On September 21, 2020, a South Korean civil servant got lost near Yeonpyeongdo and was later found dead. South Korean Defense Ministry stated during the September 24th briefing that the civil servant’s body was burned using flammable oil by the North Korean naval guards. Earlier in 2010, North Korea shelled the same area, killing 2 marines and 2 civilians.
Despite the mounting evidence of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s arrant enmity against the West and the regime’s adoption of regional insecurity as a de facto state policy, the Washington establishment remains hesitant to call a spade a spade and punish Ankara for the mayhem it has generated in all directions, counter to the U.S. regional interests. No less worrisome is the influence of the “blame America first” apologists in Washington who exonerate Turkey and go as far as to accuse the U.S. of the deteriorated relationship with the country that is an ally only in name.
For nearly two months, Belarusians have been taking to the streets to protest the results of the fraudulent presidential election of August 9. According to Ales Bialiatski of the Human Rights Center “Viasna,” close to 12,000 people have been detained since the night of the election. As of September 1, UN experts have received reports of 450 documented cases of torture and ill-treatment in detention. International human rights organizations raised concerns over the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and stun grenades by riot police.
Following the meeting of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenka with Vladimir Putin on September 14 in Sochi, one might get the impression that the Russian leader fully supported his counterpart amid the ongoing mass protests in Belarus. In particular, Putin confirmed his commitment to provide Minsk with a $1.5 billion loan and reiterated his recognition of Lukashenka as the legitimate president of Belarus. In turn, the Belarusian president again tried to demonstrate his loyalty to Moscow and to the ideas of the “allied states” of Belarus and Russia.
The Uighurs are a largely Muslim ethnic group based mainly in the Xinjiang autonomous region in northwestern China. Over 10 million Uighurs live in Xinjiang, which is about 45 percent of the region’s population of 24 million, and less than 1 percent of China’s total population. Uighur communities can also be found in Central Asia, particularly in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. The Uighur language is a part of the Turkic group of Altaic languages and shares similarities with Uzbek, Mongolian, Kazakh, and Kyrgyz languages. Faith is an important part of Uighurs’ culture and identity, as most of them practice a moderate form of Sunni Islam.
Introduction Turkey is a significant regional player whose posturing cannot be overlooked in the context of the Syrian civil war. Turkey and Syria both share a border, having had a… read more →
Russia – in the long run – is in decline and should rethink its policies towards the Former Soviet Union.
BY ELANUR URAL Prior to 2014, both Crimea and the Tatars were relatively unknown names to household news in the West. Now they are mentioned almost daily, most recently in… read more →
BY ELANUR URAL VICE’s crew visited it with protective suits, but David Farrier of Netflix’s Dark Tourist jumped right in after a shot of vodka. Kazakhstan’s ‘Atomic Lake’, though sitting… read more →
BY AUSTEN DOWELL While American foreign-policy experts and politicians are consumed with the threat of the so-called “rise of China” to US regional and global interests, it is easy to… read more →