Captain (NLD N) Dr. Martin Fink is a legal advisor in the Royal Netherlands Navy and research fellow at the Royal Netherland Defence Academy. We sat down to discuss his recent article 'The Ever-existing “Crisis” of the Law of Naval Warfare'. In addition to his article, our conversation ranged from blockades, contraband, and prize law, to the influe…

Ingvild Jenssen is the Executive Director and Founder of NGO Shipbreaking Platform - a global coalition of organisations working to reverse the environmental harm and human rights abuses caused by current shipbreaking practices and to ensure the safe and environmentally sound dismantling of end-of-life ships worldwide. We discuss how the shipbreaki…

Lieutenant Commander Heidi Straarup is a Deputy Judge Advocate at the Assistant Judge Advocate General (Pacific Region) of the Canadian Armed Forces, and legal advisor to Joint Task Force Pacific. We talk about her career, some challenges and opportunities for lawyers in multinational operations and exercises, as well as the 2023 Conference on Oper…

David Hammond (Human Rights at Sea) and Professor Steven Haines (University of Greenwich) are back for second half of this two-part interview. In this episode we address some misnomers regarding “illegal” migration, what can be done about the plight of abandoned seafarers, considerations for military commanders and legal advisors when operations ru…

David Hammond (Human Rights at Sea) and Professor Steven Haines (University of Greenwich) join the podcast to discuss the protection of human rights at sea. This is Part 1 of a 2-part interview, where we address some of the laws protecting the victims of human rights abuses at sea, barriers to enforcing these laws, the Geneva Declaration on Human R…

Commander Caroline Tuckett, lead legal adviser in International and Operational Law within the Royal Navy, joins the program to discuss autonomous shipping and how navies are navigating international law to incorporate these maritime systems/ships/vessels/vehicles into their fleets. House of Lords - UNCLOS: the law of the sea in the 21st century - …

Professor Sean Henseler, from the College of Maritime Operational Warfare at the US Naval War College, joins the podcast to discuss what operational law is (and isn't), the role of the legal advisor in military planning, and how commanders can make use of the law to enhance the effectiveness of their operations. NATO Centre of Excellence for Operat…

From the NATO Centre of Excellence for Operations in Confined and Shallow Waters, I’m James Cook – and I’m Jörg Schildknecht - the creators of a new show dedicated to keeping you informed on the debates, research, people, and events related to operational maritime law. We invite you to join us for this first season of the OML podcast, where we’ll i…

After a series of surprises, crisis and turns of Turkey, Sweden and Finland are formally invited to NATO as members. Marc Pierini, a former ambassador of the EU in Ankara and currently a senior researcher with Carnegie Europe, shares his broad analysis of the various aspects of the dramatic process.By Ahval

U.S. President Joe Biden’s distancing of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is becoming more tangible and a crisis within NATO, created by Turkey’s objections to the membership of Sweden and Finland, begs the question of whether years of appeasement of Erdoğan by the West has reached a dead end, said Merve Tahiroğlu, Turkey Program Director at …

It is very difficult to see an endgame for Turkish foreign policy, because for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, there is no endgame, said Hamit Bozarslan, Director of the Centre for Turkish, Ottoman, Balkan, and Central Asian Studies at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris, France. Turkey, under Erdoğan's leadershi…

President Erdoğan's announcement of an imminent incursion onto northern Syria has complicated his spat with NATO. What will Sweden and Finland do, to meet Turkey's conditions to lift its veto on NATO membership? What is the prime reason for Sweden to keep its relations with the Syrian Kurdish YPG forces? At the end of the day, will the USA be able …

Yavuz Baydar speaks with Suat Kınıklıoğlu, a top expert on Turkish foreign policy.By Ahval

Turkey’s decades old neo-Ottomanist ideology has been transformed and strengthened under the administration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Cengiz Çandar, a senior Turkish columnist and Middle East expert. In a discussion with Ahval editor-in-chief Yavuz Baydar for the Hot Pursuit podcast, Çandar spoke about his latest book “Turkey’s Neo-Ot…

Turkey’s crisis of democracy may not end with the departure of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as there is ample reason to question whether fair elections would occur in a post-Erdoğan Turkey, said Steven Cook, Eni Enrico Mattei Senior Fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relation. Turkey may struggle to emerge as a he…

By Ahval

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan sees it as a success to secure a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. However, he may well be walking into a trap, Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) in Washington D.C., told Ahval’s editor-in-chief Yavuz Baydar for th…

