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      David Lepeska

      David Lepeska

      Contributor
      Location
      David Lepeska is a global affairs contributor for The National. An award-winning journalist who previously served as a foreign correspondent for the paper, he has contributed to The New York Times, The Guardian, The Atlantic and other outlets, written a memoir about his time in Kashmir, and worked at the UN and the World Bank. Today he is Publisher/Editor at online travel magazine Escape Artist
      Follow on XLinkedIn

      Articles

      The government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has generally ignored health experts, according to a report for the US National Institutes of Health. AP Photo
      The global Covid-19 gap is widening

      The world is not safe so long as the emerging world continues to struggle to cope with the pandemic

      CommentApril 26, 2021
      Armenia has been waiting for the US to recognise the genocide for decades. AFP
      Biden recognising Armenian genocide will rock US-Turkey relations

      Washington's move is a powerful blow to years of denialism lobbying from Ankara

      CommentApril 24, 2021
      An endangered Mouflon sheep runs inside the UN-controlled buffer zone that divide the Greek and Turkish areas of Cyprus. AP
      Is a two-state Cyprus a real possibility?

      Negotiations have not yet seriously considered the possibility, but that does not mean they never will

      CommentApril 19, 2021
      The US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Donald Cook (DDG 75) sets sail in the Bosphorus, on its way to the Mediterranean Sea, in Istanbul, Turkey March 1, 2019. Reuters
      Is Turkey’s idea of a Muslim Middle Zone more than a dream?

      Mr Erdogan and his AKP inner circle see their country as pushing back against Western dominance

      CommentApril 12, 2021
      Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses supporters during the Grand Congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the capital, Ankara, last month. Reuters
      How a desperate Erdogan could end Turkey’s authoritarian drift

      The US and EU have in recent weeks praised Turkey’s efforts to calm tensions in the eastern Mediterranean

      CommentApril 05, 2021
      A currency exchange board in Istanbul last week. Turkey's Lira plummeted as much as 15 per cent to hit 8.39 per US dollar in the first day of trading after Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan replaced Central Bank Governor Naci Agbal triggering fears of another currency crisis. Getty
      Camera9
      Turkey's economic mess is no divine test – it is a policy failure

      The country's ruling party has fired the Central Bank chief, and wants religious clerics to manage the fallout

      CommentMarch 28, 2021
      Syrian refugees wait at the Syrian-Turkish border near Sanliurfa, Turkey. The UNHCR is calling for more help for refugees despite Covid-19. EPA
      What next for the Syrian refugees living in Turkey?

      The international community needs to devise a resettlement plan that offers millions of them a chance to rebuild their lives

      CommentMarch 21, 2021
      Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled out discussing a federal system to reunify Cyprus, insisting that a two-state accord is the only solution for the ethnically split island. AP Photo
      Can Erdogan really succeed in rebranding himself as a peacemaker?

      A slew of overtures towards its neighbours may help Turkey avoid EU sanctions and earn US goodwill

      CommentMarch 15, 2021
      There have been an increasing number of demonstrations against femicide in Turkey. Reuters
      How Turkish women are fighting back against societal oppression

      Turks want to see a more equal society, but it's not an easy dream to realise

      CommentMarch 08, 2021
      A woman is arrested by Turkish police during a demonstration by members of the pro-Kurdish HDP party against Turkish operations against Kurds in Syria in 2018. AFP
      How Turkey's government abuses - and uses - Kurdish groups

      There is a long history of Kurds being respected only when they have something Erdogan's government wants

      CommentMarch 01, 2021
      Many in Turkey today question whether a space programme is an appropriate priority for the government. AP
      Is Turkey's space programme a distraction from earthly problems?

      Is it the right time for a mission in the great beyond, when Turkey has so many earthly challenges to address?

      CommentFebruary 23, 2021
      Then US vice president Joe Biden speaks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul in 2016. Biden has yet to give Erdogan a call since being sworn in as president. AFP
      Small steps, not giant leaps, will help mend US-Turkey relations

      There are areas in which Biden and Erdogan can co-operate on before getting to the hot-button issues

      CommentFebruary 15, 2021
      Police have arrested several participants in protests that were initially about academic freedom, but morphed into demonstrations against broader issues in Turkey. AP
      ‘Shop on a full stomach’: on poverty and protests in Turkey

      Rather than address protesters' concerns, Erdogan wants to exploit them

      CommentFebruary 10, 2021
      A Syrian Kurdish fighter is stationed on a defence line around Kobani in December 2014. Getty Images
      Turkey sees 'terrorists' everywhere, except for its own proxies

      A network of Ankara-backed paramilitaries is proliferating

      CommentFebruary 01, 2021
      Members of the Turkish Youth Union shout anti-government slogans during a protest against a Twitter ban in Ankara in 2014. Reuters
      Turkey is fighting its own war on Big Tech

      One of the last remaining platforms for Erdogan's critics is facing an uphill battle for survival in the country

      CommentJanuary 24, 2021
      More Articles

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