News archive of December 2015

There is an old fairground game called Whac-a-Mole. You whack a (fake) mole on the head and drive it down into its hole - and instantly one or more other moles pop up out of other holes. It's an excellent metaphor for humanity's inability to abolish sexual slavery.

Apparently, the meeting between Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu and main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu about the new constitution went positively, in principle. 

Ironically, the "good" and "bad" Kurds for the Turkish establishment are the same Kurds who have the same ethnic sentiments and strategic goals but different ideas about reaching the same goals: The good Kurds are the darlings of Ankara; the bad Kurds are traitors. Ironically, also, today's "good" Kurds were the "bad" Kurds two decades ago.

Hurrah... Once again Turkey extended its generous helping hand and salvaged Turkish Cypriots from an economic collapse. Deputy Prime Minister Tu?rul Türke? - a Turkish Cypriot from his late father Alparslan Türke?

Turkey's "annus horribilis" must be over. All around us we see people in deep sorrow and desperation. We have become a nation that could not solve our own problems, let alone be a cure for our neighbors and all others that suffer. A new approach, a clean slate and a radically different perspective is needed.

2015 has been a problematic year for Turkey both in domestic and international politics. Two general elections, the changing mood of the Kurdish problem and the spillover of Syrian war in the form of jihadi terrorism were major problems inside Turkey. The Syrian war with the worsening situation with the downing of the Russian plane, the changing nature of the fight in cooperation with the U.S.

Fire engulfed a 63-storey skyscraper in downtown Dubai on Dec. 31 night, but there appeared to be no injuries, a civil defense official said.

Handelsblatt newspaper published an article claiming that the economic situation in Greece will get worse in 2016, while it describes Greeks as a frustrated nation.

Since the beginning of the economic crisis in Greece in 2009 the real income of the Greeks fell by 25%, while one in four citizens is unemployed.

In a New Year message to all Greeks on Thursday, President of the Hellenic Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos called for national unity, especially among democratic political forces, in order for Greece to achieve its major national goals.