The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe’s latest decisions on jailed politician Selahattin Demirtaş and jailed human rights defender and businessperson Osman Kavala, show that Turkish judiciary is not independent, Yavuz Aydın, a judge and a former judicial councillor with Turkey's European Union delegation, said. The Committee of Minist…

Hasan Kahvecioğlu, journalist from Cyprus, spoke to Yavuz Baydar.By Ahval

Turkey is never going to have a great relationship with the United States as long as Erdogan continues to behave in autocratic ways, Nicholas Danforth, a non-resident senior research fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP told Ahval paper’s editor-in-chief Yavuz Baydar in Ahval’s Hot Pursuit YouTube interview ser…

Even if Turkey manages to come up with a solution to the S400 issue or the eastern Mediterranean issue during the NATO meeting on June 14 between U.S President Joe Biden and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, there is not going to be a new page within the U.S. Turkish relationship without real democracy and reforms, Merve Tahiroglu, the …

Yavuz Baydar, Editor-in-Chief of Ahval, spoke with Kurdish scholar David Phillips.By Ahval

Turkey's strongman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will try to use some "magic" to reset the relationship with U.S. President Joe Biden at their upcoming meeting in June. His “magic,” however, is unlikely to work at this time, Dr. Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey Program at the Foundation for the Defence of Democracies (FDD) in …

The accusations levelled by the exiled mafia boss Sedat Peker regarding the Turkish deep state activities, political assassination of a Cypriot journalist and many other shocking revelations paint a very complicated picture for Turkey regarding its ruling coalition. The series of video revelations by Peker indicate that the Turkish state apparatus …

'Mob boss Peker's videos show us the second side of the cartel state of Turkey' - Prof Hamit BozarslanBy Ahval

By Ahval

By Ahval

By Ahval

In the latest crackdown on Turkey’s pro-Kurdish opposition party, the HDP, Turkish authorities on Wednesday stripped Omer Faruk Gergerlioglu, a prominent HDP legislator and human rights advocate, of his parliamentary seat. Meanwhile, a prosecutor filed a case with Turkey’s highest court, seeking the HDP’s disbandment. The HDP has come under intensi…

Turkey's European Union membership candidacy trajectory is unsustainable and the country sees the steady demise of freedom and human rights, said former two term deputy of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Haluk Ozdalga during a podcast with Ahval.By Ahval

Turkey considers the United States not simply a rival but a declining rival which has abandoned foreign intervention in the Middle East since the Obama Administration leading to political vacuum, Howard Eissenstat, an Associate Professor of Middle East history at St. Lawrence University, said in an AHVAL podcast with Ahval’s editor-in-chief Yavuz B…

By Ahval

By Ahval

Duel in the East Mediterranean: Who will win, Erdoğan or Sisi? - Nicholas Danforth / ELIAMEPBy Ahval

'Biden will have big challenges with Turkey, but the ball is fully in Erdoğan's court' - Max Hoffman / CAPBy Ahval

By Ahval

By Ahval

'2020 was the year Erdoğan's Cartel State has run out of its options' - Prof Hamit BozarslanBy Ahval

- Hot Pursuit -By Ahval

How Erdoğan became the hostage of the mafia-backed 'cartel state' he constructed? - Prof Hamit BozarslanBy Ahval

By Ahval

'Picnic' in Varosha: What is Erdoğan's endgame with North Cyprus? - Hasan KahvecioğluBy Ahval

Journalist Thomas de Waal, spoke to editor in chief of Ahval Yavuz BaydarBy Ahval

Turkey can expect significant changes in its relations with the United States under a Joe Biden presidency, Steven Cook, senior fellow for the Middle East and North Africa at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Ahval in a podcast. If elected, Biden would emphasis rule of law with significant possible implications for Turkey, Cook said.…

'Erdoğan is the one who won the elections, loser is Northern Cyprus' - Hasan Kahvecioğlu, Cengiz AktarBy Ahval

By Ahval

'Erdoğan government dials up opposition crackdown by seizing assets’By Ahval

What does the widening of atrocities in Karabakh region mean? How should one read into the spillover of clashes into Armenia and Azerbaijan? What is Turkey’s strategy in its direct involvement on Azeri side? How does one explain the indecision of Russia to intervene in the conflict, as it passes its eighth day? Is the Turkish engagement the beginni…

There is no reason for Armenia to kickstart another bout of conflict with Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, Thomas de Waal, British journalist and expert on the Caucasus, told Ahval in an exclusive interview. Sunday morning saw a sudden escalation in the conflict, with what Karabakh officials called a “wholescale attack” by the …

'Turkish foreign policy is a hostage of Erdoğan's personal interests' - Merve Tahiroğlu / POMEDBy Ahval