August 4, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein Almost a month after the Turkish government overturned the 1934 ruling that converted the Hagia Sophia into a museum, the response from the international community to it becoming a...
July 23, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein What: The dissolution and division of the Ottoman Empire and its former territories through the Treaty of Lausanne, leading to the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey When:...
July 16, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein On 16 July 2014, Israeli missile killed four children of the same family on a beach in Gaza
An interview with former Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz
It is rare to see a government throw a sustained tantrum against another due to differences over foreign policy, especially without first attempting to solve it through diplomatic means....
June 27, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein The remainder of the rebel-held province of Idlib is proving to be the greatest experiment in nation-building that the modern world is witnessing, even if the world has largely...
June 22, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. And after seeing the 53,275 photographs proving the torture and arbitrary killings committed by the Syrian regime which were smuggled out by...
Imagine that you are a peaceful protestor, never having broken glass or drawn blood, who demonstrated against institutional racism and police brutality in your local area. At home one...
Conflicts are meant to involve the living, with the dead being long withdrawn from the complex web of political alliances and bloody feuds that mankind revels in. So when...
On 19 May, 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence passed away following a week of remaining in a coma caused by a motorcycle crash in Dorset, England. The British Arabist, linguist,...
Syria has undergone more drastic and chaotic shifts within the past month than it probably has throughout the past nine years of its conflict. The House of Assad now suffers...
Long before Turkey’s revenge attacks against the Syrian regime in February, and even before the regime’s offensive to recapture Idlib and its bombardment of the province, Turkey and Russia...
April 29, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has caused countless events to be cancelled, forcing them onto the digital realm and leaving them to rely on the power of modern technology. Even...
April 20, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein In 2017, Abu Dhabi’s Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan told a forum that, “There will come a day that we will see far more radicals, extremists and terrorists...
April 7, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein A chemical weapons attack was carried out on the people of Douma, south-western Syria, killing around 85 people
March 31, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein Over the past few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, democratic governments around the world have imposed stricter controls on their citizens in more places than at any other time...
March 24, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein At the beginning of this month, pro-Assad journalist Rafiq Lutf wrote on Twitter that he had discovered many people infected with the coronavirus in Syria. He said that that...
March 9, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein The Middle East has seen some bad deals in recent years; some are still in effect while others have crumbled. The agreement struck between Russia and Turkey last week...
March 2, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein After nine long years, Turkey has finally punished the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad, with the dictator ignoring Ankara’s ultimatum to withdraw his troops Idlib province by the end...
February 21, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein Since the first stages of European colonisation of the Middle East, as with other imperial powers elsewhere, there has been resistance in one form or another. This has been...
February 7, 2020
|
Muhammad Hussein Ever since the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad responded to peaceful popular protests in the country with a brutal military crackdown in 2011, the ensuing civil war has witnessed...
January 23, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein Relations between the European Union and Turkey have seldom been good. Throughout Turkey’s efforts to join the EU over the past few decades to the current tension, Europe has...
January 6, 2020
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Muhammad Hussein The killing of Iran’s Major General Qassem Soleimani by the US in Baghdad has been met with mixed reactions around the world. Some have expressed their grief, while others...
December 31, 2019
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Muhammad Hussein This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the...
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US December 24, 2019
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Muhammad Hussein A revolution is a project. Like all projects, it has requirements before it can truly be deemed successful. For a start, there must be popular resentment of the government...
December 13, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein There are few political enigmas these days – strongmen, yes, but not enigmas. We have US President Donald Trump, who is far from it; we have UK Prime Minister...
December 6, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein 'We will remain in Jerusalem, defending our religious sites and endowments. We reject the policies of the occupation. We will not surrender'
December 5, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory, as well as the efforts that Israel goes to to impose second-class citizen status on Palestinian citizens and inhabitants of the occupied West...
December 4, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein What: Religious extremists in Saudi Arabia under the charismatic leadership of man disgruntled with Western access to the Kingdom, took over the Grand Mosque of Makkah for two weeks....
November 19, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein Turkey has long been perceived to be undergoing a struggle between the secular and the religious. The population in its Anatolian heartland and east is generally more religious and...
November 12, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein A current has swept throughout the Levant from a subtly-felt but well recognised influence. From the protests in Iraq and Lebanon to the Sunni insurgents and opposition groups in...
October 25, 2019
|
Muhammad Hussein “Who created you? Who is your God? Who do you pray to?” asked a Syrian regime soldier to a man he was torturing and beating in a small dank...
