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What Erdogan Wants
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So Turkey seems to be a safe haven, and its leader could therefore have his hands free for his Ottoman adventures by attacking both Russia (through Syria) and Europe (through Greece). Or maybe things are going very badly for Erdogan and he would have only one solution to save himself from bankruptcy: robbery and blackmail. The coronavirus has one merit: it does not discriminate. Yellow, black, white, poor, rich, humble, powerful, it attacks them all without any racial, ethnic or social consideration. It is also deaf to propaganda and is incorruptible. He moves forward undisturbed by the gesticulations and the make-up of the figures that all have been used to for decades. Indeed, the cornavirus complies only with the natural laws of epidemics that Erdogan cannot escape. One cannot imagine by what miracle cities such as Istanbul and Ankara, which are heavily visited by Iranians, would not be infested by the disease. But, instead (...)
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Iran as Central Asia’s Hub
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Rahmon, President of Tajikistan Torn between a desire for secularity and an Islamic reality. Saudi Arabia may have been getting more than it bargained for when authorities in Khujand, Tajikistan’s second largest city, ordered that the city’s largest and most popular mosque be converted into a cinema. The order followed the closure of some 2,000 mosques in the country in the last three years and the arrest last month of scores of Muslim clerics and teachers, many of whom were accused of being members of the Muslim Brotherhood, a group that is banned in both Tajikistan and the kingdom. Fewer men sport beards in Tajikistan after being harassed by police, while women in hijabs are far and few between after many were detained and intimidated. Imams deliver sermons (...) -
The World after 2019-nCoV
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nCoV, the little troublemaker nobody anticipated... The trade agreement between China and the USA is about to become irrelevant due to a microscopic saboteur called the coronavirus 2019-nCoV. (Click to enlarge.) (© Satrapia) While international organizations such as the IMF, the OECD or the ADB are not commenting so much on the potentially devastating economic consequences of the pandemic for both China and the entire planet, no one is so naive as to believe that we could get out of this crisis without a scratch. World leaders, starting with Donald Trump, are trying to reassure people and markets to prevent uncontrollable panic attacks. They are counting on Beijing’s brutality to confine people and the virus, while keeping their fingers crossed that the epidemic (...)
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Coronavirus and Central Asia
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For more than twenty years, China has been expanding its economic and physical presence in Central Asia, which, in addition to its mining and oil resources, is the only way to bypass the seas entirely dominated by the navies of Western countries. Black Death (Click to enlarge) The negligence of the Central Asian governments could serve as a breach (...) -
Russians Worried about Regime Change in Iran
Leonid Slutsky
According to Slutsky, that was “a response to new US anti-Iranian sanctions and the EU’s inability to launch the promised financial mechanism to bypass them and compensate for losses from Washington’s policy to reduce Iranian oil exports to zero.”
“The United States is pursuing an obvious objective: to force Iran to abandon the nuclear deal (...)
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Saudi Policy Confronting US Senate
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The six-page draft also holds Prince Mohammed accountable for the devastating war in Yemen that has sparked one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the failure to end the 17-month-old Saudi-United Arab Emirates-led economic and diplomatic boycott of Qatar, and the jailing and torture of Saudi dissidents and activists. In doing so, the resolution confronts not only Prince Mohammed’s policies but also by implication those of his closest ally, UAE crown prince Mohammed bin Zayed. The UAE was the first country that Saudi leader visited after the Khashoggi killing. By (...) -
Great Game in Central Asia: Rivalry Persists
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Central Asia has been a zone of geopolitical rivalry between the world’s top players for centuries. Even when the main part of this territory was part of the USSR, the USA, China and other countries tried to influence the Soviet “soft underbelly”. After 1991, the region quickly moved to the sidelines of the military-strategic interests of Moscow, Beijing and Washington. At present, the three powers are concerned about the threat of Islamic extremism and an increase in drug trafficking in the region. While sharing the same concerns, the parties interpret the causes of (...) -
China’s Silk Road Economic Belt
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The Silk Road Economic Belt (SREB) initiative put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping during his Central Asia visits in September 2013 is considered as one of the two diplomatic initiatives by the new Chinese leadership, with Central Asia the centrepiece of the Belt. Silk Road Economic Belt routes (Credit: kommersant.uz — Click to enlarge) The success of the SREB will to a large extent depend on how well Central Asian countries and the region’s dominant power, Russia, respond to China’s initiative. While official statements tend to suggest that all Central Asian (...)
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