President Obama speaks with Prime Minister Erdogan

President Obama spoke with Prime Minister Erdogan over the phone late on 19 February. The two discussed a variety of regional issues as well as the importance of Turkey’s domestic stability. The following is the full readout of the call as released by the White House: President Obama spoke by phone today with Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey on a range of bilateral and regional issues.  The President affirmed the value he places on a strong, mutually respectful bilateral relationship with the Republic of Turkey…

Continue reading »

Readout of President Obama’s Call with Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey

President Obama spoke by phone on June 24 with Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey.  The President and Prime Minister discussed developments in Syria, including the regime’s use of chemical weapons against its own people, our shared commitment to pursuing a political solution, the need to provide additional support to the Syrian Coalition and the Supreme Military Council to improve their effectiveness, and the importance of close bilateral cooperation on contingency planning and counterterrorism efforts.  The Prime Minister also described the situation in Turkey.  The two…

Continue reading »

A New Boost to Transatlantic Ties: The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and the EU-Turkey Customs Union

By: Eray Akdag / The German Marshall Fund Eray Akday is the TUSIAD Permanent Ankara Representative. The below article was published by The German Marshall Fund in their “On Turkey” series. You can find the original here.  During Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s recent visit to the United States, the White House declared that “the United States and Turkey decided today to establish a bilateral High Level Committee led by the Ministry of Economy of Turkey and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, associated with…

Continue reading »

Obama’s Best Friend? The Alarming Evolution of U.S.-Turkish Relations

By: Dr. Ariel Cohen / Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies Dr. Ariel Cohen penned the 100th report of Begin-Sadat Center’s Middle East Security and Policy Studies. Cohen is a senior research fellow in Russian and Eurasian Studies and International Energy Policy at the Katherine and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for International Policy at The Heritage Foundation. Below is the executive summary of the report, which you can access in full here.     

Continue reading »