By Dr. Yiorghos Leventis on April 06, 2016
in Articles, Balkans, Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean, Eurasian Affairs, Europe, Global Security, Middle East & North Africa: MENA, Regional Security, Turkey
That’s over now, we are going to finish this off thundered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a televised speech to the state-run Red Crescent humanitarian organization, Monday 4 April 2016. State television channel TRT aired live the speech. The neo-Sultan was referring to the generation old autonomy-seeking Kurdish insurgency…
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By Dr. Yiorghos Leventis on March 28, 2016
in Articles, Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean, Eurasian Affairs, Europe, European Union, Global Security, Regional Security, Turkey, Western Asia
It is a truism to say there is a price to everything in the world we live in. As more and more ‘atmospheric’ noise is made by international actors (UN, EU) about the imminence of a Cyprus settlement, it is vital that we shed at least some light on the…
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The first five days of November 2013 saw the Nobel Laureate (1995) Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. As a guest participant in this 60th biennial world class conference on global security concerns, I was assigned to the Working Group ‘Turkey and its Neighbours’. Central…
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The refugee crisis in Europe escalates by the day to an unprecedented scale shaking the very foundations of the European Union. Just a week away from the crucial summit in Brussels, scheduled for the 7th of March 2016, the European Union is in disarray, lost in a fearful tunnel without…
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By Dr. Yiorghos Leventis on January 10, 2015
in Articles, Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean, Eurasian Affairs, Europe, European Union, Global Security, Israel, Middle East, Middle East & North Africa: MENA, Regional Security, Turkey, World Affairs
No sooner the first NAVTEX signaling a concerted plan of provocations in the Cypriot Exclusive Economic Zone expired, Ankara issued a second Navigation Telex notifying the apathetic world that it is here to stay – audaciously seeking to block waters even closer to the southern coast of the Republic of…
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By Dr. Yiorghos Leventis on November 12, 2014
in Articles, Cyprus, Eastern Mediterranean, Eurasian Affairs, Europe, European Union, Middle East, Middle East & North Africa: MENA, Regional Security, Turkey
Exactly three years ago, in October 2011, my phone rang at my antique maps gallery-cum-office. At the other end of the line was Dr Gregory Reichberg, an American seasoned researcher, a dear colleague then Director of the PRIO Cyprus Centre. Already at my time at the UN University HQ Tokyo…
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Regrettably, the West stubbornly maintains a unilateral position on the Syrian conflict. Hence the chances of its resolution become minimal. As the conflict enters its third year, the regime of Bashar al-Assad seems to be enjoying the support of the majority of the Syrian people and is not going to…
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Written by Dr Yiorghos Leventis* One thing is for sure: the Eastern Mediterranean is going through interesting times. Historically, I guess, we have always been living in such times. The Mediterranean, as the etymology of the geographical name denotes, constitutes the middle of the earth, the place where multiple…
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Written by Dr William Mallinson With the desperate bombing of Libya eventually petering out, I think it unlikely that the exporters and imposers of western freedom will try and attack Syria, for the following reasons. First, Turkey will not countenance the idea, since its Kurdish population would immediately latch on…
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Written by Mr. Simon Bahceli* Tens of thousands of mainland Turks could soon become new ‘citizens’ of the breakaway north, according to critics of an “immigration regulation” approved by the Turkish Cypriot ‘council of ministers’ yesterday. Although details of the regulation were yet to be made public, the north’s…
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