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Henri J. Barkey on the Turkish Crisis

Turkey is facing an economic crisis — its lira has fallen almost 40 percent this year — and its relations with the U.S. are under severe strain, with gunfire near the American embassy on Monday and a diplomatic battle over detained pastor Andrew Brunson at a very public, bitter impasse. To get a sense of what all this might mean, we spoke with Henri J. Barkey, Cohen Professor of International Relations at Lehigh University and senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

About Henri J. Barkey:

Henri J. Barkey is a senior fellow for Middle East studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the Bernard L. and Bertha F. Cohen Chair in International Relations at Lehigh University. At CFR he will be working on the strategic future of the Kurds in the Middle East under a grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation. Previously he was the Director of the Middle East Center at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars (2015-2017). Barkey served as chair of the Department of International Relations at Lehigh University for 13 years. He served on the State Department Policy Planning Staff (1998-2000) working on the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East and intelligence-related issues. He was a non-resident Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2008-11. Currently he also serves as the chair of the Academic Committee on the Board of Trustees of the American University in Iraq, Sulaimani. He has written extensively on Turkey, the Kurds and other Middle East issues.