How a Syrian Bulgarian wrestler became a ‘terror’ suspect
Bulgarian authorities accuse Mohammed Abdulqader of fighting in Syria based on photos. His family says he is innocent.
Bulgarian authorities accuse Mohammed Abdulqader of fighting in Syria based on photos. His family says he is innocent.
A man who left London to join the Islamic State group in Syria has died while being held in prison in the country, the BBC has been told.
https://www.menatransitionfund.org/overview
In May 2011, the G8 launched the Deauville Partnership as a response to the historical changes underway in several countries in the Middle East and North Africa region. The Deauville Partnership was launched as a long-term, global initiative that provides Arab countries in transition with a framework based on technical support to: (i) strengthen governance for transparent, accountable governments; and (ii) provide an economic framework for sustainable and inclusive growth.
To support the countries in transition to formulate policies and programs and implement reforms, the Deauville Partnership set up the MENA Transition Fund.
The Transition Fund demonstrates a joint commitment by G8 members, Gulf and regional partners, and international and regional financial institutions to support the efforts of the people and governments of the Partnership countries as they overhaul their economic systems to promote more accountable governance, broad-based, sustainable growth, and greater employment opportunities for youth and women.
The Transition Fund has been designed to be rapid, flexible, and responsive so that Partnership countries can quickly call on it in support of a combination of diagnostic analyses, technical advice, and implementation of targeted policy initiatives. Through the Transition Fund, a modest amount of official finance can catalyze much larger changes that will help enable transitions to new, sustainable economic models.
The Transition Fund is a broad-based partnership providing grants for technical cooperation to help transition countries strengthen their governance, social and economic institutions by developing and implementing home-grown and country-owned reforms.
Consistent with its knowledge-sharing and transformational objectives, the Transition Fund emphasizes funding for technical cooperation proposals that leverage and complement support from other partners where relevant, in particular, bilateral donors, academic institutions and policy research institutions, regional and international organizations, industry and labor associations, and other civil society organizations.
South-South partnerships are encouraged (i.e. those between developing/transition countries) including from outside the MENA region, as well as institutions with regional experience focusing on technical cooperation or knowledge sharing.
The Transition Fund focuses on cross-cutting, multi-year projects as well as projects with short-term impacts that are country-owned.
“Would you have enjoyed it so much if a mosque at the center of Europe were converted into a church?” — Ertugrul Özkök, Hurriyet, March 8, 2014.
On February 27, Erdoğan’s government was on the threshold of executing its threat to flood Europe with millions of (mostly Syrian) migrants … Hundreds of thousands of migrants began flocking to the border. By the next day, Greece was not only operating 52 Navy ships to guard its islands close to Turkey; it had also mobilized additional troops on land. Its security forces were able to block 10,000 migrants from entering Greece by way of the Turkish land border.
After the fall of ISIS in 2019, many relatives of fighters who were detained or killed, including 10,000 families of foreign fighters, were housed in camps in territory controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The biggest camps include Roj and al-Hol. Like any closed society, the foreigners’ annex in al-Hol has its own dynamic. To better understand that dynamic, I conducted around 20 in-depth interviews with females in the camp, including those from Europe, the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia, and America. Interviews were conducted in English, Russian, and Serbo-Croatian — languages I speak fluently — and I have been in contact with several of the women for nearly a year now and have developed close relationships.
Today’s landscape is dramatically different from that to which we awoke on Sept. 11, 2001. It’s a complex mix of foreign and domestic forces influenced by economic and social conditions that breed extremism which ebbs and flows across physical and cyber space often defined by great power competition. While terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS have innovated and adapted, U.S. counterterrorism strategy has remained unchanged, fighting yesterday’s war while neglecting present day threats as well as those over the near horizon. America is long overdue to update its counterterrorism strategy and, perhaps more importantly, how we measure success.
Last year, Palestinian activists took to the streets of the Gaza Strip to protest economic hardship and demand that Hamas provide solutions for soaring unemployment and poverty rates. The protests, held under the banner “We want to live!,” were brutally suppressed by Hamas’s security forces and militiamen.
Wednesday, July 1, was meant to be the day on which the Israeli government officially annexed 30% of the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the Jordan Valley. This date, however, came and went and annexation was never actualized.
Washington, DC: President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is considering converting the Hagia Sophia to a Mosque, which has been a museum since its conquest. As Muslims, we appeal to President Erdogan to keep it as a Museum, and not convert it to a Mosque.