Redactional

Blame Games in Cyprus: What About a Solution?

Guest author: Mirko Spasic

The political pain of Cyprus continues to this day, unabated. The island remains divided and the wounds of the Turkish invasion of 1974 and subsequent occupation are still very much yet to heal. So, in the midst of the Byzantine politics that define contemporary Cyprus, from time to time, a stand out name arises.

In this instance, we need to look at Mustafa Akinci, current Turkish Cypriot leader. Particularly so, as he remains a notable figure in the face of the latest political machinations and trickery being dreamt up between President Anastasiades, the President of Republic of Cyprus, and Ankara.

A long-time advocate of Cypriot reunification and avowed social democrat, Akinci brings a long and respected pedigree to the politics of Cyprus. He became Mayor of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality in 1976 at the age of just 28 and served in that role until 1990. Subsequent to that, among other things, Akinci served in the Assembly of the so called TRNC for 16 years and established the Peace and Democracy Movement political party. In April 2015, he took 60.38% of the vote to become leader of Turkish Cypriots, handsomely beating Dervis Eroglu’s 39.62%.

On assuming power, Akinci brought a breath of fresh air to the movement for the reunification of Cyprus. In doing so, he underscored the desire of the vast majority of Cypriots for normalcy to return to the island with an effective solution for Cyprus. Continue reading →

Donald Tusk’s speech in Kiev

Once upon a time in a socialist country a man comes to a car dealer to arrange a purchase of a vehicle. The list of customers is very long whereas automobiles are in low supply. It turns out that the customer will be able to have his car in ten years’ time. The dealer sets the date for it. There only remains one thing to decide – says the customer – whether it is going to be in the morning or afternoon. How can it matter – asks the bewildered dealer – after ten years? Ah, because on that particular day – answers the customer – I am having a plumber in my place.

When President Ronald Reagan wanted to learn something about a nation’s economic or political condition, he would have his intelligence staff gather jokes told among that country’s citizens. Such items of information were worth to him more than reams of printed detailed analyses. What would President Reagan say in the run-up to the presidential elections in Ukraine upon hearing that according to the many pollsters it is Volodymyr Zelensky – an actor, a comedian, to be precise – who is the leading contender for the post?

(It is not that an actor holding this position would be much of a novelty in Ukraine: we remember Vitali Klitschko, the boxer, who put forward his candidacy for president some time ago.)
Continue reading →

The future of the Middle East: The Astana Trio versus the Warsaw debacle

While on February 13/14 Warsaw, Poland, hosted the US-sponsored and US-supervised Middle East conference – well attended by the representatives of the Arab countries but only by second-trier EU diplomats – the Astana Trio – Russia, Turkey and Iran – held theirs in the resort city of Sochi (the venue of the 2016 Winter Olympics); while the Warsaw event for all purposes and intentions was held to drum up support for a joint action against Tehran, the rival Sochi meeting addressed the on-the-ground situation in war-torn Syria, the makeup of the country’s future government, the formation of the constitutional committee, the restoration of the basic infrastructure in terms of water and electricity supply systems and the voluntary return of the many refugees.

Warsaw and Sochi, two simultaneous games of chess with two sets of chess pawns, swearing allegiance to different sovereigns or to none at all. Turkey, though formally a NATO member, used the occasion to strengthen its ties with Russia rather than its military ally the United States. Israel, though no NATO member, used the occasion of the Warsaw gathering to form a crusade against Iran, eliciting NATO countries’ aid; the European Union members, though predominantly members of the Atlantic Treaty, distanced themselves from the Middle East conference with Germany, as is known, continuing to cooperate with Russia over natural gas supplies. Continue reading →

Poland offers a venue for the Middle East security conference and ends up double-crossed by its partners

Poland is a member of the European Union and NATO; it also makes up the Visegrád or V4 political group that combines also Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. On 13-14 February it hosted a U.S.-led Middle East security conference in a bid to strengthen its position on the international stage, play up to Americans and Israel and show its independence of Berlin and Paris. From Warsaw’s point of view the conference was everything but a success.

The European Union was having none of the warmongering against Iran – because such was the conference’s target – and only sent low-ranking delegations, not much of prestige that Poland was after. American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the public case for the restitution of Jewish property that was lost on Polish territory during the Second World War, Andrea Mitchel from CBS informed the American audience of the Jews rising in arms against the German and Polish regime(!) during the war and to add fuel to fire Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tweeted a statement in which he said that the Poles were complicit in persecuting the Jews during the same hostilities.

Continue reading →

The strange case of the Combating European Anti-Semitism Act

On January 14, 2019 President Donald Trump signed into law the Combating European Anti-Semitism Act of 2017, which states among others that “it is in the national interest of the United States to combat anti-Semitism at home and abroad” (emphasis added), that “there is an urgent need to ensure the safety and security of European Jewish communities”, and that “the Department of State should continue to thoroughly document acts of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic incitement that occur around the world” (emphasis added).

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The dissolution of the European societies

France’s President Emmanuel Macron is following in the footsteps of his predecessor in that he is scoring lower and lower on the popularity polls. A man from nowhere, whose only task was to stop Marine Le Pen from winning, is continuing the policy pursued by his puppet masters, and he cannot but comply. The measures that he took or which he had been advised to take encountered popular resistance. It remains a matter of time before we learn whether the Yellow Vests movement is a spontaneous one, or a manifestation of the power struggle that is splitting the French elites, or external interference – Russian or American.

The Old Continent’s problems have merely been allayed for a time, and as such they are like a ticking bomb only waiting for favourable circumstances to go off. The Quantitative Easing programme that was implemented a few years ago clearly shows that Europe is depriving itself of one of the most important economic instruments which is money because money printed at will cannot properly be called money. If we add to this the demographic collapse and the attendant emergence of warring factions among the member states who roughly fall into two groups of those which want and those which refuse to accept Third World immigrants, we get Europe’s most representative selfie and this portrait looks bleak.

Gefira Financial Bullletin #31 is available now

  • Europe’s imminent downfall
  • One murder too many and one lie too many
  • New trust in gold?

We don’t know which of the many tectonic plates – political, economic, demographic – and where will clash with the fiercest impetus but we know that the resultant earthquake is likely to sweep governments and disrupt the whole current balance of powers. Neither Russia, China nor the United States are or will be standing idle by. They will take full advantage of any opportunity which a weakened Europe will offer them on a silver platter in order to broaden their influence (in the case of Washington and Moscow) or to strengthen their foothold (especially in the case of Beijing). Continue reading →