{"id":824853,"date":"2026-03-13T12:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=824853"},"modified":"2026-03-13T12:07:56","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T09:07:56","slug":"my-response-to-new-york-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2026\/03\/13\/my-response-to-new-york-post\/","title":{"rendered":"My Response to New York Post"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The recent opinion piece in the New York Post titled \u201cBeware Turkey\u2019s ambitions in the post Iran power vacuum,\u201d<\/em> written by Jonathan Schanzer and published March 4, 2026, reflects again a troubling pattern in which speculation is presented as strategic analysis with a paper that always has an axe to grind with Turkiye . Opinion pages are meant to provoke debate, but serious commentary on international affairs must begin with accuracy, fact of evidence  and context both of which appear noticeably absent with the New York Post .<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, a matter of basic accuracy and respect. The official name of the country is T\u00fcrkiye<\/strong>, not \u201cTurkey.\u201d The Government of the Republic of T\u00fcrkiye formally requested that this name be used in international discourse and institutions. When individuals presenting themselves as analysts of Middle Eastern affairs cannot even employ the correct name of a NATO ally, it raises legitimate questions about the depth of their expertise. It is remarkable that some commentators seated comfortably in editorial offices have suddenly become self declared specialists on T\u00fcrkiye and the Middle East while failing to get even the most fundamental facts correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More importantly, the article advances a narrative portraying T\u00fcrkiye as a destabilizing force poised to exploit a hypothetical Iranian collapse. This framing ignores a strategic reality: T\u00fcrkiye is a longstanding member of NATO and possesses the alliance\u2019s second largest military. For decades it has contributed to the collective defense of Europe and the transatlantic community while serving as a frontline state bordering some of the most volatile regions in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than forty years, T\u00fcrkiye has confronted terrorism at enormous cost. Over 45,000 innocent people women, children, teachers, doctors, and security personnel have lost their lives<\/strong> to terrorist violence. To casually assert that \u201cAnkara has been cultivating terrorist proxies\u201d without credible evidence is not analysis; it is an outright falsehood that disregards the painful reality of T\u00fcrkiye\u2019s long struggle against terrorism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, T\u00fcrkiye has been one of the only countries in the region with boots on the ground fighting multiple terrorist threats simultaneously, including ISIS, the PKK, and Iranian backed militant networks seeking to expand Tehran\u2019s influence. Turkish operations in northern Syria and Iraq were not exercises in imperial ambition but efforts to prevent terrorism from spilling across its borders and to block the very instability critics now claim to fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equally misleading is the assertion that \u201cAnkara has blanketed the region\u201d to fill some imagined geopolitical vacuum. In reality, the areas where T\u00fcrkiye has operated militarily were entered largely in response to direct security threats or through coordination with local authorities. In many of these areas, Turkish presence has helped establish relative security, humanitarian access, and basic stability<\/strong> for local populations who had previously been subjected to extremist control or civil war conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The broader narrative advanced by the article reflects a long standing editorial tendency within the New York Post to frame T\u00fcrkiye through a lens of suspicion rather than strategic reality. Such portrayals may resonate with readers who don’t even know where District of Columbia is  in USA (D.C.) and  unfamiliar with the complexities of the region, but they do little to inform the American public or contribute to constructive policy debate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes this situation particularly unfortunate is the continued silence of Ahmet Yazal, the New York Consul General of the Republic of T\u00fcrkiye in New York in rebutting Turkish movements official position.  At a time when misleading narratives about T\u00fcrkiye appear regularly in major American tabloids, one would expect stronger public engagement in defending the country\u2019s reputation. Diplomacy requires more than ceremonial presence and walking two dogs; it requires active communication when misinformation circulates widely. Not Opinion , but official government policy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, the article does not expose T\u00fcrkiye. Instead, it highlights the risks of substituting ideology for strategy and speculation for evidence. T\u00fcrkiye remains a NATO ally, a regional superpower, and a country that understands the cost of war and terrorism more than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign policy demands seriousness, not slogans. Unfortunately, this commentary offers little of the former. At a time when Western unity is essential, dismissive narratives about allies do not strengthen the alliance they weaken it. With NATO ally T\u00fcrkiye at the table, the transatlantic community is stronger, not threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ibrahim Kurtulus\u00a0
Staten Island, New York\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/03\/04\/opinion\/beware-turkeys-ambitions-in-the-post-iran-power-vacuum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recent opinion piece in the New York Post titled \u201cBeware Turkey\u2019s ambitions in the post Iran power vacuum,\u201d written by Jonathan Schanzer and published March 4, 2026, reflects again a troubling pattern in which speculation is presented as strategic analysis with a paper that always has an axe to grind with Turkiye . Opinion pages are meant to provoke debate, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":782195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11047,62,34],"tags":[11079,3133],"class_list":["post-824853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ibrahim-kurtulus","category-iran_","category-usa","tag-new-york-post","tag-turkey-iran-alliance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824853\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782195"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}