On the Middle East with Amberin Zaman

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has decided to tell the Turkish parliament to greenlight Sweden's NATO membership, prompting a flood of praise from alliance leaders. US President Joe Biden, who met with Erdogan for more than an hour, hailed him for what he termed Erdogan's courage. At the same time, Erdogan angered the Kremlin with a series of moves in support of Ukraine including backing its membership of NATO. Is Erdogan turning away from Russia in favor of America and Europe? Analyst Nicholas Danforth says such conclusions are premature.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's victory in the May presidential and parliamentary polls ushers in a new and irreversible era in Turkish politics, cementing one man rule

and reducing parliament to more of a rubber stamp. The sole threat to Erdogan's grip over power is Turkey's floundering economy but it looks like Turkey's longest serving ruler will muddle through — at least till nationwide local elections next spring. 

For more on Turkey's descent into autocracy read Yavuz Baydar's piece.

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The legacy of Qassem Soleimani, the legendary commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Al Quds Force, continues to reverberate across the region, says his biographer Arash Azizi. He has left a vacuum that has yet to be filled.

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was just re-elected president even though pollsters predicted that his rival would win.

Turkey scholar Howard Eissenstat says that Erdogan, the country's most skilled politician in modern times, is a master at reading the nation's pulse. But can he sustain his rule in the midst of a failing economy and prevail in critical local elections that are to be held next year?

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The co-chair of the main party governing Kurdish-led northeast Syria believes Arab engagement with President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may help secure a peaceful resolution to the Syrian conflict, provided that there are conditions attached.

These include granting ethnic and religious minorities equal rights. However, Muslim says "the miserable" League has delivered little if anything on other Arab conflicts.

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Turkey's Kurds are poised to swing the outcome of the May 14 presidential and parliamentary elections. Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is facing the biggest challenge in his 20 years in uninterrupted power. Kurdish parliamentary candidate Ceylan Akca says that despite his government's attempts to intimidate Kurdish voters, the opposition will prevail.

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Turkey and Iraq have been mired in a legal dispute over the export of Iraqi Kurdish oil through Turkish export terminals. Baghdad says the deal struck between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds to sell oil is illegal. The International Chamber of Commerce's international arbitration fined Turkey for breach of contract. Baghdad and the Iraqi Kurds have since agreed to resume exports on new terms that gives the central government a greater say. However, Ankara has not allowed the exports to resume. Bilal Wahab, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, believes Turkey wants pledges from Baghdad that it won't seek further compensation for periods uncovered by the arbitration case. The standoff is leading to a huge loss of revenue for the Iraqi Kurds. 

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Turkey’s watershed elections on which the future of its crippled democracy hangs are due to be held on May 14. Opinion polls continue to point to a tight race making the outcome of the presidential and parliamentary polls difficult to call . Election security remains a big concern and there is little doubt that Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan will stop at little to win. The largest pro-Kurdish bloc however dealt him something of a blow this week declaring it would not field its own candidate for the presidential race. POMED's Merve Tahiroglu says the Kurds will do their best to help the opposition candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu win in a first round. 

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan risks losing power for the first time in 20 years in elections that are to be held on May 14. He has turned to Huda par, an Islamist Kurdish party that has roots in Hizbullah, a violent group that waged a bloody war against the PKK and its sympathizers in the 1990s. London-based academic Mashuq Kurt is the author of a widely acclaimed book on Turkey's Hizbullah. He says violence between Huda Par and PKK supporters could be reignited should the election results be contested. 

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