http://www.bbc.com/news/business-39416636
Recently, Amazon.com made an offer to buy out the Middle East’s largest online retailer, Souq.com, which is the equivalent of Amazon, selling goods in 31 varied categories, much like the American website. The purchase should be finalized sometime later this year.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/03/russia-strikes-deal-syrian-kurds-set-base-170320142545942.html
Russia has signed an agreement with Kurdish forces in Syria to build a military base and train soldiers there. A YPG (Kurdish fighting force) spokesman called it, “The first agreement of it’s kind” and claimed Russia has already begun to send military forces over. While the Russian Defense Ministry denied that it was building the base, Turkey took the YPG press release seriously, and cited concerns over growing Kurdish power.
This article is about a Turkish women and her family trying to cope with Turkey’s crackdown. She is the wife of an imprisoned journalist named Kadri Gursel who works for the newspaper called Cumhuriyet. Many of the journalist working for the newspaper have been arrested; so many that it has hired a special bus service for their relatives to visit them. Gursel is one of 81 journalists now imprisoned in Turkey; many arrested after the failed coup attempt accused of being part of the Islamist Gulenist movements or to a secular Kurdish militant group. However, Gursel was a longstanding critic of Gulenists.
On January 21st the Turkish parliament approved a amendment to their constitution changing the government from parliamentary to presidential. It went through parliament because of deal Erdogan (AKP party) made with MHP nationalist party. The amendment will go popular referendum on April 16th. It would also abolish the prime minster office and allow 3 back to back 5 year terms. The president can also not be impeached by parliament and dissolve parliament at anytime.
In 2012, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was accused of ordering security forces to shoot 239 citizens in the 2011 uprising to remove him from office. Mubarak was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2012, but in 2014 was retried, leading to an acquittal. Mubarak and his sons, while under guarded confinement, received regular support and preferential treatment by his captors and supporters, and is still denying his involvement of the killings.
On Thursday, March 2, the top appeals court of Egypt cleared Mubarak of any responsibility for this 2011 event.
Saudi Arabia hosts the country’s first Comic Con as a part of their “Vision 2030” program which hopes to diversify the economy. The article focuses on the gender mixing of the event, and it is rare for a government sponsored event to not be segregated and may mark a change for the country.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/19/middleeast/saudi-arabia-comic-con/index.html
The election of Yehya al-Sinwar (one of the founders of the Hamas’ Military Wing) has analysts predicting that there will be increased tension between Gaza and Israel, and perhaps future conflicts. The election indicates that there is growing influence among the military wing. The Hamas group is also considered a terrorist group by the US.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/15/middleeast/yehya-sinwar-gaza-hamas/index.html
The fez was a red hat with a tassel coming out of the top. The fez became the uniform of the Ottoman bureaucrats and a symbol of Ottoman modernity. Over time the fez became seen as part of an “Oriental” cultural identity. Later, people were executed for wearing the fez and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk banned it in Turkey in 1925 as part of his modernizing reforms.
Ottoman soldiers wearing fezzes during the Greco-Turkish War (1897).
Portrait of the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud II after his clothing reforms.
Trump announced his strong support for the Jewish state, he abandoned the idea that the solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will come with two state solution. Trump then spoke of the possibility of an Arab-backed peace process, an idea that’s been floating around since the beginning of this century without producing results. Trump as pretty vague in his opinion of the solution saying, if the people of both states are happy he’s happy.
https://www.google.com/amp/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/38951539?client=safari
This article looks at recent changes in the focus of Saudi Arabia as it begins to prepare for a future where it can no longer depend on oil revenue. It also examines the ongoing, if slow , social changes occurring.
