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Erdoğan electoral victory is a humiliation for the European Union

While paying a visit to Europe in October, Erdoğan addressed an AKP rally in Strasbourg. Thousands of Turks turned up, waving Turkish national flags and listening to Erdoğan’s speech full of nationalistic references to epic wars that Turkey waged against Europe, a speech fraught with religious rhetoric. Europe should be on its guard and take this religion-driven Turkish nationalism very seriously, since history teaches that such statements may not end well.

European politicians had better take notice of the fact that so many AKP supporters showed up in Strasbourg, so much so that the city is not a Turkish rural area nor are the Turks present at the rally simple villagers: to the contrary, the participants of the mass meeting have been living in Europe, the center of the western cosmopolitan world, for decades. Analysts should not downplay the symbolism used by the president of Turkey as meaninglessness. Erdoğan’s reference to the Battle of Gallipoli1, when the Ottomans defeated the Europeans, was chosen with care as a strong and unambiguous message. A direct parallel between the said historic event and the defeat of the European Union by the AKP can easily be drawn, and Erdoğan’s visit to Brussels could be interpreted as an intended humiliation of the European Union, with the subsequent visit of Chancellor Merkel to Ankara as an act of Europe’s capitulation. Continue reading →

AKP: War on PKK and Kurdish party HDP cost Turkish nationalist 50% of the Votes.

turcja mapa AKP turcja mapa MHP

Source: Based on Anadolu Agency

The first map shows where Erdogan’s AKP gained a number of deputies in elections of 1st November in comparison to the elections of 7th June. The second map shows these provinces where the far-right party MHP lost deputies in comparison to the elections of 7th June. MHP lost half of deputies between June and November elections (from 80 to 40). Continue reading →

Google car will wipe out 3.5 Million good jobs

Self-driving car and truck technology development is under way to become reality. The question now is not if, but when our cars drive us rather than be driven by us. Engineers and producers like Google, Tesla or Daimler are going into raptures about convenience and possible applications of new driverless cars. But what will happen to over 6,000,000 professional drivers from the European Union and the United States who are in danger of losing their jobs? Has anybody given it a thought?

Employment by Mode of Transport in the EU, USA graph FINAL FINAL FINAL

* Eurostat data refer to transportation and storage activities (including postal and courier services, removal services); U.S. data covers driver/sales workers and truck drivers
** Eurostat data include all urban and suburban land transport modes (motor bus, tramway, streetcar, trolley bus, underground and elevated railways); U.S. data cover bus drivers Continue reading →

Conservatives win in Poland; unexpected ally for United Kingdom in Europe

The new conservative government in Poland is giving grounds for anxiety in some of the European countries. The sweeping victory of Law and Justice and the resulting rule by that party may bring about significant changes on the European political stage, which, however, need not necessarily be looked upon as harmful. Poland may join the party line of David Cameron, who supports a reformatory trend in the European Union, which in turn may prevent the United Kingdom from leaving this political organization.

Law and Justice (Polish PiS) led by Jarosław Kaczyński has come back to rule the country after eight years during which it was Civic Platform (Polish PO) that held the reins of power; the latter deprived of its leader Donald Tusk has failed to convincingly address the numerous complaints made by the electorate. The victory reported by PiS is by no means sensational nor is it a political upheaval; the huge difference between the number of votes gained by PiS as opposed to those won by PO may be surprising, though. Continue reading →

Russian action in Syria will intensify war in Egypt

Egypt, being in a very difficult geopolitical position, may be the next victim of the Syrian war. The Egyptian army has beens truggling with Islamic terrorists on the Sinai Peninsula for a long time, with he Libyan branch of Islamic State causing problems in the western part of the country. Unfortunately for President Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi, with Russian raids in Syria, Islamic militants are now moving to Libya through Sinai.

Egypt did not want to get involved in the war in Syria or in Iraq, directly or indirectly, trying not to spoil the relations with Saudi Arabia. Egypt shared with Bashar al-Assad  the common aim, which is to fight the Islamic insurgency. In fact, the nation is waging a war in the north of Sinai against militant groups loyal to the Islamic State. The worst is yet to come, though. Continue reading →