Regional geopolitics

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Ahmet Davutoglu Says He’ll Step Down as Turkey’s Prime Minister

.... "A “rift in AKP party might well lead to much wider and much more dangerous conflict in Turkey’s society as a whole,” Carl Bildt, a former prime minister and foreign minister of Sweden who has been widely involved in peace negotiations worldwide, wrote on Twitter.

Recently, Mr. Davutoglu had suggested he was willing to return to peace negotiations to end a long war — which resumed in earnest last year — with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or P.K.K., while Mr. Erdogan has appeared more hawkish. ....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/06/world/europe/ahmet-davutoglu-turkey-prime-minister.html

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

azeri propaganda and reality

"Azerbaijan becoming popular tourist destination - Travel & Tourism News Middle East
Recently, Azerbaijan has been educating potential visitors by hosting large-scale, high-profile events to garner worldwide exposure and awareness for the destination, read the article."

http://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/2529599.html

Welcome to azerbaijan

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

azeri propaganda and reality

"Azerbaijan becoming popular tourist destination - Travel & Tourism News Middle East
Recently, Azerbaijan has been educating potential visitors by hosting large-scale, high-profile events to garner worldwide exposure and awareness for the destination, read the article."

http://en.trend.az/azerbaijan/politics/2529599.html

Welcome to azerbaijan

Wow it hurts just looking at it. Was Steve Wonder the driver?

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Field Report: Islamist militants break into Army’s bastion in Aleppo southern countryside.
Map Update
By Zen Adra -
05/05/2016

The Turkish-backed Army of Conquest (Jaish al-Fateh) launched, today afternoon, a massive attack on Khan Tuman village located nearly 15 km to the south of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began with Islamist fighters shelling the Army’s defensives with heavy artillery and homegrown rockets Hell Cannons, capturing several points and killing a number of government troops who forcibly retreated eastward.

Pro-jihadists social media accounts reported of heavy losses among the government troops, including tanks and rocket launchers.

Jaish al-Fateh is a conglomeration of ultra-hardline fighters, led by the al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria, Jabhet al-Nusra, and made up primarily from Ahrar ash-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa, which are directly linked to Nusra or have a similar ideology.

The last assault by radical fighters to seize Al-Khalidiyah village (which acts as the southern gate to Khan Tuman) in last April was repelled after the Syrian Army was able to maintain all its positions. The offensive comes hours after Russia and the United States brokered a 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo and its outskirts, which was officially approved by the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...-map-update-2/ | Al-Masdar News

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

[Zeytun]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Field Report: Islamist militants break into Army’s bastion in Aleppo southern countryside.
Map Update
By Zen Adra -
05/05/2016

The Turkish-backed Army of Conquest (Jaish al-Fateh) launched, today afternoon, a massive attack on Khan Tuman village located nearly 15 km to the south of the northern city of Aleppo.

The offensive began with Islamist fighters shelling the Army’s defensives with heavy artillery and homegrown rockets Hell Cannons, capturing several points and killing a number of government troops who forcibly retreated eastward.

Pro-jihadists social media accounts reported of heavy losses among the government troops, including tanks and rocket launchers.

Jaish al-Fateh is a conglomeration of ultra-hardline fighters, led by the al-Qaeda offshoot in Syria, Jabhet al-Nusra, and made up primarily from Ahrar ash-Sham and Jund al-Aqsa, which are directly linked to Nusra or have a similar ideology.

The last assault by radical fighters to seize Al-Khalidiyah village (which acts as the southern gate to Khan Tuman) in last April was repelled after the Syrian Army was able to maintain all its positions. The offensive comes hours after Russia and the United States brokered a 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo and its outskirts, which was officially approved by the General Command of the Army and Armed Forces.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...-map-update-2/ | Al-Masdar News

"The offensive comes hours after Russia and the United States brokered a 48-hour ceasefire in Aleppo ".
This group is backed openly by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. This is serious, this attack will have political consequences.

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

EU Commission hands major domestic victory to Turkish government

Date 04.05.2016
Author Tom Stevenson, Istanbul


Following a European Commission recommendation, Turkish citizens are
one step closer to easier EU travel. Ankara sees the decision as a
victory, despite the major hurdles that remain. Tom Stevenson reports
fom Istanbul.

