In The News

Turkey’s Crackdown on Academics: New York Times

Brennan Cusack July 10, 2019
Ayse Gul Altinay’s research focused on violence in Turkey and strategies for breaking the cycles. In May, the Turkish government sentenced the professor of anthropology and director of Sabanci University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence to 25 months in prison for signing a petition supporting peaceful resolution of Turkeys’ conflict with Kurds, reports the New York Times. “Of the...

Anglo-American Relations: Columbia Journalism Review

John Allsop July 9, 2019
Newspapers printed leaked diplomatic correspondence describing the Trump administration as “dysfunctional” and “diplomatically clumsy and inept.” The initial news report, acknowledging the US president is “notoriously thin-skinned, exposes concerns about the reliability of the United States as an ally, and the Trump administration responded that that it will no longer work with Ambassador Kim...

Center-Right Regains Power in Greece: BBC

Mark Lowen July 8, 2019
Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the New Democracy party won a snap election in Greece, defeating Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. The ruling government lost support amid high youth unemployment and a struggling economy along with failure to deliver on promises to end austerity. Early results in an election gave New Democracy nearly 40 percent of the vote and Syriza just over 30 percent; far-right Golden...

UK-Chinese Dispute Over Hong Kong: DW

July 4, 2019
Britain’s foreign secretary warned China against repression Hong Kong and China accused Britain of colonialism and interfering in a foreign matter. Britain handed control of the territory to China in 1997 with the condition that Hong Kong would be governed under the principle of “one country, two systems.” Jeremy Hunt said he expects the spirit of that agreement to be honored. Thousands of...

Existential Threat to Erdoğan: Spiegel

Maximilian Popp July 3, 2019
The mayor-elect of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, countered authoritarian tactics and demonstrated their weakness. Turkey’s largest city elected Imamoglu, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, rejecting the defeat of the Justice and Development Party candidate and claiming election fraud, ordered a repeat of the election. Imamoglu won again by a greater margin. Erdoğan, a former mayor of...

China and Hong Kong: South China Morning Post

Naomi Ng and Kimmy Chung July 2, 2019
“HK is not China.” The scrawled message on a pillar of Hong Kong’s legislative hall, stormed by protesters, encapsulates the city’s quarrel with China. Protesters oppose legislation allowing extradition of Hong Kong citizens to China for judicial proceedings. China could become impatient with Hong Kong’s leaders for not putting a quick stop to the massive protests attracting global attention, and...

Six Key Takeaways From G20 Summit: Euronews

July 1, 2019
The United States stood out at the G20 summit in Osaka. “All members of the G20 reaffirmed their commitment to the Paris climate deal on Saturday, excluding the United States,” reports Euronews. “The 19 signatories have agreed on the ‘irreversibility’ of the treaty on climate, signed in Paris in 2015, and have committed to its ‘complete implementation.’” US President Donald Trump also builds...