The coronavirus pandemic hasn't just made people obsessed with hand hygiene and social distancing. In fact, we are equally eager to predict how the world will change post-pandemic – hence the wrangling among political leaders regarding the economic crisis that this public health emergency will ensure.
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That mankind will draw lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic is just wishful thinking. The virus outbreak cannot seem to end violence or the struggle for power. The situation in Libya supports this claim.
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The analysis provides an overview of the two central security challenges Greece faces today, namely the energy rivalry with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean/Libya, and the mass influx of refugees at the Greek-Turkish border, and discusses the prospects for a renewed Greek-Turkish détente.
The coronavirus has established its hegemony over daily life. No decision can be made, and no story reported, without mentioning COVID-19. Experts urge people around the world to prepare for the possibility of a protracted lockdown, warning that the pandemic’s second and third waves are still looming. Looking at a photograph, one cannot help but immediately check whether everyone complies with the rule of social distancing.
The presidential government system that was adopted by Turkey in June 2018 under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is providing significant advantages nowadays to the Ministry of Health’s fight against the coronavirus. It has been clearly seen by now how fast the system functions and allows for quick decision-making, and how effective a competent professional recruited from within the health sector can be during a critical period.
The coronavirus pandemic is likely to bring many changes in the world, and nations should start getting ready for them
Global cases of the coronavirus surpassed 1 million last week. Hardly anyone will be surprised if 2 million people are infected in a week’s time. With the exception of China, the coronavirus outbreak has not reached its peak in any country. Although the high mortality rate in Italy and Spain remains a cause for serious concern, governments around the world are slowly getting over the initial panic. Instead of seizing each other’s medical supplies, they are looking to cooperate.
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This critically important book includes chapters both contextualizing and discussing the U.S. administration’s Jerusalem declaration in great detail. Various sections authored by American, Latin American, European, and Turkish authors examine the international responses to the U.S. President Trump’s declaration.
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The recent death toll from the coronavirus across Europe is heartbreaking. The unpreparedness and insufficiency of health systems have shown us that the first world has invested more in financial systems, entertainment, stadiums, hotels and tourism than health care, as it is expensive and provides little returns. This pandemic has revealed this brutal reality at the expense of people’s lives. Sadly, there is little data to show if or how much the virus has spread in war-torn areas, such as Gaza, Syria or Yemen. The countries engaged in the Syrian civil war have no capacity to help the people living in camps amid very unhygienic conditions. We all know that the Syrian regime and its allies repeatedly targeted hospitals in opposition-held areas and, as the biggest-yet humanitarian tragedy of this century, the Syrian civil war could become a humanitarian disaster with the addition of the pandemic.
The G-20 videoconference offers few concrete steps – despite saying big words like 'whatever it takes' to combat virus
The coronavirus pandemic marks the beginning of an extended period of recession. Communities around the world will have to learn to live with a crisis comparable only to the two world wars.
The coronavirus crisis has caused a global lockdown, as extraordinary precautions have been taken by many countries across the world to prevent its spread. Since then many observers have started highlighting the similarities of the current situation with the plot of movies on epidemics. In the last several weeks, some of these movies, such as "Outbreak" and "Contagion" have become popular again.
Turkey’s Health Minister Fahrettin Koca has become the embodiment of the country’s fight against the coronavirus. He urged everyone last week to “declare their own state of emergency” – possibly suggesting that the Turkish government was not prepared to impose an official curfew yet.
The coronavirus is turning a new page for both world politics and the economy, but, it seems we are not yet prepared to face the challenges
The COVID-19 pandemic is, first and foremost, a health risk. But we also rate various countries’ response to the crisis – like a stock market. In doing so, the main criterion is who was adequately prepared and whose response proved sufficient.
It's fair to say the world is more than fixated on the COVID-19 outbreak. The fear of illness unites us all. We are watching the virus spread and adapting our daily lives by taking precautions accordingly. Society’s current concern over contracting the disease is unlike that of any previous security concern
The coronavirus pandemic established, however, that we, as fellow humans, have a middle ground and certain shared responsibilities beyond self-interest and fear. No country can afford to isolate itself from the outside world. That path only leads to more poverty, conflict and bloodshed. What was simply a Chinese problem just weeks ago is now a truly global issue.
The March 5 agreement between Turkey and Russia put an end to the military confrontation in Idlib, Syria. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, shook hands on that deal to de-escalate what had become serious bilateral tensions. The 2018 Sochi agreement has thus been updated.
Turkey has been the main supporter of the Syrian opposition fighting the Bashar Assad regime. Ankara has also diligently protected innocent Syrian civilians living in the Idlib region. It has stood against the atrocities, the Assad regime attacks and the regime's main backers Russia and Iran. On one hand, Turkey has mobilized its deterrent military power in the region against the regime’s future attacks; on the other hand, Turkish officials and civil institutions initiated a campaign to provide food and shelter for civilians. Western countries have been reluctant to get involved in the humanitarian tragedy and security problem in the region.
Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Turkey has faced the gravest problems in the region regarding security, economics and refugees. That picture has not changed. At every turn, a new wave of issues knocks on Turkey’s door. That Europe and the U.S. have not taken initiatives required for a political transition in Syria is a major factor in this. Another leading cause is Russia’s desire to solve the crisis through military force. From the outset, Russia has deployed a course of destruction called the 'Grozny model." It is a policy consisting of three stages: besiege, destroy and rule. Russia has implemented this formula in many areas, particularly in Aleppo, which has wreaked extensive destruction and killed thousands of civilians.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Moscow this week to hold talks on the Idlib crisis. The world closely followed his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. All experts were sure that this would be the tensest meeting between the two leaders since the 2015 jet incident.