There Are Tyrants and There Are Little Tyrants
Mothers do not see their children’s faults. So why do states look at their allies’ cruelty with the same blindness? From the Uyghurs to Gaza, from Ukraine to Myanmar: on selective conscience.
Author
Sezai Akyüz
40 articles · Writing for PUGAT 2021–2026 · 3 series
Articles · page 2
We All Died, They Only Buried You
On the first anniversary of the earthquake, a letter written from a tent among the ruins to a family that was lost. A personal testimony of grief, neglect and loneliness.
Was It a Hungarian Prince Who Was Shot, or the Twin Towers?
While war continues in Ukraine, the Middle East is ablaze again. As leaders and the media fan the flames, is the world reliving 1914, when an assassination started a great war, or 9/11, which fuelled Islamophobia?
I Was a Little Child
Children who froze to death under the rubble, who went out to buy bread and never came back, who could not get treatment because their father was in prison. A lament written in their voices.
Uncontrolled Migration Is Not Strength
Hostility towards refugees is rising fast in Turkey. In the author’s view, the problem is not migration itself but uncontrolled migration and failed integration policies.
Cross-Border Operations in Syria (8): The Results of Turkey’s Cross-Border Operations in Syria
All the operations in Syria rested on the goal of toppling Assad; at the time of writing, however, the government was seeking reconciliation with Assad. According to the author, the operations came at a heavy price and their results are questionable.
Cross-Border Operations in Syria (7): Operation Claw-Sword (20 November 2022)
In November 2022, after the İstiklal Avenue attack, Turkey launched the Claw-Sword air operation in northern Syria and Iraq. The author questions the timing between the attacks and the operation.
Cross-Border Operations in Syria (6): Operation Peace Spring (9–18 October 2019)
Operation Peace Spring, launched in October 2019, followed the US withdrawal from the region. Trump’s threatening letter to Ankara became one of the rare documents in the history of diplomacy.
Cross-Border Operations in Syria (5): Operation Olive Branch (20 January – 24 March 2018)
One week after the coalition announced it would form a YPG-dominated border force, Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch against Afrin. The story of the most extensive operation in Syria.
Cross-Border Operations in Syria (4): The Idlib and Spring Shield Operations (8 October 2017 – 5 March 2020)
The Idlib operation that began with the Astana process, and Spring Shield, which followed the deaths of Turkish soldiers in February 2020: Turkey’s hard test in Idlib.
