June 2024 • Research Program •
The Turkey program aims to analyze Turkey’s politico-strategic conceptions and ambitions, in order to assess their implications and risks for regional and global players, notably Europe and the Western world.
In September 2023, Turkey marked the centenary of the republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, whose reforms have shaped the identity of modern Turkey to create a modern, secular nation-state inspired by the industrialized nations of the West. In fact, two decades have passed since Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) took the reins of Turkey and began to reshape the Kemalist republic. After the first so-called « liberal » reforms, which were initially well received in the Western world, illusions about the emergence of an « Islamic market democracy » faded in time. Even before the hardening of the regional geopolitical context, the regime had embarked on an authoritarian turn and shifted its foreign policy, long seen as compatible with that of the United States. But is this an unfortunate circumstance or a « hidden agenda »?
Many questions remain unanswered: a century after the proclamation of the Kemalist Republic, will Erdogan and AKP’s hypercracy create a « new Turkey »? Will Turkey lose the West? Will it be able to reconcile NATO membership with its « confrontational cooperation » with Russia and a despotic East? Does this « brutal entente » between Ankara and Moscow herald a great reordering of Eurasia to the detriment of the West, or is it a tactical figure doomed to wither? Is a pan-Islamic third way conceivable? Couldn’t one imagine a revival of pan-Turanism, forming a center of power projecting influence into the heart of ancient Turkestan? These unknowns illustrate how little we know about Turkey and its deepest roots. It is therefore worthwhile to note what politicians, strategists, and geopoliticians in Turkey and the Turkic world are stating and reporting. Since geopolitical analysis must take into account the figures who run Turkey, their psyche and world vision, the nature of the political system, and the reality of the internal balance of power.
The attempt to answer these questions is the purpose of our Turkey Program, which follows the debate as it unfolds in the Turkish-speaking world, provides elements of analysis, and assesses the consequences for regional and global actors, starting with Europe and the Western world, through monthly monitoring, notes and reports, videos, media interventions, roundtable meetings and social networks. This requires a close analysis of the clash of ideas and the struggle for political power in a country that is weakened and fragmented, but virtually powerful.
Turkey Monitoring
Monthly monitoring, available in English and French
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Medias (2022-2024)
Turquie : l’après-Erdogan a-t-il vraiment commencé ?
Selmin Seda Coskun, Causeur, April 4, 2024 • En savoir +
Élections municipales : le destin de la Turquie est entre les seules mains d’Erdogan
Selmin Seda Coskun, Marianne, March 30, 2024 • En savoir +
La Turquie, la mer Noire et les ramifications de la guerre en Ukraine
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Desk Russie, February 10, 2024 • En savoir +
Mer Noire : Turquie et Russie en eaux troubles
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, comments, Le Monde, February 4, 2024 • En savoir +
Adhésion de la Suède à l’OTAN : la Turquie donne son accord
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, RTS, July 11, 2023 • En savoir +
OTAN : l’adhésion de la Suède et la position de la Turquie au cœur des discussions
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, TV5 Monde, July 9, 2023 • En savoir +
L’Occident face à la « question turque »
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Desk Russie, June 10, 2023 • En savoir +
Élections turques : pourquoi personne n’a vu venir le succès d’Erdogan
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier et Selmin Seda Coskun, Figaro Vox, May 22, 2023 • En savoir +
Turquie : « Erdoganisme », suite ou fin ?
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, France Culture, May 15, 2023 • En savoir +
La Turquie à l’heure du vote
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, RFI, May 14, 2023 • En savoir +
Le BTP, un acteur clé du système politique d’Erdogan
Selmin Seda Coskun, Conflits, April 4, 2023 • En savoir +
La mer Noire, l’autre front de la guerre en Ukraine
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Vatican News, March 6, 2023 • En savoir +
Turkey’s fault lines: Could more have been done to limit quake damage?
Selmin Seda Coskun, France 24 English, February 14, 2023 • En savoir +
Poutine-Erdogan à Sotchi : quelles avancées attendre de cette rencontre ?
