Turkey is bordered by eight countries: Syria and Iraq to the south; Iran, Armenia, and the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan to the east; Georgia to the northeast; Bulgaria to the northwest; and Greece to the west. Just reading the set of eight countries bordering Turkey brings a Middle East focus to the storyline and, currently, a large Syrian refugee flow into the country (and, in many cases, onward to European countries).

In this segment of the globalEDGE Business Beat, Tomas Hult hosts Russel Lucas, Director of Global Studies and Associate Professor of Arabic Studies at Michigan State University, and an expert on Turkey, to discuss current events in the country. The focus is mainly on how Turkey is handling the influx of Syrian refugees into the country, the outlook for Turkey’s relationship with the European Union countries regarding refugees, and the outlook for Turkey’s relationship with the US.