Posts tagged : "Europe politics"

#

The French cultural center shuttered: What does cultural isolation mean for Iranians?

The French cultural center shuttered: What does cultural isolation mean for Iranians?

Kourosh Ziabari - Middle East Institute: At the start of January, Iran found itself embroiled in a new diplomatic spat. This time, the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s publication of cartoons pouring scorn on the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruffled feathers in Tehran, and the foreign ministry vowed decisive action to prevent future affronts to “religious authority.” Unlike in Iran, media in the West are not supposed to take orders from the state, and the Iranian foreign ministry’s rage directed at the French government was obviously misplaced. Nonetheless, the Islamic Republic was quick to launch its first retaliatory measure, announcing the closure of a...

Continue reading

Interview with the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian – Part 2

Interview with the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian – Part 2

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Armenia has suffered the wounds of abiding traumas over its history that still haunt the average citizen, ranging from the 1915 genocide in which nearly 1.5 million people were exterminated to the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh War where the small state lost large swaths of territory to Azerbaijan. Yet Armenian President Armen Sarkissian is upbeat about the country’s future, saying he believes a new generation of Armenians pushing for change can transform Armenia into a truly “global nation.” Sarkissian, a former ambassador to the United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands, and who served a brief stint as prime minister between 1996-97, is also looking to the Armenian diaspora of some 7-10 million...

Continue reading

Interview with the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian – Part 1

Interview with the President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian – Part 1

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan have been a mainstay of world news. Most journalists who talk to the leaders of the two countries start their conversations by directing vexed questions about why conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave has dragged on for so long and what the future holds for relations between two neighbors whose differences seem unbridgeable. But Armenia is not all about its skirmishes with Azerbaijan. The first world country to officially adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 AD, Armenia is the wellspring of an ancient civilization and has fared notably well in cementing its democratic credentials. It scores better than Singapore and Malaysia in the Freedom House’s...

Continue reading

Iran’s hardliners working hard to revive the JCPOA

Iran’s hardliners working hard to revive the JCPOA

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Negotiations to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), popularly known as the Iran nuclear deal, which had come to a halt in June pending a power transition in Tehran, resumed in Vienna on November 29 for the first time in the administration of President Ebrahim Raisi, but after two rounds of intense haggling, the prospects for a breakthrough seem dim. Talks recommenced this week after a brief respite requested by Iran on Friday, December 24. Interlocutors involved in the delicate horse-trading have bluntly blamed the Islamic Republic for the current gridlock, unimpressed that the new negotiating team appointed by President Raisi has been making demands that breach the scope of the JCPOA...

Continue reading

The European Union’s treatment of minorities is inept and inconsistent: Raymond Taras

The European Union’s treatment of minorities is inept and inconsistent: Raymond Taras

Kourosh Ziabari - ODVV: Although France has recouped some composure after the maelstrom ignited by the murder of Samuel Paty, a popular middle school teacher who had shown cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in his class on freedom of thought, the republic is still finding itself in the middle of an uncomfortable debate about the compatibility of secular values and Islam. The comments of President Emmanuel Macron who defended the reprinting of the controversial cartoons by the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and his tongue-lashing of Islamic “separatism” and “radical Islam” sent shockwaves across the Muslim world and infuriated leaders and the general public in Islamic countries where huge crowds turned up for street protests and a...

Continue reading

Iran on edge as Azeri minority backs Karabakh war

Iran on edge as Azeri minority backs Karabakh war

Kourosh Ziabari - Asia Times: Tensions flaring up between the Republic of Azerbaijan and Armenia over the intractable Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, deemed to be Europe’s oldest “frozen war,” have spilled over into the neighboring Iran, which shares borders and longstanding amicable relations with both nations. When the exchange of fire started on September 27 to reignite a three-decade-old battle on the sovereignty of a mountainous enclave both Azerbaijan and Armenia claim to be part of their territory, it was scarcely expected that the skirmish involving two Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe member states would degenerate into ethnic chaos in Iran, which has mostly been preoccupied with its own economic pains...

