Group items tagged

This article is a news report in Rudaw, an online Kurdish news network. On November 14, 10 members of the German Parliament unfurled the PKK's flag. This move was in support of both the PKK and Nicole Gohlk, a fellow MP who lost her parliamentary immunity last month after waving the PKK's flag at a pro-Kurd rally in Munich. According to the ten MPs, Germany should no longer classify the PKK as a terrorist organization, particularly in light of its contributions in the coalition against the Islamic State.

This is a tweet of a drawing by Sazan Slemani, a Kurdish woman who is very active on Twitter in support of the female fighters of the YPG, a branch of the PKK. In the drawing, a female PKK soldier is depicted putting her hair up in a ponytail, as if in preparation for a battle, and as her hair flows down from her hands, it changes into the shape of a gun. While art critique is not exactly my forte, I found this image to be really moving. I thought it was particularly interesting how long hair, which typically symbolizes femininity, was paired with something traditionally masculine like assault rifles and war.

This article from News Week basically paints a picture of Libyan history and how Gaddafi's reign devastated the state economically, socially, and politically. Author Dirk Vandewalle uses the phrase "a political tabula rasa" which in Latin means a blank slate, to describe the fate of Libya after Gaddafi's rule and convey the extent to which the country has to literally reconstruct every component that makes up a society and its government. He highlights major events that led to the downfall of both the Gaddafi regime and the Libyan state as a whole such as Arab nationalism, Jamahiriya, the Green Book, security apparatuses snuffing all opposition, terrorist incidents, isolation and international sanctions, the Lockerbie bombing, weapons of mass destruction, human right violations, divide and rule policies, and his use of oil revenue to fuel his insurgency. Vandewalle concludes the article with uncertain ideas thoughts towards Libya's future and the way the state is going to literally rebuild themselves from this "blank slate" that Gaddafi left behind. 

In this article, Salwa Bugaighis was stabbed and shot through the head by gunmen who broke into her house in Benghazi. Her husband was also abducted and remains missing. Salwa and her husband had just returned from an election and the attack is a reminder of the growing number of extremists taking over Libya. "Her killing triggered outrage on social media, with one supporter tweeting: "Salwa Bugaighis was hope. Shocked and saddened." Salwa was a part of the National Transitional Council, but left after accusing it of freezing-out female members. She also opposed moves to make the wearing of the hijab compulsory, and her views brought her into conflict with the Muslim Brotherhood and Islamist extremists.

Example: Two sentence summary of what the article is about.

Diana Darke returned from London to Syria recently to reclaim her house from profiteers who had moved in - she found her neighbours in Damascus coping surprisingly well despite the war.

Really he should move to Austin, right?

How the United States and Iran should work together to combat ISIS without actual join cooperation.

Libya is going broke as two competing factions vie for government control. The Beida based government is trying to move Libyan oil money off-shore.

This article was extremely interesting. It discussed the potential for an all women city in Saudi Arabia. The city would be an area for single women to work to and learn new skills allowing them some independence. The idea of an all women city is baffling to me, it seems the country is moving even further back in time with gender advances.

Locals claim that the state-managed industry is causing pollution and illness. Najib Chairat, 52, who worked in the refinery from the age of 32 can barely move and speak. His family believes it was caused by years of breathing in the noxious fumes. Strikes and protests over pollution, wages and unsafe working conditions caused Tunisia's phosphate production to halve after the 2011 revolution.

Fours years after the Arab Spring, Tunisia is arguably the region's strongest democratic success story. Economic growth is still slow to develop, recognizing this lag, Tunisia has announced it will launch an emergency economic plan. Tunisia is moving in the right direction but for a long-term guide they should look to their neighboring democracy, Turkey. There is two lessons Tunisia should take away from Turkey: integration into the global economy and inclusion of the rich and poor.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood established a sub-organization similar to it. The organization is for women and they are known as the "Muslim Sisterhood".

This is a very well detailed article of an overall view of many of the topics tied to the Oil Industry in the middle east.

Nusra moving troops into Aleppo although it was said that the government was gonna launch an attack to recover the territory it had lost in the city.

Upwards of 70,000 Syrian refugees move into Turkey as violence in the country increases. Russian airstrikes are helping Syria's government troops advance as Russia warns of a Turkish invasion into Syria-- continuing the tension between Turkey and Russia since the shooting down of a Russian fighter yet last year.

The affects that the tensions and terrorist attacks has on the tourism industry in Egypt are touched on in this article. The particular incident that happened about a month ago is mentioned in great detail, including the involvement of the Muslim Brotherhood and what that means in regards to moving forward.

This article acknowledges the struggles the Brotherhood is now faced with, but paints a brighter future. The author predicts the organization will move back underground and rely on secret networks to thrive.

This article is about the Iraq divisions which undermine the Iraqi purpose of war. This is a result of an unstable foundation to build plans off of. They are trying to find foundation because they do not want to fall back into an IS state five years down the line. 

The reshuffle in Saudi Arabia provokes some disconcerting thoughts about democratization in the Middle East.