{"id":9410,"title":"The Crossroads Conversations:","link":"https:\/\/bst-europe.eu\/de\/globalization\/the-crossroads-conversations\/","date":"22. August 2016","date_unix":1471902126,"date_modified_unix":1471902126,"date_iso":"2016-08-22T21:42:06+00:00","content":"
\"Pedro
Pedro Szekely \/ Flickr.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\u201cThe irony,\u201d\u00a0 Vali Nasr told me, \u201cis that this is increasingly rehabilitating the military: the more Turkey leans on a military solution to the Kurdish problem, the more it has a national security environment.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

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On the morning of July 15, I met with Dr. Nasr, a former Senior Advisor at the US Department of State and current Dean of Johns Hopkins SAIS, to talk about Turkey at the crossroads. The conversation drifted from Ankara towards the country\u2019s southeast, where Turkey\u2019s military prosecutes a fierce, if unfocused, campaign against Kurdish separatists.<\/p>\n

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A few hours later, I began receiving text messages from +90 numbers\u2014Turkey\u2019s international prefix. \u201cThere is a military coup here.\u201d \u201cJet planes are flying over parliament, no one knows what is happening.\u201d \u201cTanks on the street in Ankara.\u201d \u201cWe think it\u2019s a coup; not sure how much longer internet will work.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Nobody, not even Dr. Nasr, expected this.<\/p>\n

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This is one of the major challenges of projects such as The Crossroads<\/em>, which takes a long-term perspective on critical issues in emerging markets: The situation has a tendency to rapidly change on the ground. \u00a0This occurred during production for The Crossroads Brazil<\/em><\/a>, when it became clear half-way through that President Dilma Rousseff would likely be impeached. During work on The Crossroads Cuba<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>relations between the US and our subject island seemed to update on a daily basis. Just prior to my interview with President Juan Manuel Santos for the Crossroads Colombia<\/em><\/a>, an international crisis broke out between his country and neighboring Venezuela.<\/p>\n

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In Turkey, the failed coup attempt of July 15 appeared to flip the country on its head, and our months of work on The Crossroads Turkey <\/em>along with it.<\/p>\n

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However, as the dust settled\u2014and continues to settle\u2014we began reviewing our archived \u00a0Turkey conversations\u2014<\/em>many of which were held just days prior to the coup\u2014and found that rather than being outdated, these interviews give valuable insight into the rise of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Justice and Development Party (AKP), and some of the critical economic dynamics that have shaped Turkey over the last 15 years.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Though these conversations occurred prior to the coup attempt, they can help us understand where the country is now headed given the attempt\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n

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