Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Saudi Owned Arabsat Bans Al-Manar and Al-Mayadeen
BY LEITH FADEL
DECEMBER 7, 2015



The Saudi-owned “Arabsat” broadcast network has banned both Al-Mayadeen News and Al-Manar News from their list of channels that are offered in their dish package.

This deliberate refusal of service comes just days after the Saudi Regime issued a list of Lebanese citizens that were banned from entering Saudi Arabia due to their alleged affiliation with Hezbollah; this aforementioned organization is considered a terrorist group in Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi regime has made it apparent that they will not tolerate any news coverage of the Yemen War if it contrasts their own political agenda.

Recently, Al-Masdar News joined the list of banned websites in Saudi Arabia after our coverage of the Yemen War.

[londontsi]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Russian-Bullied Turkey Gets a Hug from Azerbaijan
December 4, 2015 -
by Giorgi Lomsadze
eurasianet



....…[Famous Azerbaijan poet] Bakhtiyar Vahabzade said ‘Turkey and Azerbaijan are two sons of one mother.’”

What he did not say whose father was she married to.

More likely married to none.

They were an accident in the brothel she was working in.

.

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

They were an accident in the brothel she was working in.

.

She should have swallowed instead.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

ERDOGAN'S DREAMS OF EMPIRE ARE PERILOUS FOR TURKEY

Norman Stone

Ankara is becoming far bolder with its foreign policy. Provoking
Russia over Syria may be a step too far, though Presidents Erdogan
and Putin. 'Now it seems the western powers will cooperate with Russia
in tacit upholding of Assad, in pursuit of Isis.

In other words, Turkey might just be isolated.' Photograph: Sasha
Mordovets/Getty Images

Sunday 6 December 2015


The aggressiveness of Turkish foreign policy is something new. It goes
back to 2009 when, at Davos, President Erdogan insulted Shimon Peres,
then Israel's president, using the Turkish form of "you" that is
normally used for dogs, and accusing him of atrocities in Gaza. That
went down very well with his home constituency, less well with Turks
who think about things, and it also went down well in the Arab world.

Russia is right: fighting Isis is the priority for us all

Giora Eiland

Erdogan was lionised, and cut a big figure in the Arab spring that
followed. In particular he tried to bring about change in Syria, and
was much put out when President Assad did not respond to his urgings
for reform, a reform that would have applied some version of Erdogan's
own "Muslim democracy". Expecting Assad to fall, he did nothing to
stop the civil war that then erupted, and gave a hospitable welcome
to more than 2 million refugees who flooded over the border.

He no doubt expected them to go back within weeks. They did not, and
the Syrian mess has become more and more complicated, particularly
by the emergence of a Kurdish entity on Turkey's border. That entity
could be a threat to Turkey's own territorial integrity, given that
south-eastern Turkey is largely Kurdish. The Russians then took a hand,
directly supporting Assad, their man in the Levant, and driving his
opponents back. And Turkey shot down a Russian bomber, an episode
that from a Turkish perspective was utterly without precedent,
even during the cold war. Where this will lead is anybody's guess,
but the consequences may be such that the framers of Turkish foreign
policy will look back on the old days with nostalgia.

When the country finally got its present shape, in 1923, there were all
sorts of loose ends - the longest, and the one with a fuse attached,
the eastern border with northern Iraq, ie Kurdistan. The British fixed
that border in 1926 with their own oil interests in mind, whereas
the Turks regarded that part of the world as naturally belonging
to them. However, they accepted the arrangement, and until recently
pursued a prudent foreign policy, on the lines of their founder Kemal
Ataturk's words: peace at home, peace abroad. No adventures.

When Turkey did move forward, in 1938 over the Antioch area or in 1974
over Cyprus, it did so by invitation and with solid treaty-backing.

Otherwise it was extra careful, especially where Russia was concerned.

