Turkey Wonk

Turkey has poured a lot of money into its indigenous defense industry. To talk about the state of Turkish aerospace, Aaron spoke to Tony Osborne, London Bureau Chief at Aviation Week, about Ankara’s indigenous development programs,...

The Turkish elections surprised most observers. No one doubted that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would win, but few expected the far right MHP to maintain support and win more than 11% of the vote. What just happened? What does it all mean? To break it all...

Turkey and the F-35 has made a lot of news in the past few weeks. First, Turkey had an interesting cultural display at the Lockheed ceremony in Fort Worth.   Second, the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act included...

Turkish voters head to the polls on June 24th to vote for the country’s future president and members of parliament. The election outcome is uncertain and hinges on the complicated interplay between two main political coalitions and...

What the hell is going on in Idlib? Turkey has sent troops into a sliver of territory in northwestern Syria to monitor a tripartite deescalation zone, as part of the Astana process. The terms of the agreement are murky, the reasons the actors agreed...

Turkey and the KRG have a complicated energy relationship. Ankara is the KRG’s main conduit for oil exports and, up until about a week ago, was the KRG’s most important ally in its squabbles with Baghdad. Now the tables have turned and the Turks...

The Kurdish referendum is going forward, despite most of the world opposing the non-binding vote on the independence question. The pro-independence campaign will win, but what will the fall out be?   Is Iraq destined for more violence? What about...

After a lengthy hiatus, the Turkey Wonk podcast is back. In the inaugural episode, Aaron speaks with Laura Pitel, an Ankara-based journalist. The conversation touched on all things Turkish politics since the April referendum and the current state of...