Continue reading

Anxieties Around the Unprecedented Levels of Immigration Contributed to Support for Brexit in 2016: Ronan McCrea

Anxieties Around the Unprecedented Levels of Immigration Contributed to Support for Brexit in 2016: Ronan McCrea

Kourosh Ziabari - International Policy Digest: When UK voters went to polls on 23 June 2016 to determine whether the UK should remain a member state of the European Union or leave the bloc, they could hardly predict that the outcome would be an intractable challenge that has not yet been resolved three years after the referendum took place. Nearly two months after Brexit was supposed to happen, the British people elected candidates to represent them in the European Parliament as Prime Minister Theresa May failed to get her withdrawal agreement approved by Parliament and the country reluctantly remained a European Union member state. The situation today is immensely complicated and few observers can comprehend why the current mess...

Continue reading

How Malta Weathered the Global Financial Crisis: An interview with the former Maltese PM Lawrence Gonzi

How Malta Weathered the Global Financial Crisis: An interview with the former Maltese PM Lawrence Gonzi

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Nestled in the Mediterranean Sea between Italy and Tunisia, Malta is the smallest member state of the European Union, having joined the bloc in May 2004. A strong economic performance, especially in the face of the 2008 global financial crisis, and high levels of social capital have helped Malta climb to 19th place out of 149 nations on the Legatum Prosperity Index. The country performs best on safety and security, social capital and economic quality markers in the rankings. Malta adopted the euro as its official currency in 2008, replacing the Maltese lira, and survived the eurozone crisis due to low debt and sound banking practices. Freedom House refers to Malta as a “parliamentary democracy with...

Continue reading

Will Greece Recover from Its Debt Crisis? Interview with John Milios

Will Greece Recover from Its Debt Crisis? Interview with John Milios

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: Over the past decade, Greece has had a difficult time with a staggering debt crisis and financial stagnation. It began in 2010 just a few years after the global financial crisis and was so severe that Greece could have left the eurozone, the region that uses the euro as a common currency. Some analysts claimed that if Greece had ditched the euro, the financial shocks worldwide would have been more striking than when Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008, which was the largest bankruptcy in US history. Greek officials underestimated the depth of the debt crisis and the ensuing recession, and they had to ask for international assistance from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Greece...

Continue reading

Europe Is Determined to Save the Iran Deal: François Nicoullaud

Europe Is Determined to Save the Iran Deal: François Nicoullaud

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: It has been more than 300 years since Iran and France launched official diplomatic ties. The initial contact between the two nations dates back to the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the kingdom of Persia tried to secure support from European nations against a powerful neighbor: the Ottoman Empire. France was a popular destination for Iranian kings wishing to spend their time abroad, and Iran was a strategically important country at the crossroads of the Silk Road with unlimited access to the Persian Gulf. This made Iran-France relations particularly close. The two countries maintained cordial ties until the Islamic Revolution of 1979, which changed the political landscape of the Middle East...

Continue reading

The Pros and Cons of Brexit in an Interview with Prof. Malcolm Sawyer

The Pros and Cons of Brexit in an Interview with Prof. Malcolm Sawyer

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: In June 2016, a majority of Britons decided in a referendum that the United Kingdom should leave the European Union in what has become known as Brexit. The UK is the first EU member to have triggered Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which initiates a procedure for the withdrawal from the union. The country is scheduled to leave on March 29. Brexit has been an area of debate for the past three years. The biggest impact has perhaps been the polarization of British society and the decline of tolerance in a country where immigrants constitute the backbone of the national economy. Although leaving the European Union will render the UK more independent in establishing trade agreements with other...

Continue reading

Nationalism in the Balkans Predates Brexit and Trump: Jasmin Mujanovic

Nationalism in the Balkans Predates Brexit and Trump: Jasmin Mujanovic

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: The Balkan region is a volatile area of southeastern Europe. It has been through many ups and downs since the disintegration of Yugoslavia in 1992. Conflicts over borders or unsettled political disputes have framed its present-day situation. However, the Balkans are a high priority in European foreign policy and a key region whose developments tend to have a ripple effect across the continent. Balkan states suffer from corruption, economic fragility, a lack or inefficiency of democratic institutions, ethnic tensions and organized crime. Added to this, unpopular external players such as Russia, China and Turkey are looking for a foothold in the region. The political ambitions of individual Balkan...

Continue reading