Karel Valansi'nin kaleminden...

Italy, one of the EU's largest economies, is struggling with a number of serious issues this summer. On the political side, it reached a critical stage after Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte resigned last week, bringing an end to the populist coalition government of Matteo Salvini's far-right Lega Party and anti-establishment Five Star Movement led by Luigi di Maio. The fragile coalition collapsed when Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini decided to gain control of the government alone, trusting his rising popularity in the polls. He decided to call for a no-confidence vote to drive the country to early elections. While Salvini tried to play politics, Conte preempted that vote by announcing his resignation and leaving the decision to President Sergio Mattarella. Mattarella's first choice is to form a new government from the current parliament or to install a technocratic government to finalize the budget, instead of costly early elections and all the political ambiguity it...

The EU-Turkey statement of March 2016 has become one of the main pillars of the EU’s migration strategy, essentially limiting the flow of migrants to the EU. The statement is accepted as a turning point in Europe’s crisis over refugees. On the third anniversary of its signing, we talked with Ambassador Christian Berger, the head of the EU Delegation to Turkey, the agreement’s impact on refugees and on Europe, Turkey-EU relations, EU relations with the Middle East including Israel and the rise of antisemitism in Europe. How would you define the EU-Turkey deal of 2016 in its third anniversary? As a success? Does the outcome meet the expectations? The  Turkey-EU statement of March 2016 is trying to address two issues; to reduce the number of people -including illegal migrants- crossing to the islands, and also reduce the number of people dying in the sea. The numbers have dropped significantly. Both as the EU and Turkey, we believe that the statement is achieving its purpose. The...

One of the major challenges the European Union had to face in the last decade is the refugee crisis that erupted following the outbreak of the Syrian war. Currently, many member states are divided over the refugee issue. Strong nationalistic movements are emerging while populist leaders and right-wing parties are gaining more and more power. The peace that the EU could achieve after long and devastating wars, values like human rights and its soft power attract potential candidate states and also people who had to escape their homes for a safe and secure future. However, terrorist attacks carried out or inspired by Daesh made EU countries reluctant to accept refugees. The economic situation does not help either, as many EU states fight recession, high unemployment, low or negative growth and high debts. These factors cause dissatisfaction with current governments and the status quo in general. As a consequence, xenophobia and support for far-right parties increase throughout the EU...

During his visit to Istanbul, Joseph Bahout was kind enough to share his views on Charlie Hebdo attack, the situation in Middle East, the foreign fighters and the refugee problem. Bahout is a visiting scholar in Carnegie’s Middle East Program, Washington, DC. He is a professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Institut d´Etudes Politiques de Paris and served as a permanent consultant for the Policy Planning Unit at the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs How can you explain the motives behind the attack to Charlie Hebdo? Charlie Hebdo attack is a very complex issue. From outside it is seen as a terrorist attack like any other one against Western target. It is important to keep in mind that France has this very radical way of separating religion from public sphere. France has intellectual tradition criticizing religion, making humor of some religious values. The second thing is that contrary to 9/11 or other attacks, it was not an outsider attack on a Western country. It was an attac...