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Re: Regional geopolitics
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/orig...time-1979.html
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Free trade agreement with Iran could definitely replace the Turkish imports into Armenia.Comment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
That article makes something negative (shrinking economy) sound like something positive (positive balance in trade). While this does show the diversification of Iran's economy, the article and graph clearly show a downturn in both exports and imports. Yes I do hope we can do way more business with Iran as our relations with the turks seem hopeless.Originally posted by HyeSocialist View PostHayastan or Bust.Comment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
It is good to see a solid Azeri perspective on the conflict. It is also interesting to note that they are using their special forces and advanced weapons on us. SOFAZ is currently bailing out the country's central bank, I wonder if it can bail out their military's bloated budget too? Highly doubt it.Originally posted by lampron View PostComment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
Check out the fighting in these videos
Armenian and Turkish MPs come to blows at Turkish Parliament
00:04, 03.05.2016
Major scuffle again took place at the Turkish parliament Monday. The
incident took place during the discussion of the Constitutional
Committee on lifting politicians' immunity from prosecution.
The MPs from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Kurdish
Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) took part in the scuffle.
The video, which has appeared in the Internet, shows Garo Paylan,
Armenian MP from the Kurdish Party, again appear in the center of the
fight. He struggles with his fists against the attacking Turkish MPs
until his party members hurry for help.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2...4DE1N99MeXY&e=
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2...qv4a7reSJ_E&e=Hayastan or Bust.Comment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
NATO Expands Along Russia's Borders, Has Gall to Call Moscow the Aggressor
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521
13:25 03.05.2016(updated 15:59 03.05.2016)
Paleo-conservative commentator Pat Buchanan slams NATO hawks for working to expand the alliance's presence all along Russia's borders, while calling Russia out as the aggressive power. Instead of touting Putin's belligerence, Buchanan suggests, observers should think about what it would be like to walk a mile in the Russian president's shoes.
On Friday, Buchanan recalls, "a Russian Su-27 did a barrel roll over a US RC-135 over the Baltic, the second time in two weeks. Also in April, the US destroyer Donald Cook, off Russia's Baltic [exclave] of Kaliningrad, was twice buzzed by Russian planes."
"Vladimir Putin's message: Keep your spy planes and ships a respectable distance away from us. Apparently, we have not received it."
Members of the Lithuania Army Mechanised Infantry Brigade Iron Wolf seen during a military exercise 'Black Arrow 2014' at the Rukla military base some 120 kms (75 miles) west of the capital Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 14, 2014.
© AP Photo/ Mindaugas Kulbis
Lithuania Hosting Large-Scale Drills Involving NATO Forces
In his latest piece for in The National Conservative, the commentator quoted US Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, who announced late last week that 4,000 NATO troops, including two US battalions, would be moved into Poland and the Baltic countries.
"The Russians have been doing a lot of snap exercises right up against the border with a lot of troops," Work said, adding that this was "extraordinarily provocative behavior."
"But how are Russian troops deploying inside Russia 'provocative', while US troops on Russia's front porch are not?" Buchanan asks. "And before we ride this escalator up to a clash, we had best check our hole card," he adds.
The political reality, the veteran geopolitical analyst notes, is that the majority of citizens of Western European NATO countries, including Germany, Italy and France, are opposed to escalating hostilities with Russia over Eastern Europe. "If it comes to war in the Baltic, our European allies prefer that we Americans fight it."
A Mile in Putin's Shoes
Deciding to conduct a thought experiment, Buchanan suggests that while Russian President Vladimir Putin "may top the enemies list of the Beltway establishment…we should try to see the world from his point of view."
Estonian army soldiers launch grenade during the NATO military exercise Hedgehog 2015 at the Tapa training range in Estonia May 12, 2015
© REUTERS/ Ints Kalnins
Estonia Kicks Off Joint NATO Drills on Russian Border
"When Ronald Reagan met with Mikhail Gorbachev in Reykjavik in 1986, Putin was in his mid-30s, and the Soviet Empire stretched from the Elbe to the Bering Strait and from the Arctic to Afghanistan. Russians were all over Africa and had penetrated the Caribbean and Central America. The Soviet Union was a global superpower that had attained strategic parity with the United States."
"Now," the analyst writes, "consider how the world has changed for Putin, and for Russia. By the time he turned 40, the Red Army had begun its Napoleonic retreat from Europe and his country had splintered into 15 nations. By the time he came to power," Russia, the USSR's successor, "had lost one-third of its territory and half its population. Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan," among others, "were gone."
"The Black Sea, once a Soviet lake, now had on its north shore a pro-Western Ukraine, on its eastern shore a hostile Georgia, and on its western shore two former Warsaw Pact allies, Bulgaria and Romania, being taken into NATO."
"For Russian warships in Leningrad, the trip out to the Atlantic now meant cruising past the coastline of eight NATO nations: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Norway, and Great Britain."
Moreover, "despite solemn US assurances given to Gorbachev," Putin saw NATO "incorporate all of Eastern Europe that Russia had vacated, and three former republics of the USSR itself." And now, the Russian leader also "hears a clamor from American hawks to bring three more former Soviet republics – Moldova, Georgia, and Ukraine – into a NATO alliance directed against Russia."
Soldiers of the German armed forces Bundeswehr stand next to the Patriot system before the arrival of Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel at a Turkish military base in Kahramanmaras in this February 24, 2013
© REUTERS/ Murad Sezer
Germans Use Social Networks to Teach Their Politicians a Lesson in History
In Ukraine, Buchanan continues, "after persuading Kiev to join a Moscow-led economic union, Putin saw Ukraine's pro-Russian government overthrown in a US-backed coup. He has seen US-funded 'color-coded' revolutions try to dump over friendly regimes all across his 'near-abroad'."