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, France 24, August 5, 2022 • Read more
Pourquoi la mer Noire est-elle si stratégique ?
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Géo, comments, August 4, 2022 • Read more
Turkey’s Mission Becomes More Difficult If Attacks on Ukrainian Ports Continue
Selmin Seda Coskun, Panorama, August 4, 2022 • Read more
Les relations entre la Russie et la Turquie : rétrospectives et perspectives
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Desk Russie, July 1st, 2022 • Read more
Les délicats équilibres en mer Noire bouleversés par la guerre
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, L’Express, comments, March 5, 2022 • Read more
Russia’s geopolitical upheavals: As Europe’s eastern barrier weakens
Selmin Seda Coskun, Dokuz8News, February 26, 2022 • Read more
Russia has something to say in the European security architecture!
Selmin Seda Coskun, Dokuz8News, February 7, 2022 • Read more
Is Russia’s objective an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty or a bluff?
Selmin Seda Coskun, Dokuz8News, January 23, 2022 • Read more
In whose favor does the crisis in Kazakhstan upset the balance of power in Eurasia?
Selmin Seda Coskun, Dokuz8News, January 9, 2022 • Read more
Book
Le Monde vu d’Istanbul. Géopolitique de la Turquie et du monde altaïque
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, PUF, May 2023
More
Publications and videos
Arménie-Azerbaïdjan : quel rôle joue la Turquie ?
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Institut Thomas More, analysis, February 26, 2024 • En savoir +
Avec ou sans Erdogan ? Enjeux d’une élection décisive pour la Turquie et pour nous
Conference of May 9, 2023, with Marie Jégo, Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier et Selmin Seda Coskun, video • En savoir +
After a month-long stalemate over the veto, has Turkey finally achieved its goal?
Selmin Seda Coskun, Observatoire de la Turquie contemporaine, Institut Français de Géopolitique, June 30, 2022 • Read more
Erdogan, la nouvelle Turquie et nous : anticiper la recomposition des alliances
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Institut Thomas More, Note 45, November 2020 • Read more
Où va la Turquie ? Où nous conduit-elle ?
Conference of October 15, 2020, with Ahmet Insel, Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier and Bertrand Viala, video • See the video
L’opération turque dans le Nord-Est syrien, sa portée militaire et ses perspectives géopolitiques
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Institut Thomas More, Points clés 21, October 2019 • Read more
Europe-Turquie : pour un partenariat géopolitique plutôt que l’intégration
Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Institut Thomas More, Notes d’actualité 35, October 2015 • Read more
Researchers
 Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier, Research Director at the Thomas More Institute. He holds a degree in history and geography, a master’s degree in political science and a DEA in geography and geopolitics. Doctor in geopolitics, Jean-Sylvestre Mongrenier is Senior Teacher of History-Geography and Fellow at the Institut Français de Géopolitique (Paris VIII University). He is notably the author of Géopolitique de l’Europe (Paris, PUF, 2020), Le monde vue de Moscou. Géopolitique de la Russie et de l’Eurasie post-soviétique (Paris, PUF, 2020) and Le Monde vu d’Istanbul. Géopolitique de la Turquie et du monde altaïque (Paris, PUF, 2023). His fields of research include the « greater Mediterranean » and overlap with Turkey, Turanian issues and geopolitical dynamics in Eurasia • |
Selmin Seda Coskun, Research Fellow at the Thomas More Institute. She obtained her doctorate at the Faculty of Political Science in Istanbul University (2019). She is the author of Vekalet Savaşları ve Çözümü Zor Sorunlardaki Yeri. Lübnan İç Savaşı Örneği [The Proxy Wars in International Conflicts. The Example of the Lebanese Civil War] (Ankara, Nobel Bilimsel Eserler, 2021) and is currently an international columnist for Dokuz8News, a Turkish media. Based in Paris, she is pursuing specialized studies on Geopolitics of Cyberspace at the French Institute of Geopolitics (Paris VIII University) and is lecturer in the Faculty of Political Science at the Catholic University of Paris • |