Merve Şebnem Oruç All daily Yeni Şafak Columns

Merve Şebnem Oruç

97 columns listing

After Idlib, it’s now time for al-Bab

03 August 2017, Thursday

Turkey has long since expressed its thoughts and attitude regarding Syria and Iraq. Ankara time after time stated what sort of a future the sectarian approach of the Maliki regime in Baghdad would drag Iraq into; and what sort of a state the bloody suppressive movements of the Assad regime in Damascus would transform the country into. Ankara turned out to be right, but the statements it made were ignored and turned it into a scapegoat. When the Daesh terror organization began perishing in ar

How did Ankara check the Gulf?

20 July 2017, Thursday

The Gulf-Qatar crisis that broke out in the second half of the month of Ramadan started with grave threats, and almost everyone was preoccupied with idea that there would be a coup in Qatar shortly or that the Gulf might make an attempt to threaten the territorial integrity of Qatar. While the bloc dominated by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt launched a large blockade and embargo on Qatar, Kuwaiti Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah came into play for mediation. Nevertheless, the Gulf f

They will finish Al Jazeera…

06 July 2017, Thursday

The media was one of the prominent fronts of the invasion of Iraq. The U.S. had to convince its citizens and the world that it was liberating Iraq. For this reason, pro-invasion celebrities commented on TV channels like Fox News, under the title of the 'Operation to Liberate Iraq,” with the American flag waving in the lower left corner of the screen the whole day while war broadcasts continued uninterruptedly. According to George W. Bush, "you should repeat your words again and again and ag

We have a justice problem

02 July 2017, Sunday

I underwent surgery on my ankle after an accident I had five years ago. I was bedridden for months. I was experiencing inexplicable pain; I was saying, "It's as if something inside is drilling through my flesh." The doctor who performed the surgery claimed that my suffering had no physical reason, that my problem was psychological. Since he is a doctor, since he was educated in the field, I thought, "I'm sure he knows better than me," I kept quiet and waited for it to pass. Days passed, then wee

MİT trucks, the face of betrayal in Syria

18 June 2017, Sunday

The National Intelligence Organization (MİT) is at the top of the institutions the Fetullahist Terror Organization (FETÖ) aspired to get its hands on but was unsuccessful and went mad each time it failed. The first attack in which FETÖ’s plots targeting the state started to become public is – considered by the majority as – the Feb. 7, 2012 MİT crisis. The issue of MİT trucks being stopped during that heavy attack period from the Dec. 17 and Dec. 25, 2013 judicial coup to the Selam-Tevhid plot,

US and Iran against each other on the Syrian-Iraqi border

15 June 2017, Thursday

The U.S.-led coalition hit the Iran-backed regime forces three times in the last month near Tanf in Syria’s southeast. The first of the attacks took place on May 18, the day after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s return from his U.S. visit and the last two took place, one after the other, on June 6 and June 8. In its last statement, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) had claimed that these attacks were made because the Syria regime forces violated the safe zones in Syria’s southeast.

İncirlik, the Paris Climate Agreement and NATO’s future

11 June 2017, Sunday

The Gulf-Qatar crisis overshadowed the crisis that has come to be visible on the West side of the world. The differences of opinion that were clearly revealed at the NATO and G7 summits held one after the other in Europe in the last week of May had led to the rift between the U.S. and Germany grow further. This fracture right at the center of the Transatlantic pact German Chancellor Angel Merkel, who is about to go to her fourth election in October, established in a beer tent in Berlin and,

Two names drawing attention to the NATO summit: Trump and Erdoğan

25 May 2017, Thursday

The Belgian capital of Brussels is hosting the summit meeting of NATO Heads of State and Government today. There is no doubt that at this summit, eyes will be turned to two names in particular: U.S. President Donald Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. While President Erdoğan goes to Brussels following his May visits to India, Russia, China and the U.S., Trump, who made his first visits abroad to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican, will, from here, head to Brussels, followed by T

Alright in Syria, on all other issues it continues on…

18 May 2017, Thursday

Washington is shaken by the violence of the attacks on President Donald Trump. You can feel the tremor – which you can also observe from a distance – to the bone in the U.S. During President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's visit to the U.S., the claim that Trump shared secret information about Daesh with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was on the American media's agenda. But what an agenda! A never-ending barrage from treason to jeopardizing the safety of U.S. citizens. And a breaking development

Is everything over now that the US gave heavy weapons to the PKK?

14 May 2017, Sunday

I remember the discussions in Turkish media prior to Operation Euphrates Shield regarding Turkey's entering Syria: How could we enter Syria despite the U.S. and Russia? They would tear us apart in three days. Are we going to enter war with Iran and Russia? Are we not aware of the realities at all? It's not only those opposing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan that were saying and writing all this, but so many “experts.” Let alone the one year prior to the operation, there were many who said and wro