At the beginning of April the Dutch government and society sent a clear signal to Kiev that Ukraine’s accession to the EU is impossible. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte declared that Ukraine will “never” join the EU. According to Amsterdam, Kiev today needs to establish good relations with the EU…
Read More“Today Turkey is – and this is not just a political, formal assessment, it is also my very private personal feeling also after our today visit – today Turkey is the best example for the whole world how we should treat refugees. No one has the right to lecture Turkey…
Read MoreThat’s over now, we are going to finish this off thundered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a televised speech to the state-run Red Crescent humanitarian organization, Monday 4 April 2016. State television channel TRT aired live the speech. The neo-Sultan was referring to the generation old autonomy-seeking Kurdish insurgency…
Read MoreIt is a truism to say there is a price to everything in the world we live in. As more and more ‘atmospheric’ noise is made by international actors (UN, EU) about the imminence of a Cyprus settlement, it is vital that we shed at least some light on the…
Read MoreThe first five days of November 2013 saw the Nobel Laureate (1995) Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. As a guest participant in this 60th biennial world class conference on global security concerns, I was assigned to the Working Group ‘Turkey and its Neighbours’. Central…
Read MoreThe White House has repeatedly stated that Russia undermined U.S. efforts to achieve a political settlement in Syria, supporting the Government of President Bashar al-Assad. The American administration further claims that Moscow continues to hinder opportunities to engage the moderate Syrian opposition in the discussion of political change, in which,…
Read MoreWith the passage of time an increasing number analysts believe that the Ukrainian crisis has become a kind of turning point, after which American influence in the world will decline. It is highly likely that Ukraine will go down in history as the country where the US, so far considered…
Read MoreNo sooner the first NAVTEX signaling a concerted plan of provocations in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone expired, Ankara issued a second Navigation Telex notifying the apathetic world that it is here to stay – audaciously seeking to block waters even closer to the southern coast of the Republic of…
Read MoreThe approval and implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973, and the subsequent NATO led intervention in Libya against the dictatorial rule of Muammar al-Qaddafi have signalled the first time in history, NATO’s declaration of war against an Arab country. Additionally, with the usage of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P)…
Read MoreToday there is no resident of the troubled Ukraine, who would not ask himself/herself the tantalizing question: ‘what will happen next?’. Partly the answer to this question can be found by reference to the life and times of Adolf Hitler in the 1920s and 1930s. Today, we bear witness to…
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