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...The Arab Spring made the Kurds a group central to the US plan to dominate the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and the Persian Gulf. The Kurds who never dropped their centuries-old independence goal out of sight are eager to seize the arising opportunities and to capitalize on the strategic alliance with the US.
Andrei SHERIKHOV | 22.04.2012 |
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The presidential elections in France will open on April 22, and the candidates' campaigning explainably holds the attention of watchers in Ankara. The immediate future of the ties between Turkey and France largely depends on the outcome of the poll, plus their reverting to normalcy can become a prologue to a warming of Turkey's relations with the entire EU. One of the two key contenders whose duel currently defines the intrigue in Paris - the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy - is an outspoken opponent of admitting Turkey to the alliance, whereas his main rival - socialist Francois Hollande - calls for a flexible approach to the issue... The relations between France and Turkey become better readable if the impact of those between France and Germany on the context is taken into account. Geographically, France seems destined for European leadership, but the same is true of Germany, its traditional rival. If, for example, Berlin takes to building a partnership with Moscow, Paris does whatever it takes to derail the process. Sarkozy will never subscribe to the Paris-Berlin-Moscow triad, his formula being Paris-London-Washington...
Vladislav GULEVICH | 18.04.2012 |
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There is one thing certain about U.S. Pentagon strategy: it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks. And using an old trick from Operation Desert Storm, establishing a humanitarian, NATO-protected no-fly salient in northern Iraq’s Kurdish area, appears to be the same strategy envisioned for northern Syria... In Iraq, a no-fly zone was established from the 36th parallel north to the Turkish border. If one were top draw that same boundary westward, it closely compares to the NATO-protected humanitarian zone being proposed for Syria. The NATO-protected northern Syria salient would encompass the cities of Aleppo and Idlib and the provinces of Idlib, Halab, Ar Raqqah, and Al Hasakah (the latter two where many Syrian Kurds live)...
Wayne MADSEN | 11.04.2012 |
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In international diplomacy, when scheduling a major event on which issues of war and peace are pegged and that date is just a week away, and if you still don’t know the venue, you're indeed in some serious trouble. The US secretary of state Hillary Clinton announced while on a visit to Istanbul to attend the 'Friends of Syria' meet on April 1 that the long-awaited meeting of the so-called 'P5+1' to discuss the Iran nuclear issue would take place on April 13. She disclosed that Istanbul would be the venue. But Clinton’s Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi now says Istanbul is only one option. Although “personally speaking”, he likes Istanbul, he proposed Iraq and China as Tehran's preference...
Melkulangara BHADRAKUMAR | 07.04.2012 |
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The future of Syria and Turkey is clouded as long as NATO, including Turkey, and the Salafist states of Arabia and North Africa continue to interfere in the Syrian tragedy. Hatay province will become a refuge for Syria’s Alawites and other minorities seeking protection from expected retribution from a Salafist-controlled or dominated government in Damascus... Such a scenario spells a potential civil war not only in Syria, but also in Turkey... There is also the question as to what side thousands of Afghan-Uzbeks who were settled in Hatay thirty years ago during the Soviet-mujaheddin war in Afghanistan will take...
Wayne MADSEN | 29.02.2012 |
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The currently tense situation in Syria and around it has galvanized the propaganda clichés that the West is using to stigmatize Russia for the so-called “Circassian question”. The Circassians is a general terms for the kindred languages and cultures of the Kabardians, the Cherkess, the Ubykh people, the Adygs and the Shapsugs of the North Caucasus. Individual members of the Circassian diaspora in different countries have repeatedly manifested their wish to be repatriated to their historical homeland, - to Russia, and Circassians in Syria are no exception... That is why the US is trying to have the Circassian issue “entwined” with the “lining” of the Syrian problem...
Vladislav GULEVICH | 16.02.2012 |
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Russia insists that the investigation on the involvement of Kosovo leaders in illegal trade with human organs should be controlled of the UN Security Council. Russia’s permanent envoy in the UN Vitaly Churkin made such a statement at a meeting of the Security Council. According to him, the facts point directly at the involvement of Kosovo’s current leaders in those crimes. But the investigation is led by the governments of the countries which earlier helped those people to come to power. Churkin stressed that Americans are playing the main role there...
Pyotr ISKENDEROV | 12.02.2012 |
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This week, French leader Nicolas Sarkozy will likely sign into law the controversial bill making it a criminal offense to deny that genocide was committed by Ottoman Turks against Armenians during World War I...Debates over the legislation are raging with unwavering intensity even though at the moment Sarkozy's signature on it is in essence an accomplished fact.
Pyotr ISKENDEROV | 01.02.2012 |
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At S.V. lavrov’s press-conference it became clear the Syrian situation is gradually sliding to military solution... The plan of “regional intervention” by the League of Arab League or some members of the organization is starting to take shape. It calls into attention the fact that is exactly the time UN General Secretary Ban Ki-Moon begins to look for new reasons to intervene in Syria (and not Syria only)... The Syrian government published a list of states it prevented illegal arms supplies from (Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan among them), but the information hasn’t become an object of interest for media and in a mysterious way it is not included into the Secretary General’s reports... The “UN Security Council” and “League of Arab States” operations failure made some League’s members come up with a new “initiative”...
Alexander MEZYAEV | 28.01.2012 |
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The bombing of Iran's nuclear facilities using conventional weapons would contribute to unleashing a Chernobyl-Fukushima like fall out – a nuclear nightmare with unpredictable results... Iran may conduct a full retaliation against Israel and its perceived allies. Under this scenario, Iran would attempt to strike Israel and US bases in the Persian Gulf, Turkey, and Afghanistan with long-range missiles... How safe would Americans be in the Gulf, especially Bahrain, home of the U.S. Fifth Fleet, a predominantly Shia island? Iran would attempt to block the Strait of Hormuz as it displayed during the recent exercises, thereby threatening nearly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply... An Iran sponsored terrorist act on the US soil will scare investors when the times are rough. Will the US intern all Iranian nationals or Shiite Muslims in the United States like it happened with the Japanese along the Pacific coast in 1942?..
Andrei AKULOV | 10.01.2012 |
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