DR Selin Calik

                                                          London, February In 1918, the Spanish flu pandemic killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide. The current coronavirus epidemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, has so far infected around 80,000 people and killed more than 2,700, most of them in China. Can we expect to see this epidemic become a pandemic? Fears are now gripping the Middle East that this might well be the case. The region is in flux, with the constant circulation of pilgrims and merchants, traders and workers who might carry the virus. Ongoing wars, occupation and unrest have shattered the health systems of several countries, such as Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen, as well as occupied Palestine. Hence, serious consideration should be given to a united approach to tackling the virus, the  first case  of which appeared in the Middle East on 29 January in the UAE. The government in the Emirates s

                                                 patience makes kings out of slave/Al Ghazali

Author: Elif Selin Calik Will Erdogan’s ‘the world is greater than 5’ help establish  a new world order including Africa? By Elif Selin Calik Following the establishment of the Turkish Republic in 1923, African affairs were regarded as a secondary issue in the new state’s foreign policy. Until relatively recently, that is, when Cold War dynamics compelled the Turkish government to align itself with the West. Having good relations and alliances with the West was one of the main pillars of Turkish foreign policy. Indeed, Turkey paid such special attention to its relations with Western countries that its stance at the historic Asian-African Conference of 1955 –  the Bandung Conference  in Indonesia aiming to counter imperialism and colonialism and protect the rights of Asian and African countries – caused the Turkish government to be defined as “the spokesperson of American imperialism”. After the adoption of the Action Plan for Opening up to Africa in the late 1

The preservation of Turkey’s energy rights is key  to maritime stability in the eastern Mediterranean          By Elif Selin Calik In collaboration with major industrial countries like the US and France, several Mediterranean countries have discovered oil and gas resources under the sea bed. The aim of these countries is twofold: to achieve energy self-sufficiency, and to sell any surplus on the open market. According to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea  (UNCLOS),  coastal states such as Egypt, Turkey, Israel and the Palestinian Authority (Gaza Strip), Lebanon, Syria, Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the Greek Cypriot Authority have rights to the resources in the area according to their respective Exclusive Economic Zones. In January, Greek Cyprus, Greece, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt held a meeting in Cairo to announce the establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum to cooperate in the production, consumption and marketing of regio

Elif Selin Calik Journalist and independent researcher, holds MA in Global Diplomacy from SOAS, University of London. Seeking truth and justice: How women rebuilt Srebrenica In July 1995, the safe haven of Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina was attacked by Bosnian Serb forces resulting in the deaths of between 8,000 and 10,000 individuals. The Srebrenica anniversary is organized annually on July 11 and attracts and mobilizes local and international human rights activists, relatives, survivors and governmental representatives from around the world. However, no U.N. secretary-general has ever visited the graveyard and every year, tens of thousands of people gather to pay their respects to the dead and bury those who have been found and identified after years of being missing and a number of heads of state have made their way to Srebrenica-Potocari to express their condolences and remorse. Additionally, we have gotten used to seeing pictures of crying Srebrenica m

In a rare exclusive interview, Myanmarese scholar and democracy advocate Dr. Maung Zarni spoke to Anadolu Agency on the ongoing humanitarian crisis involving Rohingya Muslims fleeing violence and persecution in the Rakhine state and Turkey’s important role specifically to help them return to the ‘Protected Homeland’. - ‘The Rohingya are misframed as a proxy for terrorists’  You are a Buddhist academic but you support the Rohingya Muslims. How did the genocide take place? Why do you oppose the genocide as a Buddhist? Well, I am not supporting Rohingya Muslims because they are Muslims. I am supporting that they are fellow humans from my country and they are oppressed not because they take up arms, not because they are trying to gain independence or separate from Burma, but because they are Rohingya and they are misframed as a threat to national security. As you know, they are misframed as a proxy for the terrorists in the Middle East. They are also seen and misperceived ba