Sunni Civil/Cold War Turkey and Saudi Arabia battle it out for the hearts, minds, and territory of the region’s majority Sunni population, with multipolar-leaning Ankara coming to heads with unipolar-devoted Riyadh and possibly even teaming up with the Kingdom’s hated Shiite rival Iran in order to ‘outflank’ the US’ main regional ally. Nagorno-Karabakh Continuation War…
The Changing Of The Guard Central Asia is slated for a series of inevitable leadership transitions with the future passing of the elderly leaders in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan coming after the recent one in Uzbekistan, opening up many avenues for state breakdown and interstate sabotage in the latter two mutually antagonistic Fergana Valley states and…
Four years ago, Turkey’s then prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said that within in a few weeks he would be praying in Damascus’s Umayyad Mosque, as Assad was about to fall. Similarly, Israel’s most decorated soldier, former Defense Minister Ehud Barak, predicted that Assad and his military would be toppled within weeks. That was at…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNdAPJQ5gMg Fresh video evidence from the province of Latakia indicates that Russia has likely increased its air grouping operating in Siria. The video entitled “Syria: Army relaunches offensive against militias in Latakia” and posted by RUPTLY on September 24, 2016 shows the Su-25SM attack aircraft supporting an advance of the Syrian army against terrorists. There…
In what may just be a new level of bipartisanship in US politics, George W Bush was spotted asking Barack Obama for help taking a photograph at a ceremony in Washington DC. While attending the opening of the National Museum of African American Culture and History in the city on Saturday, the former president was…
Moody’s ratings agency cut Turkey’s sovereign credit rating to junk thus concluding its post-coup review. Late Friday the agency cut Turkey’s long term issuer and senior unsecured bond ratings to non-investment grade Ba1 from Baa3. The downgrade accounted for “the risks related to the country’s sizeable external funding requirements and the weakening in previously supportive…
