Hagia Sophia

January 26, 2022 | Reuel Marc Gerecht |

The Post-Post-JCPOA World

Is a nuclear Iran something Republicans must now simply accept?

December 15, 2021 | Aykan Erdemir, Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir

Bottom-Up Hope: Local Governments Bolster Religious Pluralism in Turkey

When powerful states and their proxies intensify religious persecution worldwide and democratic governments under a neo-isolationist spell look the other way, where can vulnerable religious minorities find...

November 26, 2021 | Aykan Erdemir, Paul Gadalla

Russia’s Power Games Extend to the Orthodox Church

Pushing back against Russia’s multipronged assault on the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which includes Putin and Erdogan’s coordinated pressure on an institution they see as posing a threat to their respective illiberal projects, requires devising and implementing a concerted transatlantic strategy.

June 3, 2021 | Aykan Erdemir, Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir

State Department Should Deliver an Honest Message about Turkey’s Religious Freedom Record

The US Department of State’s annual report on international religious freedom, released on May 12, documents the ongoing erosion of freedom of religion or belief in Turkey. The report echoes the concerns...

April 29, 2021 | Aykan Erdemir, Nadine Maenza

Turkey Needs to Change its Policy and Rhetoric Toward Religious Minorities

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan stunned his country’s Christians and Jews by publicly using the slur “gavur” (infidel), a pejorative designation for non-Muslims, to criticize...

October 2, 2020 | Aykan Erdemir, Philip Kowalski

The United Nations: Erdogan’s Favorite Platform for Trolling the World

The United Nations General Assembly, which meets every September, offers authoritarian heads of state their favorite platform for trolling the world. For this year’s 75th annual session, Turkish president...

October 1, 2020 | Philip Kowalski |

Turkey Uses Medieval Score-Settling To Justify Its Hagia Sophia Conversion

Europe is now home to one of the world’s strangest paradoxes. The continent’s most prominent mosque, the Great Mosque of Cordoba, has served as a church since the year 1236. Meanwhile, Ankara in July converted Europe’s...

August 9, 2020 | Aykan Erdemir |

The Battle of Hagia Sophia: Erdogan’s Conquest of the Turkish Republic

This will set a dangerous precedent, emboldening supremacists not only in Turkey but also in the Middle East and North Africa.

August 4, 2020 | Aykan Erdemir |

Erdogan’s Target in Hagia Sophia Stunt was Ataturk’s Legacy

The re-designation of this iconic building as a mosque was not just a sop to the Turkish President’s Islamist fans – but another blow at the memory of the statesman whose legacy haunts and frustrates him.

July 24, 2020 | Aykan Erdemir, Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir

Turkish Government’s Hagia Sophia Rhetoric Adds Insult to Injury

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan converted the Hagia Sophia into a mosque on July 10, drawing criticism from foreign governments ranging from the United States to Russia, including a joint condemnation by...

May 12, 2020 | Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir, Aykan Erdemir

Turkey the Only NATO Member Singled out in Annual Religious Freedom Report

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released its 2020 Annual Report on April 28 and recommended the US government include Turkey on the State Department’s “Special...

June 9, 2016 | Aykan Erdemir |

BBC Newsday

FDD senior fellow Aykan Erdemir discusses the Turkish government's move to have Quran recitations at Hagia Sophia during the month of Ramadan.  ...

June 4, 2014 | Merve Tahiroglu FDD Policy Brief |

Turkey’s Double Standards On Protests

Anti-government demonstrators gathered at Istanbul’s Taksim Square on Saturday, May 31 on the first anniversary of last year’s Gezi Park protests. As expected, the government responde...

July 29, 2010 | Clifford D. May

Dear Mayor Bloomberg

Your Honor: In regard to the proposal to build an Islamic center at the site of the 9/11 terrorist attack in Manhattan, I commend you for saying: “Everything the United States stan...