Erdoğan Strikes Turkey's Last Opposition
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman examines President Erdoğan's crackdown on Turkey's last credible opposition.
Essays
The New Yorker
What to Make of Military Endorsements
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman examines dueling letters of retired military officers endorsing Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Atatürk vs. Erdoğan: Turkey's Long Struggle
In this essay for The New Yorker, written after the July 2016 coup attempt, Elliot Ackerman examines the long struggle between Atatürk's secular Turkey and Erdoğan's Turkey.
The Arrivals Hall at Atatürk Airport
In this essay for The New Yorker, written a day after the bombing at Istanbul's Atatürk Airport, Elliot Ackerman reflects on the attack and its aftermath.
Why Trump Was Wrong About the Troops
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman responds to Donald Trump's suggestion that U.S. soldiers profited from Iraq reconstruction funds.
Erdoğan's ISIS Opportunism
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman examines how Erdoğan's A.K.P. has used the war against ISIS to try to marginalize Turkey's Kurds.
The Story of the Story at Tal Abyad
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman reflects on the media scene at the Turkish-Syrian border after Tal Abyad fell from ISIS control.
Justice, In and Out of Uniform
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman examines why David Petraeus, Jeffrey Sterling, and the Blackwater contractors received such different sentences.
A True Story of the Syrian Civil War
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman attends a private Istanbul screening of "The Cow Farm," a documentary about a Syrian regime soldier.
The U.S. Friendship with the Kurds
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman visits Erbil and reflects on the complicated friendship between the U.S. and the Kurds against ISIS.
Assassination and the American Language
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman reflects on the language America uses to describe drone strikes and targeted killing.
Eight Men, and One Gun, on the Iraqi Front
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman visits a peshmerga front-line position near Makmour, Iraq, held by eight men and one machine gun.
Pictures from My War
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman reflects on two photographs that bookend his experience of the Iraq War.
Waiting Out the Afghan War
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman reflects on the Afghan war's lack of a defined strategy after the death of Major General Harold Greene.
Watching ISIS Flourish Where We Once Fought
In this essay for The New Yorker, Elliot Ackerman reflects on his friendship with a Syrian activist and the power vacuum that let ISIS rise.