Join Ed Webb on Amplify
The Web's Social News Network.

Curate, connect & build relationships you'll learn from.

Ed Webb | My Amplog

Things I Amplify from the web
« Amplog Home   Posts tagged: Turkey
42029205

Ed Webb's Recent Activity

recommended Vikash Yadav's clip
Jetpack priced at $86,000
recommended Chris Thomson's clip
6 Reasons To Use Amplify for Collaborative Learning | The Writers Gateway
recommended ♬ Eric Snyder♬'s clip
Move over Segway... Here comes the "YikeBike"
recommended Vikash Yadav's clip
CIA's Acoustic Kitty Project
recommended Rick Powell's clip
Orwell: The Sporting Spirit

Turkey deploys soft power to increase regional role

Josh Landis' Syria Comment blog is essential reading not only on Syria, but also on the broader Levant or 'greater Syria' - the former Ottoman provinces whose cores were Damascus, Beirut, and Jerusalem, present-day Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories. I encourage anyone interested in the political, economic and strategic fate of this area to ... read more

Amplify’d from joshualandis.com
Hit TV series behind Israel-Turkey spat, The Valley of the Wolves, is a long-running ratings hit which has drawn criticism for being nationalistic and violent.

“Greater Syria” and “Turkey’s slide toward Syria and Iran” by Rabinovich, Maoz, Moubayed et al.

Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

The strained relations between Ankara and Jerusalem affect the balance of power in the entire region. A decade ago, Turkey was an ally of the United States and maintained varied and extensive relations with Israel. In recent years, it has been sliding toward Syria and Iran and away from America, and has become a venomous critic of Israel. If it slides any further, Turkey could become part of an Iranian-Syrian-Turkish triangle that would be a key element in Middle Eastern politics – to the detriment of Washington, Israel and the moderate Arab states.

All these confirm Turkey’s leadership in the Middle East and can be read that the country is taking a geopolitical position against Israel. All of the above countries, along with the Palestinian land today, were called the “Damascus Province” under the Ottoman dominion.

Read more at joshualandis.com
 

Turkey as a significant player in the Middle East

Josh and I both see an increasingly confident and effective Turkey as a player to watch in the region in the coming decade (see http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2009/12/few_brights_spots_in_middle_ea.html )

Amplify’d from joshualandis.com

Has Obama Outsourced the Job of Chastizing Israel to Turkey?

The West has remained surprisingly silent in the Israel-Turkey spat. Erdoghan has won boisterous praise in the East, and few reprimands in the West for his tough criticism of Israel. Western politicians from one end of the political spectrum to the other are silently, satisfied to see Israel’s leadership brought up short for continuing to implant its citizens in the heart of what should be a future Palestinian state, making a mockery of Western efforts to jump-start negotiations, and ignoring regional peace offers.

As Turkey assumes regional leadership, it will become a powerful and confident new voice in international affairs.Read more at joshualandis.com
 

A brave Turkish Armenian

Somehow, Turks and Armenians have to work this thing out. I think it is courageous Armenian Turkish citizens like the late Hrant Dink and Fethiye Cetin, and the numerous Turkish journalists and public intellectuals fined and imprisoned over the years for addressing the issues, who hold the key; not Armenians of the diaspora, not politicians, not foreign parliamen... read more

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

Fethiye Cetin, a prominent member of the estimated 50,000-strong Armenian-Turkish community and one of Turkey’s leading human rights lawyers, believes a seminal moment has arrived in which Turkey and Armenia can finally confront the ghosts of history and possibly even overcome one of the world’s most enduring and bitter rivalries.

Ms. Cetin published a memoir about her grandmother in 2004. She says she purposely omitted the word “genocide” from her book because using the word erected a roadblock to reconciliation. “I wanted to concentrate on the human dimension. I wanted to question the silence of people like my grandmother who kept their stories hidden for years, while going through the pain.”

Read more at www.nytimes.com
 

Patrick Seale on Turkey’s diplomatic moves

The whole thing is worth reading.

Amplify’d from www.nytimes.com

It is generally accepted that America’s destruction of Iraq overturned the balance of power in the Gulf, opening the way for the Islamic Republic of Iran to emerge as a major regional power, able to challenge the dominance of Sunni Arab states and pose as a rival to both Israel and the United States.

However, the Iraq war has had another important consequence that is also attracting serious notice. America’s failure in Iraq — and its equal failure to tame Israel’s excesses — has encouraged Turkey to emerge from its pro-American straitjacket and assert itself as a powerful independent actor at the heart of a vast region that extends from the Middle East to the Balkans, the Caucasus and Central Asia.

One way and another, a resurgent Turkey is rewriting the rules of the power game in the Middle East in a positive and non-confrontational manner. This is one of the few bright spots in a turbulent and highly inflammable Middle East.

Read more at www.nytimes.com