2023

Reviews of Gönül Tol, Erdoğan’s War: A Strongman’s Struggle at Home and in Syria (London: Hurst and Co., 2022) and Dimitar Bechev, Turkey Under Erdoğan: How a Country Turned from Democracy and the West (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2022). Augsburg, Germany (Feature: Special to Informed Comment) – At the beginning of […]

Authoritarianism

Not Just Rallies: Iranian Protesters are Drafting Charters and a Bill of Rights

The Conversation

By Mona Tajali, Agnes Scott College; and Homa Hoodfar, Concordia University | – (The Conversation) – It’s been six months since the latest spark ignited mass protests in Iran — the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa (Jina) Amini in morality police custody after she was arrested for allegedly failing to wear her hijab properly. The […]

Israel/ Palestine

Number of demolitions by Israel of Palestinian property doubles

Middle East Monitor

( Middle East Monitor ) – Seventy-seven Palestinian-owned buildings have been destroyed since the extreme far-right government led by Benjamin Netanyahu took office, according to UN figures. The figure is nearly double the number of demolitions imposed by Israel during the same period last year. Ministers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich publicly advocate […]

Bush

20 Years On, What Did the Iraq War Truly Cost?

Peter Certo

By Peter Certo | – ( Otherwords.org) – The war claimed more than lives and treasure — it claimed a future’s worth of lost opportunities. Now, younger generations are demanding them back. By Peter Certo | Most of us who were alive then remember where we were on the morning of the 9/11 attacks. As […]

Authoritarianism

Iranians are done with Kings and Ayatollahs, and look back to Mosaddegh for a Way forward

Fariba Amini

Newark, Delaware (Feature — Special to Informed Comment) – The debate over the coup 1953 still lingers on especially now that there are discussions whether the Shah’s son, Reza Pahlavi, after forming a coalition with a few opposition figures, might even seek the return of monarchy, the monarchy which ended in 1979. On Facebook, clubhouse […]

Neoliberalism

The End of Renting? In Some Cities Affordable Housing is a Thing of the Past

Rebecca Gordon

( Tomdispatch.com) – In 1937, the American folklorist Alan Lomax invited Louisiana folksinger Huddie Ledbetter (better known as Lead Belly) to record some of his songs for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Lead Belly and his wife Martha searched in vain for a place to spend a few nights nearby. But they were […]

Feminism

This Revolution Is Still Alive’: A Growing Number Of Iranian Women Defy The Hijab Law After Months Of Protests

Golnaz Esfandiari

By Golnaz Esfandiari Mohammad Zarghami ( RFE/RL ) – Assal appeared in public for months without a hijab, or Islamic head scarf, in solidarity with the antiestablishment protests that rocked Iran. Even as the demonstrations that erupted in September have waned in recent weeks following a deadly state crackdown, the Tehran resident has continued […]

Climate Crisis

Corporations are using Trade Treaties to handcuff Efforts to save the Planet from Climate Emergency

John Feffer

( Foreign Policy in Focus) – The global economy hit a new milestone in 2022 by surpassing $100 trillion. This expansion, which has experienced only the occasional setback such as the 2020 COVID shutdowns, has been accelerated by trade. The world trade volume experienced 4,300 percent growth from 1950 to 2021, an average 4 percent […]

Featured

Israeli President cautions against Complacency and Warns of Real Possibility of Civil War

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – All of a sudden, civil war is on the minds of prominent Israeli politicians, who warn that if the current impasse between the government of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and the Israeli people is not resolved, it could come to that. Last Sunday an estimated half a million demonstrators came […]

Archives for 2023

A Crucial Year: Turkey at a Turning Point