New Poker in Middle East

Republic of Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced in a television speech(12.12.2018) Turkish military force would start a military operation to east of the Euphrates. The main target of this military operation is the Kurdish elements of the Syrian Democratic Force (YPG) in the region. Republic of Turkey sees this democratic force as a part of PKK(Kurdistan Workers' Party). According to Republic of Turkey, PKK is a terrorist organization. However, USA works in coorperation with Syrian Democratic Force against ISIS in Northern Syria. 

After President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's military operation anouncement, US warned Turkey not to attack Syria. A spokeman for the US department of defence said that unilateral military action into northeast Syria by any party, particularly as US personnel may be present or in the vicinity, is of grave concern. We would find any such actions unacceptable.

Russia, on the military operation, said that both sides need to be discreet.

As we could understand USA is totally against this military operation. Russia tries to find a middle way between Turkey, YPG and USA in this military operation. 

Soon or late, Turkey will launch this military operation to Eastern Syria, because Turkey always states that it is always uncomfortable about the presence of YPG in the region. Because of this Turkey's unconfortable situation, Turkey lauched two military operation to two different places in Northern Syria and Turkish military force ceaned these two places from YPG's militants. Turkey is really decisive about the presence of YPG in the region.

Almost at the same day, there was one more interesting news about Middle East. The news was about Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is reported to be “seriously considering” setting up a “game-changing” Camp David-style summit meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Many researchers believe that the main purpose of this meeting is to fix the bad image of the Saudi Arabia. ı am not totally agree with these researchers. Because, Saudi Arabia isolated from most of the Middle Eastern countries such as Turkey, Qatar and Iran. In my opinion, the main purpose of this meeting is to seek new alliances in the region.

As we could understand that there is a new poker game in Middle East and countries in the region try to take part in this game and they want to be strong in this game.

PRC's African Aid

Forum On China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), which was founded in 2000, is a platform for the PRC and most of the African countries to come together (Tulga, 2018). FOCAC is one of the most important parts of China's strategic plan for the African continent. FOCAC works for the development of all aspects of Sino- African relations as part of "South-South" cooperation. FOCAC became an alternative to the IMF, Bretton Woods, and the World Bank (Tulga, 2018).

Before the FOCAC, China Africa bilateral trade volume was 2 billion dollars (Wu and Bai, 2017). After the FOCAC, trade volume between China and African states started to increase and rose to 40 billion dollars in 2007 (FOCAC, 2012). This trade volume became $114 billion in 2010 (FOCAC, 2012). Chinese direct foreign investment to Africa also increased with the establishment of FOCAC. It was merely $500 million in 2003, but it rose to $ 9 billion in 2009 (Wu and Bai, 2017). The trade volume between China and Africa was $ 10.5 billion in 2000 (Wu and Bai, 2017). After the FOCAC, it started to rise (FOCAC, 2012). The volume of trade rose to 40 billion dollars in 2005 and in 2011 it became 166 billion dollars (FOCAC, 2012). After the establishment of FOCAC, in 2009, the PRC became the largest trading partner of Africa by passing the United States (Tulga, 2018).

This year's FOCAC meeting took place in Beijing, China. There was a news on South China Morning Post about this year FOCAC meeting on PRC's African Aid. According to Wong and Zhou (2018), PRC will double her financial aid and investment pledges to Africa. In this meeting, PRC's president Xi Jinping announced that PRC would waive the debts of the poorest African countries that have diplomatic ties with PRC.

President Xi said that PRC does not attach political strings to her investments to African statesunder the initiative, nor did it interfere in the internat affairs of African states. And, Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, said that Africa is not a zero-sum game. Africa's growing relationships with PRC do not come at anyone's expense.

The most important reason for these statements by the Chinese and Rwandan presidents is the debate among western scholars about whether China is neo-colonialist or not. Nowadays, PRC’s expanding role in the world and also the emergence of Chinese internationalization has been carefully analyzed not only by academics and business leaders but also by press professionals (Wang, 2010). China’s growing number of aid to Africa and its political and economic engagement with different countries are attracting more attention and analysis. Whether PRC is the neo-colonialist or not is located at the center of these analyzes.

