Omer Onhon

Russian and Ukrainian delegations held their fourth round of meetings in Dolmabahçe Palace in İstanbul on 29 March. At the end of that meeting on the shores of the Bosphorus, which lasted for four hours, both sides noted some progress and the need to receive instructions from patrons. …

“Russia’s aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security,” NATO leaders stated in their Summit communique in Brussels on 14 June 2021. And the same Heads of State and Government declared in their statement after NATO’s extraordinary Summit in Brussels on 24 March 2022: “We met…

The war in Ukraine is into its fourth week. Destruction continues. Civilian infrastructure and buildings are targeted. Civilian casualties are increasing. Around three million Ukrainians have fled their country. Russia insists that civilians are not being targeted and everything is going…

The world is watching in horror what Putin and his people still call a “special military operation” and what the vast majority of the world rightly calls military intervention and invasion of an independent and sovereign state. An extraordinary virtual summit of NATO Heads of State and…

The crisis around Ukraine had been looming for some time, with efforts to prevent further escalation. President Putin’s recognition of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic has carried the crisis to the next stage. A day later, Putin took a further step…

There are many tragic outcomes of the Syrian civil war, but the most tragic one should be the case of Syrian refugees. The events in Syria created the world’s largest refugee crisis since the Second World War. According to UNHCR, as of 31 January 2022, total number of registered Syrian…

Military deployments and maneuvers from Russia and the US and its allies are clear signs of further escalation, giving rise to fears of eventual military action. Russia has Ukraine surrounded from all possible sides, including Belarus and the Sea of Azov. The US and its allies are also deploying…

On 26 January 2022, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg informed the public that NATO and the USA had responded to the “Russian list of demands”. NATO’s reply was prepared by the representatives of 30 member states at NATO Headquarters in Brussels and the USA reply was prepared in…

The global coalition declared victory against ISIS in Iraq in December 2017 and in Syria in March 2019. ISIS lost territorial control but it did not disappear. A great number of militants were killed. Those who were captured alive were put into prisons like the one in Hasaka. Some managed to…

Nursultan Nazarbayev, the first President of Kazakhstan after it became independent in 1991, had remained in his seat until 2019. Kasım Tokayev took over as caretaker for a few months, until he was elected president with 70 percent of votes. In effect, Nazarbayev who was under pressure for the…