Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Dr Elif Selin Calik
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The perils of the digital age: How Facebook failed to protect Rohingya Muslims
Rohingya refugees and victims are suing Facebook for $150 billion. They allege that Facebook played a key role in the brutal crackdown against Muslims in Myanmar by promoting anti-Rohingya posts. This online hate turned into real-world violence, according to the lawsuit. As stated by Noam Chomsky, author of Manufacturing Consent,…
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UK’s new gas saviour during supply crunch is Qatar
After gas shortages in the UK have led to soaring high prices, Qatar eyes an opportunity to strengthen ties with the UK in terms of gas supply. It is clear that Qatar sees Brexit as a chance to develop huge gas investments in the UK. The Gulf state already has…
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Local manufacturing is important for currency management in Turkey
The current currency crisis in Turkey has led many citizens to demonstrate against the AK Party government over the past couple of days. Before analysing the crisis, it is important to highlight Turkey’s economic and social development performance since the early 2000s. According to the World Bank’s “Country Partnership Strategy…
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The US is pushing Turkey into Russia’s arms
Ten months after the Biden administration took office and Turkey has begun to reset its relations with key US allies in the Middle East. They include Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. It has also begun to pursue a role for itself in post-withdrawal Afghanistan. Yet, the Biden administration remains reluctant…
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Will world leaders at COP26 resolve the refugee crisis?
Climate change in Afghanistan has not only fuelled conflict, it has also provoked a major refugee crisis. Most of Afghanistan is dry and hot for much of the year, and from 1950 to 2010, the landlocked country warmed 1.8 degrees Celsius — about twice the global average, but it is…
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Qatar’s OPEC decision will boost its energy independence
Speaking at a Future of the Oil and Gas Industry conference, Pulitzer prize-winning author and global energy expert Daniel Yergin said that the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that the global gas market is more resilient than its oil counterpart. According to Mckinsey, the world is witnessing a new global energy…
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Is TurkStream a threat to Turkey’s relationship with the US?
Turkey’s TurkStream gas pipeline is an important part of a mega gas project that complements Russia’s Nord Stream-2 pipeline, which will carry natural gas supplies to Europe. For Russia, it is critical, given that the EU is Moscow’s largest natural gas export market. Russia’s energy giant Gazprom has already made…
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#HelpTurkey being used to make Turkey look ‘weak, incompetent’
Last week, prosecutors in Turkey launched an investigation into the social media hashtag HelpTurkey, Anadolu reports. The government believe this hashtag is critical of its response to the country’s devastating wildfires. As #HelpTurkey became a trending topic on Twitter, government officials complained of a global conspiracy to make Turkey look…
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What awaits the EU-Turkey agreement after this new influx of Afghan refugees?
Recent footage of Afghan refugees trying to escape from Afghanistan’s Taliban and trying to cross the Iran border into Turkey reminded me of the words of Zygmunt Bauman. The world-renowned sociologist passed away in 2017, aged 91. The University of Leeds, where Bauman taught for 20 years (1971-91), named an…
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MEMO in conversation with: Abdul Waris Khan
As foreign troops begin pulling out of war-torn Afghanistan, the Taliban has been making a comeback, regaining major territory including border areas. The US has said its military will have left the country by September 11, in time to mark the 2001 attack. The military success of the Taliban…
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It’s time for Turkey and NATO to build bridges, not burn them
The NATO summit in Brussels on Monday kicked off with US President Joe Biden’s awkward fist-bump with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Their meeting came weeks after Biden risked angering the Turkish president by recognising the Armenian Genocide. These two points aside, there are also other issues between NATO…
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The Palestinians in Gaza are sick of the cycle of destruction and reconstruction
Gaza has suffered through fourteen years of the Israeli-led blockade which has had the effect of an enforced quarantine. This is something with which the rest of us are by now well used to, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Are you bored with quarantine and restrictions on everyday life yet?…
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What is behind the UN-led Cyprus peace talks in Geneva?
Last week, an informal meeting began in Geneva linked to the Cyprus peace talks. It was an initiative by UN Secretary-General António Guterres as he seeks common ground for the resumption of talks to find a lasting solution to the decades-old dispute. After the failure of the 2017 Cyprus peace…
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Women are paying a high price in China’s Uyghur genocide
It is a fact that rape and sexual abuse have been used as weapons of war throughout history. The lack of security leaves women and girls, in particular, more vulnerable than usual to violence. For a long time, this was just accepted as inevitable in conflicts, and few efforts were…
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I haven’t heard from my mother in 1,400 days due to the Chinese crackdown, says Uyghur academic
As a Uyghur academic and representative of Uyghur Muslims, Professor Abdulresit Celil Karluk has spoken out on the plight of his people languishing in China’s concentration camps since 2017. Speaking exclusively to MEMO, Prof. Karluk discussed China’s genocidal policy against Uyghur ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR),…
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Remembering the Libyan Revolution
By 2011, oil-rich Libya had been governed by Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011) for more than 40 years. His eccentricity masked a cruel dictatorship and the people of Libya refused to be bought off by cuts in basic food prices. They had had enough of purges, nepotism and corruption. What: 2011 Libyan…
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Is the pandemic an opportunity to shift from oil to greener energy?
It is crucial to an understanding of the global consequences of the coronavirus pandemic to consider the transition to alternative energy sources for the benefit of future generations. Covid-19 is affecting people all over the world, but a year ago it was just another public health issue. That has all…
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What we’ve learned from COVID-19 and the US election: Sustainability
One of the enduring images of 2020, the year of the pandemic, has been the sight of people connected to ventilators in hospitals. It is an image that helped us realise the importance of being able to breathe. Many have died because they could not sustain normal breathing, even the…
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MEMO in conversation with Omar Salha
Omar is the founder & CEO of Ramadan Tent Project (RTP), a non-profit organisation established in 2013 with a mission of bringing communities together to better understand each other. For the past 15 years, Omar has worked with and consulted several community projects, NGOs, civic organisations, and international governments on…
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Will Covid-19 constrain Eastern Mediterranean gas production?
In light of the extraordinary impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdown measures on the energy system, global demand for gas has fallen substantially. Similarly oil demand has also been depressed since March 2020. According to the International Energy Agency’s Global Gas Security Demand 2020 report, demand is expected…
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MEMO in conversation with Ibrahim Hernandez
Seville, the capital of southern Spain’s Andalusia, was the centre of Islamic civilisation in Spain. Approximately two years ago, director of the Seville Mosque Foundation, Ibrahim Hernandez, and his team started preparing a mosque and Islamic centre project in Seville on the role of light in Islamic civilisation and art.…
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Life in a Country Album
Life in a Country Album is a collection of poetic essays that are philosophical, spiritual, and above all, inspirational. Nathalie Handal’s musings are divided into four regional parts: Album Français, Album Arabe Paris, Album Mediterraneen, and American Album; they cover such diverse topics as books, Bosnian multi-ethnic culture, jasmines of…
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What does the UN registration of the Turkey-Libya maritime agreement mean?
Earlier this month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres registered the Turkey-Libya deal on the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction in the Mediterranean. Under Article 102 of the UN Charter, “Every treaty and every international agreement entered into by any Member of the United Nations… shall as soon as possible be registered with…
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Turkey, Italy will strengthen ties to defend Mediterranean rights, says former admiral
Turkey’s 21st-century geopolitical strategy is called the Blue Homeland. It is the brainchild of retired Rear Admiral Cem Gurdeniz, who talked to MEMO about Turkey’s eastern Mediterranean policy, which envisions the protection of Turkey’s rights and interests in the declared and undeclared maritime jurisdiction areas. Once narrowly only associated with…