Latest Articles about Middle East
The Evolution of the PKK: New Faces, New Challenges
The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) was founded in 1974 to mobilize Turkish Kurds to fight for independence from Turkey. During the 1980s and 1990s, the PKK fought a guerrilla campaign against Turkey that claimed over 30,000 lives on both sides. After calling off a five-year-old... MORE
RUSSIA IGNORES THE RIGA SUMMIT AND EXPECTS NATO TO FAIL IN AFGHANISTAN
Moscow was remarkably relaxed about the NATO summit held in Latvia’s capital, Riga, last week. Russian President Vladimir Putin even played with the idea of making an informal visit there for French President Jacques Chirac’s birthday party but abandoned it due to “other commitments” (Vremya... MORE
LUGAR URGES ACTIVE ROLE FOR NATO IN ENERGY SECURITY POLICY
In a keynote speech during NATO's summit in Riga, Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN), chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called for updating NATO's basic role to include protection of allied countries' energy security. Addressing a summit event sponsored by the German Marshall Fund... MORE
MOSCOW OFFERS ANKARA EXPANDED COOPERATION IN ENERGY SPHERE
As both Russia and Turkey are increasingly dissatisfied with the nature of their relations with the West, the two Eurasian countries appear intent to further develop their bilateral cooperation. Continuing to build energy ties seems to be the surest way to enhance Moscow and Ankara’s... MORE
GAIDAR’S APPARENT POISONING FUELS CONSPIRACY THEORIES
The international scandal triggered by the murder of former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel Alexander Litvinenko, who died in London on November 23 after apparently being poisoned by the radioactive element polonium-210, has intensified with news of the apparent poisoning of former prime minister... MORE
Libyan Fighters Join the Iraqi Jihad
Despite Libyan leader Muammar al-Qaddhafi's uncompromising stance toward Islamist activism, a number of Libyan volunteers have traveled from Libya to join the Iraqi jihad. From the information that is beginning to emerge about some of these militants, it would seem that they are not part... MORE
RUSSIAN POLITICAL INTRIGUE MEANS PUTIN COULD NOT HAVE BEEN IN THE DARK ABOUT LITVINENKO ATTACK
The apparent murder of former Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer Alexander Litvinenko in London has caused an uproar in Britain and the West, but is not much of a top story in Russia. Litvinenko fell ill November 1 and died in a London hospital... MORE
WAS LITVINENKO THE LATEST VICTIM OF A KREMLIN POWER STRUGGLE?
The death of former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel Alexander Litvinenko in London on November 23, and the subsequent release of his statement blaming his poisoning on President Vladimir Putin, has morphed into a serious international scandal. British Home Secretary John Reid said on... MORE
SUMMIT OF “TECHNICAL” DISAGREEMENTS AND DIMINISHING TRUST
The Russia-EU summit held in Helsinki, Finland, on November 24 was by no means loaded with expectations, thus it was hardly a disappointment. The central point of its pre-planned agenda was the formal opening of negotiations on a new framework Partnership and Cooperation agreement, since... MORE
OSCE’S YEAR-END DRAFT DECLARATION YIELDS TO RUSSIA ON ISTANBUL COMMITMENTS
With barely ten days remaining until the OSCE’s year-end conference in Brussels, the draft ministerial declaration (the centerpiece of the conference documents) would weaken the West’s hand and strengthen Moscow’s on the most salient hard-security issue in Europe: Russia’s 1999 commitments to withdraw its forces... MORE