However, the apparent victims of what is happening remain people of the Middle East and European countries themselves, which take hundreds of thousands of refugees and forced migrants. The bombings and military operations are in areas far from Brussels, Washington and Moscow. To clarify the situation we will try to answer the fundamental question – Quid prodest – who benefits?
Understanding current market or economic conditions and the interests of various competitors is not sufficient to adequately comprehend ongoing geopolitical processes. This is especially true for the Middle East and the Balkans. A deep analysis and deconstruction of existing regional systems are needed to identify elements of interdependence and develop possible responses to all sorts of challenges.
Turkish presidential election Sunday goes down to the wires
From a geopolitical perspective, the Turkish presidential election on Sunday may appear to be one of the most crucial non-violent political events of this year. But appearances can be deceptive in Turkish politics.
In the surcharged polarisation of “West versus Rest” in international politics, western media is rooting for the defeat of incumbent President Recep Erdogan so that one of the leading proponents of multipolarity and strategic autonomy in the emerging world order who is setting a horrible example for the Global South, walks into the sunset.
Türkiye is raising the heat on the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, denouncing its ties with the Syrian Democratic Forces.
After a helicopter carrying Syrian Kurdish fighters crashed in Duhok on March 26, Türkiye imposed a ban on all flights to and from Sulaimaniyah through its airspace. It did so because it has accused the main party in Sulaimaniyah, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), of allowing members of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to use the airport. According to the Turks, the SDF serves as a proxy for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. However, the SDF has consistently denied this link, as has the United States. Servan Kobani, the commander of the SDF’s antiterror units, the YAT, was among those killed in the crash, and is a nephew of the SDF’s top leader Mazloum Abdi.
Can elections remove an autocrat like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan from power? If you pose this question to Turkey watchers in Western capitals to get their take on the country’s upcoming election, you will get a resounding “no” from a significant number of them. Some will say Erdogan is still very popular—or at least adept at mobilizing his followers. Others will argue that elections do not matter in the entrenched autocracy he has built; one way or another, he will find a way to stay in power. Take the Western conventional wisdom about this Sunday’s election with a grain of salt, and here’s why.
It is a cliché for politicians to claim that an upcoming election is the most critical vote in the history of the country. In Turkey’s case, however, the presidential and parliamentary elections on May 14 are indeed the most consequential ever. The prospects for Turkey’s democratic future are at stake. If President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan wins another term, Turkey will degenerate further into authoritarianism in which elections will not matter. If the opposition wins, however, Turkey’s democracy will have a shot at consolidating. While there is much optimism among opposition supporters that change through the ballot box is within reach, anxiety and fear over election security are not in short supply either.
Tehran will host an international conference on the emerging new world order on May 10-11, General Esmail Ahmadi Moqaddam announced on Monday.
Moqaddam, the former police chief who is currently the head of Iran’s National Defense University, said Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf will deliver opening remarks at the conference.
“In addition, General [Mohammad Hossein] Bagheri, Chief of General Staff of Armed Forces, and three other foreign speakers will be the keynote speakers of the ceremony. The closing ceremony speaker will be Admiral [Ali] Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council,” General Ahmadi Moqaddam added.
“Guests from 36 countries will participate in this conference, and bilateral meetings between Iranian officials and foreign guests, as well as between foreign guests, will be held on the sidelines of this conference,” he added.
The former police chief went on to say that Saudi Arabia does not have an official presence and its scholars are not participating in the conference, but in the coming years, if such conferences are held we will have a serious plan for the participation of our neighbors.
General Bagheri, who recently visited Oman, described the conference as significant. The general pointed out that Tehran would host a significant conference on the new international order, which will be attended by a number of nations, including Oman.
In recent years, Iran and Oman have conducted a number of joint naval exercises.
The Iranian Navy and the Royal Navy of Oman conducted a combined military exercise in the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman in December 2021.
The military drill, which was the eighth of its type between the naval forces of Iran and Oman, was carried out in accordance with a decision made at meetings of the two nations’ joint military friendship commissions.
Islamist parties are falling out of favor across the region, as leaders hope to offer economic benefits combined with authoritarianism.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, facing a difficult election on May 14, announced on April 30 that Turkish intelligence had killed Abu Hussein al-Quraishi — the latest self-styled “Islamic State Caliph” — in Afrin, a Syrian territory under the control of the Turkish military and its proxy Free Syrian Army fighters.
Sudan is geostrategically important to U.S. interests in both Africa and the Middle East. The country’s military rulers, Lt.-Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his deputy Lt.-Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as “Hemedti”), are banking on that fact as they seek to press the Biden administration to focus its Sudan policy on stability, rather than supporting calls for democracy.
Belgium police have arrested an Iraqi immigrant suspected of belonging to an al-Qaeda cell that carried out deadly car bombings in Baghdad in 2009-2010, prosecutors said Friday.
The man, identified by the initials O.Y.T., born in 1979, was detained on Wednesday when police raided an address near the city of Antwerp on orders of an anti-terrorist judge, they said in a statement.