Although there were embittered Caucasian exiles all around - half
of the urban population in the 1930s had been born abroad - Caucasus
exile literature was forbidden, and a prominent central Asian scholar
was imprisoned in 1945 for provoking trouble with Russia.

The reasoning behind all of this was simple enough. Russia was hugely
powerful, had defeated the Ottoman empire in a dozen wars, but had
also played a decisive part in protecting the new Turkish republic.

The Russians sent gold and weaponry to the Turkish nationalists,
and did a deal over borders, in effect swapping Armenia for Azerbaijan.

Later on, they swapped Trotsky for a shirt factory, and a Russian took
charge of energy planning. In return the Turks sacked pan-Turkists
from Istanbul University and imprisoned a prominent scholar, ZV Togan.

That all came to an end after the second world war, when Stalin showed
his teeth. He demanded a base in the Dardanelles and territories in
eastern Turkey. The Americans and British supported the Turks, who
abandoned their neutrality and joined Nato, having fought in the Korean
war. They got Marshall aid and, given the enormous importance of their
location, had a privileged position: thousands of students abroad,
much help from the IMF, access to European markets and especially
the German labour market.

Conservative Turks are now protesting against Erdogan, too - things
must be bad

Alev Scott

The Anglo-American connection has been very important in lifting Turkey
out of the Middle East - it now has an economy worth more than any
of its local rivals, and then some. Since the American alliance at
least implied democracy, the Turks had a free election in 1950. And
the government that resulted was the grandfather of the present one.

It made whoopee with state firms, and ensured popularity by giving
Islam positions that the earlier republicans had denied it.

They had not actually persecuted Islam except in the sense that they
stopped it from persecuting. "Houses of the people", on a Soviet model,
had gone up in the villages to teach literacy and healthy ways to
poverty-stricken peasants for whom the imam was the natural guide,
as was the priest for poverty-stricken peasants in rural Ireland or
Italy. The 1950s government closed down the "houses of the people",
and mosques went up instead. There are now more than 80,000.

A mania, yes, but at bottom not so very different from the Victorian
church-building that affected every street corner in England. Rural
migrants need a centre, and that centre can mobilise their votes. The
interesting question in Turkish politics is the failure of the left
to divert them from the mosque. In effect the army had to take the
role of the left, with coups from time to time, ensuring women their
rights, and making sure that education was not entirely dominated by
Qur'anic recitation.

There were (and, God knows, are) intelligent and sensible people on
the religious side, and they know that religion should not be rammed
down people's throats. The real great man of modern Turkey is Turgut
Ozal, who outwitted the military in the 1980s, opened Turkey up to the
exporting world, and created the (mostly) successful country of today.

He had a strict religious background, but knew abroad (he had worked
in the World Bank) and also understood that there would be real
trouble if he pushed religion too far. He was part-Kurdish and knew
that the problem there was that Turkey had allowed the Kurds to feel
like second-class citizens. Above all, he understood the importance
of keeping to the prudent tradition of Turkish foreign policy. He
died in 1993, and no one has taken his place.

Ozal was Turkey's Thatcher (they got on very well) and the 1980s
release of energy has carried Turkey to its present prosperity -
its businessmen all over the world, its airline maybe the best,
its writers read, its government everywhere consulted. But politics
being complicated, he did not leave a conservative block that would
perpetuate his legacy. Instead, we have the religious AKP, with an
all-powerful leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has made it his duty
to raise "pious generations" and who is helping his Muslim Brotherhood
allies in the Syrian civil war.

Turkey could cut off Islamic State's supply lines. So why doesn't it?

David Graeber

It is also obvious that Islamic State has had help from Turkey, since
the overthrow of the defiant Assad is Erdogan's priority, although
the vastly respected editor of the country's most venerable newspaper
has been detained pending trial for publishing the evidence. And then
there are the Kurds, clearly getting their act together. They are,
as their greatest figure in Turkey, Kamran Inan(an Ozal associate who
has just died), said, "a wounded people", partly alienated from Turkey,
and the rest of the world now sees in Kurdistan a possible solution.

