What the war in Gaza means for Turkey

Since the war in Gaza, Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has raised eyebrows among his Western allies for his strident criticism of Israel and refusal to condemn Hamas. Likewise, the atmosphere in Turkey has been heated, with attempts to storm an airbase hosting US troops as well as the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. In this week’s episode, Jeremy Shapiro welcomes senior policy fellow Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Institute, and Dimitar Bechev, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and the director of the European Policy Institute in Sofia. Together, they look beyond the heated rhetoric and street politics and discuss what the war means for Turkey’s foreign policy. Where do Israel-Turkey relations stand now? Could Turkey play a role similar to Qatar’s? How are US officials reacting to Turkey’s response? This podcast was recorded on 21 November 2023. Bookshelf: Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams | Charles King American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer | Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World | Andrew Wilson