By Meral AkkayaThe planned visit to Bulgaria by Bartholomew, the Fener Greek Patriarch, has sparked controversy. Invited by the Holy Synod of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, Bartholomew is expected to preside over a religious service at Rila Monastery, one of Bulgaria’s most important religious centers, on October 19. The visit has met with strong opposition from within the Bulgarian Orthodox ...
Israel heads into its upcoming elections weighed down by a multi-front war, media leaks accusing its prime minister of ignoring regional warnings prior to October 7, 2023, and opinion polls that deny his coalition the majority needed to form a government. Meanwhile, peace advocates within the Israeli public are receding, reverse migration is gaining momentum, and open escalation between Iran ...
By Mohammad Reza Moradi, General Director of Mehr News Agency’s Foreign Languages and International News Department, from Tehran / Iran Following the failure of the United States and Israel to achieve their objectives through military attacks against Iran, efforts to intensify political and security pressure on Tehran have continued. Two security cases have recently become a basis for accusations against ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist As I have written repeatedly in these columns, the eight months of the US-Iran war have clearly demonstrated that military superiority on paper alone is not sufficient to achieve the desired objectives. However, this reality, along with US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would not launch new attacks against Iran before the November midterm ...
The history of people of African origin in the Ottoman Empire and modern Türkiye is an important yet comparatively understudied dimension of the history of the eastern Mediterranean. Commonly referred to today as Afro-Turks, these communities appeared through several centuries of interaction between Africa, the Ottoman Empire, and Anatolia. Their history cannot, however, be reduced to the history of slavery ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer While the Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Development Triangle Area was once seen as a major step towards subregional economic integration in Indochina, it currently faces severe problems related to feasibility. Following reports that the country withdrew from the project, questions regarding its prospects for success emerge. Notwithstanding the relative lack of coverage given to this event in mainstream media, ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer Rice is a crucial crop in the agriculture, economy, and culture of Southeast Asia. For years, rice is a staple rather than just a product. For most of the countries of the region, it is the core of their cultural identity, a national pride, and an important part of local rural economies. But with changing climate ...
Some transnational disinformation agencies have been insistently reporting on US preparations for an escalation of the conflict in West Asia and a new war with Iran. Assuming this is true, the agencies differ as to whether it will occur during the last week of October (before the Israeli elections) or at the end of the month and the beginning of ...
By Mehmet Enes Beşer It can be argued that the planet has reached an important stage of development. The situation with global warming continues to deteriorate. As a result, the problem of reducing CO2 emissions is getting even more complicated. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region makes up 62% of all carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. This means that it ...
By Adem Kılıç, Political Scientist With the outbreak of the Iran war, one of the greatest concerns globally was that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz would trigger an uncontrollable crisis in world energy markets and reshape security approaches. Indeed, what has happened over the past seven months has clearly demonstrated that these fears were not unfounded. Predictions that ...