The European Commission's decision to recommend a Schengen visa waiver
for Turkish citizens has the government in Ankara celebrating.

The European Commission has been criticized for extending a major
diplomatic boon to Turkey at a time when the country is prosecuting a
brutal war in its south-eastern provinces, curtailing free speech
rights and deporting foreign journalists - including the
correspondents of major European media.

In Turkey the decision has been hailed as a victory for the
government, and in particular for Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who
negotiated the deal.


EU Commission backs Turkey visa deal

'Realpolitik wins'

The 90-day visa waiver was offered as part of a deal with the EU that
saw Turkey agree to receive and shelter deported migrants from Greece
in return for budgetary support amounting to 3 billion euros ($3.45
billion).

Speaking before the announcement to the "Daily Sabah," a newspaper
widely seen as the Turkish government's English-language mouthpiece,
Turkey's EU Deputy Minister Ali Sahin said he expected unconditional
support for the visa deal. "Turkey does not accept conditional
approval [on the visa waiver] ... it should not be forgotten that the
EU needs Turkey as much as [Turkey needs] the EU."

The European Commission decided to recommend a vote on the visa waiver
if outstanding commitments, including five additional criteria, are
met by Turkey by June.

The Turkish government has been criticized for harsh crackdowns on
protesters. Last month, the parliamentary speaker sparked more
protests by calling for an Islamic constitution

"This is a major victory for the government, and for the prime
minister," said Soli Ozel, lecturer at Istanbul's Kadir Has
University. "The visa waiver is important for the general population
in Turkey, but very important for the business community and the
academic community."

"Without going through it, it's difficult to understand how much of a
draining experience the visa process is, and it generates a lot of
unfair competition with a country that has a customs union with the
EU."

According to Ozel, the visa deal may be a step in the right direction,
but it also displays hypocrisy in both parties.

"In these deals everybody is unveiled. It used to be that both sides
played their hypocrisy more carefully, but now it's out in the open
and obvious - the refugee situation is a big headache and so Turkey
can get whatever it wants by using that."

"The EU can hang its principles wherever it wants: realpolitik wins."

The Commission's decision must now be approved by the individual EU
member states and the European Parliament before it will pass into
effect, which could take as long as two months.

Erdogan in a comfortable position

The two parties are also currently negotiating Turkey's accession to
the European Union, however the process has been slow going, with just
one chapter having been successfully closed out of a total of 33 that
must be negotiated before a vote on accession is possible.

"It isn't over until it's over, of course, but my hunch is that
despite some disgruntled members disagreeing the European Council will
also accept recommendation and I think it is the right thing to do,"
Ozel told DW.

"If it were to go south however, Prime Minister Davutoglu would take a
big blow to his credibility because he has staked his reputation on
this big promise. But Turkey always has the leverage of a backlash in
which it refuses to cooperate on the refugees."

President Erdogan and Prime Minister Davutglu (left to right) see the
decison as a victory. The prime minister has the most to lose if the
deal doesn't work

Meeting the outstanding EU criteria may exacerbate existing power
struggles in Turkish politics surrounding some of the more sensitive
matters, including counterterrorism, according to Sinan Ulgen,
director of the Istanbul-based EDAM think tank and a visiting scholar
at the Carnegie Center in Brussels.

"There will now be a political tug of war on whether Turkey will be
intent on fulfilling the criteria, some of which are sensitive," Ulgen
told DW. "Turkey must confront its framework for dealing with
terrorism at a time when government considers there to be a very
sizeable terrorism threat - it's doubtful that there will be much
movement in that direction."

According to Ulgen, Prime Minister Davutoglu may have much to lose or
gain by this deal but Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is in
a more comfortable position. Should the deal succeed, he can reap the
benefits; if it falls through, he can place the blame on Europe,
lowering the stakes for himself.

"Domestically the few criticisms of this deal that will come from the
opposition will not matter. Visa liberalization is long awaited and it
will be a substantive win, silencing government critics," Ulgen said.

"There are still a number of important obstacles, and the European
Parliament has questions about the overall state of democracy in
Turkey, so it has the potential to poison the deal. However, this is
an important milestone absolutely."

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