Erdogan’s Multiple Hybris

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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Refugee Mess in Europe: Do We Really Need Another Arab NATO?

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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Washington Does Not Want Intensification of the War Against Terror

The White House has repeatedly stated that Russia undermined U.S. efforts to achieve a political settlement in Syria, supporting the Government of President Bashar al-Assad. The American administration further claims that Moscow continues to hinder opportunities to engage the moderate Syrian opposition in the discussion of political change, in which,…

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Eastern Med Provocations Have No End: Trust the Turks?

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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Warm Waters: 70 Hot Days Ahead

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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Southeast Ukraine: The Living and the Dead

As time passes it becomes more obvious that the American protégées in Kiev did not justify the ‘hopes and trust’ and disregarded the ‘honorable mission’ of destroying the Russian-speaking population of Donbass. The Ukrainian ultra-nationalists increasingly become a burnt card, with no place in the deck of Western policy reserved…

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