Rhetoric

"The fate of journalism and the fate of democracy are bound up in each other," says the president and CEO of The New York Times, Mark Thompson, who is in the Greek capital for the Athens Democracy Forum, running through Sunday.

The first cracks in the glue holding the two governing parties together are starting to show, although they've been there all along. Independent Greeks voted against civil unions and granting citizenship to those born in Greece to migrant parents.

Some words seem to grow in usage all of a sudden, like weeds, even in intellectual fields where they have no business. "Narrative" is one such word. Regardless of its meaning, what matters in its prevalence in public discourse now is the style and quality that its users believe it lends their proclamations.

Moscow hopes the tensions between the White House, Iran and China will not have any international consequences.

Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin told this to RT, adding that the current rhetoric "appears to be an emotional response to reality."

America and the world will not be the same again. Donald Trump left no doubt about that with his speech on Friday. First of all, he is different. He rode the anti-establishment wave that has swept the West; and it appears that he didn't simply do it "professionally" using extreme rhetoric and slogans as tools.

Some are tired of hearing it, while some don't even want to hear it. Yet, in terms of the leadership on the divided island of Cyprus, there is the right alignment of stars. Both Turkish leader Mustafa Akıncı and Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades genuinely want to find a lasting solution and have succeeded in narrowing the gap on the most sensitive issues.

The birth of the modern state in the Islamic world has brought with it an eternal casus belli: Should the state be based on man-made laws or divine law? That question has been at the heart of decades-long ideological wars in Muslim lands. Turkey is no exception.

Don't be surprised if self-proclaimed billionaire Artemis Sorras makes it into Parliament in the next general elections.

No matter how provocative he is or how much fire he comes under from traditional media, his rhetoric - most recently a vitriolic tirade against the Paralympics - is very likely to appeal to a number of our fellow countrymen.

Can party leaders reach out to voters across a broad social spectrum if their rhetoric is bare of emotional high notes, some psychological manipulation and plenty of tugging at the heartstrings? When they come across as rational, structured, clean-cut - but also possibly a bit dry?

Croatia should systematically and promptly "condemn all instances of nationalist and anti-minority rhetoric in political discourse and the media."

This is a recommendation contained in a new opinion of the Council of Europe (CoE) Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.