In my opinion, it is too early to say that PRC is a neo-colonialist in Africa and we don't have enough evidence about this topic. But, in current case, according to economic data, we can not say that PRC is a neo-colonialist in Africa.



RELATED LINKS: 1) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/327666346_The_African_views_on_China's_African_Policy
2) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323615624_African%27s_View_about_China%27s_African_Policy

Algerian Civil War(1992-2002) and Roman Catholics inside civil war

In 1989, Algeria faced political and economic liberalization policies. This political liberalization paved the way for the new constitution and afterwards multi-party elections. The Algerians complained about the power of the Front Liberation Nationale (FLN), which had continued since 1962. Because unemployment, poverty and corruption were increasing day by day. The people saw FLN as responsible of these social problems. Therefore, people started looking for alternative political parties.

FLN flag

Front Islamique du Salut (FIS) became prominent among these alternatives political parties. FIS had a strong mosque organization and university student organization. This helped the party communicate with many people. In a very short time the popularity of the party passed the FLN and became the most important candidate in general elections. Local elections in 1990 proved this and FIS became the winner party in local elections. It was the first party in many cities and won an absolute victory against the FLN.

FIS flag

But Algerian secular, members of the military and FLN leaders were very uneasy about this FIS's victory. The secular and army wing statements until the January 1991 general elections proved this discomfort.

The general elections in December 1991 were the beginning of the Algerian 10-year dark period. The FIS won the first leg of the general election and as a result of election, army took the action against FIS. In January 1992, the military seized power with coup d'etat.

After the 1992 military coup, a 10-year civil war between the military and the Islamist movement began. 

 

Hundreds of thousands of Algerians died during this civil war. Many Algerians today do not want to remember this bloody and dirty civil war. It was killed in 19 Catholics during the civil war.

In December 2018, a memorial ceremony was held in Oran, Algeria, for these Catholics were killed. The New York Times published a news last week about this ceremony. 

source: The New York Times, 2018

This ceremony took place with the participation of a cardinal from the Vatican. According to the head of the Algerian Department of Religious Affairs, this ceremony was the first in the Muslim world. Before the ceremony, the Pope recognized these 19 killed Catholics as martyrs. Pope Francis said in ceremony that their courageous witness is a source of hope for the Algerian Catholic community and a seed of dialogue for the entire society (The New York Times, 2018).

In my opinion, this ceremony has 2 importance. The first one is that Algeria, the vast majority of its population is Muslim, allowed the ceremony. This shows the tolerance of Algeria. Secondly, this is the most important thing, I think this ceremony shows the effort of reconciliation with Algeria's past. 

I hope that the process of reconciliation with the past will continue.

NEWS LINK: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/world/africa/algeria-catholic-monks.html

African’s View about China’s African Policy

In recent years, PRC has become Africa’s biggest economic partner. Across trade, investment, infrastructure, and aid, there is no other country with such depth and breadth of engagement in Africa. China is a rising power and Africa is a continent that is still developing. There is evidence of an unequal parity of force, both financial and political, between the two areas in today’s worldwide connection. It will ask questions about Chinese government’s diversions and strategies, and their suggestions towards the exchange agreements with African states. This study will examine the researchers conducted by African, Western and Chinese scholars. Their opinions will be considered objectively. From time to time, this study will compare the opinion of African, western and Chinese researchers. This thesis will examine this association in comparison with Africa’s old colonial powers, and today enormous exchange inclusion with China. This research aims to analyze the African’s view of China’s African policy. The main questions it to answer; Is China best model for the development of Africa? And how do African see Chinese influence in Africa. This study analyses political and socio-economic advantages and disadvantages of PRC’s Africa policy and relations between PRC and African states. Nowadays, there are a lot of academic research about PRC’s African policy. Some of these studies have focused on neo-colonialism. And some of them support PRC’s African policy. However, a few studies care about African voice. The motivation of this thesis is to clarify African’s view about PRC’s African policy and this thesis tries to show African’s opinion about Chinese policy and also, whether People’s Republic of China's African policies are neo-colonialism or not.

