Oct 22 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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When Sisi, Erdoğan and Netanyahu are flattered this way...

The ceasefire brought scenes of relief and reunion. Then came the performance of power. The 'theatre of peace' at Sharm el-Sheikh told another story.

Oct 15 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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Your position on Palestine now reveals something fundamental about you

As we mark the 2nd anniversary of the October 7 attack, let's look at what it revealed about Israel, Palestine, and the world at large.

Oct 9 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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From Balfour to Trump/Blair: They Understand, They Just Don’t Care

Trump’s 20-point Gaza plan with Blair feels like Iraq and mandate Palestine returning, staged as if history never happened and as if we were all fools.

Oct 1 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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September 2025

With love, from Erdoğan's Turkey to Trump's America

While Erdoğan and Trump sit together, let this sister of yours offer a pocket atlas of the troubles we endured in Turkey — and that you are bound to…

Sep 25 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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11

'Everything goes back to the Ottoman Empire, doesn't it? Sometimes I wonder: is it even dead?'

In her remarkable new book, Lea Ypi follows the concept of (in)dignity across empire’s collapse, nation-building, and the ties of family.

Sep 18 • 

Ezgi Basaran

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