Landmark events of the past should be remembered or even commemorated if they bear direct significance to the present and serve as an indicator to future calamities. For the scholars of Greco-Turkish relations today is a landmark event. On this day 19th of May in 1919, two parallel events took…
Read MoreHaving outlined the sad historical background of the denial of implementation of the core UN principles of equal rights and of self-determination for the people of Cyprus in our Victory Day anniversary analysis (9 May 2016), it is necessary to take a look at the current state of affairs with…
Read MoreToday marks the anniversary of the defeat of Nazism. The 9th of May 1945, Victory Day, marks the date Nazi Germany, bent on subjugating the whole world, was utterly defeated by the Allied Powers. The latter through their commitments signed under both the Atlantic (1941) and the UN Charter (1945)…
Read MoreAt 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 MoreBefore the week closes a fresh suicide bomb explosion hits Istiklal – the famous pedestrian high street in the heart of Istanbul (Constantinople). Known to most historically aware European travelers as Rue du Pera, Istiklal is frequented by scores of world class tourists. The German and other European governments have…
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 refugee crisis in Europe escalates by the day to an unprecedented scale shaking the very foundations of the European Union. Just a week away from the crucial summit in Brussels, scheduled for the 7th of March 2016, the European Union is in disarray, lost in a fearful tunnel without…
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