Syria

By Omer Tekdemir and Oğuzhan Göksel | (Open Democracy) | – – Though often depicted as a relatively stable exception in a turbulent region, the Republic of Turkey has also wrestled with burdens of the Ottoman Empire. Arguably, the most troublesome legacy has been the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of post-Ottoman society, because even after […]

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria

Reports: Reluctant Russian Soldiers Oppose ‘Secret’ Syria Mission

contributors

By Tom Balmforth | ( RFE/ RL ) MOSCOW — Several Russian soldiers are seeking help from human rights advocates to oppose what they say are secret orders to send them to Syria, according to media reports that add to evidence of a Russian military buildup in the war-torn Middle East country. The Gazeta.ru news […]

Syria

America can — and should — Do More for Syrian Refugees

contributors

By Chris Toensing | (Otherwords.org) | – – Imagine that 58 million Americans were streaming into Canada and Mexico, many with only a small satchel and the clothes on their backs. Picture another 102 million residents of the Eastern seaboard seeking refuge with relatives in the Midwest and West. That terrifying mental exercise gives a […]

Featured

US Intel Chief: Iraq and Syria may not Survive as States

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Public remarks by the head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency and by John Brennan, director of the CIA, suggest that Washington is making its peace with a break-up of Syria and Iraq. They hastened to say that break-up was not US policy, they simply saw […]

Displaced and Refugees

Israel’s Deep Role in Syrian Refugee Crisis: Saga of Yarmouk

contributors

By: Ramzy Baroud | (Ma’an News Agency) | – – When Zionist Haganah militias carried out Operation Yiftach, on May 19 1948, the aim was to drive Palestinians in the northern Safad District which had declared its independence a mere five days earlier, outside the border of Israel. The ethnic cleansing of Safad and its […]

Bashar al-Assad

Germany seeks Talks with Russia over Syria as Putin conducts Naval Maneuvers off Tartous

Juan Cole

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Agence France Press Arabic says that Cypriot officials are reporting that Russia has asked them to alter airline routes this coming week because it is planning naval military maneuvers off the Syrian coast near its leased naval base, Tartous. The maneuvers are called “routine” by Moscow […]

al-Qaeda

14 Years after 9/11, US, Israel Tempted to ally with Al-Qaeda in Syria

contributors

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – The Jabhat al-Nusra or Support Front is one of the major rebel groups in Syria, holding extensive territory in the hinterland of cities like Homs and Aleppo and in the province of Idlib. The Support Front is just al-Qaeda. It has announced allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahiri, […]

Displaced and Refugees

Can Syrian Asylee Airlift from Turkey to Sweden be Crowd-Funded? Iranian Expats Think So

contributors

By Elisabeth Braw | (RFE/ RL) | – – A group of Iranian emigres and friends has announced an ambitious project to mount a crowdfunded airlift from troubled areas around the Mediterranean to Sweden, allowing would-be refugees to bypass hazardous land-and-sea journeys via what they’re calling Refugee Air. One of the organizers says he was […]

Chemical Weapons

ISIL’s campaign may be going chemical – why no international outcry?

contributors

Michelle Bentley | (The Conversation) | – – Evidence is mounting that [so-called] Islamic State (IS) [group] is using chemical weapons in Iraq and Syria – and yet this egregious crime, which once used to be a “red line” for the rest of the world, has yet to provoke a proportionate response. One the most […]