... relations.
Turkish-Russian relations were once again tested by the assassination by a Turkish Islamist of the Russian ambassador to Ankara who was key to restoring Russian-Turkish relations. This incident took place just before the planned meeting of Turkey, Iran and Russia over the Syrian crisis and just after the UN Resolution on Aleppo in December 2016.
Now, U.S.-Russian relations have been tested once again by the April 2017
decision
of the Trump administration to fire 59 cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase on ...
... the raging jihad against the Muslim Brotherhood, Ankara cannot leave the following question unheeded: if Qatar, an ally of the Muslim Brotherhood, is defeated, will it be Turkey’s turn next?
The good news for us is that the “Astana troika” of Russia, Turkey and Iran, spearheaded by Russia, will most certainly gain an impetus to deepen cooperation in the Syrian peace process. Yet can Qatar be persuaded to ease its stance on Damascus and scale down support for any militant groups waging a war on the Syrian government?...
... possible, except military confrontation” formula should form the crux of the negotiations.
Any Solution is Possible, Except Military Confrontation
However, any kind of negotiation with the participation of “interested parties” (be it Russia, the United States, Turkey, or Iran) is unlikely to produce positive results if the parties to the conflict fail to find compromise formulas that could be implemented in practice. Yerevan and Baku are not ready for compromises. By “conflict settlement,” each party to the ...
The events in Turkey demonstrate once again the dangerous fragility of the state system in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The ... ... external involvement is likely to have only a marginal impact on key regional countries like Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iran. However, a new concept of regional collective security proposed by the international community might help to limit the international ...
... recently held talks with Russia and Iran, allies that support the Bashar al-Assad regime. The words of Prime Minister of Turkey Binali Yıldırım, who called for “a new page” to be opened in the history of Syria – one that would involve Turkey, Iran, Russia, the United States, Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf states – have also caused a stir. He also stated, for the first time, that he would not be against al-Assad being involved in the political process during a “transitional period,...
... Europe have cooled, the process of normalizing relations with Russia will continue, partly because of Russia’s position on the attempted coup. The reaction of the European Union to Erdogan’s domestic policy moves is likely to strengthen Turkey’s short-term course for cooperation with Russia and Iran, since the Iranian leadership was one of the first to support President Erdogan.
Teheran and Moscow expect Turkey to soften its stand on Syria. However, at this juncture, the Turkish government is more concerned with internal problems. The Turkish ...
... Putin.
Second, Moscow has not only substantiated its leadership claims but also clearly demonstrated the difference in the Russian and American approaches to convoluted international problems. Being no secret, Washington had no clear-cut
policy
in the Syria conflict, at least since the completion of the Tehran nuclear deal when the prospect of a peripheral war against Iran moved to the backburner. As a result, the United States virtually franchised Syria to its regional allies Turkey and Saudi Arabia whose views on Syria hardly coincide with U.S. national interests. No wonder, the U.S. positions in the ...
... language Putin understands.
Putin may be miscalculating here in general, but he is certainly smart enough to know a war with Turkey, and therefore NATO and the West, is not at all in Russia’s interests right now.
Why, Mr. Putin?
AFP
Coming off of all this, many questions arise as to the risk-gain,... ... jihadists by helping Shiite Alawite Assad massacre mainly Sunni rebels and civilians with the help of Shiite Hezbollah and Shiite Iran just for Russia's having a naval base on Syria’s coast and a few new bases inside Syria as well as a client ...
... of agreement and construction, since in order to supply gas to Europe by 2018-2019 construction should be starting now. The Russian giant’s leadership
set the objective of concluding an intergovernmental agreement with Turkey in the second quarter of this year
in order to deliver the first gas via the new pipeline by December 2016. Gazprom has ... ...
agreeing to a discount of 10.25% instead of the originally proposed 6%
.
The hurry is also driven by the way the situation around Iran is developing. The news that the deal had been reached was followed immediately by a visit to Iran by the president of Turkey ...
... thermonuclear conflict. No nuclear bombs dropped from airplanes. No guided missiles launched from hardened sites or submarines. Edward Teller, Admiral Hyman Rickover, General Curtis LeMay and nuclear war theorist Herman Kahn are icons of the past. Today, even Iran is taking part in Pugwash discussions. Photo: University of California The cooperation between the United States and Russia which provides the institutional superstructure to facilitate Kerry-Lavrov and the Iran nuclear talks has its roots in the spirit of Pugwash, officially known as the Pugwash Conference On Science And World Affairs. Cyrus Eaton And The Rockefeller ...
