Center for Turkish Studies

In the early hours of Wednesday, Turkey sent tanks and warplanes across the border into Syria in a coordinated campaign with Western-backed Syrian opposition fighters to capture the town of Jarabulus, one of the Islamic State’s last strongholds on the Turkish border, which the Foreign Ministry had recently vowed to “cleanse” of the militant group. But the operation seems to be aimed more at containing the territorial ambitions of the Syrian Kurds, which Turkey sees as its primary enemy in Syria.

Turkish President Erdogan is about to make a high-profile visit to Tehran. The trip is not just about a potential warming of relations between Ankara and Tehran but some think it might become a turning point and herald a new regional alignment on how to end the Syrian civil war.

While the failure of the coup attempt on July 15 saved the democratically elected government of Turkey, this does not mean that democracy is the winner.

A conversation with MEI scholar and director of the Center for Turkish Studies Gonul Tol, hosted by Paul Salem.