The city of Manbij is currently the focal point of the Turkish government’s policy towards Syria. The topicality of the issue increased after Donald Trump had announced the pullout of US troops from the war-torn Arab country. Acquiring special significance in this light are the Turkish-American agreements that the two countries attained on the eve of Erdogan’s visit to Moscow ...
A coup is underway in Venezuela. On January 23, Juan Guaido, the speaker of the National Assembly, announced himself to be the president of the country at a demonstration in Caracas. The United States, Canada and seven Latin American States immediately recognized the new “president.” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro announced that the United States was behind the coup on Wednesday. ...
On Monday, January 21, a referendum on autonomy for the Mindanao region was held in the Philippines. Locals voted on whether or not they support the creation of a self-governing region in Mindanao for the island’s Muslim majority region. The results will be announced on January 26, with 2.8 million Muslims already having participated in the referendum. If the referendum ...
To illustrate everyday problems with immigration in the EU let’s look at three short news stories, all from the end of 2018: On the 19th of December, a Ukrainian immigrant on Warsaw street attacks a Pole with a knife. At the same time, the media sounds alarm bells telling Polish employers that their Ukrainian employees will soon set off for ...
Turkey and USA – Safe zone to be established in North Syrian Last week, the presidents of the United States and Turkey, Donald Trump and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, discussed the idea of setting up a safe zone in northern Syria. Erdogan also expressed support for his American counterpart in his decision to withdraw US troops from Syria. According to Trump, ...
What began with a simple referendum has sent Westminster spiraling into absolute chaos. Brexit negotiations have all but flopped, as British MP’s can only agree on one thing – they are not in agreement. Months of negotiating, arguing, wheeling, and dealing came down to the January 15th vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal. MP’s all had ...
The EU has been on a collision course with Iran despite European leaders’ former promises that they would not to adhere to the terms of Trump’s sanctions package. Most damningly, Europe agreed to implement sanctions against two Iranian diplomats and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence “for their assassination plots on European soil”. In November, Danish authorities announced that a Norwegian ...
Turkey’s President authored two articles in the printed media in January – one in The New York Times and the other, in the Moscow-based business daily Kommersant. The two newspapers are as different at their home countries but Mr. Erdogan’s attempts to address both Russia and the US contain a certain common – and rather important – element. Last week, ...
Admiral Touraj Hassani, Deputy of the Iranian Navy, announced a plan to send a fleet of warships to the Atlantic Ocean by March 2019. What does Iran actually hope to accomplish with this provocative move? Shortly before the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Shah bought three destroyers from the US to strengthen Iran’s Navy. Although the bill for the warships ...
The magazine Le Point is one of the main media outlets of the French conservative “center-right”. One of its December issues carries the cover title “France Faces its History. 1648, 1789, 1830, 1848, 1871 … four centuries of revolutions.” The cover also features a painting by Pierre-Jérôme Lordon, showing people clashing with the army at Rue de Babylone, in Paris, ...