Experts & Staff
Aslı Aydıntaşbaş

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş

Associate Senior Policy Fellow

Areas of expertise

Turkey and Turkish politics; the Kurdish issue (in Turkey and Iraq); democracy; media freedom

Languages

English, Turkish, conversational French

Biography

Asli Aydıntaşbaş is an associate senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe programme at the European Council on Foreign Relation. Her topics of focus include Turkish foreign policy and external ramifications of its domestic politics.

She joined ECFR after a lengthy career in journalism; most recently she was a columnist at Milliyet (2009-2015) and previously a commentator on regional issues in international publications and networks. Aydintasbas’ columns not only delve into issues in Turkish foreign policy vis a vis the Middle East, but also probe issues of freedom and democratization in Turkey. She has written on these issues for publications such as the International Herald Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, Politico, and Newsweek.

Aydıntaşbaş hosted the popular daily television programme Karşı Gündem on CNN Türk from 2013 to 2014. Prior to joining Milliyet, she served as a Washington correspondent and later the Ankara bureau chief for Sabah, one of Turkey’s leading newspapers. She covered the Clinton Administration, the United Nations, the Bush Administration, and the Iraq War in 1997-2004 as a Washington and New York correspondent for NTV and Radikal.

Aydıntaşbaş is a graduate of Bates College, where she was the recipient of Maung Maung Gyi Award for Excellence in International Relations and holds a MA in Journalism and Middle East Studies from New York University.

She is based in Istanbul but travels regularly throughout the Middle East and Europe.

Contact

Photo

Turkey’s end of the refugee bargain

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

Turkey will endeavour to keep to its side of the bargain, but is facing substantial pressure both military and humanitarian

Turkey’s slippery slope to Syria

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

Faced with the prospect of a Kurdish “statelet” emerging on its border, the chances of Turkey charting its own course in Syria are on the increase

Turkey’s triple disaster

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

More refugees, defeat for friendly opposition forces and diminishing hopes for 'safe zones' make Syrian regime's Aleppo advance a nightmare for Ankara

Turkey’s challenges in a region in crisis

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Katharina Botel-Azzinnaro
  • Video

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, journalist and visiting fellow at ECFR, explains whether the recent migration deal with the EU is workable

Turkey: EU partner or buffer state?

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

After EU-Turkey summit, Turkey finds itself closer to Europe – though not necessarily as a potential EU member

Publications

Strategic interdependence: Europe’s new approach in a world of middle powers

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Susi Dennison, Marie Dumoulin, Frédéric Grare, Mark Leonard, Theodore Murphy, José Ignacio Torreblanca
  • Policy Brief

Middle powers are shaping a fragmented world for which Europe is ill prepared. To protect its interests and values, the EU needs a foreign policy strategy that emphasises its wide range of interdependencies

The fall of the Afghan government and what it means for Europe

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, Susanne Baumann, Andrew Lebovich, Kadri Liik, Jana Puglierin, Jeremy Shapiro, Andrew Small, Tara Varma
  • Collection

ECFR’s policy experts examine what the Taliban takeover means for countries and regions around the world: Europe, the US, the Middle East, Russia, China, Iran, Turkey, and the Sahel

Articles

NATO, Gaza, and the future of US-Turkish relations

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

Turkey’s backing of Hamas has left it out of diplomatic processes and further strained its ties with the US. However, its recent decision to approve Sweden’s NATO membership could be an opportunity for Western diplomats to patch things up

How the West should prepare for the Turkish elections

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Jeremy Shapiro
  • Commentary

The US and the EU should refrain from making any interventions during Turkey’s election period – but they may need to respond quickly depending on the results of the vote

Rogue NATO: The new face of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Marie Dumoulin, Ellie Geranmayeh, Janka Oertel
  • Commentary

The SCO is often seen as the anti-NATO, but Putin will struggle to convince the other members – especially the Central Asian states – that his war is more important than Chinese investment

Unsettled: The impact of the Russia-Ukraine crisis on the Middle East and North Africa

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Cinzia Bianco, Hugh Lovatt, Tarek Megerisi, Kelly Petillo
  • Commentary

Heightened conflict in Ukraine could have serious consequences for European interests in the Middle East and North Africa. It could further disrupt energy supplies, exacerbate food insecurity, and help states in the region gain leverage over the US and Europe

War in Ukraine: Erdogan’s greatest challenge yet

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş
  • Commentary

Turkey would attempt to sit on the fence if conflict breaks out in Ukraine. But with domestic challenges rising at home, Recep Tayyip Erdogan may not be able to withstand the pressure from either Russia or NATO allies

Cooling-off: How Europe can help stabilise the Middle East

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Cinzia Bianco, Hugh Lovatt, Tarek Megerisi
  • Commentary

As countries across the Middle East pause to take stock of recent conflicts, Europeans need to do more to support dialogue

West wishes: Turkey’s growing relationship with Ukraine

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Joanna Hosa
  • Commentary

As the Turkish president continues his delicate balancing act between the US and Russia, the crisis in Ukraine presents new opportunities for Ankara’s transatlantic credentials

Specials

Deep sea rivals: Europe, Turkey, and new eastern Mediterranean conflict lines

  • Aslı Aydıntaşbaş, Julien Barnes-Dacey, Cinzia Bianco, John V. Bowlus, Hugh Lovatt, Tarek Megerisi, Michaël Tanchum
  • Special

The eastern Mediterranean is becoming ever more perilous as geopolitical fault lines steadily enmesh the region. These rifts emerge from the Cyprus ‘frozen conflict’, competition for valuable gas fields, and the increasingly entangled wars in Libya and Syria

Podcasts

Events

In the media