Headline News 16/03/2016

Headlines:

• The War comes to Turkey
• No Grand Bargain for Russia from Syria
• Egypt minster slanders the Prophet (saw)

Details:

The War comes to Turkey

On March the 13^th 2016 the Turkish capital, Ankara was rocked by a car bomb that killed 37 and wounded upwards of 125. This attack comes just a month after a similar attack took place a few blocks away killing 29, 2 months after the Istanbul attack which killed 12 and a few months after Turkey's most deadly terror attack which claimed 102 people in the Turkish capital. A string of attacks that have damaged Turkey's stability come as Turkey steps up its pursuit for EU membership in Brussels, bartering with the lives of the refugees in the process, its application will yet again be under scrutiny as it has so for the past decade and question marks will be attached on whether it actually is a like-minded European nation. The Turkish government has laid the blame on the Kurdistan Workers' party (the PKK) or an affiliated group such as the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK). However whilst Turkey has stepped up on its bombing campaign in Kurdish held areas of Iraq and Syria, it still allows the USA to use its Airbases in the south of Turkey. The USA has been known to arm the PKK in their fight against ISIS militants. Turkey’s policies on tackling terror are somewhat disconnected with its foreign policy, it is a confused nation that is being led in multiple conflicting directions. 

No Grand Bargain for Russia from Syria

Russia’s Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin announced, to the sur­prise of many on Mon­day 14th March 2016 that “the main part” of Russ­ian armed forces in Syria will start to with­draw. Russ­ian spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin believed the troops had largely achieved their objec­tives since arriv­ing in autumn. Rus­sia has secured and main­tained the regime of Bashar al-Assad which 5 months ago was on the verge of col­lapse. Bashar’s forces, today have the advan­tage in the bat­tle for Syria. Rus­sia used Syria to demon­strate and test its armed forces, new weaponry, tac­tics and strat­egy as it under­goes mod­ern­iza­tion. Polit­i­cally Rus­sia gave the US inspired polit­i­cal solu­tion a new lease of life as the rebel groups were under­min­ing it by facing-off against the al-Assad regime and com­pletely under­min­ing any nego­ti­a­tion. Rus­sia worked towards bring­ing the rebel groups to the nego­ti­at­ing table, with many of them now attending the Geneva conference. Bu Putin has failed to gain any grand bargain on Ukraine, despite doing the heavy lifting for the last 6 months in Syria. 

Egypt Minster Slanders the Prophet (saw)

Egypt’s Justice Minister, Ahmed al-Zind has been sacked after saying he would jail the Prophet (saw) if he broke the law. Zind, a former appeals court judge, had been publicly outspoken in his criticism of the Muslim Brotherhood removed from power by the army in mid-2013 and banned as a terrorist group. The level of animosity shown towards Islam by the rulers of the Muslim lands is well known. Recently the Bangladesh Supreme Court is debating whether to remove Islam as the official religion of the state. It is not just the west that are fearful of Islam, but even their lackeys know their days are numbered.