The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars hosted a panel on Thursday, June 13, 2013 from 3-5pm on Turkey’s role in and response to the Arab Spring protests, political transitions, and revolutions. The panel was hosted by Christian Ostermann, director of the History and Public Policy Program (HAPP) and the director of the European Studies (ES) program at the Wilson Center, and featured  Bülent Aras, Chairman of the Turkish Foreign ...

On Friday, June 14, the Middle East Institute held its Fourth Annual Conference on Turkey. The final panel was entitled “The Turkey-Iran-Iraq Nexus” and featured Henri Barkey, professor of international relations and department chair at Lehigh University, Denise Natali, Minerva Chair at National Defense University, and Alireza Nader, senior international policy analyst at the RAND Corporation. The panel was moderated by Phebe Marr, a historian and analyst of modern Iraq. ...

On Friday, April 26th, the Project on Middle East Democracy held an event titled “Turkey's Troubled Politics: Rising Influence and Eroding Freedoms.” It featured Howard Eissenstat, Assistant Professor of Middle Eastern History at St. Lawrence University, and Yigal Schleifer, an independent journalist, analyst, and author of The Turko-file. Susan Corke, Director for Eurasia Programs at Freedom House, moderated. For full event notes continue reading, or click here for a PDF. Susan Corke opened the ...

Iraqi opposition parties met in the Kurdish capital of Erbil on Tuesday as part of an ongoing effort to pass a vote of no confidence in Prime Minister Nouri al- Maliki's goverment.  Maliki has been criticized for his increasing tendency to concentrate his personal power.  While the vote of no confidence is fully supported by the Shiite Islamist Sadrists and the Kurds, opposition politicians may find difficulty mustering the one fifth of parliament needed ...

On Thursday, the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) and the Middle Eastand North Africa Program at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) hosted a roundtable discussion on the recent legislation adopted by the Iraqi government on the media restricting the freedom of expression after years of experiencing media freedom after the fall of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.  The panel featured Oday Hatem Iraqi journalist and president of the ...

In less than a month after U.S. troops exited the country Iraq's government appears in turmoil. Barham Salih, Prime Minister of the autonomous northern Kurdish region, said the internal conflicts are "tearing the country apart," with the new motto being, "I'll have him for lunch before they have me for dinner." Over the past several months, the security services, under Iraq Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, have incarcerated more than 1,000 members ...

Marina Ottaway and Danial Anas Kaysi from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace published a commentary entitled "Iraq: Coalition Under Stress." The report highlights the political brinkmanship occurring within Iraq's national unity government, brinkmanship that has the potential to bring down the government. The authors highlight the tensions between Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who is becoming an "increasingly presidential prime minister" and Council of Representative Speaker Osama Nujeifi, who is determined to assert ...