Recap radio

Ankara’s NATO summit is over and Turkey is expected to sell its Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems today, according to a pro-government columnist at the Hürriyet newspaper. The move could pave the way for the US congress to lift sanctions on Turkey and eventually facilitate the nation’s return to the F-35 fighter jet program, from which it was removed due to its 2019 acquisition of the S-4...

Next week’s NATO summit in Ankara will spotlight Turkey’s role in the alliance and the Turkish defense sector’s potential contributions to European security. Yet, Turkey-EU ties remain strained by a frozen accession process and deep distrust between the Erdoğan government and some member states. To dig into the contradictions and opportunities of deeper Turkey-EU defense cooperation, Turkey recap...

More than a month has passed since a court ruling removed the leadership of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the party’s future is in limbo. Ousted CHP chair Özgür Özel remains popular with the party base and is attempting to take back his position from the reinstalled but unpopular CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. To do so, Özel is pushing for a party congress in July that...

Olesya Vartanyan , a conflict analyst specializing in South Caucasus security and a researcher at George Mason University, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss the Armenian elections and what comes next for the region. This podcast dives into the many factors behind Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan’s re-election, plus the interplay between Armenia’s peace deal with Azerbaijan and normaliza...

This Pride month, a set of new law proposals criminalizing LGBT expressions and restricting gender transition surgeries are expected to be introduced in the Turkish parliament. In today’s episode, Yıldız Tar, editor-in-chief of KaosGL.org , a news site dedicated to LGBT issues in Turkey, outlines the pending reforms with Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo. They discuss the Tar’s ongoing trial, the c...

Turkey recap deputy editor of Economy recap fame Emily Rice Johnson joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to respond to listener mail. This is our second Q&A episode following the second religious holiday of the year. We focus primarily on the current judicial pressure faced by Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which recently had its leader Özgür Özel removed from power by...

Noah Bonsey , a senior advisor at the International Crisis Group focusing on Syria, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss developments in Syria with a focus on integration efforts regarding the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, SDF. Following a Syrian Army offensive that reclaimed most of the formerly SDF-held territory in northeast Syria, Damascus and the SDF signed a peace agreem...

Berk Esen , associate professor of political science at Sabancı University in Istanbul, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo for an emergency podcast on the latest blow against Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). On Thursday, May 22, a Turkish court ousted CHP head Özgür Özel from the party leadership and replaced him with his predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. This podcast ou...

Jalel Harchaoui , a political scientist focused on Libya and a contributor at the Royal United Services Institute, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss shifts in Turkey’s Libya policy and how they fit into broader US and NATO objectives for stability in the divided nation. The talk outlines how, in 2019, Ankara initially backed the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity in Western...

Researcher Nareg Seferian joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to outline the upcoming Armenia elections on June 7, 2026. Incumbent Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan is seeking re-election on a “Real Armenia” platform, which seeks to downplay historical territorial disputes beyond Armenia’s current borders in favor of EU integration and more cooperation with Azerbaijan and Turkey. It’s a high stakes v...

Journalist and author Suzy Hansen joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss her newly-released book , From Life Itself: Turkey, Istanbul, and a Neighborhood in the Age of Erdoğan. It’s a brutally honest look at Turkey under Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told through the people and street life of the Karagümrük, a rapidly changing neighborhood in Istanbul’s historic Fatih district. This podcas...

Nebahat Tanrıverdi Yaşar , visiting fellow at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss Turkey-Somalia relations. This podcast covers Ankara’s growing military and commercial interests in the Horn of Africa, including the TURKSOM military base in Somalia and offshore energy drilling activi...

Alan Makovsky , a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss Ankara’s pivot to diplomacy and US-Turkey relations. This podcast covers Turkey’s growing efforts to mediate conflicts and host diplomatic meetings like this weekend’s Antalya Diplomacy Forum and the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara. Also discussed are recent comments by US Ambassad...

László Szerencsés , a postdoctoral researcher at Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies (SUITS), joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss the Hungary election results, what they mean and their implications for Turkey-Hungary ties. This podcast begins with a deep dive into Hungarian politics, detailing the fall of Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán and the rise of opposition leader Pé...

Howard Eissenstat , Laurentian associate professor at St. Lawrence University and non-resident scholar at Stockholm University's Institute of Turkish Studies, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss Turkey-Israel relations. The podcast outlines growing concerns about a looming regional competition between the two states, past and present bilateral dynamics and how the ongoing US-Israel w...

Sinan Ülgen , a former Turkish diplomat and director of EDAM, an Istanbul-based think tank, and a senior fellow at Carnegie Europe, joined Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss the Iran war as viewed from Turkey. The talk outlines Turkish interests and concerns regarding the Iran war, including current and future impacts on Turkey’s economy — and what those could mean for Pres. Recep Tayyip...

Happy birthday to Recap radio! To mark our first year of podcasting, Turkey recap editors Emily Rice Johnson and Diego Cupolo opened our mail bag and responded to a wide range of listener questions. Covered in this episode are election forecasts, candidacy prospects for Hakan Fidan, Bilal Erdoğan and Mansur Yavaş as well as the implications of the Iran war and ongoing PKK peace process for Turkey....

Lahib Higel , interim deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa program at the International Crisis Group, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss the Iran war. Higel recently co-authored a report on Turkey-Iraq rapprochement titled “ Strengthening Iraq-Türkiye Ties amid Regional Tensions .” In this podcast, she juxtaposes the main trend lines from the report against the ongoi...

Today’s guest is Ezgi Başaran, a political scientist and author of the books Frontline Turkey: The Conflict at the Heart of the Middle East and The New Spirit of Islamism: Interactions Between the AKP, Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood . She is also the author of the weekly Substack called Angle, Anchor, and Voice . Together with Diego Cupolo, editor-in-chief at Turkey recap, Ezgi discussed US pr...

Two days after the US and Israel launched new airstrikes on Iran, Hürcan Aslı Aksoy , a senior fellow at the Centre for Applied Turkey Studies at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, discussed what this means for Ankara with Diego Cupolo, editor-in-chief at Turkey recap. Aksoy is the author of a recent report on Israel-Turkey regional competition and, after laying out the i...

Our guest today is Amy Austin Holmes , a professor at Texas A&M University's Bush School of Government and Public Service in Washington DC, and author of the book , “Statelet of Survivors: The Making of a Semi-Autonomous Region in Northeast Syria.” Together with Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo, she outlined developments before and after Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)...

Ioannis Grigoriadis , an associate professor of political science at Bilkent University and head of the Turkey program at the Hellenic Foundation of European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), joined Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss Turkey-Greece relations. On Feb. 11, Turkish Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Ankara, where the pair signed various cooperation...

The European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, Nacho Sánchez Amor , joined Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss Ankara’s stalled EU accession process and recent developments in the region. Amor shares his views on humanitarian needs in northern Syria following clashes between the Syrian army and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). He also covers migration coordination between Europ...

Bilge Yeşil , a professor of media culture at the College of Staten Island, City University of New York and an affiliate faculty of Middle Eastern Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss media and communication strategies in Turkey. Yeşil lays out how Pres. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s administration presents itself as a benevolent global actor and “voice o...

Henri J. Barkey , adjunct senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins Turkey recap editor Diego Cupolo to discuss the SDF’s territorial losses this weekend and the possible implications for Turkey’s PKK peace talks. The podcast covers security concerns for the US and Israel, the potential fate of Islamic State prisoners in Syria plus future prospects for the Ku...