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Güney Yildiz


Research Division: Turkey/CATS
IPC-Stiftung Mercator Fellow

gueney.yildiz(at)swp-berlin.org

05/2013 – Present       BBC News and Current Affairs, London
09/2018 – Present       Middle East Institute (MEI) Washington D.C.
10/2017 – Ongoing      PhD Candidate (Sociology), University of Cambridge
05/2017 – 07/2018       European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), London

Areas of Expertise:

Turkish Domestic and Foreign Policy, Kurdish dynamics in the Middle East, Armed non-state actors, Governance in Syria


SWP Publications (selection):

Güney Yildiz

Turkish-Russian Adversarial Collaboration in Syria, Libya, and Nagorno-Karabakh

SWP Comment 2021/C 22, March 2021, 4 Pages

doi:10.18449/2021C22

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External Publications (selection):

Güney Yildiz

Kurdistan: A State or a State of Mind?

Can the Kurds, the largest ethnicity in the Middle East without their own nation, overcome their internal disunity and find ways to exist as an independent state or as autonomous regions?

in: thecairoreview.com, The Cairo Review of Global Affairs, Cairo Review No. 33, Spring 2019
Güney Yildiz

How the Syrian War Is Shaping Turkish Domestic Politics

in: ispionline.it, 30.03.2019
Güney Yildiz

Shifting alliances in the Middle East: a risk of further instability

in: Building Trust: the Challenge of Peace and Stability in the Mediterranean, pp.68-71, MED Report 2018, Istituto per gli Studi di Politica Internazionale

In the Media/ »Point of View« (selection):

Güney Yildiz

GCC/Qatar Reconciliation: Good or Bad News for Turkey?

The 5 January agreement between Doha and Riyadh and its allies ends the blockade on Qatar. Given that Qatar is Turkey’s only influential Arab ally in the region, the deal has implications for Ankara. Güney Yildiz examines the prospects.

Point of View, 18.01.2021
Güney Yildiz

Disaster Diplomacy Will Not Reconcile Turkey and Greece

Expectations of a thaw between Turkey and Greece in the aftermath of the recent earthquake are misplaced. As Güney Yildiz explains, past disaster diplomacy was contingent on pre-existing rapprochement trends. Today the relationship is in a downward spiral.

Point of View, 06.11.2020
Güney Yildiz

Turkish-French Culture War over Islamist Radicalism and Islamophobia May Unite Europe against Turkey

Conflict between Paris and Ankara over apparently symbolic issues could cost Turkey much more dearly than its geopolitical feuds with its Western partners, argues Güney Yildiz.

Point of View, 06.11.2020
Güney Yildiz

How Russia and Turkey sidelined Europe on Libya

in: mei.edu, 17.01.2020
Güney Yildiz

US withdrawal from Syria leaves Kurds backed into a corner

Donald Trump's decision to put an end to the US military operation against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria has left many observers wondering what might happen to Washington's main partners on the ground, the Kurds, and whether their enemy Turkey offered the president anything in return.

in: bbc.com, 20.12.2019

Media quotes (selection):

Hannah Lucinda Smith

Hidden agenda: how Erdogan is using Syrian exiles to bolster his ambitions

in: thetimes.co.uk, 12.11.2019
Amberin Zaman

Risking Turkey’s ire, Iraqi Kurds back Syrian brethren

in: al-monitor.com, 04.11.2019
france 24

Turkey dismisses US threats, amasses troops on Syrian border

in: france24.com, 09.10.2019
Hannah Lucinda Smith, Burhan Yuksekkas

How Putin turned Erdogan against the West

in: thetimes.co.uk, 17.07.2019
Sune Engel Rasmussen, Dion Nissenbaum

Turkish Ground Offensive Targets Syrian Kurdish Enclave

U.S. raises concerns about plight of civilians and urges Ankara to exercise restraint

in: wsj.com, 21.01.2018

SWP Podcast

Günter Seufert, Ilke Toygür
EU-Turkey relations: Between democracy and transactionalism

Following the European Council meeting last week which suggests a dual approach for Turkey-EU relations, William Noah Glucroft talks to Günter Seufert and Ilke Toygür about the most important issues that are confronting the EU-Turkey relations with a special focus on the next steps.

Alan Makovsky, Ilke Toygür
New US President - Boost or Blow for EU's Tricky Ties with Turkey?

Damien McGuinness talks to Alan Makovsky and Ilke Toygür about what a Biden presidency means for EU-Turkey relations. Will it improve that rocky relationship? And what does the US expect from the EU?

SWP Research Papers

Sinem Adar, Günter Seufert
Turkey’s Presidential System after Two and a Half Years

An Overview of Institutions and Politics

Günter Seufert
Is the Fethullah Gülen Movement Overstretching Itself?

A Turkish Religious Community as a National and International Player