“We reached a level of injustice we could no longer take. For every action, there is a reaction,” explained one civil society activist following the Oct. 1 outbreak of protests in Baghdad and central and southern Iraq.
The team of researchers from the Syrian Association for Citizen’s Dignity (SACD) worked for months under extremely challenging conditions to interview 165 people in Homs, Damascus countryside, Dara’a, and Aleppo to document the security situation of returnees and those living in areas covered by “reconciliation agreements” in parts of Syria under the control of the regime of Bashar al-Assad. The resulting report and its underlying research comprise an unprecedented effort, considering that no international organization, including the UNHCR, has real, uncensored access to all areas under Assad’s control. It is virtually impossible to publicly gather information in these areas, especially when it comes to the security situation, threats facing returnees, their access to basic services, and their views on the return process and other relevant issues. That is why this report provides unique insights into one of the most relevant issues for the future of Syria.
Turkey’s cross-border incursion into northeastern Syria has stirred up a hornet’s nest of instability and threats. If left unchecked, this latest “war within a war” will have deeply destabilizing consequences for many years. The blame for this catastrophe lies in the hands of one man: President Donald Trump. Following a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Oct. 6, President Trump swiftly ordered nearly 100 American troops to evacuate their positions along the Syrian-Turkish border, thereby removing the only obstacle that had, until then, prevented Turkey from crossing to attack. Although the president may not have given a verbal “green light,” his decision could only have been read one way in Ankara.
Something had to give.
Decades of corruption and criminal mismanagement by Lebanon’s ruling elites — the same clique who have governed the country since its independence in 1943 — have finally led to an economic implosion and a social explosion.
La mondialisation, le retour du religieux et l’accroissement des flux migratoires ont favorisé les crispations identitaires, le populisme et le virus du communautarisme.
When one thinks of the recent chaos that has been unfolding in Iraq since the Parliamentary Elections most thoughts generally focus on the process that has been unfolding to name not only a new Speaker for Parliament but potentially decide who will run Iraq as well.
Kurds are to be awarded to the Turkish Security Services for their Brilliant Operations undertaken since early November 2018.
One of the surprises so far in 2019 in a diplomatic sense has to be the reestablishment of ties between the State of Israel and Chad. From State Visits to formal ties to even the meeting that took place between the Ambassadors at the United Nations within the last 24 hours it is clear that some of these States in the Sahel are seeking new partners. Why is that?
The current image of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to take a hit. Earlier this month was the one year anniversary of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The situation in Yemen continues to fester and earlier this summer a series of UAV strikes targeted the country including the Petroleum Industry.
The Greek government has said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally controls the migration flows to Greece and turns them on and off to extract more money and other political concessions from the European Union. In recent months, the Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to open the floodgates of mass migration to Greece, and, by extension, to the rest of Europe.