Dive into the archives.
- The World Upside Down
The following is a screenshot of Today’s Zaman, an English-language Turkish newspaper. One headline struck me:
One has to wonder if this is indeed a mistake or meant seriously. When soldiers are martyred (an incorrect use of the term anyway by either side) and terrorists are killed, well I just don’t know what the world is [...]
- Turkey Opens to Central Asia
Since the fall of the USSR, Turkey has quietly been maneuvering its way into Central Asia, increasing trade, political ties and more. Yet, until recently, only citizens of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan could visit Turkey without a visa. Those days are over.
July 31, 2007 (RFE/RL)—Ankara has lifted its visa requirement for tourist visits to Turkey [...]
- Landlocked Navies, Part 3: Mongolia
Note: I’m away on vacation biking around Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido with family. The posts in this series are autoposted. Hope you enjoy.
In the 13th century, Mongolia had the largest and most powerful navy in the world. Today, the Mongolian Navy has three boats, two guns, one engine, and [...]
- Landlocked Navies, Part 2: Kazakhstan
Note: I’m away on vacation biking around Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido with family. The posts in this series are autoposted. Hope you enjoy.
Central Asia is the region in the world furthest from the ocean. One of its few bodies of water, the Aral sea, is running dry. But that hasn’t [...]
- Iraqi Kurdistan: The End of Turkey’s EU Dreams?
With weekly threats from Turkey to invade Iraqi Kurdistan, it seems the situation is becoming progressively worse. While the PKK is a problem, it is of course only the ostensible reason. In fact, free Kurds make Turkey nervous and rightly so. During my visit to Turkish Kurdistan this March, the excitement about Iraq was palpable. [...]
- The Coming Clash in Turkey
Turkish columnist Ahmet Altan has a fantastic article up in the current English language issue of the Spiegel. While its conclusion is a bit alarmist, the social divide is very real. He begins:
Currently in Turkey, there is, on the one hand, a great mass of people who leave their shoes at the door before entering [...]
- Bombs Continue in Turkey
Diyarbakir, March 2007
One tends to noticed bombs in places he’s been. A few weeks ago there was a bomb in Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan which I’d recently visited. Today, although unsurprising, there’s been a bombing in Diyarbakir, the unofficial capital of Turkish Kurdistan.DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) – A bomb exploded at a bus station [...]
- Another Canal?
Kazakhstan’s Nursultan Nazarbaev, recently made president for life, proposed a new canal linking the Caspian with the Black Sea. Currently, goods flow through the Volga-Don shipping canal, which links the Volga to the Don. It runs from near Astrakhan, Russia on the northwestern shore of the Caspian to Rostov on the Sea of Azov. Claiming [...]
- How much is enough?
Via JoshNathan at Registan, originally from Afghanistanica:
One of my big complaints about military policy in Afghanistan (and, by extension, Iraq) is how it can’t even match the DoD’s own estimations, to say nothing of any other issues that need to be addressed. General Petraeus, who now runs the U.S. military in Iraq, wrote the new [...]
- Foggy Bottom Backs Borat!
Well I’ll be damned:
Borat seen as human rights victim by U.S. government
ALMATY - Fictional Kazakh TV reporter Borat has made an unexpected cameo appearance as a victim of censorship in a heavyweight annual human rights report issued by the State Department. The 2006 report, released in Washington on Tuesday by U.S. Secretary of State [...]
