Turkey: Getting worse before it gets better (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2016/11/01/turkey-getting-worse-before-it-gets-better/

Wanted: A dose of sympathy for Turkey (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

https://www.brookings.edu/2016/08/04/wanted-a-dose-of-sympathy-for-turkey/

Democracy in Turkey: Before and after the coup (Kemal Kirişci, Ted Piccone, Adrianna Pita, Brookings)

https://www.brookings.edu/podcast-episode/democracy-in-turkey-before-and-after-the-coup/

Is Turkish foreign policy becoming pragmatic again? (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

Only two months have passed since Ahmet Davutoğlu was dismissed as Turkey’s prime minister, but Turkey’s foreign policy is already seeing major shifts—U-turns, in fact, especially in its stance towards Israel and Russia. Three former Turkish foreign ministers and three retired undersecretaries—whom I interviewed in May—agreed that Turkish foreign policy had hit a wall, and that Davutoğlu’s departure might open room for realism and pragmatism to make a comeback. Pragmatism—something that had traditionally characterized Turkey’s foreign policy—seems to have finally come to the fore.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/07/11-pragmatic-turkish-foreign-policy-kirisci

To really improve the lives of Syrian refugees, Turkey and the world must cooperate better (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/markaz/posts/2016/06/09-turkey-cooperation-refugees-kirisci

U.S. recognizes the only interlocutor in Turkey as the president (Kemal Kirişci, Barçın Yinanç, Brookings)

The only interlocutor for the United States in Turkey will be President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from now on, Professor Kemal Kirişci has said, adding that Washington has come to recognize the reality that whoever becomes the prime minister “knows he is not going to do anything that is unauthorized.”

http://www.brookings.edu/research/interviews/2016/05/23-turkey-president-only-interlocutor

Humanitarian Summit Shines Spotlight on Turkey (Kemal Kirişci, Zachary Laub, CFR)

World leaders, UN agencies, and relief organizations will gather in Istanbul on May 23–24 for the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit, spearheaded by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in response to the more than one hundred million people in need of assistance. The Brookings Institution's Kemal Kirişci says that the decision to hold this summit in Turkey, made in 2013 on the basis of its generous foreign-assistance program and hosting of the world's largest refugee population, has been complicated amid President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's authoritarian turn. "I suspect that the summit is not going to receive the attention it would have gotten had Turkey been in a different situation," Kirişci says

http://www.cfr.org/turkey/humanitarian-summit-shines-spotlight-turkey/p37879

Can Turkey salvage its soft power image ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit? (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

When the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced at the 68th session of the General Assembly in 2013 that Turkey would host the first-ever world humanitarian summit, Turkey’s soft power was standing tall. Its economy was growing a respectable 4.2 percent rate in 2013—when the United States was still battling with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis and the EU was mired in a currency crisis. That year, Turkish exports reached unprecedented heights (including cultural exports: Turkish soap operas were popular in as faraway lands as Brazil). Turkey was still receiving a record number of tourists, despite the civil war raging next door in Syria. And, as Ban Ki-moon noted, Turkey was rising as a major donor country and was playing a critical role in providing humanitarian assistance in Syria (as well as in Haiti, the Philippines, and elsewhere). Its open-door policy towards Syrian refugees received high praise. And Turkey ranked 20th in Monocle’s first-ever Soft Power Index

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/05/16-world-humanitarian-summit-turkey-kirisci

Why is Turkey’s Davutoğlu getting skewered by his own party for the EU migrant deal? (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

The migration deal that Turkey and the European Union reached in March received heavy criticism. It was slammed for giving unacceptable concessions to Turkey’s strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with critics accusing German Chancellor Angela Merkel—desperate to stem the tide of Syrian refugees and irregular migration into Europe—of being willing to overlook Erdoğan’s disregard for democratic values. Some expected to see Merkel’s downfall. Instead, however, it is the Turkish prime minister who is losing his job.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/05/05-turkey-davutoglu-migrant-deal-kirisci

Turkey’s downward spiral and the scuffles at Erdogan’s Brookings speech (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

On March 31, Brookings hosted the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who delivered a speech on “Global Challenges and Turkey’s Goals for the Year 2023.” His speech focused mainly on terrorism and the need for international cooperation in combating it (while also jabbing at Washington’s support for some Kurdish groups in Syria that Turkey defines as terrorist organizations). He also spoke about economic inequality and the challenges associated with the Syrian civil war, among other themes. Not surprisingly, Erdoğan took care to elaborate on the economic gains and democratic and legal reforms implemented during his thirteen years in power. The talk—which lasted forty minutes, twice the time foreign dignitaries speaking at Brookings typically take—left many wondering at the gap between the event’s title and its actual content.

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Kemal Kirişci is the TÜSİAD senior fellow and director of the Center on the United States and Europe's Turkey Project at Brookings, with an expertise in Turkish foreign policy and migration studies. Within the project, Kirişci runs the Turkey Project Policy Paper series and frequently writes on the latest developments out of Turkey. His upcoming monograph titled "The Consequences of Chaos: Syria's Humanitarian Crisis and the Failure to Protect" (Brookings Institution Press, April 2016), co-authored with Elizabeth Ferris, considers the long-term economic, political, and social implications of Syria's displaced and offers policy recommendations to address the humanitarian crisis.

The silver lining to the EU-Turkey migration deal (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

The heinous terrorist attack in Ankara yesterday reminds us of the urgent need to address the chaos and instability stemming from Syria, which has exacerbated tensions in the country. It highlights once more the urgent need for the European Union and Turkey to work more closely in order to improve Turkish stability and democracy.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/03/14-eu-turkey-migrant-deal-kirisci

Turkey and the international liberal order: What happened? (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

Turkish democracy has taken a few big knocks recently. It is not surprising that in light of the arrest of numerous academics and journalists, who disagree with the government, the international watchdog Freedom House downgraded Turkey to the “Not Free” category in its Freedom of the Press rankings. Its overall rating also sank deeper, into the “Partly Free” status. Turkey tops the list of countries with the highest number of judgments from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) regarding violations of freedom of expression in 2015. Furthermore, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights recently expressed concern about the actions of the Turkish security forces in Southeastern Turkey, where a battle continues to rage between security forces and the militias of the Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK). The violence threatens the fundamental rights of civilians, many of whom have been displaced in the wake of the destruction in the area—numerous observers have drawn parallels to scenes from Syria.

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/02/23-turkey-international-liberal-order-kirisci

Why cooperating on the Syrian refugee challenge is in everyone’s interest (Kemal Kirişci, Sinan Ekim, Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2016/01/14-istanbul-bombing-eu-cooperation-kirisci-ekim

How the EU and Turkey can work together on refugees (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2015/12/03-turkey-eu-deal-on-syrian-refugees-kirisci

(Istituto fondamentale - Global) A big deal for Ankara (Kemal Kirişci, Brookings)

http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2015/07/30-big-deal-for-ankara-kirisci