Omer Onhon

President Xi Jinping is on a mission to make China the greatest. The country is home to one-fifth of the world's population with 1.4 billion people. It accounts for 18 percent share of the global economy and is the world's second-largest. It aims to overtake the US as the world's largest economy. …

The wave of protests in Iran ignited by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 17 continues to this day. The number of people killed is unknown but it is said to be close to 200 and maybe even more. In fact, this is one of the many crises Iran has experienced throughout the years…

Russian President Vladimir Putin did what was expected. Referendums in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Donetsk were held. It is not known how many people living in these areas before the war escaped and how many remained, how many people participated in the voting, how many said “yes” to…

Military forces of Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a brief war with dozens of casualties on both sides. At a time when the war in Ukraine continues with major implications all over the world, the tension turned physical in the Caucasus has been extra concerning. Armenia and Azerbaijan, which…

Since day one of the crisis in Syria, Iran has been directly engaged and present on the frontlines. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, Lebanese Hezbollah, and other Shia militia from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have been an essential part of the Assad regime’s war effort. Assad’s other big…

As problematic as the West Balkans may be, the East Balkans is also marred by problems. On August 30, Türkiye celebrated the 100 anniversary of the crushing victory of the Turkish army against the invading Greek army. The Greeks regard this episode of their history as “the Asia Minor disaster”…

On 24 August, Ukraine celebrated its 31st anniversary of independence while fighting off an invasion by the country (even though under a different name and form then) from which it gained its independence from. On this independence day, Russia hit the train station in the city of Chaplyne in…

On his way back from Sochi on August 6, President Tayyib Erdoğan revealed that intelligence organizations of Türkiye and Syria were meeting. His Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated at a press conference on 11 August, that Türkiye supports a political reconciliation between the Syrian opposition…

The war in Syria has stopped but the crisis in the country have not ended. Assad, who as been elected as president for the fourth time (but not everyone is convinced that these elections have rendered him the legitimacy which he claims) does not control all of Syria. More than 2/5 of Syria is…

In the ongoing war in Ukraine, Russia has occupied a part of the country extending from areas marked by major cities of Kharkiv in the north, to Kherson in the south, or around 22 percent of the country. On the waterfront, Ukraine has lost the Azov Sea and most of its Black Sea coast to Russia,…