Regional geopolitics

[HyeSocialist]

Re: Regional geopolitics

After political shake-up, is Turkey heading for economic crisis?

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/turkey-ambiguity-around-economy-creates-concern.html

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The Turks to the west seem to be squandering their economic gains as good as the Turks to the east are doing. More of a reason for Armenia to destroy corruption and begin investing in its people and country instead of chanting defeatist Soviet bullsh*t like, "Oh we are too small. We are too incapable. We are proud warriors but can't figure out how to put together ammunition even though one of the most famous Armenians designed a world class fighter jet."

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

After political shake-up, is Turkey heading for economic crisis?

Might for a short-term, except the reality turkey is to Europe what Mexico is for the US. Does anyone wants to work for $5 an hour?
Europe is aging, they desperately need a new generation to sustain their aging population. Reason why they had high hopes on the Middle East migrants and turkish labor for their low tech manufacturing. It comes with a hefty price in destroying their European lifestyle/existence.

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

After political shake-up, is Turkey heading for economic crisis?

"Ataturk’s Army of Central Bank Owners in Revolt Over $140 Payout

In the wake of World War I, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk set out to create a central bank that would steer his new Turkish Republic through the wreckage of the Ottoman Empire and end its dependence on London and Paris. He implored people to invest and thousands did, many with their life savings.
It was a great bet, at least on paper -- the bank is now the most profitable joint-stock company in Turkey, earning $5.6 billion last year alone. But the Treasury took the lion’s share, leaving the 6,000 or so individuals who own a combined 14 percent stake just $140 to divvy up."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-15/ataturk-s-army-of-central-bank-owners-in-revolt-over-140-payout

"Turkey, into darkness

Terror warnings are now a weekly occurrence in Turkey. Suicide attacks and car bombs in Istanbul and Ankara this year, which killed nearly 200 people, have deepened the sense of fear. Major Istanbul soccer matches and art fairs have been canceled as newspapers print instructions for “spotting a suicide bomber.” Tourist arrivals have fallen more than 10 percent, the biggest decline in a decade. “This is amazing and so sad,” an Istanbul native told me on a Friday night in April as we strolled a nearly empty Istiklal Avenue, the broad pedestrian thoroughfare that is the city’s main artery. “I’ve never seen Istiklal this quiet on a weekend. Never.”

http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2016/05/14/turkey/rDvDlmAQapwvuTmQLJjeLK/story.html

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

"Iraq, Sykes-Picot and Mr Five Percent

Calouste Gulbenkian served as midwife of sorts to not only Iraq, but also to the world's major oil corporations.

May 16 marks the 100-year anniversary of the Sykes-Picot Treaty, a secret agreement between Britain and France during World War I to carve up the domains of the Ottoman Empire upon its defeat.

In commemorating this event, blame has been heaped upon the architects of the treaty, British diplomat Mark Sykes and French diplomat Francois Georges-Picot, for drawing up the "artificial" borders of the Middle East, Iraq in particular.

While significant attention is given to Sykes and Picot, Mr Five Percent, the nickname of the oil broker Calouste Gulbenkian, certainly deserves attention a century later. Gulbenkian served as a midwife of sorts to not only Iraq, but also to the birth of the world's major oil corporations.

Gulbenkian was born in 1869 to an Armenian family in Uskudar, a district on the Asian side of Istanbul. He studied engineering at King's College London, and in 1887 went to Baku, then part of the Russian empire.

This hub of the burgeoning oil industry was where illustrious families such as the Nobels, of Nobel-prize fame, and bankers such as the Rothschilds increased their fortunes.

The empire's oil reserves

It was also where a Georgian, Ioseb Jughashvili, remembered today as Joseph Stalin, began his revolutionary career among the workers in the oil industry.

As a result of Gulbenkian's sojourn in Baku he wrote articles about petroleum that garnered the interest of Ottoman officials. Employed in their service, he located several areas within the Empire that could contain oil reserves.

European companies approached Gulbenkian due to his technical skills, cultural knowledge of the Empire, and his connections with important Ottoman officials.

There was no official title for his role. Gulbenkian was essentially the world's first oil fixer, broker, and deal-maker, although he would have objected to all of these terms, preferring to see himself as an "architect" of petroleum arrangements.

In 1912, Gulbenkian brokered an international consortium known as the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC), to explore and exploit oil resources in the Ottoman Empire. Despite its name, the Turkish role in this arrangement was minimal.

