‘April is the cruelest month’ is the first line of T S Eliot’s 1922 poem The Waste Land – his searing indictment of the global desolation that followed the end of World War I. April 2017 shows every sign of following in its path. On Easter Sunday, Turkey voted by a narrow majority (51%) to…
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the current president of Turkey, began his political career in the ’70s. He founded the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) party, of Sunni Islamic inspiration, and held the position of mayor of Istanbul. Conservative since the very beginning, in 1998 he was arrested for inciting religious hatred. In 2003 he became prime…
Charlie Wilson’s War is a 2008 film loosely based on the true story of a Texas congressman. Wilson is best known for leading the US Congress into supporting Operation Cyclone, the largest-ever Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert operation which, under the Carter and Reagan administrations, supplied military equipment like the Redeye to the Afghan Mujahedeen…
Trump has decided to launch 59 Tomahawk missiles from two US aircraft carriers off the coast of the Mediterranean to strike the Syrian military base of Al Shayrat. The reason for this is the reaction to the massacre of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib, Syria, where last Tuesday more than 80 people, including 28 children, were…
This morning, according to several testimonies, an attack with chemical weapons was carried out against the civilian population in northern Syria. The attack has caused at least 58 dead, including – according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – not less than eleven children. This is a provisional toll expected to rise. A few…
In the aftermath of the latest attack in London, the Italian capital city is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, which gave birth to the European Union. On this occasion it is perhaps timely to explain to Europeans the benefits and future of the EU. The 27 European leaders have signed a…
Let’s think again about Arab Springs, that series of anti-governmental protests affecting Arab countries of North Africa and the Middle East originated in Tunisia in late 2010. The uprisings moved from one Arab country to another until they reached Yemen in 2011. Many people came to the streets against the Government. No-one could imagine the…
Let’s talk about Palestine, giving the podium to an artist who lives in occupied Palestine. He’s Maher Shawamreh, a dance teacher and director of the school of art in Ramallah. In the interview with us he explains how dance communicates peace by extending the soul, and in this way reaching beyond the walls built by…
I have decided to write an open letter. I am speaking to the peoples of Europe, to the people of the European Union and, in particular, to the Eurosceptics. It will impress you, perhaps, but I feel the need to talk to those who dispute the way in which the European Union is being held…
In today’s world, religious based conflict is a known fact to all. Considering the issue of religion, this article is all about the inter-religious dialogue as a mean to find a new dimension for peace. At first, we need to be clear about the meaning of Interreligious and interfaith dialogue, being the exchange of religious views…
