Strategic Council Online – Interview: An expert on Turkey affairs, stressing that Turkey’s claims to sovereignty over the Aegean islands will not go beyond verbal claims, said: Turkey feels that so far in tensions it has had with Greece it has been left alone by NATO and under this situation, with warnings it tries to persuade them to judge fairly about the Greek military movements in the islands.
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: EU member countries have faced a wave of asylum seekers in recent years following escalation of crisis in West Asian countries as well as intensification of economic and political problems. Asylum seekers crossed the European borders in the hope of finding security and employment, but faced closed borders and inhumane treatment.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Despite the agreement made between Prime Minister the Hellenic Republic and Turkish President in their last meeting in Istanbul to reduce tension in Aegean Sea, Turkish Air Force fighters have recently violated extensively the air space of Greece and flew over residential and non-residential islands of the country. For example, during a day Turkish fighters had 126 cases of violating Athens’ Flight Information Region (FIR) and 41 cases of flight over 12 residential and non-residential islands of Greece.
Mahmoud Faazeli, Analyst of international issues
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Ankara considers the new trend in normalization of its relations with UAE, Saudi Arabia, the Zionist regime and its policy with regard to Ukraine crisis as a new step in its foreign policy.
Mahmoud Faazeli, Analyst of International Issues
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: The annual multinational military exercise “Iniochos 2022 Greece” is currently underway (March 28 to April 7) throughout Greece with the focus on “Andravida” Air Base in the northwestern Peloponnese with the participation of all branches of the Greek armed forces.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Israeli President Isaac Herzog traveled to Turkey on March 9, 2022, after 14 years since his last visit at this level, one of the main topics of which was the development of exploration of Turkish gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea.
Hassan Ashrafi – Researcher on Turkish affairs
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Turkey has been a member of NATO for 70 years and, like the Cold War time, it is an active member of the organization. At a time when on the one hand there is talk about NATO 2030 and, on the other hand, we are witnessing comprehensive security tests; Turkey claims that it has played its part in defense and security fields, and that it will continue to make significant contributions to NATO’s transformation process and to its efforts to maintain security and stability, in particular to combat all forms of terrorism that pose a threat not only to Turkey but to the entire Euro-Atlantic geography.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: Although in recent months and with the onset of the economic crisis, in a new round Turkey again speaks of “equal participation” with other countries, but the evidence shows that there is no clear prospect of reducing political and military tensions between Turkey and Greece.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – Interview: An expert of the Middle East issues commented on the recent movements between Ankara and Tel Aviv and said Recep Tayyib Erdogan, President of Turkey tries to expand relations with the Zionist regime. Having adopted such a policy, Islamic Ummah, particularly Palestinians will react negatively to the measure.
Strategic Council Online – Interview: A faculty member of the University of Tehran said: Macron is very lucky that during the elections he can advance some of his policies within the framework of European convergence by presiding over the European Union. This increases his political power and influence.
Strategic Council Online – Opinion: The joint visit of the Greek minister of defense and the US ambassador to Greece to the Greek port of Alexandroupolis, where Atlantic Resolve 2021 operation is underway to transfer US troops to Eastern Europe, shows that this port has been turned to one of the focal points of Greek-US bilateral cooperation in defense sector.
Mahmoud Fazeli – Analyst of international area
Strategic Council Online-Interview: Having commented on the role and importance of interferences of foreign players in Libya and challenges ahead of the elections in the country, an analyst of international affairs said:” as long as foreign forces will not withdraw from Libya there is no guarantee to hold healthy elections and it is unclear that when the result of the elections opposes the interests of military groups, how would they react?
Strategic Council Online—Opinion: Relations between Turkey and Greece as two NATO members have experienced intense tensions in recent years, with both sides accusing each other of inciting the other. Relations deteriorated sharply last year, with warships in the eastern Mediterranean clashing over maritime borders and energy rights. Athens and Ankara came close to a military confrontation last year in a dispute over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey called on Greece to adopt peaceful political solutions, not aggressive ones.
Mahmoud Fazeli—International issues analyst
Strategic Council Online – Note: The NATO-led invasion of Afghanistan, which began after 9/11 incident under the pretext of “war on terrorism”, two decades after the mission, the Taliban’s rapid advance has prompted various countries, including NATO members, to rush to withdraw their diplomatic delegations, staff and citizens from the territory of that country. Western troops stationed in Afghanistan have trained the Afghan army for years, but the training has not been enough, and the reason why the Afghan army has failed to defend the capital against the Taliban remains unclear. The head of the Council of Europe does not see the situation in Afghanistan as a successful narrative for the international community and is considering how the EU can use its influence in international relations to defend its interests.
Mahmoud Fazeli – analyst of international affairs
Strategic Council Online: Issues such as territorial waters, flight information areas, disputed maritime zones, arming islands, and violation of rights of Turk minority in Thrace (Muslim inhabitant regions of Greece) have been among cases to cause tension between Ankara and Athens within the recent decades. All evidences stipulate that there is no conceivable perspective to de-escalate tensions between the two countries in near future. Despite counselling and agreements already made, yet there is not adequate stability to preserve them. Thus, they can be subject to questions.
Mahmoud Fazeli, International Analyst
Strategic Council Online – Evidence shows that developments in Afghanistan, Libya, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece will overshadow Turkey’s foreign policy in the coming months.
Mahmoud Fazeli – Analyst of international affairs
Strategic Council Online – Evidence shows that under the current situation, no NATO member state, such as Turkey, has a fundamental challenge with the United States as the most important member of the organization. In Brussels, Biden called the defense of Europe, Canada and Turkey a “sacred duty” of the United States under Article 5 of the NATO Charter. Despite all the differences, it seems that Washington, as a NATO member, does not want to lose Ankara under any circumstances.
Mahmoud Fazeli – Analyst of international affairs
Strategic Council Online – Nearly one hundred years after the mass killing of the Herero and Nama tribes by German troops during the Namibian occupation, German Foreign Minister Haiku Moss officially acknowledged the atrocities committed by the German military in Namibia and the “genocide” in that country. According to the minister, Germany’s goal is to erase the memory of the massacres from the minds of the survivors of the victims. ‘We are pleased to be able to reach an agreement with Namibia on dealing with the darkest part of our common history. Recognizing this negligence and our request for compensation is an important step in repairing the remnants of this crime’.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – In recent weeks, the Turkish government, in the shadow of media silence, has been shaping certain frameworks in its foreign relations with some countries and players in the region, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Zionist regime which could be analyzed and evaluated with such indicators as “pragmatic rotation”, “balancing” or “foreign policy reform”; until recently, Ankara had more or less escalated tensions with those countries and players, and even went as far as political and security conflicts.
Hamid Khoshayand – international affairs analyst
Strategic Council Online – The European Parliament has recently approved an EU report in which it strongly criticized the human rights situation in Turkey and called for a halt to Turkey’s full membership negotiations. The report and the draft resolution, prepared by Nacho Sanchez Amour, the Spanish Envoy at the European Parliament, and has a recommendatory nature, were approved by 480 votes in favor, 64 against, and 150 abstentions.
Mahmoud Fazeli – International affairs analyst