As a result of brokering the TPC, Gulbenkian was granted a 5 percent non-voting share in the company, hence his nickname. Another major oil group Royal Dutch Shell (today's Shell) owned 22.5 percent of TPC shares.

BP's predecessor, the partially UK government-owned Anglo-Persian Oil Company (APOC) bought 47.5 percent of TPC shares, becoming its largest stakeholder.

However, when the Ottomans sided with Germany during World War I, Britain had essentially invested heavily in an oil company situated in enemy territory.

The secret Sykes-Picot agreement between Britain and France allocated the Baghdad and Basra provinces of the Ottoman Empire to British.

Basra, in today's south of Iraq, was the site of potential oil fields that could be exploited in the future. Sykes-Picot was essentially a rough draft of imperial control in the Middle East.

The empire's frontier

This Treaty did not set up the creation of the borders of Iraq as we know it today. Those borders would come into shape a result of more treaties after World War I, nevermind the fact that the border between Iraq and Iran was established as a result of centuries of warfare when Iraq was the frontier of the Ottoman Empire.

What would become Iraq was not an artificial cultural entity. Centuries of shared geography in the territory between the Euphrates and Tigris had already forged interaction among Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds that would make up Iraq's citizens.

Rather on focusing on artificiality of borders, it is the intentions behind the creation of Iraq that have to be questioned. Were the British officials who augured in the Mandate of Iraq creating a viable a state, or an oil company with borders?

A fair share all of the Ottoman Empire's oil was primarily in its provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra, and those provinces were amalgamated into the British-controlled Iraq Mandate. ..."

Read the rest

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/05/iraq-sykes-picot-percent-oil-160515065650996.html

[HyeSocialist]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Might for a short-term, except the reality turkey is to Europe what Mexico is for the US. Does anyone wants to work for $5 an hour?
Europe is aging, they desperately need a new generation to sustain their aging population. Reason why they had high hopes on the Middle East migrants and turkish labor for their low tech manufacturing. It comes with a hefty price in destroying their European lifestyle/existence.

What the Europeans are doing is largely retarded. Even those migrants lack the skills for low tech manufacturing. Some of the smarter European countries like the Nordic ones are moving to sustainable models, unlike the French and German growth models. It's pretty much the Germans in the driver seat of Europe, and it looks very weird when they bully Greeks for finances, accept Syrian refugees because it's the right thing to do, then make friends with erdogan and essentially get blackmailed by a dictator. It all looks very confusing from the outside as to what exactly the Europeans are trying to do.

[Haykakan]

Re: Regional geopolitics

Andrei AKULOV | 15.05.2016 | OPINION

S-500: Russia’s New Generation Game Changing Weapon

The Russian military is gearing up to test the first prototypes of its next-generation S-500 Prometey air and missile defense system, which is also known as 55R6M «Triumfator-M».

The weapon is not an upgrade but the fifth (new) generation system, capable of destroying intercontinental ballistic missiles and spacecraft, hypersonic cruise missiles and airplanes at speeds of higher than Mach 5.

The S-500 is expected to be much more capable than the current S-400 Triumph.

For instance, its response time is only 3-4 seconds (for comparison, the response time of S-400 is nine to ten seconds).

The S-500 is able to detect and simultaneously attack (as well as make speeds of up to 4.3 miles per second) up to ten ballistic missile warheads out at 600 km flying at speeds of twenty-three thousand feet per second.

Prometey can engage targets at altitudes of about 125 miles, including incoming ballistic missiles in space at ranges as great as 400 miles.

Experts believe that the systems capabilities can affect enemy intercontinental ballistic missiles at the end and the middle portion.

Some sources report, that the S-500 system can detect ballistic missile at a range of 2000 km and warheads of ballistic missiles at a range of 1300 km.

It makes the system capable of defeating ballistic missiles before their warheads re-enter atmosphere.

Built for «hide, shoot and scoot» operations, the S-500 is expected to be highly mobile and able to rapidly deploy. It will use a network of radars for targeting over vast distances. The missile-defense capable system is expected to use the 91N6A (M) battle management radar, a modified 96L6-TsP acquisition radar, as well as the new 76T6 multimode engagement and 77T6 ballistic missiles engagement radars.

It is also reportedly being designed to use hit-to-kill interceptors.

The system will have new radio communications systems that are unrivaled in terms of quality, data transmission distance and stealth. «Currently, the corporation is developing the next, sixth-generation radio communications resources for completing the various types of military technology, including air-to-surface missile systems – those already present in the armed forces and those that will be in the future», noted a source in Russian defense industry.

The highly protected radio channels will make it immune to eavesdropping.

