Turkey
What Europe can learn from Greece's alliance with Israel
In the 21st chapter of his magisterial 1948 history of the Second World War, Winston Churchill began with an arresting…
The jab that saved countless lives 300 years ago
This timely book celebrates one of the most remarkable women of the 18th century. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was so…
Arab states are fighting back against Turkey’s ‘neo-Ottomanism’
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems determined to reinvent the secular Muslim country he inherited as a sort of Sunni Iranian ‘Mini-Me’:…
The West has left Armenia to fend for itself
Armenians don’t want a deal – they want resolution
Erdogan’s game: why Turkey has turned against the West
Why Turkey is severing its links with the West
Greece vs Turkey: tensions are rising in the Mediterranean
Greece and Turkey are in a battle for hegemony
There is no justification for turning Hagia Sophia into a mosque
It’s a mistake to turn Hagia Sophia back into a mosque
The way Greece has conducted itself in this pandemic is an example to us all
Aristophanes was a comic genius long before the Marx Brothers, but he also gave good advice to the Athenians: stop…
Will the impeachment inquiry stuff Donald Trump?
President Trump was talking turkey today. At the White House, he performed a solemn task. He pardoned what he referred…
Riveting and beautifully staged analysis of totalitarianism: Arcola’s #WeAreArrested reviewed
When the RSC does modern drama it usually lays on an ultra-worthy yarn with a huge cast, dozens of fancy…
Portrait of the week: Brexit uncertainty, Turkey in Syria and a Chinese threat
Home Brexit teetered from uncertainty to uncertainty. Parliament had been summoned to sit on Saturday 19 October to debate what…
![Kurdish politician Hervin Khalaf, who was apparently pulled from her car and executed last week by Turkish-backed paramilitaries [Photo: Getty]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/10/Paul_Wood.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
Pax Russica: as Trump abandons Syria’s Kurds, Russia is ready to expand its empire
While American troops were hurriedly leaving north-eastern Syria, a young female Kurdish politician called Hervin Khalaf was pulled from her…
What Mary Wollstonecraft writes about motherhood is still so relevant
Walking into Fingal’s Cave, after scrambling across the rocks to reach it from the landing stage where the boat from…
The day Turkish democracy died
‘It’s official. Turkey is a banana republic!’ My friend Mustapha, a serial entrepreneur, sends me a flurry of doom-laden WhatsApp…
Lessons from the Greeks on rebuilding Notre Dame
As soon as the blaze that nearly brought down Notre Dame was extinguished, two questions were asked: how did it…
I Will Never See the World Again, Ahmet Altan’s fourth book written from prison
There’s no getting away from that title. I will never see the world again. It catches your eye on the…
Prue Leith’s Christmas kitchen nightmares
Christmas in our family seems to guarantee tears and tantrums as well as jingle bells and jollity. Indeed, in my…
Turkey vs Saudi: the real story behind Khashoggi’s murder
Istanbul In another time, in another place, we might never have known about the death of Jamal Khashoggi. In a…
A day of reckoning is coming for America’s muddled Middle East policies
Beirut ‘If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense,’ said Alice. ‘Nothing would be what it…
Melissa Kite: Hell is a porcelain kitchen tile
If only I knew whether I would have a kitchen, I could order a turkey. But despite having an almost…
Well of sorrows
The Red-haired Woman is shorter than Orhan Pamuk’s best-known novels, and is, in comparison, pared down, written with deliberate simplicity…
A woman of some importance
It might seem unlikely that a Christian noblewoman could have had influence over a Muslim city in the 13th century,…
Potrait of the Week: prisons to be ‘academies’and West to arm Libya
Home In the Queen’s Speech, the government made provision for bills against extremism and in favour of driverless cars, drones,…
Might Eurovision determine the outcome of the EU referendum?
You might not think that the Eurovision Song Contest (screened live from Stockholm tonight) could have any connection with how…
How Recep Erdogan became the most powerful man in Europe
President Erdogan has the EU’s leaders exactly where he wants them
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