Podcasts

Since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, Turkey has intensified its military operations in northern Syria – targeting Kurdish groups and even pursuing a new defense pact with Damascus. On this week’s episode of The National Security Podcast, Nicole Zedeck and Dr. Gallia Lindenstrauss from the Institute for National Security Studies examine Turkey’s latest actions in Syria and their implications for Kurdish forces.

Since October 7th and the ensuing war in Gaza, Turkey’s aggressive rhetoric towards Israel has greatly strained the already turbulent relations between the two states. 75 years ago Turkey became the first Muslim majority country to recognize Israel, but since Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rise to power in the early 2000’s, those formerly friendly relations have been on a downward spiral. While Jerusalem and Ankara officially restored diplomatic ties in 2022, those relations took a turn for the worst following the October 7th massacre. Erdogan has yet to explicitly condemn the horrific actions by Hamas, instead only condemning Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The Turkish president has even gone as far to threaten an invasion of the Jewish state, all in support of the Palestinian cause. How do these moves impact the already complicated relationship between Israel and Turkey? Are relations on a path towards total destruction? Who could lose more in a breakdown of relations? On this week’s episode of the National Security Podcast, senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) and Tel Aviv University, Dr. Gallia Lindenstrauss, answers the most pressing questions regarding diplomatic ties between Jerusalem and Ankara.