Prometey is planned to become operational in 2017 with a total of 10 batteries to be ordered. «We expect the first samples of the S-500 anti-aircraft missile system to be delivered soon», Lt. Gen. Viktor Gumyonny, commander of the Russian Aerospace Forces’ air defense troops, told Russian Rossiya-24 TV channel.

The first units will be deployed around Moscow and the country's center area. Totally, 5 batteries of S-500 missiles are to be in service by 2020. The S-500s will be networked with the S-400, S-300VM4 and S-350 and other weapons to create an integrated air-defense network.

The Deputy Commander of the Russian Air Defense Lt. Gen. Sergei Razygraev said that the S-500 will become an element of the national strategic missile defense.

United States defense officials believe that the best stealth warplanes in the Pentagon's arsenal will not be effective against the S-500. As one US industry official noted, «Moscow managed to continue developing advanced air defense system without much degradation in capability. Indeed, some of these new weapons – like the S-500 – are so capable that many US defense official worry that even stealth warplanes like the F-22, F-35 and the B-2 might have problems overcoming them».

It’s not often that a relatively inexpensive air defence weapon is able to make a trillion dollar fighter program obsolete. That’s exactly what the S-500 missile system will do to US brand new F-35 stealth fighter. The F-35 is known to have advanced electronics to enhance its jamming capability. But it won’t shake Prometey off. The S-500 system is designed to overcome countermeasures and stealth, using larger, more powerful radar that is highly resistant to jamming. It also has a set of three missiles of varying range that provide overlapping layers of defense.

Given its extremely long range and effective electronic warfare capabilities, the S-500 is a game-changing weapon that challenges current military capabilities at the operational level of war. This system is unique and unparalleled in the world

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

What the Europeans are doing is largely retarded. Even those migrants lack the skills for low tech manufacturing. Some of the smarter European countries like the Nordic ones are moving to sustainable models, unlike the French and German growth models.

Agree with you! Sustainability is the future of a happy societies. This constant growth economy is destructive to humans.

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

ISIS captures Panorama Checkpoint, Armenian Cemetery in Deir Ezzor
By Leith Fadel
18/05/2016

The Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) launched a new assault at Deir Ezzor City on Monday that targeted the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) controlled west district near the 137th Artillery Brigade Headquarters.

ISIS began the offensive on Monday by seizing Majbal area of Deir Ezzor City after a violent battle with the Syrian Arab Army’s 137th Artillery Brigade of the 17th Reserve Division.

On Tuesday, ISIS continued their offensive by imposing full control over the Armenian Cemetery that is situated along the International Highway. With the Armenian Cemetery under their control, ISIS once again cruised their way to the Panorama Checkpoint, capturing this site from the Syrian Armed Forces after a long battle on Tuesday.

The terrorist group is now targeting the Panorama Roundabout in western Deir Ezzor City for the second time in seven days; if captured, the Syrian Armed Forces will be in serious trouble at Al-Firat University.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...ry-deir-ezzor/ | Al-Masdar News

[Vrej1915]

Re: Regional geopolitics

New tendencies we must consider in Syrian theratre of operations.
The rebels mostly, but also the army, are more and more using ATGM-s as guided missiles against infantry in small groups in montainous terrain, or like here in a truck.
Seems waiste of meens, but since having a lot of them, and not considering costs, they are repeating it with some success.

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VIDEO: Rebel TOW missile takes out 24 government soldiers in Latakia
By Chris Tomson -
18/05/2016

During the evening, a pinpoint TOW missile attack by the Free Syrian Army’s 1st Coastal Division killed 13 and injured 11 of the pro-government National Defence Forces (NDF). The NDF soldiers became sitting ducks when their commander ordered the unit to regroup after government forces lost control of Tall Haddadeh earlier today.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article...diers-latakia/ | Al-Masdar News

[Azad]

Re: Regional geopolitics

"Boris Johnson wins 'most offensive Erdoğan poem' competition

Ex-London mayor wins £1,000 prize for limerick about Turkish president in contest challenging crackdown on free speech.

“If somebody wants to make a joke about the love that flowers between the Turkish president and a goat, he should be able to do so, in any European country, including Turkey,” Johnson told interviewer Nicholas Farrell, who then challenged him to enter the Spectator’s poetry prize.

Johnson then offered the limerick: “There was a young fellow from Ankara, Who was a terrific wankerer.

“Till he sowed his wild oats, With the help of a goat, But he didn’t even stop to thinker.”

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/19/boris-johnson-wins-most-offensive-erdogan-poem-competition