Turkey Wonk Aaron Stein

Turkey has poured a lot of money into its indigenous defense industry. To talk about the state of Turkish aerospace, Aaron spoke to Tony Osborne, London Bureau Chief at Aviation Week, about Ankara’s indigenous development programs, spanning unmanned aerial vehicles to 5th generation fighter aircraft. The two also discussed on-going US-Turkish tensions and what that could mean for the F-35 fighter program in Turkey and how that could impact Turkish Air Force planning.


 



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The Turkish elections surprised most observers. No one doubted that Recep Tayyip Erdogan would win, but few expected the far right MHP to maintain support and win more than 11% of the vote. What just happened? What does it all mean? To break it all down, Aaron spoke with Laura Pitel, the Turkey correspondent for the Financial Times, about the recent election. 
 
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Turkey and the F-35 has made a lot of news in the past few weeks. First, Turkey had an interesting cultural display at the Lockheed ceremony in Fort Worth.
 
Second, the Senate’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act included language that could threaten the Turkish role in the F-35 consortium. Against this backdrop, Ankara continues to tell the world it will import the Russian made S-400, potential triggering American sanctions and raising questions about US-Turkish defense-industrial cooperation.
 
To make sense of it all, Aaron spoke with Valerie Insinna, Air Warfare Reporter for Defense News. 
 
Links of Note:
Valerie's reporting on the F-35 delivery.

Van Hollen-Graham amendment.
 
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Turkish voters head to the polls on June 24th to vote for the country’s future president and members of parliament. The election outcome is uncertain and hinges on the complicated interplay between two main political coalitions and Turkey’s Kurds. The outcome is uncertain and any number of scenarios are in play. To discuss the latest from the campaign, Aaron speaks with Piotr Zalewski, the Economist correspondent in Turkey, about the state of the race.
 
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What the hell is going on in Idlib? Turkey has sent troops into a sliver of territory in northwestern Syria to monitor a tripartite deescalation zone, as part of the Astana process.
The terms of the agreement are murky, the reasons the actors agreed to this arrangement are also hard to understand. And to make things more complicated, an Al Qaeda linked group is right in the middle of everything.
To talk about these recent moves, Aaron speaks with Sam Heller, a fellow the Century Foundation.
 
Links of Note:
Sam Heller's tweet detailing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham's description of the Turkish intervention. 
Sam's encapsulation of the entire ordeal.
 
 

Turkey and the KRG have a complicated energy relationship. Ankara is the KRG’s main conduit for oil exports and, up until about a week ago, was the KRG’s most important ally in its squabbles with Baghdad. Now the tables have turned and the Turks and Baghdad are best friends, so much so that their militaries are LARPing on the border and issuing vague statements about what may come next.
What is the current state of Turkish-Kurdish energy relations? What explains Turkey’s about face? And can the Turkish government really turn off the tap? To talk through these issues, Aaron talks to Patrick Osgood, the former Kurdistan Bureau Chief for the Iraq Oil Report and, now, a consultant on energy related issues.