Discovering MENA and other thoughts

"This counter-terrorism campaign will be waged through a steady, relentless effort to take out ISIL wherever they exist, using our air power and our support for partner forces on the ground. This strategy [...] is consistent with the approach I outlined earlier this year: to use force against anyone who threatens America’s core interests, but to mobilize partners wherever possible to address broader challenges to international order," Barack Obama said during a 15-minute intervention broadcast live on major American television networks on September 10th. 

Sometimes, it seems as though the only factors which contribute to sketch the future of the Middle East, most of them I laid out in this article , are out of the control of the citizens: sectarianism, repression, foreign intervention, coups (or non-coups)... However, and even though democracy may (still) not be seen as the key strength of the region, several elections are taking place in many of its countries. Concretely eight, nothing less, and in what many consider key countries that do have a say in regional - and often international - issues. This is why, although many may feel tempted to dismiss those events as procedural or even cosmetic moves, we all should take a closer look at the previous steps and the outcome of these votes.

It seems May is one good month for uprisings... Maybe it´s the hotter weather, maybe it´s the hormones in the Spring, maybe it´s the need to escape from study of many university-enrolled who prefer fighting for their country over revising for their last exams... It happened in Paris in 1968, it happened in Argentina in 1810, it happened in Madrid in 2011... It is maybe happening now in Turkey. 

Anyone out there unaware of Assad's latest mischief? Really? Well, on the occasion of Syria's  Independence Day , the country's stiff President gave an interview to the Syrian official television channel Al-Ikhbariya. The interview coincided with the country's Independence Day, and at one point of the ranting he linked his departure to a "decision of the people". Was he maybe suggesting there might be a presidential election, in which he will beyond doubt be the front runner, in 2014? He then paradoxically added that his post is of no value without the support of the people. Which people exactly?  Assad's speech was full with pearls of wisdom, notably the one about the West being trying to colonize his country and thus playing with fire as a result of its funding Al-Qaeda operations. He somewhat threatened the West saying it will pay dearly one day or the other, for this organization would turn against them in the future,  striking "in the hear...

On the occasion of the start of the Kurdish new year and before hundred of thousands of feverish supporters, imprisoned PKK (Kurdistan Worker Party, branded by many countries as terrorist organization) leader, Abdullah Ocalan, surprised many by announcing last week both a ceasefire and the withdrawal of all the group's forces (experts reckon they amount to more than 3,000) from Turkey, in what some consider the culmination of years-long efforts from both sides to put an end to a decades-long bloody conflict that has left behind more than 40,000 deaths (a vast majority of them Kurdish), as well as thousands of ravaged families. With this declaration, the group meets one of the conditions PM Erdogan has repeatedly established to set off formal negotiation talks. A similar process was put into motion in 1999, following the capture of Ocalan by Turkish forces, but failed and, as a result, the Turkish army severely attacked the group. The second failed effort reached the 2010 "Os...

Three Kurdish female activists, including a founding member of the Kurdistan's Workers Party militant group (PKK), were mysteriously shot dead in Paris recently. An unsolved assassination (the French authorities are carrying out an in-depth inquiry on the murders) that has sparked rumours throughout Turkey and the region, where the central Government, particularly nationalist figures within it that receive the name of "the deep state" (it wouldn't be the first time this type of accusations have been heard), has been accused of trying to jeopardize the peace process that kicked off weeks ago bearing promises of stability, through disarmament, and greater autonomy as well as the granting of more rights for the Southern Kurdish region. Meanwhile, the Turkish Government is blaming an internal feud, precisely regarding peace negotiations, within the rebel group PKK . Most are already blaming both sides for speaking publicly about the negotiations too soon, thus ali...

According to this article , this shift is not an option to dismiss. "Last week's visit to Washington by Feridun Sinirlioglu, undersecretary in the Turkish Foreign Ministry, has attracted attention. Informed sources in the Ankara beltway say that two issues need to be separated in discussing Turkey’s Syria approach. “Erdogan has to continue the tough talk on Syria because the catastrophe goes on there, but Sinirlioglu was trying to figure out a way both saving Erdogan’s face for its tough tone [on] engagement, and sorting out a deal between the Assad regime and the opposition." Maybe Erdogan, alongside other Arab leaders, were acting ahead of themselves when they started to bluntly criticize Assad's regime and calling for his ousting, barely weeks after the onset of the uprising. I had to post this photo of Erdogan! (photo by REUTERS/Kayhan Ozer/Handout)