Erdogan's adventurism has been quite successful so far, but it
amounts to an extraordinary departure for Turkish foreign policy,
and maybe even risks the destruction of the country. How on earth
could this happen?

The background is an inferiority complex, and megalomania. For
centuries, and even since the Mongols, sensible Islam has asked:
"What went wrong? Why has God forsaken us, and allowed others to reach
the moon?" And now Turkey stands tall, a voice unto the nations (and
Tayyip Erdogan, from his training on the soccer pitch and a religious
school, indeed has a voice, part uplift-sermon, part referee-harangue,
though its rhetorical effect does not translate).

Chancellor Merkel comes begging for help in the refugee crisis, and
the Europeans shut up about editor-imprisoning. All of a sudden, they
agree to change the visa system that humiliated Turkish businessmen
and academics. The Americans can be managed. In the old days, Turkey
had two foreign policies towards Washington, which controlled the
IMF purse strings - "me, too" and "oh dear". Now it is more likely
to be the US adopting those positions.

President Erdogan sits in his Chinese-airport palace and sees himself
as restorer of the Ottoman empire. In the Ottomans' great period, the
16th century, Russia was just a sort of noise off to the north. But
in challenging it, the good President Erdogan will find something
a great deal more formidable. In breaking with the traditions of
Turkish foreign policy, he has forgotten that the death blows come
not from the west, but from the east - Iran and Syria, the army of
which twice reached Istanbul in the 19th century.

Now it seems that the western powers will cooperate with Russia in
tacit upholding of Assad, in pursuit of the greater enemy, Isis. In
other words, Turkey might just be isolated. In this latest affair,
is there an element of provocation - that if Putin responds harshly
to the downing of his aircraft, the Americans will be pushed into
proclaiming a no-fly zone behind which Erdogan can quietly deal with
the enemies whom he wants to deal with, the Kurds, who now amount to
the main challenge to his regime? He has been immensely successful
so far, but is this the step that will bring him down, as his tame
central Anatolian constituency begins to feel the winter cold? If there
is one lesson for a ruler of Turkey it is this: do not provoke Russia.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/06/erdogan-turkey-russia-syria-foreign-policy

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

U.S. Officials Deny Bombing the Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor: Russians Blamed
BY LEITH FADEL
DECEMBER 7, 2015

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/u-s-officials-deny-bombing-the-syrian-army-in-deir-ezzor-russians-blamed/

On Monday morning, U.S. military officials addressed the Syrian Government’s allegations that a member state from the U.S.-led Anti-ISIS Coalition struck the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions in the Deir Ezzor Governorate’s northern countryside.

The U.S. military official vehemently denied any aggression towards the Syrian Arab Army in the Deir Ezzor Governorate, stating it was the Russian Air Force that was responsible for this abrupt airstrike that killed and wounded a number of soldiers at the village of ‘Ayyash on Sunday evening.

According to the U.S. military official, no Anti-Coalition Air Force was within 34 miles of ‘Ayyash, despite several ground reports from the Syrian Arab Army soldiers operating inside of this province in eastern Syria.

As a result of this “phantom” airstrike, 3 soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the 17th Reserve Division were reportedly killed and another 13 were reported to be in critical condition.

The airstrike apparently struck a Syrian Arab Army camp outside of the ‘Ayyash storage base; this site was uncontested and not threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).

However, following the airstrike, ISIS launched a powerful assault on the village of ‘Ayyash; this aforementioned village and its nearby Broadcasting Tower are mostly under the control of the Syrian Armed Forces.

Al-Masdar News caught up with the member of the Syrian Arab Army’s 104th Airborne Brigade (Republican Guard) that originally reported this news: according to a 1st Lieutenant from this brigade, the airstrike was not launched by the Syrian Arab Air Force, nor was the Russian Air Force involved in this unprovoked attack.