Outgoing NATO commander Philip Breedlove recently told the Wall Street Journal that "Russia has not accepted the hand of partnership, but has chosen a path of belligerence."
"But why should Putin see NATO's inexorable eastward march as an extended 'hand of partnership'?" Buchanan counters. If the situation were reversed, and it was Russian spy planes "patrol[ling] off Pensacola, Norfolk and San Diego, how would US F-16 pilots have reacted? If we awoke to find Mexico, Canada, Cuba, and most of South America in a military alliance against us, welcoming Russian bases and troops, would we regard that as [a] 'hand of partnership'?"
Ultimately, the commentator notes, the US is "reaping the understandable rage and resentment of the Russian people over how we exploited Moscow's retreat from empire. Did we not ourselves slap aside the hand of Russian friendship, when proffered, when we chose to embrace our 'unipolar moment', to play the 'great game' of empire and seek 'benevolent global hegemony'? If there is a second Cold War, did Russia really start it?"
A veteran political commentator, columnist and writer, Pat Buchanan is also a former White House Communications Director for the Reagan Administration, and a former Republican and Reform Party presidential candidate.
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/analysis/2016...#ixzz47b7T2HkeHayastan or Bust.Comment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
Breaking: Russia withdraws more fighter jets from Syria
By Zen Adra -
04/05/2016
Russian Defense Ministry announced today it has withdrawn 30 aircraft from Syria, including all SU-25 attack planes operated in the country, TASS news agency reported. Russian airstrikes have proved pivotal in assisting the Syrian Armed Forces gain more grounds in the battlefields countrywide.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...er-jets-syria/ | Al-Masdar NewsComment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
Aleppo update: Syrian Army committed to 48 hours ceasefire
By Zen Adra
04/05/2016
The General Command of the Army and Armed Forces officially announced that it is committed to a 2-day truce in the battleground northern city of Aleppo.
The ceasefire enters into force on Thursday 1:00 a.m. and lasts for 48 hours.
Late on Tuesday, Russian and American militaries finalized talks about the procedures necessary to include Aleppo and its outskirts in the crumbling Cessation of Hostilities agreement as part of the efforts exerted to end the 5-year crisis. Earlier, US State Department admitted that ‘moderate rebels’ in Aleppo are fighting alongside radical groups which are not included in the truce.
Jeffrey Feltman, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, hoped that all parties will abide with the ceasefire in alignment with the agreement reached by Russia and the United States.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...urs-ceasefire/ | Al-Masdar NewsComment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
Davutoglu announces resignation
16:00, 05 May 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has announced that he is
stepping aside, declaring a May 22 congress date to mark the party’s
future leader, the BBC reports.
The prime minister and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader
said in a key press meeting on May 5 following a meeting of Central
Executive Board (MYK) of the party that he decided to step aside
despite success in his terms.
His decision came after consulting party bodies and President Recep
Tayyip Erodogan, pointing to a recent move by the 50-seat decisive
Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK) to curb his rights to
appoint local leaders of the AKP.
He said he preferred to leave the seat himself, instead of changing
his associates, highlighting that he would remain friends with
Erdogan.
“I have no sense of failure or regrets in taking this decision,”
Davutoglu said, speaking at a press conference evaluating his prime
ministry following the MYK meeting.
Davutoglu said resignation was not “my choice but a necessity.”
“The changing of chairs is more proper; I do not want to be a
candidate at the congress,” he added.
“Our relationship of loyalty with the president will continue,” he also vowed.
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2...0RW42LOYRGU&e=
https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2...oqORZOn3Qas&e=Hayastan or Bust.Comment
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Re: Regional geopolitics
Uzbek group showcases fighting Kurds in Aleppo
By Caleb Weiss
April 13th, 2016
The Imam Bukhari Jamaat (also known as Katibat Imam al Bukhari), a
largely Uzbek group that is allied to the Al Nusrah Front, al Qaeda's
official branch in Syria, has released a video in recent days
highlighting its role in fighting the Kurdish People's Protection
Units (YPG) in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsud. The Uzbek group joins other al
Qaeda-linked organizations attacking the Kurds in the Aleppo
neighborhood.
The video shows the Uzbek jihadists fighting with native Syrian forces
with both light and heavy machine guns, as well as with mortars.
Several technicals, or armed pick up trucks, are also shown being
utilized. Multiple rebel groups, along with jihadist forces, are
currently ambushing the YPG and its allies for control over the
neighborhood.
Katibat Imam al Bukhari, which has pledged allegiance to Mullah Akhtar
Mansour of the Taliban, joins Ansar al Islam and the Caucasus Emirate
in Syria as al Qaeda-linked organizations attack the Kurds. Ansar al
Islam, which was originally founded in Iraq in 2001, has reported its
forces are fighting the Kurds in the neighborhood. The Caucasus
Emirate in Syria, the official Syrian branch of the Caucasus Emirate,
released a video last month showing its forces taking part in a
nighttime operation against the Kurds.
Social media accounts associated with the group have also released
several photos showing Caucasus Emirate forces in Sheikh Maqsud, as
well. From Chechnya to Syria also reports that another Chechen-led
group, Jaish al Usrah, which is led by the former emir of the Caucasus
Emirate in Syria, is also taking part in the battles in Sheikh Maqsud.
[Photos: Screenshots from the Imam Bukhari Jamaat video]
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