Kathryn Schmidt

America's former ambassador to Turkey, James Jeffrey, once noted, “you have to deal with the Turkey you have, rather than the one you'd like to have," underscoring the importance of America's critical Middle Eastern ally regardless of its…
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Nearly a month following the assassination of the Russian Ambassador to Turkey, Andrey Karlov, we have seen neither a Russian démarche nor a reprisal against the Turkish government for the security oversight that allowed the gunman to enter…
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Whilst the West has been caught in a whirl of angst and apprehension following the results of the American election, arguably more concerning changes to the international balance of power have been unfolding in the Near East. In his most…
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After undergoing significant modifications since it was first announced in November of 2015, the EU-Turkey Joint Action Plan has officially gone into effect as of Monday, April 4. The controversial accord has provided for the first wave…
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You have to understand, that no one puts their children in a boat unless the water is safer than the land… London-based poet Warsan Shire’s “Home” has captured audiences around the world. Each stanza is poignant, carefully crafted…
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“At the nexus of the world’s greatest hopes and its worst problems, we find young people.” With this blend of positivity and pessimism, the United Nations Secretary-General, His Excellency Ban Ki-moon, engaged the McGill community in a…
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Europe is experiencing a migrant crisis of tremendous magnitude, the largest it has experienced since the Second World War. According to the International Organization for Migration, since 2011 4.6 million Syrians have fled their…
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As the new year unfolds, Turkey—under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan—will continue to hold an increasingly significant role within European, Middle Eastern and global affairs. Since the monumental AKP victory in the Fall of 2015,…
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The results of Turkey’s recent parliamentary election were anything but ordinary. Within the past five months, the ruling Justice and Development (AKP) party has successfully recovered from this summer’s inconclusive election in which…
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On September 30, President Vladimir Putin stunned the international community with the deployment of Russian armed forces in Syria. After nearly five years of supporting the faltering regime of Bashar al-Assad since the eruption of the…
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