The Gatestone Institute: Turkey's Conquest-Fetish

The Fall of Constantinople - May, 1453 -

In the Gatestone Institute, Burak Bekdil writes:

"1071 is a very special year for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan -- and his Islamist ideologues. Erdogan often speaks about his "2071 targets," a reference to his vision of "Great Turkey," on the 1000^th anniversary of a battle that paved the Turks' way into where they still live.

"In 1071, the Seljuk Turks did not arrive in Anatolia from their native Central Asian steppes with flowers in their hands. Instead they were in full combat gear, fighting a series of wars against the Christian Byzantine [Eastern Roman] Empire and featuring a newfound Islamic zeal. The Battle of Manzikert in 1071 is widely seen as the moment when the Byzantines lost the war against the Turks: before the end of the century, the Turks were in control of the entire Anatolian peninsula." Read it all.

What Russia intends to do in Syria - Al Monitor

Why Moscow is preparing to return to Syria

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Al Jazeera: Islam and Democracy - What's the Problem?

Al Jazeera asks two important questions?
"Can Muslim-majority countries strike a balance between faith and democracy?
Or, is there an irreconcilable tension between liberal values and Islamic beliefs?"

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Human Rights in the Gulf States: What is happening to Christians?

"(T)he oil boom of the 1970s created a tremendous demand for foreign labor in the Persian Gulf rentier states. Un-surprisingly, the number of workers needed to drive the emerging economies of the Gulf states was bound to include significant numbers of Christians. There are now more than three and a half million expatriate Christians working in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, mostly Catholics from the Philippines, India, and Pakistan. As their numbers increased, the question of how—or whether—to allow them to openly practice their faith became a significant issue."

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Human Rights in Turkey - Are they about to become more restrictive?

"The country (of Turkey) is being dragged into increasing levels of authoritarianism with few if any checks and balances. The opposition parties fail to impress the voters and show no sign of credibly challenging Islamist rule. An unresolved rift between a growing Kurdish population and a shrinking Turkish one has the potential to explode, especially as Kurds outside Turkey gain de facto independence. Meanwhile, a frightening number of Turks just do not seem to care that the representative, democratic republic bequeathed to them by Kemal Atatürk is becoming just one more relic in the junkyard of history."

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