Interview with Helmut Sorge, columnist, on the Turkish military operation in Syria

October 17, 2019

Questions : 1/ Which will be the consequences of the Turkish military operation in Syria? 2/ Did Washington betray its Kurdish allies? 3/ Will Isis be strenghtened by the Turkish move?

Speakers
Helmut Sorge
Columnist
Helmut Sorge is a columnist at the Policy Center for the New South, where he publishes opinion pieces in the format of international press reviews of current events related to the Middle East and European affairs, and conducts interviews with high level policy makers and PCNS researchers. He is also a lecturer on journalism and the media. For over 40 years, Helmut Sorge served as a writer, former Foreign correspondent, Foreign editor, and Middle East expert for Germany's leading newsmagazine "Der Spiegel" to Washington, London, Paris and Los Angeles. He reported from Vietnam, the Middle East, wrote about safaris, nuclear accidents, visited prisoners on death row in the United States. The German weekly “Gala” summarized in 2011, when his latest book, a collection of biographies ...

RELATED CONTENT

  • Authors
    July 17, 2026
    Les relations, très étroites, entre l’énergie et la géopolitique sont bien connues. Cela vaut aussi pour plusieurs conflits armés. Mais, dans la période récente, le conflit le plus lié à l’énergie est la guerre d’Iran de 2026, qui a débuté le 28 février. Un cessez-le-feu est en vigueur depuis le 8 avril et un protocole d’accord a été signé le 17 juin par l’Iran et les États-Unis. Mais, comme le montrent les attaques de l’Iran contre des navires et les frappes américaines de ces dern ...
  • Authors
    July 15, 2026
    We Are Watching You In April 2026, the UK Ministry of Defence revealed that it had tracked a covert Russian submarine operation apparently intended to map critical undersea cables and pipelines in the North Atlantic and the North Sea. A Russian attack submarine and two specialised intelligence vessels operated by the Main Directorate of Deep-Sea Research, commonly known as GUGI, were reportedly monitored for four weeks by the Royal Navy, including HMS St Albans and P-8 Poseidon ...
  • Authors
    July 13, 2026
    On “marinetraffic.com”, thousands of triangles fill a map of the world’s ports and oceans, each representing the active location and destination of a ship, reported the “McGill International Review” (April 16, 2026) adding,” suspicious tankers are plentiful among them.” One of these vessels, marked by a red triangle, appears, zoomed, as “Monique”, a twenty-year-old vessel, aka Tokyo, Phuket and Elysia. Its old age and the frequent name change, suspects reporter Julnar Alzuki, “indic ...
  • July 3, 2026
    This episode explores Russia’s growing influence in Africa through media, information warfare, and anti-Western narratives. It examines how Moscow uses historical ties, social media, local influencers, and security partnerships to shape perceptions, while questioning the real scope and ...
  • Authors
    June 30, 2026
    The inventory is worrisomely low The US military has fired off more than 1000 Tomahawk cruise missiles, roughly ten times the number it currently buys each year. The Pentagon used more than 1200 Patriot interceptor missiles, "more than three million dollars a pop", and more than 1000 precision strike, ground based missiles, "leaving the inventories worrisomely low." US commanders were forced to ration interceptors by letting unguided or less destructive missiles hit empty or no ...
  • Authors
    June 19, 2026
    At the end of May 2026, Israeli airstrikes targeted the surroundings of Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Chaqif), near Nabatiyeh, before the Israeli army announced that it had captured the site. This development raises a fundamental question: why does a medieval fortified hilltop retain military value in the age of satellites, drones, and cruise missiles?This Policy Brief argues that Beaufort's significance is geographical before it is ideological or technological. Overlooking the Litani ...
  • Authors
    June 19, 2026
    Fin mai 2026, des frappes israéliennes ont visé les abords du château de Beaufort (Qalaat al-Chaqif), près de Nabatiyeh, avant que l'armée israélienne n'en annonce la prise. Ce fait soulève une question centrale : pourquoi une hauteur fortifiée au Moyen Âge conserve-t-elle une valeur militaire à l'ère des satellites, des drones et des missiles de croisière ?Le présent Policy Brief tente de démontrer que la valeur de Beaufort est géographique avant d'être idéologique ou technologique ...
  • Authors
    June 19, 2026
    The early March 2026 Pentagon briefings were tuned towards triumph and surrender - unconditional. The white flag of defeat was visible on the Iran horizon, and America's commander in chief needed only a few more weeks to declare "their military is gone. Wiped out". His secretary of war, Pete Hegseth, added to Trump's assessment his own, the Iranian navy was "decimated, destroyed and defeated", the naval fleet of the enemy rested on the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Iran's defense indu ...