Karel Valansi'nin kaleminden...

“People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”           - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, interview with  Al Jazeera Arabic  on 26 February 2025  Three months later, this strong warning looks less like a threat and more like a prediction.  A decade ago, Iran was the region’s shadow puppeteer, proudly proclaiming its control over  four Arab capitals . However, its projection of power through proxies backfired. Ironically, this helped facilitate the surprise offensive of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Syria, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, backed by Tehran’s regional rival, Türkiye. Moreover, its archenemy, Israel, has steadily weakened Iran and Hezbollah’s military capabilities in both Lebanon and Syria, especially following Iran-backed Hamas’ deadly cross-border attack on  October 7, 2023,  which indirectly enabled HTS’ takeover of Syria, the indispensable “jewel in the crown” of Iran’s regional network.[Met...

In his opening speech at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum on April 11, 2025, Turkish President Recep Tayyip  Erdogan  described Israel as a “terrorist state” that threatens regional stability, aiming to “stir up ethnic and religious affiliations in Syria and turn minorities against the government.” Since the fall of Assad’s regime in December 2024, Turkey and Israel have emerged as dominant power brokers in Syria, filling the void left by the diminishing influence of Russia and Iran. This new reality on the ground has significantly worsened the already tense relationship between Turkey and Israel. There is an ongoing debate about the possibility of a direct military confrontation between Turkey and Israel over Syria, which the media often amplifies into a drumbeat of a forthcoming war. In fact, beneath the noise, both countries display many parallel responses to the developments in Syria and, at times, share overlapping agendas that eventually force them to establish dialogue chann...

" Israel seeks to enforce redlines by containing Iran, proxies Israel has refrained from intervening in the Syrian civil war since its beginning but conducted limited air operations to key locations, what it often called more as pre-emptive strikes. "Israel's primary concern is to contain Iran and it tries to curb an Iranian permanent military foothold in Syria which will be against Israel," said Karel Valansi, a columnist at Şalom, the weekly Turkish-Jewish newspaper. She added that as Bashar Assad's presidency is "almost certain," Israel does not have any diplomatic or economic leverage in Syria, and that's why it directs diplomatic efforts to the U.S., Russia and EU countries. Last month, Israel announced that its aircraft launched an attack in September 2017 on a nuclear reactor located in the Deir ez-Zor region, which had been developed for many years and was reportedly due to enter into service in 2007. It was one of those many attacks that t...

Having started in 2011, the political upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have irrevocably transformed the region, and the world, as well. Beginning as peaceful protests for democracy, justice and equality, these uprisings resulted in the overthrow of long-time dictators such as Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi in Libya – with external interference in the last case. Called the Arab Spring, this rapid change was first seen as a new chapter in the region in which there could be radical change toward democracy. Traditionally, MENA is perceived as immune to waves of democratization, differing from other regions. For this reason, these uprisings were at first appreciated as a popular movement to get rid of mostly secular but authoritarian rulers who had been in power for decades. However, the outcome has been very different. The wave of popular unrest in Syria did not result with the ouster of Bashar Assad as in the case of T...

Israel appointed Mr. Eitan Na’eh, who served as a secretary at the embassy in Ankara back in 1993, as the new ambassador to Turkey. This is the first time that this post has been filled since 2010, marking the full restoration of ties between the two countries after six years of animosity. On an exclusive interview with Ambassador Na’eh, we discussed the future of Turkish-Israeli relations, the East Mediterranean energy corridor and the Middle East. Normalization between the two countries is continuing with high level visits. What is next in the program?  We are developing our relations. We put the roof after we put the foundation and the walls. We are setting up a schedule, renewing dialogues at different levels on different topics. We have to re-identify our common interests. We have to decide how we want to act upon it. We are at the very early stages. We have normalized our relationship, now we are re-building relations. That will take some time. We are looking into the...

During her visit to Istanbul, we had the chance to discuss recent events with Professor Ofra Bengio. She shared her views on the terrorist attacks in Paris, developments in Syria, Iraq and KRG, the future of Turkey-Kurdish peace process and Turkish-Israeli relations for Salom readers. Ms. Bengio is a Senior Research Fellow at the Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies, and professor in the department of Middle Eastern History at Tel Aviv University Russia’s military intervention in Syria has dramatically changed the calculations of all involved in Syria. Why Russia wanted to become involved in Syria now? Russia felt that there is a certain vacuum in Syria that needs to be filled. The U.S. was not fulfilling its task of fighting ISIS. Furthermore, Obama put certain redlines but did not act on them so this emboldened the Russians to take this move. Secondly, the Assad regime was in a very shaky situation, almost on the verge of collapse while ISIS was gaining...

Aaron Stein So  much happened since the ISIS attack to the Amara Cultural Center in Suruc near the Syrian border, to claim 32 lives. We dis cussed with Aaron Stein, nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council´s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, the domestic consequences of this attack, its impact to the peace process, the shift in Turkey’s Incirlik policy, and the future of the Syrian civil conflict. Turkey  had  enjoyed a relative quiet up to now. The terrorist attack in Suruc is considered by most analysts as a spill over of Syrian  civil  conflict into Turkey. Do you agree? Yes, I think it is definitely a spill over from the Syrian civil conflict. But I will just say that it is the most recent spill over of the Syrian civil conflict. Refugees are the most obvious  sign of what has been the cost  of t he Syrian civil war for Turkey  since 2012 .   But in terms of the Turkish-Kurdish conflict, the spill over began in July 2...

  It was a privilege for me to discuss Middle East issues, upcoming Israeli elections and Turkish-Israeli relations with Professor Shlomo Avineri during his visit to Istanbul. Mr. Avineri is a professor of Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and also served as Director-General of Israel´s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the first administration of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin from 1975 to 1977 How do you see the future of the Middle East with a non-state actor like ISIS which is very different from any other non-state actor we know? What we see today in the Levant; basically in Syria and Iraq, is that the old state system which was established after the World War I, after the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire by the French and the British (we just call it Sykes-Picot but it is not just Sykes-Picot; it is Sykes-Picot and conferences like Sèvres, San Remo and Lausanne) is coming to an end. This system was an attempt to create nation states in the Europe...

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...