Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan met with European Commission officials in Brussels last week to discuss his country’s accession negotiations. The Prime Minister reaffirmed his commitment to the process, and appointed Egemen Bagis, a close personal adviser, to be his chief negotiator with Brussels.
I will be hosting a live discussion with Eugene Jarecki, director of the award-winning film Why We Fight, at a meeting at the New America Foundation today between 12:15 pm and 1:45 pm EST. We will be discussing his new book, The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men, and a Republic in Peril….
Politico reports that Rob Portman intends to run for Ohio Senator George Voinovich’s Senate seat when he retires in 2010, and the early word out of Ohio suggests that it may be difficult for Democrats to find a formidable challenger.
This post was written anonymously by a journalist in Syria. A few biographical facts have been changed to protect the people mentioned. DAMASCUS — Ahmed, an Iraqi in his early 30s, crossed the Iraqi-Syrian border in late November. With him were his wife and his two young sons.
I thought I’d share this cartoon, which my colleague Doga Cigdemoglu found on the Hurriyet Daily News website. Here is a link to a slide show of 34 cartoons about the now famous “shoe attack.
While traveling in Turkey last month, it occurred to me that a little empathy would go a long way toward repairing the United States’ relationships with both our traditional allies in Europe and with states such as China, Russia, and Iran with which we have some substantially divergent interests.
It is painfully clear that we are not “winning” in Afghanistan, and that we need a new strategy. While President-elect Obama has carefully calibrated and qualified his “timetable” strategy for Iraq, he has unequivocally promised to send more troops and more resources to fight the “good war” in Afghanistan.
I just heard that Matt Cooper commented on MSNBC Live that Secretary of Commerce-designate Bill Richardson is the guy to lead on Cuba. I think Cooper nailed it–the outgoing governor of New Mexico it is a natural fit with an elegant dash of poetic justice rarely found in Washington.
Turkey’s unique position as a NATO member and a Middle Eastern, Muslim nation with close ties to Iran would seem to make the country an ideal candidate to help solve the simmering conflict surrounding the Islamic Republic’s controversial nuclear energy program.
Congratulations to Cem Oezdemir who has been elected co-chairman of the German Green Party. It’s the party’s top political post. His victory makes him the highest-ranking German politician of Turkish descent. Turkish immigrants and their descendants number more than 2.5 million and make up 3% of Germany’s total population.