Written by Mr. Vercihan Ziflioğlu* Turkey’s Syriac community, who adopted Turkish surnames, now want their original surnames back. Yet, a top court says that the laws don’t allow such a move. Members of Turkey’s Syriac Christian community are leading a legal struggle to adopt last names that reflect their identity…
Read MoreThe Greek government, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund are all denying what markets perceive clearly: Greece will eventually default on its debts to its private and public creditors. The politicians prefer to postpone the inevitable by putting public money where private money will no longer go, because…
Read MoreMost Americans were overjoyed to hear of Osama bin Laden’s death. The world is certainly better off now that he is feeding the fish in the Indian Ocean. But this leads one to ask, why are we still fighting in Afghanistan? Isn’t getting him the reason we invaded the country…
Read MoreIn November 2010 a major political event took place in Lisbon. The leaders of the twenty eight NATO member states along with those of the sixteen partner countries gathered in a summit in the capital of Portugal that eventually ended up with the new seventh strategic concept. This should represent…
Read MoreDr. Yiorghos Leventis, Director of International Security Forum – Cyprus, participated in the First Consultative Meeting of the EU Non-Proliferation Consortium held in Brussels on 23-24 May 2011. The Consortium is a novel path-breaking initiative taken by the European Council. Dr. Leventis had the opportunity to exchange views with several…
Read MoreUnder the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Turkey has pursued a policy of good relations with all its neighbours. Well, almost. It has de-mined its border with Syria, tripled trade with Iran, established diplomatic relations with Armenia and reduced its military activities in…
Read MoreDr. Yiorghos Leventis, Director of International Security Forum (ISF), represented the organization upon invitation at the XXIV Winter Course of the International School on Disarmament & Research on Conflicts (ISODARCO), Italian Pugwash Group. The course focused on the theme of Eliminating Nuclear Weapons and Safeguarding Nuclear Technologies. A group of…
Read MoreSix months have elapsed since the tabling of NATO’s new Strategic Concept, and already we see, with the Arab Spring, the limits of the Alliance’s extra-territorial crisis-management capacity. By this I don’t mean the relative inability of the “Unified Protector” mission to decide the fate of Libya. In fact, NATO’s…
Read MoreAfter the collapse of the bipolar Cold-War stalemate that had constrained and antagonised international relations for half a century, the main concern has been putting the world together again. Both the US Security Concept and the EU 1993 Security Strategy indicated “failed States” as the main threat to peace and…
Read MoreWritten by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* SPECIAL ISF ANNIVERSARY FEATURE ARTICLE The latest incident authored last Sunday (17 April 2011) in Berlin by an excessive and arrogant Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish Foreign Minister, serves as a cool reminder of the troublemaking policies of his country. Turkey, a staunch NATO ally, sporting…
Read More