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“Olive Branch” Paris Position: Reticence and Opacity Ankara’s Operation “Olive Branch” in Afrin indicates a new orientation to reinstate Paris’ position in the Syrian civil war by trying to be a major player in the process of Syrian peace talks negotiations. By Abdennour Toumi Turkey’s current military foray Operation “Olive Branch” in Afrin, a northwestern…
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Troubled Waters Under the Tigris and Euphrates Bridges By Abdennour Toumi Ankara, Turkey — Last summer I was in the southeastern province of Mardin, when social-demand riots erupted in the majority of Kurdish villages and towns. Burning tires and barricades blocked the roads as farmers protested the cut-off of electricity and especially of water needed to irrigate…
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By Abdennour Toumi Ankara, Turkey — Turkish parliamentary elections on June 7th are fast approaching, the streets are decorated with parties’ banners, and daily candidate caravans furrow the districts with blaring loud speakers, seeking the vote for their constituency. The operation has already begun in Turkish communities abroad. It’s a “sports” contest on a national scale, yet this…
When the West created the Arab States after their colonization and occupation of the Middle East region after World War I, did they abandon their promises of implementing Democracies? Today’s Arab countries are not Democratic and have never been in a large part because of the failures of the Democratic West. By Abdennour Toumi Ankara, Turkey…
New Dilemmas for Turkey’s Syrian-Iraqi Kurds By Abdennour Toumi, Mardin, Turkey As the civil war in Syria continues, the ethnic factor is just one of many paradoxes plaguing this dynamic conflict/crisis. Along Turkey’s southern long borders, it has become clear that with the regime change the Syrian opposition demands have caused Turkey and its regional policy…
Farmers protest Turkish economic policies By Abdennour Toumi Mardin, Turkey — Last week, fire and barricades blocked the roads for three days as farmers protested their electricity and water being cut off to irrigate their corn fields. In the southern districts of Derik and Kiziltepe. Residents of these districts are angered by the lack of water and…