Recep Tayyip Erdoğan won the second round of Turkey’s presidential elections, extending his 21-year rule for another five years. Despite the two deadly earthquakes that hit Turkey in February and economic instability being felt in the country, Erdoğan’s win in free but not fair elections is still regarded as a victory.[1]   Turkey will remain indispensable for the West For the West, working with Erdoğan’s Turkey has been, and will continue to be, a major challenge. Like other authoritarian leaders, Erdoğan has consolidated his power, including through controlling the mainstream media, pur ..read more

This content is password protected. To view it please enter your password below: Password: The post Protected: South Africa’s slow embrace of Russia should cause alarm for the West appeared first on The Foreign Policy Centre ..read more

Six leaders of former Soviet states attended the 9 May Parade on Red Square this week to commemorate the end of World War II (WWII) in Europe in 1945.[1] Among them was the leader of Armenia, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. The two other countries of the South Caucasus – Georgia and Azerbaijan – did not participate.   While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has elicited a range of reactions from countries around the world, the leaders of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia have found themselves balancing between their aspirations for independent diplomacy and Russia’s enduring influence in thei ..read more

Turkey’s strong man Recep Tayyip Erdoğan faces the biggest elections challenge for the first time over his two-decade rule. Whether Erdoğan wins or loses, Turkey is likely to face political instability after the presidential and parliamentary elections that will be held on May 14.   As it currently stands, it is difficult to predict the outcome of the elections, and there are conflicting polls. According to some observers including Economist Intelligence Unit, Erdoğan will either win the election by a slim margin or contest the results.[1] Based on the statements from senior leaders in Er ..read more

World Press Freedom Day provides an opportunity to reflect – not only on the escalating threats to media freedom around the world – but also on the state of efforts to address such threats, and how they can be improved.[1]   If the core goal of media freedom is to hold power to account – then initiatives designed to support media freedom must be subject to the same scrutiny.[2]   One important initiative is the Media Freedom Coalition (MFC).[3] This partnership of over 50 governments advocates collaboratively and proactively for media freedom through a combination of advocacy, diplom ..read more

Two journeys: mobilising through grassroots networks. When Anna and her family of four were evacuated from Inhulets in Mykolaiv Oblast (southern Ukraine), they left their entire livelihoods behind to relocate to relative safety, a story of displacement that mirrors millions of others. Two British independent volunteers brought Anna and her children to a shelter in Odesa, a safe haven for hundreds of thousands of refugees, evacuated from de-occupied regions. Since the outbreak of a full-scale war last year, perhaps hundreds of British nationals left for Ukraine to provide humanitarian assistanc ..read more

  A year on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Chief Editor of The Kyiv Post, Bohdan Nahaylo reflects on the war and its wider global implications.   Nobody expected the genocidal war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, to happen. Yes, we saw the build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s border and heard the threats from the Kremlin. And there were warnings, of course. We even heard them from the American President. But I think we were all in denial, thinking that this was bluff, sabre-rattling and blackmailing by Moscow and that Putin would never go ahead w ..read more

An arsonist is (once again) presiding over the international firefighting institution. However, there are steps states and civil society can take to push back during Russia’s Presidency of the UN Security Council in April.   On 24 February 2022, Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya from Ukraine called upon his peers at the table of the United Nations Security Council to do the right thing: “Call [President] Putin, call [Foreign Minister] Lavrov to stop aggression!”[1]  It would have been the right thing to do for any President of the Security Council on that day. But the Security Council was ..read more

The Inter-Parliamentary Union assembly Bahrain: what the revocation of observers’ visas really signifies On 8 March, the government of Bahrain revoked the visas of two individuals from Human Rights Watch (HRW). They were set to attend an international meeting of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which the government of Bahrain (GoB) has been hosting, 11-15 March.    The IPU is the global association of national parliaments.  Compared to the relative importance of the gathering itself and the matters that parliamentarians from across the globe are addressing, the exclusion of ..read more

What can we do in response to the toxic gassing of thousands of female students and those risking their lives to advance the values behind the expression “Woman, Life, Freedom”?   As we mark International Women’s Day 2023, more than 1,000, overwhelmingly female students in over 90 schools in 20 provinces in Iran have been injured and hospitalised on account of targeted gas attacks in mainly schools for girls.[1] This is the latest in a series of converted attacks that started on 30 November 2022 and continues until today.[2]   On 6 March the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, sp ..read more