ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

In the evening of February 15, 2011, the Libyan Revolution began with the first protests in Al-Beida, a city in the eastern region of Libya, the Cyrenaica. The situation escalated very quickly. Gaddafi’s security forces used deadly force against the initially peaceful demonstrators. Nevertheless, the revolution spread within a few days almost all over the country. Al-Beida, Derna, Tobruk, and Benghazi, the capital of the East quickly fell under control of the “thuwar”, the revolutionaries. In Tripolitania, the western part of Libya, cities like Misrata, Zawia, and Zintan freed themselves from the oppression of Gaddafi… The Revolution and its aftermath But within days the pendulum swung back. In a ghostly speech on the capital’s Green Square during the night of February 22, 2011, Gaddafi promised to “cleanse Libya house-by-house” and to “kill all the rats”. He did his very best to fulfill the promise. Security forces dispersed demonstrators in Tripoli with machine guns, fired with tanks

There is a caricature that goes as follows: A man wakes up in a place that obviously looks like hell and says: “This is a very nice place – did I die and come to heaven?” The man behind him, half confused answers to that: “What have you been through in Turkey?” “Exaggeration” is already in the definition of the caricature and when compared with the things happening in Syria, Turkey surely is not a place that can be defined as “hell” (yet). However, this caricature reflects the feelings of millions of people in Turkey right now. Especially, the feelings of millions of people, who are educated, wise, secular, non-sectarian, anti-nationalists and pacifist… About a year and a half year ago, there was the feeling of living in a society proceeding to be more democratic, peaceful and the rules of law were still valid. However, today, we are living in an environment that one man is actually doing whatever he wants and there is no legal structure that can control him. Recent years, inside and

The map shows the Kudish insurgency in Syria, Turkey, and Iraq in November-December, 2016 The insurgency of the Kurdish PKK and its armed wing HPG (Hêzên Parastina Gel, People’s Defence Force, in Turkey) has intensified throughout 2016 in southeastern Turkey, causing a tightening of the Turkish government’s military and administrative repression. They regained control of cities like Cizre, Nusaybin, Sirnak or Diyarbakir at the price of major destruction. Many mountainous and rural areas, however, are under de facto control of the insurgency. Another Kurdish separatist group, the TAK (Kurdistan Freedom Falcons), with unconventional methods of action (suicide attacks, car bombs), intensified their actions and committed several attacks against the Turkish security forces, including December 10 bombing in Istanbul, which left 45 dead (it is worth noting that neither the PKK, nor the TAK target civilians). In Iraq, Turkey has good relations with the autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government

TEHRAN (FNA)- Yemeni security sources disclosed that a Turkish plane has transferred tens of Al-Qaeda terrorists from Syria's Northern city of Aleppo to Yemen's Aden and evacuated wounded pro-Saudi militias to medical treatment centers outside the country when returning to Turkey. "The Turkish airplane landed at Aden International Airport to transfer the pro-Saudi mercenaries wounded in the Yemeni forces' offensives in Ta'iz province for treatment in Turkish hospitals," the Arabic-language al-Ahd news website quoted informed sources as saying on Saturday. The sources noted that some 150 al-Qaeda terrorists stepped out of the plane as soon as it landed, adding that they had been relocated from Syria's Aleppo to Aden. Then when the Turkish plane was preparing to fly back home, a sum of 158 wounded pro-Saudi militias went on board to be transferred to Turkey. More than 12,800 Yemenis, including women and children, have been killed in the course of the Saud

By John W. Whitehead “What’s past is prologue.” ― William Shakespeare, The Tempest What a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year this has been. Endless wars. Toxic politics. Violence. Hunger. Police shootings. Mass shootings. Economic downturns. Political circuses. Senseless tragedies. Loss. Heartache. Intolerance. Prejudice. Hatred. Apathy. Meanness. Cruelty. Poverty. Inhumanity. Greed. Here’s just a small sampling of what we’ve suffered through in 2016. After three years of increasingly toxic politics, the ruling oligarchy won and “we the people” lost. The FBI’s investigation of Hillary’s emails ended with a whimper, rather than a bang. FBI director James Comey declared Clinton’s use of a private email server to be careless rather than criminal . Bernie Sanders sparked a movement only to turn into a cheerleader for Hillary Clinton. Clinton won the popular vote but lost the election. Donald Trump won the White House while the American people lost any hope of ending the corporate e

By Finian Cunningham Future historians may well record 2016 a vintage year for Russian President Vladimir Putin. At any rate, at this point we can say it has been a good year for the Russian leader and his country’s international standing. Even Western media, which did its best to discredit, even demonize, Putin have had to admit so, albeit begrudgingly. This week, the London Financial Times described the Russian leader as «Buoyant Putin». While last week, the Washington Post headlined : «Moscow has the world’s attention. For Putin, that’s a win». The Washington Post surveyed some of the key developments over the past year as being in Putin’s favor, including a shaky European Union and the British Brexit vote to quit the bloc, an unwieldy NATO military alliance unsure of its purpose, the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency, and the retaking of the strategic Syrian city of Aleppo. The victory by the Syrian army in Aleppo, crucially aided by Russian military power, was surely

2016 marked by important of diplomatic, political and military developments around the world. Britain voted to leave the European Union by 52% to 48% in a national referendum. The outcome of the Brexit referendum has caused strong reaction at home and worldwide. Brexit was supported by the popular majority of Britain and a significant portion of the UK national elite. Even the use of lobbying clout by Cameron’s cabinet did not allow EU supporters to attain victory. Indeed, leaving the EU would allow the UK to control immigration more efficiently, save billions of pounds in membership fees and advocate its own trade deals while leaving all trade conditions between the UK and the EU relatively unchanged – all while getting rid of restrictive EU regulations, bloated Brussels bureaucracy and run down Eastern and South European economies. In fact, the UK has simply jilted continental Europe. After all, it was Britain that was an active supporter of many decisions that have had a negati

At least 35 people were killed and 40 badly wounded in the attack, Istanbul’s governor Vasip Şahin said, calling the incident a terrorist attack.  The attack took place at the well-known Reina nightclub in the Ortakoy neighborhood, in Istanbul’s Besiktas district. A policeman and a civilian are reported to be among the two known casualties at the nightclub. There were two attackers involved, according to NTV, but conflicting reports also described a lone gunman.  The gunmen were dressed in Santa Claus outfits, wielding assault rifles, Turkish media said. The attackers opened fire on clubgoers, injuring at least 20-30 and killing two, according to NTV. One of the gunmen has reportedly hidden inside the club, while the whereabouts of the second one were not immediately clear.  The number of casualties may rise, as it is estimated that between 700 and 800 people could have been in the club at the time of the attack, Mynet Haber reports. Emergency crews have been evacuating inju