The 1st Lieutenant added that the Syrian Arab Army’s Central Command believes that the U.S. led Anti-ISIS Coalition is 100% behind this airstrike.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Oil price falls to lowest level since 2009
BBC

The price of oil fell to its lowest level since 2009 as global production continues to remain high.
The price of West Texas crude sank to $37.65 (£24.99) a barrel, a drop of 5.8%, while Brent Crude fell 5.3% to $40.73 a barrel.
The slumping price comes as OPEC - a group of the largest oil producing nations- refused to cut oil production.
OPEC- whose production covers about 30% of the world's oil demand - met in Vienna last week to discuss production.
The group has faced growing competition from new supplies, including in the US where techniques like fracking are used to tap previously hard-to-reach oil reserves.
"The decision by OPEC members to keep oil production output at record high levels has seen oil prices plummet again," said Sanjiv Shah, chief investment officer of Sun Global Investments.
The group had traditionally kept a tight rein on oil production to regulate price, but announced last Friday it will continue to pump out approximately 31.5 million barrels of oil a day, going past the group's former 30 million barrel target.
In 2014 Saudi Arabia led OPEC in a decision to keep output high to defend its market share.

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

U.S. Officials Deny Bombing the Syrian Army in Deir Ezzor: Russians Blamed
BY LEITH FADEL
DECEMBER 7, 2015

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/u-s-officials-deny-bombing-the-syrian-army-in-deir-ezzor-russians-blamed/

On Monday morning, U.S. military officials addressed the Syrian Government’s allegations that a member state from the U.S.-led Anti-ISIS Coalition struck the Syrian Arab Army’s (SAA) positions in the Deir Ezzor Governorate’s northern countryside.

The U.S. military official vehemently denied any aggression towards the Syrian Arab Army in the Deir Ezzor Governorate, stating it was the Russian Air Force that was responsible for this abrupt airstrike that killed and wounded a number of soldiers at the village of ‘Ayyash on Sunday evening.

According to the U.S. military official, no Anti-Coalition Air Force was within 34 miles of ‘Ayyash, despite several ground reports from the Syrian Arab Army soldiers operating inside of this province in eastern Syria.

As a result of this “phantom” airstrike, 3 soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the 17th Reserve Division were reportedly killed and another 13 were reported to be in critical condition.

The airstrike apparently struck a Syrian Arab Army camp outside of the ‘Ayyash storage base; this site was uncontested and not threatened by the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS).

However, following the airstrike, ISIS launched a powerful assault on the village of ‘Ayyash; this aforementioned village and its nearby Broadcasting Tower are mostly under the control of the Syrian Armed Forces.

Al-Masdar News caught up with the member of the Syrian Arab Army’s 104th Airborne Brigade (Republican Guard) that originally reported this news: according to a 1st Lieutenant from this brigade, the airstrike was not launched by the Syrian Arab Air Force, nor was the Russian Air Force involved in this unprovoked attack.

The 1st Lieutenant added that the Syrian Arab Army’s Central Command believes that the U.S. led Anti-ISIS Coalition is 100% behind this airstrike.

May have been the turks.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Egypt Wants To Replace Turkish Imports To Russia 0
BY PAUL ANTONOPOULOS
NOVEMBER 30, 2015
almasdarnews


With news of Russia’s sanctions on Turkey, Egypt has quickly stated its intentions of wanting to replace Turkey’s imports to Russia.

In a statement made on Sunday, Tarek Qabil, Egypt’s Minister of Industry and Foreign Trade said he was going to look at a list of Turkish imports that Moscow had sanctioned. This was in the hope that Egyptian manufacturers will fill the void.



With Turkey providing fruit, vegetables, clothing and leather to Russia, Qabil has full confidence Egypt can replace these Turkish items.

The Egyptian minister requested a list of products required ahead of a visit to Egypt by Russian importers, during which discussions could be held on how demand might be met. Russian importers and Egyptian exporters could be introduced as a means of promoting trade.