June, 2022

• 28 June

  Turkey Is Playing With Fire in Syria

  

  While the war in Syria has receded from the international spotlight, residents in the country’s northeast are bracing for a new wave of armed conflict. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for months threatened to launch a military invasion of the region to push back Syrian Kurdish fighters and create …

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• 28 June

  Erdogan’s Engagement Finds Willing Partners in Africa

  

  Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal this week, returning to the African continent just months after his most recent four-day, three-nation tour last October, as well as the Third Turkey-Africa Partnership Summit, which was held in December in Istanbul. The Turkish leader, who …

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• 28 June

  Erdogan’s Weaponization of Religion Is Losing Its Edge

  

  For more than three months, Turkey has been rocked by rolling protests centered in Istanbul. Following President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s controversial appointment of businessman Melih Bulu as the new rector of Bogazici University in January, students and professors began holding rallies to denounce the pick. They see Bulu as an …

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• 28 June

  Russia To Provide Belarus With Guided Missile Systems

  

  Russian President Vladimir Putin Saturday said Russia will supply Belarus with Iskander-M mobile guided missile systems within a few months. The Russian leader met with his Belarussian counterpart, Alexander Lukashenko, Saturday in St. Petersburg, where Lukashenko told Putin that Belarus is concerned by the “aggressive” and “confrontational” policies of its …

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• 28 June

  Iran-Israel’s Incendiary Relations

  

  As Iran-Israel’s relations reach the nadir over the assassination of Colonel Sayeed Khodaye of Unit 840 of the Iranian Army by Israel on May 22, 2022, the quote of Albert Einstein rings a bell “We must learn the difficult lesson that the future of Mankind will only be tolerable when …

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• 28 June

  Iran: Major Security Shake-Up, IRGC Intelligence Chief Replaced

  

  Hossein Taeb, a hard-line cleric, was the intelligence chief of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the armed forces, for over a decade. But in a surprise move, the IRGC announced on June 23 that it had removed Taeb from his prominent post. The major …

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• 26 June

  The Anatomy of Inflation

  

  The focus of the US media and economists for the past several months has been increasingly on inflation. In recent weeks, however, US policymakers awoke as well to the realization that inflation is chronic, firmly embedded, and growing threat to the immediate future of the US economy. A qualitative ‘threshold …

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• 26 June

  Croatia’s remarkable national journey is a source of hope for Ukraine

  

  I recently had a fascinating chat with my colleague, Darjan Milutinovic. We discussed a country fighting for its freedom at a time when its independence was denied by a far more powerful neighbor. This adversary launched a full-scale invasion with a much larger army and occupied a quarter of the …

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• 26 June

  Turkey’s wartime bridge to the West is collapsing

  

  Russia’s unprovoked war of aggression in Ukraine has forced countries around the world to reexamine their geopolitical choices. Turkey, a strategic partner to both of the states at war, has been affected more than most nations. Caught in a lose-lose situation where taking any side in the conflict would lead …

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• 26 June

  Sadr Throws Iraqi Politics into Turmoil

  

  The decision by Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr to withdraw his large bloc from parliament clouds prospects for a broad-based government, eight months after national elections in Iraq. The resignations position pro-Iranian factions to determine the composition of the next government.Sadr’s move could trigger widespread unrest and or the calling of …

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