Deceitful Western polemics against Turkey

My hypothesis is to never trust anything published about Turkey in Britain. Their coverage of Turkey is viscerally driven by an Orientalist lunacy from the past.

You may point out that Britain is not the only country that specialized in Orientalist literature, vilifying, assaulting, trivializing and slandering those whom they wanted to subvert or control.

The stereotypes they created about Islam, Arabia, Asia, Africa and other peoples and cultures continue to bedevil international relations today. Their pundits, possessing brutal mental strength, continue to propound theories of a clash of civilizations.

Colonialism afforded great protection and patronage to Orientalist writers and artists. France, Germany and Italy were among those who played a major role in that hideous literature.

Contemporary Zionism and neoconservative cultures borrow a lot from the old traditions that should have been buried post-colonialism, to at least atone for past sins, but they have made a resurgence as the base desires of seeking conflict and domination have reared their head again.

https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2019/11/28/deceitful-western-polemics-against-turkey

The Saudi doctrine of quashing dissent

The Saudi doctrine of suppressing dissent has a ruffian quality to its harshness. The silencing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by killing him in the kingdom's diplomatic post in a major world city raises new questions about the nature of Saudi authoritarianism under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).

Do they believe in any rules at all? This question must be asked.

Khashoggi fled the Saudi kingdom because he wanted to pose serious questions about the policy direction under MBS, the de facto ruler widely known by his initials. He knew the dangers of asking those questions in the new environment of fear in which you no longer had the option of merely obeying the ruler. Everyone was required to loudly cheer the new boss.

So much has been written about the savagery Khashoggi was subjected to inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. We have learned a great deal about his political ideas, his intellectual standing in Arabia, his proximity to power, his pleasant nature as an individual and to what extent the regime viewed him as a threat that someone at the highest level of the Saudi leadership had to order his murder.

https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2018/12/05/the-saudi-doctrine-of-quashing-dissent

India and Pakistan: Let's not be casual about nuclear war

If nuclear weapons are a matter of national prestige and power, what can go wrong when flaunting them?

China, India, North Korea and Pakistan possess these arms in Asia, but no nuclear war involving any of these countries would remain confined to their limited region: The holocaust is going to be truly global.

This fear must act as a real deterrence against the use of nuclear weapons to annihilate your adversary.

There is zero scope for trying your luck in this area.

Still, nuclear weapons are sometimes mentioned in arguments between India and Pakistan.

Most possessors of nuclear bombs as well as experts on the subject make the point that these instruments, due to their deterrence value, may prevent a major escalation in nonnuclear warfare.

We have them, but we won't use them, assert some nuclear powers in trying to calm public fears.

https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2019/08/30/india-and-pakistan-lets-not-be-casual-about-nuclear-war

Dangerous new phase begins in India-Pakistan relations

With India revoking a special legal provision that allowed the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir a degree of autonomy in local governance, South Asia is set for unpredictable turbulence.

India and Pakistan have fought three major wars since they emerged as sovereign nations when the British Raj ended in 1947.

Two of these wars have been over the Kashmir region, which is divided between the two nuclear-armed neighbors but claimed in full by both.

The situation escalated dramatically on Aug. 5, when India announced that Jammu and Kashmir would no longer enjoy the special status it had for decades as part of its accession to the Indian federation of states.

https://www.dailysabah.com/op-ed/2019/08/16/dangerous-new-phase-begins-in-india-pakistan-relations