Turkey downing Russian jet
Europe is distancing itself from Turkey, it looks a reckless action by Turkey in shooting down the Russian plane. It has potential implications because Turkey is a NATO country.Vladimir Putin…
Turkey
This Former Refugee Takes an Unsentimental Journey…
Senator Mobina Jaffer talks about the realities of refugee camps Jaffer tells Stephen Quinn about what she saw in her latest trip to the Middle East By On The Coast,…
Could Syria Become the 21st Century Sarajevo?
There were plenty of proxy wars during the Cold War only back then the principals had enough sense to avoid direct clashes. That was then, this is Syria where today…
Lawyers, guns and money: Russia’s intervention in Syria offers a useful teaching moment for Canadians
PHOTOS: A Russian Su-34 bomber releases a bomb near the provisional ISIS capital of Raqqa in Syria. (Russian Ministry of Defence photo.) Below: Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syrian President Bashar…
As Clear as Mud
In under 2-minutes, the BBC explains who is fighting whom in Syria. It’s as clear as mud.
Dead Boy In The Sea
Wednesday’s Twitter feeds were jammed with the body of a young corpse of a boy facing down in the sand as an authority stood over the body and soon picked…
Jason Kenney sails close to the wind on Anti-Terrorism Act at picnic visit
PHOTOS: Liberal candidate Adam Vaughan’s photo of the Kurdish Peace and Cultural Festival in Toronto Saturday, with an image of PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan visible in the background. (Grabbed from…
That Conservative foreign policy election plank: shaky, incoherent and quite possibly dangerous
PHOTOS: A screen grab from the Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s notorious electioneering video showing the himself and Defence Minister Jason Kenney in Iraqi Kurdistan, with the face of a Canadian…
The effort to engineer regime change in Greece could lead to a much bigger disaster
PHOTOS: Leaders of the Greek military government of 1967 to 1974. Is something similar waiting in the wings if the eurozone leadership’s effort to terrorize the Greeks into voting Yes…
Double victory for democracy in Turkey
Turkish President Recep Erdogan has just learned a lesson in democracy. And humility. Erdogan, a popular prime minister and the country’s dominant politician since his party swept to power in…
The Final Chapter for Bashar Assad
Things are not looking up for Syrian strongman, Bashar Assad. His first problem is the Sunni Muslim coalition of Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia (ordinarily not the best of friends)…
Filmmakers pull out of Istanbul festival in government censorship protest
Nearly two dozen filmmakers have yanked their films from the 34th Istanbul Film Festival in response to the last-minute cancellation of documentary screening about the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The…
Touring Turkey with 18 litres of luxury
I’m sitting in Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, waiting for my connecting flight to Istanbul with my carry-on bag resting on my lap. When I arrive at the Ataturk airport later today,…
Six things we all need to think about when Canadians volunteer to fight for the Kurds
The Kurds: They should have had a country of their own, but since they don’t, and since Canada is allied by treaty to one of their principal enemies, letting Canadians…
Turkey Day at the Soapbox House
“There’s no such thing as too much turkey”.— Mr Soapbox Mr Soapbox is a peculiar man. He’s a wonderful cook who rises to any occasion but when it come to…
Ten Questions about the Harper Government’s embrace of war with ISIS-ISIL-IS
Ready, Aye, Ready! Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird whips up the War Party in the House of Commons. Below: Stephen Harper, the prime minister, and Edmonton Centre MP Laurie Hawn.…
Oh Hell, There Goes the NATO Neighbourhood
The allegation: our longtime NATO partner, Turkey, has been supporting al-Qaeda in Syria. The accuser, Francis Ricciardone, until late June the American ambassador to Turkey. “Turkey has directly supported al-QAeda’s…
Avoiding Another Imbroglio: A Mound Of Sound Guest Post
This note from the Mound of Sound accompanied the post that follows: Some of the course material I’ve been going through lately got me thinking about the conflicts raging in…
Following AKP win Erdogan to ‘enter the lair’ of ‘traitors’: war against Syria in the works?
Top: Erdoğan after win flanked by son Bilal / Beneath left: Fethullah Gülen Following a solid win for the AKP in the nationwide local elections in Turkey, PM Recep Tayyip…