Read MORE...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323615624_African's_View_about_China's_African_Policy

Human rights violations in Myanmar: Rohingya case

Myanmar gained its independence in 1948 and faced a military coup in 1962. The country was ruled by military dictatorship for two generations. During the period of military dictatorship, the economy, social order, cultural diversity and political freedoms had been continuously decreased. In addition, there had been an increase in human rights violations. Today, Myanmar human rights violations are one of the worst countries in the world. In particular, human rights violations against ethnic minorities have increased dramatically. As a result of these human rights violations increasing, armed conflicts started between many ethnic minorities and army. This paper examines human rights violations against ethnic minorities in Myanmar. The human rights violations of the Myanmar regime against ethnic minorities have been analyzed in depth with the case of Rohingya.

Read more...
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329269079_Human_rights_violations_in_Myanmar_Rohingya_case

Local Elections in Taiwan

There was a local elections in Taiwan. These local elections held on 24 November 2018. Also, 10 referendums was held 24 November 2018 alongside local elections. These local elections and referendums are also important for me because they were my first elections experience in Taiwan. 

In fact, the results of the referendum were more important for me than local elections results. Because inside referendums, there were questions like "Do you agree that Taiwan should apply to participate in all international sporting events, including the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, using the name 'Taiwan?", "Do you agree to the protection of same-sex marital rights with marriage as defined in the Civil Code?" and "Do you agree to repeal Article 95 paragraph 1 of The Electricity Act: "The nuclear-energy-based power-generating facilities shall wholly stop running by 2025"?".

On the morning of November 24th, I started following the local elections in Taiwan. At the same time, I also tried to feel the political atmosphere inside country. Because of that reason, I talked with some of my Taiwanese friends. Around 7 PM, the election results began to be announced.

Around 8 pm, the results began to be clear and I decided to go to the blue party(KMT)'s rally. The rally area was quite crowded. This is the first time I've seen a crowd in Taiwan. The excitement and joy of people in the rally area was quite interesting. This political atmosphere reminded me Turkey. 

As a result of the elections the Green Party(DPP) lost the local elections. As a result of the defeat, the DPP leader and Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-Wen resigned from party leadership.

However, as I mentioned above, the questions and results of the referendum were the most interesting elements for me. In my opinion, these referandum questions showed me the power of Taiwanese liberal democracy.

Taiwan education system vs. Turkish education system

I have a Taiwanese friend and he is a teacher in an elementary school. Last week, he invited me his students’ science Show. In the beginning, I didn’t attend this Show because I thought that this show was a waste of time for me. Then I thought that this show was an important opportunity for me to get to know the education system in Taiwan. So I decided to participate to my friend's students' show.

I faced one of the biggest surprises of my life. Because the presentations and demonstrations made by the students were very interesting. First, these students could speak english well. Secondly, their presentations were attractive and it was understood that the subject was very thoughtful.

During their presentation, I was thinking about my elementary school period. I imagined myself on those students’ place. At the end, I decided I couldn't think of these students' projects and I could not talk english like those student in front of foreigners. After, I started to think about Turkish education system. Elementary school education in Turkey is based on theory and memorizing. Turkish students generally have difficulty in reflecting the theory and memorization knowledge to practical knowledge.Because of that, students are ashamed of showing themselves. Unfortunately, this situation continues until the university years. Turkey falled behind about innovasion due to the heavy memorization and theory system.

On the other hand, this students’s Show help me to understand why Taiwan is really good about innovation and technology. Because such project shows increase the creativity of the students. In addition, it helps students socialize.

As a conclusion, Turkey needs to learn a lot of things from Taiwan education system.