![Muslims perform Eid al-Adha prayer while keeping social distance due to coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey on 31 July 2020. [ Ahmet Bolat - Anadolu Agency ]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/20200731_2_43695931_57110183.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Almost a month after the Turkish government overturned the 1934 ruling that converted the Hagia Sophia into a museum, the response from the international community to it becoming a...![Signing of Treaty of Lausanne [Wikipedia]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Signing-of-Treaty-of-Lausanne.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
What: The dissolution and division of the Ottoman Empire and its former territories through the Treaty of Lausanne, leading to the establishment of the modern Republic of Turkey When:...![Boys from the Palestinian Bakr family who survived an Israeli attack, killing four children from their family while they were playing at the beach in Gaza City on July 16, 2014, walk on the beach in Gaza City on 29 March 2015 [MAHMUD HAMS/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/GettyImages-468201128-1.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
On 16 July 2014, Israeli missile killed four children of the same family on a beach in Gaza
An interview with former Deputy Prime Minister Cevdet Yilmaz![French President Emmanuel Macron (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greet each other during a joint press conference in Paris, France on 5 January 2018 [LUDOVIC MARIN/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Macron-Erdogan.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
It is rare to see a government throw a sustained tantrum against another due to differences over foreign policy, especially without first attempting to solve it through diplomatic means....![Collapsed and damaged buildings after Russian warplanes hit residential areas in Idlib, Syria on 30 January 2020 [İzzeddin İdilbi/Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200130_2_40591811_51672740.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The remainder of the rebel-held province of Idlib is proving to be the greatest experiment in nation-building that the modern world is witnessing, even if the world has largely...![A Syrian military defector using the pseudonym Caesar, while also wearing a hood to protect his identity, testifies about the war in Syria during a Senate Foreign Relations committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, 11 March 2020. [SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/GettyImages-1206550462.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Seeing is believing, as the saying goes. And after seeing the 53,275 photographs proving the torture and arbitrary killings committed by the Syrian regime which were smuggled out by...
Imagine that you are a peaceful protestor, never having broken glass or drawn blood, who demonstrated against institutional racism and police brutality in your local area. At home one...
Conflicts are meant to involve the living, with the dead being long withdrawn from the complex web of political alliances and bloody feuds that mankind revels in. So when...![Thomas Edward Lawrence [Wikipedia]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Lawrence-Arabia.png?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
On 19 May, 1935, Thomas Edward Lawrence passed away following a week of remaining in a coma caused by a motorcycle crash in Dorset, England. The British Arabist, linguist,...![Syrian Kurds in Syria's Hasakeh province on 6 October 2019 [DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/Getty Images]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Syrian-Kurdish-militias.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Syria has undergone more drastic and chaotic shifts within the past month than it probably has throughout the past nine years of its conflict. The House of Assad now suffers...![A photo taken from Turkey's Hatay province shows children greets soldiers with Turkish flags during Turkish military convoy consisting of howitzers, military vehicles and armored personnel carriers on the way towards observation points in Syria's Idlib, on 7 February, 2020 in Hatay, Turkey [Cem Genco/Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200207_2_40729461_51918600-scaled-e1582799658220.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Long before Turkey’s revenge attacks against the Syrian regime in February, and even before the regime’s offensive to recapture Idlib and its bombardment of the province, Turkey and Russia...![This long exposure photograph shows Muslim pilgrims circumambulating the Kaaba, Islam's holiest shrine, at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on 27 August, 2017 [KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/GettyImages-839936618.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic has caused countless events to be cancelled, forcing them onto the digital realm and leaving them to rely on the power of modern technology. Even...![Libyan Army forces wear masks to protect themselves from coronavirus (COVID-19) as they attend "Operation Peace Storm" of the Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA) against the forces of warlord Khalifa Haftar in Tripoli, Libya on March 25, 2020. [Amru Salahuddien - Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200328_2_41603714_53456983.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
In 2017, Abu Dhabi’s Foreign Minister, Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan told a forum that, “There will come a day that we will see far more radicals, extremists and terrorists...
A chemical weapons attack was carried out on the people of Douma, south-western Syria, killing around 85 people![A freeway sign that says 'Stay Home Stop The Spread' is seen in New York, US on 25 March 2020 [Tayfun Coşkun/Anadolu Agency]](https://i0.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Coronavirus-measures_2.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Over the past few weeks of the coronavirus crisis, democratic governments around the world have imposed stricter controls on their citizens in more places than at any other time...![A worker disinfects the atrium of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo's landmark Tahrir Square amid the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, on 23 March 2020. [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/GettyImages-1208026458-scaled-e1585051155592.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
At the beginning of this month, pro-Assad journalist Rafiq Lutf wrote on Twitter that he had discovered many people infected with the coronavirus in Syria. He said that that...![President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2nd R) and President of Russia, Vladimir Putin (R) hold a joint news conference following their meeting in Moscow, Russia on 5 March 2020. [Turkish Presidency / Murat Cetinmuhurdar / Handout - Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/20200305_2_41208816_52808102.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The Middle East has seen some bad deals in recent years; some are still in effect while others have crumbled. The agreement struck between Russia and Turkey last week...![Turkish Armed Forces' tanks, self-propelled (storm) howitzers, hedgehogs, armored construction machine and military vehicles arrived at Reyhanli district and continue their deployment process to Syria border in Hatay, Turkey on February 14, 2020 [Cem Genco / Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/20200214_2_40853083_52161469.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
After nine long years, Turkey has finally punished the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad, with the dictator ignoring Ankara’s ultimatum to withdraw his troops Idlib province by the end...
Since the first stages of European colonisation of the Middle East, as with other imperial powers elsewhere, there has been resistance in one form or another. This has been...
Ever since the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad responded to peaceful popular protests in the country with a brutal military crackdown in 2011, the ensuing civil war has witnessed...![EU flags on November 11, 2019 [Aysu Biçer/Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20191113_2_39288283_49411248-scaled-e1578134889840.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Relations between the European Union and Turkey have seldom been good. Throughout Turkey’s efforts to join the EU over the past few decades to the current tension, Europe has...![Iranian women carry images of Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force commander Qasem Soleimani, who was killed by a US airstrike in the Iraqi capital Baghdad, during an anti-US rally to protest the killing at Palestine Square in the capital Tehran, Iran on 4 January 2020. [Fatemeh Bahrami - Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/20200104_2_40163753_50920481.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
The killing of Iran’s Major General Qassem Soleimani by the US in Baghdad has been met with mixed reactions around the world. Some have expressed their grief, while others...
This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the...
A revolution is a project. Like all projects, it has requirements before it can truly be deemed successful. For a start, there must be popular resentment of the government...![Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan makes a speech Art Grand Awards Ceremony at Bestepe National Congress and Culture Center in Ankara, Turkey on 12 December 2019. [Murat Kula - Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/20191212_2_39813899_50309385.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
There are few political enigmas these days – strongmen, yes, but not enigmas. We have US President Donald Trump, who is far from it; we have UK Prime Minister...![Archbishop of Jerusalem’s Greek Orthodox Church, Atallah Hanna [centre], seen during a protest in the West bank city of Hebron on 22 January 2015 [Muhesen Amren / ApaImages]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/220115_MUH_00-7-e1549109143479.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
'We will remain in Jerusalem, defending our religious sites and endowments. We reject the policies of the occupation. We will not surrender'![Activists, politicians and supporters of the Palestinian cause gather in Istanbul for the' First Global Conference on Israeli Apartheid' on 29 November 2019 [Middle East Monitor]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Israel-apartheid-in-TurkeySRV_3880.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territory, as well as the efforts that Israel goes to to impose second-class citizen status on Palestinian citizens and inhabitants of the occupied West...
What: Religious extremists in Saudi Arabia under the charismatic leadership of man disgruntled with Western access to the Kingdom, took over the Grand Mosque of Makkah for two weeks....![People carrying Turkish flags and Ataturk's portraits march to mark the 79th anniversary of Mustafa Kemal Atuturk's death in Izmir, Turkey on 10 November 2017 [Mengüarslan/Anadolu Agency]](https://i2.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/2017_11-10-Turkey-commemorates-79th-anniversary-of-Ataturks-death20171110_2_26800143_27693816.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
Turkey has long been perceived to be undergoing a struggle between the secular and the religious. The population in its Anatolian heartland and east is generally more religious and...![Protestors attend ongoing anti-government demonstrations in Iraq's capital Baghdad on November 02, 2019 [Murtadha Sudani / Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/20191102_2_39119386_49094511.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
A current has swept throughout the Levant from a subtly-felt but well recognised influence. From the protests in Iraq and Lebanon to the Sunni insurgents and opposition groups in...![Members of Turkish Red Crescent distribute humanitarian aids to the civilians in Tal Abyad, Syria after the city center was cleared from PKK, within Turkey's Operation Peace Spring as the flow of life returns to normal in northern Syria, in Tal Abyad, Syria on 19 October 2019. [Ömer Alven - Anadolu Agency]](https://i1.wp.com/www.middleeastmonitor.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191019_2_38837557_48632144-1-e1571990613194.jpg?resize=500%2C333&quality=85&strip=all&zoom=1&ssl=1)
“Who created you? Who is your God? Who do you pray to?” asked a Syrian regime soldier to a man he was torturing and beating in a small dank...